MediaCyborg Blog

Top Gear

Sun, 14 Mar 2010 03:28:00 -0500

I have 2 questions for u...

1) Is Motoring a passion?
2) Do you love sarcastic comedy?

If you answer yes then I can only say that this show is a must!

I have followed this show from the beginning of the second time around, there is much to say about this talk / motoring show and there is many criticism regarding it but in my opinion is this a must see to believe. I am not going to bore you with a long story, read the info below and you will see what I mean.

Top Gear is a BBC television series about motor vehicles, primarily cars. It began in 1977 as a conventional motoring magazine show. Over time, and especially since a relaunch in 2002, it has developed a quirky, humorous style. The show is currently presented by Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May, also featuring a test driver known as The Stig. The programme is estimated to have 350 million viewers worldwide.2 First run episodes are broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC Two. Top Gear is also shown on Dave, BBC America, BBC Canada, RTÉ Two in Ireland, Special Broadcasting Service in Australia, and a number of other television channels around the world. The popularity of the show has led to the creation of two international versions, with local production teams and presenters for Australia and Russia. Episodes of the Australian version premiered on 29 September 2008 and NBC was holding the American version for broadcast in February or March 2009, as a possible mid-season replacement, but was later cancelled.34 The show has received acclaim for its visual style and presentation, as well as considerable criticism for its content and comments made by presenters. Columnist A. A. Gill described the show as "a triumph of the craft of programme-making, of the minute, obsessive, musical masonry of ing, the french polishing of colourwashing and grading".

sources: wiki

Lost

Sat, 06 Mar 2010 09:30:00 -0600

This the one of the most up-to-date series on the site and I think one of the most beloved among its followers. With 6 seasons and 109 episodes that makes this one of ABC Studio's great success stories. Lost will go up with some of the great one's like Macgyver and Knight Rider, and I can sadly say that lost will be greatly missed. The last episode will be shown on 23 May 2010. Lost will be a good investment to buy for our's of drama long after the series broadcasting has ended! For all the details regarding lost please follow the link at the bottom of this post.

Lost is an American serial drama television series. It follows the lives of plane crash survivors on a mysterious tropical island, after a commercial passenger jet flying between Sydney and Los Angeles crashes somewhere in the South Pacific. Each episode typically features a primary storyline on the island as well as a secondary storyline from another point in a character's life, though other time-related plot devices change this formula in later episodes. The pilot episode was first broadcast on September 22, 2004, and since then five full seasons have aired. The show airs on the American Broadcasting Company in the United States, as well as on regional networks in many other countries.
Due to its large ensemble cast and the cost of filming primarily on location in Oahu, Hawaii, the series is one of the most expensive on television. It was created by Damon Lindelof, J. J. Abrams and Jeffrey Lieber and is produced by ABC Studios, Bad Robot Productions and Grass Skirt Productions. The score is composed by Michael Giacchino. The executive producers of the final season are Lindelof, Abrams, Bryan Burk, Jack Bender, Edward Kitsis, Adam Horowitz, Jean Higgins, Elizabeth Sarnoff and Carlton Cuse.
Critically acclaimed and a popular success, Lost garnered an average of 16 million viewers per episode on ABC during its first year. It has won numerous industry awards including the Emmy Award for Outstanding Drama Series in 2005, Best American Import at the British Academy Television Awards in 2005, the Golden Globe for Best Drama in 2006 and a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Ensemble in a Drama Series. Reflecting its devoted fan base, the series has become a part of American popular culture with references to the story and its elements appearing in other television series, commercials, comic books, webcomics, humor magazines, a video game and song lyrics. The show's fictional universe has also been explored through tie-in novels, board and video games, and alternative reality games, The Lost Experience and Find 815.
Lost will conclude in its sixth season with its 121st and final episode airing on May 23, 2010. Season six will consist of eighteen episodes. Episodes from the first four seasons of the series have begun airing in off-network syndication in the US, distributed by Disney-ABC Domestic Television, on G4 and Syfy. ABC had been considering the possibility of a Lost spinoff, but decided against it.

sources: wiki

Criminal Minds

Sat, 06 Mar 2010 09:12:00 -0600

Criminal minds is one of my personal favorites and the will be many more posts regarding criminal minds in the future. This series actually shows what is happing in the world out-side of our comfort zone, even if the episodes isn't based on true story`s they still are true in a sense that this sort of thing is happing every single day. So here are a short into to the series and a link to the series page with the most recent information.

Criminal Minds is an American police procedural drama series that premiered September 22, 2005 on CBS. The series follows a team of profilers from the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU) at Quantico, Virginia. Criminal Minds differs from many criminal system procedural dramas by focusing on the criminal rather than the crime itself. The show is produced by The Mark Gordon Company in association with CBS Television Studios and ABC Studios. The original title for Criminal Minds was Quantico, and the pilot was filmed in Vancouver. In the Quantico script, Jason Gideon was named Jason Donovan.
On May 20, 2009, CBS officially renewed Criminal Minds for a fifth season, which premiered on September 23, 2009 at 9:00PM EST.
CBS announced in October 2009 that Legacy Interactive will develop a video game based on the show. The game will require players to examine crime scenes for clues to help solve murder mysteries; a spin off has also been announced.

sources: wiki

House MD

Sun, 28 Feb 2010 13:00:00 -0600

When I first heard about house it kinda sounded boring, I mean "House" what the hack of a name is that?

But o boy was I wrong, when one of my friends asked me if I knew house and maybe knew where she could get her hands on the series (back then there was only one season), I thought she wanted to buy a house. She said that her brother showed her a episode (the pilot of the first series "Everybody Lies"), he only had the one episode. She explained that this was a genius regarding weird illnesses, but didn't care munch about the patients. He did what ever he wanted to solve the puzzle, so I went out and bought the first half of the season. That following night we wanted to watch a episode or two and call it a night, after all it was a Wednesday. What a silly thought! because after the first episode I knew we're addicted, we couldn't stop watching, even when the sun came up the next day we where still watching house.

So why am I telling you this? it simple.....

This series isn't about a super hero, love story or some space saga, it's about people in real live situations we all know with a sicko genius to find his kick out of illnesses nobody else can cure. He makes the show what it is, and the things he'll do will shock you. It's funny and serious at the same time. If I can only tell you one thing, read the house description, watch the youtube trailer and go to the shop links at the series section because this will be your new favorite series off all time!

Description

House, also known as House, M.D., is an American television medical drama that debuted on the Fox network on November 16, 2004. The program was co-created by David Shore and Paul Attanasio; Fox officially credits Shore as creator. The show's central character is Dr. Gregory House (Hugh Laurie), an unconventional, maverick medical genius who heads a team of diagnosticians at the fictional Princeton‑Plainsboro Teaching Hospital (PPTH) in New Jersey. The show's premise originated with Attanasio, while Shore was primarily responsible for the conception of the title character. The show's executive producers include Shore, Attanasio, Attanasio's business partner Katie Jacobs, and film director Bryan Singer. It is largely filmed in Century City.

Dr. House often clashes with his boss, hospital administrator and Dean of Medicine Dr. Lisa Cuddy (Lisa Edelstein), and his diagnostic team, because many of his hypotheses about patients' illnesses are based on subtle or controversial insights. House's only true friend is Dr. James Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard), head of the Department of Oncology. During the first three seasons, House's diagnostic team consists of Dr. Robert Chase (Jesse Spencer), Dr. Allison Cameron (Jennifer Morrison), and Dr. Eric Foreman (Omar Epps). At the end of the third season, this team disbands. Rejoined by Foreman, House gradually selects three new team members: Dr. Remy "Thirteen" Hadley (Olivia Wilde), Dr. Chris Taub (Peter Jacobson), and Dr. Lawrence Kutner (Kal Penn); the latter was written out of the series toward the end of season 5. Chase and Cameron continue to appear in different roles at the hospital until early in season 6. Cameron then leaves the show, and Chase returns to the diagnostic team.

House is critically acclaimed and has high viewership ratings. It was among the top ten rated shows in the United States from its second through its fourth season; in the 2008–09 season, it fell to nineteenth overall. Distributed to 66 countries, House was the most watched television program in the world in 2008. The show has received several awards, including a People's Choice Award, a Peabody Award, two Golden Globe Awards, and three Primetime Emmy Awards. House's sixth season, in progress, began with a two-hour premiere on September 21, 2009.

In 2004, co-creators David Shore and Paul Attanasio, along with Attanasio's business partner Katie Jacobs, pitched the show (untitled at the time) to Fox as a CSI-style medical detective program, a hospital whodunit in which the doctors investigated symptoms and their causes. Attanasio was inspired to create a medical procedural drama by the New York Times Magazine column "Diagnosis", written by physician Lisa Sanders. Fox bought the series, though the network's then-president, Gail Berman, told the creative team, "I want a medical show, but I don’t want to see white coats going down the hallway". Jacobs has said that this stipulation was one of the many influences that led to the show's ultimate form.

After Fox picked up the show, it acquired the working title Chasing Zebras, Circling the Drain ("zebra" is medical slang for an unusual or obscure diagnosis). The original premise of the show was of a team of doctors working together trying to "diagnose the undiagnosable". Shore felt it was important to have an interesting central character, one who could examine patients' personal characteristics and diagnose their ailments by figuring out their secrets and lies. As Shore and the rest of the creative team explored the character's possibilities, the program concept became less of a procedural and more focused upon the lead role. The character was named "House", which was adopted as the show's title as well. Shore developed the characters further and wrote the script for the pilot episode. Bryan Singer, who directed the pilot episode and had a major role in casting the primary roles, has said that the "title of the pilot was 'Everybody Lies', and that's the premise of the show". Shore has said that the central storylines of several early episodes were based on the work of Berton Roueché, a staff writer for The New Yorker between 1944 and 1994, who specialized in features about unusual medical cases.

Shore traced the concept for the title character to his experience as a patient at a teaching hospital. Shore recalled that, "I knew, as soon as I left the room, they would be mocking me relentlessly for my cluelessness] and I thought that it would be interesting to see a character who actually did that before they left the room". A central part of the show's premise was that the main character would be disabled in some way. The original idea was for House to use a wheelchair, but Fox rejected this. Jacobs later expressed her gratitude for the network's insistence that the character be reimagined—putting him on his feet added a crucial physical dimension. The writers ultimately chose to give House a damaged leg arising from an incorrect diagnosis, which requires him to use a cane and causes him pain that lead to a narcotic dependency.

Gregory House, M.D., is a misanthropic medical genius who heads a team of diagnosticians at the Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital in New Jersey. Most episodes revolve around the diagnosis of a primary patient and start with a pre-credit sequence set outside the hospital, showing events leading up to the onset of the patient's symptoms. The typical episode follows the team in their attempts to diagnose and treat the patient's illness, attempts that often fail until the patient's condition is critical. House's department usually only treats patients that have already been to other doctors but have failed to receive an accurate diagnosis yet. House habitually rejects cases that he does not find interesting. The storylines tend to focus on House's unconventional medical theories and practices, and the other characters' reactions to them, rather than on the intricate details of the treatments.
The team employs the differential diagnosis method, with House guiding the deliberations. Using a whiteboard, House writes down and eliminates possible etiologies with a marker. The patient is typically misdiagnosed during the episode and treated with medications accordingly. This usually causes further complications, but eventually helps House and his team diagnose the patient correctly, as the nature of the complications often provides valuable new evidence. House tends to arrive at the correct diagnosis seemingly out of the blue, often inspired by a passing remark made by another character. Diagnoses range from relatively common to very rare diseases.
Many ailments House and his team encounter cannot be easily diagnosed because patients have lied about their symptoms, circumstances, or personal histories. House frequently mutters, "Everybody lies", or proclaims during the team's deliberations, "The patient is lying"; this assumption guides House's decisions and diagnoses. Because many of his hypotheses are based on epiphanies or controversial insights, he often has trouble obtaining permission from his superior, hospital administrator Dr. Lisa Cuddy, to perform medical procedures he considers necessary. This is especially the case when the proposed procedures involve a high degree of risk or are ethically questionable. There are frequent disagreements between House and his team, especially Dr. Allison Cameron, whose standards of medical ethics are more conservative than those of the other characters.
House, like all of the hospital's doctors, is required to treat patients in the facility's walk-in clinic. His grudging fulfillment of this duty, or his creative methods of avoiding it, constitute a recurring subplot. During clinic duty, House confounds patients with unwelcome observations into their personal lives, eccentric prescriptions, and unorthodox treatments. However, after seeming to be inattentive to their complaints, he regularly impresses them with rapid and accurate diagnoses. The insights that occur as he deals with some of the simple cases in the clinic often inspire him to solve the main case.
A significant plot element is House's use of Vicodin to manage pain, caused by an infarction in his quadriceps muscle five years before the show's first season, which also forces him to use a cane. In the first season; eleventh episode "Detox", House admits he is addicted to Vicodin, but says he does not have a problem because the pills "let me do my job, and they take away my pain". His addiction has led his colleagues, Cuddy and Dr. James Wilson, to encourage him to go to drug rehabilitation several times. When he has no access to Vicodin or experiences unusually intense pain, he occasionally self-medicates with other narcotic analgesics such as morphine, oxycodone, and methadone. House also frequently drinks liquor when he is not on medical duty, and classifies himself as a "big drinker". Toward the end of season , House begins to hallucinate; after eliminating other possible diagnoses, he and Wilson determine that his Vicodin addiction is the most likely cause. House goes into denial about this for a brief time, but at the close of the season finale, he commits himself to Mayfield Psychiatric Hospital.

Sources: wiki

NCIS

Sun, 28 Feb 2010 07:56:00 -0600

NCIS follows a fictional team of Naval Criminal Investigative Service Major Case Response Team (MCRT) special agents headquartered at the Washington Navy Yard in Washington, D.C. It is described by the actors and producers (on special features on DVD releases in the United States) as being distinguished by its comic elements, ensemble acting and character-driven plots.

NCIS is the primary law enforcement and counter-intelligence arm of the United States Department of the Navy, which includes the United States Marine Corps. NCIS investigates all major criminal offenses (felonies)—crimes punishable under the Uniform Code of Military Justice by confinement of more than one year—within the Department of the Navy. The MCRT is frequently assigned to high profile cases such as the death of the U.S. president's military aide, a bomb situation on a U.S. Navy warship, the death of a celebrity on a reality show set on a USMC base, terrorist threats, and kidnappings.

The MCRT is led by Supervisory Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs (Mark Harmon). Gibbs’s team is composed of Special Agent and Senior Field Agent Anthony "Tony" DiNozzo (Michael Weatherly), Special Agent Timothy McGee (Sean Murray) and Probationary Special Agent (formerly Mossad liaison officer) Ziva David (Cote de Pablo), who replaced Caitlin "Kate" Todd (Sasha Alexander) when she was shot by Ari Haswari (Rudolf Martin) at the end of season two. Ari was then killed by his half-sister Ziva at the beginning of season three. The team is assisted in their investigations by Chief Medical Examiner Donald "Ducky" Mallard (David McCallum), Medical Assistant Jimmy Palmer (Brian Dietzen), and Forensic Specialist Abigail "Abby" Sciuto (Pauley Perrette). It has been revealed through flashbacks that the 'original' head of the MCRT was Special Agent Mike Franks, who headed the unit when it was part of NIS. He recruited Gibbs shortly after Gibbs' retirement from the Marine Corps, eventually retiring himself some years later. After Franks departure, Gibbs recruited DiNozzo from the Baltimore Police Department's Homicide Section. The two were briefly joined by Vivian Blackadder, whom Gibbs recruited from the FBI. In the second part of the NCIS pilot, Blackadder allowed her emotions to nearly derail an anti-terror operation in Spain. Gibbs is noticeably disappointed, Blackadder is not present in the series' first regular episode. McGee first appears as a Field Agent assigned to the Norfolk Field Office. He uses his computer skills to aid the MCRT in subsequent investigations through the rest of the first season, until he is officially promoted with his own desk at the Navy Yard in the beginning of the second season. NCIS is currently led by Director Leon Vance (Rocky Carroll). The first director seen in the series, Thomas Morrow (Alan Dale), left after being promoted to Deputy Director of DHS. Jenny Shepard (Lauren Holly) was appointed director after Morrow; she was killed in a shootout at the end of the fifth season, thus making Vance the director of the whole organization.

Sources: wiki

Smallville

Sun, 28 Feb 2010 07:27:00 -0600

Smallville is an American television series developed by writers/producers Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, based on the DC Comics character Superman created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. The television series was initially broadcast by The WB, premiering on October 16, 2001. After its fifth season, The WB and UPN merged to form The CW, which is the current broadcaster for the show in the United States. Smallville began its ninth season on September 25, 2009. The series follows the adventures of Clark Kent (Tom Welling), who resides in the fictional town of Smallville, Kansas, during the years before he becomes Superman. The first four seasons focused on Clark and his friends' high school years. Since season five, the show has ventured into more adult settings, eventually focusing on his career at the Daily Planet, as well as introducing other DC comic book superheroes and villains.

The concept for Smallville was derived after a potential series chronicling a young Bruce Wayne's journey toward becoming Batman failed to get off the ground. After meeting with the president of Warner Bros. Television, Gough and Millar pitched their "no tights, no flights" rule, which would break Superman down to the bare essentials and look at the events that led Clark Kent to become Superman. After seven seasons with the show, series developers Gough and Millar departed without providing a specific reason. Smallville is predominantly filmed in and around Vancouver, with some of the local businesses and buildings substituting for Smallville locations. The music is primarily composed by Mark Snow, who incorporates elements of John Williams's musical score from the original Superman film series. The song played under the opening titles is "Save Me" by Remy Zero; several episodes also contain songs written and performed by other bands.

The series received generally positive reception when it began broadcasting. Former Superman star Christopher Reeve voiced his approval of the series, and the pilot episode broke the record for highest rated debut for The WB, with 8.4 million viewers. With eight seasons completed, Smallville has averaged approximately 4.76 million viewers per episode, with season two averaging the highest ratings at 6.3 million. Since its first season, the series has earned distinctions ranging from Emmy Awards to Teen Choice Awards. Smallville has inspired an Aquaman pilot, which was ultimately not picked up by The CW network, as well as promotional tie-ins with Verizon, Sprint, Toyota, and Stride. In other media, the show has spawned a series of young-adult novels, a DC Comics bi-monthly comic book and soundtrack releases, as well as Smallville-related merchandise. Currently, eight seasons of Smallville are available on DVD in regions 1, 2, and 4.

Season one sees the introduction of the regular cast, and storylines that regularly included a villain deriving a power from kryptonite exposure; the one-episode villains were a plot device developed by Gough and Millar. The first season primarily dealt with Clark trying to come to terms with his alien origins, and the revelation that his arrival on Earth was connected to the deaths of Lana's parents. After the first season, the series used fewer villain-of-the-week episodes, focusing more on story arcs that affect each character and explore Clark's origins. Main story arcs include: Clark's discovery of his Kryptonian heritage; the disembodied voice of Clark's biological father Jor-El is introduced, communicating to Clark via his space ship, setting the stage for plots involving the fulfillment of Clark's earthly destiny; Clark seeking out three Kryptonian stones, at the instruction of Jor-El, which contain the knowledge of the universe and form his Fortress of Solitude; Clark battling Brainiac in his attempts to release the Kryptonian criminal General Zod; other escaped Phantom Zone criminals that Clark must either capture or destroy; the arrival of Clark's biological cousin Kara; and Lex finally discovering Clark's secret. The eighth season features storylines involving the introduction of Davis Bloome, who is Smallville's interpretation of Doomsday, and a woman named Tess Mercer to replace the exit of Lex Luthor from the series. Justin Hartley reprises his role as Oliver Queen/Green Arrow, being upgraded to a series regular. With the ninth season, "Major" Zod (Callum Blue), along with other members of Zod's military group, are revived by Tess Mercer, though without their Kryptonian powers. Their efforts to obtain those powers becomes the central conflict for the season's story arc.

Sources: wiki

MediaCyborg

Sun, 14 Feb 2010 10:58:00 -0600

We are working hard to get the site up and running!

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Over the next few days you will be able to read, trailer and buy the shows we display on the site!

MediaCyborg team!