Friday, October 19, 2007

MIA

Sorry I've been MIA. Basketball season is here, which means your loyal blog master is busy busy.

So we are several weeks into the new TV season. What show is really got you hooked?? Heroes has me all wrapped up, not to mention Bionic Woman, Grey's and a new fav, Women's Murder Club. My TiVo is flat out fried!

Anyone catch Victor Garber on last night's episode of Ugly Betty and Amy Acker (aka Kelly Peyton) playing a baddy on Law & Order Criminal Intent? Victor looked fabulous! Gawd I miss that guy on TV!

So catch me up, how are the new shows doing and have you spotted any other Alias alums?

21 comments:

Page48 said...

Gordon Dean (complete with facial hair) on W.M.Club.

Ugly and Law aren't on my schedule so I missed both of those.

BW has shown steady progress, with eppies 1.3 and 1.4 being substantially better that 1.2, but I really think they are wasting a great premise with chincy plots and anonymous enemies.

It's the empty feeling I had in Season 4 when Sydney was chasing a unibomber this week and a gunrunner next week and none of it was connected.

The serial drama is definitely out of style for now, and I feel deprived. Hell, I am deprived.

Anonymous said...

I agree. None of the new shows has really tweeked my interest. Even MV's new show is great for eye candy but not much else. It would be great if we could get rid of 3 of the 4 CEO's (gee, wonder which one I would keep?)

Caught the Crossings episode from Season 3 a few days ago. How depressing. It left me wanting more...

uncle111 said...

The only one on broadcast TV I'm keeping up with is Heros. I'm trying to watch BW, but it just hasn't grabbed me. Waiting for Jericho and Burn Notice to return.

I've started Alias again with S1, which leads me to an Alias mystery solved.

In S1 there is an episode called Reconning. It is the episode where Syd thinks she's figured out that Irina was killed in the car accident (I know, they changed the story in S5) because FBI agent Caulder was chasing her father because he was a double agent for the KGB.
Caudler's "widow" gives Syd a picture of Caulder. That picture alway's looked strange to me. It always looked like a doctored picture, like they had taken a picture of someone we know and made his nose way too big, or something like that.

As I studied that picture yesterday I realized that it was an inside joke. It is a picture of a younger Sloane that they altered. It is also ironic because the next season Sloane would extract Irina as his look alike, Caulder, had done soon after Irina had become pregnant with Sloane's child, Nadia.

So, Caulder/Sloane was Irina's partner in espionage, at the same time Sloane was her partner in adultry and in the creation of the Passenger.

For a little more symmetry- Sloane would kill his daughter and Irina would try to kill her's, both in search of immortality.

SKlaft said...

Nice one Uncle.

I continue to watch several.

Like Uncle, I dig Burn Notice, but we have to wait until next summer for the next season.

Along with many of you, I do keep up with Heroes, though, as always, I have a complaint about the sluggish pace. They have introduced several new characters while ignoring several of the more tenured people, or at least, tantalizing us with thier own sub-plot, but leaving it undeveloped. This is a little irksome, but certainly nothing that will prevent me from watching.

Bionic Woman, on the other hand, holds no interest for me. Page48 has already enumerated the reasons, and I just couldn't care much less about the characters or the show. (Except for this: the younger sister has been making me tilt my head trying to remember where I have seen her before. It struck me this past week. She was the little girl in the Welches Grape Juice commercial. Remember her, with the giant eyes and the funny personality? Oh well. I like being able to recognize things like that.)

I remain a devote' of House MD. His ascerbic wit, and his misanthropic point of view keeps me rolling on the floor laughing.

Last year's season 6 of Smallville was with out question the best of the series. It still has its childish and hokie moments, but the writing has stepped it up several notches, and the actors have really grown into mature and expereinced... okay, thespians may still be an overstatement, but they have gotten to be pretty decent. I only wish the director would stop the soap-opera-like conversations, where they attempt to build the drama by having someone take two steps away before delivering the line while facing away from the other person. No one actually does that.

I am patiently waiting for the next season of both Lost and Battlestar Galatica. In the mean-time, I try to catch every Ultimate Fighting Challenge (UFC) event that I can. Do you think professional wrestling is too goofy and put-on? Are you unimpressed or board with boxing? Does it seem like the kick-boxing or karate competitions prove too little about the effectiveness of a fighter's skill. Do they seem too slow and controlled? Are you tired of having to read the commentator's words on the bottom of the screen because they were stated in a foriegn language? Well, give Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) a try, and I know you will be satisfied. Now we can finally know who the baddest of the bad really are, and the UFC is the superbowl of the MMA world. Catch it once, and it will have caught you.

-R.

Page48 said...

I mentioned JJ's new pitch to FOX for a show called "Fringe". An indepth look at the pilot script is available at http://televisionary.blogspot.com

JJ has employed "Alias" writers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci (who also wrote JJ's version of "Star Trek")for the two hour, big-budget pilot. Of course, it will be a year before we get a look at it, but, who knows, JJ's drought may be over.

I have to admit I paid little attention to the writing credits on "Alias", so I don't know if these guys were responsible for the good stuff or not. I did enjoy MI3 though, and apparently they wrote the script for that one as well.

I agree with Bristowva that this has been a very lean year for good new TV shows. I'm stunned at the glowing reviews for "Pushing Daisies", the darling of the new season. I gave it 10 minutes and couldn't get a way fast enough. I can't see it surviving the season.

There seems to be a disconnect between what I want to watch and what the networks want to show me. Better luck next year??

BTW, JJ's "Fringe" centers around a young, female FBI agent. Any chance JJ still has Jen's phone number?

Lisa said...

Uncle, I always wondered about that picture! it was always so obvious to me that it was Sloane- but the rest of the storyline never played out to make sense of that. hmmmmm- so it was an inside joke? too obvious, if you ask me, it really confused me!

Anonymous said...

Hey all --
this isn't a sighting but rather a hearing -- I downloaded some kids audio books -- lately my kids are liking the Bunnicula series (about a vampire rabbit) -- well the one I just purchased is read by Victor Garber!! Makes cruising along in the car listening to kiddie stories a bit more bearable!

uncle111 said...

Robetron,
The MMA is interesting. I don't have cable, but one I caught part of a bout on one of our broadcast stations that must have just started carrying it. I did a VERY LITTLE full contact karate fighting in the mid 70's and had a little Judo training, so I can relate to it some. Those guys are really tough, well trained natural fighters. Looks like the only thing they don't do is the real blood sport type fighting with actual death and maiming techniques. But then the stable of fighters would dwindle rather quickly:)

Page48 said...

I've read nothing but accolades about "Pushing Daisies" for the last 4 months, but frankly, I can't get thru 10 minutes. I've tried twice, but 10 minutes is shear agony. It's a steaming pile of crap.

It's no wonder there isn't any refuge for "Alias" fans when viewers and critics get all moist over poopers like this.

Do me a favour!!!

On a brighter note, "Viva Laughlin" was canceled after 2 episodes. Gee, who coulda seen that one coming?

I read an article speculating that the network execs can't wait for the writers' strike so they can pretend this year's TV season never happened. Hard to argue with that logic.

Anonymous said...

sorry to be a bit off topic, but does anyone know anything about JG being in Cyrano de Bergerac??????

http://www.jen-fans.com/gallery/
thumbnails.php?album=1859

BristowVA said...

Besides Big Shots, the only other new show that I make a point to watch or Tivo is Dirty Sexy Money. It's entertaining to watch how clueless those rich people are. And it's especially entertaining to see a lawyer with morals.

SRM said...

I just saw a preview on TV last night for the movie P2, which is starring our very own Rachel Nichols. I admit I'm a little disappointed to see her doing a random horror flick...

I also have been MIA lately, only because I haven't watched any new TV shows this season, so I haven't had much to chat about.

Page48 said...

Has anyone checked out the hype surrounding JJ's mystery-shrouded upcoming sci-fi movie (trailer at this link)?

www.apple.com/trailers/paramount/11808

Page48 said...

lisa,

I checked out the gallery pics of Jen in Cyrano DB. It just reminded me (not that I needed reminding) that I am sooooooooooooooo not into the live theater thing. I just don't get it.

If that play was going on outside my bedroom window, I wouldn't be tempted to watch.

Oh, sure, I'd have the binoculars all over Jen, but the play???, I don't think so Tim.

SKlaft said...

Ha!

A "Home Improvement" referrence!

I can hardly believe it.

Page48 said...

Okay, so I'm watching BSG, the episode where Adama and Cane order hits on each other, and I'm wondering to myself, since "Bionic Woman" is a sibling of BSG, as they both come from David Eick, why is it that BW lacks any of the intensity and life or death urgency, or even the continuity of BSG? You would think that watching BW would somehow remind you of BSG (a family resemblance), but not so.

Last week, Jaime beat the snot out of Antonio (Isaiah Washington) and left him unconscious in Paraguay. This week, Antonio is right there working with Jaime as if nothing had ever happened between them, he's not complaining of sore ribs from Jaime's bionic boots, he's not pissed at her for losing the flash drive, he's not even trading barbs with her over blowing the mission. The flash drive, which last week, was worth dying for, is not mentioned, no team is dispatched to find it, Jaime's completely gotten over learning about her 5 year bionic lifespan. Everything which mattered last week is forgotten this week.

Can't they treat viewers any better than that? Do they think viewers can't handle sophisticated serial TV? I hate the fact that people who know how to do good TV, and BSG is good TV, have taken a show that I had high hopes for, and dumbed it down so that casual viewers can watch 3 eppies a year and not feel totally frustrated.

BW is 5 episodes old now. The villains so far have no names, fuzzy motivation, and appear to be completely inept at the art of villainous activity.

This week's baddie, a university geek named Sean (okay, he had a first name) was not bent on world domination, he wasn't out to destroy reputations, commit ethnic cleansing or anything else of a heinous nature. His motivation in selling chips that can program human behaviour to a terrorist group??? He just wanted the money.
Oh pullllllleeeeeeeease.

This show needs to get complicated, it needs to find a worthy opponent with a plan other than gathering vast sums of beer money, and it needs to show that what happened last week has some impact on what happens this week. A Season 1 episode should not be interchangeable with a Season 4 episode. That's bad television.

BW also needs to serious up. Sarah Corvus has her moments in BW, but then she ruins it by going all comic-book or cartoonish. I mentioned on another blog that Sarah Corvus would be a joke on "Alias" or "24" or any another show in that save-the-world vein.

Who is BW trying to connect with? Have they even asked themselves that question? Are they going after the Lindsay Wagner crowd, maybe the BSG faithful, the disenchanted "Alias" survivors?

At this point, I would have to say the target audience is teenage girls, which is a major disappointment to me, and judging from ratings woes, a disappointment to all who tuned in on September 26th hoping to see the next big thing.

uncle111 said...

Page48-
Another plus in the Alias serial series column?

SRM said...

Lisa - if you're curious about Jen's play, you can read the plot summary at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Cyrano_de_Bergerac_(play)

Thanks for posting the pics of Jen, it's cool to see her doing a period piece, looks almost Shakespearian (as does the plot).

Bonkers for Bristow said...

just a quick observation on BW. Anyone notice the "bionic" noise in the last two episodes where Jamie is using her amazing leaping abilities? I only mention it because someone had said the NBC boards where all aghast that it hadn't been included in the new series. I guess someone at NBC was reading. Just adds another layer of, "why am I still watching this" for me. :)

Did like whats-her-name better with the British accent. Made her less wooden. Think they could figure out a reason to keep it?

Page48 said...

bonkers,

Yes, I did notice that they caved into pressure regarding the bionic noise. I could have sworn that I heard the toaster make the bionic noise a few eppies back. It's amazing to me how many people want to cling to the nonsense of the original series. Also amazing how many people want to see Lindsay Wagner appear in this show.

I think they've blown any credible way of making Jaime speak with a British accent going forward, since they cast her with an American sister and an all-American back story. I don't understand why they insisted on her being American in the first place. How does it take away from the show if the BW is British?

GS's next post regarding music also reminds me to mention that the music in BW lags far behind "Alias". There's obviously an art to picking the right music and whoever is picking BW's music is definitely not as adept as whoever performed that chore for "Alias".

While I'm whining, I'll briefly switch over to "Heroes". We're now about a quarter of the way thru Season 2, and I have to say that I think it's high time they brought Hiro (and presumably Sark) back to the present and reunited Hiro with Ando. These guys are a team and work well together. Ando on his own is bland at best. Hiro's 17th Century Japan scenario had better lead to something significant because it's boring the crap out of me. Also time to return Peter Petrelli to New York and get some of the regular characters interacting with each other instead of everyone leading separate lives.

I must say I'm glad to see Peter taking up Isaac's job of painting the future. I thought that was one of the things that made last season click. All things considered, the snail's pace of "Lost" and "Heroes" only makes me long even more for "Alias" Season 7, which we should be enjoying now.

Anonymous said...

The girl who plays Jenny, Will's assistant in Season 1, is one of the main characters in the new T.V. series Life. We don't watch the show, but my husband saw a commercial the other day and spotted her. I didn't believe him, but he was right.