Due to a lack of much else interesting to watch on TV that my wife would sit still for, I’ve been sucked into “Dancing With The Stars” this season. It’s like watching a live action crossover comic book, though. For starters, one of the contestants’ professional dance partners was a finalist on “So You Think You Can Dance.” (That’s Lacey Schwimmer.) Then, this week’s results show featured choreography to a Jessica Simpson song from two ballroom dancers from previous seasons of “So You Think,” as well as a new number by a choreographer from “So You Think” featuring a dancer from “Step Up 2,” a dance movie produced by a judge on “So You Think.” With Shane Sparks (of “So You Think” fame) now doing Randy Jackson’s (of “American Idol” fame, from the same producer of “So You Think”) dance crew show on MTV, I’m beginning to think the televised dance world is an incestuous little thing. Or that Nygel Lithgoe rules over them all.

Or, perhaps they know they’re a small industry and so stick together for the betterment of their chosen art form.

Too bad the comics world will never learn that lesson. We can’t even manage to get a “Batman/Daredevil” book published, and that’s a guaranteed money printer for Marvel and DC.

One other note: The dance shows repeat for multiple seasons, but the shows that attempt to find a double- or triple-threat always crash and burn — “Grease,” “Fame,” and “Dance War.” People shouldn’t try to sing AND dance at the same time. The professionals make it look easy because they’re lip-synching half the time.

New Red Dwarf Specials Confirmed | News | Red Dwarf

As announced by Robert Llewellyn for Grant Naylor Productions this week at the UKTV seasonal press launch, the project is a short series of brand new specials to celebrate the 21st birthday of Red Dwarf. Doug Naylor will be masterminding the four half-hour instalments, and the regular cast will all be reprising their iconic roles. They are being made by GNP for UKTV’s free-to-air channel, Dave – our new best friends!

Two half hours will be new episodes.  One episode will be a Making Of show.  And the fourth will be a clips show.  Odd assortment, but what Red Dwarf fan could complain about anything new coming out after all these years?

HBO Developing Lincoln Mini – 9/15/2008 – Broadcasting & Cable

HBO is developing Manhunt, a miniseries from David Simon and Tom Fontana about the assassination of Abraham Lincoln and the frantic 12-day hunt for his killer, John Wilkes Booth. The project reunites the network with the creative forces behind two of its former critical hit series—Simon created The Wire and Fontana created Oz — as well as the two writers themselves. Simon and Fontana have not collaborated since Fontana turned Simon’s book Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets into the cop drama Homicide for NBC.

There’s nothing cooler than that bit of news.  Color me excited for the eventual DVD release.

Once again, I’d like to thank the fine makers of Bud Lite for their continued sponsorship in making “The Shield” once of the most pleasurable television shows to watch.  The limited commercials make for a much smoother viewing experience.

The episode was good, too.  I know that I want nothing to do with “Spook Street” when I grow up, nor would I ever in my life want to work as a cop in a gang-banger division.  I also learned how Al Qaida fits into all of it, including one or two laugh out loud funny Mackey lines.

There are an awful lot of moving targets on this series right now, and watching them move closer to collision is a lot of fun.

Here we go again:

• The Forbidden Kingdom

Didn’t Jet Li retire from the movies?  (He did.  Then he found enlightenment.) Why is he still in so many of them? And shouldn’t Jackie Chan retire from the movies now, before he becomes an even bigger joke than I’m afraid he’s already become?

The trailer for the movie looked pretty on the Apple TV, though.

• Baby Mama

Sara Palin and Amy Poehler starred in this not-terribly-well received (critically) summer comedy.

• The Big Lebowski: 10th Anniversary Edition

It has some kind of cult following, I understand.

• Smallville: Season Seven

Still going. . . New season begins next week. This one comes with a comic at Best Buy.

• Jon & Kate Plus Eight: Seasons One and Two

Kate can be a screaming shrew at times, but the show is entertaining.  And whenever I wonder if I can handle raising a child, I watch a show about a couple raising eight of them and realize how easy it is, by comparison.

• The Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries

This was a fun little show, with great animation via TMS in Japan.

So, what are you watching? What are you excited about?

I don’t have time for much this season, but I love beating myself up over everything I miss.  Tell me what’s good so far, what you’re looking forward to, or even what you saw this week that stunk.

I’ve watched half the season premiere of “America’s Next Top Model,” which was just as campy and crazy as always.  This season, it seems like every contestant is going over the top to have a message they want to carry.  And I don’t just mean that the editing has made them look like characters.  No, they’re on the show to promote diversity, prove their region capable of modelling, promote vegetarianism, etc. etc.  At some point, you want to slap them all and tell them to put some makeup on, wear those insane costumes, and start posing.

Saw most of “90210.”  I didn’t watch the original.  I think I like “One Tree Hill” better, but it’s early yet.  Even 90210, from what I’ve read, got better over the course of its first couple of seasons.  Still, this premiere was very sleek.

We talked about “The Shield” yesterday. . .

“The Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency” is setting itself up for failure this season, as Janice’s mad plans are just going to infuriate people beyond where they’ll be able to forgive her when she lets them all in on the gag.  Idiot.

I used to watch sit-coms and dramas.

I’m waiting for the “24″ movie, whenever it airs this fall. Sounds like Kim Bauer is coming back this season, too.  I’ve heard more spoilers than just that, but I’ll let you Google for them on your own.

So, what’s capturing your interest?  Do tell.

First of all, thanks to Anheuser Busch for their sponsorship of the final season of television’s greatest drama.  How do I know it’s television’s greatest drama?  It’s never won an Emmy in that category.  On the other hand, awards shows like to reward a series when it’s done, and not when it’s in the middle of a creatively successful run.  When did the Emmys nominate “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” or “X-Files”?  When did they give John McGinley a nomination for “Scrubs?”  Oh, wait, they haven’t done that yet, have they?  Feh. (For that matter, which “Lord of the Rings” movie won the Best Picture Oscar? The last one.) But this isn’t about all of them. It’s about one bad-arse mo-fo named Vic Mackey.  With a car, a gun, and a Machiavellian intellect, the man rules the streets of Farmington. Who knew The Commish could be so good?  Or so bad?  All at the same time.

How could they possibly top the last few seasons, particularly with powerhouse performances by Glenn Close and Forest Whitaker?  For starters, Laurie Holden isn’t hard on the eyes.

But, seriously, folks — we have to send the spoiler flag flying and lead you past the break for all the talk.

Den ganzen Beitrag lesen…

It begins tonight.

Sadly, it’s the beginning of the end.  Thankfully, there’s still a bunch of hours left of the best show on television today:

THE SHIELD.  FX.  10:00 p.m.  The episode is scheduled for an hour and eight minutes, so plan accordingly.

I’m having a baby in a month, and yet I still plan on watching this season, even if it’s between burpings or diaper changings or what.  No way am I missing this.

Blake’s 7 Returns, Red Dwarf Rumored Next | The Underwire from Wired.com

Meanwhile, eyewitness reports say Robert Llewellyn (android Kryton, above) told a Seattle PBS audience that the BBC would produce a Red Dwarf special in October — perhaps for a Christmas broadcast. Fans and TV reporters will be searching for confirmation frantically until an official announcement arrives.

Actor Julius Carry Dies

Don’t remember him?  Remember the big black guy on “Brisco County?”  Yeah, him.  He was only in his mid-50s.

(Hat tip to @jbacardi)

ABC must have decided they’ve had enough “Dancing with the Stars.”  This season, they’re bringing in the ultimate show-killer: Ted McGinley.

(Aside to Tom the Dog: Misty May is also dancing. Prepare for a lot of hits again.)

And now, your “The Shield” Moment of Zen:

Vic Mackey will beat up his last bad guy on Nov. 25. FX has set an air date for the final episode of “The Shield,� which begins its seventh and final season Sept. 2.

I’m excited by the thought of more DVDs right now.  That probably has to do with the fact that I have my surround sound system plugged in and operational once again. Now that I’m not living in a one bedroom condo with thin walls, I can blast some volume, fill some space, and watch movies with the kind of environment you’re supposed to enjoy them in.

That all said, I’ll never have the time to watch them.  But the excitement is there, and I enjoyed plugging a few DVDs in to hear them again.  (“The Rock” has the greatest soundtrack ever.)

Onto this week’s releases:

• Street Kings

Keanu Reeves plays an honest cop opposite the cop with political and power aspirations in Forrest Whitaker, who looks to be reprising his star turn from “The Shield.”  How he didn’t win an Emmy for that season is beyond me.  Wait, nevermind.  The Emmys are a joke.

• The Scorpion King 2

Hot on the heels of the failure of the third “Mummy” movie comes this spin-off sequel.  Even The Rock knew better than to reprise his role for this movie. This might be direct-to-DVD.

• Gossip Girl: The Complete First Season

It’s The CW’s last best hope for success.  That, and the 90210 series starting in the fall.

• Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles: The Complete First Season

If you had asked me a year ago, I would have confidently told you what a short-lived dud this series would be. Instead, it seems to be something of a success for FOX.  Go figure. The Terminator franchise is fast turning into one of the most convoluted and deep continuities in major media.  Usually, you need a comic book to last 100 issues to start filling in gaps like this.  Instead, there’s a TV series, three movies, and another new movie or two upcoming.  (Christian Bale stars in one. Perhaps he’ll be out of jail long enough to promote it, when the time comes.)

Next Week: “The Shield”, Season Six! The greatest drama on TV returns to DVD before the final season begins in September.

It’s a television-on-dvd week.  The movie people seem to be sleeping off their “The Dark Knight” hangover.  Let’s look at three interesting TV show releases:

• Caroline in the City: Complete First Season

Wow, I had just about forgotten about that show.  Maybe they really are running out of TV shows to put on DVD, after all. . .

• Tru Calling: The Complete Season

Just in case that new “Dollhouse” show does well, here’s where Eliza Dushku last struck out on her own for a series. . .  I can’t believe this hasn’t been out on DVD before. Has it?

• The Wire: Season 5

Someday, I really hope to see this series. Someday. . .

In the meantime, I’ve getting very excited for the return of THE SHIELD for its final season next month!

And so another season is in the books.  Sadly, I didn’t get to watch much of the last three weeks while I was busy setting up the new house, but something struck me:

Reality shows have a general arc they follow. In the first season, everything is ne and exciting.  Over the next couple of years, the format shifts subtly and everything gets ramped up a notch.  Everything becomes bigger and bolder and, theoretically, better.  Pretty soon, people catch on to the tricks.  The show moves so far away from its original mission statement that it’s practically a new show that merely catches shadows of the original. And the downhill slide begins.

“So You Think You Can Dance,” on the other hand, is maintaining an upward trajectory. The show hasn’t had a misstep yet.  There’s been no major shift in the formula.  Sure, they may shift partners earlier or add new dance styles or give the votes to the viewers sooner, but it’s basically the same show.  Same set.  Same judges.

And it works.  Every season has gotten better and better.  And this season was so packed full of talented dancers that when the best dancer in the series’ history got voted out by America a couple of weeks ago, it wasn’t that big a blow to the show.  There were still plenty of capable dancers left.  There were no slackers in there.

That said, the show may have to pull back a little next season.  They’re overworking the contestants. Two went to the hospital over the weekend.  There’s just too much stuff happening.  Perhaps they should back off the two hour episodes with two routines each week.  Let the show shrink to an hour and a half or even an hour.  Give the contestants’ bodies a chance to cope.

Still, it’s a great show.  I thought the second place finisher would be the big winner this season, but I was wrong.  Oh, well.

Mary Murphy couldn’t keep up at top speed with the dancers on the show, but Nigel was very cute with the kids from the Debbie Allen Dance Academy.  And the pop-and-lock competition was really cool, though my wife found it boring. Can’t wait for next season. . .