Back to You premieres

Last night, Fox premiered Back to You, the new sitcom starring Kelsey Grammar and Patricia Heaton.  The ads for this show looked pretty good, though it had all of the earmarks of a standard sitcom.

Sure enough, the show is textbook.  There’s nothing suprising about the show, including the “twist” that Heaton’s show daughter is also Grammar’s love child.  I have a feeling that this subplot will probably end up going away.  The interaction at the news office is just too rich.

While standard fare, the show is well written, and the jokes very funny.  This is a good companion to Fox’s returning ‘Til Death (which is also looking good in its second season).

9/20/2007 1:09:53 PM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)      Comments [0]  TV

A Surprising Kid Nation

The press has been all over Kid Nation, talking about injured kids and broken child labor laws.  It looked pretty bleak for the show (which sounded pretty lame from the get go).

It premiered last night, and Ta Dah! It was fine!  The show was darn good.  Like all reality shows, there were annoying participants and more viewer friendly participants.  CBS did a very good job of tugging at the ole heartstrings with this one.

I’m fascinated with how these kids interact with each other.  One thing that most adults don’t consider is that kids don’t act around adults the way they act when adults aren’t present.  This could turn out to be a very fascinating show.

As for the bad publicity, I have a feeling that CBS wanted this.  Frankly, it smacked of the kind of press buzz that surrounded the multi-racial Survivor season (which also turned out to be nothing).  CBS basically got a ton of free publicity around an idea that sounded like a yawner.

I’m once again pleasantly suprised about what’s showing up this season.

9/20/2007 1:05:39 PM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)      Comments [0]  TV

Fall Preview

The Fall TV season starts during the next couple of weeks, and I’m looking forward to it.  When I first saw the new shows in May, I was underwhelmed.  It’s amazing how a summer of reall horrible TV can change your outlook.  Don’t get me wrong. Now that I’ve seen some scenes (and even a pilot), the fall season is looking up to me.

Bionic Woman:  I saw the pilot last night.  NBC posted several pilots on Comcast’s On Demand channel (I guess hoping to attract some attention). Anyway, this was one of the shows that I didn’t have high hopes for.  The original show was terrible, a cheap knockoff of the original six million dollar man.  The pilot, however, was great.  It looks like this is going to be a great show.

Cavemen:  This show had all of the signs of a loser. It’s based on the characters from they Geico commercials. I hate those commercials.  The scenes, however, were hilarious. I don’t know if its going to make it, but it definitely doesn’t look like it will suck.

So, I have my premiere schedules printed out, and am programming my DVR’s as the schedules permit.  Who knows? this season may not be so bad after all  …

9/16/2007 2:30:13 PM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)      Comments [0]  TV

Big Warcraft News!
According to The Movie Blog, Blizzard has announced that the World of Warcraft movie will be released in 2009! I can’t wait …
8/5/2007 7:38:12 PM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)      Comments [0]  TV

A Bittersweet night

Last night was a bittersweet night for me.  It was the season (and series) finale for Studio 60.  When this show started the season, it was the best thing on TV (no, really.  No hype.).  On the other hand, I thought its fraternal twin, 30 Rock was the worst show on TV.

In the following weeks, Tina Fey got her sitcom legs and the show began to get really funny.  It ended the season at the top of my list.  At the same time, Studio 60 was tanking.  The show meandered around, with plots that could be summed up as “who cares?”.  Ironically, it wasn’t until the end of the Fall season that the show started working its way out of the doldrums. It was too late.  NBC started sticking other shows in its time slot (none of which did any better, ratings-wise), until it became clear that Studio 60 was dead meat.  I started hearing stories that the actors were moving on, and even if NBC had a change of heart, there wasn’t a cast for another season. 

Then, after the regular season ended, NBC played the last shows.  They’ve been beautiful.  While they haven’t risent to the quality of the pilot, they’ve been top caliber TV. 

Now, it’s all over. I’m going to miss this cast; they were all stellar talent. I hope that I’m going to see them again soon.

6/29/2007 12:31:27 PM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)      Comments [0]  TV

30 Rock and 20 Good Years

I’m hearing that 30 Rock is moving to Thursday nights (NBC is resurrecting its sitcom night, a good move) and 20 Good Years is a goner.  I think that this is a bit of a shame.  As bad as 20 Good Years is, the premiere was the worst and its gotten steadily better since.  In fact, I’d say that 20 Good Years is much funnier than 30 Rock, which has gone in the opposite direction, getting steadily worse.  I suspect that NBC is propping it up because of the money they have invested in it.  I can’t complain too much about that, since that’s what’s keeping Studio 60 going too.

By the way, the other added Thursday night comedy is Scrubs. I’m very excited about this; they should have been moved to Thursday nights years ago.

10/27/2006 8:33:49 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)      Comments [0]  TV

October Reruns
Just when things were getting good (Monday’s Studio 60 episode was the best since the premiere), we’re smack dab in the October rerun season.  At least, baseball is ending, and new Fox shows are coming back.  And, we should get a good month of TV in November, for sweeps.
10/26/2006 10:14:38 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)      Comments [0]  TV

TV Spot Check

As of tonight, we’re pretty much done with the season premieres, so I thought that it would be a good time to do a spot check of how the shows are doing…

How I Met Your Mother:  The show’s settled in to its rhythm.  They seem to have abandoned the premise of a guy meeting his future wife for more of a typical “Friends” style show.  This could be the “new Raymond”.

The Class:  This show’s gotten better than its really poor start.  While disguised as a typical sitcom, its got a really twisted sense of humor.  If it finds its stride and fixes its flaws, this could become something really good.

Two and a Half Men:  This is the current “new Raymond”.  The show’s gotten a bit boring.  Like I said earlier, they need to spend more time with Rose and Jake.  Those parts continue to be hilarious.

Adventures of Old Christine:  So, this is what an Emmy awarded show looks like.  I have to admit its the best sitcom in the CBS Monday lineup.

CSI Miami:  We need more Emily Proctor!  She’s really come into her own in this show.

Heroes:  This show is supposed to be a hit.  So far, its a yawner to me.  I’m hoping it gets better.

Studio 60:  There’s been a lot of talk lateley about how this show’s not doing that well in the ratings.  On the other hand, this is easily the best written show on TV now.  Okay, its a little too “inside” right now.  Aaron Sorkin needs to recapture the West Wing magic.  At its height, West Wing was like a little weekly civics lesson on how government works.  Sorkin needs to do the same thing with Studio 60.  I hope he does; this is one of the few shows that I can watch over and over again.

Vanished:  This show’s been surprisingly entertaining.  Unfortunatley, its also not doing well in the ratings, and Fox is moving it to Friday nights.  That’s actually good news for me, since there’s less competition for my DVR’s Friday.

Help Me Help You:  A typical sitcom.  nothing good, nothing bad.  Some of the patients on the show are mildly interesting.

Boston Legal:  Another show that gives us more of what we got last year.  This year, they’re getting more self-referential and make periodic references to the show.  I’m still enjoying it:  William Shatner and James Spader remain terrific in this show.

NCIS:  Anither tried and true show, in its stride.  Predictable and still entertaining.

The Unit:  This show took over for the E-Ring last season, and quickly became the show that the E-Ring should have been.  The show continues to be high-testosterone; the best action show on the TV schedule.

Smith:  Gone, and not missed.

Law and Order CI:  Yet another show giving us what we expect.  So far, I don’t particularly like Julianne Nicholson as Logan’s new partner.  Don’t get me wrong, I loved her last season in Conviction.  But, here, she’s just taking up space.  This show’s all about the characters, and so far she isn’t one.  Also, I miss Jamey Sheridan.

Standoff:  This show’s turned out to be better than I expected.  I still don’t like the “relationship” subplot between the two leads; it distracts from the show.

Jericho:  This is supposed to be a “Lost” knockoff.  In my opinion, they do a better job than Lost does.  The show’s a bit of an anachronism since the end of the Cold War.  I’m waiting to see how they explain the nuclear attacks.  In the meantime, its a lot of soapy fun.

Criminal Minds:  This has to be the most violent show on TV.  I’m amazed to remember that the original Starsky and Hutch series was blasted for too much violence.  Compared to Criminal Minds, it was Sesame Street.  I love the psychological aspect of the show, but hate the violent undercurrent.  I wish they’d do something about that.  Because of that, it remains in danger of falling off my list.

CSI NY:  This one is less soapy than Miami, but definitely soapier than the original.  It’s a good hour of quality TV.

Bones:  They’re upping the relationship factor of the show, which is a big help.  It was pretty good last season, its getting better this season.

Justice:  Not a great show, but not as bad as its pilot (which was awful).  Fox hasn’t given up on it yet, so I’m not either.

Ugly Betty:  This show isn’t living up to its hype.  I’m hoping hard for an upturn.

Grey’s Anatomy:  This was the top show last week, and deserves it. I love this show!

Six Degrees:  Weird soap show.  Off my list.

Survivor:  The show’s gotten long in the tooth.  The race based tribes was actually interesting, but that’s over now and its just more of the same.  They need to bring back Rob and Amber

CSI:  I didn’t like the season starter.  They need to get back to what they do best: investigations.

Shark:  Not a bad court drama.  James Woods is delightfully cartoony.  They need to work on his relationship with his daughter though; it was better in the pilot than since.

My Name is Earl:  The best comedy on TV.  Hey, where’s the Emmy???

The Office:  Still an acquired taste.  Of course, I’ve acquired it.

‘Til Death:  Oh, I wish this show were better; Brad Garrett deserves better.

Happy Hour:  Another show I wish was better than it is.  It might be gone now.  That’s too bad, but expected.

Men in Trees:  Off the list.  Thank goodness.

Close to Home:  I hated that they killed off Annabeth’s husband.  There’s way too many single moms on TV as it is, and this was just mean.  Also the new DA, James Conlon, gets on my nerves.  They need to get back to what the show was about last season.

Numb3rs:  I like this show a lot, even though the premise is incredibly silly (math crime fighter, sheesh). But! Charlie and Amita need to kick it into gear.  It’s got to be the most frustating (and least entertaining) relationship on TV.

Desperate Housewives:  They’re going “back to basics”, and it shows.  This season’s already a marked improvement over last season.

Amazing Race:  Still the 2nd best reality show on TV (Project Runway’s the best, no matter what the Emmys say).

Simpsons, American Dad, Family Guy, War at Home:  The four dads.  Good home town comedy. I”m amazed that the Simpsons continue to please.

This just in:

30 Rock:  This show has its moments.  Alec Baldwin is a comedic genius (who knew?).  Tina Fey is a good writer, but she has to learn that her role here is as the “straight man”, and stay away from the jokes.

20 Good Years:  I’ve only watched 5 minutes of this show, and I already know that its a stinker. Please, please please go away.

Well, that’s what I’m watching.  So far, a better season start than in quite a while, but it could get better. Here’s hoping.

10/11/2006 9:01:54 PM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)      Comments [0]  TV

Runway Serendipity

This past weekend, I found myself sitting at a table of my cousins (it was my sister’s and brother-in-law’s 25th wedding anniversary).  It turns out that we’re all Runway fans.  What are the odds?

9/27/2006 8:56:55 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)      Comments [0]  TV | general

Premiere Week starts

While the days of a single “premiere week” for network television are long gone, this week comes closest.  After the drought of the summer, we have new shows starting this week right and left, mostly on CBS.  Here’s last night’s recap, based upon what I watched:

CBS Comedies:  CBS has pretty much taken over the first two hours of Monday night with comedies.  This year, we have three returnees and one newbee.

The Class:  This is the only new show on CBS’s Monday schedule.  A bunch of third-grade classmates get re-acquainted.  The show’s been described as a “Friends-style” show, and it has a lot in common with that one, including a really bad start (for those that don’t remember, Friends was pretty solidly panned when it started as a “Sienfeld rip-off”).  The show has some potential.  We’ll see where it goes.

How I Met Your Mother:  It’s pretty obvious by now, that the “mother” isn’t going to be making an entrance into this show anytime soon.  The title of the show should be more like “What my friends and I did before your mother met me and straightened me out”.  It remains an okay show, but nowhere near as funny as the critics would like you to think.

Two and a Half Men:  Here we go, series re-start. Last season ended with Alan (the nebbish brother) getting married to his girlfriend, Kandi.  So, of course, this season Charlie has gone back to his partying ways (the likes of which we never saw before), and (like clockwork) Alan gets dumped by Kandi. Yawn.  As an aside, I’m going to miss Kandi. I thought she was a great character.  However, I’m hoping this season we’ll see more of Rose, the next door neighbor stalker with the psych degree (another great character).  Also, more of Jake, Alan’s son.  You know, the show is definitely best when Charlie and Alan play straight man to the rest of the cast.  Here’s hoping.

The New Adventures of Old Christine:  I continue to have mixed feelings about this show (Julia Louis-Dreyfus' Emmy notwithstanding).  Her character is amazingly funny and way more non-PC than is usually allowed on network television, but the plots of the show are incredibly tedious and boring.  I hear that Wanda Sykes will have a bigger part this season.  That should liven things up a bit.

No shining start in the CBS comedy lineup.  But, on to the big fish on the new Monday lineup:  Studio 60!

Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip:  This show’s gotten a lot of hype, thanks to the identities of the producers:  Aaron Sorkin and Tommy Schlamme.  They’re the creative force behind Sports Night (for those that remember) and West Wing. Likewise, I’ve been looking forward to this show, since I’m a big Aaron Sorkin fan.  The show turned out to be a bit of a surprise, mostly pleasant.  It’s a lot darker than Aaron’s previous two shows.  There’s a definite “sinister” quality to the show; most of the sets are downright dark.  The scenes of the show seemed to say “dramedy”, a la Ally McBeal or Boston Legal.  The reality (at least from the pilot) is that this show is much more serious than even West Wing was.  Yes, there are funny parts (Matthew Perry plays a comedy writer after all), but it comes across as more “comedy relief” than part of the main plot.  I thought that it was also interesting that, while the show has an ensemble cast, it seems to center around Matthew’s and Bradley Whitford’s characters.  I expected this. What I didn’t expect was that Matthew’s character would be the “lead” between the two.  In West Wing, there was originally a similar arrangement with Bradley Whitford (Josh Lyman) and Rob Lowe (Sam Seaborn), but it was Bradley that ended up being the main guy there, with Rob playing “straight man”.  Somehow, I expected the same in Studio 60.  Instead, its Matthew who takes the lead.  And, by the way, this is terrific.  I think Matthew Perry will be showing us just how good a dramatic actor he can be. He was probably the best in the pilot, followed closely by Sarah Paulson.  Also, its great to see Amanda Peet back on television.  I was a big Jack and Jill fan, and have loved her various screen parts.  Steven Weber is also terrific as the slimy executive responsible for much of the trouble on the show that Matthew and Bradley have stepped in to save.  All in all, if Aaron and company can keep the quality as high as the pilot, this will be the Emmy winner for best drama next year.

9/19/2006 10:04:48 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)      Comments [0]  TV

Some people are clueless
Yahoo news posted an article about the Survivor Cook Islands premiere, where they said that it was a “a bust”.  Apparently, the show could only be successful if it indeed turned out to be objectionable.  Perhaps this says something about Yahoo’s editorial staff…
9/15/2006 1:57:49 PM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)      Comments [0]  TV

One Reality season ends, and another begins

Reality alert:  Those of you who hate these shows, this one’s not for you.

 

This week, we saw the end of Big Brother All-Stars and the start of Survivor Cook Islands.

Big Brother: 
I didn’t watch much of Big Brother this year. The show’s getting long in the tooth, and pretty boring.  That being said, the final episodes were great.  Seeing Will Kirby, the “evil doctor” from BB 2, make it to the final four was amazing.  Some history for those of you who haven’t followed the show since its start:  Will was the winner of BB 2 (the only winner to make the All-Stars show), whose strategy was to tell everyone that he’d betray them, but always be nice to them (until the actual betrayal, which always happened).  He was a legend.  Among other things, that meant that he walked into BB 2 with the biggest target on his back. He plays the same kind of game, this time supported by his partner Mike “Boogie” Malin (They were allied in BB 2, but Will didn’t start his game winning strategy until after Mike was voted out).  At one point, Will announces to the whole household that he hates all of them! So, of course, they don’t vote him out. This turned out the be the most entertaining feature of the show, how “Chill Town” (Will and Boogie called themselves) went from underdogs to dominating the game.  Ultimately, Mike walked away with the victory, in no small part due to the great success of Chill Town’s strategy.

That being said, I really hope this is the last season for BB (probably not  ), because next year it’ll be back to the same old stale contestants.

Survivor Cook Islands:
This show’s been getting a lot of bad press the past few weeks, thanks to their “segregation” twist:  This year, there are 4 “tribes”, divided by “race”.  Of course, these are the American versions of race:  “African American”, “Asian American”, “Hispanic”, and “Caucasian”.  Being an “ethnic” person myself, I’m generally entertained when “white” folks find themselves being confronted by the fact that people are different, and have different backgrounds.  Here’s the “dirty little secret” that no one wanted to talk about before this show:  the “Caucasians” are a minority!  The last time I did my math, 5 out of 20 (or even 1 out of 4) does not constitute a majority.  In fact, this is the first season of Survivor where the white contestants are outnumbered!  Interestingly, the “Caucasian” tribe came in 3rd out of the 4 tribes in the first competition.  Stunt or no stunt, this new Survivor twist has restarted my interest in the show.

9/15/2006 10:31:58 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)      Comments [0]  TV

Amazon's Unboxed should be called "Not Ready"

When I heard about Amazon’s new video downloading product called “Amazon Unboxed”, I figured I’d give it a try.  The only criticism I heard was that it took too long to download a show, but I regularly record and watch shows days after their broadcast, so that wasn’t a big deal to me.

To test out the system, I downloaded an episode of Mythbusters, a 45 minute show (no commercials  ).

First problem:  content availability. There was very little content available. It reminded me of what I see when I use Comcast’s OnDemand service:  Most of what I want to see isn’t available.

Next problem: download speed:  It was pretty obvious from my download session that they were limiting my download speed to some ridiculously slow number, which they didn’t do for downloading the software itself.

Next problem:  Fast Forward didn’t work.  Even though they had a Fast Forward button, and a way to move the play point to anywhere in the video, they didn’t work.  Clicking the button didn’t change the play position, and moving the play point resulted in it immediately snapping back to the beginning when the recording started to play.  I ended up watching the first half of the show multiple times .

Next problem:  Running the diagnostics destroyed my copy of the show.  When Fast Forward refused to work, I ran a built-in diagnostic of the software.  It found no problems, but trashed my copy of Mythbusters!  On the plus side, they allow you to re-download the show (after all, I bought it!), but that meant having to deal with the slow download yet again.

Final problem (the last straw):  The whole recording refused to play!  The first time I watched the program, I got about 30 minutes (2/3, remember no commercials), and then stopped watching.  After that, the program would only run about 20 minutes through (which I had to watch again, see above), and then ended!

That was it, I’d had enough at this point.  I had been skeptical of Amazon’s ability to really deliver here, since I know their attention to their customers is almost nonexistent.  They lived up to my low expectations.  Hopefully, Rhapsody will offer video downloads soon…

9/12/2006 10:17:26 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)      Comments [1]  technology | TV

Fall Season Early Results

The Fall Season’s slowly creeping its way upon us, and since Fox has been good enough to start up early, I’m living up to an earlier promise to post my reactions/impressions of the new season.

Prison Break:  For those living under a rock, or who don’t own a TV (you know who you are), Prison Break is a Fox series about, guess what, a prison break.  This is its second season, and its been much better than its last.  I know a lot of folks enjoyed season 1, but I got tired of all the “prison” stuff.  This season, they’re out and on the lam.  So far, I’ve been enjoying it:  good action, good drama.

Vanished:  Fox’s (and the season’s) first new series.  It’s a pretty ho-hum show.  I watch it because Ming Na is in it, and I’m a big fan.  However, the show has potential (lots of secrets under the covers), and could get better.  I’ll keep watching and hoping for now (at least until the competition starts).

Standoff:  I shudder at the idea of a hostage situation each week.  Seems like a lot of tension.  So far, the show seems okay.  I’m not too hot on the romance between the two main characters. It’s okay as “back story”, but I hope they concentrate on the crises.

House:  I don’t watch it.  I know, I’m a communist. I find it boring.

Bones:  Second season for this show.  Dr. Brennan is still as asocial as last season.  She’s interesting to watch, since she's a “geek’s geek”, and displays all of the anti-social behaviors stereotypically common to the genre.  Yes, I said “all”. There’s no way a real person could function the way she does.  Once you realize that, the behavior goes from “annoying” to “entertaining”.  She has a new boss this season who’s a much better foil for her than last season’s boss.

Justice:  I think of this show as “Just Ice”.  It’s extremely superficial, with no real drama to the cases. If you like to watch naive lawyers fooling themselves and slimy lawyers, you might like this show. Might.  I’ll watch it until something better comes along, which will be any day now; it won’t take much.

Fashion House: My God! The show looks like porn!  I don’t mean the explicitness (though they sure take every advantage to show women running around in their underwear), the production quality is so cheesy that it really does look like (clean) porn! The acting is not as bad as daytime soaps.  It’s not holding my interest, though.

Desire: This is the other My TV Network show (5 days a week, with a sixth recap show).  After my Fashion House experience, I don’t think I’ll even bother with this show.

That’s it so far. 2 weeks to the big premiere week.

 

9/7/2006 11:00:22 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)      Comments [0]  TV

I've had my Runway ego stroked
Hey, hey, hey!  Michael Rucker, one of the producers of Project Runway and a blogger,  just posted my comment in his blog!  Oh, the head rush!  Still, it was weird seeing my comments in print since the name came last. While reading it, I was thinking, “boy, this sounds familiar”.
9/7/2006 10:17:47 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)      Comments [0]  TV

Software and the Runway

Last month, I posted my “Runway crazy” piece, and Jennifer (hi, Jennifer! Thanks for reading!) commented that she’d like to hear more about the parallels between software development and fashion design (that sounds weird, even to me!).  Now, I’d thought that I’d already written about this, but apparently not.

Here goes…

One of the first things that struck me about Project Runway when I watched the first season (available on DVD!), was “Hey! we do the same thing in software!  In software development, we start with an overall concept (often from a “customer”), then plan out the steps, execute the steps, make final changes due to usage, and voila: software.  In design, they do the same thing: take a concept, construct a pattern, assemble the outfit, fit the outfit.

The designers even face similar constraints: 

• What fabrics should I use (software technologies: web, desktop, java, etc.)?
• How much time do I have (schedule)?
• How do my skills at sewing, pattern making, etc. impact the schedule (experience, training)?

As an aside (but not really), the Software Development conference used to have a feature called the “C++ Superbowl”.  Developers from each of the C++ compiler/IDE vendors would go head-to-head to develop a series of application challenges.  This was done in real time, on stage, in front of an audience.  I thought that it was incredibly exciting.  With the death of C++ as a major development language, the Superbowl was discontinued, but I wish that they’d bring it back.  It was great to see how the various products could be used for the challenges, and it was also great to see how capable the vendor teams were.  For the record, Borland won almost all of the challenges, until they stopped participating (due to their own internal problems).  Also for the record, the think that killed the Superbowl was Sun’s lawsuit that broke off the main Java vendor, Microsoft.  This basically made the Superbowl irrelevant.

Back to Runway:  I’d recommend anyone that develops IP of some kind (software, hardware design, fiction, etc.) watch the show.  There’s much to relate to.

8/25/2006 11:30:06 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)      Comments [0]  development | TV

Scoble on Soccer

Robert Scoble has an interesting comment regarding making soccer more popular in the United States. He says HDTV will do that.

I agree strongly. One of the reasons I bought an HDTV set 3 years ago was my experience watching a basketball game on an HDTV at the store. All of a sudden, the game wasn’t boring: I could see the whole court, and where the players were positioning themselves. It added a whole new dimension to the game, one I had only previously experienced at a live basketball game.  As I think I’ve said before, soccer is a lot like basketball: the real action isn’t around the ball, its the positioning of the other players. Being able to see them in HD-widescreen made the World Cup games much more enjoyable.

7/10/2006 9:43:58 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)      Comments [0]  TV | general

Emmy nominations are out

The Emmy nominations are out. Diane Holloway, in her TV Blog, has a list of the “major cateogory nominees”. Here’s my unsolicited comments

Outstanding Comedy Series:

• Arrested Development: I don’t know who (other than the critics) who watches/likes this. I tried it, it was boring, even though most of the actors are excellent. So, what’s Portia DeRossi doing next??
• Curb your Enthusiam: Another like above, but without the talent.
• The Office: An acquired taste, but it (at least) deserves to be here.
• Scrubs: It’s about time! One of the best comedies on the air.
• Two and a Half Men: An Emmy nomination? Really?? It’s a good show, but come on!

I guess this means my “pick” for Comedy Series would be The Office then…

 

Outstanding Drama Series:

• Grey’s Anatomy: A fantastic show. It went a little over the top toward the end of the last season, but still good.
• House: Not my cup of tea, and kind of a “formula” show, but okay, its good.
• The Sopranos: Another of those “critic favorites”. I don’t see the appeal.
• 24: Yuck! Ptui!
• The West Wing: It was once good, and the last season wasn’t its worst, but no longer an award winner.

My pick would be Grey’s Anatomy, but if House were to get it, I wouldn’t be too upset.

 

Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy:

• Larry David: Sheesh. Nobody should be getting an Emmy for playing themselves.
• Kevin James: I like Kevin, and King of Queens was underrated; it was at least as good as Everybody Loves Raymond.
• Tony Shalhoub: I’ve lost interest in Monk, but Tony is still great.
• Steve Carell: A good actor, in a good part. Deserves the nomination.
• Charlie Sheen: He’s good, but I think that Angus T. Jones (Jake) deserves the nomination more; he’s terrific.

I’d give the Emmy to Tony Shalhoub.

 

Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama:

• Christopher Meloni: Who? (He’s in Law & Order SVU, I don’t watch that)
• Denis Leary: This is on my list to watch, haven’t gotten there yet. I like Dennis, though.
• Peter Krause: 6 Feet Under was a great show. This is a good nomination.
• Kiefer Sutherland: No. No. No.
• Martin Sheen: Was he still on the air? Okay, he didn’t have much air time in this last season. Still good, though.

I’d say Dennis Leary or Peter Krause. But I have a sick feeling it’ll be Kiefer Sutherland…

 

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy:

• Lisa Kudrow: I didn’t see her series but I heard that it was bad, bad, bad. It certainly didn’t last long enough for an Emmy
• Jane Kaczmarek: Yeah, okay.
• Julia Louis-Dreyfus: Good choice.
• Stockard Channing: What a lousy show. She was wasted on it.
• Debra Messing: Definitely not.

Julia should get it.

 

Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama:

• Kyra Sedgewick: Definitely. This is a great show
• Geena Davis: The only thing worse than the show was Geena’s acting.
• Mariska Hargitay: I’m a big fan of the actress, but definitely not the character.
• Frances Conroy: Good show, I don’t know about the nomination. Maybe.
• Allison Janney: This was not her best season.

I’d give it to Kyra Sedgewick, but I doubt she’ll get it.

 

I’m going to leave the rest of the nominations without comment…

7/6/2006 12:03:45 PM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)      Comments [0]  TV

Project Runway

This weekend, I finished watching Season 2 of Project Runway (on DVD). I became a big fan of the show after watching the Season 1 DVD’s out of curiosity (and mid-season rerun boredom  ).  Some background: I originally passed on the show because I thought that it was another of those “Top Model” shows, and wasn’t interested. Then, I’d watched NBC’s The Cut last summer (another designer show, this one with Tommy Hilfinger); it was horrible: obviously an Apprentice knock-off with absolutely no creativity to it at all. So, I was pretty prejudiced against this genre of program. But, Project Runway had some serious buzz behind it, and I needed some new DVD’s to watch (since I’d finished with the last of the Stargate DVD’s), so I picked it up.

And, as I said, I was hooked. Now, anyone that’s seen my wardrobe will know that I’m no clothes horse. But, I think the show appeals to the software developer in me. In a lot of ways, fashion design is a lot like software design; both being “intellectual property” type professions.

So, after I finished the first season (congratulations, Jay McCarroll), I quickly ordered the second season. I whipped through the second season in just a few weeks; it was even better than the first (congratulations, Chloe Dao).

Next week, season 3 starts, and I’m ready for it. I’ve even signed up for Tim Gunn’s blog, where he discusses his outlook of the show.  This is going to be a new experience for me. This will be the first time I’ll be watching “live”, and won’t know who’ll win before the show starts.

As an aside, I have to talk about Tim Gunn.Tim is the Chair of Dept. of Fashion Design at Parsons New School for Design, in New York City.  In Project Runway, he acts as an advisor to the contestants. This is one of the ways that Project Runway differs from any other contest-style reality show that I’ve seen: they don’t just leave the contestants to sink or swim. They provide some guidance so that when people go astray there’s someone who can at least try to reel them in before the “big judgement moment”.  I’m looking forward to reading Tim’s blog as Season 3 progresses.

7/5/2006 3:22:29 PM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)      Comments [0]  TV

Apparently, America does have talent

I watched part of America Has Talent, last night and was surprised that it didn’t suck. I was expecting something along the lines of the (late, unlamented) Gong Show. And, while there were definitely gong-worthy acts, most of the acts were very entertaining. It reminded me of the good old days of the Ed Sullivan Show and Hollywood Palace.

It’s too bad that they’re purposely putting on obviously bad acts just to give the judges something to do. This is a good show for recording and watching later; then, just skip over the garbage…

6/22/2006 11:38:31 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)      Comments [0]  TV

Futurama Resurrection

Via TV Barn, Comedy Central has announced that they’ve bought the rights to air 13 new Futurama episodes! Yee ha! I was a fan of the series when it was on Fox, but hadn’t appreciated just how good the show was until I started watching the reruns recently. The show is pure, unadulterated genius. Fox really blew it when they mishandled the show. But then, they did the same thing with Family Guy, before reinstating it last season…

Thank you, Comedy Central, for your brilliance.

6/22/2006 11:33:45 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)      Comments [0]  TV

A movie that wasn't as bad as I expected

Yesterday, desperate for something new to watch on TV, I watched the remake of  The Stepford Wives. At first, I found the movie annoying in its one-sidedness. After a while, I began to see that the one sidedness was part of the story, and started ignoring it. Once I did that, the movie was almost entertaining (yes, I said “almost”).

Near the end of the picture, in the first “revelation scene”, I realized that the movie was fundamentally a “role reversal” picture. By switching the gender roles around, the story made a lot more sense, and was a lot more “sinister” in nature. It definitely wouldn’t have been made that way, but it was interesting to look at the picture from that angle.

The final twist was also interesting and one I didn’t expect at all. I won’t describe it so not to spoil the picture for anyone masochistic enough to choose to watch it.

All in all, the final resolution showed some nice balance, though not enough to make the picture into anything but a bad remake. I did think it was interesting that a movie making a statement about the subjugation of women (if that was what they were trying to do, its hard to say) only had one actor with star billing: Nichole Kidman. Even Matthew Broderick was relegated to billing “under the title”.

As a side note, what’s with these remakes that either ridicule (Stepford Wives, Starsky and Hutch) or ignore (all the MI’s) the originals? It’s a safe bet that the folks making these movies weren’t fans of the originals, and they’re basically just cashing in on the name recognition, or are they trying to “say” something more significant? If they are, they’re doing a lousy job of it.

6/12/2006 5:03:34 PM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)      Comments [0]  TV | general

The other (yawn) AI shoe has dropped

RealityTVWorld just announced that Katherine McPhee has signed with Clive Davis and 19 Recordings. For those not “in the know” and who still may care, 19 Recordings is owned by Simun Fuller, the creator of American Idol.  Now, of course, this is not big news; 19 Recordings has signed all of the other runner-ups in AI. But, they took their time with Katherine, probably because people have been expecting it and they didn’t want to overshadow Taylor Hicks.

This should be good for Katherine, she’s probably going to be a good recording artist since her voice is so weak. Hopefully, they can give her the necessary training to improve her live performances as well.

6/7/2006 9:57:14 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)      Comments [0]  TV

Katie's last day on Today

Since it’s Katie’s last day on the Today show, before her move to the CBS Evening News, I’m joining the bandwagon.

I remember when she got started on the Today show way back when. I doubt that they’ll cover this in their retrospectives, since its more than a little uncomfortable.

Deborah Norville was the news reader on a show that used to precede Today. I think it was called “Sunrise”. Anyway, I was a big fan of Deborah and was excited to hear that she would be replacing Jane Pauley on Today; Jane was moving on to (hopefully) bigger things. However, the move didn’t go well. It was obvious from the beginning that Bryant Gumbel was not happy about Deborah, and Deborah was just not “fitting in”. As it happened, Deborah Norville was expecting at the time, and soon left on maternity leave. Filling in for her was this tiny person that no one had heard of: Katie Couric (I bet you were wondering when Katie would enter the picture).

Like Deborah before, Bryant was not happy about sharing the camera with Katie. Both Katie and Deborah were different than Jane had been. Jane was more “traditional”, and let Bryant run the show. Deborah and Katie were more “up front”, and Bryant Gumbel didn’t like sharing the spotlight. Katie was different than Deborah, though. Where Deborah was floundering with Bryant’s obvious negativism, Katie as quick to “handle” it: she stayed right in his face, making light of his obvious discomfort. Sure enough, Katie’s “temporary” position became permanent.

Now, its 15 years later and Katie is on her way to becoming the first female solo anchor of a network news program. People have wondered if she’s “right” for the job, coming from a more “fluffy” show like Today. I remember those early days at Today when she had to deal with a very challenging environment, and ended up on top. I think she’ll do just fine.

5/31/2006 9:09:03 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)      Comments [0]  TV

NBC: An historical perspective

This week, NBC blinked.

NBC had announced their new Aaron Sorkin created series, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, would run opposite of CSI. This was a ballsy move, since CSI is the #1 series in the country right now.

Then, ABC decided to move its hit show, Grey’s Anatomy, to be opposite CSI as well. This looked like it was shaping up to be a mega-war, and NBC was bound to fail: they’re the #4 network (in the demographics that count), and the show they were fighting with was brand new, with no existing audience.

Well, apparently, NBC managed to rub their two brain cells together, and they’ve moved “Studio 60” to Monday nights, temporarily replacing Medium (Medium will be back mid-season).

Now that everybody is caught up on the “drama drama”:

This reminded me of the days way back when NBC was on top. CBS was starting a new series called “Chicago Hope” on Thursday Nights, because “LA Law” was ending. NBC added its own hospital show called “ER”. Guess what happened? In that case, CBS ended up moving Chicago Hope to a different night. It’s funny how this stuff just keeps coming back…

5/26/2006 10:47:52 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)      Comments [0]  TV

The Idol Finale

Diane Holloway, in her TV Blog had some comments about last night’s American Idol finale. And I (mostly) agree.

Once again, the AI producers show how badly they (and the people who work for them) are at songwriting: the two “single” songs that were sung were the weak points of the night. Now, this is not just an AI phenomenon: the week with the “songs of the 2000’s” theme was also the weakest show they had this season. Let’s face it; there’s just not that much good music being written today. Unfortunately, in today’s market, its less about the music and more about the video.

I think Diane was right about Mandisa, Paris, and Kevin: the first two have great careers ahead of them, Kevin had no business being there. Kevin reminds me of season 1’s Jim Verraros, who also had no business in the finals.

I disagree with her over Chris Daughtry. While he definitely has more talent than either of the two finalists, I disagree that he was the best finalist of any season; Bo Bice (at least) was a much better entertainer & singer than Chris in the same “space”, and both Kelly Clarkson and Clay Aiken were better singers. That being said, Chris’ ejection reminded me of Tamyra Gray’s removal in the first season. Though, it’s interesting that Tamyra’s singing career hasn’t been as successful as Kelly Clarkson’s. And keep in mind that Kelly’s real success has happened after her initial American Idol “prize” contract was over, when she was more able to show her own creativity.

While I agree with Diane’s point that the age range is too great, I think we should leave the top end alone (at 28). This gives us singers with more “depth” and experience. I’d push up the bottom end to 18, though. Those singers who are younger than this can spend those years building up their skills and experience, and be better contestants when they reach 18. There have been several performers who displayed raw talent, but were criticized for lack of “maturity”. No one has been criticized for being “too old” (though Taylor was criticized early for looking too old).

Tonight, we’ll see who takes the prize, but, I think we’ll be seeing more from both contestants in the future.

5/24/2006 9:29:28 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)      Comments [0]  TV

Fall Schedule is complete

Well, the Fall schedule is now complete, and it looks like it’ll be an interesting one. Some shows that I’ve been watching won’t be on the schedule (Conviction was one of them), but that’s the way it goes. For a change, there weren’t any shows that I really liked that got cancelled. I was very happy that The Unit was renewed; its a great show; it’s sort of what the E-Ring was slowly becoming.

I’m a little intrigued by Fox’s new network, My Network TV, that’s filling the gap in Fox-owned stations orphaned by the merge of WB and UPN (channel 13 here is one of those, though I don’t know if they’ll be carrying the My Network TV programs yet). The mini-network will be running programs described as using the “telenovella” style common on Spanish language channels. These shows are essentially limited run, with a story line that completes in a season. It sounds similar to the Japanese “home drama” shows that I miss here in the Northwest (I used to watch them when I was living in Hawaii). Who knows? they may be interesting.

5/18/2006 10:45:55 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)      Comments [0]  TV

It looks like Thursday nights are going to be really busy

This week is one of those important ones for a TV-phile like me. The networks are announcing their fall schedules this week. So far, NBC and ABC have announced. CBS is announcing tomorrow. But, it already looks like Thursday nights are going to be a battlefield. This is especially true for the 9:00 hour. I’m sure that CBS will be leaving its powerhouse, CSI, in that slot. NBC is placing Aaron Sorkin’s Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip on opposite it. For those out of the loop, Sorkin is the creator of the West Wing, and if this show is as good as that (it should be, its got the cast for it), then its going to be a big Emmy winner. To top it off, ABC is moving Gray’s Anatomy to this slot. That means 3 must-see shows on at the same time! Boy, am I glad that I can record 4 shows at that time  …

By the way, the 8:00 and 10:00 hours could be just as bad.

5/16/2006 10:04:47 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)      Comments [0]  TV

Where are they now?

Yeah. More American Idol. I know, I’m in a rut. Don’t worry, it’ll end soon…

As I was writing that last post, I started thinking, who came before and where are they now? Here’s a little recap:

AI 1:  Kelly Clarkson: Grammy winner, hit CD. Took a while (and a change in management) to get here.
AI 2:  Reuben Studdard: MIA. The guy’s fallen off the face of the Earth. His runner up, Clay Aiken,  has had much more exposure. I suspect that its once again due to Clay having better management.
AI 3:  Fantasia: Wrote an autobiography (ironic, since she reveals that she was illiterate), now working on a TV-movie of the book. Where’s the music? I suspect her “story” is more compelling than her singing. I thought that her runner-up, Diana DeGarmo was a better performer anyway.
AI 4: Carrie Underwood: She’s had some early success as a country western singer. I expect that she’ll do well in the long run, because she fits her market so well. Maybe they finally got the management mix right.
AI 5: Who knows? Right now, it looks like Elliot Yamin wins, with Taylor Hicks as a runner-up. But, I think (unlike the previous years) that all of the top 4 finalists will get “deals” from their exposure.

5/12/2006 9:30:47 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)      Comments [0]  TV

The Politics of American Idol

Yeah, its another American Idol post. You know what to do…

John Podhoretz has an interesting analysis of the “Chris Daughtry debacle” on American Idol. He says its a lot like presidential elections. Basically, its all about building coalitions. As people get dropped from the show, their supporters have to go somewhere. So, the folks that can draw in these now “undecided” voters stand to gain the most.

Related to American Idol, Chris had a big following from the start, but he never grew his base: he was a rocker in the beginning, and he stayed a rocker. So, all the votes that have been freeing up have gone to his competitors, until the camel’s back broke, and he suddenly found himself at the tail end of the votes with no time lagging near the bottom.

John goes on to say that Elliot Yamin has probably been the biggest beneficiary of the freed up voters because: 1. He has improved over the weeks, and 2. His sound is the most like that of the contestants who have left.

In looking at the remainders, John thinks that Elliot is the most likely winner, as Katherine McPhee leaves next and Elliot picks up her votes. He sees Taylor Hicks as another Chris Daughtry: someone with a large following which hasn’t grown much over the weeks due to is unique “sound”.

As much as it pains me to say, I think he’s right. However, I think that Katherine has a great career in front of her; she just needs the right management. I think Elliot will be another Fantasia or Reuben: his win will not result in any great success.

5/12/2006 9:16:16 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)      Comments [0]  TV

Tamyra Gray all over again

Fair warning, readers. This is about American Idol. The uninterested should leave now.

Last night, Chris Daughtry, the “fair haired boy” of the current American Idol, got dropped. For those unfamiliar with the current contestants, Chris was the favorite to win. All the previous speculation was about who would be with him in the final. Well, that all changed last night.

It reminds me of the first season and Tamyra Gray. She was also the favorite (not mine, I was a Kelly supporter from way back). Then, she had a bad night and she was gone. That fast. It doesn’t take much at this stage of the game.

At this point, I’d say that its all up for grabs. Frankly, I didn’t expect that Elliot Yamin and Taylor Hicks would make it this far. Taylor’s more of a “novelty act”, and Elliot just isn’t in the same league as the others. As far as Katherine McPhee goes (McFever, my favorite), she’s been struggling for weeks. She has a great voice (the best of those remaining), but makes lousy song choices. If she can pull it together, she has an outside chance. But, everyone (including her) expected her to go last night.

We’ll see what happens next week…

5/11/2006 9:59:48 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)      Comments [0]  TV

Presidential one-two punch

That’s right: the category is “TV”. So, this is about those “great” presidents, Bartlet and Allen.

The ending of the West Wing is pretty bittersweet for me. At the start, this was a great series, one of the best on TV. But, it fell on hard times a few years back, and (from my thinking) never recovered from the firing of Aaron Sorkin, the creator of the show.  Granted, the writing is still some of the best on TV, but its still a far cry from what it once was. And, I’m sorry, but Matt Santos was an embarrassment of a Presidential candidate. And Josh Lyman has no business either running a campaign or being chief of staff. It was pretty clear that Arnold Vinick was the better man for the job, and then he only lost because of a cheap “writing stunt” of a nuclear accident in his home state. At least Santos is shaping up to be a better President than he was a candidate; I guess he learned that from Bartlet. Josh is still a piece of work. The show keeps trouping people through that would obviously make a better Chief of Staff than him (heck, Donna would make a better Chief of Staff!), but because its the finale, the “story” has to end with him in that job I guess. On the one hand, I’m sad to see a good series end. On the other hand, I’m relieved that I won’t have to watch the train wreck that will be the Santos administration.

On a happier note, it looks like Commander in Chief will also be going bye-bye. Yay! Hooray!

Now, don’t get me wrong. I was looking forward to this show when I first heard about it. It has a great premise: First female President. Gains office through succession. Nice. It reminded me of an old movie, The Man, about the first black president, who gains the job through similar means (in his case, he was President Pro Tem of the Senate; we weren’t ready in those days for even a black Vice President). It had lots of potential. But, the producers of the show turned an interesting concept into a Good vs. Evil show where “Evil” equals “right wing” and “Good” equals “not right wing”. The show is basically a left-wing fantasy show that has very little in common with the real world. I’m soo glad that its going away.

5/3/2006 3:41:02 PM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)      Comments [0]  TV

Looks like TiVo's not dead yet

As those of you who read this rag regularly should know, my original DVR maker, ReplayTV, is on the way out (they’ve announced that they won’t make hardware anymore but still are making software for Hauppage. sheesh).

TiVo just signed a 3 year extension to their deal with DirectTV. I suspect that DirectTV will end up owning the company, and folding their technology into the main company. That seems to be the trend in DVR’s now, providing them as part of service rather than as a 3rd party product. I’m now renting a Comcast DVR, and am fairly happy with it. Lots of nice features that ReplayTV didn’t have, though some are missing (no skip ahead, no way to say “just record this program  on certain nights”, etc). But, by and large, I’m okay with it. And I know the non-technical people who have one, like my sister (except hers is from Time Warner), love them.

Wave of the future, baby.

Too bad ReplayTV pissed off the rest of the industry (with commercial skip) and so couldn’t forge the kind of deal that TiVo did with DirectTV.

4/12/2006 8:45:19 AM (Pacific Daylight Time, UTC-07:00)      Comments [0]  TV

I've made the change

Well, I’ve gone and done it.

I’ve installed Comcast’s DVR. I haven’t retired my ReplayTV units, instead I’ve added the Comcast unit. While not as good as ReplayTV in some ways, it’s much better in others (like, being available for instance  ). It handles conflicts much more rationally than the ReplayTV software does. And, as an extra bonus, I can watch both HD channels and OnDemand again (for some