Studio 60

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

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 learned from watching television last week

5 February 2007 Rob Buckley 5 Comments

24: Even when a character played by Eddie Izzard is recast, his spirit lives on in the role

30 Rock: Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin speak pretty good German. Inbreeding jokes never get old.

CSI: Left to his own devices for too long, William Petersen will always grow an unfortunate beard.

Daybreak: Was cancelled way too soon. Be patient, networks!

Heroes: Just get on with it will you. Plus Christopher Eccleston really can act when given a grumpy role to play.

House: Sooner or later, the crankiness of a character needs an explanation. He can’t be cranky for no reason at all.

My Name is Earl: Some Americans actually think the US won the 1812 war.

Smallville: Red Kryptonite needs to be in every script from now on.

Studio 60: It’s no use applying the rules of reality to anything Aaron Sorkin writes. You just have to sit back and enjoy it.

Events

Morning, you

5 February 2007 Rob Buckley 1 Comment

Flakes are back

Have a nice weekend?

Film and comics

  • Joss Whedon’s off the Wonder Woman movie.
  • Ghostbusters 3 is still happening. Both Dan Ackroyd and Bill Murray are up for it. But it’s going to be all-cg.
  • A new version of Barbarella is in the works.
  • Joel Schumacher wants to film Sandman.
  • The Flash has a new director.

Commercials

  • The Cadbury’s Flake ads are coming back on Friday. Directed by Jack “son of Ridley” Scott, they will focus “on the unique way of eating a Cadbury Flake: peeling back the wrapper and enjoying the crumbliest, flakiest chocolate in the world.” Ooh, top euphemism.

Events

British TV

US TV

News

Wednesday’s mellow-out cool news

31 January 2007 Rob Buckley 2 Comments

Runaway Bride

Or maybe overly geeky news. Which do you think?

Doctor Who

  • Lots of Runaway Bride pictures.
  • An interview with Verity Lambert, first producer of Who (originally published in Dreamwatch in 2004, but they’re reviving their archive of material online)

Film

Music

US TV

  • Genre pilot pick-ups, including the US version of Life on Mars.
  • Futurama: Those new Comedy Central episodes are going to be re-edits of some Futurama movies coming to DVD.
  • Heroes: Masses of spoilers from E!’s Kristin.
  • From Ask Auriello:
    • Heroes: Malcolm McDowell might have a part.
    • Prison Break: What sort of things will happen in season three.
    • Studio 60: There’s going to be a flashback episode soon.