Random thoughts on the New Fall Season - September 28, 2008

Random thoughts: While "only" 10 million people watched the opening night of Heroes, the show runners clearly have hit the ground running. Its clear how they will manage to make some of our "heroes" into "villains" and without a clue as to where it will go. While we are bound to re-visit the future (the opener actually began there) I am sure we will have a cleanup episode from the recent past that should shed light on some of the story threads, especially "Nicky/Jessica/Tracy."

The DVR conflict on Monday night between Heroes, Two and 1/2 Men and Prison Break finally got me off the Prison Break main line. There is hope for me. ON the same note, Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles at the earlier hour is a blessing.

While I am still not happy with "Sweets" as a regular on Bones, it was great to Dr. Addy again. More significantly, I am amazed at how well the writers have kept up the relationship between Bones and Booth. Their banter and chemistry is still spot on.

When is House going to get back to Chase and Cameron, who did not even appear in the last episode? Not only do these characters have nothing to do, but House has added a character?? (actor Michael Weston playing a detective hired to spy on Wilson. Since the rumor is that Hugh Laurie is about to get Kiefer Sutherland money, how can this show afford to go on?

Fringe looks like it is living up to its hype, but the fact that every one of their investigations connects up to Dr. Bishop's past, while most likely not a coincidence, will probably reach a point, ala Lost, where the twisty mythology starts to unravel.

And speaking of Fringe, has anyone noticed the number of The Wire alums that are scoring new shows. Lance Riddick on Fringe, Jamie Hector on Heroes, Amy Ryan on The Office and Tristan Wilds on 90210 (will not and never will watch it). I could have sworn on I also saw Clarke Peters (Lt. Freeman) on previews for Life on Mars.

Smallville and Grey's Anatomy seem to be back in stride. Smallville is transitioning Clark to Metropolis, while Grey's seems to be trying to soften up Yang and Hahn. They can't do anything with Meridith's constant self-absorption.

Bones Need Less Sweets

Having watched the two hour season premiere of Bones, one wonders if the producers have made a mistake by making Dr. Sweets a regular character. Last season, his role was as a counselor to Bones and Booth. Now, apparently he hangs with the lab geeks and gives out unwanted advice? He worked last season, including the unspoken element of him being suspected (by the fans) of being the killer B&B had been looking for all season (that turned out to be Dr. Addy, who was written out of the show. The writers need to find a better and more organic way to use him on a "regular" basis.

If the season a opener is any indication, having more Sweets is not good.

Prison Breaks Into Mission Impossible?

Watched the season premiere of Prison Break. Kick me! This show is so absurd! Not only does it not deal with a prison break (only its aftermath, if that) but now the boys are matched up together as some sort of well financed Mission Impossible Force working clandestine to bring down "The Company." While they have laid some ground rules as to why they would work with Mahone (a truce), none of the ex-cons owes anything to Bellick who suddenly has a personality transplant.

And while we probably do not know enough about their "boss", Homeland Security agent Don Self (Michael Rapaport), why he had to go way outside to create a secret force will never have a satisfactory explanation (if any). It also appears clear that at one point they will be in cahoots with arch enemy Gretchen.

At least T-Bag remains true to his character (even after having eaten some bad Mexican).

Superboy Needs a Facelift? - The Aging of Smallville (Part Two)

As the first season progresses, Clark discovers for the first time that he is from another planet, but without any knowledge as to why or where he is actually from. Jonathan Kent, portrayed as an all too human but good intentioned farmer by former Dukes of Hazzard star John Schneider, raises Clark to hide his powers and to not use them for personal gain. Lex Luthor, on the other hand, has been raised to take any advantage available to him and to go to any lengths in order to obtain wealth and opportunity. A chance meeting between the two, involving a car accident that should have killed both Clark and Lex, leads to their friendship, and to Lex and Lionel’s suspicions that Clark may be something other than an ordinary farm boy.

Tom Welling is a perfect Clark Kent for a new age, tall and good-looking, and capable of the mixture of comic touch and brooding necessary in a teenager who knows he has superpowers but cannot tell a soul. Michael Rosenbaum is (and with apologies to Gene Hackman) the best Lex Luthor ever made. This Lex is actually capable, at least early on, of becoming somebody decent, and is more often than not a sympathetic character. He simply needs the right role model in his life to show him that there is a better way. That role model is Clark Kent.

While nuanced at first but later actually said out loud by some of the characters, all Clark has to do is reveal to Lex Luthor that he has superpowers and is from another planet, i.e. trust Lex, and the Lex Luthor that we know he will become might never happen. Ironically it is Clark Kent, the future bastion of Truth (along with Justice and the American Way) who chooses to lie in order to hide his secret identity, while it is Lex who early in their relationship consistently confesses his sins to his new friend Clark, someone Lex considers the brother that he never had While Lex is headed toward fate in part because of the way he was parented, and in part because his DNA may force him to become the evil force in Metropolis, the bottom line appears to be that he is doomed because he can find no one, even his best friend Clark, who will trust him.

Clark's destiny is substantially more complex but for a completely different reason. To the uninitiated, Superman is who is because of his costume and his superpowers. This is actually not true. Superman is who he is because with his powers he could become a god and rule the earth. Instead, he chooses self sacrifice, and forsaking of a normal life, to save the world. (That the Superman story is a Judaic-Christian metaphor, both Moses and Jesus, has long been understood. Bryan Singer’s Superman Returns hit us over the head with the Jesus part.)

As previously indicated, the writers and creators were probably not of the belief that Clark would make it out of high school before the show was canceled. Because of this the show began to grow long in teeth somewhere around the introduction to Smallville of Lois Lane, and the vague and extremely short pass at college by all of the teenage characters. This was followed in quick succession by the appearance of Jimmy Olsen and, profoundly, with the introduction of Supergirl in the Seventh Season.
Part Three of this post will appear tomorrow.

The New Fall Season: Out with the old, in with a few – Part Two

The following is a continuation of the blog post begun yesterday.

Thursday

Somewhere between the old “Must See Thursday,” when NBC controlled the night, and the present day, Thursday became a huge night for the network, lead in large part by the add revenue from movie studios pushing their Friday openings.

Only three new programs are scheduled, all with sheltered show case spots, and all remakes of shows from other countries.

Kath and Kim, a half-hour comedy programmed after My Name Is Earl, stars Molly Shannon and Selma Blair as a quirky mother and daughter, and is based on an Australian show of the same name. If he writing is as good as the casting, this show may add to NBC’s list of prestige (but relatively low rated) comedies on Thursdays (the other being The Office and 30 Rock).

The who-can-keep-it’s-its-audience-from-the-show-before-it sweepstakes entries are the 11^th Hour (CBS after CSI) and Life on Mars (ABC after Grey’s Anatomy). 11^th Hour is based on a BBC show that starred Patrick Stewart, about a science investigator and his female body guard who looks into the misuse of science. The original was not interested in pursuing a love relationship between he two main characters, but this is the U.S. after all, and this likely plot element, combined with Jerry Bruckheimer’s production hand, will probably make this show more predictable than its source material deserves.

When The Videot first heard of an effort to remake Life on Mars for an American audience, optimism was not rampant. The original, also a BBC program, involved present day police detective Sam Tyler who, after a car accident, wakes up in 1973 assigned as a police officer in a rough and tumble, smoke filled sexist police department. While Sam tries to figure out if he is “mad, in a coma, or back in time,” he works without a cell phone or DNA evidence to solve crimes, establishing relationships with his fellow cops. Of the shows many pleasures, the character of Sam’s boss, Gene Hunt, played by Philip Glenister, brings the greatest impact to show, as a cop who will ignore a victim’s rights to get an arrest, but is willing to listen to Sam’s approach if it will get the job done.

The Videot had intended to check out this new version out of curiosity, but now sees this as a must see. Why? Harvey Freakin’ Keitel has been cast as Gene Hunt!! The Soprano’s Michael Imperioli plays Sam’s precinct competitor!! I’m in.

Fridays

Only two new shows grace the most forgiving night on television. Fridays of the not so recent past often contained such long lasting shows as The Rockford Files, The Incredible Hulk, Dallas, Miami Vice and, of course, The X-Files. Now, middling shows like Numbers (does anybody under 60 watch this show?) and Wife Swap (people watch this idiotic thing but skipped out on Swingtown?) populate a night where shows go that the networks feels fit some sort of demographic, or as in the case of critical darling Friday Night Lights, are given a chance to survive on a slow night.

The two new shows are not pushing this envelope. The Ex-List (CBS) is about a woman who is told by a psychic that she has already met her future husband and must find with him within a year or forever remain single. So she sets out to get in touch with all her previous boy friends. Hmmmmm….how long is this show supposed to last? Lets assume for the moment that this show runs for three years (bad assumption, I know, but work with me). This would mean that she does not find the man of her dreams for at least two and one-half seasons. Do you see where this is going? Now let’s also assume that the shows structure involves her with one of her old boyfriends in each episode. With 22 episodes a season, well….this lady is a slut!!! Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

NBC’s Crusoe is the other new Friday show: the preview looks like it expands upon the simple premise of a man alone on an island with pirates, natives, flashbacks and lots of expensive stuff. The official website however, www.nbc.com/Crusoe, claims it is faithful to the novel. It also says it is a thirteen part series. Worth a try, but worth the investment? Will all thirteen episodes be shown if the ratings are low? Are you not following me? This is Friday – ratings will not matter that much.

Saturday

The elephant’s graveyard of network television. Nothing new unless you count reruns of Knight Rider. I don’t.

Sunday

The only thing new on Sunday night is the CW’s experiment in outsourcing television programming. A company called Media Rights Capital has put together a mix of four shows: reality type In Harms Way, a show that tracks a new dangerous job each week, a half-hour family comedy Surviving Suburbia, starring Bob Saget, Valentine, in which modern day Greek gods (as in THE Greek gods) influence the love lives of deserving people and Easy Money, an hour long drama about a family that owns a company that provides short terms loans. This last sounds bizarre but stars Laurie Metcalf and Judge Reinhold which makes it sound more interesting, but I can think of better things to do on Sunday Night, like football.

More interesting is whether the normally low rated CW will do better with this business model. Hopefully, this and the Friday Night Lights experiment with DirectTV won’t be the most interesting result of the 2008 season.

The New Fall Season: Out With the Old, In With a Few – Part One

The new fall television season appears to be greatly affected by the writer strike. While there was some concern earlier in the year that an actor strike might also have a devastating effect, it appears that the actors themselves are not particularly interested in the strike and the studios know it. Currently, it looks as if we may have a "regular" season like we once did and perhaps actually get a bit of a break. Specifically, it is long become the habit of the major networks to schedule their new seasons only up to a point that matters for the Nielsen ratings. Although premieres are necessary in the fall in order to try to capture some audience, and even then shows are given only a brief period of time to rise or fall, the networks often start dropping reruns on us early on in order to pack the sweeps periods (November, February, and May) with new episodes and ”event” programming.

The good and bad of the new season is that there are very few new entries into the network schedules, meaning that older shows that just two years ago would have been canceled (such as Big Bang Theory on CBS, Life on NBC and Reaper on CW), have been given green lights. Friday Night Lights, a terrific television show that I and only three other people watch, has been renewed under as unique as scenario that as far as we know has ever occurred on network television. Specifically, FNL will first premiere on DirecTV (Oct. 1) and will not appear on the network schedules until sometime in 2009 (and actually on Fridays for the first time in its three seasons). Whether this means the DirectTV version will push the censorship envelope is unknown.

The ultimate effect, for better or worse, is fewer new shows. Here they are on a night by night basis.

Mondays

Only two new fall series appear on Monday nights. The Worst Week, a half-hour comedy to follow Two and a Half Men on CBS, in which the main character tries to impress his future in-laws, may be funny but sounds like a limited premise.

On the other hand, The Videot is looking forward to My Own Worst Enemy, a Christian Slater action-adventure series that follows Heroes on NBC. Slater is an everyday guy who's split personality alter ego (ala Jekyll and Hyde) is a superspy. NBC of late has a tendency to be somewhat risky in their hour long series (such as Chuck, Heroes, and the ill-fated remake of the Bionic Woman) and since The Videot likes genre shows, gives them a lot of credit for continuing to try despite so many failures. My Own Worst Enemy is definitely a show that the video will be hoping the best for. Teaming it with Heroes makes sense, but only if Heroes picks up a larger audience than its shortened second season and the audience stays tuned to NBC.

Tuesdays

Five new shows are scheduled for Tuesdays, with three of them, The Mentalist (CBS), Privileged (CW), and Fringe (Fox) all pitted against each other in the second hour of the night, opposite the returning Dances With the Stars on ABC. The Videot predicts and votes for Fringe as the winner, as it comes from J. J. (Lost, Alias, Star Trek) Abrams and should benefit from the strong lead in from House. The show looks like an X-Files style FBI show, with an ongoing conspiracy and sci-fi elements. Here’s hoping that the show does not get “Lost” in its mythology. The Mentalist has a been here done that feel, as a former psychic who really just has good powers of perception, works as a police officer, and looks for the serial killer that killed his family. Privileged is targeted to the CW core audience, as a young woman is hired to tutor two rich young women. The Videot guesses that the show will sneer at the rich while showing off to its young female audience how cool being rich really is.

The CW also has a remake/update of Beverly Hills 90210, simply called 90210. While The Videot has no intention of watching this night time soap, this idea makes loads of sense for the CW as the show comes somewhat pre-marketed, may bring in older than usual demographics to the network, and may also promote good DVD sales of the old shows.

The last new show on this night is Opportunity Knocks, a game show described by ABC as “One lucky family … brought together each week to play the game of a lifetime … to prove they know each other inside and out.” The Videot will never watch this show. Not once. Not ever.

Wednesday

Of the four new shows that will grace Wednesday nights, only Gary Unmarried, a sitcom about a newly divorced man played by Jay Mohr, looks watchable by the Videot. Why? Did I mention Jay Mohr?

The CW has Stylista, a “reality” show in which voted-off-each-week members are competed for a job at Elle magazine. The originality of this show is awe inspiring.

Do Not Disturb is a comedy on Fox about the workers and patrons of a swanky hotel. The Videot yawned while writing this.

Finally, here is hoping that Knight Rider, a remake with updated effects, plot and Val Kilmer as the voice of Kitt, gets Bionic Womened, and sooner rather than later. Val Kilmer deserves better, unless of course he is getting huge bucks for very little work.

Tune in tomorrow for Thursday through Sunday.