Category Archives: TV

Arrow 1:15 – “Dodger”

February 23, 2013 Amanda Broyles Leave a comment

Probably due in part to last week’s episode being so great, this week seemed a little blah. It certainly had great moments but the overall feel was just a bit of a let down. Not to mention sort of irritating that the writers finally gave in to the CW “norm” and we had an episode all about romantic relationships. It’s not really necessary given that the main point of the show is a guy hunting down people with a bow and arrow who’ve done wrong in the city. If he happens to find love in his off-time, well that’s great, but we don’t need an entire story arc dedicated to it (I’m looking at you Huntress).

However, I really liked this week’s bad guy – the Dodger. I chose to just go ahead and forget everything I know about the actual comic book character Dodger because it would only irritate me as it’s hard to have Dodger be involved in trying to kill Connor (Oliver Queen’s son) when there is no Connor. Also no

Black Canary (I am hoping that with Laurel’s mom appearing soon they’ll address this finally) so yea, best to just let Starling City’s Dodger be his own man. Of course he did have his “electronic mace” which was cool. I could think of a few times in my life I’d like to have had one of those on hand.

Like I said, the real story of the episode was the love lives of both Diggle and Oliver. I do believe I called the Diggle/sister-in-law thing from the very beginning so it was nice to see I was right. How awkward was it though when he started comparing their first date to her first date with his brother? Yikes. I don’t do well with awkward, even if it’s on the TV. I felt like I was standing there trying to scream “SHUT UP DIGGLE!!” but my mouth wouldn’t open. Clearly, I have issues.

Who else has issues? Oliver. Of course he has a reason behind them, what with the whole “everyone thinks I was alone on that island but really I was getting my ass kicked on the regular never mind the constant mind-games I had to wade through” thing. I don’t know what to think about the McKenna situation. After last week I had a feeling she might be the mole in the police station but now she’s being bugged by Oliver so maybe that rules her out? I don’t know. What I do know is it’s not going to take her long (at least I hope so, she is a detective) to find that bug and the shit is going to hit the fan. That will be fun.

Oh oh oh! Another obnoxious point about this episode! The “nerdy girl takes off her glasses and puts on a dress and is all of a sudden hot” trope. I can just imagine how it played out in the writers room.

[quote] Writer A: So we’ve got this gala thing that Felicity is going to go to.

Writer B: We should totally have her take her glasses off and let her hair down.

Every other writer who hates this move: groans loudly

Writer B: But really, it will work. Then the guys will realize how pretty she is! Yay! [/quote]

Ugh, unnecessary. What purpose does it serve? Absolutely none. I love their little trio and how she’s been able to work her way into their lives already and as much as I think I would like to see her and Oliver

together, I’d rather it just be the three of them. ArrowTeam4Lyfe! Now that I got that ridiculousness out of my system, I think the three of them will end up doing quite well together. Already we’ve seen the good influence that Diggle has made on Oliver. Throw in Felicity and her desire to go after bad guys that aren’t on the list as well and how he could go about “talking” to people differently and it seems like Oliver is becoming more well-rounded. One could say he’s going through the vigilante version of a liberal arts education.

The island parts this week were a major letdown. Basically they were only there to drive home the point that Oliver has changed and the island played a major part in it. One has to wonder if the writers think we haven’t seen the previous fourteen episodes.

Back to ArrowTeam- this week we got to finally meet someone who should be making his way into the ArrowCave any moment, Roy Harper!

Let’s just get one thing out of the way – Colton Haynes is 24 years old. I know this will cause many people to breath a sigh of relief that they aren’t dirty pervs. Not saying I was one of them, but there was a Google search done almost immediately.

I can not wait to see how Roy Harper becomes an Arrow sidekick. I imagine it will sadly have something to do with Thea as it looked like they were setting it up as a love connection between the two of them. Much like Diggle and Oliver, I don’t really care who Thea dates. I actually don’t really care if Thea just disappeared one day and never returned but if that can’t happen at least she can get her bratty paws off Speedy. Doesn’t seem too much to ask, does it?

As great as Roy Harper’s appearance was, perhaps the biggest plot movement of the night came from Moira Queen. I think she only had three scenes but there was a lot involved in those three scenes. Some guy named Frank Chan shows up. He is part of this group that is doing, gods only know what, but Moira wants him to help her stop “the undertaking”. Then the final scene of the show we see exactly how she plans to do that – by hiring China White to KILL MALCOLM MERLYN!!!!

I’ve watched enough television in my 34 years to know that this is not a good idea. Not a good idea at all, Moira. This will end badly for you. Very very badly. On the whole, not a great episode. Roy Harper being introduced and that last scene was great (awful idea, but great scene) but the rest of it was blah. Going to have to go with just a 3 out of 5 this week.

However there is much to look forward to as this picture clearly shows… Until next time Arrow fans!

NBC’s ‘Hannibal’ Adds Talent to Cast!

February 22, 2013 Adam Popovich Leave a comment

Now I know I already bashed the entire show and concept of NBC’s Hannibal pretty badly last time, but it’d seem that things about it keep looking better and better the more I hear about it. The brilliant casting of ~~Macklemore~~ Mads Mikkelson as Dr. Lecter is great as I previously mentioned, but now the big news is about Gillian Anderson returning to TV after several years of being off the small screen. Gillian Anderson as you’ll no doubt remember, played FBI skeptic Agent Dana Scully on The X-Files. Now she’ll be coming back to TV for multiple episodes in the show, playing Dr. Lecter’s own therapist.

[quote] In a multi-episode arc on the upcoming NBC drama, Anderson is going to play Dr. Bedelia Du Maurier — murderous psychiatrist Dr. Hannibal Lecter’s (Mads Mikkelsen) own therapist.

“Every therapist needs their own head examined and we are ecstatic that Gillian Anderson has chosen Hannibal to mark her return to American television after 10 years to portray Dr. Lecter’s personal psychiatrist,” Fuller said in a statement. “Her intelligence and sophistication, not to mention her pedigree of ground-breaking TV, make her the perfect actress to match wits and psychological manipulations with one of the greatest villains of pop culture. I couldn’t be more excited.” [/quote]

Whoa whoa whoa, HOLD UP. That’s all find and dandy, yay X-Files whatever. The REAL news in that quote is the statement made by “Fuller” about the show. Which Fuller could that be? Well it’s Bryan Fuller, a name you may not recognize, but whose work you definitely will. He’s only the guy who made Dead Like Me, Pushing Daisies, the underrated Wonderfalls, and helped write the best parts of the first season of Heroes, aka the only good season actually worth watching.

Here he is pictured with a fox for some reason.

His pedigree alone has me interested in the show, even though it’s so drastically different from all of this other work in tone. Needless to say, the cast and creative team behind this show are certainly looking to be a home run, so maybe it’ll actually be really good? All I can say is that it’ll probably get canceled. Just like all of Bryan Fuller’s other shows.

In other casting news, Canadian comedy fans might recognize another name – The Kids in the Hall star Scott Thompson. Thompson will play Jimmy Price, the third member of the FBI crime scene investigation team headed by Laurence Fishburne’s Jack Crawford, the head of the FBI’s behavioral science unit.

Is the End Near for USA’s ‘Psych’?

February 21, 2013 Amanda Broyles Leave a comment

Watching USA Network today, it’s hard to believe that once upon a time, its biggest claim to fame was being home to one of the longest running animated children’s shows, Calliope. Nowadays, Calliope is long forgotten and USA has gone on to be quite the success story when it comes to original scripted programming on a basic cable channel.

When season seven of Psych premieres on Feb. 27th, it will do so as the second longest running original program in USA’s history. When season eight premieres (filming starts in April), it will tie Monk, the network’s record holder for longest running show. However Psych‘s chances getting a season nine, and surpassing Monk are slim. And looking slimmer by the day.

Over the summer, there had been rumors that Dulé Hill was not interested in signing a new contract when his current one, that is good through an eighth season, ran out. Now there’s news of another major cast member who is planning their post-Psych life.

Maggie Lawson who plays the adorable and incredibly patient and understanding Juliet O’Hara has been cast in an untitled ABC pilot. Created by the Cullen brothers, Mark and Robb, who have worked together on both Las Vegas and Heist, the show has James Caan starring as an ex-baseball player and is billed as a new Modern Family. We’ll just have to wait and see if it makes it to air, but what does this mean for Psych?

Theoretically, the show could continue. USA has shown it has zero issue with moving around scheduling (seriously it’s been a year since a Psych episode last aired, ridiculous) and with season 8 getting ready to start filming, they could extend it another season or two if Dulé Hill returns? Maybe?

Okay, probably not. So what’s a Psych-o to do? Well, first take solace in the knowledge there is plenty of warning for the end of the series which should hopefully result in a satisfying wrap up. It would suck to put in eight years of time into watching a show only to get to the end and have them just be canceled with no warning and therefore a crappy last episode. Nothing chaps my ass more than when shows get surprise canceled and there is no resolution.

Secondly, let’s enjoy the time we have left. Like last season with the Hashtag Killer, the powers that be over at Psych have put together another interactive online game, “The S#cial Sector“. I know it’s probably lame, but I really enjoyed Hashtag Killer, and have already started the first week of S#cial Sector. While it’s not as good as Hashtag Killer, it’s still fun and I’ll probably play all eight weeks. If USA does nothing else right, they do have a somewhat firm grasp on how to get people involved in shows like Psych with the online and social interactive aspects. Did you know that 30 Rock has won awards for their various webseries? Probably not, because they don’t advertise that stuff whereas USA, an NBC family member does, and quite well.

All that said, I am going to need a group hug of some sort. It seems like a lot of my shows are ending in the very near future (if not already) and I’m already experiencing withdrawal symptoms. So what say you Pysch fans? What should I watch next? Go ahead and give me some suggestions down in the comments box, or simply share your favorite Psych memory. We can get through this together.

Hannibal: Dr. Lector Now Coming to NBC! First Trailer for New Show…

February 19, 2013 Adam Popovich Leave a comment

Quick! What’s the weirdest, stupidest, most nonsensical idea for a network television drama you can think of? Is it a story about sub-trans-dimensional mice cross breeding with a race of intergalactic spiders in a horrifying plot to steal all of Earth’s cheese? No? Ok. Was it a watered down TV version of the infamously non-TV appropriate cannibal/murderer/insane character Hannibal Lector? Then BOY HAVE I GOT GREAT NEWS FOR YOU!

So let’s pretend for a minute that the idea isn’t inherently flawed, and instead focus on what could be good about this. Firstly, Mads Mikkelson as Hannibal Lector is pretty excellent casting, and anybody who’s seen the Pusher movies or Valhalla Rising knows the guy has the chops to pull off the role. The problem with that is it’ll inevitably create a terrible vacuum as he’ll be the only good thing about the show, and almost everything else will be awful. I mean, I don’t expect Laurence Fishburne to stay on the cast for long. If there was ever a character who reeked of “Shocking Surprise Death!” it’s him. The whole show seems like a doomed idea, because Hannibal just doesn’t seem suited for any sort of long form serialized medium, and especially the medium of network television. Will he suddenly just NOT be a cannibal? Or will they skirt around it with implications and whatnot? Furthermore, the whole thing looks like somebody saw Silence Of The Lambs, Red Dragon, Manhunter and Hannibal and said “MAKE IT A SHOW DAMMIT!”

On top of that I have a weird personal problem where I keep getting Mads Mikkelson mixed up with recent hip hop artist Macklemore. Well, not literally. I just got really drunk once and couldn’t say “Mads Mikkelson”, and kept slurring his name until “Macklemore” came out, and eventually I started insisting that Macklemore was actually an actor and was really good in Casino Royale. It annoyed everyone.

The Walking Dead: 3.10 – “Home”

February 18, 2013 Michelle L. Mattock 1 Comment

Last week marked the return of AMC’s The Walking Dead from their mid-season hiatus. It focused mainly on Rick’s return to the prison and him losing his shit. Well, that continued this week with Rick is still long gone mentally and seeing hallucinations of his dead wife. When we start, Rick goes out beyond the gate of the prison to stand with Lori. His mental break has been rather public and here, again, he makes no attempt to hide it…

The governor wants Andrea to take over Woodbury. Now, I would love nothing more than to see a good old-fashioned Andrea fight between her and the Gov. She never used to even trust the people in her own group! All of a sudden she is this trusting, obedient lady. I am not yet over that. The Governor then goes to Milton and tells him to keep tabs on Andrea. How that works, I’m not sure. I could snap Milton in half. And his poker face is laughable. My hope is that Andrea is going to come to her senses when she realizes that her friends are in trouble. OR better yet, when she realizes Michonne is with her friends, alive, and they are all in trouble.

Home

MEANWHILE. BACK AT THE PRISON: Michonne actually has something to add about Glenn’s plan. Oh yes… he has a plan. He wants to go to Woodbury with Michonne and make a stand for the group’s sake. As I mentioned in last week’s review, Glenn should take over the group. Oh wait! That is currently happening! The group needs to find out how the walkers are getting into the tombs, and Maggie is lying in bed. She is unwilling to speak to Glenn… not exactly sure why. I guess she is upset that Glenn is upset about what happened to her, but I have no idea why that is pissing her off. The man with the awesome mustache, Axel, is pretty keen on Carol. I wonder if Daryl will come back all jealous! “That’s my mousey, scrawny she-man!”

The good man in Daryl goes to help a few stranded folks, of course against Merle’s wishes. Daryl crushing the walker’s head by shutting the trunk on it… just the most atrocious thing I have ever seen. Outstandingly grotesque.

Daryl turns his weapon on Merle, who was trying to take from the mother and baby they just saved. I mean… that man is putrid. Daryl and Merle get into a spat, which actually leads to a bit of back story between the two. Daryl says to Merle “You lost your hand ‘cause you’re a simple-minded piece of shit.” It then comes to light that the brothers Dixon were abused as children by their father, Merle left, leaving Daryl to continued abuse, which resulted in scars all over his back. So when Daryl had to walk away and was saying that Merle was the one leaving him… again… Merle seemingly realized who he needed to be, which is a good brother to the only family he has left.

While Glenn is gone looking for the breach, Rick claims to Hershel that he’s got “stuff” outside the prison gates, and that he needs to stay there. He explains to Hershel that he saw Lori and she was on the phone earlier, along with Shane, and the rest of the group that had been killed. He explains that there must be a reason and although it does not make sense now, it will in time so he refuses to come back inside the prison.

During a tender moment between Carol and Axel, a bullet rips through Axel’s head and so begins the Governor’s attack on the prison.

The Governor’s crew smashes an armored truck full of walkers through the gates and onto the prison grounds and released its contents. While Glenn extracts Hershel, we get to see not only Michonne swinging her Katana, but Daryl and Merle’s arrival just in time to save Rick as well. This all out assault resulted in only one death from our prison group – Axel, who then acted as a human shield to keep Carol alive during the firefight. The Governor also suffered only one casualty when Maggie picked off the sniper who somehow got into the guard tower.

This episode was much better than last week’s, in my opinion. I love the development of characters that have been around since the beginning, like how we are just finding out about Merle and Daryl’s past. The action in this episode was a big part of what was missing from last week. There was the scene between the Dixon brothers resulting in Daryl turning a weapon on his brother. It was very exciting! And then, of course, the end of the episode, when the whole group had to grab a gun and try to stay alive. Honestly, when Daryl showed up just as Rick was about to become zombie chow, my heart skipped a beat! And then, Michonne’s beautiful Katana work made me cheer out loud. This was a great episode. I was still slightly annoyed with the Woodbury situation, making Milton look important and Andrea unlikable, but I have a feeling that will change.

Overall, I would give this episode a 4/5. This may be generous because the last episode disappointed me so much, but I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

Animated Gif Credits – TWD-Gifs

SNL: 38.13 – Christoph Waltz & Alabama Shakes

February 17, 2013 Amanda Broyles Leave a comment

After the “let’s just get through this” host that was Justin Bieber, I was really looking forward to this week’s SNL with Christoph Waltz. There’s just something about real actors coming to do the show that makes it worth sitting through the teen idols. Waltz did not disappoint, at all.

Who ate Coco? — Credit to: bloggymoynihan

The cold open was quite strong. I thought they were going to stick with a political open but I was pleasantly surprised when instead the show opened with Jason Sudeikis and Cecily Strong as cruise directors for the ill-fated Carnival Triumph. Unlike last episode’s Super Bowl cold open, the cruise directors were well paced, the rest of the cruise staff was quick and funny, and the jokes were good; sad that this is out of the norm, but it was and it was good. However Ms. Strong, as a daughter of the great city of Mobile, Alabama, it is pronounced “mo-beal” not “mo-bile”. Come on, we are always a little sensitive this time of year, given how no one ever remembers that we were the ones that brought Mardi Gras to America but to not even know how to pronounce our fair city’s name? Well that’s just rude.

As for the monologue, that made me nervous. Here was a great cold open only to have a visibly nervous Christoph Waltz come out and sing. How many musical monologues does that bring us up to for the season? Way too many. I feared that his nervousness would make the rest of the show laborious but thankfully, it was short-lived. Actually you could tell Waltz was battling nerves in many of the sketches but he did a great job despite it.

Game show host Christoph Waltz — Credit to: waltzs

“What Have You Become” has the distinction of probably being my new favorite game show sketch. I would hope that it’d become a recurring sketch but it would be difficult to have the same payoff as the question being turned on the host so I’ll just have to re-watch this one numerous times. Christoph Waltz talking about his overbearing mother making him go to “game show school” was obviously the highlight but almost as good was Aidy Bryant having the chance to say anything about herself and choosing mediocre knitting. Well, mediocre knitting and her bitch of a daughter.

In the first of two pre-recorded bits, Waltz played the retired Pope Benedict. I’m not a retiring pontiff but I was seconds away from setting up a meeting with my local “Papal Securities” office. Something about Jason Sudeikis in a pair of glasses makes me want fork over money.

While I enjoyed seeing Nasim Pedrard getting her own character, Tippy just didn’t do it for me. I respect that it’s difficult to get out of the shadow of a personality such as Kristin Wiig but it’s probably not wise to try to use a character that she would certainly excel at, as a vehicle. That being said, perhaps if it’s a recurring character Nasim can make it her own and work her way out of that shadow. Best of luck.
http://www.nbc.com/assets/video/xnxx-92/widget/widget.html?vid=n32896

The best part of the night was the second pre-recorded sketch, this time a movie trailer for the newest Quentin Tarantino film, Djesus Uncrossed. I am a huge SNL fan and usually laugh pretty heartily at various sketches, but I have not laughed as hard at something in quite some time that I did to this trailer. It was perfect. Anyone who has seen even half a Tarantino film recognized his style immediately, that style being very bloody, and often involving swords. Christoph Waltz was perfect as the freshly resurrected Djesus who sets out to take his revenge on the Romans. If there were any doubts about Taran Killam’s ability to impersonate Brad Pitt, they were put to rest as he did a great job and now I can’t even see the word “Roman” without pronouncing it as “R0-Mans”.

If the sketch itself wasn’t entertaining, the backlash certainly has been. Long story short, people are losing their shit. It has certainly kept my attention this morning and has been quite educational. Apparently if you thought the bit was funny you are either a god-less heathen, atheist, or a “libretard”. Oh and you are most certainly going to hell. I imagine the FCC is fielding their fair share of complaints this morning, and if this compilation of SNL complaints through the years is any indication, they probably make for fun reading. Good times.

By the time the CD commercial came up for the JaMarcus Brothers, the show was on a roll unlike one I’ve seen all year. You could tell that everyone in the cast knew it as well. JaMarcus Brothers was probably one of the funniest “Time Life Music” bits they’ve had in a while, thanks to Waltz as the adopted white virgin. Hysterical.

I’m a huge fan of Alabama Shakes so no surprise that I really enjoyed their two pieces of the night. Brittany Howard is amazing, and I’ve decided that I would like her to follow me around and sing-narrate my life.

Much in line with the rest of the night, Weekend Update was fantastic. No surprise to anyone, Marco Rubio (Taran Killam) made an appearance with his infamous thirst and dedication to maintaining eye contact with the camera. I wouldn’t have pictured Rubio as one to take on a YouTube meme such as the “cinnamon challenge” so you learn something new everyday. I’m waiting for his “Harlem Shake” video to hit the internet.

Kate McKinnon continues her campaign for full cast member status and this week, it came behind the Weekend Update desk. I don’t know if she’s writing these characters herself, or someone is writing for her, but whoever it is, they are hitting it out of the park. Ann Romney and Cecilia Gimenez were both great but they pale in comparison to the Russian woman hoping the meteor was there to turn her into dust so she could be eaten by a goat and finally warm. So good.

If I had to choose to low point of the night? For me it’d be the return of Regine. The only plus to Fred Armisen’s crotch flashing drag sketch is watching the other cast members trying to keep it together. Of course when Bill Hader is involved, there’s not much chance of him keeping a straight face, and this week was no different.

Fox and Friends may seem tired, but it still makes me laugh, no doubt thanks to Bobby Moynihan and his absolutely ridiculous character. He certainly has a talent when it comes to making the dim bulb, Brian Kilmeade, very entertaining to watch. I think we can all agree that it’s about time they start crediting the fourth host of the Fox morning show, Vanessa Bayer’s rack. Woowee she had the girls out for a walk this week!

I probably shouldn’t have enjoyed the “Secret Valentine Admirer” sketch as much as I did. Awkward Christoph Waltz certainly is adorable and the payoff with Keenan Thompson’s reaction to a second “valentine” was great.

Overall? Easily the best episode of the season, if not the best of recent seasons. Even though there are plenty of people pissing and moaning that they are no longer watching the show due to the whole Djesus thing, there were enough of us who loved it that hopefully NBC won’t see any substantial blow-back. It was nice to see the writers taking a step back onto the unsafe and daring ledge, a refreshing change of pace from the somewhat predictable and pedantic.

Next week is a rerun, likely due to the Oscars on Sunday night, but they return on March 2nd with what looks to be a promising episode with host Kevin Hart and musical guest Macklemore and Ryan Lewis.

Until then SNL fans!

Grizzly Bomb