Battlestar last roundup (LA Times)

From the Los Angeles Times

'Battlestar's' last roundup

Mixed emotions grip the stars of 'Galactica' as they enter the final season.

By Geoff Boucher
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
March 30, 2008

Vancouver, Canada — Admiral Adama arrived at the door with blood on his hands. "I'm sorry, I don't think you want me to shake," actor Edward James Olmos said, presenting his red palms. With his world-weary eyes and the stained cuffs of his military coat, he looked like some battlefield surgeon fresh from triage.

Inside his dressing-room trailer, the star of the relentlessly bleak "Battlestar Galactica" washed his hands and apologized again. "And I can't tell you why I look like this." Olmos had just walked off the set of "Battlestar," which begins its fourth season on the Sci Fi Channel Friday night. More importantly, it's also the final season, and its creators have zealously guarded the plot twists.

"I can't even tell you whose blood it is," Olmos said with a wink, beginning to enjoy the fun. It's unusual to see Olmos smile when he's in his William Adama role: He's a sort of Churchill-in-space, trying to rally his people in the face of tremendous casualties and despair and also lead them on a quest for a fabled lost colony called Earth. Their struggle, for better or worse, is almost over. There are only 20 more episodes to sort out who will live, who will die and who will be outed as sleeper agents of the Cylons, the synthetic race that was created by humans and now aspires to push them out of existence.

Under slate-gray Canadian skies late last year, the cast of one of the most admired (and, according to the cruel math of ratings, one of the most undervalued) shows on television seemed to be mentally exhausted, anxious and sad. That's understandable given the show's looming end. They've lived through the annihilation of humanity for five years, but that doesn't make it any easier to say goodbye.

"It is difficult to move on, but it is the correct time, the natural pace of the story -- there's the beginning, the middle, and now it's time for the end," Olmos said. "We have hit so many notes, and now it's time to tie everything up."

Olmos has the wounded stare, craggy features and broad shoulders that look most comfortable in a posture of grief -- he has the ideal profile for "Battlestar," which presents a human civilization reduced to under 50,000 souls and a fleet of spaceships on the run. The lead ship is the Galactica, which like its leader Adama, has been un-retired in desperation after a sneak attack by the Cylons. That's the story arc, but the show's great distinctions are its wonderfully flawed characters and the religious, social and political questions that float by as they swim in the show's dire straits. Early on, series executive producer Ronald D. Moore wrote a mission statement for the planned "Galactica" series that pledged to break the standard sci-fi space-opera model and strive for a near-documentary texture, a sophisticated ambiguity to the stories and plenty of complications that the audience would recognize from the real world. Think you have unshakable opinions on the nature of suicide bombers, terrorism and torture? Try watching them tested in an alien atmosphere.

"The show is a dark mirror," Olmos said. "So, so dark. I was talking to one of the executives on the show recently and this person told me that they would never do something like this again, this kind of material. I have been doing this a long time, working in television, film, the theater, and this is the best material I've ever worked on in my life."

Others agree. It won a 2005 Peabody Award, the same year Time magazine named it the best show on television. It's picked up an Emmy, a Hugo and a shelf full of Saturn Awards as well. But it is also a very expensive series to mount, and as Jamie Bamber, who portrays Lee "Apollo" Adama, the son of the Galactica's leader, points out: "People who watch it say they love it. People who don't watch it say they've heard great things and they should watch it. The show is a success, but not as big a hit as people think, not in the commercial sense."

Many of the younger cast members such as Bamber and Tahmoh Penikett, who portrays Karl "Helo" Agathon, seem ready to shed their Galactica flight suits, pack up the industry credibility earned by their work on "Battlestar" and use it in places where they will be seen more.

"The end is in sight, for better or worse," said the London-born Bamber. "Every time I come to Vancouver now there will be a sort of Proustian element and a Pavlovian response. I'll think of my children being very young here, this stage and set, coming to North America, the sights and sounds. It will all be 'Battlestar.' "

Penikett was less sentimental: "There is a lot of television out there, and a lot of it is bad, but still it feels like time to head toward the horizon."

Olmos knows that feeling; he was a scene-stealing supporting character in the 1980s on "Miami Vice," and he's familiar with the stirring sensation that it's time to seek the next role, the next big show. But he said the stars, producers and writers may find that they miss "Battlestar" even more later. "The people involved don't know how special it is," he said. "In 20 years, I think they will look back and realize what it was."

The secret society

AS a journalist, it's odd to visit a television show in production where a publicist literally jumps up to cover your eyes with her hand whenever you go near the set. "Sorry! You can't look in here! Here, come this way . . . be careful, don't trip." The blindfold treatment is understandable: "Battlestar" fans include a zealous sect of sci-fi devotees who spend hours and hours analyzing every nuance and will send any spoiler or rumor pinging across the globe.

"The fans take it very seriously, which is nice," Penikett said. "A lot of the hard-core fans, I have to say, don't get out too much. And they're lacking certain social graces."

It was in deference to sci-fi genre fans that the show has the "Battlestar" moniker, which gave it instant name recognition with the crowd that dresses up like wookies or wear Spock ears at conventions. The first series called "Battlestar Galactica" was a show by Glen A. Larson, who had a career habit of creating successful but fairly derivative shows. His "B.J. and the Bear" was a lot like "Every Which Way But Loose," for instance, while "Alias Smith and Jones" was slagged as a rip-off of " Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid," and "The Fall Guy" reminded everyone of "Hooper." His "Galactica" premiered in 1978, a year after "Star Wars" created a cultural sensation, and it's mainly remembered in the popular mind for featuring Lorne Greene, a fuzzy robot dog and slow, shiny Cylons who appeared to be playing Pong with their red-dot eyes. With that legacy, Olmos didn't exactly jump at the pitch to revive the franchise.

"To me, it was 'Star Trek' and 'Star Wars,' so it was a knockoff of a knockoff. And so this new idea was going to be a remake of a knockoff of a knockoff? But then I read the script. This was in 2003, and it was completely informed by 9/11."

The modern show is to the original as "Lost" is to "Gilligan's Island." It has a dense web of a story and a huge cast of characters that make it a challenge for anyone late to the game. Another cast member, Tricia Helfer, who plays Cylon No. Six, describes "Battlestar" like an English Lit major who is worried about the final.

"I feel like I need to study more when I talk to the fans, the questions and comments they have. This show is on the pulse of what is going on in our society. It's not for couch potatoes flipping through the channels. If you're not engaged, you get lost."

That's hardly a commercial to win the show a last-season surge of new viewers, but "Battlestar" isn't about to turn superficial. It also has some of the most interesting female characters on television, chief among them Mary McDonnell as President Laura Roslin, a character who has dealt with a terminal cancer diagnosis, religious visions, an intense showdown with Adama and the difficult decision to go against her principles and outlaw abortion -- a decision made because of the statistics that show the human race is dying faster than it is propagating. "The show has never shied away from the most wrenching issues," McDonnell said. "In fact, that's what the show is all about."

For this final season, the cast and crew filmed most of it before the writers strike and then sat and fretted that the labor dispute might sabotage the fragile plan to wrap up the show in 20 episodes. It's still not clear how the delayed production will affect the airdates of the final season -- the completed first 10 will air during this run. ("There was a moment where I thought we might not be able to finish the story at all," Olmos said in Los Angeles a few weeks ago. "That was a frightening thought. To leave all this unfinished would just be awful." He also said that the notion of a "Battlestar" film wasn't an option. "Glen Larson has the rights. If they make a 'Battlestar' film at some point, it won't be these actors and this story, I know that.")

The cast and crew assembled in Canada last week to shoot their last hurrah. Bamber said it's clear from the first half of the season that there will be far more running than reflection in this final act.

"There are no lulls anymore," Bamber said on the Vancouver set last year. "In previous years, there had been sequences where you could kind of sense that we were in an eddy at the side of the stream and we were just exploring an angle of the fleet that we just had not considered yet. There's no available time for anything like that now."

There's something going on in pop culture right now with apocalyptic entertainments about the human race. "I Am Legend," "Children of Men," "28 Days Later" and "Doomsday" have all handled the end-times with degrees of grace and horror, and novelist Cormac McCarthy's "The Road" reaches the screen this year. And "Battlestar" now has a finish line.

"If anything, I think the show was a little too early," Olmos said. "But I also don't think it could be made again. The political topics have just been too touchy. This is the world we live in, though. We're an inch away from the edge. We feel it. We want to think about it and talk about it and watch it."

Genre fans, of course, want to talk about it more than anyone else, and "Battlestar" is one of their most beloved topics. Entire conventions are devoted to the show and its heavy religious themes and heartthrob stars. The fan attention can become a bit much. Grace Park, who plays a collective of Cylon characters (Sharon/Boomer/Athena), said she recently got "a box big enough to fit a golden retriever in" that was packed with intricately assembled scrapbooks. "This fan had clearly spent hours and hours putting this together, and every page was about me, all the places where my name has popped up in a story or on the Internet. This story will be in the next one, I'm sure of it. It's very nice, but it's also a little . . . much."

A 'Trek' not taken

OLMOS could have been sitting on the bridge of a different spaceship. "When they remade 'Star Trek' in the 1980s they called me about the lead," Olmos said, referring to the Enterprise command that went to Patrick Stewart. "I wasn't interested. Science fiction wasn't really where I wanted to be, not since 'Blade Runner.' "

Olmos was a key player in Ridley Scott's hugely influential 1982 film that inspired the modern, bleak branch of cinematic sci-fi with its core fascination with the slippery nature of identity and with noble machines that become more human than their compromised human creators. When he read the new "Battlestar," he saw that pessimistic science fiction.

" 'Blade Runner' was the mothership for all of this, several generations of science fiction films, but nothing has jumped on that world as much as this show," Olmos said.

"I think good science fiction is not optimistic," Bamber said. "You think of George Orwell or Aldous Huxley and H.G. Wells, and they are pretty bleak. . . . The show is also not simple. We don't have heroes because we examine everyone too closely."

Helfer said she has been deeply struck by the close examination of Saul Tigh (the character played by Michael Hogan), the gruff executive officer of the Galactica, who has grappled with alcoholism and, over the course of the show, has seen his life fall apart in the struggle with the Cylons. He led a resistance effort in the colony of New Caprica, approved the use of suicide bombers against the enemy, was jailed and tortured as a terrorist (his right eye was ripped out during one session) and also reluctantly poisoned his own wife after she was revealed to have given information to the Cylons (which she did only to save his life).

"The nature of what has happened to him, the complexity of it and the emotional pain of it all, I think that says a lot about this show," Helfer said. There was shock among fans and the cast when Tigh was revealed to be one of the 12 Cylon agents in the midst of the human refugees. "Some of the actors aren't happy when they find out they are Cylon, believe me," McDonnell said. "It's turned out great for them, but I can understand it."

The cast is, of course, as eager as anyone to see how it will all end. "It's all we think about, really," Park said, "but I stopped believing the writers a while ago. The secrecy is so intense, and things change anyway."

Bamber said he and his fellow actors have played out in their minds the different possible finales -- a bang? a whimper? -- and there was quite a bit of discussion last summer about the ambiguous cut-to-black ending of "The Sopranos."

"I know Ron Moore said he really enjoyed that ending, but he's not going to go out that way here, not with 'Battlestar,' " Bamber said. "This is an epic show. This is more like 'The Iliad'; there are elements of epic poetry, Greek mythology, certainly, and the Bible. The issues are deep, and the stakes are high. You can't just serve onion rings at the end."

geoff.boucher@latimes.com

What the Frak is going on?!

Season 4 Cast
Scif Channel has a cool link for summary of the series thus far check it out here at this link.

12:00 AM, 28-MARCH-08

Battlestar's Olmos OK If All Die

Edward James Olmos, who plays Adm. William Adama on SCI FI Channel's series Battlestar Galactica, told SCI FI Wire that it's not inconceivable that all of the characters will die by the end of the upcoming fourth and final season--and that would be OK with him. Not that that is in any way a spoiler for the upcoming season. But Olmos said it would be fitting for a show that he called a "commentary on our times" and the "most worthwhile piece of television" he has ever done. "Basically, if it?s true to form, no one makes it," Olmos said in an interview at SCI FI's upfront presentation to advertisers in New York earlier this month. Producers have been tight-lipped about their plans for the show's climax and denouement, though it's believed that the fourth season will take up the sudden reappearance of Starbuck (Katee Sackhoff) and her revelation that she's been to Earth. Meanwhile, four people must deal with the sudden knowledge that they are Cylons. If everyone were to die? "I think that people would be shocked, and they'd be hurt, and they would be totally, totally frustrated," Olmos said. "But I've got to tell you, that's a truth that people have to realize. We may do it to ourselves [in real life]. It all depends on us now and what choices we make." Battlestar Galactica will kick off its fourth season on April 4 at 10 p.m. ET/PT with the episode "He That Believeth in Me." --Ian Spelling

------------------------------------------------------------------

12:00 AM, 27-MARCH-08

Battlestar's End Is In Sight

Ronald D. Moore, co-executive producer of SCI FI Channel's original series Battlestar Galactica, told SCI FI Wire that knowing in advance that the show's upcoming fourth season would be its last greatly affected how the writing staff went about closing out the show. "It informed everything," Moore said in an interview at the network's upfront presentation to advertisers in New York earlier this month. "We gathered with the writers before the season began and said, 'OK, this is the last year. We want to push to a resolution and let's talk about the end first.'" In the fourth and final season, the crew of Galactica must contend with the sudden reappearance of Starbuck (Katee Sackhoff) and her revelation that she's been to Earth. Meanwhile, four people must deal with the sudden knowledge that they are Cylons. "We talked about what the end of the series would be, and we've talked about the end of the series several times since," Moore said. "We keep refining it, changing some ideas about it, changing some of the parameters and just kind of continually finding it." The recently ended writers' strike "stopped everything cold" after production had been completed on half of the final 20 episodes, Moore said. But it also provided an opportunity to assess the completed fourth-season episodes and take that into account as they prepared the final nine episodes, which will go into production in the coming weeks and air in 2009. "It gave us a chance to step back and say, 'Well, some of those things that we were going to do, maybe that's not the best way to go. Let's go back and change it again. Let's re-break some of the story,'" Moore said. "It gave us all a chance to really step back, take a breath and say, 'OK, is this really the way we want to do the last 10 or not?' And we changed some of those things on the fly." Season four will premiere April 4 at 10 p.m. ET/PT with "He That Believeth In Me." --Ian Spelling

Terminator:TSCC renewed for Season 2?

Lena Headey, Thomas Dekker, and Summer Glau

(From TV Guide Ausiello Report)

Scoop! Sarah Connor Bulking Up for Season 2

by Jill Greenberg/Fox

It looks like she'll be back.

I'm hearing that Fox's in-limbo Sarah Connor Chronicles has quietly begun staffing up for the fall. According to insiders, Fox has given producers the green light to start booking directors for next season's first three episodes. While this is no guarantee that SCC is returning , it's obviously a very good sign.

A Fox spokesperson, meanwhile, maintains that "no decision about a second season has been made yet."

Caprica greenlighted

Battlestar Galactica Prequel Announced

By THE NEW YORK TIMES

Published: March 20, 2008

The Sci Fi Channel has approved a two-hour pilot for the prequel to “Battlestar Galactica,” according to The Hollywood Reporter. The announcement was made at the cable channel’s presentation of its new schedule Tuesday in New York. The prequel, “Caprica,” created by David Eick and Ronald D. Moore, the team behind “Battlestar,” is set 50 years before the hit show.

BSG Fan Alert!

Letterman To Host Battlestar Cast

Ten stars of SCI FI Channel's original series Battlestar Galactica will make an appearance on CBS' Late Show With David Letterman to present the Top 10 List on March 19. They include Edward James Olmos, Mary McDonnell, Katee Sackhoff, Jamie Bamber, James Callis, Tricia Helfer, Grace Park, Michael Hogan, Aaron Douglas and Lucy Lawless. The show airs at 11:35 p.m. ET/PT. The fourth season of Battlestar Galactica kicks off on March 28 at 10 p.m. ET/PT with two back-to-back half-hour specials, with the first new episode premiering the following week, April 4, 10 p.m.

Cloverfield Monster revealed

here it is!!

Here's the Wiki article about the movie:

Plot summary
On the night of May 22, 2009, in which five friends throw a going-away party, a giant monster attacks Manhattan. The film depicts their attempts to survive the attack, presented as a recording from their hand-held video camera.

Jason (Mike Vogel) and his girlfriend Lily (Jessica Lucas) throw a surprise going-away party for Jason's brother, Rob (Michael Stahl-David) after he accepts a job in Japan. "Hud" (T. J. Miller) is given the task of documenting Rob's last night in the United States and attempts to attract the attention of his crush, Marlena (Lizzy Caplan). An argument erupts between Rob and his friend, Beth (Odette Yustman), after it is revealed the two have had sex. Rob is angry because Beth has arrived with a date. Beth is upset at Rob for not calling her for nearly a month afterwards, and she leaves the party with her date. Gaps in the footage reveal scenes from a trip Rob and Beth took to Coney Island one month beforehand. Hud and Jason then encourage Rob to pursue a romantic relationship with Beth despite the fact he's leaving the country.

Suddenly the building rocks with earthquake intensity as loud animal-like noises reverberate outside. Large parts of the city briefly lose power. From the roof, the friends see a large explosion in the distance and they flee to the street where the head of the Statue of Liberty crashes to the ground as further explosions and a gargantuan creature are visible in the distance. The friends attempt to leave Manhattan via the Brooklyn Bridge where they see a decapitated Statue of Liberty and a capsized oil tanker off in the distance. The group turns around however after Rob receives a phone call from Beth who is trapped in her apartment on Manhattan. The bridge then begins to collapse after the creature attacks it. Jason dies as the tail of the monster strikes the section of the bridge that he is standing on, destroying the Brooklyn Bridge as well cutting off this path of escape.

The group takes shelter in an electronics store so Rob can get a new battery for his cell phone. During this time, Hud points his camera at a news report on TV with video footage of the creature from news helicopters, briefly giving the audience a better look at it. U.S. Military ground forces arrive to battle the creature and are attacked by smaller dog-sized, crab-like parasite creatures which fall from its body. Rob and his remaining friends resolve to rescue Beth and make their way to her apartment via a subway tunnel, where Marlena is bitten by one of the smaller creatures after saving Hud while the group was being attacked. The group then reaches a U.S. Army field hospital where Marlena begins to bleed through various orifices. She is taken behind a screen, where her torso appears to explode.

After receiving information regarding the evacuation of the city, and a warning that Manhattan will be bombed by the military should they fail to contain the creature, the friends continue to Beth's apartment, which has partially toppled into a neighboring building. Finding Beth alive, but injured, they make their way to the evacuation site. Lily is placed in the last seat of a departing helicopter. Rob, Beth and Hud board another helicopter and watch as a B-2 Stealth Bomber drops several bombs on the creature, creating a cloud of dust and debris. However, the creature survives this bombing and lunges up, hitting the friends' helicopter and sending it out of control. They survive the crash in Central Park, but Hud is killed by the creature after it attempts to consume him.

Retrieving the camera, Rob and Beth take shelter under a bridge, where they each briefly address anyone who might find the film. Air-raid sirens sound and an explosion collapses the bridge, partially covering the camera with debris. Rob and Beth proclaim their love for each other before a second explosion covers the camera completely in rubble. The final scene returns to the footage from Coney Island, where in the background an object can be seen falling from the sky into the water.[7] After the credits are shown, a short radio transmission plays.[8] According to J.J. Abrams, the movie's producer, this object is a Tagurato company satellite which fell into the ocean, disturbing the monster, which has been lying dormant at the bottom of the ocean for thousands of years.[9]


Cast
Michael Stahl-David as Robert Hawkins. The main protagonist in the movie. On the night of the incident was his surprise party because he's moving to Japan for a vice president job. He also is Beth's love interest and throughout the movie, we see clips from him and Beth's date. It is unknown if he survives.
T. J. Miller as Hudson "Hud" Platt, Rob's best friend. He is given camera duties by Jason to film the party. During the party, he tries to gain the attention of Jason and Lily's friend, Marlena. He dies after being attacked by the monster when he was under it.
Jessica Lucas as Lily Ford. Jason's girlfriend. She and Jason planned the surprise party for Rob. When Jason dies, she decides to go with Rob (along with Hud) to go save Beth. The last time she is seen is when she goes into a helicopter.
Odette Yustman as Elizabeth "Beth" McIntyre. Rob's love interest. During jump cuts in the movie, we see clips of Rob and Beth's date. After the monster attacks, she gets injured and is stuck in her room. Rob, Hud, and Lily save her from apartment, which was tipped on the other side of the building.
Lizzy Caplan as Marlena Diamond. A friend of Jason and Lily. She is Hud's love interest in this movie and at certain points Hud tries to get her attention. After an attack by the parasites, she says that "she wasn't supposed to be at the party". As a result from a spider bite in an earlier scene, she dies from the bite.
Mike Vogel as Jason "Hawk" Hawkins. Rob's brother and Lily's boyfriend. He is seen wearing a Slusho t-shirt, which was given to him by Rob. He dies when the monster attacked the bridge.
To prevent the leaking of plot information, instead of auditioning the actors with scenes from the film, scripts from Abrams's previous productions were used, such as television series Alias and Lost. Some scenes were also written specifically for the audition process, not intended for use in the film. Despite not being told the premise of the film, Lizzy Caplan stated that she accepted a role in Cloverfield solely because she was a fan of the Abrams-produced television series Lost, and her experience of discovering its true nature initially caused her to state that she would not sign on for a film in the future "without knowing full well what it is." She indicated that her character was a sarcastic outsider, and that her role was "physically demanding."[10]

Production

Development

The poster for Escape from New York (1981) inspired the scene of the decapitated head of the Statue of Liberty in CloverfieldJ. J. Abrams conceived of a new monster after he and his son visited a toy store in Japan while promoting Mission: Impossible III. He explained, "We saw all these Godzilla toys, and I thought, we need our own [American] monster, and not King Kong, King Kong's adorable. I wanted something that was just insane and intense."[11] In February 2007, Paramount Pictures secretly greenlit Cloverfield, to be produced by Abrams, directed by Matt Reeves, and written by Drew Goddard. The project was produced by Abrams' company, Bad Robot Productions.[12]

The decapitated head of the Statue of Liberty was inspired by the poster of the 1981 film Escape from New York, which had shown the head lying in the streets in New York despite not appearing in the film itself. According to Reeves, "It's an incredibly provocative image. And that was the source that inspired [producer] J.J. [Abrams] to say, 'Now this would be an interesting idea for a movie.'"[13]

The film was titled Cloverfield from the beginning, but the title changed throughout production before it was finalized as the original title. Matt Reeves explained that the title was changed frequently due to the hype caused by the teaser trailer, "That excitement spread to such a degree that we suddenly couldn't use the name anymore. So we started using all these names like Slusho and Cheese.[14] And people always found out what we were doing!" The director said that "Cloverfield" was the government's case designate for the monster, comparing the titling to that of the Manhattan Project. "And it's not a project per se. It's the way that this case has been designated. That's why that is on the trailer, and it becomes clearer in the film. It's how they refer to this phenomenon [or] this case," said the director.[15] The film's final title, "Cloverfield", is the name of a main street in Santa Monica, CA, near Abrams's office.[16][14]


Filming
The casting process was carried out in secret, with no script being sent out to candidates. With production estimated to have a budget of $30 million, filming began in mid-June in New York.[12] One cast member indicated that the film would look like it cost $150 million, despite producers not casting recognizable and expensive actors.[10] Filmmakers used the F23 high-definition camera from Sony to film exterior scenes.[17] Filming took place on Coney Island, with scenes being shot at Deno's Wonder Wheel Amusement Park and the B&B Carousel.[18] Some interior shots were filmed on a soundstage at Downey, California.[19] The film was edited to look like it was filmed with one hand-held camera, including jump cuts similar to ones found in home movies. Director Matt Reeves described the presentation, "We wanted this to be as if someone found a Handicam, took out the tape and put it in the player to watch it. What you're watching is a home movie that then turns into something else." Reeves explained that the pedestrians documenting the severed head of the Statue of Liberty with the camera phones was reflective of the contemporary period. According to him: "Cloverfield very much speaks to the fear and anxieties of our time, how we live our lives. Constantly documenting things and putting them up on YouTube, sending people videos through e-mail – we felt it was very applicable to the way people feel now," [20].


Creature design
Visual effects supervisor Phil Tippett and his company Tippett Studio were enlisted to develop the visual effects for Cloverfield.[21] Because the visual effects were incorporated after filming, cast members had to react to a non-existent creature during scenes, only being familiar with early conceptual renderings of the beast.[22] Artist Neville Page designed the monster, thoroughly creating a biological rationale for the creature, even if many of his ideas would not show up on screen. The key idea behind the monster was that he was an immature creature suffering from "separation anxiety". This recalls real-life elephants who get frightened and lash out at the circus, because the director felt "there's nothing scarier than something huge that's spooked".[23]


Marketing
Filmmakers decided to create a teaser trailer that would be a surprise in the light of commonplace media saturation, which they put together during the preparation stage of the production process. The teaser was then used as a basis for the film itself. Paramount Pictures encouraged the teaser to be released without a title attached, and the Motion Picture Association of America approved the move.[20] As Transformers showed high tracking numbers before its release in July 2007, the studio attached the teaser trailer for Cloverfield that showed the release date of January 18, 2008 but not the title.[12] A second trailer was released on November 16, 2007, which confirmed the title.[24]

The studio had kept knowledge of the project secret from the online community, a cited rarity due to the presence of scoopers that follow upcoming films. The controlled release of information on the film has been observed as a risky strategy, which could succeed like The Blair Witch Project (1999) or disappoint like Snakes on a Plane (2006), the latter of which had generated online hype but failed to attract large audiences. Chad Hartigan of Exhibitor Relations Co. viewed the several issues with the potential of the film, including a lack of major stars, the underwhelming performance of Godzilla-style films in America, and the film's slated release in January, considered a "dumping ground for bad films".[25]


Pre-release plot speculation
The sudden appearance of the untitled trailer for Cloverfield fueled media speculation over the film's plot. USA Today reported the possibilities of the film being based on the works of H. P. Lovecraft, a live-action adaptation of Voltron, a new film about Godzilla, or a spin-off of the TV show Lost.[26] The Star Ledger also reported the possibility of the film being based on Lovecraft lore or Godzilla.[27] The Guardian also reported the possibility of a Lost spin-off,[28] while Time Out reported that the film was about an alien called The Parasite.[29] IGN also backed the possibility of the same premise, with The Parasite rumored to be a working title for the film.[15] Online, Slusho and Colossus had also been discussed as possible titles.[30] Entertainment Weekly also disputed reports that the film would be about a parasite or a colossal Asian robot such as Voltron.[31]

Visitors of the website Ain't It Cool News have pointed out 9/11 allusions based on the destruction in New York City such as the decapitated Statue of Liberty. The film has also drawn alternate reality game enthusiasts that have followed other viral marketing campaigns like those set up for the TV series Lost, the video game Halo 2, the Nine Inch Nails album Year Zero, and the upcoming Batman film The Dark Knight. Members of the forums at argn.com and unfiction.com have investigated the background of the film, with the "1-18-08" section at Unfiction generating over 7,700 posts in August 2007. The members have studied photographs on the film's official site, potentially related MySpace profiles,[32] and the Comic-Con teaser poster for the film.[25] A popular piece of fan art posited that the monster was a mutated blue whale.[23]


Viral tie-ins

Photos on the 1-18-08.com viral marketing website.Puzzle websites containing Lovecraftian elements, such as Ethan Haas Was Right, were originally reported to be connected to the film.[26][28] On July 9, 2007, producer J. J. Abrams stated that, while a number of websites were being developed to market the film, the only official site that had been found was 1-18-08.com.[33] At the site, a collection of time-coded photos are provided to visitors to piece together a series of events and interpret their meanings.[34]

As part of the viral marketing campaign, the drink Slusho! has served as a tie-in. The drink had previously appeared in producer Abrams' previous creation, the TV series Alias.[35] Viral websites for Slusho! and a Japanese drilling company named Tagruato (タグルアト, Taguruato?) were launched to add to the mythology of Cloverfield.[6] When Cloverfield was hosted at Comic-Con 2007, gray Slusho! t–shirts were distributed to attendees.[36] Fans who had registered at the Slusho! website for Cloverfield received e-mails of fictional sonar images prior to the film's release that showed a deep-sea creature heading toward Manhattan.[37]

Producer Bryan Burk explained the viral tie-in, "[It] was all done in conjunction with the studio… The whole experience in making this movie is very reminiscent [of] how we did Lost."[6] Director Matt Reeves described Slusho! as "part of the involved connectivity" with Abrams' Alias and that the drink represented a "meta-story" for Cloverfield. The director explained, "It's almost like tentacles that grow out of the film and lead, also, to the ideas in the film. And there's this weird way where you can go see the movie and it's one experience… But there's also this other place where you can get engaged where there's this other sort of aspect for all those people who are into that. […] All the stories kind of bounce off one another and inform each other. But, at the end of the day, this movie stands on its own to be a movie. […] The Internet sort of stories and connections and clues are, in a way, a prism and they're another way of looking at the same thing. To us, it's just another exciting aspect of the storytelling."[35]


Merchandise
A four installment manga series by Yoshiki Togawa titled Cloverfield/Kishin (クローバーフィールド／ＫＩＳＨＩＮ, Kurōbāfīrudo/KISHIN?) is being released by Japanese publisher Kadokawa Shoten.[38] The story focuses on a Japanese high school student named Kishin Aiba, who is trapped on a Tagruato freighter ship, and will be a prequel to the film.[39]

Based on the successful opening weekend of Cloverfield in theaters, Hasbro began accepting orders for a 14-inch collectible toy figure of the monster and its parasites to be shipped to fans by September 30, 2008.[40]


Reception
Cloverfield opened in 3,411 theaters on January 18, 2008 and grossed a total of $16,930,000 on its opening day in the United States and Canada. It made $41,000,000 on its opening weekend, making it the most successful January release gross of all time. Worldwide, it has grossed $51 million.[41] As of January 19, 2008, review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes reported that 76% of critics gave the film positive write-ups, based on 117 reviews.[42] According to Metacritic, the film has received an average critic score of 62%, based on 34 reviews.[43]

Marc Savlov of The Austin Chronicle calls the film "the most intense and original creature feature I've seen in my adult moviegoing life […] a pure-blood, grade A, exultantly exhilarating monster movie." He cites Matt Reeves' direction, the "whip-smart, stylistically invisible" script and the "nearly subconscious evocation of our current paranoid, terror-phobic times" as the keys to the film's success, saying that telling the story through the lens of one character's camera "works fantastically well."[44] Michael Rechtshaffen of The Hollywood Reporter called it "chillingly effective", praising the effects and the film's "claustrophobic intensity". He said that though the characters "aren't particularly interesting or developed", there was "something refreshing about a monster movie that isn't filled with the usual suspects."[45] Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly said that the film was "surreptitiously subversive, [a] stylistically clever little gem", and that while the characters were "vapid, twenty-something nincompoops" and the acting "appropriately unmemorable", the decision to tell the story through amateur footage was "brilliant".[46] Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times wrote that the film is "pretty scary at times" and cites "unmistakable evocations of 9/11". He concludes that "all in all, it is an effective film, deploying its special effects well and never breaking the illusion that it is all happening as we see it."[47]

Todd McCarthy of Variety called the film an "old-fashioned monster movie dressed up in trendy new threads", praising the special effects, "nihilistic attitude" and "post-9/11 anxiety overlay", but said, "In the end, [it's] not much different from all the marauding creature features that have come before it."[48] Scott Foundas of LA Weekly was critical of the film's allusions to the September 11, 2001 attacks and called it "cheap and opportunistic". He compared its "stealth" attempts at social commentary unfavorably to the films of Don Siegel, George A. Romero and Steven Spielberg, saying, "Where those filmmakers all had something meaningful to say about the state of the world and […] human nature, Abrams doesn't have much to say about anything."[49] Manohla Dargis in the New York Times called the allusions "tacky", saying, "[The images] may make you think of the attack, and you may curse the filmmakers for their vulgarity, insensitivity or lack of imagination", but that "the film is too dumb to offend anything except your intelligence." She concludes that the film "works as a showcase for impressively realistic-looking special effects, a realism that fails to extend to the scurrying humans whose fates are meant to invoke pity and fear but instead inspire yawns and contempt."[50] Stephanie Zacharek of Salon.com calls the film "badly constructed, humorless and emotionally sadistic", and sums up by saying that the film "takes the trauma of 9/11 and turns it into just another random spectacle at which to point and shoot."[51] Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune warned that the viewer may feel "queasy" at the references to September 11, but that "other sequences […] carry a real jolt" and that such tactics were "crude, but undeniably gripping". He called the film "dumb", but "quick and dirty and effectively brusque", concluding that despite it being "a harsher, more demographically calculating brand of fun", he enjoyed the film.[52] Bruce Paterson of Cinephilia described the film as "a successful experiment in style but not necessarily a successful story for those who want dramatic closure."[53]


Soundtrack
Cloverfield, being presented as if it were a recording by one of the characters, has no film score save for the composition "ROAR! (Cloverfield Overture)" by Michael Giacchino that plays over the end credits[52] and music played during Rob's goodbye party, which includes songs by artists such as Gorillaz ("19-2000"), Sean Kingston ("Beautiful Girls"), Spoon ("The Underdog"), Kings of Leon ("Taper Jean Girl"), Ratatat ("Seventeen Years"), Coconut Records ("West Coast"), Bright Eyes ("Four Winds"), and culminating with Of Montreal ("Wraith Pinned to the Mist and Other Games").[citation needed]


DVD release
According to website VideoETA.com, the film is estimated to have a possible DVD release June 2008.[54]


Sequel
At the premiere of the film Matt Reeves talked about possibilities on how a sequel will turn out if the film succeeds. Reeves states,

"While we were on set making the film we talked about the possibilities and directions of how a sequel can go. The fun of this movie was that it might not have been the only movie being made that night, there might be another movie! In today’s day and age of people filming their lives on their iphones and handy cams, uploading it to youtube…That was kind of exciting thinking about that.[55]

There's a moment on the Brooklyn Bridge, and there was a guy filming something on the side of the bridge, and Hud sees him filming and he turns over and he sees the ship that's been capsized and sees the headless Statue of Liberty, and then he turns back and this guy's briefly filming him. In my mind that was two movies intersecting for a brief moment, and I thought there was something interesting in the idea that this incident happened and there are so many different points of view, and there are several different movies at least happening that evening and we just saw one piece of another."

Reeves also points out that the end scene on Coney Island, shows something falling into the ocean in the background.[23]







here it is!!

BSG Season 4 teaser

supposely this photo has clues to this upcoming season.

BSG Season 3 DVD announced

Battlestar Galactica - Season 3 DVDs Announced

Battlestar Galactica - Season 3 coming to DVD from Universal Studios

Wow, Universal Studios Home Entertainment has just handed out a heckuva great New Years' Eve gift: the long-awaited details, release date and box art for Battlestar Galactica - Season 3 just became available within the past hour!

The street date is March 25th, for the entire season of 20 episodes in a 6-DVD package. One of the episodes, "Unfinished Business", will have an exclusive version on this DVD release, including 25 minutes of never-before-seen footage! That's just part of 15 hours worth of bonus material, which includes Deleted Scenes, Podcasts and Behind-the- Scenes Featurettes. The cost will be $59.98 SRP.

A Beaver's Tale

The Last Battlestar?

'Battlestar's final season in doubt?

Thursday, November 22 2007, 09:52 GMT
By Ben Rawson-Jones, Cult Editor

Battlestar Galactica's executive producer Ronald D. Moore has accepted that the show may never resume filming following the current writers' strike in America.

In a posting on his blog after production on the acclaimed show's final season shut down, Moore stated: “I refuse to believe that we won’t finish, that we won’t be back to film our final stories, but I know and accept there is that possibility.”

Currently, only 13 episodes have been filmed with nine yet to be completed. Moore added: “I am ready to put the rest of the story on the table and take the risk that I’ll never be able to tell it, in support of this strike. Like Adama says, you make your choices and then you live with them.”

BSG goes Boldly into the DVD Universe

By JONATHAN D. GLATER
Published: November 21, 2007

Forget the robot killers with machine guns built into their arms. The DVDs are taking over.


Carole Segal/Sci Fi Channel: Stephanie Chaves-Jacobsen, left, and Katee Sackhoff in the two-hour “Razor” episode of the series “Battlestar Galactica.”

Fans of the television series “Battlestar Galactica” are familiar with the frightening chrome mechanical monsters known as Cylons, seemingly bent on the destruction of humanity. But the force behind a two-hour episode on the Sci Fi Channel this Saturday night is the DVD, the equally shiny disc.

The episode, “Razor,” marks yet another step in the complex, fast-changing relationship between DVD sales and cable broadcast. The episode would not exist except for the promise of selling it on DVD just days after it is shown on television.

The move is part of a trend. Already there have been instances of DVD sales reviving canceled television series, like Fox’s “Family Guy,” which sold so well that it was put back on the air. And “24,” also on Fox, began selling DVDs of its four-episode season premiere earlier this year, the day after it concluded. But such tactics are still rare.

“Usually it’s the other way around,” said Gary Newman, co-chairman of 20th Century Fox Television, partly because it takes weeks or even months to manufacture the DVDs, so they often cannot be ready for sale so soon after broadcast.

But in the case of “Battlestar,” a series following the survivors of an apocalyptic attack on their home planets by rebellious robots, Universal Studios Home Entertainment, the NBC-Universal unit responsible for DVD sales, approached the Sci Fi Channel about the possibility of creating a stand-alone episode first. That provided the time to produce a DVD to be released on Dec. 4, just days after the broadcast.

Perhaps most important, the home entertainment division offered to pick up part of the cost. So the show’s creators, not surprisingly, jumped at the chance to put something on the air in the hiatus between the season finale in March and what is billed as the final season, beginning in April 2008.

“It seemed like an interesting opportunity,” said Ronald D. Moore, the show’s executive producer. But, he added, the story to be told in the stand-alone episode had to fit tight constraints.

“Because we ended the third season on a cliffhanger, there was no way there could be a home video release that could stand alone and also work in the continuity of the show,” Mr. Moore said. “It had to be something that took place before the Season 3 cliffhanger.”

So the show’s writers returned to a story whose conclusion viewers had seen, at least in a sense, producing a kind of parallel prequel. The extended episode follows the Pegasus, a sister battleship to the show’s Galactica, which also survived the attack that opened the series. The episode revisits that moment and follows the Pegasus over time, exploring how the brutally difficult decisions of its commander render the ship increasingly dysfunctional.

The episode also visits an earlier conflict between humanity and the Cylons. Those machines were portrayed in the first “Battlestar” television show, which ran for just one season more than 25 years ago, when special effects were far less, well, special.

The Cylons then were actors in clumsy Tin Man-like suits, a far cry from the frightening killing machines, augmented by computer imagery, familiar to viewers watching the new series. Mr. Moore said it was important not to make the earlier generation of machines less frightening than the latest one, which includes models that look human.

“We wanted them to feel a little more fearsome,” Mr. Moore said. “The first Cylon war is known as something really scary.”

The extended episode also manages to raise questions about a surprise development in the final episode of the last season, casting a different light on one critical character’s claim to have found a way to lead surviving humans to Earth, the fabled planet they seek.

While the “Razor” episode may not draw new viewers, Mr. Moore said, it is a stand-alone story, and the hope is that loyal fans will want to own it along with other episodes of the series. The demographic group most stereotypically associated with DVD purchases is young men, and the viewership of the Sci Fi Channel is 57 percent male.

“‘Battlestar’ is incredibly successful both domestically and internationally in terms of DVD episodes,” said David Howe, executive vice president and general manager of the Sci Fi Channel. DVD sales are especially important for shows like “Battlestar” that are intensely serialized, meaning that a casual viewer might have a hard time understanding a random episode. That makes the series less inviting in syndication than, say, “Law & Order.”

“You can’t strip them from all scheduling in a way that allows people to dip in and out,” Mr. Howe said.

Sci Fi also took the unusual step, for a television show, of screening “Razor” in movie theaters in eight cities around the country this month. Mr. Howe said the screenings, sponsored by Microsoft, led to lines “around the block” at participating theaters, two of them in Manhattan.

As with many television shows, production of the “Battlestar” series is hobbled by the writers’ strike. The first half of the forthcoming season is unaffected, Mr. Howe said, but the second half could be delayed.

That also means that the answer to the big question hanging over the series — will the survivors find Earth? — may hang in the balance.

Mr. Moore offered only a hint on that point: “I think we’ll get to someplace that might be Earth.”

The Wire Review (BSG Razor)

Review: Razor Slices Smartly Into Battlestar's Past
By Mark Anderson 11.13.07 6:30 PM

All hail the new recruit: Apollo (Jamie Bamber, center) and Starbuck (Katee Sackhoff, right) glance toward the series' future with new face Kendra Shaw (Stephanie Chaves-Jacobsen) in Battlestar Galactica: Razor, airing Nov. 24 on Sci Fi.

Image: Courtesy NBC Universal

Among fans of Sci Fi Channel's Battlestar Galactica, a question persists about the series' 49,000 Earth-seeking survivors of Cylon armageddon: Does their adventure ultimately provide some sort of back story to the present-day human race?

The show's fourth and final season, slated to begin in April, should settle this issue once and for all. But in the meantime, the Battlestar universe has its own back stories in need of revisiting.

Enter the 87-minute-long "extended episode" called Battlestar Galactica: Razor, to be screened like a regular feature film in select cities Monday and aired Nov. 24 on Sci Fi. A prequel to Sci Fi's Battlestar -- which remains an indisputable contender for best show on television despite a wobbly third season -- Razor delivers the sharp writing, sci-fi eye candy and solid acting that made the show a surprise hit for the cable channel.

Those not already familiar with the series may face a challenge with Razor as their introduction, jump-cutting as it does between three time periods in the series' rich history. On the other hand, Razor is also the quickest way a newbie can sample Battlestar's rich plot lines and cram for the show's highly anticipated final season. Like the series' best episodes, Razor delivers pulse-pounding battle scenes as well as the human drama of real characters struggling through trying and sometimes inhumane circumstances.

The movie picks up a story thread first introduced in the show's second season, when a second battlestar, Pegasus, emerged out of nowhere to join Galactica and its tag-along civilian fleet.

Razor fills as many holes in this midseason story arc as a two-episode-long movie can. It packs the kind of stunning visual effect sequences (including old-school Cylon Raiders) that Battlestar fans have come to expect, and the new battlestar's bullwhip commander, Adm. Helena Cain (played by Michelle Forbes), gets her moment in the spotlight. Ultimately, though, Cain's story is the least satisfying aspect of an otherwise stellar production.

As in season two's Pegasus episodes, Forbes steeps her portrayal of the stone-hearted Cain in militaristic clichés.

One would hope that Razor's exploration of the second battlestar's origins might shed light on Cain's unflinching character. And Razor's script certainly provides further examples of Cain's jack-booted command -- the kind of military melodrama of torture and massacres that capably lends itself to comparisons to post-Sept. 11 America and its wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

But Forbes so relishes the role of a space-faring Patton that she misfires during Cain's moments of emotional truth. She understandably tears up over nameless fallen soldiers at the show's outset, then inexplicably shuts tighter than an airlock at a key sequence of scenes, when betrayal turns Cain ever more tyrannical, marching determinedly toward her own downfall.

The breakout performance in Razor is turned in by Stephanie Chaves-Jacobsen, as officer Kendra Shaw, who gives this feature-length story its grounding despite her character's innate rootlessness.

Shaw is the sharp instrument of the movie's title, and her haunted actions and harrowed eyes speak to a hellish life in a military machine that leads a civilization forever on the run from a deadly menace of its own creation. Through Shaw we witness what are undoubtedly crucial plot points for Battlestar's last season (which begins in April, if the Writers Guild of America strike doesn't interfere).

With a story expertly brought to life by Chaves-Jacobsen -- as well as series stalwarts such as Edward James Olmos (as Adm. William Adama) and Tricia Helfer (Number Six) -- blood drawn by this Razor is as real as sci-fi gets.

WIRED: Olmos commands the screen even when not commanding ship.

TIRED: Plot points zip by so fast you'll wish you'd read spoilers.

Air date/network: Nov. 24, Sci Fi Channel

BSG "Razor" DVD

Razor DVD Raises Stakes for Battlestar
By Lewis Wallace November 21, 2007 2:47:06 PMCategories: DVDs, Sci-Fi, Television
The idea to create a stand-alone "extended episode" of Battlestar Galactica came from Universal Studios Home Entertainment, the NBC-Universal unit that produces DVDs, according to The New York Times. The DVD unit pitched in on production costs for Razor, the sharp midseason prequel that airs Saturday, with the understanding that a DVD version would be released soon after its broadcast on the Sci Fi Channel. The Razor DVD hits stores Dec. 4.

The unusual tactic framed the scope of Razor: The movie-length episode had to work on its own, and couldn't spoil season three's cliffhanger ending. The resulting Razor focuses on a battlestar called Pegasus and dips into the history of the human-killing machines known as Cylons.

"We wanted (the first-generation Cylons) to feel a little more fearsome," the show's executive producer, Ronald D. Moore, told the Times. "The first Cylon war is known as something really scary."

The DVD-fueled midseason episode is just one way Sci Fi Channel is milking and marketing its "re-imagined" Battlestar series. Special theater showings of Razor drew fans in major cities around the United States last week and helped generate interest in the series' final season, which is scheduled to begin in April 2008 (if the Hollywood writers' strike doesn't interrupt).

BSG "Razor" reviews

'Battlestar Galactica: Razor' gives the saga a sharper edge

By MELANIE McFARLAND
P-I TELEVISION CRITIC

Underneath the explosive special effects, "Battlestar Galactica" examines what it means to be human, in all its facets.

WATCH IT
"Battlestar Galactica: Razor"
9 p.m. Saturday
Sci Fi Channel

Executive producers Ronald D. Moore, David Eick and their co-writers have used the series to explore the sustaining and destructive power of religion, the ways in which crises bring out our best and most deplorable instincts, and how far we'll go to survive.

The will to survive is the story's spine, personified in every episode by the stalwart Admiral William Adama (Edward James Olmos), President Laura Roslin (Mary McDonnell), the headstrong Kara Thrace (Katee Sackhoff) and Adama's driven son Lee (Jamie Bamber).

But Adama and Roslin wrestle with Galactica's priorities more than the others. Their job is to ensure the survival of the human race, but each challenge forces a struggle to maintain their humanity in spite of desperation and temptation.

Thus our second season introduction to Admiral Helena Cain (Michelle Forbes), the ruthless leader of Battlestar Pegasus, shocked the system of "Battlestar" watchers. Cain, whose command at last receives a close examination in the two-hour extended episode "Battlestar Galactica: Razor," was everything Adama is not. She cared nothing about being loved, seeing fear as a more effective leadership tool. She did unspeakable things, without hesitation, to her own people as well as the Cylons.

The darker side of will is a lot of things, but in "Razor" it is fueled by Cain's need for vengeance. Cain, in her limited time on the series, left wounds that never quite healed.

"Razor" does nothing to soften the unsympathetic portrait of Cain. If anything, the episode makes a more permanent cast of her as a cold, unyielding leader in peacetime who exploded into a singularly focused despot after the Cylons destroyed Caprica.

Cain was similar to Adama in one sense, however -- survival was all that mattered. Her priority was to wage war on behalf of a race the Cylons nearly extinguished, and if atrocities had to be committed, so be it. Every war has its collateral damage.

This is what it means to be a Razor. Cain at one point explains to her obedient protege Kendra Shaw (Stephanie Jacobsen), "Sometimes we have to do things that we never thought we were capable of if only to show the enemy our will." Her voice breaks as she adds, "This war is forcing us all to become Razors, because if we don't, we don't survive."

But the chilling truth is that by the end, you'll have a better understanding of why Cain did what she did, both tactically and emotionally.

Shaw survives Cain, but not the toll she took on her conscience. When Shaw becomes second in command to Lee, she continues her former leader's uncompromising legacy while wrestling with her grimmest memories.

"Battlestar Galactica" has presented a number of influential auxiliary characters throughout its run, but none as complex and compelling as Shaw. In spite of the actor's pixielike appearance, Jacobsen believably hardens the office into steel as "Razor" develops. Never a clear hero or villain, she's a tortured shade torn between vendetta and the fear-driven culture of Pegasus and Galactica, with a crew Admiral Adama considers to be family. Shaw's inner turmoil gives "Razor" its tragic bites and crags.

And "Razor's" best service, beyond reminding us why "Galactica" is one of the best television shows on the air, is in filling in the story's historical gaps -- particularly a deeper examination of the lives of the demoralized crew.

In addition to seeing what happened on the Pegasus and getting a first-hand look at a rumored war crime, writer Michael Taylor and director Felix Alcala also segue into the final season by dropping in a nostalgic visual treat that might as well be a red-eyed love letter to longtime fans.

Surely we deserve something for going for a year without new episodes. Season four of "Battlestar Galactica" won't start until April (although "Razor" is, technically, part of it). But it's better to think of "Razor" as a bridge between the seasons rather than a sustaining, hunger-curbing snack. This will not hold you over -- no, not in the least. On the contrary, "Razor's" revelatory conclusion makes the waiting more difficult to bear.

But for "Galactica" fans, it probably goes without saying that "Razor" is not to be missed, even if watching will make April seem a lifetime away.

P-I TV critic Melanie McFarland can be reached at 206-448-8015 or tvgal@seattlepi.com. Follow her TV Gal blog at blog.seattlepi.com/tv

----------------------------------------------

Posted on Wed, Nov. 21, 2007

TV REVIEW: 'Battlestar Galactica: Razor' will please dedicated fans

By CARY DARLING
McClatchy Newspapers

The fourth and final season of "Battlestar Galactica" doesn't hit the air until April, but diehard fans don't need to wait. In addition to a series of seven mini-sodes that have aired on Sci Fi in recent weeks, there's now "Battlestar Galactica: Razor," a two-hour movie that pivots between last season and next, offering enlightening back story while also providing a tantalizing glimpse of what might be in store.

For the longest time, those on board the starship Galactica and its retinue of smaller ships - on the run across the galaxy from the robot-human hybrid Cylons who've destroyed most of the human race - thought they were the sole human survivors. But they've recently discovered another crew, aboard the Battlestar Pegasus under the command of the coldly brutal Admiral Helena Cain (Michelle Forbes).

"Razor" fleshes out Cain as she's viewed through the eyes of Kendra Shaw (Stephanie Jacobsen), a young officer assigned to the Pegasus on the eve of the Cylons' surprise attack on humanity. Shifting between the Pegasus of the past and the Galactica of the present, "Razor" uses the battle-hardened but conflicted Shaw as a template for a soldier torn by duty and morality.

Of course, Shaw doesn't get along with the equally feisty pilot Kara "Starbuck" Thrace (Katee Sackhoff), though the two ultimately come to an understanding of sorts. But then Starbuck's loyalties may not be what they seem.

Meanwhile, Admiral William Adama (Edward James Olmos) is being forced to relive some unpleasant memories as the fleet runs across a primitive Cylon ship containing the remains of the first human-cyborg experiments.

Though not as rife with the easy symbolism and parallels to contemporary politics as some episodes, "Razor" nevertheless makes the well-worn point that war can offer both hell and redemption. But, for fans of the series, the best part comes in the last few minutes, and it has nothing to do with gee-whiz special effects (of which there aren't that many in "Razor").

It has more to do with Starbuck's fate and a decision that Commander Lee "Apollo" Adama (Jamie Bamber), who has been her lover, has to make.

April can't come soon enough.

BATTLESTAR GALACTICA: RAZOR
9 p.m. EST Saturday
Sci Fi Channel

------------------------------------

'Battlestar Galactica' goes on the search for Earth

Sci-Fi channel to premiere telemovie titled 'Razor'
Fernando Ramos, Staff Writer
Issue date: 11/21/07 Section: Tempo

Don't let the goofy name and the fact that it's a remake fool you. Starting its final season next year, "Battlestar Galactica" is one of TV's great overlooked dramas. While April 2008 seems a long way away, fans can at least satiate themselves with the new "Battlestar" film premiering on Sci-Fi channel, "Razor."

For those unacquainted with the complicated (and in some cases, convoluted) backstory behind the show, "Razor" may prove unfriendly. However, the main premise is surprisingly simple: The remainder of mankind, after having its colonies devastated by the rebellious sentient robots called Cylons, takes to the stars in search of Earth, which has been reduced to a Biblical-style legend.

Within this premise lie characters and stories that are better realized than most major Hollywood productions. Executive produced by fan-favorite "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" writer Ronald D. Moore, this is TV with nuance and texture. It's also worth re-watching to catch all those fine details missed on first viewing.

Also, the show frequently addresses real-life situations through ingenious screenwriting that harkens back to the days of the original "Star Trek" or "The Twilight Zone," when science fiction actually meant something.

"Battlestar" has tackled nothing less than the concept of life when civilization has been reduced to nothing. What is a leader? What is a government? What is God?

It's tense, riveting and chock-full of movie-quality action sequences for those who just can't watch sci-fi without something blowing up. Few episodes go by wasted, instead weaving into each other to form a spectacular storyline.

"Razor," from all reports, will continue this tradition. However, instead of dealing with the so-juicy-it's-dripping cliffhanger that ended the third season, "Razor" goes back in time to the second season onboard the Battlestar Pegasus.

In the series, the Pegasus was run by the seemingly maniacal Admiral Helena Cain (Michelle Forbes), who dealt with her crew with an iron-clad fist, in contrast to the more benevolent Galactica and her commander, William Adama (Edward James Olmos).

Even with Moore being infamously mum on the film (despite several online outlets distributing it illegally), details have emerged, including shedding light on an executive officer named Kendra Shaw (Stephanie Jacobsen) who has a connection with Galactica's pilot Kara Thrace (Katee Sackoff) which may hold grave consequences for humanity's (and season four's) future.

Rent the previous "Battlestar" seasons on DVD and study up, nuggets, because "Razor" is bound to be sharp.

-'Battlestar Galactica: Razor' will premiere on the Sci-Fi Channel at 9 p.m on Saturday.

Chuck Episode reviews

Chuck (Episode Recaps)

by Jeanette Martin (TVGUIDE)
November 20, 2007

Episode Recap: "Chuck vs. the Imported Hard Salami"
Is it just me, or are these episodes getting better every week? The writing is top-notch, the storylines are deliciously deep and complex and the humor is right there. Each Monday I think it can't get any better, and then I am happily and pleasantly surprised.

So what happened tonight? Chuck seemed to have everything going his way: A beautiful "normal" woman (returning guest star Rachel Bilson) was interested in him... really interested, as the sweaty homage to Titanic illustrated. But the Intersect in his brain had to go and ruin it all. He flashed on the name of Lou's smuggler ex-boyfriend, and that lead to a downward spiral of mistake after mistake. He was ordered to wear a wire on a date with Lou to try to get some info, and he was so busy trying to do that that he ended up ignoring Lou. Sarah showing up didn't help either.

Chuck managed to make it up to her with a sexy sandwich order and a bouquet of Gerber daisies, but the intel he gathered the previous night ended up being compromised, and it looked like Lou had tipped them off. They had that incriminating photo after all, and it was just enough to send Chuck into his next big blunder of the night: He confronted Lou when he thought she was accepting weapons, and it turned out to be illegally imported deli meats. Certainly a threat to national security!

Next thing you know, Sarah is once again butting in, and that gets her and Chuck kidnapped without his tracking device. Luckily Casey figures out how to locate them and does so just in time to rescue them and find the real cargo: A very large and mysterious crate that seems to hold a bomb. A bomb that is ticking down very quickly. Just as the timer runs out, Sarah gives Chuck the kiss he only dreamed of. But then the "bomb" doesn't go off. It ends up being a cryogenic chamber that holds none other than Bryce... alive and presumably well.

OK, everyone all at once: "Awww, poor Chuck." He was a day late and a dollar short all evening. It was heartbreaking to watch him call Sarah, thinking he has a future with her (and why wouldn't he after that kiss?) as she opened the chamber and saw Bryce.

The B plot was equally surprising: Morgan and Anna got together. I really enjoyed how that came about. The pieces just seemed to fall into place and it didn't feel forced to me. I am so happy to see Morgan doing something that is not annoying.

The only complaint I have for this episode: no Ellie or Captain Awesome (shirtless or otherwise).

OK, moments worth mentioning:
• Casey saying as many times as possible that Sarah was dumped
• Sarah’s reaction to Lester when he went over to "console" her
• "He had me at pastrami."
• Casey’s reason for the rose. Too bad for Chuck it didn’t work.
• All the obvious little signs that Sarah was jealous and truly did care for Chuck: interfering with his date, telling Lou not to hurt him, sticking up for Chuck to Casey and their Washington contact, and my personal fave, the little catch in her throat when Chuck declared their mission was to make sure he "never had sex again."
• That powerhouse kiss. It was probably the first real moment those two have had.

I know I left out so many good scenes and lines, but I want you guys to share the fun of pointing out the winners from this episode, so let's hear what you all liked!

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Episode Recap: "Chuck vs. the Truth"
The truth is out there... or was it? Tonight a poison expert (guest star Kevin Weisman) got to Chuck and his crew and exposed them all to some killer truth serum, causing Sarah and Casey to drop the spy act and tell it like it is. Sorta.

Unfortunately Ellie got poisoned as well, and Chuck put her welfare before everything and everyone else. He had one dose of the antidote, and he gave it to her. Not a very spy-like move, but certainly a 100 percent Chuck choice. With time running out, Chuck realized how to track down the bad guy and got the antidote for everyone, but not before he got a painful confession from Sarah: Their fake relationship has no chance of getting real.

And that makes things even more difficult for Chuck, who found someone who could be real, and right, for him. The O.C alum Rachel Bilson breezed into Chuck's life with a broken phone and a deli sandwich named after him — what's not to love? Too bad he already has a "girlfriend" in Sarah. You can't blame Chuck for using the truth poison to find out where he stands. Too bad he didn't know she was trained to withstand the effects of the truth stuff. So was she lying or not?

And I know a number of you out there were thrilled to see Tang get shipped off to the pineapple farm. Any guesses as to who will be named his successor? Someone out there needs to fill the epaulets.... Could it be Morgan? Big Mike seemed to be getting pretty friendly there with him, dropping a big secret like that.

Now on to some of the highlights!
• Chuck’s face while Awesome went through his bike analogy. The poor guy really looked horrified! We saw quite a bit of old-fashioned sensibilities in Chuck tonight, and that is really sweet.
• The picture of President Reagan at Casey’s place. That is so him!
• Ellie’s truth rant, especially the "porno shorts" line and the bit about Chuck’s hair "making funny animal shapes."
• Casey admitting he wouldn’t shoot Chuck and telling him that he respects Chuck for being a nice guy.
• Chuck’s comment that Casey’s chin was carved by Michelangelo.
• Sarah winning the "who is the better lock pick" argument.
•Chuck’s comic-book knowledge allowing him to foil the poison expert.
• Shirtless Awesome! (And lingerie Sarah.) That was some serious fan service.

And the Britney song was a nice touch, I did not mind it at all.

OK, I know I left out plenty of great stuff from this episode, so let's hear what you guys enjoyed!

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Episode Recap: "Chuck vs. the Alma Mater"
I am going to start right off by saying this was a fantastic episode. It wasn't as amusing as some of the others, but it made up for that with a tight story and some really great information that explained so much. It wasn't just another bad guy of the week, it was a solid piece of the whole "Chuck as Intersect" premise.

Chuck learned that the professor who booted him from Stanford is actually an operative, and Chuck was assigned to "bring him in" for protection from an Icelandic assassin with some wicked crossbow skills. That part of the mission didn't go so well, but the road trip to Stanford proved to be very successful in more ways than Chuck imagined. There he found a disc that contained all the intel on the students recruited to the agency, including an entry on himself. Back home he opened his file and learned that Bryce got Chuck expelled to save him from becoming a agent.

I absolutely loved the way this episode tied up some plot points. Turns out it wasn't a random act to send Chuck the Intersect info; Bryce knew Chuck's scores for subliminal pattern recognition, so he had to have known that Chuck would respond the way he did to the e-mail. This sets up a very interesting twist: Bryce the "rogue agent" ended up being a really good guy, so, as Chuck wondered, maybe stealing the Intersect was for the greater good, too. I'm sure we will be seeing more of this storyline later on.

The flashbacks to Chuck's college days were bittersweet. You could tell it meant so much to him to be there, and you could see how much Bryce's betrayal hurt him. At first I thought it was going to turn out that Bryce set up Chuck out of jealousy, that he didn't want someone better than he was brought into the agency. That he did it for Chuck's own good was unexpected and a really nice touch. And it gave Chuck his friend back: through all the flashbacks of the happy times he had with Bryce, you got the feeling he missed Bryce's friendship more than he missed being a Stanford student.

As a break in the action, the Buy More crowd engaged in a power struggle against the overlord Tang. Morgan was actually effective (and annoying only once!). Most of us have worked with someone like Tang, and I admit I get some measure of vicarious satisfaction when he is outsmarted by the others.

I’ll just get right to some of the moments worth mentioning:

• The flashbacks. I already talked about them, but they bear repeating as standouts. It was a great way to shed light on Chuck’s past and fill in some gaps.

• Chuck figuring out Bryce’s hiding spot, then coming up with the plan to call the active student agents for back up. That is what sets Chuck apart from the original Intersect computer: Chuck came up with all that, and I doubt the computer would have devised those actions.

• The look on Casey’s face when Sarah admitted she had only one shot left instead of the half clip she claimed; and the look on Sarah's face when she saw what Bryce had done for Chuck.

• Shirtless Awesome. Need I say more?

I leave the rest of this amazing episode to you guys. Did you like it as much as I did, or think it was a bit contrived? Let's hear what you have to say!

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Episode Recap: "Chuck vs. the Sandworm"
Poor Chuck: he thought he found a kindred spirit. Instead, the guy turns out to be a psychotic weapons expert on the lam from his handlers. Go figure.

Tonight Chuck discovered a rogue operative, Lazslo, in, of all places, a video arcade, where he and Morgan were having a video-game war. Lazslo made Chuck as an agent because of his watch (which Lazslo invented) and eventually won Chuck to his side by telling him the sad story of how he was kept in an underground facility since the tender age of 11, making high-tech gadgets and weaponry. The poor guy didn't even know about James Bond! Disgusted with Morgan's juvenile behavior, Chuck started to connect with Lazslo. That is, until the guy's twisted desire to blow things up came out. In the end Chuck learned how to disable the bomb and figure out who his real friends were.

Once again Chuck ran into trust issues, and managed to get everything all wrong. He was too eager to believe Lazslo, probably because he saw a bit of himself in the guy. Being right about all the bugs in Chuck's home did not hurt his case, either. Chuck should have realized they were placed there for his protection, but yeah, I would be mad too if Casey was listening in on everything I did. (It was great at the end when he purposely started up the sandwich conversation just to aggravate Casey!) He should have realized that that bit about not knowing anything related to James Bond was a line, too. Come on, how could a spy-toy guy like that not know about Bond?

I found it ironic that Chuck finally had enough of Morgan, but he wasn't all that bad this time. Chastised and feeling jilted, Morgan started questioning himself. That set up the hysterical "makeover" courtesy of Capt. Awesome, who summed up maturity by knowing when it was "time to tuck." He did an excellent job: Morgan cleaned up well. Too bad it happened on Halloween and everyone thought he was in costume.

And speaking of costumes, there were some great outfits. Awesome and Ellie as Adam and Eve (loved the shot of Awesome walking around in the leaf, and Ellie's hair was stunning. She should have it like that all the time). Chuck and Morgan as a sandworm from Dune. The Buy More outfits of the pimp, American Gothic and Catwoman. Tang looked appropriately ridiculous in the old-cowboy getup. Too bad Casey didn't dress up. I wonder what he would have been....

And a few more moments worth mentioning:

• The awkward coverup in Chuck’s room when he was pretending to "get lucky."
• Morgan trying to do the grown-up thing for his friend with the interview. (Anyone catch "Arthur" from The Tick as the HR rep?)
• Lazslo using the "You’re my only hope" line.
• Chuck’s frantic race to find Morgan after he realized he had stolen Morgan’s bike and left his friend in the lurch. I really thought they were going to hug each other!
• The nickname for the sandworm costume Chuck and Morgan dressed in every year.
• Sarah dressing like Princess Leia and taking a "real" picture for Chuck.

What stood out for you guys in this episode?

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Episode Recap: "Chuck vs. the Sizzling Shrimp"
So far Chuck has been pretty good about keeping his secret spy life from interfering too much with his regular life, but tonight the two collided, and his friends and family lost. Ironically it was Chuck's own personal code of trying to help everyone that got him in trouble. Talk about no good deed going unpunished!

So how many different directions was Chuck being pulled in? Ellie wanted him to spend time with her and celebrate their special family "October Mother's Day," and Morgan wanted Chuck to help him with the sales contest. But Casey and Sarah needed him to check out a Chinese spy, who insisted Chuck help her rescue her brother after he botched her attempt (while being helpful to the wrong person, no less!).

Chuck felt so bad about getting the intel wrong that he was compelled to help the spy... which pretty much messed up everything for everyone. He wasn't there for Morgan or Ellie, while Casey and Sarah got captured on the mission he forced them to take. Of course, he came through in the end, overcoming his fear of fireworks to save his team and the Chinese spy, but that meant Ellie and Morgan had to pay the price. Chuck may have a supercomputer in his head and think at the speed of light, but he can't be in two places at once.

This allowed the supporting cast to have more airtime in this episode, especially Ellie, and I liked that her character was allowed to evolve. Ellie bonding with Morgan and coming to his rescue in the (as it turned out) bogus contest was really sweet. It was nice to see her character fleshed out as something more than Chuck's sister or Captain Awesome's girl. (By the way, the lack of Awesome tonight did not go unnoticed. Let's hope he's back next week.)

The other workers at Buy More got more lines, too, and they all seemed aimed at humiliating Morgan. They did a fantastic job of it, especially after Morgan managed to genuinely help a customer and get her number for his efforts. I did feel sorry for him when that happened, even though he was back to being excruciatingly annoying for most of the night. I know that is his role in the show, but really, a little Morgan goes a long way and there has to be something else he can do besides get under Chuck's (and the audience's) skin.

Chuck seems to be adjusting to his spy role, settling in with the idea of going on missions and not being freaked out or whiny about it. But I am still wondering why he hasn't gotten any training yet. By now he should have been given a crash course in self-defense at the very least. Casey and Sarah cannot always be there to protect him.

OK, now on to the highlights. This episode was pretty tightly put together. I liked how it moved along from one point to the next with some great lines or shots along the way, such as:

• Morgan flashing his geek badge with the line "Help me Chuck, you're my only hope." Yeah, we all know that was paraphrased from Star Wars.
• Chuck's increasingly ridiculous excuses to cover up his spy duties.
• Ordering the shrimp and having it delivered to the stake-out car.
• The way Ellie invited Morgan and Sarah to share the special family holiday.

I'll leave the rest for you guys to point out. Let's hear what you liked!

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Episode Recap: "Chuck vs. The Wookiee"
I have to admit, ironically enough, that I can't wait for the weekend to be over so Monday night can roll around. The Chuck/Heroes one-two punch is a winning combination, and tonight's episode is a worthy addition to the series.

So what was Chuck up to this time? He got involved with a diamond heist and a sexy, sneaky DEA agent. It was great to see Chuck using his own expertise (spotting all the security tech) instead of simply relying on the Intersect info in his head. Despite the lack of training in fieldwork, he didn't do too badly, slipping through the door before it sealed shut, navigating through the pool area... and throwing the plate at Corina when she tried to swipe the gem from him at his home. But he also got tripped up with his own insecurities (and thankfully it wasn't Morgan's fault this time!). Chuck had more trust issues to work out when he realized that even though he and Sarah did pretty well playing that game of guessing each other's answers, he really doesn't know anything about her, including her real name. And that goes for the audience, too: How big of a surprise was it to hear her friend Corina ask what Sarah's "cover" was this time? I was a little disappointed in Chuck when he chose to trust Corina, a stranger and an obvious loose cannon, over Sarah. But then it was a pretty big lie she fed him about a very touchy topic: Bryce. Chuck seriously needs to get over the whole Bryce thing... quick.

I was happy to see Morgan in a nonirritating capacity this time. I even felt sorry for him when Corina played him the way she did. As a nice change, he was actually useful when he showed up and Corina slipped the diamond into his bag. I'm surprised Casey didn't figure that out. Come on, she was kissing Morgan, after all!

Casey didn't have much face time in this episode, but he made the most of what he was given. So did Sarah, snapping his picture when he was in that "delicate" position (and who out there doesn't want to know what happened in Prague?). He didn't get to beat up as many bad guys as usual, but he sure showed that bed who's boss! The scene in the elevator was priceless, standing there handcuffed to a headboard. At least he got his pants back on. Most importantly, viewers now have an answer to one burning question about Casey: He's a boxers man.

Thanks to Sarah, I have a new home-security tip: Always keep stockings and an extra bar of soap handy to defend yourself when a ninja breaks into your house. Her friendship with Corina was an interesting love/hate relationship. More hate, though, when Corina spilled the beans about Bryce and double-crossed Sarah with the diamond. I thought Sarah should have been more upset with Chuck, but then she was distracted making sure she could get back to the Weinerlicious store before she lost her job. I love the silly touches like this, the super-secret spies worried about their blue-collar covers.

Some other moments worth mentioning:
•Corina putting the goldfish back into the tank in the middle of the fight.
•The various references to the hairy villain. Calling him a Wookiee was hysterical.
•The look on Chuck’s face when Morgan described the kiss.
•The thug blowing smoke in Casey’s face.
•Chuck’s idea to mail the diamond. (I didn’t mind the obvious product placement at all. It made sense for the story and worked well.)
•Chuck noticing that Sarah doesn’t like olives.
•Sarah’s sad whisper that her middle name is Lisa.

There were plenty more: Let's hear what you guys liked about this one!

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Episode Recap: "Chuck vs. the Tango"
So, who out there wants to reach into the screen, grab Morgan by the neck and...? It seems tonight he was working overtime to make up for the lack of annoying behavior in last week's episode. And here I thought they were going to ease up on poor Morgan. I like the character, really I do! He just can't be used for every situation where something needs to go wrong! But wait, I am getting ahead of myself....

Instead of accidentally bumbling into a situation, Chuck was actually sent on his very first mission: The case involved a painting, plutonium and a dangerous arms dealer. Chuck literally framed himself while trying to act cool undercover, and under pressure, at the art auction; he really needs to learn how to keep his mouth shut. He ended up in the hands of a killer but managed to get away, mainly by demonstrating his incredible powers of computer repair to prove he was who he claimed to be, leaving Casey and Sarah to save the day, which they did with style.

Despite the overuse of Morgan-as-scapegoat, I thought this episode was funnier and more entertaining than the helicopter episode. So many great moments in this one! Here are some of the standouts:

• Casey once again was the comedic muscle. The way he delivered the mission message to Chuck (through the window blinds); his inside joke about the tango (was he making fun, or having fun with Chuck there?); his bonsai tree (I think that was the most tense he's ever been!); and the fight with the thugs in the store (which was better — taking out the guy with the microwave, or the punch to the face that left the bad guy's hand hurting?). And it seems there will be at least one thing each episode that Casey will "not kid" about. Last week it was quiche, this week it was about Chuck's life and the tango.

• Sarah once again got physical in a couple of really dazzling fight sequences. Yvonne Strahovski can really dish it out, and it really is her! (See this interview with Yvonne where she talks about her stuntwork.) She also showed her softer side: Could she really be falling for Chuck?

The supporting players had a lot to do this time. It was nice to see the Nerd Herd again. They had some great scenes and they all work really well together. Big Mike is a hoot and it's fun to see everyone, including Casey, jump when he shows up. Captain Awesome had some fancy footwork to contribute, too — who knew he could tango! It was priceless that he taught Chuck the woman’s steps, and Chuck rolled with it. That’s what I like so much about this show: The actors are willing to put themselves in embarrassing situations if that’s what it takes for the story.

Now if Morgan can just dial it down a notch or two. He started out decently, inspiring Chuck’s team to get to work on his behalf (and to keep the dreaded Tang from getting the promotion), but he used up all that credit quickly when he got locked in the computer cage and hounded Chuck to save him, followed by all his annoying antics at the store. I know he isn't aware of Chuck's life as a spy, but why does he have to be the one always getting Chuck into hot water?

The series seems to have found its footing with this episode. The cast came together like old friends and I like the overall direction it is taking. But please, give Joshua Gomez something substantial to work with as Morgan, I'd really like to see that character explored a little more.

What were some of your picks and peeves of this episode? Discuss!

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Episode Recap: Chuck vs. The Helicopter
After that powerhouse pilot, I was a bit anxious the writing would not be able to hold up to that standard. This episode wasn't on the same level, but it had enough going for it that it was still a fun hour.

I'll get the two not-so-fun moments out of the way first. The dinner party scene was almost painful to watch. I am not a big fan of awkward situational humor, so in that respect it was well done because it made me antsy. I was also a bit disappointed with the helicopter situation. Chuck should have figured out the computer-game angle on his own.

Now for the good stuff, and there was plenty. The fight between Sarah and Casey was great. It was so over the top, but that's what made it so much fun to watch. She really handed him his butt, so his ego had to be bruised more than his body, which can clearly take a licking and keep on ticking. There was a good deal of humor based on Casey's tough guy status, such as chasing down the shoplifter, his stealth fighter comment and shrugging off the tranquilizer dart. His customer service training was a riot too. He certainly isn't a people person, and that was what was so strange about Chuck willing to believe him over Sarah. Sure, they did a really good job of making her seem to be the bad guy, but you knew that couldn't be the case. That doctor however: I knew right away he wasn't on the up-and-up. Maybe it was the hair, but I suspected him from the moment he walked in.

I really liked that Sarah was upset when Chuck lost trust in her. She tried to say it compromised the mission, but you could tell she took it personally. And just when you thought Casey might have a soft spot hidden in all that macho-man muscle, he doesn't even blink when he is told what to do with Chuck once the new computer system is up and running. While it wasn't exactly spelled out, it is pretty obvious "what he does best" isn't in the Buy More customer-service handbook.

But if you ask me what the most positive part of the whole episode was, I'd have to say Morgan was not as annoying. Let's hope they keep that trend going. It is too easy to make Morgan the scapegoat for everything that goes wrong and his character seems to be getting pigeonholed. His antics get old very quickly, so I was happy to see them kept to a minimum this time around.

And we finally got a name on Captain Awesome: Devon. Not as flashy, but it works. However, to me he will always be Hank, Sam’s little brother on Passions.

What did you guys think of week 2? Discuss!

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Episode Recap: Series Premiere
If you didn’t watch the debut of Chuck, why not? This is one of the smartest, funniest shows of the new season. Couch potatoes and computer geeks rejoice: ou have been given a hero who doesn’t have perfect hair or rock-hard abs. Armed with a pocket protector and deadpan sarcasm, Chuck is an unassuming every-nerd (we all went to school with a guy like this) who finds himself in the ultimate geek fantasy: working with the government to thwart international spies and evildoers.

It was a great choice to open with Chuck’s uncomfortable birthday party. I could feel how out of place he was in his own home when his well-intentioned sister forced him to socialize with "real live women." The scene not only laughed at Chuck’s stereotypical geek behavior, but it laughed with him when he made the joke about working on his five-year plan and just needing to "pick a font."

The sudden cut to Chuck’s former college roommate, "Big Man on Campus" Bryce, who turns out to be a spy (and not an accountant as was amusingly pointed out on screen) made me feel like I was watching a James Bond movie. It was a real thrill for this Firefly fan to see Adam Baldwin show up as tough-guy Agent Casey. Think Jayne in a suit and not as subtle. I loved how he shot first and said, "Don’t move" after the fact. Chuck’s name blinking on Bryce’s handheld was a great way to tie the two together and explain what was happening. All this in under 10 minutes!

The scene where Chuck is hypnotized by Bryce’s image-heavy e-mail was a clever way to show what Bryce had stolen. I don’t know exactly how that was supposed to work, but it was the only leap of faith I needed to take for the show, so I went with it. I’ve watched stranger things, I admit, so this wasn’t too far of a stretch for me.

I was laughing out loud when Chuck and his annoying buddy Morgan went to work at Buy More as members of "The Nerd Herd." The obvious similarity to the real-world electronics chain was brilliant. I also loved the throwaway visual joke of the "Astro Diapers" display at the barely disguised warehouse shopping club called Large Mart.

Now, about that so-called CIA agent, Sarah. She must be the agency’s best operative, because she sure doesn’t look like a spy. She had me fooled at first when she showed up at the store and made a pass at Chuck. But it was a no-brainer later on to see she was the "ninja" trying to steal Chuck’s computer. How funny was that scene? With friends like Morgan, Chuck doesn’t need ninjas to take him down.

I should have felt sorry for Chuck when he went on the ultimate date from hell with Sarah, but I was laughing too hard at the great one-liners and the dance/battle with Casey’s goon squad. The car chase that capped off the evening was extremely well done. Not Matrix level, but that was some fancy driving!

In the end, Chuck saved the day, as only a nerd could: by using a virus-riddled porn site to disable the bomb’s computer. I guess Morgan has his uses after all. But I’d really hate to see him in a sidekick outfit.

A couple points worth mentioning include Chuck’s nickname for his sister’s boyfriend. Calling him Captain Awesome is, well, awesome. Also, suiting up for the date was fun. Chuck was so worried about his shirt button, but considering how the date ended, he should have been more concerned about bringing a clean set of undies.

There were just too many high points to mention here: What were some of your faves?

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