Battlestar Galactica may be over, but Caprica is just beginning. The Sci-Fi Channel, soon to be called SyFy (who the hell thought of that stupid idea?), is releasing the pilot on April 21, 2009 – the show will officially premiere in 2010.
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According to anonymous reports, NBC has canceled two of its high profile shows, Lipstick Jungle and My Own Worst Enemy. I never watched either, but I’m not at all surprised: Lipstick Jungle looked like a crappy (and presumably watered down) rip-off of Sex and the City, and My Own Worst Enemy… well, it was just one of the worst-titled shows of the season.

Honestly, why name a show My Own Worst Enemy? Especially a thriller? It sounds like a sitcom. Thrillers, especially ones about undercover agents or hitmen or whatever Christian Slater played, should have cool one-or-two-word titles, not some cheesy title that immediately will turn audiences off. Think: Alias, Lost, CSI, JAG, Cold Case, NCIS, The Shield and countless others. Regardless of what you think of those individual shows, nice, short, cool names sell. Clever titles that might work as book titles don’t. My Own Worst Enemy was doomed before the marketing ever started.

Of course, the marketing didn’t help. The concept was cool in theory, but the previews prevented it as more of a gimmick than anything else. They needed some slick, action-packed previews, not the stuff that they threw at audiences seemingly every commercial break.

And personally, I almost find that well known actors are often a detractor for new shows. I’d rather see a show based around an idea rather than around an actor, and the fact that Christian Slater hasn’t done anything of significance in ten years was problematic. I have nothing against the guy, but more often then not, if I see previews for a new show led by a truly recognizable actor, I question its quality.

There’s my random blog post today…

Holy crap. How things can change in six months. The top-rated NBC action series Heroes, which was an instant hit two years ago, has been canceled after a 25% drop in viewership with the third season’s premiere. With advertisers dropping off left and right, NBC will air the remaining seven episodes that have already been filmed and, presumably, wrap things up with a quick season finale – if fans are lucky.

No doubt, fans like me are going to protest this like crazy, as Heroes is one of the most refreshing shows on television. It was a risky venture by NBC – after all, even with superheroes being as popular as ever after successful franchises like X-Men and Spider-man, TV audiences can be finicky, and the thought of a television show about “realistic” superheroes was pushing the acceptability factor of people. Nonetheless, it launched with a slam dunk and just went from there, delivering some of the best television we’ve seen in years (OK, not nearly as good as Lost or Battlestar Galactica).

Unfortunately, the second season was a bit weak at times, and the last several episodes were hurried by the writer’s strike, cutting short major season arcs and conveniently wrapping them up in overly ambitious ways. Season Two saw a ridiculously small amount of episodes, and apparently that was more than enough to kill it for audiences. Still, a 25% decrease is pretty shocking, and NBC must have passed the break-even point as I’m sure Heroes is quite pricey (despite having rather crappy special effects by today’s standards).

Anyway, while Heroes did experience a 25% drop with its season premiere, NBC of course is not really canceling one of its most popular shows. Did you really believe that? Did you?

It’s almost September, which means that network television is returning to us once again. The fifth season of The Office premieres on September 25th, which means that Season Four is coming to DVD… on September 2nd, to be precise.

The Office: Season Four starts off where Season Three left off – surprise, surprise – with Pam and Jim bringing their relationship into the public atmosphere of Dundler Mifflin. Engagement is hinted at, but will Jim actually propose? Meanwhile, Dwight is continuing his quest to become head of the office (or at least second-in-charge, now that Jim officially holds that title), while still annoyed by the progressing relationship of Andy and his ex, Angela. And Michael is finding his relationship with Jan strained to the brink. Also, young “Wunderkind” Ryan, who was promoted above Michael last season, is trying to take Dundler Mifflin into the 21st century, further creating tension between him and his former colleagues.

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Heroes: Season Three is almost here, which means Season Two is coming to DVD. The four-disc set contains the shortened, 11-episode season, complete with time traveling, viruses, wedding massacres and more. It’s no question that most Heroes fans will scoop this DVD set up despite what my Bible-like words say below, but what about those on the cusp? What about those poor, pathetic people who haven’t completely embraced the world of Heroes? What about starving African children?

Let’s all face it: Heroes: Season Two wasn’t as good as series one. Writer’s strike aside, it was still a tad rushed, a little weak in the writing department at times, and so on and so forth. Some characters were taken down some strange paths (Mohinder), and others were introduced that just weren’t very interesting (like the New Orleans girl who can learn anything). The writer’s strike made the last several episodes even more accelerated than the earlier ones, leading to rough transitions, undeveloped stories and a resolution to the season-wide story arc that should have come 13 episodes later. All that being said, Heroes is still one of the best shows on television.

But that’s not what I’m here to review. There are plenty of websites devoted to just how good (or bad) Heroes is, so I’m focusing the rest of this review on the bonus features. As is typical with TV releases these days, the bonus features are annoyingly spread across multiple discs, which is probably fine for most – except for when you’re trying to review the bonus features and have to swap the disc out every fifteen minutes, damn it.

Anyway, the highlight of the box set is the deleted scenes, of which there are plenty. Practically every episode has a couple of deleted scenes, some of which are quite revealing. As always, you won’t miss too much if you never see these, but as far as deleted scenes go, they’re pretty good. The highlight… of the highlights… is an alternate ending, which truly is an alternate ending. SPOILER ALERT. Whereas in the actual final episode of the season, Peter, Nathan and Hiro stop the virus from being unleashed – only to have Nathan get shot while attempting to announce that he has special powers. In the alternate ending, the writers take the darker approach by letting the virus get released, causing Odessa, Texas to go into quarantine. Ultimately, the actual ending is tighter and more effective, but it would have been pretty cool had Peter not caught the vial at the end of Season Two.

Beyond the alternate ending and deleted scenes, Heroes: Season Two comes with some pretty good “Genetics of a Scene” clips, which are pretty entertaining and slightly insightful. I’d recommend these. There are also some NBC featurettes, which I didn’t watch, and a series of “Untold Episodes,” which are pretty good. There are also audio commentaries for the episodes.

Unfortunately, the rest of the bonus features aren’t all that good. There’s a ridiculously cheesy “documentary” about Takezo Kensei, which is so bad I could only watch a minute of it. I mean, it’s about as bad as faux documentaries can get. A “news reel” about Richard Drucker is also quite terrible, and rather pointless unless I completely missed something. The “Season 2: A New Beginning” featurette is just a promotional, “you’re going to see things you’ve never seen before” kind of featurette, and the Season 3 preview is, as expected, nothing special.

Heroes: Season Two is worth the purchase because, yes, it contains all of the episodes from season 2. The deleted scenes, alternate endings and “Genetics of a Scene” bonus features are well worth it; at the same time, NBC would have done well to save themselves some money and not include their “original” bonus features, as they are downright terrible and just a waste of money. Still, recommended for the overall value of the show.

A&E is remaking Michael Crichton’s The Andromeda Strain, which premieres on Monday, May 26th at 9pm as a TV mini-series. TV mini-series always worry me, but The Andromeda Strain is a cool enough story that I figured I’d better see it for myself. Thankfully, A&E sent me Part One of the series to review. (more…)

I hadn’t heard anything one way or another about the new season of Lost (Lost: Season 4), but it looks like Lost is arriving on TV as planned on January 31, 2008. Having written that sentence, I looked up the show on Wikipedia and found that Lost has indeed been hit by the writer’s strike – which means we get an eight episode season. This was the same trouble that the show ran into last year, so we’ll see how it fares. What is unclear is whether the other eight episodes that have not yet been filmed will appear at a later time, or if the writers – when they return – will simply shorten the three 16-episode remaining seasons by eight.

Anyway, the preview for Lost: Season 4 is now online, and I must say it’s quite impressive. After not liking the season three finale all that much, I’ve grown to appreciate it a lot more over the last few months. Obviously the writers have something clever up their sleeves, and, as it is quite clear, the rescuers aren’t Heaven-sent as the survivors think they are.

Here’s the preview:

Now that Sopranos, Deadwood, Carnivale and several other classics are retired for good, I have been considering canceling my HBO subscription to save a few bucks. However, each time I consider that move, I think of The Wire, the absolutely sensational cop drama the station has flown under the radar for several years. And, guess what? On January 6th, The Wire returns for its final season…

The Wire Trailer

The Wire Behind-the-Scenes Footage

Lost: Season 3 comes to DVD next Tuesday, and with it another very good season of Lost adventure -thankfully without the three month gap partway through. Sure, nothing can quite compare to the mysticism of the first season, but Lost is a great entry in the series, and one that answers many, many, many questions that fans have been wondering about – and of course raises even more.

Some fans weren’t overly crazy about the first eight episodes of the show, which focus exclusively on Jack, Kate and Sawyer and just about ignore the rest of the cast. This was a major departure from the past two seasons, where each episode focused on a different character, but these episode still do a lot: they set the stage for what is to come, they introduce us to The Others and give us some insight into the truth about the island. The series starts off great, with a shockingly suburban scene, and the first half of the season ends great as well, with the amazingly tense scene where Jack holds Ben hostage and orders Kate to run. From there, the show returns to its more ordinary format, focusing on different characters as it sees fit to develop the story. Still, there are a lot more of The Others, and now, instead of making them an elusive shadow people, they are themselves people and characters who just happen to have twisted morals. The introduction of Jacob (if you can call it that) is terrific, and there are plenty of other highlights in the series as well. While there are a few stumbles (Hurley’s van episode), but hey, no one’s perfect.

The DVD, as you might imagine, has a lot of little bonus features, all of which are gathered onto Disc 7. Much like with Lost itself, you have to work to find the features, as the DVD lacks labels for the most part. While I normally don’t like this approach, it fits in with the theme of the show, and also gives you a chance to explore for easter eggs, of which there are several. Some of these easter eggs are pretty lame (one where various cast and crew members talk with sentiment to everyone who has made the experience so great), but there are a few that are entertaining.

The real meat of the special features are these:

• The World of the The Others
  A look at different aspects of the revelations about the bitter enemies of the survivors. Fans will be delighted that the cast and crew reveal a lot of little tidbits you may not have thought about.
• Lost Flashbacks
  Nothing too spectacular here. There are a couple additional flashbacks that provide a little more detail into certain stories, but there’s nothing that wasn’t removed without a purpose.
• Lost On Location
  This is an entertaining featurette that explores several episodes from behind-the-scenes. There are a lot of cast and crew interviews and looks at how sequences were filmed. The most interesting part is where we see how the original crash scene is reconstructed to add in new actors that weren’t around in the first season.
• The Lost Book Club
  Watch this one. The writers reveal that every book shown in the show has significance, and they let slip a few details about what’s to come. There are definitely a few things in here that had me wanting the fourth season to come along right now.
• Lost in a day
  This is a look at 24 hours in the day of the production. I honestly can’t remember if I found this one insightful or not, but I think I did.
• Deleted Scenes
  There are a few decent deleted scenes, but, of course, there’s nothing too spectacular to be found here.
• Bloopers
  Hey, who doesn’t like bloopers?

I’m not quite sure where this is on the DVD – it may be an easter egg – but the best part of the features is a brief instructional video a la the Dharma Initiative. Does this explain the truth behind Lost? Read more here.

One of the special features on the Lost: Season 3 DVD may not answer all of the questions of the mysterious show, but does it reveal a good chunk? If you click on the fourth screen you can actually click on, you’ll see an entry for “Orchid Instructional Video”, which has that Asian scientist guy preparing to shoot an instructional film. He’s getting makeup applied to reduce the shine, and is also holding a bunny rabbit.

However, the video is quickly disrupted – and by that I mean that the scientists begin to freak out – when a second bunny rabbit appears. What’s so strange or notable about these events are these:

• The bunny rabbit that the scientist is holding has a “15″ branded on its side. When the other bunny appears, it too has “15″ on its side.
• The scientist shouts in desperation, “Keep them away from each other!”
• The scientist then asks an assistance how far “the shift was set?” She responds, “Minus twenty.”

Um… so what the hell does this mean? Cloning? That would explain the “15″ on both bunnies. But “keep them away from each other”? Does that mean alternate realities? Time travel? This instructional video definitely raises some questions and possibly answers them, but of course we won’t know for sure. Near the end of Season 3, it is revealed that rescuers found an airplane they believed to be the survivor’s flight at the bottom of a deep underwater chasm, with all bodies on board. If this airplane is indeed the correct flight, then how are the survivors still alive? Are they alternate versions of themselves? What the heck?

Anyway, I’m intrigued.