TV Tuesday: Brave and the Bold, Super Hero Squad, Human Target, and FlashForward

"A less obnoxious version of Miles Gloriosus..."



The Aquaman Shrine has a great interview up with James Tucker, producer of one of the greatest cartoon adventure shows ever, Batman: The Brave and the Bold. In it, Tucker talks about the inspiration that led to the Completely Awesome version of Aquaman on that show.

I Say Thee, "Yay!"



Speaking of great cartoon adventure shows...

I had a hard time getting into the first couple of episodes of The Super Hero Squad Show. The character designs are horrid and the humor takes some getting used to. It's not nearly as subtle as, say, The Brave and the Bold, which is really saying something. But now that I'm used to its tone, it's one of the shows I most look forward to.

These are not the versions of Marvel's heroes in comics, neither current nor Old School. They're far more simplified (iconic?) and - in their way - far more entertaining. Instead of being the angst-plagued heroes that Marvel fans know and love, they're goofy and fun.

Thor, for instance, with his cocky bravado, is Super Hero Squad's answer to Brave and the Bold's Aquaman. Silver Surfer talks like, well, a surfer. The Hulk is a relatively harmless stooge (unless, of course, you make him angry). Captain America makes Adam West's Batman look like a jay-walking hippie. Wolverine is grumpy all the time. Falcon is... well, maybe not a screw-up, but he certainly takes a lot of chances that get him into trouble.

Ms Marvel is the team's SHIELD liaison who barely tolerates their presence on her helicarrier. And I swear that in one episode - when Ms Marvel kicked the team out of their headquarters and they were looking for a place to spend the night - Iron Man actually thought about seeing if She-Hulk had room, but then reconsidered, thinking, "Well, maybe if it was just me..." In other words, he's a lot more loose and fun than the loser responsible for Civil War.

There are always great cameos too. Valkyrie and Black Widow have both been on. Dr. Strange is a favorite guest-star (all the Super Hero Squaddies are afraid to go into his house). And the bad guys are also great. Dr. Doom is a raving madman who leads the other super-villains, with MODOK and the Abomination being his two main henchmen. Abomination's just as dumb as the Hulk and there's a running gag about his horrible smell.

One of the most pleasant surprises though was the introduction of the character Reptil, who has the ability to replace parts of his body with dinosaur parts.



I silently mocked Reptil when I saw the cover for his one and only (so far) comic appearance. The cover art is by Humberto Ramos, whom I love, so I was probably prejudiced by the spelling of Reptil's name. But he's got an awesome power and my son and I are both big fans now thanks to the TV version. We've even dug in the back issue bins at the comics shop and found that comic. The art's not good (Ramos didn't do the interiors), but the story by Christos Gage is, full as it is of dinosaurs, reptile people, cat-women, cave boys, jungle lords, sabretooth tigers, and missing paleontologists. I'm not holding my breath, but I hope someone's able to continue Reptil's story soon.

Anyway, Super Hero Squad is awesome and you should be watching it.

Human Target



Another show I wasn't sure I was going to like. I enjoyed Peter Milligan's Human Target comics, but I kept hearing this referred to as a Jackie Earle Haley show and - while I liked him a lot in Watchmen (and Breaking Away) - I didn't think he was right to play Christopher Chance.

Turns out, he's not playing Chance at all, but one of Chance's partners and he looks really, really cool. Mark Valley (Boston Legal) is playing Chance and looks much more like what I imagined.

Plus, Chi McBride, whom I dearly miss from Pushing Daisies (he and Kristin Chenoweth were the best parts of that show).

Plus plus, the TV spot that Diane and I saw the other night looked great.

Plus plus plus, when I explained the concept to Diane (a bodyguard-for-hire who disguises himself as his clients and takes over their lives until he can figure out who's trying to kill them), she immediately thought it was cool and I was reminded how much I thought so too. The show starts Sunday, January 17th, and we'll be watching.

FlashForward from an artist's perspective



Robert Ullman explains what drives him crazy about FlashForward. It's not the same thing that drives me crazy about it, but the end result is the same. I'm not as close to being done with it as I am Glee, but I'm caring less and less about it as it progresses.

Fall TV So Far: Some reviews

Glee

I'm on the fence about this show. It has it's funny moments, but I'm not feeling most of the characters. Two episodes in and the kids in the Glee Club all still feel like stereotypes and clichés. The main character Will is supposed to be this nice guy, but he's creepily flirting with another teacher who's desperately in love with him even though he's married and - as far as he knows - has a baby on the way.

I've got three reasons for sticking with it for a while though. Jane Lynch is as hilarious as she always is, Victor Garber plays Will's dad, and Kristin Chenoweth is supposed to be in an upcoming episode or two. I'll watch Victor Garber in anything and I'm still not over my crush on Kristin Chenoweth from Pushing Daisies. And it's not like it's an awful show or anything. I'm just not sure I'd stick with it if not for those three actors.

The Office

Bullet proof. Things are changing around Dunder Mifflin, but as long as I keep laughing like I have been, I'm not worried.

Community

I laughed once during the pilot episode, but that was because someone was quoting The Breakfast Club. I'll always laugh at Breakfast Club references, if only out of fondness. And there's a certain Breakfast Clubness to the concept too: a diverse group of students getting together to study and survive their community college experience. That could be interesting, right? I thought I should give it a second week to see if it got funnier.

Didn't make it through ten minutes of the second episode. So not funny it hurt me.

House

Oh wow, did I love the season premiere. I only have one concern, but it's a big one. I'm not sure how they can top it. It was so beautiful and perfect that it felt like a series finale, not a season opener. Honestly, that's how I imagined the show should end and I'm seriously afraid to keep watching for fear of ruining the feeling I have about it right now.

On the other hand, I have a lot of faith in the people running the show and I'm looking forward to seeing how this goes. I'm just looking forward with a great deal of fear and trembling.

Big Bang Theory

Also bullet proof. Just keep Sheldon the same and you can screw around with Leonard and Penny's relationship all you want.

Castle

It's come to my attention that some people don't like this show. Those people are crazy. This is Nathan Fillion playing exactly the kind of character he was born to play, Stana Katic is a fantastic actress and - oh by the way - inconceivably beautiful, and the two are very funny together and have a ton of chemistry. The mysteries are also fun and interesting. It ain't CSI, but that's such a good thing.

My only gripe is that Susan Sullivan and Molly Quinn don't get enough to do as Castle's mom and daughter. They're around mostly to ground him and accidentally offer just the right piece of advice to help him crack the case and/or fix whatever's wrong with his relationship with Detective Beckett this week. But I like the two actresses enough that I'll happily take whatever I can get from them.

NCIS: Los Angeles

I've never watched an episode of NCIS, so I don't know what the rest of the world loves about that show. I caught the last half of the pilot for NCIS: LA though and I liked Chris O'Donnell and LL Cool J enough in it that I'll be back for more. I really don't think I need another mystery show, but we'll see.

The Forgotten

TiVo insists on spelling it the forgotten like the show's logo does, but I can't make myself do that. The show's pretentious enough as it is.

When I was looking for promos to embed in my Fall TV Premieres post I found an old promo of The Forgotten that had another actor in what's now Christian Slater's role. I can only imagine that ABC saw how ridiculous the show was and thought, "Well... maybe if we put a movie star in it, no one will notice." It's a shame too, because I like Christian Slater and I think he should get a good series. I want to watch him in one.

But the pilot for The Forgotten had a crappy mystery solved because of wild logic jumps and sheer coincidences by people speaking cheesy dialogue in order to deliver a sermon that absolutely no one needs to hear. Is anyone really enlightened by the message that unidentified corpses have loved ones somewhere who are worried about them? Did we not know that? Does anyone benefit by being pounded over the head with it for an hour?

Eastwick

It's been a while since I've been able to get into a really good chick show. I think this is going to be one. The plot's intriguing, but what I really love is the cast. This looks like it's going to be a lot of fun.

FlashForward

I was very prepared not to like this. The next Lost you say, Ms. Network Marketing Person? I'll be the judge of that.

Well, I don't know if it's the next Lost (or if it even wants to be), but it is really freaking good. The first episode was thrilling, suspenseful, creepy, funny, touching, and I liked all the characters. Easily my favorite new show so far.

Modern Family
Grey's Anatomy
The Mentalist

Haven't watched these yet. Got 'em TiVoed though, so I'll let you know.