TV review: WAKING THE DEAD season 3
by David Blackwell
I loved WAKING THE DEAD since someone taped season 1 for me last year, but some kind WTD fan sent me the uncut versions
of the season 3 episodes this month and seeing WAKING THE DEAD uncut (and with the 25 minutes BBC America cuts out of each
story) makes a big difference (and in widescreen, too!). The show is good as ever with the actors feeling comfortable as the
characters they play and this season has lot more humor instead of having it being a serious crime drama all-of-the-time.
WAKING THE DEAD is back with 4 two-parters and the fourth season of six two-parters is in production right now.
Multistorey begins the third season with a bang. Sean Pertwee gives a very intense performance as a man convicted of murdering
several people (a sniper killed those people in 1996) and he says he's innocent. The story has twists and turns as the turth
isn't what it seems as everyone is lying or hiding something. How does the killings tie into the a massacre in Africa that
is linked to a mining company, or is there really a link at all?
Walking On Water has lots of humor in it. You have a man who dresses as a woman who has ahd his conviction appealed (he
was found guilty 11 years ago of killing his father and three women who were never found). Frankie doesn't do boats, Mel worries
about teh tide coming into the harbor while she and boyd are out in the harbor (and Mel looks uncomfortable through the whole
episode), and Boyd carries a head around ina plastic bag.
Breaking Glass is the weakest story of the season, but it is still enjoyable to watch. Boyd is handed a cold case by a
Recovered Memory therapist that leads the team to re-open the case of Papa Doc and search for one of his victims that want
to kill Papa Doc.
Final Cut ends the third season with Mel getting a promotion, looking a little into Spence's past and how it relates to
the most recent cold case, Gina Bellman guest stars as bitch author Frannie Henning (and makes one wonder if there will ever
be a Coupling/Waking The Dead crossover episode), and there is something about cut footage from some 1989 movie called Projection.
WAKING THE DEAD works because the actors are great, the stories are interesting, and the direction is top-notch. BBC AMERICA
do need to show the uncut versions of the episodes even if it means adding a half hour to the show (since BBC AMERICA shows
commericals) and start releasing the show on DVD (including the pilot story that never aired on BBC AMERICA) since they are
releasing DOCTOR WHO, COUPLING, and MI-5 to DVD (and the US fanbase that is growing as more people discover the show).
TV review: BATTLESTAR GALACTICA mini-series
by David Blackwell
This mini-series is actually an improvement on the old TV series in some aspects, but I'm up for military sci-fi with spaceship
battles. Keeping the Cylons mostly unseen and having some Cylons looking like us is a brillant revision. Theis mini-series
is a drama about people trying to survive after the Cylons attack (and kill most of the humans in the 12 colonies). The special
effects are good and the music score is interesting with some parts reminding me of Run Silent, Run Deep (a submarine movie).
There are some nods to the only TV series like the Battlestar Galactica looks almost teh same, the old Vipers, and a diagram
at the beginning of the movie showing what the Cylons looked in the old series. The new Cylons do look cool and the new Cylon
Basestars look very threatening.
Edward James Olmos is good as Commander Adama. Some of the acting could be better, but that may be more of a fault on the
director's part. If they ahd to recast any roles for a TV show of this mini-series, I say they should recast the guy who plays
Apollo.
Some diehard fans of the origianl series are crying foul at what has beeen done in the re-imagining, but the original series
did have too much camp at times and some really bad episodes among some great episodes. Would I have loved to see Richard
Hatch's proposal for a continuation of the original show made or the proposed series that Bryan Singer and Tom DeSanton were
involved with? Yes. Instead, we got this interesting and yet flawed re-imagining that reinvents Battlestar Galactica for a
new generation.
TV review: BOOMTOWN
by David Blackwell
NBC put BOOMTOWN on a bad night as they tried to change the show from being unique before cancelling it after two episodes
of season 2 aired. then they finally aired the last 4 episodes that were produced this last weekend and the last four are
good old BOOMTOWN episodes. The episodes are about broken dreams and shattered lives.
"Wannabe" is about a cop wannabe who turns to crime and ends up being killed while trying to save a live in the disguise
of a fake cop. "Haystack" sees Trevor Jankowski (Patrick Kilpatrick), a father, lose his liBe in a mall after he and his partners
take hostages (in the mall) after doing a bank robbery (and making promises to his son everything will go off without a hitch).
The next episode, "The Hole-In-The-Wall Gang", has old college frat brothers cover up a murder and the body is found years
later in a wall. The last episode, "The big Picture" is the best of the bunch is about an actress, Katherine Pierce(Virgina
Madison), who wants a career so badly that she does anything to get a role (and she disappears as people leech off the news
about it).
The first two episodes focus a lot on Teresa (now a poilce recruit) while David McNorris is seen briefly and the last episode
focuses on Tom. The last four episodes tell the story in the old way BOOMTOWN did with the first season as the show told the
story like a mobieus strip with each episode telling the story from multiple POVs as the story moved backwards and fowards
in time. I will miss BOOMTOWN.
I hope DREAMWORKS gets all 25 episodes of BOOMTOWN released on DVD soon because BOOMTOWN was one of the most fascinating
shows on TV.
these reviews are (c)12-31-2003 David Blackwell and can't be reprinted without permission of the author. send all comments
to lord_pragmagtic@hotmail.com and check for site updates (and added content) at http://www.livejournal.com/users/enterlinemedia
