Category — Action/Adventure

In the summer, many channels schedule marathons and reruns to fill up those empty blocks. Holidays and warmer weather create significant drops in viewership, which leads to less advertising dollars. Thus, networks can be more creative with the schedule.

There is the new trend of showing smaller budgeted shows during the summer as mid-season or summer only programs. I’ve discovered quite a few gems during this so-called down period like “Burn Notice”, “Mad Men”, “Eureka”, “Weeds” and “In Plain Sight”. As you may have noticed, mostly cable network or premium channels can so freely funnel money into summer shows, since you have to pay to see those channels anyway.

Here’s a list of reruns, premieres and marathons for July:
“Burn Notice” - Season 2 premiere on July 10th, 10pm (mini marathon on July 3rd)
“Weeds” - Season 4 already up and running, Mondays on Showtime at 10pm
“Mad Men” - Season 1 marathon on July 20th at noon, Season 2 premiere on July 27th (Thanks Whitney for the heads up!)

“Eureka” - Season Premiere on July 29th, 9pm (watch reruns online here)
“Supernatural” - Season 3 encore, Thursdays at 9pm
“Rescue Me” minisodes started on Tuesdays on F/X, but you can catch them online as well at Crackle.com

Don’t waste the day away in your sofa hammock, stay cool and catch up on all that great tv you missed earlier in the year.

Since hearing from Pajiba that they’re remaking “The Prisoner” with Jim Cavezial and Ian McKellan, I decided that I should get familiar with the original. The 1967 “The Prisoner” series starred Patrick McGoohan as an ex-spy who is kidnapped and taken to The Village, a lavish but dangerous prison where he’s held until he gives his captors what they want. At first glance, it sounds like “The Fugitive” crossed with Escape from Alcatraz or something.

I feel like television could benefit from a new version that has thought provoking writing. It’s a perfect vehicle to explore current social and political themes such as the power limits on certain government agencies. “24″ before it got ridiculous was an excellent show to question the methods of how governments protect our freedoms. With the idea of an indefinite prison, one can easily imagine the political commentary possibilities. Here’s hoping it’s not just another throwaway conspiracy theory serial like “Vanished”.

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).

This sunday is Mother’s Day, so I feel I should spotlight some of my mom’s favorite tv shows.

Mystery/Suspense:
“In the Heat of the Night”
“Murder, She Wrote”
“Remington Steele” - got her seasons one and two for her birthday…
“Matlock” - no one can hate on the Griffith

Cop Shows:
“Walker, Texas Ranger” - Mom loved it before Conan made it “cool”
“Nash Bridges”
“JAG”
“Silk Stalkings”

The Soaps (every mom has “her show”):
“Knots Landing” - with Alec Baldwin! and William Devane!!

“Young and the Restless” - doesn’t everyone love this show, though?
“Days of Our Lives” - My mom finally learned how to dvr new episodes
“Another World”
“Falcon Crest”

Comedy:
“Martin”

“Living Single”
“The Cosby Show”
“Monk”
“A Different World”
“Empty Nest”
“Golden Girls”

But really, she’ll watch whatevers on USA and just leave it there. This sunday, I hope she gets the remote all to herself.

Happy Mother’s Day!

“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.

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.

I found this “Lost” widget today and thought I’d share. My Sawyer nickname is “Half-Pint”. I suppose it’s because I described myself as short, which isn’t very clever.  I guess they’re just trying to say Sawyer calls it like he sees it.

New episodes of “Lost” start up again on Thursday, April 24th, 10/9c.