Results tagged “torchwood”

While we are excited to geek out with a new "Doctor Who" on Sunday, we're also looking forward to Fallon tonight which has two guests that we've interviewed for LAist: Bob Saget and John Mulaney.

OK, so we've had the re-launch of "90210" and now the CW is about to pepper us with sultry, "Gossip Girl" style ads hyping the September 8th premiere of the new "Melrose Place". How do you, the residents of LA, feel about the "return" of this show? This Sunday, the Discovery Channel will air the series by the best TV newsman of the 20th century, Walter Cronkite's "Cronkite Remembers". The marathon will start at 8am Pacific and run until midnight.

The economy is claiming the viability of Hollywood's 2nd largest prop house, 20th Century Props. The company will be auctioning off its 93,000 items starting on July 28th, including pieces from the movies Cleopatra and Titanic, as well as the TV series "The X-Files" among many others.

"American Idol" fans listen up, your favorite judge, Paula Abdul, might not be returning according to her new manager. It would be a real tragedy for late night TV as about 50% of their material seems to be based on her during the "American Idol" season, and it would be a real tragedy for Paula Abdul as it seems unlikely that she has any other employment prospects other than to be the butt of late night TV jokes.

This weekend it's all about BBC America's programming with new seasons of "Robin Hood", "The Graham Norton Show", and "Wire In The Blood". I've seen previews of "Robin Hood" and it's a more than worthy replacement for "Torchwood" whose season (dramatically) ended last Saturday with the (supposed) deaths of at least two main characters. Of course, you'll have to be able to emotionally handle the incredible switch from science fiction to fantasy in order to enjoy "Robin Hood" but just give it a try. [Don't forget the finale of "Tracey Ullman's State of the Union" on Sunday @ 10:00pm on Showtime].

Hey "Gossip Girl" fans, The CW is pulling the show off of its website because too many of you are choosing to watch it online vs. TV (where its ratings are slumping). So, I get it, restrict the viewing of the content and everything will get better. What do you want to bet that this won't fix the problem?

The TV Junkie is in New York City and will be at the above SNL taping!

Did anyone see the plastic surgery disaster that is Renee Zellweger on Letterman last night? The skin was stretched so hard over her face I thought her skull was going to pop out. OK so maybe it isn't plastic surgery, Botox anyone? What is wrong with her?? Tracey Ullman has her dead on in "State of the Union".

DirecTV has finally come to the on-demand table but is it too late? Supposedly it's at least as bad as the Dish Network's offering - very limited functionality, automatically sending content to a set top box with limited storage and potential delays in viewing.

Naoko Mori plays science technician/alien-buster Toshiko Sato on the BBC's "Torchwood", the coolest science fiction show to come out of the UK in quite a while. In fact, when put up against a lot of the other science fiction originating on cable, "Torchwood" more than holds its own against "Stargate Atlantis", "Flash Gordon", etc. The production values are great and the stories I think are a bit more unique than some of these other incredibly inbred and convoluted series.

So can fans really make a difference? Word has it that enough fans got through to NBC for them to keep the high school football-romance-drama "Friday Night Lights" on the air through a partnership with DirecTV. This gives one hope that a group of people can make a difference but then disappointment that truly great shows like "Arrested Development" couldn't make the cut. Speaking of which, Will Arnett is on Jimmy Kimmel tonight - Arnett mentioned on Conan a couple weeks ago that perhaps there is an "Arrested Development" movie in the works, wouldn't that be something?

OK so the Oscars are this weekend. Even though the writers' strike is over, the prediction is that this will be a ho-hum (excuse me?) Oscars. First of all, the majority of the films presented for consideration are real downers, secondly, because of the strike, many potential presenters thought that the awards ceremony would be canceled or drastically cut back so they made other plans and are now not available to present at the show. I'm sure they will have enough presenters but perhaps there won't be as many "mega-stars", thus leaving room for more indie-types.

OK so the Oscars a week from Sunday are what we're building up to but as an enthusiastic follower of Dexter on Showtime, I'm intrigued to see how it will translate to its network debut on CBS at 10:00pm this Sunday. At first I was concerned that the end result would be a heavily edited, several minutes shorter, vapid and empty shell of its former glory. Not so according to my Showtime contact. Evidently when they were shooting Dexter, for scenes that were gory, had nudity, or strong language, they shot alternate footage meant for broadcast TV. On Sunday we'll see if the result is a dumbed down and boring version of our favorite serial killer.

Torchwood is a guilty pleasure and its new season starts tonight on the BBCA. If you've ever been in a foreign land and seen a slightly dated American TV program come on and felt that queasy embarrassment then you know what watching Torchwood is like. It's cheesy and over-the-top science fiction with British accents and the odd dashing American thrown in. Everyone is hyper-sexed and they don't seem to discriminate between whichever sex they are attracted to at a particular moment and despite all the sexiness and the fact that it's a Euro import, I'm always a little dismayed at the lack of skin and even more dismayed at some of the gay-'80s hairdos. Still, it's well shot, good for a few laughs, and the way things are going with US licensing of UK shows, you'll be seeing it on one of the big four before you know it.

So I spent my Sunday sick as a dog on the couch watching, of all things, football, literally because I was too wiped to find the clicker and move on. I'd forgotten how obnoxious the graphics were and how pompous and full of itself football has become. Still, gotta watch the Super Bowl for the commercials so I still have some time to devote to that. Am dismayed that the talentless hack Ryan Seacrest is going to be entertainment host for the Super Bowl and even more dismayed that Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers are the featured band - can they not find an artist from the most current decade to perform at these effing things?