I was supposed to write a column about several reality shows airing this summer, and I had good intentions of doing just that. But the only reality I know right now is that I’m an addict … to Lost. I must find out what happens to the survivors of Oceanic Flight 815, which departed Sydney, Australia, for Los Angeles, California, on September 24, 2004, and crashed on an uncharted island.

It began as a curiosity. See, I was over at ABC.com, doing research for my Three Strikes column on Brothers & Sisters. All I wanted was a jpeg, you know? Honest, this was the only reason I was even near the site. Then I saw an option: “Full Episodes.” I mean, what could it hurt to check and see what they were streaming, right? Maybe… maybe they had unaired episodes of Cavemen, I liked that show. I did; really, I’m not making this up! Clicking that link was like finding a private room at some teenage suburban party where all of the “good” kids are drinking smuggled beers in the living room and the “cool” kids are doing something else away from the crowd.

I’d decided long ago that I wasn’t going to get caught up in the Lost hysteria. After I missed most of the first season, I thought there was no way to catch up. Sure, the DVD’s are available to rent, but I wasn’t going to waste one of the entries of my Netflix queue with Lost, not when I had 300 movies to get through. And after two seasons, I stopped caring. I thought, “Come on, can it really be as good as Deadwood, Veronica Mars or Friday Night Lights. Was Lost even close to the caliber of The Sopranos?” I scoffed at the notion. But Abc.com… damn you ABC! It taunted me… “Lost Season 1 in streaming HD.” HD? C’mon, it can’t be that good. I reasoned with myself, “Look, just this one episode. I’ll watch the pilot and be able to claim I’ve seen Lost. Then, back to my life.”

My life. Ha! I have no life! Two hours after watching the pilot, I was hooked. (more…)

Popularity: 7% [?]

TBS begins their summer of comedy this Thursday night (6/12/08) with the second season premieres of The Bill Engvall Show (9:00 PM) and My Boys(9:30 PM).

The Bill Engvall Show is the more traditional of the two sitcoms, and by traditional, I mean there’s nothing new here. In the show, Engvall, the popular stand up famous for his “blue collar,” plays Bill Pearson, a family counselor who can’t always figure out his own family. His typical sitcom nuclear family includes a smart, beautiful wife, played by the underrated Nancy Travis, and three very different children: An older, headstrong teenage girl played by Jennifer Lawrence, a space cadet teenage son played by Graham Patrick Martin, and a brainy, mature tween son played by Skyler Gisondo. In addition, Tim Meadows is on hand as Engvall’s best friend, Paul. Paul is a renowned hair-replacement specialist who is treated like part of the Pearson family. He likes to look good, but he’s unlucky in love.

As an added treat, Brian Doyle Murray shows up on occasion as the Pearson’s cranky neighbor. The plots of the The Bill Engvall Show are something you’ve seen thousands of times. So why watch it? For one, Travis is wonderful, and her scenes opposite Engvall ring true of a real marriage. Engvall may not be the best actor in the world, but he has good comic timing, and his interplay with Travis is fun to watch. Moreover, he and Meadows seem to have a real bond, and play off each other quite well. In general, the best-played scenes take place between the adult characters, whereas the scenes with the children are overly predictable. Still, despite the predictability of The Bill Engvall Show, the creators’ intent from the beginning was to create a “traditional family sitcom,” and they have succeeded in doing just that. In truth, this is the perfect type of show for summer viewing: not much required from you as a viewer and just enough laughs to go down with your beer.

I must admit that I turned off My Boys during its inaugural season. There was a bevy of hype surrounding the show, and it was praised by many critics as one of the best comedies on television; unfortunately, for me, it was originally paired with 10 Items or Less, a series that put me on the floor with laughter. Whenever My Boys came on, I found it nice, but not the greatest comedy since Arrested Development. Thus, when asked to review the upcoming second season, I tried to approach the show with an open mind, even though I feared hating it. (more…)

Popularity: 7% [?]

USA Network’s latest in a successful slate of summertime programs is In Plain Sight (premiering 6/1/08 and airing Sundays, 10 PM). The series stars Mary McCormack as Mary Shannon, a federal marshal for the Federal Witness Protection Program. The show takes place primarily in the Albuquerque/Santa Fe area, where Shannon is based. McCormack is a fine actress whose most visible role is still that of Alison Stern, the wife to Howard Stern in the 1997 film, Private Parts. Since then, she has appeared in a number of indie movies, as well as excellent supporting roles in such television series like Murder One, The West Wing, ER, K-Street and the exceptional 2004 USA Network mini-series, Traffic. It’s great to see McCormack the lead in a series that blends comedy, drama and mystery; she makes the show worth checking out.

In Plain Sight joins the ranks of TNT’s The Closer and Saving Grace as another series about a strong female lead who must juggle the strenuous requirements of her law enforcement job with the daily struggles of her daily life. McCormack’s Shannon character is much closer to Kyra Sedgwick’s quirky Deputy Chief Johnson than the human train wreck Holly Hunter portrays in Saving Grace. In Plain Sight does a good job of mixing the serious with the light comedy, much in the way Burn Notice, USA’s hit series from last summer, does very well. That said, this new series isn’t reinventing the procedural drama, nor do I think they’re trying to. The unique setup of the Witness Protection Program allows for secondary characters (i.e. each weeks guest stars) to represent each episode’s main storyline. These characters come in, tell their story, and are gone by hour’s end. Meanwhile, the supporting cast of people in Shannon’s life serves as the background stories that connect each episode together. Like I said, this is a tried and true formula. So it’s up to the writers to come up with compelling stories and interesting characters to keep us coming back on a weekly basis. For the most part, they succeed. By the third episode, the series began to show the actors gelling and everything coming together. In truth, it will be the likeability of the characters that will bring you back each week, and the producers rounded up a fine group of actors to do just that.

The supporting characters include Shannon’s partner, Marshall (Frederick Weller), a young, cocky pretty boy who, despite a caseload of his own, is always quick to help our Shannon. Weller does a lot of posturing throughout the early episodes; however, the banter between his Marshall and McCormack’s Shannon is fun to watch. Stan McQueen (Paul Ben-Victor) plays their chief inspector. I didn’t get a real sense of his character, although he spent the first few episodes exasperated by Shannon and her methods. On the home front, there is Shannon’s live in mother, Jinx, played by the wonderfully loopy Lesley Ann-Warren (who doesn’t get enough juicy roles, these days); Shannon’s on-again/off-again boyfriend, Raphael, portrayed by recent Dancing with the Stars contestant Cristián de la Fuente, and her floozy sister, Brandi, (Nicole Hiltz) who has dropped into town unexpectedly for an extended visit. Brandi has a no-good boyfriend who is destined to bring big trouble into the life of Shannon and her family. (more…)

Popularity: 9% [?]

So here we are at the end of another cycle of Fox’s juggernaut, American Idol. For seven seasons, the televised talent show has been the thorn in the side of every network and the scorn of “real” music fans. I’ll admit it, I watch the show. I enjoy hearing these contestants trying to make it big, and it is one of the few programs my family can watch together. Even “family” shows, these days deal with issues that are a little to mature for a six- and nine-year-old. This year, the show that gave us the likes of Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood and Chris Daughtry (and cursed us with Taylor Hicks and Clay Aiken) has seen its ratings suffer a blow. Was it fallout from the recent writers’ strike that also ate away at the ratings for so many other primetime series? Or was it something else? Although American Idol will finish the year the number one-rated show, giving Fox another season win in the ratings war, I believe viewers got a stale taste in their mouths.

The show suffered from several setbacks early on, starting with the weeks of audition episodes that seemed to drag on like they would never end. We get it, hundreds of thousands of people auditioned and the poor, overpaid judges had to suffer through innumerable bad auditions. Boo hoo. Here’s something I don’t get. If only the most talented singers are supposed to get through the door to meet Randy, Paula and Simon, how come we end up seeing so many shitty vocalists? Sure, one or two might be good for a laugh, but it gets old really fast. A smart thing to do would be to pare down these audition episodes to a two-hour special and then get on with it. Another problem the show had was its bloated Wednesday night episodes that are supposed to serve notice to the person going home that week. Instead of announcing the loser in one half hour segment, we were subjected to live question-and-answer portions via the Internet. People don’t care whether Simon and Paula really hate each other, or if one of the contestants is single. We just want to hear them sing. (more…)

Popularity: 9% [?]

This past Thursday NBC unceremoniously said goodbye to the medical sitcom Scrubs after seven seasons. The series, which introduced Zach Braff to most of the world (before he moped his way through Garden State), gave John C. McGinley the fame he so well deserves, and resurrected the career of Sarah Chalke, has been a critical darling since it went on the air in 2001. For a brief time, it gained a mass audience — that is, until NBC began shuffling its time slots. Pretty soon, that mass audience became a small, loyal group of fans. Seriously, when are executives going to learn that people follow routines when they watch television? They are called viewing habits for a reason. When you move a show around two or three times, people are going to give up trying to find it, even if they do have a DVR. I do give NBC credit for keeping the show on the air for so long. Scrubs lost some of its charm as it evolved from a dramedy with some cartoonish elements into a silly sitcom trying to make us laugh every 30 seconds. By trying too hard for zaniness, the writing became inconsistent and predictable. This inconsistency was frustrating for those of us who latched on to the show in the early seasons.

This past winter, during the writers’ strike, NBC had the perfect opportunity to lure more viewers back into Sacred Heart Hospital; they promoted new episodes and aired them back to back. With nothing but reruns on the other channels, you’d think people would have tuned in. They didn’t. When NBC announced their new schedule for the coming year, Scrubs was … scrubbed. A couple weeks ago, NBC switched time slots between Scrubs and Tina Fey’s 30 Rock, giving the latter the choice placement behind The Office at 9:30 pm. When the season finale rolled around last week, there was little fanfare and little sentiment from the network. What a shame. Even if Scrubs wasn’t as great as it once was, it still deserved a nice sendoff after seven years.

However, fair viewers, this is not the end of the show. (more…)

Popularity: 10% [?]

Watching Tom Cruise appear on Oprah last week, I was surprised at how authentic he appeared. It reminded me of a conversation I had with a friend who did the makeup FX for Cruise on Collateral. We’ve all heard the tales of how Scientologists try to convert everyone they come in contact with, and I was prepared to hear horror stories of a whack job superstar trying to change my artistic friend into an L. Ron Hubbard clone. Instead, my friend told me that Cruise was really down to earth, and spent most of his time in the makeup chair discussing his kids and parenting. I was pleasantly surprised. This was also the impression I got from the intimate interview that took place between Winfrey and Cruise at his Colorado mansion.

The show began with the typical setups. Wife Katie Holmes just “happened” to be there to say hello, and then took off with the kids. Cruise gave Oprah a tour of the house. To that point, it felt like just another typical celebrity interview. Then they sat down in his living room (which looks out on the Colorado wilderness) and Winfrey began to ask him direct questions about the past three years. His crazy couch-jumping, his rants on television about Brooke Shields and antidepressants, his notorious interview with Matt Lauer, and that bizarre Scientology video that hit YouTube last year.

One has to presume that Cruise knew these questions were coming, but I was impressed that Winfrey did not let up when he merely gave answers like he was “misunderstood” and that his quotes about anti-depressants were actually aimed toward medicating children. Still, Cruise was humble, and for the first time in recent memory, he was not “on.” He spoke endearingly about his wife and especially his children and made a point to always include his older children, Isabella and Connor, in the conversation, even though Winfrey continually veered the discussion back to his two-year-old daughter, Suri. As a parent watching this, I was impressed with Cruise’s devotion to his family and his protectiveness.

We’ve all seen in the past couple years how the paparazzi can act like vultures, circling and waiting for something dreadful to happen. Over the years, with the Internet and channels like “E!” thriving on gossip, stars don’t have the luxury of calling off the attack dogs on certain nights. In fact, Cruise explained that he used to be able to actually have human conversations with photographers, asking them to ease off every now and then in exchange for pics the next night. Obviously that is not the case anymore. Still, he seems to have done a decent job of shielding his children from the spotlight and allowing them to grow up in a relatively normal way (if being the child of an international superstar spokesman for a little-understood religion can ever be normal). Furthermore, his protectiveness of his family, basically stating “come after me, but leave my kids alone,” was admirable. (more…)

Popularity: 9% [?]

Mention the words “silent movie” and most people will become glassy-eyed or chuckle some comment like “You know they make movies with sound now, don’t you?” It’s not that these people are elitist or snobs about movies. It’s just that the average moviegoer has only seen the occasional silent-film clip that makes it look like people in the early 20th century moved at a very fast pace (films in the silent era were shot at a different speed than modern films), or they expect to hear clunky piano music playing over slapstick-comedy one-reelers. Most people are unfamiliar with the history of motion pictures and fail to realize that many of the techniques we see in films today were originally incubated during that time; they don’t realize that while there were films made for the masses, there were also grand epics shown in glamorous movie palaces with live orchestras accompanying the wonderful images flickering on the screen.

Thankfully, archivists like film historian Kevin Brownlow and director Martin Scorsese continue to educate and inform people about the glorious art made during the birth of cinema. Additionally, Turner Classic Movies continues to air silent films on Sunday nights, and it’s led the way in film preservation by restoring many of the groundbreaking and influential films that have been lost to years of deteriorating film stock. TCM continues its work tonight by airing two epic movies from innovative French director Abel Gance: the pacifist war film J’accuse (8 PM Eastern) and the railroad tragedy La Roue (11 PM).

Gance is considered by many to be one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, but like his contemporaries D.W. Griffith and Sergei Eisenstein, his name is unrecognizable to almost everyone. Gance’s crowning achievement as a director is 1927’s Napoleon, which utilized Polyvision, a three-screen method of film projection. Napoleon was restored in the early ’80s just before Gance died, but his reputation as France’s most important filmmaker grew out of the success of his two earlier masterpieces, J’accuse (1919) and La Roue (1923).

(more…)

Popularity: 9% [?]

Brothers & Sisters, ABC’s latest hit family drama (Sundays at 10 pm), came back to the airwaves last night, and for some of us, it was a welcome return of quality television. It is rare that an adult drama like this one has managed to remain all-inclusive of its male and female characters. With strong, female leads like Rachel Griffiths (formerly of Six Feet Under), Calista Flockhart (Ally McBeal) and the incomparable Sally Field, it would have been quite easy for Brothers & Sisters to cater strictly to ABC’s female viewers (especially coming off Desperate Housewives). However, the producers have stayed true to the show’s original premise: a series centering on a large family as each member deals with the big family issues, as well as their own individual trials and tribulations.

For the most part, the show is not groundbreaking. Though thought-provoking on many levels, what we’re dealing with is the human heart and how people cope with the good times and bad. That said, the show has been brave in its honest portrayal of sibling Kevin’s slow emergence from the closet and his search for love and happiness. In fact, there’s more male kissing and bed-rolling on this show than any I can think of. Yet, the kissing and lovemaking is done in the same casual manner as you’d expect Flockhart and her onscreen beau, Rob Lowe, to hit the sack. In other words, the producers have wisely decided not to make it a BIG DEAL, and by doing so, allow each story to flow organically.

When it began airing back in the fall of 2006, Brothers & Sisters nearly failed the three strike rule. Its early episodes were downright painful to watch and the plots were so contrived, the writing so clichéd and full of holes, I often found myself yelling at the television when I wasn’t rolling my eyes and punching the couch in frustration. My thoughts were, “How can a show with much talent behind it suck so damn bad?” What kept me hoping would give this show life was the executive producer, Greg Berlanti. Berlanti is a television genius. (more…)

Popularity: 9% [?]

Hey, all. This week I learned what they mean by “chasing down an interview.” I had been planning to post a conversation with one of the actors from October Road, and the two of us have been playing phone tag for days. My backup plan for this week, a write up of the Gene Wilder special on Turner Classic Movies that premieres Tuesday, fell through when the network failed to get me a screener. Bummer. I love Wilder. Anyway, at the last minute (i.e. Sunday morning) I was hanging with my son on the living room couch when I was inspired to write the following. I hope you enjoy it. Aloha.

One of the drawbacks of my son Jacob’s breathing treatments for cystic fibrosis is the amount of television he and his sister, Sophie, end up watching. While we try to curb the level of crap they end up seeing, some things slip thought the cracks. Unfortunately, once an adventure show like Power Rangers kicks down your front door with its level of “fantasy” violence, as a parent you wind up sitting with he kids making sure what’s on the screen is not too inappropriate (this also goes for those teen shows on Nick and Disney which deal with complex emotional issues that I find a little much for my nine-year-old). When Jacob was younger, watching television with him was a mixed bag. The Wiggles were tolerable, Sesame Street educational, but Barney made me want to rip my hair out. My son’s interests have now shifted to comic books and action figures (”guys,” as he calls them, even the female superheroes) and for a thirtysomething fanboy like myself, it’s an opportunity to relive a bit of my childhood.

The most memorable television shows from my youth were Battle of the Planets and Star Blazers (the latter’s theme song is still embedded in my memory). Both series were originally Japanese animated shows produced in the early ’70s (Gatchaman and Space Battleship Yamato, respectively) and imported into U.S. syndication during the latter half of the decade with English-dubbed voices and some of the adult content sliced out for the target audience of prepubescent boys. What made them so enjoyable to tune into was the continuing drama that unfolded in each episode. Battle of the Planets may have been about the struggle between a group of teen warriors taking on an evil alien nemesis, but there was always the mystery surrounding the identity of the villain Zoltar and the question of hero Mark’s family lineage that carried on from episode to episode. Likewise, Star Blazers was the ongoing saga of a space battleship (modeled after a WWII battleship) on a a yearlong mission to save Earth. Each episode concluded with a countdown to the number of days remaining for the Star Force (as the crew was called) to complete their mission and save humanity. Good stuff.

Looking back, these animated TV shows, along with the chapter-like structure of classic X-Men and Teen Titans comics I was reading at age 11, influenced the type of writer I would become one day. I was not alone, as most of the animated series that are popular today use continuing storyline structures, like nighttime dramas and the comic books from which they are drawing stories and inspiration. Although superheroes have broad appeal (e.g. The Incredibles, the Spider-Man films, 300, and Batman Begins), television animation is treated like the bastard child of entertainment, as if its sole purpose is to sell toys and cereal. Fortunately, the writers and artists that work on most of these series don’t think that way. Here are four of the best action/adventure animated shows currently running on television. Now, if you’re not into this type of thing, I ask you to still read on. Being familiar with them may some day make you a very cool uncle or aunt. (more…)

Popularity: 12% [?]

Beginning this week, the major television networks will begin rolling out new episodes of regular series that have been on extended hiatus since the writers strike began last winter. TV fans can rejoice because this week, the 1-2 punch of The Office and 30 Rock returns to the air. I was not a fan from the get go of either show, but since the middle of both first seasons, I believe The Office and 30 Rock have become the standard of television comedy. Here’s why…

WE INTERRUPT OUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED COLUMN FOR THE FOLLOWING PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT.

Dear Screen Actors Guild,

As you prepare to open negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers on April 15^th, I offer my humble plea as you consider the possibility of a strike: Don’t. Don’t do it, dudes. Going on strike will bring the film and television industry to another grinding halt and will cripple the economy in Los Angeles (which is still trying to recover from the writers strike). Pilot season, that time of the year when most actors are lining up for gigs on pilots, is pretty much been scrapped. The networks are going to be more selective about what they’re going to greenlight, and in the case of NBC, they aren’t even ordering pilots for next year, instead going straight to series with their new schedule.

The economics are something I don’t fully understand. I do get that you’re being ripped off over residuals from digital formats. It’s bullshit and the producers know it. When the writers went on strike, they had a list of demands that they eventually whittled down (resulting in animation writers STILL not getting the respect that they deserve) in order to get what they were asking for regarding digital media. The truth is, no matter how “hardline” you claim to be, the AMPTP isn’t going to give you everything you want. So I hope you keep that in mind when you sit down and begin your talks. Seriously, figure out what’s really important… based on what they gave to the writers and directors guilds, go in expecting the same and work something out fast. (more…)

Popularity: 9% [?]