Willa's Flic Pic: Carnivàle * * *

During the writer's strike MyGeek and I added some cable shows to our Netflix that we have missed in the past: Carnivàle, Entourage, and Rescue Me.


Carnivàle * * *
- Daniel Knauf
- Drama/Fantasy, 2003-2005
- Trailer
- Seasons 1 & 2

Justin: (shaking hands) I'm reminded of the phrase "making a deal with the devil".
Tommy Dolan: Aw, come on. I'm not that bad.
Justin: No. You're not.

The basic story of Carnivàle is Good vs. Evil. On top of this conventional idea the creators of Carnivàle place the most extraordinary people during an extreme time in history.

The main cast is made up of the members of a traveling carnival. A second story line is set in California with a preacher and his devoted sister. All of these characters are imbued with extraordinary powers, secretive pasts, and intense circumstances.

There is just never a dull moment in this show. We’ve finished season one and are pretty floored by its extremes and uniqueness. The show is gritty, uncomfortable, weird… and absolutely fascinating. My biggest complaint would be that there aren’t enough answers to the innumerable complex mysteries they’re presenting. (This is what has also completely worn me out with Lost.) The show was cancelled after it’s second season and I wonder if it was due to this or its constant serving of the bizarre. After we finish watching season two, will I be as sad that the story didn’t continue as I was with having only one season of Firefly.


Entourage *
- Doug Ellin
- Comedy, 2004-2007
- Seasons 1, 2, 3, 4

Ari Gold: Let's hug it out, bitch.

I watched four episodes of Entourage and could not find a single way that one was different from another or that that was going to change in the future. I think I've seen everything that Entourage entails. It is completely forgettable. And it’s not entirely due to the basic premise of the story: the wild and crazy life of an up and coming young movie star in L.A. and his closest friends.

The idea is very interesting with the potential for great laughs, it does have it's moments with some memorable lines (usually delivered by Jeremy Piven's character, Ari Gold), and most of the acting is good. But, as one blogger described it, this is a teenage boys fantasy: constant partying, no jobs, excessive wealth, drugs, and hot women. It's a niche demographic that could not possibly appeal to me. If it weren't so seriously degrading to women I could at least accept its success. I hope any guy who models himself after any of the male characters in this show gets his lights knocked out by the first woman he tries to hit on.


Rescue Me * *
- Denis Leary and Peter Tolan
- Drama/Comedy, 2004-2007
- Seasons 1, 2, 3, 4

Tommy Gavin: Bless me father for I sinned... and so have you.

It's really difficult to tell you what Rescue Me is about. IMDB says, “Tommy Gavin (Leary) deals with the fears of his job as a firefighter and seeing his ex-wife dating other men.” This is a pretty simplistic description since the manifestation of Gavin dealing with his fears is that he sees and talks to deceased fire victims. This might be interesting but the show just seems to be too many things - a comedy, drama, soap opera, social statement, memoriam,  and guys club. The mood and focus seems to shift constantly. The main reason I was interested was because of Denis Leary. He's really great in this as is the entire cast. The issue here is the story having too many places to go. There was just never one thing sustained long enough to keep my interest.

2007 TV Fall Season Premiers Part 3

Here's the last of my Season Premier reviews.

Samantha Who * * * *
Monday, 9:30 p.m., EST, ABC
You know, I had this on my "new shows" list to check out but I had decided to blow it off. I have a whole list of shows to watch and I don't really need another one. To kill some time this weekend, though, I popped this on and was so surprised.

Christina Applegate plays Samantha who has amnesia about her life prior to a suspicious car accident that puts her into a coma. She doesn't know her parents, her friends, or her lovers. Apparently she was a very mean person and now she has a chance to change all of that. Applegate is extremely funny as is Jean Smart (Designing Women) who plays her mother. I love to laugh so this goes on my "must see" list.

The Unit * * *
Tuesday, 9:00 p.m., EST, CBS
I don't know of anyone who watches this show but it's great. I was pleasantly surprised that it got renewed. If you've never caught it you should give it a try. The entire cast is superlative and the stories are all about heroes and their wives. It's the best story in the world - white hats win.

Supernatural ???
Thursday, 9:00 p.m. EST, CW
We didn't catch the premier. This is one we watch online and they just got the episodes uploaded (2 weeks into the season). I did catch the first 15 minutes of last nights episode. At least last night, they appear to be more gory and shocking. I hope that's not going to be a theme. Their stories have been good enough without becoming simply gore driven. Of course, I'm not their demographic.

UPDATES
Back to You * * *
Wednesday, 8:00 p.m. EST, FOX
I knocked one star off of my original review. As I feared, each episode is playing mostly on the storyline of the love child of Heaton and Grammer's characters which I find a total bore. There was a scene in the last episode with Ty Burrell who plays roving reporter, Gary Crezyzewski, that was hysterical! The supporting cast may get all the laughs in this series while the equally funny leads get the yawns.

Chuck *
Monday, 8:00 p.m. EST, NBC
This show has taken a nose dive! With so much potential in story they seem only occupied with showing curvaceous secret agents beating up the likes of Adam Baldwin (pl-ease) and appearing at least once per episode in their underwear.

The Big Bang Theory * * * *
Monday, 8:30 p.m. EST, CBS
Holding steady. My money is on this new series! Sweet and funny.

Heroes * * *
Monday, 9:00 p.m. EST, NBC
Heroes has improved from its limp premier but if it doesn't payoff I can say last season was great and leave it at that. Come on! Make me care.

Ugly Betty * * * *
Thursday, 8:00 p.m. EST, ABC
This show is doing a much better job the second time around than Heroes. Lots of drama and every episode leaves my jaw dropped. What fun!

2007 TV Fall Season Premiers Part 2

An update on watching TV online. Some of the networks haven't got their act together yet.

CWTV.com
I don't know why I continue interacting with this dreadful web site except that I'm committed to two of their shows: Supernatural and Beauty and The Geek. Although they have a link to "Full Episodes" and you download their player, we can't get the episodes to play on either a PC or Mac. Come on, guys. Get it together!

ABC.com
Top honors gows to ABC. Whatever technology they're using, they're doing it right. You have to download their player but, from the home page, you're about three clicks from a complete menu of all their selections. Same as last year. And, if they stick with last year's plan, the entire season will be available until the beginning of next season. Sweet!

Everyone else's site falls somewhere in-between...
CBS.com
Only two clicks to get to full episodes and you don't have to download a player. But if you click CSI from the "Full Episodes" menu on the home page, you won't get last weeks episode. I had to click "All Shows" in the blue bar above the episode list and then click "Full Episodes" under that to get a current list of episodes. They had the same problem last year with keeping their menus up to date. Their shows also play in chapters and it's common to watch three out of four chapters and then just quit playing.

NBC.com
This site comes in second to ABC's site. The issue here is getting use to the navigation. You can get to full episodes from the home page or from each show's page. You don't have to download a player to watch and you can select to watch an episode by chapter like on DVDs. (I can't give it second place because I'm still burned over them canceling Studio 60.)

Fox.com
Fox has it goin' on too but their site is more sluggish than the others. I don't remember if I had to download a player or not. If so, it must have been seamless. You do get a choice of three screen sizes where most sites only give you two.

We also caught some more premiers this week.

Bionic Woman *
Wednesday, 900 p.m. EST, NBC
This wasn't on my list but MyGeek mentioned it. First of all, I know there are thousands of struggling actors trying to break into the business. I know some of them. Out of thousands you would think they could find ones who can act in fill high profile roles like this. Michelle Ryan is terribly flat. There's no warmth or personality to her character. The plot was ridiculous and full of holes. It seemed like the writer's rushed the story. Why? Because everyone knows it?

"You know. There's this average girl, Jaime Sommers, blah, blah, blah. She get's into this accident and almost dies, blah, blah, blah. Then she wakes up and she's bionic, blah, blah, blah."

Cinderella is an old story and everyone knows it but we love the telling of it. Tell the story.

Pushing Daisies * * * *
Wednesday, 8:00 p.m. EST, ABC
This show turned out to be as playful as it looked. Everything is bigger than life, the colors are vibrant, and it's narrated like a story book. It has the feel of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (either version!). My high hopes paid off.

Life * * * ½
Wednesday, 10:00 p.m. EST, NBC
This has turned out to be the most pleasant surprise of the bunch. I'll have to do some more research about the show because I have some observations about the character, Charlie Crews, that I want to share in more detail. In the mean time, check it.

Big Shots
Thursday, 10:00 p.m., EST, ABC
This is ABC's male answer to Desperate Housewives. I heard it described recently as the male version of Sex and the City. This couldn't be farther from the truth. I never saw Sex and the City but I got the impression the female characters in it were empowered. The male characters in Big Shots, admit themselves, that they are more like women then men. They are ridiculous and emasculated. Why would a man or a woman want to watch something like that? I didn't have any expectations. It's a good thing.

More quick fall season reviews to come...

2007 TV Fall Season Premiers Part 1

Monday through Friday we watch television for only one hour a day, during dinner time. We don't tape shows anymore and we don't pay for TiVo. The Network web sites (ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, and CW) provide full episodes of our favorite shows so we can watch them on-line when it is convenient for us. We love this system!

Of course, cable networks don't do this. We'd ditch cable all together if we could. What a racket.

The fall season is off to an o.k. start. Lots of new stuff out there. I thought I'd go ahead and give a quick review of the ones I've seen so far.

Back to You * * * *
Wednesday, 8:00 p.m. EST, FOX
How can you go wrong with Kelsey Grammer and Patricia Heaton? You can't. The writers from Frasier are contributors so this show will run a long time. I don't like the storyline of the love child but let's see what they do with it.

Beauty and the Geek * * *
Tuesday, 8:00 p.m. EST, CW
This is the only reality show left on my list. (My favorite reality shows, Project Runway and Top Chef, are on Bravo, a cable network. The cable company turned off that channel at the beginning of the summer. Blah, blah, blah. Long story. Yes, I'm bitter.) BatG has a lot of potential. But I think they've made a big mistake by brining in a single female geek paired with a male beauty to compete along side 9 geek males and 9 female beauties. On camera and, most likely, behind the scenes, the geek girl is going to come out on the short end of this.

Chuck * * *
Monday, 8:00 p.m. EST, NBC
This show has a lot of interesting things going for it. The hero is another geek. He's very witty and likable. There are some interesting short film segments that remind me of YouTube videos. And it has Adam Baldwin who played Jayne in Firefly.

The Big Bang Theory * * * *
Monday, 8:30 p.m. EST, CBS
I laughed out loud a lot during this. I have high hopes in this being a fun sitcom. It's a very geeky season.

Heroes * *
Monday, 9:00 p.m. EST, NBC
I was a huge fan of Heroes last season. As ValetBoy said, "I was a wee bit saddened by the lack of zip and umphhh." I sure hope it picks up.

Journeyman
Monday, 10:00 p.m. EST, NBC
I only watched about 15 minutes of this but I was generally unimpressed and bored. I also don't think it was cast very well. The lead seems more like a tough guy in a spy story instead of a family guy/reporter. The actress playing his wife is even worse. She'd be better cast on a law drama. It only works if you like the characters.

Doctor Who * * * *

No new movies again this week. Instead we've been renting the 2005 season of Doctor Who. Some of our friends, who I don't see as Sci-fi buffs, are fans of the show so I had to check it out.

I tend to be a purest. I always read a book series starting with book one, if I start reading a new blog I start with the first entry and I prefer seeing any season of a TV show from it's first episode. Doctor Who has been on since 1963 so I looked for CDs of the very first episode. 1979 was as far back as I could get. The note on Netflix said, "Die-hard fans consider "The City of Death" one of the series' greatest episodes...". Well, 1979 it is, then. Should be good.

Quite frankly, I hated it. How dull. I must be missing something and I believe it's the first 13 years. My friends can't be fans of something like this. Better go to 2005.

Much better! Great characters! Before I was even half way into it I liked the actors and characters so much I wanted to know all about them. If you don't have story, you've got to have characters. If you don't have characters or story, you better have some damn good f/x.

MyGeek is enjoying Doctor Who so we'll be watching this for the next couple of weeks and see how it holds up.

Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip

For those of you who are fans of Studio 60, you know all too well that it was cancelled. The whole gang here (My Geek, Fluffy and ValetBoy) all loved the show and are thoroughly p-oed it was cancelled.

But if you're still wondering what happens in the rest of the season, you're in luck. NBC has decided to air the remaining episodes on Thursday nights (10E/9C) since they are all already in the can. It started Thursday, May 24 but you can always catch them online by clicking here. (Unfortunately, the first half of the season is no longer online so put it on your Netflix list.)