Posts with tag series
Posted Jul 30th 2007 11:19AM by Joel Keller
Filed under: Industry, TV on the Bigscreen, The Simpsons
If you noticed, we haven't done a lot of posts about
The Simpsons leading up to the release of
The Simpsons Movie. There are a few reasons for that: 1) it's a movie, and our friends at
Cinematical have that beat pretty well covered, 2) we did some
Simpsons stuff before its 400th episode, and 3)
everyone else was doing it.
But there's no denying that all the
promotional tie-ins,
Simpsonizing web sites, and just the general popularity of the show paid off, now that
the weekend's box office totals are in: the movie came in at #1 for the week, bringing in an impressive $71.9 million. Even Adam Sandler's latest epic,
I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, couldn't withstand the power of Yellow: it came in second with just over $19 million in sales.
Continue reading The Simpsons Movie rakes in $71.9 million
Posted Jun 14th 2007 1:29PM by Anna Johns
Filed under: Industry, Lost
Lost creators Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse recently made an appearance at a Promax/BDA conference where they made some promises about the series ending and provided some insight on extras they have planned for next season.
First of all, the two promising fans that they will not give the series a "murky" ending, like what happened with this week's
series finale of
The Sopranos. They said they will answer questions and explain the island's mysteries over the next 48 episodes.
Continue reading Lost creators promise answers, not Sopranos-style ending
Posted May 22nd 2007 12:02PM by Adam Finley
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, Celebrities
That's right, A&E has a new reality series, Confessions of a Matchmaker, set to debut on June 16 at 10:00 p.m. that is all about the art of making matches. Starting with the lumberjacks who chop down the trees for the matches and ending with the factory workers who create the match heads out of phosphorus sesquisulfide and potassium chlorate.
Hang on, someone just told me that's not what this series is about at all. It's actually about Patti Novak, a professional matchmaker who helps her clients find that special someone by using her own brand of "tough love." I'm guessing Novak's approach doesn't involve a lot of potassium chlorate, but maybe it should. I'm just saying.
Continue reading A&E begins Matchmaking June 16
Posted Apr 13th 2007 7:01AM by Michael Canfield
Filed under: OpEd, Shark, Episode Reviews
(S01E19) It's the saint versus the pornographer, as someone in the episode says. An internet pornographer is murdered, ostensibly by a single man who also runs his very own shelter for wayward young women. That's handy. Apparently this particular shelter is
the place in the Valley to find women with low self-esteem to lure into porn. By the way doesn't "internet pornographer" sound ever so much sleazier that just plain ol' pornographer? Evidently the
Shark writers think so.
It's no surprise when "the saint" is eventually revealed to have done business with the porn king, then got out of business with him, then fell in love with one of the women he was "rehabilitating" in his shelter, who then became a porn actress, who then ... oh, who cares?
Continue reading Shark: Porn Free
Posted Apr 6th 2007 7:41AM by Michael Canfield
Filed under: OpEd, Shark, Episode Reviews
(S01E18) All in all, I enjoyed t
his hostage-crisis episode better than the
previous hostage-crisis episode,
"The Wrath of Khan", the one in which attorney Alexis Cruz got axed.
Evan Handler gives an enjoyable performance as the poor loser who claims he's innocent and is looking at his third strike. Handler played Hurley's probably imaginary friend Dave, the
title character in a
Lost episode last season and, more recently, one of the two hacky comedy writers on
Studio 60, that Matthew Perry's character liked to bust on.
Continue reading Shark: Trial By Fire
Posted Mar 30th 2007 11:57AM by Michael Canfield
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, CBS, OpEd, Shark
(S01E17) Just under the wire,
Shark sneaks a new episode into the vast desolation of repeats that is March. This time, the plot concerns the racially-charged shooting of a drug dealer and his honor-student cousin by two cops. As usual, the true culprit is not the person who Stark initially charges with a crime, but rather the person who years and years of TV-watching has told us to expect it will be: the allegedly least-likely (and therefore,
most likely) candidate. The actual mystery here is why Isaac backed off his opportunity with Raina in San Diego some episodes ago. Isaac's ready to explain that now, but Raina's not in the mood, initially, to listen. She's reasonably suspicious that Isaac might just amount to a whole sack of drama and what does she need with that noise?
This is one of the better episodes. The plot-reversals, double-reversals, and triple-bogie re-re-re-reversals are not so outrageous as to sink the whole enterprise, and this allows some room for good character interaction.
Continue reading Shark: Backfire
Posted Mar 6th 2007 6:41AM by Michael Canfield
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows, NBC, OpEd, Heroes
(S02E18) "Company Man" last week gave us many dimensions of one character. This week's awesomeness gives us many events snowballing throughout the
Heroes universe. New characters, new secrets about old characters, and in anticipation of a month-plus hiatus, some tantalizing cliffhangers.
If this episode had been a football game, then I would say it was remarkable for its extraordinary number of turnovers. Time after time, when one character thinks he or she has the drop on another -- surprise! It isn't so.
Continue reading Heroes: Parasite
Posted Feb 26th 2007 10:36PM by Michael Canfield
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows, NBC, OpEd, Heroes
(S01E17) Damn, this is good TV.
Heroes has raised the bar for itself again. That's my review, thanks for stopping by, I look forward to reading your comments.
Seriously though, I don't know where to start. The show this week focuses on one main story: the life and career of that "company man," Mr. Bennet, the man with a hidden first name, aka HRG. He is, as we knew, mysterious, calculating, and deceptive. He's also intelligent, conflicted, and loving. Jack Coleman, who plays this character teasing out all his layered glory, deserves an Emmy based on this episode alone.
Continue reading Heroes: Company Man
Posted Feb 23rd 2007 8:41AM by Michael Canfield
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, CBS, OpEd, Shark
(S01E16) Incredible. I don't mean that as a compliment. First we are supposed to believe that 16-year-old Julie is able to keep her DWI arrest secret from a parent for an extended period. Even with Isaac covering for her, I don't buy it. Even the media finds out before Stark! And what kind of person is Isaac? He doesn't call Stark
that night? Isaac is an adult, and he's keeping secrets with his friend's kid? Well, he is the guy who recommended the world's lamest bodyguard for Julie recently, so maybe I expect too much of him. All I know is Det. Baldwin Jones would never have messed this up
This isn't done because it makes sense however, but merely to set Stark up for a big feeling of betrayal to mirror the one he's going to get from this week's case...
Continue reading Shark: Blind Trust
Posted Feb 20th 2007 7:26AM by Michael Canfield
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows, NBC, OpEd, Heroes
(S01E16) See, this is what happens when you give an ex-junkie a gun just in case a human bomb turns up, and tell him to use it to "save the world." Not HRG's best strategy, and a tragedy for Simone (
Tawny Cypress). I think Nathan, succumbing to the more cynical side of his nature, will be relieved by this turn of events, because of his fears over Simone's earlier stated intention to go public with her knowledge of special abilities. Not that Simone would have been believed any more that Claire was when she opened up to her Mom's doctor.
Nathan, by the way, tells Simone exactly how he would handle persons with special abilities: treat them like lab rats and isolate them. This, as we know, is pretty much the philosophy of HRG's organization, anyhow.
Continue reading Heroes: Unexpected
Posted Feb 16th 2007 11:24AM by Michael Canfield
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, CBS, OpEd, Shark
(S01E15) Tim Matheson guest stars as a judge and charter member of the Los Angeles Stark-Haters Club, an evidently very large and influential organization. He's also a careerist and a hypocrite. Sebastian quickly realizes the judge is guilty of murdering his own wife, and with that you have your quintessential
Shark ingredients
. Matheson does a good job playing the self-righteously self-righteous judge, who early-on accuses Stark of going after him because of his tough law-and-order case rulings, and finishes-up accusing Stark of homophobia. Stark's consistent though. He goes after the judge, not because of any personal or political ax to grind, but, well, because of the whole murdering-his-spouse thing.
Continue reading Shark: Here Comes the Judge
Posted Feb 13th 2007 7:27AM by Michael Canfield
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows, NBC, OpEd, Heroes
(S01E15) A rough week for some of the heroes makes for another pretty good episode, especially the Parkman and Jessica stuff.
For once, things
appear to be going Matt Parkman's way. He's beaming as he heads off for his first day on a new job as private security. His client turns out to be an a-hole. Matt has
not gotten used to overhearing the negative thoughts everyone he meets seems to have of him.
Just in from Vegas, recently-liberated Jessica has a new job herself; it's the first of what may be many contracts from Mr. Linderman. The cat-and-mouse chase up and down the stairwells was intense. So was Matt's near fatal fall. Jessica chucks him out a high window before finishing what she came to Los Angeles to do. Say what you will about Jessica, but she certainly enjoys herself more than Niki ever has. It was cool that Matt read both Niki's and Jessica's thoughts as they argued in the stairwell.
[Note: that's how I interpreted Jessica & Niki's exchange in the stairwell anyway. See comments by Michelle @ 13 and Bill @16, etc. below.] Wherever they go, the mirror-twins seem to encounter an ample supply of reflective surfaces.
Continue reading Heroes: Run!
Posted Feb 9th 2007 10:03AM by Michael Canfield
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, CBS, OpEd, Shark
(S01E14) Yeesh. This episode was one silly drawn-out mess.
A Britney/Paris/Lindsay type starlet is run off the road and killed. Initially the paparazzi seem to be responsible, adding a touch of the Princess Di tragedy to the mix. There's a possible stalker angle. There is molestation by step-parent: a middle-aged man with an earring. An opportunistic kid sister. A fake celebrity feud started for "cross-promotional purposes." All this gives Stark and the rest of the High Profile Crime Unit plenty of beautiful people to sneer at, although, strangely, none of the guest performers cast as the various young celebrities are nearly as attractive as the gorgeous cast of series regulars.
Continue reading Shark: Starlet Fever
Posted Feb 6th 2007 12:09PM by Julia Ward
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, NBC, FOX, Industry, Programming, BBC
For some reason, ideas in Hollywood come in pairs. Two asteroid movies. Two volcano movies. Two "backstage at
SNL" shows. Here's another interesting two-fer I spotted when reading the
latest casting reports. Both Fox and NBC have comedies in the works that will feature wheelchair-bound leads.
Playing Chicken, Fox's pilot, will star Broadway baby Norbert Leo Butz as a "loudmouthed conservative" who is forced to move in with his lefty brother after an accident leaves him disabled. NBC's comedy
I'm With Stupid focuses on two guys living in an assisted living facility. Christopher Thornton (pictured), who co-stars with Kevin Daniels in
I'm With Stupid, was paralyzed from the waist down after a rock-climbing accident in 1992.
Continue reading Two network series to feature wheelchair-bound leads
Posted Feb 6th 2007 7:25AM by Michael Canfield
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows, NBC, OpEd, Heroes
(S01E14) Before the heroes can eliminate troublesome distractions they must discover what their own true distractions are.
Claude is a kick, and Peter finds out the hard way that he is also quite the hands-on teacher. The invisible Claude might be cynical and a misanthrope, but he does get results. Being thrown off a thirty-story building quickly clarifies things for Peter, though his subsequent revelation is exactly the opposite of Claude's philosophy. And Peter's breakthrough makes him more clearly a kind of anti-Sylar. Each absorbs powers, Sylar does it while killing, Peter does it by allowing himself to feel a life-affirming connection to the other heroes he has caught an ability from. It starts with a memory of Claire, who we now know ...
Continue reading Heroes: Distractions
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