Supernatural

Thursday’s post-Valentine’s news

15 February 2007 Rob Buckley 5 Comments

Get any heart-shaped chocolates?

Doctor Who

Theatre

Film

British TV

  • Oh no! Still no third season of Extras planned. Instead, a “drama based on an urban conspiracy theory”.

US TV

Tuesday’s worst kept secrets

13 February 2007 Rob Buckley 9 Comments

It’s the news, my friends.

Doctor Who

  • Australia says ‘No’, to Torchwood
  • More on Recovery from the ever-classy Mirror
  • Billie Piper is ‘attached’ to an adaptation of Belle de Jour. The blog/book, that is, not the movie.

Film

  • More details on the Watchmen movie, which is still happening, it seems.
  • Adrien Brody as The Hulk?
  • Tom Cruise and Ben Stiller as The Hardy Men is on.
  • An interview with Ioan Gruffudd, a proper Welsh super-hero. None of that English rubbish.

British TV

German TV

  • ZDF is making a mini-series based on Stanislav Lem short stories

US TV

  • Here’s something you probably never thought you’d hear: Michelle Ryan, aka Zoe Slater from EastEnders, is the new Bionic Woman.
  • The Sarah Silverman Program has already been commissioned for a second season.
  • Former Wonder Woman Lynda Carter is to play Chloe’s mum in Smallville
  • Louise Lombard from CSI has a pilot, as does Sarah Clarke (Nina Myers from 24)
  • Battlestar Galactica has been given a fourth season. Only 13 episodes at the moment, though.
  • Classic TV coming to YouTube?
  • Kristin’s got scoops and spoilers, including the return of a certain character to Supernatural.

Things I learnt from television last week

12 February 2007 Rob Buckley 5 Comments

24: There is a law of the television universe called the “Conservation of Family Goodness”. The total net goodness of any TV family must be 0. The more good one family member is, the more evil the other ones must be. If a family member disappears for some reason, their goodness or evil must be redistributed among the remaining family members.

The Class: There really is nothing funnier to American sitcom writers than English people. Or English people faking American accents. Or Americans faking English accents.

CSI: All the best ones die young.

CSI: Miami: No matter how stupid you think the show is right now, it just keeps getting stupider. David Caruso can heal people now, just by touching them.

Heroes: If you need a load of superheroes, in-breeding seems to be the way forward.

House: Sometimes, it’s the simple explanations that are the most interesting.

Lost: When Lost dawdles, it’s rubbish. When it starts explaining stuff, it’s great

My Name is Earl: No matter how good you think the show is right now, it will just keep getting better.

Prison Break: All cabals and conspiracies require a cigar-smoking room for their headquarters.

Smallville: Lana Lang is the western world’s biggest stalker magnet. She should be stuck at one end of Hollywood Boulevard to draw out the crazies.

Supernatural: After a while, the phrase “yellow-eyed demon” stops being scary and starts to become a bit funny.

Scrubs: Developing characters in a long-running show is a good idea.

Studio 60: Aaron Sorkin really can’t write women well. Also, after a given point in any Sorkin show, it will actually become impossible to work out what characters are talking about.

The Unit: A show, no matter how good, automatically jumps the shark as soon as the psychics episode arrives.

Things I learnt from last week’s television

29 January 2007 Rob Buckley 1 Comment

24 (Fox)

There are ways to make family reunions bearable.

Celebrity Big Brother (Channel 4/E4)

People will watch anything. Judging by the ratings, racism is entertainment.



CSI (CBS)

Sometimes, the plots of even the best shows make absolutely no sense.



Heroes (NBC)

A week is a long, long time when a show is really, really enjoyable. I want the next episode now! Also, Christopher Eccleston will never be cast as anything except an angry northerner, no matter where in the world he’s employed.

Psych (The USA Network)

Give a show six months’ rest and when it comes back, sometimes, just sometimes, it will be better than when it went away.

Smallville (The CW)

Even when a plot has been done well by countless other TV shows, it’s still possible to do it again and still make it good, creepy and interesting. Also, actors who have been in shows for six years will remember how to act when they’re given something new to do for a change. Things we already knew: Clark is an idiot – go with Chloe, you nutter.

Studio 60 (NBC)

If you’re the hero of a TV show, you can act like a stalker and the girl will still want you by the end of the episode. It’s also really easy to learn Mandarin Chinese from a phrase book.

Supernatural (The CW)

If you’re doing a “monster of the week” show, don’t bring the same monster back – twice – unless you can actually make it interesting.

The Class (CBS)

If you piss off sitcom producers, they can excise you from the titles and publicity material faster than Stalin.

The news that is Tuesday’s

23 January 2007 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Doctor Who

Film

British TV

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