Richo's Ramblings

1408

2007-12-18T23:14:00.000+10:00

This movie came out 6 months ago in America. If it did open up in Australia in the same month, it's likely it would have been overshadowed by all the big blockbuster winter releases. Now, I'm not usually a fan of horror movies due to the ludicrously farfetched concepts (they only work well in science fiction), the boring, one-sided characters and the pathetically generic plot every friggin one of those atrocities has (you know the one, 4-7 friends/acquaintances all go together to a deserted, foreign location where either a carnivorous, alien creature or a mentally-abused retard with a deformed face [and a tendency of killing people] offs each character one by one until the protagonist and perhaps his/her lover face the aforementioned homicidal "creature" in a big showdown, usually with a lame-ass twist such as "the alien creature(s) gave birth to eggs before they died!" or "it was all a dream...or was it?!"), but I decided to check this one out purely because I have enjoyed some of Cusack's past works and it looked to be more of a thriller than a generic horror movie, with an actual unique plot!! I figured "evil room, this should be interesting. Let's give it a go!"

Unfortunately, this movie wasn't half as thrilling as it should have been and the novelty of the "evil room" concept fell apart around 45 minutes into the movie. Keep in mind Cusack didn't actually check into the room until around 30 minutes into the movie. The first 30 minutes of the movie are the equivalent of the first 6 episodes of Buffy's season 4, i.e. the most pathetic, boring, lame-ass shite I have had the misfortune to watch in a long time. They could have easily cut down explaining the story of Cusack's pessimistic view of the world and his joy in shattering anything and everything others around him believed in by 20 minutes, but they had to draw it out for as long as possible. It felt as if Cusack was stuck in the room already, and he hadn't even heard about it yet.

When Cusack finally got around to entering the room, things started to look up, but they fell apart rather quickly. It may add to the "thrills", "suspense", or dare I say "horror" (although only a 12 year old would find this movie "horrifying"), but when you have a protagonist facing an unknown foe, it may start off interesting, but it rapidly and surely becomes a thrill-less, horrifically annoying concept. It was hinted at that the hotel's staff and the manager (played by Samuel L. Jackson) were in on the whole thing and they amused themselves from it somehow (such as the discovery of the invisible spy cam in the air ducts by Cusack halfway through the movie), but in the end there was really no tangible villain, and it just felt as if we were watching Cusack suffer all this ludicrously unrealistic crap for absolutely no reason at all.

Don't get me wrong, none of the audience felt any sympathy at all for Cusack as he went from pessimistic, arrogant douchewad to a terrified, confused mess in less than an hour. In fact, many members of the audience laughed at his misfortunes. Was it because the human race is becoming consecutively colder and harder towards other peoples' suffering? Perhaps, but it's more likely because the whole thing was seen for what it was...predictable. The whole thing was just extremely predictable, and that is the main thing that led this movie into an awkward limbo between tolerable and mediocre. Besides the whole "evil room" novelty which wore off long before the movie milked the concept for all it was worth, that is.

Come on, people. It was extremely obvious that Cusack's whole vision of "Oh, it was all a dream, I hit my head on my surfboard when I was surfing on the beach and I've been in a hospital bed in California this whole time" was fake, and that his brief escapade outside 1408 was really the dream. It was also extremely obvious that his daughter would die in his arms mere moments after she returned to him. Everything was just so obvious! Cusack sticks his head out the window, and the window slams down on his hand. Cusack climbs out the window to reach the window of one of the 14th floor rooms, and all of the other windows magically disappear. Cusack stares at a painting of men on a ship, and suddenly the room is flooded with kilolitres of water. Why so obvious?!?! It was so obvious, it was funny. When his daughter randomly fell limp into his arms, it was funny. When he woke up back in the room and screamed "NO!!! I WAS OUT!!11", that was funny. And that, dear readers, is why it was funny.

But apart from all this, the movie did have its moments. Katie's body suddenly turning to ash was a nice surprise, as was the doppelganger of Cusack's hijacking his webcam conversation and telling his wife to come to the room. And the ending scene where Cusack sets the room on fire while laughing hysterically as everything burned in flames around him was fucking sweet. The movie has its moments, but don't expect anything incredible. It's not good. It's not bad. It's simply okay.

Donnie Darko

2007-12-16T09:35:00.000+10:00

I saw this movie for the first time last night and all I have to say is "holy shit". This is a very, very intelligent movie, brilliant in complexity, plot and absolutely everything. It's a rare joy when you encounter a movie that is truly unique from every other piece of media floating out there. I don't even know how to open this review, the movie is quite hard to describe and wrap your head around. The best way to describe it is the darker moments of The OC meets the most intriguing, unforeseen moments of sci-fi series like Firefly and LOST. Throw in a protagonist so twisted and dark he rivals Dexter's title character for the most disturbed character in any fictional dimension, and you've got one of the best movies of all time. The movie didn't do too well in cinemas 6 years ago, but has since become a cult classic and become one of the most critically praised and highly-regarded films of all time. To give you an idea, Donnie Darko ranks ninth in FilmFour's 50 Films to See Before You Die and 5th in a "greatest films of all time" survey conducted by ABC.

The main plot of the movie centres around a delusional high-school student named Donnie Darko in the town of Middlesex, who is visited by a demonic rabbit with (to quote the back of the DVD) "eerie visiona of the past, and deadly predictions for the future". Donnie has a balanced, supportive family with his parents and 2 sisters (one elder and one younger) and regularly attends meetings with his therapist who prescribes him medication and listens to his darkest thoughts and feelings which he hides away from everyone else. He also has the unfortunate tendency to sleepwalk, which we find out in the opening scene where we find him asleep, sprawled out on a golf course miles away from his house. This is rather fortunate occurence for Donnie and his family, as an airline engine flew from out of nowhere and completely demolished his bedroom whilst he was safely dozing on the golf course.

You have thrills and twists in the form of questions like who is Frank the demonic bunny, why is he making Donnie do "bad things" such as flooding the school and setting fire to a child pornographer's house, and the most exciting question of all, where in the hell is the film heading to next? There's also an unlikely romance between Donnie and the new girl Gretchen who's mother was stabbed 4 times by her mentally unstable stepdad. Donnie feels somewhat connected to her due to the fact she is damaged and twisted to an extent, although definitely not half as much as Donnie. And then there's the enigmatic paranormal plot device of time travel, and the old woman who checks her mailbox every minute, and the emotionless, sexy teacher (played by Drew Barrymore. OH YEAH!1), and Donnie's smurf-boning friends, and Donnie's ignorant, annoying gym teacher, and bubbles coming out of peoples' chests, and the antichrist trying to brainwash the students of the school, and the kind of dark, cynical wit usually only reserved for Chuck Palahnuik novels and the most twisted episodes of Dexter. What more could you want in a movie?

This thrilling, dramatic, sci-fi, darkly-humourous psychological thriller is indescribably brilliant. Its intriguing that I found 2 truly unique, compelling, incredible movies that are truly different from every other television show or movie in existence in the space of just 2 days. Alpha Dog and Donnie Darko should definitely be on anyone's list of "movies to see before you die". Not a boring moment in either one. Some of the best minutes of your life will be spent watching these 2 movies, and I don't care if that sounds lame, it couldn't be any closer to the fucking truth. Check these out as soon as you get the chance.

Blade

2007-12-16T09:04:00.000+10:00

Whew. So I just woke up from a movie marathon at a mate's place. It's about damn time I got out of the house, I haven't done a single thing outdoors since the summer started besides work. So anyway, Blade. This movie is close to 10 years old now. After seeing Underworld and its sequel I set my sights on the other vampire trilogy of movies, Blade. Unfortunately, this movie doesn't come close to Underworld at all. To sum it up, its a fairly hollow film with lots of action but not much substance. The storyline is very generic, the characters are one-sided and the whole thing is boring as hell. I started to nod off at least 8 or 9 times due to the fact that compared to previous movies I watched last night, this one just didn't come close.

The movie incorporated several unique takes on vampirism into the picture, and had some smart ideas such as using a serum of silver-nitrate and garlic as a weapon, along with the concept of what would happen to a pregnant woman who got bitten by a vampire right as she starts to go into labour. She ended up popping out Blade (or Eric, as mummy dearest calls him), a half-human half-vampire hybrid with the strengths of both worlds and the weaknesses of none. This means Blade contains the strength, speed and thirst of blood of a vamp, but is able to walk in sunlight, withstand silver/garlic/stakes and generally kick our fangy friends' asses without working up a sweat.

As cool as it all sounds, in reality it produced a very boring movie. The only highlights were the fight scene at the vampire nightclub with blood spraying down from sprinklers in the ceiling, and the fight scene at the end where Blade went all psycho on any vamp within a 10,000 mile radius. The middle 90 minutes of the movie was a bunch of generic, boring, predictable, cheesy crap. The whole thing was just a very tired plot with an ensemble of predictable, bland characters that you've seen a million times before in any action movie. Boy loses parents due to enemy, old man takes boy in and raises him to use his "evil" powers for "good", boy meets girl, boy saves girl, old man dies by enemy's hand when boy is nowhere in sight, boy reaches old man right before he dies and exchanges cliche'd dialogue, enemy kidnaps girl, boy goes all kickass on enemy and henchman, all's well that ends well. Bla. Makes me bored just thinking about it all again.

Wesley Snipes did a good job with the absolutely horrific script he had to work with, but the main problem with the movie is that the whole thing has been done a million times before, only this one has vampires instead of mutant aliens from another dimension or Italian mobsters who orphaned the protagonist. The vampires were more interesting than the heroes, it's all just so cliche'd and horrible. The lone hero who has suffered great loss, the distressed chick who gets saved by hero, the old man who raised lone hero who kicks it to make room for lone hero to be more of a lone hero, and the main villain who wants lone hero to either join him or die. Ahhhh. I'm undecided as to whether or not to bother giving the sequels a chance, in the end I probably will as I always love to see the sexy Jessica Biel and she plays the main female lead in the 3rd installment in this lacklustre series.

Blade has it's moments, and spun a truly unique take on vampirism that has no doubt inspired other movies and television series in the genre, but in the end it fails to deliver and puts you to sleep with an uninspired plot and scenes which aren't enthralling or remotely interesting at all. Maybe the sequels are better, but this movie simply isn't good. Go watch the Underworld series and give this one a miss.

Alpha Dog

2007-12-15T00:14:00.000+10:00

Wow. That's all I have to say after watching this movie. This has got to be one of the best movies I've seen in my life, and believe me, I've seen way more than the average person has. I rented this movie on a whim. I was looking for anything dark and twisted to match my internal mood. At the time, I was depressed and feeling somewhat suicidal, so I felt like a good action movie or 2 with some pizzas would cheer me up. Of course, seeing some pathetic Will Ferrell comedy is more depressing than uplifting as that guy simply makes horrible movies, so I went with the action route. One of the movies I rented was Alpha Dog.

There were 3 main reasons I chose it without having a clue what it was about. i) It stars Bruce Willis and Justin Timberlake ii) its rated MA15+ and contains (according to the cover) "Strong violence, strong coarse language, strong sex scenes, sexual references, strong drug use". That more or less covered everything I felt like watching at the moment, so it was the perfect fit. And iii) I am still suffering from Dexter/Oz withdrawal. The 2 best shows on television that I haven't watched the complete series of yet. No Dexter for another 9 months, and I can't watch Oz because seasons 4-6 haven't been released on DVD in Australia. That's enough to drive anyone mad, especially when torrents are slow as shite and only download 1 episode every 3 days. That's how pathetic its speed is, on average the download speed is 0.5kb/s.

This movie is the exact thing I wanted to watch, and the exact thing that I needed, right at this moment in my life. I wanted something with rivalry, something with violence, something with gang wars, something with sex, something dark and gritty to vacate the loss of Dexter and Oz. And this movie delivered all that and then some. It was funny when it wanted to be, it was believable, it was compelling, it was entertaining, it was sexy, it was dark, it was fun, and it was very dramatic and bittersweet towards the end. Absolutely incredible, everything I like in a series or movie all rolled into one.

The movie's actually based on the real-life kidnapping and murder of a 15 year old kid who's brother owed his drug dealer $1200. What's more, the movie is said to be 95% correct. The lawyer who is residing over the case at the moment actually showed the movie's staff original source documents and evidence to help them in the making of the movie. He later got sacked because of it, but hey, he'd be a very rich and happy man. Back to the plot, the movie concentrates on 2 "families". The first is the content, middle-class suburban family of the Mazurskys. The father and mother of the family are your ordinary concerned, anxious, loving parents. Their eldest son Jake is the one who owes the drug dealer $1200 and their youngest son Zack is the one who got kidnapped, and later murdered, by his brother's ex-friends and drug buddies. The second "family" of sorts isn't a real family, but more a gang of bro's and ho's who hook up together and live the life of party all night, sleep all day. These are the street kids who run through drugs, alcohol and money like water, but they all have substantially large wads of cash (either from their clueless parents, or their own illegal activities like drug trafficking.)

The leader of family #2, Johnny, who is also Jake's drug dealer, is the big cheese who everyone has a mutual respect for. After getting into a scuffle with Jake when he demands his money that Jake doesn't have, they pull juvenile pranks on each other for revenge. However, these juvenile pranks escalate larger and larger, starting with Johnny calling Jake's boss and telling him that he's been taking drugs again and violating his parole. After getting fired, Jake retaliates by breaking into Johnny's house with a couple of his homeboys and taking a shit in the middle of his house. Oh, and he also stole his TV and broke a couple of his windows. Johnny and his buds respond by kidnapping Jake's younger brother Zack as he's walking down the street.

At first, Zack is confused and frightened, but eventually he forms a bond with many of Johnny's crew, in particular Frankee (Justin Timberlake). The next 80 minute chunk of the movie follows Johnny's boys and Zack hanging out and doing bro-stuff together like smoking, drinking, playing X-box and partying. Zack is having the time of his life and admits he's never been happier than he is right now, and he even goes skinny dipping in a pool with 2 sexy, blonde chicks who find the fact that he's been "stolen" hot. Meanwhile, while Zack is living the life, making out with that hot chick who played Lilly Kane on Veronica Mars and partying with his brother's nemeses, his parents are worried sick. After 3 days of Zack's absence, his family are very upset and have called in the police and every family relative within a million miles to come to their house and help comfort them. Meanwhile, Jake has lost it and loses himself in a self-destructive rage. Man, this guy really kicks some ass when he's mad, and he does it with style. He bursts into a party where some of Johnny's mates are hanging and he completely tears apart every single person in the room, demolishing every piece of furniture and body in his way. After kicking everyone's ass into the ground, he yells "If anyone sees that little bitch Johnny Truelove, tell them Jake Mazursky is looking for him".

Unfortunately, the moment we all knew was coming arrives and Johnny gets cold feet. He calls a lawyer and finds out they could be facing jail for life if the police caught them and found out their role in the kidnapping. He offers Frankee $2500 to kill Zack, but Frankee refuses and tells him he's out of his mind. Johnny makes like he was joking, but then he goes to another bud of his named Elvis and gets him to perform the deed instead. Elvis explains to Frankee they "gotta do what they gotta do" because they're all facing life in jail as a result of everything that has happened. In a heart-wrenching series of events, the kid gets offed, each member of Johnny's gang eventually gets arrested and jailed, and Zack's family is never the same. Although, we never do find out what the hell happened to Jake. After that kickass scene in the club, I really expected him to be the one who tracked down Johnny and tore him apart. But that club scene was the last we ever saw of him. That kind of sucks. But anyway.

On a more uplifting note, the chicks in this movie were really fucking hot. Olivia Wilde, Amber Heard, and Amanda Seyfried, each from some of the hottest teen dramas on television (The OC, Hidden Palms and Veronica Mars respectively). And, best of all, we got to see all of these chicks topless at some point throughout the movie. Also, Vincent Kartheiser who plays Connor on Angel somehow had an appearance as some guy named Pick, but I didn't notice him at all. I sure as hell would remember seeing him in there and shouting "Connor", it must have been a minor role or something because I sure as hell don't remember seeing him in there. I'll have to watch it again.

Absolutely incredible fucking movie. Best one I've seen in a long time, no doubt, and probably makes my top 5 movies of all time in terms of uniqueness and brilliance. It's a bizarre combination of the parties, wild nights and teenage experiences of The OC meets the darkness, rivalry, violence and intelligence of Oz, and it works beautifully. Go watch it, you won't regret it. It's really fucking good.

Journeyman

2007-12-14T14:15:00.000+10:00

At first, I completely and utterly despised this show. I even went as far as hailing the pilot as the "worst pilot ever". Maybe I was just annoyed because I had watched the pilots of Bionic Woman, Gossip Girl and Pushing Daisies all in a row (if you didn't realise, that is by no means a good thing, considering those 3 shows are awful) and this pilot was no better than any of those. Since then, however, the series has warmed to me a considerable amount and has climbed as far as becoming my favourite new show of the season. Oh, and that theme music kicks ass so much. It's the best television theme music I've ever heard. Absolutely brilliant. I should download it and put it on repeat for like a year.

The series chronicles the time-traveling adventures of Dan Vasser, a journalist who is married and has a 7-year old son. Supporting characters include Dan's wife Katie, Dan's brother Jack, Dan's boss Hugh and Dan's ex-fiance who "died" in a plane crash in 1997. We later discover she didn't die, she is rather a time-traveler like Dan who lives in the year 1948 and goes on "missions" like Dan to help others out and, in some cases, change their lives for the better.

There is no more compelling a show than Journeyman right now. It got off to a very slow start, but since then every episode has gotten better and better, and by episode 5 I was left wanting more. It's a very intelligent show, with intelligent humour, intelligent wit and intelligent writing. The relationships between the characters are very real and believable, and moments that we all knew were coming such as Dan's son Zack witnessing his father magically disappear in a ripple of blue vapour and Jack Vasser finally coming around to believe what Dan is saying, that should be cheesy and foreseen, are all the more (for lack of a better word) "magic". This show sucks you in like no other and you truly feel as if you are with Dan as he travels through time, touching other's lives for the better.

The show knows just the right time to begin a multi-episode arc, and just the right time to end it. The way they finished the plot with the rogue FBI agent who wanted to exploit Dan and his abilities for his own greed by tying it in with the other plot with the serial kidnapper who shot Dan was absolutely fantastic. And Dan traveling back to discover that the kidnapper was abused and shut in as a kid by his dad was absolutely brilliant. All of this happened in the episode "Blowback", and that episode secured this show into my top 10 favourites of all time. Really, if you haven't seen this show yet, all of this will just be incoherent babble for you. The best thing you can do is give it a shot. Watch the episodes online, download them from a blog site, do whatever you want. This really is a fantastic show, and its a shame it's been axed as it missed the December 11 deadline to get picked up for a full season. IMO, it definitely deserved a full season over Chuck and most of the crap that's on television right now.

What works: Intelligent, fun, witty and exciting, this show is a must to watch. I suggest starting from Episode 3 as the first 2 were rather mediocre. You won't see a show as exciting or compelling as this for a long time.

What doesn't: First 2 episodes were boring and treated the viewers like we were goldfish. Because of this, it lost 3 million viewers right before the 3rd episode, which is just when things started to get good. A shame, really.

File this next to Tru Calling and Traveler in the "brilliant shows that got axed before their time" section. Maybe the fan's campaign of sending "Rice-a-Roni's" to NBC will work a la Jericho, but it's not likely. Here's to looking forward to the next brilliant show that meets its demise early.

Medium

2007-12-14T13:19:00.000+10:00

In reviewing this show I'm reminded of an episode of Supernatural in which Sam is developing his psychic powers. Dean asks him "Who do you think is a hotter psychic? Jennifer Love Hewitt, Patricia Arquette or you?" The answer, for me, would be JLH (Heartbreakers-era), although since Ghost Whisperer started she has definitely lost a lot of her hawtness (a lot more baggy old women's clothes, I understand her going the route of "I-am-no-longer-proud-of-my-sexuality", but does she have to do the whole thing with clothes that I would usually see a 90 year old women wear?". Anyway, back on topic. Medium. This show's had 3 seasons so far, but I never really became a fan. It just isn't that interesting for me to watch more than once every couple of weeks/months, and yesterday I did just that when a rerun came on Channel 10.

The plot of most episodes in this series, save for specials or season finals/openers is a psychic named Allison Dubois solving crimes by having futuristic visions in her dreams, talking with dead people and occasionally reading people's minds. Allison will have a cryptic vision, and then her co-workers and her will work together to find out what it means in relation to solving the crime. After a few dead ends here and there, they'll stumble upon the truth, and the case is solved. There are often subplots involving Allison's 3 daughters (who are also gifted psychics) and her supportive husband Joe, whose role is usually reserved for encouraging Allison and playing the kind husband.

What works: Interesting concept, Patricia Arquette plays a strong female lead, exciting and interesting when it wants to be

What doesn't: In the end, its just another cop show, with the novelty of a psychic as the protagonist. It's like Psych, only minus the comedy, good writing and the fact that Allison is actually a real psychic. The show wouldn't hurt to undergo a few more changes to it's formulaic episode structure now and then either, rather than "Allison has vision, Allison works out vision, Allison solves crime" every time.

Overall, it's an average show. Not bad, not great, just average. The only real problem I have with it is the show focuses too much on the conflict, and not enough on the resolution of the case. Usually there's only 1 or 2 minutes at the end of the episode reserved to wrap things up. As a result of this, the viewer is left without a real closure, and walks away feeling nonplussed. I'm not saying this show should have overly sappy, "everyone-has-become-stronger-as-a-result-of-this-trying-experience" ending every episode a la Ghost Whisperer with everyone crying and smiling as the departed soul vanishes into the light, but it wouldn't hurt for the ending to be something more than "okay everyone, case closed, let's discuss between ourselves the aftermath of the case, often 1 or 2 months after everything has happened, but we won't actually show any of the characters going through the healing process, as that overstretches our 2-minute resolution allowance. "

An example of this is the episode where a crazed employee who worked with Joe at his workplace got fired and as a result took everyone in the board meeting hostage. Eventually, Joe got shot, his co-worker and boss got riddled with bullets, and the crazy guy who got fired blew himself up. Instead of a proper resolution, the show went from crazy dude blowing his head open one scene to the 2-minute-crappy-resolution the next. This involved Joe saying to Allison "Well, its been 2 months, but that bullet wound has healed and my arm is finally better. Oh, and Aaron's funeral's next week, I probably won't go because it would be depressing, but he was a nice guy" before Allison kisses him and the episode closes. Endings like that completely butcher the entire episode, and doesn't exactly scream satisfaction for viewers.

If you can get past the ending of each episode butchering the whole thing, than there's something to like here. In the end, it's worth a watch every now and then, just like a CSI show every once in a while. But for watching on a repeat basis, you'd be better off looking elsewhere.

Jericho

2007-12-14T01:00:00.000+10:00

So I might be a bit harsh in what I'm about to say about this series. After all, in the past few days, I have watched some great shit. The final 2 Dexter episodes, 3 seasons of Oz, and the mind-blowing two part season-finale of Life. Those 3 shows are no doubt the best television I have watched this year, besides Buffy/Angel and The OC finale. I remember watching this show 2 years ago, the initial batch of 11 episodes back when CBS had the confidence of that Jericho was their post nuclear-apocalypse version of LOST. No matter how much the fans rally behind this show, how much they support it, praise it, love it and try to save it, the plain and simple fact is it simply isn't that good.

In the spirit of giving it another chance now that CBS decided to save it's ass for a 7 episode run for a midseason replacement, I downloaded the remaining first season episodes that I have yet to see. (Channel 10 gave up on the series and never bothered broadcasting it again after it was put on hiatus). Now I remember why I disliked this show in the first place. The worst thing about it is it's so goddamn boring!! This show is essentially the Cane of 2006, i.e. the most boring, lame, annoyingly bland show of the year. Just like Cane, Bionic Woman, and Pushing Daisies, all these series had original concepts and interesting ideas with absolutely horrid execution.

The creators had an entire 22 episodes to give us some answers, any answers, as to how the hell a nuclear apocalypse wiped out close to every major city in various places of the world, but so far we've still got nothing. They've had a couple of storylines with the citizens of Jericho fighting other survivors from neighbouring towns, rogue SWAT teams, plane crash survivors and even had the season finale with the main character's Dad dying in the midst of a war, but no goddamn answers at all. The only person who seems to know anything about the bombs is a black whackjob who thinks he works for the FBI and that the mafia are after him. And this series has so many annoying plotholes its not even funny. The survivors are listening to a Muse song that came out in 2007, when episode 12 is actually set in November 2006?! 2 months after the bombs, right?! Uhhh. The illusion of realism is shattered by stupid little inconsistencies like this, and how convenient that all electricity around the world and all portable batteries got fried, except for the generators that fell from the sky and now power the town. WTF is that?!?!

There are a couple of good moments, like when that gang of rebels stabbed Gracie and took possession of her store and then that kid took revenge by shooting the leader in the chest. That was interesting, but for the most part, its not about the nuclear apocalypse at all. Its all about the stupid little unconvincing romances and love triangles between all the main characters and all the little dramas their town suffers as Daddy Johnson fights and moans at Gray for becoming Mayor whilst dying of a sickness while his sons pork married women and the citizens of the town run amok. Its like friggin Bold and the Beautiful, only disguised as a serialised enigmatic show as a mask for the network and the viewers that the staff and crew of the show put on to avoid getting axed. The obvious truth is that there is no answers, the staff are only in it for the money, and if not, than they'd actually try and put some semblance of effort into this tired, contrived slop of a series to make it even the least bit watchable.

Maybe they'd realised that people started to see through their little charade when viewers lost interest and the network cancelled this hack of a show. At least Days of Our Lives, The Young and the Restless, The Bold and the Beautiful and all these other tasteless, generic, crappy, boring, contrived soap opera dramas know that their work is cheesy, cliche'd, unoriginal, boring slop, and they admit it. They don't try and pretend they're something they're not, unlike this show which claims all this and all that, but when it comes down to it, it just fails to deliver.

There never has been any pre-planned explanation for the nuclear apocalypse aspect of the show at all, it's all made up as it goes along. This show sucks so much. It's not worth your time. The only reason the network renewed it was so the stupid little fanatics would stop getting their knickers in a knot and bombarding the CBS offices with truckloads of "nuts". So, their solution? Raise it back for 1/3 of the amount of episodes they had last time, while shafting it to the 10pm slot on a Tuesday night. Hey, its no big loss, as long as those friggin nuts stop coming in, right??

Meanwhile, other shows with original premises that actually put time and effort into their episodes, storylines and characters to offer something unique amongst all the cop, hospital and reality shows that bombard television right now get axed after 1 or 2 seasons. This show is the same, but it establishes itself with horrid execution. I'm probably just testy about Journeyman getting axed, but it's the same damn thing. Journeyman, Dark Angel, Tru Calling, Firefly, Traveler, Hidden Palms, Drive, Day Break...all these series are a million times better than this crap, and all never made it past 1 or 2 seasons. But this series resurrected from the dead whilst these other shows with even better concepts and far superior execution stay buried and six feet under. WHY?!?!?!

The game of the creators is to keep the charade of the nuclear apocalypse plot going for as long as possible whilst they can play boy meets girl in a town with more cliche'd romances, dramas and storylines than you can poke a stick at while the mindless drones that actually deem this dribble as watchable get excited and speculate on forums what the morse code of the title sequence of the latest episode means and how everything falls into place in this messy, jumbled television series.

What works: Interesting concept, 1 scene in every 50 is interesting and lives up to the hype

What doesn't: Everything else.

This show sucks. Next.

Life: Dig a hole and fill it up

2007-12-13T11:01:00.000+10:00

I know I just reviewed this series, but that was before I watched the uber-incredible two-part season finale. Well, technically not a season finale, but it really feels great to call it that as a) there won't be any more episodes for a very long time (until the strike's over) and b) there were just so many things in the serialised arc of the show that got wrapped up and finished. This was a really satisfying episode, the likes that season or even series finales usually only provide. The creators already revealed to us in this episode who murdered the family Charlie Crews was accused of murdering 12 years ago, who murdered Ames, the whereabouts of Rachel (the little girl who witnessed her family's murder), the reason the family was murdered, the extent of Jack Reese's and Ames's involvement in the setup, and best of all, we finally got to explore the darker side of Charlie Crews that hasn't been revealed to us before.

We always knew it had to be there, after all, he definitely wouldn't have walked around in prison for 12 years with his "zen master" persona around. We've had hints here and there that Charlie is capable of more or less anything, as even the people around him are unsure of "who he is" or "what he could do" anymore. Everything about this episode was so brilliant, but one thing in particular I have to applaud is the timing. A couple of minutes into the episode, Crews is driving on a desert road with Buddha's voice on a tape cassette saying "I am connected to everything. Everything is connected to me. If I wish to strike out against my enemy, and my enemy is connected to me, I would only succeed in hurting myself. How does that better myself?" In a moment of spontaneous rage, Crews cooly says "because it does" before chucking the tape out the window. The timing in this scene was friggin ace, but even after shooting 2 guys who had totaled his car and attempted to kidnap his hostage, he calls his ex-wife and tells her he asks for her forgiveness for being mad at the wrong person all these years. That sweet, emotional moment in the midst of all this action should have felt out of place, but instead it added to the emotion and drama of the episode without being messy or cheesy.

Darkside Crews truly was a joy to watch. The coolest part of the episode was where Ames's killers tracked down Crews and rammed his car with a massive truck, turning it upside down. When the suits demanded from Crews "Where's the preacher" his only response was "Are you upside down or am I upside down, its kind of hard to tell from here" before shooting them both to death. There was truly no idea as to whether or not Crews would off Carl, but even as he chose to turn him in (to a standing ovation from the police force), Life still delivered a final twist in Jack Reese saying to Crews the bleeding girl in Carl's apartment was Rachel all along. I'm guessing the rest of this season will focus on (apart from the usual mystery-of-the-week) Crews's attempts to find who set him up and the person(s) behind all the events that led to the murder of his friend's family.

Of all of NBC's new shows, this one is probably the most deserving of a second season, as it has been the most consistently brilliant show of the year. Dexter, Moonlight and Journeyman are incredible, but they've had their off weeks where they've had episodes broadcast solely to fill up time more than anything else. But who honestly thought the show would bring satisfaction to its main arc and would close off a lot of its central mysteries only 11 episodes into the season? The fact that it was unexpected made it even more brilliant. Probably ties with Reaper's pilot for the best 40 minutes of television I've seen this year. Absolutely fantastic. Epic.

Life

2007-12-12T23:37:00.000+10:00

This show is a gem. Don't let the fact that its yet another cop show put you off, this truly is a series to watch, and it trails behind Journeyman but ties with Moonlight for being the best new show of the season. This show is the perfect balance of everything and you're not likely to find another show which is as balanced as this. It contains just the right amount of humour, mystery, thrills and action to make it entertaining, fun and the best show to watch whenever you feel like walking away with a positive lift after just a 40 minute episode. After one episode, you'll be wanting the next, and that's all we really want television to be in the end. Entertaining and compelling enough to make us want more.

The best parts of the show all come from Damien Lewis's character Detective Charlie Crews, a cop who was wrongly imprisoned for 12 years for a crime he didn't commit. This guy was a cop in a prison, and that obviously didn't go down well with his cell buddies, as he broke nearly every bone in his body whilst in there. You'd think that'd make a guy depressed, angry, insane or the like, but not Charlie Crews. He's the most unique and fascinating protagonist a show's had since House premiered 4 years ago. Just what is Charlie Crews like? The best way to describe him is an adult Seth Cohen with a lisp, a multi-million dollar government settlement for being imprisoned wrongly, a rich and rare appreciation for life's simplest things and a quick wit and sharp brain that makes him the most amusing, fun character on television today. This guy has millions of dollars, and he decides to spend it on growing an orange grove in his huge backyard. If I could hang out with anyone from a television show, it'd definitely be Xander from Buffy or Seth from The OC, but this guy comes right behind. He's just a whole lot of fun, and you've gotta love the guy.

What makes this tie with NCIS as the best cop show on television besides everything and anything Charlie Crews, is a rare balance that falls over the characters, plot, and dialogue. This show has, by far, the best writing in television today. Moving and emotional when it wants to be, hilarious and witty all the time, and fun and a joy all around. Each character brings something unique to the show, whether its the sexy Sarah Shahi playing Charlie's partner Danni who consistently finds herself playfully aggravated at the babble that comes out of Charlie's mouth, Ted Early, Charlie's best friend who had his back in prison who now manages Charlie's outrageous fortune and lives with him in his McMansion, tough but firm Lieutenant Karen Davis who distrusts Crews and constantly has an eye on him, or Crews's ex-partner Bobby Stark who likes to talk big but may possibly have had a hand in setting him up. All have a role on the show, and they're not just one-sided generic drones with no personality or quirks. They're all layered, complex and multi-dimensional with strong character depth. Danni is all smiles at work, but she hides a tragic past and a drug addiction. Bobby likes to exaggerate and be "the man", such as when he's telling everyone who'll listen about how he was in the front line of the Bank of LA shootout where $2 million dollars disappeared into thin air, but eventually he caves and admits he was nowhere near the building on the day. I could go on, but I don't want to spoil any of the brilliant storylines for anyone who hasn't seen them yet.

And then, there's the serialised aspect of the show involving Crews's investigation into who set him up and the details of the murder that got him jailed 12 years ago. It isn't visited as often as you'd think, but when the hints of the crime do pop up, it is often unexpected and at exactly the right time of an episode. And this is where the brilliance of the show truly lies: the variety. It has comedy and quirkiness, it has action and thrills, it has mystery, it has drama, it has intense character depth, it more or less has it all. Any fan of any genre would be hardpressed not to find something to like about this show. That's the thing, its just so damn likable!!

What works: Best protagonist on television, intense character depth, perfect balance of action, thrills, comedy, drama and mystery to tide over fans of all genres, overhanging serial arc that keeps viewers intrigued and sets a definitive in viewers' minds that the series is going somewhere (i.e. Prison's Break's definite is/was the brothers would break out of prison/clear their names, LOST's is the survivors will get off the island, etc), best cop show on television, most uplifting, positive show on television (that isn't cheesy or religious), entertaining and compelling. Oh, and Sarah Shahi is hot.

What doesn't: The overhanging arc of "who set Crews up" and "who murdered that family 12 years ago" isn't tapped into as often as it should be, Constance Griffith's proclamation to Charlie of "I love you, but I can't be with you" is cliche'd and boring, I really can't think of anything else.

If you're going to watch a show that's new this season, watch Life. It's the show you're most likely to get attached to, and the one you'll probably be watching years and years down the road. Intelligent, fun, thrilling, funny, and brilliant. Go watch it already.

Reaper Episode 10: Cash Out

2007-12-12T01:38:00.000+10:00

So Reaper has finally gotten its act back together. Its pilot is one of the best 40 minutes of television ever made, but the series slumped itself into a hole that it looked unable to get out of when it repeated the same episode 5 or 6 times in a row. It doesn't help that the protagonist is such a whiny trump whose balls haven't dropped either. Thankfully, if this episode is the shape of things to come, that is by no means a bad thing.

The producers must have realised they need to switch things up since the ratings of the show continue to be an abysmal 2 million per episode. So, things have finally started to shift off-course from the procedural, repetitive formula they have for each episode. For a huge rant about how much that formula sucks and how much wasted potential this show has, read my previous Reaper review. Well, it seems that the show is finally tapping into some of that potential.

With the introduction of the Devil's possible daughter "Cady" into the series, Sam's "everything sucks and I hate my life" syndrome has gone down a considerable amount. He was still a sappy chump throughout the episode (like when he whined at Sock and Ben not to spend any of the $6 million because it was "cursed" money), but for the most part, his emo state seems considerably less existent, and that is the one thing that really put me off from liking the series. Although, considering Cady's a recurring character and might drop off the show in 3-5 episodes, the question is whether Sam will revert to his previous sappy self, or will he grow a pair and start living life to the fullest like his comrades-in-arms Sock and Ben.

What works: Sock and Ben are still where the true humour and entertainment of the show lies. However, Cady is sexy, fun, and brings a much needed balance to the show. She's the exact opposite of her depressed, annoying counterpart Sam, and as a result, her character has rubbed off on Sam and is making him happier, more confident, and an overall less dislikable guy. The formulaic approach the series has taken in previous episodes has started to dissolve to make room for some much-needed character development and plot retooling. Oh, and the action scenes have gotten a lot more entertaining. Paul Hwang holding Ben's head through the wall before getting sucked into the lighter looked mad.

And that scene with Cady stripping in the hot tub to prove to Sock and Ben she doesn't have the devil's mark on her body? OH YEAH!!!!!!!!!11

What doesn't: Protagonist is still a whiny twat, series is still stuck in a hole, although it is gaining back some of the originality and quality it held in the Pilot episode. Its getting better, hopefully it stays that way.

It was also a nice surprise to see Sock using the "cursed" money to try and win back Josie's affections by replacing everything he burned down in a fire in her apartment by accident. Whether the relationship will rekindle, time will tell, but for the moment the series looks like it may be on the road to becoming great television. There are still some flaws here and there, but for the moment, I'm willing to follow this series and hope it continues along the standard of "Pilot" and "Cash Out".

Die Hard 4.0: Live Free or Die Hard

2007-12-11T14:12:00.000+10:00

The fourth installment in the Die Hard series. This particular movie is more or less a straightforward action flick with guns, fights and explosions, but not much substance. Oh, and it definitely isn't the "best one of the series" as Bruce Willis describes. The storyline in itself is quite weak, and it just doesn't contain the action and excitement of the previous releases in the series.

The main plot is John McClane saving a kid who likes to hack stuff from a bunch of angry men with guns. John is now divorced with a wife who doesn't remember his last name, and a daughter who doesn't talk to him. It seems like his latest escapades couldn't have come at a better time in his life when he admits to hacker-boy that "being a hero is being a mistake. All it gets you is loneliness and getting shot at". The main villain of the movie is an ex-FBI agent called Gabriel who is angry at the entire "system" for screwing him over and not listening to his warnings about a potential security breach after 9/11. So, in response, he begins a "firesale", a nationwide wave of terror that involves using the country's own technology against themselves by cutting off all electricity, gas, mobile phone towers, water, and anything that is controlled by a computer. In the end, John's daughter is kidnapped, everyone's alive (except the bad guys) and the whole thing finishes on a high note as they go to the hospital.

What works: Bruce Willis is entertaining to watch in anything, the action scenes (which is truly the only thing people want to see. You never see Die Hard movies winning awards for their brilliant storylines or character depth) are chaotic, fun and well-done, that "Asian hooker-henchman chick" of Gabriel's is hot and he plays the role of a disgraced terrorist mastermind rather well.

What doesn't: In the end, its an action flick, and that's all you're going to get. Generic plot, generic characters, generic everything, but the action scenes are outstanding.

Its a decent movie that is nowhere near as good as the original, but probably the best action movie you'll see for a while. Just don't expect anything good in terms of storyline, characters and depth. If all you want is boom, boom, boom, you'll be satisfied. Worth a rent.

Knocked Up

2007-12-11T00:27:00.000+10:00

So I finally gave into the hype and saw this movie. To get an idea of how beloved it is by everyone, I'll steal some facts from the movie's wiki page. Rotten Tomatoes lists 91% of critics giving the movie a good review, and it's the second best-rated movie this year. But is it really deserving of all the love and adoration it gets?

It really depends if you're a fan of romantic comedies or not. The majority of guys would place this movie in the can, but the majority of chicks would likely hold it in a special place in their heart next to The Notebook and Pride and Prejudice. Any guy reading this, if you watch this movie with your girlfriend, you have a strong chance of having some sweet displays of affection given to you when it ends. It probably won't go further than that though, as the whole movie is based on the concept of a guy porking a girl and getting her pregnant after a night of reckless, unsafe sex.

The plot of the movie involves a guy named Ben who runs a porn site with his 4 best friends, who meets a girl at a bar named Allison who works for E! as a presenter. One thing leads to another, and by the end of the night they're sleeping off a night of wild, reckless sex. Oh, and there was no protection involved. 8 weeks later, Allison discovers she's pregnant. The main story of the movie comes from the struggle between Ben and Allison to maintain a loving relationship in preparation for the birth of the baby whilst drama unfolds between Allison's sister Debbie (played by Big Daddy's Leslie Mann, the best movie ever) and her husband Paul, whom she suspects is cheating on her.

There are some toilet-humour moments in the film, which is to be expected considering this movie is from the same guy who made series like Freaks and Geeks and Undeclared. And who can forget The 40 Year Old Virgin? Great stuff. There are some times where it goes way too far though, like when they show a vagina with a baby's head sticking out of it at the end of the film. That is just not necessary. Not necessary at all. It wasn't even funny. Seriously, how did they get away with putting that in the movie? But anyway, sometimes it works, like in the scene where all of Ben's buddies end up getting pink-eye due to them farting on each others' pillows. Some of them, however, like the aforementioned vagina scene, are just grossly inappropriate, and this is coming from a guy who lists Dexter and Oz amongst his favourite shows. I don't find many things "grossly inappropriate", but showing a vagina on-screen with a baby's head with all the veins and the blood sticking out is just a bit much, don't you think?

The real heart of the movie, however, lies with the supporting characters of Debbie and Paul who are constantly at odds with each other over the tiniest things. The best scene of the movie is when Debbie snaps at a bouncer at her favourite nightclub because he refuses to let her and Allison in due to "no one wanting see some old and pregnant bitches in a club". Paul's bonding sessions with Ben are entertaining and fun as well, and their little therapy session together in the motel where they were high and freaking out from the multiple different chairs in the room was hilarious.

What works: The characters of Debbie and Paul really make the movie, any scene with them is pure gold. Debbie's homicidal 8 year old daughter is a fun joy as well, and it truly is a funny comedy, which is something of a good achievement considering the lack of humour of many recent comedy releases (Evan Almighty, I'm looking at you.)

What doesn't: The editor of this movie is a git for letting too many scenes drag on for too long, the dude from Superbad and the bearded guy's annoying girlfriend are 2 characters the movie would have been better off without, the chemistry between the 2 main characters is more absent than present, and in the end it doesn't live up to all the hype. Oh, and that vagina scene with the baby's head almost ruined the whole thing for me.

Its a good movie. Not great, not bad. More slightly above-average than anything else. Definitely not the second best movie of the year, probably just around the top 15 if anything. Its a good breeze and a fun relationship movie, nothing special though. Worth a rent.

South Park: The Movie

2007-12-10T16:12:00.000+10:00

So I am sad to say I have not invested much time into this series before, as the only way to watch it was staying up until 11pm and watching it on SBS. But it is definitely up there with the funniest and most entertaining animated television shows in existence. A hell of a lot better than The Simpsons and Futurama, but inferior to the side-splitting humour of Seth McFarlane's works. So anyway, yesterday I rented the South Park movie purely on a whim, and all in all I'm glad I did.

I've never been a fan of South Park's animation style, as the entire design of the series just doesn't click with me, but it definitely makes up for it in entertainment. Because this series isn't broadcast on one of the "Big 4" networks, it has the balls to go where no other series dares to go for pure entertainment. There was a huge public outcry when the show decided to air an episode where Steve Irwin had a stingray barb through his chest while he danced around moaning at Satan in hell. That scene was absolutely hilarious, but all the old religious tarts of Australia didn't think so, and the fact it aired the month after Steve's death didn't help the episode offend anyone any less.

The plot of the movie was rather weak, but you don't need a good plot in a movie like this. At the end of the day, all this movie is is an extended episode of South Park with 8-10 musical numbers packed into scenes at random. What makes the characters spontaneously bursting into song so entertaining, I don't know, but those melodies are really damn catchy. "Shut your fucking face, Uncle fucker..."

The plot in a nutshell is the 4 main characters Stan, Kyle, Cartman and Kenny all go to see a movie called "Terrence and Phillip", a movie-in-a-movie which is more or less the exact same thing as South Park: little more than politically-incorrect toilet humour and fart jokes. After the kids start to swear a lot, their mothers get very fanatical and form a group called "Mothers Against Canada", as Canada is where the movie and its stars originate from. After seeing the movie a second time, Kenny dies while trying to re-enact a scene from the movie to prove to Cartman that you can set your farts on fire. Kenny's death brings outrage to the residents of South Park, and eventually the entire United States, which wages war on Canada. As the 3 heroes attempt to stage a rescue for Terrence and Phillip (who have been captured and sentenced to be executed), Kenny attempts to convince Satan to break up with an abusive Saddam Hussein who only loves Satan for sex, and he eventually learns that once Terrence and Phillip's blood is spilled, hell will break loose and Satan will begin a 2 million year reign on Earth.

What works: Musical numbers are clever and catchy as smallpox, a fairly humourous film that passes 90 minutes a little too quickly.

What doesn't: All in all, this is simply a bunch of dick and fart jokes branded as a movie. You'll either love it or hate it based on this.

While more entertaining and funny than the Simpsons movie, it doesn't hold a candle to Family Guy's Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story. Its fairly old as well, as it was made 8 years ago now. If you're a fan of the series, you've likely already seen this movie and hold it as a personal favourite. But, while we're on the subject of animated series, comparisons are inevitable.

For this critic, Family Guy > South Park > American Dad > Futurama > The Simpsons > King of the Hill.

A good way to pass the time. You're not likely to watch it more than once, though. Rent it if you haven't seen it.

Dexter

2007-12-09T23:10:00.000+10:00

Wow. I can't stress how much I love this fucking show. It is by far my favourite show this year, and I have watched many many shows this year, as this blog might have indicated slightly. (see: 20 reviews this month so far). I'm not just reviewing every single show to fill up space on a website, I'm doing this because its the boring summer holidays and I wouldn't want to do anything else with my time. Reviewing television and movies is just something I've always enjoyed doing, although I never did it as often as I have in the past month. And with school finally over for the year, I finally have all the time in the world (or at least, for the next couple of weeks) to watch television series I've wanted to for ages and post my thoughts about them in one place. It truly is a joy to do this, and it is shows like these make it all worth the while.

So I just finished watching the season 2 final. It won't air in the US for another 2 weeks, but the final 2 episodes of the season leaked onto the internet due to a pre-release DVD for an internal staff member or something along those lines. There's no better show on television than this one right now. Its right up there with my personal favourites above all others (Buffy, Angel and The OC). Dark, twisted and fucking brilliant, this show came to my attention at exactly the right time in my life when I needed a series that matched the inner conflicts and emotions raging inside me that were driving me up the fucking wall.

If you've never heard of this series, you're missing out. Wussy 12 year olds won't like it, neither will religious old gits, but anyone with a damaged past, with a hard life, with a craving for something dark and brilliant to match what they're longing for inside, this show is for you.

The main plot of the series surrounds a blood analyst who works in the Miami Police Department known as Dexter Morgan. His mother was brutally murdered in front of him when he was 3, causing him to develop an urge to kill at a young age. 30 years later, and Dexter is a serial killer who preys on criminals and murderers who slip through the cracks of the justice system. In other words, he takes it upon himself to murder the bastards who get away with their crimes. Supporting characters include his girlfriend Rita played by the sexy Julie Benz (Darla from Angel), his sister Debra who shares a very close relationship with her brother, his nemesis Sgt. James Doakes, who grows increasingly obsessed with Dexter throughout the series, and his friends Batista and Masuka, who work in the police force with him. Doakes is the only one who recognises there's something off about Dexter, and throughout the series Dexter puts on a mask to those people closest to him while basking in his true identity and inner demon from time to time to satisfy his urges to kill.

Dexter truly is a psychotic bastard, and an extremely intelligent and stylish one at that. There has never been a protagonist this twisted and compelling, except perhaps for the brief moments in Angel where Angelus takes control and wreaks havoc around the city of LA. Viewers might recognise Erik King and Lauren Vélez for their stints in the similarly-themed prison drama Oz. Recently, C.S.Lee (Masuka on Dexter) had a recurring role on Chuck as Harry Tang, assistant manager at the Buy-More and nemesis to Chuck and his friends as he sort to eliminate the "slacking off" going on in the store and become top dog of the place. All in all, the characters are layered with many, many dimensions and this show has the best cast of any television show I've ever seen. It just wouldn't be the same without any of them.

What works: Everything

What doesn't: Your mom.

One thing I am annoyed about, however, is CBS planning to air the series around spring next year, whilst being heavily edited. How the fuck can they do that?! They'd axe all the best parts!! Dexter's slicing open of his victims' cheeks, Lila's line-of-the-year "Pardon my tits", the litres of blood in the scene where Dexter finally remembers his past and realises the ultimate clue in the Ice Truck Killer's real identity...ugh. Oh well. I've watched the show in the way its meant to be seen, and I'm happy about that.

If you still need more convincing to get into this brilliant series, below is the "critical reception" part of Dexter's wiki page.

The initial response to Dexter was positive. The website Metacritic calculated a score of 77 from a possible 100 based on 27 reviews, making it the third-best reviewed show of the 2006 fall season. This score includes four 100% scores from the New York Daily News, San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Sun-Times and People Weekly.^[9] Brian Lowry, who had written one of the two poor reviews for the show, recanted his negative review in a year-end column for the trade magazine Variety after watching the full season.^[10] On the CNET Networks website TV.com, Dexter has an overall rating of 9.4/10.^[11]

On December 14, 2006, Michael C. Hall was nominated for a Golden Globe Award in the category Best Actor in a Television Drama Series for playing Dexter.

Check it out. Chances are, you'll discover a new series which you'll come to know and love over the next few years. In my opinion, definitely the best show that is currently airing on television at the moment.

The one thing that really cheeses me off though, is there's no more Dexter until September next year!! 9 DEXTER-FREE MONTHS?!?!?! WHY?!?!?! Ugh. There's always old episodes I suppose... but all the same.

Cane

2007-12-09T16:10:00.000+10:00

So Channel 10 promoted this series for all it was worth, claiming it to be the "next big drama" on television. Pity the show isn't actually good at all. There are some series that I'm sympathetic towards that land in hot water for having low ratings or the network have difficulties promoting it. I do this because they have original ideas and concepts which they execute with brilliance and uniqueness, and they get slammed before their time. However, there are some series with original ideas and concepts that are simply difficult to watch, and this show is one of them.

The main problem with the show is that its so goddamn boring. It has a unique concept of a bunch of Columbians attempting to maintain their sugarcane business whilst being at battle with themselves and their "neighbours" (i.e. a rival sugarcane company), but the whole thing is just such a drag!! I haven't seen a TV show this boring since...well...ever. Its like The Manchurian Candidate of television i.e. the worst thing to see the light of day in a long, long time.

Its always nice to see Alona Tal on TV, she had standout recurring roles on 2 of the best CW series (Veronica Mars and Supernatural) but even her character on this series is little more than a gold-digging tramp. And sadly, her character is the most interesting one on the show. Everyone else is just so goddamn one-sided and boring and they all have the emotional range of a spork. There's the sulky teenage kid who joins the army to defy his father. There's the Paris-Hilton wannabe chick who loves the nightclubs and the drugs. There's the pregnant wife. There's the angsty brother. And there's the lameass protagonist with less personality than a spatula. Okay, I'll stop with the kitchen utensil references, but it really is a truly bad series.

In recent weeks the show has tried to up the sex and violence on the show due to increasingly low ratings, but there's no hope of building an audience when your initial audience was appalled at the travesty of your first batch of lame episodes. This is sadly also true for the much better show Journeyman, which had one of the worst pilots ever but has since then improved itself dramatically to become one of the most intriguing, compelling, fascinating television shows of the year. Both of these shows are getting axed, but only one of them really deserves it.

What works: Not another cop/reality/hospital show, Alona Tal is fun to look at with your eyeballs.

What doesn't: Everything else. The plot sucks, the writing is awful, the characters are just not interesting and the whole thing is only good for putting you to sleep.

Bad television. Stay away.

Day Break

2007-12-09T15:34:00.000+10:00

Yet another brilliant show aired on ABC that got axed simply for standing out with brilliance and originality in a network filled with boring, generic, unoriginal slop. Day Break. Six Degrees. Traveler. 3 of the best TV shows to ever air on the network, and all never made it past one season. Absolutely infuriating.

Moving on, the show combines action, drama and thrills all into the one show, and does it with a unique fluidity and style that sets it apart from every other show on television. If I had to describe it to someone who had never heard of it before, I would probably say its like Prison Break meets Tru Calling, and that is by no means bad at all. The basic plot is a detective in the LAPD named Brett Hopper who is framed for the murder of Assistant District Attorney Alberto Garza. The twist, however, is that Hopper is stuck in a time loop, much like Groundhog Day and Tru Calling, where the day repeats itself every day at 6am. Hopper uses this to his advantage to find out who is framing him for the murder whilst helping out friends and family members who are in various states of peril, such as his partner who is dating a drug addict and his sister who is being forced to commit murder to save her husband.

What works: Taye Diggs does a brilliant job as the tortured protagonist who is slowly losing grip of everything and everyone around him. The cast is very balanced and believable, and the twists are interesting and actually help move the story forward, unlike other shows which use twists solely to off characters once they get bored of playing with them (see: Prison Break's convenient murders of 4 of the Fox River 8, Paul Kellerman and Dr. Tancredi). The viewer is actually drawn into the series, and it is very smart the way the showrunners linked all the characters and plots together in an overhanging arc that is highly complex, but not so much that it gets over-the-top or just plain confusing.

What doesn't: The series definitely begins to drag on after around episode 5, and there are some cases where the plot just doesn't seem to go anywhere. It stays on the one level throughout the majority of the series.

Although, props to the makers of the show for tying up the plot and all the loose ends before the series finished, unlike other canceled series which didn't and instead ended with the series creator posting a blog of some sort detailing "what would have happened". It all leads to a dramatic, and very satisfying conclusion. Check it out if you're a fan of series with great action, thrills and mystery. Fans of Prison Break, LOST and Traveler, here you will find your new favourite show. At least, until the next brilliant serial comes along.

Raines

2007-12-08T23:03:00.000+10:00

I was initially hesitant to give yet another by-the-numbers cop show a shot, but the pilot starred the sexy Alexa Davalos (Gwen from Angel) and had the unique plot device of the title character Raines talking to dead people inside his head, so I figured I would check it out. Its certainly better than your average crime show, and certainly blows any cop show on CBS out of the water.

The pilot centred on the case of a murdered college girl (Alexa Davalos) which Detective Raines and his team check out. While checking out the crime scene, Raines meets the dead victim and starts talking to her, but she doesn't give him any clues as to what occurred because, to quote her character, "I only know what you know". During the episode, Raines talks with his dead partner who was shot in the head. We also learn that Raines was shot, which may have been the time that these "visions" in his head started coming to him. In the end he solves the case, Alexa goes away and its a good day's work.

What works: The main character in this show is actually believable as a cop (for unrealistic cop characters, see shows where the protagonist tries to be a "badass" e.g. Criminal Minds, Shark) and this show is everything it tries to be. It's an interesting show, and the pilot wasn't boring at all, which can't be said for most of the generic cop shows on television. Its funny when it wants to be (Raines calling the victim's father Chester because it rhymed with "molester", and telling the grave digger who asked him why he was talking to himself "Because I see dead people and I eat their brains"), its got a really great soundtrack, and Jeff Goldblum was born to play a role like this.

What doesn't: The characters all play second base behind Detective Raines, and this is by no means a bad thing, but it makes character development for the other characters somewhat difficult. I expected it to be more supernatural or thrilling, in the vein of Jennifer Love Hewitt's Ghost Whisperer or Matthew Fox's Haunted, but it wasn't spooky in the least. Also, aside from the whole "main character sees dead people" thing, its more or less your ordinary cop show, but more classy.

Its a good series, but NBC were right to axe it I suppose, in favour of the superior cop drama Life which has a much more balanced cast and a better overhanging arc. Its still worth a look, if you're looking for a cop show with a twist. Not bad, not special, not average, but not brilliant. Somewhere in the middle of it all.

Chuck

2007-12-08T19:43:00.000+10:00

So this is what Josh Schwartz chose to move on to when FOX decided to axe The OC. This show is nowhere near the quality of The OC, but it is rather...hmm. What's the word? Average. Yes, that's the one.

The show in a nutshell is about a convenience store clerk named Chuck who receives an email from his ex-best friend Bryce Larkin (played by the brilliant Matthew Bomer fresh off a central role on Traveler, a show about spies and government agencies that is 100x superior to this one) which implants an "intercross" into his head which grants him access to every single file in the government database. These "flashes" of top secret files only appear to him when triggered by certain things, however, like when he sees a criminal walking down the street who's on the FBI Most Wanted list. The CIA and NSA both work together with Chuck on certain cases which he can assist on due to his "flashes", and both agencies employ agents to watch Chuck and guarantee his safety. The CIA's agent is Sarah, an attractive busty blonde who Chuck begins to develop feelings for, and the NSA's agent is Casey, a strong, villainous man who is constantly at odds with both Chuck and Sarah.

During the day, Chuck works at the Buy-More, an electrical appliance superstore where his best friend Morgan works. He lives with his sister Ellie and her boyfriend "Captain Awesome".

The show is uncannily similar to the CW show Reaper, which also premiered this season. Both shows feature a whiny, dislikable, annoying protagonist with a "superpower" given to them by a higher power. Both shows feature a sexy, attractive lead female which the main character can never quite establish a real relationship with. Both shows have goofy friends of the protagonist who don't act seriously and like things to be fun and juvenile. Both shows have the main characters and their best friends working in electrical appliance superstores. Both shows stick to their respective tired formulas for every single episode, and both simply aren't reaching their full potential.

What works: Original concept, balanced cast of characters, Matthew Bomer and Adam Baldwin steal the show in the very brief amounts of screen time they receive

What doesn't: Protagonist is a whiny little bitch who the show would be better off without, bears too strong a resemblance to the superior show Reaper, the characters of Bryce and Casey don't get enough screen time, the show uses the same repetitive plot device every week, just with a different villain and different flashes for Chuck, and the show simply doesn't go anywhere.

This show is more or less designed to be NBC's attempt to appeal to all the 8-15 year olds who watch television. It has all the elements little kids lap up, a "funny" (to 10 year olds, maybe) main character, a sexy female lead, a "guy that everyone loves to hate" (Casey, although for anyone over the age of 15, Chuck is easily the most despisable), a new "watch the hero save the world" storyline every week, and best of all, nothing ever changes, so if one of the kiddies misses a couple of episodes, they won't have missed a thing, and everyone is happy. Except for the intelligent members of society who dislike silly, formulaic shows like this.

The comedy scenes are more silly than funny, the romance scenes are cheesy and unbelievable, the plots are formulaic and dumb, and the writing sucks hard. Seriously, this show has some of the worst scripts on television right now. That's no exaggeration. NBC actually spent $2 million dollars to advertise this show, money which would have been better spent on shows that are tenfold better than this one, especially Journeyman and Life. Both these shows got shafted to the 10pm slot while this thing gets the best time of the week at 8pm when all the kiddies are still awake. Oh, and this show's already been placed on a full season order whilst Journeyman has been axed. Retarded much?

Granted, the show is definitely different to all the generic cop, reality and hospital shows on TV right now, but that still doesn't make the whole thing any less tired. If you're in the mood for an intelligent show for thrills and brilliant plots, go give Journeyman and Dexter a watch. If you want a good comedy to make you laugh, How I Met Your Mother and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia are the best choices. If you want great action scenes, you can't go past Heroes and Moonlight. If you want a messy combination of thrills, comedy, action and drama that somehow works, go with Reaper. If you want one that doesn't, watch Chuck.

Traveler: Series finale review and additional stuff

2007-12-08T18:38:00.000+10:00

And one more brilliant series draws to a close. I know I've said this before, but this is a real shame. This series was more enjoyable at times than other big serialised dramas like Prison Break and LOST that are currently onto their 3rd or 4th season, while a great show like this with even bigger potential gets canned after only 8 eps. The coolest moment of the series, for me, was at the end of episode 7 "The Reunion" where the 3 guys finally reunited and Will stepped out of the dark to pull a gun on Agent Marlow. Fucking brilliant, the whole thing.

Well, now its over, at least the creator of the series was kind enough to post an "answers" blog as to what would have happened at the end of the series. And unlike other shows that get canceled before their time e.g. Tru Calling, Hidden Palms, Drive, the creator not only answered the fate of the characters and upcoming storylines that would've happened, he actually told us what would happen in the end, rather than just a season or 2 down the line. Tim Minear's a great writer, but he had no clue who he was going to let win the race in Drive. Jon Harmon Feldman's brilliant as well, but he had no idea what he was going to do with Tru Calling beyond the 2nd season. But, unlike Minear and Feldman, Traveler creator David DiGilio gave us the final resolution and absolutely everything involved in the upcoming ideas for the series and the mythology and backbone behind it all.

To read the entire "answers blog" with length explanations as to what would have occured in future Traveler storylines, go here.

I won't go into huge detail, but some of these upcoming storylines would have made fantastic episodes. Carlton Fog would have survived being gunned down by the bleach-haired dude and would call in his other son (Tyler's brother Gabriel) to take out the 3 "travelers" on the run. Gabriel Fog would become the main nemesis for the 3, and would eventually track them down and murder Tyler.

Kim would be serving in a women's prison while pregnant with Jay's child, but she would miscarry during extensive torture sessions. It would be revealed that the person who blew up the limo was the black dude (i.e. The Porter) who is a rogue CIA agent working to take out the "4th branch" of the government, of whom Freed was the head. The painting that Will stole contains images of the 5 elder members of the 4th branch. The travelers would figure this out and track down the occupants of the painting, which would lead them to Freed's mother. Freed's mother would offer Jay his old life back as a bigshot lawyer with his girlfriend by his side and no more persecution, but Jay would refuse get Mrs. Freed arrested. Oh, and somewhere along the way, Chambers tracks down Marlow and kills her.

After Tyler's death, Jay and Will would work with The Porter to expose members of the 4th branch and take them down, but this would backfire when The Porter is killed and President Shears steps out to reveal himself as the new head of the 4th branch. The Drexler bombing and consecutive ones after that were all part of a plan to instill fear in the country and create sympathy towards the administration. This in turn would lead to Shears being instilled in the White House for good.

Season 3 would have seen Will and Jay become members of the 4th branch, masking their real intentions to take it down from the inside. Towards the end, Will would sacrifice himself to save Jay and obtain evidence to prove everything. I'll leave the final explanation to DiGilio:

And as the series closes, Jay Burchell is the only one left of the three friends who started Traveler on a seemingly innocent road trip. With Kim's help, Jay completes Will and Tyler's legacy, exposing the lies and deceit of Shears, Carlton Fog and all the privileged few who have tried to make America their private kingdom.

Oz

2007-12-07T23:36:00.000+10:00

When I first heard about this show, I thought it was a random offshoot of Buffy starring Seth Green as the titular character, with his struggles to control his inner werewolf as he journeyed through countries all over the world to try and find himself a cure. While that would have been brilliant, this show is actually about a bunch of prisoners in who struggle to live together whilst facing their own friends, enemies and inner demons in Oswald State Correctional Facility. I thought the series was a recent one, but it turns out its actually been around for a decade, spanning six seasons from 1997 to 2003.

The show itself was interesting and portrayed life for prisoners in a realistic and unique way. There were several familiar faces during the pilot, like Michael and Eko from LOST and LaGuerta from Dexter. It's always nice to see where actors got their big breaks, and I reckon it was this series that led to the breakthrough of these actors into Hollywood stardom, before leading them into bigger and better things.

The central plot of the pilot involved several character's exploits, such as a lawyer who was convicted of vehicular manslaughter and sent to Oz, who got paired up with a black man (Eko from LOST) interested in making him his butt buddy. A man with apparent good intentions sat next to the lawyer during lunch and convinced him to rat Eko out to the guards and bunk up with him. All seemed well until the friendly man turned out to be a white supremacist and branded the lawyer with a steaming hot symbol as a trademark of his domination over him. Oh, and he also raped him, if that wasn't already obvious.

The second plot of the pilot involved a famous black arsonist moving into Oz and forming a cult of sorts among the prisoners. After admitting to the warden his intentions to seize control of the prison for himself, he formed a legion of followers who agreed to take part in his "straight-edge" religion of sorts, with no smoking, alcohol, drugs, or "abnormal" sex as these were things that "clouded the mind and weakened the soul". But Arsonist found trouble when the big "black dawg" aka the "king" of the prison looked down upon him and coerced him into a fight. The Arsonist refused though, and demanded one of his followers to punch him in the face 3 times in order to "make peace" with Snoop Dawg.

The final plot and the biggest one of the lot involved a spunky Italian man who was imprisoned for murder in the first degree for life without parole. Because of this, he has nothing to lose and he knows that regardless of anything he does, eventually he will die inside the prison walls. This gives him and other "lifers" an inner strength which gives them an edge and a place amongst the upper ranks in the prison. His popularity fell rapidly, however, when he got into a fight with a black man who tried to come onto him in the bathroom and put him into the intensive care unit of the hospital. Due to this incident and 3 previous fighting incidents which involved him being put in Solitary Confinement, the head of the psychiatry ward put him on hospital duty instead, as Italy made it very apparent that he had no intentions to change who he was.

After the black man's bashing got spread around the prison, Black Dawg hired one of his minions to get signed onto hospital duty and murder Italy. During his hospital duties, Italy met a junkie who wanted to die. After several days of resisting, he finally granted his wish out of pity, which in turn got him bashed by the guards, placed in solitary confinement and sedated while held together by belts on a bed. After one more night, the guard on duty looked the other way when paid money by Black Dawg's minion. The final scene of the episode showed gasoline being poured onto Italy's body and being set alight.

3 individual, unique plots, 3 very different characters, all reaching a new status by the time the episode ended. Big shot lawyer became poncy boy bitch. Famous black arsonist became confused, frightened cult leader and Italian mobster became ashes on a bedpan. Very poetic, in a twisted, dark way.

What works: Very nice cast, extremely realistic portrayal of life for prisoners, lack of music in scenes actually adds to the tone of the series, and entertaining for an entire 53 minutes without a boring moment. Except for the theme sequence. That was 90 seconds of "lol wut?!1"

What doesn't: Harold Perrineau's (Michael from LOST) role as a crippled, nihilistic narrator comes across more as "annoying douchebag" than "scary prison dude". His little speeches where he rants about nothing for 30 seconds that are scattered randomly throughout the episode are pointless, tired and retarded. And what's with the camera during these scenes of his? Its always normal and balanced until his scenes where the cameraman has an epileptic fit and shakes the camera all around the place to add "drama" or perhaps "suspense". Unfortunately its likely he'll play his little role for the entire show, so we're stuck with him.

This is a nice show, rather like Prison Break, but with no chance of escape, and no extremely ludicrous plot twists. There's no college graduate with the blueprints of the prison tattooed onto his body in this series, no innocent brother of a college graduate who was framed for a murder by the Government, and no crooked FBI agent with a drug addiction who is paid to assassinate escaped prisoners. Of course, these "ludicrous plot twists" are rather brilliant and a joy to watch, but they would simply be out of place on Oz. This show is a lot more dark, realistic and twisted than Prison Break will ever be, except perhaps for that Se7en ripoff they did with Sara Tancredi's head in a box. They're actually 2 completely different shows, but they're destined to be compared simply because they are both prison-themed shows.

For fans of shows with little to no limits as to what the creators can choose to do. They can kill off the main character if they want, and they're not afraid to, simply because they weren't restricted to playing nice on one of the "Big 3" networks. I'm pretty sure if this series ever aired on NBC, ABC or CBS, they would attempt to change Italy's fate of getting set on fire alive and burnt to a crisp to something "nicer' for the mainstream. Either way, this is a series that you either like or you don't. I'm looking forward to seeing where the series goes in the next 5 seasons.

Underworld: Evolution

2007-12-06T19:25:00.000+10:00

The retards at Rotten Tomatoes gave this gem a 13% favourable rating. Regardless of this, I found this movie to be a truly awesome 2 hours and, as the front cover stated, a "bloody good ride". Kate Beckinsale played a very attractive vampire whose family was murdered by the vampire Lord Viktor, whom she slayed in the prequel, Underworld. Truly, it was all I was looking for and more in a movie about vampires and werewolves.

The basic gist of plot is there was an immortal man named Alexander who had 2 sons, Marcus and William, and Marcus became a vampire and William a werewolf. For 800 years a bloody battle has raged between the vampires and the lycans (werewolves) with losses on both sides, whilst Alexander has overseen the battle and attempted to keep out of his sons' wrath while keeping the whole thing a secret to the best of his ability. The protagonist, Celine, is a vampire who rescued Alexander's last living descendant, Michael, from the clutches of both sides, but along the way Michael became a hybrid of both a vampire and a werewolf, something which had never occurred before. Marcus awakens and seeks vengeance upon those who crossed him and those who stand in the way of freeing his brother, William, from a prison he has been trapped in for 500 years, including Celine (who knows the whereabouts of William as her father was commissioned to built the prison when she was a human girl) and Michael.

This is by far the best vampire movie I've ever seen, definitely above other lacklustre attempts like 30 Days of Night.

What works: A rich, intriguing storyline, a fantastic protagonist, a well-balanced roster of characters and some kickass action scenes. But, most of all, Wiseman's portrayal of vampires (and werewolves) in this movie is the best one ever done on the big screen. Even more enjoyable than the original. Oh, and Kate Beckinsale is hot.

What doesn't: Those who haven't seen the original will have a hard time following the events, and it will likely confuse and annoy them. Those who aren't fans of vampire lore and other things such as TV shows like Buffy, Supernatural, Angel and Moonlight will probably think of it as second-rate, but for the true fans, they'll find a rare joy in this film that they aren't likely to experience elsewhere.

Guns, vampires, sex, fights, and Kate Beckinsale all in one film. What more could you want?

Desperate Housewives S4E9: Something's Coming Review

2007-12-06T18:36:00.000+10:00

This is the one show on ABC besides LOST that hasn't been canceled or isn't a complete joke. The episode started with a somber warning: "It was meant to be a beautiful day. But by the end of this day, one housewife would lose a husband, and they all would lose a friend". As soon as Mary Alice said this from beyond the coffin I thought "Oh god why does Tom have to die??". It seemed they really enjoyed jerking his character around lately and that they had absolutely nothing left for him to do as a character - except die of course. It turns out, Victor was the one who got impaled by a fence post, which was a surprise as I thought he had plenty of storylines left as a villian for the series, but it was a good twist either way.

I knew they would never get rid of Mike, although if they did it would mean the return of Ian, which I would like a lot. I always thought Ian and Susan made a better couple than her and Mike, as Mike always carries drama and chaos around wherever he goes whereas Ian actually made Susan happy before she ditched him for her ex. Rude much?

It's also really nice to see Nathan Fillion in the show. He's always been brilliant at playing a tormented protagonist in shows like Firefly and Drive, and that is what I suppose he'll always do best. But he still fits in with the show here nicely, as a somewhat comical gynecologist of all things, married to the biggest uber-bitch on Wisteria Lane.

I figured they wouldn't get rid of Orson, although they had decent reason to as his best storylines are probably behind him now that Season 3's central arc of him and his messed up family is over. But if they killed yet another one of Bree's husbands so early on in the series, that would probably just cause the audience to role their eyes as the show has already offed Rex and George, and Bree has been at the centre of Season 2 and 3's storylines, first with her daughter Danielle dating that murderous black dude, and second with the whole Orson/Monique/Alma/Mrs. Hodge arc. I figure Bree's had her fill of the main spotlight for quite a while, and she won't have another central role in the main mystery arc of the season til at least Season 6.

I wonder if Gabby will ever get to be involved in the main mystery of a season? The most likely candidate for Season 5's mystery is probably Lynette, if her husband gets offed due to Mrs. McClusky's house getting demolished with Iva, Tom and all her children in the wreckage and she meets some random dude with a mysterious past. But I'm getting way ahead of myself here, I'll go back to what we're concentrating on now: the latest episode.

Its a relief they didn't off Mrs. McClusky. Although she only plays a small role on the show, she always is the breakout character in all her scenes and she gives the show something special it would be sorely lacking without.

The main question that we won't get answered until this damn writer's strike is over and all the good series start up again, is who lived and who died (besides Viktor)? This semi-finale was a lot more satisfying than another big series before they were put on hold (Heroes and Prison Break to name a few). By far the most dramatic episode the show's had in years and it was everything it set up to be. It had funny moments amongst all the drama and terror (such as that Sylvia chick getting sucked into the tornado), and everything was so balanced so well. It truly was a brilliant episode.

Now the series is on an indefinite hiatus just like almost every other decent show will be in just a month or 2. But hey, its not all bad, this gives me time to watch series I've missed while everything else is on hiatus. I've already finished Day Break, Hidden Palms, and Drive in a couple of weeks and have also caught up on every episode of Reaper, Heroes, Moonlight, Smallville, House, Life, Supernatural, Chuck, Dexter, Journeyman, Family Guy and Prison Break. I've already gotten immersed in several previously undiscovered series (Traveler and Six Degrees) and I plan to catch up on Jericho, Oz, Dark Angel and Raines in the coming weeks as well. (Channel 10 only showed the first 11 eps on Jericho and didn't bother with it after it went on hiatus)

This strike truly is a mixed bag.

Traveler

2007-12-05T19:36:00.000+10:00

Wow. That's all I've got to say. This series is the freakin' shit!! I can't believe its been axed after only 8 episodes! ABC, you suck!! How you could axe gems like this and Day Break and Six Degrees without giving them a decent chance!! Maybe if you didn't shove this series to the 10pm Tuesday night shift IN THE FRIGGIN SUMMER HOLIDAYS then it would have gotten the ratings and money you would have liked you greedy bastards. Its highly likely that if you have a truly original, innovative series on either ABC or FOX, you'll get screwed over and axed without being given a fair chance to let your story play out like its intended. Blah.

Now, back to the actual show, it may have only 8 episodes, but that gives me even more incentive than usual to watch it as the story they wanted to tell was forced to be wrapped up into these episodes, and while it may be somewhat rushed and not given a chance to fully develop, you get a lot more action, a lot more quality and the producers put into the episodes what they REALLY want to show you, knowing they've been screwed over by the network just like Firefly, Tru Calling, Drive, Dark Angel, etc on FOX and Day Break, Six Degrees and The Nine on ABC. So many brilliant shows that lasted only 1 or 2 seasons, shows that truly deserved their place in primetime over the thousands of generic cop and hospital shows on television. Series that have their own unique concepts, plot devices, and ideas that get slaughtered because they require a tiny bit of effort to follow. The majority of people would rather watch the same Law and Order episode a million times, just in 18 different seasons, than use aforementioned effort to follow a series with an intelligent plot and a unique concept. It really shits me.

Of course, a few select series like Prison Break and LOST get the big breaks and massive attention they deserve, but these are in the minority and most shows with brilliant concepts like these are murdered before they have a chance to blossom. It sucks ass.

Anyway, this show is really freakin' good. It stars Matthew Bomer who played Luc on Tru Calling, and Logan Marshall Green who played Trey on The OC, as two college graduates who plan on a road trip in celebration of their graduation before they are forced to live their lives as drones in the workplace for the rest of their lives. Unfortunately, things go horribly wrong when their friend Will Traveler sets them up and explodes a bomb in an art museum. With the FBI and entire police force on their tail, the 2 lads set out to prove their innocence whilst avoiding capture.

If you put 24 and Prison Break into a room together and forced them to mate at gunpoint, this show is what you would get.

What works: Matthew Bomer and Logan Marshall Green both added something special to the series they both starred in previous to this show, and they rightfully deserved their place in this series. There's no one who could have played these roles better than these 2 talented actors. The plot is brilliant, the twists are just as good as the ones on Prison Break and other shows (such as the black hotel dude turning out to be an enigmatic suited bomber who is good with a gun), the characters are balanced and layered, and the show is right where it wants to be. It is dramatic without being over-the-top, its thrilling without being stupid, its suspenseful without being predictable, it does close to everything right.

What doesn't: This show will never truly get a chance to blossom due to the awful treatment it received at the hands of ABC. Yet another brilliant show which has met its demise at the hands of money-loving faceless corporations. Its pilot was a lot better than LOST's and Prison Break's, and it did it all with such brilliant execution.

A great, thrilling show in the vein of Prison Break and 24 which is definitely worth watching. Highly recommended

Heroes Season 2 finale: Powerless review

2007-12-05T17:57:00.000+10:00

So a finale brings this rather lacklustre season to a close. The first 6 episodes of this season rival the first 6 Buffy episodes of Season 4 for worst television sextet of episodes ever. But anyway, I've ranted enough about that in that previous Heroes blog of mine where I reviewed the entire second season (minus the finale of course).

So I was very very happy when Maya got shot. She has got to be the most dislikable, annoying twat on that show, but then she came back to life. WHY?!?!?! She has absolutely no good role for the show at all, although it would serve as an EXCELLENT season opener if Sylar opened her head and stole her powers in the 3rd volume. And seeing as it is fittingly titled as "Villians", it truly will be the time for Mr. Gray to shine!! I can't wait!

Although, what's with the sudden orphanage of Micah? I understand them offing one of his parents for switching up the storyline a bit, but both?! Its pretty unlikely Niki survived the explosion, but I really wish it was Monica instead of her. All that little cow has done is steal airtime and stink up the show with her pathetically boring storylines. Here's to hoping she gets the full force of Sylar's wrath as well after he goes back to finish what he started with Maya.

Oh, and I thought it was pretty obvious one of the Petrellis would die, and it probably wouldn't be Peter since he's the most powerful one of the lot. As soon as Nathan started to speak up on that podium, it was an omen that he would get shot. My only response to his demise was "saw that coming". But all Peter has to do is give Nathan some of his blood and it'll all be fine.

There's a lot of plot holes regarding the whole "Claire's blood can raise the dead" thing though. If her blood can heal Bennet after he gets shot in the eye, why can't it heal her if she gets shot in the head? The same goes for Peter and Adam. I wonder if Peter will hear about the possibility of bringing Nathan back, only he thinks it has to be Adam's blood, not his own, and he sets him free from the coffin?! I dunno. What's the point of offing characters if all they have to do to come back to life is inject some magic blood into their veins? It kind of ruins the drama of their deaths.

And the final showdown was something of a letdown. The humongous fight between Peter, Niki, Matt, Hiro and Sylar in "How to stop an exploding man" was brilliantly done, but the final battle of this season was somewhat lame. Instead of Hiro and Adam having a hugo macho swordfight, he teleports him into a coffin. Anticlimax much?! He was the central villian of the season, and he didn't even go out without a proper fight.

I guess I was expecting something along the lines of brilliance of "Five Years Gone" and "How to stop an exploding man" for this episode, but it just didn't live up to the hype. Here's to hoping Season 3 brings this show back to its former glory.

Psych

2007-12-05T13:06:00.000+10:00

Not your regular cop show. I'm really glad that when summer comes Australia is forced into showing some decent television that they'd be too frightened to show at any other time for fear of low ratings or other crap. This show is better than most cop shows, or in this case, "catch the crook" shows as the main character is not a cop. He's the son of a cop, he works with the police force and he solves crimes, but he's not a cop. What is he exactly?

He's a con artist, he uses his heightened observational skills, similar in some form to Monk's Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, which allow him to notice things that are not immediately recognisable to normal people. He takes advantage of this to solve crimes and collect the reward money from the police, and he eventually claims to be psychic as a result of the police pushing him against the wall as to how he is able to solve all of the crimes, if he is not one of the people committing the crimes himself.

Overall, its quite an average show. Better than crappy generic cop shows for the novelty that is Sean's desperate attempts to keep his con alive and suspicion off his back. But will the novelty wear off quickly? Only time will tell.

What works: The detective who found Sean's claims to be psychic absolutely ludicrous and consistently scoffed and poked fun at him was very amusing, and the chick who played Detective Lucinda Barry also played a recurring role during the first 9 episodes of Season 4 of House M.D. as "The Bitch" who was attempting to land a job under House's fellowship team as a doctor. She added something extra to the series, pity she got axed last episode. Oh yeah, I just wiki'd her name and apparently her only episode in Psych is the pilot, as her character "transferred" to another department outside of the series. That kind of sucks, but maybe her replacement will be better, who knows.

Oh, yeah, the plot was rather well-done and the way Sean uncovered the clues and presented them to the police in an overly-dramatic fashion was very nice. The characters had nice layers and contrast for the most part.

What doesn't: I can see this show falling into the same trap as other formulaic shows like Reaper. An original idea, an entertaining pilot, a nice roster of characters with everything executed rather well. But will it dig itself into a repetitive hole and feel like we're watching the same episode over and over again? I'm not sure. There's only so much you can do with a plot device like this, so we'll see where it goes from here.

Six Degrees

2007-12-04T23:40:00.000+10:00

And yet another show review for the 10th or 11th time in the past 3 days. Channel 7 always finds cancelled or cult series to show at around 10:30pm/11:00pm on weeknights, and these are usually better than the shows that they choose to air during primetime. For example, tonight Shark and Grey's Anatomy were aired before Six Degrees, and Six Degrees was 1,000,000x better than both of the aforementioned shows. A generic cop show, a generic hospital show, or an intelligent series with a beautifully balanced cast and a superb storyline? I know which one I'll be watching on Tuesday Nights.

The cast is made up of mostly unknown actors, besides Jay Hernandez from those awful Hostel movies. Now, we all know the theory of "Six Degrees", which is what this show is based on. If you don't, then it basically is that everyone in the world is connected through 6 people. For example, I could have a brother who's girlfriend's boss's daughter is dating a doctor. I am connected to this doctor through 6 people, myself, my brother, my brother's girlfriend, my brother's girlfriend's boss, my brother's girlfriend's boss's daughter and my brother's girlfriend's boss's daughter's doctor boyfriend. Neat, huh?

The show is truly some of the best television I have watched in a very long time. Shows like these are rare to come by, the only new show of this year that comes close to the intelligence, maturity and brilliance of this drama is Journeyman. Unfortunately, this baby got canceled after 13 episodes, but that definitely won't stop me from checking it out. If I had some sort of retarded policy against checking out canceled shows, I wouldn't have discovered the gems that are Buffy, Angel, Tru Calling, Firefly, Hidden Palms, and Day Break among others. This show is no exception, it is truly a brilliant show that has been axed before its time, and its likely that Journeyman will be canceled too after the strike finishes, because of the low ratings. But, hey, what are you gonna do? They're all brilliant shows, and they'll always there to watch in some form or another.

The genius who brought us LOST, J.J.Abrams is the executive producer of the show. His name stamped to the series alone more or less guarantees it to be intriguing, compelling and a joy to watch. And it is all that and more. All 6 central characters have virtually no connection at the start of the series whatsoever, but through circumstances they start to interact with one another and develop relationships, in a very LOST-like fashion. Like how everyone on the island on LOST have connections with each other somehow, such as Jack and Claire having the same father and not even knowing it. Okay, so the connections in Six Degrees aren't as extreme as that, but they are similar, such as Charlie rescuing Sayid's girlfriend from a mugging in an alley and Locke's father being the man who murdered Sawyer's parents.

However, unlike LOST, this show isn't restricted to merely acquaintances of the survivors before the island, they all interact with each other in completely plausible, random circumstances, such as a widowed woman meeting her best friend for the first time at a nail salon, and a lawyer who meets with a client who gets into a fight and saves a hitman's life, but the hitman has actually been hired to take out the lawyer's client and he doesn't know it. They're all connected and its fucking brilliant. It sounds lame, I know, but it is truly fascinating to watch how all the storylines connect and how every character interacts with one another when they're complete strangers.

What works: There's no other show like it on television, there's no gimmicks, its just a straightforward drama that is executed with superb style and brilliance. The cast is beautifully balanced, the plot is ingenious and for the first time in a long time, I feel for these characters and actually care for what they're going through, which is definitely not something I say I feel for the majority of characters on TV. I haven't experienced a show that sucks you in and truly transports you to another world like this since Buffy, Angel and The OC's first season. This is some good shit.

What doesn't: I'm trying to think of flaws for this show, but there simply are none. The show executes itself perfectly, its writing, cast, characters, plots and everything to do with it is simply brilliant. Absolutely incredible. I can't believe I found this gem right after my hope in Reaper was raped and murdered. I'll look forward to seeing how the series pans out in the next 12 episodes.

Absolutely incredible.

Reaper

2007-12-04T21:14:00.000+10:00

I'll start off by saying this show's pilot is probably in my top 5 favourite 40 minutes of television of all time. It set the show up to be so promising and brilliant, but since then the series has fallen into a hole it's been unable to dig itself out of.

Throughout every blog post I've made thus far, you're likely to see a reference to Reaper and how it's one of the best shows on television and how its brilliant, entertaining, the funniest show on TV, original, compelling, and whatnot. I am now going to publicly recant every one of those things I've said about this show. None of it is true in the least, those claims only hold true to the first episode.

Bret Harrison is a fantastic actor, his episode where he dates Summer and acts like 'Big Guy' on The OC is one of my favourite episodes of the show, and that show is my favourite show on TV next to Buffy, Angel, and Dexter. I have also heard good things about his 17-episode series The Loop which got axed on FOX last year.

Missy Peregrym is sexy, beautiful and a joy to watch onscreen. Her role on Heroes as Candace Wilmer as a shapeshifting villian was dark, sexy and fascinating.

Now, the show itself in a nutshell is about a dude in his 20's called Sam who's parents sold his soul to the devil when he was a kid, and since then he has to work as the devil's bounty hunter to capture souls that have escaped from hell with the assistance of his 2 mates Ben and Sock, who both work with him at "The Work Bench", an equipment and appliance store similar to the "Buy-more" in Chuck. During this time he has an on/off relationship with his fellow worker Andi played by Missy Peregrym who is constantly being let down by Sam as he makes up excuses to abandon her and lie to her so he can do the devil's bidding.

The concept of the show kicked ass, Sock was fucking hilarious and indeed said the funniest lines in any television episode ever in the Pilot episode of the series. But the show has indeed fallen into a hole and covered itself up, with each consecutive episode getting worse and worse. The formula of each episode is exactly the same, Sam wakes up and suffers some sort of weird abnormal mishap which is a clue to which escaped soul he has to capture and bring back to hell. Examples of these include a cockroach appearing whenever he tries to eat food, brush his teeth or put anything near his mouth. This leads him to attempt to catch a vengeful spirit who has been murdering older women who live in the same apartment complex as her ex-lover. Another example is him continually slipping over on the ground so he's unable to walk, which is a "clue" to realising a soul which emits slime has been smothering victims and causing them to die.

He then receives the "vessel" to bring back the escaped soul into hell, encounters problems with the vessel and whines to the Devil for making him do his dirty work. It was entertaining in the pilot, but when he does it 5 million fucking times every episode you feel an incredibly strong urge to punch him in the face.

In the meantime he always lets down Andi some how, whether its making up excuses to not go to a concert/karaoke bar/sleepover with her and then spends the second half of the episode whining about how upset he is that he is unable to tell her the truth and how she would never like a guy like him. His friends Ben and Sock do silly antics alongside him and they are where the true humour and entertainment of the series lie. He then catches the soul, whines to the Devil and his friends some more and then the episode closes on (usually) an extremely depressive note.

What works: Interesting concept, Ben and Sock are fucking hilarious, Andi is one of the hottest chicks on television and plays a convenience store clerk with a jackass as a best friend/boyfriend with grace and beauty. The final showdown with the escaped soul of the week is usually fun, although at times they are an anticlimax when out of the blue Sam sucks them into the vessel without any fight at all.

What doesn't: Missy Peregrym doesn't get 1/4 as much screen time as she deserves and her character development is absolutely horrendous as her role is nothing every week but the attractive, kind girl who gets let down every week by Sam's retarded actions. The formula of the series has become EXACTLY THE FUCKING SAME every single episode and it has become stale way faster than it should have.

Most series take years to go bad. It took Buffy 4 years before it suffered the cringeworthy Season 4, but luckily things picked up again in Season 6. It took The OC 2 years before the 3rd season almost destroyed any semblance of quality television in the series, but then they offed Marissa and the show became good again, and Season 4 is probably the best season of the show besides the 1st. The first season of Heroes was fucking gold, but the second season was lacklustre and lame, and its only in the last few episodes that things have started to pick up again. But Reaper? A show with such originality, such potential? It got bad after a couple of episodes. How could a show with the best pilot ever turn into such a pile of crap, after 2 or 3 weeks?!

The main problem with the series besides the repetitive formula of every episode is the protagonist is such a goddamn whiny twat. Even with Sock and Ben's constant attempts to cheer him up, he still whines. Even with the hottest chick on the planet trying to hook up with him, he shoves her away and whines. Even with his parents' love and adoration, he whines. But when the Devil bosses him around, or Ted his boss is giving him the weekend shift for breathing on the job, he sucks it up and kisses their ass like an ass-gasket (in the wise words of Sock). That dude is suffering an extreme case of chronic depression, and because he's such a pessimistic douchebag, he is by no doubt one of the most annoying, horrendous, hate-worthy protagonists of any fictional writing whatsoever. That includes books, movies, comics, tv shows, short stories, anything. Sam is an asshat and its likely he'll get sick of it all and kill himself before the season finale. And I'm sad to say I wouldn't really care.

Ben and Sock steal the show, but unless the show undergoes some major retooling, its nowhere near worthy of your attention. The best characters on the show, Sock and Andi, don't get nearly as much screen time as they deserve and most of the show is just Sam whining about how much he hates his life and how he wishes everything was different bla bla bla. Fuck him. Fuck this show. The pilot was awesome but every episode since then has sucked hard. Even Sock is becoming less funny. The show has definitely lost any charm, charisma, originality and entertainment it contained originally, but most of all, it has lost the HUMOUR. The brilliant thing that made it the funniest show on television. In the pilot I was splitting my sides laughing at everything, but every episode since then I've only chuckled once or twice.

This show sucks ass and its a disappointment. It sucks even more because the pilot is the best pilot of any TV show ever. Just like Andi, we, the viewers are treated to letdowns by Sam and the entire show for every week its on air, and this blogger for one is sick of it. The show has already been put on hiatus due to low ratings and One Tree Hill has been brought back early, 2 million viewers is pathetic even for the CW. Fuck this show. Go watch Journeyman or Dexter or something. Not this shit.

NCIS, Life, and the CSIs are the only good cop shows on TV

2007-12-04T20:55:00.000+10:00

Shark: Not another crappy cop drama. I'm not even going to bother with a witty introduction. This show is yet another lame generic boring crappy cop drama that is no different to Criminal Minds, Law and Order, NYPD Blue, The Shield, and every other shitty show with the exact same formula. If you want to see what I think of this show, just read my review of Criminal Minds. It's more or less the exact same thing. I watched 25 minutes of the season premiere of this show and its lame, pathetic, generic and tired. What the fuck is with the over-abundance of shows like these and why do people like them so much?! Don't get me wrong, some of the shows do it well, CSI/Miami/New York, NCIS and Life are some of the best shows on television right now, but its shitty little generic shows like this that are only in it for the money that are sending TV down the crapper.

One sided-characters, generic lame-ass "crime" plots with obvious suspects and absolutely no interesting leads or twists whatsoever. This show and every other one like it is the epitome of pathetic. The show advertised as if the Shark guy or Stark or whatever the hell his name is was like the Dr. Gregory House of lawyers, but it was nothing like that at all. I feel like I've watched the same episode of the same show 1 million times whenever I watch yet another lame-ass cop show with nothing that makes it unique from the other exact same crap out there.

NCIS has action, a well balanced cast, brilliant plots, juicy cliffhangers and some of the best writing on television, not to mention some of the best cops ever. At least Ziva has some great lines to do with messing up English words and Dinozzo has some witty one liners, frequently sexist remarks that earn him a slap on the head from Gibbs. And who can forget some of the best storylines on television, with the Agent Todd murder cliffhanger, the lab guy capturing Abby, Gibbs' daughter being alive and all the little plot twists in every episode.

Life has brilliant plots and writing, a quirky character like Monk but without the extreme disabilities, the sexy Sarah Shahi and who can forget the overhanging mystery arc of who set Detective Crews up for a murder he didn't commit. The dude was in jail for 12 years and has such a positive, fresh outlook on life which is very refreshing. There's no other character like him on television and that alone is enough to make the show brilliant.

Shark doesn't even come close to the quality of those 2 shows. If you want to see the cop show genre done in a refreshing and innovative way, check those 2 out, but steer clear of Shark, Criminal Minds and every other show with cops on television outside of the good ones. There's nothing at all redeeming as to how awful this show is. Stay away

The Big Bang Theory

2007-12-04T14:53:00.000+10:00

So after my latest comedy kick I thought I may as well review this one as well, seeing as I'd already reviewed the pilots of 30 Rock and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. The show dealt with 4 nerds and a hot chick who moved in to the apartment next door. The show's comedy focussed mainly on the interaction between 2 bumbling nerds, one who was quite kind and open whereas the other was critical and harsh. It was really nice to see Kaley Cuoco on television again, although she is far better at dramatic roles like Billy on Charmed and her 2 episode role in Prison Break than comedy, especially her role in this series as a sexy, ignorant chick with a questionable intellect. This is one of the few shows on Channel 9 that isn't complete shite.

What works: The plot of the episode overall was inventive enough to not be a completely generic boredom-inducing pile of turd like 30 Rock. The show is quite funny at times, though not up to par with other comedies with a more balanced cast.

What doesn't: The psychotic nerd-babble of the 4 male characters is more annoying than amusing, and sometimes they just ramble on simply to ramble on. The cast is very unbalanced and messy, they really didn't need to have 4 nerds in the series, it would have worked just as well with just 2, and perhaps some more friends of Kaley's would have been nice in the series.

This show looks promising, and has potential to go a long way if it isn't axed. There's only been 8 episodes made so far before the Writer's strike ceased production of it, so I see no reason not to follow it through the next 7 episodes. Good comedy, rather average overall, messy execution and character ensemble, but somehow it works.

It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia

2007-12-04T14:38:00.000+10:00

So I just watched this show for the first time. It's had 3 seasons, and started in 2005, but I only caught onto it now as, sadly, Australia is very behind when it comes to broadcasting good television. This show was shafted to the late shift behind 30 Rock at 11:00pm on Monday nights and I have to say this show is twice as good as 30 Rock. Not only is it one of the most entertaining, witty, intelligent comedies on television at the moment, its actually funny!! Which is a lot more than I can say for other comedy programs (see: 30 Rock, Scrubs). The pilot involved 3 friends who own a bar who accidentally turn the place into a gay bar following a meeting with one of the bartender's friends in her acting class. The show dealt with topics that other comedies wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole, such as racism, homosexuality and sexism, and all in the first episode.

What works: This is one of the few shows that uses situational comedy without abnormal plot devices that are unlikely to occur in real life (see: How I Met Your Mother, My Name Is Earl, Family Guy) which is actually entertaining and hilarious. In the end, that's all we want, right? For television to be entertaining and interesting, and in the case of comedies, they need to be funny, which is something far too many comedies fall short on these days. I watched 2 hours of comedy (a Friends rerun, The Big Bang Theory pilot, the 30 Rock pilot and the Philly pilot) and this show was by far the best of them all. The plot works well with surprising twists and turns, such as a black girl turning out to be the sister of the bar chick's gay friend and one of the dudes being horrified at realising he had gay sex the previous night while drunk at the end of the episode. The characters are also nicely layered and have their own quirky personalities to give the show an edge.

What doesn't: Sometimes, the scenes dragged on for too long without much happening and it got to be a bit of a snooze.

It's not laugh out loud funny like Reaper or How I Met Your Mother, but its entertaining and definitely worthy of watching simply for it's darker subject matter alone, which make it far more hilarious as it ventures where other comedies don't dare to go. And with Danny DeVito joining the cast in the second season, I'm definitely going to stick around for the ride.

30 Rock

2007-12-04T13:17:00.000+10:00

So this show had already had 30 episodes so far, but its only now that they've started to show it in Australia. Channel 7 bought the rights to the show over a year ago, but its only now they've started to show it. It's been shafted to the late shift @ 10:30pm, and its not because of "mature" content whatsoever, in fact this show is as squeaky clean as they come, its simply because in comparison with the other comedies on this channel such as the brilliant How I Met Your Mother/My Name is Earl hour on Thursday Nights, it just isn't that funny. For some unknown reason, this show has earned 10 Emmy nominations and actually won 2 of them including "Best Comedy". I really don't have a clue as to how this is possible as this show is one of the least-funny comedies out there. The premiere of 'The Big Bang Theory' was far funnier, richer and entertaining than 30 Rock's pilot, and compared to the truly best comedies on television such as How I Met Your Mother, The Office and Reaper, this show doesn't stand a chance. Although, it's still a hell of a lot better than Scrubs. That is the most overrated show period. Everyone loves it, but its simply not that good.

What works: The lead character Tina Fey played was very sexually attractive underneath the stressed work face she put on during her character's battles with Alec Baldwin throughout the episode. The character of Tracy Jordan was insane and hilarious "They're putting AIDS in the chicken nuggets!" and his scenes were a high point of the episode.

What doesn't: The episode's plot in itself was rather weak, the characters were feeble and forgettable minus Tina and Tracy's performances, and the whole thing just wasn't half as funny, entertaining or interesting as it should have been for a show to win "Best Comedy Series".

I'll still be watching this show simply because it's the summer holidays and I'm open to giving it the chance of getting better after a couple of episodes. But I am surprised that it made it to a second season, with the extremely low ratings it has pulled so far in the US. Channel 7 were right to hold off showing it until the summer period, and then shafting it to 10:30pm, as it simply wouldn't be justifiable for such a generic comedy series to hold a primetime 7:30pm shift. There were some scenes that were rather entertaining, such as Tina buying $150 worth of hotdogs to make a stand against people who were cutting the line in a hot-dog stand, but for the most part, it was rather dull. Here's to hoping it gets better.

Condensed Moonlight review

2007-12-03T23:51:00.000+10:00

The last one I did was around 6 paragraphs too long and focussed too much on the portrayal of vampires in other media, so I decided to split them into 2 articles for convenience and to flow a lot better.

I just finished watching the first 9 episodes of this series and it is by far one of the most compelling, interesting and exciting shows on television right now, and probably the 3rd best new series this year behind Reaper and Journeyman. The show's 20 minute pilot was panned and criticised by critics which originally starred Shannon Lucio (Lindsay from The OC) and Amber Valetta (that ugly chick from Hitch) in the roles of Beth Turner and Coraline respectively. After the scathing reviews, the pilot was reshot with Sophia Myles and Shannyn Sossamon in the roles of Beth and Coraline instead. This was a brilliant move, as Amber Valetta's got as much character as a run-down computer. Although it would have been nice to see what Shannon did with Beth, its safe to say that Sophia fits the role rather nicely and adds something extra to the series which it would be sorely lacking without.

The basic plot is a vampire who's a private investigator (gee, sounds familiar! See: Forever Knight, Angel) who deals with the issues of surviving amongst humans and falling in love with a mortal woman amongst his work as a P.I. Trust me, the show is a million times better than it sounds, and the whole thing works brilliantly.

Moonlight explores themes untouched by other shows with vampires, to do with vampires themselves. For example, it differs from Angel in the fact that Mick can actually have relationships with other humans/vampires without "losing his soul" unlike the main character from Angel, therefore being able to explore the themes of romance and relationships a lot deeper than Angel ever could.

Sometimes it touches on other themes that other shows with vamps have touched upon. For instance, in the 6th episode, where a 500 year old vampire was butchering others of its kind and draining their blood to sell as a street drug. Thankfully, they didn't go in the same pathetic direction as Supernatural and 30 Days of Night and they pointed out that a victim had to be near death before drinking a vamp's blood if they were to become sired. Instead, the junkies became inflated with a feeling of invincibility, charisma and self-satisfaction, a true high, although their physical attributes didn't change at all.

So, in regards to what other series have done with vamps, so how does Moonlight differ? They introduce silver as a hazard to vamps, claiming it as deadly to them as a wooden stake to the heart. Although, a stake to the heart will paralyse a vamp, not kill them. Additionally, the senses are heightened even more than vamps in other series, which the central character Mick makes full use of in his work as a P.I. The vamps in Moonlight also have strict rules to maintain their secrecy as a species, and take it upon themselves to personally guide and train fellow vampires they have sired once they've been turned. This is a central theme in the 3rd episode where a vampire sires a man by accident after he gets hit by a car and coughs blood upon the driver. The sired vampire in turn becomes "feral" and starts killing victims randomly and obscenely in full ignorance of the code and guidelines associated with the survival of vampires and their secrecy.

Another theme explored which is very unique and brilliant is the age of vampires when they were sired. For instance, in the 5th episode, a vamp who was sired when he was 16 has sex on his mind all the time as a result of his "arrested development" and his inability to mature as he grows older due to the "curse" of immortality. In other words, because he's stuck at the same age forever, he's stuck in the same mind-frame forever, which in turn results in him raping and murdering prostitutes he picks out online. Additionally, in the 3rd episode, the vampire who was hit by a car is an elderly man who has never had a son, who looks kindly upon the feral vamp he has sired by accident and looks upon him in a parental way, which causes him to interfere with Mick's attempts to end the feral vampire's life.

Some additional unique things in this series include a vampire's ability to move at supremely fast speed (think Clark Kent on Smallville type speed), to jump to extremely high distances, to climb walls like Spiderman and the roars they make which sound surprisingly lion-like when they attack a victim or another vampire in a fight.

What works: Every single thing Moonlight has done in regards to the portrayal of vampires is brilliant and superb. The plots, although not as deep or exciting as Angel, hold their own and the characters are even more interesting than any of the characters on Angel besides Angel himself, as the Angel TV series focused on Angel far more than any of the supporting characters, whereas Moonlight is nicely rounded out with several characters with their own unique personalities, abilities, strengths, weaknesses and storylines. The chemistry between Mick and Beth is superb, but the chemistry between Mick and Coraline/Morgan is even better, which even adds more drama to the sad ending of episode 9 where Beth went pseudo-bitch and staked a human Coraline in the heart.

What doesn't: Since Moonlight has chosen to restrict itself to strictly vampires as a paranormal entity, i.e. no demons, witchcraft or Slayers like Angel, it is rather limited as to foes for Mick to encounter every week. Because of this, most of the episodes contains a plot involving either Mick vs criminal(s) of the week or Mick vs vampire(s) of the week. Although, the lack of variety doesn't make the action any less exciting, the plots any less compelling, and the characters any less fascinating. The characters are what make this show what it is, and I love it for that.

In closing, this is a simply brilliant portrayal of vampires in a television show, and the best one you'll see for a very long time. If we can't get a new season/movie of Angel, and this series is the closest thing we have, then that is by no means a bad thing. The plots are intriguing, the characters are brilliant, the mood of the show is dark and fantastic, and the whole thing is a fucking gem. What are you waiting for? Check it out already. There's 2 episodes left that have been filmed before the writer's stike froze production, I just hope it receives a full season order and stays on. Good stuff

Criminal Minds

2007-12-03T21:30:00.001+10:00

I decided to give this show a chance after seeing how high it was doing in the ratings. Channel 7 claimed it had 'saved their Monday night television lineup' after Shark failed miserably in the ratings and the show finished in the top 10 highest-watched shows in Australia multiple times. Well, the long and the short of it is: this is yet another boring generic cop show that simply isn't worth your time.

The plot was very generic, a dude who raped and murdered 6 elderly women and an FBI group called the 'Behavioural Analysis Unit' who investigated the case and caught the guy before he killed his final victim. The whole thing was executed rather poorly, the only reason I thought this show might be different to all the other million cop shows out there is the show's title: Criminal Minds. Based on the description of the show from the network and the very name of the show, it seemed as if the focus was on the criminals of the show rather than the cops. This premise has been explored in multiple series, such as the best show on television at the moment: Dexter, a show centred on a serial killer in Miami who murders other murderers whilst working as a blood-spatter analyst with the police. Even Prison Break and other shows have explored the theme of 'criminal minds', showing how they work, what happened in the "criminal's" pasts to make them what they are, and how they are separated from the rest of society.

I thought to myself, if this show is 1/100th as brilliant, twisted and dark as Dexter is, and does the premise it claims to offer well, than this show could turn out to be quite good. Unfortunately, this wasn't the case at all. Every single character was one-sided, generic and taken straight from Boringville, USA. For all of the central characters on the FBI team, whether it was the dweeby smart kid who knew the words to 17th century ballads, or the hardcore black dude who looked down upon aforementioned dweeb to showcase his superiority complex, or the chick who found what the villain did "creepy" whilst wearing the latest fashion trend, they are simply the most one-dimensional, generic, boring ensemble of characters I have ever witnessed in a series. No character was worse than the other, because they were all equally boring with no room for character development at all, similar to Dick Wolf's approach with his 100 Law & Order spinoffs. Whatever happened to Law and Order: Trial by Jury anyway? I'm pretty sure it got axed. Pity the same can't be said for the other 10,000 cop dramas on television at the moment.

But the main problem with the series is it failed to deliver insight into the criminal's mind at all, which is the very thing the show tried to build upon to make it unique from the rest of the pack. Instead, it all fell apart and made me very, very bored. It's safe to say I won't be watching that show again.

What works: The main character Mandy Pitinkin played was entertaining to watch. But he got written out of the series at the end of season 2, so I wonder why people still find any excuse at all to watch this pathetic excuse for an "original" television series. Maybe there's a lot of Tru Calling fans happy to see A.J. Cook back in action. Pity her new character is such a ditzy airhead compared to Lindsay off TC.

What doesn't: The series doesn't offer insight into "criminal minds" at all besides some half-assed profiling they did together for about 2 minutes based on the state of the crime scenes and the choice of the 17th century ballad the villain wrote on the mirrors. The fact it fails to deliver the very thing that could have made this series different from every other cop show is reason enough for this show to be canned alone. Add in the fact that the action sequences weren't exciting, the characters are generic, the plot is horrid, the entire thing is boring as batshit and the writing out of the only half-interesting character of the series, and you've got the potential to be the worst show ever made.

At least shows like Bionic Woman and Gossip Girl tried, and failed, to do something different. This show is just a pathetic lie. It fails to do what it promises, and in the end, its just yet another boring, tired, uninspired cop drama that will grow to be watched by tens of millions each week and loved and adored by countless tasteless morons. It lacks the edge of CSI and any of its spinoffs, it lacks the necessary layers for characters to give them room for interesting/exciting storylines of far superior cop shows like NCIS and Life , it lacks a formula that hasn't been beaten to death by hundreds of shows before it (see: Law and Order and every other cop show on television in the past 60 years). If you're going to watch a cop drama, many other shows like NCIS, Life and the CSIs do it far better than this garbage. Save yourself wasting an hour of your time.

Portrayals of vampire in the media

2007-12-03T20:28:00.000+10:00

Every single show involving a paranormal plot device, whether it be abilities or powers like Heroes/Smallville, time distortion like Tru Calling/Day Break/Journeyman, supernatural creatures like Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Charmed/Supernatural or paranormal places like LOST/Firefly, tries to somehow break itself away from how other similar shows are using the same paranormal plot device.

For example, in the case of time distortion, the show Tru Calling involves the title character reliving different days when people ask for her help after being murdered or dying, typically with a new character asking for help the same day they're murdered each episode. Each episode has a different day, a different character asking for help, and a different plot. The show Day Break involves Detective Hopper reliving the same day over and over. He uses this to find out who is framing him for the murder of a lawyer and to allow justice to be rightfully served. The show Journeyman chronicles the character Dan Vasser traveling to random days in the past to help people out with certain situations, whilst trying to keep things together with his life in the present when he travels back.

Each of the above shows uses the same paranormal plot device of time distortion, but does it in a way that is different to each other so as to a) be original b) to not have people claim 'OI DAT'S SUCH A RIP OFF OF DAT OTHER SHOW!1' and c) to interest viewers. Unfortunately, the majority of shows with brilliant ideas and unique storylines get axed after only a season or 2. Tru Calling and Day Break have both been axed after a short run, and it is likely Journeyman will suffer the same fate, despite the fact it is no doubt the most compelling show on television at the moment. Maybe except for Dexter.

You can probably guess what the paranormal plot device of Moonlight is. That's right, kids, its vampires!! So what sets Moonlight apart from other portrayals of vampires in film and television? Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its spin-off Angel are undisputedly the king of the paranormal television, they more or less re-invented the vampire in a way that was completely different from any portrayal for it. Instead of making them invincible, uber-powerful fanged fiends with virtually no weakness outside of fire/sunlight/decapitation whatsoever, the show added several forms of weaknesses for them to give them a stronger role in the show altogether. For one, they couldn't just stroll into someone's house and prey on a random person, they had to be invited in. This made for several juicy plots in episodes where vampires posed as other people before preying on their victims, making them in fact more menacing and cunning than they are in other series without this limitation of having to be invited in to someone's house. Others included the stake + heart = death concept that many other shows with vampires like to ignore to make their vamps seem stronger/better, and the unique transformation of their face turning into an angry, menacing mask with dark, yellow eyes and an extremely furrowed brow.

Supernatural portrays vampires rather lazily, claiming they look exactly like humans even when they feed, minus the 30 or so fangs that pop up which look alarmingly similar to Venom's teeth in Spiderman-3. They went with the conventional method of "vampires are invincible, stakes don't harm them, sunlight doesn't kill them and the only thing that works is decapitation or damage to the head". Although, they added in the weird concept of "dead man's blood", claiming if a dead man's blood enters a vampire's system, it stings them like poison and paralyses them after a while. This, of course, is a retarded idea as a vampire's victim would be dead after a couple of minutes of a major artery of theirs being severed. So, using that logic, a vampire could only drink from a human for around a minute, and if they did it any longer, they would get paralysed. Retarded? I think so.

I saw a rather b-grade vampire movie called 30 Days of Night recently, definitely nowhere near the calibur of other vampire movies like the Blade and Underworld series, but watchable all the same. They portrayed the vamps as clones of the vamps from Supernatural, but with hollow eyes, disfigured faces and a more frightening look. They still kept Venom's teeth though. They spoke in a weird ancient language in creaks and croaks that was very hilarious, even though they tried to make it come off as eerie and scary. I LOL'd every time one of them opened their mouths. And there was this one scene where a 6 year old vamped-out girl seized control of a terrified group of survivors hiding out in the grocery store, and instead of bursting through the door or breaking it down, she full on teleported through it like she was flying or some shit!!

It was the funniest thing I'd seen in weeks, and I couldn't stop laughing for 10 minutes while the fat chicks behind me were screaming themselves wet. That's probably the only horror movie I somewhat enjoyed, even though it completely raped the whole vampire concept in a horrid way. Most horror movies have the same pathetic, old, tired formula of 4 or 5 friends traveling together on a camping trip or expedition in a foreign land while a tormented douchebag with a scarred, demented face who was raped and abused as a boy kills them off one by one until they have a showdown with the protagonist in the end. Lack of a plot much?!

Back on topic, the whole concept of "if you drink a vampire's blood on its own, you'll become one of them" is very, very stupid I must say. Josh Hartnett did this in the end of the movie as it was apparently the only way to defeat them, to become one of them. In a recent Supernatural episode, a vampire was selling his own blood as a street drug in nightclubs to turn young girls into vamps simply by spilling it into their drinks as they danced.

So how does CBS newcomer Moonlight differ? They introduce silver as a hazard to vamps, claiming it as deadly to them as a wooden stake to the heart. Although, a stake to the heart will paralyse a vamp, not kill them. Additionally, the senses are heightened even more than vamps in other series, which the central character Mick makes full use of in his work as a P.I. The vamps in Moonlight also have strict rules to maintain their secrecy as a species, and take it upon themselves to personally guide and train fellow vampires they have sired once they've been turned. This is a central theme in the 3rd episode where a vampire sires a man by accident after he gets hit by a car and coughs blood upon the driver. The sired vampire in turn becomes "feral" and starts killing victims randomly and obscenely in full ignorance of the code and guidelines associated with the survival of vampires and their secrecy.

Another theme explored which is very unique and brilliant is the age of vampires when they were sired. For instance, in the 5th episode, a vamp who was sired when he was 16 has sex on his mind all the time as a result of his "arrested development" and his inability to mature as he grows older due to the "curse" of immortality. In other words, because he's stuck at the same age forever, he's stuck in the same mind-frame forever, which in turn results in him raping and murdering prostitutes he picks out online. Additionally, in the 3rd episode, the vampire who was hit by a car is an elderly man who has never had a son, who looks kindly upon the feral vamp he has sired by accident and looks upon him in a parental way, which causes him to interfere with Mick's attempts to end the feral vampire's life.

Some additional unique things in this series include a vampire's ability to move at supremely fast speed (think Clark Kent on Smallville type speed), to jump to extremely high distances, to climb walls like Spiderman and the roars they make which sound surprisingly lion-like when they attack a victim or another vampire in a fight.

So, wrapping up, in respect to their portrayal of vampires:

TV series: Angel/Buffy > Moonlight > Forever Knight > Kindred: The Embraced

Movies: Underworld series > Blade series > 30 Days of Night

Heroes: Season 2

2007-12-01T22:35:00.000+10:00

I'll start off by saying this show was my favourite new series of last year by a long shot. The large roster of characters, each one with their own quirks, personalities, and abilities made the show very interesting along with some of the best storylines I have seen since Buffy finished 4 years ago. The character of Sylar in particular is one of my favourite villians of all time, a dark, twisted serial killer who murdered other "ordinary people with extraordinary abilities" to steal their abilities and gain more power. Each episode moved at such a fast pace and there were no weak links in the series at all, which is very impressive for a freshman show as often shows take a while to find their niche and iron out their flaws whilst Heroes was bloody brilliant in its first 23 episodes from the get go. In particular, the episode 'Five Years Gone' where Hiro and Ando travel 5 years into an alternate future where many 'heroes' have been murdered was dark, twisted and altogether fucking brilliant. The darker versions of many characters like Hiro, Peter and Matt that were hardened over the tragic events of the past 5 years were absolutely superb and the effort they put into that episode alone was worth buying the first season on DVD. Absolutely incredible.

It does sadden me, however, at the massive loss of quality the show went through during Season 2. Usually it takes several years for truly brilliant shows to undergo a major loss of quality (Buffy Season 4, The OC season 3 to name a few). Heroes managed to do this after only 1 season.

What works: Matt and Nathan's brief scenes where they team up to take on Maury Parkman and Bennett's struggle to keep his family together and to tear down the Company from the inside were the only decent part of the first 6 episodes of the new season. Oh, and I can't forget Kristen Bell's performance as the voluptuous, sexy blonde bomb Elle who enjoyed playing dominatrix over Peter. Those scenes are DEFINITELY worth repeat viewing. Sylar's scenes messing with Maya and her brother have been entertaining as well.

What sucked ass: Everything else. For one, Hiro's storylines in Feudal Japan trying to "woo" the princess and get Kensei to "fulfill his duties as a hero" were nothing short of lame, boring, shitty, awful, and any other word that resembles "not good". They were drawn out for far too long, and his scenes in this season is by far some of the worst television I've ever seen. I don't know what's less appealing, watching his feudal Japan scenes or watching the pilot of Bionic Woman. Both are absolutely horrid. Also, every one of the new characters excluding Elle are horrid, boring, and one-dimensional and I would cheer for joy if any of them got offed in future episodes. West is an arrogant, deluded douche who views the entire world as comprised of either "robots" or "aliens" and who in their right mind would treat Claire that way if they were dating? The character of Monica Dawson is retarded, all she ever does is whine "WHY IS THIS HAPPENING TO ME?!" before she finally gained some semblance of control/acceptance over her powers. Since then, she's taken to saying with a cheesy grin "I thank the Lord and Savior up in the sky for giving me this gift I can use for the good of the world." Oh my God. Get the fuck out.

Oh, and who can forget the romances. Peter and that Irish chick make me spew, Hiro/Kensei and the Princess is cliche'd and horrible, and West/Claire is a typical doomed teenage relationship with an arrogant twat boyfriend and an over-anxious chick who simply tries too hard with the relationship. Although Sylar/Maya as a pairing has been interesting to watch, its been great fun having that brilliant, dark villian screw around with that impressionable object of mass destruction and her brother.

And what the hell was with the characters losing their abilities?! The whole "ZOMG I'VE LOST MY MEMORY!!" thing is done in a vast majority of television shows now when they simply run out of storylines for the character, even yesterday I witnessed a Smallville episode where Kara lost her memory of who she is, her powers and her role in the series and there is an entire show (Samantha Who?) on ABC based on the premise. And how did Sylar lose his powers exactly? Because he got stabbed with a sword?! That doesn't make any sense at all.

Tim Kring, creator of Heroes, admitted to these faults and others in an interview with Entertainment Weekly: (snippet stolen from wikipedia)

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Heroes creator Tim Kring commented on criticism of season two, and the series' 15% decline in the ratings.^[49] Kring said that he felt he had made mistakes with the direction of season two. He had thought that the audience was looking for a "build-up of characters and the discovery of their powers", similar to that of season one, when viewers were instead looking for "adrenaline."

Kring also outlined what he felt were problems with plot development, stating that the second season "took too long to get to the big-picture story",^[49] explaining that Peter's vision of the viral armageddon should have occurred in the first episode instead of the seventh. He feels that it would have been better to introduce new characters within the context of the main storyline, as with Elle, rather than in unattached arcs such as that of Maya and Alejandro. Kring also admitted that he should have resolved the "Hiro in Japan" storyline much more quickly, and that the romantic stories aren't working well. With regards to Claire and West, and Hiro and Yaeko, he said "I've seen more convincing romances on TV. In retrospect, I don't think romance is a natural fit for us."^[49]

Amen to that. The main fault of this season has simply been, it moved really friggin slow. Nothing at all happened that was interesting or exciting in the plot, that couldn't have been done a lot better and in a much shorter amount of time. (See Hiro's 7-episode arc in Japan)

Since then, thankfully, the last 4 episodes (7-10) have gotten back the original quality that was largely missing for the first 6 episodes of the season. The show has already started to get rid of some of the annoying new characters that don't add anything worthwhile to the show at all, starting with Peter teleporting Caitlin into an apocalyptic future, Sylar stabbing Alejandro to death (YES!! SYLAR ROCKS!!) and Monica Dawson being booted into a van full of thugs after trying to steal her cousin's comic book from a bunch of bullies. West has somewhat redeemed himself from being a pompous douche by getting over his issues with Claire's family and helping Bennet recover his daughter, so he's less deserving of a painful end than the rest of the new characters (excluding Elle, of course. She should stay until the end of the series because she makes my pants happy). When the Bennets move in the season finale next week and leave him behind, I'll be content with that, although I wouldn't be upset at all if Sylar finally got his abilities back and ripped a hole in West's head.

The plot has finally gotten somewhere with the multiple brilliant plot twists as of late, such as Bennet's death and resurrection, the events leading up to D.L's murder, Peter getting his memory back, Kensei being revealed as the central villian (Adam) of the season, Hiro finally getting out of fucking Japan and the dark road Matt has been headed down as he sealed his father in his own prison. For these reasons its something of a shame that the season is being cut short with the writer's strike and all, now that the show has finally gotten its act back together, but its also something of a blessing as the cutdown of episodes forced the show's staff to get off their asses, fix their mistakes and start making the show brilliant again, as opposed to uninspired and generic.

The finale should be great, we were last left with the image of Hiro racing towards Peter with his sword unsheathed, ready to avenge his father's death. That will be interesting to say the least. Along with the upcoming Mohinder/Sylar confrontation, the aftermath of Bennet's "death" and anything and everything to do with Kristen Bell getting screen time, I have restored faith that the season final "Powerless" will be everything Heroes does best.

Hidden Palms

2007-12-01T22:33:00.000+10:00

Yet another TV show I downloaded to occupy me during the boring summer holidays. This show is definitely the best teen-angst drama since The OC finished, and definitely a hell of a lot better than the travesty that is Gossip Girl. Not just because Taylor Handley and Michael Cassidy played major recurring roles on The OC, but because the whole thing is a whole lot more fresh, and a lot more relatable to the lives of teenagers than a lot of other current shows attempting to do the same thing. Some of the best shows get cancelled early, and this is no exception. It started off a little dull, but its quite common for a show's pilot to be messy and all over the place as it's the first episode where the creators/staff try to shove all the most important things into a 20/40 minute show to get viewers interested. Of course, certain shows have pilots that are so god-awful that I don't have it in me to give them a second chance (Here's looking at you Bionic Woman/Dirty Sexy Money/Gossip Girl/Pushing Daisies).

Of course, comparisons to The OC are inevitable, so I'll get that out of the way first. It was interesting to see Taylor and Michael switch roles from their OC counterparts somewhat, as Taylor played a mentally-unstable, anti-social, chemically-dependant character (Oliver) and Michael played a popular, social, friendly jock in the form of Zach. However, in this series, they switched roles and Taylor became the mentally-stable friendly dude with the hot girlfriend and Michael became the chemically-dependant (although it was alcohol, not drugs like in Oliver's case) guy who constantly messed up and cheated on his girlfriend. Although, there were differences. Taylor's character of Johnny still had some Oliver-esque demons (an insatiable curiosity and his father's suicide) and Michael's character of Cliff contained the popularity and social skills of Zach with the cynical attitude and darkness of Oliver. It truly was great chemistry between the 2 onscreen, as the central mystery of Eddie's suicide began to unravel. Amber Heard did a great job playing the sexy, confident and often, to quote Cliff, "enigmatic" character of Greta, who is best described as Marissa Cooper in Palm Springs, although quite a whole lot less self-destructive than her OC counterpart.

What works: The entire show had a rare fluidity to it that is sorely lacking in many dramas today. It was almost like Desperate Housewives, only with teenagers in place of 40 year old women and with a darker tone. There was still the central mystery of Eddie's apparent suicide as the main plot device throughout the series, similar to the mystery of Mary Alice's suicide in season 1. Michael Cassidy in particular played a brilliant role as the dark, fun-loving, rebellious bad boy of the series without coming across as forced or cheesy and Amber Heard was very believable as the tormented, sexy and confused female lead. The show quite often had dark twists in the end of episodes, and I'll dare to say some were just as shocking as some of Prison Break and LOST's cliffhangers. The twists were somewhat predictable, but always had something unexpected to them. For example, it was obvious Cliff did something to Eddie to dissolve their friendship, but Cliff having an affair with Eddie's Mum?! Very Luke/Julie-esque. And let's not forget the final twist of the series. It was hinted at that Greta's father was involved in Eddie's death, but the final shock of him shooting Eddie to cover up the fact he'd murdered his wife was totally unexpected. Unfortunately, the final revelation in the last 2 minutes of the series will never get to be fully explored, as The CW axed the series far before its time.

What didn't: The entire character of Nikki Barnes was annoying at best. Every one of her little antics was nothing short of antagonising, whether she was whining over Cliff cheating on her for the 32nd time or she was dancing around on stage in a drunken stupor, she was a pain and the one part of the series that was simply unbearable. The weird shemale antics of Leslie Jordan as an old man who enjoyed dressing up in drag and being Johnny's sponsor was quite akward to say the least. He/she simply didn't fit the tone of the show very well, and the fact he/she was the character closest to Nikki's storylines made his scenes less enjoyable than any other. It was also quite a pain to watch Johnny get himself in certain situations for no good reason other than being a wannabe-private detective with a sticky face. The show tried to explain his interest in the mystery as being sparked from his father's suicide, but it just didn't make sense and half the time the thought "Why the hell is he doing that?!" crept into mind. Still, there's annoying characters in a lot of shows, but this show is still the best teen drama to air this year.

The bottom line: Although this series was short-lived (8 episodes), that certainly shouldn't stop people from getting involved in watching the show. Honestly, it was definitely more fun than The OC's second and third seasons, and a hell of a lot better than any other teen drama on TV right now. If you've got a free weekend and feel like some good television, this show is far more worthy than recent CW dramas One Tree Hill and Gossip Girl and a hell of a lot better than Neighbours, Home and Away, Summerland, and other similar crap. A brilliant blend of drama, comedy and thrills. I highly recommend it.

Most tragic TV deaths

2007-11-04T11:37:00.000+10:00

Recognise this chick?!

Yes? No? Most people probably wouldn't, but she's that little girl from Richie Rich who was quite a tomboy. Boy has she grown up!!

A couple of years back she had a role on Angel (S4E17) involving her getting rescued by Angel's son Connor from a vampire, only to have her throat slit by a possessed Cordelia later on in this episode. The fact she played a role embracing the characteristics of a pure, innocent, sweet, beautiful, tearful, frightened virgin made the moment that Cordelia slit her throat and spilled her blood all over Connor all the more tragic.

Definitely one of the darkest Angel episodes, with Angel and co. being too late to stop the birth of Jasmine's schemes and the death of an innocent. It was also this episode which helped set up Connor's descent into madness in the season finale when he enters a store and surrounds the place with explosives in a suicidal final stand against the cold, harsh world he has come to know. Not even the re-appearance of his mother Darla could convince him to turn back, and even though he was not the one who slit Stephi's throat, it was that moment which set the chain of events into motion.

Brilliant episode. Brilliant actress. This is by far one of the most tragic TV deaths I've ever seen, even more so than Luc on Tru Calling, Boone on LOST, Simone on Heroes, Wesley/Cordelia on Angel, Anya on Buffy, and a hell of a lot more than Tweener on Prison Break. And keep in mind Stephi was not even credited as a guest star, and she only appeared in the very end credits at the end of the show, and her role was simply called "Girl". Yet her death was so much more tragic than some of these others, who are regular characters on the show. Is it weird that I felt more saddened for her loss than the death of my favourite Angel character Wesley after he starred in more than 100 episodes of Angel? There are some deaths which come close to this in terms of emotional tragickness (yes, I know its not a word, suck it!), and some which surpass it, but keep in mind the majority of these character deaths were regular characters or major recurring guest stars, not one-episode characters who didn't even make the guest starring list as in the case of Stephi.

RichoTB's list of most tragic TV deaths:

Click the character's name to go to their wikipedia page. Click on the show they featured in to see the wiki page on the episode each respective character died.

Tara on Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Your shirt?!)
Harry on Tru Calling (Thank God it was reverted. If he stayed dead, I can guarantee fans would have shat themselves)
Stephi on Angel (see hugeass article above)
Charlie on LOST (yes, it was drawn out for an entire third season, but that didn't make the character's loss any less tragic. This is proof that a sudden, shock death isn't the only way to bring out a fantastic emotional arc for a series)
Haywire on Prison Break (all the poor guy wanted to do was go to Holland!)
Veronica on Prison Break (locked in a house and shot in the head by a bunch of poser security guards. Not the most dignified way to go)
Isaac on Heroes (This is also an example of a drawn out death similar to Charlie from LOST, it was depicted since the very first episode, but it still didn't make the character's loss any less tragic. And he turned an abort face in the end and played the part of the hero before Sylar nailed paintbrushes through his wrists and legs and split his head open to attain his ability. Lovely.)
Buffy on Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Season 1 finale, since it was written in mind in case the show was never picked up for a second season, they certainly did all they could to make Prophecy Girl an episode with a bang. Xander did a particularly great job in this ep)
Fred on Angel (Damn, no one likes to see a cute Texan girl get offed on screen aside from necrophiliac douchebags, but all the same, this death was really lame I reckon. They decided to kill her off not in a giant battle scene or anything of the sort, instead she opened a box and got sprayed with some diseased pheromones that took over her body and offed her by the end of the episode. If they decided to off her, why not do it in the previous season?! It would have been a fantastic arc if Angelus had murdered Fred along with Lilah, instead of her just getting "diseased" and offed all in the space of 40 minutes.)
Sarah on Prison Break (this would have been a lot more tragic if it wasn't done off-screen with a replacement actor taking Sara Wayne Callies' role over after 2 seasons of the character being the main protagonist female. They put her head in a box. Gee, thats not a rip-off of Se7en at all.)

Lane Garrison (Tweener off Prison Break) sentenced to 3.5 years jail

2007-11-04T11:14:00.000+10:00

Lane Garrison has been sentenced to almost three-and-a-half years of prison time for vehicular manslaughter.

There will be no going home from prison for actor Lane Garrison this time if a director yells "Cut!" The 27-year-old actor has been sentenced to three years and four months of jail time yesterday for an auto accident that killed a 17-year old student, according to Reuters.

The former Prison Break actor pleaded guilty to manslaughter in May, after crashing his Land Rover into a tree while under the influence of alcohol and cocaine in December. Two 15-year-old girls were also in the car. They all met Garrison as he was on his way to a party.

Garrison has shown lots of remorse for the incident, and recorded a public-service announcement condemning drunk driving. The actor received half the possible maximum sentence.

Garrison played David "Tweener" Apolskis, an inmate at the fictional Fox River State Penitentiary in the show, and was introduced in the drama's first season. His character was killed off in the second season. He also appeared in the 2007 film Shooter.

source: http://www.tv.com/story/10398.html?om_act=convert&om_clk=news&tag=headlines;title;0

As you probably noticed, there's a poll to the right of this post on this situation. Have your say. You can vote for multiple options as well, seeing as you just can.

Welcome to Richo's Ramblings

2007-11-04T09:53:00.000+10:00

I've been meaning to create a blog as an outlet for my whiny critique of all things TV, music, movies and all else for quite a while now, its great that I've finally gotten around to it. If you find something worth staying for here, feel free to visit from time to time. If not, thats your time wasted, not mine >_>

Cheers