Tag Archives: CBS

Mondays deliver Entertainment

#Supergirl #Blindspot #Scorpion #Gotham #Legends #MajorCrimes

If you are struggling to find something to watch live on television on Monday nights I am left wondering why.  Fox’s Gotham going head to head with CBS’s Supergirl means my DVR is hard at work, leaving me with only one decision — which show am I watching live, and which show am I tuning into after the fact, but definitely watching.

Supergirl

For me, Supergirl is shiny and new and I watch it each week because I can not resist, and the actor playing James Olsen, Mehcad Brooks, is leaping from small screens with his portrayal.  Gotham on the other hand is great entertainment, but their arcs work well in the marathon watching format where I have an easier time keeping track of the threads, and who is where doing what in the vast city / world that the creators have Gotham are serving up to their viewers each week.   (If you missed it, you may want to take a listen to our recently released podcast about Season 1 of Gotham.)

The next hour of prime time brings both CBS’s Scorpion and TNT’s Major Crimes.  Scorpion mixes attempts at intelligent problem solving with humorous scenes and lovably awkward characters.  There are certainly moments you can stop and think about and question, but if you allow yourself to simply get caught up in the momentum of the episodes, they take you on a fun and exhilarating ride, week after week,  and offer hope that intelligent good-hearted people are out in the world, trying to keep us safe, and make our world a better place for us to live.  Then again, the guys who can hack any computer get sent on a mission to Cuba where there are few computers, and are getting ready to take on an assignment to area 51, so as I said — there is a strong sense of humor that flows through and carries the shows along as well.

TNT’s Major Crimes evolved out of the Kyra Sedgwick show The Closer,  and for those who were worried a change in team lead, and show title, might spell the beginning of the end, it has not been the case here.  Mary McDonnell‘s character Sharon Raydor has come in with a different approach, determined to not only get confessions, but see the guilty parties go to jail, and in doing so has taken the show from a determination to close cases to a determination to get justice.

As if the DVR had not been doing enough for one night, next up is the decision of whether to view live, or later, NBC’s Blindspot vs. ABC’s Castle, with CBS’s NCIS LA also in the mix as well.

NBC_Blindspot_728x90_wk2_dayofI’ll confess, of the three shows offered in this hour of Prime Time, my first choice to record and watch later is Blindspot (which NBC has already said will have a second season).   Not because I do not enjoy it, but because it is a show full of details I do not want to risk missing.  What if the phone rings when they show the tattoo that means everything this week?  What if for some reason I’m not looking at the screen when some great reveal occurs?  I want to see these things.  Blindspot is not a show you can listen to and catch every aspect of importance.  Castle has a lot of great character interplay, and moments, but if you miss a moment it rarely feels like it changes your understanding of the episode or season.  They certainly enhance your enjoyment — and are appreciated, and the talent that goes into the script and acting is appreciated… but if I have to choose 1 show I can record… I lean towards Blindspot vs. Castle.

As for NCIS: Los Angeles… thankfully we live in the age of Video On Demand, an age where if you can only record 1 show, while watching another, you can actually view what all three networks aired in a given hour, provided you have enough hours in your day.

pre_legendstif_120The other thing to be thankful for, is TNT showing episodes more than once in a night, offering me the chance to watch Season 2 of Legends as it airs.  Where Season 1 focused on a different Legend each week, and the many faces Martin Odom was capable of taking on, Season 2 is delving into his search to discover who he was before he had an accident that robbed him of his memory.  A bit more confusing in nature, because the scripts are moving between both locations and time frames, season 2 has the potential to either be eye opening, or something I need to re-watch to understand.

Librarians, among others

This is a site where we write articles when we have meaningful things to say, or share.  When we want to bring shows to people’s attention, have podcasts we are releasing, but this is not a site dedicated to making sure an article is posted hourly or daily.

With that in mind, I found it hard to not flood the site with articles today, which felt ironic given we do not guarantee to write even 1 article every day.

While Sundays are not famous for being the best night on Television, it looks like tonight is going to be a very good night for a lot of viewers.

The second season of The Librarians, on TNT, is starting.  While John and I have not yet recorded a podcast about the first season, we do have one about the movies that led up to the show, and this is another example of a show doing a nice job of taking a character from the movies, and world where viewers had come to understand the logic and how that world operated, and from those things a fun and entertaining show was created.

 If you have not already listened to the podcast we did about the movies, now may be a great time to do so.  Noah Wyle’s character is in all three movies, and recurs in season 1, and he and the Library itself serve as the binding threads if you will between the movies and the series.  The podcast discusses  The Librarian: Quest for the Spear television movie including a little about the other two television movies The Librarian: Return to King Solomon’s Mines and The Librarian: The Curse of the Judas Chalice.

Madam_Secretary_CBSAlso on Sunday night’s is Madam Secretary, a show I do not write about often, but do watch by appointment every Sunday Night.  There are several reasons for this, one of which is they way they blend stories that are “ripped from the headlines” with things that have not happened, and yet once they toss out the possibility, you realize how they could, and there is something enjoyable about seeing a working government (and yes, this show strives to show a WORKING government) strive to tackle the problem.   This CBS show avoids talk of specific political parties, instead it has scenes where two people who really ought to be working together but come from different divisions of government make statements along the lines of, “this isn’t your time to shine,” or you aren’t on  “my time” and later discover why our government functions so much better whenever everyone in those positions is working towards the single minded goal of the best America possible.  (An idealistic view, no doubt, and yet one that perhaps we need to see if we are not to become to cynical to both survive, and find a way through, gridlock.)

Quantico - ParrishFinally a show I have not yet taken an opportunity to write about, in part because I am still forming an opinion on it.  Quantico on ABC.   If you watched the ABC show The Nine several years ago, Quantico has a similar format to the episodes — flashing back to FBI training 9 months ago in Quantico, while currently trying to solve the question of who is responsible for a present day terrorist  attack, using 1 clue — a tip that the person responsible for the attack was a member of that class of trainees at Quantico.  Their trainer Liam O’Connor, played by Josh Hopkins, is working the case in New York, and is convinced it is Alex Parrish (played compellingly by Bollywood star Priyanka Chopra), in part because she was found, unconscious, within the blast radius (ie where someone who had just set of the device might have been.)  

Quantico - BOothWhy am I wavering in how I feel about the show?  It is pretty solid entertainment, but most weeks it feels like we get the back story, or a reason to mistrust, yet another member of the trainee class.  A bit expected to be honest.  We are getting a lot of 9 months ago drama, which I am enjoying, but little in the way of compelling information today, few people being introduced as truly believable or viable terrorists, for me.  I keep watching thinking I missing something, that they are giving me a set of characters I like, especially Ryan Booth (Jake McLaughlin) the one FBI agent that Alex Parrish is sure from the moment she knows she has been framed that she can trust.   Part of me does not want one of Alex’s fellow trainees to have been the terrorist, and another part of me is begging the writers to have been playing fair with us as viewers.

In addition, I am particularly enjoying Yasmine Al Massri‘s portrayal of twins who are taking turns as 1 recruit, trying to prove that 2 people could go undercover as 1 person and share the responsibilities and role of an FBI agent.  She has had some particularly good scenes with Aunjanue Ellis as the head of FBI training, Miranda Shaw.

Sunday has suddenly become an evening where my DVR and I are very busy… and very happy.

kay

My Favorite Martian (Television Series) #MyFavoriteMartian

John Mayo, of ComicBookPage, and Kay Kellam, of PopArtsPlace, have a spoilers filled discussion about the My Favorite Martian television series that ran from 1963 to 1966.  A Boxed set of the three season just came out on DVD, with a slew of Bonus features, prompting this review of the series, and the DVD.  Included on the Season 1 DVDs is a 1 hour Soundtrack, featuring the music of George Greeley.

From the Box for the DVD:   MY FAVORITE MARTIAN marked the beginning of television s fascination with fantasy themed comedy series, originally airing on CBS-TV from 1963-1966.

Debuting in the top ten upon its premiere season, MY FAVORITE MARTIAN stars BILL BIXBY (The Courtship of Eddie s Father, The Incredible Hulk) as newspaper reporter Tim O Hara and RAY WALSTON (PIcket Fences) as the Martian whom Tim discovers and passes off as his Uncle Martin. PAMELA BRITTON plays their snoopy landlady Lorelei Brown. This complete series collection features all 107 unedited episodes along with hours of special bonus material.

Among the guest stars who appear are LINDA EVANS, GAVIN MacLEOD, MARLO THOMAS, JAMIE FARR, BERNIE KOPELL, ALAN HALE JR., MADGE BLAKE, BUTCH PATRICK, RICHARD DEACON, ALLAN MELVIN, DORIS PACKER, MICHAEL CONSTANTINE, HENRY GIBSON, ELVIA ALLMAN, HAL SMITH, STAFFORD REPP, PAT PRIEST, DAVID WHITE, FRANK DeVOL, MADGE REDMOND and SHELLEY MORRISON.

Links:
My Favorite Martian @ IMDB.com:http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056775/
My Favorite Martian @ Amazon http://amzn.to/1PQGQan
Discount Comic Book Service: http://www.DCBService.com
Comics Podcast Network: http://www.comicspodcast.com
League of Comic Book Podcasts:http://www.comicbooknoise.com/league/

Email us at TheGuys@ComicBookPage.com

Join the discussion on our forum at: http://forum.comicbookpage.com

This podcast episode originated on the Comic Book Page website:http://www.ComicBookPage.com

#TeamScorpion

@ScorpionCBS goes undercover in COSTUME on #SuperFunGuy set! #ZanyZoe #TheGiggler Tonight at 9pm ET/PT @ScorpionCBS, @ElyesGabel @katharinemcphee @AriStidham @JadynJWong @robertpatrickT2 @Alana_DeLaGarza

super-fun-guys

The season may feel barely under way to many, but for the show Scorpion the heroes have already been trapped on a submarine, gone to Cuba and faced their version of Kyrptonite, and lost what was looking to be a very promising new boss at Homeland Security.

Maybe taking a turn in actual superhero costumes will calm life down a little… or perhaps, Scorpion simply likes their high octane episodes.

Official CBS Website: http://www.cbs.com/shows/scorpion
Scorpion Episodes on the CBS Website
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ScorpionCBS
Twitter: http://twitter.com/ScorpionCBS
Instagram: ScorpionCBS
CBS Tweet: https://twitter.com/CBSTweet
Scorpion on IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3514324/

Cast on Twitter:

Elyes Gabel    @ElyesGabel
Jadyn Wong   @JadynJWong
Ari Stidham   @AriStidham
Robert Patrick   @robertpatrickT2
Katharine McPhee   @katharinemcphee