A Concise Summary of Fall TV

Below cut are my reactions to this week’s season premieres: Heroes, Bones and Stargate:Atlantis (with mention of Supernatural). Spoilers are present.

Heroes: YAY! (Except for the thing growing on Nathan’s face) Best part: Hiro’s expression when he saw Kensei was white. And the fact that Claire & her dad (HRG-version) are utterly incapable of being “unextraordinary”.

Bones: YAY! EW! (for the cannibalism storyline). “Bones” Public Service Announcement: “Babies taste like fish. Caveat Emptor.” And Zack’s back from Iraq!* I do like that they aren’t solving their bigger cases in one hermetically-sealed episode.

Stargate: Atlantis: YAY! UH-OH! for Dr. Weir. I adored how just when they fixed something, another thing went horribly wrong. And the new doctor while not particularly doctorly (IMHO) did hold her own with Rodney which is not easy to do.

Next week: Supernatural premiere on Thursday. To get in the mood, I’ve watched these two promos (the second uses AC/DC's “Hell’s Bells”!) several (hundred) times. I love that this show turns the CW’s promo department into giddy fanvidders.

* Can I just say how much I love how “Bones” is handling the Iraq War and the War of Terror? Reasons:
1) It’s actually handling them.
2) The show is doing so in a way that shows a real diversity of viewpoints on the war and how it’s being fought.
3) Everyone’s motivations for their opinions on the subject are very in-character (ie – no one goes OOC to push a message).
It’s impressive to me that a show only tangentially about geopolitics (when it impacts a murder case) has managed to do such a good job presenting the conflict.

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3:10 To Yuma: WOW

I went to see "3:10 to Yuma" last night with some friends. My opinion: Movie of the year. It's that damn good.

[It not just me & fancy critics that think it. The movie has been out for weeks, right? Our show was sold out! And it wasn't the only showing of this film that sold out last night.]

Details of the awesomeness below the cut.

Everyone in it is superb. Peter Fonda, Ben Foster, Russell Crowe and Christian Bale are especially stunning. ALL of them are fantastic. Of the four, Ben Foster is the biggest surprise. I vaguely remembered him from his days on "Flash Forward" with Jewel Staite. He was such an astonishingly convincing bad-ass here, it took me several scenes to even recognize him. Peter Fonda played a bounty hunter. His role wasn't as large as I expected but every minute he was on screen was gold. Russell Crowe played a bad guy that was mesmerizing. You were simultaneously repulsed and intrigued by him. And Christian Bale as "Dan Evans"....Where a lesser actor would yell and flail to convey this man's frustrations, he was contained and quiet as the put-down rancher. Paired with Crowe, WOW.

The action is excellent and very realistic. The gun fights especially were staged wonderfully. And the horse chases are filmed in a jarring hand-held style that while dizzying, puts you right there in the saddle. Also, the movie is surprisingly laced with great one-liners. There were several laugh-out-loud moments. The film is also good at setting up this world in a very elegant manner. The West is so far away for most of us culturally and historically that I think it's difficult for us to really understand how hard life was back then. With a line here, a shot of a town there, the audience is reintroduced to a world of stagecoach robberies, railroad agents and defiant Apaches. The Old West is shown as this hard, beautiful and unforgiving place.

This movie is everything an excellent Western should be. Gritty, sparse, unflinching and wonderful. Definitely a must-see. Definitely buy this on DVD. You cannot miss this movie.

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Supernatural Season 2 DVD

Third on my DVD watching spree is Season Two of "Supernatural". This is one of my favorite shows and the only one I watch live (as opposed to playback via TiVo).

The episodes for Season Two were just as good as I remembered. They really did some interesting things with changing the tone/style from episode-to-episode in this season. It’s possible to find this a bit jarring when watching in blocks. But that’s the only downside. I thought "Supernatural" was a very good show until the last three episodes of Season One. Those three episodes convinced me it was an excellent show. For the most part, Season Two maintained the excellent quality and built upon the Supernatural universe with good success. My favorites of the season were “Bloodlust”, “Nightshifter”, “Born Under a Bad Sign” and “What Is and What Should Never Be”.

Spoilers for the extras below the cut (gag reel, commentaries and a lot more!)

Season One of “Supernatural” had loads features including two easter eggs. The “Supernatural” cast & crew have demonstrated that they know how to promote the show in a very entertaining fashion. So I was excited about Season Two. Unfortunately, the extras got leaked to the Internet a couple weeks before the DVD release. I had to avoid some fansites in order to not be tempted by spoilers. But it was worth the wait because there's tons of stuff!

1) “The Devil's Road Map” - What a Fantastic Idea! There's a United States map with dots where each episode was set. Each episode dot leads to a feature. There's two categories of features, videos (“Urban Legends/Makingof..”) and sound recordings/cards “Episode Factoids”.

a) “Urban Legends” – Cool idea. They got academics & folklorists to speak about some of the urban legends discussed in the episodes. Only 4-5 episodes are covered but they are pretty interesting. The weakest one for me was the Hollywood ghosts segment. I thought the ghost hunter sounded flaky. The other experts gave off a more scholarly vibe. My favorite was the one discussing the “Crossroads” legend of blues guitarist Robert Jordan.

b) “The Making of All Hell Breaks Loose pt 2” – I didn’t expect to like this as much as I did. Apparently, this episode was written on a much grander scale but it had to be parred down into a feasible length. I think the final product is better. They also had a bit of drama involving the cemetery they planned to film at. All in all, this is an interesting look in how to get something from the page to the screen.

c) “Episode Factoids” - Some of these were sound recordings, others just a card with a fun fact from a crew member about that episode. For the recordings, they had a great mix of people with differing perspectives. Seriously, their Visual Effects Supervisor is quite articulate about the work in a specific episode. His focus is narrow but his insights are pretty cool. Also, Jared Padalecki (Sam) and Kim Manners (director/producer) have no problem telling embarrassing stories. Eric Krike surprised me talking about what didn't work in an episode and how they had to try to correct for it. Very informative and entertaining feature.

2) Webisodes Featurettes - Three are included: Visual Effects, The Writer's Room and Props. All are good. The Visual Effects Supervisor, man, I could just listen to him talk for hours. He presents some rather technical stuff interestingly with a little bit of humour. Toward the end, he does this great little impersonation of Eric Kripke. The Writer's shown were John Shiban, Eric Kripke and Robert Singer. They all talked about how they research the urban legends and then try to find the "Supernatural"-specific twist. Shiban & Kripke were all "Monsters!YAH!" and Singer was more character development centered. You can definitely see where they get their shifting tones, which Kripke called "hopscotching genres". The propsmaster certainly knew what the fans liked. He focused mainly on the ghost-hunting equipment/weapons. Very interesting but it seemed shorter than the other two. Overall, good.

3) Jared Padalecki's Screen Test - Well, I can definitely see why he was hired. It's a bit longer than I thought it would be. You get to see him do the same scene twice and he gets better. Supposedly, Jensen Ackles was already selected to play Sam when Jared tried out. They liked Jared so much, they switched Sam to him and hired Jensen to play Dean.

4) Commentaries – Three are included. Each had a very different tone.

“In My Time of Dying”: OK. Not a lot of talking from the series stars. I get the impression they don’t usually watch their own show (likely because they are too busy spending 14+hrs a day shooting). And when the actors did talk, it was interesting. These guys appear to be really interested in their work and not at all full of themselves. The few tidbits on the production side were all interesting. This episode presented some challenges because one of the characters is invisible to the other characters. They talked a great deal about how they used camera tricks, etc to show that.

“What Is and What Should Never Be”: Excellent. Eric Kripke is a great commentator. He never shuts up, he’s amusing and he covers a good variety of topics. He spent a fair portion talking about what it was like to direct his first episode. He mentions getting sun in rainy Vancouver for the shot of Dean mowing the lawn. Apparently, some people didn't want Dean & Sam to be estranged in this alternate world. But Kripke stuck to his guns on that (I think correctly). Like in a recent "Heroes" commentary, he also mentioned BroYay! Although it’s a bit less surprising for "Supernatural". Brothers or not, with only two main characters who are both male, a larger than usual portion of fans are slashers.

“All Hell Breaks Loose, pt1”: Very Good. Eric Kripke again, joined by writer Sera Gamble and producer Robert Singer. Sera Gamble is especially cool to listen to because she kinda talks like a fan. She gave a Public Service Announcement against spoilers. Also, Kripke only compliments the first draft of an episode when it is really bad. If she gets a draft back with notes & no compliment, he likes it. The best stuff was on the writing process and how they got the location for “Frontierland”. This was an actual ruined amusement park and they re-wrote the episode to include it. But Singer (who directed) emphasizes that it was difficult to shoot because of bad weather. Again, Kripke & Singer are such an effective foil. Kripke is a horror-loving fangirl and Singer is more interested in character drama.

5) The Gag Reel – HILARIOUS. Apparently, the series stars handle the exceedingly long work-days by being complete loons. There’s a good mix of mess-ups, visual gags, low humor, etc. Definitely worth multiple viewings just because you miss things laughing so hard. Season One’s gag reel was also excellent so the bar was set pretty high. They definitely out-did themselves here. Also, several of the pranks & incidents shown here are mentioned in other places on the DVD features.

6) The Deleted Scenes – Deserved deletion. Unlike a show like "Heroes" where juggling 10+ characters can lead to some characters getting short-changed because of time, "Supernatural" has only two major characters (three if you count the car). There’s not much room to "lose" somebody. They may be interesting to some hard-core purists but not really for me.

Overall, Supernatural Season 2 is an excellent DVD release. Tons of features, presented in a cool way. Only a few OK ones but when the features are good, they are really good. Come On Season Three!

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Bones: Season 2 DVD

My next DVD review for this month is Season 2 of "Bones". I spent Thanksgiving weekend last year watching Season One DVDs with my parents so I have lots of good memories of this show.

Now, Season Two involved some casting changes that were controversial but I was overall happy with the finished product. Bones is best when it lets it’s characters shine and this season certainly allowed that. Re-watching I am always so happy as how funny and un-abashedly geeky this show is. It would be really easy for a show about solving murders to be dour (CSI) but they manage to preserve a fun tone while still showing the humanity of the characters. The mysteries are also good in that there’s always a bit of a twist so it’s not as easy to predict.

Spoilers for special features below the cut....

Now, Bones Season One didn’t have many extras so I didn’t have high expectations here. The main features were:

1) “Memories of the Season” – Very good. Although, obviously spoiler rich so don’t watch these until you’ve seen all the episodes. Ryan O’Neal appeared quite impressed with Emily Deschanel (Dr. Brennan). Also, the new cast member? She was hired the night before her first day of shooting! Some on-line fans really lit into her work this season and I thought she did a good job. The best part was when the actors each described what type of show “Bones” is..They all gave completely different answers.

2) “Visceral Effects” - Also very good. They talk about several of the more complicated effects they've done like the zero-g shots from "Spaceman in a Crater". Several of the actors and producers talk about their favorite effect shots. Interesting fact: most of the bugs, ants, rats, on the dead bodies are CGI. They showed a split screen of several effects shots with as-filmed on one side and the final shot with effects. Nice little feature talking about some of the more subtle effect-work of the show.

3) The Commentaries – There are two of them. Unfortunately, none are from the pair of series leads Emily Deschenal & David Boreanz. Their commentary on Season One episode “Two Bodies in a Lab” was brilliant. But what’s here is also good, if not as better.

“The Glowing Bones in the Old Stone House” – This is a surprise. Emily Deschanel with producer Stephen Nathan and her father Caleb who is the director of this episode. Very good commentary. They included lots of funs facts about the show and little behind the scenes tidbits. One really endearing thing is they would occasionally MST3K their own show a bit. Also, you get to hear Stephen Nathan sing his version of the "Bones" theme music. The three of them keep a good flow to the conversation and are overall enjoyable.

“Stargazer in a Puddle” – Includes series creator Hart Hanson and excutive producers Barry Josephson and Stephen Nathan (again). Thsi was great. These guys clearly enjoy their work and can talk endlessly about it without sounding pretentious or boring. They also riffed on the show a bit (occasionally replacing dialogue, etc). The funniest moment for me was when Barry Josephson cheered when his name appeared. Actually, these guys were so "on", by the end of the credits I was shocked at the amount of topics they'd already covered.

One thing I would like to say on the commentaries. On both, the series people mentioned "Hey, we've got to talk about good stuff, people paid for this DVD set." They definitely conveyed the fact they wanted people to feel like they were getting something valuable for supporting the show. As someone who spends quite a bit on DVDs, this was good to hear.

4) Gag Reel – Just OK. It’s mainly line mess-ups, etc. Which isn’t surprising considering some of the scientific lingo they have to get out. Also, David Boreanaz cusses like a sailor.

Overvall for the DVD, very good. "Bones" doesn't have tons of extras but what they have (for the most part) provides great additions to the already entertaining Season Two episodes.

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Heroes: Season 1 DVD

This is the first of several DVDs coming out in the next month that I planned to buy. I was particularly excited about this one as I expected "Heroes" to be much better in block viewing. Its continuous storylines favor watching several episodes at once.

And I was right, "Heroes" is even better on DVD. I spent most of last week just rewatching the episodes There’s visual hints in the background that I missed the first time, off-hand remarks that have meaning now and character moments that resonate even more knowing what follows.

"Heroes" also comes with several special features including the extended cut of the pilot, lots of commentaries and deleted scenes, plus several featurettes. Spoiler for special features under the cut.


1) The Extended Pilot: While not as tight as the aired version, there’s several interesting things going on here. The radiation man was a quite different character, a Muslim ex-terrorist with an American wife. The actor playing this character is excellent but this character possessed a much more legitimate reason to be considered a terrorist which would effect how the audience accepts the whole persecution angle. I think Tim Kring made the right choice here. He mentions in the commentary he didn’t want to spend a season in the mind of actual terrorists and that’s not what he wanted the show to be about. Also, I don’t see how Issac cutting off his hand in the pilot could be recoverable without some major hand-waving. It was too excessive. The OD storyline was much more effective and in-character.
One note, this pilot does not flow with the rest of the series. Several cut scenes from this pilot were redone and placed in later episodes. Not to mention there are several of small casting changes (Suresh’s father, Sylar and Matt’s Wife) that are jarring when going from the Extended pilot to the 2nd episode.

2) Deleted Scenes: While most of these deserve to be cut, there were several interesting hints at a more-developed storylines especially for the Nikki-DL characters. Unfortunately, none of these scenes were necessary for the series major arc (stopping the explosion in NY). “Heroes” does an excellent job of being a character-driven superhero story but too much character would slow down the pace of the show. One of the best features of "Heroes" is that things happen, move forward, people learn. Interesting but understandably deleted.

3) Episode Commentaries: Ok, I’m a commentary junkie. But the number of commentaries is a bit intimidating so I’m only three-quarters of the way through them. The most interesting tidbits so far:
- Greg Grunberg, while funny, is a bit overwhelming. If he’s on the commentary he will completely take over.
- Everybody in the cast & crew loves the following
(1)DP & the shooting style of the show. At least 3-4 times a commentary someone mentions the lighting or filtering of a shot and how awesome it is.
(2) The plot twists. Half the time the actors are shutting each other up right before big reveals and then geeking out about how cool it is. This could be pretentious but comes off as quite endearing. You can hear how enthusiastic these guys are and how invested they are in where things are going.
(3) Hayden Panettiere. All the other actors just rave about her. Personally, I think it’s justified. Claire wouldn’t be a tenth as interesting in the hands of a less skilled actress.
- I kinda like how several of these were recorded during filming. Several of the actors come & go between commercial cuts resulting in a very conversation-at-a-party feel. It can be a little hard to follow but it’s a nice little tweak to the usual commentary track.
- Sendhil Ramamurthy has some interesting ideas about marriage. “Every wife has a little bit of Mom in them...(pause while other people talk) Just for the record, I’m not married to my mother.”
-Also, Sendhil has my thanks for mentioning how ridiculous the “Texas” geography is on the show. Being from San Antonio, he should know.
- Tim Kring feeds the fringe fans. Both he and Dennis Hammer mention BroYay! for the Petrelli clan and then, go “We totally watch the [BroYay!] videos on Youtube” (blinks incredulously) WHAT? I don’t think I ever heard another show creator/producer so openly acknowledging this. Since this revelation, several Live Journals have exploded with glee.

4) Featurettes: There are 5 of them.
“Making Of Heroes” is short and pretty lame. Nothing really new here except the presence of Ali Larter whom I haven’t seen much in the other features. Her comments were interesting but a little weird to watch because it appears Ali Larter is a nervous smiler.
"Special Effects" was interesting in that several things I thought were special effects weren't and several things I thought were real...weren't. Which means these guys know their business. There's also mention of the fact Masi Oka worked for ILM and how that can effect his work in a special effect shot.
“Stunts” has some pretty cool behind the scenes work and provides yet another interesting fact about Masi Oka. At one time, he had a 1st level black belt in kendo. The other actors all get their chance to talk about how much they love putting their lives in danger.
“Artist Tim Sale” is shockingly laid back. But his discussion of his background was pretty interesting. Also, HE'S COLORBLIND! He does all the art in black and white, then scans it into a computer for the color work.
"The Score" was OK. The ladies scoring "Heroes" definitely know their business but I just that interested (sorry).

All in all, definitely worth $37 at Wal-mart.

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Harry Potter & The Order of the Phoenix, Movie

WARNING: If you have not read the book or seen the movie, this post contains spoilers about plot, etc.

Ok, now this is my favorite (so far) of the Harry Potter books. Needless to say I was anxious to see how the movie compared. My worries were for nothing. It was just as good as the trailers led me to believe.

Nit-picks
1) Sirius Black's death: In the book, Bellatrix pushes him into the veil and is very clearly at fault for intentional homicide. The movie makes it seem like he just fell in accidentally during the fighting.
2) Ginny's Harry Smack-down: While I understand they couldn't include everything, this to me was an important reminder about Ginny's past and would have added some weight to some of the scenes at Grimmauld Place.
3) Neville's Parents: I missed the scene at the hospital where we see how broken the Longbottom's were by their torture. I missed seeing Neville's reaction. The conversation they did include was an OK substitute but it left people who haven't read the books with the impression the Longbottoms were dead.

10 Things They Got Completely Right:
10) The Daily Prophet Transitions - Fantastic way to both get rid of some exposition & move from scene to scene.
9) The Twins Exit from Hogwarts - No swamp but they really didn't need it. The fireworks destroying all the proclamations was visually stunning.
8) Neville Awww! - Matthew Lewis has done a very good job over the course of the movies portraying and here, he outdoes himself. He conveys Neville's hesitation but also his heroic spirit. Excellent.
7) Bellatrix Lestrange - Helena Bonham Carter was every bit as bat-shit crazy and vicious as I imagined when reading the books.
6) Background Inclusions - From the goat at the Hogshead to Grawp to the Inquisitorial Squad, Yates managed to pack a ton of little things in without taking up time & dialogue doing it. This really made it seem like less was cut from the book. I am curious to see how this skill is applied to the 6th movie.
5) The Trio Acting Together - Before the movie was released, I heard an Emma Watson interview where she mentioned Yates was the first director to really play up the relationship between the Trio. She was right. Ron & Hermione were especially fantastic. And Daniel Radcliffe was absolutely fantastic.
4) Everybody Else Acting - The entire ensemble was utilized in every scene they were in. I think Yates may be the first director to so noticeably expect them to perform in the background and to hit very specific notes. Every single scene with the DA, in the common rooms, and classrooms everyone was noticably improved even with the camera wasn't on them. Bonnie Wright especially did brilliantly.
3) Battle At The Ministry - Perfect. I loved how spooky it was, how obviously out-classed the kids were, how Lucius & Bellatrix tag-teamed them with the evil and how original a wizarding battle looked. If the battle for Hogwarts in HBP is half as good, I'll be satisfied.
2) Luna Lovegood - Perfect look. Dead-on voice. She hit it out of the park with every scene she was in and got some of the best lines of the movie.
1) Umbridge - This movie would not work if Umbridge wasn't just as evil, sanctimonious and viscerally repugnant as in the book. This movie did work because Imelda Staunton exceeded even my most ambitious expectations. She was deluded, bureaucratic, controlling, and god help her, pink.

So, on the whole good movie & excellent book-to-movie transition. Based on this installment, I'm very glad David Yates will be returning to direct Year 6.

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