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Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009

TV on DVD: “Grey’s Anatomy: The Complete Fifth Season”

by Scott Malchus

GreysAnatomyGrey’s Anatomy: The Complete Fifth Season (2009, ABC Studios/Buena Vista)
purchase from Amazon: DVD

Instead of lamenting on the things that were wrong with the fifth season of Grey’s Anatomy, such as the sudden dismissal of Brooke Smith and her character Erica Hahn, the complete misuse of the talented Melissa George and the brilliant Mary McConnell, the ongoing storyline with Denny (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), the dead fiancé of Katherine Heigl’s Izzie, who showed up as a ghost/hallucination, and the complete lack of any storyline involving T.R. Knight, one of the original cast members and at one time the heart of the series, I’d like to point out three high points of season five.

The first is the addition of Kevin McKidd playing Dr. Owen Hunt, a former Army trauma surgeon who joined the staff at the fictional Seattle Grace Hospital and quickly became one of the most compelling characters on Grey’s Anatomy. To be blunt: Owen is fucked up. He suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and has recurring nightmares from his service in the war in Iraq. Owen is a wreck of a man whose only means of survival is immersing himself in the job. When he finally begins to connect with someone, Dr. Christina Yang (Sandra Oh), he screws that up by choking her in the middle of the night while suffering from a particularly horrible night terror. McKidd is so remarkable in his role that it’s a crime that he was not nominated for an Emmy this year. Sandra Oh deservedly received a nomination this year, yet a majority of the quality work she gave us in this season was with McKidd. I sometimes question why I stick with Grey’s Anatomy and McKidd is one reason I’ll keep it on my DVR. Owen is, flat out, the most authentic character on this show and it is solely because of McKidd’s work. (more…)

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Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009

TV on DVD: “30 Rock: Season 3″

by Jeff Giles

51i+6ax8hjL._SCLZZZZZZZ_All but dead at the other major networks, scripted comedy is alive and well at NBC; even as the Peacock tries to flush high-quality television down a lantern-jawed toilet with The Jay Goddamn Horseshit Leno Show, it has, possibly inadvertently, assembled the funniest roster of sitcoms any network has been able to boast for at least a decade — and I’d put that number at closer to 20 years. The Office gets most of the attention, but 30 Rock doesn’t do too badly for itself — it cleaned up at the Emmys over the weekend, taking home five awards and crowning Alec Baldwin’s career transformation from Star of Frequently Lame and Occasionally Direct-to-Video Movies to Award-Winning Television Badass. Not bad for a show that some critics predicted would be overshadowed by Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, right? 30 Rock’s eagerly awaited fourth season won’t begin until mid-October, but in the meantime, NBC/Universal has trotted out this three-disc set, offering all 22 episodes from Season Three, plus enough bonus content to keep you lizzing for hours. (Sorry — each review of this season set is required to include at least one instance of “lizzing” or “I want to go to there,” and I wanted to get it out of the way early.)

If you’ve been avoiding the show for some reason, here’s the setup: Comedy writer Liz Lemon (the excellent Tina Fey) presides over the quirk-ridden, borderline insane staff of The Girlie Show, a sketch comedy show on the schedule of a fictionalized version of NBC (owned by a horrible-sounding conglomerate called the Sheinhardt Wig Company). At the outset of the series, Lemon is forced to add a deranged fading movie star named Tracy Jordan (Tracy Morgan) to the cast, rechristening the show TGS with Tracy Jordan and upsetting its former star, Jenna Maroney (Jane Krakowski). (more…)

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Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009

TV on DVD: “Supernatural: The Complete Fourth Season”

by Scott Malchus

119441Supernatural: The Complete Fourth Season (2009, Warner Brothers)
purchase from Amazon: DVD

The fourth season of Supernatural kicks ass. Great mythology, plenty of action, some good doses of humor, it makes you think, and yes, it will creep you out. I had never seen an episode of this series before the fourth season DVD box set arrived for me to review but, man, what a good place to jump into the world of Supernatural.

The first episode of the 22 on this box set opens with a man buried in a coffin. He’s Dean Winchester (Jensen Ackles), who, we find out, was sent to hell. As he slowly digs his way out of the grave to the surface, he wonders who pulled him from Hell and what it all means. Bursting through the ground, Dean finds that his grave is in the middle of nowhere and trees fallen around the headstone. If this were a horror movie, it would be the perfect opening. No ridiculous voiceover, no exposition in the dialogue, just mysterious visuals and plenty of eeriness. Dean comes upon a deserted town, breaks into a gas station and steals a car. Oh and there’s an ear piercing scream that occurs midway through the break-in. More intrigue. I was hooked. Dean finds his way back to his brother, Sam (Jared Padalecki) and their mentor, Bobby Singer (Jim Beaver). The three of them are hunters, responsible for tracking down supernatural creatures and killing them.

Sam has psychic powers given to him by a demon called Azazel. As we learn throughout the season, Sam has been hanging out with a demon named Ruby, using his special gift to send evil beings back where they belong. The two of them hooked up during the four months Dean was in Hell. Like a good novel, we don’t learn what happened to Sam during those long months until later — specifically episode nine, “I Know What You Did Last Summer.” Likewise, we don’t fully understand what Dean went through while banished to Hell until the following episode, “Heaven and Hell.” In the meantime, the fourth season sets in motion a huge arc in the Supernatural mythology. (more…)

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Monday, September 21st, 2009

TV Review: “Brick City”

by Ken Shane
Image representing Cory Booker as depicted in ...
Image via CrunchBase

When my grandparents emigrated from Eastern Europe, it was to Newark, N.J. that they came. My parents were born and raised in the Newark. For most of my life, I have lived within five miles of the city limits, as I do today. I fly from the city’s airport, take trains from the Amtrak station downtown, attend concerts in its music halls, eat in its restaurants, and watch sporting events in its arena and stadium. I cheer Newark’s triumphs, and despair in the seemingly endless cycle of violence that grips the city.

It was, therefore, with great interest that I watched Marc Levin and Mark Benjamin’s five-part documentary series “Brick City,” which begins its run on the Sundance Channel tonight. The Executive Producer of the series is the Academy Award-winning actor Forest Whitaker.

The city got its nickname, Brick City, from the number of beautiful old brick structures that remain there, but Newark’s young activist mayor, Cory Booker, suspects that the nickname may have more to do with the toughness of the people who reside there. Although Booker is the central figure in the drama, which takes us from late spring of 2008 to the early fall, the series follows other residents of Newark as they struggle to make their city a safer place to live.

Police Director Garry McCarthy is the point man in the war on crime. His fight is not only with gangs and drugs, but also with the deeply ingrained internal politics of the Newark Police Department. Ras Baraka is the principal of the city’s Central High School, and Todd Warren its Vice-Principal. Central is about to occupy a new building after a ten-year, 100 million dollar construction project that has been rife with delays and cost overruns. Perhaps the most dramatic story in Brick City is the latter-day Romeo and Juliet saga of Jayda, a member of the Bloods, and her boyfriend Creep, who is Crip. It is the intertwining of these lives, and others, that gives Brick City its indelible drama. (more…)

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Sunday, September 20th, 2009

The 2009 Emmy Awards

by Popdose Staff

2009+emmy+awards+nominations+nominees[1]

Clips of some of the finest television to be aired in the last 12 months, a room full of beautiful people, and Neil Patrick Harris — what more could a TV fan ask for, right? It’s time for the 2009 Primetime Emmy Awards!

To celebrate this momentous occasion, we’re bringing out our trusty live chatroom, where we’ll be waiting to take in all the red carpet splendor — and dish about who won, who didn’t, and where Kanye might or might not be lurking at any given moment. Just choose a nickname and hit “Connect” to join us. See you there!

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Thursday, September 17th, 2009

TV Review: “Community”

by Jeff Giles

community-nbc-joel-mchale-cast[1]

Ah, now this is more like it.

I was beginning to hate you, 2009 fall television season, what with your moderately entertaining musicals and comedy scourges who were supposed to go away, but with the series premiere of Community (NBC, debuts tonight at 9:30; moves to 8:00 on October 8), you’ve finally given me something I can enjoy. The schedule still has plenty of sitcom debuts left to air, but if any of them are funnier than Community, I’ll be pleasantly shocked.

The setup is pretty brilliant for a sitcom, and here it is: Jeff, an unctuous lawyer (Joel McHale), is disbarred when it’s discovered that he lied about his degree (Colombia, not Columbia), and in order to work his way back into the legal profession, he heads to community college — and immediately sets about trying to get test answers out of a professor (John Oliver) who happens to be one of his former clients. He also takes an immediate liking to a no-nonsense blonde named Britta (Gillian Jacobs, whose physical resemblance to Elisabeth Shue quickly turns into a running gag), going so far as to pretend to set up a Spanish study club so he can be alone with her. (more…)

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Thursday, September 17th, 2009

TV Review: “Melrose Place”

by Scott Malchus

There’s a killer on the loose in Melrose Place! Beware! The ’90s hit soap is back, this time on the CW, which seems to be mining the previous decade for new programming (or is it reprogramming?). While I wait for some exec at the CW to remake Fox’s series, Wolf, I’m stuck with the new Melrose Place, an update of the sex and sleaze-filled show that gave us Josie Bissett, Courtney Thorne Smith and that dude who’s Elizabeth Shue’s brother.  A new group of twentysomethings have moved into the place, but there’s still the same intrigue and drama we’ve come to expect. As is custom in fantasyland, every neighbor knows one another and they form a tight knot family, for now. Soon enough I’m sure the characters will be swapping beds and blackmailing one another. We can only hope.

You know, I was once twenty and living in the Los Angeles area and I wonder where these apartment complexes exist that twentysomethings get along so wonderfully that they meet up in the courtyard when someone dies or someone gets engaged. Then again, I lived on Moorpark Place, so maybe the vibe is different in Hollywood than in the Valley. Still, this is the land of make believe, so the fantasy of a group of people becoming family in a Melrose apartment complex is passed off as reality.

The new version of Melrose Place, which the CW airs on Tuesday nights (and online at their infinitely confusing website), is just as sleazy, corny and full of sex as the original. I watched the pilot thinking I’d be getting a healthy does of mindless, guilty entertainment — and, for the most part, I got what I expected. (more…)

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Tuesday, September 15th, 2009

TV Review: “The Jay Leno Show”

by Jeff Giles

jay-leno[1]I hate Jay Leno so much.

Like most hatreds, my feelings for Leno are irrational. I mean, yes, he pretty much empirically sucks, but his brand of humor is so resolutely innocuous that hating him is totally overboard — it’s like hating ice cubes or milk. Leno’s style of entertainment is the kind of thing that you either chuckle at or ignore; if it doesn’t float your boat, you say “I don’t care for it,” not “I hate that motherfucker,” or “this date is over,” which is what I would shout in the ’90s if the girl I was out with told me she was a fan. Watching Leno continually trounce the funnier, more insightful Letterman in the ratings all those years only amplified my black loathing, to the point where I’m pretty sure I squealed like a third-grade girl when I read NBC’s (waaaay premature) announcement that Conan O’Brien would be taking over The Tonight Show this year.

And then, like a hug that turns into a punch in the nuts, the network went and gave Leno their 10 PM slot, five awful nights a week, for the typically creatively named The Jay Leno Show. Because the Popdose TV-critic slot is like the Spinal Tap drummer’s chair, and we don’t have anyone else who can cover the fall debuts, I was left wincing in pain as I picked up the remote and turned away from a very good fourth quarter of Monday Night Football and toward my hammy televised nemesis. (more…)

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Monday, September 14th, 2009

TV on DVD: “Brothers and Sisters: The Complete Third Season”

by Scott Malchus

Bros and SissesBrothers and Sisters: The Complete Third Season (2009, ABC/Buena Vista)
purchase from Amazon: DVD

ABC’s durable drama Brothers and Sisters hit some road bumps in its third season. After a standout second year in which the characters shaped into interesting people I wanted to follow each week, season three saw most of them become narcissistic navel gazers that were no fun to be around. Adding to the series’ woes were the supposed behind the scenes issues with star Balthazar Getty, leading to his character’s departure from the show. Still, the ship seemed to right itself by the season finale, leaving hope for the fourth season, premiering this fall.

Brothers and Sisters follows the many exploits of the Walker family, a large, wealthy California unit whose patriarch, William (played in flashbacks by Tom Skerritt) not only ran his food distribution company nearly into bankruptcy, but cheated on his wife with more than one woman. Williams’ wife is Nora, played with great energy and emotion by Sally Field. Her ability to make you cry and laugh with one look is one of the reasons Field is a Hollywood legend. Unfortunately, she can also become histrionic at times, which happens a little too much in season three. Nora’s character arc here includes opening a center for families dealing with cancer (which leads to romance with the center’s architect) and trying to draw William’s illegitimate son, Ryan (Luke Grimes), into her large brood. Ryan’s story is integral to the entire third season, as his character weaves into the lives of everyone. Despite Ryan’s unfortunate circumstances, including discovering that his mother has lied to him for 21 years and that the man raising him was not his biological father, the guy is a difficult character to like. It doesn’t help that Grimes portrays him as kind of creepy and sinister. Perhaps that was the intent, so that you don’t really trust him. And perhaps there was some subtext on the part of the writers that Ryan, despite his protests that he’ll never be anything like William Walker, is actually very much like the man he never knew. (more…)

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Thursday, September 10th, 2009

TV Review: “Glee”

by Jeff Giles

glee-cast[1]

So this is it, huh? This is what you guys were freaking out about all summer? I admit, I haven’t seen the supposedly wonderful pilot, and picking up a series at its second episode probably isn’t the best idea, but…still, I have to say, I don’t really understand all the fuss about Glee.

A Fox summer sensation, Glee follows the occasionally musical adventures at William McKinley High School in Lima, Ohio, centering on the school’s glee club (hence, duh, the title). Led by the school’s Spanish teacher, Will Schuester (Matthew Morrison), the club combats all the usual stuff — indifferent school administrators, hostile popular kids, et cetera — while singing and dancing their way through covers of songs like “Can’t Fight This Feeling” and “Gold Digger.” As you might imagine, given the title of the series, there’s an awful lot of perky, quirky humor on display here — but there’s also a strong underlying note of melancholy; not only are the kids in the glee club as dumped on as you might expect (in the first five minutes, club star Rachel [played by Lea Michele] stands up to a cheerleader and gets a pair of blue Slurpees to the face for her comeuppance), but the adults in their lives are also utterly unfulfilled. (more…)

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