Saturday, April 18, 2009

BREAKING NEWS: UK Flashpoint DVD Boxset Details!

Special thanks to one of our readers (and huge Flashpoint fan in Britain) Yvonne for sharing some pictures of the just-released Flashpoint DVD boxset. We really love the cover! The back reads "Flashpoint is a high stakes police drama about a team of elite cops. A SWAT team highly trained in psychology, specialising in the use of state of the art weaponry, sniper rifles, snake cameras, and robotics along with expert negotiating tactics. Their task - to talk down or take down, terrorists, hostage takers, and bomb-makers, delving deeply into the minds of the human beings at the centre of explosive situations." We are so pleased to see the logos of CTV, CBS Paramount, the Canadian Television Fund, and the Canadian Government featured below the credits! Sadly, there are no extras included on the boxset. We know CTV and CBS both produced behind-the-scenes promotional videos when the series began , and CTV's eTalk followed the cast and crew on many journeys, from shooting segments behind-the-scenes, to following them on photoshoots and award shows. We hope, that if there is a North American DVD release, that they will be included, or perhaps other extras of any kind (maybe a chat with the writers and producers about why each song was picked to play at the end of an episode). Nonetheless, for those of you dying to know what the boxset looks like, we have pictures featured below from Yvonne (click to enlarge)! She tells us that the first season ended last Thursday (stopping at the 13th episode), on a cliffhanger. We remember your pain all too well when we saw that episode for the first time!

Friday, April 17, 2009

Caption This #5: Not a Fanart Edition!

Mew Azama... our beloved PGSM Sailor Jupiter has done so much since her time on the show. She’s been in some commercials for Japanese mobile phone provider AU, she’s been on some variety shows, she had a role in Salariman Kintaro 5, and graduated from the Faculty of Lifelong Learning and Career Design at Hosei University with a Bachelor of Arts degree on March 24th (pictured)! Mew is also a weekend weather anchor on NTV’s Zoom in Saturday , a morning news and variety show. We came across a set of pictures from last Saturday’s show somewhere on the net, and two of them struck our eye. We didn’t quite understand why Mew is wearing what we think is a squirrel tail and ears in a cowboy hat? But it’s been too long since we’ve had a Caption This post - so here we go fans! Give us your best captions in the comments below!



Sailordees:

5:51:
Guy in Yellow Shirt: Mew, when did you get a tail?!
Mew: Latest fashion! Us CanCam models have to keep up with latest Akihabara trends!
Lady: Where do I get one? This top is so tacky!
5:55:
Mew: And here is the winner of the Tokyo Dog Show!
Dog: I’m going to moonwalk onto the stage!
Guy in Yellow Shirt: Hmm... interesting....
Lady: Please hide my embarrassment off camera. That’s not even a real dog! What has this show become?




The Me:

5:51:
Guy in Yellow Shirt: So, uh.. What's with the tail?
Mew: It's for community service with my local dog catcher. Puts them more at ease.
Lady: It's certainly working on him...
5:55:
Mew: Watch! Come here boy, good boy~
Dog: Not sure if want...
Guy in Yellow Shirt: *hypnotized* Yes Ms. Mew.. Whatever you say..
Lady: Why did I even bother today?.. I'm out of here.


*** Warning - No Pets or Ms. Mew were harmed in the making of this "Caption This" Segment ***

Friday, April 10, 2009

Flashpoint Ratings: Friday April 3rd, 2008

Hey Moonies - did anyone catch tonight's episode? Compared to last week's ("Aisle 13"), I thought it returned back to its old glory. I wasn't a fan of last week's episode, and it will probably top my list of worst episodes of Flashpoint - of which there is only one more on that list, "Backwards Day". I wasn't entirely convinced by Kristin Booth's performance. Tonight's episode, "The Perfect Family" had one of the saddest twists in the entire series, and in another twist, Donna (the team's newest member) chickens out when she is told to shoot. Not spoiling anymore, west coasters please watch this when it airs! Tonight's Dollhouse was the first good episode of the series' entire run so far. Perhaps because this episode's writer is the only writer so far to have written two episodes (every episode has had a different writer). There are only 3 episodes left, and two others which were made and will probably never come to air. It's our opinion, along with many other critics that the show will be canceled, and Flashpoint will likely be given a green light for another season. Variety is also calling that the show will survive another season since it is a co-production and cheaper for the network.

Last week's ratings weren't stellar, but they were still great enough to earn the top spot in its timeslot, and helped CBS win the night in the US, even though there were no winners since no show last week cracked a 2.0/6 rating with the 18-49 demo. The show scored 8.64 million viewers, and a 1.8/6. In Canada, the show was the 12th most watched show of the week, scoring 1.346 million viewers. Flashpoint was also a good luck charm for CTV's premiere of Spectacle: Elvis Costello With... which scored 861,000 viewers. Season 2 is expected to film throughout the summer until August 4th. Click here to read a fan's experience on the set, and among other spoilers, it appears a future episode will deal with high school bullying.

Tuesday, April 07, 2009

Breaking News: Drama Went Down at Chieko's Wedding Reception!

Last August, Chieko Kawabe married producer Masato Ochi. Last Saturday, the two held a wedding reception for close friends and family. On Chieko's blog, she posted pictures and a few entries on preparations for the party, including some nail design inspired by the popular fashion brand Fendi! Unfortunately, there was a bit of a scuffle. The couple had hired a photographer to take pictures, and he was trying to take a picture of Sakura Uehara with the couple. Her husband, Noriaki Endo (a fashion producer) was in the way, and the photographer (who might not have known who he was) asked him to get out of the way. Endo got offended and punched the photographer in the stomach, and he was knocked to the ground. The papers are all reporting that Endo has since been arrested, and that the photographer has suffered minor abdominal injuries. We've posted this picture from her blog, and we have posted a picture from her blog of the party - they make such a happy couple! It's too bad that such an incident happened on a joyous occasion :(. Noriaki has since apologized on his blog (twice - 1 & 2) and regrets what has happened. He wishes the photographer a speedy recovery. Sakura also posted an apology on her blog, wished the photographer a speedy recovery, and apologized to Chieko, Masato, and the staff at Fendi. Chieko didn't mention the incident on her blog, but has devoted several entries on her official blog with pictures from the wedding. Any posts from April 4th onwards are good to look at!

And to the readers: she has changed her name to Chieko Ochi, however we are not going to change the tag on this website. We'll refer to her as Ochi in articles, but leave the Kawabe tag just for convenience.

Monday, April 06, 2009

Flashpoint Ratings Delayed

Hey everyone - I'm delaying the official Flashpoint Ratings posts until BBM releases the Canadian ones so I can post them together. Reason being, in May , I want to make a large post with a table of all the ratings so that we can see how the show has done in season 1 and season 2. And going through some of my older articles it's a little tough to follow because there's such a delay between the two and I didn't necessarily keep things organized (gomen ^_^).

Also, this month is really busy for me so there will be a lack of articles coming from me. Everything you will see posted on me is going to be timed to go off at various points until probably the second week of May. I may pop in occasionally on the forums - but fear not! The Me will going to keep this site updated throughout the month! The commercials are going to return too, we found a new host and are in the process of uploading new commercials to it.

Friday, April 03, 2009

Flashpoint News Roundup - April 2009!

In the last few days, a few news stories have popped up - some highs, some lows, and another set of DVDs?!

Flashpoint DVD Boxset to Hit Oz!


Soon after we post a story reminding our readers in Britain the show is going to be released on DVD within weeks, we learn of an Australian release! A boxset will be released in Australia two days after the boxset is released in Britain (April 16th). We’re actually surprised to read this since we have read elsewhere that the ratings for the show in Australia haven’t been phenomenal (perhaps due to some fault on the Nine Network’s end for lack of promotion, airing of episodes out of order, and sporadic scheduling). The ratings in New Zealand are better, and we are hoping to hear soon that they will pick up the second season. We even found what we think is a fan-made bumper sticker for the show in NZ! This release has a different cover than the British one, and features the slogan used on Alchemy TV’s Sales Flyer. We like the British cover better - it’s a lot more elusive with it’s blue shadows. The boxset is a little more pricier than the British version, and it looks like this one is going to have episodes only over 4 discs without any extras. If any of our Australian or New Zealander readers manage to get a copy of this, we’d love to hear what you think of the release!

CBS Cuts Funding


The economic crisis is hitting everything and anything, and we’re getting a little tired. We on staff really hope this is fixed up soon. Canadian TV Broadcaster CBC dealt the Canadian and US TV industry a major blow last week when they announced major layoffs, reduced episodes of hit series, and the cancellation of their broadcasts of reruns of The Simpsons, as well as Martha Stewart’s talk show. CTV, Flashpoint’s parent broadcaster in Canada, has not announced any major national cuts, but has announced cuts for regional stations. CBS on the other hand, has asked all shows being renewed (unsure if Flashpoint is one of them as of this writing) to reduce their budgets for next year, and this may mean smaller writing staffs. Flashpoint has quite a writing staff, and from what we have read before, their work is always collaborative. We believe each writer on that show brings something unique to the table, and the show won’t be the same without them. It’s rumored that the show costs anywhere between 1.6-2 million dollars an episode to make, and since this is a co-production, we don’t know how the balance of the funds work on the show, and how funding would be affected from CBS’s end. This news is a little unsettling, and we can only hope that those in power around the world can come up with a solution to this crisis.

Other News Shots:

Flashpoint along with other cop procedurals such as CSI and Law & Order has kept CBS at the top of the ratings for Primetime Drama. Two new shows are going to make an attempt to steal CBS' thunder, The Unusuals on ABC in the US and Global in Canada, and Southland on NBC in the US and CTV in Canada (not that CTV really needs to worry since it is host to Flashpoint).

Hugh Dillon's official website has a lot of cool promotional videos posted in the media section, as does his other website.

Thursday, April 02, 2009

April Fool's!

Yesterday's post was a joke, for those of you who didn't get it! As much as we'd all like to be movie stars, we would never leave control of this blog to those two !

Wednesday, April 01, 2009

BREAKING NEWS: We’ve Been Cast in the New Sailor Moon Movie!

So yesterday, I, The Me, and Leonardo DiCaprio all traveled to Los Angeles on short notice to audition at 20th Century Fox. I auditioned for the role of Sailor Moon against Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan, and since I was the only one of the three who signed a sobriety agreement, I got the role! The Me and Leo were cast as Tuxedo Mask and Artemis respectively. Leo beat out a few preschoolers, and Tuxedo Mask was supposed to be played by Christian Bale, but he had “rage issues” immediately after the audition. Michelle Pfeiffer has been cast as Queen Beryl, and Cloris Leachman is cast to play Queen Serenity. The movie will be called Sailor Moon: The Secret of the Silver Crystal and is slated to begin filming in New Zealand in June. However, after meeting with the director this morning, we were all deemed too ugly and must spend the next month in plastic surgery, cosmetic enhancements, and genetic engineering. I must undergo hair follicular procedures to ensure my hair is long enough for odangoes by June, The Me must undergo some experimental gene therapy to overcome his allergy to roses, and Leo is going to have a moon permanently tattooed to his forehead, and have his body surgically altered to include cat ears and a tail. If the surgery is a success, he will immediately get a role in the Justice League spinoff movie, Cat-Man and Tommy Turbine Meet Mister Mxyzptlk. Tommy Turbine is going to be played by Zac Efron, Mister Mxyzptlk will be played by Jim Carrey, and we hear Jimmy Olsen is going to be bitten by a radioactive starfish and acquire starfishy powers. In any case, all of this means we will not be posting updates for the next two months, and then we will post sporadic updates from the set of the movie. Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan, in bids to play Youma are going to take over this blog to show the producers and the directors that they are serious actresses who deserve roles in this film! Please welcome our new writers with open arms and a lot of patience - we’re sure they will do a great job after they have a little time to get used to this site!