Fall 2011 New TV Show Predictions Reviewed, Part 2

26 Dec

A couple of months ago, I made predictions about how long new shows on CBS, NBC and The CW would last.  As all the shows have aired for a few weeks, it’s time for an evaluation of my predictions, although for some shows, the final word is not in yet.  Such an evaluation follows:

CBS

2 Broke Girls

Predicted:  13+

What happened:  Picked up with high likelihood of renewal.  I knew it was likely to get renewed, but I still tried to vote with my heart by hoping it at least wouldn’t last multiple seasons.  Now, we could be looking at the next Two and a Half Men (shivers).

How To Be A Gentleman

Predicted:  12-

What happened:  Cancelled.  Fourth on my top five easiest cancellation decisions.  Sad, because there’s a few people I like in the show, but not really sad.

Person of Interest

Predicted:  Renewal

What happened:  Picked up for a full season, likely to be renewed.  I was worried when the show didn’t start as strong as expected, but it would be a surprise, albeit not a huge one, at this point if the show wasn’t brought back.

A Gifted Man

Predicted:  13+

What happened:  Picked up for three more episodes, totally 16, leaning towards cancelled, but undecided.  Probably my best 13+ pick of the year, it meets all the middle of the road commercially and critically criteria to need an extended look but ultimately be cancelled.

Unforgettable

Predicted:  13+

What happened:  Picked up for a full season.  Along with Terra Nova, the most borderline of the borderline.  No idea which way it will go, may come down to the last minute.

NBC

Up All Night

Predicted:  13+

What happened:  Picked up for a full season, still up in the air for next year.  Neither a huge success nor a bust, on ratings-strapped NBC, executives are looking to grab on to anything with a chance of success (though not Community, unfortunately).  It’s moving to Thursday, and how it fairs there will determine its fate.  I’d lean towards renewal though.

Free Agents

Predicted:  12-

What happened:  Cancelled.  Number five in my most obvious cancellations of the year.  There wasn’t much press, and though this was likely the best of the comedies cancelled quickly this year, that’s not saying a whole lot.

The Playboy Club

Predicted:  12-

What happened:  Cancelled.  I’m out of my five obvious cancellation choices, but this would be number six if I had one.  It never really had a chance and it shouldn’t have.

Whitney

Predicted:  13+

What happened:  Picked up for a full season, awaiting ratings on a new night.  It will switch time periods with Up All Night, making much more sense for both shows.  It never belonged on Thursday night, and hopefully will be put to bed by the end of the year, but it could go either way.

Prime Suspect

Predicted:  Renewal

What happened:  Probably cancelled, but not officially yet.  I was just straight out wrong about this one.  It got generally well reviewed and with NBC as ailing as it is, I thought even with middling ratings, they’d keep it around.

Grimm

Predicted:  13+

What happened:  Picked up for a full season and leaning toward a renewal.  I went back and forth on this show as more news and previews emerged and I’m still not sure how I feel.  I think it will probably get renewed, but it’s not over yet.

CW

 

Ringer

Predicted:  Renewal

What Happened:  Picked up for full season, likely to be renewed, but not assured yet by any means.  It doesn’t take too much for the WB to renew, so I think Ringer will be in.

The Secret Circle

Predicted:  Renewal

What Happened:  Picked up for a full season and seems most likely of all the WB shows to merit a renewal.  I felt good about this choice partnered up with successful The Vampire Diaries and this just confirms it.

Hart of Dixie

Predicted:  13+

What Happened:  Picked up for a full season.  It’s likely to be renwed, though less likely right now than Ringer and definitely less likely than The Secret Circle.  Still, I feel good about my prediction even if it comes out wrong.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Fall 2011 New TV Show Predictions Reviewed, Part 1

23 Dec

A couple of months ago, I made predictions about how long new shows on cable networks, ABC, and Fox would last.  As all the shows have aired for a few weeks, it’s time for an evaluation of my predictions, although for some shows, the final word is not in yet.  Such an evaluation follows:

Cable

Hell on Wheels

Predicted: Renewal

What happened:  Renewed away – not as successful commercially as AMC stalwart The Walking Dead or critically as Mad Men or Breaking Bad, but good enough.  It’s no Rubicon.

Homeland

Predicted:  Renewal

What Happened:  Renewal – right on, everyone else agreed with me and I agreed with everyone else that this is the best new show of the year.  It’ll be back with a vengeance.

American Horror Story

Predicted:  Renewal

What Happened:  Renewed – I still don’t understand it, and I don’t mean that in either a good or a bad way, but it’s become a bit of a sleeper hit.

Boss

Predicted: Renewal

What happened:  Renewed – Cheating, it was renewed before it aired.  Still, it got good enough reviews, for whatever that’s worth.

Enlightened

Predicted: Renewal

What happened:  Renewed, but barely, as it survived the great HBO comedy extermination of 2011, which saw the ends of personal favorite Bored to Death, Hung and How To Make It In America.

ABC

 

Charlie’s Angels

Predicted:  12-

What happened:  Cancelled.  One of the five easiest predictions to make all year.  Had no chance from day one.

Last Man Standing

Predicted:  12-

What happened:  Picked up for full season so far.  Probably the prediction I got wrong which I would have staked the most on.  I still don’t think it will last past this year, but I would have said it’d be gone after three or four episodes, so who knows.

Man Up

Predicted:  12-

What happened:  Second of the top five easiest decisions.  Didn’t have a shot in hell, and shouldn’t have.

Once Upon A Time

Predicted:  13+

What happened:  Picked up a for a full season, likely renewal.  It’s become a family hit, and although it hasn’t been renewed yet, so I could technically still be right, it probably will be renewed and I’ll be wrong.  Oops.

Pan Am

Predicted: Renewal

What happened:  Not cancelled officially yet, but looking like all but a formality.  This was one of the more difficult shows to call.

Revenge

Precited:  Renewal

What happened;  Picked up for a full season, and looking likely for renewal.  Very pleased about both my call, which wasn’t obvious, and the popularity of one of the better new shows.

Suburgatory

Predicted:  13+

What happened:  Picked up, with a renewal likely.  It’s been kind of a surprise hit on what’s become a bit of a surprise hit Wednesday night comedy block on ABC, with Modern Family, The Middle, and Happy Endings next to Suburgatory.

Fox

New Girl

Predicted; Renewal

What happened:  Picked up for a full season, it would be a total shock if it was not renewed.  One of the biggest new show hits of the season so far.

Allen Gregory

Predicted:  12-

What happened:  Cancelled – not a shocker by any means.  Bad show, bad spot, no chance.  Third of my five easiest cancellations to call.

I Hate My Teenage Daughter

Predicted:  12-

Renewed:  Uncertain, as it didn’t start until the end of November.  That said, I still feel fairly confident in a cancellation.

Terra Nova

Predicted: Renewal

What happened:  This is the closest show on the list, and it could still go either way.  I wouldn’t take odds one way or the other.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Fall 2011 Review: Allen Gregory

22 Dec

Most failed comedies are trying their hand at one type of show or another and failing. Last Man Standing tries to capture the traditional family sitcom genre, of which Everybody Loves Raymond is the recent king (The King of Queens for a more recent, but less acclaimed version) and certainly memories of Home Improvement are in mind with Tim Allen on board. I Hate My Teenage Daughter seems to want to capture the dysfunctional family sitcom – the Roseannes, or slightly lower, the Grace Under Fires. Allen Gregory tries to capture the edgier, animated comedy, in the mode of its Sunday night Fox-mates, Family Guy and American Dad. However, watching the show made me think of another successful animated comedy, Archer. Allen Gregory is about a precocious and pretentious seven year old who after years of home-schooling and being told he’s the best thing since sliced bread is being enrolled in a public school where he has to deal with the fact that he’s kind of a loser.  He’s got two loving gay parents, one of whom is his natural parent and is voiced by French Stewart, and an adopted Cambodian sister who is the most normal family member but whom Allen and his dad constantly mistreat.  Allen is voiced by Jonah Hill and is pretty much a giant dick, in the mode of Sterling Archer from Archer, but he’s just not as funny in any way.

Archer, and to a lesser extent, The Venture Bros. both walk a fine line by having their main character be a giant dick. This is difficult to maintain. When the main character is someone we like, we’re much more willing to cut them slack or leeway. However, when the main character is a dick it had better fucking be entertaining or hilarious (see:  the very polarizing reactions that Young Adult, in which Charlize Theron plays a total bitch has drawn). The jokes that revolve around how funny he is as a dick need to be spot on, or you’re just watching a guy being a giant dick, and it just feels awkward and you feel bad for everyone around him.  The creators of Allen Gregory really should watch both seasons of Archer if they haven’t already. The setting is very different, but that’s exactly the humor they’re going for. Archer just does it better. They could learn some lessons there.

The show takes a stab much closer at the type of humor I enjoy, than say, I Hate My Teenage Daughter, to its credit I suppose, but unfortunately it keeps missing. The creators probably enjoying watching funny shows, but they just don’t have the writing or editing ability to replicate them.  The first episode didn’t even show any evidence of being near the mark and it didn’t even have the one or two hilarious moments that sustain even the lesser Family Guy or American Dad episodes.

Will I watch it again?

No, it wasn’t good, and I have no reason to think it will improve in the future. There was no sign that this show was close to finding solid footing and just a  tweak would make the difference.  Back to the drawing board.  Hopefully, we’ll get some new animated shows better than this in the near future.

Tags: , , ,

The Zeljko Ivanek Hall of Fame: Enrico Colantoni

21 Dec

(The Zeljko Ivanek Hall of Fame is where we turn the spotlight on a television actor or actress, and it is named after their patron saint, Zeljko Ivanek)

For one reason or another, Canadians seem to be regulars in this section and Colantoni is another.  Born in Toronto in 1963, his first two roles were in 1987 in single episodes of Canadian series Night Heat and Friday the 13th.  After that, there was a seven year gap before he worked again.  In 1994, he appeared in an episode of Law & Order, an episode of New York Undercover, and two episodes of NYPD Blue.  He then got a break as a main cast member of two season NBC sitcom Hope and Gloria.  Hope and Gloria are two Pittsburgh friends played by Jessica Lundy and Cynthia Stevenson who work as TV talk show producer and a hairdresser respectively.  Alan Thicke and Taylor Negron also co-star.  Colantoni plays Gloria’s ex-husband Louis.

In 1997, he got one of his two biggest roles to date, as photographer Elliot DiMauro on NBC seven season sitcom Just Shoot Me!  DiMauro frequently dates models and finds out that fellow main character Nina was once the driver in a hit and run that ended an engagement of his.  He has a brother played by David Cross.  He dated main character Maya for some time, and the two were briefly engaged.  While Just Shoot Me aired, he appeared in the late ‘90s with TV movies Cloned and The Member of the Wedding and in an episode of Life’s Work.

He began the next decade with episodes of 3rd Rock From the Sun and The Outer Limits and by playing Elia Kazan in TV movie James Dean.  He was in TV movie Expert Witness, the pilot episode of Whoopi and had a voice role in two episodes of Justice League.  He was in episodes of Stargate SG-1, Century City, Monk, and in two of Kim Possible.

In 2004, he got the second of his two biggest roles.  He starred in all three seasons of Veronica Mars, as Keith Mars, protective father, former sheriff and private investigator.  Keith was one of only two characters, along with Veronica, to appear in every episode of the show.  Keith’s suspicions that Lily Kane’s father was responsible for her murder led to him being recalled from his sheriff position and to his daughter be exiled from her circle of friends.  He runs for sheriff twice in the show, early in the second season, when he loses, and at the end of the third season, for which the outcome is never learned.  Keith briefly dated a married client, portrayed by his former Just Shoot Me! co-star Laura San Giacomo.

After Veronica Mars, he appeared in episodes of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Numb3rs, and Brothers & Sisters.  He was in Canadian miniseries ZOS: Zone of Separation, about the enforcement of a UN ceasefire in a southeastern Europe town.  He has appeared for four seasons in Canadian police drama Flashpoint, which airs in the US on Ion, as Sergeant Greg Parker.  He is the leader of the Strategic Response Unit, which is his life, and his specialty is as a crisis negotiator.

He guest starred in Veronica Mars creator Rob Thomas’ second series Party Down.  He was in an episode of Bones, and portrayed J. Edgar Hoover in the miniseries The Kennedys with Greg Kinnear and Kaite Holmes.  Most recently, he appeared in two episodes of Person of Interest, and it seems likely he’ll appear in more as killer evil crime boss Elias.  He has many members of the NYPD in his pocket and initially hid, pretending to be a high school teacher in Brooklyn.

Tags: , , , ,

Power Rankings: Law & Order, Law edition, Part 2

20 Dec

Law & Order Power Rankings, Law edition has been chopped into two parts for convenience – you can find the first part here.

6.  Annie Parisse (as Alexandra Borgia, seasons 15-16) – She was in Definitely, Maybe.  She appeared in two episodes of revered World War II miniseries The Pacific, as well as episodes of Fringe, The Big C and Person of Interest.  She was in seven episodes of Rubicon as a love interest for the main character played by James Badge Dale.  She appeared in two episodes of Unforgettable.  This past year she participated in Shakespeare in the Park plays All’s Well That Ends Well and Measure for Measure.  Also, strangely enough, her brother is married to Sam Waterston’s daughter.

5.  Elisabeth Rohm (as Serena Southerlyn, seasons 11-14) – She was in Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous and TV movies FBI: Negotiator and Amber’s Story.  She was in three episodes of Big Shots and single episodes of 90210 and The Mentalist.  She was in eight episodes of the fourth and final seasons of Heroes, as Lauren Gilmore, who works with Noah Bennett and has a romantic relationship with him.  Recently, she was in Taylor Lautner movie Abduction.

4.  Richard Brooks (as Paul Robinette, seasons 1-3) – Brooks was in episodes of Chicago Hope, ER, Diagnosis Murder, Renegade, Nash Bridges, and Brimstone.  He was in The Substitute and The Crow: City of Angels.  He was a regular in the two season USA show G vs. E in 1999 as an agent in the afterlife who works for Heaven against a group of villains called “Morlocks” from Hell.  Afterwards, he was on episodes of NYPD Blue, Dead Last, Firefly, Skin, NCIS and Close to Home.  He played a detective in the short-lived 2007 Fox show Drive.  Afterwards, he’s been in episodes of Lie to Me, Childrens Hospital and Charlie’s Angels.

3.  Dianne Wiest (as Nora Levin, seasons 11-12) – She was a voice in Robots and in A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, Dan in Real Life, Synecdoche, New York, Rabbit Hole and The Big Year.  She appeared in two seasons of In Treatment as main character Paul Weston’s therapist, who he visited on Friday episodes.  Weist won an Emmy award for her work on the show.

2.  Jill Hennessy (as Claire Kincaid, seasons 4-6) –  Between the end of her Law & Order run, she appeared in Most Wanted and smaller films The Florentine and Row Your Boat.  In 2001 she got her next big role, starring as Dr. Jordan Cavanaugh in NBC drama Crossing Jordan.  She portrayed a forensic pathologist in Massachusetts who helped solve murders.  The show lasted six seasons and almost 120 episodes.  She portrayed her character on three episodes of Las Vegas.  She was in the movie Wild Hogs and will be in the new HBO horse racing David Milch series Luck.

1.  Angie Harmon (as Abby Carmichael, seasons 9-11) – After leaving Law & Order, she was in the direct-to-video Charlie Sheen-Denise Richards starrer Good Advice.  She voiced Barbara Gordon in an episode of Batman Beyond.  She appeared in Agent Cody Banks and was a main cast member in NBC series Inconceivable, about a group of people who work in fertility clinic (a groan about the title would be appropriate now), which only lasted two episodes.  She was in Fun with Dick and Jane and then co-starred in ABC series Women’s Murder Club, which lasted 13 episodes and was based on a series of James Patterson novels.  She was in single episodes of Samantha Who? And Chuck.  She currently stars as part of the cop and medical examiner partnership Rizzoli and Isles on TNT (one of the worst TV show titles in recent memory).  She’s detective Jane Rizzoli to Sasha Alexander’s Maura Isles.  The highly rated cable show finished its second season this summer and has been renewed for a third.  She gets the slight nod over Hennessey for more variety of career, and the current hit show, though if Hennessey is actually a significant part of Luck, and Luck is successful, the pendulum could swing in her direction.

Tags: , , , , , , ,

Power Rankings: Law & Order, Law edition, Part 1

19 Dec

(Power Rankings sum up:  Each week, we’ll pick a television show and rank the actors/actresses/contestants/correspondents/etc. based on what they’ve done after the series ended (unless we’re ranking a current series, in which case we’ll have to bend the rules).  Preference will be given to more recent work, but if the work was a long time ago, but much more important/relevant, that will be factored in as well)

Last week, it was Order, this week it’s Law, and the actors and actresses who played the lawyers on the 20 year show get their chance to shine.  I think overall the cops have done more, but the lawyers have had their share of productive work as well.  Since people have been on the show drastically different lengths of time, I’ll give a slight credit to people who have had less post-L&O time to appear in TV and movies.  Let’s rank ’em.

13.  Steven Hill (as Adam Schiff, seasons 1-10) –  Hill’s 89 now, and was 78 when his time on Law & Order wrapped up.  Besides his age, his orthodox Judaism makes it difficult to work.  Suffice it to say, Law & Order was his last role.  Sometimes I like to make a comment about what a loser the last person on a rankings is, but Hill was old and had a long and distinguished acting career.

12.  Sam Waterston (as Jack McCoy, seasons 5-20) – He’s done nothing yet but he’s slated to be in an upcoming Aaron Sorkin series for HBO based around TV news and starring Jeff Daniels and Emily Mortimer.  I hate having to put the man  behind the legendary McCoy, with the second most episodes of Law & Order of any actor, this low, but I have no alternative until his new show airs.

11.  Carey Lowell (as Jaime Ross, seasons 7-8) – She was in a couple of episodes of short-lived Ed O’Neill series Big Apple.  She was in two episodes of the short-lived Law & Order spin-off Trial by Jury as her Law & Order character, now a judge.  She had a small role in the TV miniseries Empire Falls based on the novel of the same name.  She had a recurring role in one season J.J. Abrams series Six Degrees.

10.  Fred Thompson (as Arthur Branch, seasons 13-17) – Thompson played President Ulysses S. Grant in TV movie Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee and then attempted to play the real president with a relatively quickly aborted run at the 2008 Republican nomination.  Afterwards, he was in movie Secretariat and episodes of Life on Mars and The Good Wife.

9.  Linus Roache (as Michael Cutter, seasons 18-20) – The British Mr. Roache appeared in five episodes of British soap Coronation Street, which has starred Roache’s father for many years (Would a twitter “Occupy Coronation Street” trend be funny in the UK?).  He appeared in four episodes as his Law & Order character in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, in which he’s been promoted to bureau chief.  He will soon be starring in British series Titanic.

8.  Alana De La Garza (as Connie Rubirosa, seasons 17-20) – She spun off from Law & Order into the one season Law & Order: LA, playing the same character.  De La Garza reprised her role in CSI:Miami from Season 4 appearing a apparition to Horatio (her character had died earlier in the series).

7.  Michael Moriarty (as Ben Stone, seasons 1-4) – Moriarty has become a certified kind of crazy person, with such wonderful statements as, “ The Supreme Court took a once individually free nation and corrupted it by the lie of Science that fetuses are, in their first two trimesters, no more than egg yolk.”  He’s done some acting too though.  In the ‘90s, he was in movies Courage Under Fire and Shiloh and TV movies Children of the Dust, Cagney and Lacey: True Convictions, Crime of the Century, The Arrow, Galileo: On the Shoulders of Giants, and Earthquake in New York.  Later he was in episodes of Touched by an Angel, The Outer Limits, Stephen King’s Dead Zone, The 4400 and Masters of Horror.  He was in Along Came a Spider and won an Emmy for his role in a James Dean TV movie in 2001, where he played Dean’s father.

Tags: , , , , , , ,

Fall 2011 Review: I Hate My Teenage Daughter

16 Dec

Within the first two minutes of this show, the premise is established.  Two single moms are best friends and grew up as outcasts and losers in high school.  They have teenage daughters who are best friends and who are super popular and part of the cool crowd.  The parents want their kids to have everything they didn’t growing up and spoil them endlessly, but are afraid that partly because they’re so spoiled their daughters are turning into everyone they hated when they went to high school.

The parents are played by Jaime Pressly (of My Name is Earl) and Katie Finneran (Wonderfalls).  Pressley, the dominant of the two, grew up as a social outcast and tends to make the decisions about what needs to be done with the kids (based on the first episode, anyway).  Finneran grew up obese in the same high school that her daughter now goes to and the current principal was her primary torturer as a teen.  Both of the mothers have exes who appear in the first episode and are frustrated by both the women and the daughters, while they have no idea how to control either.

I have maybe as little to say about this show as I do about any new show that debuted this fall.  It’s exactly what you think it is.  It’s a bad, traditional style sitcom, and it’s definitely bad but it isn’t as aggressively bad as Whitney or aggressive offensive as 2 Broke Girls or aggressively sexist as Last Man Standing.  I thought it would be offensive, but it ended up as merely entirely forgettable.

It’s just bad.  It’s closest analogue in that sense may be How to Be a Gentleman, though that had a bunch of cast members I like.   It steers towards the dysfunctional family sitcom tree in the vein which Roseanne and Married With Children pioneered, where the family members clearly love each other overall but are always doing things to get on each others nerves.  The first episode involved the parents trying to discipline their daughters for locking a handicapped boy in the restroom.  As much as it pains them, the parents force themselves to bar the kids from attending their first high school dance as punishment, but the daughters manipulate their way eventually, before the parents get the last laugh.  The jokes are corny, the exchanges canned, and it sounds like that comedy level would probably fit more at home in 1992 than it would today.

Otherwise, notably I Hate My Teenage Daughter bizarrely co-stars Chad Coleman, best known as Dennis “Cutty” Wise from The Wire, as Finneran’s’ ex-husband.

Will I watch it again?  No, I’m not going to.  It’s hard to decide whether this show is more bad or more unmemorable.  I’d probably lean towards the latter, and I’m not sure if that’s a backhanded compliment, but either way, there’s no reason to see any more episodes.

Tags: , ,

Fall 2011 Review: Terra Nova

15 Dec

Lost set both a high and low bar for long supernatural mystery shows.  It was captivating at the beginning with well-developed characters, fine acting, an interesting setting and a mystery which had fans thinking about the show, searching the internet for theories and possible answers to all of the questions the show posed, big and small.  Of course, some Lost fans will tell you that if you thought it was just about the mysteries you didn’t get it.  That’s bullshit.  Mysteries aren’t enough if the characters and the story are shit but there is no question of their importance when you pay so much attention to them early on in the show.

Since Lost began, a host of long form mystery shows have tried to replicate its success and very few have had any success.  The Event, Flashforward, Surface, Invasion, are some and the list goes on.  Terra Nova is the newest attempt.  Terra Nova does a good enough job of setting up an interesting premise with enough initial mystery to make me curious going forward.

Terra Nova begins in 2149, where man has destroyed the environment.  The air is not fit to breathe and strict population controls lead our main family to get in trouble with the government for having a third child.  The patriarch, Jim, is thrown in jail.  Two years later, Jim’s wife, Dr. Elisabeth Shannon, is recruited for Terra Nova, a journey into a new space-time, 85 millions years ago but in a different timeline, which has been found through a mysterious portal.  She helps her husband break out of jail and the whole family, including teenage son Josh, teenage daughter Maddy and five year old Zoe, makes it into the past.  From there, we find a paradise surrounded by a gate, with fierce dinosaur creatures outside.  Another threat is from a separatist movement from Terra Nova known as Sixers.  The other initial mystery lies in strange writings which Josh finds on a mischievous adventure outside of the camp, and the fact that it’s probably related somehow to the head of Terra Nova, Commander Nathaniel Taylor’s, missing son.

Unfortunately, only a small part of a show like this in its premise.  Delivery on the questions set up is so important.  When  your show is about a mystery, a satisfying conclusion is integral to making that work.  That includes parceling out answers slowly but definitively, keeping the audience dangling but  never dangling too far.  It’s a carrot and stick game, and it’s important that the carrot never goes so far that we can’t even see it anymore.  Conclusions are so much harder than premises.  I can think of a hundred great ideas for premises, but it’s much harder to figure out how to solve them in ways that are interesting, not entirely predictable, and don’t feel like they come out of nowhere.

Good characters and writing make the journey more interesting, more meaningful, and more worth rewatching if everything else is a success.   It’s hard to tell what you’re going to get in these respects from the first episode.  Overall, it was just about average in every way in regard to these aspects.  The characters were fine, not especially interesting or necessarily lacking and the writing was nothing to commend but wasn’t terrible either.  Right now the only part of the show tempting me to watch again is the mystery, which isn’t ideal, but sometimes it takes a while to develop compelling characters.

I did think it was strange that they chose the evil Colonel from Avatar to be the leader of Terra Nova considering the similarity between the two just in terms of both being set in pre-colonized planets lush with wildlife and dangerous creatures.  If he turns out to be evil, and Giovanni Ribisi is the penny-pinching corporate overlord, I am not going to be happy.

Will I watch it again?  Maybe.  I’m watching it late enough in the season that I’m unfairly influenced by what I hear around me, and that seems to be not much, which I’m interpreting as meaning it’s neither very good nor very bad.  It was, like Hell on Wheels, good enough to make me interested in watching a second episode, but not good enough to make me feel like I necessarily had to.

Tags: ,

The Zeljko Ivanek Hall of Fame: Julie Bowen

14 Dec

(The Zeljko Ivanek Hall of Fame is where we turn the spotlight on a television actor or actress, and it is named after their patron saint, Zeljko Ivanek)

This week’s honoree Julie Bowen has made a living in television for more than fifteen years, with her first spot in an episode of soap opera Loving in 1992.  She followed that up with appearances in Lifestories: Families in Crisis, Class of ’96, and Acapulco H.E.A.T., and TV movies Runaway Daughters and Where Are My Children? over the next two years.  Bowen next co-starred in the seven episode James Brolin action-adventure series Extreme.  Extreme followed ABC’s broadcast of Super Bowl XXIX in 1995, and the series flopped so badly that there was a four year hiatus before another network was willing to launch a show after the Super Bowl, with Family Guy in 1999.  She appeared on episodes of Party of Five and Strange Luck before getting her next main cast role.  This was on the extremely short-lived WB series Three, which had a Mod Squad like premise of three criminals being used for their special abilities to help out some sort of secret agency.  Three is so forgotten that it’s wikipedia page incorrectly writes Bowen’s name as “Julie Bowman” and imdb oddly claims she was only in two episodes.  I remember the show well, however, because I knew two of the only people on the planet who watched the show and my friend and I would constantly make fun of them for it in ways we thought were never-endingly hilarious (How many people watched the show?  Three.  What was the IQ of the writers?  Three.  What was the production budget?  Three dollars.  You get the idea.  This could go on for a lot longer than you might imagine).

That same year Bowen showed up in nine episodes of ER as Roxanne Please, an insurance salesman, who is initially a patient, and later girlfriend of Dr. John Carter, played by Noah Wyle.  In 1999, she starred in TV movie The Last Man on the Planet Earth.  The premise of the movie was that a biological weapon which targets only men is unleashed, killing most of the men in the world.  Realizing the world is better off without them, women outlaw all men.  Years later, Bowen portrays a young scientist who uses her knowledge of genetics to create a man with his tendency for violence removed, ostensibly to have sex with.  She is discovered, and soon both her and her created man are on the run from the government.  He dies at the end, but not before they have sex, and Bowen is pregnant with a son.

Her next jobs were in two episodes of Lifetime series Oh Baby and in one of Dawson’s Creek.  She got her next starring role in quirky four season dramady Ed, which starred Tom Cavanagh as a New York lawyer who went back to his hometown in Ohio after being fired and purchased a bowling alley.  He comes back and attempts to win over his old high school crush, Carol Vessey, played by Bowen, who has become an English teacher.  After four seasons of back and forth, they finally get married in the final episode of the series.

She voiced DC superhero Arisia in two episodes of the Justice League cartoon.  She was in four episodes of one season John Stamos comedy Jake in Progress.  She appeared in five episodes over the series run of Lost as Jack’s ex-wife Sarah.  After she was in a car crash, Jack performed surgery on her and helped her miraculous recovery along, falling in love with her at the same time.  Eventually she cheats on him and they break up, in a number of tedious flashback sequences overemphasizing Jack’s need to help others even when they don’t want it.

Bowen was a series regular in Boston Legal seasons 2 and 3 as Denise Bauer.  Bauer is an up-and-coming young lawyer who is divorced by her husband, who demands alimony payments.  She wants desperately to make partner, but is unable to do so.  Eventually in season three she becomes pregnant by fellow employee Brad Chase.  Bowen appears in eight episodes of season four of Weeds as cheese shop owner Lisa Ferris.  She has a relationship with Silas, and the two of them grow and sell marijuana out of her shop.

She was in an episode of Monk and one of Scooby Doo! Mystery Incorporated before getting her current role, which will likely be her biggest, if it isn’t already.  She stars as Claire Dunphy in ABC comedy hit Modern Family.  Claire is the wife of Phil, the daughter of Jay, and the mother of Haley, Alex and Luke.  Claire is a perfectionist and gets irritated with her husband and children frequently, but loves them and gives parenting advice to her brother.  Bowen won an Emmy award for her portrayal.

Tags: , , , , , ,

Power Rankings: Law & Order, Order edition, Part 2

13 Dec

Law & Order Power Rankings, Order edition has been chopped into two parts for convenience – you can find the first part here.

4.  George Dzundza (as Max Greevey, season 1) – Dzundza has had the most time to work, participating in a mere 1/20th of the series. After he left, he appeared in Basic Instinct, Dangerous Minds, That Darn Cat, Species II and several episodes of the Batman animated series as Scarface and several of the Superman animated series as Perry White.  He was a regular in Christina Applegate’s one season Jesse and appeared on episodes of Matlock, Touched by an Angel, Third Watch and The Agency.  He was in films Instinct and City by the Sea in the early ‘00s and was a main cast member in one season Hack.  He was in seven episodes of Grey’s Anatomy and episodes of October Road and Stargate SG-1.

3.  Dann Florek (as Donald Cragen, season 1-3) – After his role on classic L&O ended, Florek bounced around, appearing in episodes of Wings, Ellen, The John Laroquette Show, Roseanne, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, NYPD Blue, The Pretender and The Practice.  He was in two episodes of astronaut miniseries From the Earth to the Moon.  In the short-lived The Secret Diary of Desmond Pfeiffer, Florek played Abraham Lincoln.  In TV movie Exiled, he reprised his role as Captain Kragen, and he was in six episodes of Smart Guy as a gym teacher and basketball coach.  In 1999, he got what he’s now best known for, a role as his old Law & Order character Captain Kragen, this time working with the Special Victims Unit.  He’s been doing it for 13 years so far.  He’s been a main character on a 13 season show but I’m deducting a little bit because he’s playing the same character as on regular Law & Order and it’s kind of cheating.

2.  Benjamin Bratt (as Rey Curtis, season 6-9) – He’s appeared in many movies since his term on Law & Order ended, such as Red Planet, Miss Congeniality, Traffic, Abandon, The Woodsman, Catwoman, Thumbsucker and as a voice in Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.  He starred in the one season E-Ring on NBC in 2005 about the Pentagon and in the two season A&E show The Cleaner about a recovering drug addict who helps other drug addicts recover (there are a thousand better shows that could be made based on the title “The Cleaner”).  He starred in a miniseries based on The Andromeda Strain and he has become a regular as of current season five of Private Practice as Dr. Jake Reilly.  He’s also appeared in two episodes of Modern Family as Manny’s dad and Gloria’s ex-husband.

1A.  Jerry Orbach (as Lenny Briscoe, season 3-14) – he deserved a spot on the list.  This is merely an honorary spot and conveys no true ranking except to specifically note that Jerry Orbach is awesome.

1.  Chris Noth (as Mike Logan, season 1-6) – His first couple of years post Law & Order were filled with TV movies, including Nothing Lasts Forever, Abducted: A Father’s Love, Born Free: A New Adventure, Rough Riders, Medusa’s Child, and Exiled, in which he starred as his Law & Order character.  In Castaway, he plays the man who marries Tom Hanks’ wife, while Hanks is, well, castaway.  In 1998, he got his biggest post-Law & Order role as Mr. Big in Sex and the City.  Mr. Big is Carrie’s most important love interest over the course of the series, and they get together several times before finally getting married at the end of the first movie and they remain married through the second movie through some difficulties.  He was in a couple of episodes of Crossing Jordan with former Law & Order co-star Jill Hennessy and TV movies The Judge, This is Your Country, and Bad Apple.  He returned to the Law & Order franchise in Criminal Intent for a couple of seasons as his old character Mike Logan.  Since 2009, he has been a recurring cast member, as the bad husband of the titular The Good Wife, now in its third season, appearing in the majority of the episodes of the series.

Tags: , , , , ,

← Older Entries
Newer Entries →