Archive: July 2009 (1-10 of 56)

Jul 31 2009 07:22 AM ET

'Burn Notice' last night: Emotional explosions as the season nears an end

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Categories: Television, TV Last Night

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Well, Burn Notice has certainly cranked up the quality as its season draws to a close, hasn’t it? After those early tedious weeks Jeffrey Donovan’s Michael spent trading insults with Moon Bloodgood’s Det. Paxson, it’s been a relief to see a far more intriguing character, Ben Shenkman’s Strickler, come to the forefront.

As the only man Michael thinks might be able to clear his name, Strickler, “agent to the spies,” is an amusing hustler who gets results. More importantly, Burn Notice has been on a hot streak of fast, funny, exciting episodes. A few weeks ago, the episode entitled “The Hunter” featured a lot of Michael’s trademark weapons improvisations and fight scenes set in the Everglades. Last week’s “Shot in the Dark” boasted a fine guest-star turn by Better Off Ted‘s Jay Harrington and a classic Burn plot: Michael taking a 13 year-old boy as a client to fend off his abusive stepdad (Harrington).

And last night, Rescue Me‘s Callie Thorne showed up as a devious villain who put Fiona through an emotional wringer. She, in turn, did the same to Michael. The season is building to the climax of two storylines: Michael getting closer than he ever has to having his burn notice lifted, and, perhaps, losing Fiona’s affections in the process.

Next week,Tyne Daly will show up in some stunt-casting that’ll pair her with Sharon Gless — Cagney and Lacey reunited. I hope that sweet idea doesn’t get in the way of some serious resolution to a solid season.

Did you watch Burn Notice last night? What did you think?

Jul 30 2009 11:33 AM ET

A new 'Rockford Files': Good idea, or bad? And what does James Garner think?

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Categories: Television

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Usually I think remaking a TV classic is a bad idea, but the news that House producer David Shore is thinking of doing a new version of the great James Garner series The Rockford Files fills me with hope, not cynicism.

Yes, it will be very difficult, if not impossible, to match the wily charm that James Garner brought to this wonderful 1974-80 detective show about a stubbornly independent, low-income private eye. But House proves Shore knows how to showcase prickly heroes.

Co-created by Stephen J. Cannell and the great Roy Huggins, the original Rockford Files writing staff included Sopranos creator David Chase. The new Rockford is slated to air on NBC, which gives me some pause — this is the network, after all, that had no idea what a treasure it had in its recent Damian Lewis crime show Life. I’m thinking USA Network, where, y’know, characters are welcome, would be a better home for a fresh Rockford Files.

What do you think? Is remaking The Rockford Files a good idea? Bad? And who would you cast as rugged wise guy Jim Rockford? (My colleague Marc Bernardin just came up with a brilliant idea: ABC, if it cancels Castle, frees up Nathan Fillion to become a potentially-ideal Rockford. That get some casting ideas sparking?)

UPDATE: My colleague at Time Magazine, James Poniewozik, has a few typically astute things to say about a Rockford remake (also check out his exemplary blog via my blogroll).

Jul 30 2009 09:35 AM ET

In defense of Katherine Heigl: Why all the hate?

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Categories: Movies, Television

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Wow, what did Katherine Heigl do to anger so many people? There’s a lotta Heigl-hate out there. Her most immediate offenses seem to be the common-consensus mediocrity of her new movie The Ugly Truth and her July 20 complaint to David Letterman that she had to work a 17-hour day.

As a result of this and other perceived sins, the L.A. Times has published a piece about contempt for Heigl, and a blogger I respect, the first-class TV writer Ken Levine (whose terrific blog you can also find my blogroll), has published a ferocious entry about Heigl as a diva. I respectfully disagree.

Me, I’ll defend her. Her Letterman appearance, if you watch the whole thing, was funny and smart. You have to be on your toes with Dave, and she really engaged with him. She showed genuine, non-diva curiosity about things other than herself (asking Dave about his own, long-gone dog, Bob, for example). As for the gripe about Anatomy work-hours, she wasn’t saying she’s worked to the bone every day — it was more the mild complaint of a tired laborer. Who doesn’t like to needle the boss? (And no matter how much dough you make, a 17-hour day is difficult, right?)

As for Ugly Truth, which Heigl had a hand in producing — well, yes, doing scenes with vibrating underpants isn’t a way to lift yourself into cinema Valhalla alongside Katharine Hepburn, but, hey, you know what? Some of those Hepburn-Spencer Tracy movies were pretty silly, too. (Look at Desk Set some time — about as many laughs as Ugly Truth.)

Heigl has almost always been on the right side of things. She defended her pal T. R. Knight when he needed defending from an otherwise-pretty-silent Anatomy cast. The year she pulled herself out of Emmy nomination, it was for a solid, ego-free reason: she didn’t think Izzy’s scenes were good enough to take up a slot for some better performance that year. What’s to hate about that?

Sure, Heigl needs to launch a better movie career in the future. She must find better scripts and better directors, because she’s not trying to be (only) a sex symbol, and for a woman in Hollywood, that requires a lot of effort to overcome. She was solid in Knocked Up, and as I said, she radiates intelligence and giggly good humor on talk shows. Check out that Letterman appearance from last week:

What do you think? Heigl: Love her, hate her, or think she’s caught in another media crossfire?

Jul 30 2009 06:58 AM ET

'Top Chef Masters': raw lobster and over-cooked eggs

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Categories: Food and Drink, Misc., Reality TV, TV Last Night

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The best moments of this week’s Top Chef Masters — the beginning of the series’ “Champions Round” — occurred during the Quickfire Challenge, when we got to see some cham-peen oyster shucking and some blinding-fast onion-chopping. This was a highlight distinction between regular Top Chef and the Masters edition. We’re used to watching budding young chefs get flustered, flail and curse their way through competitions. This time around, the pleasure was in watching pros slice ‘n’ dice with phenomenal speed and accuracy. (Even after re-playing it, I still don’t know Hubert Keller’s onion-slicing style, but to me it was even more impressive than Art Smith’s winning method.) (Oh yeah: spoiler alert.)

Smith, with his out-size personality, his jokey joie de vivre, is clearly an audience and judge favorite; I suspect it was these qualities that ultimately pushed him a half-star higher than the charmingly earnest Suzanne Tracht. Because really, if her food had just been warmed up a bit (the judges’ main complaint), her grouper would have defeated Smith’s lump of meat with that hard hard-boiled egg, don’t you think?

As for this week’s winner, Anita Lo — well, what’s not to like about a person who went to France to study French literature and stuck around to fall in love with food? Bravo to Bravo for having the guts to show Lo dismembering a live lobster on-camera; more squeamish networks would have cut away. Those few seconds ended up emphasizing a key detail of her finished dish, which included raw lobster. Have to say, it didn’t sound all that delicious to me, but any TV that rewards intellectualization, as the judges characterized Lo’s method, gets five stars from me.

Did you watch? Did you agree that the right chef won this round?

Jul 29 2009 12:51 PM ET

Tiffani Thiessen is too busy for 'Saved By The Bell' reunion

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Categories: Misc., Tech, Television

As you can see from the video below, Tiffani Thiessen is way too busy to join the Jimmy Fallon-sponsored Saved By The Bell reunion:

I’ve always had a fondess for Thiessen, ever since a Saved By The Bell producer tried to get me fired from EW for making fun of the actress’ name in a review when she went by “Tiffani Amber Thiessen.” I’m still here, and more importantly, so is Thiessen.

What do you think of her video?

Jul 29 2009 10:48 AM ET

Leslie Mann shaves Judd Apatow's back on 'Kimmel' and makes the talk-show rounds

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Categories: Talk Shows, Television

Leslie Mann, actor and lissome co-star of the new movie Funny People, is making the rounds of talk shows to promote the movie. Last night on Jimmy Kimmel, she proved once again that she’s a first-rate talk-show guest, as she spoke blithely and amusingly about shaving the back of her husband, Funny People creator Judd Apatow:

Mann has a distinct charm: she comes on all dithery and ditzy, but it only takes a few seconds after she folds her legs beneath a talk-show chair for her to reveal that she’s also fast and clever, as in this exchange last week with David Letterman:

Mann is scheduled to appear on Jimmy Fallon tonight. It may be time to consider entering her into that club of reliably funny talk-show-guest women whose hall of fame includes Teri Garr and Bonnie Hunt.

What do you think?

Jul 29 2009 10:25 AM ET

'The Bachelorette' tries to kill 'Better Off Ted'

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Categories: TV Last Night

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The nerve — the gall! — of ABC to bump a new episode of our beloved Better Off Ted last night in favor of a rerun of The Bachelorette finale! (I half-expected ABC to try and repackage it as something new and call it The Bachelorette: Picking the Rose Thorns Out of My Backside.)

Of course, anything Bachelorette gets way bigger ratings than Ted, but you and I have come to treasure our weekly summer half-hour of new Ted brilliance, haven’t we? This last-minute yanking of Ted was an insult to our hardy cult.

Hey, I’ve got nothing against The Bachelorette. It has inspired one of EW’s finest ongoing TV Watches.

But didn’t you think rerunning it, and putting Ted, a show that’s struggling, in limbo — well, doesn’t that make you mad?

And come to think of it, wouldn’t Ted have made a better choice for Jillian than Ed?

Jul 28 2009 10:30 PM ET

'More To Love' premiere: Dating show or poundsploitation?

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Categories: Dating Shows, Reality TV, Television

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Did you watch More To Love? Brought to you by the man who offered us The Bachelor, wily producer Mike Fleiss, More To Love gave us Luke Conley, a 26 year-old husky fella, who’ll be winnowing down a passel of plus-size gals.

I’ve watched The Bachelor occasionally, am no great follower of dating-genre TV, so ended up I liking More To Love on its own goofy, summer-vacation level. Luke isn’t smarmy. He’s a bit of a salesman (he does something in real estate, so he probably can’t help it), but one key to staying with a show like this is rooting for the person doing the picking, and so far, I’d like to see Luke fall for a nice person.

But who? More To Love allowed its bevy of women to emerge from cars with their weight in pounds printed below their names, a tacky touch, but then, what did I expect,  In Treatment? Some of them seemed a little bitter (wondered one bluntly, why do guys “love the skinny bitches?”), some a tad sad (a woman who proclaimed she’d “never had a second date”).

More To Love suffers from the usual garish visual tropes: the arrival of the contestants, the awkward kissy-huggy greetings, the settling in to a house that looks as though it was decorated by Lady Ga-Ga’s fussy chihuahua. One dull spot last night: Emme, the famous plus-size model, doesn’t add much as host, or at least she didn’t in the premiere, seeming awkward and maybe a tad nervous. I’ve seen her in interviews where she comes off smart and funny, so perhaps she’ll settle in. Anyway, she can’t be a worse presenter than, say, the shrill toothpick they hired for Top Chef Masters, right?

Did you watch More To Love? Do you think it handles its premise well, or that it exploits or condescends to its love-hungry contestants?

Jul 28 2009 11:34 AM ET

'Dollhouse' DVD released today: Is it worth your time and money?

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Categories: DVD, Joss Whedon, Misc., Television

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The season-one DVD of Dollhouse goes on sale today, and you know the party line: this Joss Whedon show started out wobbly, got better, and now most of us are psyched for a second season. But is the DVD worth it for its unaired 13th episode, “Epitaph One”; for the original, unaired pilot; and for its commentaries?

As always with a Whedon project, if you’re Whedonesque, you’ll buy it no matter what I or anyone else says. For the rest of you…

First, “Epitaph One.” (SPOILER ALERT.) Set 10 years in the future, what could have been the series-ender is a mind-bender involving a group of post-apocalyptic rebels. Yes, there’s been an apocalypse, most likely brought on by none other than the bratty-but-brilliant Topher.  (He’s played with bratty brilliance by Fran Kranz — he’s one of the characters I’ve done a 180-degree turn on since the premiere: used to give me the creeps, now I get and enjoy his funny creepiness.)

This ragtag band, which includes Dr. Horrible‘s wonderful Felicia Day, comes upon a Dollhouse in ruins. Over the course of the episode, co-written by Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen, we find out that Actives can now, to varying degrees, control or at least have conscious memories of their personality imprints. There’s a goodly amount of Whedon-style action-banter (“Let’s blow this bitch back to the Bush years!”). A little girl whose identity I won’t reveal uses a big gun to blast someone important to the episode. Dr. Saunders/Whiskey has scars no more. Olivia Williams’ Adelle is lovely. (Just throwing that in there.) Eliza Dushku’s Caroline puts in minimal appearances, but they’re crucial.

In short, a terrific Dollhouse episode that adds a lot to our knowledge going in to season two. It acts as a flash-forward that renders next season a flashback to things that occurred before “Epitaph One”‘s 2019 events. The episode’s commentary by Jed Whedon and Tancharoen is cozily laid-back; I really didn’t need to hear that they’re considering having sex after recording their comments. But maybe I’m just old-fashioned that way; don’t mind me.

As for the original pilot, you’ve seen bits of it chopped up and scattered throughout other Dollhouse episodes, so, again, if you’re a rabid fan or a completist, you’ll want to watch it, but it’s not essential. I didn’t listen to every one of the commentaries, but the ones with Joss are invariably his usual mix of intentionally-obfuscating silliness and interesting how/why-I-wanted-that revelation.

All in all, definitely at least worth renting, if not owning. What about you? Have you been looking forward to this Dollhouse DVD release?

Jul 27 2009 09:43 AM ET

'Family Guy' and its abortion episode: Should Fox air it?

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Categories: Misc., Television

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So according to Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane, Fox isn’t likely to air a new episode about abortion to which 20th Century Fox initially gave a green light. Why? Quoth MacFarlane this weekend at Comic-Con, “20th Century Fox…allowed us to produce this episode and then said, ‘You know what? We’re scared to f—ing death of this.’”

I say, let’s all write to Fox and petition them to air this episode. I have no idea of its content. (No details about the episode have been released.) I have no idea whether I would be outraged, exhilarated, amused, or baffled by what MacFarlane and the Griffin family would do with this highly charged subject.

But I do know that you can never predict what side of any argument the Emmy-nominated Family Guy will come down on. I may not laugh at a lot of its jokes, but I would completely support the show’s right to say whatever it wanted. It’s not as though MacFarlane and his writers don’t know how to work within network standards. Why should we wait until the episode is tucked away inside a future DVD collection?

What do you think?

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