Observations from Missy’s Window

Archive for the ‘Television’ Category

This news really should have been posted here before today. Poor planning on my part. Sorry.

If you are interested in the Apollo program and/or the history of manned space flight, this is a must see. If you don’t have NASA TV through your cable or satellite provider, watch it online.

Apollo 8 Crew Remembers Historic Mission Live On NASA TV

Apollo 8 crew from left to right are: James A. Lovell Jr., William A. Anders, and Frank Borman.
~ credit NASA images

WASHINGTON — Almost 40 years after NASA executed the bold decision to send the first human flight of the gigantic Saturn V rocket to the moon, the crew of Apollo 8 will reunite as part of a special public program produced in cooperation with the Newseum in Washington.

The program features Apollo 8 crew members Frank Borman, James Lovell and William Anders. It will be broadcast live from the Newseum on NASA Television and www.nasa.gov on Thursday, Nov. 13, at 1:30 p.m. EST. The Newseum is located at 555 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W.

During the 60-minute program, astronauts Borman, Lovell and Anders will discuss the epic December 1968 lunar orbital mission and how the success of Apollo 8 contributed to the overall moon landing effort that culminated just six months later with Apollo 11. The crew also will discuss the years following Apollo and the future of space exploration.

For more information on NASA TV and how to stream live video on the Internet, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

Just when you get into a groove and the world seems right something happens to change everything. No, I’m not talking about the U.S. Presidential Election. It’s Doctor Who. David Tennant is leaving the role in 2010. He says he doesn’t want to wear out his welcome. *sigh*

You see, I loved Christopher Eccleston as The Doctor and was disappointed when Tennant took over. Not devastated. Disappointed. It didn’t take long for the actor to fill the shoes and I grew to enjoy his performance. Now he’s going to leave. *sigh again*

BBC News has released a list of possible replacements and I must say my opinion of their choices goes to the extreme in each direction. By that, I mean I totally agree with some and totally disagree with others.

Okay, here is their list:

• Paterson Joseph
• David Morrissey
• Sean Pertwee
• James Nesbitt
• Russell Tovey
• James McAvoy

Of these six, three have had guest roles on the show. Joseph was in season one, episodes 12 and 13. Morrissey will be in the upcoming season’s Christmas special. Russell Tovey played a midshipman in season four, episode 0. He’s also Russell Davies’ (Doctor Who writer) pick. Sean Pertwee has an alignment with the series as well. His father, Jon Pertwee, filled The Doctor’s shoes from 1970 to 1974.

James Nesbitt would be my favorite pick. I’m so impressed with his acting skills and he’s proven he could handle both dramatic and comedic situations. It’s been reported he isn’t interested in the role, but I heard him say on the Graham Norton show that he hadn’t been approached.

It seems unrealistic that James McAvoy would leave his Hollywood career behind to film the series, though I think he would do an admirable job.

To break my opinion down: I’m totally against Joseph and Morrissey. I think Pertwee might work out but I don’t support that decision. Tovey seems a bit young to take it on, but I wouldn’t complain if he was given a shot. I’d love to see Nesbitt or McAvoy as Doctor Who.

These are just rumored choices to take over the role and ultimately it may turn out to be someone different. Well, at least we get one more season and part of another with David Tennant. What the future holds remains to be seen.

I’ll be the first to admit that I was skeptical when Prison Break first came out. After all, an entire series about breaking out of prison? How long could the show really last before it ran out of material, and what would they do once the prisoners actually successfully (or not so successfully) broke out of prison? As it turns out, I was proven dead wrong, and after picking up the series in season 2 I was hooked. We’re now up on the show’s fourth season and it hasn’t showed any signs of slowing down. So what should we expect from the upcoming continuation of season four? I’d wager a lot more than we expect.

Spoilers Alert!

Looking back at what we know, there’s been an awful lot of story-line through season three. We found out that Sara is in fact not dead after all, Gretchen didn’t kill her, which changes Michael’s direction from vengeance to more of a search and rescue plan to find Sara. Along the way we also learned that Whistler has been secretly working alongside Mahone to bring the Company down. Michael got arrested and recruited by the Department of Homeland Security to bring the Company down in exchange for his freedom. It also turns out that Sara has escaped captivity from Gretchen, who is punished by the Company for letting her go. Further still we find out that an agent from the Company known as Wyatt is on the loose, attempting to track Michael and Lincoln down. Finally, we learn that Michael is experiencing some health issues. That’s an awful lot to take in, but we do have some descriptions and other tidbits for the upcoming season.

The upcoming episode is called “Greatness Achieved” and we find out that someone isn’t going to make it through one of their most dangerous missions yet. You can watch the promo trailer for the episode here and it’ll premiere on November 3rd. Subsequent episodes, titled “Quiet Riot” and “Selfless” will involve Michael and his gang making final preparations to steal Scylla, and the search will come to a “shocking end” in “Selfless.” We also find out that Michael will come face to face with the General, and that he will be betrayed by someone in his own group.

All in all I’m happy with the way the shows creators have taken things so far and I hope the latter part of Prison Break Season 4 holds up to that standard as well! If your looking to catch up here are some places that you can Watch Prison Break online.

Many television viewers will be tuned in on Sunday, November 23rd to watch the season premier of 24. 24 Redemption is a two hour prequel, detailing what happened after season six and setting up the events of season seven. I’m guessing that they’re using this opportunity to get some stuff out of the way. The real time nature of this show doesn’t really allow for the detailed explanation of more banal events. Like Court Cases. Anyhoo, Keifer Sutherland himself said at this years Comic Con that the show was not trying to reinvent the wheel this season, but that the writers pay a lot of attention to the fans like and dislikes, so expect to see what you enjoy. I have a feeling that this season is going to be more of the same, just a lot more exciting, and a little better produced. The trailer pretty much lines up the main points of the season.

First of all, CTU is gone. Kinda. Well, the Wikipedia page reports that it was disbanded in between day 6 and 7, but they leave it open for a twist. Movieweb.com says that, yes it’s disbanded, but it’s not completely dead. Whatever that means. It’s going to end up looking like Jack is on his own, and then turn out differently.

The Second Narrated point is “The Nation Is Under Attack” I don’t have much to say about this. Of course the nation is under attack, or in danger, or something. This is 24. What I don’t expect is for someone to say “The Nation is Fine and Dandy!”

Tony Almeida’s back, and Jon Cassar promises it will make sense. He’s a bad guy though. Think maybe he’s out to get some revenge? At the cost of what, though? We shall see.

A very interesting choice is made, with the terrorists controlling airplanes, having hacked through the government firewall (cheeseball). So is this going to end well? For the purposes of the show, I hope not. Overall I’m really looking forward to 24 Season 7, we sure had to wait long enough!

As a quick side note, do not expect a 24 movie until the series is over. While fans may love the idea, it just can’t work, and no one (production team or writers) seems appreciable interested in the topic as of yet.

The mighty wrath of Lost Season 5 will soon be upon us. Although we still have a few months to wait I thought I would spend some time looking back, putting together the pieces, and try to make some sense out of what has happened so far. Isn’t that half the fun of Lost, anyway?

Let’s quickly recap Season 4.

Note: If you haven’t watched Lost Season 4 yet be warned: SPOILER ALERT!

Ben is back in charge of the island, ends up moving it, and thus has to leave. (why? Don’t ask me, I skipped over the tutorial for pan-dimensional island shiftage) Locke is destined to lead the island, except he DIED, and his stiff corpse is in the U.S.A. Did he move the island, and thus get the boot like Ben? I’ll put my chips on that one. They (The Oceanic 6) are rescued. This was a little bit of an anti-climax due to the flashforwards that started at the beginning of the season. We knew that was coming.

So, we are left with a few questions. What am I saying, we still have almost no answers. But the big questions (and attempts at answers) are:

1. What is Charles Widmores interest in the island and Ben?
   He’s a rich prick who’s got it bad for Ben and Desmond. His daughter saves the day (for now) and he seems to have inexhaustible resources for getting what he wants. I think he’s just in it for the Technology, the island moving fountain of youth weirdness. It would be a shame if it were so simple, but they’ve only got one more season to wrap the whole thing up, how much more time can they give the old codger?
2. What is the Hanso foundations ultimate goal?
   Do they really just want a happy go lucky super liberal granola eating tree hugging utopia? Doubt it. They wouldn’t have so many guns. I think they are trying to get something too, we just haven’t seen them sweat yet. They want Jacob. They want to give him a body. (Zombies!!)
3. What is the nature of time travel
   I am not answering this. If I do, I’ll never win at poker again. But lets look at Quantum Suicide.
4. 4. What is the nature of the island.

This is the Big Deal of the whole show. It’s the magic, the mystery, and the madness. None of this would be happening if not for this weird f-ing piece of rock! Is it an Alien ship? Is it an artifact from the future? Is it the Ark of the Covenant? This one, I don’t want to answer. Not because I don’t have real guesses, but I don’t want to be right. What I love about this show so much is that I’m shocked, and that it makes the outer layer of my brain glow with mammalian curiosity and delight. It’s the legacy of Lost.

I can guarantee this, you will not want to miss it. Let’s hope those writers have something amazing up their sleeve.

If you are looking to catch up on Lost check out this article, it explains how to Watch Lost Season 4 Online.

Heroes Season 3 – Kring Brings the Excitement Back

We’re now four full episodes into the 3rd season of Heroes, and while Tim Kring and his crew have seemingly recovered from their sophomore slump, we’re reminded why comic books can only do so much in movies or television. How many times can you save the world in a single plot-arc? If you can travel into and out of the future, how serious can you really take any threat to humanity? You’ll just go back (or forward) and fix it. That said, The new season is GREAT! It’s everything I want from a comic book, and most fans seem to agree. If you’re looking for Shakespeare, or even Lost, you’ve taken a wrong turn at Albuquerque, but if you like moderately schlocky, semi-violent, superheroes and their overwrought emoting, you’ll be pleased as punch. I think this was best summed up by Verne Gay of Newsday when he said,

“This is good bunk, fun bunk, energetic bunk. Much better bunk than the last volume”

This is a tasty burger and fries, you get it the same way every time, and while maybe not nutritious, it’s filling and comfortable. While you might look at the metacritic rating and think it’s low, but you have to set your expectations appropriately. There are some fans who are getting frustrated by the duplication of powers and silly dialogue, but these guys are either big fans of very good comics, or asking too much. There’s a great flame war going on over at heroesfanatic.com over plot holes and other “serious” issues, but it just shows how passionate true fans get. There is never any indication that the people who don’t appreciate Kring and Co. will stop watching any time soon. This conflict model is duplicated on many, many forums for the show. What people need to realize is that when you introduce things like time travel, mind reading, atomic anger, or super-speed, you might need fans to suspend disbelief a little bit. If you can do that, and you don’t expect the world, you will very much enjoy Heroes, Season 3.

New episodes of the Heroes Season 3 premiere on NBC every Monday Night. If you need to catch up on previous episodes check out this great list of places to Watch Heroes Season 1 and 2 episodes online.

When you watch a new television program, what makes you tune in again or decide to find something else to do? There are plenty of shows out there with drama and/or action but if they lack characters we’re compelled to care for or hate they will fail.

Think about it. Would the adventures of the castaways on Gilligan’s Island interest viewers if the characters themselves bored us? In the case of BBC America’s Primeval, it would be just a bunch of historic and/or imaginative creatures moving back and forth through anomalies if not for the cast of characters who investigate. It is they who inspire us to tune in each week to see what will happen next.

Honestly, I didn’t find the first episode of Primeval compelling. Sure, it had a dinosaur in a modern day setting and it brought questions of ‘what if’ to mind but it was lackluster compared to the hype. The possibilities of the characters convinced me to watch again the next week. I was intrigued by Nick Cutter, Professor of Paleontology, who lost his wife. What made his assistant, Steven, stay with him instead of venturing out for a career of his own? I wanted to know more about Abby who is an expert on lizards and Connor who is super intelligent and totally geeky.

Only then did the strange things they encounter and investigate become more interesting. When it is revealed the professor’s wife didn’t die, but rather chose to travel through time and live in a world with no other humans, I was hooked. Now I must ask, where in the world is Claudia Brown. Something they did in the past has erased a person from the present and I’m ready to pull my hair out waiting for the next episode.

I’m glad I chose to tune in even when my initial impression was lackluster. Love at first sight is rare and while today’s entertainment focuses on grabbing the audience’s attention from the get go, it doesn’t always happen. There’s something to be said for relationships that develop at a moderate pace.