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In preparation for announcing the big winners for my ABC Fall Schedule Beg-a-thon on Monday, I thought I would take some time give you one of those dopey Fall TV scorecards, because frankly, I am concerned you can't make decisions for yourself, and you need all the help you can get. I am going to attempt to make this less naval gazing than some other scorecards (especially theavclub.com's pointless Crosstalk.)
So far the Season has been relatively interesting. We have a slew of new serialized crime shows, and it seems more pronounced than ever that the death of the multi-camera sitcom is upon us. Also this season seems to have drawn quite a few big names to your tv set... people we wouldn't expect to show up on your tv set, and that has produced mixed results.
New Fall Shows I Have Deigned to Watch:
30 Rock
There is a lot to like about 30 Rock, and that would be all 225 pounds of Alec Baldwin. The rest was hit or miss. Mainly miss. Tina Fey, who was so cute and smart and clever on Saturday Night Live, so seems a little over played. There is hope though, if they can actually make the show funnier. Right now there are too many awkward silences around my living room as would-be jokes die a slow death. Tracy Morgan's character is interesting. I found him alternately annoying and funny, but more annoying. Like I said, there is hope for this. The whole thing just needs to be tightened... and funnier.
Friday Night Lights
This show couldn't have been easy to produce. It looks and feels like an art film about Texas high school football. The dialog is realistic and somehow the show made me really empathize with that whole small town thing. You know where you are bummed because there is no Coffee Bean, and you don't get good reception from your 10' satellite dish, and all there is to do is watch football. But here's the thing. The show is really slow... much like an art film about Texas high school football. And another thing, if you have seen the movie, it would be easy to see where this season is going.
Happy Hour
Another death knell for multi-cam sitcoms. This show was terrible except for the naked performance of Beth Lacke who manages to pull off cute, funny and socially retarded with the aplumb of someone with too much experience being all of those things. I expect we will see more of Lacke... the rest of the annoying cast can go to hell.
Heroes
Screw all the naysayers, this show is about the second most interesting thing on TV right now. Sure the pilot did have a few issues, but each week the mysteries and characters get more compelling. Everyone jumped on Claire as being the big break out, but once Ali Carter goes all Mr. Hide on your wimpy asses, you won't be able to turn away. Also remember this show has a comic book big gun behind the scenes. Jeph Loeb is the genius that brought you Teen Wolf and Commando! I expect, much like today's decompressed comic books, that Heroes is going to build to a big reveal every six episodes or so. If the show doesn't hook you after that, then I get to punish you for being wrong about everything. Alot.
Jericho
So this started out kind of okay. And then the second episode brought radioactive rain. Or so we thought. Well the second episode was good, but now as of the conclusion of the third episode, I am done. Or is this the fourth. I don't really care. What I do care about is the bad timing of this show for me. I just finished Cormac McCarthy's The Road, which is a genuinely scary version of what life would be like in post-Apocalyptic America. I finished that book on Tuesday night and then watched Jericho on Wednesday, and so Jericho is the Seventh Heaven version of The Road with a lot less cannabilism. My suggestion? Read The Road and then lie awake at night thinking about Gerald McRaney hunting you down and eating your kids because he hungers.
Justice
Justice is an attempt by Jerry Bruckheimer to CSI the Legal Show. What he has done is make a show about all the things I hate about America. Talking heads on CourtTV. Egos too large for their Hummers. Lawyers. It's annoying. If I am ever committed of a sensationalistic crime, I am going to cut my own tongue out so as to render me a bad interview.
Kidnapped
You can read my full review here, but why would you care? The show has been sent to TV Siberia as of this week, and that's unfortunate because the plotting and characters were really starting to grow on me. Although I do think it's a little weird that the kidnappers, after their initial ransom attempt failed, really aren't being all that communative with the kid's family. Such a great cast. It's a shame that more people aren't watching.
Men in Trees
Anne Heche has a new show on geared toward my kind! I watched one episode, and now I wish I was no longer a woman. But I am sure my mom and aunts will think this show is hysterical. I also find it interesting that they are already ripping off Northern Exposure storylines and it's only 4 or 5 episodes along.
Six Degrees
This show is pretentious and absurd and I like it. But boy does it make me miss Manhattan.
Standoff
Once in a blue moon TV creative types feel the need to reinvent the classic Dave and Maddy chemistry from those glorious early seasons of Moonlighting. The creators of Standoff try to circumvent the relationship minefields that caused Moonlighting to lose it's limbs by having it's charming leads as a couple from the start. Ron Livingston and Rosemarie DeWitt play a pretty cute couple, and the balance between their relationship and their work is the core of the show. Too bad their work is the ultra serious and not at all funny job of being hostage negotiators. If I were running this show, I would ease up on the air traffic controller takes LAX hostage plotlines and endeavor to make the hostage situations a little more Barney Miller and a lot less Die Hard. If the crimes can end up being as goofy and nonchalant as the leads, the show could be a monster of a success. Right now it just gives me tonal fatigue. But mmmm, Ron Livingston. I'll be back.
Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip
Read my review here! Well I was really digging this show until episode three. What happens in episode three that is so awful? Christine Lahti, Tommy Schlamme's personal Themiscyran. I don't care if you like her. She gets on my one nerve and if she is back as a regular or something, then I quit.
The Class
Like Friends, but with less charisma and fewer jokes. And David Keith. Does that help at all?
The Nine
While this show didn't really light my fire in the interest department (the back of my knees if you are keeping notes), the pilot episode really blew my mind. Well produced, well acted, and very nicely plotted, The Nine could be a stellar mystery and drama. Two episodes in, and we still don't have a clear idea of all that transpired inside the Bank Heist hostage situation, but we know things went really bad. Creators made a bold move by having not all of the nine protagonists make it out of the hostage crisis alive. I will stick around until it's inevitable cancellation right before sweeps, and then I will take out my grief on my clients. Or possibly MILF.
Til Death
Oh man a sitcom with that big weird guy from Everybody Loves Raymond!
Twenty Good Years
Jeffrey Tambor is a god among men. You don't deserve to beg for the dust on the sole's of his shoes. And he doesn't deserve this show. Oh and someone give John Lithgow a valium or something.
Vanished
Please let this be the headline on Hollywood Reporter soon: "Vanished Vanished!"
Dexter
This Showtime show isn't getting a lot of attention, but it's worth a peek. David Hall of Six Feet Under plays the titular Dexter. By day he is a blood splatter specialist for Miami PD, but he spends his evenings as a serial killer. But it's okay really because he's a serial killer who only kills serial killers. Thanks to an astute foster dad, Dexter was put on the right track early in life to use his destructive tendencies to take out a few of his own. This show is creepy fun with lots of bloody and sudden cuts to the face and decapitated heads. Yes! It's that good.
And that's a wrap. Check back on Monday for a list of BIG WINNERS. Oh and it's not too late to enter the contest. You can link to it at the top of this article.
