Entries Tagged 'television' ↓
March 6th, 2009 — economy, From The Feeds, movies, television
Things aren’t looking good in Hollywood -- or anywhere else -- these days. Read all about the doom and gloom
here.
ABC axed “Life on Mars” earlier in the week. No big surprise. I had given up on it a while ago. Intriguing premise that was never able to find its footing.
It’s doubtful, but I wish NBC would give their “Life” a shot on the USA Network. Aren’t characters supposed to be welcome there?
The CW dusted off the cobwebs and “Reaper” had its mid-season premiere on Tuesday. Good episode, but didn't resolve any of the nagging questions from last season. Also got killed in the ratings -- something like 2.3 million viewers?!
After a false start, I’m back on track with the new script -- giving the sequence method a try this time around. Been busy mapping out the story with index cards... so far so good. The old script is getting a polish for some upcoming contests.
Just a quick hit and run:
“One Missed Call”
Another Asian horror remake gone bad. Really wished I “missed” that one. Didn’t care for the original, so I should have known better. Check out Shannon Sossamon in a much more interesting flick,
“Wristcutters: A Love Story”.
February 11th, 2009 — fringe, From The Feeds, television
Great episode last night. There are times when it feels like the writers have been digging through some discarded “Alias” scripts, but I think the overall quality of the show has improved since it came back from the break -- and now we have to wait until April for new episodes?
February 6th, 2009 — From The Feeds, television, vampires
An example of the “Twilight” effect? The CW is developing a
series based on the novels about a girl caught up in a love triangle with two brothers who also happen to be vampires. Sounds like a good fit for their audience, especially with Kevin Williamson involved. My old pilot spec had a supernatural love triangle -- along with every genre cliche imaginable, but maybe it's salvageable.
January 22nd, 2009 — From The Feeds, lost, television
Last night’s season premiere of “Lost” was a bit of a departure. The show has always stuck a tentative big toe in the sci-fi waters for a few seconds, but this time it dove in head first. What happened to all the promises of a logical explanation to everything? Hopefully, time travel won’t become a big mess like it did on “Heroes”. Ratings weren't that -- though it came in third place behind "Criminal Minds" and the premiere of "Lie to Me".
December 15th, 2008 — From The Feeds, television
I'm officially done. "Heroes" is dead to me.
November 20th, 2008 — From The Feeds, television
Might come as a shock to some, but “Supernatural” has been the best genre show of the fall. Better than “Heroes” or “Sarah Connor Chronicles”, probably cheaper too. It flies completely under the radar on the CW -- which only seems to have eyes for “Gossip Girl”. Great episode tonight. They’ve ventured into areas that even “Buffy” was reluctant to explore with the whole angels vs. demons stuff. It’s like a beefed up “Frailty” meets "Prophecy". The show is still about good battling evil, but there’s a murkiness to it all that really works. Will definitely get this season on DVD.
November 14th, 2008 — From The Feeds, television
Can’t say I’m surprised about this one -- kinda shocked the low rated “Sarah Connor Chronicles” and “Knight Rider” were picked up for the rest of the season. “My Own Worst Enemy” was a good idea on paper, just didn’t pan out in the execution. Is this a harbinger of things to come for Joss Whedon's "Dollhouse"?
November 2nd, 2008 — fantasy, From The Feeds, television
It’s been a long time since “Xena” and “Hercules” ruled the syndicated airwaves. This new fantasy series “seeks” to regain the crown. The production values were pretty decent, cast likeable and New Zealand always makes a great fantasy locale. Action wasn’t that bad, but the slow-mo stuff might start to grate after a while. I thought the dialogue was weakest aspect -- that and the main villain, all he lacked was a long mustache to twirl.
As far as the plot goes, there’s a reason why folks keep going back to the same well, bringing up Arthurian elements: it works! Some ideas just resonate with the masses -- it’s important to keep that in mind. Dunno if “Legend on the Seeker” will last, but its heart seems to be in the right place.
October 20th, 2008 — From The Feeds, television
All in all, tonight's episode wasn't that bad. Robert Forster makes a great heavy. Nice touches of comedy with Hiro and Ando in Africa. We even got a decent fight scene between Peter and Sylar. After a rought start, it feels like things are slowly coming together. BTW, Claire Bennet's superhero name should be: The Possum!
October 19th, 2008 — From The Feeds, sci-fi, television
Old news by now, but the thought of a new “V” series brings back a lot of memories --mostly of the hot alien leader, Diana. After “Invasion” and “Threshold” flopped, I’m not exactly sure how they can pull this off. The revamped “Battlestar Galactica” is a “hit” for the Sci-Fi Channel, but it would get killed on one of the big three networks. There’d probably be a major attempt to make things more “realistic”, but cheese was a major part of the show’s charm. Who could forget the hybrid birth? Twins!
October 12th, 2008 — From The Feeds, television
Never saw the U.K. version, so I didn’t know what to expect, but this turned out to be a pleasant surprise. I have to say, the marketing was a bit off. The commercials were all about the 70s and bad fashion, instead of focusing on the characters and their relationships -- which is really odd since the show follows “Grey’s Anatomy”. In my mind, a man trying to save his girlfriend from a killer, should be the heart of the story -- the stuck-in-the-70s stuff is just window dressing. I think audiences/viewers like to be asked questions. What if you had an affair with the wrong person? What if someone kidnapped your child/spouse? What if you only had days to live?
‘What if some major disaster separated you from your family?’, probably gets more traction than, ‘What if a giant, radioactive dinosaur woke up and started devouring the city?’ If you can put the audience in the shoes of your protagonist, especially with genre stuff, that’s half the battle.
October 7th, 2008 — From The Feeds, television
No “Fringe” tonight, but Fox picked it up for the rest of the season. Highest-rated new show among 18-49 year olds -- not overall viewers because that distinction would belong to “The Mentalist”, which is handily kicking Fringe’s butt. Meanwhile, “Sarah Connor Chronicles”, “Heroes” and one of my faves, “Life”, can’t seem to stop the bleeding...
October 4th, 2008 — fantasy, From The Feeds, television
I dig Amanda Tapping as a brunette with a British accent -- kinda schoolmarm sexy -- but I’m not entirely sold on this. The story could have been stronger. The subplot with the mutant boy was a little weak. Some of the twists/reveals were completely telegraphed -- John killing the prostitute, the identity of Ashley’s father, etc. And what was up with Dr. Zimmerman swagger jacking Daniel Jackson? It was like they cut and pasted his character from an old “Stargate” episode. The green screen stuff was okay. Didn’t get in the way. All in all, the whole thing felt *really* familiar, borrowing here and there from sci-fi shows past. Not great, but light-years ahead of stuff like “Flash Gordon” and “Painkiller Jane”.
September 16th, 2008 — fringe, From The Feeds, television
The season premiere of “House” will definitely boost the ratings, but I don’t think this was an improvement over the pilot. The short-lived “Nightstalker” series with Gabrielle Union and Stuart Townsend did an episode about a serial killer who paralyzed her victims before feeding on their pituitary glands. It’s been done many times over. I don’t mind the recycled plot, just give me better execution. The pregnancy was a nice misdirection, but not enough moments like that.
UPDATE: Over 13 million viewers last night. Not bad.
September 11th, 2008 — From The Feeds, television
9 million viewers for the premiere. Fox has to be extremely disappointed with those numbers. They poured an enormous amount of money into the marketing campaign, but most folks weren’t interested. It just goes to show, you can put lipstick on a pig... er, never mind.
Here are series premiere numbers for some recent genre shows:
Heroes - 14.3 million
Bionic Woman - 13.9 million
Surface - 11.2 million
Journeyman - 9.5 million
Moonlight - 8.6 million
Threshold - 8.42 million
Things just got a little harder for anyone trying to get their sci-fi show on television. Remember that urge I had to write a pilot? It’s gone now. So what went wrong here? I still stand behind my theory that Sci-Fi/Fantasy has a limited appeal. Go too hard and you run the risk of scaring folks off. Fox has invested too much money in the series to give up on it, so it’ll be around for a while...
