On Saturday, November 23, 1963, an unsuspecting and unique science fiction program hit the air on the BBC in Britain. More notorious as the day after Kennedy was assassinated, for us Doctor Who fans, it’s better known as the birth of a legacy. Little could anyone have anticipated what it would become. Today marks the monumental 45th anniversary of Doctor Who. The BBC has taken the opportunity of this occasion to post a special collection of historic documents and items from the history of the series on their web site, here. What started off initially as a children’s television program grew quickly into a series aimed more squarely at the entire family than just children, which was one of the smartest moves ever made for the series. After the initial 26 year run, the show sadly left the airwaves in 1989. It came back to life ever-so-briefly as a TV movie made by both the BBC and the Fox network in the states, but that TV movie wasn’t successful enough to warrant a series pickup, as was hoped. But then in 2003, the series began pre-production to come back as a full on big budget BBC production for a new generation, and would debut in 2005 to a fantastic level of success. As one of the less common fans in the United States, this will be my recollections and tribute to this wonderful series. It’s one of my all-time favorite TV shows, and this 45th anniversary sees the series at the start of an interesting crossroads in it’s history.

I’ve been a Doctor Who fans since I was about 4 years old. My older brother and sister, who were high school age at the time, watched the series back during the hey day of the classic series run. While I know I watched a handful of episodes even earlier, the one I really remember seeing back when I was 4 was the Tom Baker serial The Leisure Hive. Generally speaking, many fans’ favorite actor to play The Doctor is their “first doctor.” That’s not the case for me, though. Not only that, but the majority of classic Who fans cite Tom Baker (who played the role longer than anyone) as their favorite. Frankly, he’s one of my least favorite in the role. For a complete list of my preferences of actors in the role, see this previous post. For us Americans watching the show, pretty much the only option was to watch it on PBS. Unlike the way it ran originally in the UK, PBS ran Doctor Who one serial at a time, rather than individual episodes (most classic Who serials were split into 3-6 half hour episodes, which ran with cliffhangers between airings). So us American fans got to see all the episodes together in a 90 minute or more airing. For me, it was watching on Chicago’s WTTW PBS station on Sunday nights, late at night, which surely contributed to my chronic lifelong habit of being a night owl. The PBS stations typically aired them a year behind or so from their original BBC run in the UK. They would occasionally air other older episodes of the show (often during fund raising telethon weekends), and I’d track down VHS copies of many of them during the 80’s and 90’s to catch up on the older episodes of the show.

Americans have no idea how big a franchise Doctor Who is in the UK (and countries like Canada and Australia). Us American fans are pretty far and few between, sadly. Some of that is changing now that the show has become a new hit in the UK and been getting a good amount of play on The Sci-Fi Channel. But back when I was a kid, there was basically nobody my age that I knew that was a fan. Other than my brother and sister, I didn’t know anyone else who was a fan. Most of the time it made it seem as something like an exclusive little secret treat. The classic series is rather notorious for it’s low-budget and/or dated production qualities. It’s a little bit unfair, as it wasn’t always terrible. But there’s no denying the generally low production quality of the show. But that was half the charm of the series.  And when you’re a kid, production quality is less important. But this newly revived incarnation is anything but low budget. One thing is for sure, Doctor Who was and still is a very unique franchise. It’s often cited as one of the most brilliant inventions of the show, but the idea of the main character “regenerating” into another actor playing a new version of the same character really was an act of genius. Yes, it was a move invented out of necessity originally, but it turned out to being not only a creatively fun aspect of the show, but has kept it alive all this time. At this point in time, we are in the era of David Tennant, the tenth actor in the role. But it has been announced that Tennant will be leaving the role after this upcoming year. And this upcoming year is also different in that it’s not being done as an actual season/series, but as 4 separate story specials, to help give the production a bit of a break. And not only that, but show runners Russell T. Davies & Julie Gardner will also be leaving the show, with the genius Steven Moffat taking over the show for the 2010 season. All that is to say that this 45th anniversary sees the show not only enjoying the huge success of coming back in 2005, but also that it is looking at yet another big transition, being handed off from one cast and crew to the next. And it’s that legacy that makes this series so unique and fun. It also makes for one heck of a convoluted mythology and a hit-and-miss sense of continuity. Then again, it’s a story all about time travel, so continuity is something a bit nebulous to begin with.

And when we talk about transitions and the legacy of the show, we have to bring up the “companions.” There have been far more companions in the run of the show than actors as The Doctor. That has been one of the biggest changes between the classic series and the new incarnation. Back in the classic series, the companions were secondary characters. In the new incarnation, they are written as the co-stars. And they have done a fantastic job in casting them. I won’t spend the time going into my favorites in this post, cause I’ve done that in a previous post, which can be found here. Like everything, there are highs and lows in the choices of companions, but more often than not the companions were well cast and a lot of fun. The vibe that made the show so successful over the years was the interactions between The Doctor and his companions.

Well, I wanted to write more for this occasion, but I’m running out of time writing this. I sit here listening to audio commentaries from the Doctor Who Series 4 DVD set that was released last week, getting rather hungry and needing to run out for some dinner. So, to get this published here before this historic 45th anniversary day is over, I’ll just wrap it up here. I also plan to update my episode order list of episodes from the new, revived seasons of the series in order of my preference within the next day or two. And since I didn’t have enough typed up to fill it out as much as I intentioned, here’s a few more graphics I intended to use.

So, to all the cast and crew of Doctor Who, congratulations to a fantastic 45 years. Us fans have been with you from the highs to the lows (otherwise known as 1990-2004, during the long hiatus). We look forward to another 45…

Rather than trying to do any kind of structured TV reviews, I’m just gonna do the occasional post of random TV review thoughts for whatever points in time, regarding whatever random shows (in random order)…

Star Wars - The Clone Wars (Through 1.02): I thought the theatrically distributed debut film for this series of animated episodes was passably entertaining. It was certainly not without its flaws, but I liked it well enough. Then again, I’m not the average fanboy who loathes the prequel trilogy. In fact, I quite like Episode 3. So shoot me. I mildly liked the previous set of Cartoon Network’s Clone Wars animated shorts, but haven’t really watched them since they first ran. However, I must admit that I really liked the first Cartoon Network episode of this series, and the second one wasn’t half bad, either. If there’s one complaint I need to make, it’s that I hate the battle droids. They were bad in the prequel films, but they weren’t in it all that much, frankly. With the amount of time they are getting in these Clone Wars episodes, I think they are a bigger blemish on the franchise than Jar-Jar Binks was. Still, Yoda was great in the first episode, and the clone troopers work quite well. The animation seemed more impressive in these TV episodes than the theatrical debut film, as crazy as that sounds. Overall, I’ll continue watching if they can keep up the production quality.

Knight Rider (Through 1.02): I rather liked the backdoor pilot film that NBC made, and had hopes of liking the TV series that was green lit after the pilot film did well. I’m a fan of the original series, and thought the pilot film did a pretty good job staying true to the original while still finding a new approach. Then along came writer/producer Gary Scott Thompson to overhaul the production when it got picked up for series. I can only assume he’s to blame, because in this new series form, this show sucks. The moderate amount of intelligence from that pilot film has been completely lobotomized. This might as well be WWE Wrestling for all it’s worth. If it weren’t for the holdover cast from the pilot film, this would be complete garbage. The first episode was abysmal. The second was an improvement, but not particularly good either. I’ll give it one or two more episodes to improve, just for my loyalty to the original, but I’m not expecting a wild turnaround.

Fringe (Through 1.04): Looks like JJ Abrams and his gang have the breakaway best new show of the year on their hands. This is definitely my favorite new show so far this season. I’m totally loving it. From the fantastic cast to the creepy stories and plot arcs to the great production quality, I’m very thankful to have a successful X-Files styled show back on the air. There’s also the fantastic gimmick of their “floating in mid air” title cards for location names, reminding me of stuff like David Fincher’s opening titles for Panic Room. It’s surely a gimmick, but it works wonderfully. The network must like what they’re getting, too, since they just picked it up for the full season.

Do Not Disturb (Through 1.02): Since I just talked about a great new show that just got a full pickup, I’ll follow it with this lame sitcom that just got a quick cancellation. I was hoping it would be good, since it starred Jerry O’Connell, but it just wasn’t meant to be. After his great Carpoolers comedy series from last year didn’t succeed, it’s only fitting that a truly lame sitcom would fail even worse. Never mind the fact that the original pilot episode (which I saw a leaked copy of over the summer) was as bad or worse than what actually aired. This was a bad sitcom, plain and simple. In fact, it looks like this will be the first year I can remember there not being a new multi-camera sitcom that I like, unless there’s another new one I haven’t seen yet. I imagine this will be the last I write about this show.

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (Through 2.04): This surprisingly good TV series entry to the venerable Terminator franchise continues to be impressive. From the typically excellent production quality to the great cast, it fights against the odds and just plain works. After the wonderful final act of last seasons’ final episode, I was hopeful for a good continuation. Though the John Connor character has been a little bit weak and annoying during the first couple of episodes this second season, the show has otherwise been very good. Brian Austin Green continues his nice performance and has been added to the main cast. This second season has done another bit of odd and interesting casting with the addition of rocker Shirley Manson to the main cast, in an intriguing role. While this show continues to stray into the Battlestar Galactica world of machines rising against their creators and questioning their possible humanity, it remains a uniquely Terminator take on the idea. I look forward to further episodes. And speaking of Battlestar connections, composer Bear McCreary continually hits his episodic scores out of the park on this series. Perhaps not quite to the amazing level of quality that Battlestar has gotten from him over the years, but he’s doing some darned impressive thematic and texture scoring for Terminator.

Anyway, more to come soon. Or later. Or whenever.

It’s that time again. Time to start checking out the leaked copies of the new fall season TV series pilots. As always, many of these are original pilot cuts where cast members and scenes will be recast and reshot. These original pilots aren’t always completely accurate representations of the finished product. But, I’ll check ‘em out and offer my opinions on which ones work, which ones don’t, and why. I’ll list this first batch starting with the good ones and work my way down to the bad ones.

FOX: Fringe (9/10) (official site)

Here’s yet another fantastic sci-fi/action/drama series from J.J. Abrams and his team of talented collaborators at Bad Robot. Featuring many Alias/Lost vets like Jeff Pinkner (show runner for Fringe), Robert Orci, Alex Kurtzman and Bryan Burk, it’s hard to not assume that this’ll become something great. While this pilot I saw is slightly rough around the edges, it’s still a wonderfully dynamic and engaging series, and does feature some nice, final-looking on-screen title graphics.

The cast is led by Australian actress Anna Torv and ex-Dawson’s Creek veteran Joshua Jackson. Torv does a very nice job with the strong FBI agent character, easily breathing life into the multiple levels of her character. She definitely feels like an excellent piece of casting. Joshua Jackson does an admirable job channeling the like of Liev Schreiber, and it works. While I’m not much of a Dawson’s Creek fan, I consider most of the cast of that show to be rather talented (well, except for Dawson himself, James Van Der Beek, who couldn’t act himself out of a paper bag). Jackson definitely nails the charming rogue nature of his character, and he plays very well against his co-stars. One of those co-stars is John Noble, who plays his estranged and also brilliant father. The three of them work very well together. The rest of the cast is well rounded, but don’t get all too much time to get a good grasp of who’ll be important in the long run of the series. Mark Cherry, of Boston Legal, is a nice bit of casting.

The story will definitely attract fans of The X-Files, because this show is RIGHT up that alley. It’s got the feel of the show, the hints at big mythologies, the supernatural and experimental sciences, and, well, the FBI. This show has the potential for greatness. Let’s hope FOX can, after all these years, be the one to get The X-Files lightning to strike twice. Many networks tried during the 90’s, and failed. Perhaps the network that made The X-Files work can be the one to do it a second time. We can hope.

TNT: Leverage (9/10) (official site)

While we may have seen this kind of heist story done many ways over the years, I can’t help but love this pilot. It has the potential to be a series I’ll totally love. Executive produced by the notable Dean Devlin (who partnered with Roland Emmerich for years on the likes of Stargate & Independence Day, and went on later to vastly underrated movies like Eight Legged Freaks), who also directed this first episode, this pilot totally works.

Casting of the pilot is fantastic. I’ve long believed Timothy Hutton to be a undervalued actor, and he’s great as the lead character of this series. His dynamic as the leader of the team, and the one of them that used to be “the good guy” tracking down the rest of them, works amazingly well. He brings the tragic past of the character to life, which will surely be a well exploited aspect to the character for the run of the series. And he plays off the more flippant characters who make up the rest of the make-shift team very well. The wonderful Christian Kane (who played the great Lindsey McDonald in Angel) is a hoot as the suave action hero of the group. Beth Riesgraf is hilarious and loads of fun as the nimble cat burglar of the team. Aldis Hodge is also lots of fun as the tech nerd hacker. Gina Bellman brings a nice elegance as the grifter of the team, and perhaps romantic co-lead. And tossed in for good measure in the pilot is Saul Rubinek, an actor who always reminds me of Elliot Gould.

The production of this pilot is excellent. It’s very well paced, has a great sense of comedic timing, and pretty much works all around. Dean Devlin clearly has a fondness for the heist genre, and this series plays off the trapping of the genre very well. Does it reinvent the genre? No, not really. Most of it has been seen before in varying ways. Regardless, it’s still a phenomenally entertaining pilot. I look forward to the series, which has been greenlit by TNT for at least a 13 episode run.

TNT: Raising The Bar (7/10) (official site)

While we’re on the subject of Angel alumnus (not to mention TNT), we have this series which features an ensemble cast including J. August Richards (who played Gunn on Angel). Featuring a pedigree of creator Steven Bochco, one would write it off as just yet another legal drama. And they’d be somewhat right in doing so. Still, it’s a pretty good legal drama, with a bit of a twist. In this one, we have the young characters from both sides as a group of friends, from the DA to the prosecuting attorney to the defending attorney, they all end up sitting at the bar at the end of the day together. It’s an interesting tack on the age-old genre. And I suppose Bochco is a likely as anyone to try it.

The cast is an assortment of interesting choices. The lead character is arguably the defending attorney played by none other than Mark-Paul Gosselaar. Yes, Zach Morris from Saved By The Bell. I suppose it’s unfair to still be tying him down to that show, since he’s been in plenty of stuff since, like Commander In Chief. I’m not entirely sure if his performance completely works. It borders a little bit too much on the emotional, but that’s the type of character they’re trying for, so it might be a spot-on performance. It’s just a bit hard to tell at first glance. Melissa Sagemiller is a nice piece of casting, and her character gets to play that balancing act amongst the group of characters the best. J. August Richards is good as the DA, but doesn’t get a whole lot to do in this pilot. Jane Kaczmarek is surprisingly slimy in her holier-than-thou role of a judge. Jonathan Scarfe comes through with a nice performance as her clerk, among other things. The rest of the cast works well enough.

The series definitely has the potential to work well. Or it could fall flat on its face. This one’s hard to peg on just the pilot episode, so we’ll see how further episode shape up.

FOX: Do Not Disturb (3/10) (official site)

This is an unfunny sitcom that falls into nearly every trapping a sitcom could succumb to. It has amateur, lazy writing with either stereotyped or completely unfunny punchlines. It also has cookie-cutter characters, almost none of whom should work if not for a couple good performances. And I’m not sure if they are intentionally trying to poke fun at the two-set sitcom setting by having “the upstairs” and “the downstairs” as a division of the classes of employees or not. If so, perhaps they are a bit clever. If not, it’s yet another sign that this lame sitcom ain’t long for this world. Still, this series is for the most part harmless. It’s not Cavemen. I suppose Cavemen will be an abysmal low for the sitcom genre by which all future sitcoms will be forgiven for not being nearly as bad. At least I hope we’ll never see another sitcom as bad as Cavemen again (I doubt anyone could accurately sum up how much that show sucked, beyond just showing somebody a copy of said series).

In terms of casting, Jerry O’Connell may be a bit typecast as the shallow, misogynistic hotel manager, but it works none-the-less. It’s sad that that O’Connell’s previous sitcom, last season’s Carpoolers on ABC, didn’t survive. It was a lot of fun, and criminally overlooked. Molly Stanton (who was great in the also-overlooked series Twins, a sitcom on the final year of The WB that co-starred Sara Gilbert, Melanie Griffith and Mark Linn-Baker) does another great job of playing the airhead blond. And Jesse Tyler Ferguson (who was fantastic on the also-overlooked sitcom The Class the season before last on CBS) gets in a few good jokes. Well, he makes a few bad jokes work, anyway. Niecy Nash is completely forgettable in her unbelievably stereotyped role. And then there’s the surprise guest casting of Robert Wagner as the hotel owner, which works well enough.

Put simply, this is a totally skipable sitcom. If only the ones I referenced in this review could have survived rather than this one ever existing. Don’t waste your time on it.

FX: Pretty/Handsome (2/10) (IMDB site)

Joseph Fiennes, Carrie-Anne Moss, Blythe Danner, Sarah Paulson and Robert Wagner. A very impressive cast. If not for that cast and their performances, this train wreck of a drama would be nigh unwatchable. FX seems to be striving to become a lame, pathetic HBO wannabe. Why anyone would want to be HBO is beyond me, but they seem to want to do so all the same. Basically speaking, this is the story of a controversial transsexual doctor in an uptight, high class community. It’s “edgy” approach to the subject will surely gain it some press. It’s just that “look at us, we’re pushing the envelope!” nature of the show that makes me completely uninterested in it. From the cliche upper class trappings of the community to the “shocking” transsexual plotline(s), I got bored with this pilot quickly. It’s such a complete waste of a fantastic cast. I did manage to get through the whole pilot, though my mind did start to wander a couple times while watching it.

Oh, and it was strange to see Robert Wagner and Niecy Nash, who were both in Do Not Disturb, together in this pilot as well (very together).

HBO: True Blood (2/10)

In yet another example of how much I despise HBO, there’s this abomination of a great series idea botched in almost every possible way. I couldn’t even manage to finish watching this pilot. Aside from the casting of the excellent Anna Paquin (in a fairly uneven character), and the idea itself that the series is based on, I can’t say anything nice about this show. The production feels amateur (which is at least the one thing HBO could usually be relied upon to do right), the characters are all over the place and a complete mess (if not just downright annoying people that I wouldn’t want anything to do with in real life). The narrative is anybody’s guess. They seem to simply be taking the idea of vampires having revealed themselves to the public, and becoming second class citizens, and have dropped various characters and scenes in around the idea. If they’re planning to go somewhere with this narrative, it sure escaped my viewing of the first 2/3 of the pilot.

Then there’s the foul-mouthed, explicit nature of the show, which is a completely tired and annoying aspect of nearly everything HBO puts their name on. Just once, I want to see HBO make something that could even remotely have a chance at airing on a broadcast network. Or even stand a chance at a PG-13 in theaters. I became sick of their one-note reason for existing long, long ago. Look at us! We can swear! We can show nutidy! We can have bloody violence!

OK, so the 07-08 season is beginning to come to a close. The time frame for the end of the season is pretty vague this year, thanks to the big chunk of time eaten from most shows by the writers strike. I’m going to do a paragraph for each series in these posts, which will continue for the next month or two, with a final post breaking down the overall opinions of the shows amongst each other. So, without further ado, here’s the first handful of entries, in no particular order.

Pushing Daisies (Season 1): The greatest new show of the year. Hands down. Without a doubt. It’s a wonderful combination of fantastic casting, magically bizarre writing, genius set design and visual effects. And the snarky quirkiness is spot-on. This has been the year of Lee Pace, from his fantastic lead role in this show to wonderful movie performances in Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day and the magnificent The Fall. Add to that the rest of the brilliant cast, and things couldn’t possibly fail. While this show only got 9 episodes produced before the writer strike cut it short, it made them count. I look forward to what the second season will bring.

Eli Stone (Season 1): My second favorite new series of the season. OK, so it’s another series that features fantasy pretty heavily, but not nearly to the level of Pushing Daisies. It’s great to see Johnny Lee Miller get a nice, high-profile role like this, cause he’s a very under appreciated actor. Add to him a cast featuring the likes of Victor Garber and Natasha Henstridge and you’ve got a winner. But the icing on the cake is easily Julie Gonzalo, who was a regular on the third and final season of Veronica Mars. She’s flat out flawless in her naive, idealistic sidekick role. As a mid-season series, I suppose the writer strike didn’t have much of an effect on the fact that the first season closed out with the initial 13 episode order. I definitely look forward to what the second season will be like. They took some big steps near the end of the first, so it’ll be interesting to see where they go with it.

The Dead Zone (Season 6): After appearing to cut as many corners as they could to produce this sixth and ultimately final season of the show, I will admit that despite all the production changes made they still managed to come through with a nice season. They also did a satisfying enough closing episode. Sure, they didn’t manage to wrap it all up, but the final one felt right, so it works. That final episode is certainly a series highlight episode, so one can forgive some of the other loose ends. As always, Anthony Michael Hall does a great job in the lead, and the wonderful Nicole DeBoer is equally fantastic. And this final season features pretty much just them as main title leads, with a couple other regulars mixed in here and there. The excellent Sean Patrick Flannery gets in some nice episodes. And the rest of the cast do a pretty good job making their occasional appearances work. All in all, another good USA Network show comes to a nice close after a respectible 6 season run. USA is one of those networks that in more recent years doesn’t know how to produce a bad series. They are the unsung heroes of the cable channel lineup.

House (Season 4): I cannot praise this fourth season of House enough. The series has never been afraid of doing big shake-ups in story, and have gotten a bit better at it with each passing season, but the big changes they made this fourth season paid off in every possible way. I won’t hesitate to easily call this the best season of the series so far. It’s absolutely a contender for best show of the season, either new or returning. This season had so many truly fantastic episodes, and not a lemon among them. The additions to the cast were brilliant, and the material they gave them through the “audition process” through to the “new team” dynamic was top-notch. I couldn’t have asked for better.

Medium (Season 4): Of all the shows that were “on the bubble” before the upfront presentations last month, the one I was rooting most for was Medium. As many critics like to point out, this is “the best show that you aren’t watching.” The best way I know to compliment the series is that it’s one that you can always count on to be great. No matter what the episode, they know how to make it work. And the series strikes a marvelous balance between stylistic fantasy and being grounded in reality. In fact, you’re not likely to find a series more grounded in the reality of day-to-day life than Medium. Nor are there many series that feature such a well rounded cast, from both child and adult actors alike. This fourth season saw them shaking things up a bit in the overall story department, and as always, they manage to make it all work so very well.

CSI (Season 8): The original remains king, despite a few missteps here and there - such as the well-intentioned, but flawed eighth episode, “You Kill Me.” However, the biggest mistake of the year is the handling of the Warrick character. While I’m a fan of this series and CSI: New York, I’ll be the first to admit that none of the CSI franchise shows are particularly good at writing the characters outside their work environment, or most any other running story arcs, for that matter. Their strong suit is what they are famous for, the procedural aspects. I kinda liked the way they handled writing out Sara, and her slow burn out. But they did Warrick every which way but right. And could they have telegraphed their big shocking ending any more? Still, beyond those problems, still a mostly enjoyable season.

CSI: New York (Season 4): I might as well follow up the original CSI with the New York variety. I’ve not hidden my contempt for the Miami spin-off, which I quit watching a number of years ago (after the third season, I think). The New York series is one I’m still happy to enjoy, though. A couple of the weaker episodes of this season include “Down The Rabbit Hole” about some less-than-interesting Second Life online VR stuff and “Playing With Matches” about a self-cleaning rest-room (which ironically, despite how it sounds, wasn’t the particular weak part of the episode). The one actually bad episode of the season without a doubt goes to the penultimate “Taxi” where almost everything was done wrong, banking heavily on the hit-and-miss “Cabbie Killer” running plot of the season. Like I said, CSI shows aren’t particularly talented at big running story arcs.

OK, so I’ve watched the new 2008 version of Knight Rider. Overall, I liked it. It wasn’t fantastic or anything, but it did a good enough job of reworking the franchise while still tying into the legacy of the story. The actor playing the role of Mike, Justin Bruening, was pretty good in the role. The script pulled off the snarky sarcasm quite well, and he was good at it. The actress playing the daughter of the creator of KITT, Deanna Russo, also did a very nice job. Bruce Davison was a nice bit of casting for the stately man behind the tech. Sydney Tamiia Poitier is an interesting, and fairly successful, bit of casting as the FBI agent. Val Kilmer, who was a last minute replacement for Will Arnett after a dispute amongst the auto manufacturers and their contracts, was naturally great, playing the dead-pan delivery of KITT quite well. And of course, it’s fun to have a brief cameo by Mr. Hasselhoff himself.

The sense of nostalgia for me was the strongest thing going for it. Knight Rider was one of the number of Universal shows from back in the day that I watched heavily as a kid (along with Battlestar Galactica, The A-Team, Simon & Simon, Magnum PI, The Rockford Files, etc). I’ve got all the DVD sets, so I’m clearly one who’d get nostalgic about the new entry to the franchise (this franchise has had new entries in the form of TV movies before). This new entry works well as a backdoor pilot. It updates what needs updating while staying quite true to the original source material. The scripting is a bit obvious, but I wasn’t really expecting the most cutting edge, gripping piece of drama written going into watching it. One criticism that I’ll make without hesitation is in the abysmal music score. Now, I know composer Christopher Tyng is capable of better (his work on comedies like Futurama make that clear), but his work on this show was just plain horrible. Not only is the material excruciatingly overscored (many scenes that shouldn’t have been scored are just non-stop music), most of it is either cheapo-lame “action” material or ripped from an oddly chosen temp source. Either Tyng needs to be jettisoned on any future productions, should it finally be picked up as a series (which seems likely given the good ratings it got), or whatever producer/director responsible for him doing such crap work needs to be dropped.

I still feel that the car is unimpressive (at last the exteriors), feeling more ordinary and lame than the original Trans Am, as sad as that may be. Interiors of the car work well, though. The obviously CGI transformation scenes are adequate, but not awesome (I’ve seen better in commercials). Universal can definitely make this work. They’ve got a good cast and a decent setup to get this thing off the ground. They just need to put a bit more money into the production quality (which wasn’t bad at all, but could use a bit more improvement to be really impressive) and completely rethink their music scoring. Bringing in a writing team that would start to take some chances would be a good move, too. Hopefully Battlestar Galactica has taught the folks at Universal how rolling the dice on risky choices can ultimately pay off big time.

OK, next batch of TV reviews. As stated in the first batch of reviews, the continuing weekly entries won’t be for every series. I’ll probably overlap about a third of them from week to week. Or something. These will be in a more random approach.

Moonlight (CBS): I almost hate to admit this, but I’ve actually liked this series so far. Yeah, the only reason I was resistant to it was the fact that us Angel fans are still a bit resentful about the cancellation of the show, and for another network to start up a show about a vampire private detective in LA felt a bit like rubbing salt in an open wound. Plus, after a number of production revamps and cast swap-outs, one almost expected it to turn out bad. There are definite reasons to like this show, though. First, the cast. Alex O’Loughlin plays the lead quite well. I was unfamiliar with him before this, but he does a nice job in the lead role. He brings a sense of charm and bounce to the role, much the same way Lee Pace does in Pushing Daisies (or back on Wonderfalls). The great Sophia Myles is quite good as the ambitious and equally charming romantic counterpoint, and a reporter. Jason Dohring is fantastic as the best friend/elder vampire, fixated on paranoia. However, after these first two episodes, his character clearly needs more to do. It keeps feeling like the character is little more than an after thought (or “evil conscience” at the very least). Speaking of Dohring, he’s not the only tie to Veronica Mars in this show. The pilot episode plot features references to Hearst College, which is surely a Veronica Mars reference. Once you add the likes of Shannyn Sossamon and Kevin Weisman to the mix, it’s definitely a fun cast. The pilot plot is OK, but not too groundbreaking. It does adequately setup the rules for this telling of the vampire legacy (somebody needs to make a chart of all the variations on the Vampire rules that different books/movies/shows have done). A couple of the sequences are a bit rough around the edges, with slightly cheesy production quality, but it works OK. The second episode, written by David Greenwalt (probably the only, since has departed the series), feels a bit more solid. Will the show last? Doubtful. But I’ll probably enjoy watching it while it does. 1.01 - No Such Thing As Vampires (8/10) / 1.02 - Out Of The Past (9/10)

Bionic Woman (NBC): An improvement over the pilot, the second episode gets some footing under the characters. The dynamic between Jamie and Jonas is beginning to take hold, which helps. The dynamic between her and the younger sister is also starting to find some footing, which is a huge help as well. The Battlestar ties continue not only with yet another cast appearance (this time actress Lorena Green, who played Elosha on Battlestar), but also featuring footage of a Battlestar episode playing on a TV in a scene (the awesome death of the Pegasus from Battlestar’s season 3 episode Exodus Part 2). The terrorist plot is a little bit too vague to completely work for the episode, but it does hold things together enough to get things from point A to B. 1.02 - Paradise Lost (8/10)

30 Rock (NBC): The greatest new show of last season returns with the typical amount of fun for the show. Jerry Seinfeld makes an appearance in this one, with marginally successful results. 2.01 - Seinfeld Vision (8/10)

Bones (Fox): Another fine episode for this forensic character series. This second episode fleshes out some nice material between Brennan and her father. It also has some fun stuff with Angela & Hodgins. On top of that fun, the case is pretty well written, not to mention the fact that it features some fun, disgusting forensics. 3.02 - Soccer Mom In The Mini-Van (9/10)

House (Fox): The second episode of this show’s fourth season continues having all manner of fun with the big shake-up they did at the end of the last season. Hugh Laurie continues on with one of the best written and performed characters on TV. After these first two episodes, I’m definitely interested to see what way they go from here. 4.02 - The Right Stuff (9/10)

Desperate Housewives (ABC): This deliciously twisted dramedy returns with bang for the beginning of the fourth season. The main reason to love this episode is the introduction of not only Dana Delany but none-other-than Nathan Fillion. That scene with the barbecue fork is classic. 4.01 - Now You Know (10/10)

Pushing Daisies (ABC): What can I say that I haven’t already said in past postings? This pilot is flat-out fantastic. I can’t wait to see more. This show will very likely be the best new show of the season. It’ll be hard for any other show to come close. 1.01 - Pie-lette (10/10)

Eh, that’s it for now. I’ll put more in next week’s write-ups…

OK, trying something new for TV reviews (yes, again). I’m gonna try a single post at the end of each week, most likely on Saturdays (which is pretty much the one day where no shows run new episodes). This week saw the debut of many shows and new seasons. I’m also including stuff up to this week as well. I won’t be commenting on every show every week, and certainly not as much as this first posting. Some of these shows had their pilot episodes leaked during the summer, which I reviewed earlier. Let’s see, I guess alphabetical order will do for this opening one, given the number of shows that have started.

Back To You (Fox): A moderately amusing sitcom. One that I’d be surprised to see live long (hey, it’s Fox, so that’s 1.67 cajillion strikes against survival). Kelsey Grammer has his funny moments, and is pretty well cast in the role. Patricia Heaton is also pretty well cast for the role. The whole daughter plot feels a bit out of place, though. And hey, Fred Willard is a welcome addition to anything. 1.01 - Pilot (6/10)

Big Bang Theory (CBS): One of the couple new shows about nerds this season, this is the slightly inferior and surely won’t last as long. That’s not to say that it isn’t funny when it wants to be, but it’s overly sitcom in nature and a bit too stereotyped. The aired version of the episode is, as far as I could remember, identical to the pilot I’d seen before. 1.01 - Pilot (7/10)

Bionic Woman (NBC): Potential is definitely the one word that sums up the pilot episode of this show. While this aired version has been fixed up a bit from the pilot I’d seen before, it’s still lacking a little bit. It’s certainly an enjoyable pilot episode, and I look forward to seeing where the series goes. It doesn’t quite hit it out of the park though. I will say that the reworking of the little sister is a welcome change, though I’m still not sure I like what they are doing with the role. The Battlestar casting ties are fun, though, with the likes of Katee Sackhoff, Aaron Douglas & Mark A. Sheppard. 1.01 - Pilot (8/10)

Bones (Fox): The always-great show returns to Fox for its third season, and does so pretty well. The return of Zach is a good story point, as is the dynamic between Booth & Bones (as always). Like Numb3rs, this series proves that CSI had the best lasting effect on the TV landscape than most any other programming fad (science procedurals). 4.01 - The Widow’s Son In The Windshield (8/10)

Chuck (NBC): While not everything in this series’ pilot works completely, I have to admit that it’s a whole lot of fun. There are little things that also score it points in my book. Little things like the Tron poster in Chuck’s bedroom, the “Vickie Vale” riff, the whole “Buy More / Nerd Herd” satire and others. The cast is fantastic. First, Adam Baldwin is always a welcome addition to any cast. Zachary Levi walks the line of nerd and average nice guy very well, and really works in the eponymous role. Relative unknown Yvonne Strzechowski is remarkable, in more ways than one. And Joshua Gomez is a lot of fun as the total nerd best friend. I’ll definitely be staying tuned for this series. 1.01 - Pilot (9/10)

CSI (CBS): The venerable series returns for its eighth season, and shows little sign of stopping. This eighth season premier is less about procedure and science than it is character and style. The script must be interesting, with very little dialog. There’s certainly no lack of excellent cinematography, and the characters are downplayed quite well. The original show is still the crown jewel of the franchise. 8.01 - Dead Doll (9/10)

CSI: NY (CBS): The other good member of the CSI franchise returns for its fourth season with an episode that’s a little bit overly sensationalized, which it does from time to time. Thankfully, it’s not nearly as bad as its Miami counterpart, which I quite watching a couple years ago. Oh, and they made an interesting overhaul of the main title sequence, with an interesting new remix of The Who’s Baba O’Reilly. 4.01 - Can You Hear Me Now? (7/10)

Damages (FX): Of course, the big claim to fame for this show is the fact that it stars Glenn Close. For some strange reason, the show reminds me in small ways of The Devil Wears Prada, but it isn’t as entertaining. It’s a moderately successful pilot episode, and who knows, perhaps the series will work better as a whole. Rose Byrne and Tate Donovan are excellent additions to the cast, and are at least enough to get me to try out a couple more episodes of the show. And, as always, the show has to toss around a bit of language, just because they are on FX. It’s the same kind of thing that drives me nuts about HBO. You’ll never see a show that could actually air on broadcast TV on one of these networks. 1.01 - Pilot (6/10)

Gossip Girl (CW): I know I shouldn’t like this series, but I found it amusing enough to work on some levels. I have doubts about how well it’ll work in the long run, but I’ll continue to give it a chance and see. It’s hardly a great pilot, but it’s better than the subject matter should allow. And hey, it’s got Kristen Bell for the voice-over narration. 1.01 - Pilot (7/10)

Heroes (NBC): This hit-or-miss series returns strong for the first episode of the second season. The stuff with Claire and her family works well. Hiro gets some fun material as well. And hey, a great guest appearance by David Anders (who was always great in his recurring role on Alias as Julian Sark). I look forward to Kristen Bell joining the cast at some point during this season. 2.01 - Four Months Later… (9/10)

House (Fox): This great medical dramedy comes out swinging for the fourth season, after the big shake-up at the end of season 3. So far, it’s the best season opener of the returning shows. The whole “Dr. Buffer” routing was great. I look forward to another great season of the show. 4.01 - Alone (10/10)

How I Met Your Mother (CBS): Season three kicks off with a renewed energy toward the running plot that the series title implies. It’s a moderately good episode with some fun moments (the tattoo stuff in particular). Not a fantastic opener, but still fun. 3.01 - Wait For It (7/10)

Journeyman (NBC): A somewhat lackluster time travel series, with an underwhelming pilot. It’s not bad, but it’s not great or particularly memorable. I’ll give it a couple more episodes to find its footing. This show definitely stinks of people with no sci-fi experience or knowledge trying to pull off sci-fi concepts as a foil for character development. It never quite works. Moon Bloodgood (who was good in the fantastic film Eight Below) is the only cast member who shines. 1.01 - Pilot (5/10)

K-Ville (Fox): A show that just can’t move past the core concept of the plot. It’s just not much more than what was probably in the pitch to the network - “A cop show, set in post-Katrina New Orleans.” The split family dynamic doesn’t work at all. Cole Hauser is the highlight for this show, definitely. I give the series 7 episodes on the air before Fox yanks it. 1.01 - Pilot (5/10)

My Name Is Earl (NBC): This always-hilarious show picks up from the cliffhanger of season 2 with Earl now in prison. The change in setting allows for plenty of great material, though I have doubts about how it’ll work over too much time. I’m guessing they won’t stay with this plot for too long. The season 3 premier was a rare two parter, and works well as an hour long episode. And, while Earl’s incarceration provides plenty of funny material, it’s the plot of Joy taking care of Randy that’s truly hilarious. Jamie Pressly scored herself a much-deserved Emmy award this year, and she’s still at the top of her game. Oh, and Ben Foster comes through with a great guest performance as Earl’s prison bully. 3.01 - My Name Is Inmate #28301-016 Part 1 (9/10) / 3.02 - My Name Is Inmate #28301-016 Part 2 (9/10)

Numb3rs (CBS): The other of the great CSI-inspired science procedurals opens their fourth season with the follow-up to the great season 3 closer involving Colby Granger. As I was kind of expecting, they justified Granger’s character, which kind of undermines the nice twist from the end of season 3. The team is a bit fragmented as the season opens, some of which works. Great to see the Charlie & Amita characters together in a major way. Brothers Ridley & Tony Scott are executive producers of the series, and this episode marks the first time one of the two high-profile director brothers has directed an episode of the series. Tony Scott lends his typical big-action style to the episode. He also brings with him Val Kilmer, a rather big name guest star, who has appeared in multiple movies for Tony Scott. Now, if they could just get Ridley (one of the greatest directors of all time) to direct an episode… 4.01 - Trust Metric (9/10)

Private Practice (ABC): Certainly an amusing enough series, with a pretty good dramatic sense. The pilot is a bit unsteady, but I think it can find its footing as the show progresses. It has a great cast and oodles of potential. It reminds me a bit of a David E. Kelley show, and I have hopes for it. I wonder if it’ll survive long enough to find the audience it has the potential for. And hey, Marti Noxon (one of the primary show-runners on Buffy) is a show runner for the show. 1.01 - In Which We Meet Addison, A Nice Girl From Somewhere Else (7/10)

Reaper (CW): One of the absolute highlights of the new TV season, this comedy (directed and executive produced by Kevin Smith) is loads of fun. It’s creative, has fun dialog and is populated by amusing characters. It’s likely to only lose out to Pushing Daisies as the best new show of the year. This aired version of the pilot is close to the same as the leaked version I had seen. The one key change that was made was recasting the romantic lead character, with Missy Peregrym now in the role. I really look forward to the fun episodes to follow. And, it’s on CW, so it will hopefully survive a while. 1.01 - Pilot (10/10)

Shark (CBS): The fun legal drama shuffles some elements around as it enters season 2. First, it actually added a main title sequence. Not the world’s greatest title sequence, but it’s great they added one. It’s rare for a show that didn’t start with a main title sequence to later add one on. Usually, it’s the other way around. Jeri Ryan’s character has been “demoted” from district attorney to a member of Shark’s legal team. It’s actually a promotion in terms of role, as it makes her a main character rather than a supporting one, which is great as Jeri Ryan is great in the role. The two of them will surely play off each other very well as the show goes on. One other character, Casey, has vanished between seasons. 2.01 - Gangster Movies (9/10)

Anyway, that’s all for now. Actually, it’s quite a bit already. Look forward to my gushing raves for the debut of Pushing Daisies in the next post. And don’t y’all go and miss it when it launches on Wednesday evening. It’s one of the best pilot episodes ever made.

We continue on from my first set of pilot reviews to the next batch. Again, the order of these is nothing more than the order in which they were watched. Unlike the first batch of reviews, which were all thumbs up reviews, these will not be so lucky.

And of course, I’ll take another opportunity to plug ABC’s Pushing Daisies again. I’ve watched the pilot a half dozen times now and I never tire of it. This pilot is an instant classic and I anxiously await the launch of the series. So let’s take my highest praise of Pushing Daisies and use it as a segue to this other end of the spectrum…

ABC: Cavemen (1/10)

What happens when you take a fairly lame series of commercials, decide to make a TV series very loosely based on them, and also give said series a painfully obvious social commentary? You get an unfunny, embarrassingly terrible TV series, that’s what you get. How in the world did a talented actor like John Heard get talked into being in this piece of crap series? Even as a smaller role, he should hang his head in deepest shame for even having his name anywhere in the credits. Heck, I regret having WATCHED this pilot. The amount of embarrassment I’d have if I had actually appeared in it would be really insufferable. Then again, as least I would have been paid. Seriously, this is one of the worst pilots I’ve ever seen. I find it difficult to accurately describe JUST how bad this one is. People have to work their hardest to make something this staggeringly awful. This thing makes pretty much every reality TV series out there seem like high art. There’s no way any of the myriad pilots out there that weren’t picked up would have been 1% as bad as this thing. Steer clear of this gigantic turd at all costs. Ick. Yuck. Gaack. Ptooey.

CBS: Cane (3/10)

I’m not entirely sure what the ultimate goal of this show will be, other than an attempted Latino version of a mafia series. Anyone who knows me knows how much I hate mafia stories. I despise The Sopranos (It’s impossible to be indifferent to a show that is always in your face no matter how much you try to ignore it). I despise the Godfather movies. This series is actually better than either of those, in my warped method of evaluating such things. My reasoning for such a ranking is that this series is rather aimless and benign. It’s a bit melodramatic, but not aggressively so, like most mob stories. Most any of the material is simply a more laid back, derivative version of it’s inspirations. Sure, they’ve put the cultural spin on it, but it’s still the same old, rehashed story. We have two powerful families who hate each other, and always will. We have sibling rivalry between those who are capable of the power they are fighting for and those who aren’t. I’ll take a definite pass on this one. At least it wasn’t actively annoying. Pick a mafia cliche and it’s hear in the slightly different Latino form…

NBC: Lipstick Jungle (3/10)

A series that seems to have no shame in the fact that it’s trying to be a high power version of Sex In The City, this show is not spectacularly bad or anything, but is all manner of inadequate. Featuring a fairly talented cast, in other circumstances, this series is underwhelming in almost every way. It has one redeeming scene, featuring one of the main characters (as well as us in the audience) gob smacked at the size of a wealthy dude’s bed. The rest of it you’ve seen before. Along with the Sex In The City influence, they’ve thrown in minor sprinkles of Ugly Betty & The Devil Wears Prada. If this series is a success in the ratings, I can guarantee that it will skew 99.85% female. I don’t know, perhaps they can make this series work. It does seem to have a pretty ambitious production quality, so it should be able to steer clear of some of the soap opera styled shortcomings that the material could fall prey to. And it is well cast, so perhaps it just needs to hit it’s stride, or at least get some writers who know how to write more than stereotyped relationship plots and thinly veiled female empowerment preachifying.

CBS: The Big Bang Theory (7/10)

While the typical Hollywood approach to portraying nerds is overtly stereotyped in this series, it does feature some witty dialog, nice comedic timing and a couple good performances. I imagine most of the strong aspects of the show are thanks to creator/producer Chuck Lorre (Dharma & Greg, Two & A Half Men, etc). The two main nerd characters are portrayed well. The couple other nerd friends are cast adequately enough. The hot neighbor is so-so, and might benefit from being recast before it goes to series. I’ll give this show a chance when it goes to air. I don’t expect it to be a great show, but it might manage to remain an amusing enough distraction.

OK, here’s that surprise review I was talking about in my previous Ponderings post. It’s time to start checking out the leaked copies of the new fall season TV series pilots. As always, many of these are original pilot cuts where cast members and scenes will be recast and reshot. These original pilots aren’t always completely accurate representations of the finished product. But, I’ll check out these pilots and offer my opinions on which ones work, which ones don’t, and why. They are listed here in no particular order. Well, that’s not true. They are in the order in which I watched them. OK, that’s a lie. I moved my review of Pushing Daisies up to the top to draw more attention to it. It would have been 4th in the list otherwise.

ABC: Pushing Daisies (10/10)

GASP! I knew next to nothing about this show before I started watching it. To be more specific, I knew nothing other than the name and the fact that I had looked up what network it would be on. As I began watching it, I instantly loved it. From the dizzying dialog to the floopy pacing, it was perfect. It took me a few minutes to figure out where I knew the lead actor from - “why, that’s Lee Pace!” (from Wonderfalls, one of my all-time favorite TV shows, and one of my key reasons for despising the Fox network). The more of this delectably enchanting show I watched, the more I started to wonder what warped mind was behind it. As it dawned on me that not only did Lee Pace star in it, but the razor sharp wit of the dialog reminded me a lot of Wonderfalls. Could it be Bryan Fuller behind this show? Sure enough, when it got to the credits at the end, there was Bryan Fuller’s name. He was one of the key people behind Wonderfalls (along with the great Tim Minear & Todd Holland). Fuller has also written/produced Dead Like Me and recently Heroes (as well as working on the Trek franchise back in the day). Ladies and gentlemen, this series may already be my favorite of the new season. It’ll be hard for something to top this. I think the copy I saw was the finished thing, as the visuals seemed final and the flow of it was spot on. Everything about this show is fantastic. Lee Pace and Anna Friel are wonderful in the leads, and have an instant chemistry. Chi McBride is the fun straight man to the surreal events in the world of this series. The fairytale mannerisms and design of the show is delightfully punctuated by the twisted sense of humor that I’m sure Fuller is responsible for. The “forensic fairytale” slogan for the series is certainly and accurate and amusing descriptive. And hey, this is on ABC, not Fox! Perhaps an excellent and creative show actually stands a chance on ABC. Something this good on Fox wouldn’t have a welk’s chance in a supernova. This is closer to having Wonderfalls back again than I could have hoped for. Please, Mr. Fuller, get some of the Wonderfalls cast to do some guest roles on this show. He already snuck in a subtle little “monkey” reference that I’m sure only us die-hard Wonderfalls fans inferred. I hope he hides some of the other Wonderfalls muses in the show (heck, he snuck the wax lion into a Heroes episode, so why not?). OK, I’m rambling at this point. I’ll stop writing this and cue the pilot up again. I gotta watch this one at least another time.

OK, just watched it again. I love this show. There’s no way there’ll be a better new show this year. No way. Not a chance. BTW, I love the music score. Not sure, but I think it’s by James Dooley. You know you’re watching a final cut of a series pilot when it doesn’t have temp music tracked in.

FOX: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (9/10)

Similar to when I heard they were making a third Terminator film (without James Cameron), I kinda flinched reflexively when I heard they were doing a TV series. Skeptical if it would work or not, I decided to do my best to keep an open mind and give it a chance. When I heard they cast Summer Glau as a friendly Terminator, that was the single spark needed to get my attention and anticipation going. So, does this series work? Surprisingly, it does. I have no idea how they are going to sustain this thing on an ongoing basis, but this pilot is fast, well produced, written solidly enough with a great cast. Who knows, Fox may actually pull this one off. Then again, it’s an ambitious sci-fi series on Fox, so it’s already got about 5 billion strikes against it. I’m sure it’ll have to fight to survive coming out of the gate, because no network sucks more than Fox at treating the shows well or supporting them. Lena Headey is remarkably good in the titular role of Sarah Connor, rising to the occasion of following up Linda Hamilton’s landmark performance. She can easily pull off the caring and emotional material right alongside the tough action material, and it all works very well. Thomas Dekker is a solid enough casting choice as John Connor. While most of this movie feels more like Terminator 2 than 3, Dekker’s performance as John is the one thing that feels a bit more like Nick Stahl’s performance, which is a good thing. Summer Glau is, of course, a fantastic choice for the empathetic terminator protector for John (amusingly named Cameron). Glau is highly praised by myself and most everyone else for her brilliant performance as River Tam in the Firely/Serenity franchise. She is a trained dancer and she was featured in tons of fantastic stunt sequences in Firefly & Serenity, which makes her eminently qualified to play a terminator. Richard T. Jones does a pretty good job as the FBI agent in pursuit of the mother and son. All in all, I think this series has an excellent chance of working, and I recommend checking it out.

CW: Reaper (9/10)

As one of the small number of fan for Fox’s overlooked comedy series The Loop (which ran for 17 episodes total in 2 short seasons), I was primarily looking forward to this show for lead actor Bret Harrison. When I heard that Kevin Smith was directing the pilot, that made me even more interested. The plot of an underachiever being forced to work as a bounty hunter for the devil brought to mind some previous tv shows, and I wasn’t quite sure what this one would end up being like. Thankfully, it’s primarily a comedy, and a funny one at that. Harrison is great in the lead. The show isn’t quite as energetic or insane as The Loop, but it’s in the same ballpark. Harrison’s performance, however, is very similar to what he brought to the table in The Loop. Ray Wise is a positively inspired choice to play the devil. Tyler Labine is very funny as the amusing best friend/sidekick character. Rick Gonzalez is a fun addition as a more hapless buddy. The romantic interest character of Andi was played by Nikki Reed in the pilot, but she has been recast by Missy Peregrym. Peregrym was surprisingly great in the underrated movie Stick It. Nikki Reed was OK in the role, but didn’t have much of a chemistry with Harrison. I’m hoping there’s more of a spark with Peregrym. No idea if she was recast because of performance/chemistry or being unavailable when it was picked up by the network (a pretty common reason to have to recast a role). While the show features a grim and cruel “reaper” kind of theme similar to Dead Like Me, most of the similarities stop there. It’s far less sentimental or dramatic, always preferring to go for the joke in any given situation. One can’t completely ignore the Kevin Smith aspects of the show, either. Things like the fact that the main characters are basically slackers working in the retail industry. Clerks, if you will. All these things roll into a fun mix of a show. I definitely look forward to the series, and I think The CW has a real winner.

NBC: Bionic Woman (7/10)

I’ll be happy to revise my opinion of this series, because I think it can be improved. I’d insert a “we can make it better” kind of joke here, given the material I’m talking about, but I don’t feel like trying to be lamely clever. I had a few reasons to anticipate this new series. At first, it was the fact that it was being run by David Eick, one of the two key people responsible for Battlestar Galactica (the other being Ron Moore). Some of the other producers on the series are also an attracting factor, like Laeta Kalogridis and Jason Smilovic. Kalogridis was a creator/producer of Birds Of Prey (and co-writer of other notable projects, like Oliver Stone’s Alexander). Smilovic has worked on underappreciated shows like Karen Sisco and Kidnapped. He also wrote the fantastic movie Lucky Number Slevin. So, plenty of talent behind the scenes. Then came news that Katee Sackhoff (the amazing Starbuck from Battlestar, and good friends with producer Eick) was cast in a story arc at the beginning of the show, which made me really anxious to check out the show. Then a little while later, it was announced that Sackhoff would be featured beyond the initially intended arc, and stay on as a recurring cast member. So, another bonus. Then, news of the departure of one of the producers/director on the series, Michael Dinner, to be replaced by Glen Morgan, famous for shows like The X-Files, Space: Above & Beyond, the Final Destination films, etc. So, yet another neato change. I was really anxious to check out the show by that point. The development of the show hasn’t been without some shake-ups and controversy, like that of Dinner departing and Morgan coming on board. Also, the casting of Isaiah Washington after the overblown controversy involving his dismissal from Grey’s Anatomy fuels the fire. For the record, another change they’ve made is the role of Jamie Summers’ sister, who is being recast and no longer a deaf character. I have no opinion on that change either way, though I do hope they turn down the attitude on the sister character a bit. Overall, I think the series has the potential to work. The cut I saw was a bit rough. It had some pacing problems, a handful of unfinished effects, etc. It’s really hard to judge something before it’s had that polishing touch put on it. The final aired version may work much better, at which point I’ll bump up my opinion of it. The series has some nice action scenes. It has some overtones of Nikita tossed in for good measure. Michelle Ryan is good in the lead. Sackhoff is fantastic as the “bad bionic woman” (the first one, actually). There’s not much from the original show left in the rework, beyond stuff like the name of Jamie Summers. Then again, Eick is no stranger to reworking 70’s sci-fi (Battlestar, of course). Speaking of Battlestar, I was pleasantly surprised and amused to see Aaron Douglas make a brief guest appearance in this pilot (he plays Chief Tyrol on Battlestar). Also amusing is the casting of Mark A. Sheppard, who’s had a featured role on Battlestar as well. I also think that the location they used to film the bar scenes at is the same bar that was featured in Birds Of Prey. Surely some Kalogridis link between the shows. Anyway, like I said, this one could turn out to be surprisingly great. I hope the final version is tweaked a bit, cause it could use some smoothing out of the rough edges. I do think this show will have trouble surviving, though, even if they do get it in shape. How wrong can you go, though - Miguel Ferrer is a regular…

CW: Aliens In America (6/10)

We now move on to this CW sitcom. It’s a fairly successful mix of previous high-school comedies with a fun politically incorrect twist of using current stereotypes, specifically that of a Muslim fish-out-of-water story. The cast does a nice job, and they have pretty good comedic timing between each other. The role of the father was recently recast with Scott Patterson (Luke Danes from Gilmore Girls), which’ll be in interesting difference for me to check out in the final aired version. This show is nothing to write home about or go out of your way to keep up on, but it’ll provide an amusing enough diversion for those that connect with it’s humor.

NBC: Chuck (8/10)

I’ll wrap up this first batch of reviews with this mostly clever spy comedy including a nerd twist. Featuring a character that works in a thinly veiled version of Best Buy’s Geek Squad (in this case Nerd Herd, which is part of the Buy More chain of stores), the series has a nice cast and some fun writing. It’s ridiculous, of course, but it has a simple charm about it. Zachary Levi is a nice, amiable choice for the lead role of Chuck. He balances a nerd character and a normal guy without overplaying it. Joshua Gomez gets to play up the nerd aspects a bit more as his friend, Morgan. The highlight of the cast is the inclusion of the great Adam Baldwin as an NSA agent who’s after Chuck for the secrets he has in his head. Yvonne Strzechowski is excellent as the competing CIA agent that’s after Chuck’s secrets. Sarah Lancaster is nice as Chuck’s sister, and Ryan McPartlin is funny as her boyfriend, “Captain Awesome” (a character that amusingly brought to mind comparisons of Barney from How I Met Your Mother, played by Niel Patrick Harris). While I was watching it, the film score geek in me couldn’t help being amused by how much use they got out of Thomas Newman’s score to Jarhead and John Powell’s scores to the Bourne films (a favorite of many pilot episodes of the last couple years). I’ll be interested to see how the final music score turns out. Overall, the series is engaging and amusing enough to make me think it’ll work over the continuing run.

Veronica Mars was one of those TV series that failed to find a massive audience for largely the same reasons that Buffy The Vampire Slayer did. Despite being one of the greatest written, not to mention greatest in general, series to ever hit the airwaves, it could never make that leap past simple preconception when pitched to potential audience members. To hear the premise of a high school girl solving crimes conjures up visions of Nancy Drew, and people immediately write it off as fluff. Buffy had many similar preconception problems, many stemming from the title itself. While Veronica Mars may certainly bear certain overly simplistic qualities of Nancy Drew, the comparisons are few and far between. I mean, let’s take just a few topics from the pilot episode. Heck, let’s sample a line of voice-over: “Quite a reputation I’ve got, huh? You wanna know how I lost my virginity? So do I.” We’ve got a murdered best friend, an alcoholic mother who abandons her family, class power struggles, the main character being drugged and raped (and belittled by the law enforcement for it). And all that’s just the start of the show, in one of the greatest pilot episodes ever made. Unlike many other series that take their time to find their footing, Veronica Mars was a show that hit the ground running. Created and run by the fantastic Rob Thomas, the series rarely made any real missteps. Thomas had a couple natural talents that played into the series with absolute brilliance. The first was his ability to do truly well structured mystery writing. The second was his ability to populate his fictional world of Neptune, California with a wide assortment of fascinating characters of all levels of society. The third was his razor sharp dialog, which was one of the key elements that immediately attracted us Buffy fans.

All of this was handed over to an absolutely top notch cast. To say that Kristen Bell turned in one of the most singularly distinctive character performances on TV is actually an understatement. Bell’s flawless performances, episode after episode, are truly amazing. Nobody can really be sure when they cast roles like this just how well they’ll work out in the long run. Rob Thomas stumbled into the greatest casting he could have possible ever gotten for the all-important lead role of Veronica. Bell has that rare ability to cover every possible aspect of her richly developed character, often simultaneously. From comedy to drama to action, she could do it all while making every last piece of sharp dialog come to life, and make it look easy. She could play the character as both vulnerable and also as one of the toughest characters you’ll ever see, most often as a somebody you do not want to cross or provoke. Very few actors have ever nailed their role so perfectly. It all plays against stereotype. And the amazing casting didn’t stop there. Enrico Colantoni seemed to be something of an unusual casting choice for the role of Keith Mars, Veronica’s beloved father, the private detective. Colantoni could also play the full rang of character, from comedy to drama. And his chemistry with Kristen Bell was flat-out flawless. I dare say it’s the greatest father-daughter relationship ever featured on a TV series, and it was a major featured component of the series. Unlike many teenager/parent relationships on TV, theirs was one of admiration and trust. There were even fascinating distinctions to their relationship, such as secrets Veronica kept from her father, more often than not to spare him grief or heartbreak than to keep herself out of trouble. It wasn’t always a perfect relationship, but it was always solid and one of the few constant sources of hope and consolation that Veronica could always turn to. What also made it intriguing is that it wasn’t a flat or static relationship. It developed as the series progressed, as did most aspects of the story and characters. By the end of the series, Keith had come to figure out that there was little use in trying to shield Veronica from information, no matter how dark or gruesome.

Other series regulars came and went, but there were a core set of characters that would hang in through the end. One of them was Veronica’s best friend Wallace, played by Percy Daggs III, who she met in the first episode. Wallace always remained a faithful friend over the years of the show. He was her faithful sidekick. Then there’s the on-again, off-again, tormented romance between her and Logan Echolls. Logan was introduced as a real jerk at the start of the series. Eventually, we would learn all the dirty details of what made him who he was. Ultimately, we would see Logan grow and (somewhat) mature by the end of the show. While I was one of the few fans that preferred Veronica end up with somebody other than Logan, he was still a fascinating character, played very well by Jason Dohring. Then we have Weevil, a character that had a strained but respectful relationship with Veronica. Starting as the leader of the local biker gang and ending up as a rehabilitated handyman at Hearst College, Weevil was another trusty character that Veronica could turn to for favors. And, like any characters in the series of that nature, there were plenty of favors that she would do for them as well. Some characters came and went as recurring and/or regular cast members. Dick & Cassidy Casablancas were great sources of comedy and occasionally very dark drama. Michael Muhney did a wonderful job playing quasi-incompetent sheriff Don Lamb, Keith’s successor. Scenes between Lamb and Veronica were guaranteed to be razor sharp and loads of fun. The first half of the show featured Teddy Dunn as Veronica’s original boyfirend, Duncan Kane - somebody very heavily tied into the first mystery arc, involving his sister and Veronica’s best friend, Lily Kane. Mac was one of my favorite recurring characters, as somebody who turned into one of Veronica’s best friends. She was thankfully promoted to a main title regular in the third season. The third season also saw a couple new characters added to the cast. Parker was a less integral character to the series, but her material was well done, and Julie Gonzalo did a nice job with the role. Piz managed to end up being a bigger part of the show, and I thought he was a very nice match for Veronica as a romantic interest. He didn’t have the danger or tumultuous nature of Logan, but I still thought he was a great match for her. Other great characters were filled by former Buffy cast members, like Kendall Casablancas played by Charisma Carpenter and Allison Hannigan as Trina Echolls. Heck, even Joss Whedon turned in a great cameo performance. There were many, many more great supporting performers, but I have to single out two of them that were my favorites. Ken Marino played the rival, unscrupulous private detective Vinny Van Lowe. He was always hilarious in the role, and could be counted on as a great foil for not only Veronica but Keith as well. Then there’s my absolute favorite supporting character, public defender Cliff McCormack, played pitch perfectly by Daran Norris. Every scene he had was pure gold, including countless lines of great dialog with Veronica & Keith. He also had a voice and characteristics that helped bring out the noir style of the show.

Then there’s the fantastic production work of the show. While this series wasn’t one to feature any flashy visual effects or massive action sequences (though there were a handful of decently staged action bits), every other production aspect was handled with talent and class. Most notable was the rich cinematography and set design. Ranging from the high-contrast noir lighting and the souther California color pallet (which combine into fascinatingly unique visual style) to the bright and cheery upper class world of Neptune’s neighborhood and country clubs, it was all made with outstanding talent. It’s also one of those genre shows that most of the time featured excellent source music usage. Rob Thomas was a key part of that aspect, often times even including music choices in the original writing process. It’s one of the typical aspects of such a production that he used to give the show the edge it wanted.

While the final fate of the show didn’t come as a huge shock, thanks to the constantly struggling ratings, it was still a heartbreaking cancellation. It had barely survived the death of the very network it ran on at the end of its second season, when its network (UPN) and WB folded and combined to form CW. Said to have survived primarily on the fact that UPN and then CW network president Dawn Ostroff was a huge fan of the series, the show just couldn’t muster up a bigger audience than its loyal core fans. The series was in no way tired or worn out. It was constantly changing and evolving, and had nothing but massive amounts of potential. Rob Thomas is one of those writers that can take something like the network pushing to cut back on the season long mystery arcs and actually take the opportunity to try something new, and as always being able to make it shine. In fact, he even took the last handful of episodes and really made some interestingly laid out stories weave in and out of each other, while still maintaining self-contained primary stories. And all that was in the middle of finding out his final episodes count was being cut back by a few episodes. While he ultimately couldn’t convince the network to continue with the show, even after a valiant attempt to pitch them via a produced demo reel a revamped series set a few years into the future (which I’m anxious to see on the upcoming season 3 DVD set), he did as well as one could hope closing out the series with style - heads held high. I greatly miss having new episodes of this series to look forward to. Still, 3 seasons worth of top quality episodes is something to be proud of, and will be something I will watch on a regular basis for many years to come.

So, just finished watching the last and final episode of Gilmore Girls, a show I’ve been watching faithfully since it first aired on October 5, 2000. People who wrote the show off as just a “chick show” never knew what they were missing, which was one of the wittiest, quirkiest shows on TV made by one of the most talented casts and crew on the air. The show has had its ups and downs, but for the most part it remained one of the best shows out there. I’ve mentioned in recent months how this 7th season has helped get the show back on its feet from the less-than-great 6th season, and I’ll say it again. This 7th and final season has been solid - a return of form for the series. As a result of that, I’m actually almost glad that it has ended where it did. It got the dignity it deserves, going out at the top of their game, heads held high.

Today’s final episode, appropriately titled “Bon Voyage” hit as many of the marks as I would have hoped to expect. They rounded up nearly the entire supporting cast for this one, which is no small thing given the history and cross section of supporting characters. The one main person that didn’t make it into this final episode was Paris Gellar, played so wonderfully by Liza Weil. Given the story and setting of this final episode, it kinda makes sense they she be the one they have to send off in the previous episode, but it would have been nice to include just a quick moment of her, even on a phone. Still, that’s a very minor nit-pick. I did have one idea that I bet the writers didn’t think of, and I’ll forgive them for not coming up with it, that would have been a perfect touch. While I watched the scene of Lorelai watching Rory sleep, the idea of the perfect scene popped into my head. They should have had Rory wake up and Lorelai lay down next to her, and have Lorelai recite (as Rory quotes along) the story of her delivery at the hospital. It’s a classic scene from the 6th episode of the series, “Rory’s Birthday Parties.” It goes like this:

Lorelai: And, it’s so hard to believe that at exactly this time many moons ago I was lying in exactly this same position…
Rory: Oh, boy. Here we go…
Lorelai: …only I had a huge fat stomach and big fat ankles and I was swearing like a sailor…
Rory: …on leave…
Lorelai: …on leave! Right! And, there I was…
Rory: …in labor…
Lorelai: …and, while some have called it, the most meaningful experience of your life, to me it was something more akin to doing the splits on a crate of dynamite.
Rory: I wonder if the Waltons ever did this.
Lorelai: And, I was screaming and swearing, and being surrounded as I was by a hundred prominent doctors, I just assumed there was an actual use for the cup of ice chips they gave me.
Rory: There wasn’t.
Lorelai: But, pelting the nurses sure was fun…

It loses at least half its hilarity without the perfect performances of Alexis Bledel and primarily Lauren Graham, who does her best Dr. Seuss narration styled delivery. But anyway, I digress a bit. I bet they probably had a bit of a discussion about what scene to end on, and they made a great pick. Pulling back slowly from the front window at Luke’s Diner was the absolute perfect choice. It’s a fantastic bookend to the wonderful opening scene of the series (the scene that made me instantly love the show - “are you my new daddy?”).

So, thus ends one of my favorite shows. Lauren Graham has been robbed all these years as one of the easily greatest actresses in the game. What she did on this show was nothing short of magical. The rest of the cast was equally fantastic. Yes, even Sally Struthers.

And on Thursday, we find out if Veronica Mars will survive. Unlike Gilmore Girls, which had a long, healthy run, it would be downright criminal to cancel Veronica Mars…

I sit here stupified, having finished the season finale of Battlestar some fifteen minutes ago. If you have not yet watched this season finale episode, do NOT continue reading. Seriously, find something else to read. OK, still with me? This’ll be a fairly rough write-up, as I’m just gonna type without really proofing this. Since it’s been a short amount of time since I finished the episode, my mind is still reeling. I’ll say this without hesitation - this show continues to bank in directions I just don’t see coming. It refuses to sit still, constantly veering into new directions, never resting in a place long enough to catch its breath (or to put it in Viper terms, it barely maintains enough smash to maintain its turn - yeah, I’m a certified geek). There are rampant rumors flying around that next season, number 4, will be the last. Ron Moore has said it is certainly being considered. Given how aggressive the show is, it is clear that they can’t take a more traditional genre approach of sustained life or status quo. One of the key descriptions I would use about the writing on this series is “risk taking.” Moore has stated in the past that Battlestar is in most every way the antithesis of Trek (with only slight comparisons possible to DS9, which Moore had a good deal of involvement with), and he continues to prove that statement clear. It’s very much an improved narrative, and most of the time great things result from that fact. This finale makes dramatic and narrative leaps as wild as season 2’s finale. However, this time they go about it in a completely different way. Season 2’s finale was all about time, futility and separation. This season’s finale is about cutting to the core framework of the show, putting in some heavy plot twists and looking forward to hope.

And, lest you think I’m ignoring one of the single coolest moments in the series run - THE RETURN OF STARBUCK! I’d like to congratulate Moore & Eick’s teams. In a world where spoilers are almost impossible to stop, and I’m sure this one had leaked to somewhere at some point (at least in the leadup to this last episode or two), their achievement in media blackout for Starbuck’s return was glorious. It got me by surprise. For those like me who listen each week to Ron Moore’s always-fantastic podcast commentaries, he was even laying the groundwork for subversion on this one. He did a perfect little run on when he had to tell Katie Sackhoff that they were killing her character, and how he had to really sell it to her, to Eddie Almos (the surrogate father of the acting troupe), etc, etc, etc. I can just see the grin on her face when he was telling her what they REALLY had in mind. Sackhoff must have been giddy beyond all belief as this seems like just the kind of thing she would totally love (and it probably killed her to keep it a secret). So, Moore and team Galactica effectively sell her death to mean something that we’ll find out more on later down the road. They do this by giving her character some peace with her past, at long last - again, a move TOTALLY in line with actually killing her off, which helped sell it to the audience. They proceed to take her name out of the credits (that’s a harder and weirder thing to accomplish, particularly with such secrecy involved, than one might think). I will admit that the ONE thing they didn’t do that kept a sense of doubt in my mind was by not showing any kind of funeral scene for her (they could have at least played it briefly in montage). They’ve done it for a number of other characters, and I was sure that we’d have seen one for Starbuck for sure. I thought that perhaps they’d touch on it in a flashback, which would be an expected move for this show, which is kinda why I let it slide. Then sure enough, after JUST enough time had passed for me to adjust to the move, they reveal their hand. When Lee went off to investigate the strange DRADIS reading, just as he first got buzzed by her viper, it started to dawn on me what, or who, he was chasing. As soon as it was revealed to be Starbuck, I let out a cheer (we’ll ignore the coincidences of Lee being the one to discover Kara for dramatic purposes).

And let’s get back to the trial of Baltar, which they pulled off far better than I was expecting (much better than the election subplot at the end of last season). Lee’s speech on the stand was pitch perfect. That speech was just so right - addressing a GREAT many things from the previous seasons on the show, as well as why and how all of that relates to Gaius Baltar, with such spot-on overtones to Admiral Adama. It was beautifully written and performed. It’s in moments like that where Bill & Lee Adama connect at such a profound level, and it is done entirely in looks and reactions. Eddie Olmos nailed those scenes with perfect subtlety. I also loved the scene between him and Roslin after. Earlier in the series, such a moment would have had those two characters holding guns at each others heads - but now it’s an entirely different vibe - a strong disagreement, but one with understanding. But, this being the season finale, one can’t catch their breath in a scene like that. The other big item at hand, of course, is the reveal (or so we think) of 4 of the final 5 Cylons (and who is the 5th? hmmm). This plot element will probably have fans in a bigger divide than any other. I kind of like it for probably the same reasons that those opposed will hate it - the fact that these happened to be central characters, and the turn of events to get them as that were too random. I like it because of their strange rise to power - particularly the fact that Tigh, Tyrol and Anders were the 3 man leadership team of the resistance on New Caprica. Tori is a slightly weirder sell, but her sudden rise to power also tracks, and they’ve been laying the groundwork for her character for a bit. And her sudden attraction to Sam makes things kinda interesting, too.

Ultimately, there’s one thing that matters more than most any other for this season finale - did it keep me engaged? Oh yeah. This was a rollercoaster. This one had the adrenaline going, big time. As the music rolled (more on that in a bit) with the vipers launching, there was a chill running up my spine. The reveal of Starbuck was that final bit of icing on the cake. By the time Ron Moore & David Eick’s names appeared at the end after that “Contact-like” pull back then push in, I was totally jazzed. This episode was absolultely fantastic. While it leaves me with far more questions than season 2’s finale did, I’m pretty sure I outright loved it more without doubting how much I liked it. It took time to adjust to that time jump last season and it gave me pause as I watched it the first time. I really enjoyed it on my second and third viewings. This season’s finale I was totally into as it happened. It was getting the “oh yeah!” response vs the “what just happend?” response. And once they start laying in so many reveals and strange new directions for the narrative they toss in a surreal appearance by the Dylan/Hendrix song “All Along The Watchtower” as the music our newly revealed Cylons keep hearing. What a bizarro choice to make for such a reveal. It’s cool, as I like the song and the new cover of it for the show works fabulously as a strange score cue for the final moments of the season - and a very cool underpinning for Starbuck’s big reveal. I anxiously look forward to next season’s full 22 episode run, to include the fantastic-sounding feature length cable/DVD entry depicting Pegasus’ escape from the attack on the colonies (I can only assume they got the excellent Michelle Forbes back for that). To Ron Moore, David Eick, the wonderful cast, writers and all the other master craftsmen working on Battlestar Galactica: congratulations on a wonderful season finale. Absolutely loved it. And I now cue it up to watch again…

OK, one more note added on after rewatching the episode again. I love this new arrangement of All Along The Watchtower that Bear McCreary pulled off. Really, it’s a wild reworking of the song, and it works in such a strange way that it’s almost impossible to define. McCreary has a great write-up on working on the song at his blog on his site. He also mentions on the main page that the soundtrack CD is due this summer for season 3. Can’t wait. Oh, and as always, Gary Hutzel and his VFX teams deserve tons more praise. Truly stunning work, guys.

For all the deficiencies of the mid-season finale, yesterday’s return episode (”Rapture”) for Battlestar Galactica more than made up for. What an utterly fantastic episode. It was filled with brilliant twists and ideas. The end of the teaser is a sudden “oh yeah, that’s a great idea” moment. The teaser itself is full of great setups, getting things moving again after the sluggish mid-season finale it has to pick up from. This mid-season opener is a fast paced, tightly edited masterpiece. There are wonderful character beats scattered throughout the episode. Gary Hutzel and his visual effects team went above and beyond the call of duty (and surely the budget). His work as the “Cylon Centurion agent,” always trying to get them a bigger role, paid off in this episode. For a TV series, this show constantly raises the visual effects bar. Not all of it will ever be 100%, but to think of the insanely tight timeline they have to work with and the staggeringly limited budget, I’m constantly amazed with what Hutzel and his team can accomplish. Notable staff writers/producers David Weddle & Bradley Thompson deserve oodles of credit for a fantastic script, too. All in all, a brilliant episode of a fantastic show continuing an overall wonderful third season.

So, today marked the debut of the CBBC series The Sarah Jane Adventures on BBC One. Now the second Doctor Who spin-off on the air (The other being Torchwood), it’s a strange time to be a life-long Doctor Who fan. Unlike Torchwood, which is aimed squarely at adults, The Sarah Jane Adventures is aimed at kids (hence, produced by Children’s BBC). Those of you who have seen the laughably bad K-9 & Company from back in 1981, which also featured Elizabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane Smith, will surely like this new series more. This new show doesn’t really star K-9, but he does put in a brief appearance (in a way to write him out of most of the show, though in a cute way). So, this new show puts Elizabeth Sladen in more Doctor Who re