About Michael Edwards
Location: Dallas, Texas
Occupation: Knife Sharpener
Bio: I was born in 1518, in the village of Glenfinnan, on the shores of Loch Shiel...and I am Immortal. (cough…cough) (You know, writing a silly origin like this makes me think of the time I was at a Star Trek Convention and saw a balding, overweight guy in a Starfleet Uniform on a stage say, “Hello, I am Captain Hochsteader from the USS Klondike.” I wanted so badly to say, “Noooo, you’re Melvin Goldfarb, Accountant from Plano.”)
Favorite movie: Hmmmm... It's a toss up between Schindler's List and Cabin Boy. (Kinda makes you wonder about my ability to review DVD’s don’t it?). Actually, if I use the criteria I used above of “never get tired of watching…etc…”: The Road Warrior, The World According to Garp, Creator, Terminator 2, Somewhere in Time (If I wanna get reaaallly weepy)
Greatest video game accomplishment: Buying and beating the first ever home PONG game. Haven’t really played much else… Well, there was the time I died on the first level of MediEvil. Or the time I died at the beginning of Resident Evil. Of, course my favorite was dying while playing Tetris.
If you could have any one superpower, what would it be?: The power of Super Speed. There just never seems to be enough time to do everything I want to get done. And I can never get anywhere fast enough. (However, this would have to be combined with certain degrees of Super Agility and Invulnerability so as not to have to wear Band-aid Brand Nuclear Knee-Pads.)
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More from this author
I for one love the idea of James Woods heading up TV series. I’ve been a fan for years, always enjoying his on the edge performances. Despite the fact that he’s not an A-list actor anymore, I was surprised he would even do TV. But accept the challenge he did and now he is gearing up to start a second season as hard-edged lawyer Sebastian Stark in Shark.
There were plans in the world for me to watch Shark when it first ran. But as my schedule grew more frenzied, trying to catch shows as they aired become more and more difficult. So instead I opted to kick back and wait for the eventual DVD release of Shark’s first season. Did I like it? Give me a minute and I’ll tell ya.
Shark starts out by introducing us to a character that is so reprehensible that imagining him as the lead of a popular series is almost impossible. Sebastian Stark is the kind of lawyer we all hate. I know we pretty much hate all lawyers but to be honest the worst ones tend to be the defense attorneys, after all even if they know you’re guilty they’ll work hard to get you free. And that’s exactly what Stark is, a high profile defense attorney who, right off the bat, works his magic to get a wife-beater off the hook. Unfortunately shortly after his release… the wife turns up dead.
This shakes Stark’s world up so bad that he pulls back from accepting any cases for a while. He then captures the attention of the city’s mayor who wants to put him in charge of an elite squad of prosecutors. He wants Stark to teach them all the tactics he used in the defense of criminals so they can put them away. His team is made up of the usual suspects and stereotypes. Casey Woodland (Samuel Page) is the ‘GQ’ guy, Raina Troy (Sophina Brown) is the bleeding-heart, Martin Allende (Alexis Cruz) is the ‘mousy’ one, and Madeline Poe (Sarah Carter) is pegged as the cold b****. Add ‘not too happy with the arrangement’ District Attorney Jessica Devlin (Jeri Ryan) to the mix and you get one volatile combination.
Shark was a much different show than I originally thought and I enjoyed it. I felt that Woods was well-cast and really did a great job of taking the reins of a show with so many diverse characters. Yet, he does not completely steal the show either. Almost all of the characters are given opportunities to take center stage, making it very entertaining.
Fox’s DVD release adds a couple of commentaries to the set, both by James Woods and creator/executive producer Ian Biederman. I’ve listed the episodes they appear on below, and suffice to say the commentaries are quite direct. Woods is a no holds barred kind of guy and it shows. Additionally there is a featurette where we again hear from Biederman and producer Robin Gurney as they recount the everyday occurrences that led to the series. It also offers interviews with the cast. I found it interesting that the pilot was directed by Spike Lee (Hollywood’s Greatest Amateur Filmmaker). Also included are a selection of deleted scenes and a short blooper reel.
I was glad I gave Shark a whirl. It’s another one of those shows that tempts me to check out subsequent seasons as they air… but I’ll wait for the DVD.
Episodes:
Pilot (Audio Commentary by James Woods and Creator/Executive Producer Ian Biederman)
L.A.P.D. Blue
Dr. Feelbad
Russo
In the Grasp
Fashion Police
Déjà vu All Over Again
Love Triangle
Dial M For Monica
Sins of the Mother
The Wrath of Khan
Wayne’s World (Audio Commentary by James Woods and Creator/Executive Producer Ian Biederman)
Teacher’s Pet
Starlet Fever
Here Comes the Judge
Blind Trust
Backfire
Trial by Fire
Porn Free
Fall from Grace
Strange Bedfellows
Wayne’s World 2: Revenge of the Shark
