TUESDAY, 19th

SCREAM 2010 AWARDS: If you enjoy seeing Megan Fox, then tune in. If not… meh. (9pm/Spike)

WEDNESDAY, 20th

MODERN FAMILY: There’s always something good taking place on Modern Family. If I could include this show on the weekly watch every week, I would. (9pm/ABC)

THURSDAY, 21st

JERSEY SHORE: T-shiiiiiiiiirt tiiiiiiiiiime!!! It’s about time the Miami season is over; they need to be back in Jersey! (10pm/MTV)

FRIDAY, 22nd

MY SUPER PSYCHO SWEET 16: PART 2: MTV makes these hilariously bad movies on purpose, right? I sure hope they’re not expecting an Oscar. (10pm/MTV)

SATURDAY, 23rd

INVICTUS: Michael Sheen is to Tony Blair as Morgan Freeman is to Nelson Mandela. HBO Premiere. (8pm/HBO)

Masterpiece Mystery!: Interview with Sherlock’s Benedict Cumberbatch

If you’ve made it to this point in your literate, media-loving life, there’s a pretty good chance you’ve heard of the great detective Sherlock Holmes. Whether it’s the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle print original, the Robert Downey Jr. brash brawler, or any number of the other ten thousand (number might be a slight exaggeration) reinventions of the brainy sleuth adapted to camera or script, Holmes and his “Elementary, my dear Watson” have become iconic to modern day culture. But in all the retellings over all the years, you’ve never seen a Sherlock like this. In a new 3-episode mini-series titled Sherlock, PBS does what no one has done before and welcomes the classic Mr. Holmes to the 21st Century.

In the new series, Benedict Cumberbatch plays the iconic detective and in an interview with Poptimal.com the star talks about his Sherlock, what sets the series apart and why Doyle fans have no need to worry.

It occurs to me that you may be thinking “Sherlock Holmes, 21st Century, that’s downright blasphemous.” And I say this to you dear Sir/Madame: not really.

“To a certain extent, we had a blank canvas,” Cumberbatch says of creating the series. “We had a huge amount of opportunity to re-invent him to a degree. The template that I used were the books…that’s why I love the books. There’s so much detail of physical as well as mental character in the books. You can’t avoid them when you’re taking on a role like this. They really are the best help.”

So, what can viewers expect of this series? Here’s what Cumberbatch says about introducing a modern Sherlock to new generations.

On 21st Century Sherlock Holmes
He’s an action hero in ours but he’s primarily a consulting detective. He’s incredibly fast thinking, very witty, high-functioning sociopath so there’s a huge dissolute thrill in the 21st Century, in seeing a man who trail blazes his way through mediocrity, stupidity, slowness and inaccuracy. I think we all experience that in our lives, and we have to bite our tongue, he doesn’t.

Cumberbatch on Sherlock, the series
I think that even though we’re a modern retelling, we are an incredibly faithful and venerable adaption of the originals as well. Because we’ve placed him in a context whereby he’s part of our world now, and yet he still resonates to the same extraordinariness and otherworldliness and eccentricity and vanity that he does in the original books. So while being loyal to the original books, we have given him a context which means that children growing up now can think of him as being part of their landscape, as part of their London, or even their idea of London.

Sherlock Holmes surfing the net and making Die Hard references, Dr. Watson as an Afghan veteran and a devout blogger, it’s a bold and intriguing move this series is making but one that I expect will pay off for viewers. Sherlock begins October 24th on PBS’ Masterpiece, episodes 2 and 3 will air October 31st and November 7th.

For more interviews and television reviews, click here.

Image Credit: (C) Hartswood Films/BBC for MASTERPIECE.

NY Comic-Con 2010: Venturing Outside of The Comfort Zone, or How the Venture Brothers Almost Killed Us: The Creative Team Behind The Venture Brothers

After a 9-month, V-style hiatus, the popular Venture Brothers show on Adult Swim finally returned in September with all-new episodes to satiate fans.  With “Season 4.5” firmly underway and delivering the great writing, action and colorful characters that the cult-like fan base has come to expect in spades, the creative force behind Venture Brothers, Jackson Publick (nee Christopher McCulloch) and Doc Hammer (Eric Arthur Hammer) sat down with press at New York Comic-Con 2010 to discuss the adventure-making the show has become.

Season 4

While Publick & Hammer unfortunately were “not at liberty to discuss” the existence of a Season 5 yet, they did reference the fact that the season 4 hiatus was not a preview of things to come as some had conjectured:

Publick: “No, if we do more, I don’t think we’ll split them like that.  That was because…we just fucked up…we just got really behind [and] we were really exhausted.  We tried to go straight from season 3 to season 4, and it almost killed us.”

Hammer: “It was damage control.”

Going further and citing fan interest and the complications that the season-splitting format presents with future DVD releases, fans of the show will be pleased to know any mid-season Venturus-interruptus in the future is highly unlikely.

While Publick and Hammer were tight-lipped about burning season 4 questions like if Dean will lose his virginity a la brother Hank (“Look at Dean, do you really…? No.”), or if we will see secret half-brother Dermott suit up as the third Venture Brother (“Tune in.  We’ll tell you on the show.”), we did learn that Nathan Fillion, Star of Firefly and Castle will appear as the voice of Brown Widow, an obvious Spider-Man spoof, complete with disturbing anatomically correct silk glands.  We also discovered that, unlike several other Adult Swim franchises, the season will not culminate in a holiday special later this year:

Publick: “It’s the season finale, and it’s an hour long.  You can anticipate a prom…that’s in the title, we can give that away…and some resolutions to stuff you forgot we didn’t resolve…stuff we haven’t touched all season that people were asking about last year.”

Hammer: “You can anticipate no references to Christmas…and resolutions to things that we already resolved, actually.  We bring stuff back up and then close it again.  Also, probably the most beeps you’ll ever have to endure on Adult Swim.”

The Rogues Gallery of Rogues

Over the course of 4 seasons, the Venture Brothers universe has expanded to include a very large cast of primary and background characters that fans have come to love, and this was somewhat by design.  While Hammer asserts that “no one intentionally goes, ‘we should have a million guys,’” the large cast actually became a natural extension of the well-fleshed-out, Marvel-type universe of interrelated villains and back stories that Publick originally envisioned for the show.  Even with the dense field Publick and Hammer have at their disposal, however, managing the stable has not become an unwieldy exercise:

Hammer: “They’re like friends, you kind of know who they are and when you’re writing, you kind of remember who can do this and who can do that, and if we forget about them, we just make up a new guy.”

By “friends,” Hammer of course means the cavalcade of sociopaths that help make the Venture Brothers storylines so oddly compelling.  It is clear that Publick and Hammer like to play with the psychology of the comic back story when creating characters, and this is particularly evident in how they addressed the notorious background of Sgt. Hatred during the interview.  Although the show regularly reminds us (“probably too much,” according to Publick) of the fact that the villain-turned-bodyguard, Sergeant Hatred is a reformed pedophile, Hatred’s back story is not a device that informs his actions within the show, rather, it is almost an afterthought:

Publick: “We just like him as a guy, as like, a super-enthusiastic boob…so that’s how we write him.  And then we remember that he’s an ex-pedophile and it comes up every once in a while…it’s kind of like being a scientist, or a sorcerer, we constantly tell people who everybody is.”

In contrast, when addressing the character of Dr. Sunshine, a Batman-esque character complete with his own boy-sidekick, the mildly inappropriate nature of their relationship is used as a central comedic device and larger commentary:

Publick: “Captain Sunshine’s not a pedophile.  It’s a joke based on the inappropriateness of Batman having a Robin…”

Hammer: “…or Aquaman having a Lad.”

Publick: “That was always there.  Even from the first season there was always that [question], is it appropriate to bring your boys on adventures? Or why are kids in this world at all? Why are there almost no women anywhere?  It’s just superheroes and boys…”

Hammer: “…You can’t avoid that.  Batman’s taking a young kid and running him through a life of beating up people and criminals and danger.  ‘Put on your little tights and go fight crime.  Don’t worry about what they call you…just run out, it’ll toughen you up.’  You can’t avoid it, and we play with the things that people are thinking and say them out loud.”

For all the major characters that have the benefit of a developed storyline, and symbology within the Venture continuum, there are even more short-running and one-off characters that passionate fans have been sorry to see go.  Particularly galling to Publick and Hammer was the mention of the appropriately-named Ghost Robot, whose suggested resurrection sent both writers into an extended rant.  Other one-off characters, like Dr. Phineas Page, however, may see duty in future episodes of the series, but there were no promises made:

Hammer: “Of all the questions we can answer, there’s one question that we answer every week which is what’s gonna happen to and who comes back, so it’s really hard to answer the question that the show is meant to do.  ‘Is so and so gonna come back?’ well that’s why we make a TV show, to show you that kind of stuff.”

Built by Fans

As was mentioned before, Publick and Hammer would not discuss if Venture Brothers will be back for a Season 5, but the tremendous amount of fan support they have received should help sway Adult Swim to bring the Brothers back.  In the early going, however, no one was sure that the unique show would survive:

Publick: “It was kind of a surprise.  I think we thought there was a pretty low ceiling…we knew we liked it, we knew it was good, but we thought there was kind of a low ceiling on how many other people would be into it.  The network was concerned about that too, that’s kind of why it took a while to get greenlit…Not a lot of people watched the first season, and all of the people that watched the first season told 10 of their friends to watch it, so we’re really kind of built by fans.”

Hammer: “You know, they cancelled Star Trek, never forget that.”

Even though the continued success of the show has not yet attracted rarefied celebrity guest-talent (the writers count David Bowie and Max Von Sydow among their “holy grail” of guest star targets), Publick and Hammer have attained a comfortable level of celebrity in their own right, and the passion of the fans is truly appreciated:

Hammer: “It’s not like a major portion of our day, ‘oh I can’t go out today, there might be a Venture fan.’ It’s like once a day, someone will be like ‘Go Team Venture’…they like something that we love and put a lot of work into, so that makes me feel good.  And honestly, being the kind of celebrities we are is the best kind of celebrity because anybody who knows what cartoon guys look like is a fan.  So the only people talking to us aren’t like, ‘did I go to high school with you? No, you’re in a commercial I saw’…the only people that know us, love what we do.  They have something in common with us, like, they love the characters that we love, so it’s not a terrible experience.”

With a writing process that the two describe as “writing like ex-lovers” and even Adult Swim publicly co-signing that they misjudged the show’s continued appeal, we are definitely fans, and we look forward to more Venture this season and beyond.

The Venture Brothers Season 4.5 is currently airing on Cartoon Network on Sundays at 11:30 EST.  Seasons 1, 2, 3 and the first 8 episodes of season 4 are currently available on DVD.

For more interviews and reviews, click here.

Images courtesy of Bilal Mian and Poptimal.com.

Venture Bros. Panel Venture Bros. Panel
Jackson Publick & Doc Hammer – Venture Bros. Jackson Publick & Doc Hammer – Venture Bros.

Grey’s Anatomy Review: Biology Sucks

“Biology sucks sometimes.”

You wouldn’t expect a doctor to hold that sentiment, but that’s exactly how Meredith feels.  I’m sure many of her patients have felt this way a time or two.  Now it’s Meredith who laments her genetic bad luck after the obstetrician tells her and Derek that Meredith has a hostile uterus.  I think anyone’s uterus might turn hostile if a homicidal lunatic was randomly shooting people, but hey that’s just me.  Derek tries to be supportive, but eventually Meredith’s mind wanders farther into her genetic past and not only does she worry about whether or not she will conceive, but if she will develop Alzheimer’s like her mother.  She gets genetic testing, but Derek tells her that he doesn’t want to know the results and would rather just enjoy life as it comes each day.

When Cristina had her epic meltdown it was because Jackson knocked over a surgical tray.  The incident is dogging both of them.  Cristina isn’t mentally ready to return to surgeries yet, but Jackson is chomping at the bit.  To that end, he decides to use every advantage, including his physical assets.  He flirts shamelessly with Teddy in the hopes that she will allow him to assist.  At first it appears that his tricks are working, because she looks flustered every time he peers at her with those beautiful eyes.  Just when I was about to be disappointed by another workplace hook-up, Teddy puts her foot down.  She is satisfied that he is capable of assisting on the surgery, but is disappointed that he resorted to cheap tactics to get the opportunity.  He is sufficiently shamed for acting like a “dumb blond,” as Alex puts it.

There are some perplexing living arrangements on this show.  I don’t know how or why April, Jackson, Alex and Lexie all live with Derek and Meredith.  Owen and Cristina finally get their own place, deciding on an old firehouse.  Mark, Callie and Arizona all live together.  Of course he doesn’t mind being a third wheel in this situation, despite Arizona’s obvious annoyance.  She is having a difficult time accepting Callie’s best friend, because he’s such an overgrown frat boy.  He stares at her boobs a lot and makes childish comments.  Despite his immature behavior he’s a loyal and supportive friend to Callie, and she explains that Arizona will have to accept him.  She makes an effort to get to know him by going to dinner after everyone vouches that Mark is actually a good guy.

Keeping with the theme of flawed biology, the residents treat a promising young male dancer who is in danger of losing his leg to cancer.  The patient explains to Alex how valuable his leg is, but decides to show the doctors instead.  He gives a performance right there in the hospital.  His proud parents support his dancing just as much as if he were an all-American quarterback, and it is funny to see them cheer his leaps and spins like they were game winning touchdowns or three pointers.  He strikes a chord in Alex and he wants to do all he can to save the boy’s leg.  Usually he consults Lexie for an encyclopedic knowledge of obscure procedures, but this time it is April who offers the suggestion of using dead tissue from a cadaver to replace the cancerous tissue.  Lexie is feeling a little envious of April, and this doesn’t help.  April is high strung and annoying, and Lexie thinks that she and Meredith share some secret that Meredith didn’t tell her own sister.  Eventually Meredith explains that April was there when she miscarried, that’s why she knew about the OB/GYN appointment and Lexie didn’t.

This last episode wasn’t the most exciting, but it wasn’t too bad.  I’ve decided that everyone is a little too warm and fuzzy.  There are no bitches and no jerks.  I think we need to shake things up a bit.  Everyone lives and works together and loves each other, where’s the fun in that?  Everyone’s personality is well-established, so they would have to introduce new characters to achieve this evil dynamic.  I don’t see that happening.  In the meantime, I guess I’ll just keep singing Cumbaya along with everyone else.

Season 7, Episodes 4:  Can’t Fight Biology (originally aired October 14, 2010)

For more Grey’s Anatomy, click here.

Thursdays 9/8c on ABC

All photos courtesy of ABC and Adam Taylor

Supernatural Review: Balls!

This week’s episode of Supernatural marked the directorial debut of Jensen Ackles, who did a fantastic job in showing audiences a day in Bobby Singer’s shoes. Jim Beaver gave a fantastic performance as the gritty hunter Bobby who plays such a central role in the lives of the Winchester brother and hunters all around the country.

Titled ‘Weekend at Bobby’s’, we find out what Bobby Singer has been up too since the derailed apocalypse. He first summons Crowley and asks the demon to hold up his end of the bargain by returning his soul. Crowley, being a demon of course, says no way and tough luck. He brings one of his pet hellhounds to make certain Bobby lets him out of the little pentagram circle.

After Bobby gets a call from Dean as he and Sam are investigating a weird slew of deaths that they have no explanation for. Bobby hightails it to the library but it turns out to be closed. He ends up breaking in via a window in the basement (where he falls in) only to have his car refusing to start on him. What follows is a slew of exasperated, “Balls!” and has to be one of the best catchphrases ever. When Bobby finally gets home, he stays up all night figuring out what monster Sam and Dean are dealing with and after he lets them know what it is, he is promptly hung up on. Poor Bobby! If you’re curious the monster turns out to be a Lamia, usually only found in Greece.

To make matters worse he ends up having to help Rufus, who has come to him with a dead Okami (known to only be in Japan). Soon an FBI agent comes by with the local sheriff asking about Rufus who was seen stopping by Bobby’s. The FBI agent discovers the now empty hole where the Okami had previously been. Bobby covers up by saying he had a septic tank explode. The Okami isn’t dead after all and Bobby ends up having to save his neighbor Marcy (who’s had a crush on him) from being monster food. The hunter just can’t catch a break as he has a chance to possibly start a new relationship (especially after last season’s insanity with his wife coming back to life as a zombie that he had to kill), only to have it squashed because she witnesses him putting the Okami through a wood chipper and is doused in its blood after.

Bobby still has to deal with finding a way to get Crowley to return his soul. He traps a demon in his basement and tortures it to tell him Crowley’s real name, which turns out to be Fergus Macleod. Bobby uses a flame-thrower to burn the demon’s bones, causing it to burn as well. Interesting. This leads to him summoning the spirit of Crowley’s son, Gavin, to get the dirt on Hell’s new king.

Meanwhile Dean calls complaining about Sam, but Bobby gets another phone call from Rufus who’s being chased by the cops after stealing a ring that helps him with Crowley. When he finally gets back to Dean, the elder Winchester gets pissed off that he was put on hold when he’s trying to pour his heart out to the one person he knows he can trust and count on. Bobby looses it and goes on a fantastic rage-driven rant to Sam and Dean via speakerphone on how the two brothers never say thank you for all the help he gives them and how he’s always there when they need them but sometimes they are the most selfish s.o.b.’s out there. The Winchesters apologize and Bobby sends them to Scotland where Crowley’s bones are.

Bobby asks the sheriff for a favor to help get Rufus to their state via extradition and at first she says no but comes through in the end and he is able to get the ring (that summoned Gavin). Finally Crowley is called again and this time Bobby’s got the upper hand, his soul in exchange for Crowley’s bones. Sam and Dean went to Scotland to dig up the demon’s bones and are ready to torch it if Crowley refuses. Outfoxed, the new king of Hell has no choice and rescinds the contract with Bobby telling him to leave the part about his legs working.  Crowley pops up in Scotland to face Sam and Dean. Dean is about to burn the bones anyway but Sam stops him, saying that a deal’s a deal. Crowley tells the younger Winchester he doesn’t need him to fight his battles and then gathers his own remains.

This was a great episode to see the life of such an important supporting character to the series. Who knew that Bobby played FBI agent, CDC agent, Homeland Security agent and more to so many other hunters. His whole life revolves around hunting and Jim Beaver did an amazing job showing the stress that his character goes through trying to help everyone else that he can’t even have a moment’s peace to eat the peach cobbler that his neighbor Marcy makes for him. It’s symbolic of how Bobby’s life has become consumed by work and even when he tries to get some kind of normality into it, it never works out. Still, even if his role is support rather than field agent, he kicks ass by torching the demon in his basement, killing the Okami via wood chipper and outsmarting Crowley. Not to shabby for a guy who spends most of his day helping other people.

The writing was wonderful and the actors delivered their lines impeccably. Some of my favorite scenes were with Bobby and Rufus who reminded me a lot of Grumpy Old Men, hunter-style. Bobby asking Rufus if he stabbed the Okami with the Shinto priest-blessed wooden stake had me laughing  as they argue whether it was supposed to be five times or seven times, this while Rufus is being chased by the police and it dawns on Bobby that the Okami is probably going to eat his neighbor (the Okami likes single white females). Balls!

This is now one of my favorite side story episodes in the series and the Supernatural team delivered. I will definitely look at Bobby with more respect from here on out. Lastly, I appreciated how they continued to keep the main storyline present with all the weird monster activity, letting viewers know that it wasn’t normal for a Lamia or an Okami to show up in the United States. It leaves me hungry for more information and for more episodes! Next week: vampires. Awesome.

Season 6, Episode 4: Weekend at Bobby’s (originally aired October 15, 2010)

For more on Supernatural, click here.

Fridays at 9/8C on The CW

Photograph courtesy of The CW and Jack Rowand.

NY Comic Con: All About Tron Panel

In 1982, the film Tron, with Jeff Bridges portraying the lead character, Kevin Flynn, was released. This year, 2010, Disney is using a triple threat of film, games and graphic novels to reintroduce Tron to the world. This impressive Tron panel guided viewers through the upcoming Tron releases and how they meshed with each other.

One goal that Disney had with its Tron media was to use different types of storytelling to bring Tron to life and to new possible viewers. The graphic novel, Tron: Betrayal, and each game will help bridge the gap between the 1982 film to the 2010 movie, Tron Legacy, opening in theaters in December. Key elements, characters and basically the world of “Tron” are explained in detail and reintroduced in the graphic novel. From there, each game (Wii, Nintendo DS, Playstation 3 and Xbox 360) will be unique and tackle a different period of time in Tron history. This all builds up and includes two main catalytic events that set viewers up for the state of Tron in the upcoming movie in December starring Jeff Bridges, Garrett Hedluno and Olivia Wilde. Also, it is worth mentioning that Tron has both Iphone and Ipod touch applications (both free), which allow you to play six different levels of the game.

When playing the game, you will witness the new different worlds within Tron, and vehicles (tanks and generation five light cycles) plus there is an option of multiplayer mode. Anon is one of the characters you will control in the game. Anon was created by Kevin Flynn to explore goings-on in Tron. While, Abraxas is the main villain that gamers will investigate. He is the first virus that was created for the game.

One main point that stood out from the Tron panel was the collaborative effort between game creators and those working on the movie. Their goal was to have a “seamless line between the movie and the game.” There are similar key elements that are in both movie and game. Plus, there are even some spoilers in the game for the movie. In a video clip played during the panel, actress Olivia Wilde mentioned that some scenes in the movie were filmed specifically with the game in mind.

Overall, the game appears to be very sleek, streamlined and was created with much attention to detail. I found the idea of explaining the Tron history throughout the games very interesting. Disney’s Tron triple threat about (graphic comic book, game and movie) are definitely worth checking out.

« Previous Page — Next Page »