Dallas Remake: First Look and New Trailers and Teasers!!!!

I know summer just ended and I am ready for fall and the holiday season.   But seeing this video just makes me want the summer to get here as fast as possible!  I get the chills seeing Larry Hagman, Patrick Duffy and Linda Gray back playing their iconic characters.   The cast of new characters, the new generation, look fantastic as well.  They look a little young to be their children, but I’ll go with it!   The only role I’m not sure about is Ann Ewing, played by Brenda Strong.   I WANT PAM EWING!!!!!!   And don’t tell me she’s dead and it’s not possible.  It’s a soap opera.  People come back from the dead all the time.   Bring back Pam!!!!!

Anyway, check out some of these teaser trailers below.

 

 

TNT Cancels Memphis Beat

This was not a show I watched but for fans of the show, a little disappointing news.   TNT canceled Memphis Beat after two seasons.

Most people I know who watched it (which wasn’t a lot) really liked it and had good things to say.  But this is not the first nor the last time that a good show gets canceled due to lack of viewers.  I’m actually surprised Franklin and Bash was renewed.  But Mark Paul Gosselaar shows usually get two seasons before they get canceled.

 

QUICK REVIEW: Rizzoli & Isles “Don’t Hate the Player” S2 E4

Baseball.   America’s past time.  Can’t you smell the fresh-cut grass, the leather from the gloves, the beer, the hot dogs, the dead body in the shower?   Sorry, I know that last part ruined a perfectly lovely image, but that is what our fearless duo had on their hands last night.   The Boston Pilgrims are on a roll and so is their star player Manny Vega.   But two major things are now about to hamper the Pilgrims’ success…their owners are splitting up (just like the McCords of the LA Dodgers) and fighting over the rights to the team while their new assistant coach was murdered in the showers.

The head of security for the Pilgrims, Chief Merck (played by Kevin Chapman) who used to be a homicide detective, is insisting on the fact that this is just accident where the guy slipped and fell in the shower and he can’t understand why Jane and Maura want to turn this into something more.  Usually that’s a sign of someone’s guilt but since he was so over-the-top with his pronouncement, it was obvious it wasn’t him.    There are many suspects that we are introduced to throughout the course of the episode…the fighting owners, Manny Vega (played by Adrian Bellani), the player Vega was fighting with, and Merek.   Turns out it was none of the above.  It was the ridiculously handsome player that asked Jane out to dinner, Jesse Wade (played by Taylor Kinney.)   As soon as he asked Jane out to dinner, I knew it was him.  He was just as good as Vega but never got the recognition Vega did.   Vega was also a huge a-hole.   So he killed the assistant coach and poisoned Vega with anti-freeze killing him as well so he could get them out-of-the-way and him to the top of the ranks in both the clubhouse and the in minds of the fans.  Well that certainly backfired on him didn’t it?

In more interesting news, Tommy Rizzoli (played by Colin Egglesfield) is out of prison and back with his family.  I’d like to know more about Tommy’s past.   The surface information I know, Tommy has been a screw up his whole life.  I have to wonder though, is he a screw up because he got chance after chance and blew it or is he a screw up because he was always expected to make the wrong choice, no one believed in him, and therefore just did what people assumed he would do anyway?   I think it is probably some where in between the two.  Take what happened with the robbery at Maura’s.  Jane automatically assumed it was Tommy.  And when she went to confront him, even though she tried to let him know he wasn’t as bad a guy as he thinks he is, she still assumes it was him.   It wasn’t.  So Tommy has a lot of proving to do.  I hope he stays around and we get to see that dynamic.  I think it’s going to be easier to empathize with Tommy because Egglesfield is playing him.  When we heard about Tommy before, he sounded like more of a really bad guy who didn’t care too much about his family.   Egglesfield has such a likable personality that I think we are going to see a softer side to Tommy.  And by the way, I love the fact that Momma Rizzoli and Tommy are all staying with Maura.  It really shows the closeness of Jane and Maura and how that closeness extends to Jane’s family.  I loved the dinner scene at the end with Angela getting ready to serve lasagna to Jane, Maura, Frankie, Tommy, Frost, and Korsak.  It really shows the bond these characters have.

R&I is having a great season and I am thrilled the girls are coming back for a third 15 episode season next summer!

 

Rizzoli & Isles “Don’t Hate the Player” Review Coming Tomorrow

I am really beat guys and it would be a crappy review if I did it now.   So I am hitting the sack and will recap the episode tomorrow.  The quick thing I will say is that I LOVE the fact that Colin Egglesfield has been cast as Tommy Rizzoli.  And I hope he is going to be around for the rest of the season and moving forward.  Maybe he can even hook up with Maura?

Ok I’m going to bed now.  Full recap and review tomorrow so check back then!

 

QUICK REVIEW: The Closer “Forgive Us Our Trespasses” S7 E5

With the decent supporting cast, I would have thought the episode would have been a little stronger tonight.  You had Booger from Revenge of the Nerds as the slimy attorney for Tyrell’s family, Wendell from Bones as the murdering gay corporal who killed his father, and Dr Ellis Grey as the victim’s wife.  Sadly, the case was pretty boring.

A pastor was found dead and it appeared to be a suicide.  His wife, Mrs. Wycoff (played by Kate Burton) was trying very hard to convince people it was a suicide.   Fact is, she knew her husband had a fetish for dressing up as a woman (heels and everything) and she was not down with that.  So she allowed him to play out his fantasies with a girl he met on-line.  There were many times the show was trying to make you believe she was the killer, to the point that it was so obvious (especially when she confessed) that you knew she didn’t kill him.  But she was protecting someone.  And come on.  We all knew who that someone was…her son Chris (played by Michael Grant Terry.)   Chris was gay and both his parents were brutally hard on him about it.  When Chris found out about his father’s antics, he completely snapped.  He couldn’t figure out how someone with such a strange fetish would be so intolerant of his own son.  So he killed him.

Brenda finally lost it tonight regarding the case against her.  Her entire division has been subpoenaed.   Actually Gabriel wasn’t subpoenaed at first which cause lots of controversy within the division and most of the guys felt he was snitching on Brenda.  He went to Booger and asked to also be subpoenaed so they would all be together on this.  This put Brenda in a pretty large funk.  Her funk got worse when she was home downing red wine and Hostess cupcakes and Fritz shows her his subpoena.  At this point she completely losses it and breaks down into tears in Fritz’s arms.

As much as I love the character of Brenda, the one thing that has always frustrated me about her, is that she is incredibly stubborn and doesn’t always listen when people are trying to help her and it gets her into to trouble.  Rayder, Pope, and Fritz have all been trying to tell Brenda for weeks that she needs to deal with this.  She needs to hire a lawyer and start fighting this case.  She keeps ignoring it and now her whole division and her husband are all dragged into this.  I also think that Brenda is starting to realize that while technically she did nothing wrong by dropping Tyrell off at his house, morally, she did do something wrong because she knowing left that boy there to die.  When I first watched that episode, I was in agreement with Brenda and her decision to drop him off in a dangerous situation.  After all this was a thug who killed a grandfather and grandson and didn’t really show any remorse for it.  So what happens to him, happens to him..right?   After watching the episode again, I changed my tune.   No matter how much you hate someone like that for doing what he did, you are now no better than he is.   You put him in a situation knowing full well he was going to die if you left him without protection and you have no remorse or guilt for what you did.   I’m sure Tyrell has justification for committing his crime and now Brenda has hers for leaving him in a situation to die.  So I ask, doesn’t that make her just as criminal and guilty as Tyrell?   I think it does.   She may not have physically been the one to kill him but I think her situation is even worse than Tyrell’s because she is an officer of the law.  She is sworn to protect people.   In this situation, she did the complete opposite.  She actually put a citizen in harm’s way.  And even though we all knew he was guilty and a creep, in the eyes of the law, this is a man who isn’t guilty of any crime.  So this isn’t looking good for Brenda at all.   But the best part about her FINALLY agreeing to get council is that we finally get to see the highly anticipated (at least by me) arrival of Mark Pelligrino (aka Lucifer from Supernatural and Jacob from Lost and about 50 other characters on TV) as her defense attorney.  Pelligrino’s characters will be around the rest of this season and I believe will be here through the final run.   Yeah!!!

What do you guys think about Brenda and her situation?  Do you think she is being wrongfully judged and Tyrell got what he deserved?   Or do you think she is completely in the wrong and should lose her job?   Let me know!!!

 

Random TV News

Franklin and Bash

F&B has been renewed for 10 episodes next summer on TNT.   I’m slightly surprised by this because the ratings have not been good.  They haven’t been awful but they haven’t been lighting the world on fire.    I have a bunch of episodes on my DVR so at some point I may check them out.  And since I have dropped HawthoRNe from my summer viewing schedule, I may pick up F&B.

Grey’s Anatomy

Grey’s is doing a time jump for Season 8.   Not really.   It’s five days after the Season 7 finale.  So I was a little taken aback when I saw one website promote it as a “time jump.”   Anyhoo, two major story lines will still be going on with one having a solution at the end of the season premiere….the McDreamys are still having problems from the fallout from Meredith tampering with the Alzheimer’s trial and Cristina is still debating whether or not she should keep her baby.   For you Derek and Meredith fans hoping their issues would be solved at the end of the episode, sorry to disappoint you but that isn’t the storyline having a solution.  That would be Cristina.   At this point, five days later, she still hasn’t made up her mind on what she wants to do.   But by the end of the premiere, she makes a decision.  I know SL like this are always hot, sensitive topics for fans, but I really like SL like this.  It brings so much interest to the show and I am really curious to see where Grey’s goes with this.

In other news, Sarah Drew (new Chief Resident Dr. April Kepner) is preggers in real life.   On the debate table right now is whether or not to write the pregnancy into the story.  In most instances, this wouldn’t be that much of an issue.   But in this character’s case, it’s a little different.  You see, April is still a virgin.   And the new chief resident.   Depending on how far along she is by the time filming starts and the season progresses, how will this be incorporated in?   It could fascinating to witness this girl who has held onto her virginity for so long now have to deal with an unplanned pregnancy and the new responsibility of being the chief resident.  Problem is, you are already dealing with one of those on the show…..Cristina Yang’s pregnancy.   Do they really want to have Cristina’s unplanned pregnancy story out there, because no matter what her decision, there will be fallout for weeks/months to come, with April’s unplanned pregnancy just beginning?   It wouldn’t make sense.   So my gut tells me, we will be seeing April hiding behind lots of plants and patients this season.

Hell on Wheels

AMC has announced a premiere date for its Civil War era show starring Anson Mount….November 6th.

Boss

Starz’s new series Boss, starring Kelsey Grammar has set a premiere date for October 21st.  Boss is about a ruthless Chicago Mayor (played by Grammar) who has been recently diagnosed with a debilitating disease.  This is a big change for Grammar who has been in the comedy realm for the last 15 years.  This show will really show the behind the scenes look at the mayor’s office in Chicago…the backdoor deals, the lying and manipulating that happens, and the lives affected by the decisions that are made.   It sounds fantastic and I am definitely checking it out.

 

The Closer and Rizzoli and Isles Recap and Review Coming Soon

So I have a really crazy day today so I can’t get to these reviews today.    Sorry!   But I will be doing a brief review of each tomorrow followed by a REALLY HUGE For the Love of TV Podcast!!!

All I can say now before I run out the door to pick up people from the airport for meetings is that I loved both episodes and I forgot how much I missed the ladies from Rizzoli and Isles!   They are freaking hilarious!!!   I did a live Tweet last night during both shows and let me tell you, I learned some very interesting things about the fans of R&I.   Things I had no idea about and was so not clued into!   But I love seeing other people’s view points!!  Also on The Closer, I had no idea that Sgt. Gabriel’s first name was David!   Am I that clueless or did none of you ever know his first name either?   I’d NEVER heard Brenda call him anything other than Sgt Gabriel or Gabriel but never David and she used his first name, all the time last night.    Why?   Am I forgetting something significant?   Probably!   Plus I am always the last to know everything!

But great episode of The Closer which will set up the final season in which Brenda has gotten herself in some pretty hot water with the LAPD and may need some help to get out.   Also, how about those last 2 minutes of the episode!!!   Holy Crap I completely didn’t see that coming!!!

As I mentioned it was great to see Jane and Maura back on my screen.  Good case last night and I’m glad they haven’t ignored Jane’s injuries from the season finale.  But I really wish the writers would find something more for her brother to do than just stand up and wave or have 2 lines per episode.  If you’re not going to write for him, don’t have him on the show.  Otherwise, give him a storyline!  And it looks like Mr and Mrs Rizzoli are on the outs.  But I’ll get into that later.    I really have to go!!!!

 

TNT’s Dallas Remake Set for Summer 2012 Premiere

The Cast of TNT's Dallas Remake

Can you hear the theme song?   Can you remember one of the greatest (if not the greatest) TV cliffhangers of all time….Who Shot JR?   Well it’s official guys and it will be premiering in the Summer 2012 on TNT.

Via the official press release, here is some of the information about the remake:

The new DALLAS stars Josh Henderson (90210), Jesse Metcalfe (John Tucker Must Die), Jordana Brewster (Fast & Furious),Julie Gonzalo (Veronica Mars) and Brenda Strong (Desperate Housewives), and they will be joined by iconic stars Patrick Duffy, Linda Gray and Larry Hagman as J.R. Ewing. TNT has ordered 10 episodes of DALLAS, which is slated to premiere in summer 2012.

The original DALLAS aired from 1978 to 1991 and centered on the Ewing family, a cattle and oil dynasty occupying the expansive Southfork Ranch in Texas. A long and bitter rivalry between brothers J.R. Ewing (Hagman) and Bobby Ewing (Duffy) eventually led to J.R. losing control of most of the Ewing industries. In the new DALLAS, this explosive rivalry now lives on through another generation, with the future of the family fortune in the hands of the Ewing offspring: cousins John Ross Ewing (Henderson), the son of J.R. and ex-wife Sue Ellen (Gray), and Christopher Ewing (Metcalfe), the adopted son of Bobby. Brewster stars as Elena, who is involved in a love triangle with Christopher and John Ross. Gonzalo stars as Christopher’s fiancée, Rebecca. And Strong stars as Ann, Bobby’s wife.

TNT will be airing sneak peeks of the new show during tomorrow’s premieres of The Closer and Rizzoli and Isles.  TNT will also have a special website www.dallastnt.com for fans to go and check out video clips and more information about the show leading up to the premiere next summer.

What do you think?   Are you excited about this remake?   I watched the original when I was a little kid (on reruns that is) so I can’t wait for this premiere!  Some remakes have been successful and other have fallen flat on their faces.    So I guess we have to wait and see!

 

The Closer: Does Brenda’s Final Season Spell Trouble for Her or A Huge Loss?

The Closer begins its final run on July 11th and there are some storylines that could be very eye raising for some of us long time fans.

In a recent interview, Kyra Sedgwick mentioned that this season of The Closer (which will begin July 11th this summer and conclude some time next summer) will be about love and loss.   Loss?    What kind of loss?  Is someone significant dying?   Because if Provenza or Flynn die, someone at TNT is going to have a serious problem with me!!!!   Since they will probably be on the spinoff show Major Crimes (I think), I doubt anything will happen to them.  But I wouldn’t put it past the show runners to kill off Chief Pope or Mr. Brenda Leigh Johnson, Fritz.  But it’s possible that the actual “loss” is not a death but something else entirely.

Looking at this from another angle, maybe the term of loss means Brenda’s job or freedom.   According to reports, family members of criminals she has put away or family members of witnesses that have helped solidify arrests who may have been killed, are targeting Brenda for the ways in which she solicits her confessions.  So Brenda is going to need some help.   Enter one of my favorite actors to take on the role of Gavin Baker who is a ruthless and cunning defense attorney…Mark Pellegrino!!!     For those of you who don’t know Pellegrino, do you even watch TV?   I’m kidding.  I kid because I love!!!   Pellegrino has been on some smaller shows you may have heard of like Dexter, Lost, and Supernatural.   He’s fantastic.  Baker will be there to help Brenda through this difficult time in her career where she is attacked for her methods.  Allegedly, if you have a problem and are being sued, this is the guy you want having your back.

I guess my question is what is wrong with her methods?  So she goes in and pretends she’s a secretary sometimes and gets information out of criminals to achieve her goal of confession.  Big deal.  So what if she pretends she is in their corner and pretends to understand and help them to get what she needs to put the bad guys away?   Is that really a source for a legal suit against her?  And I’m asking that question seriously.  I’m not a cop (although I do come from a family of police officers) and I have never been in an actual interrogation.  I know there are laws that protect people from the way cops treat them in interrogation rooms.   But has Brenda ever done anything to warrant possibly losing her position or job or worse going to jail?  I’m not sure.  I know the physical lines you can’t cross but I’m sure about the psychological or mental lines.  Do you think Brenda has crossed a line once or twice?   I guess we shall see.

I’m still upset that this will be the last season of The Closer.   There is something to be said for going out on a high note and if Kyra is ready to move on, I understand that.  But it still sucks.  So I will really enjoy this last season and wait to hear what the spinoff will entail and who will be set for that cast.  I know it’s already been announced that Mary McDonnell will headline the show as Captain Rayder but who else will be joining her from The Closer?   Also, the final six episodes of The Closer that will air next summer, will set up the spinoff’s 10 episodes that will launch immediately following the series finale of The Closer.

Are you guys ready to begin the final season?  Are you sad?  Are you ready to see it go?  Are you looking forward to Major Crimes with Captain Rayder as the main protagonist (although in her case she will more likely be the main antagonist!)

 

QUICK REVIEW: Franklin & Bash “Pilot” S1 E1

Franklin & Bash premiered this week on TNT Wednesday night.  It stars two of my favorite people…Mark-Paul Gosselaar and Breckin Meyer as Peter Bash and Jared Franklin.   They have their own law firm and they also employ a private investigator, Carmen Phillips (played by Dana Davis) and researcher Pindar Singh (played by Kumail Nanjiani).   I wouldn’t go as far to say they are ambulance chasers (even though they did witness an accident and ran over to the one victim looking to attract him as a client) but they do take any case they can without any care or direction.  They end up getting that case and winning while Stanton Infeld (played by Malcolm McDowell) watches in the gallery.  He is one of the senior partners at Infeld Daniels.  Turns out they beat his nephew, Damien Karp (played by Reed Diamond) who is supposedly an up and comer at the law firm of Infeld Daniels.  As a result, Infeld hires them (along with Carmen and Pindar) and an automatic in-house feud between Franklin & Bash and Karp commences.

For summer time shows, I don’t need anything very heavy.  It’s like reading a book.  I can read Dan Brown or Tom Clancy in the winter time because I am ready for something thought-provoking and intense.  But in the summer, give me my James Patterson and Nicholas Sparks.  It’s lighter, it’s easier to follow, and I don’t have to think too much.  I feel that way about my shows too.  Franklin & Bash is one of those shows.  It’s relatively entertaining and incredibly predictable.  It’s characters are pretty standard characters without too much originality.   Bash is a great people person, a ladies man, and everyone loves him plus he’s very good at his job.  But the ladies man does long for the woman he used to have but doesn’t anymore because he screwed it up and now she is engaged to someone else so of course he wants to win her back.  She also happens to be an ADA he fights in court constantly, Janie Ross (played by Claire Coffee.)  Franklin is the wild card, hates authority, doesn’t care what anyone else thinks, wise-cracking best friend and partner of Bash.  It reminds me a lot of The Defenders but without all the smugness.  Plus I am willing to forgive a lot more for summer viewing on an non-major cable TV network than a fall, major network, broadcast TV show.  I really didn’t like The Defenders.  I didn’t like the writing because it felt like they were trying to be a serious law show, defending serious clients, with crack pot, jokes of lawyers in Belushi and O’Connell.   As soon as a law show tries the “our client is innocent because he’s a great guy and we believe him, therefore you should too” defense and they win off of that, the show has lost me.  This show is slightly different in that right now, they aren’t trying to be serious lawyers with serious cases.  They defend car accident defendants who were distracted by naked girls and prostitutes who fell in love with their clients.  This show certainly isn’t trying to be The Practice.  It isn’t taking itself too seriously so that’s why I don’t mind it.

Considering I really enjoy The Closer, Rizzoli & Isles, and HawthoRNe, Franklin & Bash, right now, isn’t as good as those shows are.  But if I have nothing else to watch on Wednesday night and it’s on, I will watch it because I like the cast and I didn’t hate the show.  I’m not going to make a point of DVRing it or making it must see TV this summer, but if it’s on and I’m home, I’ll definitely watch it.