Posts from — April 2008

Mental Floss has an enlightening article about “6 Sci-Fi TV Show Concepts You Didn’t See”. Most of the list is pretty dead on, but I resent them putting down “Daybreak”. I was way more into that show than “Journeyman”. And yes, I did watch the online episodes…

And “The Fonz and the Happy Days Gang” definitely is the craziest thing (and worst cartoon idea) I’ve seen all day. Even worse than “Hammerman” and I’d thought that was impossible! Check the clips and decide for yourself.

Fonz’s:

OR

Hammer’s:

This is the stuff that gives television a bad wrap…

Seen at Last Night a DJ Saved My Life.

Boomerang, Cartoon Network’s sister channel, started showing “Justice League Unlimited” every weekday at 8pm. That’s right when I get home from work, so I’ve caught quite a few of these episodes on my panasonic tv.

My favorite ep so far is “The Balance” where Wonder Woman and Hawkgirl reluctantly work together to save Hades from the evil Faust robot. They must travel back to Wonder Woman’s home to restore balance to the underworld, Tartarus.

So many things happen in this episode: Wonder Woman learns Hades is actually her father, she reconnects with her mom and finally makes peace with Hawkgirl.

Plus, all the allusions to greek myths are fun to watch.

“Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles” was officially renewed last week by Fox.

According to /Film, the critics generally liked the show despite it having less than favorable ratings. The head of the network even said the show was at the top of the list for renewal!

Overall, I actually really liked the first season. The pilot was a little over the top with Sarah Connor fighting a Terminator in the skimpiest diner uniform I’d ever seen. And them jumping to the future and thus not knowing about 9/11 was tad unnecessary (and a cheap ploy at melodrama). But by the fourth episode, I was definitely sucked into the show.

My favorite parts by far are when they’re in the apocalyptic future. That’s where the show excels in special f/x, writing and character development. We get to see the circumstances surrounding how the first Terminator (aka Arnold’s T1) was sent back to protect Sarah. Do more of that TSCC producers and who knows, maybe the viewership will grow, and hopefully Fox won’t cancel it.

I’m usually the one yelling “what?!” when watching “Lost”. But after watching this video, now I see that all the characters on that show are just as confused as me!

Thanks to Videogum for the heads up about the “supercut” blog trend. There are so many fan videos out there (find a giant list here)! I had no idea. I guess since it’s easy enough to hook up a tv tuner to your PC, it’s no wonder these videos have proliferated.

In honor of Earth Day, I thought I would spotlight some earth-friendly programs.

Sundance has The Green , which airs every Tuesday in the primetime slot. It has a variety of programs that focus on global issues, including segments made by the Sierra Club.

Green Energy TV seems to be a sort of youtube site for Green related videos.

Their motto: “an Online Television Channel that is dedicated to airing green videos for millions of viewers around the world. Though having been launched only in January 2007, Green Energy TV now has viewers from 154 countries and 6 continents going to greenenergytv.com to watch green videos”

I really like this pedal powered tv clip, watch it below:

I hope they can figure out how to harness nuclear fission power or solar power to power my tivo. Cos I don’t know if I could pedal long enough to enjoy even a 30 minute show!

Am I getting old or are these Lifetime movies getting better? I typically only watch these tv movies when I’m extremely bored and want a laugh.

But recently, I got wrapped up in the “Capture of the Green River Killer” mini series with Tom Cavanagh. It was pretty riveting (and graphic!) compared to the usual lover scorned tv fare on LMN.

And then yesterday, I watched “Barbara Taylor Bradford’s A Secret Affair“. That’s like twice in a month that I’ve embraced Lifetime Movie Network programming! The flick from yesterday starred Janine Turner and some Irish bloke. They meet in Venice and fall in love (despite all odds and him being kidnapped by Yugoslavian terrorists?!).

It was based on a romance novel by Barbara Taylor Bradford (which the title won’t let you forget) , so it was pretty heavy with the cheese. At the end, they all think the Irish guy is dead but alas, he escaped his captors and magically ended up in Ireland unscathed.

My mom introduced me to “Murder, She Wrote” since it was one of her favorite shows. Between Jessica Fletcher and Matlock, I thought everyone on tv could solve mysteries! After perusing the dvd seasons, I discovered that the show was on the air for 12 seasons!

The show follows the adventures of Jessica Fletcher (Angela Lansbury), mystery writer and world class gumshoe. Somehow each week, she winds up solving crimes faster than the local police department. Whether on vacation or in her home town of Cabot Cove, Ms. Fletcher stumbles upon a confounding crime that only she is clever enough to solve.

If you don’t have a dvd player and/or the box sets, you can easily catch “Murder, She Wrote” almost everyday on the Hallmark Channel.

The newest season of “Doctor Who” premieres tomorrow on the SciFi Channel (along with BSG and The Sarah Jane Chronicles). I believe it’s just the Christmas special, which already aired in the UK. The UK airs episode three on saturday, so the US airings will be three eps behind. But hey that’s alot better than an entire year behind! That’s almost record breaking. BBC is finally catching on that us Yanks might actually like some their shows. Fancy that?

Regardless, I’m very excited about the premiere. I got into the show late in the game (very late for those who’ve been watching since the PBS days). Since I liked the “Torchwood” spin-off so much, I decided to figure out for myself whether I like its parent show. I was a bit confused about how they could switch Doctors so easily, but David Tennant is funny (and cute!), so I got over it relatively quickly.

I’ve watched all of season one and two in the last month, which is a pretty big feat. I just started season three, so I can’t actually watch tomorrow’s episode. But rest assured, my TiVo is already primed and ready. =)

Ron Moore, producer of “Battlestar Galactica”, has a new pilot coming to Fox called “Virtuality”. The show focuses on a group of space travelers who use virtual reality simulators to pass the time. The program malfunctions, enter the action drama.

The TV whore akins it’ll be sorta like the holodeck was for Capt Picard & Co. on Star Trek. I say it’s a cross between BSG and that Russel Crowe movie Virtuosity.

If it sucks, hopefully it’ll at least be filmed in HD. That way the simulations will come out all crisp on any HD television set.