tv

next week 11/2

No Comments

New and notable in the week ahead… procrastinator picks are underlined.

Monday

  • For the Love of Ray J/I Want to Work for Diddy (VH1, 9/10pm) Season Premiere – Are you really interested in people who be Diddy’s bitch or Ray J’s partner?

Tuesday

  • V (ABC, 8pm) Series Premiere – We’re kicking off the remake where the visitors arrive, it may start peacefully but something tells me there will be drama to be found.
  • By the People (HBO, 9pm) – A look at the election of Barack Obama from primaries on.
  • Kathy Griffin (Brav, 9pm) – Griffin does her stand-up bit.
  • Tabatha’s Salon Takeover (Brav, 10pm) Season Premiere – She’s taking over Chicago’s less than finest.

Wednesday

  • Most Daring (Tru, 9/10pm) Season Premiere – Professionals and amateurs get into terrible situations.
  • Tyler Perry’s House of Payne (TBS, 9/9:30pm) Season Premiere – Curtis retires, Miranda goes missing…
  • Flowers Uncut with Jeff Leatham (TLC, 10pm) Series Premiere – Floristry fun.

Thursday

  • The Real Housewives of Orange County (Brav, 10pm) Season Premiere – I have stayed away from ever watching an episode of the ‘real’ ladies in any local.

Friday

  • Ancients Behaving Badly (Hist, 9pm) Series Premiere – This stop Caligula.
  • Ghost Adventures (Trav, 9pm) Season Premiere – Visiting a former mental asylum always has promise.

Saturday

  • Legend of the Seeker (Synd, 4pm) Season Premiere – I don’t know what this show is but Cordelia Charisma Carpenter is guest starring.
  • Cats 101 (AnPl, 9pm) Season Premiere – Who knew there were so many kinds of cats.
  • Wanda Sykes Show (Fox, 11pm) Series Premiere – She makes me laugh when I’ve seen her elsewhere so curious to see her hang out in late night.

Sunday

  • Brothers/American Dad/Family Guy/Cleveland Show (Fox, 7-10pm) – Fox shakes up their lineup a bit tonight and includes three eps of Family Guy including the 8:30 presentation of Seth & Alex’s Almost Live Comedy show which mixes animation and live action.
Continue Reading

tv

shutting down the dollhouse?

3 Comments

eliza-dushku-dollhouse-2Friday night was one of the better episodes that we’ve seen of Dollhouse. I’m most intrigued when they explore issues of morality and identity. And I have to say eps with Sierra and Victor interest me more than completely Echo-centric ones. And I am always glad not to see Mellie, though sadly I think we haven’t seen the last of her.

Unfortunately ratings were at their lowest to date. The show will be pulled for November sweeps but they’ve announced the schedule for back to back episodes to air in December (2 per night!). They’ve announced at least through ep 10 but we’re we’ll have to stay tuned to see when the final 3 will follow. Fortunately, although getting the back 9 and certainly renewal look dubious, Fox has agreed to air all of the originally contracted 13 episodes. And since Joss knows the storm is coming he can hopefully leave fans with a tiny bit of satisfaction for what will undoubtedly be the final ep.

So what went wrong? The show seemed to get off to a slow start last year and it wasn’t until the second half of the season that it really felt like it hit its stride. First off of course is the unusual premise of an organization that hires out reprogrammable humans (who agree to give up their personal identities for 5 years), which certainly covers the standard prostitution angle but also tries to dabble in all specializations. Unfortunately this isn’t the sort of show that seems to attract new viewers along the way and the standalone episodes (Echo’s problem assignment of the week) tended to be the least interesting. There’s also the problem that Dushku perhaps wasn’t quite up for the complete absorption into the different characters, but she’s grown on me a little.

The organization itself is interesting, (though one wonders if the security is slipping with all the issues they have) but  character development is a little tough when half of your characters are blank slates (between assignments they are ‘wiped’). They have been able to balance that with some actual development as well as enough back story to keep things going. And not all the characters are ‘actives’, and although there’s a bit of a power struggle for blah between Boyd and Ballard these days (Echo/Dushku’s current and former handler), fortunately Topher and DeWitt have stepped up as did Dr Saunders who sadly is off shooting something else somewhere.

So what else is there to do but put it on season pass and enjoy it while it lasts. And as an extra bonus when it comes back in our next two episodes we’ll get a special appearance by Summer Glau (of Firefly and Terminator fame!). Grrr. Argghh.

Continue Reading

tv

next week 10/26

No Comments

New and notable in the week ahead… procrastinator picks are underlined.

Monday

  • Cake Boss (TLC, 10/10:30pm) Season Premiere – Who wouldn’t want to propose with a cake ring in a cake shop?

Tuesday

  • It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (ABC, 8pm) – This year the great pumpkin will come, plus some bonus cartoon, it also kicks Hank out of the Wed at 8 spot.
  • Hip Hop Awards (BET, 8pm) – Mike Epps hosts from Atlanta.
  • The Little Couple (TLC, 10/10:30pm) Season Premiere – Will there be a baby?
  • Monica (BET, 10pm) Series Premiere – More reality with R&B singer who is apparently working on her fifth album.
  • Scream 2009 (Spike, 10pm) – Quentin Tarantino is among those attending the sci-fi and fantasy awards show.
  • Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel (HBO, 10pm) Season Premiere – Starting with a look at elimination of sports programs from public schools.

Wednesday

  • World Series Game 1 (Fox, 7:30pm, check local listings for full series) – Best of 7?
  • Monsters vs. Aliens (NBC, 8pm) – Mutant Pumpkins from Outer Space follows up on the movie.
  • Friday Night Lights (Dir, 9pm) Season Premiere – The season returns for another shot on DirectTV, the fans demand it, with re-airings on NBC in 2010.

Thursday

  • The League (FX, 10:30pm) Series Premiere – Fantasy football brings dudes together for some funny, at least that’s the plan.

Friday

  • Halloween on Ice (Hall, 8pm) – Is it gonna be scary?

Saturday

  • Sports (ABC, NBC, Fox, various) – Catch Game 3 of the World Series or some college ball, and that’s without even hitting cable.

Sunday

  • Sex Rehab with Dr Drew (VH1, 10pm) Series Premiere – Thank god my cable was cut off and I won’t be tempted to check out just one episode…
  • Styl’d (MTV, 10pm) Series Premiere – Five aspiring stylists compete to style.
Continue Reading

tv

ready to proceed

1 Comment

thegoodwifepicI was recently talking to a friend discussing the merits of our favorite procedurals (her’s Castle, mine Bones). And of course different people like different things, another tv discussion showed that the forgotten which I dropped for being too schmaltzy had a sweet personal side to it that was liked by another. Then what do I find in this week’s Entertainment Weekly article on the continuation of NCIS but a notation as to some of the best procedural features. Best Writing: House; Best Ensemble: Castle; Best Cases: CSI; Best Gore: Bones; Best Sherlock: The Mentalist.

For my take on some of the ones I watch and why:

  • Bones (FOX) – This one is first in my book because I think the two lead characters Booth (FBI Agent) and Bones (Forensic Anthropologist) are both equally interesting and have great chemistry playing off their complementary approaches, having Booth brought into the world of science and the supporting cast of the ‘squints’ is fun with the some dark humor from the quirky cast and some fun science in the lab to solve the cases.
  • Castle (ABC) – I adore Nathan Fillion and I think this is a good role for him as charismatic mystery writer who forces his way into a detective unit, he does have good chemistry with his cop partner, and I like his family as supporters, but the cases are pretty standard and the supporting police detectives so far don’t quite distinguish themselves.
  • The Good Wife (CBS) – I’m still on the fence as to whether this will continue to fall in the procedural camp or move more toward the political drama but so far I am liking Marguiles character as a wife trying to reenter the working world to support her family after her politico husband leaves job and family in scandal, though he may be in prison for now the drama keeps going.
  • House (FOX) – There’s no question that Hugh Laurie is great in this role as personally damaged medical diagnostic genius, and I still like his relationship with his ‘best friend’, but I’m over the general format of getting an unsolvable case and guessing and almost killing the patient repeatedly until House figures it out at the last minute, and the supporting cast has also suffered from the initially intriguing shakeup up of his team leaving original support players underutilized but still standing by.
  • Law & Order (NBC) – This is what I sort of think of as the most standard procedural of the shows I watch, there’s very little character development with a very standard case-of-the-week but they’ve landed on a decent version of the rotating cast with two key detectives (law) and two key attorneys (order), though I tend to forget about each episode almost immediately even with the continued ‘ripped from the headlines’ approach.
  • Law & Order: SVU (NBC) – This one is a little more focused on the law aspect of things and a little more emphasis is on the relationship between the two lead detectives and I’m not quite as enamored with Benson and Stabler as everyone else is but Munch and Tutuola are good and the ‘special victims’ slant with a little more emphasis on the psychology of the victim and perp give the show a little more oomph.
  • The Mentalist (CBS) – I like Simon Baker maybe as much as I like Nathan Fillion and his character’s ability to notice what others don’t and stir the pot in a way to get things done is what makes this show interesting, I also have always liked Robin Tunny (Cherish was a delightful flick) but her character’s straight arrow-ness sometimes leaves me a little cold though I like the supporting detective players.
  • Numb3rs (CBS) – I tend to treat this show as a good solid backup, always engaging enough as we have spent a few seasons with the brothers who were never close until they realized the math genius and the FBI cases could actually bring them together, along with dear old dad and some supporting academic and FBI folk, they manage to entertain with their unique approach to solving the latest case.

And for a few that I’ve dabbled and just can’t add to the queue: Cold Case (CBS), Criminal Minds (CBS), CSIs (CBS), the forgotten (ABC), Lie to Me (Fox), NCISs (CBS).

Continue Reading

tv

next week 10/19

1 Comment

New and notable in the week ahead… procrastinator picks are underlined.

Monday

  • Schmatta: Rags to Riches to Rags (HBO, 9pm) – A doc special on the garment industry in NYC.

Tuesday

  • The Cosby Show (TVL, 3am) – Feeling nostalgic? Maybe it’s time to catch one of your favorite family’s first episodes (aka nothing new or noteworthy on Tuesday).

Wednesday

  • Lock ‘n Load (Show, 8pm) Series Premiere – Welcome to a gun shop near you by way of Colorado.
  • Living with Ed (PlGr, 9pm) Season Premiere – For a moment I thought talking horse, but no it’s Ed Begley Jr.

Thursday

  • American Chopper (TLC, 9pm) Season Premiere – They’re building a new bike, for Saginaw Chippewa tribe.
  • The Jeff Dunham Show (Com, 9pm) Series Premiere – Ventriloquism with multiple character dummies coming your way.
  • Ultimate Parkour Challenge (MTV, 10pm) Series Premiere – par·kour (pär-k??r’) n. A sport or athletic activity in which the participant seeks to move quickly and fluidly through an area, often an urban locale, by surmounting obstacles such as walls and railings and leaping across open spaces, as in a stairwell or between buildings.

Friday

  • Supernanny (ABC, 8pm) Season Premiere – Problem children and bossy adults, pass.
  • White Collar (USA, 10pm) Series Premiere – Pretty charismatic Matt Bomer (Bryce Larkin from Chuck) is a con artist sprung from jail to help solve crimes, trouble will ensue.

Saturday

  • 24/7 (HBO, 10:15) Season Premiere – Starting with the behind the scenes of boxers Manny Pacquiao and Miguel Cotto.

Sunday

  • Nature (PBS, 8pm) Season Premiere – An update on Cloud, a wild horse in Montana.
Continue Reading

tv

next week 10/12

6 Comments

New and notable in the week ahead… procrastinator picks are underlined.

Monday

  • Little People, Big World (TLC, 8/8:30pm) Season Premiere – Back for farm and school whatnot.
  • Gone Too Far (MTV, 10pm) Series Premiere – Well they decided to air this DJ AM series about drug abusers after his passing, I’ll pass.
  • Million Dollar Listing (Brav, 11pm) Season Premiere – Will the recession take this show down?

Tuesday

  • Hip Hop Honors (VH1, 9pm) – Tracy Morgan hosts the awards and celebrates the 25th anniversary of Def Jam Records.
  • Chopped (Food, 10pm) Season Premiere – Kumquats and croissants and grits oh my.
  • Independent Lens (PBS, 10pm/check local listings) Season Premiere – Starts off with a librarian and postal clerk who collect millions of dollars of art.

Wednesday

  • Mary Queen of Shops (BBCA, 9pm) Series Premiere – Sometimes you just need an expert to turn your retail business around.
  • Nip/Tuck (Fx, 10pm) Season Premiere – The recession is hitting everyone.

Thursday

  • 30 Rock (NBC, 9:30pm) Season Premiere – The gang is back to keep putting on the show.

Friday

  • Lobstermen (Disc, 8/9pm) Season Premiere – The men are getting more lobsters.
  • Ugly Betty (ABC, 8pm) Season Premiere – The magazine drama continues.

Saturday

  • Action Sports (NBC, Sat 10:30am; Sun 12pm, also on USA) – The Alli Dew Tour brings the Playstation Pro from Orlando.

Sunday

  • Monty Python: Almost the Truth (IFC, 9pm) – A six-part doc about the comedy troupe.
  • Storm Chasers (Disc, 10pm) Season Premiere – I bet there’ll be storms.
Continue Reading

tv

my schedule

1 Comment

Looks like fall shows have launched and now that I’ve given it a look or two, with my goal as always to keep shows to two per time slot max, until they cancel, reschedule, add, or I just get over something, here’s where I’m at:

Monday

  • 8pm – House (Fox) / How I Met Your Mother (CBS)
  • 9pm – Gossip Girl (CW) / Big Bang Theory (CBS 9:30)
  • 10pm – Castle (ABC)

House is one of those shows I wish I could give up but somehow don’t (Laurie is good but they just almost kill a person until they save them every week), Gossip Girl is a quality guilty pleasure, and Castle has Nathan Fillion who is great enough to pull off this relatively formulaic weekly crime drama; although I do occasionally catch 2 1/2 Men I would love to redo the schedule and put HIMYM and BBTheory in the same hour, both are good fun. I’ve been catching Trauma on Saturday repeats.

Tuesday

  • 9pm – Melrose Place (CW)
  • 10pm – The Good Wife (CBS)

Melrose has just been so bad I can’t quite turn away, mostly because there is no competition for me on this night (I hope the cheesiness is intended) but I’ll probably tune in until Heather shows, and have found Julianna and supporting cast to be interesting in the mix of personal drama and weekly lawyerness on Wife.

Wednesday

  • 8pm – The New Adventures of Old Christine (CBS) / The Middle (ABC) / Mercy (NBC)
  • 9pm – Glee (Fox) / Modern Family (ABC)

Christine is finally paired with something that might be kind of funny, too bad it’s on another network, let’s hope they don’t mess up my time blocks, unless they pair Middle with Modern which so far is good; Glee is my favorite new show of the season, and I don’t know why so far I keep watching Mercy it’s not actually good. Have been getting SVU and ANTM on repeat nights.

Thursday

  • 8pm – Bones (Fox) / Community / Parks & Recreation (NBC)
  • 9pm – Grey’s Anatomy (ABC) / The Office / 30 Rock (NBC)
  • 10pm – The Mentalist (CBS)

I still dig Bones and am happy that Community actually seems to be funny paired with P&R which I still find a little uneven but funny. I am almost over Grey’s (I’m never excited to watch but still seem to enjoy the episodes) and still enjoying Office and looking forward to return of 30Rock; oh yeah and Simon is still good on the Mentalist.

Friday

  • 8pm – Law & Order (NBC)
  • 9pm – Dollhouse (Fox) / ANTM (CW)
  • 10pm  – Numb3rs (CBS)

L&O is always a good staple but I don’t so much care, Dollhouse is still a little uneven but I love the way they explore the themes of identity, and I really want to be over ANTM (the less of Tyra the better); Numb3rs is a show I just keep on the list just because I kind of like the math FBI brothers and their dad.

Saturday

  • 9pm – Trauma (NBC)
  • 10pm – Law & Order: SVU (NBC)

I don’t know if I’ll stick with Trauma but we’ll see, and if I miss an ep of any of the L&Os I don’t really notice but keep them in the queue.

Sunday

  • Day of rest.

But what about cable? Fortunately those shows I’m still getting tend to repeat in the off hours so I can catch at random times, currently I am mostly catching Sons of Anarchy on FX and am going to have to check online for the final eps of Greek and Monk until I decide on a cable commitment (I’ve got some Dexter waiting for me one someone else’s Tivo as well).

Continue Reading

tv

next week 10/5

No Comments

New and notable in the week ahead… procrastinator picks are underlined.

Monday

  • Sherri/Rita Rocks (Life, 7/7:30pm) Series/Season Premieres – Sherri Shepard of current View fame gets back into the sitcom game with a show based on her, then back to wife, mother and rocker Rita.
  • The Mo’Nique Show (BET, 11pm) Series Premiere – She hosts the latest late night talker.

Tuesday

  • Dirty Jobs/Ghost Lab (Disc, 9/10pm) Season/Series Premiere – Check out dirty jobs and then check out ghostly occurrences.
  • Dragon’s Den (BBCA, 9pm) Season Premiere – More product pitching to millionaires.
  • Scare Tactics (Syfy, 9pm) Season Premiere – As I understand it this is like a creepier, meaner version of candid camera.
  • Parking Wars (A&E, 10pm) Season Premiere – In case you didn’t get any parking tickets this week you can live vicariously through others.

Wednesday

  • Man Shops Globe (Sund, 10pm) Series Premiere – A buyer for Anthropologie scours for loot.
  • South Park/Secret Girlfriend (Com, 10/10:30pm) Season/Series Premieres – First the animated gang returns, and then characters treat ‘you’ the tv viewer as a character.

Thursday

  • Community (NBC, 8pm) – This show moves into its normal timeslot and The Office momentarily takes over an hour slot at 9.

Friday

  • I’m Alive (AnPl, 9pm) Series Premiere – Reenactments of people being attacked by animals, and surviving.
  • Sanctuary (Syfy, 10pm) Season Premiere – Searching and secrets or something.

Saturday

  • Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders (CMT, 9pm) Season Premiere – 600 hopefuls compete.
  • The Graham Norton Show (BBCA, 10pm) Season Premiere – Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne among others on the opening chatfest.

Sunday

  • The Girls Next Door/Leave It To Lamas (E!, 10:30/11pm) Season/Series Premiere – Hef gets some new gals then Lorenzo and one of the Bachelorettes get to know you.
Continue Reading

tv

damn you cable

No Comments

HDTPCubePaying money to watch television is something that I may still need some help in getting over. When NBC made its signal change eons ago I finally broke down and got ‘basic’ cable to get channels clearly. And when I say basic I don’t mean not premium, I mean cable to get regular networks clearly, something that a city dweller should not feel compelled to do. So when along with my basic cable I received one or two additional channels like VS. (formerly OLN) offering me access to things like the Tour de Lance France I felt giddy.

And then at some point I had a cable problem and my wonderful cable guy didn’t put the blocker back on. A whole new world opened up to me. The world that was normally reserved for visiting my parent’s house and watching cable (minus HBO). I was slowly sucked into show after show, The Closer, Breaking Bad, even Rock of Love… It was a world I always said wasn’t worth the cost but I was getting it for FREE. And even when cable problems arose at a later time I decided to wait it out in fear of inviting the cable guy back over and having him put the dreaded blocker back on.

And then one day, no call to the cable guy, I woke to find that I could no longer get Gillmore Girls reruns on ABC Family. I could no longer get Project Runway on Lifetime. I could no longer get the final season of Monk on USA. What is a person to do? Well, I could pay for more cable, $29.99 a month seems reasonable and when that expires after 12 months I could probably negotiate down from the standing $59.99, which is an amount that seem ridiculous. And then there’s always the reported triple play deal of packaging cable, internet, and phone. Or I could try to take better advantage of the posting of shows online (it’ll get me through at least some current missing episodes) and of course I can wait for the shows that I might really care about to release on dvd.

So what to do? At least for now I’ll leave it on my list of things to do, along with upgrading my tivo.

Continue Reading

tv

next week 9/28

2 Comments

New and notable in the week ahead… procrastinator picks are underlined.

Monday

  • Lie to Me (Fox, 9pm) Season Premiere – Tim Roth returns to the show where telling if people are lying is the special gimmick.
  • Trauma (NBC, 9pm) Series Premiere – The pilot is filled with lots of big action but only time will tell if this paramedic drama can keep up the action and the drama.

Tuesday

  • Weird, True & Freaky/Lost Tapes (AnPl, 9/10pm) Season Premiere – Animal oddities.
  • The Hills/The City (MTV, 10/10:30pm) Season Premiere – Those people that I don’t know who they are on the cover of weekly magazines are back.

Wednesday

  • Hank/The Middle (ABC, 8/8:30pm) Series Premieres – Big sitcom stars Kelsey Grammer and Patricia Heaton give it another go as average Joes.
  • I Didn’t Know I Was Pregnant/King of the Crown (TLC, 8/9pm) Season Premiere – There’s apparently a series worth of people who didn’t know they were pregnant and some dude helps pageant contestants.
  • Bank of Mom and Dad (Soap, 10pm) Series Premiere – The folks, and a financial consultant, help people get their money troubles in order.
  • Real World/Road Rules Challenge (MTV, 10pm) Season Premiere – Contestants new and old head to Thailand.

Thursday

  • Speeders Fight Back (Tru, 10pm) Season Premiere – For those who long to watch traffic court.
  • Private Practice (ABC, 10pm) Season Premiere – The Grey’s spinoff that made me refer to Grey’s as the serious one.

Friday

  • ‘Til Death (Fox, 8:30pm) Season Premiere – Is this show really coming back?
  • Diettribe (Life, 9pm) Season Premiere – Five gals get together with hope of doing a triathalon.
  • Stargate Universe (Syfy, 9pm) Series Premiere – Another branch of the series jumping through another stargate to somewhere else, interested?
  • Pay it Off (BET, 10pm) Series Premiere – A game show to pay off debts, or fritter away.
  • Wedded to Perfection (TLC, 10pm) Series Premiere – And it’s a wedding…

Saturday

  • Superfetch/Dogs 101 (AnPl, 8/9pm) Series/Season Premiere – Advanced tricks like having your dog pay for your manicure, but for those who are looking for a little more basic dog info.
  • Celebrity Ghost Stories (Bio, 10pm) Series Premiere – Um, Joan Rivers and Scott Baio tell ghost encounters.

Sunday

  • America’s Funniest Home Videos (ABC, 7pm) Season Premiere – They’ll never run out of footage.
  • Three Rivers (CBS, 9pm) Series Premiere – This medical drama focuses on those working in organ donations.
  • My Monkey Baby (TLC, 9pm) Series Premiere – I don’t know why this hasn’t been a show before, a couple raises a monkey as their baby.
  • The Next Iron Chef (Food, 9pm) Season Premiere – 10 more competitors compete.
Continue Reading