Tom's TV Pilots marathon

[Tom]

No Ordinary Family: Season One (2010/United States) IMDb | Wikipedia Lions Gate Films (United States) Length: 860 min. Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 1.78 Audio: English: Dolby Digital 5.1, English: Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo Subtitles: English

Plot:
After 16 years of marriage, Jim (Michael Chiklis, "The Shield," Fantastic Four) feels disconnected from his workaholic wife, Stephanie (Julie Benz, "Dexter"), and two teenage children. To encourage bonding time, the family joins Stephanie on her business trip to South America. When their plane crashes into the Amazon River, they barely enjoy a moment to celebrate their survival before returning to the grind of everyday life. But they will soon realize that their lives have been forever changed. Each member of the family starts to show signs of new, unique and distinct superpowers. Will their newfound abilities finally bring them together or push them further apart?


No Ordinary Family
1.01 Pilot
Writer: Greg Berlanti (Created By), Jon Harmon Feldman (Created By), Jon Harmon Feldman (Screenwriter), Greg Berlanti (Story By), Jon Harmon Feldman (Story By)
Director: David Semel
Cast: Michael Chiklis (Jim Powell), Julie Benz (Stephanie Powell), Christina Chang), Kay Panabaker (Daphne Powell), Jimmy Bennett (JJ Powell), Autumn Reeser (Katie Andrews), Tate Donovan), Romany Malco (George St. Cloud), Tom Amandes), Jamie Harris), Nathan Keyes), Reggie Lee), Stephen Collins (Dr. Dayton King), Melanie Chartoff (Iris Mitchell), Renee Faia (Sally Downs), Nadine Crocker (Lindsay), Gilland Jones (Emily), Nate Reese (Chairman), James Joseph Cole (Young Jim), Krissy Carlson (Young Stephanie), Oliver Alvarez (JJ's Classmate), Ingrid Sanai Buron (Guidance Counselor), Rey Herrera (Referee), Karen-Eileen Gordon (Crime Victim), Wiley Pickett (Cop), Loren Lazerine (Security Guard), Sean Andrew (Batting Cage Clerk), Larry Omaha (Supply Clerk), Lachlan Buchanan (Chad Claremont), Marissa Cuevas (Amanda)

A nice enough beginning. Not blown away by it, but curious how it will continue. But I still need getting used to Michael Chiklis in the lead. Nothing against him (I enjoyed him in Fantastic Four), but he just seem to really fit here. It's mainly his delivery I don't really like here.

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[Tom]

Highlander: The Raven (1998/) IMDb | Wikipedia Anchor Bay Entertainment (United States) Length: 1078 min. Video: Full Frame 1.33:1 Audio: English: Dolby Digital 5.1 Subtitles:

Plot:
She's roamed the world for 1,200 years, romancing kings, cavorting with thieves, and using her preternatural street smarts to evade the blades of countless evil Immortals. Now, the shrewd and sexy femme fatale, Amanda Derieux, has achieved true immortality in awesome digital format.

HIGHLANDER: The Raven Collection on DVD celebrates all 22 daring and provocative episodes in the high-action HIGHLANDER spin-off series with a 9-disc collector's set that beautifully preserves Elizabeth Gracen's smart and captivating portrayal as the morally conflicted Amanda and her high-risk adventures with hunk detective, Nick Wolfe (Paul Johansson).

Loaded with newly created Bonus Material, each disc boasts behind-the-scenes audio and video commentary from cast and crew, including Gracen and Johansson, plus detailed Cast Bios, Series Trivia, Featurettes and a hilarious Blooper Reel.

With classic HIGHLANDER flourishes, like flashbacks, beautifully choreographed sword duals and electrifying Quickenings, The Raven Collection on DVD marks a must-have chapter for fans of the epic HIGHLANDER legend.


Highlander: The Raven
1.01 Reborn
Writer: Gregory Widen (Original Characters By), Karen Harris (Writer)
Director: Ian Toynton
Cast: Elizabeth Gracen (Amanda Darieux), Paul Johansson (Nick Wolfe), Torri Higginson (Claudia Hoffman), Patricia Gage (Lucy Becker), Michael Copeman (Carl Magnus), Julian Richings (Basil Morgan), James Purcell (Stanley Ferris), Robert McClure (David Hoffman), Hayley Lochner (Annie Hoffman)

This is a spin-off from the Highlander series with a minor side character from that series in the lead.
I really wanted to like this series. I enjoyed Highlander and a series about a female immortal could have been fun. I enjoyed Amanda on Highlander, but I didn't really like her in this series. As a matter of fact I never finished watching this first season. I can understand that it didn't survive to see a second season.
The pilot episode is okay. I enjoyed watching it to a degree.

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[Tom]

Highlander: The Complete Animated Series (1994/United States) IMDb | Wikipedia (United States) Length: 960 min. Video: Full Frame 1.33:1 Audio: English: Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo Subtitles:

Plot:
There can be only one! Seven hundred years after the Great Catastrophe, post-apocalyptic Earth is ruled by the evil Immortal Kortan. But now there has arisen a new champion, a young Immortal who will fulfill the ancient prophecy and bring peace to Earth: His name is Quentin MacLeod and he is the Highlander. The ultimate fight between good and evil begins as Quentin embarks on a perilous quest to regain the knowledge that will allow him to destroy Kortan, save the human race and restore peace to the world. Join the Highlander in his quest for peace in this complete animated series!


Highlander: The Animated Series
1.01 The Last of the MacLeods

This is the first time that I ever saw an episode from this series. Maybe it can be enjoyed by children but I didn't enjoy it. And again we have Ramirez in this one. He died in the first movie but for some reason appeared and the second one again, and dies again. And now he appears again in this series which is set some hundred years in the future.

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[Tom]

Battlestar Galactica: The Complete Series (2003/United States) IMDb | Wikipedia Universal Pictures (United Kingdom) Length: 3602 min. Video: Widescreen 1.78 Audio: English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, Commentary: Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo Subtitles: English, French, Spanish

Plot:
Battlestar Galactica – The Complete Series – Limited Edition contains the entire Emmy® award-winning* epic Battlestar Galactica series, from the Second Cylon war of the Mini Series through their journey across the vastness of space told in every episode of Seasons 1, 2, 3 and 4 (including the TV movie Razor) and ending with The Final Season. Complete with all season extras, this Limited Edition set contains hours of extra footage not to be missed.

Join the crew of Battlestar Galactica on their epic journey – you won't regret it and you won't ever forget it!

*2007 and 2008 Emmy® Awards
Outstanding Special Visual Effects for a Series

Battlestar Galactica
1.00 Miniseries Part 1 & 2
Writer: Ronald D. Moore (Writer), Christopher Eric James (Writer), Glen A. Larson (Original Material By)
Director: Michael Rymer
Cast: Edward James Olmos (Commander Adama), Mary McDonnell (Laura Roslin), Katee Sackhoff (Lt. Kara Thrace/Starbuck), Jamie Bamber (Capt. Lee Adama/Apollo), James Callis (Gaius Baltar), Tricia Helfer (Number Six), Callum Keith Rennie (Leoben Conoy), Grace Park (Lt. Sharon Valerii/Boomer), Michael Hogan (Col. Tigh), Matthew Bennett (Doral), Paul Campbell (Billy), Aaron Douglas (Crew Chief Tyrol), Barclay Hope (Transport Pilot), Lorena Gale (Elosha), Kandyse McClure (Dualla), Connor Widdows (Boxey), John Mann (CAG), Alessandro Juliani (Gaeta), Nicki Clyne (Cally), Michael Eklund (Prosna), Tahmoh Penikett (Helo), Haili Page (Cami), Alonso Oyarzun (Socinus), Ty Olsson (Capt. Kelly), Ron Blecker (Launch Officer), Ryan Robbins (Armistice Officer), Tim Henry (Doctor), Dwesi Ameyaw (Liner Captain), Brenda McDonald (Old Woman), Suleka Mathew (Reporter), Erin Karpluk (Woman #1), Jenn Griffin (Woman #2), BJ Harrison (Woman #3), Moneca Delain (Blonde Woman), Zahf Paroo (Man #1), Robert Lewis (Man #2), Denzal Sinclaire (Man #3), Nadine Wright (Chantara), Michael Soltis (Chantara's Husband), Fred Keating (Jr. Reporter), Lymari Nadal (Giana), Biski Gugushe (Pilot #1), Nahanni Arntzen (Pilot #2), Nogel Vonas (Pilot #3), Ryan Nelson (Pilot #4)

I haven't seen the series yet. But I have seen this Miniseries before. I like it, but it didn't quite encharm me enough to want to see the series. But I will give it a chance now that I have bought it complete on Blu-ray. There must be something to the series of what I have heard of it.

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[Tom]

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1981/United Kingdom) IMDb | Wikipedia BBC Worldwide (United Kingdom) Length: 200 min. Video: Full Frame 1.33:1 Audio: English: Dolby Digital 1, English: Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo Subtitles: English, Trivia

Plot:
It is the most remarkable, certainly the most successful, book ever to come out of the great publishing corporations of Ursa Minor. More popular than the Celestial Home Care Omnibus, better selling than Fifty Three Things to Do in Zero Gravity, and more controversial than Oolon Colluphid's trilogy of philosophical blockbusters - Where God Went Wrong, Some More of God's Greatest Mistakes and Who is this God Person Anyway? So that whingeing Earthling Arthur Dent should be very grateful he had a copy!

For after Earth is destroyed to make way for a hyperspace bypass, Arthur Dent is let loose in the furthest recesses of the Galaxy armed only with the aforementioned mysterious but indispensable Guide. Follow Dent's cosmic adventures as he is joined by his pretty weird companions: Zaphod Beeblebrox, Ford Prefect, Trillian-the-Astrophysicist-he-met-at-a-party-in-Islington and Marvin the maniacally depressed Android. You never know, they may even find the answer to Life, The Universe and Everything!


The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
1.01 Episode 1
Writer: Douglas Adams (Original Material By), Douglas Adams (Screenwriter)
Director: Alan J. W. Bell
Cast: Peter Jones (The Book (voice)), Simon Jones (Arthur Dent), David Dixon (Ford Prefect), Joe Melia (Mr. Prosser), Steve Conway (Barman), Cleo Rocos (Alien), Andrew Mussell (Alien), Douglas Adams (Man in Pub (uncredited)), Steve Trainer (Man in Pub (uncredited)), Bill Barnsley (Man Listening to Radio (uncredited)), David Grahame (Sandwich-Board Man (uncredited))

I always loved the first 2-3 episodes of this 6-episode series. The rest is also good but I never liked them as much as the beginning of the series.
How the entries of the book are displayed is really great. And unlike one would think, they were not done in a computer but are all hand-drawn.
This series introduced the word babelfish to the world and "42" being the answer (but what is the question?).

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[Tom]

Home Improvement: Season One (1991/United States) IMDb | Wikipedia (Canada) Length: 566 min. Video: Full Frame 1.33:1 Audio: English: Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround, English: Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo Subtitles: English

Plot:
An immediate hit with both fans and critics, this classic family comedy earned an Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Comedy Series in its very first season and soon found its place among the most popular and acclaimed sitcoms in television history.

Tim Allen ratchets up the laughs as Tim "The Toolman" Taylor in Home Improvement's landmark first season. Relive every hilarious moment with the accident-prone TV show host and the original "Tool Time" girl, Pamela Anderson, in this comprehensive 3-disc set, including all 24 episodes and exclusive bonus features. It's the show you love - with "more power" than ever!


Home Improvement
1.01 Pilot

This series is one of my favorite sitcoms of the 90s. And the first episode is a great introduction to the show. Sadly I don't have the urge to watch the show anymore. I started to watch my second season DVDs years ago and since then never finished it. I also own the rest of the series.

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