Pilot Thoughts: The Secret Circle

I've always been a fan of witches and witchcraft. In my youth I was all over witch-centric films and TV shows like The Craft, Practical Magic, and Charmed. Hell, my favorite character on my favorite show played a witch! So when I heard that the CW was going to do with witches what they did with vampires (The Vampire Diaries) and upper East Side spoiled brats (Gossip Girl) then I knew I would give it a chance even though I'm probably a decade and a penis away from their prime demographic.

And thus how I came to watch the premiere of The Secret Circle. Here's the thing though, I think I liked it. I found the main girl (played by Brittany Robertson) not as blank or cloying as would be typical in a show of this nature and I, as a viewer, felt connected to her pretty quickly. It helped that the opening scenes featured her mom dying in a fire (shades of Supernatural) and then the rest of the episode was her trying to make it in a new school with people wanting her to reluctantly face her destiny (Buffy the Vampire Slayer). There's even a cute boy (Thomas Dekker) she may like, but he has a girlfriend who isn't a total bitch so she can't hate hate her.! THE HORROR! Okay, that last part was me poking a bit of fun, but there's definitely something I found fascinating about the show. Maybe it's the adults and their secrets. Of course, I was less than shocked to find Natasha Henstridge's character team up with "evil" Gale Harold (does he play any other kind of character) in the end and I'm looking forward to seeing what their endgame actually is. Their mysterious and violent past intrigue me enough to the point that I think I'll be able to handle all of the teen drama stuff.

So while it wasn't love at first sight, if they don't forget about the adults and the main character remains engaging, and they don't shy away from frequently featuring magicks then I'm tentatively in. B

Birthday Girl: Amy Poehler

The beautiful and generally kick-ass Amy Poehler celebrates her 40th birthday today. This weekend, she'll no doubt be walking down the red carpet with husband Will Arnett at the Emmy Awards where she's nominated for Best Actress in a Comedy Series alongside best friend Tina Fey. She'll probably lose to Laura Linney, because they like their comedy dark and edgy preferably given by a movie star. Do I need I remind the TV Academy that Poehler too is a movie star? Remember how she played the "cool mom" in Mean Girls or how about her breakout role as Susie in the cult classic Wet Hot American Summer?

But hey even if she loses, her fantastic show Parks & Recreation starts its 4th season in less than a week! That pretty much means that everyone wins! Happy Birthday Amy!

Thoughts on True Blood Finale

The Season of the Witch came to a close as True Blood ended one of its strongest seasons this past Sunday. Sure there are plenty to complain about. Sookie's storyline never really got going, Jason's stint with the werepanther is best left forgotten, Eric's childlike innocence wore thin towards the end, and Alcide was more or less background eye candy (not really a bad complaint). But Marnie and her quest to eradicate the world of vampires was a solid villain arc. I also really enjoyed the exploration of the history between witches and vampires which is far fresher than the tiresome werewolf-vampire rivalry.

With that said, the finale itself actually was one of its non-remarkable episodes. Sure, the body count piled up with Jesus, Nan, Debbie, and possibly Tara all getting brutally murdered. But for the most part the show just took the time to resolve some of the smaller storylines like Sam attending Tommy's funeral (with Mrs. Foytenberry!), Jason telling Hoyt about getting together with Jessica, and Sookie dumping both Bill and Eric (I give it one episode into next season before she's sexing one of them again and/or Alcide). Pam's back but mostly to declare how much she hates Sookie's name. We also got a few new plot threads for next season such as Terry's army buddy, the possible return of Russell Edgington, Jason's former pastor turned vampire, and the impending vampire revolt against the Authority. And you know they'll be fairies next season. Then again we said that last season, too.

Finally, just want to call out Jesus' goodbye to Lafayette which I thought was actually quite humorous, sweet, and touching: "Dude, I'm dead. You're a medium. I'll always be with you." Might be a way to get some of the dead characters back next season. Just saying.

True Blood Finale: B
True Blood Season 4: B+

Ranting About the Torchwood Finale

Let's just pretend that I waited this long to talk about the Torchwood finale because I needed a few days to let what happened settle, but to be honest as soon as I saw the episode I promptly forgot about it and haven't turned back since. It was not a good finale for a season that was already quite sub-par. It was full of monologuing characters that is just excruciating to get through if you're a viewer and plot holes so numerous I couldn't even really keep count.

I said last week that the show had really painted itself into a corner leaving just one episode to explain what The Blessing was, how it caused Miracle Day, and why The Family is so interested in this and in Jack. The how and the why were answered via the many clumsily written monologues in the episode. The what on the other hand was largely hand-waved. "This might be the most terrestrial thing of them all" was the only real answer we get. The Family, wanting to control the world, used Jack's blood to make The Blessing make everyone in the world immortal by changing its template. You see, The Blessing is somehow in a symbiotic relationship with humanity and it... oh my God I think I fell asleep writing this paragraph. Long story short, Jack and co. realized that the only way to reset the whole world is to now feed The Blessing Jack's now mortal blood. The only catch, which the bad guys felt the need to share with the rest of us in extreme detail, was that Jack's blood must be introduced to The Blessing on both sides of the poles. Why they didn't just keep mum on this little factoid letting Jack die for nothing especially after DECADES of planning this whole thing is beyond me.

So apart from not getting to know what The Blessing was, we were also treated to The Family being really, really dumb for most of this episode despite nine episodes worth of evidence to tell us how all-powerful and all-knowing they've been for decades. It fact, it seemed their plan would've worked perfectly if they had just been able to kill Jack from the very beginning. With all of their resources, manpower, and time throughout this whole ordeal, it's a bit ludicrous to make us believe that they just weren't able to do this. Why did they NEVER use Gwen and her family (the way Colasanto did) to get to Jack? All they had to do was KILL HIM in these ten episodes! Even at the end when Rex and Jack were ready to make their noble sacrifice, I thought it was common sense for them to shoot Esther and use her life as a final bargaining chip. Why then did they not shoot Gwen as well (apart from the actress being the lead actress and sure to return for next season)? Dumb, dumb, dumb. And what was up with that cliffhanger ending? Rex is immortal now? Seriously? We're doing that?

Notice I didn't mention anything about Oswald Danes, Jilly Kitzinger, Antonio Colasanto, Gwen's dad, and many of the other plot threads and characters that were seemingly important early on, but played almost no impact whatsoever to the bigger story. "The future can change. It's being written right now." Jack said this in the finale, but after this season can I get these ten episodes re-written instead?

Torchwood Finale - D+
Torchwood: Miracle Day - C+

Pilot Thoughts: Up All Night & Free Agents

When you like an actor, it really does go a long way in making you want to see stuff they are in even if you wouldn't have if they weren't involved. So far, that's what I've been feeling with the new fall shows I've seen. First it was Ringer with Sarah Michelle Gellar on Tuesday and now it's two NBC sitcoms that aired last night.


Up All Night was the first one and it stars a couple of actors I generally like (Christina Applegate and Will Arnett) and an actor I really, really like (Maya Rudolph). Applegate and Arnett play new parents getting used to the harsh realities of taking care of a baby. Unfortunately, I found that whole part of the pilot uninteresting and not really funny and I don't think it's because I have baby-phobia since I quite enjoy Raising Hope and Modern Family. Perhaps it's because I found the best part to be Rudolph, who plays Applegate's Oprah-like high-strung boss, and while she is a bit over-the-top she kept me watching. At the moment the two parts aren't gelling*. In time maybe Rudolph will dial it down a bit while the whole baby plot will ramp up in something worthwhile. C+

*Another reason this could be true is because they actually re-shot some of these scenes after the pilot was made to not only give Rudolph more material but to also change the industry Applegate's character works in.


The show after that was Free Agents and oddly enough I found this one marginally better despite expecting it to be far worse. For all of its flaws, it at least didn't have a split personality that I felt Up All Night had. Plus it had Anthony Stewart Head aka Rupert Giles aka Watcher/father figure of one Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I think the novelty of seeing the actor talking dirty and dressing up in loud clothes most definitely made my feelings about this pilot more positive than it had any right to be. My biggest problem with this premiere is that I didn't really care about any of the characters. The two leads played by Hank Azaria and Kathyrn Hahn are charming enough, but their characters came off as a little too pathetic. And the other supporting players, with the exception of Head, were just on the side of dreadful. Pathetic, despicable characters are fine (see Cougar Town, Arrested Development, Party Down, etc.) but there needs to be some kind of heart which was missing here. Maybe, in time. C+

I'll definitely give these two shows a chance, but watching them just made me miss Parks and Recreation, Community, and many other better sitcoms I'm looking forward to seeing.

Looking Forward To... FALL/WINTER

Summer is over and we all know what that means: fall/holiday films are right around the corner! Actually, they're pretty much here. In fact, I saw one just last week, Contagion, a film directed by Steven Soderberg which looked like a mash-up of Outbreak and Traffic with an all-star cast that have either won or been nominated for an Oscar. That same weekend also saw the debut of Warrior which stars Tom Hardy and Joel Edgerton as brothers who are also professional mixed martial artists.

The rest of September usually doesn't have much to offer, but I'm find a few films that have a lot of promise. Right on the top of that list is the Cannes-winning Drive starring Ryan Gosling and Carey Mulligan. I have yet to find a film critic I trust that hasn't raved about this film so my expectations are ridiculously high. I'm also looking forward to the dark comedy 50/50 with Joseph Gordon Levitt dealing with cancer. There's also the Aaron Sorkin-penned baseball flick Moneyball with Brad Pitt and Philip Seymour Hoffman that's getting some awards buzz. The suddenly ubiquitous Jessica Chastain is in Take Shelter with Michael Shannon doing what he does best (aka play crazy). Probably won't see this in theaters, but the light comedy What's Your Number with Anna Faris, Chris Evans, and a slew of fellow young stars could be a riot. For the horror fans, of which I'm not, there's Dream House with Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz as well as a remake of Straw Dogs starring a couple of hotties, James Marsden and Alexander Skarsgard. There's also festival-favorite gay film Weekend which looks pretty good. Finally, Disney is releasing The Lion King in 3D for two weeks and I am so tempted to check it out despite my not-so-friendly feelings regarding 3D because I can't stop imagining how the "Circle of Life" opening sequence would look on the big screen.

October's selection seem to be similar to September with a few films that look good from the outside. Like September, my most anticipated film for the month stars Ryan Gosling, this time in the political thriller The Ides of March. Technically though it's more of a George Clooney film since he not only stars in the film, but also wrote and directed it. Another star-studded thriller is Margin Call starring Zachary Quinto, Kevin Spacey, and Paul Bettany. Sundance winners Martha Marcy May Marlene and Like Crazy also look intriguing. The first stars Elizabeth Olsen as a girl who tries to put her life together after escaping a cult while the second is getting a lot of "Blue Valentine-lite for young adults" reviews and stars the charming Anton Yelchin and Felicity Jones. Johnny Depp meanwhile tackles the adaptation of Hunter S. Thompson's novel The Rum Diary while Justin Timberlake and Amanda Seyfried co-star in sci-fi thriller In Time. Also out this month is Roland Emmerich's Shakespeare-centric period drama Anonymous which is surprisingly getting some nice reviews as well as Pedro Almodovar's latest in The Skin I Live In. Some guilty pleasure choices include the probably unnecessary remakes of Footloose and The Three Musketeers, but at least the latter has Orlando Bloom and Christoph Waltz hamming it up (so I'm in!).

The slate heats up a bit in November with an array of Oscar contenders (and non-Oscar contenders alike). Oddly enough one of those films, and probably my most anticipated this month, is The Artist, a black-and-white silent film that debut in Cannes with its lead actor Jean Dujardin picking up Best Actor. Best Actress went to Kirsten Dunst for her work in the apocalyptic Melancholia, a film directed by Lars von Trier. David Cronenberg's A Dangerous Method with Michael Fassbender and Viggo Mortensen playing the famous psychological duo of Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud respectively (also stars a very captivating Keira Knightley), Steve McQueen's Shame also with Michael Fassbender and Carey Mulligan, and Alexander Payne's The Descendants with George Clooney all release in this overstuffed month. All three, but especially the latter two, have been getting rave reviews as of late. Michelle Williams channels Marilyn Monroe in My Week with Marilyn while Leonardo DiCaprio channels J. Edgar Hoover in Clint Eastwood's J. Edgar. Visionary director Tarsim Singh tackles Greek mythos with the Immortals starring Henry Cavill while Martin Scorcese goes unexpectedly animated in Hugo. Finally, I'm trying very hard to avoid the new chapter of the Twilight saga (Lee Pace why are you in this?) and what better way to do that than embracing nostalgia with The Muppets starring Amy Adams and Jason Segel.

Finally, December is chock full of last-minute Oscar entries and big holiday films. The most intriguing film this month is probably Roman Polanski's film adaptation of the popular play God of Carnage, simply re-titled as Carnage starring Kate Winslet, Jodie Foster, John C. Reilly, and Christoph Waltz. Other big name directors working with some Hollywood stars include Oscar-friendly Stephen Daldry directing Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock in Extremely Loud and Incredible Close, Guy Ritchie teaming up with Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law again in the Sherlock Holmes sequel, and David Fincher putting forth his highly anticipated adaptation of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo with Rooney Mara and Daniel Craig. A couple of uber famous women are taking the helm as directors with Madonna's W.E. and Angelina Jolie's In the Land of Blood and Honey hoping to make a splash at year's end. The Juno team of Jason Reitman and Diablo Cody reunite for Young Adult, a dramedy with the blindingly beautiful Charlize Theron and Patrick Wilson. Finally Steven Spielberg will have two December films coming out, The Adventures of Tintin and War Horse. Gary Oldman headlines Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy while Meryl Streep will try for another Oscar nomination by playing Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady. That's already a lot, but I still haven't mentioned Tilda Swinton's much-lauded performance in We Need to Talk About Kevin, Matt Damon and Scarlett Johansson in We Bought a Zoo, or even the latest Mission: Impossible film with Tom Cruise. There's also the film everyone is in aka New Year's Eve which should find an audience due to the timeliness of the film as well as the sheer number of celebrities in it.

The sad thing about making this list of films I am "looking forward to" is realizing the certainly of me being unable to see all of these films in the next four months. For many, I will catch them on DVD months (or even years) from now. The other sad part? This list isn't even complete! There are still films out there that need distributors or, if they have one already, need to figure out when they will be released (I'm looking at you Albert Nobbs, The Lady, etc.). Oh, the life of a film addict.

Pilot Thoughts: Ringer

Here's a quick question to ponder over before diving into what I thought about Ringer's pilot: Would people have been excited for this show if Sarah Michelle Gellar wasn't in it? Maybe, but it definitely wouldn't have had the pre-buzz it had heading to its premiere. You can't really blame people for this though since it has been about eight years since Gellar has graced the small screens and that was when she starred in the best show ever. Unfortunately, this show is not Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Of course Ringer was never going to be like Buffy and I do hope that in time it'll get judged by its own merit versus people trying to compare it to Joss Whedon's show. With that said, I would still say it was a wobbly and clunky start that provided enough intrigue to coax me into giving it a few more episodes. Some of the problems I had with the premiere include its lazy dialogue, laughable green screen scenes, and the heavy-handed imagery (Mirrors! Everywhere! Get it?).

A few reviews I've read criticized the dullness of the characters, but I actually got into them much quicker than I thought. They weren't asked to do much in the premiere after all. The only relationship that I felt didn't really gel (or at least wasn't developed as much as I would've liked) was Bridgette's and Siobhan's which is a big problem since this is the central relationship of the show. Perhaps their relationship was purposefully left vague in order for the cliffhanger to work or perhaps Gellar isn't use to acting one-on-one with a body double. But if the show is going to improve, this relationship needs to be much more compelling than it was. B-

Looking Forward To...

Fall TV Edition

The CW and NBC kick off the new Fall TV season tonight with the season premieres of 90210 and Parenthood as well as the series premiere of Ringer, one of my most-anticipated new shows of the fall. But before I actually see any of the new shows with my own eyes, here are the five new shows that I'm most excited about for one reason or another...

New Girl (FOX)
Premieres: Tuesday, 9/20 9PM
Starring: Hannah Simone, Zooey Deschanel, Max Greenfield, Jake Johnson, and Lamorne Morris
Time Period Conflict: Ringer

Ringer (The CW)
Premieres: Tuesday, 9/12 9PM
Starring: Ioan Gruffudd, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Kristoffer Polaha, Tara Summers, Nestor Carbonell, and Mike Colter,
Time Period Conflict: New Girl

Terra Nova (FOX)
Premieres: Monday, 9/26 8PM (2 hours)
Starring: Naomi Scott, Alana Mansour, Shelley Conn, Landon Liboiron, Jason O'Mara, Allison Miller, Mido Hamada, Stephen Lang and Christine Adams
Time Period Conflict: How I Met Your Mother, 2 Broke Girls

Once Upon A Time (ABC)
Premieres: Sunday, 10/23 8PM
Starring: Jamie Dornan, Lana Parrilla, Ginnifer Goodwin, Josh Dallas, Robert Carlyle, Jared Gilmore and Jennifer Morrison
Time Period Conflict: The Amazing Race, The Simpsons

Pan Am (ABC)
Premieres: Sunday, 9/25 10PM
Starring: Kelli Garner, Margot Robbie, Jonah Lotan, Christina Ricci, Michael Moseley and Karine Vanasse
Time Period Conflict: N/A

Other NEW shows on my radar: The Playboy Club (NBC), 2 Broke Girls (CBS), Persons of Interest (CBS), Suburgatory (ABC), The Secret Circle (The CW), and Grimm (NBC)

US Open: The Finale

For the first time ever, Novak Djokovic and Samantha Stosur lifted the US Open trophy. For him, it's his 4th Grand Slam victory while for her, it's her maiden slam. They both had to endure hectic schedules, unpredictable weather conditions, and brutal opponents before ultimately prevailing. The finals for both were interestingly indicative of the entire year of both tours with Djokovic dominating the men's and Stosur becoming yet another surprise slam winner.


For Stosur, she was seen as the big underdog to Serena Williams in the finals even though their H2H was pretty close (4-3 in Williams' favor). Most of it had to do with Williams' wealth of experience in the big stage especially in Grand Slam finals. In comparison, Stosur had only reached one slam final prior to this one and she lost. All of that plus the pressure of facing off against the lone American playing in New York during the 10th anniversary of September 11th definitely made a lot of people underestimate her resolve. And yet from the very beginning she took charged as well as take advantage of a seemingly lost Williams who just couldn't control her emotions. After losing the first set easily, Williams went down an early break in the second after an altercation with the chair umpire who gave her a point penalty for hindrance when she shouted before the point was over. Williams used that anger to give her some life in the second set, but it was Stosur who kept her cool throughout with the crowds, the occasion, and with the controversy. In the end, she easily defeated Williams 6-2 6-3 for her first Grand Slam title, the first Australian to win one in 31 years.


In a rematch of last year's final (which also took place on a Monday), Djokovic faced defending champion Rafael Nadal. From the early games, one could tell it was going to be an absolutely grueling match between two incredible tennis players and that's exactly what happened. Though unfortunately for Nadal, he just couldn't win enough free points of his serve and he had lots of trouble breaking Djokovic which meant he easily lost the first two sets to the Serbian. With Nadal, however, giving up is not in his vocabulary as he went toe to toe with Djokovic in the third set eventually winning it by playing a brilliant tiebreak. Djokovic then got medical treatment for a presumed injured back before starting the fourth set. And yet Djokovic went on cruise control winning the set 6-1 claiming the championship after more than 4 hours of match time. Djokovic joins Nadal and Roger Federer as only the 6th man in the Open Era to win at least 3 slams in a year. He is also the first man to win double digit titles (10) since Federer won 12 in 2006. With a 64-2 record for the year to date, he is still on course to best John McEnroe's 82-3 record back in 1984.

Elsewhere, 9th seeds Jurgen Melzer/Philipp Petzschner won the Men's Doubles title over 6th seeds Mariusz Fyrstenberg/Marcin Matkowski while Americans and 4th seeds Liezel Huber/Lisa Raymond mounted a comeback against 3rd seed Vania King/Yaroslava Shvedova to win the Women's Doubles title. Unexpectedly young Americans Melanie Oudin/Jack Sock won the Mixed Doubles title over 8th seeds Gisela Dulko/Eduardo Schwank. And that was all she wrote!

Creative Arts Emmy Winners

A couple of early Emmy trophies were handed out this weekend at the Creative Arts Emmys ceremony.

As expected Oscar-winner Gwyneth Paltrow won her first Emmy award for guest starring role in Glee. Guest Actor in Comedy went to Emmy-favorite Justin Timberlake, who also won Best Original Music and Lyrics for his Saturday Night Live monologue. Guest Actor and Actress in a Drama went to two unexpected people with Paul McCrane (Harry's Law) and Loretta Devine (Grey's Anatomy) beating out presumed front-runners Michael J. Fox, Julia Stiles, and Joan Cusack. A bit sad those two ladies didn't win, but not really since I'm a fan of Devine and she really did wonderful this season with her character coping with Alzheimer's.

The big winner of the night though was HBO's Boardwalk Empire which picked up seven awards including Casting and Editing. These wins could signal a big night for the show during the Primetime Emmys when it goes head to head with Mad Men and Game of Thrones. Casting awards were also given to Glee and Mildred Pierce while How I Met Your Mother and Cinema Verite picked up the other series Editing awards. It's also important to note that Boardwalk Empire also won Visual Effects over the much flashier Game of Thrones.

Other noteworthy results include Jeff Probst (Survivor) winning Reality Host for the fourth consecutive time robbing Cat Deeley or Phil Keoghan their deserved win, The Kennedy Center Honors (with Oprah Winfrey and Paul McCartney) winning Variety Special over Lady Gaga's Monster Ball Tour, Futurama beating out South Park and The Simpsons for Animated Program, and So You Think You Can Dance taking two Choreography Emmy awards.

The most interesting thing about the awards, I thought, was the spread-the-wealth mentality of voters when it came to the Miniseries category with Mildred Pierce (3 wins), The Kennedys (3 wins), and Downton Abbey (2 wins) unable to dominate over the other shows. Who do you think is the frontrunner in this category?

Click here to see the complete list of winners. The Primetime Emmys are September 17th.