humantarget

Say you have to get on a plane, but the plane can't land because the Army has seized the airfield (don't ask questions; just go with us here).

Sure, it's an impossible task, unless you're Christopher Chance on 'Human Target' (Wed., 8PM ET on Fox).

The solution involves a very long rope, a sturdy net, and a pretty girl to kiss for encouragement. See? That wasn't so hard, was it?

Watch the video after the jump.

NBC's coverage of the 2010 Winter Olympics experienced the thrill of victory Wednesday night.

Meanwhile, Fox's 'American Idol' now knows the agony of defeat.

'Idol' finished in second place last night after an estimated 29.4 million viewers tuned in to watch the games, according to the Hollywood Reporter's Live Feed.

The 'Idol' loss marks the first time time in 222 episodes in which it has not finished first.

(S01E06) It's always a pleasure to watch nerd for hire Kevin Weisman stammer his way through a guest spot on a great show. I loved him as Marshall on 'Alias', enjoyed his stints on 'Moonlight' and 'Roswell', and who could forget his brief appearance as 'Hobbit Lover' in Kevin Smith's 'Clerks II'?

Weisman literally played a nerd for hire in this episode. His character, Martin Gleason, was a brilliant weapons engineer in need of a little rescuing. The twist, of course, was that his own company was holding him prisoner. I guess that's what happens when you're in possession of damning intel that can bring a powerful weapons developer down for good.

'Lockdown' was another fast and fun hour of 'Human Target', a show that literally orders viewers to turn off their brain, sit back and enjoy the implausible ride.

'Human Target' (Wed., 8PM ET on FOX) is crazy-fun for lots of reasons, not the least of which is outstanding guest stars.

In tonight's episode, we had Kevin Weisman, whose vast TV credits include 'Alias' (he's cornered the market on computer geeks), as well as Mitch Pileggi (Walter Skinner on 'The X-Files,' among dozens of other roles).

Between those two and star Mark Valley -- and let's not forget Chi McBride and Jackie Earle Haley -- that covers just about every show in the past 20 years, doesn't it?

Watch the video after the jump.

One of the most fun things of any press tour is getting to sit down with Chi McBride and just talk, about anything. Politics, baseball, cigars... when you're talking to Chi, the conversation can go just about anywhere.

The drawback to seeing McBride on so many tours is that he's always there with a new show to promote. Because he's able to handle drama and comedy with equal ease, he's cast in a lot of pilots. The problem is, most of the resulting shows rarely last more than a couple of years. In the last six years, since his four-season run on 'Boston Public' ended, we've seen McBride in 'Killer Instinct,' 'The Nine' and 'Pushing Daisies.' Now he's co-starring with Mark Valley and Jackie Earle Haley in the FOX popcorn-action series 'Human Target.'

I sat with McBride as he held court at FOX's all-star party in Pasadena last month. As he puffed away on an Opus X -- he offered me one and I very reluctantly declined -- we talked about which of his roles he misses the most, and how he does his running scenes on 'Target.' Let's just say he doesn't waste too much film on those.

If you read Brad's take on The Hollywood Reporter list of endangered TV shows, you might be surprised that the 'experts' have some weak rated shows coming back for another season.

THR puts 'Community' in the safe category, giving it a 90% chance of renewal. It also put 'Chuck' in the 90% category.

Joe Adalian wrote about bubble shows on The Wrap, and he has 'Chuck' slam-dunking another renewal out of NBC. The surprises on his list was a death blow for 'Gary Unmarried' and 'Rules of Engagement.'

Really? That's not a certainty considering that 'Rules' hasn't even aired yet. It did well in the ratings last spring, enough to be a midseason renewal. And 'Gary' has performed on par with 'The New Adventures of Old Christine,' which has a good shot at being renewed.

(S01E05) High-speed car chases! Police baton beat downs! Seat belt strangulations!

The 14-year-old kid in me loves this show.

So does the currently overworked and underpaid adult version of me. Like a lot of folks these days, I'm just looking to wash away the week's stresses with some fun, old-fashioned hump day entertainment. Thankfully, 'Human Target' is happy to oblige.

This week's energetic hour offered more kicks and wittier one-liners than last week's mountaintop tussle. "Run" was a confident episode. It felt strong and sturdy, not unlike the series' awesome third outing ("Embassy Row").

Talk about awkward. On 'Human Target' (Wed., 8PM ET on FOX), Christopher Chance finds himself in a moving car with the very people trying to kill his client - who's sitting right next to him.

Of course, he does what we'd expect him to do. Take out the bad guys and get control of the car. This show delivers a Bruce Willis movie every single week!

Watch the video after the jump.

(S01E04) Just like Chuck Bartowski, Christopher Chance seems able to access any type of fighting skill, foreign language, or Bible verse necessary to nudge his way out of a tight spot. But unlike Chuck, or Echo from 'Dollhouse', his super skills don't come courtesy of some dubious sci-fi technology. So where did Chance get his awesome abilities? Who knows? We'll probably never learn the answer to that question. Despite the show's small attempts to get a larger arc moving, 'Human Target' is more concerned with delivering fun, action-packed self-contained episodes than with building a rich mythology.

Surprisingly, 'Sanctuary' offered some valuable intel about Chance's past, courtesy of Guerrero's latest "side job." We learned that he's wracked with guilt over his involvement in a woman's death -- a woman he was probably in love with. The same woman might've been the reason he turned things around and started working for the good guys, mirroring this week's client, John Gray ('Fanboys' star Sam Huntington). I'm looking forward to seeing these plot elements finally pay off somewhere down the line, but I don't expect the payoff to be huge.

We've all been there. You need to diffuse a bomb and have no clue what you're doing. So you make a call to the super-geek bomb diffuser of the operation to find out which wires get cut and so on and so forth.

Only right in the middle of the call, you hear the super-geek bomb diffuser flip a coin. Really?! Come on!! Anyway, good thing that Winston's gut has a good feel for these things. "In case you're wondering," he tells Guerrero on the other end of the line, "it was the blue wire!"

And have we mentioned how much we're loving 'Human Target' (Wed., 8PM ET on FOX)?

Watch the video after the jump.

As Guerrero on 'Human Target,' Jackie Earle Haley doesn't get to fly planes, parachute out of trains, or charm his way into an embassy party. That job goes to Christopher Chance, the title character played to perfection by Mark Valley.

But Haley does get to play the more interesting character -- the mysterious guy behind the scenes, the one who can find any information you need about anyone or anything, the guy who, when threatened by thugs, will accept their initial beat-down and tell them in great detail who he will kill in their sleep first, offering condolences the wife and kids.

Through the first three episodes, there are few concrete details about Guerrero's past, and aspect of the character that Haley enjoys. "That's what's fun about this guy, it seems like we're kind of all learning it together." he said during a conference call with the media.

(S01E03) "Did the hooker just punch you in the face?" – Winston

No runaway trains or upside down planes this week. Instead, Chance crashed the Russian Embassy and teamed up with a sexy FBI agent to catch his friend's killer.

This was a great episode. It had all the elements of a taut big screen thriller, plus some excellent action and a few welcome quirky character moments. I've only seen three episodes, but I'm already hooked on Human Target. I'm ready to follow Chance to the end of the season and beyond. Here's hoping that Fox (killer of all things that make me happy) has similar plans.

It looks like Human Target is set on delivering plenty of stand-alone episodes with only hints at a greater story arc. I'm a big fan of shows that offer complicated arcs that stretch out over several seasons, but that's clearly not what's happening here.

Chance makes a critical error when he mistakes a butt-kicking FBI agent for a prostitute and receives a sound thrashing on 'Human Target.'

After his beat-down, Chance joins forces with the agent to track down a spy who has poisoned him with a slow-acting toxin.

Watch the video after the jump.

(S01E02) If there's one thing that Human Target gets right, it's the action. This episode just kind of sat there until Chance started kicking the assassin's teeth in at the fifteen-minute mark. The fight scene wasn't as nuts as Sunday night's bloody train tussle, but it added some much needed energy to the first half of this episode. And things only got crazier a few minutes later when Chance uttered the line of the night: "We're gonna flip the plane!"

Flipping an airplane at 30,000 feet would probably be a "jump the shark" moment for most other shows. But not on Human Target, a show so ridiculous and over-the-top that "jump the shark" simply does not apply.

I love the tone and spirit of this show. It's retro and fun and a little tongue-in-cheek, but it's also packed with some very appealing characters, compelling stories and a top notch cast. The first half of tonight's ep left me a little cold, but I was still invested enough to want to see how it would all turn out in the end. And I'm glad I stuck around.

Did you watch the premiere of 'Human Target' last night? It's jam-packed with kick-ass action, cool guest stars, and a lightning-fast bullet train. It's like James Bond, 'The A-Team,' and a Bruce Willis movie all rolled into one.

Based on a DC Comics comic book and graphic novel, the Fox show stars Mark Valley as adrenaline junkie Christopher Chance, a unique bodyguard/private detective who thwarts murder attempts by impersonating the intended victims in order to draw the killers' fire.

Watch the videos from TV's Top 5! after the jump.