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 | Season 1 | Season 3: Disc 1

Disc 1

When She Was Bad

Synopsis: Summer break is nearly over and Buffy has returned from L.A.. But she seems to to have changed. She is closed up and snubs virtually everyone. And it gets worse: The Anointed One wants to get the Master back from the really dead. And for this he needs the people who were close to him when he died.

My Opinion: This behaviour will develop into a habit. Everytime Buffy goes through a shocking or traumatizing event she will try to shut everyone out and keep the world at bay. She will do it again at the beginning of the third season and during the sixth season. It may not be a good character trait but it’s definitively a defining one for the character. Just as the one that she will do what’s right when it matters.
The episode was also a portent for the season. When she claims that Angel has thought about fighting her and that he should try it. When Snyder states that he would love to expel her. When she was lured away from the library and that’s the place she was needed most.
I think it was a good start of the season.

Some Assembly Required

Synopsis: During her patrol in one of Sunnydale’s graveyards she discovers that a grave is empty that shouldn’t be empty. But it’s not another Vampire who has risen. The body is simply gone. So it’s either the work of flesh-eating demons or a group that wants to build an army of Zombies. But when Cordelia finds a lot of body parts in the dumpster they can safely dismiss both theories. But who needs only some parts from several young women?

My Opinion: I never liked these frankenstein-y stories, neither here nor in the fourth season. But once again I liked it that good and bad weren’t clear cut, that our Dr. Frankenstein in the form of Chris didn’t go as far as killing someone just to build a bride for his brother. But I haven’t understood what the other guy was hoping for. Why was he helping in the first place and why would he have killed Cordelia? I simply couldn’t see his motive to act the way he did.

School Hard

Synopsis: Buffy and another “rebel” is ordered to organize and host the annual parent-teacher-night. And Buffy has to keep her mother far away from principle Snyder. And some special Vampire holiday is coming up. And the Vampire Spike has come to town to have some fun around here. And he will kill Buffy on Saint Whatshisname’s day. Fortunately those two events don’t fall on the same day…

My Opinion: …Unfortunately Spike isn’t the most patient guy. I loved it how he single-handedly decluttered all the Vampire rituals and my prejudice about them. James Marsters once stated that he played Spike “with a bit more soul than he was supposed to”. I knew him from Smallville and he was one of the reasons to give Buffy a chance and I couldn’t wait to finally see him here. He will develop into one of the most interesting characters on the show even though he just lost his first battle against the Slayer.
But they also made two statements about him that they will “correct” later: Giles states that he’s barely two hundred. I would assume “barely 200″ means something like 190 or 180. Later they will make him just 150 years old (born around 1850). Spike also says that Angel was “his Sire, his Yoda”. But as it will turn out, Spike was sired by Drusilla who was sired by Angel. But maybe Spike meant it in some figurative way. After all, Angel is his Grand-Sire and Yoda was Luke’s second Jedi teacher after Obi-Wan.

Inca Mummy Girl

Synopsis: During a visit of the local museum one of the student tries to steal a mummy seal and accidentally breaks it. The young, female Inka mummy re-awakes, kills the student and disappears from the museum. Shortly after she takes the place of an exchange student (whom she also killed) and moves in with Buffy for the next two weeks. And naturally Xander falls for her the minute he sees her. But then there’s a mysterious knife guy who seems to be connected to the mummy and the body count is increasing. The gang has to find out what’s going on.

My Opinion: I have to say, I liked this episode. As most creatures do this young woman tried to ensure her own survival. But in the end she couldn’t kill the person she fell in love with. I also liked the comparison between her and Buffy’s fate: The be the Chosen One and not being able to have a say in it. And in opposition to Teacher’s Pet Xander could be Xander without being influenced from the outside.
In this episode we’ve also seen Oz and Jonathan for the first time but I think one notices Jonathan only if one knows him already – ironically that is exactly what this character will be about.
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Categories: Buffy Marathon, DVD / Blu-ray, DVD Marathon
Tags: Angel · Buffy the Vampire Slayer · Harry Potter · Scooby Doo · Smallville · Star Trek TNG · Underworld · Xena: Warrior Princess
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Deutsche Version | Part 1 | Part 3

Heroes

What’s the show about?
People all over the world discover that they have special abilities. And somehow their destinies are connected and that they have a task to do: How to stop an exploding man?

“Genesis”
Tokyo, Japan. A man belives that he can stop time. Odessa, Texas, USA. A girl jumps 70 feet from a building and heals practically instantaniously. New York, USA. A man can paint future events. They all don’t know what is happening but they know that something’s changed…

My Opinion
Loved the first season. Haven’t gotten around to watch the second.
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Categories: DVD / Blu-ray, DVD Marathon, Pilot Marathon
Tags: Babylon 5 · Crusade · Desperate Housewives · Hercules: The Legendary Journeys · Heroes · Kung Fu: The Legend Continues · Raumpatrouille Orion · Scooby Doo · Sliders · Space: Above and Beyond
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