Posts by Gino Sassani

Until recently DirecTV's Audience Network was a home for critically acclaimed shows that somehow lost their feet on another network. It started with Friday Night Lights and more recently with Damages. So DirecTV was no stranger to original series production. Now for the very first time the satellite carrier and network have developed their own television series. Rogue would be the first show on the network not to have played somewhere else first. The effort is a collaboration with eOne and Greenhouse Entertainment. From the first 10 episodes of the first season, you can bet it's a pretty wild ride and a relatively strong start.

Grace Travis (Newton) is an undercover cop for the San Jose Police Department, on loan from the Oakland Police Department. She is deep undercover and has managed to get quite close to kingpin Jimmy Laszlo (Csokas).When her son is killed in an apparent random drive-by shooting she is devastated and pulled from her cover and put on leave. That is until she discovers there might be a link between Laszlo's organization and her son's killing. Someone within Jimmy's crew is trying to take him out, and a bullet comparison ties his traitor with her son's death. Without permission she goes back under. When her cover is blown she ends up striking a deal with Jimmy to find the person that both of them want. It's a tricky accommodation that will send ripples through her family and work colleagues.

It started 300 million years ago... OK, it really started in August of 2008 when the British television series Primeval arrived on the scene. It was a combination Stargate and Jurassic Park. Professor Nick Carter (Henshall) became obsessed with a natural phenomenon he coined anomalies. These sparkling electro-magnetic disturbances were doorways to eras of the past, and later discovered, the future. His wife had disappeared into one several years earlier, and he ended up heading a government team called A.R.C. (Anomaly Research Center) to deal with the beasts that get through to our side. They needed to be returned in one piece. It turns out that killing even a prehistoric bug could generate time ripples that might change the present. Carter found out the hard way, and for five seasons Primeval dealt with the likes of errant dinosaurs and conspiracies from the future. The show ended in June of 2011... or did it?

Enter Primeval: New World. This one-season wonder picked up where the British series ended. This time it was set in Canada. The new Nick Carter was Alex Cross, played by Niall Matter. Cross is a rich industrialist. Like Carter, he had lost his wife years ago. His loss was much more permanent. A dinosaur ate her in front of him. A strange man in an ARC uniform just barely saved his life at the cost of his own. He keeps the body of his mysterious stranger in a cryogenic freeze. He dedicates his efforts and company resources to learning everything he can about the anomalies. He ends up using technology from the future to build the tech we already saw in the original series. Cross puts together a team to begin doing pretty much what Carter's team did in the original. They would track down the anomalies and attempt to deal with the various prehistoric nasties that made their way through them to our time.

Long before Clint Eastwood was making our day as Dirty Harry or even roaming the badlands without a name for Sergio Leone, he was working the cattle drive on Rawhide. Rawhide was created to take advantage of the huge Western film and television wave that Hollywood had been riding for nearly a decade. With huge ratings for Gunsmoke and Bonanza among others, Rawhide was a bit of an unlikely success. Here the show explored the West on an endless cattle drive to get a few thousand steer to market. Along the way the crew would find themselves involved in someone else’s troubles or meet trouble head on themselves. The cattle drive theme would rely on the changing landscape to distinguish the show from other more sedentary westerns. More like Wagon Train, the constant movement always gave a sense of action even when there wasn’t much. Of course, there was a large number of changing support players along on the drive. Every operation needs cooks, ropers, and red shirts.

A very young Clint Eastwood played Rowdy Yates. Unlike any cowboy you ever saw, Rowdy had slicked up hair and looked more like a biker than a cowhand. He was the greenhorn in the bunch, usually finding each experience a learning opportunity. He had an almost naïve charm that made him popular. Eric Fleming was Gil, the trail boss. The third main character was Pete Nolan, played by Sheb Wooley. Sheb formed a good relationship with Eastwood that would be rewarded years later when Eastwood created a role for him in The Outlaw Josey Wales. I didn’t really watch the show even in its limited syndication run, so knew most of it by reputation only. Of course, I knew the Frankie Laine theme that has been used for everything from selling cars to western spoofs. The tune was also a moderate radio and record hit in the day.

"There is nothing more relaxing than knowing that the world is crazier than you are."

When Disney Studios bought the Marvel line, what they were buying was really a printing press that printed freshly-minted money. That doesn't mean it was automatic, however. It was done right. Starting with the first two Iron Man films, the franchise that would lead to Joss Whedon's superior Avengers film was one of creating a universe. God made the universe in seven days. It took Marvel five movies. What we end up with is not just a fine collection of treats for the geeks and fanboys. We're left with an entire world, a world that we are all invited at about the pace of two films a year to come and play within. No one is pretending that they're making serious cinema here. What they're doing is making serious cash. To do that, there is only one order of the day. Thou shalt entertain. After two hours visiting with Thor: The Dark World -- I'm entertained.

"The way of life depicted in this program dates back 300 years. Hunting, especially alligator hunting, lies at its core. Some images may be disturbing. Viewer discretion is advised."

And they're not kidding. Gator hunting is a bloody business, and this show gets you right up close and in the action. The hunters set hooks with bait, and once a gator is hooked they must reel it in and shoot it in a very small vulnerable spot in the back of the head. Let me warn you that animals were indeed harmed in the making of this film, and you're going to witness that harm. If you're an animal activist, I suggest turning to the Disney Channel for this particular hour. The rest of you will get a front-row seat to a truly thrilling non-stop alligator hunt.