Prison Break renewed???

I just returned from a short break to the news that Prison Break has been renewed for a fourth season!! Fox are killing me slowly, they really are… Read the full story on The Televisionary.

TV adverts

I pledged to watch more TV now that I have Sky, so I decided to sit down to a nice relaxing episode of Prison Break. I just found the adverts so annoying, I couldn’t do it! I know I could have waited 15 mins and forwarded through the breaks, but I can’t live like that forever. And to add to that,  the HD transfer is actually pretty average, really grainy because of all the dark, sewer scenes in the show. They are almost begging me to download it!

Sky strike again

In a strange move for Sky, they yesterday purchased all rights to the third season of Prison Break, as well as repeat showings of the first two seasons. I say strange because it doesn’t strike me as the sort of show a Sky One viewer is into, and although it is often talked about, not a lot of people actually watch it.

I can only draw the conclusion that buying Neighbours took a huge chunk out of five’s 2007-2008 programming budget, and the books needed to be balanced.

It is getting tiresome that terrestrial channels take a chance on an unknown show, do all the hard graft building up a fanbase only to see Sky step in and take over, halve the audience and watch the buzz disappear. It is a business however, and there is the benefit of Sky being able to ‘bring the drama’ in HD. Which means we will be able to see how Michael gets out of this particular predicament in gloriously sharp technicolour.

Prison Break S02E22 – Sona

I received an IM from a reader yesterday asking me where my review of the “lame Prison Break finale” (his words) was. I told him that it had been sitting in my drafts for about 4 days, I just couldn’t be bothered to finish it. I didn’t want to slap it together, like Paul T. Scheuring did with the script for this finale. I can’t remember them all now, but this episode had so many random elements thrown in, like men in a lab talking about Michael Schofield’s predisposition to escape, and the three main characters running from a murder that could quite easily have been explained as self-defence. They really seemed like they were pushed for time. After hyping it up all season I’ve decided that these guys don’t know how to tie things up properly while opening up a new chapter. What a disappointment. Anyway, there were a couple of things that were good. Michael taking the rap for a crime he didn’t commit was pretty good stuff. And the look of the prison he will be attempting to break out of next season seemed very different to Fox River. Unless he helped build it of course.

Prison Break renewed

As I have eulogised already this season, Prison Break has seen the biggest improvement of any returning series. Coming towards the end of season 2 now, and I can’t believe how many different story lines they have not only managed to keep interesting, but bring together for the big finale. I really underestimated them, and yesterday FOX rewarded them by announcing that the modest hit would be returning for a third season.

Paul T. Scheuring (I’m spelling that from opening credits memory) promised big changes as well, with an extended stay in Panama for some, and death within the opening episodes for others, if I haven’t misconstrued his words. Although in an earlier article, he did say that 80% of the storyline of the last two years would be tied up in the next two episodes, so I would like to know the hook for next year. Maybe Lincoln was guilty all along, that would be funny.

What a rambling post…

So Mondays from now until April, Prison Break, Heroes and 24 on the same night. Now it’s not so much that I’m tied onto watching them at a certain time, because I have all week. And it’s not as if I mong out in front of the TV flicking through the channels either.

What I’m watching tonight

Prison Break, five, 10pm.

I’m going out tonight, but if I was staying in, and had a TV right now, I would be watching this. I can rarely remember a show that improved so much in it’s second season. There is nothing you need to remember from the first season, it will all be re-capped for you at the start. Suspend your disbelief, leave your common sense at the door and tune in.

Just some dates…

… for your downloading diary. If you, like me, download the majority of your television, you will have spent this December staring at the wall, wondering whether Kate ran, why exactly Peter Petrelli is going to explode, whether Jim should go out with Pam or Quincy Jones’ daughter, who killed Veronica Mars (above) Dean and where Michael Schofield is going to run to next.

Well I don’t have the answers as such, but I do have the dates for the return of all your favourite programs, and thats almost as good, right?

The Ruvvies 2006

Thats right, the most important awards of the year are back! Pioneered on my old blog, they used to be about excellence in all fields, but really they are just a way of drawing your attention to some stuff I liked this year. On TV of course.

Autumn (Fall) is upon us

Well, the summer is over! Broadband pipes in the UK, Australia and the rest of the English speaking world are about to heat up because the new US TV season is almost upon us! I was watching Entourage and Weeds and it just kind of snuck up behind me!
To start with, I’m going to tell you a great way to download TV is the itunes music store. They have been serving up TV for almost a year now, but as I wrote in a post below, they have upped the resolution in anticipation of the new season, and it is now better quality than standard definition TV. Anyway, onto the actual programming.

TV stuff

When did five get so good? If I watch any TV through an antenna its with them, especially now Planet Earth has finished on BBC one. Everybody Hates Chris, House, The Wright Stuff, Prison Break.. Thats 3 hours of my life I’m giving them every week! I would like to send a shout out to the lady who emailed me about her love for Everybody Hates Chris after she spotted it on my TV list. She has set up a website with the latest news about the show here. Mmmmm, detailed. Chris rock is a funny man, and his childhood kind of reminds me of mine, especially the prudence of his Dad.

In other news, while I was away on ‘oliday, Mitchell Hurwitz announced that he would not be signing on to do another year of Arrested Development, and There is an interview with him here that explains why. Fans were vexed but I totally understand, it ended perfectly, he told the story he needed to tell in 53 episodes, kind of like those Mexican “Telenovelas” that I’ve been hearing about recently with a start, middle and an ending.

South Park went nuts last week, and I don’t know whats going to happen next. Last season they had a bleeding Madonna making fun of Catholicism, then a funny as hell episode with R. Kelly trying to get Tom Cruise out of the closet as Scientology got taken apart. That epsiode never aired in the UK, even though I know it was ready for transmission. The rumour is that pressure from Cruise that he wouldn’t promote MI:3 meant that Viacom pulled the ep. from the Paramount comedy Channel. Now last week they managed to parody “Family Guy” and islam at the same time. In a nutshell the plot was that an episode of Family Guy was going to show the infamous banned Mohamed cartoon. In the ep, FOX censored Family Guy at the last minute. But the Family Guy was a two parter, and the uncensored cartoon would be revealed the following week. Still with me? Didn’t think so) Cartman and Stan head off to LA to try and get Family Guy taken off the air for different reasons, and the townspeople reckon they won’t have to deal with the consequences of the cartoon if they (literally) bury their heads in the sand. The satire was on-point, even if it didn’t actually provide any laugh out loud moments. At the end, a statement comes up saying “Next week Mohamed is revealed… or will Comedy Central wuss out?”. Will they be brave enough? watch this space…

The BBC said this week that their iMP could revolutionise TV , at the end of their trial of the service. its basically a piece of software that allows you to watch TV whenever you want, with a catalog of the past weeks programming available to download whenever you miss something. It will be incorporated into freeview boxes from the Autumn through the brand name BT Vision and I think it will be good for people who’s hectic Job/life/whatever don’t meet the demands of primetime TV.

What was the top show when people were given the choice of any in the BBC archives during the trial?? Like moths to a particularly smelly flame, it was that crapfest Eastenders. If someone somewhere could tell me the appeal of this program to anyone over the age of 12 I would love to know. My theory was that nothing else is on, and people don’t waznt to think and just want to chill out and whatever, and its an environment they understand (the pub, the market) but now I see people actively seeking it out when given the choice of anything… I’m lost.

In other TV technology arriving in the UK, the details, pricing and date of Sky HD was announced last week, just in time for the grand start of HD in Europe with the World Cup. I think its a bit too pricey to catch on. Britons are a cost-conscious technophobic bunch, but they will try anything thats free with a 12 month contract!

In my opinion there are two big problem with HD outside of the US. In the US they have the content, having shot most primetime shows on film since the late 50’s. Any of that can be transferred to 720p/1080i as they see fit. Eastenders watchers won’t be so lucky. And 95% of primetime output on the 6 (soon to be 5) US networks is simulcast in HD, something that will NOT happen in the UK this decade.

Then there are the boxes. Mostly free in the US, with a tiny fee to have more boxes in each room. My sister who lives in Virginia didn’t even know her cable box was also a DVR, it was the standard package that cox provided. While I was out there I’m pretty sure HD was just a small one-off upgrade fee away. Here you have two choices, Sky or Telewest, hardly competition. With one company controlling the channels as well as the hardware, it will always be impossible for anyone to battle them on price. And competition is the only way price is ever going to come down. Roll on Virgin cable I say.

I had more to write but I can’t think now… “Lost” is getting good eh? All building up to a good 2nd season finale methinks. Thats all for now.