RIP, Lorne

Andy Hallet, the actor who played Lorne the demon night-club owner on Angel just passed away from heart failure. News story can be found here. I didn't realize that he was so young! For some reason, Lorne always seemed to be older than the other actors.

New Supernatural Trailer Does Genre-Crossing

I'm a fan of Supernatural on Facebook, and they just posted the trailer for next week's episode. To watch on YouTube, click here. It looks like it's going to be a pretty damn funny send up of the spin-off/pulp/genre fiction publishing industry. I can't freakin' wait.

Although, if the publishing PTBs came knocking on my door asking me to write a Supernatural spin-off book, I'd totally do it. And, really, who doesn't like a book cover with buff chests?

My housemate writes Supernatural fan fic and is our resident Supernatural expert, and both of us are not satisfied with the current Supernatural spin-off novels out there. They just aren't funny and the author doesn't catch the character's personalities at all, and the author(s) of these books don't appear to watch the show because there are continuity errors like crazy throughout the books. (OK, taking a deep breath now.)

But, despite my spin-off rant, I'm still "gonna need all the copies of Supernatural you've got", boys.

And, in a postscript to this post, I have to say that the one advantage to the new Facebook is that it does make it easier for TV fans to follow their favourite shows if they have Facebook groups (like Supernatural) because the groups post updates to your profile.

Battlestar Galactica, Finis

Visions are a central trope of BSG. In the middle of the first season, I had a vision of what the show was really about and how the entire BSG universe worked and the broad strokes of its whole history. Every season has only confirmed my concept of the BSG universe. So I began to build up a weird resistance to the show. I'd ignore it, then months after the season DVDs would come out, I'd suddenly have to see it, and then devour it in a weekend, looking for signs. Was I right about everything? Would the show go downhill as the seasons passed? The only person I told my theory to, as far as I can remember, was my dad.

Since I started this blog, I realized that I would have to write about BSG in somewhat of a timely manner. But I don't like consuming BSG in tidbits. I like waiting for the DVDs and immersing myself in it and then coming out the other side of the season finale, hungover, slightly depressed and needing to get out in the sunshine, but, at the same time, usually I'm awed by its sheer intelligence and gripping tension.

Over the last two weeks I started frantically trying to catch up on the current season of BSG, while trying to keep up with all the new shows and trying to finish my first (probably crappy) genre novel. Finishing watching the series was like pushing out that novel — I just had to do it, without time to think or analyze, just let it happen.

OK, I'm getting way too flowery here, but the point is, is that for almost five years I had a theory that I thought was kind of, well (blush) epic, and I felt that right out of the gate I had totally second-guessed where the writers were going. I was quite pleased with myself. And, AND, this was the month I was going to finally find out if my view of the entire Battlestar Galactica universe was correct.

What was so spooky about the series finale was it was virtually scene for scene the exact match to my initial vision of the show's universe, right down to the fact that the whole thing took place in the past, and the people we were watching were our ancestors. I mean, by the last season or so, they were hinting pretty hard, but I'm very happy that I guessed it early in the first season when it was still pretty vague.

Well, I was right, so of course I'm happy about the series finale and felt it was about as good as could be. I wasn't sure about the quality of the colony centurions' CGI in the battle scenes, and I wanted more of the humanoid cylons in the battle. But overall, the battle scenes were still really intense and I thought in all other respects the episode was well acted, shot, written, etc. The magazine that Caprica and Gaius look at in the final scene was a magazine I actually bought and read a couple of years ago. I totally remember reading that exact article.

I just hope that we get more intelligent TV like BSG. TV execs! Shows can be tough and intelligent without losing viewers. Hello!

So Long, Kyle XY

Gaaack! Where am I going to get my YA sci-fi hit? I should have known that just when Kyle XY was getting better, ABC Family would pull the plug.

I try not to read too much on the internets about the shows — I'm much more interested in whether the stories are good, does the show have an interesting premise, are the characters compelling, and, OK, are the stars cute (it's shallow, but I'm trying to be honest here). I'm not in the industry, so trying to be an news site about TV is less interesting than picking apart shows that I like or don't like.

But, I do have to say I'm annoyed that just when I get a moment to write about a show, just the day before I write about said show, it gets canceled. That's it. Poof.

For those of us who need it, I found an interview with Julie Plec, a Kyle XY writer/co-producer, who explains where the show would have gone past the abortive finale.

Dollhouse Better Now That Network Took Their Grubby Paws Off of It (Episode Recap, Sci-fi, US)

I've been waiting until episode six to review Dollhouse, because, as all of us Joss Whedon fans knew, the network insisted on rewrites and various changes to the first few episodes. I faithfully watched the first five episodes, but they were like a low-rent version of Alias. It didn't full-on suck, but it was far from brilliant.

Episode six is much closer to what the Dollhouse pilot should have been. In fact, it really could have been the pilot. I felt like I would have fully understood the premise, based on this episode.

I'm a huge fan of the action genre. I've watched a lot of major and B action movies, both domestic and international. Buffy always had great action sequences, and this episode of Dollhouse brings it, and blows Buffy action out of the water. The cinematography and choreography of the fight between Echo and Paul Ballard equaled a great action movie sequence. Eliza Dushku and Tahmoh Penikett had a visceral energy in their fight sequences that Sarah Michelle Gellar didn't come close to achieving. This one action sequence surpassed the best of the Buffy fights in energy and technical prowess (sorry fellow Buffy fans).

You can definitely see how advances in filming and choreographing action have really improved in the years since Buffy.

The writing of this Dollhouse episode was on a whole other level from the first five episodes, which were the suck. The concept behind the show (the lack of free will in our lives, how much of our mental space is really our own, human trafficking, rape, etc.) was handled in a natural and more intelligent way. Unlike the pilot, which was grossly overwritten and stage-y, you got the idea of what Whedon was going to explore without feeling like the writer was reaching out of the screen and grabbing you and yelling in your ear, "Hey, this is my theme now. Did you get it? Are you sure?"

It was weird, but the show looked better too. The tech was waay cooler and much more visually dynamic. The way Topher (the science guy) used this new tech showed how the brain mapping worked in about 30 seconds of screen time. The other episodes spent a lot of time explaining it.

The Buffy we remember contains seven seasons of wit, so I think that holding Dollhouse up to Buffy on the humour front isn't a fair comparison this early in the series, especially since Buffy season one was not as strong as the other seasons. There were some clever bits of dialogue and scene in this Dollhouse episode that made me smile, but this was a pretty serious 40+ minutes. This has only been one episode, so I'm going be patient and trust that with Whedon now fully at he helm in the Dollhouse, humour will come with time.

Castle for Hard-Core Nathan Fillion Fans? (New Series, Mystery/Police Procedural, ABC)

I want to love Castle. I was really excited to hear that Nathan Fillion, of Firefly fame, was getting another show.

The pilot was entertaining — the banter was more witty than in most police procedurals, and the dialogue in the mystery writer's poker game scene was the best scene in the premiere, and is worth tuning in to for that. My fellow watchers and I agreed that the writer's voice swung from the conventional older style of police procedural television to flashes of wit and sometimes it was even a little meta. Of course, we wanted it to push a lot farther.

Now that I've seen the second episode, I think that Castle is going to settle into a conventional mystery/police procedural, which is less than what I was hoping for. I think it has more depth than Mentalist, only because of Castle's relationship with his teenage daughter. His mother sets my teeth on edge, however.

Of course, the publishing industry is totally romanticized here, and the view of writing and book publishing is totally unconnected with reality. Hey, I've worked in Canadian publishing for a while now, and, trust me, book signings are rarely that glam, and most writers don't have the mayor on speed dial.

If the second episode is any indication, it seems like this show is going to move into the classic murder-per-week style of older shows, rather than having a larger season plot arc.

Basically, this is a show with Nathan Fillion doing Nathan Fillion with competent scripts from a seasoned TV writer. I like this show just fine. But I don't love it.

No More Navel-Gazing for Kyle XY — Is Season 3 Looking Up? (Episode 10 Recap, Sci-Fi, ABC Family)

I don't watch Kyle XY for the sci-fi. I watch because the teenagers act like actual teenagers, the parents are intelligent and human, and most of the teen's friends play with the usual high-school stereotypes and offer some pleasant surprises, like Josh's girlfriend, who has two mothers and is a teen cancer survivor. Or the blonde bombshell fashionista who is actually an amazing cook with all the area chefs on speed dial.

This show had the worst pilot I've ever seen. It was pure suckitude. I don't have words for how bad it was. But, over two seasons, it turned into a pretty good YA drama/family sitcom with sci-fi elements. Season two was on fiiire!

However, Season 3 has fallen into that trap in which many young adult (YA) shows fall — the angsty "I can't decide who I love" piss and moan that is sooo boring to watch. When the main focus of the season is just on whiny non-romance or conflict instead of also moving other plot points forward, all the tension goes out of the show.

Also, it was looking like Latnok, the antagonists, were doing that other annoying thing that sci-fi shows do — the old "really, they're not all bad, just misunderstood."

Thankfully, episode 10 has us back on track. Jesse and Amanda (Kyle's love interests, and the two hottest people on the show) teamed up Bad Boys-style to do some spying on Nate and Amanda proved that she can be tough too and not only a goody-girl band nerd. Nice!)

We got some action, the Latnok baddies are coming out of the woodwork again, and there was a really great reveal at the end of the episode that changes the whole direction of the season.

I'm relieved because I was about to give up on Kyle XY. Now I can't wait for next week.

Kings: Bizarre Ingredients, Brilliant Results (New Series, Alternate Universe, US, NBC)

Watching Kings is like seeing a world-class chef combine some grody ingredients and create an amazing gourmet feast.

I had to grit my teeth and force myself to sit and watch. I’m so glad I did.

An alternate universe set in a present-day version of the biblical Book of Kings with a butterfly as the central symbol seems like a kooky idea for a network television show. I would have loved to see how the creators of Kings successfully pitched this one. Of course, there are polygamists showing over on HBO, so maybe it's a religion-fest in show biz land.

On viewing the two-hour premiere, I have to say that Kings is sweeping in just as Battlestar Galactica is swooping out. While Battlestar Galactica was sci-fi thriller, and this is an alternate universe with touches of magic realism, both series combine intelligent and immersive world-building with excellent writing and compelling acting. I do think that BSG is the ever so slightly better series, but it's only a matter of a tiny difference the size of a butterfly wing. Pushing Daisies makes magic realism work as well as it can, but the butterfly symbolism in Kings felt tacked on. But that's a minor quibble in an otherwise frakkin' awesome feature-length series premiere.

The acting is really top-notch. I raved about Ian McShane in Deadwood when that was on. What that man can do with a facial expression! For the first few scenes of Ian McShane as King Silas Benjamin, I kept hoping that he would break out into a stream of eloquent cussing. But of course, he didn’t.

Chris Egan, who looks like the result of gene-crossing Paul Newman and Matt Damon, is David Shepherd (get it, get it? groan!), a young farmer and soldier who becomes the “David” of our set piece. Luckily, he has some of the best acting chops I’ve seen in new male TV actors this year. Acting opposite Ian McShane without having your scene stolen is a pretty impressive feat.


There are many other excellent character actors in the background, although I found the rest of King Silas’s family less compelling but still quite good. The son is gay, and there is an ambivalent scene between him and his father about his identity, which is one of the son’s more interesting scenes.

I was very leery about this one, because I'm leery about any show steeped in a religious concept. I think this show is going to fight and uphill battle. I think the religious right will tune in thinking it is something it’s totally not, and tune out just as quickly, believing that it's blasphemous. The rest of us will be hinky about it and have to make and effort to look past the premise.

Alternate universes are difficult to create, and, I think, are fairly rare in network television. They can be artificially conceptual and prone to visual and situational puns. Of course, I heart that sort of thing very much. If that makes your teeth ache, then be assured that those touches mostly kept to the background.

The alternate-reality shows that I can think of are usually set in a dystopian future/near-future. Doctor Who is set in contemporary London, but it's campiness undercuts any immersive quality. Doctor Who strikes me as a show that is uncomfortable with it's own world, like the writers don't really believe that their world could have real and scary aliens — "Look we have aliens, ha ha isn't that silly?"

Kings brings something that I think is totally unique — a present-day, urban world combined with an ancient world from a religious text. This world feels completely contemporary, and, more or less, takes itself seriously. It is both utterly familiar and remotely alien, which is the goal of most alternate universes.

One of the only parts of the world that gave me pause were the military tactics. The plot and dialogue hints that technology has been held back. The sets and personal tech are bang-up-to-the-minute. The war looks like Iraq-meets-Passchendaele. I'm guessing, and this is just a guess on my part, that this is a world where nukes have not been developed, and battles are primarily fought on the ground in a tank/trench configuration, with air mostly as support or for when the action heats up.

The other thing that drew me away from the world was the “we’re doing a modern version of Shakespeare here” feeling that some of the writing and dialogue gave me. Messengers run to the king with messages written on pieces of paper, just so the king can hit them and berate them as he would have in the olden days. However, in this day and age, most people would send the bad news through cell phone or e-mail, so that felt a little artificial.

I think it’s because I have that religious background (I'm not religious now), I heard the echoes of the biblical stories and texts that the writers drew upon. In the writers’ defence, they really know and understand these passages, and they do an intelligent, non-religious reinterpretation of the book of Kings as a character study and a set piece for backroom, high-level politics. I feel like they are treating the text like it’s Homer, and not the voice of god. I really liked this approach. The writing has a very, very similar voice and diction to Deadwood.

OK, this post is getting way too long, so I just want to say: please, please watch this show. You won’t regret it.

The Listener is Not All "Aww Shucks We're Canadian". Thank Freakin' Goodness. (New Series, Supernatural, CDN, CTV/NBC)

For once, we have a Canadian supernatural show that doesn't look like CTV scrounged under the sofa cushions for a budget. The Americans even like it! NBC has picked up The Listener for their spring lineup.

If you liked Roswell, Buffy/Angel, Kyle XY and Dark Angel, you'll like The Listener.

It's about a paramedic from Toronto (although they play refreshingly coy about the setting) who can hear people's thoughts, à la Sookie Stackhouse. But this show is more like Medium (soft police procedural), and Kyle XY (soft sci-fi/YA). It's all about a young man trying to figure out how his special gift works while helping others, placing this show firmly outside the horror genre and separating it in tone, structure and subject from True Blood.

The Listener is an interesting mix of bilsdungroman, scooby doo'ing, and ESP, especially since I haven't seen Canadians do YA without trying to be all after school special meets Degrassi High. There is a pleasant lack of the irritating moral lessons lodged into most Canadian shows like an axe into a corpse. The Listener is just straight up drama-lite, attractively shot with bright colours and warm lighting. There is no Vancouver look here! Plus, did I mention Colm Feore plays his mentor?

Of course, our hero Toby Logan (no, not Colm Feore) also has a mysterious and tortured past and doesn't know much about where his powers came from, but he is going to use his powers to help the people he encounters as a paramedic. The show creators aren't pushing the boundaries of this type of story at all, but I'm just happy that CTV has done a good job of doing a straight up eye-candy-does-supernatural show. Also positive is that the lead is not a private detective, journalist, cop or boy genius.

I didn't know anything about The Listener when I started watching. I didn't even know it was Canadian until, of course, the lead said "eh" and the lead and sidekick took a break from their paramedic duties to go for a double-double (is there a hospital in Canada that doesn't have a Timmy Ho's?). So that part was a bit obvs., but you'd never guess this was Canadian from the production values, or more importantly, the casting.

This is a show with a early-twenty-something lead, Craig Olejnik, who has quirky, arty-boy good looks. My beef with most Canadian shows is that most of the male actors look like they're from small-town Ontario and have played amateur hockey since they were three. It's a perfectly fine look, but it's always the same look for every show. All you Canadians know what I'm talking about. My only other beef is that the CTV website has very little information about this show, so you'll have to troll for local listings.

I'm definitely adding this show to my regular watching lineup.

The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency Brings Fresher Take to BBC Mystery Shows (New Series, Brit, Mystery)

It's unusual to find a mystery show that is not a police procedural or placed firmly in the murder mystery genre, especially when we're talking BBC mysteries. I started watching the pilot of the six-episode series of The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency while building a lasagna, and almost turned the show off in the first five minutes. The pacing of the first act was a bit slow, but I'm very glad I just kept on cooking and watching because I was rewarded, both gastronomically and visually.

The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency is a new BBC show based on the series of books of the same title by Alexander McCall Smith. The books are about a woman who starts a detective agency in Botswana. Basically, it's one of those "first woman to do_____" story arcs. This premise feels a bit 1980s feminist, and due to the male writer, and the fact that it's an African story produced for the BBC, I was a little worried. I'm from the Pacific Northwest and I haven't been to Africa, so I can't vouch for the authenticity of the voice or setting, but I found nothing to offend in a light viewing. It was refreshing to watch a BBC mystery show that wasn't about London or Scotland Yard — or even about murder.

This detective agency is all about cases that are grounded in the mundane details of daily life. Yet these tiny cases do lead us to surprising or quirky ends. I think that is why patience is needed with this series: the introduction seems a bit dull, but the threads of the different cases weave together into a pleasing and competently-written conclusion.

As a former woman of generous proportions, it's good to see that the lead, Jill Scott, is a queen-sized actor instead of the idealized anoxeria-sized actors who seem to have crept back into television this year. Her character is stripped of most of the personality stereotypes TV shows give larger women as loud, brash and joke-y. Both Jill Scott, the detective, and Anika Noni Rose, the slightly geeky secretary/sidekick, play their roles with an understated air, and there were many moments for good character development, both on the comedic and dramatic fronts. The male characters were not quite as good at avoiding the masculine stereotypes found in chick lit — yes, there is a gay hairdresser — but the writing for these characters was better than a lot of chick lit comedy I've encountered, so I was able to get past it fairly easily.

I confess that I've never read the books on which this series is based. Well, the truth is that I picked up one of the books when they first came out and started to read it, but my tastes run darker. I don't read a lot of chick lit, and this book seemed like a blend of the mystery and chick lit genres. I can see that type of mash-up being very popular, and the two genres seem very compatible for style and audience. However, this show did win me over. Now that I'm going to go on to watch the second episode, I will be running out to find the book again and give it a second chance.

I think this series definitely has some potential for the patient viewer.

The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency is produced by some well-known names, among them, the Weinsteins, Anthony Minghella, and Sydney Pollack. This episode was written by Nicholas Wright and directed by Charles Sturridge. Apparently, this series is either a spin-off or a continuation of a movie-length version of The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, directed by Anthony Minghella. Having not seen this project, I can't tell you how this pilot is connected to the plot of the movie, or be able to compare the two.