Monday, September 24, 2012

TV Times

Copper - The pilot tries too hard to create a grubby 19th Century post-Civil War New York where life is cheap when it votes against the corrupt politicians from New York's Tamany Hall. A group of old money aristrocrats are trying to hold onto power with the invasion of poorer ethnic groups standing in their way. Our hero is at the center as bridge between the very rich and the very poor. He navigates and dominates the squishy, damaged, dreaming middle. This is all about the dark side of American Dream.


Titanic Blood And Steel - This time we see the story from the beginning - before the ship is even built. We are there from conception to first launch. Valuable historic background and an interesting story of ego vs technology vs history. It's the first great story of the Information Age. It was the last gasp of large scale industrializations until the two World Wars. I find the soap opera stuff to be the weakest part of the story. I am staying for the little technical details that justify the reputation the ship had for being 'unsinkable'. I want to see the source of those innovations in ship building.


Titanic Blood and Steel : Before And After from WindmillLaneVfx on Vimeo.



Homeland - I am glad that both Damian Lewis (Life) and Claire Daines took the acting awards for their work on this series. Lewis keeps you wondering if he is the terrorist that Daines think he may be and watching Daines fall apart due to her character's mental illness is the single most terrifying performance I have seen all year. Never has mental illness and the razor thin line between genius and madness been portrayed so well. To do that in the middle of the tensest drama of last year makes Homeland a winner. Catch up before season two begins.


I am giving Elementary and Last Resort a chance and hope that they don't give into their worst instincts. Both had strong pilot episodes.



I want to get into Once Upon A Time but I need me some encouragement. There is only one season to catch up on and I have heard good things.



Gordon Ramsey needs to learn that less is more and go away from my TV for a few years.

Big Brother had a GREAT season and I am already reserved my seat for Survivor and The Amazing Race. If it's not broke, don't fix it.

Now where is that Roller Derby Channel? 800 other Channels all about UFO's, Nazi, Kittens And Honey Boo Boos and NO ROLLER DERBY CHANNEL? How can we have a Golden Age without a Roller Derby Channel?





9 comments:

david_b said...

Love female rollerderby. Went to an competition a few months ago.

Pretty fun to watch, awesome attitude on skates.

Kal said...

I could find myself amused by the spectacle. I appreciate the effort and the elbows.

Erik Johnson Illustrator said...

I've downloaded the pilots for Last Resort and Revoultion, but haven't gotten around to either one yet. You just made them sound so good.

I'm getting in the habit of exercising in the afternoon in front of either Spongebob or Scooby-Doo, but since both are in perpetual reruns I think I might see if I can stream episodes of classic Super Sentai through the internet instead for the adrenaline rush.

Yesterday I found a YouTube channel with every episode of "Alfred Hitchcock Presents". A half hour suspense anthology series overseen by the master himself. Sounds like my kind of evening entertainment alright.

I hear you about "Honey Boo Boo". I've never seen it, but my Mom keeps talking about it in that "I can't believe this show exists." If she thinks thats the worst kind of morality there is on TV than there is no way she could ever understand something like "Breaking Bad".

This Saturday, new episodes of Young Justice plus the premiere of Nickelodeon's new Ninja Turtles show!

Kal said...

I give you an award if you get through ten minutes of Revolution - it's a stinker. Last Resort was good because it didn't give me time to think how dumb it was and I like that mentality.

I like to save up my cartoons and Clone Wars episodes and watch them marthon like fashion. Looking very forward to the Turtles. I can't believe how many incarnations of that idea that I have seen animated. The concept has stood the test of time. 'Beware the Batman' might be interesting.

Erik Johnson Illustrator said...

Well with so many action cartoons these days favoring arc stories, I imagine that can be quite rewarding.

"Clone Wars" Huh? I haven't been able to get into the series. I keep hearing that its good, but I've just been too burned by the prequel films to really care about anything in the Star Wars expanded universe anymore.

I'm interested in seeing what "Beware the Batman" has to offer as well. Each incarnation of animated Batman has been very unique, it'll be interesting to see this one's own stamp on the character.

Kal said...

Clone Wars is what the extended Clones Wars Universe would be like if George Lucas had NOTHING to do with it. It's like he left it to others and they only made things better. The struggle of the clones, the relationships between all the characters, the politics and especially the animation. There is one episode that totally reminds you why R2 is the greatest astrometric droid in the galaxy. It's like a stand alone bit of genius. Worth your time in big chunks.

csmith2884 said...

Revolution was tough to like. Will try maybe one more. I like the idea and the last 30 seconds of the pilot got it one more look. The rest of that stuff has not started here yet. Elementary looks good. Copper did start it's on my list to try. Did you ever try Grimm? My fiancee and middle daughter watch it with me, cool ideas, lots of different monsters.

Kal said...

I promised myself that if I got into ONCE I would also give GRIMM a try. I do like love between the monsters I do.

Brian said...

I gave up on Copper after Sunday night's episode. It's sluggish pace, bad acting and dull characters were just too much.