By Jason Snell – September 9, 2007
I’m happy to announce the return of TeeVee just in time to cover the new fall season.
This year we’re kicking things off with a joint project with Aaron Barnhart of TV Barn, in which we handicap the new fall series as well as highlight ten shows that, when we put our heads together, we decided were worth a closer look.
In the days ahead we’ll be posting complete reviews of all the fall shows, but right now you can see our quick takes on all the new premiering shows. And other TeeVee voices will chime in, as well.
With this post we’re also kicking off a new site design (many pages are not available, please bear with us as we completely overhaul our back-end systems, some of which have been with us for the better part of a decade). We’ve also added comments so that you can tell us how dumb we are and we can reply with our trademark lack of decorum.
Anyway, check out the new Guide to the Fall Season. And thanks for reading TeeVee.
By Monty Ashley – August 10, 2007
Flash Gordon premieres tonight! Are you excited?
Oh, you’re not. Okay, that’s fine. Go ahead and be a jerk. I’ll be over here, filled with glee. I actually got to see a screener of the first episode (that’s just one of the perks of being an internet television critic; I also get 50% off my semicolons at punctuation.net), and it looked pretty good.
That is, the television show in my head looked pretty good. It turns out that “advance copies” are actually in advance of special effects. So the things I watched actually involved Flash Gordon and Dale Gordon running in fear from a very pleasant looking field. And a pickup truck being stalked by a ball on a stick, which I guess could be unnerving in the right situation. My point is that it’s hard to really get into a sci-fi spectacle when the vast alien landscape is represented by a green curtain and a subtitle that says “alien landscape.”
Of course, I was helped a bit by getting to tour the sets, which are housed in a barn hundreds of miles from Vancouver, BC. They didn’t have to blindfold us during the trip, because we had to leave at something like 4:00 am, which is like 9:00 the previous night to internet television writers. Anyway, we got to see cool set elements like this statue, which looks suspiciously like the cover of Atlas Shrugged. I assume it’s going to be one of the things looming in the background, although I’m not ruling out the possibility of it coming to life and chasing Flash and Dale around. If they’re not going to give me special effects, I’m happy to make up my own.
I did get a good look at Ming, though. Unsurprisingly, they’ve decided to move away from the Fu Manchu-style Ming from the original Flash Gordon comic strip (and awesome 1980 movie that I know is what you think of every time I mention Flash Gordon). He operates a bit more like a vicious CEO, I guess, although that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have a dungeon and a torture chamber. I mean, how are you going to run a planet without occasionally (i.e. “every single episode, if they know what’s good for them”) strapping somebody to a complicated piece of furniture and threatening them with an even more complicated doodad? That’s how you keep people in line!
In fact, judging from the first episode, fans of people getting captured, escaping, and getting recaptured are in luck. And as it happens, I am in favor of that! I still prefer Flash Gordon as a serial, which means somebody ought to be in peril every fifteen minutes.
And it helps if they’re being menaced by somebody who knows how to dress. Since Ming no longer sports the four-foot moustaches, he can’t really carry off the giant gold lamé lapels and red robes. So they’ve put him in this stylish number, because we all know that people who wear collarless jackets are up to no good. That was the real reason people burned all those Beatles albums, you know.
Anyway, not that I’m telling you not to watch, but it turns out the premiere will be on DVD on Tuesday. That’s pretty quick work! While you’re at the store, you might also be interested in the fact that the 1980 movie has just come out on DVD. Oh, wait — that’s me who’s interested in that. Sorry about that.
Naturally, you will be wondering if I have maintained my objectivity after being lured by the outskirts-of-Vancouver insiders with their insider looks at statues, costumes, and the interior of barns. I can’t promise that I haven’t been lured over to the dark side. But I am going to be watching the premiere, even though I’ve already seen the non-SFX version.
Personally, I predict that special effects will improve the experience…
By Nathan Alderman – August 9, 2007
For those of us not lucky enough to pony up for the swanky digital likes of BBC America — thanks, Snell, rub it in! — there’s thankfully still plenty of good stuff to watch on TV this summer. Stuff that doesn’t involve fat people exercising for our collective amusement, even!
USA’s Burn Notice is near-ideal summer viewing. It won’t even come close to taxing your brain, but it’s smart and witty enough to let you turn your brain off for an hour every Thursday night without feeling guilty about it.
Star Jeffrey Donovan has a sort of cold-blooded, reptilian charisma that he uses to good effect, whether he’s playing a womanizing tycoon in a certain Will Smith movie I’m mildly ashamed to have seen, or a brain-damaged police detective with a bullet in his skull in his previous stab at USA Network stardom, Touching Evil.
Here, his distant, vaguely robotic demeanor serves him particularly well as Michael Westin, a wrongly ousted spy whose good heart is buried under multiple layers of kevlar, combat, and general paranoia. Westin’s calculated, tactical, improvisation-heavy approach to tackling dangerous situations is a neat touch, pleasantly reminiscent of the glory days of MacGyver. Throw in a smoldering Gabrielle Anwar as his formidable ex-IRA girlfriend, and the perpetually-worth-watching Bruce Campbell as his genially sleazy pal, and you’ve got a sunny, laid-back mojito of a series. It goes down easy, and it won’t take too many brain cells with it.
Crave something more cerebral? Get caught up with Damages, FX’s outstandingly creepy new murder mystery/legal series. Rose Byrne is a naive young lawyer who finds herself working for superattorney Glenn Close, in the midst of a thorny case involving scandal-plagued CEO Ted Danson and the billions he swindled from his employees. Meanwhile, flash-forwards to six months in the future find a bloodied Byrne in police custody, dead-eyed and haggard, and the prime suspect in a brutal murder.
Close is unsurprisingly marvelous as the Machiavellian attorney, running her firm with a ruthlessness that any respectable mafia don would envy. She plays things close to the vest, leaving the viewer perpetually guessing what’s going on behind her eyes — and, perhaps, wondering whether her jaw is going to unhinge so she can devour some hapless victim whole. If she’s an unrepentant monster, why does she so clearly love her husband? And if she’s not so bad on the inside, why does she go to such vicious, frightening lengths to manipulate everyone and everything around her?
Byrne more than holds her own, too, conveying all of her character’s doubts and suspicions with admirably subtle facial expressions and body language. The clever writing lets ordinary objects, innocently introduced in a flashback, take on ominous new meanings when they’re found at the future crime scene. The plot twists are entertaining and surprising, but Damages’ real oomph comes from the fevered, claustrophobic atmosphere it creates. It’s a uniquely uncomfortable show, favorably reminiscent of Hitchcock.
Need something to lighten up the tension? God bless the Brits, yet again, for bringing David Tennant back in a triumphant third season of Doctor Who, now making its stateside debut on the SciFi Channel. The Doctor’s an incredible character — funny, daring, tender, and frightening, all at once — and Tennant plays him to the hilt. This season, he’s paired with the superb Freema Agyeman, as whip-smart new companion Martha Jones, for another round of improbable adventures. Even at its worst — let’s just say “pig men,” and leave it at that — the show’s still marvelously silly fun. At it’s best, its thrills, chills, and great big unabashed heart (two of them, in the Doctor’s case) can give even the most jaded viewer the best kind of goosebumps.
Meanwhile, SciFi’s better-than-average Eureka returns for its sophomore season, displaying a surprising skill for mining the previous season’s plots for intriguing new twists and sneakily intelligent drama. On the surface, it’s still the amiable, accessible Northern Exposure-with-death-rays it was last year. But underneath, it’s weaving some intriguing plot and character threads that all seem to be leading somewhere big.
In all, this summer’s crop of scripted series seems a lot brainier and better, at least percentagewise, than the shows most networks trot out in the fall and midseason. Kinda makes me wish it could be summer all year round — on TV, at least.
By Jason Snell – August 6, 2007
BBC America’s Jekyll (see airtimes) is, oddly enough, written by Steven Moffat. This site has a long, tortured history with Mr. Moffat. We’ve praised Coupling on numerous occasions, although we didn’t really like most of the fourth season. His four episodes of the revived Doctor Who are among the series’ best.
But then there’s the down side. When one of us suggested that the way the character Jeff was sent off in the final episode of Coupling seemed disrespectful to the character and the actor who played him, Moffat wrote us personally to complain about our characterization and point out that he holds nothing but the highest respect for that actor.
Things are weird after you have a painful interaction like that. I suspect Phil will never watch Coupling again, despite the sheer brilliance of those first three seasons. Myself, I’ve let it go, mostly because I can’t help but love those Doctor Who episodes. Seriously. “Girl in the Fireplace?” Best. Episode. Ever. Even if it is giving my son nightmares about robots now. (Daddy’s fault.)
Now here comes along another show that proves that, emotionally scarring e-mails to TeeVee notwithstanding, Steven Moffat really knows how to write. Following up the farce of Coupling and the spooky sci-fi of Doctor Who, Jekyll is on the horror and psychological thriller side of the ledger. And it’s really fantastic stuff.
The subject matter may differ, but Jekyll shows Moffat using all the tricks that have served him well in both Coupling and Doctor Who. Funny, awkward meet-cute at a dinner party? Check. Conversation between a character and a previously-recorded video of another character? Check. Weird time sequences that bounce back and forth, with plots that eat their own tails? Checky-check-check. And laugh-out-loud dialogue? Yes again.
Anyway, to the details: Jekyll is a modern take on Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, obviously. However, in this six-hour miniseries the Jekyll is Dr. Tom Jackman, and early on he laughs off the suggestion that he could be the descendant of the namesake from Stevenson’s book. But facts are facts: Jackman’s got another person inside him, who shares his body and uses it to do all sorts of things that the upright father of two would never dream of doing.
If this sounds like a bog standard horror movie set-up, you’re right. But it doesn’t do Jekyll justice, because of the inventive ways Moffat has chosen to tell the story. Rather than go chronologically, the story whips around, first introducing us to Jekyll and Hyde, then slowly revealing the nature of their shared-body arrangement and the rules they’ve (seemingly) agreed to follow. We meet their concierge (for lack of a better word), played by future Bionic Woman star Michelle Ryan. We meet Jackman’s wife, played by Gina Bellman of Coupling fame. And eventually (but only at the series’ halfway point) we see how Jackman came to first discover he had a Mr. Hyde inside him.
It’s a fantastic thrill ride, peppered with surprise character turns, including a breathtaking scene when Mrs. Jackman is confronted with Mr. Hyde for the first time and reacts in an unexpected way, one that took my breath away and made me sit up and take notice at the electric performance I was witnessing.
Those of us who have been at the receiving end of Steven Moffat’s Hyde-like wrath may want to avoid Jekyll. But everyone else should seek out BBC America and give it a look. It’s, quite simply, the best thing I’ve seen on TV all summer.
By Monty Ashley – July 8, 2007
Here’s the thing. I tend to think of myself as fairly hip when it comes to the world of geekery, if that’s not a contradiction in terms. I know what the hot new thing is, is what I’m saying. Which is why I felt a little awkward touring the Eureka sets when I was pretty sure I’d never heard of the show before in my life. I mean, that can’t be right, can it? It was supposedly Sci-Fi’s biggest premiere of 2006, and I didn’t even know it was on?
And I have to say, it’s exactly the sort of show it sounds like I’d like. A secret city in the backwoods of Oregon full of crazy geniuses? Lots of nutty superscience? Even one of those Houses of the Future you sometimes get in Tom and Jerry cartoons? I’m totally in. Especially once I hear that from time to time, Matt Frewer shows up as a mad scientist. That’s the role he was born to play! And I understand that there are occasional superscience mishaps, which are something I feel television could use more of. The day we were on set, they were preparing the Cafe set for some kind of Sonic Wave Pulse Explosion, which involved air cannons full of plates, and all the tables and chairs being attached to an automatic yanking device via metal cables. They’d also rigged a toilet to explode for some reason. Well, I assume there was a reason; they might have just been bored.
The sets were very impressive, although I kind of miss the days of cheesy two-dimensional sets that require the cameras to be locked down in position. These were all fully-immersive three-dimensional sets that seem like they’d be a lot easier on the actors. The walls all moved out to fit cameras in, but it was possible to stand in the garage set and really feel like I was in a working garage. The set decorations were all relatively realistic (until you looked closely and noticed how many things were just old VCRs and that 80% of the things on the wall were taken from the same two issues of “Science and Mechanics” (The December 1954 and one from 1957 — now that’s insider information!). But there were enough grease-covered car parts to make it even smell realistic. I did like the fact that the blueprints on one of the work tables were for the basement of a mental hospital.
In fact, the most impressive set I saw during the whole trip was the new Global Dynamics set, which is two or three stories and incorporates more connected locations than every 1950s sitcom put together. If you’re putting together a futuristic technology company, I highly recommend the good people at Sci-Fi set design. There’s even a hidden waterfall, and you know how important that sort of thing is.
The new season of Eureka starts on Tuesday, July 10, and Season One just came out on DVD last week. I really think they’d be better served having it come out a little earlier, to give people a fighting chance to get caught up. However, I have to admit that I personally have not gotten around to seeing any of it. I bought the whole season on iTunes (because I prefer to behave legally whenever possible), but it turns out that it’s hard to fit “watching television on a handy portable device” into my busy schedule. I admit that the problem might be my own laziness. It usually is.
By Monty Ashley – July 6, 2007
I am a fan of Flash Gordon in all his forms. The 1940 Buster Crabbe serial Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe is a huge amount of fun, the original comic strip is pure Pulp action, and the 1980 Sam Jones vehicle is, well, I guess it’s not exactly “good”, but I still derive a great deal of enjoyment for it. I realize this confession may undercut whatever credibility I had, but I think honesty is important on the internet.
So as far as I’m concerned, Flash Gordon is the most exciting aspect of the Sci-Fi Channel’s upcoming season, narrowly edging out whatever hilarious Sci-Fi Original Movie is coming up next. (It’s Supergator! Of course it is!). I was a little concerned that they’d make it too much like the 1980 film, or that they’d be afraid of making it too campy and go too far the other way. Grim-and-gritty works fine for Battlestar Galactica, but I think you want a Flash Gordon with a sense of fun.
The overall plot is about the same as usual: Flash Gordon is regular (albeit athletic) guy from Earth when suddenly aliens from the planet Mongo show up and start destroying things and taking a liking to Dale Arden. The crazy doctor Hans Zarkov is the only one who can help Flash, and things spiral out of control from there. There’s a little more backstory than usual (Flash’s father is missing; Dale is actually Flash’s ex-girlfriend; there’s an alien bounty hunter stuck on Earth and she likes the looks of Flash, and so on) but the general outline looks about right.
The set tour made me reasonably optimistic. Ming’s Council Chamber wasn’t as crazy and over-the-top as I had been hoping, but his Dungeon Torture Chamber looks pretty good. And I guess if you’re Ming, the ruthless (and merciless) ruler of Mongo, you probably do more business down in the dungeons than in the council chamber anyway. As you can see, I’ve convinced myself that this is a Ming who knows his business, and his business is probably going to involve constantly capturing Dale Arden, Flash Gordon, or Hans Zarkov, and holding them in impenetrable cells for about twenty minutes until one of the other ones breaks the prisoner loose. That’s my hope, anyway.
Eric Johnson, the gentleman playing Flash, has a good look for Flash Gordon. You might remember his as Whitney from Smallville. That’s what they tell me, anyway. I think it’s interesting that this Flash is a marathon runner as opposed to a football player, as in the 1980 movie. If I was in a mood for analysis, I’d start talking about how that indicates that this Flash is a “runner” rather than a “fighter,” but I suspect there’s actually going to be plenty of fighting anyway.
The important thing is that Flash is enthusiastic. Describing his attitude toward action scenes, Johnson says, “I’m a bit of a golden retriever on set. You throw a ball and I will go get it. And if you keep throwing it, I will keep getting it, because this is the best game I have ever played.” I have to think that’s a good attitude to have in a business where you have to do the same thing a million time in a row.
The other supporting characters also look about right. Hans Zarkov has been changed from a vaguely-foreign old crazy scientist to a younger comedy sidekick, but that just seems logical. In order for Flash to walk the line between “Dashing Hero” and “Average Guy Caught Up in Events Beyond His Control,” it helps for there to be someone else even more over his head.
We didn’t get a look at Ming. The word is that they’re trying to make this version of Flash Gordon less racist than the previous versions, so Ming (who won’t be called “Ming the Merciless”) probably won’t be a full-on Fu Manchu scheming oriental. You can see how that kind of thing might not fly in the 21st century. They actually mentioned that Ming might be blond, but I can’t promise anything. I did notice that his guards will be wearing pretty cool uniforms.
We did get a pretty good look at some of the costumes. The plan appears to involve a number of different alien societies, so I assume there will be some scenes among the people in crazy furs and and then a scene in the decadent high-society culture. That one sounds interesting, because there will be both male and female concubines being led around on leashes, although it won’t be the focus of the scene or anything. I approve of that kind of detail being thrown into the background.
Now, with all that out of the way, I shall proceed to bury the lede. You are naturally curious about whether they’ll be using the Queen “Flash Gordon” song from the 1980 movie. Well, we got mixed messages on that. Some people claimed they had no idea. But at least one Sci-Fi executive said that they’d found some indie band to either rerecord the song or remix it or something. The important message here is that somehow, some way, there will be a “Flash! Aaah-aaaah!” involved at some level. So there you go. Happy now?
Anyway, Flash Gordon premieres August 10 at 9:00. Personally, I’ll be watching raptly, although I am under no illusion that even with the recent popularity of Sci-Fi Channel shows, my tastes are anything ilke the general public’s. If they were, The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne would be on DVD by now.
