OK, I knew that Boston Legal was good, but I had now idea how good. After I read the review of first season, I decided to find some time and see what Boston Legal has to offer. And without any reservation I will say that Boston Legal is one of the best series to air on any American TV in the past decade. Sharp writing, eccentricity, humor, great cast and message in every episode are something we really needed on TV in a single show.

I am not big fan of lawyer or cop dramas, and in the recent years nothing original is done with the genre. We have endless line of CSI shows that are getting boring, countless incarnations of Law and Order, and not a single original element in any of them. Sure, they were interesting in the beginning, but producers simply don’t know when to stop and to think of something fresh and interesting.

And than, there was Boston Legal. And while it’s lawyer centric, series introduced original and fresh perspective and characters that are unusual and eccentric. First season was really good, but for the most part they were still searching for the right formula, and some of the characters were not as good as they will became in second seasons. Often changed cast members in second season were not as pronounced as in first, and the story telling is better as well as the way the series is shot.

Story

In terms of the story, episodic nature is still in play, but this time we have some stories spanning over a number of episodes. It’s still fast paced with several cases presented in each episode, and with writing that is improved over the writing in the first season. But, it’s very hard to convey how good the humor is, how witty and smart. No matter how arrogant and self centered characters are, you will never see them only like that, you will see how deeply they are in fact good and how the arrogance is earned and even deserved.

This is series that is more funny than most of the sitcoms you have on air now, and it’s not something you would take too serious, it’s great fun with occasional moments of truth that will make you think.

Cast and characters

Season 2 again had significant changes in the cast. Rhona Mitra and Monica Potter have left the series, and that is certainly a lost for the show. But, replacements are also good, starting with Julie Bowen. She is great addition to the series even though her character was a bit undeveloped in the beginning. Mark Valley’s Brad is still equivalent of Ken doll, or as they refer to him as Buzz Lightyear. Even though his role is not that big, he is still good and interesting character. Candice Bergen came to the series in the late stages of first season, but her role is very important and she does a great job.

Boston Legal, Season 2

And now, we have Alan Shore and Danny Crane. Two absolutely amazing characters, both earning their actors many awards including Emmy. James Spader is perfect as Alan Shore, and the arrogance, self importance are showing not as central element of the characters. He is always fighting for his clients and he doesn’t loose. His closings are something you simply need to hear. Amazing. William Shatner as Danny Crane is excellent and much better than in first season, since writers have improved some of the elements of his character and made him not annoying anymore as he was at times in first season.

Production

One of the things I had problem with in the first season is that camera work was too choppy and at times distracting. But, that’s all fixed with second season and now it’s effectively used to tell the story. Music has not changed much, and it’s still good and very effective.

Conclusion

Excellent show, really excellent. I honestly haven’t felt good about watching something new as I did with Boston Legal. get the DVD’s or try to watch in in syndication and watch it. It’s really worth it. Great.

Series about lawyers. Again. My first thought was, how they still make such shows, it’s getting boring already. But, when I have seen Boston Legal, I have realized that I am wrong. It’s very different from any other series in the genre. Series creator David E. Kelly is one of the most productive and popular creators, who already made several very popular TV series like Ally McBeal, Chicago Hope and L.A. Law.

Production

David E. Kelly managed to make very interesting and never boring series with great actors that remain the strongest element of the series. Boston Legal is spin-of of another successful series The Practice, sharing some of the cast members and characters. Boston Legal premiered in 2004 on ABC with first season having 17 episodes. First season pulled of highest ratings from all 5 seasons, and managed to reach more than 12 million viewers on average.

Story and cast

It’s set in Boston, in the fictional company Crane, Poole & Schmidt. And in the main role as Denny Crane is William Shatner, best known as the legendary captain James T. Kirk from the Star Trek series and movies, and i was curious in seeing him in very different role as a lawyer. Crane is ‘the best lawyer’ in history (he says that about himself), and for 45 years he has never lost the case. Until…

Series has episodic structure with not many connections between episodes, each one about new case. We are following Danny, his moody behavior, always ready to argue and doesn’t care about insulting anyone including friends. It’s hard to describe exactly his performance, but you need to hear his introduction to understand exactly how great this character is. He is egoistic, selfish, but very capable to turn any situation to his advantage. And he doesn’t really care if his client is guilty or not, he always does his best to set them free.

Boston Legal, Season 1

Charming Candice Bergen is in the role of Shirley Schmidt, another partner in the firm, and she is the only one that really understands and know Crane and she is always ready to help him. And her looks maybe deceiving, because in the court she is real lioness working hard to help his client. She is also ruthless, and uncompromising when in the courtroom looking to discover their secrets.

The third main character is Alan Shore, played by James Spader. He is afraid of commitments, changing women daily, never opening to love, but real king of the courtroom, master at manipulating the jury using stories often unrelated to the trial.

Rest of the supporting cast is really good, and as said before, casting is done really good with Boston Legal, not a weak link among them.

Conclusion

What to say in the end. You are missing if you have not seen the Boston Legal. So, get the DVD sets and start watching, it’s really fun. And more reviews will be written soon. Stay tuned.

Amazing show, canceled by the FOX before it even got a chance. But, things like that happen each year and they happen on all US networks, and they will never learn, because they care about ONE thing only: MONEY. And that’s why Keen Eddie, Life, Moonlight, New Amsterdam and other great series were canceled without getting real chance. Keen Eddie is excellent series that proved to smart for average audience.

“Hi, I’m Eddie. How do you like me so far?” This is how detective Eddie Arlette introduces himself. He arrives in London from NY to work on a follow up case. But after the case is done (pilot episode), he stays in London working for Scotland Yard.

Story

Eddie arrives in London and moves into the house he rented, only to find out that Fiona, daughter of the woman that rented the house is living there incognito while her parents think that she is in college. All stories, and each episode is one story, one case, are very well written, clever and funny. With many unexpected twists, series quickly grows on you, because episodes are not dull as the most cop shows turn out in the end. Humor is great revolving around cultural clash of American and English sides. Also, there are many great references to James Bond and Eddies flirting with Carol Ross, superintendent’s assistant.

Cast and characters

Sienna, Mark, Julian

Eddie is played by Mark Valley (Fringe, Human Target) and he is only American actor on the series. Mark is really great in the role, charming and smart. It’s real pity he didn’t get a chance of several seasons to explore the character further. Gorgeous Sienna Miller is playing Fiona, and she is spoiled and always bickering with Eddie. They have great chemistry together and it’s real fun to watch them. The rest of the cast, detectives in Scotland Yard are great English actors, and Colin Salmon and Julian Rhind-Tutt are both really great.

Production

Visually, series looks at times like Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, and that works very well, making the series look dynamic and fresh. But, FOX managed to turn the series into disaster ratings with constant changes of the air time, moving it around and using it to fill the time. In the end they cancel it early, and the rest of the 13 episodes airen on BravoTV.

Conclusion

Get the DVD and watch the series, it’s fun and really great. And if you like the Mark Valley in the role, check out the early Fringe episodes and also a new series Human Target that is currently on the air.

If you didn’t had favorite housewife, by the end of season one you are surely to get one. Series is fast paced, and always leaving us wanting more, always opening new questions and with a big mystery each season, you don’t know what to expect. ABC did a great job in promoting the series and by the start of season 2, it was already series with high ratings and devoted fans. So, what you can expect from second season?

Story and new characters

Don’t expect to see any big changes from first season, life in the Wisteria Lane is the same, but to make things more interesting, we have new characters. First season central story was a great tragedy, and we have learned many secrets all housewives have. New mystery is in the form of the new neighbor, Betty Appelwhite (Alfre Woodard) that has moved in with her son Matthew under suspicious circumstances. The new neighbor is mysterious, often in a bad mood and plays the piano. And our housewives wanted to learn more about her, and that will prove to be very hard.

In much bigger role from the first season is Nicollette Sheridan (originally casted for the role of Bree) and her character Edie Britt. Housewives don’t like her much, and she is always topic for rumors and gossip, living a free life and she is maybe even source of envy for everyone in the neighborhood. And, she is known to take wayward husbands.

As for our housewives, there will be some changes. Linet will start wearing pants and will go back to work while her husband is looking after their 4 kids. Van Der Kamp’s go through a great tragedy and you will surely admire the strong character of Bree. Gabrielle is going through hard period with her husband.

Production

Again, Desperate Houswives earned many new awards and with even more fans and steady high ratings, future looks good for them. Production is as always on the highest level, despite some of the problems behind the scenes and change of producers after first season.

Conclusion

Second season is not much different from the first one. All the actresses are great and they are the main reason to watch this show. Maybe I shouldn’t have expected more after the first season, but it’s still early, many more seasons will follow.

Emma is a novel by famous English writer Jane Austen, and as all here novels this one is adapted many times for both TV and a big screen. The latest in this line is the BBC adaptation aired in the late 2009. It’s made in the form of mini series with 4 one hour episodes. It’s written for screen by Sandy Welch (successfully adapted Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre in 2006), and all episodes are directed by Jim O’Hanlon.

Story

Story is a well known and in the center of it is Emma Woodhouse, rich and smart young girl living in a small town of Highbury. She is a skilled matchmaker (or at least that’s what she thinks), and is determined to not get married. And everything starts going wrong once she meets Harriet Smith.

I have not read the Emma novel, but the story here is very well done, with great dialogs especially by Emma and Mr. Knightly. There are some moments when story seams to be dragging and is a bit boring, but overall all 4 hours will pass by quickly.

Cast and characters

Emma

In great BBC tradition, cast is very good, lead by the veteran Michael Gambon (to younger audience known as Dumbledore in Harry Potter movies) and he plays Emma’s father. In the role of Emma is beautiful Romola Garai and she is really adorable in this role, and for me the strongest performance of all. Johnny Lee Miller is in the role of George Knightley, who is Emma’s best friend and only intellectual equal in the town. Rupert Evans is in the role of Frank Churchill, and he also gave great performance, and that goes for the rest of cast.

Production

Excellent production by BBC and as usual they are great in making costume period adaptations. Emma looks great, with great costumes, and to follow music is really good and goes well with the period. It’s hard to find some week element in the whole production and it’s a real pleasure to watch Emma.

Conclusion

This is excellent adaptation, and if you like this type of adaptations you will really enjoy. DVD is released, and you can get it at Amazon.

Full name of the series in the first season and part of second was ‘8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter’, and is based on the book by the same name from W. Bruce Cameron. This is also the last work on television from great John Ritter. 8 Simple Rules is a sitcom, and is created by Tracy Gamble, and premiered on ABC in 2002. And for list of all 8 rules you can check out the Wikipedia page for the series.

Story

Hennessy family is the center of the series, and they are, as it’s usually with sitcoms, average American familiy. And the first season is very different from the later two, because focus in this one is actually part of the title. Paul, father of the family, is very protective of his teenage daughters and he uses different methods to scare potential boyfriends. Add to that normal family dynamics and very funny characters, great actors and you get very good comedy and a lot of laughs.

Cast and Characters

Main cast

John Ritter is excellent as usual, and the same goes for all other members of the family. Katey Sagal is really amazing playing Paul’s wife Cate. As for the teenage daughters, older one is Bridget (played by Kaley Cuoco), she is pretty one. Younger daughter Karry is the smart one (played by Amy Davidson). And the youngest kid in the family is Rory (played by Martin Spanjers).

Interesting trivia is that Kaley plays older sister, but Amy is actually 5 years older than her.

Conclusion

This is very good sitcom, and it’s worth watching, it’s really funny and if nothing else, you will get to see John Ritter in his last TV appearance.

Is the season already over?! Again, these 12 latest episodes were again excellent as the previous season were. I didn’t expect that they will manage to maintain the quality coming into the third season, but they did, and gave as another excellent and interesting story, and again meet several new characters. Base of this season is another important change in Hank’s life and we will discover even more about him.

Story

Second season ended with relatively happy ending and separation of  Hank’s family. Hank is now living with his daughter and has taken position as a teacher at the university. And Becca, his daughter, remains the most important person in his life, while many other woman comes and go. And because of her, he once again will try to change, even though, with all his efforts he just can’t manage to do it.

Characters

The decision of the series creators to introduce new supporting cast each season is excellent, and has proved by right choice and that’s keeping show fresh and interesting to watch. Hopefully, they will keep the same formula for future seasons. And this season adds some very interesting names to the cast list, including great Kathleen Turner in the role of Charlie’s boss Sue. Also, we have charming Peter Gallagher as a dean at the univeristy and in the role of his wife is beautiful Embeth Davidtz. And new gorgeous girl in Hank’s life is his student (work in the striptease bar at night) Jackie, played by the Eva Amurri.

Becca and Hank

But, as usual, David Duchovny is real star of the series, and he has proved once again how great he is in the role of Hank. But, to make things complicated for Hnak and leave us wanting more, creator Tom Kapinos has made very interesting last episode of the season and sort of a cliffhanger. But, we will need to wait for another 9 months for season 4.

Conclusion

Well, I really enjoyed watching all three seasons of this great show, and I hope that you did also. And if you didn’t see any of the episodes, it’s a good time to get DVD’s and start. Until season 4 keep in mind: Hank is the best.

Greetings to all fans of the well known housewives, and to those that are about to became fans. Series is create by Marc Cherry, who found his inspiration in the movie American Beauty. Series is made for ABC, and early during first season has scored very high in terms of ratings. This is not only love drama, it’s comedy and also a mystery. Story follows four neighbors and best friends, all housewives living in a suburbia.

Story

Through lives of housewives, we are lead by the narration of the dead Mery Alice Young, played by Brenda Strong. Our four main characters live in the Wisteria Lane street in the fictional town Fairview. They are very different in many ways and still they are best friends. Producers made excellent choices in picking both the four main actresses as well as all the other characters, and casting is one of the strongest points of this series.

This first season is mostly for indroducing the housewives, their families and lifes. And the story begins with first great tragedy (there will be at least one such tragedy each season), and they all try to understand it, and to eventually cope with it.

Characters

Attractive Teri Hatcher plays Susan Mayer, over emotive and fragile, with no luck in the love life and mother of a teenage girl, also author of children books. And she starts to change once the Mike Delfino (played but James Denton), plummer, moves into the neighborhood. Beautiful red haired Marcia Cross plays a perfect housewife, perfect mother, perfect cook and at first look cold Bree Van de Kamp, that thinks that she has a perfect life and family. Or so it seams.

Desperate Housewives

Very attractive, ex model Gabrielle Solis is played by Eva Longoria. She is selfish and even spiteful, merried to a rich business man, only looking after herself. And finally, the fourth housewife is Lynette Scavo (played by Felicity Huffman), and she is complete opposite of Gabrielle. She has gave up her career for her familiy, and she is mother of 4 children. She is a prisoner to her household, with her husband always working.

Production

This series have gain a lot of popularity in the first season, and managed to retain that during until now. It was awarded by numerous awards including Emmy and Golden Globe awards.

Conclusion

This is mostly introductory season that leads into much more complex seasons. I am not big fan of the series, but I still like it and it’s still lot of fan to watch. Hopefully, next season will get better, but this is a right place to start with the Desperate Housewives.

After the first season ended I thought that second one can’t be more dirty, twisted, interesting, funny and even sad. Comedy series usually fail to have successive seasons as good as the first one, because of some repeating elements of the story. But with Californication we are continuing where the story ended in first season, and in some aspects this season improves on the first, ads more interesting characters and much more.

Story and characters

We have seen a relatively happy ending of the first season and we secretly hoped that Hank will change and became a family man. But, his life style is still the same, and he makes all close to him miserable. Hank is realizing that he is not the only one who is living the fail life and chasing dreams, when he meets a music producer and soon his best friend Ashby. He is played by Callum Keith Rennie (best known for his role as a Cylon on Battlestar Galactica), who managed to pull of the difficult role of the miserable addict searching for something more from life. Young Madeleine Martin (Hank’s daughter Becca), once again proved that she is talented actress and that she will go far in her career.

Californication Season 2

Amazing Natascha McElhone was, once again, a real pleasure to watch as Karen, Hank’s life partner who is still not fully committed to her. And as before, we still follow life’s of Hank’s friend and agent Charlie and his wife Marcy (Evan Handler and Pamela Adlon). They still try to make their life and love more interesting no matter how low or shameful that gets.

Production

First season success definitively came as a surprise to creators and producers, and this time Showtime made sure that Californication get’s more promotion and more viewers. And this trend continues with the third season.

Conclusion

I can’t say enough about how great this series is, and how the creators managed to lead us on this great journey through Hank’s life. Don’t miss this series, and enjoy. Third one is almost over and review is just around the corner…

Finally, a series with no forbidden subjects, with no holds barred. It shows a life of a modern man, living his life the way he wants. A lot of love, a lot of sex, life with all it’s ups and downs. Provocative series, with no shame, Californication is like nothing else on TV right now. Series reached high ratings in it’s first season, higher than even some of the networked series, making Californication one of the biggest cable success series.

Story and characters

Does a man has a right to be happy, or to chase his dream? Can he sacrifice his family to fulfill those dreams? Is it really worth it to give up all that for money and popularity? And on all these questions, answers will seek Hank Moody, played by David Duchovny, proving that he will not be remembered only as Agent Molder. Here he is a charming seducer and heart breaker for a single night, mostly. Hank is a successful writer who hasn’t written anything new for a long time. He lives day by day on the old glory, spending money and trying to find the way to get his life back on track.

Californication cast

But, he is too proud, he insults everyone, has no respect or understanding for personal space of other people. Great Evan Hanlder plays his agent and long time friend Charlie Runkle who is alway there to help Hank. Gorgeous Natascha McElhon plays his former ‘life partner’ Karen, and she left him because he wasn’t ready to change. They have a teenage daughter. But, Karen is about to be married to an architect, who also has a daughter played by beautiful Madeline Zima. And when she meets Hank for the first time, all their life’s will get even more complicated.

Production

Tom Kapinos created this series for Showtime cable network. From the very start, series achieved high ratings ensuring its bright future. Duchovny won the Golden Globe for his role in 2007. And an interesting trivia for heavy metal fans is that titles of Hanks novels are names of the albums of band Slayer: South of Heaven, Seasons In The Abyss and God Hates Us All.

Conclusion

I don’t really like comedies, but I was very interested in this one to see agent Molder in a different role. To my surprise, both series and his role are really amazing. And if you didn’t watched it already, it’s time to do it.

When this series started first, back in march I wanted to watch it even then, but I was afraid that it will get canceled soon. But, fortunately that didn’t happen, and first season ended with 13 episodes, with 13 more announced for second season that is scheduled to start in December. Now, the DVD is released, and I finally can get to watch the full season. And I loved it! Really excellent comedy shot using single camera setup.

Story and characters

Series is set in fictional company Veridian Dynamic that has world wide influence, conducts research of practically everything, a model corporation resembling many real ones.  And the setting is the research and testing of the company. Story is told by Ted Crisp successful and yet conscientious father of 9 years old girl Rose, who is head of the research. His boss is Veronica Palmer (another great performance by Portia de Rossi), devoid of conscience and emotions that cares only about her career. Linda Zwordling is working in testing department, she is beautiful and interested in having relationship with Ted. And the part of the main cast are to brilliant, yet awkward scientist, geeks if you will Phil and Lem.

Each episode starts with a different made like commercial intro showing all what is wrong with corporations like Veridian. All intros are really great and funny. The whole series actually shows how the corporate system work, how  they are driven by inertia most of time, ruled by endless bureaucracy and inflexible bosses (like Veronica). In many occasions situations will remind you of real companies, or maybe your own (if you work in such environment).

Better Off Ted

My favorite character is definitly Linda, played by Andrea Anders. She had a great role few years back in an awful show Joey (Friends spin-off), and she was the only reason I watched Joey in the first place. Hopefully, there will be more great roles for her in the future.

Production

Series is created by Victor Fresco, who worked on My Name Is Earl. Series is done great, and they tried (and succeeded for the most part) in recreating believable research center of a company.

Conclusion

Really excellent comedy. And great timing, so grab the first season (2 DVD’s set) and watch it before second one starts in about 2 weeks.

I am not big fan of new ‘mockumentary’ series started with Office (both original UK and newer US version), so I wasn’t really looking forward to watch Parks and Recreation. On top of that I really don’t like (not to use stronger words) Amy Poehler, and I had very low expectations about the series. Series is created by Greg Daniels and Michael Schur previously working as writers on the US version of The Office.

Story

Series follow Leslie Knope, deputy director of the local government department of Parks and Recreation in small town Pawnee Indiana. She’s working on the project of converting old construction pit into park. That project is her first ‘big’ sub-comity appointment, and her attempt to get out of her mother shadow.

Series shows the inner workings of local governments, the inertia of small communities, and all that can be easily translated to any country in the world. Many great remarks from some of the characters are showing mockumentary style in it’s best. I can’t compare it to The Office, since never could get over first episode of that series.

Cast and characters

Parks And Recreation

Amy Poehler really annoys me, and I just can’t stand watching and series or movie with her. But that annoying ‘quality’ actually is really good fit for the overly ambitious, naive and occasionally stupid Leslie. Rest of the cast is mostly unknown to me, with exception of Rashida Jones.

Conclusion

First season only has 6 episodes, and was really more of a test balloon for another Office series, but it managed to offer some refreshing new humor and further exploration of the style. In any case, it’s short, and give it try, you might enjoy it.

It was bound to happen sooner or later with any group of very talented people. Even during the season 2 there was talks in stopping the circus after that season. But, they did third one, even though John Cleese wanted to go. But once the third season completed Cleese did left the Monty Python’s. But, there was a lot of material he made still left, and some of that was used in sketches in shorter season 4, so he is still listed as creator.

Changes with the Pythons

Cleese felt that even after second season there was no point of doing more, because things can get repetitive. And hew was right, and there were some episodes in season 3 that were not up to their standards. Because of his departure, show name changed to only Monty Python, and they used new opening animation sequence. To fill the void, troupe got new, temporary member in Douglas Adams (best known as author of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy). Douglas has participated as a writer for several sketches, and has also appeared in two episodes. Neil Innes also has co-written some of the sketches. But, the absence of Cleese is noticeable, and some of the sketches would benefit from his acting.

Writing

But, all things considered, this wasn’t a bad season for Pythons. Episodes 3 and 4, ‘The Light Entertainment War’ and ‘Hamlet’ were great overall, and all 6 episodes had bunch of good sketches: Ants sketches in episode two, ‘Most Awful Family in Britain’, ‘Appeal on Behalf of Extremely Rich People’, ‘Secretary of State and Prime Minister’ and more.

Reunited

Even the Cleese left the series, he hasn’t left them for good and in 1974 they got again for some stage performaces, and again for their first movie about Holy Grail. But that’s not really a topic for the TVScape reviews.

Conclusion

They have stopped just in time. If the Pythons continued to make series after this fourth season they would most certainly turned out bad. I will write about recently released DVD box sets, and you can expect a Monty Python related giveaway in december. I will soon make official announcement. In the meantime, enjoy in Flying Circus.

Way back in 1997, on august 13, Comedy Central aired first episode of the South Park. Before South Park became a series, it was a series of short animations called Spirit Of Christmas. South Park is created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, and they also provided voices for most of the characters. Currently in it’s 13th season, South Park is still strong, with few more seasons already confirmed. And here is how it began.

Characters and Story

South Park is a small city in Colorado, and the main characters are four 9 years old boys: Stan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Eric Cartman and Kenny McCormick. Stan and Kyle are based on the series creators. They all hang together even that Kenny, Stan and Kyle hate Eric. They all are 3rd graders. This is the first animated show rated TV-MA and is intended for mature audience only. And trust me, this is not something you would like your kids to see. Almost all characters use strong profanities and some of the strongest language is bleeped over. Add to this the fact that Kenny dies almost in every episode, killed in a different and brutal ways, makes South Park very different type of animated series from anything else on TV right now.

Other characters are boys families, school friends, teachers, neighbors, Jesus Christ, Satan… And most adult characters are often very irrational and plain stupid, so the boys always get in trouble trying to resolve many typical or even supernatural problems.

First season features classics like ‘Cartman Gets an Anal Probe’, ‘Death’, ‘Starvin’ Marvin’ and ‘Damien’. South Park is not for everyone. They manage to offend just about everyone based on race, beliefs and anything else. So, if you don’t know how to take a joke, better avoid the South Park.

Production

Pilot is completely done using paper cut-out cartoons and hand animated, much like the Terry Gilliam did for the Monty Python Flying Circus. Both Tray and Matt are big fans of Gilliam’s work. They needed 4 months to complete the pilot. Later, to save time and speed the process up they started using computers to draw and animate each episode. Still, it’s done so that computer animation still looks hand drawn and cut out.

Conclusion

This is visually very raw season, and compared to the later episodes looks rather primitive. But, humor and stories are great and watching South Park is real fun. All episodes are available for free online, on the official series wbesite.

Season two is starting the new trend in the series, with much darker tone, while still funny. The themes and the story line will be more serious and Nancy will go deeper into the drug world underground while trying to expand, and getting mixed in the whole process starting with own weeds growing house. This season starts the decline in the series writing, and while this one is still good, things will go downhill fast with later seasons.

Story

Nancy has just found out that Peter is DEA agent, and that has a biggest impact on the story line this season. I had a lot of problems with everything around Peter, and most of it was very unrealistic. The whole DEA subplot was the weakest part of the season. Main story line is about Nancy trying to expand, and with help from Conrad setting the grow house. Conrad has developed a great strain of plant that will be their main product. But, their fast expansion will attract many new enemies trying to ruin their business and take the strain for themselves. Again, the whole insight on the gang activities while tries to be funny, fails to deliver, again showing them unrealistic. But, on the other hand, there are several minor subplots I liked, like the one revolving around Silas and his girlfriend Megan, or few plots with Andy. These smaller story lines are really great, and they are the main reason I liked the season overall.

Andy and Yael in rabbinical school

Cast

Andy and Silas are my favorite character this season. Andy trying to get out of the army by signing in the rabbinical school (beautiful Meital Dohan plays Yeal, the instructor in the school) and his many schemes are real fun to watch.

Conclusion

Good season for Weeds, not as good as first. Darker stories they wanted to tell are spoiled with some unrealistic characters. If you overlook that, the rest is really good.

After the end of second season of Flying Circus, and Pythons made almost 2 year break before putting together another season of the series. But, even with the start of this season, tensions between members of the troupe was on the rise and due the creative differences it was obvious that they can’t continue working together for much longer. But before the real break up of the Pythons they managed to make some great stuff.

Before they  made the season 2, Pythons made two episodes in German for WDR under the name Monty Python’s Fliegender Zirkus. One episode is recorded in German and the other one is later dubbed. One one of them was aired on BBC before the start of the season 4.

Flying Circus

As for the real season 3, once again there were 13 episodes with bunch of new sketches. I really liked the first episode on Njorl’s Saga and later The War Against Pornography and The Nude Organist. As for the selection of best sketches of the season these include: The Fish-Slapping Dance, Life of Tschaikowsky, Dead Bishop, Elizabethan Pornography Smugglers, Frontiers of Medicine — Penguins and International Wife-Swapping.

This season is not as good as first two was, but still will give you a lot of laughs. But sketches were more politically oriented and some of the things were maybe funny in the time they made it, but 30 years later it’s not that current anymore.

With John Cleese departure from the troupe at the end of the season, last season was a failure by the standard sets with previous work. But more on that next time.

How Arrested Development got canceled after on three season is a great mystery to me. This is one of the best comedies ever made, but initial ratings were not favorable and FOX decided to cut the series short, and ordered 13 episodes of the third season. Producers decided that they should wrap the current story lines. Some of the solutions were not exactly done right and it feels a but rushed. Despite that this season is still fun to watch.

As it turns out George Sr. managed to escape and once again his brother ended up in jail. But Micheal manages to find him as a member of Blue Men Group and brings him back into the house arrest. But, this season will introduce a new and really great character Rita (played by Charlize Theron). She is initially a random girl Micheal met in Little Britain, but later things will get much more complicated leading to very interesting resolution.

Arrested Development

There are some great episodes in the remainder of the season, but last two are full with resolved story lines, and some of them are really forced and not that great, and some plain contradictory to some of things we learned in the previous seasons. But, that’s what you get when series is cut short and things needed to be resolved one way or the other.

The Movie

It’s confirmed that the movie is in the making, and that script is almost completed. If everything goes as planned, it should go into production soon, with late 2010 for release.

Conclusion

Somewhat weak ending of otherwise amazing series. Anyway, the weak points are only caused by the FOX decision to end the series. This is a really must watch, and a series that no one should miss. Grab the DVD’s (there are some announcements about Blu-Ray for next year) and enjoy.

Scrubs were great during the first season, but the second season is even better. Writers and producers have explored what can be done, and they really improved on some aspects with better day dreaming sequences. Also, the drama aspect is better than in season one with more interesting cases since JD was not a intern anymore. Any with more interesting guest stars, this is really great and fun season to watch.

Cast

Neil Flynn as janitor had a great role in the first season, and that earned him a regular cast role and name on opening credits. Beautiful Christa Miller got a bigger role in the season, and her character Jordan is one of my favorite recurring characters. She and dr. Cox are really great not-a-couple. Guest stars list is really long, and I would like to single out: John Ritter, Sarah Lancaster, Jay Mohr, Ryan Reynolds and Amy Smart (in few episodes). Zach Braff is more relaxed and more secure in his role of JD and that also improved day dreaming scenes that were used even more in this season.

Season 2 cast of Scrubs

Writing

Drama dimension of the series is more pronounced and mixing drama and comedy is very effective. Some of the episode are very emotional and very funny in the same time. Also, writers did some experimenting with different narration points and characters giving as a break from JD. Music was became apart of the storytelling with guest musician Colin Hay.

Conclusion

These early episodes of Scrubs are really great, and real fun to watch. Unfortunately this concept can’t last forever, and soon we will see the quality of Scrubs decreasing. But, until that happens, enjoy.

With first season of Flying Circus, Pythons managed to build a solid fan base and ratings were on the rise. There are still some problems with the BBC and the air time, but another 13 episodes were made and aired during 1970. And once again they use similar format as before and delivers another set of legendary sketches and even more great characters that will be recurring until the landing of the Flying Circus few years later.

Ministry of Silly Walks

Some of the  most important Python characters were conceived during the season 2. Spanish Inquisition first appeared in the second episode of the season, and were using several times during the season, and also later in the last two seasons. Gumbies are group of stupid people wearing the same close and boots remained one of the most important characters created by Pythons and there are many sketches were they appear. They had a cartoon representation also. At the end of the season a nude organist player was also introduced, first played by Cleese, later by Jones. The Bishop is another amazing character played by Jones, a secret agent-like character always followed by opening and closing credits animations.

As the stories and sketches go, this is the best overall season of Flying Circus that featured some of the legendary sketches: The Ministry of Silly Walks, The Spanish Inquisition, Deja Vu, Architects Sketch, The Bishop, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, The Attila the Hun Show, Fish Licence, Long John Silver Impersonators v. Bournemouth Gynecologists, How Not to Be Seen, Royal Episode, Lifeboat (cannibalism) and Undertaker’s sketch.

Spanish Inquisition

This is definitively my favorite season of Flying Circus. Unfortunately, Pythons will soon start to fall apart once again proving that any group consisting of so many great actors can’t stay together too long. Great minds usually have great egos, and that will be the end of Pythons few years after this, and they will get together only for couple of movies made in seventies and eighties.

First season of Eureka was a great success for SyFy, and at the time it was their most successful original series they made, with high ratings. And it was refreshing that they decided to invest in new series and not some low quality movies (they still make them unfortunately). Season two starts pretty much where season one ends after the experiment with the strange artifact they had stored on the level 5, and the timeline is restored.

This is also half season with 13 episodes and it’s not very different from the first season. It’s a pity that they didn’t follow any more on the artifact from season one, but still it had some excellent episodes. Due to the artifact subplot, Allison is now head of GD and the first episode has an interesting case of spontaneous combustion.

Cast and guests

Eureka

Cast has not changed from the first season, but now we had the chance to see somewhat different dynamic between some of the characters due to the changes in GD. Also, young Zoe will get more prominent role in the series and that is definitively a good thing, because she is excellent and very interesting character. Also, this season got few great guest stars, 3 of them were from Stargate SG-1: Michael Shanks, Lexa Doig and Teryl Rothery.

Conclusion

Eureka is not the greatest of series on TV, but it is entertaining and great in what is suppose to be. Interesting stories and good humor will make you watching worth while.

Way back in the 1969, BBC has agreed to air 13 episodes of a show without the name, without the clear concept and content. Only after that a group of 6 young actors (and writers and musicians as it turns out) had named the new series Monty Python’s Flying Circus by going through series of random names until they all agreed on Monty Python. So, the first episode of the legendary series aired on October 5 1969. on BBC One.

Legendary group had 6 members: Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam (all the animations and minor acting roles), Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin. Troop had two regular actress Carol Cleveland and later Connie Booth, and few recurring actors for some minor roles. Series was unconventional, even with few similar shows in the sixties on both TV and radio. But, here the sketches had no punch line ending, and usually were connected with Gilliam’s animations. It was very unusual, with typical English humor and in the beginning people had a hard time excepting the series.

Monty Python’s Flying Circus

But after few episodes more and more people started watching the show. Also, BBC was airing the series very late, changed the airing day almost after every episode, and even with all that problems, Monty Pythons were getting more and more attention.

Each episode usually had 6 or 7 sketches some lasting for minute or two and some 10 or more minutes long. The first season included some legendary pieces like: The Funniest Joke in the World, Bicycle Repair Man, Science Fiction Sketch, Hell’s Grannies, The Battle of Trafalgar, Dead Parrot, Self Defence Against Fresh Fruit, Secret Service Dentists and many more. Some sketches were previously part of John Cleese TV feature How to Irritate People.

This is amazing series, but still, it’s not for everyone. It’s much different that your usual US made comedy, but if you give it a chance you will really be amazed by the quality and humor. Highly recommended.

Series that can be called truly original are very, very rare. And Scrubs can be proud being among the chosen few. This is basically the medical comedy show, but the concept is very unique, humor refreshing and cast amazing. And as far as I know there is no similar TV series. So, what is so special and unique in Scrubs? First of all, this is a comedy, but this is not a sitcom so no audience laughing. And this show can’t be made as a sitcom.

JD and his best friend Turk are starting as staff interns in the Sacret Heart hospital. They meet there other interns, most importantly Elliot Reid (played by beautiful Sarah Chalke). The rest of the main cast are head nurse Carla, chief of medicine Bob Kelso, senior attending doctor Perry Cox and hospital Janitor. There are many more recurring and minor characters to mention all of them. Casting is really great, even with some of the character have much smaller roles in the beginning (like Janitor played by Neil Flynn), but will be much more important later.

Even with great cast and characters, there are times when you can have problems following the dialogs, because they are really fast and snappy. But, that is a great excuse to watch the series many times to catch all great moments.

Story

Scrubs

Scrubs is narrated by the series main character JD played by Zach Braff. But it’s not simply narration, JD has a whole day dreaming thing going and all that is a part of the series. At least few minutes of every episode show what’s going on in JD’s mind. And all that is very funny. Later in the series, from time to time, we will see day dreaming scenes from all the other characters. Anyway, first season is the year of internship for the young doctors and them learning more about what hospitals are really like.

Production

Series is created by the ABC Production, but it’s aired by the rival NBC TV. This was unusual arrangement , but for several years was actually working. Sets and visual effects are very good, but music could be better.

Conclusion

Simply amazing comedy that you need to see. I am not big fan of medical series, but Scrubs (much like House) adds many unique things to the genre that are refreshing and funny.

We are so overwhelmed by the US sitcoms and comedy shows, and it’s easy to miss on a comedy coming from Canada. Little Mosque On The Prairie is one of the comedies that is better than most of the sitcoms Americans made, because it deals with unique theme and is refreshing and genuinely funny. Season 4 of this great show started few weeks ago, but for now I will start with the first season first aired in 2007 and had 8 episodes.

Series is set in a small fictional town Mercy in Canada. Town has small Muslim community that have finally managed to open a mosque by renting space from the local church. At the beginning of the series, a new and young imam is coming to Mercy and he tries to organize the mosque and to help the town folk to learn more about their fate.

And during the first season series will explore many interesting themes: women rights in Islam, conservative and more liberal interpretation of Islam and many more stereotypes about Muslim and non-Muslim community views.

Cast

Little Mosque Promo

In the center of the story is Hamoudi family (contractor Yasir, his wife Sarah and their daughter Rayyan), newcomer imam Amaar Rashid, church reverend Duncan Magee and mayor Ann Popowicz. Also, there are few more conservative member of Muslim community: Baber Siddiqui (college economics professor) and Fatima Dinssa (diner owner from Nigeria). All actors are really good cast, and my two favorite characters are Baber (played by Manoj Sood) and Rayyan Hamoudi (played by Sitara Hewitt).

Production

Show is not as flashy as the American comedies, but still, that is not as important in the end, as long as the content is good. It feels more like the UK production in both humor and format.

Conclusion

This is excellent comedy and worth watching. Some US TV stations and syndicating Little Mosque, so watch it when you get a chance.

Previously on Arrested Development. Actually, no episodes of AD start with previously on (except one), but all are finished with On the next Arrested Development, and this is used not to announce the next episode, but to finish some of the scenes and stories from the current episode. After the George Sr. escaped, Micheal and George Michael are once again on the road to Phoenix, decided that it’s time (again) to leave the Blooth family.

During second season family will search (and find dead, then alive) George Sr, and he will use his twin brother to escape few times, he will hide in wholes and in the attic and do whatever he can to avoid ending back in prison. Bluth company will go through changes and will have Gob as a president. Micheal will be again involved with blind lawyer, and Buster will loose a part of the body.

AD Cast

This and more will be a part of the storyline in the second season. There are few episodes that were on the boring side, but overall, still amazing series. But, for some reason FOX decided to order less episodes than in first season, and this was a bad sign for the series. Still, it was renewed for season 3. Part of the problem were low rating Arrested Development had, and during that initial run it wasn’t received very well by the audience.

Conclusion

Don’t miss the Arrested Development. I have watched it several times, and I always find something new to laugh. It never gets boring.

Season two starts right where season one ended. In this season some of the episodes are actually two parters adapted from one story, but some episodes are actually adaptation of multiple stories. Still, every episode is great, and with some cast changes, it’s maybe even perfect. Season 2 and season 3 and 4 later have 6 episodes each. This season Wooster will try more to act as a matchmaker, and he will depend even more on Jeeves.

This season will introduce a new character of aspiring fascist dictator Spode, and he will be involved in many stories this season, and later in season 4. Wooster will be caught in his aunt manipulations again with the silver cow creamer, and also will be stuck with new valet when Jeeves gives his notice and leave him (for a while). Matchmaking fiasco at the end of the season will cause Wooster to change his scene and go to visit New York in season 3.

Cast

Wooster and Jeeves

Interesting thing about this series is that some of the roles are played by different actors in every season, like the Wooster’s aunt Agatha. Also, some of the Wooster love interests are also casted again for this season and that can be sometimes distracting because you again need to find out who is who. But, as the cast goes, this is the best season of the series. As the Fry and Laurie, they are truly amazing, and both are now much more comfortable with their roles.

Conclusion

This is a series not to be missed, even if you are only interested to see Hugh Laurie in the non House role. Both him a Fry are great tandem in anything they worked together.

Despite often referred as a sitcom series, Arrested Development is not sitcom. This is one of the best comedy series ever created on US televisions, even if it was a short lived with only 3 seasons, and potentially a movie that is now reported in development, and announced for the next year. Despite the quality, series proved to be complicated and most main characters were not like-able so it had only moderate ratings during original run.

Arrested Development is created my Mitchell Hurwitz, based on original idea from Ron Howard, who narrated the whole series. And narration is used to drive the story and also explain on many back references and rather complicated story and many relationship between many characters.

Story

Story is about the rich Bluth family and their company. At the start of the first season, George Bluth got arrested for on the number of charges for fraud and spending company money. His oldest son Michael decides to leave with his son and distance himself from the family, but that proves more complicated than he though at first. Micheal and his son George Michael live in the model home that Bluth company built. And due to the arrest and company money getting frozen, Michael’s twin sister Lindsay and her husband Tobias and their daughter Maeby are moved in with them.

Characters

Arrested Development

This is one wacky family. Michael (played by Jason Bateman) is the only one hard working in the family and tries to teach his son to be good and hard working also. George Michael is mostly clueless and confused boy and Michael Cera is really excellent in the role. The rest of the family is also great, and my favorite is definitively George Bluth played by Jeffrey Tambor. But, one of the problem series had to attract wider audience was the fact that characters weren’t like able but that was actually a point of showing the dysfunctional family.

Production

Series is filmed using constantly moving or in the face camera, with almost documentary style of filming, and that gave the series very original and interesting look.

Conclusion

Amazing comedy, intelligent and really funny. It takes some time for the series to grown on viewers, and it can get complicated even with narrator leading you through the story, but this is the show that you really need to see.

Long before US audience have met Hugh Laurie and Dr. Gregory House, he was already accomplished actor and starred in many excellent series and movies. I already have written on Black Adder series, and here is another real gem of UK television production. Jeeves and Wooster is created and produced by Granada Televison and premiered on ITV in 1990 with first from 4 seasons made, starring Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry.

Story

Series is based on the stories written by Pelham Grenville Wodehouse from 1916 to 1974. Series is set in early 20-th century (between two World Wars) in England and USA. As expected, Granada did excellent job in recreating the period. Music is also excellent, but after couple of episodes, it became to repetitive and boring. Second season will be imporved when the music is concerned.

Bertie Wooster is a bachelor and minor aristocrat, member of ‘idle rich’ upper class, living of the family inheritance, engaged to a new woman in almost every episode, and always getting himself in some sort of trouble. Jeeves is his gentleman’s personal gentleman, or valet who is rally ‘a brain of the operation’, and who is helping Bertie and his friends out of many awkward situations.

Jeeves & Wooster

This is one of the best adaptation of any written material , and the series didn’t lose anything in the adaptation process, and is true to original.

Characters

There are few changes in some of the characters from the written stories, Wooster (played by Hugh Laurie) plays the piano in the series as Hugh often does in all series he stars in. And Jeeves (played by Stephen Fry) is younger than in the books. Hugh is as usually amazing, and the Wooster character is a perfect match for his comedy side. Stephen Fry is also perfect as the silent but very smart valet aiding and in many cases controlling his master, as the good valet from the period often does. Bertie is in many ways a total opposite to Hugh’s character of Dr. House, so it’s very interesting to see him in a truly comedic roles that he is famous for.

Conclusion

This is really excellent series, and really a must see for all Hugh Laurie fans interested in seeing him in excellent comedic role. Grab the DVD box set and enjoy.

Weeds is not a classic comedy that is made only to make you laugh. This is mostly a dark comedy with excellent, funny and intelligent writing and truly great cast and very actual theme that is rarly presented for TV the way Weeds have done. Series is created by Jenji Kohan and produced by Lionsgate Television for Showtime network. Episodes are under half hour long, and this first season had total of 10 episodes.

Story

Suburban mother and recently widow Nancy started dealing marijuana after the death of the husband and loss of income, so that she can still have the same life style as before. She has two sons and in the first half of the season, her dead husbands brother also moves in. First season shows mostly basics of the weeds dealing business and occasional confrontations with other dealers, and first steps to set up wider network of buyers.

But this is only a part of the Weeds. Main story is actually on relations between members in the Botwin family faced with the tragic loss and the new life that Nancy has to lead to survive. Also, we will see how things work in a small suburban community, and that appearances can be deceiving. Story is really tought provoking with many flawed character constantly making bad descisions, and getting themselves deeper into problems.

Weeds: Celia and Nancy

Cast and characters

Mary-Louise Parker is amazing as Nancy Botwin, but that is not a big surprise, because she is great in any role. Her brother in law Andy is played by Justin Kirk and he did great job in portraying irresponsible and lazy character. Elizabeth Perkins is great as Celia Hodes, best friend of Nancy Botwin in the beginning of the series. Without going too much into details, it’s really hard to find someone who is not up to the task.

Conclusion

First season of Weeds is really great, and fun to watch. For the next 2 season series will mostly maintain the quality of this first season, but after that things will be changed for the worse. For now, grab DVD or Blu-Ray with the fisr season and spend few hours on this great show.

The final full season of the history of Blackadders, creators choose setting of The First World War. It’s the 1917, Western front and we are in the trenches with the British troops. Between them and German troops is so called no-man’s-land. This season originally aired in the 1989, and reunites the all-star actors from all previous seasons, some of them as guest stars in a single episode. Shame that this is the last season of the series.

Cast

Blackadder is now captain in the army and again he is there with now Private Baldrick and Lieutenant George. Their commanding officer is General Melchett who has a personal secretary Captain Kevin Darling. George is idealistic and again not very smart as his predecesor Prince George was. Hugh Laurie again did an excellent job with this role.Stephen Fry is back for a full season in the role of general, and he is brilliant. This role is much stronger that the role of Melchett in the second season. Tim is back as Captain Darling and he also does a great job.

Blackadder Goes Forth

Among guest stars there is Geoffrey Palmer as Field Marshal Haig, Rik Mayall again as Captain Flashheart and Miranda Richardson as a nurse.

Writing

This season is more satirical then previous seasons was, and writing is still very intelligent and funny. For the most part, this season delivers a anti-war message and shows how pointless the war was, and how bad was conducted on the part of the commanding officers involved.

Conclusion

Another great season of Blackadder. As I said, shame it was the last. And apart from few specials this is the end of the series. Next, and for now last review will be about these extras and specials aired over the years.

Only a year later from the second season, BBC aired the third chapter in the history of Blackadders. This time Edmund is a servant to the Prince of Wales and regent to the throne George, and Baldrick is once again servant to Blackadder. We are now in the period of late 18th and early 19th century, even that some of the events in the show are out of the time frame.  This season is again created by Ben Elton and Richard Curtis.

Prince Regent

Characters

Hugh Laurie has appeared in the last episode of season 2 and now he is a cast regular. He plays the role of prince regent who is very, very stupid and in everything depends on Blackadder. Hugh does a wonderful job in playing the prince who has ‘only two brain cells’. It’s hard to describe the role, you need to see the series to understand how brilliant is Hugh’s role. But, the same goes for Rowan and Tony as Blackadder and Boldrick. As a Duke of Wellington in the last episodes guess star is Stephen Fry.

Writing

Again, writing is excellent. A witty and intelligent sarcastic humor is the essential part of the series, and this time we can see all that in the real events based setting in stories about first english dictionary, over the top theatrical actors, French Revolution, parliament elections and more.

Conclusion

This is my favorite season of Blackadder, and this is absolute classic of the British comedy production. Blackadder as a whole can be put shoulder to shoulder with older classics like Monty Pythons. Once again, grab the box set and start watching. This is one not to be missed.

Few centuries after the first Black Adder we are now in the 16th century, on the court of Queen Elizabeth I. Edmund Blackadder is now a Lord and close friend with queen. Unlike his predecessor, this time Edmund is intelligent and good looking, but inside he is the same, still scheming and plotting to advance further. But, no matter how different Edmund seams to be, good thing is that Blackadder will always be Blackadder.

Cast

There were some changes in the cast. Blackadder and Baldrick are still here. And so is Percy. But this time we have the Queen, played by Miranda Richardson, here nanny Nursie, played by Patsy Byrne and Lord Melchett, played by Stephen Fry. I think that Queen is a bit overplayed and annoying at times, but I think that was a general idea on how to show her. Stephen Fry is great as always.

Edmund, Baldrick and Percy

Writing

As the story goes, this is maybe the weakest in the series. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still good, but seasons 3 and 4 are much better. Rowan Atkinson wasn’t involved in writing process in this season as he was in the first one. And ending of the season is a sort of introduction of the next season and Hugh Laurie plays crazy german Prince Ludwig.

Production

In terms of production, this season is much better, and sets the standard for the following seasons. Music is in style of the first season. Costumes are really great, and at times really over the top, but all that is done on purpose.

Conclusion

Blackadder is really a great series, and the second incarnation of Edmund is really a must see. Not the best in the series, but still better than the most comedies you are likely to see on TV.

I have never been a fan of teenage series because they all look a like and really there is nothing new you can see in any of them. But, I decided to watch Gossip Girl hoping that I am maybe wrong.And I must admit that Gossip Girl turned out to be much more than I thought it will be. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still bad, but it’s not that bad. I am sure that teenagers will not going to agree with me, so let’s see what the Gossip Girl is all about.

During the series we don’t actually see gossip girl but she is a narrator and voiced by Kristin Bell. She gathers and distributes gossip about basically everybody. Story is about the rich (and spoiled, and not so rich) kids going to Upper East Side high school. And series start when bad girl Serena van der Woodsen returns to the city, and is turned good. Her best friend is Blair Waldorf. There are so many characters that I won’t bother you with everyone of them. Most of them are 100% stereotypes used in these kind of series. Serena is a rich girl that falls in love with poor and good guy that was in love with her for years but she never noticed him before. Blaire is a rich and very spoiled girl that takes whatever she wants. And so on, and so on. Very boring stuff overall.

Cast, characters and writing

Blake Lively

The only role I actually like is Serena. She is played by Blake Lively, and here performance is so much better (in my opinion) than the rest of the cast. As I said before, everything here is already seen many time before. Writing is mostly bad. A long list of trivialities revolving around kids without care in the world. Who was seen wearing this or that, eating cake and cookies and bunch of stuff like that. Role of Serena is written slightly better because we at least get to know more about her and her past.

Production

This is visually maybe the  best CW production yet. It’s filmed in New York on many well known locations. Music is totally trendy and includes music from bunch of pop bands and it’s yet another thing I really don’t like.

Conclusion

The only reason I watched both seasons is role of Serena. But that might be the good reason for season 1, but in season 2 things will change for worst. Anyway, this is a show made for teenagers, and no wonder that I don’t like it. If you are still in high school, well I recommend the Gossip Girl. For everybody else, this is one to be skipped.

I must admit, I resisted for years to watch this show, because I didn’t like the idea and few episodes I watched on occasions. But, as it happens, I wanted to see some new sitcom show, and I got few recommendations for this one. And I grabbed the first 3 seasons at first, and I absolutely loved it. Two and a half man is one of the best sitcoms in the past 10 years and no wonder it’s already picked up years ahead up to 9th season already. With a few weeks before season 7 starts, it’s a good time to watch some of the old episodes and to write the review of the very first season. I liked many of Charlie Sheen movies, but at one point he sort of fell of the map due to many addiction problems. And than Two and a half man happen and the role of hedonistic, carefree and lazy Charlie Harper is really a great fit. The other Harper in the show, Alen is almost total opposite of Charlie and Jon Cryer is really excellent in that role. The half man in the show is Alen’s son Jake, played Angus T. Jones. Add to the mix they housekeeper (Conchata Ferrell is amazing), Charlies stalker, Alan’s ex wife and Charlies and Alans mother and you will get one of the best sitcoms in the recent years.

Writing

Chuck Lorre, one of the creators, once again proved that he can make great comedy. I couldn’t find a single bad episode in the first season, writing is really great and with mixing the dirty humor with day to day situations and you will be laughing non-stop. But, still many people didn’t like this new formula for a sitcom show that is very different from the usually comedy types like Seinfeld, King Of Queens or Everybody Loves Raymond.

Production

Season 1 cast

Well, nothing new here. Standard sitcom show, and you can’t expect miracles or special effects. It’s filmed in front of the live audience, and everything needs to be on stage. There are few things done in post production, and some of it was done bad (seagulls in the second episodes).

Conclusion

I have seen the whole series 3 times so far, and i still manage to find something new to laugh. This is really excellent sitcom and well worth the time (and money for DVD sets). And since it’s already picked up for at least 3 seasons it will be around for a long time.

The Black Adder show is created more than 25 years ago, but still it’s one of the greatest TV shows ever created. Everything started with the fist season that is the first chapter in the history of Edmund Blackadder. This first story is set in the 15-th century on the court of King Richard III and is actually the ‘secret history’ of the period. Edmund is a prince, son of Richard III, he has a brother and searching for a way to became a king himself.

Show is created by Rowan Atkinson and Richard Curtis. Rowan Atkinson also stars as Edmund and does amazing job. Blackadder has a servant named Baldrick (Tony Robinson) and a ‘friend’ Percy (Tim McInnerny). Richard III is played by Brian Blessed and it’s a pity that he is only part of the cast of this first season. Edmund is a sneaky, cunning and sometimes if needed evil character with only one idea on his mind, he wants to became a king. And the things he would do for that, it’s really amazing to see some of his ideas. And, eventually all of them will fail.

Writing

First season is much different in terms of humor than the later seasons, because it relies much more on visual comedy and historical satire and less on sarcasm that is used much more later. But, because of them some of the dialogs can be hard to follow if you are not well versed in the period. But, if you give it the time and watch it few times, I am sure that you will be able to get much more of the subtle humor. Also, this is the only season that has a narrator to lead the story and his parts are very, very funny.

Production

Well, this is something where first season fails at the times, and it looks like that there is not much money invested into the series. But most of the BBC series from that period suffered the same problem most likely do to many shows produced in the same time. Important thing is that you will not even notice the problems because characters and story are really great.

Conclusion

So, grab the box set with all four seasons and many extras and start from the beginning. Blackadder’s history is really worth a watch.

When Eli Stone premiered, I was really excited by the announcements and I couldn’t wait to watch it. Also, I am secretly fan of Natasha Henstridge, so that was an added bonus. This is a typical half season series with 13 episodes. Show has somewhat unique concept, and that was a main reason I was intrigued by it. And that concept has proven to be insufficient. But, still, there are some fine points, and some of you will surely enjoy it.

Title character, played by Jonny Lee Miller is a lawyer that works in a big company, and is very successful. But, one day, things began to change because he started having visions about the events, about cases that were low profile for the big company, and that he would never take under normal circumstances. And those visions are accompanied by the music and performance of George Michael, who even appears in some episodes.

Characters

No matter how I tried, I couldn’t find anything interesting in most of the characters starting with Eli Stone, his boss and finance. Characters are long list of stereotypes, and I found only some of them vaguely interesting. Cast is not all bad, but they couldn’t do more with the script they had to work with.

Writing

Each episode has a story of it’s own, and only few of them were interesting to me. Most of dilemmas of the main character are driven by high moral standards, religious views of different world religions, and in all that there is nothing new, all ideas are simply recycled. Dialogs are funny, also full of stereotypes, but will definitely make you laugh.

Production

If you are George Michael fans, then you will find this show very interesting. And using a thematic music, is an interesting change, and something like that is not seen enough. The whole idea is very likely to be exploited in other shows in the future. As for the production, it’s obvious that they did very good job, and this includes special effects also that are used in many situations and are used very well.

Conclusion

When you take everything in consideration, my average rating is maybe driven from the fact that I really expected much more from the show. Anyway, there are many reasons that you might wanna give this show a try.

SciFi channel over the years created many TV shows and TV movies. While the movies were mostly bad, original TV shows were treated much better. Eureka is one of the better shows they created, and one of the shows that had a big audience. This is not over complicated show, it’s more of a light reading compared to many other science fiction shows but in this case that’s very refreshing approach among very demanding genre.

Eureka presents many standard science fiction concepts and ideas but adds several new components to make this very interesting show. With interesting idea of location (Eureka is a hidden city in the western USA), and a lot of humor you will be very likely hooked from the very beginning. I must admit that first few episodes were not very interesting to me, but that changed, and I really enjoyed the rest of the season. Most of the complicated science (real or imagined) is simplified so that you can easily understand the concepts, and you don’t need to think too much about the science and terms used. One of the reason for this is a main character, the city sheriff who is not very educated and is more of a down to earth kind of guy that finds himself in a city that is every geek’s dream.

Main storyline of the show was not done very well, but thankfully this wasn’t big part of the season, and it was something that they should write much better and give it much more weight.

Characters

Sheriff Jack Carter, played by Colin Ferguson and his deputy Joe Lupo (Erica Cerra) are  definitely my favorite characters. But, the rest of the cast has also done a good job. Still, there are some characters I found annoying and and not really needed. Also, I am missing characters back stories and some deeper character development, but we will see more of that in the second and third season.

Production and effects

There is a lot of CGI used in this show, and for the most part is used very well. It’s not exactly the best CGI around, but still it’s pretty decent. Music is really excellent and helps in setting the light mood through out the series.

Conclusion

This is a fun show to watch and I strongly recommend that you find the time and watch it. Season 3 is now in progress, and I can tell you that show is still good.