Reaper: ‘A New Hope’ for a New Season

March 3, 2009 by Chandra  

ReaperAlthough hard to believe, it really is finally time for the second-season premiere of The CW’s delicious Devil dramedy Reaper. The first episode up tonight at 8pm EST has the very long and quite confusing title “Episode 201: Episode IV: A New Hope,” so let’s just call it “A New Hope” for short.

Following the Season One-ending development that The Devil and Sam might be a whole lot closer than mere employer and employee — father and son, in fact — Season Two opens with best buds Sam, Sock, and Ben returning from a soothing vacation. Yet, the road-trip afterglow doesn’t last for long because the trio are forced to face the grim reality that their jobs are now gone at the Work Bench and their apartment is, too. Jobless and homeless, the guys manage to get back on their feet eventually, no thanks to The Devil and his latest whopper of an assignment.

That’s the bare-bones summary. I’ve had the opportunity to screen this week’s and next week’s (“Dirty Sexy Mongol”) episodes ahead of their premiere, and I gotta tell all of my fellow Reaper fans that it sure is nice to have the gang back. As expected, however, the plot isn’t all fun and games.

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‘Psych’ Premiere: Shawn and Gus Get Fishy

January 9, 2009 by Chandra  

James Roday, Dulé Hill/Psych 3.10

Another midseason, another fun premiere from USA Network and its laid-back crime dramedy Psych. This time around, on “Six Feet Under the Sea,” the episode’s unique slant is Shawn and Gus’ investigation of the murder of a seal. Yep, you read that right — a seal, like the kind you find in the sea.

This is no ordinary seal, however. It’s famous Shabby the Sea Lion, and when Gus takes Shawn along to the mammal’s funeral, the fake psychic senses something is very, well, fishy.

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Welcome Back, Mr. Monk … And Your Other Brother

January 9, 2009 by Chandra  

Tony Shalhoub, Steve Zahn/Monk 7.10

I hope everybody else is as psyched as I am for the return of Tony Shalhoub and his magnificent crime dramedy Monk.

The place to be at 9pm EST tonight is USA Network, which will air the seventh-midseason premiere of the show, a fun episode called “Mr. Monk and the Other Brother.” And, you betcha — it appears Adrian Monk does indeed have another sibling besides John Turturro’s recovered agoraphobic Ambrose, a half brother named Jack Jr. played by Joy Ride etcetera star Steve Zahn.

The action gets rolling at the very beginning of the episode, when poor Monk, busy whipping himself up a stack of perfectly square pancakes one morning, realizes that someone is breaking into his apartment. That someone is Jack, who has just escaped from prison and soon informs Monk that he needs help bringing the person who framed him for murder to justice.

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‘Meet the Browns’ Series Premiere Promising

January 8, 2009 by Chandra  

David Mann and Tamela J. Mann/Tyler Perry's Meet the BrownsI laughed quite a bit while watching “Meet Brown Meadows,” the series premiere of Tyler Perry’s latest TBS sitcom Meet the Browns, and somewhat less during the follow-up episode “Meet London and the Competition.” I won’t deny that much of the plotting on both was predictable and not sophisticated in the sense of, say, 30 Rock or The Big Bang Theory. But, the show definitely seems to be a fun way to pass a half-hour or two … so far (more on the quantifier soon).

During the premiere episode “Meet Brown Meadows,” we find central character Leroy Brown preparing to transform his house into a retirement home called Brown Meadows, per his deceased father’s last wish. Brown’s renovation plans, which he’s dangerously carrying out himself, are interrupted, however, when a fire strikes another already established retirement home down the street.

Social worker Carmen Martinez drops by Brown’s home with news of the tragedy and quickly convinces the irritable but kindhearted owner to open his doors for “one or two” — but actually more like a dozen — of the displaced residents. Unfortunately, Robin Robinson, the snotty owner of the other residence, is none too pleased to learn she has a budding business rival nearby, so she immediately calls an inspector to sabotage Brown’s goal.

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‘Scrubs’ Season 8/ABC Premiere: Was That Good for You?

January 7, 2009 by Chandra  

ScrubsAs loyal Scrubs fans already know, last night the show made its eighth-season debut on its new home network ABC with the back-to-back episodes “My Jerks” and “My Last Words.”

On the first episode, the Sacred Heart gang meets new Chief of Medicine Dr. Taylor Maddox, played by competent Courteney Cox (sorry, all of you prepared to rag on her performance), who initially comes across as a sickeningly sunny and upbeat boss.

Never fear, though, because as the second episode makes clear, she has more than a few issues to help her fit in with the already quite quirky staff. A prime example is her tendency to care more about patients’ ability to pay up than the hospital’s ability to treat everyone who comes through the doors. Even The Janitor doesn’t phase her when he refuses to reveal his name (“The Janitor” reads his clip-on ID tag, ever so helpfully).

“My Jerks” also introduces us to Sacred Heart’s newest crop of extremely inept but memorable interns, including Aziz Ansari’s Ed, the one who has the power to instantly coin new phrases and convince everyone to follow along, and my personal favorite, Eliza Coupe’s super bitchy Denise, whose ultra negative, overly honest attitude and observations make it a teensy bit difficult for her to relate to patients … and most other human beings.

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The Office: Season Four DVD Review

September 2, 2008 by Chandra  

The Office - Season Four DVDToday, the strike-shortened fourth season of NBC’s hit workplace sitcom The Office finally hit stores at a list price of $49.98 per set. That matches the price of the second and third seasons, although the fourth had only 14 episodes as compared to 22 for the second season and 24 for the third (the first season was a “tryout,” with six installments all together). If you’re thrifty, such pricing might present a problem, at least until the inevitable sales occur down the road, likely near the year-ending holiday season.

As for the set itself, the copy I received for review contained the expected fourteen episodes and bonus features (deleted scenes; gag reel; outtakes; and commentaries with cast and crew for the four episodes “Money,” Local Ad,” “The Deposition,” and “Did I Stutter?”), plus a table-draft copy of the script for arguably the most entertaining episode last season, “Dinner Party.” Depending on where you purchase your copy, the boxed set might also include other bonus extras, such as a series-branded T-shirt at Best Buy (as long as supplies last, of course).

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DVD Review: Where in the World Is Osama bin Laden?

August 27, 2008 by Chandra  

Morgan Spurlock and Woman/Where in the World Is Osama bin Laden?Oscar-nominated writer-director Morgan Spurlock of Super Size Me and 30 Days fame accomplishes a remarkable feat with his smart yet funny documentary Where in the World Is Osama bin Laden?. He manages to evoke laughter while dissecting one of the least funny situations in the history of modern civilization: the War on Terror, its causes, and its many repercussions for various societies.

Concerned about the state of mankind after his wife Alexandra Jamieson learns she’s pregnant with their first child — she gives birth to son Laken James at the end of the film during Operation Delivery — Spurlock decides to get proactive about what is arguably the most pressing issue threatening the safety of the world’s inhabitants today and in the future.

His approach to his newfound mission is to undergo a hasty round of language tutoring, vaccinations, and survival training before heading to the Middle East to track down Planet Earth’s most wanted man, fugitive Osama bin Laden. Although there’s no clear indication what Spurlock would do if he were to succeed where scores have failed, I’m guessing he’d start with a little one-on-one chat along the lines of, “What the hell are you doing, dude?!”

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Greek: 2.1 ‘Brothers and Sisters’ Advance Review

August 26, 2008 by Chandra  

Greek

When we last saw the young men and women of Cyprus-Rhodes University who live for their sororities and fraternities, they were off on a wild Spring Break vacation at Myrtle Beach in South Carolina. Everyone’s back on campus as the second season opens, and it’s time to continue with the trying, tangled, and occasionally satisfying relationships that characterized the show during its freshman run.

The next big event on the minds of the Greek system members is the 63rd Annual Greek Week Olympiad, a take on the Olympics where the different houses compete against one another for bragging rights in assorted offbeat competitions, some requiring the girls and boys to switch traditional gender roles. As a result, the frat guys wow (or nearly blind) us with their eager displays of team spirit, and we almost get to see the lovely ladies of Zeta Beta Zeta play football in odd pastel-pink uniforms, complete with bulky padding.

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Eureka: 3.1 ‘Bad to the Drone’ Advance Review

July 29, 2008 by Chandra  

Colin Ferguson, Salli Richardson/EurekaThe premiere episode of Eureka’s third season, “Bad to the Drone,” demonstrates once again that the series has the baddest community of brainiacs anywhere, and you can interpret “bad” a few ways.

After a little catch-up with the main secondary characters at Café Diem, we get to the gist of the episode when first a new face arrives in town and then the expected Disaster of the Week unfolds in front of that new person.

This chain of events wouldn’t normally be such a big deal — Eureka is a strange little town, after all — if not for the fact that the newcomer is The Fixer, also known as cutthroat corporate player Eva Thorne (Frances Fisher), who arrives with orders from the Department of Defense to do some serious housekeeping at Global Dynamics.

Thorne isn’t even onsite a day before a test of an anti-missile defense system goes predictably horribly wrong, resulting in the escape of an attack drone named Martha that’s closer to a moody child than an inanimate piece of machinery. In other words, Martha has a personality, and the runaway is going through some growing pains…

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Psych: 3.1 ‘The Ghost in You’ Advance Review

July 18, 2008 by Chandra  

Dulé Hill, James Roday/Psych 3.1For two seasons now, viewers have been enjoying the best-buds schtick between Psych stars James Roday and Dulé Hill, tempered with insight into why Roday’s Shawn Spencer acts the way he does, courtesy of those very special moments (much sarcasm intended) between the crime-solving fake psychic and his stern ex-cop father Henry Spencer (Corbin Bernsen). Since most things get old at one point, however, especially on television, it’s time to give the show’s fans more. Thankfully, judging by the entertaining July 18 third-season premiere “The Ghost in You,” Psych intends to do just that.

More what, you ask? Well, for starters, more Burton “Gus” Guster (Hill), as in a better look at what Shawn’s best friend and fellow non-professional detective does when he’s not busy playing second banana. We’ve always known that, unlike his lazy childhood pal, industrious Gus is actually a working man with a successful, full-time corporate job at a pharmaceutical company.

Yet, that employment security is threatened on “The Ghost in You” when Gus’ boss, Mr. Haversham (ubiquitous Christopher MacDonald), gets a whiff of his employee’s extracurricular sleuthing. The boss is more interested in the supernatural-flavored cases that Gus and Shawn have tackled, specifically the museum mummy disappearance from last season’s finale, which has made local headlines. Eager to rid his own home of a spook so terrifying it forced his wife to flee, Mr. Haversham makes a demand Gus had better meet if he doesn’t want serious upheaval in his career soon.

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