Life on Mars Coming to ABC!

One of our favorite BBCA shows is making its way to American audiences this primetime season!

ABC has picked-up David E. Kelley's adaptation of Life on Mars for the 2008 season. It's one of only two new shows greenlighted, the other being a game show put together by Ashton Kutcher.

As mentioned in the review of the original show I did a few years back on what used to be the other half of this fine pixel park, Life on Mars is a great show! BBCA showed the final series (season) this past late summer/early fall and I hate to say I missed most of them. One cool thing is that I often see an ad for a T-shirt on Facebook based on the series, so I knew it had more fans than just myself. Actually, sometime reader and commenter, SueJeff, also enjoyed the show and commented on it somewhere along the way a few times.

While TV shows ported from British hits are hit-and-miss (The Office is doing well; Coupling bombed harder than just about any other!), Life on Mars is a fantastic premise that has cracking dialogue, a hip period set, and is just plain fun. With David Kelley at the helm, you can rest-assured the zingers and snappy banter will fly as quickly as it did in the original.

The flip-side to this is that the original was so good, it's going to have to be incredible not to suffer by comparison. and there has been talk of Kelley abandoning the project!

Definitely a show to look forward to, just keep your everything crossed that it manages to be at least half as good as the original!

© C Harris Lynn, 2008

David Tennant to Leave Dr. Who!

Comedienne, Catherine Tate, who appeared as Dr. Who's assistant in last year's Christmas special and will be his assistant throughout this season's run (along with appearances by former assistant, Martha Jones), said in an interview with Radio 2's Jonathan Ross that this may be David Tennant's last season as the Timelord.

While both the BBC and the actor have refused to comment, when pressed on the issue, Tate said Tennant would "possibly" return, but gave no further details.

If Tennant leaves, this will be the second time in the current run that Dr. Who has changed appearances. Heroes alum, Christopher Eccleston, portrayed the science-fiction icon in the first series/season.

Doctor Who is the longest-running sci-fi series on TV. The series began its run in 1963, under producer, the late Verity Lambert. Doctor Who runs on both BBCA and the Sci-Fi Channel in America. This year's Christmas special will air on BBC1 in the UK on Christmas day.

Torchwood Marathon Today

BBCA has a Torchwood marathon today, showing the last five episodes that have aired. This is all leading up to the season finale next Saturday night.

If you haven't been watching Torchwood, I don't know why the hell not. It is consistently one of the most satisfying sci-fi shows on TV right now, doubly so now that they are starting to establish a real Torchwood-based mythos apart from Doctor Who.

Torchwood is a spin-off of the legendary Doctor Who series, that has incredibly little to do with the parent series, aside from the casual nod. The first several episodes were intensely dark and largely sexual in nature, then Torchwood turned its hand back to more traditional sci-fi roots and lost some of its edge. It is still an excellent series always worth watching and reportedly BBCA's highest-rated show ever.

Brits Win Emmys

You know how much we love our British TV here to The Rundown. We're big on Hex, Little Britain, Father Ted, Life on Mars, Torchwood, and at least 100 others, and we discuss them fairly frequently. Now, we aren't going to take any credit for it, but it seems like we're not alone.

The Brits swept the Emmys this year, with many BBC programs receiving awards, including Little Britain Abroad.

Sadly, December 3^rd marks the premiere of the final season of Life on Mars. That is one of the only gripes I have with BBC: they only make a season or two of some really great shows. About the time you get into them, they are over with!

Tonight's Geek TV!

Sci-Fi is re-airing the second season of the fantastic Eureka starting tonight and while I hate to suggest something else - especially since the second season was so good and Eureka is a great show - I was flipping around to see what all is coming on and I found that tonight's Nova (PBS) is about Samurai swords. It's all about the craftsmanship that goes into making them, as well as those interested in collecting them, etc. Sure, they may be playing on the popularity of Heroes, but it's an interesting topic either way, and most of us probably saw the whole season of Eureka. Of course, Sci-Fi's lead-in is Dead Like Me and nothing else better is on during the 6:00 hour - very little better is ever on, compared to Dead Like Me.

At 8:00 (CST) is the new Reaper over to the CW. I saw the pilot the other night and loved it! It's from Kevin Smith and the pilot was absolutely fantastic! It's silly in just the right way, even though the "best friend" character is your stereotypical Kevin Smith "hipster," and approaches the somewhat flimsy, ridiculous premise earnestly. Not to mention they didn't skimp on the SFX.

I have to give CW that much, in general: no matter the show, they do not eff-around when it comes to the special effects. Charmed went easy on them throughout much of the series, even though the early episodes had some really fantastic SFX work, but they obviously spent the brunt of their budget on getting big-name hotties to appear and that sustained them for nearly 10 years, so whatever's clever. But Smallville, Supernatural, Reaper - these shows pull out the stops when it comes to the special effects! Granted, they are not quite up to the level of anything over to the BBC (Doctor Who, Torchwood, Hex), but I'd submit that they rival most of the stuff we get from the Sci-Fi Channel.

Not to knock Sci-Fi; they have some great SFX work - as well they should, mind you - but but those of the CW are generally just as good. Further, many of Sci-Fi's shows and movies use lesser talent so they can focus their budget on the SFX, where CW tends to divide their money more evenly between talent and SFX, and you can tell it. Either way you slice it, BBC beats everyone, hands-down.

Those damn Brits!

Torchwood - A Review

Tonight was the BBCA premiere of the Doctor Who spin-off, Torchwood, to which I have been looking forward for quite some time. The lead actor is supposedly either bisexual or gay in real life (there really is a difference, even though no one outside of bisexuals mind to make it), and I could care less, but it is apparently one of the show's selling-points and definitely a hot topic across the Blogosphere, so I felt I should mention it.

[POSSIBLE SPOILERS]

Captain Jack Harkness is the man in charge of a top-secret agency known as Torchwood. Both the organization and the Captain have appeared on Dr. Who several times and BBCA replayed those episodes today, leading up to the debut of Torchwood. In Doctor Who, Torchwood was sketchily made-out to be some sort of governmental agency, but in the premiere, it was made clear that Torchwood exists outside of all legal circles and levels; it exists on its own, in and of itself, somehow.

Torchwood is not exactly like an X-Files branch (regardless of its governmental affiliation or autonomy), even though that is as close a similar concept as you can really get. They basically hunt aliens - specifically aliens, not the paranormal, Supernatural, or anything else - but they also handle alien technology and apparently design their own. Further, Harkness himself is apparently not completely human, but it is not clear as to whether he is alien or was once human or what. In Doctor Who, he was supposed to have been "from the future," but that is still as nebulous, since the Doctor is a Timelord...

At any rate, the series is well-shot and downright brilliant. The lighting is sharp and crisp, yet dark and moody - a slick dark future in modern-day times - and the sets are urban and somewhat futuristic, but not overly so. It has a sort of timelessness that lends itself to the suspension of disbelief you need to accept the concepts in play. And the concepts in play are nothing short of sheer brilliance.

Torchwood doesn't rely on unexplained alien races and technologies, nor Star Trek-type, nonsensical hyper-explanations; it seamlessly blends the fantastic, the futuristic, and the downright simple to affect a Dark Conspiracy, tabloid reality where you aren't exactly sure what's what, but you believe it could happen just the way you're seeing it. You really never stop to consider what is happening; it catches you and whips you up and you willingly go along for the ride.

The acting, writing, dialogue, and direction are top-notch and the special effects are next to nothing. I'm not sure, but they may have used the same cats that did Hex and Hex' special effects (there were much more of them in the first season) were absolutely staggering.

If the debut is any indication, Torchwood is one hell of a show and so completely worthy of a Saturday night timeslot.

By the way, what happened to Jekyll?

Hex Almost Over...

Have you ever read a book you enjoyed so much that, as you got closer to the end, you started reading it slower and slower to make it last longer? Well, next week is Hex’ series finale.

I know I had said before that they said something about "season" finale in the promos recently and I got a little excited about it. "Series" and "season" are somewhat interchangeable for British TV, but seeing as how this is BBCA, I took it as a hopeful hint that they were going to renew the show for the network. But it doesn’t appear that that is going to happen. We can still hold-out hope, but I have heard no indications that they are planning to do anything with it.

[SPOILERS]

Could you believe Leon? Now I really didn’t see that one coming at all! And how about Roxanne? That just really - that whole thing threw me for a loop! I mean that wasn’t just “unexpected,” that was completely out of left-field! Great, though - just fantastic.

I still hate that it’s almost over. I sincerely hope they tie-up all the storylines, but I’m really not ready to let it go. It has so much more to delve into and so much more potential, maybe we can hope for a movie or something to cap it all off.

Something! This is too good a show to just end like this! I also haven't seen a marathon for this season yet, so maybe we can look forward to one of those this week or the next.

More on TV

I forgot to mention this earlier!

Okay, so I’m watching the Dead Like Me marathon on Sci-Fi and chatting with a friend and we were talking about what a great show this was and how we couldn’t believe it was canceled after only two seasons. I told her how a bunch of folks dressed up like reapers and picketed outside the Showtime studios, but they still refused to pick it back up. Fans of the show, Angel, did the same, but the production company which made that show went bankrupt and just couldn’t afford to make it anymore; I don’t know if finances were a concern for Dead Like Me, but it reminded me of the spots I saw for Hex yesterday, while watching Eddie Izzard, and I meant to mention it in the earlier post, but forgot.

The promos for Hex yesterday - and they came on several times, so I am positive of this - were saying how this week’s episode is the second-to-last for the season! That’s right. Now, the Britons do TV series in “series,” not seasons; when the series is over, the show only sometimes returns. Sometimes, it’s years between series/seasons, but not always. Hex only lasted for two seasons over there and was canceled in like 2005, when it first premiered over here. But BBCA did not say, “The last show before the series finale”; BBCA specifically said “the last show before the season finale”! So even though the terms are kind of interchangeable in meaning, they are very specific across The Pond.

So, now, don’t get your hopes up just yet - we don’t want to jinx it - but BBCA did bring back The Graham Norton Show...

DON’T! Just, just wait and see. We’re just hanging out here, not thinking anything, BBCA. Y’all just... you know, do whatever.

Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, Hex

So, I realize I said that saving Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip looked impossible, but if for any reason you happened to see it last week, then you know why I and the other 10-11 folks who watch it, are still trying so hard.

Last week's episode literally brought me to tears at one point and was, well if that had been their season premiere, the show would likely have taken off the way everyone expected it to. And I really hoped the new timeslot would bring a few more people into the fold. Shark is a great show and I have really enjoyed it, but I hate to see Studio 60 fold. It just has so much promise and they don't give anything a decent shot on TV anymore. I remember a time when, if a TV show was a breakout hit, it was something special - a real event; now, if a show isn't an immediate breakout hit, it's canceled the next week!

Hex

[SPOILERS]

This week's Hex, well... I could gush and gush, but I really had to watch the repeat. I don't know what I was doing last week when it was on, because I specifically remember seeing it, but I didn't remember most of the details. I've got a little knot in my tummy watching it this season because I already know it's only got this season to go, and now that they've brought in Mephistopholes and the Archangel and Leon has taken on such a new importance, I'm just anxious as can be - but that bad sort of anxious like you get when there's just a few pages remaining in a really great book. That feeling where you don't want it to end, so you're trying to read it more slowly, and sometimes you just put it down without ever finishing it because you can't stand for it to be over.

I so hope BBCA brings this back. That would be the bee's knees!

Hex Second Season Premiere

Well, well, well... what did you think?

[SPOILERS]

I sincerely hope they do a little more with Ella and Leon's "relationship" or whatever you would call that. I feel like they played it up all last season, then it just died. Of course, there is some realism there; maybe they just didn't hit it off sexually?

But I also feel like they did the same with Malachi's character. We knew he would age at an accelerated rate because of how Cassie's pregnancy went, but here he is in the second season, not only physically grown, but fully developed (in character, personality, intelligence, etc.). Yes, I know - Supernatural, daemons, witchy shit happening all around - but still, it seemed like they kind of jumped over a lot of complexities really quickly and I was so busy trying to figure out exactly what was going on that the Suspension of Disbelief never got a chance to really take hold. It felt a lot like they'd been told, "Wrap up all these dangling plotlines because this is the last season," and so they just dispensed with damn near all of them right off the bat.

But even more jarring was the lack of humor which is what really drew me - and probably many others - into the show to begin with. There were some funny moments, but all in all, it was far more serious than almost any of the first season's episodes. Thelma was always cracking wise and Leon made puerile sex jokes and even Ella snapped off a few good ones here and there. But aside from one or two scenes which played more on the physical (such as when Leon came in drunk and she knocked him off the bed), that sly, sometimes subtle, wit just wasn't there.

Again, it felt like they were trying to wrap-up a lot of storylines far too quickly. But it doesn't matter because I'm going to watch the repeats after Graham Norton, then I'll watch it again next week, then I'll watch it again when they do the marathons later in the summer, and I'll definitely watch it when BBCA decides to pick it up for a third series (hint, hint, nudge, nudge, know wot I mean?).

What did everyone else think?

Hex, Site Updates, Help with Blogger FTP Settings

I may not have mentioned this, but BBCA is running a Hex marathon all day and I've been watching it since about 8:00 in the AM. I've already seen all of the first season episodes 3-5 times and counting, but in about another 2 hours, they're going to show 2 of the first season episodes that never aired here in the States. Then it's the season premiere.

Did I? I mentioned this before? Well, I forgot who all I told.

Anyway, you can be damned sure I'm going to blog about the new season premiere as soon as it's over, so set your TiVo or DVR or whatever and check back after it plays.

I know things haven't gone like I wanted them to with the site, but I also said that I was still working on getting it together; I don't give up easily, I just sometimes procrastinate to the point that it seems like I have. Still, all the regular readers know all the crap I've been through lately with these computers, so while I accept full responsibility for not having done more sooner, at least things are starting to come together a little at a time.

Today, I managed to finish and upload the Blogs Index. Yes, it's a little "busy," but it's a start. I'll be hanging more stuff throughout the month and then I'll add a cover/index like I did for the Winter edition. Of course, having gotten that one done, I have a better handle on what to expect this go-round. I know it looks amateurish - and it is, to be honest - but I was under the gun and still learning all the nifty things my program(s) can do. This time things will look much nicer

Which brings me to using Blogger as the blog software and uploading it via FTP to your own domain. This is what I'm doing with both Weird Ink and The OddBlog. No one could access the archives - even me! I tried all sorts of settings and pored through the FAQ and all of that, but I could not figure out how in the world to see those archives. Here's how you do it:

Make the archives filename "archives.html" or whatever you wish, then leave all the other fields blank! Don't enter a path or URL or anything else. Don't ask me, I don't know what, why, or how, but it worked. If you surf to either blog, you can access the archives on both. You couldn't yesterday.

So, I'm really working on the site today and watching this fantastic show I may have told you about. But just in case I forgot...




Alright, alright already! Gah.

All Hex, All Day

Did I forget to mention? Well, for shame!

BBCA's all-day Hex marathon starts in about an hour. Not only are they showing the entire first season, they've included two bonus episodes we haven't seen here. I'm not sure if they were shown in Britain when it originally aired, but they have not been seen in America. All this leads up to the second season premiere tonight!

Further, Hex has finally been released on DVD for our region! I've heard that it was a bit racier (hard to imagine that) uncut, so this is definitely a must-have item for die hard fans, like myself.

I may end up napping through some of the early episodes since I've already seen them all 3-4 times and stayed up all night the other night watching the last marathon, but my alarm is already set for tonight's premiere.

I really hope some of you who haven't seen it yet give it a shot. I have no idea how the second season is going to go, but if you really want to be up on everything that's going on, today's the day.

Graham Norton Returns Tonight!

If you aren't familiar with Graham Norton, he's one of the few people in the world who is just plain funny - just plain naturally funny. If you saw his old show (which they still play sometimes on Logo, the gay-themed network), then you know how much fun it is. If you've never seen Graham Norton, BBCA has brought him back and I guarantee you that no matter what goes down, it's worth watching.

Graham Norton Show debuts tomorrow night, after the Hex premiere. It's a talk show, but it really isn't like any talk show you've ever seen. They play games and really involve the audience in everything. Further, they look at stories on the web and do all sorts of silly things.

I have no idea how this incarnation of Graham Norton Show is going to look or go, as I have not seen any advance showings, but the promos look very similar to his old one, which was just an absolute blast. I also love the fact that this one is specifically for BBCA, which gives me renewed hope for a possible 3^rd season of Hex.

But I'm not holding my breath.

Graham Norton Show debuts tomorrow night at 9:00 PM, CST, and will be rerun at midnight. His guests will be Kim Cattrall and Elijah Wood.

Hex Saturday!

Well, the moment I've been waiting for since last summer is only one day away. Not only does the second season of Hex premiere tomorrow night, BBCA is showing an all day marathon of the first season, leading up to the premiere! This marathon will also feature two, previously unaired episodes that have not been seen in America before.

I am literally champing at the bit. Even though I don't know what a "bit" is and "champing" sounds somewhat obnoxious. At any rate, this is the very best chance for new viewers to get on board. Hex is an incredible witchy show, full of attractive people, comedy, and sex - lots and lots of sex. There are witches and daemons and witch-hunters and fallen angels... it has a very rich and involved world which is actually fairly accurate.

I know some people thought the first season moved too slowly, but I absolutely adore it. It's even better the second time around, in fact. I saw a lot of things I missed the first time. Hex is very clever, dropping little hints and clues throughout the show which aren't necessarily integral to the thing; you can figure everything out even if you miss the clues.

Life's too short to watch bad TV and if you've never seen Hex before, this is a great opportunity to get caught-up on the story and characters before the new season begins.

The Rundown on Hex

Here's an entire list of reasons why Hex rocks.

• If you only saw the first series marathon tonight on the BBCA, you should know that not only were some things cut, they showed them out of order from which they originally appeared Across The Pond. From what I've heard, it worked better over here.
• Cassie is hot.
• Thelma is hot.
• Ella is hot.
• Troy is hot.
• Azazeal is a bad, bad man.
• Anything to do with Egyptology or Egyptologists is hot.
• Thelma wearing a red rose on her "owie" is so Kabuki.
• Possessed people get laid a lot.
• Leon is hot.
• Roxanne is hot.
• Shitty cars are funny. England is awash in shitty vehicles. They call them "autos," and that is funny, too.
• The words, "nutter" (crazy), "manky" (wonky), and "reckon" (same as Down South) are funny.
• Possessed girls act like most of the girls I've dated. Whether you're laughing with me or at me, it's funny. This is not self-deprecating; it's a life-lesson I needed to learn.
• Casual mentions of Auschwitz are funny. It's like saying, "I'm starving," when you are actually overweight. That's funny.
• The SFX rock harder than a hardcore club with a headlining band at 2 AM.
• "Vodka straight" is heavy.
• Sex in "manky" clubs without serious repercussions is hot.
• Sex in alleyways without serious repercussions is hot.
• Sex with demons without serious repercussions looks hot.
• Candles are hot. When they're on fire!
• Entire sequences awash in primary colors are hot. Even if they are awash in Secondary colors, too.
  
• 10-hour marathons are cool.

And that there's why Hex rocks harder than Lindsay Lohan's Mercedes on a curb, y'all. That's the Rundown on Hex.

Hex First Season Marathon Tonight!

Someone to the BBCA must be reading, and they know what I like.

Starting at 7:00 PM, CST, BBCA is showing an all-night Hex first series marathon. This is the one with Cassie and it's starting from the very beginning. The 2-hour premiere episode is followed by all the rest, straight through to when Ella enters the picture. It only runs until 5:00 AM, so it's not the entire first season, but if you've never seen the show, this is the best jumping-off point.

I'll warn you, the first few episodes are rather slow. Things happen, granted, but nothing Big-Time occurs until Ella gets involved. Of course, there's Azazeal and Malachi and the priest, but it takes until about the 4^th or 5^th episode for everything to really get underway.

Since I know most of us will likely be up drinking - or just up, in general - this is a great chance for you to get your Hex swerve on before it returns Saturday. That's right: Hex returns this Saturday. Just in case I haven't mentioned that.

So, first series marathon tonight, then the 2^nd season starts Saturday. Hex. It's what's for breakfast.

Wild at Heart

So I said a while back that I wanted to check out BBCA's Wild at Heart, but I kept forgetting it was on or something. At any rate, I managed to catch the season finale tonight (of course it's the finale - it's the first one I saw!) and I was really impressed. I thought I would be and I was pleasantly surprised! I love that - when you see something and think, "That looks pretty good," and you're actually satisfied when you experience it.

Because, let's be honest, it doesn't happen often.

I wasn't familiar with any of the characters, but the episode did a really good job of getting to the heart of them in the hour it was on. I really felt like I had a pretty good handle on the whole thing and the characters, which is good for only having seen one episode so late in the season.

It was a really good show and appropriate for the whole family. I don't know if it will be being rerun or if it will return for another season, but I recommend it if you happen to catch it. The season finale is being replayed tonight if you want to check it out.

Robin Hood - Hex

This being Memorial Day Weekend, I'm not expecting a lot of hits or anything, so it's very possible I won't be posting too much. However, seeing as how i don't have any plans personally, I may very well find myself sitting here posting all weekend long... we'll see how things turn out.

BBCA had a Robin Hood marathon all day long, but I'd seen several of the episodes already, so I just caught a few. The season finale was also tonight and it was pretty good. I hate to admit it, but even though they've had a few bright spots, the series as a whole just didn't do it for me the way I'd hoped it would. Next week, Robin Hood moves to Sunday nights to make room for "Supernatural Saturdays," and we all know what that means:

Hex returns!

Hex, kids! HEX! Woo-hoo!

If you haven't seen Hex yet, this is the season to watch! While I, and many others, loved the first season, it's true that it was slow-moving and I hate that Cassie got killed-off because, well let's face it, she's a hottie. No two ways about that. Still, it was a lot of fun and the last several episodes had me on the edge of my seat. The promos they've been showing the past few weeks look absolutely explosive and I can't wait for next week!

HEX!!!!!

It Figures...

Whew! The one day I sleep in and everything happens! I thought most agencies and companies waited to make big announcements on a weekday? I get up this morning and the news was FULL of comics and comic-related stuff! From Gene Simmons to [adult swim] and all points between!

That's what I get for sleeping the day away, I suppose.

Still, I think I got to pretty much everything I intended to cover and most all of it happened yesterday. I've been at the keyboard quite literally since I crawled out of bed this morning!

Anyway, don't forget [as] tonight, with new Morel Oral and old Venture Bros. Also, BBCA is rerunning this week's Robin Hood, which is getting better with every episode, at 6:00 PM, CST. Finally, Sci-Fi has Friday's new Painkiller Jane at 10:00 PM, CST.

Arrrgghh! Okay, I will review Lake Placid 2 in a little while. There's plenty to keep you busy until then.

Doctor... Who?

A while back, reports surfaced that current Dr. Who, David Tennant, would be leaving the show - reports the BBC today denied. Fans know that actor Chris Eccleston left the show after the first series/season and other actors and characters have also come and gone (this season's ending included one of the most dramatic and unexpected, in fact).

Tennant is filming season three of the popular sci-fi show, but another season (to Americans, "series" in some other countries - a year-long contract of episodes, usually 13-22, but more and more are only going with six nowadays) has so far not been bought. Hex only ran for two series (seasons) and is apparently being shown on BBCA in a different airing order.

If you haven't checked out Dr. Who, I guarantee you that you will enjoy it, no matter your tastes. A lot like EUReKA, it's funny, dramatic, sometimes scary or sad; there's love and unrequited love, pain, tragedy; it's a real television show -- not just a genre cut-out to appeal to a select demographic so they can secure sponsors for that market. Or Baywatch. It's almost nothing like Baywatch.

It's well-acted, well-constructed, the scripts are tight and really wonderful, not over-produced with a bunch of cheesy CGI or "goofy" Buffy-type make-up effects... it's just a really good show and the BBC is good at making those.