Posted Aug 27th 2008 9:59AM by Jonathan Toomey
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, OpEd, Early Looks, Reality-Free

You're going to hear a lot of things about FX's new motorcycle club drama Sons of Anarchy. It's different, it's edgy, and it covers a fairly taboo topic that, up to now, hasn't really been addressed in a TV drama.
However, strip away the leather jackets and exhaust fumes and you're looking at something we have seen before: Sons of Anarchy is The Sopranos on Harleys. You've got your powerful crime family, illegal gun smuggling, rival gangs, conspiracy, and for good measure? Drea de Matteo (of Sopranos fame) plays a crank addict. Trade the crank for blow and we've seen that before too.
Continue reading Sons of Anarchy -- an early look
Posted Aug 26th 2008 2:02PM by Isabelle Carreau
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, OpEd, Early Looks, Reality-Free
"Our friendship can be tested anywhere." - Rusty to CalvinSince it's July 9, 2007, premiere on ABC Family,
Greek has been one of weekly TV guilty pleasures. I've been enjoying its light and fun stories as well as the evolving and imploding relationships and friendships between the characters.
Having had the chance to read a few
spoilers about the upcoming season these past few weeks, it looked like
Greek would be as fun to watch as it was in its first season. However, something can look good on paper and turn out quite differently on the screen. Luckily, it is not the case for
Greek; at least not according to the season premiere, which I had the chance to watch.
Slight spoilers coming up!Continue reading Greek season two -- an early look
Posted Aug 26th 2008 1:00PM by Kona Gallagher
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, OpEd, Early Looks, Reality-Free

TNT's original dramas are kind of hit or miss for me. I'm absolutely in love with
The Closer, but have zero interest in
Saving Grace, despite its good reviews and
Holly Hunter's Emmy nomination. It was while I was watching
The Closer that I saw the ads for
Raising the Bar, TNT's newest series, which premieres on Monday, September 1 at 10 pm. I've got to say, I had the same reaction when I first saw promos for
Saving Grace: "meh."
I love a good lawyer show, but there was something about
Raising the Bar that just struck me as bland. I really didn't know if I'd even bother checking out the premiere. However, when I got the chance to see the first three episodes, I decided to jump on it. This way I could check it out at my leisure, but more importantly, I could figure out just what the hell is going on with
Mark-Paul Gosselaar's hair.
Continue reading Raising the Bar -- an early look
Posted Aug 26th 2008 9:02AM by Jonathan Toomey
Filed under: OpEd, The Shield, Early Looks, Reality-Free

FX is calling it the final act. Not the last season or the final season. Nothing jarring like "the end." The final act sounds more Shakespearean than
Shield - which, if you think about it, is appropriate. For six seasons we've watched one hell of a twisted play unfold before our eyes. We've rooted for the bad guy, applauded wrongdoing, cheered for recklessness, and shared laughs over how bad Vic Mackey screwed over this One-Niner or that Byz-Lat. However, as all good stories do, the time has come for
The Shield to end.
Continue reading The Shield, season seven -- an early look
Posted Aug 17th 2008 1:04PM by Jane Boursaw
Filed under: Other Reality Shows, Programming, OpEd, Survivor, Early Looks

I was searching around for something interesting to write about tonight and came across a piece on
Human Wrecking Balls, a new series premiering on
G4 this fall.
According to
the G4 Web site, the show features brothers Craig and Paul Pumphrey (combined weight: 550 lbs.), who demolish everything from boats and cars to houses and bars using Only Their Bare Hands. (Picture
Tim the Tool Man doing his "Arr, arr, arr" here.)
"Guys seem to have an innate fascination with watching demolition," says Neal Tiles, President of G4. "Add to this the science behind it and the idea of two brothers doing all the demolition physically, and we think
Human Wrecking Balls is an excellent addition to our programming line-up."
Continue reading Human Wrecking Balls -- What's next? The Coliseum?
Posted Jul 17th 2008 11:01AM by Richard Keller
Filed under: OpEd, Monk, Early Looks, Reality-Free
On Friday, July 18th, the seventh season of Monk will premiere on the USA network. For some this is incredibly good news, particularly since the show will be celebrating its 100th episode come September. For others, season seven is three or four seasons too many. It's these people who think Adrian Monk should retire to a Feung Shui-styled, completely dust-free room to live out his remaining days lamenting about his lost love Trudy.
Fortunately, Tony Shalhoub doesn't want Monk to retire. In a recent interview the actor who plays the obsessive-compulsive Mr. Monk said that there is plenty more to explore about the character and the people around him. This is especially true thanks to the revelations of the season six finale, which opened up a whole new avenue for Monk to find the killer of his wife. That, and the introduction of a new therapist into Monk's life (due to the sudden death of Stanley Kamel), have the seventh season looking interesting.
Continue reading Monk season seven -- an early look
Posted Jul 12th 2008 2:42PM by Brett Love
Filed under: OpEd, The Closer, Early Looks, Reality-Free
For fans of The Closer, the wait is almost over. Season four finally kicks off next week, knocking off the third of the five shows that I have anxiously been waiting for. Burn Notice and Stargate Atlantis premiered this week. The Closer and Psych go live next week. And Eureka returns at the end of the month. It's going to be a great summer for television.
The fine folks over at TNT were nice enough to send along a press kit, so I've just finished watching the premiere and reading up on a few of the things they have planned for the new season. Last year we spent a lot of time on family as Brenda (Kyra Sedgwick) and Fritz (Jon Tenney) moved forward with their engagement. That, of course, involved finally revealing the engagement to Brenda's parents (Frances Sternhagen, Barry Corbin). And we followed along as the two of them began to search for a new house. Season four picks up from there. After the jump, a look at the premiere and a few things coming this season. Possibly a couple very minor spoilers, but no big plot points.
Continue reading The Closer season four -- An early look
Posted Jul 9th 2008 3:04PM by Richard Keller
Filed under: OpEd, Psych, Early Looks, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free

Let me put one thing to rest before I begin this review in full. For those of you who think Psych is going to get all dramatic and ruin the show with the introduction of Shawn's mom during the season three premiere (Friday, July 18th, at 10:00 p.m.) I want you take a deep breath and relax. There are definitely some serious moments between Shawn Spencer and the rest of his family, particularly towards the end of the episode. For the most part, though, it is the same Psych that fans have come to enjoy over the last two seasons.
Continue reading Psych season three -- an early look
Posted Jul 9th 2008 2:03PM by Paul Goebel
Filed under: Early Looks, Reality-Free
As I started watching the premiere episode of this season of Burn Notice, I was reminded of one of the things I really love about the show...the scenery. Unlike CSI:Miami, BN is actually shot in Miami and while it's hard to put your finger on why it makes a difference, it's undeniable that a difference is made. It's the same difference you see when you watch Law & Order and CSI: New York back to back.
At the end of last season it seemed like Michael was on the verge of finding out who burned him and why. Now, most of the time that would mean that the series is one step closer to coming to an end, but fans of the show know better.
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Continue reading Burn Notice season two -- An early look
Posted Jul 2nd 2008 3:19PM by Brett Love
Filed under: Stargate, Early Looks, Reality-Free

I was pretty excited when our friendly neighborhood FedEx guy dropped off the envelope with the promo package for season five of Atlantis. And I remained so even after my DVD player balked at reading the disk. It just served as a fine example as to why it's not geeky to have a computer connected to your television, it's just handy.
As the disk started up I was thinking it would be a good idea to do an early look post about where things look to be heading in season five. Unfortunately, Sci Fi only sent out the first episode of the season, and it's not telling us much of anything about season five, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. The episode plays like S04E21 right up to the last scene, where season five begins to take over. Given where we last left our friends in Atlantis, that was probably to be expected. More, including some minor spoilers, after the jump.
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Continue reading Stargate Atlantis season five - An early look
Posted Jun 30th 2008 12:02PM by Jane Boursaw
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, OpEd, Early Looks, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free

I didn't watch the first season of
Saving Grace, but over the weekend, I had an opportunity to screen the second season premiere, titled 'Have a Seat, Earl.' The show is gritty and heartbreaking, and it's shooting to the top of my Must-Watch List.
First of all, let's get this out of the way: I want
Holly Hunter's body. The girl just turned 50 in March, and her body is as fit and toned as a 20-year-old triathlete. Only better, because she's got all the wisdom of a 50-year-old soul.
OK, on to the story. I won't give a blow-by-blow of the episode, which premieres July 14, 10/9c on TNT, but I will talk about key plot-points, so if you're averse to spoilers, you'd best quit reading here. Don't say I didn't warn you.
Continue reading Saving Grace season two: An early look
Posted Jun 11th 2008 10:41AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Programming, Early Looks, Reality-Free

Of all the networks,
CBS has the most new shows on deck, including two new comedies,
Worst Week and
Project Gary, and two new dramas,
The Ex-List and
The Mentalist. Another drama is set for mid-season,
Harper's Island. We've had a chance to look over these new TV shows, and by and large, it's a fascinating bunch. Also adventurous. No procedurals. More character-driven programming it seems. CBS seems determined not to rest on their laurels.
Read what we thought about these advance screeners, bearing in mind that things are liable to change before the shows start to air.
Continue reading TV Squad previews CBS's new shows
Posted Jun 4th 2008 5:23PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows, Early Looks, Reality-Free

From
The Twilight Zone to
Amazing Stories, anthologies have always tried to find a home on television. But where once they were embraced and even lauded, now they struggle to find viewers and usually only eke out a season or so. Last summer brought us
Masters of Science Fiction, which itself was a variation on the pay cable
Masters of Horror, which proved the more successful of the pair. Horror has always had a special place in our hearts.
And so it is not tremendously surprising that NBC is back in the game, this time with
Fear Itself, an hour-long horror anthology. The series premieres Thursday, June 5 at 10pm ET, and I'm going to tell you now to try not to judge it by the first episode. I got a chance to preview the first three episodes, and for me it got better with each installment. Maybe it's a bias against the fairly typical "monster of the week" storytelling that has weakened episodes of such otherwise good shows like
Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Smallville and
Supernatural.Continue reading Fear Itself -- An early look
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