10 Reasons to Watch: Alice

If there was ever a network that truly commits to its show’s, it’s   Sy-Fy and with Alice it is no different. I discovered Alice a couple of months back when I was wondering what Matt Frewer was doing with himself, instead of being in Eureka.

I have to say, Alice is not perfect but as this is a “ten reasons to watch” post I wont be focusing on the negatives, I will be giving reasons, that in my opinion, make this show worth watching.

So… Was it worth not having Taggart for a whole season? Let’s find out as we go through the Looking Glass and find ten reasons to watch Alice…

1. It’s Bonkers – What else did we expect from the channel that brought us Farscape? Possibly the best and yet most deranged Sci Fi ever envisioned. Everything from the Mad Hatter to the White Rabbit finds its place on this psychedelic canvas.
2. It’s Stunning – If Tin Man can be seen as a precursor to Alice, then take the visual spectacle that it was and quadruple it and then add some just to be on the safe side. Unlike Tin Man that was almost apocalyptic in it’s grey-brown world of bleak disaster, Alice is bright and vibrant. Even the city, which is little more than a decimated husk of a world is visually splendorous.
3. The Story – Even if you don’t know the Lewis Carroll original like me, you can still enjoy the way that Alice twists the story elements. This is not a retelling of the Alice in Wonderland story, it is more of a Return to Wonderland and everything is a very different and yet strangely the same. All the original characters are there, but, for example, The Mad March Hare is now an assassin.
4. The Actors – I’ve already mentioned Matt Frewer, who plays the terrified White Knight. He reminded me quite a lot of Brave Brave Sir Robin from “That Monty Python Film”. But add to that Colm Meaney and Kathy Bates as the King and Queen of Hearts and the terrific Andrew Lee Potts as Hatter and the show really comes to life. Alice herself is portrayed by Caterina Scorsone and, although occasionally shaky, her beauty and charm should be enough to win over even the harshest of critics.
5. A Tale for Modern Times – Whether or not Alice sets out to be a moral tale about a society built on instant gratification or not it certainly succeeds in being one. Although the issues that Alice deals with are dark, such as abandonment, addiction and revolution, the show itself remains vibrant and colourful.
6. Straight into the Action – Unlike other Sci-fi miniseries, for example BSG, Alice draws the viewer through the looking glass and into the meat and gristle of the story, almost instantly. Although Battlestar as an entity is brilliant, the original miniseries takes it’s own sweet time getting going, Alice however goes down the Rabbit Hole after just 10 minutes and its all action from that point on.
7. And What Action! – The locations for the action sequences are stupendous. The old library for example is an epic mix of fantasy and post-apocalyptic sci-fi that you just don't see everyday. The roof-top battle with the Queen’s agents feels like something from the matrix and chase sequence with the Jabberwock… I could go on!
8. Nick Willing – The director who brought us Tin Man, is not only the brains behind the look and feel of this epic tale, but he is also the words and the creative genius. For a writer without that much experience Willing spins an excellent yarn, that coupled with his creative vision helps Alice to feel like a cohesive story, with rich characters and interesting plots. 
9. Flying Pink Mopeds that look like Flamingos – Where else will you find that?
10. One Off or Back Door Pilot? – I can list at least two shows that started on the Sci-Fi channel as just one offs and neither of them remained that way for long… Yes I am talking about Battlestar and Caprica. Will Alice too get itself a regular slot on the Sy-Fy channel? I don’t know… Admittedly Sci-Fi’s last venture into the literary remakes “TinMan” was never taken any further. On the other hand there is nothing else like Alice on any network that I’ve ever heard of, but can Sy-Fy really afford another big cast, special fx show when they already have Caprica and Stargate: Universe?

Whatever Sy-fy decide to do, Alice is certainly a brilliant reenvisioning of the classic for the modern age and while it has numerous problems, it scratches an itch we didn’t even know we had…

This has been My Two Cents, until next time…

 

10 Reasons Fox Might Have Been Right

***Warning Contains Major Spoilers for Season 1***

Lets get one thing straight right here and now. FOX cancelling Dollhouse right after the best freaking episode in the series is the second biggest mistake they ever made! Not only is Dollhouse awesome in its own right, but it may just be the best damn thing in  Joss Whedon’s canon!

What is that I hear you cry? Firefly? Yeah, I used to think so too, now I’m not so sure. Epitaph One changed everything about this show, it has so much unrealised potential and on a different network it may have even flourished. If I could have Firefly back in one piece or Dollhouse the decision would be more painful than ripping off my own arm but I think it would come down simply to timing. Right now the Dollhouse crew are fresh, they are ready to pick up where they left off, while Firefly’s crew is scattered across a dozen networks. Dollhouse too has a lot of story to tell, while, with Firefly, you have already concluded much with the film Serenity. If you had asked me last year, right after Dollhouse finished, I would have bitten your hand off if it meant I could have Firefly back, now is a different story…

But that is not what this post is about. This is 10 reasons why FOX might have been right to scrap “Echo” for “Ghost”. For those of you who don’t know, “Echo” was the title of the unaired pilot for Dollhouse. FOX declined the pilot and requested Joss write something they wanted to air and for once, they may have been right…

1. Narrative – When I watched Echo, I thought to myself, where did FOX get off scrapping this, it’s infinitely better than that drivel they forced Joss to write, however, after watching Ghost again I realised, actually, it’s not. The story told in Echo covers too much ground from a narrative view point. Ghost covers just enough. We learn a small amount about the Dollhouse, a small amount about the actives and a small amount about Paul Ballard’s investigation, all while we are told an interesting and involving story.
2. Paul Ballard – In “Echo”, Ballard is possibly the most developed character. While in “Ghost” he remains an enigmatic shadow. We don’t really know who he is, how far he is willing to go to find the Dollhouse and most importantly of all he doesn’t meet Echo!
3. Baby Steps – Rewriting the Pilot allowed Joss to spread out information over several episodes, all the information we are given in “Echo” comes throughout the opening couple of episodes of the series instead. This gave a greater significance to the reveal that Victor was a Doll. It allowed us to wonder when, if ever, would Ballard find Caroline and if he did would he, could he help her.
4. The Cold Open - “Echo” opens with an introduction to what Dolls are. This is useful I guess for non-Whedon fans, or those without an internet connection or those without eyes maybe, but for most of us, we knew what the show was about long before it aired… I mean, like, waaaaaaaaay before. The opening for “Ghost” however was much more effective (even if I didn’t realise it first time around.) It was much more “Joss”, giving us questions without answers and yet managing to fill in just enough blanks to help us get by.
5. More than just a pilot – The aim of a pilot is little more than to introduce the world, the characters, the core concept of the show. What Joss managed to do with “Ghost” was to do all that and yet tell a one shot story too. Ghost didn’t ask the viewer to return, it was a story, plain and simple, a story in a greater, more interesting story, but you could just walk away at the end of it. Which I guess could be why so many people did. However “Echo” was just an introduction. Looking back at it now, it never broke out from the internal world of the Dollhouse. It dealt purely with Ballard’s investigation into the Dollhouse, it was, about the Dollhouse, it was not a story in the world of the Dollhouse, it was a mythology episode, it tried to engage us, to invite you into the world of the Dollhouse and while that was a worthy endeavour, I doubt it was an invite the public at large would have accepted.  
6. Sierra and Victor – The entrances for both these characters improved dramatically. While Victor’s dual identity was revealed almost instantly in  “Echo” it took weeks to be revealed because of the way Ghost unfolded. In fact, I remember thinking that Victor was only a recurring guest star, not even realising he was one of the main cast. While Sierra’s entrance was changed significantly. In “Echo” she was already a Doll, already with attachments to Victor and Echo. In Ghost we first she her crying out in pain as she is “broken in” by Topher and his team. Then the next time we see her she guns down two kidnappers with River-like accuracy, seriously cool!
7. The Little Things – Ok so I’ve kinda said they spread stuff out, but they also changed a few important details. For example in “Echo” Boyd requests Topher perform a remote wipe on Echo. Topher tells Boyd that a remote wipe if iffy, but he doesn’t say he can’t do it. However, in Dollhouse as we know it, he can’t do it by season 2. Why is this minor detail important? Because I believe remote wipes hold the key to the future we see in Epitaph One. Removing this element from the pilot, to me, seems to have altered the show at its foundations, perhaps without intending to. 
8. Alpha – The closing moments of “Ghost” give the audience potentially more food for thought than those of “Echo”. While the latter merely hints at Echo becoming self-aware (a scene that is later planted straight into a another episode) the former reveals an “eyes only” document on Alpha and a rather disturbing, intriguing scene with a naked man and a video of Caroline. A man we later learn is non-other than Mr Lawrence Dominic. Of the two, the former is certainly more of an attention grabber than the latter. After all, in “Echo” we already know who Caroline is, Ballard has already met her and we also know that Alpha cut up Whiskey, but in Ghost we know none of this. We don’t even know the name Caroline, while all we know of Alpha is the name!
9. High Octane – Ultimately FOX was looking for a pilot that opened with a bang. It the reason they scrapped “Serenity”, the character driven pilot for Firefly and replaced it with “The Train Job” a story about a high speed train robbery involving space faring cowboys. The same is true of “Ghost”. There are gunfights, kidnapping and bike racing. It’s adrenaline pumping stuff, with enough character development thrown in to keep Joss from picking up his ball and going home. While Echo is all about the characters, even with Echo shooting Ballard, a truly shocking endgame for a brilliant episode, it just doesn’t have the same exhilarating feel that “Ghost” has.
10. You need one last reason? Well how about this, we lucky DVD owners get 14 episodes of Dollhousy goodness instead of 13!

All that said, “Echo” is an excellent episode, one that probably deserves its own post on here one day. Some brilliant lines have been lost to the extras section of a DVD release but at least we can have them now and treasure them. I hope that with the back to back airings of Dollhouse in December we can make our presence known and convince FOX to change their minds. But if not, then I hope Joss can at least get the rights to produce a couple of TV movies to really finish this awesome show, the way it was meant to be finished!

By the way you can find my original thoughts on Dollhouse here.

This has been My Very Sad and F***ed Off Two Cents… Long Live the House!

10 Reasons to Bring Back Chris Carter

For 9 seasons the X-Files told us that Aliens were coming to invade Earth and in the dying seconds of the final episode we discovered the horrifying truth that they were coming in 2012. Now that is an awesome revelation, but only if you back it up with a show about the actual invasion.

So I here by give Mr. Carter one year’s notice to bring us 2012 (the series) to start January 2011. Why would I want this show? It’s certainly not because I was an X-files fanboy, sure I’ve seen them all maybe 3 or 4 times each but I wasn’t a “fan”. So why then? Let me give you 10 reasons…

1. New Cast – Firstly, we don’t need this to be a revamped X-files show, although guest stars would be welcome. A new, preferably ensemble cast would great, allowing the X-files mythology to be fully explored without any pesky baggage.
2. Returns are all the rage – In recent times, reinventing old Sci-Fi’s has become fashionable. Just look at Battlestar Galactica, V and Stargate. The new millennium belongs to the Geek and the Geek loves Sci Fi. 
3. 1 Year before they came – The series could start in 2011 and give us a year to live under the threat of invasion, growing to love the characters as they try and prepare the earth for an alien invasion.
4. Improvements in CGI – Some might say that the X-files was really the mother of modern SFX shows. Now would be the time for Carter to return and make the most out of the special effects his show helped to birth.
5. Good Company – A few years ago I bemoaned the death of Sci-fi as the number of shows dropped to single figures. Now that reality TV is finally in the throes of death, Sci-Fi has been permitted to return. Dollhouse, Stargate, Caprica, Flash Forward, Lost and more are all bringing in the big viewing figures… Well maybe not Dollhouse but you get the picture.
6. Great Writers – With the end of Supernatural and Lost happening this year and the probably death of Dollhouse, a whole batch of great, intelligent writers will soon become available.
7. Box Office Success – The recent outing of the X-Files mythology managed to gross almost $69 million. A reasonably respectable figure and one that shows the X-files story is clearly not over in the hearts of the fans.
8. A New Generation – It’s been more than 15 years since the X-files was born, now there are children in the world who don’t know about the black oil or the cigarette smoking man, will you really leave them to become ignorant of shape shifting bounty hunters and triangular spaceships? There is also a new generation of sci-fi, a better breed of science fiction, started by Farscape and propagated by Battlestar Galactica amongst others. We can rebuild the X-files, stronger, faster, better than it was before…
9. Think of the Fans – The Truth was meant to satisfy the fans, to give them answers, but without actions the answers are meaningless. Sure we know you said “2012” but how do we really know it’s “The Truth”? Like you said, Mr. Carter, “The Truth is Out There…” We just need someone like you to show it to us.
10. Because I want to watch it – And that should be a good enough reason for anyone!

Ok, so I know it’s not a real 10 Reasons post, but seriously, don’t you think this would be kinda cool? Plus, who knows, in 2012 someone might work out how to resurrect the Lone Gunmen?! *please*

10 Reasons to Watch Supernatural

Supernatural is a show that passed me by almost completely for the first three years of its five year stint, that was until last year when I ordered Season 1 – 3 from Amazon, I think I paid £23 pounds total which was excellent value. (Currently in My Store at £28.47)
Season 5 started last Thursday over on CW, although I have yet to start watching season 4 on DVD. As with my last 10 reasons post, which encouraged non-sci-fi geeks to give Battlestar a go, this post is aimed at those who naturally shy away from the Horror genre. So here goes…

1. Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles. If you watch this show for no other reason, then watch it for this pairing. The ladies will find these two endearing, while the men can enjoy their shoot first ask questions later approach. As with the x-files, Supernatural relies solely on two cast members and I doubt if casting has ever been more successful than this. Sam and Dean (Jared and Jensen) are certainly more convincing as siblings than say, David and Wayne Palmer or Ross and Monica Gellar and their on screen relationship is an excellent source of tension and humour.
2. Love, Bullets and Blacktops – As a product of the world famous Warner Brothers outfit, Supernatural looks awesome. The Chevrolet Impala they drive everywhere in is a thing of beauty, even for non-petrol headed geeks like me. The show is action packed, filled with sawn-off, salt flinging, shotguns, wooden stakes, silver knives and lots      and lots of holy water. Demons, Ghost, even the occasional Zombie, all beautifully rendered with top-notch CGI and special FX.
3. The Laughs – The beauty of Supernatural, like its predecessors Buffy, Angel, the X-Files, is that the writers and producers are not afraid to laugh at themselves. Season 2 in particular features episodes which take a comical view of the show and the nature of the genre. However, the reason that this show can do that is because of the integrity, ingenuity and intelligence that forms the backbone of the writing. And like Buffy and Angel and the X-Files, much of the humour is derived from the intimate partnership that Jared and Jenson form. Their brotherly companionship and camaraderie is top notch.  
4. The Screams – Running parallel to the laughs are the frightening horrors that Sam and Dean face in their daily  fight against evil. Unlike the other shows I’ve mentioned so far however, Supernatural is a “no holds barred” show when its comes to frightening our pants right off. However unlike the Horror films we see at the pictures Supernatural focuses its attention on detail, stories and relationships, rather than on what might be considered “scary” or worse “cool”.  
5. The Plot – Without giving too much away Supernatural is a show about two brothers who go in search of the Demon that killed their mom, fighting spirits and saving as many lives as they can along the way. Within that, each season has a self contained plotline that forms a part of the greater  mythology of the show and unlike, for example, the X-files, there are not “Mythology” episodes and “Monster of the Week” episodes, but instead the mythology is interwoven into every episode. This overarching plotline is truly epic and because the show features only two main cast, it always directly affects them.
6. Monsters of the Week – Because Supernatural doesn’t lump all its Mythology into one episode its reasonably easy to dip into and out of if you just fancy a little bit of light-hearted Horror. All the episodes conclude the story they start within 45 minutes, so as a casual watch Supernatural is excellent, although I highly recommend watching it all! 
7. The Creative Team – Ok so I’ve mentioned the X-files quite  a bit so far and here’s why. Kim Manners and John Shiban, sound familiar? They were both producers on the X-files, with Manners directing 52 episodes (more than any other series director) while Shiban wrote 24 of the 201 episodes. To me Supernatural feels like the show the X-files should have been. Add to this Ben Edlund, writer and producer on Angel, Firefly and the under-appreciated Point Pleasant. Ben wrote the episode Trash for Firefly, which ranks amongst my top three episodes, as well as Smile Time for Angel, which was my favourite episode of all time. Throw in the creative genius of Eric Kripke, series creator and writer on 83 episodes and you have a recipe for success, sprinkle with David Nutter and Sera Gamble and serve with a big budget!
8. The Squigglies – The writing on Supernatural is brilliant. The shows ability to mix humour and horror, whilst delivering a depth of human character is just spell-binding. The central theme for the show is often revenge, after all that is what sets Sam and Dean on their quest. Unfortunately vengeance is one of the most alienating of character motivations. However the writers on Supernatural always manage to walk the fine line that keeps the spirit of the show true to the original vision, without alienating the audience. The writers take us on an emotional journey filled with joy and sadness, love and loss, fear and anger, companionship and betrayal. They are not afraid to push the boundaries and think outside the box, putting Sam and Dean in situations where they must choose the lesser of two evils.
9. The Supporting Cast – As good as Jared and Jenson are   (and they really are) they would be nothing without the supporting cast. Geoffrey Dean Morgan (Watchmen) plays their absentee father, hell bent on destroying the demon that killed his wife. While the demon is brought to life by Fred Lehne (The Marshal from Lost). The undeniably beautiful Alona Tal (Cane) features as the amateur hunter Jo, while Jim Beaver (Harper's Island) plays supernatural’s answer to Giles in the role of the all-knowing Bobby Singer. Joining them is a whole host of guest stars; Amy Acker (Angel), Julie Benz  (Dexter), Tricia Helfer (BSG) and so many more.
10. Yes, reason 10, well, I know there was one, but you know, it seems to have slipped my mind… ;)

Well, that is My Two Cents, remember that Supernatural Season 5 is now airing on Thursdays on the CW. 

All of This has Happened Before… But Not Quite in the Same Way!

Last week I talked about Caprica, the new spin off from Battlestar Galactica. However, now, I have finally watched the last episode of the parent series and I wanted to write something, to express my love for the show. I’ve been pondering though, how to start, because as I said last week, I came to this show with a sceptical view on the merits of a reboot of a show I had never had any interest in and I’m sure I’m not the only one.

The truth is that Science Fiction, as a genre, generates a preconceived response from a significant portion of the population. “I don't like Sci Fi.” Throw in the fans of the old series who doubt the credibility of a new series that dares to change even the most minute detail and you have a dwindling fan base. So how did it survive four years on air? By being frakkin’ awesome, that’s how.

So, what I thought I would do, rather than take the plot of four years and write it all out, I would instead do a tribute to the creators Ronald D More and David Eick and all the cast and crew of Galactica, while hopefully tempting those amongst my readership with the affore mentioned preconceptions to overlook them and dip their big toe in the ever shifting waters of Sci Fi.

This post, I promise, is spoiler free, it focuses purely on the nature of the show rather than specific plot details. However before we start, just a quick lowdown for those who don’t know the premise of the show.

About 50 years ago: Man created the Cylon, a robot that would effectively be a slave to mankind. However man was too clever for his own good and the Cylons rebelled. After a bloody war they vanished without a trace.

Present Day: The Cylons returned in human form and destroyed the 12 homeworlds of humanity, only a handful of the original population escaped aboard a starship known as Galactica. Hoping to evade the Cylons they begin their quest, searching for a new home, called Earth…

If you look at Battlestar from a distance the show may seem strange. It looks directionless, a floppy floundering behemoth of a series with both dedicated fans and outraged cynics. BSG will start storylines only to apparently abandoned them, offer explanations which seem to contradict all that we know to have gone before and the creators appear to be just as lost as the characters in the show.

However, when you look at this show from a distance, with an objective eye, you miss out on what makes this show so special, the people! There is a reason why BSG will run with a storyline only to dash it to pieces after weeks of alluding to its relevance, they do it because that is real life. We can’t know what will happen in our own lives and yet we see meaning in the patterns that surround us. Imagine then, that you were one of the last survivors of a holocaust that wiped out humanity, would you not believe that you had been spared for a reason, that you had a special destiny?

And yes, sometimes BSG feels like it is just humming along, but directionless, without a conductor to lead it. It does seem that it doesn’t know where it is going, but that is what the show is all about! Humanity has been annihilated and is floating through the universe in search of a mythical home, Earth, the characters in the show certainly don’t know where they are going, they don’t know who to trust or which of their friends might turn out to be a cylon. Then the fact that the writers and creators themselves don’t know these things works massively in their favour. They can play about, throw all manner of foreshadowing and allusion at us but in the end when they know something, we know something and that is a very different format for a show indeed.

Is BSG an original idea? Certainly not, for a start it is a reboot of an old series. The idea that man creates machine, machine destroys man has been around since the very first day we turned on a light bulb. The concept that our enemies are living amongst us could not be more pervasive in modern culture than it is right now with the “War on Terror” at is peak. Even the approach BSG takes is not original. For example Firefly showed the world that science fiction could exist without monsters and that it could be clever and witty, while Farscape showed us how dark and mind-bendingly twisted the genre can go without losing a fanbase.

So, it’s confusing, unoriginal, the creators have no direction and yet somehow I think you should watch it? Why? Because none of that matters. It doesn't matter that a show called Battlestar Galactica existed back in the seventies and just because Farscape opened the door to the darkside doesn’t mean we shouldn’t walk through that door again. So, here goes then, ten reasons to watch BSG:

1. The Cast: This show is cast brilliantly. Beautiful ladies, hunky men (if you’re into that kinda thing ;) ) and brilliant acting.
2. The Writing: The writers on this show have amazing talent, they have the ability to make you care about the characters, even the enemy!
3. The Effects: The special effects on BSG are brilliant and unlike most Sci Fi shows they don't just reuse the same shots over and over.
4. A Dedication to Style: The thing about BSG that really leaves an impression on you is just how dedicated Moore and Eick are to retaining the style of the show. Many shows start out with an idea “Lets shoot it this way…” and over time it either gets dropped or it becomes so in your face that you don't want to watch it anymore. BSG however remains true to its style throughout it’s run. The freestyle camera work with snap zooms bring to life this gritty, almost documentary style show, helping to ground it firmly in reality, despite how distant it is from any reality we know. And this dedication extends right across the show, everything from the way the characters are portrayed, to the effects, to changing the title sequence every single episode.
5. The People: Above everything else BSG is about people, it is about social interaction, professional interaction. It places people in impossible situations and asks them to choose the right path and the best bit? The people are far from infallible, they make a lot of wrong moves. Even if you don’t like science fiction, if you like good drama then BSG is for you!
6. Consequences: One thing I have always disliked about old sci fi shows, like for example Next Generation, is the one shot nature of it. There is a problem, they solve it, end of story. With shows like Farscape we moved beyond this method of storytelling, we began to crave series-long arcs for our characters, for each decision they make in the show to have far reaching consequences and that is what we get with Battlestar.
7. Mystery and Mythology: Battlestar has a very rich mythology for both the humans and cylons and that is something that really shines in the show. In fact the exploration of the cultural past of the two factions often takes a front seat and drives the narrative forward. Mystery too is there in reams, for a start the bad guys look human, they could be anyone, even the writers didn’t know who was a cylon when they started. All good drama revolves around mystery, just look at Lost, and BSG delivers it in spades.
8. It’s dark: It's nice to sit down and watch a light hearted comedy that demands nothing of you as a viewer, but it is not as engaging as a show that isn’t afraid to go to dark places, to make hard decision come to life and feel real right before your eyes. BSG is full of those moments where you have to ask yourself “They didn’t just do that?” only to reply, “Yes they frakkin’ did!”
9. But it’s fun: And right alongside those dark moments you have those jovial moments, those moments of extreme camaraderie, those righteous moments where people stand up for their beliefs, those moments where you are rewarded for surviving through the hard times.
10. It’s Real: Yes they are on a space ship and they use octagonal paper but BSG is one of the most down to earth, real sci fi shows around. While Farscape thrived on amazing creatures and cultures and Firefly was wonderful escapism BSG is real life, real situations. The characters are all flawed, some are so flawed that they cannot be redeemed (and yet…), no one is invincible, they can all die. The ship is a relic, a museum, retired from active service, not the pride of the frontline, every day is a struggle just to survive. And yet, instead of this realism bringing the down the show and making it a hard slog, it remains full of life, fully engaging with your emotions, taking you on a hair raising ride through a series of events that seem neither convoluted nor orchestrated, in other words, it’s life, but not as we know it.

So there you have it, just ten of a thousand reasons to watch this show, this show that is no longer on the air… but is available on DVD at Amazon or through My Store (exactly the same but I get 5% instead of Amazon :P) I hope, even if I have not endeared you to buy this series, that at least I have opened your mind to science fiction, the ever changing genre… This has been My Two Cents…

Coming next week a blast from the past (2006) Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip…

***A Quick Note: The Seasons 1-4 Boxset curently available through Amazon is not the complete series, I will make a post when that boxset is available, which will probably be after the Tv Movie and final special, The Plan airs in Novemeber***