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| Name: Ryan Roe Email: prawnrr-rmv@this.com-yahoo.com Position: Movie / Television / Comic Book / Trivia Geek View Ryan's Personal Profile |
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| It's officially midseason in the nation of Televisionia, which means it's time for the follow-up to my Fall 2007 TV post. Unfortunately, the people I usually hire to write this journal are on strike, so there will be no follow-up this year. Just kidding. But the Writer's Guild strike sure has screwed up TV, hasn't it? My favorite shows have been yanked out from under me: The Office and 30 Rock have run out of episodes, and Lost only finished filming eight episodes out of sixteen that were scheduled to air starting with this month's premiere. On the other hand, less TV means I have more time to devote to productive, enriching pursuits, such as watching 50 horror movies or attempting to create a Mii character of Barbara Bush on my Wii. (The gray Afro hairstyle I gave her doesn't quite do her justice...) But if American Gladiators and Dance Wars are the best the networks can come up with to fill the void, I should be able to look forward to more nights free as the strike stretches on. Let's see, how did I do with this year's predictions for shows Most Likely to Get Cancelled? I predicted Cavemen, Samantha Who?, Viva Laughlin and The Bionic Woman. I think a lot is still up in the air because of the strike, but I do know one thing: Viva Laughlin, the musical series about a casino, disappeared faster than a quarter in a slot machine. I actually watched the first (and only?) episode, and the show seemed pretty uneasy with the fact that the actors were occasionally singing. I'm guessing CBS figured a show so unusual was unlikely to catch on after a lackluster debut, so they pulled the plug that brought the curtain down. Cavemen was harshly received by every TV blogger on the internet. Pretty much everyone, including me, assumed it was terrible without even watching it. Did it get cancelled? I thought it had... but it looks like no official announcement was made before TV went away. So it's undecided. Hey, you know how there was a show called Dinosaurs and then a show called Cavemen? Somebody should make a show called Mastadons! I bet that would be a really funny show. If anyone from the networks is reading this, you can have my idea. Just make sure to pay me for it. Like, maybe, 16 bucks. Samantha Who? seems to be faring pretty well, though much of its success may be attritbuted to its lead-in, which is one of those dancing shows. Or maybe it's built a loyal audience of viewers who, like the lead character, have amnesia. That could work out pretty well... the network could just show the same episode every week and the audience would forget they're watching a rerun. The Bionic Woman seems to have gotten mixed reviews, and ratings slid downhill after the pilot. Did it get cancelled? As far as I can tell, no, it didn't, but if it comes back after the strike I won't expect it to last much longer. Unless they have the Bionic Woman meet Bigfoot. Ooh! Or they could have her fight the new Terminator from that new show, about whom and about which more later. Back in the fall, I called Pushing Daisies the new show I was Most Looking Forward To, and boy, did it deliver. I was pretty certain I would like it, and I emphatically do, but I've been happy to see that it's performed decently with the rest of America as well. It's so whimsical and clever and romantic and offbeat that I would not have been shocked if it had vanished quickly, but ABC has done an admirable job of promoting it. All it took was for people to know about it... Who knew? It's funny that in my earlier post I referred to the show as "not another procedural crime show," because it is, in fact, a weekly murder mystery. But it's a very colorful mystery, with windmill farms and vats of taffy and mermaid ladies. Oh, and for the record Kristin Chenoweth is now my reigning TV crush. I named The Office as the Returning Show I'm Most Looking Forward To, but while it was serving up uneven hour-long episodes at the start of the season, 30 Rock swooped in and became my favorite comedy. Like Pushing Daisies, it's a show that seems to take place on a quirkier plane of reality than our own, and that's why I've come to adore it. And at least once per episode, Tracy Morgan's Tracy character has one line that makes me guffaw. Other thoughts: • I wasn't especially looking forward to Journeyman, NBC's drama about a newspaperman and family man who keeps getting pulled back in time to fix problems, but after watching the first episode I felt compelled to watch the second, and the third, and on and on... right up until last month, when it got cancelled. That's a shame, as the show just kept getting better, but at least they had answered some important questions about the show's "mythology" by the final episode. • I'm giving Fox's Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles a try. It just started this past Sunday, and settled into its Monday time slot tonight. The pilot had some questionable acting, and I'm not sure how well the whole sheboygan fits with the movies' continuity, but I may keep watching for a while, largely due to the presence of Firefly's Summer Glau. She's rad, and her character is very different from any Terminators we've seen before. It was interesting to me to see all the special effects in the pilot... There's stuff they can do on a weekly TV budget now that was cutting-edge movie blockbuster stuff in 1992 when Terminator 2 was released. • Apprehensive as I am about the truncated season, I can't wait for the return of Lost. I've just been clicking around Lostpedia to refresh my memory on what happened when last we left our heroes, because dangit, we've been waiting since last May. Who lives? Who dies? What the heck is up with Locke? I would like to know these things. • I'll probably check out The Return of Jezebel James when it shows up on Fox in March. It stars Parker Posey and Lauren Ambrose and was created by Gilmore Girls' Amy Sherman-Palladino. I like all of those people, so I'll hope for the best. If nothing else, I have to watch just to find out where Jezebel James is returning from. • I don't stay up late watching TV like I used to, so I haven't seen any of the late-night talk shows since they came back sans writers, but I've enjoyed reading about what the hosts are doing to make up for scripted material. These guys have never had to go on the air without scripts in their lives... We're living in historic times! It seems like I should have more to say about television, but I guess I don't. What do YOU have to say? Comments on this post are closed. |
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| Well I don't know about any Bionic Woman, but a Bionic Man already met Bigfoot during the first season of The Venture Brothers, which should be starting its third season later this year. |
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