Chic, IL Must see TV

I figger I'd start a new thread with all the new and returning shows this year.

Yes, I'm very excited about 'Heroes' with the Japanese guy as my fave so far. And 'Smallville' yesterday was excellent, especially with Zod/Lex and Clark duking it out and finishing with one of my favorite movie lines of all time: "Kneel before Zod". Wish the show explored the Phantom Zone a bit more.

 

I'm looking forward to the return of Doctor Who on the Sci-Fi Channel starting tonight. I do want to get a copy of the Children in Need Special before watching The Christmas Invasion, though.

I did start watching Heroes and enjoy it so far. I notice the creator has a blog at NBC.com, plus there's a companion online comic book which I haven't read yet.

Enough people have recommended Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, so I'm going to check it out. I am going to wait until the first episode is rerun next Tuesday on USA Network, then catch up on the following two episodes.

For Kevin Smith fans, you might want to know that he's subbing for Ebert again on Ebert & Roeper. He'll be on the September 30 and October 7 episodes, 11:05 P.M. on Channel 7, then rerun Sunday morning at 10:30 A.M.

Phil

 

Studio 60 is rad beyond that little 3 letter word. It is a great show so far. I hope it can maintain the level of awesomeness.

BSG starts NEXT week. ARGGGG!!!! I can't wait for that one.

Heroes was ok. I felt it rather slow in parts. I'm not sure how it will play out but that is the type of show I need to catch on DVD.

I got hooked on My Name is Earl. Really funny stuff.

Also checked on CSI with Femme. The season started off rather oddly. I'm not sure where this season is heading.

 

Thoughts on this season's TV, mostly imported from the movies thread:

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Aaron Sorkin's new show, "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip."

It's pretty good so far ("so far" being one episode), essentially "Sports Night but with SNL instead of ESPN". Also, this show answers the question of what Amanda Peet's been doing in her spare time instead of calling me.

It, however, does not excuse her behavior (or lack thereof.)

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"My Name is Earl" continues to be awesome. It never ceases to amaze me how well the show can satirize white trash while still retaining sympathy for the characters.

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The first episode of "Heroes" was pretty good. Not great, but promising. I can only hope that the writers/creators have the patience to let some of these characters turn bad.


Fett402 posted:I dont think any of the "Heroes" are gonna turn evil...

I dunno, man. You don't think a self-centered go-getter who can fly or the "I have an evil twin who lives in mirrors" gal might be willing to use their newfound abilities for less than righteous deeds?

Superheroes don't flourish without supervillains. The show's gonna get real old real fast if the only adversaries these guys have are some secret (government?) organization on their tails.

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What worries me about "Heroes", and most television, is that artists' visions for characters and plot will always take a backseat to profit. I'm not saying that profitable art is a bad thing, but profit feeds a desire for more profit, which in turn has a long-standing history of disrupting proper story and character arcs. Iconic characters - be they superheroes, vampire slayers, sensitive gangsters, secret agents, etc - require endings to their stories in order for their arcs to achieve full effect (see Alan Moore's introduction in The Dark Knight Returns' trade paperback for a much better explanation than I can give.) In short, the profitable aspect of modern art has demanded that popular characters exist long past their time (and usually long past their welcome.) If The Illiad gets made into a TV miniseries, I'm sure Achilles will only be severely wounded so the producers can bring him back for a possible weekly spinoff.

Anyway, I'm rambling at this point, teetering dangerously close to the "Comic Book Store Guy" chasm, so I'll stop now.

-Le Penguin
"Freakin' kids. I got a master's degree in folklore and mythology. I don't need this crap."

 

Which is why I hope Firefly stays dead. I'm afraid that any new incarnation will turn out to be very monkey paw-ish.

My concern is that in the new place I have no TV service, and tvtorrents.com has gone the way of all the Earth. It hasn't been an issue until now. That wailing moan you hear next Wednesday won't be the wind; it will be me, curled up in the fetal position on my floor and rocking back and forth.

Oh, and Phil, I will be up there tomorrow.

 

QFT, there. Although in a roundabout way, perhaps that evil profit margin can actually work FOR us instead of against... two of the best shows of this young century - "Arrested Development" and "Action!" - grow in stature with every new TV season simply because they didn't get good enough ratings to stick around. As much as I'd love to see new stories with those characters, they've ensured their timeless awesomeness by never having time to start sucking. John Cleese, creator of perhaps the best sitcom in history, was fond of saying that he was thankful to get 6 hours out of Basil Fawlty, especially since Shakespeare only got 5 hours out of Hamlet.

-Le Penguin
"This I gotta see!"

 

Bite your tongue!! TV Torrents came up today for a couple hours, but seeds were down.....the bulletin said that they are installing a new server and hope to get it back up soon. Believe you-me, this household has been keeping tabs hourly for its return...for both "Project Runway" and "Nip/Tuck"....two horrible shows that are as addictive and good for you as a Columbian Booger-Sugar/China White injection.

Bosh
"TV is the opiate of the missus."

 

Project Runways is not bad. You don't feel dirty watching it like you do with Flavor of Love or Tyra's model show.

 

I find myself watching "Parental Control" on MTV. I just happened upon a show one time and now I just watch it to see how creepy the parents are. Now the show is about parents picking their kid's new boy/girlfriend over their current one and the kid has to decide which one to date. The mom and dad each choose one and when the dad picks a girl for their sun, it's almost pedophiliac the way some of them are just outright leering at these young girls.

And with "CSI", it looks like they aren't solving the cases in the 46 minutes like the days of old. I'm still addicted it.

And with "Smallville", they've introduced Jimmy Olsen into the cast. Now, I'm used to Jimmy being alot younger than the rest of the cast in the comics and the movies, not the same age. This is going to irk me to no end. But, from small snippets of upcoming shows, I see an appearance of Green Arrow coming. I'm hoping that a young Bruce Wayne makes an appearance in the near future, since we've already seen The Flash and Aquaman.

 

Strangely, Germany's MTV has tons of this kind of sh!t, and most of it's still in English. Many a post-class, pre-drunk, slightly high afternoon went by in Berlin this summer with several of us being mesmerized by garbage like "Date My Mom" and "Room Raiders", essentially shows wherein people are so desperate to be on camera that they're willing to debase themselves and sometimes their entire families.

I unequivocally despise the "being on TV validates my actions and existence" mentality, but at the same time I can't deny the almost hypnotic effect of this crap.

... or maybe it was just all the hash and absinthe.

I guess we'll never know.

... unless I go back to Germany, get ripped and watch TV, which doesn't sound like an entirely bad idea.

Wait, what was I talking about again?

-Le Penguin
"I gotta go to class, man."

 

I'm really displeased by project runway this season.

This fall I'm watching;

Studio 60. I had a hard time waiting since the West Wing ended.
Battlestar should be very good.
Weeds, which I can't say enough good things about. (shotime) Mary Louise Parker sells weed to maintain her upper class lifestyle.

 

Gilmore Girls, though after one episode with the new show runner since the brain trust left after last season I have to say I'm very upset and think that the new guy just doesn't get it. So this may very well go from "must see" for me to "they killed it," but I'm willing to give the new guy a couple episodes before I truly get ticked.

And I know this isn't new but it's "must see t.v." for me and that's both Oz and The Shield, I can't stop watching either one.

 

I'm looking forward to "Dexter", Sundays on Showtime starting tomorrow.

-Le Penguin
"Murder can be fun."

 

For those who didn't see the Simpsons last week, here's a clip of a "lightsaber" battle...
http://www.theforce.net/latestnews/story/Duel_Of_The_Fates_On_The_Simpsons_100466.asp

"Simpson, you've been waving your nuts in my face for too long!"

 

I never feel dirty after Flavor of Love.

After watching Footballers Wive$: Overtime on the other hand I definately feel dirty. I also love how in the credits the show is "devised by" someone. I think that is awesome. GG BBC.

 

Personally I'll wait until 24 debuts before I watch any new shows...

 

Studio 60 is holding up well as of week 3. The most impressive part of the show so far is that some of the comedy is actually pretty funny.

Still working on finding a Heroes torrent... stupid Blackwing Lair nights.

-Le Penguin
"Sod the walk, I'll take the car"

 

Yeah, taking down Nef really sucked. I hope we don't do that again.

Less than 48 hours to BSG........

 

Heroes 1.2:

I'm not sure the dialogue could be any cheesier. Time and again, good plots were undermined by unnecessary and trite lines. The scientist's storyline can be excused somewhat because it requires the most exposition, but the scenes with the cheerleader were almost painful to watch. Stories with the least amount of dialogue (Hiro, Ali Larter) play the best so far.

-Le Penguin
"The yams did it! The yams did it!"

 

i'm one episode behind on heroes, and watched the first half of Studio 60.

i don't think I'll ever really drop studio 60 but I can see what some are talking about when they say that they don't really CARE About anybody on the show yet. it's early days so i'm willing to give sorkin time (remember moira kelly on season one of West Wing? AWFUL) but there's been some moments that have bored me. the news60 subplot on this week's epsiode, for example, just seemed so trite and on the nose.

and for what it's worth, i think the sketch writing on the show is almost universally unfunny. the show would be MUCH better if he hired an SNL vet to come in and ghostwrite for Matt.

 

WMAQ-TV interrupted Heroes on Monday for a weather update. Sci-Fi Channel reruns the current episode on the following Friday at 6:00 P.M. Central Time, so I'll watch it then. Because of the storm, DISH Network went out during Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. USA Network will rerun the first episode, "Pilot," this evening, but it looks to be the only one they will run. I'll have to wait 'til NBC reruns "The Focus Group," this week's episode, before watching beyond the first two episodes.

Phil

 

There are a lot of characters to get into for barely 2 hours of actual show having been broadcast at this point. Sorkin's trademark snappy dialog is a bit of a misnomer since he's also known for taking his time with stuff like character development (I think only David Chase is less afraid of loose ends than Sorkin.) Personally, the character I'd like to see more of is one of the least-featured thus far: Tim Busfield's control-room supervisor (aka, Poindexter from "Revenge of the Nerds".)

I'll agree that the musical spoof from episode 2 was pretty weak... clever without being funny = not comedy (only the British seem to get around that) but I liked the jokes and proto-jokes they made in the most recent episode. Tom Cruise is an easy target, but I like that he was followed by "a witch."

At any rate, My Name is Earl is still probably the best thing on TV right now. Earl and Crabman's little exchange about Joy getting naked was classic; a fun little aside that shows how much the writers and the actors love what they've created.

-Le Penguin
"That is wild!"

[edit: Phil, I'm pretty sure Bravo reruns Studio 60 a night or two after it airs on NBC. check it out]

 

Yeah Earl is great stuff. We just finished up disc 1 of season 1. Really damn funny and consistent the whole way so far. It is amazing how much you end up caring about the list and the quest to be a better person.

Randy makes that show though. Ethan Suplee has come a long way since staring at a magic eye picture in a mall.

 

I looked through Bravo's schedule on their website. I also searched USA Network's schedule on their website. I don't see any further listings for Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. They probably just did it for the first episode to get people's interest. I suppose I'll try watching NBC.com's online version although those usually run real choppy for me.

I remember watching Twin Peaks reruns and movies on Bravo. Since when did they become the Project Runway Channel?

Phil

 

Dr. Who for me, not as good as I hoped for, not as bad as I feared

after that, it's all re-runs of something, or the odd movie that
I never new about.

Eureaka, not bad either,

think I'll get out all my favorite
Halloween movies, starting with a back to back watching of
The Exorcist....followed by repossed....