I’ve been a fan of Mark Feuerstein for a long time. I even pushed through the pilot of Good Morning, Miami, subjecting myself to 22 minutes of Ashley Williams, ((Those who know me will know my extreme antipathy for that doe-eyed, charmless bimbo who nearly ruined season one of How I Met Your Mother with her talent vacuum.)) because of his presence. But other than a handful of appearances on The West Wing, he hasn’t had any roles meaty enough and exposed enough to take off. That might finally change.
Blog
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Royal Pains premieres on USA Network
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Pushing Daisies: “Window Dressed to Kill”
Nobody gave a crap about Clark Kent. He could disappear off the face of the Daily Planet, nobody’d even notice. But I bet he’d spit spandex to find someone special enough who cared about the man and not the cape.
Viewing note: if you missed this week’s Pushing Daisies, you can watch it online at ABC.com. And don’t forget there are two more episodes to come the next two Saturdays.
Oh poor Ned. Looks like Gregory Peck, bakes pies that are heaven, has two sweet and beautiful women in love with him, has a superpower, and yet can’t help but trip over his own cape. Repeatedly.
Having decided the time to be super is past, Ned’s thrown out the rotten fruit and holstered his magic finger for good. Just a piemaker now, he’s not going to be dragged along by Emerson on his latest case and he’s not going to be dragging Chuck along. Of course Chuck, like Olive, enjoys the danger and excitement of Emerson’s cases, so she jumps at the chance to help out the sleuth.
If Ned were looking outward more, he’d see that Chuck loves the thrill and realize it’s not so bad to have a superpower. But as is so often the case with Ned, he’s blindered and makes the wrong choice. No, that’s not quite right. He’s not blind, just too focused on the wrong things.
Like Olive, focused on Ned with a laser’s coherence that she doesn’t notice Randy’s interest, ((Or Alfredo’s before him.)) Ned is so focused on being normal that he doesn’t realize Chuck loves him as he is. It’s not that Chuck wouldn’t love normal-Ned, but in separating himself from his power he separates himself from sleuthing, in turn separating himself from The Alive-Again Avenger and her “crusty, unflappable, streetwise gumshoe.”
But Ned comes around. When he’s needed most, he faces his demons and uses his powers to revive a rhino and provide all the distraction a couple of runaway non-kidnapping kidnappers need to get away.
Richard Benjamin and George Segal shine as Jerry Holmes and Buster Bustamante, more like parents to Olive than her parents ever were. Their love and concern for Olive shows in every glance, every word. And their unique focus on Olive – less like a laser and more like a warm wash of sunlight ((Too much with the light metaphor, I know.)) – lets them see what she can’t about Randy’s feelings.
As for the MoW, I want to live in a world where window dressers have devotees. Sort of like the movie Mannequin, but better.
What did everyone else think?
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Charlie Jade podcast
Another episode of the Charlie Jade podcast has been posted at Charlie Jade Verse.
This one covers the weakest of the four “acts” of the show, though it includes the marvelous “Betrayal”, seen above. Take some time and take a listen, because the next act is a fun one.
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Drew Powell wants back on Leverage
Can y’all tell I’m excited about the new season? -
Leverage: The song we’ve all been waiting for
Very short, very quick note to all the people who were looking for the song that opened the episode “The 12 Step Job” of Leverage, it’s been posted for your pleasure, along with a little more background on it, at iFMagazine.com.
Leverage returns to TNT this summer; we’ll be reviewing it as always.
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The Fixer – Indie in the Making
Twitter is an awesome thing indeed. Not only did I make my way to Dreamloom through Twitter, I also made the acquaintance of Jon F. Merz, a published sci-fi author, of such titles as “The Fixer” and “Parallax”, his latest thriller. What popped out at me about Jon was his endeavor to push his vampire chronicles to the small screen as an Indie production. With all my favorite shows (at the time) dropping like flies, I was interested in the process of what he hoped to accomplish, especially considering the fact Jon is aiming for production standard quality versus a more typical Indie, budget on a shoestring-type affair. (more…) -
In Plain Sight – ‘Gilted Lily’
When I first heard about In Plain Sight, I thought ‘Gee, another cop show. We don’t have enough of those.’ The trick to good storytelling, however, is to find a new angle to present old material. In Plain Sight may not have dramatically relandscaped the cop whodunit angle, but the flowers are fresh enough I don’t mind giving the show a chance. (more…)
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Law & Order: Criminal Intent keeps going and going…
“Why are you a cop?”
“Because I like it, and I’m good at it, and that kid is a killer.”Returning for its eighth ((!)) season this Sunday, April 19 at 9/8c, Law & Order: Criminal Intent doesn’t have the cachet of its sister or the mothership, but it keeps trudging along at a high level of competency. Originally built around the mesmerizing performance of Vincent D’Onofrio, the workload on him proved to be too great, so an ingenius solution was devised. L&O vet Chris Noth was brought in to take lead on alternate episodes, halving D’Onofrio’s burden.
That worked successfully for three seasons, swapping cases back and forth between brainy and intuitive Det. Goren and mesomorphic Det. Logan. But Mr. Big was ready to move on (again) and Dick Wolf and his EPs Walon Green, Ed Zuckerman, and John David Coles decided to go another way with Jeff Goldblum.
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TBS To add original animated fare to its lineup
In a real “fish out of lake of fire” story, Pam Brady (South Park) and Mireille Soria (Madagascar) are bringing Neighbors From Hell to TBS with an initial 10-episode order.
The setup has potential, but execution is key. I can’t make any guesses about the animation style because we’re looking at two EPs with very different backgrounds, but I’m going to guess this will be structured more like South Park or The Simpsons with a clear narrative throughline in each episode. I’m a bit concerned that too many production companies have a hand in this and we’ll end up with a watered down soup at the end. Click through for the full press release.
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Worlds Funniest Office Commercials
I just curled up with TBS’s Worlds Funniest Office Commercials and laughed my ass off. I happened to be watching on my laptop with earphones and know for a fact I made several people nearby jealous. If only I had been generous enough to share. But – with a young boy in the room who just happened to ask about the facts of life recently – I didn’t want to explain some of the racier ads. (Why is that woman holding a whip spanking the man?) Yeah, we don’t want to go there. (more…)