Dollhouse on DVD

Hurrah! At last Dollhouse sees its Uk DVD release today. Whilst surfing over at Amazon I found this review that I thought I’d share with you guys…

Ok, so the series starts off with Joss Whedon, celebrated writer-director-composer, except no-one wants to work with him, then he has a hit web show and he catches the attention of the dark and shadowy Fox Corporation. Fox wipe Joss's brain to make him forget that he worked for them before when they became mortal enemies.

So now Fox can make Joss do whatever they want, everyday they activate Joss and set him to work making a television series for them called Dollhouse. Everything works out fine for them. The show is flashy, cool, sexy, confusing, humourless, disconnected and unengaging. Without the real Joss to complain Fox don't even have to spend much cash on it. But can the technology Fox has used really remove all of a person's memories, their sense of self, their soul?

As he works from episode to episode it becomes apparent that Joss starts to remember who he is, but knowing he shouldn't draw attention to this fact he keeps it to himself and works slowly to improve Dollhouse from within. From episode 6 `Man on the Street' flashes of brilliance begin to save the show, culminating in the superb episode 9 `A Spy in the House of Love', by now Dollhouse has become gripping, funny, dark and touching with an intelligent and complex storyline that has people thinking. Joss is even able to help other people taken over by Fox and makes Eliza Dushku realise that she is an actress.

By the end of the series we have been taken to a place we little imagined in the beginning. I won't give any spoilers but Dollhouse does end with Joss improbably winning renewal for a second series, this time will he be out to revenge himself on the people who did this to him and turn out a flawless piece of work from the start?

Well, it made me laugh! This release hopefully contains all twelve of the episodes FOX aired along with the original pilot and the unaired episode 13 Epitaph One and a bunch of other special features but until my copy arrives I can’t confirm that. As always you can buy it here in my store and remember season 2 starts 25th September.

Looking Back on 24

Anticipating a lot of down time on my recent family holiday (last year I managed to watch seasons 2&3 of Alias) I picked up a copy of 24 season 1 (I already owned 2 through 6). So I thought it would be interesting to do a post about looking back at 24 from a season 6 perspective.

I remember, nostalgically, tuning in week after week to watch as Mr Bauer struggled to save the world, while Mr. Palmer had a tiny crisis that no one cared about. (Ps. I have a huge respect for Mr Haysbert, but David Palmer was not exactly the bag of excitement that Jonas “Snake Doc” Blane was, was he?") And I remember watching the last moments of the series with shock and awe as Nina turns out to be a traitor and Teri Bauer turns out to be dead.

And now, I can’t see why. When it started out, the first 13 episodes were pretty exciting as Jack rescues Kim and Teri from the evil clutches of Ira Gaines.

It had the tension building episodes where they knew there was a mole but they didn’t know who. Is it Nina, is it Tony? No its the softly spoken Jamie who no one would have suspected. It was good and tense and Jamie’s suicide rounded that section out nicely. At the time it was like nothing else on the air.

We had Jack under the control of the baddies, who made him do things against his will, including shooting Nina and leaving her for dead. Jack was motivated with two clear goals, both of which were being obstructed by CTU and the bad guys, but we liked that right?

We had Kim, who, while nice to look at, was, and continued to be for the next two seasons, highly irritating. In fact, had Jack turned on the TV and seen how irritating she was being, he probably would have let Ira shoot her!

However, then we hit episode 14 and things began to fall apart. For a start, Jack spent this episode sat a table. First in the interrogation suite, then in the conference room, then back in the interrogation suite. Which after the high octane rescue in the previous episode left the show feeling flat, but at least it was still focused. The next ten episodes really began to wander off course as the show struggled to find plausible plotlines.

Teri and Kim were kidnapped, again. This time they escaped without Jack’s help. After a car explosion Teri looses her memory, but in show time, this memory loss is cured in hours, without a trip to hospital. Meanwhile Kim is taken prisoner, again, this time by the police, before being finally re-kidnapped (and then escaping again, without help.).

At CTU the cast repeat the earlier storylines of “Who is the mole?” now with George Mason being cast in the part. I don't think, in the history of 24, that the person everyone thinks is the mole, has ever actually turned out to be one. You’d think that an agency, founded to fight terrorism, would develop a better screening process to weed out double agents?

Meanwhile, Jack falls back under the influence of the bad guys, however this time he is a little more carefree about it, clearly Victor was less likely to kill his daughter than Ira.

This cyclic use of storylines riddles the second half of season one like a cancer. The character development is all over the place too. Tony switches sides, from CTU’s golden boy, to Jack’s best pal at the drop of a hat. Nina switches sides with no warning at all. In fact the only major character who suffers little in the way of character degradation is George Mason and because of that he is painted as a mole!

The real reason why 24 season 1 is so memorable is that shock moment when the clock strikes 10:59:57 when Nina is revealed as a double agent and then again when the clock turns 11:59:57 when Teri Bauer turns up dead. However, the reason Nina’s betrayal comes as a shock is because it makes no logical sense. She has been way too helpful! The final episode reveals that she was not working for Victor Drazen, still, she had enough invested in his release to compromise her cover, which begs the question, why did she go out of her way to help Jack? After all she put her job (and cover) on the line for him too! In fact, watching it knowing she is a traitor, forces you to look for those clues that point to her true nature. Those little signs were abundant in the first 8 or so episodes (when she was being painted as a possible traitor), a little glance here etc, but entirely absent from the last 11.

Add to this the fact that they shot an ending where Teri lived and you have a recipe for disaster. Had they aired that ending I’m not sure 24 would have survived past season 2.

Season 1 had some bad acting (Elisha Cuthbert can’t cry, period!), bad accents (Dennis Hopper) and bad editing (Check out the camera man in the episode entitled 07:00).

All that said, season1 gave birth to what we now know as 24. The high octane drama with the world’s most forgiving audience. Each new series has been filled with those great moments we find in the first half of this season. New stories (and some recycled old ones), a new cast (except for Jack.) and new special effects.

When I mentioned writing this review a friend of mine pointed out that it is only natural that the later seasons would be bigger (and better), it is just the nature of television. However, it is not the “bigger” that interests me so much as the “better”. Because of the expectations of the fans for 24 to deliver “heart stopping cliff hangers” and “impossible to predict twists” the writers have had to become very clever about how and when these occur, about the development leading up to them, and the final execution. That is something that season 1 created, but didn’t have as a driving factor.

Each subsequent series has had those “I can’t believe they did that moments” that season 1 laid the way for, but they have been much better integrated into the shows overall storyline. For example George Mason’s radiation exposure in season 2, or Ryan Chappelle’s execution by Jack in season 3, or the detonation of a nuclear device on US soil in season 5.

24 still has its problems, but it has become a show that is allowed to take risks, to go to places that other shows dare not tread and the more it does, the more the audience loves it in return. That is the legacy of season 1.

This has been My Two Cents…

Look out for season 7 in the My Two Cents Store on the 19th Oct

Ker-ching

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…