US TV

Season finale: Life on Mars (US)

Life On Mars US finale

First there was the shock and outrage. How dare the Yanks remake the beloved British crime show Life on Mars? How could it ever be as good?

Then there was the trailer for the US pilot, which provided the answer: “It couldn’t.”

Then there was the pilot, which provided another answer: “It really, really couldn’t.”

Then there was the near complete recasting, shift in location to New York and new plots, which provided yet another pilot and a new answer: “Oh, it’s not too bad, actually.”

Anywat, after jessying it about in the schedules, doing minimal marketing and forgetting to let newcomers know what had been going on in previous episodes, ABC cancelled it, but gave the new producers the chance to wrap it all up.

Given they didn’t want to use the BBC version’s ending, so fans wouldn’t be able to look it up in advance on the Internet, they decided to give us a brand new one instead. So during the final episode, which aired on Wednesday, we found out just why US Sam Tyler had travelled back in time – and this time, it wasn’t because he was in a coma.

I’ll give them something – I wasn’t expecting what they came up with. Big spoilers ahoy.

Continue reading “Season finale: Life on Mars (US)”

Sitting Tennant

Today’s Sitting Tennants (from Rullsenberg, Sister Chastity and Jaradel)

David Tennant shocked

David Tennant's ghost

David Tennant playing in the sand

Sorry for the slight delay over Sitting Tenant today: I’ve been breaking in a new laptop after replacing my six-year-old PowerBook (heat-scarred, held together with sticky tape, broken modem, 7 key falling off, frequently crashing and very, very slow) with a new MacBook (ooh. Shiny. Fast. Powerful. Everything works. No keys falling off).

Hope the wait hasn’t made you tense.

Anyway, today’s Sitting Tennants are from Rullsenberg, Sister Chastity and Jaradel, who have once again showered me with so many pictures of David Tennant, we might need to have two Sitting Tennants next week, one on Tuesday and one on Thursday to cope with the Easter holidays. What do you think? Or shall we give them all a break from competition and just use up the pics the following Friday?

As you can see, these pics show the shock and worry experienced by David Tennant when he heard he was going to die, only to discover he was going to the Planet of the Dead, not the land of the dead as he was originally led to believe by the taxi driver. Still, one hell of an April Fool.

The picture board now stands as follows, with Jaradel and Sister Chastity neck and neck thanks to Jaradel’s topical pic:

  1. Rullsenberg: 15.5
  2. Sister Chastity, Jaradel: 11.5
  3. Rosby: 2.5

In the world of witty captioning, Toby almost lost a point for resorting to puns, but I let him off – again. Jane Henry gets the picture 1 bonus point for speaking the truth; Toby got a bonus point for caption 2 and speaking the truth; while Marie and Persephone tied for wittiest caption 3. Which means – shock, horror – that Toby is now the leader of the captioning competition. Can retribution in the form of a thumb war be far behind?

  1. Toby: 63.5
  2. Marie: 63
  3. Jane Henry: 44.5
  4. Rullsenberg: 40
  5. Persephone: 34.5
  6. Jaradel: 29.5
  7. Electric Dragon: 12
  8. Rev/Views 10
  9. Scott: 3
  10. Aaron: 2
  11. almostwitty.com: 1

As always, captions and new submissions for the gallery, please. Remember, you can submit as many (witty) captions as you like for each and every picture, with topical captions (and pictures of David Tennant in current productions) getting extra marks. The wittiest caption for each picture will get double points. And there’s a bonus point for using Gary Numan lyrics appropriately.

Got a picture of David Tennant sitting, lying down or in some indeterminate state in between? Then leave a link to it below and if it’s judged suitable, it will appear in the “Sitting Tennant” gallery. You can also enter the witting and amusing captions league table by commenting on existing photos in the gallery.

US TV

Eli Stone reunion: Kerr Smith, Daniel Benzali and Victor Garber

It’s a weird world at ABC. They cancel shows like Eli Stone and Pushing Daisies, but despite still having episodes in the can, they’re not going to bother airing them except at some indeterminate point in the future, probably while everyone’s on their summer vacations. Which means we in the UK get to see them first.

Eli Stone – which probably deserved to die judging by its descent into silliness without the depth, pathos or George Michael of season one to justify it – has been having a couple of reunions over on the SciFi Channel in the UK.

Justice

Victor Garber and Kerr Smith, who appeared together over on Justice before it got cancelled, have been in more or less every episode that hasn’t been aired in the US – although you never see them together, the unlucky, cursed guys.

Victor Garber

Kerr Smith

Meanwhile, Murder One lovers will delighted to hear that Daniel Benzali has been temporarily reunited with the law to appear as a judge.

Daniel Benzali

Just thought I’d mention it.

Friday’s news without people

Doctor Who

  • Trailer for the new K9 series. Oh dear

Film

British TV

  • BBC3 commissions two new sitcoms, including one with Nigel Havers
  • Trailer for Ashes to Ashes series two
  • BBC’s The Street might be cancelled because of ITV redundancies
  • Devil’s Whore sequel on the way
  • 4oD now available on the web
  • UKTV Style to relaunch as Home

US TV