I heart Callum Keith Rennie

June 29th, 2009 | by | battlestar galactica, callum keith rennie, harper's island

Jun
29

I first “met” this actor in Battlestar Galactica, in the pilot episode.

He played Leoben Conoy, trapped with Cmdr. Adama until he’s found out to be a Cylon and killed by the commander’s hand, in the pilot miniseries.

TIFF 2007 Portrait Session For Normal

We saw him again, now and then, over the course of the first couple of seasons, but really got to know him in Season 3, when he kept Kara captive in an apartment designed to look like hers back on Caprica. She kills him over and over and over again, and he just is reborn and goes back to her – with full knowledge of her murder of him.

By Season 4, he was full fledged crazy, but cool, convinced Kara was the answer to the question of life the universe and everything – and the question wasn’t “What is six times nine?”

I’d never seen Rennie before, but then I saw him again in one of the few almost decent episodes of the Bionic Woman remake. He was in an episode of Supernatural, which I just caught up on over the fall. He’s been in this, that and the other thing.

Then, just two weekends ago, he shows up in the very last minute of Harper’s Island, playing the really bad John Wakefield. He did it so well that I didn’t even recognize him until my husband pointed it out, as we were watching “The X-Files: I Want to Believe.”

I was stunned at how crappy this film was. And that Rennie was playing some menacing guy with a bad Russian accent.

Oh, Callum, how could you do this to me?

OK, it’s not your fault, really. I’m sure you agreed to do the film before you realized how awful it would be and then just didn’t want to go back on your word. Right?

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Catching up: Reaper, Kings, Harper’s Island

June 21st, 2009 | by | harper's island, kings, ray wise, reaper

Jun
21

I’ve fallen rather behind both in my television viewing and in my blogging, so I thought I’d catch up with a few things today, seeing as I don’t have access to HBO this weekend and can’t watch True Blood until tomorrow, at the earliest.

tvs

First up: Reaper.

I did so love this show.

I’ve said about 8 gazillion times how perfectly cast Ray Wise was as Satan, so I’ll try to keep that to a minimum today.

But I absolutely am going to miss seeing him with those piercing blue eyes, impeccably combed hair and blinding white smile, making mischief in people’s lives now that Reaper‘s off the air.

Like most of the shows I watch these days, I caught up with most of Season 2 in marathon viewings on my DVR. Over three, maybe four nights, I watched the entire season and enjoyed it as much as ever.

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Harper’s Island

April 20th, 2009 | by | harper's island

Apr
20

I was predisposed to liking Harper’s Island for a variety of reasons.

First, it was a good murder mystery in the vein of the finest Agatha Christie.

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Second, it was being exec produced by Jon Turteltaub, who was part of the team that brought us Jericho. Dan Shotz and Karim Zreik are co-exec producers – two names also known to every true fan of Jericho. Add to that a score by David Lawrence – he also scored … Jericho – and all that’s missing is Skeet. And Sprague, but she’s busy on 24 right now.

Whatever the case, I caught up with the first two episodes on Sunday and I was very pleased.

It’s creepy, it’s funny, it’s surprising. Absolutely everyone is a suspect until he or she dies, and they’ve thrown in a little supernatural bit with that little girl who seems to be communing with the dead.

Similar to Jericho, you have the prodigal daughter returning home after a self-imposed exile and the old friends who are thrilled to see her return.

I honestly can’t imagine how this could go past one season, but if anyone can figure it out, it’s this crew.

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