The Expendables

05 Mar – €13 @ DVD-Börse Ludwigsburg

Double Impact

05 Mar – €5 @ DVD-Börse Ludwigsburg

Knight and Day

05 Mar – €10 @ DVD-Börse Ludwigsburg

The Running Man

05 Mar – €9 @ DVD-Börse Ludwigsburg

The Town

05 Mar – €12 @ DVD-Börse Ludwigsburg

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Categories: DVD / Blu-ray, Purchase Diary 2011
Tags: Armageddon · Beyond Sherwood Forest · Date Night · Dexter · Dollhouse · Double Impact · Knight and Day · Leverage · Mad Men · Superman · The Expendables · The Librarian · The Running Man · The Town · Universal Soldier · V
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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
Comments: No comments

Happy Town @ IMDb
Happy Town @ Wikipedia

Haplin, Minnesota is a small town where not much happens. At least in the past five years. Before that a serial killer known as the Magic Man killed one person each year for seven years. Then he vanished without a trace – just like his victims who were never found.
But here is something brewing. New people come into town, a man gets brutally killed and the sheriff has some sort of breakdown that is somehow connected to one of the newcomers.

I’m a bit confused. Is this pure mystery? Is there a supernatural element in the story? What’s up with Chloe?
The pilot felt a bit rushed because so many different characters had to be introduced (however briefly) but it certainly looks intriguing and I’ll continue to watch.
The show has quite a number of known faces, among them Amy Acker (Angel, Dollhouse), M.C. Gainey (LOST), Sam Neill (The Hunt for Red October, Merlin) and Abraham Benrubi (Parker Lewis Can’t Lose, ER).

Categories: Short Review
Tags: Angel · Dollhouse · ER · Happy Town · LOST · Merlin · Parker Lewis Can't Lose · The Hunt for Red October
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Deutsche Version | Season 2 | Season 3: Disc 2

Anne

Synopsis: After being expelled from school, thrown out by her mother and having to kill Angel, Buffy has left Sunnydale and lives now in L.A. under her middle name “Anne”. She’s not the Slayer anymore, she’s just a waitress in a diner. Meanwhile her friends try to fill her shoes and hunt Vampires at night. And Giles is looking in any place where rumours about a girl fighting Vampires exist.

My Opinion: What I really liked about this episode was that the decision was not forced upon her. She decided to help Lily and return to the fight she was born to fight. She had no contact with any kind of (obvious) demon until she decided to make it her business which then ultimately led to the decision to return home. But it was also funny to watch the attempts of the others to hunt Vampires on their own.

Dead Man’s Party

Synopsis: Buffy has returned to Sunnydale and while her mother and her friends are glad to have her back, nobody really wants to touch the subject of what happened in the last three months and in the final fight against Angelus. Additionally Buffy is still expelled from school. But everything (mostly) returns to “normal” when Joyce invites Buffy’s friend to a Welcome Back party and a lot of (uninvited) Zombies also show up.

My Opinion: While I didn’t care much for the “death mask” storyline I liked how the tension between all parties involved was building up during the course of the episode and how it erupted during the party. This air-cleaning storm was necessary and was nicely concluded by the fight against the invading Zombies. And I loved Xander’s quote “Generally speaking, when scary things get scared, not good.”.

Faith, Hope & Trick

Synopsis: There’s a new Bad in town: Kakistos, a Vampire so old that his hands have formed into cloven and his associate Mr. Trick. There’s also a new Slayer in town: Faith, successor of Kendra. But Faith is nothing like Kendra or Buffy. She’s a free spirit, untamable. And she seems to take over Buffy’s life. But she’s also the reason why Kakistos is here and he wants her dead.

My Opinion: When I watched the show for the first time, I didn’t really like or care for Faith. I can’t really put a finger on the time when that has changed. Maybe when I watched her in Angel, maybe when I watched Eliza Dushku in Dollhouse. Anyway, when she appeared this time on screen I was delighted to see her again. And I liked it how Mr. Trick walked out on Kakistos with a comment on his lips that guys like Kakistos don’t fit in this time anymore.

Beauty and the Beasts

Synopsis: It’s full moon again but Xander who was supposed to guard Oz slept the whole night and someone has let the window in Oz’s “cell” open. As it so happens, a fellow student was mauled in the woods in that very night and Oz naturally fears that he might have done it. But something else happened, too: Someone rescued Angel from whatever hell dimension he was trapped in. But he’s not really Angel, he’s merely a wild animal.

My Opinion: While I don’t mind that Angel is back I am a bit uncertain about this plot twist in general. It makes the concept of “death” a bit less irreversible. Many of the deaths in this show are great emotional moments and some of the dead remain that way but it gets a bit cheapened when you know that everyone can be brought back if the writers want it badly enough.
But still, I am glad that Angel is back because his return will make this season a lot more interesting.

Season 3: Disc 2

Categories: Buffy Marathon, DVD / Blu-ray, DVD Marathon
Tags: Buffy the Vampire Slayer · Dollhouse
Comments: No comments

Deutsche Version | CW 45 | CW 40-47

The Good Wife 1×06 Conjugal
I love the unusual (and yet serious) way how they solve their cases and I like how they often find a way to involve Alicia’s husband in the case even when she has to sacrifice his reputation in the end.

Two and a Half Men 7×07 Untainted by Filth
Charlie’s going to marry! The world comes to an end even before 2012! Loved the flashback to the “threesome” and how he managed to disguise his uncomfortableness by telling his mother’s story. One story worse than the other.

House M.D. 6×06 Known Unknowns
Loved Cuddy, Wilson and House at that conference, especially the the (19)80s party and House being totally serious when he held Wilson’s speech and keeping his friend out of trouble. As usual, I didn’t care too much about the actual case.

The Big Bang Theory 3×07 The Guitarist Amplification
Penny’s and Leonard’s first real argument. How cute. But once again Sheldon stole the spotlight from all of them. I am quite sure when the writers invented the show they didn’t imagine Sheldon becoming basically the comical center of the show but that’s how it turned out. Unfortunately I slowly get the feeling that the other four are slowly becoming supporting cast to give him an anchor for his lines.

Supernatural 5×08 Changing Channels
One week’s worth of television in one episode. So cool, especially the CSI parody. But one thing I haven’t understood: Was the Trickster we’ve known before never a Trickster and always Gabriel? Or did Gabriel choose the face of the Trickster for some reason afterwards?

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Categories: TV Season 2009/10 Diary
Tags: Bones · Castle · Cougar Town · Dollhouse · Friends · Gossip Girl · Heroes · House M.D. · How I Met Your Mother · Supernatural · The Big Bang Theory · The Good Wife · The Shawshank Redemption · The Vampire Diaries · Two and a Half Men · V
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Deutsche Version | CW 42-43 | CW 45

White Collar 1×01 Pilot
Someone mentioned that Chuck’s Bryce Larkin would play a con man in the style of the epilogue of Catch Me If You Can. And I thought that I’d give it a try. So far I have to say it’s OK. As of yet I am undecided whether it’s a show for long-term watching, I will have to watch a few more episodes to decide that.

Castle 2×05 When the Bough Breaks
Richard Castle as possible author of James Bond books. That’d be the day I loved it how Kate’s and Rick’s relationship was developing forward without them actually doing anything in this regard.

Castle 2×06 Vampire Weekend
Despite all the references to the Whedonverse and Vampires, Lycans and co. in general, it was only an average episode. As I said before, Crime isn’t really my genre and this show has the disadvantage that there isn’t any additional drama outside the current case. I had hoped there would come something out of Castle’s discovery regarding Beckett’s mom’s murder, but they put that back in the box and forgot about it.

Two and a Half Men 7×05 For the Sake of the Child
This was a great episode, the two brothers worked very well as this old couple. I haven’t laughed that much for a while on TaaHM. “Things you would change about me? – Your address!”

Dollhouse 2×04 Belonging
A really great episode, written by Jed Whedon and directed by Jonathan Frakes. Again Echo is not in the spotlight, but Sierra and – especially – Topher. And it was one of the episodes where they seriously question the ethics and morality of the Dollhouse itself. They should do this way more often because therein lies the conflict potential of the show.

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Categories: TV Season 2009/10 Diary
Tags: Castle · Chuck · Cougar Town · Dollhouse · FlashForward · Gossip Girl · Heroes · How I Met Your Mother · James Bond · Smallville · Stargate Universe · Supernatural · Two and a Half Men · White Collar
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Deutsche Version | CW 41 | CW 42-43

Bones 5×04 The Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
I really enjoyed this episode with all its entanglements in suburbia and especially the bantering between Bones/anthropology and Sweets/psychology regarding the life there.

Supernatural 5×05 Fallen Idols
Kripke warned the viewers not to judge to quickly about the appearance of Paris Hilton. And he was right, she was the perfect specimen to make the point the wood god wanted to make. And: “You got whaled on by Paris Hilton!”

Smallville 9×03 Rabid
I didn’t care much for the zombie story (despite Supernatural horror still isn’t my genre) but I really like the way they are pushing the triangle C-L-B forward without making it feel forced. I also hope that this wasn’t the last appearance of Green Arrow. I hope he finds his path again soon and will play a larger role this season.

The Big Bang Theory 3×04 The Pirate Solution
I’m surprised, Leonard’s and Penny’s relationship is actually lasting (at least for now ). And Raj and Sheldon work together in a “Eye of the Tiger” montage – awesome!

Two and a Half Men 7×04 Laxative Tester, Horse Inseminator
It was funny (it would fail if it weren’t) but again not extraordinary. Maybe I shouldn’t watch two sitcoms in a row.

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Categories: TV Season 2009/10 Diary
Tags: Ally McBeal · Babylon 5 · Bones · Boston Legal · Castle · Cougar Town · Dollhouse · Emergency Room · Firefly · FlashForward · Gossip Girl · Heroes · House M.D. · How I Met Your Mother · L.A. Law · Matlock · Pirates of the Caribbean · Smallville · Stargate Universe · Supernatural · The Big Bang Theory · The Good Wife · Twilight Zone · Two and a Half Men
Comments: 1 Comment

Deutsche Version | CW 41

Since I am watching a number of TV shows via community means, I decided to give a short opinion of said episodes.

The season began a few weeks ago, so here comes a bulk review:

Bones 5×01 Harbingers in a Fountain
While it was a nice start into the season it bothered me that they showed an actual fortune-teller without exposing her as a fraud. Especially Bones should have never accepted this fact.

Bones 5×02 The Bond in the Boot
Except for the fact that they played with the James Bond theme it was average.

Bones 5×03 The Plain in the Prodigy
I am totally agnostic and don’t really care for any religion. But I didn’t like how they portrayed the Amish’s reaction to the victim’s piano playing: “Oh that sounds so beautiful, why would God forbid playing instruments?”. The Amish are obviously very strong in their faith, I can’t imagine them questioning their believe just because they hear one musical instrument.

Castle 2×01 Deep in Death
One of these “We have to resolve our differences that came up by the end of last season by the end of the first episode of this season” episodes. He apologized and all was well. But it was cool how Castle played Poker with the Russian mob and how Beckett got him out of there.

Castle 2×02 The Double Down
I’ve seen this kind of plot recently (without Castle’s betting pool of course ) on Bones IIRC. But on Bones it had been 3 victims/murderers, not just two. Normally I wouldn’t watch such a show at all but Fillion/Castle makes it totally worthwhile.

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Categories: TV Season 2009/10 Diary
Tags: Bones · Buffy the Vampire Slayer · Castle · Cougar Town · Desperate Housewives · Dollhouse · FlashForward · Gossip Girl · House M.D. · How I Met Your Mother · Smallville · Stargate Universe · Supernatural · The Big Bang Theory · Two and a Half Men
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Deutsche Version | Part 6 | Part 8

Two and a Half Men

What’s the show about?
After his wife has thrown him out, Alan Harper has moved in with his brother Charlie who is a ad jingle composer, a womanizer and lives on a beach house. On the weekends Alan’s son Jake lives also there.

“Pilot”
Just when he was about to get laid, Charlie’s brother Alan calls him and asks whether he can move in for a few days when he’s already standing in front of Charlie’s bedroom door. Alan’s wife has thrown him out but he believes that it’s just a phase – Charlie doubts it. And on the weekend Alan’s son Jake also moves also in. Charlie’s life is about to be turned upside down.

My Opinion
Charlie and Jake are a great team and Alan has a cool dry humour when it comes to Charlie’s sex life and his behaviour towards women. But the supporting cast is also awesome: Bertha the housekeeper and grandma Evelyn and Rose – Charlie’s personal stalker. One of the funniest sitcoms these days and from the same producers as The Big Bang Theory.

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Categories: DVD / Blu-ray, DVD Marathon, Pilot Marathon
Tags: 21 Jump Street · Ally McBeal · Dollhouse · Leverage · Night Court · Roseanne · SeaQuest DSV · Terminator · The A-Team · The Big Bang Theory · The IT Crowd · Two and a Half Men
Comments: No comments