The Other Shows
As ever, I’m way behind in my viewing. I just finished watching the Fringe from a few months back guest starring Christopher Lloyd as an aged rock star in a nursing home. Inexplicably though (and completely irrelevant to the plot) Lloyd actually looks younger now than he did in either Taxi in the 70′s or Back to the Future in the 80′s. He also plays quite against type in one of his better performances.
I bring this all up just to bring up the news that Fringe, despite low ratings in the Friday death slot, has surprisingly been renewed for next season. It’s a nice reprieve for a surprisingly good show that I think has pushed this genre well beyond what X-Files ever did. Certainly we’re getting much better performances than that show. Apparently while its actual ratings have been low it has been a big hit on DVR. (Which is where I watch it)
As I mentioned last week Will Ferrell will be the new boss at The Office for four episodes starting April 14.
FX’s Lights Out was cancelled this week. It was always one of those shows I meant to watch but never did. It never seemed to have a good hook to get people interested though. (I confess I’ve been spending my time rereading the Wheel of Time series so I can read the latest volume)
Justified’s ratings have been dropping but apparently has huge ratings on DVR. Exactly what that means for FX which presumably makes its money off of advertisements isn’t clear. Fox seems to care about DVR ratings since that’s what saved Fringe as well. Overall ratings are up 9% from last season though and it’s expected to be renewed this week.
For all you Netflix viewers the already bad selection on streaming is about to get worse. Showtime is not allowing Netflix to stream any of its series and Starz is putting a 90 day delay on what gets streamed through Netflix. Those of you hoping to watch Camelot next month on Netflix will thus have to either wait until summer or look into BitTorrent.
And in great news for all you Futurama lovers Comedy Central has just ordered two new additional seasons in addition to the season starting this summer. I thought the new Comedy Central episodes last fall surpassed any of the movies that had been made with the notable exception of a wretched (IMO) Christmas special.
While not on TV anytime soon rumor is that Arnold Schwarzenegger is going to be on a TV series. A press conference is scheduled for April 4th to make the announcement. The general consensus is that it will be targeted towards kids. Some rumors suggest it might just be an animated series in which case it’s hard to really call in a Schwarzenegger TV show.
Not really entertainment but apparently the rumor is Glenn Beck is leaving Fox News to go do his own thing. He was on CNN prior to going to Fox News (and of course it seems like half Fox’s staff had been with CNN in the 90′s). I am probably one of the few people in America to have never actually seen an episode of Beck’s conspiracy minded punditry show. So I have no opinion on the matter but figured I’d throw it out there.
I’ve mentioned some forthcoming AMC shows in the past. A lot of their shows have been big hits at least with the crowd here, including Mad Men, Rubicon, Walking Dead and Breaking Bad. A new show scheduled for the fall is called The Voyage and reportedly is similar to Carl Sagan’s novel and film Contact. That is it’s supposed to be a realistic take on alien rather than the typical (and horribly overdone) typical take that Hollywood’s put on TV the past decades. (i.e. invaders conquering the earth or hot young CW aliens in fashionable clothing feeling angnst at dating other hot twenty somethings.)
Finally if you can stand Yo Gabba Gabba (fortunately my kids can’t) then you might be interested that 90′s ska band The Aquabats who were a big creative force in that show are getting their own show presumably on Nickelodeon. I bring this up since while the bad is technically an Orange County band they had a ton of local connections to the Utah/Idaho community.
Posted on March 26, 2011, in Television. Bookmark the permalink. 39 Comments.
Steve Evans
RJH
Scott B.
John C.
Susan M
Aaron Brown
ninemoons
arandomjohn
kulturblogadmin
Kyle M
Brad
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MCQ
Wm
Rebecca
Ivan
Geoff J
btdgreg
Clark Goble
Aaron R.
Tim J
Ben
Fringe continues to take names and kick butt. It’s our #1 show at the moment.
This won’t help much with new content, but the WSJ claims that Miramax is close to a deal with Netflix.
I can’t stand Fringe, for some reason. Lots of people who usually like stuff I do love it. Maybe I don’t like it because I’m a science guy and all of their science is just plain loony (in other words, it’s as if Mulder is always right and there is no Scully). Or maybe it’s because John Noble reminds me of my mother-in-law (both his performance in LOTR and his performance in Fringe).
Here’s hoping Justified stays around for a long time. I watch the episodes on Hulu (can’t afford other legal methods of watching it right now) so I’m a month behind, but–fantastic show. Hope ratings go up.
And I’m definitely looking forward to “The Voyage.”
Tim, I felt that way at first too. Yeah the science is ridiculous. Especially the first season it was totally embracing B-movies. Somehow it kind of grew on me – and that’s just not the type of show that normally would. It started off as a bad X-Files clone but really became something more. Primarily on the basis of the actors.
I’d watch Fringe if it weren’t for the female lead. She sucks away my will to live, she’s so awful.
Community had a funny Pulp Fiction spoof this week, which I’m sure would have been even funnier if I’d ever seen Pulp Fiction. That guy who plays Abed is so great.
The Criminal Minds spin off show had an amazing episode this week. AMAZING. And I mean that in the worst possible way. It may become my new favorite horrible crime drama.
LOVED community this week. They’re doing stuff that other shows can’t or won’t. I’ve never seen a show willing to take more risks. Part of the plot this week revolved around making fun of Cougar Town. It was hilarious.
MCQ, did you ever watch Arrested Development?
I watched Lights Out. It wasn’t awful, but it never really did anything out of the ordinary. Very predictable.
Is the Netflix selection bad? Maybe it’s because we’ve only been using it for two months, but I never run out of stuff to watch. We love it.
Susan, yes, and you’re right, it took a lot of risks too.
And you should really see Pulp Fiction.
Amen. (to the Pulp Fiction suggestion)
Can you believe Pulp Fiction came out nearly 20 years ago?
I was watching From Paris With Love last night and Travolta used that same line about the Royale with Cheese. Funny how people just keep referencing that movie.
Maybe I’ll have to give Fringe another try. Right after I finish watching Dexter.
Come on, you guys. You know my taste in film by now. You really think I’d enjoy Pulp Fiction?
Enjoying isn’t necessary. It’s a cultural literacy issue.
I don’t really enjoy most of it, but I’m glad I saw it. Great filmmaking.
You know what’s scary? Pulp Fiction is closer in time to the films that inspired it (the 70′s) with that sense of nostalgia than we are to Pulp Fiction. Scary.
I have no problem being culturally illiterate. Even the latest episode of Community didn’t make me want to see it.
What I loved about that Community episode was the “My Dinner With Andre” spoof. Forget “Pulp Fiction:” for Community to reference “My Dinner with Andre” shows a great faith in the intelligence of the audience.
I thought that was interesting, too. Never seen that movie either though.
And again, you really should.
Fringe is great. I’m loving the world they’ve created, which is pretty much the only way I can handle the loopy science. It is amazingly loopy, but imagining it’s all happening in an alternate universe where the physics are different somehow makes it more palatable. (or so I tell myself until something totally eye-rolling shows up.) Anna Torv doesn’t bug me much, and I’m really pretty impressed at how she portrays the differences between Olivia/Fauxlivia. It’s pretty clear Olivia is uncomfortable to watch because she’s an uncomfortable, broken person, while Fauxlivia is a far more secure person.
Community would have made more sense had I seen either Pulp Fiction or Dinner with Andre, but I’m culturally illiterate, too. I recognized some of the lines only because they were so ubiquitous during college. I’m sure watching Pulp Fiction would be an experience somewhat like watching Wayne’s World, which I didn’t see until college but heard referenced all the way through high school.
I *want* to watch SGU, but SyFy decided to not allow Hulu to show it for a month after air. Grr. We’ve been watching V, which is still pretty bad, but the last couple of episodes have been a lot stronger. They killed off Tyler and Diana last week, so I’m actually looking forward to seeing what’s going to happen next.
Is SGU even going to continue? I’ve watched a few episodes on NetFlix and it seems like BSG-lite, which could be worthwhile, if it is going to continue.
@kristin N: I’ve been sticking with V, although the show is uneven. The production values are good, and I’d watch Elizabeth Mitchell in *anything.* But the show can’t seem to decide whether to play it campy (like the original source material from the 70s) or as straight SciFi drama. If they settled on one style and stuck with it, I think I’d enjoy it more. I agree that the final show of the season was well done and resolved a few story arcs without leaving it all hanging for next year.
I have no trouble with the “science” of Fringe. It’s a SciFi show, and does not try to be realistic. I was more concerned with the ret-con problem they introduced with the episode a few weeks ago showing Peter and Olivia interacting as children. I hope they ultimately explain how that could be, when it was clear in the Pilot that they didn’t know each other when they met. But I’m nitpicking — I love the show and the actors, and I have fun playing the little games, such as Guess the Weekly Cypher, and Spot the Observer.
I haven’t got to that episode yet, but it’d make sense for them to interact since we already know she was a test subject of Walter. She just was young enough so as to not remember. I mean if you introduced me to someone from 2cd grade I’d not know I’d known them.
SGU has been canceled, but Syfy’s letting the show finish the current run (which has something like 6 episodes left, I think) before they pull the plug. I’m hoping they have a better ending planned than BSG had. At least they get an ending, though–I hate it when arc shows (like Defying Gravity and Kings) just end.
I know it’s not going to matter to many of you, and certainly not to Syfy, but SGU is one of the best things one television, while it lasts. This week’s episode was particularly terrific (although it wouldn’t make much sense if you haven’t been watching all along).
Personally, I think SGU is better than BSG. It clearly borrows a lot, but improves on it, and I think the writing is better.
I’ve been a pretty big fan of Fringe, and (unlike Susan M), I think Anna Torv is great. But having her do a bad Leonard Nemoy imitation was a huge mistake. It’s just too ridiculously over-the-top for me.
Greg, I agree. I kept waiting for her to arch her eyebrow and say “fascinating.”
This past Friday’s episode of Fringe was unusually bad. Not only did it have the Olivia Spoke impersonation, but the whole inside-another’s-mind sequence was terribly derivative of both The Matrix and Inception, and seemed fairly pointless. And the animation was pretty bad. Credit, I guess, the series for trying something different, but I thought it was the worst episode since the musical. Not good.
Anyone watch the episode of Hawaii Five-0 with Diddy? It was pretty awesome. Looks like Diddy will be a recurring character.
I’m with you on Fringe, Greg. This was probably an episode that sounded good as an idea and fell apart as it came together. And Olivia DID arch her eyebrow a la Spock, and cartoon Nimoy even used the word “logical.” Inside jokes received, folks.
I hope the producers have now rung out every possible use of Nimoy for this series. How many times can you kill off a character only to bring him back and kill him off again? With William Bell out of the way (again), I hope they can get back to the universe war before the season runs out…
Haven’t watched that one yet. I’ve been loving Fringe this season though. So if this is bad it’s probably the first bad one this season which is pretty good all things considered.
House on the other hand. Dang. I’m only up to where he’s back on drugs. But man this has been a horrible season.
It gets better, Clark. I like the last few episodes a lot. And the best part: 13!
I stopped watching House earlier this season and haven’t looked back. I’m sure it can’t be all bad because there are a lot of talented people involved with that show, but the House/Cuddy soap opera just got unbearable for me.
It wasn’t just the House/Cuddy bit (although isn’t it a truism of TV that once you consummate the sexual tension that the show has jumped the shark? The Moonlighting phenomena?) However in general the writing has really just been mediocre at best. And the characters they have been focusing in on are the least interesting and least sympathetic ones.
This week’s Community was hilarious.
Yeah, and very different. For a minute, I thought all those scenes were from episodes that I had missed, then I realized they were just creating them as “memories” just for this show. Pretty funny.
Yeah, they were spoofing a flashback clip episode! Pretty well done.