Ray Wise and Bret Harrison have reasons to smile. Reaper has been renewed for 13 more episodes! Sounds like we will have to wait until mid-season, but hopefully they will be killer episodes.
Link: Reaper producers interviewed on TV Guide about Season One Finale.
Link: Ken Marino (Tony the Demon) interview on Slice of SciFi podcast.
Reaper is the only new show that I like from the 2007-2008 season. Earlier in the year, a lot of critics compared Reaper unfavorably to Chuck. They claimed that Reaper hewed too closely to a formula and that the characters plodded through each episode. But as much as I wanted to like Chuck, and as much as I do lust Yvonne Strahovski, Chuck is the show that seems to follow a dull recipe.
Reaper started off with a pattern in the early episodes, but I kept watching because I loved all the characters. The three main characters (Sam, Sock, and Ben) are modern-day slacker GhostBusters, hunting down the Devil's rejects from hell. Ray Wise is so damned likable as the Devil that you would love to hang out with him in a bar. The first few shows were variations on the pilot (directed by Kevin Smith) where Sam gets a briefing on the escaped soul from Hell, receives a goofy Vessel (click here for a complete list of Vessels), fumbles the initial encounter, but later recovers and finds a way to capture the soul. Sam lived at home with his parents, who sold his soul to the Devil before he was born. In one episode we watched as Sam's father burned a few key pages in the binding contract they made. This is a key plot point that will be further developed in the season finale on May 20th.
The writers started breaking down the formula mid-way through the season, and went even further after the writers strike. "Unseen" had the boys move out of their parents homes and into a nice bachelor pad. Their gay couple neighbors (played by Michael Ian Black and Ken Marino) spoil them silly with gourmet food and expensive alcohol. The plot thickened when Sam discovered that the neighbors are Demons, but good ones, trying to overthrow Satan. Later, Sam finds out that the Devil arranged for him to live in the condo for the purpose of spying on his rebellious employees. This is also playing out into the season finale.
Sam's stalled relationship with Andi (Missy Peregrym) was a disaster in the early episodes, nothing but longing looks and tender moments at the Work Bench. The Devil told Sam that she could never know his secret. Later, the Devil rescinded this edict, after saying that Sam owed him a big favor in return (the Demon rebellion). What would any woman do after she witnessed her boyfriend beheading a man and claiming that he worked for Satan? Run! Which is what Andi did, forcing Sock and Ben to tie her up and put her in the trunk of their car. Somehow it all worked out and Andi adjusted to Sam's new job. Until last week's episode, when an old boyfriend used Satanic powers to sway her away from Sam. I liked Missy Peregrym ever since I saw her on Heroes and she's grown on me even more in this show.
As the first season of Reaper is getting ready to conclude, the show looks like it has lots of potential. We've got a full fledged Scooby gang now that Andi has joined the crew. The Satanic support network just keeps growing; in "Greg, Schmeg" Jeff Kober (Dodger from China Beach) appeared as Dennis, a twitchy-hippie Demon who runs a storage facility for Satanic supplies. Sam is getting smarter about dealing with the Devil, figuring out how to nullify Greg's contract and advising others on how to stay away from Satan. These guys still fumble the ball when it comes to chasing down sinners, but it's a lot of goofy fun.
Looks like the CW is going to renew Reaper for a second season. I sure as Hell hope so. Nuff said.
Link: Krakoom, Bret Harrison's Official Site.
Link: Bret Harrison Inteview on EW about Season One finale.
Link: E Online reports that Reaper will be renewed for Season Two.
Pictures courtesy of LOST Easter Eggs.
This was a stellar episode. It's been a year since we saw Locke and Ben go into Jacob's cabin in Season Three. Every since this new season started, I kept waiting to see when Locke would return. Now that he's found the cabin, it just opens up more and more mysteries.
Christian and Claire are in Jacob's cabin. I expected Christian to be there, based on the freeze frames posted on LostEasterEggs back in January. When Claire disappeared in "Something Nice Back Home", I predicted that she would be in the cabin with Christian. Are Christian and Claire alive or dead? I think they are dead and somehow the island manifests the dead in order to speak with the living. I just cannot imagine Claire willingly leaving Aaron to Sawyer. Christian's situation is more complex. In the Season Three finale there was that famous scene in the future where Jack said, "Go and get my father...". In last week's Jack-centric episode, Christian appeared fleetingly before this mystery could be solved. I'm still betting that Christian is dead, but I think it is pretty cool that this ties back to an episode in Season One where Jack follows his father around the island. We thought Jack was hallucinating but now we know he wasn't. Gotta get the Season One DVD set and watch that one again.
Locke has been "chosen" by the island since his birth. I almost fell out of my chair when Richard Alpert showed up at the hospital where baby Locke was being incubated. Again, this ties back to Season Three, where Alpert gives Locke a suggestion to have Sawyer kill his father. I had the feeling that Alpert favored Locke over Ben and was trying to help him. Now we learn that Alpert has been trying to help Locke since he was born! Mittelos Bioscience is the company associated with Alpert; they recruited Juliet to do research on the island. All Lost fans have been wondering why Alpert seems to be ageless, appearing in the past as young as he is today. Is Alpert immortal, or is he using portals on the island to travel back/forth through time? As for Locke himself, is the process of being "chosen" resemble how the Dalai Lama is selected? It was eerily that Locke drew a picture of the smoke monster as a kid. I love the moment when Locke says to his teacher "Don't tell me what I can't do!"
Matthew Abaddon tells Locke he should "walkabout". If there's any character besides Alpert that I need to see more of, it is Matthew Abaddon. I was stunned to see him pushing Locke's wheelchair. How many of us thought he was going to dump Locke's paralyzed body over the stairwell? It seems like Abaddon has a connection to the island as well. Yet he apparently works for Widmore, having organized the Freighter expedition. Genius casting by hiring Lance Reddick from the Wire.
Keamy's device on his arm. What is that thing? I am betting that is a smaller, portable version of the sonar fence that kept the smoke monster away from the Others. Keamy is truly the Big Bad this season. He's just slaughtering people left and right to get back to the island. Did you notice that when Keamy pulls the secondary protocol out of the safe, it has a Dharma logo on the cover? Maybe Widmore backed the Dharma bums.
I can't wait to hear this episode discussed on my favorite LOST Podcasts:
I've a couple of cool new discoveries--new to me, anyway. Comic Book Urban Legends started getting a front page link on CBR. This is part of the Comics Should Be Good blog and it investigates the truth behind long-held comic book industry rumors. It caught my attention a couple of weeks ago when they revealed that Neal Adams had contributed to the "Superman Vs. Spider-Man" treasury edition. I remember even thinking as a kid: yeah, how come Ross Andru suddenly looks like Adams here and there? It turned out that Adams inked Superman on several pages--he shared a studio with Dick Giordiano (Andru's inker) after all! This week, there are tidbits about Grant Morrison's Fantomexcharacter (from New X-Men) and his inspiration, the 1968 film Diabolik. This is the 66th entry and I've got a lot of legends to catch up on.
Alter Ego Comic Cast is a relatively new podcast site (22 episodes to date), but it's extremely well done. The guys who produce this show have a zippy format, where they discuss this week's comics, some industry news, and then launch into an interview with a comic creator. I've heard interviews with Paul Jenkins, Ed Brubaker, Robert Kirkman, etc. These guys ask very good questions, giving you a very unique perspective, and they get right to the point. I have to say that I prefer this podcast (and Word Balloon) over something like Comic Geek Speak, where they are lots of uhms-ahs-dead-silence.
Speaking of Word Balloon, John Siuntres delivers a knockout interview week after week. There is a fascinating two part interview with Ed Brubaker, where he talks in detail about his new Icon series, Criminal, Captain America, Daredevil, Iron Fist, etc. It sounds like Danny Rand will lose his ballerina slippers in the new series. I can't wait to read Criminal. Siuntres has a real coup in his latest interview with Brad Meltzer about the new Justice League of America series. Meltzer's new novel, The Book of Fate, sounds cool, too. Nuff said.
I just finished a 36 hour marathon: The Wire, Seasons 1, 2, and 3. I wouldn't have believe any series could trump Lost, The Shield, or even HBO's own The Sopranos, Deadwood, or Rome--but The Wire does. And the funny thing is, I wanted to give up watching after the very first episode. Now I am such a rabid fan that I will probably sign up for HBO, so I can see Season 4 that starts this Sunday, September 10th.
The Wire moves at an almost glacial pace. David Simon, the creator/head writer/producer behind the series, says it's a novelistic approach. The first season is about the drug wars in Baltimore, Maryland, where a drug lord named Avon Barksdale and his right-hand man, Stringer Bell, have a sophisticated organization of runners that constantly elude the police. While the drug pushers are highly sophisticated, the police are mired in bureaucracy. Only Detective Jimmy McNulty has the balls to talk to a judge, who instigates the need for a specialized team to be formed. The realism in this series--from the drug pushers to the bureaucrats to the police to the kids on the street--is so intense that it will ruin you for other police procedurals. But just like the best novels, once things build to a certain point, the interactions between the characters never stops boiling.
I've never seen a series that humanizes all the players in the drug trade, from the politicians on down. The first season primarily centers on Barksdale and Bell (B&B Enterprises), who make so much money that they've bought real estate in Baltimore's better neighborhoods. At the end of the first season, the police team that made up The Wire is disbanded. The second season centers on criminal activities in Baltimore's shipping docks with the stevedores union. Rather than have the entire team come together in episode one or two, it takes almost half of the episodes before the entire team comes together--and by this time, you're completely hooked into all the minutiae. While the stevedore union saga plays out, Stringer Bell is very active in the background, and takes center stage when Season 3 starts up. I can't really say what the theme of Season 3 is without ruining the surprise, but let's just say it was that kind of Swamp Thing/MiracleMan/V For Vendetta moment, where a writer takes a concept (in this case about the drug trade and police work) and totally flips it around.
You should rent The Wire at the very least--don't give up until you've at least seen episodes 1-4. If you've read James Ellroy, you'll love it--especially if you watch them for the first time on DVD and are able to connect the various events that correlate between the seasons. Nuff said.
I'm a regular listener of the Slice of SciFi podcast. On a recent episode, the hosts were raving about The 4400 series on USA and had an interview with the executive producer, Ira Steven Bahr (who you may remember from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine). Michael likened the 4400 characters to the X-Men and I was intrigued enough to rent the first season DVDs. I was a bit bored during the first half hour and then something happened (to guest star Michael Moriarty) that really caught my interest. It's about a group of 4400 who were abducted (by some mysterious force) from different time periods. They all arrive back in Seattle in 2004 and slowly discover that each of them possesses a unique gift. I do like it and hope to get the second season today. It has an interesting structure for an episodic serial, at least in the first season. In most episodes, the writers focus on one of the 4400 and how they are using or abusing their power. But instead of denegrating into a monster-of-the-week thing, they also have a recurring cast of characters with continuing sub-plots that advance each week. When I first heard about this series, I passed, because I thought it was another UFO/X-Files type of show. That's not the case at all, if anything it's about how people would react to extraordinary abilities. It probably shares more in common with the new NBC show (coming out this fall) called Heroes. I think The 4400 is worth watching just for Billy Campbell's excellent portrayal of a millionaire who is out to ensnare the 4400 for his own agenda. I can only hope Seasons 2 and 3 will surpass the first. Nuff said.
There was lot of furor over the fact that HBO was terminating Deadwood after the current season (number three) ends this summer\fall. Critics in almost every major newspaper were lamenting the decision, which was prompted by a bloated budget and expensive production costs. But now you can rest assured that we will see the final fate of Al Swearengen: David Milch made a deal with HBO to bring Deadwood back for two 2-hour movies next year. At the same moment, we also get this news that Vic Mackay will be stick around for another season on FX. Besides the ten episodes starting in January 2007, we'll get an additional 13 episodes (season seven), probably appearing in January 2008. If you saw the last season, you have to wonder how far Shawn Ryan and his excellent writing staff will go in torturing Mackay's Strike Team. Great news, sometimes the bad guys win. Nuff said.
If you watched LOST tonight like I did, you were probably blown away by what happened during the last 10 minutes of the episode ("Two for the Road"). I didn't see that plot twist coming at all. It's great to be so genuinely surprised by a TV show. If you're wondering about the reasons for what happened to Ana Lucia, check out Ausiello's interview with Damon Lindelof.
External Link:
Michael Ausiello's TV Guide Blog
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