Crossing Jordan courtesy Universal Studios
Dr. Jordan Cavanaugh likes sticking her nose where it doesn't belong, and her obsession with solving murders takes her out of the lab and onto the streets. She often butts heads with police, and she steps on toes to recover evidence and solve cases, but there's always been one case that she's been unable to solve - the murder of her mother. All 23 episodes, presented in widescreen, are available on this 5-disc set. Special features include audio commentaries with Creator Tim Kring, Producer/Director Allan Arkush and composers Lisa Coleman and Wendy Melvoin; deleted scenes and interviews with the producers and cast members (4 separate interviews). — Gord LaceyBuy Crossing Jordan Season 1 on Amazon.com.
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Miguel Ferrer, Bionic Woman
Can Jaime Sommers be made even stronger, better and faster? After an explosive start, NBC's Bionic Woman (Wednesdays at 9 pm/ET) in recent weeks has slowed down a bit. Cue a major tune-up at the hands of Friday Night Lights whiz Jason Katims and new show-runner Jason Cahill (The Sopranos). Miguel Ferrer gave us a fresh look under the Bionic show's hood.
TVGuide.com: So, not much time off between TV gigs for you, eh? Miguel Ferrer: No, there wasn't much of a break [since Crossing Jordan], that's true! That's how I wanted it. I want
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Question: Are you surprised the network didn't ask for a two-hour pilot for Bionic Woman rather than a one-hour pilot? I thought that both Journeyman and Bionic Woman left a lot unexplained in terms of development. We barely know much of Jaime's life before the auto crash. I would have wanted five or ten more minutes of the pre-bionic Jaime. Also maybe five or ten more minutes of when she is held in the secret lab. Plus, we don't know much about the other characters, like Jonas Bledsoe (Miguel Ferrer). Instead they have to premiere Deal or No Deal and Life. Couldn't they have waited a week to premiere Life?
Answer: These days, I'm almost surprised when a network orders up a full pilot at all, let alone a two-hour treatment. As a cost-saving measure, some networks are moving toward buying projects (like CBS' anemic Moonlight) based on presentations rather than full pilots, figuring they can tweak, recast and refine along the way to the premiere. For NBC to invest in a two-hour movie
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Kristin Chenowith in Pushing Daisies by Scott Garfield/ABC
The early ratings are in, and it looks like the combination of aggressive promotion and laudatory media buzz paid off for the first round of ABC’s delightful Pushing Daisies, which handily won its time period Wednesday and is off to a solid start. Honestly, though, if any of the reality alternatives had prevailed (especially CBS’s snooze-inducing Kid Nation and the is-that-still-on stupid briefcase show over on NBC), I think I’d be wearing a black armband in to work for the rest of the season. I’m dying to see a second episode of Daisies, and am trying to pretend I’m not worried that ABC hasn’t supplied one yet. (A year ago, I was dazzled by the pilot of The Nine, an episode the series never again lived up to.) Still, after watching an opening hour as filled with wonder and whimsy as Daisies’ pilot (or “Pielette,” as the episode was titled), how can anyone express anything but hope?My other top Wednesday night priority was seeing how Priv...
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I'm working my way through the 2007-08 TV season pilot screeners, and thought it time to share my initial batch in a series of kneejerk thoughts. The theme for this one, you might say, is "Ladies first," as it covers ABC's new Christina Applegate comedy, NBC's Bionic Woman and Fox's The Sarah Connor Chronicles.Samantha Be Good (né Sam I Am, thanks to Dr. Seuss), is, I am prompted to rave, an early and huge favorite. I watched the pilot last Friday (and again with the wife on Saturday) and both times was disheartened to see it end. Applegate, you may know, stars as a young woman who awakens from an eight-day coma with no knowledge of what she soon realizes was a very bad-girl past. Pre-amnesia, Sam was a boozing floozy of a party gal who could probably drink Lindsay Lohan under the table... at rehab. Now she's an innocent desperate to come to terms with her "reputation" and prove that she need not revert to it. But oh, is it fun seeing her juggle who she was with who she believe...
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NBC's 2007-08 lineup features the new dramas Journeyman (Mondays, 10 pm/ET), a romantic-mystery from the Emmy Award-winning producers of The West Wing, concerning a San Francisco newspaper reporter (Kevin McKidd, Rome) who inexplicably begins to travel through time and alter people's lives; and Chuck(Tuesdays, 9 pm/ET), a comedic spy thriller about an unassuming computer geek who is unexpectedly catapulted into a new career as a government agent after spy secrets are mysteriously embedded into his brain. Also new this fall is the drama Bionic Woman (Wednesdays, 9 pm/ET), a re-imagination of the classic from David Eick (Battlestar Galactica) and Jason Smilovic (Kidnapped). Bionic Woman stars Michelle Ryan (EastEnders) as a young woman who is radically altered and empowered after a car crash. Additionally, Life (Wednesdays, 10 pm/ET) features a complex police detective (Damian Lewis, Band of Brothers) who's given a second chance on the Force after serving years in prison for a crime h...
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Question: My family and I enjoy watching Crossing Jordan. In fact, we have all four seasons on tape and Jill Hennessy is the reason we watch. She is a fantastic actress who does a fantastic job portraying Jordan, faults and all. I can't quite figure out what you have against her and the show. It's a great series with a well-rounded cast, and the writers do a solid job of keeping things fresh while engaging in character development. So Matt, what gives with you and Crossing Jordan? Give the show and its actors the recognition they deserve!
Answer: I've got nothing against Jill, and agree the role and the show fit her to a T (often a tight T, but still). I also admire Miguel Ferrer and enjoy, in limited doses, Jerry O'Connell. But anytime I tune in to the show, it just fails to grab me. It feels contrived and cartoonish, even by this genre's formulaic standards. There's no point in me trying to convince the show's longtime fans of my opinion, and I'm afraid the same is true vice versa.
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