Idle Ramblings

TV or Not TV

As the television season begins to head into the home stretch, I find myself ambivalent about the renewal or non renewal of shows that, only a few months ago, I was crazy about. Most are new shows from this season, some are more veteran shows. Here we go:

New

Commander In Chief - Great premise. Started off with a bang. Geena Davis and Donald Sutherland - two great actors in their own rights - carry the show with ease and have a great chemistry together. The first half of the season was great. President Mackenzie not only had to deal with moving from vice president into the top job, but with the politics behind the scenes and the day to day job. I don't know exactly when Steven Bochco was brought into the production, but it was probably about the time all the episodes started being the same - some major crisis arises and President Mac uses her own brand of intellectual insightfulness to avoid disaster for both her politically and for the country. It's still doing okay int he ratings and Davis recently won one of the Much Ado About Nothing awards, so I think it stands a good chance of getting renewed, though, at this point, I'm not too concerned if it does or not. It will be on the schedule during the February sweeps, even though the number of episodes ordered for the season was cut from 22 to 18.

Surface - Of the four sci-fi/supernatural shows that debuted this season, this one was the best. Invasion was boring from the get-go, though the critics picked it as the best (and it did guest star Cirroc Lofton in one episode I watched), it just plodded along - and is still plodding along. Threshold started off with a great pilot and a couple of interesting episodes that followed, but quickly crashed and burned by Thanksgiving. Supernatural was just dumb. Surface was actually the one I thought would be the least interesting, but, through some fluke of nature, it was actually pretty good. I think part of that, at least for Rebecca and I, is a healthy leviathan fear. But, it also turned out that there was some decent plot and decent, if somewhat predictable at times writing. I will say that Lake Bell and Jay R. Ferguson will never win any acting awards. Ferguson is a tubby David Borenaz, without the talent, and Bell, well, it's a good thing she's pretty. But they fill the role they need to fill which is simply advancing the plot, which is actually the star of the show. The CGI monster are really good and the story line about the kid turning into the lizard king really helps out the show. The finale shows Monday, ending a 15 episode run. No decision has been made about its renewal and I don't know how well its done audience-wise, but I know the reruns have a pretty good spot on the Sci-Fi Channel, so there may be hope. I'm a little more interested in whether this one gets renewed or not, but I won't be devistated if it's not. I can't see it having more than a half, or one good season left in the premis without getting weird (in a bad way) or repetitive.

One show I am surprised that I want to see renewed is The Office. I'm a huge fan of the Ricky Gervais BBC series, and when I saw that NBC was going to produce an American version, I though about recent similar efforts such as "Coupling" and the John Laraquette vehicle based on Fawlty Towers. Surprisingly, however, The Office seems to have found it's own way. Same basic characters, same basic premise, but, in large part due to Steve Carell, who took Gervais' character and made it his own, it has succeeded. It's like the movie Office space on setroids. I think between decent ratings and decent success from iTunes downloads, this one will stick around.

Veteran shows

Lost - As much as I hate to say it, the show is beginning to become Lost to me. This season has been slow and fairly pointless so far. I don't care about any of the new characters from the tail section of the plane. The only thing that has really stuck with me this season is the reunion of the husband from the tail section and the wife who was with the main group - a very, very minor plot for the series. It's bogged down and I don't know if it will recover my interest. I know it will be renewed and I'll watch it throughout the reast of the season, but, it may not stay on the Tivo list next year.

24 - Next to The Shield, this is my favorite non-science fiction show on today. In the beginning, the premis was unique, and still is. The writing is good. Keiffer Sutherland is excellent in the role of Jack Bauer, who, for several years in a row, has had one 24-hour period that has just really sucked. This season started off with a bang and has just been rolling ever since. I'm disappointed, however, that several of my favorites from previous seasons were killed off in the opening few minutes of this season - especially Dennis Haysbert who portraid President Palmer in all the previous season. I don't want this series to be cancelled, but I wonder just how far the rollercoaster ride can go and still be fun. This is the fifth season. I would hate to see it start limping as series usually do in their final two seasons.

Shows I'm still enthusiastic about

The Shield
Boston Legal
Battlestar Galactica
Stargate SG1
Stargate Atlantis

We'll see what comes down the pike.

posted by Joseph @ 2/03/2006 01:08:00 PM