I went to see Whiteout yesterday, the new film directed by Dominic Shea starring Kate Beckinsale and Gabriel Macht (who I last saw in The Spirit, a film that I liked very much and thought that he did a great job). The trailers seem to indicate some sort of supernatural entity is causing problems in Antarctica, but this film turned out to be a murder mystery and I thought was pretty well done. I give it a B and enjoyed watching a pure thriller for a change. Beckinsale is very good in this film.
Robin Hood (BBC America) has the first episode of its final season air last night. Friar Tuck has been added to the cast as Brother Tuck a African-Englishman who is a priest. He seems to retain the scientific intelligence and warrior skill exhibited by Tuck in portrayals past, just not the girth or love of food. Should be a good season, the show gets an A.
Monk (USA) had another good episode this past week, Jay Mohr played an attorney who was able to befuddle Monk on the witness stand in order to get a not guilty verdict, but Monk gets the killer in the end and the comeuppance of Mohr. This final season is getting better and better, the show gets an A.
Patriots take on the Bills in Foxboro this Monday night, I am expecting the Patriots to win, 35-3 , the 3 coming in late in the fourth quarter as the Bills struggle all night long. Penn State beat up on Syracuse 28-7 as they go to a 2-0 record.
Oh well.
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Thoughts: 12-September-2009
So I decided to watch the premiere of Vampire Diaries on the CW and I could only take ten minutes of this crapfest. Why is this stuff popular? The two scenes that killed it for me were:
1. The vampire uses his powers to convince the high school secretary to let me come to school with no records. This vampire lived for decades or centuries and wants to waste his time in high school? This is the best place for him to hang out, with a bunch of goofball teenagers who never heard of Mozart or Wagner?
2. Our heroine in in a graveyard visiting her dead parents' graves and the bad vampire fills it with fog. She gets scared and runs. She falls hurting her leg. She looks up and see our high school vampire looking at her. She starts to swoon at his "charms". She asks if he is following her and he says "No, I saw you fall and came over to see if you were all right". She responds "Oh I must be foggy from all this fog".
That is when I gave up on this crappy show and switched to the Steeler-Titans game. A big F and I have no desire to ever watch another second of this crapfest.
Supernatural (CW) had its fifth season premiere this week and this potentially final season (interview with the show's creator in Entertainment Weekly) got off to bang. Lucifer is free and inhabiting the body of the actor who played Jacob on Lost, Dean and Sam are not getting along because of Sam's actions last season, and it may be that God has returned to take a hand in this current mess. What a great series and if it ends, TV will be a sadder place as one more quality show is gone. A big A for this entire series and if you have not seen it, check our the first four seasons on DVD.
Eureka (SyFy) had another great episode where Matt Frewer returns as Taggert who was around the first two seasons. This show just gets better and better. A is the rating.
Penn State takes on Syracuse today, I pick the Nittany Lions to beat them up in State College. The big bloodbath will be Monday night when the Patriots beat up on the hapless Bills in Foxboro.
I plan on seeing Whiteout today will report back on that to you. Also, on BBC America tonight, the final season of Robin Hood starts and we will see how they deal with the death of Maid Marion from last season's finale.
Oh well.
1. The vampire uses his powers to convince the high school secretary to let me come to school with no records. This vampire lived for decades or centuries and wants to waste his time in high school? This is the best place for him to hang out, with a bunch of goofball teenagers who never heard of Mozart or Wagner?
2. Our heroine in in a graveyard visiting her dead parents' graves and the bad vampire fills it with fog. She gets scared and runs. She falls hurting her leg. She looks up and see our high school vampire looking at her. She starts to swoon at his "charms". She asks if he is following her and he says "No, I saw you fall and came over to see if you were all right". She responds "Oh I must be foggy from all this fog".
That is when I gave up on this crappy show and switched to the Steeler-Titans game. A big F and I have no desire to ever watch another second of this crapfest.
Supernatural (CW) had its fifth season premiere this week and this potentially final season (interview with the show's creator in Entertainment Weekly) got off to bang. Lucifer is free and inhabiting the body of the actor who played Jacob on Lost, Dean and Sam are not getting along because of Sam's actions last season, and it may be that God has returned to take a hand in this current mess. What a great series and if it ends, TV will be a sadder place as one more quality show is gone. A big A for this entire series and if you have not seen it, check our the first four seasons on DVD.
Eureka (SyFy) had another great episode where Matt Frewer returns as Taggert who was around the first two seasons. This show just gets better and better. A is the rating.
Penn State takes on Syracuse today, I pick the Nittany Lions to beat them up in State College. The big bloodbath will be Monday night when the Patriots beat up on the hapless Bills in Foxboro.
I plan on seeing Whiteout today will report back on that to you. Also, on BBC America tonight, the final season of Robin Hood starts and we will see how they deal with the death of Maid Marion from last season's finale.
Oh well.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Thoughts: 10-September-2009
It took a couple of days but now I am in the mood to write my blog.
I purchased Scrubs Season 8 from Amazon.com and got it in today's mail. ABC added a bonus disk attached to the set which is a starter kit for the ABC season. Castle, a show that I could only watch for ten minutes, has its pilot episode along with a 2 hour Brothers & Sisters show. I watched the pilot of Brothers & Sisters and that was all I could stand. I will pass this on to a friend of mine who moans that she cannot keep up with her favorite ABC shows.
Durham County (Ion) is a new show about a cop moving into a new neighborhood where his next door neighbor is an old friend who he ran over when they were kids, thus ruining his chances to make the NHL after being a top pick, and now is a serial killer. Show is pretty dark and so far our serial killer is killing people in the area, one of which is his kid's teacher who was trying to get him to cough up some money to pay the kid's expenses to some exclusive writer's program. Not much of a serial killer if all the people he kills are ones he knows and can be tied to. I give the first show a B, but this could quickly turn into a D show.
Warehouse 13 (SyFy) has gotten great ratings and the latest episode was great, an A rating. The agents were trapped in a disaster at the warehouse that they had to solve without Artie who was getting the third degree from the Reagents who run the warehouse. I like the way the chemistry is working between the cast and loved finding out more about what is in the warehouse. The TBS series about the Librarian should spend some time in the library and show us the neat stuff archived there.
Sons of Anarchy (FX) had its 2nd season premiere this week. SamCrow is going to be dealing with a white supremacist group out to drive them out of town. They kidnapped Gemma, played by Katy Segal, and raped her when SamCrow disrespected them. What a wild way to start this season, Gemma is going to be out for vengeance like one of those women from Ms 45 or a Pam Grier film. The cast really makes this show and this premiere gets an A.
Leverage (TNT) had its summer season finale last night, and there was a nice turn with a new grifter played by Jeri Ryan. Great show that will be back in Jan, gets an A.
Tonight on the CW, the return of Supernatural and the premiere of Vampire Dairies. I was not going to watch the latter, but nothing else is on at the time tonight, so I figured that I would give it a shot.
Oh well.
I purchased Scrubs Season 8 from Amazon.com and got it in today's mail. ABC added a bonus disk attached to the set which is a starter kit for the ABC season. Castle, a show that I could only watch for ten minutes, has its pilot episode along with a 2 hour Brothers & Sisters show. I watched the pilot of Brothers & Sisters and that was all I could stand. I will pass this on to a friend of mine who moans that she cannot keep up with her favorite ABC shows.
Durham County (Ion) is a new show about a cop moving into a new neighborhood where his next door neighbor is an old friend who he ran over when they were kids, thus ruining his chances to make the NHL after being a top pick, and now is a serial killer. Show is pretty dark and so far our serial killer is killing people in the area, one of which is his kid's teacher who was trying to get him to cough up some money to pay the kid's expenses to some exclusive writer's program. Not much of a serial killer if all the people he kills are ones he knows and can be tied to. I give the first show a B, but this could quickly turn into a D show.
Warehouse 13 (SyFy) has gotten great ratings and the latest episode was great, an A rating. The agents were trapped in a disaster at the warehouse that they had to solve without Artie who was getting the third degree from the Reagents who run the warehouse. I like the way the chemistry is working between the cast and loved finding out more about what is in the warehouse. The TBS series about the Librarian should spend some time in the library and show us the neat stuff archived there.
Sons of Anarchy (FX) had its 2nd season premiere this week. SamCrow is going to be dealing with a white supremacist group out to drive them out of town. They kidnapped Gemma, played by Katy Segal, and raped her when SamCrow disrespected them. What a wild way to start this season, Gemma is going to be out for vengeance like one of those women from Ms 45 or a Pam Grier film. The cast really makes this show and this premiere gets an A.
Leverage (TNT) had its summer season finale last night, and there was a nice turn with a new grifter played by Jeri Ryan. Great show that will be back in Jan, gets an A.
Tonight on the CW, the return of Supernatural and the premiere of Vampire Dairies. I was not going to watch the latter, but nothing else is on at the time tonight, so I figured that I would give it a shot.
Oh well.
Monday, September 7, 2009
Thoughts: 07-September-2009
Today is Labor Day, a holiday that was created to honor the labor union movement in the United States. Traditionally when this holiday first started, the unions would have a big parade and end with a big picnic. Now it seems that tradition has gone by the wayside as most folks don't seem to remember why this holiday was created.
Penn State beat Akron convincingly and now gets to play Syracuse this weekend. Another blowout win for Penn State. This used to be a regular series and when Syracuse was a good team with Dick McPherson as their head coach it ended when Syracuse would not agree to Penn State's terms which would have more games at Penn State than at Syracuse, a move needed by Penn State for revenue reasons. McPherson went crying on all the networks about what a shame it was for this series to end, and then quit to sign on as the Patriots head coach which was a frakking two year disaster. Now that Syracuse sucks and needs Penn State as a draw, they are happy with whatever they can get.
In the comic strip, My Cage, Norm is back with Bridget only to find out Ashley did break up with her boyfriend. Well let's hope this turns out to be more interesting as opposed to predictable.
Oh well.
Penn State beat Akron convincingly and now gets to play Syracuse this weekend. Another blowout win for Penn State. This used to be a regular series and when Syracuse was a good team with Dick McPherson as their head coach it ended when Syracuse would not agree to Penn State's terms which would have more games at Penn State than at Syracuse, a move needed by Penn State for revenue reasons. McPherson went crying on all the networks about what a shame it was for this series to end, and then quit to sign on as the Patriots head coach which was a frakking two year disaster. Now that Syracuse sucks and needs Penn State as a draw, they are happy with whatever they can get.
In the comic strip, My Cage, Norm is back with Bridget only to find out Ashley did break up with her boyfriend. Well let's hope this turns out to be more interesting as opposed to predictable.
Oh well.
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Thoughts: 05-September-2009
Today, Penn State opens up its 2009 season at home vs Akron. An easy opponent on paper, this is the kind of game that Penn State has more to lose than to win. Unless they blow out Akron and beat the point spread by a big margin, everyone will will be pointing out how the Nittany Lions are not that good. And if Akron should win, it will be proclaimed as a big upset. When Bowling Green beat Penn State a few years back, that lead to one of Penn State's worst seasons.
And because this game will not be that exciting, lots of folks will over indulge and ending up doing serious harm to themselves. Penn State is my pick to win this game nevertheless.
In today's My Cage comic strip, Norm gives the engagement ring back to Bridget who seems happy to reunite with Norm. But in the last panel, Ashley, Norm's work spouse, is thinking of breaking up with her boyfriend which could mean a love triangle for Norm. I guess it is feast or famine for the poor guy.
Disney purchased Marvel Comics for 4 billion this past week and has inspired a lot of Internet chatter about the future of Marvel. Quite honestly, Marvel appears to be in a big time creative rut. Too much dependence on big events like the current Dark Reign storyline which forces readers who want to keep up with everything to buy a bunch of comics that they normally would not buy. (I go to Wikipedia to keep up and save some bucks)
And then the duplication of comics, four Avengers books, three Wolverine books, and 5-7 X-Men books. How about some new characters getting a try out with fresh creative input? Iron Fist and Ghost Rider were going in that direction, only to get cancelled are replaced with mini-series. Moon Knight gets cancelled and replaced now with a new ongoing Vengeance of Moon Knight.
And then you have the Hulk books. Incredible Hulk is back focusing on Bruce Banner, the Hulk focusing on the Red Hulk, Son of Hulk focusing on his offspring (twin brother to Skaar who is in the Incredible Hulk now) and a new She Hulk book focusing on some daughter of Banner and some other character that I cannot even bother to go to Wikipedia to look up. I mean, why not invest on one or two books and have good story lines instead of just average ones.
This brings me back to Disney, starting with The Little Mermaid, their animated films are much improved, Pixar has hit a home run with every one of their films (maybe not A Bug's Life, but this film has become better appreciated as of late), and didn't Disney publish the classic Carl Barks Uncle Scrooge and Donald Duck comics? Remember DuckTales one of the best animated series on TV?
Given the current state of Marvel Comics, I really don't see Disney doing any worst than the current output, and quite frankly I see lots of potential for improvement.
One last thought, I saw the trailer for James Cameron's Avatar film. Looks like a big animated film like Final Fantasy (which bored me to tears) or the Polar Express (which I liked but have to agree that the animation did not look that good to me). What did he spend so much frakking money on? I thought Pixar's Up looked a lot better than that trailer. Sorry, but I say much ado about nothing.
Oh well.
And because this game will not be that exciting, lots of folks will over indulge and ending up doing serious harm to themselves. Penn State is my pick to win this game nevertheless.
In today's My Cage comic strip, Norm gives the engagement ring back to Bridget who seems happy to reunite with Norm. But in the last panel, Ashley, Norm's work spouse, is thinking of breaking up with her boyfriend which could mean a love triangle for Norm. I guess it is feast or famine for the poor guy.
Disney purchased Marvel Comics for 4 billion this past week and has inspired a lot of Internet chatter about the future of Marvel. Quite honestly, Marvel appears to be in a big time creative rut. Too much dependence on big events like the current Dark Reign storyline which forces readers who want to keep up with everything to buy a bunch of comics that they normally would not buy. (I go to Wikipedia to keep up and save some bucks)
And then the duplication of comics, four Avengers books, three Wolverine books, and 5-7 X-Men books. How about some new characters getting a try out with fresh creative input? Iron Fist and Ghost Rider were going in that direction, only to get cancelled are replaced with mini-series. Moon Knight gets cancelled and replaced now with a new ongoing Vengeance of Moon Knight.
And then you have the Hulk books. Incredible Hulk is back focusing on Bruce Banner, the Hulk focusing on the Red Hulk, Son of Hulk focusing on his offspring (twin brother to Skaar who is in the Incredible Hulk now) and a new She Hulk book focusing on some daughter of Banner and some other character that I cannot even bother to go to Wikipedia to look up. I mean, why not invest on one or two books and have good story lines instead of just average ones.
This brings me back to Disney, starting with The Little Mermaid, their animated films are much improved, Pixar has hit a home run with every one of their films (maybe not A Bug's Life, but this film has become better appreciated as of late), and didn't Disney publish the classic Carl Barks Uncle Scrooge and Donald Duck comics? Remember DuckTales one of the best animated series on TV?
Given the current state of Marvel Comics, I really don't see Disney doing any worst than the current output, and quite frankly I see lots of potential for improvement.
One last thought, I saw the trailer for James Cameron's Avatar film. Looks like a big animated film like Final Fantasy (which bored me to tears) or the Polar Express (which I liked but have to agree that the animation did not look that good to me). What did he spend so much frakking money on? I thought Pixar's Up looked a lot better than that trailer. Sorry, but I say much ado about nothing.
Oh well.
Friday, September 4, 2009
Thoughts: 04-September-2009
I took the day off today in order to recharge my mental energy and plan on chilling for the next four days. There has not been much on TV as my shows are hitting their season finales and the networks never seem to want to show new episodes over holiday weekends. I have to wait a week for the True Blood (HBO) season finale for example.
Of course it is not as bad as it used to be when I was young. Then we had the Jerry Lewis telethon on every channel of our limited line up in the days before cable. Now it seems only one or two channels bother showing the telethon, and of course we have DVD and On Demand that we can switch to in order to avoid having to watch Lewis and his appeal for money to battle muscular dystrophy. With all the money they raise year in and year out, I wonder what progress has been achieved, no cures maybe better treatment and physical rehab facilities perhaps.
My sister Syd, a loyal reader of this blog, asked me to comment on the final season of Monk (USA). She never liked this show as she had an OCD guy in her life and when she watches Monk a lot of bad memories come back. This season she is watching the shows and finds them to be entertaining. I noticed the Monk's OCD issues are downplayed and the more comic aspects of his character are on display. Two weeks ago, a bunch of UFO nuts thought that Monk was an alien as he tried to solve a murder, Natalie was quite playful with Monk in this episode as she seems to be getting reconciled with her feelings toward Monk. Last week, Monk had to impersonate a hitman who looked like him, Natalie got to play his girlfriend in a nice sexy outfit. The final season is going out with a bang and gets a solid A from me.
My Cage, one of my favorite newspaper comic strips, seems to be reuniting Norm and Bridget, a breakup that I did not care for. Ed Power, the writer of the strip, commented on that blog and I thought he implied that they would not be reuniting. So I am suspicious that this may be a fake out to the readers, seems too good to be true. Personally I like Norm and Bridget together and hope that this is not a dream.
Weeds (Showtime) had its season finale this past week, and the shock ending was that Shane, Nancy's unstable younger son, hit Pilar, the money behind Esteban's political career, upside the head with a croquet mallet killing her. She was threatening to kill Nancy's two sons since Nancy tried to have her killed. I have often wondered why this show is so popular and why I have watched it all this time. There are no likable characters in this series at all, the last ones I can think of were the black pot dealers Nancy originally dealt with in Seasons 1 and 2. I liked them a lot more than the current cast. Mary Louise Parker wants out of the show when her contract is up, so next season may be the last.
Oh well.
Of course it is not as bad as it used to be when I was young. Then we had the Jerry Lewis telethon on every channel of our limited line up in the days before cable. Now it seems only one or two channels bother showing the telethon, and of course we have DVD and On Demand that we can switch to in order to avoid having to watch Lewis and his appeal for money to battle muscular dystrophy. With all the money they raise year in and year out, I wonder what progress has been achieved, no cures maybe better treatment and physical rehab facilities perhaps.
My sister Syd, a loyal reader of this blog, asked me to comment on the final season of Monk (USA). She never liked this show as she had an OCD guy in her life and when she watches Monk a lot of bad memories come back. This season she is watching the shows and finds them to be entertaining. I noticed the Monk's OCD issues are downplayed and the more comic aspects of his character are on display. Two weeks ago, a bunch of UFO nuts thought that Monk was an alien as he tried to solve a murder, Natalie was quite playful with Monk in this episode as she seems to be getting reconciled with her feelings toward Monk. Last week, Monk had to impersonate a hitman who looked like him, Natalie got to play his girlfriend in a nice sexy outfit. The final season is going out with a bang and gets a solid A from me.
My Cage, one of my favorite newspaper comic strips, seems to be reuniting Norm and Bridget, a breakup that I did not care for. Ed Power, the writer of the strip, commented on that blog and I thought he implied that they would not be reuniting. So I am suspicious that this may be a fake out to the readers, seems too good to be true. Personally I like Norm and Bridget together and hope that this is not a dream.
Weeds (Showtime) had its season finale this past week, and the shock ending was that Shane, Nancy's unstable younger son, hit Pilar, the money behind Esteban's political career, upside the head with a croquet mallet killing her. She was threatening to kill Nancy's two sons since Nancy tried to have her killed. I have often wondered why this show is so popular and why I have watched it all this time. There are no likable characters in this series at all, the last ones I can think of were the black pot dealers Nancy originally dealt with in Seasons 1 and 2. I liked them a lot more than the current cast. Mary Louise Parker wants out of the show when her contract is up, so next season may be the last.
Oh well.
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Thoughts: 01-September-2009
The first day of September. Kids are back in school, college football has started, pro football is about to start, I always liked the month of September.
This week as we head towards Labor Day weekend, we are seeing the season finales of the summer shows and since this is a holiday weekend, USA, SyFy, and HBO are not showing new episodes. I always wonder why they do that? What else would I do but watch my favorite shows?
I watched the season finale of Being Human (BBC America) this past weekend. This series started out slow but really picked up and made me interested in what was going to happen next. BBC is going to do a second series, overall I give the show a B.
Tonight I will catch up with the Weeds (Showtime) season finale and then watch Warehouse 13 (SyFy). Tomorrow I will be watching Leverage (TNT) and Dark Blue (TNT) and that will be it for this week for new shows.
I did see on the Internet that American Chopper (TLC) is coming back in October with new episodes. Ho Hum.
Oh well.
This week as we head towards Labor Day weekend, we are seeing the season finales of the summer shows and since this is a holiday weekend, USA, SyFy, and HBO are not showing new episodes. I always wonder why they do that? What else would I do but watch my favorite shows?
I watched the season finale of Being Human (BBC America) this past weekend. This series started out slow but really picked up and made me interested in what was going to happen next. BBC is going to do a second series, overall I give the show a B.
Tonight I will catch up with the Weeds (Showtime) season finale and then watch Warehouse 13 (SyFy). Tomorrow I will be watching Leverage (TNT) and Dark Blue (TNT) and that will be it for this week for new shows.
I did see on the Internet that American Chopper (TLC) is coming back in October with new episodes. Ho Hum.
Oh well.
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