My review of X-Factor #219 is up on CBR.
As always, likes and tweets are much appreciated!
And you can check out all my CBR Reviews thus far, here.
You are currently browsing the archive for the damages category.
Tags: comics!
Yea!!! This is great news. Let’s just hope the writers get what they need and everyone can get back to work. Congratulations Damages, you earned it. And congratulations FX for knowing a great show when you see it.
http://www.tvguide.com/news/damages-finale-answers/071026-05
Great interview about the Damages series and finale, as well as information about whether it will be picked up for a second season (apparently still in question). PICK IT UP! NOW! Don’t you see there is crap like Heroes on TV…SAVE US ALL…!
The Vulture Blog, has a great little piece on why the Damages Finale (and show) was so great. I couldn’t agree more. Check it out here.
and here they are:
1. Damages is awesome. We are one episode away from the finale (Tuesday, October 23rd 10pm on FX). If you have not been watching (what are you thinking?) then you have one last chance to catch the whole brilliant arc before the finale, FX is playing a Damages marathon this weekend – Saturday October 20th from 8am to 8pm. That’s a full day for sure, but you’d be hard pressed to see a better show this year. I urge you to jump on the train now if you have a craving for a veggie day on the couch with a great show.
2. Pam & Jim. I am sick of the critics complaining about Pam & Jim being together on The Office. The writers are managing to keep it light and fun and lovely to watch. What is so wrong with seeing two great people finally getting to be in love. I think it’s infectious. So long as they keep it funny as it has been then I’m in. Think how many more adventures they can have now that we are not relegated to in-office jokes and secret looks? Plus, Pam has never looked better, whoever is in charge of hair on that show has finally put a bullet in her character’s bad wavy over brushed out look for softer more natural curls. She looks fantastic. Who’s complaining?!
3. Heroes. My disappointment in this show is so vast that it is difficult to measure. They have made every single mistake with this season that they could…at every turn they have made the exact wrong decision. Which I didn’t even know was possible. We have a couple interesting plotlines hanging out there (Sylar/Gabriel/Cockroach boy; whatever is up with Nathan’s “mirror face”), but nothing mind blowing.
More importantly they have somehow managed to make every storyline and character (even the once fascinating ones) whiney, overblown, and as badly written as the Nicki scenes we all so hated last year. I suppose part of the reason this is so upsetting to me is because there was such opportunity to do something amazing this year and they have just totally dropped the ball. Have you listened to the promos?…I’m paraphrasing here but it’s something like “Now the Heroes are being hunted down one by one by a mysterious…blah blah blah” Wait…um…wasn’t that EXACTLY what happened last year? Here’s the problem I think. These creators/writers DIDN’T study their model enough (which Kring has admitted…”oh we didn’t take anything from comics…we didn’t study them” – not a direct quote so don’t yell at me – but it’s the jist of it) and so they don’t know what to do with the characters.
I’m sure they don’t have the budget to go all out effects wise, but they also don’t know how to write themselves out of the the position they left themselves in at the end of the year. So they’re just chickening out. Introducing new characters, which they can take time exploring and growing, but which are so far all really really lame, so that they don’t have to focus on existing characters that they don’t know what to do with and then slowing all the existing character’s stories down to a snail’s pace.
I guess I should cut them a little slack since I wouldn’t be so disappointed if it wasn’t for such a great first season…but it’s just so sad. I’m going to go and cry about it a little bit now…
So I have been thinking about television a lot lately, mostly about how it is not worthy of my time. I had high hopes for some interesting shows this year, but very few have proven worthy of my coveted spare time. I also don’t want this blog to be about television, so I thought to get things off my chest, I’d share in a post, what I tried to watch, what I didn’t even bother with, and what has made it into the enviable “season pass position” of my Tivo. So without further ado, here it is:
WHAT I DIDN’T EVEN BOTHER WITH: Really this list is too long to mention everything, but notable are:
Gossip Girl: – despite the fact that I saw a few minutes and it seemed surprisingly well written/well acted, this is the kind of show that it makes impossible for me to respect myself in the morning, so I didn’t bother.
Chuck: I didn’t find one thing interesting about this premise. Nothing looked charming or the least bit original. No thanks.
Journeyman: This show was great back when it was called Quantum Leap and had a much more charming lead and a great sidekick. Extra no thanks to this show.
K-Ville: Gimme a break. I couldn’t even make it through the promos.
Carpoolers/Cavemen: No, it has Jerry O’Connell in it and he hasn’t done anything worthwhile (no Rebecca Romijin jokes please) since the first three seasons of Sliders…which wasn’t even that good. And NO, it is based on a commercial for car insurance. Let me just say that again to make sure it sunk in: IT IS BASED ON A COMMERCIAL FOR CAR INSURANCE.
Cane: Oh, I get it, it’s about sugar cane producers/exporters, but it’s also a play on the whole Caine & Able thing…wow, how unique. Uh, NO!
Reaper: I probably should have given this a chance, but I didn’t hear much about it until I’d already kind of committed to what I was and was not watching, so it suffers from poor publicity. If it’s any good it probably won’t last a full season anyway, so no real loss.
Dirty Sexy Money: Stupid title, stupid soap. I’m trying to have less “stupid title, stupid soap” things in my life, veto!
Back To You: Just because I liked Fraiser (yes, I did – three words for you: David Hyde Pierce) does not mean I like any piece of crap you throw together with Kelsey Grammar in it. NO! Now, you put David Hyde Pierce in it…and well, I’ll consider it.
Kid Nation: I wanted to watch this show, especially with all the Vulture Blog hype. It just never seemed to happen. Too bad.
My Name Is Earl/Scrubs: Why are these shows still on? They deserve a mention here because they are just still NOT GOOD. Also of note is the fact that it’s pretty hard to be bad AND have Jason Lee involved. My Name is Earl somehow manages, impressive.
Moonlight: Shows about vampires are at this point so not on cutting edge of anything that it is like trying to cut something with a swatch of velvet. Stop trying to follow up anything Joss Whedon does. He is the master and you can’t try to do something better than (and five years after) the master, or you just end up looking like some idiot that didn’t do his research. Move on.
Ghost Whisperer: Why is this show still on? I have never met one single person who has ever seen more than five minutes of this show…people who have watched more than five minutes of this show probably died from head implosion (and those people were thankful to be out of their misery). I know, I know, she’s got great tits. So let’s see her use them on something not horrific. More Hanes commercials? Great, I’m all for it, so long as this show gets the kill switch.
Torchwood: I don’t even know what this show is, and I have a strong suspicion that nobody else does either and that it only made it on the air by sounding vaguely like the now dead HBO cult favorite Deadwood.
Viva Laughlin: I mean you’re kidding right? I want to go back in time and be in the room when this gets pitched. You can’t BUY laughs like that must have been…especially when some executive said, “Ok.”
WHAT I TRIED TO WATCH, AND WAS ALMOST BLINDED BY IN THE PROCESS:
Bionic Woman: My hatred of Bionic Woman is (almost) unmatched. Read more about here…here…or here!
Private Practice: The few times I watched Grey’s Anatomy (there were times I kind of liked it) I always thought Kate Walsh was one of the more interesting characters (certainly more interesting than Meredith) why wouldn’t a show with her and some other decent actors (love Taye Diggs) be good? Well, I don’t know the answer to that, I just know it is very very not good.
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia: Put me on the loser train because unlike the rest of the population I just can’t find what is funny about this show. A couple of the actors have pretty good comic timing and are easy on the eyes, but I just find it rambling and un-funny. I really did try.
Tim Gunn’s Guide To Style: I saw this on accident. I love Tim Gunn and anxiously await his return to Project Runway, I also don’t begrudge Tim’s attempt to make some dough while it’s an option, but is this really all we could come up with? Yet another “makeover show”? So tired. I’m disappointed in you Tim. I will never watch this show again in hopes that I forget you ever lowered yourself to this show.
SHOWS I INTEND TO WATCH, I SWEAR:
Tell Me You Love Me: I watched one episode and was underwhelmed, but decided to let it keep recording. Somehow I have not managed to watch any of the other recorded episodes. I intend to do it though, really.
Curb Your Enthusiasm: I have all these episodes recorded, yet have somehow not watched any. I remain hopeful.
Mad Men: Ditto.
The Sarah Silverman Show: I just can’t seem to get to it.
Drawn Together: This raunchy cartoon is just too far off my radar, I keep forgetting it’s out there, but I’m trying.
WHAT I AM ACTUALLY WATCHING, AND MORE IMPORTANTLY ENCOURAGE YOU TO WATCH:
Heroes: I am watching this, but am actually hesitant to encourage you to watch it. It sucks. I am incredibly disappointed in this show (so much so that I dreamed about it last night – it was much better in my dream). I am going to hang in there until mid-season, but if they don’t get their act together, all the heroes are out of here. UPDATE: Last night’s episode of Heroes was just laugh out loud bad. The show has somehow managed to make all the interesting characters and their story lines just like the terrible whiny Niki character and story lines. Everything is over the top earnest…every scene! It’s just terrible. This is confirming my suspicion that these creators/writers were taken by surprise by their overnight (last year) success and didn’t have a follow up play in mind. They have no idea what to do with these characters. At this point I think the only way to save this show would be to bring in some great creative comic book creators (Moore/Gaiman/ Kirkman/etc.) and let them rework everything. I’m going to give them a couple more episodes to turn it around, but it was very difficult to watch the show last night.
Life: This is a genuinely good show. It is really well cast and the writing, acting and directing are all solid. More importantly the story arc is interesting and somewhat unique. The main character is a cop/detective, so is weekly trying to solve fairly typical “cop crimes” (although certainly more interesting than your average L&O episode) but more importantly the larger story arc is him trying to solve the crime of who framed him and sent him to prison. It is good stuff. Sadly, as it is on opposite the “more buzzworthy” Dirty Sexy Money, I fear for it’s future.
Pushing Daises: This is the best show on television right now. Bar none. Read more about it here. Sadly it is probably too good to be on tv, so I naturally fear for it’s future as well.
America’s Next Top Model: I watch this only after it has been recorded, so that I can fast forward through the horrible bits (many whiny crying juvenile brats and Tyra’s tirades and ridiculous over the top antics – someone please stage an intervention for her). I am only watching this show because we’ve got an office pool going and I feel the compulsive need to know who is going to win my 20 bucks…
Damages: This is a great show. Read more about it here or here or here!
30 Rock: Let’s hope others are watching it too this year so it doesn’t get the ax…all my favorite shows do (sniff. Studio 60. sniff).
The Office: I was loving those luxurious hour long episodes in lieu of the always sub-par Scrubs. I have to disagree with critics, I think the show has done a great job of keeping Pam & Jim fun and light and beautifully together. It’s nice watching two people perfectly matched be in love in a non-gooey way, we so rarely get to see that. I hope they buck the trend and keep at it. Also, how great would a Dwayne/Kelly relationship be…I’m totally into that after the teaser last week.
Last One Standing: Okay, almost nobody knows about this show I think because it is on opposite The Office and it is on the Discovery Channel, but I cannot recommend it enough. It is just AWESOME. It’s a reality tv show about 6 athletes from various countries (primarily US & UK I believe – they all speak English) and with various “specialties” (kickboxer, strong man, endurance athlete, bmx biker, rugby player, and a fitness guru) as they are shunted around to different tribes and cultures throughout the world and given a chance to live with the people and absorb the native culture, and go through some of the trials of “becoming a man”, with the ultimate goal of having the opportunity to participate in the native competitive sport of the region against other tribes. The episode I watched this past week was as they were embraced by the Zulu people and were taught stick fighting. It was intense amazing stuff. I highly recommend it for your TIVO. If you don’t have TIVO and can’t give up The Office, look around for it on your guide as it replays at different times/days in the week.
The Simpsons/King of The Hill/Family Guy/American Dad Block: Still good. I don’t always get it, but when I am, I’m happy.
Robot Chicken: Every chance I get.
So that’s it. Now I’m going to try to talk very minimally about TV from here on out, for some of you that’s probably great, for others of you maybe that means you won’t come back…I hope it’s mostly the former.
Pushing Daisies – best show of the new 2007 season
This show is so damn good. There have been small missteps in this series, but nothing deadly, and lately it has just been rocketing forward to the inevitable (yet still surprising) conclusion(s).
[Mild Spoilers]
Ellen has completely stepped up and watching her tell off Patty last night was AWESOME. She has really come into her own and I hope that (since I believe the show has been renewed) she will be around for next season, because she has really grown on me. A perfect example of a well developed character that is being carefully created and well performed sneaking up on you until you realize you are really pulling for her.
We’ve left the weak characters and actors (Katie and Greg) behind and are focusing on only the heavy hitters these days and it is working, the whole episode was full of awesome plot developments and strong performances, starting with Frobisher, who remains fascinating to watch, and I can somehow enjoy him, while having not one ounce of pity for him when he is served divorce papers (he was fucking his deposition coach on his lawyer’s desk last week, he deserves divorce papers). Ray (Frobisher’s lawyer) remains interesting and exceptionally performed, wearing his worries on his face beautifully. Tom looks like he is playing both sides (as always) which is better than I thought last week when I was assuming that he was trying to screw Ellen for sure. Patty remains the most fascinating character on the show, in part due to Close’s brilliant portrayal and I’m just dying to see how this is all going to shake out. A spot of blood on her shoe last night did not look like good news for her.
Can’t wait for this to all shake out, but I’ll be disappointed because it’s the best show on tv right now.
this show just keeps getting better and better. the last two episodes have been spot on and i can feel it just arcing it’s way into an intense closure. i can’t wait to see how the writers are going to wrap all this up, it’s all coming together beautifully…
if you haven’t been watching this show, it may be too late to join now (unless they do another marathon) you should definitely try to catch it on the flipside though (netflix, repeats, whatever)…it is wholly worth the tv time, well at least it is right now with Katie blissfully absent…
let’s be clear, the show is still good. the show is still better than 90% of what’s on television these days. that said, in my opinion they are dropping the ball a bit.
this stalker/plant woman (Lily i believe her name is), that is after Ellen’s fiance David is a completely ridiculous bit of television. here’s my argument: if she is a plant/set up by either Patty or Frobisher then she should not be spying on Ellen & David in their apartment looking all crazy and ready to boil their bunny…because she’s just doing her job…i don’t think she would take it so personally as to look that way (i.e. like he is cheating on her and she’s “super crazy i must have him” in love).
so, considering her crazy behavior, i have to assume that she is a legitimate stalker that has fallen for David (in about two minutes) and that has nothing to do with the larger picture of Patty v. Frobisher and that this storyline just happens to be occurring in David’s life (something very rare – when was the last time you or your partner had a bunny-boiling level stalker? yeah, me either) at the same time that major conspiracies and machinations that involve dogs being killed, and people being beat up and shot is happening. that is too much coincidence, i don’t buy it. so the writers/creators have either fucked up, or they are far smarter than i am and it will all fit together like a finely worked puzzle in the end and i’ll have to eat crow (i genuinely hope it is the latter).
more evidence that this is a fuck up and not a finely worked puzzle? the unnamed blonde woman that (oh so conveniently) hooked up with idiot Gregory a couple episodes ago and ran away when he got jumped on the street, was again conveniently hanging outside his apartment kind of casually hoping to run into him. are you kidding me? who believes this? women don’t hang around neighborhoods that aren’t their own hoping to run into guys that they drunkenly hooked up with and who got jumped in front of their eyes. the fact that Gregory doesn’t know she is a set up, while he is living inside a nightmarish conspiracy that is threatening his life is ridiculous. fortunately this charade was quickly ended because the blonde got shot by a stalker/assassin working for Patty. this whole fiasco makes me feel like the Damages team needs a female (or more female) writers (i’m available by the way). although this does not explain why Patty and Ellen are so well written (which they really are).
anyway, despite my complaints this is still a great show. the stuff with Ellen and Patty at the dinner party was fantastic. Patty is such a great character, she has the incredible ability to confide in Ellen and impart genuine knowledge which you can slowly see winning Ellen over, yet she has this side that is so hard and sharp that it is constantly taking Ellen by surprise. it is fascinating. Frobisher’s foray into having a book ghost written about himself, to show “the people” how wonderful he is was delightful and ended/advanced in a hilarious way. Fiske’s (Frobisher’s lawyer) dreams were telling and horrifying. great great stuff.
a solid episode last night. blissfully absent of the annoying whiny Katie character (sans about 10 minutes – which was all that was tolerable). nice little chunks of information are immerging and i’m interested. we got some much needed relationship stuff between Ellen and David and some great development for both Tom and the Tom and Patty relationship. i could have done without the ridiculous scene at the restaurant with Tom and his wife and his friend and friend’s girlfriend. in my experience real adults rarely behave that way in an upscale restaurant, regardless of how much they’ve had to drink or what they are celebrating. it was a bit absurd. otherwise a strong episode.
if you are trying to catch up or have decided to start watching the show (surely based on my brilliant coverage), they are showing a marathon on Labor Day weekend – September 3rd, starting @ 3pm on FX, the marathon will be followed by a new episode the following night at the regular time – Tuesday, September 4th @ 10pm (there is no new episode next week).