US TV

Supernatural – season five in the UK: a trailer, an online game and the devil speaking to you

Supernatural - Fight The Apocalypse

Living TV now has first-run rights to Supernatural and to promote season five, it’s got a trailer and an online/real-world game in which you can win prizes (UK players only I’m afraid), as well as a video from Satan himself.

Unfortunately, since Living’s PRs haven’t got a proper handle on this new-fangled Interweb thing, they only videos they have are 640 pixels wide and can’t be resized so won’t fit in this lovely window. So you’ll have to click here for the season trailer and here for a very special message to UK viewers from Satan.

UPDATE: They’ve provided some proper-sized vids now:

Monday’s NBC bomb drop news

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What have you been watching this week (w/e November 20)

So, other than Doctor Who, what have you been watching this week? As per usual, I’ve reviewed most of what I’ve seen, but of the regulars:

  • Community – Very funny and took the show in odd directions. However, last night’s seemed to ignore that direction. Which is odd, but they’ve mixed up episodes before now
  • 30 Rock – Is it bad that the new Canadian guy seemed more interesting than everyone else on the show?
  • Dexter – Ooh, some interesting twists and glad to see Rita having some fun for a change
  • Stargate Universe – Very good and unexpected. I don’t know if there was a magic reset button at the end or not (tonight’s ep will reveal that), but even if it wasn’t, it was a good way to end the ep, crediting the audience with some intelligence. They seem to be going in the direction of “you know all the crap things that can happen when you’re exploring? Well we’re going to show you them all.”
  • The Thick of It – Another good one. The opposition are starting to seem more interesting than the government though.

Still got this week’s CSI, Cougar Town, Modern Family and Supernatural to watch. But I’ve decided I’m never going to watch this series of The Sarah Jane Adventures so I’ve deleted them from my line-up.

The Prisoner
Big almost watch of the week was the AMC/remake The Prisoner. First, a confession – when I was young, I loved the original so much I joined the appreciation society. So I might be biased. But this was excruciatingly dull. It was beautifully shot, but the direction was in no way involving, it was literal when it shouldn’t have been, made sure it rammed home the face that some things might not be real, and was just hopeless in every way. It was also so edited in such a way that whenever there was a moment that needed explaining, they tried to do it with music and a montage – it was like a rock video version of The Prisoner at times.

Episode 2 was a brief uptick, and I did appreciate the little head-nods to the original show (the map, the taxis, Rover, the abbreviated episode titles, the blazer, as well as a few plot elements), but episode 3 got so dull, so soon, I abandoned all hope and gave up. I’ve since found out what the ending was, and I’m very, very glad I gave up, because that sounded rubbish.

What have you been watching though?

As always, no spoilers unless you’re going to use the <spoiler> </spoiler> tags, please. If you’ve reviewed something on your blog, you can put a link to it here rather than repeat yourself (although too many links and you might get killed by the spam filter).

Supernatural parodies CSI, Grey’s Anatomy and other shows for Changing Channels

For once, the funniest thing on TV last week wasn’t Community or The Thick of It but Supernatural. Changing Channels saw our heroes thrown into an alternative TV universe, in which rather than having to slay demons and ghosts, they have to survive Japanese game shows, CSI: Miami and Grey’s Anatomy.

After the jump, clips of the best bits, but first a promo and the alternative title sequence for this episode to give you an idea of the flavour.

Continue reading “Supernatural parodies CSI, Grey’s Anatomy and other shows for Changing Channels”

What have you been watching this week (w/e October 9)

So, there’s been lots on tele this week – what have you been watching?

As mentioned on Monday, I’ve give up on quite a few new shows this week, including Eastwick, The Forgotten and Mercy, as well as – after nine years – Smallville. Since then, I’ve also decided to give up on:

  1. Hank, on the general grounds the second episode was excruciatingly bad
  2. Oh my God, after eight years, CSI: Miami, on the general grounds that I’m tired of having my intelligence insulted every week
  3. Three Rivers: started on Sunday, I tried watching it, but found after 10 minutes not one good thing about it – it’s Casualty but everyone needs a transplant at the end of it.
  4. Psych – a huge backlog of episodes that we have no inclination of watching is God’s way of telling you a show isn’t entertaining any more. No character development and it’s not even very funny, either. Oh well.
  5. Dollhouse – absolutely rubbish second episode suggests this thing isn’t going to get any better.

That means, beyond what I’ve reviewed this week, I’m still watching:

  • Trauma – a smart-ish programme underneath but with Bruckheimer-level accidents slapped in the middle that are so over the top, you actually laugh out loud. I’m hanging on in there for week three, but I think I’ll be dropping it after that
  • Being Erica – the addition of the new mythos element is interesting, but the overall show is starting to flag a little for some reason – not enough Doctor Tom, I suspect
  • Mad Men – I’m still a week behind, but last week’s (Seven Twenty Three) was a cracker
  • Supernatural – last week’s was a little daft and had an obvious denouement. And Jared P sucked as (spoiler) the devil
  • CSI – The character-building continues and interesting to see them build a story that references things all the way back in season one, to show the consequences of actions nearly a decade later
  • Dexter – A good episode overall, but I’m not sure if it’s got much of a message left to impart. Still enjoyable, though.

I’ve still got a backlog of viewing (Community, this week’s Mad Men , this week’s Supernatural, Micro Men, The Middle, this week’s CSI, the Seinfeld reunion on Curb Your Enthusiasm) – let us know what you think about any of them or anything else you’ve seen this week.

As always, no spoilers unless you’re going to use the <spoiler> </spoiler> tags, please