The CW-related stories
Posted Nov 7th 2009 1:08AM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: Smallville, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S09E07) If
Smallville continues to produce episodes of good quality like tonight's, I may have to take back some of the things I've been saying about it. Seriously.
Tonight we got a lot of backstory and explanation about some of the stranger aspects of the
Smallville universe. Why is Earth such a magnet for Kryptonians, dead or otherwise? Because Krypton has been observing Earth for a long, long time and designated the planet as a bolt-hole. We also learned more about that Kryptonian artifact that has been a mystery in
Smallville for a few seasons now.
All this and no Lois, too.
Continue reading Review: Smallville - Kandor
Posted Nov 6th 2009 2:08PM by Jane Boursaw
Filed under: OpEd, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free, Vampire Diaries
(S01E08) "It's not every day a guy turns 162 years old." - Lexi to Stefan on his birthday
What?! Nooooo! They keep bringing in these great characters and then killing them off! Hopefully, they're just stashing the bodies somewhere for a mass resurrection at some point. And, by the way, I totally did not see that coming.
The Vampire Diaries started out great and continues to get better each week. It's so beautifully dark and gloomy. I love the Salvatore's gothic digs, and Stefan is showing considerable restraint at not offing his bad, bad brother Damon.
Continue reading Review: The Vampire Diaries - 162 Candles
Posted Nov 3rd 2009 12:42PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Industry, Programming, Web, Hardware, Reality-Free
The Wall Street Journal's All Things Digital blog is reporting that Apple is having meetings with TV networks to see if they'd be interested in having their programs available on iTunes in a deal where viewers would pay a monthly flat fee to watch the shows.
Obviously, many networks already offer various shows on iTunes, but this would be a scenario where
Mac and PC users of iTunes would pay a $30 a month subscription in order to watch TV shows. And that would be all shows, not just paying for each show that you want to watch.
Continue reading Would you watch TV on iTunes for $30 a month?
Posted Nov 3rd 2009 1:30AM by Isabelle Carreau
Filed under: OpEd, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free, Gossip Girl
(S03E08) "Bla
ir and Serena at war again? Yummy!" - Gossip Girl
I disagree with Gossip Girl on this. Blair and Serena at war again? Same old. Same old. Once again, Blair and Serena are at odds while wanting to be friends. Can we move on?
I'm tired of Blair and Serena breaking up, making up, fighting, backstabbing one another, not understanding one another, etc. I hope the writers planned for the duo to not cross paths for a few episodes so we can get some quiet time before they fight some more and then make up.
Continue reading Review: Gossip Girl - The Grandfather Part II
Posted Oct 31st 2009 12:03AM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: Smallville, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S09E06) Tonight's episode had everything but the metaphorical kitchen sink. There was a lot going on. We had the rather amusing attempt by Lois to score a morning show job, the start of Green Arrow finding his sidekick Speedy and a little more Tess/Zod action.
In all the years I've watched or read Superman in various forms, I've never seen him go on an online date. I would have enjoyed watching more of that, particularly with Lois whispering in his ear. Isn't it illegal to tape someone without their permission (unless you're the government)? What would Clark write on his profile anyway? " Can lift cars, run real fast and shoot lasers out of my eyes. No Kryptonite, please. Must love farm animals."
Continue reading Review: Smallville - Crossfire
Posted Oct 30th 2009 3:12PM by Jane Boursaw
Filed under: OpEd, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free, Vampire Diaries
(S01E07) "So she's a vampire with issues?" - Elena to Stefan about Vicki
Well! In case you haven't watched this week's episode yet, I'll save the big spoiler for after the jump. Suffice to say that things are jumping in
The Vampire Diaries, and for some characters, that's not necessarily a good thing.
I continue to love the show and look forward to it every week (and was seriously bummed when it wasn't on last week!). In a sea of mediocre new shows (well, mediocre to me anyway), that IS a good thing.
Continue reading Review: The Vampire Diaries - Haunted
Posted Oct 30th 2009 3:00PM by Isabelle Carreau
Filed under: Spoilers Anonymous, Reality-Free
This is Spoilers Anonymous, a weekly column here at TV Squad where we supply you with the dirt on some of the more popular shows on the air. We'll never put spoilers up here on the main page in order to help the reformed stay unspoiled. If you have anything to add to the group, feel free to step up and let yourself be heard, either with our tips form or by emailing us at tvsquad at gmail dot com, or call and leave a message at (775) 640-8479. Your anonymity is guaranteed, if you wish to remain as such.
This week we have spoilers for November Sweeps: 90210, Bones, Castle, Desperate Housewives, FlashForward, Fringe, Ghost Whisperer, Gossip Girl, Grey's Anatomy, Heroes, How I Met Your Mother, Melrose Place, NCIS, Smallville, Supernatural, Ugly Betty, The Big Bang Theory, The Mentalist and The Office. (SPOILERS FOLLOW!)Continue reading Spoilers Anonymous: November Sweeps Edition
Posted Oct 29th 2009 1:00PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Industry, Programming, Reality-Free, Gossip Girl, Fringe
TV Guide has released their list of shows that are safe for the rest of the season and those that are "on the bubble," the shows that are in danger of being canceled. There are a lot of shows on the latter list that aren't a surprise, such as
Hank,
Gary Unmarried,
Cold Case, and
The Forgotten (I'm surprised
Cold Case even made it to another season).
But among the list of shows are a few that I didn't think were in danger, including
Gossip Girl and
Fringe. I know that
Gossip Girl isn't a show that gets incredible ratings, but that describes The CW in general, and I figure that even if it gets low ratings it's sort of the network's signature show. As for
Fringe, the ratings are a lot worse this season than last season, but it would still surprise me if the show went away, especially since it has its fan base and it's produced by JJ Abrams.
Any other shows on the list that surprise you?
Posted Oct 29th 2009 9:36AM by Mike Moody
Filed under: Industry, Smallville, Reality-Free
Smallville really is the show that won't die.
After more than eight years, numerous cast departures, and countless recycled plotlines,
Smallville might be
headed for a tenth season, producer Kelly Souders told EW. Somehow, the veteran superhero series manages to stay on the air while shows like
Southland and
Trauma can't seem to make it past season one.
Smallville has experienced a drop in ratings since its recent move to Friday nights on The CW, but Souders says the drop off hasn't been that bad. Last week's episode, "
Roulette," attracted 2.5 million viewers, a season high for the series. It shared third place in the ratings with ABC for the 8 p.m. hour. That's not terrible for a CW show in its ninth season.
Continue reading Smallville producers pushing for a tenth season
Posted Oct 27th 2009 12:21AM by Isabelle Carreau
Filed under: OpEd, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free, Gossip Girl
(S03E07) "Time to get to work ruling the Kingdom." - Jenny
It was only a matter of time before Jenny started acting like a real Queen Bee. Mind you, even after this week's events, Jenny is still nowhere near as evil as Blair was, but she is definitely not Little J anymore.
While Jenny ruled her kingdom, Chuck tried to do the same with the launch of his new club. He wanted to launch his club honestly and by himself. As expected, things didn't go as planned, but that doesn't mean he isn't happy with the end product, eh?
Continue reading Review: Gossip Girl - How to Succeed in Bassness
Posted Oct 26th 2009 5:03PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Industry, Programming, Commercials, Reality-Free
So, let's say TV Squad wanted to have a 30-second ad on CBS' highest-rated show,
NCIS. It would cost us $133,304. It would actually cost more, because we'd hire scantily-clad dancers, include a 35 pound bag of Doritios, fireworks in the shape of each writer, guest appearances from people like Tina Fey and JJ Abrams, and would have special effects because some of the commercial would be set in outer space for some reason, but I mean CBS would charge us $133,304.
To give you an idea of how that stacks up against other shows on CBS and shows on other networks, here's a quick list.
Continue reading If TV Squad had a 30-second ad on NCIS, it would cost $133,304
Posted Oct 24th 2009 2:05AM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: Smallville, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S09E05) Tonight we get an Oliver-centric episode that finally resolves his issues. Good! Now we can get to the more interesting dramas of the series such as that with Major Zod and his time-traveling Kryptonian army.
I had a myriad of questions about certain inconsistencies of the episode. No matter how wrecked Oliver was, how did he get so stupid as to swallow a pill given to him by a stranger in a casino? How did he get a flashlight while in the coffin? What casino takes car keys as collateral? Fortunately, they wrapped it up all neatly at the end by blaming Chloe for all his troubles during the episode.
Continue reading Review: Smallville - Roulette
Posted Oct 22nd 2009 8:02AM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: OpEd, Pickups and Renewals, Reality-Free, Vampire Diaries
This vampire thing could be getting to the point of oversaturation. Bram Stoker is to blame for inventing the concept. However, vampire fans and those that frequent Hot Topic can rejoice because the CW has ordered a
full season of the freshman series The Vampire Diaries. This is opposed to the still-struggling revamp of
Melrose Place which has only had five additional episodes requested of it.
Between
True Blood,
The Vampire Diaries and the ever-immortal
Buffy the Vampire Slayer (which I still count despite being long off the air), you'd think television has had enough of our fanged friends. Perhaps other series should start involving vampires in order to boost ratings.
Continue reading More Vampire Diaries to be forthcoming
Posted Oct 20th 2009 2:40AM by Isabelle Carreau
Filed under: OpEd, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free, Gossip Girl
(S03E06) "What are friends for?" - Vanessa to Dan
Thanks to
Gossip Girl,
Firefly's Gina Torres is back on TV! It was about time that this fantastic actress returned to the small screen. Torres plays Vanessa's mother, Gabriela, and is set to appear in a few episodes. This new character finally allowed the viewers to know more about Vanessa, who's been a background character/sidekick for the past seasons.
As it was posted here before, I wasn't able to watch the episode live but allowed you to post your comments in a temp post. Here we go with my review, which includes some of the comments you left.
Continue reading Review: Gossip Girl - Enough About Eve
Posted Oct 17th 2009 1:39AM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: Smallville, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S09E04) It's when the writers give Clark abilities he's not supposed to have that I begin to worry, like his "reconstruct the Great Wall of China" vision from
Superman IV. Thankfully, in this instance it was yet another of Jor-El's senseless tests and only temporary.
Admittedly, I don't get the title "Echo" for this episode. Is it that Oliver is an echo of his former self? Is it that he's turning the path back to heroism? It certainly seems that way.
Since Clark has switched to the black outfit, I hope people (including Lois) stop calling him the "red-blue blur". Now he's just the Blur. Or maybe the Black Blur, but that could be construed as slightly racist.
Continue reading Review: Smallville - Echo
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