CW's New Green Arrow TV Show

I may have heard that this was happening a few months ago, but having missed WonderCon this weekend and being a bit out of the superhero loop, I wasn't aware that the new CW pilot focused on Green Arrow (titled "Arrow" at least for now) is already in production.

Not a lot of details about the storyline/plot or other supporting characters yet, but one press photo was released. It's so dark, I'm not sure how to feel about the costume. At least superficially, it appears to be a departure from Smallville.

Thoughts?

A "Deadman" TV Show?

I saw this post about Eric Kripke (Supernatural) developing a new TV show based on the comic book Deadman and thought, "Wow! Can they really pull that off?" I had a roommate who loved Deadman comics, so I've read a few storylines over the years. Deadman was a circus performer, murdered and brought back as a ghost that can inhabit bodies to solve crimes. Or something like that. Here:

Deadman is a ghost, formerly a circus trapeze artist named Boston Brand who performed under the name Deadman, a stage persona including a red costume and white corpse makeup. When Brand is murdered during a trapeze performance by a mysterious assailant known only as the Hook (in fact his last words were "Gee, from up here it almost looks like that guy with the hook for a hand has a gun..."), his spirit is given the power to possess any living being by a Hindu goddess (created for the purposes of the story) named Rama Kushna (a corruption of Rama-Krishna), in order to search for his murderer and obtain justice. (Source: Wikipedia)

I don't remember too many particular stories, but I do remember them being fun, and Deadman having a snarky sense of humor that I enjoyed. Maybe I'll have to go dig something up to refresh myself on this one. (The 90's were a long time ago, people.)

I like Supernatural and am a fan of Kripke's work, so I remain hopeful about a Deadman TV show, especially if it goes to CW or F/X type channel. Don't even bother with the big 4 -- the general viewing audience won't "get" Deadman. Although perhaps it will have a bit of a "Quantum Leap" feel -- more jumping bodies, less time jumping -- that regular folk (hey y'all!) would enjoy.

Gratuitous Scott Bakula image:

Now the question is, who plays Deadman? And how do they get that outrageous red circus costume to translate to TV? A little garish for my taste...

Wonder Woman Costume Revealed

Thanks to Entertainment Weekly for kicking off Friday afternoon with a bang. Here's your new Wonder Woman:

Now, I've already commented that I think this show is pretty much doomed from the get go. But I had held out hope for some great costuming. I'm sorely disappointed, folks. This looks like a cheap Halloween Costume anyone could pick up from the "slutty superhero" section.

In addition, as many commenters on that post point out, she hardly looks athletic, let alone like a superhero. She doesn't need to be a WWE wrestler, but would a little muscle definition kill anyone?

I'm positive I've seen better, more convincing costumes from enthusiasts and cosplayers at Comic Con. Wow, way to fail.

Off to find something I like to balance the overall negativity of this post.

Fringe: The Best Sci-Fi on TV

With pouring rain most of the weekend, and a near car accident, I decided to forget the movie weekend and instead stayed in the comfort and safety of my apartment. I then had grandiose plans of watching a bunch of movies on Netflix, but after about 20 hours of gaming, I couldn't deal with watching a single 2 hour movie. (This makes no sense since I can sit down and watch 4-8 hours of episodic shows that are about 45 mins a piece, but dedicating 2 hours at one time sounds like such a chore.)

So, instead I caught up on Fringe. God I love this show. I hate that Fox moved it to Fridays to accommodate yet MORE American Idol -- is anyone even watching this now that Simon is gone? I am frustrated that our current system of collecting data on TV watching behaviors depends on an antiquated system that doesn't take into account the whole picture of viewing habits and downgrades those that are becoming more and more common (watching online or on DVR is not equal to watching live broadcast according to advertisers).


It's too bad. Fringe has been a consistently good show, with interesting characters, storylines, and some great acting. It's often compared to X-Files, which I see as a plus. I suppose I should be thankful it's made it through 3 seasons so far -- the amazing Firefly didn't even make it through one season on Fox.

If you like science fiction or stories of the strange & unusual and aren't already watching Fringe, check it out before it's gone. And here's to praying for a Season 4.

Wonder Woman Announced

(image via Yahoo.com)

I guess the big news this week is the casting of Wonder Woman: Adrianne Palicki. I've never heard of her, but I don't watch Friday Night Lights, which appears to be her big credit to date. Maybe she'll be great! Maybe she'll suck and the only place anyone will ever talk about this show again will be at Comic-Con. We will have to wait and see.

But, let me say, I'm a little more concerned about the latest developments I'm hearing about the story line itself. Over at Comics Alliance, they report that Ms. Palicki will be playing 3 roles:

• The titular crime fighter, "reinvented" here as an LA-based vigilante
• Alter-ego #1: Diana Themyscira, a mega-billionaire CEO
• Alter-ego #2: Diana's "plain Jane" assistant, Diana Prince

We can argue about the setting of Los Angeles for this series (I'm pretty sure I've already argued against this) or that Diana is a 'mega-billionaire CEO' (Is she supposed to be a female Batman??). But I have a big problem with her playing both the CEO AND her own assistant. Why? What is the point in that? Is it credible -- at all -- to think that a CEO/superhero would also be an admin? I barely have enough energy to do one job, let alone 3. Granted, I'm no WW, but come on. Can't Diana have a sidekick or confidante, another female who helps her in her professional role at the minimum?

Well, I hope the show isn't as much of a hot mess as what it sounds like thus far. As iconic a character as she is, Wonder Woman should be a great role in an amazing project. I hate to see the character diminished by producing crap. I'd rather have nothing but the comics than a half-assed project. The concept of the show doesn't strike me as something mainstream, so it would be important to get the geeks behind it. And so far, the geeks aren't too impressed...

UPDATE: I just found this sneak peek (via Sexy Beast) of the pilot. Read it for yourself, but my two cents: Bleck.

Holy Carp - There's a Wonder Woman TV Show in Production??

In one of the more surprising new tidbits over the weekend, NBC has greenlit a David E. Kelley Wonder Woman TV pilot. This is the movie that cannot be made, but somehow they pulled out a TV show possibility? Wow. I don't even know what to say.

I'd love to be more excited about this show -- my admiration of Wonder Woman is right behind my love of Catwoman. But I have to say, I'm worried. As described on Comics Alliance:

Wonder Woman -- AKA Diana Prince -- is a vigilante crime fighter in L.A. but also a successful corporate executive and a modern woman trying to balance all of the elements of her extraordinary life.

I'm hearing a little too much "hero Ally McBeal" in this paragraph for my liking. I'm not sure I can stand a whiny, self-effacing, damaged heroine. She's an Amazon for goddess sake. And LA? Really? Because there aren't nearly enough shows set in LA. Why can't it be set in a DC-created city like Metropolis? (Though h/t to Clark for suggesting that the Invisible Jet be parked behind the Hollywood sign!) However, I think we (and by "we" I mean Rich & myself) can all agree that, if nothing else, Lynda Carter must play Queen Hipployta, Diana's mother.

There will likely be much debate over who should play WW. My feeling is that it cannot/should not/please god don't let it be Megan Fox. Rumor has it that Eliza Dushku is interested in the role as well. Meh. I like Dushku, but not sure this is a great fit for her. There must be another brunette in LA who can play this role. Let's go for an unknown!

Final suggestion (for now; might be more as more details are released): please use the original costume, not this new costume bulls**t.

It's one thing to create new costumes for the comics books for hype value and to get some media attention, but I think a Wonder Woman TV show will get plenty of attention on it's own.

I'll watch the pilot because I want to support comic book TV & movies. But I'm not dedicated enough to watch badly-made programming, so fingers crossed that this will not suck. It would be great to see an inspiring female character on TV, but here I am getting all optimistic.

Am I the Only One Disappointed by New Fall TV?

I've been encouraged to share an opinion if I have one, and I have a couple on two of this fall's new TV shows. Hardly controversial but I have to start somewhere.

There were 2 shows--Undercovers and Running Wilde--that I was excited to check out because of those involved with the show, thinking that either could be promising. But it turns out that star involvement doesn't always correlate to quality TV fare. 'They can't all be winners!"




Undercovers piqued my interest primarily because of JJ Abram's involvement. I loved Alias, another spy show, and I am currently loving Fringe, a supernatural mystery, wrapped in a conundrum. However, I got lost in about Season 2 of Lost... On paper, this should be a show I like -- like the actors who play the leads (Boris Kodjoe and Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Steven & Samantha Bloom). They are very pretty to look at, the show is moderately well paced, there is decent action, exotic locations, spies in costumes, etc. All the basic components of a spy show. But meh, something is missing from the overall total.

Steven & Samantha are already married, so perhaps it is the sexual tension that is missing. The show is referred to as being a bit like Hart to Hart (a show I liked as a kid). Or perhaps it is the completely unbelievable way that Gerald McRaney as the CIA contact who shows up to engage the Blooms in covert field missions that only they are qualified to run. After being out of the CIA for 5 years. By the way, they are currently caterers. Ummm....what now?

For JJ's sake, I tried. But this one needs to have some re-tooling to get back on track and keep my attention. I'll give it another shot before totally abandonment, but likely not more than 3 episodes. Unless there is nothing on or a sporting event X (fill in with baseball playoffs, football, and so on).



The 2nd show, Running Wilde, I primarily watched because of Will Arnett, whom I adore, and David Cross, both of Arrested Development--a fantastic show that Fox canceled way too soon. I really wanted to like this show for Will's sake. Sadly, so far Running Wilde falls terribly short of expectations. There are a couple of chuckles along the way, but overall, it's not very funny, even in a peculiar way. Sadly, I'm not sure what would make the show better at this point. I give this show about 2-3 more episodes. Sigh -- too bad.

There a few other shows I'm keeping an eye on: Hawaii 5-0 (pilot was better than I thought), The Event (despite some crazy time jumping, the first 2 eps had potential), and Nikita (which competes with something else so I'll have to wait and watch this later).

Now, let's go Spring Replacements!! You're up!

Sandman TV Series?

Heat Vision reports that Warner Bros is looking to develop a TV series based on the fan-favorite Sandman series. Not to wax poetic, but the Sandman series changed my life, and brought me back into the comic-book fold. Actually, it also lead to getting a job and working at a comic book store for many years where I met many of my closest friends. Butterfly flaps its wings, etc, etc. So you can praise/blame Sandman for much of the adult geek you see today.

As Heat Vision points out, any adaptation of the series is tricky; Sandman is one of the most beloved stories and set of characters, with a cultish-like following of devotees. It would be exciting to see an episodic take on the series (rather than a one-off movie like Constantine). I can only hope that an HBO/Showtime/Starz picks up the property so it can be appropriately rated for "mature audiences." Or at least with AMC -- looks like they might have a fighting chance with the new Walking Dead show. And for sure get Neil Gaiman involved!! It would give the whole thing instant geek cred. We heart the Neil.

Wanna Be a Zombie?

One of the great zombie comics of our day, The Walking Dead, is headed to TV via AMC. I heard an interview with author Robert Kirkman last weekend, and started getting excited about the possibilities of a live action zombie TV show.



Via ComicBookMovie.com, The Walking Dead will start filming soon (like, tomorrow) in Atlanta, GA.

The production is looking for many extras with flexible schedules between June and September to appear as zombies for the series. All extras selected must attend 'Zombie School.' The 'zombies’ who have been chosen so far have already been attending class all week.

I love the notion of Zombie School! I hope someone documents that experience for the DVD extras... Anyway, if you find yourself in Atlanta this summer and looking for something to do, you too can be a zombie! And if you haven't checked out this graphic novel yet, here is your first item for your summer reading list.

Simpsons Ke$ha Tik Tok Intro

I'm catching up on all my DVR recordings and came across a couple Simpsons episodes. I always love the Intro, and they've done some really good ones the last few years (inverse relationship to the quality of the entire episodes?). They typically follow the same format for the most part, with the last 10-20 seconds as the new bit.

But I was excited when starting the "To Surveil, With Love" and the Intro was completely different - start to finish. Be forewarned that it uses Ke$sha's Tik Tok, which will get stuck in your head. Oh, and the best quality clip I could find is reversed, which is kind of weird. So imagine it backwards. Or right way around. Whatever, you know what I mean.

PS. To Surveil is also a pretty good episode. Lots of great pop culture references and commentary on our surveillance society. Good times.

More Clips of New TV Shows

More from the Upfronts, this time from NBC. Not too interested in most of the shows on this list, save two.

First, a new super hero show, The Cape. I think the only reason NBC can even entertain this show is the perfect storm of the Jay Leno/10 PM fiasco and the cancellation of the OTHER super hero show, Heroes. When a cop is framed for murder, he takes up the mantle of The Cape -- his son's favorite fictional hero. Summer Glau (Firefly, Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles) also shows up in this one, so it will surely attract some of the geek contingent.



I don't think this show will work on NBC for very long, if at all. But, I'll do my due diligence and at least check out the pilot.

Next is the ad for the JJ Abrahm's show mentioned last week, Undercovers. As you may recall, this show is about former spies who are living their normal, boring lives when they are recruited back for one last mission. Only to find that the spy life is what seems to be missing.



I hope the show kicks it a bit more into high gear than this ad. For a 5 minute preview, this left me a little "meh."

New Will Arnett TV Show on Fox this Fall

Upfronts are happening this week, so there is a lot of buzz on the interwebs about new programs for fall or mid-season replacement.

The creators of one of my favorite comedies, Arrested Development, are back at Fox with a new show starring Will Arnett (Gob!) and Keri Russell (Felicity), called "Running Wilde." Not sure I get the premise yet -- Arnett plays a screwy millionaire trying to woo Russell, a holier-than-thou do-gooder. But I'm willing to give it a chance because a) I loved AD and if those creators wrote this, then there is a hope it will be good, and b) I adore Will Arnett.

Let's cross our fingers that it is decent and doesn't get canceled in the first month on air...

Heroes Gets the Shaft

Save the Cheerleader. Save the world.

After 4 seasons, today NBC announced cancellation of the once-beloved superhero TV show, Heroes. Can't say it's much of a surprise. I was blown away in the first season -- that a superhero story could make it on a primary network was really exciting. While several of the characters and parts of the storyline seemed a bit derivative of other superhero stories, such as X-men, I tried to keep an open mind. I'm a believer that it's important for us geeks to support geek-inspired/related programming.

But after a promising season 1, season 2 just didn't hold my attention. Every character, even the minor ones, have significant powers. Well, what the hell? Why don't we ALL have superpowers. Lame. And why should I care about all of the characters equally? The cast was already fairly large, and a handful of new characters were introduced in season 2. I gave up there, so maybe there were even more in season 3. Good God, who can keep track? Who would want to? There were even fan-based campaigns to kill off a bunch of the characters so the show could get back to the core team. That should've been a sign to the writers if nothing else.

I know a lot of people were irritated by Hiro -- I didn't mind him, but I really hated the seemingly endless time-shifting plotline. I loved evil Sylar (Zachary Quinto) but was mystified by reformed/good Sylar. I liked Noah "Horn Rimmed Glasses" Bennett (Jack Coleman), and really loved the Artist (not sure of his name) who told the future through his comic book art. But then they killed him off. The show just lost itself and couldn't quite recover, at least not in time to recapture my attention.

So, RIP Heroes. We'll always have season 1...

Wonder what Hayden Panettierre will be doing now?

Leverage

Based on comments and recommendations from Wil Wheaton (via his Twitter stream), I decided to check out the TV show "Leverage." Maybe unsurprisingly, Leverage is on TNT. Seems like some of the most interesting/fun non-R rated TV shows are happening on basic cable channels, like USA, TNT, TBS, FX, etc. (Not to mention the obvious, like Comedy Central and SyFy.)

The basic premise of the show is that a group of crooks and former criminals work to steal from wealthy criminals and corrupt businessmen to even the scales for those they have wronged. Timothy Hutton (who won an Oscar & Golden Globe for "Ordinary People" way back in 1980, and which I will admit I have never seen) stars as Nathan Ford, leader of this motley crew. An ex-insurance investigator, Nate reinvents himself as an avenging angel with the help of his crew: thief Parker (Beth Riesgraf), hacker Alec Hardison (Aldis Hodge), grifter Sophie Devereaux (who I loved as Coupling's Gina Bellman), and retrieval specialist Elliot Spencer (you may recognize him as Angel's Christian Kane).

I've seen about 5 episodes, and so far, I like it. I give it a solid B and think it has room to grow. I hope we get more back story on the characters, but in the meantime, I'm enjoying the theme of sophisticated thieves taking down big, bad companies and evil people. I appreciate the clearly defined protagonists, especially because they are criminals. From doing a little background research, I see that Jonathan "Riker" Frakes directs a season 1 episode with guest stars Brent "Data" Spiner and Armin “Quark” Shimerman. I am already salivating at the Star Trek geeky goodness.

I'm still trying to pick out the shots that are filmed in Portland, but I think they used to shoot in my old neighborhood near PGE Park. And in the meantime, I've just learned that there was a recent "Con Con" (haha) here in PDX -- too bad I didn't know about Leverage before that convention. I'm totally in a 'lets go to all the geek related-events' kick, and if it's right here in town, I'd have to go....maybe next year.

Looks like the new season of Leverage starts in June. On a 10-point scale, how likely is it that I will watch all the available episodes and be caught up in time for the season premier (where 0 is Not at all likely and 10 is Extremely likely)? I'm going to say "8." Hooray for summer seasons!

New J.J. Abrams TV Show Picked Up for Fall Season

Is it time for the May upfronts already? Wow! I can hardly believe we're already wrapping up another TV season and getting prepped for next fall. I'm so thankful I upgraded to extended basic cable before summer.

Anyway, news came out this week that NBC is picking up a new J.J. Abrams' spy drama called "Undercovers." (See EW.com post here for more details.) I don't think I know the stars Boris Kodjoe or Gugu Mbatha-Raw, but that's probably for the best. If I didn't like the actors cast, I'm not above skipping a show on principle. The overall premise of the show is that the characters are married ex-CIA agents who get pulled back into the game and realize that "this supercharged, undercover lifestyle provides the excitement and romance that their marriage has been missing."

Not sure how you make an ongoing TV show out of a fairly simplistic story outline, but I've never written for TV so what do I know? I like J.J Abrams, loved "Alias" -- his last spy show starring Jennifer Garner -- and I'm currently loving "Fringe," so I will certainly give this a shot. In fact, it might make sense for NBC to put this on Monday's with Chuck, their other spy show. Now that Jay is out of the 10 PM slot, there are clearly some holes in the schedule to fill and my DVR will record any of them!

I do hope they plan to bring part of the pilot to San Diego in July! J.J. knows he has a huge geek following who will gladly trail him to his next project if he can win them over with something good and the sooner the better. There is a website, though not much on it yet: http://undercoversweb.com/.

ShAt My Dad Says

Meant to post about this on Friday, but as previously reported, the week didn't end on a high note. So here we are.

I started seeing news late last week that the Twitter-famous "Shit My Dad Says" is getting a TV show, starring....wait for it.... William Shatner!! The Shat is going to be the Dad! If anyone could portray a sharp, but foul-mouthed older man, I'm pretty convinced William Shatner won't be stretching himself too far.

But I have some concerns about the premise of this as a TV show. On network TV. Let's start with the name: Shit My Dad Says will have to be cleaned up. I wonder if they can even use Sh*t My Dad Says? Probably not.

Then, there's the content. Forget that I'm not really clear what this show is supposed to be about other than hilarious scenes of Shatner making nasty comments. But even those nasty comments have to be totally cleaned up. I think one of the most hilarious things about the tweets is imagining a 70+ year-old man swearing like a sailor.

So, I'm going to adopt a "wait and see" position on this one. They might consult with comic Jim Breuer, who I know has some great dad stories. Now, that could be fun.

Chuck (Season 1)

First off, h/t to whomever recommended Chuck to me. I thought it was Katie & Johnnie, they won't claim it.

I'm late to the game on this one. Not a great way to try to prove my geek cred, I know, but I can only follow so many shows at once. So, now I'm catching up via Netflix & the WB website. I've watched the first 10 eps so far, and won't try to comment on each one. (If I can catch up in time to make notes about any of the current eps, maybe then I'll torture you with individual write-ups.)

Here's the series summary (courtesy of IMDB) so I don't have to tread that ground again (plus, they do a better job than I could):

When a twenty-something computer geek inadvertently downloads critical government secrets into his brain, CIA and NSA assign two agents to protect him and exploit such knowledge, turning his life upside down.

Overall, I like this show. The cast has a couple of familiar faces (Adam Baldwin of Firefly fame; Joshua Gomez who appeared in the short lived Invasion) but most seem to be newcomers - at least to my TV/movie watching world. The stories are fast-paced, if a little Alias-like. I like the use of popular music in the show; it's clear someone thought about the right song for the scene.

In shows like this, I feel like season 1 and sometimes 2 are often the best because they can explore one-off stories without getting into overly complex continuing sagas. I mean, if the show might get axed, is there really time to get into an ongoing plotline? But I can see the potential "will she/won't she?" story inherent in the romantic tension between Chuck and Sarah being one of those that drags the show down over time.

Since I'm still on season 1 and doing a great job of ignoring spoilers on what's to come, I'll remain optimistic and just enjoy the show.

(I don't know how to embed video clips yet, so here's a link in the meantime.)

http://www.thewb.com/shows/chuck/clip-this-is-the-part-where-we-hide/1229e112ca