Ever wanted to own a prop of your favourite TV show? If Dollhouse was your fave, here’s your chance. Priya’s painting from Sierra’s background episode “Belonging” is on auction on eBay to raise money for charity. The proceeds will go to the Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, a nonprofit, academic, pediatric medical center. They provide the highest quality healthcare for children who are the sickest and most seriously injured in the Southen California region.

From the eBay page:

During the filming of the episode Michael Voelker, who works in the art department as a set dresser, brought his son Hunter to set.  Hunter Marlowe Voelker is two years old and was recently diagnosed with ALL (acute lympoblastic leukemia).  He is an adorable, positive kid and to call him a trooper doesn’t cover it.

Anyway, we were standing around the painting a few days later, talking about what would happen to it when the show was done.  Would it fit in our living room?  And then we got on the subject of the devoted, pro-active fans of the series and how they would love to own this.  Maybe we could auction it off!  For a bunch of money!  And then use that money to build a private glow-in-the-dark jacuzzi water-slide park in our back yard!  Or we could give it to charity, I guess…

At the moment, the bid for the painting is $4350… so does anyone have at least $4400 available? Here’s how the painting looks like :

BEWARE – after the photo are SPOILERS for the Dollhouse finale

So have you seen the Dollhouse finale yet? The penultimate episode with the current day wrap-up was a bit of a letdown for me. Some great acting especially from Enver Gjokaj (Victor) with a return of his Topher-Victor. Man, that guy can channel other actors eerily (found out he’s actually playing the young version of Robert de Niro in the upcoming Stone, can’t wait to see that). But most of the plot just felt rushed and clunky.

The last episode though? That was awesome. It wasn’t perfect, but I loved that it at least had a complete full circle story. Things I liked:

Topher. I loved him from the beginning. Even though he was bit annoying at the start, he was the only one with funny lines and the only character that, well, showed character. Through the last season he became a more sympathetic character. That final scene with him and Adelle was so sweet!

Victor and the Mad Max rebels. It might have been a little over the top, but it was interesting to see how they used the tech and had adapted to it. Plus the whole Priya/Victor thing was interesting to see, especially cause we got to see the consequences of their decisions from the previous episode.

Ballard getting shot. I should have expected something like this from Joss Whedon. It didn’t hurt as much as previous of his ‘killings’ (Angel, Doyle, Wesley, Wash, Penny and more), I think I as a viewer wasn’t as invested in Ballard as in other characters, but it was still heartbreaking to see the effect it had on Echo.

Things I didn’t like: the Ballard/Echo ending (kind of sweet, but also kind of creepy if you think it through). The all-powerful MacGuffin that solved the entire brainwiping in one go. I wish we could have seen more of the future world, and I wonder how this show would have continued if Whedon had gotten more seasons.

So that’s it for Dollhouse. What’s next for Whedon I wonder?

I started off this TV season with trying to review whatever I watched weekly, but I quickly fell behind with that. I’ll try to keep it up a bit more when the shows come back in January, cause I do like writing about the shows I watch this way. For now, I’ll just review what I’ve seen so far: we’re halfway through the 2009/2010 season, with most shows going on a break for the Christmas holiday (or longer). I watch a quite a bit though, so I’ll be doing these reviews in multiple parts (at least 3 I think).

Warning: it should be pretty obvious, but there will be spoilers. Mainly for seasons prior to the current one, but also some stuff about the current season. I’m trying to keep spoilers to the current season at a minimum though.

Glee

This has got to be my new favourite show this season! I love the musical numbers they do each episode, and some of the guest stars they’ve had are amazing (loooved Kristen Chenoweth). So many of the songs have been added to my music library, of which most of them I like more than the originals. Highlights for me were Don’t Stop Believin’, Maybe This Time, Somebody To Love and Defying Gravity. Here’s the Glee version of Defying Gravity:

While I love the songs, the story lines don’t always work for me. I think it’s mainly because I’m liking the side characters more than the ones they are focusing on. I want to see more of Kurt, Mercedes, Artie and Tina! I loved the one episode focusing on Kurt and Artie (Wheels); we finally got to see a softer side to Sue Silvester and Kurt’s story with his dad was just touching. But why don’t we see what happens with Artie and Tina? They just left us hanging there, and it hasn’t been revisited since.

I’m glad the two main “secrets” were finally revealed, maybe they can focus now on some other things. I really liked the one-off pairing of Puck and Rachel, and I hope maybe the writers go in that direction again. Plus I like Puck’s voice way better than Finn’s who seems to be getting most of the main guy vocals (even Kurt’s and Artie’s voices I prefer over Finn). One final thing: yay for Emma and Will!

Glee returns on April 13 in the US (eek, that’s a long wait!) and will begin airing in the UK on Monday January 11th (re-airing the pilot at 9pm with the second episode straight after it).

The Vampire Diaries

This series had a rocky start for me, cause I was constantly comparing it to the books they’re based on. They are loosely, very loosely based on the books, with characters and events kind of inspired by them. Around episode 4 I accepted that they weren’t like the books and started following it with a more open mind. It reminds me a lot of Roswell, which weirdly enough were also based on books I loved and which turned out nothing like those books, but was still enjoyable. Mysterious stranger comes to town, girl-next-door falls for him, attacks on people in the town are being made, alien/vampire boy knows it’s someone like him, girl finds out he’s not “from this world”, they team up to find who is behind the attacks. Both Roswell and Vampire Diaries fit this description, right?

Is it great TV? Well, it’s not the type of show to win awards or stuff like that. But like Roswell, it’s so enjoyable. Ian Somerhalder (Damon) is hot in this and is deliciously arrogant and funny. Nina Dobrev’s Elena is a much kinder and identifiable person than how she was originally written, and I’m warming up to her. This series wouldn’t have worked if Elena remained the stuck-up snow queen, icy bitch she was in the books. I like how they’re actually expanding Bonnie’s role more with her witch powers being much more fully developed. I’m really curious as to how the second half of this season will be and if it will stick to the main plot of the original story (especially in regards to the antagonist), but even if it doesn’t I’m hooked now!

Vampire Diaries returns on January 21 in the US with episode 11. In the UK, it will air on ITV in the new year.

Fringe

I loved last season’s finale and was surprised to discover how much they revealed. Peter being actually from the other world (at least it was strongly implied), Walter having crossed over to the other world and stolen him, finally meeting William Bell. The finale was awesome! This season started off with just as a great episode: more reveals, more surprises. Great season, right? Well, kind of. I adore the archy bits of the show, and, while still entertaining, the stand alone episodes can be a bit of a drag. I understand they can’t make it too archy, that would scare off viewers and be difficult to keep up, but for me the archy episodes are just more interesting (and often less predictable).

I tried the Spot-the-Observer in every episode (if you hadn’t noticed yet, The Observer appears in every single episode in the background, just search for the YouTube video of that), but after like 5 minutes my brain forgets and isn’t paying attention to that anymore. I did like the Observer-centric episode, but it only left us with more questions: are there more Observers? What are they each specifically observing? Are they time travelers? Why was he named August? Argh!

I’d love to see more of the other world and William Bell; they are so key to all the mysteries. Also why haven’t we seen anymore of Olivia’s psychic abilities? I thought they’d revisit that this season? Anyhow, it’s still an interesting show and one of the more watchable sci-fi-ish stuff on TV right now.

Fringe will return on January 11th in the US and is currently airing on Sky1 in the UK.

Grey’s Anatomy

This is one of the shows that has had lots of ups and downs the past years; it started out great (loved season 1 and 2), but after that it got a bit meh. I still watched it, I love the characters and the cases every week, but you could see it didn’t feel as good as the those initial two seasons. I’m glad I continued watching though, cause I’m really liking this season so far. There have been quite some changes for the interns and residents of Seattle Grace, and most of them for the better.

Mer and McDreamy are finally peacefully together and although there is still drama in their life, that drama is not about their love life. And it’s refreshing. It’s good to see them both in such a good place, with Mer being way more stable and the optimist, not more the dark and twisty one. I think there are enough interesting stories for them as a couple, without the drama being the never-ending loop of them splitting up and getting back together again.

Then there’s Christina and McArmy. Loving their tormented story. Although the addition of Teddy has me slightly worried. Not another triangle! Another good change in my eyes is less Izzy. I used to like her with Alex (and Denny in the 2nd season), but so far every episode without has felt better. There are so many other interesting stories this year: Mer and little Grey, Callie and Arizona, little Grey and Marc and Marc’s pregnant daughter, the new interns vs our old interns, the Chief’s downhill slide; so far I think this season has been much better than the the previous two. Grey’s Anatomy is once again a show I’m really looking forward to every week.

Grey’s Anatomy will return on January 14 in the US and will start airing season 6 in the UK in January.

Desperate Housewives

Wow, season 6 already. Desperate Housewives hasn’t been “must-see” TV for me for ages (it’s had good and bads per season though), but it’s one of those shows you can easily watch while doing other stuff (be it folding up laundry or reading papers). The mysteries of this season are pretty intriguing: who strangled Julie and what is the new family on the block (the Bolen’s) hiding? Drea de Matteo (The Sopranos and Joey) as Angie Bolen is pretty interesting as our new ‘housewife’, kind of replacing Edie as the not very polished, says what’s on her mind character. But with a much more mysterious past. So how about the other housewives? Nothing really that pops out as “Ooh! That was exciting and such a great episode!”

Desperate Housewives return on January 3 in the US.

That’s it for this first part of the TV series halfway season review. Except the next ones in the next two weeks; haven’t reviewed loads of shows yet, like Flashforward, the new Melrose Place and the Big Bang Theory.

I always find it difficult to review TV shows. On one hand, I want to treat them the same way I do with movies: give my opinion on what I just saw, so that people can decide whether or not they want to watch it, without giving away any spoilers. On the other hand, I just want to geek out and start a discussion on what I thought about the show, with full spoilers in it. I can’t decide which to do here with the latest Doctor Who, so I’m doing both: I’ll first review the TV show normally, and then after a gigantic spoiler warning, I’ll put down my thoughts and ramblings on how the ep ended.

In this special, the Doctor ends up on Mars in the year 2059. Without realizing which year it initially is, he stumbles on the Mars colony station Bowie Base One, lead by captain Adelaide Brooke. Of course, trouble is afoot, with one of the crew members being infected by a mysterious life form. The Doctor soon figures out that the events of this day are set in stone and all he can do is watch how it all plays out in front of him…

I didn’t really like the previous two specials (The Next Doctor and Planet of the Dead); in my opinion, they would have been okay as normal episodes in a full season, but they didn’t feel ’special’ enough for, well, a special. For the first 40 minutes or so, the same goes for The Water of Mars: it feels pretty much like a filler episode. New characters who don’t get enough screen time for you to care about them, a ridiculously unscary monster-of-the-week (they somehow reminded me very much of Muppets) and lots and lots of running.

But then in the final quarter it all sort of comes together: the episode turns unexpectedly dark and leaves you hungering for more. It serves as a great buildup to the Christmas episodes, which (spoiler for those of you who have been living under a rock) will be David Tennant’s final two eps. The end of this episode only makes me realize how much I love Tennant’s Doctor, and I’m really sad to see him go. I’m keeping an open mind about the new guy, but Tennant is the main reason I started watching Doctor Who (I never watched the old series, and I couldn’t get into it when it first re-aired with Eccleston) and I know it won’t be the same without him.

Lindsay Duncan is great as captain Adelaide Brooke, this special’s sort of companion to the Doctor. She’s a strong character, although (like the Doctor) she gets relegated to running around for most of the episode. It’s only in the final minutes that she truly becomes interesting. Also: a mysterious person shows up on your Mars base, when your crew gets infected and you don’t for an instance think this mysterious person might be behind it?!?

As I said before, The Waters of Mars isn’t a great episode, but it’s a brilliant buildup to the finale with David Tennant. Unlike the previous two specials, it has gotten me hooked again to Doctor Who and I can’t wait how this will all end.

And now for the spoilery bit:

SPOILER ALERT * SPOILER ALERT * SPOILER ALERT

I really did like that last quarter of an hour. While the rest of the episode felt a bit flat, I was hooked by those final scenes. In my Watchmen review, I talked about the movie “high” (for lack of a better word) and I also have the same thing with TV shows.

I’ve always had this with most Doctor Who cliffhangers, and the same was with the ending of this episode. If there’s one thing the Doctor Who writers can do well, it’s building up (to be completely honest, most of the time this is then followed by letting us down with a disappointing finale). I know not everyone will agree with me, but I got that TV high while watching those final scenes unfold and was just glued to my screen.

The turning point for me was when the Doctor was just standing there, staring at how everybody else was going to their deaths. The pain on his face of having to see more people die and not being able to do anything about it. I actually cheered when he turned around and decided to help, to defy time and destiny.

In those final scenes the Doctor is going through some massive mood transitions, and as I understood it, that’s all because he’s trying to deal with his impending death. He can feel it coming, just as he sees the death of the Mars colony crew, and he doesn’t want to just stand by and watch. He HAS to do something about it, even though that means going against his own rules of never interfering and changing such an important moment in time. He knows it isn’t right, he knows that he shouldn’t be doing this, and for a brief moment, after Brooke commits suicide, he realizes he has gone too far, but it’s already too late. He’s on his path of battling his impending death, he won’t sit idly by and let it happen to him.

I’m guessing we’ll see the repercussions of these choices in the next episode. I saw that trailer when it came out at ComicCon and I am so excited to see that John Simm is back as the Master. Remember the final episode of season 3? After the Master was burnt on a pyre, a hand picked up his signet ring. We never got to see who that was, but my guess is that will be how the Master comes back now.

I am excited for the final two episodes, but I already have a feeling I know how this will play out: I’ll love the first episode (the one that airs on Christmas) which will end with an awesome cliffhanger. I’ll geek out and theorize and try to figure out what will happen, but ultimately I’ll be disappointed by the terrible finale. Russell Davies is brilliant in writing that build up cliffhanger episode, but the past two seasons’ finales were never as near as awesome as those cliffhangers.

What did you think? Discuss in the comments.

I’m way behind on my TV watching; I’ve got a huge list of stuff to watch (Flash Forward, Community, Heroes, House, and it goes on and on). Anyway here are my thoughts on the stuff I watched last week:

Dollhouse (2×01)

Wow, I love this series. When it started last year, I wasn’t that convinced by it. It took to at least episodes 6 and 7 for me to really believe that Joss Whedon could pull it off again. And then the unaired Epitaph One… Amazing. This first episode of Dollhouse’s second season is pretty awesome too, although it would have helped to have a short ‘what happened again in the previous eps’ segment. That aside though, this episode kicks all kinds of ass; Echo and Ballard are great together, and I’m eager to find out how their relationship will develop. Especially now that Echo’s becoming more self aware. Next to that story line, you’ve got to love the scenes with Topher and Whiskey; I wish Amy Adams could have gotten more episodes this season.

How I Met Your Mother (5×01)

Robin and Barney! Barney and Robin! Barman and Robin! I love these two as a couple, and this season started out great for them. I knew they were going to pull some twist with the ‘Mother’. Last season ended with older Ted telling us that the Mother was in Ted’s lecture room. Turns out though it wasn’t his lecture room (for Architecture), but for Economics. There have been rumours though that How I Met Your Mother’s 100th episode (5×12) will bring us a step closer to the Mother…

The Big Bang Theory (3×01)

This TV show walks a fine, fine line. On the one hand it is filled with jokes only geeks and nerds will get, on the other side they’re actually making fun of this audience. Once in a while I still cringe at some of jokes (just because I know I do whatever it is they’re making fun of), but I think it’s gotten better. I’m still not sure about Penny and Leonard as a couple; they are cute together, but they’re not the Ross and Rachel type that the series is pushing them to be.

The Forgotten (1×01)

I watch my fair share of procedural dramas, and while occasionally enjoyable I’m not really looking to add yet another one to the huge list of things to watch. I’m not sure what to do yet with The Forgotten; it seems interesting, but I don’t think there’s enough there to hook me completely on to it. It’s about a civilian volunteers group who, after the police have failed, attempt to identify John and Jane Does. Christian Slater is okay as the lead ‘investigator’ who himself lost his daughter in a kidnapping and has never heard anything of her. The rest of the team is adequate, but there’s nothing that makes in want to invest in these characters. There’s no fun interaction between them or any intriguing gripping backstories like on most other shows.

The Good Wife (1×01)

This new show features Julianna Margulies as Alicia Florrick, the wife of a politician who has been jailed after a very public sex and corruption scandal. To provide for her two children, she returns back to her old job as a defense attorney, although she has to rebuild her reputation and position. When I initially heard about this show, I thought it wouldbe much more political and all about how this politician’s wife has to deal with the scandal and betrayal of her husband. Juicy stuff, right? It isn’t at all though; the show is basically just a legal drama with the scandal as an added element to stir it up a bit. I know people who will love to show, but it’s not something for me.

Vampire Diaries (1×02 & 1×03)

So I watched two more episodes of the Vampire Diaries, and I’m still not impressed. All the characters just seem so bland, none of them are interesting at all. Plus, why does every ‘ad’ cliffhanger end with a vampire ‘attack’? The first time was cheesy enough already, why repeat that a couple of times? I’m sorry Vampire Diaries, but even though you’re based on my beloved books, so far you haven’t been delivering at all.

Grey’s Anatomy (6×01)

We’re at the 6th season already? I remember being so hooked on this show that very first season, and while the show has had its ups and downs, I still remain as invested as I was that first season. And now we have our very first departure of the show (yeah, I know Burke left, but he didn’t die, so technically he could come back), George O’Malley. George is dead. I knew it was coming after last season, but the writers are just so mean and still manage to shock us. That moment when Lexie goes “No, it’s not him, George is taller”, I for a moment was actually expecting that to be true. And that only makes the impact that it is him so much more stronger. I still love how Grey’s Anatomy manages to have a theme in each episode and interweave it through all the story lines and patient cases. In this case the 5 stages of grief. Everybody is dealing with their grief differently (if you want to read more about this episode, you should follow Grey Matter, the blog of the writers). Also, did anyone notice that Meredith is pregnant? In real life that is, not in the show. They’ve been pretty smart and creative with covering it up.

Melrose Place (1×02 & 1×03)

I know it’s so cheesy and soapy, but I’m growing to like this show. I like how they’re using the flash backs to show us more about these characters; some of the flashbacks are completely ‘new’, while others actually come from the original series. Even though I never watched the original it’s kind of interesting to see these characters so many years later. I also liked this post from Buzz Sugar linking the current characters to their original series counterpart. So far my favourite characters are Violet (psycho, yet sweet ), Ella (bitchy PR agent), Jonah (the up and coming film director) and Lauren (the med student-turned-prostitute).

A quick note first: Thank you for all the questions for Joshua Jackson, Hugh Laurie and Joss Whedon. I had the Fringe conference call with Joshua Jackson yesterday; I have no idea how many bloggers/journalists were listening in on that call, but about halfway I decided to “stand in line” with my question and didn’t get a turn. This evening is the Joss Whedon one and tomorrow the House one (which was postponed). So just to clear things up, this is not a one-on-one interview, so I’d be even lucky to ask one of the questions. I’ll be posting the transcripts of the calls, as soon as they are available.

So the new TV season has started with loads of my favourite shows returning, plus a ton of new stuff. Instead of reviewing each of them individually I thought I quickly jot down my thoughts about those shows I’ve seen so far. Surprisingly most of the stuff that has premiered so far are the “girly” shows (Melrose Place, 90210, Gossip Girl, etc).

Gossip Girl

I love Blair and Chuck together; glad to see the writers didn’t decide to split them up during the summer. For me, those two will always be the most interesting characters Gossip Girl has. Dan remains as boring as ever, I couldn’t care less about Serena’s cry for attention from daddy (although I wonder who they’ll cast as her dad) and Jenny doesn’t even appear that much in this episode. Nate’s storyline could become interesting, plus I love Joanna Garcia (why did Privileged have to be cancelled?!?).

Melrose Place

Hmm, yeah, not too sure about this. Like 90210, I never had seen the previous incarnation of the show, so didn’t have any familiarity at all with any of the characters. It doesn’t seem though as if you need that, but still there’s something missing in this show. Also none of the characters really stood out to me, and even now I’m struggling to remember who was introduced.

90210

You know a show is in trouble when they’re already “rebooting” stuff in the second season. While I watched season 1 completely, it did have a lot wrong in it. Some of those stuff they have solved this season, but it’s still not there yet. For starters kicking Ethan out the show was a good thing in my eyes; I never liked his storylines that much. But replacing him with ‘Teddy Montgomery’? Come on, that actor is 30 year’s old and is playing a teenager?!? I don’t have a problem if the person actually looks like a teenager, but this guy? Totally unbelievable.

What I did like though is the trio that is now Naomi, Silver and Adrianna. I wish they would just write Annie out of the show already and focus more on the other three girls.

Glee

I loved the pilot of Glee; the songs were spinning in my head for days after seeing it. The second episode though was a bit meh; I didn’t like any of the songs that much, and almost none of the characters seem sympathetic yet. I want to like Rachel, but so far she’s just getting on my nerve.

Vampire Diaries

As I expected, completely nothing like the books. It still could be a great TV show, but I’ll have to wait and see for a couple more episodes. At the moment, it’s feeling very much like a supernatural version of Roswell: shy girl meets broody hot guy with a secret. I’ll still keep watching this, but it’s got to bring more intrigue and mystery, and less pining and staring into each other’s eyes.

More shows are starting this week; I’ll be sure to update about them once I’ve seen them. In the mean time, what did you think of the season premieres so far? Discuss in the comments.

Leverage is a new series coming this fall (actually December) from Dean Devlin, the writer behind Universal Soldier, Stargate, Independence Day and Godzilla (yeah, not too impressive, but still interesting).

Nate Ford (Timothy Hutton) is an ex-insurance investigator, who once tracked down stolen goods and the thieves behind them. After the death of his son, due in part to an insurance company who didn’t want to pay for the treatment, Ford is approached to “re-acquire” stolen designs from an airplane manufacturer. He’s forced to work with individuals he at one time in the past crossed paths with: Eliot Spencer (Christian Kane), a retrieval specialist; Alex Hardison (Aldis Hodge), a computer and gadget expert; and, Parker (Beth Riesgraf), a thief. Eventually they’re also joined by Sophie Devereaux (Gina Bellman), a horrible on-stage actress, but con-artist extraordinaire.  

Let me first make a couple of things clear. The version I watched had the music from Hustle under it. While this might make it through to the final cut, I’m guessing that was just a temporary thing. This means though that they could possibly change anything and everything in the time it takes until it eventually airs. 

Leverage is a fun new series. It’s a combination of Ocean’s Eleven, The A-Team and any hustle/thief type of show. I’ve never watched Hustle, so I can’t really say if it’s anything like that or not. I’m not even sure if Leverage is based on it or just loosely inspired (”ooh, you know that British Hustling serie? Let’s make that but with Americans!”). Like Ocean’s Eleven it’s got a good worked-out plot, but I wonder if they’ll be able to keep it interesting for an entire season. It’s difficult to bring a smart story every single week, especially if you also want to try and surprise your viewers a bit on the way. Fingers crossed they can achieve that.

This is very much an ensemble series and the actors all have a great chemistry together (I’m hoping they won’t recast). Timothy Hutton is great as the slightly older mentor figure, who suddenly is playing on the other side, although I hope they don’t focus too much on his dead son story line. Christian Kane is interesting as Spencer; somehow I wouldn’t have imagined casting him in that role, but that’s the reason why it works. I loved Gina Bellman in Coupling and it’s great seeing her on TV again. Surprisingly she isn’t even the craziest character (although she has some great moments). That honour goes to Parker, played by Beth Riesgraf, and I’m curious to see more of her backstory. Finally, the computer geek Alex. There are a couple obvious geeky jokes in that pilot, but still I really liked the character. 

The only problem I had with the show is that it felt a bit slow at times. Somethings were dragged out a bit too much and it would have worked better if those moments were a bit snappier. As I said before, that might still change and I’m hoping it will.

Just like The Mentalist Leverage is an easy to get into new TV show. There’s no real big season thread (maybe the dead son), and most episodes will be stand-alone. This will be another show going on my to-watch list, although I’m curious to see if they’ll change anything about it first.

There’s one thing I hate about summer: all my favourite TV shows goes on hiatus. What I most of the time do, is find series I haven’t seen yet and watch them all in one go. In this recurring ‘To Watch’ post, I’ll recommend some series that have been going on for some time (or have at least one season and have been renewed), that aren’t that popular or well-known, but are well worth watching. 

To start this series off: Eli Stone. It’s a part comedy, part musical, part legal drama (intrigued yet?) that runs on ABC. So far there is one season of 13 episodes, but the series has been renewed for the fall season (returning on Tuesday’s 10pm). 

Eli Stone is a thirty-something attorney, who works for a big law firm, representing big important companies. He’s an arrogant jackass, who doesn’t care about the people who he comes up against in court. That all changes when he finds out he has a brain aneurysm that starts giving him hallucinations (of people singing, mythical creatures). The hallucinations all relate to cases he’s working on and slowly he starts believing that maybe they’re not just hallucinations…

The premise of the show is unique. What other series can claim it’s a comedy/musical/legal drama combined? And that’s what makes it so great. It’s just so different than all other series out there; it’s a nice breath of fresh air. The musical sequences are fantastic; because they’re hallucinations, anything can happen, while not feeling too silly.

Jonny Lee Miller is likable as Eli. You’re supposed to find him arrogant and non-likable at the start, but you quickly start feeling for him. Mark my words, by the end of the first episode you’ll be rooting for his character. 

Besides Eli, there’s a nice cast of other characters and all of them make the show work. For starters, there’s Loretta Devine (Boston Public, Grey’s Anatomy) as Eli’s secretary Patti. Wow, she’s got a voice! Then there’s Natasha Henstridge as Eli’s fiancée, Taylor Wethersby, and Victor Garber as Jordan Wethersby, Taylor’s father and Eli’s boss. I knew Garber had done musicals before Alias and it’s great seeing him in these musical routines, yet still remaining a pretty tough and strict character. Add to that, the characters Maggie Dekker (played by Julie Gonzalo) and Matt Dowd (played by Sam Jaeger) who both are lawyers at the Wethersby law firm. Rounding off the cast is Eli’s brother Nate (Matt Letscher) and Eli’s acupuncturist and friend, Dr Chen (James Saito). 

I’m curious to see what season 2 will bring us. I loved the first season and I think it’s slipped under a lot of people’s radar. Give it a try; wanna bet you like it as I do?

It’s that time of the year again, where studios are warming up for next year’s TV season, producing pilots they hope will become the next big hit. Somehow some of these pilot always turns up on the internetz, be it intentionally or not. I’ll try to review the ones I come across, giving feedback if it’s worth watching next fall or not.

The first is The Mentalist, a CBS produced police drama, starring Simon Baker (The Guardian). He plays Patrick Jane, a consultant for the California Bureau of Investigation (CBI), who uses his remarkable skills of observation to help solve cases. Five years ago Jane was a TV celebrity psychic, who was involved in the hunt for the serial killer Red John. On TV he (falsely) claimed he could feel Red John with his paranormal abilities and Red John responded by killing Jane’s family. Since then he’s stopped with the psychic angle, admitting his powers were fake, and started working as a crime consultant. Jane is known for his lack of protocol and his unusual method of solving cases, infuriating his senior agent Teresa Lisbon (Robin Tunney) and the other members of the team (Owain Yeoman, Amanda Righetti and Tim Kang).

When I heard the premise of this series, I thought it would be a Psych/Monk rip-off. It’s not though, not at all. Where Psych and Monk are both pretty upbeat and funny, The Mentalist is more darker and serious than those two series. It has a bit of the same base story, but in the execution they’re nothing alike. The character of Patrick Jane can be funny at times, but his circumstances and background are painted more seriously, giving him a rougher, more realistic edge.

Patrick Jane is the type of person who knows he’s the smartest person in the room and will remind you of that very fact. He’s arrogant and slightly annoying to most of the people he shares the screen with. In another actor’s hands this could have turned out bad, but Simon Baker makes it work; you actually start liking him. He’s a great lead and you’re straight away rooting for his character. 

Robin Tunney, who I typically find quite annoying, is decent enough as Jane’s supervisor. The other supporting characters are all okay, even though we don’t get to see much of them in this pilot. It’s great to see Owain Yeoman again on TV, but his track records with new series haven’t fared that well (both The Nine and Kitchen Confidential were cancelled after 13 episodes). And the same counts for Amanda Righetti (Reunion got cancelled after 13 episodes too). Fingers crossed The Mentalist doesn’t go down that same road.

The Mentalist is an interesting new series that doesn’t require too much effort to get into. Most episodes will be stand-alone and I’m guessing the light season story arch of Red John will not frighten off the occasional viewer. Additionally, it’s an easy series to commit to; there’s no real mystery and mythology to get hooked by, and if the series does get cancelled, there won’t be too many never-to-be-solved loose ends. I’m not sure if they’ll stick to this pilot; there’s always the chance they’ll recast, rewrite and reshoot certain stuff. I liked it though, and it’s going on my to-watch for this fall.

In the next couple of days I’ll be introducing some returning blog topics to (hopefully) get me more motivated to write more regularly. The first of these new topics is Rewind where I’ll reminisce about some old obscure cancelled tv-serie. I’m starting with a series that I’ve mentioned before on this blog: Brimstone (I compared Reaper to it here).

Number of Episodes: 13
Original Run: October 23, 1998 – February 12, 1999
Original Channel: Fox
You Might Know Them Now: Peter Horton (producer and director for Dirty Sexy Money and Grey’s Anatomy), John Glover (Lionel Luthor in Smallville)

Brimstone was about Ezekiel “Zeke” Stone (Horton), an undead ex-New York City Police detective who tracks down escapees of Hell. Fifteen years ago when his wife was raped and the rapist was cleared of all charges, Stone tracked the rapist down and murdered him. A couple of months after that, Stone died in an unrelated incident and was sent to Hell for killing the rapist. Now, though, 113 spirits have escaped from Hell and, because the Devil (Glover) has no power on earth, he makes a deal with Stone: Stone must hunt down all 113 spirits and will get a second chance on earth, if he succeeds and survives.

If you thought Michael Scolfield (Prison Break) was the first to have tattoos all over his body, you’re seriously mistaken. Stone is covered with tattoos, one for every escapee. Every time he kills an escapee (and thus sending it back to hell), the corresponding tattoo burns itself off. He also can’t just kill the spirit in any manner; no, he has to take out the eyes, cause “the eyes are the windows to the soul”. Every episode Stone would track the spirit down, who in most cases was stirring up quite some trouble, there would be a boss-battle and Stone would send the spirit back to Hell. Add to that, his wife that thinks he’s been dead for 15 years and you’ve got the basis of the whole show.

How I described it, the show doesn’t really sound that good, but there were a couple of things working for them. It certainly didn’t deserve the cancellation at that time, but then again we’re talking about the notorious Fox here. For starters, Peter Horton was good as the tortured, brooding hero. The series was in my opinion quite dark for that time, especially because the protagonists were (albeit in various degrees) basically evil. Which brings me to the next good element of the show: the Devil. John Glover had some brilliant one-liners and his portrayal as the Devil will always stick with me.

I’m not in any means saying this was a great show, but it’s certainly one that was original and funny. So does anybody else remember this show? Share your thoughts in the comments.