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Recently, I stumbled upon the pilot episode of the first three of these TV shows though Comcast's On Demand. I felt I would want to toss my opinion on these shows and also plug my newest favorite show, Supernatural.
First up, Journeyman. This TV show features Jason McKidd, most notably from HBO's series Rome (Lucious Verenus), as Dan Vasser. He seems a fairly normal decent guy, good job, wife that loves him, son that thinks his dad is the best. On the night of his anniversary, he starts having dreams about the past and past experiences. When he wakes up, his life catches up to him, saying that he was missing and gone for extended periods of time. Good ole Dan puts 2 and 2 together rather quickly and realizes he's going back in time, though, no one believes him, and each time he goes back in time, he's put in a situation revolving the same person and something he needs to correct.
Yeah, ok, so it's not as if that premise hasn't been done before. The real strength of the show is how this seemingly random travels through time affects his personal life if anything. The pilot hints that theres more going on than just seemless time travel, but we'll have to see. I recommend watching this.
Chuck. Hmmm. What can I say about Chuck? It's the age old take a funny guy and put him in a serious situation where he doesn't actualy belong formula. The action isn't all that actiony. The comedy isn't all that funny. The romance is awkwardly uncomfortable. And yet I'm intrigued by this trainwreck of a pilot. The pilot sucked, however, it hints that at least the 2nd episode won't be terrible. The downfall of this show is I feel as if some overall story arch is going to take place that's going to bore me. Oh, and the comedy isn't all that funny. Have I mentioned that already? Oh, I see I have. I'd recommend watching this only if you want to see how things get put in motion. Otherwise, wait for the second episode, and see if THAT interests you. Otherwise, pass.
Bionic Woman. Well, they up'ed the price to 50 million from the traditional 6. I mean, who wants a 6 million dollar woman anyway? So many viruses, horrible operating system, can never get anything done in less than an hour. In any case, the pilot for Bionic Woman is intriguing. Well, let me rephrase that. If the idea of a woman who got seriously injured and had the majority of her body parts replaced by her top secret scientist boyfiend with super high tech prosthetics, all the while balancing the "normal" life of taking care of her younger sister with the life of a killing machine with a highly complicated story arch intrigues you, then you'll like the pilot. Otherwise, I don't know if you'd quite "get it".
In anycase, it's not bad. It's not "super OMG, I need the DVD set" good yet, though." I'd say if you are vaguely intrigued, watch it, for nothing else other than some pretty cool BSG actor cameo's.
Supernatural, or, where the heck have I been?! So thanks to a fellow Hatracker, we got the DVD set for the first season of this show at Target for 20 bucks, one of the cheapest prices I've paid for an entire season where I've never seen a single episode. It was quite possibly the best value I've spent on TV shows on DVD. It's a show that makes references to paranormal pop culture, including many references to the X-Files themselves. The comedy is the best part of it, but even then, the action is so perfectly blended with the humor and you really end up caring about the characters.
If you want to try something new for a DVD collection, like anything about the X-Files, and you got 20-30 bucks, find season 1 of Supernatural and buy it.
Anyway, anyone else seen these yet?
Posts: 9754 | Registered: Jul 2002
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Journeyman = I fell asleep, but the wife liked it. I was having a rough day that day.
Chuck = I watched it and liked it. Not as much when I rewatched it with the wife. She liked it well enough. She was having a rough day that day.
Bionic Woman = Bad acting. I'll give it one, maybe two, more eps. I don't watch BSG so the cameos don't mean much to me.
Supernatural = Haven't seen it. The wife is looking forward to it.
Side note: What is with all of the pilots coming out before the season starts. We are watching the NBC shows on-demand without commercials. Wouldn't this take away from viewership for the premier when the advertisers are watching? Do they count the people who get them on-demand prior to the premier for the total viewership?
Posts: 1766 | Registered: Feb 2006
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No idea on your side note. Personally, I think it is a matter of word of mouth. I personally can't count the number of times where I've had an hour to kill with nothing on. I wasn't planning on using any DVR space for these shows, but then, I saw it on On Demand, figured there were no commercials, with about 2.5 hours to burn and figured "what they hey." It was really the no commercials that sold me on watching all of them. Otherwise, I would have just watch Journeyman.
As such, here I am, online, telling people before it premeirs that it's worth watching. People who don't have On Demand might watch, and I'll gladly use DVR space to record it. For the most part, I think it was a rather smart move. Cable companies probably spent some money to get that content to attract/maintain customers, it generates word of mouth before it premeirs, and it gets people to at least WATCH the show.
I think it's pretty much a grab at the people who don't have DVR's to watch their content when it airs by having someone tell them they liked it.
Anyway, good luck on Supernatural. Just finished Season 2 after only getting Season 1 2 weeks ago.
Posts: 9754 | Registered: Jul 2002
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What nathan neglects to mention is that we finished watching all of Supernatural Season Two in two days.
Posts: 14745 | Registered: Dec 1999
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Of those three pilots I thought that Bionic Woman was the weakest. I thought Chuck showed some promise and overall I enjoyed the pilot. I really liked Journeyman.
I'll probably check out the next episodes of all three of these shows.
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Similar to your late discovery of Supernatural, My wife and I just watched season 1 of Criminal Minds in about 5 days (we also watched the first episode of season 2 due to the cliffhanger ending of s1). This show is great but intense.
I've also just started The 4400 (1 more episode of season 1) and I've been enjoying it.
I've been meaning to check out Supernatural based on the few episodes I have seen here and there as well.
I watch way too many T.V. shows.
Posts: 1336 | Registered: Mar 2002
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quote:Originally posted by Lisa: Did you watch the miniseries before you watched season 1? Of The 4400, I mean.
I don't know. The season I am watching is 5 episodes (or 6, the first was a double episode). It seems likely that this is the miniseries as it started with people going missing and then the "comet" appearing.
Wikipedia seems to call this both a miniseries and season 1 so I think I started at the right spot.
Posts: 1336 | Registered: Mar 2002
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