Category Archives: TV

‘Avengers’ release date set; Daredevil next recruit?

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Considering that “Iron Man 3” doesn’t come out until May, with a string of new Marvel movies to follow, you’d think the news about our favorite big-screen comic book movies would slow down just a bit.

Nope!

In recent days fans have seen a couple of developments:

Release date for “Avengers 2.” Marvel/Disney has confirmed a May 1, 2015 release date for Joss Whedon’s follow-up to this summer’s megahit. That’s on the heels of the announcement that Whedon had been signed not only to direct the sequel but develop a live-action TV series set in the big-screen “Avengers” universe and generally help the Marvel movie process move along through June 2015.

Daredevil likely back in Marvel’s hands: As we’ve noted here before, Marvel’s moviemaking division has big-screen rights to only some of the company’s characters. Others were long ago farmed out to other studios, which is why Fox is making a steady stream of X-Men-related movies and Sony/Columbia rebooted this summer with “The Amazing Spider-Man.”

Well, director Joe Carnahan had been gearing up for a gritty “Daredevil” reboot for Fox that promised to have a 1970s Hell’s Kitchen vibe. Carnahan said this week that his movie isn’t going to happen, leading some to expect that the rights to the blind superhero will revert to Marvel before Fox gets a chance to mount another effort.

Meaning that Marvel can include Daredevil in its on-screen universe now. Maybe even cast Matt Murdock in “Avengers 2” or his own movie.

As Marvel slowly requires some of its characters – apparently the Punisher is already back under the Marvel tent – the possibilities are endless.

Here’s a wish list for new members once Joss Whedon presents “Avengers 2:”

Black Panther. Gotta have the stalwart king of the African nation of Wakanda on the team.

Wasp and Ant-Man. Janet and Hank were original members of the group. An “Ant-Man” movie is in the early stages now. We need them in “Avengers 2.”

Daredevil. Why the heck not? New York is their mutual home turf.

Vision. The rumors flew, shortly after “The Avengers,” that the android Avenger would be included in upcoming installments, perhaps in some way personified by Clark Gregg of Phil Coulson fame. Make it happen, Joss!

Scarlet Witch. The references to Coulson’s cellist girlfriend in “The Avengers” got some people thinking Wanda, longtime Avenger and Vision’s wife, would make an appearance eventually. Yes, please.

 

Classic TV: ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ episode ‘Restless’

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“Restless” was the season finale of the fourth season of “Buffy,” airing in May 2000. The season had been an unusual one since it was the first that deviated from the high school setting of the show. Following the “Graduation Day” episodes of the previous season, Buffy and Willow went on to attend classes at U.C. Sunnydale, Giles was at loose ends before, in the following season, opening an occult shop and Xander kind of hung out, trying to find himself.

The season also featured a dramatic departure from past seasons by opening up the world of the Slayer to include “real world” supernatural elements, including what was in many ways the show’s most complex addition to its mythology, the Initiative, an underground (literally) government organization that captured and experimented on demons. It was the first absolute confirmation of Buffy’s “underground” status as the Slayer in a world in which the authorities – all the way to Washington D.C. – knew about vampires and demons.

The Initiative storyline had actually wrapped up in the previous episode, as the Scooby Gang defeated Adam, a Frankenstein-like monster created as an unauthorized offshoot of the program.

“Restless” took the form of a series of dreams sequences for Willow, Xander, Giles and Buffy in which each was stalked by the First  Slayer, a savage female proto-Buffy.

The dream sequences were perfect and spot-on, teasing viewers with suggestions of events that might come in the series. Who wasn’t intrigued by Spike’s declaration that Giles was teaching him to become a Watcher?

The episode also featured some faces from the past, including Seth Green as Oz, Phina Oruche as Giles’ girlfriend Olivia, Mercedes McNab as Harmony and Armin Shimerman as Principal Snyder.

Ultimately, “Restless” marked something of a departure for “Buffy” and for Buffy. Especially when the Slayer declared herself different from the slayers of old, demonstrating that the First Slayer and the conventions of the Watchers Council and past Slayers didn’t mean anything to her.

Random observations:

“Restless” was written and directed by series creator Joss Whedon a dozen years before he became a Hollywood sensation with “The Avengers.” Whedon imbued the episode with his trademark mix of thrills and humor.

The First Slayer isn’t the only thing primordial about this episode: Just before they fall asleep, the gang settles in to watch a movie on VHS!

Throughout the episode, a guy shows up and says something about cheese. Of all the odd moments in the episode that fans took as clues to the future, this one we felt we could laugh off.

The episode featured references to ongoing series developments, including Willow’s coming out. During her dream, Willow’s anxiety reached its peak when former flame Oz and current flame Tara snickered and smirked at her even as she succumbed to the First Slayer.

I love all the dream sequences, but Xander’s journey into an “Apocalypse Now”-style heart of darkness is hilarious.

The episode is peppered with references to characters and episodes past and future, including Faith the vampire slayer and Dawn, Buffy’s “little sister” introduced in the next season. You could even argue that Joyce’s appearance in a wall during Buffy’s dream sequence was a reference to her eventual death.

“Restless” is one of the great episodes of a great series.

 

Sci-fi alive and well in ‘Alphas,’ ‘Falling Skies’

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It’s been a long while since I’ve expected the channel formerly known as Sci-Fi to give us much more than a lot of cheap and cheesy ghost hunting shows. Yes, the now-monikered SyFy has a few actual scripted science fiction shows. But from the channel that once aired “Battlestar Galactica,” the pickings are pretty slim.

So I’m happy to note one good sci-fi show currently airing on SyFy and, as a bonus, another that’s wrapping up its season on TNT.

The show approaching the end of its second season is “Falling Skies,” TNT’s post-apocalyptic drama about a group of survivors in the wake of an alien invasion of the Earth.

The first season showed the survivors, led by a history professor (Noah Wylie) and a military man (Will Patton) learning how to work together and avoid the spider-like alien invaders and their “Robocop”-type mech droids. The greatest threat they faced was the aliens’ aims to harness human youth, including one of Wylie’s sons.

This second season the humans have been journeying from New England to Charleston, South Carolina, where the U.S. government has been reforming.

In tonight’s episode, the travelers reach Charleston and find one of Wylie’s mentors in a pivotal role. The mentor is played by Terry O’Quinn of “Lost” fame and if you have a feeling he’s more than what he seems … I’m right there with you.

“Falling Skies” airs tonight and then wraps up its second season on Aug. 19.

On SyFy, “Alphas” is one of the most entertaining sci-fi dramas airing right now. Almost a TV version of “X-Men,” the Monday night show features a group of people with special abilities – super strength, heightened senses, the ability to persuade others to do anything – under the direction of human doctor Lee Rosen (David Straitham).

The teams of Alphas is a diverse bunch, often conflicting with each other like the teams from the best comic book stories. Among the most intriguing: Gary (Ryan Cartwright), a young man with autism who can “read” electronic signals from cell phones and computers in the air; Bill Harken (Malik Yoba) a cop whose super strength takes a toll on his body; and – new to the series as of last week – Kat (Erin Way), a young woman who can quickly absorb knowledge and become expert on any subject or technique.

“Alphas” tells interesting “small” stories – including one about a man whose super-speed abilities made him grow old quickly; be was played by 1980s star C. Thomas Howell as a college-age kid who unfortunately looked middle-aged – against a backdrop of a bigger story: The government’s concerns about and control of the Alphas and a rival team of Alphas with leanings that will remind “X-Men” fans of Magneto and his brotherhood.

“Falling Skies” has a fairly dense history that will make the most sense if you seek out and watch past episodes, but “Alphas” is a fun series that you can jump into at virtually any point. They’re both recommended.

‘Dallas’ closes great first season with ‘Revelations’

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I hope you’ve been watching the revival of “Dallas” this summer on TNT. If so, you’ve seen one of the best continuations of a TV show I’ve ever seen.

If you’ve been watching, you’ll want to tune in tonight at 9 on TNT for the season finale, “Revelations.”

The first season of Ewing family in-fighting – new but comfortingly familiar – climaxes tonight. So far this season we’ve seen the storyline move along two main paths: John Ross, the son of J.R. and Sue Ellen Ewing, was conniving to break into the oil business, even if it meant drilling on family homestead Southfork Ranch.

The plan caused conflicts not only with John Ross’ cousin, Christopher, and his father, Bobby, but also with J.R. Ewing himself, who wants to get his hands on Southfork.

The fate of both Southfork and Christopher’s alternative energy start-up has been at stake in a complicated scheme that involved a bunch of Venezualans. That’s all resolved nicely tonight.

The other main storyline depicted the romantic turmoil surrounding Christopher and his “good girl with a secret” wife Rebecca as well as John Ross and girlfriend Elena, daughter of the family’s longtime maid.

If you haven’t been watching and think that plot makes it sound like the older generation of Ewings – brothers J.R. and Bobby, J.R.’s ex Sue Ellen and Bobby’s second wife, Ann – get short shrift in the new series, that hasn’t been the case.

Most of the emotional high points – and the best lines of dialogue – of the new series have revolved around the older generation and that’s the case tonight too.

So here are some random, relatively spoiler-free observations about tonight’s last episode of the season:

If you saw the end of last week’s episode, you saw that Rebecca, trying to break free from the scheme involving her pretend “brother” Tommy, struggled with Tommy over a gun. There’s little surprise who turns up dead at the beginning of this episode.

Bobby, in the latest in a series of medical issues, ends up in the hospital. There’s a genuinely touching moment as J.R. urges a comatose Bobby to “wake up and fight … fight me.” If you’re not a little misty after this scene, you’re not a “Dallas” fan.

John Ross, trying to reform, teams with Christopher to found a new company, Ewing Energies. Best part: It’s located in the old Ewing Oil building (albeit gutted and unrecognizable from its dated 1980s glory. Probably for the best.). Even better: You know these guys are eventually going to be at each other’s throats.

One relationship ends, ostensibly, in tonight’s episode, while another begins, in good soap opera fashion.

For those of us who loved Mitch Pileggi as FBI boss Skinner on “The X-Files,” his role as a sleazy Dallas businessman here is a shock. But he gets what’s coming to him tonight.

Linda Gray, always a bright spot in the original series as Sue Ellen, has had an “okay” role in this series so far. She gets a few nice moments tonight, as does Brenda Strong as Ann, Bobby’s wife. It’ll be nice to see more for them next season.

The final scene between Bobby (Patrick Duffy, solid as ever here) and J.R. (Larry Hagman, worth his weight in black gold) is perfect. Just perfect.

There’s a nice twist – no spoilers here – in tonight’s episode but it’s telegraphed somewhat by the opening credits. Don’t pay too much attention to the names of the guest stars tonight or you might see it coming.

And you don’t want to see it coming.

The final scene of this season finale and the final line of dialogue are just right.

I can’t wait until next season.

Whedon to develop ‘Avengers’ universe TV show too

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Well, duh.

In a perfect case of reverse-engineering, Disney and Marvel announced today that Joss Whedon, who got his start in TV and then directed “The Avengers” to good effect – and $1.5 billion in worldwide box office – will not only direct “Avengers 2” but oversee the development of the live-action TV series set in the “Avengers” movie universe.

It makes perfect sense, and some of the people reacting online tonight are sharing the same line of reasoning that had settled, like a fog, into my brain. Whedon, who made great TV series like “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” “Angel” and “Firefly,” has moved on, we told ourselves. He’s not going back to TV after having directed one of the biggest movies ever.

Well, turns out that way of thinking was wrong, wrong, wrong.

Now I doubt we’ll get Joss Whedon, showrunner, or Joss Whedon, director, or much more than Joss Whedon, occasional screenwriter, on this series.

But the man knows how to make a TV series with wit, action and service to multiple characters.

Turns out that was the strength that made him so right for “The Avengers.”

So here’s to a happy, anticipatory “Well, duh.”

Joss Whedon will be helping create the “Avengers” universe live action TV series.

Of course.

Happy birthday ‘The Shadow’

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It’s the birthday of our favorite sinister, scary pulp magazine hero. This week in 1930, the character of “The Shadow” was created to serve as narrator of the “Detective Story Magazine” radio show.

On July 31, 1930, “The Shadow” made his debut on the air. The character caught on and publishing house Street and Smith hired Walter Gibson to write a series of pulp magazine stories that debuted in April 1931. He wrote under the name Maxwell Grant.

The character had a fabulously complicated story and history – even multiple secret identities – and enjoyed decades in the pulps and on the radio.

The character has been brought back periodically for comic books, which is appropriate since much about him – his fearsome reputation among crooks, his long cape-like cloak – influenced other famous characters like Batman, not unlike Doc Savage influenced Superman.

Besides a series of movies in the 40s, the character got a big-screen treatment in 1994 in a movie starring Alec Baldwin. It wasn’t bad but was far from a hit.

I’ve noted before my admiration for “The Shadow.” While the pulp stories are fairly typical of their time – and maybe not as good as the best of “Doc Savage” or “The Avenger” – the images of the character are undoubtedly iconic.

So happy birthday Shadow!

 

Sneak peek: ‘Dallas’ gets twisty with ‘Family Business’

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Always a master of understatement, Bobby Ewing at some point during “Family Business,” Wednesday night’s episode of “Dallas,” says, “This family’s in trouble.”

Yes, Bobby. It’s been that way since the 1970s and frankly we wouldn’t have it any other way.

I was a little skeptical when TNT announced its continuation of “Dallas.” Various prequels and sequels to the great nighttime soap have been attempted before, including an “early years” TV movie featuring the younger days of Jock Ewing, Ellie Farnsworth and Cliff Barnes. None had absolutely clicked and none was very successful.

But TNT’s series, set in modern day a couple of decades after we last saw the Ewings, works and works very well.

I don’t usually get to see TV shows in advance, but I got my hands on the last couple of episodes of the season. I’m here to tell you, darlin’, they’re good. They very well might rank up there, purely in terms of soapy storyline and good scenes for characters, with the best of the old show.

If you’ve been watching, you know that cousins John Ross and Christopher (Jesse Metcalf and Josh Henderson), the sons of J.R. and Bobby, have been struggling through various personal dramas, especially their dealings with the women in their lives, maid’s daughter Elena (Jordana Brewster) and good-girl-with-a-secret Rebecca (Julie Gonzalo). This has played out in front of a backdrop of struggle over control of South Fork Ranch and the possibility of drilling for oil on the land.

In Wednesday’s next-to-last episode of the season, the cousins also turn to family doings and business dealings as a Ewing has a health crisis and the cousins consider the unthinkable (at least for their fathers): Working together.

If it sounds like there’s a lot of emphasis on the younger Ewings, that’s true. But the older generation really gets all the best moments.

One gets the aforementioned health crisis, while another meets a career turning point. There’s blackmail and skullduggery aplenty.

“Dallas” always worked best when it got a lot of the Ewings together under one roof, whether it was Southfork Ranch or the Ewing Oil office. Wednesday’s episode does just that and everything really clicks, whether it’s downright touching scenes between J.R. (Larry Hagman, who’s wonderful) and John Ross or J.R. and Bobby (Patrick Duffy).

There’s also good stuff for Bobby’s wife, Ann (Brenda Strong), and J.R.’s ex, Sue Ellen (Linda Gray).

“He called me wife number three,” an irritated Ann says to Sue Ellen after an encounter with J.R. Sue Ellen allows that she knows: She gave J.R. a good slap in return.

The ratings for the show have been good and it’s already been renewed for a second season. The unlikely success of the series must have been on the minds of the writers when they had J.R. – who else – say, “I’m back, honey, and I’m gonna be bigger than ever.”

No big spoilers for this or the season finale, but there are some fun twists and turns in the stories and big changes for the characters.

And somebody ends up on the unlucky end of a gun.

Check out “Dallas” and its next-to-last episode of the season at 9 p.m. Wednesday.

‘Birds of Prey’ a model for an ‘Avengers’ TV show?

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While the geek universe is speculating about just what a TV series set in the “Avengers” movie universe might look like, I realized that we’ve already seen an example in the “Birds of Prey” series.

Airing on the WB network in 2002, the series was a small-screen take on DC’s “Birds of Prey” comic book series. The show featured Barbara Gordon in her Oracle incarnation (in other words, after the Joker’s brutal attack on Batgirl in “The Killing Joke” that left her paralyzed) leading a small group of crimefighters including Huntress (daughter of Batman and Catwoman in this scenario) and Dinah, the daughter of the original Black Canary.

“Birds of Prey,” which lasted only a handful of episodes, was a fairly standard police procedural dressed up with rooftop chase scenes and “Buffy” style fighting. Ten years on, some elements of the series look cheesy (the dialogue is particularly rough). But the series was overseen by Laeta Kalogridis, who went on to write and produce “Avatar” and “Shutter Island” and had a properly comic-booky feel.

Although only a few episodes aired, all 13 are available on disc.

How can the producers of an “Avengers” TV spin-off learn from “Birds of Prey?”

The “stars” of the story were off-screen. Nobody expects Iron Man or Thor to show up on a weekly TV series. Not while there are big-ticket movies to be made. “Birds of Prey” dealt with the absence of Batman and Catwoman by deciding the former had stopped patrolling the alleys of Gotham (sound familiar, “Dark Knight Rises” fans?) after the death of his beloved (in this case, Catwoman). Bruce Wayne was never more than a silent presence on the other end of a telephone line during conversations with Alfred.

The show was made on a TV budget, not a movie budget. It helped, probably, that no one flew in “Birds of Prey,” although Huntress did a lot of diving off rooftops. Dark Gotham City streets, a couple of oddball metahuman characters and some futuristic weaponry helped achieve a comic-book feel on a budget.

The show didn’t make major changes in its universe. A TV series set in the “Avengers” movie universe isn’t going to make major changes to storylines or characters, that’s for sure. We won’t see Loki killed off or Iron Man retire. “Birds of Prey” had the same restrictions, of course, beyond the initial killing of Catwoman. With Batman out of town, the most dramatic event the series could give viewers was a climactic battle, in the final episode, between Huntress and Harley Quinn, the Joker’s looney moll. But it made for a nice little payoff for the series. What about how they killed off the original Black Canary in the “Birds of Prey?” Well, did you see a body?

The show didn’t betray familiar characters. It’s safe to say that SHIELD isn’t suddenly going to become a terrorist organization, nor will we hear that Black Widow or Hawkeye have gone back to their previous careers. “Birds of Prey” had to dance around major changes to the core Gotham City characters. One episode featured the return of a Batman protege and apparently the character was originally going to have been Robin/Nightwing. But because the guy goes astray, so a change of secret identities was called for.

Although it didn’t make much of an impression on TV audiences or the DC comics universe in general, “Birds of Prey” did show it was possible to mount a weekly TV series in a thickly populated comics universe without interfering with a big-screen movie franchise.

 

An ‘Avengers’ TV series? It could work

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News rolled out this weekend that Marvel and parent company Disney are exploring the possibility of a TV series set in the Marvel movie universe that “The Avengers,” “Iron Man” and all the rest live in.

This is something of a change considering that Disney and Marvel have mulled a couple of TV series since their big-screen ventures began in 2008.

Apparently a “Hulk” series is still being developed, but it seems like maybe the people in charge aren’t quite sure of what to do with it. They’ve said it would not take place in the Marvel movie universe, thus eliminating the possibility of a Tony Stark cameo.

Marvel was considering a series featuring second-tier heroes like Jessica Jones and Luke Cage (Hero for Hire, Power Man, of course). But they back-burnered it, maybe so they could concentrate on this series.

So where should Marvel go on the TV screen?

Consider an animated series. Seriously. Everybody wants to see live-action, of course, and there’s already an “Avengers” animated series being developed for Disney XD. But you know what? “Jonny Quest” was a primetime series. Who wouldn’t watch a weekly primetime version of “The Incredibles?” If you decide to do the ultimate (no pun intended) “Avengers” TV series and it just happens to be animated, emulate “Justice League Unlimited” and the fans will watch.

Forget the stars. Really. Fans won’t tune in every week hoping to seem Samuel Jackson as Nick Fury. They’ll turn in to see concepts from their favorite comics explored on the small screen. Don’t worry about getting Jackson or Chris Evans or Mark Ruffalo. Work around the established characters or even re-cast them. Think about it: In the past 50 years, a lot of different artists have drawn Spider-Man, Captain America and the rest. They’ve looked pretty familiar but not exactly the same. Fans can accept variations.

Figure out how to budget it. The average episode of a TV series costs a couple million bucks. That’s about a tenth of what a big-screen movie can cost. If the producers try to be realistic in how they budget and make the show, fans will understand. Doing a cheap version that feels like a cheap version won’t satisfy anybody.

Some possible series:

“SHIELD” is a natural. It’s a spy organization. TV can do spies. Feature the Maria Hill character with a couple of cameos from Sam Jackson. Maybe Iron Man would fly over in the season finale.

“Damage Control” is little known among the public at large but often suggested by fans. Created in 1989, the Damage Control comic is about a New York-based company that comes in in the aftermath of a knock-down-drag-out between the Fantastic Four and Dr. Doom, for example. Damage Control would clean up the mess, stabilize buildings and deal with any otherworldly toxic waste. The show would be a natural to have heroes show up occasionally, make a mess and leave. Humor would be an important element here.

With its DVD short films featuring SHIELD agents and the upcoming “Item 47” – a 12-minute movie on the Avengers DVDs this September featuring a story about two grifters, including Lizzy Caplan, who find one of the Chitauri blasters and decide to put it to bad use – Marvel is showing an inclination to try comic book stories on a smaller scale. It’s no surprise they would eventually focus that effort on a TV series.

 

Freak out: Scary stuff that haunted me

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Just ask anyone who’s ever walked up behind me when I was vacuuming and they’ll tell you I’m pretty easy to freak out.

Maybe it was the combination of an overactive imagination and a childhood home that was supposedly haunted, but I’ve always been spookable. I’m not squeamish; blood and gore don’t bother me particularly, especially not in horror movies.

But subtle stuff – a shadowy figure in the distance, a pallid face outside a window – in movies really makes me squirm.

Herewith, some stuff that freaked me out in my younger, impressionable years.

Lon Chaney in the 1925 “Phantom of the Opera.” Who wouldn’t be a little freaked out by that face? Mary Philbin and I were in good company in our reactions to Chaney’s masterpiece, both in terms of his film work and his makeup work. In Famous Monsters of Filmland I read all about how Chaney achieved this cadaverous look, manipulating his nose and cheekbones and eyes. But even though I knew Chaney’s secrets, that face made an impression.

The Suicide Song on Dr. Demento. If you’re not hep to what the nerdy kids listened to in the 1970s and 1980s, Dr. Demento hosted a syndicated radio show playing offbeat songs like “Fish Heads” and “Shaving Cream.” The oddball doctor introduced a nation of youngsters to the work of Spike Jones and helped launch the career of Weird Al Yankovic. But the song that Demento played that sticks with me, 30-plus years later, was “The Suicide Song.” What was it? Incredibly enough, I can’t seem to find it online. There’s a listing of songs played on the show that includes it but I can’t find an audio or video snippet, which makes me wonder if I’m mis-remembering the name. But once I hear the song again – and its dirge-like, monotone recitation of dire lyrics – I’ll get goosebumps all over again.

“Who are you?” from “Beyond the Door.” The 1974 Italian import “Beyond the Door” was considered little more than a rip-off of “The Omen” and “The Exorcist” with its plot about demonic possession. It’s a curiosity, maybe especially because of its star, British actress Juliet Mills, best known stateside for the sugary sitcom “Nanny and the Professor.” But when I think of “Beyond the Door,” I think of the late-night commercials for the movie showing clips of Mills levitating and twisting around and – unforgettably for me – intoning in a freaky bass voice “Who are  you?” I’m battling the heebie jeebies here.

The ghosts in “The Innocents.” I’m not sure any movie is scarier than “The Innocents,” director Jack Clayton’s adaptation of Henry James’ “The Turn of the Screw.” The story of a governess going to a remote castle to take care of two truly strange children, “The Innocents” introduces a couple of the creepiest ghosts ever. And it does so in a totally freaky way: By having them stand, motionless, across ponds or outside windows.

I don’t know about you, but as far as I’m concerned, silent, unmoving figures watching me from a distance is more unnerving than a chainsaw-wielding maniac.

Unless he taps me on the shoulder while I’m running the vacuum cleaner.