Only one column today, focusing largely on the many iterations of CBS' "Moonlight":
Look at that man in the picture above. His name's Alex O'Loughlin, and people at CBS are convinced he's a star in the making -- so much so that they've repeatedly gone in and "fixed" every single thing about his new vampire detective show "Moonlight" (tomorrow at 9 p.m., Ch. 2) except that O'Loughlin plays a vampire detective.
Since the day in May when "Moonlight" was picked for the fall schedule on the basis of a short presentation film, CBS canned the original creators and replaced them with producer David Greenwalt -- who knows a thing or two about undead PI's from his days running "Angel." Then, one by one, CBS fired and replaced every actor other than O'Loughlin, and when Greenwalt left the project for health reasons after a few episodes had been written, they replaced him with Chip Johannessen.
Even in the annals of the Show in Trouble, this level of tinkering without simply scrapping the show feels extreme. I'm sure people high up at CBS believe this is a case of not throwing out the baby -- O'Loughlin, last seen as Vic Mackey's would-be replacement on "The Shield" -- with the bath water, but based on the series' first two episodes, he doesn't seem worth the effort.
There's also some brief thoughts on season two of Showtime's "Brotherhood." To read the full thing,
click here.
Only one column today, focusing largely on the many iterations of CBS' "Moonlight":
I guess there's no shame in stealing a concept, because it all sounds like 'Forever Knight' to me. Fred Allen was right with that line about television being the sincerest form of imitation.
ReplyDeleteThis is a minor thing, but Angel showed up on video tape in that series.
ReplyDeleteGiggs' wife is gone? Damn. She was great.
ReplyDeleteGiggs' wife is gone? Damn. She was great.
ReplyDeleteNo, she's still around, as part of a series of repetitive scenes where Giggs gets blitzed, begs her to take him back and gets cussed out for his trouble.
This is a minor thing, but Angel showed up on video tape in that series.
ReplyDeleteYeah, but did that show ever make a point -- particularly in the same episode where he showed up on tape -- that Angel couldn't be photographed?
Again, I don't care if the vampires in Moonlight have the same vulnerabilities as the ones on Angel. I just expect that the rules for the Moonlight vamps stay the same throughout.
a swaggering former Emmy winner in Michael Chiklis
ReplyDeleteFormer? What, they took it away from him? ;-)
Wow, I think this was the show I saw at Vegas this summer at the audience testing at MGM. Although if I recall correctly, it was called Twilight and yeah all the actors were different except for the main guy. It was interesting enough, but nothing about it made me feel compelled to watch more. Maybe I'll catch the revamped version. Yeah, revamped - I'm clever.
ReplyDeleteAlan,
ReplyDeleteYou can't be the first critic to use this post title, can you?
Anon
You can't be the first critic to use this post title, can you?
ReplyDeleteFor the posts where I link to my columns, I just use the headline from the paper, which are usually written by our copy writers.