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#90 ~ Rabid Lamb Comics

February 27, 2008 in cartoons, comic of the day, comics, entertainment, escape to chimp eden, television, television reviews | 6 comments

This is a great little new show. You may have seen an ad for it in an actual theater – which is where Adam and I first heard about it, and marks maybe the first time ever that I wasn’t pissed to be watching an ad in a theater. It is a good show, but there are some problems, it can get a little repetitive and neither Adam or I like the opening.

Eugene Cussons, the “host” I guess is what you’d call him, is charming, without being overly nice and sweet and “perform-y” for the camera, and sometimes you can see that other than saving chimps for a living he might kind of be a dick…which oddly, makes me like him more, if only because he seems more real. He’s got a great foreign accent (South African? I’m not sure) but that also makes me like him more…I’m a sucker for a British-like accents. The real stars of course are the chimps which are insanely cute and human-like, especially the young ones, which tend to be less scarred and traumatized and more interested in just hanging out with Eugene and being adorable and climbing trees.

The show consists of three primary elements – Eugene finding and rescuing chimps that are being mistreated, or that have been stolen, or are scheduled for termination (etc.); dealing with the frustrating details of the respective governments and travel and the myriad of other obstacles that get put in his way; and Chimp Eden itself, which is primarily a beautiful fenced in reserve where he can rehabilitate the chimps. My favorite bits are of course at Chimp Eden, if only because it seems less sad and more sweet and optimistic than seeing how badly many of these animals are treated, however the show can turn on a dime. Last week as Jao, a big “grandfather chimp” in “The Kindergarden” (he’s in with the young chimps because he is too aggressive to be in with the adults) all of a sudden tried to yank off Eugene’s boot – pulling him out of a tree – and almost taking his foot off. They constantly remind you on the show that the chimps are ten times stronger than a human, but man is it easy to forget. Eugene kept his foot (and his boot) in the end, but it was really intense.

Escape To Chimp Eden is on Friday’s at 9pm on Animal Planet, although you can catch repeats all the time as well.

You can learn more about the show here and can also check out a clip on youtube here, it’s not the greatest clip, not the one I would choose, but the best one I could find today.

Best of 2007, Part One of Four ~ Television

February 1, 2008 in entertainment, lists, television reviews | 11 comments

I know it’s getting well into 2008 at this point, but my 2007 somehow felt unfinished without a blogg-y recap of my “Best of 2007’s”.

So I’ve broken my “best of” up into four parts and it will all be released within the next week or so.

Part one is Best of 2007 – Television (let’s get the least impressive one out of the way first, right?).

This will be followed by Best Films of 2007 and then Best Books READ in 2007. Unfortunately I’d have trouble picking a top 10 books read in 2007 that were also released in 2007, so I’m just going to do my top 10 read in 2007, regardless of their release date. Best Albums of 2007, will be last, though certainly not least.

Anyway, onto television…

The 1979 Semi-Finalist’s Best Television of 2007:

10. Life

This is a pretty good show. It has let me down occasionally, but overall I like the fact that it has a storyline that solves itself within an hour (always more engaging and smarter than your average L&O episode) and also a larger story arch about the main character – Detective Crews, on his quest to discover who framed him and sent him to prison for 12 years. I think most of the actors are working at a really high level here and the character relationships are well developed. Detective Crews is one of the most interesting characters to come around in a long time. The quirkiness of the character would probably be annoying in the hands of a lesser actor, but it mostly works here. I hated the two-part episode that took Crews character quirks to a whole new level by making the entire episodes about that, but it seemed to be a one time slip up.

09. Extras

I’ve loved this show all along, even though uncomfortable comedy makes me, well, uncomfortable. I was sorry to see this show end, but I understand why they may have felt it had run its course. Additionally, the final series episode almost had me in tears it was so good. I can’t remember the last time I felt so rewarded by a finale. It was pitch perfect.

08. Top Chef

This is a show I would LOVE to hate, but I just can’t. It’s engaging and well edited and I always find I just can’t stop watching, like all reality television, but in a good way, like almost NO reality television. Padma has also proved to be an eminently watchable host, which I never would have guessed. I feel pressured to say something horribly cheesy like, “I refuse to pack up my knives and go, where this show is concerned!”. I’ll resist…oh wait, too late.

07. Damages

I talked about this show frequently while it was on this year, it was a great show and I’m delighted it got picked up. I can’t wait to see what the writers have in store for these characters. With the exception of Katie, these characters were incredibly well crafted, and the actors were absolute top of the line (again, with the notable exception of Katie). There was a blip around episode five or so where my interest waned (again, I blame Katie) but it picked right back up and delivered HUGE.

06. Project Runway

This show is AWESOME. No way around it. I never really thought I could say I love a reality show with no shame as I do with this show, but it is just brilliantly executed. And Heidi Klume has proved herself to be one hell of a smart supermodel. She’s likeable, funny, engaging, and comes off as pretty freaking intelligent. I love this show. My only complaint is that it takes so damn long to get it back on the air, unlike every other reality show on earth. But if I have to wait in order to have quality, then I’ll learn patience. In other words, “I’m in!” (sorry, could not resist cheesy quote this time either apparently). Also, Chris M. for president of the world!

05. Pushing Daises

The BEST new show of the year. Brilliant, creative, constantly engaging, and by far the most rich and beautiful set I’ve ever seen on television. There is just not a damn thing wrong with this show…and I’m not going to look for anything. If you’re not watching it, you are totally screwing up. Of course it, like everything, is on hiatus with the writer’s strike, but it was definitely performing prior to the strike, so hopefully it will be able to come back in full force when Hollywood returns to normal.

04. The Office

I don’t care what the rest of the world thinks, I love what they’ve done with Jim and Pam. I think the writer’s have pulled off a miracle here and done what has always been impossible on television – gotten the “it” couple together and kept it funny and engaging. I find it infinitely more interesting to be done with the cat and mouse of “will they or won’t they” and onto, “what in the hell are they going to get into now that we’ve broken down barriers”. Other characters have had a chance to shine as well, the Ryan transformation has been hilarious, as has Kelly’s. Dwight has been through hell and they’ve made me feel SO bad for him…and Angela…something I would never have thought possible.

03. Flight of the Conchords

I adore this freaking show. Every time I watch it it gets funnier. Every time I think I’m going to be sick of the quirky hilarious songs, I’m dead wrong. The show is totally brilliant and I absolutely cannot wait for next season. I love this show so much I actually bought the cd (it was cheap – like five bucks) and as expected IT was hilarious as well, almost as good as seeing Bret & Jemaine in living color inside my ears. That didn’t make sense, but if you watch this show you know what I’m talking about. As a sidenote, I totally feel like Bret & Jemainr are my friends, and I’m aware this makes me seem like a crazy stalker person…I don’t know what to do about that, but I feel like we’ve hung out before, and we got along famously, what can I say?

02. 30 Rock

Wow. I am an idiot. I wasn’t watching 30 Rock religiously last year. Biggest mistake of my life (and there have been lots – trust me), and there is just no way to go back in time and correct this horrendous error in my judgement. This show just rocks (no pun). When you can’t decide who stole all the scenes…because everyone had awesome lines delivered awesomely and they all stole all the scenes then you know you’re watching some freaking brilliance. I have to go with Alec Baldwin as the “regular” scene stealer, but Tracy Morgan has really given him a run for his money this season, and Jane Krakowski is no slouch either. And what is up with Tina Fey being some kind of multi-tasking mastermind that can create a show, star in it, write it, and produce it…AND it actually be awesome. That’s some kind of jedi mind shit. I’ll leave you with the immortal words of Alec Baldwin’s Jack Donagy, “I like you. You have the boldness of a much younger woman”.

01. Big Love

Greatest show on television, without a doubt. I never in a bagillion (yes I’m using bagillion instead of bazillion…I’ve really never been a fan of bazillion) years would I have thought my favorite television show would be about Mormon Polygamists living in Utah, but it freaking is. I also never would have thought a show about this would be the most feminist centered, female focused show on television, but it freaking is. Love it, waiting with bated breath until it’s back. It is totally worth getting HBO just to watch this show alone…plus then you can watch Flight of the Conchords too…it’s really win win…

Honorable Mentions: The Last One Standing (Discovery Channel) and Studio 60 (this is easily technically in the top 5 of 2007 for me, but since it’s dead with no chance for renewal, I didn’t want to waste a spot on it).

Wanted to watch, it just didn’t happen, but I still intend to watch and expect I’ll love: Mad Men

Worst Show of 2007: Bionic Woman- by miles and miles!

sigh Heroes even bigger sigh

October 30, 2007 in television reviews | 4 comments

So I think last night was the worst episode yet. The previews for next week looked more interesting and less yawn inducing than last night’s episode, however it also pretty much looked like an uninventive “re-packaging” of last season. Half of New York…I mean the world is dead? New York is destroyed…I mean evacuated. Hiro…I mean Peter, went to the future to see it. Wow. Interesting…that’s stuff we’ve never seen before. Oh, and by ‘never seen before’ I mean we’ve seen almost exactly that before.

And what’s with already giving away what is going to make that “evacuation and quarantine” happen…could it be Bob’s newly developed “virus” that Suresh decided not to test out on the girl with the horrible southern accent? Because, hey it could mutate and spread to the general population?! Gee, I wonder.

I cannot WAIT for Sylar to kill the twins (and if that’s not in the creators plans they should write it in immediately), but especially the girl, whatever her name is. It really sucks when you have a twin that has all the instincts and all the power and you’re just a whiny little bitch and that everytime you get upset you kill people and only your brother can control you, yet somehow you speak almost perfect English, but your more talented twin can not only not speak a word, but understands little (although this looks to be a red herring – we’ll see). I know the creators were likely trying to make the girl twin (I’m not even going to bother looking up her name) the “really cool badass powerful one” but they’ve only succeeded in making her the “emotional out of control whiny annoying one”. Congratulations guys!

I’m going to hang in for next week’s episode, at this point mostly because I’m a masochist. This shit is just terrible. It’s embarrassing.

I’m also going to start rating the episodes based on how many times I have to sigh and roll my eyes. Last night’s count was roughly 85 times…give or take. I’d say that equals about an F-…is that even possible?

Damages Finale

October 25, 2007 in damages, television reviews | Permalink

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.

2007 Television Season…color me underwhelmed

October 16, 2007 in damages, pushing daisies, television reviews | 10 comments

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

Hey, maybe people aren’t as stupid as I think they are! Whoopee!

October 10, 2007 in craptastic, television reviews | 1 comment

There’s an article today about new television shows that are already “in trouble”. You can click below for the full article, but in a nutshell it says that the horrific Bionic Woman tops that list with a 28% drop off in young adult viewers (you can’t fool us with this crap!) and a 20% drop off in overall viewers…wait…I don’t even know if I’m young enough to be considered a “young adult viewer”…crap…what’s the cutoff? Regardless, here is a message Hollywood: “don’t be shocked people tuned in initially, we desperately wanted it to be good and you promoted the hell out of it, of course we tuned in to the first episode, but you made a steaming pile of dog crap and we’re not going to keep tuning in for that. LEARN A LESSON ALREADY!” geez.

Okay, I’m done.

http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2007-10-09-fall-TV-trends_N.htm

don’t be fooled by this somewhat cool looking image, the show is prime suckage.

bionic woman…insert groan here

October 4, 2007 in craptastic, hollywood, pushing daisies, television reviews | 2 comments

So I watched a couple minutes of Bionic Woman last night with the idea that I would change the channel the first time it made me audibly groan. I actually don’t think I lasted a couple minutes. Maybe 90 seconds. Please don’t watch this show. It is just insulting to our collective intelligence and it encourages Hollywood to keep thinking of us as insipid idiots. TURN IT OFF…it is CRAPTASTIC…without the TASTIC part.

Here is something you should be watching though, Pushing Daisies. This looks to be a great show. It’s quirky and clever and has gorgeous production values…the world these characters live in his about 40% Tim Burton 30% Amelie and 30% real life and it works in beautiful harmony.

The story focuses on Ned, a piemaker and owner of The Piehole, who has a gift/curse to be able to touch someone and bring them back to life. However, if he ever touches them again they die instantly, never to be revived. There are also major consequences for bringing someone back, e.g. if he doesn’t touch them again and “re-kill” them within 60 seconds then someone in close proximity bites it.

This dynamic is set up in the first episode with Ned discovering his powers when his mother dies suddenly and when he touches her she is instantly brought back to life. Sixty seconds later, his neighbor Charlotte’s (Chuck) father drops dead. Then of course that evening when Ned’s mother tucks him and kisses him on the head she drops dead. So Ned and Chuck are separated, Ned shipped off to boarding school and Chuck raised by her quirky aunts. They share their first kiss at their mutual parents funerals, and never see eachother again, until now.

Now. A private eye discovers Ned’s “gift” and ropes him into a scheme in which they briefly re-animate corpses to find out who killed them and then collect the reward money and split it. This leads them to Ned’s childhood friend Chuck that has recently become deceased. Chuck does not know who killed her when she is re-animated, and then Ned of course cannot bear to “re-kill” her (unfortunately someone else has to die for this, but it’s a relatively “bad” guy which makes Ned feel better about things). Of course now, totally smitten with his childhood love (and she for him) they can never touch or she will instantly drop dead.

The Good: Despite all the “dead this and re-killing that” the show is not dark in the least, a credit to everyone on the show from the creators, set designers, writers, actors, and directors. The show is light and quirky and fun and likeable, largely due to the great cast a series of fairly new faces and great but almost forgotten faces. Anna Friel plays Chuck and has a giant credit list on IMDB, but I’ve never seen her in anything until now, and how sad that is for me because she is absolutely delightful. She brings a charm and innocence to the show that is completely infectious and never saccharine. Lee Pace plays Ned and he is a delightful new face as well, playing his “gift/curse” with a slightly cynical and protective edge, instead of the high pitched whine that is so prevalent on Heroes. Chi McBride as the private detective Emerson is a nice contrast to the sweetness and “unreality” going on everywhere else. Kristin Chenoweth, seen (by me) previously mostly on West Wing is likeable as Piehole waitress Olive, but hopefully her character gets fleshed out a bit more, currently of all the characters she has the least development happening. Delightful are Swoosie Kurtz as Chuck’s one-eyed ex-synchronized “mermaid” swimmer aunt and Ellen Greene looks FANTASTIC as Chuck’s other ex-synchronized “mermaid” swimmer aunt. Greene, most notorious (at least to my mind) as Audrey in Little Shop of Horrors (1986) looks fantastic (it has been over 20 years – someone give me this woman’s secret!) and is a perfect cast as one of the quirky loveable aunts. Really the whole cast is just flawless.

I am anxious to tune in next week and see what the creators/writers have in store for us…they did so much in just this first episode that I hope they can keep up the pace. The plot is a bit gimmicky, so hopefully they can dodge those issues and continue producing what was a really great first show.

The Bad: Nothing yet.

The Ugly: Nothing yet, or at least not in a bad way.

Pushing Daises Grade: A

I tuned into the second episode of Life and it’s still good. I like it, I’m going to add it to my DVR list and hope it doesn’t get cancelled. Life is smarter and quirkier than all those Law & Order shows (that I always find myself watching for some reason) where you can see the plot twists coming from six miles away. I like it, I hope it is able to hang in there.

I believe full epsidoes of both Pushing Daises and Life are available online if you click on the links above.

Pushing Daises cast above.

Heroes Episode 2 update…

October 3, 2007 in superheroes, television reviews | 2 comments

So it’s getting better. We got to see some cool stuff (mostly Peter being a badass) and some interesting plotlines are emerging.

[Mild Spoilers]

The Good: Seeing Peter doing some awesome superhero stuff in a “fighting scenario”. The fact that the writers/creators do seem to actually have a few interesting plot lines up their sleeves for Hiro’s yawn inducing Kensei trip to the past (self healing for the drunken gaijin? didn’t see that one coming). Nicki, Micah, & DL are still blissfully absent. I was frustrated to no end last year by “the Haitian” character (if only because he was called only “the Haitian”) but his return was surprisingly interesting and it was cool to see him reuinited with HG.

The Bad: The predictable and repetitive stuff going on with Hiro in the past…it was better than last episode but it is still really rough and slow. The super annoying and creepy “boy that will obviously be Claire’s love interest this year” peeping in windows and spying on people like a standard issue peeping tom. Claire’s whiney behavior and childish antics, she’s above this. Peter can kick the crap out of three guys, but he can’t take his precious little box of information from one guy? Gimme a break. I concede that he doesn’t have much control right now, but the writer’s can’t just decide to make him a badass one minute and a pussycat the next because it suits their needs.

The Ugly: We still have to endure those bad Irish accents (some better than others – Caitlin’s was pretty good). The twins are muy annoying. Why are all the women characters so whiny lately? The frustrating thing is that i like the twins power, or what we know of it, it’s an interesting idea that one twin can in effect “bring the other one down” from her killing sprees and that they have to stay together to prevent deaths, but so far it is not interesting to watch and the writers have given us no reason to like or relate to these characters. Also, twins, notoriously in comics and SF etc., have similar powers or their powers work in synch or augment eachother, so it’s not like this is ground breaking stuff…I’m going to need a little more here.

Overall I give this episode a C+/B- and I am hopeful that the grade will continue to get better (although we are obviously due an appearance by NMDL – Nicki, Micah, DL – and that will likely only hurt the show’s grade). But here’s to hoping that the superhero bubble doesn’t burst this year…if Heroes can stay smart and interesting…superheroes as a whole can hang on a bit longer to their current pop culture domination and maybe so can publisher/agent interest in my book (please please please…did that sound like begging? Cause it was).

ah Invisible Man Claude…where are you? Please come back and while you’re here kill some of the lame characters who eat up your screentime okay?

the bionic woman? oh, i don’t think so.

September 27, 2007 in hollywood, television reviews | 5 comments

i was excited when i heard that they were doing a re-make of The Bionic Woman…i mean you would have to actually TRY REALLY REALLY HARD to make that lame and stupid…it’s the Bionic Woman for cyring out loud. yeah. right.

these people apparently tried REALLY REALLY HARD.

i cannot believe how bad this show is. the writing is terrible and cliched and the acting is just the most wooden and flat out bad acting i have seen…well maybe not ever…but certainly in a long time. also, while i blame this mostly on the writing and the acting something has to be said for the fact that there is not one interesting character in the whole show (except the ex-bionic woman played by Katee Sackhoff) and the relationships and chemistry are respectively, totally unbelieveable and totally non-existant.

a reason that i thought it would be fun to see a retelling of the Bionic Woman is obviously because our effects technology is so much better these days, but these effects sucked. i mean they were just awful…the “super fast running” being the worst of it. i admit that i’m not a fan of CGI i think it often looks fake and out of place, but some films and television shows dealing with superpowers or “enhanced humans” have found ways to use it to their advantage (X-Men and even better – X2; Heroes mostly does an excellent job, etc.) but this was just bad decision after bad decision on the CGI.

back to the wooden acting…Michelle Ryan was absolutely the worst part of this show i’m sorry to say. the writing and story certainly wasn’t doing her any favors, but she lacked the charisma and acting chops to make it better than it was. there are many actors out there that manage to turn crap into watchable stuff because they are skilled, not so here, she was unbearable to watch, and surrounded by almost as unbearable performances. the relationship between she and her boyfriend was downright laughable.

i’m sad to say that this episode was credited to a woman writer. i suspect with all the drama and rumors related to this show she got a thousand notes and changes, so perhaps it’s not her fault, but i was originally happy to see a woman writing the show, as i thought that would help the handling of some of the larger feminist issues but sometimes i guess it just doesn’t matter.

there was this moment last night while watching Bionic Woman when i stopped making sarcastic comments and sighing loudly and thought “maybe i’m totally off base. maybe i’ve become a complete pretensious snob that can’t see the forest for the trees…maybe this is actually not bad and i just can’t tell.” then i watched a little bit of the show following it, Life, which was pretty damn good, strong acting, strong writing…and as i was watching it i realized, “no. i know exactly what i’m seeing and this show Life is a perfect example of how good television can be (in a pilot even) and The Bionic Woman is a perfect example of everything being done wrong”. it’s good to realize you’re not crazy. thank you Life for cementing that fact, and i’ll be tuning in to you Life next week – Wednesday at 10pm NBC – to see if they can keep it up. interesting stuff.

one last thing about my dissappointment in Bionic Woman. this is such a minefield for cool stuff that has deeper meanings to go on. the idea of two cyborg women, one that is making herself more machine by the day so she has to be less “woman” and one who wishes she was back to being more “woman”. the feminist issues here are interesting and the idea of the badass cyborg (that is more cyborg than our lead character) sometimes getting her ass handed to her by a cyborg that’s got more “soul” left is all interesting stuff. i can tell from this first epsiode though, they won’t begin to scratch the surface of this and if they do, they’ll screw it up. and with crappy shows like this out there, the superhero bubble will burst all the more quickly, and so interest in my “hard to market” novel will wither and die.

that’s right, in the end, it’s all about me.

charisma-less Bionic Woman Michelle Ryan, above.

cast of nbc’s Life, above.

tell me you love me…or just tell me something.

September 26, 2007 in big love, hbo, television reviews | Permalink

so i finally got around to watching my first episode of Tell Me You Love Me last night. it was okay. i liked it, but i wasn’t blown away – it certainly was no Big Love, but it was also miles better than Entourage, so take that as you will.

my biggest problem with Tell Me was not *gasp* the sex or *double gasp* the male nudity, but the therapy sessions.

last year at this time I doubt this would have occured to me, but having been in couples therapy this past year, i have a better perspective on it. it’s not that the counseling sessions seemed fake necessarily, it’s just that Tell Me has made me understand that i don’t (and likely never will) have the kind of money these “people” have, because couples counseling is extremely expensive. so if you’re going to go in there and lie…then you’re basically flushing lots and lots of money down the drain. i was an open book in couples counseling…how else was i going to justify $600/month that i don’t have? and that’s a reduced rate!

very frustrating to watch.

that said, i’ve got the rest of the episodes tivo’d and i’ll be giving it a shot. there were some things i really liked and that were worth coming back for. one thing i’m ashamed to admit i don’t want to come back for? the old people sex. i know i know, i’m a horrible person, but that was just really difficult to watch. i applaud the creators/writers/directors for trying to tell the story of couples at all different places in their lives, and i don’t necessarily want it to stop as i think it’s the right thing to do, just know that i will be fast forwarding through all those scenes.

these two people (foreground) didn’t say one true thing in their whole therapy session…which is like tearing up $200 and sprinkling it on your breakfast cereal and eating every last bitter bite.

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