As usual, spent most of tonight watching my 2 Sunday night dramas on ABC, and of course, seeing previews for the last season of Lost, when I saw a familiar face...

Was that really Hiroyuki Sanada?

Sure enough, it was...

"It has been confirmed that many familiar faces will be making a return for LOST�fs final season. Claire (Emilie de Ravin), who vanished in season four, will be back as a series regular, plus the apparently deceased Charlie (Dominic Monaghan), Libby (Cynthia Watros), Michael (Harold Perrineau) and Boone (Ian Somerhalder) will each be making an appearance – but in what capacity remains unknown. New castings include Sheila Kelley (LA Law) as an intellectual beauty named Kendall, notorious Japanese actor Hiroyuki Sanada (The Last Samurai) as an as yet unnamed significant character and John Hawkes (Deadwood) as Lennon, a spokesperson for the president of a foreign corporation."

Once again, ABC figures out something we've known for quite awhile...

Japan has some great talent...
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Didn't know if I should put this here or in "Japanese Entertainment News" thread, but since it deals with an American TV show I'll put it here:

Seiko Matsuda to appear in "Bones"

Singer and actress Seiko Matsuda (47) is the next Japanese celebrity to appear in an American television drama. It has been learned that she will play a Japanese journalist in an upcoming episode of the crime drama "Bones."

Currently in its fifth season, "Bones" stars Emily Deschanel as a forensic anthropologist and David Boreanaz as an FBI special agent. The show also become a hit in Japan, and has been shown on broadcast television there since 2008.

Matsuda, who will be the first Japanese person on the show, was offered the role by the show's producers. She was reportedly chosen for her English ability (all of her lines are in English), her acting skills, and her name recognition. During the taping, the staff were impressed by her professional spirit. Although the role is limited to a single episode, Matsuda remarked that she would like to play the part again.

Other Japanese stars who have recently been cast in American dramas include Hiroyuki Sanada (49) in "Lost" and Yuko Takeuchi (29) in "FlashForward."

^ What, no Johnny's on American TV yet???

Has anyone of you guy watched the show ~Ghost Hunters~?

Mark

Thanks for mentioning that Yuko Takeuchi has a role in "FlashForward". The set up for the show didn't appeal to me so I ignored it when it first ran. But since Yuko was in it, I figured I'd give it a shot. And dang! This show really hooked me.

I've watched the first 10 episodes on hulu, and now I can't wait for the new episodes that start airing in March. Even though Yuko doesn't show up until episode 9 (?), the story is fascinating, and the cast (some pretty big time actors and actresses from all over the world) is outstanding.

For those who haven't heard of it, it's sort of a Science Fiction / Whodunit, with a Wicked Conspiracy lurking in the background. And I just ate it up.

Re: Lost with Hiroyuki Sanada. I watched it, for the first time in a couple of years, this week (I loved the first season and a half, but then the writers went nuts and drove the show off a cliff so I gave up) and the show is so different from the "Lost" that I originally watched that I couldn't really form an opinion on it. Hiroyuki is of course, a strange, mystical, Japanese enigma. I guess if he just wanted to play a regular guy, this isn't the show he would have signed on for.
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I have nothing to say, but it's okay.

gaijinmark wrote:

Personally, I liked Stingray better. But here's a nice nostalgia buzz:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFb4IVLXDss

Nice... I have the Thunderbirds DVD.

My favorite is the whale-like Thunderbird 2.

I watched the Scalextrics episode of James May's Toy Stories last night (recorded). It was great. Perfect for big kids like me, and you really get the sense of community pulling together and all having fun with old toys.

You can read more about the show here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_May%27s_Toy_Stories

On SBS 7:30pm every Friday for Australians. This week they are going to play with toy train sets.

If someone could tell me where I can download the other/previous episodes, that would be much appreciated. Thanks.

Took me awhile but I finally finished all seven seasons of New Tricks, the BBC detective series about three superannuated cops brought out of retirement to work on unsolved cases under the supervision of a middle-aged alpha female deputy superintendent. I've posted about this series before, but I just want to reiterate what an excellent drama this is. What makes this show is not so much the cases examined but the interaction of the four principal characters, foremost with themselves but also to a degree with the various suspects, victims, villains and witnesses they encounter. All four are memorable multi-dimensional individuals with strong personalities and a significant amount of accompanying baggage. Seamlessly combining humor and drama, this series is also a rarity in TV--none of the leads are under 50 (two of them are in their 60's, one is in his 70's, and the youngest is over 50). There will be an eighth season next year, so that makes me one happy camper.

Finished the final episode of A Touch of Frost, a British TV detective series which ran from 1992 to 2010. There were all told 42 episodes about a veteran, work-driven, does-not-suffer-fools-gladly cop, excellently played by David Jason. The final episode had three different endings; the one chosen to be aired was both disconcerting and satisfying imo. Overall, another top-notch crime series from the Brits.

Any Dexter fans in the house?

I started watching the show over the Summer after a co-worker recommended it to me. It's been a great show so far and the season finale is tomorrow night. This season started out slow but it has picked up and I can't wait to see how it ends.

I'm also hopelessly hooked on Bones

Just completed another really good British detective TV series, Inspector Lewis. Started with the most recent episodes first and ended with the pilot.

Lewis is a spin-off character from Morse, another detective series. I tried watching episodes from the latter on several occasions but never finished any of them. Despite a lot of popular acclaim, I found Morse to be plodding and boring, hence my inability to watch a complete episode.

Lewis, on the other hand, is first-rate. There have been a total of 16 episodes thus far covering four series, and a fifth is scheduled to air sometime this year. The series is set in the university town of Oxford, and one of the interesting dichotomies is seeing the working class Lewis interact with the elite academics of that institution. There's also another interesting contrast--in terms of class, age, and life experience-- between Lewis and his subordinate Sgt. Hathaway. It all makes for good viewing.

I found a new favorite program on the Discovery channel. It's a documentary called Oddities. There's a quirky antique shop that sells "Curios" and it's fun to watch them buy and sell the weirdest items from a variety of eccentric characters.

Is anyone watching this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmIq3paht2U
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Geezer wrote:

Sounds ridiculous but I've become hooked on "The Sons of Anarchy" I ignored the first season because I've never been much of a "biker" genre fan. All those idiot biker movies from the '60s and '70s did nothing but annoy me. But I surfed across this show a little while ago, and looked at the people in it, - Ron Perlman, Katey Sagal, Adam Arkin - and thought I'd give it a chance. And dang if it's not kind of addictive. Instead of a bunch of bikers getting drunk and terrorizing a town, it's more like a south west Sopranos, without the shark skin silk suits. They are an organized crime family. And the family has issues. I won't go so far as to say great. But I have ordered the first season from netflix, and I can't wait to see what happens in next week's episode. And that's about as good an endorsement as I can think of for a TV show.

I watched the first episode of this last night on the recommendation of a friend. I really like what i've seen. I think i'll be watching more.

Other things i've been watching: Storage Wars, where people bid on the contents of storage lockers without knowing exactly what's inside. So it's a bit of a lottery as to what they get and if they make any money out of it, since that's the main reason they buy these things. It's supposed to be "reality TV" but I suspect 99% of the lockers would be filled with useless crap and the big wins would be fairly rare. Also been watching Hoarders, about poeople who can't bear to part with their own crap so much that it takes over their homes. Scary shit!

Also got all 7 seasons of NCIS on DVD for Christmas

Anime Dad wrote:

Also got all 7 seasons of NCIS on DVD for Christmas

All seven seasons?

Whoa... Video jackpot.

Continuing my run of British detective series by watching episodes of Foyle's War and Dalziel and Pascoe. The former is excellent, the latter decent.

Foyle's War takes place in England during the second world war. Its eponymous character is a middle-aged detective who's like a British everyman--someone who diligently and without fanfare continues to do his job in the midst of a chaotic and uncertain situation. Actor Michael Kitchen is outstanding playing Foyle, a consummate professional who is polite and reserved but whose silences speak volumes. Foyle is aided by a young detective who has lost a leg while serving in the early stages of the war and a perky female from the mechanised transport corps who serves as Foyle's driver and displays real enthusiasm and intuition in crime-solving (the actress who plays her has a wonderful name, Honeysuckle Weeks). This is a well acted, well scripted series which A) effectively captures the atmosphere and historical context of World War II England, and B) offers first-rate stories which seamlessly intertwine the crimes to be solved and the personal stories of the principal characters.

Dalziel and Pascoe is about two detectives who are seemingly a pair of mismatched partners; there's a huge contrast in age, personality, appearance, and behavior between the two. One (Dalziel) is like a bull in a china shop; the other (Pascoe) is like the owner of a china shop. Solid entertainment, but not in the same league as Foyle's War (or New Tricks, A Touch of Frost, Inspector Lewis, or The Last Detective--other British TV crime series that I have viewed in the last couple of years which imo are outstanding).

Amazing Race: Unfinished Business Episode: "We Had a Lot of Evil Spirits Apparently (Japan)"
Season 18, Episode 3
Episode Synopsis: The race continues in Japan, where a car accident involving Jaime and Cara threatens to put them in the back of the pack. Also: a challenge requires the racers to get down-and-dirty in frigid mud. Original Air Date: Mar 6, 2011
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Watching Lost again. Only watched a few episodes of the first season when it was first on tv. Really like the survival and community aspects, but didn't like the supernatural/sci-fi/mystery aspects. Probably better from my pov if they kept it simple. Probably going to watch another episode and that's it.

Old TV series on DVD. What an idea!

American Gothic (1995)

Gary Cole plays Sheriff Lucas Buck. And the big question was... Is Lucas Buck really the Devil come to a small town in South Carolina? Or is he just one of the Devil's minions?

It's a bit spooky, with a touch of Network TV Horror mixed in. Pretty dang cool, I think.

I've also become addicted to "Flying Wild Alaska" on Discovery. It just finished it's fist season, and I'm in love with both Ferno (the mom) and Ariel (The daughter). But not in a sleazy way.

The style is the same basic Discovery Channel Documentary style, featuring the people who run a small airline in the far reaches of Alaska. (Okay, they're bush pilots) As Ferno (the Mom) says, as she clears a runway in 20 degrees below zero, and hurricane winds... "Ice Road Truckers are pussys."
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On a previous post, I wrote about how much I enjoyed watching the first season of Foyle's War, a British crime series set during World War II. Well, I've finally finished all six seasons, and I have to say, it's one of the best TV series I've seen (at least the first five seasons; season six, while pretty good, falters in comparison to the previous five). Meticulously researched, the crime in each of the 90-minute episodes is centered around historical facts and events. And Michael Kitchen's performance as the lead character is outstanding. Playing a laconic, circumspect, even-keeled detective chief superintendent (never once in the entire series does he raise his voice, lose his temper, or engage in histrionic behavior), Kitchen is able to convey a lot while showing little; it's a masterful piece of minimalist acting. I have a huge fondness for really good British crime series, and Foyle's War has become one of my favorites.