24: Even shows that hinge on being unpredictable can become predictable in their unpredictability.
The Class: You can make a character gay, but you must never show his boyfriend more than a couple of times. Even when you’re written a character out, the weakest part of her storyline can carry on.
CSI: Is miles better than any other procedural show out there. Why does anyone watch anything else on Thursdays?
CSI: Miami: A bullet shot to the neck will give you brain damage. But it will only leave you mildly forgetful.
Heroes: Be careful not to turn mildly comedic characters into comic reliefs.
House: Sometimes, real-life events can cause the most random things to happen on-screen that are completely contrary to previous character development.
Lewis: It’s relatively easy to rip off Donna Tartt’s The Secret History. Also, any story that involves a character’s wife dying is enough to turn me into a blubbering wreck.
Lost: Flashbacks shouldn’t always be trusted.
Numb3rs: All black professionals come from the hood originally and have untrustworthy old friends.
Psych: No matter what happens, a “Psych-out” moment will never be funny or entertaining. Even the worst episode of any show can be improved by the mention of Airwolf and Jan-Michael Vincent.
Smallville: The producers must be killing themselves for not casting Allison Mack as Lana Lang in the first place. Michael Rosenbaum can direct his fellow actors well.
Studio 60: Watching Aaron Sorkin exorcise his personal demons is dull.
Supernatural: Sometimes, even stupid episodes can be smart. Also, every X-Files-like drama now needs to have a Jose Chung’s ‘From Outer Space’ episode.
The Unit: Lynn Mamet must write all episodes of this show from now on. She’s a far better writer than David.
Year: 2007
News
Monday
Sorry, fell asleep during the headline. Must get more sleep.
Doctor Who
- John Barrowman fancies David Tennant. And others.
- Christopher Eccleston’s tribute pub is renamed.
- Michael Sheen fighting John Simm for That Part?
- Caitlin Moran talks to Billie Piper.
Film
- Tony Kaye wants to reunite Bruce Willis and Samuel L Jackson for Black Water.
- A trailer for The Simpsons movie.
- Indiana Jones Jr cast?
- There’s going to be an opera based on The Fly. Who saw that one coming?
- Jet Li and Michelle Yeoh in The Mummy 3?
British TV
- Sky’s plan for a digital terrestrial service might get blocked by Ofcom.
US TV
- Possible spoilers for the next three episodes of 24.
- Multiple, multiple Lost spoilers from Kristin’s new Vine show on E!
- More pilots, including the slightly dodgy sounding MILF and Cookies.
- Jack Coleman talks about picking glasses for his role in Heroes [spoilers]. He used to be in Dynasty, you know.
- Missy Peregrym joins the Heroes cast.
News
End the week with news
Film
- Gordon Brown’s launched a national film club for kids.
- Aaron Eckhart will be Harvey Dent aka Two Face in The Dark Knight.
- Sigourney Weaver joins the cast of James Cameron’s Avatar.
- Jake Gyllenhaal gives a video interview about David Fincher’s Zodiac
British TV
- Sky’s movie channels are going to be given themes.
- Ed Byrne’s creating stand-up clips for MSN Video.
- Some classics of British TV are coming out on DVD soon: The Goodies’ LWT series on 26th March; Murray Smith’s Strangers on 26th February; Big Breadwinner Hog on 19th March.
US TV
- You can view the blooper reels for Lost, seasons one and two, on YouTube
- Talking of Lost bloopers, its ratings dropped again on Wednesday to a new low.
- Friday Night Lights as good as The Wire?
- Keith Olbermann gets his contract renewed by MSNBC.
- Fed up with the liberal Daily Show? Now Fox has its own show for conservatives. Clips on YouTube already.
- There’s going to be less torture on 24, because it’s becoming a cliché.
- More behind-the-scenes fun at 24: among other things, there’s a log of all the characters from previous seasons who aren’t dead and could return to the show. Yes, even Behrooz.
- Big Pierce Brosnan fan? You’d have to be to buy Remington Steele on DVD, out in the UK on the 12th of March.
- Zooey Deschanel will be Dorothy in Tin Man.
- Matthew Lillard (Shaggy in the Scooby Doo films) joins the cast of the pilot Area 52
- The Carusobot makes fun of CSI: Miami one-liners and sunglasses. Spoilers for the last two episodes. He seems… animated.
- Jim from Neighbours – aka Alan Dale – explains why he’s just so popular in Hollywood. Why didn’t they pick up that pilot with Dale as a gay English butler to rapper Bow Wow, I wonder?
Making money from television on the Internet: comments please
I’m writing an article for Total Content + Media on how US television networks are adapting to the Internet. Anyone have any thoughts on the subject they’d like to suggest? The full synopsis is over on my personal blog if you want to know some of the stuff I’ve already thought of.
Ta muchly!
A new way of finding the blog
Just in case you don’t have the blog bookmarked or blogrolled (I can understand why, don’t worry), you can now find it by going to www.the-medium-is-not-enough.com. It’ll redirect you to the right location and should be slightly easier to remember: blog name with hyphens for spaces. Easy.