TV Wasteland

Hayden Panettiere as Claire Bennet on Heroes
© NBC

Get an Early Heroes Fix!

By: Stephen Lackey
Date: Sunday, April 08, 2007

One of the best series on television, Heroes, is still a few weeks away from its return but if you’re jonzing for a fix NBC has posted two sneak peaks up at their website. The first one features Thompson and Bennett as Thompson tries different methods of determining Claire’s whereabouts. The second clip is much more interesting as it introduces a new hero. So, if you’re the type to avoid any spoilers I’d stay away from this one. If you haven’t jumped on the Heroes bandwagon yet then now’s a good time. Right now on the NBC website you can view all 18 of the Heroes episodes with limited interruption. Die hard fans may also want to check out the episodes with full length cast commentaries. If you just want a refresher they still have those 2 minute recaps. There’s a lot on the Heroes sight to dig into including the online graphic novel and blogs. Hopefully these little teases will keep us from getting the shakes before April 23^rd when the show returns. To get in the game head on over to http://www.nbc.com/Heroes/

It’s sad to see some series already coming to an end, we lost Prison Break last week and most other favorites will be finishing up this month and next. Fortunately more networks are getting on the summer season bandwagon with more than just reality series. While it isn’t summer yet Fox’s new series Drive is still a really late bloomer and it’s one of my picks for this week. Other than that I’m excited for LOST, which I can’t say enough about how great it has been this spring, and The Sopranos. While I haven’t followed the Stargate series since it left Showtime it’s good to see original programming on SCIFI on Friday nights again with the return of Stargate SG-1 for its final season and Stargate Atlantis. Last year between watching new series on television I caught up with the Buffy series and now I’m considering doing the same with Stargate. Is it worth a look?

Monday

FUTURE WEAPONS (DSC, 9:00pm PST) “Massive Attack”

The Massive Ordinance Penetrator is a heavy weapon that can destroy targets 100 feet underground. There’s also coverage of a multi grenade launcher too!

24 (FOX, 9:00pm PST) “Day 6 10:00PM to 11:00 PM”

Palmer launches a nuclear strike and Jack interrogates Fayed. Hopefully this episode will be good….

Tuesday

HOUSE (FOX, 9:00pm PST) “Airborne”

House has to help the passengers on a flight that all seem to be getting sick with meningitis, including Cuddy.

THE UNIT (CBS, 9:00pm PST) “In Loco Parentis”

The Unit works with a local SWAT team to free hostages from a school shooting situation.

Wednesday

JERICHO (CBS, 8:00pm PST) “A.K.A.”

Hawkins and Jake face off as Jake grills Hawkins about his past and Hawkins reveals the nuclear bomb plot to him.

LOST (ABC, 10:00pm PST) “One of Us”

Jack brings an Other with him back to camp to the chagrin of his fellow castaways.

MEDIUM (NBC, 10:00pm PST) “1-900-Lucky”

Allison’s brother, a phone hotline psychic, helps a customer whose husband was killed. This episode is directed by David Arquette brother of the series lead Patricia Arquette.

Thursday

THE OFFICE (NBC, 8:00pm PST) “Safety Training”

For safety training day Michael and Dwight attempt to expose all workplace dangers to the staff. Andy returns from his anger management course determined to start fresh with his co-workers.

CSI: CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATION (CBS, 9:00pm PST) “Lab Rats”

Hodges convinces the other lab rats that Grissom wants them to investigate the miniature murders while the CSI’s are in the field investigating other crimes.

Friday

RAINES (NBC, 8:00pm PST) “9^th Step”

Raines investigates the death of his friend’s wife who was found with an Aryan nation symbol on her chest.

STARGATE SG-1 (SCIFI, 8:00pm PST) “The Quest”

The team encounters a fire breathing dragon during their search for the Sangreal, Merlin’s long lost weapon against the Ori.

STARGATE ATLANTIS (SCIFI, 9:00pm PST) “The Return”

The team tries to rescue General O’Neil and Richard Woolsey during the Asuran occupation of the outpost.

Saturday

SHARK TALE (ABC, 8:00pm PST)

Will Smith voices a shark in this animated film that takes credit for the accidental death of a shark that’s in the mob getting Will in over his head so to speak.

THE PLAGUE (SCIFI, 9:00pm PST)

Children who had been stricken with a coma mysteriously awaken 10 years later with otherworldly powers.

Sunday

THE SOPRANOS (HBO, 9:00pm PST) “Stage 5”

The premiere of “Cleaver” gets Tony thinking about his relationship with Christopher: Johnny Sack gets more bad news while in prison; Phil analyses his family history; Silvio’s dinner with Gerry is rudely interrupted.

DRESDEN FILES (SCIFI, 10:00pm PST) “Second City”

Harry investigates the strange death of a gang member.

DRIVE (FOX, 8:00pm PST) “The Starting Line Partners”

A seemingly random group of citizens is chosen to participate in an underground cross country road race. This premiere movie covers the start of the first leg with all of the drivers meeting in Florida. The series was created by a producer from Firefly and stars Nathan Filion.

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Comments/Responses

mallet • Apr 08, 2007, 02:20am •

Didn't they learn from Wonderfalls and Firefly? Never, ever, put a new show on FOX.

I mean I want Drive to be good and to get picked up and at least last for a few seasons (fuck, even one season would be better then what the other shows these guys tried to do got), but as of now I don't plan on watching it.

What's the point? It will be canceled by FOX in a few weeks and the whole thing will be out on DVD by summer. I'll just watch it all then.

Much better then getting into a new show and have the network pull the plug a few weeks in.

daforce • Apr 08, 2007, 04:26am •

Stargate SG-1 is worth a look up to the point when Richard Dean Anderson leaves the show. Ben Browden's addition to the show completely killed it since he plays the same frickin' character wherever he goes....dull.

jppintar326 • Apr 08, 2007, 11:44am •

I have to disagree wit daforce. I think Richard Dean Anderson was phoning it in toward the end and a new lead was necessary. Since the show is so close to the end, you might as well jump in all the way.

necroskippy • Apr 08, 2007, 12:29pm •

Stargate SG-1 is definitely worth watching up until the end of S8 which is where the series came to it's natural end. I love Matt Browder and Claudia Black but even they weren't able to save it.

Captmathman • Apr 08, 2007, 09:57pm •

SG-1 is by now an important landmark in genre television. I'd say it's gone well beyond "worth a look" status, to must view.
That said, it is certainly well past it's prime. The writers fell into a big vat of laughing gas a few seasons ago, and started cranking out episode after episode of in-jokes and gags. The series began with a dark and mysterious tone, but by now, it's about as foreboding as a particularly eerie "Pigs In Space," in which Link and Piggy are held hostage by the evil Ori. What ever will Dr. Strangepork do?

bdd • Apr 08, 2007, 10:54pm •

The writers of Stargate have shown they do not know what they are doing and are completely out of ideas since Daniel Jackson's return in season 7. Atlantis and the very last episode of SG-1 will show that.

And I hate Shark Tail, one of if not the worse animation movie I have seen.

mbeckham1 • Apr 09, 2007, 10:58am •

Loved Fillion in Slither he was hilarious, and obviously Firefly and Serenity to that.So i have high hopes for Drive, for as long as Fox allows it to run at least.

Stargate SG-1 at it's best can be very good.
And it's always fun.

It never quite reached the genius of Farscape, B5, or the Whedon Trinity(Buffy, Angel and Firefly).

BTW if you haven't run through the Angel series yet, you really oughta check it out.

The first three seasons were really their best. Alot of the first season was planet of week stuff, but they had some quite clever ideas there. And through all the first three they have some solid character work.

Former enemy soldier T'ealc his family and his mission to free his people.

O'[Neal's son's tragic death and his resulting divorce(before the series began) are adressed.

Daniel's wife and O'Neal's frirend (and sort of suurrogate son) are taken over by the evil alien parasites giving the two added motivation.

Sam Carter's half super-science nerd/half tough and diciplined soldier makes for good stuff.

Season Four they started getting some alliances together and started fighting back. Which provided some good momentum but took away some of the eminent disaster edge.

Five slipped into killing a Goa'uld(evil alien parasite) a week and began to border o self parody.

Six did well to throw a new charactrer in the mix, but were over burdened with Earth politics and conspiracy eps which tend nt to be their best. And the new guy while good never quite got as interesting as the mostly absent Daniel.

Season seven goes back to planet of the week after the premier left them without a credible big bad, this had mixed results. It was often fun but few episodes seemed really important.

In Season Eight problem persisted. Good ideas but none of it seemed to lead anywhere.

Season Nine was actually pretty good. I'll that Ben Browder's character was underdeveloped and not really given much to be except a straight up soldier, that's been remedied a bit in the currrent season. And RDA obviously needed a break. But Claudia Black and the roguish wit of Vala brought some much needed reative vitality back to the series. And gives Daniel the best foil he's had since O'Neill made general.

Also after two or three rather aimless seasons. Season Nine has finally prvided a credible successor to Goa'uld threat. I know I'm in the minority here. But the Ori povide an enemy whose threat is presold to stargate viewers familiar with ascension. And adds a new direction in terms of mytho as they now explore the history of the Ancients and its links to Athrurian lore.

Episodes like The Powers That Be showed the potential themes of religious mystery and desperate peoples that could fuel many story lines, as well as a establishing their "plagues and miracles" tactics and Crusade shows the culture produced by centuries of their oppression in their home galaxy.

The only problem I have witjh the Ori, is that in the first half of season 10 the many potential dramatic stories they layed the ground work for have been unused or underused.

Things like Tomin, Vala's husband from the Ori galaxy, now a soldier in their armies conflicted by his love for her.

And Adria Vala's daughter, genetically engineered by the Ori to lead their armies.

The potential of that conflicted relationship was touched on in Counterstrike probably the best episode of the season so far, and Morena Baccarin playes the role with both frihghtening menace and strange touch of the sympathetic.

Unfortunately we've had too many stand alone's in between. And while I welcome the chace to get to know the new characters played by Beau Bridges, Ben Browder and Claudia Black. Now that the series finally has somewhere to go again I'd like to see it focus more on getting there, while developing the characters.

The Powers That Be(S9)and Counterstrike(S10) both advanced the Ori storyline they also gave new dimension and vulnerability to the character of Vala, brilliantly played by Claudia Black, and her relationship with Daniel.

More of those caliber epiodes this last half season and they'll go out winners making people wonder why they were cancelled when they finally got their mojo back.

GeneD • Apr 09, 2007, 11:41am •

I agree with mbeckham1. "Stargate SG1," if not as intense or tightly plotted as "Farscape" and "Firefly," has joined the ranks of "Highlander: the Series" and "Buffy: the Vampire Slayer" in terms of being a long-running and well-developed show based on a genre movie. It's professional military characters (in contrast to the basket cases on the revisionist "Battlestar Galactica"), season-long story arcs balanced with one-off episodes (rather than all of one or the other), and relatively light, optimistic tone harken back to the best of the "Star Trek" franchise, IMHO. Yes, there have been weak points in the show's 10-year run, but few space operas get to that point.

karas1 • Apr 09, 2007, 03:41pm •

SG-1 is definately worth your time. As mbeckham1 said, it is always fun. And it doesn't take itself so deadly seriously as some scifi shows do. Like most shows, it has some really great eps and some total clunkers but most of the eps are inbetween, on the high side of inbetween IMHO.

As for Ben Browder, it's true that Mitchell isn't one of the greatest characters of all time, but that's not because of Browder's acting skills. Mitchell hasn't been written as a really compelling character. But then there is so much happening on the show that character stuff has fallen by the wayside in favor of advancing the plot and lots of cool fx.

I feel that Atlantis, which started out slowly, is surpassing it's parent show. It's highly entertaining and I encourage you to check it out as well.

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