Well, after a long Summer of bad game shows, and thus, less overall hours spent watching television, the return of primetime programming has brought a new batch of tv shows. Which are ill-conceived fantasies of network execs and which will be around come Thanksgiving is anyone's guess, but here is my opinion of some of the most hyped shows so far.
First, I should say that Summer had a few gems. Mad Men and Flight of the Conchords were two good shows during the hot weather. I also began watching Damages, the Glenn Close legal thriller (50% the Firm + 50% Devil Wears Prada), but my DirecTv non-TiVo stopped recording new episodes, and frankly I don't miss it. It was a well produced show with great production values and a great cast, but how long can they stretch out this plot?
Family Guy Star Wars Episode
WOW
**Addendum 10/20/07 - Still in my TiVo for future laughter.
Heroes Season Premiere. This is a good show. Not for everyone, but even my wife likes it. American actors playing Japanese characters speaking Japanese with English subtitles on a primetime show, daring NBC, very daring. There was a funny quote I read this week. When asked if he wanted to direct an episode of Heroes, Quentin Tarantino said "What the #$%^ is Heroes?" Well NBC, I guess some people have better things to do than watch tv.
**Addendum 10/20/07 - Got my wife watching Season 1 on Netflix, and I am noticing things I did not see the first time. Saving this season for later.
Journeyman - A man for no apparent reason starts shifting between the present and his own past, interacting with his dead fiancee and even himself. Sort of Back to the Future Part Imeets Back to the Future Part 3. Only thing missing is Lea Thompson, who is missed from primetime television (bring back Caroline in the City! And while you're at it, bring back Riptide!)
Anyway, this show is clever. But clever does not always mean long-lasting. I cannot see how this time travel bit can stay interesting for 13 episodes or more.
The funniest part of this show is that our hero uses an iPhone throughout the first episode, in a very blatant manner. Given NBC's falling-out with Apple, I wonder if he will switch to a different phone in future episodes!
**10/20/07 - have not watched further episodes.
K-Ville - It appeared on the DVR, although I seem to have missed the pilot. I will have to watch this online. Seems like a good cast, although the Prisonbreak flashbacks from the lead cop-former-inmate get a bit old. Nice production values and nice to see New Orleans getting some cash from the producers.
**10/20/07 - have not watched further episodes. Visited New Orleans for real, did not see too much evidence of murders in the Quarter, luckily!
Bionic Woman - Have not watched this yet, but it is waiting for me on the non-TiVo DVR. I have to add a little rant against DirecTv. They used to support TiVo, which had a great interface and easy to use controls, not to mention the two simultaneous record buffers. But alas, when our 40gig TiVo died earlier this year, we were sent a free DirecTv DVR. I have to say, DirecTv must have gotten sued by TiVo, because the DVR interface is clunky and the features are non-easy to find, and of course the dual record buffers are sorely missed.
Now back to Jamie Somers. I just read an interview with the DP in Film and Video's online magazine. To summarize, the DP was brought in to shoot the show single camera 35mm with cinematic lighting and setups. However the Friday Night Lights producers decided to shoot 3 cameras hand held with no distinct lighting setups or adherence to eyelines, vectors or any other concept we people get paid for. Add to that 20 or more takes per scene, with dozens of camera angles. My favorite quote is "they don't care if shots are in focus." Wow, like..wow. I will add to this paragraph once I view the show. Also, they will probably switch to 16mm to save costs, although the weight of the cameras for 3 handheld shots per take is also a factor. The DP says he will probably bail at that point. Presumably a team of moneys sitting at computers will be brought in to write the remaining episodes.
***10/20/07 - I have forced myself to watch this show, hoping it would get better. Adding Isiah Washington helped a little, as Miguel Ferrer has never been able to carry a show. Alas, sleep usually creeps in before the hour is up. Acting is pretty poor, effects are mediocre, "bionic" CG shots are silly, and what happened to the "da-da-da-da-da-da" bionic sound when running and the "eeeurrrrrrooooeeeaaa" sound when jumping?
The Office - Now featuring 1 hour episodes. Still one of the funniest shows, you just have to love the idiotic things Steve Carell 's character says. And Pam is looking hot.
***10/27/07 Pam still hot.
Grey's Anatomy - Ok, so let me get this straight, the first 3 years of this show encompassed the 1st year for the interns.The orthopedic resident performs all the orthopedic procedures herself, we never see an orthopedic attending, like we do with general, vascular, gyn, neuro or plastics. Now the orthopedic resident, Callie, is the chief resident, still no sign of an ortho attending. The interns are now residents, and each one has a new batch of interns. However during the first three years all of the interns reported to one resident, although I suppose we never saw the other intern/resident groups due to SAG fees to have such a large cast. The new batch of interns attached to each main character resident seems to be made up of Star Trek Away Teams, that is, several non-speaking background characters whose names we will never learn. It will be interesting to see how the writers develop, or do not develop, 25 new intern characters. This is the one soap-opera like show we watch.
***Recording all episodes straight to DVD for later viewing during cold months.
Private Practice - the Grey's Anatomy spin-off show. No thanks.
1 vs 100 - I like the guy from Full House as a game show host much better than the guy from St. Elsewhere as a game show host. Like most of these 3rd grade trivia win lots of money shows, you can watch it in fast forward, watch just the end, or not watch it at all and get the same effect. I choose the not watch it at all option. There must be a composer in Hollywood making a lot of money on overly-dramatic drawn out gameshow music. Maybe this is what Jan Hammer is doing since his Miami Vice soundtrack royalties dried up!
**10/27/07 - Is this show still one?
Flash Gordon - this show started a few weeks ago on SciFi. i thought maybe the success of Battlestar Galactica would convince SciFi Channel to start spending some more money on its other tv series. Perhaps not.
Cleverly using the Queen Flash Gordon song in the commercials, the actual show is really bad. The matte painting of Planet Mongo's capital city is about 90% similar to the Theed Spaceport matte painting from the Phantom Menace. The other 10% of the Mongo establishing shots look like circa 1983 computer animation.
Ok, perhaps it is meant to be cheesy and campy, in homage to the 1980 movie featuring everyone's favorite actor Topol. However once you get past the bad scifi sets on Mongo, the bulk of the action and drama happen in some unnamed city in America...how convenient. Not only is it America, but it is filmed in Vancouver.
The guy playing Flash is a castoff from Smallville and the other characters are pretty weak. Unfortuantely, my non-TiVo keeps recording new episodes, and I keep watching them, hoping the acting lessons will start to kick in.
***10/27/07 - Gradually losing interest. Competition with Bionic Woman for worst acting on television. Sometimes I wonder what would happen if you took writers and actors of the Law and Order caliber and put them in a Sci-Fi show. Oh yeah, Battlestar Galactica!
Chuck - take the cast of the 40 year old virgin who worked at the electronics store, put them to work in, get this, an electronics store, then get a guy who looks like Jim from the Office and a woman who looks like Marcia from the Brady Bunch Movie, throw in some unused plot points from Mission Impossible III, shake well and you have Chuck. Could be good.
***10/27/07 - nope, not watching,
Well, that's been my evenings this week, combined with some Chinese take-out and a great Cottage Pie, several cups of coffee each day and a very busy week of produciton tasks, I have to say thank goodness its Friday. I don't think I could take another day of new tv shows.
Oh, looks like my Premiere audio is conformed, back to work.
Mike
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