Seasons change and so do I

[gwyn]

I've been wanting to write a bit about this fall's Yanqui tv season for a while now, but it keeps changing -- both the landscape of what's on, and my feelings about the new (and old) shows. So, maybe I will tackle the new ones first (one of which is already off the air). Warning: Long-ass post ahead.


Heroes Dude. Watching the love for this series spread across my flist has been the best part of the fall. I adore this show, and not in a fun-wasting-time sort of way. I love everything about it -- the use of common superhero tropes, the familiarity of the powers often put into the unfamiliar type of character (indestructibility in the form of a cheerleader? Brill), the sense of humor it has about the story it's building on, the comic-book "stay-tuned" yowzer endings... it's perfect. I've seen grumbling from people about cliches and less than stellar writing, which I find especially funny coming from SGA and Supernatural fans (hello, pot? Meet black kettle...), but for me, those are the things that make the series work -- we've seen a lot of this before in different ways, but that's exactly what's going to pull us in.

I love all the characters, even sizzling hottie Mohinder when he's being a dick, as he has these past two weeks (Mohinder! Time to get back in the taxi and ride it to a clue!). I have always loved Adrian Pasdar and I love what he does with Nathan's shark-white-teeth smile, his hilarious reactions to people (when he gave Peter the thumbs up after Peter hit him, I laughed out loud, and his "I can see where that would be a problem" to Hiro was just... priceless). I'm so curious to see what he's going to do now that others have seen him fly. Even Peter's emo boy thing doesn't bother me; Isaac is hot in a very unwashed pouty kind of way; Hiro and Ando are beyond, BEYOND, adorable and is it wrong that I thought Ninja!Future!Hiro was kinda cool? I even don't totally hate Nikki, though I usually would, though she's married to the world's worst actor, who showed up at the very end of this week's ep, and who played Forrest in Buffy Season 4 -- my god, that man cannot act to save his life. I dread seeing him again. But I'm sure it'll be made up with Claire, who is just incredible, what a great find, and my darling Greg Grunberg as Matt, who is not the brightest bulb in the box, that's for sure (he's a COP? And he picks up a gun like that in a public place? And doesn't have his badge on him so he can stop people from freaking out?). Him seducing his wife by reading her thoughts didn't bother me at all, I guess because I always wanted my exes to be able to just read my thoughts and know when to talk to me or leave me alone. Really -- I was completely frustrated by the fact that they expected me to tell them what I wanted. I was like, "Can't you just *know* when I want company and when I don't? Why do I have to *tell* you?" So he'd be the perfect man for me.

This was the show I had the least expectations for, and it is turning into the first full-fledged new fandom for me since... well, Angel left the air. I didn't think anything would ever make me feel that anticipation again the way the Jossverse shows did, but this one does. Now if the creators could just stop dissing genre fans...

Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip This was the show I actually had the highest expectations for, OTOH, and when my TiVo has failed to catch it for whatever reason, I just don't even notice. Hate, hate, hate Aaron Sorkin. I always have, and now I know that I always will, despite wanting to give him a chance again. The only reason The American President is one of my favorite movie is because he only wrote it -- a man who actually knows how people act and interact, Rob Reiner, and who understands women, was the one who made the movie. Watching Sorkin's shows causes me physical pain -- I wouldn't mind the "nobody talks like that" banter and dialog if it actually made any point other than to show the smug superiority of the writer, if it ever once felt organic to the characters. But it never does.

I gave SportsNight a chance once when Sandy and Merry dragged me into their hotel room at a con and showed me about four or five eps, but the dithering, ditzing, endless whininess of Felicity Huffman's character made me cringe, and alas, I could not join them in their fandom. I adore Matthrew Perry, but... everything else about this show is wasted -- funny guys like D.L. Hughley, a beautiful actress like Sara Paulson reduced to these endless Christian platitudes... gah. GAH! ANd then they did the worst possible cliche story last week ever, and I was literally throwing pillows at the tv and screaming "Oh My God I cannot believe you did that." The cooler than thou reporter who teaches everyone little lessons about themselves and learns lessons herself and brings everyone's true stories out even though they don't want to talk to her, and a waste of the talented Christine Lahti with a bad 'do... at that point, they lost me forever, despite Matthew. The smugness and cooler than thou, it burns.

Smith Yeah, okay, first casualty of the season. I'm not totally sure why. But reading Ray Liotta's comments in EW this past week, it sounds like they were flying a little too much by the seat of their pants, and hadn't carefully planned the structure of the heists as well as possible. Nevertheless, I enjoyed what I did get to see, and I really think Simon Baker's hottie sociopath and Johnnie Lee Miller's hottie hothead were totally married and could have been a great slash couple. It was stylish and beautifully filmed, and Liotta and Virgina Madsen, whom I adore, had great chemsitry, but they never had the chance to work out the implausibilities, or let us really see who these characters were. I wish it had been different; this was one I could have enjoyed. And everyone on this show was just hot. Eye candy is not a bad thing!

The Nine I missed the first episode of this, unfortunately, and it's been hard to get a feel for how much we already knew going into the second ep, but I do really like the series. Tim Daly is always fun (Oh, Eyes, how do I miss you, let me count the ways), and it's great to see my old Seattle roomie's pal John Billingsley get a chance to shine without alien makeup. I really want to see how the story unfolds, and I loved the fact that the doctor tried to kill one of the gunmen, but I'm not sure, given its ratings, the investment will pay off, and I fear I will be disappointed yet again by a serialized drama and never see the end.

Six Degrees Okay, yeah, everything about this is designed to turn me off. But I had to watch anyway, because Michael K. Williams, Omar on the Wire, was in some eps, so I watched. It is every bit as hateful as I feared. Everyone is icky and annoying and irritating in that privileged yuppie living in NYC way, and I can't stand it. The only time it's going on the TiVo is when MKW is listed.

Jericho and Ugly Betty Oh boy, I wanted to watch Jericho (Skeeter! My darling! Oh, Miracles, how I miss you), but the TiVo caught Bones or something else instead, and now I've missed all the eps... I need to put this ahead on the season pass, but I can't stand not watching shows from the very beginning. I'm an early adopter! If anyone has them on disc, I would love to work out a way to get them... And Ugly Betty sounds like it's right up my alley, but it's on opposite Earl, and I didn't catch the beginning. I've seen bits and pieces and it looks wonderful, but I may have to catch up with it on DVD later, I guess.

Dexter Since this is on Showtime, which no one I know gets, we have to wait for copies, and I've only seen the first ep, but I'm hooked. Completely. I normally hate serial killer shows, particularly when they try to make them seem sexy or cool -- you know what? They're not. They are always sociopathic losers who start out by killing animals. I hate the way fiction and film have tried to make them cooler than anything else out there. So what they do on Dexter, to start out with the fact that he's a sociopathic loser who has no ability to connect to anyone else, and then give him a job where that's actually a plus, and then have him focus his pathology on killers themselves, is simply brilliant. I love how hard he tries to pretend, even though his facade slips, that he is a regular person -- bringing donuts, having lunch. And how self-absorbed the others are that they don't even see when the act falters. And I love that one person does recognize how creepy Dexter is, and it puzzles Dexter so that he's the only one who does. I can't wait to see more (looks at Jo).

Standoff I knew I'd forget something. I was able to watch only a few eps of this -- everything was on opposite VM, including this and The Unit, which is awful, but I love because Max Martini OMGSOHOT -- before VM came back on, and I see they are moving it now to earlier in the evening. It's not bad. But it's not good, either. When I first read about it, I saw the name Ron Livingston (Nixon in Band of Brothers), and that was all she wrote. I was there. And then I read that he was having an affair with a co-worker, and they mentioned Gina Torres in the cast list, and I nearly fainted -- the idea of my woobie Ron knocking boots with hottest woman on the planet Gina Torres? TO DIE FOR. But it turned out to be some generic white chick, and while the banter is fine, the hostage negotiations are totally standard typical, and when I can watch, it's just really only to see Ron.


Returning shows:

Battlestar Galactica OK, I was about ready to give up after end of last season. A while ago, someone on my flist asked what we would most like to see on the new season of BSG -- I didn't answer, but I would have said, if I hadn't been worried about looking like such a pansy-ass, was hope. They had pretty much destroyed whatever feeling like there was any hope of human survival, and the nuke on Cloud 9 had just... wiped me out emotionally. I don't have words for how hard that was for me to handle. This has all been strange to me because I've always loved the dark stuff. But with all the painful things in my life the past two years, and being so invested in these characters, I wasn't sure how I could keep watching, but the first three eps have left me just... breathless. It was everything I could have hoped for -- great tragedy, great drama, loss balanced with hope and gain, characters forced into some kind of reckoning with themselves and their roles in the universe... I just loved it.

I still hate the cylons, and I'm still frustrated by this "and they have a plan" when they so very clearly DO NOT and they are stupid, stupid, stupid, in their plans for revenge and forced conversion, and even making a Baltar vid, I still hate him very much, but I loved his scene with Gaeta in the recent ep, realizing that it wasn't just all about him, for once. But the end of the second Exodus ep... oh, man. That was everything, EVERYTHING, I could want in a TV show right there -- Laura's conversation with Tory that it was bigger than them, that it was life; and then Adama shaving off his moustache, a sign that he was moving back into full military mode, to lead again, that the world had shifted once more... That scene brought me to tears, as he pulled down his jacket and looked admiringly at his crew, back and going about their business. Edward James Olmos is the most amazing actor. Both he and MM blow me away every time. The fandom seems to be all about the hot young things, but I'll take my middle-aged heroes any time.

Veronica Mars I'm flummoxed by this season. I don't know how I feel yet, completely, but... it doesn't feel like my show. Part of it is that we've hardly seen V and Wallace together. Some of it is that Keith and Veronica almost seem to live in different worlds (and I am all about the dad and daughter thing). And I still don't feel like the relationship with Veronica and Logan is working. But all that aside... something's weird. And I don't know what.

Gilmore Girls Wow, they have so lost me. If this is why I'm not catching Jericho, then... yeah, things need to change. Or maybe it's Bones that's preventing Jericho (no, I can't do the watch and record different things since my setup got changed). I hate the way they machined this Luke and Lorelai story -- it was so engineered, it was pathetic. And I don't hate Christopher, but I also don't think he's right for her as a partner. And could I possibly care less about Rory? No. Emily's shrillness has been dialled down for humor, but I don't expect that to last. No, I think they've lost me.

Bones I really do love this series, mostly because I like how alien and odd Temperance is, how not-human she registers all the time, and I love David Boreanaz, and he's just wonderful playing off her, reminding her and teasing her about how alien she is. "Just once, do what people do." I love Dave, period, but he's in great shape, looks wonderful, has perfect comic timing... the cases are boring, the main characters make me so happy, and I will keep watching.

The Wire I'm a little behind on this season, but this is the first time I've even been able to see it in something close to real time that I'm not complaining about waiting a few weeks to get discs from a friend. And how could they possibly have pulled it off? To make it even more compelling with such focus on the elections, all those annoying politicians, with the unit disabled, with everyone spread to the wind, and focusing on kids in school... how did they manage to make that all even more compelling? ANd the evil, soulless Marlo with his cold dead shark eyes, the terrifying Chris and Snoop... That they could make this so compelling blows me away yet again. The. Best. Show. on. Television. Ever.

Numb3rs Okay, it's like a little vial of crack for me, that's all. I don't like Don's close cropped hair, but I'm glad Charlie's is shorter. I think Larry and Meghan's romance is cute. The season opener was fantastic, but the rest of the eps so far have been so-so. But it's my crack. Don is angsty and cute, Charlie is trying to grow up, Alan worries... what more could I want.

Prison Break Still stupid. Still really, really boring. Still drawn out beyond interest. But crazy, unstable, sexy William Fichtner means I don't care. I just FF to the Fichtner parts and all is good.

ETA, MI-5/Spooks I can't even remember which season number we're on now, but I caught up with all the new eps on the marathon Saturday and all I can say is... Holy cow. I don't know if that was the season ender ep they closed with, but my freaking god... the stories are so topical and they make you really understand the anxiety and desperation of the current world situation. I really didn't expect them to kill off Fiona, but Christ, if they kill off Adam, I think I'll lose it (they can't leave that poor kid parentless!). I hadn't expected I could like him so much when he took over from my woobie Tom, world's worst spy, but he's grown on me considerably. And Ruth has been through hell, poor girl. I worship her. I don't know what Harry has up his sleeve, but please oh please, pull it out NOW.

The less said about CS: NY and Without a Trace and all the other I just watch because I watch, the better.

Comments

[reginaspina.livejournal.com]

You know I am in total agreement with you about “The Wire.” It is truly a privilege to be able to watch something THIS GOOD. (Although I keep forgetting, I think, to mention how often it’s also HILARIOUS – the “beggin’ ass white-man” comment from Carcetti’s handler had me laughing for so long :P)

As for “The Nine” and “Ugly Betty” – I don’t know whether you have a cable modem, but IF you do, abc.com has all the aired episodes of these shows up (you have to dig a bit on the site to find them) and so you can catch up if you like

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

I know! I keep trying to tell people it's not just that it's about Serious Topics, but that it has this wonderful humor -- I still laugh whenever I think about Bunk telling Jimmy this season that he "stirs my manhood" in his little boy blue uniform. And the honey nut Cheerios... OMG. It's just got so much going for it -- it even has these clasic western allusions in the form of Omar, his gunslinger thief persona. So amazing.

I'll see if I can catch that first ep of the Nine -- I only have DSL, and the buffering means lots of stutters, but it might be worth it to try just so I can get a baseline.

[reginaspina.livejournal.com]

I'll see if I can catch that first ep of the Nine -- I only have DSL, and the buffering means lots of stutters, but it might be worth it to try just so I can get a baseline.

I wish I had taped it so I could make you a copy - I downloaded from iTunes, and that means I absolutely can't make copies. :( FWIW, Tim Daly's world-weary cop has me totally hooked, though.

Bunk's completely inappropriate remarks to Jimmy and (less often, but they are there) to Lester are one of the highlights of the show - I thought that entire terrorism seminar sequence was SO funny (particularly when Bunk got this look of absolute HORROR on his face at Jimmy's inviting him to dinner with Beatie and the kids ;))

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

I don't know if you'd be interested in this, but the magazine I work for finally got on the bandwagon and started doing a TV Club post-ep commentary roundtable thingie. Sometimes David Mills actually joins in. (Though I completely disagreed with him when he said the one time he was unhappy with the direction of a script was when they filmed Omar meeting up with Brother Mouzone in the alley, because it was too Western cliche)

This is the first entry
http://www.slate.com/id/2149784/entry/2149865/

[reginaspina.livejournal.com]

Oooooh, I will definitely bookmark those - thank you SO much for the link!

[sweet-ali.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure what kind of internet connection you have, but I usually put up the Dexter episodes on my LJ about 2 days after they air. You're very welcome to snag if you can do so.

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

I'll have to see if that works! I'm on the slowest DSL but sometimes I DL eps if I'm really desperate -- just takes me a long time. I was hoping my friend would bring the avis over but she's been too busy lately to get them to us, so I might still be able to catch up this weeekend.

[merricatk.livejournal.com]

I so agree with you about GG. I can't bring myself to care about any of them (though--I hate to say this--I'm finding myself liking Logan. That's wrong, isn't it?) & while I used to record while watching so I can watch again, now I record while watching, think, "What the hell did I do that for?" & record over it.

I've always loathed Emily simply because what she seems to want isn't for Lorelai to do what she wants her to, but because she seems to need to *force* Lorelai to do that what she wants her to. She can't be content with Lorelai doing what she wants, she always has to gloat over it. It makes her a very ugly person, IMO.

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

Yeah -- I never thought I'd do this, but I am taking it off my season pass. I never give up on shows, but these days I fear for my sanity so I think it's more important.

I owe you a personal note to thank you for the box. I'm so lame -- I've been having a hard time making myself sit down and do personal mail. Impersonal, okay! But for some reason I've been balking at doing anything with people I'm connected to. But I wanted you to know that I really appreciated it, and that it was unbelievably sweet of you to think of me.

[merricatk.livejournal.com]

Please, don't worry about not sending a note about the box. I'm just glad it arrived safely & that you like it & knew that I was thinking about you.

(I think the not-connecting thing might be grief-related, since I had the same problem. I'd want to say something *important* & have it be *eloquent,* & since those weren't coming to me, I'd keep postponing. But I was fine writing stuff that wasn't important to me.)

[incredulity.livejournal.com]

Despite other people's grumblings, I lovelovelove Jericho, so I was all sad when you said you couldn't watch it! I was relieved to find it was because you'd missed it, not because you didn't like it. It's totally my crack!

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

I really did want to watch Jericho (and Betty, but that one I don't feel quite as fast a compulsion, so even if I wait for discs, or summer reruns if I'm lucky, it won't bother me too much), but I figued that not only was up against other things I was loyal to, but it would get killed fast. See, after Miracles, I figured anything with Skeeter in it that had darker overtones was doomed for cert. And much as I love quasi-post-apocolyptic stories, very few people share my passion, especially not the middle-American TV-watching populace. And then there's the fact that it was on CBS, my most loathed network -- even more than Fox!

For once, I'm so glad I was proven wrong! But hopefully at some point I'll catch up.

[cathexys.livejournal.com]

Whatever's on TV is Season 4, but if you get a chance, most of S5 has aired (and if you have trouble d'loading, I'll happily send you a copy when the season's over). B/c talk about topical, OMFG!!!!!

As for the rest...I most felt with you on the S60 fronty. I have 4 eps on my computer and not even a big desire to watch them. It's pretty sad!!!

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

I finally broke down and looked up some sites to see if Adam survived. I can't stand the idea of waiting until such time as A&E starts bothering to show them in America. And the plots for the new season sounds fantastic! I may have to take you up on that, especially if there's anything you'd like to trade for.

[cathexys.livejournal.com]

oh, no need to trade. it'd be my pleasure! seriously, send me a mail with your address and 5x08 just d'loaded, so it should be another week or so and the season's over and i can send them all together.

and yes, the season opening finishes with the cliffhanger rather quickly, only to turn into the two most amazing hours of the show ever!!!!!

[kimberlyknits.livejournal.com]

If you have Comcast, the OnDemand channel has Jericho episodes available for watching. Go down the "TV Shows" or "Network shows" path to find them. I think they're also at CBS.com.

Heroes f'ing rules, and I have never been so happy to be so wrong about a show (I thought there was no way in H-ll it would ever catch on with viewers).

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

Alas, no On Demand. I was hoping a friend would be dumping it down for me, but that hasn't happened, so I will probably just wait. I'm glad at least they're giving it a season. I figured it would die for certain, so at least there's some time, unlike most shows I enjoy.

[kadymae.livejournal.com]

Doing happy fannish dance of squee that you like Heroes so much.

I've seen grumbling from people about cliches and less than stellar writing, which I find especially funny coming from SGA and Supernatural fans

Word.



Sorry to see you don't like Prison Break, though. Because me? I love every fucked up thing about that show, especially T-Bag. And finding out that Agent Mahone is a cold blooded psycho mofo in bed with the Company? Gravy.

[melinafandom.livejournal.com]

I agree :) I still love Prison Break, despite its implausibilites. It's a 24-like, switch-off-reality kind of show for me.

I don't think The Unit is awful, either, although the first two episodes of this season weren't great, it improved pretty rapidly after that.

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

I hope I can catch up on the Unit during the holiday lull, or maybe in summer -- I miss seeing my Mack daddy, and Col. ArmPorn, but when you can only watch one thing at a time, you have to cut your losses. Why do they have to put everything fun on at exactly the same time? WHY?

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

I really wanted to like PB last year, but I was so bored, and it just ended up irritating me. I'm glad they're out this year, but the plot holes and the way it's soooo draaaawwwwn out are still frustrating me -- but I agree, that whole thing about finding out Mahone is under the company's thumb just flipped the whole tenor of the show for me. "They all die." Yay!

[katallison.livejournal.com]

God, I am so right there with you re: Sorkin -- there are bits and pieces of SN and WW that I liked, but what little I've seen of Studio 60 appears to be a distillate of all the parts of them that I really disliked, and, fairly or not, I lay the blame on him. But I get the sense the show is sinking pretty quickly under its own weight, so I probably don't need to give it a kick. *g*

And clearly I need to get caught up on Dexter, somehow -- of all the new shows this season, it sounds like the one for me, and your description's really fired up my interest.

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean -- I kept feeling like, with SN and WW, if the focus had been on relationships, rather than these ensemble casts spouting Sorkin's SuperCool dialog, the shows might have offered more, because when it got down to more intimate moments, both shows hit their high points. But those moments were just way too far and few between, and instead we got his "Look at me and my SuperCool writing!"

[kirbyfest.livejournal.com]

A friend is buring Jericho for me from her Tivo, so I can probably lend you the first five eps (which are what she's burning for me). If you can get Tivo to grab now, you should be good.

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

Oh, cool! That might work out well. Starting just in time for sweeps, I guess, I'm going to start TiVoing, and I'll see if anyone else local has them first, but if they don't, I might take you up on that. (I'm actually kind of wanting to see the silly juice box tracheotomy I've heard so much about)

[ann1962]

It has been a lot of fun watching Heroes spread on my flist also. Speculation like I haven't seen in a while.

Gotta love a hero.

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

Man, I haven't looked this forward to Mondays since both La Femme Nikita and Buffy were on Monday nights (which didn't last long, but it was great while it happened). Mondays are now sacred, even with the TiVo.

[elz.livejournal.com]

I've seen grumbling from people about cliches and less than stellar writing, which I find especially funny coming from SGA and Supernatural fans (hello, pot? Meet black kettle...), but for me, those are the things that make the series work -- we've seen a lot of this before in different ways, but that's exactly what's going to pull us in.

Hee. One of the reasons why I prefer to catch up with shows once they've been on the air for a year or two is that otherwise, I tend to be very nitpicky early on when I'm trying to decide if the show is worth my time or not. And somehow, I continue to believe that if I point out all of a show's flaws early enough, I can somehow will them out of existence. Which is why I shouldn't be allowed to watch pilots.

On the other hand, there's something special about watching people fall in love with a story and a group of characters and seeing a fandom start to coalesce. So I'm not sure I'd pass that up in this case.

Hate, hate, hate Aaron Sorkin.

I've decided that he needs to go spend a year or two living in a small town somewhere far away from Hollywood and talking to people who don't worship the ground he walks on. He's clever, but not as clever as he thinks he is, he's got an appallingly elitist attitude, and he seems to have lost sight of the human element in his stories. Not good things when you make your living writing tv shows!

OK, I was about ready to give up after end of last season. A while ago, someone on my flist asked what we would most like to see on the new season of BSG -- I didn't answer, but I would have said, if I hadn't been worried about looking like such a pansy-ass, was hope. They had pretty much destroyed whatever feeling like there was any hope of human survival, and the nuke on Cloud 9 had just... wiped me out emotionally.

ITA. I'm still working up the nerve to watch the Exodus two-parter, even though it's sitting on my hard drive. Darkness, I think, is different from bleakness, and it's the latter that's really hard to swallow on a weekly basis. Intellectually, I like the show, but emotionally... I don't always want to go there on a Friday night, you know?