Category: TV (Page 265 of 595)

Dragon Ball Z: Season Eight

February 3, 2009 /

“Dragon Ball Z” may have a reputation for padding its episodes with lots of unnecessary repetition, but Season Eight marks the first time that the show has so much going on that it simply isn’t necessary. With the World Martial Arts Tournament in full swing (and Mr. Satan and Android 18 as its unlikely finalists), the Z Fighters are suddenly called upon by Supreme Kai to stop an evil wizard named Babidi from awakening Majin Buu, a creature thought to be even stronger than Cell. (Though that’s debatable, considering they both have similar regenerative powers.) Of course, no one is strong enough to take on the pink puffball in their current forms, so while Gohan runs off to train in the World of the Kais (breaking the Z Sword and unleashing Elder Kai in the process), and Goku schools Goten and Trunks in the Art of Fusion, Buu hops around town relatively unchallenged turning people into chocolate… and then eating them. For as great as all this plot development is, however, the real treat of Season Eight is the rematch between Goku and Vegeta. It might just be the greatest battle of the series, because although it’s shorter than most, it’s the one that the fans were looking forward to the longest. This is “Dragon Ball Z” at its finest, and with only one season to go, it couldn’t have come at a better time.

Click to buy “Dragon Ball Z: Season Eight”

TV, TV Anime, TV DVD Quicktakes, TV DVDs

Kandyse McClure speaks about Dualla’s suicide

February 3, 2009 /

Of all the major events in the great run of “Battlestar Galactica,” Dualla’s death was one of the most shocking. She recently sat down with Sci-Fi Wire for an interview about her character’s suicide.

What was your reaction when you actually got the script and it said something along the lines of “Dualla puts gun to temple and pulls trigger”?

McClure: I was floored. I think I was just as floored reading it as I’m sure people [were] seeing it. It’s such a personal and violent and shocking way to go, not only for her, but for the implications for the people around her. Suicide is a difficult topic at the best of times. People see it as being an ultimate act of selfishness on one end, but certainly from the research that I did and the people that I spoke to, there are so many different reasons that people get to that point. But I think for Dee it was just the ultimate act of surrender and the final act of control over her own life. She really wanted to find some kind of peace.

As far as you know, will we learn any more about why she took her own life? In other words, will someone read out loud a will or a suicide note she left behind?

McClure: So far as I know, no. So far as I know, that was it. She couldn’t see any way of ever finding any happiness for herself. That’s no good. Her husband [Jamie Bamber] is still in love with someone else. He’s turned his back on one of the things that joined them together, being in the military and that sense of duty towards the military and his father [Adm. Adama, played by Edward James Olmos] in particular. But I think that was it. It’s her final peace. It’s a very human reaction to a situation like that. Of course, I imagine that Dualla was not the only one on the ship, and certainly not the first one during the course of the whole saga, to choose that way out. I considered it kind of a strange honor to hold that archetype, to say, “Yeah, this is a very human thing. This is what human beings may choose to do.”

I missed “Dee” almost instantly. In many ways, she represented the sweetness and innocence of the human spirit, and she was beaten down by all that the fleet had to go through since the Cylon attack on the colonies. It’s nice to hear McClure, the person closest to this character, explain why Dualla took her own life.

Actresses, Battlestar Galactica, External Entertainment, External TV, Interviews, News, TV, TV Action, TV Dramas, TV Sci-Fi

No post-Super Bowl Monday night surge for NBC

February 3, 2009 /

NBC’s Monday night dramas were front and center during the network’s coverage of the Super Bowl, but that failed to translate to huge ratings on Monday night, according to Variety.

Looking at Monday, NBC’s “Chuck” kicked things off with season highs (3.0 rating/7 share in adults 18-49, 8.3 million viewers overall), although this left it in fourth place in one of the week’s toughest hours. It was followed by “Heroes” (3.9/9 in 18-49, 8.5 million viewers overall), which placed third at 9 o’clock although it did defeat its drama competition, Fox’s “24,” in key demos. And closing out the night, the season premiere of “Medium” (2.9/7 in 18-49, 8.5 million viewers overall) ranked second or third in its timeslot in various categories, the net’s best series performance in the hour since the series premiere of “My Own Worst Enemy” in October.

While I haven’t watched “Chuck” or “Medium” yet this week, the return of “Heroes” was pretty strong. It will be interesting to watch that “Heroes”/”24” battle for the rest of the season.

24, External Entertainment, External TV, Heroes, News, TV, TV Action, TV Comedies, TV Dramas, TV Sci-Fi

Fiona Glenanne of “Burn Notice,” dissected

February 3, 2009 /

Look, I like Gabrielle Anwar’s character, the gun-toting Fionia Glenanne, as much as the next red-blooded American male, but I never thought someone (other than maybe a few of the “Burn Notice” writers) could put together 650+ words on what she represents in a post-feminist world. But Ginia Bellafante of the New York Times did just that.

Fiona is a character with no memorable precedent: a genius joke-take on girls with gun lust, the joke being that above all else she is every woman who needs to be sent a copy of “He’s Just Not That Into You,” next-day delivery. In the show’s back story Michael broke up with Fiona years ago, disappearing without explanation. (I imagine this to have been like Berger dumping Carrie with a Post-it note on “Sex and the City,” except it occurred three feet from a terrorist cell.)

Fiona has never been able to get over Michael despite his persistent and explicit reminders that he is not made of the ordinary stuff of human need. Still, she keeps pushing for the dream, dating other people solely to try to make Michael jealous, interrupting stakeouts and shooting sprees and manhunts to ask for a key to his apartment or to tell him that what she would really like for her birthday is a teddy.

While reading the piece, I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop — for Bellafante to criticize Anwar’s character for continuing to pine over her ex-boyfriend even after all these years. But that shoe never dropped. Bellafante genuinely admires Fiona and what she represents. Good stuff.

On a side note, anyone else remember the pilot episode where Fiona spoke with an Irish accent (which made sense because she used to be a member of the Irish Republican Army)? I thought they should have stuck with it, though the creators apparently thought otherwise.

External Entertainment, External TV, News, Reviews, TV, TV Action, TV Dramas

“Reaper” returning to life more quickly than anticipated

February 3, 2009 /

The good news is that, according to Variety‘s James Hibberd, The CW has decided to bring back “Reaper” on March 3rd, which is a couple of weeks earlier than originally planned. The bad news is that it’s pretty clear that they’re doing so because they need a sacrificial lamb for the spot on the schedule against “American Idol,” and since they don’t want to keep wasting perfectly good episodes of “90210,” they’ve decided to use a series in which they clearly have limited faith.

Says Hibberd:

To make way for “Reaper,” the CW also advanced its first-season finale date for “Privileged.” The show will conclude Feb. 24, having aired fewer repeats than originally planned. The network has not yet decided whether the drama will return next season. “90210” has been wrestling with “Idol” in recent weeks. Yet it and “Privileged” enjoy the highest percentage of DVR gains among any show on any network.

I don’t want to sound like a pessimist, but while I think we can count on both “90210” and “Privileged” making it back in Fall 2009 (I can’t believe they won’t keep both shows at least into a sophomore season, given the importance of DVR stats in today’s TV), the odds of “Reaper” seeing a third year are already looking slim…and it hasn’t even premiered yet! The CW already hedged their bets with the show’s second year by only giving it a 13-episode commitment, and this maneuver stinks of someone at the network saying, “If it’s a hit, awesome, and if it’s not…well, we didn’t really expect it to be, anyway, so it’s no skin off our nose!”

ADDENDUM: Tyler Labine has been one of my Facebook friends ever since I interviewed him for Bullz-Eye, and when he changed his status this morning to indicate that he was “off to LA to get a new gig,” I immediately responded by asking, “Wow, is there really that little hope for a third season of ‘Reaper’?” He quickly replied, “No, no, just a big hiatus to fill up with gigs. Just a few movie ops. Season 3 is a definite maybe right now. I’ll keep everyone posted.” Oh, okay: if he’s hopeful, then I reckon can find it in my heart to be hopeful as well.

External Entertainment, External TV, Reaper, TV, TV Comedies, TV Dramas, TV Sci-Fi

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