Category — Science Fiction

I saw a teaser last night for this new paranormal mystery show on CBS called “Eleventh Hour”. It stars the dashing Rufus Sewell as Dr. Jacob Hood.

“ELEVENTH HOUR from acclaimed producer Jerry Bruckheimer follows Dr. Jacob Hood, a brilliant biophysicist and special science advisor to the government, as he investigates scientific crises and oddities. His jurisdiction is absolute and Hood is dogged in his pursuit of those who would abuse and misuse scientific discoveries and breakthroughs for their own gain. His passion and crusade is to protect the substance of science from those with nefarious motives. He is called in at the eleventh hour and he represents the last line of defense.”

Jerry Bruckheimer?! Now, I’m scared to give it a chance. I fear it’s gonna be a supernatural tinged version of “CSI”! And doesn’t this sound strangely like “Threshold”, the David Goyer produced sci-fi drama with Carla Cugino that was swiftly cancelled. Am I the only one who dug that show? It was spooky, intriguing and had a decent cast (Charles S. Dutton from “Roc”!).

I’m not sure the senior citizen demographic of CBS will be down with a X-Files FBI procedural knockoff. Plus, isn’t “Fringe” already going there? In a television battle, JJ Abrams vs Jerry B, JJ is gonna win hands down.

But hey, by some strange fate, “Ghost Whisperer” still gets ratings, maybe it could work. However, GW’s success may be due to JLove Hewitt and not really the subject matter. I think I’m gonna give it a look, but no way I’m giving it an automatic TiVo season pass.

“Eleventh Hour” airs Thursdays at 10pm this fall.

It premiered last week, but it’s still not too late to catch up! Col. Carter is leaving/getting fired and Woollsey is running the show (crazy, I know!) over at the Atlantis site. Babies, wraiths, exploration, what’s not to love about the new season.

Since the viral marketing get up worked for Cloverfield, the J.J. Abrams gang have concocted a few radio spots to promote “Fringe”.

They even have a “Fringe” blog to keep track of all this viral nonsense before the September premiere. Boy, I really hope this show airs long enough to reveal this mysterious “pattern” they’re going on about.

Pacey muses on the “pattern”.

Source: Pop Candy

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.

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.

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.

JJ Abrams new show, “Fringe”, officially got picked up by Fox this week.

It stars Joshua Jackson (”Dawson’s Creek”), Anna Torv, and Lance Reddick (”The Wire” and “Lost”) as they investigate an unusual Boston plane crash. It’s supposed to “thrill, terrify and explore the blurring line between science fiction and reality”.

I dunno, that sounds supspiciously too good to be true since I’ll watch just about anything with a “Wire” cast member or involves science fiction. Still, I wholeheartedly agree with /Film who says it totally looks like an “X-Files” rip-off.

I wonder if Chris Carter agrees? I bet he doesn’t really care and he’d probably just tell Abrams to watch his back since Fox cancels everything (i.e. “Harsh Realm”).

Find more photos at /Film

Before seeing Iron Man, the theater commercials were hyping the heck out of “The Andromeda Strain” tv mini-series, which premieres on A&E this Memorial Day.

My first thought was - is this remake really necessary?

Guess producers Ridley and Tony Scott thought that it was. The uber-special effects remake stars Benjamin Bratt, Andre Braugher, Eric McCormack, and Ricky (does he still go by Ricky?) Schroder.

The apocalyptic themes from Michael Crichton’s novel are certainly loud and clear on that trailer. It sounds like it’s next to impossible to find a cure with the melodramatic dialogue and music. I guess I’m intrigued enough to dvr it just to see what the so-called cure turns out to be.

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:

“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.