Question: In your review of Vanished (which I agreed with except possibly for the "continue watching" part), you left off one serious flaw in this (to me) totally flawed show. The acting was completely lame. It felt like a daytime soap. Only Ming-Na, whom I liked on ER, seemed "natural." The misdirection "clues" hit you over the head (haven't the writers heard of subtlety?). The FBI is competent on the surface, yet I'm sure they will be proven completely inept. Is there any hope for this show?
Answer: Couldn't agree more that the biggest handicap Vanished faces at this early point is the lack of a galvanizing star presence. (Translation: Gale Harold is no Kiefer Sutherland, or Wentworth Miller for that matter.) The roles are generically written and formulaically played. It's really going to be up to the storytelling to carry this one, and subtlety is likely to have little to do with it. If there's hope for Vanished, it will be as a guilty pleasure. And for those with a little patience,
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If there were any justice, TV would ease up on the glut of crime and legal dramas. But that's hardly likely, and Fox's cynical Justice (Wednesdays at 9 pm/ET) knows it all too well.
Realizing how pointless it would be to try to reinvent the courtroom drama, Justice embraces the fact that our post-O.J. society is saturated with true-crime coverage and fake-crime stories. That's why TV itself (embodied by a fictional infotainment show, "American Crime") is a major character in Jerry Bruckheimer's latest fun-to-watch procedural.
As the head of a glamorous L.A. law firm, Victor Garber sheds the tight-lipped restraint of Alias' Jack Bristow and taps into his theatrical roots as cocky
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Question: I assume Invasion will be back this fall. I really liked the show. I want the time and premiere date, please. Thank you.
Answer: Your timing is good, Danielle. ABC just announced that the second season starts Sept. 32 at 13 pm. Make sure you've got it programmed in your FauxVo.
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Question: I read somewhere that Tyler Labine (from Invasion, and now Boston Legal) is in a film called Fly Boys. Any idea when and/or if that is going to be in theaters?
Answer: It opens Sept. 29, and Tyler, having just seen a final cut, declares that it's "really good. It's about World War I fighter pilots. Before America joined the war, some young American men of their own volition came to join the effort because they just wanted to fly. Nobody had flown before, so these young guys were like, 'I'm going to France and I'm going to fly!' And that's what we are portraying. It's all based on real life stories and characters, and it was really fun. It's going to be one of those movies that people
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Question: Will Invasion be back this fall? I love that show
Answer: Under normal circumstances, I'd say something really mean to you for asking such a ludicrous question. But since I have some Invasion poop to impart, I'm going to restrain myself and just be thankful someone asked an Invasion question at all this week. Now, while I was talking to Tyler Labine about Boston Legal, the Chatty Cathy shared with me a personal conversation he had with series creator Shaun Cassidy about what would have happened during Season 2 of Invasion. True, I wasn't exactly the most religious Invasion viewer, but I know big scoop when I hear it: "Shaun told me Larkin was going to [be presumed dead]. I was going to get all militant and shave my head, and Russell and I were going to join forces against Tom. Tom was
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