TeleChimp

Kate Gosselin is back on TV and, for better or for worse, at least she’s not dancing anymore. Last night was the series premiere of Kate Plus 8, which really did play out as the title suggests — exactly like Jon & Kate Plus 8 minus Jon.

For the first few minutes of the pilot, you could feel the awkward tension surrounding the lack of Jon — his name wasn’t so much as uttered. It really felt like there was an 800-pound gorilla in the room, especially upon seeing the signs he put up around the house banning TLC from taping the children while Kate was oh-so-subtly doing a voice over saying how much her kids love the camera crew. Maybe that’s just the fault of the powers that be, but it was very obviously pointed at Jon being the bad guy. In any case, when you watch as the kids freak out in excitement over the camera crew coming back, and then as the crew people play with the kids, it’s hard to call Kate a liar, even though it’s also hard to tell if she herself likes the crew for the way they interact with her children or because they are the vehicular device for her celebrity. Either way, the taping of Kate Plus 8 at least looks like a joyous family reunion. And, for the record, I believe the whole bunch of them when they say they don’t like the paparazzi — so don’t worry, Kate, we don’t need to see you do another interpretive dance about them.

Back to the children, whom have always been the real draw of the show for me: They got so old! I like that the new intro theme is all about them, definitely an improvement from Jon & Kate Plus 8. I really just forgot how much I liked the kids, especially after being so wrapped up in Kate’s so-bad-it-was-amazing run on Dancing with the Stars. Even though their parents went through a very ugly, very public divorce, the children really do seem happy and back to their crazy Crooked House living, electronic-car riding lifestyles. As usual, Cara gets .5 seconds of screen time while Mady…well, let’s just say she’s currently going through her Terrible Nines.

As the episode title indicates, the first episode was all about the little kids’ “Sixth Birthday Surprise!” and Kate took them all on a big trip to swim with dolphins, which she considers a “rite of passage”– whatever. Six minutes in, Kate finally used Jon’s name as she tells us that her ex had the kids on their actual day of birth. She calmly stated that it worked out pretty well, but not without casually slipping in that the children came back chewing gum, and if you recall from a Jon & Kate Plus 8 episode, Kate freaking hates it when the kids have gum because they manage to get it in their socks/carpet/teddy bears. And it was a refreshing little jab, if I do say so myself.

The rest of the episode was typical to the Jon & Kate Plus 8 format, with the kids being adorable and doing cool things while Kate flips out — though this time around, she’s attributing her rage to low blood sugar. As I mentioned before, things really weren’t too different without Jon; Kate seems a little lonely, yes, but she always seemed sort of sad behind the eyes, and I definitely prefer her talking straight-up about divorce and being a single mom over passive-aggressively emasculating a silent, pissed-off Jon. Also, Jon sucks, so it was just generally better that he wasn’t there.

Next up was “Inside Kate’s World,” a planet where I regret spending an hour. I was expecting the episode to be a little bit informative or, at the very least, entertaining, but after watching the first 15 minutes of Today Show co-host Meredith Vieira, an editor of People magazine, and an Inside Edition reporter talk about Kate’s hair extensions and then subsequently seeing Kate get the extensions, I realized that this was going to suck. It was more of the same for the next 45 minutes, with Kate talking about her very predictable reactions to all of the things that we read about months ago in gossip blogs. The Dancing with the Stars scenes were the biggest draws, and even they were painfully boring. The only highlight of the hour was when Kate compared herself to Angelina Jolie, which was just begging for backlash.

This sort of “insider” episode seems totally fruitless, because I think that Kate’s been a reality TV celebrity long enough for people to have decided already if they love her or hate her (which, according to TLC, are the only two possible opinions a person can have about Ms. Gosselin). This episode was clearly just an opportunity for the network to squeeze as much footage as they could out of the no-doubt thousands of hours they’ve taped of the Gosselin clan over the past few months. If there’s one thing I learned from the two hour season premiere, it’s there are actually people who genuinely love Kate and think she’s a great mother/humanoid. While I think those people are the true crazies, maybe I’m no better, because I’ll be joining them in watching Kate Plus 8 this summer.

Popularity: 82% [?]

David E. Kelly told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that “Boston Legal” only ended this season because “ABC didn’t want us back.”

Kelly tells the paper that they had to fight to even get a 13 episode 5th season to wrap the show up. “Boston Legal” was never a huge ratings success, but the show did ok, and was praised by critics. It won several Emmys, most notably for William Shatner.

The two hour finally saw two weddings – one with Shirley Schmidt (Candice Bergen) and Carl Sack (John Larroquette) finally getting together. The other wedding was between Alan Shore (James Spader) and Denny Crane (William Shatner). The two married so that Alan could legally care for Denny like a spouse as Alzheimer’s takes him in the near future, and in turn, Denny can give his fortune to Alan with no problems.

It was a clever, and a appropriate ending for the show. If you missed “Boston Legal” during its run you can catch it on the ION network, and the DVDs are available as well. It’s well worth watching.

Popularity: 33% [?]

This is one of those episodes that just hurt to watch. Not just because it was bad (and it was), but mainly because it seems that someone understood that it was bad, and gave it a proper burial back during season one. But for some reason somebody decided to desecrate its grave, exhume the body, and parade the corpse for all the world to see.

This was a “lost” episode from season one. If you didn’t know that, you might have been confused as to why Charlie Francis was magically back from the dead. It would’ve been nice if Fox had explained that better in the build up to this oddly placed, Monday night episode.

The story starts with the apparent death of a young girl, which then leads to fairly typical TV hospital drama. Then things turn a little freaky when the young lady pops up during her own organ removal surgery, but in the world of Fringe openings, this is rather mundane.

The story slowly evolves into the spiritual possession of our young victim, Lisa, by Andrew Rusk, a dead military man with a dark past and a vengeful wife (who had a big hand in making him dead). The Fringe team goes about an “exorcism” to get the spirit of the dead dude out of the body of the formerly dead girl.

Yes, that’s right…an exorcism…on Fringe.

This episode is cheesy, with mediocre writing and some fairly bad performances from the guest supporting cast. I’m not even going to go into the whole “seventeen-year-old-girl-doing-middle-aged-man-voice” because it’s something I’d rather erase from my memory completely.

There’s nothing special at all about this episode. One small glimmer of goodness is the old home video of a young Walter Bishop poking in some poor guy’s brain. We get to see John Noble in an entertaining wig, and there’s a casual mention of some poor test subjects who got fat settlements from the university, but that’s one of the very few bright spots of this story. One area that could have been interesting is the story’s dabbling in the topic of the intersection of faith and science. This could have been a thought-provoking sub-plot to all this talk of spirits and resurrection, but instead it was just random bits of theology thrown in with some out-of-character moments from Walter.

Is Fox trying to test the waters for a schedule change to move Fringe from the highly competitive Thursday slot that has killed its ratings? Or was someone just looking for something to fill some empty air time with?

Regardless of the reasons, this was a bad decision. This episode should have stayed buried, buried in a hole so deep it would never see the light of day. If you’re a Fringe fan, this episode brought you nothing. If you weren’t a Fringe fan, and just happened upon the show after watching House, you probably didn’t see anything that would make you interested in the series. This is a lose-lose deal.

So let’s all forget this ever happened. We’ve got what appears to be a perfectly fine Fringe episode coming in our regularly scheduled but perhaps ill-fated Thursday slot. Though it seems like this will be another standalone story, it can’t be possibly be worse than this one.

Popularity: 36% [?]

Scrubs focuses on the unique point of view of its main character and narrator, Dr. John Michael “J.D.” Dorian (Zach Braff). The series follows the lives of the employees at Sacred Heart Hospital:  Dr. Elliot Reid, Dr. Chris Turk, The Janitor, Dr. Bob Kelso, Dr. Perry Cox, Nurse Carla Espinosa and J.D. himself. Season 8 sees the replacement of Dr. Kelso by Dr. Taylor Maddox (Courteney Cox-Arquette).

When Dr. Maddox arrives on the scene, she brings about a lot of changes that will affect the way doctors treat patients. Elliot and J.D. confess their feelings for another and are back together as a couple. They then prepare to leave Sacred Heart, so that J.D. can be closer to his son.

In the meanwhile, Janitor gets married to Lady and Dr. Cox is promoted to chief of medicine and Turk is promoted to chief of surgery.

Popularity: 32% [?]

In six quick episodes, BBC’s Being Human managed to give us a ghost, a vampire and a werewolf we could care about. For the most part, it bucked trends, steered reasonably clear of cliche and tackled tough topics including vampire snuff films and suspected (but unfounded) paedophilia.

But for us, the episode that epitomises the nature of this show about supernaturals put the focus on Annie, pining across the preceeding episodes for a wedding that would never be, for it to be revealed in the third it was her abusive fiance who’d killed her.

This obstinacy to see through rose coloured glasses even when she herself was see-through and to deny the truth even in death, was a biting comment on the too common abusive situations people find themselves in and was handled deftly in a fantasy show with very ordinary, often brutal roots.

Popularity: 32% [?]

This show really isn’t afraid of doing what it wants.

Sometimes, shows become complacent and formulaic the point where it becomes a detriment.  And, whether it works or not, you have to give credit to those shows that try and change things up once in a while.

Hart Hanson and the Bones crew definitely shook it up to finish up the shortened third season of Bones.

I must confess I’m a recent convert to Bones.  I’m not usually into the crime scene shows, although I have been caught watching the original Law & Order.

But, with repeats on CBS, I switched over to FOX and caught the second-last episode of Bones (S03E14) and got hooked.

Initially, I was mostly intrigued by the shooting of Booth, one of the main characters.  I actually thought the bastards were going to make me wait until next year to see what had happened.  So I decided to do some catching up.  I obtained the first 2 seasons of Bones and starting watching. I found out that Bones has repeatedly put Brennan and Booth in harm’s way and the pair have always lived to tell the tale.  We’re not talking minor brushes with death, but Jack Bauer type survivals (being buried alive, captured by a serial killer, fighting a pipe-yielding bad guy with no weapon, being blown up, etc).

I’ll forgve them their tendency to almost-kill too frequently on Bones–I would do it too.  That’s because they lead to these tender moments between Brennnan and Booth that make the show great.  Their chemistry is what separates this show from every other crime drama on TV.  I think those 2-3 minutes every few episodes are the reason I haven’t got tired of show.

But those almost-kills create another problem and here comes my biggest gripe with Bones so far…it has no impact on their relationship in the following episodes.  Booth will save Brennan’s life in dramatic fashion one week and the next she’s very removed from him.  It’s like each episode they press a reset button and the characters have to build their relationship back up from scratch.  And they did exactly that this episode.

In the last episode, we were left wondering if  Booth would even survive after heroicly taking a bullet in the chest for Brennan.  Instead of continuing where it left off, we skipped ahead 2 weeks to a supposed funeral for Booth.  This might have worked on other shows that left the possibility of killing their lead characters open, but on Bones it fell flat.  I knew it was fake and it took away any emotion from the that scene.  It’s a minor grip for the show in general, but every time the overlook the emotions of dramatic events, I feel it’s a wasted opportunity.

I know a lot of Bones fans detested this episode.  Some hated this episode enough to write off the show for good.  I think those people are liars.  They’ll be back watching next season.  Another group of fans suggest that with all the inconsistencies in this episode that it will be revealed as a hallucination or dream sequence. I’m not like Hodgins, and so I take what was presented at face value.  Zack’s the apprentice and he won’t be back in the Jeffersonian in the near future.  Not to mention his motor skills will take considerable recovery.

Sure, there were inconsistencies, but I think that was an effort on the part of Hart Hanson et al to try and throw suspicision on as many false suspects as possible in order to keep the suspence going.  Everyone became a suspect in the episode with the frontrunners always a toss-up between Hodgins and Dr Sweets.  The writers certainly played those two characters odd behaviour to another level to paint them as possible suspects, but that’s always a good sign that it’s not true on TV.

I have to admit, I only figured out who it was when Hodgins made his discovery that lead levels concluded the killer lived in his neighbourhood.  It couldn’t be Angela, so it had to be Zack.  It’s unfortunate this decision wasn’t made in time to have Zack actually killing the person he supposedly killed.

Popularity: 38% [?]

While the show will air on Fridays this fall, The Good Guys will get a special series premiere screening this Wednesday prior to American Idol.

The last Fox series to receive such treatment? A little show called Glee.

The Good Guys stars Colin Hanks as Jack Bailey, a Chicago detective whose snarky attitude has landed him with Dan Stark as a partner. This aging cop is portrayed by Bradley Whitford and still lives off his glory days in the 1970s, where he rose to fame by rescuing the governor’s son.

Dan also drinks. A lot.

TV Fanatic will cover this show in depth, starting with the pilot episode.

Popularity: 36% [?]

Published on May 27, 2010

From today, you can see the pilot of BBC3’s horror/drama Pulse in its full goodness on the Internet. This is quite a bold move for the BBC, which is making a trio of pilots available prior to them being broadcast, and Pulse is the first out of the bag.

Why should you be interested in Pulse? An assortment of reasons. Firstly, it’s from the mighty pen of Mr Paul Cornell, a man whose television work alone has brought us the terrific Doctor Who two-parter Human Nature/The Family Of Blood. He’s the same Paul Cornell who gave the world Bernice Summerfield, and whose name you can find alongside Captain Britain and MI-13. And now, he’s turned his hands to Pulse.

The BBC has also put out a trailer for what’s easily the bloodiest show it’ll put out on any of its channels this year, and having seen this pilot, we can attest to its quality.

Pulse is shown on BBC Three on Thursday June 3rd, and if all goes to a plan, a six-episode season will be commissioned for broadcast in 2011. Please give the show your support: it’s not often we get a horror-themed television show on British television, especially not one as good as this.

Popularity: 41% [?]

Following Megan Fox’s somewhat abrupt departure from the Transformers franchise last week, there’s been much Internet speculation as to whom director Michael Bay would choose as a replacement.

Gemma Arterton, fresh from her appearance in Prince Of Persia, was thought to be in the running, while other names attached to the role included Miranda Kerr, Bar Refaeli and Brooklyn Decker.

Now, however, it appears that Bay’s selection is, in fact, none of the above. According to GeekWeek, the actor lined up to play the girlfriend role in Transformers 3 will be 23-year-old Rosie Huntington-Whiteley. If her name doesn’t sound too familiar (and we must admit, we hadn’t heard of her, either), she’s a British model whose great-great grandfather was politician Sir Herbert Huntingdon-Whiteley.

Other than the fact that she’s dating Hollywood hard man Jason Statham, Huntington-Whiteley’s acting CV seems rather thin, though her experience as a Victoria’s Secret and Pirelli calendar model probably makes her more than qualified to take on the role of Michael Bay’s eye candy in-residence.

Specific details of Huntington-Whiteley’s character have yet to be announced, but expect to see her draped over a motorcycle in a giant robot movie near you soon.

Popularity: 35% [?]

Chuck Versus The Living Dead

With this show now the proud owner of a shiny thirteen-episode season four, and an option on a back nine, those working on Chuck must be walking tall.

But that good news does also bring with it the whole question of where the show goes next? I mean, the concept must develop or die, I’d suggest.

If Chuck Versus The Living Dead is anything to go by, there appear to be those in the Chuck writing team who’d like the show to entirely morph into a serious spy drama. Because some bits of this week’s show were so Alias in places I wondered if Sydney Bristow herself would come gliding into view wearing an implausibly tight rubber dress and an outrageously red wig.

What underlined this to me was that the plot of the show is reworking the same idea as the first season of Alias, namely it’s not just being a spy that’s tough, it’s the impact on those around you that’s even harder. If this seems all a bit serious for Chuck, and it is borderline in some places, before it gets too out of hand they have Morgan Grimes and Jeffster on hand to remind us that this show was/is/can be a hilarious comedy.

The headline event this week is the reappearance of Scott Bakula as Mr. Bartowski Senior, lured back by The Ring’s manipulation of Ellie. With her planting bugs and telling lies, that makes Big Mike and Jeffster the only non-spies in the show!

I remember joking in an early review that, by the end of Chuck, everyone would be a spy, and by a quirk of weirdness that seems exactly where we’ve gone.

It’s the BuyMore characters that are the very spine of Chuck, though, and their often manic contributions are the highlight of most episodes. The bits they contributed this week made me genuinely laugh out loud, rather than the mumbled snigger that most allegedly funny TV can draw from me. The whole idea of Jeff and Lester breaking up their act and then Big Mike coming to manage their reunion was a masterstroke. But the scene where Mike explained that he was the missing ‘Rain’ from ‘Earth, Wind and Fire’ had me in hysterics.

They capped that piece beautifully when Mike handed Lester the gold stage costume, because, as he saw it, Lester has the ‘hips of a six-year-old girl’. This was pure Chuck magic, and I’m still chuckling now, hours later.

I suppose the strength of this show is that it can be intense, crazy and thoughtful, all within the space of 90 seconds, which makes it very entertaining. Where they’ll take this eventually, I’m not sure, but I’m glad they invited us along for the ride.

What it also demonstrates is the confidence everyone in front of and behind the cameras has in their product, and that they can still deliver strong entertainment going into a fourth season.

I’ve kept this review spoiler-free in most respects, but I do want to mention the appearance of a previously dead person at the end of the show. It will either be the catalyst for a suitably insane finale, or we’ll all regret that particular actor’s involvement in this show. Time will tell.

With only two episodes left in this season, I anticipate probably more drama than laughs, but the I’m confident we won’t be disappointed on either front.

Popularity: 30% [?]