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Sat Jan 19, 2008

Boston Legal - With the writers strike entering its third month, it's time to revisit discarded rags

Don't get me wrong. I loved many of David Kelley's works. Chicago Hope, Ally McBeal, The Practice ... then finally Boston Legal ... but they all suffered from the same syndrome. They started strong, then dramatically tired quickly.

In fact they usually went from smart well written and performed traditional dramas (dramatic/comedies) ... with much original mirth and quirk added ... to then descend into 'over-the-top' stupidity.

Boston Legal descended faster than the others. The Practice gave us many seasons of tight, suspenseful drama before it headed into repetitious and boring banality. It was a potentially master stroke to 'morph' The Practice into Boston Legal ... .

That first season of BL gave us so much to look forward to. But it sunk rapidly. I lost much interest sometime into the second season.. The cast changed continually ... the characters went from quirky to ridiculous.

The lack of new entries from my favored shows (due to the writers strike) encouraged me to revisit old and tired flames ... as well as try new offerings I had tended to originally overlook.

The third season of BL has only reinforced my earlier opinion of Kelley's works.

The stupidity is insulting to the audience ... to the point that I really don't want to dissect it any further. The point of this entry is to ask opinion from the viewing audience as to whether my overall impression of Kelley's works are shared.

Let me finish this entry by just saying that there is much to love in Kelley's works ... especially the start of many of the series he's delivered. I give him much credit for that ... but I feel he needs to constantly start new ones regularly, and finish older ones earlier. It seems his creative originality is much more acute than his 'staying power'.

Posted by: Renny on Jan 19, 08 | 1:23 pm | Profile

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Thu Jun 29, 2006

With Spelling having just passed away ... what would he have thought of today's television universe?

There is no doubt that the late Aaron Spelling was one of the most successfull producers of episodic television the world has ever seen. With over 3,000 hours of 'primetime network' television programs that, to some extent, defined 'television drama'. All us 'babyboomers' grew up with Spelling programs ... from Mod Squad through to Dallas through to Melrose and so on ... and I obviously have missed most. But as Al Franken eloquently put it the other day, it was 3,000 hours of crap. Not one great hour. And it's true ... More...

Posted by: Renny on Jun 29, 06 | 2:39 am | Profile

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Mon Apr 03, 2006

Michael Eisner

Sunday night, I'm wondering what happened to Wolf Blitzer's Last Word on CNN, I couldn't find it. It was of course the weekend heralding-in Daylight savings ...so I probably messed-up the times. I'm flipping around, (around the newsy channels ...grouped together by my Cable Operator) ...and lo and behold I see Michael Eisner on CNBC (probably MSNBC Stateside) just starting the first episode of a new interview series. I had to do a double-take. That's Michael Eisner ... most recently Chairman of Disney. Booted out after a financial Roller Coaster ride that still left Disney a true corporate 'player' ... something it wasn't even close-to when he first came aboard. (It was the meagherest of the seven cinema sisters).

So here's one of the titans of the Media business interviewing Martha Stewart ... then most fascinatingly Howard Stringer of Sony. Eisner, the insider truly new what to ask. Although his ego does get in the way ...it's very rare that a 'business' interview program is hosted by a true insider. Not a financial journalist, but one of the real titanic players.

(The promo for next weeks show ...with Regis Philbin as a guest ... also looked intriguing. They were going to talk about the period of 'Millionaire' on ABC while Eisner was running the whole 'show'. Truly looked interesting.)

Fascinating.

Posted by: Renny on Apr 03, 06 | 9:56 am | Profile

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Sun Oct 09, 2005

I'm Back

Sorry to have been away. It was just a combination of things related to health ... But more importantly, it's great to be back. I'll be continuing the Podcasts on a monthly basis from November ...and contributing to this blog as whimsy takes me.

So just a quick note about the summer silly season - it was a great summer of sci fi. The new version of Battlestar Gallactica (which I'll talk about in full at a later date) continued to impress. The Stargates, SG1 and Atlantis, continued to provide lite summer relief. The thing that I just wanted to touch upon was the cast changes at SG1. Not the issue of Beau Bridges (who really doesn't bring much to the series), but the introduction of Ben Bowder (Crichton from Farscape), Lexa Doig (Andromeda from Andromeda) and the multi episode guest appearance of Claudia Black (Aeryn Sun from Farscape) did much to mitigate the cancellation of Andromeda and Farscape. They weren't the best sci-fi series under the sun, but they both had their moments.

And I must admit, those first few episodes of the new series of SG1, with Bowder and Black verbally duelling as in the days of old ...was a treat.

Not a bad summer.

Posted by: Renny on Oct 09, 05 | 7:03 am | Profile

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Mon May 16, 2005

Hitchhikers Guide Movie ...so so

Finally got to see the new Hitchhikers' Guide movie at the Jam Factory Cinema in Prahran Melbourne. (Was just on a quick trip to my hometown.) I was quite disappointed, but I expected to be. I'll obviously do a longer review in the future ...but there's a couple of notes I just want to make for the moment. Arthur Dent was written for Simon Jones ...the character just can't be played by anyone else (and if it was going to be, the actor should play Simon Jones playing Arthur Dent). The other point is that, although Adams was involved in the project before he died, probably more related to picking and choosing elements of the original scripts to incorporate, the people that completed the project really had 'scant' understanding of some of the jokes and humor. One small example of many instances of such is a 'joke' at the end of the movie. Our gallant bunch in on its way to the "Restaurant at the end of the universe", probably for the sequel. After they head in a particular direction ...someone points out that they're heading to the wrong end of the universe, heading in the wrong direction. They immediately change direction. Whoever wrote the joke missed the point. The Restaurant at the END of the universe was never referring to the 'position' of the Restaurant ...but to the moment in time. Very disappointing when the filmmakers aren't really sure of the material.

Posted by: Renny on May 16, 05 | 3:52 am | Profile

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This Blog is about my musings on all things film and TV. It will primarily be made up of daily off-the-cuff comments I want to make on any film or TV program that I watch on that particular day. I should note that nowadays, between my Tivo, and DVD 'sets', when it comes to TV I like to watch 'blocks' of episodes at a time, rather than follow the weekly schedule set out by Network or Channel programmers.

 

I wholeheartedly encourage you to comment on my musings. There's nothing better at getting to the truth of art than a complete dialogue.