TV Bender

Samantha Who? - Samantha has bumped her head and has no clue who she is. She wakes from an 8 day coma and is told she has retrograde amnesia, her parents are a nuts too. But what happens when her boyfriend learns she cheated on him, will he stick it out or ditch her? Samantha is played by Christina Applegate. Airs October 15, 9:30/8:30c.

Cavemen - You’ve seen them in the Geico commericials but now they’ve made it into a tv series. Airs Oct 2, at 8/7c.

Carpoolers- Imagine a group of women carpooling with all the gossip and everythign…well now you get to see how men would act. Finding a carpool space is harder than finding a regular parking space and once a spot opens up it gets crazy. From sing-alongs to quiet times in the car, watch as these guys learn more about one another and share in the joys of carpooling. Airs Oct 2, 8:30/7:30c.

Pushing Daisies - He touches people that have died and they come back to life for one minute, touches them again and back to the dead they go. He tries learning exactly what or who it was that killed a person and tries to serve justice. Not only can he bring people back to life, if they touch him they can die. Airs Oct 3.

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It seems that Channel 4 has raised quite a stir with their recent planned programming.

The latest Channel 4 reality show, appropriately named Virgin School, aims to teach a 40-year-old retired vicar, and a few others how to have sex.

The four novices will spend two months learning “the art of intimacy�? in the sin city. They will be coached by a series of sex therapists who, at the end of the teaching period, will deflower the foursome.

As if documenting virgins being taught how to have sex wasn’t sufficient torture, cameras will follow the ‘contestants’ through the entire process, including the final act.

Apparently the show is supposed to be educational, and is a part of a series of programs that explore virginity. Also on the menu is a program called Losing It, that takes a look a the different ways that people loose their virginity.

I guess this is Channel 4’s way of saying ‘Good luck romping into the next year!’

A new show called ‘The Secret Millionaire‘ began airing in the UK this past Wednesday night. It appears that Channel 4 has decided to take a page (don’t you love it when conversations so fluidly lead themselves to puns?) from Mark Twain’s The Prince and The Pauper.

The basic idea behind the show is that over the course of the 5 part series, 5 different real-life millionaires will venture out of their lives of comfort, and into the big, bad world.

They will spend that time, mixing in a less well off, more humble place, learning about the people and their needs and wants.

The premise of the show seems largely uninspired, but Dave recommends it, so I would say definitely check it out.

The problem with shows like The Daily Show and The Colbert Report is that they have an extremely short shelf life. Because the two shows rely on day to day news and politics for their material, their relevancy beyond the week (at most) the episode airs is very limited.

That said, The New York Times is reporting that Ben Karlin has decided to quit as executive producer of both Comedy Central shows. Ben Karlin was hired as the head writer for The Daily Show based on his work at The Onion, in 1999, and was promoted to executive producer in 2003. Apart from that, Karlin played a key role in starting The Colbert Report, and more recently, a pilot for Comedy Central called Three Strikes.

In light of Karlin’s abrupt departure, David Javerbaum (also previously of The Onion) has been promoted to the position of executive producer.

Of no small comfort to Comedy Central is that Mr. Stewart and Mr. Colbert are actively involved in the writing and producing of their respective shows.

It is definitely important to note that both John Stewart and Stephen Colbert are actively involved in their shows, however, if and how this reshuffling will affect the shows will become apparent in the coming months.

Note to 451 Press, who’s watching The Daily Show and The Colbert Report?

After I wrote my post on Why I Gave Up On Prison Break, Aaron Peck from Watching Prison Break decided to set me straight:

Let me start off by saying that Muhammad and I are friends, and all of this is meant to be in the spirit of fun.

With that said, don’t listen to a single word this man says, he’s crazy!

First let me deal with the overall ‘conspiracy’ theme of the show. Ever since the first season we knew we were dealing with something bigger than Michael’s plan or even his elaborate tattoo. Michael knew that there was some sort of injustice happening to his brother, but he didn’t know how high it reached. The ‘conspiracy’ plotline has always been a mainstay of the overall theme of Prison Break. If you bought into the first season you bought into the ‘conspiracy’ there’s no way around that.

Sure it seems that by doing this and by some of the quotes that have been made, Prison Break is a little too late on a political stance. But, last season it wasn’t. As we are just continuing ‘days’ after last season these feelings and attitudes would be carried over and not all of a sudden changed to suit the current political climate (which is continually getting worse anyway).

Let’s take a break and talk about the movies for a second. To me there are two main types of movies that I like. The first are movies that make me think, that dig down to the core of my beliefs and usually turn them on their side. These are movies that I leave the theater and find myself thinking about them weeks later. The other type of movies are aptly dubbed ‘popcorn movies.’ Movies that serve no other purpose other than entertaining me. I compare Prison Break to the latter.

One of my all time favorite movies is Die Hard. Not because it is some amazing social commentary, or life changing act of cinema. It’s just pure action-packed fun. A movie where I can kick back and root for the good guy to kill as many bad guys as possible in increasingly inventive ways.

I know that Muhammad didn’t really touch on the fact that Prison Break is one of the most unbelievable shows out there, but it is a common complaint. I have come to love Prison Break for just that reason. A show where I can throw all rational thought out the window, and still be entertained.

Prison Break is truly a show that knows it’s flirting with the edge of borderline ridiculous, but does it with grace.

If after reading this you have become enlightened and realized the error of your ways by listening to Muhammad, please come on over to Watching Prison Break and join in on the love.

I was an avid fan of Prison Break even before the show came out. I had seen the previews, read about the show, and believed all the hype. I can safely say that season 1 of the show surpassed all of my expectations. I liked the show so much that I even recommended it to a few of my friends, who of course got addicted to the show.

After watching 12 episodes of the second season, I’ sorry to say that I’m done with Prison Break. Here’s why:

Episode 11

1. “It’s about corporate interests taking over the government, buying elections, fighting wars, people dying so they can turn a profit.” A little late for a political campaign ad aren’t we? Or are we aiming for 2008? Obama?

2. “NSA”, “Echelon Program”, “Homeland Security”, “9/11″, “White House”, I did not sign up for a political spy drama.

Episode 12

1. “He punished me, locked me up, if you leave someone alone in the dark for that long…you start to see things…” This was a good insight into Michael’s past but reminds me too much of elements from The Pretender. It’s a been there done that approach to character development.

2. Micheal can’t cry. They say that in theater, if you can’t cry, then don’t. The worst thing you can do is attempt to cry in a manner that is completely unbelievable.

3. “The Company”, “I thought I was doing the right thing…”, “The Company had enemies…I left as soon as I found out how corrupt it all was, how they were buying the government.” At this point I think the writers are just running out of ideas. Am I the only one who is watching Alias, when he should be watching Prison Break? Remember how Sydney gets hired by SD-6, thinking that she is working for a secret branch of the CIA? Ultimately she figures out that she is working for the very evil organization that she had sworn to fight.

4. “We can fix this. I came back so that we can fix this.”, “This can never be fixed.” Oh I’m sorry, I was under the impression I was watching Fox, not Lifetime. I’ll try to not act surprised as a drama about convicts escaping from prison turns into a drama about dysfunctional father-son relationships.

5. “There is a tape, gives us everything we need.” Ahh, are you going to give Jack Bauer a call? Because I hear he is good at retrieving tapes that conveniently have all the evidence.

These are just a few reasons why Prison Break is over for me, let me know if you need more. I have listed the ‘cons’ of the show here. Aaron from Watching Prison Break will follow this up by trying to convince me that I jumped ship too early.

Media Bistro does an exceptional job in pictorially showing us everything that is wrong with mainstream news media nowadays. The following is MSNBC’s 5 hour breaking-news coverage from 10:20 am to 3:33 pm:

Just when we were getting ready to see O.J. describe in graphic detail, murders that he didn’t commit, it appears that Fox has decided to commit a double-murder of its own. As a result of the extremely negative reaction that Fox was getting from mainstream media they have decided to kill the book and TV interview with O.J. Simpson.

“I and senior management agree with the American public that this was an ill-considered project,” said Rupert Murdoch, News Corp. chairman. “We are sorry for any pain that this has caused the families of Ron Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson.”

Makes me wonder, what made them think that this was a good idea to begin with?

O.J. Simpson is in the news again, and its still not good. According to the National Enquirer, O.J. has been paid $3.5 million for a book that is tentatively titled “If I Did It”.

According to the article, the book describes “…in gruesome detail the killing of his ex-wife and Goldman; he stipulates that the murder scenes are hypothetical.” The detail in which the murders are described is so chilling that there is little doubt to be left in the minds of the readers as to what actually transpired. Simpson, though, can’t be retried for the murders because of double jeopardy laws.

As if the book wasn’t chilling (read maddening) enough, Fox will be airing a two-part interview in which Simpson will describe the double-murder, which he insists he didn’t commit.

The interview will be conducted by Judith Regan, who is also the editor and publisher of the former football star’s upcomming book, and will air at 9 p.m. November 27 and 29 on Fox.

Interestingly enough, O.J. Simpson has yet to pay the $33 million awarded to the families of the victims in the civil suit judgment. Let’s hope at least some of the $3.5 million will go towards that payment.

Here’s a link to a promo of the interview.

[via Reuters]