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What We're Watching Update

We know, we know, we haven’t been updating that much this summer but we’ve been trying to save our blogging juices for the new season. We’ve also trimmed our viewing habit’s a bit. “Eureka” is back on my list of must watch shows despite the conspiracy theories underlying the campy plots. “Doctor Who’s” new season is excellent. “Burn Notice” is a favorite “detective” show now as well and even “Monk” and “Psych” are back on my list of DVRed musts. Surprisingly, all five of those shows are NBC properties.

The Other Half and I watch mostly reality shows with “Top Chef,” “Rock of Love,” “Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares” (the BBC version) and “Hell’s Kitchen” being chief among them. “Entourage” is still a favorite and we’re slowly getting through “Mad Men.”

Bummers of the summer season have been “John From Cincinnati,” “Flash Gordon” and “America’s Got Talent.”

We’re really looking forward to the fall season heating up though and will have pilot reviews soon. Of course, NBC didn’t send us screeners this year. Wonder why…

Sci-Fi Channel: Why No HD?

After four house calls to Comcast to get my HD channels fixed (long story but it was a line issue despite the last Comcast guy telling me it was my HD DVR box, which was brand new) I’m a bit perplexed at why more channels aren’t in HD. Once you get the service and have a big TV you don’t want to watch anything else. After a week with limited HD access I was jonesing for its return but of course was still able to watch the new episode of BSG Friday because Sci Fi is not in HD. 

I just listened to a podcast with Ronald D. Moore, exec producer of “Battlestar Gallactica,” and he said they film the show in HD and obviously they release everything on DVD, so why isn’t the one channel almost perfectly made for HD broadcasting in HD?

Maybe I’m wrong but does anyone get Sci-Fi in HD? If so where in the nation and what cable/satellite provider? Is this worth a petition to NBC corporate? As you know Zucker loves us and I’m sure he’d listen to a reasonable complaint.

And no, the channel doesn’t answer the question on its FAQ. I think having Sci Fi in HD would be a huge plus for it. The original programming is right up there with F/X and USA. Oh wait, those aren’t in HD either. This is almost as big a mistake as the CW not making its shows available on iTunes. 

Image altered to look as crappy as I think regular Sci Fi looks on my TV.

Battlestar Gallactica: Season Premiere

Friday night everyone left me alone for some reason. Perhaps it was because I was entrenched in two hours of sci-fi television. For those not familiar with the show, and after constant media coverage of its third season how could you not be, “Battlestar Gallactica” is a revision of the original that is expertly made and looks and feels like a major movie production.

I won’t do a straight recap because I find those boring. Going into the night I was unsure of how the writers would pickup from last season’s cliffhanger of an ending that accelerated the show’s timeline a full year in one episode. How does a show that took an entire hour to focus on one day suddenly skip an entire year? Anyway…

Media Musings

The cover story for this week’s Entertainment Weekly was on one of my favorite shows, “Battlestar Gallactica.” There were six pages of coverage on the show, characters, side-stories you name it. The theme of the main story was about the show needing a larger audience to ensure its survival as if poor ratings were as nasty as frackin’ Cylons. My beef with the coverage? In all those pages, thousands of words, side-bars, photo captions etc., they don’t mention when the season premiere is!

“House” is a great show, if you’re not watching it you really are missing out on one of the better hour-long programs on TV. I like “Bones” too. Fox has some good programming almost every night of the week. All of it is being thrown out the window from now until the end of the World Series. When is that, like Thanksgiving? I’m a sports fan and it was cool to watch a Chicago team win after a few hundred years in ’05, but with no teams worth watching for me do I have to sacrifice new episodes until the leaves change? What a pain. And don’t forget what days your favorites are on either, or when they’ll reappear folks. What’s that? You probably will? Fox doesn’t seem to care. And I bet new episodes of “House” outdraw any playoff games that don’t feature the New York Yankees.

Eureka: A TiVo Review

Why has the site been so slow lately? Real life has taken hold and forced us out of our home the past few nights to enjoy socializing, live sports and other commitments. TV got bumped down the list, even a new debut like "Eureka" on Sci Fi Channel was relegated to TiVo status. Since it was a two-hour debut it was a wise move for so many commercials.

First impression was I liked it. All the characters were certainly colorful. I mean a show that puts together Max Headroom (Matt Frewer) and Richard Fish (Greg Germann) – I know he’s been replaced for the series but still -- has something going for it. The lead, a U.S. Marshall, is played by Colin Ferguson who may finally step out of the has-been bin of TV with this one. He’s pretty good and has a decent mix of charm and humor. Kind of like a better looking Fox Mulder.

The premise is a bit odd as you’d expect from a show called Eureka. A town in the middle of America is home to the world’s most brilliant scientists and a super-secret lab they all work in. In the Pilot one rogue scientist almost unravels time. The overruling concept is that the street-wise U.S. Marshall can actually be as smart as the brainiest of geeks. Or he can at least figure out crimes or bizarre situations more easily.

There are definitely some twists and a fun drinking game would be to spot all the character actors from decades of TV in this show. Are you interested in watching the pilot now? Well the SciFi channel is airing the entire pilot on its website. Commercial free. I didn’t even need TiVo! And it’s even worth your time. Anyone that gets away with watching all two hours of the pilot at work today has to comment below.

Sci Fi’s New Shows

Sorry we’ve been neglecting the site, we were actually on a much needed summer vacation. I know, two days off isn’t really a summer vacation but for us it was like two weeks. So when we got back this struck our eyes. The Sci Fi channel has announced a slate of new shows for development and some may prove interesting while others sound tired. Either way Sci Fi looks to be flexing its post-“Battlestar Gallactica” muscle. As we wait for the debut of “Eureka!” tomorrow night, we dissect this slew of new shows.

There’s no new "Stargate" series (Yay!), but we wonder how many good series we’ll find that will be abandoned like “The Invisible Man.”