TV is under a real renaissance, is it not? It is getting so that a person can barely have any life at all. You come home and there is just so much to watch! (Except Friday and Saturdays: they suck.)
Now, I know what some of you are thnking: get a life.
Fine, fine. Feel free not to watch TV. But wipe that smug expression of your face. TV at its best is high art, and some of the best art in the world is right there in that box each evening. Of course, an awful lot of crap is in that box too.
That is why you have me! I am here to give you the rundown on each of the new shows. Now, some of you may not have my taste (read: you suck), but I have tried to craft these reviews to explain what the program is like so you can figure out whether 'tis for you.
First, the ones I have recently covered:
VANISHED (Mondays on FOX)
Senator’s Wife is kidnapped; twists and turns ensue. I abandoned this after one episode.
Hostage negotiators, starring the guy from Office Space. I really enjoyed the first two episodes with a breezy tone dominating rather than total tenseness, but I wonder whether the show can continue to be interesting over the weeks, and with more shows coming on board, do not know if I will hang.
JUSTICE (Wednesdays on FOX)
Very entertaining so far, with a behind-the-scenes look at a high priced defense firm. I am a huge Victor Garber fan, and I love the supporting cast so far. I also like how at the end they show you what actually happened. Wit LOST coming soon I doubt Justice stays on my radar, but I sure have enjoyed it so far.
Studio 60 ON THE SUNSET STRIP (Sundays in
The best of all the new shows I have thus seen, and the second episode was better than the first. I cannot recommend this show highly enough. Behind the scenes of a Saturday Night Live-type show, Studio 60 is funny but really is a drama. You can already pencil in an Emmy nomination for Matthew Perry, and I bet a Best Drama nomination too (among many others). This is the show. Last night’s episode included a musical number with the term “Intellectual Reach-around.” If you cannot get into a show that uses the term “Intellectual Reach-around,” you and I are just very different people.
Here are the new shows, in a generally improving trend. (Make sure you read until the end, for the last review premieres tonight!)
BROTHERS AND SISTERS (Sundays on ABC)
Calista Flockhart as a conservative TV pundit. If you can believe that, you can probably buy the show. Actually, I do can make it even simpler than that. Brothers and Sisters airs right after Desperate Housewives. If you can still stomach that show, this is probably right up your alley.
Maybe I am too harsh. The story of a grown up family of brothers and sisters (and of course mom and dad and even a screwy uncle) is riddled with a talented cast. Besides Flockhart, there is Rachel Griffith, Tom Skerritt, Ron Rifkin and Sally Field. Maybe it will get better, but I’m guessing one time through is enough to let you know what you are getting.
BOTTOM LINE: Go ahead. I doubt I will be joining you.
Could not sit through it. You are on your own.
SHARK (Thursdays on CBS)
My mom called this before the second commercial break: “House in a Courtroom.” Well, not exactly, but close enough.
James Woods is the prototypical “Shark” Defense lawyer. He gets his client off for Attempted Murder on the client’s wife. That night…wait for it….the man actually kills the wife.
Nine months later Woods is in a tailspin, his guilt not allowing him to practice law anymore. Luckily, the mayor shows up. Tired of rich people getting away with murder in
The lawyers assigned are all misfits; washed out everywhere else. Then there is the D.A. (Jeri Ryan, no longer smoking hot but still very pretty), who resents this shark in her waters.
BOTTOM LINE: If you like Law shows, definitely worth a look. Otherwise, it depends on whether you like procedurals, Woods, or Six Degrees.
SIX DEGREES (Thursdays on ABC)
Again, let me help you out: Six Degrees comes on after Grey’s Anatomy, and I am guessing if you like the one, you will like the other. I am not comparing the two, quality-wise, but they are somewhat similar in tone.
My favorite part was arguing with my sister over whether a man had good intentions to his girl. Bridget Moynahan (who is no longer so young; more on that another time) asks her boyfriend to marry her. He says yes, but then she finds his picture on a singles website. His explanation is that the office interns did it as a joke. Yeah right. No way would he not tell her about that. She is distrustful and sets up a “meet” with a perfect girl. He shows up, only to have a ring (which he was denied giving her when she asked him).
At this point, my sister counted coup, believing that her faith in the man had been borne out. Only in the last two seconds do we see I was right all along, and that was one sweeeeeeet gloat, my friends.
BOTTOM LINE: Worth a look or two if you are not done watching TV after CSI or Grey’s (or, uh, even Deal or No Deal).
KIDNAPPED (Wednesdays on NBC)
The other kidnapping show, this one takes the old Law & Order time slot. 800X better than Vanished, I was super impressed by the pilot.
Part of it may be the cast. The always delicious (and one of the top five hotties over 50) Dana Delany is married to Timothy Hutton, looking decided middle aged. Add to that Jeremy Sisto (the dude from CLUELESS who was missing his Cranberry CD), my main man Delroy Lindo and….Bubba Gump! (without the lip thingy). I know: awesome.
The deal is that Timothy Hutton and Dana Delany are rich people…rich people with secrets! (Dun Dun Dun!) Their son with a heart problem is kidnapped. They call a K&R guy (Sisto) to get him back. Unfortunately, the FBI gets wind of matters, and they get involved too.
The problem with the FBI getting involved with a kidnapping case is that they not only want to secure the return of the hostage, but catch the perpetrators. This can contradict with returning the kid. Thus the conflict.
BOTTOM LINE: I have not seen every last-hour time-slot show on Wednesday yet, but so far, this one is a winner.
SMITH (Mondays in
I am not saying we have the second coming of Tony Soprano, or even the anti-heroes of The Shield, but I will say this: I do not think Network TV has ever had a show that followed actual bad guys.
Oh yes: actual bad guys.
This “crew” is not all Ocean’s 11. More like HEAT. In the first episode, people get killed. Security guards and people who keep one of the bad guys from surfing! (You gotta love a dude who would murder over beach rights.)
The main bad guy is Ray Liotta, and his wife is played by Virginia Madsen, the woman from SIDEWAYS with the super-sexy voice. The money to front the operations comes from Shohreh Aghdashloo, who some of you may know was nominated for an Oscar in THE HOUSE OF SAND AND FOG, and some of you may remember as the hot mom terrorist in Season 4 of 24.
BOTTOM LINE: I am a little worried that some of the supporting characters may be a bit blah, but I am so excited to see actual bad guys on a network TV show, that I am going to be watching Smith as long as I can.
HEROES (Mondays on NBC)
Remember the first 10 minutes of the original X-Men movie, before the school, the spandex, and the spiffy one-liners? When we were just moving around the world watching people, outcasts really, trying to come to terms with their “powers”?
That is NBC’s new Sci-Fi show Heroes. (At least the first hour, in what I should warn you is a cliffhanger. I was quite set up when NBC sent me the pilot for preview purposes, but a tad miffed when it just started going good and the dreaded “To Be Continued” appeared on screen.
But I suppose it should be accounted a good thing that I was drawn in, eh? The theory, not really explained in more than a psychobabble intro, is that the human genome project has revealed that with just a fraction of mutation the next step of human evolution is right around the corner.
I know what you are thinking: can Wolverine be far behind? I have no idea where they are going with this, but I gather it will be more “ordinary people do extraordinary things” than nicknames that sound like American Gladiator tryouts.
In the first hour, we meet our presumable protagonists. One might be able to tell the future. One can break every bone and have it heal almost immediately. One can…uh, talk to herself in the mirror. And one—who has to be everyone’s initial favorite—can bend the fabric of space and time, which translates to teleportation. His first test: a woman’s restroom at a crowded nightclub.
See: you like him already.
And if you are not convinced, what if I added that the kid is chubby, nerdy, Japanese, convinced he is the second coming of Spock, and unlike everyone else who seems to be freaked out by these new discoveries, honestly cheerful and cool with it all.
I told you he was cool.
A show like Heroes is obviously contrived, but no more so than CSI. (C’mon: do you really think science nerds solve all those crimes? That show is as much sci-fi as BSG, and if you think the techies do collect evidence with their perfect hair hanging everywhere….) NBC does not have a great track record with Sci-Fi. In fact, the last show even approaching Sci-Fi was the Misfits of Science. (Anyone old and cool enough to remember that? Just me, huh?)
Heroes will work if the characters have some sort of chemistry and if the storylines feel important enough but not too self-important, all while avoiding too much X-Men cribbing. Already there are some plot lines that seem darkly interesting, but only time will tell.
