Advertising - The Trunk Monkey (A-)

Ad campaign for a car dealership chain in Oregon. Cold, a bit violent, but funny as all get out.

Compilation video:



Final score: A minus

News - 'Bionic Woman' sister recast, healed

Just read an article on the change of actresses and abilities for the role of Becca Sommers on Bionic Woman. She's no longer played by Mae Whitman and she's no longer deaf.

I am not happy about this, for two reasons.

First, could it be any more obvious that they are trying to up the hottie factor? They dropped a short, average-sized, cute-but-punk actress and replaced her with petite, pretty, former tween pop singer Lucy Hale.

And how many beautiful women do they need? Can't anyone on TV be simply average? Michelle Ryan (Jamie Sommers) is very pretty. She's also, in Hollywood parlance, "voluptuous." This means she actually looks like she eats three squares a day and fills out a C naturally. Is that their problem? A little insurance against people who find the bionic woman "fat"?

Secondly (and most egregiously), they took away Becca's deafness. They say it doesn't serve the plot anymore. Since when does deafness have to be a plot device?!?! Is Jamie Sommers' skin color a plot device? Can't she just have a deaf sister and know sign language without it being a special thing? Could they not just communicate that way and nothing be made of it? And if they felt compelled to have it be utilitarian, fine. Make Jamie insist that her bosses give her sister bionic hearing. Have her sister argue with her about the identity aspects of it. Just Google cochlear implants' divisive effect on the deaf community and you've got material for a month. It was not rocket science to think of that. Took me three seconds.

I am SO disappointed about this move. I was looking forward to seeing a disabled character with depth, who wasn't played as a saint and had a giant chip on her shoulder that wasn't related to her disability. Not gonna happen now.

I'll watch Bionic Woman for all the other reasons I said I wanted to earlier: Female empowerment; promising lead actress; great fight scene potential. But I'll be more skeptical about it. They'll have to impress me to keep me coming back. And Lucy Hale had be better be good.

Preview - Back to You (B-)

Starring Kelsey Grammer, Patricia Heaton (PBA)

Back to You features two of the best actors in TV history in a show produced by the creators of the most award-winning comedy of all time. How can it go wrong? It's hard to tell from the available clips (laid end to end here with a few gaps) but I have some notes to share after you watch them:



Heaton comes off fairly well here because she's not automatically likeable and she's in an office setting in a suit. This puts some healthy perceptual distance between her and Debra Barone. But Grammer may be cursed with Frasier Crane till the day he dies. Everything is lose/lose. Put him in a suit and he looks like Frasier. Put him in anything else and he looks like Frasier trying to be a regular guy. The hard edge he's shooting for here is often reminiscent of the voice and posture Frasier would assume when he was trying to impress Marty's pals. Still, Grammer has the skill to make us buy Chuck in time, so I'll give him a chance to pull it off.

The supporting cast is looking shaky at best. The nerd has a cliched appeal but the invisible guy is truly invisible. He has all the presence of an empty cereal box. Hopefully this is impression comes merely from the brief time he has in these clips.

The writing is average in spots, above average in others. I like the falcon line!

All in all, it has some potential and a great pedigree. We'll see if it's allowed to find its footing.

Final preview score: B minus

CD - Time Again ... Live (B+)

Artist: Amy Grant
Buy it

And the kids wonder why she's still a dominant force in Christian music, even though she hasn't had a number one pop hit in years. Well, Grant has a back catalog of 200-plus quality, honest, lived-in songs and a charming and lovably unadorned "Ideal Friend" public persona that no other CCM artist can touch. And she's always been a formidable vocal stylist. That's why.

As others have noted, her singing and songwriting abilities were frequently overlooked because of her unmatched popularity and her looks. But time has proven her impressively capable in both arenas. In fact, some of her lyrics are revealed as prescient and are even more powerful as she (actually, we) go through midlife. Her voice? Possibly the easiest to listen to for extended periods that I've ever heard. Historically gentle and flawed but packed with emotional precision. Sandi Patti may have been the premiere Christian vocalist in the 1980s but Amy Grant was the impassioned voice of everyone's hopes and doubts.

Appearing in the same city (but not the same venue!) where she gave her first professional concert 29 years ago, Grant is light years removed from that gawky, whispery teenaged girl hiding behind a guitar on a Fort Worth stage in 1978. Still sweet and self-effacing, she's an accomplished musician and a confident entertainer joyfully leading a band instead of being instructed by one. [Side note: Yes. We're that old.]

A word of caution: If you're fixated on being able to sing along note-for-note with these classic songs, you may be in for a disappointment with this 17-song live set. Not only have the arrangements and instrumentation of her older synth-pop tunes been altered for a casual stripped-down feel but Amy is more experimental in her phrasing these days. If you appreciate the Frank Sinatra/Willie Nelson school of reinterpretation with each performance, you'll love this set. If you're interested in a perfectly recreated nostalgia session, not so much.

The constraints of the single-CD format cause some of Amy's trademark just-folks banter and pindrop-quiet stories of the superior DVD presentation to be lost. The cheerful stage presence that masks some of her vocal missteps isn't there to help her, either. A few very good songs are left out. I'd recommend getting the DVD, too, if you can afford both. But this is a good audio version for the car and iPod.

Final score: B plus

Preview - Bionic Woman 2007 (A-)

Starring Michelle Ryan, Miguel Ferrer, Katee Sackhoff

I plan to preview a few shows from the upcoming TV season that I find interesting. So here's the first one. Be forewarned: This is a really extensive trailer that's essentially a 5-minute distillation of the pilot movie. So if you don't want the episode spoiled, skip past the clip!



This re-imagination of one of my favorite childhood shows, The Bionic Woman, looks pretty cool. It certainly has greatness potential. With what little I can see, Michelle Ryan seems to be doing a commendable job so far with a role that has tons of 1970s-pop-culture-icon baggage. The "realness" upgrades could easily trip her up in writing that makes her merely another angsty superchick but I truly hope this doesn't happen. And her American accent is darn good. Most Brits play it safe with a flat, generic accent but she's doing a regional one! I can't quite figure out which, though.

Sadly, solo female action heroes almost never bring in huge numbers on the big or small screen, regardless of the quality of the material. Buffy The Vampire Slayer, though it was popular for a WB show and a huge critical success, routinely came in the bottom 50 in the Nielsens. Alias (which struggled for all of its five years on a major network) opened with two of the best seasons of any show ever then fell into a funk of ratings-desperate plotting and schedule changes and limped to a closure that would not have been afforded most other shows. I'm afraid the same gender bias may hurt this show's chances as well. And that' what it is. Bias. If I took the same show with the same writing and production and reversed the genders, it'd be an instant hit. Please send our young women a better message than this. It's shameful.

NBC is either extremely confident about Bionic Woman or is taking a huge gamble, hoping it and the superhero-related Heroes will boost their ailing flagship network. It may perform better on a niche channel, though. We'll see.

Final trailer score: A minus