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The Star Online: Entertainment: TV & Radio

Keith Olbermann returns to the air on Current TV

Posted: 20 Jun 2011 07:51 PM PDT

NEW YORK (AP): Five months after his abrupt departure from MSNBC, outspokenly liberal TV host Keith Olbermann premiered on the Current TV network Monday night awash in media attention to his arrival at a new home.

His new nightly show, like the old one, is called "Countdown," and it retains the signature musical riff from Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.

It also features the left-leaning point of view and attitude that made Olbermann the most popular host on MSNBC, attracting a nightly audience averaging more than a million viewers.

Oddly missing from the first Current show, for better or worse: the formatted reverse ranking of topics that gave "Countdown" its name.

"As I was saying," Olbermann said at the top of the hour in what was surely an homage to master late-night host Jack Paar, as if to resume his own message in mid-thought after his five-month interruption.

"The nation is losing its independence through the malfeasance of one political party and the timidity of another," he declared in his first Special Comment, and, meaning ordinary citizens, he added, "Even though you and I should not have to be the last line of defense, apparently we are, so we damn well better start being it."

Initially, at least, Olbermann likely will draw far fewer viewers on Current, a six-year-old network founded by former Vice President Al Gore and businessman Joel Hyatt, a former Democratic National Committee finance chairman. Current is available in 60 million homes, roughly one-third fewer than MSNBC, and until now its audience has been minuscule.

But Olbermann is meant to be the new face of Current, bringing new viewers to the network overall as they seek out his show.

Viewers who reconnected with Olbermann on Monday heard him bash US Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh and Republican US Sen. John McCain, of Arizona, among other familiar targets.

Olbermann welcomed his first guest, documentary filmmaker Michael Moore, with whom he joined in criticizing President Barack Obama for opting to reject for legal reasons the word "hostilities" to describe US involvement in Libya's civil war.

He zinged members of Congress, quipping they spend "too much time there for it just to be a hobby, but they're not taking it seriously enough for it to be a full-time job."

During the hour, segments included "Inside the Republican Cult" and "Worst Persons."

And, as if to demonstrate he is in charge at Current in a way his old bosses at MSNBC wouldn't let him be, he let "Countdown" run long, four minutes past the hour.

Then he signed off with his trademark toss of a wadded-up sheet of his script at the camera. But before he did, he told his viewers, "Thank you helping us preserve freedom of news."

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Life’s like that

Posted: 20 Jun 2011 04:44 PM PDT

Devastated that some of their favourite shows were yanked off the air before ever getting to bare their teeth properly, the Sofa Spudniks decide to rant a little.

IF there is one thing a true TV fan fears, it's the C-word. Ok, I'll spell it out – cancellation. Having your favourite show axed mid-way through a developing story or plot line is simply devastating. It is also annoying, frustrating and just plain rude. Yes, rude. Imagine if someone hijacked your plate of char kuay teow before you could even have one mouthful – rude, right? Or if you found that someone tore the last quarter of a novel you were engrossed in – rude, right?

Every story is supposed to have a beginning, a middle and an end. This, I was taught back in primary school. When a TV show is axed too soon it comes to an abrupt end. Worse, some stories remain unresolved and fans are left hanging.

All those hours spent watching and, at times, re-watching episodes are wasted. The heated discussions you had with your buddies after weekly episodes? For nothing. The characters you have come to or are beginning to love? Extinguished – gone without a trace.

TV shows are usually cancelled by the networks because of low ratings. If a show doesn't bring in enough viewers, it's hard to sell advertisement time. No ads, no money. No money, no show! Sometimes, networks do go out on a limb and give a series time to mature. Sometimes, a flailing show is given a second shot. But not always.

One such casualty of network cancellations was one of my favourite cop shows of recent times, Life, which premiered in 2007 and starred British actor Damian Lewis and American actress Sarah Shahi (now in Fairly Legal). Cop shows have been a dime a dozen since Dragnet, which was the original police drama back in 1954. I've watched cop shows all my TV-watching life (I think Rockford Files was the first one I watched, in the 1970s) and I have enjoyed many since.

What is it about the genre that reels me in? The mystery/investigation, the characters, the men in uniform, perhaps? Well, Life had all these elements and then some. The story: LAPD Detective Charlie Crews (Lewis) is imprisoned for a triple murder he didn't commit. Twelve years later, the DA re-opens the case and exonerates him. He returns to life and goes back to work with a multi-million dollar settlement in his pocket. He also returns with a steely resolve to hunt down the guys that set him up.

Seems pretty typical, right? Wrong! Crews is like no cop you've seen on TV. The years in prison made him strong both mentally and physically. Getting beat up in the slammer could either make or break him; for Crews it was obviously the former. He became intuitive and appreciative of life. He achieved an inner calm (he listened to motivational tapes – acck! I guess no one is perfect) which is in stark contrast to his raging need for retribution.

He is cool, he is funny, he is infuriating, he is strong, he is weak, he is cute and he just loves his fruit. What raised Life from being just another cop show was the clever writing (the stories and the characters) and the lead character of Crews played unfalteringly by Lewis.

I don't understand why the show attracted only mediocre ratings. Why? It was particularly painful because while Life was cancelled, banal and cliched shows like 90210, One Tree Hill, Private Practice and Grey's Anatomy got picked up (again and again and again).

Where is the justice? I need retribution. I need some inner peace. I need Charlie Crews back. – S. Indramalar

Creepfest

I'm trying to be all Zen, like Charlie Crews but I'm failing badly, thinking of all the brilliant but cancelled shows I have squandered too much love and time over (thank your lucky stars this column is devoted to television, dear reader, and not anything else ... like, say umm, men perhaps, or this would be one long story to get through.)

The first show that pops in my head is American Gothic from 1995. Obvious choice.

I only vaguely remember the plot now, but the characters remain etched in my mind (I think for all eternity) – Sheriff Lucas Buck, Caleb and Merlyn Temple, Dr Matt Crower, Gail Emory... wow. I had to revisit some of the episodes on Youtube and eek! they were pretty scary.

Produced by horror maestro Sam Raimi, the series was created by Shaun Cassidy, which I think made me like it even more. I was a huge Hardy Boys fan in my tween years (ahem ... hey, did you know they had Hardy Boys dolls way back in the day?).

So anyway, American Gothic was set in the heart of South Carolina in a small (fictitious) town called Trinity. The plot revolved around 10-year-old Caleb Temple (Black, who more recently starred in The Fast And The Furious: Tokyo Drift and has this awesome Alabama accent I so love to hear). In Cassidy's words (I watched an interview he did with Regis & Lee on Youtube), the series is an adult fairytale which adresses a lot of fears we have, and hopefully explains these fears to us and takes us on an exciting journey. Exciting journey it sure was for me.

The story began rather eerily with Caleb's sister Merlyn's murder, which the audience is allowed to witness just so we know, right off the bat, what sort of town and sheriff we're dealing with.

As the story progresses, we learn that Sheriff Buck (a very menacing yet charming Gary Cole) has a special connection with young Caleb, and that he has rather dark supernatural powers too. Caleb's allies are the handsome Dr Crower (Jake Webber) and his reporter cousin Gail (Paige Turco) ... oh, and the ghost of his dead sister of course (Sarah Paulson).

Long before the days of the Winchester brothers, American Gothic had started planting its seed on television's dark side. So thankfully, with or without the show, at least the old-fashioned battle between good and evil still goes on.

Another very dear show to me that had a shorter life than a pet mouse (hehe, I read that somewhere) was Firefly. Hey, I just discovered there's even a dedicated Facebook page – BringBackFirefly (with 44,434 likes, 44,435 now that I have pressed "like" too)! The space western series – now, you have to admit, that is a unique genre - was created by writer and director Joss Whedon.

I so want to write about Firefly, too, but I feel I have to devote an entire column to that one. I adore Nathan Fillion too much to allow him to settle for anything less. So hold on to your spaceships people. I'll get to Firefly and Serenity in good time.

> An orchid doesn't lose its fragrance just because no one notices how good it smells – sounds like something Charlie Crews would say. Tell us what you think, folks. Send your missives to entertainment@thestar.com.my.

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Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

Isnin, 20 Jun 2011