I bring you news from the future.....!
The future of Television, that is...
So, through undisclosed means, I watched two of the pilots for the new shows for the coming year.
Pushing Daisies: A modern fantasy about a man who can touch dead things and bring them back to life.
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles: A terminator series, set shortly after Terminator 2, with Sarah and John Connor on the run.
I quite liked both of them. Of the two, I think I liked Terminator a little better, but they're both worth a look, and I'll probably be watching both when they start (Fall for Pushing Daisies, January for Terminator). I do have some worries about Pushing Daisies - it's a concept that's good for the pilot, certainly, but I do have a bit of worries about how it'll be able to sustain it long term. But it's by the guy who created Wonderfalls and Dead Like Me, so that's a plus in its favour. In Terminator's favour, it's got Summer Glau!
A little more detailed comments behind the cut... slightly spoilery, but it doesn't reveal any of the 'big twists' (though if you don't already know, I will be talking about who the terminators are played by, so that might ruin a bit of surprise).
Pushing Daisies:
Okay, let's see... I like the general 'rules' of the show for bringing things back to life, and think it could be interesting. I like most of the main cast, particularly Chi McBride's character and the main pushing daisies guy is pretty good too, even if I liked him more on Wonderfalls. The female love interest is okay but hasn't wowed me yet - I actually like the other female blonde character a little more so far.
The narrator works fine for the pilot episode, but I have a feeling he _might_ annoy me a little if he's on every episode. Or it might become one of the things that make the show. Who knows how these things work.
Plot worked out pretty well, although there were a few obvious things they didn't do - those might be saved for a future episode if they were planning on making the 'search for justice' story longer term and more complicated.
Still, quite charming, and got a nice sensibility to it.
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles:
One minor problem out the gate. This show starts 2 years after Terminator 2. It also starts in 1999. Except, 2 years after T2 should have been 1997, from everything I've heard. Given what they do with it, I'm a little stumped as to why they didn't just make sure it was right, rather than presumably retconning needlessly. Ah well, timeline in the Terminator franchise hasn't been one of its strongest points ever, but it did irk me. Otherwise though they do seem to be following the story of the (first two) movies pretty well, there are nods to the past and even revisiting some of the characters.
The plot moved at a pretty good clip and contained a number of twists I wasn't expecting, though possibly should have, and a few other elements that make me wonder how they're going to play out over the longer term. It could be cool.
Special effects weren't bad, for TV. Terminators, when shown without skin, do look a little obviously CGI still, but that's kind of to be expected and you'd think that most of the time they'd look human anyway so it wouldn't be a problem.
Onto the cast... the woman who played Sarah Connor did a good job. She doesn't exactly mimic Linda Hamilton's performance, but it seems to come from the same place, and her overprotectiveness and hardcoreness does help shine through, so I think I'll like her in the role.
John Connor's okay too. He played the VERY NOT GAY, WE MEAN IT Zach on Heroes, and it's a little hard to separate that. In terms of the movies, he seems more like a young Nick Stahl than a slightly older Edward Furlong. Not as cocky, more broody teenager. I would have preferred to see some of the cockiness in there, but it's only the first episode.
And of course, Summer. I wonder if Summer Glau has it in her contract that she has to appear naked in the pilot episode of every show she stars in, or if it's just a tradition. Anyway, I'm not complaining, let's hope it's a good luck charm (in terms of quality, rather than in terms of longevity, which it obviously wasn't, even though it should have been by any rational analysis... but then again, Fox did air the pilot last, so...). She does a good job, and should do the ass-kicking role well. I'm also hoping that her status as an AI with a seemingly much better skill at infiltrating humanity will be explored, as well as issues of AI personality, conscience, and maybe even emotions, since I love evil machines to be counterbalanced by good ones.
The other Terminator, I don't know if he's going to be a regular or not, or if they'll be facing different terminators throughout the series (which would make a certain amount of sense), but he's no Arnie, or Robert Patrick. He does the job, a little flatly, which you'd expect from a Terminator, but doesn't really sell it. But I suppose for a bad Terminator all you really need is someone who can stare grimly and do action scenes.
In supporting cast, Vala's Husband from SG1 plays a man who was in a relationship with Sarah without knowing her past, and looks like he might be a semi-regular. The only comment I have for him is that, even since Stargate, he kinda looks, to me, like Nathan Fillion's brother or something. I know they're not, but if they were ever casting Nathan in something and needed to cast a brother, Tim Guinee would be the guy I'd cast. Did they ever mention if Mal had any siblings in Firefly?
So yeah, both of these were on my (relatively small) watchlist for the next TV season, but it's good to see that my first impressions were right on in this case.
So, through undisclosed means, I watched two of the pilots for the new shows for the coming year.
Pushing Daisies: A modern fantasy about a man who can touch dead things and bring them back to life.
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles: A terminator series, set shortly after Terminator 2, with Sarah and John Connor on the run.
I quite liked both of them. Of the two, I think I liked Terminator a little better, but they're both worth a look, and I'll probably be watching both when they start (Fall for Pushing Daisies, January for Terminator). I do have some worries about Pushing Daisies - it's a concept that's good for the pilot, certainly, but I do have a bit of worries about how it'll be able to sustain it long term. But it's by the guy who created Wonderfalls and Dead Like Me, so that's a plus in its favour. In Terminator's favour, it's got Summer Glau!
A little more detailed comments behind the cut... slightly spoilery, but it doesn't reveal any of the 'big twists' (though if you don't already know, I will be talking about who the terminators are played by, so that might ruin a bit of surprise).
Pushing Daisies:
Okay, let's see... I like the general 'rules' of the show for bringing things back to life, and think it could be interesting. I like most of the main cast, particularly Chi McBride's character and the main pushing daisies guy is pretty good too, even if I liked him more on Wonderfalls. The female love interest is okay but hasn't wowed me yet - I actually like the other female blonde character a little more so far.
The narrator works fine for the pilot episode, but I have a feeling he _might_ annoy me a little if he's on every episode. Or it might become one of the things that make the show. Who knows how these things work.
Plot worked out pretty well, although there were a few obvious things they didn't do - those might be saved for a future episode if they were planning on making the 'search for justice' story longer term and more complicated.
Still, quite charming, and got a nice sensibility to it.
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles:
One minor problem out the gate. This show starts 2 years after Terminator 2. It also starts in 1999. Except, 2 years after T2 should have been 1997, from everything I've heard. Given what they do with it, I'm a little stumped as to why they didn't just make sure it was right, rather than presumably retconning needlessly. Ah well, timeline in the Terminator franchise hasn't been one of its strongest points ever, but it did irk me. Otherwise though they do seem to be following the story of the (first two) movies pretty well, there are nods to the past and even revisiting some of the characters.
The plot moved at a pretty good clip and contained a number of twists I wasn't expecting, though possibly should have, and a few other elements that make me wonder how they're going to play out over the longer term. It could be cool.
Special effects weren't bad, for TV. Terminators, when shown without skin, do look a little obviously CGI still, but that's kind of to be expected and you'd think that most of the time they'd look human anyway so it wouldn't be a problem.
Onto the cast... the woman who played Sarah Connor did a good job. She doesn't exactly mimic Linda Hamilton's performance, but it seems to come from the same place, and her overprotectiveness and hardcoreness does help shine through, so I think I'll like her in the role.
John Connor's okay too. He played the VERY NOT GAY, WE MEAN IT Zach on Heroes, and it's a little hard to separate that. In terms of the movies, he seems more like a young Nick Stahl than a slightly older Edward Furlong. Not as cocky, more broody teenager. I would have preferred to see some of the cockiness in there, but it's only the first episode.
And of course, Summer. I wonder if Summer Glau has it in her contract that she has to appear naked in the pilot episode of every show she stars in, or if it's just a tradition. Anyway, I'm not complaining, let's hope it's a good luck charm (in terms of quality, rather than in terms of longevity, which it obviously wasn't, even though it should have been by any rational analysis... but then again, Fox did air the pilot last, so...). She does a good job, and should do the ass-kicking role well. I'm also hoping that her status as an AI with a seemingly much better skill at infiltrating humanity will be explored, as well as issues of AI personality, conscience, and maybe even emotions, since I love evil machines to be counterbalanced by good ones.
The other Terminator, I don't know if he's going to be a regular or not, or if they'll be facing different terminators throughout the series (which would make a certain amount of sense), but he's no Arnie, or Robert Patrick. He does the job, a little flatly, which you'd expect from a Terminator, but doesn't really sell it. But I suppose for a bad Terminator all you really need is someone who can stare grimly and do action scenes.
In supporting cast, Vala's Husband from SG1 plays a man who was in a relationship with Sarah without knowing her past, and looks like he might be a semi-regular. The only comment I have for him is that, even since Stargate, he kinda looks, to me, like Nathan Fillion's brother or something. I know they're not, but if they were ever casting Nathan in something and needed to cast a brother, Tim Guinee would be the guy I'd cast. Did they ever mention if Mal had any siblings in Firefly?
So yeah, both of these were on my (relatively small) watchlist for the next TV season, but it's good to see that my first impressions were right on in this case.