I'm not sure what to make of this one: Daily Variety is reporting that this coming Friday's episode of Inconceivable won't be airing and will instead be replaced by a rerun of an episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent. I didn't get around to reviewing the new show starring Ming-Na and now it looks as if I might not get the chance. Too bad, so sad, but scarcely surprising.
Tuesday, October 04, 2005
Change Isn't Always A Bad Thing
When is a new show not a new show? When it's an old show that is so radically changed that it's not recognizable as the same show that it was previously. Frankly it rarely works but when it does it at least partially rejuvenates a show.
Some of you might remember Murder One. It was an example of a show that radically changed from one season to the next. The series had a central conceit in it's first season - one murder case was the central feature of the show from start to finish - and starred Daniel Benzali as brilliant lawyer Teddy Hoffman. It did well enough for ABC to renew it but heavily modified. Benzali was replaced by Anthony LaPaglia as lawyer Jimmy Wyler, and instead of dealing with a single murder case for the entire season the producers were going to do three or four murders in a season. I don't think that the show with the new format lasted beyond the first murder. Another example was Martial Law. The first season was brilliant with one of the few sour notes being the inclusion of Arsenio Hall as a cast member. It didn't get good ratings and the show was handed over to Lee Goldberg and William Rabkin, who were posting on rec.arts.tv at the time. The gutted the show - tossed out every actor except Sammo Hung, Kelly Hu and Arsenio Hall - and created a sort of mytharc which was so incredibly stupid that even devoted fans were sickened. I swear that if Rabkin and/or Goldberg were standing in front of me at the time I'd have gotten as many good shots as I could and I have the feeling a lot of fans would have done the same thing. As an example of a show that has done it right, I would submit that changing the focus of The West Wing from the Bartlett Presidency to the campaign first for the Democratic nomination and then the Santos vs. Vinnick election has if not rejuvenated the show's ratings then at least making it more interesting to watch (ratings in the Sunday timeslot have fallen to the levels of the now departed American Dreams - I think it would do better than E-Ring or Martha Stewart's Apprentice on Wednesday, but then it's a better show than either).
So what brought this on? Well on Sunday night I watched the "second" first episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent. The show's fifth season debut last week featuring Vincent D'Onofrio and Kathryn Erbe as Detectives Goren and Eames. They've been the focus of the series since the beginning - in fact more than any of the other Law and Order series this show has focused on "just" the two leads and particularly on Goren. The original series was split between the two lead detectives and the prosecutors, while Law & Order: Special Victims Unit always had four detectives working the cases. However last season issues surrounding D'Onofrio's health arose (caused by the results of the presidential elections if you were foolish enough to believe the New York Post on this story) and the decision was made to add a second detective team - Detective Mike Logan played by Chris Noth and Detective Carolyn Barak - played by Chris Noth and Annabella Sciorra for half of the episodes this season in order to give D'Onofrio some time off. What began as an effort to help the series star appears as though it will also help the series.
The dynamic in the Logan and Barak episodes of Law & Order: Criminal Intent is far different than that of the Goren and Eames team. The show belongs to D'Onofrio when he's on screen; Erbe's Detective Eames often seems like an intelligent, level headed Watson to D'Onofrio's brilliant but borderline manic Goren. To stretch the Sherlock Holmes analogy a bit further, Goren has his own personal Moriarty (Professor, not Michael) in the form of Olivia D'Abo's Nicole Wallace. By contrast, Chris Noth's Mike Logan isn't as smart as his new partner but our focus is quite clearly supposed to be on him. For one thing we know him thanks to the fact that the character was part of the original Law & Order series for the first five years of its existence. We know him and we like him. For another thing, while Barak is generally smarter than Logan it isn't the sort of overwhelming brilliance that Goren has over Eames. Barak and Logan's strengths compliment each other. Logan spotted things that Barak missed, and Barak's intelligence allowed them to gain an increased understanding of the crooks. In the climax of Sunday night's episode Barak understood how to work the interrogation of the suspect so that he would implicate his partner (his mother) in a string of murderous jewelry store robberies, but it took Logan and Barak working together to actually break him.
The net result of the addition of Noth and Sciorra to Law & Order: Criminal Intent has added a new dimension to the show. There is a definite contrast between the two teams. Noth in particular is in an interesting situation in that, for the first time Mike Logan is the central figure for his episodes of the show. On Law & Order, Logan was never the central figure. The character was always the junior partner - first to George Dzundza's Max Greevey, then to Paul Sorvino's Phil Cerreta, and finally to Jerry Orbach's Lennie Briscoe - and was usually part of the main action for only about half an hour (less commercials). Inevitably we're going to learn more about Logan. Also inevitably people are going to prefer one team to another, and I can't see that this is necessarily a bad thing. I'm willing to bet that there will be people who don't like D'Onofrio's character (labelled by some as "Detective Twitchy") who are going to watch the show at least part of the time now that Noth has been added to the cast. I don't think that this can't help but do something positive for the show's ratings even when it is going against Desperate Housewives. The show was already worth watching (in my view at least - it's the only show in the Law & Order franchise that I watch) but the new characters may help the show's ratings at least a little. Certainly Sunday night's ratings - which actually saw an increase from 8.3/11 the premiere last week to 9.1/13 for the first Mike Logan episode - indicates that something is at work here.
Some of you might remember Murder One. It was an example of a show that radically changed from one season to the next. The series had a central conceit in it's first season - one murder case was the central feature of the show from start to finish - and starred Daniel Benzali as brilliant lawyer Teddy Hoffman. It did well enough for ABC to renew it but heavily modified. Benzali was replaced by Anthony LaPaglia as lawyer Jimmy Wyler, and instead of dealing with a single murder case for the entire season the producers were going to do three or four murders in a season. I don't think that the show with the new format lasted beyond the first murder. Another example was Martial Law. The first season was brilliant with one of the few sour notes being the inclusion of Arsenio Hall as a cast member. It didn't get good ratings and the show was handed over to Lee Goldberg and William Rabkin, who were posting on rec.arts.tv at the time. The gutted the show - tossed out every actor except Sammo Hung, Kelly Hu and Arsenio Hall - and created a sort of mytharc which was so incredibly stupid that even devoted fans were sickened. I swear that if Rabkin and/or Goldberg were standing in front of me at the time I'd have gotten as many good shots as I could and I have the feeling a lot of fans would have done the same thing. As an example of a show that has done it right, I would submit that changing the focus of The West Wing from the Bartlett Presidency to the campaign first for the Democratic nomination and then the Santos vs. Vinnick election has if not rejuvenated the show's ratings then at least making it more interesting to watch (ratings in the Sunday timeslot have fallen to the levels of the now departed American Dreams - I think it would do better than E-Ring or Martha Stewart's Apprentice on Wednesday, but then it's a better show than either).
So what brought this on? Well on Sunday night I watched the "second" first episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent. The show's fifth season debut last week featuring Vincent D'Onofrio and Kathryn Erbe as Detectives Goren and Eames. They've been the focus of the series since the beginning - in fact more than any of the other Law and Order series this show has focused on "just" the two leads and particularly on Goren. The original series was split between the two lead detectives and the prosecutors, while Law & Order: Special Victims Unit always had four detectives working the cases. However last season issues surrounding D'Onofrio's health arose (caused by the results of the presidential elections if you were foolish enough to believe the New York Post on this story) and the decision was made to add a second detective team - Detective Mike Logan played by Chris Noth and Detective Carolyn Barak - played by Chris Noth and Annabella Sciorra for half of the episodes this season in order to give D'Onofrio some time off. What began as an effort to help the series star appears as though it will also help the series.
The dynamic in the Logan and Barak episodes of Law & Order: Criminal Intent is far different than that of the Goren and Eames team. The show belongs to D'Onofrio when he's on screen; Erbe's Detective Eames often seems like an intelligent, level headed Watson to D'Onofrio's brilliant but borderline manic Goren. To stretch the Sherlock Holmes analogy a bit further, Goren has his own personal Moriarty (Professor, not Michael) in the form of Olivia D'Abo's Nicole Wallace. By contrast, Chris Noth's Mike Logan isn't as smart as his new partner but our focus is quite clearly supposed to be on him. For one thing we know him thanks to the fact that the character was part of the original Law & Order series for the first five years of its existence. We know him and we like him. For another thing, while Barak is generally smarter than Logan it isn't the sort of overwhelming brilliance that Goren has over Eames. Barak and Logan's strengths compliment each other. Logan spotted things that Barak missed, and Barak's intelligence allowed them to gain an increased understanding of the crooks. In the climax of Sunday night's episode Barak understood how to work the interrogation of the suspect so that he would implicate his partner (his mother) in a string of murderous jewelry store robberies, but it took Logan and Barak working together to actually break him.
The net result of the addition of Noth and Sciorra to Law & Order: Criminal Intent has added a new dimension to the show. There is a definite contrast between the two teams. Noth in particular is in an interesting situation in that, for the first time Mike Logan is the central figure for his episodes of the show. On Law & Order, Logan was never the central figure. The character was always the junior partner - first to George Dzundza's Max Greevey, then to Paul Sorvino's Phil Cerreta, and finally to Jerry Orbach's Lennie Briscoe - and was usually part of the main action for only about half an hour (less commercials). Inevitably we're going to learn more about Logan. Also inevitably people are going to prefer one team to another, and I can't see that this is necessarily a bad thing. I'm willing to bet that there will be people who don't like D'Onofrio's character (labelled by some as "Detective Twitchy") who are going to watch the show at least part of the time now that Noth has been added to the cast. I don't think that this can't help but do something positive for the show's ratings even when it is going against Desperate Housewives. The show was already worth watching (in my view at least - it's the only show in the Law & Order franchise that I watch) but the new characters may help the show's ratings at least a little. Certainly Sunday night's ratings - which actually saw an increase from 8.3/11 the premiere last week to 9.1/13 for the first Mike Logan episode - indicates that something is at work here.
Sunday, October 02, 2005
Heavenly
I don't have that much interest in Astronomy, but a story came over the wires today that at the very least gave me a bit of a chuckle. When I looked into it a little more it revealed something a bit more interesting. And in a peripheral sort of way it relates to television.
Most of us know the nine planets: the four inner terrestrial planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars), the four gas giants (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune) and the trans-Neptunian planet with the odd orbit - Pluto. Pluto even has a moon named Charon. Astronomers don't like Pluto - it's small, it's lumpy, it doesn't orbit like the rest and worst of all it is essentially a big lump of smelly ice (frozen methane plus ammonia). But it is considered a planet and try as they might people refuse to let the astronomers demote it to the status of an asteroid.
Beyond Pluto there are other astronomical bodies. Among them are "Santa", and "Easterbunny" (I swear I'm not making these names up). Santa (so-called because it was discovered on December 28) is bigger than Pluto and has it's own moon, but is cigar shaped and tumbles end over end. But the big one is Xena and object two or three times the size of Pluto. People are already calling it the Tenth Planet, and although Xena is currently only a nickname (the real designation is 2003 UB313), the longer it keeps being referred to by that name the more likely that name is going to take with the public so that if the Astronomical Union eventually decides that it is a planet and needs a "proper" name (some Greco-Roman god of course) it will be awfully hard for them to make that name stick for a while. Well into the 19th Century some people in Britain still referred to Uranus as Georgium Sidus (George's Star - named for King George III by William Herschel). It was anounced today that Xena has a moon. For now at least it's being called Gabrielle.
I always knew they had heavenly bodies - now they are heavenly bodies.
Saturday, October 01, 2005
Poll Question - What Network Produces The Most Shows You "Must See"?
Following up on last week's question, this week's question in on the shows that air originally on U.S. networks. What network produces the most shows you're watching?
The question is worded a little circuitously for a reason. Canadians might not see a lot of their favourite American shows on the originating networks. In most parts of the country it is impossible to get a UPN or WB station without either digital cable or a satellite dish - and frequently an expensive premium movie package - but we can see a lot of shows (mainly WB shows) on other Canadian channels. Smallville for example airs on the CHUM Group's A-Channels in Ontario and BC and on their cable station Space. Also, it used to be - and it may still be the case - that there are areas of the U.S. that aren't officially served by the "weblets" which get UPN or WB shows on stations of another network. Thus, while the Fox Network doesn't produce most of the shows it airs, I am using the word "produce" to encompass all of the shows the network airs.
As usual comments are welcome.
The question is worded a little circuitously for a reason. Canadians might not see a lot of their favourite American shows on the originating networks. In most parts of the country it is impossible to get a UPN or WB station without either digital cable or a satellite dish - and frequently an expensive premium movie package - but we can see a lot of shows (mainly WB shows) on other Canadian channels. Smallville for example airs on the CHUM Group's A-Channels in Ontario and BC and on their cable station Space. Also, it used to be - and it may still be the case - that there are areas of the U.S. that aren't officially served by the "weblets" which get UPN or WB shows on stations of another network. Thus, while the Fox Network doesn't produce most of the shows it airs, I am using the word "produce" to encompass all of the shows the network airs.
As usual comments are welcome.
Poll Results - What Night Has The Most Shows You "Must See"
Well we have an answer and it's pretty much what I expected even with the small sample size. Only nine people voted but that probably has a lot to do with the fact that I've been too busy (or otherwise engaged) to use Blog Explosion this week - it really does build up the readership and hence the number of people voting in the polls.
As I said, nine people voted. Monday, Wednesday and Friday were all tied for last place with no votes. Sunday had one vote or 11.1% of the total. Tuesday had three votes or 33.3% of the total and Thursday had a total of five votes, or 55.6% of the total. (Saturday wasn't included in the poll of course since only Fox airs much original programming on Saturday nights.)
It's pretty much as I expected. Even with a late feed of five of the six American networks and PBS (the one missing a late feed is UPN) I find myself having taping more shows on Thursday nights than any other, and it's pretty much across all timeslots. The first hour on Thursday has Everybody Hates Chris, Survivor, and Smallville; the second hour has CSI, The Apprentice, and Reunion as well as Nightstalker (which I missed trying this week thanks to babysitting my nephew). The only week hour - from my perspective anyway - is the third hour which "only" has Without A Trace. By comparison Tuesday has a busy second hour - House, Amazing Race, and for now at least Commander-in-Chief - but the first hour is relatively sane with NCIS and Bones and it gets lighter once American Idol starts. I might watch Close To Home in the third hour but I don't know at the moment. Nothing else in that hour really grabs me the way NYPD Blue did. Sunday is manageable - Cold Case in the first hour then Desperate Housewives and Grey's Anatomy followed by the NBC lineup via the late feed.
New poll up in the morning. This time the topic will be broadcast networks.
As I said, nine people voted. Monday, Wednesday and Friday were all tied for last place with no votes. Sunday had one vote or 11.1% of the total. Tuesday had three votes or 33.3% of the total and Thursday had a total of five votes, or 55.6% of the total. (Saturday wasn't included in the poll of course since only Fox airs much original programming on Saturday nights.)
It's pretty much as I expected. Even with a late feed of five of the six American networks and PBS (the one missing a late feed is UPN) I find myself having taping more shows on Thursday nights than any other, and it's pretty much across all timeslots. The first hour on Thursday has Everybody Hates Chris, Survivor, and Smallville; the second hour has CSI, The Apprentice, and Reunion as well as Nightstalker (which I missed trying this week thanks to babysitting my nephew). The only week hour - from my perspective anyway - is the third hour which "only" has Without A Trace. By comparison Tuesday has a busy second hour - House, Amazing Race, and for now at least Commander-in-Chief - but the first hour is relatively sane with NCIS and Bones and it gets lighter once American Idol starts. I might watch Close To Home in the third hour but I don't know at the moment. Nothing else in that hour really grabs me the way NYPD Blue did. Sunday is manageable - Cold Case in the first hour then Desperate Housewives and Grey's Anatomy followed by the NBC lineup via the late feed.
New poll up in the morning. This time the topic will be broadcast networks.
Friday, September 30, 2005
TV On DVD - September 27,2005 (edition)
I get the feeling that this particular post has been ill-fated from the start. On Tuesday I hit my head and then lost all of my work. Wednesday I had the second part of a two day headache and got hardly anything done. Thursday I managed to get quite a bit done - until I got a call from my brother asking me to look after my nephew while Greg worked overtime for a few hours. That few hours turned into about seven hours, much of it spent watching the same Thomas The Tank Engine video. The horror, the horror!
The Amazing Race: The First Season
- For the hard core Amazing Race fan, Season 1 is the benchmark by which later seasons of the show are denigrated (the hard core really hate this season's "Family Edition" because it's got some kids on it and isn't travelling around the world or apparently even leaving North America). They feel that the personalities were bigger, the game cleaner, and the clues "clue-ier". I can't say I entirely disagree on some of that but there were some kinks that needed to be worked out of the game. It is not a good thing when two of the last four teams are a day behind the first two teams or when the third place team wakes up in Alaska to find out that the Race is over. Still it's an excellent season to start with.
Are You Being Served? Christmas
- The British have a Christmas tradition called "panto" which isn't pantomime but which takes a story and tells it as almost a parody. This DVD has the four Are You Being Served? Christmas episodes which usually end up with the staff performing a "panto", complete with songs and costumes, for one of the Messrs. Grace. These are actually some of the show's most enjoyable episodes.
Beverly Hillbillies, Vol. 1: Ultimate Collection
- I'm not a huge fan of the way that the DVD release of The Beverly Hillbillies is being handled, any more than I'm a fan of the way that the release of Petticoat Junction was handled. There are some nice extras here including an introduction by Linda Kaye Henning who was not only Paul Henning's daughter but provided the voice of Jethro's twin sister Jethrine (the face and body were all Max Baer though). There are 26 episodes in the set and most seem to come from the first season (although the listed times seem a bit off in some cases), which is at least better than what happened with the Petticoat Junctionset. However none of the episodes has a commentary track.
TV Favorites: Cheyenne
- Three episodes from the legendary series featuring Clint Walker. I'm trying to figure out what Warner Home Video is trying with these "TV Favorites" packages. My suspicion is that they're trying to determine which series it makes sense to release in season sets. For the most part the Warner releases in other areas are worthwhile and for the price it might be an idea to pick one of these up if you're interested in the material.
TV Favorites: Chico and the Man
- Another set from the TV Favorites series, this time from the comedy series featuring Freddy Prinze and Jack Albertson. The episodes on this DVD were all taken from before Prinze's suicide and while Prinze is the nominal star, watching Albertson and series regular Scatman Crothers work is, for me at least, the real joy.
Corner Gas: The Complete Second Season
- The best comedy in North America that's not eligible for the Emmys. While Corner Gas reminds some people of Seinfeld it always strikes me as being closer to Northern Exposure with perhaps a touch of Green Acres - a town full of quirky personalities and a person from the big city who doesn't really fit in. Just don't mention Wullerton (ptui!)
Creature Comforts: The Complete First Season
- Creature Comforts is a rather interesting concept from Aardman, the people behind the Wallace & Grommit films as well as films like Chicken Run. The "Great British Public" is credited as providing the voices for the show. What they do is to interview people about various things, and then take the interviews and create an animal in claymation which suit the interviews. As an example a man talking about his work and how it wasn't entirely pleasant but need to be done (he worked in a mortuary) was given to a maggot. Definitely an interesting concept.
Dark Shadows: DVD Collection 20
- More episodes of Dark Shadows being shipped out to the fans. How many more episodes are there anyway?
Dr. 90210: The Complete First Season
- A reality series about plastic surgeons in Hollywood, a town where - as the tag line on the DVD cover says - "Everyone accepts plastic." Okay.
Due South: The Final Season
- One of my favourite series comes to a close in this set. The show's production history is a bit odd. The first two seasons were produced by Alliance-Atlantis for CBS and CTV in partnership. When CBS cancelled the show several things happened. CTV decided to go it alone but foreign sales were strong enough that the BBC and a German network became partners in funding the production. At about this time Paul Gross replace Paul Haggis as show-runner and head writer. CTV shot 26 episodes but released 13 episodes a year for two years. Not everyone followed that procedure - TNT which bought the series for syndication in the US actually showed all 26 episodes at once, before the fourth season was released in Canada. There are some good episodes here including one episode which was initially intended to be a musical based on Romeo and Juliet (the music couldn't be completed in time), one in which Frasier meets a half-sister he never knew he had, and of course the season finale which "revealed" the fate of the major characters. A truly great series.
TV Favorites: The Dukes of Hazzard
- Here's what I don't get: if the Television Favorites series is meant to test the market for boxed sets of old series, why are they releasing episodes of The Dukes Of Hazard, a show which is already being released in season sets?
TV Favorites: The F Troop
- For some reason F-Troop is a show which left an impression on me despite the fact that as far as I can recall it was only seen here for about one year. The truth is that when I think of Ken Berry or Forrest Tucker, this is the show I think of. A single disk with six half-hour episodes. Well the price is right at least.
Family Guy Presents Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story
- Eighty minutes of all new never before seen material from The Family Guy focussing on everybody's favourite baby homicidal megalomaniac, Stewie Griffin. Oh did I mention that it was also uncensored. Actually it comes with a censored and an uncensored soundtrack on the same disk, as well as commentaries from Seth McFarlane, the cast and the writers.
Gilmore Girls: The Complete Fourth Season
- I rarely watch The Gilmore Girls, although I have enjoyed every episode that I've seen. There's a wit to the conversation that you don't often see and the mother daughter relationship is enjoyable. The fourth season sends Rory off to Yale but somehow she keeps coming back home at any convenient opportunity.
Hogan's Heroes: The Complete Second Season
- The second season DVD of this series contains at least one commentary track from Sigrid Valdis. She came onto the series in the second season as Klink's secretary Hilda to replace Cynthia Lynn (who played Helga) who left the show when she decided to break off her affair with series star Bob Crane. Valdis herself became involved with Crane and eventually married him. The show itself? Not much change from season one although they seemed to react a bit to the whole controversy about setting a comedy in a POW Camp.
Stephen King Presents Kingdom Hospital: Making the Rounds
- When the first two disk set of this low-rated series came out I questioned why it was being released, given that the series only ran 13 episodes and has already had a complete series DVD set available. I'm still wondering.
Law and Order: Special Victims Unit - The Second Year 2000-2001
- Law & Order: Special Victims Unit isn't a show that I've spent a lot of time watching. Actually I've never watched it. There were a couple of changes in the second season, most notably being the addition of Ice-T in the role of Detective Odafin 'Fin' Tutuola. Still didn't get me to watch it but then I pretty much gave up on Law & Order years ago, the exception being the Criminal Intent show because of Vincent D'Onofiro.
Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp: From Ellsworth to Tombstone
- Not sure what exactly is on this. It doesn't seem to be a season set, but this show ran from 1955 to 1961 - a total of 266 episodes - so I don't know what episodes they're picking and choosing and I don't want to make assumptions. One of the legendary series, it was probably the first of the adult westerns on Television.
TV Favorites: Maverick
- Maverick is one of my strongest childhood memories. I remember Jack Kelly, Roger Moore and of course James Garner (but not Robert Colvert as Brent Maverick - maybe CFQC stopped showing the series before he arrived). There are three hour long episodes from the second and third seasons on this DVD, including the episode in which Garner plays the Maverick Brothers father (and Jack Kelly plays "Uncle Bentley" as well as Bart. I beg of you Warner Home Video - put this series out in season sets!!!!!
Quads, Vol. 2
- The series that looks at physical handicaps in a way that skewers political correctness with outrageous humour. Really has to be seen to be believed.
Rugrats: Tales From the Crib - Snow White
- A direct to DVD release, this is a Rugrats take on Snow White with Angelica - of course - as the Wicked Queen. There are also a couple of stand alone episodes on the disk.
Sigmund and the Sea Monsters
- Okay, I have to confess ignorance and admit that until I saw this on the TV on DVD list, I had never even heard of this Sid and Marty Krofft product.
SpongeBob SquarePants: The Complete Third Season
- Who lives in a pineapple under the sea? A cartoon character with a bipolar marketing plan. On the one hand the people selling SpongeBob SquarePants are selling single DVDs with a few episodes with a tenuous connection, and on the other hand they're selling complete season sets with limited special features. Hey don't get me wrong, I don't think it's a bad marketing plan, just that it's not focused in the way that marketing for videos for adults often is. Then again there is the Dukes Of Hazard in the TV Favorites line.
Star Trek Enterprise: The Complete Third Season
- The third season of Star Trek: Enterprise was in many way the season where the series turned a corner and actually started to get better. The introduction of the Xindi menace with a pre-emptive strike on Earth wasn't a bad starting point, but the early episodes in the season-long Xindi arc weren't that promising. As the season progressed and Manny Cotto became a major figure behind the scenes of the show it improved measurably. Unfortunately viewership and UPN's confidence in the show didn't so that the fourth season face the menaces of reduced budgets, and a deadly timeslot, but still managed to be even better than the third season - to the point where fans were actually sad and angry to see the series end.
Tales of the Unexpected Set 3
- I remember seeing some of these stories hosted first by Roald Dahl - many of whose stories were adapted for it - and then by John Houseman when they aired on the CBC. Unfortunately they were never on at a consistent time. Stylish tales of murder and secrets, usually with a twist, but done in a British manner. Very enjoyable.
Vicar of Dibley: 10th Anniversary Specials
- The fish out of water story, in which a seemingly normal person finds herself in a town full of loonies (at least from the normal person's perspective) is fairly common. In fact this week has the Corner Gas set which could be described in just those terms. The Vicar of Dibley gave that a twist. Dawn French as Reverend Geraldine Granger is the "normal" person (well as normal as any Dawn French character) but she seems to have fully settled into her little community of loonies. This is a single disk with two hour long specials done for the series' tenth anniversary in 2004. There's also a mini-episode done for the British Comic Relief involving the Antiques Roadshow (the British one - aka the good one).
X-Files: Mythology Collection, Vol. 3 - Colonization
- This is the third of fourth box sets dealing with the X-Files mytharc. These come from seasons 5 through 8 and span the transition between Agent Mulder and Agent John Doggett. The alien plan is becoming clear and it leads to Mulder's disappearance. This whole series of DVD focussing on the mythology is a brilliant idea.
The Amazing Race: The First Season
- For the hard core Amazing Race fan, Season 1 is the benchmark by which later seasons of the show are denigrated (the hard core really hate this season's "Family Edition" because it's got some kids on it and isn't travelling around the world or apparently even leaving North America). They feel that the personalities were bigger, the game cleaner, and the clues "clue-ier". I can't say I entirely disagree on some of that but there were some kinks that needed to be worked out of the game. It is not a good thing when two of the last four teams are a day behind the first two teams or when the third place team wakes up in Alaska to find out that the Race is over. Still it's an excellent season to start with.
Are You Being Served? Christmas
- The British have a Christmas tradition called "panto" which isn't pantomime but which takes a story and tells it as almost a parody. This DVD has the four Are You Being Served? Christmas episodes which usually end up with the staff performing a "panto", complete with songs and costumes, for one of the Messrs. Grace. These are actually some of the show's most enjoyable episodes.
Beverly Hillbillies, Vol. 1: Ultimate Collection
- I'm not a huge fan of the way that the DVD release of The Beverly Hillbillies is being handled, any more than I'm a fan of the way that the release of Petticoat Junction was handled. There are some nice extras here including an introduction by Linda Kaye Henning who was not only Paul Henning's daughter but provided the voice of Jethro's twin sister Jethrine (the face and body were all Max Baer though). There are 26 episodes in the set and most seem to come from the first season (although the listed times seem a bit off in some cases), which is at least better than what happened with the Petticoat Junctionset. However none of the episodes has a commentary track.
TV Favorites: Cheyenne
- Three episodes from the legendary series featuring Clint Walker. I'm trying to figure out what Warner Home Video is trying with these "TV Favorites" packages. My suspicion is that they're trying to determine which series it makes sense to release in season sets. For the most part the Warner releases in other areas are worthwhile and for the price it might be an idea to pick one of these up if you're interested in the material.
TV Favorites: Chico and the Man
- Another set from the TV Favorites series, this time from the comedy series featuring Freddy Prinze and Jack Albertson. The episodes on this DVD were all taken from before Prinze's suicide and while Prinze is the nominal star, watching Albertson and series regular Scatman Crothers work is, for me at least, the real joy.
Corner Gas: The Complete Second Season
- The best comedy in North America that's not eligible for the Emmys. While Corner Gas reminds some people of Seinfeld it always strikes me as being closer to Northern Exposure with perhaps a touch of Green Acres - a town full of quirky personalities and a person from the big city who doesn't really fit in. Just don't mention Wullerton (ptui!)
Creature Comforts: The Complete First Season
- Creature Comforts is a rather interesting concept from Aardman, the people behind the Wallace & Grommit films as well as films like Chicken Run. The "Great British Public" is credited as providing the voices for the show. What they do is to interview people about various things, and then take the interviews and create an animal in claymation which suit the interviews. As an example a man talking about his work and how it wasn't entirely pleasant but need to be done (he worked in a mortuary) was given to a maggot. Definitely an interesting concept.
Dark Shadows: DVD Collection 20
- More episodes of Dark Shadows being shipped out to the fans. How many more episodes are there anyway?
Dr. 90210: The Complete First Season
- A reality series about plastic surgeons in Hollywood, a town where - as the tag line on the DVD cover says - "Everyone accepts plastic." Okay.
Due South: The Final Season
- One of my favourite series comes to a close in this set. The show's production history is a bit odd. The first two seasons were produced by Alliance-Atlantis for CBS and CTV in partnership. When CBS cancelled the show several things happened. CTV decided to go it alone but foreign sales were strong enough that the BBC and a German network became partners in funding the production. At about this time Paul Gross replace Paul Haggis as show-runner and head writer. CTV shot 26 episodes but released 13 episodes a year for two years. Not everyone followed that procedure - TNT which bought the series for syndication in the US actually showed all 26 episodes at once, before the fourth season was released in Canada. There are some good episodes here including one episode which was initially intended to be a musical based on Romeo and Juliet (the music couldn't be completed in time), one in which Frasier meets a half-sister he never knew he had, and of course the season finale which "revealed" the fate of the major characters. A truly great series.
TV Favorites: The Dukes of Hazzard
- Here's what I don't get: if the Television Favorites series is meant to test the market for boxed sets of old series, why are they releasing episodes of The Dukes Of Hazard, a show which is already being released in season sets?
TV Favorites: The F Troop
- For some reason F-Troop is a show which left an impression on me despite the fact that as far as I can recall it was only seen here for about one year. The truth is that when I think of Ken Berry or Forrest Tucker, this is the show I think of. A single disk with six half-hour episodes. Well the price is right at least.
Family Guy Presents Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story
- Eighty minutes of all new never before seen material from The Family Guy focussing on everybody's favourite baby homicidal megalomaniac, Stewie Griffin. Oh did I mention that it was also uncensored. Actually it comes with a censored and an uncensored soundtrack on the same disk, as well as commentaries from Seth McFarlane, the cast and the writers.
Gilmore Girls: The Complete Fourth Season
- I rarely watch The Gilmore Girls, although I have enjoyed every episode that I've seen. There's a wit to the conversation that you don't often see and the mother daughter relationship is enjoyable. The fourth season sends Rory off to Yale but somehow she keeps coming back home at any convenient opportunity.
Hogan's Heroes: The Complete Second Season
- The second season DVD of this series contains at least one commentary track from Sigrid Valdis. She came onto the series in the second season as Klink's secretary Hilda to replace Cynthia Lynn (who played Helga) who left the show when she decided to break off her affair with series star Bob Crane. Valdis herself became involved with Crane and eventually married him. The show itself? Not much change from season one although they seemed to react a bit to the whole controversy about setting a comedy in a POW Camp.
Stephen King Presents Kingdom Hospital: Making the Rounds
- When the first two disk set of this low-rated series came out I questioned why it was being released, given that the series only ran 13 episodes and has already had a complete series DVD set available. I'm still wondering.
Law and Order: Special Victims Unit - The Second Year 2000-2001
- Law & Order: Special Victims Unit isn't a show that I've spent a lot of time watching. Actually I've never watched it. There were a couple of changes in the second season, most notably being the addition of Ice-T in the role of Detective Odafin 'Fin' Tutuola. Still didn't get me to watch it but then I pretty much gave up on Law & Order years ago, the exception being the Criminal Intent show because of Vincent D'Onofiro.
Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp: From Ellsworth to Tombstone
- Not sure what exactly is on this. It doesn't seem to be a season set, but this show ran from 1955 to 1961 - a total of 266 episodes - so I don't know what episodes they're picking and choosing and I don't want to make assumptions. One of the legendary series, it was probably the first of the adult westerns on Television.
TV Favorites: Maverick
- Maverick is one of my strongest childhood memories. I remember Jack Kelly, Roger Moore and of course James Garner (but not Robert Colvert as Brent Maverick - maybe CFQC stopped showing the series before he arrived). There are three hour long episodes from the second and third seasons on this DVD, including the episode in which Garner plays the Maverick Brothers father (and Jack Kelly plays "Uncle Bentley" as well as Bart. I beg of you Warner Home Video - put this series out in season sets!!!!!
Quads, Vol. 2
- The series that looks at physical handicaps in a way that skewers political correctness with outrageous humour. Really has to be seen to be believed.
Rugrats: Tales From the Crib - Snow White
- A direct to DVD release, this is a Rugrats take on Snow White with Angelica - of course - as the Wicked Queen. There are also a couple of stand alone episodes on the disk.
Sigmund and the Sea Monsters
- Okay, I have to confess ignorance and admit that until I saw this on the TV on DVD list, I had never even heard of this Sid and Marty Krofft product.
SpongeBob SquarePants: The Complete Third Season
- Who lives in a pineapple under the sea? A cartoon character with a bipolar marketing plan. On the one hand the people selling SpongeBob SquarePants are selling single DVDs with a few episodes with a tenuous connection, and on the other hand they're selling complete season sets with limited special features. Hey don't get me wrong, I don't think it's a bad marketing plan, just that it's not focused in the way that marketing for videos for adults often is. Then again there is the Dukes Of Hazard in the TV Favorites line.
Star Trek Enterprise: The Complete Third Season
- The third season of Star Trek: Enterprise was in many way the season where the series turned a corner and actually started to get better. The introduction of the Xindi menace with a pre-emptive strike on Earth wasn't a bad starting point, but the early episodes in the season-long Xindi arc weren't that promising. As the season progressed and Manny Cotto became a major figure behind the scenes of the show it improved measurably. Unfortunately viewership and UPN's confidence in the show didn't so that the fourth season face the menaces of reduced budgets, and a deadly timeslot, but still managed to be even better than the third season - to the point where fans were actually sad and angry to see the series end.
Tales of the Unexpected Set 3
- I remember seeing some of these stories hosted first by Roald Dahl - many of whose stories were adapted for it - and then by John Houseman when they aired on the CBC. Unfortunately they were never on at a consistent time. Stylish tales of murder and secrets, usually with a twist, but done in a British manner. Very enjoyable.
Vicar of Dibley: 10th Anniversary Specials
- The fish out of water story, in which a seemingly normal person finds herself in a town full of loonies (at least from the normal person's perspective) is fairly common. In fact this week has the Corner Gas set which could be described in just those terms. The Vicar of Dibley gave that a twist. Dawn French as Reverend Geraldine Granger is the "normal" person (well as normal as any Dawn French character) but she seems to have fully settled into her little community of loonies. This is a single disk with two hour long specials done for the series' tenth anniversary in 2004. There's also a mini-episode done for the British Comic Relief involving the Antiques Roadshow (the British one - aka the good one).
X-Files: Mythology Collection, Vol. 3 - Colonization
- This is the third of fourth box sets dealing with the X-Files mytharc. These come from seasons 5 through 8 and span the transition between Agent Mulder and Agent John Doggett. The alien plan is becoming clear and it leads to Mulder's disappearance. This whole series of DVD focussing on the mythology is a brilliant idea.
Thursday, September 29, 2005
18th Skeptic's Circle
The 18th Skeptic's Circle is up at Wolverine Tom's Blog and I was rather surprised - and not a little pleased - to see that something I wrote is included. Surprised because I didn't submit it (I suspect that Orac did). It's the piece I did in an attempt to at least partially debunking something written in The Huffington Post linking Star Trekand Pedophilia. There are other postings in this round of The Skeptic's Circle which I dare say are probably more worthy than my own and definitely well worth reading.
An Off Topic Anecdote
Mark Evanier has a little tale in News From Me about trying to get what he ordered from a fast food restaurant. I think we all have these stories about bucking the robot like mindset of the people behind the counter. Here's mine.
We went to MacDonalds a couple of weeks ago after a morning of trainspotting - my nephew at age 2 1/2 is nuts about trains and my brother knows all the right places to see them - and as usual I am responsible for ordering for my mother and myself. On this particular day I had the Oriental salad but my mother, who isn't a heavy eater wanted a cheeseburger with onions but none of the other stuff they slather on it, fries and a drink. I ordered a cheeseburger Happy Meal (which has everything she wanted plus it's cheaper and there's a toy involved which I though would go to my nephew; it's a rather nice cast figure of Donald Duck and it's now sitting on top of my computer because Brian doesn't like those according to his dad). I told the server that I wanted "a Cheeseburger Happy Meal with nothing on it but onions". Unlike Mark we weren't eating in so it wasn't till we got to my brother's house that we discovered what had happened. The cheeseburger had no cheese on it, just the onions - and a pretty pathetic sprinkling of them at that. Obviously I am too stupid for MacDonalds. I believed that when I said that I wanted a cheeseburger the clear implication was that it would have actual cheese on it. How after all can you have a cheeseburger sans cheese? Back when I was a kid we called that a hamburger with onions, which if I'm not mistaken MacDonalds also sells. Apparently the people at MacDonalds believe that believe that if you say you only want onions on a cheeseburger you mean that you want onions and no cheese.
Last weekend I went to Wendy's instead.
Apologies
I am not having a good week so far and it's only very late Wednesday night. Tuesday morning I managed to cut myself over the left eye in a manner so bizarre and unbelievable that I honestly don't want to talk about it. I've been battling a two day headache - only part of which is related to my banged up head - with limited success. I managed to get about 2/3s of the way through the TV on DVD list and then managed to lose all of my work. I have a couple of shows I want to review but I may not get to either one until next week. Hopefully I'll be able to get back on track over the next couple of days but right now all I want to do is get a longer than average night's sleep.
Tuesday, September 27, 2005
Sometimes They Get It Right
Most of the time the producers of situation comedies don't really push the envelope that much - they've been doing variations of the husband-wife-two-kids-and-a-dog format since Ozzie And Harriet. On rare occasions a new idea will emerge, like a baby alligator incubated by a chicken. If the idea doesn't work it drives others back to the same old ideas, but if it does work others will jump on the bandwagon...and usually produce crap. Sometimes however the imitators produce something that's not too bad. That's what happened with How I Met Your Mother.
The premise of the series is fairly simple. In the year 2030 Ted (played in the future by the voice of Bob Saget) is telling his son and daughter the story of how he met their mother in, as the son puts it "excruciating detail". Back in 2005, Ted is introduced to this gorgeous girl by incredibly obnoxious friend Barney. For Ted, who has to deal with his two best friends - Lilly and Marshall - getting engaged to each other, it is love at first sight. It just gets better as he gets to know her. Unfortunately he makes the error of telling her that he loves her and that derails everything. Still we the audience expect true love to run its inevitable course, with Ted marrying the woman...until the end of the first episode when "Future Ted" tells his kids "And that's how I met your Aunt Robin."
In the episode I watched on Monday night, Ted was still trying to connect with Robin, largely because she and Lilly had become friends. Lilly told Ted a little more than she promised Robin that she would, namely that Robin wanted a sort of casual relationship and that telling her that he loved her had driven her away from Ted. So Ted decided to set up a casual meeting, despite a warning from Barney that it wouldn't happen. He decided to invite her to a party but the night he had set it up for was wrong for her, so he set it for that night. She didn't show up so he told her the party had been held over to the next night and when she didn't show up then he extended it for a third night. When she finally did show up the party was virtually dead (it was a Sunday night) and although Marshall managed to get Robin to the most romantic spot he knew - the apartment building's roof - she hit him with the "let's be friends" line to end the evening.
There were a couple of interesting B-plots in this episode. Lilly, in a fit of post-engagement horniness, was trying to do Marshall at just about any opportunity while, between the sex and the parties Marshall wasn't getting much of a chance to write a 25 page paper for Law School. The other subplot involved Barney finding the girl at the party who didn't know anyone and taking her up to the roof for sex, expecting never to see her again. Then she showed up at the second party... and the third, much to the discomfort of the relationship phobic Barney.
Why do I like this show as much as I do? The first big thing is the casting. Both Cobie Smulders, who plays Robin, and Josh Radnor, who plays Ted, are essentially unknown to TV audiences - Smulders is a former model while Radnor may be most famous for playing Benjamin in the 2002 stage version of The Graduate opposite Kathleen Turner and Alicia Silverstone. The two have a definite attractive quality, to the point where you're really rooting for Ted but can sympathise with Robin. Jason Segel, who plays Marshall is better known, having had a recurring role in Undeclared and a starring role is Freaks and Geeks. He comes across as basically a lovable schlub who has just happened to snag the perfect girl. If this were a typical family sitcom and Marshall and Lilly were fifteen years older with a couple of kids we'd be asking how in the world did he get her and talking about how unrealistic it is, but seeing them as they are when they've recently fallen in love we begin to understand. Of course the big guns in the series are Alyson Hannigan as Lilly and Neil Patrick Harris as Barney. As always Hannigan is wonderful a Lilly. She has a certain innocent sexiness to her as well as a perceptiveness which indicates that she's really in touch with her friends. Barney may well be the role that makes people forget Doogie Howser. He's obnoxious and overbearing with a huge - and undeserved - ego. Lilly describes Barney as a huge dork but he basically doesn't care. The Barney-Lilly dynamic is a fun one to watch, primarily because Lilly sees Barney for what he is, an overgrown teenager who always wears a suit because - "suits are cool" - except when he's playing Laser Tag.
The writing is reasonably good. There are some gimmicks (besides the narration from "Future Ted") such as scenes where Ted imagines what's going to happen as he sets things up or how they've progressed set in metaphorical terms, and of course the ever popular excerpts from flashbacks. Moreover there's a certain wit to the approach in that the characters aren't doing the sort of obvious jokes that you so often hear.
An obvious comparison exists for this show. In fact the Canadian edition of TV Guide stated "We don't dare utter the word 'Friends' but we hop it has staying power." I would like to offer a different assessment of the show. We all remember the fiasco which was the American version of Coupling which was badly cast and attempted to transplant the British scripts for the show into the mouths of the badly cast American actors. I would like to suggest that while NBC made a total mess of Coupling, I would like to suggest that in creating How I Met Your Mother CBS and 20th Century Fox Television have managed to do an American version of Coupling - and do it right - even as they quite rightly avoid slavishly copying it. I certainly like the result and coming from someone who dislikes most sitcoms as much as I do, that says a great deal.
The premise of the series is fairly simple. In the year 2030 Ted (played in the future by the voice of Bob Saget) is telling his son and daughter the story of how he met their mother in, as the son puts it "excruciating detail". Back in 2005, Ted is introduced to this gorgeous girl by incredibly obnoxious friend Barney. For Ted, who has to deal with his two best friends - Lilly and Marshall - getting engaged to each other, it is love at first sight. It just gets better as he gets to know her. Unfortunately he makes the error of telling her that he loves her and that derails everything. Still we the audience expect true love to run its inevitable course, with Ted marrying the woman...until the end of the first episode when "Future Ted" tells his kids "And that's how I met your Aunt Robin."
In the episode I watched on Monday night, Ted was still trying to connect with Robin, largely because she and Lilly had become friends. Lilly told Ted a little more than she promised Robin that she would, namely that Robin wanted a sort of casual relationship and that telling her that he loved her had driven her away from Ted. So Ted decided to set up a casual meeting, despite a warning from Barney that it wouldn't happen. He decided to invite her to a party but the night he had set it up for was wrong for her, so he set it for that night. She didn't show up so he told her the party had been held over to the next night and when she didn't show up then he extended it for a third night. When she finally did show up the party was virtually dead (it was a Sunday night) and although Marshall managed to get Robin to the most romantic spot he knew - the apartment building's roof - she hit him with the "let's be friends" line to end the evening.
There were a couple of interesting B-plots in this episode. Lilly, in a fit of post-engagement horniness, was trying to do Marshall at just about any opportunity while, between the sex and the parties Marshall wasn't getting much of a chance to write a 25 page paper for Law School. The other subplot involved Barney finding the girl at the party who didn't know anyone and taking her up to the roof for sex, expecting never to see her again. Then she showed up at the second party... and the third, much to the discomfort of the relationship phobic Barney.
Why do I like this show as much as I do? The first big thing is the casting. Both Cobie Smulders, who plays Robin, and Josh Radnor, who plays Ted, are essentially unknown to TV audiences - Smulders is a former model while Radnor may be most famous for playing Benjamin in the 2002 stage version of The Graduate opposite Kathleen Turner and Alicia Silverstone. The two have a definite attractive quality, to the point where you're really rooting for Ted but can sympathise with Robin. Jason Segel, who plays Marshall is better known, having had a recurring role in Undeclared and a starring role is Freaks and Geeks. He comes across as basically a lovable schlub who has just happened to snag the perfect girl. If this were a typical family sitcom and Marshall and Lilly were fifteen years older with a couple of kids we'd be asking how in the world did he get her and talking about how unrealistic it is, but seeing them as they are when they've recently fallen in love we begin to understand. Of course the big guns in the series are Alyson Hannigan as Lilly and Neil Patrick Harris as Barney. As always Hannigan is wonderful a Lilly. She has a certain innocent sexiness to her as well as a perceptiveness which indicates that she's really in touch with her friends. Barney may well be the role that makes people forget Doogie Howser. He's obnoxious and overbearing with a huge - and undeserved - ego. Lilly describes Barney as a huge dork but he basically doesn't care. The Barney-Lilly dynamic is a fun one to watch, primarily because Lilly sees Barney for what he is, an overgrown teenager who always wears a suit because - "suits are cool" - except when he's playing Laser Tag.
The writing is reasonably good. There are some gimmicks (besides the narration from "Future Ted") such as scenes where Ted imagines what's going to happen as he sets things up or how they've progressed set in metaphorical terms, and of course the ever popular excerpts from flashbacks. Moreover there's a certain wit to the approach in that the characters aren't doing the sort of obvious jokes that you so often hear.
An obvious comparison exists for this show. In fact the Canadian edition of TV Guide stated "We don't dare utter the word 'Friends' but we hop it has staying power." I would like to offer a different assessment of the show. We all remember the fiasco which was the American version of Coupling which was badly cast and attempted to transplant the British scripts for the show into the mouths of the badly cast American actors. I would like to suggest that while NBC made a total mess of Coupling, I would like to suggest that in creating How I Met Your Mother CBS and 20th Century Fox Television have managed to do an American version of Coupling - and do it right - even as they quite rightly avoid slavishly copying it. I certainly like the result and coming from someone who dislikes most sitcoms as much as I do, that says a great deal.
Monday, September 26, 2005
Don Adams - 1923-2005
I hate writing obituaries. I particularly hate it when it's an obituary for an actor who has a special place in my memories. Don Adams was one of those people.
Born Donald Yarmy in the Bronx in 1923, his father was a Hungarian Jew who ran a number of small restaurants, while his mother was Irish. During World War II he served with the Marines and contracted malaria on Guadalcanal. Later during his Marine Corps service he was a Drill Instructor. Following the war he worked as a commercial artist during the day while working as a stand up comedian in clubs at night. He took the professional last name of his first wife, singer Adelaide Adams (born Adelaide Efantis) because his own last name tended to get him in at the end of auditions. In 1954 he won on the Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts series using a routine which he wrote with his boyhood friend Bill Dana (who would gain fame for his own routine as Jose Jimenez). This led to appearances on Ed Sullivan's Toast Of The Town and eventually a regular appearance on Perry Como's Kraft Music Hall, and then costarred with Dana in the latter's own series. He had also started what would become another aspect of his career - voice work for animated cartoons such as Tennessee Tuxedo and later Inspector Gadget.
Of course Don Adams is probably best known for the role of Maxwell Smart, Secret Agent 86 of CONTROL. It was an ideal match of man and part. Get Smart was both witty - thanks in no small part to a huge group of writers which included Buck Henry, Pat McCormick and Adams himself (although Mel Brooks is credited as one of the series creators, Buck Henry has said that he didn't contribute that much after the initial episodes) - and had a considerable amount of physical slapstick comedy in the mix which made it the best satire of the "James Bond" style secret agent movie that could be found. It was certainly more cutting about the absurdities of Bond than either the Matt Helm or the Derek Flint movies (although I have a personal fondness for James Coburn's Flint movies). The character spawned a number of catch phrases including Would you believe..., and of course "Sorry about that Chief" all made more enjoyable by Adams' clipped style of speech which he picked up during his time as a Drill Sergeant. There were also a host of visual gags, like the security systems at Max's apartment, the fact that CONTROL's answer to Q was a woman working as a stripper, and Max's shoe phone (a 9D Florsheim if you're interested). The show ran for only four years on NBC, and after the network dropped it it was picked up for a single season by CBS.
Like Bob Denver, Don Adams never really caught another role as big as the one that made him a household name. He had a single season series called The Partners in 1971, and 1985 he appeared in the atrocious Canadian series Check It Out with Dinah Christie and Gordon Clapp, who would later go on to play Detective Medavoy in NYPD Blue. He also did a number of revivals of the Maxwell Smart role. One was a 1980 feature film The Nude Bomb which tossed out just about everything about the character and the original show (Barbara Feldon was nowhere to be seen and was replaced by Sylvia Kristel - yes Emmanuelle herself) - Don hated it. There was also a 1989 made for TV movie with Barbara Feldon which thankfully ignored The Nude Bomb, and finally a 1995 Fox series with Don as Chief of CONTROL and his wife, 99, as a congresswoman. The show was meant as a springboard for Andy Dick, but whenever Adams and Feldon were on screen they dominated. Finally, starting in 1999 Don Adams did some commercials for a Canadian long-distance phone service as Maxwell Smart. For a number of years he had wanted to do serious acting and a part in the revived Alfred Hitchcock Presents was written specifically for him, however the producers didn't believe that he could be anything but funny and the part went to Martin Landau.
Don Adams was married and divorced three times, and was the father of seven children. Although Maxwell Smart wasn't, the actor who portrayed him was a well read amateur expert on both Lincoln and Hitler, as well as a talented painter and poet. He also enjoyed gambling on horses and playing cards with friends like James Caan, Don Rickles and Hugh Hefner at the Playboy Mansion. According to his son-in-law Jim Beaver (who is a frequent poster to various movie newsgroups as well as one of the major characters on Deadwood), Don Adams had been suffering from Lymphoma for a number of years but his health took a serious turn for the worse after his daughter Cecily (Jim's wife) past away last year. According to Jim: "In recent weeks he had declined to continue medications or treatment for his ailments. Following his emergency hospitalization on September 24, he was unable to breathe on his own. As per his instructions, life-support systems were turned off Sunday night. Two of his former wives and three of his children, as well as other family members, were with him when he died."
Sunday, September 25, 2005
Fantasy TV Anyone?
Last year I participated in the Fantasy TV Game where you draft a lineup of TV characters and quirks found on specific shows. Points are allocated for various appearances and activities during an episode. Teams - the lineups selected by players - are matched up each week. At the end of the regular season - usually six weeks - after which the top teams participate in two weeks of "sweeps". It sort of works like a fantasy football league. Last year I participated in three public leagues and won one.
This year I'm interested in setting up a private league with readers of this blog. If you're interested in participating email me and when I get five other people who are interested in playing I'll set up a league and send you passwords. There's no cost, but you do have to register at the website. For the record I've never had any spam problem with them.
Let's see if we can have some fun with this!
This year I'm interested in setting up a private league with readers of this blog. If you're interested in participating email me and when I get five other people who are interested in playing I'll set up a league and send you passwords. There's no cost, but you do have to register at the website. For the record I've never had any spam problem with them.
Let's see if we can have some fun with this!
New Poll
I've finally launched a new poll: What night has the most shows that you "must see". I have a couple of ideas to go along with this. One is to run the same question at the end of May, at the end of the main TV season. The other is to run the poll at the end of January and at the end of May. This should give a fairly accurate picture of the preferences of the readers of this blog as series are cancelled and the season evolves. Another idea I want to work with as a gauge of audience taste will show up next week so I don't want to reveal too much.
Admittedly blog readers are a lousy sampling of public preferences simply because blogs tend not to be that important or widely read. It may explain why Google has launched a separate Blog search engine, because blogs tend to pollute the results generated by the main Google search engine - and by the way, thanks to Leo Laporte and the gang over at the This Week In Tech podcast for revealing this. With few exceptions blogs aren't widely seen or read, and aren't real journalism. We can talk a lot about how good our blogs may (or may not) be but this tends to self-adulatory. Then again I've never seen myself as anything but an amateur expressing my own opinions, just as I did when I published a Diplomacy zine. This is only a hobby and a way to vent and if people enjoy reading it so be it. And if you do enjoy reading it - or even if you don't - you might want to help make my latest poll more valid by voting in it.
Admittedly blog readers are a lousy sampling of public preferences simply because blogs tend not to be that important or widely read. It may explain why Google has launched a separate Blog search engine, because blogs tend to pollute the results generated by the main Google search engine - and by the way, thanks to Leo Laporte and the gang over at the This Week In Tech podcast for revealing this. With few exceptions blogs aren't widely seen or read, and aren't real journalism. We can talk a lot about how good our blogs may (or may not) be but this tends to self-adulatory. Then again I've never seen myself as anything but an amateur expressing my own opinions, just as I did when I published a Diplomacy zine. This is only a hobby and a way to vent and if people enjoy reading it so be it. And if you do enjoy reading it - or even if you don't - you might want to help make my latest poll more valid by voting in it.
Saturday, September 24, 2005
I Don't Want To See Dead People
So I won't be watching the new CBS series Ghost Whisperer anymore.
I won't say that this is the worst new drama of the year, because I haven't seen all of the new dramas, but what this show was lacking was... well I guess there's no other word for it but drama. The dramatic tension was so thin you could cut it with a piece of cooked spaghetti. Jennifer Love Hewitt plays Melinda Gordon. At an early age she's taken to a funeral and seated beside an older man then she's taken up to look into the coffin where the very same man is. When she goes back to her seat the man tells the young Melinda that only she and her grandmother can see him and that she has to tell his wife that he loves her because he didn't get the chance before he died, and he gives the little girl details to make her story believable.
This was of course a necessary thing to set up the fact that Melinda can actually see dead people and incidentally that her "powers" are inherited from her grandmother. The next time we see Melinda it is at her wedding to paramedic Jim Clancy, played by David Conrad. During the reception she "sees" something. Her new husband is aware of what she can do and not only that, he accepts that it's real. Melinda is determined not to let "work" get in the way of their special day so she ignores the ghost. It's only when the ghost (played by Wentworth Miller from Prison Break in the only really good performance in this whole thing - you can really believe him as a confused spirit who doesn't know why he's still here) intrudes on her new half-renovated home - a definite no no on the part of the spirit community - that she starts working on his case. This one is a Vietnam era soldier who has been lost for a long time and wants to get back in touch with his wife and family. Melinda does some research and finds out where he likely died and where his old house is. At the house she meets the soldier's son, born after his father's death, and sees the son's pregnant wife. According to Melinda, big events in a family member's life can raise spirits. Eventually she connects the ghost with his son and communicates what the ghost needs to tell his son to him. The end.
As you can tell there really isn't a lot of dramatic tension in this one. The greatest tension comes when Melinda tries to tell the son that she has been in contact with his father, and like just about any sensible human being he explodes, calling her a charlatan and a con artist before throwing her out of his house. There's an interlude where she improves her husband's morale (he doesn't like that they're both in the "death business" but she manages to convince him to keep his job because they're really both in the "life business", and soon after the soldier's son comes to house to tell Melinda that he believes her because his wife contacted the Army and her information gave them a clue to finding the father's body. The hard to believe part is that this all occurred in about five minutes of screen time. There was no pace to it. Moreover the show telegraphed some of it's "big" surprises. When Jim's younger brother came to talk to Melinda at the wedding reception and started telling the story about falling off a roof, I can't believe that I was the only person watching who thought "oh he's a ghost too then."
I won't say that there aren't a couple of nice moments, but ironically they were largely comedic. In one, Melinda is having coffee with her friend and employee Andrea, and of course Andrea (Aisha Tyler, who should be back at CSI soon if this show does as well as I expect it to) is asking about ghosts, specifically whether there are any spirits there - she's another one who accepts that Melinda has these powers no questions asked. Matter of factly Melinda says only two and we see a woman trying to convince her son to ask a waitress on a date and a man yelling in Spanish to the coffee shop owner. In a scene at the American Legion Hall where Melinda has gone to find some information about the soldier, she's accosted by a spirit who wants her to tell the man running the hall (Jon Polito) that the key to the safety deposit box is in her blue raincoat. Melinda tries to give him the idea that people leave things in their coat pockets without revealing that she talks to spirits which only gets her a "What are you talking about?" from both Polito and the ghost of his wife.
Inevitably there will be comparisons between Ghost Whisperer and NBC's Medium. By far Medium is the better program - it isn't even close to being a contest. The scripts in Medium have a better dramatic pace, and the Allison Dubois character has to work hard to understand what her visions mean. When you add the details of Allison's chaotic personal life into the mix you find a far more rounded show. Melinda comes across, in the first episode at least, as a cut out who has every detail of her "cases" handed to her on a silver platter and adds little new age style homilies like "places aren't haunted, people are" into the mix. I can believe in Patricia Arquette's soccer mom psychic as a character a lot easier than I can in Jennifer Love Hewitt's rather one dimensional Melinda.
When CBS announced a fall lineup that dropped Joan Of Arcadia and added Ghost Whisperer someone suggested that the network felt that talking with ghosts got better ratings than talking with God. If this is the best that CBS can do with the idea, I hope - and expect - the ratings to prove them wrong.
I won't say that this is the worst new drama of the year, because I haven't seen all of the new dramas, but what this show was lacking was... well I guess there's no other word for it but drama. The dramatic tension was so thin you could cut it with a piece of cooked spaghetti. Jennifer Love Hewitt plays Melinda Gordon. At an early age she's taken to a funeral and seated beside an older man then she's taken up to look into the coffin where the very same man is. When she goes back to her seat the man tells the young Melinda that only she and her grandmother can see him and that she has to tell his wife that he loves her because he didn't get the chance before he died, and he gives the little girl details to make her story believable.
This was of course a necessary thing to set up the fact that Melinda can actually see dead people and incidentally that her "powers" are inherited from her grandmother. The next time we see Melinda it is at her wedding to paramedic Jim Clancy, played by David Conrad. During the reception she "sees" something. Her new husband is aware of what she can do and not only that, he accepts that it's real. Melinda is determined not to let "work" get in the way of their special day so she ignores the ghost. It's only when the ghost (played by Wentworth Miller from Prison Break in the only really good performance in this whole thing - you can really believe him as a confused spirit who doesn't know why he's still here) intrudes on her new half-renovated home - a definite no no on the part of the spirit community - that she starts working on his case. This one is a Vietnam era soldier who has been lost for a long time and wants to get back in touch with his wife and family. Melinda does some research and finds out where he likely died and where his old house is. At the house she meets the soldier's son, born after his father's death, and sees the son's pregnant wife. According to Melinda, big events in a family member's life can raise spirits. Eventually she connects the ghost with his son and communicates what the ghost needs to tell his son to him. The end.
As you can tell there really isn't a lot of dramatic tension in this one. The greatest tension comes when Melinda tries to tell the son that she has been in contact with his father, and like just about any sensible human being he explodes, calling her a charlatan and a con artist before throwing her out of his house. There's an interlude where she improves her husband's morale (he doesn't like that they're both in the "death business" but she manages to convince him to keep his job because they're really both in the "life business", and soon after the soldier's son comes to house to tell Melinda that he believes her because his wife contacted the Army and her information gave them a clue to finding the father's body. The hard to believe part is that this all occurred in about five minutes of screen time. There was no pace to it. Moreover the show telegraphed some of it's "big" surprises. When Jim's younger brother came to talk to Melinda at the wedding reception and started telling the story about falling off a roof, I can't believe that I was the only person watching who thought "oh he's a ghost too then."
I won't say that there aren't a couple of nice moments, but ironically they were largely comedic. In one, Melinda is having coffee with her friend and employee Andrea, and of course Andrea (Aisha Tyler, who should be back at CSI soon if this show does as well as I expect it to) is asking about ghosts, specifically whether there are any spirits there - she's another one who accepts that Melinda has these powers no questions asked. Matter of factly Melinda says only two and we see a woman trying to convince her son to ask a waitress on a date and a man yelling in Spanish to the coffee shop owner. In a scene at the American Legion Hall where Melinda has gone to find some information about the soldier, she's accosted by a spirit who wants her to tell the man running the hall (Jon Polito) that the key to the safety deposit box is in her blue raincoat. Melinda tries to give him the idea that people leave things in their coat pockets without revealing that she talks to spirits which only gets her a "What are you talking about?" from both Polito and the ghost of his wife.
Inevitably there will be comparisons between Ghost Whisperer and NBC's Medium. By far Medium is the better program - it isn't even close to being a contest. The scripts in Medium have a better dramatic pace, and the Allison Dubois character has to work hard to understand what her visions mean. When you add the details of Allison's chaotic personal life into the mix you find a far more rounded show. Melinda comes across, in the first episode at least, as a cut out who has every detail of her "cases" handed to her on a silver platter and adds little new age style homilies like "places aren't haunted, people are" into the mix. I can believe in Patricia Arquette's soccer mom psychic as a character a lot easier than I can in Jennifer Love Hewitt's rather one dimensional Melinda.
When CBS announced a fall lineup that dropped Joan Of Arcadia and added Ghost Whisperer someone suggested that the network felt that talking with ghosts got better ratings than talking with God. If this is the best that CBS can do with the idea, I hope - and expect - the ratings to prove them wrong.
Friday, September 23, 2005
Sometimes You Need To Think Like Your Prey
Criminal Minds is yet another entry into the apparently overcrowded police procedural market this year, but before you dismiss it from consideration for that you may want to watch it first. While the subject matter might seem to be mined out this series about a team of FBI profilers offers something more than the others.
Mandy Patinkin plays Special Agent Jason Gideon, head of the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit - profilers by any other name. Gideon has been away from active control of his unit for some time after a traumatic event in the fairly recent past caused him to have a nervous breakdown - although as Gideon says, that's not what they call them anymore. We learn later that the event was successfully finding a notorious serial killer who in attempting to avoid capture killed six FBI agents in a bomb blast. Gideon feels the responsibility for that event. Since his psychological break he's been on the sidelines and when we meet him he's teaching at the FBI Academy in Quantico Virginia. But now there's a new case and the FBI wants Gideon on it not because he's the best - although he is - but as an assistant director tells his second in command Agent Aaron Hotch (Thomas Gibson) because the FBI needs to know if Gideon can cope with being in the field again. The rest of Gideon's team are Agent Derek Morgan and Agent Dr. Spencer Reid - Gideon makes sure that everyone knows that Reid is a doctor (he actually has three doctorates) because his age would otherwise cause other people to underestimate him.
The case in the first episode is a killer in the Seattle area who abducts women, keeps them for seven days before finally killing them after a period of extreme torture. A new victim has been taken and Gideon's team has been called in. There's a limited time before she's due to die which has most of the team worried that they don't have enough time to do a full profile, but after visiting the last place where the last victim was found and examining some of the evidence in the case Gideon is ready to deliver a profile. As it turns out the local FBI office has a suspect high on their list who fits the profile whom they promptly arrest. Now mind you this all occurs in first twenty minutes or so. You might be excused for thinking that the rest of the show would be spent interrogating the suspect and finding out what turned him into a serial killer - not to mention finding the latest victim who they know is still alive because the suspect said "isn't she the girl" rather than "wasn't she the girl". You'd be wrong. After meeting the suspect Gideon realises that while the pathetic little loser, who has done prison time for minor crimes, is involved with the case he's scarcely the mastermind. After looking at his former cellmate as a possibility - ruled out because the cellmate is slightly dead they turn their attention to a prison guard who took care of the first suspect while he was in prison. Although the guy eventually outsmarts Gideon and a female agent (who will be joining his team shortly if the IMDB listing for the show is to be taken seriously) by swapping cars with another guard, they eventually catch up with him thanks to some information from the first suspect's computer that Morgan and Reid are able to dig up combined with Hotch's skill in interrogating the suspect to make him believe that his partner had turned on him. Gideon and the female agent are able to stop the guard before he kills his victim.
There are a number of reasons to watch Criminal Minds. Before all of the other reasons is the presence of Mandy Patinkin. Patinkin always brings a special quality to characters that he plays and he is never better than when he is playing characters on the narrow place between sanity and mental breakdown, like Jason Gideon or Dr. Jeffrey Geiger from Chicago Hope. There are scenes where he sells the character's combination of brilliance and lack of confidence that he's ready to be back in the field with just a look. His co-star in this, Thomas Gibson (who was also in Chicago Hope although he is of course better known for the comedic role of the uptight husband on Dharma And Greg) is also strong underlining - if it was necessary - that he is primarily a dramatic actor. I'm also impressed with Matthew Gray Gubler's performance as Dr. Reid. He plays a nerdish type character without many of the affectations that most actors bring to such roles - stuttering or behavioural tics - so that the only thing that set him apart are his hair and his clothes. At one point you see him fiddling with a paper clip and figure that this is a nervous behaviour but instead he uses the unbent paper clip as a tool to open the CD-ROM drive on the suspect's computer to reveal a vital clue. It's a nice touch.
The whole thing wouldn't fly just on the quality of the actors alone of course. The writers have to produce the sense not only that the characters are likable but that what they are doing is how they would really work. In the series Profiler Sam Waters worked in a way that implied that her ability to analyse a killer was a "gift" on the same lines as the "gift" that Patricia Arquette's character has on Medium. There's no sense of that here. Gideon's ability is based on his ability to analyse the behavioural traits likely to produce a particular type of killer. While he puts himself into the mind of the killer it is done in a manner that has a scientific basis which he is able to explain.
There are some neat touches in the first episode script. We're introduced to most of the characters by seeing them in their time away from work - Hotch putting together a crib and talking about baby names with his wife (one of the names is Gideon), Morgan trying very hard to chat up several female trainee agents in a local bar - but Reid is only introduced to the audience when he brings a note to Gideon while Gideon is teaching. Gideon gains insight into the killers when he sees a note from one of the crimes which is a copy of a note that he received in the case that caused his breakdown - he knows the killer is taunting him. In a scene with Lola Glaudino's character, Agent Elle Greenway, Gideon asks her to give good reasons why they should stop the car which supposedly carries the prison guard murderer. For him there has to be a reason, particularly when he's working with someone he doesn't fully trust, who isn't part of his circle. Gideon's own psychological position becomes clear in the final confrontation with the killer, where he uses himself as bait to allow Greenway to shoot the guard. He reveal his complete understanding of exactly why the guard is committing these murders while taunting him, but the fact that he does it in the open offering the man a chance to shoot him, would seem to indicate that although he has mostly overcome his sense of guilt and his nervous breakdown enough to work in the field, he still isn't healed enough to care whether he lives or dies as long as he dies in the line of duty like the six agents who died in the earlier case.
Criminal Minds is an intriguing show which I hope will settle comfortably into its Wednesday time slot. While I don't expect it to topple Lost from first place in the ratings I do think that it is better than Jerry Bruckheimer's series E-Ring on NBC and it should beat Nanny 911 (replacing the "dearly departed" Head Cases) although it may have trouble with the American Idol results show come January. Still, I think that the series is sufficiently different to appeal to that part of the audience which isn't married to Lost and which hasn't found Veronica Mars.
Mandy Patinkin plays Special Agent Jason Gideon, head of the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit - profilers by any other name. Gideon has been away from active control of his unit for some time after a traumatic event in the fairly recent past caused him to have a nervous breakdown - although as Gideon says, that's not what they call them anymore. We learn later that the event was successfully finding a notorious serial killer who in attempting to avoid capture killed six FBI agents in a bomb blast. Gideon feels the responsibility for that event. Since his psychological break he's been on the sidelines and when we meet him he's teaching at the FBI Academy in Quantico Virginia. But now there's a new case and the FBI wants Gideon on it not because he's the best - although he is - but as an assistant director tells his second in command Agent Aaron Hotch (Thomas Gibson) because the FBI needs to know if Gideon can cope with being in the field again. The rest of Gideon's team are Agent Derek Morgan and Agent Dr. Spencer Reid - Gideon makes sure that everyone knows that Reid is a doctor (he actually has three doctorates) because his age would otherwise cause other people to underestimate him.
The case in the first episode is a killer in the Seattle area who abducts women, keeps them for seven days before finally killing them after a period of extreme torture. A new victim has been taken and Gideon's team has been called in. There's a limited time before she's due to die which has most of the team worried that they don't have enough time to do a full profile, but after visiting the last place where the last victim was found and examining some of the evidence in the case Gideon is ready to deliver a profile. As it turns out the local FBI office has a suspect high on their list who fits the profile whom they promptly arrest. Now mind you this all occurs in first twenty minutes or so. You might be excused for thinking that the rest of the show would be spent interrogating the suspect and finding out what turned him into a serial killer - not to mention finding the latest victim who they know is still alive because the suspect said "isn't she the girl" rather than "wasn't she the girl". You'd be wrong. After meeting the suspect Gideon realises that while the pathetic little loser, who has done prison time for minor crimes, is involved with the case he's scarcely the mastermind. After looking at his former cellmate as a possibility - ruled out because the cellmate is slightly dead they turn their attention to a prison guard who took care of the first suspect while he was in prison. Although the guy eventually outsmarts Gideon and a female agent (who will be joining his team shortly if the IMDB listing for the show is to be taken seriously) by swapping cars with another guard, they eventually catch up with him thanks to some information from the first suspect's computer that Morgan and Reid are able to dig up combined with Hotch's skill in interrogating the suspect to make him believe that his partner had turned on him. Gideon and the female agent are able to stop the guard before he kills his victim.
There are a number of reasons to watch Criminal Minds. Before all of the other reasons is the presence of Mandy Patinkin. Patinkin always brings a special quality to characters that he plays and he is never better than when he is playing characters on the narrow place between sanity and mental breakdown, like Jason Gideon or Dr. Jeffrey Geiger from Chicago Hope. There are scenes where he sells the character's combination of brilliance and lack of confidence that he's ready to be back in the field with just a look. His co-star in this, Thomas Gibson (who was also in Chicago Hope although he is of course better known for the comedic role of the uptight husband on Dharma And Greg) is also strong underlining - if it was necessary - that he is primarily a dramatic actor. I'm also impressed with Matthew Gray Gubler's performance as Dr. Reid. He plays a nerdish type character without many of the affectations that most actors bring to such roles - stuttering or behavioural tics - so that the only thing that set him apart are his hair and his clothes. At one point you see him fiddling with a paper clip and figure that this is a nervous behaviour but instead he uses the unbent paper clip as a tool to open the CD-ROM drive on the suspect's computer to reveal a vital clue. It's a nice touch.
The whole thing wouldn't fly just on the quality of the actors alone of course. The writers have to produce the sense not only that the characters are likable but that what they are doing is how they would really work. In the series Profiler Sam Waters worked in a way that implied that her ability to analyse a killer was a "gift" on the same lines as the "gift" that Patricia Arquette's character has on Medium. There's no sense of that here. Gideon's ability is based on his ability to analyse the behavioural traits likely to produce a particular type of killer. While he puts himself into the mind of the killer it is done in a manner that has a scientific basis which he is able to explain.
There are some neat touches in the first episode script. We're introduced to most of the characters by seeing them in their time away from work - Hotch putting together a crib and talking about baby names with his wife (one of the names is Gideon), Morgan trying very hard to chat up several female trainee agents in a local bar - but Reid is only introduced to the audience when he brings a note to Gideon while Gideon is teaching. Gideon gains insight into the killers when he sees a note from one of the crimes which is a copy of a note that he received in the case that caused his breakdown - he knows the killer is taunting him. In a scene with Lola Glaudino's character, Agent Elle Greenway, Gideon asks her to give good reasons why they should stop the car which supposedly carries the prison guard murderer. For him there has to be a reason, particularly when he's working with someone he doesn't fully trust, who isn't part of his circle. Gideon's own psychological position becomes clear in the final confrontation with the killer, where he uses himself as bait to allow Greenway to shoot the guard. He reveal his complete understanding of exactly why the guard is committing these murders while taunting him, but the fact that he does it in the open offering the man a chance to shoot him, would seem to indicate that although he has mostly overcome his sense of guilt and his nervous breakdown enough to work in the field, he still isn't healed enough to care whether he lives or dies as long as he dies in the line of duty like the six agents who died in the earlier case.
Criminal Minds is an intriguing show which I hope will settle comfortably into its Wednesday time slot. While I don't expect it to topple Lost from first place in the ratings I do think that it is better than Jerry Bruckheimer's series E-Ring on NBC and it should beat Nanny 911 (replacing the "dearly departed" Head Cases) although it may have trouble with the American Idol results show come January. Still, I think that the series is sufficiently different to appeal to that part of the audience which isn't married to Lost and which hasn't found Veronica Mars.
And The First Show Cancelled Is...
Head Cases
Alas poor Head Cases we hardly knew you. I only had a chance to tell the world why I couldn't review you based on the Pilot because I knew you would change once the first episode ended and then I missed your second ep. Your swan song (has anyone actually heard a swan sing by the way?). Your Waterloo. Your "pining for the fjords" moment. In short your death rattle. And I can't even find a picture to go with your obituary.
What killed you Head Cases? Surely it wasn't your cast - Chris O'Donnell is impossibly handsome (even a straight guy like me can see that) and if ever someone was born to play someone who was mentally unbalanced it was Adam Goldberg. The concept may not have been the greatest but other shows have recovered from weak concepts. I think I know what it was gentle Head Cases: you were on opposite Lost which meant that your ratings would never rise above anemic and you were on Fox, a network notorious for shooting shows at a moments notice on Rupert "Bloody" Murdoch's merest whim.
So what's the next sacrificial lamb to head to the slaughter in this slot Rupie boy?
Alas poor Head Cases we hardly knew you. I only had a chance to tell the world why I couldn't review you based on the Pilot because I knew you would change once the first episode ended and then I missed your second ep. Your swan song (has anyone actually heard a swan sing by the way?). Your Waterloo. Your "pining for the fjords" moment. In short your death rattle. And I can't even find a picture to go with your obituary.
What killed you Head Cases? Surely it wasn't your cast - Chris O'Donnell is impossibly handsome (even a straight guy like me can see that) and if ever someone was born to play someone who was mentally unbalanced it was Adam Goldberg. The concept may not have been the greatest but other shows have recovered from weak concepts. I think I know what it was gentle Head Cases: you were on opposite Lost which meant that your ratings would never rise above anemic and you were on Fox, a network notorious for shooting shows at a moments notice on Rupert "Bloody" Murdoch's merest whim.
So what's the next sacrificial lamb to head to the slaughter in this slot Rupie boy?
Thursday, September 22, 2005
Please Bear In Mind That I Am Canadian
| You are a Social Liberal (66% permissive) and an... Economic Liberal (18% permissive) You are best described as a:
Link: The Politics Test on OkCupid Free Online Dating |
This is about where I'd expected to fall on this quiz. Most Canadians would actually. A poll taken last year stated that if the ten Canadian provinces were American states, every one including Alberta would vote for the Democratic Party. Which may be one reason why George W. will never invade us.
Start With The Mundane
There are two basic ways to handle scary. You can start off with a really scary situation and then back it off a bit before bringing the scary level back up, and really have a roller coaster effect except that with a roller coaster each hill is a little lower than the one before - a necessary result of the dependence on gravity for momentum - while in this kind of story telling each hill is higher leading eventually to the dramatic climax.The other way, the method that Alfred Hitchcock and other greats preferred, was to start with the mundane and build gradually to dramatic peaks. Threshold took the first approach, while Invasion the new show on ABC following Lost takes the approach of starting with the mundane. The only trouble is that in the first episode at least it seems to only go a little beyond the mundane.
Invasion does start with a scary scene, a televisual effort to let us all know that the people we're about to see aren't hallucinating or anything. A stormchaser aircraft - basically a Hercules transport filled with all sorts of electronic gear intended to monitor hurricanes and the like has made it into the eye of the storm and is taking measurements when suddenly their instruments go all haywire - the only way to describe it - and the wing of the plane is hit by what can only be described as a geyser filled with glowing lights erupting out of the ocean. And that the last we see of the plane - well intact anyway - but then the military isn't the focus of this anyway, it's the dull normal people.
The "dull normals" in this case are centred on Russell Varon (Eddie Cibrian) a Park Service ranger in Everglades National Park and his oddly typical extended family who we meet in a series of neatly linked scenes. There's his new and pregnant wife, newscaster Larkin Groves, her brother Dave (ne-er do well isn't the term for him - he's a classic mooching brother-in-law), Russell's young daughter Rose and his teen aged son Jesse who are Russell's kids with his first wife Mariel. Mariel is married to the local sheriff, Tom Underlay who himself has a teenaged daughter, Kira. The real story - their story - starts as they're preparing for the arrival of the hurricane in Homestead area of south Florida (at one point Dave makes reference to the abandoned air force base which undoubtedly refers to Homestead and in another reference Russell mentions the 1996 crash of ValuJet Flight 592 in the Everglades). Everyone is doing well except young Rose who, with her brother, are under the tender care of "Uncle" Dave. She's lost her cat and since neither Jesse - who is busy trying to get plywood on the windows of Russell's house - or Dave - who is searching the house for more beer - is interested in helping her look for the cat, she goes out into the storm alone. While out there she sees "the lights", the same lights that took out the storm plane this time falling to earth. Back at home everyone, which by now also includes Mariel, is going nuts trying to search for Rose. There's a moment of post-divorce discord which ends with Russell telling Mariel to go back to town where she's needed Russell manages to find Rose but they're trapped when his car flips. They get home just in time to be confronted by the sheriff who wants to know where his wife is. They find her stark naked on a little islet in a big pond, but somehow she's "different".
Rose can't stop going on about the lights from the sky that she saw. Her father dismisses them as sparks from downed power lines but Dave decides to take her out on his airboat to look for the lights that didn't go out when they hit the water - he's a conspiracy nut and besides it's a good way to get out of having to fix the roof. They find a bit of wreckage which we at least know probably came from the wrecked weather plane and Dave sees some skeletal remains and although he doesn't haul them aboard with Rose along he does come back to get them because there is something weird about them. He shows them to the skeptical Russell and probably because of something he saw earlier when dealing with Mariel, Russell decides to go out in the airboat that night. In the water they see a light moving up and down through the water. Russell dismisses it as bioluminescence - at least until it pulls Dave deep into the water and tries to eat him. The mundane has just become a little bit scary.
There's no need to talk about the pedigree of this series. It is a blatant ripoff of the classic Invasion of the Body Snatchers from 1956, or at least that's the way the first episode looks - producer Shaun Cassidy indicates that appearances can be deceiving, that at its heart it is a vamily drama, but we'll have to see. There are cryptic hints that Mariel and a priest who has been rescued from the water have been changed significantly - Mariel "smells" different according to Rose, and to viewers she seems more "serene". There's also a notion that the sheriff has changed too but it doesn't become absolutely clear until the last scene that he has changed as well and before the hurricane. There are a couple of nice moments in the script, as when the sheriff's daughter Kira talks about how her dad thinks TV news is important because "it distracts people from the truth" which at the time seems like a statement from someone who is arrogant modified by someone ill informed but becomes chilling once we know for sure that he was changed at some point in the past and the "truth" is something bigger.
I like the cast, who are for the most part relatively unknown. Besides Cibrian, who was one of the last firemen on Third Watch, probably the best known actor is William Fitchner (the shuttle pilot in Armageddon) as Sheriff Tom Underlay. It's hard to explain but he has the right look for his part. Canadian Kari Matchett who played numerous roles in the Nero Wolfe series from A&E plays Mariel (she grew up in Spalding Saskatchewan) plays Mariel - and trust me when I say that her apparent nude scene, even if it was from a distance, was enjoyable. The question I have to ask is whether the audience is willing to accept what initially at least looks like a TV version of the classic Invasion Of The Body Snatchers on its own merits, and whether the potential audience is willing to let it build to it series of dramatic climaxes. Having Lost as a lead in is an asset since the two series to seem to appeal to similar audiences. On the downside it is opposite Law & Order and CSI: New York. Time - and ratings over time - will tell if this series will have the luxury of the time it seems like it will need to tell it's full story. I have my doubts althought here's no denying that, like Lost it has its own mysterious qualities.
Invasion does start with a scary scene, a televisual effort to let us all know that the people we're about to see aren't hallucinating or anything. A stormchaser aircraft - basically a Hercules transport filled with all sorts of electronic gear intended to monitor hurricanes and the like has made it into the eye of the storm and is taking measurements when suddenly their instruments go all haywire - the only way to describe it - and the wing of the plane is hit by what can only be described as a geyser filled with glowing lights erupting out of the ocean. And that the last we see of the plane - well intact anyway - but then the military isn't the focus of this anyway, it's the dull normal people.
The "dull normals" in this case are centred on Russell Varon (Eddie Cibrian) a Park Service ranger in Everglades National Park and his oddly typical extended family who we meet in a series of neatly linked scenes. There's his new and pregnant wife, newscaster Larkin Groves, her brother Dave (ne-er do well isn't the term for him - he's a classic mooching brother-in-law), Russell's young daughter Rose and his teen aged son Jesse who are Russell's kids with his first wife Mariel. Mariel is married to the local sheriff, Tom Underlay who himself has a teenaged daughter, Kira. The real story - their story - starts as they're preparing for the arrival of the hurricane in Homestead area of south Florida (at one point Dave makes reference to the abandoned air force base which undoubtedly refers to Homestead and in another reference Russell mentions the 1996 crash of ValuJet Flight 592 in the Everglades). Everyone is doing well except young Rose who, with her brother, are under the tender care of "Uncle" Dave. She's lost her cat and since neither Jesse - who is busy trying to get plywood on the windows of Russell's house - or Dave - who is searching the house for more beer - is interested in helping her look for the cat, she goes out into the storm alone. While out there she sees "the lights", the same lights that took out the storm plane this time falling to earth. Back at home everyone, which by now also includes Mariel, is going nuts trying to search for Rose. There's a moment of post-divorce discord which ends with Russell telling Mariel to go back to town where she's needed Russell manages to find Rose but they're trapped when his car flips. They get home just in time to be confronted by the sheriff who wants to know where his wife is. They find her stark naked on a little islet in a big pond, but somehow she's "different".
Rose can't stop going on about the lights from the sky that she saw. Her father dismisses them as sparks from downed power lines but Dave decides to take her out on his airboat to look for the lights that didn't go out when they hit the water - he's a conspiracy nut and besides it's a good way to get out of having to fix the roof. They find a bit of wreckage which we at least know probably came from the wrecked weather plane and Dave sees some skeletal remains and although he doesn't haul them aboard with Rose along he does come back to get them because there is something weird about them. He shows them to the skeptical Russell and probably because of something he saw earlier when dealing with Mariel, Russell decides to go out in the airboat that night. In the water they see a light moving up and down through the water. Russell dismisses it as bioluminescence - at least until it pulls Dave deep into the water and tries to eat him. The mundane has just become a little bit scary.
There's no need to talk about the pedigree of this series. It is a blatant ripoff of the classic Invasion of the Body Snatchers from 1956, or at least that's the way the first episode looks - producer Shaun Cassidy indicates that appearances can be deceiving, that at its heart it is a vamily drama, but we'll have to see. There are cryptic hints that Mariel and a priest who has been rescued from the water have been changed significantly - Mariel "smells" different according to Rose, and to viewers she seems more "serene". There's also a notion that the sheriff has changed too but it doesn't become absolutely clear until the last scene that he has changed as well and before the hurricane. There are a couple of nice moments in the script, as when the sheriff's daughter Kira talks about how her dad thinks TV news is important because "it distracts people from the truth" which at the time seems like a statement from someone who is arrogant modified by someone ill informed but becomes chilling once we know for sure that he was changed at some point in the past and the "truth" is something bigger.
I like the cast, who are for the most part relatively unknown. Besides Cibrian, who was one of the last firemen on Third Watch, probably the best known actor is William Fitchner (the shuttle pilot in Armageddon) as Sheriff Tom Underlay. It's hard to explain but he has the right look for his part. Canadian Kari Matchett who played numerous roles in the Nero Wolfe series from A&E plays Mariel (she grew up in Spalding Saskatchewan) plays Mariel - and trust me when I say that her apparent nude scene, even if it was from a distance, was enjoyable. The question I have to ask is whether the audience is willing to accept what initially at least looks like a TV version of the classic Invasion Of The Body Snatchers on its own merits, and whether the potential audience is willing to let it build to it series of dramatic climaxes. Having Lost as a lead in is an asset since the two series to seem to appeal to similar audiences. On the downside it is opposite Law & Order and CSI: New York. Time - and ratings over time - will tell if this series will have the luxury of the time it seems like it will need to tell it's full story. I have my doubts althought here's no denying that, like Lost it has its own mysterious qualities.
TV ON DVD - September 20, 2005 - Better Late Than Never
I'm not even sure that "better late than never" covers this. I'm sorry for not writing more, but for the past couple of days I haven't been feeling that great - mainly a bit of a problem with my back. I tried to get back on track on Wednesday but I had some extra work that needs to get done reinstalling some quarter round during the process of which I hurt my left thumb.
Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda: Season 5, Collection 1
- I haven't seen the fifth season of Andromeda, in fact I've only seen a few episodes from the fourth season. I think I gave up on the series by the end of season three mainly because what they were doing had changed so much from what the original intent seemed to be. I know that a lot of people blame this on Kevin Sorbo and if that is the case, so be it. One thing is certain and that is that too much of the cast had changed between the third and fifth seasons. I did see the final episodes of Season Four though and it seemed like that shiny red reset button was being pushed which would take care of all the problems.
Batman: The Man Who Would Be Bat (Season 1 Vol. 2)
- I haven't seen the most recent version of the animated Batman so I really don't feel competent to comment beyond saying that I was a fan of the original Batman animated series of a few years ago, but this is from a different production company.
Battlestar Galactica: Season One
- A few weeks ago Best Buy released an "exclusive" version of Battlestar Galactica's first season. At the time I told you to wait for this one. The biggest and best reason is that this version includes the mini-series as well as the thirteen episodes of the first season. There are also commentary tracks for a number of episodes, eight featurettes, about 48 minutes of deleted scenes and a bunch of other stuff. Oh yes, and a trading card. Now given that Battlestar Galactica is one of the five best TV shows on right now - no matter what the results of the Emmy nominations let alone the actual awards indicated - it deserves the absolute best when it comes to presentation.
Clone High: The Complete First Season
- I've never seen this but from what I've read of the concept it sounds truly amazing - the greatest minds of all times (and John Kennedy too) cloned and attending high school together. The show was a Canadian production and aired on Teletoon but rose and eventually fell on the MTV network in the US - when they didn't renew the series and in fact didn't air the last five episodes - the series died.
Crime Story: Season 2
- Oh lord I loved this series, from the rendition of "Runaway" and the scenes of the cities in the 1950s in the opening credits (Chicago for about half the first season, Las Vegas in the second) right through to the end. The casting was absolutely letter perfect. It was the first time most people had seen Dennis Farina, and certainly the first time for the former Chicago cop to have such a big role. There was also Anthony Dennison (who I so rarely see on TV anymore) as Ray Luca as the main villain, Stephen Lang as the Federal attorney working with Farina's character, and such low lifes as a pre "Diceman" Andrew Clay, Ted Levine, and former real life jewel thief John Santucci as the dumb but dangerous Paulie Taglia
Desperate Housewives: The Complete First Season
- I'm not sure if Desperate Housewives really belonged in the comedy categories at the Emmys but what I can tell you is that it is a funny series, that doesn't restrict itself to the slapstick situations that Terri Hatcher's Susan finds herself in or the quiet desperation that Felicity Huffman's Lynette Scavo deals with when trying to be a good mother to her three little terrorists. The show is full of satire, both of the soap opera form - daytime and nighttime - and of cultural concepts, like Bree acting like a local Martha Stewart or the member of the high school's abstinence club having an affair with a married woman. Definitely worth the effort.
From the Earth to the Moon [The Signature Edition]
- I have a theory dating back to the heyday of the mini-series in the 1980s. In those days a mini-series amounted to a four hour movie shown on two nights, usually stuff from the likes of Danielle Steele and Judith Krantz. My theory then and now is that the miniseries needs to have an epic quality about its subject matter. Think of the best miniseries, shows like Roots, Holocaust, Shogun, Winds of War, War and Remembrance and my personal favourite Centennial, and you'll realise that they all had an epic quality. Ironically the epic quality proved too disruptive to viewing habits which is supposed to explain why there are so few miniseries on network TV. Tom Hanks produced two magnificent examples of the miniseries with Band of Brothers and From the Earth to the Moon and he apparently has two more in various stages of production. From the Earth to the Moon is already out on DVD but this version runs five disks rather than four, which promises considerably more extra material.
Heathcliff and the Catillac Cats
- Never saw it, but this was one of a number of attempts to bring the Heathcliff comic strip to television. The Catillac Cats referred to in the title was actually a second segment which didn't interact with the Heathcliff character. This all occurred in a single half hour giving each segment about 12 minutes. The Heathcliff character was voiced by Mel Blanc which is always a plus.
Justice League Unlimited - Joining Forces
- I love this series. Character design is a cleaned up version of the comic book characters (cleaned up to make them easier to animate) and the producers have access - with some restrictions - to a huge number of characters. The second season introduced a major opponent for the League in the form of Amanda Waller and a suspicious US government. There's some intelligent and witty writing and on the whole the series works on several levels. Fans of the comics will definitely appreciate this.
Man Show: Boy and Household Hints from Adult Film Stars
- No idea but I have a suspicion that it's not the sort of comedy I'd enjoy.
My Dad the Rock Star Vol 1: Dad's Debut
- Not listed on Amazon.ca and I don't know much about it except that it was on Nickelodeon for 24 episodes
Ned and Stacey: The First Season
- We first got Fox (out of Rochester New York) in 1995 - about the time the UPN launched since the Rochester station was also serving as a UPN station on the weekends and other off hours. As a result Ned And Stacey wasn't exactly on my radar. The series ran for only two years and I can't think of any good reason for putting it out on DVD. I can think of a not so good reason, one of which is the current popularity of Debra Messing from Will & Grace and the other is Thomas Haden Church who earned an Academy Award nomination for Sideways. Reason enough? Maybe.
Penn & Teller's Magic and Mystery Tour
- Like Teller, not so crazy about Penn who can be a loud obnoxious jerk. This was a series that the two did for the CBC in 2003 in which they examine magic in China India and Egypt. I missed it (probably because I can't stand Penn) but it sounds like it has lots of potential and not just for fans.
The Pretender: Season 2
- Another series that I was never able to really get into although a great many people did. It was part of the last real gasp of NBC trying to produce new programming on Saturdays and probably the most successful of the shows, running for four seasons. Pretender fans tend to be rabid about the show so this box set will sell a lot of copies.
Ren & Stimpy Show: Season 5 and Some More of 4
- I really disliked Ren And Stimpy although when compared to my feelings for Beavis & Butthead my dislike for the cat and chihuahua is as nothing. Despite the fact that the show aired on Nickelodeon, I think it is fair to say that it isn't really aimed at kids. There is certainly an argument to be made that the quality of the show went down when the executives at Viacom forced out the show's creator John Kricfalusi (I certainly remember a great deal of anger and bitterness being expressed on the various Animation newsgroups, including comments from "John K" himself). The fifth season was in fact the show's last.
Rides: The Complete Second Season
- A Discovery Channel show about "tricked out cars" and their creators, hosted by Jason Priestley who is most assuredly a "car guy" to the point where he has driven in professional races (and was seriously injured in one). Never seen it.
SpongeBob SquarePants: Absorbing Favorites
- Although the SpongeBob SquarePants shows have been released in full season sets, Nickelodeon has also done what most producers of children's shows have done and released episodes with similar themes in single disk compilations. I have no idea what's on this one, but presumably it maximizes profits.
Taboo Complete Second Season
- I've never even heard of this series before. Apparently produced by the National Geographic Society it examines rites of passage, "body modification", religious practices and other activities that might be considered unacceptable or off-limits in our culture - "taking viewers beyond their comfort zones" as the National Geographic Channel's web page puts it. I gather that some of what they show is way beyond a few viewer's comfort zones. I've never seen it so I can't say much about it.
Teen Titans: Fear Itself - Season 2, Vol. 1
- I've only seen a couple of episodes of this and I have to confess that I am of two minds about it. The stories are on the whole fairly good, about what I'd expect from Bruce Timm, who has been producing superhero cartoons for almost fifteen years, starting with Batman back in 1992. On the whole the characters seem fairly close to their comic book realities. The problem I have with the show is the character design. The character design is clearly influenced by anime with an influence on big heads for most characters and disproportionately small bodies. I was a big fan of the comic back when George Perez and Marv Wolfman created it, and have enjoyed some of Bruce Timm's other work, most recently Justice League Unlimited. Character design on this is nowhere near as strong as either - at least not in my opinion.
Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda: Season 5, Collection 1
- I haven't seen the fifth season of Andromeda, in fact I've only seen a few episodes from the fourth season. I think I gave up on the series by the end of season three mainly because what they were doing had changed so much from what the original intent seemed to be. I know that a lot of people blame this on Kevin Sorbo and if that is the case, so be it. One thing is certain and that is that too much of the cast had changed between the third and fifth seasons. I did see the final episodes of Season Four though and it seemed like that shiny red reset button was being pushed which would take care of all the problems.
Batman: The Man Who Would Be Bat (Season 1 Vol. 2)
- I haven't seen the most recent version of the animated Batman so I really don't feel competent to comment beyond saying that I was a fan of the original Batman animated series of a few years ago, but this is from a different production company.
Battlestar Galactica: Season One
- A few weeks ago Best Buy released an "exclusive" version of Battlestar Galactica's first season. At the time I told you to wait for this one. The biggest and best reason is that this version includes the mini-series as well as the thirteen episodes of the first season. There are also commentary tracks for a number of episodes, eight featurettes, about 48 minutes of deleted scenes and a bunch of other stuff. Oh yes, and a trading card. Now given that Battlestar Galactica is one of the five best TV shows on right now - no matter what the results of the Emmy nominations let alone the actual awards indicated - it deserves the absolute best when it comes to presentation.
Clone High: The Complete First Season
- I've never seen this but from what I've read of the concept it sounds truly amazing - the greatest minds of all times (and John Kennedy too) cloned and attending high school together. The show was a Canadian production and aired on Teletoon but rose and eventually fell on the MTV network in the US - when they didn't renew the series and in fact didn't air the last five episodes - the series died.
Crime Story: Season 2
- Oh lord I loved this series, from the rendition of "Runaway" and the scenes of the cities in the 1950s in the opening credits (Chicago for about half the first season, Las Vegas in the second) right through to the end. The casting was absolutely letter perfect. It was the first time most people had seen Dennis Farina, and certainly the first time for the former Chicago cop to have such a big role. There was also Anthony Dennison (who I so rarely see on TV anymore) as Ray Luca as the main villain, Stephen Lang as the Federal attorney working with Farina's character, and such low lifes as a pre "Diceman" Andrew Clay, Ted Levine, and former real life jewel thief John Santucci as the dumb but dangerous Paulie Taglia
Desperate Housewives: The Complete First Season
- I'm not sure if Desperate Housewives really belonged in the comedy categories at the Emmys but what I can tell you is that it is a funny series, that doesn't restrict itself to the slapstick situations that Terri Hatcher's Susan finds herself in or the quiet desperation that Felicity Huffman's Lynette Scavo deals with when trying to be a good mother to her three little terrorists. The show is full of satire, both of the soap opera form - daytime and nighttime - and of cultural concepts, like Bree acting like a local Martha Stewart or the member of the high school's abstinence club having an affair with a married woman. Definitely worth the effort.
From the Earth to the Moon [The Signature Edition]
- I have a theory dating back to the heyday of the mini-series in the 1980s. In those days a mini-series amounted to a four hour movie shown on two nights, usually stuff from the likes of Danielle Steele and Judith Krantz. My theory then and now is that the miniseries needs to have an epic quality about its subject matter. Think of the best miniseries, shows like Roots, Holocaust, Shogun, Winds of War, War and Remembrance and my personal favourite Centennial, and you'll realise that they all had an epic quality. Ironically the epic quality proved too disruptive to viewing habits which is supposed to explain why there are so few miniseries on network TV. Tom Hanks produced two magnificent examples of the miniseries with Band of Brothers and From the Earth to the Moon and he apparently has two more in various stages of production. From the Earth to the Moon is already out on DVD but this version runs five disks rather than four, which promises considerably more extra material.
Heathcliff and the Catillac Cats
- Never saw it, but this was one of a number of attempts to bring the Heathcliff comic strip to television. The Catillac Cats referred to in the title was actually a second segment which didn't interact with the Heathcliff character. This all occurred in a single half hour giving each segment about 12 minutes. The Heathcliff character was voiced by Mel Blanc which is always a plus.
Justice League Unlimited - Joining Forces
- I love this series. Character design is a cleaned up version of the comic book characters (cleaned up to make them easier to animate) and the producers have access - with some restrictions - to a huge number of characters. The second season introduced a major opponent for the League in the form of Amanda Waller and a suspicious US government. There's some intelligent and witty writing and on the whole the series works on several levels. Fans of the comics will definitely appreciate this.
Man Show: Boy and Household Hints from Adult Film Stars
- No idea but I have a suspicion that it's not the sort of comedy I'd enjoy.
My Dad the Rock Star Vol 1: Dad's Debut
- Not listed on Amazon.ca and I don't know much about it except that it was on Nickelodeon for 24 episodes
Ned and Stacey: The First Season
- We first got Fox (out of Rochester New York) in 1995 - about the time the UPN launched since the Rochester station was also serving as a UPN station on the weekends and other off hours. As a result Ned And Stacey wasn't exactly on my radar. The series ran for only two years and I can't think of any good reason for putting it out on DVD. I can think of a not so good reason, one of which is the current popularity of Debra Messing from Will & Grace and the other is Thomas Haden Church who earned an Academy Award nomination for Sideways. Reason enough? Maybe.
Penn & Teller's Magic and Mystery Tour
- Like Teller, not so crazy about Penn who can be a loud obnoxious jerk. This was a series that the two did for the CBC in 2003 in which they examine magic in China India and Egypt. I missed it (probably because I can't stand Penn) but it sounds like it has lots of potential and not just for fans.
The Pretender: Season 2
- Another series that I was never able to really get into although a great many people did. It was part of the last real gasp of NBC trying to produce new programming on Saturdays and probably the most successful of the shows, running for four seasons. Pretender fans tend to be rabid about the show so this box set will sell a lot of copies.
Ren & Stimpy Show: Season 5 and Some More of 4
- I really disliked Ren And Stimpy although when compared to my feelings for Beavis & Butthead my dislike for the cat and chihuahua is as nothing. Despite the fact that the show aired on Nickelodeon, I think it is fair to say that it isn't really aimed at kids. There is certainly an argument to be made that the quality of the show went down when the executives at Viacom forced out the show's creator John Kricfalusi (I certainly remember a great deal of anger and bitterness being expressed on the various Animation newsgroups, including comments from "John K" himself). The fifth season was in fact the show's last.
Rides: The Complete Second Season
- A Discovery Channel show about "tricked out cars" and their creators, hosted by Jason Priestley who is most assuredly a "car guy" to the point where he has driven in professional races (and was seriously injured in one). Never seen it.
SpongeBob SquarePants: Absorbing Favorites
- Although the SpongeBob SquarePants shows have been released in full season sets, Nickelodeon has also done what most producers of children's shows have done and released episodes with similar themes in single disk compilations. I have no idea what's on this one, but presumably it maximizes profits.
Taboo Complete Second Season
- I've never even heard of this series before. Apparently produced by the National Geographic Society it examines rites of passage, "body modification", religious practices and other activities that might be considered unacceptable or off-limits in our culture - "taking viewers beyond their comfort zones" as the National Geographic Channel's web page puts it. I gather that some of what they show is way beyond a few viewer's comfort zones. I've never seen it so I can't say much about it.
Teen Titans: Fear Itself - Season 2, Vol. 1
- I've only seen a couple of episodes of this and I have to confess that I am of two minds about it. The stories are on the whole fairly good, about what I'd expect from Bruce Timm, who has been producing superhero cartoons for almost fifteen years, starting with Batman back in 1992. On the whole the characters seem fairly close to their comic book realities. The problem I have with the show is the character design. The character design is clearly influenced by anime with an influence on big heads for most characters and disproportionately small bodies. I was a big fan of the comic back when George Perez and Marv Wolfman created it, and have enjoyed some of Bruce Timm's other work, most recently Justice League Unlimited. Character design on this is nowhere near as strong as either - at least not in my opinion.
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