Bones Review: Creative Writing Class, Anyone?

The last time I wrote about this show, I said it’s in trouble. After watching tonight’s season premiere, I stand by my prediction.

Fair warning: I intend to do a large amount of bitching about the atrocious state of the writing on this show.

When we said goodbye at the end of last season (one of the few season finales that didn’t leave me panting for more) the cast members scattered to the four corners of the earth. We get brief glimpses of them in their new lives, enjoying varying degrees of success, before Judge Julian (Patricia Belcher) – calls and begs them all to come home.

Why, you ask?

For no good reason, I reply.

In the seven months since everyone left, life in D.C. has flipped on its head. Cam (Tamara Taylor) is no longer working at the Jeffersonian Institute. In fact, they no longer house a forensic lab. Apparently, Bones (Emily Deschanel) is the only forensic anthropologist worth employing. Cam is still the state appointed coroner, but she’s about to lose that job for failing to positively identify the remains of a small child on her table. She blames her inability on a bad bug guy, a less than stellar reconstructive artist, and a poor F.B.I. investigator.

See where we’re going, here?

The problem is this. Cam is touted as the best medical examiner in the state – maybe the country – and she can’t identify ethnic markers on a body that prove the child is Asian and, therefore, not the kidnapped child the police are looking for?

I’m pretty sure any state medical examiner would notice something like race, as well as growth patterns that indicate the child is older than the missing boy.

As writers, we can’t make things happen just because we need them to. They need to make sense. They need to jive with what the audience knows about our characters. Nothing, I repeat nothing about the plot of this episode made any sense at all, outside the honest and charming interaction of the main characters.

So, we suspend disbelief and go with the story Cam can’t i.d. this body without the help of her old team. We pretend Bones and Daisy (Carla Gallo) would drop everything on their dig. We’re expected to buy that Booth (David Boreanaz) can just walk out of the army and back into his civilian job with no notice at all.

The rest of the group reassembles as well; Angela (Michaela Conlin) and Hodgins (T.J. Thyne) returning from Paris, and Sweets (John Francis Daly) being called back from his new gig as a hotel piano man (wtf?).

Once reunited, Bones is astonished to learn she not only no longer has a lab at the Jeffersonian but that her “squinterns” (one of the best lines of the show, btw) have been scattered due to her departure. She begins to see (after a very awkwardly placed lecture from Cam and finding Wendell (Michael Grant Terry) repairing bus engines – he lost his scholarship) that her selfish decision to leave for Maluku cost several people their happiness.

I don’t necessarily agree with this. She made the best decision for her personal life and her career; other people’s happiness should not fall on her shoulders.

At any rate, Booth decides he’s home for good after witnessing the trials of a small, Afghani boy without a father. Angela and Hodgins choose to stay stateside, both because he loves his job and they’re having a baby. I’d like to announce this with more fanfare, but who are we kidding. Everyone (should have) seen this coming. Daisy and Sweets aren’t engaged anymore, but they haven’t stopped making out yet, so we’ll see what happens with that. Booth supposedly met a woman, a reporter, overseas but for some reason I feel like she doesn’t really exist.

Brennan also decides to stay, learning her lesson about what’s important in life – at least, according to the writers, not her previous personality. They solve the kidnapping case as well as the mysterious death of the other child.

The group gets their lab back and have the most awkward, ridiculous conversation ever scripted for television in which they repeat for us all the great and wonderful deeds they’ve left behind to come back together and catch killers. I felt like I was watching the end of It’s a Wonderful Life. Which is, incidentally, my favorite movie. A random event (Cam becoming incompetent at her job) lands Brennan back at home and forces her to see that she really has a wonderful life. “Remember, George Bones. No man is a failure who has friends.”

Yeah. It doesn’t have the same impact on network television.

The writers did manage to return some of the good humor to these characters. I chuckled quite a few times, almost exclusively during the scenes where Booth and Brennan are alone. Their chemistry has been, and will continue to be, it seems, the lone reason to watch this show. The two of them haven’t lost their sparkle, intrigue, or fire.

Good gravy, though, the writing. It’s awful. It’s cheesy and obvious and flat. I can’t believe the Cam, Angela, and Hodgins characters can deliver their lines without howling with laughter or breaking down into tears. It was horrifying last night. Horrifying.

I continue to weep for the train wreck this show is becoming – and for the rare gem it could have been.

Season 6, Episode 1: The Mastodon in the Room (originally aired September 23, 2010)

For more on Bones, click here.

Thursdays at 8/7c on Fox

Photographs courtesy of Fox, IMDbPro, and Greg Gaynes.

Stargate Universe Interview: Lou Diamond Phillips and Ming-Na Don’t Spill the Beans

For two veteran actors like Lou Diamond Phillips and Ming-Na Wen, being on the cast of Stargate Universe is an opportunity to flex their skills by tackling mind and body swaps, being brainwashed, exploring their sexuality, being tossed into gun fights, coping with disabilities, and of course being neck deep in good old human drama.

Syfy Channel’s Stargate Universe is the latest television series addition to the Stargate franchise (Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis). It tells the story of a group of civilians and military personnel who accidentally get stuck on the spaceship Destiny without any way of getting back to Earth as the ship has been pre-programmed to travel across the universe.

When we last left the crew of the Destiny, their fate seemed to be up in the air after being attacked by the Lucian Alliance, an interstellar gang of smugglers and mercenaries.

We learn that Colonel Telford (Phillips) had been brainwashed into spying for the enemy but regains control of himself after being killed then revived by Colonel Young, played by Louis Ferreira. The season ended with the military personnel about to be executed.

Poptimal had a chance to participate in a recent interview where both actors were careful not to reveal any spoilers to the detriment of the writers. But Phillips assures us that we will see a lot more of him in season two and that audiences will get to know a whole different side of his character.

“What’s been interesting is that we get to know him a little bit better. We sense the dynamic between himself and (Rush) and Young and Camille Wray how he operates with them become slightly different. But what we haven’t discovered about Telford yet, and I don’t think I’m spoiling anything, is we haven’t gotten a lot of details about his personal life just yet so that I find that very intriguing,” he said.

Wen explains the challenges her character Camille Wray faces in season two.

“She has to come to terms with her situation. I think for season one her ultimate goal was to get everybody back home including herself back to earth and back to a world that she’s comfortable in, she’s familiar with. And now I think with season two it’s the realization that perhaps there is something else that is going to take over as the more important mission in her life and to just start moving forward and embracing that as her world for a while.”

She also elaborates more on this new mission not just for her character, but also for the rest of the Destiny crew as now they have to protect Earth from a Lucian Alliance attack.

One of the biggest challenges that faced Wen’s character last season was being inside a paraplegic body. To prepare for it she did research and went on YouTube to observe actor Christopher Reeve, who became quadriplegic in an equestrian related accident.

“But ultimately I think for me the challenge was to portray someone who’s not used to that body. That was the hardest thing and to be able to kind of not bring the sense of doom and gloom into being a paraplegic,” she said.

When asked what their favorite episode of this season was so far, both actors were still careful to not give any specific details. Phillips did comment that there would be a lot more action coming up.

“I think that there’s a definite membership out there in the fandom that will appreciate the action adventure aspect of some of the episodes coming up. We blow a lot of stuff up. And, yes, get into major firefights,” he said.

They also talked about some of the challenges that came with working on a digital effects heavy show, primarily what it’s like to act with a green screen. Wen felt that on the one hand, her inner five-year-old came out to play by pretending to be in outer space and then at the same time really believing in the circumstances to be able to sell it to the audience. Phillips added that you had to fully commit to what you were supposed to be seeing or else viewers wouldn’t buy it.

“Everything has to go to that place of completeness and utter believability,” he said.

Most of the time descriptive explanations are given to help set up scenes as well as art and effects departments providing renderings. Still in some instances the actors are just staring at nothing with the director yelling at them.

“He’ll be like okay you see something light up and now it’s coming at you really fast. And now it zooms up overhead!” Wen said.

Both actors agreed that they never knew what exactly they were going to get whenever they got a new script. Phillips comments that it was both fun and a little daunting while Wen recalls trying to understand the mind-swapping component of the communication stones (the stones allowed people on the Destiny to switch bodies with counterparts on Earth) and laughs at how confused she first was.

“By the third time of doing it I was still thoroughly confused. I was really like wait, wait, wait. Now who…” she explains in amusement.

While Colonel Telford is only slated as a recurring character there’s no denying the big impact he has made to the storyline and it will be interesting to see his evolution and Wen’s Wray in the upcoming new episodes.

Season two of Stargate Universe premieres on September 28, 2010 at 9/8c on Syfy.

For more interviews and television reviews, click here.

Images courtesy of Syfy.

“American Idol” Announces New Judges, and America Says: “Yeah-We know.”

Last year’s American Idol ended on a bit of a sour note when Simon Cowell made the announcement that he would not be returning to the show. Instead, he would be bringing his British hit show The X Factor over here to an American audience. Cowell will produce and judge on the show, and it is a strong possibility that Factor and Idol could be in direct competition in 2011. But Cowell’s exit was only the beginning.  At the end of season 9, newest judge Ellen DeGeneres also announced she would not be returning. Her reason? “I did not feel the show was a good fit for me.” Really? Well, I could have saved you a lot of time and told you that, Ellen. The decision to cast DeGeneres made no sense from day one; and considering she stuck with the gig for all of 17 seconds, it looks as if she agrees. But we STILL aren’t finished. About 9 seconds after Ellen’s departure from the show, judge Kara DioGuardi mysteriously “stepped down” from her position on the sitting panel. It was never made clear whether or not she was let go, or voluntarily left, but who really cares since she pretty much added nothing to the show except for the most annoyingly grating speaking voice on the planet earth. So – after all this – we were left with the always loyal Randy Jackson, and the always obnoxious Ryan Seacrest as host. Why can’t HE leave?

Seacrest didn’t leave the show. Instead, he held a dramatic press conference online at the Idol website (www.americanidol.com) on Wednesday to “officially” announce the new judges for season 10. Now, I say “officially” because correct me if I’m wrong, but didn’t we know who the judges were going to be about a month or two ago? I’m pretty sure the media, and the new judges themselves, informed us many times. So this press conference, and all the many tweets on Seacrest’s twitter page, were all a bit anti-climactic. But in case you’ve been living under a rock that has no TV, the judges are as follows: Jennifer Lopez, Steven Tyler, and Randy Jackson.

Jennifer Lopez: As far as her being an effective judge, I don’t see it happening. Her guest-mentoring with the contestants in past episodes was extremely boring and generic. Also, from what I’ve heard, Jennifer Lopez was kind of a big ‘ole pain in her big ‘ole butt during contract negotiations and held out until the last minute due to “contract demands.” Now, I have no idea what J.Lo requires in her contracts, but she strikes me as somewhat of a Diva who would have a giant list of ridiculous items for her dressing room. So just for fun, here is my pretend list of what J. Lo probably demanded from Idol producers:

JENNIFER LOPEZ DRESSING ROOM REQUIREMENTS:

So, all in all, this announcement was hardly a shocking one. Now, what would have been amazing is if Seacrest held a press conference to announce that his role of hosting would now be taken over by Betty White. Everybody loves Betty White and it’s about time she got herself some work.

Personally, I think that Idol might be on its way out. The show will be around for a while longer, but I think it might have lost its edge – and Simon. I will be watching anyway, however, because I enjoy torturing myself in that manner.

What are your thoughts on the new judges? Who would you have chosen? All thoughts are welcome.

For more on American Idol, click here.

Photographs courtesy of Fox Broadcasting Company and IMDbPro.

The Walking Dead – Behind The Scenes Look Of The First Season

For those that follow me on Twitter you might have seen my latest obsession with Robert Kirkman‘s The Walking Dead. This morning it was announced that AMC’s television adaptation will have a panel event of their own at New York Comic-Con at 2:15pm on Sunday, October 10th. For fans attending NYCC, they can look forward to some of the first full scenes from the pilot.

According to AMC’s press release this morning the cast and crew will be at the panel next month. Series stars Andrew Lincoln (Love Actually), Jon Bernthal (The Pacific), Sarah Wayne Callies (Prison Break), Laurie Holden (The Mist), and Steven Yeun (The Big Bang Theory) will join writer, director, executive producer and three-time Academy Award nominee Frank Darabont (The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile) and executive producers, Robert Kirkman and Gale Anne Hurd (The Terminator, Aliens, Armageddon) for NYCC.

Slated for it’s television debut on Halloween, The Walking Dead will be bringing the Kirkman’s black and white comic series to life. Waking up in the hospital after being injured in the line of duty, police officer Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) finds the world he once knew gone. Rick quickly starts to search for his wife and son within a zombie infested world. With no government, organization, or laws left, Rick must traverse the barren wasteland of America where it is fight to survive or become part of the walking dead.

AMC’s The Walking Dead airs on October 31, 2010.

Photo taken by Scott Garfield

Comic-Con 2010: Supernatural Press Room

With the long awaited 6th season premiere upon us, we bring you highlights from the Supernatural press room that took place at San Diego Comic-Con earlier this year.  Poptimal was invited to speak with the stars and producers of the show about the upcoming season and their characters.  While they were careful not to spoil too many details, actors Jensen Ackles, Jared Padalecki, and Misha Collins could not have been more engaging or charming (or more handsome).  And despite a change in leadership behind-the-scenes with creator Eric Kripke stepping down to focus on the creative side of things, it is clear that Supernatural is in good hands under Sera Gamble and Ben Edlund’s leadership.

Jensen Ackles

• Season 6 picks up one year after the season 5 finale.  Dean has been living with Lisa and her son, Ben, and is employed as a construction worker.  Over the first few episodes, he finds himself getting sucked back into the hunting scene after he learns that Sam has returned. “Dean is now kind of domesticated himself, but at the same time, there’s still the shotgun underneath the bed, the silver bullets in the closet, the silver amulets and stuff hanging over the door,” Ackles says.  “[He’s] still looking over his shoulder.  But he’s driving a pick-up truck and headed to work, has barbecues with his neighbors.  It’s kind of funny.”
• He describes the new season as a “reset.”  They are going back to “the formula of season 1,” when the show focused more on how they dealt with monsters each week.  He also assures viewers that the comedy, which he enjoys, “will be there full tilt like it was in season 1.”  After five years of history and character development, however, the audience will now see that there are “more layers to them, to what’s going on.”
• Ackles has been dabbling in voiceover work recently.  While it is not something he would necessarily like to do as a full-time career, he has enjoyed the process.  His father was a voiceover actor while he was growing up and “it’s always been a soft spot for me.”  He and Padalecki recorded lines for a Japanese anime version of Supernatural recently and he joked that the man who dubbed his lines was like a rock star with an entourage and briefly wondered if he should be getting his autograph.
• Ackles directed the 4th episode of the season.
• When asked about the Sam that came back, he replies, “It’s Sam, but after an experience in hell. You’ll remember when Dean came back he was like ‘I was only gone for x amount of time, but it felt like 40 years.’ So essentially the same thing has now happened to Sam.  What’s different will be revealed.  I don’t even actually know what [it is], but I know there will be something.  There’s a secret there as to what came back. Is it all Sam or is it partially something else.”

Jensen Ackles talks to Poptimal.com about Dean and Sam’s reunion here:

[youtube BjpRjyGGPDw]

Ben Edlund

• Edlund thinks of Season 6 as a very interesting experiment.  He says that killing the boys off repeatedly on the show has freed them up storyline-wise and they can take the show where other shows have never gone before.
• He hinted that we will get to see how the Winchesters continue with their lives after the Devil and God leave Earth.
• He likes that Supernatural uses monsters as other storytellers use aliens and allows its heroes to “use the supernatural prism to investigate [mysteries.]”
• They will eventually tell the story of Sam’s past.
• According to Edlund, “[Sam and Dean] are not designed to have a happy ending, at least until we’re done with them.  The gods of their world are very cruel.  One of them is [Eric Kripke].  I know that guy.”

Jared Padalecki

• Padalecki worked until the wee hours of the morning before heading straight to the airport for Comic-Con.  He loves being part of the convention, but didn’t get to do as much as he wanted because of his work schedule.
• See him geek out and talk about season 6 here:

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Eric Kripke

• Now that the 5-season story arc Kripke planned is over, he has stepped down as the showrunner.  He was able to end things the way he wanted, but promised the new showrunners that he would leave the Winchesters alive for them to place in another storyline, but nothing more.  He sees himself as more of a “consigliere” and “a loving pain in Sera and Bob’s asses.”  While he continues to be involved with the creative process for the show, he is no longer as involved with the production side of things.  He helps the writers come up with story ideas and gives notes on the scripts, making sure that the show follows the guidelines he originally set out and that the characters stay in character.  “I’m like a safety net,” he explains.
• He says that Sera Gamble and Bob Singer came up with “an extraordinary new mythology that doesn’t feel like what came before but that feels different.”  The show’s mythology under his reign was inspired by his “obsession” with Joseph Campbell, the Lord of the Rings, and Star Wars, but Gamble and Singer’s Supernatural is “more noirish.”  He compares it to LA Confidential and Chinatown. “It’s twisty and gritty and down to the ground.  No one is who they seem.  Mythology keeps twisting.  Right when you think you’ve got it figured out, then all of a sudden there’s another left turn. It feels different.  It’s like they’re between Alien and Aliens in this way.   Same characters, same monsters in a way, but new filmmakers are bringing a different feel to it.  And I think that’s healthy for the show.”
• Kripke is happy to have more time to spend with his family and has been developing a new pilot for Warner Brothers, as well as writing a movie.  He loves Supernatural, but finds it invigorating to “play in other sandboxes” while still playing a role on this show.

Misha Collins

• After having played Castiel for several years now, Collins says that he has settled comfortably into the show.  “It definitely gets easier over time, and you fall into a rhythm a little bit more, and you know to expect that Jared is going to try to shove a broom into your crotch during your take and you acclimate to that over time.” A jokester himself, Collins claims that Padalecki is the biggest prankster on the set.  “He’s a true nightmare.”
• Writers give him a rough outline of his character, but he does not know all the details yet of where things are heading because “it is definitely a creative process that unfolds and things change a little bit.  They have a rough template of where this season is going and they let me know how I fit into that.”
• On the post-apocalyptic world in which Supernatural operates, he says, “Heaven’s a mess.  Sera Gamble likened it to Post-Soviet Russia, where the government has kind of fallen apart, and there’s no real clear organization or structure.  There’s a little bit of anarchy.  There’s a power grab going on and Castiel is one of the big players in that.”
• Collins likes how his character is being developed this season.  “I wasn’t really that thrilled about the idea of Cas just being sort of the sidekick in the backseat, a comic foil character.  It’s fun, but this season is going to be very different.  He definitely has a very different role.  I’m excited.  I like different…but I can’t tell you where it’s going.  I’m sorry,” he sing songs.
• Castiel will not be in the first episode, but Collins would not elaborate any further about his return.  “I’m not telling you any more.  You tricked me once, you won’t trick me again,” he jokes.
• While most of Castiel’s fellow angels are now dead and will most likely not be resurrected as he was, he teases that “we’re going to see at least one of them.”

Collins talks to Poptimal.com about Castiel’s role as the new sheriff in Heaven:

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Sera Gamble

• One of the new showrunners, Gamble says they do not have the next five seasons planned out like Kripke did.  The premise remains the same, i.e. 2 brothers roll into town and solve mysteries.  She and the other writers accept the challenge to create interesting new mythology.  She is “very excited to take the wheels off and see how fast can this thing go.”
• “There’s a lot more of Sam and Dean shooting monsters in the face this season,” she says.  “We had been missing that a little bit and we wanted to see more of that.” Season 6 will have more Monster of the Week episodes, but they are “slowly building the sense that there is a mythology-level mystery.”
• “[The] season really begins with Sam’s mysterious reappearance [in episode 1] and the mystery deepens with him.  Which is that in this post-apocalyptic landscape, monsters are acting really f-ing weird. They’re off-pattern, they seem smarter, better organized. They’re monsters we’ve never seen before, previously extinct monsters, and so hunters are sort of scrambling.  And that’s the first mystery.”
• We will see vampires this season, but not like the lightweight ones appearing in other shows and movies these days. “[There has] never been a better time to be a vampire because victims just throw themselves at you now,” she mocks.  “It’s in the zeitgeist now that if there’s a vampire he just wants to date you.  And he won’t pressure you into sex and he doesn’t drink blood.”  While the working title of the vampire-themed episode was “The Vampire Diaries,” she promises that it does not involve the Salvatores showing up and getting killed by the Winchesters.  It is now called “Live Free or Twihard.”
• Gamble confirmed that we will see the return of Samuel Campbell (Mitch Pileggi), the boys’ grandfather, as well as few other Campbells.  Lisa and Ben will appear in several episodes at the beginning of the season.  She would not elaborate further, especially concerning anything in the second half of the season.  “Anything goes,” she teased. “We have a penchant for killing people so [I don't] want to promise anything.”

Jim Beaver

• Unfortunately, we did not get a chance to speak with Jim Beaver before the session ended.
• Beaver, whose wife passed away from lung cancer, was sporting an anti-smoking t-shirt that read “There are cooler ways to die.”

Supernatural returns tonight at 9/8c on The CW.

For more on Supernatural, click here.

Images courtesy of Poptimal.com and Ayang.

Ben Edlund Ben Edlund	Eric Kripke Eric Kripke	Jared Padalecki Jared Padalecki
Jared Padalecki Jared Padalecki	Jensen Ackles Jensen Ackles	Kim Beaver Kim Beaver
Misha Collins Misha Collins	Sera Gamble Sera Gamble

Life As We Know It: Advanced Screening Tickets!

They were a mismatch from the start. She was neat, orderly, and timely. He on the other hand was a complete mess. It was no surprise that they ended up hating each other on the first date. Though they vowed to to never see each other again, fate brings them back together after a tragic accident takes the lives of their best friends. As godparents to their friends’ child, both have been given the responsibility to raise the child. So, what happens when two people with opposite lifestyles are brought together to raise a kid?  We have a pretty good idea, but why guess.

Poptimal.com and Warner Bros. are teaming up to give you a chance to win two (2) free passes to see an advanced screening of Life as We Know It starring Katherine Heigl and Josh Duhamel.

LIFE AS WE KNOW IT
Promo Screening
Monday, October 4
Washington, DC

Please note, tickets do not guarantee admittance.  Seating is first come, first served.
Here’s How to Win (No Purchase Necessary)

1. Post your comments about at least one (1) of our front  page articles

2. Email your name, email address and name of the post you commented on to contests@poptimal.com. Put “Real Life” in the subject line.

3. Tell us about your worst first date.

4. Wait. Winners will be notified starting Thursday, September 20th.

Synopsis: In the romantic comedy “Life as We Know It,” Holly Berenson (Katherine Heigl) is an up-and-coming caterer and Eric Messer (Josh Duhamel) is a promising network sports director.  After a disastrous first date, the only thing they have in common is their dislike for each other and their love for their goddaughter, Sophie.  But when they suddenly become all Sophie has in the world, Holly and Messer are forced to put their differences aside.  Juggling career ambitions and competing social calendars, they’ll have to find some common ground while living under one roof.

Life As We Know It opens in theaters Friday, October 8 2010, “Life As We Know It” has been rated PG-13.

Photo by Peter Iovino

House Review: Hot & Huddy

“The hospital does not need your body. I do,” insisted Dr. House to Cuddy. Well, Huddy fans, it has finally happened! It only took until the seventh season but the roadblocks have cleared for House and Cuddy to be a couple. They spent most of the premiere episode scantily clad or naked and finally got all hot and huddy.

The episode picked up where the finale left off — in House’s apartment, Cuddy very slowly checks House’s injury, undresses him, kisses his bum leg and admits that she loves him. They then have sex. The next morning, House asks, “so now what?” Really, Huddy, now what? I’m not sure about happily ever after but we’ll see.

Meanwhile, House answers a phone call from Cuddy’s assistant about an ill Dr. Richardson, the only neurosurgeon on staff. House says to send him home. He then convinces Cuddy to not go into work and spend the day together. But it turns out Richardson must stay at the hospital or else Princeton-Plainsboro doesn’t qualify as a level one trauma center and part of the hospital, including the ER, would have to be shut down. House secretly calls Chase to solve the Richardson problem.

In between romps in the sack on their “sick day,” House and Cuddy spend some quality time together taking a bath, playing a board game plus talking about taking a vacation to France. In one particularly funny scene, Wilson, who fears House was using drugs again, gets stuck in the kitchen window trying to break into the apartment to check on House. It’s not all bliss, House and Cuddy also take turns analyzing and worrying about their new relationship—like why he didn’t say I love you back, a fear of going public (Cuddy hides in the closet when Wilson shows up) or that the relationship isn’t going to work because of their past or Cuddy’s daughter. As their day together comes to a close, Cuddy acknowledges that House is screwed up but also that he is “the most incredible man I have ever known.” House responds with, “I love you.” Words I never thought I’d hear Dr. Gregory House utter. It was surprising to watch House act mature and participating in sincere conversations. As Cuddy leaves, she declares “it’s going to be great” but afterwards they both show signs of concern.

Thirteen, Chase, Foreman and Taub cannot find another neurosurgeon and decide to treat Dr. Richardson, who thought he had food poisoning but the normal medication isn’t helping. Thirteen gets Richardson to take a “fairly risky drug” which grants him a speedy recovery but instead he begins acting stoned. Meanwhile, a DPH official shows up at the hospital because Cuddy’s assistant reported that Richardson wasn’t at work, and shuts down the ER and ICU after a stoned Richardson undresses in front of him. Foreman suggests that Richardson’s behavior could be a symptom, not a side effect, of the drug. The team questions Richardson about his recent whereabouts—he admits that he snuck out of the hospital to attend a seafood festival and ate “whatever looked good.” Thirteen proposes that he may have eaten toad eggs, which could have caused his symptoms. They administer the antidote and Richardson is quickly back to normal which satisfies the DPH official—meaning that the hospital can remain open.

Interspersed throughout was a discussion about Thirteen’s request for a leave of absence, which was in a letter left on House’s desk that Foreman opened. He also searched through her locker and found plane tickets to Rome for the next day. Foreman expositioned that there is a Huntington’s trial in Rome and lectured Thirteen about not trying it, which angered her. Taub took a different stance—he was supportive of the clinical trial idea in Rome. Chase, on the other hand, boldly asked Thirteen to have sex with him since she was leaving—she turned him down. Later, Foreman apologized to Thirteen for opening her letter and going through her locker. He even offered to go with her to Rome for the trial. The two make up and acknowledged that they are friends. At the end of the episode, at a going away party, where Thirteen doesn’t show up, Foreman further expositions to Chase and Taub that she lied—he called the trial, they had no record of her and now her phone lines are disconnected. Thirteen has disappeared.

The new Huddy relationship certainly adds an interesting dynamic to the show. But the relationship shows signs of instability after only their first day together. What will happen when the relationship goes public? How will others react? How will House respond to Cuddy’s daughter? There are plenty of areas to explore that this cast will surely have fun with.

What did you think…will you miss Thirteen? Does Huddy have what it takes to last? Love or hate Huddy? Would love to hear what you think!

Season 7, Episode 1: Now what? (originally aired September 20, 2010)

For more on House, click here.

Mondays 8/7c on FOX

Photographs courtesy of NBC Universal and IMDbPro.

Get Ready For The New Season of Community! – Twittersode, Interviews, and More!

NBC’s new season of Community kicks off tonight bringing back our favorite students from Greendale Community College for a whole new school year. However, there is a lot more than the premiere to look forward to tonight. For Twitter users, the cast will be hosting their very first Twittersode. What is a Twittersode you ask? Well, it is an episode told through your Twitter feed! Twitter + Episode = Twittersode!

From the show’s site:

“Welcome to the exclusive Community Twittersode, where your favorite study group gears up for their second year at Greendale Community College and prepares for their first class, Anthropology. So get in on the action and don’t forget to retweet and use the #NBCCommunity hashtag!”

The twitter accounts for the show’s characters can be found here – Community Character Twitter Accounts

The Twittersode, serving as a Prequel to Season Two, will start at 7 ET/4 PT before the Sept 23 Premiere. Along with the Twittersode, viewers will also be able to interact with the premiere by texting TROY to 62288.

Back during San Diego Comic Con I had a chance to sit down and interview the cast at a round table with other members of the press. For insight into the characters, writers, and hints at what to expect in season two (possibly a tap dancing, clarinet playing Abed?!?!?!) look no further than these videos. Plus Yvette calls me Pumpkin (Part 3), causing me to melt into goo on the inside =)

Danny Pudi (Abed) and Yvette Nicole Brown (Shirley)
Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Gillian Jacobs (Britta)
Part 1

Part 2

Alison Brie (Annie) and Joel Mchale (Jeff)
Part 1

Part 2

Chevy Chase (Pierce) and Donald Glover (Troy)

This interview got caught off as the memory card filled up faster than expected. I was able to catch the final moments of it.

Community Season 2 Premieres tonight 9/23/10 on NBC at 8:00 PM.

Comic Con 2010: Gillian Jacobs (NBC's Community) talking with Poptimal.com Comic Con 2010: Gillian Jacobs (NBC's Community) talking with Poptimal.com	Comic Con 2010: Joel McHale and Alison Brie from NBC's Community Comic Con 2010: Joel McHale and Alison Brie from NBC's Community	Comic Con 2010: Our writer Bilal asking Chevy about his role on NBC's Community Comic Con 2010: Our writer Bilal asking Chevy about his role on NBC's Community
	Comic Con 2010: Chevy Chase Comic Con 2010: Chevy Chase
Comic Con 2010: Yvette Nicole Brown and Danny Pudi from NBC's Community talking to Poptimal.com Comic Con 2010: Yvette Nicole Brown and Danny Pudi from NBC's Community talking to Poptimal.com

Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part 1 – Trailer 2

It is almost surreal how far the Harry Potter series has come. With nearly half a billion books sold worldwide, the franchise we all have come to cherish and love is on its way to its final theatrical release. In the final book of the series, Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows, a darker tone and a sense of hopelessness filled the pages unlike anything readers had read from the franchises previous novels. With the release of the second trailer for the first of the two part finale, it can clearly be seen that director David Yates has captured the mood and atmosphere portrayed in the final book and adapted it perfectly for the big screen.

Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part 1 hits theaters November 19, 2010.

Nowhere Boy Red Carpet

Tuesday night in New York, members of the cast and crew of Nowhere Boy walked the Red Carpet for the premiere. Starring Aaron Johnson (Kick-Ass), Nowhere Boy follows the untold story of  John Lennon’s adolescent years before he made it big with The Beatles and became the worldwide musical icon he is known for today. Director Sam Taylor-Wood set out to tell a story about a man many have come to love, but know little about.

On the Red Carpet I was able to talk to both Wood and Johnson about the movie. For people that requested, I did ask Aaron about news for Kick-Ass 2. I’m sorry about the shakiness of the camera as I was asking questions and holding the camera at the same time. For those wondering about Sam’s reaction to a camera, it was shot off an iPod Touch.

Sam Taylor-Wood Interview

Aaron Johnson Interview

After the screening of the movie The Quarrymen took the stage for a short performance.

Here are some additional pictures from the event that night.

	The Quarrymen The Quarrymen	The Quarrymen The Quarrymen
The Quarrymen The Quarrymen	Kristin Scott Thomas Kristin Scott Thomas	Aaron Johnson Aaron Johnson
Aaron Johnson Aaron Johnson		Josh Bolt Josh Bolt
	Salman Rushdie Salman Rushdie	Harvey Keitel Harvey Keitel
		Aaron Johnson Aaron Johnson
		Ethan Hawke Ethan Hawke
Amber Heard Amber Heard	Amber Heard Amber Heard	Yoko Ono Yoko Ono
Yoko Ono Yoko Ono	Yoko Ono Yoko Ono	Yoko Ono Yoko Ono
Performance by The Quarrymen Performance by The Quarrymen	Performance by The Quarrymen Performance by The Quarrymen

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