For Farhaana.
Tuesday, 7 January 2014
Thursday, 1 August 2013
The 2013-2014 New Season of TV shows!
It's that time of year once again, when us proud couch potatoes settle back in our chairs, ready for the onslaught of new TV shows. The TV execs have had 12 months to come up with some really ground breaking ideas to wow us into watching their shows, and (because let's face it, this is what TV is all about) make us sit there through the adverts.
Intelligence
So, I've had a look at the new, forthcoming shows from the major broadcasters. ABC, CBS, CW, NBC and Fox. Now I'll admit right away this isn't a complete and definite list of EVERY new show coming out - and in fact some might still get dropped - but it's an almost complete list.
I've only dealt with scripted shows, so no reality or game shows.
So, without further ado, here is the list.
Comedy:
About a Boy
Based on the Nick Hornby book.
Back In The Game
A mom starts a softball team for all the kids who were dumped out of the local softball team for being too rubbish. James Caan also stars.
Brooklyn 99
A laid back cop gets a new boss. My sides have split just thinking about it.
The Crazy Ones
Robin Williams returns to TV as an ad executive and his daughter - Sarah Michelle Gellar - who everyone think are crazy.
Dads
Two software designers have their dads move in with them. From Seth McFarlane and starring Seth Green and Martin Mull
Enlisted
Three brothers who are all n the army, are posted to the same base. With the usual hilarious consequences.
Friend Me
A hangover from last years list. Still a show about people working at Groupon...
The Goldbergs 1980's set sitcom dealing a family called The Goldbergs. Because this type of show has never been done before!
Growing Up Fisher
A modern Day Wonder Years. Jason Bateman narrates.
The Michael J Fox Show
MJF stars as man who has Parkinsons disease and decides to put it aside and get back to work.
The Millers
When Nathan tells his parents he's divorcing his wife, his father decides to do the same and go live with his carefree son. Hilarity ensues. We hope.
Mom
Created by Chuck Lorre, this comedy deal with the hilarious situation of Mom living in California.
Rake
American remake of the Australian show of the same name, about a laywer who does things in court and his private life.
Sean Saves The World
Sean's 14 year old daughter moves in with him and he has to learn how to be a father. Hopefully with hilarious consequences.
Surviving Jack
Set in the 1990's, Jack's wife decides to start a career so he becomes a home husband.
Trophy Wife
Malin "Watchmen" Ackerman is the trophy wife in this comedy about trophy wives.
The Undateables
Danny lets his friend Justin move in with him, and finds Justins friends are a bunch of misfits (the Undateables). He teaches them how to pull girls.
Us and Them
American remake of Gavin and Stacey, in which Gavin and Stacey decide to meet following a 6 month onine relationship, but their friends and family keep interfering.
We Are Men
When Carter is stood up at the altar he moves into a new apartment and gets love advice from 3 older guys. Mr Monk is one of them.
Welcome To The Family
Two young lovers - but with very different family backgrounds - fall in love and marry, leaving their familes to have to get along. With hilarious consequences.
Action, Mystery, Thriller
Crisis.
Gillian "Scully" Anderson stars in some plot involving kidnapping the presidents son on a school trip.
Comedy:
About a Boy
Based on the Nick Hornby book.
Back In The Game
A mom starts a softball team for all the kids who were dumped out of the local softball team for being too rubbish. James Caan also stars.
Brooklyn 99
A laid back cop gets a new boss. My sides have split just thinking about it.
The Crazy Ones
Robin Williams returns to TV as an ad executive and his daughter - Sarah Michelle Gellar - who everyone think are crazy.
Dads
Two software designers have their dads move in with them. From Seth McFarlane and starring Seth Green and Martin Mull
Enlisted
Three brothers who are all n the army, are posted to the same base. With the usual hilarious consequences.
Friend Me
A hangover from last years list. Still a show about people working at Groupon...
The Goldbergs 1980's set sitcom dealing a family called The Goldbergs. Because this type of show has never been done before!
Growing Up Fisher
A modern Day Wonder Years. Jason Bateman narrates.
The Michael J Fox Show
MJF stars as man who has Parkinsons disease and decides to put it aside and get back to work.
The Millers
When Nathan tells his parents he's divorcing his wife, his father decides to do the same and go live with his carefree son. Hilarity ensues. We hope.
Mom
Created by Chuck Lorre, this comedy deal with the hilarious situation of Mom living in California.
Rake
American remake of the Australian show of the same name, about a laywer who does things in court and his private life.
Sean Saves The World
Sean's 14 year old daughter moves in with him and he has to learn how to be a father. Hopefully with hilarious consequences.
Surviving Jack
Set in the 1990's, Jack's wife decides to start a career so he becomes a home husband.
Trophy Wife
Malin "Watchmen" Ackerman is the trophy wife in this comedy about trophy wives.
The Undateables
Danny lets his friend Justin move in with him, and finds Justins friends are a bunch of misfits (the Undateables). He teaches them how to pull girls.
Us and Them
American remake of Gavin and Stacey, in which Gavin and Stacey decide to meet following a 6 month onine relationship, but their friends and family keep interfering.
We Are Men
When Carter is stood up at the altar he moves into a new apartment and gets love advice from 3 older guys. Mr Monk is one of them.
Welcome To The Family
Two young lovers - but with very different family backgrounds - fall in love and marry, leaving their familes to have to get along. With hilarious consequences.
Action, Mystery, Thriller
Crisis.
Gillian "Scully" Anderson stars in some plot involving kidnapping the presidents son on a school trip.
Lost's Sawyer and Once Upon a Time's Ruby/Red Riding Hood star as intelligence officers who go off and do intelligence stuff on a weekly basis.
Drama
Betrayal
Two people in unhappy marriages start an affair, then both get involved in a murder trial, but on opposite sides.
The Blacklist
James Spader stars as the FBI's most wanted fugitive who - in a Se7enish twist - gives himself up and helps the FBI track down other more wanted fugitives - fugitives they didn't even know exist. Or something like that...
Chicago PD
A spin off from Chicago Fire, with more of the same, only without the fire aspect. Yeah, it's basically Chicago Code remade with the former bad guy from CF as a good guy now..
Crossbones
John Malkovich stars as Blackbeard the pirate.
Ironside
Blair Underwood is the wheelchair-bound detective in this new remake.
Gang Related
Lost's Locke stars this show that charts the LAPD's elite gang Task Force as they take on Gangs. Each more deadly than the last I imagine.
Hostages
A doctor due to perform surgery on the President of the US is taken hostage and forced to kill the Pres during surgery. Not sure how they can spin this idea into 20+ episodes - or even a second season - but there you go.
Killer Women
Cylon Number 6 is a woman who is killer, and a Texas Ranger. She tracks down bad people (and hopefully wears big hats)
Lucky 7
7 gas station workers play the lottery as a syndiacte, but when their numbers come up they find it leads to more problems than it solves.
Reign
Period drama about Mary Queen of Scots. With Keifer Sutherlands brother as Nostrodamus. (No, seriously)
Horror
Dracula
Henry the 8th (from The Tudors) is Dracula in this new adaptation of the classic novel.
Fantasy
The 100
Post Apocalyptic series starring Paige Turco and Desmond from Lost!
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Spin off from the movie The Avengers. Lets face it, if you're a comic book fan, you'll lap this up!
Almost Human
This years J.J. Abrams entry. It's 35 years in the future, and the LAPD now uses robots to work alongside human partners. A robot-Hating cop is paired up with a robot with the usual cliqued results (I guess. Who cares, it's JJ!)
Believe
Created by Harry Potter director Alfonso Cuaron, this looks to be this years Touch. A young girl has special powers. And things. Stars everyone's favourite ictional FBI agent (after Mulder and Scully), Kyle McLachlin.
Mind Games
Christian Slater is a con man who also runs a problem solving firm. (Just go with it, yeah?)
Once Upon a Time in Wonderland
Pretty much does what it says in the title. Spin off from Once Upon a Time, only set in... Wonderland. With a new mad hatter (sadly)
The Originals
Spin off from Vampire Diaries,so expect more of the same. Just in New Orleans.
Resurrection
American remake of The Returned (Les Revenant) about dead people returning to life. Produced by Brad Pitt.
Sleep Hollow
TV adaption of the classic story about Ichabod Crane. It's a Kurtzman/Orci production!
Star-Crossed
A girl falls in love with an alien. The Tomorrow People American remake of this classic. With Jacob from Lost
Friday, 24 May 2013
Brand advertising on Twitter
I'd like to talk about Twitter and advertising/brand promotion.
This may sound very random, but it's something I've been thinking about recently. I obviously don't have anything to sell or promote - I'm just me. Other people however do. Companies and brands have twitter accounts and a lot has been made in the press recently about bad PR from certain brands.
Now before I really get into it, a quick Twitter lesson for you. Sorry if I'm teaching you to suck eggs here, but it's important (IMO), and some people don't seem to get this. To me it's one of the most important aspects of Twitter.
When you tweet something, anyone can see your tweet by looking at your Twitter Feed. As can anyone who follows you - they get it straight on their main feed.
If you start the tweet off addressing it to another user, it will only appear on your followers feed if they also follow the other person.
Lets say you follow me, and I tweet Burts Crisps (@BurtsChips) or Pataks Curry Club (@PataksCurryClub). You will only see that if you also follow them.
So I could say "@BurtsChips Your crisps are amazing, I love them" which is great PR for them, except only someone who already knows about them (because they're following too) will see it. And they will know I'm right.
However, if I tweet "Hey @BurtsChips, you're crisps are amazing", then all my followers will see it.
Why would I do this? Because it helps Burts. I've just opened them up to an audience of 200+ people.
Maybe one of my followers is in a shop one day, spots a packet on the shelf and thinks "Ah ha! That's what John was on about! I'll try me some of them!"
Naturally I don't get any financial reward for this. However to reward us, brands often ReTweet our tweet.
So now I get advertised to 5000 people. maybe a few of those may look at my feed and like what they see and maybe follow me.
Of course, I don't gain anything for gaining new followers, apart from a mini ego boost.
But that, in a nutshell is how to help brands you like. My advice is don't go overboard on spamming your followers with everything you like, but a couple a day can help :)
This may sound very random, but it's something I've been thinking about recently. I obviously don't have anything to sell or promote - I'm just me. Other people however do. Companies and brands have twitter accounts and a lot has been made in the press recently about bad PR from certain brands.
Now before I really get into it, a quick Twitter lesson for you. Sorry if I'm teaching you to suck eggs here, but it's important (IMO), and some people don't seem to get this. To me it's one of the most important aspects of Twitter.
When you tweet something, anyone can see your tweet by looking at your Twitter Feed. As can anyone who follows you - they get it straight on their main feed.
If you start the tweet off addressing it to another user, it will only appear on your followers feed if they also follow the other person.
Lets say you follow me, and I tweet Burts Crisps (@BurtsChips) or Pataks Curry Club (@PataksCurryClub). You will only see that if you also follow them.
So I could say "@BurtsChips Your crisps are amazing, I love them" which is great PR for them, except only someone who already knows about them (because they're following too) will see it. And they will know I'm right.
However, if I tweet "Hey @BurtsChips, you're crisps are amazing", then all my followers will see it.
Why would I do this? Because it helps Burts. I've just opened them up to an audience of 200+ people.
Maybe one of my followers is in a shop one day, spots a packet on the shelf and thinks "Ah ha! That's what John was on about! I'll try me some of them!"
Naturally I don't get any financial reward for this. However to reward us, brands often ReTweet our tweet.
So now I get advertised to 5000 people. maybe a few of those may look at my feed and like what they see and maybe follow me.
Of course, I don't gain anything for gaining new followers, apart from a mini ego boost.
But that, in a nutshell is how to help brands you like. My advice is don't go overboard on spamming your followers with everything you like, but a couple a day can help :)
Sunday, 19 May 2013
Doctor Who - In The Name of the Doctor. Some thoughts about that ending!
I'm going to try and get my thoughts in order regarding the amazing ending to In The Name Of The Doctor.
So, the Doctor goes by the name “The Doctor” because he helps people. In an ironic twist, an earlier episode showed us that medical doctors are called Doctors in honour of The Doctor. Anyway, I digress.
As we know, the Doctor regenerates. Somewhere down the line one of his regenerations did something bad. So evil that it wasn't “in the name of the Doctor”. This regeneration has been shunned by the others, and doesn't use the name "Doctor". So Matt Smith is still the 11th version to go by the name Doctor, but the 12th Regeneration.
Now, as we've seen all the regenerations bar one, there is only 2 explanations left:
1: John Hurt's Character was the original version, who then regenerated into William Hartnell, or
2: John Hurt is between McGann and Ecclestone (the only regeneration we haven't seen on screen)
If it's 1 then we can assume that whatever he did caused Hartnell to steal the TARDIS and run away from Gallifrey in the first place
If it's 2 then we can guess that maybe Hurt was responsible for ending the Time War.
In the episode "The Beast Below" (the second episode of the Smith Era), the Doctor runs through his options.
"Three options. One, I let the Star Whale continue in unendurable agony for hundreds more years. Two, I kill everyone on this ship. Three, I murder a beautiful, innocent creature as painlessly as I can. And then I find a new name 'cause I won't be The Doctor anymore."
So we at least have form for him knowing sometimes you have to make the hard choices... I guess we'll have to wait till November 23rd to find out!
(And for those new viewers who didn't realise, 23rd November 1963 was the air date of the first episode - An UnEarthly Child)
So, the Doctor goes by the name “The Doctor” because he helps people. In an ironic twist, an earlier episode showed us that medical doctors are called Doctors in honour of The Doctor. Anyway, I digress.
As we know, the Doctor regenerates. Somewhere down the line one of his regenerations did something bad. So evil that it wasn't “in the name of the Doctor”. This regeneration has been shunned by the others, and doesn't use the name "Doctor". So Matt Smith is still the 11th version to go by the name Doctor, but the 12th Regeneration.
Now, as we've seen all the regenerations bar one, there is only 2 explanations left:
1: John Hurt's Character was the original version, who then regenerated into William Hartnell, or
2: John Hurt is between McGann and Ecclestone (the only regeneration we haven't seen on screen)
If it's 1 then we can assume that whatever he did caused Hartnell to steal the TARDIS and run away from Gallifrey in the first place
If it's 2 then we can guess that maybe Hurt was responsible for ending the Time War.
In the episode "The Beast Below" (the second episode of the Smith Era), the Doctor runs through his options.
"Three options. One, I let the Star Whale continue in unendurable agony for hundreds more years. Two, I kill everyone on this ship. Three, I murder a beautiful, innocent creature as painlessly as I can. And then I find a new name 'cause I won't be The Doctor anymore."
So we at least have form for him knowing sometimes you have to make the hard choices... I guess we'll have to wait till November 23rd to find out!
(And for those new viewers who didn't realise, 23rd November 1963 was the air date of the first episode - An UnEarthly Child)
Tuesday, 14 May 2013
Orphan Black - New Series coming to BBC3
Imagine seeing yourself
one day. Not just someone who looks like you, but You. Except it's
not.
That's exactly what happens to Sarah, our streetwise Orphan hero in Orphan Black. Sarah finds another “her” and slowly a mystery unfolds.
Who is Beth? Why are
they the same? Are there any more?
Part thriller, part
comedy, part sci-fi (in the sense that it's fiction based on Science
– not flying spaceships or things). Orphan Black is coming to BBC 3
in the UK.
Despite having a great
cast it's not an ensemble production. The show belongs to the main
star – Tatiana Maslany. You've probably never heard of her before,
but by the end of the first episod alone I guarantee you won't forget
her! Each character is unique and distinctive from the others, and
what really shows is when one character is impersonating another.
They look the same (of course), but you can tell from the mannerisms
that it's x being y.
The mystery unfolds for
us viewers at the same pace as it does for Sarah, learning piece by
piece what's going on. Sometimes it can be frustrating; wanting to
know slightly more than we're told, but the nuggets of information
are placed before us to find.
Characters are
mentioned and introduced quickly, the return later on like old
friends stopping by on their way past. The supporting cast are great
with not a bad actor or actress among them.
The only one niggle I
have with the whole premise is how someone can impersonate someone
else so well that even work colleagues can't tell the difference.
That aside, the show has got me totally hooked, and I'm glad it's
already gained a second season!
You can follow Orphan Black on Twitter, at @OrphanBlack
You can follow Orphan Black on Twitter, at @OrphanBlack
Saturday, 5 January 2013
Flashpoint: A personal view of Shockwave.
There is a plot line running through season 4 of the TV show "Flashpoint", concerning the character of Spike (Sergio Di Zio), and his fathers illness.
Spike is a bomb disposal expert, and his father never liked his career choice. The father is now dying, and his dying wish is for his son to give up the dangerous job. Spike is continually torn between upholding the wish and his honor to himself. He worked hard to get where he is, and doesn't want to throw it all away.
Now, this story line brings up all manner of emotions for me. My father recently went through a similar life-threatening illness.
I'm fortunate that my father never asked me to stop doing what I'm doing, or had anything bad to say about my career choice.
However, the moments when Spike is with him, brings home to me what it was like to see my Father like that.
Real emotion. Raw emotion. That's what I get from watching this. It is (In my opinion anyway) perfectly written, perfectly directed - and most importantly, perfectly acted by Mr. Di Zio.
Spikes inability to do anything to help his father mirrors exactly what I myself felt.
The scenes are never the focus of the show, never important to the overall plot. But they are important to me.
The most recent episode (Shockwave) had a certain resonance with me. Sorry to get all personal all of a sudden, but my Father was hundreds of miles away, so I only spent a short time with him, and the feeling when I wasn't with him, I would have given anything to be back there. So when Spike was trapped, I was so caught up in the moment of the episode, I think i went through every emotion right there with Spike.
So, to the writers, directors, producers, showrunners - and most importantly of all, Sergio. I thank you. This is what proper story telling is all about.
Spike is a bomb disposal expert, and his father never liked his career choice. The father is now dying, and his dying wish is for his son to give up the dangerous job. Spike is continually torn between upholding the wish and his honor to himself. He worked hard to get where he is, and doesn't want to throw it all away.
Now, this story line brings up all manner of emotions for me. My father recently went through a similar life-threatening illness.
I'm fortunate that my father never asked me to stop doing what I'm doing, or had anything bad to say about my career choice.
However, the moments when Spike is with him, brings home to me what it was like to see my Father like that.
Real emotion. Raw emotion. That's what I get from watching this. It is (In my opinion anyway) perfectly written, perfectly directed - and most importantly, perfectly acted by Mr. Di Zio.
Spikes inability to do anything to help his father mirrors exactly what I myself felt.
The scenes are never the focus of the show, never important to the overall plot. But they are important to me.
The most recent episode (Shockwave) had a certain resonance with me. Sorry to get all personal all of a sudden, but my Father was hundreds of miles away, so I only spent a short time with him, and the feeling when I wasn't with him, I would have given anything to be back there. So when Spike was trapped, I was so caught up in the moment of the episode, I think i went through every emotion right there with Spike.
So, to the writers, directors, producers, showrunners - and most importantly of all, Sergio. I thank you. This is what proper story telling is all about.
Tuesday, 18 December 2012
Flashpoint DVD Episode Arrangement
Due to the way Flashpoint was aired in the US, the season box sets are different to the Canadian versions. While they will eventually release all the episodes, there is still some confusion over which episodes appear on which set.
| Episode name | Canadian | US | UK |
| Season 1 | Season 1 | Season 1 | |
| Scorpio | Episode 1 | Episode 1 | Episode 1 |
| First in Line | Episode 2 | Episode 2 | Episode 2 |
| Element of Surprise | Episode 3 | Episode 3 | Episode 3 |
| Asking for Flowers | Episode 4 | Episode 4 | Episode 4 |
| Who's George | Episode 5 | Episode 5 | Episode 5 |
| Attention Shoppers | Episode 6 | Episode 6 | Episode 6 |
| He Knows His Brother | Episode 7 | Episode 7 | Episode 7 |
| Never Kissed A Girl | Episode 8 | Episode 8 | Episode 8 |
| Planets Aligned | Episode 9 | Episode 9 | Episode 9 |
| Eagle Two | Episode 10 | Episode 10 | Episode 10 |
| Backwards Day | Episode 11 | Episode 11 | Episode 11 |
| Haunting the Barn | Episode 12 | Episode 12 | Episode 12 |
| Between Heartbeats | Episode 13 | Episode 13 | Episode 13 |
| Season 2 | Season 2 | ||
| Business as usual | Episode 1 | Episode 1 | |
| The Fortress | Episode 2 | Episode 2 | |
| Clean Hands | Episode 3 | Episode 3 | |
| Aisle 13 | Episode 4 | Episode 4 | |
| The Perfect Family | Episode 5 | Episode 5 | |
| Remote Control | Episode 6 | Episode 6 | |
| Perfect Storm | Episode 7 | Episode 7 | |
| Last Dance | Episode 8 | Episode 8 | |
| Exit Wounds | Episode 9 | Episode 9 | |
| Season 3 | |||
| One Wrong Move | Episode 10 | Episode 1 | |
| Never Let You Down | Episode 11 | Episode 2 | |
| Just A Man | Episode 12 | Episode 7 | |
| Custody | Episode 13 | Episode 4 | |
| Coming To You Live | Episode 14 | Episode 5 | |
| The Farm | Episode 15 | Episode 3 | |
| You Think You Know Someone | Episode 16 | Episode 10 | |
| The Good Citizen | Episode 17 | Episode 9 | |
| Behind the Blue Line | Episode 18 | Episode 6 | |
| Season 3 | |||
| Unconditional Love | Episode 1 | Episode 8 | |
| Severed Ties | Episode 2 | Episode 11 | |
| Follow the Leader | Episode 3 | Episode 12 | |
| Whatever It Takes | Episode 4 | Episode 13 | |
| The Other Lane | Episode 5 | Episode 14 | |
| Jumping At Shadows | Episode 6 | Episode 15 | |
| Acceptable Risk | Episode 7 | Episode 16 | |
| Season 4 | |||
| Collateral Damage | Episode 8 | Episode 1 | |
| Thicker Than Blood | Episode 9 | Episode 2 | |
| Terror | Episode 10 | Episode 3 | |
| No Promises | Episode 11 | Episode 4 | |
| I'd Do Anything | Episode 12 | Episode 5 | |
| Fault Lines | Episode 13 | Episode 6 | |
| Season 4 | |||
| Personal Effects | Episode 1 | Episode 7 | |
| Good Cop | Episode 2 | Episode 8 | |
| Run Jamie Run | Episode 3 | Episode 9 | |
| Through a Glass Darkly | Episode 4 | Episode 10 | |
| The Better Man | Episode 5 | Episode 11 | |
| A Day in the Life | Episode 6 | Episode 12 | |
| Shockwave | Episode 7 | Episode 13 | |
| Season 5 | |||
| The War Within | Episode 8 | Episode 8 | |
| Cost of Doing Business | Episode 9 | Episode 2 | |
| Wild Card | Episode 10 | Episode 3 | |
| New Life | Episode 11 | Episode 4 | |
| Grounded | Episode 12 | Episode 1 | |
| Call to Arms | Episode 13 | Episode 5 | |
| Team Player | Episode 14 | Episode 9 | |
| Day Game | Episode 15 | Episode 6 | |
| Blue on Blue | Episode 16 | Episode 7 | |
| Priority of Life | Episode 17 | Episode 10 | |
| Slow Burn | Episode 18 | Episode 11 | |
| Season 5 | |||
| Broken Peace | Episode 1 | ||
| No Kind Of Life | Episode 2 | ||
| Run To Me | Episode 3 | ||
| Eyes In | Episode 4 | ||
| Sons Of The Father | Episode 5 | ||
| A World Of Their Own | Episode 6 | ||
| Below The Surface | Episode 7 | ||
| Forget Oblivion | Episode 8 | ||
| We Take Care Of Our Own | Episode 9 | ||
| Lawmen | Episode 10 | ||
| Fit For Duty | Episode 11 | ||
| Keep The Peace (Part 1) | Episode 12 | ||
| Keep The Peace (Part 2) | Episode 13 |
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)