What's up, blogger nation. Man, what strange times these are here in Hollywood. Overall, I have to say it's kind of depressing. Left and right people are losing their jobs as production ends on most scripted primetime, daytime, and late night programs. Frankly, it truly sucks. It's one thing that the writers are striking in order to make their point - but think of all the writer's assistants, PA's, crew members, assistants, etc who are about to see the light at the end of the tunnel. The fact is - most of these writers are decently well-off if not downright loaded. That's not to say I don't support their cause in principle, but man, if I happened to be a PA right now I'd be seriously bummed. I could go on and on about this whole issue, but it's obviously a pretty sensitive area right now so I'll leave it at that for now ...
Now, some TV Stuff to talk about:
- I finally caught Monday's HEROES last night ... overall, I agree with the consensus that this was one of the better episodes of Season 2 thus far. But was it really that much of a step up from the last few sub-par eps? I'd have to say there were indeed some slight improvements, but overall I detected the same plodding pacing and lack of action that has thus far plagues the show's sophomore season. At least, however, things really picked up with Hiro this week. Finally - a decent sword fight! However, while it was a huge relief to finally see Hiro's time-lost storyarc resolved and in somewhat dramatic fashion, I was still left pretty cold by the whole thing. I mean - it still felt like there was a lot left unexplored in terms of the ramifications of Hiro's time-travel. The big reveal at the end - it was one of those things where it was only a matter of time before the other shoe dropped. Having Kensei / Adam appear i nthe present seemed like an obvious move, but what could have been a huge cliffhanger was rendered pretty ineffectual. For one thing, Peter's storyline is just dead-in-the-water at this point ... I mena, what happened to Kristen Bell, for one thing? And could that Irish lass be any more useless and annoying? And ... why was he in an apocalyptic future again? Someone tell me, please, because I honestly had no clue. I mean, last year, Heroes had a GREAT episode set in the future. What made it so compelling was seeing where our favorite character ended up in this alternate timeline. In this latest vision of the future, it is practically walking cliche 101. There was a bad plague. Everyone is dead or quarantined. And we get scene after scene of Peter doing all the typical "What's happening? What's going on?" routines. What, indeed. Claire's emo-boy-toy continued to be annoying as all hell this week. 'Nuff said on that one. What did work was the confrontation between Parkman and his father, HRG getting desperate, and the convergance of a number of characters at Company HQ. On the other hand, what up to this point had been a highly intriguing mystery of "what did the Company Founders do to provoke our mystery killer to off them one by one" devolved into a cliche-ridden "we got too cocky, thought we could play God" let-down of an explanation on the part of Company Bob.
This episode did feel a bit tighter, a bit more action-packed than many so far this season, but at the same time, those slight improvements in a weird way only served to hint at the potential that was being squandered. Now that we've kind of closed the book on some of these plot threads, here's hoping the show can really start to rebound.
My Grade: B -
BIONIC WOMAN:
- It really is amazing how many tonal shifts this show has had in its short lifespan. On one hand, the inconsistency has been totally frustrating. On the other, it is interesting if only to tune in and see which version of Bionic Woman we'll be getting this week. The dark, comic-bookish tone of the pilot? The more soap-opera-ish tone of later episodes? Or the lighter, jumpier tone of the last two episodes - feeling a lot like NBC's other spy show, Chuck (except not as smart or funny or entertaining). Last night's ep at least seemed solidly-put-together, but man, just really nothing very exciting going on, and nothing, plot-wise, to really sink your teeth into. Part of the problem with making this into some kind of free-wheeling romantic comedy is that Jamie is simply not all that likable. To be honest, she feels like someone who'd be completely annoying to hang out with in real life, and her lame banter last night about her views on guys and dating was yet another indication that this reimagined Jamie Summers is kind of that girl who you hated in high school. The show now feels less like Bionic Woman and more like Mr. and Mrs. Smith-lite, and it's decently entertaining, but I feel like this isn't what I signed up for.
My Grade: C+
FAMILY GUY:
- Well, if you check out my last post there were some pretty negative reviews from the peanut gallery concerning the 100th episode of Family Guy. After watching ... I thought it was decent. Nothing spectacular, but some funny jokes scattered here and there, and a certain fan-service thrill in actually seeing Stewie do the deed and kill Lois, following through on what has now been a running joke since the series' inception. And seeing as how, all those many years ago in the early days of FG, I thought that the Kool-Aid man jumping out and saying "Oh yeah!" at random was about the funniest thing I had ever seen, I was more than happy to see this classic gag revisited, if only for this one time. Some of the cutaways did fall pretty flat (dissing on Kate Winslet and calling her ugly? Kate Winslet?!?! That's kind of a big reach ...), there were a few gems as well (I liked Harrison Ford running around asking people where his family was). I still feel sad that, in general, FG is only a shadow of its former self, but I still get a kick out of it for the most part. And by the way, the bonus special in which creator Seth McFarlane poses as a PR guy, asking random viewers their thoughts on the show, was pretty damn funny.
My Grade: B
Okay, out of time for now. Back later with more.
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