2008 fall tv season – first pass
not to be too “lady doth protest”, but i figured that if i’m going to spend the time watching tv (while doing other things, mind you, of various levels of “worthiness”) i should use some of the words that come out of my fingers after i’m done. plus, it’s an excuse to blow my opinion into the internet, which i’m a fan of these days :)
so…in no particular order other than how they occur to me, here’s what i’m watching (and not) now and why.
90210: i watched the 2 hour series premiere and the following episode. it was…obvious and a little painful. i thought they arranged the character archetypes in a slightly novel way (at least, different from other shows of the same ilk), but they tried to do way too much in the first 2 hours. it moved fast (which i like) but not as fast as gossip girl (which i liked more), but at the end of the 3rd episode it became clear that i was supposed to love each and every one of these new, impeccably flawed characters as much as i (theoretically) loved the old crowd. not so much and not worth it.
Gossip Girl: speaking of GG… the stats geek in me wants to chart how may times couples get together, break up, hook up, then break up again in each episode. last season it was kind of cute, but it’s crossed the line. instead of keeping their attention-deficited audience “hooked” each episode is basically a blank slate by the end of it. at least once per episode i think i’m at the episode-ending cliffhanger only to discover that i’ve got another 7 or 8 minutes of show left to neatly wrap up and start new plot lines. it’s like 6 months of a daytime soap distilled into 37 minutes once a week. plus, fun fun fashion.
it’s problem this season? they’ve introduced new characters who are “playing with” the high school crowd. on the one hand, it’s creepy because sending the message that grownups and kids can hang is…creepy. on the other hand, the grownups are (of course) behaving more like high-schoolers than the kids (or the cast of grey’s anatomy, which is saying something. which gives me a “why am i watching this?” feeling the whole time. if they don’t go away soon, i’m probably going to pass on this soon, too.
(updated because it’s taken me too long to finish this: watching the episode after the grownups go away. i think this may be the last one. it’s becoming a parody of itself, which i wasn’t sure was possible)
raising the bar: i picked this up because it’s got a joss-verse alumn in it…and, okay, zach morris. this seems to be the only show (so far) that’s been getting better with each episode. it’s got very little grey’s-like melodrama and i actually kind of like the characters. the juxtaposition of the circle of friends working in all aspects of the civil courts system keeps it interesting and only mildly contrived-feeling.
bones: i like the intern of the week. i like the cat and mouse that angel and bones play. i think the contrived “we need to break up for no good reason” bit with two of the ensemble cast was lamey-lame-lame, but i don’t care enough about the majority of the characters to care enough to stop watching.
the terminator series: 3 episodes are backed up on the tivo. if we hadn’t picked up the super-huge storage device, this would have already been scrapped. see also: heroes, my name is earl
boston legal: suffering the same fate currently as the above, but largely due to rock band 2 monopolizing the tv during the evening hours. the key difference: space will be made for this show. see also: house
fringe: it’s got pacey, which means it stays way longer than it probably should. i suspect it’s about to become a daytime watcher, since ryan (understandably) doesn’t share the same nostalgia.
true blood: i have a weakness for vamp stories. it’s even stronger when the vamps are “out of the coffin” (the show’s words, not mine. mine would be less …pithy) and there’s anna paquin. it’s not great, but it’s leaps and bounds better than anything twilight will ever become. my friend the internet suggests that the books are a bit different, but not necessarily better (but better than the anita blake series). maybe if i get that library card and get caught up on my reading i’ll add them to the list, too.
and that’s about it.
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