The traffic on the Blog has been pretty high this past week after posting my Top Ten Lists of 2009, and I have to thank those vigilant readers who pointed out a spelling error (correction done –my bad) and who were questioning how and why a certain show (Dollhouse) was on my list yet listed as a disappointment – I have updated that listing with some of my reasoning.
I was honestly surprised by the number of comments that I received (and they are well appreciated thank you, but all comments are private only as I don’t want my Ranting Space turning into a bulletin board) and I was not the least surprised that some people disagreed with some of my choices, it’s pretty normal that what I like may not be your cup of tea. We are all different and I was glad to see that other Supernatural, Bones, Smallville, Better off Ted and Dollhouse Fans were happy to see their favourite show included on the list. All of this new social networking certainly gets word around fast and to repeat myself, I was shocked by the traffic that visited TV Rantings.
This week heralded the return of Chuck, and the first 3 hours this season have been so great that you can only use the word Awesome to describe it. I am really digging the new and improved Intersect V2 and how Chuck can now tap into different abilities and techniques along with all the information that the Intersect can provide. The comedy balance in this show, along with all it’s glorious geekiness makes it such a pleasure to watch and it was fun seeing pretty much all of the regular cast back. There were already a few twists and turns, including the execution of Emmett (RIP nemesis) and the fantastic episode with Captain Awesome getting in on the action and then being taken hostage at the end. I have to say that my heart jumped for a minute and I thought that they had killed Awesome off but then was quickly relieved when I saw the promo for the next episode. This show better get more of a pick up, it is way better than Heroes and I love how all the episodes are still following the original theme and this time around it was Chuck vs. The Pink Slip; The Three Words and The Angel de la Muerte. Great stuff all around and welcome back Chuck!
Here in the Great White North (aka Canada), we got treated to a new series by the hilarious Kids in the Hall, called Death comes to Town. All of the original cast is back and they are all doing multiple characters as Death visits the sleepy little town of Shuckton. Scott Thompson is hilarious as Heather Weather, the local weather personality trying to get ahead in her career before it’s too late, Dave Foley is playing Marilyn Bowman, wife of the sleazy Mayor and mother to a “special child” and is as hilarious as ever, while Mark McKinney is the most disturbing Grim Reaper that you have ever seen. Bruce McCulloch is playing the Mayor but is even funnier as Ricky, the morbidly obese ex town hero who is house bound and apparent target of the Grim Reaper, and Kevin MacDonald plays another bizarre yet memorable character with his fuzzy headed Marnie, who seems to be suffering from short term memory loss and is the local pizza delivery driver. All of the guys are doing an amazing job and I hope it is a sign that they may come back and do another series. Since this is Canada, there is some subject matter and words that would probably not make it by the censors (I think the Free Kittens with every Abortion sign at the town’s Abortion Clinic would be raked across the coals down south) but I can only imagine that it will be not long before it is picked up by one of the American stations.There will be even some guest appearances by some of their biggest characters, and I can only hope to see Head Crushing Man, The Chicken Lady or Buddie Cole. It’s great to see the Kids back after all this time and the first episode had really high ratings, let’s hope it continues.
Project Runway returned (already?) and is back in New York and feels more like old times than the last season in LA. It’s nice to see Heidi (pregnant again, the woman is a baby factory) and Tim back together with Nina and Michael and I hope they are all there for the whole season. The last run fell flat with the absence of the two Queen bitches, and if the first episode is any indicator of how good this season will be with the talent seen in the first round, then this will be a good season and I hope to see some kick ass designs. I have to admit that I was really impressed by the winning design (congratulations to Emilio) but some of the other designers fell flat. As far as favourites go, I have been smitten with Ben Chmura since he was a comic book artist, and that always gains points with me, and I just love Ping Wu, who is a way out of the box designer that is so different than the others that you can not help but be fascinated. Here’s hoping this is a better round.
I have caught the first few episodes of So you think you can Dance U.K.? hosted by Cat and Nigel heading the Judges. It’s is pretty much like the other versions, all thought the audition process was done quickly and there is an odd number of couples to start with. It is a bit odd that the results air the same day as the Vote, so it looks like voting is very limited and if I understand how the phones work over there very expensive if you are not with the right service. The dances have been good so far so I will be keeping that on my radar for the next while.
In this week of laughter, I enjoyed all of the show but have to say that I really enjoyed the latest episodes of Better off Ted, showing that a typo can lead to a very nasty workplace and that guilt is just another one of those annoying emotions that can be doused with other emotions like sugar or alcohol. The Veronica Palmer character is hilarious and Portia de Rossi steals the show with her deadpan delivery of script that is scathingly funny. I love those comedie noire characters.
This week I am looking forward to checking out Human Target as it was a comic book that I used to read and I loved the Christopher Chance character, and I would be silly to not see check out the new series Spartacus: Blood and Sand that will be airing on Friday and looks a lot like that slightly homoerotic but not at all gay film 300. I love me a Gladiator and am thrilled that Lucy Lawless is in the series. There is also the prequel to Battlestar Galactica, Caprica that looks worth checking out. I am not expecting it to be able to fill the void left by BSG, but if it is an interesting enough diversion it may sway me back towards my ScyFy Fridays. I haven’t been watching much from ScyFy since the Stargate series started to suck.
