Not being a history, engineering, or architecture buff, I didn’t see what I could take away or find of interest in the pilot episode of “Engineering an Empire.” Spinning off from the special “Engineering an Empire” in Rome, the series will now chronicle historical accounts of architectural landmarks from all civilizations and discuss monuments, buildings, fortresses, and dams.
Category Archives: TV Tomb
Going to Pieces: The Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film (2006)
For me, “Going to Pieces” was like a wet dream, it was a pastiche of all the aspect of horror that I love and hate, and for ninety minutes, I was enjoying the hell out of myself. It’s true, the horror genre, and horror fans get a bad rap, and both are often demonized by the religious, the media, and any self-righteous parent with a desire to be a celebrity, and “Going to Pieces,” tackles those aspects of the genre along with paying homage to the sub-genre I hold dear to my ripped heart.
Heroes
We all know what happens to episodic high concept television shows. Right “Threshold,” “Invasion,” “Jack & Bobby,” “Surface,” and “Push, Nevada”? And audiences aren’t essentially welcoming to shows with interesting concepts, and storylines, and brains. “Heroes” is one of those shows. It’s episodic, it’s high concept, potentially one-note, and hopefully will be greeted with high ratings. But the previous effort from NBC with a show featuring disconnected characters experiencing an occurrence, tanked, and “Heroes” can suffer the very same fate.
True Caribbean Pirates
To ring in, or market off of, the arrival of the surefire moneymaker “Pirates of the Caribbean”, the History Channel’s newest documovie explores the legends and origins of pirates. Pirates of the Caribbean (as the narrator so sneakily includes) have been around since the 1700’s, and they’ve been a staple of pop culture and the world ever since. Pirates truly are no laughing matter being described as vicious killer and rapists whom roam along the open seas where law is not in power, and proceed in snatching up hapless victims.
Psych
Shawn Preston is excellent at noticing clues and hints to a crime. He’s so excellent, he’s practically a psychic. And now you know what the basic plot is. Preston, taught to point out clues and heighten his intuition since he was a boy, thanks to his demanding officer father (Corbin Bernsen), can solve many crimes by just watching a news report then calls, reports information and collects on the reward money, and it’s gotten him into hot water. To prove he didn’t commit the crimes, he pretends to be psychic. And then it gets interesting.
Blade: The Series
After a rather unspectacular opening, it’s pretty clear where we stand. The budget is low, and Sticky Fingaz (rapper turned actor) is basically imitating Wesley Snipes doing Blade. Rather than take his own personality and attribute it to the character of Blade, Mr. Fingaz seeks only to imitate Snipes. Suggestion from the director, or his own choice, either one is still an incredible misstep. Fingaz even imitates Snipes’ slight African accent, with no avail.
The accent jumps in and out, and there are expected changes to the plot. Now Blade has an entourage comprised of your usual characters, and the wolf pack, Whistler, Deacon Frost et al are all basically forgotten, and or never mentioned. Maybe it’s permanent or maybe they’re saving it for (wishful thinking on their part) future seasons. I liked the “Blade” series. While “Blade” may not have been a masterpiece, its successors were entertaining. It was only obvious a spin-off/series would be attempted. And it’s still a great idea.
Everwood Series Finale: Foreverwood
It’s been four years, four years on the WB. When “Smallville” premiered, I remember seeing the previews for “Everwood” and thought, “What the hell? I’ll give it a shot.” I never really thought it would become a ritual every week. “Everwood”, a casualty of the upcoming merge of the WB and UPN, is proof positive that television executives have no clue what quality programming is. After a long hiatus, and many time slot changes, the executives decided “It’s ratings were too low” (explain the logic behind that) and cut it down from the fall’s schedule. Which is not to say “Everwood” wasn’t sliding. “Everwood” was an excellent show, but became much too bogged down in melodrama and began lacking the spirit and small town quirkiness the first three seasons had.