The Week That Was.....A Viewer's Diary: 6/12-6/18

The summer season is moving into full swing. Let's jump into what I watched this past week.

Sunday 6/12.

• Ebert & Roeper. Fun show, a little more disagreement than before.
  Mr. & Mrs. Smith: Two Thumbs Up
  Howl's Moving Castle: Ebert- Thumbs down, Roeper- Thumbs up
  The Adventures of Shark Boy and Lava Girl in 3-D: Two Thumbs Down
  High Tension: Two Thumbs Down
  The Honeymooners: Ebert- Thumbs up, Roeper- Thumbs down
  Thumbs Up Video:
  Roeper- Jaws, Casino, The Harder They Fall, All the President's Men
  Ebert- The Barbarian Invasions, Vertigo, Shadow of a Doubt, Strangers on a Train
• Ultimate Super Vixens. I missed the beginning of this, but it was a fun look at the TV and movie heroines which have captured our imaginations. It was a top 20 list, not sure who compiled it, but it was narrated the way only Adam West can. For the sake of brevity, I will only give you the top five: 5. Xena, 4. Lara Croft, 3. Buffy, 2. The Bond Women, 1. Catwoman.
• Ultimate Super Heroes. Next up was the listing for the other side, also narrated by Adam West, and still very entertaining. The top 5 on the guys side are: 5. Indiana Jones, 4. James Bond, 3. Batman, 2. Superman, 1. Spider-Man.
• Family Guy. A fun episode with Peter helping Cleveland get back with his wife after she lets Quagmire in. ***
• American Dad. What would you do if your dad thought the neighbors were terrorists and out the community on lock down? This was an OK episode, still pales next to Family Guy. **.5
• The 4400. I liked this episode. It focused on a baseball player who is having problems reconciling with his mind reading ability. He is then used as a spy to infiltrate and get information on Collier. ***
• Dead Zone. The fourth season premiere has Johnny being hunted as a murder suspect. He with the help of the sheriff find out who was behind it, and in turn find out it was not Stillson. ***

Monday 6/13.

• WWE: Raw. The show started with Stone Cold listening to Hassan's grievances, and agreeing with them. That leads to the opening match of Hassan v Shelton Benjamin, which ends with the inevitable stunner. Next up HHH is upset over potential draft choices. Chris Masters comes out with another challenge, answered by Sgt. Slaughter. Christian and Tomko took on Jericho and Cena in a decent tag match. Viscera came out with Lillian for his squash match on Maven. The final match was Kane handily taking care of Sylvan Grenier, while Edge and Lita announce impending nuptials. The final segment announced Kurt Angle as the latest draft choice. ***
• The Closer. New series starring Kyra Sedgwick as an interrogator moving from the south to California and assigned to find a murderer. This could turn out to be a good show, on the surface it is another procedural. What I like is the Southern styled lead, a fish out of water type story. It will be interesting to watch it develop. ***

Tuesday 6/14.

• Nothing.

Wednesday 6/15.

• The Inside. Less bloody the first episode, but perhaps a bit more twisted. This time they team dives inside the world of S&M. I don't recall many details, outside of enjoying the episode. Although I wonder if there are coming to be too many of these procedural type shows on. ***

Thursday 6/16.

• WWE: Smackdown. A power outage forced me to miss the first hour,but I did learn that Eddie destroyed Paul London and Rey made his return taking out Eddie. Also, the Bashams quit the Cabinet and the Undertaker took all of them out. Big Show took on Matt Morgan with some interference from Carlito. Orlando Jordan took on Hardcore Holly and won through a little bit of cheating. Heidenreich made some new friends, and ended up getting blasted by MNM. The final match was JBL v Undertaker in a no disqualification match. JBL won after some interference from the latest draft pick Randy Orton. **.5

Friday 6/17.

• Into the West. I liked this episode much more than last week, it seemed much more focused. This week follows Jacob who returns home with his family and begins a dangerous trip to California which tears them all apart. I think I will continue with the series. ***

Saturday 6/18.

• The Batman. While Bruce is being trailed by a video camera, Penguin invades the manor. The bird turns the table on the Bat and threatens to reveal his true identity, but Alfred saves the day, in more ways than one. An entertaining episode, still pales next to The Animated Series. ***
• Justice League: Unlimited. A signal is received and Hawkgirl, Vixen and Vigilante are sent to investigate. It turns out to be a trap set by a group of Thanagarians. A good episode featuring some good character development. ***
• WWE: Velocity. MNM took on a pair of jobbers. Funaki took on newcomer Juventud, it was an OK match featuring a People's Elbow and Juvy's finisher, some sort of pump handle into a Michinoku driver. Renee Dupree took on Mark Jindrak. The final match was newcomers Psicosis and Super Crazy taking on Billy Kidman and Akio, turned out to be a pretty good match too, featuring some flashy moves. **.5
• Hammerhead: Shark Frenzy. I almost made it all the way through, but it was so uninteresting that I had to give up on it. Bad effects, bad dialogue, bad acting. Just awful. But I should have realized that going in, but I was blinded by the potential fun performance from Jeffrey Combs, who is generally pretty reliable in this type of movie. *

That does it for this week.

Also at Blogcritics.org.