Television
Wednesday, March 12th, 2008
by Jeff
I never managed to get invited to the private beta of Hulu, but I don’t have to wait anymore. Hulu went live this morning, and it’s pretty freaking sweet. Finally the television and movie studios are getting the idea. Sure, you have to watch it on your computer with a few short commercials, but there’s a ton of content available from full length movies to current and old television shows. You can even embed clips into your own site! I’m testing out the embedding feature myself, so please enjoy The Hoff in his return as Michael Knight in the new Knight Rider TV movie.
Wednesday, February 6th, 2008
by Jeff
From my new site for the soon to be launched video podcast This Awesome Show:
We might have an end to the writer’s strike if things go well this weekend when the Writer’s Guild of America debates a proposal to end the three month long walk off.
There’s still some I’s to dot and T’s to cross, but things are looking up for the first time in a while.
Has the writer’s strike even mattered to most viewers? A lot of the biggest shows like American Idol, Deal or No Deal, Survivor, and Dancing With The Stars don’t need writers. The only thing I’ve noticed is a shortened season of “Heroes” and “Lost” which just now restarted anyway. I’ve actually been catching up on some shows I wasn’t into before the strike like “The Shield” and the canceled “Firefly.” I’ve also been watching a lot more movies and video podcasts.
Even if they do manage to resolve this strike, it will take months for production companies to start churning out new shows. Networks would be foolish to run these new shows during the summer, so it seems like this season is a loss.
Striking writers to debate labor deal on Saturday – Yahoo! News
Monday, January 14th, 2008
by Jeff
Being a self proclaimed ultra-geek, it should go without saying that I’m a huge Star Wars fan. Being that I also am a fan of raunchy, politically incorrect humor, it should also go without saying that I’m a huge Family Guy fan. What happens when you put two great tastes together? Not only do you get a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup, you also get Family Guy – Blue Harvest. The hour long episode of Family Guy that kicked off the sixth season is the hands down, best Family Guy episode of all time.
I’ve got to really like a TV show to buy it on DVD, and as much as I like Family Guy, full seasons of it won’t find a place on my DVD shelf next to my copies of Star Trek The Next Generation, WKRP in Cincinnati, Saturday Night Live season 1, or Boston Legal. Some critics think it’s ridiculous to pay for one episode of a TV series, but I disagree. I’ve cleared a space on the rack to place this one in after I pick it up tomorrow. Why will I pay for this gem? This one scene:
Tuesday, December 11th, 2007
by Jeff
The episode before the big finale, and Dexter is having second thoughts. He actually has a kind of heart to heart with Doakes and is all set to turn himself in. Doakes of course thinks this is great and is all set to help Dexter when he goes to the police. Of course he is, because that means he won’t be framed for Dexter’s crimes.
Doakes does manage to escape his cage, but of course lands right in the boat of the guys coming to the cabin to pick up the drugs. Doakes says he’s a cop, which apparently is the only English they understand, and WHACK! He’s knocked unconscious. Dexter comes to the rescue and manages to feed the bad guys to the gators. "This is awkward" he says after Doakes thanks Dexter for saving his life. Yes Dexter, this is awkward. Debra and Lundy is awkward, Angel and Lila is awkward, and Dexter deciding to tell Debra he’s the Bay Harbor Butcher is awkward.
I never thought Dexter could make me laugh out loud. I never found Vincent’s foul humor funny, but Dexter imagining telling Debra he’s the butcher was the best humor this show has done yet. In his head, when Dexter says to Debra "I’m the Bay Harbor Butcher" she either jokes on her steak, screams "Get down on the ground mother fucker!!", breaks down in hysterics, or just pulls out her gun and shoots Dexter between the eyes. I had to rewind that sequence a few times because I was laughing so hard.
Wow, Lila is one sexy bitch! Not only does she enjoy being topless, she enjoys being psychotic! After she torched her place on purpose and tried to frame Angel by taking the date rape drug all in an attention starved plea for Dexter, I didn’t think there was anything left she could do. Now she breaks into Dexter’s mini-van while he’s out on the boat with Rita and the kids, and steals his GPS that contains all his previously visited locations!! Where does she end up? At the cabin with Doakes screaming for help. Oh….my…God…Becky!
So there’s one episode left, and the good news is there will be a third season. Even more good news is that the final episode got leaked on the Internet. I could do two things. I could be patient and wait until it airs Sunday, or do what every other Dexter fan is doing and download it and watch it on the XBox 360 with it’s recently added DivX and XviD support. Which do you think I’ll do?
Yeah, you’re right.
Sunday, December 9th, 2007
by Jeff
There’s been talk of a Knight Rider revival as a movie or a TV series for years now, but it looks like it’s finally gonna happen. No more Trans Am for K.I.T.T. though. That’s so 1982. For the new NBC series, K.I.T.T. will be a 550 HP Ford Shelby GT500KR Mustang, and it looks sweet! I’m afraid at 80, William Daniels is a bit too old to provide the voice this time around.
Exclusive First Pictures of KITT From The New Knight Rider TV Series: Yes, It’s a Shelby GT500KR
Thursday, December 6th, 2007
by Jeff
This will be a quick Heroes review. YAY!!!! The annoying Mexican twins are dead! Now can we get back to the Heroes we know and love? This “volume” seemed to be too much about explaining history then kick ass powers by kick ass Heroes. Did we really need 11 episodes to do this? Condense it down to a couple of episodes and move on to a real story.
Hiro buried Adam alive? Lame.
Nathan is shot when he’s about to announce publicly that he can fly? Predictable.
I’m just disappointed that it didn’t end better.
When’s the new “volume” start? Maybe the writers should just stay on strike and I’ll catch up with all the seasons of The Shield and Weeds.
Thursday, December 6th, 2007
by Jeff
Not much to really talk about this week in Dexter. After two absolutely thrilling, non-stop, roller coaster ride episodes of in a row, the latest episode feels like the ride is slowing down to prepare for the finale.
It sure looked like Dexter suffered a much bigger wound in the last episode then it appears in this one. He was only grazed by the bullet rather then shot through the leg. Not so bad. He can still hide that pretty well until he starts to bleed.
Dexter plans to frame Doakes rather then kill him, and just as Doakes is about to pass out from the sedative Dexter slipped into his water, he reveals that he knows something about Dexter’s father. Dexter finds out later that his father committed suicide, apparently because he couldn’t live with what he created in Dexter.
As if Dexter isn’t dealing with enough trying to dodge being found out as the Bay Harbor Butcher, now he has to deal with the fact that he was the reason his father killed himself.
Is there nothing Lila won’t do for attention? She finally has sex with Angel, and we see her boobs again, then frames him by taking the date rape drug. I don’t think it was ever said what she took afterwards that made her pass out, but in the previews for next week’s episode it’s revealed.
The whole Debra-Lundy relationship took it’s first turn to an ending, and Debra’s pissed. Lundy won’t be around after the Bay Harbor Butcher is caught. She had to know this. We’ll see how that all works out soon enough.
No exciting revelations like the last two episodes, but it’s setting up nicely to round out the season. Just two episodes to go.
Monday, November 26th, 2007
by Jeff
Dexter writers must be Star Trek fans too. In case you aren’t, “Resistance is futile” is the line made famous by Captain Picard when he was assimilated by the Borg in “Best of Both Worlds“. Never mind that now though….
If there was any doubt before, there should be none now. You’re right. The cast and crew of Dexter are amazing! The latest Dexter is probably the best written, best shot, and best acted of any I’ve seen yet.
However for as many good things in this episode there is the bad. Let’s start with the good.
The writers: Pure genius to have Dexter think he’s been caught by Lundy almost to the point where Dexter himself confesses, only to find out that Lundy’s prime suspect is Doakes!!! I really thought that they were going to go through with it and actually let Dexter get caught. Logically I knew this couldn’t happen with three shows left and promises of a third season. There’s no way you let Dexter get caught, but I seriously though the writer’s were going to break the sin of all television writing and blow it all wide open before the season ends. The light bulb went on for me seconds before Lundy uttered the name “Doakes.” Give these guys an Emmy!
Actually a quick look at the Dexter wiki says the Emmy goes to Melissa Rosenberg.
The Director: The shot of Lundy and the police captain (is he a captain?) looking down at the camera giving the perspective of parents looking down at a child they just caught stealing cookies from the cookie jar is perfect. It give that feeling of everything falling down on you, exactly as Dexter is feeling. That theme is continued in the car when Dexter is being escorted by FBI agents who are protecting him from Doakes. Here’s Dexter cramped between two burly FBI no necks, squeezing him in when he desperately wants out. Nice. Give…….checking the wiki……Marcos Siega an Emmy!
The actors: Michael C. Hall has always been brilliant, but the entire cast shines in this one. These people all work so well together. Erik King as Doakes really turns it on this time. All of a sudden he makes you actually start to feel sorry for Doakes. He was being a perfect cop all along, and now he gets caught up in it all just for doing good police work. Give them ALL Emmy’s!
The finale if this episode is what we’ve all been waiting for. The showdown between Dexter and Doakes. Doakes has put a GPS tracking device on Dexter’s boat, and when Dexter goes to clean up Jiminez’s body Doakes has him! “So YOU’RE the Bay Harbor Butcher!” We knew Doakes would say it, and now how does Dexter react? He ends up rushing Doakes, who stumbles and shoots Dexter in the leg as they both fall off the dock and into the water. Dexter manages to subdue Doakes and when he wakes up he’s locked up where Dexter killed Jiminez screaming “you’ll have to kill me Morgan!!!!”
Now the question is, will he?
HE HAS TO!!! Harry’s rules say protect the innocent, but they also say don’t get caught. Well those are both in conflict here, so which rule wins out. It has to be “don’t get caught.” Dexter could be smart about killing him though and make it look like Doakes came after him, shot him in the leg, and Dexter managed to wrestle the gun away and kill Doakes. Since Doakes is already the prime suspect, everyone but LaGuerta would believe Dexter. Aha! Now who will be thought of as the crazy one.
Just three episodes left and after the finale a special with the cast. It’s only getting better!
Oh, and the bad? Lundy’s ass. Ewwww.
Tuesday, November 20th, 2007
by Jeff
Hereos is good again. I just hope it stays that way.
I’ve said before that there are too many sub plots going on at once. This week they kept it down to an easy to handle three, but there was a lot going on within them. At this point, I could care less what’s happening with the other Heroes. Let’s just hope the Mexican twins are dead.
All throughout this episode I felt they were borrowing from other geek movies. Hiro goes back in time and his father tells him not to save him because even though they have the power of gods, they can’t play God. In a nutshell, don’t mess with the timeline or bad things will happen. Doc Brown said the same thing in Back to The Future
At the funeral, Hiro said his father is not dead as long as he carries what his father taught him in life. Dr. McCoy said "He’s not really dead, as long as we remember him" talking about Spock in Star Trek II.
West is way too much like Superman without the superhuman strength. He even looks like Clark Kent. Compare that to Smallville or any Superman movie that doesn’t co-star Richard Pryor or feature Superman throwing all the world’s nukes out to space. You can go figure out which ones I mean.
Matt now has the power to not only read people’s minds but put thoughts into their heads to make them do what he wishes. That’s called the Jedi Mind Trick first used by Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars: A New Hope. "These aren’t the droids you’re looking for. You can go about your business. Move along." Angela Petrelli isn’t as dumb as a stormtrooper though.
Once again they pull the old bait and switch with a death scene. You think Noah Bennet will die because of the painting depicting his death, but wait! Noah sees what the painting depicts and is able to avoid the bullet and he lives. But wait! Mohinder ends up shooting and killing him anyway, just later. But wait! He’s not dead! He just woke up in a hospital bed pumped full of Claire’s blood that regenerated him. Holy !@#$%.
End of episode.
The writers love playing with us, and I eat it all up.
Let’s not forget the revelation that Adam isn’t time traveling, he’s actually 400 years old! Didn’t see that one coming, but it makes sense. Oh yeah, he killed Hiro’s father too. (Sulu)
So now we’ve got two episodes left? Well, only eleven were shot before the writer’s strike. Leave it to NBC to hype this like it’s the end of the season. I’ll be curious to see how, and I guess more importantly, WHEN this ends.
Tuesday, November 20th, 2007
by Jeff
I don’t think I’ve been this on edge during a tv show in a long time. In this episode of Dexter, the walls are closing in, and I think Dexter is handling it better than I am. A few of the finer points of this episode:
- Dexter realizes Lila torched her apartment, and decides to distance himself from her
- Lundy finds some "sloppy" bloodwork that Dexter did on a case that let a murderer go free. We know Dexter did it on purpose to kill the murderer himself, but Lundy isn’t buying Dexter’s excuse that he was overworked when he did that bloodwork.
- Debra and Batista manage to track a plate number, confirming that the "Bay Harbor Butcher" is a member of Miami PD.
- Lila tells the man who killed Dexter’s mother where Dexter will be bowling that night. He shows up in the parking lot and tries to knife Dexter to death until Miami PD chase him away.
- Dexter kills his mother’s murderer, and after going through his wallet finds out that Lila told him he would be bowling.
- Lila shows up at the station looking for Dexter who is out killing his latest victim. Lila and Debra stop just short of clawing each other’s eyes out, after which Lila takes Dexter’s key to Rita’s apartment to stalk her, thinking that’s where Dexter is.
- Doakes breaks into Dexter’s apartment and finds his blood collection hidden in the air conditioner!!!!
- Dexter tells Lila to leave Rita alone and to stay away from him, or she will see the "monster."
After all that, I was out of breath! Too many times I caught myself saying "No Way!!!"
Lila just reinforced that she is a total raving lunatic, which I still say makes her perfect for Dexter. He’s threatened to kill her in not so many words, but I don’ t think he’d be able to. Lila is the one person who he could tell what he is, and she would be totally ok with it. How come no Lila boobage this week? Shame.
Doakes is a dead man. There’s no way around this. He knows, and for that he’ll have to die. If he does though, how will Dexter do it without breaking Harry’s rules? Which rule could killing Doakes possilby fall under?
Debra will be a big issue to be resolved. She is hot on the trail of the Bay Harbor Butcher and it ends at her brother! She’s bound to find this out, and I have no idea how that will go down. Will she protect him, or will she be the good cop and do what needs to be done?
Does Lundy know that Dexter is the Bay Harbor Butcher? That character is so well written that I can’t tell. One minute you think he knows, and the next you think he’s totally in the dark.
There was no preview of next weeks episode, so I’m totally in the dark for next week. I hope Dexter remembers he’s got a chopped up body to take care of in a remote cabin in the woods.
The walls get closer…and closer…
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Amazon.com: Family Guy – Blue Harvest
Amazon.com: Knight Rider – Season One
