(Note: Yikes. I
started writing this over a month ago, figuring it would be a nice, quick,
one-off that I could do to keep the old blog fresh. So much for THAT cunning plan. Feel free to read along and try to determine
where I grafted fresh verbiage onto old verbiage…)
It’s weird, man.
The Olympics came along, and suddenly you could totally tell
what shows the networks had just plain given up on. It was The Olympics vs. Burn Off Theater.
I’m going to admit I was cool with it, though, as it marks
one of the last times we go to really catch up with the DVR. Heck, we actually caught all the way up with
Revolution, just because it was watch that or watch nothing.
And right now, we’re in one of those delightful fallow
periods. Everyone is either in total
burn-off mode, trying to clear the decks before the last sweeps of the TV
season.
Or, they’re holding episodes in reserve, trying to take
themselves to the top of the list and grab ALL the money.
In short, we’re going to be playing catch-up this week and
then hope for the best.
The Walking Dead:
I figured we would be totally in for this one, since it left
on a huge cliff-hanger. But ultimately,
we watched the first episode and then we fell behind for a while.
I can’t fault the show, it’s kind of icky in spots and my
wife sometimes can’t handle that during dinnertime. Fair enough.
And really, I’m starting to think that the major flaws of
the show aren’t helped by watching it week by week. It’s a slow show. It’s always been slow, it will probably
always be slow.
You know who complains about that? People who watch it a week at a time. The people who DON’T are the folks just now
catching up with it on DVD and Netflix.
Because if everyone spends an episode wandering around and not getting
anywhere, then they just watch the NEXT one, where they wander around and get
somewhere.
The thing of it is, it’s also slow because it doesn’t pack
in the story. It isn’t a story
show. There is no goal but survival.
I suspect that when the show falls apart, it will be in a
big way as people realize that it’s never really going anywhere and abandon it
in droves.
And so it goes.
Meanwhile, hey, the show is back on and the first episode
back gave us a little backstory and a young man eating a large can of pudding.
Who doesn’t love pudding?
But as the second half of the season has worn on, I think my
wife and I may be all alone in kind of loving this new thing we’re
getting. For the last two seasons, all
of our characters have been crammed together, with a lot of people getting
maybe one or two lines per episode. The
focus refused to shift, and so the people on the show went from being
characters to being archetypes to, frequently, not even being that.
And this back half of the season has finally changed
that. We’ve gotten long stories, often
whole or half-episodes, where we hunkered down and said hello to some of these
characters for the first time in a long time… and in some cases, for the first
time ever.
I’m not sure if I’d want the show to carry on this way
forever. And truthfully, I think too
many of the established characters survived the destruction of the prison.
But it’s been a fun walkabout, and I give major credit to
the new showrunner, who looks like he might even keep his job for another
season. A minor miracle on this show.
Agents of SHIELD:
So there have been some massively long pauses as they stored
up their episode nuts and prepared to go full-bore on episodes through the end
of the season.
Which… isn’t that far away.
I mean, really.
We’ve got March-April-May and then everything is off the air
and it’s summer programming time.
And they’ve just now, in the last few episodes, started to
pull the threads together.
The issue is that Agents took a bold step and decided to
play a very long game. They kept
shuffling in elements, creating a rogue’s gallery, and now this relates to that
which relates to this other thing. It’s
a gutsy choice that had the unfortunate side effect of murdering the show’s
momentum.
Will people come back?
That’s a good question.
I think the more important one is, can they hold the line from here on
out?
Breakout shows… they break out early, usually. Or they get a surprise boost early on. Right now, Agents is sitting at its low and
holding that low, with an occasional spike as they bring in special guests and
promise that, yes, THIS week is going to be big and important.
If they go much lower, well, someone’s pay needs to be cut
at the very least, but it’s more likely they’ll just start folding members of
the team into the upcoming films and call it a failed experiment.
Still, with sweeps coming, I imagine they plan to go out
big. Plus, they’ll be tied to Captain
America, which I also imagine can’t hurt.
Truthfully, I don’t think the show is ever going to be a
huge hit. They’ve bled away a lot of
audience members now, and in their current time slot they’re up against some of
the biggest hitters you can find on another networks.
But I’ll lay better than even odds it gets at least one more
year. Here’s hoping they can come back
strong. REALLY strong.
Supernatural:
Supernatural just go renewed for season 10, and I am so very
happy, since the current showrunner set up his plan to make it there.
The ratings, they keep steady, and sometimes they go
up. Everyone on board the show seems
happy, healthy and ready to do another year.
And I’m into the idea.
With The Vampire Diaries and The Originals, and talk next year of a
spin-off Supernatural show, I could get more than half my weekly programming
from a channel aimed at teenage girls.
Bring it.
The Originals:
It’s funny. I remember when this show was about two vampires
fighting for control of the city. And
now it’s… man, I don’t even know. They
just kept adding in elements and burning through story just the way Vampire
Diaries started doing, and now…
Now they’re getting somewhere.
They drop their first big death. They demonstrated that they can, in fact, put
together a bigger enemy.
I think my only real disappointment is that they still
haven’t gotten the hybrid baby out into the world. I feel like Diaries would have gotten there
already, but they keep holding it back.
I think it’s a B or a B- show, but it’s getting an A- for
effort. Keep going, guys.
Modern Family:
I don’t talk about Modern Family much, but I suspect that’s
because there’s not much to talk about.
They find the stories, they write the stories, they tell the stories,
and I show up most weeks and have a good laugh.
The only thing I’ll note is that, much like The Big Bang
Theory, I feel like they’re really leaning on making sure you see the promo for
next week, this week.
And I honestly have to ask, who out there is watching the
promo for these shows and wondering if they’re coming back next week?
If anything, I think of it as a deterrent. If you turn on the show and start watching,
you’re five minutes in before you think that maybe you’re not enjoying
yourself. But you’ll probably stick it
out.
Whereas if you watch a promo, and think to yourself, “Who
cares if Phil wants a pet lemur?” you’ve blown it for next week and that viewer
might never come back.
The critics aren’t in love with the show, but, frankly, it’s
still a hit, and it’s going to be around for many years to come. And I’m totally cool with that, at the
moment.
American Idol:
I thought I wouldn’t have much to say about the show, and…
really, I don’t.
They’ve strived this year to categorize people, which is
fine. And more to the point, even with
all that hard work, they’ve got what they’ve got, which is some people who can
hack it and some who can’t, and some who will hold on through these next weeks
and learn what it takes to improve their performance.
Honestly, there are people on that stage, as there are every
year, who they should really just shove in a recording booth and start
promoting now. These coming weeks will
not help them. They just need to get on
the road and start honing their skills.
And there are several people who are about to get hopelessly
lost in the shuffle.
Just like every year.
BUT.
I gotta mention Harry Connick Jr. Who has made the hilarious choice of actually
judging the singing competition.
Jen is all smiles and nice work and good try. Keith is all good work and try to
improve. Harry… Harry is deconstructing
the show from the inside.
He’s telling people to stay on key. He’s DEMONSTRATING how to stay on key. He’s telling them that doing all those runs
are screwing them up. He’s telling them
that going for the high note is a trap that gets applause but not votes.
He dragged out Randy’s “In it to win it!” catchphrase and
slapped Randy in the face with it.
What I dig is that he’s not being mean (except to Randy, I
suppose). He wants to help. And it is confusing the performers, who have
been watching for years and have gotten used to being slammed and going, “Whatever,
clown,” or being praised to the hills for showing up and singing mostly on key.
Harry is telling the truth and it is cutting people off at
the knees. He’s not even afraid to go
after the band of his own show. He shows
up each week knowing that he will be getting booed by the audience.
And he’s taking it in stride.
I don’t know how Harry will survive the season, and I’ll be
equally shocked if he is asked back, and if he comes back. But man, oh, man, I hope he does, because
watching people get actual critiques is just marvelous. It’s like a singing competition, or something.
There is one big question, though. I would have thought, at the start of the
season, that season 14 of this show would be a lock. FOX has shoved about 50
hours of its programming into this show.
But the ratings are not good. They’re dropping, week by week. And while the show should be cheap (reality
shows usually are) everything I’ve been reading has stated that this show
ain’t.
I think the question becomes, do they get much, much cheaper
judges and other talent next year, and pull another year out of it? Or do they let it go, before it’s too late?
An extremely curious conundrum. (For the record: There’s too much riding on
the show. I’m about 99% sure it gets
another season with very inexpensive judges.)
Revolution:
I can see that a few million people are still watching
Revolution, and it gives me hope that if they get to season three Eric Kripke
will do what he did with Supernatural and launch it into the stratosphere.
But realistically, the show is still just barely plodding
along now. There’s a lot of wandering, a
lot of subplots and it only kind of works.
The show needs something, and it’s not quite getting
it. Here’s hoping there’s a big finish,
because this show needs a boost to survive.
As it is, they’re putting other shows in its place right
now, and seeing how the ratings shake out.
Which I guess means I should get caught up while I can…
The Big Bang Theory:
I feel like I covered this in Modern Family, but what’s with
the promos?
Beyond that, well, this seems to be the year they want to
push everyone forward, and so far it’s really working. The show is hit-or-miss, some of the subplots
leave something to be desired, but pound for pound the show keeps finding new
ways to make these people fun.
Most of the time.
The big danger is that, well, they just renewed the show for
a whopping three more seasons. I’m sure
everyone got a pay bump, and I’m equally sure it wasn’t as big as if they had
signed up for a season-by-season pay raise.
On the other hand, how rich do you need to be?
Given the numbers the show is still pulling, I think the
question will eventually become a Friends issue – do you quit while you’re
ahead, or keep on taking the money while the money is good?
Glee:
Glee got moved to Tuesdays, where it is currently being
violently murdered every week.
They’ve already been renewed for a sixth season, but man, if
I was running FOX, I’d see about how I could go about getting everyone out of
that contract and calling it a day.
It’s been a rough year.
But they’re currently in the middle of killing off the Ohio stories and
moving the show to New York.
And there’s juuust enough time to let this one die with
grace.
Perhaps realizing they botched it the first time around,
they tried to say goodbye to Finn again.
And they got it closer to right this time. Paying tribute to Finn by singing his
favorite songs (which were, clearly, chosen by the 40-something-year-old writers,
but never mind), giving a really solid performance, having them lose.
That was all good.
And then Sam came out of nowhere and said he did his best,
and I lost it.
Finn’s gave us one of the great moments of the show, when at
the end of season three he put the woman he loved on the road to New York and
said goodbye. It would have been a great
end to the show, something I said then and still think now.
And here we are back to the goodbyes and we can still make
this work.
How do you make it work?
Honestly, you’ve got me there.
But I think you flash forward a bit. You give the audience some honesty as most of
the characters flame out of New York, and go home to Ohio to live the life they
were always destined to live.
And maybe if one person makes it… that’s enough. That’s honest. Which is something the show could use.
The Vampire Diaries:
I’ve often said that this show burns through story twice as
fast as anything else on the air. As I
type this, they’re really mid-season five, but anywhere else they’d be heading
into season 10.
And season ten shows… they have some wear.
I’d say the show really works about half the time, and the
other half it spins its wheels and pretends it’s momentum because they spin so
fast.
Of course, sometimes it’s fun to watch the wheels spin…
Community:
The end of this season of Community is nigh, and frankly, it
looks like it might get yet another season.
NBC is losing shows left and right now, and having something that at
least holds eyeballs might just be enough to keep it around.
I think the year off did Dan Harmon good, or at the very
least everyone is staying quiet about any last minute production delays or late
scripts.
Critics are quick to say the show has been much better under
Harmon, but I’ll be honest and say that I did enjoy last season, which featured
last-minute showrunners coming in to punt for a guy who was fired. Along the way they go their schedule shoved
around, one of their cast members imploded, and they still managed to put
together a funny season of TV.
History will, I hope, treat that year kindly.
It’s been a good season, with ups and downs. But I think the real test will be if they get
yet another season, and whether Dan Harmon can hack it without a year to get
tanned, rested and ready.
Whose Line Is It Anyway?
Okay, I’m almost at 3000 words. So, short and sweet:
Man, I love having these guys around. There are hundreds, perhaps thousands of
episodes of this show now, and still they find little ways to surprise each
other.
And me. And I dig it.
