Dollhouse – First Episode Review

1.01 Ghost

Whedon is back on TV and is playing with dolls.

Remember this will be a SPOILER review.

Prison Break Cancelled

What many of us thought would happen, has.  Season 4 of the show will be it’s last.  I’ve spoken about my thoughts on if the show should come to an end and while it will be sad to see it go, honestly it’s the right move.  FOX President Kevin Reilly stated that the show had “run it’s course” and the guy’s right.  The concept has been stretched to it’s limit and the show is called Prison Break and they did that at the end of the first season so it’s quite a feat to get to a forth season.  The remaining episodes will begin airing on April 17th but it’s unclear how many are left.  Mr Reilly commentated that additional episodes might be ordered to give the show a resolution.

Whatever the amount of episodes are left, I will be around to do my reviews and see Prison Break off with the credit it deserves.

Prison Break – Season 4, Episode 13 Review

4.13 Deal or No Deal

As the title suggests, do they have a Deal?  No Noel Edmonds in this episode or whoever the American counterpart is.

Remember this will be a SPOILER review.  Click read more for the review.

Is Prison Break near the end of it’s run?

There have been many rumours recently regarding the fate of Prison Break.  The show has always struggled in the ratings and this season is no exception.

It seems that there is talk of filming two additional episodes for the show.  It seems these two hours would wrap up the show for good.  Though there is no word about when those two episodes would air, if they do or just end up on a DVD.

I think it’s the right time to end the show, what other possible stories can they come up with?  The concept has been pushed to the limit, time to finish the show and finish it right.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

My Fall 2008 Lineup

These are my picks of the shows that I will be watching come this fall.  For some of these shows we’re only a week away from their start and that is very exciting.  It’s basically been eight/nine months without many new seasons.  All I had earlier on in the year was Lost and some other shows that I decided to watch because there was nothing else on.  This for me will be one my most anticipated fall lineups in a long time.  The shows on this list are ones that start in September or October.  Shows like 24 and Lost are not included because they start in the new year.  I will do a Mid Season 2009 Lineup closer to the year’s end.  All choices come with when the new season of that show airs.  Plus they will contain trailers for the new seasons, if they don’t contain a trailer, I will include it in the post when one surfaces.

Heroes

There’s a lot riding on this season, we all know what needs to be done if they want to keep viewers.  Season 2 was a huge drop in quality, it had a couple of decent episodes but overall it was just sad to see the show declining.  Some may say it was down to the writers strike and that might be the case but we’ve got a full season now so there’s no excuses.

The third season airs September 22nd

The Shield

It’s been nearly 18 months since the end of season 6, we’ve waited a long time but it’s nearly here.  It’s exciting but also very sad as we’ve got to the final season of the show.  There isn’t any other show I’m looking forward to this fall more than this, no other show can match this.  I can’t imagine how it will end but it’s going to be a sad day because one of my favourite TV shows will be ending.

The seventh and final season airs September 2nd

CSI/New York/Miami

This past season I got back into regularly watching all three CSI’s, I like my TV and sometimes I want to watch shows that aren’t serial shows so CSI is perfect.  All three CSI’s this past season ended on a cliffhanger so I’m looking forward to how those stories will be resolved.

CSI:Vegas Promo

CSI:Crime Scene Investigation season nine airs October 9th
CSI:New York season five airs September 24th
CSI:Miami season seven airs September 22nd

Prison Break

The third season was very disappointing but again the writers strike had a hand in that.  We’ve got a full season so let’s hope it can remind us of the magic the show once had.  I’m certainly looking forward to it, it’s mindless entertainment but it’s so much fun.

The fourth season airs September 1st

TV Show Of The Week – The X-Files

In anticipation for the release of the next X-Files movie, I thought that this TV Show Of The Week should be about one of the greatest television shows ever created, The X-Files.  There is a lot I could say about the show, probably most has been said before but I’m just going to state why I love X-Files, my memories of the show and what things that should have been done differently.

I had watched only a few episodes of the show when I was younger, catching them on BBC2, certain episodes would stick out for being really scary.  The most terrifying memory was the Tooms episodes, that character was one of the most brilliantly scariest creations in television or even film.  If you ask anyone, fan or just a casual viewer, they always remember Tooms.  Those chilling, frightening moments is what made The X-Files stand out to me.  Sadly as I was only a casual viewer of the show in my early teens, I could never follow the conspiracy plot.  I always wanted to follow the main arc of the show but that just wasn’t possible as I didn’t own any copy of VHS or DVD.

It wasn’t until about 2005/2006 while I was at uni, I used my student loan and bought the complete DVD boxset, all nine seasons in one glorious box.  It was a great day when I got my hands on that, I could now go through all nine seasons at my own pace and enjoy one of the greatest shows ever created.  Though because I was at uni, I had lots of free time and was able to watch the show, hell I didn’t do work.  I powered through the seasons very quickly, I can’t honestly tell you how long it did take me to watch all nine seasons but I know it was quick.  I will always remember that as one of my fondest memories, people might think that’s sad but it truly was a fantastic experience.  After I had done with it, I passed the DVD’s onto two friends and they felt the same way as I did.

The greatest appeal was the variety of episodes on display, you get the mythology episodes and the stand-alone episodes but the stand-alone episodes are all very different, some scary and some extremelly funny.  My favourite X-Files episodes are the comedy ones, e.g X-Cops, Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose, Jose Chung’s From Outer Space.  Many people probably agree that on a whole the stand-alone episodes are much stronger than the mythology ones and for the most part I agree.  Some people don’t like the mythology of the show too much, they even don’t understand it or aren’t that interested.  Yes sometimes the mythology can become quite confusing but most of the time I understood it.  I liked learning more about the mystery behind the show, I wanted to know what happened to Mulder’s sister and I wanted to find out what the truth was.

You cannot talk about The X-Files and not mention the criticism the show got about it’s nine year run.  Many people think, me included that the show should have ended a lot sooner than it did.  For me, I think it should have ended in season 6 when the The Syndicate were killed.  That moment really signalled the end of the show, after that the mythology of the show just limped along, getting stupid Super Soldiers and having Mulder gone for most of two seasons.

I am not a huge fan of the last two seasons of the show, there are some good episodes in there but as a whole they’re very weak, you can’t have The X-Files without Mulder, it just didn’t feel right.  Sadly when people think about The X-Files they concentrate on the negative aspects, the show should be remembered for redefining sci-fi television, it should be remembered as redefining television.  Ask yourself, if X-Files never existed, do you think we would have shows like Lost or Heroes?  I highly doubt it.  X-Files shaped the future of television.

Cancelled – A Look Back: Kitchen Confidential

This column will be me focusing on shows that have been cancelled which really shouldn’t have been.  There have been many shows which I’ve got to like which have been shelved, so I’m here to rant about them and try and maybe give these untimely cancelled shows some new fans.

Kitchen Confidential was a sitcom that aired in 2005 on FOX.  The show was based on Anthony Bourdain’s critically acclaimed book, Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly.  The show was about the daily life of people working in a top New York restaurant.  The lead of the show is played by Bradley Cooper who plays head chef Jack Bourdain, the character itself is loosely based on Anthony Bourdain.  Sadly though Kitchen Confidential was cancelled in December of 2005, only four episodes had aired but a total of 13 episodes had been produced.

The DVD of all 13 episodes was released in 2007 and this was how I saw the show.  It didn’t take me long to power through the episodes as I really enjoyed the show and watching one episode at a time wasn’t enough.  I was hoping though that the show would suck and FOX would actually get it right for once but that didn’t happen.  I got to really like the show and was pissed when it ended, FOX made another mistake, just like Firefly and Arrested Development.  I can imagine that this segment of Cancelled – A Look Back will feature many FOX shows.

I found the show easy to watch, it was a show like Friends or Scrubs which is perfect for when you just want a break for 20 minutes.  Most of the time I watched the show when I was having something to eat.  Though that’s because most talk in the show is about food.  What peaked my interest in the show was that it featured actors who I was familair with.  I knew Bradley Copper from Alias, John Cho who I really like who’s from American Pie and Harold and Kumar and of course Nicholas Brendon who was from Buffy, so I knew and enjoyed those actors past work.

The show isn’t the funniest sitcom ever to be made, it has it’s moments but never laugh out loud ones but what I find the most endearing thing about the show is the characters, all of them are unique and funny in their own right.  The show works due to the chemistry between the guys in the kitchen, you believe that these guys are friends, the rapport between them is outstanding.

Sadly the show ended abruptly so there was no resolve to the series which is quite sad.  Though don’t let that persuade you to not watch the show because trust me, your time will not be wasted.  I can only imagine what the show would be like right now if it was still on air.  I think if it got time to breathe then I think the show would have been successful but it’s cancellation can not be blamed on the viewing public, it’s blame is with FOX.  The show was distrupted by Major League Baseball playoffs so three episodes of the show had aired at the end of September, so FOX put the show on hold and didn’t show the forth episode until December.  It seemed obvious that the forth episode would get poor ratings because of the way the show was shelved due to the baseball.  Will FOX ever learn?  Probably not.  I’m already preparing Fringe and Dollhouse to be cancelled.