TV Watching 101

The Last Tick of the Clock

2010-05-25T14:42:00.000-07:00

Diminished expectations led to a feeling that 24 ended its eight-year run in decent enough fashion. The season was such a mess overall that by the time the finale kicked into gear in the last hour or so, it felt like the 24 of old: Jack’s nothing-to-lose attitude was in full force, President Logan’s duplicity was on display like never before (he literally had blood on his hands this time), Chloe’s loyalty to Jack had her wringing her hands again. The best scenes, though, involved Cherry Jones’s President Allison Taylor. Her despair and self-disgust as she came clean about her role in covering up the Russian president’s part in Omar Hassan’s assassination was devastating to watch, the honesty more gut-wrenching than any of the torture Jack doled out this year.

And what of our hero? There’s something superhuman (last week’s Iron Man-esque attack on Logan’s motorcade) and primal about him at the same time. (If this season had lasted any longer, we might have seen Jack start killing people just to watch them die.) He casually treads the line between being right and being crazy. Jack is often adamant that his actions are the result of not having anything left to lose. But I would beg to differ. He’s experienced love (granted, they were doomed affairs), and he’s got a daughter and granddaughter looking to forge a deeper bond with him. And yet these seem to fade in the background when he thinks his country needs him and only him. Even after eight seasons, I’m not sure if this is a character flaw or a flaw in the writing. One thing’s for sure, though: As the CTU drone loomed overhead at the end of the finale, beaming images back to those who helped him save the day, the look in Jack’s eyes made clear that, no matter how he tries to escape, his is a fight that will never be finished.

Eulogy for Lost

2010-05-24T13:47:00.000-07:00

The phrase “No risk, no reward” comes to mind as I attempt to digest the exquisite series finale of Lost, and it really applies to the series as a whole. Lost leapt across all genre lines, bravely encapsulating the characteristics of action-adventure, science fiction, mystery, love story, drama, even comedy. In the end, though, it was the characters and not the strange Island goings-on that carried us home, as this season’s flash-sideways stories were revealed to be an elaborate way to join these people together as they were meant to be. Faith, in humanity and each other, won out over science, as everyone gathered in a church to celebrate the connections they made, the love that developed, the everlasting friendships that would go unchanged by death, whenever that death might come.

If that explanation doesn’t quite make sense, I’m glad. Hopefully it will propel those who have avoided or abandoned the show for fear of its density to give it a whirl in its entirety and see how richly rewarded they’ll be by the experience.

The finale delivered some wonderful scenes as characters stuck in the flash-sideways were forced together (mostly by Desmond) and made to remember their lives on the island. Sun and Jin met Juliet during Sun’s sonogram; Sayid was reunited with Shannon as Boone protected her during an alleyway fight; the delivery of Claire’s baby once again connected Claire, Kate and Charlie; Jack performed spinal surgery on Locke, after which Locke was able to walk again; and the swoon worthy romance between Juliet and Sawyer was rekindled over a broken vending machine.

There were countless callbacks to events and lines of dialogue that have happened over the course of the show’s run, none more iconic than the last shot: Jack’s eye, seen many times opening in close-up, this time closing as he takes his final breath on the Island, Ajira Flight 316 ascending overhead, taking the remaining survivors (minus new Island protector Hurley and his sidekick Ben) back home.

The episode provided a payoff that, for my tastes, is unparalleled in the land of series finales, where the pressure almost always seems to get the best of even the most talented scribes. Here, Team Darlton (exec producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse) stayed true to the heart of the show. They realized that none of the Island’s mysteries would have meant anything if they didn’t have the right group of people expressing the right set of emotions.

When you think about it, six years isn’t really that much time for a show as influential, revered, and just plain popular as Lost. Kudos to Darlton for knowing how much time they needed to get to their endgame, and to ABC for listening and respecting their creative decisions rather than letting the show fester and continue long after it had worn out its welcome. Epic doesn’t even begin to describe just how grand this series was. It will undoubtedly hold up to repeat viewings and heavy scrutinizing, and go down in the annals of television as one of the greatest series ever made. One of the phrases the characters on the show are fond of saying is, "Whatever happened, happened." What happened in the case of Lost was absolute magic.

The CW: Boring Is as Boring Does

2010-05-20T13:31:00.000-07:00

Last and very least with their upfront presentation is The CW. To be honest, I’m surprised that, after four seasons of steadily declining ratings, joint partners CBS and Warner Bros. haven’t just pulled the plug on this unnecessary network. Changes are coming to every night this fall, not that it’s likely to make much difference when all is said and done.

Moving to Monday night won’t do much for 90210, which should have been cancelled after its low-rated first year. At 9pm, The CW’s inexplicable love for Gossip Girl continues, despite the fact that few watch and the show has lost any buzz it once had.

Two bubble shows make up Tuesday night, with One Tree Hill returning for what will likely be its final season. At least Life Unexpected, which follows at 9pm, has some critical support going for it, even if viewers have yet to find it.

New show Hellcats, about a college student (Ashley Tisdale, High School Musical) who loses her scholarship and joins the cheer team, is the latest entry being asked to hold a respectable amount of its America's Next Top Model lead-in on Wednesday nights. We’ll see if it lasts longer than The Beautiful Life: TBL, High Society, and Flygirls did this season.

The network’s only real hit, The Vampire Diaries, stays on Thursdays, where it will be paired with new spy show Nikita. If Vampire can carry its success to season two, it just might provoke viewers to stick around for Nikita, which will doubtless be compared to Alias.

For the first time in its short history, CW schedules all-original scripted series on Fridays, though this particular pairing will be short-lived. It’s been announced that Smallville is entering its final season, and the same is probably true for Supernatural, which is already going a year longer than its creator initially planned.

If things don’t start looking up for the network, it might be time to admit defeat and fold. There’s nothing truly unique on their schedule, nothing that you couldn’t find being done better somewhere else.

CBS Fall: Cautiously Aggressive

2010-05-19T13:36:00.000-07:00

CBS finds its fall schedule pretty evenly divided between shows staying in their current slots and shows being shuffled around. Three out of the five new series being introduced are directly in the network’s wheelhouse of crime dramas, leading to the question that gets asked every season: How much longer can CBS milk the popularity of a genre that should have peaked a few years ago?

Half of the Monday night schedule remains intact, with How I Met Your Mother, Rules of Engagement, and Two and a Half Men (with a richly rewarded Charlie Sheen now garnering $2mil per episode) from 8-9:30pm. Mike & Molly, a new comedy from Two and a Half Men creator Chuck Lorre about a teacher and a cop who meet cute at an Overeaters Anonymous meeting, gets the net’s most coveted comedy lead-in. The remake of Hawaii Five-0 caps things off at 10pm. Alex O’Loughlin, having already tanked in Moonlight and Three Rivers, gives it another go here. If this one doesn’t work, perhaps CBS will admit that their love affair with the actor has been unrequited by America.

Tuesdays are a carbon copy of this year: NCIS, NCIS: Los Angeles, and The Good Wife. Given that this lineup finished well ahead of the competition last fall and held up reliably when American Idol entered the picture in the first quarter, keeping things status quo is a wise decision.

Survivor moves to a new night for the first time since its second edition way back in 2001. The Wednesday 8pm slot remains relatively weak in terms of competition so expect Survivor to still be able to finish first in the hour. Criminal Minds follows, then at 10pm, Jim Belushi and Jerry O’Connell are The Defenders, Las Vegas attorneys who pull out all the stops for their clients. It’s being billed as a “comedic drama,” and could be an odd fit with the gruesome Criminal Minds (not to mention that the last thing any of needs after eight years of According to Jim is another Jim Belushi show).

The Big Bang Theory moves to Thursdays at 8pm, where it will be paired with the new comedy $#*! My Dad Says. Theory has really taken off this year and will almost definitely win the time period, probably siphoning more viewers away from NBC’s comedies in the process. $#*! My Dad Says, based on a Twitter feed and starring William Shatner, should settle in nicely as well. Since CBS hasn't aired sitcoms on the night in what could be decades, leaving the rest of the night unchanged is smart, with CSI: Crime Scene Investigation leading into The Mentalist.

Medium gets bumped up an hour to kick off Fridays, followed by CSI: NY on a new night, and new police drama Blue Bloods starring Tom Selleck, whose Jesse Stone movie franchise pulls in strong total viewer counts but is decidedly older-skewing. Look for much the same with this new show, though I expect CBS will still have no trouble winning the night overall once again.

Saturdays continue with two hours of Crimetime Saturday repeats and 48 Hours Mystery, while Sundays will consist of 60 Minutes, The Amazing Race, the return of Undercover Boss, and a new time slot for CSI: Miami, a lineup that should be poised for a strong second-place finish in the fall (behind NBC’s football game).

When it comes to cancellations, CBS really cleaned house, letting go of Cold Case, Numb3rs, The New Adventures of Old Christine (which could find a new home at ABC), Gary Unmarried, Accidentally on Purpose, and Ghost Whisperer (also an ABC possibility). CBS is definitely a network that knows where its strengths lie, but you have to wonder how long it will be before the crime drama corner they’ve painted themselves into becomes a trap from which they won't be able to escape.

ABC's Fall Schedule: Ordinary but Effective

2010-05-18T14:28:00.000-07:00

Stability is the keyword for ABC this fall as the network leaves many of its strongest performers exactly where they are right now.

Sundays will still be home to America’s Funniest Home Videos, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, Desperate Housewives, and Brothers & Sisters. It was thought that EM:HE and B&S would find themselves in other time slots, particularly the former, which has deteriorated to a shadow of its previous dominance. And at this point in its run, the network may have thought B&S too vulnerable to shift it away from the night, the only time period its ever known.

Mondays are the same as well, with a two-hour Dancing With the Stars again paired with Castle. Given the quick failure of sitcom Romantically Challenged, ABC may finally have given up on trying to launch a comedy out of Dancing, a wise move considering the boost that the lead-in has provided Castle this year.

One of the fall’s most anticipated new shows will jump start Tuesday: No Ordinary Family, in which Michael Chiklis plays the patriarch of a family that crash lands on an island only to discover that they now have superpowers. Obviously, the network is hoping they’ve found the next Lost, but they need to be careful not to set expectations too high lest they end up with another FlashForward instead. Dancing With the Stars: The Results is next, followed by Detroit 1-8-7, which sounds almost exactly like Homicide: Life on the Street but in a different city.

ABC Comedy Wednesday returns to fill the 8-10pm block. The Middle moves up a half-hour, followed by new entry Better Together, about three couples from the same family who are in very different stages of their relationships. Modern Family and Cougar Town stay put in the 9pm hour. The Middle has grown over the course of the season, but asking it to start the night may be too much. And while Modern Family is a bona fide hit, Cougar Town hasn’t quite proven itself yet (it’s been saddled with airing opposite the second half of the American Idol results show for months). 10pm has The Whole Truth, another legal drama from Jerry Bruckheimer, this one giving an in-depth look at how both the prosecution and defense work a case. It stars Rob Morrow (Numb3rs), and could be just as forgettable as last year’s The Forgotten.

It’s all relationships all night on Thursdays as newcomer My Generation joins Grey’s Anatomy and Private Practice. My Generation takes a documentary-style approach as it follows a group of former high school classmates who return ten years later to their hometown of Austin, Texas. Unless this show has some major critical support behind it, look for it to exit early. Though not the ratings powerhouse it used to be, Grey’s still gives Practice a much-needed boost and continues to bring in the important 18-49 demo. Plus, like Brothers & Sisters, it may be too long in the tooth to move to a different night.

Feel-good 2008 Fox reject Secret Millionaire got picked up by the Alphabet last year and will finally air Fridays at 8pm. New drama Body of Proof, where Dana Delany plays a neurologist cum medical examiner, follows, and stalwart 20/20 remains at 10pm. There’s no real flow here, going from reality to drama to news, but give ABC credit for keeping the lights on on a night that many feel will become the new Saturday over the next few years. Speaking of Saturday, college football will be back to fill the night in the fall.

In general, ABC doesn’t look to have the strongest crop of freshman shows. With the exception of No Ordinary Family, they all seem rather generic and nondescript. But with a trove of returning shows that should have relative sustainability, it almost doesn’t matter whether the new shows succeed or not.

Fox Fall: A Coupla Surprises

2010-05-17T14:12:00.000-07:00

With the exception of Saturdays, which will probably be home to Cops and America’s Most Wanted until the end of time, Fox’s fall schedule is almost completely devoid of reality programming, with a trend toward a scripted renaissance that seems to be echoing throughout broadcast TV.

House kicks things off again on Mondays at 8pm, followed by Lonestar, a new drama from Party of Five exec producers Chris Keyser and Amy Lippmann (where have you guys been?) that uses Big Oil as the backdrop for the story of a man living two lives. On paper, Lonestar doesn’t sound like the kind of show that’s going to set the world on fire, but the solid lead-in and creative pedigree might turn this one into a minor sleeper hit.

Tuesdays are comedy night, with Glee shifting up an hour to give some support to new half-hour entries Raising Hope and Running Wilde. Raising Hope comes from Greg Garcia (My Name Is Earl) and centers on a ne’er-do-well whose family helps him out with his baby daughter; look for plenty of wacky old lady shenanigans courtesy of Cloris Leachman. Arrested Development alums Mitch Hurwitz, Jim Vallely, and Will Arnett (who stars along with Keri Russell) created Running Wilde, in which Arnett tries to woo childhood sweetheart Russell, with everything seen from the viewpoint of Russell’s preteen daughter. Glee may not be strong enough for Fox to launch new shows out of yet, and it’s been a long while since the network found success with a sitcom outside of Sunday night, but you have to give them credit for trying something different.

Wednesdays see the return of Lie to Me, a bit of a surprise renewal considering how long the network kept the show on hiatus this season. Hell’s Kitchen, the only other unscripted hour on the fall schedule, keeps the time period warm until midseason. This is perhaps not as aggressive as Fox should be in the middle of the week, but it’s a tandem that should fetch them a decent enough number of viewers.

Bones and Fringe remain exactly where they are on Thursdays, though Fringe had better start holding more of the Bones audience if it hopes to keep this plum time slot.

Astoundingly, Fox is taking another stab at programming scripted fare on Fridays, with returnee Human Target and summer holdover The Good Guys—which has a preview this Wednesday before moving to Mondays in June—being the recipients of this dubious honor. The network has performed better on the night with reality shows such as Kitchen Nightmares, so it will probably take a miracle for either of these to make it into 2011.

The aforementioned Saturday lineup stays the same (no word, though, on what will replace the cancelled Wanda Sykes Show in late night), as does Sunday, where NFL post-game show The OT will be followed by the Animation Domination block of The Simpsons, The Cleveland Show, Family Guy, and American Dad.

All in all, this actually could end up being a fairly solid fall season for Fox. The mass appeal of the new shows may be questionable, but the net has done its best to protect them behind some of their more established series. As per usual, the network also put out its proposed midseason schedule, which shows that American Idol will once again take its place on Tuesday and Wednesday nights. And as per usual, I won’t give the rest of that midseason schedule a second thought since so much of it is completely dependent on Fox’s assumption that their fall lineup could be anything but perfect.

Fall 2010: NBC Likes Writers Again

2010-05-16T14:44:00.000-07:00

With NBC announcing so many of its new series pickups over the last few weeks, there wasn’t much to be decided but the actual placement of its shows on the fall schedule. The network got a head start on its official upfront presentation, which takes place tomorrow, by making said schedule public today, probably so that it doesn’t have to share as much Monday evening/Tuesday morning headline space with Fox, which also announces its fall plans tomorrow. The key observation: After last fall's Leno debacle created less real estate for scripted shows, the network has done an about face and scheduled dramas across the board, Monday through Friday at 10pm.

Monday nights continue to be anchored by Chuck, a marginal success at best, but a show that has proven reliable for the network on what has become a tough night for them to gain traction in recent years. Progressing with an action theme, NBC welcomes two new dramas, The Event (regular guy gets embroiled in the U.S.’s biggest conspiracy ever) and Chase (Jerry Bruckheimer show about U.S. marshals tracking fugitives). It’s always a risk scheduling two unproven shows back-to-back, and the network takes a chance that audiences will be just plain fatigued if they stick around for all three hours.

Tuesdays stay exactly as they were this spring, with The Biggest Loser leading into Parenthood. This is an extreme vote of confidence for the recently-introduced family drama, once again being given the benefit of one of the net’s highest-rated lead-ins.

Wednesdays see Law & Order: Special Victims Unit sandwiched between two freshman dramas: J.J. Abrams’s high-profile Undercovers and the latest entry in the L&O franchise, Law & Order: Los Angeles. SVU had a hard time in the 9pm slot last fall so it’s a bit surprising to see it moved there again, especially when it’s made some recent strides to get back on track in its current 10pm slot. As with Mondays, the network could be asking too much of audiences if they expect them to stick around for two hours of Law & Order, not to mention that another spinoff may be seem as unnecessary overkill at this point. Undercovers, about married former spies who get pulled back into the espionage game, is a question mark; Abrams’s name alone may not be quite enough to sell a series (witness Fringe), but the concept, along with what will likely be an aggressive marketing campaign, will probably ensure some healthy initial sampling.

The network sticks with a two-hour comedy block on Thursdays, with sophomore Community leading into 30 Rock, followed by The Office and newcomer Outsourced, about an American company with a call center in India. Then at 10pm, it’s Love Bites, a romantic anthology series that will feature two new stories and one ongoing story (with My Boys’ Jordana Spiro and Ugly Betty’s Becki Newton) each week. There’s nothing here that indicates NBC will suddenly see a spike in viewership for these decidedly niche comedies, and it seems like it’s been decades since an anthology series worked. (Parks and Recreation, by the way, will be held for midseason.)

This year’s midseason entry Who Do You Think You Are? returns to Fridays at 8pm, sharing the time slot with School Pride, a reality show that doubles as an outreach project as communities attempt to fix their troubled public schools. Dateline NBC continues at 9pm, and Jimmy Smits’s Outlaw has the misfortune of capping off the evening. Given NBC’s inability to launch a drama in the Friday 10pm time period of late (anyone remember Inconceivable or Medical Investigation?), look for Outlaw—which comes from Conan O’Brien’s production company and has Smits playing a former Supreme Court Justice turned private lawyer—to be one of the season’s early casualties.

Saturdays will be the wasteland they have been in recent years, with drama repeats filling the schedule. And as always, Sundays in the fall are reserved for NFL highlight/pregame show Football Night in America and Sunday Night Football.

Out at the Peacock are Heroes (which some had speculated might get a chance to wrap things up with a shortened episode order or even as a two-hour movie, the latter still apparently up for discussion); both of its medical dramas, Mercy and Trauma; and the original Law & Order, which was unceremoniously dumped last week with no notice to give producers the chance to craft an actual series finale after twenty years on the air. That last decision just goes to show that no matter what NBC tries to do to change its fate, they're never afraid to make a move destined to piss off loyal viewers.

FNL on NBC: Just Watch!

2010-05-07T14:07:00.000-07:00

A quick reminder that NBC begins running season four of Friday Night Lights tonight at 8pm. The beautiful thing about this season is that, with Coach Taylor taking a job at East Dillon High and new characters being expertly introduced, it's a perfect fit for longtime fans and newcomers alike. Tonight's episode sets the groundwork for a season that does what FNL has always done best: mix heart, humor, controversy, and a good dollop of gridiron action into an irrestible stew of emotion. Thanks to the cost-cutting agreement between NBC and DirecTV, which has first run rights, we're already guaranteed another (likely final) season, so tune in tonight with the assurance that you won't be robbed of the show's brilliance after this current batch of thirteen episodes.

Conan the Tactitian

2010-05-03T14:28:00.000-07:00

More than three months after prematurely signing off as host of The Tonight Show, Conan O'Brien broke his contractually mandated silence last night on 60 Minutes. Proving that just because you’re funny doesn’t mean you have to be a jerk, a subdued O’Brien refused to give in to interviewer Steve Kroft’s repeated attempts to get him to say something nasty about Jay Leno, though he did laugh at the prospect of Leno having been screwed over. (O’Brien is barred from saying anything disparaging toward NBC, but it’s unclear if that extends to Leno as well). All he would say was that he would have handled the situation differently, perhaps gone off to do something else instead of reclaiming the desk from a man he’d wished well just months earlier.

Among some of the more noteworthy quotes from the interview: On why he ultimately stepped down as host: “It started to get toxic.” On whether he was forced out: “If they wanted me to leave, it worked.” On any lingering hard feelings toward Leno: “Jay’s got The Tonight Show, I have a beard and an inflatable bat, and I’m touring city-to-city.” O’Brien says he’s happy with the decision he made, even if he disagrees wholeheartedly with NBC’s assertion that the network was losing money during his short-lived stint. This was a more serious, introspective Conan than we’re used to seeing, temporarily trading in his absurdist humility for a more down-to-earth version. He ended the interview by assuring fans that he’s doing just fine. Why wouldn’t he be? He’s captured more headlines than ever before, and in six months time, he’ll be back on the air at TBS, hosting a brand new show that will be seen Monday through Thursday at 11pm, with lower expectations (and a younger audience) than NBC could offer. That’s not to say he wouldn’t mind translating some of the respect he’s garnered into a few million more viewers.

House: Good Medicine

2010-04-13T14:44:00.000-07:00

Another change-of-pace episode, another winner for House last night. This time the hospital was on lockdown after a newborn went missing. As Cuddy searched for the baby, the doctors, paired up and scattered throughout the building, were forced to confront their fears and regrets. Chase and Cameron officially said goodbye to their failed marriage; Taub and Foreman took some of House’s painkillers and hallucinated their way through each other’s personnel files; Wilson and Thirteen played a game of Truth or Dare, with Wilson being the butt of Thirteen’s many lies; and House sat with a dying patient (guest star David Strathairn) and continued to mourn letting go of the woman he met while in the mental hospital.

When given the chance, one of the things that House does so well is allow its characters to stretch, to reveal sides of themselves we (and, perhaps, they) don’t know exist when they’re trapped in their lab coats. Last night, we saw buried insecurities come to the surface, unvarnished honesty heal old wounds, and, just to show that these people don't always have to be medical robots, even a little bit of fun. (Note to producers: Give drugs to Omar Epps’s deadly dull Foreman more often. He’s never been better than he was in this episode.) Judging by next week’s promo, it’s back to business as usual for the diagnosticians. But increasingly, House is breaking its patterns, and, in season six, doing something few series are capable of as they age: improving.

A Hopeful Revolution; 24 Ticks Down

2010-03-27T08:45:00.000-07:00

In 2008, Huntington, West Virginia, was cited in a government survey as being the unhealthiest city in the nation. Enter British chef Jamie Oliver, determined to make a difference here the same way he did in his home country: by instituting a new menu in the city’s schools. This time around, the process is being documented for the purposes of a worthwhile new reality show dubbed Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution (ABC, Fridays, 9pm).

Naturally, an outsider showing up to change the system doesn’t sit well with some of Huntington’s residents, and the local radio host isn’t helping matters by spewing his anti-health food stance on the air. There is resistance from the community and the school, the latter having its hand forced by imperfect USDA guidelines and tight budgetary restrictions. Some of the conflict, though, does come off as a bit manufactured. It’s hard to believe that the cooks who run the kitchen at the elementary school—don’t dare call them lunch ladies—would really be so averse to making kids healthier, even if it means they have to work a little harder. Or that they could deny that the processed food they serve (pizza for breakfast, mashed potatoes that harden like cement) is not good for them.

The kids aren’t necessarily helping the situation, either. They’re less than gung ho about the menu changes; much of the fresh food Oliver prepares is left on their trays. Speaking of which, for a town struggling with a fifty-percent obesity rate, it seems to me that those trays could be much smaller. Even when Oliver is handing out healthy food, it still looks like it’s in too high a quantity, and the fact that much of it ends up in the trash can anyway only makes things worse.

There are times when Oliver feels like a British version of hyperactive Extreme Makeover: Home Edition host Ty Pennington. He pulls stunts such as dressing up like a pea pod or having a year’s worth of fat delivered to the school parking lot. (Thankfully, no one gives him a megaphone.) But you certainly can’t fault his intentions as he comes across the Atlantic with the hopes of making a small ripple in a very big pond. His passion and emotion are clearly evident as he attempts to help a community that seems largely uninterested in helping itself. One of Oliver’s demonstrations perfectly sums up what he’s up against: showing kids how chicken nuggets are made, the tykes are disgusted to learn that it’s the leftover parts of the chicken—bloody bones, skin, fat—that are ground up and shaped into patties. But dressed up with a little batter and deep-fried, they still have absolutely no problem eating them.

Something I’ve been having a hard time swallowing is the current season of 24, an absurd mess whose last episode had me rolling my eyes and laughing out loud countless times. Let’s see, there was Chloe pulling a gun on an NSA agent because no one was listening to her; a rookie CTU field agent who defied orders and ran out into the open during a gunfight to save a wounded comrade, only to end up getting killed himself; Dana strangling a parole officer and hiding him inside a vent at CTU headquarters; and, seconds later, learning that Dana is yet another CTU mole (she must be the eightieth in the show’s history).

Mercifully, Fox announced yesterday after weeks of speculation (including rumors that the show would move to NBC) that this will indeed be 24’s final season. Star Kiefer Sutherland said in the press release, “While the end of the series is bittersweet, we always wanted 24 to finish on a high note, so the decision to make the eighth season our last was one we all agreed upon.” Obviously, he’s been working on a different show than I've been watching, because this hardly constitutes going out on a high note. Unless the back half of this season does a complete about face, this will 24 going out at its absolute worst.

There’s no question that this is one of the most groundbreaking shows of the last decade, changing the way serialized stories are told. It was also instrumental in changing how programmers schedule this type of show, giving way to nonstop, repeat-free airings over a shorter time period. Which is why it’s so sad that 24 has to end on such a creative low. A movie franchise is imminent (a script is already being worked on that would have Jack Bauer battling baddies in Europe), so this definitely is not the last you’ll see of 24. Let’s hope that, in its current form, the writers are able to pull things together just enough to make this season more than the atrocity they’ve weaved so far. After 192 hours, loyal fans deserve at least that much.

Breaking's Back

2010-03-22T14:00:00.000-07:00

Compared with what we’re used to seeing on the absolutely brilliant AMC series Breaking Bad (Sundays, 10pm), last night’s third-season premiere was relatively quiet. Guilt and retribution were at the center of the episode, in which we saw the repercussions of the midair plane collision that capped off last year.

Walt (Bryan Cranston, who also directed the episode) is a mess, though somehow he claims that he’s happy in his marriage when wife Skyler (Anna Gunn) confronts him with divorce papers. Seems she’s at least partially figured out what Walt has been up to all these months (she thinks he’s been dealing marijuana). In a last ditch attempt to keep her from leaving him, he tells her some of the truth, confessing to being a meth manufacturer, but conveniently leaving out the part where he’s either killed someone himself or simply been on hand as he watched someone die. Guess the guilt wasn’t eating at him that badly.

Meanwhile, Jesse (Aaron Paul)—whose girlfriend was one of the people that Walt stood idly by while she took her last breath—is suffering from an avalanche of guilt. He supplied his newly sober girlfriend with the drugs that killed her, causing her grief-stricken air traffic controller father to neglect his duties and send the two planes into the same flight path. Jesse has proven to be a paragon of recidivism in seasons past, so his stint in rehab likely won't leave him cured, especially with the deaths of 170 people on his conscience.

If the episode didn’t offer up one of the show’s trademark out-of-left-field surprises, it ultimately didn’t matter. The dialogue is so crisp and the actions are so sincere (even if they are oftentimes completely messed up) that they test your ability to feel empathy for this group of extremely flawed characters. “Look on the bright side,” Walt tells a gymnasium full of distraught students in a rambling speech about survival, this is “just the fiftieth worst air disaster.” Far from consoling, but oh-so-typical of this wonderfully deviant series.

Midseason Roundup

2010-03-15T14:07:00.000-07:00

The Marriage Ref (NBC, Thursdays, 10pm): The perfect example of why I don’t like to judge a show based on just one episode. The preview that NBC aired after the Olympics Closing Ceremony was horrendous and painful to sit through. The second episode improved considerably, but by the third episode, which featured Ricky Gervais, Larry David and, of all people, Madonna, the show had won me over. It’s a simple concept: married couples bicker over something petty (e.g., pampering a pet iguana, not being allowed to use the dining room table), celebrity panelists debate the merits of the argument, and host/referee Tom Papa decides who’s right. Jerry Seinfeld is an executive producer and will sit on the panel occasionally, though the show was actually better when he wasn’t there. Gervais and David, who joked about doing a sitcom together, were golden, and who knew Madonna could be funny? I went into this show with the lowest of expectations (especially after that awful preview) and have been pleasantly surprised. Considering this is one of NBC’s Jay Leno Show replacements, the comedy bar has more than been surpassed.

Parenthood (NBC, Tuesdays, 10pm): Oh, how I wish I could sing the praises of the latest offering from Friday Night Lights executive producer Jason Katims. Don’t get me wrong; it’s a good show, but I wanted it to be great and it hasn’t come close to that yet. Granted, we’re only two episodes in, so there’s still hope. Part of the show’s problem is that it has too many balls in the air, something that’s a boon for FNL but a bit of a detriment here. Craig T. Nelson and Bonnie Bedelia head a clan that includes so many sons, daughters and grandkids that it’s sometimes hard to know which kid belongs to which parents. Among the story lines: Sarah (Lauren Graham, almost completely transcending the tics that she worked to perfection on Gilmore Girls) and her teenage kids move in with her parents; Adam (Peter Krause, typically fine) and wife Kristina (Monica Potter) learn that their son has Asperger’s Syndrome; and Crosby (Dax Shepard) finds out he has an illegitimate son he never knew about. The cast is top-notch, and the writing effectively acknowledges that dealing with family can be the most trying thing we may ever do in our lives. This show definitely has the blueprint for success; now all it needs to do is get out of its own way and build something magical.

Undercover Boss (CBS, Sundays, 9pm): There’s been some criticism that this show, which sends executives from companies such as 7-Eleven and Waste Management to the ground floor, is too good to be true. On some level, I agree with that. It does seem rather suspicious that we have yet to see an employee who has a major gripe with the company. How is it that trash collectors and deliverymen seem happier to be doing their jobs than I am? What’s their secret? It is interesting to see what goes on behind the scenes at some of the country’s most famous businesses, though I’m unsure how long this novelty will prove to be entertaining. Already renewed for a second season—it’s this year's highest-rated new series—this seems like the kind of show that will get tired after a while, not unlike Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (you’ve seen twenty home restorations, you’ve seen them all). Besides, with so many people watching, how can the producers possibly keep this ruse going for long?

Minute to Win It (NBC, Sundays, 8pm): About as disposable as TV gets. This game show challenges contestants to perform seemingly simple tasks (empty a tissue box with one hand, bounce a ping pong ball across three plates into a fishbowl) in one minute or less as they attempt to win a million dollars. Like Deal or No Deal, you’re left wondering why the whole thing is so drawn out. The first half of last night’s two-hour premiere (I confess, that’s all I could get through, and yes, I know I’m contradicting what I said earlier about The Marriage Ref) only had six games yet managed to fill an hour of prime time. If you do the math, that’s about fifty-four minutes of filler. Host Guy Fieri certainly sells the enthusiasm, though that's hardly enough when everything moves so slowly. I don’t know about you, but I prefer my TV to have a little more substance than watching some guy bob his head hard enough to make a pedometer register.

Oscar at 82: In Need of a Facelift

2010-03-08T14:59:00.000-08:00

I'm not sure why, but somehow I ended up watching many of this year's awards shows, from the Critics' Choice Awards to the Golden Globes to the Screen Actors Guild Awards to the Film Independent Spirit Awards. So by the time last night's Oscars came around, I had already seen the same winners give the same acceptance speeches several times over. With this being such
a predictable year, at least in the acting categories, the producers of the Academy Awards telecast had their work cut out for them in order to make the evening slightly entertaining. Unfortunately, all they were able to muster was just that: a slight entertainment.

Hosts Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin should have made the proceedings light and breezy. Instead, many of their jokes fell flat, such as Baldwin calling the Oscars the "biggest night in Hollywood since last night." Really? This is Oscar level humor? I found myself wishing that Neil Patrick Harris, who opened the show with a musical number and has in less than a year become an awards show staple, had stuck around and worked the same magic he displayed at the Tonys and Emmys. Martin and Baldwin's monologue was a lot of "Hey, there's [fill in the blank]," as they ribbed some of the celebrities in the front rows. There were a few light chuckles, no real gutbusters, and George Clooney, ordinarily such a good sport, was decidedly unimpressed with the shenanigans, sitting as he did for most of the night with a glower on his face.

Outside of a dance routine inspired by the nominees in the musical score category, and performed by a mix of former contestants from So You Think You Can Dance (telecast producer Adam Shankman is also a judge on that show) and a mind-blowing troupe called the Legion of Extraordinary Dancers, there wasn't a lot of energy in the room. Ben Stiller tried to spice things up, coming out on stage in full Na'vi regalia. A Paranormal Activity spoof with Martin and Baldwin in bed together was easily the night's funniest bit. As far as acceptance speeches went, Best Actress winner Sandra Bullock's was by far the most engaging; she honored the woman who gave her permission to follow her own path, showed genuine appreciation for her fellow nominees, and had fun with Meryl Streep.

With the exception of director Kathryn Bigelow's historic win, the rest of the major awards were a lot of been there, done that. Mo'Nique, Christoph Waltz, and Jeff Bridges (who can drone on like nobody's business) have another trophy to put on their shelves. And The Hurt Locker now bears the distinction of being the lowest-grossing film to ever win Best Picture, which means that most of the audience couldn't have cared less that it actually won.

Back to the show itself, though, it's amazing to me that after 82 ceremonies, Oscar hasn't found a format that truly works for it. I thought they were on to something last year when they presented the awards as a story, detailing the moviemaking process in the order it actually occurs rather than the hodgepodge we get most years. Is it too much to ask that, for just one night out of the year, the people responsible for captivating us on the big screen give it their all to make sure that their most prestigious awards ceremony is as satisfying as it can be? If you ask me, Oscar needs to fire his agent and look for better representation elsewhere.

Thank You, Vancouver (and NBC)

2010-03-01T15:08:00.000-08:00

A two-week televisual vacation in Vancouver came to an end yesterday with the final two competitions of the XXI Olympic Winter Games—a grueling 50km cross-country skiing race and the host country’s glorious and oh-so-important overtime defeat of the United States to take the gold in men’s ice hockey—and the Closing Ceremony capping things off at BC Place, the indoor stadium that housed the magnificent kickoff festivities sixteen days prior.

If the Games’ launch was an austere tribute to Canada’s history, their close was more a celebration of its ability to laugh at itself, beginning with a mime-aided callback to the mechanical problems that kept the cauldron from being lit as intended in the Opening Ceremony. (Speed skater Catriona Lemay Doan finally got to put her flame to use.) There were giant Mountie statues on display, floating moose, inflatable beavers, and appearances by William Shatner, Catherine O’Hara, and Michael J. Fox. Yes, the Vancouver Games went out with tongue planted firmly in cheek.

Not to be forgotten, though, were the emotional highs and lows these Olympics produced. Injury-plagued Lindsey Vonn’s scream of pure relief after she won gold in the downhill. Apolo Anton Ohno’s winning three more medals to become the most decorated American Winter Olympian ever, doing it in a sport (short track speed skating) that is defined by its unpredictability. Figure skater Joannie Rochette’s strength and courage, taking to the ice just two days after her mother’s death and somehow delivering a bronze medal-winning performance as the world shared in her grief. Moguls skier Alexandre Bilodeau finally getting the monkey off Canada’s back, winning the first of what would become a Winter record fourteen gold medals on home soil, something the country was unable to do in two previous tries (Montreal in ’76, Calgary in ’88). Of course, I’m barely scratching the surface here; so many wonderful, unforgettable stories emerged from these Games.

NBC once again did an admirable, if predictably jingoistic, job covering this massive event. Bob Costas remains the consummate host and is arguably the best interviewer in the business today, able to cut through the bull when necessary but also be playful with guests when appropriate (his interview with the enormously personable Vonn on Saturday was a hoot). Some cost-cutting measures were evident: The network relied on the world feed for certain events, such as ski jumping and cross-country, leaving many of the decisions about what we were shown out of the NBC director’s hands. At least all the talent was on site this time, unlike in Beijing, where some events were called by announcers watching monitors back in Saturday Night Live's empty New York studio.

The network’s contract to broadcast the Olympics ends with the London Games in 2012. Bids are forthcoming for future broadcast rights, and ESPN is believed to be eager to put in a hefty offer. But I hope NBC is able to keep the Olympics. Soft returns from Torino in 2006 have since been supplanted by much larger audiences in Beijing and Vancouver. NBC even became the first net to beat American Idol a couple weeks back, thanks to a night that featured a quartet of American Olympic idols, including snowboarder Shaun White’s gold medal halfpipe run.

If nothing else, the Olympics add an automatic air of prestige to a network that has shown itself largely incapable of creating shows that might have the same effect. For a little more than a fortnight every two years, NBC is guaranteed to make the kinds of headlines it wants, ones that don’t end with a punchline.

The Week in Review

2010-02-13T08:32:00.000-08:00

The first full week of the February sweep period was bookended by major sporting events: the Super Bowl last Sunday and the Opening Ceremony of the XXI Olympic Winter Games last night (more on that later). The football game was decent enough, but can we please get over our alleged love affair with the commercials? In this DVR era, product pitches are normally something we fast-forward through; why should that be any different on Super Bowl Sunday? Is a house made of beer any funnier or easier to sit through than the excrutiating ad in which Megan Mullally sings “Turn the Tub Around?” And while I'm at it, the cute factor on that E-Trade baby has definitely reached its nadir, too. The only ad that resonated with me was Google’s, which charted the arc of a relationship from the first date to the birth of a child. It was captivating in its simplicity.

Here are some other highlights from this busy week:

House: The series broke with tradition once again, this time taking us into the workaday life of Dr. Lisa Cuddy, and giving the estimable Lisa Edelstein a chance to shine. We watched her try to hash out a deal with an insurance company (loved the scene where she confronted the CEO during his fancy business lunch), deal with an employee caught stealing drugs, worry about her baby, and wonder why her boyfriend is making bets with House about their sex life. Brief appearances by House and his team showed just how small a part they play in Cuddy’s stressful, predominantly administrative career. And if Cuddy’s world doesn’t always provide the dramatic backbone that House's or Wilson’s does, it’s still always nice to get a breather from all the (mostly incorrect) diagnoses laid out in a typical episode.

Lost: ABC’s promos promise that “the time for questions is over.” So why do I feel like the first few episodes of the show’s final season seem to disagree? There’s a whole new tribe of Others, we still don’t know how anybody was able to survive the hydrogen bomb blast, and Jacob was killed before we ever found out what the Man in Black’s (a.k.a. the Smoke Monster) beef with him was. Now I know we’ll get all the answers we want eventually. I was just hoping for more to be revealed early on, doling out bits of information slowly instead of hammering us with it all at once at the end. I still have complete faith that the writers know what they’re doing, even if this week’s Kate-centric episode felt more like wheel-spinning than story progression.

Nip/Tuck: With only four episodes left, the writers took the opportunity to really get inside the heads of their extremely damaged lead characters. Sean and Christian sat down with a therapist and, over the course of several sessions, tried to figure out why they’ve maintained their toxic relationship for as long as they have. For once in its outrageous existence, the show finally seemed like it was ready to get real, and for forty-five minutes it did. The last quarter hour, though, spoiled everything, with the docs' therapist getting shot in the face and the episode veering into the unnecessarily eccentric territory it knows so well. Who do these two think they’re kidding? There’s no chance of a happily-ever-after for lives as debauched as theirs.

Survivor: Heroes vs. Villains: The 20th season got underway and, having already seen how everybody plays the game, the twenty returning contestants had a greater camaraderie off the bat than any previous season, even ones that have featured all-stars. When you assemble the best players, you get balls-to-the-wall commitment, as evidenced in the very first challenge, wherein Stephenie dislocated her shoulder (medical staff popped it back in and she continued as if it were nothing) and Rupert broke a toe. Arriving at the Heroes camp, the tribe quickly caught four chickens, led by past winner Tom, most famous for slaying a small shark in his original season. Good ol’ boy J.T. is willing to trade on his hero designation if it helps get ahead in the game, while Russell—a quick turnaround from the last edition—is still trying to prove that he’s Survivor’s GOAT (Greatest of All Time). The Heroes ended up losing the first immunity challenge, undone by a puzzle, and Sugar was the first one sent packing. Not wanting the Heroes to get too down on themselves, host Jeff Probst spurred them on with thoughts of “getting even.” As if there’s any other way to play this game.

XXI Olympic Winter Games: Last night’s Opening Ceremony of the Vancouver Games was dedicated to Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili, who died Friday morning when, during a training run, he flew off the track and hit a pole. In a sad reality, Kumaritashvili, ranked 44th in the world, will undoubtedly receive more notoriety in death than he ever would have participating in the sport he loved. (Ironically, the country of Georgia also made grim headlines on the first day of the Beijing Games in 2008, the day it launched a military attack against Russia.)

With the bar set so high by the sheer majesty and minute precision of the Beijing opening, what could the city of Vancouver do to compete? Their ceremony was understated and beautiful in its own right, with a wonderful use of light effects, rich colors, and projection technology combining to take spectators on a tour of Canada’s provinces. An ice block cast on the stadium floor broke apart to reveal a pod of spouting whales below. A troupe of dancers frolicked through a forest of trees made of tapestry while Sarah McLachlan sang. There was a rousing fiddle-and-tap-dance routine inspired by a night out in Newfoundland spent under the influence of a grain alcohol called screech. A lone aerial acrobat movingly flipped and twirled through the prairies, set to Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now.” A slam poet provided a look at what truly defines Canada. And k.d. lang delivered a stirring rendition of “Hallelujah.”

The evening was capped off by the only noticeable malfunction of the entire ceremony. When it came time to light the cauldron, four pillars were to rise from the center of the stadium; only three cooperated. It did nothing to mar what had come before as hockey great Wayne Gretzky, NBA baller Steve Nash, and skier Nancy Greene lit the torch. (Speed skating gold medalist Catriona Lemay Doan was to have lit the fourth section but was left standing with nothing to do.) All in all, a terrific start to what should be an exciting two weeks. Let the Games begin!

Caprica: Wouldn't Want to Live There

2010-02-06T14:35:00.000-08:00

I had mixed feelings about the recently departed Battlestar Galactica remake for much of its run. With few exceptions (Boomer shooting Adama, President Roslin’s cancer, the final five realizing they’re Cylons), I oftentimes felt like the show was purposely trying to keep me at arm’s length. So dense, so complex were the story lines that at some point I simply gave up trying to understand what was going on. Unlike a show like Lost, where even if you’re confused by the mythology you can still get involved in the characters’ backstories, BSG spent so much time nattering inside its spaceships that the whole enterprise was an exercise in claustrophobia.

Watching the two-hour pilot of Syfy’s new prequel Caprica (Fridays, 9pm), I was relieved to find that the show was going to be allowed to breathe… kind of. Plenty of scenes are set in the bustle of the titular city, but an equal amount take place within a boxed-in virtual world, thereby recreating the cloistered feeling that BSG seemed to revel in. Fortunately, the story—Daniel Graystone (Eric Stoltz), Caprica’s version of Steve Jobs, harnesses his dead daughter’s virtual spirit and puts it inside the body of an early Cylon model—makes the show more accessible than BSG, at least when it stays with this part of the story. True to form, though, Caprica is not content to merely focus on its technology, introducing mafia elements, terrorist subplots, and theological debate that are more distracting than illuminating.

The pilot dealt quite effectively and uniquely with themes of love and loss, searing emotion seemingly setting the tone for what was to come next. But subsequent episodes have waylaid that emotion in favor of the aforementioned plot strands, rendering the show inert. Stoltz and Esai Morales (whose daughter also died in the same blast that killed Graystone's girl) share a great energy in their scenes together, with Stoltz especially strong as a man blind to what his technological advances are actually doing to society.

One thing the writers of both BSG and Caprica have never really incorporated in their work is a sense of humor. They fail to recognize humanity’s ability to find something to smile about even in the darkest hours, instead choosing to depict a dour world where everything is deadly serious. I guess that only makes sense when, given the self-importance of the subject matter, both shows are also guilty of taking themselves way too seriously.

24: Time to Call It a Day

2010-02-02T14:20:00.000-08:00

It pains me to say it, but 24, one of the most influential shows of the past decade, has lost its mojo, to the point where last night I gave serious thought to never watching it again. Really, this shouldn’t come as a surprise. By the time a show gets to season eight, it’s usually on its last legs creatively anyway, a fact that is even more understandable with a show like 24, so structured yet so narrow in its storytelling capabilities.

This season, in an attempt to breathe new life into the series, it’s changed locations again (to New York from D.C. last year) and has added some familiar faces to the cast (Freddie Prinze, Jr., Mykelti Williamson, Battlestar Galactica’s Katee Sackhoff). None of this has done much to energize the show, though. Prinze, Jr. and Williamson have made virtually no impression on me yet, while Sackhoff is saddled with this season’s obligatory ridiculous subplot. It seems her character, Dana, isn’t who her CTU co-workers think she is. A fresh-out-of-prison ex is threatening to expose her secret, all the while leaving viewers rolling their eyes and waiting for the next scene featuring our hero, Jack Bauer. (With so many moles in CTU over the years, you'd think someone would do a better job vetting these people.)

Jack himself, played with all the right fits and starts by the reliable Kiefer Sutherland, is given far too little screen time this year. Sucked into a plot wherein a visiting foreign president (he’s from a fictional Middle Eastern country whose name I can’t recall, but I know it ends in “stan”) is being targeted for death in the middle of a peace accord with the U.S., Jack just can’t so no when he thinks the world needs him. Of course, in typical 24 fashion, it turns out that the president (Anil Kapoor, the game show host from Slumdog Millionaire) is being set up by his own nefarious brother. And it doesn’t end there: there’s a nuclear weapons trade involving some Russian baddies, leading to a whole subset of characters we don’t care about, despite their bad accents.

There’s just too much inconsequential filler in this season of 24 to keep me interested. The scenes without Jack seem, more than ever, blatantly designed to kill time so that he can travel from one location to another. At least in past seasons, the subplots were generally interesting, Kim’s infamous run-in with a cougar notwithstanding. No such luck this time around. (On a side note: can someone please explain the appeal of Mary Lynn Rajskub's eternally peeved Chloe? After so many seasons, her one-note act has gone from tiresome to intolerable, yet she continues to be popluar among fans.)

Aside from a few nifty explosions in the opening hours and the shock of seeing Renee (Annie Wersching), undercover with the Russians, saw off a man’s thumb, this season has been nothing but lackluster, no longer delivering the intensity that used to be innate. The writers have obviously grown complacent and I, unfortunately, have grown bored.

Globes Broadcast Less Than Golden

2010-01-18T15:34:00.000-08:00

When the highlight of your Golden Globes evening is watching stars and interviewers alike try to maneuver through a sea of umbrellas on a rain-soaked red carpet, you know you’re in for a long night. (Kudos to the ever-amenable George Clooney, by the way, who not only went sans cover, but stood in the rain signing autographs for fans in the bleachers).

Perhaps it was the pall cast by last week’s earthquake in Haiti or maybe the dampened dresses inside the ballroom. Whatever the reason, this was easily the most subdued Globes ceremony I’ve been witness to and likely the most downbeat awards show in general this side of the post-9/11 Emmys.

Even Ricky Gervais, ordinarily a reliable producer of gut-busting comedy, was off last night. No one is better at putting a few cracks in the ego-filled room while still managing to crack said room up. Other than a wickedly funny joke at Mel Gibson’s expense and the requisite knocks at NBC, Gervais largely spent the night plugging his various DVDs, which got more annoying than funny each time.

Airing live across the country for the first time in an attempt to make audiences think the show carries as much weight as the Oscars didn’t make much difference, either. By the time next week’s Screen Actors Guild Awards come around, nobody will remember who picked up a Golden Globe anyway.

And just who did walk away with a prize? Film winners included Avatar and its director James Cameron (was it just me or did Up in the Air director Jason Reitman look downright pissed when Cameron's name was called?), The Hangover, Sandra Bullock (The Blind Side), Robert Downey, Jr. (Sherlock Holmes), Jeff Bridges (Crazy Heart), and Meryl Streep (Julie & Julia). Streep gave the night’s best speech, honoring her late mother for giving her the means to be generous and humble in the face of the world’s realities, and delivering what may have been the night’s funniest line: “I want to change my name to T Bone,” in reference to T Bone Burnett, the winner in the Best Song category.

The TV side was fairly predictable and leaned heavily toward series from Showtime and HBO. Toni Collette (United States of Tara), Michael C. Hall and John Lithgow (both for Dexter), Chloe Sevigny (Big Love), Julianna Margulies (The Good Wife), and Alec Baldwin (30 Rock) earned trophies, while Mad Men and Glee took series honors. (Glee’s award should have gone to Modern Family, in my opinion.)

The broadcast itself was not done any favors by its director, routinely cutting to cameras that were whipping around or managing to find the wrong person when a name was read. The Globes are famous for serving alcohol, and even Gervais was guzzling a beer on stage. But that doesn't mean the man in charge of what the audience is seeing should be allowed to drink, too.

A Monday Night Logjam, Plus Conan O'Brien Speaks Out

2010-01-12T15:02:00.000-08:00

In the new year, Monday is quickly becoming not only one of the busiest nights on TV (with 24 and the new Life Unexpected yet to take their spots), but also one that offers up its share of quality programming, as evidenced by last night’s crop of noteworthy episodes.

Men of a Certain Age: Moving beyond what was a slightly bumpy start, this TNT show has made great strides in recent weeks, delivering its best installment yet last night. Ray Romano’s Joe spent the hour cajoling buddies Terry (Scott Bakula) and Owen (Andre Braugher) with the details of the first blind date he’s gone on in twenty years. From an awkward IM session that had Joe pulling his pants down in his office to a black eye sustained while faking a leg cramp staged to ward off premature ejaculation, Joe’s tale was funny, poignant, and relatable to anyone who’s ever suffered the nervous pangs of a first date. It’s nice to see that this worthy show is finding its footing.

How I Met Your Mother: Five years and 100 episodes on, we finally got a glimpse of the titular matriarch. Kind of. We saw her foot, and at this point, we’ll take it without complaint. Turns out that Ted’s eventual wife is the roommate of the graduate student (guest star Rachel Bilson) he went on a few dates with. He hasn’t actually met the Mother, but he did accidentally leave behind that yellow umbrella we’ve seen a few times over the years. If that weren’t a big enough deal, this centennial episode also had plenty of Barney in it as he tried to bed a hot bartender who can’t stand guys in suits, leading Barney to a fantasy musical number in which he sang the praises of his sartorial standby. It was a joyous moment in a show that is often filled with them. Let's just hope it doesn't take another hundred episodes for us to see the Mother in all her splendor.

The Big Bang Theory: Having written this show off as a one-joke pony early in its run, I’m glad I gave it another chance last season. It still relies too much on that signature joke (have one of the nerds say something nobody at home could possibly understand, causing us to laugh not at the joke itself but at the fact that we don’t get the joke), though its characters are so earnest and sincere in their utter cluelessness when it comes to human interaction that it becomes funny despite itself. Case in point: a woman was actually interested in Sheldon (Jim Parsons, wonderful in medium-sized doses) last night, to the point where she was practically throwing herself on him, yet he could not have been the wiser. Big Bang is at its best when it doesn’t make its viewers feel like morons for not being brilliant physicists themselves.

Chuck: How great is it to have Chuck back on NBC's schedule? That’s a rhetorical question to anyone who’s ever basked in the glory of this underrated gem. While it too can get a little nerd-intensive sometimes, the show’s real strengths lie in the tumultuously endearing relationship between Chuck and Sarah. Their feelings for each other go beyond will they/won’t they; it’s more can they/should they with these two, given that the CIA forbids agents to get involved and they can’t seem to decide what’s more important, their mutual love or their desire to serve their country. The spy-jinks are amped up this season as well, with Chuck now equipped with a mega-powered version of the Intersect, chock full of skills ranging from dance to music to kung fu to surgery. But no matter what kind of trouble our heroes find themselves in, it’s always the quieter moments that keep this terrific show centered.

On a separate note, Conan O’Brien has issued a statement to address his feelings about the NBC late night debacle. In it, the Tonight Show host laments the position he has been put in, having his hand forced only seven months into his run. “I sincerely believe that delaying The Tonight Show into the next day to accommodate another comedy program will seriously damage what I consider to be the greatest franchise in the history of broadcasting… I cannot participate in what I honestly believe is its destruction.” O’Brien expressed concern for Jimmy Fallon, whose show would also be affected by the changes NBC has proposed, and said that he has no other offers on the table. The statement doesn’t go so far as to say that O’Brien is quitting, though he minces no words in saying just how disappointed he is by this unfortunate turn of events.

In his monologue last night, Jay Leno said, “I take pride in one thing. I leave NBC prime time the same way I found it: a complete disaster.” You have to wonder, if this is the way Leno feels about the network that has supported him for nearly twenty years, even now to its own detriment, why does NBC continue to show such allegiance to him? It has been said that late night audiences simply use TV as a sleep inducer. Couldn’t that mean that more people simply found that they were able to fall asleep more soundly with the unfunny Jay on in the background than they are with Conan, thus accounting for Leno's higher Tonight Show ratings? I guess at this point, NBC will take all the eyeballs they can get, whether they’re open or not.

NBC in Trouble: Do Peacocks Shrug?

2010-01-08T13:13:00.000-08:00

After months of speculation, NBC finally seems ready to admit that its experiment in torture also known as The Jay Leno Show—now averaging between four and five million viewers a night—just isn’t working. While no official changes have been announced, Variety is reporting that the network is about to move Leno back to his old 11:35pm home after the Winter Olympics come to a close. In one scenario, Leno would only do a half-hour show, focusing mostly on a monologue, with The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien to follow. If, however, O’Brien decides that he doesn’t want to be pushed around by the network that announced his succession of Leno five years in advance, Leno would take back Tonight and O’Brien would have to look elsewhere for work. Similar to what happened with Leno before he ultimately re-signed with NBC, O’Brien may have prospects at Fox or ABC, though those prospects would be greater if he wasn't finishing behind both Nightline and Late Show with David Letterman in total viewers.

All of these changes may be too little, too late for a network in freefall. Taking Leno out of primetime will open up five hours of programming that NBC is in no way prepared to fill. They are being aggressive in ordering pilots, but any series that come out of that group won’t be ready to air before the fall. Does this mean more episodes of Dateline NBC and reruns from the Law & Order franchise in the meantime? Probably. The network can also raid its cable siblings’ lineups and put on repeats of, say, a Bravo reality show or USA’s Burn Notice. Honestly, I’d rather they wait out the season with Leno at 10pm than throw on any old thing they can find as filler; at least Leno would be new. Dumping Southland a few months back suddenly looks even more boneheaded than ever. If there’s an upside to any of this, it might be that those who don’t subscribe to DirecTV may no longer have to wait until the summer to enjoy the brilliant fourth season of my beloved Friday Night Lights.

10 for '10

2010-01-01T10:10:00.000-08:00

Last New Year's, I made a list of the shows you could look forward to in the early part of the year. While my predictions weren't all that sound (all but one of the new shows I picked—Fox's Lie to Me—has since been cancelled), that's not going to stop me from doing it again this year. What follows is a list of the ten shows, new or returning, I think will be worth your time in the months ahead.

1. Parenthood (NBC, premieres March 1, 9pm)—Originally scheduled to premiere in the fall but delayed due to actress Maura Tierney’s treatment for breast cancer, the series, from Friday Night Lights executive producer Jason Katims, finally finds a slot on the schedule with Gilmore Girls’ Lauren Graham filling in for Tierney. It’ll be interesting to see if Graham can rein in the kinetic style she honed to perfection on Gilmore to play a more subdued character. The show’s going to be saddled with a tough time slot opposite Two and a Half Men/The Big Bang Theory, 24, and Dancing with the Stars, so it’ll likely have to stand on quality over quantity when it comes to viewers tuning in.

2. Life Unexpected (The CW, premieres January 18, 9pm)—There are shades of the kind of show The WB used to do so well in this drama about a girl named Lux (Swingtown’s Britt Robertson) who is fed up with the foster care system and goes looking for her biological parents in order to become an emancipated minor. The judge who hears Lux’s case decides it would be best for her parents (Roswell’s Shiri Appleby and Mad Men’s Kristoffer Polaha) to share joint custody of the teenager, leading the trio to become the family they never allowed themselves the chance to be. That description sounds almost sickeningly sweet, but then so did the loglines for Felicity and Everwood and just look at what wonderful shows they were. If The CW can reclaim even an ounce of that old WB creative magic here, it could pay some serious dividends.

3. Lost (ABC, season premiere February 2, 9pm)—By the end of May, we’ll all know what’s up with that wacky island. Exec producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse have their work cut out for them if they’re going to satisfy loyal viewers who have spent the last five years trying to piece together all the clues that have been so delicately doled out. Expect the roar to be positively deafening if they don’t pull it off, but I have complete faith that the ultimate answer will be as thrilling as the entire journey has been.

4. Southland (TNT, premieres January 12, 10pm)—The cable net is going to re-air the seven season one episodes (with added scenes) of this gritty cop drama, which got better each week, plus the six second-season episodes filmed before NBC pulled the plug last fall. Season two promises to focus more on individual characters and have less of an ensemble feel than season one did. If that means more screen time for the wonderful Regina King, so be it. It’s too soon to know whether TNT has intentions of producing new episodes of its own. At the very least we get another chance to see these fine actors in a show that, by all accounts, they have great passion for.

5. Spartacus: Blood and Sand (Starz, premieres January 22, 10pm)—It says a lot when a network is so high on a show that it greenlights a second season before the first one has even started. Such is the case with this swords-and-sandals drama from exec producer Sam Raimi (Legend of the Seeker). Generally I would say this type of show isn’t for me—I seem to be the only person who thought the movie Gladiator was dull and overrated—but how can you deny such an extreme vote of confidence in a television climate that is exceedingly cautious?

6. Undercover Boss (CBS, premieres January 7, approximately 10pm; thereafter Sundays at 9pm)—Never in a million years would I have guessed this would be the show CBS chose to air after the Super Bowl. This is another case of a network being certain that it’s got something good. As the title suggests, corporate executives get a bird’s-eye view of their employees when they work alongside them anonymously. CBS thinks they’ve got the next big reality franchise on their hands; they could just have a variation of Wife Swap. Either way, I know I’m intrigued.

7. Sons of Tucson (Fox, premieres March 14, 9:30pm) —When their real father goes to prison, three young brothers hire a con man (Reaper’s Tyler Labine) to assume his role. Something incredible begins to happen as this decidedly unconventional group of guys gets to know each together: they become a family. The concept straddles the line between hokey and hilarious, and the whole thing will likely hinge on Labine’s performance. This could be the show that finally gives his smarter-than-I-look shtick the spotlight it deserves.

8. Romantically Challenged (ABC, premiere date TBA)—What would you sacrifice to be with Alyssa Milano? That’s the question on the table for Shawn (newcomer Josh Lawson) as he struggles with his feelings for Rebecca (Milano), a woman who has two kids and an ex-husband. I won’t hold the fact that it comes from Family Guy exec producer Ricky Blitt against it, especially when it features the drolly hilarious Kyle Bornheimer, last seen on the unfortunately short-lived Worst Week. Fingers crossed that ABC’s decision to trim the episode order from thirteen to seven is not an indication of the show’s quality, but merely a symptom of the network’s already full midseason slate.

9. Archer (FX, premieres January 14, 10pm)—With It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia bringing in record ratings in its just-completed fifth season and the winning new comedy The League coming back for season two, FX finally seems to have gotten a handle on its problems in the comedy department. They look to add to that success with Archer, an animated spy series that combines the irreverence of Sunny with the twisted sensibility of an Adult Swim cartoon. A preview episode in September got good notices from critics, so expectations are high for this one.

10. Winter Olympics (NBC, February 12-28)—If you’ve watched NBC for even a minute at some point over the last year, you know that the Vancouver Games are coming. Gross promotional efforts should not detract from the fact that the Olympics continue to be one of the world’s great unifying forces. For two weeks every two years, we have a common goal of peace in the interest of sportsmanship. The Olympics go far beyond who wins and who loses; it’s about the experience. And that experience can be just as awesome for the viewer as it for the athlete.

Most of these picks are made on gut feeling alone. I've not actually seen any of the pilots so it's impossible to know for sure whether they'll be good or not. But as a critic, I always hope for the best. And I've no doubt that you, as a viewer, do the same. Happy 2010, everyone!

The Best of the '00s

2009-12-30T13:38:00.000-08:00

With so many critics making lists for the best the last decade had to offer, I figured I’d throw my two cents in for good measure. I hereby present my picks for the best TV shows that premiered between 2000 and 2009.

1. Friday Night Lights (2006-present, NBC/DirecTV's 101 Network)
No surprise to regular readers, my beloved FNL is the epitome of great storytelling. Realistic without being maudlin, uplifting without being syrupy, and one of the few shows that really makes you root for its characters to succeed. Television simply doesn’t get any better than this.

2. Lost (2004-present, ABC)
Many have abandoned this twisty drama, about to enter its final season, complaining that its central mystery has produced too few answers even as it continues to conjure more questions. To those naysayers I say, You’re missing the point. Lost has always been about its characters first and the strange island goings-on second.

3. Arrested Development (2003-06, Fox)
I’ll never look at a loose seal the same way again. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, you clearly missed out on the best comedy the decade had to offer. Overlooked by the masses for its entire run, fans should just be grateful they got to spend three seasons with the inimitable Bluth clan.

4. Survivor (2000-present, CBS)
The granddaddy of all reality shows, Survivor is still going strong (and, in fact, just finished one of its most compelling seasons yet). Many have tried to duplicate its formula, but few have come close to mirroring its success. There’s nothing like the original.

5. Dexter (2006-present, Showtime)
Haunting imagery combined with terrific storytelling dexterity (pun intended) have led to one of the finest crime dramas in a decade filled with so many over-the-top examples (I’m talking to you, CSI!). Michael C. Hall’s richly layered performance just keeps getting better as we continue to hold a place in our hearts for a character whose lot in life is to commit murder without getting caught.

6. Breaking Bad (2008-present, AMC)
More darkness here, this time in the form of a man trying to do right by his family by involving himself in the cooking and dealing of crystal meth. While the show has more than its share of shocking moments, some of the most jaw-dropping exchanges happen in between, e.g., Bryan Cranston’s Walt, a man whose good intentions have driven him to some gruesome actions, looking positively apoplectic when he finds out his pregnant wife has smoked a cigarette. Raw, complex, sinister, and painful.

7. The Amazing Race (2001-present, CBS)
A couch potato’s globetrotting dream, Race brings customs and cultures to your living room in a way you probably wouldn’t experience if you had taken the trip yourself. Both exciting and—dare I say—educational, this is reality TV you’ll never feel guilty about joining in on.

8. Rescue Me (2004-present, FX)
Denis Leary is revelatory in the role of Tommy Gavin, a firefighter haunted by 9/11 and a seemingly endless stream of personal tragedies. Perhaps more than any other show, Rescue Me is able to walk the delicate line between heartache and comedy, finding gallows humor in even the toughest of situations.

9. Boomtown (2002-03, NBC)
A great show essentially killed by its network. The innovative first season of this crime drama took a Rashomon-style tack, relating the events of an occurrence from different perspectives. We saw things from the points-of-view of the police officers, the reporter, bystanders, the criminal, with each successive glimpse peeling away another layer of motivation for all involved. NBC reduced the show to a more standard, linear format in its second season, castrating the scripts and sending Boomtown to its grave after only six more episodes.

10. Modern Family (2009-present, ABC)
USA Today critic Robert Bianco took some guff for including this comedy on his decade’s best list, but I’m inclined to agree with him. Less cynical than The Office and not as infatuated with itself as 30 Rock, Family achieves all of its laughs honestly. So what if it’s only aired a handful of episodes thus far. When there are this many laughs to go around, plus a team of actors this talented, how can it not be included on this list?

It truly was a great decade for TV, and it was difficult to fit all my favorites into just ten slots. Honorable mention goes to, in no particular order, Brothers & Sisters (a powerhouse ensemble), Eli Stone (one of the decade’s saddest cancellations), The Book of Daniel (too controversial for NBC, it may have been better off on cable), 24 (uneven on a season-by-season basis but groundbreaking in the way serialized stories are told), and So You Think You Can Dance (pure fun).

The next decade certainly has a lot to live up to…

Men: Not Quite a New Breed

2009-12-28T13:55:00.000-08:00

For his return to television, Ray Romano, along with his former Everybody Loves Raymond writing cohort Mike Royce, has created a dramedy that attempts to tap into male emotions that go largely unexplored elsewhere. While Men of a Certain Age (TNT, Mondays, 10pm) means well, it doesn’t quite deliver on its intentions.

Romano stars as Joe, divorced father of two and owner of a party supply store. Joe is not too far removed in tone from Ray Barone (neither one would seem likely to actually want to attend a party, let alone proffer the necessary accoutrements), though since Joe is a few years older than Ray was he spends a lot of time complaining about his worsening eyesight, how he looks naked, his distaste for rap music, and how many ointments he has to apply each day. Along the way he makes attempts to connect with his kids, some of which work, some don’t.

As good a sell as Romano is—and it’s great to see him in a role that doesn’t always require him to crack a joke, though he does plenty of that, too—he’s not even the best reason to watch. That honor goes to the great Andre Braugher, here playing Owen, a car salesman struggling to make ends meet at home while he battles his father, the dealership’s owner, for more respect. We’re used to seeing Braugher in roles that allow him to chew the scenery (think Frank Pembleton on Homicide: Life on the Street). In Men, though, he takes it easy, displaying a likable, Everyman quality he doesn’t get to show often enough.

And let’s not forget about Scott Bakula, no slouch himself as Terry, an out-of-work actor who has managed to avoid growing up but now finds himself wondering what he might be missing out on, though not enough to keep him from pursuing the young barista who’s nearly half his age. Bakula’s character might be the least developed of the three leads; still, he brings his all to the role, committing in a way that might suggest a bit of "been there, lived through that" for Bakula himself.

There’s nothing too big going on in Men of a Certain Age. These three guys, friends since college, don’t have their worlds shaken each week. Terry auditions for a Lifetime movie, Owen gets his dealer car downsized, Joe deals with his son’s anxiety, and they all make time to meet for lunch at Norm’s on a regular basis. All told, it’s a decent effort, so why can’t I shake this feeling that something’s missing?

It’s as if the writers think they’re going deeper into the male mind that anyone ever has, exposing great truths that have never been revealed. If only the result were as lofty as its purpose. Last week’s episode, the show’s third, did work out some of its cutesy, “look at me” mannerisms—it would do well to stop trying to see how many times TNT lets them get away with saying “dick” and “shit” in an hour—and started to move toward its goal: showing that there’s more to midlife than planning for retirement. Like Cougar Town, another age-centric new show that has gotten progressively better since its admirable start, this one may just need a little time to mature.

Winning by Default

2009-12-21T13:32:00.001-08:00

A little humility can go a long way on Survivor, a lesson Russell H. learned the hard way in last night's season finale as his arrogance and cocksure attitude cost him the million-dollar prize. That's not to say his bravado was unwarranted. He did find two hidden immunity idols without a single clue and a third with only a picture of a moss-covered rock. He controlled nearly every tribal council vote from the outset. And he strategized harder than any other player out there (for which the viewers voted him the Sprint Player of the Season, netting a cool $100,000 to add to his already generous oil company earnings).

It cannot be denied that Russell deserved to be in the final three, but a win was not to be. Convinced that Brett would poll the most votes—so many of his former Galu tribemates were on the jury—Russell got rid of him in favor of keeping the "feckless" (Shambo's word, and it certainly fits) Mick and coattail rider Natalie, the season's winner. Notice how I've just now gotten around to saying Natalie won? That says something about just how deserving I think she is. Sure, she was sweet and cute and let other people make the tough decisions so that she could keep sitting pretty. In this game, winning that million dollars should take more than that. It's easy to give the prize to the nice person, which, in addition to winning three immunity challenges in a row, is what made Brett such a threat. Natalie admitted that she saw strong women being taken out one by one, and so sat back and took a less aggressive approach; essentially, doing nothing is what won her the game. Russell offered her $100,000 just to have her allow Jeff Probst to say the words "Russell, you are the sole Survivor." She politely declined. Something tells me we'll be seeing more of Russell on the show's 10th anniversary edition, Heroes vs. Villains, premiering February 11. He may get that title yet.

A Solid Landing

2009-12-16T16:22:00.000-08:00

Having been raised on such holiday chestnuts as Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, A Charlie Brown Christmas, Frosty the Snowman, and scores of other treasures from the unmatched Rankin-Bass factory, I’m always a little skeptical when a new special tries to worm its way into the canon (Shrek the Halls? Ugh.) Disney Prep & Landing, however, is a truly worthy addition to the holiday specials of ole, and if you missed it when it first aired last week, you have another chance when ABC encores it tonight at 8pm (and again on Christmas Eve; it's also available on abc.com).

Prep & Landing introduces us to Lanny, an elf assigned to get houses ready for Santa’s arrival, a task that involves extinguishing fires in the fireplace, making sure the cookies don’t contain nuts, and transporting would-be attack dogs into a magical slumber. Passed over for a promotion in Naughty List Intelligence, Lanny is grousingly paired with a new trainee, Wayne, a dimbulb who doesn’t even know how to open a door but who you just know is going to help save the day in the end. In this case, Lanny and Wayne have to help Santa land at a house in the middle of a blizzard lest the young boy who lives there gets passed on by. It's a charming tale told with a degree of sophistication and humor that doesn't stray into cynical and/or ironic territory, the M.O. of so much family entertainment these days.

The computer animation in Prep & Landing, Walt Disney Animation Studios' first-ever special produced specifically for ABC, isn’t quite up to Pixar levels, but it has more sensory realism to it than Dreamworks’ more cartoonish CG films do. Is it fair to compare a TV special to a feature film? Here it most definitely is, as the creators have gone out of their way to ensure that the voice talent, including Dave Foley (NewsRadio) as Lanny and Derek Richardson (Men in Trees) is in top form, and the score by Michael Giacchino has an ambitious cinematic flair not usually heard in a Christmas special. Do yourself a favor and take thirty minutes out of your busy holiday schedule to settle in with these delightful Christmas elves. You wouldn't want to end up with a lump of coal in your stocking, would you?

Like Father, Like Son?

2009-12-14T16:21:00.000-08:00

Rita may have been a nagging wife but does that mean she needed to die? Not that that was the reason for her demise at the hands of the Trinity Killer—his last victim before being offed by Dexter—but you have to wonder if the writers saw this as a way to both end the season with gusto and get rid of what has become a troublesome character at the same time. (While she had ample reason to be suspicious of Dexter's activities, all Rita ever did was gripe at the poor guy. No offense to Julie Benz, who did what she could with a more or less thankless role.)

It was a thrilling end to Dexter’s fourth year, a season that grew increasingly schizoid as it went along, with Dex intent on taking tips from Trinity rather than killing him when he had several chances to do so, in turn putting himself at risk, never more so than when Trinity casually walked into the police station to formally meet the man who went from being a volunteer builder to a major thorn in his side. John Lithgow is a lock for an Emmy nod for his portrayal of Arthur Mitchell, quiet at the right moments, full of rage when necessary, a chilling and layered performance from an actor best known to this generation as the loud and zany Dick Solomon from 3rd Rock from the Sun.

And what of the episode’s final moments, wherein Dexter finds baby Harrison sitting in a pool of Rita’s blood as Rita herself lies lifeless in the bathtub? The moment was nothing short of Dexter’s worst nightmare come true, the realization that everything he touches is destined to be damaged and that fate has brought these events to bear. Given the show's timeline, it’s unfortunate that, without some kind of Desperate Housewives-esque leap ahead, we won’t get to see if this tragedy has the same effect on Harrison as it had on Dexter when he was young. Looking ahead to next season, though, it’ll certainly be interesting to watch Dexter juggle his own Dark Passenger while he wonders if one might also be growing inside his son.

House and Wilson: BFF; Gossip Girl, WTF?

2009-12-01T14:34:00.000-08:00

House is almost always at its best when it strays from its formula, and while it didn’t entirely do that last night, at the very least it put that formula into someone else’s hands, namely Robert Sean Leonard’s underused and always appreciated Wilson. In charge of treating Tucker, an old friend and cancer survivor played by the equally welcome Joshua Malina (The West Wing), Wilson goes through many of the show’s usual diagnostic paces, thinking it’s one thing, treating for another, then finally settling on what’s really wrong and going at it full bore.

In this case, the best way for Wilson to treat an unresponsive cancer is to double down on the chemotherapy, an act that ends up destroying Tucker’s liver. Unable to find a matching donor and ever the pragmatist, Wilson donates part of his own liver, only to find that the friend he thought would reconnect with his broken family is instead returning to the arms of his trophy girlfriend. Would Wilson have made such a valiant gesture if he’d known going in that Tucker would do an about face? Knowing Wilson, he probably would have.

Leonard played Wilson’s decision with the perfect balance of the character's need to do this for his friend and his need to do it for himself. And Tucker wasn’t the only friend Wilson helped last night. In a move that is sure to bite him in the ass, he defended House’s honor—an oxymoron if ever there was one—by intentionally outbidding Cuddy on a condo, rationalizing it by saying, “She hurt my friend.” Whether this is a matter of misplaced anger or Wilson's attempt to grow a pair, something tells me this isn’t the last time a friend will be hurt this season on House.

There were more friendship troubles over on Gossip Girl, a show that I haven’t watched in well over a year but thought I would check out again as they offered up a belated Thanksgiving episode. One thing was immediately apparent: these spoiled kids may be another year older, but they most certainly have not gotten another year wiser. Still up to their bed-hopping, backstabbing ways, why these teenagers continue to commingle despite the fact that their feelings for each other are lukewarm at best is beyond me. (I’d say the ratio is about ¼ love, ¼ indifference, and ½ hatred, a perfectly healthy relationship recipe, don’thca think?)

I can’t really comment on everything that happened last night because I’m out of the loop on so much of it, but here are the basics: Serena’s having an affair with a way-too-young-looking Congressman, Dan’s in love with Vanessa, Lily’s been hiding an important letter from Serena, and maid Dorota is preggers. If any of that sounds interesting to you, you’re a stronger viewer than I am, because after seeing the preview for next week’s episode, I don’t think there’s a chance in hell I’ll be tuning back in again anytime soon.

The CW—not to mention the hundreds of magazine covers these admittedly attractive actors have appeared on—would have you believe that Gossip Girl is a huge hit. The cold reality is that the show barely attracts over two million viewers on a good week (closer to three mil once DVR playback is factored in, but still a flop by any measure, though it did win its time slot last night among its young female target demo). There is a way to make a soap opera without having nearly every character be unsympathetic and mean, dull and toothless, or some combination thereof; the original 90210 did it for a decade. Maybe if the writers veered even slightly in that direction, more people would be willing to spend their time enjoying a little Gossip.

Giving Thanks to TV

2009-11-25T13:44:00.000-08:00

My blog entry about Dexter from earlier in the week, in which I expressed my gratitude for the show’s existence, got me to thinking about other series that are equally deserving of a spoonful of love. So in the spirit of the holiday, I thought I would shine a light on six gems that mostly fly under the radar, overlooked in favor of their more publicized network cohorts.

Breaking Bad (returns March 2010, AMC)
Overshadowed by: Mad Men
Why I’m Thankful For It: Two words—Bryan Cranston. The former Malcolm in the Middle dad (and two-time Emmy winner) completely transforms himself in the role of Walt White, a high school chemistry teacher diagnosed with lung cancer who decides to provide for his family by cooking and selling crystal meth. This is the one show on TV that is guaranteed to surprise you each and every week. From Walt committing murder in the first season to the midair collision that rained down plane parts on Walt’s neighborhood in last year's finale, Breaking Bad represents the epitome of the phrase “leave them wanting more.”

Brothers & Sisters (Sundays, 10pm, ABC)
Overshadowed by: Desperate Housewives, Grey’s Anatomy
Why I’m Thankful For It: The current story line revolving around Kitty’s (Calista Flockhart) cancer diagnosis and treatment is rife with tragic optimism. Flockhart has been tremendous of late, capturing Kitty with a delicate combination of fear and hopefulness. Her scenes with mom Nora (Sally Field) in particular have been tearjerkers. Add to that a wonderful guest arc by Gilles Marini (from the Sex and the City movie) as Sarah’s French lover and you can forgive the show its frequent trips to Ojai Foods, the Walker family business that certainly has its share of drama, though it sometimes strains to be interesting.

Greek (returns January 25, 10pm, ABC Family)
Overshadowed by: The Secret Life of the American Teenager
Why I’m Thankful For It: One of the most flat-out fun shows on TV, Greek also has at its core an on-again/off-again relationship that surpasses Mer-Der. Casey (Spencer Grammer) and Cappie (Scott Michael Foster) are made for each other, but there’s so much temptation—not to mention future uncertainty—all around them on the Cyprus-Rhodes campus that it’s hard for them to stay together for too long. There's no reason to think that their current reconciliation, coming at a time when both will be forced to examine what their lives will be like after college ends, will be any smoother than their past attempts, but watching them try to sort it all out will still have the vicarious thrill of wanton youth.

The New Adventures of Old Christine (Wednesdays, 8pm, CBS)
Overshadowed by: The Big Bang Theory, How I Met Your Mother
Why I’m Thankful For It: If you’ve never seen Julia Louis-Dreyfus outside of Seinfeld’s Elaine, you’re missing out on a razor-sharp comic performance. Not all of Old Christine’s jokes hit (over the years, there have been way too many sexual punchlines hinging on the co-dependent relationship between Christine and her brother). Overall, though, the show has such a hangdog presence, you can’t help but laugh—and having Wanda Sykes in the cast doesn’t hurt. Old Christine is a throwback to a time when situation comedies put guffaws over self-conscious style.

Community (Thursdays, 8pm, NBC)
Overshadowed by: The Office, 30 Rock
Why I’m Thankful For It: With so many throwaway lines, Community is the kind of show that will pay dividends with repeat viewings. The cast is jelling nicely, with less emphasis now needed on Joel McHale’s Jeff to carry the show. That’s not to say that McHale isn’t still front and center; only that the writers have found more for the rest of the ensemble to do. How can you go wrong when Pierce (Chevy Chase) is tumbling over drum sets, Jeff and socially awkward Abed (Danny Pudi) move in together—if only temporarily, and Señor Chang (Ken Jeong) continues to terrorize his poor Spanish students? The simple answer is, you can’t.

The Good Wife (Tuesdays, 10pm, CBS)
Overshadowed by: NCIS, The Mentalist
Why I’m Thankful For It: The new hit drama nobody’s talking about (even though about 13 million people are watching), this already stellar legal drama is actually improving on its own quality. The best episode so far was the November 10 installment focusing on a personal injury case for which Julianna Margulies’s Alicia teamed up with a neighborhood lawyer to argue religious protection under the First Amendment. Margulies is understated yet powerful as a wronged woman using every ounce of goodness she can corral to stand by her adulterous, incarcerated husband.

If you’re not already watching these shows, do yourself a favor and check them out. But whether you choose to heed my advice or not, have a safe and happy Thanksgiving. And when you’re going around the table listing the things you’re grateful for, take just a second to acknowledge the mountains of entertainment we so often take for granted.

Dexter's Killer Meal

2009-11-23T14:18:00.000-08:00

Time and again, we’ve seen Thanksgiving used as a backdrop for bringing up all the dysfunction that lays dormant in a family. But how many of those holiday meals have culminated in one serial killer being strangled with the belt of another? So it was on Showtime's Dexter last night, where Turkey Day was about as messed up as it could get.

Worried about the rage he’s seen bubbling under the surface of Arthur Mitchell’s (John Lithgow)—aka the Trinity Killer—home life, Dexter insinuates himself into the family’s Thanksgiving plans, at the cost of spending less time at his own home, where wife Rita (Julie Benz) is being hit on by a neighbor and sister Deb (Jennifer Carpenter, doing better work than ever this season) is still grappling with the loss of her lover and the fallout from being shot herself. Dex originally thought he had something to learn from Arthur, who seemed to mirror Dexter’s own outwardly idyllic existence while harboring dark secrets to which the world is oblivious. It didn’t take long for Dex to figure out that Arthur is actually very different from him, an abusive husband and father willing to lock his daughter in her room and break his son’s finger if it means proving who’s boss. The moral quandary that Dexter has always presented—how do you feel sympathy for a killer?—is amplified here as we get a glimpse of the monster that Dex could easily have devolved into were it not for the code he was taught by his father Harry.

Everything comes to a head when Arthur is rejected at the dinner table, none of his brood bothering to say they’re thankful for him. Son Jonah erupts, smashing his father's prized urn, and is then hunted down by Arthur, prompting Dexter to react. He drags Arthur into the kitchen, belt around neck, butcher knife in hand, stopping only when he remembers that this is not how his work is done. Few moments on the show have ever been more heartpoundingly terrifying, perhaps no death more deserved, and yet you know it can’t happen like this, with Arthur's family registering a hint of relief under their horror. Arthur Mitchell will get his comeuppance, but is has to be on Dexter’s terms.

Arriving home from this nightmarish scenario to be with his own family, Dexter tries to avoid having anyone give thanks. Ineffectual, young Cody quickly chirps, “I’m thankful for Dexter,” a sentiment that I couldn’t help but second, especially after the episode-ending revelation that the female reporter Deb now suspects is the one who shot her is also the Trinity Killer’s daughter. Boy, am I ever thankful for Dexter.

Texas Forever

2009-11-19T14:02:00.000-08:00

In a rare case of fixing what wasn’t broken and actually making it better, my beloved Friday Night Lights, now full swing into season four, has as part of its dramatic restructuring done something that few shows are capable of: adding characters who are so instantly vital and well-drawn that it’s difficult to imagine they haven’t been there along.

Last night’s episode was a showcase for the three fresh faces introduced over the past few weeks. Troublemaker Vince (Michael B. Jordan) stole recent East Dillon Lions transplant Luke’s (Matt Lauria) wallet, leading to roadside fisticuffs being broken up by the police. With Vince about to be carted off to juvie, it was Coach Taylor (Kyle Chandler) to the rescue, having Luke take the fall to avoid punishment, then dropping both of them off far from home and making them walk back together as they develop a better understanding of how to be civil. It might seem cliché for two guys to bond over fighting, but because FNL does it in such a subdued fashion, it doesn’t feel the least bit pedestrian. Both Vince and Luke carry a lot of weight on the Lions squad, so a mutual respect between the two will no doubt go a long way toward boosting the entire team's morale, maybe even getting them a little bit closer to scoring their first win (something that will also be aided by the effort Coach Taylor put into organizing a pep rally).

Meanwhile, Jess (Jurnee Smollett) is making Vince jealous by flirting with Landry (Jesse Plemons), which flirtation is sealed with a kiss by episode’s end. One of the things that FNL has always done so well is capture the interplay between men and women in the most natural manner possible; it never seems strained or contrived, and Landry and Jess are another shining example of this.

The episode was capped by the news that Matt’s (Zach Gilford) military father had been killed in combat, with The 101 Network’s promo promising that the next installment (airing December 2 after a week off for Thanksgiving) will be “the most powerful episode ever.” Anyone who’s been a loyal viewer of this magnificent show over the years knows that, in the world of Dillon, Texas, that’s saying an awful lot.

Glee: The Kids Are All Right

2009-11-12T15:21:00.000-08:00

For this week at least, Glee rebounded from a recent string of increasingly silly plot maneuvers to focus on the reason it exists in the first place: the glee club. Having taken an unfortunate backseat to some truly ridiculous story lines involving the school faculty, the kids were once again in the spotlight in last night’s wonderful “Wheels” episode.

We didn’t have to sit through the nonsense that is Emma and Ken’s sham of a wedding or Will and Terri’s non-baby drama, and, most merciful of all, we weren’t subjected to another rap rendition by Matthew Morrison’s Will, who is growing more obnoxiously smug each week. (Did we really need to see him sing “Bust a Move” and “The Thong Song” in the last episode?) What we got instead was a terrific wheelchair-bound performance of “Proud Mary,” a worried Quinn (Dianna Agron) putting pressure on Finn (Cory Monteith) to help with her medical bills, and Sue Sylvester (the incomparable Jane Lynch) showing compassion for a student named Becky, who suffers from Down’s Syndrome. In a quiet but powerful revelation, we learn that Sue has a sister with Down’s, and the short scene the two shared during Sue’s visit to an assisted living facility was one of the surly cheerleading coach’s most human moments. This plot strand also provided Sue with the best line of the night, when Becky complained that Sue was pushing her too hard: “Try auditioning for Baywatch and being told they’re going in another direction. That’s hard.”

Sue didn’t provide the episode’s only heartfelt moment, though. There was some great stuff going on between freshly out Kurt (Chris Colfer) and his unexpectedly understanding dad Burt, played with such kindness by Mike O’Malley. Kurt’s sexuality isn’t Burt’s favorite thing, but that’s his kid, damn it, and nobody’s gonna keep him down. Burt sticks up for Kurt even when it means putting up with anonymous phone calls calling his son a fag. Colfer and O’Malley do a nice job of feeling each other out, a delicate father-son balancing act that produces some of Glee’s most touching scenes. If the show can keep delivering the way it did last night, the early potential that seemed destined to be squandered in desperate fits of absurdity may just be realized in all its glory.

V is for Vexing

2009-11-11T09:34:00.000-08:00

I was seven years old when the second V miniseries aired on NBC and I can remember going to school the next day not being able to get the image of an alien lizard baby out of my head. That kind of nostalgia had me particularly excited for ABC’s remake of this seminal sci-fi event. It is with a heavy heart that I report that the new series, which is airing four episodes during the November sweep before returning to finish its first season in the spring, is leaden, ultra-serious, and borderline dull.

Now, I’m not quite ready to write the show off just yet, but if things don’t pick up by the end of this four-episode introductory period, the likelihood of my coming back later on will be minuscule. For the uninitiated, V starts with the appearance of a series of spaceships hovering over major cities across the globe, from Paris to Rio de Janiero to Los Angeles to New York, which is where most of the action takes place. Or rather doesn’t, because so far there’s been very little action (more on that later). On board these vessels are Visitors, or Vs, a human-looking alien species with a hidden lizard core who claim to want a fair exchange: we give them some of our water and minerals, they share with us their advanced technology.

The Vs’ duplicitous mantra—“We are of peace, always”—charms some, while others simply aren’t willing to buy into their message, and herein lies one of the show’s biggest problems. Too many people are way too accepting of this sudden unearthly manifestation. The general population doesn’t seem all that concerned by the fact that giant spaceships have arrived. There are a few protests here and there, people carrying picket signs and whatnot, but nobody looks to be overly unnerved or scared by the Vs presence. Hell, the Visitors are even offering tours of their ships and people are more than willing to go, no questions asked. With no indication of brainwashing, this just doesn’t seem all that plausible, especially in post-9/11 New York (and, yes, I realize I just chided the plausibility of an alien invasion story).

Perhaps the whole enterprise would be less quizzical if the actors were capable of selling it better. Lost’s Elizabeth Mitchell is FBI agent Erica Evans, who has just discovered that her partner of seven years is really a V, meaning they’ve actually been living among us for some time. Mitchell is unconvincing at playing FBI, but at least she’s able to display some emotion. That’s more than can be said for the rest of the cast, which also includes The Nine’s Lourdes Benedicto, and Joel Gretsch from The 4400, many of whom are too stiff to evoke any real feeling. While this makes sense for the Vs, who are only pretending to be human—their leader is Firefly’s Morena Baccarin—why are so many others walking around listless and sapped of energy? Scott Wolf (Party of Five) is a saving grace as a slick TV newsman interested in using the Vs to advance his career; if only the show spent more time on his quandary between moral obligation and journalistic necessity.

In general, I don’t have much patience for sci-fi product that is nothing more than a series of action pieces strung together without a story. Yet I find myself longing for some of that in this new version of V. The excitement that should be inherent in this kind of story is being superseded by a talky, almost cheesy show that does nothing to replace my affection for the ‘80s original. Judging from the second week’s ratings, I’m not alone in this assessment; the show lost nearly four million viewers from its premiere, still enough to be considered an early success but an alarming dropoff, especially for a show that’s going to be taking a three-month hiatus. Only time will tell whether these Visitors are here to stay.

We Need to Talk (Or Do We?)

2009-11-10T16:03:00.000-08:00

Falling under the heading of “just what we needed,” two new late night talk shows made their debuts this week. First up was Fox’s The Wanda Sykes Show (Saturdays, 11pm), a marked improvement over the show it replaces, the self-satisfied and laugh-free Talkshow with Spike Feresten. And while better is, well, better, don’t look for Sykes to pose any kind of threat to Saturday Night Live anytime soon, even though her premiere ratings were literally 100% higher than Feresten’s numbers last season.

From the first episode, it appears that Sykes’s stock in trade is going to be political humor. It’s nice to see that she’s not being asked to steer clear of harping on her corporate brethren over at Fox News—she and those conservative pundits certainly don’t see eye-to-eye—but a full nine minutes of politics in her opening monologue grew tiresome, mainly because none of it was all that funny, a shame given how gifted a comedian Sykes really is. Things perked up a bit during the “Wandarama” segment, her attempt at a “Weekend Update”-type newscall, which was capped by a bit about recycling sex toys and had more uses of the word “dildo” than I think I’ve ever heard on network television.

What about the guests, you ask? This week's trio—Amazing Race host Phil Keoghan, 24's Mary Lynn Rajskub, and Daryl "Chill" Mitchell from Brothers—showed up during a panel discussion at “Wanda’s Bar,” where topics included spanking children and a space hotel set for 2012 (according to the new movie, won't we be in the middle of an apocalypse by then?), all served up with a smart cocktail. This format has been done on Chelsea Lately for years (minus the on-camera booze), but it’s nice to get away from celeb appearances where all they want to do is plug their latest project; here they have to engage in talk about current events. Sykes herself has said that she’s not trying to reinvent the talk show, and that lack of inventiveness in itself is surprisingly refreshing. More than anything, though, The Wanda Sykes Show benefits from the looseness of its star. Sykes is clearly having a good time (can you say that about Letterman?), doesn’t seem nervous in the slightest (hello, Jimmy Fallon), and is comfortable enough in her own skin to make her audience sit back and relax.

George Lopez, on the other hand, seems to want his audience to be anything but relaxed. He’s got an ebullient crowd with him in the studio and spent much of last night’s debut of Lopez Tonight (TBS, Monday-Thursday, 11pm) trying to yell over them, though he was still using his outside voice even when interviewing his guests, if you call letting Eva Longoria Parker talk about how she got a year’s supply of M&Ms an interview.

If Sykes’s hot-button topic of choice is politics, Lopez’s is race. That makes for an edgier monologue than Leno would ever deliver, but I can’t shake the feeling that Lopez is pandering to a segment of the population he thinks wouldn’t get the joke if he dared to give them something smarter. (Here’s a sample punchline re: the slogan for 50 Cent’s fragrance: “Manly, yes, but the bitches like it, too.”) It’s one thing to be able to make ethnocentric jokes, and another thing altogether to dumb yourself down for it. Like Sykes, Lopez isn’t trying anything groundbreaking with the format of his show. And also like Sykes, who is the first black woman to host a late night network talk show, sometimes simply being a groundbreaking individual (Lopez is the first Latino to host a late night show) can be enough. But I wouldn’t fault either of them if they brought a little more funny to the proceedings.

Definitely delivering the comedy goods last night was CBS’s How I Met Your Mother. What do you get when you put Alan Thicke, a Storm Trooper, a guy dressed as the Lost in Space robot, a porno called “Archisexture,” and a ballooning Neil Patrick Harris together? Easily one of the funniest episodes of the season, that’s what.

After realizing that Robin and Barney are miserable as a couple, Ted, Marshall, and Lily set out to break them up by culling things that would remind them of their biggest fights. They needn’t have gone to so much trouble, though, as Robin and Barney—whose relationship has turned them ugly and fat, respectively—see their sorry reflections in a restaurant window and decide that this just isn’t working for them. It’s sad that something Barney spent the majority of last season pining for ultimately didn’t work out, but how great will it be to have the merry womanizer back to his old tricks? Thankfully, since he and Robin are “back together as friends,” there’s no damage to the core quintet. The best thing to come out of the episode, however, is the promise of another Robin Sparkles video. If you haven’t seen the hilarious video for “Let’s Go To the Mall,” click here and soak up the kitschy goodness that is undoubtedly one of Mother’s series highpoints.

White Collar Needs More Color

2009-11-06T13:43:00.000-08:00

Just like most of USA’s other original series—Monk, Psych, Royal Pains, Burn Notice—new entry White Collar (Fridays, 10pm) is three parts case-of-the-week, one part lighthearted romp, with a minor dollop of character on top in an attempt to keep things from getting too stale. Like those other shows, though, White Collar is also about as disposable as a paper towel, leaving viewers with no compelling reason to come back for more.

Sure, Matt Bomer (Chuck) works his good looks and natural charm for all they’re worth as Neal Caffrey, a white collar criminal who escapes from prison only to find himself strapped with an ankle bracelet and working as a consultant for the FBI in exchange for not going back behind bars. And Tim DeKay, who, in addition to a lead role on HBO’s short-lived marital drama Tell Me You Love Me, has guest-starred on everything from Seinfeld to The Practice to NCIS, holds a nice middle ground between loose and uptight as Neal’s captor and FBI handler, Peter Burke.

But as with so many shows that rely on this format, there’s no there there. Neal and Peter run around New York, using Neal’s inside intel and Peter’s law enforcement skills to catch forgers and counterfeiters. They banter with an easy chemistry (far better than that between DeKay and Tiffani Theissen, who plays his somewhat neglected wife), manage to get their man in the end, and, as ever, we get to watch them do it all over again next week. Where’s the substance? Unfortunately, there isn't much of it on display, but there are hints of a better show lurking in here somewhere: Diahann Carroll showed up in the pilot as a wealthy widow who gave Neal a place to stay, Willie Garson (Sex and the City) is an intriguing presence as an old friend of Neal’s, and there’s an ongoing story line involving Neal’s ex-girlfriend and his obsession with finding her. More time allocated to any of these things would be a welcome break from the crime aspect (two episodes in, I'm already bored with white collar crime).

There’s an irony to the fact that USA’s slogan is “Characters Welcome,” and yet the network seems to keep churning out the same show in different locales, ultimately putting character on the back burner to solving some kind of mystery. (To its credit, the network does allow its shows to spotlight their locations nicely, for example, the Hamptons in Royal Pains and Albuquerque in In Plain Sight.) How about giving us a show that actually puts character first and plot second? I’m not talking about some guy with a lot of quirks like Monk has, either; tics don’t equal character. I’m talking about an honest-to-God person, someone we can all relate to and care about, someone who doesn’t have to flash a badge or carry a gun to make themselves seem more interesting than they really are.

Dance: The Good, the Bad and the Ugh-ly

2009-11-04T15:20:00.000-08:00

Certainly a mistake from a ratings standpoint, it’s still too early to say whether this first-ever fall edition of Fox’s So You Think You Can Dance was a good idea or not. In last Monday’s pre-competition introduction to this season’s top 20, the dancers were grouped according to their areas of specialty and, boy, what a show that was, truly some of the best dancing I’ve ever seen. In the two performance shows since then, however, the results have been hit or miss. And with this show being so much about breaking dancers out of their comfort zones, it would appear that many of this season’s contestants have some tough work ahead of them.

Suffering the most so far have been the ballroom routines, particularly last night’s clunky samba, performed by the sunshiny Channing and the now eliminated Phillip, a tap dancer who, in my opinion, didn’t have what it took to make the top 20 in the first place; and a Viennese waltz from Ashleigh and Jakob that was more sleepy than romantic. Things ended on a high note, though, when Ryan and Ellenore took the stage for an Argentine tango, with Ellenore not missing a step even as her dress was caught on her heel for nearly half the dance.

Where SYTYCD always excels is in the worlds of jazz and contemporary dance, which allow for a greater emphasis on artistic expression and less scrutiny of posture and toe pointing. The standout last night was a breathtaking contemporary routine from choreographer Stacey Tookey, danced brilliantly by early frontrunners Kathryn and Legacy, a b-boy completely out of his element; the way these two contorted and entwined their bodies was truly something to behold. Also interesting was a jazz number from the wonderfully warped and imaginative mind of Wade Robson. Dancers Peter and Pauline were given the characters of two people seeking revenge on Van Gogh after being excised from his original version of “Starry Night,” an inventive idea that went further in concept than it did in execution. And I can’t forget to mention another terrific Bollywood routine performed with the utmost confidence and maturity by the show’s youngest pairing, Mollee and Nathan.

The judges took a risk this season and invited three tappers to be in the top 20 (previously none had made it that far). Unfortunately, that risk didn’t pay off, and two of them, the aforementioned Phillip, along with Bianca—who couldn’t get a rise out of the judges with a gospel-inspired Broadway number—were sent home. With any luck, the remaining dancers will find themselves growing and improving their skills. That is the whole point of the show after all; it just may take a little longer than usual to get there. While fewer viewers are devoting their time to the show than they do in the less competitive summer months, So You Think You Can Dance continues to be an exciting showcase for an art form that has seen a truly worthy renaissance.

Back Under the Lights

2009-10-31T08:05:00.000-07:00

Exclusive as it is to DirecTV—at least until NBC airs it months from now—I had to miss the official season premiere of my beloved Friday Night Lights this past Wednesday because my satellite service has been down most of the week (somehow the dish got out of alignment). Luckily, I got it back yesterday and was able to catch The 101 Network’s encore of the premiere, a sort of rebirth for the show as it continues to defy television trends and does what so few are capable of doing: let its characters dictate the story.

Probably stemming from the fact that it has always been an underdog forced to fight for its spot on the schedule, Friday Night Lights embraces change brilliantly, from letting its characters move on gracefully when needed (last year it was Smash and Jason who got heartfelt sendoffs, this year Saracen, Tyra, and Lyla will get the same treatment) to giving those who are staying put tough decisions to make. Mistakes are plentiful in Dillon, Texas, as are triumphs, a mixture that makes this show so beautiful to behold.

The main focus of the premiere was Coach Taylor’s (Kyle Chandler, again showing why he is so deserving of an Emmy) new job at East Dillon High, an other-side-of-the-tracks type place that is the subject of much debate around town. Redistricting is causing some students to be transferred to the neglected East Dillon, and some don’t want to go peacefully. Coach’s Lions turn out to be a ragtag group with little talent and even less heart. Of course, there are a few bright spots; he has Landry (Jesse Plemons) on his squad again, and a juvie named Vince (new addition Michael B. Jordan), brought in as part of a second chance program for problem teens. Coach is usually a pretty evenhanded guy, but his frustrations—over being forced out of his job with the Panthers and over the lack of dedication his new team is showing—gets the better of him in a scene in which he screams at his players to “get the hell out of my house” if they don’t want to be there. It is a powerhouse moment for both Coach and Chandler, one that undoubtedly sets the stage for more tension to come.

“Never Out of the Fight” is the motto painted on the locker room wall, a remnant of the previous Lions regime. But it’s Coach’s own motto, carried over from the Panthers, that brings goosebumps. While “Clear eyes, full hearts, can’t lose” doesn’t have quite the impact when it’s chanted by a group of guys who don’t yet believe in themselves, it does provide a layer of hope that maybe this team has a glimmer of potential. Once out on the gridiron, though, the Lions don’t just get beat, they get beat up, stammering off the field at halftime bloodied and bruised. This leads an angry Coach to do something he never even would have considered doing with the Panthers—forfeiting the game. It’s the kind of decision that you just know is going to wrangle and eat at Coach, this man who, especially when it comes to football, is so prideful and determined.

In his pregame speech, Coach says to his team, “There’s a joy to this game, is there not?” And while it may not have been evident once the team took the field, I couldn’t help but think that there’s a joy to this show. Outcomes aren’t always easy in Dillon, predictable is not in the picture. What you get instead is humanity, emotion, and a sense that everything is going to be all right, even when you know deep down it may not be. What you get instead is real.

Survivor: Still the Ultimate Endurance Test

2009-10-23T12:20:00.000-07:00

An impressive nineteen seasons in, Survivor is still able to deliver a few firsts, and this season, set in Somoa, has already come up with more than its share. It started out with more contestants than any other season (20), and had a contestant kicked out of a challenge for the first time when Ben was ousted for purposely tripping another contestant. And last night saw a flurry of firsts: First time a challenge has been stopped, and ultimately cancelled (Russell S. from the Galu tribe went into the challenge feeling drained and later passed out on the game board, a harrowing situation, though it took a beat for host Jeff Probst to realize what had happened since Russell was blindfolded). First time so many contestants were at tribal council (both tribes went, which meant there were 13 contestants present). And the first time tribal council ended with no one being sent home (both tribes were to have voted someone off, but the events of the day led to some generosity on the producers’ part).

All this drama plus some colorful characters in the form of Russell H., not nearly as nasty as he was at the start of the game but still able to manipulate his tribemates quite handily; and Shambo, a retired Marine who clashes with her Galu tribemates yet has had no trouble making friends while visiting the Foa Foa tribe. With so much going on on both sides, it doesn’t even matter that Natalie, Laura, Brett, and Mick have yet to establish personalities that go beyond the point of being nondescript.

This is shaping up to be one of the most eventful and physically demanding seasons of Survivor ever. Over the course of the last two episodes, contestants have had to seek out any sort of shelter they can find to guard themselves from the torrential downpours that last for days on end. Right about now, their emotions are as raw as their skin, a fact that was only exacerbated by Russell S.’s forced departure after being assessed by the show’s medical staff. His exit was truly heartrending, with him feeling that he had not only let himself down, but his family as well. Russell played the game with as much determination and fortitude as can be expected, and if the remaining contestants can muster half the grit that he displayed, it should make for an entertaining back half of what has already been an incredibly enjoyable season.

What Did You See?

2009-10-22T14:21:00.000-07:00

Unlike film, TV is a landscape for characters over concept. It’s more about what happens to the people who inhabit a mundane, everyday setting—hospital, police station, bar—than it is about cataclysms and life-changing events. Just imagine what your favorite show would be like if, week in and week out, something huge had to happen, whether if felt organic or not. It’s the rare show that can successfully meld character and concept in a way that is both entertaining and thought provoking (Lost and 24 immediately spring to mind, though both have had moments where events have felt forced, particularly in the latter). This season, that show is ABC’s FlashForward (Thursdays, 8pm), a headtrippy drama that, like Lost, dares to draw viewers in with more questions than it is currently prepared to answer.

The show’s premise is simple: On a seemingly normal morning, people across the globe black out for two minutes, seventeen seconds, during which time they have visions of what is going to happen to them on a specific date, April 29, 2010. FBI agent Mark Benford (Shakespeare in Love’s Joseph Fiennes) sees himself relapsing into alcoholism while working on the blackout case, dubbed Mosaic. His wife Olivia (Lost’s Sonya Walger) has a vision of herself with another man, a man she’s never met but who ends up being the father of one of her patients. Mark’s partner Demetri (John Cho from the Harold & Kumar movies) sees nothing at all and later receives a mysterious tip telling him that he will be murdered in March.

This worldwide event brings up a number of existential questions. Can what you saw be changed or are you destined to live it out no matter how you try to intervene? How do you go about your normal life now that you have information that could make you rethink everything? And how much stock should you put in something that may be nothing more than a glorified dream? Of course, FlashForward isn’t coming right out with answers to these questions; they’ve got an entire season to fill, after all.

We're slowly starting to delve into what caused the blackout and why it happened in the first place. Among the tidbits that have been revealed so far are that a man in a Detroit baseball stadium was immune to the blackout; a Nazi named D. Gibbons is a “bad man” (Benford’s daughter’s words; Gibbons was in her vision) and will soon be released from a German prison; a similar blackout occurred in Somalia in 1991; and Olivia’s future lover is apparently involved in the whole thing, along with a mystery man introduced last week played by Dominic Monaghan, also from Lost.

What we’ve seen so far is that the visions are making people act in ways they wouldn’t ordinarily act, such as Olivia and Mark keeping secrets from each other about what exactly they saw. And if this gripping show has a flaw, this is it. We don’t get to see who these people really are because they no longer seem to know themselves, so enmeshed are they in what will happen rather than what is happening. Still, this is a wait-and-see type of show, where patience with storytelling and character development will hopefully be rewarded with a whiz-bang payoff. From its cast to its time structure, FlashForward obviously owes a huge debt to Lost. I can only hope that it proves to be a worthy successor to that classic, soon-to-retire island drama.

Playing the Economy for Laughs

2009-10-14T08:34:00.000-07:00

ABC Comedy Wednesday is 3 for 4 in the success department. Kelsey Grammer’s inane Hank doesn’t make the grade, but you can add The Middle (Wednesdays, 8:30pm) to Modern Family and Cougar Town as solid examples of what has become a stronger year for comedy than we’ve seen in some time.

The "middle" in the title refers to the middle of the country—Orson, Indiana—which, for this cast of characters is also the middle of nowhere. Everybody Loves Raymond’s Patricia Heaton plays Frankie Heck, a frazzled mother trying to hold things together as the economy wreaks havoc on her family. Frankie is a salesperson barely hanging on to her job at a used car lot, where she uses test drives to take care of personal business and has a negative sales record (in the pilot, one of those test drives resulted in a theft). Husband Mike (Scrubs’s nameless janitor Neil Flynn) is a quarry manager who believes that the best thing he can do for his kids is to be completely honest with them, even if that means their self-esteem takes a blow as a result. And what of the kids? There’s sarcastic son Axl (Charlie McDermott), awkward daughter Sue (Eden Sher), and just plain weird youngest son Brick (Atticus Shaffer). Shaffer is a real find, capable of stealing a scene from Heaton and Flynn with nothing more than a whisper (he repeats words softly to himself as a soothing mechanism). He’s far from the only thing that works in The Middle, unfortunately titled since comparisons to Malcolm in the Middle are inevitable. But this is no mere copycat sitcom. Where Malcolm got by on having the entire family yell at each other for seven seasons, The Middle is much more subtle, letting its familial hardships be known without having to resort to ugliness at every turn.

There’s nothing but ugliness, however, in Hank (Wednesdays, 8pm), another new comedy that uses the economic crisis at its jumping-off point. Kelsey Grammer is Hank Pryor, a victim of corporate downsizing who is forced to pull his family away from their cushy New York lifestyle to return to his more affordable Virginia roots. Naturally, nobody wants to be there, with the exception of son Henry, who “cannot wait to go to the bathroom here.” If that inexplicable joke makes you laugh, please enjoy Hank. If, on the other hand, you’re looking for even a whiff of the sophistication that defined Frasier, you’re in for a very long half-hour. Not even Grammer’s expertise with a punchline is enough to make these particular punchlines funny, and support from Melinda McGraw as wife Tilly and Anchorman’s David Koechner as brother-in-law Grady can’t do anything to improve matters. ABC has better comedy prospects waiting in the wings (the Scrubs reboot, Better Off Ted), so it probably won’t be too long before Hank itself is downsized.

Rivers Doesn't Flow

2009-10-12T11:34:00.000-07:00

The medical genre has seen more than its share of turkeys this year in HawthoRNe, Mercy, and Trauma, and CBS doesn’t do it any favors with its new entry Three Rivers (Sundays, 9pm). The network hasn’t had a successful medical drama since Chicago Hope closed its doors nine years ago (remember Presidio Med? L.A. Doctors? 3 lbs.? Exactly.), and Three Rivers won’t be the show to break that dry spell.

Focusing on the transplant wing of a Pittsburgh hospital, Rivers marks the return of Alex O’Loughlin, star of Moonlight, a cult vampire show that had the misfortune of premiering a year before bloodsuckers were de rigueur again. Here he plays Andy Yablonski, the rare hot shot surgeon without a God complex. Much of the time, though, O’Loughlin is pushed to the fringes in favor of the transplant team’s other members, including The L Word’s stern, strong Katherine Moennig (she should be the real star of the show) and newbie Christopher J. Hanke as the assistant to the transplant coordinator, a role that doesn’t merit nearly the amount of screen time that this green actor is given.

Three Rivers touches on all the scenes you’d expect to see: the ambivalence of the donor’s family, the doctors getting upset about said family’s ambivalence, team members having to make difficult life/death decisions. And then it shoves in a few scenes you don’t expect to see and that you wouldn’t miss if they weren’t there: an organ harvest is halted when the cops show up and announce that the donor is a murder suspect (this little nugget, seemingly inserted just to give the writer a wowzer of an act break, went absolutely nowhere); the team, rushing to get back to the hospital with a pair of lungs and a kidney, runs into traffic caused by a bomb threat (the timing of these things!).

After retooling the pilot, CBS then made the late decision to air it as the second episode, making for some strange introductions to characters we’d already met last week. But airing episodes out of order is the least of this show’s troubles. How about the producers bringing the wonderful Alfre Woodard on board and then giving her nothing of import to do? How about the nauseating NYPD Blue-style shaky cam that is awkwardly mixed with traditional camera setups for an uneasy aesthetic? How about the fact that CBS is now giving creator Carol Barbee her third chance following the failures of Jericho and Swingtown? How about I just tell you that hanging out in your local emergency room would probably be more exciting than watching this pedestrian, unspectacular show?

An Office Wedding, and NBC Cancels Southland

2009-10-09T09:51:00.000-07:00

TV’s most romantic couple, Jim and Pam, tied the knot last night in an episode of NBC’s The Office that looked to be as much fun for cast and crew to make as it was for me to watch. When the show has expanded to an hour in the past, it’s felt forced, as if deleted scenes had been tacked back on to pad the hour because the story being told couldn’t actually support the extra length. The wedding episode, though, was perfect in every way, from the opening scene in which the entire office broke into chain reaction vomiting (not the most traditional way to start a wedding episode) to Jim’s tear-jerking toast gone wrong (he unintentionally revealed Pam is pregnant in front of some very conservative family members) to the delightful, You Tube-inspired dance down the aisle that capped the hour. Other highlights: Andy spending the night on Pam's hotel room floor after tearing his scrotum while doing the splits; Dwight being less grating than usual, even as he acted the womanizer; Oscar’s outrage at being mistaken for the slovenly Kevin’s boyfriend; and Michael’s well-intentioned but misbegotten attempts to speak at the rehearsal dinner. Congratulations to the happy couple, and to The Office, for producing an hour that was pure bliss from beginning to end.

In other NBC news, the network has decided to cancel police drama Southland two weeks before its sophomore season was set to premiere. Variety reports that the show’s expensive license fee was the culprit, a figure the net couldn’t justify when episodes of Dateline NBC, a much cheaper show, would likely perform as well as, if not better than, Southland in the ratings. And so Dateline will remain in that Friday 9pm time slot, one less hour of scripted programming on a schedule already dominated by the under-performing Jay Leno Show.

NBC is truly a network in trouble. Heroes is down for the third straight year, now hovering just above five million viewers (it had about 14 million at its season-one peak); new dramas Trauma and Mercy aren’t exactly providing good medicine; the once dependable Law & Order: SVU has seen its audience drop significantly since moving to the earlier 9pm time period; and the net’s Thursday comedy block is a shadow of its former Must See TV self. The only thing currently working in NBC’s favor is Sunday Night Football, but that’ll be gone come January, and the net has never been able to translate strong NFL numbers into any real success on Sunday night in winter and spring (two hours of The Celebrity Apprentice—needless overkill to be sure—is the closest thing they’ve had to a hit on the night in years).

What’s the solution to all this negativity? Consider NBC to be the pit that organizers are trying to turn into a park on the network’s own failing comedy Parks and Recreation. By taking away its 10pm options and killing off shows like Southland before they’ve even gotten a chance to prove themselves, the network is only widening the pit. To fill it back up, Leno’s gotta go, quality has to start trumping ego, and NBC programmers have to treat their airwaves as more than a commodity. Viewers are often accused of being sheep-like in their habits, but they know when the wool is being pulled over their eyes. Time to take out the shears, NBC, before you end up losing all sense of dignity.

New Fall Series Roundup

2009-10-06T09:43:00.000-07:00

Accidentally on Purpose (CBS, Mondays, 8:30pm): A one-night stand with a much younger man turns into an unexpected pregnancy for San Francisco film critic Billie (Jenna Elfman) in this sorry excuse for a sitcom. Because this is the land of TV comedy, Zack (Jon Foster) the “baby baby daddy,” moves into Billie’s apartment, where they sleep in separate rooms and try to maintain boundaries. This is the kind of show that thinks hilarity comes from Billie flicking her breasts to make her nipples perk up, or from her dancing around the office chanting, “My booty is delicious” (how professional!). Three episodes in, the show is already recycling some its own “jokes,” and last night used the same tanning-lotion-as-masturbatory-aid plot that Rescue Me used months ago. The worst part is that even the actors can’t convince us that they at least find this material amusing. It’s safe to say that you can purposely steer clear of Accidentally on Purpose.

Trauma (NBC, Mondays, 9pm): If you like your shows to have a modicum of character development look elsewhere. If, however, you like your shows to maneuver from one meaningless though well-constructed set piece to another, this might be the show for you. Trauma follows a group of San Francisco paramedics who apparently have very little going on in their lives outside of their jobs. With Friday Night Lights’ executive producer Peter Berg and director Jeffrey Reiner attached, not to mention a cast that includes Derek Luke (Antwone Fisher), Anastasia Griffith (Damages), and Jamey Sheridan (Chicago Hope), this is the new season’s biggest waste of talent.

Instead of introducing us to the characters, the pilot spent most of its time at the scene of a horrific freeway pileup; last night was much of the same, though this time it was a driver plowing through a street fair. These scenes are all impressive in their scope—and the location shooting is certainly a highlight—but they seem intentionally drawn out to avoid having to spend any quiet time with the characters, clearly not among creator Dario Scardapane’s strong suits. (Here’s a dose of the wisdom this shows doles out: “People get hurt. Some get saved, a lot die. Then it happens all over again.”) In last night’s episode, a child actor yawned during a scene in which his mother was lying unconscious on the floor. That’s about the same reaction I had while watching this train wreck of a show.

Mercy (NBC, Wednesdays, 8pm): NBC’s second stab at the medical genre this season, Mercy is slightly more successful than Trauma, certainly an instance of damning with faint praise. Veronica Callahan (newcomer Taylor Schilling) has just returned to her nursing job after a tour of duty in Iraq, a fact that is clearly meant to endear her to the audience. And it might work if she hadn’t cheated on her husband while she was over there, didn’t use her war experience as an excuse not to deal with her life in the present, and didn’t have a habit of comparing all her cases to the ones she saw in combat. Veronica is yet another modern medical professional who has spent way too much time in the Meredith Grey School of Narcissism. It’s hard to build sympathy for a woman who feels she’s so deserving of it.

Mercy actually feels like a retread of Showtime’s summer dramedy Nurse Jackie: the tough-talking lead with an exterior that’s hard to crack, the peppy, naïve new nurse who wears colorful scrubs, the hospital administrator who likes to lecture nurses for caring too much. One more similarity presents itself when the man Veronica cheated with—he’s played by Men in Trees’ James Tupper—gets a job as a doctor in her hospital (Nurse Jackie had an affair with the hospital pharmacist). Is it a coincidence that so much of Mercy is reminiscent of another, far superior show? Maybe, maybe not. Regardless, why watch a knockoff when you can go straight to the original?

The Forgotten (ABC, Tuesdays, 10pm): I’ve already established that I’m not a fan of the crime drama genre; the case-of-the-week formula just doesn’t do anything for me. But that doesn’t mean that I go into new shows thinking that I’m going to hate them. I’d love for one of them to shake up my opinion and give me a reason to care. Unfortunately, The Forgotten is not that show.

Christian Slater heads a group of civilian volunteers who work with the police to put a name to John/Jane Does. We are told early on that this is the victim’s story and that it’s not about solving the murder. Funny, then, how the victim is identified halfway through the hour and the rest of the time is spent trying to find the killer. Aside from Slater (he’s a former cop motivated by his own daughter’s kidnapping, which explains why he never bothers to smile), the team of volunteers is as nameless and nondescript as the victims they’re trying to identify. A fat guy who crunches on cheese puffs and fancies himself a version of NYPD Blue’s Andy Sipowicz is supposed to provide the comic relief, and is about the extent of what counts for personality here. Clunky backstory revelations are divulged in conjunction with the investigation (when a Jane Doe turns up with a diamond ring, it prompts one team member to recall jilting her fiancé at the altar). It’s all standard-issue stuff under the guise of being something unique in crime drama storytelling.

Eastwick (ABC, Wednesdays, 10pm): Saving the best for last, Eastwick is a lark of a show that makes for a nice midweek diversion. Based on The Witches of Eastwick (both the book and the movie), it tells the story of three women who make a wish at a fountain only to see those wishes come true in the form of strange powers courtesy of Darryl Van Horne (Due South’s Paul Gross, obviously having a blast), a mysterious man who blows into town, laying his charm on thick. Roxie (Rebecca Romijn, Ugly Betty) starts having psychic dreams, including one in which she’s murdered; Joanna (Lipstick Jungle’s Lindsay Price) has the power to make men do whatever she wants; and Kat (Jaime Ray Newman from Eureka) can harness the power of Mother Nature, causing earthquakes and lightning strikes. All of this is cute enough, but so far the show is lacking in substance and, other than the mystery surrounding Darryl, it’s hard to tell where it’s going. If it’s trying to be Desperate Housewitches, it’s going to need a lot more scandal—and plot—to get there. While it figures itself out, though, the lovely ladies of Eastwick are enough to make the show harmless fun.

Dollhouse: Nothing Behind the Eyes

2009-10-03T11:33:00.000-07:00

I had hoped that Dollhouse, having been granted a somewhat inexplicable second season by Fox, would turn its creative act around and give viewers a reason to seek the show out. Alas, what we’ve been given in the first two episodes this year is much of what made the show so easy to avoid in the first place.

I’m as big a fan of series creator Joss Whedon’s work as the next TV geek (I watched Buffy the Vampire Slayer from the beginning, stuck it out as Angel felt its way through a very bumpy first couple of seasons, and saw Firefly through its unfortunately short life), but there’s something about Dollhouse that keeps me at arms’ length, no matter how much I want to like the show. Much of the problem lies directly in the main concept: a collection of Actives, led by Eliza Dushku, are imprinted with memories and personalities, then sent on “engagements” (the show’s term for missions), after which they have their minds wiped clean so they can start out fresh the next time around. Sounds like a neat idea, right? Except that it doesn’t allow for any real investment in the characters. When Dushku’s Echo is imprinted with the characteristics of a singer or a college student or, as in last night’s episode, a wife and mother, you know that at the end of the hour she won’t be living in that skin anymore.

Whedon and company are trying to make their efforts worthwhile by introducing a sliver of an ongoing plotline in which Echo—who has trace amounts of memories that have stuck with her, something that isn’t supposed to happen—and her handler Paul Ballard (Battlestar Galactica’s Tahmoh Penikett) have designs to take down the Dollhouse. Since the episodes still spend most of their time focused on the engagements, this particular story line seems destined to be dragged out to the point where its resolution is met with a shrug and a resounding "Who cares?"

Then again nobody seems to care much as it is. The show dropped to its lowest ratings ever last night, with just over two million viewers tuning in (its ill-fitting sitcom companions, the abysmal Brothers and Til Death even managed to draw slightly more viewers). While the show’s Friday night death slot doesn’t do it any favors, I think the real problem is the show itself. There’s no warmth, no real humanity on display, and with a premise that keeps connection with the characters at bay, it’s no surprise that Dollhouse is struggling the way it is. Whedon half-joked in a conference call prior to the season premiere, “I don’t make hit shows. I make shows that stick around.” Not this time, I'm afraid, Joss. Not this time.

Old Dogs, New(ish) Tricks

2009-10-01T11:16:00.000-07:00

The last time Steven Levitan (Just Shoot Me) and Christopher Lloyd (Frasier) teamed up to create a new comedy they came up with the should-have-been-funnier Back to You, starring Kelsey Grammer and Patricia Heaton. With ABC’s Modern Family, the end result is much better; in fact, it’s absolutely hilarious, perhaps the best new comedy of this young season.

What makes Modern Family so great is its slice-of-life simplicity. In a faux-documentary format that owes much to The Office, we meet three seemingly disparate families: May-December newlyweds Jay and Gloria (Ed O’Neill and Sofia Vergara), plus Manny, Gloria’s 11-year-old son who spends most of his time getting on Jay’s nerves; Phil and Claire (Julie Bowen and Ty Burrell), overwhelmed parents of three; and Mitchell and Cameron (Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Eric Stonestreet), a gay couple who have just returned from Vietman with their newly-adopted baby girl. We learn late in the pilot that all three are related, with Claire and Mitchell being Jay’s offspring. It makes perfect sense that these three are actually one big family since they all share the same hapless sensibilities.

In a flawless ensemble, the standouts here are Bowen and Burrell, she being a controlling though loving mother who takes responsibility for running the household, he being the kind of dad whose idea of discipline is to say "Buddy, uncool" when son Luke takes aim at his sister with a BB gun. There’s nothing particularly earth shattering about Modern Family, and that's actually something that works to the show's advantage. It's just a healthy dose of relatable humor that will have you clamoring for more.

Immediately following Modern Family on ABC Wednesdays is Cougar Town, the new comedy from Scrubs vets Bill Lawrence and Kevin Biegel. Courteney Cox stars as Jules Cobb, recently divorced and wanting to rediscover the years she lost while raising her now teenaged son Travis (Dan Byrd from Aliens in America). Jules’s idea of fun goes from wine and Scrabble with her neighbor/best friend Ellie (Christa Miller, not too far removed from the emasculating, shrewish character she played on Scrubs) to a drunken night of foolishness wherein her coworker Laurie (ER’s Busy Phillips) drops a boy toy off at her door. Jules proceeds to have sex with him three times in one night and fixes him a plate of crackers and peanut butter before bothering to learn his name. Growth has to start somewhere, after all, and shallowness is as good a place as any to begin.

Cox was never my favorite Friend (I always found Monica more grating than funny most of the time), but she does a fine job here as a woman who considers it a daring act to tempt the hair gods by running across a fountain in between spout cycles. The supporting cast, which also includes Cold Case’s Josh Hopkins as a neighbor with whom Jules shares a hateful/flirty banter, is filled with pros. While the party lifestyle may not be for Jules (“Younger people just don’t get tired like we do,” she tells Ellie), her long-delayed journey of self-discovery provides a decent number of laughs and, as the saying goes, could get even better with age.

Wife is Good

2009-09-30T09:47:00.000-07:00

With political sex scandals seemingly cropping up every couple of months, it was only a matter of time before someone took the opportunity to use this scenario as the basis for a TV show. In CBS’s The Good Wife, Julianna Margulies plays Alicia Florrick, mother of two teenagers and wife to State’s Attorney Peter (Chris Noth), caught on tape having sex with a hooker and jailed for abuse of office. Left as the breadwinner, Alicia decides to go back to being a lawyer, a job she abandoned thirteen years ago to focus on her family.

After more than fifty years, the legal drama formula doesn’t offer much in the way of surprises. These days, you know that the twist is coming, it’s only a matter of when. On that front, The Good Wife is no different; a murder case is turned on the discovery of a doctored video, a rape case hinges on a contaminated DNA sample. Yet with Alicia working hard to defend her clients (and Margulies working just as hard at combining strength and sympathy), the cases still prove stimulating.

What really makes The Good Wife more than a spinster variation on a theme is the excellent cast. In addition to Margulies (playing her second lawyer in two years, though she’s much softer here than she was on Fox’s brief but promising Canterbury’s Law), we are treated to the wonderfully haughty Christine Baranski (Cybill), whose clipped line readings never get tired; and Josh Charles, bringing the same air of confidence he exuded on the still lamented Sports Night.

Thus far the series strikes a nice balance between the court cases and examining the effect that Peter’s dalliances are having on the Florrick family. How do you shield your kids from a scandal that dominated the news? Does Alicia, the dutiful, “good” wife continue to stand by her man even as there's a chance he could be released on appeal? As the headlines have shown, politics are hard enough to deal with when they’re left in the office, and the answers don't come any easier when they’re brought inside the home.

Sunday Night is Cutthroat

2009-09-28T08:51:00.000-07:00

Rarely will a series enter its fourth season without having experienced any major creative hiccups. Showtime's Dexter is that series. New episodes began last night after a nine-month absence (fitting since Dex is now a new daddy), and it was as easy as ever to get sucked back into the world of the Miami Homicide Division and its kooky killer hunters.

The hour opened with Dexter (Michael C. Hall, solid as ever) being severely off his game; baby Harrision is not sleeping well and it’s driving Dex nuts. In a hilarious Murphy’s Law-style reenactment of the series’ title sequence, Dexter is unable to squash the mosquito on his arm, his normally crisp white T-shirt has baby puke on it, and his shoelace breaks when he pulls it tight. If all this sounds like no big deal, remember that Dexter is a meticulous man; his continued freedom requires that everything be just so in order for him to get away with his acts of vengeance. Which is why it’s such a shock to see him screw up in court, mixing up case files and allowing a murderer to be released. Of course, all this means is that Dex has found his latest mark, and it couldn’t come at a better time. Firmly ensconced in the horrors of suburbia and family life, he’s been jonesing for a kill (Dex somehow equates murder with being there for his son, saying he’s “killing for two” now. Isn’t it amazing that we care so much for this guy who has such a deeply warped mind?)

It wouldn’t be Dexter if there weren’t a serial killer to track in between scenes of our loveable main character killing people of his own. This season, that killer is played by John Lithgow. We got two brief glimpses of Lithgow’s Trinity Killer last night, once when he created a literal bloodbath by killing a woman in her tub and again when he showered in scalding hot water. If there was a problem with the episode, it was these scenes. Gripping though they were, it was a strange shift in POV, since much of the show, especially the murders, is seen through Dexter’s eyes. Still, the marvelous Lithgow will no doubt devour this role, and his character’s presence brings back Keith Carradine as Agent Lundy, now retired from the FBI but determined to find the one that got away.

The episode ends with Dex so exhausted that he rolls his car after falling asleep at the wheel. While we know our “hero” will be fine, the real trouble lies in the fact that he was driving back from his kill site at the time, with several trash bags full of body parts in the back. How’s he gonna get out of this one? That’s the beauty of this show, which puts the mouse so close to the cat that the cat has no idea it’s even there.

Also back last night was CBS's The Amazing Race, returning for its 15th season fresh off another Emmy win. For the first time in Race history, a team was eliminated right off the bat during a ho-hum challenge in which the correct license plate had to be found on an entire wall filled with license plates. It’s hard to feel too bad for the team (Eric and Lisa, who decided that it was their fate to “set [the others teams] free” ) since we only knew them for about a minute before they were sent packing, but how depressing must it have been that their race began and ended in the L.A. River.

Outside of the usual assortment of married and dating couples, the remaining eleven teams have among them two Harlem Globetrotters who go by the names Flight Time and Big Easy; gay brothers Sam and Dan; and Zev & Justin, one of whom (Zev) has Asperger’s Syndrome, a form of high-functioning autism that makes social interactions and unfamiliar settings a challenge (so far he hasn’t let it effect his game play).

The Amazing Race works on several levels: there’s the team component (so many couples have used this show as a means of measuring whether their relationship can be successful), the scenery aspect (you’re guaranteed to see parts of the world you never would have known existed otherwise), and the sheer fun of the race (in classic Race tradition, we already had our first sprint to the elimination mat last night, where on-and-off daters Garrett and Jessica went home). All that plus the vicarious thrill of watching people eat wasabi bombs in Tokyo and knowing that you don’t have to. Put another stamp on my TV passport, please.

Bad Brothers, plus the Season's First Casualty

2009-09-26T13:14:00.000-07:00

Fox’s annual competition to have the worst and most swiftly cancelled comedy (past “winners” have included Do Not Disturb and Happy Hour) continues this year with Brothers, created by sitcom veteran Don Reo, who has worked on everything from Blossom to My Wife and Kids to one of Fox’s most acclaimed comedies of the past decade, Action. (Arrested Development’s Mitchell Hurwitz is also an exec producer here, meaning he’s 0-2 this year since he was also responsible for another lame Fox entry, Sit Down, Shut Up.)

Brothers stars ex-NFL player Michael Strahan as ex-NFL player Michael Trainor, and paralyzed actor Daryl “Chill” Mitchell as his wheelchair-bound brother “Chill.” So far the originality is just spilling off the page, right? Since every black family needs a ball-busting mama, CCH Pounder steps in to fill that role. I can understand Pounder wanting a change of scene after all those years on the gritty The Shield, but this? Rounding out the cast is Carl Weathers as the somewhat clueless patriarch, though that obliviousness seems to stem from a nascent case of dementia. And the reason these people are all living under one roof again: Michael is broke and “Chill” needs help keeping his restaurant afloat.

Laughing yet? Neither was I. Most of the jokes in the first two episodes centered on either the gap between Strahan’s front teeth or Mitchell’s wheelchair. And when they weren’t making cracks about those things, there was plenty of awkward conversation about everyone’s sex lives. All four of the cast members—even Strahan, who is also a contributor to Fox’s NFL Sunday pregame show, is surprisingly comfortable in his first acting role—could be doing something much better with their time. Until this show’s inevitable cancellation, I know I’ll be doing something better with mine.

Speaking of cancellations, the new season’s first one came to pass yesterday as The CW let go of The Beautiful Life: TBL. I hadn’t even gotten a chance to watch the two episodes that aired yet, so I can’t offer a critical analysis of the show, but I can tell you that it brought in paltry ratings, with this week’s installment barely getting over a million viewers. I’m sure exec producer Ashton Kutcher will be just fine, but could this be a death knell for Mischa Barton’s career? For the time being, The CW will run encore episodes of Melrose Place in the Wednesday 9pm time slot (just what we need), as they try to drum up more business for that cellar-dwelling show prior to the November 17 episode in which Heather Locklear will reprise her role of Amanda Woodward. Why, Heather, why?

Community Gets an A

2009-09-25T09:18:00.000-07:00

Whether or not you like NBC’s new sitcom Community hinges largely on one thing, namely how you feel about star Joel McHale. If you’re a fan of his smarmy antics on E!'s The Soup (I definitely drink that Kool-Aid), then you’re predisposed to enjoy this single-camera comedy awash in sarcasm. If, however, McHale’s mixture of arrogance and self-deprecation irks you, then this is probably not the show for you.

McHale plays Jeff Winger, an arrogant (though not quite self-deprecating) lawyer forced to go back to school after his degree is revoked. Jeff chooses to attend Greendale Community College, or as he calls it, a “school-shaped toilet.” It doesn’t take long for Jeff to happen upon Britta (Gillian Jacobs), a fellow student who, because of Jeff’s lies about being well-versed in Spanish, agrees to a study session with him. By the time that session comes around, the room is occupied by others looking to take advantage of Jeff’s alleged knowledge.

And so we have our ragtag bunch of characters, including the wonderfully deadpan Chevy Chase as Pierce, a moist towelette kingpin who is bad with names and thinks a “sausagefest” is a good thing; Troy (Donald Glover), stuck in a high school mentality to the point where he still wears his varsity jacket everywhere he goes; and Abed (Danny Pudi), a manic personality who communicates by using quotes and lessons learned from movies and TV shows.

Community is created by Dan Harmon (The Sarah Silverman Program) and has the duo of Joe and Anthony Russo (Arrested Development) among its exec producers, so it’s no surprise that the show is aggressively funny and that most of the jokes come at someone else’s expense. Like Arrested, it’s the kind of comedy that requires constant attention lest you miss the jokes; there’s no easy setup-setup-punchline approach here. The show is clearly influenced by the classic films of the late John Hughes, to whom the pilot was dedicated, and McHale is Judd Nelson, Matthew Broderick, and Steve Martin all rolled up in one big ball of sass.

Who knows if this is the kind of show that will be able to sustain itself for seasons on end. (Community college is usually a two-year program, but this group could definitely stretch things beyond that.) What I do know is that after last fall, which produced only one truly funny new sitcom (the unfortunately cancelled Worst Week, whose exec producers are also on staff here), Community is a welcome addition to the TV community.

Bad Pun Alert: Vampire Kinda Sucks

2009-09-24T10:38:00.000-07:00

While all involved will likely deny it, any similarity between The CW’s new drama The Vampire Diaries and True Blood (itself an imperfect show, to be sure) is almost certainly intentional. When your network is flailing, why wouldn’t you want to crib from what has become a cultural phenomenon? But if you add Twilight to the list as well, I think this is one vampire project too many.

Developed by Kevin Williamson (Dawson’s Creek) and Julie Plec (Kyle XY) from a series of books by L.J. Smith, Diaries tells the story of Elena Gilbert (Degrassi: The Next Generation’s Nina Dobrev), a high school student struggling with survivor’s guilt brought on by the deaths of her parents in a car accident months earlier, and Stefan Salvatore (Paul Wesley, who previously played a werewolf in the short-lived Wolf Lake), a vampire who, way back in 1864, was in love with a girl who looked exactly like Elena. Showing up to put a stake in Stefan’s romantic intentions and make good on his promise to create “an eternity of misery” for his sibling is brother Damon (Ian Somerhalder), a nasty vamp who tries to persuade Stefan to give up his self-imposed human feeding fast.

The teen drama clichés all put in early appearances: sex, drugs, rebellion, dead parents. And the vampire tropes are here, too: super hearing, the ability to seduce people into a kind of goofy submission (what True Blood calls glamouring), the need to be invited inside someone’s house, and oodles and oodles of moodiness. (Luckily for Stefan, the oldest-looking high school student this side of Ian Ziering, a special ring allows him and his brother to go out in the sun, otherwise he'd never be able to graduate.)

Maybe it just isn’t possible in 2009 for a vampire show to be anything but derivative, but couldn’t they at least try? I can appreciate the need to be faithful to the books, but if the show is to last for any stretch of time, the writers will eventually have to stray from their source material, just as Dexter has managed to do so deftly. Considering the ordinariness of events so far, it may have been wise to abandon the book's story from the outset.

What’s really missing from the show, though, is a little levity; everyone in this town is so deadly serious all the time. I guess it makes sense coming from the vampires since they’re, you know, dead (or is it undead?), but the teenagers should lighten up and have a little fun. Thankfully, the dialogue is more natural than the teens-can-use-big-words-too approach Williamson took with Dawson’s, but that doesn't mean anybody has anything all that interesting to say.

The scenes between Wesley and Somerhalder (looking like he’s having a better time here than he did on his single season of Lost, where his Boone was the first major character to die) have a certain dark pizzazz reminiscent of the good vamp/bad vamp dynamic between Bill and Eric on True Blood. But that energy dries up as soon as they leave each other’s company, and all we’re left with is a fairly dull soap opera in desperate need of some real bite.

House Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

2009-09-22T07:40:00.000-07:00

Leave it to a guy like Dr. Gregory House to check himself into a mental hospital and then think he doesn’t belong there. That was the scenario last night on the sixth-season premiere of House, a two-hour episode that, regardless of your level of familiarity with the series, feels like a movie about a man who has seriously lost his way and, after a long, bitter struggle, wants to find it again. Aside from a brief appearance from Wilson (Robert Sean Leonard), none of the other series regulars show up here. There is no messy backstory, no references to what might be going on back at Princeton-Plainsboro Hospital. It's just House, his fellow patients, and the work they all need to do on themselves. (Among the most colorful characters we meet in the psych ward is House’s roommate Alvie, who likes to speak in spontaneous rap lyrics. He’s played by Lin-Manuel Miranda, bringing his hyper-effusive energy from Broadway’s In the Heights to the part.)

The episode, beautifully written and deliberately paced, is an exploration of House’s realization that he can’t always be the one to fix everything. In the words of his psychiatrist Dr. Nolan, played by Andre Braugher (Homicide: Life on the Street), House is “just another screwed up human being who needs to move on.” Nolan and House start out as bristly adversaries (Nolan refuses to write a letter that will give House back his hospital privileges, rightly believing he hasn’t taken his treatment seriously), later developing an understanding of one another, exemplified in a touching scene where Nolan invites House to the hospital room where his father lay dying.

During his stay, House takes an interest in Lydia (Franka Potente), a married woman who comes to play music for her catatonic sister-in-law. They share a connection unlike any we’ve ever seen in House’s world. For perhaps the first time, we see that House is capable of having a genuine conversation free of sarcastic defenses—he even confesses to having (gulp!) fun. A slow dance leads to sex leads to tears for House, allowing himself to express his feelings in a way he and Cuddy, who keep their cooped-up emotions in check, never truly have. All of this plays out quietly and organically as a step-by-step process; nothing is forced.

Because House wouldn’t be House if he was completely happy, Lydia leaves in the end (ironically, it’s House’s fault this happens as he’s responsible for finding the key to her sister-in-law’s condition—a music box she had been denied rights to makes her speak again; no longer tied down, Lydia and her family decide to move to Arizona), but instead of retreating into darkness, House goes to Nolan, proof that he has come along way. After his release, as House settles in for the bus ride back to civilization, he reflects on his experience, even displaying a slight smile on his face. It turns out there is a heart buried underneath that crusty exterior after all.

Hopefully this isn’t the last we’ve seen of Braugher. As anyone who’s ever been in treatment (to borrow the title of an HBO series) knows, mental breakthroughs happen over long stretches of time, and while the premiere was careful not to try to tie everything up too neatly, it would be a shame if House went back to work and settled comfortably into this old habits again. I don’t know how long a trip it is between Princeton-Plainsboro and Mayfield Psychiatric Hospital, but from this viewer's standpoint, it would certainly be worth the time.

I'd Like to Thank the Academy

2009-09-21T08:31:00.000-07:00

As trendsetting as TV can be, the Emmy Awards have never been especially good at leading the way in innovation. Two years ago, the show tried a theater-in-the-round approach, leaving half the audience starting at the winners’ backsides. And last year brought us the infamous five-reality-hosts-without-a-plan debacle. So the bar was set pretty low when it came to producing an Emmy broadcast that would outdo recent ceremonies. With so many repeat winners, it fell to the show itself to keep things lively.

What were this year’s innovations? The band and control room found their way onto the stage at L.A.’s Nokia Theatre, and the awards were handed out according to genre (comedy first, then reality, movies/miniseries, variety, and drama), much better than the scattershot pick-a-category-from-the-hat approach they seem to have taken in the past. But the biggest and best innovation was the show’s host. Following up his successful turn at the Tony Awards in June, Neil Patrick Harris (also a nominee for How I Met Your Mother) took to the stage with a terrific opening song that urged viewers to put down the remote. Unlike so many hosts who disappear for long stretches, Harris would remain on stage most of the evening, standing behind a podium to the side of the main action, introducing many presenters by calling out their most obscure credits. Harris was also a wonderful sport, playfully poking fun at himself after losing the Supporting Actor in a Comedy trophy to Two and a Half Men’s Jon Cryer.

As is too often the case with Emmy, when it came to the awards, there were not nearly enough surprises to go around. Kristin Chenoweth took the night’s first comedy award, going from tears to pimping herself out for work (she won for the cancelled Pushing Daisies) and back to tears. The rest of the comedy categories played out exactly as you’d expect, with 30 Rock dominating, taking home Emmys for writing, lead actor (Alec Baldwin), and series. (Toni Collette was able to break through and take lead actress for United States of Tara.)

I was a little put off by Tina Fey’s acceptance speech when Rock won Best Comedy for the third year in a row. “That was a nail biter,” she said when she hopped up on stage with her coworkers, as if we all knew they were going to win again. And let’s face it, we did all know, but it’s one thing to think you’re going to win, another to mock it as a foregone conclusion. If Fey has tired of all the accolades the show receives, perhaps someone should remind her that submitting yourself for consideration is optional and she’s welcome to sit it out next time around.

On the drama side, Mad Men took top honors, winning Best Drama for the second straight year, while the supporting acting races went to first-time winners Michael Emerson (Lost) and Cherry Jones (24), and the lead acting awards to repeat winners Glenn Close (Damages) and Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad). With 30 Rock being such a prevailing comedic force, it was nice to see some deserved diversity with the dramas.

The Amazing Race remains undefeated in the Reality-Competition Program category, taking home its seventh (!) consecutive Emmy. Survivor’s Jeff Probst won again for reality host, taking a second to acknowledge the yeoman’s job Neil Patrick Harris was doing behind the mic, as did Jon Stewart when he accepted another trophy for The Daily Show (both men know from whence they speak; Probst was involved in last year’s much-maligned Emmy show, and Stewart was skewered after hosting the Oscars a few years back). HBO’s Grey Gardens was the biggest winner in the movie/miniseries categories, with wins for best movie, lead actress (Jessica Lange), and supporting actor (Ken Howard); PBS's Little Dorrit won Best Miniseries.

Sure, the awards themselves could have been more exciting, the acceptance speeches a bit more heart-tugging, and I could have done without the pop-up alerts designed to keep viewers tuned in by telling us that Justin Timberlake and the Gossip Girls would be on stage in six minutes (the one promoting the In Memoriam segment was particularly tacky). All in all, though, thanks largely to Harris—invite him back every year, Academy—it was a sufficiently pleasant way to spend the last night of the 2008-09 season.

Notes on a Busy Thursday

2009-09-18T10:28:00.000-07:00

It was a jam-packed night of TV yesterday as several networks attempted to beat the throng of premieres that will dominate the landscape next week. Full reviews of The Vampire Diaries and Community will be posted in the weeks to come, but here’s what happened on three returning series:

Survivor: Samoa — Promos touted Russell Hantz as the worst villain in Survivor history and, boy, they weren’t kidding. Even Jeff Probst said the guy was pure evil in a recent TV Guide Network special, and while Probst has confessed to not liking some contestants in the past, never before have I heard him come out and say he hopes someone doesn’t win. What makes Russell so bad? Within hours of arriving on the beach, he's dumped out all the water, put someone’s socks in the fire, lied about being a victim of Hurricane Katrina, and formed what he calls the “dumbass girl alliance” with three of the young women in his tribe. He then targets one of those women, Marisa, for elimination after she has the audacity to tell him that she doesn’t completely trust him (gee, I wonder why). Somehow, Russell’s plan to get rid of Marisa is successful and hers is the first torch snuffed. Russell says he will “do whatever it takes to win this game,” but has he forgotten that eventually he's going to need to get on people’s good sides in order to get their vote in the end? If his nasty behavior continues—and there’s no indication that it will curtail—Russell will go down as a memorable TV personality for all the wrong reasons.

The Office — Hopefully after a season of ups (the Michael Scott Paper Company) and downs (pretty much anything involving the tiresome Dwight), The Office will be able to find a consistent storytelling pattern. Season six kicked off with an acceptably funny if not uproarious episode in which Michael (Steve Carell) deals with his usual desire to be part of the in crowd, this time by spreading gossip about his coworkers. To save face after revealing Stanley’s affair to everyone, Michael begins doling out intentionally false rumors—Andy is gay (although Andy’s confusion about this suggests there might be something there), Pam is pregnant (actually true but no one knows yet), and Kevin has someone inside him controlling his every move (apparently the only blatant lie in the bunch). But in typical Michael Scott fashion, he then declares that one of the rumors is factual. Now it’s Jim who comes to Stanley’s rescue, revealing to the office that he and Pam are indeed expecting.

Kudos to the writers, as well as John Krasinski (Jim) and Jenna Fischer (Pam) for maintaining the cuteness level between these two. So often in TV, once characters become a couple, they cease to be interesting, but Krasinski and Fischer are so perfect together that they’re able to cut through the absurdity around them and give the show its beating heart. Their pregnancy should provide plenty of fertile material for this batch of lunatics to feast on.

Fringe — I checked out of Fringe fairly early last year, feeling that it was an ersatz X-Files severely lacking in what made that classic show so fascinating. After hearing from more than a few people that Fringe had improved as it went along, I decided to give it another shot as it started its second season, and I have to say I’m glad I did. I’m still not sure I understand what’s going on, which was a big stumbling block for me last season, but after just one episode, I can already tell that character development has been brought to the forefront.

In the premiere, Olivia (Anna Torv) returns from a visit to a parallel dimension by exploding through the windshield of her car, recently crashed by a soldier from said dimension whose mission is to hunt her down and kill her. That soldier is a shape shifter who can take on other people’s visages by plugging some kind of contraption into the roof of his mouth and that of his victim. As the premiere ends, we see that he’s used this device on Agent Francis (Kirk Acevedo), thereby giving him unrestricted access to the Fringe Division, which itself is under threat of being shut down for not producing results. If none of that made any sense to you, well, join the club. But just like The X-Files used to do so brilliantly, Fringe has started to benefit from its esoteric nature, putting character over story to suck us in and keep us invested.

One element of Fringe that still bothers me, however, is John Noble’s Walter, father to Peter (Joshua Jackson, looking and acting more like George Clooney with each passing year, though he could stand to ease up on the constantly furrowed brow). Walter is literally a mad genius, the kind of guy who, during an autopsy, holds a piece of licorice in one hand while he fingers someone’s intestines with the other, all the while giving his lab assistant instructions for making custard. He’s wacky to the point of being a distraction, especially frustrating since much of the explanation for the cases comes from him. How am I supposed to pay attention to what he’s saying when he’s always doing something crazy at the same time? Nevertheless, I’ll be watching Fringe again, the rare show that has clearly earned its second chance.

Wrong Place, Wrong Time

2009-09-16T09:01:00.000-07:00

For a serial to be truly effective it has to have stories that grab you and demand that you come back week after week. When Melrose Place originally aired on Fox in the ‘90s, it was just that kind of show. Not that it could ever be classified as “good,” mind you, but in the realm of guilty pleasures it was hard to top. Those feelings of nostalgia make The CW’s new remake that much harder to sit through.

In this early stage, one of the new Melrose Place’s main focuses is a whodunit: Sydney Andrews (Laura Leighton, whose death in the original turns out to have been conveniently faked), now the complex's landlord, is found floating dead in the pool. Right off the bat, we have a problem. Sydney was one of Melrose’s most annoying characters back in the day and, as we see in flashbacks, not much has changed. She’s still a conniving bitch, only now with the added burden of struggling with sobriety, as if that's supposed to make her seem sympathetic. She’s had negative interactions with nearly all of the building’s residents, so aside from the fact that one among them is apparently a murderer, it’s way too easy to shrug off her death and move on.

But what the show has to move on to isn’t all that interesting. There’s Jonah and Riley (Greek’s Michael Rady and Cloverfield’s Jessica Lucas), a budding filmmaker and his teacher girlfriend, newly engaged after five years of dating and still trying to work out some trust issues between them; Ella (Katie Cassidy, Harper’s Island), a publicist who is being set up as this version’s answer to Heather Locklear, though it'll take an awful lot for her to top Amanda Woodward; David (Shaun Sipos), who likes to steal things like paintings and watches, and is the previously unknown son of the cold and calculated Dr. Michael Mancini (Thomas Calabro); Lauren (Stephanie Jacobsen), a med school student who starts pimping herself out to pay her tuition; and Violet (Ashlee Simpson-Wentz, showing that her acting chops have not progressed in the slightest since 7th Heaven went away), the building’s newest resident, who may or may not be Sydney’s long-lost daughter. So far, it’s a whole lot of nothing about nothing, with none of the dastardly intrigue that can make a show like this such untidy fun.

There’s nary an unattractive person in the bunch, but one of the most glaring mistakes the producers have made is in taking almost no effort to diversify the cast (it’s the same scenario over on the equally unnecessary remake of 90210, which, as it enters its second season, shows no signs of leaving vapidity behind). With the exception of a couple of token ethnic actors, the cast is otherwise lily white, a problem shared with the original. I know there are plenty of other shows that are guilty of this as well, but it seems to be more egregious here. I mean, what better place to open yourself up to diversity, in both an ethnic and story sense, than an apartment complex, where people from all walks of life converge? On both fronts, this incarnation of Melrose Place clearly misses the mark.

Leno in Primetime: More of the Same

2009-09-15T09:06:00.000-07:00

The major question that I asked myself over and over again as I watched the premiere of NBC’s The Jay Leno Show was, why? Why does Jay continue to deliver torturous monologues peppered with punchlines that most people in the audience simply don’t get (thanks for the very timely Wilford Brimley reference, Jay)? Why do we need to see a Cheaters spoof in which bandleader Kevin Eubanks was caught spending time with a Jay look-alike? Why does Dan Finnerty and the Dan Band (featured in The Hangover) need to sing and dance as they offer an allegedly unsuspecting woman a while-you-wait tour of a car wash? And finally, why do we need this show at all?

In typical Leno fashion, the funny stuff—and there wasn’t much of it to be had last night—almost never comes from the host himself. Jay’s first guest, Jerry Seinfeld, provided some laughs as he boasted about having access to Oprah Winfrey and then proceeded to deny Jay the chance to get in a question when Oprah came on for a satellite interview. Later, there were a few chuckles during the "Headlines" segment (Alpo appearing on a menu, a Chinese restaurant called House of Poon), but even that bit was lackluster. I can’t figure out if Leno’s decision to have most of the comedy derive from a source other than himself makes him incredibly gracious or just incredibly unfunny. Would that Leno would muster up the courage to say something unexpected, to stretch his comic muscles and stop trying to make every joke so saccharine.

Some fortuitous booking allowed Jay to get Kanye West to sit down briefly and address his inexcusable outburst at Sunday’s MTV Video Music Awards. West, whose ego has gotten the better of him in the past, seemed to be genuinely disappointed in his actions, and you’ve got to hand it to Jay for not backing down when he asked West what his deceased mother would have thought about his inappropriate behavior.

The Jay Leno Show is clearly not out to change the face of TV talk. The show’s idea of doing something revolutionary begins and ends with Jay no longer conducting his interviews from behind a desk, opting for a more intimate approach akin to Inside the Actors Studio. Leno’s comic stylings have never been for me, and a new time slot has done nothing to change that. Given the show’s boffo premiere numbers (over 17 million viewers against weak competition; the real test comes next week and in the months ahead, once the promotion has died down), it’s clear that America likes its comedy on the vanilla side. As for me, I wish Jay the best of luck, but I’ll continue to get my kicks from the more irreverent Jimmy Kimmel and Joel McHale.

The Promise of Glee

2009-09-10T09:34:00.000-07:00

After months of hype and an admittedly exuberant and infectious pilot, Glee finally settled into its series run last night on Fox and the results were decidedly mixed. Cut from the same absurd cloth as executive producer/co-creator Ryan Murphy’s WB drama Popular, and with some of the flashes that make his Nip/Tuck a polarizing guilty pleasure, Glee spends much of its time focusing on the cattiness of high school life, softening occasionally to throw in a mostly welcome musical interlude. (The show came painfully close to erasing all the goodwill inured by the pilot's “Don’t Stop Believing” performance, though, when Matthew Morrison’s glee instructor Will Schuester—the whitest of white guys—started rapping a version of Kanye West’s “Gold Digger.” Bad idea.)

"Being part of something special makes you special,” sad sack/optimist Rachel Berry (Lea Michele, who can really belt out a tune) said in the first episode. You get the sense that the whole cast feels that way about the work they're doing, and there is certainly something special about Glee.

Jane Lynch is special in the role of Sue Sylvester, head coach for the cheerleading team (called the Cheerios), who has it out for Will and his squad of singers. Sue is threatened by the glee club, fearful that they’ll take away attention from her troupe of rally girls. Lynch delivers a one-liner like nobody’s business—at one point last night she recommended hobbling students who had dared to use the cheer copy machine—and her presence brings dimension to what could be a one-note character.

The chemistry between Lea Michele and Cory Monteith (who plays Finn Hudson with the perfect amount of inner conflict as he struggles with being a member of both the football team and the glee club) is also special. The pair shine when they sing together, and they shared a kiss last night that brought their flirtation to Romeo and Juliet heights, that is, if Romeo had a problem with premature ejaculation and Juliet was forever getting slushies thrown in her face.

And the music is something special as well, with the exception of the aforementioned “Gold Digger.” In the second episode, we were treated to a wonderfully inappropriate, sexually themed performance of “Push It,” and Michele’s solo of Rihanna’s “Take a Bow,” sung as she watched Finn canoodle with his cheerleader girlfriend. It’s no surprise that a soundtrack is already scheduled to be released on November 3.

What isn’t so special about Glee are the two women over whom Will is torn. There’s his shrewish wife Terri (Boston Public’s Jessalyn Gilsig), who has no appreciation of the lengths her husband is willing to go to make her happy (Will is pulling late-night janitor duty at school to earn extra income to buy Terri her dream home). On top of that, she’s now lying to him about being pregnant, having found out that what was thought to be a real pregnancy turned out to be one of the hysterical variety, brought on by her strong desire to have a child. Why Will stays with this selfish woman who continually puts down his “stupid dance routines” is beyond me.

But the alternative isn’t much better: Emma (Heroes’ Jayma Mays) is a germaphobic counselor who spends time alone in her car, listening to sad music and crying. Will is enamored of her and Mays is fine in the role, but Emma is tied down with so many quirks (she hands out brochures titled “Wow! There’s a Hair Down There!” and “So You Like Throwing Up,” and has to wipe every grape individually with a moist towelette before eating it) that cutesy rests on the verge of annoying.

Overall, though, there’s enough in Glee to merit coming back for more. When the show gets past its moments of self-adoration, there’s a fair amount of depth beneath its colorful confectionary shell. And I have a feeling that in a few weeks, once the show is able to find its true voice, Glee could become appointment television. Don’t stop believing…

A Bitter End for Rescue Me

2009-09-02T09:05:00.000-07:00

Over the years, Rescue Me has provided its share of disturbing images, but none may be more so than seeing our (anti?) hero Tommy (Denis Leary) lying on the floor of the bar bleeding to death from two gunshot wounds courtesy of his Uncle Teddy (Lenny Clarke). Teddy is grief-stricken after his wife Ellie died in a drunken collision with a big rig, all while the rest of the family (Teddy included) reveled in their renewed drunkenness, believing they are in total control of the alcoholism that has gripped nearly every member of the Gavin family. Initially blaming himself for removing Ellie from sobriety, by the end of last night’s season finale, Teddy decides that Tommy, by virtue of being the one behind the bar the night of the accident, is culpable for her death. With the show’s entire cast of men at the bar, Teddy shows up and takes the place hostage, forcing Tommy to down shots of whiskey and trying to coax Tommy into killing him. When Tommy refuses, Teddy shoots him in the shoulder, then in the arm, telling everyone they’ll be there for a while as they wait for Tommy to bleed out.

It was a powerful cap to what has been an uneven season for Rescue Me. Perhaps the onus of producing a full season of twenty-two episodes for the first time (past seasons have been held to thirteen) was too much for Leary and company. Ill-thought out story lines included Franco’s foray into the boxing ring and subsequent relationship with a lesbian boxer; Lou’s brief marriage to the woman who previously bilked him for thousands of dollars and returned to try it again; and momma’s boy Damien joining the squad, seemingly so he could be nothing more than a mole providing information about Tommy to his psycho mom Sheila (Callie Thorne, wrongfully denied an Emmy nomination this year). But even a subpar Rescue Me makes for salacious viewing, with its sometimes shocking mix of drama and comedy creating an uncomfortable and mostly realistic account of how darkness and light often converge. And this exceptional cast knows how to sell just about anything they’re given.

Last week FX announced that the next season of Rescue Me will be its last (the 19-episode batch will likely be split into two parts, one airing in 2010, the other in 2011). With Leary being the obvious soul of the show, last night’s cliffhanger ending doesn’t actually leave his survival in question. But with Rescue Me, it’s all about how the characters deal with the aftermath of harrowing situations. After all, this is a show that was born out of the continued trauma brought on by the 9/11 attacks. How will being shot and left for dead affect Tommy and the rest of the Gavins? Will their hard-drinking ways be abandoned for good? And how does a family that relates best when they’re passing around a bottle face the reality of what their actions have wrought? As is the show's tradition, the answers will no doubt be surprising and hard to come by. The Gavins, and I, wouldn't have it any other way.

Fall 2009: When and Where

2009-08-31T08:21:00.000-07:00

With just three weeks to go before the fall season officially begins, and some shows starting early, I thought I’d take this time to put together a list of premiere dates so you know exactly when your favorite show (or the new show you’ve been looking forward to) will begin. Happy viewing, everybody!

ABC
Monday
Dancing With the Stars—9/21, 8pm (three-night premiere continues through 9/23)
Castle—9/21, 10pm

Tuesday
Shark Tank—9/29, 8pm (time period premiere)
Dancing With the Stars: The Results—9/23, 8pm (special night); 9/29, 9pm (regular night)
The Forgotten—9/22, 10pm

Wednesday
Hank—9/30, 8pm
The Middle—9/30, 8pm
Modern Family—9/23, 9pm
Cougar Town—9/23, 9:30pm
Eastwick—9/23, 10pm

Thursday
Flash Forward—9/24, 8pm
Grey’s Anatomy—9/24, 9pm
Private Practice—9/24, 10pm

Friday
Supernanny—10/16, 8pm
Ugly Betty—10/9, 8pm (2-hour premiere, 9pm thereafter)
20/20—9/11, 10pm

Saturday
Saturday Night College Football—9/5, 8pm

Sunday
America’s Funniest Home Videos—10/4, 7pm
Extreme Makeover: Home Edition—9/27, 7pm (2-hour premiere, 8pm thereafter)
Desperate Housewives—9/27, 9pm
Brothers & Sisters—9/27, 10pm

CBS
Monday
How I Met Your Mother—9/21, 8pm
Accidentally on Purpose—9/21, 8:30pm
Two and a Half Men—9/21, 9pm
The Big Bang Theory—9/21, 9:30pm
CSI: Miami—9/21, 10pm

Tuesday
NCIS—9/22, 8pm
NCIS: Los Angeles—9/22, 9pm
The Good Wife—9/22, 10pm

Wednesday
The New Adventures of Old Christine—9/23, 8pm
Gary Unmarried—9/23, 8:30pm
Criminal Minds—9/23, 9pm
CSI: NY—9/23, 10pm

Thursday
Survivor: Samoa—9/17, 8pm
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation—9/24, 9pm
The Mentalist—9/24, 10pm

Friday
Ghost Whisperer—9/25, 8pm
Medium—9/25, 9pm
Numb3rs—9/25, 10pm

Saturday
48 Hours Mystery—9/26, 10pm

Sunday
60 Minutes—9/27, 7pm
The Amazing Race—9/27, 8pm (two-hour premiere)
Three Rivers—10/4, 9pm
Cold Case—9/27, 10pm

NBC
Monday
Heroes—9/21, 8pm (two-hour premiere)
Trauma—9/28, 9pm
The Jay Leno Show—9/14, 10pm (airs Monday-Friday at 10pm)

Tuesday
The Biggest Loser—9/15, 8pm

Wednesday
Mercy—9/23, 8pm
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit—9/23, 9pm

Thursday
SNL Weekend Update Thursday—9/17, 8pm
Parks and Recreation—9/17, 8:30pm
The Office—9/17, 9pm
Community—9/17, 9:30pm (8pm beginning 10/8)
30 Rock—10/15, 9:30pm

Friday
Law & Order—9/25, 8pm
Southland—10/23, 9pm

Saturday
Dateline NBC—9/26, 8pm

Sunday
Football Night in America—9/13, 7pm
NBC Sunday Night Football—9/13, 8:15pm

Fox
Monday
House—9/21, 8pm (two-hour premiere)
Lie to Me—9/28, 9pm

Tuesday
So You Think You Can Dance—9/29, 9pm

Wednesday
So You Think You Can Dance—9/9, 8pm
Glee—9/9, 9pm

Thursday
Bones—9/17, 8pm
Fringe—9/17, 9pm

Friday
Brothers—9/25, 8pm (one-hour premiere)
Til Death—10/2, 8:30pm
Dollhouse—9/25, 9pm

Saturday
Cops—9/12, 8pm (one-hour premiere)
America’s Most Wanted: America Fights Back—9/12, 9pm

Sunday
The Simpsons—9/27, 8pm
The Cleveland Show—9/27, 8:30pm
Family Guy—9/27, 9pm
American Dad—9/27, 9:30pm

The CW
Monday
One Tree Hill—9/14, 8pm
Gossip Girl—9/14, 9pm

Tuesday
90210—9/8, 8pm
Melrose Place—9/8, 9pm

Wednesday
America’s Next Top Model—9/9, 8pm (two-hour premiere)
The Beautiful Life: TBL—9/16, 9pm

Thursday
The Vampire Diaries—9/10, 8pm
Supernatural—9/10, 9pm

Friday
Smallville—9/25, 8pm

All dates and times subject to change.

The Ultimate Reality

2009-08-30T12:19:00.000-07:00

Conjecture has long held that the reality TV gravy train would finally come off the rails when someone actually died during shooting. And while that has yet to happen, we seem to be coming eerily close to such a tragedy. In recent weeks, we’ve seen the brutal murder of model Jasmine Fiore, allegedly at the hands of her husband Ryan Jenkins, who later committed suicide after fleeing to Canada; and just this weekend, the death of DJ AM, who survived a plane crash less than a year ago only to succumb to a drug overdose.

What does this have to do with reality TV? Jenkins was a contestant on not one but two VH1 dating shows: Megan Wants a Millionaire aired three episodes before being canceled shortly after news of Fiore’s death broke, and I Love Money 3 was set to premiere in January but will now remain in the network's vault. DJ AM (né Adam Goldstein), meanwhile, had already completed production on a Celebrity Rehab-type program for MTV called Gone Too Far. The network hasn’t yet decided whether they will air the show, though some are saying that the hindsight provided here could be the ultimate wake-up call to those who suffer from addiction; no doubt others will see it as exploitative if MTV goes forward with it.

More than any other medium, TV is able to push the envelope (and buttons) with its immediacy. Trends can be cashed in on quickly, copycats abound, and our tolerance levels continue to be tested. Is it so hard to imagine that our obsession with taking everything to its extreme will one day lead to someone’s untimely demise? For years, we’ve watched as Survivor contestants who were too skinny to begin with are subjected to as many as 39 days without an adequate meal, going home looking like anorexics in need of treatment. The rapid weight loss that is The Biggest Loser's raison d’être seems like a heart attack waiting to happen. It’s probably a small miracle that there haven’t been any automobile accidents on The Amazing Race given how the teams yell at their cab drivers to speed through busy streets, putting innocent bystanders at risk. And while producers claim that all contestants go through rigorous psychological screenings and background checks (though an article in the current issue of Entertainment Weekly acknowledges that standards have become more lax, particularly on cable where product is churned out at an alarming pace), it’s not too far-fetched to think that one of The Bachelor’s rejected women could come back for revenge, or be so distraught by the rejection that she takes her own life.

For the sake of entertainment, we choose to look beyond some of the unhealthiness that is rampant in reality TV. (It doesn’t help that contestants must sign waivers that completely remove any liability on the part of the producers and the networks should anything go wrong, leaving no one at fault but the contestants themselves.) And I admit to being drawn into it like so many others; there is nothing like the thrill of good competition. But does tragedy really have to strike before we begin to see what’s been right in front of millions of our faces the entire time?

Who's Hungry?

2009-08-20T08:15:00.000-07:00

It was a foodie’s dream come true as Bravo offered up a Top Chef twofer last night: the premiere of the Las Vegas edition as well as the finale of its Masters spinoff.

I’ve gone on record as saying that most of these competition shows start off with too many contestants (17 in the case of Top Chef: Las Vegas), to the point that you don’t really get a sense of who anybody is until they’re down to around ten or so people left. (Other than on TV, where else would you meet that many people in the span of an hour and expect each of them to make a lasting impression?) That proved true again in the season premiere, where a few cheftestants made themselves stand out—mostly for the wrong reasons—while most are still a nondescript blur of frenetic kitchen energy. In these early stages, cockiness is the best way to be remembered, and since this is the most accomplished crop of chefs the show has seen, many of them feel they have reason to be cocky. Fitting the bill so far are Michael Isabella, who admitted to having a hot temper and a foul mouth; Michael Voltaggio, whose less attitudinal brother Bryan is also in the mix; and Jennifer Carroll, a chef at one of frequent guest judge Eric Ripert’s restaurants.

The actual competition last night left a little to be desired, again a symptom of having to make time for so many people. The two-part Quickfire Challenge brought back a Top Chef tradition: the mise en place relay race, in which contestants had to shuck clams, peel prawns, clean lobsters, and break down chops, all while being shepherded forward by head judge Tom Colicchio and his whistle. The winning team then had a cookoff, with each player using one of the ingredients from the first part of the challenge. Jennifer Carroll won the challenge and a $15,000 casino chip.

For the Elimination Challenge, the chefs had to prepare a dish based on a vice. Given that it’s the first episode I’ll cut them some slack, but many of these chefs are clearly unskilled at telling stories with their food. One who can is Kevin Gillespie, taking his vice of procrastination to an Arctic char dish where he slowed down processes that would normally be sped up and vice versa, delivering a winning dish that the judges loved. Jen Zavala was less impressive with a chile relleno stuffed with seitan (I’d never heard of it, either) that host Padma Lakshmi described as a “Vegan bar midnight special” before sending Jen to the kitchen to pack her knives with the ignominy of being the first person eliminated. This season's Vegas setting should allow for much pomp, but we'll probably have to wait a few weeks before any engaging personalities begin to emerge.

Over on the Top Chef Masters season finale, it was a French-Mexican-Italian showdown with Hubert Keller, Rick Bayless, and Michael Chiarello each crafting four dishes that told their life stories in food. The dishes were served to a collection of judges who know exactly the pressure that these master chefs are under—the five previous winners of Top Chef, assembled together for the first time. Also present were Top Chef judges Tom, Padma, and Gail Simmons, plus the regular team of Masters critics, James Oseland, Gael Greene, and Jay Rayner. (On a side note, how great was it to have Padma back after suffering through weeks of the truly awful Kelly Choi hosting Masters?) There were a few standout dishes, but the one that left me salivating was Bayless’s barbecue quail; the frozen Claim Jumper spaghetti and meatballs dinner I ate while watching just didn’t measure up. Ultimately, it was the meticulous, humble and deserving Bayless who took the title and won $100,000 for his charity, the Frontera Farmer Foundation, designed to give grants to local farmers.

It was nice to have Top Chef Masters as a placeholder between seasons of the original, though seeing chefs reach out to help instead of reaching out to strangle each other just doesn’t carry the same dramatic heft. Knowing that they’re assessing world renowned chefs also led to the critics using kid gloves more often than the judges on Top Chef; you won’t see Gael Greene throwing food across the room the way guest judge Wolfgang Puck did an unpalatable donut on the Las Vegas premiere.

With moderation being the key to appreciating food, I’m not sure that Bravo should have aired both of these episodes back-to-back; two hours and fifteen minutes was a bit too much of a good thing. With all that time, the least they could have done was spend a minute explaining just how the judges’ stomachs are able to handle a 12-course meal.

Blood in the Tank

2009-08-10T09:28:00.000-07:00

With just four episodes now left in its second season, I had hoped that HBO’s True Blood would start to pick up the storytelling pace. Unfortunately, it seems content to merely spin its wheels. Don’t get me wrong, the show’s Southern charms still put a spell on me; I just wish more were happening. We’ve been waiting for the anti-vampire cult Fellowship of the Sun to start a war between humans and vampires for weeks, and when it finally seemed like it might happen, in walks a deus ex machina named Godric, a vampire who’s older than Christ, to quell the tensions (at least temporarily). We’ve been waiting for some real information on just who/what Maryann (the underrated Michelle Forbes) is, and instead we’re given essentially the same scene in every episode: Maryann attracting the locals to a bonfire party where she entrances them, turns their eyes to black orbs, and makes animalistic sex mandatory (though watching her cut up, cook and serve a human heart last night is one of the grizzliest sights I've seen this side of Hannibal Lecter). And we’ve been waiting for the love triangle between Sookie (Anna Paquin), Bill (Stephen Moyer), and Eric (Alexander Skarsgard) to erupt in some kind of epic showdown between the two vamps, only to be put off time and time again.

I’m all for drawing out a story when the material supports it, but this all seems like too much build-up for what had better be a damn good payoff. In True Blood's world, only about a month has passed from the very first episode to where we are now, and while much has happened, I can’t help but want more (maybe I’ve been sullied by shows like 24 and Lost, which cram so much into a single episode, let alone entire seasons). Last night’s cliffhanger had one of the Fellowship’s minions walking into a vampire nest with a bomb strapped to his chest, a development that certainly seems designed to break up some of the sedentary plotlines that have dominated this season. Unless the results are mind-blowing, though, it all might be too little, too late when it comes to me sticking around for the long haul.

There was more (metaphorical) blood to be seen last night as ABC premiered the latest product from the Mark Burnett factory of reality shows, Shark Tank, based on a Japanese concept. (After a brief run on Sundays at 9pm, the show is scheduled to move to Tuesdays at 8pm in the fall, although with only 4.2 million viewers tuning in last night, we’ll see if it even makes it to September.) The show sets wannabe entrepreneurs in front of millionaires and has them beg for capital in exchange for a stake in their ventures. The first episode saw deals being made with a pie maker who wants to expand his business and a woman who thinks she's found a surefire way to get kids to take their medicine, an elephant head that uses the snout as a dropper. Among the rejects were a man who believes that people will pay to have Bluetooth chips surgically implanted behind their ears and two young businessmen who wanted the millionaires to finance a spinoff of their successful packing/moving enterprise but didn’t want to give up a percentage of the original business as collateral.

What works for the show is the inherent interest we all have in seeing the perseverance of the American Dream, a heartening sight given the economic situation. What doesn’t work so well is that, with the exception of some profile pieces, the show takes place entirely in a studio, with the entrepreneurs pitching their products and the millionaires offering feedback and making offers (or not). On the one hand, this makes for very easy viewing; since each episode is its own entity, you don’t have to invest in another reality show for the long run. On the other hand… it’s easy viewing. There’s no incentive to come back next week since you know that you’ll probably never see these people again. It would take longer to produce, but it would have made more sense to follow the few who made deals all the way through to the end. Show us how their ideas came to fruition, the manufacturing process, the starts and stops of business, the success or failure of their endeavors. In other words, give us something to care about. As it is, Shark Tank is all surface.

Dance Fever

2009-08-06T09:36:00.000-07:00

Last night marked the final performance show of the season for Fox’s So You Think You Can Dance, and what a season it’s been, with the choreographers stepping things up once again for perhaps the most talented group of dancers this show has ever seen. The only thing missing, as judge and executive producer Nigel Lythgoe tried to get through to the contestants all summer long, was a healthy helping of personality, the star quality that separates America’s best from its “favorite,” which is what this show is looking for.

Just a few weeks ago, SYTYCD scored Emmy nominations for four of last season’s routines, and without a doubt some of the memorable numbers from this season will be joining those ranks next year. Among the highlights were Jason and Jeanine’s contemporary dance, choreographed by season two runner-up Travis Wall, the perfect example of the kind of talent this show nurtures; Brandon and Jeanine’s pop jazz routine set to Jordin Sparks’ “Battlefield”; Randi and Evan’s ode to Randi’s derriere; and Melissa and Ade’s absolutely gorgeous breast cancer-themed dance, a Tyce Diorio powerhouse that brought the entire judges’ panel (and this viewer) to tears. If you missed any of these, or simply want to relive them, a quick search of YouTube will not disappoint.

As for the finale—the two-hour results show airs tonight at 8pm—the four remaining dancers each bring their own unique traits to the proceedings. Brandon’s physical strength translates into dancing that leaves almost nothing to be desired, but there’s something about his personality that doesn’t feel totally sincere. When given choreography, Kayla is a true threat, with her amazing lines a real highlight of her all-around ability. When left to her own devices, however, her solos often feel like a disjointed combination of jerky movements. Evan is fantastic in his Broadway style, but finds himself struggling outside of that rather narrow category. While he’s definitely a charmer, there were stronger dancers (Jason, Ade) who left before him. Finally, Jeanine—my pick to win it all—is the only contestant this season to emerge as a real star. Ultra-capable in every style she's been handed (even Russian folk), she’s the one dancer who really let her adorable, playful personality shine.

The biggest challenge for the dancers last night was to avoid getting swallowed up by the breadth of the Kodak Theatre stage. Some were successful—another “wow” routine from the inimitable Mia Michaels was danced brilliantly by Kayla and Jeanine—while others felt too small for such a big night—a country-western jive from Kayla and Evan that should have been replaced by something much grander. The evening ended with a terrific paso doble by Jeanine and Brandon. With the swishing outfits and exaggerated facial expressions, this is the kind of dance that can be cartoonish in the wrong hands. The passionate way Jeanine and Brandon did it, though, earned them a standing ovation from both the judges and the audience and will likely leave them as the top two dancers when the results are announced.

And lest you start having withdrawals after the show signs off tonight, fear not: SYTYCD will be back on September 9 with a brand new crop of contestants, the first time the show has been invited to appear within the regular season (a preview package gave me goosebumps already). Despite the screeching of ballroom expert Mary Murphy and Nigel’s horndog leering, this is far and away the best, most diverse dance show on TV, with the best judges on TV—honest, constructive, and unafraid to deliver an unpopular opinion. They succeed in getting the audience to celebrate a form of expression that has been marginalized for too long. When the alternative is seeing roly-poly Steve Wozniak do the Worm or sitting through the embarrassment that is Dance Your Ass Off, I, for one, can handle a little screeching to be able to watch dancing as pure and special as this.

Dark Blue Could Stand to Lighten Up

2009-08-05T09:20:00.000-07:00

Adding to its stable of good vs. evil dramas (The Closer, Saving Grace, Leverage), TNT introduces Dark Blue (Wednesday, 10pm), about an off-the-grid team of undercover cops who take on cases that are supposed to be beyond the purview of ordinary cops but so far seem like a whole lot of been there, seen that (gun sales and Korean gangs don’t quite scream original to me). Dylan McDermott heads the team as Carter Shaw, a man who’s so involved with his work that he’s forgotten how to be a real person. Those around him regard him as some kind of superhero, an enigma who knows when and where to be at exactly the right time; one character even refers to him as the Prince of Darkness. McDermott, who spent seven years on The Practice demonstrating that he knows how to command the screen, plays Carter without a hint of nuance. He’s all mood and attitude, too dour a presence to be someone you actually care about. And Carter’s team is made up of types rather than engaging characters: there’s the cop with the bad past, the one whose wife doesn’t particularly like her husband's job, and another who may or may not be on the right side of the law. No cliché is too pat to be included here.

The most apt word to describe Dark Blue is annoying. It’s annoyingly directed with an aesthetic that comes across as a failed attempt at noir. It’s annoyingly written, as if the producers mistakenly think they’re creating something that’s far more important than it actually is. And it’s annoyingly acted by a troupe that is taking this stuff way too seriously. I pretty much checked out altogether when this became yet another show where the bad guys spray hundreds of bullets and only succeed in shooting up a car, while the good guys manage to get off just a few rounds but have near-perfect aim. When the credit came up at the end of the show announcing that Jerry Bruckheimer was the executive producer, it all made sense to me. The king of the interchangeable, expendable crime drama has struck again.

Teens These Days

2009-08-04T07:58:00.001-07:00

It’s rare for a sitcom aimed at teenagers to wear its brain on its sleeve, but ABC Family’s 10 Things I Hate About You (Tuesday, 8pm) does just that, sometimes to its own detriment. Based on the 1999 movie that gave Heath Ledger his big break and was itself based on Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew, 10 Things follows Kat and Bianca Stratford (Lindsey Shaw and Meaghan Jette Martin), the new girls at school who are polar opposites as sisters and students. Bianca is doing everything she can to be popular, from befriending the snooty head cheerleader (The Nine’s Dana Davis, acting like a transplant from the Bring It On series) to making up a story about having an affair with a teacher (I’m not sure that playing statutory rape for laughs sends the right message to the show’s intended audience). Kat, on the other hand, isn’t interested in assimilation, purposely hitting said cheerleader’s car on the first day of school and finding herself drawn to a mysterious bad boy named Patrick (too-broody Ethan Peck). Comedian Larry Miller reprises his role from the movie as the girls’ overprotective dad; he’s also a gynecolist obsessed with keeping his daughters innocent, to the point that he has specimen cups at the ready for when they come home late or engage in questionable behavior. Miller and Shaw do share some truly touching moments as Kat encourages her father to move on from her mother’s death, but the show seems more focused on being snarky and exercising those aforementioned smarts. I haven’t been to a high school lately, but I’m gonna go out on a limb and say that teens aren’t incorporating references to Agent Orange and Kim Jong Il into casual conversations with friends. When will writers realize that making teens sound intelligent and making them sound their age do not have to be mutually exclusive? Still, 10 Things is fast-paced and energetic enough to merit a look.

Airing immediately after 10 Things, Ruby & the Rockits (Tuesday, 8:30pm) forgoes intelligence entirely in favor of triteness. The show is a family affair, created by Shaun Cassidy (about as far from American Gothic and Invasion as he could get) and starring David and Patrick Cassidy as brothers who were successful musicians once upon a time. Patrick’s now a car salesman, while David, washed-up and solipsistic, continues to play. When David’s teenage daughter (Spy Kids’ Alexa Vega) shows up out of nowhere, he doesn’t think twice before plopping her in the middle of responsible Patrick’s suburban dream life. Everything here is all too sitcomy—the unrealistic premise, the Full House-level jokes, the overbearing laugh track that goads you into thinking this is supposed to be much funnier than it is. What’s missing is the conflict that should be inherent in the setup. Shouldn’t someone have a problem with Ruby’s being there? Shouldn’t Ruby be more upset with her absentee father who immediately pushes her off on someone else? (There was a bit of this in the second episode, but any tension was eradicated from one scene to the next.) Vega does her best to hold the show together; she’s as sweet and cute as she needs to be and has a halfway decent singing voice to boot. But when the show treads on Arrested Development territory by having Ruby’s cousin develop a crush on her, you know it’s just trying way too hard. Ruby & the Rockits would have felt right at home as part of NBC’s Saturday morning sitcom block in the ‘90s, but feels a bit too dorky for today’s more sophisticated teen audience.

Summer Series Roundup, Part 2

2009-07-20T09:22:00.000-07:00

In a summer filled with more original programming than perhaps any other, here’s a look at a few more of the scripted entries being offered.

Hung (HBO, Sundays, 10pm): “Do your best with whatever God gave you.” That platitude begins this series about Ray Drecker (Thomas Jane), a Detroit high school basketball coach in financial straits who attends a seminar designed to help him find his million-dollar idea. Creative laziness leads Ray to the realization that the best tool he has to market is in fact his "tool." You see, Ray is blessed in the penile department, so he teams up with fellow seminar attendee Tanya (Jane Adams) and the desperate pair form a pimp-ho partnership. The series' tone is somewhat reminiscent of the early days of Weeds, when Nancy Botwin still had a modicum of innocence about her, when she, like Ray, was just trying to help her family get by. Where the two differ, however, is that Hung offers none of the laugh-out-loud moments Weeds used to. With the exception of one or two chuckles, I didn’t find myself laughing at all, which, since the show is otherwise good, would be fine if HBO weren’t selling it as a comedy. Jane Adams, previously from Frasier, is terrific as a woman trying to feel her way through a situation that has her in over her head. Anne Heche shows up as Ray’s controlling ex-wife, a role that suits her more comfortably than the two years she spent on Men in Trees ever did. And if you, like me, know Thomas Jane mainly from the execrable Punisher movie, prepare to see a completely different side of this actor as he plays a man trying to hide his vulnerability behind the size of his (unseen) member.

HawthoRNe (TNT, Tuesdays, 9pm): What came first: the titular character’s name or the thought of giving that character a name with the letters “RN” in it? Because Christina Hawthorne is a registered nurse. Get it? That’s the most groundbreaking thing about this drama, which hits all the clichéd notes you’d expect from a medical show built around a lead who cares more about her patients than she does about herself. Jada Pinkett Smith plays said lead with a predictable amount of sass and self-righteousness, neither of which does much to keep Hawthorne (and HawthoRNe) from being kinda dull. Created by John Masius, who also gave us the syrupy Providence, the show is the type that mistakes quirks for actual character development. Hawthorne talks to her dead husband’s ashes; Michael Vartan’s (Alias) chief of surgery has a thing for green lollipops; a new nurse is overrun by bad luck. None of it ultimately amounts to anything, and the patients end up being more interesting than the hospital staff; particularly effective is an ongoing story about a homeless woman (Aisha Hinds, most recently seen as True Blood's faux exorcist) trying to improve her situation so she can be a mom to her newborn child. But it’s the nurses that we’re supposed to feel for, and the show fails miserably in that aspect. All you really need to know about HawthoRNe is wrapped up in the fact that there’s actually a nurse named Candy, and not one person in the hospital notes the irony in that.

Merlin (NBC, Sundays, 8pm): A British import, this swords-and-sorcery fantasy is a surprisingly satisfying summer diversion. Colin Morgan is all wide-eyed innocence as a teenage Merlin, sent by his mother to Camelot, where court physician Gaius (Richard Wilson) looks after him. With magic being outlawed by King Uther (Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s Anthony Head, pulling off regality quite nicely), Merlin must hide his gift, even as he uses it to save Prince Arthur’s (Bradley James) life. A show like this lives or dies on the quality of its effects, and while they aren’t big-screen caliber, they’re serviceable enough by TV standards. The actors all look to be having a good time as they toe the line of camp without (for the most part) crossing over. With lowered expectations, fans of the Narnia and Lord of the Rings films will find themselves caught up in this entertaining reimagining of a timeless tale.

Emmy Noms: A Major Case of Deja Vu

2009-07-16T09:10:00.000-07:00

It’s Emmy nomination day, when Hollywood wakes up at the crack of dawn and proceeds to pat itself on the back for another year of good work (although the fact that According to Jim has as many noms as my beloved Friday Night Lights—one—makes this whole process suspect). Maybe I’d be more excited about the nominations if they weren’t so close to being a carbon copy of last year’s. That is often the case with TV, where once voters have a performer or show on their radar, it’s hard to get them to acknowledge something fresh. There are a few surprises and new additions this year, and some truly deserving work being honored, but mostly it’s too much of the same old, same old. Here’s a look at the major categories:

Outstanding Comedy Series
30 Rock
Entourage
Family Guy
Flight Of The Conchords
How I Met Your Mother
The Office
Weeds

With 22 total nominations, 30 Rock should have no problem taking home its third straight trophy, even though the category has been expanded to include seven nominees. It’s nice to see How I Met Your Mother finally get some recognition, but how is it that Family Guy makes it onto this list when The Simpsons never has? The Office and Entourage are here more out of habit than as a reflection of their quality, and Weeds’ slot should have been given to Californication, which had a much funnier season.

Outstanding Drama Series
Big Love
Breaking Bad
Damages
Dexter
House
Lost
Mad Men

I love, love, love that Breaking Bad made the cut; there’s no show on TV right now that is more capable of surprising me each and every week. Here’s hoping this (very) dark horse can find its way through all the Mad Men fanfare and score a win. Big Love apparently saved its sole nomination for where it counts most, and all the other nominees return from last year. While House ended its season with a string of incredible episodes, I think Friday Night Lights should have taken its’ slot. Perhaps the biggest surprise here is the lack of attention for True Blood, which has blown up in popularity over the last few months, but has no major nominations.

Outstanding Lead Actor In A Comedy Series
Alec Baldwin - 30 Rock
Jemaine Clement - Flight Of The Conchords
Tony Shalhoub - Monk
Jim Parsons - The Big Bang Theory
Steve Carell - The Office
Charlie Sheen - Two And A Half Men

Alec Baldwin and Steve Carell are the only real standouts in what I consider to be a rather weak category. I don’t get the whole Conchords thing, Tony Shalhoub has been nominated way too many times for this role, Jim Parsons’ nerdy performance is too one-note for me, and Charlie Sheen doesn’t even seem to be acting. Since voters chose to ignore David Duchovny’s terrifically nasty/sweet turn in Californication, Baldwin it is.

Outstanding Lead Actor In A Drama Series
Bryan Cranston - Breaking Bad
Michael C. Hall - Dexter
Hugh Laurie - House
Gabriel Byrne - In Treatment
Jon Hamm - Mad Men
Simon Baker - The Mentalist

Substitute Simon Baker for Boston Legal’s James Spader and you’ve got a category that’s identical to last year. Cranston snuck in for a win last time around and has to be considered the front-runner this year. Missing again are Friday Night Lights’ Kyle Chandler and Big Love’s Bill Paxton. And it’s interesting that Keifer Sutherland made it into the miniseries/movie category for 24: Redemption, but couldn’t garner a nod here for his series work.

Outstanding Lead Actress In A Comedy Series
Tina Fey - 30 Rock
Christina Applegate - Samantha Who?
Julia Louis-Dreyfus - The New Adventures Of Old Christine
Sarah Silverman - The Sarah Silverman Program
Toni Collette - United States Of Tara
Mary-Louise Parker - Weeds

It's encouraging to see Silverman’s brand of comedy—which I would have thought to be too bawdy for stuffy Emmy voters—earn her a nom. Collette, the only other newcomer in this category, takes a role that could lead to showiness and instead gives each of Tara’s multiple personalities a subtle flair. She could take the win over the other business-as-usual nominees.

Outstanding Lead Actress In A Drama Series
Sally Field - Brothers & Sisters
Glenn Close - Damages
Mariska Hargitay - Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
Elisabeth Moss - Mad Men
Holly Hunter - Saving Grace
Kyra Sedgwick - The Closer

Another category that’s exactly the same as last year, save for the addition of Moss. (Not to beat a criminally overlooked horse, but Connie Britton should have been nominated for her role in Friday Night Lights.) Unless Moss scores an under-the-radar win, Close will likely score again.

Outstanding Supporting Actor In A Comedy Series
Tracy Morgan - 30 Rock
Jack McBrayer – 30 Rock
Kevin Dillon – Entourage
Neil Patrick Harris - How I Met Your Mother
Rainn Wilson - The Office
Jon Cryer - Two And A Half Men

With perennial fave Jeremy Piven (Entourage) failing to show, room has been made for 30 Rock’s Morgan and McBrayer, the former of which has the best shot at upstaging Harris.

Outstanding Supporting Actor In A Drama Series
William Shatner - Boston Legal
Christian Clemenson - Boston Legal
Aaron Paul - Breaking Bad
William Hurt - Damages
Michael Emerson - Lost
John Slattery - Mad Men

Final-season sentiment could lead to another Shatner win, though Emerson is overdue for continuing to straddle the line between creepy and sympathetic. Hurt’s character was involved in some of Damages’ least logical plot twists and he’s likely here more for being a big name than for his actual performance. My pick would be Aaron Paul, whose layered ineptitude as Bryan Cranston’s partner on Breaking Bad is often sad and hysterical at the same time.

Outstanding Supporting Actress In A Comedy Series
Jane Krakowski - 30 Rock
Kristin Chenoweth - Pushing Daisies
Amy Poehler - Saturday Night Live
Kristin Wiig - Saturday Night Live
Vanessa Williams - Ugly Betty
Elizabeth Perkins - Weeds

Sadly, another weak category, but one that should put another win in 30 Rock's column. Poehler and Wiig are too cartoonish, Williams and Chenoweth are on shows with zero momentum, and Perkins’ character seemed plopped into a story she had no business being in. Though not a comment on Krakowski’s ability, this will be more of a default win. Why no love for Jenna Fischer (The Office) or Wanda Sykes (The New Adventures of Old Christine)?

Outstanding Supporting Actress In A Drama Series
Cherry Jones - 24
Rose Byrne - Damages
Sandra Oh - Grey's Anatomy
Chandra Wilson - Grey's Anatomy
Dianne Wiest - In Treatment
Hope Davis - In Treatment

This one’s tough to predict. Oh and Wilson could suffer because of the critical drubbing Grey’s took this season. In Treatment still doesn’t have enough fervent fans for Wiest and Davis to break through. The race for me is between Byrne and Jones, with Jones likely taking it for her commanding portrayal of President Taylor.

Outstanding Reality - Competition Program
American Idol
Dancing With The Stars
Project Runway
The Amazing Race
Top Chef

Another category that’s identical to last year. It shouldn’t be too hard for The Amazing Race to continue its streak, though Top Chef could provide the upset.

If the writing nominees are any indication of how the series awards will go—and doesn’t it make sense that they would be?—the winners will once again be 30 Rock and Mad Men, which each took four of the five writing slots. But enough with the prognostication. All will be revealed when the 61st Annual Primetime Emmy Awards, hosted by Neil Patrick Harris, air September 20 on CBS.

An Odd Combo: Gymnastics and Pot

2009-07-14T11:04:00.000-07:00

On the original series front, ABC Family has seen its share of creative misfires. While Greek is frothy fun, recent failed sitcoms Roommates and Sophie were tough to sit through, and the inexplicably popular The Secret Life of the American Teenager is so obsessed with sex that I expect that when the series finale comes around, it will all end in a giant citywide orgy. Add to this list Make It or Break It, a cheesy gymnastics drama that attempts to combine teenage turmoil with lofty Olympic dreams.

The Rocky Mountain Gymnastics Training Center—a.k.a. The Rock—is a breeding ground for promising tumblers. In typical sports drama fashion, new girl Emily enters the picture and, faster than her rivals can say “I hate her,” immediately takes a position among the top three gymnasts and lands a spot at nationals. The show is loaded with clichés, corny dialogue, and acting that would seem right at home on Secret Life—which is to say not good—despite the presence of Peri Gilpin (Frasier), Candace Cameron Bure (Full House), and Brett Cullen (Lost). How can a viewer not do anything but roll his eyes when two girls stave off harassment by using cartwheels as a way to intimidate a group of bad boys? That’s exactly the type of implausible scenario you can expect from this show, which is made all the worse by the fact that the actresses playing the gymnasts aren’t really the ones doing the tricks. If hiring good actors wasn’t a possibility, the least the producers could have done was hire a group of girls who wouldn't require them to cut to wide shots of faceless stunt performers during the routines. I'm not quite sure what the "break it" in the title actually means, but I'm certain this show doesn't "make it."

Speaking of breaking it, that’s exactly what they’re doing over at Weeds, turning a once hysterical comedy into a ridiculous shell of its former self. So much of the show’s humor came from its original setting, the suburbs of Agrestic, where the “little boxes” everyone lived in served to hide the dark underbelly. Having moved to the border town of Renmar last season, the show is nothing but dark underbelly, with minimal humor to go along with it. Now six months pregnant, Nancy (Mary Louise Parker) is engaged to Mexican mob leader Esteban Reyes (Demian Bechir), a man who constantly makes her fear for her life. Andy (Justin Kirk, still the show’s best source of laughs) has squandered a small fortune on video games and other recreational equipment as he pines for Nancy, with whom he only recently realized he is in love. And young Shane (Alexander Gould) is being exposed to the kinds of depraved acts that no adult, let alone a budding teenager, should ever witness.

The show’s writers seem to have backed themselves into a corner they simply don’t know how to get out of. I had hoped that Andy's proposal last week that he and Nancy run off and start over somewhere else would be the kick start the show needed to get back into gear, but Nancy rejected his offer and moved in with Esteban instead, keeping herself (and us) held hostage in a particularly vexing situation. I do hope that things can turn around for this batch of likable miscreants and that the show can return to its former glory. But in this case, I fear that pot really is a gateway drug, this time to disappointing TV.

No Good Deed Goes Uncriticized

2009-07-08T11:00:00.000-07:00

Exotic locales, adventure sequences, and an overwhelmingly good intent aren’t enough to make NBC’s summer entry The Philanthropist a real keeper. Rome’s James Purefoy plays billionaire businessman Teddy Rist, a man who, motivated by the death of his son, decides that he needs to do more to help the world’s underprivileged. So far, Teddy has fostered the admission of a cholera vaccine to a Nigerian village and orchestrated a kidney transplant for a young girl in Myanmar. Tonight’s episode, airing at 10pm ET, has Teddy attempting to free victims of a Parisian sex trafficking ring.

The show plays like a globetrotting (non-medical) version of House, with Teddy overcoming a series of obstacles and misdirection before finally succeeding in his task. Purefoy, though, is no Hugh Laurie (or Daniel Craig for that matter, given the Bond-like nature of his heroics). In straddling the line between caddish and caring, he more often comes across as merely bland where true dynamism is needed. Jesse L. Martin (Law & Order) as Teddy’s business partner and Neve Campbell (Party of Five) as said partner’s husband don’t do much to liven things up, either, as both seem rather bored by the fact that they’re left behind in New York while Teddy gallivants around the world, though they do all get to be a part of the Paris exploits tonight.

Executive producer Tom Fontana (Homicide: Life on the Street), who had a rocky on-again, off-again relationship with the show during its development, does his best to bring a unique (and deliberate) structure to TV by having different characters talk about Teddy’s travails in a storytelling format. This device is ultimately unnecessary, though, and a bit intrusive; a completely linear narrative would serve the series better. With South Africa doubling for many of the foreign locations, the show certainly looks great. But that aesthetic simply isn’t enough to make this valiant, awareness-raising effort work on a dramatic level.

Burnoff Schmurnoff

2009-06-29T09:34:00.000-07:00

They may be summer burnoffs but that doesn’t mean they can’t be good. There was some great TV to be watched this weekend if you didn’t mind the fact that none of the shows mentioned below will be on the fall schedule. I won’t give too much away because all three of them are available to watch online, and I highly recommend you do so.

Kings: The usual political complexities take a backseat to pure scandal this week as threats are made to reveal the secrets of the prince and princess. While Jack continues to struggle with his sexuality and what it means for his kingly future, Michelle and David try to find out what happened to a camera containing racy photos of the princess. All the while, King Silas is bearing his heart to David by taking him to the home of his mistress and illegitimate son. It all leads to acts of betrayal that will likely reverberate through the remainder of the show's run (four episodes are left). Sad to say that only 1.5 million viewers tuned in Saturday night for what may prove to be the series’ finest hour.

Eli Stone: Another Saturday castaway, Eli Stone is without a doubt one of the most heartbreaking cancellations in some time. The show is so genuine and emotional, exemplified by this episode in which Maggie’s hurt feelings boil over after sleeping with Eli, and Jordan tries to get back in his daughter’s good graces after years of lying. Plus, the week’s court case, about a news anchor downgraded to a less desirable time slot (shades of Eli’s own history), was particularly interesting, with guest stars Jamey Sheridan (Chicago Hope) and James Morrison (24) turning in excellent performances. The series has just two episodes remaining, so show a little faith in Eli and seek them out.

Virtuality: Fox aired this failed pilot on Friday night to scant viewers, and even though we’ll never know what happens, the two hours of your time are well spent on a story that is original and intriguing. Reality TV meets science fiction as people on a space mission—to be honest, I’m not exactly sure what their goal is—have their trials and tribulations beamed back to Earth for the world to see. Their only moments of privacy come courtesy of some intense virtual reality equipment, which is now being infiltrated by an unknown man invading their fantasies. Co-created by Battlestar Galactica executive producer Ronald D. Moore and directed by Peter Berg (Friday Night Lights), the beautifully shot (and expensive) pilot understandably leaves many questions unanswered, but in a way that’s wholly appropriate. It gives you the chance to put on your own virtual reality headset and imagine where the show would have gone had it been picked up to series.

Summer Series Roundup

2009-06-19T09:04:00.000-07:00

Getting caught up on some of the scripted series that have debuted over the past few weeks…

The Goode Family (ABC, Fridays, 8:30pm): Like he did with King of the Hill and Office Space, creator Mike Judge takes a slice of Americana—in this case, our current green craze—and exaggerates it for comic effect. Unfortunately, this time around he forgot the funny. Where the Hills’ narrow-minded world is rife with humor, the Goode’s ecologically focused sectarianism, disguised as open-mindedness, is more ironic than funny (Mom chooses to carry her groceries in her arms when she can’t afford a reusable shopping bag, Grandpa shows more love toward his newly adopted exotic pet than he does his daughter). Having already been shifted to lowly Friday, where it drew just 1.1 million viewers last week, The Goode Family isn’t long for this world, an irony in itself given its intended message.

The Listener (NBC, Thursdays, 10pm): Paramedic Toby Logan (Craig Olejnik) can hear people’s thoughts and uses his power to save lives and solve crimes. What’s an EMT doing playing detective? I honestly have no clue, especially since all he does is butt heads with a real detective to whom he’s supposed to be attracted. The concept, which is actually used rather infrequently, is more a convenient storytelling device than anything else. A kidnapping investigation in the first episode came about as more of a hunch on Toby’s part than from anything that a lying woman's thoughts revealed to him. And when the device is used you can almost hear the writers' own inner monologue: "How do we give the viewer this information without having to do too much work ourselves? Oh yeah, we can have Toby listen in on someone’s thoughts." And for some reason—again seemingly more for convenience than for the sake of logic—Toby also has flashes of accidents that are about to happen within his vicinity. None of this is remotely compelling, and it's sad to see Colm Feore (the First Gentleman on 24) involved in this nonsense. The Listener is a Canadian production, acquired by NBC during last year’s writers’ strike, that should have stayed north of the border.

Royal Pains (USA, Thursdays, 10pm): This show, airing opposite (and outrating) The Listener on one of NBC Universal’s cable properties, is ideally attuned to breezy summertime viewing. Mark Feuerstein (Good Morning, Miami) is charming as Hank Lawson, a concierge doctor treating patients in the Hamptons. After an overlong, slow-starting pilot, the series has settled nicely into its lightweight rhythm, thanks in part to Paolo Costanzo (Joey), who plays Hank’s brother as half nebbish, half wannabe ladies’ man. The medicine doesn’t prove all that interesting, nor does Hank come to his conclusions in an especially realistic way. In last night's episode, upon hearing the words “whisper in his ear,” Hank immediately remembers seeing a deer run across his path, puts that together with the fact that the patient hit his head on the grass and—voilà—the patient has a deer tick in his ear! Despite this, there’s enough here to recommend. Royal Pains is a perfect fluffy summer retreat, even if the setting mandates that its characters remain completely oblivious to the country’s economic status.

Mental: Not Quite Crazy Enough

2009-06-09T08:30:00.000-07:00

Fox’s new drama Mental will likely be remembered more for being the show that aired an episode featuring David Carradine in a catatonic state mere days after the actor’s passing than for any brave new territory on which it attempts to tread (Carradine's episode is scheduled to air tonight at 9pm, by the way). The show, set in a Los Angeles psychiatric hospital but actually shot in Colombia (L.A. has never looked greener), thinks it’s more ballsy than it actually is. Look at the new director (Vince Chase) as he strips naked to get in touch with a man who’s having a breakdown. Watch the doctors engage in wacky three-legged races with their patients. Go behind the eyeballs of the crazies to get a better glimpse at how they view the world. But what it all amounts to is a whole lot of emptiness. Let’s face it: as fertile a subject matter as mental illness is, it doesn’t always carry the urgency of a hostage situation or a life-and-death surgery. And it’s borderline irresponsible to make it seem as though psychoses can be as easily stanched as a bloody nose.

The show, created by Deborah Joy Levine and Dan Levine (Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman), hews too closely to Fox’s own House, with Chase’s Jack Gallagher capable of acting as erratically as House does while arguing with superior Annabella Sciorra, doing her best Lisa Cuddy impression. Along the way, other (nondescript) doctors are even forced to act as detectives, just as House’s team does on a weekly basis. And personal information about the doctors is revealed in throwaway lines of dialogue instead of being explored more in depth when time allows. So far we’ve learned that Sciorra’s character has (or had) cancer, that Jack has a mentally ill sister, and that another of the doctors is a lesbian. What we have yet to learn, though, is why we should care about any of it. If you’re absolutely starving for scripted entertainment during the summer months—and don't have cable—Mental will do in a pinch. But you’d probably have more fun trying to figure out what's going on inside the heads of Wipeout contestants instead.

Fall 2009: The Big Picture

2009-05-22T07:08:00.000-07:00

Now that all the networks have announced their schedules, I thought I’d put together a grid to show the new fall lineup in its entirety. (New shows are highlighted.) Beneath that you’ll find some final observations on what happened this week, as well as some predictions for what’s to come.

Most Surprising Cancellation: Samantha Who?
ABC mistreated the show (an extended hiatus and a move to Thursday, where they had to know it would fail), then toyed with the idea of turning it into a multi-camera sitcom before unexpectedly pulling the plug altogether.

Most Surprising Renewal: Dollhouse
No way, no how will this show ever be a hit. Fox would have been better off cutting their losses and letting Joss Whedon develop a new show rather than putting this dreary, unfocused bomb back on the schedule.

Destined to Be a Hit: NCIS: Los Angeles
Like its predecessor, this show is set to be one of the highest-rated shows nobody you know actually watches.

Destined to Be a Flop: Brothers
Fox barely has a pulse on Fridays as it is. Adding what is sure to be a predictable sitcom with a former football player in the lead could cause them to flatline.

Most Surprising Series Pass: Legally Mad
This was to be David E. Kelley’s first show under his new contract with Warner Bros. Imagine how bad it must have been for NBC, which has to pay a hefty penalty for not picking it up to series, to have passed on it.

Smartest Move (time period): The Big Bang Theory
The show has been on the verge of breaking out for some time. Being paired with Two and a Half Men is the final push it needs to grow its audience.

Smartest Move (overall): A fall edition of So You Think You Can Dance
It’s risky, but it's just the kind of aggressive maneuver Fox needs to keep from twiddling their thumbs as they wait for American Idol to begin in January.

Most Boneheaded Move (time period): Ugly Betty
What makes ABC think that Betty will work on Fridays when it’s already seeing its viewership dwindle on Thursdays? Swapping Betty with new reality show Shark Tank on Tuesdays would probably be beneficial for both shows.

Most Boneheaded Move (overall): Continuing to ignore Saturday night
We’ve seen that, with the right programming, audiences are still available on Saturdays. Sporting events such as the NFL playoffs and NCAA tournament draw big crowds on the night year after year. Why couldn't the same happen with scripted programming? The right shows and the right promotion could turn things around.

CW Fall: This One Goes Out to the Ladies

2009-05-21T08:39:00.000-07:00

With The CW’s schedule announcement today, the final piece of the fall puzzle has been put in place. Now that the network has abandoned Sunday night (last year’s experiment of selling the programming rights to Media Rights Capital was an instant disaster and the follow-up solution of Jericho repeats and a collection of mostly unknown MGM movies was not a step toward affiliate happiness) and only has ten hours to fill, you’d think they could develop a lineup loaded with original content. Instead, we get remakes and copycats, and somehow they’ve managed to still find a slot for a low-rated encore of America’s Next Top Model (what they save in production costs by doing this, they lose in viewer tune-out). In any event, the three new series CW will be launching in the fall are perfectly designed to appeal to the network’s core audience of women 18-34, but may have trouble extending beyond that base.

THE CW's 2009-2010 PRIMETIME SCHEDULE

MONDAY
8:00-9:00 PM GOSSIP GIRL
9:00-10:00 PM ONE TREE HILL

TUESDAY
8:00-9:00 PM 90210
9:00-10:00 PM MELROSE PLACE

WEDNESDAY
8:00-9:00 PM AMERICA'S NEXT TOP MODEL
9:00-10:00 PM THE BEAUTIFUL LIFE

THURSDAY
8:00-9:00 PM THE VAMPIRE DIARIES
9:00-10:00 PM SUPERNATURAL

FRIDAY
8:00-9:00 PM SMALLVILLE
9:00-10:00 PM AMERICA'S NEXT TOP MODEL (encores)

Mondays stay the same with the most buzzed-about show no one is watching, Gossip Girl, once again leading into One Tree Hill, which will have to operate next season without stars Chad Michael Murray and Hilarie Burton, who couldn’t come to terms during contract negotiations. The “success” of Gossip Girl continues to be one of CW’s great spin stories, as the network routinely touts its female demo performance, but chooses to overlook the fact that the show barely breaks the two-million mark in total viewers. A breakout hit this is not, which may account for the decision not to go ahead with the proposed spinoff.

CW execs looked at a season’s worth of low ratings for their 90210 remake and decided that, not only was it a good idea to renew this clunker, but it should be paired with a remake of spinoff Melrose Place for a Tuesday lineup that calls up memories of Fox in the mid-‘90s. There may be some initial curiosity in seeing this duo together again (and in whether Melrose’s Ashlee Simpson-Wentz can carry a show), but once the novelty wears off, look for both shows to careen to the bottom of the Nielsen heap.

America’s Next Top Model maintains its long-held Wednesday berth, and is being followed by a new drama from executive producer Ashton Kutcher, The Beautiful Life. A look inside the world of fashion models, Life is responsible for bringing Mischa Barton (The O.C.) back to prime time; it also stars Corbin Bleu from the High School Musical movies. With compatible subject matter, this show might have the best shot yet at holding onto the audience generated by Top Model.

Thursdays kick off with two vampire brothers fighting for the love of a teenage girl in the new drama The Vampire Diaries. If CW had beaten Twilight out of the gate with this one, they might stand a better chance at attracting an audience. As it stands now, it just looks like they’re trying to capitalize on a craze. This type of show will always have a cult following, but at this point, CW needs more than that to break out of their slump. After Vampire, Supernatural returns in its regular slot.

Smallville has the unenviable task of bringing viewers to the afterthought known as the network’s Friday lineup. Heading into season nine, it’s a risk to move a show that is so long in the tooth (that’s why NBC never moved ER). It feels like a throwaway move to me, especially since it’s coupled with the aforementioned unnecessary Top Model encore.

If you ask me, targeting such a narrow demographic is dangerous for a broadcast network (maybe they're using the wrong definition of “broad”). What works for a niche cable network like Lifetime or Oxygen is clearly not translating to anything bigger for The CW (there are occasions when those cablers are actually capable of bringing in millions more viewers than The CW does), and with a slate of largely interchangeable serialized dramas, this probably won’t be the year that the network’s fortunes take a turn for the better.

CBS: Another Easy Victory Next Fall?

2009-05-20T08:19:00.000-07:00

With just four new shows on its fall slate, CBS’s schedule announcement is a demonstration of how strong the network is relative to its competitors. The Eye is quick to point out that it is “the only major broadcast network to grow its audience in all key ratings measures this season.” Given that, it’s a bit surprising to see changes being made across five nights of the week.

MONDAY
8:00-8:30 PM HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER
8:30-9:00 PM ACCIDENTALLY ON PURPOSE
9:00-9:30 PM TWO AND A HALF MEN
9:30-10:00 PM THE BIG BANG THEORY
10:00-11:00 PM CSI: MIAMI

As per usual, CBS adds one new sitcom to TV’s dominant comedy block. Accidentally on Purpose stars Jenna Elfman as a film critic who has a one-night stand and winds up pregnant. It should fit in nicely, but I’m not sure why the net keeps trying to make How I Met Your Mother work at 8pm. They've put the show here before, only to end up moving it back to a more protected hammock slot, where it's performance inevitably improves. Putting Two and a Half Men and The Big Bang Theory, both produced by Chuck Lorre, together is a logical move. And a potentially stronger lead-in could help stem some of the erosion CSI: Miami has seen this year.

TUESDAY
8:00-9:00 PM NCIS
9:00-10:00 PM NCIS: LOS ANGELES
10:00-11:00 PM THE GOOD WIFE

Too much NCIS on one night? We’ll find out soon enough. It may have made more sense to spread the wealth to another night, but these are the kinds of decisions you have to make when you have an embarrassment of riches. At the very least, couldn’t they have come up with a more clever title for the spinoff, which stars Chris O’Donnell and LL Cool J? On paper, new drama The Good Wife sounds like a less vicious version of FX’s Damages. Julianna Margulies is a woman whose husband lands in jail following a sex/political scandal, forcing Margulies to pursue a law career she had given up on after having a family. Margulies was terrific as a lawyer in the Fox drama Canterbury’s Law, a show that lasted all of six episodes last year. Considering the tough time CBS has had launching new shows in this slot (they may regret getting rid of Without a Trace), The Good Wife certainly has its work cut out for it, though the lack of drama competition on NBC will help.

WEDNESDAY
8:00-8:30 PM THE NEW ADVENTURES OF OLD CHRISTINE
8:30-9:00 PM GARY UNMARRIED
9:00-10:00 PM CRIMINAL MINDS
10:00-11:00 PM CSI: NY

One of the nights CBS has left untouched. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Gary Unmarried and Accidentally on Purpose eventually swap slots, but for now it’s nice to see Gary and Christine, which carried virtually identical audiences all season, given another shot to make a dent in the hour. ABC’s got heavy-hitting comedy competition starring Kelsey Grammer and Patricia Heaton, but patience could pay off and give CBS the edge. Criminal Minds and CSI: NY should have no trouble maintaining their time period dominance.

THURSDAY
8:00-9:00 PM SURVIVOR
9:00-10:00 PM CSI: CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATION
10:00-11:00 PM THE MENTALIST

If it’s possible to be boneheaded and smart at the same time, that’s what I would call CBS’s decision to move The Mentalist after only one season. True, it’s this season’s #1 new show, but why be so hasty to break up the powerful Tuesday combo that is NCIS and The Mentalist? Don’t get me wrong, The Mentalist will be just fine here. In fact, it might even be able to build on its lead-in (CSI has tumbled a bit since William Petersen left, and more viewer defection is likely as the show enters season 10 in the fall). I just think they would have been better off leaving this one alone for a little longer. Keeping Survivor at 8pm is wise, though, as the show, going into its 19th edition, would be extremely vulnerable if shifted to a different night at this point. You might look for Survivor to wrap up for good next May.

FRIDAY
8:00-9:00 PM GHOST WHISPERER
9:00-10:00 PM MEDIUM
10:00-11:00 PM NUMB3RS

The big story here, of course, is the acquisition of Medium from NBC. The show is produced by CBS TV Studios, so it’s a bit of a no-brainer considering it was NBC’s most-watched Monday show this season. Medium will fit like a glove coming out of the returning Ghost Whisperer. And holding Numb3rs at 10pm will keep the net healthy in a tough hour for another year.

SATURDAY
8:00-9:00 PM CRIMETIME SATURDAY
9:00-10:00 PM CRIMETIME SATURDAY
10:00-11:00 PM 48 HOURS MYSTERY

Not much to say about this lineup, the second to stay the same. I had hoped that the net might take a chance and put Flashpoint (which will be back at midseason) at 9pm. Because the show is a Canadian co-production, it would be a relatively minor risk, and could always be moved if it didn't work. But, alas, it was not to be. Instead we get the Lazy Programmers Special: crime drama repeats and a newsmagazine.

SUNDAY
7:00-8:00 PM 60 MINUTES
8:00-9:00 PM THE AMAZING RACE
9:00-10:00 PM THREE RIVERS
10:00-11:00 PM COLD CASE

Moonlight fans rejoice! Alex O’Loughlin is back on CBS, this time in Three Rivers, a medical drama set inside a hospital that specializes in organ transplants. With the younger-skewing The Amazing Race as a lead-in, Three Rivers could help solve one of CBS’s toughest problems: attracting more 18-49 year-olds. Still capable of drawing a decent crowd, Cold Case should prove more consistent than The Unit in the 10pm hour, and stands a good chance at pushing Brothers & Sisters to third place (football on NBC will be first).

There’s no question that CBS is poised to continue as the most-watched network in the fall. With any luck, the slow introduction of new series that don’t center on forensics teams will help keep them in a prime position once their crime dramas start to wear thin. Their general philosophy of not fixing what ain’t broke should continue to pay dividends for the foreseeable future.

NBC's Fall Strategy: It's Time to Share

2009-05-19T09:38:00.000-07:00

After offering a glimpse into its fall plans two weeks ago, NBC officially unveiled its schedule today. Despite having fewer slots to go around thanks to The Jay Leno Show, airing Monday-Friday at 10pm, NBC’s Co-Chairman Ben Silverman said that the network has actually ordered more scripted series than they did a year ago. Using the Winter Olympics as a natural breaking point between their fall and midseason schedules, NBC plans to air fewer episodes of some shows, allowing for more original programming across shared time slots. As with Fox, midseason plans should be regarded tenuously, as there’s no telling how the fall will shake out. (For descriptions of new shows, see my earlier post.)

On Mondays in the fall, Heroes moves up an hour, followed by Trauma at 9pm. Then at midseason, Chuck, whose third-season renewal is due in large part to a sponsorship deal with Subway, will return to its regular home, leading into the apocalyptic Day One. It would be smarter for NBC to swap the two dramas in the fall, leaving Heroes alone and allowing heavy promotion of Trauma to give the show a much-needed shot of adrenaline. Up against House and Dancing with the Stars, Heroes could end up falling even further.

Tuesdays will continue to consist of two-hour editions of The Biggest Loser in the fall; at midseason, Loser will be cut back to make room for comedy 100 Questions at 9:30pm. Considering that Loser picks up steam in the second hour, wouldn’t it make more sense to simply hold the show to an hour and give another series a chance here?

Parenthood starts off Wednesdays, with Law & Order: Special Victims Unit set to follow. While I'm excited about Parenthood's prospects, I’m not sure that a family dramedy leading into a show fueled by deviant criminals is going to give NBC the kind of audience flow it should be looking for. Medical drama Mercy will sub in for Parenthood after the Olympics.

As tradition dictates, Thursdays remain comedy night for the net. SNL Weekend Update Thursday will kick things off, followed by Parks and Recreation, The Office, and Community. Once Weekend Update completes its limited run, Community will shift to 8pm to make way for 30 Rock at 9:30pm. NBC got decent returns from Weekend Update last year and it could provide some lead-in support for the vulnerable Parks, but calling on Community to anchor the night after just a few weeks behind The Office could be disastrous.

NBC finishes off the workweek with a Friday crime block featuring Law & Order and Southland, a smart move on a night with diminished expectations. Saturdays will consist of Dateline NBC alongside encores of Trauma and Law & Order: SVU, while the NFL owns Sundays in the fall, and Donald Trump’s Celebrity Apprentice returns for more two-hour sessions at midseason (it’ll be preceded by new reality show The Marriage Ref).

Is this the lineup that will get NBC out of fourth place? It’s hard to say. The net provides us with the biggest question of the fall: How will Jay Leno fare? And the answer to that question could determine the overall health of the network. Even if it doesn’t work, they'll likely stick to their guns for at least a year lest they have to admit defeat. But a network cannot be built on one personality alone. To be truly successful, NBC is going to have to start treating its shows like valued properties rather than money-sucking nuisances.

NBC FALL 2009 SCHEDULE

MONDAY
8-9 p.m. "Heroes"
9-10 p.m. "Trauma"
10-11 p.m. "The Jay Leno Show"

TUESDAY
8-10 p.m. "The Biggest Loser" (two-hour edition)
10-11 p.m. "The Jay Leno Show"

WEDNESDAY
8-9 p.m. "Parenthood"
9-10 p.m. "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit"
10-11 p.m. "The Jay Leno Show"

THURSDAY
8- 8:30 p.m. "SNL Weekend Update Thursday" (multi-episode run)
8:30-9 p.m. "Parks and Recreation"
9- 9:30 p.m. "The Office"
9:30-10 p.m. "Community" (moves to Thursdays 8-8:30 p.m. after SNL ends; "30 Rock" returns)
10-11 p.m. "The Jay Leno Show"

FRIDAY
8-9 p.m. "Law & Order"
9-10 p.m. "Southland"
10-11 p.m. "The Jay Leno Show"

SATURDAY
8-9 p.m. "Dateline NBC"
9-10 p.m. "Trauma" (encore broadcast)
10-11 p.m. "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" (encore broadcast)

SUNDAY
7- 8:20 p.m. "Football Night in America"
8:20-11 p.m. "NBC Sunday Night Football"

ABC's Fall Schedule: The Same But Different

2009-05-19T08:26:00.000-07:00

Eight new series are set to debut on ABC next fall—four comedies, three dramas, and a reality show. In an almost alarming show of restraint, the Alphabet has kept much of its current schedule intact, with changes being made on only four nights.

Mondays will remain the same, with two hours of Dancing with the Stars leading into the returning Castle. The network is wise to keep Castle, which has shown some promising consistency in the ratings, protected behind Dancing for now. Tuesdays have the Dancing results show coming out of Shark Tank, a new reality program from Mark Burnett (Survivor, The Apprentice) about people who have to convince millionaires to provide them with the funds to start their own business enterprise. And at 10pm is The Forgotten, a Jerry Bruckheimer drama revolving around a group of amateur sleuths who try to solve cases that have been abandoned by the police. Given ABC’s troubles in the 8pm slot, Shark Tank, which gets a late summer head start on the competition, will likely go the way of last year’s Opportunity Knocks, while The Forgotten is another attempt by the serial-heavy net to come up with a hit crime drama. Having Dancing as a lead-in certainly can’t hurt, but so far we haven’t really seen it help, either (whither Eli Stone and Cupid?).

Perhaps the riskiest maneuver is that the network is once again starting from scratch on Wednesdays. Just like they did two years with Pushing Daisies, Private Practice, and Dirty Sexy Money, ABC has an entire night of unproven shows, this time comprised of a two-hour comedy block and a fantasy drama. After starring together in Fox’s Back to You, Kelsey Grammer and Patricia Heaton find their latest entries airing back-to-back. Both shows use the country's current economic hardships as their jumping off points with Grammer starring in Hank as a laid-off corporate big shot who attempts to put his life back in order, and Heaton as the matriarch of the Hecks, a middle class family, in the appropriately titled The Middle. Next up is Modern Family, a mockumentary from Steven Levitan (Just Shoot Me) and Christopher Lloyd (Frasier) that puts a comedic slant on how difficult life is these days. And Cougar Town has Courteney Cox as a MILF exploring her options. Judging by viewers’ tepid response to Scrubs and Better Off Ted (both of which will return at midseason) on the night, the net certainly has its work cut out for it in terms of both promotion and execution. Hank, The Middle, and Modern Family sound too much like the same show, and Cougar Town has already been done as a reality show on TV Land. (On a side note, when this show fails, can we agree never to use the word “cougar” again unless we’re talking about an actual cougar?) As for the 10pm drama, Eastwick is based on the John Updike novel and movie The Witches of Eastwick. Rebecca Romijn (Ugly Betty), Lindsay Price (Lipstick Jungle), and Paul Gross (Due South) head the cast of what could represent the network’s best chance at a breakout hit.

Grey’s Anatomy and Private Practice will continue to air consecutively on Thursdays from 9-11pm, with new drama Flash Forward (already promoted during last week’s Lost season finale) taking the 8pm slot. Flash Forward, which tells the story of what people do after a two-minute blackout provides glimpses into their futures, is likely to be ABC’s most buzzed-about new series, but it doesn’t feel like an 8pm show. With Grey’s starting to show its age a bit (like most shows, it’s down compared to a year ago), the network is taking a risk by placing one of its hottest new properties in an uncertain time period on an extremely important night.

Fridays start with Supernanny being bumped up an hour, Ugly Betty moving from Thursdays, and perennial 20/20 staying at 10pm. With Betty’s audience already on a dangerous downhill slide, burying the show on Fridays certainly won’t do it any favors. Saturdays continue to be the home of college football, and Sundays are untouched. There had been speculation that ABC might try out a new show after Desperate Housewives, but they obviously feel that Brothers & Sisters is still not strong enough to support itself on another night.

I’m not sure that this schedule puts ABC in a position to improve on its current performance, which means another season spent lingering in third place. But there are worse places to be, and if they can get at least one of their new shows to take off, it could have a halo effect on the rest of the lineup.

ABC's fall primetime schedule is as follows (all times listed are Eastern):

MONDAY:
8:00 p.m. "Dancing with the Stars" (two-hours)
10:00 p.m. "Castle"

TUESDAY:
8:00 p.m. "Shark Tank"
9:00 p.m. "Dancing with the Stars the Results Show"
10:00 p.m. "The Forgotten"

WEDNESDAY:
8:00 p.m. "Hank"
8:30 p.m. "The Middle"
9:00 p.m. "Modern Family"
9:30 p.m. "Cougar Town"
10:00 p.m. "Eastwick"

THURSDAY:
8:00 p.m. "Flash Forward"
9:00 p.m. "Grey's Anatomy"
10:00 p.m. "Private Practice"

FRIDAY:
8:00 p.m. "Supernanny"
9:00 p.m. "Ugly Betty"
10:00 p.m. "20/20"

SATURDAY:
8:00 p.m. "Saturday Night College Football"

SUNDAY:
7:00 p.m. "America's Funniest Home Videos"
8:00 p.m. "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition"
9:00 p.m. "Desperate Housewives"
10:00 p.m. "Brothers & Sisters"

Fox Fall: Looking for Stability

2009-05-18T09:21:00.000-07:00

For a TV junkie, the upfronts are like going on a week-long bender. After months of speculation we finally get official word on what’s in and what’s out on the networks’ fall schedules. And as viewership continues to dwindle across the board (case in point: the household rating for last night's Desperate Housewives season finale was down 19 percent from a year ago), it is getting harder and harder to predict which shows will be axed and which will be given salvos.

Fox was first off the block this week, and while they traditionally have two distinct schedules to present (one for fall and one for midseason, when American Idol and 24 return), this year, in an attempt to minimize disruption, they are trying to build a logical bridge between the two halves of the season. Most noteworthy in achieving this is bringing So You Think You Can Dance into the regular season, with installments set to run on Tuesdays (8-10pm) and Wednesdays (8-9pm). Indications that this was a possibility emerged last week when Fox announced they would be holding auditions for next season a full six months earlier than usual. On one hand, it’s smart to extend the performance show/results show pattern viewers are so used to with Idol into the fall, a sort of time-period warmer for the big guns. But you have to wonder if putting together another season of the show so closely on the heels of its summer run will make it feel less special and dilute the viewing pool (not to mention the fact that Dancing with the Stars will also be running in the fall). You need only look as far as last year’s strike-mandated winter edition of Big Brother to see that what works in the summer doesn’t always work in the regular season.

On the returning dramas front, the network is keeping House on Mondays at 8pm, pairing it with sophomore Lie to Me, a combination that should have an easy audience flow. After years of being bounced around the schedule, Bones looks to have found a permanent home on Thursday at 8pm, where it’s been generating the net’s best numbers for a scripted show in some time. It will be followed by Fringe at 9pm, sure to be a tough time period for a show that struggled somewhat in its freshman season despite the benefit of a massive American Idol lead-in this spring. Perhaps the biggest surprise on Fox's entire schedule is the renewal of Dollhouse, which will stay put on Fridays at 9pm. The show was reportedly brought back after slashing its budget, but what exactly is the wisdom behind renewing a show that, no matter how loudly Joss Whedon fans yelled, brought in less than three million viewers with its recent season finale?

As for comedies, the “Animation Domination” block returns with a new addition at 8:30pm, The Cleveland Show, a Family Guy spinoff that essentially turns Fox’s Sunday schedule into Seth McFarlane Night (The Simpsons is the only show in this lineup he doesn’t produce). Musical comedy Glee, which gets a preview tomorrow night, will take up residence on Wednesday at 9pm. Over on Friday, former NFL star and current Fox NFL Sunday co-host Michael Strahan stars as (what else?) a former NFL star who returns home in Brothers (8pm). That will be followed by another season of the seemingly indestructible 'Til Death. The last time Fox tried comedy on Friday, it spelled doom for both The Bernie Mac Show and Malcolm in the Middle; there's no reason to think these shows will be any different. And The Wanda Sykes Show will debut in November in the net’s Saturday late night slot. Sykes’ biting wit combined with a Politically Incorrect-style panel format should lead to a Saturday Night Live alternative that's actually funny.

Though it hinges on the success of the fall lineup, Fox also announced its midseason schedule, with 24 returning to Mondays at 9pm, and Idol back on Tuesdays and Wednesdays (8pm), leading into two new dramas: Past Life, about detectives who solve cases by relating current problems to past-life traumas, and Human Target, a comic book adaptation about a security expert (Fringe’s Mark Valley) who puts himself in danger to save his clients’ lives. Finally, Sons of Tucson, starring Reaper’s Tyler Labine, is a comedy about three young brothers who hire a paternal stand-in when their real father is sent to prison; it’ll be sandwiched between The Simpsons and Family Guy on Sundays, a slot that has not been kind to live-action sitcoms of late (remember The Winner and The Loop? Exactly.).

Overall, Fox’s fall schedule has the stability they’re looking for, with a few wild cards thrown in for good measure. Obviously, with the other networks yet to announce their plans, it’s difficult to predict just how well Fox will fare, but as ever, if this doesn’t work, they know that Idol is just around the corner, ready to save the day.

FOX PRIMETIME SCHEDULE: FALL 2009 (All Times ET/PT)

MONDAY
8:00-9:00 PM HOUSE
9:00-10:00 PM LIE TO ME

TUESDAY
8:00-10:00 PM SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE Performance Show

WEDNESDAY
8:00-9:00 PM SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE Results Show
9:00-10:00 PM GLEE

THURSDAY
8:00-9:00 PM BONES
9:00-10:00 PM FRINGE

FRIDAY
8:00-8:30 PM BROTHERS
8:30-9:00 PM 'TIL DEATH
9:00-10:00 PM DOLLHOUSE

SATURDAY
8:00-8:30 PM COPS
8:30-9:00 PM COPS
9:00-10:00 PM AMERICA'S MOST WANTED
11:00 PM-Midnight THE WANDA SYKES SHOW (working title)
Midnight-12:30 AM ANIMATION DOMINATION ENCORES

SUNDAY
7:00-8:00 PM THE OT (NFL post-game)
8:00-8:30 PM THE SIMPSONS
8:30-9:00 PM THE CLEVELAND SHOW
9:00-9:30 PM FAMILY GUY
9:30-10:00 PM AMERICAN DAD

A Trip to the Nut-House

2009-05-12T09:04:00.000-07:00

After a string of solid episodes that included Mos Def's guest turn as a patient with locked-in syndrome and the unexpected and brilliantly unexplained suicide of Dr. Cutner (Kal Penn, who left the show to go work for President Obama), House capped off its season with an installment that put the titular doc's very sanity on the line. In recent weeks, House (Hugh Laurie, perhaps the best actor currently working on TV) has suffered from hallucinatory visions of Wilson's dead girlfriend Amber. Acting as his subconscious, Amber (the much-missed Anne Dudek) proved useful in helping House crack cases, but her presence was a mystery that even House couldn't figure out.

To rid himself of these apparitions, House detoxed from Vicodin with the help of Cuddy (Lisa Edelstein), who ended up sleeping with him. Or did she? We learned last night that these events never occurred; they were nothing more than hallucinations as House actually ramped up his drug use rather than curtailing it. House has long been a sad, lonely man, and he is made even more so now that his best friend—the drug—has become his lover.

The hour ended with House checking himself into a psychiatric hospital, an incredibly humble—and no doubt humiliating—admission for an indefatigable man whose greatest asset is his mental dexterity. The show's writers ended last season with a mind-blowing two-parter featuring a bus crash that ultimately led to Amber's death. This year, they've managed to top that riveting feat with a reveal that puts the very nature and future of our "hero" in question. Where does House (the doctor) go from here? Where does House (the series) go from here? I haven't a clue, but this show, which has taken great strides in breaking up its formula of late, has me eager to find out.

Lesson Learned From TV: Pigs Are Heavy

2009-05-11T09:50:00.000-07:00

Maybe more than any other reality show, The Amazing Race is almost always won by a team that truly deserves the million-dollar prize. This season was no exception. Brother/sister team Tammy and Victor emerged victorious last night, capping off a season that had the teams doing everything from enduring an excruciating foot massage to carrying huge wheels of cheese down a hill. It was an emotional finish, with Tammy and Victor overcoming communication problems that plagued them early in the race (Victor will probably never live down his commitment to going the wrong way as they pair trekked through the hills of Romania), arriving at a greater understanding of their family dynamic.

As gracious a race as the winners ran, their competition in the final three was decidedly mixed. Margie and her deaf son Luke put up a good fight throughout—particularly Margie, who appeared to almost single-handedly carry the team to the final leg while Luke did little more than yell “go, go, go”—but Luke’s sense of entitlement was always a deterrent for me. How do you root for someone who feels like he deserves to be there just because he’s deaf? I appreciate that he’s faced adversity all his life, but he had a nasty streak in him that made him hard to like.

The crown for most unlikable team, however, goes to cheerleader friends Jaime and Cara (actually more Jaime than Cara, who is unfortunately guilty by association). You’d think that after spending so much time on the race, Jaime would have realized that screaming at people might not be the best way to get them to help you. It certainly didn’t spur her partner on when, in the next-to-last task, Cara had difficulty carrying a pig to a luau. Jaime’s constant frustration over the language barriers turned her into the quintessential example of the Ugly American.

Of course, every show has to have its villains, and while this edition of Race had a couple doozies, this most genuine of reality shows never messes with the game play to create a manufactured Hollywood ending. It wasn't the most suspenseful race to the finish line ever (once Victor finished the memory task, it was pretty clear they'd sail to the mat), but it’s refreshing to report that, in this instance, nice won out over sinister. Congratulations to Tammy and Victor for a race run with class and dignity.

NBC's Fall Lineup Starting to Take Shape

2009-05-04T09:47:00.000-07:00

While not an official fall schedule announcement—that will come on May 19—NBC did issue renewal notices and started introducing its new crop of shows to advertisers in what the network dubs its “infront,” during which it makes individual presentations to advertisers prior to the upfront blitz that will occur in two weeks time.

Let’s start with the shows that will be returning to the NBC schedule, some of them previously announced: Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (whose stars, Mariska Hargitay and Christopher Meloni remain in contract negotiations), The Office, 30 Rock, Friday Night Lights (in a two-year continuation of the DirecTV deal), The Biggest Loser, The Celebrity Apprentice, Heroes, Southland, and Parks and Recreation. In addition, Saturday Night Live Weekend Update Thursday, which had some success during last year’s presidential campaign, will be back for another six episodes. Still awaiting a decision are Chuck, Medium, Law & Order (looking to tie Gunsmoke as TV's longest-running drama), and My Name Is Earl. With Jay Leno taking over the 10pm slot, the network only has 10 hours to play with this fall (Sunday is football night and, even with fewer hours available, I don’t think they’ll be aggressively programming Saturday anytime soon). This means that some of these shows will have to wait until midseason to premiere, and some will likely be held until after the Winter Olympics end in late February.

As for the new series, the Peacock has picked up a quartet of dramas, three of them from producers who hail from the vaunted halls of the Friday Night Lights offices. Peter Berg’s Trauma sounds like Third Watch set in San Francisco, while Liz Heldens’s Mercy looks at hospital life from the nurses' point of view. Clearly, the network is trying to fill the void left by ER’s retirement, but debuting two medical dramas in the fall could potentially cannibalize the audience for both, so look for one of these to be held for later.

Meanwhile, Jason Katims brings us Parenthood, based on Ron Howard’s 1989 film, and starring Peter Krause (Dirty Sexy Money) and Maura Tierney (ER). Much like ABC’s failed attempt to revive Cupid ten years later, NBC is going back to a well that dried up when Parenthood was turned into a short-lived sitcom back in 1990. But if the show is anywhere near as real as Lights, this should definitely be one worth watching. Finally, from Heroes executive producer Jesse Alexander comes Day One, a limited-run series that follows the residents of an apartment complex who try to rebuild society after a catastrophe hobbles the entire planet. Melrose Place: Apocalypse?

On the comedy front, 100 Questions is about a woman who takes a compatibility test, with each question reminding her of some past experience that reveals exactly what she’s looking for in love. And Community, starring The Soup’s Joel McHale, is about a group of community college students who form a study group. One of these will probably end up on Thursday when SNL Weekend Update finishes its run, while the other could be positioned after a 90-minute Biggest Loser on Tuesday.

With this announcement, NBC appears to be putting on a brave front; co-chairman Ben Silverman says, "We are thrilled to be announcing such an awesome slate of new series that build on our existing quality brand and deliver emotional, human stories." But after the high-profile misfires the network had this year, including Kings and My Own Worst Enemy, and the uncertainty that comes with stripping Leno in prime time, they have to be worried that it’ll be a long road back to any real success. But with all the networks facing the same challenges (overcoming increased DVR usage and new media distractions), NBC’s road may not prove to be any bumpier than the competition's.

Lost: 100 Episodes of Blessed Confusion

2009-04-30T09:40:00.000-07:00

It’s hard to write a critical analysis of Lost because so much of the show is left unexplained from one episode to the next. I know I’m watching great television, but it isn’t always easy to put into words exactly why it’s so good. As Lost hurtles toward the close of its penultimate season, last night’s terrific 100th episode was a perfect example of just how difficult it can be to discuss the show. It was loaded with information, posed a few more questions, and, as the best episodes of the show often do, promised to take the show in another direction.

So, what did we learn last night? I’m sure I missed a few things, but here’s what I got out of it (Lost always rewards multiple viewings, if only I had more time). In flashbacks, we see that, before going to the Island, Daniel Faraday suffered some kind of mental disorder. His father (!) Charles Widmore tells him about the fake Oceanic wreckage Widmore planted, images of which Daniel has an especially emotional reaction to. Widmore offers Daniel the chance to go to the Island as part of the freighter crew, with the promise that Daniel’s mind can be healed there.

Meanwhile, back on the Island, where it's 1977, Faraday arrives in the Dharma sub and thinks that he can debunk his own “whatever happened, happened” theory and change the history of the Island. He wants to detonate an H-bomb to take care of the Island’s electromagnetic energy, which energy leads to the creation of the hatch and causes the crash of Flight 815. Barging into the Others’ camp to speak to his mother, Eloise Hawking (where did Faraday’s last name come from?), Daniel is shot by Eloise before getting the chance to tell her who he is. After an earlier, ominous warning to Jack that “any of us can die,” it appears that Faraday has uttered his last hypothesis.

I’m not sure I even understand everything I just wrote—and I don’t care! I’ll admit to being confused about what good it would do to keep the plane from crashing. Won’t the survivors eventually return to their lives in 2007, three years after the crash would have happened? Won’t they still have all the memories and have experienced all the trauma that came with that event the first time around? Or will all of their memories be erased if they’re able to change the course of history? I have no idea, but I’m along for the ride, whether it makes sense or not.

On the Bubble

2009-04-24T07:43:00.000-07:00

In just three weeks time, all the pieces of the networks’ fall puzzles will be in place. While some no-brainer renewals have already been issued (The Biggest Loser, Law & Order: SVU, The Office, and 30 Rock on NBC; multi-season pickups for CBS’s The Big Bang Theory and Two and a Half Men; a dozen early renewals on ABC, including its entire Sunday lineup, Grey’s Anatomy, and Ugly Betty; Gossip Girl and 90210 on The CW; 24, The Simpsons, and Family Guy on Fox), many shows are still awaiting word on their fates. What follows are my predictions for which on-the-fence shows will be sticking around for another year and which ones are going to that great TV resting place in the sky.

ABC
Surviving Suburbia—The highest-rated comedy on the network (thanks to the Dancing with the Stars lead-in), it should be a lock for renewal, but the fact that ABC is planning to air original episodes during the summer instead of saving them for next year may be a bad sign. I still think it’ll be back.

Better Off Ted—The network is said to be pleased with the creative direction of the show, but viewers simply haven’t shown up. Still, ABC needs a prestige comedy and, even though it doesn’t have the numbers, this is the best they’ve got right now.

Cupid/Castle/The Unusuals—Of the three one-hour shows launched in the last month, only one will likely make it to the fall. ABC gave an extra push to The Unusuals this week and saw the show underperform again. Cupid was pretty much dead on arrival. That leaves the mediocre Castle as the beneficiary of overall viewer disinterest.

CBS
Cold Case/Without a Trace—Both of these crime dramas are still decent performers, but expenses—and an older skew—will likely lead to one of them being shown the door. The victim may be Trace, giving CBS the chance to launch a new show out of The Mentalist.

The New Adventures of Old Christine/Gary Unmarried—It’s one or the other here as well. Perennial bubble-sitter Old Christine may be out of chances on CBS (ABC, for the second year in a row, has expressed interest in picking it up if CBS passes). Gary has the edge, as it could turn into a hit if paired with Two and a Half Men.

Flashpoint—Ratings wise, the best 9pm show the network has had on Friday in some time, and the fact that it comes from Canada helps keep things on the cheap. My guess is it’ll be back at midseason.

The Unit—Another show that always seems to be on the bubble. I think this is the year that bubble finally bursts.

NBC
Chuck—With fewer time slots available on NBC next fall thanks to Jay Leno, Chuck may have to be sacrificed. The network loves the show, but after two seasons it just hasn’t caught on in a major way. A last-ditch save-our-show campaign has fans planning to buy Subway sandwiches on April 27, the day of the season finale (Subway was featured in a recent episode). Too little, too late.

Life—Same story as Chuck. Life had several chances to draw an audience and couldn’t succeed. Say goodbye.

My Name Is Earl—Not strong enough to continue leading off NBC’s Thursday comedy block. Talk that Fox (whose studio produces the show) could pick it up might lead NBC to keep it around for another year, but if the network ever wants to regain its sitcom dominance, they should cut ties with Earl.

Fox
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles—Didn’t work on Monday or Friday. Won’t be able to ride any kind of wave the new movie might create. This one’s dead.

Dollhouse—Reports say the network wants to stay in Joss Whedon’s good graces. If all he can deliver is 3.5 million viewers, what’s the point? Fox got better numbers in the Friday 9pm time slot from the low-cost Don’t Forget the Lyrics. Look for Dollhouse to close its doors.

Lie to Me—Early on (when it followed American Idol), this show seemed like a sure bet for renewal. Since moving to the 8pm hour, though, it’s lost a good chunk of its audience. But with no 24 or Idol on Fox in the fall, Lie still looks good enough for another season.

The CW
Reaper—Exec producers Michelle Fazekas and Tara Butters just signed a two-year deal with 20th Century Fox. Since Reaper is produced by ABC Studios, that doesn’t bode well for the show’s future. While The CW certainly has holes to fill, this show doesn’t exactly fit the network’s target demo of women 18-34. By the end of May, Reaper will be pushing up daisies.

Everybody Hates Chris/The Game—The network, which no longer has a comedy development department, will probably bid adieu to both of these shows. There are enough episodes of Chris to sell into syndication, so another low-rated season is unnecessary. Producers are pitching the next season of The Game as a one-hour dramedy; I don’t think it’ll be enough to save it.

Any show I left off that you want to know about? Let me know. And come back in the weeks ahead to see if my predictions are correct. As the networks roll out their fall lineups, I’ll be analyzing their decisions and providing even more prognostication on what to expect next season.

It All Comes Down to This

2009-04-23T08:56:00.000-07:00

It’s the beginning of the end today as the May sweep gets underway (it runs until May 20). That means plenty of guest stars, plus a healthy helping of deaths, births, weddings, break-ups, and cliffhangers as shows draw to their season/series finales. Among the highlights:

· King of the Hill celebrates 250 episodes on April 26
· Lost (April 29), Grey’s Anatomy (May 7), and The Office (May 14) all hit the 100-episode mark
· Michael J. Fox takes on the topic of hope in the ABC special “Adventures of an Incurable Optimist” (May 7)
· The Amazing Race (May 10) and Survivor (May 17) bring their entertaining seasons to a close
· 30 Rock’s season finale delivers a host of musical guests, including Sheryl Crow, Mary J. Blige, and Elvis Costello (May 14)
· Fox says goodbye to Prison Break (May 15) and MADtv (May 16)
· Set to premiere in the fall, Fox’s new musical comedy Glee gets a preview following part one of American Idol’s finale (May 19)
· 24 ends Day 7 with a two-hour finale on May 18

Of course, there simply isn’t time to cover everything the networks have planned as they wind down the 2008-09 regular season and ramp up for what looks to be another aggressive push to get viewers to stick around during the summer months (more on that in the weeks to come).

But May isn’t just about sweeps. It’s also about the upfronts, one of my favorite times of the year, when the TV gods take the stage in New York to announce their fall schedules. NBC goes first on May 4, while CBS, ABC, Fox and The CW make their presentations the week of May 18. There are still a lot of shows on the bubble for renewal so I thought I’d offer my two cents about which shows I think will be back in the fall and which will get the boot. Look for that tomorrow.

From the Streets to the Parks

2009-04-17T10:09:00.000-07:00

In his new show Southland (NBC, Thursdays), executive producer John Wells attempts to do for the police drama what he did for the medical drama with ER. Unfortunately, much of Southland has already been done before. Most noticeably, the show borrows a page from NYPD Blue's dirty language book, though this time around the words are bleeped, making it feel as though the show was produced for, then rejected by, HBO or Showtime. In tone, Southland is reminiscent of another '90s police drama, High Incident. Like Incident, Southland spends much of its time on the streets, following beat cops as they respond to calls. With gritty realism, we see the impact crime has on both sides of the badge. In the first two episodes, we've seen a gang shooting, a young girl kidnapped and murdered, a robbery, a guy whose dogs ate him, and a baby found crawling on the street. All of this provides the opportunity for a cop's-eye view of Los Angeles, and the show does use location to its benefit, though not as well as CBS's short-lived Robbery Homicide Division did back in 2002. (Should the show be renewed, it will be interesting to see if the network tones it down for the 9pm hour, as it will lose the 10pm time slot to Jay Leno in the fall.)

All this is not to say that Southland is a bad show. In fact, it's far from it. While in these early stages the show doesn't quite have a unique voice, there is a great deal of potential here that, over time, could develop into a terrific blending of the procedural and the personal. As it stands, the characters, mostly archetypes, are a bit elusive. The only real standouts are a detective played by the always welcome Regina King and a rookie cop (The O.C.'s Ben McKenzie) who doesn't appreciate being razzed by his hard-nosed partner (Michael Cudlitz). Once these characters are fleshed out and given identities that are less familiar, Southland could indeed become the kind of must-see TV that ER was in its prime.

Also new on NBC Thursday is Parks and Recreation, from The Office's Greg Daniels and Michael Schur. Amy Poehler, finally showing that she can do something less broad than sketch comedy, is Leslie Knope, a muckety-muck for the titular department who makes it her goal to turn a dirt pit into a park. Comparisons to The Office are inevitable and deserved. Leslie is written almost exactly like Steve Carell's Michael Scott: she's impulsive, thinks she's more popular and/or powerful than she is, and acts like an adolescent when talking about sex. Whereas Carell embodies these qualities with an undercurrent of sadness, Poehler maintains a sense of wide-eyed enthusiasm, coming across as more clueless than anything else (the second episode did present some mother issues, so there could be more to Leslie than we've seen so far). Parks and Recreation does separate itself from The Office with its supporting players; unlike Jim, Pam, Phyllis, and Creed, Leslie's coworkers simply aren't funny. With the exception of Aziz Ansari (MTV's Human Giant), who plays a character much like the obnoxious and overused Dwight Schrute, most everybody comes off as agitated and they act as though they'd rather be anywhere but here. If the show continues in this vein rather than branching out and becoming its own entity, I just might start feeling the same way.

Suburbia: A Cookie Cutter Sitcom

2009-04-14T08:44:00.000-07:00

Bob Saget returns to ABC playing a sitcom dad markedly different from Full House’s Danny Tanner. In Surviving Suburbia, Saget is Steve Patterson, a fallible father of two who learns from his mistakes and spends much of his time bemoaning his bourgeois surroundings. And he's apparently got a lot of time on his hands; after two episodes, there’s been no hint that either Steve or his wife Anne (Cynthia Stevenson, Men in Trees) have jobs. The setups are exactly what you’d expect from this kind of comedy: Steve is racked with guilt after being proclaimed a hero for extinguishing a fire he himself started, Steve sends an angry e-mail to his daughter’s third-grade teacher over a school project. There are no surprises here, and more chuckles than laughs (to be honest, even the chuckles are in short supply as most of the jokes are generic). Saget is fine, and Stevenson does her usual half-uptight, half-crazy bit. If you're looking for originality, look elsewhere. That said, there’s something comforting about having a family sitcom on the air that could easily have found a spot in the TGIF lineup fifteen years ago, though this one is a bit more randy than, say, Family Matters. The show is actually lucky to have made it on the air at all. Originally set to be part of The CW’s failed Sunday-night deal with Media Rights Capital, it was in limbo until ABC picked it up. Resting somewhere between ‘Til Death and Gary Unmarried, Suburbia could certainly be funnier, but there are worse ways to spend a half-hour.

Consider Me Rescued

2009-04-08T11:05:00.000-07:00

How great is it to have FX's Rescue Me back on the air after a year-and-a-half hiatus, save for some minisodes last summer? Last night’s fifth-season premiere didn’t have much in the way of an actual plot, but it did introduce a number of story lines that are ripe for drama in the coming weeks. Tommy (the wholly underappreciated Denis Leary) is dealing with issues arising from his father’s death. Mike, Sean, and Franco plan to open a bar. Black Sean is in the burgeoning stages of a relationship with Tommy’s daughter, Colleen. Mickey, who has always appeared to be the most stable of the Gavin brood, falls off the wagon. And Janet is dating again; this time the guy is a paraplegic played by Michael J. Fox (go ahead and hand him the Emmy now). With all of this set to play out over Rescue Me’s longest season ever—a full 22 episodes airing consecutively, except for the last week in May—this is poised to be one helluva ride.

The show’s team of writers, including co-creators and exec producers Leary and Peter Tolan, rival Aaron Sorkin when it comes to how dexterously they handle banter. The firehouse exchanges between this group of rough-and-tumble bad boys straddles the line between offensive and insightful, and is often downright uproarious. (The debate last night: would you rather lose a testicle or an eye in a fireworks accident?) With Rescue Me, you’re guaranteed to be surprised at least once per episode, whether by a single line of dialogue or a major plot maneuver. Those twists often come at the expense of a character’s life as so much of the show revolves around death; it surrounds and consumes Tommy Gavin almost constantly. For a guy who makes his living as a hero, he has certainly experienced his share of tragedy, having lost his cousin, his brother, his son, and his father in a matter of years. And he gets away with a lot because of it. Who else could launch a venomous diatribe in a room filled with mourning relatives, then leave with the sendoff, “Goodbye, assholes”?

If there’s one complaint about the show it’s that too many episodes end with music montages, a device that can lose its impact if done too often (it almost feels like self-parody when Cold Case does it every week). But it’s certainly easy to overlook this when so much of Rescue Me is done so well. It’s visceral, it’s heartfelt, it’s funny, it’s crude, and absolutely nothing is off limits. Political correctness has no place here, and that is wonderfully, blessedly welcome.

A Tribute to ER

2009-04-03T11:15:00.000-07:00

When ER premiered on NBC in 1994 it joined a TV landscape that was just starting to make the transition from being loaded with bad sitcoms to being heavy on scintillating drama. NYPD Blue, The X-Files, Picket Fences, My So-Called Life, Homicide: Life on the Street, Party of Five, Chicago Hope—all of these great shows shared the airwaves with ER. But what set ER apart was a cinema verité style that did more than let viewers see what it was like in an emergency room; it practically turned us into doctors, giving us the feeling that we were helping deliver that baby or stitch up that wound, and having us all yelling for chest tubes, CBCs, and chem panels, STAT!

I must confess I checked out of ER back in 2002, not too long after Anthony Edwards left. His Mark Greene was always the show’s moral and emotional center for me, and his death created a hole that no replacement (and there were many) could fill. In its heyday, ER made for amazing, innovative television, something I was reminded of last night as I watched the retrospective that aired prior to the series finale. Seeing all those clips—Dr. Greene in the classic episode “Love’s Labor Lost,” Dr. Ross saving the boy caught in the storm drain, Carter’s eagerness, Romano’s brashness, Benton’s arrogance, Sally Field’s guest turn as Abby’s bipolar mom—brought me back to a time when I couldn’t wait to see what these characters would do next, what kind of emotions I would feel right alongside them.

Mercifully, the finale was business as usual. Where most shows try to wrap things up by attempting to do something extraordinary, ER remained true to itself to the very end. There was nothing overly special about the cases (a boy swallows a rosary, a teenage girl with alcohol poisoning, an AIDS patient diagnosed with cancer). But then ER was never really about the cases; they just served as ways to get at the heart of the hospital, the people who worked there and how much they cared for each other. It was as nice to revisit old friends (Benton, Corday, Lewis, and Weaver all made appearances to support the opening Carter’s new low-income medical facility) as it was to see that the newer faces in the ER will continue to provide the kind of service County General is known for.

The series ended with one last trauma being brought in, a caravan of ambulances carrying victims of an explosion. Dr. Greene’s daughter Rachel, at the hospital for an interview, stood nearby, Carter inviting her in for a glimpse at what her future holds. In that moment, we realized that when it comes to ER, the adage wholeheartedly applies—the more things change (and, boy, did they ever in these 15 years), the more they stay the same.

Farewell to an old reliable.

NBC's New Crown Jewel

2009-03-30T11:31:00.000-07:00

It’s a shame that more people haven’t discovered what may be the season’s best new drama, NBC’s Kings. Just three episodes in, the show is only drawing about 4.5 million viewers. Part of this can be attributed to the fact that the network had no idea how to market the show. Ads were plentiful, but none of them made much sense nor did they give a true feeling for the show’s tone. But, alas, the more likely reason for its failure is that it simply isn't the kind of show that works on network TV these days. Kings is a wolf in sheep’s clothing, a scandalous soap opera disguised as an epic drama.

Silas (Ian McShane, keeping his cool in a role that could easily be overplayed) rules over Gilboa, a kingdom at war with neighboring Gath. Soldier David Shepherd (Chris Egan) saves the life of the King’s POW son Jack. David is given a hero’s welcome in the new capital city of Shiloh, and is soon named military liaison to the press, a promotion that has Jack jealous. Why was Jack passed over? He's got a secret and his father knows what it is; Jack, despite his hard-partying ways and the appearance of womanizing, is gay, a no-no for a prince. “You cannot be what God made you, not if you mean to take my place,” Silas tells him. Working with Queen Rose (Susanna Thompson from Once and Again, who is so far underused here), Jack plots to keep David from getting too comfortable in his new environs. You see, unbeknownst to him, David has a destiny, one that has the royal family on the defensive and his own mother in denial.

Series creator Michael Green has created a rich tapestry, a world unto itself (it looks like a cross between Manhattan and San Francisco, but has the storytelling feel of ancient Rome transplanted to 2009). He juggles multiple story lines deftly, which is saying something considering he came from Heroes, a show that has always suffered from having too many characters in disparate locations. Here, the plots are interconnected and the main conflict—what exactly should Silas do with David?—seems headed toward a confrontation that will happen sooner than later.

There is much to like about Kings, but perhaps the best part is McShane's performance. His Silas has a lot to deal with, most of it done clandestinely. He has a mistress and a secret son; he controls the press, quashing pictures of Jack canoodling with men and David kissing the princess; he orders the assault that got Jack kidnapped in the war; and he’s involved in an uneasy peace with Gath. That’s a lot to hang on any actor, but McShane handles it all with an evenhandedness that makes it appear as if being king is no different than any other job. With corruption all around and a savior seemingly waiting in the wings, this kingdom is definitely poised for more drama. And so am I.

A Funny Sitcom (Yay!) ... On ABC (Boo!)

2009-03-26T11:22:00.000-07:00

Research and development firm Veridian Dynamics is the setting for ABC’s new comedy Better Off Ted. The firm specializes in the unusual, with last night’s episode revolving around the desire to invent a “meat blob” that would basically make cows obsolete (a taste tester said it had the flavor of despair). The poorly titled but still funny show comes from Victor Fresco, who worked on Mad About You and created one of the decade’s best comedies, Andy Richter Controls the Universe, and it bears some of the wacky earmarks that made the latter such a gem.

Jay Harrington (from the failed NBC version of Coupling) stars as Ted, the voice of reason in a company seemingly built on insanity. Among his coworkers are Phil (Jonathan Slavin), a scientist who was cryogenically frozen, prematurely thawed out, and now bounces back and forth between moments of lucidity and painful screeching; Linda (Andrea Anders), Ted’s would-be office romance, who has a penchant for hording coffee creamer in her desk drawer; and Veronica (Portia de Rossi, in what could be an extension of her ice princess Ally McBeal character), a woman who wants results no matter the cost. It’s Ted’s job to keep them all reigned in, plus take care of his smart-alecky young daughter (Ted quizzing her on her multiplication homework: “6 x 8?” Answer: “Yes, that was one.”)

While the show is not as instantly laugh-out-loud funny as Andy Richter was, given time it certainly has the potential to be. Unfortunately, it airs on ABC, which currently has no idea how to program sitcoms, particularly smart ones (just look at how they’ve treated Samantha Who?). Early ratings indicate that Ted probably isn’t long for this world, but then this is the network that can’t seem to rid itself of the travesty that is According to Jim, so never say never. Perhaps Veridian Dynamics can go to the lab and come up with a network executive that doesn’t cancel all the good stuff.

Murder is Funny (Or is It?)

2009-03-23T11:10:00.000-07:00

A lousy concept is met with subpar execution in ABC’s new cop show Castle (Mondays, 10pm), which is filled with one annoyance after another. Detective Kate Beckett (played by Stana Katic, who looks like she would make a great sitcom wife) walks into a crime scene and instantly recognizes it to be a reenactment of a murder from the pages of her favorite author, Rick Castle (Nathan Fillion). Then it's discovered that this isn't the first this has happened. When the no-nonsense Beckett meets with the caddish Castle, the author, instead of being even remotely alarmed by the deaths, flirts with Beckett and asks for photos of the victims so he can brag to his fellow crime authors (James Patterson and Stephen J. Cannell in cameos). And if that’s not enough to make you roll your eyes and change the channel, how about this witticism that Castle throws out as he’s got a gun held to his temple: “Psycho here needs a breath mint.” Nothing irks me more than putting allegedly funny words into characters’ mouths while they’re at the height of peril.

With this copycat killer story line all wrapped up in the pilot, how do you get Castle to keep hanging around with Beckett even though she clearly dislikes him and their chemistry isn’t that great? Have him do research for his next book, centered on a surly female detective, natch. The writers would have been better off turning the copycat killer plot into a season-long arc, giving Castle a much more engaging reason to come back for more and turning the show into more than another case-of-the-week crime drama (is the plan to have the guy spend years doing “research”?). But no matter what they do with the plots, a fatal flaw for Castle is the fact that the main character is all wisecracks and smarter-than-thou attitude, a role Fillion is very familiar with from similar gigs on the short-lived Firefly and Drive. It’s one thing for Castle to ask questions and postulate back at the precinct, but it’s another thing entirely for him to participate in witness interrogations. And why is he better at finding clues than the cops are?

Typical of ABC’s hour-long fare these days, Castle is an attempt to mix drama and comedy, but it ends up not being very good at delivering on either front. What works fine for a show like Brothers & Sisters or Ugly Betty feels out of place here, mainly due to the presence of dead bodies; the humor seems insensitive, the seriousness forced. It would take a king’s ransom to get me to spend any more time in this Castle.

Fallon So Far

2009-03-06T11:11:00.000-08:00

When Conan O’Brien began his reign on Late Night back in 1993, the critics were harsh. The man had previously been employed as a comedy writer and had no on-camera experience; it wasn’t unforeseeable that he might have difficulties adjusting to the ways of the TV talk show. After a few years, the critics relented and gave O’Brien kudos for a much-improved show.

Cut to 2009: Jimmy Fallon takes over for Conan after years on Saturday Night Live and a couple failed films. This guy should be a natural out of the gate, right? Wrong! Fallon was understandably nervous coming on stage for his inaugural monologue. What I can’t figure out, though, is if he was nervous because it was his first show or because he knew deep down that the material he went out there with wasn’t funny. He even admitted as much in the second show, telling the well-trained audience that “some of these are just of me.” And therein lies Late Night with Jimmy Fallon’s biggest problem: too much of the show is geared toward what Fallon and his crew find funny without taking into account how it might actually play to an audience.

Among the lead-lined bits on the first few nights were a game called "Lick It for Ten" in which audience members lick items such as a lawn mower and a computer printer for ten bucks, a Facebook status update with members of the audience (typical joke: “Sharon Greene is…drunk”) that went on way too long, and a just-because dance-off with Cameron Diaz. In an unsuccessful effort to set itself apart from other talk shows, it just comes off as forced and unnatural. None of the comedy seems organic or fully realized.

Fallon’s interviewing skills don’t add anything to the proceedings, either. Scoring Robert De Niro as his first guest, Fallon dominated the conversation with uninteresting anecdotes about his own life, before subjecting the Oscar winner to a lousy skit about a train headed to space. Even when Fallon’s old “Weekend Update” partner Tina Fey showed up on night two, he still looked uncomfortable and didn’t really have a grasp on what they might talk about. (Incidentally, Fey herself was fine, clearly demonstrating that she would make a terrific host if she ever wanted to go in that direction.)

It may not sound like it, but I really wanted to like the new Late Night. It can’t be easy putting yourself out there for the world to lambaste every night. But Fallon simply doesn’t deliver. Maybe before too long—and time generally favors late night hosts—he can accomplish what Conan did: entertain himself while remembering that there are millions out there who need to be in on the joke, too.

A Wonderful Night for Oscar

2009-02-23T11:13:00.000-08:00

While it didn’t reach the producers’ goal of coming in at three hours, last night’s Academy Awards broadcast delivered a grand, classy, memorable evening nonetheless. The opening number by host Hugh Jackman was a bit rocky (it's hard to top Billy Crystal), with references to pubic hair and human excrement threatening to amp up the ick factor, though it did provide occasion for Anne Hathaway to show off her hitherto unknown vocal chops (I can definitely see her playing Elphaba in the anticipated film adaptation of Wicked). But anything that didn’t work in that opening was offset by a terrific salute to movie musicals later in the show, a vision brought to us courtesy of Moulin Rouge director Baz Lurhmann. Jackman himself, a fine song-and-dance man who has excelled in years past as host of the Tony Awards, was absent for large sections of the broadcast, prompting Will Smith to joke that he was backstage taking a nap. Underused though he was, Jackman still gave the night an air of movie star magic.

The awards themselves nearly took a backseat to the way in which they were presented. The technical categories were doled out in the same order as each process would occur during the actual making of a movie (screenplay, art direction, costume design, makeup, etc.). Who knew an awards show could be an educational experience? And the acting categories were truly special this year. More than the usual reading off of names, past Oscar winners were brought out to give mini-tributes to each of the nominated actors, offering praise for their performances and putting each of them into a greater overall context. Even the losers had to feel as though their work had been more than validated. (One hiccup here was Alan Arkin's transposing of Philip Seymour Hoffman’s first and middle names, eliciting an eye roll from Hoffman.)

The only thing I can really find to complain about from last night’s show was the "In Memoriam" segment. Accompanied by a lovely song from Queen Latifah, the segment was so wrapped up in fancy camera moves that it was difficult to tell who some of the people on screen were, robbing them of a final burst of applause. A minor quibble for a show that had the feel of a Broadway-caliber presentation, with elaborate set pieces, musical interludes, and a good helping of that old razzle-dazzle. The scope of the show even dwarfed the egos that usually run rampant at these events; the glad-handing and back-patting was mercifully sparse. Danny Boyle, accepting his award for directing the night’s big winner, Slumdog Millionaire, summed up the evening in the best and simplest way: it was “bloody wonderful.”

It's All About Me

2009-02-09T11:10:00.000-08:00

As seems appropriate for two new shows that have the word “me” in their titles, Trust Me and Lie to Me are a tad too smitten with themselves to be completely effective. But that doesn’t necessarily make them bad shows. In fact, they’re both watchable even if they don’t exactly break new ground in the realm of TV drama.

TNT’s Trust Me (Mondays, 10pm), set inside a Chicago ad agency, stars Will & Grace’s Eric McCormack and Ed’s Tom Cavanagh as creative director and copywriter, respectively. McCormack’s Mason is uncomfortable in his newly assigned role, a promotion he receives after the previous boss drops dead in his office from a heart attack. And Conner (Cavanagh), who so far hasn’t been given enough to do, is jealous of his friend’s success. In fact, the entire office seems to be angry with Mason for different reasons, the most ridiculous of which is the new hire who keeps demanding an office with a window. The two leads are well-suited to this environment, a combination of down-to-earth and smug that reverberates through most advertisements these days, including the ones presented on the show. Said ad campaigns are the show’s true highlight, stretching the writers into playing dual roles: screenwriter and copywriter. The second episode’s “Do Thumbthing” cell phone tagline was truly creative, though it would have been better if Mason hadn’t referred to it as “brilliant,” which feels to me like the writers complimenting themselves on their own inventiveness. Trust Me is more real than some of TNT’s other dramas (Leverage, Saving Grace), which could explain why it’s already struggling in the ratings (it dropped from 3.4 million viewers for its premiere to 1.9 million in week two). For me, that reality makes it easier to get involved with these characters, even if they’re already a little too involved with themselves.

Lie to Me (Fox, Wednesdays, 9pm) is also characterized by a case of the clevers: it’s built around a firm that contributes to crime investigations by analyzing facial expressions and body language. The problem here is that everyone—actor and viewer alike—is too aware of every forehead wrinkle, upturned lip, and nose twitch. For the actors, it takes away a layer of authenticity from their performance; you can see them thinking too much about exactly how they have to react. And as a viewer, I find myself watching too closely to see if I can pick up on any tells, thereby pulling me out of the story entirely. And what about the stories? Well, like many crime dramas, so far there’s nothing special about them. The first three episodes all had cases taking place in educational settings: dead teacher who threatened to expose a principal-student relationship, college basketball player accepts a bribe, dead student involved in cheating scandal. What saves it all are the performances of film actor Tim Roth as the firm’s owner and Kelli Williams (The Practice) as one of his investigators. Williams, especially, seems to be having a ball with the material, and she and Roth have a good rapport that makes the show worth watching, even if the cases and central gimmick aren’t as intoxicating as the writers seem to think they are. Trust me; would I ever lie to you?

My TV Has Feelings, Too

2009-02-04T09:49:00.000-08:00

The Los Angeles Times has a report on a ridiculous study linking depression and watching TV. Why is it ridiculous? Well, the study followed the media consumption habits of 4,142 teens from 1995-2002, eventually concluding that 308 of them displayed depressive symptoms by the end of the study. That amounts to a little more than seven percent of the participants being deemed depressed. The CDC released a study of its own back in September 2008 saying that more than one in twenty Americans aged 12 and older, or 5.4%, suffers from depression. If five percent of the population is already depressed, how can you possibly say that television has any tangible effect on anybody?

There are so many factors that go into a person’s emotional well being that it’s almost unprofessional to cite TV as a major cause of mental illness. And why doesn’t the study blame radio, which participants spent just as many hours listening to as they did sitting in front of the television? I’m sick and tired of TV being used as a convenient scapegoat for everything that’s wrong with society one day, only to be called a unifying force capable of bringing the entire nation together like nothing else can the next. Make up your mind, people! Call it good, call it bad, just be consistent. And don’t be so naïve as to think that what teens watch on TV could possibly have a more harmful effect on them than what they deal with every single day in the halls of their high school.