The Star Online: Entertainment: TV & Radio
The Star Online: Entertainment: TV & Radio |
| Posted: 05 Jun 2013 02:44 AM PDT A great old show and a terrific new one about school life, in a sense, are on the Spudniks' radar this week. IF I had to go to a school on TV, I'd prefer not to go to William McKinley High School – you know, where the school "rejects" or geeks band together and form a glee club and proceed to sing their problems away ALL THE TIME? Yeah, I'm just not a fan these days. To me, Glee isn't really about the underdogs anymore – the New Directions are now an award-winning group and goodness knows the kids behave almost as badly as the so-called popular kids in the school. So what's the point again? That with some grooming and attention, underdogs can be obnoxious too? Shows that revolve around high school or college students aren't supposed to be realistic. It's TV, after all, and we want a little bit of escapism. I mean, really, who wants to watch an hour-long show about a stimulating Maths lesson or a riveting History class or a mind-bending English Literature lesson? Having said that, one of my most favourite classroom-set shows where the lessons (and the way they were delivered) were actually central to the story was Mind Your Language, a British comedy series in the 1980s about an English teacher – Mr Jeremy Brown (whom I used to think quite handsome, in a geeky way) – and the diverse group of students in his English As A Foreign Language class. When Oxford graduate Mr Brown turns up for his first day at work, he is warned that the teacher he was replacing had been driven insane by the students. He isn't put off at all ... even after coming face-to-face with the terrifying (I've had nightmares about that woman) Miss Courtney, the headmistress! While it does appear that Mr Brown is sometimes nearly driven insane, he actually develops quite a rapport with the group of students whose level of English is so terrible it's just ridiculously funny. Among the motley bunch are Giovanni Capello (George Camiller) who insists that the phrase is "okey-kokey" and not "okey-dokey"; Ranjeet Singh (Albert Moses) who, upon being corrected (which is almost always), put his hands together in prayerlike manner, and says his catch phrase – "a thousand apologies", Ali Nadeem (Dino Shafeek), whose favourite two phrases are "Oh! Blimey" and "squeeze me please", by which he of course means "excuse me please" and Chung Su-Lee (Pik-Sen Lim), who always mixes up her "Rs" and "Ls" (when she says "Mr Blown not alive yet", she means "Mr Brown hasn't arrived yet") and never, ever goes anywhere or does anything without first consulting her Little Red Book Of Mao. The characters were so stereotypical, but they weren't offensive, really. Much of the humour stemmed from the students' literal and sometimes all-too-creative interpretations of the English language. In one episode, Mr Brown asks Giovanni to take over his class while he steps out for a minute. Giovanni decides to test the class's vocabulary. He asks Greek student Maximillian Andrea Archimedes Papandrious to tell the class the antonym of the word "bitter". Max's answer: Lotta. When asked to explain his obviously wrong answer, Max says: "Sure it is (the right answer!). Opposite of "a bitta (bit of) money" is "a lotta money". These days, like Ann Marie, I'm on the Community bandwagon. I'll leave it to her to tell you why this whacked-out bunch of maladjusted adults have caught our fancy (lest she say I stole her ideas yet again!). – SI I ALWAYS loved school. But I must admit, thanks to TV, I did occasionally wish that I was in an American school. When I was a kid, I remember watching Square Pegs, and wanting so much to be in that environment. And even much later on in life, shows like Veronica Mars and The O.C. made me wish I had had a different schooling life – with lockers and water coolers and moving classrooms. These days I watch nothing but Community, like Indra just alluded to. It is one of the best shows I have watched in a long time. Created by Dan Harmon, the sitcom follows a group of students that belong to a study group at a community college in Greendale, Colorado (no such place in real life I think). The ensemble cast is so diverse and eccentric, you just instantly fall in love with them. I want to introduce each one to you in loving detail but I have a word count to stick to. So I'm going to boil it down to my favourites – the gorgeous Jeff Winger (team leader, portrayed by the oh-so-handsome Joel McHale) and obligatory Arab kid, Abed (played by the amazing Danny Pudi). To put things in perspective though, Abed is not your ordinary Arab kid, he's part Polish and has Asperger's. I am so enamoured by Abed, that I have started to envision everyday scenarios the way he does – as if they were television plots. Chevy Chase and Ken Jeong bring cinematic credentials to the TV show to boot. The series is especially awesome because it relies heavily on pop culture references, and takes the mickey out of film and television clichés – Abed as Batman kills me every time, the paintball wars and the end of Season 1 and 2 were to die for, Abed's Claymation Christmas episode gave new meaning to the day even for me, the Pulp Fiction parody ... I could go on and on. The truth is, as much as I loved it before, school was never this much fun. – AMC |
| Posted: 05 Jun 2013 02:47 AM PDT TWO weeks ago, the Sofa Spudniks column celebrated its second birthday and we ran a crossword puzzle challenge for our fans (well ... we hoped we had fans). At first we waited with trepidation; what if no one wrote back? Then ... hooray! We got a whole stack of mail (pic, some via PosLaju to boot) and we've narrowed down our winner's list to these lucky five all-correct, first-in entries. And the winners are (drum roll please): 1. Viranee Intachat (IC No: 73xxxx-xx-5600) 2. Donovan Choo Min Wy (IC No: 89xxxx-xx-5947) 3. Chee Wai Hook (IC No: 71xxxx-xx-5015) 4. Deepak Gidvani s/o Ashok Kumar (IC No: 85xxxx-xx-5319) 5. Hazlina Teh Muhammad (IC No: 67xxxx-xx-5036) You five will be receiving your goodies soon as Indra gets herself to the post office. Thank you Viranee of Jitra, Kedah, for your confidence-boosting note. She said: Dearest Indra and Ann Marie, Thank you for two great years and may there be more to come! I grew up in the 70s and 80s and I love it when you review or mention TV shows from that era. Many times your articles make me chuckle aloud or get me teary-eyed too! Keep up the good job and may TV live long and prosper. P.S. For clue No16 (across), although I answered Peyton Place (for Ryan O'Neal), wasn't Lee Majors the only husband Farrah Fawcett ever had? Ryan was only her lover and partner for many years. Gursharan Kaur of PJ wrote: Ann Marie, thanks for making me mental with Peyton Place. LOL. Tung Soo Sze, also of PJ, said: I love reading your column, especially on the 70s and 80s TV shows. Have more puzzles like this, it's very enjoyable and fun. Definitely reminded me of my childhood. Do keep up the good work! Thank you all. Just to set the record straight, Ann Marie (she cringes in shame) was wrong – Ryan O'Neal was not married to Farrah Fawcett. Thanks everyone for your participation. It was great fun doing this! |
| Posted: 05 Jun 2013 02:48 AM PDT Star2 takes a stab at scriptwriting to pen their dream plots for some high-profiled spin-offs. THE past few weeks have seen some surprising changes in the American television scene, thanks to this year's upfront sessions. Many shows that were initially thought to be doing well have been cancelled, while some programmes that have waned in popularity are still getting the greenlight for another season or two. New series have also been ordered by a few of the big studios, and the more promising – or exciting – ones include Almost Human, Believe (both of which are produced by director J.J. Abrams' company, Bad Robot), About A Boy, Mom, Michael J. Fox Show and Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. There are also a number of spin-offs or prequels of really popular shows like The Originals (The Vampire Diaries), Ravenswood (Pretty Little Liars), 24: Live Another Day (24) and Once Upon A Time In Wonderland (Once Upon A Time). Here's our quirky take – our wishlist, if you will – on these four new spin-offs. The Originals From: The Vampire Diaries Advertised storyline: In The Originals, werewolf vampire hybrid Klaus (played by actor Joseph Morgan) returns to the French Quarter of New Orleans, and viewers get to learn more about his mysterious origins. The upcoming series also focuses on the "Original" family of vampires when Klaus reunites with his former protege, the dreaded Marcel (Charles Michael Davis). Later on, he learns that a former one-night stand, Hayley (Phoebe Tonkins) is pregnant with his child. What we want to see: Judging from the way the writers outlined the plot, it looks like Klaus is in for some big-time dramatic family reunion. I'd like to see Klaus retire from searching for a cure for his werewolf "curse" and just focus on being a dad. This way, he gets to take his kid hunting for vampires, terrorise humans and you know, just be their own wolfpack. They should also rename the show Modern Werewolf Family. Dream cast: Who gets to play the kid? That Luke Dunphy boy (Nolan Gould) from Modern Family would be a great candidate. Maybe Benicio Del Toro (simply because he was the "Wolfman") as Klaus' long-lost brother, so that the kid gets a great uncle who'll take him to do stupid things. Oh, Wesley Snipes can be the family guardian. Just because. – Angelin Yeoh Ravenswood From: Pretty Little Liars Advertised storyline: Set in the fictional town of Ravenswood, Pennsylvania, the series follows five strangers whose lives become intertwined by a deadly curse. What we want to see: In Ravenswood, which is just one town over from Rosewood – where Pretty Little Liars is set – lives (horror! shock!) Alison (Sasha Pieterse)! Yes, the very same Alison who is supposed to be dead (you'd know this if you watched PLL). Never mind that; in soap operas, characters who are dead have been known to be resurrected. Student by day (karma's a b**** as she's being bullied in her new school), Alison moonlights as a call girl at night. Why? She needs the money to fund the on-going torture of her four friends in Rosewood. Yes, Alison is "A" and is in cahoots with Red Coat (who still remains a mystery) to inflict emotional and psychological pain on Hanna, Spencer, Aria and Emily. Her illicit occupation soon leads her to another problem. One of her regular Johns is found dead in her boudoir but Alison couldn't have killed him as she was in Rosewood spying on her friends. She can't possibly go to the police without her identity revealed. So, her madame helps discard the body ... but Alison has a hefty price to pay! Dream cast: Marcia Cross (as the Madame), Julian McMahon (as the dead John appearing in flashbacks), Becki Newton and Lindsay Lohan (as Alison's colleagues), Amanda Bynes (as the Queen Bee who bullies Alison), Colton Haynes (as Queen Bee's boyfriend who might or might not have some feelings for Alison) and Christopher Meloni (as Alison's principal who has a dark past). – Gordon Kho Once Upon A Time In Wonderland From: Once Upon A Time Advertised storyline: Loosely based on Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, this fantasy drama is set in Victorian times in London, where a more grown up Alice is institutionalised by her father who thought that she had lost her mind after talking about falling in love with a genie named Cyrus and hanging out with a talking rabbit. Just as she's about to get a "permanent cure", in walks a Leather Jacket-Wearing stranger ... What we want to see: Instead of forever pining for her lost love aka Cyrus, Alice should concentrate on her career as a much sought-after nanny in the "other wonderland", which I'm hoping is a lot like Beverly Hills. Or perhaps even Beverly Hills itself. Since Alice has a proclivity to fantasies and talking rabbits, kids just adore her. Her daily routines and dramas would include ducking sexual advances from employees, hiding from a stalker (Cyrus!), avoiding confrontation from "The Mothers", a group of loveless, bitter careerwomen whose kids prefer spending time with the help than them. Oh, and her love life is rocking, thanks to Leather Jacket-Wearing stranger. Dream cast: AnnaSophia Robb as Alice, with Kristin Chenoweth as leader of The Mothers. Robert Pattinson can be Cyrus (the character wears a big ruby necklace, which would go well with Pattinson's glistening chest), while James McAvoy is perfect as Leather Jacket-Wearing stranger. – Melody L. Goh 24: Live Another Day From: 24 Advertised storyline: Jack Bauer returns. What we want to see: The show is set several years following the events of the final season of 24, when Jack Bauer walked into the unknown. He resurfaces after a newly elected president decides to acknowledge the sacrifices and good work Jack has put in over the years to keep the country safe. A press conference is called at the White House, and Jack arrives with his daughter, Kim (Elisha Cuthbert) and best friend Chloe O'Brian (Mary Lynn Rajskub) – and yes, he's wearing a smile, for a change. Of course, that is also the day when a disgruntled soldier decides to strike an attack on the White House with his loyal men. Kim is caught in the crossfire and dies (to the delight of fans, yay!). The entire season – which is just 12-episode long this time around – is shot within 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue – from the West Wing to the President's living quarters to the secret labyrinth beneath the grounds of White House. Jack has to put away his grief – and get back into action to save White House, and all in it, from going down. Dream cast: It would've been great if Homeland's Damian Lewis was available for the role of the soldier. Since that's not going to happen, we'll take Matthew Fox. To keep the 24 tradition of casting against type when it comes to POTUS, I vote for Jennifer Beals. She plays a strong willed president of multiracial background, whose life partner is a woman. Other actors involved in this political thriller include Madeleine Stowe as the scheming vice president, America Ferrera as the clumsy, and poncho-wearing, press secretary and Tricia Helfer as the hot tempered chief of staff. Yes, it is an all-female administration. – Mumtaj Begum |
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