Better With You 1×01 / 1×02 Pilot / Better with Firehouse
I watched the first two episodes but I don’t really get it. I think it has to do with the fact that I don’t see the irony in not being married and why that’s supposed to be a source for humour.
What also doesn’t work for me are these scenes where they show all three couples doing the same thing – just differently.

Community 2×02 Accounting for Lawyers
Jeff in his natural habitat. It was cool to see the lawyer from the pilot episode back and how he could twist anything to his liking.
It was also cool to see them all in formal wear and going on a Mission Impossible.

$#*! My Dad Says 1×02 Wi-Fight
Shatner as the grumpy old man totally works for me. I’m not sure about the older brother and his wife though. Maybe they need a bit more time to find their pace. They are lucky that they have Shatner and I am willing to give them that time.

Melissa & Joey 1×08 Dancing with the Stars of Toledo
It was an OK episode. I really loved the all-male Tango, it was incredibly funny to watch them dance and they really pulled it off. I also liked the drug-induced dream sequence. It’s of course a staple of these kinds of sitcoms but you also have to find two people that can actually pull it off and I think these two can.

Raising Hope 1×02 Dead Tooth
Even the show acknowledges that it’s weird. And as the cast is getting wider, more weird people come into it. But it also shows the genuine care between father and daughter.
What makes it more fun for me is the fact that I can’t stop seeing Garret Dillahunt as the Terminator from The Sarah Connor Chronicles and then to watch him here.
And Sabrina reminds me a lot of the young Ally Sheedy from WarGames.

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Categories: TV Season 2010/2011 Diary
Tags: $#*! My Dad Says · Better With You · Bones · Buffy the Vampire Slayer · Community · Cougar Town · Gossip Girl · House M.D. · How I Met Your Mother · Life Unexpected · Melissa & Joey · Raising Hope · Smallville · Stargate SG-1 · Terminator · The Big Bang Theory · Two and a Half Men · WarGames
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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
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Deutsche Version

Today I watched the most part of the second season (til the end) and I have to say I am torn.

The show felt odd/strange most of the time (I’d say “merkwürdig” in German). This entire three dots arc was unsatisfactory because they made new riddles all the times and every solution was a dead end. And when the solution appeared it happened in a moment where no one could care less.

And then there was this Riley arc that I only liked until a certain point. (btw: the actress of Riley reminded me a lot of LOST’s Claire) I would have liked it much better if she would have been an actual girl from this time and not yet another future gal.

There were also a number of weird episodes that tried to change the way of storytelling but it rarely worked out for me.

The only thing that worked really well and that made me wanting to see another season was the open end cliffhanger. But that’s not enough and I can understand why the ratings were constantly dropping.

Categories: Short Review
Tags: LOST · Terminator
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Deutsche Version | February | April

March, 1st

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Kristy Swanson … Buffy
Donald Sutherland … Merrick
Paul Reubens … Amilyn
Rutger Hauer … Lothos
Luke Perry … Pike
Michele Abrams … Jennifer
Hilary Swank … Kimberly
Paris Vaughan … Nicole
David Arquette … Benny
Stephen Root … Gary Murray
Thomas Jane … Zeph

Synopsis: Buffy is a normal highschool freshman and member of the cheerleading squad. But then she meets Merrick and he shows her what she really is: The Chosen One, a Vampire Slayer. Born with the strength and skill to fight the Vampires, to stop the spread of their evil and the swell of their numbers. But she wants to stay a normal girl and wants nothing to do with such rubbish.

My Opinion: This movie may not be what Joss Whedon had intended or will do on the TV show. But it definitivly falls into the category of “guilty pleasure” and is a lot of fun if you’re willing to accept its cheesiness. And the dialogue is unmistakably Whedon. Also, Lothos used a Samurai Katana, that’s a plus in the book.
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Categories: DVD / Blu-ray, DVD Marathon, Movie Watchings 2009
Tags: Buffy the Vampire Slayer · Hulk · Iron Man · Terminator · Underworld
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Deutsche Version | January | March

February, 1st

The Terminator

Arnold Schwarzenegger … The Terminator
Michael Biehn … Kyle Reese
Linda Hamilton … Sarah Connor
Paul Winfield … Lieutenant Ed Traxler
Lance Henriksen … Detective Hal Vukovich
Earl Boen … Dr. Peter Silberman

Synopsis: Earth, 2029. The computer system Skynet is self-aware and highly intelligent. It was invented by men but it has wiped out nearly the entire human race. Shortly before its defeat it sends a Terminator back in time, a cyborg, human flesh over a metal endoskeleton. Its mission: To kill the mother of the resistance leader in the year 1984, before she gives birth to her son. But the resistance sends also someone back to protect her.

My Opinion: The original Terminator movie is a perfect example of a time loop. The fotograph Reese has is the same that Sarah gets at the end of the movie. Except for the logical hole that the one who wants prevent a change cannot travel back in time after the one who wants to change something, it’s quite consistent. And it has aged suprisingly well. I had expected that the skeleton scenes would look rather lame comparing to today’s FX but they weren’t that bad. When the sekeleton was alone in the picture they were actually quite good, even when the full skeleton was in sight. Only when we see Kyle/Sarah and the skeleton they look rather bad.
I especially liked to hear all the one-liners again “for the first time”. And I never even knew that “Come with me, if you want to live!” was even there in the first movie.
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Categories: DVD / Blu-ray, DVD Marathon, Movie Watchings 2009
Tags: Alien Nation · Coyote Ugly · Hackers · Terminator
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Deutsche Version

Season 1

Disc 1

Pilot

Synopsis: It’s the year 1999 and Judgement Day hasn’t happened – yet. Sarah and John are constantly switching aliases and living placaes. But one day two cyborgs have still found them: One comes in the form of a young girl called Cameron and she was sent to protect John. And the other is a classical terminator. They try to escape him but in the end there’s no place they can hide, just another time.

My Opinion: To fully enjoy the show one has to put it in a parallel universe to the movies. It’s similar to the Highlander movie (There can be only one!) and the series. While I liked the general general idea of the show I had a problem with some story elements. For example: Cameron took the other cyborg out with a power surge. In my unprofessional opinion two minutes should have been enough to somehow destroy him or at least to damage him severely – he can’t resist after all. And some of the stuff in the vault seemed unlikely, too. Even if I knew how to build a microchip in 1965 there wouldn’t be the the technology (wafers etc.) to actually do it. But they had to find a way to push the series forward to today and it was fairly ok.
So I like the story but one mustn’t think to much about the logic.

Gnothi Seauton

Synopsis: They jumped eight years into the future, into 2007. And now all three of them need new identities to blend in. Cameron leads Sarah to a group of resistance fighters who were send back by John to destroy Skynet before it goes operational. But when that fails they have to visit an old friend. Meanwhile John explores the technological differences between 1999 and 2007.

My Opinion: The writers are obviously not very burdened with the complex issues that go with time-travel. It seems that whenever they need it they will send people back and forth through time as if nothing could disrupt the timeline. But if that were so then we would be back on the concept of a time-loop as the movie Terminator had present it (It has always happened that way and always will be, there’s nothing we can do about it). But Terminator 2 had thrown that overboard and declared that the timeline can be changed and (as Doc Brown explained it in Back to the Future 2) that will result in another timeline. I also had a problem with that “Zombie Terminator” who can obviously walk without its head attached – I thought the “eyes” were its optical sensors?
Another thing I noticed: I don’t know how far ahead the pilot was shot and what they thought would happen after it, but I didn’t have the feeling to see a Mrs. Dyson or a detective who was eight years older than in the pilot. They should have used a better mask to make them look younger in the pilot (Look at Bruce Boxleitner in Babylon 5: In the Beginning!)
Too bad Enrique had to die, I would have liked it to see Tony Amendola (Master Bra’tac in Stargate SG-1) more often.

The Turk

Synopsis: Sarah is looking for former employees of Cyberdyne Systems to check whether they are continuing the Skynet project or doing something else dangerous. Connor and Cameron pose as siblings in their new school and try to blend in.

My Opinion: Is it my imagination or did the metall skeleton of that terminator look a bit too shiny? He had been blasted to peaces and has lain in the garbage. Which brings up another question: How did he get there in the first place? He wasn’t within the time bubble and thus hasn’t travelled with the others. What happend to that bank building in the last eight years and why has no one ever found the skeleton or the head – which lay quite open on the side of the street?
And when Sarah burned down Andy’s house the fires looked digital – and fake. Don’t they have the money anymore to burn down a real, wooden facade?

Disc 1 – My Opinion: The show is enjoyable, the characters are fine. But as you can see the show opens a can of questions for me and they bother me because that makes me thinking that either the writers didn’t see this problems or they thought the viewers wouldn’t notice or that the viewers wouldn’t care. None of which is really an acceptable answer in my opinion. But I will continue to watch and see how it unfolds.
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Categories: DVD / Blu-ray, DVD Marathon, Mini Marathon
Tags: Babylon 5 · Back to the Future · Highlander · Stargate SG-1 · Terminator
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Deutsche Version | Season 3 | Season 5

Disc 1

Crusade

Synopsis: Lois Lane comes to Smallville to find out who killed her cousin but then she finds a guy in a field who doesn’t know who he his. Jonathan Kent lies in a hospital bed and is brain-dead. Lana is still in Paris and has a new boyfriend. Lionel is still in jail, waiting for his trial. And Lex – who has survived the attempt to poison him – travels around the world to find objects that are connected to the symbols in the Kawatche cave.

My Opinion: Sorry, but that went a bit too fast. Within half an hour Kal-El was Clark again. I am sure that if the writers really wanted to, this could have been an arc that lasted at least 4 episodes, even more. Just because it was a cliffhanger doesn’t mean it has to be resolved in the very first episode of the new season.
But I like the arrival of Lois, she is refreshingly blunt. And I liked the appearance of Margot Kidder (Lois Lane in the Superman movies), especially her remark regarding Dr. Swann and a “former life”. She’s now the third person from the movies to appear in the series (Annette O’Toole [Lana Lang in Superman III, now Martha Kent] was obviously the first).

Gone

Synopsis: After they’ve found out that Chloe’s grave is empty, Clark and Lois investigate her disappearance, but there are several obstacles: For one, Lois’s father is a three-star General who doesn’t want his daughter digging into that mystery. Secondly, he is in league with Lex. And thirdly, there’s a T-1000 meteor freak who works for Lionel and wants to kill Chloe for real this time. And Lana has returned to Smallville.

My Opinion: That was a really obvious Terminator 2 rip-off, especially with the end. But I still liked it, the scenes in the Kent house were really funny. Lois’s great advantage is, that she has no history whatsoever with Clark. For her, he’s simply “Smallville”.

Facade

Synopsis: Clark is now in his senior year at high school and he’s trying out for the football team against the wishes of his father (again). The new assistant coach is none other than Lana’s new boyfriend. It’s a relationship they must keep hidden because he could get fired for it. But there’s something else that has changed: A student nicknamed “Scabby Abby” is now a real beauty but when she kisses people they get delusional and land in the hospital. While Lois is stuck at Smallville High (she needs a few additional points to get accepted to the university) she helps Chloe and Clark to investigate.

My Opinion: What I liked about the rescue was that from Lois’ point of view it didn’t appear as if Clark was rescuing her but that she was rescuing him (which is also true). It establishes their routine that she doesn’t see the hero in him like Lana and Chloe do.

Devoted

Synopsis: The cheerleaders of Smallville High are using meteor rocks to create a love potion. When the football team drinks of it they all become aboulic slaves with the exception of Clark who gets ill from it. Chloe drinks from it, too, and soonafter a new cheerleading star is born.

My Opinion: This was a very funny episode, especially the parts where Chloe hits on Clark and where Clark had to pretend that we was under the love spell. I had a great time.
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Categories: DVD / Blu-ray, DVD Marathon, Smallville Marathon
Tags: Batman · Smallville · Star Trek · Superman · Terminator
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Season 2 | Season 4

Point of No Return

Disc 1

Matters of Honor

Synopsis: A Ranger training post is sealed of with mines and one ranger who could escape asks Babylon 5 for help. Meanwhile Londo tries to cut his connections to Mr. Morden and his associates. Also a representative of Earth comes to Babylon 5 to investigate about the Shadow vessel that destroyed Lt. Keffer’s Starfury.

My opinion: I always liked Marcus and I sure love the White Star. But Sheridan has to be a bit mad to try a stunt like the one in this episode. Good introduction to the next step of the story.

Convictions

Synopsis: A series of bombings shake Babylon 5. Bombs planted by a person who has no political agenda but to spread fear. And when Lennier tries to save Londo he gets badly hurt.

My opinion: While I never really understood the motives of the bomber I really liked the tube scene between Londo and G’Kar. I also liked the arrival of the monks around brother Theo who will stay for a while on the station.

A Day in the Strife

Synopsis: A probe approaches Babylon 5 and transmits a message: When Babylon 5 can answer a series of highly complicated questions, they will receive important knowledge in return. If not, the probe will explode and take B5 with it.

My opinion: Another average episode, there’s not really much to say about it.

Passing Through Gethsemane

Synopsis: Again we see the monks. But one of them is troubled because he gets flashes of memories but he can’t remember the events. Meanwhile Lyta Alexander return to the station on a Vorlon(!) transprt ship. She has been to the Vorlon homeworld but is forbidden to tell about it. She now works for the Vorlons and must hide from the Psi Corps.

My opninion: Great episode about crime and punishment. To see the life of a mind-wiped person and how the victims of a crime can’t let go. I really liked the acting of Brad Dourif (Dune, Deadwood) and the actions of brother Theo at the end of the episode.
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Categories: B5 Marathon, DVD / Blu-ray, DVD Marathon
Tags: Babylon 5 · Back to the Future · Highlander · Sliders · Star Trek · Star Trek DS9 · Star Trek TNG · Star Trek TOS · Terminator · The Last Samurai
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