My Internet connection’s been down for the last hour, which means I won’t have time to do the daily news today, unfortunately. Assuming my ISP (Be*) can keep its act together for 24 hours, normal service will resume tomorrow.
Year: 2007
Tuesday’s “girls are soppy” news
Film
- Warner Bros decrees: no more female leads?
- Jake Gyllenhaal flying to the moon with Doug Liman
- Paz Vega and Jaime King get into The Spirit
- Kevin McKidd to play Loki instead of Thor?
- Michael C Hall joins Game
- Pixar plans three John Carter of Mars movies
- Neil Gaiman wants Terry Gilliam to direct Sandman
Audio plays
- Andy Serkis and David Warner to appear in adaptation of The Brightonomicon
Web TV
- ITN launches a movie show on Joost
British TV
- ITV1 doing pushy mums comedy, May Contain Nuts
- BBC2 picks up terrestrial rights to Kyle XY
- Robin Hood opens with 5.9m viewers
- But Top Gear returns with 6m viewers
US TV
- Popular/Dirt‘s Carly Pope to appear on 24
- CSI: NY‘s Gary Sinise gets a payrise until 2011
- Moonlight has surprisingly good ratings
- Explanations and cast reactions to a certain recent Prison Break event [spoilers!]
- Disappearing product placements in Heroes explained
- Heroes‘ Sendhil Ramamurthy nearly quit acting for business school
- Damages to get a second season
US TV
Questions and realisations from television last week: Everything
Question: Why were most episodes of all the new and returning US shows better in their second week this year?
It’s quite a list of shows this season that had better episodes than their premieres: House, Heroes, The Unit, Big Bang Theory, Bionic Woman, and Moonlight. A few were about as good (Numb3rs, Journeyman) and there was one that was worse (Chuck).
But on the whole, the second episodes were better than the first. Which is odd, because as Ken Levine points out (thanks Toby!), normally the second episode of a series is rubbish or at least pretty bad compared with the first. So why is it that the second episodes have been so good this time round?
Realisation: Second episodes are the new first episodes, thanks to the demise of the “feature-length opening episode”. No spoilers for any current shows, I promise.
Continue reading “Questions and realisations from television last week: Everything”
UK TV
Sarah Jane’s Doctor Who reference count: number two
Number one was one of The Medium is Not Enough’s most popular ever entries, so without further ado, here’s the second ‘Sarah Jane’s Doctor Who reference count’ – your opportunity to spot all the clever references in The Sarah Jane Adventures to Doctor Who.
I haven’t yet watched today’s episode, part one of Eye of the Gorgon, so I can’t help out. But I hear the Sontarans might have been given a shout out by the SJA massive. Any others?
Monday’s rumour-tastic news
Doctor Who
- He must have seen Moonlight: David Tennant breaks up with Sophia Myles?
- Rose, Sarah Jane, Jack, K9 et al unite for final episodes? [spoilers?]
Film
- Peter Jackson could be involved with The Hobbit after all
Theatre
- Kelsey Grammer to cross-dress for West End
British TV
- Roly Keating controller of BBC1 until successor for Peter Fincham found
- Natasha Kaplinksy joins Five News
- BBC2’s Thursday comedy gets okay ratings
US TV
- Two stories per episode for cautionary Heroes: Origins
- ABC plans drama about small town Olympic bid
- Clips from Wizard of Oz update Tin Man
- Forest Whitaker to exec produce FX drama series
- Two versions of Knight Rider planned
- USA Network developing Thank You for Smoking
- ABC greenlights JJ Abrams sci-fi drama Fringe
- Ever Carradine joins 24
- Jericho shoots alternate ending
- Kyle XY renewed for third season
- Outsourced being developed into a comedy for NBC