Television

[meteorite]

Sorry, Emi, but I think CSI has jumped the shark. We TiVO'd the first episode, but deleted it after we determined (warning: spoiler!) <span class="ev_code_WHITE">that they killed off Warrick</span> without watching it. They hardly have any of the original cast left, and while Lawrence Fishburne might save it, I'm not hopeful.

[Kathy Li]

Ok, I know it's a really stupid show, but I can't help having fun watching it, so I thought I'd mention Valentine here. (Most of the episodes are rated TV-14, mostly for the odd bit of sexual innuendo or clinch, but it's a romance show). The plot engine set-up is that Aphrodite (now calling herself Grace) and her family are getting assignments from the Fates to bring soulmates together in a hope that they'll remain relevant and immortal. There's a subplot going on that someone's out to bring down the Olympians.

Anyhoo, Valentine Inc., unfortunately, has gotten a little behind the times, so Grace has found herself a little mortal help in the shape of a romance novelist named Kate, who becomes the new girl around the office.

It's on the CW, btw, so I'm not sure if it's going to last more than half a dozen episodes (or if it deserves to). But it makes a change from all the X-Files clonage going on.

Oh, and I cracked up completely when I saw that BBC America was rerunning all four "episodes" of the UK original Eleventh Hour this weekend, now that the US remake has aired. The UK original was horrible, even with Patrick Stewart. The new US one is--well, stupider and funnier, because it's by Jerry Bruckheimer. And you can practically hear the pitch-meeting now: "It's the X-CSI:Files!"

And speaking of Bruckheimer shows, my absolute favoritest team on the current Amazing Race is definitely the comic book geeks. They're from my home town!

And I want Leanne to win Project Runway, although I'd be okay with Korto, too. I just don't want Kenley to win.

[Kathy Li]

Just wanted to mention that if anybody missed this week's episode of Frontline ("The Choice 2008"), it can be downloaded for free from the iTunes Music Store (it's 1GB, though), or you can watch the entire two hours on Youtube. PBS is making it freely available up through November. I like it when the power of TV is used for good, and hopefully helping to educate a voter base.

[Kathy Li]

Ok. I'm the only one who's interested in TV. This is obvious . But for all those Terry Pratchett fans in the US who have cable, ION (which used to be Pax, which used to be the Christian Cable Network) is going to be airing The Colour of Magic, an adaptation of the first two Discworld books, on Sunday Nov. 23 from 7pm-9pm. It's the same production crew that did Hogfather. Rincewind is played by David Jason, best known to folks my age as the voice of Dangermouse. Twoflower is played by Sean Astin. Jeremy Irons is Vetinari.

I would also like to mention that I'm enjoying the heck out of Crusoe. It's floppy hats and boots, swordfights, desert island McGuyver tech, and costume drama with guys with their shirts off. I love it, and I'm really worried it's going to get cancelled very soon.

Although I'm probably even more worried about Pushing Daisies. ABC has not yet ordered the "back nine". In the US, most seasons of a television show are 22 episodes long, and the networks purchase the show in two orders: a 13-episode initial order, followed by a 9-episode order. If the second order doesn't happen, the show is cancelled.

And Joss Whedon's Dollhouse is going to premiere in the oh-so-emotionally-laden "Fox Friday Night Slot o' Death" (where SF shows go to die). Fox has made Joss reshoot the pilot to simplify and clarify what's going on. Does any of this sound at all familiar [koff*Firefly*koff]? Oh, dearie me.

For the fans of either Terry Goodkind or Xena (same production guys who did Xena and Hercules), Legend of the Seeker has finally busted out of the gate, and it's great fun. I highly recommend it if you need a straight fantasy fix.

Word's come down that My Own Worst Enemy is already cancelled. Yeesh. I expect Valentine to follow soon.

[seabiscuit1009]

Kli, what is this TV that you speak of? I don't think I've watched it in over a week.

I'm worried about Pushing Daisies too...I might be kind of really sad if it's cancelled, because it is just such a funny show to watch. Plus, what else can I do on Wednesday nights (don't say homework. XD)

My roomie got me hooked on The Office; I recently finished the 4th season on DVD, and no longer know what to do with myself, since for the past 2 months whenever I had free time, I'd just pop in a DVD of the Office and sit back for half an hour or so. My roomie is amazing though, and has ridiculous amounts of TV shows on DVD (all the seasons of Lost and the Office, Grey's Anatomy, SATC...) so I probably should just suck it up and watch one of those.

[Kathy Li]

WAaaaahhhh!!!! Pushing Daisies is cancelled. Sort of. The Futon Critic lays out the ABC midseason here. The details are: "Current Wednesday occupants "Pushing Daisies" and "Dirty Sexy Money" presumably will be capped at 13 episodes, but remain under consideration for next season."

No "back nine." Dang it. I hope that at least the full 13 episodes air. Remember how we only got four episodes of Wonderfalls? and then we had to wait for the dvd set to get the other nine?

Oh, and Dollhouse is going to air Feburary 13th. Lost comes back 1/21. Battlestar Galactica on 1/16. And Burn Notice on 1/22. No word, yet, on Reaper or Medium. The Futon Critic's got the grid.

[Gwendi]

Okay, really sad about this one, even though it was cancelled a while ago...Gilmore Girls I just can't believe it!!! Any other Gilmore Girls fans out there? I don't think there are many on here, but if there are please send me a private message or something because after watching all 7 seasons about 10000000000000000000 times, I need some new Gilmore Girls to be written! (I own all 7 seasons) I know, I know, they aren't writing it anymore. But it's just so sad!

[Kathy Li]

I loved Gilmore Girls, although I'm still ambivalent about the final season, since the Sherman-Palladinos (who created it) were off the show at that point. Even sadder, their "Nick & Nora" pilot fell through, and then their half-hour sitcom, The Return of Jezebel James was so bad that it was cancelled after two episodes. I hope they get to run another show, but it's looking unlikely, now (sigh).

I'd love it if they were tapped by Joss Whedon to write for Dollhouse, but that's probably very unlikely. Still, I'd love to see Amy Sherman-Palladino writing for Joss--I was completely jazzed to see on the interview footage of the DVDs that she's a goth girl! (Hmm. I wonder if they met while they were writing for Roseanne...)

As much as I'll love a tv show, for me, when it's dead, it's dead, and reanimating the corpse is no dang good. (I was one of the letter writers who kept Remington Steele alive, and I gotta say, it totally wasn't worth it). You follow the creator to the next thing. With a television show, that's the person or persons who are "showrunners" writer/producers. It's usually the name(s) given the "created by" credit.

In the case of Gilmore Girls that was Amy Sherman-Palladino. It's like, I'm looking over the Futon Critic's review of pilots and series in development, and my ears prick up over this one:

Meant to Be's: ...drama about a young woman who dies, but in order to "pass over," she must return to earth and help people improve their lives...

Sounds eh, right? But the showrunner is Glenn Gordon Caron. That shoves it up a couple notches for me. Caron's the guy behind Moonlighting, Now & Again, and Medium. Plus for me, Ioann Gruffudd in the cast is a big plus. I wonder if they'll backdoor the pilot on Medium? (i.e., make the pilot for the show an episode of an existing one--like how they kicked off CSI: Miami with a CSI episode.

[meteorite]

New things I have decided are interesting: Crusoe. Imagine MacGyver in the 18th century stuck on a desert island. Same wacky contraptions as Gilligan's Island, but with more of a basis to work. Right now, it's sprouting plot complications like a Bad Hair Day, also, if this guy is so ingenious, how difficult could it be to build a simple boat? (eta: I'm hearing Weird Al doing Gilligan's Isle Thang now: I just shook my head and laughed/ If he's so fly/ then tell me why/ he couldn't build a lousy raft) We'll see how it develops.

Ongoing entertainments: Psych and Chuck. Happy that they've started with the new seasons.

Has anyone been watching the new spinoff cartoon, The Brave and the Bold? Batman teams up with a new hero every week. Interesting concepts, but the artwork has taken a nosedive, even since JLI.

[Kathy Li]

God, I love Crusoe. I'm really surprised more people aren't watching it (especially given the popularity of the PotC movies), but watch out. It's moving to Saturday nights next week, and it's going to be somewhat intermittent (I.e., pre-empted on 12/13, 1/3, and 1/24.) The last episode will be on 1/31. (It was always intended to be only 13 episodes long, though, so there maybe a chance it will be renewed, but given its ratings, probably not. Sigh.)

Psych isn't starting up until January 9(?), but we are getting a holiday Monk/Psych eps on the 28th.

Chuck is great fun. But I'd like to know when Reaper and Medium are coming back.

Thanks for the report on The Brave and the Bold--nice to know it's exactly what one would expect from the title. The B:TAS crew lost me by the time they did Teen Titans and Legion. Without Bruce Timm and Paul Dini, I just don't connect to it any more. Man, I wish Bruce Timm's Wonder Woman concept (which was gonna be the follow up to the Superman animated show) had gotten past the drawing board stage.

[meteorite]

Kli, do you remember Century City? Ioan Gruffydd is a plus for almost anything he's in, and the show having good plots didn't hurt; it was about a law firm in the near future that tackled cases that were tricky because of new uses of technology. I remember a custody case where the child was actually a clone of the father, and one dealing with right-to-die and cryogenics. I've liked Mr, Gruffydd ever since the A&E Horatio Hornblower miniseries.

After all that, which series is he in? :P

[Kathy Li]

I barely remember Century City, which is sad, because it was so recent. But my love of the Gruffudd-dude began with Titanic when he fished Kate Winslet out of the drink (one of the few times you get to hear him with his Welsh accent). And then, of course Hornblower and Forsyte Saga just strengthened the bond. He was apparently approached by many like-minded fans when he showed up at Comic-Con to promote the Fantastic Four movies.

It's not a series. Yet. It's just a pilot right now, for a show called Meant to Be's. If CBS likes the pilot enough, then it will be a series. No idea if Gruffudd is a guest in the pilot or a regular, though.

Seems you can't have an American scripted drama without a British star actor in it, though, these days.

[Kathy Li]

--Bumpity Bump--

Oh no. The futon critic just posted a review of the second/new Dollhouse pilot. It's not looking good. It is, in fact, looking somewhat similar to what happened to Firefly's pilot (sigh). Oh, dearie me. I become more and more worried. (Not to mention that I'm still in mourning for the death of Pushing Daisies). Even if they're going to finish up the storylines in a comic.

Oh, well. At least I still have Leverage and Crusoe. And Medium and Reaper and Lost (and Burn Notice and Battlestar Galactica...) are on their way. But a lot of really ok b-level shows don't really make up for a really great show going down the tubes.

[Taran]

Dollhouse blues

Oh no. The futon critic just posted a review of the second/new Dollhouse pilot. It's not looking good. It is, in fact, looking somewhat similar to what happened to Firefly's pilot (sigh). Oh, dearie me. I become more and more worried.

That's too bad. It could be a really good show.

[Kathy Li]

Well, that's not really the problem in my mind. The problem is that with Joss Whedon and the crew he's putting together (mostly from the same folks who worked on Buffy/Angel/Firefly), the show is bound to be good. It's just that it may take them a while to get up to speed, say three to six episodes. And a lot of television viewers (and network executives) have very short attention spans. If the show doesn't get boffo ratings the first week out, a lot of folks aren't necessarily willing to sit and wait, or work to grow the audience.

This is in direct opposition to the way cult hits become cult hits--with growing word of mouth. At this rate, most folks will be discovering Dollhouse from a DVD set that won't contain a full season...

The one consolation to Dollhouse being a midseason show, rather than regular fall premiere, was that Joss & Co. would have an addition three months to work on polishing the pilot to make it have a serious amount of punch on its premiere (which is why Buffy was so strong out of the gate. Joss redid the first three episodes multiple times). But now Fox has made them make a second pilot. Which is exactly what they did with Firefly. And that second pilot isn't as strong as the original one.

Missed opportunities. Oh, well, it's not like the Fox Friday night slot o' death wasn't a clue (Wonderfalls. Dark Angel. Brimstone. Strange Luck. Brisco County Jr...).