lost loves

prison-break.jpgEvery year I drop at least one show. A show I loved or liked and find that I no longer watch or enjoy usually because I find it has somehow lost its way. Things that are soapy like BH 90210 (the original) definitely lose their luster over time, but that’s not the only category I lose.

This year the casualty was Heroes, but I was thinking of the others… Not counting shows that didn’t make it a season here are some that lost their sheen:

  • Cold Case – The procedural wasn’t a bad show, but as I was trying to cut back this wasn’t a keeper.
  • Criminal Minds – I still catch this brutal-killer-of-the-week procedural with special-fbi-behavioral-unit in reruns, but it doesn’t make the main lineup.
  • Desperate Housewives – The first year this soapy drama entertained me but with the sophomore slump it lost me.
  • Heroes – I finally gave this up, as the characters and situations became more ridiculous it actually pained me to watch.
  • King of the Hill – I still find this show amusing but as the years drag on it just stopped hitting the tivo.
  • Prison Break – I did love the first season, but the delight collapsed once they escaped from prison and though I stuck through the entire second season I was mostly yelling at the tv about how stupid it had become before I gave it up.
  • Without a Trace – Another procedural that isn’t bad but just didn’t keep me keeping it.
  • The Simpsons – Also amusing but after a decade I’m more than happy to catch the occasional rerun.
  • Smallville – I loved the complexity of Lex Luthor and Clark Kent’s early relationship, but the freak of the week lost me.
  • Survivor – This had a good dynamic but easy enough to drop with a new season of folks each year.

And an almost dishonorable mention to American Idol and Law & Order, both of which have been dropped and picked up again and dropped and picked up…

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next week 12/15

Monday

  • Chuck/Heroes/My Own Worst Enemy (NBC, 8/9/10pm) Season Finales – Heroes is noted as fall finale and Enemy is leaving for good.
  • Terminator (Fox, 8pm) Season Finale – Will anyone be terminated?
  • I Want a Dog for Christmas, Charlie Brown (ABC, 8pm) – Lucy and Linus’ brother ReRun kicks it up a notch for the holidays.
  • Drama High (ABC, 9pm) – The making of high school musical, sorry that’s not the high school musical, it’s some high school putting on the Wiz.
  • Intervention (A&E, 9pm) Season Premiere – This series kicks off following a 50 year old woman who suffers seizures if she tries to stop drinking.

Tuesday

  • The Biggest Loser (NBC, 8pm) Season Finale – It’s always heartwarming to see how far they’ve come, if you like that sort of thing.
  • Momma’s Boys (NBC, 10pm) Series Finale – 32 women, 3 bachelors, and yes 3 moms who help out the selection.

Wednesday

  • A Muppets Christmas (NBC, 8pm) – Will the muppets get the letters to Santa?
  • Life (NBC, 9pm) Season Finale – Zen principals might not be enough to solve crime, save your friends, and get justice in corrupt conspiracies?

Thursday

  • Million Dollar Password (CBS, 8pm) Season Premiere – Can Aisha Tyler kick William Shatner out of the spotlight.

Friday

  • Greatest Holiday Moments (NBC, 8pm) – A countdown of tv and film moments.

Saturday

  • WWE Tribute to the Troops (NBC, 9pm) – Wrestlers can bring up anyone’s spirits.

Sunday

  • The Shift (Inves, 10pm) Series Premiere – A docuseries that follows homicide detectives.
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’tis the season

dexter.jpgNot the holiday season, the award season, and it kicks off with Golden Globe nominations. Remember these are the ones that cover tv and film and separate categories for comedy/musical and dramas. Most of these movies aren’t even out yet so as usual I’ll have some catching up to do. I also haven’t caught all the cable selections for tv so I guess I’ll update my netflix queue.

BEST TV DRAMA
Dexter
House
In Treatment
Mad Men
True Blood

BEST TV COMEDY SERIES
30 Rock
Californication
Entourage
The Office
Weeds

BEST MOTION PICTURE / DRAMA
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Frost/Nixon
The Reader
Revolutionary Road
Slumdog Millionaire

BEST MOTION PICTURE / MUSICAL OR COMEDY
Burn After Reading
Happy-Go-Lucky
In Bruges
Mamma Mia!
Vicky Cristina Barcelona

For a full list of nominations check the Hollywood Foreign Press Association site.

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‘new paradigm’

jay_leno.jpgLeno will sign off as the host of the Tonight Show in May 2009 and Conan will be taking over. But what will Jay do? Apparently he’ll be on NBC five nights a week for a show of similar format every night at 10.

Ten you say? Well what about the regular ten shows? What regular shows? I can only assume that they can move Law & Order to 9. The way people watch television is shifting with cable and dvd and dvrs. No one’s watching and it’s pretty expensive to keep making bad shows.

This just raises a lot of questions. Will the ratings of Jay average out to better ratings than what they have now? Will all of the current Tonight Show viewers tune in to this in addition to watching Conan on the Tonight Show? Instead of Conan? If ratings are a less across the board and cost less is that ok too?

And will the other networks follow suit? CW and Fox have never tried to program the 10 hour. And I don’t know that ABC has anything left (Life on Mars hasn’t been canceled yet). Can CBS stand strong with CSI x 3, Without a Trace and Numb3rs? The NBC guy called their plan a new paradigm. I guess we’ll see. Personally I don’t watch Jay now, I don’t really watch any late night talkers, and I probably won’t in the future no matter the time.

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next week 12/8

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

Monday

  • Charlie Brown Christmas (ABC, 8pm) – The gang puts on a holiday pageant.
  • Boston Legal (ABC, 9pm) Series Finale – I never got into this Practice spinoff but it’s had a good run.

Tuesday

  • Olive the Other Reindeer/Santa’s Funniest Moments (MNT, 9/10pm) – Reindeer games and outtakes.
  • Manhunters (A&E, 10pm) Series Premiere – Follow the US Marshall’s Fugitive Task Force hunt down the ‘worst of the worst’.
  • A Shot at Love (MTV, 10pm) Season Premiere – Tila Tequila has been replaced by bisexual twins being courted by both men and women.

Wednesday

  • Little Spirit: Christmas in NY (NBC, 8pm) – This animated holiday special tells a tale of magical spirits in NY.

Thursday

  • Sarah Silverman Program (Com, 10:30pm) Season Finale – What will Sarah get up to now?

Friday

  • Greatest Holiday Moments (NBC, 8pm) – Songs of the season countdown.
  • Frosty the Snowman/Frosty Returns/The Flight Before Christmas (CBS, 8/8:30/9pm) – More Frosty! and a reindeer.
  • The Family Entertainment Awards (CW, 9pm) – Formerly known as the Family Television Awards, it now touches on family friendly entertainment in tv, movies, and video games.

Saturday

  • MADtv’s Best of Christmas Sketches (Fox, 11pm) – If you like a holiday sketch here you go.

Sunday

  • Survivor (CBS, 8/10pm) Season Finale – The reunion special kicks in at 10.
  • Dexter/Califronication (Show, 9/10pm) Season Finales – And another season down, does this mean I need to wait a whole year for another Dexter?
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midseason

dollhouse.jpg Midseason dates tend to shift around, so check your local listings, and I’ll note these on ‘next week’s as they arrive.

  • Game Show in My Head (CBS, 1/3) – A hidden camera game show.
  • Superstars of Dance (NBC, 1/4) – The folks who do So You Think You Can Dance bring in the experts.
  • Momma’s Boys (NBC, 1/5) – The moms get into the act on this latest dating series.
  • 13 – Fear is Real (CW,1/7) – Folks face their fears to survive this reality gameshow. 
  • Howie Do It (NBC, 1/9) – Mandell does something with folks.
  • Lie to Me (Fox, 1/21) – Tim Roth is some sort of perceptive crime fighter.
  • XIII (NBC, 2/8) – This miniseries stars Val Kilmer in an ‘adrenaline charged’ conspiracy.
  • Dollhouse (Fox, 2/13) – The latest from Whedon where folks are programmed with new identities each week.
  • Castle (ABC, 3/9) – Who can pass up Nathan Fillion, he’s a mystery writer helping out a cop in the latest buddy crime of the week.
  • Kings (NBC, 3/19) – The two hour premiere kicks things off before it moves to its normal night, this is supposedly a modern day telling of David and Goliath
  • Cupid (ABC, 3/24) – Can they do justice to this remake of the Piven/Marshall show, it’s all about the chemistry, oh and the writing.
  • The Unusuals (ABC, 4/8) – Amber Tamblyn joins as fresh detective with an ‘unusual’ group of homicide detectives.
  • Harper’s Island (CBS, 4/9) – Can a new cast member be killed off each week and the show survive?

Returning: The Bachelor (ABC, 1/5), Scrubs (ABC, 1/6), Biggest Loser Couples (NBC, 1/6), Flashpoint (CBS, 1/9), American Idol (Fox, 1/13), Hell’s Kitchen (Fox, 1/15),  Friday Night Lights (NBC, 1/16), Lost (ABC, 1/21), Medium (NBC, 2/2), Survivor (CBS, 2/12), The Amazing Race (CBS, 2/15), Celebrity Apprentice (NBC, 3/1), Dancing with the Stars (ABC, 3/9), Reaper (CW, 3/17).

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worst tv

charmschool.jpgOn Thanksgiving, after the dog show wrapped up, there really wasn’t much on tv. So we caught a little of the Charlie Brown special (weird to see Woodstock eat turkey) and then started flipping and hitting the tivo backlog. While we couldn’t really find anything good on, we did start a discussion about what the worst was. Can you guess which of these bad shows is not one that I watch?

  1. Celebrity Rehab with Dr Drew
  2. Rock of Love Charm School
  3. My Big Redneck Wedding
  4. None of the above
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next week 12/1

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

Monday

  • Shrek the Halls/How the Grinch Stole Christmas (ABC, 8/8:30pm) – It’s after thanksgiving so I’m ready to embrace the new season, ho ho ho! 
  • Privileged (CW, 9pm) – This Monday night slot with reruns in the usual Tuesday at 9 gives folks more opportunity to dig this simple but delightful premise of girl trying to do right by spoiled kids, business mogul grandmother, her own imperfect family, and some hot dudes.
  • Samantha Who? (ABC, 9/9:30pm) – Dancing with the Stars is done and Samantha rocks a whole hour this week, who wants to bet her good intentions turn humorous?

Tuesday

  • Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town  (ABC, 8pm) – Yes he is.
  • 2008 World Music Awards (MNT, 9pm) – I don’t know, yet another music awards show where Beyonce performs.
  • According to Jim (ABC, 9/9:30pm) Season Premiere – Really this show is still on?
  • Paris Hilton’s My New BFF (MTV, 9/10pm) – The finale and the reunion special, I wonder if Nichole Ritchie paid her to find someone else?
  • Bad Girls Club (Oxy, 11pm) Season Premiere – More ‘bad girls’ move in to make a ruckus.
  • Shatner’s Raw Nerve (Bio, 11/11:30pm) Series Premiere – William Shatner kicks off the first two eps of his interview show with Valerie Bertinelli and Tim Allen.

Wednesday

  • Christmas in Rockefeller Center (NBC, 8pm) – Al Roker and Jane Krakowski host the annual tree lighting with lots of celebrity guests.
  • Secret Millionaire (Fox, 8pm) Series Premiere – It sounds like rich folks work alongside less rich folks before giving them some cash in this latest reality offering.
  • Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer/Grammy Nominations Concert/Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show (CBS, 8/910pm) – A little something for everyone.
  • The Contender (Vs, 10pm) Season Premiere – Another round of contenders.
  • Tyler Perry’s House of Payne (TBS, 10/10:30pm) Season Premiere – A couple of reruns lead up to the season premiere.

Thursday

  • Barbara Walters (ABC, 10pm) – This year’s ten most fascinating people.

Friday

  • Greatest Holiday Moments (NBC, 8pm) – I think there should be some claymation on the list.
  • Lipstick Jungle (NBC, 9pm) – Is this new timeslot where this show has been sent to die?

Saturday

  • Crusoe (NBC, 8pm) – Crusoe and Friday are still on the island but now they’re there on Saturday.

Sunday

  • The Amazing Race (CBS, 8pm) Season Finale – The remaining teams head to Portland and a couple folks get the dough.
  • House of Saddam (HBO, 9/10pm) – The first parts of a four part miniseries.
  • Leverage (TNT, 10pm) Series Premiere -Timothy Hutton heads a crew of thieves who steal from the rich, I love a good heist show, I have no idea if this is a good heist show.
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next week 11/24

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

Monday

  • Andy Warhol’s Party People (Ovation, 8pm) – This miniseries kicks off with interviews about the gang.

Tuesday

  • Charlie Brown Thanksgiving (ABC, 8pm – and Thursday) – Snoopy and the gang give thanks.
  • Dancing With the Stars (ABC, 9pm) Season Finale -Looks like it’s down to Brooke Burke, Warren Sapp, and Lance Bass.
  • Real Housewives of Orange County (Bravo, 10pm) Season Premiere -This original housewives show returns for another season of the ladies.
  • The Shield (FX, 10pm) Series Finale – This series is supposed to be good but I’ll have to catch it on dvd.

Wednesday

  • Rosie’s Variety Show (NBC, 8pm) – There’s variety…
  • Sons of Anarchy (Fx, 10pm) Season Finale -The guys are always on the verge of trouble, ok so they’re always actually in trouble, but I’d love to watch them make it through another season.

Thursday

  • Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade (NBC, 9am) – Matt, Meredith and Al host the floats and whatnot.
  • Purina National Dog Show (NBC, noon) – Love to watch the doggies circle the center ring, though I’m always disappointed if a big fuzzy breed doesn’t win best in show.

Friday

  • Maybe go out to a movie as you recover from your Thanksgiving food hangover.

Saturday

  • Ellen’s Even Bigger Really Big Show (TBS, 9pm) – Ellen hosts a Vegas show.

Sunday

  • Party Monsters (E, 6pm) Series Premiere – This competition show has 9 party planners try to throw the ultimate party in Cabo. 
  • Britz (BBC, 7:30pm) – This miniseries follows British born Pakistani brother and sister have different reactions to London’s 7/7.
  • Cheech and Chong Roasted (TBS, 10pm) – Let the pot jokes commence.
  • Snoop Dogg’s Father Hood (E, 10:30pm) Season Premiere – I can’t believe there’s already been a season of this.
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who is…

antm_mckey.jpgAmerica’s Next Top Model?

That girl with the short dark hair… Ok so it was McKey, whose original name we were all trying to remember. We all were just far too upset that not only did Analeigh not win, she didn’t even make it to the final two. Sadly the speaking in Dutch commercial and photo shoot didn’t treat our figure skater well and she didn’t make the cut. The final fashion show was shot or edited so poorly you couldn’t even tell who had the fiercest walk and pose. Not that the competition between perky Sam and (I can’t even think of a personality description to describe her because I barely remember her from the season) McKey was thought to be close at all.

Oh well there’s always next season.

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