Thursday, August 23, 2007

More Quick Hits

A very busy Thursday, so just a few casting updates for the upcoming fall season:

--Aidan Quinn has joined the cast of "Canterbury's Law," the Juliana Margulies legal drama for Fox that is produced by the same team that makes "Rescue Me." I continue to look forward to this one.

--John Francis Daley, late of "Freaks & Geeks," will appear in a multi-episode arc of "Bones," playing a therapist. He'll have a tough time topping Stephen Fry's therapist from last season, but "Bones" has been pretty good in its casting thus far.

--I know it's hard to process in the wake of K-Fed joining the cast of "One Tree Hill," but Daphne Zuniga and Torrey DeVitto, both late of ABC Family's "Beautiful People," have also signed on. Perhaps they will play K-Fed groupies.

WARNER ROBINS LITTLE LEAGUE: The kids came roaring back yesterday morning with an 8-1 win over New England. Today, they battle Chandler, Ariz. (ESPN, 7:30 p.m.)

THURSDAY'S BEST BETS: Regular blog responder Zodin2008 got into it with me yesterday about what has been the best shows of the summer, but two of the very best, as witnessed by both critics and viewers alike, continue to make the 10 p.m. viewing slot on Thursday's the best of the week.

"Mad Men" (AMC, 10 p.m.) is brand-new as we continue to learn more details about Don Draper's mysterious past. Airing at the same time is "Burn Notice" (USA, 10 p.m.), a wonderfully witty show that continues to improve each week.

And while I rarely promote reruns, tonight is a chance to catch the pilot once more of "Ugly Betty" (ABC, 8 p.m.) It's a good opportunity to sample the show from the beginning. If you like it, you can then go out and get the just-released first season on DVD with plenty of time to catch up before the new season starts in mid-September.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Jonathan--Phillip is right...watch the "Betty" pilot tonight unless you already got the DVD's.

Phillip, if you are calling "Mad Men" the best show of the Summer, well today you'd be spot on. It IS the best show of the Summer and IMHO, nothing comes remotely close. The divide between "Men" and everything else currently airing new episodes every week is HUGE.

I continue to look forward to finding out more about the mysterious lead character, Don Draper, played brilliantly by Jon Hamm (whom I had never heard of before this). I already find the leading actors on Television (Kiefer Sutherland, Denis Leary, Michael Chiklis, James Gandolfini, Kyle Chandler, Matthew Fox, etc.) to be a deep & talented grouo and I count Jon Hamm in the mix now.

By the way, I just had the opportunity to watch some of those NBC pilots Phillip was touting some weeks ago--here's my 2 cents:

"Journeyman" has loads of potential but needs tweaking and work. They actually are trying a little TOO hard to let the audience know what year the lead character has traveled to. You hope the audience is smart enough to figure it out but they were trying to beat it into our heads. Still, my type of show so it will probably get low ratings but I will watch & hope that being on a 4th place network that's the best creatively (NBC) gives "Journeyman" a shot to stick around.

"Chuck" was probably the best of the three (3) pilots. Lighthearted and fun, a more comical "Alias". And any show that has Adam Baldwin (he's been everywhere but known best as Jane from "Firefly" and Hamilton from the last season of "Angel") is OK by me. Baldwin has been great in every failed pilot he's been a part of from "The Inside" to "Daybreak". let's hope "Chuck" is the vehicle that allows his star to grow. (and the girl in the show was stunning).

"Bionic Woman" has loads of potential but needs loads of work. Still, I agree with Phillip that it has the David Eick ("Battlestar") feel to it so that's a great thing--plus, Starbuck as the main, rival bad girl to the Jamie Sommers character is inspired.

I am also pleased to hear they dumped the annoying actress, Mae Whitman (so screechingly awful as Andre Braugher's adopted daughter in the dreadful FX bust, "Thief") as Sommers' little sister. She's a really annoying, dour little actress & changing the character and actress is a smart move.

I have not yet watched "Life" but I will check it out.

Jonathan said...

Watched the first disc (4 Episodes) last night of "Betty" and enjoyed it quite a bit. Good humor and a lot of interesting and colorful characters. Of course I don't know what the outcome of the big mystery will be, but so far I've found that to be the least interesting aspect of the series. It's a bit forced for my tastes, but overall very good so far.

You guys suck getting to look at the pilots early by the way, but I'm glad that both of you seem to agree on them. Also, Zod, I liked Thief, but you are correct about that actress being extremely annoying.