Life on Mars Premiere

Well, I just watched the new and vastly improved pilot for the American version of Life on Mars.  A major factor to consider when comparing this to the BBC version is time.  The UK version ran a full 60 minutes, a luxury ABC does not have.  That taken into consideration, the writers of the US version have done a very nice job in choosing the 13 minutes to cut.  In the BBC show, Annie has a psychologist friend who screws with Sam, leading to a long scene where Annie convinces Sam that he really is in the past.  It is a good scene, but can easily be introduced later in the run of the ABC show if the writers so desire.

In our Americanized version, we have been introduced to Sam and the time period.  Those are the most important elements.  Gene Hunt, I can only assume will develop more slowly than he did in the British version, since he is so significant to the show.  Fear not, fans of the original, Gene Hunt is going to become a huge factor, why else would Keitel be doing the role.

Jason O’Mara turned in an admirable performance as Sam Tyler.  Actually, I did not find myself comparing him to John Simm very much at all.  The change in location and the adjustment to the American form of TV seems to distance me from the original, which is good.

Imperioli as Ray works just as perfectly as I imagined.  Dare I say…he could outdo Dean Andrews turn as Carling.  I dared.

Gretchen Mol was great as Annie.  I think she is so underrated as an actress.  Enough said.

Other bits I loved…they smoke, they drink, they’re sexist (the no-nuts business surprised me), and they’re arrogant.  No, I don’t endorse the lifestyles of these guys, I simply love the authenticity.

I’m ready for more.  Don’t let me down, Life on Mars USA.

Life on Mars USA

I was fortunate enough to check out some preview material on Life on Mars thanks to Miguel at Reprise Media and I am getting excited about it.

The setting is now New York, which should provide some grit that was missing in the previous pilot episode.  Harvey Keitel looks as if he has nailed the Gene Hunt character (some surprise, huh?), and Michael Imperioli is going to do justice to Ray (what a great look he has).

Overall, the vibe of the show seems much more in tune with the fantastic BBC program and that can’t be a bad thing.  There were some funny bits, some drama, nice attention to 70s details, cool music and wide ties.  I will still be interested to see how they stretch out the concept over a full US TV season, but seeing the preview material I am a little more confident that it can be done.

Life on Mars starts Thursday, October 9 at 10/9c on ABC.

Here are some vids released by Reprise Media to youtube:

I love TV

Caught up on some episodes tonight and here’s what I think.

Sons of Anarchy continues to impress.  We got another solid episode with tidbits building into a bigger, season long story arc.  I am really pleased with this show and have recommended it to anyone who will listen.  SPOILERS: The blond girl Jax picks up…anyone else think she is a plant?  To me, it feels like she is either a plant by the feds, or she will turn to the feds.  She may simply be a window into the way biker gangs view women, and this episode fit with every documentary I have ever seen regarding the subject.

The Mentalist, much to my surprise, was quite entertaining.  I dubbed it “the serious Psych” before it aired, but I was quite surprised by the amount of humor.  The promos did not do it justice.  It’s definitely worth a watch…heck, I’ll even give it a commitment for three more episodes.  You’d better keep it up, Mentalist.

More SPOILERS.  Has SVU jumped the hark?  I can’t really tell, yet.  I have gone back and forth on this issue but have been unable to decide.  The melodrama can overwhelm at times, other times it simply whelms.  Also, every time there is a big name guest star it is so easy to figure out the case.  Robin Williams last season, Luke Perry this season.  Previously, we’ve seen Henry Winkler, Richard Thomas, the list goes on.  If the big name star is not a lwayer, he/she is the baddie.  Come on, give me a bit of a mystery,  Oh well, I’m going to keep watching anyway so just call me a lemming.  Maybe they’ll jump back the way the original Law & Order did.

Caught It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, damn that show is funny.  You’d better start watching it.  I am serious.  Go to hulu and catch up.

Life Premieres!

I’ve talked it up and I want anyone who reads this blog to watch it.  What am I on about? Life, starring Damian Lewis and Sarah Shahi.  Good news for you fans and neophytes, the fresh fruit obsessed detective solves his first case on hulu.com almost a week before the official airing on NBC.  Get into this show, dammit!  The on-air premiere is September 29, after Heroes, with regular showings starting Friday, October 3 at 10/9c.

It hasn’t lost a step so get watching!

Monday Premieres I Watched

Worst Week is absolutely horrible.  Do yourself a favor and just rent the British sitcom Worst Week of My Life There was very little redeemable from the first episode of this adaptation.  The only bits I found funny were referring to Sam as “the friend” and carrying the drunk girl in a rolling trash bin.  The rest was drivel.  Quit now, or better yet, never start it.  If you watched the CBS version and did not like it, trust me when I tell you the UK version doesn’t start so over the top.  Please give it a chance.  The guy actually does not come off as a complete freaking moron, which makes the show work much better.

Heroes left me kind of wanting more, but not wanting more.  The first episode felt very unfocused, which may be a hangover from the previous strike shortened season.  There was a good bit of “this is what happened to me” which could have been cut down.  Nathan’s religious business does not intrigue me, yet.  Peter, though, is still pretty cool.

The second episode gave me more hope.  The developments with Sylar, Peter, and Claire look promising.  Parkman’s story remains lackluster, but the African he met intrigues me a bit.  Anyone else think his sidestepping of the painting issue was interesting?  Did you watch the promo for next week?  Sylar and HRG as partners?  Nice!

I am open to the Mohinder storyline, but not optimistic since he is tied to the remaining wonder twin.  Did I miss the bit where he got into a teleportation pod with a fly and Jeff Goldblum?  Time will tell.

Hiro and Ando deserve their own mention since I think they are such great characters.  These two have always been a bit separated from the others and that must be purposeful on the part of the writers.  Good story for these guys in this season (well haven’t they had the best story lines all along?).  There remain so many questions that I want to have answered.  What is the formula?  Is it the same thing Suresh discovered?  Who does the cute speedster girl work for?  Will Ando actually kill Hiro?  Is the future set?

Oh, and Ali Larter remains really hot!

More next week.

5 Britcoms I want on Region 1 DVD!

Some of the best stuff I’ve seen come out of the UK has been in a small, grainy box on Youtube and that needs to change in a hurry.  Come on BBC video, get cracking and get these shows ready for me to purchase!

The Mighty Boosh is a splendidly surreal trip into the universe of Vince Noir and Howard T.J. Moon (Noel Fielding and Julian Barratt).  Each episode finds the duo faced with a bizarre foe (often played by Fielding or Barratt) who often wants, or steals, something ridiculous from them.  Loaded with big laughs from the stars along with Rich Fulcher, Michael Fielding and a guy in an ape suit, the Boosh is a must have for my DVD collection.  Favorite characters include the Hitcher, the Crack Fox, Saboo, local crocodile Eric Phillips, and, of course, Old Gregg.  Look into this one if you love bizzarre comedy.

Peep Show series one is available but there are four more series out on DVD in the UK.  What happened?  Get those discs out.  A look inside the twisted minds’ of best friends, Mark and Jez (David Mitchell and Robert Webb), Peep Show pushes the boundary of good taste with each episode and I love it.  How can such horrible characters keep me wanting to see more of their story?  The best sopporting character has got to be Super Hans.

A similar case is I’m Alan Partridge starring the brilliant Steve Coogan.  Alan’s mock talk show Knowing Me, Knowing You and series one of I’m Alan Partridge are available but where is my series two?  Long before Ricky Gervais made you cringe uncomfortably, Alan was getting himself into some pretty awkward situations.  The biggest blowhard since Ted Baxter, Partridge is a great program that I want to see properly and in its entirety, please.  Fantastic stuff.

From Father Ted creator Graham Linehan comes the hilarious I.T. Crowd.  Moss and Roy are socially inept computer geeks who work in the basement of Reynholm Industries; their new boss, Jen, knows absolutely nothing about computers.  The set-ups in this sitcom are fantastic.  Roy trapped under a desk or Moss attempting to extinguish a fire don’t sound particualarly funny, but they are.  Snappy writing and great performances (especially Richard Ayoade as Moss) highlight the 12 episodes produced thus far.

Another sitcom featuring, and directed by, the aforementioned Richard Ayoade is Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace.  The show is a bit high concept, which may explain why it lasted only one series, but it is ace.  Back in the 80s, schlock horror writer Garth Marenghi (the brilliant Matthew Holness) created a TV show which never saw the light of day, except for a brief run in Peru.  In the new millenium, however, the network asked him to release six episodes of the program spliced together with interviews of the cast.  A hilarious send up of cheap 80s sci-fi/horror, Darkplace needs to be on a shelf in my living room.

If you can find any of these shows anywhere on the world wide internet, watch them immediately.  Otherwise, wait and see if they arrive on this side of the pond for purchase as proper DVDs.  You will not be disappointed.

Honorable mention:  Nathan Barley and The Inbetweeners.  The first is a cult hit and the second is quite recent.

Sons of Anarchy Round 2 (spoiler free)

It’s official, I am on board for the entire season of Sons of Anarchy.

In spisode 2 we got a glimpse of how the gang manipulates the town’s authorities and it was pretty sweet.  The protection detail storyline and the forensic team distraction story dovetailed nicely.  Kurt Sutter have done a nice job of balancing the home lives of the members with the criminal activity (I was worried there would too much home drama).  There seems to be a lot of time building sympathy for Opie which leads me to assume something really screwed is going to happen to the poor guy.

Episode 3 gave us a bit of a flip on the second, showing us how the Sons mete out vigilante justice to keep their town safe.  I got a couple of good laughs out of this episode, particularly from the treatment of the prospect.

I’m keeping the comments sparse because I don’t want to ruin anything about this show for those of you have yet to see it.  If you need to catch up, click here to watch the episodes legally and for free.

Sons of Anarchy Review (free of major spoilers)

Fresh off watching the premiere of the new FX show Sons of Anarchy, I realize its inevitability.  After The Sopranos gave us a peek into the home life of a mafia family and Weeds showed us a soccer mom turned pot dealer,  it was a given that someone would eventually get around to putting a human face on motorcycle gangs.

Sons boasts an impressive cast led by the little known (in the USA) Charlie Hunnam as Jackson.  Katey Sagal, Ron Perlman, Mitch Pileggi, and solid character actor Mark Boone Junior (Det. Flass in Batman Begins) round out the cast nicely.  Additionally, a rough looking Drea de Matteo does a fine job guest starring in episode one.

Generally solid writing occasionally gave way to moments that became a bit heavy-handed.  Yes, I know they’re doing a bad thing and it is unnecessary to emphasize it with dialogue or pictures.  Overall, the show remained low key, requiring the viewer to spot the little touches.  A great moment reflecting this is a scene where the leadership of the gang meets in a smoke filled room to discuss strategy against their rivals.  Of special note is the way the script seems to draw on a very deep and well conceived back story that I am sure we will learn more of in future episodes.

Technically, the show was solid save for one axis jump during a scene in which Ron Perlman met with a gang banger who wanted his shipment of guns pronto.  I must say that the end montage felt reminscent and a tad derivative of a Sopranos episode, though the music chosen was a nice touch considering the singer.  I will say no more on that moment to avoid spoilers.

As far as the realism of the gang goes, I am no expert.  There were nice touches.  Little patches that read “First 9″ that reminded me of the one percenter emblem worn by some actual gangs, for instance.  The guys wearing helmets to ride seemed atypical at first, but as they were all of the same design I accepted it as part of the uniform.

Sons of Anarchy definitely provided enough story and intrigue to bring me back for future airings.  Hopefully, the writing will even out and step away from ground already covered by The Sopranos and films like Goodfellas.

Sons of Anarchy airs Wednesday at 10/9c on FX.

Entourage Premiere

What did you think of the Entourage premiere?  For a transitional episode it wasn’t bad.  We learned that Vince ran away from the disaster of Medellin, E has doubled his client list, and Drama is the same as ever-and his show is still a hit.

There is no way I’m alone in feeling the best stuff in the show comes from Ari and Drama.  I can’t help but feel a laugh coming on when either one is on screen.  Jeremy Piven’s great moment was the phone call with his former assistant as he visually showed his frustration while attempting to keep his voice even.  The top Drama moment had to be his refusal to be shot from the right until he hears “baby bro’s in trouble”.  Great stuff.

As far as the story goes, E and Vince are still tight and there was no serious falling out over Medillen, which I think the writers wanted us to believe.  The Godfather ending was pretty good.  The best bit there started with Turtle.  “The Maserati?”  All in all, there were enough laughs for me and a nice set up about Vinne not wanting to go out on the bottom.  Bring on more!

Fall TV

It’s finally coming!  New scripted television, that’s what.  Once again I can turn on the TV without seeing a bunch of blathering twits who are stuck in a house together or a parade of bizarre “talents” getting rated by Hasselhoff.

It all kicks off this Sunday with the return of Entourage.  The performances of Jeremey Piven and Kevin Dillon are enough for me to spend the money on 3 months of HBO.  I’ll admit that this show started out a little slow but the episode The Sundance Kids made sticking with Vince and his crew worth the effort.

A new show hitting the air this fall is Worst Week, a remake of a very funny British show.  Thing is, The Worst Week of My Life ran 7 episodes which was the perfect length for a concept show.  The humor in the original played off the groom and his rocky relationship with the bride’s family.  Has that got the legs to cover a full American TV season?  Guess we’ll see.

I’m willing to check out Kath and Kim, another remake but this one is Australian.  I do think the premise will translate well to an American show, I’m just no sold on Molly Shannon.  Never really found her funny.

I generally give J.J. Abrams a shot and will do so again with Fringe, but I’ll enter this viewing relationship with trepidation.  Abrams really has a tendency to get too overstuffed with complex storylines which often leads to a convoluted mess (end of season 2 and start of season 3 of Lost spring to mind).  Word is he wants to do a show that can keep casual viewers interested and in the loop.  It’s airing after House so I won’t change the channel on night one.

Just a few notes:  Heroes returns for a third season and I sure hope the funkof last season is washed away.  Please, no more Wonder Twins.  Samantha Who? is a nice little distraction of a sitcom.  Watch Life. Kitchen Nightmares is one of the only reality show I’ll watch, only because Gordon Ramsay told that lady that she was talking out of her rear end.

A question:  Is The Mentalist just a ripoff of Psych that’s played straight?