Monday Mornings @ Wikipedia
Monday Mornings @ IMDb

“Monday Mornings” are conferences within the Chelsea General Hospital and these conferences are about all the things that went wrong. Malpractices, patient deaths and social misbehaviour. But it also shows parts of the private life of the doctors working there and their different approaches to their chosen profession.

Monday Mornings was developed by David E. Kelley who’s more known as a developer of law(yer) shows just as Ally McBeal or Boston Legal. And in the end this show is not so different, because the MM conferences are basically the closing arguments of a trial where everyone explains their point of view of what went wrong.

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Categories: Short Review
Tags: Ally McBeal · Battlestar Galactica · Boston Legal · Monday Mornings · Pulp Fiction · Spider-Man · The Big Bang Theory
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Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome @ Wikipedia
Battlestar Galactica: Blood & Chrome @ IMDb

This web series (to be released as a TV movie in 2013) follows the adventures of young Ensign William Adama, the later commander of the Battlestar Galactica. Now he’s just eager to get into his Viper and wipe out some Cylon raiders in the ongoing war. But for the time being he’s being ordered to pilot a Raptor instead of a Viper.

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Categories: Short Review, Web
Tags: Battlestar Galactica · Star Trek
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Hawaii Five-0 @ Wikipedia
Hawaii Five-0 @ IMDb

Steve McGarrett is a Navy Seal who resigns his offto work as a cop on his home island Hawaii. But just not as any cop and not just for some reason. His father was killed by the man he has been hunting for years and the HPD can’t be trusted to solve this case. His team works under direct authority from the governor and gets way more leeway to solve their cases. He’s supported by a not so ordinary team.

The cast reads intriguing: Scott Caan (Ocean’s Eleven, The Fast and the Furious), Daniel Dae Kim (LOST), Grace Park (Battlestar Galactica), Masi Oka (Heroes) and of course James Marsters (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Smallville).
The problem for me is that it is a straight-forward cop show like CSI or NCIS. There’s no special element in it. I’m sure it’s a good show that many people will enjoy but it’s just not my kind of show.
It doesn’t help at all that I’m partial towards the supposed baddie (Marsters).

Categories: Short Review, TV Season 2010/2011 Diary
Tags: Battlestar Galactica · Buffy the Vampire Slayer · CSI · Hawaii Five-0 · Heroes · LOST · NCIS · Ocean's Eleven · Smallville · The Fast and the Furious
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There’s another question that has to be asked:

What have Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof done to the mystery genre as such?

Who is ever going to believe the next guy who comes along in fall 2013 claiming to have written THE mystery show and promising that it will all pay off in season five?

Everyone will throw them seven letters into his face: BSG + LOST. And nobody will believe that he can do it – even if he actually could.

Is LOST the “cry wolf” one too many?

Why don’t they hire someone like J. Michael Straczynski who has proven(!) with Babylon 5 that he can keep track of a five season arc and do modifications should the need arise (actor jumps ship, …)?

(Can you see that I’m a teeny-tiny bit pissed off? See here and here, too.)

Categories: Thought Storm
Tags: Babylon 5 · Battlestar Galactica · LOST
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Deutsche Version | Those that came … those that went … those that did both … and those that did neither nor

Dollhouse

The Dollhouse is a place where you can rent an actual person which will be imprinted with anything one desires (from being a professional hit man to being an exceptional escort).
When this show went into its last intermission I kinda lost track of it. I always enjoyed it but somehow I never managed to come around and watch the last five or six episodes. Maybe I’ll do it in the summer.

Heroes

Certain people discover that they have abilities that would be described as “super-human”. They use them to protect us while living in secret.
Once this was a great show (in season one). But ever since then it has been declining and gotten more illogical with every season. I’m not sad that it was discontinued.

LOST

The plane Oceanic 815 crashes on a tropical island. The survivors have to fight against the island, a smoke monster, the Others and several other parties. Not only in their own time, but also in the past and in other realities.
“It’s all about the characters.” From now on I will understand this as “We have no plan were we are going and it will make no sense but at least you’ll see the characters in a lot of emotional turmoil.”. The more distance I get from watching the finale the more disappointed I become. I wasn’t too keen on the Battlestar Galactica end either but at least they had a physical voyage that leads them somewhere in the end. And here? We have only vague hints of what would have happened if Smokey had left or if the island had sunk. Where’s the re-watch value? Why bother to look for clues in the early episodes when you know that there won’t be any answers for which the clues could be useful?
In essence, J. Michael Straczynski is still the only person who actually can pull off a five season arc.

Supernatural

Sam and Dean Winchester fight all kinds of supernatural beings that kill or use people in their plans to bring the Apocalypse.
Technically this show isn’t over. There will be a sixth season and maybe more. But the big arc that has driven the show over the last five years is over now and I’m glad I was on board for it, even though my trip was shorter (I watched the pilot merely a year ago).

Categories: Short Review, TV Season 2009/10 Diary
Tags: Battlestar Galactica · Dollhouse · Heroes · LOST · Supernatural
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Deutsche Version | CW 04-05 | CW 07

Chuck 3×07 Chuck vs the Mask
This episode has cause quite an Internet Backdraft, for example: Chuck, “Chuck vs. the Mask”: Night at the museum, The Double-Edged Sword Of Devotion: ‘Chuck’ Vs. The Entitled Fan Base.
I agree on the part that Sarah/Clark KentShaw was indeed a bit rushed. But I disagree on the Chuck/Lana LangHannah part. And I think that both couples actually do have chemistry. Maybe that’s the reason people are so irritated about it.
I also agree on the assessment of one of the commentators on the first link that Chuck is trying to wear a mask to become a better spy and that he runs the risk of becoming the mask. My prognosis is that the mask is shattered when (and I’m totally guessing here, I have no actual spoiler infos) something happens to Hannah – she’s only a guest star after all.
So in sum, I liked this episode because I didn’t think it was unbelievable what I saw.

Heroes 4×19 Chapter Eighteen ‘Brave New World’
When a friend told me last week that this would be the season finale I was stumped. I couldn’t fathom how they could bring all these loose ends together in just one episode. They somehow did but it felt very rushed and in my opinion it fell a bit flat – but that seems to be a Heroes tradition since season one.
I liked it when they started slow, I got a bit bored when it didn’t speed up in the middle and then it end abruptly.
To be perfectly honest I wouldn’t care if there were never a fifth season – but if there is I’m probably going to watch it anyway in the slim hope that they manage to return to the quality of the first season (excluding the end).
Heroes seems to be the perfect example of a New Year rocket. It rises fast, burns brightly and is burned out even faster.

House M.D. 6×13 5 to 9
That was a great Cuddy episode, it worked really well. From this point of view it’s even more astonishing how Cuddy can bear House and his games and habits.
What bothered me about this (and also last(?)) episode is Lucas’s behaviour. House is a jerkass (with a heart of gold), he always has been and Cuddy knows that. But Lucas isn’t that much better. We saw him threaten House and Wilson over the condo issue and now he’s betting with House about his sex with Cuddy?! If he isn’t a good person, Cuddy might as well choose the original bad one instead of this copycat…

Human Target 1×05 Run
The show is very predictable; there are no hidden plots or meaning, no surprises: WYSIWYG. For example, it was totally obvious that the D.A. was his daughter. But somehow that is part of the fun. It’s like riding a rollercoaster. You know it’ll be fast, you’ll get two downhills, maybe a looping but in the end you’ll get safely back to the station.

Castle 2×15 Suicide Squeeze
Parts of the reveal were pretty predictable this time, with Castle’s background and all… Apart from that not much else happened either.

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Categories: TV Season 2009/10 Diary
Tags: Battlestar Galactica · Burn Notice · Castle · Chuck · Cougar Town · Heroes · House M.D. · How I Met Your Mother · Human Target · Leverage · Life Unexpected · LOST · Smallville · Spartacus: Blood and Sand · Supernatural · The Big Bang Theory · The Good Wife · The Vampire Diaries · Two and a Half Men · White Collar
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Deutsche Version | CW 01-02 | CW 04

Human Target 1×01 Pilot
The pilot episode certainly looked interesting. The action was well balanced above realistic and below unrealistic. It looks like as if it’s going to be Die Hard or Lethal Weapon in a series format and I certainly will watch more episodes of it.
“You wore a vest? Where’s my vest?” – “I’m your vest.”

24 8×01 – 8×04 4:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
Dammit. I should have known better. I decided to watch the season en bloc when it is over. But I just had to peak a little and was already drawn back in…
I love Jack’s new “Are we done here? Can I go home now?” attitude. Of course they aren’t done and Jack can’t go home.
When I read that that Freddie Prince jr. (Wing Commander, Scooby Doo) – He married my Buffy, dammit!!! – would take the part of the leading CTU Field Officer I was a bit worried. But he has gotten older and looks like he can pull it off.
Of course there are again the typical 24 plot points like the incompetent CTU boss, the CTU member who has private problems and I am already wondering who the mole is – but that’s OK, it’s 24 after all.
What I also like is that – aside from the 24 alumni who have returned this season – these episodes feel like a huge School Reunion party: The aforementioned Freddie Prince jr., Katee Sackhoff (Starbuck in Battlestar Galactica) – looks gorgeous btw -, Paul Wesley (Stefan in The Vampire Diaries), Cliff Simon (Ba’al in Stargate SG-1), David Anders (Takezo Kensei / Adam Monroe in Heroes, Julian Sark in Alias), Jürgen Prochnow (Dune, Das Boot) and according to the CTU files Callum Keith Rennie (Ray in Due South, Leoben in Battlestar Galactica) will also appear anytime soon.

Life Unexpected 1×01 Pilot
I was made aware of this series at least twice. The second time was a few days ago when blogs reviewed the pilot episode. But I’ve seen bits and pieces of this episode before – most likely in a trailer a few months back. And even though I had forgotten the show in the meantime I now remember that I decided back then that I’d give it a try.
I really liked the pilot. The characters are believable and down-to-earth. Even though the show runs on The CW this isn’t Beverly Hills 90210 or Gossip Girl, this is different. As with every show it now depends on what kind of storylines they are going to tell and how this triangle+attachments is going to work out.

Spartacus: Blood and Sand 1×01 / 1×02 The Red Serpent / Sacramentum Gladiatorum
Lots of nudity (male and female). Even more blood. Better you put a bucket below your telly in case it spills out of the screen. The optic leans more towards 300 than Gladiator, especially when there’s blood flowing. The problem is the story. These first two episodes show how Spartacus became a Gladiator but it didn’t give the viewer an idea what the entire show is going to be about. And that’s why I am not yet convinced. To quote Buffy’s Spike: “I love a good slaughter as much as the next bloke” but I also need a real story in between.
Time will tell … at least you now get the chance you never got with Xena: To see Lucy Lawless in the nude.

Chuck 3×04 Chuck vs Operation Awesome
The only thing I’ve ever seen Brandon Routh in was Superman Returns but here he didn’t remind me of his character there. I like him as addition to the team because he could stir things up a little.
I don’t know if it’s just my imagination because they announced it but the show actually feels a bit less funny and a bit more serious. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still an Action Comedy and there’s plenty of fun in it. But the general tone during the spy action seems to have darkened a little since last year. I’m not complaining – I like it.

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Categories: TV Season 2009/10 Diary
Tags: 24 · Alias · Battlestar Galactica · Beverly Hills 90210 · Bones · Buffy the Vampire Slayer · Burn Notice · Cagney & Lacey · Castle · Chuck · Cougar Town · Das Boot · Die Hard · Due South · Dune · Gossip Girl · Heroes · House M.D. · How I Met Your Mother · Human Target · Lethal Weapon · Leverage · Life Unexpected · Scooby Doo · Spartacus: Blood and Sand · Stargate SG-1 · Superman · Supernatural · The Big Bang Theory · The Good Wife · The Vampire Diaries · Two and a Half Men · White Collar · Wing Commander · Xena: Warrior Princess
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Deutsche Version

Since everybody seems to be starting to count at zero instead of one the first decade of this century and millennium is now over. So it’s time to recap these past ten years and take a look at the TV Shows it has given us.

Let me give my résumé at the beginning: Of the four decades I know TV Shows from (70s – 00s) this was without question the best decade for us TV junkies. When you read my review you might say in the end “Hey what about <insert your favourite here>?” (e.g. The Sopranos, Dexter, The Wire, Six Feet Under, …) but that’s exactly my point. This decade has given us so many outstanding shows that it was impossible to watch them all. Also, everybody has a different set of favourite genres but I’d say that every genre got their fair share of excellent series in the last years.

But let’s face it: There’s rarely any series (if there’s one at all) that could keep up the quality and its appeal for its entire run. Some had a bad year in between, some fell short at the end. But even in these “bad years” they had more quality episodes in it than entire shows from previous decades. So all the shows I am going to name have of course aspects that can be criticized and I invite you to do so.

For me the most outstanding characteristic of this past decade’s shows is that they are more often than not more about the “journey” of the character(s) than the actual events. It’s not the character who shines a light upon the unfolding events but it’s the events that shine a light upon the character and his development. I have to say that shows (hereby excluding comedy shows that work with stereo- and archetypes) that don’t have a real character development don’t interest me at all. But if the character development is interesting I might even watch shows from genres that usually don’t interest me at all.

If the character development is interesting enough I might even set the fact aside that my second favourite characteristic is missing: A real story-arc. The first TV Show in my TV universe that had a real story-arc, was Babylon 5. Later Star Trek: DS9 did the same albeit not in that quality and complexity. But these shows were two of the rare exception in the 90s (another famous exception would be Twin Peaks, but I never watched it). It seemed that viewers weren’t interested in either developing characters or story-arcs.

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Categories: Short Review, Thought Storm
Tags: 24 · Alias · Angel · Babylon 5 · Battlestar Galactica · Being Human · Bones · Buffy the Vampire Slayer · Burn Notice · Chuck · Dexter · Doctor Who · Farscape · Firefly · Friends · Heroes · House M.D. · How I Met Your Mother · James Bond · Knight Rider · LOST · MacGyver · Six Feet Under · Smallville · Star Trek DS9 · Superman · Supernatural · The A-Team · The Big Bang Theory · The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy · The Sopranos · The Wire · Thursday Next · True Blood · Twin Peaks · Two and a Half Men · Veronica Mars
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Deutsche Version | Season 1: Disc 1

You Can’t Go Home Again

Synopsis: During the last attack Starbuck’s Viper was heavily damaged and she had to eject in the atmosphere of a small moon. But she also shot down the Raider that shot her down and it crashed on a near-by site. The problem is that she has no means of communication, Galactica does not know where to look for her and she’s running out of oxygen in 46 hours. Luckily for her, Adama is not willing to leave her behind.

My Opinion: I love this episode because it showed perfectly the triumvirate Adama²-Starbuck who would do anything for one another and once again Starbuck was awesome. Could you be more cool than return home with a commandeered enemy ship even when you stink like a latrine? But I also liked how the Cylons on Caprica (especially Caprica-Eight) manipulate Helo. Their scheming shows how human they really are.

Litmus

Synopsis: It is not yet publicly known that Cylons can look like Humans and another Number Five (looks like the reporter Aaron Doral) walks into Galactica and kills himself in a suicide bombing after he was cornered. Adama orders an investigation on how Doral got his hands on explosives and a detonator and the Master-at-Arms discovers that Chief Tyrol is lying about his wherabouts during the time of the bombing which makes him a suspect of treason.

My Opinion: Now the secret is out. This episode reminded me of Star Trek TNG’s The Drumhead which also featured a witch hunt but here it wasn’t fully believable. Yes she may be the Master-at-Arms and Adama gave her command authorization but she went over the line too quickly for someone who isn’t used to boss Commanders around.

Six Degrees of Separation

Synopsis: Another Number Six copy with the name Shelly Godfrey comes aboard Galactica and claims that she has evidence that connects Dr. Baltar to the failure of the colonial defences and that in fact he planted a bomb in the defence computer system. Baltar finds this outrageous (he didn’t plant a bomb after all, he just unknowingly slept with the enemy) but he can’t tell anybody that Shelly is a Cylon (Why would he know that?).

My Opinion: Baltar and Head-Six, what a lovely pair. It was such a great scene when Baltar was in CIC and was introduced to Shelly and he searched for her, totally ignoring the woman standing in front of him – assuming that this was his imaginary Six. I like Head-Six scenes in general because she gets him in awkward situations where he has to simultaneously* talk to her and the other (real) person in the room. And once again he managed to wind himself out of a tight spot. Even if he isn’t a real villain like the classic Baltar, he’s my favourite villain on the show.

* I wonder if I will ever write that word correctly, spellchecker has to correct me every time…

Categories: BSG Marathon, DVD / Blu-ray, DVD Marathon
Tags: Battlestar Galactica · Star Trek TNG
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Deutsche Version | Battlestar Galactica (2003) | Season 1: Disc 2

33

Synopsis: The Cylons somehow always know the position of the fleet and follows it mercilessly. 33 minutes after the fleet has arrived at the new jump coordinates a Cylon fleet arrives also and starts to attack. The fleet has just commenced its 237th jump and the pilots and the crew of the Galactica have been awake for more than 5 days straight without relieve or pause. They have to put an end to this or they will make one final, deadly mistake.
Meanwhile another Number Eight (numerical designation of human copies that look like Boomer) pretends to have come back to Caprica to get Karl “Helo” Agathon out of there.

My Opinion: This was a great start to the show because you are thrown right in. One doesn’t know how much time lay between their jump over the “red line” and the first time the Cylons found them again but it can’t have been much. And then we see them already 5 days into this 33 minutes rhythm, all exhausted and on duty for over 130 hours and no hope of release except death. It was only the first of many hard situations to come but it showed directly that this won’t be an easy journey.

Water

Synopsis: When Boomer (a Cylon who doesn’t know she is one) regains consciousness she finds herself soaking wet and she also has a plastic explosive plus a detonator in her hands. When she secretly brings it back she discovers that 6 more are missing from an arms locker. Soon after a huge explosion erupts in Galactica and 60% of the water tanks are emptied into space. If the fleet doesn’t find a new water source it won’t survive.

My Opinion: This was also a good episode, I liked it how Boomer struggled with herself, how she tried to override her Cylon programming without even knowing that it’s there. I also liked it how both Adama and Roslin didn’t really like the ceremonial pomp but both did it to make the other one feel better. I also took notice of Alex “Crashdown” Quartararo for the first time, because now I know his actor Sam Witwer from the eight season of Smallville.

Bastille Day

Synopsis: They have found water, but in its liquid form it is to salty to be used, but there are also huge masses of frozen fresh water. It will be hard and dangerous work to mine that water and Apollo offers freedom points for the men on the prison ship if they are willing to help. But the prisoners stand united behind former terrorist Tom Zarek who uses the situation to take hostages and demands elections.

My Opinion: While I liked to see the classic BSG alumni Richard Hatch (Apollo in classic BSG), I never cared much for Tom Zarek or his “mission”. At no time this character was somehow likeable, he’s simply a bad guy who happens to be human. This was also the first episode that Starbuck becomes an all-purpose Swiss knife (Is that a pleonasm?) because otherwise there would be no reason why she would lead the marines to rescue the hostages and it’s also her who carries the sniper rifle. But I am not mad about this, because it gives her more screen time.

But I really love this quote from Adama: “There’s a reason you separate military and the police. One fights the enemies of the state, the other serves and protects the people. When the military becomes both, then the enemies of the state tend to become the people.”

Act of Contrition

Synopsis: An accident on the landing deck occurs which kills twelve Viper pilots and injures seven more. Adama gives Starbuck the task of training pilots to become Viper pilots since Starbuck had been an instructor before the war. What Adama doesn’t know is that Starbuck passed Adama’s son Zek in basic flight even though he should have failed because she was engaged to him. Soon after he died in his plane.

My Opinion: Another thing I like about this show: Past events are rarely forgotten, no pushing of the reset button after the episode has ended. And also the occasional flashback to a pre-war Caprica. This episode also introduces two new pilots: Brendan “Hot Dog” Costanza and Louanne “Kat” Katraine and the latter one will become a worthy challenger of Starbuck’s and she will call Starbuck out when no one else dares to. Starbuck needs that on occasion and that’s why I like Kat.

Season 1: Disc 2

Categories: BSG Marathon, DVD / Blu-ray, DVD Marathon
Tags: Battlestar Galactica · Smallville
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