Fans of the TV show House got a pretty big shock this week (Monday, 6 April was when the episode aired). If you haven't still seen the episode, you have no business reading blogs right now.
So Dr. Kutner committed suicide. And judging by comments on popular web sites, people are pissed. "Kutner's suicide came out of nowhere" seems to be a common complaint. It seems like a cheap ploy by the writers.
I can respect that opinion. It does seem like stunt, to get viewership and make things happen when the writers don't know what else to do with a plot or a character.
But I was actually moved by the episode. It felt real to me: seeing the shock of Foreman and Thirteen finding his body, the way she recoiled from him when she realized she was too late to save him. I was stunned. I felt blindsided.
Suicide is like that. Sometimes it does come out of nowhere. Sometimes it does seem out of character, because, lord knows, depressed people can be really good about hiding their pain. They are very good at hiding who they really are as well. They can come off as generally likable, but aloof or shy. That was Kutner: a generally nice guy who was in always in the background, the guy you took for granted.
Strangely, one of the things I loved about the episode was one of things people hated the most; House's reaction to Kutner's death. He tried to make sense of it. He went through denial, preferring to believe Kutner was murdered. Then, worst of all, his angry, awful blaming of Kutner's parents for their son's suicide. I can remember a lot of the horrible things I thought and said when my mother died, things that I still feel ashamed of. I felt a lot of sympathy and embarrassment for House then, more than I have all season, as well as a good helping of thinking he was a total asshole.
(Yes, I am fully aware that I am projecting my feelings onto a character.)
I think it was something of a brave move to do this to a character. The writers could have simply had Kutner quit and move away, sure, and everything would have continued on as it had. But now, the characters, House included, will have to face that they never really knew him and they will never know why he did it.
I'm interested in seeing where the writers take this and what happens next. I just hope they don't fuck this up.
Showing posts with label television. Show all posts
Showing posts with label television. Show all posts
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Sunday, June 22, 2008
My New TV Boyfriend
Yes, I such a geek girl that I develop crushes on TV characters. My newest crush is Marshall Mann, one of the U.S. Marshals on the show In Plain Sight. Of course, I like the main character, Mary, his partner, too, but Marshall has slowly been winning my heart. He has a dry voice, a quirky sense of humor and a head for trivia. This last episode, poor Marshall got shot and he walked Mary through inserting a tube in the wound to help him to breathe, all the while explaining the science behind it. I think I fell in love with him when he was explaining to Mary why he was considering leaving the Marshals: "It's like you're this exotic animal I'm in charge of and I have to protect you from the world and the world from you." Not exactly poetry, but it is delivered with such pain that you could really see how much Marshall loves Mary. And dammit, I have a really big soft spot for protective guys.
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
Heroes - Episode 3
I wasn't watching as closely as last time, so I may miss some details.
Synopsis:
Claire continues her quest to be a popular girl and fit in, in spite of her friend's urging to embrace her powers. At a bonfire/rally, she hooks up with a boy she likes and leaves the party. He comes on to her, but when she asks him to stop, he becomes suddenly insistent and then violent. They struggle and he hits her head on a sharp object that penetrates her skull. She is still and seems dead. Later, she wakes on an autopsy table after the object is removed from her skull. In a very gross and intense moment she finds herself flayed open. (This was pretty horrific)
Mohinder can't make any sense of his father's program and in frustration throws his computer, breaking it open and discovering a book concealed inside with a key. This leads him to Silar's (apparent) apartment, the walls of which are covered with Silar's rantings ("I am sinner" etc.) and a map like the one on his father's wall. Mohinder leads the police there later, but the place is empty and the walls have been painted over.
Niki takes her son to her mother-in-law's house. They fight. The mother-in-law wants to keep Niki's son, Noah, and tells her she can't stop her from seeing him. Niki tells her about the body she found in the desert; it was wearing a ring that she recognized as being worn by her husband's "crew" and Niki believes this is proof that he is guilty. Both her mother-in-law and Noah believe he is innocent and will continue to evade the authorities.
Matt is being questioned by an FBI agent and he tells her the truth, that he can hear people's thoughts. She taunts him, asking him to tell her what she's thinking now. At first, he hears nothing and then hears her worries about being taken seriously. He tells her that no one takes him seriously either. She is surprised and decides to trust him, asking him to talk to the little girl he rescued. Although reluctant at first, he agrees to help. The girl is in protective custody, but when they reach her, they hear her screaming and see a hooded man carrying her away. They chase him down an alley, where he drops the girl. The FBI agent points her gun at him, but he uses an apparent mental powers to shove her away and make her point her gun at her own temple. Matt catches up and empties his gun into the Hooded Man (Sylar?). He drops, but when Matt turns his back, he gets up and disappears.
Matt gets home later and finds his wife in an angry state; he missed a therapy session and she is hurt by what she interprets as thoughtlessness and hostility from him. Hearing her thoughts that she wants him to leave, he does so and winds up at a bar. He can clearly hear all of the thoughts around him, the dispair of those around him depresses him. Looking around the bar, his eyes settle on a man who seems to be watching him. From him, Matt hears no thoughts, only complete silence. He passes out.
Hiro brings the comic book from the future to show his friend as proof. At first, his friend is skeptical, but Hiro decides to try to prove his powers to him, by following the actions in the comic book. According to the book, he is supposed to save a little girl from being hit by a truck. He finds the girl at the last second and uses his time-stopping power to stop the truck and pull her out of harm's way. His friend can no longer deny his power and agrees to come with him to New York to find the artist.
Simone fights with Isaac over his drug use. He claims to need it in order to see the future and she, out of fear for his life, has flushed his stash. She refuses to believe that his paintings show the future (including one that shows a nuclear bomb going off in New York). Later she runs into Peter who tells her he is quitting his job. She is truly disappointed that she won't see him, but he tells her they will run into each other again.
At his brother's fundraiser, he does see Simone again. Nathan talks to the press about his brother's hospitalization; he tells them about his father's depression and suicide and announces that Peter is also depressed and tried to commit suicide. Peter is enraged and embarrassed; he confronts his brother after the party and slugs him for lying and betraying him. Afterwards, he sees Simone and tells her it isn't true, that he isn't depressed and didn't try to commit suicide. They kiss.
Isaac looks over his drawings and finds a picture of Simone and Peter kissing under an umbrella in the rain.
Thoughts: A good episode, even if I was distracted. Lots of mysteries still unexplained - is Sylar behind the killings and why? Was the Hooded Man really Sylar? Who is the Bald Man who can guard his thoughts from Matt?
The special effects were particularly striking this episode, too. Hiro's time-stop power looks particularly awesome, especially with the girl caught mid-jump. Claire's autopsy was pretty gross, but the scene does show a weakness to her power - an object can impede her rejuvenation power if left inside her long enough. My favorite scene was probably the most lo-tech: after the noise of the thoughts around Matt, the silence around the Bald Man made the hairs on my neck stand up.
Synopsis:
Claire continues her quest to be a popular girl and fit in, in spite of her friend's urging to embrace her powers. At a bonfire/rally, she hooks up with a boy she likes and leaves the party. He comes on to her, but when she asks him to stop, he becomes suddenly insistent and then violent. They struggle and he hits her head on a sharp object that penetrates her skull. She is still and seems dead. Later, she wakes on an autopsy table after the object is removed from her skull. In a very gross and intense moment she finds herself flayed open. (This was pretty horrific)
Mohinder can't make any sense of his father's program and in frustration throws his computer, breaking it open and discovering a book concealed inside with a key. This leads him to Silar's (apparent) apartment, the walls of which are covered with Silar's rantings ("I am sinner" etc.) and a map like the one on his father's wall. Mohinder leads the police there later, but the place is empty and the walls have been painted over.
Niki takes her son to her mother-in-law's house. They fight. The mother-in-law wants to keep Niki's son, Noah, and tells her she can't stop her from seeing him. Niki tells her about the body she found in the desert; it was wearing a ring that she recognized as being worn by her husband's "crew" and Niki believes this is proof that he is guilty. Both her mother-in-law and Noah believe he is innocent and will continue to evade the authorities.
Matt is being questioned by an FBI agent and he tells her the truth, that he can hear people's thoughts. She taunts him, asking him to tell her what she's thinking now. At first, he hears nothing and then hears her worries about being taken seriously. He tells her that no one takes him seriously either. She is surprised and decides to trust him, asking him to talk to the little girl he rescued. Although reluctant at first, he agrees to help. The girl is in protective custody, but when they reach her, they hear her screaming and see a hooded man carrying her away. They chase him down an alley, where he drops the girl. The FBI agent points her gun at him, but he uses an apparent mental powers to shove her away and make her point her gun at her own temple. Matt catches up and empties his gun into the Hooded Man (Sylar?). He drops, but when Matt turns his back, he gets up and disappears.
Matt gets home later and finds his wife in an angry state; he missed a therapy session and she is hurt by what she interprets as thoughtlessness and hostility from him. Hearing her thoughts that she wants him to leave, he does so and winds up at a bar. He can clearly hear all of the thoughts around him, the dispair of those around him depresses him. Looking around the bar, his eyes settle on a man who seems to be watching him. From him, Matt hears no thoughts, only complete silence. He passes out.
Hiro brings the comic book from the future to show his friend as proof. At first, his friend is skeptical, but Hiro decides to try to prove his powers to him, by following the actions in the comic book. According to the book, he is supposed to save a little girl from being hit by a truck. He finds the girl at the last second and uses his time-stopping power to stop the truck and pull her out of harm's way. His friend can no longer deny his power and agrees to come with him to New York to find the artist.
Simone fights with Isaac over his drug use. He claims to need it in order to see the future and she, out of fear for his life, has flushed his stash. She refuses to believe that his paintings show the future (including one that shows a nuclear bomb going off in New York). Later she runs into Peter who tells her he is quitting his job. She is truly disappointed that she won't see him, but he tells her they will run into each other again.
At his brother's fundraiser, he does see Simone again. Nathan talks to the press about his brother's hospitalization; he tells them about his father's depression and suicide and announces that Peter is also depressed and tried to commit suicide. Peter is enraged and embarrassed; he confronts his brother after the party and slugs him for lying and betraying him. Afterwards, he sees Simone and tells her it isn't true, that he isn't depressed and didn't try to commit suicide. They kiss.
Isaac looks over his drawings and finds a picture of Simone and Peter kissing under an umbrella in the rain.
Thoughts: A good episode, even if I was distracted. Lots of mysteries still unexplained - is Sylar behind the killings and why? Was the Hooded Man really Sylar? Who is the Bald Man who can guard his thoughts from Matt?
The special effects were particularly striking this episode, too. Hiro's time-stop power looks particularly awesome, especially with the girl caught mid-jump. Claire's autopsy was pretty gross, but the scene does show a weakness to her power - an object can impede her rejuvenation power if left inside her long enough. My favorite scene was probably the most lo-tech: after the noise of the thoughts around Matt, the silence around the Bald Man made the hairs on my neck stand up.
Monday, October 9, 2006
Commercials
Let's talk a minute about TV commercials, shall we?
I appreciate them. No really, I do. I don't always watch them and yes, they do annoy me (such as when the robot that controls when commercials are aired decides to show the same 3 commercials every break during an hour long program). But you have to admire the artistry that goes into them. Think about how difficult of a job it is to create a TV commercial; you have to hold people's attention and get them to make a decision about your product or service in less than 30 seconds. Oh, and did I mention that most of your audience hates what you are doing and will either change the channel, leave the room or hit the fastforward button while your hardworks gets its half-minute of fame?
What makes a good commercial? It's attention grabbing for one thing. Friends of mine have heard me rave about the Jetta commercials that show actual collisions. Sometimes a commercial has to be a little weird, such as the one featuring Abe Lincoln and a beaver. And a good sense of humor is a must. The commercials of Thomas Richter have all three: they are strange, funny, a little bit uncomfortable at times, but never boring:
http://www.thomasrichter.net/
I appreciate them. No really, I do. I don't always watch them and yes, they do annoy me (such as when the robot that controls when commercials are aired decides to show the same 3 commercials every break during an hour long program). But you have to admire the artistry that goes into them. Think about how difficult of a job it is to create a TV commercial; you have to hold people's attention and get them to make a decision about your product or service in less than 30 seconds. Oh, and did I mention that most of your audience hates what you are doing and will either change the channel, leave the room or hit the fastforward button while your hardworks gets its half-minute of fame?
What makes a good commercial? It's attention grabbing for one thing. Friends of mine have heard me rave about the Jetta commercials that show actual collisions. Sometimes a commercial has to be a little weird, such as the one featuring Abe Lincoln and a beaver. And a good sense of humor is a must. The commercials of Thomas Richter have all three: they are strange, funny, a little bit uncomfortable at times, but never boring:
http://www.thomasrichter.net/
Thursday, October 5, 2006
Lost: Season Three, Episode One
First, great opening, although I suspected from the beginning that we were looking at the Others' camp. I liked how normal it all looked, especially with the bungalows, the middle-class-nice furniture and book club.
This episode is also a bit scary for me, because they are essentially torturing/brainwashing Jack, Kate and Sawyer. There's a neatness to how they tailor their methods to the person. Jack is held in solitude and darkness and being perhaps the most stubborn and rebellious of the three, he has to be broken in a bunch of little ways (like making him put his back to the wall when they bring food in). For Kate, it's a kind of humilation - she's strong and capable and something of a tomboy, so making her wear a dress is a painful reminder that they can make her feel vulnerable. And putting Sawyer in an animal cage is a pretty strong statement, even if he doesn't get that yet. I also think it's very telling that they put Kate in the cage outside of Sawyer's; they realized immediately she is closer to him than Jack and I think they're going to exploit that to its fullest.
Some other tantalizing details: I think there is a power struggle between Ben and the blonde woman (did we ever get her name? - EDIT: Yes, Juliet!). I think the woman is the leader or has assumed leadership, especially since last season the others deferred to a mysterious "she." I'm also not sure how much her heart is into the operation: there's something about her interactions with Ben that makes me think she doesn't approve of him.
But having said that, I really hope the story picks up. Intriguing as this episode was, the few little clues and answers we got just weren't enough. We need to see what's going on with the other castaways and what happened to Locke, Eko and Desmond, and I hope they don't drag out the resolution of that storyline too long.
This episode is also a bit scary for me, because they are essentially torturing/brainwashing Jack, Kate and Sawyer. There's a neatness to how they tailor their methods to the person. Jack is held in solitude and darkness and being perhaps the most stubborn and rebellious of the three, he has to be broken in a bunch of little ways (like making him put his back to the wall when they bring food in). For Kate, it's a kind of humilation - she's strong and capable and something of a tomboy, so making her wear a dress is a painful reminder that they can make her feel vulnerable. And putting Sawyer in an animal cage is a pretty strong statement, even if he doesn't get that yet. I also think it's very telling that they put Kate in the cage outside of Sawyer's; they realized immediately she is closer to him than Jack and I think they're going to exploit that to its fullest.
Some other tantalizing details: I think there is a power struggle between Ben and the blonde woman (did we ever get her name? - EDIT: Yes, Juliet!). I think the woman is the leader or has assumed leadership, especially since last season the others deferred to a mysterious "she." I'm also not sure how much her heart is into the operation: there's something about her interactions with Ben that makes me think she doesn't approve of him.
But having said that, I really hope the story picks up. Intriguing as this episode was, the few little clues and answers we got just weren't enough. We need to see what's going on with the other castaways and what happened to Locke, Eko and Desmond, and I hope they don't drag out the resolution of that storyline too long.
Wednesday, October 4, 2006
Well, okay...
So I watched the next episode (from 2 October) of Studio 60 last night.
OK, it was a little better.
But they still talk about Harriet being Christian waaaaaaaaaaay too much for my taste.
Oh, yeah, and it still isn't funny.
OK, it was a little better.
But they still talk about Harriet being Christian waaaaaaaaaaay too much for my taste.
Oh, yeah, and it still isn't funny.
Tuesday, October 3, 2006
Why Studio 60 disappoints the hell out of me
Fantastic pilot opening aside, I'm not liking this show much.
Mostly, I'm annoyed with the religion angle. First, I don't think the character of Harriet Hayes is, as the wiki entry states, an "effortlessly sexy", "multi-talented" performer. In fact, I find her intensely unlikeable and not because she is a Christian character. I just think her performance is forced and it is not entirely the actress' fault. She mentions Jesus, her religion and being Christian pretty much every scene she is in. We are constantly hit over the head with this storyline and not even real-life Christians talk about God, Jesus and their religion this much. This character is more than her religion, right? Then show us that - if she is "effortlessly sexy," show us how and it has to be more than just seeing her pretty face. Show us how talented she is and for Jesus's sake, let her be funny!
Also, the dialog that seemed so snappy on The West Wing just seems very out of place here. When, in the second episode, Harriet says to Jeanie "I wish I had your body" and Jeanie replies "I wish I had your talent," I threw up a little. This isn't how people talk. Well, maybe in Hollywood.
No, not even in Hollywood.
While we're at it, can we talk about how unfunny this show is? I get that it is a drama, but it is a drama about a comedy show. And it has funny actors on it! Show us how they write (and really write, not the after scenes where all of the hard work is already done). Show us the actors bombing or doing really well.
Show us the show, dammit!
Mostly, I'm annoyed with the religion angle. First, I don't think the character of Harriet Hayes is, as the wiki entry states, an "effortlessly sexy", "multi-talented" performer. In fact, I find her intensely unlikeable and not because she is a Christian character. I just think her performance is forced and it is not entirely the actress' fault. She mentions Jesus, her religion and being Christian pretty much every scene she is in. We are constantly hit over the head with this storyline and not even real-life Christians talk about God, Jesus and their religion this much. This character is more than her religion, right? Then show us that - if she is "effortlessly sexy," show us how and it has to be more than just seeing her pretty face. Show us how talented she is and for Jesus's sake, let her be funny!
Also, the dialog that seemed so snappy on The West Wing just seems very out of place here. When, in the second episode, Harriet says to Jeanie "I wish I had your body" and Jeanie replies "I wish I had your talent," I threw up a little. This isn't how people talk. Well, maybe in Hollywood.
No, not even in Hollywood.
While we're at it, can we talk about how unfunny this show is? I get that it is a drama, but it is a drama about a comedy show. And it has funny actors on it! Show us how they write (and really write, not the after scenes where all of the hard work is already done). Show us the actors bombing or doing really well.
Show us the show, dammit!
Heroes - Episode 2
Synopsis:
Another girl is jealous of Claire and competes with her in nearly everything. When the sheriff's department shows up looking for the girl who saved the man from the burning train, the other girl takes the credit. Claire lets her, but asks the sheriff how the man is doing. There is an odd accident in which Claire is hit by a football player and breaks her neck (it actually turns all the way around in a nice bit of sickening special effects). Only her friend sees it happen luckily, but unluckily he tells her the videotape of her "exploits" is missing.
A cop who has failed his exam to become a detective stands dejectedly outside a crime scene. Inside, a woman is pinned to a wall with knives, while a man (most likely her husband) has been frozen solid and the top of his head sawed off, his brain removed. The cop hears a little girl's voice begging for someone not to hurt her. Following the voice, he finds her hiding in a closet. The detectives are skeptical about how he was able to find her and accused him of committing the crime in order to "play hero." Without realizing it, he overhears the thoughts of the detectives and tells them that "Silar(spelling?) did it." They are alarmed that he knows the name and the detectives become even more suspicious.
A strange man pretending to be an exterminator breaks into Mohinder's apartment and tries to bug his phone. The man pulls a gun on him and after a short tuffle in the hallway of the building, one of Mohinder's neighbors, a young pretty woman, scares him away with her own pistol. She befriends Mohinder and tells him that she had befriended his father, too, and had spent a lot of time with him. She did not know he was dead and is very upset when Mohinder tells her. She also tells Mohinder that his father told her about his work and the map he used to track "patient zero," someone he suspected as being one of the evolved humans. She finds his father's answering machine and listen to part of a conversation he had with a man named Silar, who was obsessed with Mohinder's father. They seemed to have been working together and had a parting of the ways. Mohinder's father wanted nothing more to do with Silar. Later, they find a flash drive with his father's research on it; he had found a way to find the evolved humans.
In Times Square, Hiro finds a comic book that features himself and his amazing feat of teleportation. Stealing it from the vendor, he looks for the artist, Isaac, and find him dead in his studio - apparently shot and the top of his head and brain removed. Stupidly, Hiro picks up the gun and police find him standing over the body. They question him and he tells the truth, that he teleported here from Tokyo. He tells them to call his friend at work to confirm that he had seen Hiro just yesterday. His co-worker however tells them that Hiro went missing 5 weeks ago. Hiro thinks it is October, but in reality it is the middle of November. Suddenly, there is a flash of light and through the window, a mushroom cloud can be seen. Hiro "wakes" and finds himself back on the subway train in Toyko.
Isaac is confronted by his girlfriend who tells him the paintings and visions mean nothing.
Niki leaves her house to pick up her son and has another blackout that lasts 4 hours. She gets to her friend's house and they have a conversation about Niki's boyfriend/husband/ex-husband who seems to be on the lam. Niki tells her about the incident and she urges her to go to the police or leave. When she returns to her house with them, her garage has been cleaned and the bodies are gone. She finds a set of keys to the red cadillac parked outside her house. The bodies are in the trunk with instructions to follow a map. She does and finds a spot marked by a shovel. She doesn't have to dig long before she finds skeletal remains.
Peter wakes in the hospital and asks his brother what happened. Nathan denies that he flew and tells Peter that he tried to commit suicide. Later their mother reveals their father was depressed and had tried to commit suicide twice before succeeding. She tells Peter that his father had delusions of grandeur and became depressed when they turned out not to be real. Peter worries that he has the same problem as his father and later confronts his brother, again on a rooftop. He threatens to jump. While they argue, Nathan suddenly relents and looks at his brother in wonder. Peter is floating several feet off the ground. Nathan finally admits that they both flew.
Claire confronts her dad, Mr. Glasses, about her birth parents. At first, he is against the idea, then later he tells her that he contacted the adoption agency and started the process for finding her birth parents. Mr. Glasses seems to be a loving father, but sobers and becomes colder as watches the stolen tape of Claire.
Analysis:
First thing - It seems that Nathan wins the election, if we can believe Hiro's time traveling incident!
Second, Mr. Glasses is way over the top evil. I was very glad at first to see how loving he seems when he interacts with Claire, but that seems to be an act. I really hope they give some depth to this character. Also, the shady character of Silar isn't impressing me just yet (especially if he is "just another serial killer"), although I'll give the writers the benefit of the doubt for now.
I'm a bit disappointed my theory is disproved - it seems that both brothers have the gift of flight or possibly something more.
Also, I am somewhat impressed by the horrific scenes of the "lidless" bodies. Besides being pretty gross, they are frightening and intriguing - where did those brains go and what is Silar doing with them (if it is indeed Silar's doing). I'm really surprised this got past the FCC.
Another girl is jealous of Claire and competes with her in nearly everything. When the sheriff's department shows up looking for the girl who saved the man from the burning train, the other girl takes the credit. Claire lets her, but asks the sheriff how the man is doing. There is an odd accident in which Claire is hit by a football player and breaks her neck (it actually turns all the way around in a nice bit of sickening special effects). Only her friend sees it happen luckily, but unluckily he tells her the videotape of her "exploits" is missing.
A cop who has failed his exam to become a detective stands dejectedly outside a crime scene. Inside, a woman is pinned to a wall with knives, while a man (most likely her husband) has been frozen solid and the top of his head sawed off, his brain removed. The cop hears a little girl's voice begging for someone not to hurt her. Following the voice, he finds her hiding in a closet. The detectives are skeptical about how he was able to find her and accused him of committing the crime in order to "play hero." Without realizing it, he overhears the thoughts of the detectives and tells them that "Silar(spelling?) did it." They are alarmed that he knows the name and the detectives become even more suspicious.
A strange man pretending to be an exterminator breaks into Mohinder's apartment and tries to bug his phone. The man pulls a gun on him and after a short tuffle in the hallway of the building, one of Mohinder's neighbors, a young pretty woman, scares him away with her own pistol. She befriends Mohinder and tells him that she had befriended his father, too, and had spent a lot of time with him. She did not know he was dead and is very upset when Mohinder tells her. She also tells Mohinder that his father told her about his work and the map he used to track "patient zero," someone he suspected as being one of the evolved humans. She finds his father's answering machine and listen to part of a conversation he had with a man named Silar, who was obsessed with Mohinder's father. They seemed to have been working together and had a parting of the ways. Mohinder's father wanted nothing more to do with Silar. Later, they find a flash drive with his father's research on it; he had found a way to find the evolved humans.
In Times Square, Hiro finds a comic book that features himself and his amazing feat of teleportation. Stealing it from the vendor, he looks for the artist, Isaac, and find him dead in his studio - apparently shot and the top of his head and brain removed. Stupidly, Hiro picks up the gun and police find him standing over the body. They question him and he tells the truth, that he teleported here from Tokyo. He tells them to call his friend at work to confirm that he had seen Hiro just yesterday. His co-worker however tells them that Hiro went missing 5 weeks ago. Hiro thinks it is October, but in reality it is the middle of November. Suddenly, there is a flash of light and through the window, a mushroom cloud can be seen. Hiro "wakes" and finds himself back on the subway train in Toyko.
Isaac is confronted by his girlfriend who tells him the paintings and visions mean nothing.
Niki leaves her house to pick up her son and has another blackout that lasts 4 hours. She gets to her friend's house and they have a conversation about Niki's boyfriend/husband/ex-husband who seems to be on the lam. Niki tells her about the incident and she urges her to go to the police or leave. When she returns to her house with them, her garage has been cleaned and the bodies are gone. She finds a set of keys to the red cadillac parked outside her house. The bodies are in the trunk with instructions to follow a map. She does and finds a spot marked by a shovel. She doesn't have to dig long before she finds skeletal remains.
Peter wakes in the hospital and asks his brother what happened. Nathan denies that he flew and tells Peter that he tried to commit suicide. Later their mother reveals their father was depressed and had tried to commit suicide twice before succeeding. She tells Peter that his father had delusions of grandeur and became depressed when they turned out not to be real. Peter worries that he has the same problem as his father and later confronts his brother, again on a rooftop. He threatens to jump. While they argue, Nathan suddenly relents and looks at his brother in wonder. Peter is floating several feet off the ground. Nathan finally admits that they both flew.
Claire confronts her dad, Mr. Glasses, about her birth parents. At first, he is against the idea, then later he tells her that he contacted the adoption agency and started the process for finding her birth parents. Mr. Glasses seems to be a loving father, but sobers and becomes colder as watches the stolen tape of Claire.
Analysis:
First thing - It seems that Nathan wins the election, if we can believe Hiro's time traveling incident!
Second, Mr. Glasses is way over the top evil. I was very glad at first to see how loving he seems when he interacts with Claire, but that seems to be an act. I really hope they give some depth to this character. Also, the shady character of Silar isn't impressing me just yet (especially if he is "just another serial killer"), although I'll give the writers the benefit of the doubt for now.
I'm a bit disappointed my theory is disproved - it seems that both brothers have the gift of flight or possibly something more.
Also, I am somewhat impressed by the horrific scenes of the "lidless" bodies. Besides being pretty gross, they are frightening and intriguing - where did those brains go and what is Silar doing with them (if it is indeed Silar's doing). I'm really surprised this got past the FCC.
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
Heroes - Episode 1 (pilot)
Heroes
Airs Mondays at 8PM (Central) on NBC
I have to admit I was skeptical about Heroes, a new television show from Tim Kring, a creative force behind "Crossing Jordan." Although I�ll watch Crossing Jordan, it isn�t a great television show and the plot tends to go from one silly episode to the next. And the beginning of the pilot was not auspicious. Mohinder Suresh, a genetics professor teaching in India, learns of his father�s death. In heavy-handed dialogue with a colleague, we learn that:
1. Mohinder�s father was a geneticist with unconventional theories.
2. Because of his theories, he left or was asked to leave academic life.
3. He eventually moved to New York City and became a cab driver.
4. Mohinder believes in his father�s research and is willing to throw away his own career to continue in his footsteps.
This is a pretty standard SciFi convention: a son or daughter of a brilliant but insane and/or radical scientist takes up his or her parent�s (usually a father) research and pursuit of �Forbidden Knowledge.� I realize it�s not original, but it certainly is expedient and gets the viewer immediately into the story.
As an aside, the theory deals with genetics, specifically in evolution. There are theories about evolution that it actually happens in huge leaps, rather than slowly over time. Individuals of a species mutate so significantly that they are fundamentally different from their counterparts. Those with beneficial mutations survive to pass on their genes to their offspring, thus radically altering the evolution of a species. Sound familiar to you comic book geeks? Yes, it�s the same premise used in the X-Men comics.
The story thus far:
Mohinder goes to his father�s apartment and discovers someone has torn it apart looking for his research. He gathers up what he can find, but hears a cellphone ring. A man is still the next room; Mohinder quietly takes what is most important and flees to New York. There he finds his father�s apartment and takes up his occupation of cab driver.
Peter Petrelli is a nurse who is currently taking care of a dying man. Peter has been having dreams that he can fly. He tries to explain this to his brother, Nathan, a politician running for Congress. Nathan is self-centered and egotistical and brushes Peter off as a dreamer. Later Nathan receives a call that their mother has been arrested for shoplifting. Nathan scolds her, but Peter defends her, saying she is lonely and lost since their father died. In spite of Nathan�s coldness towards her, she makes it clear that Nathan is favorite son and berates Peter for his choice of career. Both Nathan and she remind him that Nathan�s shadow is very large, meaning that Peter will always be overshadowed by his more charismatic brother. Peter, however, hero-worships his brother and believes they have some deeper connection.
Peter has fallen for the dying man�s beautiful daughter, Simone, but she is involved with a painter with a drug habit. She visits her boyfriend, Isaac, and finds him distraught and destroying his paintings. She tries to stop him, but he is too agitated and says that they are evil. He shows her one of a bus in flames and tells her he painted it three weeks ago. On the news that day, he saw a picture of the same bus, the target of a bombing in Israel. There are other disturbing pictures, including one of the solar eclipse that will happen later that day. Simone realizes he is going through withdrawal and needs something to calm him and goes to her father�s house to get morphine. She persuades Peter to come with her and they find Isaac unconscious. Peter gives him emergency aid while Simone calls an ambulance. Peter notices that one of the paintings is of a fire being shown on the news right that moment.
Claire Bennet is a popular cheerleader who asks a friend to videotape her falling from an 80 foot drop. Though he is thrilled at her ability to heal nearly instantaneously, she feels like a freak and asks him not to tell anyone. Later, they stumble on a burning factory and she impetuously runs inside (it seems like Claire is determined to destroy herself). She finds a man trapped inside and she rescues him.
Meanwhile a single mother, Niki, works as an online stripper to support her young, gifted son. She notices something that disturbs her, that her reflection in the mirror seems to be a fraction slower or makes faces at her. She has borrowed $25,000 from a loan shark to make a donation to a special school, but is unable to pay the tuition and he is rejected. Niki takes her son to a friend�s house for safety, then goes back to her house to get her things. Unable to get the donation back or make payments on the loan, the shark sends thugs to her house. In a rather horrible scene, the men ask Niki to strip for them and then become violent when she doesn�t perform to their satisfaction. She is knocked unconscious and when she wakes, the house is full of blood. The thugs are dead. In a broken mirror, her reflection puts a finger to its lips, signing to her not to tell anyone.
Hiro, an office worker in Japan, longs to be different. He sits at his desk and wills a clock to stop. It does for 1 second. Hiro rejoices and runs to tell his co-worker the good news. A geek through and through, Hiro talks to his coworker using Star Trek references and explains that he also made the train 14 seconds late this morning. With practice, he hopes to use his power to teleport. His friend is not just skeptical, but also dismisses Hiro as a geek and hopelessly weird. That night over beers, he taunts Hiro and before leaving for the restroom himself, he tells Hiro to use the power to teleport into the women�s washroom. When he gets back, Hiro is being removed by bouncers. As they walk away from the bar, he tells Hiro to be normal.
Mohinder encounters the Man with the Glasses who had been searching his father�s apartment when he gets into Mohinder�s cab. He so spooked by the meeting that Mohinder stops the car and runs away.
Hiro decides one morning to try to teleport. He closes his eyes and concentrates and when opens them, he�s in Times Square in New York.
Peter asks his brother to meet him in an alley. He climbs to the top of the building. Sure he will fly, he jumps. He falls. Suddenly, Nathan rises, flying up to catch his brother and bring him safely to the ground.
After surviving and healing completely from several alarming accidents, Claire asks her mother to tell her who her real parents are. The Man with the Glasses enters their house; he is Claire�s (adoptive?) father.
My thoughts: A good opening episode. All of this would sound trite except that it is actually done well. After the initial dialogue problems, the characters start to sound like real humans, not plot expositions. There are real moments of tension, fear and wonder: Claire resetting her bones after a fall, Niki being menaced by a loan shark�s thugs, Hiro successfully teleporting himself from Tokyo to New York. Sure, the special effects look good, but there are elements to the story that are intriguing. What is the significance of the eclipse? What is the catastrophe Isaac has painted? And how does a comic book called 9th Wonders have to do with all of this?
One prediction � Peter�s power is actually his belief in his brother; that is, his belief and love for his brother gives his brother the ability to fly or other superpowers.
Airs Mondays at 8PM (Central) on NBC
I have to admit I was skeptical about Heroes, a new television show from Tim Kring, a creative force behind "Crossing Jordan." Although I�ll watch Crossing Jordan, it isn�t a great television show and the plot tends to go from one silly episode to the next. And the beginning of the pilot was not auspicious. Mohinder Suresh, a genetics professor teaching in India, learns of his father�s death. In heavy-handed dialogue with a colleague, we learn that:
1. Mohinder�s father was a geneticist with unconventional theories.
2. Because of his theories, he left or was asked to leave academic life.
3. He eventually moved to New York City and became a cab driver.
4. Mohinder believes in his father�s research and is willing to throw away his own career to continue in his footsteps.
This is a pretty standard SciFi convention: a son or daughter of a brilliant but insane and/or radical scientist takes up his or her parent�s (usually a father) research and pursuit of �Forbidden Knowledge.� I realize it�s not original, but it certainly is expedient and gets the viewer immediately into the story.
As an aside, the theory deals with genetics, specifically in evolution. There are theories about evolution that it actually happens in huge leaps, rather than slowly over time. Individuals of a species mutate so significantly that they are fundamentally different from their counterparts. Those with beneficial mutations survive to pass on their genes to their offspring, thus radically altering the evolution of a species. Sound familiar to you comic book geeks? Yes, it�s the same premise used in the X-Men comics.
The story thus far:
Mohinder goes to his father�s apartment and discovers someone has torn it apart looking for his research. He gathers up what he can find, but hears a cellphone ring. A man is still the next room; Mohinder quietly takes what is most important and flees to New York. There he finds his father�s apartment and takes up his occupation of cab driver.
Peter Petrelli is a nurse who is currently taking care of a dying man. Peter has been having dreams that he can fly. He tries to explain this to his brother, Nathan, a politician running for Congress. Nathan is self-centered and egotistical and brushes Peter off as a dreamer. Later Nathan receives a call that their mother has been arrested for shoplifting. Nathan scolds her, but Peter defends her, saying she is lonely and lost since their father died. In spite of Nathan�s coldness towards her, she makes it clear that Nathan is favorite son and berates Peter for his choice of career. Both Nathan and she remind him that Nathan�s shadow is very large, meaning that Peter will always be overshadowed by his more charismatic brother. Peter, however, hero-worships his brother and believes they have some deeper connection.
Peter has fallen for the dying man�s beautiful daughter, Simone, but she is involved with a painter with a drug habit. She visits her boyfriend, Isaac, and finds him distraught and destroying his paintings. She tries to stop him, but he is too agitated and says that they are evil. He shows her one of a bus in flames and tells her he painted it three weeks ago. On the news that day, he saw a picture of the same bus, the target of a bombing in Israel. There are other disturbing pictures, including one of the solar eclipse that will happen later that day. Simone realizes he is going through withdrawal and needs something to calm him and goes to her father�s house to get morphine. She persuades Peter to come with her and they find Isaac unconscious. Peter gives him emergency aid while Simone calls an ambulance. Peter notices that one of the paintings is of a fire being shown on the news right that moment.
Claire Bennet is a popular cheerleader who asks a friend to videotape her falling from an 80 foot drop. Though he is thrilled at her ability to heal nearly instantaneously, she feels like a freak and asks him not to tell anyone. Later, they stumble on a burning factory and she impetuously runs inside (it seems like Claire is determined to destroy herself). She finds a man trapped inside and she rescues him.
Meanwhile a single mother, Niki, works as an online stripper to support her young, gifted son. She notices something that disturbs her, that her reflection in the mirror seems to be a fraction slower or makes faces at her. She has borrowed $25,000 from a loan shark to make a donation to a special school, but is unable to pay the tuition and he is rejected. Niki takes her son to a friend�s house for safety, then goes back to her house to get her things. Unable to get the donation back or make payments on the loan, the shark sends thugs to her house. In a rather horrible scene, the men ask Niki to strip for them and then become violent when she doesn�t perform to their satisfaction. She is knocked unconscious and when she wakes, the house is full of blood. The thugs are dead. In a broken mirror, her reflection puts a finger to its lips, signing to her not to tell anyone.
Hiro, an office worker in Japan, longs to be different. He sits at his desk and wills a clock to stop. It does for 1 second. Hiro rejoices and runs to tell his co-worker the good news. A geek through and through, Hiro talks to his coworker using Star Trek references and explains that he also made the train 14 seconds late this morning. With practice, he hopes to use his power to teleport. His friend is not just skeptical, but also dismisses Hiro as a geek and hopelessly weird. That night over beers, he taunts Hiro and before leaving for the restroom himself, he tells Hiro to use the power to teleport into the women�s washroom. When he gets back, Hiro is being removed by bouncers. As they walk away from the bar, he tells Hiro to be normal.
Mohinder encounters the Man with the Glasses who had been searching his father�s apartment when he gets into Mohinder�s cab. He so spooked by the meeting that Mohinder stops the car and runs away.
Hiro decides one morning to try to teleport. He closes his eyes and concentrates and when opens them, he�s in Times Square in New York.
Peter asks his brother to meet him in an alley. He climbs to the top of the building. Sure he will fly, he jumps. He falls. Suddenly, Nathan rises, flying up to catch his brother and bring him safely to the ground.
After surviving and healing completely from several alarming accidents, Claire asks her mother to tell her who her real parents are. The Man with the Glasses enters their house; he is Claire�s (adoptive?) father.
My thoughts: A good opening episode. All of this would sound trite except that it is actually done well. After the initial dialogue problems, the characters start to sound like real humans, not plot expositions. There are real moments of tension, fear and wonder: Claire resetting her bones after a fall, Niki being menaced by a loan shark�s thugs, Hiro successfully teleporting himself from Tokyo to New York. Sure, the special effects look good, but there are elements to the story that are intriguing. What is the significance of the eclipse? What is the catastrophe Isaac has painted? And how does a comic book called 9th Wonders have to do with all of this?
One prediction � Peter�s power is actually his belief in his brother; that is, his belief and love for his brother gives his brother the ability to fly or other superpowers.
Tuesday, September 5, 2006
Fall TV Time - 2006
Yes, once again it is Fall TV Preview time, one of my favorite times of the year. Here is a list of TV programs I am looking forward to:
Heroes (premiers 25 September): Take one part Lost, one part The 4400 and one part X-Men. Add in a lot of hype, some very intriguing teasers and high quality special effects. I'm a little bit worried about the writing, as it is written and produced by the same team that creates Crossing Jordan, a rather light-weight and improbable crime drama (with some hokey plots and not-so-good acting), and it is rather obviously trying to capture the Lost fans. The characters listed on the show's site are not as interesting as I would like: a painter with an addiction; a cop who hears voices; a girl who is indestructible, yet wants to be normal; a son following his murdered father's crazy research, looking for answers. Yet, I am a sucker for any SciFi/Fantasy/Horror I can get, so I will definitely watch at least the first few episodes.
Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip (premiers 25 September) and 30 Rock: NBC is getting weird and a little bit senile in its old age - this fall, it has two completely different shows based on the same thing, namely the back-stage politics of producing a comedy show, a thinly veiled Saturday Night Live. Both are written by some of the best television writers around - Aaron Sorkin, the genius behind West Wing and Tina Fey, my personal hero and the genius who may have single-handedly saved Saturday Night Live (that is probably an exaggeration, but honestly, the only thing I really love to watch is the Weekend Update). I suppose if there is room for three Law and Order programs, then two SNL spin-offs doesn't seem like much of a stretch.
Smith (premiers 26 September): I am probably one of 10 people who actually liked the remake of Ocean's Eleven, so hearing about a TV show that is the adventures of high-level thieves got my attention. Fan reviews have been high, but rumors of bad reviews are everywhere. I really want to have Ray Liotta on my TV every week, however, so I'll be tuning in.
Veronica Mars (premiers 3 October): The first season's date rape plot and the murder of Lily (Veronica's best friend, for the uninitiated) storyline had me riveted. The second season somehow managed to keep the murder storyline afloat without making it boring AND gave us the startling bus crash plot (it's not as hokey as I make it sound, trust me). I can't wait to see what season three has in store.
House (5 September): I was not a faithful watcher of Dr. House and I actually only just started watching the show in reruns. I have no idea what's going on with his cane and the apparent "cure" of his painkiller addiction. Frankly, I don't give a rat's ass, as long as Dr. House is still cranky.
Lost (3 October): The sudden emergence, at the end of the season no less, of Desmond not only as an important character, but also as a good, compassionate, heroic and interesting one, left me in a state. The show introduced as many intriguing puzzles as it answered, which left many fans (on the message boards at least) feeling unfulfilled and restless. My hope is, no matter how much I love the show, that this is last season. It is skillfully written, but four+ seasons of no answers will eventually get old, even if I am still rabid for more.
Supernatural (28 September): Last season ended on a cliffhanger, with the boys and their father badly hurt from a car accident. It seems unlikely that show's writers would off either of the brothers, but the father has been a marked man from the start. It's possible that someone might be in a coma for most of the season (making him a target for the various monsters and cultists that populate the show) or that all of them will simply wake up in the first episode. I'm curious to see what cliche the writers decide on. Even for all its cliches, plot holes and predictible plots, I still think the show has potential. The chemistry between the actors is good, the soundtrack is fun and man, do I love monsters.
Dexter: Showtime is the new HBO. Who cares about Entourage (the only reason to watch it is for Jeremy Piven anyway) when you have Weeds? Plus, there is Dexter, a new series featuring Michael C. Hall (once a star on HBO's Six Feet Under) that appeals to my inner goth. Based on the book Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay, it follows the adventures of Dexter, a CSI by day and a serial killer by night. Subject matter aside, did I mention it has Michael C. Hall?
Heroes (premiers 25 September): Take one part Lost, one part The 4400 and one part X-Men. Add in a lot of hype, some very intriguing teasers and high quality special effects. I'm a little bit worried about the writing, as it is written and produced by the same team that creates Crossing Jordan, a rather light-weight and improbable crime drama (with some hokey plots and not-so-good acting), and it is rather obviously trying to capture the Lost fans. The characters listed on the show's site are not as interesting as I would like: a painter with an addiction; a cop who hears voices; a girl who is indestructible, yet wants to be normal; a son following his murdered father's crazy research, looking for answers. Yet, I am a sucker for any SciFi/Fantasy/Horror I can get, so I will definitely watch at least the first few episodes.
Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip (premiers 25 September) and 30 Rock: NBC is getting weird and a little bit senile in its old age - this fall, it has two completely different shows based on the same thing, namely the back-stage politics of producing a comedy show, a thinly veiled Saturday Night Live. Both are written by some of the best television writers around - Aaron Sorkin, the genius behind West Wing and Tina Fey, my personal hero and the genius who may have single-handedly saved Saturday Night Live (that is probably an exaggeration, but honestly, the only thing I really love to watch is the Weekend Update). I suppose if there is room for three Law and Order programs, then two SNL spin-offs doesn't seem like much of a stretch.
Smith (premiers 26 September): I am probably one of 10 people who actually liked the remake of Ocean's Eleven, so hearing about a TV show that is the adventures of high-level thieves got my attention. Fan reviews have been high, but rumors of bad reviews are everywhere. I really want to have Ray Liotta on my TV every week, however, so I'll be tuning in.
Veronica Mars (premiers 3 October): The first season's date rape plot and the murder of Lily (Veronica's best friend, for the uninitiated) storyline had me riveted. The second season somehow managed to keep the murder storyline afloat without making it boring AND gave us the startling bus crash plot (it's not as hokey as I make it sound, trust me). I can't wait to see what season three has in store.
House (5 September): I was not a faithful watcher of Dr. House and I actually only just started watching the show in reruns. I have no idea what's going on with his cane and the apparent "cure" of his painkiller addiction. Frankly, I don't give a rat's ass, as long as Dr. House is still cranky.
Lost (3 October): The sudden emergence, at the end of the season no less, of Desmond not only as an important character, but also as a good, compassionate, heroic and interesting one, left me in a state. The show introduced as many intriguing puzzles as it answered, which left many fans (on the message boards at least) feeling unfulfilled and restless. My hope is, no matter how much I love the show, that this is last season. It is skillfully written, but four+ seasons of no answers will eventually get old, even if I am still rabid for more.
Supernatural (28 September): Last season ended on a cliffhanger, with the boys and their father badly hurt from a car accident. It seems unlikely that show's writers would off either of the brothers, but the father has been a marked man from the start. It's possible that someone might be in a coma for most of the season (making him a target for the various monsters and cultists that populate the show) or that all of them will simply wake up in the first episode. I'm curious to see what cliche the writers decide on. Even for all its cliches, plot holes and predictible plots, I still think the show has potential. The chemistry between the actors is good, the soundtrack is fun and man, do I love monsters.
Dexter: Showtime is the new HBO. Who cares about Entourage (the only reason to watch it is for Jeremy Piven anyway) when you have Weeds? Plus, there is Dexter, a new series featuring Michael C. Hall (once a star on HBO's Six Feet Under) that appeals to my inner goth. Based on the book Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay, it follows the adventures of Dexter, a CSI by day and a serial killer by night. Subject matter aside, did I mention it has Michael C. Hall?
Tuesday, October 25, 2005
In time for Halloween: TV Thrillers
What a great season to be a Sci Fi/Fantasy fan! Not since The X-Files and Buffy the Vampire Slayer were on prime time have there been so many science fiction and fantasy-based shows on network television. Hoping to catch the same audience that made Lost a such hit, the networks have given us two new creepy shows: Supernatural and Night Stalker. How do they compare?
Premise
Supernatural: Two brothers search for their missing dad, who became obsessed with occult-based crimes after their mother's death. By investigating mysteries that he would have been drawn to, they hope to find clues to his whereabouts.
Night Stalker: Carl Kolchak, a reporter, is drawn to mysterious and occult crimes similar to the death of his wife.
Winner: Tie - the premises are very similar. And yes, before you get all pop culture on me, read the next one.
Pedigree
Supernatural: Many of the episodes are directed by Kim Manners and written by John Shiban, both of whom worked on The X-Files.
Night Stalker: Based on the cult made-for-TV movie and television series staring Darren McGavin in the early 70s.
Winner: Night Stalker; the original is considered to be some of the best sci-fi/fantasy produced for television and definitely inspired The X-Files.
Sample Storyline
Supernatural: The brothers invesitgate a wendigo, a person now transformed into an evil spirit through cannibalism. The wendigo stalks hikers with uncanny swiftness and stores them in an underground larder.
Night Stalker: Kolchak investigates mysterious killings in a secret college society. The victims were literally scared to death. The killings were caused by the lingering fear of a little boy who was murdered by his father in the house where the rituals of the society take place.
Winner: Supernatural - Although neither plot sounds like much, it's all in the execution. Night Stalker's plot had holes and the resolution (including Kolchak burning down the house!) seemed silly. Supernatural, on the other hand, was actually scary and gross.
Production Values
Supernatural: A recent episode featured a shapeshifting creature that actually shedded its old appearance, including skin and teeth, into a gross puddle of goo.
Night Stalker: Generally, the show avoids monsters and even then shows them only as shadowy shapes.
Winner: Supernatural - No, the show isn't as glossy as a big budget Hollywood movie, but they do really well with what they've got.
Stars
Supernatural: Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki - though not big stars as yet, they are nice-looking boys and have done quite a bit of work.
Night Stalker: Stuart Townsend - an Irish actor who has been in such movies as Queen of the Damned and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
Winner: Draw - I like all three. Townsend's film work might leave something to be desired, but somehow I still like him. Ackles and Padalecki have a good rapport and actually seem like brothers.
Winner: Supernatural edges out Night Stalker. Though I really want to like Night Stalker, I also really want it to be more: more scary, more interesting, more, ironically enough, like The X-Files; fans of the original series will be disappointed. On the other hand, Supernatural, unsurprisingly, feels like The X-Files and has intriguing, scary stories. However, both series lack a strong "mythology" plot, which has come to be expected from these sorts of shows. I hope they last long enough to get a chance to develop that story element.
Supernatural is on WB on Tuesday nights.
Night Stalker is on ABC on Thursday nights.
Premise
Supernatural: Two brothers search for their missing dad, who became obsessed with occult-based crimes after their mother's death. By investigating mysteries that he would have been drawn to, they hope to find clues to his whereabouts.
Night Stalker: Carl Kolchak, a reporter, is drawn to mysterious and occult crimes similar to the death of his wife.
Winner: Tie - the premises are very similar. And yes, before you get all pop culture on me, read the next one.
Pedigree
Supernatural: Many of the episodes are directed by Kim Manners and written by John Shiban, both of whom worked on The X-Files.
Night Stalker: Based on the cult made-for-TV movie and television series staring Darren McGavin in the early 70s.
Winner: Night Stalker; the original is considered to be some of the best sci-fi/fantasy produced for television and definitely inspired The X-Files.
Sample Storyline
Supernatural: The brothers invesitgate a wendigo, a person now transformed into an evil spirit through cannibalism. The wendigo stalks hikers with uncanny swiftness and stores them in an underground larder.
Night Stalker: Kolchak investigates mysterious killings in a secret college society. The victims were literally scared to death. The killings were caused by the lingering fear of a little boy who was murdered by his father in the house where the rituals of the society take place.
Winner: Supernatural - Although neither plot sounds like much, it's all in the execution. Night Stalker's plot had holes and the resolution (including Kolchak burning down the house!) seemed silly. Supernatural, on the other hand, was actually scary and gross.
Production Values
Supernatural: A recent episode featured a shapeshifting creature that actually shedded its old appearance, including skin and teeth, into a gross puddle of goo.
Night Stalker: Generally, the show avoids monsters and even then shows them only as shadowy shapes.
Winner: Supernatural - No, the show isn't as glossy as a big budget Hollywood movie, but they do really well with what they've got.
Stars
Supernatural: Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki - though not big stars as yet, they are nice-looking boys and have done quite a bit of work.
Night Stalker: Stuart Townsend - an Irish actor who has been in such movies as Queen of the Damned and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
Winner: Draw - I like all three. Townsend's film work might leave something to be desired, but somehow I still like him. Ackles and Padalecki have a good rapport and actually seem like brothers.
Winner: Supernatural edges out Night Stalker. Though I really want to like Night Stalker, I also really want it to be more: more scary, more interesting, more, ironically enough, like The X-Files; fans of the original series will be disappointed. On the other hand, Supernatural, unsurprisingly, feels like The X-Files and has intriguing, scary stories. However, both series lack a strong "mythology" plot, which has come to be expected from these sorts of shows. I hope they last long enough to get a chance to develop that story element.
Supernatural is on WB on Tuesday nights.
Night Stalker is on ABC on Thursday nights.
Tuesday, September 6, 2005
Fall TV!
I am not ashamed to admit that I love television. One of the things I like about Fall is the new television season, with the return of old favorites and the promise of new shows. This season is a bit odd: most of the new shows are either crime shows or shows with a SciFi/horror bent, including 3 shows that deal with aliens both home-grown and extraterrestrial. I thought I'd share a list of shows I am intrigued by - I have not read any reviews of these yet, so I am going by description/premise only. Times are Central Time Zone.
Monday Night
Surface (NBC, 7PM, 19 Sep): Strange new creatures are discovered in the seas by people in San Diego, the Antarctic, Gulf of Mexico and Monterey.
Tuesday Night
Bones (FOX, 7PM, 13 Sep): Based on the real-life experiences and best-selling works of novelist-forensic anthropologist Kathy Reichs who solves crimes using evidence supplied by skeletal remains.
Supernatural (WB, 8PM, 13 Sep): Two brothers search for their missing dad and along the way help others who have been affected by supernatural creatures, a la Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the X-Files.
Wednesday
Lost (ABC, 7PM, 21 Sep): A favorite returns...
Invasion (ABC, 8PM, 21 Sep): Space invaders!
Thursday:
The Night Stalker (ABC, 8PM, 29 Sep): Stuart Townsend takes on the role of Carl Kolchak in this remake of the television show of the same name (which originally starred Darren McGavin).
Friday:
Threshold (CBS, 8PM, 16 Sep): A team of researchers invesitgate a mysterious and possibly extra-terrestrial craft found in the ocean.
Enjoy!
Monday Night
Surface (NBC, 7PM, 19 Sep): Strange new creatures are discovered in the seas by people in San Diego, the Antarctic, Gulf of Mexico and Monterey.
Tuesday Night
Bones (FOX, 7PM, 13 Sep): Based on the real-life experiences and best-selling works of novelist-forensic anthropologist Kathy Reichs who solves crimes using evidence supplied by skeletal remains.
Supernatural (WB, 8PM, 13 Sep): Two brothers search for their missing dad and along the way help others who have been affected by supernatural creatures, a la Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the X-Files.
Wednesday
Lost (ABC, 7PM, 21 Sep): A favorite returns...
Invasion (ABC, 8PM, 21 Sep): Space invaders!
Thursday:
The Night Stalker (ABC, 8PM, 29 Sep): Stuart Townsend takes on the role of Carl Kolchak in this remake of the television show of the same name (which originally starred Darren McGavin).
Friday:
Threshold (CBS, 8PM, 16 Sep): A team of researchers invesitgate a mysterious and possibly extra-terrestrial craft found in the ocean.
Enjoy!
Monday, August 8, 2005
A Tale of Two Tattoo Shops
This summer, there are not one, but two reality shows built around tattoo shops. Andy, being a tattooed man, of course was interested, so we've watched both. Here are my thoughts:
Show 1: Inked on A&E
Show 2: Miami Ink on TLC
Location
Inked: Palms Casino, Las Vegas
Miami Ink: Miami, FL
Winner: Inked - I prefer Vegas to Miami any day of the week and twice on Sundays.
Shop
Inked: Hart & Huntington, a swanky, modern-looking, red-walled shop
Miami Ink: bright, white-walled shop decorated with some art
Winner: Draw - H&H looks nice, but some of the shows centered on how dirty the shop was. Miami Ink's shop looks more like a traditional shop, but is clean, brand-new and seems well-run.
Focus
Inked: The artists and people who work on the shop
Miami Ink: The people getting the tattoos
Winner: Miami Ink by a long shot - the people in the shop in Inked are dysfunctional and whereas their personal problems might be interesting to some viewers, I rather see some actual tattoos and find out why people get them
Average Customer (featured on the show)
Inked: A guy wants something tattooed on his penis; random drunken gamblers/tourists
Miami Ink: A guy wants a tattoo of a turtle in memory of his cousin who drowned; a young mother wants to have a tattoo of a fairy redone in honor of her newfound sobriety
Winner: Miami Ink - the stories are compelling and touching. It's no wonder the producers chose to focus on the artists on Inked, because many of the customers are obnoxious jerks. Well, OK, it was sort of funny to see the guy who wanted something tattooed on his Johnson, but the manager and artists were so weirded out by him that it stopped being funny about a minute into segment.
Soundtrack/theme song
Inked: A pop-punk anthem to rebellion
Miami Ink: If I'm not mistaken, "Funky Kingston" by Toots and the Maytals
Winner: Miami Ink - no explanation needed
Favorite Artist/Character
Inked: Clark - a one-eyed, old-school artist who consoles the receptionist, Monica, during a rough time in her life
Miami Inked: Chris Nu�ez - the "hottie" artist who often does memorial tattoos, as he suffered his own tragedy at an early age
Winner: Tie - Clark is a more quirky and interesting character, but he gets little screen time. Chris is sympathetic person and does excellent work for his clients - he seems to really care about their pain
Schooling the Apprentice
Inked: Thomas makes Dizzle, the apprentice, tattoo a fruit; when Dizzle thinks he's going to do his first tattoo on a friend, Thomas instead brings in his old-school biker/former teacher, Rick Walters, who makes Dizzle tattoo himself
Miami Ink: Ami makes his apprentice, Yoji, wax his car
Winner: Inked - Ami may be a better teacher for all I know, but Dizzle's first tattoo makes for better TV
Relationships
Inked: Thomas's breakup with Monica is messy and ends with her quitting her job
Miami Ink: Yoji marries his pregnant girlfriend on the beach
Winner: Miami Ink - the ceremony was beautiful and it is refreshing to see people actually like each other on TV
Leader
Inked: Thomas
Miami Ink: Ami
Winner: Miami Ink - Thomas comes off as an insecure asshole; Ami, even when he's being a jerk, still seems to care about the people around him.
Hot Girl Moment
Inked: a drunken gambler passes out while getting a tattoo on her back
Miami Ink: Ami draws fake tattoos on a model for a photoshoot
Winner: Miami Ink - please.
Totals
Inked - 2
Miami Ink - 6
Draw - 2
Miami Ink is the clear winner. It's the better show, though I'm not sure how much coverage it's getting, both from the press, ads and the network, and I fear it might not last. Inked may have style, but Miami Ink has more substance.
For more info:
Inked: http://www.aetv.com/inked/crew.jsp
Miami Ink: http://tlc.discovery.com/fansites/miami-ink/intro.html
Show 1: Inked on A&E
Show 2: Miami Ink on TLC
Location
Inked: Palms Casino, Las Vegas
Miami Ink: Miami, FL
Winner: Inked - I prefer Vegas to Miami any day of the week and twice on Sundays.
Shop
Inked: Hart & Huntington, a swanky, modern-looking, red-walled shop
Miami Ink: bright, white-walled shop decorated with some art
Winner: Draw - H&H looks nice, but some of the shows centered on how dirty the shop was. Miami Ink's shop looks more like a traditional shop, but is clean, brand-new and seems well-run.
Focus
Inked: The artists and people who work on the shop
Miami Ink: The people getting the tattoos
Winner: Miami Ink by a long shot - the people in the shop in Inked are dysfunctional and whereas their personal problems might be interesting to some viewers, I rather see some actual tattoos and find out why people get them
Average Customer (featured on the show)
Inked: A guy wants something tattooed on his penis; random drunken gamblers/tourists
Miami Ink: A guy wants a tattoo of a turtle in memory of his cousin who drowned; a young mother wants to have a tattoo of a fairy redone in honor of her newfound sobriety
Winner: Miami Ink - the stories are compelling and touching. It's no wonder the producers chose to focus on the artists on Inked, because many of the customers are obnoxious jerks. Well, OK, it was sort of funny to see the guy who wanted something tattooed on his Johnson, but the manager and artists were so weirded out by him that it stopped being funny about a minute into segment.
Soundtrack/theme song
Inked: A pop-punk anthem to rebellion
Miami Ink: If I'm not mistaken, "Funky Kingston" by Toots and the Maytals
Winner: Miami Ink - no explanation needed
Favorite Artist/Character
Inked: Clark - a one-eyed, old-school artist who consoles the receptionist, Monica, during a rough time in her life
Miami Inked: Chris Nu�ez - the "hottie" artist who often does memorial tattoos, as he suffered his own tragedy at an early age
Winner: Tie - Clark is a more quirky and interesting character, but he gets little screen time. Chris is sympathetic person and does excellent work for his clients - he seems to really care about their pain
Schooling the Apprentice
Inked: Thomas makes Dizzle, the apprentice, tattoo a fruit; when Dizzle thinks he's going to do his first tattoo on a friend, Thomas instead brings in his old-school biker/former teacher, Rick Walters, who makes Dizzle tattoo himself
Miami Ink: Ami makes his apprentice, Yoji, wax his car
Winner: Inked - Ami may be a better teacher for all I know, but Dizzle's first tattoo makes for better TV
Relationships
Inked: Thomas's breakup with Monica is messy and ends with her quitting her job
Miami Ink: Yoji marries his pregnant girlfriend on the beach
Winner: Miami Ink - the ceremony was beautiful and it is refreshing to see people actually like each other on TV
Leader
Inked: Thomas
Miami Ink: Ami
Winner: Miami Ink - Thomas comes off as an insecure asshole; Ami, even when he's being a jerk, still seems to care about the people around him.
Hot Girl Moment
Inked: a drunken gambler passes out while getting a tattoo on her back
Miami Ink: Ami draws fake tattoos on a model for a photoshoot
Winner: Miami Ink - please.
Totals
Inked - 2
Miami Ink - 6
Draw - 2
Miami Ink is the clear winner. It's the better show, though I'm not sure how much coverage it's getting, both from the press, ads and the network, and I fear it might not last. Inked may have style, but Miami Ink has more substance.
For more info:
Inked: http://www.aetv.com/inked/crew.jsp
Miami Ink: http://tlc.discovery.com/fansites/miami-ink/intro.html
Tuesday, July 26, 2005
Pop Culture - The Good, The Bad, The Ugly and the Rocking
The Good - Lost
I've been watching episodes of Lost that I recorded and I'm caught up on season one. This show is X-Files good and compares favorably with the best episodes from that show. The plot is interesting (40 people are stranded on a mysterious island after their plane crashes) and there are hints of larger things at work: were the people chosen to survive the crash, perhaps to atone for some past sin? What is the purpose of island and the strange monsters/animals that seem to inhabit it? The last few episodes seem to imply that the fates of the survivors are intertwined more deeply than they realize; the flashbacks to events before the crash are intriguing and infuriating. There are great conflicts as well: a recovering drug addict is faced with the temptation of a cargo of heroin; in an attempt to escape the island, some of the survivors on a raft are confronted by strange men (pirates?) who kidnap one man's son and set fire to the raft; the mysterious hatch Locke found in the jungle is finally open, but where it leads to remains to be seen. Also, it gets my vote for "how did they put this on TV:" while trying to transport old dynamite to blow open the hatch, one survivor is literally blown to bits. How this made it past TV censors amazes me.
The Bad - Rock Star INXS
I watch this show with morbid fascination - I'll admit to being a fan of INXS once upon a time and I still can and will sing along. But this show is uncomfortable to watch. First, the contestants are mostly white Americans; not all that surprising, really, but only one Australian and two Canadians made the final cut. That just seems a little odd to me, a little too American-centric. Most of the contestants are pretty people, especially the women. Don't get me wrong, they have fine voices, too, but it is embarrassing and painful to watch these pretty people try to be rock stars. Most of the women are crosses between Jewel and Lita Ford (not Runaways Lita Ford, but Lita Ford circa 1987) and last week, two made the terrible mistake of trying to rock out to...Purple Haze and Paranoid. I have never been so horrified. True there are the token "different" people: there is the Token Black Guy with Mohawk, to which comparisons to Living Color are inevitable, and the Token Overweight Cool Girl with Dreadlocks and Tattoos, who really isn't overweight but looks it when she stands next to the more TV friendly female contestants. The Beck-wannabe lost last week and for all of his awkward posing, I think I'll miss him from the show simply because he was different from the other guys. Lastly, there is the elephant in the room that no one wants to talk about - Michael Hutchence. No one has mentioned him yet, at least not on air, and somehow that makes this all the worse.
The Ugly - Family Guy
Let me go on the record of saying that I love Family Guy and I'm glad it's back on the air. I'm just not sure how it manages to stay on the air, because damn, it is ugly. It is South Park offensive, which is saying something considering it's on broadcast television during primetime. Don't believe me? In last week's episode:
The evil monkey that lives in Chris's closet pulled out a bag of weed and rolled a joint.
Chris and Meg both admitted they would masterbate to their mother's pictures if she became a model.
Cookie Monster (from Sesame Street) was heating up cookie dough using a spoon and a lighter like a junky in a stall in the women's restroom at a club.
Do I need to go on?
The Rocking - Best band the hipsters are already sick of:
Louis XIV - Cheeky, raunchy and fun-as-hell indie rock music that is influenced by T-Rex and 70s New York punk.
I've been watching episodes of Lost that I recorded and I'm caught up on season one. This show is X-Files good and compares favorably with the best episodes from that show. The plot is interesting (40 people are stranded on a mysterious island after their plane crashes) and there are hints of larger things at work: were the people chosen to survive the crash, perhaps to atone for some past sin? What is the purpose of island and the strange monsters/animals that seem to inhabit it? The last few episodes seem to imply that the fates of the survivors are intertwined more deeply than they realize; the flashbacks to events before the crash are intriguing and infuriating. There are great conflicts as well: a recovering drug addict is faced with the temptation of a cargo of heroin; in an attempt to escape the island, some of the survivors on a raft are confronted by strange men (pirates?) who kidnap one man's son and set fire to the raft; the mysterious hatch Locke found in the jungle is finally open, but where it leads to remains to be seen. Also, it gets my vote for "how did they put this on TV:" while trying to transport old dynamite to blow open the hatch, one survivor is literally blown to bits. How this made it past TV censors amazes me.
The Bad - Rock Star INXS
I watch this show with morbid fascination - I'll admit to being a fan of INXS once upon a time and I still can and will sing along. But this show is uncomfortable to watch. First, the contestants are mostly white Americans; not all that surprising, really, but only one Australian and two Canadians made the final cut. That just seems a little odd to me, a little too American-centric. Most of the contestants are pretty people, especially the women. Don't get me wrong, they have fine voices, too, but it is embarrassing and painful to watch these pretty people try to be rock stars. Most of the women are crosses between Jewel and Lita Ford (not Runaways Lita Ford, but Lita Ford circa 1987) and last week, two made the terrible mistake of trying to rock out to...Purple Haze and Paranoid. I have never been so horrified. True there are the token "different" people: there is the Token Black Guy with Mohawk, to which comparisons to Living Color are inevitable, and the Token Overweight Cool Girl with Dreadlocks and Tattoos, who really isn't overweight but looks it when she stands next to the more TV friendly female contestants. The Beck-wannabe lost last week and for all of his awkward posing, I think I'll miss him from the show simply because he was different from the other guys. Lastly, there is the elephant in the room that no one wants to talk about - Michael Hutchence. No one has mentioned him yet, at least not on air, and somehow that makes this all the worse.
The Ugly - Family Guy
Let me go on the record of saying that I love Family Guy and I'm glad it's back on the air. I'm just not sure how it manages to stay on the air, because damn, it is ugly. It is South Park offensive, which is saying something considering it's on broadcast television during primetime. Don't believe me? In last week's episode:
The evil monkey that lives in Chris's closet pulled out a bag of weed and rolled a joint.
Chris and Meg both admitted they would masterbate to their mother's pictures if she became a model.
Cookie Monster (from Sesame Street) was heating up cookie dough using a spoon and a lighter like a junky in a stall in the women's restroom at a club.
Do I need to go on?
The Rocking - Best band the hipsters are already sick of:
Louis XIV - Cheeky, raunchy and fun-as-hell indie rock music that is influenced by T-Rex and 70s New York punk.
Friday, February 25, 2005
What else I like or Fun with DVR
A little less than two months ago, we ordered DVR through our cable company. Installation problems aside, it's been a brilliant service and works the way we expected. At first, we kept forgetting to use the features available - for example, pausing a TV show we were watching before running to the bathroom or fastfowarding through the commercials on recorded shows. I think it has significantly changed how we watch TV. We no longer watch whatever crap that happens to be on, for one thing. When one of us is coming home late, the other records our favorite shows to watch later. Some shows I watch only through recordings anyway.
One such show is Spaced, a British comedy that ran for a couple of seasons in the late 90s. I had never heard of Spaced before Bravo had a marathon of episodes in January. I had heard of the series' creators, Simon Pegg and Jessica Stevenson, in backwards sort of way. When we were in London last April, posters for the movie Shaun of the Dead, which was written by and stars Simon Pegg, were everywhere. Even without knowing the star, I desperately wanted to see it, as I am fan of such films as Evil Dead and Night of the Living Dead and English humor in general. Unfortunately, it wasn't released to theatres until after we had left London, so I had to wait until the summer when it was released here in the States. But it was well worth the wait.
So I was pleasantly surprised to find out about the series, Spaced, and equally glad to have the DVR unit in order to record all the episodes. We've been working our way through them slowly, and I am frightened at how well it captures the Gen X experience in the 90s. Pegg and I are about the same age and what he writes about in the series could have come directly from my life:
- Working at a comic book store: check
- Collecting comics: check
- Playing video games: check
- Friend who wants to write/draw his own comic: check
- Friend who skateboards: check
- Club kids and "rave" culture: Oh, god help me, yes.
- Friend who is a militaty nut with guns: (Please, shoot me now) Yes.
- Obsession with the first three Star Wars movies: Absolutely
- Conversations desperately trying to create meaning in vapid pop culture: Of course.
- ...and then devolve into silly arguments about trivia: Guilty.
- Aspiring writer who never writes and has yet to be published: Yes, indeed, sir.
The premise behind the show is that two acquaintances, Tim (Pegg) and Daisy (Stevenson), are desperately in need of new apartments. Tim was thrown out by his ex-girlfriend and Daisy was living in a squat with junkies. They find a great place, but the ad specifies married couples only. So, Tim and Daisy pose as a married couple to get the apartment. Luckily, the show downplays the zany Three's Company element and instead focuses on the daily lives of the characters intertwined with pop culture references and over-the-top, wacky adventures. Besides slacker Tim, a comic book store employee and aspiring comic book artist, and Daisy, an aspiring writer/journalist, the other misfits include: Marsha (Julia Deakin), the nosy and eternally horny landlady, Brian (Mark Heap), their tortured artist neighbor, Twist (Katy Carmichael), Daisy's vain and fashion-obsessed best friend, and Mike (Nick Frost), Tim's military and gun-obsessed best friend.
Had I caught the series when it was first run, I would have been RABID for it. As it is, I am still a pretty big fan. It's very funny and clever, and although it's only a few years old, I'm surprised at the nostalgia it invokes in me. It reminds me of the Friday nights we used to spend playing D&D after hours in the comic store.
One such show is Spaced, a British comedy that ran for a couple of seasons in the late 90s. I had never heard of Spaced before Bravo had a marathon of episodes in January. I had heard of the series' creators, Simon Pegg and Jessica Stevenson, in backwards sort of way. When we were in London last April, posters for the movie Shaun of the Dead, which was written by and stars Simon Pegg, were everywhere. Even without knowing the star, I desperately wanted to see it, as I am fan of such films as Evil Dead and Night of the Living Dead and English humor in general. Unfortunately, it wasn't released to theatres until after we had left London, so I had to wait until the summer when it was released here in the States. But it was well worth the wait.
So I was pleasantly surprised to find out about the series, Spaced, and equally glad to have the DVR unit in order to record all the episodes. We've been working our way through them slowly, and I am frightened at how well it captures the Gen X experience in the 90s. Pegg and I are about the same age and what he writes about in the series could have come directly from my life:
- Working at a comic book store: check
- Collecting comics: check
- Playing video games: check
- Friend who wants to write/draw his own comic: check
- Friend who skateboards: check
- Club kids and "rave" culture: Oh, god help me, yes.
- Friend who is a militaty nut with guns: (Please, shoot me now) Yes.
- Obsession with the first three Star Wars movies: Absolutely
- Conversations desperately trying to create meaning in vapid pop culture: Of course.
- ...and then devolve into silly arguments about trivia: Guilty.
- Aspiring writer who never writes and has yet to be published: Yes, indeed, sir.
The premise behind the show is that two acquaintances, Tim (Pegg) and Daisy (Stevenson), are desperately in need of new apartments. Tim was thrown out by his ex-girlfriend and Daisy was living in a squat with junkies. They find a great place, but the ad specifies married couples only. So, Tim and Daisy pose as a married couple to get the apartment. Luckily, the show downplays the zany Three's Company element and instead focuses on the daily lives of the characters intertwined with pop culture references and over-the-top, wacky adventures. Besides slacker Tim, a comic book store employee and aspiring comic book artist, and Daisy, an aspiring writer/journalist, the other misfits include: Marsha (Julia Deakin), the nosy and eternally horny landlady, Brian (Mark Heap), their tortured artist neighbor, Twist (Katy Carmichael), Daisy's vain and fashion-obsessed best friend, and Mike (Nick Frost), Tim's military and gun-obsessed best friend.
Had I caught the series when it was first run, I would have been RABID for it. As it is, I am still a pretty big fan. It's very funny and clever, and although it's only a few years old, I'm surprised at the nostalgia it invokes in me. It reminds me of the Friday nights we used to spend playing D&D after hours in the comic store.
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