Television Review - Pushing Daisies Season 2

ABC, 8 PM EST, Wednesdays

Rating (after five episodes): 4.5 out of 5 Stars

The facts are these: Every once in a while a show comes around that is so much unlike anything else on television that it feels like a breath of fresh air across the Prime Time landscape. Pushing Daisies is a show like that. Also, every once in a while a show comes around that just makes you feel so comfortable with the characters and surroundings that it seems like part of your life, perhaps an extended family, and it puts you completely at ease. Pushing Daisies is a show like that.

Its basic premise seems simple and even somewhat contrived: a man can revive the dead for sixty seconds and he uses this ability while working with his private investigator friend to solve crimes. But this short description does not tell you what Pushing Daisies is really about (you can read more on the details of the premise in my review from Season 1). It is not a crime drama, in fact it is not a drama at all. It is more of a romantic comedy and its main strengths are its characters, their interactions, and their droll, rapid-fire dialogue. Its other strength is the stunning visual world that it creates, a story-book adult fairytale brought to life with vivid colors and the reassuring voice of the ever-present narrator. It’s like something out of a Tim Burton movie as it celebrates both eccentricity and an inner need to strive for normalcy at the same time.

Though I delighted in this series from the beginning, early on I worried that it would quickly growth stale and fall victim to formula (much like what Reaper experienced during its first season). And while the series definitely has remained hand-cuffed to its basic formula, it does so on purpose. In fact, Pushing Daisies revels in it. The mystery stories that act as a backbone to each episode and provide little more than contrived, and at times ridiculous, tales that serve the purpose of carrying forward the action (peppered with a healthy dose of dark humor). What’s more, I don’t even believe that they provide enough clues for the viewer to figure things out on their own (I’ve never been much of a mystery fan, so I haven’t even tried). They don’t care about this, because sometime during the last fifteen minutes of each episode the narrator will step in with his expected summary of events prefaced by his trademark “The facts are these” statement. I wait for this moment each episode because I know it is coming and it provides a comforting, tidy wrap up to all the loose ends of the mystery. Every crime drama on television has this overly-contrived moment when some character at some point sums everything up for the audience. Pushing Daisies just openly acknowledges the need for the device and carries it off with a smirk and tongue firmly planted in cheek (and a reassuring British accent).

The reason that the basic formula of Pushing Daisies has not grown stale, comes from the fact that it simply provides the springboard for the larger story the series wants to tell. Oh, we’re not talking about Lost-type, intricate, multi-story arcs here. We are talking about the story of the grand, eccentric characters that populate the world of Pushing Daisies, who, despite their idiosyncrasies and peculiarities, only want the most basic things that anybody wants: to love, be loved, and to live happy. It is the standard theme that runs throughout most Tim Burton movies (I can’t believe he did not have any hand in creating this series), celebration of eccentricity, normalcy, and basic happiness at the same time.

Of course this series would be nowhere without the exceptional actors who bring these characters to life. Lee Pace plays Ned the Piemaker with the puppy dog sadness of a man who can never touch his true love. Anna Friel plays Chuck as an inquisitive optimist who wants to revel in every minute of the second chance at life she has received. Kristin Chenowith plays Olive as a bitter, yet kind-hearted, woman scorned by the man she loves. Then there is Chi McBride in his penultimate role as the laconic, acid-tongued, me-first private investigator with a much softer side we would prefer to remain hidden. I still find it a great injustice that he did not even receive a nomination for best supporting actor in the last Emmy Awards. These four alone make the series soar, but they are complemented by even more talent from Swoosie Kurtz and Ellen Greene as Chuck’s aunts (though we later find out that Aunt Lily is really Chuck’s mother) as well as the outstanding guest appearances that have included such talents as Paul Reubens, Molly Shannon, Raul Esparza, and David Arquette.

Ratings wise, Pushing Daisies has seen a huge drop-off in numbers from its first season and is actually currently one of ABC’s lowest rated shows. The threat of cancellation looms as the series has yet to receive an additional order of episodes beyond the first thirteen for Season 2. Fans are currently mobilizing a campaign to save the show, but its sinking numbers could spell an early doom. Ultimately the show may be just too off-the-wall for the Prime Time television audience (as an example, the low-brow, mind-numbing Knight Rider on NBC regularly tops Pushing Daisies in its timeslot). And it may be a poetic fate that a series about eccentric yet endearing people who only want to find love can find no love from Prime Time television audiences.

-John J. Joex

Buy Pushing Daisies Season 1 on DVD from the Axiom's Edge Webstore

Find Episode Summaries, Reviews, Cast Info and more for Pushing Daisies at TV.com

Hulu Television Awards: John J. Joex's List

As Sam Christopher mentioned in his entry on the Hulu Awards, we have been selected as panelists in the upcoming awards ceremony for that site hosted by the Hulu Review. Following are my nominations for the current three categories:

Best Shows of the Eighties:
There were not too many Science Fiction and Fantasy entries to choose from (we can only pick from shows available on Hulu.com). In fact two of the genre entries made it to my worst of list: Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, and Galactica 1980. Still, there were several examples of television at its prime on this list.

My Nominations:

1. Miami Vice – While quality-wise this may not be the best show on the list, Miami Vice is the eighties. From the hair, to the outfits, to the slick production, to the MTV meets Cop Drama premise (literally it began life when an exec at NBC scratched “MTV-Cops” on a piece of paper) this series embodies much of what characterized that decade so it belongs at the top of this list. And it was a pretty good show to boot.
2. Hill Street Blues – For better or worse, this show changed the cop show genre and moved it away from action-oriented shows to drama. And Hill Street Blues presented some pretty riveting drama throughout its run (while also adding a healthy dose of black humor). This show set the template for many of the crime dramas that would follow in the years to come.
3. WKRP in Cincinnati – This irreverent and often chaotic series ranks as one of the all-time best sitcoms and managed to stay funny throughout its run.
4. The White Shadow – A unique series that took a rather real look at urban life among predominately minority teen-agers. It wasn’t afraid to address the issues faced by young people and to often provide realistic if unsatisfying conclusions.

Honorable mention: St. Elsewhere and Fame. I did not tune in to either of these too often, but probably should have.

Guilty pleasure: The A Team. You got a problem with that, fool?


Best Shows of the Seventies:
This is really color television shows before 1979, but all of the shows on the list were mainstays during that decade either in Prime Time or syndication. While Science Fiction and Fantasy was trodding through its wasteland period during the 70’s, sitcoms were experiencing their heyday. The cream of the crop were groundbreaking, relevant, and funny as well, and they ruled the Nielsens.

My Nominations:

1. Barney Miller – An intelligent comedy that managed to be funny as well. How come they can’t figure out how to do shows like this anymore?
2. Mary Tyler Moore Show – Set the standard for ensemble comedies and delivered plenty of laughs. Many will argue that it is better and more important than my top choice, and that may be true. I just liked Barney Miller more.
3. The Bob Newhart Show – Yet another example of sitcoms at their prime and of a good ensemble show. Also inspired one of the early classic drinking games.
4. Lou Grant – Lost the laughs from its predecessor MTM, but managed to deliver some relevant drama.

Honorable Mention: The Rockford Files – Who couldn’t love Jim Rockford? Night Gallery - Not quite up to the standards of Serling's The Twilight Zone, but it had its moments.

Guilty pleasure: The Partridge Family. Nothing groundbreaking about this show, but Danny and Reuben were damn funny. And the Partridges could kick butt on the Bradys any day of the week.


Best Classic TV Show:
These represent the small selection of black and white shows that Hulu.com currently has available.

My Nominations:

1. Alfred Hitchcock Presents / Alfred Hitchcock Hour – Presented well crafted stories with unexpected twist endings framed by Hitchcock’s sardonic quips as series host. Why can’t they do good anthology shows anymore?
2. The Three Stooges Collection 1934-1936 – Those who did not grow up watching the Three Stooges on television likely will not understand the choice. To them I say: “Oh, wise guy eh?”
3. The Addams Family – This series about lovable eccentrics with a zest for life had to have been a major influence on Tim Burton.

Honorable Mention: Bewitched. I’m not as enamored by this show as many others are, but I acknowledge its accomplishments.

Guilty Pleasure: McHale’s Navy. The chemistry between Ernest Borgnine and Tim Conway was pure magic. And they were darn funny.

-John J. Joex

(Editor's Note: The general public can participate in the nominations as well. Go to the links above for any or all of the categories you are interested in and cast your vote for the shows you think should win. All of the general votes will be tallied up and count as one panelist in deciding the final winners. PSW)

Hulu Television Awards: Sam Christopher's List

This year the Hulu Review, a blog dedicated to the Hulu.com website, is hosting an awards ceremony to choose the best shows on Hulu. The reason you’re reading about this here is that John J. Joex and I have been asked to be judges, and in going through the nominees I thought I would share with our readers my thoughts and nominations. The first category was sports programming and I was stuck basically picking football games because for some reason Back on Topps, a fictional show about two brothers (the Sklars of Cheap Seats) working for the card manufacturer, wasn’t eligible for nomination but WWE, a fictional show where steroid freaks scream at each other for an hour and a half, was. But that’s all right; rules are rules and lines have to be drawn somewhere. Now, let’s check out the juicy parts:

First up, we have the Classic TV Show nominations. Now bear in mind, the only shows eligible are the one shown on Hulu. We were given a list of nine—The Addams Family, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Bewitched, The Dick Van Dyke Show, Father Knows Best, McHale’s Navy, The Three Stooges Collection 1934-36, and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. We were then asked to break it down to three choices. After a series of mathematical equations and coin flips, talking this over with friends and lovers, and making a drinking game out of how many times I change my mind, I finally hit upon the perfect solution: darts thrown over my shoulder. My list at that point was lost dart, wounded cuckoo bird in clock, and flesh wound (I can be clumsy after drinking). So, after going to the vet and bandaging myself up, I rolled up my sleeves and got down to the hard work of choosing one fair-haired child over another. Here’s what I came up with:

1. Bewitched: This was really my only easy choice. Elizabeth Montgomery brought a grace and beauty to the small screen that has rarely been challenged and, for my money, never truly equaled. Supporting cast Dick York and Agnes Moorehead formed one of the best two or three supporting casts in sitcom history. An amazing show that really stands up over time.
2. Father Knows Best: I could’ve picked almost anything after Bewitched and been happy with it but I chose this show because it has almost no showings anywhere else at the moment and, really, how can a show with Spock’s mother, a Federation ambassador who marries the Father of the Warp Drive, and Marcus Welby be left out?
3. The Three Stooges 1934-36: N’yuk, n’yuk, n’yuk. Need I say more?

Next category is Best TV Show of the ‘70s. The eligibles are too numerous too mention here so I’ll just get right to the selections. There are five this time. At least this was a little easier:

1. The Rockford Files: A favorite from my childhood, when Friday nights meant Sanford and Son, Chico and the Man, and James Garner’s magnificent embattled detective. Rocky, Dennis, Angel, and Stephen J. Cannell’s great story sense round out in this, the second best detective show of all time (behind only Columbo in my mind).
2. The Mary Tyler Moore Show: CBS revolutionized early ‘70s television with sitcoms based on contemporary issues. MTM’s liberated woman running from a broken engagement (this was originally supposed to be a divorcee but CBS was afraid viewers would assume she had divorced Rob Petrie from The Dick Van Dyke Show) fit that mold perfectly. A show that was about something without being so heavy-handed it lost the funny.
3. The Bob Newhart Show: Another from the CBS stable, a show devoted to the funniest straight man of all time. A show that rarely had a point to stab us with but always had a situation we just couldn’t help but laugh at, and a cast that was always welcome in our living room.
4. Barney Miller: A cop show with heart and soul. Sometimes pounded it’s point home like a Van Helsing in a medieval castle but usually kept things light enough to allow us to smile through the staking. At it’s best, there were none better; slightly more uneven than the others listed here, though, overall.
5. Adam-12: I chose this over Dragnet only because this is never shown anymore and it was a great “next generation” for Dragnet. The stories were more natural than its parent show(I’m guessing because a patrol car is a better environment for this type of show than an office).

Finally, we have Best TV Show of the ‘80s, again with five nominations:

1. The White Shadow: I absolutely loved this show when I was in high school. A lot of my friends were on the basketball team and we would sit around the day after it showed every week talking about it the way we all talked about BtVS a few years ago. A wonderful drama with heart that almost never disappointed, even when I really didn’t agree with its conclusion.
2. Fame: Another great CBS drama that I didn’t really discover until the ‘90s. I had a job where I spent every night basically watching tv and this became a staple for all of us there. A teen drama not very much different from The White Shadow, this was interesting in the same way. And it had Khan’s wife on it, as one of the kid’s mother.
3. Hill Street Blues: NBC also struck gold in this decade with the cop drama, and this Steven Bochco creation was fantastic. The forerunner to NYPD Blue, this was hard hitting for its time and holds up very well today. And there’s the ep where Bochco took a script from his own little watched Judd Hirsch vehicle Delvecchio and remade it virtually shot for shot. Waste not, want not.
4. Elvira’s Movie Macabre: Fresh, funny, bawdy, cleavage. Along with awful movies what else could one ask for?
5. The Facts of Life: Why? Because I did like it and there were any one of about seven shows I could have picked for this last one, and I hadn’t picked a sitcom for the ‘80s. It was just a fun show to watch.

Well, that’s it for now, folks. As this process unfolds, I’ll let you in on what’s going on as best I can. I would also like to take this opportunity—since I didn’t do it earlier here – to thank Matt Hongoltz-Hetling, the mind behind the HuluReview blog, personally for allowing me to be part of this process.

-Sam Christopher

Weekly Update – Knight Rider pickup may indicate change in thinking; Save Pushing Daisies Campaign; Ratings still sluggish; Lost Season 5 Promo

NBC gave an unexpected full season pickup to Knight Rider this past week despite the poor ratings that it has pulled through its early episodes. This makes the second full season order this Fall from one of the major networks for an underperforming Science Fiction and Fantasy series (FOX’s Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles had its back nine episodes picked up a couple of weeks ago). While two series may not indicate a trend, this seems to suggest a change in thinking among the major networks who have usually been quick to sharpen the axe for genre shows not pulling their weight in the ratings. Fans have often decried that the networks have acted to quickly in the past and that they should have given the shows a chance to develop and find an audience. In these two cases, NBC and FOX (most notorious for its quick trigger finger) seemed to have done just that. We will have to see what happens with the other underperforming Science Fiction and Fantasy shows to see if a change in thinking truly is evident, but at this point there is reason to hope. The most attention right now is on Pushing Daisies which has experienced a significant ratings slump in its second season (pulling numbers more akin to a CW show). ABC has remained mum on the fate of the series, but fans are already gearing up for a campaign to save the show . . . Speaking of which the nascent Save Pushing Daisies campaign has already posted an online petition to show support for the series. A letter writing campaign is also underway and fans are organizing an effort to start sending daisies to ABC as a pre-emptive measure. For more information, go to our Save Pushing Daisies site . . . Ratings continue to be sluggish with this year’s crop of Science Fiction and Fantasy shows with hold-overs from the prior season seeing lower numbers and new shows not performing up to snuff. As expected, the shows that crossover more heavily into the crime genre (The Mentalist, The Eleventh Hour, Life on Mars) have performed the best, with The Mentalist (of marginal interest to the Science Fiction and Fantasy genre at best) currently claiming honors for the top rated new show (among all genres). And while The Eleventh Hour and Life on Mars have pulled good numbers, both are losing a considerable amount of the audience from their lead-ins (CSI and Grey’s Anatomy respectively). The CW’s Valentine is almost certainly destined for the chopping block as it has seen abysmal ratings and has already halted production. Other shows currently at risk are NBC’s My Own Worst Enemy which has pulled lower numbers in its slot than last year’s cancelled Journeyman, and ABC’s two sophomore series Pushing Daisies and Eli Stone which have both lost a major portion of their audience from last year. Keep up with the weekly ratings with our Network Ratings Tracker as well as the likelihood of cancellation with the Renew/Cancel Index at TV by Numbers . . . A promo for Lost Season 5 is now available online and can be viewed at TV.com. Note, that if you are in the process of catching up on Season 4 at this point, you will want to skip this for now as it contains major spoilers . . .Sam Raimi’s The Legend of the Seeker will debut in syndication in one week. To find the channel and time for your area, go to the series website and enter your zip code . . . Entertainment Weekly is claiming that Heroes has lost its way in its third season and are suggesting with five ways to fix it. In a separate article, they have also suggested some tweaks for Chuck and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.

Sam Christopher's Quick Hits

First up this week, Birds of Prey #123. With The Joker joining the Silicon Syndicate a couple issues back we were set up for an epic showdown. Then, the last scene in #122 has The Clown Prince of Crime coming face to face with Oracle (Barbara Gordon, the woman Joker made into an ex-Batgirl all those years ago in Alan Moore’s fantastic Batman: The Killing Joke) and the showdown was here. But writer Tony Bedard (Mystic, Exiles) and artist Michael O’Hare (I don’t think he’s the actor from Babylon 5 but judging by what I could find on the Web he could very well be) decided to take a step back. This ish was a bit of a letdown until the end. I’m sure it’ll all be dragged out an extra issue in order to take full advantage of the upcoming #125 but we can only hope it’s worthy of that wait.

Remember when Stan Lee and Jack Kirby could produce virtually all of Marvel Comics on a monthly basis? Well, The Superman: New Krypton Special is 40 pages of three writers—Geoff Johns (Justice Society), James Robinson (Starman), Sterling Gates (Green Lantern Corps)—and three artists—Pete Woods(Action Comics), Gary Frank (Midnight Nation), Renato Guedes (OMAC)—with less verve. It’s not really that bad as stories go, until the end. I know it’s just me and no one else feels this way but is there ever a point to anyone dying in comics ever? The funeral of Jonathan Kent and everyone’s reaction to it was handled well (not that it matters because some untalented hack will bring him back to life for no good reason at some point), but the government scientists working on the recently defeated Brainiac apparently never saw Independence Day. Not very impressive but only the first leg of a loooooong race which will weave through all the Super-titles. (And I would ask how a huge city filled with aliens with Superman’s power but not his view of Earth as humanity’s home landing here isn’t something that concerns every hero, villain, government, and person on the planet, and the Green Lantern Corps, but…)

Alan Davis (Captain Britain) writes and draws Thor: The Truth of History, a one-shot showing my favorite character from all literature in ancient Egypt. Thor, Sif, Balder, and the Warriors Three (Fandral, Hogun, Volstagg) crash into the abode of Nedra the Jotun Queen and find that she is raiding Midgard (Earth) in violation of a pact between Odin and the leaders of all other pantheons that higher beings will not interfere with the affairs of Man (all of which has to do with the Eternals and Celestials and was explained in The Mighty Thor #283-300). Nedra has found a way to bypass Bifrost and open a gateway to Egypt, circa 2,000 BC. Volstagg falls through and Thor, Hogun, and Fandral go after him. While this isn’t the best Thor I’ve ever read it was still an okay stand-alone that reminded me of the old Marvel Giant-Sizes and Annuals.

Other comics:

Xena: Warrior Princess/Army of Darkness: What… Again?!—Never a big fan of the show (although it was all right), but Dynamite’s use of Xena—Contest of Pantheons, Dark Xena—has been excellent, and the first of these franchise crossovers—Why Not?—was a fun read, so we’ll see.

The Dead: Kingdom of Flies #1—Title makes sense, flies often circle around piles of excrement. Not the worst thing I’ve ever read, but still awful.

Final Crisis #4—Meh. A little better. Maybe this is one of those books which is only really good when you can read the whole thing together.

FC: Submit—An excellent one-shot that gives us a story centering on Black Lightning, never a bad thing. Amazing to me how similar in tone the entire Anti-Life storyline in FC is to the typical zombie story; amazing mostly because I didn’t notice it until this installment.

Hulk #7—Love Loeb’s revamp, but this ish was split into two stories, like X-Men: The Last Stand, and they should’ve stuck with one, like X-Men: The Last Stand. “Hell hath No Fury” should’ve been either a mini-series or a story in She-Hulk.

-Sam Christopher

Television Review - Star Wars: The Clone Wars

Cartoon Network, 9 PM EST, Fridays

Rating (after four episodes): 3.5 out of 5 Stars

Okay, it looks like I will have to eat my words on this one. Leading up to the premiere of this show, I lambasted it several times as potentially little more than another marketing vehicle for Star Wars products. Of course I had good reason to suspect this as Episodes I - III of the theatrical franchise seemed to almost completely dispense with any attempts at telling a good story in favor of presenting a visually appealing product that seemed primarily focused on promoting merchandise for the franchise. This television adaptation, however, harkens back to the days of the first two movies (or Episodes IV and V, or however you want to call them) as it tries to actually tell a story and as it also seems to have more of a soul instead of being a cold, calculating marketing machine.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars is a CGI animated series that focuses on the period of the Clone Wars that occurred between episodes II and III of the film franchise. The primary characters of the series are Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Ahsoka Tano (Anakin’s Padawan or student), and Yoda, with Count Dooku and General Grievous stepping up as the main villains (at least through the first four episodes). The series is comprised of stand alone episodes along with multiple story arcs (episode one was a stand alone followed by a three-part story).

Each episode opens up with a short saying (i.e., from episode 2: “Belief is not a matter of choice, but of conviction”) that provides the theme for the story that will unfold over the next thirty minutes. This is not an attempt to make some grand statement, just to provide a little bit of depth and unity to the episode. Though the early movies did not explicitly state some sort of theme at the beginning, you could definitely feel it running throughout the film. This makes the television series less of an excuse to expose the franchise to another medium and more of a vehicle to expand on the rather rich Star Wars universe and explore its characters. The series definitely wants us to know more about what makes characters like Anakyn, Obi-Wan, Ahsoka, and Yoda tick. You start to care about these characters and want to participate in their lives rather than just losing them amongst the splendor of the special effects. Of course the visuals are amazing, as you would expect from a George Lucas production, but they do not become the reason for watching the show. They facilitate the story instead of burying it behind a display of smoke and mirrors.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars is more heavily character driven than what we have seen from the franchise for a long time. It even takes the time to notice the minor characters, such as the clones fighting for the Republic. All of the characters are well drawn so far (literally and figuratively), in part because there is plenty of back-story to pull from. Along these lines, I truly hope that the series will explore more of the events that helped push Anakyn to the Dark Side of the Force as this is the most intriguing storyline from this era of the Star Wars timeline.

The voice actors fit well with their characters which include Anthony Daniels making a return to the franchise as C-3PO (hasn’t he participated in every film/television incarnation of Star Wars?). The voices for the Battle Droids (along with their lame attempts at humor) get quite annoying, though, and the voice actor who does the opening narration has to go. Fortunately, no sign of Jar Jar Binks yet, though I understand that he will show up at some point. And the series is a bit more violent than the typical Cartoon Network fare, but no more so than the movies.

The show has only made it through four episodes, but its future definitely looks promising if it sticks with this format. The current season will run for 22 episodes and Lucas has said that he plans to keep it going for at least 100 episodes. Based on the early ratings returns (and the expansive Star Wars fanbase) this could be a very real possibility. Star Wars: The Clone Wars could revitalize the franchise and bring a new level of excitement to skeptics such as myself who soured on Star Wars after the debacle of Episodes I - III.

-John J. Joex

Sci Fi TV Blast from the Past: Quark

Quark: The Complete Series

Starring Richard Benjamin as Captain Adam Quark and created by Buck Henry (Get Smart), this series focuses on the crew of the United Galaxies Sanitation Patrol Cruiser who have sworn to keep trash from conquering the galaxy. The other crew members from this sci fi parody included Ficus, a super-intelligent yet emotionless vegetable-man, Gene/Jean, a "transmute" who could involuntarily switch genders at any moment (and usually at the worst time), Betty I & II, a beautiful female navigator and her clone (but both claims that the other is the clone), and the robot Andy, cobbled together with spare parts and always on the brink of falling apart. I remembered thinking this series was hilarious when it first came out in 1977, but then I was younger and less discriminating at the time (and there was very little to choose from in the way of Science Fiction on television at the time). The series mostly takes aim at Star Trek and its ilk with its parodies, but also nods at first the Star Wars (er . . . make that the fourth . . . I mean Episode IV . . . I mean . . . you know what I mean) which hit the theaters during Quark’s short eight episode run. It has its funny moments, but not as many as you would expect considering the pedigree of Benjamin and Henry. Its comedy is rather broad and obvious, but it still does a decent enough job of skewering the genre. Definitely worth a look especially for those of us who grew up as Science Fiction fans during the 70’s.

-John J. Joex

Buy the DVD now from the Axiom's edge Webstore

Other Blasts from the Past: The Starlost

Sci Fi TV Blast from the Past: The Starlost

The Starlost: The Complete Series

This Canadian import from 1973 was so bad that series creator Harlan Ellison insisted that his name be removed from the credits. The premise of the show centers around an enormous, multi-generational, 8,000 mile long, domed spaceship that originated from a dying Earth in search of a new home (no word on whether Halliburton got the original contract to build the ship). As luck would have it, disaster struck the ship and it went off course (and if it hadn't, there would be no show). Now, 400 years later, each of the domes has become isolated and the inhabitants no longer realize they are on a spaceship (they apparently did not have the internet to keep them in the know). Three people from an Amish-like culture living in one of the domes discovers that they are on this vast spaceship and that it is on a doomed course so they set out to try and make things right (the Amish to the rescue of an 8,000 mile long spaceship, huh?).

Produced on videotape with an ultra-low budget, this seems reminiscent of the original Doctor Who but lacks the same quality of writing and acting (the latter series' saving grace). Keir Dullea (2001: A Space Odyssey) stars, but failed to get the memo that he was not playing HAL as he acts more like a automaton than a human being (not that I can blame him based on those scripts). Walter Koenig (Star Trek) also makes a couple of visits as the alien Oro. The series only lasted sixteen episodes and has not been seen on television in the United States in years. It's pretty bad, but definitely worth a look for some good cheesy fun and to see an example of what could be one of the worst Science Fiction shows of all time (now that I have had a chance to see the series, I will have to revise my list).

-John J. Joex

Buy the DVD Now from the Axiom's edge Webstore

Other Blasts from the Past: Quark

Sam Christopher's Quick Hits

Amazing Spidergirl continues to be one of the more fun comics out there. Ish #25 is broken up into three stories. The first, written and drawn by the team of Tom DeFalco (Dazzler, Amazing Spiderman) and Ron Frenz (Superman, A-Next), continues the regular adventures of “Mayday” Parker and the current “Clone Saga” storyline. I must say this fits much better for Spidey’s daughter than it did for him. The backups, “The Rescue” by DeFalco and artist Todd Nauck (Supreme, Young Justice), and “First Day Drama” starring little brother Benjy by Defalco and Colleen Coover (Small Favors, Banana Sunday), provide good background and broad smiles, respectively. The Zombie Variant cover is great, too (poor bear).

DC Universe: Decisions #3 is kind of—no, a huge letdown. At the end of ish #2 Bruce Wayne endorsed a candidate and we find out here that it’s just what we thought—a ruse to get close to the candidate. Beyond that, this leg of the story was just kind of lame all the way through and the end promises that next ish Superman will declare his voting intentions. (Here’s to hope that it’s Libertarian, or that he always writes in Batman because Bats is the only man he truly trusts. Or that he hasn’t voted since the first election for which he was eligible—and he voted for FDR, since it was 1940.)

Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds #2 continues the Geoff Johns (52, Green Lantern) and George Perez (Crisis on Infinite Earths, Wonder Woman) piece of DC’s epic storyline. While the main title is, frankly, annoying and jumbled, the ancillaries—like Revelations, Rogue’s Revenge (more on this in a moment) and this title—are actually very good. This title, for me, is much better than the LSH main title which I finally stopped buying a couple months ago.

FC: RR #3 also came out this week and the final ish of the Johns story drawn by Scott Kolins (The Flash, Marvel Team Up) brings us a satisfying end to this story and a good springboard for the promised return of Barry Allen. I won’t give the story away but I will say it is typically good writing by Johns combined with art reminiscent of the great Carmine Infantino.

Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen is a one-shot written by James Robinson (The Golden Age, Starman) and drawn by the tag team of Jesus Merino(Avengers Forever, Superman/Batman), Leno Carvalho(Station), and Steve Scott(Homicide, The Creeper). In this story Robinson reintros Codename: Assassin, a character created for the short-lived DC series of the ‘70s First Issue Special (I actually have this comic). I don’t know if he’s been used any other time, though; remember when flashback scenes in comics came with the infamous “Editor’s Note” that told the reader where the scenes he was seeing came from? This story winds through Cadmus and ties into The Guardian (Jim Harper), and even shows the death of one of my favorite character s from the old Superboy series, Dubbilex (but I’m hoping we’ll find out that Dub was just using his mental powers to cast an illusion of his death). It then leads us directly into the Superman: New Krypton Special, which looks to be an exciting new storyline for the Big Red “S” stable.

Other comics:

The Age of the Sentry #2: Another fun parody of the past that shows Ms. Marvel as a character called The Sentress and gives us a hint that a deeper mystery is afoot here.

Booster Gold #13: A great concept for a book that now feels like it’s getting away from the creative team.

The Brave and the Bold #18: Ending a two-part Supergirl-Raven pajama party noteworthy only because it was written by the magnificent Marv Wolfman, creator of Raven.

Justice Society of America #19: If you’re not reading this you should be. Kingdom Come Superman, Earth-2 (sort of)—Johns and Ross are crafting a marvelous tale here.

Superman & Batman vs. Vampires & Werewolves #1: First ish is interesting but only really mentioned here because it almost seems like it’s being narrated by Carl Kolchak—which would be beyond cool.

Petition to Save Pushing Daisies

An online petition has gone up on the PetitionOnline.com site to convince ABC to keep its fantasy/comedy series Pushing Daisies on the air. The series has seen a considerable drop-off in its ratings through the first three episodes of its second season, and TV by Numbers has it pegged as the sixth most likely show to get canceled based on its Renew/Cancel Index. The petition is a pre-emptive measure as ABC has not made any indication yet that they will cancel the series, though its poor ratings performance certainly suggests the possibility. As of this posting, the petition already has over 2,300 signatures.

To sign the petition, go to: www.petitiononline.com/daisies/petition.html

Weekly Update – Sarah Connor Gets Full Season; Slumping Ratings may Signal Shake-Up; Valentine Most Likely to get Canceled; BSG Return Date Set

In a surprise development, The Hollywood Reporter has claimed that FOX has given Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles a full season pickup. The series has underperformed in the ratings this season, pulling fewer viewers than what it averaged in its first season, and rumors spread that cancellation was not far off. According to James Hibbard, though, FOX executives like the series and believe that is ratings will improve once American Idol returns in January (a trend seen across all of the network’s programming each year). He also mentioned that alleged production problems with Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse (set to bow in 2009) could have influenced the move, though this was debunked in a discussion that Sci Fi Wire had with series co-star Amy Acker . . This past week offered little in the way of good news for the network ratings of Science Fiction and Fantasy shows as both My Own Worst Enemy and Eli Stone had underwhelming season premieres. There is a good chance that some shake-ups to the schedule could soon alter the prime time landscape. Production has halted after eight episodes on the CW’s Valentine which has seen horrid ratings in its first two outings. Allegedly this is a planned hiatus to focus on scripts, but if the show’s ratings don’t show improvement pretty quickly, the break could become permanent. My Own Worst Enemy, the last part of NBC’s Monday night Science Fiction and Fantasy block, debuted to only mediocre numbers, registering hardly any more viewers than the now defunct Journeyman saw in that timeslot last year. NBC can’t be happy with its Monday night shows with both Chuck and Heroes underperforming compared last year and I would not be surprised to see this line-up tinkered with in the coming months. The peacock network has ordered additional scripts for Medium (which traditionally airs in the second half of the season) and has told the production crew of that show to be prepared for a possible early start. That may factor into an attempt to shake up Monday nights and bolster the ratings on. ABC’s Life on Mars premiered with good numbers, but lost over 3 million viewers week over week on its second airing while also losing 6 million viewers from its Grey's Anatomy lead-in. The Eleventh Hour has also been losing veiwers from its CSI lead-in and CBS may decide that this is not the right timeslot for the show. I would not be surprised to see this one move into the Friday 9 PM timeslot following The Ghost Whisperer which is currently occupied by the underperforming The Ex-List. For more detail on the ratings of all the network Science Fiction and Fantasy shows, visit our Network Ratings Tracker . . . The CW’s Valentine is the most likely show in the Science Fiction and Fantasy genre to be canceled according to the most recent Renew/Cancel index on the TV by Numbers site. The number on the index is derived by taking a show’s season to date viewers in the 18-49 demographic and dividing by the network’s season to date average with this group. As mentioned above this show has already suspended production, though allegedly this in only temporary. Not far behind Valentine at number six on the list is Pushing Daisies which has seen a significant drop-off in viewers in its second season. Other genre shows considered possible targets for cancellation are Knight Rider, Chuck, and even Friday night staple The Ghost Whisperer which has experienced a ratings slump this season. According to the rankings on this list, the other genre shows can currently consider themselves safe from getting axed at the current time . . . The Sci Fi Channel has announced January 16th as the return date for Battlestar Galactica to air its final ten episodes. This puts to rest the rumors that the series would not return until later in 2009.

Sam Christoper's Quick Hits

The third miniseries in the Marvel Zombies saga, imaginatively titled Marvel Zombies 3, has the super-ghouls finally coming to Marvel Earth (Earth-616 in the series, collect ‘em all). Fred Van Lente provides the story while Kev Walker supplies the pictures. I liked this first ish and the story is interesting, but… Every time they’ve shown the Zombies before the undead were never ones for intricate planning until they began to run low on food. Just think it is strange they’re going for such intrigue right out of the gate on this Earth. Nice to see The Machine Man back, though. And that he hates people.

Next we have a comic I’ve long waited for: Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game. This novel is a true masterwork, simply some of the best sf ever written, and the first issue of the comic captures the essence of its source material almost to perfection. Written and drawn by Christopher Yost and Pasqual Ferry, respectively, under the direct supervision apparently of the brilliant Card-- check out OSC’s Ultimate Iron Man for a taste of his comics work-- this first ish was all we could have hoped for in a direct translation to the comics medium. The best we can hope for until we get a film or, better, a pay channel miniseries. Or on-going series.

Dynamite Comics sends Giant Size Red Sonja #2, a slightly uneven collection of four stories starring everyone’s favorite She-Devil with a Sword. The main title is one of my favorite books right now, with a new story arc beginning in ish #40 after a restart for the character (not so subtle hint), and this special is an overall fine addition to the mythos. "Crimson Katherine", by Christos Gage and Adriano Batista, has RS meet herself with a little less humanity-- meh. "The Wizard and Red Sonja Show", by Frank Thorne as a one-man band, however, was a very fun read with perfect artwork for this genre and story; for me, it hearkened back to ’70 era Heavy Metal art with a Bob Haney type story. "The Endless Stair" by Peter B. Gillis and Steve Carr, is a Lovecraftian story that captures the wonder and sorrow that are hallmarks of the best that sf has to offer, although the art seems a little out of place for Red Sonja. The final story, "Wizards of the Black Sun", is my favorite. Written by old master Roy Thomas, with help from Clara Note, and drawn by the aforementioned Thorne, this is a story which would be perfectly at home in Epic Illustrated or Savage Sword of Conan. All in all, an excellent book.

Image’s stellar The Walking Dead series continues its story of Rick and Carl, father and son, surviving in a world overrun with the flesh eating dead. Robert Kirkman and Charlie Adlard bring us a 53rd issue where R & C reunite with some old friends and meet some new faces as well. I don’t really have a lot to say here except that this is the comic that I look forward to most each month (and I read around 40-50 titles a month). But don’t trust me-- get the first tpb and begin the epic saga for yourself. Enjoy the journey.

Finally, Wonder Woman #25 ends the two-part “A Star in the heavens” story, wherein Princess Diana goes to Hollywood to discuss a movie based on her life and is attacked by Queen Tsaritsa, known as “The Wellspring of all Villainesses” and “The Queen of Fables”, who thinks of WW as Snow White. Written by Gail Simone and drawn by Bernard Chang, this issue brought two things immediately to mind. First, there are such obvious similarities between this WW story, with its underlying premise being magical characters that can bend reality (within the story) so the fictional is made real and situations can be made to change by the mere alteration of a story told, and the saga of Promethea, Alan Moore’s analog to Wonder Woman from his America’s Best Comics imprint. Promethea was a fictional heroine made real by the re-telling of her story. Second, the current Justice League of America storyline is also a close parallel, with its antagonist being the African god Anansi, who changes reality by changing his telling of the story. There was also a recent Brave and the Bold storyline that dealt with this theme, and Moore’s own Supreme series did as well. This WW is also the last ish before the first installment of “The Rise of the Olympian” saga, which looks like a good jumping on point for the series.

Other books: Final Crisis Revelations #3 (This continues to be the best of the FC stable, although I have high hopes for Legion of Three Worlds); New Avengers #45 (Not one for buying all the SI crossovers but bought this on impulse and was pleasantly surprised); Avengers/Invaders #5 (Continuing its good run, one of only two good stories Ross has ever come up with)

-Sam Christopher

Television Review - Heroes Season 3

NBC, 9 PM EST, Mondays Rating (after five episodes): 3.5 out of 5 Stars

!!!MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

Heroes first debuted in Fall of 2006 and became one of the surprise hits of that season much like Lost did in Fall of 2004. And like Lost, Heroes has relied on intricate, multi-layered stories with a large (and ever-expanding) cast of characters. The show deals with people who have super-human abilities along with a shadowy organization known as the “Company” which seeks to control them (allegedly for the benefit of mankind, but their motives and methods are frequently questionable). The first season (given the over-arching title “Genesis”) focused on introducing the extensive cast of characters, most of whom were trying to understand and learn how to live with their powers. The second season (“Generations”), truncated by the writer’s strike, delved into the family ties of many of the primary characters, but definitely failed to maintain the quality of writing demonstrated in the first season (which actually begin with the anti-climatic Season 1 finale). This brings us to the third season which will present two separate story arcs, the first titled “Villains” and the second titled “Fugitives”.

I have seen quite a number of people dissing Heroes on the Internet, but after five episodes, I am quite pleased with the new season. Season 2 really strayed during its early episodes and the quality of writing just did not stand up to what we had seen in its inaugural season, but it really started to improve in its last four or five episodes and that has continued into Season 3. The current volume (“Villains”) looks at how the powers that these people possess tempt them into making some questionable choices and possibly following dangerous paths. It has shaken up our pre-conceived notions of several of the characters and forced us to look at them in a new light. It has also focused heavily on one of the show’s most intriguing characters (the delightfully malevolent Sylar) and shown that he may not have understood the drive that lead him to kill and that he may have a chance to overcome it.

Season 3 so far has some good and bad elements. First the good. I like the idea of delving deeper into the psyche of the main characters and showing how possessing great powers can steer people towards questionable decisions. I like seeing the future versions of several of the characters which contrast with their present-day selves and demonstrates an individual’s potential dual nature. I believe that the current story arc has the potential to really expand on many of show’s characters and show us what really makes them tick. I like Harvey-Linderman (not to be confused with Harvey-Scorpius from Farscape or Harvey-John Scott from Fringe), he is an interesting addition and Malcolm McDowell seems to have a great deal of fun with the character. I also loved the future “happy-home-maker” Sylar and hope that we get to see more of him.

Now, on to the bad. For the third time in a row, we have a story arc premised around a potential end-of-the-world scenario. There are plenty of good ways to set up a story arc which do not involve this time-worn premise. Also, there are too many insincere contrived situations designed only to trigger an emotional response from viewer. One example was when future Sylar’s son was killed only minutes after he was introduced (the old child in jeopardy ploy). Another example has Hiro apparently killing Ando at the end of episode 5. You know that Ando is not really going to die and that he will return somehow, mostly likely via some sort of time-shift trick. Which leads to my next complaint that this season has a bit too much time travel going on. This makes it hard to follow the story and it also makes it hard to accept anything that happens because you know that somebody somewhere can also travel through time and change things. I also have not been happy with the storyline involving Suresh. He has always been the moral compass for Heroes, and now we find him flirting with his dark side. But then I have to accept that if writers can’t explore possibilities with their characters, a show can quickly grow stale. Lastly, I feel like the acting and directing has not been up to snuff this season. Both seem forced and stiff at times and even occasionally verge on camp (with the ever-scowling future Peter being the worst offender).

While it might seem that my list of the bad surpasses that of the good, I still feel that the good aspects of the current season outweigh its missteps. And while many have decried Heroes as derivative, since its inception it has taken some very familiar concepts (people with super-powers, battles of good against evil, empirical attempts to control others) and successfully used these to explore human nature and the consequences of our actions. This underlying direction has guided the series and helped it to rise above the normal prime time fair to the point of achieving literary relevance at times. It has also introduced us to a “family” of characters (however dysfunctional) that we have become invested in and whose lives we want to continue to be a part of. The series has had its bumps along the way, but continues to outshine most other shows across prime time in its quality of writing and its level of engagement.

Ratings wise, the slump that began with Season 2 has continued into the current season. Last year, the series average 13 million viewers which was down from its first season. Through the first five episodes of Season 3, Heroes has averaged less than 9 million viewers. The good news is that the series continues to win its timeslot in the 18-34 demographic coveted by advertisers, but you know that NBC can’t be too happy about these numbers from what it considers one of its flagship series. Lost saw a similar decline of viewers through its first three seasons, probably an expected trend from intricately plotted shows that require higher viewer commitment. I do not believe that there is reason to panic about the future of Heroes at this point, I just hope that NBC does not start to tinker with it in an attempt to bolster ratings. That almost certainly would have the opposite affect and drive even more viewers away.

-John J. Joex

Discuss Heroes Season 3 at our Google Group

Buy Heroes Season 1 and 2 on DVD at the Axiom's edge Webstore

Television Review - Fringe

FOX, 9 PM EST Tuesdays

Rating (after four episodes): 3 Stars

Fox’s Fringe was the most talked about new show over the summer. It boasted JJ Abrams of Lost and Alias as creator (and I can’t let his name escape my fingers here without mentioning his much-heralded relaunch of the Star Trek franchise, coming next year). It had the same “I love Twilight Zone and Kolchak: The Night Stalker” pedigree that Chris Carter brought to the mega-hit X-Files for this same network, the same desire to make a show that honors and expands what those older shows brought us. This show looked to be a winner, intricate plots per episode that were intertwined to make an even larger story filled with government intrigue and corporate conspiracy. But none of this really meant much to me because I never really liked X-Files all that much—due mainly to Scully’s “empiricism” (sorry, but if I see something over and over I tend to believe there must be something to it even if it doesn’t seem to follow a logical pattern; in a world dominated by quantum physic what else can you do?). Also, I wasn’t sold on Abrams. I know he created Alias and Lost, and I have high hopes for ST, but he also wrote Armageddon and that’s a lot of used up goodwill as far as I’m concerned. That being said, I still checked it out.

The first episode begins with the mysterious deaths—by melting-- of the passengers and crew of a plane landing at Logan Airport in Boston, Mass. FBI Agent Olivia Dunham (played by Anna Torv) and her partner John Scott (Mark Valley) are assigned to the case. These two are also lovers, which is taboo in the Agency and gives them something to hide. When John is severely injured due to a chemical explosion, the story begins to move. Olivia’s investigation leads to a Dr. Walter Bishop (John Noble), a former Harvard professor who has been in a mental institution for nearly 20 years. She tracks down Bishop’s son, Peter (Joshua Jackson)—a misfit genius -- and secures his help in getting to his father. With these two men helping, the investigation further leads to a huge multinational corporation started and ostensibly run by Dr. Bishop’s old lab partner, William Bell (And if you read me QH column on the Fringe comic book you see how it fits in now), although with Bell “out of the country” the contact person they deal with is Nina Sharp (Blair Brown), the Terminator-armed company exec. By the end of this episode, we learn that Scott was a traitor and that there’s a larger conspiracy afoot with all the threads tying in some way with Dr. Bishop’s old research. Oh, and that LSD combined with sensory deprivation can allow you to read someone’s mind so long as they haven’t been dead too long. This first installment was actually rather thin to me. As with True Blood, the characters just had no life to them for me, other than Olivia and her boss Phillip Broyles (Lance Reddick). Peter Bishop, I feared almost immediately, would be this series’ Scully and annoy me into no longer watching.

Next, we have “The Same Old Story”, in which an investigation of a case which fits The Pattern—the name Broyles has given to the over-arching conspiracy—leads to a serial killer whom Olivia has tracked before. The case is one of a mother who gives birth to a “baby” who ages and dies of old age in hours; this killer’s quirk is that he removes his victim’s pituitary gland. The killer, named Christopher (Derek Cecil), basically walks into a bar and winks at a woman—y’know, the way they do in those Maxoderm commercials—and the woman leaves with him. Not a good episode.

“The Ghost Network” was a little better. It starts with a bus of people trapped in amber, as it were, and leads through an old experiment of Dr. Bishop’s in which people are made into “radio receivers”. Our heroes solve the problem, find the bad guys—then lose everything at the end and finish barely knowing anymore than when they started. We do find there’s more of a connection between the government and Massive Dynamics, Bell’s corporation, as Broyles and Sharp have a rather cryptic discussion before the viewer is shown that MD has John Scott’s body and is apparently downloading a huge amount of data from it.

“The Arrival” is by far my favorite episode of the series thus far. The Bald Man—I know, I know, I didn’t even watch that much of the X-Files and I remember the Cigarette Smoking Man—adds another level to the mystery of The Pattern, as he seems tied to all of it. He’s just played so creepily methodical by Michael Cerveris, so unemotional about everything. Then there’s the whole premise of the John Moseley character (Michael Kelly), who sticks wires into people’s noses in order to read their minds—evidently. And the fact that The Bald Man can read minds—evidently. A strange, strange turn of events, and that’s even without mentioning the concept of the torpedo launched through the Earth, or the fact that John Scott turns up in Olivia’s kitchen at the end.

Fringe is an interesting show that is growing better as time goes by. Whereas X-Files, for me, started off very well and just wore me down over the first couple of months, this show has been the opposite. The installments are getting better even as The Pattern grows in importance. My only worry here is that they will either drag it out so long we lose interest, or that they’ll build our expectations so much that whatever ending they give us will seem anticlimactic.

-Sam Christopher

First Thoughts on Week 5+ of the Fall Season

The past week and two days have seen four more series premieres (Valentine, Life on Mars, The Eleventh Hour, and My Own Worst Enemy) along with the second season debut of one returning show (Eli Stone).

The CW’s comedy/fantasy Valentine comes to us from Kevin Murphy and tells the story of a clan of Greek gods headed by Aphrodite and living in Hollywood who must bring some love back into the world lest they lose their immortality. Coming from one of the creative minds behind Desperate Housewives, I expected this one to have at least a few stand-out moments, but instead found the premiere just boring. And Valentine had better summon up its muse pretty quickly because its initial outing pulled barely one million viewers (low numbers by even the CW’s standards) else it will find itself quickly banished to Hades.

I had low expectations going into ABC’s Life on Mars, but I would say that the premiere definitely proved that this show may have potential. An adaptation of a British series about a modern police officer who finds himself back in the 1973 after getting hit by a car, the premiere did a good job of laying the groundwork for the premise and peaking the interest of its viewers. At this point we do not know if Detective Sam Tyler actually traveled back in time, is in a coma, or is insane, but the first episode intrigued me enough to make me want to follow the story further. This show experienced some behind the scenes shake-ups early on (with original show-runner David E. Kelley departing and almost a complete recast of the principals), but that did not show in the premiere. Hopefully this will be a good sign for things to come.

On the other side of the ring in the head-to-head battle of remakes of British shows, CBS’s premiere of The Eleventh Hour followed the script of the first episode of the original series almost to the word (though trimmed down to fit the hour timeslot). This series about a special investigator looking into cases involving abuses of science (no relation to FOX’s Fringe) did a good job of recreating the premise of its British counterpart, and Rufus Sewell brought an interesting interpretation to the character of Dr. Jacob Hood. Younger than Patrick Stewart who originated the role, he seems a bit like an absent-minded professor yet is also more approachable than the dour character portrayed by the elder actor. Successfully adapting a good script is one thing, though, we will see how this series progresses once it moves beyond the territory covered by the original.

I had high hopes for NBC’s My Own Worst Enemy, but found myself non-plussed with the show’s premiere. Here we have the tale of a man (played by Christian Slater) with two distinct personalities, a master-spy and a typical working father, that are now starting to overlap and conflict with each other. I originally thought the premise sounded interesting, but it was executed in the premiere with the typical helping of television contrivances. I can see this one quickly descending into formulaic stories about the master-spy side having to solve his case and keep his identity hidden while getting home in time to make it to his daughter’s soccer game. Perhaps the show will not follow this path and instead rely on stories focusing on the dual nature of Christian Slater’s character, and if so I will stick around. Otherwise there are just too many other things on to watch.

No more premieres are on the schedule until November when the syndicated Legend of the Seeker and Cartoon Network’s Batman: The Brave and the Bold make their bows. And I’m betting by then the overall Prime Time landscape will have changed somewhat seeing as most of the Science Fiction and Fantasy shows are underperforming in the ratings (including such heavy-hitters as Heroes). Stay tuned to this site in the meantime as we continue to monitor the ratings and provide our feedback on the shows currently airing.

-John J. Joex

Weekly Update - Ratings Woes Continue; Pushing Daisies / Wonderfalls Crossover; New Avengers and V TV Series Coming

The week of October 5th provided little in the way of ratings relief for shows in the Science Fiction and Fantasy genre with the exception of two shows that premiered this week. continued its downward trend, though it remains tops in its timeslot in the 18-34 demographic. Underperformers like Heroes,The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Chuck, Knight Rider, and Pushing Daisies continued their slump, though Sarah Connor saw a bit of a boost from the prior week. On the CW, Sunday’s premiere of the fantasy/comedy Valentine was a total disaster pulling only a 0.4 rating in the 18-49 demographic and just over one million viewers (I believe that an episode of Andy Griffith on Nick at Nite pulled more viewers). Thursday’s head-to-head premieres of Life on Mars on ABC and The Eleventh Hour on CBS did better, each scoring about 11.6 million viewers though their numbers in the coveted 18-49 demographic were soft and The Eleventh Hour lost over 50% of its lead-in from CSI. Over on the Sci Fi Channel, the October 3rd premiere of Sanctuary was a success, capturing 2.7 million viewers making it the highest rated debut on that channel since Eureka’s Season 1 bow. The DVR report from the week of September 14th has Fringe in second place picking up 2.8 million additional viewers and The Sarah Connor Chronicles in fourth place picking up 1.7 million additional viewers and the second highest percentage of time-shifted viewers (this news perhaps being that show’s only lifeline at this point). Also, the late word from TV Guide is that FOX and NBC have ordered a few more scripts for The Sarah Connor Chronicles and Knight Rider, so these two shows still have a glimmer of hope despite their poor ratings performance. Keep up with the ratings each week with our Network Ratings Tracker . . . Pushing Daisies plans a crossover of sorts with Wonderfalls (also created by Brian Fuller) in the eighth episode of its current season. Mary Ann Marie Beetle, a character from the “Muffin Buffalo” episode of the latter series will turn up on the ABC series. Word is that Fuller would like to bring over some other characters as well, but nothing is confirmed at this point . . . Marvel Animation is ramping up for a new animated series titled The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes. Currently scheduled for a 2011 bow, the series will act as a tie-in to the live action Captain America and Avengers movies which will hit the theaters that same year. 26 episodes are currently planned . . . ABC is currently working on an updated version of the 1980’s V mini-series. This will be a re-imagining of the property as opposed to a continuation as original creator Kenneth Johnson had hoped to do with his proposed series V: The Second Generation.

Television Review - True Blood

Rating: 2.5 out of 5 Stars

In 2001, Charlaine Harris introduced her readers to the world of Sookie Stackhouse, a waitress working in a southern Louisiana dive. In Sookie’s world vampires walk openly among humans, largely due to the invention of a synthetic blood drink called TruBlood. The vampires here are shown as a minority in American society. There are rumors about them, about their culture, about their sexual prowess, about the obvious erotic nature of having an undead creature rip your throat out with his teeth (sorry for that last but I’ve always found the romanticism of vampirism to be an hysterical act of self-loathing on human’s part). With this as a backdrop, we are told the tale of Sookie, a girl with telepathy she can barely control, making it impossible for her to date, and Bill Compton, a vampire who’s moved back to his hometown and trying to “mainstream”. Harris would flesh out Sookie’s world over seven more novels and several short stories—so far—before HBO producer Alan Ball, who also produced Six Feet Under, would take this creation to the small screen…

The first episode, “Strange Love”, intros the TV audience to Sookie and her supporting cast. Unfortunately, most of that cast is flat, unidimensional ciphers that engender no real feeling from the audience. Sookie’s best friend Tara Thornton (played by Rutina Wesley) is the stereotypical “Angry Black Person”, who we first meet taking offense at a woman asking her where something is at the store where Tara works; Tara is so incensed at this effrontery she quits on the spot. Sookie’s brother Jason (Ryan Kwanten) is the stereotypical twenty-something male who’s entire life is centered around his crotch. When the minor cliffhanger of his being arrested for murder unfolds later in the episode I almost hoped it was true just so I wouldn’t have to look at him anymore. Sookie’s boss Sam Merlotte (Sam Trammell) seems like a decent guy. He’s got a thing for Sookie but can’t bring himself to ask her out and he hires Tara to work the bar. Sookie’s grandmother Adele (Lois Smith) is my early favorite, old-fashioned while forward thinking: she wants to invite Bill the Vampire to her Descendants of the Glorious Dead (Daughters of the Confederacy analog) meeting. Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer) himself is played in an understated manner, as the very essence of a southern gentleman with just a hint of something very dangerous lurking just beneath the surface. He walks into Sam’s bar and is set upon by the unsavory Rattrays, a couple who lure him outside and subdue him with a silver chain and attempt to drain his blood, vampire blood—known as “V”—being a highly sought aphrodisiac. Sookie, who has read the Rattray’s intent in their minds, rescues him and realizes she can’t read Bill’s mind at all. The episode ends with the Rattrays’ bid for revenge on Sookie.

“The First Taste” has Bill show up to save Sookie from the savage beating of the Rattrays but he finds that only a small taste of his vampire blood can save her from the extensive wounds. Sookie later finds the Rattrays are dead, victims of an apparent tornado—and this is where we meet the coroner Mike Spencer, played by the stellar John Billingsley (ST: Enterprise). Sheriff Dearborne (William Sanderson) suspects Bill rather than a tornado. Bill visits the Stackhouse home and is greeted enthusiastically by Adele, and provoked enthusiastically by Jason and Tara. The characters were much better in this episode than the first; I really felt I knew them better here.

“Mine” opens as Sookie is accosted by a trio of vampires at Bill’s home. They are barbaric, almost feral, a sharp contrast to the stiff formality of Bill’s demeanor. The three have two “pets”, humans who allow themselves to be used by the vamps for all manner of gratification. This is where we find out about Hepatitis D, a rare strain of the virus that only affects vampires, and nests. Bill tells Sookie that vampires in nests become more savage and self-centered, “a law unto themselves” (like politicians in DC). He then goes to the nest and makes it very clear to the trio that they are to leave he and Sookie alone. Also in this episode, Tara and Sam sleep together, Tara moves out of the house she shares with her abusive alcoholic mother, and Jason buys V from Tara’s cousin Lafayette. Oh, and another girl Jason was having sex with is found dead.

“Escape from the Dragon House” opens with the police investigating Jason’s involvement in the latest murder, until Tara comes forward with a false alibi for him. Sookie, meanwhile, has Bill take her to Fangtasia—“You have to remember that most vampires are very old,” Bill tells Sookie. “Puns used to be the highest form of humor.”—a vampire bar the two dead girls were known to frequent. There she comes to the attention of Eric Northman (Alexander Skarsgard), a vampire elder, although the meeting doesn’t last long. In other news, Jason downs the entire vial of V against Lafayette’s express warning, leading to a case of priapism which culminates in a funny trip to the hospital; Bill “glamours” (hypnotizes) a cop, causing Sookie to become afraid and angry; and Sam is shown to have a few quirks of his own.

“Sparks Fly Out” is a transitional episode in which Jason learns to use V properly, Bill speaks to Adele’s group in a church—vamps in the True Blood-verse are not susceptible to traditional religion-based symbols as they are in folklore—and we learn how Bill became a vampire. The ending is a shock, and, hopefully, sets up the end of the serial killer storyline. Jason’s antics in this episode mostly just got on my nerves, although the scenes with him and his friends in the bar were all right. The great thing about this installment was Bill’s speech in the church. His reminiscences, both there and later when he was alone, were well thought out and marvelous in their simplicity and realism—the great veteran actor William Schallert was also great to see here as the mayor.

HBO’s True Blood has grown on me since the unremarkable pilot show. Some things still seem kind of lame: We’re constantly told that vampires have worked to keep this or that weakness or this or that ability from becoming public knowledge but I find it impossible to believe the government hasn’t figured out that silver immobilizes them—especially when idiots like the Rattrays know it—or that Hepatitis D weakens them for a month or so, or that vampire blood causes heightened consciousness and physical healing in humans. Beyond those logic problems, though, we have a fun story filled with eccentric characters and surprising turns that doesn’t take itself too seriously. It sometimes reminds me in this way of the John Carpenter films They Live and Ghosts of Mars. Not the greatest or most original stories but tales told with a verve that gives them an almost unearned watchability.

Sam Christopher's Quick Hits

Image Comics brings us Dead Ahead #1, written by Clark Castillo and Mel Smith (Feed America’s Children) assisted by Paul H. Birch with art by Alex Nino (“Repent, Harlequin!” Said the Ticktock Man). An army of the flesh consuming living dead attacks while Jack and his crew are taking some tourists out on their commercial fishing boat. When they try to return ashore they find the reports from their radio to be true and are turned back out by the Coast Guard and begin their attempt to survive at sea. Well-written with beautiful art for this story, this is a good beginning for a four-issue mini.

My Name is Bruce, a Dark Horse one-shot by writer Milton Freewater Jr. and artist Cliff Richards (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), is a tepid little tale about ghosts, vengeance, and the hazards of starring in horror films. Not great, but not awful. Read a friend’s if you can.

Skaar Son of the Hulk Presents: The Savage World of Sakaar, written by series scribe Greg Pak and drawn by nearly everyone, gives us a continuation of Skaar #3 with a lot of backstory. From the origin of Axeman Bone to the tale of how the Shadow Warriors came to Sakaar and saved it to the further fleshing out of Skaar’s early life in the swamp, and a handy recap of Hulk’s sojourn on Sakaar, this comic is a great resource for all of us who missed Planet Hulk and enjoy Skaar.

Bluewater Comics debuts two new books. The sf anthology series gives us a tale of vampires battling their natural enemy, the… android? Writer Chad Helder (Vincent Price PresentsBartholomew of the Scissors) does all right, but the interior art by Rey Armenteros is awful. Joel Robinson’s (Pistolfist) intro and outro art is very good. The intro, BTW, was especially well-written; I could almost hear Price’s mellifluous voice as I read it. Their other book, War of the Elementals, by Scott Davis (who could be any one of, like, seven different people according to the Web, so I’m just going to choose to believe he’s Mac Davis because that’s the coolest possible choice) and Sebastian Piriz, is from an unproduced Ray Harryhausen idea about a WWI group of fighter pilots who wind up in a strange world that is somehow at the center of all reality. We’ll see.

Supergirl #34 debuts the new creative team of Sterling Gates (Green Lantern Corps) and Jamal Igle (Firestorm) with “Why the World doesn’t Need Supergirl”. Here we see Cat Grant’s claws coupled with the ingratitude of the masses push the latest incarnation of The Maid of Might to finally adopt a true secret identity. Not sure if it will take with next month’s New Krypton storyline taking over the Super titles but it is a good beginning for a new storyline.

Finally, America’s Best and Dark Horse bring us a couple of returning favorites. ABC has Top Ten Season Two, written by Zander and Kevin Cannon (no relation, and Top Ten: The Forty-Niners, Smax, respectively) and drawn by Gene Ha (Top Ten: The Forty-Niners). Meanwhile, DH produces another tale of Robert E. Howard’s wandering Puritan Solomon Kane, by Scott Allie (The Devil’s Footprints) and Mario Guevara (Bloodrayne: Red Blood Run). Both were good first issues; made me want to see more.

-Sam Christopher

First Thoughts on Week 4 of the Fall Season

This week saw the premiere of five more Science Fiction and Fantasy series:

NBC’s Chuck returned with its second season premiere and stayed pretty close to the formula it followed in its freshman year, providing light-hearted fun. They have thrown in the twist that a new Intersect computer could go online to replace Chuck placing his future (and life) in question, which will apparently play out as a story arc across the second season.

ABC’s Pushing Daisies made its welcome return to Wednesday nights with its second season premiere and picked up right where it left off without missing a beat. The series once again finds Ned the Piemaker, Emerson Cod, and Chuck (not the same one from Chuck) solving a rather perplexing murder mystery while also continuing the ongoing story line of Ned’s relationship with his childhood sweetheart who he brought back from the dead. The quality of writing on this series continues to remain high (of course they had plenty of time to focus on the scripts during their an extended break) and the storybook, Tim Burtonesque feel of the show offers an hour of entertainment unlike anything else on television. Unfortunately, the ratings for the Season 2 premiere were quite dismal so the future looks a bit bleak for Pushing Daisies (but then I never expected it to make it to a second season). Hopefully these will trend up over the coming weeks, though.

On the Sci Fi Channel, Sanctuary made its move from webisodes to television series to become one of the cable channel’s Friday night headline series. The series follows Dr. Helen Magnus (Amanda Tapping) and her team that seek out abnormal beings, offering sanctuary to the benign ones and imprisoning the more dangerous ones. The premiere incorporates much of what we already saw in the web series while making a few modifications and adding some additional backstory. It used less of the CGI backgrounds than the web series, but what it did use merged seamlessly with the live-action footage. Based on the premiere (and its web predecessor), I would say this one has a good chance to become one of the next Sci Fi Channel flagship series.

I did not expect to like Cartoon Network’s Star Wars: The Clone Wars, figuring it would do little more than offer threadbare plots with familiar characters in an attempt to sell yet more merchandise for the venerable franchise. However, I was presently surprised by the two episodes that aired in the series premiere. It appears that each episode will present a stand-alone story focusing on different characters and chronicling the events of the Clone Wars. While the plots are definitely slight, each episode was driven by a specific theme and actually provides some insights into the franchise’s more well know characters (while mercifully sparing us from any Jar Jar Binks appearances). If the series continues in this vein, it could be worth tuning in for on a regular basis (though they do need to get a better narrator to provide the set up for each episode).

In addition, Heroes second outing smoothed out some of the uneven edges of its Season 3 premiere and definitely appears to be making the appropriate course corrections away from last season’s missteps. The Sarah Connor Chronicles also has continued to improve after trudging through a few shaky early Season 2 episodes, though its poor ratings have placed its future in doubt. The Mentalist had a decent enough second outing, though once again the pay-off at episode end disappointed. They seem to be going out of their way to create the least likely suspects which really makes for some overly contrived stories. Knight Rider on the other hand is an absolute mess and seems almost certainly destined for the highway to oblivion with its disappointing ratings returns. I haven’t caught the premiere of Valentine yet, but will catch up with it on DVR and ABC’s Life on Mars goes head to head with The Eleventh Hour on CBS this Thursday. On top of that, there are still four more shows set to bow in the coming weeks:

My Own Worst Enemy - October 13th
Eli Stone - October 14th
The Legend of the Seeker - November 1st
Batman: The Brave and the Bold - November 14th

Weekly Update – Fringe Gets Full Season; Ex-List Can’t Top Moonlight; Robin to Get His Own Series

Despite less than spectacular ratings, FOX has picked up J.J. Abrams’ Fringe for a full season. The network ordered nine more episodes which will give the series a full 22 for the season. While the series debuted to lackluster ratings, after it settled into its regular timeslot following House, it saw a boost to its numbers. Fringe has also scored well in the key 18-49 demographic where it is the top new show of the season with that audience . . . In its series debut, CBS’s The Ex-List fell short of the numbers that Moonlight pulled last year in the same slot in its premiere. The latter drew 8 million viewers when it bowed last year whereas the freshmen series only pulled 6.8 million, down even from Moonlight’s finale which pulled 7.5 million. Fans of the defunct vampire series can gloat a bit and CBS has to wonder how much better off they would have been it they stuck with Moonlight instead of investing the money in creating and entirely new property . . . In other ratings news, performance has been sluggish for most of the other shows that have debuted so far. On CBS, the borderline genre show, The Mentalist, has performed the best in total viewers, though it is losing out to Fringe in its timeslot in the 18-49 demographics. NBC’s Heroes has seen a drop-off in its numbers from last year, but placed first in its timeslot this last week in the 18-34 demographic. In more trouble is FOX’s Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles which has slipped considerably from its first season numbers and sparked rumors that FOX is ready to pull the plug. ABC’s Pushing Daisies and NBC’s reboot of Knight Rider have also underperformed. The second season premiere of Pushing Daisies only pulled a 2.0 rating in the 18-49 audience ranking it fourth in its timeslot. In the same timeslot, Knight Rider has done slightly better over its first two week with a 2.4, but NBC is almost certainly expecting more out of this one. Currently, The Sarah Connor Chronicles, Pushing Daisies, and Knight Rider all are at risk of an early cancellation based on their performance so far. The CW’s Smallville and Supernatural have remained at fifth place in their timeslots, but they are still pulling the numbers expected of them and are in no danger of cancellation. The report for shows watch on DVR during the first week of the season has come in and Fringe topped the list with The Sarah Connor Chronicles coming in at third. The additional 1.5 million viewers that this represents for the latter series might stay its execution for a short time, but not if it does not show an immediate improvement in the overnight ratings. Follow our Network Ratings Tracker to keep up with the ratings performance of your favorite shows each week . . . The CW network has given a put pilot commitment to The Graysons, which will follow the life of Dick Grayson before he became Robin. Coming from the producers of Smallville, the new series could replace that series if it ends its run after its eighth and current season as is rumored.

More Fall Science Fiction and Fantasy Premieres Coming Up

Thirteen premieres are in the can now with seven more to come in the upcoming weeks:

Premiering the week of October 5th:
Valentine - October 5th
Life on Mars - October 9th
The Eleventh Hour - October 9th

Premiering the week of October 12th or Later:
My Own Worst Enemy - October 13th
Eli Stone - October 14th
The Legend of the Seeker - November 1st
Batman: The Brave and the Bold - November 14th

Check out our Fall 2008 Schedule for networks, days, and times. Also check out Johnny Jay’s Fall Season Viewing Guide and Predictions.

Television Review - Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles Review

FOX, Mondays 8 PM EST Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars

In 1984, Director James Cameron (Aliens, Titanic) gave us a vision of the end of the world in which a computer program created to protect a nation achieved consciousness and sought the extermination of all men. The vast majority of our species were wiped out in one strike, with small pockets surviving and eventually fighting back against the computer overlord, Skynet, under the leadership of John Connor. On the verge of the human victory, it was found that Skynet had sent a cyborg, called a “Terminator”, back through time to kill Connor’s mother, Sarah, before John’s birth, ostensibly wiping out its nemesis before he ever existed. Thus began the saga of The Terminator, which has lasted through nearly two-and-a-half decades, with three films and another on the way. And a teleseries now in its second season.

The first season of The Sarah Connor Chronicles picked up after T2, the first sequel film, showing us John (played by Thomas Dekker) as a teen on the run with his mother Sarah (Lena Headey) as Skynet—which should have been destroyed after the events of T2—sends yet another Terminator (Garrett Dillahunt), who takes the form of an actor named Cromarty, to ensure its victory. Besides the new cyborg enemy, the pair are also being pursued by FBI Agent James Ellison (Richard T. Jones) for crimes they committed while trying to save humanity from itself. We are also introduced to Cameron (Summer Glau), the beautiful “Teen Terminator”, reprogrammed by John in the future to help him and his mother in the past—that’s what she says anyway—and Derek Reese (Brian Austin Green), a soldier from the future sent back on a tangent mission who is rescued from jail by Sarah and John, and who turns out to be John’s uncle—which is absolutely as lame as it sounds although the character gives both us and young John a better view of the human side of what they’re fighting for. There’s also Charley Dixon (Dean Winters), a lover Sarah leaves at the beginning of the pilot after she becomes aware the Skynet is still lurking. During the pilot, Sarah, John and Cameron are slung ten years into the future and the rest of the season is basically consumed with their hunt for a computer chess playing program called The Turk, which they think is the precursor to Skynet. In the last scene of the first season, Cameron is in a car that explodes outside the house our fugitives are staying in…

After last season’s “cliffhanger”—c’mon now, did anyone watching really think Cameron would be destroyed by a car bomb?—the story, called "Samson and Delilah", picks up with the quick dispatch of last season’s Big Bad and the revelation that Cameron was damaged in the explosion. Her original programming has reasserted itself and the rest of the episode’s main story has her stalking John, which is actually much better than it sounds. Finally, of course, Cameron is trapped and reprogrammed, with John’s loyalty to what he considers a friend shown to be a dangerous trait. Also, we meet our new recurring villainess, Catherine Weaver (Shirley Manson), CEO of Zeira Corp, and, as we find out by the end of the episode, a minion of Skynet. Meanwhile, Charley—who we found out last season is now married and an EMH—and Ellison deal with the aftermath of a failed FBI attempt to take down Cromarty. All in all, a solid way to start the new season.

The second episode, "Automatic for the People", finds John sent to school by his mother in a futile attempt to give him a slice of normalcy, while Sarah, Cameron and Derek find a new place for them all to live. They rent a house from Kacy Corbin (Busy Phillips), a very pregnant young lady whom John steal’s cable for later—but don’t tell anyone—and settle down for a little normalcy of their own. Before the soldier from the future bursts in and tells them they have to stop someone from doing something at a nuclear power plant. This was simply not a very good episode, dumb in all the wrong places, it’s only redeeming quality the introduction of Riley (Leven Rambin), a girl John meets at school and falls into instant like with, and Kacy. The mystery of Catherine Weaver spreads out a little but doesn’t really deepen. Also, Agent Ellison and Charley explain matters to Charley’s wife, Michelle (Sonya Walger), and the couple decides to leave, as Cromarty has been to their home before looking for leads to Sarah.

Next up, we have "The Mousetrap", an interesting episode in which Cromarty decides to take a more direct approach. He kidnaps Michelle and takes her to a shack in the desert, carefully leaving her just enough leeway to signal Charley, who has already called Sarah and Derek. Sarah sends John and Cameron off on an errand to get them out of the way. I don’t want to say a lot about this episode. You can see it on-line at Fox.com. I admit I wasn’t thrilled with the ending but otherwise a very good episode which got us back on track after "Automatic".

And now we reach the crowning glory of the season thus far. "Allison from Palmdale" shows Cameron separated from John when a memory glitch causes her to begin remembering another time, another life. She forgets who she is and remembers who she thinks she was, the girl she was modeled after. She also leaves us all with the thought that Skynet isn’t the only enemy John has. The side story with Sarah taking Kacy to the hospital was well-done, and the Ellison-Weaver storyline shows promise for the future. Again, I hate saying too much because the story was so good and leads to so much they could do later.

Now, if you don’t want to see any spoilers at all, stop reading after this sentence: Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles is a watered down version of the first two films which has made its own niche in the mythology through (mostly) intense, tight stories centering on the innate humanity of all its characters, even Cameron; I enjoy it and hope others will as well.

Spoilers/speculation: "Allison in Palmdale" opened up whole new vistas in The Terminator storyline. It appears there’s another faction in the computer ranks, a faction which seems to want an end to the hostilities between man and machine. They seem to want to allow humans to survive; perhaps they see that as moral in some way, since we created them in the first place, or maybe they simply fear the tyranny of Skynet more than us and see peace as their best option. As for Catherine Weaver, the one thing I would like to see here is an embodiment of Skynet itself as the villain. This was what I hoped for when she was introed and AiP has only ramped up that hope. I know it could be argued that all the Terminators have been Skynet since they’re all programmed by it but Weaver seems different somehow, not like she’s faking emotion so much as experiencing it. Perhaps she is here searching not for John but Cameron. I could write for days on this. Can’t wait for the next one.

-Sam Christopher

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