Mary McDonnell-related stories
Posted Jul 21st 2009 8:35AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S05E07) She's back. Clearly, the producers of
The Closer decided that Brenda needed an antagonist. Mary McDonnell has fit the bill. So far I think they've made her character a bit one-note, but I'm willing to see how she evolves over time. Or maybe it's just that I like Mary McDonnell.
Anyway, like internal affairs officers in most cop dramas, McDonnell's character, Captain Sharon Raydor of Force Investigation Division, seems to be anti-cop/pro-victim. Harry Callahan would hate her. She was better in this than
her previous episode, but not by much.
Continue reading The Closer: Strike Three
Posted Jul 17th 2009 10:02AM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, OpEd, Battlestar Galactica, Watercooler Talk, Awards, Emmys, Reality-Free
Every year I foolishly get excited that maybe this year the Emmys will reach out and nominate something different. But then it's the
same old nominees from the previous year. Even if a show has an off year, Emmy just goes ahead and nominates it again.
Of last year's six nominees for Drama Series, only one didn't make the cut this year. Lead Actor kept five of their six nominees as well, and Lead Actress kept all five nominees from last year. That's fifteen of 17 repeat contenders from last year in three categories. If Emmy hadn't added a slot each to Series and Actress it might have been a virtual rerun.
With all those repeats, there's no room to honor the final season of
Battlestar Galactica. Maybe Emmy voters look at the shows they picked last year and say "That's still on, right? Let's go with that." And they're done picking their nominees in less than ten minutes.
Continue reading On behalf of Battlestar Galactica, you suck, Emmy!
Posted Jun 23rd 2009 10:45AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S05E03) If you were
Kyra Sedgwick and you were asked to choose an episode of
The Closer for Emmy consideration, this would be a strong candidate. For one thing, Ms. Sedgwick was given a really strong adversary, another likely Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series,
Battlestar Galactica's Mary McDonnell. As Captain Sharon Raydor, Force Investigation Division, McDonnell made an immediate impression.
Oh, baby, did she ever! She took over investigating the crime scene, forcing out Major Crimes. Then Brenda met Sharon and the sparks flew. Under different circumstances, these women might have been good friends. Both are forces to be reckoned with, no-nonsense types. Under these circumstances, however, they were oil and water. More on the specifics of the case after the jump.
Continue reading The Closer: Red Tape
Posted Mar 21st 2009 12:19AM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: Battlestar Galactica, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S04E20) "Frakkity, frak. Don't talk back." (Apologies to Lieber and Stoller)
After four years of some of the best and most adult sci-fi in the history of television,
Battlestar Galactica draws to a close with a bang and then a whimper, with an overall satisfying ending that was as morally complex as any episode in the series.
Continue reading Battlestar Galactica: Daybreak, Part 2 (series finale)
Posted Mar 14th 2009 11:26AM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: Battlestar Galactica, Celebrities, Reality-Free
I'm not sure whether to laugh or cry.
A panel discussion is being held on March 17th at the United Nations in New York about
Battlestar Galactica and the themes the show covers, including
"human rights, children and armed conflict, terrorism, human rights and reconciliation and dialogue among civilizations and faith". Among the panelists are Edward James Olmos, Mary McDonnell, Ron Moore and Dick Eick.
This concept does seem a little trivial given the magnitude of the problems in the world today. However, government representatives in the U.N. are still people and if either they're BSG fans or feel a discussion of the issues would be relevant to their work today, more power to them. Mind you, they could have just attended Comic Con and gone to similar panels. I'm still not sure how to react to this.
Wait a minute. The moderator of the panel is Whoopi Goldberg. I've decided to laugh.
Posted Mar 14th 2009 12:45AM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: Battlestar Galactica, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S04E19) You can tell that this show is approaching the end. Tonight's episode had the credits and chanting immediately after the "previously" montage and didn't even show scenes from tonight's episode during the final part of the opening. Plus, it was written by the same guy who wrote the original mini-series way back when. That's a telling sign.
Caprica City looks like a high-tech New York City. That was probably intentional.
Continue reading Battlestar Galactica: Daybreak, Part 1
Posted Mar 6th 2009 11:54PM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: Battlestar Galactica, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S04E18) I know it's a little late in the game to make this sort of observation, what with the show having only two episodes left, but if I were to compare characters in this show to characters in
Gilligan's Island, I would say that Six is Ginger, Eight is Mary Ann and President Roslin is Mrs. Howell. Adama would naturally be the Skipper and Tigh would be Gilligan. I'm still working on Mr. Howell and the Professor.
In the beginning of the episode, either in someone's fantasy or projection or reality, Hera is moving the Galactica in a position next to the enemy Cylon fleet. Foreshadowing?
Continue reading Battlestar Galactica: Islanded in a Stream of Stars
Posted Feb 28th 2009 4:02AM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: Battlestar Galactica, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S04E17) Before I go all spoilery on tonight's episode, what was the tattoo on Starbuck's back? It looked like a temple of some sort. Was it the Temple of Five?
Tonight's episode had its share of "what the frak" moments. It had some revelations, but it created more mystery than it solved. I was a little annoyed at the tease of learning the secret behind Starbuck's resurrection that ultimately didn't happen.
Continue reading Battlestar Galactica: Someone to Watch Over Me
Posted Feb 21st 2009 3:03AM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: Battlestar Galactica, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S04E16) We've reached "The Final Five" on a few levels. Ellen Tigh is back, and it's good to know that despite being part of a species with a potentially infinite lifespan, she still gets jealous when her husband has a baby with someone else.
The minute Ellen came back, I knew the baby would miscarry. I believe it was Tigh, as one of the Cylon progenitors, that was keeping the unborn Liam alive (if the Cylons do in fact need love to survive). Once Ellen came back, it caused conflicting feelings and the baby was done for. I wonder if Caprica Six will try to exact revenge as a result and we'll see a Cylon catfight.
Continue reading Battlestar Galactica: Deadlock
Posted Feb 14th 2009 1:46AM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: Battlestar Galactica, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S04E05) Like so many TV shows before it (such as
24),
Battlestar Galactica is built on those "what the frak" moments in which the revelations continue to astound us. Between those WTF moments, there has to be some sort of explanation as to why the moment happened and the events leading to those moments. They're not as much fun, and rabid fanboys have a tendency to nitpick the frak out of them, but they're necessary to the narrative. Tonight's episode was heavy on exposition and light on WTF.
Obviously, we learned that Ellen Tigh resurrected (no surprise there) and she was apparently in charge of the project from 2000 years ago which created the human-style Cylon race. I didn't even catch all of the explanation. The following is what I did understand:
Continue reading Battlestar Galactica: No Exit
Posted Jan 17th 2009 3:16AM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: Battlestar Galactica, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S04E11) Note: technically the
Razor television movie counts as the first two episodes of the season, so this is actually episode 13. And what an episode it was! It answered the biggest question from the viewers and in the process created a few more.
FYI, the episode title is taken from the folk song
"Goodnight, Irene", which pretty much fits the theme of the episode.
I really liked Mary McDonnell's acting in this episode. I felt heartbroken at her breakdown upon discovering the remains of Earth and her inability to share the information with the fleet. Whenever things get bad, at least we're not on the run from homicidal machines with our last great hope for sanctuary a radioactive wasteland.
On to the spoilery bits!
Continue reading Battlestar Galactica: Sometimes a Great Notion
Posted Nov 14th 2008 8:03PM by Mike Moody
Filed under: Battlestar Galactica, Casting, Reality-Free
If you're like me, you're ready to follow your favorite
Battlestar Galactica cast members wherever they go, even if they end up on an ill-conceived star vehicle for Benjamin Bratt, (sorry Grace Park!). Thankfully, most of the
BSG alums seem to be moving in the right direction.
Mary McDonnell (Roslin) was great on a recent
Grey's Anatomy guest stint, and Katee Sackhoff (Starbuck) landed a guest gig on
Law and Order and is starring in a pilot produced by Dick Wolf. IMDb tells me that Jamie Bamber (Apollo) will play a cop in the upcoming
Law & Order: London. I'm sure most
BSG fans wouldn't mind sitting through a few procedural shows in order to keep an eye on these former Colonials, but will they follow them off the small screen and download their audio books?
Continue reading Battlestar Galactica actors move on ... to sci-fi audio books
Posted Sep 23rd 2008 6:00PM by Thomas DiChiara
Filed under: Battlestar Galactica, CSI, ER, Grey's Anatomy, How I Met Your Mother, Casting, Reality-Free
Let's get the bad/obvious news out of the way first:
Despite what ER showrunner David Zabel told TV Guide in a recent interview, George Clooney will not -- repeat NOT -- be returning to the show for it's 15th and final season.
According to Clooney's publicist, "He is on record as saying he is not coming back. It is something he has already done. He is busy making movies." If you're an optimist, though, you can always hope for a surprise Clooney return a la the 2000
ER season finale, in which Georgie showed up at the very end of Julianna Margulies' farewell ep.
On a more positive note, there are plenty of actors who ARE joining popular existing series or are attached to promising upcoming projects. A rundown of these casting coups ensues.
Continue reading Casting scoop: George Clooney, William Fichtner and more
Posted Jun 18th 2007 10:01AM by Kevin Kelly
Filed under: OpEd, Battlestar Galactica, The Shield, Entourage, TV Squad Lists, Hidden Palms
First I thought this would be a summer filled with possibly watching one or two summer series, and then catching up on the growing stack of books in my "to be read" pile ... but somehow it's morphed into the "DVR + TV shows on DVD Summer of Rock " *fanfare*. It's actually not that dramatic, but I like to stick fanfare in whenever I can. Theme songs are one thing, but fanfare can pepper mundane events with joy. "Here's your latte, sir." *fanfare* See what I mean?
Continue reading What I'm watching this summer: Kevin's list
Posted Feb 13th 2007 4:40PM by Anna Johns
Filed under: Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows, Battlestar Galactica, Sci Fi, Pickups and Renewals
It's official! Just as the
rumor mill predicted, the best show on television (
Battlestar Galactica) has been renewed for a fourth season. Production on another 13 episodes resumes this summer with a premiere date in January 2008.
SciFi apparently was waiting to renew to see how
BSG would do in its new 10 pm Sunday night timeslot, and apparently the network is happy with the numbers. As it should be. Ratings actually went up 8% when it moved from Fridays.
Although the SciFi announcement doesn't mention it, this should mean that there will also be a Battlestar Galactica movie sometime between the end of this season and the beginning of next season.
Back in January, producers David Eick and Ron Moore said they'll be making a straight-to-DVD, stand-alone flick if they get a fourth season.
[Thanks, Fullman!]
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