Showing posts with label Monica Bellucci. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Monica Bellucci. Show all posts

Monday, May 25, 2009

The Alttiere Guide To The New US Shows Post.

Oooh, I love this time of year, when the networks announce their new shows with the LA Screenings coming up, and we get an idea of what new US shows will be on the cable and terrestrial channels's shopping lists. At least there are more (and more interesting sounding) shows than last year's crop (The Mentalist? Go away), and since someone else came up with the acronym SAOR (Shallow And Obvious Reasons) but I came up with Alttiere I'll stick with that. (The Alttiere Factor is about whether or not there are attractive ladies in the cast - named in honour of Jessica Alba and Hayden Panettiere.)

As ever, we're not including unscripted shows, series switching homes (Medium is moving from NBC to CBS), or cable shows (but we should, perhaps, note the demise of Battlestar Galactica, Kyle XY, The L Word, The Shield, Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends, The Emperor's New School and Stargate Atlantis).





This portion of The Alttiere Guide To The New US Shows Post is brought to you by Rosanna Arquette.

ABC
Copper
From The Good Folks At: Thump, Inc. and E1 Entertainment.
What's It About? It's "a youthful, heartfelt, one-hour, character-driven workplace drama about five rookie cops plunged into the high stakes world of big city policing - a world where even the smallest mistake can have life-or-death consequences." Ah, so it's The Rookies of our day.
Wil I Check It Out? No idea.
Alttiere Factor: No idea.
Chances Of Being In The UK: Not something I'd bet on.

Cougar Town
From The Good Folks At: Doozer, Coquette Productions and ABC Studios.
What's It About? A woman in her 40s who gets in a relationship with a - duh-duh-DUHHHHH! - younger man. Friends once did an episode where Monica basically committed statutory rape; this is now spun out to a whole series. It even has Courteney Cox-Arquette!
Will I Check It Out? Apart from the episode with Courteney's sister-in-law up there, I couldn't be bothered with her last series Dirt. The same may apply here.
Alttiere Factor: From Courteney, not much. But Busy Philipps is another story!
Chances Of Being In The UK: Very good. Fiver, Five US, Living and the ilk.

The Deep End
From The Good Folks At: Twentieth Century Fox Television.
What's It About? Well, they could have called it The Young Lawyers, but another show got there first in the 1970s.
Will I Check It Out? Unlikely.
Alttiere Factor: Leah Pipes and Tina Majorino are capable of floating the odd boat.
Chances Of Being In The UK: Not out of the question.

Eastwick
From The Good Folks At: Warner Bros. Television.
What's It About? It's The Witches Of Eastwick: The TV Show, with Paul "Benton Fraser" Gross as a much more plausible attractive devil than Jack Nicholson. Presumably Veronica Cartwright won't be playing the character she played in the movie (you know, the one who got killed).
Will I Check It Out? I might. It can't be worse than the book, and it might be better than the movie.
Alttiere Factor: Lindsay Price, Sara Rue, and Rebecca freaking Romijn. Well played.
Chances Of Being In The UK: Good.

Flash Forward
From The Good Folks At: ABC Studios.
What's It About? Everyone in the world gets a vision of the future in 21 years. What happens next?
Will I Check It Out? It's certainly an intriguing idea. If only the last TV series to involve Brannon Braga and David S. Goyer hadn't been the boring-as-all-hell Threshold...
Alttiere Factor: The only name that leaps out is Sonya Walger, but that's enough.
Chances Of Being In The UK: Extremely good.

The Forgotten
From The Good Folks At: Bonanza Productions Inc., Jerry Bruckheimer Television and Warner Bros. Television.
What's It About? A group of amateur detectives who specialise in not only finding out who killed people, but also who the victims are. It's also about Jerry Bruckheimer trying to expand his TV success to other nets (he has yet to have a hit show on an American network not called CBS).
Will I Check It Out? I think I will.
Alttiere Factor: Michelle Dessler lives! One of the detectives is foxy Reiko Aylesworth, so I'm sold.
Chances Of Being In The UK: Detective show, Bruckheimer... I'd say it'll get a home.

Hank
From The Good Folks At: Bonanza Productions Inc., McMonkey Inc., Grammnet Productions, Werner Entertainment and Warner Bros. Television.
What's It About? A Wall Street bigshot whose career falls apart, and has to go back to his hometown and family. With hilarious consequences.
Will I Check It Out? That last sentence might be for real, with a crew of sitcom veterans (Kelsey Grammer as Hank, James Burrows, Everybody Loves Raymond veteran Tucker Cawley). Then again...
Alttiere Factor: Not immediately apparent, it has to be said.
Chances Of Being In The UK: Between Grammer's involvement and Comedy Central and Channel 4, not bad.

Happy Town
From The Good Folks At: ABC Studios.
What's It About? Seven years after a small town was plagued by kidnappings, another crime affects the place...
Will I Check it Out? I'm not entirely sure about that, Scott Rosenberg's involvement notwithstanding. Alttiere Factor: Amy Acker means the Joss Whedon fans are sold. (Although it means she won't be on Dollhouse any more.)
Chances Of Being In The UK: Not out of the question.

The Middle
From The Good Folks At: Konk, Inc. and Warner Bros. Television.
What's It About? A middle-class wife/mother/car salesman in the middle of America. So not one for the edgy crowd.
Will I Check It Out? Unlikely...
Alttiere Factor: Creators Deann Heline and Eileen Heisler previously had Jennifer Finnigan in Committed. This one has Patricia Heaton. Not trading up.
Chances Of Being In The UK: Doesn't immediately say "Buy me," but Living...

Modern Family
From The Good Folks At: Levitan/Lloyd Productions and Twentieth Century Fox Television.
What's It About? A sitcom shot documentary-style focusing on three different families. From sitcom veterans Christopher Lloyd (not that one) and Steven Levitan...
Will I Check It Out? ...so quite possibly yes.
Alttiere Factor: One of the families features Julie Bowen, another one features Sofia Vergara... result.
Chances Of Coming To The UK: This sounds like it'll get a home.

V
From The Good Folks At: HDFilms and Warner Bros. Television.
What's It About? It's a new version of Kenneth Johnson's alien-invasion miniseries. Expect terms like "dark" to be flung about with regularity.
Will I Check It Out? Yes. I don't expect it to have the same impact as Diana's guinea pig swallowing or (in the Johnson-less sequel) Robin's C-section, but I hope it'll top the later regular series.
Alttiere Factor: Morena Baccarin, Lourdes Benedicto, Elizabeth Mitchell, Laura Vandervoort... plenty there for the straight guys and lesbians, which is what this post is interested in. Just deal.
Chances Of Coming To The UK: This WILL come to the UK. Sky and Virgin1 (and possibly ITV's digital channels) are airing their chequebooks as we speak.


This portion of The Alttiere Guide To The New US Shows Post is brought to you by Elisabeth Harnois.

CBS
Accidentally on Purpose
From The Good Folks At: BermanBraun and CBS Television Studios (the new name for CBS Paramount Television).
What's It About? A film critic who becomes a single mum after a one night stand.
Will I Check It Out? Probably not.
Alttiere Factor: Jenna Elfman and Ashley Jensen. Not for me.
Chances Of Coming To The UK: It might happen.

The Bridge
From The Good Folks At: E1 Entertainment, 990 Multi Media Entertainment Company, Jonsworth Productions, the CTV Television Network (yep, it's another US/Canadian venture) and CBS Television Studios.
What's It About? A cop who becomes the head of the police union.
Will I Check It Out? I've been not making time for cop shows lately, so...
Alttiere Factor: Inga Cadranel and Theresa Joy are new to me. Ona Grauer, less so. Not sure.
Chances Of Coming To The UK: If Flashpoint is any indication, good.

The Good Wife
From The Good Folks At: Scott Free Productions and CBS Television Studios.
What's It About? The wife of a district attorney who goes to prison, and who therefore has to return to work as a lawyer.
Will I Check It Out? Not out of the question. But not many people watched the last time Julianna Margulies played a lawyer (Canterbury's Law).
Alttiere Factor: With her and Christine Baranski, not high. If only Makenzie Vega was a year older.
Chances Of Coming To The UK: Dunno. But never discount the involvement of Ridley and Tony Scott. Or David Zucker.

Miami Trauma
From The Good Folks At: Bonanza Productions, Jerry Bruckeimer Television and Warner Bros. Television.
What's It About? Trauma surgeons in Miami - it does exactly what it says on the tin. Written by Jeffrey Lieber, who wrote the original pilot script for Lost before J.J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof got their mitts on it.
Will I Check It Out? I just might, you know.
Alttiere Factor: High - not only Elisabeth Harnois (so beautiful I endured Point Pleasant far longer than I otherwise would have) but also Lana Parrilla (welcome back after Boomtown).
Chances Of Coming To The UK: High. Medical shows sell well.

NCIS: Los Angeles
From The Good Folks At: CBS Television Studios.
What's It About? A spinoff of NCIS (which in turn is a spinoff of JAG), it's about a Navy SEAL who works for NCIS in, well, Los Angeles.
Will I Check It Out? Um, no.
Alttiere Factor: Louise Lombard do you? UPDATE: Since this was posted, Louise is out and Linda Hunt is in (not the first time in this television universe that a key female player's been replaced by someone significantly less sexy - Andrea Parker played Harm's partner in the JAG pilot, but in the series she got replaced first by Tracey Needham and then by Catherine Bell).
Chances Of Coming To The UK: NCIS is a reliable performer for both FX and Five. This'll come over.

Three Rivers
From The Good Folks At: Deuce Three Productions and CBS Television Studios.
What's It About? It's a medical show, focusing on organ transplants from all angles.
Will I Check It Out? I may or may not. Probably not.
Alttiere Factor: Katherine Moennig and Justina Machado make up for Alfre Woodard (replacing Julia Ormond).
Chances Of Coming To The UK: Don't count it out.


This portion of The Alttiere Guide To The New US Shows Post is brought to you by Monica Bellucci.

CW
The Beautiful Life
From The Good Folks At: Katalyst Films, CBS Television Studios and Warner Bros. Television.
What's It About? Young up-and-coming models in New York and their ups and downs. Mostly downs. Shepherded by Ashton Kutcher.
Will I Check It Out? I probably will, but will this succeed where Models Inc. and Paper Dolls failed?
Alttiere Factor: High - Sara Paxton, Mischa Barton, Ashley Madekwe, and Elle Macpherson. The Elle Macpherson.
Chances Of Coming To The UK: Guaranteed. E4 or Living, I bet.

Melrose Place
From The Good Folks At: CBS Television Studios.
What's It About? Having updated 90210, the spinoff gets the same treatment.
Will I Check It Out? No. I had no time for the original and I have no time for any redo.
Alttiere Factor: On the one hand, there's Jessica Lucas, Katie Cassidy and Josie Bissett (one of several returnees from the original). On the other hand, there's Stephanie Jacobsen and Ashlee Simpson. The Ashlee Simpson. So the pilots with her and Mischa Barton sold but those with Amanda Bynes and Hilary Duff didn't? I protest.
Chances Of Coming To The UK: Likely to.

Parental Discretion Advised
From The Good Folks At: Mojo Films, CBS Television Studios and Warner Bros. Television.
What's It About? A teenage girl wants to get emancipated from the parents she never knew, but winds up in their temporart joint custody.
Will I Check It Out? I may do, if it shows up over here.
Alttiere Factor: The mom in this scenario is Shiri Appleby, making a welcome return to television.
Chances Of Coming To The UK: Not great - it doesn't sound like something they'll be keen on.

The Vampire Diaries
From The Good Folks At: Bonanza Productions Inc., Alloy Entertainment, Warner Bros. Television and CBS Television Studios.
What's It About? A teenage girl is the apex of a love triangle between two brothers - one's good and one's evil, one's a vampire and one's, er, a vampire. From the people beind Gossip Girl, and Kevin Williamson.
Will I Check It Out? Yes. Even though it was clearly greenlighted after Twilight.
Alttiere Factor: Although Nina Dobrev is a new name to me, shows like this usually remember to have decent eye candy for both sexes.
Chances Of Coming To The UK: I bet it does.


This portion of The Alttiere Guide To The New US Shows Post is brought to you by Laetitia Casta.

FOX
Brothers
From The Good Folks At: Impact Zone Productions, Tantamount and Sony Pictures Television.
What's It About? A retired footballer who goes back home, reuniting with his brother whose football career ended after a car accident (played by Daryl "Chill" Mitchell from Galaxy Quest and Veronica's Closet, who really is confined to wheelchairs now).
Will I Check it Out? Mitchell Hurwitz (Arrested Development) and Don Reo (Blossom, My Wife And Kids) are involved, so yes.
Alttiere Factor: Not immediately apparent. (CCH Pounder? Leave off.)
Chances Of Coming To The UK: Dunno.

The Cleveland Show
From The Good Folks At: Fuzzy Door Productions and Twentieth Century Fox Television.
What's It About? Cleveland gets his own show and moves from Rhode Island (and Family Guy) to Virginia. This was supposed to start last season, by the way.
Will I Check It Out? I might do.
Alttiere Factor: If this was live-action, it wouldn't do badly in this department. But Sanaa Lathan and Nia Long are voice-only, this being a cartoon and all...
Chances Of Coming To The UK: Very good. FX and BBC3 have done well with both Family Guy and American Dad!

Glee
From The Good Folks At: Ryan Murphy Productions and Twentieth Century Fox Television.
What's It About? A high school teacher's bid to restore the prior glory of his school's glee club.
Will I Check It Out? From Ryan Murphy, who gave us Popular and Nip/Tuck. So that's a yes.
Alttiere Factor: Jayma Mays and Jessalyn Gilsig... I am so there.
Chances Of Coming To The UK: I sure hope so; this sounds just the thing for me. Or Hallmark. Or Channel 4.

Human Target
From The Good Folks At: Bonanza Productions Inc., Wonderland Sound & Vision, DC Comics and Warner Bros. Television.
What's It About? A private detective/bodyguard who impersonates his clients to protect them.
Will I Check It Out? Despite the fact that the pilot's directed by Simon West, yes.
Alttiere Factor: No idea yet, but when has a series based on a comic book not had anyone fanciable? (Teri Hatcher as Lois Lane notwithstanding.)
Chances Of Coming To The UK: Excellent. Even Birds Of Prey made it to UK screens.

Past Life
From The Good Folks At: Bonanza Productions Inc. and Warner Bros. Television.
What's It About? A series about two investigators who delve into mysteries the key to which lies in clients'... well, the title and the source (MJ Rose's novel The Reincarnationist) should fill you in.
Will I Check It Out? I might.
Alttiere Factor: Not immediately apparent. West Wing/Australian Soap Factor is closer (Richard Schiff and Nicholas Bishop respectively).
Chances Of Coming To The UK: Not massive. But you never know.

Sons of Tucson
From The Good Folks At: J2TV/J2 Pictures (pick one!) and Twentieth Century Fox Television.
What's It About? A fellow who has to pretend to be the dad of three brothers when their real dad goes to prison. Executive produced by Justin "Reese from Malcolm in the Middle" Berfield, who should know the territory.
Will I Check It Out? To be honest, maybe not.
Alttiere Factor: It's all up to you, Natalie Martinez.
Chances Of Coming To The UK: If it does well for Fox, Sky here it comes.


This portion of The Alttiere Guide To The New US Shows Post is brought to you by Hayden Panettiere.

NBC
100 Questions
From The Good Folks At: Tagline Television and Universal Media Studios.
What's It About? A woman looking for her Mr. Right who joins an online dating site, which requires her to answer 100 questions on the compatibility test.
Will I Check It Out? Anything with a built-in target is living on borrowed time, so no.
Alttiere Factor: Sophie Winkleman looks cute.
Chances Of Coming To The UK: Anything with a UK link seems to get bought, so...

Community
From The Good Folks At: Krasnoff/Foster Entertainment, Harmonious Claptrap, Russo Brothers, Universal Media Studios and Sony Pictures Television.
What's It About? A lawyer who's been disbarred forms a college study group made up of misfits (aren't they all) and learn about... yep, themselves.
Will I Check It Out? The Russo brothers of Arrested Development fame plus Joel McHale of The Soup equals "Yes." Chevy Chase is not a factor.
Alttiere Factor: IMDb indicates Gillian Jacobs and Alison Brie are cute.
Chances Of Coming To The UK: Not bad, I'd say.

Day One
From The Good Folks At: Universal Media Studios.
What's It About? It's after a massive global catastrophe, focusing on a small group of survivors.
Will I Check It Out? As long as it's not the next Jericho, yes. The involvement of Jesse Alexander (Heroes, Lost, Alias) is encouraging...
Alttiere Factor: ...as is the presence of Julie Gonzalo (Veronica Mars) and Carly Pope (Popular).
Chances Of Coming To The UK: This has Sky One, Virgin 1, BBC2 or Sci-Fi written all over it.

Mercy
From The Good Folks At: BermanBraun and Universal Media Studios.
What's It About? A medical drama seen from the nurses' point of view. "Unique," it says here - Angels, Nurses and Nightingales apparently don't count.
Will I Check It Out? Yes...
Alttiere Factor: ...because one of said nurses is Michelle Trachtenberg.
Chances Of Coming To The UK: See Miami Trauma.

Parenthood
From The Good Folks At: Imagine Television and Universal Media Studios.
What's It About? The second TV series based on the hit movie of the same name focusing on the joys and pains of a family filled with parents.
Will I Check It Out? It has a fine pedigree both behind the cameras (Jason Katims, Thomas Schlamme, Ron Howard) and in front (Bonnie Bedelia, Peter Krause, Craig T. Nelson et al), so yes.
Alttiere Factor: Erika Christensen, Sarah Ramos, Maura Tierney, Monica Potter... not bad going, really.
Chances Of Coming To The UK: Hallmark, or More4. Maybe even Channel 4.

Trauma
From The Good Folks At: Film 44 and Universal Media Studios.
What's It About? Paramedics in action. Basically, Emergency! for the noughties (so it'll probably get more viewers than the same suppliers' Friday Night Lights). Not to be confused with Miami Trauma.
Will I Check It Out? Um.... yes.
Alttiere Factor: Not entirely sure about Aimee Garcia and Anastasia Griffith, but in this case it might not matter.
Chances Of Coming To The UK: Could well find a home.

In Memory Of:

According To Jim
American Gladiators
Boston Legal
The Chopping Block
Crusoe
Cupid
Deal Or No Deal (network version)
Dirty Sexy Money
Do Not Disturb
Eleventh Hour
Eli Stone
ER
Everybody Hates Chris

The Ex-List
The Game
Harper's Island
In The Motherhood
Kath & Kim
King Of The Hill
Kings
Knight Rider
Last Comic Standing
Life

Life On Mars
Lipstick Jungle
MADtv
My Name Is Earl
My Own Worst Enemy
Prison Break
Privileged
Pushing Daisies
Reaper
Samantha Who?

Sit Down, Shut Up
Stylista
Surviving Suburbia
Swingtown
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
The Unusuals
The Unit
Valentine
Without A Trace
Worst Week

(Shows in italics have aired, or are due to be aired, in the UK.)

And Hilary Duff's pilot Barely Legal. We could have had Hilary Duff every week in a David E. Kelley show, people...

Monday, December 29, 2008

The So How Was It For You? Post.

It wasn't the best of Christmases for me, due to arguments and the news (Woolworth's et al on one side, Prince's painfully accurate summary re death rates on the other). So let's think positive.

1.

Um... man, this is tough. It's still glum. Er...

Oh, I know!
1. Less than a month to go until the world's most high-profile case of denial finally leaves the White House.

2. Monica Bellucci topless.
3. Cindy Crawford, unfortunately not topless.

That's a start.

Tuesday, November 06, 2007

The Gratuitous Picture Of Monica Bellucci Promoting Her New Movie Post.

It's called Le Deuxieme Souffle, and Monica is blonde in it. She's currently doing a movie with Sophie Marceau. And I really have to write another story about her. Monica, I mean.

Monday, October 22, 2007

The Ratatouille Post.

Pixar's Cars was a bit of a disappointment, all told. So Ratatouille's indication that it was just a blip is a relief, as well as testament to Brad Bird's unwillingness to rush his movies (see the gaps between this, The Incredibles and The Iron Giant).


The movie works so well, even though I hate rats, because it skips so many of the obvious turns for something like this - if this had been from another company, mentioning no names (coughDreamWorkscough), you can bet that at some point we'd have heard Fergie or some such doing a version of "Rat In The Kitchen." This never happens here.


We also don't get emphasis on plot points you'd think would be of major, massive, climax-depending importance - when we hear about Linguini's link to Gusteau the expected ending (i.e. of his winding up owning the restaurant) does not come, and the expected romance between him and Colette is also not all that important to the movie... it's all about the food. And the characters.


It's funny but it's not really a comedy; Remy does look more cartoony than the other rats, but the movie never trades on his cuteness (and kudos to writer-director Brad Bird for having Remy communicate with Linguini without going the talking route), and though the animation's fabulous - the icing on the cake is the cel-animated end credit sequence - it never takes over the proceedings.


Add a rafter of marvellous voice actors (Patton Oswalt, Brian Dennehy, Ian Holm, Peter O'Toole, Janeane Garofalo, Will Arnett, Brad Garrett, John "No Pixar movie is complete without him" Ratzenberger...), throw in delightful Michael Giacchino scoring, and what have you got?


A gem.


Which only leaves the question of why this is illustrated with Monica Bellucci, Jessica Alba, Hayden Panettiere and Erica Campbell.


Simple. I still hate rats...

Thursday, September 06, 2007

The If You Can't Say Something Nice Post.



In my determination to post something every day on this tundra of self-indulgence, I'm not always clear on what I want to say. I could yell at Hello!'s most attractive person of the month poll for intimating that Nadine Coyle from Girls Aloud and Emma Bunton from the Spice Girls are more fanciable than Jessica Alba, or gripe about Sharon's failure to appreciate Heroes (only two weeks to go before it's time to haunt certain sites again and/or hope the BBC hurries up with its airings of season two), or lament about how Prince was right in the end... you turn on the news and every other story is about how somebody died.
But let's be positive instead. Let's look at the nicer things in life. Like Monica Bellucci, for instance (illustrated with regards to Shoot 'Em Up). Or sleep. Or sleeping with Monica Bellucci.
Now isn't that better than ranting?

Friday, July 06, 2007

The Friday Debate: Should there be more penises in magazines aimed at women?

In the new issue of UK GQ, Jessica Alba - as well as providing a layout different from the US one (more magazines should take note) - said in the accompanying interview "Men's magazines have nipples so why don't women have a magazine where men show their penises? There's Playgirl but not a fashion magazine like Elle. If there was a magazine like that I'd buy it. Nudity's not a big deal to me."

This is not the time to complain about Jessica's stance on nudity as far as it equates to herself (let's face it, how many men who enjoy looking at undressed women would want to strip off on screen themselves?); nor to point out how unreservedly sexist it would be if it was vice versa (which admittedly ain't possible). This is the time to point out the problems with this proposal.

Problem 1: Even British lad magazines don't have women showing the equivalent parts of their bodies (and this is the biggest problem with her proposal - equating schlongs to funbags is not exactly a level playing field). If men appear totally naked, then Lucy Pinder et al would have to bare all as well.

Problem 2: Unlike men's magazines, which can feature women with small breasts as well as more-endowed ones, you don't often see Playgirl brandishing men with small penises regularly. So I hear.

Problem 3: When nude women bounce while running, it's a thing of beauty. Nude men don't exactly bounce when running, and it is not a thing of beauty. Comedy, yes.

Problem 4: Plastic surgery has not as yet reached the point where men can have their penises surgically enlarged.

Problem 5: The whole ladette thing is so over.

Years ago, a less-than-100%-straight reader of loaded requested the mag include some "knob" pics. His request fell on deaf ears. So, quite possibly, will Jessica's... think about it. Has there ever been a male equivalent of someone like Sara Jean Underwood (Playmate of the Year)? The Sun's Page 7 Fella exercise was limp (as it were), and despite the best efforts of the media, women have been unable to keep from seeming more interested in the mind than men (Daniel Craig in Casino Royale notwithstanding). It would balance things out, I admit, but... I'm not sure it would really work.

Besides. there's always homosexual porn.

Jessica Alba will always be one of my favourites, but this post is going to end with a poster for Shoot 'Em Up featuring one of its stars (who has famously never had a problem with her own nudity). And it's not Clive Owen, and it sure as hell ain't Paul Giamatti.