Fall Schedule
Ugh, sorry it's been a month since my last post. I really wish I had the time to write more, I've just been busy with work and family drama. I don't really want to go into it except to say, you know that fairy tale 'The Princess and the Pea' where the princess sleeps on top of all those mattresses and blankets and shouldn't be able to feel the pea beneath her that logically should have been crushed under the weight of all that stuff? Well, my brother is the Princess, able to complain about the most trivial matters that wouldn't bother the average person, and I'm the pea, oppressed in my own home. I'm now looking for a new place to live. So yeah, that's fun.
But, onto happier things: premeire week. This is what my fall schedule looks like:
Sunday
8pm Everybody Hates Chris
Monday
8pm Chuck
9pm Heroes
10pm Journeyman
Tuesday
7pm Gossip Girl (or Sundays 7pm)
8pm Pushing Daisies (or Wednesday 8pm)
9pm watch: Reaper / tape: The Tudors
Wednesday
9pm Bionic Woman
10pm Jekyll
Thursday
8pm watch: Ugly Betty / tape: 30 Rock
9pm watch: Supernatural / tape: Scrubs
Friday
9pm Moonlight
Saturday
9pm Whistler
I now have something to watch every night. I can't remember watching this many new shows at once before. It's a pretty full schedule, but fortunately, between the Canadian and US channels I have a couple viewing options. I don't know if I'll stick with all of them (Journeyman is kind of blah, but I'll give it a few episodes) but I'll try to keep up. Here's what I thought of the new shows I saw this past week:
Chuck
Chuck is my favourite new show so far. It's really fun, fast-paced and charming. Chuck is like a post-college version of Seth Cohen, which may be why I like him so much. This isn't surprising, since both characters come from the mind of Josh Schwartz. It has all of the hallmarks he's known for: humour, good music, even a car chase, Bourne Identity-style (actually, that last one is probably more of a McG thing). So let's call it Alias meets The OC. I'm not sure how just looking at pictures would give him all that knowledge, but I'm willing to suspend disbelief on that one. As for why Bryce downloaded all his memories to Chuck, I guess that's the question.
Gossip Girl
I will admit that the only reason I watched this was to hear Kristen Bell's narration. I wasn't interested in a show about snotty rich kids. Been there, done that. And while I still feel that way to an extent, it wasn't half bad. Sure, the acting wasn't stellar, and Serena looks more like 25 than 17, but Blair is quite pretty. I think I like Ben the most so far. He's kind of cute, polite, looks out for his sister and seems like the most normal one of the bunch. Chuck comes off as being much too smarmy. If he had a moustache, he'd be twirling it like an evil villain. It's way over the top. And I suspect this is not the type of show that will reveal him to be a troubled, complex bad boy with a heart of gold. It's all surface here.
Then there's the Gossip Girl thing. I'm not really sure what Gossip Girl is - is it a blog, a website, a Facebook-style thing for students that belong to that school? 'Cause I can't imagine average New Yorkers would be interested in the goings-on of a bunch of spoiled brats at private school. I guess it's not that important. Overall, I'd say there's nothing here that hasn't been done before, and better, but as guilty pleasures go, you could do worse.
Reaper
I liked the clever little touches here, like using Beck's "Devil's Haircut". And hey, are those dogs supposed to be hellhounds? Plus Christine Willes, Delores from Dead Like Me! Great reaper connection there. I don't know if it was intentional or a coincidence, but that was an awesome cameo. The show even takes place in Seattle too, so it's not hard to imagine Delores deciding to leave Happy Time and work for the DMV. Sam's friend Sock is a bit annoying. What kind of name is "Sock" anyway? Pretty entertaining and watchable, but I'm not sure it lives up to the hype.
Bionic Woman
This is a really pretty show, visually. You could get some great caps out of it. After seeing Michelle Ryan in Jekyll (which is fascinating, by the way) with her regular English accent, it's a bit strange to see her here with an American accent that you'd never guess isn't real and darker hair. Other than that, I don't have much to say about it, but I'm looking forward to seeing more.
Moonlight
Okay, so was I alone in thinking that was kind of bad? Kind of cheesy? I didn't detect much chemistry between Mick and Josef, and since Jason Dohring can have chemistry with a rock, that's sort of a problem. He's definitely the best part of the show. The funny thing is that all the mannerisms I thought were Logan-isms (like the hopping and waggling eyebrows and so on) are actually all Jason, which kind of makes me love him even more. Did you notice the Hearst College shout-out? That was cute. I thought Jason would naturally be a student going there, but he's a businessman. Is it wrong that I kind of wish this show won't last very long so he can hopefully find a better project? How is it that Kristen gets Heroes, and Jason gets this? He needs to get a new agent or something.
A recurring theme I noticed among most of these shows was actors popping up in unexpected ways. Matthew Bomer, who played Jay on Traveller, showed up here as Bryce Larkin on Chuck. (And I know he was killed, but I hope we see more of him in flashbacks or something.) Reaper has Valerie Rae Miller, best known to most as Original Cindy from Dark Angel. Then there's Marshall from Alias, Kevin Weisman, in Moonlight, and I already mentioned Delores Willes. It's just fun to play 'spot the actor.'
Besides new shows, of course what we all look forward to is the return of our old favourites. Heroes was intriguing, and as usual seemed to provide more new questions than answer ongoing ones. Not that that's a bad thing. I found a great article, "5 questions Season Two of Heroes Had Better Fucking Answer", that you guys should read. So what I'm wondering is, what's up with that recurring symbol that kept appearing on everything from the sword to Peter's necklace? Is it a death omen, marking the next person to die? And just how did Peter end up in Ireland-with amnesia!-anyway?
Next up this week is Pushing Daisies, which I've heard a lot about. Plus, only four more days until new Supernatural! EEE!
But, onto happier things: premeire week. This is what my fall schedule looks like:
Sunday
8pm Everybody Hates Chris
Monday
8pm Chuck
9pm Heroes
10pm Journeyman
Tuesday
7pm Gossip Girl (or Sundays 7pm)
8pm Pushing Daisies (or Wednesday 8pm)
9pm watch: Reaper / tape: The Tudors
Wednesday
9pm Bionic Woman
10pm Jekyll
Thursday
8pm watch: Ugly Betty / tape: 30 Rock
9pm watch: Supernatural / tape: Scrubs
Friday
9pm Moonlight
Saturday
9pm Whistler
I now have something to watch every night. I can't remember watching this many new shows at once before. It's a pretty full schedule, but fortunately, between the Canadian and US channels I have a couple viewing options. I don't know if I'll stick with all of them (Journeyman is kind of blah, but I'll give it a few episodes) but I'll try to keep up. Here's what I thought of the new shows I saw this past week:
Chuck
Chuck is my favourite new show so far. It's really fun, fast-paced and charming. Chuck is like a post-college version of Seth Cohen, which may be why I like him so much. This isn't surprising, since both characters come from the mind of Josh Schwartz. It has all of the hallmarks he's known for: humour, good music, even a car chase, Bourne Identity-style (actually, that last one is probably more of a McG thing). So let's call it Alias meets The OC. I'm not sure how just looking at pictures would give him all that knowledge, but I'm willing to suspend disbelief on that one. As for why Bryce downloaded all his memories to Chuck, I guess that's the question.
Gossip Girl
I will admit that the only reason I watched this was to hear Kristen Bell's narration. I wasn't interested in a show about snotty rich kids. Been there, done that. And while I still feel that way to an extent, it wasn't half bad. Sure, the acting wasn't stellar, and Serena looks more like 25 than 17, but Blair is quite pretty. I think I like Ben the most so far. He's kind of cute, polite, looks out for his sister and seems like the most normal one of the bunch. Chuck comes off as being much too smarmy. If he had a moustache, he'd be twirling it like an evil villain. It's way over the top. And I suspect this is not the type of show that will reveal him to be a troubled, complex bad boy with a heart of gold. It's all surface here.
Then there's the Gossip Girl thing. I'm not really sure what Gossip Girl is - is it a blog, a website, a Facebook-style thing for students that belong to that school? 'Cause I can't imagine average New Yorkers would be interested in the goings-on of a bunch of spoiled brats at private school. I guess it's not that important. Overall, I'd say there's nothing here that hasn't been done before, and better, but as guilty pleasures go, you could do worse.
Reaper
I liked the clever little touches here, like using Beck's "Devil's Haircut". And hey, are those dogs supposed to be hellhounds? Plus Christine Willes, Delores from Dead Like Me! Great reaper connection there. I don't know if it was intentional or a coincidence, but that was an awesome cameo. The show even takes place in Seattle too, so it's not hard to imagine Delores deciding to leave Happy Time and work for the DMV. Sam's friend Sock is a bit annoying. What kind of name is "Sock" anyway? Pretty entertaining and watchable, but I'm not sure it lives up to the hype.
Bionic Woman
This is a really pretty show, visually. You could get some great caps out of it. After seeing Michelle Ryan in Jekyll (which is fascinating, by the way) with her regular English accent, it's a bit strange to see her here with an American accent that you'd never guess isn't real and darker hair. Other than that, I don't have much to say about it, but I'm looking forward to seeing more.
Moonlight
Okay, so was I alone in thinking that was kind of bad? Kind of cheesy? I didn't detect much chemistry between Mick and Josef, and since Jason Dohring can have chemistry with a rock, that's sort of a problem. He's definitely the best part of the show. The funny thing is that all the mannerisms I thought were Logan-isms (like the hopping and waggling eyebrows and so on) are actually all Jason, which kind of makes me love him even more. Did you notice the Hearst College shout-out? That was cute. I thought Jason would naturally be a student going there, but he's a businessman. Is it wrong that I kind of wish this show won't last very long so he can hopefully find a better project? How is it that Kristen gets Heroes, and Jason gets this? He needs to get a new agent or something.
A recurring theme I noticed among most of these shows was actors popping up in unexpected ways. Matthew Bomer, who played Jay on Traveller, showed up here as Bryce Larkin on Chuck. (And I know he was killed, but I hope we see more of him in flashbacks or something.) Reaper has Valerie Rae Miller, best known to most as Original Cindy from Dark Angel. Then there's Marshall from Alias, Kevin Weisman, in Moonlight, and I already mentioned Delores Willes. It's just fun to play 'spot the actor.'
Besides new shows, of course what we all look forward to is the return of our old favourites. Heroes was intriguing, and as usual seemed to provide more new questions than answer ongoing ones. Not that that's a bad thing. I found a great article, "5 questions Season Two of Heroes Had Better Fucking Answer", that you guys should read. So what I'm wondering is, what's up with that recurring symbol that kept appearing on everything from the sword to Peter's necklace? Is it a death omen, marking the next person to die? And just how did Peter end up in Ireland-with amnesia!-anyway?
Next up this week is Pushing Daisies, which I've heard a lot about. Plus, only four more days until new Supernatural! EEE!