The One in which I talk about all the new TV shows (Part 1)
So, you probably noticed that I haven't talked about all the new TV shows of the Fall Season 2010 yet. That's because a) I had no Internet in October and had to wait until November to watch them and b) most of the shows just don't interest me. The new batch was really bad. But I take my duty as a pop culture observant seriously, so here's a quick rundown on all the pilots I watched:
Let's start with the really bad ones...
Mike & Molly
Horrible, horrible, horrible and probably one of the worst pilots I've ever seen. Here's what it all boils down to: Mike meets Molly at an Overeater Anonymous-meeting and after twenty minutes of unfunny wacky hijinks with unfunny wacky sidekicks he asks her out on a date (which will probably happen in the second episode, not that I'll ever watch that). The rest is all fat jokes, all the time. Seriously. Even if those only were pilot jitters (and sitcoms seldomly have perfect pilots), I don't know why I should watch this show.
Episode 1: Mike asks Molly out on a date. They're both fat and friendly. Like whales. (Actual joke from the episode.)
Episode 2: Mike and Molly go on their first date together. They're still fat.
Episode 3: I don't know. Unless they go on a killing spree together, I don't know why I should be interested in two like-minded people dating. There are no obstacles, only unfunny wacky sidekicks.
We stopped watching after the pilot (and almost couldn't get through that one).
Bleep My Dad Says
Nobody expected a second 30 Rock from a show starring William Shatner and based on a Twitter-feed, but this was still much more painful than I would have thought possible. It reminded me of those sitcoms you would discover on Sunday mornings in the late 90s, lame attempts at humour, bad overacting, plots that Full House would have rejected for being too outdated and destined to live forever in reruns even though there only seem to exist the same two episodes you've already seen ten times. The worst thing about the show is the guy who plays the son, who constantly seems to be on the verge of cracking up. Seriously, he smirks in every single scene, whether he was angry or sad or, most of all, just there. Being the weak link in a cast of William Shatner and two veteran Mad TV-actors is almost impossible, but he pulls it off.
We gave it a second chance and then stopped watching after two episodes and zero laughs.
Both Mike & Molly and the Shatner show are big hits in the US of A. What the bleep? Other shows we didn't love weren't so lucky, like:
Running Wilde
I actually had to look up the title cause I couldn't even remember it. Yeah, it's that forgettable.
Anyway, Running Wilde stars Will Arnett as the same loud insensitive obnoxious childish guy he always plays and the girl who was Felicity as his love interest. He's a loud insensitive obnoxious childish billionaire trying to win back the girl he once loved. She's the mother of a girl named "Puddle" (...yeah.) and also a eco-something, trying to save the rainforest. It's all zany and desperately tries to be the next Arrested Development, but it's more like the next Carpoolers, only less funny (ha! I'm sure I'm the only one remembering that show). The thing is, Will Arnett is funny in small doses, but Arrested Development wouldn't have worked if it had made GOB the main character. This show does, and so you're left with a loud insensitive obnoxious childish main character constantly making a fool of himself in front of a boringly bland love interest. Which is a shame cause the sidekicks are actually funny.
Eduard bailed after the pilot (he hates Will Arnett), I watched five episodes and then gave up, just like the network.
The Increasingly Poor Decisions Of Todd Margaret
This unfortunately titled show has the exact same problem, it gives us yet another Arrested Development-alumni, David Cross, and puts hom front and center in the spotlight. David Cross plays Todd who gets sent to England by his loud insensitive obnoxious childish boss (guess who plays him) to sell questionable energy drinks but has no clue about his job or Great Britain or seemingly life in general. Todd's main characteristic is just being too dumb to live and it's really tedious to watch cause that character could just die any second by simply forgetting to breathe and you wouldn't be surprised nor care. There's still some funny stuff in it, but no heart at all. It makes the gang from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia seem like Care Bears. Really smart ones, with glasses.
I watched three of its six episodes and then decided I really don't care.
I wish people would finally let go of Arrested Development and stop trying to bring it back. Just watch Community.
This next section is called "Nothing against the pilot, but the show is not for me":
Undercovers
This one wasn't really bad, just really, really bland. To quote Eduard after we watched the pilot: "So they're a married couple who are also spies - and that's it?" Exactly. It's mildy amusing, mildly exciting and mildly pretty. It's also fully canceled, so no need to dwell on it any longer.
Terriers
It's two guys doing some vague things and after twenty minutes or so we find out that they are unlicensed detectives or something and then there's an ex-wife and a missing girl and the two guys are cracking jokes all the time and there's a dog and some conspiracy and a villain who threatens them in the end and I just don't know why anything about this should interest me. I had some hope for this cause everyone told me it's comparable to Veronica Mars but it felt more like a corny 80s detective show to me. Think Psych with grit. It's as good as already canceled anyway, so let's move on.
Boardwalk Empire
Beautiful costumes and set design, top-notch ensemble, great camerawork, overall a fantastic pilot, just like you expect it from any HBO period piece. And yet I couldn't care less about gangsters in the Prohibition era. But that's me, I don't care for gangster movies in general and never could get into shows like Smith or The Sopranos. If you're interested in the genre, you should give it a try.
The Walking Dead
Just like Boardwalk Empire, this is probably a good show, but just not for me. I've never been a big zombie fan, but I'm willing to buy into them if the premise grabs me (the original Night of the Living Dead and Dead Set did, just like Shaun and Fido). This pilot didn't do anything for me and I blame it on everyone overhyping it to death. I expected nothing less than a revelation and got the first half of a decent zombie flick instead. The main character is likable (though apparently uninterested in the new world he wakes up into) and if it were a movie, I would finish it, but as a pilot for a long-running series it failed in my eyes. Pilots have to tell me what the show will be about, what to expect from later episodes. I have no idea after this one. Is it just the main protagonist in a world of zombies searching for his family and meeting yet another guest star every episode? Or, more likely, is it Invasion with zombies and he will eventually meet up with the camp his family currently lives in and they will try to survive from now on? What are the conflicts since the villains in this show are just brainless undead people wandering around? If it really is an ensemble show, why didn't the pilot show me the ensemble? I get that people are just happy to see a well-done show with zombies, but the pure orgasmic praise this pilot got just baffles me. There's nothing in it I haven't seen already and it tells me nothing about the rest of the show.
I will probably watch some more episodes soon, but the pilot put it on the bottom of my personal must-see-list.
Next up: New shows I still watch (and why).
Let's start with the really bad ones...
Mike & Molly
Horrible, horrible, horrible and probably one of the worst pilots I've ever seen. Here's what it all boils down to: Mike meets Molly at an Overeater Anonymous-meeting and after twenty minutes of unfunny wacky hijinks with unfunny wacky sidekicks he asks her out on a date (which will probably happen in the second episode, not that I'll ever watch that). The rest is all fat jokes, all the time. Seriously. Even if those only were pilot jitters (and sitcoms seldomly have perfect pilots), I don't know why I should watch this show.
Episode 1: Mike asks Molly out on a date. They're both fat and friendly. Like whales. (Actual joke from the episode.)
Episode 2: Mike and Molly go on their first date together. They're still fat.
Episode 3: I don't know. Unless they go on a killing spree together, I don't know why I should be interested in two like-minded people dating. There are no obstacles, only unfunny wacky sidekicks.
We stopped watching after the pilot (and almost couldn't get through that one).
Bleep My Dad Says
Nobody expected a second 30 Rock from a show starring William Shatner and based on a Twitter-feed, but this was still much more painful than I would have thought possible. It reminded me of those sitcoms you would discover on Sunday mornings in the late 90s, lame attempts at humour, bad overacting, plots that Full House would have rejected for being too outdated and destined to live forever in reruns even though there only seem to exist the same two episodes you've already seen ten times. The worst thing about the show is the guy who plays the son, who constantly seems to be on the verge of cracking up. Seriously, he smirks in every single scene, whether he was angry or sad or, most of all, just there. Being the weak link in a cast of William Shatner and two veteran Mad TV-actors is almost impossible, but he pulls it off.
We gave it a second chance and then stopped watching after two episodes and zero laughs.
Both Mike & Molly and the Shatner show are big hits in the US of A. What the bleep? Other shows we didn't love weren't so lucky, like:
Running Wilde
I actually had to look up the title cause I couldn't even remember it. Yeah, it's that forgettable.
Anyway, Running Wilde stars Will Arnett as the same loud insensitive obnoxious childish guy he always plays and the girl who was Felicity as his love interest. He's a loud insensitive obnoxious childish billionaire trying to win back the girl he once loved. She's the mother of a girl named "Puddle" (...yeah.) and also a eco-something, trying to save the rainforest. It's all zany and desperately tries to be the next Arrested Development, but it's more like the next Carpoolers, only less funny (ha! I'm sure I'm the only one remembering that show). The thing is, Will Arnett is funny in small doses, but Arrested Development wouldn't have worked if it had made GOB the main character. This show does, and so you're left with a loud insensitive obnoxious childish main character constantly making a fool of himself in front of a boringly bland love interest. Which is a shame cause the sidekicks are actually funny.
Eduard bailed after the pilot (he hates Will Arnett), I watched five episodes and then gave up, just like the network.
The Increasingly Poor Decisions Of Todd Margaret
This unfortunately titled show has the exact same problem, it gives us yet another Arrested Development-alumni, David Cross, and puts hom front and center in the spotlight. David Cross plays Todd who gets sent to England by his loud insensitive obnoxious childish boss (guess who plays him) to sell questionable energy drinks but has no clue about his job or Great Britain or seemingly life in general. Todd's main characteristic is just being too dumb to live and it's really tedious to watch cause that character could just die any second by simply forgetting to breathe and you wouldn't be surprised nor care. There's still some funny stuff in it, but no heart at all. It makes the gang from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia seem like Care Bears. Really smart ones, with glasses.
I watched three of its six episodes and then decided I really don't care.
I wish people would finally let go of Arrested Development and stop trying to bring it back. Just watch Community.
This next section is called "Nothing against the pilot, but the show is not for me":
Undercovers
This one wasn't really bad, just really, really bland. To quote Eduard after we watched the pilot: "So they're a married couple who are also spies - and that's it?" Exactly. It's mildy amusing, mildly exciting and mildly pretty. It's also fully canceled, so no need to dwell on it any longer.
Terriers
It's two guys doing some vague things and after twenty minutes or so we find out that they are unlicensed detectives or something and then there's an ex-wife and a missing girl and the two guys are cracking jokes all the time and there's a dog and some conspiracy and a villain who threatens them in the end and I just don't know why anything about this should interest me. I had some hope for this cause everyone told me it's comparable to Veronica Mars but it felt more like a corny 80s detective show to me. Think Psych with grit. It's as good as already canceled anyway, so let's move on.
Boardwalk Empire
Beautiful costumes and set design, top-notch ensemble, great camerawork, overall a fantastic pilot, just like you expect it from any HBO period piece. And yet I couldn't care less about gangsters in the Prohibition era. But that's me, I don't care for gangster movies in general and never could get into shows like Smith or The Sopranos. If you're interested in the genre, you should give it a try.
The Walking Dead
Just like Boardwalk Empire, this is probably a good show, but just not for me. I've never been a big zombie fan, but I'm willing to buy into them if the premise grabs me (the original Night of the Living Dead and Dead Set did, just like Shaun and Fido). This pilot didn't do anything for me and I blame it on everyone overhyping it to death. I expected nothing less than a revelation and got the first half of a decent zombie flick instead. The main character is likable (though apparently uninterested in the new world he wakes up into) and if it were a movie, I would finish it, but as a pilot for a long-running series it failed in my eyes. Pilots have to tell me what the show will be about, what to expect from later episodes. I have no idea after this one. Is it just the main protagonist in a world of zombies searching for his family and meeting yet another guest star every episode? Or, more likely, is it Invasion with zombies and he will eventually meet up with the camp his family currently lives in and they will try to survive from now on? What are the conflicts since the villains in this show are just brainless undead people wandering around? If it really is an ensemble show, why didn't the pilot show me the ensemble? I get that people are just happy to see a well-done show with zombies, but the pure orgasmic praise this pilot got just baffles me. There's nothing in it I haven't seen already and it tells me nothing about the rest of the show.
I will probably watch some more episodes soon, but the pilot put it on the bottom of my personal must-see-list.
Next up: New shows I still watch (and why).