What I’m watching: Big TV roundup

September 24th, 2008

I’ve been meaning to write up my thoughts on a bunch of TV shows that I’ve been watching of late, with the writer’s strike well behind us the light is beginning to flicker again on the screen.

I will do my best to avoid spoilers, but you know how it is, I could inadvertently let something slip.

True Blood

Oh wow I love this show, I wasn’t going to watch it originally but there was a bit of a drought the week that it started and I figured why not, I can watch a vampire show.  I don’t normally go into vampire related stuff as I’m not a big fan of the Anne Rice direction that vamps have gone in of late.

This show is amazing, it’s really interesting, the characters are all intriguing and it’s keeping me guessing.  It’s just really well made, it has set up its atmosphere quicker and better than any show where the town is such an important aspect of the tone of the show.

Fringe

X-Files has a successor, it’s from the guy who brought us Lost and is bringing us Star Trek.  There’s a lot of love in this room right now for a bunch of shows and none more so than Fringe.  I loved The Night Stalker, I actually grew up with that show and when X-Files came along and I loved that show too (for a few seasons).

Now Fringe has come and filled the place in my heart (sorry never got into Supernatural though I do plan on watching it) and two episodes in and I’m hooked.  The old professor is just simply brilliant and fun, and it’s nice to see Pacey doing so well on TV again.

90210

It gets two more episodes to convince me, it has already fallen off my cousin Larry list because they are fast tracking the show so we’re only a week behind and I can dodge spoilers for this fairly well.  No I do not believe that he is the father of Kelly’s child, it doesn’t make sense and he wouldn’t have run off like that.  I doubt we’ll ever see him back on the show either.

House

I’m watching the first episode of the new season as I write this, he is more annoying this season, I’m sick of the petulant child routine, can’t he just be brilliant and simply uber smug?  Doubt I’ll watch this regularly again.  God he just went home in protest of Wilson leaving, his patient is dying, this show really kind of sucks…

Stargate Atlantis

Yaaawn. After a really cool first episode the show has begun a slide, my attention has waned since hearing about the cancellation.  It doesn’t seem to be going anywhere though I did like the episode the other week where we got a little insight into the politics behind the Wraith.  I’ll keep watching but I doubt I’ll mourn the passing as much as I did Enterprise’s.

Entourage

They’re back bitches!  Last season felt tired to me and when I heard that Don was making a comeback I really didn’t have much hope for the show.  But the first three episodes have put me completely at ease and reminded me why I love this show.  After such a long absence they have really come back with renewed energy.  Plenty of Aquaman references and you all know how much I dig Aquaman.

Boston Legal

I’m still watching the non-fast-tracked episodes from last season and probably will wait to see if they start showing the new season straight away.  I love Spader and Shatner in this but I’ve got a feeling that the next and final season was probably the right time to end it, the characters seem to be in a bit of a holding pattern showing only occasional hints of their brilliance.  I hope for this next season they will bring out the big guns of story telling and give Denny Crane the right send off.

I read that this is the last season of E.R. coming up too, they apparently want to bring back as many originals as possible to celebrate including Clooney, I really hope they do all come back and I’ll watch, I’ll definitely watch that!

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Stargate Atlantis Cancelled

August 22nd, 2008

I woke up this morning to some really unexpected news, unexpected, unwelcome and generally confusing (actually more than one piece of news but the other piece is unrelated).   Apparently they are cancelling Stargate:Atlantis in favour of making tv movies.

It was just hitting its stride!?   It feels like Enterprise all over again.   Show finally starts showing a little more promise and then they pull the plug.

SGA and I had our differences, there were a lot of filler episodes, but all the pieces were there.   Great cast, pretty good special effects (great for TV) and a premise that I thought interesting.   They just had to write more compelling stuff on a regular basis, because when an episode was good it was bloody good!

It’s OK though, the studio tells us, because they’re going to make ‘movies’ and tell SGA stories in a larger canvas.   If the SG1 ‘movies’ are anything to go off I look forward to one or two long episodes in the coming year.

Wasn’t it SciFi who cancelled Farscape?

With BSG folding too I’m not sure where this leaves television science fiction at this time.   I guess Fringe and Dollhouse are coming but it’s not really the same as a space show.   Maybe I’ll go watch some Eureka.

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Another reason to look forward to the Stargate Atlantis season five premiere

June 24th, 2008

It’s really entertaining.

I managed to get a sneek peak at the first episode for season five Stargate Atlantis and I have to say (whilst attempting to overcome every fanboy urge) that it is everything I hoped for.

The best thing that I’m happy to report on is that there is some sign of character growth, at the very least there is a nod to events of the past that don’t relate solely on resolving the current story.

There’s some neat action, an introduction to some new characters and of course stuff happens (which can’t always be said of SGA).

There is a cameo that truely surprised and delighted me.

I’m bursting to talk details but I’m not giving away anything so your going to have to wait a couple of weeks and then come back and then we’ll talk!

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One reason I’m eagerly awaiting the return of Stargate Atlantis

June 9th, 2008

So some days I don’t really sing Stargate Atlantis’ praises, often I don’t think it deserves them and I wonder why I’m still watching, habit is the usual explanation I come up with, that and the odd glimmer of hope that the show will improve and the characters will be allowed to grow.

I like the show in general, I’m just not excited by it.   But I could be.

This next season is going to be the one that turns it all around for me, it’s going to be awesome because it is ready to take chances and to shake things up.

I’m sure it is.

Robert Picardo as WoolseyOne of the things that I think could be a really interesting aspect of the story is that Richard Woolsey is apparently taking command of the expedition.   I think this is actually a good idea as the character is neither scientist or military.   I hope the character steps up and adapts to the new role.   Robert Picardo is pretty good no matter what he’s in so I have no fear of the acting abilities.

There are other interesting things coming up for season five but I said ‘one reason’ and I’ll stick to that for now.

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Previously on Stargate Atlantis

March 2nd, 2008

Previously on Stargate Atlantis: not much happened, characters didn’t develop, some were removed in fairly blasé fashion and they swapped planets.

Me personally I watched SGA out of habit and there isn’t any other science fiction currently running (well there is but not enough to fill my weekly quota).     That was the case right up until the ultimate episode of mediocrity when three of them were stuck in a hole, an episode I might add that I am not alone in picking on.

Then a beautiful thing happened.   Tealc showed up from SG1 with a coll new hairdo and went on a Die Hard run with Ronan.   Cool.   I enjoyed that.

Then last week the episode started off as I always expect, slow.   But then stuff started happening, an old foe returned and then in the last minutes of the episode an old friend made an appearance.

Stargate Atlantis

I was shocked, I actually wanted to see the next episode if only to see if my clone theory panned out.   Which it did, but I’m not upset by that.   It is a clever way of returning a character that you probably shouldn’t have killed off in the first place.

McKay continues to shine and Ronan had a brief flirtation with character growth!?

Then this episode arrives and we have pathos and drama and guest appearances and resolutions and beginnings of new threads and I’m actually interested, no, I’m looking forward to seeing the next episode.

See I don’t always have to put SGA down!!

*Update - I just found out next week is season finale and saw the trailer.   I am most definately keen to see!!!!!

Check out the season finale trailer!

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New on Stargate Atlantis - three people in a hole

February 12th, 2008

Yeah there are spoilers ahead, I suppose, I mean it’s Stargate Atlantis so not too much will happen, maybe they’ll talk about missing socks in this episode?

Well we haven’t quite gotten to that stage in this wonderful looking but ultimately stale science fiction show.  Not yet but I can’t imagine it being far off.

In the latest episode (and I honestly can’t generate enough energy to look back at the title) we have two underused characters and one possibly overused one fall into a hole in a drop that would kill anyone.  I mean anyone falling that far is going to break something at the very least - that’s if you are stretching things.

Carter, Kaylee (or whatever her name is in this - she’s the replacement doctor) and McKay push crates around in a very Tomb Raider style sequence that involved stacking them to climb out of said hole until Carter falls off them and once again doesn’t actually hurt herself.

Third time is a charm with her falling once again but this time during a tremor and then she clean breaks her leg.  Oh man, I know this is science fiction but am I to believe that the first two times she fell from an impossible height that she just rolled properly?

There is a sequence though at the start that made me love Carter a little more than before, she reacted really well to a crisis and snapped a couple of orders at the doctor that were essentially the exact way to react in the given situation.  Very commanding and believable.

Of course this good work is undermined when she is so totally socially inept that she suggests two physicists in a game of who would you fool around with.  Apparently she is also a Clooney gal.  I always assumed she was a lesbian, she just gives off that vibe in my mind, I mean there’s nothing wrong with that she just doesn’t seem straight to me.  But I’m sure I’m wrong - no one else thinks it so it’s just me.

The other highlight is McKay trying to explain why he said Carter had a perfect body in what is once again a complete and utter balls up of his character.  The dude has been shot at, hell I think he has been shot, he knows how to deal with other people by now.

The actors are all great, don’t get me wrong!  They all work with what they got.

Thank god the writer’s strike may be coming to an end and maybe some other science fiction will come along and show SGA how to do it.

Sigh, Farscape how I miss you every single day.

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Stargate Atlantis: stale characters

February 5th, 2008

Stargate AtlantisI’ve complained in the past that whilst I recognise that Stargate Atlantis is technically good as in it looks good, has special effects that don’t look like key chain kung fu guy did them and some interesting concepts. But I still found it boring and couldn’t quite say why that is.

It did occur to me today after watching the last three episodes what it is about the show that makes me yawn. It’s the reset button that they use every episode.

In a show like The Simpsons very little changes to maintain a status quot that the viewers are already familiar with and every show resets for the next. Atlantis doesn’t quite do this with their plot lines or their environment (well maybe their environment but I’ll come back to that).

At the end of every episode the core characters are reset to their original state. So nothing that happens to them will change the way they will act or react (which does not mean acting again) in future episodes. In fact they may act totally in the opposite direction that their experiences have brought them.

Now there may be spoilers for those who don’t visit… ahem cousin Larry to watch their Stargate episodes earlier than the two or three year wait for two o’clock in the morning showings that Australia tends to offer. If you wish to remain pure and unsoiled about events happening in the Atlantis universe you should sod off now.

Of course if you do decide to stay it’s not like anything I’ll say now will really impact the show because it’s not like any of the characters are going to change from one episode to another.

Rodney McKayDr McKay whom I may add has grown on me in that past four years decides to propose to his long suffering girlfriend. Instantly this had my attention. They’re going to add this dynamic to the show that hasn’t been in here before. A married couple? It certainly didn’t hurt Firefly and would add an interesting new group dynamic on the show. By the end of the show however they manage to get McKay to change his mind and call the whole engagement off. Also there were a couple of other hints at romance between other characters (all except Sheppard and Teyla which in my mind is disappointing) and nothing here is hinted at in the two later episodes I watched so I won’t bother wasting any more space on them.

So McKay decides he doesn’t want to get married, fine but then in the very next episode he calls dibbs on the ‘pretty sister’ without seeing her. Yeah I guess he really wasn’t ready to devote himself to the woman that he has been in love with and dating for the past year (Longer? I don’t know).

Now Sheppard’s father has died and he has to go back to Earth and face the fact that no one has known where he’s been for four years. Will the passing of his father have an effect on him as we go into the next couple of episodes? No I doubt it.

The best episodes of DS9 where towards the end when the powers that be focused on Voyager (who generally suffers the same fate) and the DS9 guys could write continuing story arcs that affected the characters and changed them. It’s what made such hits out pretty much nothing with the O.C. and Dawson’s Creek. Thin events but focused on the characters growing, Atlantis has epic events happening but no character growth.

It does seem that removing characters though is one form of growth that the writers have employed though with a couple of favourite characters dying, disappearing or becoming replicators.

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