Screenhead

There isn’t a whole lot of reason to watch normal network television any more.  Pretty much everything they’ve come out with lately has been just a new version of something that’s already been around for years upon anyway.  And the stuff that hasn’t already been out for years upon is involved in some kind of cinematic incest and inbreeding; seriously, how much difference is there REALLY between American Idol, America’s Got Talent and So You Think You Can Dance?

So when I first heard about Fringe, the first season of which will be out on DVD in just a matter of days, I confess to some doubt.  Network TV is hardly the place to go anymore for anything more than second-rate watered-down content that fully complies with FCC regulations so draconian and nightmarish in scope that it’s a wonder we can see ANYTHING, let alone the nonsensical garbage we get these days.  What I got was actually pretty engaging with some innovative touches that brought it above the standard.

Fringe is a series about an FBI group that tackles things on the titular fringe of science.  All the stuff that’s in the process of going from science fiction to science fact, like nanotechnology and genetic engineering and assorted similar whatnot.  And the three people tracing down all these cool and sexy science terms are an FBI special agent, a literally mad scientist, and the mad scientist’s rogue wandering genius son.

If you think of Fringe as C-S-Sci-Fi, or The X-Files without the constant romantic tension, you won’t be too far from the truth of it.  The storylines are fairly deep and involved–they’re going to get all the way up to corporate conspiracy with this, involving an outfit called Massive Dynamic, which makes this some really prime sci-fi drama.  There’s any number of places they could go with this plotline. And, I love how the locations are given in three-dimensional lettering superimposed over the scene itself.  It really beats that little block of text at the bottom of the screen and is sufficient unique to catch interest.

Special warning in advance, though–Fringe can get  surrealist with its imagery and will get downright weird at points.  If you’re not game for that, stay WELL away.  Seriously.  I spent so much time watching this and wondering what bizarrity they were going to pull out next.

Maybe I have to rethink the whole “network TV is useless” concept.  The Broken Clock Theory still applies.  And as such, the Screenhead Ten Scale gives the massive seven disc collection of Fringe season one an eight out of ten for busting a hole in expectations and doing so with some style besides.

I did not watch a lot of Torchwood.  It was mostly on BBC America, and the few episodes I saw on the Sci Fi Channel showed up so sporadically in both time and date that I didn’t even know when it was on half the time.

But the few I did see, well, I have to admit there was something there. Especially when I got my hands on an advance copy, which is only just available on DVD today, of Torchwood: Children of Earth.

In Torchwood: Children of Earth, the Torchwood crew is going to go through five really, REALLY unpleasant days of an alien invasion by a race that calls itself the 456.  The 456 wants only one thing–Earth’s children.  Further complicating matters is that there’s one lone survivor of the 456’s last invasion, and he knows they’re on their way.  But can Torchwood manage to defeat the 456 before the children of Earth are lost forever?

It resembles nothing so much as a really, REALLY dark version of Men in Black but for England.  And it almost seems badly out of place–most Torchwood episodes involved the handful of Torchwood employees tackling that week’s Special Guest Villain / Paranormal Oddity.  And if you haven’t seen a lot of Torchwood before, you’re going to be just a little lost on some of the finer points of who’s who and what’s what.

But–and this is the really interesting part–if you haven’t seen a lot of Torchwood, you can actually go in blind on this one.  It functions just as well as a stand-alone as it does part of a greater series, if somewhat differently.  I have to admit that I got taken up with the whole thing, watching the interestingly-laid paths of science fiction and action with plenty of thriller capability.

It’s pretty solid, and a little chilling.  This is, as I said, a much darker iteration of the normal Torchwood series.  Longtime fans may be put off by this and may even go so far as to wonder if this is a whole new direction for the Torchwood series to go in.   Even the DVD menu was a chiller, frankly–the first time I heard the 456 speak I got the willies something fierce.  In fact, I don’t know what it is, but calling an alien race “the 456″ is somehow the most ominous name I’ve heard in a long time.  I’ve heard a lot of alien race names that carried plenty of fiendish glottals–the K’Klikkit, the K’Tang, the Ur-Quan (both Kohr-Ah and Kzer-Za)–but somehow, something as simple as a race that goes by three numbers in sequence (those of you who remember Star Trek: Voyager and Species 8472, you have to admit that’s somehow not so foreboding.  Maybe it’s the addition of “species” or the lack of sequence, I don’t know) is just the creepiest thing in some while.

Oh, and special advance warning for those who haven’t seen the show: brace yourselves in advance for some homosexuality and naked men.

The critical thing to remember is, Torchwood: Children of Earth has a lot going for it, but you’re going to have to clear your schedule.  Like FIVE HOURS of your schedule.  But if you do, you should enjoy the results. The Screenhead Ten Scale gives Torchwood: Children of Earth a seven out of ten for managing to be accessible to the newcomers and yet valuable to those who’ve seen some episodes before.

For those of you already familiar with the Discovery Channel’s programming, what I’m about to say will be no surprise for you.  Coming up on the order of soon is the newest iteration of Discovery Channel’s Shark Week, a week of shows devoted almost exclusively to those misunderstood terrors of the deep blue, sharks.  For those of you not familiar with this, it’s an absolutely amazing block of shows–some are purely shark-oriented, and others are special episodes of current Discovery Channel shows like Mythbusters that deal with shark facts and other shark phenomenon.

Thus, I’m all sorts of happy to offer up for you, ahead of the newest iteration of Shark Week, Discovery Channel’s Shark Week: 20th Anniversary Collection.

Shark Week: 20th Anniversary Collection is a monster four-disc compendium of episodes of Shark Week.  Containing three to four episodes of various Discovery Channel programs per disc, each covering any of a number of shark-related issues, the whole set is contained inside a box with a holographic cover that basically looks a lot like a shark attack.  Seriously–the shark essentially “swims in” from the left side of the box art and grows larger as it moves toward the right side of the box.

I’ll be honest with you up front–if you have even the VAGUEST interest in sharks, this is just the box set for you.  Prehistoric sharks, shark attack survivors, the shark attack rescue squads…pretty much everything you could ever want to know, or ever imagined you could know about sharks is right here.

It also serves as an excellent introductory guide to the Discovery Channel’s Shark Week.  If you want to learn, before you go in, just what this week is like, lay your hands on a copy of this fantastic box set.  We’re talking about approximately ELEVEN HOURS of footage.  That’s right.  Nearly half a day of footage comes in this tiny little box set.  Can you imagine that?  Sit around for half a day watching footage about sharks!

But it’s not just sharks, though.  It’s also some absolutely incredible visuals.  Let me put it this way:  sharks don’t live in the Arctic.  You’re probably not going to see a lot of sharks in Maine, or bombing around Boston Harbor.  So what you’ll get is an offhand look at some really fantastic beaches from all around the world.  Australian, Floridian, Hawaiian…you’ll see it in grand style and often with incredible overhead views.  Even better, you’ll get to go underwater, swimming with those sharks and the assorted other fish that live around them.

It’s downright spectacular, shot in a grand documentary style that feels so real and authentic that it can’t be easily ignored.  It’s great TV, packaged for easy use on DVD, and whether you already enjoy Shark Week or have never seen it, you’re going to fall in love with this DVD package.

Discovery Channel’s Shark Week: 20th Anniversary Collection nets a seven out of ten from the Screenhead Ten Scale for being a magnificently in-depth package about something not everyone may be interested in, despite the fact that it tries its best to capture everyone’s attention.

From ingénue darling to legendary star of stage and screen, beloved songbird Judy Garland was at the height of her fame and popularity during the television run of The Judy Garland Show.  Now volume one, the first in a special collector’s set of 13 volumes coming to DVD, will be in stores July 28, 2009. 

The Emmy-nominated variety program ended its critically-acclaimed CBS-TV run after just one season (1963-64). Today, those 26 shows are revered by many as the entertainment icon’s finest work.  Singing then-new material as well as the classics expected of her, this is the legendary Judy at her peak.  Also featured in volume one of this 13-volume collector’s set is daughter Liza Minnelli, now a legend in her own right. 

Then just 17, Liza sings her off-Broadway hit “You Are for Loving” and displays her renowned ability as a dancer on “Put on a Happy Face.”  Liza and Judy shine in the duets “Together,” “We Could Make Such Beautiful Music Together,” “The Best is Yet to Come,” “Bye, Bye, Baby” and “Bob White”; and revive the “We’re a Couple of Swells” tramp characters from Easter Parade. 

Also featured in a dazzling display of song, dance and comedy are jazz greats Count Basie and his band and Mel Tormé, who perform solo and join the great Garland on such stunners as “I Hear Music,” “The Sweetest Sounds,” “Strike Up the Band,” “April in Paris” and “Memories of You”; folk singer Judy Henske; and series regular Jerry Van Dyke who trades quips with Soupy Sales. 

Judy also sings “A Cottage for Sale,” “Hey, Look Me Over,” “Liza,” “As Long as He Needs Me,” and “Come Rain or Come Shine,” a highlight of Judy’s 45-year career.

Restored and digitally remastered from the original masters, this dynamic diva will move you like no one else! Look for all 13 volumes, each featuring two hour-long shows.

Screenhead has 5 The Judy Garland Show: Volume One DVDs to give away.  Post your name and we will pick the lucky winners Monday, August 3, 2009.

(Source)

The winner is Betty C. (240) — Congratulations!!!

This is what she won:

-Burn Notice Season 1 DVD

-Burn Notice Season 2 DVD

-Burn Notice Frisbee

-Burn Notice Suntan Lotion Pack

-Burn Notice t-shirt

-Burn Notice Novel

Burn Notice is back at an all new time, 9pm/8c! Season 3 picks up right where season 2 left off with Michael swimming in the Atlantic. Michael emerges from the water free from interference by the organization that burned him.  He’s not under their protection, either, and is under investigation by the police.  He gets out of prison with help from his old friend, who has a job for him: extraditing a thug who’s displacing landowners in a Latin American country. Join fans on the official site www.burnnotice.usanetwork.comand on Facebook www.facebook.com/BurnNotice . 

It has been five years since Lost started, and can’t you remember the delight in slowly unravelling the complex mysteries that turned a tale of a crashed plane on a desert island to something much greater? No? Well, that’s because the show has barely let go of its secrets after five years. After two exciting series that slowly expanded our understanding, the third series became ridiculous with some terrible Mcguffins and a step too far into the supernatural, only to revive itself in Season Four. Next year will be the final year of the show, but the big question is whether the past Season, its fifth, will make it worth waiting for.

The season ended in another (and thankfully final) cliff-hanger, with Juliet hitting the nuke. But the mystery of John Locke is what most fans will be debating. Found dead in his coffin, who is the Locke that challenged Jacob, the seeming authority of the island? It’s pretty obvious that the walking and talking Locke is someone in disguise, the mysterious man who pledged to find a “loophole” that can kill the seemingly immortal Jacob at the start of the final episode. Jacob, before dying, refers to the loophole, suggesting that he took over the form of Locke in some way. Let’s hope that we’ll get some sense of who these people are before the final credits roll.

The big disappointment of the finale was, as usual, in the writing. While tense, it got to the stage where characters were being manipulated just to cause that tension. Juliet and Sawyer were convinced Kate to return to the island to stop Jack, only to take 5 minutes to completely change their minds. Various reasons were given, but none really stick. In fact, Sawyer’s character has become more malleable than putty this season, ranging from rogue to Mr. Responsible at any moment. Bad writing has been evident throughout Season 5, with the first few episodes being very repetitive for a show that usually tries to shock us with twists and turns. Entire episodes (Miles’s past and relationship with his father) felt like padding.

Possibly the greatest reason for feeling as if the show’s been running around in circles is the way it treats the new characters. Read the rest of this entry »

I admit that I was not aware going in to see Russell Crowe’s latest, State of Play, that it was based on a British TV show.  Being that I enjoy British TV, it sort of makes sense now that I really, almost unaccountably, enjoyed the movie version.

State of Play is a political thriller to match them all, with Russell Crowe playing hard-bitten print journalist Cal McAffrey, your classic “white knight” sort of journalist dedicated to the truth…at all costs.  Kind of the Spider Jerusalem of his era, he’s joined by Rachel McAdams as Della Frye, a blogger handling part of the electronic side of things for the Washington D.C. newspaper both work for.  McAffrey and Frye tracking down the circumstances following the recent death of a Congressman’s mistress about to start a series of hearings into a paramilitary government contractor called PointCorp. As McAffrey and Frye continue to follow the various disparate threads, they begin to see a much greater plot forming almost before their very eyes–the sort of plot that could very well destroy several careers and do inestimable damage to the United States government itself.

For those of you who study the current political landscape, you’ll likely notice at least some “ripped from the headlines” sort of incidents, including a very easy connection between fictional PointCorp and current bugaboo Blackwater (who, ironically enough, recently underwent rebranding possibly due to the fact that everyone associated the name Blackwater with undisciplined, unaccountable mercenaries who shot at American citizens in New Orleans and did who knows how much damage in Iraq.), you’re more than welcome to pat yourselves on the back at this point.  Good catch.

But this is part of what makes State of Play such an interesting film.  Yes, it’s your class-X political thriller, but there are so many elements of plausibility included in the narrative that it takes on a life of its own.  Change a few names around and we might well be looking at something that will happen tomorrow, or next week, or next month.  It’s absolutely plausible.  And, given the prevalence of blogging that’s sprung up worldwide—nobody’s laughing at the idea of “citizen-journalists” any more—and in a time when newspapers are going under whilst blogs are flourishing due to the massive disparities in production costs, it’s kind of ennobling to see a blogger like Delia Frye suddenly in a position to make a serious difference, even IF it’s only with the help of a hard-bitten mentor of the print journalism game.

Even better, we’ll also be exposed to intradepartmental bickering at the newspapers, as they struggle to keep up the old ways of print—slow, careful, precise and well supported by fact—when cost containment virtually DEMANDS the new ways of electronic media—fast, dirty, loaded with opinion and commentary, and able to churn out copy in a rapid fashion to keep the short attention span engaged.

Truly, there are several great conflicts going on in State of Play, and we’ll be able to follow almost all of them to at least reasonably satisfying ends. In fact, State of Play itself is a highly satisfying thriller, carefully paced, well put together, and ready to take on the big leagues.  Quite a jump from the old days of TV serials, and I’m glad they made the effort.  State of Play is easily worth your time and your movie dollars.

A fan of James Bond? If you’re like me, then you’ll smile when you read this info. We just received a tip here on Screenhead that 21 James Bond movies are now available in HD. For the first time ever, you can catch you favorite spy in all his movies all through Nov. 30 through Comcast On Demand. For those who already knew about this, this is probably old news, but for those of us who didn’t know it yet, this is totally awesome!

What’s even better – there are lots of cool extras including two documentaries and some good stuff from the new movie Quantum of Solace. Check out this YouTube clip for more details on the Bond films.

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Fox takes Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and goes contemporary with a working title — Georgia and the Seven Associates.

“Heigh-ho!”

The hourlong show centers on Georgia Burnett, a young lawyer who is banished from a top law firm run by her wicked stepmother. She is forced to team up with seven quirky lawyers at a store front legal office.

To give you an idea of the characterization in the similarities to the seven dwarfs. One quirky fellow is Doc who is an ambulance chaser and carries neck braces in his trunk while another named Sleepy is an all-night party dude who if the office bike messenger but naps all day at the office.

“Some day my Prince will come!”