TV DeathRay Archive

September 29, 2010

‘No Ordinary Family’ Premiere Review: Superpowers Are Fun Again!

Filed under: featured,Recaps — Tags: , , — Aaron Broverman @ 8:27 am

ABC’s No Ordinary Family is what NBC’s Heroes should have become after its first season – a show about people with superpowers beating up bad guys and saving lives. It’s a simple return to the basics of herodom with a family-friendly vibe.

The show borrows heavily from the origin of Marvel Comics’ first superhero family, The Fantastic Four, in setting up the circumstances behind the onset of the Powell family’s special abilities. Comic book fans know that Mr. Fantastic, Ben Grimm and siblings Susan and Johnny Storm were granted their powers when their space shuttle was caught in a gamma radiation meteor shower. The four members of the Powell family experienced something very similar in Tuesday’s premiere episode.

(more…)

‘Stargate Universe’ – ‘Intervention’ Review @ TV Squad

Filed under: Recaps — Tags: , , — Mike Moody @ 7:01 am

Yep, it’s another Stargate post (Don’t worry folks, reviews of other shows, including No Ordinary Family, The Event and Dexter, should be posted soon).

I’ll be covering Stargate Universe for TV Squad this season. My review of the season 2 premiere, ‘Intervention,’ was posted earlier today. Click the link below to read and comment, and feel free to discuss the episode in the comment thread at the end of this post.

‘Stargate Universe’ Season 2, Episode 1 (Season Premiere) Recap

Here’s an excerpt from the review:

Similar to last April’s standout mid-season premiere, the season 2 opener of ‘Stargate Universe’ delivered plenty of suspenseful edge-of-your-seat moments and emotional character drama.

The premiere wrapped up last season’s swell of cliffhangers, but it also left us with a million new questions, most of them concerning TJ (Alaina Huffman) and the fate of her baby.

(more…)

‘Hawaii Five-0′ Review: Likable Characters Save Another Vanilla Police Procedural

Filed under: Recaps — Tags: , , — Jason Hughes @ 5:42 am

It looks like we’re in for a fairly straightforward procedural here, though with more of an old school action flair, which shouldn’t come as a great surprise considering its CBS we’re dealing with. But at least it will involve a lot of scantily clad women (and men for those who prefer their genders a little beefier). In fact, Kono (Grace Park) wasn’t even allowed to join the team until she met everyone in a teeny-weeny bikini.

Actually, Steve McGarrett (Alex O’Loughlin) and Danny’s (Scott Caan) initial reactions to Kono alone almost made the ep worth watching. It never hurts to have a crush on the hot girl on the team. Keeps things spicy. I have a feeling Park will be sexing it up a lot in future episodes, though I’m sure they’ll find ways to get O’Loughlin out of his shirt as often as possible, too. I wonder if she’ll ever actually graduate the police academy?

(more…)

September 25, 2010

‘Smallville’ – ‘Lazarus’ Review @ TV Squad

Filed under: Recaps — Tags: , , — Mike Moody @ 10:27 pm

I’ll be covering Smallville for TV Squad this season. My review of the season premiere, ‘Lazarus,’ was posted earlier today. Click the link below to read and comment, and feel free to discuss the episode in the comment thread below.

‘Smallville’ Season 10, Episode 1 (Season Premiere) Recap [TV Squad]

Here’s a snippet from the review:

In the opening hour of its 10th and final season, ‘Smallville’ quickly tied up the hanging threads from last season’s cliffhanger finale and flew, or leaped, in a dark new direction.

Clark Kent will face a great evil before he becomes a true hero, or so he was told by a disappointed Jor-El while stuck in the void between life and death in the premiere’s opening minutes.

(more…)

September 24, 2010

‘Community’ Season 2 Premiere Review: What’s Love Got To Do With It?

Filed under: featured,Recaps — Tags: , , — Mike Moody @ 2:31 pm

My mind feels numb after watching three straight hours of sitcoms, so please forgive me if this review reads like Frito from Idiocracy wrote it after a night of chugging 40′s and huffing paint. I can actually feel my brain rotting right now, but, hey, it was all worth it — because now I can say, without any doubts, that Community is the best, smartest and funniest show on Thursday nights.

30 Rock, The Office and The Big Bang Theory also delivered the funny with solid Thursday premieres (sorry $#*! My Dad Says and Outsourced, you guys never really had a chance), but Community, to quote any popular rapper of the past ten years, is on a whole ‘nother level.

The premiere kicked-off with a charming Wes Anderson-inspired montage that gave us a rare and funny glimpse of all the major characters starting their morning routines at home. Abed got meta from the start, Troy jumped outta bed wearing Spider-Man jammies (Oh, yes he did!), we got a peek at Pierce’s framed photo of a Fletch-era Pierce, we learned that Jeff is probably Batman, were reminded by a Charlie St. Cloud poster that Annie is still a teenager, and found out that Britta is actually a pretty cool chick because she likes the Pixies. We got all that – all that — in the first 30 seconds. This was a great episode, but, yeah, it was pretty cluttered from start to finish.

(more…)

‘Fringe’ Season 3 Premiere Review: Olivia Teams Up With Bubbles From ‘The Wire!’

Filed under: featured,Recaps — Tags: , , — Jane Boursaw @ 3:33 am

Fringe Season 3 Premiere, OliviaThe season 3 premiere of Fringe took us right back to where we left off last season — with Olivia stuck in the alternate universe. Things had advanced slightly, because Mr. Secretary, i.e. Walternate, had ordered his minions to give Olivia a big syringe full of memory-transferring drugs to make her believe she was Faux-Livia.

Did it work? That’s one of the big questions. I want to believe that our beloved Olivia is just making everyone in the alternate universe believe that she’s Faux-Livia in order to buddy up to Charlie Francis and find a way to bust out of there now that the portal in the theater is encased in the amber Jello mold. But it certainly seems as though she believes she’s Faux-Livia. Either way, her newfound sharpshooter skills will come in handy.

At any rate, it must be getting pretty crowded inside her head. First she had to deal with all of John Scott’s memories, and now she has to deal with Faux-Livia’s memories.

(more…)

‘The Big Bang Theory’ Season 4 Premiere Review – ‘Shamy,’ Aquaman and Robot Death Grip

Filed under: featured,Recaps — Tags: , , — Brad Trechak @ 3:14 am

What’s better than watching the interplay between Penny and Sheldon on the season premiere of The Big Bang Theory? Watching the interplay between Penny and two Sheldons. That online dating service from last season certainly hit the mark by finding a female Sheldon in Amy Farrah Fowler.

I was a little concerned when the writers actually decided to allow Sheldon to date, but it’s turned out for the best so far with some great dialogue and good jokes coming out of the “relationship.” Still, I don’t see the coupling lasting very long. Sheldon and Amy don’t seem properly equipped to deal with the real problems and issues that real couples face, which are eventually bound to creep in down the line.

This was a very strong premiere episode with many good “bazingers.” Most of the humor came from Sheldon’s “first date” with Amy and the involvement of Penny.  The B-plot with Wolowitz and the robot hand seemed to pale by comparison, but it had its funny moments. What happened to Wolowitz was certainly predictable when you consider the things that only he would do with an artificial arm and hand. It was a very IT Crowd moment when the ER nurse rebooted the computer in an effort to free Wolowitz from captivity.

(more…)

September 22, 2010

‘Glee’ Season 2 Premiere Review: New Characters, New Songs, Same Old Plotlines!

Filed under: featured,Recaps — Tags: , , — Melissa McEver @ 5:45 pm

Coach Beiste: You’re all coffee and no omelet.
Sue Sylvester: That doesn’t make any sense.

The season premiere of Glee, “Audition,” introduced new characters and gave us some very hip, fun musical numbers, but I have to admit that as an avid Gleek, I still came away a bit disappointed.

My biggest frustration is that the show is starting to recycle plotlines too much. The glee club is facing budget cuts again? They can’t recruit enough new members again? Haven’t we been here before? Yeah, I thought so.

(more…)

September 21, 2010

‘Glee’ Season 2 Preview: More Singing, More Dancing And … Sunshine Corazon!

Filed under: Features — Tags: , , — Melissa McEver @ 1:03 pm

The day we’ve been waiting for is finally upon us, fellow Gleeks — the Glee season premiere airs tonight. Our favorite ragtag bunch of talented misfits will return to our screen, probably get a few more Slushees to the face and, oh yeah, sing and dance too. (I don’t think that information requires a spoiler alert. The following tidbits might, so, SPOILER ALERT!)

Here’s the official description for tonight’s premiere ep, “Audition,” according to TV Guide Online:

Season two begins with more budget cuts looming and the glee kids reeling from their loss at Regionals. There are new members to recruit, including Sunshine Corazon (Charice) and Sam (Chord Overstreet), but Rachel and Finn don’t see eye to eye on them. Meanwhile, McKinley High has a new football coach, Shannon Beiste (Dot Marie Jones), who immediately shows herself to be a threat both to the glee club and the Cheerios.

First of all — Sunshine Corazon? Really? OK, moving on.

(more…)

‘The Event’ Premiere Review: An Intriguing But Hollow Trip

Filed under: featured,Recaps — Tags: , , — Mike Moody @ 4:40 am

If the premiere episode of The Event seemed like one big tease, well, that’s probably just part of the plan.

The new NBC drama is the latest in a line of ultra-serialized mystery thrillers the network hopes can repeat the lightning-in-a-bottle success of Lost. The idea is to string us along as far as it can, dropping rewards and delivering small payoffs along the way, until we’re too wrapped up in its mix of character drama and brain-teasing twists to stop watching. The Event, by title and design, demands to be taken seriously as “event television.”

But is The Event worth your time? Should you commit to watching another new serialized show that may or may not end up on the chopping block before the end of its first season?

(more…)

Older Posts »

Powered by WordPress