Posted Nov 24th 2009 10:02AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, OpEd, Pickups and Renewals, Reality-Free
USA Network is losing
Monk this year, but it's not about to let
Psych go. The adventures of Shawn and Gus will continue.
USA announced today that Psych is coming back for season five, with 16 new episodes ordered up.
This, my friends, is a no-brainer.
Psych is one of USA's more reliable hours, a comedy-mystery series that has a loyal following. This past summer season -- which will soon be completed in the winter when the second half of the episodes air beginning in late January (the date hasn't been confirmed yet) -- the show performed especially well in younger demographics.
Continue reading USA orders more Psych
Posted Nov 21st 2009 12:55AM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, OpEd, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(S01E05) I don't think I've sighed as hard as I sighed during the opening scene of this episode of
White Collar in a long time. Caffrey and Moz find a note hidden by Kate ... in Grand Central Station? And not even in the station, but in the corner of the building outside. Did I miss some massive clue that Caffrey was following to find the exact location of the note shoved into a crack? Or are we just supposed to assume he's so smart and perceptive that he can find an old note within three minutes of showing up in front of the building? If I missed something, it was silly. If that's exactly how it went down, then it was kinda stupid.
Fun episode, though!
Continue reading Review: White Collar - The Portrait
Posted Nov 20th 2009 12:38PM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Pickups and Renewals, Reality-Free
Oh my God! It's a zombie! Quick! Get a shovel or something heavy that will remove a human head or destroy its brain! Yes, TV shows can become zombies too.
NBC has revived its once doomed drama
Trauma giving it a full 13 episode order plus a few more after
they canceled it last month.
What made the network breathe life back into the expensive action drama? Apparently the show saw a brief boost in the ratings and NBC had a change of heart, assuming of course that they have one in the first place.
Posted Nov 19th 2009 4:03PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Celebrities, Heroes, Casting, Reality-Free
I love hearing stories about how certain stars auditioned for certain roles and didn't get them. What would the show/movie have been like if they were cast in it instead of the person who eventually got the role? For example, did you know that Danny DeVito was almost cast as Serena on
Gossip Girl?
Here's another tidbit:
Ugly Betty star Eric Mabius auditioned for the role of Peter Petrelli on
Heroes. It's not really clear whether he didn't get the role because Milo Ventimiglia got it or if producers of
Ugly Betty grabbed him for the role of Daniel Meade before Heroes producers could sign him up. Whatever happened, he's now playing the head of
Mode magazine while Ventimiglia is absorbing people's superpowers.
The interview above is rather interesting. Mabius has moved back to Massachusetts with his family (he met his wife here while in college and wants to raise his kids here). He says he doesn't have a plan for his future, though he might have to get one. I have a feeling this might be the last season for
Ugly Betty.
Posted Nov 18th 2009 4:04PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Celebrities, Casting, Reality-Free
When I first heard the plot of the new TNT drama pilot that George Clooney is producing,
Delta Blues, I thought it might be funny at first but way too odd to watch for several episodes. It's about George Hendricks, a Memphis police officer who lives with his mom and is also a part-time Elvis Presley impersonator (I'm going to assume that he doesn't dress up as Elvis while he's on duty or this show will go be way into the red zone of the QUIRKY meter).
Well, at least they grabbed someone good for the role.
My Name Is Earl's Jason Lee is going to play the lead character, and I can definitely picture that. Now I just wonder if he's going to dress up as younger, thinner Elvis (circa 1959) or older, wider Elvis (circa 1975).
The pilot will be directed by Clark Johnson, who worked on
The Shield.
Posted Nov 18th 2009 1:02PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Watercooler Talk, Reality-Free
Well, last night was the BIG night on the new
Melrose Place, the return of Amanda Woodward (Heather Locklear). Judging from
Locklear's entrance, she really did shake up things on the show.
A question for fans of the original: did this make you watch this episode even though you weren't watching the new show? And for fans of the new show who really aren't familiar with the original: are you excited by Locklear being on the show?
Posted Nov 18th 2009 1:30AM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, OpEd, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(E06) Well, that's that. All wrapped up nice and neat with a bow. Glad it's all cleared up and everything makes perfect sense... Did you read the sarcasm in that statement?
At this point, I can't tell if fans of the original
The Prisoner will embrace this new iteration of the concept, or feel betrayed by it. Don't get me wrong, once all the secrets lie revealed, they've developed a pretty neat concept, and on that could quite possibly have sustained more than six episodes even. But was it
The Prisoner?
I will give credit to all of the actors for their conviction in these roles. Ruth Wilson and Jamie Campbell Bower were particularly impressive as 313 and 1112. The layers of emotion that 313 displayed in her closing scenes with Two, and later with Six were just tragically beautiful. And 1112... well, tragedy appears to be the name of the game in the new
Prisoner.
Continue reading Review: The Prisoner - Part Six: Checkmate
Posted Nov 18th 2009 12:58AM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, OpEd, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(E05) So I'm feeling a little more confident as the fifth installment wraps that The Village isn't as real a construct as perhaps the original was. At the same time, I have a hard time in a show like this just taking something that I'm told to be the truth and accepting it. Maybe I'm like Six in that way.
In this episode, both Two and Six experience time outside themselves, while 1112 learns more about himself than any of us realized. And if what he learns is anything close to the truth, it can do a lot to explain much of what has happened, and how the Village can be as comprehensive as it appears to be.
Continue reading Review: The Prisoner - Part Five: Schizoid
Posted Nov 17th 2009 7:03PM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Video, Music and Variety
A long time ago (well, 31 years ago) in a galaxy far, far away (Television City isn't technically a different galaxy, unless you consider TV producers to be people who don't spend much time on planet Earth), an evil was unleashed upon the human race.
Today marks the 31st anniversary of the infamous
Star Wars Holiday Special, a Christmas not-so-spectacular roasted by critics including some here at
TV Squad years after it hit the air and even some of the franchise's most ardent fans.
That also includes
George Lucas who once remarked at an Australian convention that he wished he could buy up all of the world's remaining copies of the show and smash them into oblivion with a sledgehammer. I wonder if 31 years from now, he'll be saying the same thing about
Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace?
Continue reading Remembering The Star Wars Holiday Special, even if we really don't want to
Posted Nov 17th 2009 3:09PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Celebrities, Casting, Reality-Free
I know, saying "Don Draper's mistress" doesn't really narrow it down, does it?
Abigail Spencer, who played (plays?) schoolteacher Suzanne Farrell on AMC's
Mad Men this past season, has landed a role on the new NBC drama
Rex Is Not Your Lawyer. I guarantee that will be one of the odder titles for a new show in 2010 or whenever the show debuts. It's about a lawyer who gets anxiety attacks (that has to be a career killer) so he actually teachers his clients how to represent themselves in court. Spencer will play another lawyer.
What does this mean for Miss Farrell? Who knows. She could appear on both shows though. Alison Brie appears on two different shows too (
Mad Men and NBC's
Community), so it's possible that Spencer could still appear on
Mad Men while on this show. Of course, I hope she's out of the picture and we see Rachel or Midge again.
Posted Nov 17th 2009 11:50AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Programming, OpEd, Reality-Free
Sundays have always been a good night for CBS. It's been a good day for years, thanks to the NFL. Traditionally, the football games bleed right into prime time, which commences at seven o'clock because of
60 Minutes. Even in the days when CBS broadcast Sunday night movies, the network has done well on that night of the week.
However, the advent of the NBC
Football Night in America has put a dent in CBS's strength. Also the ABC lineup and Fox's animation domination are no slouches either. So, CBS is going to do something to bolster Sundays.
Three Rivers and Cold Case will switch time slots.
.
Continue reading CBS's Sunday flip-flop: Cold Case for Three Rivers
Posted Nov 17th 2009 1:32AM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, OpEd, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(E04) If you cannot break a man with family, or mistrust, then you must try love. For love is the greatest of things after all, is it not?
it seems we've fallen into a familiar pattern with
The Prisoner. Two tries various schemes and techniques to break Six and Six resists them all, either through his own ingenuity or through the help of other Villagers who are sympathetic to his situation. But we still don't know why Two is trying to break Six. This week's tactic was love, but love was explored in many ways throughout the episode.
Six's love of the woman from New York is so strong that it cross boundaries from that world into the Village world. But in neither case is it clear if the love is real, or something manufactured.
Continue reading Review: The Prisoner - Part Four: Darling
Posted Nov 17th 2009 12:29AM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, OpEd, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(E03) I'm no closer to figuring out everything that's going on, but I am more appreciative of the fact that the entire story will be done by tomorrow night. Things are so confusing at times, I'm not sure I can keep it all in my brain if I had to wait a full week between each of these episodes.
Tonight's installment focused on espionage and spying. The target of all this spying appears to be everyone, but the primary focus is on the "Dreamers," those people who have dreams and vision of a life outside the Village. You see, they're a dangerous element, particularly if they were to organize.
The leading suspicion is that they have already done so, but where and to what end? Two wants to find them so he can send them all down for "Treatment," while Six wants to find them so he can rally them to his own cause of finding a way out of the Village.
Continue reading Review: The Prisoner - Part Three: Anvil
Posted Nov 16th 2009 9:02AM by Jane Boursaw
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, TV on DVD, OpEd, Reality-Free, Jane After Dark
And so
Jane After Dark has come to the end of
The Wire. I need to watch it again to catch more than the one-eighth I caught the first time around. But after watching all five seasons, spanned over most of this year, the thing that keeps popping into my head is that the bureaucratic end of things is really no better than the drug dealer end of things.
In some ways, the drug dealers have more ethics than the suits. At least when a druggie does something that wrongs others in the system, there's no messing around. They're shot. They know they have it coming, and they step up and take it, just like Snoop did, asking if her hair looked ok before being gunned down. Just like Proposition Joe did when he closed his eyes and waited for the inevitable bullet to the head.
Continue reading Jane After Dark: The Wire, season five (part two)
Posted Nov 15th 2009 11:02PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, OpEd, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free
(E02) The whole strategy behind the Village has been turned on its head and it's certainly interesting to watch. Two is bound and determined to have everyone who lives there believe that the Village is all there is, there is no world outside of the Village and the Village is all they've ever known. He's even got tangible proof to back that up.
It's an interesting change from the original, and again makes you wonder just who would be willing to invest this kind of money into a bizarre prison like this. Is the citizenry drugged, or just brainwashed? Why is Six so adamant that he is not a number, he is a free man, if no one else in the village is so sure? Or are they just being more quiet about it?
We've even reached the point in the series where as a viewer I'm not sure if what I'm seeing is real, much less what Six is seeing and experiencing. But it was nice to meet his brother and see that he has a family in the Village. "Uncle Six" indeed.
Continue reading Review: The Prisoner - Part Two: Harmony
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