|
| ||
| Name: Ryan Roe Email: prawnrr-rmv@this.com-yahoo.com Position: Movie / Television / Comic Book / Trivia Geek View Ryan's Personal Profile |
| ||
| Well, the subways are full of pictures of Peter Krause, and that can only mean one thing: It's new TV time. Actually, I suppose it means one of two things: 1. It's new TV time, or 2. Peter Krause really wants you to come to his dermatology clinic. But it is, in fact, TV time. The writer's strike shook things up like a can of shaving cream last year, but now TV is coming back for real. Before I go on, I want to introduce a new award to my annual fall TV write-up, an award I've never presented before and which I may never present again: The Most Astonishingly Amazing New Show. And it goes to... Fox's new game show Hole in the Wall! Have you seen this thing? It premiered last week, I think... The game goes like this: Contestants stand at the end of a long platform, a big foam wall with a shape cut out of it zooms toward them, and they have to move their bodies in such a way that they fit in the hole to avoid getting knocked into a pool of water. That's it! That's the entire game! That's the whole bowl of fruit and the whole salad! And this is an hour-long show every week! Isn't that astonishing? It's so stupid, and yet when I came across it I could not stop watching. Pure television entertainment, as it turns out, is watching some big dude try to stand on his head to fit in a handstand-shaped hole. Moving on, it's time to talk about the new shows Most Likely to Get Cancelled. Unless I'm wrong (which is probable), the writer's strike meant the pilot season was shorter than usual, and a lot of shows whose ratings weren't spectacular last year were spared because the networks had nothing new to replace them with. So it seems like there aren't that many new shows, but of the freshman shows that do exist, I'm expecting that these four shows will be gone by the end of the season: Do Not Disturb, Kath and Kim, Easy Money, and The Ex List. Do Not Disturb stars Jerry O'Connell of last year's quickly-cancelled Carpoolers as a hotel manager. It looks pretty bad... I wouldn't watch it even if it came with a free continental breakfast. Kath and Kim is based on a British sitcom about a dumb mom and her dumb daughter, and it could conceivably survive, given its NBC Thursday-night timeslot, but I'm going to go ahead and predict that it's not long for this world. Did you know that Molly Shannon, who plays Selma Blair's mother on the show, is only 8 years older than Blair? Weird! Easy Money is a show about... um... actually, in the time since I read Entertainment Weekly's fall TV preview and made notes for this post, I've forgotten what the show's about. I'm pretty sure, but not completely sure, that it's not the same show as Dirty Sexy Money. The Ex List is about a woman who finds out from a fortune teller that she's already dated and broken up with the man she's destined to be with, so she tracks down all her ex-boyfriends in search of the one. So every episode is about her finding a former beau, then figuring out why he's not the right guy? How can that possibly sustain a series? You know what would make interesting? If they combined the premise of this show with that of Samantha Who? Then, not only would she have to go see all her old boyfriends, her amnesia would mean that she had no idea who any of them were! So she might have to try to get some guy to like her, despite the fact that she once smashed a pie in his face in public, and although he never forgave her for it, she has no memory of it! Now THAT's a TV show! Now for the award for Worst New Show Title. I have to say, there aren't any really terrible titles that leap out at me and beg to be snarked at this time around. I'm going to go with Worst Week, not just because it has the word "Worst" in the title, but because it makes it sound like the show will only cover seven days in the lives of its characters. Also, when I first saw it advertised I thought it had something to do with VH1's Best Week Ever. Let's see, now... the award for Returning Show I'm Most Looking Forward To. I'm looking forward to Pushing Daisies, and the teaser trailer for the new season has successfully ramped up my anticipation and stimulated my salivation. I hope they manage to make it just good and colorful and clever and odd as last season, and I hope they don't wait too long before letting Kristen Chenoweth sing again. But even more than the adventures of Ned, a guy who makes lemon-meringue pies, I'm looking forward to a new year of Liz Lemon and her supporting weirdoes on 30 Rock. I'm happy and relieved that it's returning, and I can't wait to see what kind of strange, laughter-based noises I produce while watching this season. How about the New Show I'm Most Looking Forward To? I really can't say there's one show that has me jumping up and down on the coffee table in anticipation, but I do have high hopes for Fringe. It was co-created by J.J. Abrams of Lost and Alias, and while the pilot didn't quite grab me by the collar and refuse to let go the way I thought it might, there seems to be a lot of potential for some exciting X-Files-style sci-fi mystery. Also there was a cow. Other thoughts: • Another new TV season means another crop of shows with one-word titles: Valentine, Priveleged, Fringe, Stylista, Crusoe and over on Starz! there's Crash. • The 2008 midseason show Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles returns. I watched the first few weeks of it back in the spring, but ultimately it failed to keep me coming back. Sorry, Summer Glau. Please don't crush me with your cyborg-strength. • I still haven't decided if I'll watch Heroes. Season 2 was pretty hard to get through. Chances are I'll listen to the buzz to see if folks are liking it, then wander back in its general direction. • Life on Mars is not a Veronica Mars spin-off about tiny creatures living on Kristen Bell's skin. It's based on a British drama about a cop who gets hit by a car and wakes up in the 1970s. On Earth, actually, not on Mars. And not on a Mars bar. I'm always a sucker for that kind of premise... and all too often I end up feeling like an all-day sucker when I dig the show and it gets cancelled way before its time. Like, for example, last year's Journeyman, about a journalist who kept involuntarily jumping back in time. I'll watch Life on Mars and keep my fingers crossed. Unless it stinks. Then I won't care, and I'll leave my digits uncrossed. • My Own Worst Enemy (another show with the word "Worst" in the title! Isn't that amazing?) is also intriguing. The show stars Christian Slater as... well, as two different people in the same body, essentially. One is an average joe and one is like super-secret-agent-action-hero guy, and they have to figure out how they can both exist. How long before they introduce a villainous character who also has two personalities? • The new show Crusoe seems like it's from a different decade. As far as I can tell, it's a straightforward adventure series about Robinson Crusoe. It could be pretty cool if the budget allows for jungle chases and far-flung adventure, and dinosaurs. Actually, I haven't read the Daniel Defoe book, but I'm pretty sure it has dinosaurs. Also, Crusoe's assistant is named Friday... and this show is on Friday! I can only assume this was a deliberate choice on NBC's part, or Daniel Defoe's. Oh, and I hope the show has a theme song that refers to the fact that the lead character has no phone, no lights, and no motor cars. • ER returns for its 14th and final season. Man, ER has been on TV forever... Heck, it's been on so long that when it first started, The Simpsons was only in its 6th season! • Bob Saget is in a new comedy on the CW called Surviving Suburbia. It sounds like a pretty typical crappy sitcom, only sleazier... which means it might just be right up Saget's alley. He's lately found some success by presenting a foul-mouthed version of himself that's striking in its complete lack of resemblance to his Full House dad persona. He had a show on the WB a couple years ago called Raising Dad that seemed like more of the same sitcom drivel, but maybe this new show will be more suited to his talents. Not that it will be any good. Sorry, Bob Saget. Please don't crush me with your cyborg-strength. • Speaking of the CW, rumor has it that the network's third season may be its last unless it learns to shape up. Will 90210 rescue it? Who's supposed to watch 90210, anyway -- young folks, or 30-somethings who watched the original show when they were young folks? • Just so you all know, because I'm sure you've been wondering: I did watch the first episode of The Return of Jezebel James last spring, as I said I would. That was the Parkey Posey/Lauren Ambrose sitcom created by Gilmore Girls' Amy Sherman-Palladino. And it was one of the worst, most obnoxious half hours of television I've ever seen. If any of you know where I can find the guy in charge of the laugh track for that show, please tell me; I should like very much to punch him in the nose. Aren't we, as 21st century, media-savvy TV viewers, too smart for such obvious (and LOUD!) canned laughter? If the jokes are that terrible, no volume of fake guffaws is going to make them any funnier... You can take a hamburger made with spoiled meat, moldy bread, and poisoned ketchup, and stick a sign on it that says, "This hamburger is DELICIOUS!"... but it really won't help. • I didn't get around to writing about it here (I'm pretty busy these days, what with the Very Important business of writing for ToughPigs.com and Ryan Watches 50 Movies), but this summer I faithfully watched Swingtown on CBS, a series whose characters occasionally engaged in some sexually adventurous pursuits with multiple partners. I'm aware that this means I'm contributing to the decline of civilized society, but I thought it was a pretty good show with a likable cast. It was not renewed for another season, and I'm quite happy with that. The 13-episode season aired during one summer, and followed its characters through another summer, back in 1976. There were a few loose ends in the final episode, but nothing heartbreaking. I'd like to see more shows like this in summers to come. I'm sure I could talk and talk and talk about TV, but that'll do it for now. But by all means, YOU should talk and talk and talk about TV in the comments below. What are you watching? Comments on this post are closed. |
| ||
| Both of those demographics are supposed to watch 90210! That's why it's supposed to be a HUGE HIT! This year, for first time in many, many years (since 2002, I think), there's nothing new that sounds intriguing enough for me to sample. |
| ||
| Bob Saget is so going to crush you. |
| ||
| If he has to crush me, I hope he at least does it in the most hilarious way possible. Then I can be on America's Funniest Home Videos. |
| ||
| Idea: in one episode of Crusoe, have him stumble onto the set of Lost and everyone looks confused. |
| ||
| I'm sure every review of Crusoe will mention Lost... You can't do an island-based TV show now without it. |
| ||
| News News Archives Files Polls Journals Profiles Statistics Recent Comments |
| ||
All Journals
| ||