I only watch the shows I know I like.
Something about living in my new place that's exciting and different: Not only do I not have internet, but I don't have television. Yeah. Imagine how thrilled I am about that. The room was ostensibly hooked up with DirectTV, but after six weeks, I'm still entirely reliant on Auntie M and Uncle Henry for, well, all my entertainment needs. Which means that there are only a very few shows that I can watch or tape, which means that I'm way way WAY behind on the premiere season (usually my favorite part of the year) and have seen precisely zero new shows. What's worth getting into? What's soon-to-be-canceled?
House: I'm getting increasingly uncomfortable with the direction of his characterization, which I swear is new and different from S1 and 2. He's gone from being refreshingly rude to kinda sorta sociopathic. *His* puzzles, *his* brains, *his* being right are always more important than dignity or honor or humanity. The fact that he feels bad about it after and looks dead sexy doing it (the look he sent Lolita there did funny things to my insides) doesn't make it alright.
I was finally proud of Chase, who stood up for his beliefs at the risk of his career, for, I might add, the first time ever. I was excited they were showing a different side to the character...and then it turned out to be Cameron. Which is fine, because it makes her more interesting, and they're setting up the H/Cam, but there's room for both characters! Really!
Office: LOVE this show. LOVE! IT! The premiere was pretty much full of awesome, with Jim and Pam angsting and Michael being excruciating (god, that kiss...I watched with my hands clamped firmly over my eyes, hiding behind a pillow, and making noises only dogs could hear) and office supplies in jello, which will never not be funny. Something I didn't expect: I might kinda sorta like Roy all of sudden. I mean, when did he get hot? Probably about the same time he got a personality. Mmm, complexity! Tastes like chicken. Or fish.
Ooo, the one exception to my subject line is Studio 60: Usually Sorkin premieres hit it out of the park, but this was more like a ground-rule double. I like it, don't get me wrong, I like it a lot, but I was surprised that I didn't love it. BW and MP are fantastic, natch, and I was riveted whenever they were on screen. Amanda Peet, though...I don't know. I'm being patient. I'm reserving judgment. ...Oh hell, who am I kidding? She's too young, too pretty, and too lightweight. She's horribly miscast, and doesn't have the dramatic OR comedic chops to pull it off. She's Moira Kelly in an Allison Janney role, so let's buy her a one-way ticket to Mandyville and get her ass out of there. Ahem. Given my track record in predicting these things, of course, she'll be winning Emmys for the next six years.
SciFi: I'm not the only one who runs an unofficial compare-and-contrast between SG-1 and SGA, am I? A kind of mental tally that keeps track of the moments of awesomeness on each show? Beginning this season, it was all SG-1, all the time...but SGA has been steadily creeping up, and the finales just cemented it.
Note to SG-1 writers: A quest, or treasure hunt, or extensive wandering in the woods of Vancouver, or whatever you call it, is lazy writing. It smacks of stretching. It's exactly what pissed me off so much about Dead Man's Chest - yes, by all means, let's waste forty-five minutes of the audience's time with a search that leads to a action set piece but nowhere else. If you don't have a plot beyond 'they look for a MacGuffin' (which, come to think of it, was the plot for this entire season), at least dress it up with lots of interpersonal conflict and character beats. There was none of that. And Morena Baccarin, god love her, looks and sounds like she's on horse tranquilizers.
Atlantis, by comparison, was so full of squee that I don't even know where to begin. RDA! Ronon! Lifting John! Teyla and John touching foreheads! Elizabeth! Depressed and eating takeout! Rodney's lonely! The four of them out to dinner! "Hypothetically"! Beckett's turtles! They're rebels, stealing a jumper, going off book, taking back the city, kicking ass, going home. Love it. *That's* how you do a cliffhanger.
House: I'm getting increasingly uncomfortable with the direction of his characterization, which I swear is new and different from S1 and 2. He's gone from being refreshingly rude to kinda sorta sociopathic. *His* puzzles, *his* brains, *his* being right are always more important than dignity or honor or humanity. The fact that he feels bad about it after and looks dead sexy doing it (the look he sent Lolita there did funny things to my insides) doesn't make it alright.
I was finally proud of Chase, who stood up for his beliefs at the risk of his career, for, I might add, the first time ever. I was excited they were showing a different side to the character...and then it turned out to be Cameron. Which is fine, because it makes her more interesting, and they're setting up the H/Cam, but there's room for both characters! Really!
Office: LOVE this show. LOVE! IT! The premiere was pretty much full of awesome, with Jim and Pam angsting and Michael being excruciating (god, that kiss...I watched with my hands clamped firmly over my eyes, hiding behind a pillow, and making noises only dogs could hear) and office supplies in jello, which will never not be funny. Something I didn't expect: I might kinda sorta like Roy all of sudden. I mean, when did he get hot? Probably about the same time he got a personality. Mmm, complexity! Tastes like chicken. Or fish.
Ooo, the one exception to my subject line is Studio 60: Usually Sorkin premieres hit it out of the park, but this was more like a ground-rule double. I like it, don't get me wrong, I like it a lot, but I was surprised that I didn't love it. BW and MP are fantastic, natch, and I was riveted whenever they were on screen. Amanda Peet, though...I don't know. I'm being patient. I'm reserving judgment. ...Oh hell, who am I kidding? She's too young, too pretty, and too lightweight. She's horribly miscast, and doesn't have the dramatic OR comedic chops to pull it off. She's Moira Kelly in an Allison Janney role, so let's buy her a one-way ticket to Mandyville and get her ass out of there. Ahem. Given my track record in predicting these things, of course, she'll be winning Emmys for the next six years.
SciFi: I'm not the only one who runs an unofficial compare-and-contrast between SG-1 and SGA, am I? A kind of mental tally that keeps track of the moments of awesomeness on each show? Beginning this season, it was all SG-1, all the time...but SGA has been steadily creeping up, and the finales just cemented it.
Note to SG-1 writers: A quest, or treasure hunt, or extensive wandering in the woods of Vancouver, or whatever you call it, is lazy writing. It smacks of stretching. It's exactly what pissed me off so much about Dead Man's Chest - yes, by all means, let's waste forty-five minutes of the audience's time with a search that leads to a action set piece but nowhere else. If you don't have a plot beyond 'they look for a MacGuffin' (which, come to think of it, was the plot for this entire season), at least dress it up with lots of interpersonal conflict and character beats. There was none of that. And Morena Baccarin, god love her, looks and sounds like she's on horse tranquilizers.
Atlantis, by comparison, was so full of squee that I don't even know where to begin. RDA! Ronon! Lifting John! Teyla and John touching foreheads! Elizabeth! Depressed and eating takeout! Rodney's lonely! The four of them out to dinner! "Hypothetically"! Beckett's turtles! They're rebels, stealing a jumper, going off book, taking back the city, kicking ass, going home. Love it. *That's* how you do a cliffhanger.