TV-Archived

…I’ve been crazily busy this week so I haven’t even been able to do the pull lists, let alone the quick reviews of the DCnU books, or anything else that I actually want to do, like, I don’t know, writing. The next few weeks don’t look too much better and this might be a bit of a drought through NYCC. I hope not, but we’ll see.

In any case, just a few quick thoughts on this week…

- Fringe is back tonight!

- I quite liked Catwoman. I get why people wouldn’t, but not one thing in the book seemed out of place with a Catwoman in my head (as opposed to the one I stopped reading about when Gotham Girls or whatever it was called started, on account of it being crappy). it’s not like Bruce and Selina haven’t had sex before, and the only real change is that now they don’t seem to know each other’s secret IDs so they keep the masks on. I have no problem with it. Now, is it a suitable entry point for a series that could have attracted a bunch of teenage girl readers if done right? That’s a whole other question…

- Similarly I have no problem with Starfire liking sex. Why? Because lots of people I know like sex. It’s fun. Not everyone is into monogamy, and the fact that readers are commenting that ‘she’s a whore’ or a ‘slut’ or whatever is more about them forcing their standards onto what they read. The same could be said, I suppose, for Red Hood etc etc writer Scott Lobdell and his editors – but I just happen to agree that just because people enjoy having sex doesn’t make them bad people. Oh, and another thing – she’s an alien so why on earth would she subscribe to human traditions or whatever? I actually enjoyed the comic. Again, not a good jumping on point but it worked for me – and honestly, I never liked Starfire anyway. She’s up there with Cyborg and Raven as ‘most boring DC characters ever’ for me.

- What else, what else? A lot of this week’s DC books were really, really quick reads. One that wasn’t was the Deadman-starring DC Comics Presents. I’d recommend that to new readers. Supergirl, too, although that was probably the quickest read of them all.

- I thought NuFacebook annoyed me before Mark Zuckerberg announced all the additional stuff yesterday. Now I may consider Google+ as an actual alternative – except I know that the majority of my friends and family will never move of Facebook at this point.

- I am becoming obsessed by collecting points on cards to use to get flights, and the like (so things like American Express points). I suppose that it’s just one step on from collecting comics, right?

- I’ll be going to NYCC this year, probably for at least some time on all four days but it occurs to me that I’m probably not going to be going to that many comics panels. My wife and son may be putting in an appearance (although as he’s not two yet it may be a bit overwhelming for me), and my niece – who’s an artist – is going to be hanging around too.

- I’ve been reading Becky Hawkins’ site recently (Frenchtoastcomix), mostly because she emailed me a pdf of her new minicomic, Coffee and Beer Money, and it’s really good. I don’t spend half as much time as I should reading stuff like this online, so feel free to point me towards places I should go.

This update was not as quick as it was intended.

Fringe‘s fourth season that at one point seemed unlikely (given the ratings, not the quality of the show) is gearing up for its premiere on September 23 with the release of a bunch of publicity shots and episode promo shots, in addition to the previously released ‘Where is Peter Bishop?’ teasers that culminated in this -

Missing from all but three of the shots is Joshua Jackson, whose character Peter pulled a Keyser Soze at the end of the last season. He’s confirmed that he will be in fewer episodes this season, and during this past summer’s Comic Con video (embedded below) he showed up at the end with a familiar and not-creepy-at-all look.

It’s a shame, then, that the individual character posters feel pretty uninspired, with the core three characters on some silly looking tesseract-style blocks, and the single characters showing up in front of a big dome that I assume is some sort of protection for the cross-world meeting room under the Statue of Liberty.

Anna Torv and John Noble get double the promo, with them both showing up as both the regular ‘blue’ universe and opposing ‘red’ universe versions of their characters –

- and Lincoln (Seth Gabel) joins the regular cast – and it looks like ‘blue’ Linc will be working with Fringe Division now just as ‘red’ Linc does. it’s established that ‘red’ Linc loves ‘red’ Olivia, but I hope they avoid something similar in the main universe now that Peter was never in the picture – it feels a little too soapy and is bound to make some people’s heads explode.

All in all, I’m optimistic about the new season as it never fails to entertain but I do find myself slightly frustrated at a few plot lines that have been dropped along the way. Whatever happened to the people who were after Peter when they found out he was back in Boston in season one? Or the female FBI agent who showed up for an episode after Charlie died and appeared to be collecting information on Fringe cases in season two? I’m sure there’s others that I can’t think of right now. Sometimes it feels like the writers have become so enamored of the mirror universe aspect and love story of the show that all other things have been dropped by the wayside.

I also feel that some of the supporting cast are underutilized – like Jasika Nicole’s Astrid and Blair Brown’s Nina, who it feels barely appeared last season.

Regardless, Fringe is my most anticipated return of the season and even though I won’t be able to watch it on the 23rd, I’m looking forward to it.

See? Creepy.

…is on sale at TeeFury for the rest of the day. It’s simply called ‘Linus’.

Look, if I have to explain it, you’re not going to get it, okay?

Back later with the pull list.

These ads are running in the UK (or they were, anyway – not quite sure) and feature some of the best acting that JCVD has done since…ever. Well, except for the unexpectedly good JCVD.

It seems to me that Coors’ ad company is trying to create their own Old Spice Guy using Van Damme – and while they’re not quite as enjoyable as those ads, they’re still pretty good. The second one is my personal favorite.

Looks pretty good. Some interesting shots in here, and an appropriate sense of inevitability. August 27th isn’t too far off…

After the SDCC panel, here’s a trailer for the second half of the current season.

I don’t know about you but there’s a shot about 26 seconds in there which makes me a little worried…

Also: Cybermen!

Okay. Looks like things don’t get any better for Rick and company now that they’re getting out of Atlanta…

One panel that I would have gone to if I’d actually gone to Comic-Con would be the Ringer one, today.

The new show starring Sarah Michelle Gellar as twins (stop it) marks her return to TV after some indy movies and a few mainstream ones that never quite hit. The premise seems pretty promising – loser sister moves in with rich sister when she’s in trouble with the law, only to have rich sister die and loser sister take over her life, but then rich sister isn’t really dead she’s just eeeeevil. Or something.

Sure, it sounds hokey and I’m not sure how they can sustain it for more than a season, but then I say that about a lot of shows – and this has a few things going for it; first there’s Gellar herself, who I’m a fan of. Second, there’s supporting turns from Nestor Carbonell (he of the ridiculously dark eyelashes from Lost) and Ioan Gruffud (who’s actually very good when he isn’t Mr Fantastic).

It also has the benefit of being on The CW, which means that the ratings don’t have to be as high to stay on the air. So yes, I’d check out the Ringer panel if I was at Comic-Con.

Which I’m not.

…and that’s about it really. The Walking Dead has a banner at Comic-Con and it looks like this:

Click it to embiggen.

As series run their course, I seem to follow fewer and fewer new ones to replace them. One of the only exceptions to that in the past two years has been the excellent Justified, airing on FX, and it’s scored a whole bunch of nominations this time around – though none for best series.

Timothy Olyphant’s turn as US Marshall Raylan Givens, has earned him his first nod as lead actor – and rightly so. Givens is deceptively complex. On the surface he seems to glide through life with a laconic wit and laid back attitude, while underneath he’s barely contained rage at the injustice of the world; as his ex-wife points out in the pilot, he’s the angriest man she’s ever known. The thing is, you so rarely see that anger that when it explodes – usually in gunplay – it’s almost always a surprise. But he’s no Kyle Chandler…

Walton Goggins, inexplicably never nominated for Shane Vendrell in The Shield, has been nominated for a Supporting Actor Emmy for his role as Boyd Crowder. Boyd’s journey over the past two years, from neo-Nazi to a religious man, from a criminal to someone trying desperately to be a better man – and then back again has been one of the highpoints of the series.

Jeremy Davies – the former Daniel Faraday, has been nominated for Outstanding Guest Actor for his role as Dickie Bennett, the twitchy, lame, vindictive bad seed of the Bennett clan. The great thing about Davies here is that he’s equal parts terrifying and pathetic, constantly seeking validation from his mother that he never quite gets.

And speaking of his mother, Margo Martindale has her first Emmy nomination for Outstanding Guest Actress (although like Davies she was in virtually every episode of the season and felt almost like a regular) as Mags Bennet, matriarch of the family. Mags, like Dickie, can turn on the violence and intimidation at any point – but when she isn’t exercising that muscle she can show how much she cares for her kids in her own way; even if that way does involve breaking her son’s fingers with a hammer to teach him a lesson.

The only disappointment in the Justifed nominations is that Kaitlyn Dever didn’t earn one for playing Loretta, a girl unknowingly orphaned by Mags then virtually adopted by her and raised as her own – until she finds out the truth. Dever’s performance, especially in the season finale, was incredible and really marks her as an actress to watch.

In case you didn’t get the point with the rambling, I love this show. It’s not without faults – a couple of the supporting cast barely register as characters – but the acting and writing for the characters that the show revolves around is top-notch, and every single one of the nominations is well deserved. If you’re not watching, Justified, you really should catch up.

Okay, so I vented about Fringe – but on the other hand, Friday Night Lights got noms for best series, Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton. In the absence of any Fringe contenders, I’ll be backing them – and if I’m honest, even if Anna Torva and John Noble were nominated, I’d still be backing Chandler and Britton because they’re just that good.

I honestly can’t recommend this show enough; it’s got more heart than any other since The West Wing, it doesn’t patronize or talk down to its audience, it’s incredibly written and knows when a scene needs dialog and when it doesn’t, and it’s got an amazing cast, centered by Chandler and Britton.

Sure, it might not sound like much when I call them the most real couple on TV, but it means a lot. All five seasons of Friday Night Lights are worth watching (though many will shake their head at a certain development in season two) and if you haven’t, I encourage you to do so (and hey, the first season is only $13.49!).

Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose.

Once again the Emmy noms are out, and once again the deserving got the shaft (well, at least in my opinion – but granted, I have very little interest in anything HBO puts out).

The biggest casualty this year – Fringe. I didn’t expect the show to get any nods on the basis that the split-universe season divided some viewers and, you know, science fiction. But I did hope that Anna Torv and John Noble would get some respect.

Torv’s performance this year was a revelation. While I’d grown accustomed to her collected and calm Olivia, seeing her cut loose as Olivia, alternate Olivia, Olivia thinking she was alternate Olivia, alternate Olivia pretending to be Olivia, future Olivia and, oh yes, Olivia possessed by the spirit of Walter Bell really showcased her range.

And speaking of range, can we just give John Noble some kind of Emmy and bypass all the voting nonsense? As Walter or the Walternate, he owns every scene he’s in and can bring drama, humor and heartbreak within the same scene. The final episode of the season alone showcased his range – not to mention the past-set episode this year.

As for Joshua Jackson…Peter’s the least showy role of the three leads, and if I’m honest – although I like him – I don’t think that he’d be nominated for it. But at least he got to read the nominations.

Anyway, there you have it: snubbed once again. I really do feel that it’s the stigma which still seems to be associated with science fiction in the eyes of the voters.

Hmm. How do I get into the Academy again?

I admit it, I’m a sucker for Dallas.

I watched it when I was a kid, and more recently my wife and I made it through the first 3 or 4 seasons on DVD just after we moved to the US before Tower Records closed down and took its cut price box sets with it.

And now, Dallas is back next year on TNT:

While it’s great to see Larry Hagman, Patrick Duffy and Linda Gray back in their old roles (and man, does Hagman look old), and the new cast (including Veronica Mars alum Julie Gonzalez and apparently agelessly hot Jordana Brewster) is all well and good, it seems to be missing the perennial loser character, exemplified in the original run by Ken Kercheval’s Cliff Barnes, the man who taught me it was okay to microwave cold coffee.

And he was wrong even on that.

Ah, Canada.

The country that gave us Alpha Flight…

…Due South…

…William Shatner…

….a staggering number of Canadian Sex Acts (site totally SFW)…

…and Robin Sparkles…

You know, Canada jokes never really get old for me. Sadly.

Happy Canada Day, you crazy canucks!

Peter Falk – best known as Columbo - has died, aged 83.

I seem to recall some news a few years ago about him suffering from either Alzheimers or dementia, but this is terribly sad. I remember watching Columbo reruns – and I still do at times even today if I happen across one – and loving his performance as the perennially rumpled detective who always seemed to have a cigar in his hand.

He’s the reason I turn around in doorways and say “Just one more thing…”

Again, thoughts to family and friends.

EW has the first official images of Martin Freeman (of the excellent Sherlock and the original best Office) and Sir Ian McKellan (of virtually everything) as Bilbo Baggins and Gandalf the Grey, respectively. Oh, and there’s a bunch of dwarves too:

Not bad, eh? I’m looking forward to this an enormous amount, and it makes me want to pick up the Lord of the Rings Blu Rays – but not till they’ve dropped in price a bit.

Anyway, EW has an additional picture of director Peter Jackson and Freeman over at their site.

What EW doesn’t have is this:

Oh yes.

Got a press release yesterday (not sure how I ended up on that distribution but okay) for ABC’s new Charlie’s Angels and Once Upon A Time. Whilst the first has me interested from a purely aesthetic point of view (ie, the cast is pretty), the second one I’m actually interested in.

It seems a little derivative of Fables - which was in development at ABC a few years ago – but there are some differences here, and the cast looks pretty good (Robert Carlyle as Rumpelstiltskin? Yes, please).

So – the trailer and the official synopsis…

The short version:

Welcome to a world where fairytales are real. Anna Swan is like any other 28 year old, until she discovers she’s a lost princess destined to save her world from darkness. Experience the passion project of executive producers/creators Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz (Lost, Tron). Once Upon A Time is a thrilling twist of our most beloved stories.

The long version:

Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz (Lost, Tron: Legacy) invite you to a bold new vision of the world where fairytales and the modern day are about to collide.

Anna Swan (Jennifer Morrison) knows how to take care of herself. She’s a 28-year old bail bonds collector who’s been on her own ever since she was abandoned as a baby. But when the son she gave up years ago finds her, everything will change. Henry (Jared Gilmore) is 10 years old now and in desperate need of Anna’s help. Henry believes that Anna actually comes from an alternate world… and is Prince Charming (Josh Dallas) and Snow White’s (Ginnifer Goodwin) missing daughter. According to his book of fairytales, they sent her away to protect her from the Evil Queen’s (Lana Parilla) curse, which trapped the fairytale world forever, frozen in time. Of course Anna doesn’t believe a word, but when she brings Henry back to Storybrooke, she finds herself drawn to this unusual boy and his strange New England town. Concerned for Henry, she decides to stay for a while, but she soon suspects that Storybrooke is more than it seems. It’s a place where magic has been forgotten, but is still powerfully close… where fairytale characters are alive, even though they don’t remember who they once were–including the Evil Queen who is now Henry’s foster mother. The epic battle for the future of all worlds is beginning, but for good to win, Anna will have to accept her destiny and fight like hell.

Brace yourself for a modern fable with thrilling twists and hints of darkness. Brimming with wonder, and filled with the magic of our most beloved fairytales, Once Upon A Time is a fitting follow up to Lost from two master storytellers.

On Fringe

In spite of my worries, the Fringe finale actually kind of rocked.

That said, I’m still a little confused with Peter never having existed. Why did Walter cross worlds and start the whole mess if not to save him? How did Olivia end up getting Walter out of the mental institution to help her way back when? Did Fauxlivia still have a baby? Who was it’s father? If Peter didn’t exist, how could the machine be turned on in the first place? And exactly who are the WatchersObservers that they apparently exist outside of regular time?

And, wait, if Walter created the machine in the future and sent it back into the past, why did he create it in the first place? How did it end up with parts in both worlds? And if he only created it so he could send it back so it could be used in a different manner than it was used the first time, didn’t he just create a massive paradox?

Oh, and good on Seth Gabel for getting promoted to series regular next year. No return for Kirk Acevedo to the regular cast, though – mainly because of the hat.

I’m not saying that the show’s perfect, and it has more dangling plotlines than Claremont’s X-Men, but still – pretty good.

On Smallville

Ten years? Damn.

I haven’t watched a full season of Smallville as it airs since…what, season four? Whichever one Jensen Ackles was crap in. I do, however, have a bunch of seasons on DVD that I’m very slowly watching (veeeery slowly), and I tried to watch this season but somehow dropped away. It’s an enjoyable show a lot of the time, but it’s not always – or even often – a very good show.

In any case, I’ll watch the finale tonight. And I’ll probably enjoy it.

Ten years. Wow.

(Oh, and if you haven’t been keeping up with Chris Sims’ and David Uzumeri’s Smallville Recaps over at Comics Alliance, you really should go and read them. It’s more fun than watching the show half the time.)

On Human Target

Damnation.

While not surprised at the cancellation of Human Target, I am saddened. The show was one of the few that I made a point of watching every week, and the chemistry between the three leads – Mark Valley, Chi McBride and Jackie Earl Haley – was great fun to watch. The addition of two female cast members – Indira Varma and Janet Montgomery – felt forced in the second season, I actually grew to like them both more than I thought I would (especially Montgomery’s Ames, who sparked off Haley’s Guerrero).

Ah well. If there’s any justice in the world, Valley will get another good action show, because that guy is good.

On Wonder Woman

Well, bugger.

I know a lot (a lot) of people derided the costume, but I wasn’t one of them. Well, I don’t think I was. It’s been a while.

Anyway, while I don’t think David E Kelley is anyone’s idea of a good showrunner for a superhero show, I was looking forward to Adrienne Palicki as Diana. Hopefully the pilot will get leakedreleased at some point so we can all see what might have been.

And laughed at the costume.

On Flashpoint

And finally, on a comic that actually came out this week that I actually read – not bad, although for a story that’s now 20% completed (not counting spin-offs, obviously) it certainly felt like 15% set-up and 85% exposition. I’m not sure anything actually happened in the issue.

Even so, I think I liked it more than when it was called House of M.

I love Fringe, I do, and I think that Anna Torv may be the most underrated actress on network television (she’s played, what, five different takes on her character in this season alone? Olivia, Fauxlivia, Fauxlivia pretending to be Olivia, Olivia thinking she was Fauxlivia but coming into herself, and Bellivia?) but I’m ready to admit I’m a little concerned about the season finale tonight.

First up there’s the prophecy. Now I don’t know how much input JJ Abrams has in the show’s direction these days, but the minute that the Peter-prophecy showed up earlier this season, I had a little bit of deja vu.

Another favorite show of mine – also an Abrams creation – featured a similar prophecy regarding it’s main character. The show, of course, was Alias.

Every time the Peter-prophecy got referenced, I got an itchy feeling that we were just seeing a magician trying to do the same trick twice (and in Alias‘ case, the show went off the rails somewhat). Then, last week, a missing page of the prophecy came to light:

Let’s just say that this worries me a little. Being derivative is one thing; being derivative of your own work is something else.

Then there’s what appears to be the premise of this finale; at the end of last episode, Peter stepped into the machine that was going to destroy his world and got shunted fifteen years into the future, where it would appear the world has gone to hell. From the movie-style trailer released for the episode, it looks like Peter is the anchor of this episode.

This gives me pause for two reasons; first off, as much as I like him, Joshua Jackson is by far the weakest link in the show’s cast (and unfortunately he will always be the guy doing this dance move to me).

The second is far more fundamental: I hate time travel when it’s used to show a future that must be avoided. I know, I’m just assuming that’s what’s happening here and I’m pre-judging the episode but if there’s one thing that Heroes taught me it’s that no good comes of this kind of plot.

Like I said, I still love Fringe but by introducing time travel to the mix I can’t help but feel it’s moving further away from the show that it once was. Some might say that the introduction of a parallel world already did that, but for me that made sense in that it’s existence was what was causing so many of the Fringe events that the team investigated. Time travel, though, is a difficult thing to put back in the box.

Then again, if Peter’s time-jump is permanent and we’re now set for an entire fourth season (or at least a big arc) set in the future, that could be interesting…

Lots to like the look of here. And clowns. Why did it have to be clowns?

Poor Rory doesn’t get much face time does he?

(And by season six I clearly mean season thirty-two).