Tagged: television

Review: ‘Fringe’ Episode #105

Review: ‘Fringe’ Episode #105

Note: Click here for the last mystery!

Autopsy Report: “Power Hungry”
From Fox: “When it’s discovered that a rather simple man has the ability to harness electricity, dangerous and deadly occurrences follow, and our unlikely trio investigates this super-charged oddity. Meanwhile, Olivia has a high-voltage encounter of a different kind when she is rocked by a blast from her past, and Dr. Bishop turns to his feathered friends and enlists homing pigeons to help him break the case.”

Doctor’s Notes
Hot off the heels of Fringe‘s best episode to date comes its worst. “Power Hungry” is a boring, by-the-numbers procedural that weakly nods its head to the previous installment. Just as [[[Fringe]]] proved its merit as innovating and captivating in “The Arrival,” this episode displays just how boring the high concept show can get.

In the episode, the Fringe crew pursues Joseph Meegar, a man who can discharge high amounts of electricity due to the experiments enacted on him by a scientist named Jacob Fischer. Meanwhile, Olivia deals with the ramifications of her strange visions of former lover John Scott, who is thought to be dead. By episode’s end, Walter reveals that part of John’s consciousness is actually stuck in Olivia’s brain as a result of their mind-melding in the series pilot. Mystery solved.

We’ll save you the trouble by answering the obvious question: Yes, that’s really all that happens this episode in terms of any plot movement. It’s true that John literally being inside of Liv’s head is fairly unique, but the whole figment-of-the-imagination thing has been beaten to death before. The fact that “The Arrival” concludes with John Scott showing up at Olivia’s home is resolved by him being a mental projection is very boring. Maybe it would’ve more exciting if the previous episode’s ending didn’t hinge on the reveal, but it did. As a result, the answer is wholly unsatisfying, as the mystery behind why Massive Dynamic has Scott’s body ends up being a completely separate entity.

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Review: ‘Beauty and the Beast’ The Complete Series

Review: ‘Beauty and the Beast’ The Complete Series

In 1987, television was evolving.  Thanks to [[[Hill Street Blues]]], the way dramatic stories were presented became more complex, the storytelling more diverse and the stories more compressed. The subject matter was also starting to broaden, moving beyond cops, lawyers and doctors.  It was just before the SF wave kicked off with [[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]] but that didn’t stop CBS from trying something a little different.

On a Friday night, September 25, 1987, audiences were treated to a different look at the classic [[[Beauty and the Beast]]] tale.  The series starred Ron Perlman as Vincent, the beast, a mutant of some sort, who comes to the rescue of Linda Hamilton’s Catherine, a rich girl turned assistant district attorney.  Their connection became the stuff of fairy tale and from that pilot episode, their fates became inextricable.

It had all the lush romance of a Harlequin book and the action to keep spouses by their side.  The series had its ups and downs, making a star out of Hamilton who left the series after just two seasons, derailing the eternal romance. Jo Anderson was brought in for the third season but that, coupled with CBS’s insistence on increased action for the males, hurt and the series came to an end in January 1990 (although the final two were run that summer).  Its 56 episodes remain a testament to the creative vision of creator Ron Koslow and fantasist George R.R. Martin who wound up penning 13 of the episodes.

Paramount Home Video has released a 16-disc box set of the complete series and it shows its age.  Beauty and the Beast has the look and feel of the 1980s without fully embracing the changing storytelling in television. The storytelling is slow, almost plodding at times, and each week they seemed to focus on some new social ill without really offering long-term solutions.  The threats were fairly standard stuff for the most part, intertwined with the poetry between the characters.  Complete with lush music, long, lingering gazes into character’s eyes, it was truly a romance novel brought to the screen.

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Review: ‘The Flash Gordon Serials, 1936-1940: A Heavily Illustrated Guide’

Review: ‘The Flash Gordon Serials, 1936-1940: A Heavily Illustrated Guide’

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The Flash Gordon Serials, 1936-1940: A Heavily Illustrated Guide
By Roy Kinnard, Tony Crnkovich, and R.J. Vitone
McFarland & Co. Publishers, August 2008, $55

Growing up in New York during the 1960s meant that Sunday morning we were treated to two choices: Sonny Fox on Channel 5’s [[[Wonderama]]] or the zany Chuck McCann who hosted a show that seemed to be a little bit of this and that.  Included among them were the old movie serials from the 1930s.  Among the most aired and best remembered were the ones starring Buster Crabbe as Flash Gordon. Imagine being 6 or 10 years old, and being introduced to these breathless adventures taking place on other worlds in digestible chunks that made you anxiously await the following Sunday.  It was merely a taste of what an earlier generation experienced in actual movie theaters.

Those serials,[[[Flash Gordon]]], [[[Flash Gordon’s Trip to Mars]]], and [[[Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe]]], have remained memorable not only to me but to other generations of adventure fans.  Finally, we have a book that looks into how these were made and who made them. The writing triumvirate of Roy Kinnard, Tony Crnkovich, and R.J. Vitone bring their expertise and affection to the McFarland book which was just published.

The authors detail how Universal came to option Alex Raymond’s lushly illustrated comic strip and what happened as regimes changed and budgets tightened.  While among the best serials ever made, Universal soon left the field to Republic and Columbia which is a shame. The storylines, sets, miniatures and acting were all a cut above.

 

 

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ComicMix Radio: Pixar And The Muppets Go BOOM!

ComicMix Radio: Pixar And The Muppets Go BOOM!

  • News
  • October 4, 2008

Imagine an inter-company "Crisis" style crossover that included The Muppets, The Incredibles, Farscape and even some of the cast of Cthulhu. Ok, farfetched, but all these titles from one company are not. We have the latest from Boom! Studios, plus:

  • Four big sellouts and now variants coming from Marvel
  • Who has the Best Death in sci-fi films and TV?
  • An opera based on the last days of Walt Disney

All presented in living color – just Press the Button!

 

And remember, you can always subscribe to ComicMix Radio podcasts via iTunes - ComicMix or RSS!

 

 

‘Bleeker the Rechargeable Dog’ Headed for TV

‘Bleeker the Rechargeable Dog’ Headed for TV

  • News
  • October 2, 2008

Jonathan Mahood’s Bleeker the Rechargeable Dog may soon be coming to television. The strip was optioned by producer Radical Sheep Productions in May 2007, and recently announced a deal with TVO to develop an animated series based on the strip. The series is planned to be 26 11-minute episodes aimed at the six to 12-year-old audience. Script writing and animation design is already underway.

The strip tells the story of a ten-year-old boy who wanted a dog and got Bleeker: a canine-shaped walking cell phone/mp3 player/camera/printer/smoke detector/GPS that isn’t actually very good at being a dog. As Skip struggles to enjoy dog ownership, he is hampered by Bleeker’s quirky operating system, low battery life and frequent calls to technical support.

Pat Ellingson, Creative Head of Children’s Media, Content and Programming for TVO says of Bleeker, “What we love about Bleeker is that it’s a show that makes you laugh but has a lot of heart. Amongst all the comedy and the antics, Bleeker teaches us life lessons about the importance of friendship, community and family. It’s both educational and fun. We think it’s a great fit for TVO.”

Bleeker the Rechargeable Dog was launched in July 2006 on Comic Sherpa. In February 2007 it was picked up by GoComics.com for online syndication, where it can be seen daily. Mahood has a Cafepress storefront with the usual assortment of branded clothing, and the first collect of Bleeker stripsis available from Lulu.com.
 

Dr. Phil and Me, by Dennis O’Neil

Dr. Phil and Me, by Dennis O’Neil

  • News
  • September 30, 2008

After two 30 minute office visits and a little homework, we listened to the therapist tell us, matter-of-factly and unequivocally, that our relationship was somewhere south of hopeless, we had nothing for each other, the sooner we went back to being merely colleagues, the better for all concerned. I wasn’t surprised, and I don’t think she was either. But I guess I didn’t expect the final pronouncement to come so quickly and definitively.

The therapist was the late Dr. Albert Ellis, developer of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy, and boy! he didn’t believe in mincing words, nor, I’d say, in ignoring he obvious. I remembered him and this pretty inconsequential bit of autobiography when I was paging through a Book of the Month Club mailing the other day and found that BOMC was offering Real Life, by the gent who bylines himself Dr. Phil McGraw.

Soon after I stopped spending my weekdays in a Manhattan office building and became a lazy slug who could, and sometimes did, watch television at three in the afternoon, I sampled Dr. Phil’s daily offering on Channel 2 and was mildly impressed. Like Ellis, he seemed to be interested in solutions, said what he meant. And although “common sense” is overrated – common sense tells us that the world is flat – it does have its uses and Dr. Phil seemed to be using it well. The approaches of both McGraw, as exhibited in those early broadcasts, and Ellis remind me of Morita therapy, a Japanese treatment championed in this country by David Reynolds. Morita therapy says – my interpretation – that, look, we could talk for years and maybe never find out what damaged you, or when, and if we did, we might not be able to do a repair job. But we can deal with the ways the damage is making your life unmanageable, so let’s do that.

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Sarah Michelle Gellar Heads Back to TV

Sarah Michelle Gellar Heads Back to TV

  • News
  • September 30, 2008

Sarah Michelle Gellar is set to appear in the ensemble drama The Wonderful Maladys for HBO.  Written by Charles Rudolph, he said he had the Buffy actress in mind for the series which will be set in New York City.

The half-hour series would involve, according to Variety, about “dysfunctional lives of three adult siblings who lost their parents at a young age.”

Gellar and Randolph would both serve as executive producers and the writer described his leading lady’s character as having "a kind of zealous immaturity — like a drug addict with a to-do list."

"We’re on a fast track," Brillstein Entertainment Partners CEO Jon Liebman told the trade.

The return to television for Gellar is no doubt bittersweet considering her tepid film career since her signature series ended.

The writer’s credits include The Life of David Gale and The Interpreter.
 

‘Pushing Daisies’ Creator Wants A New Star Trek on TV

‘Pushing Daisies’ Creator Wants A New Star Trek on TV

  • News
  • September 21, 2008

Trek castAny fan of the ABC series Pushing Daisies is probably aware that creator Bryan Fuller was also the creative mind behind both critically acclaimed, yet short-lived series Wonderfalls and Dead Like Me, but it is not as well known that Fuller is also a full-on Star Trek fan, and in fact has even written 21 episodes for the lore: 2 for Deep Space Nine and 19 for Voyager. Fuller recently sounded off on J.J. Abrams’ new Trek film and his interest on taking the helm for a modern interpretation of the 1960’s hit.

I would love to do another Star Trek series, one where you could go back to the spirit and color of the original Star Trek, because somehow, it got cold over the years. I love Next Generation, but it’s a little cooler and calmer than the ones from the ‘60s, which were so dynamic and passionate. Star Trek has to recreate itself. Otherwise, all the characters start to feel the same. You always have a captain, a doctor, a security officer, and you have the same arguments based on those perspectives. It starts to feel too familiar. So all those paradigms where it takes place on a starship have to be shaken up.

After leaving Voyager, fuller went on to create the aforementioned shows, and also writing for a little show called Heroes. You can check out the full interview over here and fans of Fuller may have to wait to see how the film treats it’s legion of Trekkies before we see a televised revamp.

But until then, you can still enjoy his pie-making necromancer in Pushing Daisies returning to ABC on October 1st.
 

Review: ‘Fringe’ Episode #102

Review: ‘Fringe’ Episode #102

Previously on Fringe…

During an investigation into mysterious deaths aboard Flight 627, Agent Olivia Dunham’s boyfriend and partner Agent Scott is nearly killed, his body becoming translucent. Olivia recruits Walter and Peter Bishop, an eccentric father-son scientific duo, to devise a cure for Scott’s condition. Although successful, it turns out that Scott has secret knowledge of Flight 627, but he’s killed before he can reveal anything. Olivia is determined to uncover what Scott’s involvement means in relation to an enigma known as ‘The Pattern,’ and is recruited alongside the Bishops to uncover the truth. Meanwhile, the secretive Massive Dynamic corporation looms in the distance, somehow involved in the plot.

“Same Old Story,” different day…

The series kicks off it’s first post-pilot installment with “[[[The Same Old Story]]],” and it’s anything but. A woman suddenly becomes pregnant and gives birth to a baby in a matter of minutes. Upon birth, the baby grows and ages 80 years. Who you gonna call? Fringe… busters… people. Alright, they need a cooler name.

“The Same Old Story” matches the creep factor so heavily ratcheted in the first episode. Kicking the show off with a fast-forwarded version of [[[The Curious Case of Benjamin Button]]] is eerily reminiscent of [[[The X-Files]]] — and that’s certainly the effect that the ladies and gents at Fox have in mind. The computer graphics could use some work, but it’s solid as far as network television goes.

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