What's up on the tv front?
That fucker Livejournal just ATE MY POST! And you see how freaking big it is? I had to write it all over AGAIN. God, I'm pissed.
*a deep breath* Ok, the actual post now.
The new tv season has finally started for real. Of course I couldn't keep quiet about it.
OLD FRIENDS
'Battlestar Galactica'. Holy fuck. Mankind living in the concentration camp! The Cylons are the evil puppet-masters! Leoben has Starbuck as a personal pet! They have a daughter together! There are suicide bombings everywhere! Baltar is a broken man! Tigh is the hardcore Resistance leader! Lee is fat! But Gaeta is hot! Everyone is married! I like Sharon! They are shooting at Roslin and Zarek! And many many more! 'Battlestar Galactica' rules.
'Desperate Housewives'. I can't say I'm very pleased with these ladies. I put them on probation this season, gave them three episodes to prove themselves, which means there's still one to go (I might yet stretch it to five if I feel like being merciful), but so far it seems they don't fare too well with the burden of my expectations. I'm pretty tired with Bree's disastrous husbands and boyfriends, even if it's Kyle McLachlan this time around (though Kyle is certainly a step up in the villain department from the unfortunate Applewhites). I'm not yet done with Bree's disastrous children but, sadly, it looks like they are MIA. Lynette snarkily holds up her own, but I suspect that dealing with Tom's super-annoying ex-lover skank might drag her down pretty soon. Gabrielle's baby drama has been straining my patience for a year now and I'm as much not a fan of it now as I was in season 2 - perhaps even more - though, admittedly, it does seem that, with the Chinese maid giving birth to the wrong baby and the divorce coming up, I'm about to get a reprieve (I'm pretty sure this sentence is somewhat lacking in the grammar department). Susan's storyline with comatose Mike and fully conscious but tragically bland Dougray Scott is just bad (no, seriously, BAD). Edie doesn't even get more than two minutes of screentime an episode anymore. Me, not impressed.
'Grey's Anatomy'. Due to the unfortunate circumstances I haven't progressed beyond the season premiere yet but I'm correcting the situation this Tuesday. GA gets off quite strong this season and continues to be one of the most entertaining shows on American TV. I greatly approve of including Callie in the main cast. I'm still not too sure about the whole George/Callie deal (seriously, she's bigger than him), but the girl alone rocks. And no words can express how happy I am that Eric Dane is coming back. But if Mark is going to hit on Meredith I think I'm gonna scream. And possibly hurt people. And McDreamy is an asshole.
'House M.D.'. My beloved doctor show might have had an unsure start this season but now it's definitely back to form. Both the Elderly Scientist Doctor episode and the Autistic Kid episode were superb. I miss the lying patients, though. That's up with that? I'm still miffed about the no-House-till-the-very-end-of-October thing but FOX managed to sweeten the deal by promising me the awesome David Morse in the first episode post-hiatus. Cynthia Nixon should be enjoying the 'The Biggest Guest Star to Grace 'House M.D.' So Far' title extra-intensely now because it's going to be yanked out of her claws in just three weeks.
'Numb3rs'. A great start this season. A two-parter, Kim Dickens as a guest star, Lou Diamond Phillips popping up for a visit, Megan dating Larry, Don with a new hot haircut (for the invisible regular girlfriend, I assume), Amita and Charlie lovably awkward together and pretty much struggling to be a couple and, all in all, it was fun. I wasn't so sure about how math could really help in a situation like this and felt a bit unconvinced about this pursuit curves thingies, but, hey, I fail to see the math-to-real-life relevance about every second episode and it's never really bothered me. It still looks cool. Part of the reason I dig this show so much is that I was this close to becoming an applied mathematics major. Really, THIS close. The show is so feeding my inner fantasies.
'Prison Break'. I know I haven't been too kind for 'Prison Break' this season but I'm revising my position now. With the Hunk Brothers splitting up, lots and lots of money getting dug up, Sarah's daddy conveniently offed by the Conspiracy, Sucre having a sudden conscience attack and Mahone pushing up the ante by shooting poor dumb Tweener full of lead, all that in one episode, I'm excited once again. They are definitely picking up the pace and I'm enthusiastically back onboard. And the tension is already killing me. It's like I've never left.
'Supernatural'. My favorite boys are back, just as pretty as ever, yay. Season 2 kicks off strong with a quite slow but entrancing premiere, followed by a surprisingly nice Killer Clown episode, which is half the regular MotW deal, half the main plot development. Jeffrey Dean Morgan dies on yet another tv show (no wonder the man has been setting eyes more on cinema lately - his tv karma sucks), but I'm pretty sure the Papa Winchester legacy will stay with us for a long long time yet, and all that without screwing up the Winchester Duo dynamic. We are getting the sneak peek into the hunter community at last, something I'm probably most excited about this new shiny season. Kripke has finally gotten wind of what the fangirls are expecting from him and Dean and Sam has been showing more skin in just two episodes than in practically the whole previous season. Also, the show has gotten really good at the opening music mixes. Altogether, I'm happy happy happy. 'Supernatural' better keeps up being this good, because, with it having drawn the suckiest possible time slot in the whole tv week, it has to either stay sharp or die. And we all know what a shame the second option would be.
Small detail: doesn't it seem strange that, with the boys supposedly being practically pro con-men, they are spectacularly bad at lying? It cracks me up every single time.
'Veronica Mars'. A primo season premiere, setting up not one but two interesting mysteries and with no, I repeat NO, school buses diving off no cliffs. I like that Dick (missed you, baby, missed you so much) and Mac are major players this time around. I like that Veronica is at her best spunky/snarky form again (and she dresses real nice, with the tiny exception of that unfortunate blue vest thingie that was, well, not nice at all). I like the new characters, Parker more so that Piz so far, but the boy won me over too with the 'bird watching' scene that show us the inkling how very glorious Piz/Wallace duo could be. I like the new edgier opening sequence, though here the reason I'm so freaking pleased with it is mostly that there is no Teddy Dunn in it. Farewell, Duncan, I hope I'll never see you again. What I don't like is Logan being his uncharacteristically sullen, non-sarcastic self, but I'm pretty sure he'll get over it soon, now that he has the Boy Wonder Casablancas back at his side.
NEW FRIENDS
'Brothers & Sisters'. I'm pretty interested with this one so far. I generally dig the siblings dramas, so the show pushes a lot of right buttons with me. There are two major obstacles, though. One, it has practically no humor. No snark, no sarcasm, no cute silliness, nada. Two, Calista Flockhart is already starting to get on my nerves. The second one is really pretty minor - she annoyed me on 'Ally McBeal', too, but it didn't stop me from enjoying the show for almost four seasons. The key is that I have to like the rest of the cast, and that works here quite alright. However there's still problem No 1 on the board. No humor is a pretty serious offense. I guess next week will show me how to deal with it.
'Dexter'. Oh, this one I'm keeping for sure. It gives me the most fascinating, the most unique and the most complex lead character in the whole new fall season. Color me intrigued. And Micheal C. Hall didn't look THAT hot in 'Six Feet Under'. The scruff is really working out for him here. I approve.
'Heroes'. It's a show about people with superpowers. Of course I love it. The characters certainly caught my interest, with my favorites being - also unsurprisingly since that seems to be the general fandom reaction - the Japanese teleporter/time-bender, who's the most adorable here and who's got the most intriguing storyline going for him so far, and thoughts-reading Greg Grunberg, who's, well, the close second in these two categories. The overall plot is pretty well done, with plenty of intriguing holes left to be filled in and a lot less clumsy exposition than I feared it would have. Yeah, 'Heroes' are definitely staying for good.
'Shark'. It's been a while since I had a lawyer show. I missed that. James Woods definitely hits it off with the lead character, the snark is pretty good, Samuel Page's pretty boy is my new Chase (I'm still keeping the old original Chase, of course, this one is just a back-up in case the old version uses up) and there is this blond prosecutor who used to be the blond prosecutor in 'Numb3rs' - the fandoms collision, I love those things. The show is not faultless - the Stark's daughter storyline lagging behind, for one - but it certainly has potential.
'Six Degrees'. I watched only the pilot so far and it was pretty boring. I do know that pilots are often not really representative, but, seriously, Being Boring is the ultimate tv crime. None of the characters actually interested me, with possible exception of Hope Davis' one, but that was probably only because she was, well, played be Hope Davis, and I don't really give a damn how they are getting glued together here by Fortune, Fate, Destiny or whatever. I'm giving the show fair treatment, which means I'm watching two more episodes before I decide what to do with it, but its chances are quite grim.
'Smith'. I'm pretty bummed about this one. I really intended to keep it. The show was no great hit, sure, what with pretty flat dialog and practically no humor to spice it up, but it was a heist show, come on, the whole show about high profile, smoothly executed thefts, it was fun. Besides it got me Simon Baker (hot) and Johnny Lee Miller (hot) being delightfully slashy together. And it got canceled. That's harsh, CBS.
'Standoff'. A nicely done procedural that, I admit, would probably start repeating itself any time now, but I'm quite fond of the characters already and it's still the cutest of all the tv newbies. That's quite enough for me to welcome it into the team with lovingly open arms.
'Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip'. This one is decidedly a keeper. I was pretty hesitant at first when the premiere turned out to be a far cry from the excellent 'West Wing' pilot, with people talking talking talking but not actually saying anything interesting. Then, however, came the second episode and I was pulled oh so deep. 'Studio 60' is very sharply written, it has a lovely set of characters (special mention here for Matthew Perry, Steven Weber and Sarah Paulson's ones) and about the only downside is that I'm not really that familiar with the American comedy tradition (since I live, you know, not in America) so at least some of the references are pretty obscure to me. Now I really hope the rumors about the cancellation are tragically exaggerated. Buck up, NBC, it's not the right time to get stupid on me.
'The Nine'. Now, that one was intense. A very ingenious premise, an intriguing, tightly written story, that leaves you with a lot of questions and anxious for the answers. What happened during those 52 hours? I don't know, but I'm surely interested.
THE CASUALTIES
'Justice'. I truly wanted to like it. The exposition and the acting are laid so thick here, though, that I really couldn't stomach it. I love the cold cynical lawyers, but when they are saying exactly the same cold cynical things in every single episode it gets old very soon. I like the media spin aspect, I like how they show me the different stages of the trial preparation, I even more or less like the more or less cliched characters, but the whole show practically shouts FAKE at me and that won't do. Sorry, dear, you have to go.
Sheesh, that's a lot of tv. There's also 'Friday Night Lights' waiting patiently in the line. I'm waiting for the subtitles with this one because I don't know squat about American football so I'm not trusting my ears here. My English is, sadly, not good enough to manage obscure sports jargon. Well, I'll wait.
.
*a deep breath* Ok, the actual post now.
The new tv season has finally started for real. Of course I couldn't keep quiet about it.
OLD FRIENDS
'Battlestar Galactica'. Holy fuck. Mankind living in the concentration camp! The Cylons are the evil puppet-masters! Leoben has Starbuck as a personal pet! They have a daughter together! There are suicide bombings everywhere! Baltar is a broken man! Tigh is the hardcore Resistance leader! Lee is fat! But Gaeta is hot! Everyone is married! I like Sharon! They are shooting at Roslin and Zarek! And many many more! 'Battlestar Galactica' rules.
'Desperate Housewives'. I can't say I'm very pleased with these ladies. I put them on probation this season, gave them three episodes to prove themselves, which means there's still one to go (I might yet stretch it to five if I feel like being merciful), but so far it seems they don't fare too well with the burden of my expectations. I'm pretty tired with Bree's disastrous husbands and boyfriends, even if it's Kyle McLachlan this time around (though Kyle is certainly a step up in the villain department from the unfortunate Applewhites). I'm not yet done with Bree's disastrous children but, sadly, it looks like they are MIA. Lynette snarkily holds up her own, but I suspect that dealing with Tom's super-annoying ex-lover skank might drag her down pretty soon. Gabrielle's baby drama has been straining my patience for a year now and I'm as much not a fan of it now as I was in season 2 - perhaps even more - though, admittedly, it does seem that, with the Chinese maid giving birth to the wrong baby and the divorce coming up, I'm about to get a reprieve (I'm pretty sure this sentence is somewhat lacking in the grammar department). Susan's storyline with comatose Mike and fully conscious but tragically bland Dougray Scott is just bad (no, seriously, BAD). Edie doesn't even get more than two minutes of screentime an episode anymore. Me, not impressed.
'Grey's Anatomy'. Due to the unfortunate circumstances I haven't progressed beyond the season premiere yet but I'm correcting the situation this Tuesday. GA gets off quite strong this season and continues to be one of the most entertaining shows on American TV. I greatly approve of including Callie in the main cast. I'm still not too sure about the whole George/Callie deal (seriously, she's bigger than him), but the girl alone rocks. And no words can express how happy I am that Eric Dane is coming back. But if Mark is going to hit on Meredith I think I'm gonna scream. And possibly hurt people. And McDreamy is an asshole.
'House M.D.'. My beloved doctor show might have had an unsure start this season but now it's definitely back to form. Both the Elderly Scientist Doctor episode and the Autistic Kid episode were superb. I miss the lying patients, though. That's up with that? I'm still miffed about the no-House-till-the-very-end-of-October thing but FOX managed to sweeten the deal by promising me the awesome David Morse in the first episode post-hiatus. Cynthia Nixon should be enjoying the 'The Biggest Guest Star to Grace 'House M.D.' So Far' title extra-intensely now because it's going to be yanked out of her claws in just three weeks.
'Numb3rs'. A great start this season. A two-parter, Kim Dickens as a guest star, Lou Diamond Phillips popping up for a visit, Megan dating Larry, Don with a new hot haircut (for the invisible regular girlfriend, I assume), Amita and Charlie lovably awkward together and pretty much struggling to be a couple and, all in all, it was fun. I wasn't so sure about how math could really help in a situation like this and felt a bit unconvinced about this pursuit curves thingies, but, hey, I fail to see the math-to-real-life relevance about every second episode and it's never really bothered me. It still looks cool. Part of the reason I dig this show so much is that I was this close to becoming an applied mathematics major. Really, THIS close. The show is so feeding my inner fantasies.
'Prison Break'. I know I haven't been too kind for 'Prison Break' this season but I'm revising my position now. With the Hunk Brothers splitting up, lots and lots of money getting dug up, Sarah's daddy conveniently offed by the Conspiracy, Sucre having a sudden conscience attack and Mahone pushing up the ante by shooting poor dumb Tweener full of lead, all that in one episode, I'm excited once again. They are definitely picking up the pace and I'm enthusiastically back onboard. And the tension is already killing me. It's like I've never left.
'Supernatural'. My favorite boys are back, just as pretty as ever, yay. Season 2 kicks off strong with a quite slow but entrancing premiere, followed by a surprisingly nice Killer Clown episode, which is half the regular MotW deal, half the main plot development. Jeffrey Dean Morgan dies on yet another tv show (no wonder the man has been setting eyes more on cinema lately - his tv karma sucks), but I'm pretty sure the Papa Winchester legacy will stay with us for a long long time yet, and all that without screwing up the Winchester Duo dynamic. We are getting the sneak peek into the hunter community at last, something I'm probably most excited about this new shiny season. Kripke has finally gotten wind of what the fangirls are expecting from him and Dean and Sam has been showing more skin in just two episodes than in practically the whole previous season. Also, the show has gotten really good at the opening music mixes. Altogether, I'm happy happy happy. 'Supernatural' better keeps up being this good, because, with it having drawn the suckiest possible time slot in the whole tv week, it has to either stay sharp or die. And we all know what a shame the second option would be.
Small detail: doesn't it seem strange that, with the boys supposedly being practically pro con-men, they are spectacularly bad at lying? It cracks me up every single time.
'Veronica Mars'. A primo season premiere, setting up not one but two interesting mysteries and with no, I repeat NO, school buses diving off no cliffs. I like that Dick (missed you, baby, missed you so much) and Mac are major players this time around. I like that Veronica is at her best spunky/snarky form again (and she dresses real nice, with the tiny exception of that unfortunate blue vest thingie that was, well, not nice at all). I like the new characters, Parker more so that Piz so far, but the boy won me over too with the 'bird watching' scene that show us the inkling how very glorious Piz/Wallace duo could be. I like the new edgier opening sequence, though here the reason I'm so freaking pleased with it is mostly that there is no Teddy Dunn in it. Farewell, Duncan, I hope I'll never see you again. What I don't like is Logan being his uncharacteristically sullen, non-sarcastic self, but I'm pretty sure he'll get over it soon, now that he has the Boy Wonder Casablancas back at his side.
NEW FRIENDS
'Brothers & Sisters'. I'm pretty interested with this one so far. I generally dig the siblings dramas, so the show pushes a lot of right buttons with me. There are two major obstacles, though. One, it has practically no humor. No snark, no sarcasm, no cute silliness, nada. Two, Calista Flockhart is already starting to get on my nerves. The second one is really pretty minor - she annoyed me on 'Ally McBeal', too, but it didn't stop me from enjoying the show for almost four seasons. The key is that I have to like the rest of the cast, and that works here quite alright. However there's still problem No 1 on the board. No humor is a pretty serious offense. I guess next week will show me how to deal with it.
'Dexter'. Oh, this one I'm keeping for sure. It gives me the most fascinating, the most unique and the most complex lead character in the whole new fall season. Color me intrigued. And Micheal C. Hall didn't look THAT hot in 'Six Feet Under'. The scruff is really working out for him here. I approve.
'Heroes'. It's a show about people with superpowers. Of course I love it. The characters certainly caught my interest, with my favorites being - also unsurprisingly since that seems to be the general fandom reaction - the Japanese teleporter/time-bender, who's the most adorable here and who's got the most intriguing storyline going for him so far, and thoughts-reading Greg Grunberg, who's, well, the close second in these two categories. The overall plot is pretty well done, with plenty of intriguing holes left to be filled in and a lot less clumsy exposition than I feared it would have. Yeah, 'Heroes' are definitely staying for good.
'Shark'. It's been a while since I had a lawyer show. I missed that. James Woods definitely hits it off with the lead character, the snark is pretty good, Samuel Page's pretty boy is my new Chase (I'm still keeping the old original Chase, of course, this one is just a back-up in case the old version uses up) and there is this blond prosecutor who used to be the blond prosecutor in 'Numb3rs' - the fandoms collision, I love those things. The show is not faultless - the Stark's daughter storyline lagging behind, for one - but it certainly has potential.
'Six Degrees'. I watched only the pilot so far and it was pretty boring. I do know that pilots are often not really representative, but, seriously, Being Boring is the ultimate tv crime. None of the characters actually interested me, with possible exception of Hope Davis' one, but that was probably only because she was, well, played be Hope Davis, and I don't really give a damn how they are getting glued together here by Fortune, Fate, Destiny or whatever. I'm giving the show fair treatment, which means I'm watching two more episodes before I decide what to do with it, but its chances are quite grim.
'Smith'. I'm pretty bummed about this one. I really intended to keep it. The show was no great hit, sure, what with pretty flat dialog and practically no humor to spice it up, but it was a heist show, come on, the whole show about high profile, smoothly executed thefts, it was fun. Besides it got me Simon Baker (hot) and Johnny Lee Miller (hot) being delightfully slashy together. And it got canceled. That's harsh, CBS.
'Standoff'. A nicely done procedural that, I admit, would probably start repeating itself any time now, but I'm quite fond of the characters already and it's still the cutest of all the tv newbies. That's quite enough for me to welcome it into the team with lovingly open arms.
'Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip'. This one is decidedly a keeper. I was pretty hesitant at first when the premiere turned out to be a far cry from the excellent 'West Wing' pilot, with people talking talking talking but not actually saying anything interesting. Then, however, came the second episode and I was pulled oh so deep. 'Studio 60' is very sharply written, it has a lovely set of characters (special mention here for Matthew Perry, Steven Weber and Sarah Paulson's ones) and about the only downside is that I'm not really that familiar with the American comedy tradition (since I live, you know, not in America) so at least some of the references are pretty obscure to me. Now I really hope the rumors about the cancellation are tragically exaggerated. Buck up, NBC, it's not the right time to get stupid on me.
'The Nine'. Now, that one was intense. A very ingenious premise, an intriguing, tightly written story, that leaves you with a lot of questions and anxious for the answers. What happened during those 52 hours? I don't know, but I'm surely interested.
THE CASUALTIES
'Justice'. I truly wanted to like it. The exposition and the acting are laid so thick here, though, that I really couldn't stomach it. I love the cold cynical lawyers, but when they are saying exactly the same cold cynical things in every single episode it gets old very soon. I like the media spin aspect, I like how they show me the different stages of the trial preparation, I even more or less like the more or less cliched characters, but the whole show practically shouts FAKE at me and that won't do. Sorry, dear, you have to go.
Sheesh, that's a lot of tv. There's also 'Friday Night Lights' waiting patiently in the line. I'm waiting for the subtitles with this one because I don't know squat about American football so I'm not trusting my ears here. My English is, sadly, not good enough to manage obscure sports jargon. Well, I'll wait.
.