Reviews

All right, I will be the first to admit, this is nothing really like the original. However, as one person already commented, it would be an insult to the original story and actors if they remade it exactly the way it was. However, the original only made it ONE SEASON. ABC (and every other network) is trying to appeal to the younger demographic (not always an intelligent decision, but they do it anyway). However, they're changing the character of Kolchak himself: he's no longer the goofy, fraidy cat of the newspaper world, and he's about 20 years younger. For the character they've made, Stuart Townsend is a better choice than most. The new Kolchak is a somewhat darker, creepier version than the old, so you can't have someone like William H.Macy (another suggestion) with the lead. No one would believe he was a possible murdering psycho. Townsend, on the other hand, is a kinda creepy guy, who can act. Personally, I liked the pilot (except since I was only half paying attention, I got a little messed up with how the little girl fit in with the murdered pregnant woman). Anyway, if you don't want to watch it, you don't have to. I personally like it a lot better than CSI at the moment, so I'm going to keep watching it.

Also, what a lot of people don'r realize is that Darren SKIPPED OUT on the original show because he didn't like the humor in it. Obviously the audience did, but he hated it enough to cut and run on his contract.

Nobody who liked the original could possibly like the remake. In all fairness, it shouldn't have the same name as TOS, "Battlestar Galactica." The gender-bender issue with Boomer and Starbuck I wouldn't mind so much if they hadn't completely warped them. They should've just made the new Starbuck and Boomer into their own new characters. Boomer used to be a 6 foot something black man, who was a pretty cool character; not too tough, had sense of humor, and didn't spend half his time necking with the head mechanic in the broom closet. The new Boomer is a five something Asian woman, who is a complete pansy, and spends *more* than half her time sucking face with the mechanic. Starbuck is still an ass, still a blonde, and still arrogant as hell. They did the gender bender solely because sci-fi (with the exception to the Stargate shows) seems to have this obsession with women acting like testosterone-pumped teen-aged guys. I'm not saying tough women are bad. I'm saying stereotypical tough women, the ones like Beka Valentine from "Andromeda", Sam Carter in the first season of "Stargate: SG-1", are bad. They seem to have severed all ties with femininity, which people seem to think is a disease nowadays. Starbuck is now "the best shot in the whole fleet", and is in good with Adama cause she used to screw his since-deceased youngest son, and of course, has her arch nemesis (another butchered original character who was supposed to be black too, and a fairly nice guy to boot) who doesn't like her cause she's a girl. Apollo, in TOS, used to be married with a son (until his wife was killed later in the season), and I don't believe he had an siblings. If he did, they were mentioned in the original movie, and not the TV show. Adama used to be a nice guy...and the actor, Lorne Green, COULD SHOW EXPRESSIONS BESIDES "UTTERLY BORED"! The actor now playing Adama has no inflection with his voice, he's incapable of showing emotion, or speaking in something besides a monotone. The writers completely destroyed the relationship between Adama and Apollo, pitting father against son, and had Apollo hating the military and siding with the President on most diplomatic issues, and the President (who I'm quite sure is newly made up, but I could be wrong) randomly has a cancerous tumor going on which only serves to try and fail at adding drama.

The one plus I will give this show is that the idea of Cylons looking like people is interesting.

Personally, after reading all the comments, I have to address the comments about comparing "John Doe" with "The Pretender". They're both very good shows, with interesting plot lines, but slight, and important, differences. For example, Jarod from the Pretender knew who he was, he knew his past, and he knew the people after him; he also used his genius to solve problems/cases. He just lacks the details, like how he came to be in the service of the Centre/ what happened to his parents. In John Doe, John doesn't know who he is, where he's from, who or of anyone is after him. He doesn't know anything personal about himself, but everything about everything else. Unlike Jarod, who has to research facts, John automatically knows it; but he also has to put the knowledge to use. Another difference is that "John Doe" is much more violent than the Pretender. The second plot was about how a mother sliced two women in half and crucified them (their pieces joined together by ramming metal staffs through the torsos to form one person) because they split her twin children up in an orphanage. Basically, if you liked the Pretender, you'll like John Doe, as long as you give it a chance and don't write it off as a spin-off. It deserves a chance. Btw, whatever idiot was criticizing the spelling of other people should take a look at their own writing. They don't have the grammatical sense of an Ox.

While not the most accurate account of the story of Jesse James and his gang, it is by far the most entertaining with awesome stunts from blowing up a small town to evade the nemesis Pinkerton and his lackeys to escaping from a train bound for DC where he awaits an unfair trial with the help of his cousins and wife. Colin Farrel is at his best as Jesse James; even if you don't know anything about the James-Younger gang or the Old West, you will love the story of American Outlaws!