Posts by Gino Sassani

"Book 'em, Danno."

It's been seven years since we started to hear that phrase again. Before 2010, it had been 30 years. Still it persisted in the modern lexicon along with the term Five-0, which is still shouted in high-crime areas in cities all over the country whenever a police presence is felt closing in on the bad guys. Hawaii Five-0 ended in 1980. That's when Tom Selleck took over the sets and production crew on Hawaii to work as Magnum P.I. until 1988 when it all closed down for good -- or did it? Wouldn't you know it, the show has been resurrected and become the hottest drama on television. A younger Steve McGarrett and company are back in action and Hawaii ...the world might never be the same again. Not sure what I'm talking about? You've got six seasons of the new Hawaii Five-O to catch up on. Let's give you the quick 411. Roll wave... Click Here.

The 12th season of Criminal Minds would be one of great change. Some were expected and some were not. There had been incidents behind the scenes that had drawn red flags among the cast. Thomas Gibson was known to have a temper and had been reprimanded for it in the past. But as the Season 12 shooting began, he crossed the line again by allegedly kicking a writer. It was the last straw, and he was quickly fired from the series. So while the season begins with his character, it only lasts a short time. This is also the first season without Shemar Moore as Derek. That exit was planned and dealt with at the end of the previous season. And while everyone else returned, there was an unexpected return to the cast. Paget Brewster returned as Prentiss in what was originally intended as a short run. The sudden loss of Gibson created an opportunity to promote the character into his spot. Of course Brewster isn't the first to leave and return later. Jennifer Jareau had left for a while and returned to the fold. And while Moore does make a cameo this season and could return, don't expect to see Thomas Gibson on the show again.

As some doors close, others open. Adam Rodriquez from CSI: Miami joins the cast as Agent Luke Alves.  The character comes over from a fugitive task force and has a bit more of an aggressive style than the team is used to. He's a loner who lives alone with his dog. So we also get a rather pretty dark German shepherd in a recurring role this season. His addition certainly shakes things up in the character front. Another new face is Damon Gupton, who plays Agent Stephen Walker. He's the direct opposite of Luke. Stephen has a wife and kids and winds down by playing the trombone. To say he jazzes up the cast would be an understatement. But how well do these new characters fit in?

There have been a lot of changes at NCIS over its 14 season run to date. Over time people have come and gone, but rarely has the series had to deal with so much change going into a new season. The most obvious of these has been the departure of Michael Weatherly as beloved character Tony DiNozzo. Tony was one of the still many remaining characters from the show's premier season a decade and a half ago. He's the kind of character who couldn't be replaced by just one new character. NCIS starts the 14th season with three new characters on board. But Weatherly wasn't the only big loss to the series. The unexpected death of showrunner Gary Glasberg hit the cast and crew pretty hard. He passed without warning or obvious illness just as the season's shooting was beginning. He had been with the series since 2009 and left a pretty big impact on the show. His loss might not be as obvious to the people who watch the show, but it was as big as that of Michael Weatherly. In many ways the 14th season marks a turning point in the long life of the NCIS franchise.

As the season opens, we discover that Gibbs (Harmon) has been going through prospective replacement agents at an alarming pace. It's gotten so bad that the NCIS training officer in charge of sending those agents arrives to find out just what it is Gibbs wants. That training officer is Agent Alex Quinn, played by Jennifer Esposito. He suggests Quinn stick around a bit to find out what he wants. I don't think it's much of a spoiler to reveal that it was Quinn Gibbs was trying to get all along. But she won't be the only new agent. The first episode has the team looking into an undercover agent who has failed to check in for six months and may be in trouble. There's the possibility he's gone "native". That agent turns out to be Agent Nick Torres, played by Wilmer Valderrama. He also ends up being invited to stay with the team. Torres offers a bit of a higher tension wildcard that shakes the team up a bit. He's used to going it alone and has trouble learning to depend on others. With Quinn there is the added element that she trained the other agents, except for Gibbs, and knows things about them that maybe the rest of the team doesn't. But that's not the end. NCIS goes for the hat trick by turning recurring character Clayton Reeves into a part of the team. Reeves is a British liaison agent much the way Ziva was for Israel. He's played by Duane Henry and is a loner but of a different sort than Torres. He doesn't have much in the way of family or friends and volunteers for dangerous assignments as a result.

"It's a beautiful day outside. The streets are all packed with tourists. They're drinking beers. They're chasing beads, headed out on the vampire walking tour of New Orleans. They think it's just a myth, just part of the city's charm. Well... we know better. Just like we know there's a storm coming..."

Are you ready to do the Time Warp again? Ready or not here it comes. It's been five years since we last left the New Orleans setting for The Originals. Klaus (Morgan) has been locked up in the catacombs by Marcel (Davis), who is once again ruling as the supernatural king of New Orleans. Hayley (Tonkin) is taking care of her growing daughter Hope by never staying in the same place twice. She's not packing light, however, as she's got four coffins to watch over that hold Elijah (Gillies), Kol (Buzolic), Rebekah (Holt), and Freya (Voelkel). Wait a minute, you say. Who is this Klaus of which you write? Why are their four characters in coffins? Sounds like you have a little bit of catching up to do before you can sink your teeth into this vampire drama. You really can't just pick up with the fourth season of The Originals and have any chance of keeping up. I suggest you check out the first three season and our reviews Here before you continue along this sordid tale.

I grew up on the Peanuts creations of Charles M. Schulz. Most of us have, in some way or another. His newspaper comic strip is one of the longest running and most successful strips of all time. The work has been translated into every language currently spoken on the planet. The images of Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Linus, and the rest of the Peanuts gang have appeared on just about any kind of product imaginable. Our pop culture contains too many references to the strip to mention briefly. For me, it was the television specials starting in the mid 1960’s that brought the gang into my life. The classics are running annually, still after nearly 50 years. A Charlie Brown Christmas and It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown are the most mentioned and certainly beloved by generations of children and adults. I thought I never missed an airing.

A couple of years ago the cartoons were resurrected in, of all places, France. A French company wrangled the rights and went directly to the actual strips for the animated shorts. The series eventually landed here in the States on Boomerang and Cartoon Network but didn't air for more than a season. Now Warner Brothers has put together a collection of school-related portions of the series and released it on DVD. There are 29 episodes on two discs with no extras. The episodes average about seven minutes. The style remains close to the specials and cartoons that have been made here in the last 50 years. The notable difference is that colors don't extend to the borders, and the music is decidedly different. Instead of the jazzy piano that I most associate with the franchise you get the more French-inspired mandolin and a bit of an annoying vocal chorus. Frames are often begun unfinished, and a certain item like a hat or a chair will be drawn in as we watch. Obviously, the changes reflect a more art-stylish presentation that I attribute mostly to the French origin of the cartoons.