Category: TV

Wonder Woman 2011

On By Michel McDonaldIn TVLeave a comment

I loved Wonder Woman when I was a kid.  As I was running away from the bullies to run home, I was also running home to watch this because it was on at 3pm.  I would come home just in time for it to start and I was allowed to watch this before I had to do my homework.

When I heard that they were going to remake Wonder Woman into a new show on NBC I thought, great, wonderful, I can’t wait to see how they redo it.  But then I got to thinking about how they remade the Bionic Woman and Knight Rider and how those shows didn’t even last a full season.  I now see her costume and am thinking the same thing about this new remake because people are not liking this costume.

I found the link to this article on the Yahoo front page as I was checking my email – See the First Photo of Adrianne Palicki as Wonder Woman. That link is dead… new link ‘Wonder Woman’: First look at Adrianne Palicki in costume.  At first glance I thought, oh well, it looks nice.  But then I went down to the comments and I’m seeing all of the negativity about the costume and how her boobs look fake so I go find the picture of Lynda Carter in her costume.  At first the negative comments were pissing me off but then I started thinking, I kinda have to agree with some of them.

First I just want to say that no matter how her costume looks, I will still watch this show from the beginning to end.  Wonder Woman and any super heroes have my loyalty forever, no matter how their costumes look.  I am not trying to be negative in what I say about her costume so don’t take that in the wrong way, these are just my opinions.  So getting that out of the way, this is what I think about the before and after.

I do like the new costume but here are a few things I don’t like about it:

I think her boots should be red as Lynda Carters were and as they were red in the original comic books.  She is missing her stars on her costume, they should be on her pants somewhere.  And why is she wearing pants now?  The original comic book Wonder Woman wore shorts.  Why not stick to that standard?  She has the body for shorts so why not show it off?

I do like her top but her chest area is too plastic looking, not just the outfit but her boobs.  It’s like the seam line of the boobs on the costume match perfectly with her actual boobs which make it look like she’s a plastic blow up doll and the costume was painted onto her chest.  As you can see in the original Wonder Woman costume, her boobs aren’t that pronounced.  Yes I realize that women’s boobs are more pushed up these days and people think that’s sexy but there is a huge difference between sexy and plastic.  All they have to do is take out that seam line in the costume and push her boobs up with like a push-up bra or something.

Like I said, I do like the costume but it’s too shiny.  If they could just tone down the plastic and give her some fabric instead, that would be much easier to move around in and to breathe.  She’s going to be sweating up a storm in there.  Remember, she’s going to be wearing that costume for hours every day doing scenes about 4 times each.

I don’t want to sound too critical, I’m just saying that they have gone way off the reservation is all.  I do like it but it’s just a bit strange and different.  We’re all used to the old and most people don’t like change, especially when it’s this dramatic of a change.  Like how they changed Batman as much as they have.  I liked the original but on the other hand I didn’t mind the new changes they made.  It’s sort of the same as this, I do like the original but I also like this, I just wish they would make a couple of modifications that’s all.

I can’t wait for this to premiere this fall on NBC.  I don’t know the day of the week it will be on or if it will be on at 8pm or 9pm but will soon find out this summer when the Futon Critic website posts the Fall schedule.  In the meantime, check out this original 5 minute pilot episode of Wonder Woman from 1967 that never made it to air and never turned into a series.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilIodk5wQ6c

Edit: Apparently NBC heard all of the critical feedback (bitching and moaning) from people so they changed the costume. It still doesn’t look right because it’s pants but it’s a lot better than before.

The Situation Roast Fail

On By Michel McDonaldIn TVLeave a comment

Did anyone catch the roast of Donald Trump last night?  It repeated and I watched it 3 times.  It was just so funny that I couldn’t resist.

There were some very funny people and one not so funny person, the Situation.  I don’t know who wrote his jokes for him, that is if he didn’t write them himself, but assuming he wrote them I think he should have gotten some advice from a professional comedian to help him with his homework.  He didn’t do so good.

A couple of his jokes were funny but the rest was just tragic.  I really started to feel sorry for him.  If that were me I wouldn’t have kept going, I would’ve stopped and said “ok that’s my time, you’ve been great” then slunk back to my chair to sit quietly, or leave to go crawl under a rock for the rest of my life lol.  But he didn’t, he just kept going because he apparently thought he was funny enough to continue despite all the people who were booing him.

I don’t watch Jersey Shore so his jokes were lost on me and apparently nobody else who was there watch the show so maybe that’s why his jokes were lost on everyone.

His roast of Whitney Cummings was ok, poorly executed but ok but his roast of Anthony Jeselnik is where things went wrong.  He said that he was telling one of Anthony’s jokes to a super model while he was banging her with tons of money on the floor in his mansion.  Who says that?  Then he said he banged 5 or 6 more models.  That’s not even funny.  Was he trying to say that he’s a stud?  Because bragging like that just makes you look even more pathetic.

Well, despite this idiot, the roast was great.  Anthony Jeselnik was a great replacement for our friend Greg Giraldo who passed away last year (rest in peace).

Mike… keep your day job, whatever that might be.

Watch the clips of his suckfest then watch the funny clips on the Comedy Central website.

My Tribute to Diana of V

On By Michel McDonaldIn TVLeave a comment

I was totally devastated tonight during the season finale of V on ABC when Anna killed her mother Diana.  Why such devastation?  Well, let me take you back about 27 years…

It’s 1984 and my family lost our home.  Long story short, we had to move in with my aunt and with 10 people in the house, tv time was limited to whatever everyone agreed on in the living room.

The “V” Miniseries starts and the entire family watched the first part but not everyone was into it but my mom and I.  We watched it together in my parents bedroom and it was one of 2 things that really brought us together in a long time.  I was 14 and resentful of her for all of the abuse that I had to endure, really, I hated her.  I wanted to love her and this was our common ground.

We watched the entire mini-series together then V the Final Battle, which was sort of a second mini series, then they brought us V the TV Series and we watched that together every week.  The show ended with peace on all sides and although it gave us closure for the show, it ended our “thing” that we had going.  Life back to normal.

I have to admit that even though I was rooting for the fifth column, I was also rooting for Diana because she was just such an awesome character in the show.  Not just her hair but the dramatic look on her face every time the fifth column would foil her plans for victory.  The constant fight that she had with Lydia and, well, everyone.  She was very entertaining to me.

During the early 2000’s I hear rumors of a return of V.  The rumors that I heard were not a remake or a series but a movie, sort of a “V Returns” type of thing, you know like Superman Returns where it’s 25 or so years later.  I liked the idea of a return, prefer a series but I’ll take whatever I can get.

Summer 2009 comes and I hear from the futon critic website that ABC is bringing V back as a new series and I couldn’t be more thrilled.  Naturally I watched it.  At first I wasn’t sure I liked it because it wasn’t exactly as it was in the 80’s but then I started thinking that I like it because it is a remake and the best way to remake an old show is to change everything.

I was very happy with the first season but then I heard rumor that Jane Badler was coming back to reprise her role as Diana.  What?  REALLY?  HAPPY!!!

I think she was great during her short time in the 2nd season so I was very heart-broken and devastated when Anna killed her in the middle of the season finale.  I didn’t expect the show to give her queendom back to her but I had hoped that she would have become a regular in the show again and not just a guest starring role.

I’m not truly convinced that Diana is dead, after all, Anna has brought some of her visitor friends back to life.  She brought Dale (Alan Tudyk) back (then Joshua killed him again lol) and she brought Marcus (Christopher Shyer) back.  I’m sure the fifth column could secretly take Diana’s body to a secret lab room and bring her back to life the way Anna brought those other people back to life.  The only true way to kill these new aliens is with a pill that dissolves the entire body.

This isn’t just a goodbye to Diana, this is a I will never forget you.  Not only how V brought my mother and I together before she passed away but because you talk to me on Twitter.  I will always be grateful for that, you have made my day, no, my lifetime.

This show means more to me than anyone will ever know and bringing back my favorite original character means even more than that so I thank the producers and writers for bringing my beloved Diana back to me, even though it was for a very short time.  You too have made my lifetime because I know that my mom was watching it with me every week just as we watched it together 27 years ago.  Thank you for bringing us back together one last time. </3

Updated to correct facts in the show that I missed, some nerd I turned out to be.

The Cape Series Finale

On By Michel McDonaldIn TVLeave a comment

Eric Balfour tweeted something yesterday about how he was pissed that people were saying that Summer Glau is a show killer because The Cape is ending their season. So this is the first time I’m hearing that the show is over and what made me mad was that they didn’t even tell us that on NBC the last time it aired.

I get on Twitter this morning and scroll down in my Celebrities list to see what I missed and see a tweet from NBCTheCape:

@NBCTheCape: The Cape’s finale will be up TONIGHT (3/11) at MIDNIGHT on NBC.com! @TVGuide has a preview (WARNING: some spoilers) http://bit.ly/gvHohu

So I guess it is official, not only is The Cape ending but they have the series finale ready for us to watch. Wait, what? Midnight? On NBC.com? What? You mean I gotta go to The Cape page on the NBC website to watch the series finale? At midnight? What? Why can’t they find a time slot for it on tv?

Well, I guess I should be so lucky that they are allowing us to see the series finale unlike ABC who made us wait for months before they would give us the final episodes of Pushing Daisies.

Well this sucks big time because I really loved The Cape. I read that TV guide article that @NBCTheCape tweeted and it says that The Cape creator wanted to kill off a character by the season finale but ratings slipped and they went from 13 to 10 episodes to finale. Hey, the ratings didn’t slip from me because I watched it faithfully every week after Chuck.

And let me respond about Summer Glau, she is not a show killer. Just because every show she’s been on has ended doesn’t mean jack. It’s not her fault and those trolls who said that need to go back under their bridge and stop spreading hate about her. She’s a very good actress, I mean look at her work in Firefly. I was totally convinced that her character was batshit crazy which is what they were going for. If she does another show I will definitely watch it.

I don’t normally wait for a show to air on a website so I’ll have to keep chanting in my head “The Cape on NBC.com tonight at midnight” so I don’t forget.

This really sucks but I’m happy that we’re getting a finale episode at least.

Paranormal Court

On By Michel McDonaldIn Paranormal, TV2 Comments

It’s late at night and I’ve watched all of my shows for the evening so I do a little channel surfing and find this show on TLC called Paranormal Court.  It was halfway through so I activated the Start Over feature with my cable box and I am so glad that I did because this is such a good show.

I’m a skeptic with some of the psychic shows because occasionally they do cold readings which is where they say something hoping for a response.  The ones who are spot on with just about everything are the ones who really impress me and this guy was spot on with every reading and with everything in the readings.

This show says that it’s a court show but not in the traditional sense like Judge Judy has, instead this show have people who want to settle a dispute that only the deceased person can settle and he is a way to talk to the deceased to help settle the dispute.

This guy gave me the chills every time he would say something that was so spot on, there is no way that these were cold readings.

The last case was this teenage girl who was drugged and left in the basement and was having a seizure with boards on her legs and they were making a sound, a rhythm if you will.  Well he made that sound on the table with his fingers and my entire back was tingling from the chills that I got lol.

I went to the TLC website to find out the days and time this show airs but they don’t even have it listed and as far as I can tell this was the only episode so I feel so lucky that I got to see it because I hardly ever watch TLC.  Nothing against TLC, I just don’t watch their shows.

If this airs again I will want to know so I hope they put something up on their site soon so I can add a reminder on my TV page so I know to watch it again because it was a good show.  People say that they know what their deceased loved one would want, well they really don’t.  This guy will tell you exactly what that person wanted.

An Idiot Abroad on Science Channel

On By Michel McDonaldIn TV3 Comments

I totally forgot this new show An Idiot Abroad was supposed to be on today. It’s on during one of my shows but being on basic cable it repeats. I thought about it tonight and luckily it was on demand so I could watch it instantly.

If you haven’t seen The Ricky Gervais show on HBO then you probably don’t really understand why they are making fun of him on this show. I have only really seen a few episodes, last night I watched 2 episodes on HBO On Demand to catch up a little on the 2nd season so I can prepare myself for what I’m going to see in An Idiot Abroad.

All I have to say is that Karl Pilkington is HILARIOUS! Some of the things he says is so out there that you just can’t help but to laugh out loud, literally out loud. So loud that your neighbors are like, what the hell is he laughing about over there?

Other times during tonight’s episode I was thinking, if he’s an idiot for saying some of the things he said then I must be an idiot too because I would’ve said the same thing. I mean for instance, he was in the bathroom in China and there were no toilets, actually there was 1 toilet but I’m sure it was for older people who can’t squat. The other stalls were just holes in the ground, or ground level toilets. There were walls separating them but no doors.

I agree with him on the doors part, but mostly I agree with the squatting thing. I am so glad we don’t have those kind of toilets here in the states. Also, no toilet paper… what’s up with that? Can you imagine going to the bathroom and not cleaning it up then going back to work with a stench? Uh no, I don’t think so.

We do have stalls here in Bakersfield in the parks that don’t have doors.  When I was riding my bike to the bike trail for exercise, sometimes I would have to go really bad and trust me, that’s the only way I will ever use a park bathroom, if I just can’t wait to get home.  I’d go in there and there are no doors.  Sure the walls are really high but that doesn’t help me.  I need a door for privacy.  What if someone walks in and passes me?  So I use the one on the far end so nobody can pass me then I have my bike kind of sitting in there so I can hang onto the front wheel if someone tries to steal it.  So imagine me sitting on the toilet while holding my front wheel with no door on the stall.

I don’t think that Karl is an idiot, I mean to the degree they are calling him one. I think that he says some pretty smart things and I applaud him for being able to go out of his comfort zone against his will and just deal with it and do what he was told because there is no way I would’ve been able to do that.

The food alone is a reason I wouldn’t be able to do that. I have so many food issues, I’d end up starving. Or I’d end up getting fatter off all the potato chips. I’d have to pack loads of energy bars just to keep me from starving when I refuse to eat the frogs or the bugs.

Well this is a show I will be adding to my TV page I so I don’t forget to watch it every week.  It’s on Saturday nights at 10 e/p on the Science channel.

Update 2011-02-02: I spelled his name wrong, it’s Karl, not Carl.  Who’s the idiot now?  It looks like I am.

The Cape on NBC

On By Michel McDonaldIn Comics, TVLeave a comment

Anyone who knows me knows that I love science fiction, supernatural and comic book hero tv shows. This is my new favorite super hero show since I’m losing Smallville at the end of this season. Thanks NBC for giving me a replacement. Although nothing can replace Clark Kent, I’m at least getting my comic book hero fix.

I am no expert on The Cape so I’ll leave that up to my favorite comic book website ComicBooked.com with their blog post Who is The Cape? That at least should answer any question about the show, the hero and the villains on the show.

Comic Booked is going to be reviewing the show… well, go ahead and read this quote:

“So future Cape fans, I will be the one reviewing this show for the whole first season! You can count on detailed and entertaining views from both a comic book fan and a television pro. Super hero dramas are kind of my specialty, so I’ve seen just about everything. Let’s hope this show does the genre some JUSTICE! (COUGH Birds of Prey COUGH)”

I actually liked Birds of Prey lol.

Keep up with the reviews on ComicBooked.com, watch the show on NBC Monday nights at 9pm/8central and watch clips and full episodes on Hulu or the NBC website.

Our Roku Boxes Arrived Today… They’re Going Back Tomorrow

On By Michel McDonaldIn Products I Like, Roku, Tech, TV1 Comment

It was on Christmas Eve, more than a week ago when we were told by Darrin’s family members that we should cancel our cable to get an Xbox to watch Hulu and Netflix instead. I researched my options and found Roku. I researched to find out if it was worth it and when I thought it would be, I rushed Darrin into making the decision to buy some Roku boxes, 1 for each TV in the house so that we would get a $10 discount per box.

I waited on pins and needles all weekend until they finally arrived this afternoon with the regular mail and was like a kid opening up his Christmas presents.

I opened one of the Roku boxes and connected it to the living room TV because I wanted the living room to be the first room that was connected with the Roku so Darrin would have it to watch when he got home. Problem… it wouldn’t connect to our network.

I brought it into the bedroom so that I could at least connect it with the network cable because I figured that maybe it needed to be connected with the wire first, then I could get it connected wirelessly. I get it connected and updated and all seemed fine but when I tried to get it to connect with the wi-fi, it just wouldn’t work.

So I got on the Roku website on the laptop and go to the help page to chat with a technician who can help me figure it out. We’re chatting for maybe 1 hour and 45 minutes and I lose the connection to the internet which means I lose the chat with “Sam”. I reconnected the laptop to the Verizon 3G network because I wanted to make sure I wouldn’t get disconnected again. I had to wait 20 minutes to talk to another person, I told them I was talking to Sam but he was already with someone else so that person tried helping me.

Another 45 minutes later and I finally figured it out, got it online then went into the living room and hooked the other one up to the tv and it connected without much trouble at all. I say thanks and goodbye to the person I was chatting with and I think I had a good 30 minutes to play with it when all of a sudden my internet goes out.

The problem is, “Sam” had me change my network name, the channel it was connected with,change it from WPA2 to WEP, change the password and everything. Now, nothing will connect. I spend the next 2 hours by myself trying to get it all back online.

This just isn’t working out so I unplugged both Roku boxes, roll up the AC wires, tie them up with the twist ties and put everything back in their boxes and spend another hour trying to get the network to work again and it did. I tried going back to my original settings but it just didn’t want to connect.

How I got the Roku boxes connected is with the mac address. I had to force the network to only accept the devices with their mac address. I’ve never had to do that before. I have connected my PSP, Nook, Chips computer and the CR-48 Laptop to the network and have never once had an issue with the mac address so why would I ever think that the Roku boxes would need me to do that?

So the Roku boxes go back tomorrow. We have to call the phone number and tell them that it just didn’t work out for us and we’re returning them. They give us a 30 day money back guarantee minus the shipping charges.

You know, I got to thinking, I can’t live without live TV. We need to be able to see the news or weather alerts that scroll on the top of the screen. It’s just not for us, we like it the way it is, no need to change it. Someone wise said to me on Twitter today “*whistles the old familiar tune* Why fix what ain’t done broke…..*snorts*”. It’s so true. And our system of watching TV on cable wasn’t broken, switching to the Roku only, now that’s broken.

I looked at Hulu plus and they only had maybe 10% of the shows that I watch. I installed PlayOn.tv and it ran so slow on the Roku because my processor wasn’t fast enough. It would’ve been ok for me if that worked but it didn’t.

I am not saying the Roku is a bad product but it just doesn’t work for me. It most certainly doesn’t work with my network but getting rid of cable and going with internet tv is just not what I want now. I still can’t afford $110 cable but we’re going to look into thinning out some of our services to make things easier on me.

I am not going to keep Hulu Plus after my 30 day trial is over nor am I keeping Netflix because I just can’t afford to have this additional expense on top of my cable. I will continue to use regular free Hulu if I miss a show but Hulu can’t replace cable for me.

Who knows, maybe one day I might get an Xbox or a PS3 or even a Blu-ray that will connect to Hulu and/or Netflix. If that day comes then it will be a nice addition but not replacement.

Is Getting a Roku Worth It?

On By Michel McDonaldIn Products I Like, Roku, TVLeave a comment

Our Roku boxes are supposed to be coming today and I’m starting to freak out a little bit. I mean on one hand I have nothing to worry about because we can try the Roku boxes for 30 days and if we aren’t satisfied with the service then we can return them for a full refund. I’m not freaking out about the Roku box and what channels they provide but more about what Hulu Plus doesn’t provide.

I wish that I had done all of this research 100% before I bought the boxes but I was so gung-ho on getting them to get the $20 New Years Eve discount that I just wanted to buy them before that sale was over. This is what I’m finding out about Hulu Plus.

If you visit the Hulu Plus page they show all these pictures of their shows but if you click “alphabetical” then check the box that says “currently airing” you will notice the list shrinks.

This is the main reason I bought this box. I thought I was going to be able to watch all of my shows that are on Hulu (in my TV page) but as it turns out, I’m only going to be able to see my fox cartoons minus the Simpsons, the event and that’s it. Why would I pay Hulu $7.99 a month to watch 4 shows? I’m gonna end up having to watch the majority of my shows on my laptop which is not what I thought I was signing up for.

The reason Hulu Plus doesn’t have all of the shows they have on their regular Hulu service is because they can’t legally stream everything to your TV, they aren’t licensed for that. So why bother showing a few shows at all if they can’t stream them all? I mean, Chuck and The Event are both on NBC and Hulu is owned by NBC. What confuses me about that is they can stream The Event but not Chuck? That doesn’t make any sense. And they have all those Fox shows but no Simpsons? What?

I also signed up for a month of free Netflix and they have a lot of shows I can stream through my Roku box but they aren’t current seasons. They probably can’t stream those until the very end of the season, in the summer time. I don’t want to have to wait until summer to watch my shows.

Ok so another thing I found last night was this program that you install on your PC but run the app or channel through the Roku is PlayOn. That gives you a 14 day free trial then it’s $39 for 1 year then I believe it said $20 a year after that. So it’s only a couple of bucks per month and it allows you to stream regular Hulu, Netflix, CBS, Fox News, TBS etc through your Roku box (or other devices).

I’m really hoping this works out for me because I need for it to work. I don’t want to feel like I have wasted my money on the Roku boxes so I can just get Netflix. The trouble with PlayOn is that I have to use my desktop as a server which means I can’t use it for anything else while we’re watching it on the Roku. That’s fine because I’m using the CR-48 laptop now primarily but I do use the desktop for TweetDeck. Unfortunately, it says my CPU is Low when it does the tests which means we’re probably not going to get a very good stream. But we won’t know until we get the Roku boxes in the mail.

Ok so I’m still waiting for the box to come with my mail, I checked the tracking and it is here in Bakersfield at my local post office so it looks like I will get it.

Our cables next billing cycle begins on Thursday so we have 3 days to try the Roku box to see if we are happy with it. If not they are so going back and we are going to keep cable. I’m just hoping they refund the money right away but I have a feeling it will take them awhile to send us the refund.

When the package has come and I have everything hooked up and have played around with it then I will come back and give more feedback.

I Won’t Miss My Shows!

On By Michel McDonaldIn Products I Like, Roku, TVLeave a comment

Since we’re getting our Roku box tomorrow and we’re canceling our $110 a month cable on Thursday, I’ve been kind of worried because not all of my shows are on Hulu and Netflix.

True Blood is one major reason why we have HBO. If I cancel our cable and I lose HBO then what am I going to do? I’m going to miss True Blood when it comes on. I really am not too keen on downloading it with P2P but what else could I do? Well, I just found out that Amazon Video On Demand will have it for only $2.09 an episode. WHEW! What a weight.

That’s not all though because even though Hulu has a BBC America page, they don’t have my BBC America shows on there like Doctor Who and Primeval. Last night was the season premiere of Primeval and this morning BBC America tweeted that the episode is available on iTunes and Amazon Video On Demand. Ok so I’m gonna have to pay $1.99 to buy (not rent) the episodes, fine, I don’t care as long as I get to see them. When Doctor Who comes back I will be way more than happy to buy each episode for $2.

There are certain shows that I will be missing that I have mentioned like Smallville, Supernatural and Vampire Diaries because CBS (who owns CW) refuses to get on the Hulu bandwagon. Well, luckily they have those shows on the CW website so I’m good there. They also have them for sale on iTunes and Amazon VOD but I refuse to pay for something that I can see for free on the CW website. If it’s a network show then why should I have to pay to watch it? If it’s a premium channel like HBO then I certainly don’t mind paying for it. Even BBC America, I’m good paying for it.

So now that I have this knowledge that I won’t miss them I am very pleased with our decision to cancel our cable.