Category Archives: ABC

May 4, 2007 · 10:35 pm

Goldi”Lost” and the Three Scheduling Options

[For the unaware, there are currently rumours swirling around the scheduling options for Lost’s upcoming season. The current rumours, as covered in numerous locations, have Lost running from January to May, in an earlier times lot, as well as officially coming to a close sometime in 2009. This solved a few of the show’s scheduling issues in theory, but I figure we should take a trip down memory lane to see how it got to this point. However, this is a slightly different trip, so be warned as we take a magical journey into a mystical fairy tale land. Enjoy.]

Once upon a time, there was a television show named “Lost” which has spent three seasons traversing a series of obstacles on its way to being a Top 10 television program in the key demographics which advertisers crave. It faced off against a wolf trying to trick Lost into falling into its trap through disguise (Much like how viewers saw through blatant ripoffs like Invasion and Surface in 2005, Lost was not fooled), and our show narrowly escaped the evil grip of the witch who bakes TV shows in her oven (“I have success in the 18-34 Male Demo inside, come a little closer!”)

However, on its way, Lost found that it had come to an important crossroads, marked by a small little house where three scheduling options made their home. It was a humble abode, but one could feel that important decisions would be made for the show’s future.

Lost, feeling a bit disoriented with its current path, decided that he should stop by and pay them a visit. Unfortunately, they weren’t in, but had left a note that any guests were more than welcome (Lost would never enter someone’s house uninvited, that would be plain rude). So, Lost made itself at home, and saw that there were three bowls of porridge sitting upon the table. The note had also mentioned that they Lost was invited to taste test their porridge selection, so he figured that he should assist them in finding the right one. Perhaps, at the same time, it would find the right porridge for its own future.

Each porridge, Lost found, was context sensitive to its own situation! (Did I mention this was a magic house? No? Well, it clearly is). As a result, Lost first decided to try the porridge labeled “9pm Wednesdays, September to May with repeats throughout.” It takes a spoonful.

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Everything You Want To Know About the Grey’s Anatomy Spinoff

While there was some stuff about Cristina’s wedding, and about Meredith and her father, let’s face it: we were watching tonight’s episode of Grey’s Anatomy, “The Other Side of This Life,” for a preview of Addison (Kate Walsh) and her spinoff (Tentatively titled ‘Private Practice’) which currently has a really good shot of making ABC’s lineup in the Fall (Although the Grey’s stuff got REALLY heavy at the end, I’m still choosing to ignore it). But, the thing is…is it any good? Is the show really worth a spot on ABC’s schedule? Let’s evaluate and find out.

The Premise

Addison takes a trip down to Santa Monica to visit some old med school friends who are running a doctor’s cooperative on the sunnier part of the West Coast. She arrives at Oceanside Wellness Group with one thing in mind: having a baby (which proves to be a difficult goal). The clinic is also currently lacking an OBGYN, after theirs had a little run-in with one of the partners, so there’s an empty office just asking for Addison to step in to fill the void.

The show basically operates like Grey’s Anatomy with a greater focus on different medical conditions. It’s got its procedural structure of cases of the week, in this case a surrogate situation gone wrong and a man with low sex drive. To what extent this would develop differently once picked can only be speculated upon. For now, it’s Grey’s Anatomy dealing with psychiatric cases and more OBGYN aspects.

The Characters

Any good spinoff, really, has to be able to create memorable characters that we’re willing to accept as part of the show’s universe. This means establishing archetypes that are different from what we see on the original series, and creating performances that are distinct and memorable. And, in my view, I’d say that this particular spinoff has done a fairly good job of this.

The Best Friend – Naomi (Merrin Dungey)

Where you’ve seen her before: She played Francie on “Alias”.

She’s the friend for Addison, an old Med School buddy who is going through some problems on her own. She brings a nice parallel to the table in terms of Addison’s goal of having a child and her past relationship issues, and as the clinic’s fertility doctor she clearly factors directly into Addison’s plan to have a baby. On the whole, I’d say she’s a successful addition to the show’s universe, and she doesn’t come across as similar to any existing characters.

The Male Divorcee Struggling with Singlehood – Sam (Taye Diggs)

Where you’ve seen him before: He played the titular character on UPN’s “Kevin Hill” and ABC’s “Daybreak”

On the surface, Jackson is a little bit like McDreamy, but in reality he’s more of the anti-McDreamy. Although he was recently divorced, he is certainly not reacting by sleeping with random interns; instead, he’s remaining single and owns a small little dog and working alongside his ex-wife (Naomi). He’s got a successful book (Dr. Feelgood is his other name, apparently), but you have the feeling that he could snap at any moment and just go wild. It’s a complex character, and it’s kind of interesting.

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May 2, 2007 · 9:41 pm

Lost – “The Brig” Recap

Lessons Learned in “The Brig”

1. One Must Consider Purgatory Very Closely

It’s one of those things that producers have been denying for months, and yet this entire episode clearly placed purgatory as a real option, especially considering the speech from Locke’s father regarding his last moment before arriving on the island. In the end, I think that there’s a case to be made…but it’s a case being made as a red herring from the producers. [For more background on this, The Elder McNutt sends us in the direction of the Lostpedia Wiki: “The Purgatory Theory”]
The case brought forward by Naomi, and by Locke’s father, is that the plane crashed off the coast of Bali, Indonesia, and was in a four-mile deep trench in the ocean. Through the use of robot video cameras, the wreckage was verified including all of its passengers. Now, this certainly seems like purgatory would make sense, especially because Locke’s father’s last memory is a near-fatal car crash. However, let’s look at why this can’t actually be the case.

– Juliet, Richard, Ethan, etc.

Juliet is a problem because she traveled to the island without, you know, dying, although you could argue that concoction killed her. Richard and Ethan is the same problem: they clearly travel between the two worlds. The only way this could be unwritten is if the purple explosion killed everyone and began the purgatory…but some people had no ill effects, so that can’t be the case either.

– The Possibility for a Fake Crash

It’s very clear that this crash site has been seen as proof to the general public, but let’s consider it more closely. The site is in a four mile trench…that’s deep. It was investigated by tiny cameras, and has never been seen by human eyes. This means that people are able to manipulate things in whatever way they please. Would it be impossible for Dharma to control this coverage and create a fake crash site using elaborate dummies? We know that before the purple flash they were able to communicate and move between the island and the real world. This would give them plenty of time to fabricate things, so this “They have to be dead they found the plane!” crap doesn’t prove anything related to purgatory.

So, in the end, I think we need to take this all with a grain of salt. A big one.

2. Locke, first and foremost, is concerned about Locke

Locke isn’t out to help others, but rather to reconcile his own existence. Ben is playing off this, in my view, and I think it’s all a ploy. This is the second time someone has received a message of dissent within the Others (Juliet to Jack, and now Richard to Locke) and I have to wonder whether either of them was truly genuine. Do people really want a change from Ben’s leadership this time around? If I can, I figure Ben’s kind of like Gorbachev; Ben is trying to fix the Others’ problems, but in doing so he’s losing sight of the big picture. Of course, in the USSR, this brought on the failed August Coup. However, what if that Coup had a leader like Locke? I think it would be an entirely different story.

But, Soviet history aside, the situation here is proof that Locke is most concerned with his own well-being and destiny on the island. With his father dead, and with the Boone thing behind him, and with Eko’s death having purpose thanks to its coordinates, Locke is pretty well guilt free right now. Will he be able to make a difference with the Others? Only time will tell.

3. Jack and Juliet Went Up the Hill to Hatch a Plan

It’s the question I think we’re most curious about after the episode’s end: what exactly are Jack and Juliet up to. Has Juliet informed Jack about Ben’s upcoming visit to their camp, and all of their plans? Or are they cooking up something entirely different. Juliet’s motivations have always remained on the fence, and Jack’s reaction to Kate’s news was awfully strange.

Personally, I can’t know for sure what they’re up to, but I’d say that Jack is in the know regarding Ben’s plan. The question now, though, is why Ben would ever trust Juliet with any truly important information knowing her position with Jack. Is he that naïve? Or does he have something up his sleeve. Something to consider, I guess.

4. Sawyer Got His Man

Finally, Sawyer manages to come to grips with his childhood trauma and kill the man who did it to him. It wasn’t a really integral part of things, but it’s good to see some movement in Sawyer’s character. It was well-acted, his meltdown, and certainly allowed us to delve a little deeper into Sawyer’s past. He remains, however, intricately connected to pretty well every castaway imaginable (He was in Boone’s back story, his baby mama was in Kate’s, he met with Jack’s father at the bar in Sydney, etc.), so it should be interesting to see what role he plays in the show’s overall mythology as we get closer to it.

5. Rousseau + Box of Dynamite = ???

It could have just been a throwaway, but let’s keep this in mind for future episodes. Rousseau is now carrying around a box of unstable dynamite (From everyone’s favourite 1st season slave boat The Black Rock!), and knows that the Others are holding her daughter hostage. I daresay that she might be considering some form of rash action.

Want to know what else went down in “The Brig”? Continuing reading for a full recap of the episode.

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April 29, 2007 · 11:33 pm

Plagiarism Patrol: ‘Brothers & Sisters’ goes royal

Television writers are like any of us, really; they live normal lives with the same types of interactions with popular culture as the rest of us. They watch the same television shows, experience the same classic cinema, and likely watch the same Academy Award nominated films as we do. In fact, after watching tonight’s episode of Brothers & Sisters, I am convinced that writers Alison Schapker and Monica Breen (Late of ‘Lost’ and ‘Alias’) most certainly saw one of the films nominated for an Oscar this year. For, you see, they most assuredly ripped off the basic premise of Stephen Frears’ The Queen for tonight’s episode, ‘Bad News.’

This week, one of the many storylines revolved around a helicopter crash which claimed the life of a young speechwriter who Senator McAllister (Rob Lowe) had been hard on. Kitty (Calista Flockhart) was very emotionally distraught over this, considering that she had been the one who decided that Steven would be in the chopper instead of her and the Senator. This is the real plot of things, but in the process there was an exchange that was quite literally ripped out of The Queen.

After the crash has taken place, Kitty insists that McAllister needs to address the people, and he is aghast at this suggestion. For him, this is a personal matter, and he doesn’t believe that he should have to make it a public issue. Kitty, however, insists that the people need to know how to react, and that there are people who are counting on him to set an example. The people need you, Senator McAllister!

For anyone who has seen The Queen, this likely sounds very familiar. The entire film revolves around the reaction, or lack thereof, from the royal family (Queen Elizabeth II, portrayed by Academy Award winning Helen Mirren, specifically) to Princess Diana’s tragic death. For Elizabeth, this was a private manner for her son and her grandchildren, and she felt that she had nothing to say to the public. Newly elected prime minister Tony Blair (Portrayed extremely well by Michael Sheen), however, believes that it is the Queen’s role to comfort her subjects in this time of mourning.

I seriously doubt that this was pure coincidence, although I can’t real blame Alison and Monica for turning to The Queen for inspiration; it was well-handled in that film, and it was well-handled on Brothers & Sisters as well. The show seems to like to treat Kitty as its star, and sometimes I don’t really buy it…but her storyline this week held resonance, so I guess that plagiarism was successful in this instance. I guess if you’re going to rip off something, a first-class piece of screenwriting from Peter Morgan is probably a good place to start.

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April 27, 2007 · 3:09 pm

What Should You Watch Tonight? – Friday April 27th

Let’s face it, the Box Office race isn’t too interesting this weekend (Nicholas Cage’s Next, Stone Cold Steve Austin’s The Condemned and Justin Chatwin’s (Locke’s FBI-investigator grow-up friend on “Lost”) The Invisible), so I figure that a night in with some television might well be in order. As a result, here’s three picks for the evening’s TV lineup.

8pm – Six Degrees (Online at ABC.com)

Sure, it might not be on your television, but it’s something new to watch if you were a fan of the ABC drama during its initial run. Unable to take advantage of its Grey’s Anatomy lead-in, the show was shelved to the side months ago and even after a brief return on Fridays found no traction. As a result, ABC has decided to stick with Grey’s Anatomy repeats (A show which does NOT repeat well) instead. Still, for those craving something, head to ABC.com today to check it out.

9pm – Raines (“Season” Finale)

I use airquotes because, barring some form of circumstance we are unaware of, a second season for Raines is just a psychotic image in the mind of the show’s lead character. The pilot didn’t capture me, and the show’s early cut to only 7 episodes didn’t really help either. It just didn’t connect with viewers, and NBC will be looking for something else to fill this timeslot. For those who enjoyed the show, however, it gives its likely swan song tonight.

10pm – Law & Order

In what could be its last back of new episodes, Law & Order returns from a hiatus with an episode that commercials promise will be classic Law & Order. Something to do with asylum and something crazy that happens. All I know is that my Law & Order piece couldn’t be much more true at this point; Criminal Intent is doing an Astronaut attempted murder/kidnapping story on Tuesday, which is entirely played out in the media. We’ll see if these kind of problems lead to the downfall of the Mothership, in which case this could be our last batch of new episodes.