Archive | February, 2012

Genre Tv show Ratings

29 Feb

MONDAY

Alcatraz (FOX)
5.98 million viewers/1.8/4 share

More bad news for Alcatraz. Last Monday, the show dropped only a few more viewers, but it’s where it finished that’s worth noting. If you leave out CW shows (which always have lower viewership than major network shows), Alcatraz finished dead last for the night in both viewers and demo rating. As for how far it was behind, it finished three tenths of a ratings point behind the second lowest-rated major network show of the night (ABC’s Castle) and about 500,000 viewers behind the second least-viewed (NBC’s Smash). In six weeks on the air, the show has lost more than four million viewers, dropped 1.5 rating points and cut its share in half. Very bad news indeed.

Being Human (Syfy)
1.42 million viewers/0.6

Being Human gained a few viewers but dropped a tenth of a ratings point. Last Monday’s episode was the lowest-rated of the season, but an 0.6 for this show in this time slot is not a bad number.

Lost Girl (Syfy)
1.20 million viewers/0.4

Lost Girl also picked up a few viewers but lost a tenth of a point. This show could be doing better with retaining some of its Being Human lead-in, but it’s still not too shabby.

Terra Nova (FOX)—DONE FOR SEASON

News about Terra Nova these days isn’t exactly encouraging, but at least it’s vague enough that there’s still hope for fans.

TUESDAY

The River (ABC)
4.80 million viewers/1.7/4 share

Last week, The River lost two and a half million viewers between its first episode and its second and we chalked it up to Valentine’s Day. This week, the show had no such luck. It again lost viewers, though only about 160,000, and broke even in its rating and share. So we can safely chalk those lost viewers up to lack of interest in repeat viewing. Bad news for horror on ABC.

WEDNESDAY

American Horror Story (FX)—DONE FOR SEASON

No worries for American Horror Story. Season two is on the way, and all we have to do is wait.

Touch (FOX)—OFF

This week, Fox opted to shift the return of Touch to Thursday, March 22 rather than Monday, March 19, giving it a chance to follow American Idol and capitalize on the massive lead-in audience that show has to offer. If you didn’t see the special preview of the series premiere, you can catch a repeat after Idol on Thursday, March 15.

THURSDAY

The Big Bang Theory (CBS)
16.20 million viewers/5.3/16 share

Last week, The Big Bang Theory tied American Idol in their continued battle for ratings supremacy. This week it beat it, jumping half a million viewers and two tenths of ratings point. But hey, even in weeks when it doesn’t win that battle, this show is still a powerhouse.

Person of Interest (CBS)
14.56 million viewers/2.1/8 share

Person of Interest bounced back from a big drop last week with a 1.5 million viewer gain this week. It remains at the top of the drama heap on Thursday nights.

The Vampire Diaries (CW)—OFF

The Vampire Diaries took the first week off of a long break Thursday. It’ll return March 15.

The Secret Circle (CW)—OFF

The Secret Circle’s also off for a month or so. Expect a new episode right after the return of The Vampire Diaries March 15.

FRIDAY

A Gifted Man (CBS)
9.05 million viewers/1.3/4 share

A Gifted Man dropped about half a million viewers this week and took its rating score back down to its most common levels. A lot of pundits have little hope for this one’s future, but nine million viewers on a Friday night is never a bad thing.

Chuck (NBC)—SERIES ENDED

Chuck signed off last Friday, and we’ll miss it. It wasn’t a ratings heavy program, but boy was it fun.

Fringe (FOX)
3.08 million viewers/1.2/4 share

Fringe fans might not have a lot of hope left for a fifth season (though there’s always a little hope), but the show continues to fight for every inch it can get. This week it picked up a tenth of a ratings point and a full share point, but it still finished dead last in terms of viewership for major network broadcasts. At this point, though, it doesn’t seem that viewership is going to change anything. The bigwigs have the show’s future in their hands.

Grimm (NBC)
4.79 million viewers/1.5/5 share

Grimm returned from a week off to a slight dip in all its numbers, but it still won the ratings battle in its time slot. It’s not a powerhouse, but Grimm is managing to stay strong.

Supernatural (CW)—OFF

Like its Thursday night sister shows The Vampire Diaries and The Secret Circle, Supernatural has now entered into a month-long break. Expect a new episode March 16.

Clone Wars (TOON)
1.46 million viewers/0.4

The Clone Wars came back from a week off to slightly fewer viewers, but we’re just a few episodes away from Darth Maul action. Expect a bump in numbers for the season finale.

Sanctuary (Syfy)—DONE FOR SEASON

We still don’t know if we’ll see a fifth year for Sanctuary, but it managed to end its fourth with a nice little numbers spike. For now, we leave it with good news.

Merlin (Syfy)
1.60 million viewers/0.5

Merlin took a 150,000 viewer hit this week, but broke even with its rating. With any luck it can climb past two million viewers again sometime this season, but it’s still solid.

Spartacus: Vengeance (Starz)
1.56 million viewers/0.7

Spartacus continues to bring good news to Starz. This week it pulled the highest viewership of the season so far, and the second highest in series history, second only to the finale of the Gods of the Arena prequel.

SUNDAY

The Walking Dead (AMC)
7.04 million viewers/3.8

The Walking Dead picked up a little less than 200,000 more viewers this week, and two tenths of a ratings point, cementing it once again at the top of Sunday night cable. Earlier this season it was hovering right around the low end of six million viewers. Now it’s hovering around the low end of seven. Let’s see if it can stay there, and if the season finale can top the midseason return and set a new record.

source:Blastr.com

Alan Ball To Exit True Blood as Showrunner at the end of season 5

29 Feb

If True Blood goes to a sixth season in 2013 (which seems likely), there will be a new man in charge. HBO has announced that Alan Ball, creator of True Blood, is to quit his role as day-to-day showrunner.

In a statement Ball announced: “True Blood has been, and will continue to be, a highlight of not only my career but my life. Because of the fantastic cast, writers, producers and crew, with whom I have been lucky enough to work these past five years, I know I could step back and the show will continue to thrive as I look forward to new and exciting ventures.”

HBO added: “When we extended our multi-year overall deal with Alan Ball in July 2011, we always intended that if we proceeded to True Blood’s sixth season, Alan would take a supervisory role on the series and not be the day-to-day showrunner. If we proceed to season six, the show will remain in the very capable hands of the talented team of writers and producers who have been with the show for a number of years. This is the best possible world for both HBO and Alan Ball. Alan will remain available as executive producer to consult and advise on True Blood and he will be free to develop new shows for both HBO and Cinemax. Banshee, on which Alan serves as executive producer, is the first in house series for Cinemax and is expected to begin production this spring.”

Banshee, despite the title, apparently has no supernatural elements. TVLine also reports that Ball is also developing a medical drama about an abortion doctor for HBO.

True Blood’s fifth season is expected to premiere on HBO in the States in June.

The entire history of Doctor Who in 10 minute video

29 Feb

John Carter Trailer 3

29 Feb

Tv Review : The Clone Wars – season 4 episode 19 ‘Massacre’

29 Feb

This review contains spoilers.

4.19 Massacre

Did someone say “Zombies”???

Yup, Star Wars welcomes the undead as The Clone Wars sees a return for the Witches of Dathomir but more of their supernatural powers later. Massacre is the start of the final story arc for this season and is a “sequel” to the magnificent Nightsisters trilogy from 2011.

That series of episodes, you may remember, introduced us to the Nightsisters (the aforementioned witches) and Darth Maul’s “brother”, Savage Opress. It was a brutal set of episodes which saw an exploration of the Sith and what it means to be truly “evil”.

This new arc isn’t so much as a sequel as simply a direct continuation as Count Dooku seeks revenge on his former apprentice, Asajj Ventress. Tracking her down to Dathomir, the Sith Lord sends General Grievous and a plethora of droids to wipe them out (and, yes, he even says “All of them!” Phantom Menace fans!).

Katie Lucas, daughter of the maker George, returns to writing duties (having penned the original arc) and, again, pulls not a single punch. With the absence of any Clones or Jedi, this is an episode where darkness reigns; where one evil tries to better, or worsen if you like, another.

The undead I referred to at the beginning of this review are fallen Nightsisters resurrected by Old Daka, the wisest of their order; resulting in one of the most unique scenes in the history of Star Wars – Zombies Vs Droids. Not only unique but utterly eye-popping as the fallen sisters scream and death-rattle their way through the droid army before them.

With some hefty direction and a beautiful choral score these moments are vivid and horrific, living long in the mind after viewing. However, there’s more macabre imagery to behold.

Taking a leaf out of the Voodoo handbook, Mother Talzin (a sworn enemy of Dooku) has a lock of the Sith lord’s hair and proceeds to punish the dark one from afar using a tiny effigy, straight from her witches cauldron. The following scenes of Dooku writhing in agony are unpleasant at best and don’t hold up until the very last possible moment when his colleagues save the day.

Massacre is both a knockout episode and arc-starter; twenty minutes that manages to cram in some of the nastiest characters of the Star Wars universe – and, best of all, they’re fighting each other. Katie Lucas demonstrates, again, that the Dark Side is truly the most entertaining.

Rating : 9/10

source:denofgeek.com
by:Cameron K McEwan

Tv Review : The Walking Dead season 2 episode 10 ’18 Miles Out’

27 Feb

This review contains spoilers.

2.10 18 Miles Out

This week’s episode of The Walking Dead seems to be pretty evenly split between two story lines, which is a big improvement over how schizophrenic the show was in the beginning of the second season. The A story is obviously Rick, Shane, and their new friend/kidnapping victim Massive Legwound Harry.

Making a major leap forward in time frame not seen since, well… ever, I guess, The Walking Dead skipped right over Randall’s leg surgery and healing process to jump him right back to the peak of health. That means it’s time for Rick and Shane to drive him away from the farm and dump him out of the back of Shane’s handy Hyundai Tuscon and into a field somewhere so he can either be painfully eaten by zombies or lead his gang of armed thugs back to the farm to kill Rick and his entire family. Meanwhile, Shane just wants to kill him and get it over with, which leads Rick to his first moral crisis of the week.

The B story is Lori, Andrea, and one of the many blonde-headed girl members of Hershel’s farm family. Apparently, Beth the Suicide Blonde wants to kill herself, and it’s up to the two worst decision-makers in the cast to try and stop it while arguing with one another. It’s actually a better storyline than it sounds like, and it seems like the writers on the show have significantly improved ideas of just who Lori is (Lady MacBeth) and who Andrea is (Lady Trial-By-Fire).

Lori, the manipulative 1950s housewife, wanted to shame Beth (Suicide Blonde) into not killing herself by watching her like a hawk. Fortunately, Maggie is kind of dumb (and Lauren Cohan’s accent slipped multiple times this week) and she left Andrea to watch her suicidal sister. Since Andrea’s the least caring person ever, she basically leaves Beth to either kill herself or not. Andrea is the empowered woman, I guess, and empowerment means being free to slit your wrists with the nearest bathroom mirror. Interestingly, the last time Andrea was featured so heavily on the show was when she herself wanted to end her life via CDC explosion; weird how everyone left Jacqui to blow herself up, but nobody will let Beth Elliott Smith herself.

Part of that has to be the show’s new writing crew, with Scott M. Gimple and Glenn Mazzara taking over the scripting for this episode, we can see more of the idea Mazzara has for the show’s main characters, and this is leading to more consistent motivation for pretty much everyone. The characters can be crazy or stupid, but I want consistently crazy or consistently stupid, or at least realistic levels of those things. Things are changing for the show; they’re changing slowly, but I’m pretty confident that season three will be much better than season two, unless AMC cuts more money out of the budget and runs everyone else off.

Moving on from that, the entire set of Shane/Rick/Randall scenes are pretty brilliant, and The Walking Dead keeps turning up the creativity on the zombie kills. From Rick’s insistence that they use knives when possible to a zombie head being splattered by a car wheel, the zombie kills keep getting better and better. More importantly, we’re seeing more walkers and less wide open CGI farmland. These things should be everywhere; they’re outside of Atlanta, which is home to well over five million people if you count all its feeder counties. They need to at least see them in a place other than Hershel’s barn, if only because Shane needs to have a deep thought while driving past one wandering aimlessly in a field.

After this, there are only three more episodes left for this season, with the promise of major cast changes (rumored) and the need to keep viewers coming back for season three and beyond. Perhaps as important, the show needs to set up a beloved villain from the comic book that is being brought into the television universe by Kirkman and company. If The Governor is coming, shouldn’t we also get a certain katana-wielding black female to perk up the show, too? It seems only fair.

Rating : 8/10

source:denofgeek.com
by:ronhogan

Tv Review : Being Human – series 4 episode 4 ‘A Spectre Calls’

27 Feb

This review contains spoilers.

4.4 A Spectre Calls

Well, that wasn’t very good now, was it?

It’s a truth every Being Human fan knows only too well: throughout each and every series to date, there have been at least one or two genuine clunkers to offset the largely outstanding stuff. It was with something of a heavy heart, then, when the credits rolled on A Spectre Calls, that I realised Whithouse and Co. had failed to buck the trend this time round.

The first three episodes had delivered two pearls and one average-but-necessary series opener so perhaps I should have seen it coming.

Really, though, this has to be the worst episode since the horrors of series three’s Type 4. Where that outing was plain pointless, this was both pointless, and extremely boring to boot. Beyond delivering Annie’s big power reveal, can anyone honestly give a satisfactory reason for much of what happened here? I mean, if you’re going to send someone from beyond the grave to do the dirty deed on the war child, you could at least send someone credible, no?

Credibility is a sometimes questionable concept when it comes to fantasy, I understand that. But within the universe and rules that the show has built up to date, I simply refuse to believe that any of our beloved characters, particularly Annie, would have been taken in by Kirby’s creepy-but-nice shtick. Annie is naïve and a bit of a drip, we all know that, but she’s not a complete mug. While she’s had a tough time of it of late (is that a bit of an understatement?) it was simply a stretch too far for me to believe that she would have been taken in by Kirby. Without that credibility, of course, the entire premise of the episode falls down.

Kirby was, quite simply, a creep. I like James Lance, having admired his work in I’m Alan Partridge, but his portrayal here was too much of a cartoon villain to be believable as a shoulder for Annie to cry on. The voice, the smarmy smile; the undercurrent of a complete and utter bastard was laid bare for all to see. Apart from Annie, Tom and Hal, it would seem.

His manipulation of all three also lacked credibility. Tom is a young lad without a father figure, I get that, but I you’re looking to provide him with such, surely that figure has to be just a little bit likeable, rather than planting obvious seeds of doubt that anyone would spot a mile away. Hal had his number, and Kirby’s threats to shake him off the scent did at least make some sort of sense here.

Hal needs his routine, once more hammered home throughout the episode (it would be nice if future episodes weren’t quite so blatant about this, to be honest) and Kirby’s threat to his safe little world was troubling. However, I’m just not sure that it would have gone as far as that in the first place, as I can’t believe that Kirby would have been allowed to stay in the house for as long as he did.

But Nina sent him, right? Well, even if Annie had believed that to be true, she would surely be able to use her instincts a little better and not be quite so swift to tell her friends to bugger off at his behest?

Bringing back the Box Tunnel Massacre seemed a misstep, too. If we’re going to embrace this new version of the Being Human universe, which I’m all too happy to do, can’t we just put that to bed?

As far Annie’s big reveal, that really was something, wasn’t it? We’ve all predicted that she was going to break out the big guns at some point in this series, and it was worth waiting for. It’s just such a shame that it took a whole episode of guff to bring it to the boil.

I have little doubt that when we all look back on this series, this is the episode that, Annie’s freak-out aside, few of us will care to remember. The humour was there, the scares were there. Heck, even Damien Molony’s sweaty pecs were there. But the credibility most definitely was not.

Rating : 6/10

source:denofgeek.com
by:Mark Oakley

New ‘Game of Thrones’ second season trailer

27 Feb

Star Wars The Clone Wars S4 – “Darth Maul Returns!”

25 Feb

The fourth season concludes with an epic two-parter

Wrath of the Titans – Official Trailer “Oblivion”

25 Feb

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