It’s crazy time. Fall premiere time. The time when my PVR gets way too much of a workout, trying out new shows, catching up on old ones, and maybe discarding a few that are past their prime.
Let’s do this in a simple +/- (with maybe a neutral thrown in) to see what I’m looking forward to, or what may have disappeared.
(+) House — Hugh Laurie drew us in over the summer, and we spent evenings catching up with his previously-ignored-by-us medical procedural. The show is a bit of a formula (bit?), but Mr. Laurie is one of the most compelling personalities on the tube.
(o) Heroes — the ads for the once-promising comic-booky skein (yay Variety-speak!) are overwhelmingly meh, as was the entirety of the second season. I’ll probably give it a shot, but if things start to look like they’re getting more stupider, it’s gone.
(+) Gossip Girl — I was not a big fan early last year, but I think it largely found the tone it needed to take (sufficiently ridiculous), plus, Chuck Bass is one of my favourite TV creations in a long time. That dude can pull off colours no other exceedingly heterosexual man can even dream of. I now covet a pistachio-green suit with pink shirt and pocket square.
(o) Bones — this one has been up and down for years now. Since Fox had them “retool” after the first season, the mysteries had gotten stupider and the characters less compelling. The first couple back have felt more apropos, character-wise, so there is some hope.
(-) Eli Stone — the strike made us watch some things we weren’t proud of. This preachy, saccharine, overly melodramatic hour had two words going for it: Victor Garber. And with our actual shows back, not just strike filler, so long Mr. Brain Tumour Thingy.
(+)(for now) Fringe — J.J. Abrams does X Files. Hopefully there’s more to it than that, but the first two hours don’t necessarily seem to indicate that will be the case. Characters are moderately appealing, but whether or not there will be a story to care about is yet to be seen.
(+) Supernatural — Dean went to Hell. But of course the show won’t keep him there.
(+) Pushing Daisies — Yay! The Pie Maker is bank! Look for my Ain’t It Cool reviews again this year, all two of my readers.
(-) My Name is Earl — I stopped caring about a third of the way through the jail arc. The initially cute premise has become very tired, though interestingly not in the usual way. Ironically, getting away from Earl’s ‘list’ was the least interesting part of the show.
There are more. Maybe later. I wanted to get to this…
(+++) 30 Rock — I forgot how hard this show made me laugh, until this morning. I can’t believe something this smart and funny has actually succeeded, and not been shuffled off for another laugh-tracky rom com years ago. Enjoy one of the finest segments of comedy I’ve seen in years, courtesy of the probably-more-than-slightly-crazy Alec Baldwin (you may have to sit through an ad first).
There is just so much going on over the course of 90 seconds, you hardly get a chance to breathe. If the man doesn’t win an Emmy for this, I don’t even know what cliche of disbelief I’ll resort to.
0 Responses to “It’s that time of year again”