Sunday, September 25, 2005
THE WHITE STRIPES!
I saw The White Stripes in concert on Wednesday, and all I can say is, they were simply amazing live. It's incredible that so much sound and energy comes out of just two people, but Jack and Meg White are the real deal. The set was their usual red and white imagery, with white potted plants and a backdrop of white trees in a red background, and a big red apple sun above the proceedings. Jack came out in his typical all-black ensemble, including hat, and proceeded to strangle the life out of several guitars, while Meg pounded the drums with gleeful abandon. They did a solid set, spanning all three of their albums, and came back for an encore, ending with my favorite of their songs, "Seven Nation Army."
If you dig this group at all, then you've got to see them live. They put on one helluva show that you won't soon forget. You won't be disappointed.
MORE NEW SHOWS!!
INVASION (WEDNESDAY NIGHTS AT 10PM ON ABC)
Of the new alien invasion shows currently popping up on television (including THRESHOLD and SURFACE), INVASION got the most positive buzz beforehand. It was created by Shawn Cassidy, who also created the TV show AMERICAN GOTHIC a few years back for ABC, which has since gone on to become a cult classic among aficionados of horror TV shows. Sure, Cassidy also was a teen heartthrob in his younger days, starring in THE HARDY BOYS and even having a top 10 hit single with his cover of “Da Du Run Run,” but unlike a lot of teenage poster boys, he’s actually acquitted himself pretty well over the years, creating lots of hours of above-average television.
When I heard he was behind INVASION, I had high hopes for it. Then the hype machine started spinning its wheels, and INVASION got the prime slot after LOST on Wednesday nights, and I figured it was a sure thing.
Based on the first episode, INVASION has a lot of potential. But I certainly wasn’t blown away by it.
It begins with a hurricane, which has a haunting quality in the context of recent events (ABC even aired a disclaimer before the show warning of disturbing storm scenes). We see how the storm affects a Florida town and are introduced to a bunch of characters – mainly two families – Russell Varon (Eddie Cibrian), a divorced father with two kids, his new wife (and TV reporter) Larkin Groves (Lisa Sheridan) and her unemployed brother Dave (Tyler Labine) who has come to live with them. The other family consists of Dr. Mariel Underlay (Kari Matchett), the mother of Russell’s two kids, and her new husband Tom Underlay (William Fichtner), whose also the town sheriff, and his daughter Kira (Alexis Dzeiena, who had a “revealing” role in the recent Bill Murray film BROKEN FLOWERS).
Once the storm is over, the mother of the two kids goes missing and is found naked and unconscious in the swamp. When she awakes, she has noticeably “changed” and doesn’t recognize all the people in her life. She takes cues from others to figure out who everyone is and does her best to fit in without being too obvious about it.
Meanwhile, Russell and Dave find some weird luminescent life forms in the Everglades during a late-night investigation.
Yes, INVASION appears to be another variation on INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS, and aliens are taking people over. So far Mariel and Tom Underlay appear to be the ones who’ve been changed so far. With obviously more to come. The ending shows Sheriff Underlay telling his wife “Just take baby steps.” Implying he’s already made the transition and has found his niche in human society.
The first episode mainly sets up the characters and plot for the rest of the season, but this show looks pretty good and things should really kick in high gear next week.
The most surprising thing about this television season is that all three of the new “alien invasion” shows that have come out, all have something good going for them, and it would be really interesting if they all became hits. I think my favorite is still SURFACE so far, but I’m really curious to see where INVASION goes in the coming episodes.
THE GHOST WHISPERER (FRIDAYS at 8pm on CBS)
Well, I guess SUPERNATURAL wasn’t necessarily the worse new genre show after all. At least it had some good atmosphere and set things up for some mysteries you might want to figure out, even if it didn't make a helluva lot of sense and the show itself isn’t all that good. But it's got some competition, now that CBS has aired THE GHOST WHISPERER.
Which is not to say GHOST WHISPERER is absolutely horrible, because it’s not. It’s just…well…bland. And an obvious ripoff of NBC’s MEDIUM.
Jennifer Love Hewitt plays Melinda Gordon, a woman who sees ghosts. Unlike Patricia Arquette in MEDIUM, she doesn’t use this ability to solve murders (not yet, anyway), but instead, she’s a kind of courier, delivering messages for the dead to the living, so the ghosts can finally get some peace.
In the first episode, we get a glimpse into Melinda’s childhood, and how her grandmother spotted her gift right away (and shared the ability to see ghosts). Grandma teaches her that she has a responsibility to help the dead, as we see in a scene where she delivers a message to a grieving widow at a funeral. Then we see the grown-up Hewitt, newly married and having just moved into her new house (saying it needs a lot of touching up is an understatement). She is confronted with the ghost of a Vietnam soldier (Wentworth Miller, who stars in a much better FOX show, PRISON BREAK) who left behind a pregnant wife and a child he never got to see. He doesn’t even know he’s dead and wants to reach out to the family he hasn’t seen in over 30 years. Melinda does some research and finds out the ghost’s identity and goes to his son, who is now a man with a pregnant wife of his own. The son never knew his father, and in fact doesn’t even know for sure that he died in Nam (the father was listed as MIA) and Hewitt gives him answers he desperately needs. At first the son thinks Hewitt is a con artist trying to scam him and reacts angrily, but then he comes around, and is able to have a conversation with his long-lost dad through Hewitt as the go-between. Things end with the government finding the father’s body and bringing it back for a proper burial, and everything ties up nicely.
Melinda has an understanding new husband Jim (David Conrad), who is also a paramedic. While he knows about his wife’s “gift” he also wants to protect her from it and the dead spirits who approach her, but he knows he can’t do anything about it. There’s also a clever subplot in the first episode about the husband’s brother.
Like I said, GHOST WHISPERER isn’t terrible, but it doesn’t really have anything new to offer. A lot of people have said it’s like a cross between MEDIUM and TOUCHED BY AN ANGEL, and that’s an apt description. Love-Hewitt is an attractive star (and her rack ain't too shabby), but frankly she’s not that good an actress, and the show pretty much relies on her. She seems sweet enough, but she’s bland, as are most of the other “living” characters in the show.
Let’s just say I don’t see much reason to go out of my way to watch future episodes.
I also saw the second episode of THRESHOLD, and it didn't live up to the promise of the pilot. This time around, we learn that more people might have been exposed to the strange alien machine (a passing airplane) that fateful night, and that more people might be "infected" by strange mutations than originally thought. This leads to a storyline involving a cadet at a military academy who attempts to email video of the alien appearance from episode one to even more people (kind of an alien invasion version of THE RING). While this show still has a sold cast, and an intriguing premise, the second episode just didn't do much for me. I hope the show gets back on track in the coming weeks.
As for more new shows, next week marks the debut of the new version of ABC's THE NIGHT STALKER. Let's hope they don't ruin the concept too much.
Until next time...
Infernally Yours,
LLS
Monday, September 19, 2005
NEW GENRE SHOWS - WEEK 2 BEGINS..
SURFACE (Mondays at 8pm on NBC)
Here come the sea monsters!
A scientist takes a deep sea vessel down to the bottom of the ocean and finds an ecosystem previously unseen, as well as huge craters in the ocean floor that burrow deep into the earth. She also finds a behemoth that arises from one of these craters and almost kills her. Nobody believes her until she surfaces and they see the bite mark on her vessel....
Two brothers harpoon-fishing come across a gigantic creature. When one of them accidentally spears the creature as it goes by, he is dragged to his death.
Two kids find what look like eggs on a late night boating trip. One of them brings an egg home and puts it in his family’s aquarium. Then the other fish disappear. And the egg hatches....
A fisherman and his son in Mexico see a shooting star and make a wish. Then, suddenly, there are a hundred more falling to earth. What do these have to do with the sudden appearance of a sea creature presumably from our prehistoric past?
I actually heard some negative buzz about SURFACE before the first episode aired, but frankly, I liked this show and want to see what happens next. I thought the pilot was pretty good and set things up for what could be an interesting ride ahead.
If the show has a weakness, it’s lies in the characters. The cast, led by Lake Bell as scientist Laura Daughtery, is adequate, but frankly their characters are kind of bland. There’s always a chance this will change as the series progresses. We'll see.
Saturday, September 17, 2005
THE NEW GENRE SHOWS - WEEK 1
Well, I've been watching some of the new horror and sci-fi shows that the networks have been pumping out this season. It's obvious that these shows were fast-tracked to cash in on the success of LOST, but so far, there isn't anything in LOST's league. It's a pretty mixed bag. And here are my reviews:
BONES (Airing Tuesdays at 8pm on FOX)
No, it's not the resurrection of DeForest Kelly. The big draw for this one is that it's the new show for David Boreanaz (the star of ANGEL, for anyone living in caves). And while the show is interesting, it's a big step down from ANGEL. This isn't a Joss Whedon gig, so it's bound to be second rate. This time, Boreanaz is FBI "Special Agent" Booth (does the FBI have any "non-special" agents anymore?). He is teamed with forensic anthrolopoligist Tempreance Brennen (Emily Deschanel), who is a whiz at figuring out the most tiny details about a murder victim based on their bones (it doesn't hurt that she has a crack team behind her, and the most amazing high-tech gadgets money can buy). The show has a real X-FILES vibe (something we're going to see a lot this season, from the evidence I've seen so far), and would almost be forgettable, except that Boreanaz and Deschanel actually have some chemistry. I haven't seen Deschanel before, but the camera loves her, and she does a good job as a fish out of water scientist who's not as hip to the outside world as she could be (Boreanaz's character calls 'em "squints", but they used to be called nerds), even if she does seem a little too clueless sometimes for someone so smart. As a big fan of ANGEL, I'm still smarting from the way that show was so abruptly canceled before its time, and BONES is a poor substitute. But I find Boreanaz very likable and I'll give the guy a chance. They address the X-Files thing in the first episode when Agent Booth tells Temperance "We're just like Scully and Mulder." To which she replies "Who?" showing how out of touch with pop culture she is. It could get tired after awhile, but I'll give the show a few more chances. BONES is nothing great, just a mediocre hybrid of X-Files and CSI, but I like the actors involved. We'll see how this one goes.
SUPERNATURAL (Tuesdays at 9pm on the WB)
Instead of an X-Files ripoff this time, we've got a Buffy clone. And not a real good one, either. This time it's two brothers fighting supernatural baddies, Jared Padalecki (Dean from the Gilmore Girls) and Jensen Ackles (last on Smallville). It seems that their mother died under mysterious circumstances and they're traveling the country trying to kick demon ass and find the bastard who killed their mom. The only thing is - there are no clues as to who offed Mom, as far as I can tell, so it seems like one big wild goose chase. The death of Mom happened when they were kids. One day, she was just fine, and then all of a sudden she's stuck on the ceiling, bleeding from her stomach, and then suddenly bursts into flame. The house burns down and Dad vows to get the fucker who did this. And it appears that he trained his sons to follow in his demon-hunting footsteps. The thing is - we never see any sign of a demon doing anything to their mother. One minute she's on the ceiling and doing her human torch act. And that's it. No suspects, no leads. How the fuck are they going to figure out who did this? Dad seems to figure "What the fuck, let's just go clobber all the spooks and demons we can in the meantime, and let god sort them out." As the first episode of SUPERNATURAL starts out, Dad has gone missing and brother Dean (Ackles) comes to drag college-kid Sam (Padalecki) back into the family business. Dad was out tracking down a "lady in white," a ghost who appears as a hitchhiker and lures men to pick her up so she can kill them. The key being they have to be men who cheated on their wives, just her husband did. This is one of the "local myths" we're going to get to explore every episode. Sam agrees to go play detective with his bro for the weekend, but, as his hot girlfriend reminds him, he's got a big law school interview first thing on Monday morning. The brothers go to the town where the lady in white has been spotted, and they solve the mystery (which also includes the ghosts of two drowned children). After beating the ghost, the guys find out that Dad skedaddled awhile ago, heading to Colorado, so they missed him. Sam has to decide whether to stick with his brother to go searching for Dad, or to go to that important interview. He decides his education is more important, but when he gets home he finds his smokin' girlfriend up on the ceiling, bleeding from her stomach, and she suddenly bursts into flames (sound familiar? It's that faceless woman-killing muthafucker again that we never get to see!). So Sam decides what the fuck, might as well go looking for Dad. And so it goes.
SUPERNATURAL is by the same people who brought us the recent cinema crapfest BOOGEYMAN, and there are similarities in mood and (stiff) characters who are determined to face the supernatural. But I think SUPERNATURAL is a step up. While the brothers have chemistry (even if they are kinda the opposite of "dynamic" - we're not talking actors with a lot of range here), the show is kind of mediocre, and it doesn't make a helluva lot of sense. I'd watch it a few more times to give it a fair trial, but frankly, it's up against HOUSE on FOX, and the new Jason Lee comedy MY NAME IS EARL next week, and I only got two TV's. So unless SUPERNATURAL is a hit and actually makes it to reruns (and anything is possible), chances are this was my one and only shot at watching the show. I gave it a shot, and it failed to grab me. Not that I'm too sad about that. Although it would be nice to have at least a hint as to who the muthafucker is who's setting this women on fire.
THRESHOLD, Fridays at 9pm on CBS
Well, we got treated to a 2-hour pilot episode of THRESHOLD on Friday - and it was an hour too long. If you want to talk about X-FILES ripoffs, this might just be the king of 'em. It reminded me a helluva lot of the "Black Oil" episodes of X-Files, where a strange black substance (which appears to be alive) goes about launching its own twisted invasion of earth. This time, it's not black oil, but instead it's a ripoff of the Japanese movie SPIRAL, where strange geometric shapes create all the horror. A ship is introduced to what we think are aliens - in the form of a big floating geometric shape that is constantly changing and makes a noise like knives sharpening. Is it a spaceship? The crew of the ship don't find out because they either go insane or die (and some simply disappear). The government puts a team together to investigate. This includes very hot Dr. Molly Anne Caffrey (Carla Gugino, last seen as Marv's social worker in SIN CITY), leading a bunch of misfits like Brett Spiner (Data from Star Trek: The Next Generation) as a medical doctor, Robert Patrick Benedict as a quirky computer hacker and Peter Dinklage (from The Station Agent) as a mathematician who has a thing for the ladies. They discover that the spaceship, or whatever it was, altered the DNA of everyone who saw it. In fact, even watching a video of it causes people to bleed from their noses. This is some serious shit. The team discovers a sole survivor, First Mate Gunneson (William Mapother, who also played the menacing alien guy on LOST), who at first seems to be in shock after his crew went crazy and tried to kill each other, but who reveals himself to be pretty wacko himself. When they try to airlift him to a helicopter, he breaks free and starts attacking everyone. Dr. Molly shoots him like five times, and he jumps overboard. But he's not gone. In the second hour he comes back to terrorize her some more.
THRESHOLD actually has some good things going for it. An interesting cast, a really interesting invader so far, and a decent storyline. In fact, even though it's clearly "inspired" by The X-Files, it works pretty well on its own. It’s got tons of plot holes – but hey, this is network TV – so we expect that. I didn't like it enough to give it a big thumbs up (as some other critics might do), but I'm hooked enough to watch some more episodes and see where this thing is going.
That's it for this week. Next week brings us the pilots for more shows like SURFACE (Monday at 8pm on NBC), INVASION (yet another alien invasion show, this time on ABC on Wednesdays at 10pm) and the triumphant return of LOST. So keep your eye here for more reviews on whether these things are worth your time.
Until next time. Infernally Yours,
LLS
Tuesday, September 13, 2005
YES, I'M STILL HERE!
I know, I know, I haven't posted anything here in a few weeks. To tell you the truth, there wasn't much to post. The only new movie I've seen lately was 2046, the new movie by Wong Kar Wai (maybe you saw some of his other movies like CHUNKING EXPRESS - my favorite of his films - or HAPPY TOGETHER, or his last film IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE). 2046 takes another look at some of the characters from IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE, and kind of travels back and forwards in time showing us the various women in the life of Chow Mo-Wan (the excellent Tony Leung)who is also writing science-fiction stories that take place in the year of 2046 (the number is based on an important room number in a hotel). The ladies include such stunners as Zhang Ziyi (from CROUCHING TIGER and HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS), Gong Li, and there's even a glimpse of Maggie Cheung (who was the female lead in Wai's IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE). It's complex and sometimes confusing, and while there are some really good scenes in the movie, and I'm a fan of Wai's, I found 2046 rather boring over all, which was disappointing.
But the big news this week is that Laura has a new story online. It's called THE RUBEE and you can read it by going to THREE-LOBED BURNING EYE # 15 It's an especially dark little piece about a rather violent relationship. Check it out.
Not much else going on. I'm going to be checking out some of the new genre shows on TV this season - some are horror, and some are science fiction - but there are a lot of them, including SUPERNATURAL, BONES, INVASION, THRESHOLD, SURFACE, THE NIGHT STALKER (REMAKE), and Showtime's much-anticipated MASTERS OF HORROR, to name a few. I'll check them out and post my thoughts here.
In the meantime, there are two amazing new albums you can check out, if you're so inclined. One is the new DEATH CAB FOR CUTIE CD, entitled PLANS. The other, the new one from the NEW PORNOGRAPHERS called TWIN CINEMA. Both are excellent and I've been listening to them a lot lately.
Not much else, except for the heart-breaking footage of the disaster in New Orleans. I sure wish I'd had a chance to visit that city before all this awful shit went down.
So, until next time...INFERNALLY YOURS..
LLS
