Duh News and some other exciting stuff!

Duh News of the Week

Glee has been renewed for a second season! Great news but it was a dead cert given its huge popularity. It premieres tonight (properly) on E4 and is already getting some great buzz.


Exciting News!!!

Will Arnett says that the Arrested Development movie will shoot this year!! Now this may be a red herring and there have been a lot of rumours and since its only January, I could be waiting a long time for this to actually come true but its exciting news nonetheless. Its such a terrific show and unlike other TV shows (*cough* Sex and the City) it deserves a movie version. Plus I'm confident Mitch Hurwitz will produce a great script.

HBO have finally released a trailer and airdate (April 11th) for David Simon's (The Wire) hotly anticipated new show Treme, set in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. The trailer doesn't give much away, but after watching Generation Kill recently (blog to follow soon), I'm very excited to see this new show.

Glee and Ugly Betty end of season reviews

A few reviews of shows I’ve been watching lately. Spoilers ahead especially for the video clip of Glee

Glee Season 1 (part 1)

I loved this show from the first time I watched it, but the part 1 finale has confirmed to me just how damn brilliant this show is. Yes the show is very soapy and at times ridiculous, but the writers showed that actually all that was worth it all in the finale episode, tying up most of the storyline threads.

(spoilers)

The songs in “Sectionals” weren’t my favourite this season, there were a couple I didn’t know and one I didn’t like but they were all enjoyable. The final song a cover of Kelly Clarkson’s “My Life Would Suck Without You” was just superb and it was great to see all the kids dance and incorporate moves from previous dances. Plus of course there was that kiss which was just very Hollywood ending for me- and I loved it!!

(end of spoilers)

I’m definitely going to miss Glee as it doesn’t return in the US until April; however E4 is starting its airing of the show this week (Tuesday at 9pm) with the pilot and I think will begin showing the rest of the episodes in January. After watching some adverts I’m amazed at how different it looks on a big screen rather than my little computer one, so to tide me over until April I’ll hopefully re-watch the show on E4 (though admittedly I might fast forward through some of the more boring storyline bits!!) Also I’ll try and do reviews for each of the episodes on this blog.

Ugly Betty Season 3

Just watched the finale of season 3 and it was a terrific episode, but very emotional as well. I loved the way they did the Daniel/Molly storyline but I liked the Justin one most of all. He’s an excellent character and we don’t see enough of him. His moment with Marc was just adorable. The episode felt a little rushed though as there was a lot of ground to cover in such a short space of time.

Also after watching this episode I've changed my mind a little on the whole Betty ending up with Daniel debate. Just a few weeks ago I thought it was a horrible

idea, but after seeing them together in this episode I can start to see how they could work together. He’s certainly better for her than Betty’s other boyfriends (Henry, Gio, Matt)

Overall the season has been good, but it felt like it has dragged on a lot. The first half of the season wasn’t stellar but it has got better as its gone on. I’m definitely hopeful for the show especially as what I’ve heard about season 4 Stateside sounds good (creatively of course not ratings wise!).

90210 Season 2

This show also wrapped up its first half of the season with rather a good episode. Unsurprisingly for a teen show it included a high school dance but there were reunions (Naomi and Liam) revelations (Annie found out Jasper was a drug dealer and he reveals he knows she ran down his uncle) and great set-ups for the next season (Dixon wanted to re-connect with his birth mother). This show is such a guilty pleasure but one I’m enjoying more and more.

Modern Family- Undeck the Halls/ Season 1

This stellar new show finished on a sentimental note, with a sweet but perhaps less funny episode in which the Dunphy’s cancelled Christmas, Cam and Mitchell got a shopping centre Santa fired and then invited him to dinner to assuage their guilt and Jay tried to incorporate Gloria’s and Manny’s Colombian traditions into his own.

Overall however the series has just been great, there hasn’t been a bad episode yet and I’ve laughed out loud so many times. It also helps that the cast is just amazing as is the writing.

Scrubs Season 9

I was initially dubious about the reboot but quickly became excited once I heard more about it. The new setting invigorates the show and old cast helps the transition. The new characters are all rather good I think. They’re obviously not as developed or as funny yet as the established cast but I think in time they’ll grow into their own. The first two episodes in particular were hilarious and easily funnier than Scrubs in seasons 6/7.

Here's the new opeing credits which as you might remember I was mega excited about seeing. I love them and I might be one of the few people in the world who likes the revamped song! Judge for yourself!

Zach's Say Thanks- My Show's Still Alive

Two TV Actor Zach's; Levi and Braff, have videos floated around the internet to promote their respective and nearly cancelled shows.

Here's a Scrubs clip from Zach Braff:

Here's a thank you message from Zachary Levi on the set of Chuck plus a preview of season 3 which has its premiere date of 10th January:

Also in more Youtube related news, people in the UK can now watch 4OD on Youtube. This seems to be most of the content thats available on the Channel 4 website, including lots of current stuff as well as shows from yesteryear. Other full length shows can also be found by going to the Shows tab on Youtube but I'm not sure how much content there is there just yet.

http://www.youtube.com/shows

Plus to finish off here is the end song from Glee this week- Lean On Me. A very schmaltzy yet heartfelt way to end the episode:

Glee comes early to E4, Buffy Season 8 comes to life

Buffy Motion Comic

Buffy's Season 8 will be made into 'motion comic' webisodes it has been announced and they are casting voice actors at the moment. This is very good news for me as I don't actually read the comics but try to keep up with them as the stories are interesting. It would be cool if some of the original actors voiced their characters. I have a feeling we might see a couple, even if they are the lesser known characters/actors; maybe Amy (Elizabeth Anne Allen, Amy's portrayer has said she would've liked to played the s8 version of Amy) or Andrew or even Eliza Dushku now that she's jobless!!


Glee previews on E4

E4 will show the Glee pilot in December before continuing with the rest of the show in January, which is great news for the show in the UK. As its starting in January the show will nearly catch up with US transmission as the second batch of Glee episodes won't start till March in the US. It'll be weird to have the show finally airing in the UK as I first watched the pilot in May so it feels like I've been watching it for ages!


Speaking of Glee...

Glee's most recent episode 'Wheels' was its best yet. There was a perfect mixture of songs and storylines. The plotlines on disabled characters were handled well I thought. There was some very sweet moments for Artie and Tina, Kurt and his dad and Sue and some much needed character development for some of the supporting Glee members.

90210's 'A Trip to the Moon' was also pretty good. The show is become more enjoyable despite some cheesy lines and outrageous storylines. The new producer has done well, carving out story arcs that continues over many episodes instead of self contained episodes with no character development.

And finally another sneak peak of Scrubs, this time of the new protagonist, Lucy. I'm getting more and more excited about the reboot. I hope it doesn't disappoint. (Also is it weird that I'm super excited to see the new credits?!?)

TV I'm watching

Glee- the show is still having uneven episodes, the pregnancy storylines are silly and need to go fast, but the musical numbers are still great (apart from the bad dubbing over and autotune). There is definitely sparks of genius in this show and the latest episode ‘Throwdown’ was hilarious, especially die to some great one-liners from Jane Lynch. I liked the voice-over joke as it showed that the show isn’t taking itself too seriously. (its the first sneak peak on this video)



Greek- just when I was contemplating giving this show up for completely losing its quality, ‘The Dork Knight’ comes along and is a pretty decent episode. The boys Comic-Con storyline was the best and I liked Dale’s faith crisis storyline especially as its different from all the other storylines on the show most of which are pretty tired. There also some really funny in-joke lines from Ashley about this being a really long semester (hear hear!) and whether Casey even attends classes anymore. What I liked about the show in the earlier seasons was that whilst the characters engaged in all the usual drama, they still seemed to be doing uni work which kept the show grounded whereas lately it has felt like any other teen drama. Casey and Rebecca are still being really annoying characters in their pursuit to get what they want and the show is definitely suffering from their loss of Frannie as antagonist.

Flashforward- Watched the first 3 episodes of this highly anticipated show and its pretty good, however there are major flaws. As some reviews have pointed out, this show doesn’t have the time or budget to truly capture the global effects of this disaster, which is pretty problematic as this show is about a global events. Though I am pleased they are showing other places other than America as American shows don’t usually do this. The thing that is bothers me the most is that even though the blackout must’ve killed and injured millions, the main characters seem to be going about their lives as usual. A doctor and investigator for the FBI charged with finding out why the blackout happened still have time to go home every night to tuck their daughter into bed, make her breakfast in the morning and both turn up at a parent- teacher meeting. Children are still going to school and ladies are lunching and despite marshal law being instated and some evidence of destruction, there seems to be very little consequence of the blackout with people concentrating on the flashforwards. Surely an event like this would cause widespread panic and emergency service would be rushed off their feet and law enforcement and the government would be working round the clock to be in store law and order and to find out what happened. Instead everyone seems quite relaxed about the here and now.
Despite these flaws the overall premise is enough to keep me interested at least for a few more episodes.

Modern Family- I managed to catch the first episode of this and even though the premise isn’t the greatest and most original, the pilot episode was actually laugh out loud. I like that the families are all related; they had to be connected in some way for the show to work and this is way better than some tenuous ‘they’re all neighbours’ link or something. Here’s my favourite bit from the pilot episode:



I think I’ll carry on watching this one. I’m actually watching way too much TV than I can manage but half an hour shows are great as it they are entertaining and don’t take too long to watch!

Duh! News of the Week

Duh! News- stuff that happened this week that was really no surprise to anyone

Glee was picked up for a full season- obviously, its easily one of the most anticipated American shows in years and has easily had the most promotion. The last 9 episodes will start filming in January and air in March. :( thats a long time to wait- luckily we have the next 9 to keep us entertained in the mean time


Glee was picked up by E4 in the UK- obviously there's really no other channel for it here. ITV2 and Sky1 were the only other options but Sky1 likes big, epic programmes and ITV2 isn't really known for picking up quality programming (apart from Entourage obviously!!) There was no confirmed air date or even month which means it might be a while before its shown here.

The Beautiful Life was cancelled after 2 episodes- whilst the swiftness of the axe is a little surprising, the fact that it happened really isn't, it looked like a terrible show with a terrible premise and was plagued with problems from the start.

Neil Patrick Harris was awesome whilst presenting last week's Emmy's- I don't watch HIMYM but he's great on Dr Horrible, so he was bound to be good. Plus he had to be better than last year's awkward reality TV hosts performance.

Problems with the Dollhouse
I found this really interesting Zap2It article on one writer's take on the problems with the first season of Joss Whedon's Dollhouse. I have to say I think he's pinpointed the main issues with the show.
Now I'm a big Joss Whedon fan, Buffy, Angel and Firefly are some of my favourite TV shows and I think with Buffy and Firefly/Serenity he changed the face of TV forever (with Buffy he changed the way genre's were melded within shows and Firefly became the first cancelled TV show to become and film- therefore triggering fans of every cancelled TV show to now start campaigns for their prematurely ended TV shows to be made into a movie/comic book).

However despite these reasons meaning that he has earned his place in the TV Fame of Hall as a TV genius, his latest creation has not been as entertaining as his last 3. There are many excuses for this- network interference, too heightened expectations, Buffy's first season wasn't good either so give it time, but this article does look at many of the underlying issues for the show and I think he's pretty fair. The article is a bit spoilery for the first episode of season 2 so I'll give the main points here along with some commentary. Although if you don't mind a few spoilers the article really is very interesting as are some of the comments.

• The Dollhouse and its engagements seldom make sense.- The one that got me was the midwife- why would you spend all that money, when you can get someone much cheaper, whose probably just as qualified?? The constant escort engagements are a little dull as well, alright for the first few episodes but they need to come up with some more creative engagements

• Eliza Dushku's acting isn't up to the role.- This oneI totally agree with. She was great in Buffy and Angel but I think she's better in a supporting or ensemble role. I don't mean that in a harsh way but she's not great as a lead where she's require to take on multiple personalities. I think this show would be better as an ensemble.

• The writing isn't as good as what we should expect from Whedon's series.- There are definitely some instances where this is true, but it's always so.

• There's a fine line between sexy and sexist, and "Dollhouse" often falls on the wrong side.- Yeah I'm a little tired of all Dushku's skimpy outfits, I know they need to get ratings but as the article points out she's pretty enough to fulfill teenage boys fantasy's without needing to be half naked all the time

• "Epitaph One." The problem with this awesome episode is that it actually would have better served as a series finale. Plus the article points out that the future could and I think should be changed or its a little boring that we know what future the Dollhouse is headed for

• Hope for season two?- Personally I hope this second season can step up like Buffy did in it's second season. I want to see more of the other characters and less of Echo and Paul - who are quite frankly dull together. I think having Epitaph One factor into the show will be interesting, but it sucks that it wasn't shown meaning that the show will have to pander to those who didn't see the episode, even though the majority of the watcher's will have by now (legally or otherwise). Whatever happens, Dollhouse will need to improve or definitely face the axe this season.

At the moment I've been watching...

At the moment I've been watching:

Chuck season 2- Over halfway now and whilst its not my favourite show I still really like it and its a lot of fun. I absolutely adore Casey- he only has to growl and I laugh (though my Casey love has a lot to do with the actor playing him!!) but I must admit I’m finding the constant to-ing and fro-ing between Chuck and Sarah and little tiresome, its a bit too much will they won’t they for me. I’m loving most of the BuyMore storylines though, I would like to see Chuck actually working there more, his storylines seem to be a little disconnected from the rest of the show.

Greek chapter 5- only a couple of episodes in and even though its still a fun show, they are relying way too much of the Cappie/Casey relationship which to be frank is getting very dull. Some of the other storylines are interesting but I’m reserving full judgement until I’ve seen a few more episodes.

Ugly Betty season 3- also over halfway and I’m understanding the dip in quality that most people talked about. I’m enjoying certain aspects of the show- Amanda and Betty living together was a real highlight, and there have been a few good episodes but the show has a very odd feel. It could be the move to New York and the show trying to shoe-horn in as much of the city as possible; it just doesn’t have the natural feel that Sex and the City had to it when the show was on. Also I’m really not loving the shows fashion anymore; I know being a fashion magazine they have to be a bit fashion forward, but some of the outfits look worse than many of Betty’s ensembles!

Entourage season 6- A slight dip in quality (says a lot even from me an avid fan of the show) I’m just not sure where some of the storylines are going. I’m enjoying Turtle and Eric’s storylines but Vince’s stalker storyline burned out and wasn’t nearly as exciting as I hoped. I’m glad Lloyd is standing up for himself finally. (in the last episode Security Briefs) Since he’s a fully fledge cast member I expect he’ll be back at MGA soon enough. Only a few episodes are left and I hope the storylines start to take shape soon.

Glee season 1- After a hugely successful pilot the two following episodes, whilst decent enough haven’t lived up to expectations which is hardly surprising considering all the hype meant that it was bound to disappoint a little. It’s still one of the most enjoyable shows out there and absolutely hilarious. The performances are great as well, even if some are auto-tuned a little too much. Here are a couple of my favourite performances from the 2 newest episodes (sorry for the quality of the videos):

The boys singing I Wanna Sex You Up- lets just say I’m starting to see the attraction of Puck after this performance... ;)

Rachel singing Take A Bow- amazing and perhaps even better than the Rihanna version

The Wire season 5- if a thing such as perfection actually exists, The Wire might possibly be the perfect TV show. Thought season 5 wasn’t its best season; the show from start to finish was amazing, simply incredible. The DVD’s have moved to the top of my DVD’s-to-Buy list and I can’t wait to watch the whole show again. Everything about this show- writing, acting, casting, settings- everything was sensational. I was a little worried that the show was overrated, but this is one of the rare times when the praise that is heaped on the show actually is true.

I want to do a show blog on it, but there is just so much to blog on, I’m not sure I could, maybe after my re-watch. I’ll probably do a favourite characters list at some point thought it will probably be very long!!

The final few episodes of the show left me numb, completely in tears and blown away. The final episode wasn’t perfect, it was very bittersweet, a few happy endings but not many; quality wise, it was excellent and a nice tribute the city of Baltimore.

If I give you any advice it would be to watch this show-start to finish and do your best to avoid spoilers. You won’t regret it!!

Chuck in 3D!

Chuck's 3D episode airs on Virgin 1 next week! 3D glasses are available by buying this week's TV and Satellite Weekly. However I got my own glasses through Virgin1's competition. They arrived the other day- I was very excited!!

If you've got the 3D glasses you can test them here.

In other TV news:

• Dollhouse will air in the UK just a few weeks after its original broadcast. Good news methinks, will be nice not have to wait.

• Glee have posted this awesome video of the cast performing Kayne West's 'Golddigger'. I seriously can't wait to see the performance in full. All the spoilers and promos coming out for the show look amazing, easily my most anticipated show for next year.

• ABC have released these cool Key Ingredients clips for some of its best shows; Brothers and Sisters, Desperate Housewives, Grey's Anatomy and Ugly Betty. Admittedly the clips chosen to exemplify the chosen 'ingredients' aren't always the best, but its a cute and quirky way to promote the shows.