UpDated 7-2-09

Last year at the 2008 San Diego Comic-Con, the event was ruled by several big named movies that ranged from youthful vampires to illegal vigilantes.  TV was more a side-note than anything else.

This year at the 2009 Comic-Con, things will be a bit different as television programming seems to have a bigger presence than last year.

For instance, the Warner Brothers Television Group will have 11 different panels for their shows.  That’s a studio best for them.  ABC Studios will have 7 panels.  20th Century Fox will have 9 panels.

Do you think your favorite television show will be represented?

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Today in Screen Rant’s weekly TV Wrap Up, we have some great casting news for 24, we’ll be talking about David Carradine’s appearance in Fox’s new show Mental and we also have some Heroes casting news, the possibility that My Name Is Earl may be getting new legs, some news on Ghost Whisperer, The Sarah Connor Chronicles coming to DVD and a bit about Futurama’s, err, future.

We’ll wrap it up with ratings from last week.  This week in the ratings section, I thought I’d try something new and toss in some cable viewer numbers.

24 Casting News

The cast for the upcoming 8th season of 24 is growing ever so slowly, but surely.

Jennifer Westfeldt has been cast in the recurring role of an ambitious journalist named Meredith Reed.

This ambitious journalist has connections to a Middle East leader who is in the U.S. on a peacemaking mission, named Arman Hashemi.  Hashemi will be played by Anil Kapoor (Slumdog Millionaire).

Normally, I come away from a show with a critical eye towards issues or angles that distract me from the main plot, yet this seventh season of 24 and its finale came at us with a new sense of energy, focus and desperation that I don’t remember feeling before. I also found myself hating not one, but two characters from the show while being shown a side of Jack Bauer that I was not used to seeing.  That was unique and somewhat disturbing.

This year we had no CTU and Jack had to work as a cooperative consultant for the FBI (imagine a consultant that’s one of the most dangerous men alive!).  We did get to see some of our CTU favorites but in unique scenarios.

You’ll see why after the break, where the SPOILERS are hiding.  You’ve been warned.

It’s Thursday and I hope that April 15th didn’t treat you too harshly yesterday. Whether it did or not, I’m still here to razz or rant on some stuff that’s happening in and around the tube.

Stargate Universe

As if this is a surprise to Stargate fans, but Stargate Universe will be having a few notable guest stars in the form of a few veterans reprising their Stargate SG-1 roles.

Yep, you read that right.

Due to technical difficulties beyond my control, the digital dog ate my homework. Or, I had to write this article twice! The digital dog just sounds more light-hearted than what the second line implies. Enough about my woes with technological gremlins.

There wasn’t a ton of news to report or snark on this week, so I had to dig up enough to make this yet another interesting read. Well, at least I think it is! I do have a few snippets that might be spoilers for The Office (Guest appearance) and Lost (Possible finale shoot notes).

Shall we get on with it?

Hello Screen Rant readers. There isn’t a lot of TV stuff going on, but I did manage to dig up some noise on a few things. Namely some info on the upcoming Caprica DVD, Tin Man, The Mentalist, Dollhouse, Heroes and ER.

Let’s get to it.

So it’s finally really begun again - another riveting season (7) of Fox TV’s 24.

Less than two months ago we were given the “Day 7″ teaser called 24: Redemption, which gave some backstory for what will happen over the next 24 hours (Jack Bauer time). I stated in the comments on that post that it looks like the show has recovered from its “jump the shark” season 6 and seems to be back in fine form.

And tonight’s two hour season premiere continues the “24 is BACK” feeling.

24: Redemption is the prequel to 24: Day 7. It’s also the gift to us, the viewers, for having to wait for the next season of 24 for such a long period of time.

In Redemption we meet a collection of characters as this prequel takes place between the hours of 3 and 5PM.

The 2008 Presidential election is finally behind us and I think it’s time for a little levity after all the anger and angst. I must confess how stunned I am to see so many people reveling in a victory that–if we are being truly honest with ourselves–must be accredited to one man in particular:

That’s right folks, I am referring to former U.S. President, David Palmer.

The cursed writers strike affected a lot of shows last year and is even partly to blame for the cancellation of some of them. Fox’s 24 was not immune to those effects

Before the writers strike occurred, Fox already had their own “issues.” No, not the usual ones (well, maybe the usual ones) - there was discord in the Fox house as to where they were going to film 24… since the original script for season 7 called for shooting in Africa. Africa was deemed too expensive on production costs. <<- Remember that: It - was - too - costly - to - go - to - Africa.

Once they decided not to shoot in Africa, the show underwent a major rewrite. During the rewrite, a new schedule was being looked at - but timing issues and the writers’ strike came down the pike to throw the production yet another curve ball.

After we got robbed of season 7 of 24 because of the writers strike, word has come down that Fox is going to produce a two-hour TV movie that helps bridge the two year gap between seasons 6 and 7 (not to be confused with the rumored theatrical film). All right!

I’m a late bloomer to 24, having started during season 6. I would watch each episode while also watching eps from season 5. Yeah, things got a bit confusing (which terrorist is this? Nukes or chemical weapons?), but I couldn’t stop watching! It was fantastic. By the way, season 5 was some of the best TV I’ve ever seen, and I’m not much of a TV guy.

Though season 6 ended, in my mind, at episode 18 or so, it was still a solid, if uneven, one. I’m gonna start going through the other seasons to catch up.

Anyway, back to the TV movie and season 7.

Click to continue "Is 24 Really Postponed Until 2009?"

My personal opinions have me on the side of the writers in regards to the current WGA writers’ strike situation. The studios have got to be kidding when they cry “we can’t afford it” when it comes to compensating the folks that are the foundation of the TV and movie entertainment business. Yes, the bulk of the issue is “new” digital media includes the streaming of TV shows on the web where perhaps it’s so new that the studios don’t have the economics of the whole thing worked out, but writers should get residuals from this as they do from any other media as far as I’m concerned.

There is no doubt that the current WGA writers’ strike is going to have a big impact on the 2007/2008 televsion season, maybe even bigger than was originally anticipated. Many popular TV series and talk shows have already stopped production, and there are rumors that some series that are supposed to start in January like Lost and 24 may end up getting their premiere dates pushed way back due to this whole thing. 24 may not begin until the strike is over and Lost may end up getting pushed back to 2009.

As has been mentioned here, this also affects movie production since most movies have ongoing script tweaking going on during the process of shooting a film, so there are movies going into production that could end up being that much worse when they’re released.

Which leads me to this thought: Although I support the writers’ side in this conflict, I don’t support all of them.

Click to continue "24 Season 7 Trailer"

Click to continue "24 Season Seven Resurrects Dead Character"

Cherry Jones (The Village) has been cast as a female U.S. President in the next season of 24. An interesting development to be sure, but I’m hoping they get radical with the entire story.

And I pray that doesn’t include the rumored/reported “Jack-is-a-villain” stuff I’m hearing. Vigilante? Sure, but not a villain. So what can they do?

I have only seen the excellent season 5 of 24 and the “started-great-but-ended-weird” season 6 (I haven’t finished it yet because it got so strange by hour 18 or 19), but I feel like if the show can lose the Los Angeles surroundings for a completely different locale, it would help.

Kiefer Sutherland has hinted that Jack Bauer might lose his good guy status for the next season of 24.

After attending the Princess Diana Memorial Concert, Sutherland told The Sun: “Bauer will be his own boss… he’s going to be on his own.” (Which to this author, doesn’t necessarily mean he’s going to turn bad, just going out on a limb, again..)

Is this some twist on the usual scenario where being in the field, he’s his own boss anyway?

Tivo the show and we didn’t get around to finishing it until earlier this month, so I figured that by that time it was too late to write about the end of the season.

There’s been a lot of press about the fact that Season 6 was not up to the standard of previous seasons and that 24 may have finally “jumped the shark”.

I can’t say that I completely disagree with that assessment.

I’m going to nitpick. It’s been a while, so I figure I’m due.
I’ve been a huge fan of Fox’s 24 since it’s first season. It was a very cool concept, showing events in real-time, one hour per week, for a total of 24 episodes to comprise an entire day. I absolutely loved the clock that appeared at the end of every commercial break, indicating how far along we were in the episode and how long we had left in minutes until the inevitable nail-biting cliff hanger. And like clockwork, every episode ended at the top of the hour with the clock going to :00 just as the clock in my kitchen did.

It’s been the same for five seasons, but for season six of 24 things are different.

Click to continue "24 Season Six Premiere"

Click to continue "Don’t Forget: 24 Season Six Premieres Sunday Night!"

Click to continue "24 Season Six Extended Trailer"

I’ve come to a startling conclusion:

Jack Bauer is Batman.

Really, it’s the only plausible explanation for Jack to be able to do everything he does.
Season 5 of 24 (man, has it been 5 years already?) has been one rockin’ ride. So much so that the finale was almost a letdown. Almost. Maybe it was just emotional exhaustion from the previous 22 episodes, or the fact that the show is so proficient at keeping viewers on the edge of their seats, that our tolerance increases and we need ever increasing levels of suspense and shocks.

Do you ever wonder if studios want some movies to fail? How much have you heard about the upcoming filme The Sentinel? Not much, I’ll bet, and that is really wierd considering it stars perennial favorite Michael Douglas and hot-right-now Keifer Sutherland. It’s also a bummer because, especially if you’re a fan of the hit TV show 24, this looks like it’s going to be really good.

I don’t watch every TV drama out there, so I’m not in a position to say that 24 is the best one on television, but I’ll be damned if now that Season 5 is here they haven’t managed to keep this show compelling. So far we’re 4 hours into the 24 hour day and with the episode recap they provide at the beginning of each episode it’s not too late to jump in RIGHT NOW and watch this show!

As usual, 24 grabbed me and threw me up against the wall within the first 10 minutes of the first episode. No one is assured of being a continuing regular on this show with the exception of Jack Bauer (Keifer Sutherland), and that’s one of the great things about it. Unlike most dramas, there’s an actual sense of danger that we feel towards the characters because they might actually be killed.

It’s being reported all over the place (having originated here) that a movie based on the hit Fox TV show 24 may be a serious possibility. Personally, I love the show, but I don’t know if it will work as a movie.

Part of the appeal of 24 is the pace and the amazing cliffhangers they provide week after week. The word is that in a movie version the first hour might be done conventionally but that the second hour would be done real-time as it is on TV.

The story would most likely tie into whatever is happening on the show at the end of (most likely) the 2006 television season.

The writers and rest of the staff of 24 are churning out an awesome show, but it’s awesome within it’s particular format, but will it translate to the big screen?

Well it’s finally over and my heart rate can drop down to normal levels for another six months. There are spoilers here, so stop reading if you don’t want to know what happened.

The writers on 24 are really adept at whipsawing the viewer’s emotions all over the place, but I have to say that with the two hour season finale of 24 I’m starting to see some chinks in the armor. After a whirlwind season where the terrorist’s capers became more implausible as time went on, I found the finale almost anti-climactic. I had much the same feeling with the 2004 season finale of 24.

I haven’t written about it much, but for me 24 on FOX is a show that is not to be missed. It’s consistently the equivalent of an adrenaline injection that will leave you on the edge of your seat. The writers have mastered the art of the cliffhanger… making every episode the equivalent of those weekly serials shown at the movies WAY before you and I were born.

A couple of weeks ago it was reported that David Fury, one of the writers of ABC’s (also addicting) Lost was going to be moving over to 24. And now (thanks to a video interview over at IESB) I hear that Manny Coto is going to be working on 24 next season as well.

For those of you unfamiliar with Coto, he’s the guy who almost managed to save Star Trek: Enterprise this season and who was a key writer on the acclaimed Odyssey 5 series.

I’m hoping that the quality level can be maintained on 24, but it’s going to get tougher for them to top themselves every season. On an episode by episode basis the show is still awesome, but this season is beginning to show some cracks in the armor with the sheer scope of what the villains of the show have been able to accomplish over the course of the season. It’s starting to strain credulity, IMO.

Still a great show to watch though.

Sorry gang, this is an old post for a season finale of 24 from a couple of years ago. I’ve been stacking up this season’s episodes on my Tivo and have not yet seen the finale yet myself so I don’t have a summary/review for you. You might find what you’re looking for at the official website for 24.

Click to continue "“24″ Season Finale"