The Bachman Books by Stephen King (Richard Bachman)

Many years ago, Stephen King decided he wanted to start his career again. He was also chomping at the bit because his publishers were limiting him to one book per year. So he decided that he would start a new career (while keeping his old one) and write books under a pseudonym. These are collectively known as The Bachman Books. King felt he could write additional books and build a second career. This would give King an additional outlet and keep his publishers happy by not over saturating the Stephen King brand. So, how does Bachman compare to King?

Continue reading

Wonder Woman on TV?

From The Hollywood Reporter:

Warner Bros. Television is developing a modern-day reboot of the classic DC comic book heroine and has lassoed an unlikely talent to potentially write and produce the superhero project: David E. Kelley, the showrunner behind legal dramas such as “Ally McBeal,” “Boston Legal” and “The Practice.”

 Attempts to make movies about Wonder Woman have failed for the last decade (or more depending on how you look at it), so I’m wondering if this will be a new Smallville or a new Birds of Prey.

Posted in TV

The Tobolowsky Files

The Tobolowsky Files (which I reviewed earlier) is a wonderful podcast. Stephen Tobolowsky is a great storyteller and has a great ability to make people care about the smallest incidents from his life. Normally I talk about books after they’ve been published, but for this one time, I’ll talk about one before.

The Tobolowsky Files has received a book deal. In 2011, Stephen Tobolowsky will bring the stories he’s been regaling his podcast audience with to a book. I know you loyal Tobolowsky Files listeners won’t mind that you’ve heard a bunch of his stories and will buy the book. He deserves our support.

Terriers on FX

One of the best, and underperforming, new shows is Terriers, Wednesday nights on F/X. It’s about Donal Logue and Michael Raymond-James as a pair of private investigators, Hank and Britt. They are the lowest rung of private investigators, the type that snaps picutres of marital infedelity. Hank is an ex-cop who drank his way out of a job and a marriage, while Britt is an ex-thief, who stopped the criminal life when he fell in love with Katie. Katie loves Britt and is excited by his thief past, as long as it stays in the past. Hank’s ex, Gretchen, is remarrying and Hank isn’t happy with it.

 The series deals with Hank and Britt doing a case (or two) of the week, while dealing with each other, their personal lives and the temptation to fall back into their old life. Hank’s ex partner, Gustafson, makes sure to warn Britt that Hank will fall again and when he does, he’ll take everyone down with him. We start to see some of the cracks in the pilot, as Hank takes a windfall check for the team and uses it to put a down-payment on his old house (which his ex-wife is selling) without consulting Britt. It does put a crimp into their friendship, since both of them know that Hank most likely can’t afford the payments and will lose the house and the money.

The highlight of the show is the interplay between Hank and Britt. You can easily see these two as close friends. And you can see how Hank was a good cop and a good person before the drinking took him down.The show was created by Ted Griffin (Ocean’s 11) and run by Shawn Ryan (creator of The Shield). Overall it’s a very entertaining show that deserves a wider audience than what it’s received so far. Track down the previous 3 episodes On Demand or on Hulu.

Posted in TV

No Ordinary Family review

The first episode of No Ordinary Family was…well ordinary. It’s a standard superhero pilot. Here’s how we got our powers. Here’s how we learn how to use them. Here’s our first crime fighting with our powers. It’s kind of like the first episode of Heroes, but it doesn’t seem to have the same angst that Heroes had.

The dad and mom were drawn out decently for a pilot, but the kids only got broad brush strokes (the daughter a little more than the son). Michael Chiklis is good as the dad and Julie Benz was decent as the mom. Romany Malco is great as Chiklis’ best friend. Autumn Reeser is Benz’ best friend, but doesn’t really appear long enough to get a sense of her. We get a super powered bad guy and some bad guy friends which point to a larger mythology. Possibly because the Dad’s story was fleshed out more I like him and his friend best.

The pilot didn’t break any new ground, but doesn’t disappoint either. I’m in for the short term, but the next few episodes will go a long way to see how well it handles the powers and the characters. I’m cautiously optimistic, but then again I gave Heroes until season 3 before I gave up. Recommended

Posted in TV

The Hilliker Curse by James Ellroy

The Hilliker Curse is a new memoir/psychoanalysis session by James Ellroy. Ellroy clearly has a fascination with and issues around the murder of his mom. His previous memoir, My Dark Places (review), dealt with Ellroy hiring a private investigator to find our who killed his mother, Jean Hilliker, 40 years after her murder. The investigation was the framing device around a history of his life. The Hilliker Curse is slightly different view into Ellroy’s life, this time through his relationship with women.

Continue reading

Premiere of No Ordinary Family

Make sure you check out No Ordinary Family tonight on ABC at 8 pm (7 Central and Mountain). It’s been described as a live action version The Incredibles. It stars Michael Chiklis (The Thing from the Fantastic Four movies and star of The Shield). There was an online preview a few weeks ago, but I wasn’t able to see it. So I remain hopeful that it will be worthwhile (season 1 of Heroes good, not season 2+ of Heroes bad). Hopefully I’ll have a review up later today or tomorrow morning and will be interested in what other people thought of it as well.

Posted in TV

Dexter is Delicious by Jeff Lindsay

Dexter is Delicious is the latest entry in the Dexter Morgan series by Jeff Lindsay. For those of you who aren’t aware, the first novel in the Dexter series, Darkly Dreaming Dexter, was the basis for the first season of the Showtime series Dexter. But after that the books and TV series had nothing in common except a charming serial killer of killers named Dexter Morgan. And much like the show, the books have been of uneven quality. Book 3, Dexter in the Dark, was bad, while books 2, Dearly Devoted Dexter, and 4, Dexter by Design, were better (but not nearly as good as the first book). So how does book 5 stand up?

Continue reading

Big Bang Theory Season Premiere

Don’t forget tonight is the season premiere of The Big Bang Theory at 8pm (7pm Central and Mountain). If you haven’t seen the show before, I highly recommend it. There is a lot of discussion on science fiction, comics movies, toys and even some actual science. I gave up on it for a while in Season 1, but the creators were able to tweak the show and improve it to the point where it is one of the best comedies on TV. Highly recommended

Posted in TV