Toob Talk

From the makers of Grey’s Anatomy comes… a show that feels exactly like Grey’s Anatomy.

Not that that’s an entirely bad thing. I happen to like Grey’s. And I’m sure there will be plenty of people who like Private Practice just as much. But unless they differentiate themselves, unless they get a more distinct feel, they’re not going to keep the 14 million viewers they had for the pilot.

The good news is, the show has potential. Kate Walsh did wonderful things on Grey’s with Addison, who was originally supposed to be a short term character when first introduced. Other members of the cast–Tim Daly, Amy Brenneman, Taye Diggs, Paul Adelstein and Chris Lowell–will look very familiar to frequent TV viewers. They’ve all been on good shows. Most of those shows were canceled before their time. They’ve got talent and the characters have potential to be good.

In the pilot, though, they’re all kind of flat and dull. That was the biggest difference from the first episode of Grey’s. That didn’t leave me feeling like it was dull.

Hopefully, over the course of the next few episodes, the show will come into its own. It took Grey’s a while to really hook me. Maybe Private Practice will work the same way.

My first thought, as I rolled my eyes at the show descriptoion was, “Great, another lawyer show with quirky characters.”

And so it was with great trepidation that I tuned in to the first episode of Dirty Sexy Money.

Now that it’s over, I can honestly say that not only was I pleasantly surprised, but I may just have to tune in next week–and every week after–just to see what they come up with next.

It’s the top-notch actors that really make this show worthwhile. Donald Sutherland’s presence alone adds a bit of class to the show, regardless of how lost and intermittently vile his character (the patriarch of New York’s richest and most famous family, the Darlings) is. Jill Clayburgh as the matriarch of that family is the perfect compliment to Sutherland. And Peter Krause is cast perfectly as their diametric opposite–their new family lawyer.

Krause plays Nick George, the son of the Darling’s recently deceased (in a plane crash) family lawyer. George, like his father, is a lawyer. Unlike his father, he is determined to be a good family man. After seeing how working for the Darling’s destroyed his parent’s marriage and knowing full well how difficult the job was on him as a young boy, George doesn’t want to put his own wife and young daughter through similar problems. Instead he runs a private practice that does as much charity work as possible.

But when Tripp Darling (Sutherland) offers him the job as family lawyer and tacks on an extra ten million dollars a year for George’s charity work, he reluctantly agrees.

The next 24 hours of his life are chock full of utter mayhem.

And we all get to go along for the crazy, disjointed, engaging and, ultimately, heart-warming ride.

Gorge is a man of integrity and virtue among a gaggle of self-important, self-indulgent, holier-than-thou, spoiled rich people. He is destined to be the conscience of the dysfunctional Darling family. If he can stand it.

Every character in this ensemble is quirky in a good way. They all have just enough implied depth that they stand out from the caricatures that they almost are. Each one, even in the space of an hour-long pilot episode shows a little bit of humanity.

Plus, the mayhem is fun. The best and worst thing about it is that what happens is nothing we haven’t seen on the news a thousand times before. It is familiar.

As I said, this show surprised me. I’m hooked and look forward to the expanding circle of mystery that was introduced in the final act. A bold move, since the basics of the show are more than enough to keep things interesting. If done well, it will make Dirty Sexy Money a true gem on television. If they’re writers aren’t up to the challenge, though, the show will quickly descend into a muddled mess that even Sutherland and Krause won’t be able to save.

Here’s hoping for the former.

Of all the networks, NBC seems to be a bit ahead of this technology curve. At least for the upcoming fall season. They’ve made three of the pilots for new shows available in a few different ways. I watched them on my cable system’s On Demand system the other day.

We see remakes all the time on the big screen. It doesn’t happen quite as often on the small one. At least not outright ones that aren’t Superman.

Why? Probably because there’s no way to avoid comparison with the original and TV executives are even more fickle than movie studios. The new Battlestar Galactica caught a heck of a lot of flack (even from me) before it hit its stride five hours into the series. It has since blown away just about everything else on TV.

The Bionic Woman is a remake (some would say “re-visioning” in order to avoid the negative connotation) of one of my staple shows growing up. The original was action-packed, light and fun, just like so many other shows of the late 1970s and early 80s. A lot has changed since then. This new version embraces those changes fully.

No longer is Jaime Sommers a tennis player injured in a sky-diving accident. Now she’s a bar tender, barely making ends meet as she tries to finish college and take care of her younger sister. The high point in her life is her (slightly older) boyfriend, Will, a surgeon working for a private company. It’s that last connection that comes in handy when their car is demolished by a tractor trailer.

Jamie is brought into the program Will heads. In order to save her life, he rebuilds her with a combination of high-tech mechanical prosthetics and nanotechnology. This leads to her getting the trademark bionic legs, arm, and eye. The super hearing kicks in a little later.

The big problem is, she’s not the first person to undergo the procedure. Sarah Corvus (played by Galactica’s Katee Sackhoff) was the first, but ran into some… difficulties.

Without question this show has more grit than the original ever thought of having. It’s got a very human edge, to it, as well. Much like the new Galactica took some key points from its previous incarnation, the new Bionic Woman has kept true to the core idea but made it something more.

This is a show to watch this season. If it does well–which I think it will–who knows what other super heroes of the 70s we’ll get to see next. In an odd twist of irony, maybe a new version of The Six Million Dollar Man will spin off of Bionic Woman.

It’s rare to see a comedy that has both high production values and an oxymoronic high-class flavor of lowbrow humor.

Reaper is one of those rare shows.

Granted, when I first started seeing stuff on it, I thought it would be a cold day in Hell before it turned out to be worthwhile. Seems that either Hell has frozen over or I was wrong about that.

Who’d have thought that a story about a slacker who’s parents sold his soul to the devil could be hear-warming? Oh, and don’t be mad at his parents–when they made that deal, they never planned on having kids, so offering up the soul of their first-born to save mom’s life seemed like a perfectly fine idea.

But, what’s done is done and now Sam, just celebrating his 21st birthday, has been visited by the big guy from downstairs and pressed into service. Sam’s now Satan’s right hand man, a hunter of of evil souls who have escaped from hell. If he doesn’t perform, not only will he still go to Hell when he dies (the devil, after all, does own his soul), but his mother will, too.

Sounds like the recipe for a dark and gritty show doesn’t it? It should, it’s only a slight variation on the plot of the short-lived Brimstone from a decade ago. The major difference here is that Reaper is produced by Kevin Smith and is thick with his quirky attitude and irreverent tone. So, instead of “dark and gritty” you get silly and snarky.

A combination that, oddly enough, makes the show quite endearing and a lot of fun.

As long as they keep up the writing, it should do OK. The CW’s decision to have it follow Beauty and the Geek in the schedule, though, is a little mind-boggling. It would fit much better paired with Supernatural, a show that has a similar theme but a completely different tone (kind of like how The Sci Fi Channel had Battlestar Galactica, a dark and gritty show, paired with the usually much lighter Stargate shows). I guess they just didn’t want to break up their Supernatural/Smallville block just yet.

Oh, and for anyone who was a Twin Peaks fan, good old Leland Palmer himself, Ray Wise, is playing the relatively likable (though distinctly unnerving) devil. Always a treat to see.

Definitely put this show on your list of things to check out, even if you have to watch it online or time-shift it. I know that’s what I’ll be doing. (Sorry, House still wins on a regular basis.)

In theory, the show could be funny.

In practice, it’s not even close.

The story of two total geeks (or, perhaps more accurately, nerds) living together in a vaguely run-down apartment building who get a new neighbor–a totally hot girl.

The Big Bang Theory misses on every possible note it can. Well, that’s not entirely true. Their theme song, performed by Bare Naked Ladies, is pretty good. Not great, but infinitely better than what’s supposed to pass for humor in the show.

It is obvious the writers haven’t watched anything involving smart but socially “different” characters since Revenge of the Nerds. They’re certainly not watching Beauty and the Geek (which has better dialog–and it’s not scripted!). Chances are, they’re working off of the same crib sheet at the scribes for Chuck.

Nothing new here. Nothing funny here. May as well move along.

Picking up four months after the events that closed out the first season, Heroes has returned with just as much style and bite as ever.

For most of the world, not much has changed. Most knew nothing of the disaster that had been diverted–or the price that was paid–by those special few. Most of the familiar faces from last season have gone back to their normal, low key lives. Some hiding on purpose (like Claire and her family). Others wallowing in obscurity (like Mohinder who is lecturing about his research and his father’s work to sparsely populated hotel ballrooms).

We’re introduced to two new faces, Maya and Alejandro, who are making a desperate run for the U.S. border through Central America.

Hiro is still in the past, face to face with his childhood idol. His father and Ando are still waiting for his return.

The plots set up in the season opener are intricate and sure to intertwine in interesting place as the season unfolds. The characters, as always, are engaging and just complex enough to be believable. Probably the best news is, even with the dark tone some of those threads have, there are more than a few light moments to keep things from getting too grim.

Unless the writers, producers or network do something supremely stupid, there is no reason why this show won’t keep running strong all season. Though it will be interesting to see how it scored in the ratings against the second half of Dancing With the Stars.

Even before it hit the air, Kid Nation gained the title of most controversial new show.

For those who’ve missed the promo stuff for this new reality show, they’ve taken 40 kids from all different age and social groups and sent them to a pioneer-era ghost town. They have supplies, an appointed council and a lot of leeway in the direction things take over the course of 40 days. The pre-broadcast controversy came up when word got out that, at one point during the filming, a couple of the kids accidentally drank some (very diluted) bleach. That, of course, is really a non-issue as the kids are surrounded by camera people and the medical staff is instantly on call for anything.

Watching the first episode, I was worried for a little bit that things would be Survivor-flavored: where teams compete against one another and then decide who gets sent home. Thankfully, that’s not the case with Kid Nation. Yes, there is a team-based competition, but (at least so far) no one is sent home. They are, however, given the option to go home once a week.

What the show is about is team work, leadership and plain old hard work. Three things that so many kids these days seem to know even less about than I did when I was their age. Their ages run from 8 to 14 years old. Because of that span, there are some very deep challenges to overcome in the division of labor and social skills.

In charge of the group are four appointed town council members, themselves kids. Why they were appointed isn’t mentioned in the episode. I’m betting that somewhere around week three or four there’s going to be an election. They are, after all, setting up a town and politics most certainly is part of that.

Law enforcement is also a part of learning about civic government. There’s already been a spurt of graffiti, perpetrated by two of the older boys in the group. Nothing was done about that, but it does seem that a number of the kids aren’t too happy about it.

An all out crime wave, though, will probably not happen any time soon because of another great thing the producers have seen fit to do. Every week the town council will choose one kid who has worked hardest or best and award them a gold star. That would be a real gold star–worth $20,000. Plus a phone call home.

Having seen just one episode, I’m pretty impressed. While I’d be more likely to produce a show that did the same thing with just teenagers, I fully admire the chutzpa of the producers of filling the ranks with the mix of age groups that they did. That mix may end up making the show even more impressive, heart warming and valid in the long run.

Along with Beauty and the Geek and 2005’s Brat Camp, I think we have another very worthwhile reality show on our hands. This is a show families should watch together. There’s a lot to be learned.

One of the big-deal sitcoms hitting the small screen this season is Fox’s Back to You, a newsroom comedy starring long-time heavy hitters Kelsey Grammer and Patricia Heaton.

Grammer plays Chuck Darling, an ego-centric news anchor who finds himself back at the station he left ten years ago. That, of course, happens after he made it big and then screwed up and got fired. Heaton is Kelly Carr, his former co-anchor who stayed at the station and has carved out a nice comfortable life.

If you can’t guess where the comedy comes in–or what “amazing” plot twists come up–you haven’t watched sitcoms before.

My first thought on hearing about this show was Good Morning Miami meets Murphy Brown–a blending of the silly comedy of the former with the quality cast of the latter. Well, both of those shows had something that Back to You lacks: heart.

What passes for creativity in this show is little more than re-packaged stereotype and easy jokes. The too-young-to-be-taken-seriously news director (played by Josh Gad who is clearly channeling a Chris Farley character from Saturday Night Live). The sexy Latina weather girl (who is, perhaps the most appalling of all the characters so far–a definite step down for Ayda Field after being on Studio 60). The ever-hopeful next-in-line reporter who lost his chance at the anchor position when Darling came back. There’s even Fred Willard playing, well, the same character he always plays.

Both Grammer’s and Heaton’s talent is wasted on this show unless they get some much better writers. Writer/Producer Steve Levitan continues the downward spiral started by Stacked. He’s come a long way from Fraiser and Wings, that’s for sure.

That all said, I’m pretty sure this show’s going to be a big hit. If generic and downright bland crap like the blissfully now gone Yes, Dear can last for six seasons, something the Grammer and Heaton’s star power can probably go at least that long.

I’m also pretty sure I’ll be able to find something else to watch. Which, really, is kind of a shame because ‘Til Death fills out the second half of he hour and it’s a pretty good show.

Fox is once again getting the jump on the other three networks with it’s fall premieres. Monday night saw the debut of their new cop show, K-Ville.

K-Ville, short for Katrinaville, is set in the 9th Ward of post-hurricane-trounced New Orleans. It follows the on the job and at home troubles of long-time local cop Marlin Boulet (Anthony Anderson) and his new partner, Trevor Cobb (Cole Hauser). Botlet’s old partner cracked under the pressure of the job during Hurricane Katrina and ran off, leaving Boulet up to his neck in injured and panicked people. Needless to say, he’s a little leery of taking on a new partner, even two years after the flood waters have receded.

As far as cop shows go, this one’s pretty standard. The caper they foil in the pilot is a little over the top in its execution and resolution, but the character interaction has the seeds of something that could be interesting to watch. The fact that it’s actually filmed in New Orleans is nice from both a realism angle and a humanitarian angle. But that’s about where the uniqueness of the show seems to end.

Also on the negative side is the editing technique used in the show. The cuts are disorienting, not in the usual MTV way, but in a “How the heck did the characters get there?” sort of way. In some cases, it makes things look just plain silly. We jump from being inside when a drive by shooting happens to being half-way into the chase–and then after just a few screeching twists and turns we jump again to the car they’re chasing being on its roof and empty. It’s like they couldn’t afford to film the important parts of the chase, the real action and the stunts. So all we’re left with is filler.

It doesn’t do anything new–not that there’s that much new that can be done with the cop show–and without something more distinctive than its setting, it won’t last long. Especially once NBC’s Monday night stars up. The lead in from Prison Break may help it last half the season, but I don’t expect it to last much longer.

Of all the networks, NBC seems to be a bit ahead of this technology curve. At least for the upcoming fall season. They’ve made three of the pilots for new shows available in a few different ways. I watched them on my cable system’s On Demand system the other day.

One of those new shows is Journeyman. It focuses on Dan Vasser, a reporter with a bad history who finds himself periodically unstuck in time. The transitions between present and past are random and can strike him at any time. In the past, he has to “fix” things so the present turns out slightly different.

Now, if you’re as avid a TV watcher as I am, you’re already thinking “Hey, that sounds like Quantum Leap.” Or maybe you’re thinking of any number of other time travel shows that have come and gone over the years (like Seven Days or the real classic Time Tunnel). If you were watching shows that got quickly canceled in the middle of last season, you’re immediately going think of Day Break.

The pilot episode was a bit confusing–and that’s a good thing in a show like this. With no clear indication of when a time shift was happening, the audience was brought deep into Vasser’s own feelings of disorientation and confusion. There are some neat ways he discovers he’s slipped back in time, like being in the middle of surfing for info on his cellphone web browser and suddenly having no service.

Overall, the pilot was pretty solid. There’s a good gritty realism to the characters, a feel of realism, even though there is time travel involved. If they focus on that feeling–on that style–the show could last for at least a season, if not more.

Unfortunately, at the very end of the show, they introduced a special effects transition to the time shift. If they go that route, they won’t make it five episodes before they’re canned.

Speaking of time travel shows that didn’t make it far, remember Day Break? There’s a familiar face from that failed show in Journeyman. Moon Boodgood played the girlfriend of Taye Diggs’ time traveling cop in last year’s series. This time around she’s playing the ex-girlfriend of Kevin McKidd’s (fresh off of HBO’s Rome) time traveling reporter.

If this show doesn’t make it, she’s going to get typecast and earn a bad reputation.

Of all the networks, NBC seems to be a bit ahead of this technology curve. At least for the upcoming fall season. They’ve made three of the pilots for new shows available in a few different ways. I watched them on my cable system’s On Demand system the other day.

One of those new shows is Chuck. The story of a hapless tech-support geek (er, nerd) who inadvertently becomes the receptacle of a huge database of intelligence agency information. That info is dropped directly into his brain through an unrealistic (though OK in the context of the show) plot device–he gets an e-mail from an old college friend who just happens to be a rouge CIA agent.

That data, now inextricably tied up in socially inept Chuck’s head, makes him a target for recruitment or elimination by every intelligence agency out there.

That makes for a pretty good pilot episode, but I don’t know if the show has a lot of staying power. Without some serious twists and additions to the base premise (perhaps even more of a sci-fi turn), it’s only going to get less believable that the aging information in Chuck’s head is still worth caring about.

It’ll be an enjoyable bunch of episodes, though.

But, for a few episodes, this is going to be one of the fun shows to watch. Even in the pilot the cast seems well-suited for and comfortable in their characters. Newcomer Yvonne Strzechowski is tremendous fun to watch as she plays Chuck’s new handler, an elegant counterpoint to Zachary Levi’s sweet nerd. Adam Baldwin doesn’t have a lot of screen time, but his John Casey is another good solid heavy role for one of my favorite supporting actors.

Knowing that McG has his fingers in this show, I think I can safely say that the attitude and action will carry through for as long as it lasts. How long will that be? I don’t know. But I’m betting less than a full season.

This week, there were a handful of new shows that popped into the line-up.

The only ones that really had me interested were on at 10 p.m. on Thursday. That one of the few blank spots that’s been on my schedule. I’ve been turning the TV off after Grey’s Anatomy for a while. Men in Trees just wasn’t doing it for me at all.

But this week there were two new shows that at least made me think, “Hey, I could enjoy that.”

After watching the pilot episodes of October Road and Rains, I can safely say that there won’t be a problem deciding which one to watch.

October Road intrigued me because I enjoyed Laura Prepon in the few things I’ve seen her in. Mostly That 70s Show. She’s the main reason I tuned in to the new show. She is not enough to keep me watching. In fact, she’s not even the best thing in the show. She’s the second best. The best is the young actor playing her character’s precocious son, Slade Pearce.

The rest of the show, unfortunately, fell very short of my expectations. Not very easy since I didn’t have a lot of expectations. The plot was shallow and well-traveled. The characters were mostly flat. The dialog was mostly uninteresting and only mediocre in its delivery. There’s no chemistry to the show. Well, none that wasn’t completely carried by the music.

Let’s talk about the music for a minute. I know that there’s a trend to use classic music in shows. It’s cheaper and carries a lot of accrued emotional impact with it. But there’s usually a lot more justification put forward in a show for the music the characters listen to. In Supernatural (one of the earlier in the night Thursday shows that uses a lot of old rock and roll), the 70s rock fits perfectly with the characters and, especially, their car and attitude. In October Road, though, where the characters graduated high school in 1997, they seem fixated on mid-80s heartland rock. It doesn’t fit at all with the characters or the setting.

The music makes the temporal setting of the show feel off. That anachronistic feel is cemented by the dialog. It also feels like it was written, at the latest, in the early 90s. The worst example in the pilot would be the afore-mentioned precocious child describing his nowhere near as precocious friend as the Lenny to his George (a wonderful Of Mice and Men reference). His not to bright friend hears this and says “It’s Squiggy, you fool.” How the heck would a modern 10 year old have a Lavern & Shirley reference be the first thing that pops into his head?

Things aren’t all bad with the show, though. There are a hearty bunch of literary references peppered throughout. Mostly because the main character is a writer. A writer who wrote a book that made everyone in his home town look like idiots. And then hadn’t come back in a decade.

I spent the whole time thinking “Didn’t I see this already?” To which the answer is, yes I did. About five years ago there was a short-lived show called Glory Days which had pretty much the same plot. Except it was set in the Pacific Northwest and was a whole lot quirkier and at least a little bit better.

Bottom line is, don’t bother crossing the street for October Road.

Now, the other new show, Rains… that was good TV. The premise may look familiar at first blush. You’ve got a cop who sees and talks with the victims of the murders he investigates. Many shades of Medium and The Ghost Whisperer flood through quickly. But it’s made very clear very quickly that he’s not actually seeing the dead people. He’s just got a very active imagination. And, maybe, he’s a little crazy.

Jeff Goldblum takes the lead and his quirky style and slightly off look make the character work. That character, Raines, was a big fan of the classic detective novels. At least until he became a cop. Then he got a bit weighed down in the non-glamorous reality of it all. In the pilot, he’s back on the force after taking some time off after a bust gone bad got him and his partner shot.

The victim, played by Alexa Davalos (last seen regularly in the canceled mystery/period series Reunion), shows up, constantly changing as his perception of who she actually was changes. She has no more information than he does. She offers no clues. She is, without a question, just a figment of his imagination, there for him to bounce ideas off of.

Some may be put off by the dialog of the show. It is very much pulled stylistically from Chandler and other noir authors and films. There are plenty of Sam Spade and Phil Marlowe like moments which are funniest if you’re a fan of the classic detective genre. Even those who are fans of the modern police procedural, though, will at least be entertained by the way the case plays out.

Rains left me with a smile on my face, which puts it way ahead of October Road which left me dozing off.

There’s no doubt at all what I’ll be watching Thursday night at 10 p.m. It’s Rains all the way.

Cry_Wolf was pretty good. A bit better than I expected it to be. The plot keeps you guessing what’s really going on and it all pays off pretty well in the end. Taking into account that the writer/director Jeff Wadlow has only done some shorts before, it’s pretty darn impressive. The young cast already has a good amount of experience behind them, so I’m sure that helped.

The story is pretty straight forward. The new kid at the swanky private school falls in with the fringe group of mild troublemakers. Just for fun, they decide to capitalize on the news of a local murder and create a serial killer rumor. Problem is, it quickly appears that their imagined killer has come to life and is after them. Is it the real killer upset that he’s being made fun of? Is it one of them just out to scare the others? Are they all out to spook one another? Or is it something else?

If you’re interested in a good mystery slasher film with some witty twists, check it out.

Wall Street is a classic and rightfully so. Oliver Stone’s examination of the rise and fall of stock broker Bud Fox (Charlie Sheen) gives us a perfect look at the culture of oppulance and greed that personified the mid-1980s. We get to meet Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas) who is greed personified. Gekko earns at all costs and takes a liking to Fox. A special treat is seeing Martin Sheen play Fox’s blue collar father. Both men are good actors and play well off one another.

By today’s standards, the film may move a little slow and the computers in use are ancient. But that’s how things were in 1987. There was no 24 hour trading. No web-based brokerages. Everything was done by running, making phone calls and yelling. A lot. It wasn’t easy to get inside information. It wasn’t easy to make millions of dollars (and millions of dollars were worth a lot more).

If you remember the “Greed is good!” ideals of real-life Gekkos in those heady days of the boom–or if you’re interested in seeing how things have and haven’t changed since then–check it out. Stone’s films have a well-earned place in the history of cinema and this is one of them that made his name known to everyone.

A weekend in means I have plenty of time to make use of my TV. This time around, there were a handful of movies watched and some of my favorite episodes of old anthology TV shows.

Shaolin vs. Evil Dead is a Hong Kong supernatural kung fu film a friend of mine lent me ages ago. I finally got around to watching it. I found it quite entertaining, but a bit off in a few ways. First and foremost, dubbed versions of Honk Kong films always leave me with that “Kung Fu Theater” Saturday afternoon feeling–all flash and no quality. Well, this film didn’t have a lot of flash and the quality wasn’t helped by the very silly sounding dubbed voices for most of the characters.

The plot has potential, though it seems to be heavy on the Chinese mythology (so if you’re not willing to leave your supernatural pre-suppositions at home, you’ll hate it) which takes a little getting used to. Basically, it’s the story of a priest and his young apprentices who are leading the bodies of the dead back to their home town for burial. Along the way, they encounter a haunted village and have a run in with an old acquaintance of the priest–an ex-best friend who trained under the same master but went off on his own when he wasn’t picked to take over the school. Yeah, that last part is pretty standard kung fu film plot, but it plays well in this case.

Overall, the film’s really not that bad. Some of the editing leaves me wondering what they were thinking, but there are some very nice shots between the awkward cuts. The worst of the editing problems happens right at the end. Just as the dust is settling from a climactic fight scene, the credits roll. I though my DVD had skipped a chapter. It had not. A little looking online shows that there’s a second part to the movie out there somewhere. If the action scenes running along side the credits are form that, then it’s a whole lot better action-wise than this film was.

After the flying fists smashed the undead, I popped in a disk of episodes from The Twilight Zone and was pleasantly greeted with a couple of very hopeful and well-done episodes. Of course, I remember them well from when I first saw them, this particular incarnation of the show was very influential for me growing up. The episodes caught were Time and Teresa Golowitz, Voices in the Earth, Song of the Younger World and The Girl I Married. If you’ve never seen this version of TZ, you should. Unlike the most recent incarnation, the producers understood that it’s more about the writing than the faces on the screen (not that they were hurting for on screen talent back in 85, they just managed to get the best of both worlds).

Those episodes were followed up with the original Ocean’s Eleven (which I’ve owned for a while but never watched). The story is more than a bit different from the more recent version, but the feel is very similar. Or at least it is if you know anything about the Rat Pack. This is your basic heist film and this version is nowhere near as complex as the new one. Sinatra and crew were all in the same outfit during World War II and get together to help a shady character rob five casinos on the Vegas strip. As much fun as this version is–complete with song and dance number from Sammy Davis, Jr., and more than a couple of songs from Dean Martin–I like the complexity of the new one much more. 1960 was obviously a much simpler time when it came to security. The extras on the DVD that I have are really neat. They have little mini-documentaries about the five casinos featured in the film.
A little more browsing through my DVD collection brought me to The Last Man on Earth, starring the impeccable Vincent Price. Since there’s another new version of this coming out soon with Will Smith, I figured it was appropriate. The story centers around Dr. Robert Morgan (Price) who has spent the last three years holed up in a suburban house, completely alone except for the still-shambling victims of a plague that seems to have eliminated all life on Earth except for him. The film unfolds slowly and is thick with desperation and hopelessness. Being based on a story by Richard Matheson, you really have to deviate far from the original plot in order to make something bad. This film is far from bad, but may move too slowly for the more MTV accustomed viewers that often complain about older films. It will be interesting to see how the newest version plays out, especially how they deal with the end of the film (which in this version is a little depressing, yet not at all unexpected).

Because I was still wide awake and raring to go, I popped in my copy of The Boondock Saints, yet another film I’ve been recommended numerous times but never actually seen. I obviously should have listened sooner. This film is fantastic. The cinematography is creative and (most of the time) perfect for setting the mood of the scenes. The music is well places and quite effective. The acting is top notch–especially from Willem Dafoe who once again proves he can play strange like nobody’s business.

The plot is an exciting and off-beat story of two brothers in Boston who accidentally start a war with the Russian mob after picking a fight in the local bar with the enforcers who come to collect the protection money. That leads to a night in prison where they have a vision–God tells them to, basically, go out and kill bad people. So like good Catholics, they do just that. The results are intense, action-packed and often quite humorous as they appear to actually need divine intervention (or at least amazingly good luck) to not get killed. Dafoe plays an FBI agent assigned to track them down. Billy Connolly appears as “Il Duche”–an almost mythical killer the Italian mob brings out of prison to help take out the brothers MacManus. That, of course, doesn’t quite go as they had hoped.

If you haven’t seen this film, you should. Yes, it is violent and there’s a whole lot of swearing. But it is also creative and very well done. If watched with your brain turned on, it even poses some very good questions about law enforcement and the state of the world.

That, more or less, capped off Saturday night. Sunday afternoon found me tuning in (via InDemand) to a handful of episodes from one of my other favorite anthology series, Amazing Stories. This particular group featured one of my all-time favorite episodes, Gather Ye Acorns. In it a tree troll tells a young boy to hold on to being a kid as long as possible. This leads the kid to be a world-class slacker (after working his tail off to get just the right car, of course). For most of his life, he never works and just holds on to the things that he loved most as a child. Sure he’s living out of his car and looks like a filthy bum. Sure he doesn’t have any friends and his family disowned him. But it all pays off in the end. This episode has two very nice quotes in it. The first is “The world has plenty of doctors and lawyers, what it needs is a few more dreamers.” And the second (which is, perhaps, the most counter-productive–and yet so totally true–quote floating around in my head) is “Lag behind long enough and you’ll find that the world will have to catch up with you.”

Yes, it was a weekend full of nostalgia and generally good films. Only thing that would make it better would have been to watch all of them with an audience. But that’s what movie nights are for, right?

Well, the new season of 24 is most certainly off to an amazing start.

In fact, with the way tonight’s second hour ended, I’m having trouble imagining just how they’re going to top it in hour 12, let alone hour 24. But maybe that’s because I’m still picking myself up off of the floor. It’s been a while since I’ve screamed at the TV like that.

This show most certainly still has “it.”

That’s all I’m going to say for now. Just in case someone out there hasn’t seen it yet.

Entourage
So I’ve “discovered” this new show on HBO called Entourage. OK, so I’m a season and a half late getting on the bandwagon with this one–I was without my own TV when it premiered last year. The show follows the struggle of a new actor and his friends trying ot make it big in Hollywood. The main cast is great, their chemistry and delivery is more convincing than what you get in many dramas, let along half-hour comedies and the writers on the show really know how to keep all of them up to something. Even though I’ve only seen two episodes, I’m seriously considering picking up the first season on DVD, just so I can catch up. But the really good thing is, unlike HBO’s hour-long dramas, the episodes of this show seem to stand alone just fine (much like Sex in the City did, but not quite as much as Arliss did). There’s more there if you’ve seen everything that’s come before, but if you just catch one every now and then, there’s still enough meat to chew on.

Beauty and the Geek
My favorite new reality show, Beauty and the Geek, ended last week. This week they had a wrap-up/reunion show. Even though the regular run of the show had a good feel to it, this reunion managed to feel really stunted and fake for most of the hour. What it did manage to do was let us see how the beauties and geeks react in front of a live audience. Something they didn’t have to deal with while filming the show. If nothing else, it made it very, very clear that some people don’t take well to a real spotlight… and others, well, others seem born to be on the screen (no matter how annoying they may be).

This show really does hold a special place in my heart. Being a certified “geek” and having been lucky enough to spend a lot of time around “beauties” it was very interesting to see the social dynamics and personal growth play out honestly on a TV show. Unfortunately, I doubt the second season will be anywhere near as good. It never is once people know what they’re in for.

The Inside
I know the show’s as good as dead right now, but I’m still watching it while I can (well, before I get the DVD set). While they haven’t exploited the wonderful ensemble cast they have quite as much as I’d have liked, they have been doing good stories and really digging into the psychology of their main three characters.

I think they may have jumped the gun on the plot of the last episode. It’s something I would have saved for a season finale and then drawn out with a bit more mystery for half of the second season. But, taking into account there won’t be a second season, I’m glad they did it now. It will be very interesting to see how much commentary is on the DVD release, I’d love to hear what the creators were thinking.

Something new tonight…
And now, I’m going to watch the first episode of yet another reality show. This one’s called Hooking Up and follows 11 women through their online dating experiences. It should be… ummm… interesting? Maybe I shouldn’t be watching this while still considering the possibility of beginning to date again…

Last night, while I was watching the wrap up of Beauty and the Geek (on the WB) and the latest episode of The Inside (on Fox), I recorded the new reality show Brat Camp on ABC. I just watched it today after work.

Now, let me start by pointing out that Brat Camp isn’t one of the normal “throw a bunch of people somewhere and offer them a prize” reality shows. This is a real reality show. No one gets voted off the island. There’s no cash prize at the end. Trivia challenges don’t come up at all.

It follows a group of nine troubled teens as they take part in a wilderness-based therapy program.

When I say “troubled teens” I mean it. There’s kids here that remind me a great deal of people I grew up with. Drinking and drugging starting at age 12, violent, lying, rude and out of control. The youngest is 14 (Nick, who decided he wasn’t going to take his ADHD medication any more and went from an A student to failing–perhaps the strangest reason any of the kids are at the camp) and the oldest are 17. These are kids with real problems, and they’re not ashamed of them at all.

SageWalk is the name of the program and it specializes in teaching kids like these about discipline, self-respect, honesty and hard work. All the work, therapy included, is done outside. Oh yeah, the camp is located in the “wilds of Oregon” and “class” starts in mid-November. Test your weather IQ and think about what that means for a program that lasts up to 90 days.

The first episode was a two-hour introduction to the kids, counselors and ideas behind the program. It basically runs like this: Counselors with very Hippy-sounding “Earth Names” (like Little Big Bear and Glacier Mountain Wolf?) head out into the scrub with the nine teens, most of whom were tricked into showing up at the program by fed up, scared parents. They have nothing of their old lives with them–all personal belongings are left back at the main SageWalk offices–and each has a 40-pound backpack that carries everything they need. The base camp consists of a fire ring, a tepee (where all the kids sleep) and not a whole heck of a lot else. To call it “Spartan” would make it sound too luxurious. Through the course of the program, the teens will hike, climb, learn about wilderness survival and face their inner demons. All with the help of the seasoned trail guides (who are out there with the kids 24/7) and professional counselors (who are brought out twice a week).

While the title of the show makes it sound a little crass and cutesy, the reality of this show is anything but. It is honest, showing both the fear and pain of the parents and of the kids, and it is real.

Personally, I’ve found it very interesting so far. But maybe that’s because of my own background and preferences.

I did a lot of learning in the woods. Not just growing up in a little, rural, tree-filled town, but in the actual woods. Camping, hiking–things not unlike what these kids are being put through. Biggest difference is, I did all of it willingly. But I think I can safely say a good reason I never ended up like these kids is because of the things I learned from nature.

Nothing will teach you more about yourself and other people than spending a few days in the wilderness. Real wilderness.

The fact that there are so many people around who’ve never spent a weekend in a tent and sleeping bag just boggles my mind. I can’t imagine a totally urban life-style. When I was in college, one of the programs my community service group did involved bringing a bunch of city kids out to a camp to learn about business with the local Rotary club. Some of those kids had trouble dealing the “cabin camping”, so I can’t imagine what they’d do if put in the situation the kids in Brat Camp are in.

It’s bound to be an interesting few weeks, watching these kids grow and conquer their problems. And I think a lot of people–kids and parents–can benefit from watching it.