Quick reviews of TV shows!

 Television  Add comments
Oct 262006
 
  • Lost: Getting better. Of course, after two more episodes they’re going to be off the air for a few months. But it’s nice that they’re answering some questions, and this is the best-looking show on the air.
  • Friday Night Lights: Worth watching even though most of the characters are jerks. Not super cheerful, though.
  • Top Chef: Totally excellent. This show is great. But why wasn’t anyone involved in the show annoyed at Marissa for selling Otto out? She’s a total Omarosa, I’m telling you. But it’s probably good that Otto left–he was quickly becoming as emotional and spastic in the kitchen as Dave was last season. Plus, what he did was incomprehensibly stupid and he deserved to get kicked off for it–so he did the right thing by volunteering to bow out of the competition. Anyway. Great show. I will almost certainly be writing a lot more about it as the season continues.
  • Heroes: Well made but ridiculous. If you’re going to cheat in a casino, don’t do it by switching cards with a guy across the table from you and using the cards he’s already seen in his own hand to beat him. That example is from last week because I haven’t watched this week’s episode yet. Anyway, I guess I’ll keep watching–but I’m just looking for a reason to drop it (see The Nine, below).
  • 30 Rock: Alec Baldwin is very funny. The show is not, at least not so far. It’s got two more weeks to improve.
  • 20 Good Years: Awful. George Bluth has fallen very far. Hackneyed jokes and uninteresting/unrealistic plotlines (Daphne from Frasier is a cool punkrock club owner and finds both guys attractive after 5 minutes of dumb dialogue in her club?) don’t make for compelling television. And high definition is not kind to either of the leads. No more DVR season pass for this one.
  • Studio 60: I will keep watching, just as I kept watching West Wing during the 3 or 4 years when it was just awful and stupid. And hopefully it will get better eventually, just as West Wing did in its last couple of years. But I’m not counting on it.
  • Grey’s Anatomy: Ugh. No more.
  • The Office: Still the funniest show on television. But the promos are abysmal. NBC feels the need to make the romantic plotlines the selling point for both The Office and Studio 60 when they are in fact peripheral to the plots of each episode. To be honest, I don’t care whether Jim and Pam ever get together, and more generally I don’t care about the romantic lives of these characters–except in that they make it funnier. How about you tell me what the episode will actually be about (the boss takes everyone to the circus and asks out a mime!, Creed secretly distills moonshine in the supplies closet!, they decide to do diversity training again because it was hilarious last time!, etc.). At any rate, I have nothing bad to say about the show itself, because it just keeps getting better and better.
  • 1 vs. 100: I don’t have much to add to Ken Jennings’s thoughts on the show. The rules are a mess and dilute the drama to the point that it’s hard to care at all about what’s happening. And the questions start out so easy that it’s not much fun to play along. It’s no Deal or No Deal, that’s for sure. But Sagat is willing to touch the contestants, which is a plus.
 Posted by JHW at 12:12 pm
  • Pimbo

    30 Rock is very hard for me to figure out. I am lukewarm on Tina Fey, I dislike Tracy Morgan, and I have a huge mancrush on Alec Baldwin. Every moment he’s on the screen the show is hilarious. When he’s not, it’s not. He NAILS this character perfectly. But should you watch a show for one great character? When he’s not even the lead?

  • http://ihatethesefeeds.com vengeance_is_me

    You watch way too much tv.

  • http://discreet_chaos.livejournal.com discreet_chaos

    Ah, Heroes… But you know that someone must’ve written “Save the Cheerleader – Save the World” decades ago and they’ve just been looking for a reason to say it. (I’m also mostly watching it online)

    And, I did my review for the Sorkin earlier in the week. About the only other things that I’ve been saying on the subject, all via comments around the web is that the “relationship” between Matthew Perry and the christian girl is reminiscent of what might’ve happened between Rob Lowe and Ainsley, if she hadn’t found another gig.

    Also, this week’s thing with the blacklisted writer reminded me in tone and structure of the thing Sorkin did about the Negro Baseball League in an episode of Sports Night.

    I guess if you’re going to recycle anybody, it is best to recycle yourself.

  • http://www.en-dash.com Jake

    discreet_chaos:

    It was also very reminiscent of the homeless guy who wandered into the SN studio–underneath the confusion/crazy, he’s a human being!!!! But basically Sorkin just needs to write, once in a while, about a subject that doesn’t alienate 90% of the viewers.

  • http://www.asofterworld.com joey

    The Office – I’m with you. In the second season this quickly became the best show on TV. Not just the funniest! It’s only gotten better and better, too. It is far better than the UK original. It adds humanity to the mix, I think! I don’t really want jim and pam to get together, or care, but it broke my heart a little when Jan went home from asino night alone, and I get all misty when Angela and Dwight have a moment. The beauty of the show is that it takes awful, awkward moments, but then it gives you a release at the end. Nobody invites michael to the party, he shows up anyway, starts singing karaoke. That’s where the UK one would have ended. But Jim gets up and sings with him, and Michael’s so happy! I don’t know. I love it.

   
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