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So I took a holiday at possibly the busiest time in a TV season, right when all the finales happen and there is so much that I need to catch up on a write about. This will occur when my brain is less muddled and the jet lag has gone. Of course most importantly is the Lost finale which I loved and really need to see again before I can fully be happy to write about it. The same goes for Fringe and Bones, both of which I watched on the day of my arrival on holiday which was seen through a similar hazy jet lag mind, rewatch is needed for both. So to unpacking and the Chuck finale and then I will be set hopefully.

Chuck renewal and other TV news

So this is a super busy week in TV land with finales, pick ups, renewals and cancellations happening all over the place, the one cancellation that I have been worried about as I was last year was Chuck, but word is that NBC are renewing it for a fourth season! The official word from NBC has not been stated though sources say that there has been an initial order for 13 episodes, this is all coming exclusively from Entertainment Weekly's Michael Ausiello and many of the other TV websites have all but confirmed this, including my very own favourite (and huge Chuck fan) Alan Sepinwall. The official word will likely come on Sunday when NBC announces their schedule for the autumn.
Sepinwall has suggested that the best pairing for Chuck this year would be the new JJ Abrams spy show Undercovers which is one of the new series that I am most looking forward to as I am a sucker for anything with the Abrams stamp on it. This is also the first pilot that Abrams has directed since Lost and considering how much I love Alias I am confident that this will be another good show. Fox have picked up the other show  that I am excited for is the comedy Running Wilde which stars Will Arnett and Keri Russel with Arrested Development creator Mitch Hurwitz attached as well. This looks promising so lets hope it is a success and isn't cancelled too early like the aforementioned Arrested Development which also aired on Fox, lightening can strike twice just ask Joss Whedon.
The slew of cancellations this week has gone up, with ABC announcing yesterday that Flashforward is a goner. Out of all the other cancellations this is the only one that I watch and whilst I thought the show was kinda stupid it has definitely had its moments and I really like the cast. I expect that because they have wrapped before this cancellation that it will be left pretty open ended which I'm sure will be irritating. Where will the cast of Lost and British actors in Hollywood now go? ABC also ditched Scrubs and Better Off Ted, the latter being a show that I quite wanted to see after hearing nothing but good stuff, the former really should have just ended last year. The big cancellation rumour yesterday came courtesy of the peacock with word coming down that the twenty season long Law and Order was ending, no official word on this though, this is the longest running drama on TV so will be weird if it is over, I'm sure there will be reruns forever though. For any updates the best place to go is to Michael Ausiello's 'Renewal Scorecard' page as he is always up to date and a good source for exclusives.
Other than that I just finished watching The Vampire Diaries finale which was so so good and needs an entire post of it's own which will be up later. Bones this week was also a strong lead in to next weeks finale with the Gravedigger going to trial and I'm just about to settle down with part one of the Fringe finale, hoping that it continues the streak of excellence.

Fringe: longer season finale promo

A longer promo has been released by Fox for Thursday's Fringe which is part 1 of the season finale, this will air over 2 weeks, rather than in one two hour block. I am really excited for this finale and this promo makes the whole thing seem very movie like, it really does look like it is going to be very ambitious as we finally will be spending much time on the other side and will get to see that there is more than one of everything (well almost everything). I'm also looking forward to how the other world will differ from our world, like in last seasons finale there were small touches such as seeing that JFK was still alive via the newspaper and big touches such as the World Trade Centre still standing. In the promo we can see some of these differences and I will let you see for yourself, I think this latter half of the season has been particularly strong and I think that this finale looks like it will hold up to this standard:

Fringe: Brown Betty Promo 2

This second promo looks awesome, really looking forward to this:

Fringe- Brown Betty Preview

Since Fringe has returned from the mid season break it really has gone from strength to strength and found a way to blend the monster of the week episodes with the over arching mythology of the series as a whole. This was an issue at the start of this second season but those issues have been ironed out and now the show is producing some of the finest episodes on TV at the moment. 

Last weeks episode featured the moment that we have all been waiting for since the end of season one; Peter finding out that he is not from this universe. This is the moment that the series has been building to for the whole of this season and produced some of the best work that this show has offered yet, performances of heartbreak coming from both Peter (Joshua Jackson) and Walter (John Noble). This coming so soon after Peter calls Walter Dad for the first time in years showed how far they had come since the pilot and therefore how much was going to be lost when Peter figured out why Walter has been more of an emotional mess of late.

It is unclear from the promo for this next episode 'Brown Betty' how much this will be a diversion from the path the show has been taking for these past few episodes or if this is just the way Walter is trying to deal with Peter disappearing. What we do know is that this episode in part is a musical one, taking part in Fox Music Week and that the style of it evokes film noir. I am definitely intrigued and looking forward to this episode of Fringe and here is the promo to wet your appetite as well:

  

The return of Bones and Fringe

                          

After what seems like forever (well it has been two months) both Bones and Fringe are back this Thursday April 1st, no fooling around... bad joke I apologise. I have missed both crime solving gangs and both shows have some exciting episodes coming up so there will be some mild spoilers ahead.

First up Fringe ended the last episode on somewhat of a cliffhanger with Olivia realising that Peter is actually from the other universe and with this Thursdays episode being entitled 'Peter' and all the promo photos such as the one above flashing back to the 70s we can be sure to see some more development and answers as to the Peter/Walter relationship and how he got Peter between the two worlds. The stories that involve Massive Dynamic, William Bell and the other universe are my favourites as they are often much stronger and more emotive than the 'monster of the week' ones which can sometimes feel out of place. Though I am looking forward to the April 29th musical episode 'Overture' which will feature an all singing and dancing cast. Random episodes like this have been shown to be brilliant with a show like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and I'm hoping for similar results with Fringe, especially as I'm not a big musicals fan.

With Bones the first episode back on Thursday looks like it will be a regular case with more information being shed on Brennan as an author and with Sweets dealing with a near death experience.  It is however, next weeks episode that is highly anticipated. This episode entitled 'The Parts in the Sum of the Whole' is Bones 100th and is directed by Booth himself David Boreanaz which automatically makes it special. The reason it is being touted as a Bones event is because the case is a flashback to when Booth and Brennan first worked together and so will see the return of Zack (Eric Millegan) and of Hodgins super curly hair. This case marks an important point in Booth and Brennan's relationship and will explain why in the pilot episode she was reluctant to work with him. I have managed to stay somewhat unspoiled as to what occurred on this first case, I could have a guess but I'm not going to put it here and I am really looking forward to this trip down memory lane. 

A Fringe/Bones promo to wet your appetite:

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everybody! 2010 looks set to be a very exciting year in the TV world and here is my list of what I am anticipating the most:

• The sixth and final season of Lost.
• Mad Men season 4: Cooper, Sterling, Draper, Pryce  
• The return of Chuck: after a great 'Save Chuck' campaign that worked lets hope that this season gets more ratings and helps the show stay on air. Early reviews implicate this as the strongest season yet and it starts with a double this Sunday 10th with another episode on Monday 11th.
• The Pacific on HBO, if it's anywhere near as good as Band of Brothers then this will be terrific (early signs say it is and the trailer is fantastic).
• Friday Night Lights continuing to be awesome and this year without the worry that it will be cancelled.
• Fringe returning strong and not getting cancelled would be nice too.
• The Daily Show and Colbert Report returning this week, I know it hasn't been off the air for too long but I really miss it when it is not on. Also I will be making my first trip to NYC this year so I'm really hoping to watch one of these being taped.

So in anticipation of Chuck returning here is a really good indepth interview that Zachary Levi did with Televisionary (he also quotes from The Little Mermaid which kinda makes me love him more):

It's been a long time

The new TV season is upon us and despite my lack of blogging over the month of August I am excited about several old shows returning and a few of the new starters as well. I will be writing with more consistency (I hope) over the following weeks and months about these shows. The old returners I am looking forward to are; Bones (thought the bones promo below is pretty cool), Fringe, Curb Your Enthusiasm and The Office (once I have seen season 5- the DVD is on the way as I speak).

I will also be looking at the new season of Mad Men, that has been on for the past few weeks, so far I am enjoying this season and will be writing further on this in the coming week. Oh and I am really looking forward to the return of The Daily Show after the three week hiatus that it has been on, I've been missing my Jon Stewart fix, I'm so glad that the web site has all the old episodes on there to watch.

New starters that have produced an interest include Community (I'm a big fan of Joel McHale, as previous mentions of The Soup will testify), Flash Forward and the new HBO show Bored to Death. Other shows that I am currently catching up on (and need to catch up on) include Damages season 2, 90210 (got to love the trash TV), Dexter, 30 Rock and Harper's Island (I saw the first two episodes the other day and thought it was ok, like watching a long TV horror movie really). Oh and I will finally be catching up with The Sopranos soon as well having only ever seen bits and bobs from each season- though I am totally spoiled for the final episode, which sucks.

So there is plenty for me to be writing about, and I will be tackling many of the above shows in one way or another. See you all soon.

Graduation and what is to come

So, I finally had my graduation ceremony for my Masters in Film and Television which turned out to be a fun afternoon, not only because I got to catch up with some old faces but also because the person who was awarded an honorary degree was the BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner. Gardner was reporting in Saudi Arabia in 2004 when he and his cameraman Simon Cumbers were fired upon by al-Qaeda sympathisers, Cumbers was killed and Gardner who was shot six times was left paralysed. He gave a speech that gave hope to the many graduates in the room and showed that you can achieve your dreams as well as overcome obstacles that are presented to us, no matter how big or small. Here is a picture of me (and my Dad) from the day

It is also odd to think that this time last year I was hard at work with my dissertation which the topic of my study was whether authorship in television is viable and if it is then by what means. My case study was JJ Abrams and I was looking at his body of work in television with the cut off for all Fringe related research being Comic Con. The fact that it is Comic Con this weekend and that it was my graduation last week brings my Masters to a close. On that note I have several things that I would like to write about in the next week or so and I aim to be more productive with this blog throughout the summer as I have been a little absent recently.

Areas that I would like to cover include:

-Reviewing the short lived sitcom Kitchen Confidential which I have just finished watching on DVD.

-The news and highlights from Comic Con, I wish I was there but unfortunately I will be scanning Entertainment Weekly and fan sites such as obsessedwithbones.com and chucktv.net for all the weekends’ gossip

-I just read a review in the New York Times for the Nathan Rabin book ‘The Big Rewind: A Memoir Bought to you by Pop Culture’. Rabin who is now a writer for the Onion writes about his turbulent growing up through pop culture references and from what I have heard this book sounds super and I definitely want to read it (right after I finish with the Dead Zone).

-I’m also currently re-watching season 2 of Mad Men which I got on DVD last week, in preparation for the new season and also because it is truly wonderful TV. The new promo poster for season 3 has been released and makes me so excited for this new season:

-I would like to look at this years Emmy nominations and watch some more of the drama nominees as I currently only watch Mad Men, Dexter and Lost out of the list, really want to check out Breaking Bad and Damages (which my Mum loves and the first season is super cheap to buy at the moment). But also a big grr to Friday Night Lights getting snubbed again in the major categories, what has this show got to do to get some Emmy love?

So, I will be writing a lot more soon, also I have had a guest review of the season 1 Bones episode ‘The man in the fallout shelter’ posted on www.obsessedwithbones.com and will have another one coming soon as I also wrote about ‘The man with the bone’.

TV Show Music

    I like soundtracks, for both film and TV, which I think stems from my love of making mix tapes/CDs, but I often find it frustrating when you are watching something and a song sounds great but you just don’t know who it is. In the past it would quite often take me a while to find out who it was, usually by searching online. However, a couple of days ago when searching for songs that I had heard on Friday Night Lights I discovered a superb website called TV Show Music. It has both past and present shows on there, including The OC, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Gossip Girl, Friday Night Lights and even reality shows such as The Hills, as well as many others. The aspect of this site that I really liked was that it not only has track listings for episodes but also what scene the song is played in, as well as links to where you can download the tracks and a player to hear the track (the downfall of this feature is that it is for US only users).

    So now that I have finally found a site that will help me find the tracks that I hear and love on TV, I wanted to write a little on the shows that have featured great music that has expanded my CD collection a little more and why certain shows have soundtracks that enhance the viewing pleasure. First off I need to unburden myself with the potential original source for my love of TV soundtracks which comes I think from Dawson’s Creek (and yes I owned both CDs), the teen drama is a usual source of new music and as I will review is a trend that is prevalent today;

 

The OC/Gossip Girl: Josh Schwartz has made it his ‘thing’ it would seem to associate his programming with new and exciting music. This works on several levels, it means that his shows that are about young and trendy teenagers also have external elements that feature this criteria but it also allows outside product synergy that, from a commercial aspect benefits both the shows and the bands on the CDs. Once again I own both shows albums, and both have led me to new bands, although I must admit I got a band opinion of Phantom Planet from the OC theme song, as it is a song I don’t really like, however after hearing other Phantom Planet tracks on Gossip Girl (primarily Raise the Dead in ‘The Serena Also Rises’) I have fallen in love with their music.

 

Chuck: Yes another Josh Schwartz show but one that doesn’t necessarily use music as a promotional aspect of the programme, primarily because it is a different age range of characters and the setting is not focused on the lifestyles of the rich. However out of the three Schwartz helmed shows it is Chuck that has me often looking up the artists who feature in the songs that are played. It also blends music that is both current and other songs that deserve their place in pop culture history (‘Hip to be Square’, ‘Once in a Lifetime’ and the songs performed by Jeffster: ‘Africa’ and ‘Mr Roboto’). Also Bon Iver has been used beautifully in several episodes in season 2 that made me fall in love again with ‘For Emma, Forever Ago’. Chuck also introduced to The Thermals who I think are awesome.

 

Friday Night Lights: Just to reiterate it is FNL that led me to find TVshowmusic.com, and I must say that the range of tracks that this programme uses is both impressive and important in creating the world of Dillon, Texas. The music of Explosions in the Sky is perhaps the key to this example as they have been used throughout the three seasons of the show and it personifies the feelings of the town through the beautiful and hopeful instrumental music. The other music that is used throughout is contemporary, and it ranges from acoustic guitar music to more hip hop related songs. As it is set in a small town in Texas there has also been some more traditional county music performance particularly at the wedding at the end of season 3 which demonstrates why this show has been hailed for its realism, by using real Texan performers in a real Texan setting.

 

Alias/ Lost/ Fringe: Most of the music in these three JJ Abrams associated shows is by composer Michael Giacchino, who creates music that fits so perfectly with the tone of these shows. It is rare for a television show to be scored by a live orchestra but Giacchino does just this and it is this quality that makes his music an important feature of these shows. With Lost he says that he won’t read the scripts, he just reacts musically to what it happening on screen and it is this organic work method that I think makes the music in Lost the dramatic and often tense sounding what it is. That he also used parts of the plane that was used in the pilot episode as percussion instruments also shows how the music is a part of the show.

 

TV updates

So a few days after writing my piece on Fringe one of the cast members has been fired according to his facebook page. The cast member in question is Kirk Acevedo who plays Special Agent Charlie Francis, who I really liked in this role and thought he had good chemistry with Anna Torv. All other parties have declined to comment so far but there is a casting call out for a female FBI agent, who I would assume would be taking his place. Hopefully an explanation will be given and there will be a decent reason as to why his character will be leaving the Fringe team.

    Other TV updates include the end of American Idol, I didn’t really watch it this year after being hooked for the first time last season but I was definitely surprised to see that Adam Lambert didn’t win considering how much exposure he has been getting (even getting his own Entertainment Weekly cover story).

    I have also finally started to watch the American Office and have now almost finished season 3. I’m thoroughly enjoying it and will write a longer post on it when I have finished season 3. Really love the random pop culture references especially from Dwight, one of my favourite so far being his Alias reference (season 3 episode 14):

“Jim: Have you ever seen a stripper before?

Dwight: Yes, Jennifer Garner portrayed one on Alias. It was one of her many aliases.”

    I am also awaiting the delivery of Friday Night Lights season 3 on DVD which came out this week, really looking forward to watching some more Panther action.

Fringe: There's more than one of everything

So, I am a little late on my review of the season finale of Fringe but, I also want to comment on the season as a whole as I think that it has become a really strong show as the season has progressed. This article will contain spoilers for the entire season so if you are not up to date then I would advise you to not read any further as I will be discussing some major plot points and what happens in the final scene of season one.

The strength for me in this show lies with Walter Bishop; from his crazy experiments, to his ramblings, to the relationship that has grown between him and his son Peter; he truly is the core of Fringe. John Noble has been terrific as Walter, not that the rest of the cast should be overlooked as everyone has really grown in to their roles. Anna Torv as Olivia Dunham had perhaps the hardest part, she is rarely allowed to smile and at first I found her hard to warm to, but as we have been given more information about the experiments that were performed on her as a child and that she definitely play a larger part in ‘the pattern’ I have found her to be a rather likeable character. The part of Peter Bishop has also expanded from cynical and sarcastic to a more balanced and patient role, yes he is still acerbic to his father at times but the compassion that was demonstrated in both the finale and the penultimate episode (The Road Not Taken) shows how much Peter has grown as a character. I have been a fan of Joshua Jackson since I had a massive teenage crush on him as Pacey Witter in Dawson’s Creek so I am glad that this role suits his tone but also lets him show other acting capabilities.

The supporting cast has now been given the chance to shine, mostly in the case of Charlie (Kirk Acevedo), and hopefully next season this will extend to both Astrid (Jasika Nicole) and Agent Broyles (Lance Reddick) who both have good chemistry with the three main characters.

So, the finale did what any great Bad Robot production does; answers some questions, fires another million in the air and has a cliff hanger that leaves you wanting more. For me the most compelling part of the finale is that we finally learnt part of the truth about Peter and why Walter has sporadically discussed his medical state throughout the season. It turns out Peter died in 1985 and that the Peter that is part of the Fringe team is likely to be a Peter from the different dimension (therefore the Walter in the other dimension has had his son stolen, it will interesting if we get to see the consequence of this next year). I loved this reveal and even though I had inkling as to this being what happened from the start of the episode the pay off was a good one and will hopefully lead to some interesting story lines next season.

The other major reveal occurred in the final few minutes with Olivia and us, the audience finally getting to meet the elusive but ever mentioned William Bell (wonderfully played by Leonard Nimoy). The slow reveal of it being another dimension by showing the New York Post with the headline ‘Obama’s move in to new Whitehouse’ was an inspired one, on closer inspection the paper also shows that in this reality JFK has not been assassinated. The even bigger reveal however is that Bell’s office resides in one of the World Trade Center buildings that are still standing in this world. This shot was beautiful and brilliant, and by no means do I think it was tasteless, it just appears that in this world it was the Whitehouse that was destroyed, perhaps by a terrorist attack. The subject of 9/11 is obviously still a raw one and I think that the programme makers handled this with care and caution. The possibilities that this leads to, I think, means that it will be stepping away from many of the X-Files comparisons, and I can honestly say that I am looking forward to this ride.

One thing I really do like about this show is that it does seem to take risks, in not only killing innocent bystanders with no mercy in episodes such as Bad Dreams (I really did not expect any one to fall from that building) and in this finale (cutting a child in two who is playing football) but in the possibilities that this new dimension brings to the storytelling abilities. It also seems to take pride in the special effects and make-up to gross viewers out, which is why I now have to remember to not eat whilst watching it (Bones has the same effect on me). I am also intrigued as to how the production move from New York to Vancouver will change the aesthetics of the show, will there be less city based mystery and more countryside ones, this will be pretty cool and the Vancouver location was one element that gave the X-Files a spooky edge.

I think overall this has been a great season and I am both looking forward to watching them again on DVD (one nitpick comes due to the scheduling, some of the gaps between episodes were too big and it did interrupt the flow) and to season 2.

No Chuck announcement and finale week central

So, I failed at my attempt to blog every day a couple of weeks ago but I will try to be a bit more consistent in my entries. The Chuck banner is still up due to the lack of a solid confirmation as to whether the show will return for a third season, however several sources including Michael Ausiello from Entertainment Weekly and Nikki Finke have both been very positive regarding it getting renewed which makes me super happy. Hopefully the news regarding next season will be announced sooner rather than later.

    It is a big week for several of my favourite shows as it is the season enders for Fringe, Bones and Lost. I am yet to see last weeks Bones featuring Stewie Griffin from Family Guy which sounds like the most bizarre TV show crossover yet, I will hopefully be seeing that tomorrow and so will give my thoughts then. Also from what I have heard about the Bones season finale that also looks like a departure from the normal structure and I have also heard that some old faces will appear which I am looking forward to.

    Regarding Fringe, I think that this is a show that has gone from strength to strength with each episode and I am particularly enjoying the dynamic between Walter and Peter Bishop. Yes there was some shameless Star Trek plugging in last weeks episode ‘The Road Not Taken’ which I didn’t mind and I liked the use of Clint Howard (definitely a ‘hey it’s that guy) as the Star Trek obsessed conspiracy nut. I am looking forward to how this season will end and whether any questions will be answered. It will also be interesting to see how next season will look different regarding the location of filming moving from New York to Vancouver, I hoping for some more countryside based action rather than the mostly cityscape scenes we have had for the first season.

    The season finale for Lost is a mixture of anticipation and of disappointment, anticipation as I can’t wait to see how they are going to end the season and with what inevitable cliffhanger they will leave us with. The disappointment stems from having to wait until next January/February to find out what is going to happen next, it always seems so far away. I’m not sure how they will top finales of the past, but Michael Emerson who plays Ben Linus has said that the finale will ‘make you eat your soul’.

    So this will be a good week of television hopefully as I anticipate that all three finales will be match how much I have enjoyed the rest of the season.