Month: August 2006

US TV

Review: Prison Break 2.1

23 August 2006 Rob Buckley 1 Comment

Prison Break

We’re starting a new thing here today: the ‘Fall premiere’ reviews. Often, producers will decide to tinker with a returning series over the summer break. They’ll tweak the format, kill off old characters, bring in new characters and do all sorts of things to the show. The problem is that typically, not all of these changes are for the good. So is the show returning in the fall (aka ‘the autumn’ aka ‘2007 by the time the UK networks have got round to broadcasting them’) the same show but better, or the show in name only?

These spoiler-free reviews will let you know whether to brace yourself or get excited. I hope.

Let’s start with Prison Break.

Continue reading “Review: Prison Break 2.1”

Audio and radio play reviews

Colin Baker cameo amuses. Plus what would you like to see on this blog?

23 August 2006 Rob Buckley 3 Comments

AppropriationNew Who fans, you won’t care about this.

Old Who fans: if you haven’t been listening to Big Finish’s ‘Gallifrey’ series, you won’t have heard Colin Baker’s uncredited cameo in Appropriation. No, he’s not the Doctor – he’s Commander Maxil. Amusing, non?

Just a quick poll for regular readers: I know I said I wouldn’t mention or review the Big Finish stuff in this blog, but would anyone want me to? And is there anything else you’d like to see more – or less – coverage of?

Third-episode verdict: Three Moons Over Milford

23 August 2006 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Here’s a quick thought experiment for you. The moon comes out at night, right? When we see it, we know that bedtime is coming soon. Beautiful, blissful sleep. But if there were three moons, would we be three times sleepier?

This particular experiment doesn’t need to be a thought experiment any more. The practical version is here: Three Moons Over Milford. The results?

Having three moons in the sky would make us all absolutely soporific. We’d fall into a deep, deep coma in just a few minutes.

Three Moons Over Milford: don’t watch it while operating heavy machinery.

SG-1 will go on, vows producer

23 August 2006 Rob Buckley 1 Comment

Stargate SG-1 may have been cancelled, but producer Robert C Cooper has vowed that it will continue in some form or another. “What we want to emphasize is that the franchise is not dying. SG-1 will go on in some way. We’re just not ready to announce how.”

Possible options include a TV movie, mini-series, direct-to-video movie or an actual movie, since Richard Dean Anderson said he’d return to the Jack O’Neill role if that happened. However, that might conflict with Dean Devlin’s plans for a sequel to the original Stargate movie with the original cast.

Any bets on how it will return?

Faux directors’ commentaries. Now faux outtakes?

23 August 2006 Rob Buckley Post a comment

I’ve already had a brief and slightly pointless gas about the new trend in fake directors’ commentaries. But I was watching Friday’s Psych a couple of days ago and something else struck me.

At the end of every show, they have ‘Psych out’ moments. These are, more often than not, bits where the cast decide to sing a song for no reason, like Musical Youth’s ‘Pass the Dutchie’. They’re never very fun, but bless them, at least they’re trying something new.

This week’s moment consisted of outtakes from the show. Or should that be ‘outtakes’? You see, even after the supposed point of failure, Dulé Hill is still calling James Roday by his character’s name, Shawn. Is he a method actor who likes to stay in character the whole time? Or are these outtakes faked? If they are faked, why? Why would you pretend that the characters in your show are real people, playing themselves? It probably plays into the whole USA Network ‘characters’ thing, but manufacturing supposedly whacky moments? What calculated marketing evil is this?

Very odd. Whatever the reason, I’m predicting a new trend: obviously fake outtakes. You heard it here first guys. Although, obviously Hale and Pace were there first in the 80s.