WHERE IS THE BOMB?!??!?

Fifth time is apparently the charm if you're Kiefer "Jack Bauer" Sutherland. He'd been nominated for an acting Emmy five years in a row for his role in 24, but lost out the first four times. This time around, however, he managed to win!
The show also received an award for best drama series. About time too that 24 receives some recognition. There are (far too) many of these serialized drama-thrillers on TV these days, that is series whose episodes aren't self-contained but rather small parts of a larger, long-term plot, stretching out over one or several seasons. Lost and Prison Break are other good examples. But 24 is truly the grand-daddy of the genre, and five seasons running, no one does it better.
Congrats to The Kiefer!

"Some Mother******s Are Always Trying to Ice-Skate Uphill"

Apparently Blade: The TV Series premieres tonight in the US. I quite like the Blade trilogy of movies, particularly Blade II. If you're not familiar with the Blade movies, Blade is a half-man, half-vampire, who runs around killing vampires, equipped with various forms of high-tech gadgetry. What can I say, it's a bit of a guilty pleasure of mine. I know some people are not particularly fond of Wesley Snipes^[1], who stars as Blade in all three movies, but he does quite well for himself in that role^[2].

I'm not sure about this TV series though. For one thing, it stars one Kirk 'Sticky Fingaz' Jones, a former(?) rapper, as Blade. Now, I'm not familiar with Jones' work as a rapper or as an actor, but picking 'Sticky Fingaz' as your artist name certainly raises some quality concerns. Besides that, what else is there to do storywise? In Blade: Trinity, Blade fought against Dracula (ably portrayed by Dominic Purcell and various forms of CGI). Where are you going to go after that? Fighting off Predators?

I'll definitely watch the series whenever it airs in Finland^[3], but I'm not expecting much.

^[1] Whose career has since been lost to the ravages of straight-to-video
^[2] Okay, the Blade character is not much of a stretch actingwise, but you have to admire a guy who gets paid to act like a prick. Isn't that everyone's dream job?
^[3] It should premiere on Finnish television in a couple of years, if ever...

Good News Everyone!

I can't quite believe it, but it appears to be true. Futurama is being revived, and at least 13 new episodes will be produced. At least if we are to believe Reuters:

Comedy Central has resurrected the former Fox animated series from "The Simpsons" creator Matt Groening and David X. Cohen. At least 13 new episodes will be produced -- the first since the series' original run from 1999-2003.

As the article then goes on to quote executives at Comedy Central, I would think Reuters aren't making stuff up. Although there's been talks about TV movies and new episodes since the series first was cancelled in 2002^[1], this time, for once, it seems to be legit. I can hardly wait! Futurama is one of my favourite series. While The Simpsons (Futurama creator Matt Groening's other animated TV series) have gone a bit stale over the years, I felt Futurama really could have gone on for a quite a while longer.

It should be noted that the new episodes won't premiere for quite a while, as we'll have to wait until 2008, some five years after the last batch of first-run episodes were aired. Still, something to look forward to!

And a special message to whatever executive at Fox that decided to cancel Futurama in the first place: Bite my shiny metal ass!

^[1] While cancelled in 2002, the last remaining episodes were aired in 2003

ER: DNR

I watched ER the other night, for the first time in a few years. I haven't missed much, it seems. It was a mind-numbingly boring episode. Why haven't they cancelled the show already?
It was pretty obvious what was missing from the get-go. Paul McCrane.

For more than seven seasons, Paul McCrane played Dr. Robert Romano on the show. Really, it was his pricky badassiness* that made the show. Not an original cast member, the then quite crappy show would never be the same after McCrane joined the cast in 1997. Okay, it was still quite crappy, but at least Paul McCrane was in it.
Fast forward to 2003. Apparently McCrane asked for too much money, as his character was killed off.
Bad decision. It was bad enough they had to chop off his arm** in an earlier season, they had to crash a helicopter on him?

Oh well. Apparently McCrane guest stars as a villain in the latest season of 24. Can't wait for it to hit Finnish TV screens. Is it wrong to root for the villains?

* Yes, it's a word. At least it is now.
** Yeah, they did it for real, I'm pretty sure. It's called method acting.