A couple days ago, the first trailer for NBC's Day One was "leaked". And by leaked, I mean was released by someone with access to a decent quality version. Here's the show in a nutshell, from NBC.com:
In the aftermath of a global event that devastates the world's infrastructures, a small band of [sexy] survivors strives to rebuild society and unravel the mysteries of why the event took place and what the future has in store.
Told from the point of view of an eclectic [read: there's an Asian guy and a black chick] group of neighbors in a Van Nuys, California apartment building, this journey of survival will show us that hope is found in the smallest of victories and heroes are born every day.
As the headline suggests, I was impressed by this trailer. The special effects especially. I would like to direct your attention to a few key moments.
1:01- Hilarious pratfall. 1:06- Riling up the 9/11 survivors. 1:34- The great Xander Berkley. 2:10-14- The gag-worthy tagline. 2:23- Horrible fake CPR.
Keep an eye on this one. Unfortunately it doesn't premiere until March of 2010, so you'll have to think of something else to do in the mean time. I suggest finding a hobby. Do people still collect things? Stamps? Post cards? Lady's fingers? Up to you.
There are a lot of reasons to get excited for HBO's new original series Bored to Death. The biggest is the cast. Jason Schwartzman plays an alcoholic writer who moonlights as a private detective. Zach Galifianakis, coming off the red hot (and highly recommended by me) film The Hangover plays his comic book writer friend. Kristen Wiig and the adorable Parker Posey represent the womenfolk. And Ted Danson rounds out the ensemble. The trailer looks a little quirky, too. But who am I kidding, I'd watch these guys in anything. Look out for it this fall. And look out in general so you don't fall. That's just good advice.
In news sure to interest your girlfriend (and mine, sadly), The CW has announced its fall premiere schedule. Since we gave blogspace to the announcements of ABC and FOX it is only fair to give you the premiere dates of the red-headed stepchild of major networks. Though to call The CW a major network is kind of like calling... Well, it's kind of like calling something what it isn't. Burn. Take this magical journey together with me: On September 8th we can travel back to the mid-nineties to visit two shows which weren't any good then, and yet somehow manage to be far worse now (don't worry, I've never watched a minute of either). The very next night you can leave your self respect at the door as you tune in to the four thousandth iteration of America's Next Top Model, which as far as I know has yet to yield a single "top model". You can always look forward to such luminaries as The Vampire Diaries and Gossip Girl. Stop me if you need a minute to contain your excitement. Oh, and Smallville is back. I kind of like that show. Shut up.
Coming this fall on ABCs is Cougar Town the latest show from Bill Lawrence (Spin City, Scrubs). The show premiers September 23rd and will fill the Wednesdays at 9:30 timeslot. Note that that is Lost's slot, so this will probably be a fall-only run or move somewhere else.
As a fan of Bill Lawrence's entire repertoire, it was pretty much a guarantee that I would at least give this show a look-see, though neither the premise nor the star really excited me that much. But I have to say that after watching the preview, I was pleasantly surprised, though I suppose I shouldn't have been given the source.
Essentially you can figure out the idea from the title of the show. It's about a woman who's getting on in years sleeping with younger men. The woman in question is Courtney Cox, who television viewers will best remember from Dirt and from that episode of Seinfeld where she pretends to be Jerry's wife to get his dry cleaning discount (I'm not forgetting anything, right?). I'm pretty much ambivalent about Cox. She's an alright actress, she's decent looking, she can be funny in a pinch. The jury is out on whether she can make this a successful vehicle.
As for the rest of the cast, you have Busy Phillips best known for whatever show it was you saw her as a recurring character in - for me that was the television classic Freaks and Geeks. Also appearing are the excellent Christa Miller (wife of Bill Lawrence) best known for her roles on The Drew Carey Show and Scrubs. I'm a fan of both actresses, so put them in the plus column. Most of the men in the show are unknowns to me with the exception of Dan Byrd who played Sylar's annoying sidekick for a few episodes of Heroes this season. That's a minus.
In the end, this is a show that will probably function mostly on the strength of Bill Lawrence's genius (which is immense). The key will be how much of an audience Cox can pull in, I'm really not sure how big of a star she is at this point, though I suppose time will tell. I will slap it with the official bambat seal of "worth a look".
No one in the show is really hot enough to get the bambat photojournalism treatment, so here's a cougar:
ABC announced their *yawn* fall premiere dates. And aside from Flash Forward and Saturday Night Football, which begin 8pm Thursday, September 24th and 8pm Saturday (duh!), September 5th, there's really nothing to see here. Even then, with the cancellation of Pushing Daisies, I really have nothing good to say about the Alphabet. And look at this schedule.
Three nights (in a row!) of Dancing With the Stars? You've got to be kidding me. It looks like a load of reality crap with some mundane sounding (comedy?) shows-- Modern Family, Hank, and The Middle-- tossed in. Now I don't know anything about any of those and based on those titles, why would I want to? There's also some Courtney Cox thing about cougars. It's the third legitimate TV child of Bill Lawrence (not counting that little bastard Clone High) after Spin City and Scrubs so it might be worth a look. It's called Cougar Town so I can only assume it's another animated series about talking cats. Basically Samurai Pizza Cats with some of the cast from Friends. I'm now being told "cougar" has another meaning. This show isn't about cats at all.
Saturday, September 5
8:00 p.m.-11:30 p.m. “Saturday Night Football”
Friday, September 11 10:00-11:00 p.m. 20/20
Monday, September 21 8:00-10:00 p.m. “Dancing With the Stars” 10:00-11:00 p.m. “Castle”
Tuesday, September 22 8:00-10:00 p.m. “Dancing With the Stars” (special two-hour episode) 10:00-11:00 p.m. “The Forgotten”
Wednesday, September 23 8:00-9:00 p.m. “Dancing With the Stars The Results Show” (special day and time) 9:00-9:30 p.m. “Modern Family” 9:30-10:00 p.m. “Cougar Town”
Sunday, September 27 7:00-9:00 p.m. “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” (two-hour season premiere) 9:00-10:00 p.m. “Desperate Housewives”
Tuesday, September 29 8:00-9:00 p.m. “Shark Tank” (returns to its regular timeslot after being preempted the week prior) 9:00-10:00 p.m. “Dancing With the Stars The Results Show” (regular day and time period premiere)
Wednesday, September 30 8:00-8:30 p.m. “Hank” 8:30-9:00 p.m. “The Middle”
Sunday, October 4 7:00-8:00 p.m. “America’s Funniest Home Videos”
Friday, October 9 8:00-10:00 p.m. “Ugly Betty” (two-hour season premiere)
Friday, October 16 8:00-9:00 p.m. “Supernanny”
Yeah yeah. ABC saved Scrubs. Well, they also kept According to Jim on for 8 seasons. Yeah yeah. ABC has Lost. Well, for every Lost there are two Grey's Anatomy and one Ugly Betty. Your argument is invalid.
[ed: This seems like a good place to put Jimmy Kimmel's hilarious monologue at the ABC upfronts in case you missed it the first time around. And since bambat didn't exist then. -brett ]
I've been wondering when the modern American fascination with comic book adaptations was going to carry over to the small screen (not counting the CW), and it looks like it's happening. The trick is to take remarkably obscure comic book characters and spin them into series, apparently. Now, some comic book geek is sure to tell me that The Human Target is not obscure, but for those of us without Cheetos stains on our sweatpants (a category I'm barely avoiding) we've probably never heard of him.
Given that it's Fox, I expected to watch the trailer of Human Target and be underwhelmed. But then the trailer fired up and I caught the sweet voice of Tricia Helfer, and I was hooked. It's a contractual obligation for all Battlestar Galactica nerds to get geeked up about any appearance by a former cast member. Just when I thought it couldn't get any better, the camera pulls back to reveal Chi McBride, one of Mike's most precious television binkies. Just the inclusion of those two is enough for me to watch the pilot, though it seems that it's probably only a guest spot for Helfer.
The "human target" himself is played by generic white protagonist aka Mark Valley, who you probably most recently saw as the guy who dies in the pilot of Fringe but then shows up like five more times. Meh. Oh, and Jackie Earle Haley (Rorschach from Watchmen) is also in it.
Really, this feels like one of those generic filler shows that will probably get a six episode run and then be cancelled. The trailer was okay I guess, nothing spectacular. I imagine I'll probably give the pilot a glance just for Helfer and McBride.
As you've already read, I'm more than willing to express my disdain for the new wave of crap that will be gracing our television screens come this fall. However, there are also a good number of shows which I'm quite excited for. This is the first in a series of posts giving my impressions of some of the new fall shows.
First up is V (ABC), which is a remake of the 1980s television franchise of the same name that you've never heard of. Long story short, aliens come to Earth. They're up to no good. If you watched the trailer (it's right up there, see) than you don't need me to give you the blow-by-blow. Taking a glance at my DVD shelf it's no secret that I'm a sucker for high-concept sci-fi shows. But what has me most excited for V is the cast, which seems to have been assembled just for me. They appear to have gathered up a good number of my favorite actors who you've never heard of and put them in one place. The lineup includes:
Joel Gretsch, who you forgot to watch in The 4400 and Taken. Needless to say, the man knows his way around science fiction. He's a tremendous character actor, and I hope this show takes off so he is exposed to a wider audience.
Morena Baccarin, who you had the great misfortune of not watching in Firefly or as the principal antagonist in the final season of Stargate: SG-1. Are we sensing a pattern here? She also deserves mention for her brief turn as Marshall's crazy love interest Chloe on How I Met Your Mother (official television show of bambat). Anyway, she plays the head alien. And she's wicked hot. I think this will be a theme as well.
Elizabeth Mitchell is the one actress in the lot you might know from her brilliant work as Juliet on Lost. Needless to say, I'm a big fan of her acting. And of her other, ahem, assets. It will be nice to see her get a starring role, though I'll miss her on Lost (assuming she's not back much).
Laura Vandervoort who your 13-year old cousin Stacy and I remember from her stint on Smallville (I know, I know). I'm not going to rise to the defense of her acting talents, because they're indefensible. But her "standing there and being blonde with big cans" talents are top-notch. From the trailer, that seems to be her niche here as well.
The one deadly sin here seems to be casting Scott Wolf and Lourdes Benedicto, two veterans of the critically acclaimed The Nine(sarcasm tag). That's like casting Moon Bloodgood in your pilot and also making her executive producer. Unfortunately, only Mike will get that joke. Hopefully this toxic combo will be balanced out by the inclusion alongside Baccarin of fellow Firefly alum Alan Tudyk, though it seems he may only be in the pilot. Rounding out the cast are Morris Chestnut and Logan Huffman, about whom I have nothing witty to add.
I should also mention that the show's executive producer is Scott Peters, creator of The 4400. That probably doesn't mean anything to you, but it inspires me with confidence. Obviously it's far too early to judge a fall series, but given the talent involved and the good-looking trailers that are coming out, I have high hopes for this show. As of now, it is slated to premiere midseason on ABC. More to come I'm sure.
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