It’s an epic day in linkage; there are just too many things out on that world wide web worth showing off today. Instead of putting them all individually in the until now secret quickies category, I’m giving them a full fledged post. So, behold, great things from around the intertubes:
Clive Barker’s The Thief of Always Graphic Novel Comes to the iPhone When I was younger Clive Barker’s The Thief of Always was practically my favorite book. I can remember doing at least two book reports on it and purchasing at least two copies of it (one was either lent to a friend or lost outright). I probably read the book a half a dozen times. The Geeks of Doom article talks about an iPhone optimized version of the Thief of Always graphic novel adaptation. This, of course, lead me to Amazon and the knowledge that there actually is a graphic novel adaptation of the book! If you haven’t read the book, you must do so, now.
prop 8 – the musical The last awesome link of the day brings us once again to Wil Wheaton’s website. He posted the video, found below, of Funny or Die’s latest creation, Prop 8 – The Musical. The video stars just about everyone you can think of and is a hilarious take on the Proposition 8 battle raging in California. Had we known gay marriage could save the economy, maybe the vote would have gone a different way. Want to know more? Check it out:
The best storyline possible to write is that of an ordinary person put into an extraordinary situation. The original episodes of Heroes nailed that idea. There was the cheerleader who couldn’t get hurt, the congressman who discovered he could fly, and the geek who could bend space and time. All of these people didn’t know what it meant and thought they were completely alone. Because of this, I was a fan of the show since it debuted.
Then, once everyone was introduced, the Heroes writing staff decided it was time to show that all of these ‘heroes’ needed to come together in order to save the world. Visions of the future and the introduction of an villain lead to the season one slogan: “Save the cheerleader, save the world.” The ‘heroes’ found themselves, came together, defeated the villain, lost some people along the way, and saved the world. Then came season two.
Season two started out with yet another chance to save the world, what with the butterfly effect and all. Season two also showed that not only was the villain from season one still alive, but a ton of new ‘heroes’ were waiting to be found. However, instead of focusing on these ‘heroes’ being ordinary people in extraordinary situations, their extraordinary abilities became much more ordinary. Season two was also interrupted by the Writers Strike. Instead of pausing the storyline mid-season, the Heroes team decided to wrap up the storyline early leaving a few large plot holes along the way — Peter’s Irish girlfriend anyone?
Season three promised villains deeper and darker than any yet to be introduced. But deeper and darker villains brought many more characters into the fold — so many that keeping track of all of them grew quite difficult. The line between good and evil was blurred at the beginning of the season leaving questions about who was a hero and who was a villain. All of this was set against another vision of the future that required the world to be saved. Basically, season three was repeating season one.
In tonight’s episode the lines were finally clearly drawn between who is a hero and who is a villain. There is still that pesky ’save the world’ issue lingering about though it looks like it’s going to be taking a backseat — which, given season two’s decisions, isn’t surprising.
I’ll be frank, the show has gotten bad. Really bad. Possibly jumped the shark bad. So bad I’m tempted to give up on the show altogether. However, one thing in the preview for next week is going to keep me watching. Evidently an eclipse is coming that’s going to remove the ‘heroes’ powers leaving them ‘normal’. Considering them having abilities has become ordinary, it looks like they could once again be put into an extraordinary situation. If this is the case, they might have a good thing going. If not, well, the show is no longer worth watching. I guess we’ll find out what happens next week.
Has Heroes jumped the shark? Is there still some good in it? Let me know in the comments.
The WGA writers strike seems like so long ago but it seems we might still be feeling it’s effects. Since the new television season has started, it seems the quality of the writing has diminished after taking a half season off. I’ve watched three shows so far this season and all of them have had writing “issues” so far.
The first show is Saturday Night Live. To say SNL has writing issues is an understatement. The show has downright problems. In the two episodes that have aired so far there has been one sketch that was actually funny: the Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton season opener.
After watching the rest of the episode, and a majority of the one aired this past Saturday, it seems as if Tina Fey herself might have written this one. The SNL writing has been in trouble for a very long time and this season it just seems worse. It begs the question, will NBC grow a pair and clean out the write staff or *gasp* cancel the show?
The next show that makes me wonder what the writing team is thinking is Fringe. I’ve talked about Fringe before, it’s a great show that is part LOST and part X-Files. One of the main characters is a former mad scientist who has been locked up in a mental institution for the past 17 years. While most of the writing revolving this character is done well, there seems to be one “out” the team is using.
In the first episode Bishop, the character in question, wanted to use his lab from 17 years ago. Good thing it still exists! Harvard just decided to use it as storage. And by storage they meant cover the equipment with a tarp and put a few boxes in there. Convenient. In the second episode Bishop needed a file he left in his car. Well guess what? His car is in the same pad-locked garage it was 17 years ago! Again, how convenient? Finally, last night, Bishop needed a piece of equipment he hid in the wall of his former home. Well guess what. It was still there. But it wasn’t in a wall, it was in a dumbwaiter merely covered by a bookshelf. Do the writers really expect us to believe that the key to all of Bishop’s experiments are littered all over Boston and somehow completely untouched and right where they were left 17 years ago? Come on?
The final show I’ve watched so far this season has been Heroes. Cut to only 11 episodes last year because of the strike, it’s been a long time since Heroes has been on the air. But watching the two hour premiere on Monday, a few things struck me about one of the main characters, Peter.
Peter can absorb every power that he comes in contact with making him pretty much the most powerful “hero” of them all. Yet, somehow, Peter manages to constantly make poor decisions and, as a result, the world ends four to five years later. This season, future “Dark Peter” has come back from the future to prevent bad things from happening. But here’s what I don’t get: Dark Peter has a giant scar across his face. Lest we forget Peter has the ability to heal himself. Curious? Even more curious is that two of the powers Peter has absorbed involve being able to see the future. Given this, you would think Peter would know that his horrible choices have an effect down the road. Either that or the writers just assume we don’t remember these things.
None of these writing slips will cause me to stop watching the shows, well except maybe for SNL. But after waiting so long for good TV to come back on, I’d like to think the writers would be willing to not treat the audience like children and actually write the show without the sloppy “outs” they have been given themselves. Maybe it’s just been so long that I forgot this is the small screen norm and am being overly critical. If Toby shows up on The Office on Thursday I’ll know sloppy writing abounds.
What do you think? Have you noticed other instances of sloppy writing on TV so far this year? Leave it in the comments.
In my Fall season preview article I outlined an extremely large plate of TV that I was looking forward to this season. While a lot of returning favorites were on the list, there were quite a few newcomers as well. How well did they all fair? What am I still watching? Take a walk with me.
Monday’s proved to be exactly what NBC has needed for a number of years. Their new shows Heroes and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip have both received a fair share of critical acclaim. Ok, I guess I’m being modest. Studio 60 has received a quite impressive list of critical acclaim and Heroes has become the most successful new show on television. Both live up to hype.
Heroes follows various “super heroes” from around the world who are all discovering their new abilities and are being drawn together to “Save the cheerleader. Save the world.” This show brings back the comic book fan from my childhood and draws me in with the excitement of a serial drama with a touch of comedy thanks to the Hero character. That’s his name, really.
Studio 60 has far surpassed any expectations I had at the beginning of the season and is quickly becoming the single best show on TV. It carries a sense of humor that is witty and brilliantly penned but at the same time elevates itself from most television dramas to a place that few shows have ever reached. It was a shame a few weeks back when rumors circulated the internet that Studio 60 was going to be canned by NBC for lackluster ratings. In fact, it’s almost impossible to fathom that each week CSI: Miami almost doubles the viewers of Studio 60. Though NBC, almost the next day, ordered a full season. It may have been pressure from the critics but I’d like to hope NBC has more faith in this show then that as Studio 60 could easily be on for a very long time.
I don’t actually watch any live television on Tuesday — well if I do it’s a rare occurrence. However I do utilize the trusty DVR and watch Tuesday programing at my connivence. At the beginning of the season there was a lot of stuff I was considering watching on Tuesday nights. Though here at the midway point only one show has survived and that is the trusty Veronica Mars.
After renting the first season of Veronica Mars over the summer I have been hooked. Season three brought Veronica and the gang into their college years and, as creator Rob Thomas puts it, a growing up of the show. This was done in part to revamp the show as well as pick up the ratings. Moving to the new CW network was a crap shoot for Veronica Mars. An initial order of only 13 episodes was given with the understanding that if the viewers didn’t turn out, the show would be pulled. I’m not sure if it was the writing or the lead-in from the Gilmore Girl’s audience but something worked and this Fall Veronica saw the highest ratings of it’s entire series run. An entire story arc was wrapped up in the 9 episode fall run that involved Veronica solving a campus rape case. At the very end of the episode a lead-in to the second half arc was presented with a dead university dean. The future is looking bright for Veronica and that’s a good thing because the show is just quirky enough to be enjoyable.
Everyone knows that Wednesday’s belong to LOST and, well they still do but with a slight hesitation. Don’t get me wrong I love the show but I guess my hopes for the special six episode Fall season were too high. I was hoping for some sort of complete story arc but instead received little substance until the final two episodes. Those two episodes however restored my faith in the show — or is it the island? — and will tide me over until the end of January when the show returns for it’s uninterrupted run.
We left our castaways with the life of Ben (who although appears to be in charge of The Others seemingly takes his orders from a guy named Jacob who has yet to be introduced) in the hands of Jack who has basically given up his life to save Kate and Swayer — oh and Eko died. That’s pretty much what took six hours of multimillion dollar programing gets you. Sure, other things happened like Desmond discovered some sort of weird ability he may or may not have had pre-hatch meltdown and Locke returned to his sweet take-no-crap prior self, but we’re more or less back where we started. January will be big though, hopefully.
Thursday is another day that NBC, at least as of last week, has finally done right. The “Must See” comedy block has returned with My Name is Earl, which I’ve lost complete interest in, followed by long standing favorites The Office and Scrubs — and new show 30 Rock is thrown in as well.
This season The Office saw Jim leave the branch to avoid Pam and through a branch closing and subsequent merger come back with a new girlfriend. The hilarity of the show this season has been wrapped around Michael dealing with his new employees. At one point the transfers were all standing on a table to emphasize that everyone is to be treated equally (right), he outed a homosexual employee and locked the entire staff in the conference room with the idea of showing them that their job is better then prison.
Scrubs has been back for only two episodes but is in it’s full form. I mean, how can a show not be funny when Dr. Cox throw’s an entire plate of spaghetti on a three year old’s head in order to show him what it feels like. There is some weird stuff going on with everyone having a kid except Elliot but it’s hard to find fault with anything Scrubs does — or the music they utilize in each episode.
As you can see the list has been slimmed down considerably. There have been other shows that I have gotten into throughout the season but have lost interest in or were canceled. Standoff on Tuesday was mildly interesting until the World Series interrupted it by about a month. After that I just didn’t care anymore. Surprisingly Kidnapped was a great show that was canceled after five episodes. With credit to NBC, however, they decided to have the writers finish the story arc in 13 episodes and will, at some point, air the remaining episodes on NBC.com. The Nine, which ABC had following LOST held my interest for about 1.2 shows. It has since been canceled. ABC’s Daybreak, which replaced LOST’s 9pm Wednesday time-slot, has been pretty entertaining and has hooked me. It’s been designed as a 13 week filler until LOST returns. Hopefully it lasts that long. Another of ABC’s shows, Six Degrees, has disappeared from the schedule. Unfortunately I don’t think the network ever had much faith in this show even though it was on a level of it’s own — much like Studio 60. I hope it returns in the Spring but I’m not going to hold my breath. I’ve also thrown in a few Discovery Channel shows, thanks to the DVR like Mythbusters, Dirty Jobs, and newcomer Man vs. Wild. While most shows have gone into hibernation for the Christmas break I get to catch up with Entourage on DVD. Spring will bring the return of all of these shows and potentially a few more to add to the mix. Most importantly day six of 24. Enough said.
That’s a good way to end it. Can you tell I’m tired?
Being the huge TV junkie that I am, I am looking forward to yet another season of quality TV programing. A new season means old favorites brought back for another round of entertainment as well as new shows to try out that hopefully become weekly favorites. Thanks to TV.com’s 2006 Schedule, I will now bore you to tears with what I will be watching this fall and why. Here we go.
Monday’s
9:00 pm
Starting on September 25th I’ll be tuning into NBC’s new Heroes. This show seems to be about ordinary people who somehow obtain super natural powers. In the preview there is a guy who can stop and turn back time and a man who can fly. It’ll be interesting to see where the show goes but one storyline that I have always loved is ordinary people in extraordinary situations — and super heroes. Hopefully this show will deliver the goods.
10:00 pm
After Heroes I’ll be sticking with NBC to try out Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, which starts September 18th. This new show features Bradley Whitford from The West Wing, as well as some of the production team, and looks to be witty and fun. Early hype on this one is good so again, hopefully NBC’s West Wing replacement will be a hit.
Tuesday’s
8:00 pm
Although the network is new, CW brings Gilmore Girls back in its usual time slot on September 26th. I’ve mentioned before that yes, I do enjoy the Gilmore Girls. It’s witty and quick and, although it often features women yelling at each other, is very humorous. I’ll be tuning in. After all, I have to find out who Lorili is going to do next…
9:00 pm
This time slot will be my first use of the DVR during the week. Over on FOX, the new show Standoff will be debuting on September 5th. This show pairs Office Space’s Ron Livingston with Anna Espinosa herself, Gina Torres as FBI hostage negotiators. Interesting casting yes, but the show looks like it could be edgy enough to maintain interest while supplementing layered characters to carry over story lines from week to week. While Standoff is running on FOX, CW will bring Veronica Mars back for it’s third season on October 3rd. When I first discoveredKristen Bell Veronica and her friends I was instantly hooked. The second season was recently released on DVD and should start arriving through Blockbuster Online tomorrow. An interview with the show’s creator, Rob Thomas, reveled that VM has only been brought back for an initial 13 episodes this season and that if viewership doesn’t increase, the show might be doomed. Hopefully airing directly after Gilmore Girls will help and Kristen Bell Veronica Mars will get to stick around for a full year.
Wednesday’s
8:00 pm
With last season’s cancellation of Arrested Development, television was left with a serious gap in the comedy genre. NBC looks to try and bring a bit of that back on October 4th with the new 20 Good Years. This new show stars AD’s Jeffrey Tambor and John Lithgow. The premise is simple but looks like it could be highly entertaining. We shall see.
8:30 pm
Looks like I’ll again be sticking with the Peacock to check out the new 30 Rock starting October 11. 30 Rock is the new Tina Fey concoction that brings former SNL cast members together again and looks to be funny. I’m not holding my breath however as such pairings have often crashed and burned in the past.
9:00 pm
One word, LOST. It returns on October 4th for a “mini-season” and then will return again in January for an uninterrupted run ala 24. I can’t wait to find out what The Others wanted with Jack and co. Can’t wait. Period.
10:00 pm
The ten o’clock hour will again put the DVR in use. There are two brand new shows that have caught my interest in preseason commercials. NBC’s Kidnapped, which debuts September 20th, has peeked my attention since I participated in a feasibility test for the show. The show has serious potential, but very well could wind up being another dud much as NBC’s mid season replacement, Heist. The other show premiering in this time slot is ABC’s The Nine. This show focuses on nine people who are all caught up in a bank robbery that turns into a multi-day standoff. The show, utilizing it’s post-LOST time slot, seems to edge toward how the nine people’s lives are all intertwined and connected. This show looks very interesting. My only qualm is that ABC not try too hard to push the LOST crowd into The Nine by making the show too “supernatural” — as was the case with Invasion, which bombed. We’ll see on October 4th when the show debuts.
Thursday’s
8:00 pm
My Name is Earl returns to NBC on September 21st to try and recapture the brilliant idea of the first season. Hopefully it does.
8:30 pm
NBC’s critical and viewer loved The Office also returns on September 21st. This is pretty much the funniest show on television right now. Need an Office fix? Check out the special webisodes on their website.
10:00 pm
ABC is paring some of the creative team that formed LOST and Alias (interested yet?) to bring Six Degrees to life on September 21st. This show follows the six degrees of separation idea and shows how six people in New York City are connected. This could be interesting, but it also could be a little too much like The Nine. Hopefully there will be a significant distinction between the two.
Friday’s
This is a crappy night for TV. Shows airing here are usually doomed to an eminent cancellation. That said, if I’m home and bored — or if I feel like using DVR space, I might tune into Las Vegas during the 9:00 pm slot beginning October 20th — even though the latest seasons were never able to live up to the brilliance that was the first.
Well, there you have it, my list of must-watch-TV (notice I didn’t infringe on NBC’s trademarks). There will be other shows added in as the season progresses as notably Scrubs has yet to have a start date announced. Also, come January, 24 will return to the picture. While there will be some noted additions, there will also be some removals as some of these new shows will no-doubt be cut from the list because they fail to preform. Here’s to hoping it’s none of the ones I get attached to.
The best storyline possible to write is that of an ordinary person put into an extraordinary situation. The original episodes of Heroes nailed that idea. There was the cheerleader who couldn’t get hurt, the congressman who discovered he could fly, and the geek who could bend space and time. All of these people didn’t know what it meant and thought they were completely alone. Because of this, I was a fan of the show since it debuted.
Studio 60 has far surpassed any expectations I had at the beginning of the season and is quickly becoming the single best show on TV. It carries a sense of humor that is witty and brilliantly penned but at the same time elevates itself from most television dramas to a place that few shows have ever reached. It was a shame a few weeks back when rumors circulated the internet that Studio 60 was going to be canned by NBC for lackluster ratings. In fact, it’s almost impossible to fathom that each week CSI: Miami almost doubles the viewers of Studio 60. Though NBC, almost the next day, ordered a full season. It may have been pressure from the critics but I’d like to hope NBC has more faith in this show then that as Studio 60 could easily be on for a very long time.
This season The Office saw Jim leave the branch to avoid Pam and through a branch closing and subsequent merger come back with a new girlfriend. The hilarity of the show this season has been wrapped around Michael dealing with his new employees. At one point the transfers were all standing on a table to emphasize that everyone is to be treated equally (right), he outed a homosexual employee and locked the entire staff in the conference room with the idea of showing them that their job is better then prison.
As you can see the list has been slimmed down considerably. There have been other shows that I have gotten into throughout the season but have lost interest in or were canceled. Standoff on Tuesday was mildly interesting until the World Series interrupted it by about a month. After that I just didn’t care anymore. Surprisingly Kidnapped was a great show that was canceled after five episodes. With credit to NBC, however, they decided to have the writers finish the story arc in 13 episodes and will, at some point, air the remaining episodes on NBC.com. The Nine, which ABC had following LOST held my interest for about 1.2 shows. It has since been canceled. ABC’s Daybreak, which replaced LOST’s 9pm Wednesday time-slot, has been pretty entertaining and has hooked me. It’s been designed as a 13 week filler until LOST returns. Hopefully it lasts that long. Another of ABC’s shows, Six Degrees, has disappeared from the schedule. Unfortunately I don’t think the network ever had much faith in this show even though it was on a level of it’s own — much like Studio 60. I hope it returns in the Spring but I’m not going to hold my breath. I’ve also thrown in a few Discovery Channel shows, thanks to the DVR like Mythbusters, Dirty Jobs, and newcomer Man vs. Wild. While most shows have gone into hibernation for the Christmas break I get to catch up with Entourage on DVD. Spring will bring the return of all of these shows and potentially a few more to add to the mix. Most importantly day six of 24. Enough said.
Being the huge TV junkie that I am, I am looking forward to yet another season of quality TV programing. A new season means old favorites brought back for another round of entertainment as well as new shows to try out that hopefully become weekly favorites. Thanks to 
8:00 pm
9:00 pm
Friday’s