Seven Kingdoms Come: HBO’s “Game of Thrones”

By on Oct 15, 2009 in Previews | 3 comments

Though it might not reach our screen until late 2010 or 2011, I’m very excited for HBO’s Game of Thrones, a prospective series based on George R. R. Martin’s book series A Song of Ice and Fire. Admittedly, I haven’t read any of the novels, but anything that brings medieval fantasy to television piques my curiosity (excepting Merlin, that is). Since I am totally ignorant about the plot, here’s what Wikipedia has to offer: The story of A Song of Ice and Fire takes place in a fictional world, primarily upon a continent called Westeros but also on a large landmass to the east, known as Essos. Most of the characters are human but as the series progresses other races are introduced, such as the cold and menacing Others from the far North and fire-breathing dragons from the East, both races thought to be extinct by the people of the story. There are three...

Endings, As It Is Known, Are Where We Begin

By on Oct 10, 2009 in Raves |

Rarely do shows get to end on the creators’ own terms, especially those that are cancelled. And even though Bryan Fuller surely would have preferred a more robust ending to his much-beloved fantasy noir Pushing Daisies, the show didn’t exit on a cliffhanger or, worse, with the whimper of a total non-ending, as some do. No, he was able to whip together an epilogue to tack on to the cliffhanger ending of “Kerplunk,” the last episode to air. But, as he says in an interview with TheTorchOnline.com, he couldn’t even shoot new footage. So he instead devised this CGI tour of the town of Coeur d’Coeurs and its environs—and of many of the settings used for the show, including the windmills, the convent, the Aquacade, the cemetery, the lighthouse, and, of course, the Pie Hole itself. This impressive work of digital wizardry would have cost him in the...

Nothing but the Blood

By on Oct 4, 2009 in Raves | 1 comment

Note: The following review first appeared as an article entitled “True Blood: HBO’s newest (and most misunderstood) hit” in The Climax, Hampshire College’s newspaper. Enough vampires, you say. And you’re entitled: pop culture is oversaturated with blood-sucking stories these days. True Blood might have been white noise amongst other fang-bearing works. But Twilight it ain’t. Part pulpy horror flick, part gothic love story, and with pervasive social commentary, HBO’s first post-Sopranos hit series defies categorization. And—forgive me for this—it’s bloody good. Based on the book series The Southern Vampire Mysteries by Charlaine Harris, True Blood revolves around the character of Sookie Stackhouse, a telepathic waitress at a watering hole in the sleepy town of Bon Temps, Louisiana. In the first episode, she falls in love with Bill Compton, a 150-year-old vampire,...

The Prime Times: Lawn Mower Meets Foot Edition

By on Sep 27, 2009 in In Brief | 1 comment

I can’t even fit all the news that’s fit to print into one blog post, but here are some of this week’s most interesting tidbits: Some of the shows that premiered this week got impressive ratings. FlashForward scared up 12.41 million viewers. (I realize now that there’s no space in that title. The world’s in crisis and people are blacking out—there’s no time for spaces, folks.) Modern Family welcomed 12.74 million. And The Good Wife attracted 13.72 million watching. I didn’t preview that show, but it seems promising so long as it keeps up the scorned-political-spouse angle and doesn’t become an average law drama. Just to make the wait for Season 3 of Damages (set to start in January) that much more excruciating, Jace at Televisionary tells us that Martin Short and Lily Tomlin have joined the cast. The addition of two comedians to the cast...

2009 Emmys: My Recap

By on Sep 22, 2009 in Recaps | 3 comments

Now that I’ve finally watched the last hour of the 61st Annual Emmy Awards, I can confidently say that this year’s broadcast was one of the best in recent history. And here are my favorite aspects of the big show: Neil Patrick Harris. Coming off of last year’s terrible hosting job by otherwise talented reality-TV hosts, Neil Patrick Harris did a hell of a job as emcee. I haven’t seen much of his work, but I enjoyed his jokes, his reverence for television, and especially… The opening number, in which he poked fun at the industry and at viewers, hit on both Christina Hendricks and Jon Hamm, and blazed through a long list of television networks in record time (begging for “Oxygen” by the end!). Props to Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman for writing the number. The set. Not only was the band onstage, but the control room was, too. Fitting—and cool....