Alias Reboot? What shows would you have remade?

The folks over at ABC have been saying that they are contemplating remaking Alias. This puzzles us, because the original Alias is not that old, and it's pretty good. Sure, some of the mythology is too dense, it fumbled the ending (due to a quick cancellation), and kept Sloane on the show too long, but does it really need to be remade? Our first thought was that it's just too soon. It looks and feels modern, still.

Our worst nightmare is that they remake Alias and make it like Nikita. A sexy spy show isn't worthy unless it has an actual good plot and characters to go with the hotness. ABC is unsure whether it will include original Alias creator J.J. Abrams when and if it remakes the show. We are afraid that ABC will try to make Alias more commercial, and it will just be a big, shallow flop.

But there ARE mistakes to fix. One of us doesn't like Michael Vartan, and that could be a good role for someone else. We both liked Jennifer Garner in the role. She looked like she could actually fight someone. The girl was big, but still in shape. She looked like she had some muscle. The plots, mythology, and Rambaldi stuff could be fleshed out, explained, and completed better.

What shows would you rather see remade? Is Alias the best choice? Is it time yet? Shoot, we would rather see Buffy the Vampire Slayer remade than Alias. The technology in Buffy's early seasons is laughable, and a lot of it could certainly use an update and a removal of some cheesiness.

We would remake/complete/resurrect Carnivale. That could be commercialed-up without it losing its creepiness and supernatural mythology. After LOST, people are looking for another big-concept show, and The Event isn't really cutting it. Carnivale's plot could be sped up, more attractive actors cast, and they could continue that series where it left off. Of course, HBO owns it, so fat chance.

Also, in about 20 years, we would like to see someone re-do Heroes and Flashforward. Heroes was good enough in season one that people with new ideas should be able to bring it back better than it ended up being in the last seasons. Flashforward was actually a decent idea, but it needed to be less boring. Why let a good premise go to waste? Try again later. Actually, Flashforward would make a good MOVIE, because they wouldn't have to drag it out.

Oh, also, what about a re-do of The Twilight Zone? The X-Files?

Our Favorite Plots and Plots Twists On Some of Our Favorite Shows-- inspired by hatts' comment

SPOILER ALERT- We are about to give a lot of really good plot points away, so blur your eyes and move on if you haven’t seen most of these shows. We made a post complaining about bad plots on good shows, so it's only fair that we do a positive post to counteract it.

24, The end of first season - If you haven’t seen it, we aren’t even going to risk blowing it for you. Stephen King’s entertainment column blew it for Ern, and it took her a long time to forgive him for that. It helped that he’s awesome. Anyway, the one-two punch of the plot twists at the end of this show’s first season made everyone sit up and notice that this was a show that wasn’t afraid to do anything to its characters to shock and tell a good story. Honorable mention: Season five. Yes, the whole season.

LOST, the first flash forward - They have to go BACK? What?!?! They got off? No freakin way. One of us is still freaked out about this. The other blogger was spoiled. GER. Honorable mention: Ben talks Locke down from killing himself and then, once Locke says the wrong thing, strangles him. We were all touched that Ben talked his old enemy out of giving into despair when, suddenly, Ben murders him. Tell us you weren’t holding your breath during that entire, amazing scene. LOST had plenty of amazing twists (Locke’s in a wheelchair, the others aren’t savages, etc), but this one scarred us for life.

Arrested Development, Buster gets his hand bitten off by a seal - This one paid off in humorous spades. It was foreshadowed for at least half a season, and we will always chuckle when we think of Buster screaming, “I’M A MONSTER!!!!” It was one of the weirdest, best plots in Arrested Development history. Honorable mention: The Maebe/George Michael love, especially at the end of season two where they kissed and the floor caved in under them.

Sex and the City, The Big/Carrie affair - We were amazed at how this show handled adultery without making us hate Carrie for having the affair. It helped that she was super remorseful about it through the entire arc. The affair was exciting, we were heartbroken for Aiden (bonus points for bringing him back), and it ended without any Taylor Swift-esque romanticism or unrealistic TV fantasy. Honorable mention for this show: The entire Steve/Miranda arc. Also, Smith taking Samantha back after she slept with Richard and her final appreciation of Smith’s big-heartedness and maturity. The way the show had the four characters grow up and embrace parts of themselves that they had previously rejected was excellent.

Scrubs, The Dr. Cox/JD relationship - Turk and JD were hilarious, but Dr. Cox and J.D. were funny AND poignant. You know you were rooting for JD to finally get that hug. Dr. Cox’s love of JD and reluctance to get close him kept us crawling back to Scrubs for more of their great dynamic.

In Treatment, Paul does not sleep with Laura - So many people loved the Laura storyline, because she was hot and in love with her therapist. We found his struggle to resist her to be tiring, and the only thing we like about this plot arc is that he did not sleep with her in the end. We are also glad that the therapist in love with the patient thing is over and done for this show. Now we can get to interesting patients like Sophie, Walter, April, and Oliver, which are this blogger’s personal favorite patients. Once a patient on this show gets under your skin, their episodes become an addiction. You can just watch these four and get a nice experience with this show. Speaking of this show, it’s back on now, and we are watching. It’s fantastic because it keeps you glued to the screen just through two (usually) good actors talking to each other for 22 minutes.

Friends, Monica and Chandler hook up at Ross’ failed wedding and start a relationship - Did you scream back in the ‘90s when Chandler and Monica popped up in the same bed the morning of Ross’ wedding? We did. That relationship kept life in the show long after it started being more soapy than funny. “The One Where Everybody Finds Out (about the relationship),” was one of the funniest Friends episodes.

Gilmore Girls, Rory doesn’t marry Logan at the end - If she wasn’t going to be with Jess at the end (we know, we know, most of you disagree with us in our Jess love), we were glad that the show left her life open-ended and didn’t have her be “the little woman” to a rich, hot guy. The way Rory’s life journey was just beginning was a nice thing on which to end the series. Lorelai, on the other hand, had closed many chapters of her life, ended up with the right guy (at the very, very end), and was in a stable career that she loved, which is how we wanted to leave our flighty, high-spirited heroine. Honorable mention: Anything with Kurt.

Alias, Sydney and Co. bring down SD-6 in the middle of season two - Way to not drag out a plot, show. We love when that happens. When the SD-6 thing was dragging, the show knew how to shake things up by freeing the characters from their double-agent statuses and moving on to other fish. Honorable mention: The pilot of this show is one of our favorites.

Dexter, The Trinity arc - DUH

Gossip Girl, season two Chuck and Blair - Chuck and Blair falling for and eventually committing to each other was the high point of this show for us, by far.

Glee, Sue trying to take Will down - Let’s face it: plots are not Glee’s strong suit, especially this season. We like the songs, the messages of inclusiveness, the tone, the individual characters, and the jokes. But one thing the plotters got right is having the enemy of the arts NOT be just some parent who doesn’t understand/wants his son to play sports. That is tired, and it was already done on High School Musical. Having the bad guy consciously, evilly attempt to sabotage the rival group was pure genius. Honorable mentions - Puckleberry. Bring that back, show. Also, Tina's goth look. Maybe this doesn't qualify as a plot or a twist, but we like it. Just sayin.

The Vampire Diaries, Everything on the show - This show is just one good plot point and plot twist after another. We can’t even count the times we’ve gasped while watching this show. At least once per episode. An episode that stands out for Ern is the one where Stefan tried to stop drinking any blood, hoping that he would die. Lots of young people struggle with depression and suicidal thoughts, and this show lightly touched on this subject in this episode in a powerful, touching way. Stefan’s final decision to fight and keep trying sent out messages to teens that this was the strongest decision he could have made for himself and his loved ones. Message episodes can get heavy-handed and usually makes our eyes roll, but this one toed the line between profound and preachy perfectly. This is the episode in which the show garnered Ern’s respect. Leeard loved the season one finale and the season two premiere, as well as the most recent episode. Actually, Leeard is obsessed with every episode of this show, haha.

The Office, Jim and Pam’s budding romance - Obviously the best plot on this show was the early Jim/Pam dynamic. Roy treated Pam like crud, and Jim treated her with respect and affection, providing a contrast that was meaningful, funny, and edifying of nice guys everywhere. Honorable mention - Dwight and Angela, Holly and Michael.

The United States of Tara, The appearance of the feral alter, Gimmee - Gimmee is horrific and hilarious at the same time. It really shows how out-of-control and serious Tara’s mental illness is. When we first saw it, we muttered, “What the hell?” It’s a shadow of what must be a hideous and frightening past. We are still watching this show because we wonder what sort of events could have created something as weird as Gimmee?

South Park, The Kyle/Cartman relationship - The greatest part of this show, for us, is seeing these two war against each other season after season. These two are foils, and their hatred for each other combined with some sort of obligatory friendship always entertains. For Leeard, the best single episode plot twist HAS to be when Cartman fed Scott Tenorman his parents. Looking back, it's pretty predictable, but MAN was it shocking the first time.

Grey’s Anatomy, the Addison/Derek/Meredith triangle - No triangle on this show will ever rival this one. It gave the show a core issue that everyone was invested in. It was good because we loved both women. Addison was cool! Her relationship was doomed, but we were sad to see her hurt. And yet… Honorable mention - The first half of the Hunt/Cristina relationship. Watching them fall in love in season five was riveting. We had the choking, the way they didn’t fall immediately into bed together, and the way it softened Cristina and showed us another side of her. Sandra Oh rocked this plotline, and we think it overshadowed the disaster that was the Dead Denny season five plotline (no mean feat).

There are so many more. Give us yours?

Undercovers pilot review

We wanted to watch this show for two reasons: 1) J.J. Abrams made it, and he usually makes good stuff, so we support him. 2) We were excited to see a healthy marriage on television, because they can be rare. But we were disappointed in the dullness of the pilot. There was no real twist on the genre or cool premise to hook us. Undercovers is just “two pretty caterers go back to being CIA to rescue a spy.” There needs to be more to it, and soon.

But we were given a clue that this show might have a bigger endgame, because one of the agents who pulled the couple back into the spy life intimated as much on a cell phone. He said that he hadn’t informed the couple of why they were REALLY recruited.

For all of you who wonder if it will be possible to maintain tension in a show with no will they/won’t they love story, just remember 24, a show that managed to keep us hooked without many romantic moments at all. The center of that show was the action and intrigue. We would like to see Undercovers go in that direction in the future.

We are going to give this more viewings, because we think an actual plot arc needs to develop before this one can get good. We wonder if this show is going to have trouble finding an audience problem. No offense to guys, but it seems a little too clean and classy for the 18-35 male crowd. My grandma would be bored. Girls like a love story where the people are getting together through drama. It’s not for children or teens. It’s not nerdy enough to really appeal to Alias or LOST fans. Who is going to watch this? Us, for now.

Episode grade: C+
Watch this episode for yourself here: http://www.hulu.com/watch/178531/undercovers-pilot#s-p1-so-i0

Nikita is over-advertised. Is it also overrated?

Adventures of the killer stick figure.

The ads for Nikita did nothing to make us excited about the show. It seemed like just another mindless blend of sex and violence to us. The star, Maggie Q, must weigh 80 pounds soaking wet. It’s not that believable for her to be throwing guys around like they are rag dolls. I didn’t believe it when she was beating up Bruce Willis in Die Hard 4 either. At least Alias’ Sidney Bristow looked strong. Maggie Q has stick arms, and she’s doing things that require strength, like pushing, not just quick karate jabs. But what realism do you expect from a show with a bulletproof chair bottom in its opening scene?

The first half of the episode was a lot like the advertisements. It was trying too hard, and playing intense music without creating actual intense situations yet.

It made us miss Dollhouse. And we know the premise is based on a French movie, but the plot is a heck of a lot like the plot of Alias. It moves faster, is less complicated, and is easier to watch than Alias though. Remove the brain from Dollhouse and Alias, and you have Nikita.

BUT the show picked up at the end by setting up the story arc for the season. After the mindless action intro was over, we found out that Nikita has a plant in the branch of the government she is trying to take down. Also, Maggie Q is WORKING this show.

There is potential here for the show to be good once they stop trying to push it on the people looking to be titillated.

Pretty good pilot. We will keep watching, for now.

Episode Grade: B-