I’ve got to hurry and post this before I read a review of this show with the same title of this post. Before I plagiarize it.

Fall TV is ramping up quickly and has more than the usual complement of good shows (I usually count on maybe two a year.)

CW’s entry into the ‘Best Show of the Season’ contest is a little fantasy entitled ’Reaper.’ The pilot episode is directed by Kevin Smith (warning, Kevin Smith’s blog is rather offensive) he of the Dogma, Clerks I & II and other assorted movies fame.  Who in the world is better qualified to make fun of the Devil and Hell than Kevin Smith? Nobody!

This show is very, very funny. Snort beverages out your nostrils type funny.

Sam is a 20 year old slacker. A community college drop-out who excels at exactly nothing. He and his best friend Bert “Sock” Wysocki work (as it were) at the local Work Bench, a Home Depot type hardware store where Sam and Bert are pretty much the worst employees.

Sam has a crush on his extra cute co-worker Andi, though he can’t quite ask her out even though she’s obviously interested.

Never fear though, Sam has a secret (though he doesn’t know it yet) that’s cool enough to win the girl as long as she doesn’t know the details: Sam’s parents sold his soul to the devil, and on Sam’s 21st birthday the devil is here to collect.

The devil (brilliantly played by Ray Wise) wants Sam to help him out by being Hell’s bounty hunter “...not forever, you’re done when you die, right!” All Sam has to do is capture souls that have escaped from hell and in return the devil won’t, well, “take you’re mother.”

Not entirely perfect (it bogs down a bit when it’s not trying to be funny) but there’s more than enough to like in this twisted comedy.

Given that the show is on the CW, this might be a good time to get involved because I’d be willing to bet it’s going to be around for awhile and that’s a very good thing.

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I’ve just updated the about page after a few years of sameness.  Turns out I’ve changed a bit in the intervening time and things should reflect that.

About Me

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Ok, Mr. Johnson (and no Casey, even though I know sharing a last name with ‘The Rock’ gives you tinglies inside, I don’t mean you) I’m interested. Yes, the title of this post is true, there is a movie starring Dwayne Johnson that I actually want to see. I know I have made fun of professional wrestling in the past and I know I’ll make fun of it in the future, I’m making fun of it right now (look, there goes Santa Claus!) but I’m serious.

Mr. The Rock seems to have fallen into a movie created by Richard Kelly. Richard created a little (very little) film called Donnie Darko. I have a serious man-crush on the film Donnie Darko (see the Donnie Darko trailer) which gives him a free pass to cast whomever he wants in his latest movie. (Yes I know I said man-crush and referenced a film that starred a star of Brokeback Mountain so go ahead, insert offensive gay joke here, haha you’re funny...)

This includes casting Dwayne (...ayne...ayne) ‘The Rock’ (...ock...ock) Johnson (...son...son) and Seann William Scott in his movie. He can also cast Mandy Moore and Buffy the Vampire Slayer too for all I care. While he’s at it, he might as well throw in Justin Timberlake for good measure. (Wait a minute...)

He can even name the movie Southland Tales when there’s a better name right in his trailer such as, maybe, ‘This Is the Way the World Ends.’

In any case, it looks good, click the Southland Tales link above to watch the trailer.

P.S. Please avoid the OTHER Dwayne Johnson movie, the one that involves football. Your brain cells will thank you.

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I watched the premieres of a couple of the freshman fall sitcoms. First, the kinda OK one.

Back To You

I love Frasier and I’m seriously in like with Everybody Loves Raymond, mostly because of Raymond not Patricia Heaton.  Back To You is neither of those shows, which is a disappointment though not surprising; the commercials weren’t all that good.

My first thought: “Look, Frasier’s on the news.” I suppose the hazard of playing the same character (even one as great as Frasier) for twenty years is obvious. It’s hard not to see Frasier whenever Grammar’s on the screen.  He sounds like Frasier, he dispenses advice like Frasier, all he needs is to do to complete the illusion is punctuate his sentences with “I’m listening” and I won’t be able to get past it.  Luckily Frasier is funny and I don’t mind more of him.

My second thought: “Look, Mrs. Raymond’s on the news.” Without Marie across the street, you realize something about Patricia Heaton: she’s kind of annoying. She’s not awful, but she’s not great either.

The show itself is rather bland. Easy, obvious jokes, only a couple of which are all that clever. The characters, for the most part, come straight from the ‘Sitcom Guide to People That Are Funny’ including ‘Slutty Girl’ and ‘Guy Who Makes Inappropriate Jokes.’ I’ll admit to liking Josh Gad’s too young News Director, most of the funny bits involved him.

All in all, not horrible, certainly an above average sitcom, but that speaks more to the awful quality of the average sitcom than to the quality of this particular show.

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I found out that the pilot episode of the new ABC series Pushing Daisies was in the wild (read torrented) and given my frenzied anticipation, immediately downloaded it.  And I’m glad I did, though watching it early just means I have to wait a week longer to find out what happens next. This is my kind of show. It’s quirky, funny, well written and visually arresting.  The dialogue is fast, think Gillmore Girls only it doesn’t wear out its welcome (or rather, think Wonderfalls, but I doubt you’ve seen that.)

The story centers around a young man, Ned the piemaker, who has a gift, not given to him by anyone in particular, where he can bring someone (or thing) to life merely by touching them. The problem being that if he touches them again they die instantly, never to revive.  And if he doesn’t touch them within one minute, someone else dies taking their place “it’s a random proximity thing,” he explains.

Ned makes pies for a living (being able to bring wilted strawberries back to life comes in handy for this) though he supplements his income with the reward money from solving murders.  Turns out that the easiest way to solve a murder is to ask the victim who killed them!

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