TV as it stands
Just a few random thoughts I thought I’d throw out about TV as it is. Feel free to use this as a catch all for whatever shows you don’t feel are getting the discussion love.
First 24. Yes. You were right. I had high hopes at the beginning. It seemed like a nice reboot. But to say that some of the plotlines have been ridiculous is an understatement. The worst season yet. How bad? I went four weeks without watching. The last time I did that was Heroes. That actually was 8 weeks and then I discovered that the DVR was deleting the old ones so I just decided I’d delete them all.
Want to know how dumb the plot lines were? Well the last episode I watched (technically from a few weeks ago) had a bunch of soldiers from a Congo like country diving in the Potomac to access the White House from the river. (Yes, I know how far away the White House is from the river) Then there is a frame up where the assassin magically knows just when Bauer is going to do an interrogation in a hospital and has some magic nerve gas to temporarily immobilize Bauer. But only long enough for him to kill the victim and get out. The time for the FBI to get there is miraculously the same as how long the gas lasts.
It’s bad. Bad enough I’m seriously thinking of giving up.
On the other side I started watching Flight of the Conchords for the first time. I really like it. The Office has been hilarious the past while. (I just watched the Golden Ticket episode)
I’ve not watched Kings yet although I’ve heard good things. Any of you watch it?
South Park’s on and has had some fantastic spoofs of Batman/Watchmen and the economy.
I’m watching Quantum of Solace again tonight to see if the badly edited action distracts me as much as it did when I saw it in theaters.
Posted on April 3, 2009, in Pop Culture. Bookmark the permalink. 31 Comments.
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We’re watching Kings – first shows in a long time besides Lost that we’ve watched live. It’s terribly over-written (nobody really talks like that) but I can forgive it because every episode there’s at least one chuckle-inducing line, costuming decision, or plot point. As my wife has often remarked upon, it’s amazing that the show is, for all intents and purposes, an extremely clean show in what is portrayed onscreen. I’m not sure if they are pandering to the religious crowd or not, but for the story of Saul and David it’s almost expected to have much worse (it’s only four episodes, though, so who knows).
I’m sure it’s not for everyone and is NOT without its flaws (rather bad acting by most characters, hammy acting by all, overwritten dialogue, odd pacing decisions at times) but it definitely rewards those viewers familiar with 1 Kings.
I’ve actually enjoyed this season of 24 (more so than the last couple anyway.) If plausibility is an issue, I would have stopped in the first season and I certainly wouldn’t watch Lost.
This season has been better than the last few because Jack is actually evolving as a character and I think they’ve done a pretty good job of exploiting it and asking interesting questions. This is something they haven’t done in years.
We decided not to watch 24 this season after thinking last season and the movie was total crap. It sounds like I made the right decision.
As for this season, Damages was excellent, The Office and 30 Rock are great, though the Office sometimes goes off into fantasyland which I don’t like as much.
I watched the pilot of Kings and got bored. I didn’t think the fact that the desert scenes were shot in my back yard (at the time) would distract from the story, but they did. Every time they went to the tank scenes, I said, “hey that’s Far Rockaway!” Or, hey that’s Columbus Circle. Those shouldn’t have been distracting if the writing were any good. But I should have known, as I noticed that the creator was the same one for Heroes. Same campy dialogue. The problem I had was that it just seemed so implausible and fake. A powerful enough nation that built such a large and beautiful city is afraid of tanks that can actually so easily be destroyed? We don’t get a sense of perspective. How powerful is this nation they are warring with?
Also they attempted to make a correlation between the story of David and their own, but David won against Goliath not out of luck. He understood that Goliath had a major weakness that the other Israelite soldiers did not. Goliath was big, slow and ponderous. David was small and quick. Agility versus strength. We don’t get a sense of that in what they tried to do in Kings. (Nevermind the religious side, the fact that David went out there with the belief God was behind him). It felt like the writers of the show didn’t actually read the Bible very well (not out of religion, but for research).
I’m enjoying Kings. Yeah there’s flaws but at least it’s different. It has a mini-series feel to me. The pilot was hard to stop watching because every segment had a hook to keep you coming back after commercials.
Clark have you ever seen the British show called MI-5? I’ve caught a couple episodes and it has to be what 24 was based on. Only without the it-all-happens-in-real time schtick. I think it’s really good (from what little I’ve seen). It’s all very serious yet they have hilarious bits in it, like one spy goes to meet an enemy spy in a country field and they both stand at a distance and strip off all their clothes to prove they’re weaponless.
I think Dollhouse is still really good. There’s some stuff I could complain about but I love to try to speculate about who Alpha is and what his intentions are.
I know that it has come and gone, but I will miss Life on Mars. Great cast (Harvey Keitel and Gretchen Moll!), clever writing, and great attention to period detail.
I’m sure it had to be enormously expensive to make, especially compared to Super Nanny and all that kind of thing, but it was worth it. Sorry nobody but my wife and I watched it.
I thought Dollhouse was horrible after a few episodes Susna, but I think it’s really improved in the last two.
My favorite recent show, which just concluded its six-episode run on HBO, is Eastbound and Down. Danny McBride plays a very talented, very egotistical major-league pitcher who loses his fastball and, because he has behaved as irresponsibly with his money as he has in all other facets of his life, has to move back to his small North Carolina hometown, move in with his brother’s family, and work as a substitute PE teacher at the local high school.
Through all of these humiliations, his opinion of himself never wavers. He’s an arrogant, foul-mouthed, racist drug sponge, a horrible person who the show practically dares you to sympathize with. The character is something like a cross between John Rocker and Alan Partridge, and the six-season arc, as well as the general approach to comedy, reminds me of a BBC comedy series. There are plenty of other comedic heavy hitters in the cast (Andy Daly, Craig Robinson, and Will Ferrell among them), and if you like your humor with a huge dose of discomfort, I highly recommend it.
I have been enjoying the second season of Breaking Bad. It stalled out for a while, but seems to be picking up again. I have no idea if they are planning a third season, or are planning on ending it this year.
I’ve not watched Dollhouse yet. I am working through the first season of Penn & Teller’s Bullsh*t which is pretty funny.
I thought that, with a few exceptions (a certain cougar and daughter) the first couple of seasons of 24 were reasonably plausible. The first season in particular. The last few start off great and then quickly go downhill.
I watched the first few episodes of MI-5 but never got into it. It did come out after 24 though. 24 was inspired by an old Johnny Depp movie called Nick of Time.
The swimming up the river to the White House is a rip off of Orson Scott Card’s book “Empire”. That is the means in which the White House is attacked.
I like Kings, which means it will be canceled (really bad ratings as well). Terminator and Knight Rider will be gone soon too, for the same reason. Life on Mars was one of the best shows in the last few years, darn shame it didn’t attract more people either. So those join Jericho, Shark, and a few others from the last couple of years. I think Lost and Rescue Me are about the only shows I watch that have made it.
I only watched the first 12 episodes of the first season of 24, it was completely ridiculous back then.
Dollhouse was/is awful, it will be canceled shortly anyways, ratings again.
I’ve decided that I’m just going to watch less TV. I’m not going to watch The Unusuals, and while I recorded the first few episodes of Castle, I ended up deleting them without watching. I’m tired of getting into a series and having it yanked out. It’s very existential, fewer people start a new series, it doesn’t get enough viewers and gets canceled. New series starts and more people just drop out, etc.
Time to get the MLB package and just watch Braves games.
Does Card explain how one gets the mile from the river to the White House?
Chris, breaking bad is that show about the high school teacher who starts selling meth, right?
Friday Night Lights.
Jim Donaldson, I watched every ep of Life on Mars, and thought I was the only one who enjoyed it! I’ll miss it too. I thought the ending, albeit rushed, was clever and wrapped it up in a satisfying way.
Another mourner of Life on Mars. I thought the ending was terrific–way better than Gallactica’s.
My wife and I have enjoyed Kings. I hope they can at least keep it going until Saul’s death.
This half-season of Heroes (volume 4) is distinctly better than the first half-season (volume 3). They’ve even found a way to make Micah interesting (albeit when he is offscreen).
I’ve been watching The Mentalist, but Simon Baker is starting to move into David Caruso territory actingwise and it’s getting on my nerves.
And Friday Night Lights still rules.
I do not wish to speak of Heroes — I liked season 1, wasted my time with season 2, and watched the first three episodes of season 3 to finally give it up.
And, of course it is getting better! They stole back the writer/creator of Pushing Daisies…a show that was too good to be on TV.
They use rocket launchers from the shore. But they still swim upstream.
Hey, Susan! I love MI-5. In Britain I think they call it “Spooks.” I just bought the latest season on DVD – I think I have all 6 seasons now, but I’m way behind in my watching. Good stuff!
M.
I’m torn as to this season’s 24. I think they could have done some really cool things with Bill, Chloe, Tony, and Jack working as a rogue agency. But they did away with that too quickly. And they are still falling in the same plot devices (always a bad guy who’s not the real bad guy, contingency plans working better than the original plan, etc.).
Friday Night Lights is incredible. I watched the entire season on DirecTV this year and I think you guys will enjoy how this season plays out. The show was renewed for 2 more seasons (same deal with DirecTV) and there was some concern about where the show would go post-Seracen/Riggins/Lyla, etc. But I think you’ll find the set-up for the next season to be quite intriguing.
jjohnsen, what did you think of the Damages finale? I love the show and liked this season, but the finale seemed anti-climatic and left me unsatisfied.
My wife is liking Castle, but it doesn’t really seem to be any different than the other 3000 crime dramas on TV.
Some shows always seem to have anticlimatic endings. Dexter is like that. Episode 8 always seems somehow irrelevant even though that’s when the big “escape” happens.
Gilgamesh, no I mean it’s a mile of dry land (other than a few ponds) from the river to the White House. Back in the day John Adams caused quite a stir because he’d make the relatively long walk (remember no sidewalks in those days) every morning for a swim. One morning he reportedly almost drowned. Needless to say Secret Service wouldn’t let Obama jog down to the river for a swim.
I watched the first four episodes of Life on Mars. I don’t see what all the love is about. The main guy (to me) seemed pretty annoying and would shout things to people he should have known seemed insane. Then the detective side of things seemed to me to just be ripoffs of traditional 70′s cop shows.
More tangentially related to TV I just watched Quantum of Solace on DVD over the weekend. I’ll say this. The movie works tons better on a smaller screen than the big screen. I halfway wonder if some of the editing complaints I had were due to the “Avid effect.” (i.e. editing on a small screen and not thinking through the way it works on a big screen) The editing was still a tad rushed ruining some great choreography. But it wasn’t distracting like when I saw it in the theatre. And I could follow all that was happening.
Some movies surprisingly work better on a small screen. (Blair Witch Project one obvious example although given it relied on home video cameras that’s to be expected)
BTW – if you don’t mind giving a spoiler warning how did Life on Mars end? I assume they didn’t do the suicide ending of the British series.
how did Life on Mars end?
SPOILER ALERT! (And also a warning that this will sound lame unless you watched more than four episodes. Half the fun is going back and finding all the clues you missed.)
No suicide. The cast was literally on a mission to find life on Mars in 2035. During the flight, they were in stasis experiencing a pre-programmed alternate life. Jason O’Mara’s alternate life was supposed to be as a cop in 2008, but a meteor storm caused him to jump to 1973 instead. My theory is that the 1973 scenario was actually Harvey Keitel’s alternate life, but I seem to be alone in that conjecture. The reaction among fans has been very polarized.
I don’t comprehend anyone deleting Castle without watching…can’t wrap my head around it.
It’s different from the other shows because it has sexy Fillion. That’s enough right there to keep me tuned in!
Wow. I might check it out again. I thought they gave too much away about him merely being in a coma ala the British show. That explains all the little spaceship toys he kept finding.
Sell me on Castle. I know next to nothing about it.
I’ll throw in my love for MI-5. I used to watch it on BBC America, but they stopped playing it. Now I pick up episodes on our local PBS channel.
I’m also watching Dollhouse, Susan. Terminator, on right before it, has been one of my favorite shows this season, as well as Friday Night Lights.
I’m willing to defend 24 this season. It’s 24. C’mon, it’s always required that you check your brain at the door. As ridiculous as it was that the Sengala terrorists got in the White House, once they were in and it was hallway to hallway combat–that was cool, and the unexpected demise of a major character–also cool.
Plus, I personally like the new characters, especially Agent Walker.
I also heartily endorses Breaking Bad. The first two episodes of the season rocked. Even though the following episodes have emphasized character development over action, I think it’s easily one of the best shows on TV.
I’m really enjoying the addition of Idris Elba to the cast of The Office. The storylines that led up to Michael quitting were hilarious. I was quite surprised that Pam went with him.
I don’t know Brian. I’ve been a long defender of 24 even when it often wasn’t that defensible. And this season started out strong. But the last three episodes. It’s been enough to nearly push me over the edge. The directing just doesn’t seem as good either. I don’t know why. Even in the prior two seasons when there was a lot of bad the tension managed to be there. This year it just hasn’t been.
I’m two episodes behind in The Office. I heard the Fresh Aire interview with Idris Elba and I’m excited to watch those episodes.
Castle is just like every other crime show on TV. You know, where a cop is joined by an autistic guy/mathematician/fake psychic/some kind of non-cop. In Castle’s case, it’s a mystery pulp fiction author who is basing his next series of books around the female lead, who is a cop.
I love it because it has Nathan Fillion in it. And his mother and daughter often steal any scenes they’re in. Fortunately the female lead isn’t too annoying.
If it wasn’t Nathan Fillion I doubt I’d like it as much. I mean, it’s competing with the Mentalist, and who doesn’t love a fake psychic who goes around hypnotizing witnesses?
I just watched the last two Offices. I’ve no idea how they’ll wrap this up but that was hilarious. The tux was classic.
I recommend:
1. Breaking Bad (AMC)
2. Damages (FX)
3. It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia (FX)