All Along The Watchtower

films . videos . television

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Best of Christmas

Looking for the best Christmas specials, episodes and videos? Well, here's a list of 100 Christmas-themed things for you to watch on-line. It's a pretty diverse list from the classics like A Charlie Brown Christmas to things like The Star Wars Christmas Special (which you will lose respect for yourself if you watch).

It's hours of fun and a great way to waste some time at work as you get ready for the holiday break...I mean, a great way to get in the spirit in the evenings after you've worked hard all day.

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Peter Boyle passes away

Peter Boyle, the actor most known for his roles in Young Frankenstein and as TV's Frank Barone on Everybody Loves Raymond has passed away. He was 81.

While Boyle is best known for these roles, one of my favorites roles for Boyle was in the third-season The X-Files episode, "Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose." Boyle won an Emmy for best guest-actor for the part.

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

AFI's best in movies, TV

The AFI has announced its list of the ten best movies and TV shows of 2006. Unlike other lists that rank the movies and shows, AFI just announces the ten best.

Movies: Babel, Borat, The Devil Wears Prada, Dreamgirls, Half Nelson, Happy Feet, Inside Man, Letter from Iwo Jima, Little Miss Sunshine, United 93

Television: Battlestar Galactica, Dexter, Elizabeth I, Friday Night Lights, Heroes, The Office, South Park, 24, The West Wing, The Wire.

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

ABC moves Lost

When Lost returns from its hiatus on Feb 7th, it will return an hour later at 9 p.m. CST, according to Variety.

Part of this is to get away from the juggernaut that is American Idol (seriously, why does anyone watch it?!? It boggles the mind!) which airs its results show on Wednesday nights. Also, Lost has recently lost ground to Criminal Minds. So I guess ABC didn't want to come in third in the hour. Also, you have to consider that any show following Lost is immediately put on cancelled list since ABC has yet to find a way to program the time-slot after Lost.

In other news, it appears that CBS will waste the post-Super Bowl time slow with Criminal Minds instead of going for something good like How I Met Your Mother.

Monday, December 04, 2006

Hints about Heroes

Heroes ends its fall run tonight with an episode that is supposed to wrap up the "save the cheerleader, save the world" storyline (which NBC swore up one side and down the other that we'd get answers to two weeks ago). The series then goes off the air or into repeat mode until it returns on Jan 22 and faces strong competition from FOX's hit serial, 24.

TV Guide has an interview today with series creator, Tim Krieg in which we get hints of what will happen tonight and what is to come when Christopher Eccleston joins the cast in January.

From it, I can safely conclude that neither Peter nor Hiro will perish in tonight's installment. I also bet they won't kill off Micah or Niki/Jessica.

So, who will it be? Guess we'll all find out tonight. (Well, unless you search around for SPOILERs or something like that).

Friday, December 01, 2006

St. Elsewhere

::Yes, this is a review that I'm doing because someone promised me something in exchange for the review. ::

That being said, I would have done the review anyway, because the product is my all-time favourite hospital show. As far as I'm concerned, St. Elsewhere set the as-yet-unreached standard for medical dramas. The current crop of doctor shows all owe a hefty allegiance to Eligius.

Let's take a look, shall we?

House

Irascible grouchy doctor who actually knows best most of the time? Dr. House, meet Dr. Mark Craig.

ER

Yes, I guess this show is still on. When it first broke many years ago the most popular thing about it seemed to be that insane rush of people on the brink, and the seemingly superhuman ability of Doctors to pull the rest of us back from the brink. This was often an element inherint in St. Elsewhere at many levels--both in their trainwreck of an E.R. and in the O.R.

You say you preferred E.R. for the hot doctors like George Clooney? Well, then. I humbly submit St. Elsewhere's Mark Harmon for your consideration. Oh yeah. There's that other guy too. What's his name? yeah. That's right. Denzel something or other....

Scrubs

Whacky, zany stunts pulled by a hospital staff to let off steam? Yep. St. Elsewhere has that in abundence. I still think Howie Mandel's best work was in the halls of St. Eligius Hospital.

Grey's Anatomy

Shonda Rhimes has done a great job of humanising doctors, of showing the romance behind the blood. These stories were a large part of St. Elsewhere's stock in trade for many years. The heartbreaking story arcs for Dr. Jack Morrison--so well played by David Morse--were some of the most humanising stories ever to hit prime time.

So, clearly and without reservation I recommend that any of you who love any of these shows give the new St. Elsewhere Season One DVD a try.