Posts from — June 2008

Last summer, I stumbled across USA’s dramedy “Burn Notice” and ended up loving it. It stars Jeffrey Donovan as the burned CIA operative, Michael Weston.

A job went bad and in the blink of an eye, he was disavowed and shut out. The government marooned him in Miami, Michael’s hometown that he left in the wind many years ago. Since he basically doesn’t exist, a consequence of working black ops, Michael has no work history, money or home. Thus, he’s forced to depend on his ex-girlfriend Fiona (Gabrielle Anwar), his mom (Sharon Gless), and his friend, Sam (Bruce Campbell) for help.

Spies really hate asking for favors, so most of the humor of the show is him learning to interact with his family and the real world again. All the while, he takes odd PI jobs to make ends meet while desperately working to reclaim his CIA status.

The season 1 dvd is in stores tomorrow (source: TV Squad).

Catch the season 2 premiere on USA on July 10th (10/9 central).

Seasoned thespian and all around loveable guy Dennis Hopper started shooting “Crash” this week in New Mexico. “Crash” is the Starz and Lionsgate first foray into television drama. In Hopper’s own words, he plays a “Phil Spector type character”. Interesting…

I’m guessing it’s a spin-off of the Oscar winning movie, Crash, which I absolutely cannot stand. But if the Hopper is in it, I suppose I’ll have to give it a go. They’re shooting 13 episodes, which means the scripts have to be halfway decent.

Source: Indie 103.1 interview with Dennis Hopper (6/13/08)

“30 Rock” follows the exploits of Liz Lemon, comedy writer and producer of the fictional sketch show “The Girly Show with Tracy Jordan”. It’s an imaginative black comedy that parodies the behind the scenes antics that occur when trying to bring together coporate interest (GE) and creative expression.

The MILF Island episode:

I must own that episode on dvd ASAP! My other favorite from this season is “Subway Hero”. It features the return of Liz’s politically incorrect beeper salesman ex boyfriend, Dennis (Dean Winters) .

According to TVshowsonDVD.com, “30 Rock” season two could be out as early as September!

Hulu acquired the rights this week to stream full episodes of “The Colbert Report” and “The Daily Show”.

The Colbert Report on the Obama fist bump:

Hulu just gets better and better. Now if they could stream content worldwide and add BBCAmerica shows to their roster, I’ll be theirs forever.

Source: Pop Candy

After that horrid Grey’s finale, I decided to watch a mindless sci-fi finale to wash the palette. Enter “Torchwood” (a Doctor Who spin-off) series 2 finale.

For the record, the finale aired in the beginning of April, though I just got around to watching it. It was definitely worth the wait. Two characters died (for reals this time) and someone from Captain Jack’s past wreaked havoc upon the city of Cardiff. Plus, James Marsters returned in this episode, which was a good bookend to series 2 seeing how he appeared in the first episode of the season.

The series went to a very dark place this time with the near destruction of Cardiff. I’m not sure they could blow up a major city on any sci-fi series in the US. I feel like American tv is sometime too cautious with viewers. They don’t want people freaking out and saying the drama was too real or close to home.

I hope Series 3 will be able to define the characters again as they come together in this new climate of death. The last scene hinted on the idea of healing with Jack embracing the team, but I’m not sure if Jack will be enough to hold everyone together.

With all the shake-ups on “Doctor Who” and “Torchwood”, it’s hard for a girl to keep up sometimes. Here’s hoping everyone still breathing at the end of the finale returns in Series 3.

I’ve finally caught up on a few of the television finales and decided the worst one (that I watched) came from “Grey’s Anatomy”. It was the same ol’ crap just re-packaged to make some of the doctors have a happy ending while others went deeper into their self-destructive hole. McDreamy and Meredith finally, after years of break-ups/make-ups and working together and fighting together have decided to give a final shot. But only after she made a breakthru in therapy that is….

If this was season two or three, perhaps I would care. But seriously, four seasons of dating, adultery, and false relationship starts really wears on a viewer! I simply just don’t care.

Who do I care about? Bailey, but it took an entire season of her running around being a Doctor/Head Resident to realize that doing all that and taking care of a baby just don’t mix. She gives the clinic to Izzie. End of Story, everyone wins.

The Chief got back with his wife…ewww old people kissing…I guess it works.

Alex and Izzie fight and kiss again, but now with more sadness and pathetic words.

Callie and Erika are kissing…boring…way to try and get the male demographic back.

George gets to redeem himself and retake his Intern test. Here’s hoping he doesn’t flug it up twice.

Will I watch next season? I really don’t think so. I’d almost rather watch “ER”, which I hate. So that’s saying something.

I was stuck on a plane this weekend, so I was subjected an endless onslaught of rom-coms on that tiny lcd television. Thus, I was absolutely delighted by The Dinner Party episode of “Seinfeld”.

“Seinfeld” always makes you smile no matter how annoyed you are. Why? Because no one can complain as much as those four people. They can’t even pick out a dessert for party without complaining!

Transcript below (for the full effect):

ELAINE: Well how about a carrot cake?

JERRY: Carrot cake? Now why is that a cake? You don’t make carrots into a cake. I’m sorry.

ELAINE: Black Forrest?

JERRY: Black Forrest? Too scary. You’re in the Forrest, oohh.

JERRY: How about a Napoleon?

ELAINE: Napoleon? Who’s he to have a cake? He was a ruthless war monger. Might as well get Mengle.

JERRY: That wa sour Bobka. We had that Bobka!

ELAINE: What’s this one?

CLERK: That’s cinnamon Bobka.

JERRY: Another Bobka?

CLERK: There’s chocolate and there’s cinnamon.

JERRY: Well, we’ve got to get the cinnamon.

ELAINE: No, but they got the chocolate. We’ll be going in with a lesser Bobka.

JERRY: I beg your pardon? Cinnamon takes a back seat to no Bobka. People love cinnamon. It should be on tables at restaurants along with salt and pepper. Anytime anyone says, “Oh This is so good. What’s in it?” The answer invariably comes back, Cinnamon. Cinnamon. Again and again. Lesser Bobka - I think not.

“Seinfeld” - Episode 77 from Season 5

Joss Whedon’s much hyped tv show, “Dollhouse”, isn’t set to premiere until mid-season 2009. Nevertheless, the internets are still abuzz with news and interviews every week.

The latest interesting tid bit I read was about Eliza Dushku (”Buffy the Vampire Slayer”), who plays the lead in “Dollhouse”.

It turns out that she has a producer’s credit according to TV Squad. Several actors and actresses have been known to produce their own shows, so it’s not that crazy for Dushku to put this into her contract. Still, it seems that Joss Whedon may actually want to hold her to it and expect input into the show.

Here’s hoping the fervor for the show can stay afloat until next Jan/Feb.