CchPounder-related stories
Posted Sep 16th 2009 3:20AM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows, OpEd, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S01E12) Look at that, Myka's dad is Saul Tigh (Michael Hogan). And like most of the high caliber sci-fi guest stars so far this season, he's relegated to a bit role. Not to say that he isn't front-and-center to the action, because he is. But as much as he's at the center of the activity, he spends most of the episode inactive.
As you may have guessed by the title, this episode dealt with artifacts relating to Edgar Allan Poe, and there was some clever trickery utilizing Poe's most iconic visions. But the title might allude to something greater: the impending and climactic battle with MacPherson set to take place in next week's finale (is it here already?).
Interestingly enough, even though this was the big episode leading into the finale, it turned out to be little more than a generic bag-it-and-tag-it kind of mission, albeit with a very personal touch. I enjoyed seeing Myka's family and her father's bookstore. We learned a lot about her character and personality just from this short time with her family.
Continue reading Warehouse 13: Nevermore
Posted Sep 14th 2009 1:36PM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Reality-Free, Press Kits Unwrapped
FOX's new family Friday night sitcom
Brothers seems like a relatively (see what I did there?) low key and uninspiring bit of prime time. And that's coming from someone who hasn't seen it yet. Call it my "suck sense." (I see
Cop Rock.)
It is nice, however, to see the multi-camera, live audience sitcom making a comeback to the big three networks (four if you count the CW). They almost feel like a warm hug from the past, reminding me that they haven't forgotten me or the shows I remembering watching instead of getting regular exercise or dating.
The same things can be said for the show's official press kit.
Continue reading Press Kits Unwrapped: Brothers
Posted Sep 9th 2009 1:02AM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows, OpEd, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
If you think about it, the Warehouse has to be one of the most unpredictable and dangerous places on the planet. We've seen what can happen when one artifact gets out of control, or when two work in tandem. There are possibly millions of artifacts housed in there, and most of them are just lying on a shelf. What if, say, a zip line were to break and come collapsing across the tops of hundreds of those shelves, scattering artifacts about?
That would be bad.
That is what happened while Artie was away having an "adventure" of his own. Pete and Myka popped in to the Warehouse to see how Claudia was doing, only to find all hell slowly breaking loose. In Claudia's defense, it wasn't entirely her fault this time.
Continue reading Warehouse 13: Breakdown
Posted Aug 19th 2009 12:16PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows, OpEd, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S01E07) That certainly didn't feel like the seventh episode of
Warehouse 13. It felt more like the third, only with an added scene to try and explain away Claudia's absence. And that's what I'm going with.
The level of distrust between Pete & Myka and Artie was reset to earlier in the season, as was the secret keeping he was doing. It's beginning to make me wonder if originally CCH Pounder was going to have a more prominent role, as was Leena. Then when Pounder got picked up for FOX's
Brothers, she pulled back on
Warehouse 13 to recurring status, and we got the Claudia evolution. Which was a good thing.
Continue reading Warehouse 13: Implosion
Posted Jul 17th 2009 12:02PM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Awards, Emmys, Reality-Free
Television is a vast alien landscape of shows, programs and other watchables. So the odds of a really good show not getting special recognition are about as good as Michael Chiklis' chances of his noggin being mistaken for a shiny, beige Brunswick in a bowling alley.
The Emmys also tend to favor younger shows rather than the oldies that have had their chance to win some awards because the best stuff on television is always fresher out of the gate. It's just the beast of the cycle. Great movies age like a fine cheese. Great TV shows age like spray cheese.
The Shield, however, got totally snubbed from this year's nomination list. And is that something the Academy really wants to do to a guy with a hair trigger anger who considers a Smith and Wesson as his "backup piece"? (I should ask myself the same thing after that bowling ball noggin joke.)
Continue reading The Shield gets the big ol' cold shoulder from the Emmy collective
Posted Jul 8th 2009 4:35PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S01E01) The creators titled this "Pilot," but I'm going to dub it "Another Reason I Want
Brothers to Fail on FOX." CCH Pounder is such a talent I really prefer her on a good show. With
Battlestar Galactica gone, there's going to be a lot of scrutiny on the network's new offerings, and while this doesn't seem to have the depth and complexity of
BSG, it's a perfect companion to shows like
Eureka and
Sanctuary.
It even channels a lot of the latter in that it deals with ancient mystical forces, albeit in the form of artifacts instead of creatures. It also has a huge facility to house and protect them, and the world from them. To take it one step further, CCH Pounder's Mrs. Frederic may be much older than she appears, and my money's out on Leena having a similar genetic disposition and possibly being Mrs. Frederic's daughter. These mysteries are barely touched on in the pilot which means there's layers. But how does the show stack up on the surface?
Continue reading Warehouse 13: Pilot (series premiere)
Posted Jul 7th 2009 9:42PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Other Comedy Shows, Programming, OpEd, Upfronts, Reality-Free
While it was a little odd that the "screener" of
Glee we got was the exact same episode that FOX aired after
American Idol in the spring, the rest of these shows were truly new. Dramatic offerings included FOX's loose adaptation of the DC Comics property
Human Target and
Past Life. On the comedy side they offered us screeners for
The Cleveland Show, Brothers, Sons of Tucson and the aforementioned
Glee.
After enduring the screener for
Do Not Disturb last season on FOX, I could only hope that these offerings were at least better than that offense to the senses. And they were. Well, most of them. Unfortunately, it seems that FOX has at least one
Do Not Disturb in them every season. Other than that, one of these shows was far better than I expected, another a bit worse, and a third one stands as one of the better pilots I've ever seen.
Continue reading TV Squad previews FOX's new shows
Posted Aug 20th 2008 10:03AM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Programming, OpEd, The Shield
Already announced was that the seventh and final season of the amazing
The Shield will premiere on September 2nd, but now comes word that it will
The Shield finale will air November 25th. I know that gives us the full thirteen episodes promised but as it's been more than a year since we've had a new episode to chew on, forgive me if this suddenly feels like a really short-lived reunion. There is something so magically beautiful about what Shawn Ryan has created here; I'll go ahead and dub it the best cop show I've ever seen on television.
The thing you have to wonder about is how it's all going to end, and I do believe Ryan will give us a definitive ending here. Vic Mackey has been the "hero" of the series, but still ... should the Strike Team get away with all the shit they've pulled over the past six seasons? Shane's treatment of Lemansky deserves retribution, but is Shane necessarily a worse guy than Mackey? Remember how the first episode wrapped. There is a line of victims behind these guys, and each one is in it as deep as the guy next to him.
Continue reading No more hiatuses: The Shield will be over in three months
Posted Jul 16th 2008 2:02AM by Joel Keller
Filed under: Industry, The Shield, TCA Press Tour, Damages, Reality-Free
The FX panels on Tuesday were pretty uneventful,
aside from the news from network president John Landgraf. There was supposed to be a panel for
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, but that was mysteriously dropped from the schedule. I'm guessing that the boys figured they'd get too hammered at the FOX party the night before to handle questions from the reporters. Indeed, I witnessed Rob McElhenny and Glenn Howerton try to ride the Tilt-a-Whirl at the Santa Monica pier right after they pounded a couple of beers. Maybe canceling the panel was a smart idea.
Anyway, the three shows that paneled were
Damages, Sons of Anarchy, and
The Shield. More on what transpired after the jump.
Continue reading FX Round-up: Shield finale, Sons of Anarchy, and some words from Ted Danson - TCA Report
Posted Apr 11th 2008 5:20PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Casting, Reality-Free
It's always a good thing when an Oscar winner deigns to do TV, and based on her past efforts, I have high hopes for
The Tower knowing that Marcia Gay Harden has joined the cast. The Tower, is a
new CBS pilot about a group of Chicago reporters. Marcia Gay Harden is going to play Zoe, the millionaire owner of the newspaper, the leader of the pack.
Since winning the 2001 best supporting Oscar for
Pollack, which was directed and co-starred
her husband Ed Harris, Marcia's gone back and forth between TV and features. She received another Oscar nom for
Mystic River in 2004, and last season did a memorable -- and Emmy nominated -- turn as a determined, driven FBI agent on
Law & Order: SVU.
Continue reading Marcia Gay Harden joins CBS pilot
Posted Feb 21st 2006 11:26PM by Keith McDuffee
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Cable, OpEd, The Shield
I think the big event of this episode wasn't all that shocking to most of us, given what was shown in last
week's preview. One thing that did hit me as a potential cool twist was possibility that the Strike Team would find a
new home outside the Barn, and I'm not talking about jail.
I have to say that I thought Vic was losing his
edge quite a bit when talking with his lawyer, though thankfully the writers made up for it during the meeting with
Corinne. Vic was ready to throw out some incredibly lame excuses for taking $65k for his family, though his chose to
take his licks and make sure his kids are taken care of.
Continue reading The Shield: Man Inside
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