New TV Season - Blind Spot (Pilot) Review

 

In one of the best openings of any show I have ever seen, a cop on his beat in crowded Times Square sees an abandoned white duffel bag. Major security alert especially when he also sees the message on a tag on the bag informing him to call the FBI. After the usual security precautions everyone is startled when something moves inside the bag and out pops a gorgeous, totally naked woman; her body covered in tattoos. WOW. Now I got to learn more.

I just read the Entertainment Weekly review of Blindspot in which they gave the show a grade of C. What do they know anyways?



After losing out on the Wonder Woman gig to Gal Gadot, Jaimie Alexander might have found a nice place to land with this one. That is of course if they can make sure that they reveal just enough of the mystery to keep me going and guessing each week. I want this one to be like 24. I want a hyper reality and I want at least some of my damn questions answered as we move towards SOME kind of truth. I am sick and tired with investing in a long series only to be let down. I will only reward a few shows with my precious time and Blind Spot may be one of the leading contenders this television season.

Last year's 13 episode gems (Daredevil, How To Get Away With Murder) proved my theory that fluff and filler has to go the way of the dinosaur if a genre show is to survive. Watch me be proven right this year on Gotham which dragged it's ass around for half of lasts year's laborious 22 plus episode season. We don't need it anymore. Hell, Agent Carter told a great story in half that number of episodes and it was thrilling to be a part of. I will let you be the judge as to whether eight episodes helped or hurt the first two seasons of True Detective.

Anyway, the girl in the bag has extensive military training but can't remember anything about her personal life or her past. Very selective amnesia going on here. I was hoping that little piece of the plot would be explained in such a way that I can drop it as a question in my mind. Thankfully they did that.

Jane Doe is immediately sympathetic and you want her suffering to end. I kept trying to watch this show from her perspective. To imagine how a person in that situation would feel. To not know WHY all this terrible stuff is happening to you would be frightening. That was the power of this opening episode.

Great cast as well. Jaimie Alexander is very good and plays the right mix of rage of fear that the role requires to be even half ways believable. I bought the whole premise based mostly on her performance. I think we might have missed out on a very good Wonder Woman.

The FBI seem to want to help her especially when we find she can speak and read Chinese and that vital clue helps with stopping a possible terrorist event. This was a nice twist that gave Jane Doe a reason to be in the field despite being such a valuable asset.

The information comes at you fast and furious. The best part being that the FBI agent Kurt Weller has his name tattooed on the mystery woman's back. Why his name so prominently displayed? Someone is obviously trying to make a point. Man, I love a high concept but you know what I say about high concept. You have to go full retard on the execution or nothing will work. I am as much interested in the process of this story as the actual story itself. This one can go either way. It's either will crash and burn under the weight of it's story or it will shine because of that kind of insane complicated mythology.

Weller (Sullivan Stapleton from the excellent Strike Back) himself is no slouch. He has a great mind for investigation and the resources to find the truth. This is a slick presentation. The show thinks as fast as I do or at least the pilot did. I like that kind of storytelling. I like being there as the mystery unfolds. I can hold a lot of clues in my head so pass them out to me. Just please have everything pay off in the end. This one definitely makes me want to come back for more.

The fight choreography is also excellent and Jaime Alexander is more than up to the challenge. Nice use of the New York setting as well.

All in all one of the strongest opening episodes I have seen in several seasons. I want to see where this one goes in the future.

The 'Constantine' TV Show Has A Trailer... And One Guaranteed Viewer In Me Because It Looks Pretty Perfect!

Hellblazer is one of the most epic comics ever written, and has long been a staple of the Vertigo line for DC Comics alongside Sandman. The main character, John Constantine, was given a movie featuring the national treasure that is Keanu Reeves... and it rubed a lot of true Hellblazer fans the wrong way. Not me though, I actually liked the film. A lot. Sure, he wasn't British and was missing his signature blonde locks. But he smoked like a chimney, had the dope arm tats, and the effects were fantastic for both the angels and demons portrayed in the film. Reeves kicked ass, and this movie gets a bad rap in my humble opinion. I recently watched it again on a fluke and fell in love with the character all over again. I plan on going back and reading the comics all over again, but then my year was made when I heard NBC had a show coming this fall based on the series! Oh man, I am excited. The show is being showran by David Goyer, and the pilot is being directed by Neil Marshall. Matt Ryan is playing Constantine, and he certainly looks a lot more like Johnny C than Keanu did. And the 3 minute trailer that they have shared online looks magnificent. Bravo NBC. Lets hope it turns out as good as this preview looks! Check out the trailer after the jump...

These Are The Kind Of Reboots I Can Get Behind... Rosemary's Baby Comes To TV !!!

I am of the opinion that nothing is above a reboot or re-do... nothing at all. But I do believe that there must be a valid reason for doing it other than just for the fuck of it. Like when Stephen King wanted to re-do The Shining. He never liked the way Stanley Kubrick's version of the book turned out (which while I think Kubrick's movie is great it is VASTLY different than the book), and he wanted an adaption that could be closer to the book. Same thing went with the Total Recall reboot. The directors/producers promised something that would echo the original book by Philip K Dick... something that was severely lacking in Arnold Schwarzenegger movie. Or maybe you just want to tell a different kind of a story... like what Marc Webb is doing with the Spider-Man reboot or what Chris Nolan did with his Batman trilogy. There are reasons, and then there are VALID reasons. That is usually the only thing I want to see before I can get behind a reboot. And this DEFINITELY seems to be the case with NBC's remake of Rosemary's Baby. The new series (which will be 4 hours in total length) will have more screen time to explore more of the intricacies between Rosemary & the cult while she is pregnant with her baby, as well as weaving in more of the book by Ira Levin that may have been left on the cutting room floor by Roman Polanski. Even though Polanski's version is damn near perfect and doesn't need updating/re-doing, this idea is not really too bad. It updates the setting to modern times, one of the only knocks when trying to have someone new watch the film for the first time. It is just so hard for someone in 2014 to understand what everyday life was like in the late 1960s. Now the story is contemporary, so we can get a much more up to date version of the setting. Also, Zoe Saldana is set to take on Mia Farrow's role as Rosemary. That is something I can get behind, and it also adds the racial aspect to the mix. Jeffrey 'Malfoy Senior' Isaacs will be taking on Roman Castevet, a classic role turned in by Sidney Blackmer back in 1968. The mini series will be out this summer (I love original programming in the summer... especially HORROR programming!) and you can see the first short teaser trailer after the jump...



 

Mads As Hannibal

Hannibal Lecter is kinda a big deal with me. I had no interest in seeing Silence of the Lambs despite the fact that everyone at school was talking about it in the Staff Room. I hate the kind of movie they were talking about. I had no interest in having my nightmares stocked full of images that I would never forget. It did seem like the film transformed everyone I was working with at the time.

But those were the days of living in the far Canadian north and I didn't want the movie to leave town without me seeing it. I went. I was horrified but freaking delighted to be THAT terrified and impressed with a character all at the same time. I hated how much I admired Lecter for his escape and how he remained so arrogant while doing it.

Check out the trailer for Hannibal after the jump...







The first Manhunter was a memorable movie also so I have had the character of Will Graham rattling around in my head too. How horrible would it be to be able to put yourself into the madness or suffering of others? It would turn you inside out and make you a seething cauldron of rage. Ouch, even HIS ennui is too much for me to endure.

Mads Mikkelsen is the kind of actor that can terrify me in the right role and he seems perfectly cast to this role. Of course I won't know that until I see the pilot. All the elements seem to be here. Now to that formula you add some Morpheus (Lawrence Fishburn) and you have yourself a Sherlock Elementary-like procedural.

I think NBC might have a winner. I must see more, which is what a teaser trailer is meant to do. So take a look and tell me what you think. 

I imagine how great/terrifying it will be to see Lecter wander free, knowing that at any moment he could just SNAP. It's a hell of a high concept but one that could pay off big time if done just right.

This Is What NBC Deprived Us Of.... BASTARDS!!!!

Son of a Bitch (Arnold Voice)... why couldn't you just give us a few short episodes? Cancel it after 6 or so... I don't give a fuck. There are so many crap shows that get green lit every season, would it have been terrible to take a shot on this one? Especially since they decided to get rid of the pants and put Adrianne Palicki in these underwear... er, I mean hot pants. See for yourself:

God damn she is fine!!!! I totally acknowledge that this show would have probably been a turd of epic proportions, but now I gotta wait a few months before the pilot episode leaks online and I can see this thoroughbred chasing criminals through the street in her Victoria Secrets. NBC, you guys suck the big one.

On a side note, I don't want to speculate on whether or not this had anything to do with NBC not picking up the pilot, but maybe casting that creepy bald guy from Weird Science and The Hills Have Eyes may have spooked some people a bit. Look at the freaky bald head, its horrifying. Wait, what? That's not him? That's just another freaky bald man looking straight at the camera but planning Palicki's imminent abduction. Oh..... er, sorry. Moving right along....