Premiere Week–Monday 2

It’s finally the last night of premieres. Yes, there are other new shows debuting in the coming weeks, but they are more spread out. Last night marked the end of 13 straight nights of new TV, with only a single new show.

Terra Nova: This is a show that I should love. Dinosaurs! Time Travel! Spielberg! The combination presented here, though, is decidedly bland. The two hour pilot spends most of its time on exposition, delivered by a cast that isn’t particularly appealing with dialogue that is far from sharp. Yes, a series such as this does necessitate a large amount of groundwork to be laid early on, so hopefully the problems on display here are merely pilot-syndrome and the show will improve dramatically now that it’s all out of the way. Only time will tell.

Verdict: Try it for 6

And that’s it for Fall 2011 premiere week. I’ll be back soon with a post completely unrelated to television or film. Probably.

Sleep well,

DTE

Premiere Week–Sunday

Only one more day to go, here’s my roundup of the shows I checked out on Sunday.

Amazing Race: Season 19 – There’s really absolutely nothing new here. This is the only unscripted series I even attempt to watch, and it’s starting to wear on me as well. Over the years there has been a subtle shift in the way the program is cut together. They now devote far less time to covering the challenges and more time to the “drama” within each team. As a result, it’s becoming more and more like every other unscripted series – just a lot of people arguing, and not even in a particularly entertaining way. I might stick it out through this season, but it’s definitely on the bubble.

Verdict: Skip it

Pan Am: ABC’s attempt to create a Mad Men for broadcast. The first thing I noticed was that the whole thing feels cheap. There are a lot of nice period details, but they feel slapped together, rather than organic. This isn’t helped by the fact that the dialogue is stiff and the plotting glacial. The worst offense, however, is the spy storyline. It is painfully obvious that this was added late in development as a way to appeal to a wider audience and create story possibilities. Instead of accomplishing that goal, it merely feels forced, completely out of place, and, in the pilot at least, is not even a compelling spy story. This is a show that I want to like, so I will give it another shot, but my expectations are now extremely low.

Verdict: Try it for 6

Boardwalk Empire: Season 2 – Easily one of the best shows on TV, this season premiere didn’t disappoint. Picking up right where the last season ended, this was a great hour. It’ll be a little difficult for new viewers to pick up in the middle due to the large cast and dense plotting, but it’s absolutely worth the effort. This is a show you should be watching.

Verdict: Watch it

Only one more day left in this series. I’ll be back tomorrow with my opinion on the premiere of Terra Nova.

Sleep well,

DTE

Premiere Week–Friday

I only watched one Friday show, but did manage to catch up on Modern Family, so I’ll include my thoughts on that one as well.

Fringe: Season 4 – Over the past two seasons, Fringe has quietly become one of the best shows on television, and the season premiere was no exception. Though on the surface it appeared to be a simple return to the case of the week formula it followed for much of its first season, it’s actually doing something much more interesting. In effect, it has now created a third parallel universe and potentially erased all of the history it has built to date. I love that the producers seem to be comfortable with trying whatever they think will make for the best story, without worrying about alienating new viewers or being too abstract for broadcast networks.

Verdict: Watch it

Modern Family: Season 3 - Along with Community, Modern Family is the most reliably great comedy on broadcast. The premiere continued that streak, while also making some fairly large changes. I don’t think this show has even reached its peak yet.

Verdict: Watch it

We’re coming to the end of the bulk of fall premieres. On Sunday I’ll be watching Boardwalk Empire, Amazing Race, and Pan Am. I’ll be back with my thoughts Monday.

Sleep well,

DTE

Premiere Week–Thursday

Though it was still far from perfect, Thursday was easily the most solid night so far this week.

Big Bang Theory: Season 5 - The two episodes aired last night were on par with the show’s recent history – nowhere near the heights of the second season, mostly just an entertaining, forgettable distraction. The biggest problem with the series is that it can’t seem to decided if it want’s to be a show that tries to get laughs by making fun of the geeks – casting the audience as the cool outsider who is far superior to the pathetic core characters – or if it wants to be a show that treats its geeks as real people and tries to get laughs by putting them outside their comfort zones – casting the audience the core characters’ different-but-equal peers. I vastly prefer the latter approach as it leads to much smarter humour, whereas the former is just a regurgitation of all the same geek jokes we’ve been watching for the last 30 years. Fortunately, last night’s episodes both fell mostly within the latter category. Let’s hope it stays there.

Verdict: Watch it

Community: Season 3 – Probably the best, and riskiest, comedy on the broadcast networks, Community’s third season premiere was quite strong. After a brilliant musical cold open, the show quickly fell into it’s standard style and though it wasn’t on par with its best episodes, it was funny and entertaining and set up the rest of the season nicely.

Verdict: Watch it

The Office: Season 8 – The primary purpose of this episode, and probably the next few as well, was to prove to audiences that The Office wouldn’t collapse with the departure of its lead character. In that regard, it was successful. It was pretty much on the same level as the last two years. The downside to this is that the last two years have been markedly lower quality than the beginning of its run. The result is that, while it will probably stick around for another season, it will continue shedding fans with each episode as it rehashes and tries to re-attain the freshness it was once known for.

Verdict: Skip it

Person Of Interest: This is a show from J.J. Abrams and Jonathan Nolan, starring Michael Emerson (and Jim Caviezal, but that’s not really important). With that type of talent on board, you’d expect big things. Instead a very standard, dull, and at times laughably nonsensical, procedural. The writing is flat, the story straightforward and obvious, and Caviezal is incredibly uninteresting. Emerson, who works best when playing off of others, is good but mostly confined to sitting in front of a computer. If it weren’t for the behind the scenes talent, I’d be writing this off entirely, but as is I’ll probably give it a chance for a few more episodes and hope it can find its footing.

Verdict: Give it 6

There’s only one premiere tonight worth checking out, so come back tomorrow to see my take on the Fringe season opener.

Sleep well,

DTE

Premiere Week–Tuesday

So Tuesday was not a good night for TV. I’m not going to spend much time talking about the generalities and just dive right in.
Glee: Season 3 – It did have a few good performances, but that’s about it. The best thing that can be said about this episode is that it wasn’t as terrible as most of last season. Though Glee finally hired a full writing staff this season, this episode was written by one of the original three. Hopefully, as the season progresses the new staff can help the show to return to the level it was at at the beginning of season one.

Verdict: Try it for 6

NCIS: Season 9 – This was a terrible episode. Much like Castle, NCIS is best when it’s handling the case of the week and almost hopeless when it tries to tackle the big stories. Unlike Castle, even on its case of the week episodes, it hasn’t been remotely good for several seasons. I’m only watching it because I’m hoping it will end soon, as I don’t like leaving a long running series before the end. This has been pretty bad for quite a while, though, so I think this will the end for me.

Verdict: Skip it

Tonight the only show I’ll be watching is Modern Family. Or at least I will be watching it starting next week. I’m still catching up on the second season, which I should be done in a couple days, at which point I’ll watch this season’s premiere. As a result, my next write-up won’t be until Friday, when I talk about Thursdays shows, which will be Big Bang Theory, Community, The Office, and new series Person Of Interest. See you then.

Sleep well,

DTE

Premiere Week–Monday

So Monday brought us three shows I felt were worth watching. Overall, it fared better than most of what aired last week, but nothing has been fantastic yet.

How I Met Your Mother: Season 7 – CBS chose to launch this season with two back to back episodes. It wasn’t a two part story, and they were only tangentially related, so airing them together really wasn’t necessary, but I’ll review them as one nonetheless. The tone on this show has been incredibly inconsistent over the last two seasons, so I’m hoping they are able to even it out a little this year. These first two episodes succeed in accomplishing that, but everything else about them was stubbornly mediocre. The one shining spot was Barney and Robyn’s dance in the first episode.

Verdict: Watch it

2 Broke Girls: This series seems to be conflicted about what type of show it will be. There is both a broad, slapstick sitcom and a dark, dry comedy jammed into the same pilot. The long term success, either critical or commercial, of the show will likely depend on which formula becomes the dominant one. If the slapstick wins it could become a commercially successful, forgettable trifle. If the darker version comes out on top, it could evolve into a smart, critically accepted show but the ratings would likely suffer for it. Personally, I’m hoping for the later, but it will have to pick one in the coming weeks, because too many weeks of the jumble they are currently presenting will put off both audiences.

Verdict: Try it for 6

Castle: Season 4 – Castle is reliably good, seldom standing out but never falling on its face. It’s always been strongest when dealing with the case of the week and small family drama, while it has great difficulty with bigger stories, like the search for Kate mother’s killer. Unfortunately, this episode is yet another attempt at the big story, and it mostly suffers for it. It spends the entire first act trying to make the viewer believe Kate might actually die, then falls into the same post-cop-gets-shot story you’ve seen a hundred times (She says she’s ready to come back, but she’s SO NOT READY! She has to face down a bad guy but FREEZES! The next time she faces a bad guy she PUSHES THROUGH the fear and OVERCOMES!) Also odd was that this episode seems to be favouring a new lighting philosophy for the show, making every scene appear to take place at dusk. Hopefully that doesn’t become the norm because Castle was one of the few cop shows that wasn’t afraid to set scenes in multiple types of light environments. Next week should mark a return to the case of the week format, so hopefully it will also return to being much more fun.

Verdict: Watch it

Only two shows worth checking out for me tonight, and both are returns, the aging NCIS and the massive downward spiral that Glee has become, though they have a writing staff this year, so it might actually improve. Or at least have consistent characterizations. Regardless, I’ll be back here tomorrow with my thoughts.

Sleep well,

DTE

Premiere Week–Preview

I’m going to do my best to keep this post brief, not that I’ve ever succeeded in doing that in the past, but I can try. It’s been a couple weeks since I wrote, so I’m sure it comes as no surprise that my return post is media related. It’s a topic that interests me and, since my posts on the Upfronts generated the most page views so far this year by an order of magnitude, it seemed logical to weigh in on the shows I passed judgement on back in May. Most of the fall premieres take place this week, so I’ll checking out the few shows that seem promising, as well as the season premieres of the returning shows that I continue to watch.

A few shows jumped the gun and began last week. The new shows I sampled last week were:

Ringer: I was mainly interested in this one solely because it marked Sarah Michelle Gellar’s return to TV. Turns out that was the only notable thing about this show. This is a clumsy, dull attempt at a thriller, devoid of interesting characters and glacially paced. About the only way to wring any enjoyment out of it is to count how many shots there are of characters looking in mirrors (the show’s about dual natures, get it?). It happens a lot.

Verdict: Skip it

Free Agents: The draw here is that I’m a fan of creator John Enbom’s other shows, especially his work on Veronica Mars and Party Down. Unfortunately, this show is a complete waste of his talents. Trying to be a romantic comedy, it’s lacking any actual laughs. The 30 minutes of the pilot took forever.

Verdict: Skip it

The returning shows last week faired a little better:

It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia: Season 7 - The dark humour returned with a vengeance. Dead hooker in the hallway – need I say more? It wasn’t all great, though. It felt like it lacked focus and the “Mac got fat” storyline never really worked after the initial shock value.

Verdict: Watch it

Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Season 4 – As a series Clone Wars has been wildly uneven, bouncing between serious, adult tones and silly juvenile humour. It’s at its best when it shoots for serious. The season premiere mostly leans in this direction, though the story wasn’t one of their strongest.

Verdict: Watch it

Young Justice: Season 1.5 – Not really a new season, just the beginning of the second half of the first season after a long hiatus. A fairly strong episode but nothing fantastic.

Verdict: Watch it

On tap tonight is the return of How I Met Your Mother, and Castle, as well as the pilot for 2 Broke Girls. Check back tomorrow for my thoughts.

Sleep well,

DTE