Coming This September

So its Tv time again and so I have done my research and I can bring you my guide for the end of the month…

ABC ‘s new series Flash Forward starts on the 24th, originally pitched as a companion to Lost it seems that ABC want to see if it can stand on its own feet first. John Cho, Sonya Walger and Jack Davenport are just three reasons I’m looking forward to this new sci-fi-esk show, the kind of mysterious drama we are beginning to expect from our Tv sets.

The fourth series of Heroes starts on the 21st and as yet I can’t tell you if it will be in two smaller chapters or one big one, but I can tell you that I’m looking forward to how they deal with the Nathan/Sylar issue.

The excellent Dollhouse returns on the 25th and I’ll be interested to see if it can stay afloat for another season. The information I have is that there will be 13 episodes but I wonder if FOX might extend that based on viewing figures to a full 22 episode series after christmas… (You realise this FOX Chris? They’ll probably cancel it before the first episode airs!)

Fox’s other sci-fi show Fringe starts on the 17th and they have a lot of explaining to do if a new audience is going to buy into the story.

Bones starts on the 17th as well, however I wont be tuning in as I’m still waiting on the third series to arrive on DVD, but for those of you keeping up to date with Angel’s… er…. I mean Booths travels with Temperance then you will be getting your fix soon.

The Cw’s Supernatural starts on the 10th and in my opinion one of the best shows of the last five years. However I’m still waiting for season 4 to be released in the slimline case so this one is off my watch list too!

For the Brits, Merlin is also due to start up again in September and Top Gear is due to return in November. Merlin in particular surprised me with its quality, especially after the terrible fall into depravity that was the latest series of Robin Hood. However Merlin will struggle to recover from the poorly executed series finale.

BSG: The Plan is due to air sometime in November, after the DVD release on October 27th and I can’t wait to get my Battlestar fix. I discovered the show only weeks after it was locked away in the dark cabinet forever and with a new release I feel like I can finally be part of the in-crowd…

The pilot for V is apparently due to air 3rd November, which seems odd as the rest of the series wont air for a significant time after that. I’ll keep you updated on this…

Caprica has been moved back to January, Day 8 of 24 will begin in January, along with Lost and hopefully Chuck, as well as Scrubs: Interns.

So that’s it. If I missed something let me know. If there is a show you think I should check out just comment on this post and I’ll do my best to get round to it.

This has been My Two Cents Tv Guide, not long to go now… :)

Studio 60

I’ve just finished watching the last episode, man this show is addictive. It’s wonderful from start to finish and I’m not just saying that, coincidentally, however, it is now available in the My Two Cents Store. Seriously, buy it, I just did and I loved every minute!

Click on the link below to visit the store.

Link

In the Loop

Ok, over the last couple of weeks I started watching Fox’s “The Loop” staring Bret Harrison (before he was in Reaper) and I’ll be honest, after watching the first season (7 episodes) I knew I wasn’t going to write about it because it just didn’t deserve it and here is why:

Primarily because it was made in 2006, there were only 17 episodes, total, across 2 series, Bret Harrison has gone on to do better things, Fox cancelled the show before the second season even aired and there are a ton of better examples of this kind of show.

If you don’t know the show, Bret plays a young airport exec called Sam. He has a crush on a girl called Piper, she doesn't realise. He attempts to balance his homelife, lovelife and worklife and succeeds with a miraculous 100% track record.

Each episode follows the same format. A problem is presented, Sam makes it worse, then he pulls it out of the bag at the last second. This format grew exceptionally tedious!

There are many more things to hate about the show. Phillip Baker Hall is straining so hard for laughs that you just want to feed him laxatives. His character is a poor imitation of Dr. Kelso from Scrubs, right down to the gay son. I don't think I laughed at him once. Amanda Loncar, who plays Sam’s love interest is terrible in this show. Even Bret is bad at times, with the show often relying on bad slapstick comedy for laughs.

There is however one saving grace and that is Joy Osmanski who plays Sam’s deadpan assistant Darcy. She is truly inspired and her character definitely needs supplanting into a new sitcom.

Now I watched the first seven episodes so it couldn’t be all bad and it isn't. There are plenty of laughs along the way but as I said, the love story thing and the young exec trying to succeed have all been done before and done better. Ross and Rachel, J.D and Elliot, it’s old hat but it’s old hat that has learnt to say “Bi-atch” and is wearing a gold medallion and that just doesn't work.

So, I said I wasn’t going to write about it, but clearly I am, why? Because something exceptionally strange happened to season 2.

They cut two of the main cast for a start! Piper and her room mate Lizzy, both gone, with no explanation. This takes a little while to adjust to and you find it hard to forgive the show for this, but it was the right decision, effectively they scrubbed the 1st season and pretended it never happened and it’s all the better for it.

With Piper gone the show shifts its focus to Sam’s job at the airport. Little changes here, except that Darcy gets a bigger role (she is awesome, pitch perfect every time.) and a whole new cast of office characters are introduced, including Sikander the muslim-esk character who is constantly pounced on by security despite working at the airline. The character of Sam’s brother Sully is relegated to the sidelines as the show attempts to work out exactly what to do with him, coming up with improbable ways for him to be involved in Sam’s work life.

The show still suffers from “Playing for Laughs” syndrome and it fails to get away from the slapstick element but it does begin to take brave steps in other directions. The copies of episodes I watched had to be censored for language and hand gestures with a viewer advisory notice before each one. The jokes become quite cutting and edgy (but not, unfortunately, cutting edge.) and you feel your politically correct centre welling up on the inside screaming “You can’t say that.” but on outside you’re laughing your socks off.

And that is the problem, the writers and producers took a standard “Boy Likes Girl” comedy and tried to turn it into something else. They make jokes about Tv Networks, even Fox, (the guys paying the bill). They make incredibly racist remarks. They make jokes about religion and sexual preference. It’s all very brave and some of it is quite funny, but in the end it is just too brave in all the wrong places. They would have done better to start over with a totally new concept, rather than use an existing platform and try and re-write it.

And so, while it remains an enjoyable 17 episodes, The Loop was always destined to end before it could take off. My recommendation? Watch season 2, have a laugh, worry if it’s PC. then consign it history and go watch Reaper…

This has been My Two Cents… keeping you in the Loop!

A Pilot with Perry

Ok, so I know what you’re thinking, we’ve been waiting a month for this, it better be damn good! I make no promises. So here we go, the pilot for Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.

Ok so, Studio 60 is a show about a failing comedy sketch show, whose executive producer finally snaps and airs some home truths live on air. Meanwhile a new network exec, Jordan, is hired to help save the failing network, beginning with its flagship comedy sketch show Studio 60.

Wes is quickly fired for his outburst and Jordan needs new talent to save the show, so she turns to Matt Albie and Danny Tripp.

The two writers used to work for the show but they “left”, now their feelings are hurt and they don’t feel like helping Jordan out, except that, predictably, they end up not getting much of a choice…

That’s the basic premise but I didn’t care about any of that, I tuned in for one reason and that was… Matthew Perry. Perry is a comic genius, he was the best thing about Friends and he was a great lead in films such as Three to Tango (mmm… Neve Campbell) and Fools Rush In (mmm… Salma Hayek), his guest appearance in Scrubs was side-splittingly funny and so, needing a new Perry fix, I turned on to Studio 60.

With that in mind I found myself, for the first twenty minutes (of a 46 minute pilot) frustratedly awaiting Matt’s appearance and I can’t be the only one. Obviously this is only a problem in the pilot but still it feels like a long time and I couldn’t really feel involved in the show until Mr. Perry showed up. This is true of all Tv and Film, knowing who is in it before hand can ruin your expectations for the show before you even turn it on.

So while I was waiting for Perry I missed the beautiful interplay between Amanda Peet’s character Jordan and the studio execs. This, in particular, is well done, I love the politics involved, the way that the network deals with things and the way that fresh-faced Jordan deliberately disobeys them. And as you watch her in action you can’t help thinking “If Fox had had a Jordan McDeere Firefly would still be on the air”

And that, I guess, is a fatal flaw. The truth is I doubt Jordan would survive five minutes in the world of Television Networks, a business that is ultimately controlled by which capitalist donates the most money during an ad-break. If we take The Tv Set as a fantasy example, we see that Jordan is the exact opposite of the traditional Tv Network Exec as depicted by Sigourney Weaver in that film. Instead of destroying the writers, caging their dreams and limiting their freedoms, she sets Albie and Tripp free. She even ends the pilot episode by ordering them to open their first show with the sketch that got Wes fired.

And it is that fantasy world, that imaginary character of Jordan McDeere, that fascinates me, that will keep me coming back to this show week after week. I can’t wait to watch her as she walks the fine line between satisfying the network and keeping on the talent she desperately wants to work with, Albie and Tripp.

The second problem I had with Studio 60 was that it’s not funny… I will qualify this, I’m not saying it is unfunny, but it is not the rip-roaring barrel of laughs I was expecting from a show with Matthew Perry. It makes you smile now and then, during his Chandler-esk (or should we call them Perry-esk) moments but it is not a laugh out loud show. Which is odd, because at its heart Studio 60 is not about Network rules and regs and board meetings, its about a comedy show and specifically two comedy writers.

I wouldn’t go as far to say that the creator Aaron Sorkin was deliberately avoiding jokes, but I think he was trying to avoid turning this intelligent idea into a farce. At one point Danny turns to Matt and says “You dont need me, you could get someone good.” Matt replies “I don’t want someone else, I want you.” Danny points out. “The joke was, I dont want someone good, I want you.” Matt offhandedly replies “I know where the joke was.” This I believe was a nod from Sorkin to let us know that he "”knows” where the jokes are and they will be a lot more subtle and a lot less clichéd than you may be used to.

Finally, I have one last pet peeve and that is the device that is used to propel the script along, the unseen sketch. At the top of the show we are told a sketch has been cut, we are told how excellent it is throughout the show until it closes with a promise of it being finally used, but we, the audience, never actually get to see it.

Naturally this is better than us seeing it because it would never live up to the hype, after all this sketch got Wes fired, but because of this you know way in advance that you will never see it and it is just a device to drive the plot. The payoff of the plotline, in fact, is not as you may expect that the sketch eventually gets used, but that instead is the reveal that it was written by Matt Albie.

All that said then the show has weak plot devices that we can see coming a mile off, it’s not funny and it has mystical characters we know don't exist in Tv Network Land. If all that is true, why did I bother to write this? Why slave away making it pretty with screen shots? Why will I watch episode 2 the moment I close this browser?

Why? Because this is an intelligent show with promise. It challenges the corporate world of Television. It offers us hope in a time when our favourite shows are under attack (Chuck, Reaper, The Unit, Dollhouse), it’s attractive (Amanda Peet) and quirky (Matthew Perry) and it was cancelled by NBC and they nearly cancelled Chuck in favour of Jay Leno, so clearly it’s got to be excellent!

This has been My Very Delayed Two Cents… Come back soon!

Jonas No More…

Don’t know how I missed this but while checking what date new  shows start next month I discovered that CBS has cancelled the special forces show, The Unit. Now, I was sure I read a couple of months back that season 5 had been green lighted so I was rather confused at this news but I could find nothing to contradict this so it looks like Snake Doc, Dirt Diver, Betty Blue and Cool Breeze have Walked the Fire for the last time.

For me this is a huge shame, although I spent much of the time being confused by the politics and military-speak of the show I still loved it. Season 3, cut short by the writers strike, was excellent and although Season 4 had some weaker storylines, such as the love affair and subsequent marriage of unit regular Charles ‘Betty Blue’ Grey, it was still exciting enough to keep me  coming back week after week. 

Without giving anything away, the final set of episodes which introduced Sam “Whiplash” McBride were both exciting and deep, however the final episode of the season was a little deflated and that is a shame for this show to go out like that. However, that flatness left The Unit in the perfect position to be transferred to film or a series of Tv Movies. What do I mean? There wasn’t a messy cliffhanger to resolve, but there were clear paths that the show could go in. The characters are well developed enough to take to film, but uncomplicated enough so as to draw in a new audience as well as old. The subject matter of the show is defiantly film worthy and the calibre of the acting is certainly better than most features I’ve seen of late.

Would anyone be interested in picking this show up as a film franchise? That is a question I can’t answer but we know the audience for war films is out there (just look at the success of Rambo 4 – Although some of that is due to the over-the-top gore that I abhorred) as well as the thirst for good scripts and great acting.

Whatever the case I wish David Mamet all the best and I hope to see Dennis Haysbert and the gang soon!

This has been My Sad Two Cents on the passing of another great show… 

I know, I’ve Been Bad

Ok, I promised an update and I haven’t delivered, however real life and various projects with deadlines kinda got in the way. Unfortunately to be able to keep posting I need to work and after six months with nothing I’m suddenly rushed off my feet.

So, over the coming weeks I hope to talk about various things. As promised I hope to bring you a Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip post, covering my thoughts on the pilot. I have a BSG original series pilot vs. new series pilot comparison planned. I plan to bring you a commentary on the Spielberg/Hanks production Band of Brothers and I want to talk about upcoming new shows and my thoughts on the upcoming schedule. Specifically I am looking forward to talking about The Plan (BSG Tv Movie), Caprica, and new for ABC the relaunch of V with Morena Baccarin and Alan Tudyk and Flash Forward, with John Cho and Jack Davenport!

Thanks for your patience and I’ll be back with you once my bank balance tips back in the black!

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***