Well, folks, the new fall season is about to start and unlike you guys, I am a nut for television. Sometimes I am that nerd that knows so many details, you can’t talk to me about it and sometimes I’m that girl that’s crying because Izzie and Denny didn’t end up together. I run the gamut. Anyway, I’m picking the shows that will succeed or fail based solely on the previews (I mean, hell, that’s what you use to pick the shows you’ll watch) and I always give every new show at least 3 episodes to prove me right.
The new fall season will not be as full of new shows as the past seasons, mainly because of the writer’s strike, which was totally worth it because now they make a whole dollar on new shows after the first week of viewing, which, as you all know, is about a week after we’ve watched them.*
So, if you want to know what’s going on for the upcoming fall season, read on. Well, sometimes I’ll tell you about the show and sometimes, I’ll just talk out of my ass. That’s what I’m good for.
CBS
The Mentalist - Simon Baker is Patrick Jane, a detective and consultant with the CBI with a razor sharp skills of observation. He’s also a jerk, which seems to work when guys are smarter than you want them to be. If he’s not better than Shawn Spencer, I’m writing in for this show to be cancelled. Sept. 23 - This is getting cancelled.
The Ex-List - Elizabeth Reaser is Bella Bloom, and instead of being Alex’s one true love on Grey’s Anatomy, she has her own show and is searching for the ex that is “the one”. Well, at least that’s what her psychic said. Oh, yeah, and she has a year to find him or lose him forever - which makes me wonder… have the writers figured out how to keep this concept going? Instead of being a comedy, this is a one hour dramady. Oct. 3 - This is getting cancelled
Worst Week - One man wrecking crew? We like the sound of that! A guy tries to impress his girlfriend’s parents and fails miserably. Which is what normally happens when a guy falls for a girl and tries to impress her family. A new CBS comedy? We can’t wait. Sept. 22 - This is not getting cancelled
Gary Unmarried - Jay Mohr is a single father of two who must deal with being divorced and finding love again. Sounds boring, but we hope Mohr can keep it going. We don’t think he will. Sept. 24 - This is getting cancelled
Eleventh Hour - Ahhh, someone has said, “screw supernatural crime! People are committing scientific crimes everyday!” And sometimes, those scientific crimes can be very supernatural in nature. Stars Rufus Sewell, who is very smart, but apparently not as big a jerk as Simon Baker’s character. Oct. 9 - This is not getting cancelled
Harper’s Island - Technically a midseason show, Harper’s Island is some kind of murder mystery. A destination wedding on a picturesque island that was once the site of a homicidal maniac’s murderous rampage leads to more murder. Is the killer one of the group? Midseason - This is not getting a full season pickup.
ABC
Life on Mars - Based on the BBC series of the same name, a cop chasing a serial killer gets hit by a car and wakes up in 1973. Is he dead, is he in hell, is he in a coma? We don’t know. Hopefully, we will care or that show is out of here! Oct. 9 - This is not getting cancelled
Pushing Daisies - Returning series that only got out half a season before the writer’s strike. A hilarious season with nice comedic turns by Chi McBride and Kristin Chenoweth. It’s 9 episodes in - which is new enough. You should watch it. Oct. 1 - This better not get cancelled
Scrubs - Not appreciated by NBC audiences, the funny show is moving to ABC. Let’s hope the humour stays the same. Midseason - This is not getting cancelled
NBC
My Own Worst Enemy -Christian Slater is a spy who has a chip planted in his brain (a la the Manchurian Candidate) that separates his suburban father alter ego from his superspy alter ego. The drama unfolds when the chip begins to malfunction and his identities begin to slap fight. Oct. 13 - This is not getting cancelled
Knight Rider - The not so great made for tv movie was a backdoor pilot for the new series. May eventually contain the Hoff himself - which makes me breath a nerdly sign of relief. The cheese returns! Sept. 24 - This is not getting cancelled
Kath and Kim - a comedy about a dysfunctional mother and daughter and their adventures in suburbia. Starring Molly Shannon and Selma Blair, I’m interested in seeing how they make Molly Shannon look old enough to have given birth to Selma Blair. Oct. 9 - This is getting cancelled
Heroes 3 hour premiere event - which usually means a one hour “how did we get here” special, the last episode and the new episode. Hopefully, it’s not a pop up video. The Lost one was annoying as hell - but that was Disney owned ABC. Sept. 22
SNL Weekend Update Thursday - The SNL comedy series takes on the 2008 presidential elections. Yippee. I thought we got enough presidential election humour from CNN and Fox. Oct. 9
Crusoe - The classic Lost tale is brought to life for NBC. NBC pulled out all the stops to make this series. I wonder if he will get off and if they will discover what the smoke monster actually is, because Lost really let me down in that respect. Oct. 17 - This is getting cancelled (thanks to nymag.com for the scoop - I still think Knight Rider will succeed because people like procedurals)
Fox
Bones has 2 hour premiere Sept. 3 - I love this show, worth a mention and a look, plus they will be in London for the premiere. *waggles eyebrows suggestively*
Prison Break 2 hour premiere Sept. 1 - I could give a fuck about this show, but it is one that people like. Strange, crazy people.
Fringe - J.J. Abrams has a new sci-fi thriller drama. Fringe has found the Lost Plane. I’m sure it will all tie in together. Despite the fact that Joshua Jackson from Dawson’s Creek is in it, I think it will succeed! 90 minute premiere Sept. 9 - This is not getting cancelled
Do Not Disturb - A comedy starring Jerry O’Connell about a ritzy hotel run by a sleazy womanizer and a black woman, each having a totally different take on running a hotel and who totally fall into stereotypes we hoped we’d grown to avoid. Sept. 10 - This shit is getting cancelled
The CW
90210 - Reimagined or 2.0, this series is about a family who moves to the ritzy zip code after the father gets a job as principal at West Beverly Hills High School. Two hour season premiere, September 2 - This is not getting cancelled
Privileged - A girl becomes the tutor to two spoiled twins. It looks stupid, but so did Gossip Girl and I still watch it with a warm bowl of popcorn like it’s porn. (that means I will probably be ashamed of myself for watching it). Sept. 9 - This is not getting cancelled
Surviving Surburbia - Bob Saget vehicle about new neighbors who immediately sue their neighbors. I assume it’s a comedy. Midseason - This is nonsense
Valentine - Greek gods in disguise bring people together without revealing that they are deities. Sept. 21 - This was a book
Easy Money - A drama about a family that runs a shady high interest loan business and the son that wants to make it legit. Lauri Metcalfe of Roseanne fame stars. Sunday, Sept. 21. - This looks idiotic
Midseason
Bad Mother Handbook (ABC)
Mugan Mullally, Alicia Silverston, Alia Shawkat - A mother must take care of her teenage daughter and her mother. Where’s George Michael created sexual tension when you need him?
Dollhouse (Fox)
Penikett finds a new show now that Battlestar Galactica threatens to end and shoots itself in the face with that god awful non revelatory midseason finale. Joss Whedon returns to television (but not with Firefly like we wish. And by “we” I mean me) with Eliza Dushku for a show about human beings who have no memories and are programmed to be whatever the lab wants. January 2009 - This will become a full season show.
Kings (NBC)
A modern day retelling of David and Goliath (and we know how that ended for Goliath) about a soldier who saves a king and has his life inextricably intertwined with the king and his daughter. Which sounds exactly nothing like David and Goliath, but does sound a lot like David and Saul.
*This information is totally not true. I’m picking at the drama as well as how little they got while at the same time applauding them for standing up for themselves as writers.
Getting Nerdly With The New Fall Season
Posted by This Girl Labels: ABC, CBS, CW, fall premiere, Fox, NBC
College - I thought there would be drugs in this one, but there was only stupidity. Moving on!
The Wackness - You know how you always knew the guy selling ice cream in December was really selling drugs? This movie proves it - on a smaller scale. Ben Kingsley loves drugs.
Kabluey - I think I should be taking drugs to understand this movie. However, if things hold true to course, Jeffery Dean Morgan will die in this movie too (cf. Grey's Anatomy, Supernatural).
Burn After Reading - Someone was on drugs when they did Brad Pitt's hair. Spies from different spy movies star (George Clooney, Tilda Swinton). It's supposed to be a comedy, but I'll bet James Bond was mad as hell he didn't get asked. And Jason Bourne, although he is trying to get out of the game.
Transsiberian - This movie has drugs in it, but it also has Woody Harrelson, which means it isn't as good as the drugs imply. It does have Ben Kingsley, and you know that means he's coming with the good ish.
The House Bunny - Another movie in a long line of "had to be on drugs to make this movie"
Choke- Maybe it's because I like Rockwell or hate Kelly McDonald or think Chuck Palahniuk is just okay or really like the song by Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Satan Said Dance. I don't know, but that Satan character is most assuredly on drugs.
Pineapple Express - I know Pineapple Express conjures images of choo-choo trains and Kung Fu Panda, but in actuality, this is a movie about weed. And not the kind you have to pull from the ground, but the kind you want to pull from the ground, roll up and smoke. Still, Trailer Trash says stay off the pot, kids, or you could end up like James Franco. Hot as hell.
When Psych debuted in the summer of 2006, I thought it could be an interesting show. As the season continued, snarky 80s pop culture references, an excellent but barely use Dule Hill (who plays Gus), and an interesting father (Corbin Bernson does crotchety well)/young Shawn dynamic did very little to make the childish antics of an older Shawn (played like a bottle of shaken up pop by James Roday) funny to me.
Because I have a slight obsession with watching series I start all the way through (unless they are rubbish) I finished out the Psych season (which only lasted like 13 or 15 episodes). I was sure would not be following James Roday into a second season.
Yet on a particularly boring Friday in the summer of 2007, I found myself turning back to Psych. The second season presented a toned down Shawn, more of an appearance from Gus as he moves into the Psych offices, an expansion of the other characters (played with silly charm by Kirsten Nelson, Timothy Omundson, and Maggie Lawson) who received an extra dimension, bringing them each to 3 dimensions total, and a storyline that forced Shawn to contront his own childishness (don't worry, he didn't change). Without Shawn acting like he was auditioning for the next Bozo (God rest his soul), the humour became funnier, subtler, bearable. It is still, at best, a mediocre show, yet is deserves the space on your DVR for a lazy Sunday afternoon viewing. Psych Season 3 premiers Friday, July 18, 2008 at 10pm.
CBS has a new show called Swingtown. Starring Jack Davenpart and Molly Parker, Swingtown tells the story of Bruce and Susan Miller who move on up out of their first small surburban home to that big surburban home by the lake. Yes, Bruce got a raise and moves his family, leaving behind his wife's best friend, Janet and her husband Roger. It is a clash of cultures and the willingness to experiment that has the Millers getting it on with pilot Tom Decker and his wife Trina as the true nature of the show's name exhibits itself. It's not just about the adults, but also the burgeoning relationship of the children as well. Smart Laurie Miller wants her summer school teacher and young BJ is falling for the enigmatic young girl next door who makes a habit of running away.
That's the storyline in a nutshell, but the show tries to explore the effects on the characters of the excesses and flaws of the 70s. The show takes place in 1976. In 1976, I was only a few months old - far to young to know what was going on in the world. Thanks to CBS' acquisition of last.fm, I get to hear the songs of that period, most of which I am already familiar with, anytime I want to online. Yet despite it's trendy references to Dylan, the show feels as if it has been hamstringed in what it's trying to do.
The show was originally created to be on HBO, but because it was already filled with intimacy ladened shows (Californication, Big Love and a new show in development called Hung), HBO passed and CBS swooped in for the kill. The creator, Mike Kelley, and director, Alan Poul feel the move made the show better. "When we sat down to rewrite the script, it was actually less difficult, less painful and more rewarding than we'd anticipated," says Poul. "We came out with something stronger." Kelley adds: "It just allowed us to be freer to explore the characters without having to make as much happen in the bedroom. It's about the relationships that develop outside of the sexual moments. It's refreshing, frankly." (quote via Newsweek online)
So, with a show so free to show the emotions involved, why does the show feel so stilted. It's taking too long to get to some moments (I feel this way particularly about the relationship between Laurie and her teacher) and it's too top heavy on the honesty part, making me know that at some moment in the show, honesty will not be involved and this whole thing will crumble like the bad idea it is to invite someone other than your spouse in the bed with you.
But in the name of good natured fun, let's take a closer look at the show.
I finished watching Cabin Fever, the fourth episode of the 13 episodes ordered for this series and I'm sorry to say that not enough sex was had. And the sexual tension between Roger and Susan needs to come to a... head. No pun intended, but now that it's out there, I actually like it. Bruce seems so dorky and I suspect a bit insincere, but I like the fact that when asked by his beautiful neighbor Trina how many women he'd been with, his response was 2 (if you haven't watched it, that's his wife and Trina from their foursome of the first episode). In this day and age, how many people can say that? Very damn few. Of course, they didn't have the STD worry we have now, but I digress. Also, the Janet character is so uptight that making her friends with
I read Alan Sepinwall's post and his main complaint is that the psychological consequences are not fully explored because the sexual sequences are not fully shown. I mean, can you imagine, you and your spouse in bed for the first time with another couple? Him touching another woman with her watching? Him watching another man touch his wife? The first time she sees him kiss another woman or another man, feeling someone elses hand on your body...
Is it getting hot in here?
What I'm saying is seeing that and how you react, even if you're into it, reveals a lot about the characters and not being able to show that someone cheapens the show.
And what the hell is going on with little BJ and the neighbor girl? And does BJ's best friend, Rick (the son of neighbors left behind) have a crush on him or something? There is just an awkwardness to how that relationship and interaction is being written/directed. And how in the hell did the name BJ get by everyone who looked at this script about a show dealing primarily with sex?
I just don't know.
Will I keep watching Swingtown? Yes, mainly because I hate most reality shows (unless it involves cooking or superheroes) and there isn't much to hold my attention at the moment. Also, because I'm hoping to see something different. Where we are now is a direct result of what we did then. How will they connect the past with the future? Will they even try? Or will this be more or less a dry hump of a show, trying to get us there, but never really satisfying? Unless they get cancelled, only time will tell.
After some discussion with my crew, we've decided that this whole midseason finale thing is just wrong. Sci-Fi should be taken out back and shot and some other entity steps in and brings our show back after a SHORT hiatus for the purpose of refining the remaining episodes.
Because they need to refine.
I don't know what that shite was that they showed us on that last Friday, that Friday that was supposed to keep us in suspense for nearly half a year. What I do know is that they didn't tell us a gods damn thing we didn't already know. And what the FRAK is that Earth they took us to. I mean, by the time I saw the devastation, I didn't care.
So, as a final check, did we:
1. Learn who the 5th Cylon was? No
2. Get to Earth? Check
3. Like the Earth they got to? No
4. Care if they lived or died at this point? No
5. Feel like Unboxing the Deanna was pointless? Check
6. Still believe Doc Cottle is the 5th Cylon? Check
7. Watching when they bring the show back after an unusually long hiatus (in which they might as well have said we're going to be like Lost and divide this last season into two seasons?) Hells Frak YEAH!
I mean, Check.
Neo ain't got nothin' on this one! (There be spoilers, people)
The final Cylon is the biggest question resting on my mind tonight. Everything I do today is just me in holding pattern until 10pm when Sci-Fi plays the midseason finale of Battlestar Galactica. It's going to be a big event - though there is only one other person that I hang around that enjoys it as much as I do. So the two of us will be in my living room, eating chips and dip and drinking sodas as we watch and discuss for 2 hours after that this mid season finale.
Speaking of mid season finale, what the frak is up with that? How can you say, "final season" and then split the season in half, ending the season now and starting a new season in 2009? That is a low blow Sci-Fi director of programming and it should be rectified! /rant
So, there are some major names up for the 5th Cylon. Some people thought it might be Laura Roslin, but I believe that her cancer coming back puts her out of the picture. Also, last week's episode had the 3 (a brilliant job from Lucy Lawless by the way) disabusing Roslin of that notion. I said that it HAD to be Adama because that would be the only way that Cylon and Human could get along on the planet Earth now that the Cylons seem to procreate quite regularly (that's 3 skinjob youths on board). However, Ronald Moore said that the 5th Cylon is not a major character. Which makes me glad because I couldn't stand the thought of Gaius Baltar being the last Cylon. We've decided that Gaeta is not the last Cylon, after the whole leg thing and all. (By the way, is ANYBODY going to say something to Anders? A hand slap... anything? And is Starbuck no longer crazy?)
We've decided it's Doc Cottle. He's perfect! He has access to all the blood for testing, he let them get away with getting film of Sharon's baby, he has exclusive access to every single person... I have a feeling we will find out tonight.
So, if you're reading this and you actually watch BSG, what's been your favourite moment so far?
Watched the new Hulk last night. Besides the fact that there was still some old school comic book writing thrown in there, it was amazing. Not as good as Iron Man, but definitely a continuation of how good that movie was overall. The action was unbelievable. My dance crew was laughing at how animated I got. One guy leaned over and said, "It's okay, he lives." It was brutal, in a good way. Plus - Edward Norton, Tim Roth, William Hurt. Minus: Liv Tyler - unless you just wanted eye candy. But I guess if you can't find anyone better to say "Bruce" over and over again, then I can deal! Although the scene with the taxi - now that's what I'm talking about. A friend of mine said that he liked the drawing/cgi of the 2003 Hulk better than this one, but now that I've looked at pictures, I disagree. I mean, it is possible that the 2003 Hulk looks like something someone could turn into, but the 2003 Hulk also looks like somebody's big head in a foam rubber muscle suit. I'm just saying. Anyway, this is a must see, especially if you're getting all excited about that Avengers movie coming out in 2011.
So, if you saw the Hulk, what was the cheesiest moment for you?