The Premiere Week That Was In TV

Premiere week is over. And after a grueling amount of television watching, I'm prepared to talk about it. What's worth watching? What makes the cut around here? Let's find out.

Monday:

How I Met Your Mother:
Now that the Ted and Robin relationship storyline has been dropped as of the end of last season I think this show is going to get even better (and it was good before). Nothing in this season's premiere gave the impression that the creative team behind the show had lost any of the magic they had previous seasons. The show feels a bit like Seinfeld, but with stories about stuff instead of nothing. It's in the TiVo season pass.

Chuck:
Do I even need to tell you what Chuck is about? NBC has been doing an insane amount of hype for this show. In case you're one of the three people that haven't seen a promo, it's about a guy that accidentally gets infused with all the computer knowledge the government has. So far the show's biggest draw is not the main guy, but the two government representatives assigned to keep tabs on him. Adam Baldwin is playing the role of a bloodthirsty NSA agent. It's a role very close to what he was on Firefly, and he was excellent in that role and shines here. Too bad he's not the main focus of the show and only gets bit parts. The other agent is a blond female who's biggest attraction (pun intended) is to waltz around her hotel room in various states of undress. As Ginger pointed out while we watched, it seemed like a decent premise for a movie, but as a TV show it seems like it's going to get old quickly. At this point I may give it one more episode to redeem itself, but more than likely this one will not make the TiVo's season pass.

Heroes:
To avoid spoiling this one for people that haven't finished season one, I'll just say that this show is still good, but maybe not as good and as enticing as the beginning of the first season. Still better than most stuff on TV though, but there are some things that are pretty abrupt changes from the way things ended. Regardless, the first season was really good and given the content of the show it should be no surprise it makes the TiVo season pass.


Journeyman:
Another attempt at a show about a guy who goes back in time to help people. This must be one of the most used formulas for shows these days. Hard to say if this one is going to be a good one yet. It has one thing going for it and several things against it. There's a neat twist in the going back in time thing where when he returns the same amount of time he was in the past has occurred. There's another interesting aspect in that he's not the only one time traveling. The things going against was the one scene where he went back in time 10 years and interacted with people who were none the wiser that it was a 10 year older version of him. I only wish I could pass for myself ten years ago. Even that might not have been that bad had the people he interacted with not just seen the younger version of him 30 seconds earlier. Has potential, so if they wow me and manage to hook me I'm in for the long haul.

Tuesday:

Eureka:
Ok, not a new show and it's not premiering, but it's arguably the best original show on Sci Fi. It's quirky and fun and doesn't take itself too seriously, but at the same time uses some real science in it's plots. Word on the street has the series being picked up for a third season recently, and seasons of the show are only 13 episodes apiece, so there's not a lot of commitment required. Still in the TiVo list, but the current season is over as of next week.

Bones:
It's Angel lite, except now Angel isn't the lead character and he's not a Vampire. It's yet another murder mystery whodunit show, kind of like CSI with a smaller cast. The show also has a Moonlighting (the old series, not the new one) vibe to it in that the show keeps teasing an attraction between the two main characters. And since everyone learned their lesson as to what happens to a show when the main characters do actually get together in Moonlighting, you can bet these two will never follow through on anything. For now, stays in the TiVo list.


Reaper:
Best new show this season, hands down. The premise is weird enough and for now the character interaction is fantastic. Now there's only been on episode so far, and that episode was directed by Kevin Smith, so it's possible the premiere is actually better than the series itself will be. Which is uncommon, but not unheard of (I'm looking at you Studio 60). For all other purposes this was how the intro to a series should be done. It introduced us to the characters, the supporting cast and the status quo all the while managing to be entertaining rather than feeling like completely blatant exposition. The series deals with Sam as he hits his 21st birthday. His parents have let him coast through life and on his 21st birthday we find out why. His parents sold his soul to the devil.

This isn't the red skinned horned version of the devil either. He's played by Ray Wise and looks like a lawyer. The slick / smarmy version he portrays hits all the right notes. There's obviously something deeper going on and more to this than the setup premise tells us (one of the supporting characters even mentions that you can't sell someone else's soul), so we'll see where that ends up taking the story eventually. In the meantime our hero believes he's indebted to the devil and acts as his bounty hunter returning some truly evil souls that have escaped from hell (due to a recent influx of souls recently which has allowed some souls to slip through the cracks and escape as a result of the over population).

Our hero's best friend is Sock, the ultimate slacker and one of the best sources of comedy relief in the show. The dialog between Sam and Sock comes across as real and fresh, no surprise considering it's Kevin Smith directing this episode about a couple of 20 somethings (think Clerks, but with a supernatural twist). There's also the standard love interest also (boy likes girl, girl likes boy, boy doesn't feel like he can ask out girl since he's working for the devil, you know, standard stuff). Overall if subsequent episodes manage to maintain the quality of the initial episode, this is going to be a really fun series.

Does it make the TiVo season pass list? Did you read what I wrote and not already know the answer? I should point out that even TV stingy Curt likes this show. In the interest of presenting both sides, I will also say Ginger did not like it quite as much as me (I believe the phrase "It's stupid" was uttered at a couple of points).

Wednesday:

Back To You:
It's Kelsey Grammar returning to TV in a comedy on FOX. I will say this is one of the best live action comedies I've seen on FOX. This isn't your Daddy's Frasier. It's very sitcomy, but in a good way. Basic premise is small town newsman makes it big, gets high profile job, loses high profile job and returns to small town. It's formulaic sitcom, but Kelsey Grammar makes it shine. It makes the TiVo season pass.

Bionic Woman:
One of the shows I was most looking forward to this season. Unfortunately if Reaper's first episode was how to do the first episode of a series right, this one is how to do it wrong. Too much stuff going on in this first episode. And at the end it feels like we end up with an established status quo, but I can't really tell and it's all pretty nebulous. A large part of what makes the pilot bad is Katee Sackhoff. That's "Starbuck" on the new Battlestar Galactica for the uninitiated. And if you thought her bad acting in that show was just because of her role, this show proves you wrong. Her ability to bring a show down apparently transcends roles. The good news is she's not a main cast member, but unfortunately has been set up as a recurring guest villain. There was just too much going on in this first episode in my mind. I know they wanted to hint at the larger storyline, but come on people, hint at it, don't spend over half the show forcing it down my throat. Still, the super powered chick concept is tough to mess up too much, so the series still has my attention. If Alias was secret agent Buffy, then this is Robo Buffy. For now it stays in the season pass because hey, it's a chick with super powers.

Private Practice:
Please, like I watch this show. Ginger does though, but I don't know if she's watched the first episode yet.

Thursday:


Thursday is a big TV night around here and requires two TiVos running (one with 2 tuners and an old school TiVo with just one tuner).

My Name Is Earl:
Still one of the funnier comedies on TV. I was hoping for a quick resolution to the whole in jail thing, but it looks like they might be dragging it out. I'm hoping they don't have him in jail for the whole season. It was still amusing, but not quite as good as some of the past episodes. This is a show where I think the supporting cast does more for the show than the main character. Which presents a problem now that they have Earl sequestered in jail since the interaction with those aforementioned support characters is now severely diminished. For now it stays in the list.

Smallville:
We're entering season seven of Smallville. Let that sink in. Seven seasons of this. High School is only five years. How much longer are they going to milk this show? Seems like between last season and this season they're going out of their way to throw in reinterpretations of a lot of the heroes in the DC comics universe. This season they've introduced another kryptonian to the show, Kara. Kara for those that don't follow the comics is Superman's cousin Supergirl. But remember, this is a show about Clark, there's no red and blue 'costume' with a big "S" on it per se (although they've made a point of always having him wear a blue shirt with a red jacket, giving you the costume vibe without it being a costume). So in the premiere we get a blond wearing a blue halter top with a red sleeveless jacket. I mean come on. Just get Clark fitted for the life jacket as he gets ready to waterski and jump a shark. For now it's still in the list for a couple reasons. One I've been watching it for a long time now and I feel like I'm invested in the show. Once I've been watching a show that long on momentum it really has to get completely crappy before I give it up (shows can get that bad that I'll drop them, see the last season of Battlestar Galactica for an example). The other reason is it looks so pretty in HD. And they almost always have one special effect money shot in the show of Clark using his powers in some battle or something. For now it's staying in the list, but this could be the make or break season.

The Office:
No description needed. Still politically incorrect at times and still one of the funniest things on TV. It has so much good will built up at this point they could run episodes dedicated to Creed for a month and I would still watch. I keep thinking that's it, they can't come up with anything new to top what they've done before, and every week they still manage to come up stuff.

CSI:
It's Quincy for our generation. Or the generation after mine, I'm not sure which generation I actually belong to, I like to think I'm still in the young and hip generation, but reality says otherwise. As long as they keep doing interesting shows, we'll keep watching. Stays in the list.

Grey's Anatomy:
Another show I don't watch that Ginger does.

Without A Trace:
This one falls under the category of guilty pleasure I think. I wouldn't be overly upset to drop it, but the production quality of the show is pretty good in most cases. Stays in the list from momentum.

Friday:


Moonlight:
This was the other show I was most looking forward to of the new season. A vampire private eye who has a moral streak and solves mysteries. It's like someone got the bright idea of taking Joss Whedon's Angel and transplanting it to a real network. Sadly this show is terrible. Not surprising considering how many changes were made to the show before it even aired. The original pilot was scrapped and reshot replacing all the characters except for the main guy. This show isn't even an ensemble show, it just focuses a lot on the main guy. And he's not that good. And for whatever reason they've explained his powers and focused on the stupid aspects of it. They've made a big deal of him being able to 'sense' things others can't. What this means is you get lot of scenes with him sniffing stuff. I am being completely serious, I thought I was watching a live action version of Dr Suess' The Nose Book. In addition to super smell, he has super hearing, can run faster than a car, super strength, and wolverine type healing. He's like Superman light, except 'undead'. The show gets one more episode to see if it can get rid of the sniffing and find it's legs, but it seems DOA (see how I cleverly made use of the fact he's undead in trashing the show). Realistically this show is going to be leaving the season pass list shortly.

Flash Gordon:
Dropped from the list. This show was so bad it's unreal. It's camp, but camp done really bad. Logistics on the show make no sense, storylines make no sense. The premise of the show really worked, but execution was terrible. I was going to drop it after the pilot but friends at work convinced me to continue watching it because (and this was actually their reason) "It's got three really hot chicks on it." I decided no amount of hotness can save this show. It's gone.

Doctor Who:
Never watched Doctor Who before this last iteration of the series. So far it's been fun even for those of us who didn't grow up on The Doctor. Stays in the list.

Stargate Atlantis:
Another guilty pleasure. What can I say, I love the Rodney character.

Saturday:

The current wasteland of television. Nothing good comes on Saturday nights anymore. I'm not even sure the networks are trying to put anything on these days.

Sunday:

Robot Chicken:
If you have to ask, then I can't explain it. It's short (12 minutes) and usually has one skit that stands out as being really funny.


So there you have it. There are other things that get watched (The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, a couple of cartoons on Saturday morning), but that's my current TV schedule more or less (seems to be leaning towards the "more" rather than the "less"). The one thing bad I've noticed about watching HD television is that I'm more inclined to watch something bad if it's HD, just because it looks so nice. Anyone else have that problem? Right, like anyone's still reading at this point.