TV Features

TV Characters You Would Want Watching Your Back In a Zombie Wasteland

With the return of The Walking Dead,
I can’t help but think of which characters from television I would
want to be teamed up with when that inevitable zombie apocalypse
occurs. Rick Grimes and his ragtag band may have made it this far,
but there is definitely room for improvement within those ranks.
Lets face it, the “Walkers” themselves would make better
companions than most of the dregs with which Rick is stuck. So
presented here are TV’s last best hope of survival, and the only
characters I would trust to keep the undead masses at bay.

Why The Original Trek Timeline Must Continue

When the planet Vulcan imploded in J.J. Abrams’ new Star Trek movie, an “alternate timeline” was created, and the world of Trek fandom was split in two. At first we were promised that this new timeline would not invalidate all of our favorite stories from the original canon. But some time has passed, and there has been no word on a continuation of that original timeline in the form of a new series set after Star Trek: Voyager.

The new Trekmovie is currently being filmed, which will continue the re-written alternate timeline. Without focusing on that movie too much, there is now the possibility that J.J.’s re-imagining of the universe could very well be the death of the original timeline entirely. The“alternate timeline” could become the new official canon, given enough time.

A Gifted Man – First Impressions

A Gifted Man is a CBS medical drama starring Patrick Wilson. Wilson plays Michael Holt, a driven and brilliant neurosurgeon living in a bubble until the ghost of his ex-wife Anna (Jennifer Ehle) comes knocking. Anna is a very demanding ghost who wants him to help with a few things that will substantially alter his life. Although the pilot and the second episode are, on many points, surprisingly better than I expected, they highlighted a couple of issues that may make or break the series, depending on the type of audience that was first drawn to the show.

In the pilot, we are introduced to Michael Holt, a very successful doctor who “gets” what being the best at anything entails. One evening, as he is leaving a fancy New York restaurant, he stumbles upon his ex-wife. They end up having dinner together and discuss their distant, but still very memorable life together. A few days later, he realizes she has been dead for almost two weeks and starts researching hallucinations, thinking that is his plight. Needless to say, the ghost returns and by the end of the pilot, Michael is convinced she is indeed the real deal.

Sellouts – Compromising to Survive

Talking
about a particular television show “selling out” is a sensitive
subject. Sellout shows probably compromised their standards in order
to achieve greater popularity, and so talking about them negatively
isn’t going to go down well. Unfortunately, popularity doesn’t
usually equate to excellence.

Examples
of selling out in other mediums abound. In music, Greenday and
Lost Prophets have often been accused of selling out, due to
their sound changing to something more palatable to the masses, and
closer to pop-music. In video games, Assassin’s Creed has been
accused of the same thing, due to its publisher, Ubisoft, churning
out regular sequels, focused too heavily on popular characters and
action at the expensive of a quality story. In film, there is George
Lucas and his repeated attempts to beat the dead horse which
is the Star Wars universe, with many prequels, gap fillers,
cartoons and story changes. All of these have one thing in common:
the desire to make as much money as possible.

Unforgettable – First Impressions

Unforgettable is a CBS police procedural with a genre twist starring Without a Trace cast member Poppy Montgomery. She plays Carrie Wells, a woman with a medical condition giving her the ability to remember everything, literally. While the particular circumstances of the pilot episode didn’t allow for reliable first impressions of the series, the second episode had all the main players in place and showcased more accurately what seems to be the series specific brand of investigation.

In the pilot, we are introduced to Carrie Wells, a woman living in Queens, New York who spends her days volunteering at a nursing home and her nights in casinos. As the first person at the scene of her neighbor’s murder, she is called in as a witness and meets Al Burns (Dylan Walsh) the lead detective of Queens PD who also happens be to her former boyfriend and partner at the Syracuse PD.

Nerd Affinity – Rise of the TV Geek

To
many of us over the age of 25, the term was probably used in a
derogatory sense while we were at school. But the times have changed,
and now “geek” is something of a trendy subculture, thanks to
movies such as Scot Pilgrim, the rising
masses of girl gamers and, yes, television shows.

Now, it
seems that almost every show has a likeable geek or nerd character,
who are usually used to inject humor into situations. It’s hard to
pick five as the best examples of lovable nerds in currently airing
TV shows, as there are so many. But, in order to examine what makes
geek characters such a popular facet of modern TV, that’s exactly
what we’re going to do.

The Best and Worst of Entourage

With Entourage done and dusted after almost eight years on our screens, a quick internet search will let anyone know that there are more than a few differences of opinion about the show. Some people loved how it began, others how it ended. The middle worked well for for a majority and others loathed the entire show from its inception. Nevertheless, Entourage definitely has a legacy. I obviously watched the show and have seen every episode (many on more than one occasion), and whilst it comes nowhere near the top of any ranked list of shows that I’ve seen in my life, I’d be hard pressed to say that I didn’t enjoy almost all of it. The extent to which I enjoyed it definitely varies however, and while those who have seen it will have their own opinions, those who haven’t but were considering giving it a go might want some idea of where to dip their beak to get a taste of Sex and the City man-style.

With that in mind, I present to you my worst-to-best list of Entourage…

2011 Emmy Awards: Are We Happy?

Another Emmy Awards show is in the bag,
and as always the results have drawn praise and condemnation in equal
measure. Well you can’t please everyone all the time. Then again,
unless you’re a big fan of Modern Family, there wasn’t much to
be pleased about – at least not in the comedy section of the
winners list. A couple of the Emmy voters choices in the field of
drama did help to smooth things over however.

The category for supporting actors in a
comedy series was actually doomed long before Jane Lynch came out on
stage. From the fall of 2010, to the spring of this year we were
treated to an incredibly strong season of comedic
television(especially in the spring). Making those months fly by
with laughter were a slew of gifted actors, nearly none of whom made
it into the nominations. For my money, the greatest injustice is
Park and Recreation’s Nick Offerman going without recognition
for what has quickly become one of television’s most iconic
characters. Of course, when two-thirds of the category is reserved
for the entire adult-male cast of Modern Family, it’s hard to
find room for Ron Swanson – let alone that mustache.
Unfortunately, the amount of undeserved praise for ABC’s massively
hit sitcom didn’t end with the acting categories.

Fringe: A Look at Season 3 and Speculations on What Lies Ahead

The maiden season of Fringe
introduced interesting characters and peaked our curiosity. The second
season, capitalizing on those achievements, turned interesting
characters into compelling ones and elegantly developed the fascinating
concept of co-existing universes. When the third season started, I
think regular viewers felt they had embarked into something different
and special, but it came with fears of disappointment, fears that the
show would not be able to fulfill the promises of such an outstanding
beginning. Ultimately, the writers succeeded and arguably went further:
they managed to make it difficult — even for viewers not blinded by
unconditional love for the series — to easily dismiss any episode in a
full 22-episode season.

Homeland First Impressions

Though the official premiere of Homeland is still weeks away, this latest dramatic offering from Showtime is already garnering some attention.  The pilot episode has found its way around after originally being put up on the show’s website, watchcareful.ly, and is now available on YouTube, albeit with some slight censoring (DirecTV subscribers will also be able to see it, unedited, this Sunday on the Audience network).  Whether you want to take a peek early or would rather wait until October before jumping into the series, here is what you can expect from Showtime’s psychological thriller.

Homeland is certainly a “sign of the times” piece, tapping into the fears of national security that hardly existed just ten years ago.  Which is not to say it’s exploitative, or solely reliant on the audience’s paranoia to hook them in.  There is dramatic weight behind the plot at the forefront, and a cast with enough talent to keep viewers in their seats even when the characters aren’t spying on each other.  Not without its flaws, the pilot still did an excellent job of drawing me into the story, and if the episodes that follow can overcome what issues the show does have, Showtime could have a real winner on it’s hands.