Category: TV (Page 510 of 595)

Do you feel lucky, punk? Well, do ya?

September 11, 2006 /

At last, brilliantbutcancelled.com brings us just the thing to cure those end-of-summer blues: It’s a dead pool, but without the guilt. After all, who wouldn’t enjoy sending Skeet Ulrich (odds: 39 to 1) or Anne Heche (odds: 4 to 1) to an early grave, secure in the knowledge that they’ll resurrect themselves in plenty of time to bother us with another poorly executed pilot next fall?

Sign on for Deathwatch 2006, and place your bets as to which of the networks’ new fall series will be cancelled each week. Guess correctly, and you can even win an iPod or a new flatscreen HDTV…but of course, the real reward lies in knowing that you’re smarter than a network programming executive.

TV, TV Action, TV Comedies, TV Dramas

America’s TV critics are, for the most part, on crack.

September 7, 2006 /

Present company excluded, of course…but that’s the only explanation I can come up with for why, in a poll of 66 TV critics throughout the US, the winner for this season’s Best New Comedy and second-best show of the entire new season was…”Ugly Betty.”

God bless America Ferrera, the actress who plays Betty, but I’ve seen the pilot episode, and…well, not to spoil our upcoming Fall TV Preview piece, but this is what I said of the show:

“That sucking sound you hear is the testosterone departing your system at a rapid clip. This is ‘The Devil Wears Prada’ as interpreted by ABC Family…and Vanessa Williams ain’t no Meryl Streep, lemme tell ya. No, actually, this is an adaptation of the popular Spanish telenovela ‘Yo Soy Betty, La Fea’ (translated as ‘I Am Betty, The Ugly One’). I guess we shouldn’t be too surprised that ABC was too scared to make Betty legitimately ugly; instead, America Ferrera has enough legitimate cuteness peeking through that you’re constantly waiting for the simple makeover that could make her into a knockout. 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?”

So what I’m saying is, forget “Ugly Betty.” If you need a comedy fix this fall, go with “The Knights of Prosperity,” formerly known as “Let’s Rob Mick Jagger.”

External TV, News, TV, TV Comedies

Lambs to the slaughter

September 6, 2006 /

(Note: This is an early review of next week’s episode. If you have HBO On Demand, watch it now. Otherwise, wait until Sunday to avoid spoilers.)

It’s been two years since the last episode of “The Wire” and I can’t even begin to imagine the long wait that fans of the series had to endure. Luckily, I just recently got into the show when the season three DVD showed up in my mailbox begging to be reviewed. Never one to start watching a show mid-season (or mid-series), I opted to watch the entire first three seasons (courtesy of HBO On Demand) just in time for the season four premiere. The premium channel has rewarded their dedicated fans by announcing that those with the On Demand service can view the next episode an entire week before its air date, and while it took me four days to find a little free time, I finally got the chance to check out the season premiere.

I was surprised just as much as anybody to see that the opening segment featured Snoop (Marlo’s female muscle) shopping for a new nailgun at the local hardware store, but it certainly set the tone for what was to come. It seems that the police were right all along: Marlo has been dropping bodies in his ongoing takeover of Baltimore, but he’s been incredibly smart about. Instead of just shooting dealers in the street and leaving them for dead, Snoop and Chris (Marlo’s right-hand man) have been killing their competitors quietly, wrapping their bodies in plastic, stowing them away in abandoned houses and then nailing them shut with sheets of wooden. Hence nail gun.

Unfortunately, most of the episode was dedicated to four new characters – a group of friends spending their last days of summer trying to turn an extra buck on the street – and though I wasn’t entirely impressed by the show’s change in direction, it looks as if these four youngsters are going to be one of the main attractions of the new season, if not the main attraction. Most likely, they’ll all start to gravitate to Marlo’s camp, who has survived the drug war as the only major dealer left on the streets. Fresh meat for the butcher, right?

And with Avon and Stringer Bell out of the picture, Marlo will no doubt become the new target of the Detail this season – which currently only includes Kima, Lestor and Leander. They’ve also been assigned a new Lieutenant with Daniels taking the Major post in the Western District, and it doesn’t look like they’re keeping very busy. McNulty, meanwhile, is happy as can be with his new post as a 9-to-5 beat cop in the Western (despite the fact that he’s now under the command of Daniels), and apparently, him and Beattie are now dating. (Note: This isn’t exactly confirmed, but his chat with Bunk implied that they’re a happy couple. Also, it seemed like they both had that idea in their mind the last time we saw them together – i.e. the season three finale.)

The rest of the old Detail members are off doing their own thing as well. Herc is now working security for the Mayor, and Carver is still working as a Sergeant in the Western. Perhaps the biggest surprise, however, is the writers’ decision to keep Prez from returning as a detective; instead having him take a job as a teacher at one of the city’s middle schools. Personally, Prez is one of my favorite characters, and I’d much rather see him fuck up on the job as a cop than succeed in the school system, but at least he’ll be getting a little more screen time this go around. On that same note, I was a little upset to see that my two other favorite characters (Cutty and Omar) didn’t make appearances in the premiere, and we can only hope that they’ll be showing up sometime soon.

External TV, The Wire, TV

Band on the run

September 5, 2006 /

I was wondering why Sucre decided to hop out of the El Camino instead of just putting it in drive to beat the train to the intersection and ditch the cop. But once he reached his friend’s place, it all made sense. Call me disloyal, but if my convict buddy tells me he’s been up for 72 hours straight and he wants to take my vintage motorcycle for a blistering non-stop roadtrip to Vegas, I’m saying, “Heeeeeeeell no! Go steal a car.” Had Sucre driven the El Camino to his buddy’s place, he’d already have transportation, and we wouldn’t get the image of him (which is no doubt forthcoming) making cross-country tracks on a vintage ride to break up his girlfriend’s wedding. Now all he has to do is hook up with the the Flying Elvises (Utah chapter) and he’ll be good to go.

By the way, how exactly did Sucre avoid the repeated glances of the motorcycle cop as he exited the car? That cop was watching him like a hawk.

We found out that Agent Mahone has some demons of his own – namely, a prisoner that’s still on the loose. He’s so obsessed with this cat that he’s resorted to popping pills on the sly. And here I thought he was cool, calm and collected.

I like Bellick’s new role as a bounty hunter, but I’m not sure I like the other guard as his sidekick. I suppose Bellick needs someone to act as a placeholder in conversations as he says his wicked lines, and I doubt anyone else would go with him. Here’s an idea: the writers should have given him a dog to talk to – maybe a big Rottweiler named “Eddie”. Now that would be cool.

C-Note made contact with his family and says that he has “a plan” to get some money. Surely, he’s referring to the millions buried in Utah, but does he have any idea where it is? Anyway, his wife turned the front porch light on, inferring she trusts him, but at the same time she was talking to an FBI agent. Is she going to give him up?

And how about poor Sara Tancredi? Of all the characters on the show, I feel most protective of her troubled soul. She feels betrayed by Michael, but he has promised a reunion, and now Agent Evil is tracking her. How creepy was it when he showed up in her support meeting? Agent Evil is hoping to get a line on Michael and Lincoln, and figures Sara is his best bet. But it’s a pretty big gamble to think that Michael actually cared enough about Sara to risk capture just to “make things right.” He had no idea how deeply their relationship went.

Everyone is making their slow marches West, where Terrence Steadman is holed up in Montana, where Sucre’s girlfriend is getting married in Vegas, and most importantly, where the money is buried beneath a silo in Utah.

Prison Break, TV, TV Action, TV Dramas

It’s how he would’ve wanted to go.

September 4, 2006 /

And as God as my witness, I’m not trying to be an asshole when I say that about the fact that “Crocodile Hunter” Steve Irwin was killed during an animal attack.

Granted, he probably would’ve preferred that the animal in question was a croc rather than a sting ray.

Irwin was filming an episode of “Ocean’s Deadliest,” and swam too close to one of the rays, which have a poisonous bard on their tails, his friend and colleague John Stainton said. “He came on top of the stingray and the stingray’s barb went up and into his chest and put a hole into his heart,” said Stainton, who was on board Irwin’s boat at the time. Crew members aboard the boat, Croc One, called emergency services in the nearest city, Cairns, and administered CPR as they rushed the boat to nearby Low Isle to meet a rescue helicopter. Medical staff pronounced Irwin dead when they arrived a short time later, Stainton said.

I must say, although I wasn’t a dedicated viewer of Irwin’s work, whenever I caught it, his enthusiasm was infectious. At least he went out doing the work that he loved…and that’s why I stand by the subject line.

Actors, External Entertainment, External TV, News, TV

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