Tag Archives: tv

18/04/2010
18:48
by: Cristi

Dailies #51

– Revelations (S1) - Bill Pullman and Natascha McElhone lured me in, the plot and the dialogue lured me out after two episodes. To be avoided.

– Parenthood (S1) — with a cast comprised of Lauren Graham, Peter Krause, Craig T. Nelson, Monica Potter and Erika Christensen, the show was the star-studded hope-filled debut of the new season. Too bad the writing was hilariously awful. Ran out after three episodes. To be avoided.

– Life Unexpected (S1) – described as Gilmore Girls meets Everwood and featuring Shiri Appleby, the show was not be missed. While the dialogue has its decent moments, although it’s no E/GG, not even by far, the twist and turns were laughably obvious. Abandoned all hope after four episodes. To be avoided.

– Southland (S1) – the cop version of ER, or at least that’s what they were hoping for. Unfortunately, it’s nothing like ER, not by any standard. Bad acting, writing and direction send this mess straight into nowhere. I don’t know how I managed to finish the entire season cause this surely isn’t so bad that it’s good. Just bad enough. To be avoided.

– Human Target (S1) – a bad translation of a great comic-book series. Mark Valley finally got his opening, although, at 45, he is pushing it a bit close, and he sizzles every step of the way. Chi McBride and Jackie Earle Haley act as the lovable bickering sidekick couple America always falls in love with. The problem is the writing – the show tries to much to be a ’80′s series – combining Magnum, MacGyver and The A-Team into a modern Robin Hood meets 007.  It ignores the essence of Human Target – there is no human target, he’s just an insane bodyguard in a extremely vanilla, thus boring, adamantly uninspired caper show with strictly stand-alone stories. Monster-of-the-week themes, as with almost everybody else, bore me to tears. The single redeeming quality of the show is the presence of Amy Acker in an episode, but that’s about it. To be avoided.

– Wow, now this weekend sucked big time. And with just seven days of freedom left. The 25th of May brings on the first exam, therefore the 25th of April is the day I begin the awesome task of reading, re-reading, analyzing, disecting, understanding and memorising of 2000+ pages of law annals. Good times all around. The only decent thing this week? I ran into some spare change (54ron) so I’m treating myself with used copies of:

Cities In Flight
Chasm City
The Prefect

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16/04/2010
12:10
by: Cristi

Field Mice (Lab Rats No More)

…sometimes dreams do come true.

It’s been a long time since I’ve said my goodbyes to the CSI gang so imagine my shock when, 15 months later, I see a long-lost-love appear in a tv commercial for the next episode. Me being me, my curiosity gets the better of the situation and I end up watching all 32 new episodes since the departure of Grissom in less than 32 hours. Sara did return to the show, but the balance isn’t as it was – without Grissom and Warrick. It was a fun, albeit emotionless rocking good time, but this truly is the end of the line – even if good old Gil comes back. Goodbye, guys, it’s been a pleasure.

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10/04/2010
11:52
by: Cristi

Vacation

These past few days I’ve been watching the reimagined version of The Outer Limits and it put me in the mood for new stuff. Thankfully the DVD gods have been kind to me because recently the following goodies have been released and thus added to my collection:

Kolchak: The Night Stalker, the original series, the two movies, plus the new series, Night Stalker.
Rod Serling’s terrific Night Gallery, a worthy follow-up to The Twilight Zone.
Spielberg’s Amazing Stories, another great long-lost f&sf/horror anthology.
Tremors, a daft and hilarious follow-up to the Tremors quadrology.

I would, in fact, watch all of them in a typical week-long inhuman marathon, but these days I’m busy with Alex’s Xbox360 trying to finish Dante’s Inferno, Darksiders & The Saboteur. I’m between half and the last third of the game on each of them, but the action is repetitive as hell, the gameplay is annoying at times, the save game systems are lousy and there are some truly idiotic structures, in Saboteur especially. And this is after dropping Assassin’s Creed II and Final Fantasy XIII right off the bat. Oh, well, they can’t all be Gears of War or Dead Space.

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04/04/2010
08:18
by: Cristi

Dailies #50

– 50 years to the day from the original Kubrick version of Spartacus comes Spartacus: Blood and Sand, a 300 style version of the old days, the bad days, the all-or-nothing days. Whilst lacking Kubrick‘s vision – the depth of the story or the complexity of the characters, this saga is produced by Starz, pay-for-cable, thus while superficial, we receive excessive blood, demented Tarantino-esque violence, gratuitous nudity and depraved eroticism, all in a (mostly) well-researched and perfectly restored Ancient Rome. You don’t get the same bang for the buck as say Rome, but, to be honest, when do you? If you’re willing to let yourself be entertained by decent stories, ok twists, good acting and a beautiful Rome, are willing to overlook extreme violence in extreme slow motion and daily orgies, this is for you – and if you’re still on the fence, think of it as a combination of Caligula and The Gladiator, and if you don’t care for either, this isn’t for you.

– Tried to watch Fear Itself. Pure and unfailing garbage that revels in its atrocious writing, nauseating acting, dreadful directing and, last but not least, excessive misuse of horror staples in the worst ways possible. I couldn’t even manage to finish the last episode. Unabashed filth. Compared to this rubbish, Masters of Horror starts to look like a <1990 John Carpenter masterpiece.

– FYI: I’m fighting the urge to rewatch the entire 15 seasons of ER with everything I have. I miss the whole bloody mess – loveable Mark, douchy Doug, adorable Susan, ridiculously young Carter and, most of all, bitchy Kerry and hellish Romano. Even the next generation – Abby, Neela, Morris etc, them too.

– Your favorite book sucks: one-star Amazon reviews of the classics. “It is because of this horrid book that I eat sausage every morning and tell my dad to kill every spider I see”.

– Alabama senior one of 18 students punished for violating prom dress code. She chose suspension. The other 17? “Spank me, Mr. Principal.” Giggity.

– Two dozen naked women march in Portland, Maine. Organizer “enraged” that a thousand men showed up to ogle and cheer.

– Lottery winner dies after blowing 9 million pounds on drink, racehorses and football.

– Wil Wheaton divides by Wil Wheaton.

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23/03/2010
18:29
by: Cristi

Dailies #49

– Trailer for the new Futurama episode. All glory to the Hypnotoad.

– Poll: People are more likely to support Healthcare reform when they know that the GOP opposes it.

– While everyone was arguing about Healthcare reform, Congress quietly proposed the biggest deficit reduction bill since 1993.

– Today is the 100th anniversary of the birth of Akira Kurosawa. To celebrate, Turner Classic Movies will be broadcasting a 24 hour marathon of 13 of his films.

– Jon Stewart: “He’s just like our last president”. Texas school board member: “Somebody needs to stand up to the experts”. Jon Stewart: “Wow, he really is just like our last president.”

– Newt Gingrich compares health care reform to the civil rights movement: “They will destroy their party much as Lyndon Johnson shattered the Democratic Party for 40 years with the enactment of civil rights legislation in the 1960s”.

– Former 1st Lieutenant in the Marines during WWII passes away at the age of 93. She was also a Hollywood dancer, college professor, Amazonian explorer, award-winning photographer, and loving mother. They don’t make ‘em like her anymore.

– Went through the entire two seasons of Breaking Bad in less than 48 hours. Good times. Critically acclaimed and long forgotten on the to-be-viewed pile, it was finally released on dvd last week so I jumped on it. Turns out it’s just as good as advertised – fresh and hilarious, featuring a great cast ensemble, it proves to be an edgy and highly addictive treat for any tv couch-potato. Recommended.

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13/03/2010
09:05
by: Cristi

Cause and Effect

And thus another good tv show comes to an end (6×16). We’ve had our ups and downs, but the show remained interesting throughout. The relationship issues that bothered me along the way have since resolved themselves and now everyone is going to live happily ever after. After the bitter ending of season four and the quasi-snooze-fest that was season five, season six, although not as much as season fifteen of ER, managed to remind us why we started loving the show in the first place. A great ending to a great show (warts and all). Goodbye, guys, I’m gonna miss you terribly.

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11/03/2010
09:06
by: Cristi

Mr. Yin Presents

And thus another terrific season of Psych comes to an end. Ally Sheedy, Jimmi Simpson and Rachael Leigh Cook all return and come under suspicion in this spellbound episode in which everybody is psycho beyond the shadow of  a doubt. Frenzy attacks and notorious villains come together in this vertigo inducing confluence of cinematic references. As with last year’s season finale, this one also brings out the best that Psych has to offer us – absurd comedy, witty mysteries, fantastic dialogue and great performances all around. And now follow five months of grueling waiting for the premiere of the fith season.

Later edit: White Collar also ended its first and, hopefully, only season. Although amazing at first, it ran into the same kind of crappy scripts Burn Notice, Leverage, Lie To Me and Royal Pains did, thus quickly becoming another boring procedural with stupid, not thrilling, cliffhangers. The stories are dull and the cast has nothing to work with. Goodbye, everyone, it was fun while it lasted.

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