TeeVee Time
I have had to accept, especially since I got the TiVo a number of years ago, that there's just no way I can watch as much of the new shows to test them out as I would like -- so I whittle down my list more and more each fall and attempt to pick what I think will a) be worth my time, or at least be semi-interesting, and b) last longer than 4 eps. I still haven't mastered the art of b) yet. And I still have too much TV on my TiVo, which, now that I'm watching a soap again and have an addiction to HGTV, has become quite unmanageable. This year, I've got about five new shows on the season pass list, and I still can't keep up, between my older series (Heroes, Numb3rs, The Unit -- what can I say? Hot men, bad TV, and so on) and the new stuff.
I adored Chuck, but couldn't watch it after the first episode, because they teasingly showed it on every network NBC owns for only the pilot, no other episodes, and NBC's player works so suckily on my Mac I haven't tried to watch them online. But at some point, I will catch up. Because Adam Baldwin in a Best Buy-type-store polo shirt? Won't ever not be funny.
Speaking of losers who are funny, Reaper is beyond adorable. Satan is just the bomb, with his perpetual smile of amusement and false "have a nice day"ness. I cannot get enough of this devil, and I enjoy the interplay between the lead and Sock. Really, just the name Sock is such a perfect moniker for the blowhard chubby smartass loser that I would watch this series simply for that alone. I wish CW could have put this in a better timeslot that it wasn't up against powerhouse shows on other networks, but they seem to like to do that with their series. It's not David vs. Goliath here -- David isn't even in the running for most people, so I have a feeling this show's a goner pretty soon. Which is a shame because for no other reason, Delores Herbig is in it, and no matter who that actress is playing, I love her for being Delores. Reaper is essentially the class clown little brother of Brimstone, one of my late, great, short-lived favorites, and there's room for that kind of funny, I think.
Life
I wasn't expecting Life to be a minor success like it's turned out to be. It had all the hallmarks of a swiftly cancelled NBC cop show: quirky detective, twee premise, actresses attempting to be tough chicks who couldn't break a bread stick with two hands. But it had Damian Lewis from Band of Brothers, whom I adore beyond reason, and so I had to watch it. And lo, it turned out to be not bad. It's not sterling writing and it's definitely out of the episodic "guy spills all to the detectives at the end to wrap story up" model, but I still have ended up looking forward to this on Wed. nights. Lewis is just such an amazing actor, and he does so much with his eyes that most actors can't do with their whole bodies and their voices, that I'm pretty much mesmerized when he's on screen. And he looks really hot in a flak vest (well, who doesn't?). Adam Arkin has a wonderful Adam Arkinish role that ably supports Lewis's Charlie Crews, and the documentary breaks into Charlie's background work better than I had expected to establish the inherent drama of his story. And it is always a pleasure to see Robin Weigert on TV. Oh, Calamity Jane, I miss you!
Journeyman
I had some doubts about this one, for sure, and still do. I can't say I'm really engaged in it, beyond the fact that it's Kevin McKidd from Rome, and so I'll keep watching it. But it doesn't feel like it fits with Heroes as much as I believe NBC thinks it does (I'm sure to them, it's soooo science fictiony and original), and I think it suffers from a really serious problem in that the other actors are not at all compelling, except Homicide's Reed Diamond, who gets little screen time. I find his fiancee, whom he'd presumed dead, and her pronouncements and vague, oblique "guidance" to be annoying, and I don't really sense a lot of chemistry between McKidd and her. I don't know where it's going exactly, but I'll probably keep watching just because Kevin is so dynamic.
Pushing Daisies
Wow, has it been interesting seeing the reactions from my flist on this one. I fell totally in love with Lee Pace in Wonderfalls, and then I found out Kristen Chenowith was going to be in it, so there was no way I wouldn't want to try it out. I'm so glad I did, because it's my favorite new show by far. Chi McBride is really quite funny as Emerson, and truthfully, he often ends up playing that serious, sanctimonious kind of guy on TV, so I wasn't sure what to expect, but here he's just so delightfully silly ("Bitch, I was in proximity!"). The dialog sparkles (God, I love non-sequiturish, pop-culture laden, fast-paced dialog with all my heart), the actors are uniformly wonderful (I think I am in love with Chuck), the cinematography and post-production work is just glorious and unlike anything else (though with all the budget cutbacks, who knows what will happen to its look in the future), and the narration by the Harry Potter guy is just fantastic. And really -- Swoosie Kurtz in an eyepatch. You had me at "The Pie Hole", but you cemented the deal with Swoosie in an eyepatch. I'm sorry that so many people I know don't like it, or won't watch it because it's cutesy, or can't be sustained. I feel like they're missing out on something wonderful. At least it looks like it'll have more of a chance than Wonderfalls had.
Moonlight
I watched this only because I knew it'd be a train wreck, and there was a group of us to MST3K it. In that respect, it didn't disappoint. Only, instead of a traink wreck, it was more like a slow-motion bridge collapse, with more deaths. As in, tragedy. I don't know what's more tragic -- that they think this show is good? That they think it's original, when it's simply stale Angel reheated badly? That they understand the genre so poorly (CBS is by far the worst of the big 3 networks in terms of genre, they are so freaking middle of the road) they think a 60 year old vampire detective is hot, and that he has angst, so the chicks will dig it? I can't even count the ways in which this is bad: horrid voiceover attempt at noirish detective movie; skeevy romantic connection between the vampire who saved a little girl and now ogles her grown-up self; lame, lame writing that is so full of cliches, it's moved into post-clicheism; actors who seem to be reading their lines while under the influence of Ambien? And let's not forget the bad casting decisions (I thought Jason Dohring was fine on Veronica Mars, but he's terribly miscast here in an attempt to get young female viewers) and the sad special effects. But really, nothing is worse than this: at the end of the first episode, they did a montage to My Immortal. And there was no attempt at irony.
I almost forgot about Bionic Woman!
I guess that kinda says a lot, huh. To me, this reads as yet another Vancouver show that looks like it's set in Vancouver and trying to be elsewhere, which is just... well, at least Reaper doesn't totally look like Vancouver. And the lead, whose name I can't remember, is just... I don't know. Flat? Boring? Her facial expression almost always looks the same, as if she just woke up and is mentally going, "What? Where? Huh?" I can't put my finger on it, but she bugs me. And she's totally, completely mowed over by Miguel Ferrar, Katee Sackhoff, and Isaiah Washington (however the hell you spell that name). And that's saying a lot, because I'm not fond of any of those actors, and Sackhoff's mannerisms have begun to drive me batshit (go ahead, start the defriending now. How dare I dis the 'buck.), but she is just great here (even with mannerisms) and completely dwarfs the titular lead BW. The stories seem to be just dusted off and updated from the original, but with less flair that BSG did its remake. The one saving grace, and the reason I will keep watching, is that it features Will Yun Lee in a prominent role. The man has always singed my eyeballs with his hotness since I saw him in Witchblade, and I am so happy to see him on weekly TV, fu'ing around, squinting and being snide to people. I can never get enough -- and that he actually has romantic love scenes and is more than just the Asian guy dispensing Asian guy wisdom and fu, and gets to be a whole person, makes me deliriously happy. More love scenes with Katee, please!
And then there are the returning shows, though mostly what I could say about those is that there are fetching new hair styles on both the Unit and Numb3rs for a few people, and Don has standup hair again, thank god, though Charlie's facial hair scares me a bit. They are still silly and I like them, but I'd rather watch Reaper than the Unit, for however long that lasts. The big two, for me, though, are Heroes and Dexter. I haven't had the chance to watch more than the first two eps of second season Dexter so I'm behind in that respect, but...
Dexter
Oh, my, this is tense this season. I was deeply afraid for Dexter in these first two hours, at least until he killed Little Chino, finally. It is so fascinating for me, the serial killer story hater, to be so wrapped up in this, to be so concerned for Dexter's welfare. And at this point, I'm almost more concerned about Dexter not being caught for Deb's sake than for his own -- Dexter almost seems less concerned about it, as if it might finally be a way to unleash his burden. What would happen to poor Deb if she finds out that yet another person she loved was a serial killer, and that Dexter was related to Rudy? I'm really worried about the poor girl. I love Deb and it's hard to see her suffer so much, and Angel is rightly concerned about what's happening to her. I can't wait to see more of what Keith Carradine brings to the mix, and how Dex copes with Rita's assumption of his addiction. Now that he's getting his mojo back a bit, how can he stay a step ahead of everyone -- there are more people than just Doakes now looking at the world that Dexter's surrounded with.
Heroes
Like everyone else, I'm loving the Molly has two daddies, Mohinder and Matt hookup. Since I adore Matt because I adore Greg Grunberg, I do not mind that he's shacking up with one of the world's most beautiful men. And they both frequently do the dumbest things, so this way they can be dumb together and make googly eyes at each other. Nathan is the poor tortured soul, and I couldn't be happier. I don't know why they had to ruin it all by bringing Sylar back (smithereen ranted about this last week, and she said it much better than I could), especially since a good comic knows that if you take the villain off screen for a long while, it makes them a much better villain to return to later, after you've had a break from them, but I'm extremely unhappy with the turn. Really, I just... he's not even a good villain, to me, anymore -- especially after the episode of how he discovered his powers and all he really seems to be is a petulant whiner without any of his own natural fascination or personality. I would much prefer to see more of the old heroes, and am sad that George Takei is gone because it would be so great to see Hiro and he fighting together again once Hiro returns. And I'm deeply afraid they'll kill off HRG -- they went a little kill happy last year, and I think they lost some good momentum and natural story lines by doing that (and honestly, I miss Isaac something fierce). If they start killing off characters randomly for the sake of "tension," I'm not sure how much good will I'll have for the series. I don't like West, the pervy little stalker boy, though they're going to force that one down all our throats, and it disturbs me that the producers don't seem to understand how having a guy who behaves like that toward a girl would be offensive to a large portion of their viewership. I realize they think only Gen Y fanboys watch the show, but jeez louise, get a clue. Guys who force themselves on girls, for ANY reason, are not attractive. period. full stop.
At least they resolved the "what the fuck is David Anders doing playing Kenzei" question I had going into the season, thank god. That casting news really freaked me out. I hope that someday poor Hiro can get a girl who sticks around. And I'm even more bored with the Nikki/Jessica/whoever and Micah story -- I don't mind Micah that much, but he's not that interesting to me on a standalone basis, and it usually means I have to have the Nikki story, too. That started out so well, and ended up so annoying, but I don't think they have plans for her to go anywhere anytime soon. The twins bore me to tears, and while I think the badpower/goodpower pairup is interesting, neither the writing nor the actors have been able to engage me in the story one iota. I've come to leave the room now when they're on, or FF when I'm watching from TiVo. Loving Peter not having emo hair anymore, all buffed up and tied up. There can never be too much Nathan, though, and I really want to see what happens with him now that he's not in politics. And watch Mohinder and Matt get domestic.
Prison Break
This is why I can't watch Chuck -- it's on opposite Prison Break. And... well... I still don't like PB, but it still has William Fichtner. But now it has Fichtner being all arm-porny, drug-addicted, cold-turky addled, imprisoned, haunted, desperate, sweaty, tormented, and did I mention arm-porny? I just... I can't not watch. The slashiness between him and Michael is so big, it cannot be calibrated by earthly measurement. And this last week, one guy insinuated that if he... pleasured other inmates, he could get some drugs for his habit. Whee! I am helpless in the face of it.
I adored Chuck, but couldn't watch it after the first episode, because they teasingly showed it on every network NBC owns for only the pilot, no other episodes, and NBC's player works so suckily on my Mac I haven't tried to watch them online. But at some point, I will catch up. Because Adam Baldwin in a Best Buy-type-store polo shirt? Won't ever not be funny.
Speaking of losers who are funny, Reaper is beyond adorable. Satan is just the bomb, with his perpetual smile of amusement and false "have a nice day"ness. I cannot get enough of this devil, and I enjoy the interplay between the lead and Sock. Really, just the name Sock is such a perfect moniker for the blowhard chubby smartass loser that I would watch this series simply for that alone. I wish CW could have put this in a better timeslot that it wasn't up against powerhouse shows on other networks, but they seem to like to do that with their series. It's not David vs. Goliath here -- David isn't even in the running for most people, so I have a feeling this show's a goner pretty soon. Which is a shame because for no other reason, Delores Herbig is in it, and no matter who that actress is playing, I love her for being Delores. Reaper is essentially the class clown little brother of Brimstone, one of my late, great, short-lived favorites, and there's room for that kind of funny, I think.
Life
I wasn't expecting Life to be a minor success like it's turned out to be. It had all the hallmarks of a swiftly cancelled NBC cop show: quirky detective, twee premise, actresses attempting to be tough chicks who couldn't break a bread stick with two hands. But it had Damian Lewis from Band of Brothers, whom I adore beyond reason, and so I had to watch it. And lo, it turned out to be not bad. It's not sterling writing and it's definitely out of the episodic "guy spills all to the detectives at the end to wrap story up" model, but I still have ended up looking forward to this on Wed. nights. Lewis is just such an amazing actor, and he does so much with his eyes that most actors can't do with their whole bodies and their voices, that I'm pretty much mesmerized when he's on screen. And he looks really hot in a flak vest (well, who doesn't?). Adam Arkin has a wonderful Adam Arkinish role that ably supports Lewis's Charlie Crews, and the documentary breaks into Charlie's background work better than I had expected to establish the inherent drama of his story. And it is always a pleasure to see Robin Weigert on TV. Oh, Calamity Jane, I miss you!
Journeyman
I had some doubts about this one, for sure, and still do. I can't say I'm really engaged in it, beyond the fact that it's Kevin McKidd from Rome, and so I'll keep watching it. But it doesn't feel like it fits with Heroes as much as I believe NBC thinks it does (I'm sure to them, it's soooo science fictiony and original), and I think it suffers from a really serious problem in that the other actors are not at all compelling, except Homicide's Reed Diamond, who gets little screen time. I find his fiancee, whom he'd presumed dead, and her pronouncements and vague, oblique "guidance" to be annoying, and I don't really sense a lot of chemistry between McKidd and her. I don't know where it's going exactly, but I'll probably keep watching just because Kevin is so dynamic.
Pushing Daisies
Wow, has it been interesting seeing the reactions from my flist on this one. I fell totally in love with Lee Pace in Wonderfalls, and then I found out Kristen Chenowith was going to be in it, so there was no way I wouldn't want to try it out. I'm so glad I did, because it's my favorite new show by far. Chi McBride is really quite funny as Emerson, and truthfully, he often ends up playing that serious, sanctimonious kind of guy on TV, so I wasn't sure what to expect, but here he's just so delightfully silly ("Bitch, I was in proximity!"). The dialog sparkles (God, I love non-sequiturish, pop-culture laden, fast-paced dialog with all my heart), the actors are uniformly wonderful (I think I am in love with Chuck), the cinematography and post-production work is just glorious and unlike anything else (though with all the budget cutbacks, who knows what will happen to its look in the future), and the narration by the Harry Potter guy is just fantastic. And really -- Swoosie Kurtz in an eyepatch. You had me at "The Pie Hole", but you cemented the deal with Swoosie in an eyepatch. I'm sorry that so many people I know don't like it, or won't watch it because it's cutesy, or can't be sustained. I feel like they're missing out on something wonderful. At least it looks like it'll have more of a chance than Wonderfalls had.
Moonlight
I watched this only because I knew it'd be a train wreck, and there was a group of us to MST3K it. In that respect, it didn't disappoint. Only, instead of a traink wreck, it was more like a slow-motion bridge collapse, with more deaths. As in, tragedy. I don't know what's more tragic -- that they think this show is good? That they think it's original, when it's simply stale Angel reheated badly? That they understand the genre so poorly (CBS is by far the worst of the big 3 networks in terms of genre, they are so freaking middle of the road) they think a 60 year old vampire detective is hot, and that he has angst, so the chicks will dig it? I can't even count the ways in which this is bad: horrid voiceover attempt at noirish detective movie; skeevy romantic connection between the vampire who saved a little girl and now ogles her grown-up self; lame, lame writing that is so full of cliches, it's moved into post-clicheism; actors who seem to be reading their lines while under the influence of Ambien? And let's not forget the bad casting decisions (I thought Jason Dohring was fine on Veronica Mars, but he's terribly miscast here in an attempt to get young female viewers) and the sad special effects. But really, nothing is worse than this: at the end of the first episode, they did a montage to My Immortal. And there was no attempt at irony.
I almost forgot about Bionic Woman!
I guess that kinda says a lot, huh. To me, this reads as yet another Vancouver show that looks like it's set in Vancouver and trying to be elsewhere, which is just... well, at least Reaper doesn't totally look like Vancouver. And the lead, whose name I can't remember, is just... I don't know. Flat? Boring? Her facial expression almost always looks the same, as if she just woke up and is mentally going, "What? Where? Huh?" I can't put my finger on it, but she bugs me. And she's totally, completely mowed over by Miguel Ferrar, Katee Sackhoff, and Isaiah Washington (however the hell you spell that name). And that's saying a lot, because I'm not fond of any of those actors, and Sackhoff's mannerisms have begun to drive me batshit (go ahead, start the defriending now. How dare I dis the 'buck.), but she is just great here (even with mannerisms) and completely dwarfs the titular lead BW. The stories seem to be just dusted off and updated from the original, but with less flair that BSG did its remake. The one saving grace, and the reason I will keep watching, is that it features Will Yun Lee in a prominent role. The man has always singed my eyeballs with his hotness since I saw him in Witchblade, and I am so happy to see him on weekly TV, fu'ing around, squinting and being snide to people. I can never get enough -- and that he actually has romantic love scenes and is more than just the Asian guy dispensing Asian guy wisdom and fu, and gets to be a whole person, makes me deliriously happy. More love scenes with Katee, please!
And then there are the returning shows, though mostly what I could say about those is that there are fetching new hair styles on both the Unit and Numb3rs for a few people, and Don has standup hair again, thank god, though Charlie's facial hair scares me a bit. They are still silly and I like them, but I'd rather watch Reaper than the Unit, for however long that lasts. The big two, for me, though, are Heroes and Dexter. I haven't had the chance to watch more than the first two eps of second season Dexter so I'm behind in that respect, but...
Dexter
Oh, my, this is tense this season. I was deeply afraid for Dexter in these first two hours, at least until he killed Little Chino, finally. It is so fascinating for me, the serial killer story hater, to be so wrapped up in this, to be so concerned for Dexter's welfare. And at this point, I'm almost more concerned about Dexter not being caught for Deb's sake than for his own -- Dexter almost seems less concerned about it, as if it might finally be a way to unleash his burden. What would happen to poor Deb if she finds out that yet another person she loved was a serial killer, and that Dexter was related to Rudy? I'm really worried about the poor girl. I love Deb and it's hard to see her suffer so much, and Angel is rightly concerned about what's happening to her. I can't wait to see more of what Keith Carradine brings to the mix, and how Dex copes with Rita's assumption of his addiction. Now that he's getting his mojo back a bit, how can he stay a step ahead of everyone -- there are more people than just Doakes now looking at the world that Dexter's surrounded with.
Heroes
Like everyone else, I'm loving the Molly has two daddies, Mohinder and Matt hookup. Since I adore Matt because I adore Greg Grunberg, I do not mind that he's shacking up with one of the world's most beautiful men. And they both frequently do the dumbest things, so this way they can be dumb together and make googly eyes at each other. Nathan is the poor tortured soul, and I couldn't be happier. I don't know why they had to ruin it all by bringing Sylar back (smithereen ranted about this last week, and she said it much better than I could), especially since a good comic knows that if you take the villain off screen for a long while, it makes them a much better villain to return to later, after you've had a break from them, but I'm extremely unhappy with the turn. Really, I just... he's not even a good villain, to me, anymore -- especially after the episode of how he discovered his powers and all he really seems to be is a petulant whiner without any of his own natural fascination or personality. I would much prefer to see more of the old heroes, and am sad that George Takei is gone because it would be so great to see Hiro and he fighting together again once Hiro returns. And I'm deeply afraid they'll kill off HRG -- they went a little kill happy last year, and I think they lost some good momentum and natural story lines by doing that (and honestly, I miss Isaac something fierce). If they start killing off characters randomly for the sake of "tension," I'm not sure how much good will I'll have for the series. I don't like West, the pervy little stalker boy, though they're going to force that one down all our throats, and it disturbs me that the producers don't seem to understand how having a guy who behaves like that toward a girl would be offensive to a large portion of their viewership. I realize they think only Gen Y fanboys watch the show, but jeez louise, get a clue. Guys who force themselves on girls, for ANY reason, are not attractive. period. full stop.
At least they resolved the "what the fuck is David Anders doing playing Kenzei" question I had going into the season, thank god. That casting news really freaked me out. I hope that someday poor Hiro can get a girl who sticks around. And I'm even more bored with the Nikki/Jessica/whoever and Micah story -- I don't mind Micah that much, but he's not that interesting to me on a standalone basis, and it usually means I have to have the Nikki story, too. That started out so well, and ended up so annoying, but I don't think they have plans for her to go anywhere anytime soon. The twins bore me to tears, and while I think the badpower/goodpower pairup is interesting, neither the writing nor the actors have been able to engage me in the story one iota. I've come to leave the room now when they're on, or FF when I'm watching from TiVo. Loving Peter not having emo hair anymore, all buffed up and tied up. There can never be too much Nathan, though, and I really want to see what happens with him now that he's not in politics. And watch Mohinder and Matt get domestic.
Prison Break
This is why I can't watch Chuck -- it's on opposite Prison Break. And... well... I still don't like PB, but it still has William Fichtner. But now it has Fichtner being all arm-porny, drug-addicted, cold-turky addled, imprisoned, haunted, desperate, sweaty, tormented, and did I mention arm-porny? I just... I can't not watch. The slashiness between him and Michael is so big, it cannot be calibrated by earthly measurement. And this last week, one guy insinuated that if he... pleasured other inmates, he could get some drugs for his habit. Whee! I am helpless in the face of it.