after a hit like prison break i’m stepping a bit down only in preparation for the next two series and present you burn notice!
Michael Westen is was is was is was an agent of some form for the US government until he got burned. which means, that in the middle of an undercover operation his agency cut all strings attached and let him by himself. next thing he knows he wakes up in his hometown miami with his ex-girlfriend Fiona next to his bed.
the series follows to storylines - the main storyline that went on in the first season is of course his attempt in getting more information why he was burned and who burned him. additionally he is working as some kind of A-Team to help people in need. unfortunately, the people he has to help have one thing in common: they either pissed of the wrong guys or the real bad guys are after them for some reason. and in comes Michael as the knight in shiny armor.
but he is not alone, along with Fiona there is Sam, played by Bruce “Ash fucking Williams” Campbell, a long friend of him with a background in intelligence as well. Sam provides Michael with usefull information and gets the “small” jobs they have to do to earn some money.
the reason i was writing “small” jobs is, that every single episode turned out to be more than just a quick job, there was always something bigger awaiting that has to be handled. this leads to every episode ending with the nearly ultimate blockbuster happy end for his clients. at times it was a bit too staged.
since Michael doesn’t have any intelligence-resources left he has to improvise a lot and you often see the three of them putting bombs or surveillance-equipment together out of everyday stuff. another resemblance with the A-Team. most of the things he builds and does during the episodes is elaborated with a narrating voice-over by Michael which fits to the show very well.
season one is over and ended with a very exciting cliffhanger. the show is scheduled to return in summer 2008.
in conclusion, burn notice is an OK-series to pass the time. it’s nothing with a high standard and it doesn’t bring anything to the tv screen you haven’t already seen before. (did I say A-Team?). still, it’s fun to watch. maybe this has to do with the great fake-smile of lead actor Jeffrey Donovan.
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October 28, 2007 at 06:08
for californication being average, i had to pull “prison break” out of the hat.
season one of prison break was by far one of the best series ever to hit the tv screens. the show follows Michael Scofield how he plans to rescue his brother Lincoln Burrows from prison where he is on death row. only thing is, lincoln is innocent and michael sees no other way than to put himself inside Fox River State Penitentiary where his brother is imprisoned.
from this point forward, michael has to act fast. luckily for lincoln, michael is not only well educated and very, very good in remembering stuff, he also got hold of the ground plan of the prison. after thinking the whole escape plan through, michael gets a tattoo with the hidden blueprint of his plan all over his body before fake-robbing a bank to get arrested.
while inside the jail, michael soon makes friends and enemies and builds up the rest of the gang that will be later known as the “Fox River Eight” with the start of the second season. being in prision, not everything goes according to plan for michael and he gets to improvise a lot and time after time, more people get hold of his plan to escape and force him to take them along.
what made this first season so special was the unique feeling and a high level of realism covering life in jail. and the cast is just awesome! Peter Stormare, playing John Abruzzi, Wade Williams as Bred Bellick or Robert Knepper as Theodore “T-Bag” Bagwell are three of my favourites.
but the idiot that survived up until the third season is Dominic Purcell as lincoln burrows… god i can’t stand him, it’s like watching a caveman. and Sarah Wayne Callies as Sara Tancredi was plain awfull, too. good thing she’s not around in season 3.
prison break kept a high pace throughout the season with very dramatic cliffhangers and a very clever story and most of the twists and turns were better than the last two seasons of lost together. you just feel that a few people really put an effort in creating the show.
that being said, it’s time to look at the other two seasons. you really have to split them, since they are all very different:
- season 1 was about the escape from prison.
- season 2 was about the “Fox River Eight” being on the run. season title: “Manhunt“.
- season 3 is… well… basically season 1 (”back to the start!”) with a few of the main characters ending up in jail again. only not in chicago, but in a prison in Panama.
a few words to season 2: it was great, there was a lot going on and it really showed that there are consequences to the things you do. season 2 of prison break was like opening pandora’s box. it also introduced a great new cast member: William Fichtner as FBI agent Alexander Mahone - finally a character that can keep up with michael scofield.
only problem with season 2 was the whole conspiracy bullshit with “the company” in the background. but at least, the show kept on going and had a whole lot of great moments as well. but the end of season 2 left me with the distinct feeling that the producers thought “hey, they liked season 1 more, let’s go back inside a prison”.
this leads me to prison break season 3: i was very disappointed by the first episode because it really was a setback inside a prison with only a few new elements and the stupid conspiracy bullshit from season 2 spinning further. so far, the only bright spot is, that a few characters, including a major one, are going to die in this season. i so hope it’s lincoln himself.
the rest of the season 3 episodes weren’t that bad, pretty solid prison break work with only too much screen time of lincoln. did i mention i don’t like him yet?
in short, at least the first half of the season seems to be about michael having to escape from prison. better: about michael having to escape (with) a fellow inmate from prison.
wait, what? oh boy…
still, despite it’s flaws and the fact that it could only get worse after the great first season, prison break remains a high quality show on the screen.
highly recommended.
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just a small update on pushing daisies: after watching episode #2 i’ll definately continue to watch the show for the time being.
the case was not very thrilling and almost to predictable, but still, the style of narrating and directing makes the series a nice show to watch! :)
so far i’m not quite sure why i watch californication, but i’m willing to watch a bit more than the episodes that aired until now.
david duchovny, well known for his role of fox mulder and in the read shoe diaries (hihi), is playing hank moody, a writer (and sometimes blogger) in los angeles. not only does he drink and fuck around, he’s also doing drugs at times (so far mostly when drunk already, weed and coke).
the story, if there is any, is about Hank spending time with his family (ex-girlfriend who he still has a crush on + teenage daughter), picking up girls in book-stores and the teenager daughter of the fiance of his ex-girlfriend Karen (Natascha McElhone who i only know from being the girl in the Truman Show).
most of the times, the show is about Hank getting in a fight with random guys when drunk and being terribly hungover when waking up any time of the day, but sometimes it’s also about Hank trying to be a good father to his daughter Becca and showing Karen that he still cares for her. and of course she still cares about him to, more than she’d admit to.
the show is average at best (since there are worse and better tv series it has to be average) but so far it’s nothing i could truly recommend. if you decide not to watch californication, you are definately not missing out.
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hm, i needed something light after a dramatic series like battlestar galactica and the new comedy the big bang theory kindly volunteered.
the big bang theory is another show that recently put nerds or geeks in the title roles and is so far purely based on the nerds-meet-girl-and-don’t-quite-know-what-to-do-concept. i hope they can make a solid show out of this, since the first two episodes that aired so far where very funny.
in addition, the two nerds are brilliant scientists (or whatever) and Penny a waitress at the cheesecake factory. so she is easily fooled with charts and easily confused with quantum physics. but then again, who isn’t.
there isn’t much more to say yet other than the first two episodes were very entertaining and i will continue watching. only the third season is already showing signs of weakness since it’s slowing down a bit, but i keep my hopes up!
so here are two great quotes from the pilot:
(at the sperm bank)
Sheldon: There’s some poor woman who’s going to pin her hopes on my sperm. What if she winds up with a toddler who doesn’t know if he should use an integral or a differential to solve for the area under a curve?
Leonard: I’m sure she’ll still love him.
Sheldon: I wouldn’t.
Penny: God, you know, four years I lived with him. Four years! That’s like as long as high school!
Sheldon: It took you four years to get through high school??
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you have a sarcasm sign?
