Ellen to Leave American Idol

American Idol’s judging panel has quickly halved in size since last season’s finale which saw Lee DeWyze victorious.

Simon Cowell’s departure from the show had been well publicised and while a huge loss, wasn’t a shock.

However news that Ellen DeGeneres won’t be returning to the panel next season is a little more surprising if not shocking.

Ellen never really worked as a judge, offering nothing more than empty comments and never really telling contestants the truth; she always seemed more concerned with being funny and well-liked.

I understand her acting in that way, after all she has a talk show to keep afloat, and in a post-Oprah landscape her talk show is now all the more important. If she’d gone on Idol and spoken to the contestants as Cowell does then her likeability would have decreased rapidly.

Ellen’s departure now means that the long-rumoured Idol revamp will be even more likely to happen, as the judging panel is now decimated and the format seems to be going stale.

Only Randy Jackson remains now from the original judges after Paula Abdul’s departure prior to last season.

Who, if anyone, do you think should take Simon and/or Ellen’s place as an Idol judge?

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If only Cleaners photoshop newbies who wanted to learn how to clean a manga and contribute some of their free time. On this tutorial I will share my simple technique on pulling the artwork out from those manga scans to be able to re-use them for scanlations .
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As far as I can see there is no a single site that explain how to scan manga. Because of that, I have decided to let you know how they work with it. Now I will explain to you all how to scan “manga” or should we call in comic English with this simple tutorial as I can. Before we begin the tutorial, I would you to forgive me for any mistaken. Well, here we go, and listen carefully.

Before you read this tutorial, I would like you to read my previous tutorial about how to scan HQ manga (comic). After that, Ok let’s begin

To input your own language to the manga or comic, you have to clean the Japanese text first and here is.

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Justified 1.13 'Bulletville'

As one door opened last night, another one closed. Californication might have returned but last night was also tinged with a little sadness as the best new show this year Justified came to the end of its first season. But what a finale it was for this freshman show.

Things have been building to a head for a couple of weeks now and somehow the writers managed to converge all the still dangling threads involving Raylan, Boyd, Bo, Ava and Arlo together to create one hell of a bullet-filled knot.

The episode’s title referred to an actual place in Harlan but it obviously had a double meaning because this finale essentially turned Harlan into a war zone and there were bullets flying left, right and centre.

The show has made no bones about shooting people at the drop of a hat but ‘Bulletville’ was exceptionally bloody and the kills were somewhat more gruesome than we have seen thus far.

Many a Crowder took a bullet, essentially meaning that season 2 will move away from the Crowder family’s stranglehold on Harlan, although Boyd did survive but he now seems to be a changed man…

Things kicked off in somewhat of a grisly way as Bo and his henchmen swarmed on Boyd’s ‘church’, as Bo forced Johnny to give Boyd a beating (seemingly unaware the cousins had actually been in league together) one of Boyd’s flock gave up the location of the somewhat unorthodox church’s weapons.

When Bo forced Boyd to leave I immediately thought they were then going to kill his flock but that didn’t seem like it fit with the how the show had been progressing so I genuinely thought Bo may let them go. As Boyd walked away though and we heard the gunshots he, and the audience, knew exactly what was happening and any lingering doubts about how bad of a man Bo Crowder was were gone.

The visual of Boyd’s men all strung up and shot to death obviously evoked religious imagery which fit well with the born again Boyd’s beliefs but it was still quite a shocking scene for a show that had been rather low on graphic violence until that point.

This murderous act by Bo drove a distraught Boyd to the “only friend he had left” Raylan.

Before that though we got to see Arlo try and outsmart his son, only to be thwarted yet again and take a bullet for his troubles. With Arlo living through the finale I’ve no doubts he’ll be back next season to make life difficult for Marshal Givens once more.

With the same Miami cartel that want Raylan dead for killing Tommy Bucks and the other would be assassins they’ve sent to kill him now on his back over the truck load of meth ingredients that Boyd exploded with his trusty rocket launcher, Bo concocted the genius plan to hand over Raylan to them to save his own skin.

When Arlo predictably failed, Bo kidnapped Ava as a backup, but not before shooting the duplicitous Johnny in the gut with a sawn off shotgun.

So that left Boyd and Raylan to join forces to thwart Boyd’s evil Daddy. As the two headed out towards Bulletville it was a remarkable full circle their relationship had completed since the premiere – friends to enemies to begrudging allies to friends again maybe?

It’s plainly obvious that Raylan doesn’t trust Boyd and I can’t imagine him sitting back and allowing Boyd to go vigilante “…maybe he’s Batman” but it certainly does seem that they have common enemies now and my enemy’s enemy is my friend.

One thing Justified has done well is to make death seem quick and sudden – no one goes out in a blaze of glory, in fact if Raylan Givens is pulling the trigger it’s usually one shot to put you down, for good.

I expected the final showdown to be a tense affair but the Crowder portion of it was over in almost no time, as Boyd and Raylan took out the henchmen and then the Miami bad guys took out Bo.

I really enjoyed seeing Raylan and Boyd teaming up and I’m so glad to hear Walton Goggins is back full time for season 2. Where they go with the Boyd character now remains to be seen but I’d love it if they did go down the vigilante route with him; but as half of Harlan’s criminals were wiped out in the finale there might not be too much crime for him to thwart.

The Winona-Raylan-Ava love-triangle appeared unresolved as the credits rolled last night so that will no doubt be season 2 fodder – but am I the only one who can’t stand Ava? I’d far rather see Raylan get back together with Winona.

It was with an almost deftness that the writers tied together most of the season’s ongoing arcs last night and it really did make for a strong finish to what has been a great debut season for Justified.

The show has some great dialogue and one-liners and two possibly career best performances from Goggins and Timothy Olyphant (perhaps a bold statement considering their back catalogues…?).

Goggins’ praises have been well sung already for his role as Boyd but Olyphant is ice cool as Raylan and his sarcastic one-liners and unflappable swagger make him one of the coolest characters on TV.

Justified is without a doubt the best freshman show of the year and I am confident that they can continue to improve next season, I already can’t wait for it to return.

Californication 3.1 'Wish You Were Here'

It’s been a long wait but Hank Moody is finally back on our screens and sweet Moses, has he been missed.

After an extended ‘previously…’ montage, Californication’s third season began and within a matter of seconds Hank’s brilliant way with words was delighting and offending in equal doses.

With the possible exception of Rescue Me, there is no show on television that even comes close to rivalling Californication’s razor-sharp dialogue. Some of the things that come out of the characters’ mouths, mainly Hank’s, just shouldn’t work – people don’t talk like that – but they do, and they don’t just work, they amaze.

It’s frustrating being a fan of a show like this in the UK; for all intents and purposes Californication gets treated like crap – bounced around the schedules, broadcast at ridiculous hours and no rhyme and reason to when and where it airs whatsoever.

Every molecule of that frustration evaporated last night though, because Californication was back, and it was better than ever.

Hank is now raising Becca as a single father after Karen left for New York at the end of season 2, and while Hank & Karen remain in love coast to coast they aren’t saving themselves for each other, as Hank demonstrated mere seconds in to the season 3 premiere by falling asleep inside a young lovely.

After his conquest storms out, Hank finds Becca and friend Chelsea stoned in his kitchen. Turns out Hank’s parenting skills leave a lot to be desired as the weed they had was from his own stash (Freudianly hidden inside his typewriter).

This little incident sets up the remainder of the episode, as Chelsea’s Mother invites Hank over to dinner and events soon spiral out of control – mainly due to Hank.

Elsewhere Charlie is struggling at his new job – working for a scenery-chewing Kathleen Turner and lamenting his previous indiscretions that led to his marriage to “cokey smurf” Marcy falling apart.

Turner was a nice surprise in this episode because I don’t remember hearing that she was in this season and she looked like she’s having the time of her life and even managed to steal the episode’s best line: “cumming like a baby Gorilla”.

Not to sound callous but looking at her now, it’s hard to believe Turner was once one of the most desirable women in the World. When you consider how well her former sparring partner Michael Douglas has aged it is quite shocking to see Turner looking slightly rotund and sounding like she’s just gargled with rusty nails. When she guest-starred in Friends – she played Chandler’s transsexual Father, looking at Kathleen Turner circa 2009 though you’ve got to wonder how much of a stretch that was.

But call me sick, depraved and in need of some serious mental help, I actually think this Kathleen Turner is sexier. Give me a randy old, sexually aggressive Turner coming out with dialogue that gives even the great Hank Moody a run for his money any day over the prim and proper Turner of Romancing the Stone.

No Lew Ashby this season is a big loss to the show for me, because Callum Keith Rennie and the chemistry he and Duchovny had last season was such a big part of what made season 2 so great. But if the guest stars are of the quality of last night’s episode for the rest of the season then Ashby’s absence may not be as much of a loss for the show.

In addition to Turner, last night also saw the first appearances of Peter Gallagher and Embeth Daviditz as Chelsea’s parents, and Dean and teacher respectively at the college I’m in no doubt Hank ends up working at, and Diane Farr as a teaching assistant who I’m in no doubt Hank ends up bedding.

Gallagher (who will always be Sandy Cohen – the best thing about The O.C. – to me) looks as though he’ll be butting heads with Hank this season and Farr, who keeps popping up in many of my favourite shows: The Job, Rescue Me and now Californication, looks like being Hank’s love interest (although love probably isn’t the right word) at least until Karen comes back, which is inevitable… isn’t it?

I didn’t recognise Gallagher when he was on the bike and Hank knocked him off but I remarked to the girlfriend that you just knew that cyclist was on his way to the same dinner party as Hank, this being Californication and all.

That dinner party last night wasn’t quite as eventful as the one in last season’s ‘The Raw & the Cooked’ but it was still rather interesting. Duchovny’s real life friend Jason Beghe played novelist Richard Bates who Hank inadvertently knocks off the wagon within about a minute of meeting him.

After a rather graphic insight into his next book, a hammered Bates then proceeded to pose with his “mangina” before jumping out of the window. This relapse will no doubt lead to Hank taking Bates’ place as a college lecturer and thus set up the season’s main arc – see it wasn’t just gratuitous nudity!

All in all a great return to form for the mighty Californication – the best written show on TV. For me ‘Wish You Were Here’ wasn’t quite as strong as last season’s opener ‘Slip of the Tongue’, but then again how do you top accidental cunnilingus!? It was still a hell of an appetiser for what is to come though, and given the current lack of great shows airing in the UK I’ve never been happier to have Hank Moody back on my screen.

Other Thoughts:

- Where was Damien? He’s the reason Hank & Becca remained in LA, yet he was nowhere to be seen last night. Hopefully he wasn’t just a plot device to keep the two of them in LA and won’t just disappear without an explanation. I quite enjoyed his dynamic with Hank last season.

- I can’t say losing Madeline Zima as a regular has hurt the show in any way. Mia’s story pretty much ran its course in season 1 and although she had her moments last season, they seemed to have less and less for Zima to do. I know she’s back later on in the season but I think as a recurring character now is just fine.

- I would’ve liked to see Peter Gallagher as a friend of Hank’s rather than a foe, but that’s mainly because I like Peter Gallagher, as I’m never going to be able to root against Hank Moody – he is the epitome of the anti-hero.

- I’d love to see Callum Keith Rennie back in dream form again this year but I doubt that will happen, still it was nice to hear Ashby referenced a couple of times through the book.

- I know its cheap humour but I love name jokes. Hank’s amusement at Stacey Koons being a college Dean and thus being Dean Koons was exactly the reaction I would have had. My favourite running joke of this nature is in Mike Judge’s film Office Space with the character called Michael Bolton.

Californication Season 3 airs Wednesday nights on Fiver. Next week’s episode goes out @ 11.15pm

Better Off Ted 1.1 / 1.2 - 'Pilot' / 'Heroes'

Better Off Ted debuted in the UK Tuesday night on FX, and although I’m somewhat late with a review, my thoughts on the opening double bill are coming up, just as soon as I figure out how to weaponize a Pumpkin…

I’d heard good things about Better Off Ted and while I wasn’t exactly blown away by the show it had enough laughs to ensure I’ll be back for a second visit to Veridian Dynamics next week.

It’s an odd feeling when a show has already been cancelled in the US but a UK channel picks it up anyway and gives it quite heavy promotion, because you have that trepidation that if you do fall in love with the show and the characters that you’ll only have a very small window of time in which to enjoy them.

Nevertheless, Better Off Ted is a satirical and very silly look at how working for a stereotypically evil giant corporation affects the daily lives of its employees.

The show reminds me very much of Andy Richter Controls the Universe which is not much of a surprise as it was created by the same man: Victor Fresco (the shows also share a cast member). Much like Richter; Ted’s ‘out-there’ humour is obviously something you either get or you just don’t; ultimately it would seem that much of America did not get Ted, or Richter for that matter. You have to feel for Fresco a little.

Ted Crisp our leading man, played by Jay Harrington, is our guide through the shady world of Veridian. Ted is head of the company’s research and development department and is boss to scientists Lem and Phil (Richter’s Jonathan Slavin & Malcolm Barrett) and head of testing Linda (Andrea Anders of Joey ‘fame’). Ted’s boss is Veronica Palmer, a no-nonsense ball-buster played brilliantly by Portia de Rossi.

There is also Ted’s young daughter Rose, who effectively acts as his moral compass, when he tells her about his day at work Rose always manages to help Ted see what the right thing to do is.

The first episode ‘Pilot’ dealt with the company trying to weaponize a Pumpkin, which gave us a great insight into some of the ridiculous experiments Veridian are in to. The Pumpkin project was soon put on hold though as it was decided instead that they would test out their new cryogenic freezing system on poor old Phil.

Phil reluctantly agreed to be the human lab rat and the freezing appeared successful until he was accidentally thawed a couple of days later. This left Phil with the rather irritating side effect of intermittently making a loud noise like some sort of crazed Manatee.

1.2 ‘Heroes’ dealt with the after effects of ‘Pilot’, which was nice and somewhat unexpected as I expected the episodes to be more stand alone, as Veronica tried to butter up Phil to prevent him from suing the company over the botched freezing. Ted’s department also had the project of creating “Cow-less” beef, which posed a number of problems including the original creation tasting like “despair”.

Better Off Ted was never going to win any awards, even before it got cancelled, but it is a smart, satirical swipe at big corporations and the way they treat their employees and it has enough laughs and one stand-out performance worth watching to keep your interest for 22 minutes.

De Rossi is unquestionably the star here and every time she is on screen you can almost guarantee the biggest laughs of each episode. This is somewhat of a breakout for Ellen’s other half because although she was good on Arrested Development that was a show filled with some of the best TV characters of all time and she rarely got chance to shine.

Here though it is all de Rossi and she definitely makes the most of her chance; it is also refreshing to see the oft portrayed ‘jerk boss’ character played by a woman, which brings another dimension to the dynamic.

As Ted, Harrington is somewhat disappointing, the role could probably have used someone a little more ‘losery’ (like Andy Richter in Andy Richter Controls the Universe) rather than the chiselled Harrington, but that said Ted is the straight man here so the laughs are obviously going to come more from other sources.

The two scientists are as geeky as you would expect and bring nothing new to this type of role we’ve all seen hundreds of times before.

Andrea Anders is the wild card here and I’m interested to see where they go with her character. I’ve always liked Anders, she was probably about the only good thing on Joey, and as Linda she offers an almost shared perspective with Ted whilst still having her own eccentricities.

As with most shows of this nature, the short running time breezes by, punctuated by ‘fake’ adverts for Veridian that appear to usually have a correlation with the upcoming/previous episode.

Better Off Ted isn’t in the same league as some of TV’s current crop of great comedies (30 Rock, Curb, Modern Family) but it is by no means the worst comedy out there (The IT Crowd), not by a long stretch. I saw enough in these two opening episodes to keep me coming back and if you’re a fan of surreal humour then I suggest you do too.

And even if you have no interest in the show whatsoever, I’d recommend watching at least one episode just to see how great Portia de Rossi is.

Better Off Ted airs Tuesdays @ 9pm on FX

Channel 4 Get The Event

The trend for UK TV channels adopting a wait-and-see approach when it comes to acquiring new US shows seems to dead and buried.

Once upon a time we would have to wait months to see a debuting US show as our networks sat back to see how the shows did across the pond first, but not anymore.

After the news earlier this week that Living had picked up both Nikita and Chase, comes the even bigger news that Channel 4 have picked up the show I tipped up last month as being the biggest new show to hit the big 5 basic cable networks in the US: The Event.

The conspiracy-based drama that will air on NBC in the States is one of the most hyped new shows in the fall schedules, the anticipation for The Event increased further last week on the back of Comic Con.

The show revolves around Sean Walker, played by Jason Ritter, who goes in search of his fiancée after she mysteriously disappears. Walker then manages to get embroiled in what is billed as the biggest cover-up in US history.

The Event premieres in the US on 20th September and although no UK air date has yet been announced by Channel 4, they must be hoping that the show can emulate the success of Lost – C4 had Lost for its first two seasons before losing the show to Sky1.

Sky Strike Deal with HBO

Huge news for fans of the best network in the US: HBO (Home Box Office).

BSkyB yesterday announced that they have acquired the rights to HBO's entire TV back catalogue and all future programming for the next five years in a deal reportedly worth £150m.

The deal will allow Sky to fill its myriad channels (including the recently acquired LivingTV family) with some of the best television produced in the last decade.

HBO has been home to the likes of Oz, Deadwood, The Sopranos, Rome, The Wire, Sex and the City and Six Feet Under.

Its current line-up boasts Bored to Death, Entourage, Curb Your Enthusiasm, True Blood, Hung, Treme and In Treatment (to name just a few) and there also the upcoming Luck, Boardwalk Empire and Game of Thrones. This deal will hopefully mean that these new HBO shows will get their UK debuts on the likes of Sky1 – who actually know how to promote and treat top notch US television.

Sadly, in regard to the likes of Entourage, Curb and True Blood, Sky will have to wait out the existing deals in place between HBO and ITV2, More4 and FX respectively before they can start broadcasting the aforementioned shows. Although given ITV2’s recent attitude towards Entourage it’s a crime they even still have the rights.

This is massive news though and it will hopefully mean that more people in the UK will be exposed to some of the greatest TV shows ever made. I still haven’t caught up on many of the series named above so if Sky start showing these shows again from the beginning it will save me a hell of a lot of money on DVD box sets!

It will also give them something else to fill the Sky2 and Sky3 schedules with other than repeats of Pineapple Dance Studios.

Sons of Anarchy Season3 "Promo"

Qué ganitas por dios!!

Eric Christian Olsen Becomes Series Regular on NCIS: LA

Eric Christian Olsen, an actor who I’m a big fan of, is joining NCIS: Los Angeles full time. CBS announced yesterday that Olsen would be a series regular on the show for its upcoming second season after guest-starring last season.

Olsen guest-starred last season as Los Angeles Police Detective Liaison Marty Deeks and season 2 will see the character recruited to the NCIS. Olsen will begin reprising his role as Deeks in the show, which is led by LL Cool J and Chris O’Donnell, in the special 2-hour season 2 premiere which is set to air on 21st September in the States.

NCIS: LA executive producer Shane Brennan said in a statement: “We are thrilled to have Eric join the cast… he has already proved himself to be a great asset and invaluable member of the team, and Eric’s fans will be delighted to see what we have in store for him.”

Olsen is a very funny actor, if you haven’t already seen it check out his Funny or Die work as Perry Hilton, but he has also proven himself a very capable dramatic actor with roles in the likes of Tru Calling and 24 in which he played George Mason’s son.

NCIS: LA is a show that I was tempted to give a go last year when it debuted but ultimately did not, but with this news I will definitely be checking the show, which airs on Sky1 in the UK, out when it returns.

Sucker Punch "Trailer"

La nueva película de Zack Snyder (300, Watchmen). Tiene muy buena pinta. La seguiremos de cerca.

Sons of Anarchy Season 3 Trailer

Do I really need to say more...!?

Living Land Chase & Nikita in the UK

2 big new US shows will be broadcast in the UK by the increasingly impressive Living.

Spy action-drama remake Nikita starring Die Hard 4.0’s very leggy Maggie Q and the Jerry Bruckheimer produced US marshal series Chase that will star Prison Break’s Amaury Nolasco and Cole Hauser will both make their UK debut on Living in the autumn.

Both shows are set to premiere in the US in the fall schedules, so it would seem from this announcement that both shows will air in the UK close to their US air date.

Timeform Rate Harbinger 142

As you know, TV or not TV occasionally likes to report on the World of Horse Racing, and over the weekend occurred something that definitely warrants a few sentences.

Harbinger absolutely decimated the King George field with an astonishingly effortless 11 length win – leaving Derby winner Workforce trailing in his dust back in fifth.

As is tradition after a big race respected Racing publication Timeform has released its provisional ratings for the Horses involved and they have put Harbinger on a mark of 142. Now while this is not official and Timeform’s astuteness has to be called in to question (they wouldn’t give me a job) this all points to Harbinger being one hell of an animal.

The 142 rating puts him above last year’s all-conquering Sea the Stars and even Shergar and makes him on paper the fourth best Horse of all time, behind only Sea Bird, Brigadier Gerard and The Minstrel.

Whether Racing’s authority the BHA follow suit and gives Sir Michael Stoute’s charge an equivalent rating remains to be seen but all indications right now are that anyone who witnessed the King George on Saturday saw something very special indeed.

What do any Racing fans out there think – does Harbinger deserve a rating of 142 for Saturday’s performance…?

Sons of Anarchy Comic Con Panel

More Zapruder-esque Comic Con footage coming up!

San Diego’s Comic Con drew to a close yesterday after four days of geek heaven, and it was the final day that had inspired me to follow this year’s ‘Con’ happenings so closely as it featured a panel for my favourite show on TV: Sons of Anarchy.

The panel was chaired by the finest TV critic in the land Mr. Alan Sepinwall, himself a huge SOA fan, and featured Ron Perlman (Clay), Charlie Hunnam (Jax), Katey Sagal (Gemma) and creator and SOA mastermind Kurt Sutter (who also plays the ill-fated Big Otto on the show).

There doesn’t appear to have been anything too revelatory coming out of the panel but there were some nice little nuggets to keep fans going until season 3 premieres in September – 3 prospects next season!

It might not have been the most headline-making panel of the four days but it was interesting to hear the three main characters and the man who puts the words in their mouths talking about the past season and looking ahead to what is in store for them.

The sound is dodgy and the footage makes Zapruder look like Scorcese – but you can view the first 15 minutes of the panel in the two clips after the jump…

The Walking Dead Trailer

More exciting news coming out of Comic Con…

A trailer for the upcoming The Walking Dead was shown and some naughty convention goer has recorded it and uploaded it onto youtube.

It’s grainier than the Zapruder tape but clocking in at four and a half minutes it shows us a hell of a lot of what we can expect from what is looking more and more like being the TV event of the year.

The Walking Dead panel at Comic Con also doled out some more juicy details about the show; most importantly for UK viewers was the revelation that the show will be “simultaneously launched all over the globe” which will hopefully mean its air date over here will be nice and close to that of the US (maybe even the same day? Here’s hoping…).

The Walking Dead will be upon us in October and after the jump you’ll find that Comic Con trailer…

True Blood Season 3 Comic-Con "Trailer"

Como se va a poner la cosa, SPOILERS duros!

Priest "Trailer"

Sacerdotes vs Vampiros, estreno previsto para el verano que viene.

Californication Season 3 UK

You’ll have to forgive any spelling mistakes and grammatical errors in this post because I write this after five pints.

My afternoon was spent in my local enjoying a great card of Racing, on which I managed to pick out a 9-1 winner and not back it – this may bode well for the upcoming ‘Big Punt’ podcast I’ll be producing with Sam Brydges of Das Football fame but it still stung like a mofo.

The reason for this drunken entry is that after my afternoon in the pub I returned home and decided to scour my Sky+ box for any episodes of the sublime Californication that may air in the next week.

You see I was missing this great show so much I needed a fix, even it was an old fix.

I’ll be damned though if I didn’t discover that season 3 was going to be finally debuting this week in the UK.

Californication has to be one of the funniest, best written, poignant and visceral shows on TV. It stars a career best David Duchovny and one of the best supporting cast of characters on TV.

If you aren’t yet familiar with possibly the sharpest show on TV then you need to get involved this Wednesday (28th July 2010) @ 11.10pm on FIVER.

Dexter Season 5 "Trailer"

Nada que comentar....simplemente BESTIAL. Si quiere ver evolucionar un personaje, vea Dexter.

White Collar 1.14 'Out of the Box'

For its season finale White Collar abandoned the ‘crime of the week’ formula that it had adopted for most of its debut year, instead the episode focussed entirely on the season’s long running arc of Neal’s plot to steal the show’s MacGuffin: the music box.

This made for a very strong episode, without the distractions of a weekly case to solve we got plenty of revelations about what had been going on most of the season, that said though I’m still pretty confused about who’s working for who and who is double crossing who.

The basic gist of the episode was that Alex finally revealed to Neal where the music box was, after some skinny-dipping of course – which I’m sure was just an excuse to get Matt Bomer naked.

Turns out it was at the Italian embassy, which led to a fun Ocean’s Eleven style caper involving Neal, Alex and Mozzie.

Whilst Neal went to great lengths to get past the numerous security systems, namely outing himself as a thief all it took for Mozzie to get through was a tray. As implausible as some of the plot contrivances were it was still nice to see the plan come together and our hero succeed in his mission.

The predictable Alex double-cross then happened but before you could start to even wonder if Neal’s chance had gone, Alex had a change of heart and brought Neal the music box… or did she? I have a hunch she’s still got the real one and the one she gave Neal is a fake.

Neal then said his goodbyes as he handed off the music box and prepared to be reunited with his beloved Kate – it turns out Operation Mentor had been about Neal all along; he and Kate were to get new identities and live free and peacefully.

The goodbye between Neal and Mozzie was surprisingly touching and even though his friendship with Peter’s wife Elizabeth still feels a little wrong it was nice to see him give her a goodbye as well.

Peter wasn’t lucky enough to get a goodbye though and chased Neal to the airport to try and talk him out of his plan to disappear. After the bromance was solidified the plane that Kate had been seen to be on board then exploded and we cut to the closing credits.

All in all a strong episode to end the first season of one of the most enjoyable shows on TV. The ending was a nice cliff-hanger to carry us over into the second season (currently airing in the US) and there are plenty of questions left to be answered.

Marsha Thomason’s return was very satisfying after she just disappeared after the pilot and she is back as a series regular next year which can only help improve the show because she is a much better actress than Natalie Morales.

There were enjoyable moments peppered throughout the episode, mainly involving Peter and the evil Fowler. First Peter punching the crooked agent after he had Peter’s wife arrested and then when Peter shot him and was asked by Diana how he knew Fowler was wearing a vest he replied “I didn’t”.

The dynamics and interplay between all the characters on the show really is excellent and you get a feeling that the show is as fun to make as it is to watch which really does enhance your enjoyment.

There was a lot to squeeze into this episode and at times it did feel rushed but none of the wit and charm that has made the show so popular was sacrificed. The interaction between Bomer, Tim DeKay and Willie Garson is what really makes the show and there was plenty of that here in the finale.

White Collar really grew stronger as the season progressed and if they can carry on that momentum into season 2 then the USA network could have another big hit on its hands.

White Collar Comic Con Panel

As reported here last week it was the Comic Con panel for the stylish and glossy crime caper White Collar yesterday.

So as promised here is the news and gossip emanating from yesterday’s panel, courtesy of one of the best TV critics out there Hitflix’s Alan Sepinwall of What’s Alan Watching? Fame, who was in attendance and reported his findings earlier today over at Hitflix.

White Collar followed Burn Notice on the USA network’s roster of Comic Con panels and the crowd had geeked out massively for ‘Burn’ star Bruce Campbell, so Matt Bomer, Tim DeKay et al had somewhat of a tough act to follow by all accounts.

White Collar is one of the shows that are helping to shape the newly evolved Comic Con, in the sense that it isn’t exactly a Comic Con type of show. They apparently with this assumption by showing an amusing sketch that featured the cast of the show planning a Comic-Con heist of the trailer for the upcoming Tron: Legacy.

The panel, headed by Willie Garson who plays Mozzie on the show was supposedly very fun, with the cast who all play well off each other, both on and off screen coming, off very charming and likeable. Although Sepinwall did comment that at times the hour did feel like a very long in-joke the audience were only sometimes in on.

Sepinwall isn’t as much of a fan of the show as I am though so that probably affected his enjoyment of the panel somewhat.

Anyway, on to the topics of discussion…

Garson apparently went straight at creator Jeff Eastin on the cliffhanger ending from the show's first season, involving Kate, the mysterious love interest for Matt Bomer's character Neal Caffrey. Kate it turns out isn’t too popular with the majority of White Collar’s fans, and I can’t say I’m her biggest fan either.

The problem with Kate was that she was never ever going to live up to the pedestal that Neal and subsequently the show put her on, and the actress that played her just didn’t have that ‘it’ factor to make her seem special.

Back to the panel though:

"Kate's plane blew up. Is she dead?" Garson asked creator Eastin.

The crowd apparently cheered enthusiastically at this idea.

Eastin, who Sepinwall reports was slightly taken aback by the reaction, was somewhat cagey, but he asked the crowd whether or not they thought Kate should be dead, be alive or be "in some sort of a coma".

The reaction from the crowd to this question was mainly in the ‘dead’ camp, although the ‘coma’ idea reportedly got a stronger reaction than ‘alive’.

Speaking of Kate, one line of speculation that ‘Collar’ fans have engaged in is whether there is a link between Kate and Peter’s (DeKay) wife Elizabeth due to the fact that Tiffani Thiessen, who plays Elizabeth, looks so much like Alexandra Daddario who plays Kate.

At the end of the panel someone in the audience asked just that question.

"It was a complete accident," said Eastin, who went on to state that he hadn't even realised the resemblance until he was following the twitter reaction to the show after the first episode in which the Kate character featured prominently.

Garson with the power to at least try and direct the questioning, then pressed Eastin for some background on his character Mozzie. Eastin described Neal's buddy as "a burnt-out Beat philosopher."

Eastin then reportedly told this very funny anecdote about auditioning for the role of Mozzie: As Garson sat in the casting office's waiting room, another actor went in to read. This other guy went in and was apparently doing a stellar job, then according to Eastin: "…halfway through he stopped and said, 'You've got Willie Garson out there. This is bullshit. He's gonna get it anyway,' and he walked out."

Brilliant.

Jeff Eastin and Burn Notice creator Matt Nix have reportedly had a twitter/prank war going on for quite some time now and Comic Con was no exception. Nix apparently got in line for audience questions and asked Eastin where he got the idea to hire so many behind-the-scenes personnel from Burn Notice for his show.

According to a few other people in attendance, Nix came across as a bit of a jerk for forcing himself on the White Collar panel after just having an hour’s forum for his own show.

Comic Con is all about fun though and it would seem the ‘Collar’ crew took the jibe in good spirits and even got the last laugh, with producer Jeff King asking Nix about his show: "It's Royal Pains, isn't it?"

The season 1 finale of White Collar aired in the UK this week; look out for a review in the next couple of days.

Sons of Anarchy 2.13 'Na Triobloidi'

‘Na Triobloidi’ the Sons of Anarchy season 2 finale was a gripping ride for its entire feature length running time. But even with that extension there was so much going on and for you to take in that it still felt like there was stuff they had to leave out and/or cut down.

All season long, and in fact all series long, Kurt Sutter and the team behind the show have done a first-rate job of slowly building towards a visceral crescendos.

That said, as a stand-alone season finale ‘Na Triobloidi’ wasn’t the greatest I’ve ever seen; but when you take it as the climax to everything we’ve seen go before it, this was a superb way to end the season and you were left with emotions running wild.

There is so much to recap I really don’t know where to begin, so let’s start right at the beginning.

This was only creator Kurt Sutter’s second proper directorial gig after last season’s finale ‘The Revelator’ (he also directed The Shield prequel ‘Wins and Losses’ prior to season 6) hard to believe when you consider some of the great shots he gave us in ‘Na Triobloidi’.

That opening image of the three rats eating the bird on the highway is so soaked in symbolism I don’t even want to start dissecting it, and then SAMCRO ride along the highway with their headlights shining like stars in the night sky – it really was a beautiful opening.

Other stand-outs from Sutter: the Main Street stand-off between SAMCRO and the Mayans and that great scene in the clubhouse after Jax returns from killing Weston and everyone raises a glass to “Sons” – how telling that toast would prove come the final scene.

Before I get into the actual on screen happenings in depth I just wanted to sing the praises of the music from the show once again.

After the brilliant Hands in the Sky (Big Shot) by Straylight Run being used as SAMCRO headed to the brawl with LOAN in last week’s ‘The Culling’, this week we got a great cover of the Stones’ Gimme Shelter from Paul Brady over the climatic scenes (another brilliant Sutter montage).

This is the 2nd time that Sons has used a Stones cover to brilliant effect after Katey Sagal’s own haunting version of Ruby Tuesday back in ‘Small Tears’.

So let’s get in to the meat of the finale, and first things first, season regular ‘Half-Sack’ was killed off in heroic, but pretty low key circumstances towards the end of this ninety minute rollercoaster.

It’s sad to see Johnny Lewis leave the show, I’ve always enjoyed his work, ever since I saw him in the dire Andy Richter sitcom Quintuplets, and I remember writing in my first gushing review of Sons about how great he was on the show.

According to Sutter, Lewis decided that creatively he’d had enough and wanted out of the show, so rather than keeping an unhappy actor on board they allowed ‘Sack’ to go out in a blaze (sort of) of glory.

It’s a shame for the character really, after the talk in ‘The Culling’ of letting him patch in early it was almost heartbreaking not to see him get that moment because you know it would have meant so much to him.

I get why Lewis wanted out though, last season he had some decent arcs to get stuck in to – the boxing, the whole Cherry thing – but in season 2 he was left pretty much on the periphery, his only real moment to shine coming in the episode when he and Tig took the magic mushrooms: “it’s cwarm”.

Still, Sack went out a hero trying to save baby Abel from the crazed Cameron and hopefully he’ll get a good send-off at some point next season.

Other major plot points coming out of the finale came from unlikely sources. With SAMCRO spending much of the season battling Zobelle and Weston you would have thought they would be the ones responsible for causing the trauma in the finale. Yet both of them were almost blameless for all the big moments we ended on, that responsibility falling to the increasingly dangerous Stahl and the now almost delusional with grief Cameron.

First Stahl shoots and kills Edmond at the safe house then frames Gemma for the deed after the SAMCRO matriarch shoots Polly at the same safe house, which then leads to Cameron blaming Gemma for the death of his boy and takes his revenge out on Jax’s son Abel: “a son for a son”.

So, much like season 1, Stahl is responsible for all the strife befalling SAMCRO. As a character Stahl’s actions have become that over-the-top and almost unbelievable that she’s in danger of becoming a caricature, but Ally Walker somehow manages to make her likeable in a love-to-hate kind of way.

One thing is for certain with the ATF agent: when she does eventually get her comeuppance it’s going to be one of the most satisfying moments of the series.

Having much of the finale hinge around the actions of the Irish was kind of odd in that they hadn’t exactly been major players in the season’s developments, more a b-thread of the far-reaching landscape of the show.

When you discover though that ‘Na Triobloidi’ translates to ‘The Troubles’ in Gaelic and refers to the troubles in Northern Ireland, the fact the Irish were so pivotal to the finale’s developments doesn’t seem as out of left field.

Obviously when this episode aired in the States there wasn’t even a guarantee that Sons would be back for a third season, but we now know that not only will the show be back but a large portion of it will explore the mythology behind SAMCRO’s Northern Irish connections.

With that in mind then the threads left dangling here and how the Irish came to be such huge players seem more palatable.

The battle with Weston, Zobelle and LOAN had virtually reached its peak last week so the fact that they weren’t at the heart of SAMCRO’s troubles here wasn’t too much of a surprise I suppose. Part of ‘Na Triobloidi’ was about setting up where SAMCRO will be going next season and that is a nice thing to see on a TV show, so many times it feels like shows write the finale and then worry about how they resolve the issues next season. Kurt Sutter obviously has a map for Sons of Anarchy and with this brilliant, talented writer at the helm I feel very reassured about what the future holds.

Part of Sons’ appeal to me has always laid in how gritty and ‘real’ it is and that was typified by the finale and in how Zobelle and Weston got what was coming to them.

Zobelle lived and got away, fleeing back to his native Budapest – albeit without his beloved daughter – but it was refreshing to see a villain as horrible as Zobelle not go down in a hail of bullets and perhaps live to fight another day.

Weston on the other hand wasn’t as lucky. It would take a pretty vile man to be more loathsome than Ethan Zobelle, but AJ Weston managed that in spades.

His death scene though was about the most brilliantly written and shot scene of its ilk that I’ve seen in a long time, I almost felt a twinge of sympathy for the bigoted, psychopathic rapist.

The way he accepted his fate and simply sat there for Jax to pump him full of bullets in a toilet stall while his kid waited outside was almost sad, but it’s hard to feel too much sadness about the death of a man who had ‘I Kill Niggers’ tattooed across his chest.

All the deaths in the episode: Weston, Edmond, Polly, ‘Sack’ were so low-key and unspectacular it really fit the show’s tone and didn’t glorify death in any way.

Sutter’s appearance in the episode as the ill-fated, incarcerated Big Otto was another moment of brilliance from the show. Otto is a character who has pretty much been shat on all season, so for him to finally get some form of vengeance was particularly satisfying, especially against the Nazi who took his good eye earlier in the season.

It was a shocking scene as the virtually blind Otto shivved his assailant in the neck in the prison library, killing him in a truly brutal fashion, the fact he did so whilst an audio book that cited the words “Sons of Anarchy’ played in the background made the moment, no matter how brutal, somewhat poignant.

The other major issue to address is Gemma who is now a fugitive, I know Stahl did what she did to cover her own ass but the fact that she let Gemma go rather than killing her too makes me feel that maybe the twisted ATF agent has a begrudging respect for the leather clad Lady Macbeth.

Gemma in her hour of need called the one person she knew would drop everything and do exactly as she said: Unser.

That scene as they passed the Charming city limits together in Unser’s police cruiser was a lovely moment for one of the show’s best supporting players. The cancer-ridden chief loves Gemma and although there is no chance of them being together just to be able to help her seemed to be enough to fill him with a joy that had long left his life.

The almost unashamed happiness on Unser’s face over a pretty grave situation was such a great piece of television and the aptness of those two lines of dialogue they shared can’t be understated:

Unser: “Any idea where we're headed?"
Gemma: "No."

This pretty perfectly sums up how almost every major character on the show must be feeling as we head into season 3; Gemma on the run, Tara inconsolable over what this life means for her and Jax distraught (Charlie Hunnam was awesome as usual) over the kidnapping of his son.

Other Thoughts:

- Still no word on whether Darby survived the fire at the porn studio – I guess that’s one for next season.

- They tried their best to make Edmond and Polly’s relationship seem more developed than it had actually been on screen but it still felt pretty tenuous that so many of the finale’s plot points hinged on Polly’s need to say goodbye to Edmond – a very minor gripe though.

- I liked it how Chibs was the one who reacted to Sack’s corpse the most, he had always been the one who seemed to treat the prospect more like an equal, and to me it was a nice touch.

- Hale’s slow transformation into Unser continued as he left Zobelle at the mercy of SAMCRO after his phone call for help. We’ve already seen Hale provide Clay with information, keep Gemma’s secret and team up with Jax this season, last season this would have been almost unthinkable but Hale is slowly coming to realise the reach of SAMCRO and I fully expect more coercion next season.

- I don’t quite understand why Clay let Alvarez go but hopefully the Mayan kingpin will be back next season as I enjoy Emilio Rivera’s work on the show

As much as I enjoyed ‘Na Triobloidi’ when those final credits rolled I was left filled with disappointment – another, inevitable nine months to wait before we get season 3 in the UK…

If you watched it what did you think of the Sons of Anarchy season 2 finale?