Life on Mars ... ABC

Just looking at this picture makes my stomach turn.




One of the worst things we do in this country is take a show that doesn't need a remake (ie, cause its like ... not American ... and stuff ... derp) ... and remake it. I know a lot of you think the American version of "The Office" is a great show (and a lot of you are wrong) ... but really, why do we need to remake shows that are already made? What is it about this culture that makes us believe that we are soooo different than the UK? The accents? And, frankly, how does anyone propose to make a series that only lasted 16 episodes over 2 years ... run for 24 episodes a year?

This really is going to be terrible. The real shame is that this has delayed a US release of the British series on DVD.

Lost – “The Shape of Things to Come”

10/10 – WTF !?!?!?

Seriously, this show is just insane now and hasn’t yet jumped the shark. After a month off, we get right back into the story without much delay. I won’t even try to catch up with that plot. “Lost” has truly proven that American television can do anything if it chooses.

Right from the opening, we are constantly provoked and prodded with both answers to old questions and even more bizarre new puzzles. We learn why Sayid is working for Ben in the future, but now Ben appears to be quite a bit more powerful than we had previously been lead to believe.



Last years “flash forward” trick is now standard in the show and one of the most bizarre “WTF” moments I’ve ever experienced was seeing Ben wake up in the desert (as if he teleported there … no footprints in the sand, etc.) The attack on the compound and the smoke monster sequences are quite amazing in everyway possible.



Frankly, though we do get a few more episodes, it will be hard not having this show to look forward to for the long period between seasons.

Doctor Who – “The Sontaran Stratagem”

4/10 – where’s his sonic lipstick?

Depressingly, the series is still looking cheap and the return of the classic Sontarans was not handled at all well. Helen Rayner, who last year turned in a weak script bloated with massive effects, seems to have turned in a decent idea only to be terribly let down by a low-budget. So far, the sets look like a warehouse and … a school … and a little room somewhere with cheap “old series” looking buttons. I’m a fan of the old series, but here’s the thing … you can’t have a wizbang plot AND a low budget.

A young genius called Luke Rattigan is working with the Sontarans by using their technology to devise a device called Atmos, which makes a car carbon-free and functions as a Sat Nav. However, 52 deaths across the world occur simultaneously when Atmos takes control of several cars. The Doctor receives a call from UNIT employee and former companion Martha Jones, who is now engaged to Tom Milligan. The Time Lord and Donna head to Earth and meet Colonel Mace, who is spearheading a raid on an Atmos factory.

Immediatley, boy genius is always a bad start. Just really … seriously … Adric … we hate the boy genius thing. Then there is UNIT, which should be a welcome reunion, but in truth UNIT now has nothing to do with the past and was really just pushed up as an idea to a.) keep Martha in the picture until she (probably) joins Torchwood in the 3rd series or b.) just some soldiers for the Sontarans to kill …. Probably both.

So far no real care has been taken with these mid-season 2-parters. The Cybermen were poorly handled and the Daleks were shoved into a King Kong homage. The Sontarans appear to be in a Kroft special or “The Sarah Jane Adventures.”

I’m reading various reviews and I seem to be in the minority. There were some fun moments, but the gravity of the situation (excuse the pun) didn't really sink in ... I hope part 2 will be better and someone is saving this cash for a big ending.

Blake's 7 is Coming Back

April 24, 2008

Blake's 7 set to wobble its way back to television screens



Adam Sherwin, Media Correspondent
Science fiction fans can celebrate the revival of a famous cult hit after plans to revive the BBC series Blake’s 7 were announced.

The space-set saga, which ran from 1978 to 1981, was praised for its dark storylines and gained an international following. After years of lobbying by fans, the success of Doctor Who and complex sci-fi series such as Battlestar Galactica has prompted a remake.

The new Blake’s 7 will fly on Sky One after the satellite broadcaster asked the rightsholders of Terry Nation’s creation to develop a fresh series.

The BBC show followed the exploits of Roj Blake as he led a band of reluctant rebels against the totalitarian Federation, which ruled the galaxy.

Launched in the wake of Star Wars’ success, Blake’s 7 challenged viewer expectations with its cynical characters, who were eventually massacred in a shoot-out.

Blake 7 Productions will now have the technology to create the epic space battles which were constrained by the BBC’s budgetary demands in the late 70s.

Producers have mapped out a six-part series reviving Blake, his self-serving lieutenant Avon, Servalan, the ruthless Supreme Commander, and the show’s other fondly-remembered characters.

Although the UK audience will be limited to Sky subscribers, the series will be sold to international broadcasters - the original was shown in 40 territories. The Blake’s 7 brand also has significant potential for programme downloads and DVD sales.

Elaine Pyke, Sky One commissioning editor, told Broadcast: “At a time when science fiction shows often discard good storytellng for overblown visual effects and following the lead of Doctor Who and Battlestar Galactica, the time is ripe for a revival of a show that represents the best traditions of the genre.”

Sky is seeking a show to replace Galactica, praised as a complex allegory about US foreign policy intervention, but which has begun its final series.

The BBC will challenge the revival with a new sci-fi show that echoes Blake’s 7. Outcasts follows the race to find an alternative home to Earth in the Universe. In return for their liberty, a group of social misfits and criminals become the pioneers of a large new settlement on a near planet.

In Blake’s 7, Blake is a political dissident who escapes deportation to a remote planet by forming a gang of reluctant rebels, who include a smuggler and a thief.

Russell T Davies’s popular reinvention of Doctor Who convinced broadcasters that sci-fi was no longer the province of geeks. Life On Mars, with its time-travel scenario, continued the trend.

Doctor Who - “Planet of the Ood”

4/10 – OK, seriously, when is the series actually going to start …

There is something desperately wrong with the 4th season of Doctor Who. Some might blame Catherine Tate as Donna, others the writer Russell T. Davies, but I’m not so sure. I think they’ve stretched themselves too thin. For one thing, the new season has lacked a lot of the slick luster previous series have had and look a bit more like the children’s “Sarah Jane Adventures.” Quite frankly, maybe two spin-offs is slightly too distracting from the original? Who cares about Torchwood’s great ratings? They are miniscule by comparison to Doctor Who … even in America!

Then there is the story telling. The seasons have a predictability to them that has now gotten a bit annoying. Episode 2 always has to be an historical, while the future shows always revolve around something we’ve previously seen. The only chances the season takes are towards its gallop to the half-assed story-arc ending.

Planet of the Ood. Well, where to begin? Oh, why not the Ood themselves? They aren’t anything interesting, apart from a good creature design. But, that doesn’t matter since we’ve seen enough farting aliens – oh please, one more f’ing Slitheen story, preferably on New Earth -- in the last few years to make us grateful for anything else. The story, while on its very obvious surface, is a simple metaphor for slavery, basically goes no place and ends no place. It felt nice, but bored me.





And, next week we get the mid-season old monster 2-parter with the Sontarans … and I dearly hope they haven’t ruined them the same way they did with the Cybermen (my official favorite classic monster) … But, if they can do it, they will find a way. Perhaps farting Sontarans … all in unison, since they are a clone race.

Basically, where once I was hopeful, now my enthusiasm is sinking fast …

Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead

4/10 – Trust me, he knows …

Two brothers (Ethan Hawke and Philip Seymour Hoffman) are both in some financial trouble and decide to knock over their own parent’s jewelry store, but chaos ensues when the robbery goes wrong and their mother is killed. Much hailed in critical circles, I’m going against the grain here and saying that “Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead” is really quite poor. The now cliché “Pulp Fiction” style of jump-cut narrative is not innovative or new anymore and could only be seen as clever by the incredibly stupid. Let’s face it, once you’ve seen a trick, seeing it again and again isn’t as good.

Also, though it’s nice to see Ethan Hawke return, Philip Seymour Hoffman is one of the most overrated actors in the business. He does some character roles really well, but most of the time the fat obnoxious guy he plays isn’t very satisfactory. Albert Finney, another of the overrated genre and Marisa (I’m not too old to be naked) Tomei, complete an otherwise disinterested cast in this pathetic family melodrama. In fact, that is the very point of what drove me nuts about this film: the characters are all completely disconnected from each other … even when they are not supposed to be. Its as if the actors all got in some fight and decided not to look at each other throughout filming.

Basically, rent it if you have to.

P2

1/10 – move along, nothing to see here ….

Rarely do I see a film that I can honestly, without any sense of reluctance, say has no redeeming value what-so-ever. P2, the latest in the psycho-kidnapper genre is probably the dumbest film I’ve seen in a long, long time. Its essential crime against cinema doesn’t lay in the fact that it is somehow repulsive, just endlessly dull and repetitive.

OK, so you know if you are watching a horror film, you are going to get the usual “Saw” type terror scenes with the main characters in distress, etc., with some clever object lesson or point. P2 does not deliver anything essential or new.

It is, quite simply, the story of a woman working late at the office and being kidnapped and held hostage (rather elaborately) by the night-duty security guard on Christmas Eve. That’s it. She kills him and escapes in the end.