Posted on Jun 05, 2011 under Dvd |
Nominated for 25 Golden Globes and 110 Emmys, including 7 for Outstanding Drama Series, ER has long been one of the best prime-time shows on television. Premiering in September 1994 on NBC, the hour-long hospital drama vividly illustrates the intensity and fast-paced stress endemic to hospital emergency rooms across America. Brought into being by Michael Crichton – famous Hollywood insider, novelist, and brains behind such films as Jurassic Park, Twister, and Timeline – ER fulfills its creator’s ultimate vision (it took over a decade of pitching the show before network executives bit) for a close-to-life glimpse of the technology and the humanity omnipresent in the ER. Since its inception, many cast members have passed through the halls of ER, many of them having gone on to become big stars in Hollywood…
ER follows the exploits of a group of emergency room staff who work in a busy Chicago hospital. The show attempts to examine every detail of the ER experience. From the exhilaration of saving a life to the tedium caused by mountains of paperwork, all the highs and lows are covered. In the show’s first year, a number of regular faces staffed the ER. Doctors Mark Greene (Anthony Edwards), Peter Benton (Eriq La Salle), Douglas Ross (George Clooney), and Susan Lewis (Sherri Stringfield) were regulars in the ER along with Head Nurse Carol Hathaway (Julianna Margulies) and Benton’s medical student understudy (and later ER doctor), John Carter (Noah Wyle)… Any given episode tends to run multiple plot lines throughout the show, interweaving scenes in short snippets intended to heighten audience emotion and create the aura of a stress-laden atmosphere. The show’s high drama, coupled with subplots of the staffers’ personal lives and the display of cutting edge medical technology, combine to make ER one of most adrenaline-inducing programs in television history…
The ER DVD features a number of dramatic episodes including the series premiere “24 Hours” in which a long day in the ER is made longer when multiple casualties pour through the doors following the collapse of a building and medical students report for training (marking the first appearance for John Carter’s character). Meanwhile, Dr. Benton performs a heart surgery normally reserved only for senior staff members while the staff is struck with a personal tragedy when Head Nurse Carol Hathaway is brought in following a suicide attempt… Other notable episodes from Season 1 include “Blizzard” in which a major snowstorm first leads to an empty ER and then (following a 40-car pileup) one with overflowing capacity, and “House of Cards” in which, while trying to keep up with Carter, Deb nearly causes a patient’s death…
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on May 27, 2011 under Dvd |
Those yellow, animated phenomenons have finally made their way to the big screen and it only took eighteen years. So does the animated movie live up to the hilarity of the television show? Read on and find out – doh!
The town of Springfield’s lake is overly polluted and socially conscious Lisa Simpson (Yeardley Smith) rallies the town to clean it up. Her dad Homer (Dan Castellaneta) saves a pig from being slaughtered after it’s used as a prop in a Krusty the Clown commercial and starts to treat it like the son he always wanted.
This doesn’t set well with Bart (Nancy Cartwright) who finds that Mr. Flanders (Harry Shearer) is a more caring father than his pig loving one. Homer’s new oinking child does what pig’s do and Homer puts the results in a huge silo in the backyard (well, Homer did put a little of himself into the job). His wife Marge (Julie Kavner) tells him to get rid of the silo of pig waste.
Homer does of course, by dumping it on Lake Springfield. This infusion of pollution causes the Environmental Protection Agency to become alerted to the situation. They react in their usual restrained manner – the director Russ Cargill (Albert Brooks) orders that a huge glass dome cover the town.
The Simpsons eventually find themselves outside the dome and Homer decides to take off rather than help his neighbors (especially since they formed an angry mob against him when they found out that it was his silo that pushed the lake over the limit). He takes the family to Alaska and start over again, but the rest of the family thinks they should return and save Springfield.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on Apr 15, 2011 under Dvd |
Nominated for 20 Emmys and 6 Golden Globes, including Best TV Series – Drama, CSI (Crime Scene Investigation) quickly rose to become the number one show on television following its Fall 2000 premiere. The brainchild of creator Anthony Zuiker, the show follows the investigations not of traditional TV detectives working the streets, but forensic scientists who unravel complicated crime mysteries in their ultra-modern laboratory. Either the #1 or the #2 Nielsen rated show since the start of its second season, CSI has helped CBS to reemerge as the #1 network television station, spawning (similar to predecessor Law & Order) two series spin-offs CSI: Miami and CSI: New York. Each exciting hour-long episode begins with the theme song “Who Are You” by The Who, a song more than befitting of a show where criminals are aggressively tracked down, sometimes years after committing their crimes…
CSI focuses on the Las Vegas Police Department’s Crime Scene Investigation nightshift unit headed by Gil Grissom (William Petersen), a quirky outsider whose obsessive quest for the facts and dedication to his work dominates his life. The CSI team is composed of a number of individuals with differing backgrounds and personalities – single mother Catherine Willows (Marg Helgenberger) specializes in blood-splatter analysis, the highly competitive Nick Stokes (George Eads) specializes in hair and fiber analysis, recovering gambling addict Warrick Brown (Gary Dourdan) specializes in audio/visual analysis, and the rambunctious Sara Sidle (Jorja Fox) specializes in materials and element analysis. Throw in hard-nosed homicide captain Jim Brass (Paul Guifoyle), CSI understudy Greg Sanders (Eric Szmanda), and lab coroner Al Robbins (Robert David Hall) and all the ingredients are present for a show wrought with suspense, drama, and tension. As transients from all walks of life travel to Las Vegas to enjoy the wonders of its adult playground, increased levels of crime accompany them, and the team at CSI is determined to stay a step ahead of the criminal element…
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted on Mar 18, 2011 under Dvd |
The brainchild of writer Joss Whedon, Buffy The Vampire Slayer originally entered American pop culture as a full-length feature film, starring Kristy Swanson, in 1992. But creator Whedon felt that the project never quite did justice to the full scope of his vision, so he managed turn the film into a television series in 1997. The result of Whedon’s increased artistic freedom is a series that has enjoyed both critical acclaim and audience notoriety. Nominated for 14 Emmy’s during its seven year run, the show managed to win only two (both in 1998 for Outstanding Makeup and Outstanding Music Composition in a television series). Yet, the true success for Buffy The Vampire Slayer is indicated by the massive success of the show’s long run, strong DVD sales, and the overwhelming success of the series spin-off Angel…
Sarah Michelle Gellar plays the title role of Buffy Anne Summers, a teenage girl who stands alone among her generation as the “chosen one” able to “stand against vampires, demons, and the forces of darkness. She is the Slayer…” But Buffy is not alone in fulfilling her destiny as a slayer of vampires. She also receives help from the high school librarian, Rupert Giles (Anthony Stewart Head), who is a Watcher – the one chosen to train and guide slayers on their developmental path. In addition, new friends Willow Rosenberg (Alyson Hannigan – of American Pie fame) and Xander Harris (Nicholas Brendon) quickly uncover the truth of Buffy’s destiny, and they often aid her in defending the world against evil forces…
Read the rest of this entry »
