Category: TV Sci-Fi (Page 80 of 81)

Superhero TV

September 20, 2007 /

If you’re a regular Bullz-Eye.com reader, you know that we’ve been championing “Heroes” since well before it even left the starting gate, laying it on the line back in our 2006 Fall TV Preview by offering the bold declaration, “This is gonna be the water-cooler show of the season.” Yes, we were right – well, us and probably hordes of other people who said the exact same thing – but in a world where the media often does its best to shorten our collective memories (and attention spans), we feel like it’s our job to remind you of something you really shouldn’t forget: “Heroes” wasn’t the first TV show about individuals with abilities beyond those of mere mortals. (Hell, it’s not even the only one on the air right now!)

In celebration of the new season of “Heroes,” we’ve taken a look back at some of our favorite superhero TV series, both live-action and animated; we’ve even set aside a separate section for TV movies, specials and failed pilots. In no way is this thing 100% comprehensive – for example, we hear good things about “M.A.N.T.I.S.,” but no one on the staff remembered enough about the show to write about it – but we’ve tried to hit as many highlights of the genre as we felt comfortable discussing. We’re sorry if that means suffering the wrath of all those rabid “Captain Nice” fans, but that’s just the way it goes. If it helps, though, here’s a clip from that show:

Phew. That bomb’s been defused. And with that out of the way, it’s up, up, and away to our feature!

Actors, Actresses, External Entertainment, External TV, Heroes, TV, TV Action, TV Comedies, TV Dramas, TV Sci-Fi

Pilots Revisited: “Journeyman”

September 18, 2007 /

I’m not sure how I did it, but, somehow, I managed to watch the screener for the pilot of “Journeyman,” write about it in Bullz-Eye’s fall preview, and focused on the similarity to “The Time Traveler’s Wife” without naking the obvious comparison to “Quantum Leap.” Maybe it’s because I never really watched the Scott Bakula time-travel drama very often, but it just never occurred to me…which, in retrospect, makes me feel like a complete idiot, because the similarity – a guy travels back and forth through time, each time following a particular individual, never knowing where his next trip is going to take him – is undeniably there.

In a word, D’oh!

The pilot is definitely strong, offering up the premise as well as the mystery surrounding it – why is Dan Vasser (played by Kevin McKidd) jumping through time, and what does his supposedly-dead ex-fiancee, Livia (Moon Bloodgood), have to do with it? – as well as setting up an explanation for how he could possibly convince his wife, Katie (Gretchen Egolf), that he really is jumping through time. In the second episode, “Friendly Skies,” we get more of a glimpse as to how quickly this abrupt disappearing problem of Dan’s is on its way to ruining his marriage, even if Katie does know what’s happening to him. We also see that not only are the producers planning to continue using music to help set up the various eras to which Dan travels but, more importantly, they aren’t afraid to steer away from the most obvious selections. Sure, when he pops back to the ’70s, it’s all about listening to disco on an 8-track player, but trips to the ’80s and ’90s bring songs from The Psychedelic Furs and Freedy Johnston. (On a side note, it’s clear that, during the aforementioned ’70s visit, the crew had a hello f a lot of fun reminiscing about how much fun it used to be when flying the friendly skies.)

“Studio 60” might’ve been a poor fit for the post-“Heroes” timeslot, but “Journeyman” still looks as strong now as it did when we first checked it out…and, better yet, the ongoing romantic aspect of the show seems poised to grab a larger female audience than your average sci-fi drama.

Here’s a teaser:

Actors, Actresses, External Entertainment, External TV, Fall TV Preview, Pilots, TV, TV Dramas, TV Sci-Fi

So much for getting the jump on my “Heroes” blog…

September 17, 2007 /

With the second-season premiere of “Heroes” scheduled for next Monday at 9 PM, I had hoped I’d be able to provide you with a few teasers of what the episode contained, since NBC generally sends out advance screeners of its season premiere.

Not so, however, for “Heroes.”

I approached the network and asked if I should be expecting a screener, or if NBC wanted the critics to be watching the season premiere for the first time along with the rest of America.

“Actually,” responded a network spokesperson, “we are not sending the ‘Heroes’ premiere (or) early episodes out for review. The producers want to hold it back and allow viewers to be completely surprised. ”

Disappointing…but not entirely surprising. And, hey, it actually makes me even more excited for Monday to get here, so how can I really complain?

External Entertainment, External TV, Fall TV Preview, Heroes, News, TV, TV Action, TV Dramas, TV Sci-Fi

Bullz-Eye’s 2007 Fall TV Preview

August 27, 2007 /

I’d just like to begin by stating for the record that, in Bullz-Eye’s 2006 Fall TV Preview, I made the following statement about “Heroes”:

“The premise is fantastic, and the gradual unfolding of the various stories will keep viewers coming back week after week. This is gonna be the water-cooler show of the season.”

That’s right. I’m Nostradamus.

And, like that famous French forecaster of the future, I get at least as many wrong as I get right, like, for instance, these:

1. Ugly Betty: “Expect fans of the original show to be horrified at this poor translation. In fact, it’s hard to imagine that anyone other than girls on the cusp of pubescence or desperately single women in their 20s and 30s will be able to stand this for even 30 minutes. Oh, and did I mention that it’s an hour long?”
2. Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip: “Best cast on television, hands down… and to have their dialogue written by someone who’s arguably one of the best scribes in the medium? I’m sold. And America will be, too.”
3. Twenty Good Years: “‘Arrested Development’ proved that (Jeffrey) Tambor doesn’t draw the ratings, but Lithgow does. It might not be a huge hit, but count on it doing well enough to stick around for a few seasons.”

Oh, well. At least I was right about “Happy Hour.”

This year’s crop is another blend that’s heavy on drama, light on comedy, and thankfully light on reality shows – well, unless you’re Fox, that is – but, as ever, we must provide the following caveat to the feature that follows:

What we’re offering are our impressions and opinions of what are essentially “rough drafts” of the season’s new shows. Mind you, most aren’t very rough at all — indeed, some may actually look identical when they make their official network premieres — but, nonetheless, it’s not unheard of for producers to retool and recast their shows between the filming of the original pilot and the actual premiere of the series. Actually, this year, it’s closer to the rule than the exception, but we’ll get to that in a moment.

Basically, the moral is this: use our descriptions as an approximation of what will end up on the air, not as The Gospel According to Bullz-Eye.

And now that that’s out of the way, let’s warm up the set and head over to the homepage for Bullz-Eye’s Fall TV Preview.

Actors, Actresses, External Entertainment, External TV, Fall TV Preview, Heroes, News, TV, TV Action, TV Comedies, TV Dramas, TV Sci-Fi

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