Sex, Lies and Misleading Titles

TV Show - Homeland - S01E01

2011-10-13T06:28:00.000-07:00

After seeing Band of Brothers Damion Lewis is one of the few people I would gladly follow into combat, provided it was well chroreographed and historically accurate. And although a different century he is back in uniform. Developed by Howard Gordon and Alex Gansa both of whom have worked on 24, X-files and a string of other highly reguarded shows.

After going missing in Irag Sergent Nicholas Brody (Damian Lewis) is returning home after 8 years in captivity. Carrie Mathison (Claire Danes) is a CIA officer that hears from an Iraqi prisoner that Al-Qaeda has turned a US prisoner and plan to use him in an attack on the US, a prisoner Mathison believes is Brody. However the government believe that he is a Hero and welcome him back as such forceing Mathison to work outside the box, with her old mentor Saul (Mandy Patinkin) to follow up her lead and prevent an attack on american soil. Thinking her husband was dead Brody's wife, Jessica (Morena Baccarin) has been going out with Brody's bestfriend Mike (Diego Klattenhoff) but is now trying to reconstruct her marriage. Although the pace is not overly speedy the plot is interesting, characters believable and acting is awesome I will definitely put this on the list of things to watch.

TV Show - The Secret Circle - S01E01

2011-10-13T05:32:00.000-07:00

L. J. Smith, writer of The Vampire Diaries, wrote a trilogy of novels in 1992 that are now being made into the TV show The Secret Circle. It is a supernatural drama aimed at teens in an attempt to ride the twilight wave.

The series follows Cassie (Britt Robertson) who moves from California to live with her grandmother (Ashley Crow) in New Salem after her mother is killed in a mysterious manner. She falls in love with a guy, Adam (Thomas Dekker) but when she enrolls at the high school, she realizes that he, she and all the other elite students at the school are witches. She befriends their leader, Diana (Shelley Hennig) but soon discovers that Adam and Diana are dating, Let the supernatural drama ensue. The secret circle is the name the teens give to their group, trying to master their tricks without even their families knowing. The series is a the vampire diaries but with witches instead of vampires, keeping the realistic setting of their modern lifes with the added spice of the supernatural. If you like the vampire diaries and want more of the same (with a slightly younger cast) then this is for you.

TV Show - Fresh Meat - S01E01

2011-10-13T04:54:00.000-07:00

Fresh Meat is a British sitcom written by Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain, the creators of Peep Show. I think this show may only serve to show how much David Mitchell and Robert Webb bring to Peep Show.

Four first year university students don't get places in halls and so are forced into a shared house with a creepy third year. The first years are standardly awkward and a little over the top. All the characters try and be something they are not so spend alot of time lying and although it may be a true representation of students but its not good TV. The only remotely good thing is the scottish third year the rest are annoying and are not something I want to have on my TV. More dramatic than skins but has all the same pitfalls. Not for me.

TV Show - The Lying Game - S01E01

2011-10-13T03:47:00.000-07:00

Writer of the Pretty little liars series Sara Shepard, has her latest series developed for television by Charles Pratt Jr. (Mostly known for General hospital).

Living in two different states didn't stop Sutton (Alexandra Chando) finding her twin sister Emma (Alexandra Chando). Sutton was adopted by a wealthy family and has been searching for the truth about her real parents for quite a while, whereas Emma was adopted by a poor single mum and has to put up with a pervy step brother. When her brother gets too much for her Emma runs away from home and to Sutton. They meet for five minutes but then Sutton says she has a lead and is leaving for LA, so Emma must take her place for a few days. The swap of the girls lives is handled very well, maybe the best way of all the 'body swap' plots. The show is good, although obviously tailored for a young female audience I think it will do well, if you want a thrilling version of 'the parent trap' then this is for you.

TV Show - How To Be a Gentleman - S01E01

2011-10-13T03:24:00.000-07:00

How To Be a Gentleman is created by David Hornsby (writer/actor from It's always sunny in philadelphia). David also plays the main character here.

Andrew Carlson (David Hornsby) writes a column about How To Be a Gentleman it informs men how they can be gentlemen. Andrew is a stuffy man that is out of touch with modern life, he is told that his column is outdated and the new owners of the paper want him to update his subject matter. When he is given a gym pass for his birthday from his sister, Janet (Mary Lynn Rajskub) he meets an old school 'friend' Bert (Kevin Dillon) and see's an opportunity to use his views to influence his writings.

The show is not good. Although an original idea the execution is off, Andrew maybe a gentleman but does he have to be whiney. There are gentleman that are bast*rds and Andrew could be such. The jokes are few and far between and dull when they do come, one to miss.

TV Show - Hart of Dixie - S01E01

2011-10-13T02:29:00.000-07:00

Created by Leila Gerstein (alum of The O.C., Eli Stone and Gossip Girl) is joined by another O.C. alum in Rachel Bilson of whom I am a big fan.

Dr. Zoe Hart (Rachel Bilson) graduates top of her class, has the perfect boyfriend and has planned her career within her dads practice since she was nine. But after her boyfriend dumps her, her father stops returning her calls and and she doesn't get onto the fellowship everything seems to be falling apart for her. This is when she starts thinking more about the postcards she has been getting for the past four years from a doctor that runs a clinic in Alabama. So she decides to go out to the clinic and learn how to treat patients like patients and not like puzzles. As a New Yorker she doesn't fit in and falls for a guy that is engaged and so plans to return to NYC and chalk it up as a mistake, until she discovers that the old doctor is her biological father and so changes her mind to stay and run the practice that she has inherited.

It is like gilmor girls in Alabama and really not my thing, a bit too much gossiping girls and thier boy troubles. Definitely a watch for anyone that is a fan of Gilmor girls or Bilson.

TV Show - Pan Am - S01E01

2011-10-13T01:53:00.000-07:00

Pan Am is period drama about the pilots and flight attendants of the company Pan Am.
Hearing period drama I think of Jane Ayre and I don't think Pan Am was around then. But it is the 60's and Pan Am is at the height of its glamor, the pilots are hansome the attendents are beautiful and the planes were brand new. When watching this I didn't find anthing interesting that sucked me in as a viewer, if you are a Pan Am historian then you may be interested but you may also be irritated by any slightly wrong period fact. There is a side of espionage involved as one of the attendants is recruited by MI6 and the CIA, but this is such a small part of the show that you can be forgiven for forgetting it was even present. I am putting this down as one to miss.

TV Show – Suburgatory – S01E01

2011-10-12T11:41:00.003-07:00

Emily Kapnek from ‘As Told By Ginger’ fame has created the new show Suburgatory. A take on the differences between city life and the ‘burbs, again this fall we see a new show that doesn’t have an original idea.

A single father (Jeremy Sisto) finds a packet of condoms in his daughters room and so very reasonably moves them from NYC to the suburbs up state. I think Tessa (Jane Levy) is made out to be an average teen from New York but is then surprised at meeting a fake person… No one in NYC is fake then? NYC propaganda? But anyway Tessa enters this new world of hummy mummys and spoilt teens and doesn’t notice any similarities and feels like a fish out of water. She does make friends with a girl at school that is being bullied (Allie Grant) and her dad gets his first stalker and love interest. All in all the show is not great, people will watch thinking that they can make fun of all the fake people walking around the show, but the humor is poor and ideas are rehashings. Alan Tudyk is awesome as ever, but I don’t think he is enough to make up for the rest of the production here.

TV Show – A Gifted Man – S01E01

2011-10-12T11:41:00.001-07:00

Susannah Grant, writer of Erin Brockovich and Pocahontas, has created ‘A Gifted Man’ for us. I am expecting something that questions people motives and morales, as we got with Erin and Poca, if handled well these matters can be powerful and emotive but if handled poorly then the show can become cliche, boring and cheesy. I am hoping for the former.

Dr. Michael Holt (Patrick Wilson) is a self obsessed Surgeon and the best there is. One evening while picking up dinner he meets his ex-wife, Anna (Jennifer Ehle) and invites her back to his to share dinner. The next day Michael Discovers that his ex-wife was hit by a car and died two weeks earlier, this sends him a little crazy wondering if his is schizophrenic or hallucinating. Anna convinces Michael to go, with her password, to the free clinic where she was director so that they can access her files. While there Michael helps a single mother and her children, and slowly Anna’s re-appearence is changing how Michael sees the world. His sister (Julie Benz) introduces him to her friend Anton (Pablo Schreiber), a shaman, whom offers to get rid of Anna for Michael who later changes his mind and allows Anna to stay with him.

The series starts well showing the life that this amazing surgeon leads but about half way through strays into the cheese as they talk over how Anna has returned and what it means. It reminds me of Just Like Heaven and the emotions feel real and Michael’s decisions dont feel forced but natural steps. Although the supernatural aspect is not really my cup of tea I enjoyed the pilot, minus the cheesy middle, and think that the series will do really well.

TV Show – Person of Interest – S01E01

2011-10-12T11:40:00.006-07:00

J. J. Abrams and Jonathan Nolan had originally planned for this sci-fi crime drama to be a movie, but CBS had other ideas. . I’m a big fan of J. J. so have high hopes for this show. I only hope he’s learnt how to provide an answer to the many questions he provides. Come on, its got Jesus and the king of the Island (Jim Caviezel and Michael Emerson) what more can you want?

After losing his girlfriend John Reese (Jim Caviezel) is at the bottom of his barrel, Mr. Finch (Michael Emerson) gives him the purpose he needs to keep ticking. While working for the government Mr. Finch created a machine that determines who will be involved in a future crime and sorts the data into relevant and irrelevant information. Relevant data is what the government commissioned the machine to produce, giving them high level terrorists, irrelevant is other acts of crime, crimes which Mr. Finch has decided he will try to prevent. The machine doesn’t say if the person will be a victim witness or perpetrator, it only provides a social security number. During their first case involving corrupt cops and attorneys Reese recruits a corrupt cop (Kevin Chapman) to provide him with information from within the police department, after seeing misplaced loyalty not greed as his motivation.

This is well written, acted and the story is well thought through. J.J. hasn’t changed his style and deals bucket loads of mystery while still providing focus for the story arc. I think this show will be around for a long time, it’s only problem could be the amount of times we’ve seen stories about corrupt cops, but the machine will be able to move away from the cops if it starts to get stale.

TV Show – Unforgettable – S01E01

2011-10-12T11:40:00.005-07:00

Ed Redlich, from without a trace fame, writes a new show about a chick with an impressive memory. He brings Poppy Montgomery with him as his lead.

Carrie Wells (Poppy Montgomery) used to be a cop but now volunteers in a retirement home trying to forget her past. She doesn’t seem to be trying that hard as she goes on her own mission to take out a gangster whom runs a casino. And she doesn’t put up much of a fight when asked to work on a case she is a witness for. The show falls into the trap of making the lead look like the only competent person, finding the little things that crack a case that would only be missed by a proby. Each of her flashbacks is acompanied by slo-mo and a firm face, becoming irratating. Every cop in a cop drama has there problems and hers seems to be that she can’t forget, to me this seems a little whiney, she needs to move on and be serious about her quitting the force. It hasn’t grabbed me, but might become the new mentalist.

TV Show – Charlie’s Angels – S01E01

2011-10-12T11:40:00.003-07:00

A revamped movie franchise wasn’t enough as Charlie’s Angels returns to TV in what I would not call eagerly awaited. We get it girls can kick ass, but they are still the bottom rung of the agency – managed day to day by bosly and given task by Charlie.

How many TV shows can there be of criminals making a team to fight the good fight? The story of Charlie’s angels is well known by anyone that has heard of a television so a revamp has to be something special to eclipse the movies and classic TV show. This offering does not come close. Sure there is a little question to be asked when one of the angels dies early on, but it doesn’t change anything as the girls quickly find a friend to take her place. The agency is 1970s and the technology is 2010s, the dialouge is childish and emotion is void. In my opinion not enough has been changed and updated to make me watch this and the only possible reason to watch is for the girls. I don’t think this will be around for long, and definitely not in my world.

TV Show – Terra Nova – S01E01

2011-10-12T11:40:00.001-07:00

Steven Spielberg brings more dinosaurs into out lives with the new show Terra Nova. Set in the year 2149 and the environmentalists seem to have won, everyone needs masks to filter the air and population controls are in place through a two child policy (this may seem harsh, but it’s double what the chinese get). Written by Craig Silverstein.

The Shannon family may live in the future but they are quite ordinary. Ordinary to the point of bordem. Although Jim Shannon (Jason O’Mara) is a policeman they do not follow the parental controls of the day, as a result he is sent to prison. Elisabeth Shannon (Shelley Conn) is a biologist and is recruited to Terra Nova, any fans of latin get a bit of a heads up as to what this could possibly be, for those of us they missed their latin class it means new earth. The government has found a hole in time and so can send people back 85 million years to start over. Here the sci-fi is kind of broken 1. They explain that they are on a different timeline and so can’t cause any paradoxes. 2. They can talk back through the portal but can’t go back themselves. 3. They give no reason why they can’t send everyone through but are forced to only send a few. The family aspect of Terra Nova is very unoriginal, each has their own demographic to hit, and seem to talk in cliches. Ofcourse there are some people that have broken off from the group and are now in competition. To further add to the nausea the dinosaurs must be from a different time too, they all have different names and looks and although may be cool and new it grates if you have any knowledge of dinos. The production values are HUGE, everything looks so sleak. The show needs to take off alot more to keep me interested, but as they have invested so much in it i’m sure the season will play out. If there will be a big enough audience to cover the cost of a second season, we’ll have to wait and see.

TV Show – Prime Suspect – S01E01

2011-10-12T11:39:00.005-07:00

Based on a british show of the same name Prime Suspect is being brought to us by Alexandra Cunningham and Peter Berg, most notably from desperate housewives and Friday Night Lights respectively. The original series was made in 1991, so my real fear here is that this series will feel out of date already.

Detective Jane Timoney (Maria Bello) is the only female detective in a police station ran like a boys club. She has been past over for assignments as the lead detective and gets given low level arrends to run and grunt work instead. When one of the detectives has a heart attack she sees her opportunity, finally convincing the lieutenant (Aidan Quinn) to give her the lead – much to the hatred of the other detectives. She dives into the case and proves everyone wrong in picking a new prime suspect for the series of rapes that are occuring throughout the city. Jane is portrayed as the only detective that can tie her own shoes, with the others missing key information from witnesses. To me this makes the whole thing a long feminist rant, the men are usless and stuck in their ways while the female is all powerfull and can solve crimes. The ideas and story are nothing new, and although some people may still need reminding that neither sex is best, there are better things to put on TV or at least it could be at the forefront of the movement and show that not only can women do anything a man can, but that men and women can actually co-exist in a work environment. Feminists will fund projects like this for years to come so I don’t expect it to leave the screen just yet. But I wont be watching when it does stop, because I already have.

TV Show – New Girl – S01E01

2011-10-12T11:39:00.003-07:00

Zoe Dechanel is returning to the silver screen with new girl. I first saw her in weeds and have liked her since, I don’t think it’s totally down to her cuteness – but it might be the majority shareholder. New girl is created and written by Elizabeth Meriwether whom also wrote No Strings Attached, oh which i wasn’t a huge fan but only cos that story has been done too much recently.

Jess (Zooey Deschanel) has just found her boyfriend with another woman and so is looking for a new apartment. She moves in with three men – Schmidt (Max Greenfield) a guy that tries to act cool for his work mates and thinks he is a ladies man, he is douchebag and is rather annoying. Nick (Jake M. Johnson) a sensitive guy that has just gone through his own breakup and is starting to fall for Jess. And Winston (Lamorne Morris) aka coach, who is the sports guy with no understanding of girls emotions usually resorting to shouting to communicate. The premise is believable as are the characters, although Schmidt is a douche, and the setup of guys learning how to be better from a female friend is still quite fresh. Although the laughs are not huge I think it has enough to draw people in, the chemistry between the characters is good the emotion feels real and will only get better as the series goes. Definitely one to watch. But Schmidt is still a douche.

TV Show – Revenge – S01E01

2011-10-12T11:39:00.001-07:00

A TV adaptation of the novel ‘The Count of Monte Cristo’ by Alexandre Dumas that has been mashed together with Desperate Housewives. I cannot begin to blag a knowledge of The Count of Monte Cristo except for the fact that it is a classic. Created by Mike Kelley, whom is partly responsible for The O.C. and Jericho two shows that I really liked while watching but wouldn’t watch repeatedly. I am expecting much the same here, something to enjoy once but not dwell on.

There are two options with every tragedy – Forgiveness and revenge. This is not a story about forgiveness. Emily Thorn (Emily VanCamp) has a troubling past. Her real name is Amanda Clarke but after her father is wrongly convicted and she is put into detention she decides on a plan of revenge. Nolan, (Gabriel Mann) a friend of Emily’s dad offers his help to which Emily rejects. Jack Porter (Nick Wechsler) is a pretty face and son of the tavern owner. He has a dog – emily’s old dog – and a boat called amanda, he is seemingly hung up on this girl that he once knew. Victoria (Madeleine Stowe) is queen of the hamptons and with her husband responsible for the events surrounding Emily’s father. Therefore at the minute she is the main focus of emily’s revenge. Ashley, (Ashley Madekwe) emily’s best friend and an event organiser is really a character that is there to introduce the audience to each of the hamptons community.

The series is has enough mystery to be intriguing without being cryptic. The only down side is the amount of hens clucking, with the politics of the housewives sometimes taking precident over emily. i would like to see more subterfuge on emily’s part and learn more of the conspiracy around her dad and less of the boy that knew her as a child and how the housewives hate each other while smiling. Another series that has not made me drop everything but it has just enough to it to make me watch next week.

TV Show – The Playboy Club – S01E01

2011-10-12T11:38:00.003-07:00

When I first heard about the Playboy club I was expecting a sleazy show showing how the playboy world works from magazines to movies. However this show is a mash up of Christina Aguilera’s Berlesque and AMC’s Mad Men. Might work on AMC, but NBC is too main stream, and good dramas take time to enter the main stream.

Step inside the world of the original Playboy Club in 1960′s Chicago and meet Maureen (Amber Heard) the newest ‘bunny’ who has dream of being a dancer not the cigarette girl she starts out as. Things don’t start well for Maureen as, while in a back room restocking her cigarettes, she is attacked by a man. Nick Dalton (Eddie Cibrian) comes in and tries to get the man off Maureen but he is overpowered, as the attacker crawls on top of Maureen again she kicks out at him and her heel goes through the mans neck. Nick notices who the man is – Head of the local Mafia – and says that they can not tell anyone what has happened. Inevitably the mob start asking question and the two are forced closer together by their cooperative lie. There is a side story of an aging bunny that is jealous of Maureens relationship with Nick and in a feud with the clubs manager whom fires her. After a visit to the Playboy mansion she returns with the power of hefner and sets yourself up as a matron or mother to the girls.

The show is not horrible but holds no interest. Thrillers work if there is an original story or at least an original angle on an old story, this has neither. If you have never seen a crime drama before then you will like it, if you have seen one before then this is like a high school play of Mad Men. If you expect Playboy bunnies to fill the screen, then this isn’t for you being set in the 60′s the bunnies are not as revealing as modern times.

TV Show – 2 Broke Girls – S01E01

2011-10-12T11:38:00.001-07:00

Whitney Cummings second project for this fall is 2 Broke Girls with Sex and the City producer Michael Patrick King. With the show being involved in a bidding war (CBS coming out on top) then I can only assume that there must be something to this show. Kat Dennings plays one of the broke girls and is a face that I see, recognise, but for the life of me can’t say where from…

Max (Kat Dennings) is a pessimistic girl that lives in New York City and works two jobs to try and carve out a living. She is a waitress, in a run down diner and a nanny, for a socialite. When we first meet her she seems so depressed that she would have to always take the tunnel for fear of jumping from a bridge. When another waitress gets fired Max asks for the chance to do all the work for two pay checks and to add to her dismay the manager (Matthew Moy) hires Caroline (Beth Behrs), daughter of a Ponzi scheme runner whom has been imprisoned as such all Caroline’s assests have been frozen and she is forced to get a job saying that she looked for something far from her social circle so as not to become embarrassed, settling on the diner. After an initial hatred for Caroline fueled by her spoiled upbringing Max finds her sleeping on the subway and offers her a couch to crash on. Caroline outs Max’s boyfriend as a cheater and so the two are left with each other. A rather chesey premise and execution but the acting is good and the girls seem quite genuine about their plight.

The jokes are not wholely original and the story of poor people in a diner has been rehashed enough times already. I would definitely watch this over Whitney but wouldn’t cry if it was lost from Tevo. The girls are the best part of this, and have a thelma and louise thing going on (with the dream of a cupcake shop) but the chef (Jonathan Kite) needs to be put down and I can’t for the life of me understand why a diner needs a greeter (Garrett Morris). All i can think is that they need him because you can’t make racist jokes without a black man in the room – that’s just racist, which possibly is why the manager is asian. These studios have a quota to hit?

TV Show – Whitney – S01E01

2011-10-12T11:37:00.004-07:00

With two new shows out this fall Whitney Cummings seems to really be carving a name for herself, although it’s a name i’ve only just heard of, from what i’ve heard she is really funny. Well if she was that funny I would have heard of her… surely… Well I have now. So lets see what her first pilot has to offer, it is semi-biographical and from my experiences shows with that premise are relatively short lived but hey she may have an interesting life… Click the pic to send you to a place of information.

Whitney is filmed infront of a live studio audience and everything i’ve watched that is seems to be proud of this fact, I am unsure why. Although a live audience is better than canned laughter I do think that the performers have to be strong enough to not break the scene by waiting for the audience to settle back down. They should rely on the writers to create breaks after big laughs and anytime they get caught out by a chuckle they should carry on, because as it may not be obvious if you are laughing the times that you are not there is some what of an awkward pause. Besides if they just carry on and someone laughs there way through the next line/joke then they have something to enjoy next time they watch, which in my view adds an illusion of depth as it allows people to say ‘Everytime I watch it I find something new’.

But lets get beyond the audience and we have a story about a couple, Whitney (Whitney Cummings) and Alex (Chris D’Elia), whom are living in sin. Whitney is an opinionated girl that is scared of marriage – due to her parents divorces, but knows she wants to be with Alex forever. The jokes are rather corney but if you give the characters a little bit of time they are managable but not killer. The show is built around the couple, their couple friend (Lily and Neal - Zoe Lister Jones and Maulik Pancholy) and a single guy (Mark – Dan O’Brien) and girl (Roxanne – Rhea Seehorn). Giving the tried and tested ‘we need 6, 3 of each’ set up in a cast. There is nothing groundbreaking and i think verges on the cliche, whitney is outspoken about womens issues but its been done, the other couple seem to have a better relationship, the single guy tries to be a playboy and the single girl is depressed about being alone. This is not going to be my new favourite comedy but it will find veiwers and i think do well.

TV Show – Up All Night – S01E01

2011-10-12T11:37:00.003-07:00

Maybe an insult to Mr. Arnett but I didn’t like him until he played Devon Banks in ’30 Rock’. So funny. I don’t know if this character will be the same as Devon, probably not, but i’m keeping an open mind. Kelly bundy is back and trying to make us believe she is not Kelly. This I will not have. Besides these two the show has Lorne Michaels on board to lend a hand and as I love 30 Rock, my expectations are growing. Until i figure out how to embed these in pictures, you’ll have to make do like a progressive horror movie – with forward slashes http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1843323/

Chris (Will Arnett) and Reagan (Christina Applegate) are new parents. And this being the 21st century Reagan is staying at work with Chris playing the house-husband. No matter how modern the idea of women staying in work after birthing is no one can seem to get past the idea that women still hold their figure as a top priority and men can’t even buy cheese alone. Which may be true, but does it have to be obvious? And so Reagan returns to work as the producer on a talk show whose host is her best friend Ava (Maya Rudolph). She is a self obsessed, rather ditzy person with a shy secretary (Jennifer Hall). In the pilot I couldn’t find anything new or exciting about about the premise or the characters, although there were good jokes the delivery didn’t seem to work, I knew what the show was trying but I didn’t laugh once. It is a nice show, with good actors, about the difficulties of having a baby with the twist that the mum is a career girl but it is not a new idea. I think the show will do well, maybe a few seasons, but there are definitely better shows to be watched built around a baby – Raising hope, Modern Family – but it may take a while to start walking (Lovely baby reference anyone?)

TV Show – Free Agents – S01E01

2011-10-12T11:37:00.001-07:00

I am not a fan of american remakes of british shows as it usually leads to a mere exchange of sarcasm for a shinier set. However, as I have not seen the british version and with Hank Azaria involved, I thought I had better reserve my judgement. As I should always do, but this is not a perfect world. As ever info can be found here http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1839481/

Alex (Hank Azaria) is recently divorced and has a one night stand with a girl from his office, Helen (Kathryn Hahn). Helen lost your husband a year previous and isn’t over him to the tune of having large pictures of him all about her bedroom. Alex and Helen are PR managers. The firm is filled with characters that represent a demographic with no depth, they are blunt colours of a rainbow with none of the natural overlapping of tendencies you see in the real world. There’s the perverted boss Stephen (Anthony Head) Dan (Mo Mandel) – the wannabe playboy, Gregg (Al Madrigal) – the man whom hates that he is married, Emma (Natasha Leggero) – the prissy assistant and Walter (Joe Lo Truglio ) – the pathetic security guard. The culmination of which is a picture of an american office evironment that is over the top cliche with disappointing results.Alex and Helen are the only characters that aren’t hollow shells. But their filling is not a complicated statement about overcoming lost love but a mash of rehashed workplace romances. Helen pushes Alex to go out with the lad from the office later to interupt and invite him round. My opinion is that this show is not worth watching, but this is a pilot and so creases can be ironed out. But with the amount of pre-air research studios do i think that this is their final offering from the dry cleaners, and one that would not draw me in as a viewer. This is one to miss.

TV show – Ringer – S01E01

2011-10-12T11:36:00.000-07:00

Firstly, Sarah Michelle Gellar back on TV. Who isn’t excited about that? (Robot Chicken doesn’t count – Not as a tv show, it’s amazing. but doesn’t count as a TV return of SMG in my book)

I haven’t heard much about the show, mostly through trying as spoilers well spoil. And as such you may wish to skip to the final paragraph. For cast or professional synopsis visit http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1819654/

We start by meeting a girl in witness protection, bridget, who makes a run from her guardian after recieving a letter from her rich sister that says she can come and stay as long as she likes. Bridget was to testify in a court case in exchange for dropping the charges of prostitution and possession against her. Then it all gets a little Parent Trap meets Freaky Friday as we discover her sister is a twin. Here the pilot does it’s job. We hear a little about past mistakes of the girls, some history of their lives, the criminal is now free and looking for bridget, and that no one in Siobhans life knows she has a twin sister. The two sisters decide to go out on a boat, for no particular reason other than its a good place for a suicide. Bridget wakes up to find Siobhan is no longer there and seeing a change at a new, richer life, bridget takes over her sistrs identity. For me personally here it gets a little tedious as no one notices Siobhan’s changes or why she suddenly misses every appointment and doesnt know anyones name or that friends don’t notice the awkward pauses as bridget forgets the simplest of things. Although tedious it is necessary and handled well here. However things are not as they first appear for Bridget. Siobhan may be rich but her life is anything but simple or easy. Bridget learns that Siobhan has been having an affair with her best friends husband. Something Bridget puts an end too not to the gentlemans delight. Bridget then discovers that Siobhan was pregnant, her step daughter is no angel and is into drugs. And we see that her husband seems to be keeping secrets from her. With all this to straighten out Bridget is caught off guard when her parole officer turns up and does her best to keep him at arms length and maintain the lie that she is Siobhan. As the episode draws to a close the parole officer finds out that she was lying and will be back on her case, and obvious season story arc. The final scenes are the cliffhanger of the pilot as Bridget discovers that someone is out to kill Siobhan and we discover that Siobhan is actually in Paris and and we are left wondering what Siobhans plans are next.

For me the story moves a little fast – but if you know the premise then maybe thats a good thing as they cant create too much suspense if you know the outcome. Ringer so far, to me, seems to be a story about Bridget trying to clean up her sisters mess while out running her past. The cliffhanger has made me want to watch episode 2 and i think that this could be a really good season. There seems to be so many questions regarding the characters that J.J. Abrams would be proud. Definitely a season with potential.

OMG first comment!!!1one

2011-10-12T11:35:00.001-07:00

I always see ‘OMG first comment’ on youtube videos and a few things about it bug me. First, why state the obvious? I can see that you are the first to comment, why do i need to be notified also? Second, ‘OMG first comment’ is not a comment. Bertrand Russell may wish to formulate a paradox from it, but in my eyes not a comment. Third, sometimes its not even the first comment, there are infact two people at the same time trying to point out that they are the first to comment, with something that isn’t a comment. then not only does the commenter have no rational reason to write it but is also lying. Forth, who cares if you’re first? Is it a trophy? Do you feel that becasue you are the first to comment that you are somehow part of the video and can claim to e the first to have seen it? No, you’re just the first to comment. If you are the first to view, first to comment, and payed more than 51% of the production costs then you can boast. Till then shut it.

Well, didn’t mean any of that I just saw my ill chosen first title and couldn’t stop. Except to check the spelling of a few things. Although this is the first entry and as such the first thing to be bumped from the page. I doubt anyone will read, but still i write on. I will be updateing this site everytime i watch a TV show or movie. And at the end of a season i will try to conclude some thoughts about the shows. I can not boast to have any inside knowledge or know anything about ratings. All i can do is watch and say if i think there should be more like it or if it needs to burn.