iCarly

  • TVstuff: Fall Season 2007

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    Get those TiVos warmed up, kids, it’s time for some new stuff on the teevee! Here’s a list of what I’m watching or will be watching this fall.

    Doctor Who (SciFi) has been running for several weeks alreadyUnless you’re in the UK, in which case I believe the series has already wrapped. and will probably be wrapping up its third season (or series, for the UK audience) in the next few weeks. I haven’t been terribly impressed by this season, but it’s good enough to keep me watching.

    Who Wants to be a Superhero? (SciFi) has already wrapped up its second season, but I’ve only watched the first episode. Once I’ve watched the whole thing, I’m sure I’ll have something to say about it.

    Eureka (SciFi) isn’t really a Fall show and I’m not sure how long the season will be (10 episodes? 13? 22? I wish.), but the second season has been pretty good so far. It’s the story of, Jack Carter (Colin Ferguson), a U.S. Marshall who moves to a small, Oregon town (from which the show gets its title) that’s really top-secret, government-funded think tank and becomes the new sheriff. Eureka has a Quantum Leap-style “Oh, boy” sense of humor, with Carter consistently in over his head week after week as he must deal with some high-tech experiment gone horribly awry. A couple of plot threads—all somehow connected to the mysterious artifact stored in an uber-high-security level of Eureka’s main underground lab facility—run throughout the episodes, creating an intriguing and enticing storyarc. Good stuff.

    Torchwood (SciFi) premiered on BBCAmerica on Saturday, but I haven’t watched it yet. I know it’s a Doctor Who spinoff featuring Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman) as a former time traveller who becomes a member of The Torchwood Institute, a sort of poor man’s BPRDsee Hellboy.

    iCarly (Nickelodeon) stars Miranda Cosgrove (Drake & Josh, School of Rock) as a 14-year-old girl who starts a web show with her friend, Sam (Jennette McCurdy). I’m not really planning on watching it regularlyWell, probably not. I mean, I might., but I watched the premiere and talked about it on Volcanicast this week so I thought I’d give it a mention.

    Now on to the shows that haven’t premiered yet.

    Journeyman looks like a Quantum Leap clone, but I’m going to tune in to see how Kevin McKidd does, as I’ve heard rumors that he’s going to be in the upcoming Thor movie. I have no idea why McKidd’s character, Dan Vassar, is traveling through time helping people—perhaps his high school guidance counselor suggested it as a vocation—but it’s a tough job and the guys who do it don’t get enough credit.

    Bionic Woman (NBC) is a remake of the 1976 series (starring Lindsay Wagner), which was a spinoff of The Six Million Dollar ManAt one point, there was talk of remaking The Six Million Dollar Man as a comedy film with Jim Carrey in the title role, but that idea seems to have evaporated.. Michelle Ryan, a British actress, plays an upgraded Jaime Sommers, who is bionicized by Miguel Ferrer following a terrible automobile accident. Battlestar Galactica‘s Katee Sackhoff also has a recurring role as an evil Bionic Woman, which should lead to some interesting cat fights battles.

    Moonlight (CBS) is this year’s Blade (or perhaps Kindred: The Embraced); a vampire show that will last one season if it’s lucky. Mick St. John (Alex O’Loughlin) is a vampire private investigator and…that’s all I know. Word on the street is that Moonlight sucks (ha!) and will a poor substitute for the late, lamented The Dresden FilesCome on, SciFi Channel, get your heads out of your collective recta and bring this show back!.

    Reaper (ABC) is a comedy about a guy whose parents sold his soul to the devil before he was born. This is not only questionable from a legal and ethical standpoint, but a total (to quote The Monarch) “dick move”. When he turns 21, Sam (Andrew Airlie) is contractually obligated to become The Devil’s bounty hunter. Much flap has been made about the fact that Kevin Smith (Clerks, Jersey Girl) directed the pilot, but I’m kind of jazzed about Ray Wise (Swamp Thing, Robocop) playing Satan.

    Heroes and Heroes: Origins (NBC). The second season of Heroes begins on 24 September 2007, and the spinoff series, Heroes: Origins, will apparently be shown during the Spring hiatus.We hates the hiatus, doesn’t we, precious? We hates it! While Heroes will apparently pick up where it left off last season, Origins is a six-episode mini-series that will feature the origin story of a different character each week. Oh, and hey! Kevin Smith is writing and directing the first episode! Maybe it’ll be about a guy has the uncanny ability to not even supposed to be here today.

    The Sarah Connor Chronicles (ABC) doesn’t premiere until early 2008, if Wikipedia is to be believed. The spinoff of the Terminator movies stars Lena Headey (300) in the title role and Summer Glau (Serenity, Mammoth) as the latest Terminator sent back in time to protect Connor’s son, John (Thomas Dekker). The series is treading on some tricky terrain, as it seems poised to directly contradict events from T2: Judgment Day and/or T3: Something About Erect Machines.

    And that about does it, unless I’m overlooking something. Oh, I also plan to catch Tin Man, a mini-series premiering in December on SciFi. It’s a retelling of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz starring Zooey Deschanel (The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy) as DG, Dorothy Gale; Alan Cumming (X2: X-Men United) as Glitch, the scarecrow; Raoul Trujillo (FrankenfishTimeline) as Cain, the titular tin man. SciFi appears to be giving Tin Man the same type of treatment they gave their Dune mini-series, rather than treating it like one of their schlocky Saturday movies, so it could be pretty good.