Category Archives: TV

Parks and Recreation to Say Goodbye to Rashida Jones and Rob Lowe

August 1, 2013 Amanda Broyles Leave a comment

That sound you heard was that of Leslie Knope wailing in grief at the thought of Ann Perkins leaving Pawnee. That’s right folks, Ann Perkins and Chris Traeger are making plans to leave the best city in America for parts unknown. It was announced yesterday that Rob Lowe and Rashida Jones would be leaving the NBC sitcom after episode 13 of the upcoming season.

Because plenty of people can not fathom why on earth the actors would leave the show, speculation immediately began that they were being forced out due to budget cuts. Mike Schur took to the press to assure everyone that this was not the case.

[box_light]Every network comes to you and says, ‘Cut costs,’ all the time. A reality of the network television game is they’ll always tell you to do impossible things with less and less money. But it wasn’t like, ‘Uh oh, we’ve got to hack away our cast.’[/box_light]

Rashida-Jones-and-Rob-Lowe-as-Ann-and-Chris-on-Parks-and-Rec

Schur is currently in New York at the Television Critics Association press event for his upcoming Brooklyn Nine-Nine starring Andy Samberg, but understandably, people want to know more about this departure. Mainly because it was so unexpected. Most of the time when an actor leaves a show there are rumblings and rumors swirling about for weeks, if not months. Contract disputes, rehab stints, scandal or discord of various other fashions. This time however, there was nothing.

Schur has been assuring people that this is truly a creative move with Jones and Lowe’s story line coming to an inevitable and obvious close. The two characters spent the latter parts of last season discussing having a child together so one has to assume they will be successful, and something will then take them away from Pawnee.

Mike Schur and NBC can try to calmly and rationally explain the reasons till they are blue in the face. Parks and Recreation fans are mourning. At times quite loudly. Granted I am a proud member of the NBC fandom, but my entire dashboard is filled with pictures like these.

dean winchester crying

Andy Dwyer

Ann Perkins and Leslie Knope

It’s been a rough couple of months for the NBC fandom. Jason Sudeikis finally announced he was leaving. Bill Hader is leaving. Seth Meyers is leaving Weekend Update/SNL. John Mulaney’s show appears as if it might be going to Fox. 30 Rock is no more. Andy Samberg went to Fox… And now this news?

Leslie Knope

Flash is In, Wonder Woman is Out. What About Booster Gold?

August 1, 2013 Amanda Broyles Leave a comment

During the Arrow Comic-Con panel, we found out some of the guest stars coming to the show, like Bronze Tiger and Brother Blood, but today the big name was announced. It is none other than Barry Allen himself, The Flash!

At their Television Critics Association presentation, The CW president Mark Pedowitz made public the plans to bring Flash to the small screen starting with an appearance on the already hugely popular Arrow. There were quite a few mentions of Coast City during the first season so there were many, including myself, who thought that perhaps the next “big” name to come to Starling City would be Green Lantern.

Well, we were wrong. Just like we were wrong when we assumed there would be no Flash until the Flash feature film came about in 2016.

Wrong, wrong, wrong.

Barry Allen will roll into Starling City for three episodes before embarking on his own series. He will be introduced in episode 8, then appear in episodes 9 and 20, and then will go off and do his own thing. Writing the Flash episodes will be the crack team of executive producers Andrew Kreisberg and Greg Berlanti, along with DC author and now frequent Arrow writer Geoff Johns. Episode 20 will be directed by David Nutter, who directed the series pilot last year.

The odd part about all of this is Warner Bros. and DC are not planning on having the already somewhat established TV universe have anything to do with the proposed and hopefully successful cinematic universe. I understood that decision when it was just Stephen Amell’s Green Arrow because the show does have the “no superpowers and/or metahumans” stance, but now that Flash is coming along? Granted they are saying that when Barry Allen and Oliver Queen meet up Allen won’t be Flash but still, the show about the Fastest Man Alive is getting a soft launch from one without any superpowers. Unless they cast Usain Bolt as Barry Allen, I’m calling bull. Actually, they are beginning the casting process this week so maybe it is Usain Bolt.

Another thing we (okay, maybe this was just me) were wrong about? Holding out any hope for the Wonder Woman series to ever make it to air. CW President, Mark Pedowitz, announced yesterday during the same presentation that the Wonder Woman project, Amazon, was on pause.

Excuse me as I roll my eyes in epic fashion. It’s on pause? Did anyone ever press play? Even when we last spoke about the Wonder Woman television series, it was all still speculation and rumor. This whole “pause” business is just irritating. Rip off the Band-Aid Mark, just do it already.

I get that Wonder Woman is a difficult character to try and build a franchise around. Almost every Wonder Woman fan will agree to that. The invisible jet, the different planet, the Lasso of Truth… it’s all a bit fantastic and might be too fantastic to make a TV series out of, outside of the campy 70s. However, either do it or don’t, but stop stringing us along.

Speaking of stringing along… What happened to Booster Gold? When Arrow premiered, Andrew Kriesberg was still talking up the Booster Gold series. I got my hopes up. Thought that for sure one of the men behind this great new show would want to do every thing in his power to bring one of his favorite characters to life in a live action setting. Instead we’ve heard nothing about Booster Gold and when Greg Berlanti was asked why Flash was getting a series, he said it was because Flash was one of his favorite characters growing up! Ugh, I just can’t win.

The last bit of Arrow news coming out of TCA, we now know who Caity Lotz is playing. We saw her in the Arrow season two sizzle reel, but there was no indication who her character was beyond “the origin story for Black Canary”. Well get this, Sarah Lance is still alive and she’s returning to Starling City thanks to Caity Lotz. If the Tommy/Laurel/Oliver love triangle was messy, I can’t even imagine how dysfunctional Ollie stuck between two sisters is going to be.

Despite my irritation, this is exciting news. As a DC fan it’s easy to look at the Marvel cinematic success and be jealous, but Arrow and the new Flash show (and Booster Gold and Wonder Women if they ever get made) are all part of a long and storied history of DC characters on the small screen. They are doing well, so here’s hoping they continue to do well…

By giving me a Booster Gold show.

Dexter Review: 8.05 – “This Little Piggy”

July 30, 2013 Michelle L. Mattock Leave a comment

Even though the supposed “Brain Surgeon” was killed by the Dexter/Deb duo, ‘This Little Piggy’ was one of the more boring episodes of season 8 so far. Certainly not as entertaining as last week’s ‘Scar Tissue’.

Dexter and Deb have a therapy session with Vogel and suddenly, after a brief angsty bitch session by Dexter, everything is okay again between the brother and sister. Deb wants to help Dexter kill Yates after the “Brain Surgeon” kidnaps Vogel because, as she said, “…the family that kills together…”. They are successful in ridding the world of Yates, but something tells me that the world is not rid of the “Brain Surgeon”. Why would it be Yates? If he is this easily manipulated and this precise thus far, how did he let himself get caught and why would he suddenly kidnap Vogel? I guess he could be the Brain Surgeon, but I wouldn’t like how little sense that makes. Also, usually there is much more of a chase than this has been with Yates. I would want it to be someone stronger; someone like Dexter.

Quinn goes to get a DNA sample from a man who is very wealthy and contributes a lot to the community, so when he gets a bad feeling about the man’s son, Matthews shoots him down. Here’s the thing….. the “feeling” Quinn got? Yeah, we all got that as well. What f-ckery is this, where they make the supposed psychopath look like an outright… well… psychopath! He is obviously up to something when you first see him. If that wasn’t telling enough, the kid asks Quinn a bunch of questions about the murder. So even dumb as rocks Joey Quinn can tell that there is something obviously wrong with this Hamilton kid. They should just play ominous cheesy 80s horror film music as he appears on camera.

There were other things that happened in this episode, none of which I particularly care about. Jamie brought over a cute friend for a double date with Dexter, but he had to leave (Vogel/Yates/Deb situation) and she was very cool about it. Blah. It is too far into the season to be adding new characters and expecting me to care about them.

The reason that Dexter is such a great show is because you get attached to these characters (Rita, Miguel, Lila, Maria, etc…) and you get to watch Dexter destroy their lives, leaving the audience feeling some sort of emotion about it. In the season 4 finale when Trinity killed Rita, the second I saw Harrison in the blood pool I began sobbing. When I saw Rita’s face, I cried my eyes out. John Lithgow still haunts my nightmares! But this adding new characters for a few episodes and then expecting me to give a shit? I dislike that. Like that woman detective who is trying for sergeant…. I cannot remember her name off the top of my head. If she wasn’t in the next episode, I probably wouldn’t even notice. I understand that the series is ending, I just thought it would go out with a bang!

Overall I give this episode a 2 out of 5, and mainly only because Deb and Dex are back together again.

Arrested Development ‘Definitely’ Returning, But In What Form?

July 29, 2013 Chris Tansuche Leave a comment

As if you needed a James Bond type announcement, but it’s pretty much confirmed that the Bluths will indeed return for a 5^th season. Slashfilm and WarmingGlow reported that last week, creator Mitchell Hurwitz confirmed that the Bluths will be back, delivering a definitive “definitely” in Montreal at the Just for Laughs comedy festival. In fact, Hurwitz even went as far as asking the Netflix chief content officer, Ted Sarandos, who was conveniently sitting with him if they could discuss it at the moment because he’s got “kids to feed.”

Continue reading Arrested Development ‘Definitely’ Returning, But In What Form? →

Cosmos Is Returning, Neil deGrasse Tyson Says Brace Yourself for Awesome

July 28, 2013 Chris Tansuche Leave a comment

I had the wonderful pleasure of being able to attend the Cosmos panel at Comic-Con with Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson, Ann Druyan and producer Brannon Braga. First off, it probably was one of the coolest panels I have ever attended and it was the second time I have heard Dr. Tyson (or Neil at the panel if you were lucky enough to ask him a question) speak. The first time being the Starship Smackdown panel last year where he expounded on why the original Starship Enterprise deserved to win the smackdown (which, not shockingly, did win). The second time I heard him speak in person was this panel and it proved that seeing him in person is an experience in itself. Very eloquent and never condescending, he spoke with passion yet never overpowering the audience. You can definitely see why he was chosen to be the next host of Cosmos.

Even better was the involvement of Ann Druyan, the widow of Carl Sagan, and what she had to say on the subject of bringing back this show of science and discovery so that a new generation can enjoy Cosmos. I had never seen her speak before but you can definitely tell she is more than capable of carrying the torch that Sagan lit with this program. For those that don’t know, Cosmos was a mini-series from 1980 that had 13 episodes. It was presented by Carl Sagan and talked about a wide range of scientific subjects, whether the origins of life, life out in the universe or even investigating our own mysteries here on Earth. It was well received and people have been clamoring for a return. Luckily, Seth MacFarlane carries an enormous amount of clout these days and is executive producing Cosmos: A Space Time Odyssey because he was such a big fan. So in 2014, we will be treated to the next iteration of the series on both FOX and the National Geographic Channel. It’s hard for me to really explain more about the series so below is the trailer to the new mini-series.

Yeah, I know right? I managed to watch Cosmos when I was a lot younger and it really did turn me on to science as a young kid and the whole idea of exploration and curiosity. By bringing this to a whole new generation, the goal is to at least expand the minds of new generations and provide a starting point for those to inquire more about science. I hope this project becomes a great success and a starting point for those younger kids to begin looking into the world. Again, Cosmos: A Space Time Odyssey will air on FOX and National Geographic sometime in Spring 2014. Below is a small bit from the Cosmos panel, showing why Neil deGrasse Tyson has the ability to speak to the new generation and get some blood flowing to the brain.

Orphan Black – Top Ten Reasons You Should Be Watching

July 28, 2013 Amanda Broyles Leave a comment

When the Emmy nominations were announced, one of the biggest names missing was that of Orphan Black star, Tatiana Maslany. The Canadian actress plays the main character in the BBC America show that has taken the internet by storm. It was actually tumblr where I kept seeing references to this show that I’d never even heard of before. Finally curiosity got the best of me and I headed over to Amazon and bought the first season. Two days later I was a full-fledged Orphan Black apologist.

I feel as if everyone should watch this show so here’s my argument… the Top Ten Reasons You Need to be Watching Orphan Black.

This will be as non-spoilerish as I can possibly make it so prepare yourself for many vague statements that allude to things also vague.

Continue reading Orphan Black – Top Ten Reasons You Should Be Watching →

Grizzly Bomb