TV Premieres – The Week of September 1, 2008

Long gone are the days when all the major networks premiered all of their shows, or at least most of them, in the same single week in September. Now, the networks spread out their premieres in a more shot gun fashion, with differing results. HBO, which used to create alternative season viewing habits, has reached the point where they are not afraid to premiere their own shows at the same time as the network muscle.

That is why Labor Day week, brings a premiere of the fourth seasons of Prison Break and Bones, new episodes of the endless Fox series America’s Most Wanted and Cops, and on HBO, the return of Entourage. Also premiering on HBO is a new series from the creator of Six Feet Under called Tru Blood, about vampires living among us.

Prison Break, a show that avoided jumping the shark in later season sby doing it in its pilot episode (when the hero with an escape plan tattooed over his entire body breaks into prison), somehow has managed to make it to its fourth season. Part of the reason it has lasted is because diehards like me continue to watch this blatantly ridiculous concept for a television show. Half the time I can laugh at the convoluted plot, but most of the time I do not have a good answer as to why I'm still watching this series. The fact that (vaugue spoiler alert) a character known to everyone as dead will somehow magically be alive this season simply adds to the ridiculousness of this show. The two-hour premiere (actually two episodes) is September 1, in the first hour and second hour of the network night. After that week, Fox has smartly moved Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles to the opening hour hoping that the audience will hang on for Prison Break. Since Prison Break will then be opposite Heroes on NBC. Since most genre fans will move from Sarah Connor to Heroes, it appears that Fox has finally given up on Prison Break and we should expect this to be its last season.

Wednesday's evening on Fox is anchored by Bones, a forensic police investigation show that rises above its pedigree through humor, and endearing characterizations. While the main leads have terrific chemistry, hopefully never ruined by a romance until the show is on its last legs, the remainder of the cast is equally up to the task. At the end of last season (vague spoiler alert) the show runners turned a regular good guy into a bad guy, and how this will affect the cast group is unknown. However, it is believed that this character in Hannibal Lecter style will continue to aid the group if not on a regular basis than at least on an occasional basis.

Entourage, pushed back to the fall because of the writers strike, has been sorely missed. As the show ended, Vinnie Chase and his brother appeared to be entering on different paths than what they were used to: Vinny, the only one who appreciated his latest independent production (Medellin), at the Cannes film Festival, has his career was in question. His brother, Johnny Drama, not only had a television series, but also fell in love with a French woman who seems enamored of him. While this is not an ordinary situation comedy, the change of the situation to a down and out Vinny Chase and an on the top Johnny Drama would seem to be an interesting way to go if that is truly the direction they intend for the current season. We can only wait and see.

I am definitely curious about Tru Blood, a series from Alan Ball about a society like ours where vampires openly coexist. The title is a reference to a synthetic blood which keeps the vampires from having to live off the blood of living human. Apparently intended as a parable for gays integrating into society, it is hard to tell whether this is a comedy, fantasy, or some Gothic version of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Obviously, Buffy and its spinoff Angel have set somewhat of a high bar for shows dealing with vampires, but HBO and Alan Ball seemed to work well together. We'll have to wait and see on this one as well but I will be tuned in for its premiere before Entourage on Sunday June 7.

Warner Brothers Wakes Up - Kinda

Warner Bros. has recently announced that they had decided to mine the DC Comics superheroes available to them through corporate synergy due to the success of The Dark Knight. Although prior to this announcement, some talk had been running through the executive offices as to what to do with the Superman franchise, and The Flash, Green Lantern and Captain Marvel movies are in various stages of development, the recent acknowledgment that they have superheroes at their beck and call seems to be a move that any other corporation might have made long before now.

Marvel, based primarily upon the success of Sony's Spiderman franchise but specifically the first Spiderman and X-Men movies, quickly managed to get these franchises going, adding the Fantastic Four to the list of successful series (although why these shoddy productions are a success is a mystery) and has twice made poor to middling movies based upon The Incredible Hulk. The latter Hulk was from Marvel’s own studio, which earlier this past summer proved itself with Iron Man.

With the success of Iron Man, Marvel boldly announced a slate of movies that included an Iron Man sequel, Thor, a two-part Captain America film and ultimately a movie with all of the characters combined, The Avengers.

Warner's on the other hand, after smartly restarting the Batman franchise, acted too wishy-washy in response to Superman Returns. So, as The Dark Knight zoomed past Star Wars as the second highest grossing film of all time, the suits at Warners finally woke up with one late to the party brilliant idea, “Lets make more superhero movies” and a second totally bone headed one: “Lets reboot Superman and make it dark, like Batman.”

Once again, a major studio decides to copy success (this time from themselves) without understanding what should be copied. Why were The Dark Knight and Batman Begins so successful? Hmmmm....not good script, not good actors, not good direction ...oh I know, because it was dark!! Maybe just maybe, Superman Returns did not meet expectations (but let's face it, grossing $392 million worldwide is not failure) because as a movie it was good but not great. Maybe just maybe, Superman Returns would have done better if it had been an ACTION movie instead of a romance. Maybe, just maybe, Warner's should try to copy the emphasis placed on putting together talented people to make a movie, rather than assume a single element makes all the difference. Batman's darkness is organic, and the darkness within him is the reason Bruce Wayne is Batman. Moreover, the source material for the movie, not the least of which is Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns, leads to Bruce Wayne's dark character and the look and feel of the movie. Superman is who he is because he rises above the human negatives.

How can the artists hired by Warner Brothers know what it takes to be successful, and then have those elements lost on those raking in the money? Anybody who has seen The Dark Knight knows that the movie was a great film, and deserves the money that it is making, because of a great script, great acting, and good plotting that happen to include action elements and a dark mood.

Message to Warners: Your hero is pre-sold – just make a good movie. We will show up.