Mike just got Guitar Hero 3, which rocks, both literally and figuratively. So, I imagine he's too tangled up in that game to post anything here (last I saw, he was battling Lucifer himself in a rousing version of Devil Went Down to Georgia). That means the posting duties again fall on me. Let's continue the TV preview, which is technically no longer a "preview" since most of these shows have been on for a month now. Anyway, here are Thursday's must-watch shows.
Survivor: That's right, Survivor. Chortle if you must, but it remains the gold standard of the reality genre and one of the best all-around shows on TV. People who complain that it's only about losers making fools of themselves or eating rats or whatever are sorely mistaken. Nay, folks-- Survivor is the ultimate social experiment, and one of the most strategically minded game shows ever created. After a particularly good episode, such as last week's, you could have an elaborate, in-depth discussion just analyzing the various players' strategies.
For instance, in a recent episode, the two tribes switched two players each, at which point Tribe A decided to purposely lose the immunity challenge and head to tribal council so they could vote off one of the new arrivals from Tribe B. Their plan was to then throw the next immunity challenge as well and vote off the other newcomer, then head to the tribal merge and re-connect with their two former tribemates. Meanwhile, Tribe B caught wind of the plan and cooked up a counter-scheme. After winning a reward challenge that allowed them to briefly "kidnap" a member of Tribe A, Tribe B brought their former tribemate back for a day and gave him a secret immunity idol that they'd found at their camp. They instructed him to return to Tribe A, lose the immunity challenge, go to tribal council, and use the idol to deflect the votes and eliminate a power player from Tribe A. But at the same time, Tribe A abandoned its challenge-throwing plan and later ended up winning the challenge, sending a shocked Tribe B to an unexpected tribal council and foiling their carefully hatched plan.
Now try to tell me that nothing happens on Survivor.
Not only that, but the challenges always make for quality TV. In a recent season, one challenge required the tribes to have all eight members stand on an extremely tiny platform that could barely hold two people. Needless to say, it was fun to watch everybody try to squeeze themselves in without hilariously toppling over the whole pile. Classic.
Supernatural: Another of my personal top five shows, this one might be in danger of losing its spot after a sluggish start to this season. The first two seasons of Supernatural were supremely awesome. It was simply about two brothers traveling all across the country, slaying supernatural beasts like vampires and werewolves and wendigos and killer clowns, snarking with each other and rescuing hot babes at every turn. It was like the world's coolest road trip. This season, though, the show has gotten too caught up in emotional crap, and now instead of killing evil creatures in snazzy ways, they're having long, boring conversations with demons and stuff. Less talky, more killy, I say. Also, it seems every other episode is about demons, whereas there used to be a different creature every week. There needs to be more variety in monsters. (In my everyday life, it's rare that I get to use the sentence "There needs to be more variety in monsters.")
NBC's Thursday-night comedies: It's hard to find even one good comedy on TV anymore, so it's pretty much amazing that here you can find four of them at once, all on the same network on the same night. This is the best quartet of comedy shows in decades. Of the four, I'd rank The Office and 30 Rock as the best two, with Scrubs slightly behind them, and My Name is Earl slightly behind that. In any case, they're all well worth watching. 30 Rock has been pure gold this year-- seriously, I don't know why more people aren't watching-- and The Office is always reliably funny. Don't bother with Grey's Anatomy or any of that crap-- just keep the channel on NBC. At least until ER starts; then feel free to turn it off.
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Sunday, October 21, 2007
TV: Wednesday Edition
I've been waiting for Mike to continue his TV preview. But since he's been idle for a while, and you faithful blog readers deserve an update, I'm going to totally beat him to the punch and pick up where he left off, with Wednesday TV...
Lost: OK, I'm not sure if this show is still on Wednesdays-- it might've been moved to a new night and I forgot. In any case, it won't be on at all until 2008. Whatever the case, I can't wait. Lost has been the best show on TV since it debuted three seasons ago. Great characters, inventive storytelling, a unique setting, and a very cool mystery that continues to unfold in each episode. The first season of Lost was the single best season of any TV show I've ever seen, ever, and although it hasn't matched that level since, it's still excellent. During the second and third seasons, some former fans stopped watching the show, saying they were frustrated because the show wasn't giving them enough answers. Those people? Are idiots. Just enjoy the ride and trust that the writers know where they're going with the story.
Pushing Daisies: Speaking of shows that go above and beyond, this is easily the best new show of the season. There's just nothing like it. The premise: there's a guy who has the power to bring dead people back to life just by touching them, with two caveats: 1) if he touches them again, they're dead forever. 2) if he keeps them alive for more than a minute, someone else in the vicinity will die instead. Hijinks ensue. Great cast, sharp writing, and the whole show has such a brightly colored fairy-tale vibe that you'd think it was directed by Tim Burton on crystal meth. And the narrator is the guy who voiced the Harry Potter audio books! Each episode is like a mini-movie. It's good, I'm telling you.
Bionic Woman: Now, this show? Painfully mediocre. Apparently, early in production, the show was completely revamped and there were all sorts of cast changes and scrapped scenes and re-edits and such. That's been very obvious in the first handful of episodes, which often jump from one scene to next in nonsensical fashion and drop storylines like a sack of bricks. Still, the show at least has potential. The first episode was pretty lousy, but then they (POSSIBLE SPOILER!) killed off the bionic woman's douchebag boyfriend and tried to lighten the overbearing mood somewhat. This show will never be Alias, but maybe it can eventually evolve into a halfway decent option as a mindless action show.
Lost: OK, I'm not sure if this show is still on Wednesdays-- it might've been moved to a new night and I forgot. In any case, it won't be on at all until 2008. Whatever the case, I can't wait. Lost has been the best show on TV since it debuted three seasons ago. Great characters, inventive storytelling, a unique setting, and a very cool mystery that continues to unfold in each episode. The first season of Lost was the single best season of any TV show I've ever seen, ever, and although it hasn't matched that level since, it's still excellent. During the second and third seasons, some former fans stopped watching the show, saying they were frustrated because the show wasn't giving them enough answers. Those people? Are idiots. Just enjoy the ride and trust that the writers know where they're going with the story.
Pushing Daisies: Speaking of shows that go above and beyond, this is easily the best new show of the season. There's just nothing like it. The premise: there's a guy who has the power to bring dead people back to life just by touching them, with two caveats: 1) if he touches them again, they're dead forever. 2) if he keeps them alive for more than a minute, someone else in the vicinity will die instead. Hijinks ensue. Great cast, sharp writing, and the whole show has such a brightly colored fairy-tale vibe that you'd think it was directed by Tim Burton on crystal meth. And the narrator is the guy who voiced the Harry Potter audio books! Each episode is like a mini-movie. It's good, I'm telling you.
Bionic Woman: Now, this show? Painfully mediocre. Apparently, early in production, the show was completely revamped and there were all sorts of cast changes and scrapped scenes and re-edits and such. That's been very obvious in the first handful of episodes, which often jump from one scene to next in nonsensical fashion and drop storylines like a sack of bricks. Still, the show at least has potential. The first episode was pretty lousy, but then they (POSSIBLE SPOILER!) killed off the bionic woman's douchebag boyfriend and tried to lighten the overbearing mood somewhat. This show will never be Alias, but maybe it can eventually evolve into a halfway decent option as a mindless action show.
Friday, October 12, 2007
Seeking a definition of "spoiler"
Spoiler, my foot! I didn't give away any upcoming, yet-to-be-aired plotlines. My post came several days after that Prison Break episode aired, so it's fair game for discussion. Unless there's some mythical "buffer zone" of which I'm not aware, in which no TV story lines may be discussed until X number of days have passed. Let's be honest here-- if I can't discuss what's happening on television, my contributions to this blog will be severely limited.
But if it'll stop Mike's complaints, I'll add some sort of cautionary sentence next time, like "WARNING: THIS POST DISCUSSES A STORYLINE/SITUATION/EVENT THAT OCCURRED AT SOME POINT IN THE RECENT PAST, WHICH I THOUGHT YOU WOULD'VE SEEN BY NOW, BUT APPARENTLY NOT." Or something a bit less wordy.
As for the Tuesday shows...
Reaper: I'm sticking with the show, but I'll agree that it's already getting a little stale. After three episodes, the show has seemingly fallen into a repetitive lull. The basic formula for every episode is as follows: Sam gets tasked by the Devil to find an escaped soul, Sam complains for half the episode that he won't/can't/doesn't want to do it, Sam is given an unusual "vessel" to trap the escaped soul (such as a toaster or toy car), said vessel ends up getting destroyed by his hapless Work Bench colleagues, the guys end up trapping the escaped soul through blundery in the last act, the Devil stops by to give Sam some devilish real-world advice. There's enough fun stuff to keep me watching, but I think this show would be better served if it were only half an hour long instead of a full hour. Tighten things up a bit, vary the formula, and we'll be set.
House: I've always thought of House as a very enjoyable show, but not quite on the level of "excellent." My mind may be changing on that, because the first three episodes of this season have been absolutely fantastic. Easily the best start of any show on TV this season. And yes, Mike, the Survivor parody plays into that a little bit, but mostly it's because this season has seen less of Cameron, Chase, and Foreman-- who have sort of outlived their usefulness-- and has put most of the spotlight on House himself, who is awesome, and played awesomely by Hugh Laurie. The show has shaken up the usual formula in a big way, and that's a plus.
Boston Legal: OK. I like this show; it's harmless fun, and it often provides many laugh-out-loud moments, more so than most purported "sitcoms." But even I was dumbfounded when it was nominated for Best Drama at the Emmys. First of all, because it's not a drama (not usually). But secondly, the show's good, but it's not that good. It basically boils down to James Spader and William Shatner sexually harassing every female in the Boston area, while a revolving door of various other cast members tries desperately to stay relevant. And there's usually some sort of trial, at the end of which Spader launches into a long and angry closing argument/soapbox speech that best addresses David E. Kelley's real-world political agenda for the week. Again, the show's good, but it's not great. Not that the Emmy nominations ever make sense anyway, but did Boston Legal really deserve to be nominated over, say, Lost? I think not.
But if it'll stop Mike's complaints, I'll add some sort of cautionary sentence next time, like "WARNING: THIS POST DISCUSSES A STORYLINE/SITUATION/EVENT THAT OCCURRED AT SOME POINT IN THE RECENT PAST, WHICH I THOUGHT YOU WOULD'VE SEEN BY NOW, BUT APPARENTLY NOT." Or something a bit less wordy.
As for the Tuesday shows...
Reaper: I'm sticking with the show, but I'll agree that it's already getting a little stale. After three episodes, the show has seemingly fallen into a repetitive lull. The basic formula for every episode is as follows: Sam gets tasked by the Devil to find an escaped soul, Sam complains for half the episode that he won't/can't/doesn't want to do it, Sam is given an unusual "vessel" to trap the escaped soul (such as a toaster or toy car), said vessel ends up getting destroyed by his hapless Work Bench colleagues, the guys end up trapping the escaped soul through blundery in the last act, the Devil stops by to give Sam some devilish real-world advice. There's enough fun stuff to keep me watching, but I think this show would be better served if it were only half an hour long instead of a full hour. Tighten things up a bit, vary the formula, and we'll be set.
House: I've always thought of House as a very enjoyable show, but not quite on the level of "excellent." My mind may be changing on that, because the first three episodes of this season have been absolutely fantastic. Easily the best start of any show on TV this season. And yes, Mike, the Survivor parody plays into that a little bit, but mostly it's because this season has seen less of Cameron, Chase, and Foreman-- who have sort of outlived their usefulness-- and has put most of the spotlight on House himself, who is awesome, and played awesomely by Hugh Laurie. The show has shaken up the usual formula in a big way, and that's a plus.
Boston Legal: OK. I like this show; it's harmless fun, and it often provides many laugh-out-loud moments, more so than most purported "sitcoms." But even I was dumbfounded when it was nominated for Best Drama at the Emmys. First of all, because it's not a drama (not usually). But secondly, the show's good, but it's not that good. It basically boils down to James Spader and William Shatner sexually harassing every female in the Boston area, while a revolving door of various other cast members tries desperately to stay relevant. And there's usually some sort of trial, at the end of which Spader launches into a long and angry closing argument/soapbox speech that best addresses David E. Kelley's real-world political agenda for the week. Again, the show's good, but it's not great. Not that the Emmy nominations ever make sense anyway, but did Boston Legal really deserve to be nominated over, say, Lost? I think not.
TV: Tuesday Edition
After the massive attack of shows on Monday, Tuesday is a great deal lighter. This works out for me, because I've got all those shows from Monday recorded that I still need to get through. Plus, it's even lighter now that I removed Reaper from the list (humor misses too often, and there's too little of a very cool premise). Let's discuss the remaining shows, while carefully avoiding GIANT SPOILERS like the one that Paul decided to shout out for Prison Break...
House (9PM Fox)
British comedy legend Hugh Laurie plays a doctor with a perfect American accent. Usually when actors are forced to hide their native accents, it's a disaster (I'm looking at you, Eddie Izzard). Are we not at the point where the American viewership can accept that some people talk differently? The thing is, Hugh does such an amazing job, you wouldn't know he was British unless I just told you. He really ruins it for everyone else. Remember the Pythons doing American accents in various sketches of Meaning of Life? No? Of course not, because they were so bad.
The fact that this isn't in Paul's top five and goddamn Survivor is could only be called a travesty. This season's use of teams and tribal councils seems to be specifically designed to change Paul's mind.
Boston Legal (10PM ABC)
Another of the best shows on TV, and it's a spinoff of The Practice, which sucked. How often are spinoffs better than the original? Well, there's Star Trek: The Next Generation (and its own spinoff, Deep Space Nine, which may have been better still), and... what? Frasier lasted longer than Cheers, but I don't know if you could call it more successful, and it certainly wasn't better. The Colbert Report is often funnier than the preceding Daily Show, but I don't know if that's really a spinoff in the purest sense, and that's the only sense that counts. And even though in the last few seasons of Friends Joey was the only one who was still allowed to be funny, when you take everyone else out, you're not left with much.
And that's all for Tuesday. Not a whole lot, but the shows that are there are great, and it gives me a day to clear my DVR for Xbox Live Arcade Wednesday.
House (9PM Fox)
British comedy legend Hugh Laurie plays a doctor with a perfect American accent. Usually when actors are forced to hide their native accents, it's a disaster (I'm looking at you, Eddie Izzard). Are we not at the point where the American viewership can accept that some people talk differently? The thing is, Hugh does such an amazing job, you wouldn't know he was British unless I just told you. He really ruins it for everyone else. Remember the Pythons doing American accents in various sketches of Meaning of Life? No? Of course not, because they were so bad.
The fact that this isn't in Paul's top five and goddamn Survivor is could only be called a travesty. This season's use of teams and tribal councils seems to be specifically designed to change Paul's mind.
Boston Legal (10PM ABC)
Another of the best shows on TV, and it's a spinoff of The Practice, which sucked. How often are spinoffs better than the original? Well, there's Star Trek: The Next Generation (and its own spinoff, Deep Space Nine, which may have been better still), and... what? Frasier lasted longer than Cheers, but I don't know if you could call it more successful, and it certainly wasn't better. The Colbert Report is often funnier than the preceding Daily Show, but I don't know if that's really a spinoff in the purest sense, and that's the only sense that counts. And even though in the last few seasons of Friends Joey was the only one who was still allowed to be funny, when you take everyone else out, you're not left with much.
And that's all for Tuesday. Not a whole lot, but the shows that are there are great, and it gives me a day to clear my DVR for Xbox Live Arcade Wednesday.
Thursday, October 11, 2007
TV? That's where I'm a viking!
Whoa! Look who's suddenly post-happy all of a sudden. Mike goes more than a month with nothing to say, and now he's trying to commandeer the blog. Not on my watch, sir!
He thought we were in the "pre-posting" phase. What's that all about? There's no such thing. Once a blog is online, it's meant to be posted in. You're not supposed to wait for someone else to tell you when to post. What would you do with your "pre-posting" time, anyway? Gather your thoughts? That defeats the entire purpose! Blogs are for writing whatever you want without giving it the slightest bit of thought. Just look at all the shmucks who have popular blogs. That's what the wonderful world of the internets is all about.
Yes, the story about my meeting the Orioles' manager is true. We had a nice chat in the Orioles' dugout, just the two of us, a few hours before a game a couple months ago. We shot the breeze about the O's for 45 minutes, and I expressed my opinion about why the team was so unrelentingly horrible. (And this was before they gave up 30 runs in one game!) I'd explain more, but I'm fairly sure that none of the readers of this blog (all three of you) are baseball fans, and thus would not enjoy the story on nearly as many levels as I do.
I suppose I should chime in on Mike's TV discussion, as it is one of the precious few subjects I can speak knowledgeably about.
Torchwood/Californication: I dunno. Never seen 'em. (Like I said-- totally knowledgeable about TV.)
How I Met Your Mother: It's a good show, but you know what would make it better? Dumping all the cast members not named Neil Patrick Harris. Seriously. That guy is legen --wait for it-- dary. The other characters I can take or leave, but if it were just 30 minutes of Barney's exploits, it'd be the best show on TV. Someone needs to get cracking on this.
Chuck: The lowdown: A bungling loser, through unfortunate happenstance, finds himself embroiled in a series of high-stakes, life-or-death situations. As opposed to the new CW show Reaper, in which a bungling loser, through unfortunate happenstance, finds himself embroiled in a series of high-stakes, life-or-death situations. Glad I clear up the confusion. The thing is, these are two of the best of an otherwise weak crop of new shows. Also, it's official: every show on TV now has a character named Chuck. Or Jack. Or, in some cases, both.
Heroes: Here's the thing about Heroes. It could be so awesome, all the time, and yet it...holds back, a bit. Like, last season, it took forever to get to the point (the first 8-9 episodes were extremely slow moving), but once it got there, it was some of the best TV you'll ever see. Every episode features many moments of awesomeness (cool fights or special effects or whathaveyou) interspersed with a couple lame or boring storylines (usually anything involving Niki). It's definitely worth watching, though, and it even cracked Paul's Personal Top Five Shows last year. That's a distinguished honor, shared by (as of the end of last season) The Office, Lost, Survivor, and Supernatural. The list is constantly changing, though, so stay tuned.
Prison Break: Mike's extremely correct when he says it's not the same show every week. Every episode introduces a brand-new, completely ludicrous, plot-hole-ridden storyline. Oh sure, it's fun to watch it all play out, but man-- shut off your brain if you're planning to watch this show. It simply makes no sense. This show sure does have a vindictive group of writers, though-- "Oh, so you're just going to quit our show, flaky actress? Well then, I guess you won't mind if we put your character's severed head in a box!" Yikes.
Journeyman: I really wanted to like this show, because I'm usually into the whole time-travel stuff (I was one of the two people who watched Day Break to its conclusion). But I'm just not feeling Journeyman. For one thing, the characters are boring, and for some reason, they hired a Scottish guy to play the lead character but force him to do an American accent. Why not let him cut loose with the Scottish brogue? It'd be so much more entertaining, like having Groundskeeper Willie as the star. ("Ya used me, Skinner! Ya used me!") But the main problem is that the time-traveling aspect just isn't interesting. He can't control when or where he travels, and when he does, all he does is complete some lame task like making sure some no-name receives a bone marrow transplant. Bo-ring! He ought to travel back 20 years and tell people that the Colorado Rockies and Arizona Diamondbacks are currently playing in the National League Championship Series, and watch people be all perplexed because those teams don't yet exist in their time. Oops! Now I'm talking baseball again, so I'll sign off for now...
He thought we were in the "pre-posting" phase. What's that all about? There's no such thing. Once a blog is online, it's meant to be posted in. You're not supposed to wait for someone else to tell you when to post. What would you do with your "pre-posting" time, anyway? Gather your thoughts? That defeats the entire purpose! Blogs are for writing whatever you want without giving it the slightest bit of thought. Just look at all the shmucks who have popular blogs. That's what the wonderful world of the internets is all about.
Yes, the story about my meeting the Orioles' manager is true. We had a nice chat in the Orioles' dugout, just the two of us, a few hours before a game a couple months ago. We shot the breeze about the O's for 45 minutes, and I expressed my opinion about why the team was so unrelentingly horrible. (And this was before they gave up 30 runs in one game!) I'd explain more, but I'm fairly sure that none of the readers of this blog (all three of you) are baseball fans, and thus would not enjoy the story on nearly as many levels as I do.
I suppose I should chime in on Mike's TV discussion, as it is one of the precious few subjects I can speak knowledgeably about.
Torchwood/Californication: I dunno. Never seen 'em. (Like I said-- totally knowledgeable about TV.)
How I Met Your Mother: It's a good show, but you know what would make it better? Dumping all the cast members not named Neil Patrick Harris. Seriously. That guy is legen --wait for it-- dary. The other characters I can take or leave, but if it were just 30 minutes of Barney's exploits, it'd be the best show on TV. Someone needs to get cracking on this.
Chuck: The lowdown: A bungling loser, through unfortunate happenstance, finds himself embroiled in a series of high-stakes, life-or-death situations. As opposed to the new CW show Reaper, in which a bungling loser, through unfortunate happenstance, finds himself embroiled in a series of high-stakes, life-or-death situations. Glad I clear up the confusion. The thing is, these are two of the best of an otherwise weak crop of new shows. Also, it's official: every show on TV now has a character named Chuck. Or Jack. Or, in some cases, both.
Heroes: Here's the thing about Heroes. It could be so awesome, all the time, and yet it...holds back, a bit. Like, last season, it took forever to get to the point (the first 8-9 episodes were extremely slow moving), but once it got there, it was some of the best TV you'll ever see. Every episode features many moments of awesomeness (cool fights or special effects or whathaveyou) interspersed with a couple lame or boring storylines (usually anything involving Niki). It's definitely worth watching, though, and it even cracked Paul's Personal Top Five Shows last year. That's a distinguished honor, shared by (as of the end of last season) The Office, Lost, Survivor, and Supernatural. The list is constantly changing, though, so stay tuned.
Prison Break: Mike's extremely correct when he says it's not the same show every week. Every episode introduces a brand-new, completely ludicrous, plot-hole-ridden storyline. Oh sure, it's fun to watch it all play out, but man-- shut off your brain if you're planning to watch this show. It simply makes no sense. This show sure does have a vindictive group of writers, though-- "Oh, so you're just going to quit our show, flaky actress? Well then, I guess you won't mind if we put your character's severed head in a box!" Yikes.
Journeyman: I really wanted to like this show, because I'm usually into the whole time-travel stuff (I was one of the two people who watched Day Break to its conclusion). But I'm just not feeling Journeyman. For one thing, the characters are boring, and for some reason, they hired a Scottish guy to play the lead character but force him to do an American accent. Why not let him cut loose with the Scottish brogue? It'd be so much more entertaining, like having Groundskeeper Willie as the star. ("Ya used me, Skinner! Ya used me!") But the main problem is that the time-traveling aspect just isn't interesting. He can't control when or where he travels, and when he does, all he does is complete some lame task like making sure some no-name receives a bone marrow transplant. Bo-ring! He ought to travel back 20 years and tell people that the Colorado Rockies and Arizona Diamondbacks are currently playing in the National League Championship Series, and watch people be all perplexed because those teams don't yet exist in their time. Oops! Now I'm talking baseball again, so I'll sign off for now...
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
TV: Monday edition
The fall TV season has started, and I've spent a good deal of my time sampling everything so you don't have to. There's a huge amount of programming out there, so rather than cramming it all into one post, I figure the easiest thing to do is divide it up into days. So, let us begin with Monday. There's a lot on Monday, so don't feel like you need to read all of this in one sitting.
Torchwood (7PM, HDNet)
A British show from the makers of the new Doctor Who (never seen it) that has a similar concept to Men in Black, but a totally different feel. In the US, it airs on both BBC America and HDNet, so I don't need to tell you where I watch it. Amanda once said to me, "Why is British TV so much better than American TV?" I've sampled a lot of British TV, and some of it's great. Jonathan Creek is one of my favorite shows, and it's never had an American version. But, can even the best British TV, or any foreign TV for that matter, compete with Lost? Boston Legal? House? Hell, even our version of The Office is loads better than their original, and even Ricky Gervais agrees. Still, while the best stuff is coming out of this country, others still have good stuff, and Torchwood is a decent enough example.
Prison Break (8PM, Fox)
I stopped watching shows like CSI and Without a Trace not because they're bad shows, but because they're the same week to week, year to year. That's totally not a problem with Prison Break (or P-Break, as I call it silently to myself). Even shows like 24, which necessarily changes its plot entirely every season, feel similar year to year. With 24, it was especially bad last year. After a great start, it was such a slog to the end. You watched it because you felt you had to, not because you wanted to. And the villain's name was Chang? What, did they just open the yellow pages for Chinese take-out, throw their finger down at random, and say, "That's our main villain, right there?" But now I'm in a position where I have the first five seasons on DVD, and have no desire to get the sixth. What if the seventh is great? My DVD collection will be 1 2 3 4 5 7. That's not great. The stupid box art doesn't help either. Can you believe Barack Obama got a little flak for saying he stopped wearing a flag pin after September 11 because too many people were using it instead of patriotism rather than because of it? I totally agree, and now Fox is trying to guilt us into buying 24 season six by plastering a flag on Jack's face. Asshats. But Prison Break doesn't have those problems.
How I Met Your Mother (8pm, CBS)
When I was in elementary and middle school, I watched a ton of multi-camera studio-audience sitcoms. Full House, Home Improvement, Seinfeld, everything on the TGIF, you name it. As I got older, I watched these less and less, until now, when we've only got one holdout: How I Met Your Mother, now also in its third season. Is it because I'm getting older? Or maybe it's because society is changing? I think it's the latter. 30 years ago, the powers that be insisted on including a laugh track in MASH, even though it obviously had no audience. If you want to go even further back and more obvious, Hanna Barbera cartoons like The Flintstones, The Jetsons, and worst cartoon of all time Jabberjaw had laugh tracks, and I think even the youngest of children understood that no studio audience would have the patience to sit through the 6 month animation process. Later, shows like Malcolm in the Middle showed us the radical concept that people can choose when to laugh on their own, and maybe they could be filmed like movies instead of like plays. That being said, there is something nice about having live voices laughing with you. If it's fake and canned, it's insulting, but if it's actually filmed in front of people, like they used to verbally tell you at the front of the Cosby Show, it's not so bad.
Also, it's a good show. There's even a website set up counting down to when one character will slap another. Hard.
Chuck (8PM, NBC)
Spy action comedy. I'll take one. But more importantly, this is the third show that's on Mondays at 8 that I watch. This is why the internet is great. I really don't have moral objections to downloading television; if I watched it over the DVR, I'd just be skipping commercials anyway. Is it stealing if it's normally free? I don't think so, really. And there are plenty of shows that I wouldn't have ever gotten into if it weren't for downloading. I caught up with Alias when I was sick during the second season, and ended up watching every episode on ABC after. If you miss an episode of 24 or Lost, you're screwed entirely, but I can download that episode and I'll be fine. And that doesn't even include foreign TV, like Regenesis and the aforementioned Jonathan Creek, or HDTV versions of shows like Stargate and The 4400. I love the internet.
Heroes (9PM, NBC)
Take the plot of X-Men, don't change it at all... and you've got Heroes. Heroes tries to be a little more real-world, which might be why it moves so damn slowly. I really like serialized shows, but only if they spend most of their time on one really interesting story, and keep it moving along. Like Alias kept seeming like it would be with Rambaldi, but never really was. Rambaldi was originally a MacGuffin, which is something that really doesn't matter but advances the plot, and it ended up being the most interesting thing about the show. This should, of course, not be confused with a MacGruber, which makes life-saving inventions out of household materials.
Journeyman (10PM, NBC)
Take Quantum Leap, remove the body snatching aspect, and here you go. What I like about this one is how, in the pilot, he buried a newspaper in order to prove to his wife that he's travelling through time, and so for the whole series she knows exactly what's happening. I really, really hate it when other characters just don't believe the main character, or he spends half his time keeping the show's premise a secret from other characters. Remember the 100th episode of Smallville, where Clark told Lana his secret, we all thought the show would be better for it, and then he went back in time and un-told her? I wanted to wring the neck of every writer on the show. Soon after, I stopped watching it entirely, like Without a Trace (same show every week) and Numbers (it's not about the numbers anymore, and if you replace an E with a 3 when spelling your show, you're an idiot).
Californication (10:30PM, Showtime)
On right after Weeds, which doesn't do anything for me, this unfortunately named show (that fortunately has nothing to do with the Red Hot Chili Peppers) is easily my favorite of the new season. Of course, since it's on cable, and they start shows whenever they feel like it, should it technically be called part of the fall season? I'll say yes, if only because without it, there's no new show that I really love this season. Every season's got at least one. One you call your show. Last season it was Justice, which apparently was only watched by the writers of this Superblog. God, that was fantastic. Somebody in the show had her head knocked off while riding a rollercoaster, and that still goes through our heads whenever we ride one.
And that takes care of Monday. Don't worry; future days won't be quite so long. Monday is just a really heavy day for television for some reason. It's actually a big problem for those of us whose DVRs are teetering on the edge of full all the time. It's not MY fault there's more on TV that I want to watch than free time I have.
Torchwood (7PM, HDNet)
A British show from the makers of the new Doctor Who (never seen it) that has a similar concept to Men in Black, but a totally different feel. In the US, it airs on both BBC America and HDNet, so I don't need to tell you where I watch it. Amanda once said to me, "Why is British TV so much better than American TV?" I've sampled a lot of British TV, and some of it's great. Jonathan Creek is one of my favorite shows, and it's never had an American version. But, can even the best British TV, or any foreign TV for that matter, compete with Lost? Boston Legal? House? Hell, even our version of The Office is loads better than their original, and even Ricky Gervais agrees. Still, while the best stuff is coming out of this country, others still have good stuff, and Torchwood is a decent enough example.
Prison Break (8PM, Fox)
I stopped watching shows like CSI and Without a Trace not because they're bad shows, but because they're the same week to week, year to year. That's totally not a problem with Prison Break (or P-Break, as I call it silently to myself). Even shows like 24, which necessarily changes its plot entirely every season, feel similar year to year. With 24, it was especially bad last year. After a great start, it was such a slog to the end. You watched it because you felt you had to, not because you wanted to. And the villain's name was Chang? What, did they just open the yellow pages for Chinese take-out, throw their finger down at random, and say, "That's our main villain, right there?" But now I'm in a position where I have the first five seasons on DVD, and have no desire to get the sixth. What if the seventh is great? My DVD collection will be 1 2 3 4 5 7. That's not great. The stupid box art doesn't help either. Can you believe Barack Obama got a little flak for saying he stopped wearing a flag pin after September 11 because too many people were using it instead of patriotism rather than because of it? I totally agree, and now Fox is trying to guilt us into buying 24 season six by plastering a flag on Jack's face. Asshats. But Prison Break doesn't have those problems.
How I Met Your Mother (8pm, CBS)
When I was in elementary and middle school, I watched a ton of multi-camera studio-audience sitcoms. Full House, Home Improvement, Seinfeld, everything on the TGIF, you name it. As I got older, I watched these less and less, until now, when we've only got one holdout: How I Met Your Mother, now also in its third season. Is it because I'm getting older? Or maybe it's because society is changing? I think it's the latter. 30 years ago, the powers that be insisted on including a laugh track in MASH, even though it obviously had no audience. If you want to go even further back and more obvious, Hanna Barbera cartoons like The Flintstones, The Jetsons, and worst cartoon of all time Jabberjaw had laugh tracks, and I think even the youngest of children understood that no studio audience would have the patience to sit through the 6 month animation process. Later, shows like Malcolm in the Middle showed us the radical concept that people can choose when to laugh on their own, and maybe they could be filmed like movies instead of like plays. That being said, there is something nice about having live voices laughing with you. If it's fake and canned, it's insulting, but if it's actually filmed in front of people, like they used to verbally tell you at the front of the Cosby Show, it's not so bad.
Also, it's a good show. There's even a website set up counting down to when one character will slap another. Hard.
Chuck (8PM, NBC)
Spy action comedy. I'll take one. But more importantly, this is the third show that's on Mondays at 8 that I watch. This is why the internet is great. I really don't have moral objections to downloading television; if I watched it over the DVR, I'd just be skipping commercials anyway. Is it stealing if it's normally free? I don't think so, really. And there are plenty of shows that I wouldn't have ever gotten into if it weren't for downloading. I caught up with Alias when I was sick during the second season, and ended up watching every episode on ABC after. If you miss an episode of 24 or Lost, you're screwed entirely, but I can download that episode and I'll be fine. And that doesn't even include foreign TV, like Regenesis and the aforementioned Jonathan Creek, or HDTV versions of shows like Stargate and The 4400. I love the internet.
Heroes (9PM, NBC)
Take the plot of X-Men, don't change it at all... and you've got Heroes. Heroes tries to be a little more real-world, which might be why it moves so damn slowly. I really like serialized shows, but only if they spend most of their time on one really interesting story, and keep it moving along. Like Alias kept seeming like it would be with Rambaldi, but never really was. Rambaldi was originally a MacGuffin, which is something that really doesn't matter but advances the plot, and it ended up being the most interesting thing about the show. This should, of course, not be confused with a MacGruber, which makes life-saving inventions out of household materials.
Journeyman (10PM, NBC)
Take Quantum Leap, remove the body snatching aspect, and here you go. What I like about this one is how, in the pilot, he buried a newspaper in order to prove to his wife that he's travelling through time, and so for the whole series she knows exactly what's happening. I really, really hate it when other characters just don't believe the main character, or he spends half his time keeping the show's premise a secret from other characters. Remember the 100th episode of Smallville, where Clark told Lana his secret, we all thought the show would be better for it, and then he went back in time and un-told her? I wanted to wring the neck of every writer on the show. Soon after, I stopped watching it entirely, like Without a Trace (same show every week) and Numbers (it's not about the numbers anymore, and if you replace an E with a 3 when spelling your show, you're an idiot).
Californication (10:30PM, Showtime)
On right after Weeds, which doesn't do anything for me, this unfortunately named show (that fortunately has nothing to do with the Red Hot Chili Peppers) is easily my favorite of the new season. Of course, since it's on cable, and they start shows whenever they feel like it, should it technically be called part of the fall season? I'll say yes, if only because without it, there's no new show that I really love this season. Every season's got at least one. One you call your show. Last season it was Justice, which apparently was only watched by the writers of this Superblog. God, that was fantastic. Somebody in the show had her head knocked off while riding a rollercoaster, and that still goes through our heads whenever we ride one.
And that takes care of Monday. Don't worry; future days won't be quite so long. Monday is just a really heavy day for television for some reason. It's actually a big problem for those of us whose DVRs are teetering on the edge of full all the time. It's not MY fault there's more on TV that I want to watch than free time I have.
Monday, October 8, 2007
What? Is this thing on?
Okay, so, I thought we were still in the pre-posting phase of this thing, but Paul went ahead and posted a few things without telling me, and then started yelling at me for not posting anything. Viciously. I mean, you wouldn't think he had it in him.
So, right now, it looks like this is all about Paul. All Paul, all the time. It certainly won't be for long, now that we're up and running... but as long as it is, let's talk about Paul for a minute. First:
http://www.billsaddiction.com/archive/index.php/t-3221.html
You'll notice that Mr. JoeyO11, at 11:51 AM, refers to him as "The Great Paul Folkemer." I've never been called the great anything, except perhaps "douchebag." Further searching revealed this:
http://www.orioleshangout.com/forums/showthread.php?t=50795
See, the Orioles aren't doing well at all. It's embarassing. When people ask where I grew up, I say Dickeyville rather than Baltimore, because it's less embarassing. So the manager of the Orioles actually calls Paul up to his office and says, "Look, we're clear out of ideas. We've worked our way down the chain, and we've come to you. How should we run this team?"
This actually happened.
In Soviet Russia, Orioles are fans of you.
So, right now, it looks like this is all about Paul. All Paul, all the time. It certainly won't be for long, now that we're up and running... but as long as it is, let's talk about Paul for a minute. First:
http://www.billsaddiction.com/archive/index.php/t-3221.html
You'll notice that Mr. JoeyO11, at 11:51 AM, refers to him as "The Great Paul Folkemer." I've never been called the great anything, except perhaps "douchebag." Further searching revealed this:
http://www.orioleshangout.com/forums/showthread.php?t=50795
See, the Orioles aren't doing well at all. It's embarassing. When people ask where I grew up, I say Dickeyville rather than Baltimore, because it's less embarassing. So the manager of the Orioles actually calls Paul up to his office and says, "Look, we're clear out of ideas. We've worked our way down the chain, and we've come to you. How should we run this team?"
This actually happened.
In Soviet Russia, Orioles are fans of you.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)