Catman and Calendar Man, plus Bat-Mite? Oh yeah! Not to mention Mr. Zero, Kite-Man, Gorilla Grodd, Solomon Grundy, Tweedledee and Tweedledum, Ace the Bat-Hound, Mr. Polka-Dot, Killer Moth, Tiger Shark, and a Fifth-Dimesion Comic-Con panel. Paul Dini gives us “Legends of the Dark Mite,” the best episode of Batman: The Brave and the Bold yet, which even includes a nice nod to the intro for Batman: The Animated Series and the use of one of the ‘buddha offices favorite phrases “Awesomesauce.” In this clip Bat-Mite’s imagination gets the better of him as more and more of Batman’s rogues gallery appears. You can check out the full episode here.
With the popularity of High School Musical and American Idol I’m more than a little surprised it’s taken this long for one of the major networks to trot out something like Glee. The show centers around a young high school Spanish teacher (Matthew Morrison) who attempts to relive his own glory days by reinventing the Glee Club into something cool for the current generation.
Nathan Fillion‘s new show premiered last night on ABC. In Castle Fillion stars as a mystery/crime novelist who gets called into help the police when a killer begins recreating some of the deaths from the writer’s book. Stana Katic (who you might remember as a cop from The Spirit) plays the detective saddled with fun-loving, and well-schooled, writer.
I was a little unsure of In Plain Sight when it began at the beginning of the summer. The hard-edged main character, US Marshall Mary Shannon (Mary McCormack) straddles the line between a hard-ass and unlikeable character, and in the first couple issues she leans more to the later.
I stayed around to see if the show would come together, and it did, at least for me, in its forth episode “Trojan Horst.” Dave Foley guest-starred as the only witness who could identify a high-priced contract killer. The episode brought other sides to Mary’s personality with the wounding of her partner Marshall (Fred Weller) and show the practicality of her no nonsense take charge attitude on the job. The show not only helped fill-out the main character but also better define the business relationships of Mary’s life.
Oh boy. Here’s a glimpse of what the world of a prolonged writer’s strike would have looked like. It’s not pretty, folks. The Return of Jezebel James, filling a hole for missing programming, was thankfully canceled after only two weeks. For those who missed this inglorious moment in TV history, and have a strong stomach, check out our review (and your chance to view the full Pilot episode) inside the Full Diagnosis.
The Return of Jezebel James
1 Star
Parker Posey stars as Sarah Tompkins, a Manhattan book editor whose defining characteristics seem to be her annoying nature and a complete inability to shut-up. For no real reason, other than the plot calls for it, she decides to have a baby. A trip to the doctor however reveals her inability to conceive. What is she to do?
Out of the blue she calls up her estranged younger sister Coco (Lauren Ambrose) to offer her the opportunity to carry her baby. The two haven’t spoken in years, don’t get along, and don’t even really know each other. Coco, of course, decides against all logic to agree to the arrangement, because, well, the plot calls for her to. And so a sitcom is born. Thankfully it lived only a short time.
Although I’ve seen worse shows on television, I’m not sure I remember one centered around such an annoying character. The show was created by Gilmore Girls creator Amy Sherman who forgets the cardinal rule about a sitcom – to make it FUNNY! In two episodes I watched, I laughed only once – at the complete and absolute absurdity at the entire enterprise.
Even with extensive rewrites I doubt this show could be saved. It certainly could be better, but never passable. Posey has her uses in films and television, but this is just a bad fit for her, and since the writers never decide who Coco is supposed to be Ambrose can be given a little slack for never getting a feel for the character. Bad casting choices and bad writing make for bad television. With the writers returning to work we can be thankful, at least, that this one was put down quickly.
I was a little unsure of 