Category: TV (Page 99 of 595)

Breaking Bad 3.4 – Dirty, Damp, and Deep in the Valley of the Sun

I begin this week’s “Breaking Bad” blog with a confession: it’s the first episode this season where I didn’t have an advance screener, which meant that I was watching it along with the rest of you. The reason I confess this is because it also means that, in order to get my blog knocked out as quickly as possible, I had to watch it live on the TV set in my office, which is TiVo-less. It’s the set in the living room that has the TiVo, and…well, that’s recording “The Celebrity Apprentice” for me. Hmmm…suddenly, what was intended to be an attempt to earn your sympathy has abruptly become fodder for insult. This has gone terribly wrong. Perhaps I’d better go ahead and get to talking about “Breaking Bad” in order to try and save face. (Yes, I know: it’s far too late for that.)

Well, Jesse might be clean, but he’s clearly no smarter now than he was when he was still using. Kids, here’s your lesson for this week: if you’re ever driving a bullet-riddled RV and find yourself in desperate need of fuel, do not…repeat, do not…try to use methamphetamine as currency. While I can appreciate the need to take Old Faithful for a spin for “work” purposes, when it comes to potential witnesses trying to pick it out of a line-up, it’s hard to conceive of a more memorable vehicle. It kinds of stands out in a crowd, you know? I’ll give it to Jesse, though: ever since admitting to himself -whether rightly or wrongly – that he’s the bad guy, he’s developed balls of steel. Trading gas for meth with a state trooper right there in the store…? That’s pretty fucking ballsy, you’ve got to admit. The best line of the scene, though, had to be when Cashier Cara offered her concerns about the addictiveness of meth and Jesse assured her that it had been blown way out of proportion. (“It’s a media thing.”)

We had some great scenes from Saul Goodman this week. Of course Saul’s got a class action lawsuit working against the airline. He’s just that kind of guy. I loved both the guy we saw in his office (“You’ve been the victim of a terrible accident, some discomfort is to be expected”), as well as the phone call later in the episode, where he assures someone that they needn’t have had a wing fall on their house and that even a bag of peanuts is enough to get them into the lawsuit. Awesome. Mike’s mikes turned up a fierce war of words between Walt and Skyler over her revelation that she’d fucked Ted, a conversation which led Walt to offer one of his typically nonsensical declarations (“I’ll suit myself to his face!”) and found him heading over to the office to confront Ted in person and give a predictably ineffective performance.

Damned shame about the potted plant, though. Poor bastard only had a week left ’til retirement…

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“Bones” hits the 100-episode mark

Tonight marks the 100th episode of Fox’s “Bones,” which may amaze those who originally only saw the series as something for David Boreanaz to do until Joss Whedon finally got around to making an “Angel” movie. Instead, the show has gradually found a sizable fan base who love the patter between Boreanaz and his co-star, Emily Deschanel, as FBI Agent Seely Booth and forensic anthropologist Dr. Temperance “Bones” Brennan.

Sorry, did I say “patter”? Obviously, I meant “sexual tension.”

This evening’s episode is a flashback to the very first case worked together by Booth and Brennan, one which took place a year prior to the events seen in the show’s pilot. In addition to the fact that it provides an opportunity for the actors to revisit the way they played their characters five years ago (or, in the case of Eric Millegan, an opportunity to play Dr. Zach Addy again period), there’s a concluding moment which has the potential to completely change one of the fans’ favorite parts of the show…or, at the very least, shake it up a bit. My wife, who has seen every episode of the series since its premiere, got a bit emotional at the concluding scene. I’ll be interested to find out if you react the same way.

I was fortunate enough to attend a “Bones” breakfast during Fox’s day of the Winter 2010 TCA Press Tour, and both David Boreanaz and Emily Deschanel were in attendance. Unfortunately, however, my conversation with David was precisely two questions long, thanks to a strange moment where I asked him about working with Diedrich Bader – he plays FBI Agent Andrew Hacker – and got a blank stare and an assurance that he had absolutely no idea who that was.

At the time, I was concerned that I’d gotten bad information, but, no, he definitely had worked with Bader. Weird. Fortunately, before that confusion caused the chat to come to a complete and total standstill, leading someone else to pick up the reigns of the conversation and run with them, I’d asked him how he felt about his series making it to the vaunted 100-episode mark.

“It’s kind of hard to believe that you’re there,” Boreanaz admitted, “especially when it’s hard enough to get a pilot made, let alone picked up. I’ve always maintained that whatever you’re working on, you should work just really in the moment and not think about the next episode. You should just maintain a real strong sense of your work and your ethics and being honest with yourself and just continue to work hard and see where that takes you, whether you do 12 episodes, 20 episodes, or whether you just do a pilot. You’re just fortunate to be working.”

Thankfully, I made no such faux pas while talking to Emily, who was glad to answer my question about how she thinks the character of Brennan has changed over the course of 100 episodes.

“You know, I recently just watched the pilot again, because I’ve been thinking about doing this 100th episode and doing a flashback, so I’ve been thinking about that a lot,” she said. “I think she’s become less guarded, more open…she’s trying to learn socially how to interact with people. Watching the pilot, I was, like, ‘She’s very wild, in a way.’ She’s just determined to do her thing and just does it and doesn’t care what anybody else thinks…and I just love that about her! That’s definitely still true. In one sense, she’s become more polished…and I say that in a lot of ways! But she’s just growing up and kind of thinking about something before she does it. And she’s also trying to understand social interaction and people’s emotions and feelings…and her own! Trying to understand other people’s through exploration of her own. She’s not as quick to just kick someone’s ass! She’s kind of learning to take a breather before she…it’s, like, Fox had this whole campaign of ‘Take a Moment,’ and Brennan had to take a moment before she acted on things. Before, she just acted. That’s not to say that she doesn’t still just act sometimes, but I think that’s a way she’s changed over the years.”

At the time we chatted, they hadn’t yet begun filming the 100th episodes, but they had been having meetings about what it was going to look like.

“Visually, with the hair and make-up and wardrobe, it was fun trying on the wardrobe that was Brennan back in the day,” said Deschanel. “Cynthia Somers, the costume designer, did a great job. She was not there at the beginning, but she did a great job of pulling these things that were very Brennan-esque from the beginning. It’s been great to go and to start thinking about Brennan in that time and what she was. It’s been fun.”

American Idol: no shocker here


I’m not going to hide the fact that I like “American Idol” or that I watch it religiously–of course, enough to blog about it. But I’m getting tired of how predictable it is sometimes. Last night’s results show was proof of that. As the show began, and Ryan Seacrest mentioned the “judge’s save” again, I turned to Mrs. Mike and said that tonight was the night they were going to save someone. When Seacrest announced that the producers had told him the results were “shocking”…well then, we all knew for sure the judges would use their save, without even knowing who had the lowest number of votes.

After all that, Seacrest introduced the Top 9 and they sang a Beatles medley, pre-recorded and auto-tuned for our listening pleasure.

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Is your favorite show in danger of being canceled?

I’m really digging TV By the Numbers, which always seems to have good ratings information. They have a Cancel/Renewal Index (click here for ABC) which attempts to handicap the chances of a show being canceled or renewed.

As you can see from the ABC page, there are nine shows that the site deems “likely to be canceled,” including “Better Off Ted,” “The Deep End,” “the forgotten” and, somewhat surprisingly, “FlashForward.” I guess looking at the ratings, it’s not too surprising that “FlashForward” is on the chopping block, but it is surprising that the show hasn’t done better. ABC did run 10 episodes in a row, but then the show was off the air for 3.5 months before the “spring season” started up. One could argue that the network botched the scheduling, but given the small difference between the ratings of the final 2009 episode (2.1) and those of the first 2010 episode (1.9), it doesn’t hold much water.

Other random thoughts:

* “V” seems to be doing okay, though I think “FlashForward” is the better show.
* The numbers for “Medium” are a little surprising. It’s essentially the same show that was on NBC last season.
* I’m surprised that “Sons of Tuscon” has already been canceled. That is/was a funny show.
* It’s nice to see that “Fringe” already has another season, though “Human Target” is on the chopping block. It’s a fun show, but I’d like it if Christopher Chance were more of a womanizer, like James Bond. I can’t believe that he didn’t make a pass at Moon Bloodgood last week. Ridiculous.
* “Heroes” appears to be on the bubble, though the site says it’s probably a goner. That’s one show where they need to figure out a way to wrap things up so it just doesn’t go dark in the middle of the story.

Note: I removed all references to shows listed in grey. Grey apparently equals black, so shows listed in grey have already been renewed.

The Biggest Loser: no gameplay here

Last night’s episode of “The Biggest Loser” was like a slap in the face to the show’s producers, who clearly wanted Melissa in this thing for the long haul but, well, you’ll have to read on…..

Host Alison Sweeney threw another curve ball at the contestants to start the show, when she told them that one of them could literally earn immunity with the push of a button this week. She gave them each a tag to wear around their neck with the amount of weight they had to lose in order to reach 2% of their body weight. If someone felt they had reached that mark at any point during the week, they could hit a red button that sounded a loud and giant alarm. That player would weigh in and if they reached their 2%, they were immune from elimination. If not, they were out of this particular challenge, and someone else could try and gain immunity.

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