been busy, what with the new fall season of tv (details and opinions to follow) and working part time again (a few hours a few nights a week plus daytime on saturday) and all the rest of life's stuff still going on
the job is easy enough, though it is a weird schedule for me, tv obsessive that i am. i get home a little after 8 weeknights and am taking advantage of the dvr for just about every show...
and, as for those shows:
- heroes - premiered last night and, while i was looking forward to this one, i just couldn't be bothered to care. it started boring and continued boring and i would have turned it off after less than 20 minutes if i'd been more decisive about what i wanted to watch instead... actually, it didn't start boring; it started annoying and pretentious and pathetic and pissed me off with its stupid text scrawl about an epic beginning and i was NOT in the mood to care. and, what followed thereafter bored me into giving up completely
- runaway - and this was where i went after i turned off the broing heroes, and i regretted it (for a while, anyway, as i ended up watched the latest episode of the wire on demand instead). writing was trying to be clever for a pilot, joining the plot already in progress, leaving the audience in the dark as to what's going on even though the premise is obvious. the line about the dead grandma was hilarious, but this show is not a comedy and i turned it off a short time after that
- vanished - aka the bad abduction show of the season, but probably the one that will last, cause fox seems like it will put up with this crap. they couldn't be bothered to put up with firefly a few years back, but now, i think they will let this shit linger
- kidnapped - aka the good abduction show of the season, and the one most likely to be cancelled. nbc is not the network to let a serial like this last, methinks. but, i hope they will cause this one had a strong cast and a fantastic pilot
- standoff - a great balance between crisis drama and romantic comedy and a nice cast, if they can just keep the crisises from being too repetitive. this is one of the shows this season that would work better as a movie plot than a series plot, but i like it so far
- shark - and, as for shows that would work better as movie plots, there's this one, which, without james woods, would probably suck. as it is, though, with woods in the lead, it should be entertaining for a while, though i don't see the series having far to go. i did like that woods' character was just as horrible a person when he's doing "good" things as when he's doing "bad" but i wish they a) hadn't bothered showing us the case that broke him or b) made it better, spent more time on it. but, his dealings with his new underlings were entertaining and his daughter's choice to live with him because he's obviously still a seriously flawed guy could make for an interesting plot... for a little while. i don't see my interest in this show lasting more than a few episodes, even if the daughter's a little cute
- justice - and this lawyer show had something great going for it, but only one "something": the jury manipulation stuff. that stuff was great in the first few episodes, but the overall style of the show, the ending gimick (which hadn't really revealed anything too shocking or even interesting yet) and the dialogue, not to mention the annoying computer displays or the notion of the tv-universe lawfirm of four people doing everything, just couldn't sustain any of my interest. give me a show about jury manipulation, a straight drama, and i could watch that, but not this
- jericho - started well enough, but i don't think it will last long. too potentially dark combined with a little too much potential schmaltz (even if mcraney can pull off cheesy speeches fairly well). ulrich was good, but some beats along the way in the pilot could have been left out, notably the prison bus, an easy plot for a later episode, even the second episode, that did NOT need to be set up ahead of time
- six degrees - didn't expect to like this show at all, but the first episode was enjoyable enough, although i don't give a shit about christenson's past. the photographer's story was great and i almost wish it (and that of the woman he's got his eye on) wouldn't be stuck in this high concept, ensemble show
- brothers & sisters - the problem with this show's pilot is it didn't set up what this show is. there were hints at political content, but that seemed like it could just be subtext for family problems, there were shady business dealings but no real detail to those either... again, i think they serve more as subtext for family problems. but, if this show is just about the family problems, why bother hinting at politics and business? or, if you will be bothering with them, get into more detail, damn it. a nice cast (though i should look into the changes, since i heard a bit about pilot reshoots and cast changes and whatnot) and some great acting out of them along the way, but i still gotta wonder what this show will do with itself over time
- studio 60 on the sunset strip - and aaron sorkin is back, and he hasn't changed much, but i'm ok with that. the big tv names will have their styles and, though they may change it a bit sometimes (see deadwood or rome for examples), it's comforting when they give you exactly what you expect (and exactly what you wish they'd been giving you for years now, if only certain shows hadn't been cancelled). still not sure how well this show will pull off the show within the show--really, a pirates of penzance musical number?--but i think, like sports night, it can focus plenty on the behind the scenes drama enough to not have to bother with the sketch comedy... like early west wing could confine itself easily to the office stuff
as for not so new shows, brotherhood just finished its first season and went out strongly, the wire is back for season four and is probably the best show on television... at least until battlestar galactica comes back in a couple weeks. house is still house, lost and veronica mars return next week, grey's anatomy had a mediocre start to the new season. survivor's been boring so far, but it (and amazing race, also recently returned) have trouble early on with too many "characters"
and in non tv news, i finally edited clubhouse blues and should be putting together a cover soon and getting the book onto cafepress, and i have two chapters left to write in on the slopes of stanjantuwel, but i'm still not keeping up with that as regularly as i should
instead, i've been watching some dvds of late, notably the production diaries for king kong (pre and post), and space above and beyond (about halfway through the show, i think)
and my most recent movies were the last kiss in the theater saturday night--went out for japanese food and to the movie with sarah, kids with my dad for the night, and it was a great date and a pretty good movie (it made me want to watch other things, though (garden state and huff) which isn't often a good sign)--and the great new wonderful, which was nice to watch but ultimately didn't amount to much
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