Mission Impossible – The Fifth TV Season
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 7th, 2008
Jim Phelps (
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Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 7th, 2008
Jim Phelps (
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Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 7th, 2008
I can remember when Beauty And The Beast first arrived on television. It was fall of 1987. I watched a couple episodes of this rather odd drama. Instantly I was drawn to the show’s world but was almost as quickly pushed away by the material. If I can be forgiven for saying so, I always considered this a “chick” show. That’s not intended as an insult at all. The truth is there likely isn’t nearly enough programming out there that is targeted for the female audience. This was without a doubt a series that was very much aimed at the young women viewers.
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Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 3rd, 2008
The CSI phenomenon has been going strong for many years now, and CBS has ridden that wave to become the top network these past couple of years. It all started with the original CSI: Crime Scene Investigator. This
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Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on October 3rd, 2008
The holiday season is coming fast. It should come as no surprise with all of the Chipmunk DVDs being released that a Holiday Collection was going to be included. Of all of the sets, this is the best. There 12 episodes in all, and each is among the best of the classic show. You get three discs, one for each of the upcoming special days: Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. There’s plenty of Chipmunk antics and some great song selections included in each disc.
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Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 26th, 2008
Shonda Rhimes had a big hit on her hands with Grey’s Anatomy, so after five years she did what comes naturally in her situation. You spin the success off in the hope that the fans just can’t get enough in just one night. At first it appeared to me she had chosen the wrong character to put out on her own. I mean, I never considered Kate Walsh as
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Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 25th, 2008
To the point, Criminal Minds is very compelling television. Ever since The Silence Of The Lambs and perhaps long before, we have been fascinated by serial killers and the profilers who try to get inside their heads. To see evidence of the continuing trend, one needs only look toward the success of films like Zodiac and shows like Dexter. Of course, serial killers are not the only prey this FBI team pursues, but they are certainly the marquee item on the agenda.
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Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 25th, 2008
It’s unfortunate that the writers’ strike interrupted the second season of Brothers & Sisters. I was looking forward to finding out if the writers were going to live up to the amazing on camera talent they had speaking their words. What I found was pretty much more of the same, and a quickly eroding patience with the series. I guess the writers had a little more on their mind this year. More’s the pity.
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Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 24th, 2008
The Godfather films changed storytelling forever. Films before that time, mobster or otherwise, had some very simple but unshakable rules. There was always a fairly clear distinction between the good guys and the bad guys. The good guys always win in the end, and the bad guys always succumb to justice before the final credits. For perhaps the very first time, we were given characters that we knew in our souls were evil men. They killed. They broke laws. They manipulated everyone around them through fear and terrorism to bend to their wills. Somehow, now they are the film’s core heroes, if you will. When Vito is shot, we cheer for Michael, who discards his contempt for his family’s criminal image and comes to his father’s aid.
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Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 19th, 2008
The character of Charlie Chan was created by writer Earl Derr Biggers in 1925 in the book A House Without A Key. He based the character on real life
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Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 17th, 2008
There are some significant changes in season 4. The interns now have interns of their own. It’s actually a little fresh to see them struggle with circumstances we only recently watched them deal with from the other perspective. All except George, who is forced to repeat after blowing off his final exam to help Izzie. There are also many cast changes. Gone are
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Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 17th, 2008
Medium was based on a real person with alleged psychic powers who apparently has helped out various law enforcement agencies in some actual cases. If you’ve seen the series, you might find that hard to believe, and the episodes are obviously fictional adventures and not based on the real Allison Dubois’s experiences. At first glance it might be easy to lump Medium in with Ghost Whisperer or The Dead Zone. Actually there are almost no similarities to any of those shows.
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Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on September 17th, 2008
I love CSI and have been an avid fan from day one. I think it brought a fresh look to the procedural crime dramas that have long ago become just a little stale and predictable. The problem is that the series has gone the Dick Wolf route of branching out so that the final product might be a little diluted. Unlike the Law & Order franchise, each version of CSI has attempted to take on a unique look and style to reflect the location without giving up those elements which are the tradition of the series. CSI:
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Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on June 30th, 2008
There was a new Cowboy in
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Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on June 10th, 2008
Working in
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Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on June 9th, 2008
When last we left the fine folks of Weeds, Nancy Botwin (Mary-Louise Parker, Saved!) and her herb-growing buddy Conrad (Romany Malco, Blades of Glory) were being held at the mercy of two rival drug groups, both of which were very interested in Nancy’s stash and her cash, but it was taken by her son Silas (Hunter Parrish, Freedom Writers), who was arrested by Nancy’s friend Celia (Elizabeth Perkins, 28 Days). I’m not even close to discussing how things got to this point, and needless to say, the twists and turns sound a little soap operatic at times, but when you’re invested into the characters’ fates as you are, they provide for some memorable experiences.
Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 20th, 2008
When last I reviewed a season of JAG, a couple of the show’s fans had a few problems which I will attempt to address here. The first was about knocking a show I wasn’t extremely fluent in. Unfortunately, when I’m called upon to review a season of any series there is no time, or money for that matter, to go back and watch several years of the show to get acquainted. Secondly, I believe that a series season needs to be able to stand on its own
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Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 13th, 2008
Just in time for the release of one of the most eagerly awaited films in years comes a new box set of the Indiana Jones Adventures. The problem is that these transfers are not upgrades so, aside from squeezing out a few extra bucks, what’s the point? I’m sure that The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull will add hundreds of millions to the
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Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 12th, 2008
Jim Phelps (
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Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on May 7th, 2008
In the first season of The 4400 we are introduced to 4400 people who, we are led to believe, have recently returned from being abducted by aliens. Before you can look for Samantha Mulder among the group, we eventually discover that it was in reality the future that abducted these hundreds for nefarious reasons of their own. Some abductees have returned with mysterious powers and abilities. No, this is not Heroes or X-Men; in fact it’s a lot more like The X-Files than anything else, particularly in this the final season.
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Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on April 29th, 2008
So here we are again with a third collection of episodes from The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles television series. This final series is called Years Of Change. Most of the episodes and features deal with the span of years between the World Wars. The 20’s were indeed an inventive time when people like Thomas Edison were at their peak. Peace was at hand, and no one really knew for how little time it would last. Most people had extra money and life was one big party. From our 21st Century hindsight, we know it was all doomed to come crashing down before the decade ended
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Posted in Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on April 23rd, 2008
Love and marriage, love and marriage, go together like a horse and carriage, this I tell your brother; you can’t have without the other… Chances are if you know this song by heart, you have watched a lot of episodes of Married with Children (or you adore Frank Sinatra ). The Bundys are back for their eighth season of marital hijinx. Once it was just a random trivia question about one of the shows that was first on the little known Fox tv channel (Tracey Ullman and Garry Shandling are two others by the way). Later, it went on to be one of the network’s greatest early hits and out lasted almost everything except the Simpsons. So would another twenty six episodes of crass sarcasm and dysfunctionality dilute the product or just keep the laughs coming?
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Posted in Disc Reviews by Michael Durr on April 1st, 2008
Aqua Teen Hunger Force has hit mainstream, well for the most part. The Tv Show has been on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim for a few seasons now and they even released a theatrical film. The film entitled Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film wasn’t exactly a run away success. The film only made 5.5 million dollars nationwide. However, this was also about 7 times the budget which made the film a profitable success. So with the movie behind them, would the fame of past efforts fill their minds and make the creators’ (Dave Willis & Matt Maiellaro) heads swell with pride? Let’s turn into Volume 5 (Season 4) and find out.
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Posted in Disc Reviews by Gino Sassani on March 30th, 2008
Stargate Atlantis went into its third season with a lot to prove. Its companion and older series SG-1 was winding down and preparing to take its show to the longer direct to video path. Atlantis rose to the challenge and had what was arguably its best season to date. The best decision the show runners could have made was the one to concentrate on their core characters and give us episodes that were obviously intended to help us learn more about them. We meet McKay’s sister and Ronon’s wife and family along the way.
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Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 27th, 2008
Imagine my surprise when I found out that the show Wildfire, aired exclusively on the ABC Family network on Monday nights, is coming up on its fourth season. So it makes me wonder, since ABC Family is a little long on episodes, if a show airs on a network that people barely watch (aside from the occasional Gilmore Girls repeat), does the show really exist?
Posted in Disc Reviews by Archive Authors on March 16th, 2008
I now realize that the funniest funny is found in awkwardness. This is why Curb Your Enthusiasm is so popular. The main characters do things that make you cringe, often to the point where you even cover your eyes because it’s just too painful to watch. You say aloud to yourself, “Oh my god, no he didn’t just get a boner while hugging that old woman,” or “why are you talking to the TiVo guy when your wife might die?!” But with all due respect to the people that hate Larry’s character (Larry David) because he’s so rude and does stupid stuff, he often gets the short stick and apologizes when he shouldn’t have to.