Thursday, July 26, 2007

Who Wants To Be A Superhero? Me!

One of the weirdest shows in reality TV history returns to the airwaves tonight, as Marvel Comics founder Stan Lee auditions a whole new bunch of costumed loonies - er, would-be mystery men - on "Who Wants To Be A Superhero?" (Sci-Fi, 9 p.m.)

Think "The Apprentice" meets "Justice League." A bunch of people in homemade costumes audition to join Lee's team of would-be heroes and are put through various physical and moral challenges. Most of these are pretty easy to solve, but last year's crew had all sorts of trouble recognizing what were obvious tests.

Last year's winner, aka Feedback, was a little too invested in his character - it actually was a little uncomfortable to watch, but his enthusiasm and basic goodness won him the day. He recently appeared in his own comic book.

Watching "Superhero" is the TV equivalent of a car wreck; it's very hard to turn away.

SPEAKING OF SUPERHEROES...: I usually leave the movie stuff to Reel Fanatic Keith Demko, but they've announced the cast for the adaptation of "Watchmen," and there's at least one big TV connection.

In perhaps the best casting bit, Jeffrey Dean Morgan ("Grey's Anatomy," "Supernatural," "Weeds") has been cast as The Comedian, an anti-hero that is part of the superhero team portrayed in "Watchmen."

"Watchmen," considered by many to be the best graphic novel ever written (it's the only book of that genre to be ranked in Time Magazine's top 100 books of all time), tells the story of a group of superheroes in a world that has outlawed their kind. The aging heroes come out of retirement when someone starts assassinating members of the group.

Other members of the cast announced Thursday at San Diego's Comic Con include Patrick Wilson, Billy Crudup, Matthew Goode, Malin Akerman and Jackie Earle Haley.

AROUND THE TUBE: ABC announced Harold Perrineau will reprise his character of Michael on "Lost." No word on whether Michael appears in the present, in a flashback or a flash forward. Personally, I always found the character annoyingly stupid, so this really isn't a big deal for me, but I'll put it out there. ...

I'd be remiss for not mentioning that Drew Carey snagged "The Price Is Right" gig, replacing Bob Barker. Carey is a pretty good choice. He has experience hosting game shows and his low-key, good-natured humor will serve him well. Plus, he's not Rosie O'Donnell. ...

"Veronica Mars" creator Rob Thomas has left showrunning duties for the upcoming ABC comedy, "Miss/Guided," which stars Judy Greer as a guidance counselor who returns to her old high school to work. Thomas left because of the ever-popular "creative differences."

THURSDAY'S BEST BETS: I was a little remiss yesterday not to include "Burn Notice" (USA, 10 p.m.) on my list of summer shows I reviewed. It's a solid B on the grading scale. The tongue-in-cheek approach it takes to the weekly plots is a pretty clever angle to take, and the cast does a good job not taking themselves too seriously.

I've already praised "Mad Men" (AMC, 10 p.m.), and episode 2 airs tonight, so you still have a chance to catch up.

5 comments:

Phillip Ramati said...

A couple of items that should be updated.

1) CBS has yanked Pirate Master with five episodes to go, a pretty rare move for a reality show. For those still interested, the network will put up a new episode every Tuesday on CBS.com.

2) JJ Abrams and crew should be making it official soon, if they haven't already, but Heroes' Zachary Quinto (Sylar) will be the new Spock in the newest Star Trek movie. It's actually a great bit of casting.

Jonathan said...

If I remember correctly in an EW article where the producers of "Lost" were interviewed back in April or so, they were asked about the return of Michael and Walt. And they at least made it sound like that they would factor back into the main story, but it probably wouldn't be any earlier than Season 4, so based on this news, I think they will probably play a bigger part in the next season than a flashback. Although, I agree with you that Michael was never that interesting of a character to begin with, and I didn't miss him at all last season. But if he actually plays a good role in the future storyline then I have no problem with it, I hope this isn't just fan based reaction on why he is coming back. And while there is no mention of it, I don't know how you can bring back Walt. They've only been on the island 50 days or so, and the couple of times Walt came back I found it funny that there at least wasn't a mention of how much he had grown (Since in real life the actor has been aging over the past three years).

Phillip Ramati said...

It makes the most sense that Walt and Michael would appear in a flash forward. Presumably, they reached safety at some point after sailing away, so it makes the most sense to bring them in during the future and deal with the consequences of Michael murdering 2 people and betraying the other castaways. It would also allow for Walt to appear older.

Jonathan said...

Yeah, I'm really curious with the future timeline now established if that's a route they will start going. We could have some flash forwards instead of flashbacks; I'm all for that, and it makes sense since at times it seemed they were stretching with a lot of the flashbacks. But I'm all for whatever; I feel like I'm one of the few that have actually loved the hell out of this show since the beginning, and with the end date now set, I think it will make the continuity and main storyline all the stronger. I cannot wait until Feburary, or whenever this is supposed to start.

Anonymous said...

I personally hope they shock us this coming season of "Lost" and actually have them get off the island in the first few episodes and the next few seasons, we see the next 'phase' of the show where their lives play out off the island.

You could still keep the island with Locke, Ben and the others as characters on it...you get both the island and back in the states.