2 Irish Geeks And A TV

2IGTV Episode 52

In our first Mega-Monthly episode we've got so much stuff that we'll never fit it all into this post... ...but we'll try:
Bad news for Brett Ratner fans, good news for sane people. God is assembling Star Wars writers to bring his religion to Television. AT&T attempt daylight robbery. Tara Reid ain't stupid like Hilton and Lohan. A release date is set for Wolverine but Bubba Nosferatu falls off our radar. Turok to returns and both the Green Lantern and Max Payne are coming to Hollywood. Stallone to butcher a sacred franchise and more news on the WGA strike and it's bleak future.
All this and much more, PLUS an announcement you've all been waiting for: we've given into your incessant demands.

Grab it here.

HEROES - Not what it was!

Heroes came upon us in 2006 as one of the freshest and unique TV shows we had ever seen. The cliffhanger each week kept everyone who enjoyed it in anticipation of the next episode. Who couldn't live in fear of the evil Mr. Bennet? - true evil didn't need a superpower! Who couldn't laugh at Hiro and his bizarre antics? And what male could not have fantasized about Claire even though she's only seventeen or something?

While the show had plenty of action, some very cool special effects and extraordinary acting talent, these were all secondary in comparison to the exceptional storyline, that while exceedingly complex; never seemed to loose itself like say.. Lost, ironically!

I will say that I wasn't 100% impressed with the final episode but that couldn't have prevented it from taking it's place as my favourite show, knocking Battlestar Galactica off it's perch (although a light breeze would have done that to BSG after it's woeful 3rd season). I also regret to inform you that my disappointment has carried over into Season 2 of Heroes. It's like NBC realised they have a hit on their hands and now don't have a fucking clue what to do with it beyond it's one-year plan. Gone is the level of anticipation of the next episode that was there and the storyline is not up to the pace and level of it's previous year.

***SPOILER WARNING*** Don't read past here if you've not seen Heroes Season 2. Now I've stomached a lot of stereotypical depictions of Ireland over my years of watching US TV, but so far in Heroes Season 2 I've seen stuff I've not seen since the days of Murder She Wrote when Jessica Fletcher was supposed to be in Ireland and the Garda Inspector was played by Harvey from Cagney & Lacey!!! Now I have no problem with the awful generic Irish accents spoken in the Bars and Docklands of "Cork" during Peter's story arc (and you all know they sound nothing like our own true Cork accents), but what I don't get is what little research went into the Cork setting.
-"30 L 90000" was a number plate on a parked car, this would have been the 90000th car registered in Co.Limerick in the year 1930 - was there even 90000 cars in the whole USA back then? Let alone Co. Limerick!
-Nowhere I've been in Ireland does steam come out of manhole covers in the road. This would cause a panic and the Army would be called in to investigate. When on holiday in New York I even took some photos of this phenomenon to show people back home that this actually happens and it's not just a special effect in movies!!
-No pub anywhere in Cork City is ever that empty.
-No Private Security Guards are licensed to carry guns, even our own police force don't carry guns.
-At least they got the amount of rain almost right- it's been raining for the past three episodes stopping only on order not to get Kristen Bell's hair wet.

Despite this, Heroes Season 2 is still substandard and not what I was hoping for. There has been some minor rumblings towards a plot in 5th/6th episodes (and thankfully they've left "Cork" and gone to Montreal (if you live in Montreal please tell us how inaccurate it is) but only time will tell if this pans out. They have an awful lot of work to do if they want to see their series last.

I must also report that NBC has dropped the Heroes: Origins mini-series that actually seemed like a stupid idea to begin with. It's not been officially shit-canned but it most likely won't happen according to insiders. It's unclear if it was the drop in ratings for Season 2 or the impending writers strike is the cause.

-The Colonel

Strike!

The votes are in and the Writers Guild of America go on strike at 12:01am on Monday.

Where do I a rampant capitalist fall on all this? Well after listening to the media companies report massive earnings for the last quarter not paying writers for their work when it's distributed via new mediums such as the Internet is shameful.

As viewers lets look at the immediate damage.

The movie pipeline is pretty full right into 2008 so that drip feed of sub-par movies we've been experiencing will continue. Television is where we're going to get stung. Animated shows (Simpsons, South Park) have such a long development process they'll all continue as there's a mountain of episodes in production but shows such as The Daily Show, Conan O'Brien, Leno, Letterman and so on feel the pinch immediately.

Those joke writers won't be reporting for work on Monday.

24 has only about a third of season seven filmed. With the strike starting on Monday and running until whenever, FOX are now in the uncomfortable position of going ahead with the January air date then stopping when they run out of episodes or putting the pilot on hold until the strike resolves and cranking up production again so they can run it weekly.

When you look at the Reality TV garbage on FOX you'd think they'd be able to weather any strike easily. That might work for American Idol but it doesn't work for the most patriotic show on US TV. This strike could make the long delayed and not altogether bad Sarah Connor Chronicles since a lot of FOX's competitors will start running out of new episodes as that show just starts up.

A raft of other workhorse scripted dramas are all just going to dry up and blow away. The longer they're off the air the harder it is to get viewers watching again and that'll kill them off.

We're going to see shows just stop in the middle of plot lines and then be replaced with knock offs of America's Next Top Model and Big Brother so if there's anything you always wanted to see but haven't yet watched I'd advise you ask for the DVD box sets this Christmas.

It will be a dull TV winter my friends.