Review: Season Finales – Fringe, LOST, Dollhouse, Smallville and Gossip Girl

Fringe – It took me some time to get into this show and for a while the only thing that I looked forward to in it was John Noble’s acting as Walter, really interesting character, but things picked up and it became one of my favorite shows of the season. The finale wasn’t as great an episode as the penultimate was, but still was great to get confirmation that alternate realities is really happening on this show, and the prospect of having the next season happening in two separate dimensions is awesome. Another interesting thing is that it leaves you with a different sensation than lost does, even though you feel like it was all awesome, it’s more of of a feeling disturbed (take that last shot from the finale, for example), than a brain-melting sensation.

LOST – Oh, my brain, my poor brain! Seriously, can this show get any better? Lots of answers this season, we learned a lot about Dharma, the fact that there really is time travel going on and what “the incident” was all about. We also learned a lot about the others and Jacob, who seems to be some sort of Egyptian god, and who I think is not dead, since Juliet was able to detonate the bomb and change everything. The only thing that bothered me a little was the fact that it seems that everything that has been going on was just a plot from unnamed “bizarro Locke” to try to kill Jacob, and everything was just a game between the two. I think it would really suck if the answer was so simplistic.

Dollhouse – Joss Whedon, you rock! It also took me a while to like Dollhouse, but things took a turn after the 5th episode, and it started to show the possibilities of what could be done with the premise of the series. After hearing a lot about it, the finale finally convinced me that Dollhouse has a lot more to do with the danger of technology and the concept of humans as mere software and hardware then Agent Ballard’s quest to bring down the dollhouse. That, along with the impeccable dialogue writing, makes it an awesome show.

Smallville – And the award for crappiest show goes to… N’uff said!

Gossip Girl – This show surprises me more and more everyday, again, Josh Shwartz, you’re a genius! A lot was wrapped up and opened the show to new things, and this is what it is all about, making the story progress, instead of going through the seasons talking about the same stuff like other shows, great writing! And if that wasn’t enough, Michelle Trachtenberg will be back for next season, what more could I ask for? =D

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Review: American Idol - From Top 5 To The Finale

The finale was just a few days ago and America finally has it’s new idol, What a great show we had last week, but before we talk about the finale, let me just start where I left off from last time.

Top 5

 

This was the Rat Pack week, and the beginning of what I think was the best 5 weeks of idol ever! All the performances were great, specially Danny’s, It was incredible what Jamie Foxx accomplished with him as the mentor. On the other hand, his advice to Matt to lower the key was probably not the best one, but I don’t think it influenced in the result, he was great, no doubt about it, but the other four deserved to stay more than him.

Top 4

 

Simply the best week of idol ever! I had never thought I would see Slash on idol, and I think he did great as mentor. Adam’s performance was priceless, I’ve been longing for him to sing Led Zeppelin or Guns n’ Roses since the beginning, and it was even better that what I imagined. Allison to me was also great, her duet with Adam, and their moment right after was to me the best moment on idol I’ve witnessed ever, and for a little while it even made me believe that  my dream finale (Adam Vs. Allison) could be possible. Unfortunately, Danny, who deserved to go home after that horrid scream that hunts me until today, didn’t and Allison left instead. I’m still trying to get over it, but I’m sure we’ll see great things from this girl, can’t wait to buy her album! =D

Top 3

 

Great week again. Adam’s rendition of “One” was really good and Danny’s “You are so beautiful” was too, smart choice for him and allowed him to show all the range in his voice. Unfortunately for him, Kris delivered what was simply the best, most shocking and most original performance of the whole season with Kanye’s “Heartless” and deservingly took a spot in the finale. Oh, and about Kris, what were Kara and Randy thinking when they told him to sing One Republic, he’s nothing like it, why not Jason Mraz or something that involved voice and guitar instead of piano?!

The Finale

 

Both Adam and Kris performed at their best, and I agree with Simon, Adam’s first round was too theatrical, even though the vocals were perfect, but overall Kris was better. The second round was Adam’s, hands down, the range, the control, the versatility, we got to see all that. The third song was terrible and although Adam handled it better, it was still something that was nothing like any of those two guys. The result was to me surprising, but not undeserved, I’ve been Adam’s fan since the beginning and think he should have won, but Kris is a great singer too, who has been creative with every performance and took a lot of risks throughout the competition, so, the title is in very good hands. Besides that maybe it’ll be good for Adam to stay away from the idol producers and do his own thing.

PS: Kara and Bikini Girl in the results show was priceless!! Kara, you rock my World! =P

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Review: Monday’s Finales

HEROES

        

Let me just begin by saying I absolutely hated it! To me this was probably the worst finale the show ever had, not necessarily because of the episode itself, but because of what was promised, and once again, not delivered.

The best thing about this finale was to see how far Matt have come since the show started, although I didn’t like what was done to Sylar, at least it goes to show how powerful of a hero Matt has become, actually, I think he is the only one  who has been growing consistently since the beginning.

Another change that was needed and that they finally introduced in the last few episodes is the cutting down on powers, like Peter for example, who now needs to touch the person he wants to borrow the power from, and also the fact that he can’t retain it and get another at the same time. The side effects to the powers was also a great improvement, almost every super hero story has that (Cyclops can’t open his eyes without proper glasses, Nightcrawler can’t teleport through a wall to where he can’t see, etc). Heroes had that on season one, Peter overloaded with so many powers, Isaac could only activate his power using heroine, and that was lost for a while.

The return of Bryan Fuller brought back the good writing that the show missed on seasons two and most of season three, but I feel like it still wasn’t enough to fix everything. For example, no one ever truly dies, again in the finale we see Nathan die, and then brought back on Sylar, and that is really frustrating, not because I want the characters to die, but if they are not going to stay dead, what is the point of killing them in the first place?

Another thing that is frustrating is Hiro. This was the coolest character on the show, but leaving him powerless is not fun at all, what happened to bad-ass future Hiro from season one? Every fan of the show hoped to see him become that guy as time went by, but he still doesn’t speak English without accent after three years, he is now striped of his powers, and when it came back, it was rejected by his body, or something like that, and for what? So Ando can shine? It was cool to have a hero with a side-kick in the story, of at least two partners now that Ando has powers, but leaving the best hero of all powerless is terrible for the story.

There is also the fact that three seasons have passed and we still haven’t seen one good fight! The doors close, while the fight is going on, someone flies away, something always happens to keep up us from seeing the action, Why? Where is that Sylar-Peter showdown we have all been waiting for since season one? Also, what the heck happened to Molly? Did the writers forget about her? She became such a big part of seasons one and two, Parkman and Mohinder sworn to protect her and now, where is she?

I think it’s time to let Heroes go, I’ve been faithful to the show since day one, but not anymore, everything I read so far about next season indicates things won’t get any better, and the worst part is I just don’t care anymore for what happens to these characters.

What do you think? Does Heroes deserve another chance?

        

Chuck

        

Now this is what I called a kick ass finale! I was starting to get worried in the penultimate episode, when the intersect was out, he got to make out with Sarah ( I would kill Morgan with my bare hands if that happened to me!)and it looked like Chuck was finally going to have his life back, and live happily ever after with Sarah (by the way, Yvonne, I’m also kinda nerdy and available! =D).

The game changer promised didn’t disappoint one bit, and now we have endless possibilities for chuck with Intersect 2.0 and him accepting his spy status. From what I understand, he just flashed on the information he doesn’t really learn it, so imagine him needing his kung fu and not flashing! The idea was amazing, and the execution flawless, seeing him fight making that face of “what the heck is going on here?” was priceless!

The best thing about it is that they found a way to make the story move forward, but the characters stay true to themselves, Josh Shwartz (dude, you are a genius!) already said in an interview that the new skills won’t change Chuck’s underdog status, he will still be the same Chuck. Also, this causes new complications on his relationship with Sarah since now he is more valuable than ever, and create problems with Casey, who I think will probably get a little jealous of Chuck’s new skills.

After the finale and the Subway campaign, everything I’ve read indicate that the chances of renewal seem fairly good, the final word comes on May 4th, until then, fingers crossed, let’s hope we haven’t seen the last of Jeffster! =D

Review: American Idol – From Group III To Top 7

Hey! Long time since my last Idol recap in the beginning of the season, so I decided to drop by and weigh in on what’s been going on this season.

Group III and the Wildcard

 

I thought this group was actually pretty good, and performed better than the first two, but once again my favorites didn’t make the cut. Come on, Felicia and Kristen were awesome, they deserved at least a spot on the wildcard show. About the Wildcard, Tatiana and Jasmine instead of Felicia, Kristen or Jackie Thon? Give me a break… and Jasmine instead of Jesse for the Top 13? Not fair at all, and that was proven when she was the first one to go, along with Jorge, any of these girls I mentioned would definitely do better than Jasmine, Jorge, M. Sarver or Lil Rounds. The change from Top 12 to 13 was pretty nice though.

From Top 13 to Top 7

 

At first I thought this year would be a train wreck, but little by little I started to like the contestants and now I think we will get an awesome competition with the 5 that are left. I think Jasmine and Jorge was the right choice for the first elimination, Jorge did well on his group night but not so well on Top 13 week. Jasmine I never really liked, and although her rendition of “I’ll be there” was by far her best performance, it wasn’t as good as the others (I actually loved it even though I didn’t like her before).

Next one to go was Alexis, if you compare her “Jolene” performance to Brook’s last year, you can really see how much last year's group was better than this one. Still, she didn’t deserve to go so soon, I feel like Sarver should’ve gone that week, and I think the only reason why the judges didn’t save her was because it was too early in the competition. The week after it was Michael’s turn to go, which to me was about time, he has a nice voice, but not good enough to stay any longer.

Then it was Megan’s time, really unfortunate to see her go, but at the same time I feel like she never lived up to her potential, and kept making bad choices when it came to song choice, talking back to Simon was also a bad call and destroyed any chance she had of being saved. Even so, I hope she gets to release an album, I’ll be looking forward to it. Scott was next in line, and it wasn’t a surprise since he also had a lot of so so performances though the weeks. Still, I think he deserved to stay longer than Anoop or Lil at least.

Finally we come to top 7 number one and number two. The first top 7 with the mentoring of Tarantino was a great week. Matt Giraud gets eliminated, but the judges come to his rescue and use the “judges save” for the first time ever. I think that was a good call, Matt didn’t do well that week but didn’t deserve to place last either. Then we have the top 7 for the second time last week with a double elimination in which Anoop and Lil finally got the boot. Thank God it wasn’t Allison, when it was down to her and Anoop I almost wished the save on Matt. Don’t get me wrong, both are good singers, but people who were better had already gone before them and I just didn’t feel like seeing that happen again.

What’s to Come…

 

This week our Top 5 sing songs from the “Rat Pack” (which includes Sinatra, etc), I think now we really have a great competition on our hands, every single one of the contestants left are awesome, and I can’t wait to see what’s going to happen tonight. The Top 4 will face “Rock week” with Slash as the mentor (can’t wait to see that!) and the Top 3 will sing songs picked by the judges and producers.

Adam to me is still the front runner, his rendition of “Mad World” and his performance last week, I think were the best two I’ve seen on this show, and there is no denying on how much talent this guy has. Kris, which I hated on his group night, grew on me through the competition, aside from Adam he is the most original contestant this year, and I really like the fact that he takes risks every week. Danny started out strong but I feel like he is just doing the same thing over and over, he really needs to step up his game, otherwise might lose his place on the finale to Kris. Allison is just awesome, there is not one performance from her that doesn’t leave me stunned at how much this girl can sing, her only problem is that for some reason I can’t figure out, no matter how well she does, she always ends up in the bottom three. Last but not least is Matt, great guy, great voice, but a little inconsistent, some performances are great, some not so much, and if he is not great all the time from now on, he might not stay for long.

Predictions

 

Who goes home tomorrow: Matt

Top 3: Adam, Danny, Kris

Top 2: I don’t have a clue. o.O

Winner: Adam

Finale and Footlong Campaign – Help Save Chuck!

There is a campaign going on to try to save Chuck, but hurry, ‘cause there is not much time left! The idea is simple, just go to a local Subway shop in your area, buy a $5 footlong sandwich and leave a comment in the suggestion box asking NBC to save the show. Oh, and it has to be done BEFORE tonight's finale. =D

Subway is one of Chuck's biggest sponsors, and sandwiches were featured in many episode, thus giving the fans this idea, in the hopes that with a big turnout they might convince NBC to pick-up the show for a third season.

The coolest thing about it was that even the series' biggest star, Zachary Levi, joined (or orchestrated… not sure) the movement and got behind the counter to serve subs!! Check it out on the video below and don't forget to pick up your footlong for dinner before tonight's season finale!

The Cool G Surrenders to Twitter

We surrender, The Cool G is now on Twitter! I have been swimming against the current for a while, but the power (and the addictive power) of this tool is undeniable. As you can see we’ve had very few updates this last few months because my personal and professional life just haven’t been giving me the necessary time to write a decent post. Since Twitter updates are short, I will now be able to make short reviews, let you know what’s going on with the blog, update news live blog from Twitter whenever I have time, and of course, get your relies and comments and stay in touch! =D

So, click here to go to our profile and start following us!!

How Do We Keep Our Favorite Scripted Shows On The Air? (PS: ABC… You Suck!!)

It’s an interesting time to be a TV executive, things sure have changed, at an age of cheap reality shows, online watching, DVR and piracy, how do we keep the good shows in the air?

That doesn’t seem to be a question on ABC’s mind, when something goes wrong, they just cancel without any regards to the the fans, as we’ve seen in the case of Eli Stone, Pushing Daises, Dirty Sexy Money and Life On Mars. Yes, Life On Mars too, since even though the show got a proper ending, it wasn’t because of the network, it was because of the producers, who shown great respect to the fans and approached the network asking permission to shoot a season finale and a series finale. ABC answered after a three-minute meeting (seems like they really struggled whether or not to give the show a shot at another season), saying they would let them shoot the series finale but not the season finale.

Personally, after Lost is done, I’m never watching an ABC show again, while other networks are taking steps towards modernization, I feel like the alphabet network always goes against the current. CBS, after taking into consideration the fan reaction to the cancelation of Jericho, gave the show another chance, didn’t work, but the show had a series finale and everybody recognizes the network’s effort to try and make it work. There are many other cases of shows changing time-slots and trying different solutions before coming to the decision of cancelling. On the other hand, Life of Mars, for example, had an average rating of 8 million viewers on Thursday night, then ABC decided to give the show a break of almost two months, and when it came back it was moved to a different night, no wonder nobody knew it was still on the air. When it comes to Eli, Daisies and Money, there was not also a single attempt to save these shows, and only last week, after a lot of negative reaction to the way they were doing things, they announced that the remaining episodes (which were shot months ago) will air from June to August. Simple translation, they just couldn’t care less for their viewers, and fans of their shows.

First thing that needs to change is the “box office” mentality that the networks have when it comes to TV. Shows are being canceled after only one season, sometimes even after only a few episodes. Scripted shows sometimes need time to mature are find their audience, this happened to Seinfeld, which was terrible in it’s beginning and later became a success, imagine if it was canceled after only 13 episodes.

Another factor to consider is that people are not watching TV like they used to anymore. Life on Mars producers said in an interview a few weeks ago that, at an event (NY comic con, I think), when asking an audience of 300 hardcore fans of the show, how many watch the show live, nobody raised their hands! I, for instance only watch shows on line, I live in Brazil, I pay for cable (most American shows are on cable here), but the episodes of all the shows take 6 weeks to be get here, besides that, most days I can’t watch the shows I like when they are on, so why should I wait 6 weeks when I can download it on the same day, or watch it only when it’s on if I can just watch it whenever I want?

NBC and FOX have shown alternatives to keep their shows running. NBC struck a deal with DirecTV last year that gave us an amazing third season of Friday Night Lights, now they’ve done it again, renewing the show for two more seasons! Think about it, why can FNL, with poor ratings, can get an early two season pickup and others with 6 or 7 million viewers weekly in next day ratings are getting canceled?

Other solutions shown by NBC involve the partnership with Ford to bring Knight Rider to life, unfortunately the show sucks, but if it didn’t, they would be able to keep it going without having to rely solely on ratings. Fox did something interesting with Terminator also, when Dodge sponsored one episode, making it longer, with less commercial breaks. Why not use that to save great shows, with good fan base like Terminator, Dollhouse, Chuck, and the late Jericho, Life on Mars, Eli Stone and Pushing Daises.

Take Terminator and Dollhouse for example, I just wanted to know who was the genius that decided to put two sci-fi shows on a Friday night?! Of course ratings suck, young people are the ones who like those shows, and on Friday night they are out partying, not at home watching TV!

Networks need to realize that and start finding ways to make money out of DVR and online viewing, and start to consider those numbers, alongside iTunes and DVD sales when making decisions. Terminator, for example, doesn’t do well on Next-day Nielsen ratings, but is huge on DVR, iTunes and even Torrent sites, so it’s not a matter of “nobody is watching”, people are watching, the networks just needs to find a way to turn that into dollars.

Episode Review: T:TSCC – Adam Raised a Cain

“Let the wind blow high, let the wind blow low”... My God.... What was that!!?

I watched “Adam raised a Cain”, this week’s episode of T:TSCC last night, and I still haven’t managed to pick up all the pieces of my jaw that dropped on the floor. Considering active shows, to me there used to be: Lost and Boston Legal, then, great shows, good shows, bad shows and Knight Rider. Since Boston Legal is over (thanks ABC, you guys are awesome!), and after what I saw tonight, I seriously think it’s time for Sarah Connor to replace Denny Crane at the top, right beside Lost.

Beware of spoilers from this point on, for those of you who didn’t watch the show last week.

Following Riley, Jesse (although we can’t know for sure if she is really dead) and Charlie, now it was time for Derek to bite the dust. One of the good things of being spoiler-free is that you can enjoy this kinds of twists, and when Derek was killed in such a cold and unexpected way, I was completely shocked! I didn’t expect him to die at all, and to kill a major character in such a minor way... you just have to hand it to the writers.

This episode also left us with a lot of questions: What was a Terminator doing at the Weaver residence? Why did it pursue Savannah? What did Catherine mean by “Savannah’s and Mr. Elisson’s survival may one day depend upon John Henry’s survival”?What is John Henry’s true purpose? What about John Henry’s “brother”? Who told the police about the meeting at the movies and got Sarah arrested?

Another highlight was that the Connors finally learn about the existence of John Henry, add that to Sarah being arrested, that could push John over the edge, and I think we’ll probably not only get a really pissed John Connor in the next episode, but also, a glimpse of the man, he is supposed to become, the savior who leads mankind in the war against Skynet.

What is becoming more and more appealing to me is how well this show is written, as I said before in previous posts, when the show was first announced I did not believe it could work as an ongoing series. I was proved wrong time and time again, even before the second season premiered, but to get to this level, it just amazes me. Sarah being arrested was just so heartbreaking, and the duet of John Henry and Savannah in the end is something so pure and scary at the same time, I mean, here we have the computer who is supposed to, one day, be the world’s destroyer, innocently singing a lovely song with a five year old kid! Mind blowing!

Next friday it’s the finale, and I sincerely hope people watch it and we get another season. If you didn’t see it this week, then go to Fox.com/terminator, buy it on iTunes, download it from a torrent site, whatever.... just watch it. I guarantee, it will be worth it! Then, watch the finale live this week, we really need a ratings boost if we want to keep the best show of this season in the air. How we got to the point where people would rather watch Howie Do It instead of a great scripted show like this one is beyond me, maybe we do deserve a Skynet to wipe us out.