TV Tyrant

24: The President Smarm vortex

April 29th, 2010 | by | 24, fox, jack bauer, jericho, tv shows

Apr
29

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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Boycotting the Emmys

September 20th, 2009 | by | 30 rock, battlestar galactica, bored to death, curb your enthusiasm, emmys, fringe, hbo, intervention, jericho, kings, the wire

Sep
20

I went back and forth on whether I’d live-blog the Emmys tonight, mainly because, after all, this is a TV blog.

But then I thought about it.

Picture 1

Where’s Battlestar Galactica? Kings? Did Jericho ever get any love?

Sure, critical darlings 30 Rock and The Office, though relatively low-rated (compared with the CSI juggernaut, anyway) get lots of Emmy love – as they well should. But most of the best shows on television rarely get any attention from the academy, unless they’re on HBO. And even there, The Wire never got recognition and it was, bar none, the best show on television during its run.

And if nothing else, this blog is about quality television (OK, and sometimes Charles in Charge, but I was young, sue me). And the Emmy broadcast itself is not quality television. How does the Oscar ceremony win a freakin’ Emmy every year? (Though I have to admit, choosing Intervention for Best Reality Series is a teensy bit redemptive.)

So tonight, I’ll be watching the Curb Your Enthusiasm season premiere and the series premiere of Bored to Death. We’ll probably catch up with the season premiere of Fringe, which I was waiting for my husband’s return to watch.

The Emmys? I’ll probably glance on Twitter every now and again. Or maybe I’ll just wait ’til morning.

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Jericho, the show that wouldn’t die

July 25th, 2009 | by | jericho

Jul
25

UPDATED info at bottom of post

I have a special love for the show Jericho, which was, by the by, my entré into social media.

It was such a great post-apocalyptic drama, which CBS screwed up in scheduling and then canceled at literally the last minute, after the season finale aired. Fans rallied, sent tons of peanuts and created arguably the most active online fandom ever (maybe all the Whedonites combined are larger), in the end convincing CBS to give the show a second chance.

Jericho_recap_season_2

An abbreviated second season was aired, with the full season two storyline condensed into eight episodes with one helluva ending. There. I just got chills thinking about it.

Anyhow, the fans still didn’t give up. They’ve pushed for a season three, a movie, a comic book, anything to continue the story of an America riven in two by traitors with nukes.

So I happily read an e-mail from the Jericho Rangers group on Facebook, sent by Dawn Aker Braddock, who spoke with Gwen (Ratkeeper), who’s at Comic Con in San Diego.

Despite the fact that the show hasn’t been on the air for a year and a half, there was a Jericho Panel, with Dan Shotz, Karim Zreik, Matthew Federman, Stephen Chbosky, Jonathan Steinberg and Lennie James (go Hawkins!). Gwen reported that the room, which can hold more than 400 people, was three-quarters full.

Here’s the meat of the note:

The Producers said the movie is very much alive and that they are looking for the right story line that they can use to finalize the sale of the movie and the comic book is key to that.

There will be 6 issues not 4 and they will be monthly starting in October 2009. The book will be a bound set of the 6 comic books. Karim and Dan spent time with Gwen and her volunteers at the Jericho booth before and after the panel. They even signed some items for fans.

There was a woman from CBS with the group who was amazed at the Jericho fans organization and marketing. Gwen placed Devils Due stickers on the back of the Jericho business cards and DDP was getting large numbers at their booth.

The key to solidifying the movie will be comic book sales and our efforts to reach fans not online who want more Jericho. We will be finalizing Operation Comic Book and it will be launched next week.

Another comment made by Karim and Dan was the ratings for Jericho on the CW were very good, especially for re-runs on a Sunday night. The ratings have been noticed by the CBS executives and that is why the comic book is going forward with more episodes.

Rangers are needed to step into the breach and help raise awareness of the comics and movie, the note went on to say. If you’re a Facebook member and want to keep tabs on the news, you can join the Jericho Rangers group here.

The Rangers need volunteers for at least these following comic conventions: Atlanta, Philly, Chicago, London, Toronto, New York, Dallas, Orlando. Contact Dawn through the Facebook group linked to above if you can help out.

She points out:

Our show was cancelled 16 months ago yet they send the producers, writers and major star to launch the comic book. This is business and that adds up to a larger plan. CBS had a pr person there for the panel and that she, dan and karim stopped by the jericho fan table and signed things. They took the time to stop by the fan booth for Jericho, that is huge in the business.

Here’s a full list of of conventions, including many others beyond those listed above. Dawn wanted to specify that the volunteers would man fan tables. The conventions listed above are the most likely to get anyone from Jericho on panels or for appearances, though even that’s not guaranteed.

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Jericho, the comic book

March 9th, 2009 | by | jericho

Mar
09

The anxiously awaited news about Jericho finally came out today, and it’s pretty much what I expected: A new comic book series based on the show.

Believe it or not, I couldn’t actually find the news on the CBS website, but thanks to my Jericho buddies on Facebook and The Futon Critic, I was able to get the info.

picture-2

Basically, Devil’s Due Publishing will publish a new comic book series that “will pick up where the television program left off.”

That, of course, would be at the start of the Second American Civil War, with Jake & Hawkins convincing Texas to join the right side.

The really amazing thing is that Dan Shotz, Jon Turteltaub, Carol Barbee, Karim Zreik and Jon Steinberg will all be involved in the development of the comic book. How awesome is that?

Said Shotz:

Jericho is alive and well, thanks to the amazing fans who’ve driven us to find new and fresh ways to tell the Jericho story.

And then DDP President Josh Blaylock:

I can’t tell you how cool it is for DDP to be able to continue the Jericho story in comic book form. We plan to give fans the story they’ve been craving. This is going to be epic stuff.

Sounds pretty great to me.

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Jericho update

March 2nd, 2009 | by | jericho

Mar
02

More hope that there could, indeed, be a Jericho movie.

picture-2

IGN reported today that there might indeed be a chance for us to see the Second American Civil War in action.

Karim Zriek and Dan Shotz said they’re definitely in talks/development for a movie about our favorite post-apocalyptic not-so-distant future, but that there will be an announcement VERY soon (maybe this coming week) about “another avenue” they’re going to use to “continue telling the Jericho story.”

My money’s on a comic book/graphic novel, as there’s been lots of chatter about that ever since Jericho was brought back the first time. But I’d be really happy for a movie. I wanna see Skeet (Ulrich) and Lennie (James) back in action, and that’d be awesome on the big screen (or small, if it’s a telemovie).

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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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