Tag: Television

Lay Down Your Burdens / Who’s Next.

Those of you who care already know this — but still, the second season of Battlestar Galactica ends tonight with a 90-minute episode that includes cylon Dean Stockwell, a one year flash-forward, and a new Vichy-like storyline for Season 3, which begins airing in October. And The Sopranos Season Six isn’t the only big-ticket TV premiere coming up. March 17 is shaping up to be a doozy for the fanboy nation (particularly we anglophiles), as Guy Fawkes will be muscling in on St. Patrick in V for Vendetta and the Doctor will finally be returning to American television with a two-hour premiere on Sci-Fi.

The Bled and the Whacked.

“What Chase has heard from actors is lots of special requests: Don’t let me die a snitch; massacre me; spare me so I can spin off the character for another show. The campaigning never works.” With the return of The Sopranos this Sunday, the Post remembers the fallen, and Chris Moltisanti gets a promotion.

Freedom of…D’oh!

Here’s a depressing civics poll: While one in five Americans (22%, doesn’t that seem low?) could name the five members of the Simpsons family (Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, Maggie…but you knew that), only 1 in 1000 could name the five rights protected in the First Amendment (religion, speech, press, assembly, petition), and only a measly 8% could name even three of them. I got all five in both, but, then again, in the inimitable words of Marge Simpson: “Don’t make fun of grad students, Bart. They just made a poor life decision.“

Soprano Sings.

“Mr. Chase said the show has, on occasion, ‘indirectly heard’ from real-life mobsters. ‘After about four episodes,’ Mr. Chase said, ‘we heard, “You’re O.K.” With one caveat: “We got word about those barbecue scenes where Jim would wear shorts. A don does not wear shorts.”‘” On the eve of Sopranos Season 6 (the penultimate season, to be followed with an eight-episode coda), series creator David Chase and star James Gandolfini have a sit-down with the NYT.

The Most Dangerous Game.

Will these terrorists stop at nothing? As you may have heard, an evildoer tried to jump our Vice-President yesterday deep in the South Texas woods. (Well, either that, or Cheney botched a hit, a la Christopher and Paulie on The Sopranos.) At any rate, both veep and alleged perp/target (Harry Whittington, a millionaire attorney) are doing fine (notwithstanding the whole being shot thing), and, for what it’s worth, Scalia got the message. Update: Dick Cheney, Hunter-Stonewaller.

No More Toshi Station / Maeby We’ll Meet Again.

R.I.P. Phil Brown 1916-2006, who withstood the blacklist and is best remembered as Uncle Owen. (He joins Aunt Beru, who passed in 2000 (9/14).) And, also in unhappy news, farewell to the Bluths, who’ve gone the way of all good and tragically misunderstood television families…for now.

Banner Days.

Sorry for the lack of updates around here of late — I’ve been using the blog-time to redesign the old headers above, as well as add quite a few more to the rotation. (It was something vaguely productive that I could accomplish while TV-binging to get up to date on Battlestar Galactica — the thinking man’s gritty post-9/11-traumatic stress disorder sci-fi shoot-em-up — for a few nights.) At any rate, keep an eye out for new faces.