TV Ramblings

God,I love "Deadwood." I liked the season premiere so much, I immediately watched it again (or I was desperate to avoid getting back to work on my book). If you ask me, "Deadwood" and "Battlestar Galactica" ...two revisionist "genre" shows...are the best dramas on TV right now. A close third would be the more conventional but brilliantly plotted "Law and Order: SVU."

I ran out of steam writing last night around midnight, but I was still too keyed up to go to bed. So I pulled out the second volume, season one boxed set of THE TIME TUNNEL and looked at a few of the extras. I'm not a fan of THE TIME TUNNEL and probably won't watch the episodes. I bought the set for the two unsold revival pilots that are included -- the unaired, 2002 hour-long THE TIME TUNNEL "reimagining" for Fox (which was flawed but interesting nonetheless) and the 1976 two-hour movie TIME TRAVELERS (which was awful in every way).  The story for TIME TRAVELERS was written by Rod Serling, but I can't imagine that any of his work remained in the execrable final product. There wasn't hint of his intelligence, wit or characterization in the script.

THE TIME TUNNEL has a couple of nice extras but no effort is made to present them in any sort of context or with any kind of flair. The whole set feels perfunctory, slapped together with no imagination, creativity or enthusiasm. Which is, of course, the complete opposite of the DVD sets put together by Paul Brownfield.

Comments

[Mark Terry]

It's this comment that caught my attention:

"I ran out of steam writing last night around midnight, but I was still too keyed up to go to bed."

Um, I'm a fulltime freelance writer, and I'm at my keyboard by 7:15 AM or so to check e-mail before breakfast & getting my youngest son off to school, and I'm definitely hard at it by 9:00AM until 5:00 or 6:00 and will work in the evenings, and on weekends, but...

Midnight, Lee? Well, I suppose nobody calls you and interrupts.

Best,
Mark Terry
www.mark-terry.com

[MattD]

I was really jazzed up about Deadwood, too. I'm still bummed it's the last season.

I tried watching Lucky Louie, but I only made it about fifteen minutes in.

[William Simon]

SEAQUEST Volume 1 was a major let down; just the episodes, nothing more. A few years back I invested in a Region Free DVD player, and now order most of my series from Amazon UK.... The new Network set of THE SAINT with Roger Moore is amazing in terms of extras and added stuff...the USA set has the episodes, and nothing more.

Lee, for a real trip down Nostalgia Lane, hit the UK site and get a copy of THE BARON with Steve Forrest.... A shamelessly obvious attempt to re-create THE SAINT, it's still fun. Sue Lloyd is STILL beautiful, and spends a lot of time being interviewed. A shame Steve Forrest is gone. Worse still, the recent pull-back from Warners on MAN FROM UNCLE......