My DVR most likely hates me. It does its duty, and does it well, but I just keep adding more and more shows to it. I wouldn’t be surprized if it slides itself off the television one night and strangles me in my sleep.

JJ Abrams can do just about anything and I will tune in with fangirly glee. I am that easy. I do, however, have the sense to expect a big pile of crap along with my glee. No point in having wild expectations, only to have them dashed against The Rock.

Three episodes of Alcatraz have aired so far, and I am finding it pretty entertaining. We have a secret lair (which is mighty inconvenient with all that water surrounding it, if you ask me), some kind of selective time traveling, Hurley being the smart one, Sam Neill just being awesome by being Sam Neill, and for all of you out there who miss Lost, some potential numbers shenanigans. Personally, I don’t think the numbers mean anything this go around, but I thought Fringe was just gonna be a X-Files rehash, so what do I know?

Looks as though each episode will be the appearance of one of the inmates , and our heroes tracking them down. The first two reappeared inmates seemed to have some sort of directive to get something done. Sylvane got a big-ass key from some poor guy, and Cobb shot whatsherface (what? I don’t know names yet!) totally on purpose. This last guy, while insanely CREE-PEE, didn’t seem to have a job to do, and he ended up dead, dead, dead. I wonder how many people thought, like I did, that when they brought that dead guy back to NewAlcatraz, and handed him over to the apparently perpetual Alcatraz doc, that there would be a shot to the neck or something, and the guy would be brought back to life. Anyone? Just me?

Much like Fringe in its early days, Alcatraz seems to be only okay with the MOW stories, but really interesting with the set up of its mythology. I love this kind of storytelling, and I hope that the audience has the patience for us to get to know these characters and find out what the hell is going on.

I love New York City. I lived in Brooklyn for 12 years and I miss the damn place on a regular basis.

I adore Kiefer. I own all eight seasons of 24 (including the TV movie, ‘Redemption’). I even sorta, kind of stalked the man not once, but twice on the streets of NYC.

So Fox, a network I keep wanting to hate, handed me me a shiny new show that not only takes place in my beloved city, but stars a lovely and awesome (as usual) Kiefer. Touch.

Now this show made me nervous. I want to laud anything Kiefer is in, but this sucker is from Tim Kring who gave us Heroes, which started out as a fantastic show, and devolved into one hot mess.  The man has great ideas, but seems to have trouble following through.

As far as I’m concerned, so far so good. Was the twisty, turny-ness a little convoluted? Yup. Do I care? Nope. Give me something fantastical to believe in and I will happily jump on board. I was worried that this was gonna be an hour of SadDadKiefer, but there were some nice, light moments, and Kiefer had plenty of edge to keep the character from falling over into self-indulgent woes-is-me’s. And the moment at the end, in the rain, on the cel tower? I teared right up. Well played, sirs!

I liked Touch, and am excited to see if they can pull this off week to week. Unfortunately, we’re gonna have to wait until March(!!) to get our next taste. But you know me, I will sit patiently for another dose of Kiefer-ness.

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By Stu Robinson,

FOX has canceled the action drama Human Target after two seasons.

The show featured square-jawed Mark Valley – brilliant in Keen Eddie, an earlier victim of FOX’s chopping block – as an assassin reformed by his own conscience. Using the name Christopher Chance, he partnered with ex-cop Laverne Winston (Chi McBride) and quietly creepy freelancer Guerrero (Jackie Earle Haley) to protect clients by placing himself in the line of fire.

The show’s creators tried to boost ratings in Season 2 with a double dose of estrogen, casting Indira Varma as wealthy, widowed philanthropist Ilsa Pucci – who ends up bankrolling the business – and Janet Montgomery as a nubile young thief and conwoman named Ames.

The Ames character worked, providing additional plot options and a dose of humor. But the Pucci character never really fit: She didn’t mesh with the other characters, the subplot about her husband’s murder became a tedious soap opera and attempts to ignite romance between her and Chance were implausible at best.

I share the view of Entertainment Weekly critic Sandra Gonzalez that the Guerrero character deserved to live on:

“Much of the credit for turning that character into a fan favorite is owed to Jackie Earle Haley, whose unique combination of dry humor and pure badassery made Guerrero eclipse other characters without even trying. In fact, I’d pluck the character out of the Human Target universe and plop him into any show I currently watch just for a chance to enjoy him again every week.”

As for Valley, he deserves a hit show and might have had one had FOX given Keen Eddie more time. In that 2003 show, he played an American cop working with police in England and sharing a tension-filled flat with Sienna Miller. Perhaps there is still hope for Valley. After all, the CBS hit Hawaii Five-0 was Alex O’Loughlin’s third attempt at carrying a show.

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For years, January was the Best.Month.Ever., television wise. After months of being deprived of my favorite shows, the inevitable post-holiday dreariness, and another two months or more of winter to endure, January brought me back to that mysterious island on Lost, and the high-intensity crack of 24. What is a TV obsessed gal to do this year, now that both of those shows have finished their runs? Instead of being sad and grumpy, I have found some joy in the mid-season television schedule.

Parks and Recreation – I am still at a loss as to why NBC put this show on the shelf for the first half of the season and insisted on cramming the unfunny Outsourced down our throats instead (I actually do know why, but it’s still annoying). P&R got all kinds of awesome last year, and the end of the season brought us some great twists with the addition of Rob Lowe and Adam Scott to the ensemble. Amy Poehler is reliably great, and Nick Offerman as Ron Swanson is possibly the best reason to keep tuning in. I hate singling out people on ensemble shows like this, because every one of  them adds another fantastic layer, making it my easy replacement for the now limping The Office.

V – It’s not like I was waiting with bated lizard breath for this show to return. The first effort was a pale shadow of the original V series and mini-series, but I am a sucker for sci-fi, so I went into the first episode of this new season hopeful, but not expecting a thing. They did amp up the reveals (finally, a glimpse at the lizard face!), had some more action and evil-ness from the queen lizard Anna, and put their special effects budget to good use. But, the writing is still terrible (I feel sorry for some of the clunkers the actors have to deliver), and it looks like we will have to endure even more of Erica’s dolt of a son, Tyler. If I had an inkling to bail on this show, it was squashed by the addition of Sam from Reaper (Bret Harrison), who I think is wonderful, and I hope they don’t kill him off too soon.

Southland - I don’t watch this show (so I’m not gonna bother finding a pic), but it is regularly hailed as one of the best cop shows out there, and the people I know who do watch it, love the crap out of it. I only mention it because it was dead as a doornail after it’s first season on NBC, and was resurrected by TNT in what I think is a true TV miracle. This is the beginning of season three, and if you’re a fan, enjoy the sweet taste of victory!

Fringe - I know, I know, not a mid-seasoner, but every second this show is not around, I miss it. Fox had been unusually kind to us with this show, until now. Even with the steady ratings slide, they blessed us with a third season, and then they pulled the rug out from under us and moved it to Friday’s. I fear that this may be the last season, and it’s a shame, as this season has been freakin’ outstanding!!

The Amazing Race & Survivor - I am no longer in the reality show closet. I like what I like, and I am not ashamed. Competitive reality shows are one of my weaknesses (along with sci-fi and post-apocalyptic shows), and these two are tops as far as I’m concerned. They will both be back in February for new seasons, and I couldn’t be more thrilled.

There are a few others that have me vaguely interested like Game of Thrones on HBO, and The Cape on NBC. The return of Big Love should be more exciting, but I’m not interested enough to write about it. You can bet my DVR will be storing these shows up to try out when it’s too snowy and cold to do anything else.

PS! OMG!! Have you seen this?? June is a very, very long time from now.

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By Stu Robinson,

Six episodes in to Season 2 of FOX’s Human Target, it’s time to check in on how the big estrogen experiment is going.

The show centers on bodyguard Christopher Chance (Mark Valley from Keen Eddie and Boston Legal) and his support team comprising ex-cop Laverne Winston (Chi McBride) and quietly creepy freelancer Guerrero (Jackie Earle Haley).

In its first season, Human Target demonstrated potential but looked to be in need of some time and tweaking tofind its stride. The biggest tweak for Season 2 was the addition of two female regulars: wealthy, widowed philanthropist Ilsa Pucci (Indira Varma), who takes over the business side of the operation; and nubile grifter Ames (Janet Montgomery), a trainee operative.

Ames is a hit. Not just easy on the eyes, she adds some comic relief that lightens the show. Her foils are Winston and Guerrero, two men very set in their ways. Ames chips away at their facades and drags them out of their comfort zones, forcing each to reveal a bit more than he’d like.

That said, the writers need to be careful here, particularly in regard to Guerrero. The key to Guerrero is his quiet malevolence – that fact that nobody really knows what he’s capable of, causing everyone to assume the worst. He needs to maintain the almost cartoon quality of being perfectly comfortable with whatever dirty deed must be done. It’s okay to give him some range, but be wary of humanizing him so much that he loses his edge.

Mrs. Pucci’s patronage enables the team to go wherever it must, armed with the latest technology. But she’s not really a team player. She may hold the purse strings, but she is vexed by her inability to control the rest of the cast. Whenever a scenario spreads outside her comfort zone – which is pretty much every week – she takes on a haughty, petulant tone that really grates.

When I first read about the Ilsa Pucci character, I imagined an absentee owner who wouldn’t be so absent – hence the dramatic tension. But I didn’t expect her to take up residence as the world’s classiest office manger. The fish out of water theme goes only so far. After six episodes, Mrs. Pucci is not fitting in.

The six Season 2 episodes that have aired so far have been a varied lot. While four have seen characters confronting aspects of their pasts, they have gone in different directions. Settings have ranged from the grittier parts of San Francisco, where the team is based, to a South American drug-trafficking zone to corporate suburbia.

The plots are engaging, and usually give the viewer an opportunity to determine the threat on his or her own. The guest stars, mostly journeymen actors who look vaguely familiar, have been solid.

As Human Target enters the second half of its second season, I’m still aboard. We’ll just have to see where this crazy train takes us.

###

Stu Robinson, a college friend of the TV Tyrant, is a writer, editor, media-relations practitioner and social-media guy based in Phoenix.

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By Stu Robinson

Human Target returned to FOX last week, launching its second season with a double dose of estrogen.

This comes as no great surprise. In Season 1, Human Target demonstrated potential but looked to be in need of some time and tweaking to find its stride.

For the uninitiated, the show features square-jawed Mark Valley – brilliant in FOX’s late, lamented Keen Eddie but horribly miscast in ABC’s Boston Legal – as an assassin reformed by his own conscience. Using the name Christopher Chance, he partners with ex-cop Laverne Winston (Chi McBride) and quietly creepy freelancer Guerrero (Jackie Earle Haley) to protect clients by placing himself in the line of fire. He usually does this with abandon, perhaps freed by the belief that he deserves to die anyway for his past.

Appropriate for a character born in comic books, Chance is drawn in bold strokes – an action hero from central casting who springs into action on behalf of justice and all that is good. Winston is the imposed-upon sidekick who manages the office and provides backup in the field. Guerrero, meanwhile, is the guy they bring in for special tasks – intelligence, technology, torture. The quieter he gets, the scarier he becomes.

The creators of Human Target were so eager to move in a new direction that they resolved last season’s cliffhanger in one scene – a bank shootout – after which Chance disappears. Guerrero tells Winston that Chance had become too attached and blamed himself for Winston being taken captive in Season 1′s final episode.

Cut to an ashram in the Himalayas, where Chance is in deep meditation until billionaire philanthropist Ilsa Pucci (Indira Varma) arrives by helicopter and convinces him to return to work – and to his colleagues in San Francisco.

This isn’t the first time the writers have tried pumping some estrogen into the cast. They added a woman to the team midway through the first season, but sexy computer geek Layla, played by Autumn Reeser, disappeared after a couple of episodes. Perhaps Reeser was too busy playing agent Lizzie Grant on Entourage.

The result of the Season 2 premiere : After being saved by the Human Target team, Ilsa decides to bankroll Chance and Winston’s protection business. Of course, she tells them she’ll be a hands-off, mostly absentee owner. Yeah, right. We’ll see about that.

In the process of saving Ilsa, the guys capture and eventually employ a nubile young thief and conwoman named Ames, played by Janet Montgomery coming off her own eight-episode run on Entourage. (Hey, if you want to cast actresses, there are worse places to look than the Entourage set.) Winston had arrested Ames numerous times as a juvenile and basically thinks she’s incorrigible. But Chance and Guerrero see potential in her and let her tag along.

The next episode set up some of the interpersonal dynamics going forward. Ilsa will challenge Chance on the moral implications of their work while bedeviling Winston in matters around the office. Meanwhile, Guerrero and Ames will provide comic relief as he tries to mentor his precocious protege. (Think Yoda and Luke Skywalker, but with Yoda cranky and malevolent and Luke replaced by a hot chick.)

Expect that Chance’s past will continue to intrude upon his present. In Wednesday’s episode, he finds himself protecting the widow of a man he killed seven years earlier.

So buckle your seatbelts. Human Target may be a low-key action series, if there is such a thing, but the show seems to be embarking upon Season 2 with a fresh burst of energy.

###

Stu Robinson, a college friend of the TV Tyrant, is a writer, editor, media-relations practitioner and social-media guy based in Phoenix.

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So, I wasn’t gonna write about 24 this week. Not because of anything with the show, but because I have been cranky, distracted and have got a to-do list a mile long before I move next week. But you what? 24 is almost over, and how many chances will I get to write about one of my favorite all time shows? So here we go with hour 10am – 11am.

I hate to nitpick the show, but those helicopters got in the air and caught up to Jack pretty fast, eh? I do love how Jack steals a heli just to fly over the river and land on a building in Manhattan. Shortest.hijack.ever.

I was worried that Chloe being in charge would put a wedge between her and Jack, and I am fairly desperate to see that friendship continue, seeing that Jack has almost no one to trust anymore. I was sure, for drama’s sake, they would have Jack be betrayed by her. Thank goodness they played it like they did, with Jack being wise to the trap, and not blaming her for doing her job.

Chloe is doing her job well, even though she still used a little of her tech-fu to get the location of the actual safehouse off of DB Sweeney’s phone so Cole had the info for later. (Hi DB!! I see playing an evil head of a private security firm on Jericho has stuck with you, even though on 24 you had a mustache instead of a goatee).

So Jack does what he does best, takes down a bunch of highly trained agents, and easily convinces Cole to go with him to expose the Russians and get Dana and whatever. Good. I wanted this whole season to be Jack and Cole together, a la Jack and Chase in the virus season. I will take them together for the last few hours.

The most unusual thing for me this episode, is my interest in what was going on with the Presidents Taylor and Logan. For me, the White House portion of the show has always been the weakest and/or most annoying bits. But put together Cherry Jones and Greg Itzin, and we get TV gold. Logan is one of the best characters ever on this show, and to have him back to his evilly goodness, and bending and warping a President who has such strong convictions is great fun to watch. Totally tragic to see it happen to her, and it is gonna get messy, and we may have lost our lovely and awesome Ethan in the process, but I can’t wait to see what they do with all of it. Cherry is totally earning that Emmy she won last year.

Michael Madsen showed up this week, perfectly cast too, as a shady, old friend of Jack. I am guessing he won’t be the last of the fun guest casting for the last few episodes.

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Up until a few years ago, I would have never considered myself a Madonna fan. That is until one day when I was going through my CD collection, and I realized I owned almost every Madonna CD that existed at that point - including the soundtrack to “Dick Tracy”. So, as you can imagine, I really enjoyed this episode.

I am generally wary of shows that are running high on the hype, and we ‘gleeks’ have been salivating over the Madonna episode from the second we found out about it. It totally lived up to the billing.

This was an episode where Jane Lynch got to shine, and we get the story of her Nazi hunter, absentee parents as the instigator of why she hates Will’s hair. A story so completely ridiculous that is told with such a straight face, you almost believe it. Either way, those jokes are one of my favorite running gags of the show, and the addition of stilts to the cheerios was hilarious.

I loved how ‘Like A Virgin’ was used, which was funny and touching. Using the empowerment of women as the focus of all the story lines was a fantastic way of making Madonna relevant to the show and the glee club.

Right now glee is in that wonderfully giddy spot, a hit show in it’s first, glorious year. With some of my favorite shows ending this season, it makes me nostalgic for the excitement I felt that first season of Lost; the anticipation for each new episode of 24 back on that first horrible day for Jack Bauer. It’s nice to have a shiny new show to be all goofy about again.

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Listen, I hear all of you, I do, retread, recycled, done to death, here we go again… but you know what, I still like it. I just can’t help myself. Jack goes off all cocksure and angry, it just gets me every.single.time.

So, along with the expected move of Jack stealing the helicopter (from his biggest fan, no less!), we got one of my favorite pairings in the history of 24. Cherry Jones and Gregory Itzin ruled every moment of their scenes together, and mad props to Bob Gunton for holding his own as the’ Good’ shoulder angel. It was interesting to see a character as idealistic as President Taylor be vulnerable to the brilliant smarmy-ness of President Logan. It was delicious to watch.

I know this may make me a bad person, but watching Jack smack Dana around was satisfying, as I wanted to do that to her for most of the season. Also, not only was she a bad spy, but she sucks at holding immunity too. Everyone gets immunity on this show! Poor, dumb, Dana.

While I was excited that Chloe was given temporary rein of CTU, I did wonder if her and her personality disorder could handle it. I thought she jumped right in and did great. I just hope it doesn’t end in another one of Jack’s BFFs having to break up with him.

All in all, even with a rickety Russian conspiracy plot bolstering the story, I am excited for the last few episodes… ever!

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Oh, glee, how I love you. Why did you stay away for so long?

I take no shame in my unabashed love for this show. From the very first moment of the pilot, I was enthralled, and my love grew and grew, right up to the big sectionals episode. Then, in their infinite wisdom, Fox took glee away from the adoring throngs, and made us wait. A not uncommon move by a network these days, but annoying nonetheless.

Anyhoo, as much as I love, I was fully prepared to not be thrilled with the returning episode. I knew it would be a huge set-up episode for the rest of the season and the road to regionals, and those kind of episodes have a way of being disappointing somehow.

But no! I was mostly wrong. Jane Lynch’s Sue Sylvester was awesomely horrible, Mr. Shue was adorable and didn’t sing any stupid rap mash-ups (thank god), Rachel was her usual self centered self, Finn was a perfect representation of the clueless teen boy (and still perfectly cute), and we got to see into the shallow and hilariously empty minds of Brit and Santana (“Did you know dolphins are just gay sharks?”). With the exception of having to hear “Hello, Again” at all, I enjoyed all of it.

Also, we got the wonderful addition of Broadway lovlies Idina Menzel and Jonathan Groff as potential villian members of Vocal Adrenaline, the main competition to our New Direction glee-ers. Fun!

If you haven’t seen the glorious Sue Sylvester version of Madonna’s “Vogue”, get on that right now, because next week? Madonna week!!

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