I almost ignored this series completely. Cougar Town? Seriously? But then I found out it written/produced/directed by Bill Lawrence, the mastermind behind Scrubs. While the last couple of seasons of Scrubs haven’t been too great, you can’t ignore the brilliance of those first seasons. Maybe what Lawrence needed was a new focus and Cougar Town might be just that.

Here’s the description from ABC:

Can a woman of a certain age be a mom, a successful career woman and still be on the prowl? Jules Cobb (Courteney Cox) is about to give it a try. 

In a small Florida town, the center of high society is the Cougars high school football team… which is wildly appropriate since this town is the natural habitat for over-tanned, under-dressed divorcées prowling for younger men. Jules desperately doesn’t want to be one of them, but with an ugly divorce behind her and 40 staring right back at her, she’s longing for a little more action in her life. The available men her own age, like her silver fox of a neighbor, Grayson Ellis, only seem interested in dating barely legal hotties — which is awkward considering he’s also her teenage son Tad’s therapist. Egged on by her very married and very irreverent best friend Elle and her determined assistant Laurie, Jules reluctantly dips her toe back into the dating pool. To her surprise, she hits it off with a nice young guy named Bobby — emphasis on the young — and discovers this gal still has the goods. 

And here’s the trailer:

Hmm, not sure about it, but it could turn out fun.

V is one of those TV shows I remember having watched completely, but don’t remember the actual specifics from. I was I think 10ish at the time, and I haven’t rewatched it since. Anyway, they’ve now announced that ABC has picked up a remake of V for the 2009-2010 season.

Here’s the description from Wikipedia:

The world awakens to find spaceships hovering over all major cities. Though the aliens claim to come in peace, some do not believe them. Homeland Security agent Erica Evans discovers that the aliens have plans to infiltrate our governments and businesses in a plot to take over the planet. Erica joins the resistance movement, which includes Ryan, an alien who wants to save humanity. However, the aliens have recruited earth’s youth, including Erica’s son, to serve unknowingly as spies.

So far the cast sounds great: Elizabeth Mitchell (Juliet from Lost) will play the Homeland Security agent mentioned in the snippet above. Morena Baccarin (Firefly) will play  the leader of the aliens, Anna. Joel Gretsch (Taken, The 4400) will play Father Jack Landry. And Scott Wolf will play the reporter Chad Decker.

So far the pilot has already been shot, and there are a couple of clips available:

I wonder if they’ll stick with this cast; judging from the small clips above, they do all seem to fit in their roles. But you never know, right? I do like the look of this version V, and it’s about time there’s another sci-fi on TV. I can’t wait to see the pilot!

Via Blogomatic3000

This TV season will see the start of two shows based on books I’ve read: Flash Forward and The Vampire Diaries. I read Flash Forward about 9/10 years ago I think, and the story has always stuck with me. I’ve always thought it would make a great movie or a mini-series. An actual TV show though? I’m not sure how they’ll have enough material.

The problem with having read the book though is that I know most of the story. I think I can imagine how they’re going to make it more mysterious. For starters, in the book you know straightaway how and why the flash forward happened; I’m guessing the TV show will make that one of the first mysteries to “solve”.

Here’s the description from ABC: 

What if you saw your future 6 months from now? A glimpse of where you will be and who you will be with. Would you look forward to what was coming…or would you try to stop it? 

A mysterious global event causes everyone to black out simultaneously for two minutes and seventeen seconds, and each person sees a glimpse of their lives six months from now. When they wake up, everyone is left wondering if what they saw will actually happen. 

Los Angeles FBI Agent Mark Benford (Joseph Fiennes) is desperate to uncover why this happened and who or what is behind it. And he’s not the only one. Before long, everyone starts asking, “What did you see?” As Mark and his team struggle to figure out what caused this bizarre event, they begin to piece together the future by creating a huge database of people’s flash forwards from all over the world – The Mosaic Collective. No one knows what these flash forwards mean or exactly what the future really holds. But it is clear that across the globe people who’ve never met will somehow be intimately connected and will have an impact on each other’s lives in the next six months. Some will fear what’s coming, others excited; but not a single person will be unaffected. 

Anyhow, the show will air in the fall on ABC and will star  Joseph Fiennes, Sonya Walger, John Cho, Christine Woods, Jack Davenport and Courtney B. Vance. Here’s the promo:

It does look like a great new series; I’m just wondering how intriguing it will be for some one who has read the book. So far, the city and all the characters are completely different, so I’m guessing it will still be pretty interesting.

Hmm, this could turn out interesting. Human Target has been picked up by Fox for a January 2010 premiere. It’s produced by McG (Terminator: Salvation and Charlie’s Angels) and Simon West (Con Air and Tomb Raider) and is based on “popular” DC Comics graphic novel (I’ve never heard of it before, have you?).

Human Target stars Mark Valley (Fringe) as Christopher Chance, a unique private eye and bodyguard, who impersonates his clients in order to eliminate any threats (thus becoming a human target). As sidekicks we get Chi McBride (Pushing Daisies) and Jackie Earle Haley (Watchmen). The pilot episode guest stars Tricia Helfer (Battlestar Galacica).

Here are a couple of clips that Fox has released:

[Watch the videos on MissGeeky]

These clips do nothing to excite me for this new series. While it looks fine, it seems a little boring. I have no idea how the graphic novel is, but Human Target looks a little too procedural for me. I want to like it because of the actors, but it will need that red line to really hook me.

Buy the Rock Paper Scissors Lizard Spock T-Shirt!
See more Rock, Paper, Lizard, Scissors, Spock T-Shirts!

I’m still not completely sure what I think of the sit-com The Big Bang Theory. For those who don’t know this TV series, it’s about two nerdy, geeky housemates and the pretty but slightly dumb blonde who moves in across the hall from them. On one side it’s aiming very much to the geek crowd, with insider jokes only geeks will understand. On the other side though it features stereotypical geeks and makes fun of them.

All that aside, in this week’s episode Sheldon explains the rules to Rock, Paper, Scissors, Lizard, Spock, a variation of the known game Rock, Paper, Scissors:

Apparently it’s been around for some time already (invented by Sam Kass), and has been floating around as a internet meme. Here are the rules one more time:

It can be even more elaborate though; check this version of Rock, Paper, Scissors, Gun, Dynamite, Nuke, Lightning, Devil, Dragon, Alien, Water, Bowl, Air, Moon, Sponge, Wolf, Cockroach, Tree, Man, Woman, Monkey, Snake, Axe, Fire, Sun.

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.

Episode 78: “You’re running Mac or PC?”

I have no idea where these Muppets videos come from. It seems they’re meant as “web-clips”, but I wonder if they have anything to do with the upcoming (still to be filmed though) Muppets movie.

I mentioned in a previous post back in January that The Sword of Truth fantasy series by Terry Goodkind was picked up by Sam Raimi for a possible TV show. Well, now the promo’s out and it’s been renamed to Legend of The Seeker. Take a look at it yourself:

Hmm. I’m still undecided. It doesn’t look as bad it could have, but then we haven’t seen any of the main characters open their mouths. I think it really depends on the acting chops of Craig Horner (Richard) and Bridget Regan (Kahlan). I’m hoping they’ll go the Stardust way instead of the Xena way. It’s a very close line, cause Stardust was a tad cheesy, but there they managed to balance it with the right atmosphere. 

Both main actors are relative newcomers; they’ve both done their share of TV show guest appearances, but this will be their first real starring role. I like the look of Bridget Regan; she somehow does fit my idea of Kahlan. But could they have done without the low cut dress? Craig Horner as Richard… I’m not sure yet. He’s got the right sturdy look, but I’d pictured someone older and larger.

I want this show to work out, not just because I liked the books. These books were the first fantasy books I ever tried, and while by far not the best out there, they’re still part of my triyearly re-reads. No, I want this to work out, because I’ve been saying for years that movies won’t do a fantasy book justice, but maybe, just maybe, a TV show will. Chances are high though that I’ll be thoroughly disappointed by this, so I’m not expecting that much. It’s better to be surprised by awesomeness, than to be let down by unimpressiveness.

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?

Cristiano and Alper pointed out to me that I hadn’t written a review yet about Dr Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog. Now I kind of assumed people would know I loved, loved, loved it. Anyhow just like with The Dark Knight I’m not going to do a real review about it, just some random thoughts about it all. I’ll try to keep it a bit more general here, leaving the spoilers for after the image (with a big BEWARE above it) in the case you haven’t seen it yet.

For starters, if you haven’t seen it yet, you should. It’s still available to watch for free on Hulu (see below). Alternatively you can download it from iTunes for a small fee (although it’s not available yet in every country).

The characters are perfectly cast. Neil Patrick Harris is superb as Billy aka Dr Horrible. I’d expected to see him the whole time as Barney from How I Met Your Mother, but from that first scene on he WAS Dr Horrible. And his singing! Before this I didn’t know he had a musical background, but now I’d love to see him one time on Broadway. Nathan Fillion‘s Captain Hammer is spot on; he’s cheesy, smarmy and so obnoxious, you can’t help but hate him. Felicia Day finishes the triangle as sweet Penny. I’d love to see more of her; I’ve just finished watching The Guild and it’s brilliant. Someone give her a TV show already!

Dr Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog is truly a sing-along. The songs are catchy, staying in your head for a couple of days after watching it all. I’d be hard pressed to pick a favourite; they’re all so great! Somehow I just know that given some time I’ll know the lyrics by heart and be able to fully sing-along with it. The soundtrack should be coming out sometime in the next couple of weeks and I know I for one am going to buy and download it straightaway. I also can’t wait to get my hands on the DVD of this, especially because we’ve been promised a musical commentary and a gag reel.  

After the image: beware spoilers!

Argh! Here Be Spoilers!

Knowing Joss Whedon, I should have anticipated that ending. However, even when Penny died and Dr Horrible was carrying her away, I had the hope that somehow it still would all turn out fine. I find it amazing how gut-wrenching those final minutes are, when you realize she really is dead and that Dr Horrible now has everything he thought he wanted. Even on a second viewing it remains gut-wrenching.

Don’t you just love that Bad Horse is actually a horse? All the members of the Evil League of Evil looked interesting (here’s a cool blog post matching the names up with what we saw) and I love that almost all of them are cameos from Buffy verse people. And did anyone else notice that the news anchors were David Fury and Marni Noxon? 

I want more Dr Horrible! In his new shiny red lab coat. As part of the Evil League of Evil (btw, they’re not accepting applications at the moment… not yet at least). Doesn’t this all feel like a great set-up for more? I’ll be happy if they leave with this, but I’d be thrilled if they have more sing-alongy goodness. I’m not sure though where it would go from here; I wouldn’t want them introducing another love interest. I guess we’ll have to wait and see what Whedon and co have planned for us.