Now that I’ve had a chance to see more of the new shows–and I feel like doing it–here’s the second installment. The first was back on 9/23.
Of the four “Yet to be Decideds” I’ve only seen one. Lost and Kevin Hill, at least so far, still haven’t jumped past their time slot competition or even gotten enough interest to push me to watch them on the second TV (where TS1 does watch Lost) while recording the #1s. Clubhouse was cancelled so fast I never had a chance to even really think about it.
Desperate Housewives I have watched and it’s a real treat. A primetime soap that brings to mind some of the best, like Dallas or LA Law (to me Law was a soap inside a legal framework), with sharply defined characters. Especially the four leads, all hotties and past the legal drinking age at that. Ongoing air of mystery on multiple fronts: Why did Mary Alice really kill herself? What is that handsome Mike plotting and who’s his target? Yummy.
The Simpsons have come back with two typically strong episodes and you wonder, even with the extra-huge writing staff (or perhaps even despite it), how they keep going after 16 years where others can’t manage three or four. Reality is just irrelevant to these people, unless it would be handy. To give an example from the last episode, Marge has a contractor build a new kitchen and a caption tell us two years have passed before the work is finished yet everything else in the episode takes place in a matter of days. See what I mean?
Speaking of which, Enterprise. I’m still a dedicated Trekkie and watch every week but more and more this series seems like just what it is: anything to keep the Star Trek franchise dollars flowing. The recent three episode arc with Brent Spiner wasn’t bad, though the first two parts were much better than the third, and the upcoming Vulcan and Romulan episodes sound promising. Keep in mind that I’m part of the minority that ranks Deep Space Nine as the best of all the versions and so had no problem at all with spending all of Enterprise’s Season Two on the Xindi War; I just thought the producers didn’t execute nearly as well on it as most of the same staff did on the much longer Dominion War. There were questions about returning for this year but I think if the ratings so far hold up that Season Four is a near lock, given the promise of more lucrative syndication sales from a longer skein.
Joan of Arc is on at the same time as the previous show making this the only time slot when I need to use the two set strategy (so far, though Tuesdays at 10 are another when FX is showing one of their original series). Leaving our heroine at the end of last season questioning her sanity and whether or not her conversations with God a side effect of Lyme disease, she was both cured and confirmed that it wasn’t the disease. God still takes on various, occasionally recurring bodies, drops some semi-obtuse guidance and walks away with a flippant hand wave. For a show featuring teens and God, not bad at all though the subplots focusing on Mom and Dad too often don’t work well as mirrors of the Joan plot.
life as we know it started well but has struggled with focus given the large cast. Nice of the writers to give us well-developed characters even into the minor roles but some need to become cardboards; otherwise it’ll just implode. The show hasn’t been on the last couple of weeks so I wonder if it might just disappear altogether.
Never really got into Andromeda, the Kevin Sorbo far future action series, until the end of last season but I must say the creative crew have definitely been drinking from a different straw since coming to SciFi channel. So far they’ve mixed together high tech, mysticism and a sort of semi-Oriental, almost Indian Old West to give Sorbo’s Captain Dylan Hunt a most intriguing quest to discover his true identity.
Charmed, Vegas, Joey: Guilty pleasure TV, no doubt.
Without a Trace is not, despite frequent CBS advertising claims, the best show on TV. But it is good and has completely displaced ER, which used to be one of my favorites but has completely fallen off the table. Coming up with interesting and different disappearances every week is becoming a strain as the show approaches its 60th episode but the cast are really good and the production crew have a real strong feel for visuals, editing and pacing. One does wonder what happened to the La Paglia divorce continuing subplot or if the writers simply wrote it off.
The Wire continues to justify the cost of HBO all by itself; if you don’t subscribe the first season is now out on DVD. This third season seems to be more about the main characters and their relationships (to each other, at home and to their work) in contrast to the tight focus of the first two on the two sides of a single major case. To keep from sliding, the producers brought in some major fiction names (Richard Price and Dennis Lehane, to name two) to write a few of the scripts. Even with a few episodes left, I’m already salivating thinking about the major case I expect to see next year. Especially if the storyline for City Councilman Tommy Carcetti doesn’t wrap up because he could be a major player, intersecting with Stringer Bell’s ambitions to move into the money train that is politics.
The second seasons of Carnivale and Deadwood are next in the HBO Sunday night rotation.
I haven’t watched any of the “won’t watch,” though TS1 is now a CSI fan so some nights I get a little bleedthrough and dr. vegas is another early death. Still not watching any reality shows, Cold Case, the CSIs or West Wing (making me fairly unusual in the blogging ranks) and only the original Law & Order–Dennis Farina needs more elbow room and the writing crew needs to stop phoning it in or this warhorse’ll drop of its own weight. Also giving a pass to HBO’s Family Bonds, Showtime’s HUFF, and the once wonderfully creative (at least the first season) Malcolm in the Middle.
BillSaysThis 