State of the Tube 2009
Ah, mid-October... chilly winds in the air, snow falling across the Northeast... wait a minute. I said mid-October, right? Not December? Yeah, that's what I thought... what is up with this weather? My Philadelphia friends are accusing me of bringing Syracuse weather with me. But tell me again about global warming...
Anyway, we're a good month or so into the new fall TV season and we have had a chance to sort out all the new shows and the new time slots, and for some shows, that has resulted in cancellation (sorry, "Beautiful Life"). And somehow, Jay Leno hasn't been canceled yet, which means he can relax knowing that he managed to outlast the record for late-night comedy futility known as Chevy Chase. But we'll get to Chevy later...
If you're familiar with these "State of the Tube" addresses that I give each year, then you know how this works. I only care about the shows I watch, and I only watch shows that I like. So if any other shows get mentioned here (like the aforementioned "TBL" and Leno), it's only for the purpose of ridicule. Nothing like picking the easiest targets, right?
Starting with Sunday night, here's how things stack up. "The Simpsons" is not going anywhere, but I still believe that the show has passed its prime. Good for the occasional look but it seems like the only way they've managed to keep the show interesting is either by latching on anything that's in the news or by making the characters more and more ludicrous. I guess that works, kind of. I saw the pilot episode of "The Cleveland Show." I didn't get it. I haven't been back. If someone tells me that the "Family Guy" spinoff has gotten better since, I might come back for a look, but otherwise, I'll stick with the original, which hasn't lost a step. Yeah, they already had to go to the well for another "road" episode, but the scenes where Stewie and Brian landed in the Walt Disney universe and the "Robot Chicken" universe were worth it. The big star of Sunday nights for me, however, is "Mad Men." It's compelling, well-written and acted, and continues to take those sudden turns that you just don't see coming... how many shows do you know of where a guy gets his foot cut off by a riding lawnmower in the middle of a corporate office?
"Heroes" has been moved to 8:00 on Monday nights, which means I now have to DVR "How I Met Your Mother" and watch it later. At least it won't conflict with "24" come January. "Heroes", despite its many detractors who can't stand their superheroes having human emotions and problems, has gotten back in a groove this season. Yeah, there's a couple new gimmicks... Claire's college roommate has a lesbian crush on her, they seem to blowing out the special effects budget on this deaf woman who can "see" sound as vibrant waves of color, and you have to wonder if the only purpose of the tattoo woman is to get some extra skin on the show. However, the plot lines are very engaging this year: Will Hiro live? What's the deal with this circus that pops up out of nowhere and why do they want evil Sylar back?
"Mother" continues to do great shows, even though it's gotten really frustrating with the central question of the show: When the hell are we FINALLY going to find out who the "mother" is? This season's episodes so far have focused mostly on the new relationship between Robin and Barney, and they have definitely mined some comedy gold out of that. Fox has placed "Lie to Me" in the Monday 9:00 spot for the fall, and I don't know if that means this show will only run 13 episodes per season, but as long as they don't do any other screwing with it, that's fine by me. It's a great show, and Cal Lightman is one of the best characters on television.
At this point, Tuesday is a vast wasteland. Nothing interests me on any of the networks on this night. I'm not interested in NCIS, the original or the LL Cool J knock-off. I'm not interested in "Shark Tank", I sure as hell don't care about "Dancing With the Stars" or "The Biggest Loser," and if I wanted to watch "90210" or "Melrose Place", I would build a time machine and go back to 1994. The real problem here is that networks take shows that are perfect for their original nights and stack them all up against each other, leaving their original nights... well, a vast wasteland. Aside from "Sports Soup" on Versus... while I was never really interested in any of the stuff that made up the fodder for the original "Soup", I ALWAYS enjoy laughing at sports people making asses of themselves.
Wednesday isn't much better, but ABC saves the day with some of their new sitcoms. I wasn't sure what to expect from "The Middle", but Patricia Heaton and Neil Flynn pull it off. They're more than Raymond's wife and the janitor from "Scrubs", and the show oozes with small-town Indiana charm and screwiness. Plus they gave Chris Kattan a job, and let's face it, he's needed a job pretty much since "Corky Romano." After that, you have "Modern Family", which is easily the best new sitcom of the season. Ed O'Neill gets to be the screw-up dad again, only now an older version with a young Colombian wife and the grown-up offspring of his first marriage trying to make it work with their own families. It has the faux-documentary style of "The Office" (which I've warmed up to recently but still isn't appointment viewing for me yet), and the similar style of characters who say and do the wrong things and they don't realize it. Definitely worth a look if you haven't seen it yet.
And then there's Thursday. "Flash Forward", on ABC at 8:00, is a breakout hit. It's easy to jump in at any point because the premise is pretty simple: the FBI trying to figure out why the world blacked out for 2 minutes and 17 seconds and saw 6 months into the future. However, the action and intrigue is worth watching every minute. Will the things the main characters saw (or didn't see) happen? Well, since everyone saw the events of April 30, 2010, I'd say it's a fair bet the season finale will air on that date and tell us everything. Or they may find a way to make this work longer than one season. At the same time over on the CW is "The Vampire Diaries", which takes the super-hot teen vampire love story genre (if you haven't heard of "Twilight", you've been living under a rock) and goes darker and more intense. But it's a CW show so the same formula that has worked since "Dawson's Creek" is still there. Plus, they now seem to love building new shows around former "Degrassi" cast members. If they're going to keep doing this, I have one request: give Spinner his own show next season...
One Thursday 8:00 show I will not be watching is NBC's "Community". I thought it might have a chance, but I saw the pilot and was not impressed. Plus it has Chevy Chase. He's pretty much the kiss of death for anything he's been in since "Fletch Lives." On we go to 9:00, where "Fringe" has landed on Fox. The second season has been just as good as the first, as they continue to come up with crazy scientific phenomena that make you think, "Could someone really do that?" Also, they still manage to work the cow into every episode, even though it hasn't been central to the plot since the pilot. "30 Rock" is back in its 9:30 slot on NBC, and the season premiere was perfect. They seem to find a way to make everyone talk about something on that show each week; this time it was the "Cheesy Blasters". Ask someone who saw the episode to explain if you missed it. They also finished the episode with a well-placed cheap shot at the show that follows them.
At 10:00 on FX is this year's Show On Which I Came Late to the Party: "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia." Well, naturally I was bound to start watching this one since I AM in Philly now (and my earlier comments on the weather prove it is NOT always sunny here), but I got sucked in by another show where the lead characters are horrible people but you can't help but enjoy the things they do. And it has Danny DeVito. And it is kinda cool watching the on-location scenes and knowing exactly where those places are cuz you've been there. Never had anything like that in Syracuse...
Friday continues to improve, but I'm unhappy with the CW getting out of the sitcom business, especially axing "Everybody Hates Chris" (although I do like how they ended the series with a spot-on copy of the way "The Sopranos" ended). Anyway, this time slot is now taken by "Smallville", moved over from Thursdays, and the show is really hanging on for dear life. Each season lately, I've found myself saying, "I really hope this is the last season." Maybe this year I'll get my wish so it can finish strong. Fox renewed "Dollhouse" and that makes a perfect complement in the 9pm slot. Finally, the networks are making an effort again on Fridays. Of course, they still aren't on Saturdays. It is truly rerun central now. I guess that serves a purpose to allow people to catch up on shows they can't watch during the week, but that's also what a DVR is for.
And there you have it, my picks and pans for this television season. A nice evening inside catching up on my recommendations on Hulu might just make you forget that for the moment we appear to have skipped fall and gone straight to winter. But at least here in Philly we'll be back in the 60s by Tuesday... just in time for Phillies fans to go apeshit over the results of the NLCS. After all, it's not worth rioting if it's cold and rainy...
Anyway, we're a good month or so into the new fall TV season and we have had a chance to sort out all the new shows and the new time slots, and for some shows, that has resulted in cancellation (sorry, "Beautiful Life"). And somehow, Jay Leno hasn't been canceled yet, which means he can relax knowing that he managed to outlast the record for late-night comedy futility known as Chevy Chase. But we'll get to Chevy later...
If you're familiar with these "State of the Tube" addresses that I give each year, then you know how this works. I only care about the shows I watch, and I only watch shows that I like. So if any other shows get mentioned here (like the aforementioned "TBL" and Leno), it's only for the purpose of ridicule. Nothing like picking the easiest targets, right?
Starting with Sunday night, here's how things stack up. "The Simpsons" is not going anywhere, but I still believe that the show has passed its prime. Good for the occasional look but it seems like the only way they've managed to keep the show interesting is either by latching on anything that's in the news or by making the characters more and more ludicrous. I guess that works, kind of. I saw the pilot episode of "The Cleveland Show." I didn't get it. I haven't been back. If someone tells me that the "Family Guy" spinoff has gotten better since, I might come back for a look, but otherwise, I'll stick with the original, which hasn't lost a step. Yeah, they already had to go to the well for another "road" episode, but the scenes where Stewie and Brian landed in the Walt Disney universe and the "Robot Chicken" universe were worth it. The big star of Sunday nights for me, however, is "Mad Men." It's compelling, well-written and acted, and continues to take those sudden turns that you just don't see coming... how many shows do you know of where a guy gets his foot cut off by a riding lawnmower in the middle of a corporate office?
"Heroes" has been moved to 8:00 on Monday nights, which means I now have to DVR "How I Met Your Mother" and watch it later. At least it won't conflict with "24" come January. "Heroes", despite its many detractors who can't stand their superheroes having human emotions and problems, has gotten back in a groove this season. Yeah, there's a couple new gimmicks... Claire's college roommate has a lesbian crush on her, they seem to blowing out the special effects budget on this deaf woman who can "see" sound as vibrant waves of color, and you have to wonder if the only purpose of the tattoo woman is to get some extra skin on the show. However, the plot lines are very engaging this year: Will Hiro live? What's the deal with this circus that pops up out of nowhere and why do they want evil Sylar back?
"Mother" continues to do great shows, even though it's gotten really frustrating with the central question of the show: When the hell are we FINALLY going to find out who the "mother" is? This season's episodes so far have focused mostly on the new relationship between Robin and Barney, and they have definitely mined some comedy gold out of that. Fox has placed "Lie to Me" in the Monday 9:00 spot for the fall, and I don't know if that means this show will only run 13 episodes per season, but as long as they don't do any other screwing with it, that's fine by me. It's a great show, and Cal Lightman is one of the best characters on television.
At this point, Tuesday is a vast wasteland. Nothing interests me on any of the networks on this night. I'm not interested in NCIS, the original or the LL Cool J knock-off. I'm not interested in "Shark Tank", I sure as hell don't care about "Dancing With the Stars" or "The Biggest Loser," and if I wanted to watch "90210" or "Melrose Place", I would build a time machine and go back to 1994. The real problem here is that networks take shows that are perfect for their original nights and stack them all up against each other, leaving their original nights... well, a vast wasteland. Aside from "Sports Soup" on Versus... while I was never really interested in any of the stuff that made up the fodder for the original "Soup", I ALWAYS enjoy laughing at sports people making asses of themselves.
Wednesday isn't much better, but ABC saves the day with some of their new sitcoms. I wasn't sure what to expect from "The Middle", but Patricia Heaton and Neil Flynn pull it off. They're more than Raymond's wife and the janitor from "Scrubs", and the show oozes with small-town Indiana charm and screwiness. Plus they gave Chris Kattan a job, and let's face it, he's needed a job pretty much since "Corky Romano." After that, you have "Modern Family", which is easily the best new sitcom of the season. Ed O'Neill gets to be the screw-up dad again, only now an older version with a young Colombian wife and the grown-up offspring of his first marriage trying to make it work with their own families. It has the faux-documentary style of "The Office" (which I've warmed up to recently but still isn't appointment viewing for me yet), and the similar style of characters who say and do the wrong things and they don't realize it. Definitely worth a look if you haven't seen it yet.
And then there's Thursday. "Flash Forward", on ABC at 8:00, is a breakout hit. It's easy to jump in at any point because the premise is pretty simple: the FBI trying to figure out why the world blacked out for 2 minutes and 17 seconds and saw 6 months into the future. However, the action and intrigue is worth watching every minute. Will the things the main characters saw (or didn't see) happen? Well, since everyone saw the events of April 30, 2010, I'd say it's a fair bet the season finale will air on that date and tell us everything. Or they may find a way to make this work longer than one season. At the same time over on the CW is "The Vampire Diaries", which takes the super-hot teen vampire love story genre (if you haven't heard of "Twilight", you've been living under a rock) and goes darker and more intense. But it's a CW show so the same formula that has worked since "Dawson's Creek" is still there. Plus, they now seem to love building new shows around former "Degrassi" cast members. If they're going to keep doing this, I have one request: give Spinner his own show next season...
One Thursday 8:00 show I will not be watching is NBC's "Community". I thought it might have a chance, but I saw the pilot and was not impressed. Plus it has Chevy Chase. He's pretty much the kiss of death for anything he's been in since "Fletch Lives." On we go to 9:00, where "Fringe" has landed on Fox. The second season has been just as good as the first, as they continue to come up with crazy scientific phenomena that make you think, "Could someone really do that?" Also, they still manage to work the cow into every episode, even though it hasn't been central to the plot since the pilot. "30 Rock" is back in its 9:30 slot on NBC, and the season premiere was perfect. They seem to find a way to make everyone talk about something on that show each week; this time it was the "Cheesy Blasters". Ask someone who saw the episode to explain if you missed it. They also finished the episode with a well-placed cheap shot at the show that follows them.
At 10:00 on FX is this year's Show On Which I Came Late to the Party: "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia." Well, naturally I was bound to start watching this one since I AM in Philly now (and my earlier comments on the weather prove it is NOT always sunny here), but I got sucked in by another show where the lead characters are horrible people but you can't help but enjoy the things they do. And it has Danny DeVito. And it is kinda cool watching the on-location scenes and knowing exactly where those places are cuz you've been there. Never had anything like that in Syracuse...
Friday continues to improve, but I'm unhappy with the CW getting out of the sitcom business, especially axing "Everybody Hates Chris" (although I do like how they ended the series with a spot-on copy of the way "The Sopranos" ended). Anyway, this time slot is now taken by "Smallville", moved over from Thursdays, and the show is really hanging on for dear life. Each season lately, I've found myself saying, "I really hope this is the last season." Maybe this year I'll get my wish so it can finish strong. Fox renewed "Dollhouse" and that makes a perfect complement in the 9pm slot. Finally, the networks are making an effort again on Fridays. Of course, they still aren't on Saturdays. It is truly rerun central now. I guess that serves a purpose to allow people to catch up on shows they can't watch during the week, but that's also what a DVR is for.
And there you have it, my picks and pans for this television season. A nice evening inside catching up on my recommendations on Hulu might just make you forget that for the moment we appear to have skipped fall and gone straight to winter. But at least here in Philly we'll be back in the 60s by Tuesday... just in time for Phillies fans to go apeshit over the results of the NLCS. After all, it's not worth rioting if it's cold and rainy...
Labels: television
posted by Dave | 6:31 PM
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