TV Tyrant

24: Silent clock subterfuge?

January 20th, 2009 | by | 24, jack bauer, miscellaneous, supernatural, talk like jack bauer day, uncategorized

Jan
20

I would recap yesterday’s episode of 24, but not much happened.

For some reason, Emerson (whose British accent was nowhere in evidence) punched out the Sangalese bodyguard instead of killing him. The ambassador and his wife almost gave their lives in their panic room until Mrs. Ambassador chickened out and opened the door.

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Jack proved he watched Mr. Wizard as a child; Tony said about 6 words; Chloe and Bill were MIA; Larry got stern with Agent Walker; we learned Queens Boulevard is having an affair.

Whoop-de-doo.

Then things got interesting.

Walker got captured, Jack roughed her up (and all the fanboys enjoyed that very much) and then … Emerson orders Jack to kill her.

We know that Jack is very capable of either killing a good person if he has to (Ryan Chappelle, Season 3, and yes, I am fully aware some might not have considered him all that good, but he wasn’t a “bad” guy) or of making it look like he’s killed someone (Nina Meyers, Season 1, before anyone knew she was a bad guy).

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So Say We All: The Battlestar Galactica Blog Carnival, Ed. 4.5.1

January 20th, 2009 | by | battlestar galactica, blog carnival

Jan
20

Now that Battlestar Galactica has returned, so has the So Say We All Battlestar Galactica Blog Carnival.

There’s been lots of BSG goodness throughout the blogosphere since the show returned Friday (first episode of Season 4.5, thus Ed. 4.5.1), and the only bad thing is that we only have nine episodes left.

Before I link to any submissions, though, I do want to say that Ron Moore has 150 percent confirmed that Ellen Tigh is the final Cylon, so everyone can just stop speculating about it already. Thank you.

We’re going to start with a flashback of sorts, from carnival regular David Bird, who blogs on Thursdays about the previous episode, so is a week behind on the carnival. In this case, however, it works very well, seeing as he recaps the webisodes as a whole, in In The Face Of The Enemy posted at David Bird.

Stephanie breaks down the big reveals from Friday’s episode in Battlestar Galactica!! posted at Dube’s World. In fact, she spotted one MAJOR reveal that went right past me. Read through to the end.

Norman Doering has lots of why and how questions about the origin and nature of Cylons, in Battlestar Galactica Season 4.5 posted at A Blog from Hell. Wish I knew the answers to them.

Audra didn’t see anything coming, though some of them she still wasn’t surprised by. It makes sense when you read her thoughts over at BSG – 1 down, 9 to go posted at True Science Fiction.

Nina gives us both the Top 10 Things you need to know about BSG as presented by Moore & Eick, along with her liveblog, which is … very heartfelt, at Battlestar Galactica: Season 4.5 – Epi. 11: Sometimes A Great Notion posted at Blog It Out Bitch.

Ms. Smarty Pants spends most of her post discussing Dualla and, to a lesser extent, D’Anna, and how two such strong women decided to pretty much end it all there on a destroyed planet, in What Happens to a Dream Obliterated? posted at Ms. Smarty Pants Know It All.

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of so say we all using our carnival submission form. Past and future editions can be found on our blog carnival index page.

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Big Love: Things sure looked like they were all gonna fall apart there

January 19th, 2009 | by | big love

Jan
19

I hadn’t realized how much I’d missed the Hendricksons/Grants/Heffmans until the Big Love season premiere aired tonight.

They have got to be the most dysfunctional family this side of The Simpsons. More so, even.

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As usual, Nicki is keeping tons of secrets from her families. I have to say, though, she just always looks so guilty about everything; I don’t understand why anyone ever believes a single word she says. Seriously – can anyone remember a single time when she told the truth?

That said, her rooftop declaration was, for a change, brave and selfless (though still dishonest, but for a good reason for a change). Chloe Sevigny is truly a fabulous actress. I’ve never seen a character I so intensely disliked who managed to worm her way into my heart in almost every single episode. Before, of course, she totally ticks me off again.

And while I feel badly for Barb, facing another cancer scare, I’m tired of her feeling sorry for herself. I mean, at least she is trying to take matters into her own hands by bringing Ana into the family, but she’s still playing the, “I want to have a say in my family” victim card.

Look, Barb, you’ve had the chance, more than once, to leave this family. You haven’t taken it. Sure, you love your husband. And you have a love, of sorts, for Nicki and Margie. But you only have part of a husband. And you have two wives. I mean, my husband could tell you that’s just not fair.

As for Margie, she’s basically insane. I mean, let’s face it. She wants a fourth wife in the family so she can have more responsibility. She is no longer the naif. She is as calculating as Nicki is, in her own way. She’s the public face of the company to the gambling interests; she’s been dating Ana along with Bill, for all intents and purposes. And if she can get Ana in the family, she’ll no longer be the newbie.

And Bill? I realized tonight that he just ticks me off. All this preaching about what is holy about the afterlife and all that, it’s really all about him and his needs. Granted, his wives have a lot more freedom than the wives on the compound. A LOT more. But does he not see the toll this is taking on his children? And does he not see history repeating himself with Frankie being kicked out of the compound?

OK, obviously he does. And he’s been conflicted in the past. But I can’t help but feel it all is about what he wants and his hormones. I just somehow got really pissed off last night.

And poor Ana. I got kind of mad at Margie last night when she was basically telling Ana that she’s a loser and being a sister wife is her destiny and the fulfilment of her life. Ana’s got some serious self-esteem issues if she believes that one.

The only person I still hold out hope for is Sarah. She does need to get out of Utah, and far away from her family. She knows this is all wrong, and it’s killing her to see her family fall deeper and deeper into the life.

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Play along with Jack: 24 Bingo

January 19th, 2009 | by | 24, blog carnival

Jan
19

I might have to try this tonight.

Each time one of the actions happens or statements is made, you mark it with a daub. Get a horizontal, vertical or diagonal line of daubs? Bingo!

Actions include:
• A digital picture is ‘enhanced.’
• Someone breaks into a supposedly secure facility.
• Ouch! Torture! Jack brings the hurt.
• Ouch! Torture! Jack receives the hurt.

Statements include:
• Dammit!
• You have got to trust me.
• We don’t have that kind of time.
• There are thousands of lives at stake.

Before you click the last square to get a bingo, make sure you have the volume turned up on your computer – Jack has a message for you (the message changes each time).

Finish long before the hour’s up? No worries. Just refresh your browser or hit “new card” and you get another bingo card with different actions and quotes.

By the by – the Carnival of Bauer!!! will be hosted by none other than yours truly on Thursday. Submit your entries by clicking here.

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Battlestar Galactica: What is Starbuck?

January 18th, 2009 | by | battlestar galactica

Jan
18

The thing that has kept running through my brain since Friday night is this: What the frak is Starbuck?

It would seem she’s not a Cylon. We know the final Cylon is Ellen Tigh. Don’t we? (Questions – was Ellen resurrected somewhere before the resurrection hub was destroyed? Is there another resurrection hub somewhere for the Earth Cylons? Did Brother Cavil know she and/or Saul were Cylons?)

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But we know that there’s a dead Starbuck on Earth. She did crash-land there and die. Her dogtags, her wedding band, her ship. All were there. And we know that she’s the harbinger of death. But what does that even mean????

Leoben seemed to think she was the final Cylon until they saw her dogtags. Then he seemed so uncertain about everything. I found that a bit puzzling, because the dogtags would initially have seemed to confirm it to him. Until she mentioned what the hybrid had told her.

Then, Leoben couldn’t get far enough away from her. But the Leobens have always known something about Starbuck and her destiny. They just didn’t know what they knew.

The only thing I can think of is something that makes no sense chronologically, but I’ve believed from the moment I saw the Razor telemovie.

Remember the scene where Husker’s in the creepy Cylon building with all the human parts in tanks, just before he finds out an armistice has been signed?

Some people are trapped in a room and he can’t quite get the door open. One of those trapped in there is a young girl with blonde hair.

I’ve been convinced ever since that she was Starbuck.

Now, the Cylon Wars were 40 years ago, and Kara Thrace isn’t 40.

But what if she’s some sort of hybrid who ages differently? Obviously, the Cylons were creating hybrids there. Perhaps she’s the missing link, of a sort. I’m not sure which link, even, because we don’t know how the Earth Cylons fit into all this yet.

But we know that Hera and Nicholas (Tyrol’s son) are hybrids. But they’re different kinds of hybrids, as Tyrol is an Earth Cylon and Sharon’s a New Cylon. What does that even mean? I don’t know.

The theme of the show is and has always been, “All this has happened before and all of it will happen again.” The Cylons and humans obviously intermingled (intermarried?) on Kobol. The Earth Cylons had some sort of Civil War that culminated in the destruction of the planet and the race – which might happen again with the Cavil v. Six war among the New Cylons.

Did Starbuck die on Earth before or after they made the jump there? Why was her distress call not even activated until four of the final five were uncovered?

Who, or what, is Starbuck? Is she alive? Is she dead? Is she a hybrid? Is she a hallucination? Will the final episode end with her taking a shower, telling Zack Adama she had the weirdest dream last night?

OK, I’m obviously joking with the last one there, but I’m really intrigued, and curious to find out the rest of this story.

Nine more weeks to go.

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Battlestar Galactica: My jaw dropped *twice*

January 16th, 2009 | by | battlestar galactica

Jan
16

I’m not going to post a full review just right yet; so much happened tonight that I must let it all seep in.

But despite the fact that we shouldn’t have had to wait this long, tonight’s episode was more than worth the wait.

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Hey! You haven’t watched yet? Then don’t read any further, OK? NO FURTHER. I cannot be held responsible for spoiling anything if you do.

First time my jaw dropped. Dualla’s suicide.

She’d finally had enough. She always loved Lee and couldn’t really go on without him. Despite their “date,” she knew he would always go back to Kara and wasn’t going to go through that again. So she had her perfect night with her perfect knight and ended it all there.

Never saw it coming.

The second jaw-drop: Ellen Tigh? Really?

I know her name came up from time to time in theories of the final Cylon, but I never gave that any credence, and I don’t think anyone else ever really truly did, either.

Until Dualla killed herself, I wondered about her again. And when Starbuck found her dead self, I really truly wondered if it was going to be just that obvious.

Nope. Ellen Tigh.

When Saul finally remembers his past on Earth, he watches his beloved Ellen die the first time. But it will all be OK – they will be reborn, together.

Does that mean Ellen may still actually be reborn? If so, does that mean she might actually be able to broker a peace between the warring Cylon factions, given her “relationship” with Brother Cavil?

OK. It’s very cold and I really must sleep. But I will be back at some point tomorrow to discuss all the other issues that came up tonight, and there were many.

I am not in the slightest bit disappointed with tonight’s return; I only regret there are just 9 episodes left

So Say We All: The Battlestar Galactica Blog Carnival will post here on Tuesday. If you’d like to participate in the carnival, please submit your article here.

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Battlestar Galactica returns tonight

January 16th, 2009 | by | battlestar galactica

Jan
16

In honor of this long-awaited event, I thought I’d discuss the “10 things you need to know about Battlestar Galactica” that Moore & Eick detailed in a half-hour special this week on SciFi.

1. The fate of the human race is in jeopardy.

This is the central underlying theme of BSG. It colors all their interactions with the Cylons and, maybe, makes their extreme actions sometimes more bearable. If you’re fighting for your very existence, you get a little more leeway, no? I.E., airlocking Leoben in Season 1 or, in the pilot, leaving behind all the colonial ships that didn’t have FTL. Sacrifice many to save at least a few.

But they are determined not to lose their humanity in the process – thus the actions of the folks on the Atlantis (sorry, brain cramp, Pegasus, of course) seemed beyond the pale to those on the Galactica. Only when we watched Razor did we realize that the Atlantians Pegasus crew felt even more than the Galactica fleet that they were alone in the universe. Without having a civilian fleet to protect from the start, the Atlantis (hey, at least I was consistent) and its crew felt extraordinarily isolated, in ways those on the Galactica actually can’t begin to imagine.

2. Admiral Adama leads the colonists in a search for Earth.

Look, whatever they were going to change from the original series, they weren’t gonna change this. What I like about the new Bill Adama is (besides the fact that he has a first name) that he’s flawed. In the original, he never did anything wrong. Sometimes the civilians didn’t listen to him, but we the viewer always knew that every decision he made was correct.

Bill Adama is human and makes mistakes.

3. The Galactica crew is a family.

Just like a family, they may fight like the dickens with each other, but when faced with an outside threat – Cylons or Adm. Cain and her crew – they rally together. You may make fun of your parents or siblings or cousins, but if someone else tries to say something nasty about them? They’d better run.

4. Cylons look like us now.

I do wish, however, that we had more time with the Centurions. I found it fascinating that they’re capable of the same kind of advanced thought and consciousness as the skinjobs, but the skinjobs had just suppressed it.

I’m very curious about all that, and how the Centurions really spend their days.

5. The president is dying.

I’ll admit it, for a while I figured they’d never kill her. And when she was “cured” by Hera’s blood, I was all, “aha!!!!” But  it looks like she’s a goner for sure. I mean, she’s really sick.

6. There are Cylons within the Galactica crew.

At first, no one knew they were in the crew; the revelation that Boomer was a Cylon was devastating, and then there was that PR guy, Brother Cavil and suicide bomber Leoben.

But now? We have the Athena Sharon as a full-fledged crew warrior and the Sixes, D’Annas, Sharons and Leobens working with the fleet, even going to Earth with them.

7. Starbuck has a destiny.

I guess Kara’s mom was right about something. But wtf is it already?!?!?!??!?!?!

8. A civil war has split the Cylons.

The Cylons are far more human than we ever imagined.

9. Enemies have become allies.

The enemy of mine enemy is my friend. Even when my friend is my enemy. Hell, if these Cylons are willing to give up the ability to resurrect, they’re pretty serious about cooperating.

10. They found Earth.

Wasn’t exactly what they expected. So what now?

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We may finally get more Jericho!?!

January 16th, 2009 | by | jericho

Jan
16

A Jericho-fan friend e-mailed me yesterday with the great news — a Jericho feature film is in development by Jon Turtletaub’s production company, according to an interview with Turtletaub in iF Magazine..

Turtletaub, of course, was an executive producer/director on our favorite post-apocalyptic wrongly canceled TV show.

That means we might see these gentlemen together again, but this time on the big screen:

2007 Summer TCA Tour - Day 10

I’d pay $12 for that.

He said the cast would definitely return for it if it gets the big green light, and whatever the budget was, it would be bigger than the show had, so they could do wonders with it. Turtletaub told iF:

It would not require you to have seen the TV show, but it get into life after an event like this on a national scale. It would be the bigger, full on American version of what’s going on beyond the town in Jericho.

Sounds fan-frakkin’-tastic.

Re-runs are being shown on The CW on Sunday nights these days, and Turtletaub pointed out that those airings get more viewers than Mad Men, the critically acclaimed AMC show. He says that not to take away from Mad Men, which he called “brilliant,” but rather to point out the difference in expectations for ratings between cable and broadcast.

Turtletaub has a new horror/mystery series, Harper’s Island, which is set to premiere April 9 on CBS. It’s described thusly:

Scream meets 10 Little Indians. The central plot is a murder mystery. Friends and family attending a wedding celebration on a secluded island off the coast of Seattle begin dying one by one. The island was the scene of a famous murder 7 years prior.

I just might watch that, too. It’s different, at least. And Turtletaub’s work on Jericho earned some loyalty from me, even if CBS hasn’t.

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Kyle XY: Attack of the SuperTeens

January 16th, 2009 | by | kyle xy

Jan
16

This week’s premiere (which had lower ratings than Season 1 or Season 2) had everything that was missing from Season 2 (the second half in particular).

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As completely insane as Jessi is, she was completely right – and utterly badass. When she was holding that nameless security suit guy up in the air by his neck, interrogating him, she did Jack Bauer proud.

We haven’t seen Kyle do this much with his powers, really, since Season 1. We saw him test various abilities at points last season. But anyone else remember that Season 1 ep where he hopped off the roof at the Walker’s after he fixed the satellite connection?

He was always trying new things, just to see what he could do, and in part because he didn’t know he wasn’t supposed to do these things.

When he jumped off the Latnok roof? Rock ‘n’ roll.

And, of course, that Eurotrash Latnok guy (“Cassidy”? Really?) wasn’t being honest when he told Kyle that they just really think he’s peachy keen and want to help him achieve his potential, blah, blah, blah. I wasn’t the slightest bit surprised that Lori’s new boycrush was in on the Latnok thing. The “Previously on…” at the episode’s start telegraphed it.

That means, naturally, that Lori will get her heart torn out and smashed into little teensy tiny pieces. Again. I do wish, however, that Lori and Declan would just admit their love to one another again and drop the drama already. After a while, it gets a little silly.

Andi/Josh? Cute as buttons. Devirginated buttons, but buttons nonetheless.

Sarah? Tell me you didn’t know she was gonna split on Jessi when our favorite crazy girl had to run off to save Kyle (thanks for that, by the way!).

Kyle/Amanda, as usual make me both want to puke and say “awwwwwww” at the same time. Amanda’s mom? Bat-guano crazy as ever, though she finally seems to be warming to Kyle in her own way.

It’s no secret to anyone who knows me that I thought the second half of last season was rather … lacking.

This season’s premiere was very promising and if they keep the superhero/sci-fi aspects heavy in the episodes to come (and it looks as if they will), we should find ourselves with a pretty damn good little show on our hands again.

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