Word has it that one of my favorite cartoons as a child, “He-Man and the Masters of the Universe”, is coming back to the big screen, and it seems like it could be in good hands.

The writer of the project does not instill confidence. His name is Justin Marks, and he wrote “Street Fighter: The Legend of Chu-Li” which looks terrible beyond words.

BUT – the director is John Stevenson. Who is that, you ask? The director of “Kung Fu Panda” which was, hands down, one of the best films of last year.

With the Panda Man in charge, I have high hopes that this will be an interesting new take on the He-Man franchise.

$5 bucks says they cast WWE Superstar John Cena.

(S02E13) Second Chances

Private Practice went well tonight. I have to tell you, I’m digging the new (yet unlikely) friendship between Sam and Naomi. Pondering over it,  I think it’s because in real life I bet Taye Diggs and Audra McDonald’s relationship is more like that. The chemistry is most likely already there. So, though it’s surprising for the characters, for the show it works.

A plot line development that I’m not too keen on is the fact that Addison’s smooth talking brother is back in town, and this time it seems like a permanent visit.  In fact, in next week’s Grey’s/Private Practice combo show, Archer Montgomery will be the character that brings them all together. Grant Show’s character is alright as far as interesting guests go, but I’m really not looking forward to one more slick Doctor that thinks he can just have his way with women because he smiles. That’s what Wyatt was there for. He’s gone, so why fill that gap?

Moving on to our next pair, which often define the term “messed up relationships,” Cooper and Violet. We’re still no closer to finding out who Violet’s baby’s daddy is, but I don’t know that I care quite yet. Sheldon’s too twitchy or something, and Pete needs a real honest-to-God relationship before I could consider him with kids, so that leaves just one other likely candidate to help Violet raise this possible child: Cooper. How convenient that his relationship with Charlotte is officially over and he’ll be moving in with Vi. Not bad at all.  I’ll be looking forward to this development.

In the meantime, stayed tuned to ABC next Thursday. This Grey’s meets Private Practice should provide us with plenty of medical drama fodder to keep us turning on our sets. Enjoy!

Scrubs has been back on the air for two weeks now (4 episodes) and its doing everything in its power to remain exactly the same. This isn’t a bad thing as it allows their fan’s to enjoy that broken-in slipper feeling a show has after years in syndication. The janitor is wacky, Carla is kind, Turk is goofy, Todd is horny, Elliot is neurotic, Dr. Cox is mean and JD is a borderline pansy. It all just works. The problem is, because of this familiarity, sometimes you can watch a whole episode and have no idea about an actual plot.

Such was the problem with the first of the two episodes this week. The new batch of interns continued to be a theme. I guess their using the new interns as a way of showing the cast’s growth and maturity. In reality it comes off as boring and the new characters are less than compelling. JD chooses an intern with no empathy, Dr Cox chooses one who is brilliant but lazy and Elliot choose one who is conniving and devious.

There really isn’t much to see here and most of the episode was a bust for me except for the addition of the Muppets. Yes, you read that right, the barrel of guest stars for Scrubs has now reached down to the Sesame Street Muppets. I do have to admit that I enjoyed Dr. Cox’s intern Ed (played by Aziz Ansar from Human Giant) and his successful but lazy ways. Aziz is hilarious on Human Giant and I hope he’s given some more screen time as the intern theme lumbers on.

The second of the two episodes was at least slightly more tangible. JD struggles with his heartless intern. Calling her “Jo” in an homage to the Facts of Life, JD tries again and again to show her how to be sympathetic to patients without much success.

The hospital has been without a chief of medicine since Courtney Cox was fired. I was sure they’d find a way to put Bob Kelso back in his grumpy chair, but I was wrong. After much debate, Dr Cox becomes the new chief of medicine.

It seems as though Scrubs is setting up for its ending. Dr Cox replaces Kelso, JD and the crew replace Dr. Cox and the various interns replace JD. Its a pretty satisfying (if unimaginative) way to wrap this series up, I just hope we get some more curve balls to keep things interesting. Plus, we haven’t gotten to a seemingly inevitable meltdown of the Elliot/ JD relationship.

Jughead

First of all, having watched last week’s episodes with a fresh perspective, they were a lot better than I first thought. Now, on to this week…

There must be some kind of rule in the Lost world…Desmond-centric episodes are required to be awesome. The Season 2 finale “Live Together, Die Alone”, Season 3′s “Flashes Before Your Eyes” and Season 4′s “The Constant” were all spectacular episodes that focused on Desmond, and “Jughead” was no different.

First of all, I think Nestor Carbonell is about to break out as an actor. Sure, he’s been in stuff for several years, but between this and his role last year in Dark Knight, he’s poised to really explode. Richard is a fascinating character…I rank him up there with Ben as one of my favorite characters to watch. It’s interesting to see him in the early days of Otherdom…was he immortal then? Is he even immortal now, or is he just jumping around through time? Does he receive his mega-supply of eye-liner from off the island, or does he make it himself? Man, I hope they can answer all my questions.

We also had the revelation that Charles Widmore is a former Other…and a rather brutal one at that. In the “present”, it turns out that he hasn’t had contact with his daughter in over three years, and doesn’t even know that he has a grandson named after him (sort of). His gruff exterior seemed to maybe crack a little in this episode…he showed what almost appeared to be genuine concern for Desmond, but maybe that was more toward Penny.

The one thing I wasn’t much of a fan of was the hydrogen bomb. It just didn’t seem to fit in for some reason. I’m sure it will all tie in eventually, and will probably end up being the most awesome thing ever, but it just seemed out of place.

And as much as I LOVE Faraday…didn’t his proclamation of love for Charlotte also seem quite out of place, as well as Richard’s acceptance of it as a reason for them not being bad guys? I like Danny and Charlotte together, but that seemed jarring.

Despite these minor issues I had, overall it was another excellent episode. We’re actually getting some answers, even though in true Lost fashion, every answer brings with it two more questions.

Next week, we have “The Little Prince” in which “Kate discovers that someone knows the secret of Aaron’s true parental lineage. Meanwhile, the dramatic shifts through time are placing the lives of the remaining island survivors in extreme peril.”

House drops us right in the middle of a several story lines bent on collision this week. Cuddy has anointed Cameron as her replacement House-sitter while she stays home with her new baby, Thirteen and Foreman’s budding romance is strained while Foreman wrestles with his medical ethics and most pressingly, a young special education teacher spitting up blood from every direction. Truth is, the legs of this episode lie entirely in two ideas and as usual, the patient is just a prop. The first, Cuddy isn’t adapting to her new role as adopted mother; and second, that Cameron as Cuddy’s surrogate just isn’t up to the mental gymnastics that House puts her through.

Cameron, flushed with new power, throws House a curveball by playing his mind games to a stalemate. Answering “yes” when he predicts “no” and “left” when he imagines “right , she keeps House off guard for a while. He orders tests the patient doesn’t need, not performing them when Cameron approves them and generally makes an ass of himself. The patient’s mysterious sickness only grows as the various insane tests (performed and not) turn up very little. It all comes to a head in the climax where, given the approval to cut the top of the patient’s skull off, House is finally stopped by a screaming Cuddy over the phone. House’s epiphany finally comes, realizing that the patient’s problem is actually in her heart. Its pretty vague how cracking opening up a patient’s noggin’ would help this diagnosis, but then again, this show is a quarter step away from Sci-Fi anyway.

Speaking of Cuddy, now at home with her newly adopted daughter she isn’t bonding with the baby. She wonders if she is up to motherhood at all, even considering returning the child. Again, I am annoyed by the woman as helpless in the face of the motherhood/ career conflict. Cuddy as a medical professional would know that emotional bonds take time, even with a child that isn’t adopted. There seems no way that she’d be in the throws of this kind of depression so soon. The bond does arrive though as the special ed teacher with the missing skull soothes Cuddy and her child over the phone during the previously mentioned brain test. Consequently, Cameron quits he job as House-sitter and Cuddy is forced to return to work, but with her new motherly bond cemented.

In the closing moments of the show, we see a conflicted Foreman changing the labels on new girlfriend Thirteen’s medication. All episode he has talked with friends and colleagues about Thirteen’s placement in the placebo group of his drug trial. To a person, they all agree that his tampering with the trial will put his career at risk. He seems resigned to remain uninvolved, until he speaks with House. House suggests that “people in love to stupid things” and Foreman takes it to heart. Next week’s episode looks like an exciting (if predictable) barn burner.

Surely you’ve heard by now about the big digital signal switchover that’s was supposed to be coming in a few days. You know, the one that effectively kills over-the-air broadcasting without the converter box? Well, the Senate voted unanimously yesterday to delay the cutover until June 12, 2009.

I have to ask why. They say that there are “more than 6.2 million U.S. households that rely on analog television sets to pick up over-the-air broadcast signals”. Well, I say to them…time’s up. The Digital Transition and Public Safety Act of 2005 was enacted on October 20, 2005. As a frame of reference for me, personally, I had no kids then. Now I have three. I’m just sayin’.

Look, I have a DVR, so I hardly ever watch commercials, but I STILL see the stupid ads for this cutover all the time. Our local ABC affiliate has a little 5 second blurb that they run at least once every 30 minutes between their commercials and programming, saying how many days are left until the switchover (and brought to you by the local electronics store, where you can buy the converter box). I saw one just last night that had Pat Sayjak, Vanna White and Alex Trebeck all walking arm in arm talking about the switchover. So if I see them all the time, you can’t tell me that grandma and grandpa haven’t gotten the message yet.

I know the economy is rough right now, but by my count, we’ve had roughly 1,211 days between the signing of the legislation and the deadline. You’ve had plenty of time. And if 3 1/2 years wasn’t long enough for you to take your Rascal scooter out to Wal-Mart to get the magic box that will let you still watch Jeopardy, I don’t think four months is going to make much difference.

But maybe that’s just me.

“Red Dwarf” is returning to television after a decade-long hiatus. The show will return to a two-part Easter weekend special which will see the cast finally return to Earth.

The episodes are written and directed by “Red Dwarf” co-creator Doug Naylor, and reunited the entire line-up.

For the uninitiated the series was set three million years into the future, and followed the exploits of Dave Lister, the slovenly crew member of a mining ship called Red Dwarf…and the last man in the universe.

The new two part series will be followed by a “no holds barred” episode without sets, special effects, or auto cue.

The episodes will air on digital channel Dave, and along with the “Doctor Who” weekend special…makes Easter in the UK a sci-fi fan’s dream come true.

Sci-Fi has posted a clip of the upcoming Battlestar Galactica prequel series “Caprica”. I can already tell from this short clip that this show isn’t going to be for me.

I don’t know exactly what they’re trying to do with this series, but in the clip it appears that Eric Stoltz is in some sort of holodeck with his daughter, who is explaining why people around them are shooting, banging, and generally hurting one another.

Then she goes off on a rant about God…and thankfully the clip ends.

I’m not exactly sure how they’re going to market whatever this is supposed to be along with Sancutary and Stargate Universe…but good luck to them.

I’m out.

Mickey Rourke, who just won the Golden Globe, and may very well win an Academy Award for his performance in “The Wrestler” has agreed to actually wrestle a match at “Wrestlemania 25″, the 25th Anniversary of the “Grand Daddy of Them All”.

He will be in the ring against WWE Superstar Chris Jericho.

Rourke spent a great deal of time training as a professional wrestler in preparation of his role in the movie…so he might actually put on a decent match.

It’s a bizarre move for Rourke, but it’s not like bizarre moves are actually new for him. So it’ll be interesting to see if how his match goes on “the grandest stage of them all”…for wrestlers at least.

During the 2007 Writer’s Strike, many of the striking writers decided to band together and work on a project called “Strike TV”. They were going to head off on to the Interwebs sans all that big Hollywood funding, and just drop a big bowl full of awesome all over our laps.

Now the shows are finally starting to appear online at Strike.tv and its time to take a look at their handy work.

The first one I’ve watched is “House Poor with Mindy Kaling”. I love “The Office” and Mindy writes a great deal of it – so this one should be a winner right?

That was my thinking going in. After watching it, though, I don’t quite understand why this didn’t come out the week after they shot it.

It’s pretty simple story and premise. Mindy has recently purchased a house from a fellow writer, and doesn’t have the money to fill it with stuff…so she does various things to attempt to get furniture and what-not for the house.

In this episode she fakes being pregnant and registers at furniture stores, expecting her friends to buy her elaborate gifts.

It goes south pretty quickly, though, and she reveals that she isn’t actually pregnant, and they leave.

That’s the entire episode, which only runs 3 minutes and 11 seconds.

Overall there wasn’t much about this that was compelling to watch. The actions of Mindy’s character didn’t seem too far off actions her character on “The Office” might take, but the show is so compact that you don’t have any real interesting moments for a story to be put together. It’s essentially one joke “a woman fakes a pregnancy to get furniture for her new house” and that’ it.

I didn’t hate it. I find Mindy to be funny and charming (especially when she’s being heartless and self centered…as her character is in this), but I just wish there was more to it.

If you want to see it for yourself you can check it out at Strike.TV.