- New Wednesday Dramas -

As you have noticed, I really don't care for TV drama series, I'd rather watch drama movies. But I've made an exception this year. I know none of these are critical successes, but for every Homeland, Good Wife and Mad Men, we need Chicago Fire, Nashville and Arrow.

CHICAGO FIRE

Let's start with Chicago Fire. The show follows the lives of firefighters and paramedics working in the Chicago Fire Department. There are two firefighters that get the most screen time, Matthew Casey (Jesse Spencer from House) and Kelly Severide (Taylor Kinney from Trauma). There are some other recognisable faces on the show too, like David Eigenberg fromy Sex and The City.

I'm having a bit mixed feelings about this show, since I really like the fact that they are firefighters and not police officers or crime scene investigators. I mean aren't we all sick of them already? I know this isn't the first firefighting drama, but the idea is still much more fresh than some police show. The thing I didn't like about in the show, is all the predictable drama with the characters. I mean, in the very first episode we see drug abuse, called of engagement, death, attraction to co-workers, etc. And that's just the first episode. The second episode was much more toned down, which I appreciated, but during it, I began to wonder will the show have enough charisma to last. I'll make my final judgement today with the third episode airing.

NASHVILLE

If I had to describe Nashville with few words, I'd say its Glee for grown-up country music fans. And it is filled with drama! The show focuses on two rival country singers: Rayna (Connie Britton from American Horror Story), an older country music legend struggling to find new audiences, and Juliette, an ambitious newcomer (Hayden Panettiere from Heroes). Both Nashville and Chicago Fire will be fighting for ratings and viewers with American Horror Story, which premiered its second season last week with record high ratings, so that is some serious threat to these newcomers.

I responded much more positively to this series than Chicago Fire. Maybe because I like Britton and musical-dramas. And I've really started to like some country songs, so this is an easy way to get in the mood. I like the chemistry between the characters, though we didn't get to see too much of that in the first episode which was pretty much about introducing all characters and establishing the connections between them. But believe me, the drama is present all the time. We are talking about back-stabbing, drug addicted mothers after daughter's money, evil fathers and old flames. There are multiple sub-plots, like Rayna's husband running for mayor and a cute young couple with some triangle drama and a lot of musical talent. The stars do all their own singing, so don't expect pitch perfect power ballads, but some of the songs are pretty cute. This one from the end of the second episode was sweet and emotional:

ARROW

And the third is my favourite so far. Arrow is based on the comic book Green Arrow and it's perfectly timed since the superhero genre is super hot now after The Avengers and co. Green Arrow is DC Comic and part of the Justice League, which has been in the works of becoming a feature film, so it will be fun to see who they will cast as Green Arrow since he is played by Stephen Amell in this show. This is his biggest role so far, though he has guest starred in multiple of shows. I don't know most of the supporting cast either, so I won't spend any time on them, maybe once this show becomes a success they'll get famous too.

At first I thought that this show would be just some lame attempt to get more money from comic book nerds. But the show is actually good! Or maybe I'm just addicted to this weekly superhero-action splash. To this mi they've added a love interest with an overprotective cop father and a lot of mysterious enemies. I don't know how well the show follows the comic book (I assume not very well), but I like the format with one enemy in every episode and then a larger sub-plot. So far these first two episodes have been pretty much about how Oliver Queen (aka Arrow) survived 5 years stranded on an island and how he is adjusting to his current life. The show has been picked up for a full season so I can't be the only one who likes this show.

I'll start working on my weekly post next, so that will be out tomorrow! Hopefully I'll inspire you to check out these shows, you can't lose anything (except few hours of your life, but I'd risk it).

-42-

I know I don't usually talk much about drama series, but I've really grown fond of the Wednesday line-up which includes shows like Nashville, Arrow and Chicago Fire, so I plan to write about them next week. A lot has happened this week, so keep on reading!

From top left: Saturday Night Live, Parks and Recreation, The Simpsons, 30 Rock

TV

Okay, so I think you know that when I talk about the biggest host-news from the past week, I'm certainly not talking about the fact that Khloé Kardashian and Mario Lopez are hosting X-Factor, but something truly amazing. Tina Fey and Amy Poehler are hosting the Golden Globes! This duo has certainly proven that they have a great chemistry in such projects as Baby Mama and Saturday Night Live. They both have hilarious shows on TV, Fey has 30 Rock and Poehler has Parks and Rec. Both shows air on NBC where the Golden Globes will be shown too (on Jan 13th), so they chose to stay within the network. I think NBC chose wisely with these two, since they will most likely attract young viewers and they will certainly be more PG-rated than previous host Ricky Gervais, who received some harsh criticism about his black humour. I know it's almost blasphemous to say this, but I think I'm going to enjoy this year's Golden Globes more than the Oscars.

Another thing I really don't follow on TV, is sports, but the Superbowl just rose to the top of my list when they decided to hire Beyoncé for their anticipated halftime show. Last year Madonna drew in the viewers, and I honestly think Queen B will do even better, since she is so overall-loved. I've never heard anyone say they didn't like Beyoncé. She has also decided to drop out of the Star Is Born remake, directed by Clint Eastwood, since the project seems to be running still and there is no real date of when the movie would start production. The Superbowl will take place in February, so she will have a lot of time to prepare.

In my opinion, the fourth season of Glee keeps on getting better. The first few episodes were nothing special, even though Kate Hudson really stole the show, but now I think the show has re-gained its momentum. And the season just keeps on getting better. Jessica Sanchez, who finished second-place on last season of American Idol, is guest starring on the show. There is no word yet on how long her arc will be nor who she will play. I suspect a singer from another glee club, since it wouldn't make a lot of sense to introduce a new character to the New Directions. It might be similar role to that of Charice's from last year. The second star who is going to join the impressive list of guest stars, is Bette Midler. As a New York resident, I assume she will appear as an character in either Kurt or Rachel's life. She joked that she would play Rachel's grandmother, and that might actually be pretty cool.

But Glee isn't the only show on TV which has signed some impressive guest stars. Matt Bomer (White Collar, Magic Mike) is going to appear in New Normal as the ex-boyfriend of one of the lead characters, Bryan (Andrew Rannel). Parks and Recreation has landed supermodel Christie Brinkley to play Jerry's never-before-seen wife Gayle. She will appear in the same episode which marks the return of Megan Mulally's character, Tammy 2. Though Happy Endings hasn't even premiered yet (we will have to wait five days for that), they have already added a guest star, who might not be so well known, but certainly has an interesting role. Briga Heelan (Cougar Town) will play the ex-girlfriend of Jane (Eliza Coupe), and this will most certainly come as news for her husband Brad (Damon Wayans Jr.).

Fox has decided to develop an U.S. version  of the British comedy Gavin & Stacey. The show aired few years ago and was actually pretty funny. It's a story about the long-distance relationship of the title characters who eventually decide to marry. The Office has proven that adaptations of British shows can succeed and hopefully this will too.

FILM

 Marvel decided to launch its Phase Two this past week. It started with some brand new info about the second wave of Marvel movies. The packet includes such information as the release dates for Iron Man 3 and Thor 2. They also announced that their new venture Guardians of The Galaxy will be released August 1st 2013. At first they did not mention Ant-Man, but later that day Disney announced that the much-talked-about adaption of Ant-Man will be out in the late 2015. You can read more about the Phase Two here!

I honestly don't get how Spider-Man is part of Marvel universe, which was purchased by Disney, but then the character and the films based on it are distributed by Paramount which is owned by Sony. I got to thinking about this after not finding any mention of Spider Man on Marvel's Phase Two. I guess that's how Hollywood works. But anyways, I brought it up, since The Amazing Spider-Man sequel has cast its Mary Jane Watson. Shailene Woodley who got her breakthrough role in The Descendants with Geroge Clooney is now moving to mainstream with this role, which I hope will boost her star status.

I honestly thought that we were done with Fast&Furious-type car-action movies, but it appears not.  Dreamworks is working on a film adaption of Need For Speed games, and Aaron Paul is going to star in it. Even though Paul has garnered great reviews for his role in Breaking Bad (including an Emmy few weeks ago) I doubt he can save this trainwreck. The games have sold pretty good, but I just don't see how they can make this a good adaptation and keep it's original fan-base while succeeding in the box office. Though NASCAR has audience too, so I assume they are the type of viewers that will go see this movie.

It always warms my heart when I hear there is a musical movie in the works. This time its an adaptation of the Tony-winning musical Memphis, based on a Memphis disc jockey Dewey Phillips who was one of the first DJ's to play black music. Here is what we can expect from the film!

TRAILERS

The first one is for the Oscar-bait Hitchcock, which stars such A-listers as Anthony Hopkins, Helen Mirren and Scarlett Johansson. It focuses on Hitchcock's life during the filming of Psycho. The trailer is beautiful and even funny and that kinda surprised me, in a good way! See for yourselves.

The second is for the much anticipated film, directed by Oscar winner Kathryn Bigelow, about the killing of Osama Bin-Laden. It stars Jessica Chastain, Chris Pratt and Kyle Chandler among others. The trailer is pretty good, but the best part is right at the end where we see a scene in night vision of a house that is clearly the one where they found Bin-Laden.

The last one is for a perfect example why some movies just shouldn't be made. First of all, I think that by this point, every single possible version of Tarzan has been explored. And this new animated version really just looks like a copy of the Disney version following its look almost perfectly. This is certainly not what I was expecting when I reported many months ago that Kellan Lutz would play Tarzan, but now its all clear to me that he plays the character via motion-cap and voice acting. I just don't see this going to succeed at the box office.

That's all folks! New post(s) coming next week!

-41-

I've been listening to Adele's new James Bond theme, Skyfall, pretty much on repeat ever since it came out. So before screencaps, here is the new theme:

From top left: 2 Broke Girls, 30 Rock, Big Bang Theory, Modern Family

FILM

Finally some Oscar news too! The admissions for Best Foreign Language Film have been submitted. 71 countries (record high) are in the race to get the spot among five actual nominees and the main goal of course, the Oscar. At the moment, there are two frontrunners: the box office hit Intouchables (France) and the film festival sweetheart Amour (Austria). You can read more about the nominees here. Quick shout-out to my country, Finland submitted Purge, based on the book by Sofia Oksanen. I still have to go see it though I've read  the book. But unless something significant happens, I really doubt it will even get nominated.

Classic literature has always been an inspiration to film and TV adaptations and now it looks like it's Moby Dick's turn. I've spotted two different projects inspired by the classic tale of a man getting obsessed after the white whale destroys his boat. The first project is a TV drama, Lost Horizon, created by M. Night Shyamalan and John Glenn. This modern day version has been kept under covers and not much is know yet about its plot.  John Glenn has previously written Eagle Eye and Shaymalan is still (in my mind) recovering from the catastrophe that was The Last Airbender.  The second project is a sci-fi adaption, where the boat of the book is a space ship, and the whale is some sort of alien monster. The film is called Mobius, and it is written by Lynne Ramsay who previously wrote We Need To Talk About Kevin, one of the most haunting films of last year.

First pictures of the film I've talked about here several times, Grace of Monaco, have surfaced. Nicole Kidman plays Grace Kelly in the film which is set for 2014 release, so we'll have to keep waiting for some time. The first picture is a portrait shot of Kidman in her character and the second one is from the set of the movie where filming has recently started.

Mindy Kaling has already established herself as a successful TV writer, but now the movie she co-wrote has gotten some heat too. The Low Self-Esteem of Lizzie Gillespie is typical rom-com when it comes to the plot: a girl struggles with low self-esteem until the guy of her dreams appear. But that can't be all since the script made it to the Black List and now Anne Hathaway has signed on to play the lead role. They are still missing a director, but it already sounds like a success.

TV

Entertainment Weekly releases once a year the Reunion Issue, which features the cast of old classics reunited. Though most of the films/TV shows featured have not been successful outside U.S there were a lot of familiar faces. Check them out here, and some extra covers here. But by far the best was the picture of the Arrested Development cast with the characters re-imagined with rennaissance style.

EW also shared the new promo pictures for two great comedy series, Happy Endings and Don't Trust the Bitch in Apt 23.

As if Neil Meron and Craig Zadan aren't busy enough with the upcoming Oscars and the second season of Smash, now they have a new show coming up, and it's another musical. The show is about a songwriter who is very unlucky in her love life  though her love songs are hugely successful. The show will feature songs of Diane Warren and they will be featured in a more subtle way, not the Smash-kinda stage performances. Hopefully it will be as good as Smash.

Mindy Kaling isn't the only woman from The Office who is moving on to another comedy. Angela Kinsey (who plays Angela on The Office) is going to co-star with Rachel Harris (New Girl, Hangover) in a comedy they created together about two women coping with their respective divorces together. The sit-com is called Dirty Blondes.

TRAILERS

The first one is for maybe the most surprising movie. Movie 43 is filled with A-list stars like Hugh Jackman, Kate  Winslet, Halle Berry, Emma Stone, Anna Faris and Chloe Mortiz, and yet it might be the grossest comedy ever. But it is super fun to see big stars let loose and just have fun:

The second one might not be for the greatest movie ever, but I love Barbra Streisand and its fun to see her in a starring role after a long break. I like the chemistry between Seth Rogen and Streisand and it had some good jokes, but I doubt the critics will see that side.

Last but not least, trailer for the new thriller Broken City, starring Mark Wahlberg, Russell Crowe and Catherine Zeta-Jones. Crowe plays a New York mayor who wants proof that her wife (Zeta-Jones) is cheating on him, so he hires Wahlberg to investigate. After finding the man she cheats the mayor with, things get nasty.

That's all folks! New post coming next week.

-40-

For starters I have to say that I'm watching Casablanca and Dumb & Dumber (speaking of which) while writing this and my review about Partners, so my mood and writing style might change a bit when I change movies. From classic cinema to fart jokes and laxative, gotta love diversity with films.

From top left: Futurama, Friends, 30 Rock, Glee

TV 

I have to start with the biggest news from the past week (or should  I say blog week, since I don't really follow normal weekdays with my "week"). Seth MacFarlane is going to host the 85th Annual Academy Awards in Feb 24th. This came as quite a surprise to me, since MacFarlane is not really know for performing, especially as this is quite a big gig.  Producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron announced the news few days ago and told that they wanted to go back to the 1930's and 40's when the Oscars weren't hosted by actors or other performers. MacFarlane recently hosted SNL (read my review here) and that is said to have finalised the decision. Because MacFarlane likes to sing, and because both producers are heavily involved in musicals, I assume there will be quite a lot of singing. Though he is known for a certain type of humour, I think he will adapt pretty well with the classy Oscar-style. Guess we'll just have to wait and see, I have high hopes for this.

Since 30 Rock is starting its final season this Thursday, EW decided to delight us with having Tina Fey grace the cover of their newest magazine. She channels Audrey Hepburn on the cover and Brigette Bardot in the story. They also got these funny new clips from the season 7 premiere, which you can watch here and here.

Then some casting news. Go On (which just got ordered for a full season) is getting visited by Lauren Graham (Gilmore Girls, Parenthood) who will play Ryan's (Matthew Perry) ex and an old friend of her dead wife. New Girl is also off for a great start, the first two episodes have been hilarious and star studded and Olivia Munn (Newsroom) was announced to guest star in a multi-episode arc playing Nick's ex-girlfriend.

Saturday Night Live will be hosted by Daniel Craig this week, and now they have revealed two new hosts. Christina Applegate and Bruno Mars. At first I thought Bruno Mars would be the musical guest when Applegate hosts, but apparently Mars will take on double-duty and both host and play music. I think I'll love the episode with Applegate and hate the one with Mars, but we'll see. She is currently the star of Up All Night which just started its second season. Sean Hayes has already guest starred on the show and now it looks like a mini-Arrested Development-reunion will occur as Tony Hale will visit the show. He of course starred as Toby in AD while Up All Night star Will Arrnet played Gob on the cult comedy.

I also found this hilarious video from Jimmy Kimmels YouTube channel from the Emmys, check it out:

FILM

It has been a while since I've seen any Hunger Games news, but now I've found two. Catching Fire has filled the remaining spots of its cast. All roles are for tributes from another districts and I've never heard of any of these actors, but if their part are as big as those of the minor tributes in the previous movie, I doubt we'll get a deeper look at these characters. The second news is that Danny Strong will write the script from the last book, Mockinjay. The book will be split in two, so this is a challenge for the writer as he has to decide the point where he separates part one and two. Danny Strong just won two Emmys for writing and producing Game Change.

In other sequel related news. Both director Marc Webb and lead actor Andrew Garfield have signed on for the Amazing Spider-Man sequel which will start shooting next year. Emma Stone is also in talks to reprise her role as Gwen Stacy and I don't see any reason why she wouldn't sign the deal, unless she has some major trouble with her schedule. Though it had maybe the worst title ever, The Rise of The Planet of The Apes did manage to become a box-office success so a sequel was almost guaranteed. It is called Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and it just got a new director, Matt Reeves. He has previously directed such movies as Cloverfield and Let Me In. If they are any indication, this film will be a bit darker as its predecessor. Especially as this movie will be about how the apes rise from small rebellion to the ruling species of the Earth.

Darren Aronofsky, director of Black Swan, planned a movie about Jackie Kennedy just after the assassination on JFK, but Aronofsky has since dropped out of that project. Now there have been rumours that Natalie Portman would be courted for the role, if Aronofsky would return as the director. I really pray for the Hollywood gods to make it happen, since I think this would be the perfect role for Portman.

Another one of my favourite stars, Meryl Streep, has been in the headlines this week. She landed the part in Tommy Lee Jones' new movie, The Homesman. The movie is a period piece about a couple who escort three insane woman across the country. It is not yet clear which role Streep would play, I hope one of the crazy ladies. At least that would be entertaining. Another project she is a really exciting one too. Rob Marshall (Chicago, Nine) has been working on a Into The Woods adaption for quite some time and now there is a word out that Streep would play the part of the Witch. Marshall held a script reading with Anna Kendrick as Cinderella, Patrick Wilson as her Prince, James Corden as the Baker, Nina Arianda as the Baker's Wife and Donna Murphy as the Witch as Streep was anavailable at the time. Into the Woods is a great Sondheim-musical and Marshall is the best choice for the director. Hopefully they'll start filming soon.

TRAILERS

First one is for the Melissa McCarthy comedy Identity Theft. Last week I wrote that she would star in it with Sandra Bullock, but I don't know what kind of brain fart that was since its Jason Bateman who is the second star of the film. Anyways the plot is pretty much explained in the trailer:

 The second one is for thriller called the Stoker with Nicole Kidman and Mia Wasikowska. I think there is only one word to describe this trailer: intense.

The last one is for Silver Linings Playbook with Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawerence. Cooper plays a man who goes a bit crazy after he founds his wife with another man. Lawerence plays a young widow. They both struggle with their losses and find comfort in each other.

That's all folks! New post coming next week!

Partners

When I first read that Max Mutchnick and David Cohan, the creators of Will & Grace, were working on a new comedy, I got super excited since it is one of my favourite shows. But I have to say, I'm a bit disappointed.

 

The premise of the show is some-what drawn from the lives of the creators and some say it is very much like another comedy with the same name which aired during 1990's on CBS starring Jon Cryer and Tate Donovan, but Mutchnick and Cohan only say that they were fans of that show, not that they copied it. Well anyways, this new Partners is about two friends, Joe and Louis, who have their own architect business. Louis lives with his boyfriend Wyatt and Joe gets engaged to her girlfriend Ali right in the first episode. The name of the show refers to both the partnership between the two friends and to the relationship between them and their partners.

 

Though all of the main cast is pretty well know, they aren't that big of stars.  Louis is played by Michael Urie, who gained fame playing Marc in Ugly Betty. I definitely see a resemblance between Louis and Jack from Will & Grace, which could be a good and a bad thing, since Jack was one of my favourite characters but I don't think they should copy his personality. Joe is played by David Krumholtz who I recognize best from his appearances in Harold and Kumar film series, but he became better know to the mass audiences after playing lead character in Numb3rs for 6 seasons. His character I didn't particularly like either, he seems so nervous all the time, I feel like I wanna slap him and yell him to relax! The show focuses mainly on these two characters but their partners get a fair share of screen time too.

 

Louis' boyfriend is played by none other than Superman himself, Brandon Routh. His was the name I first recognized from the production and I thought he was a bit odd choice for a comedy, but he almost pulls it off. His character is a bit monotone and slow so he doesn't  have to be an excellent actor anyways, but he plays the sort of naive and child-like aspect of the character very well. Joe's fiancee Ali is played by Sophia Bush who was part of the regular cast in One Tree Hill. I haven't watched that show at all, so to me she is a totally new face. She has some rom-com credits to her name too, but nothing major. Her character on this show is kinda sassy, but not in a way that it would grab your attention, so she ends up a bit bland.

The first two episodes that have now aired both follow the same basic plot:  Joe tells Louis something about his relationship with Ali, Louis tells Ali, Ali gets mad, Joe gets mad at Louis, Louis redeems himself, everything is good, Wyatt goes to gym. And there you have it; Partners.

I don't really hate the show, but it just has no wow-factor and nothing new. The writing is good, but the actors don't quite deliver their script. I guess they both are to blame. This is such a shame, since I expected so much from this show, but now I doubt it will even get picked up for a full season. Second season seems almost impossible.