tv – Page 94 – procrastinationchronicles.com

now america votes

February 14, 2008 1 Comment

And no I’m not talking about presidential politics. Now’s the time for America to start choosing their next Idol. For the most part I’m not sure that the populous vote works on artistic endeavors but the show has certainly made some stars. Some sell records, some win Grammys, think Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood, Chris Daughtry, oh and then there’s Jennifer Hudson and that little thing they call an Oscar.

But that’s not really the fun of the show. We’ve now narrowed it down to 24 and starting next week we’ll get a night of women’s performances and then a night of men. I have to say I wonder if the performers who have been more greatly featured in the profiles to date will already have a greater following or if the performances will speak for themselves.

Personally, of the men I dig that Australian guy. On the women’s side I’m more torn, I like that girl who lost her voice, the rocker/nurse girl, and the Irish girl. I suppose I could learn their actual names, but heck why bother, they could be eliminated next week. And in fact as I recall it is always pretty clear right away that a few of those put forward just don’t have the stuff in the fuller format.

So stay tuned. I will, at least for another round. Oh and if you care who specifically the top 24 are you can always check out Idol central at http://www.americanidol.com/

is the strike all struck?

February 11, 2008 2 Comments

Well we’re almost there… This weekend the WGA has reached a tentative deal with the Alliance of Producers that would include terms that apparently look agreeable, including compensation for works distributed online. They’ll officially vote on Tuesday but folks are expected to rev things up starting today for the writers to be back as early as Wednesday.

So what does this mean for tv? Well some of the shows are hoping to ramp back up to finish out some episodes this season and some won’t be back until next year. Not so much a consideration as to the shows long term prospects, more based on that fact that shows like half hour sitcoms are quicker and easier to gear back up. Though of course there are a few casualties that just aren’t going to be back, but you can’t blame the strike for no more Bionic Woman or Big Shots. For a regularly updated list of back to work plans, TV Guide has a nice page of expectations per show.

And it looks like there will in fact be a fall season, but the strike, among other costs concerns, is making the studios lean towards a leaner season. Typically they spend a lot of time developing a lot of scripts and producing more pilots than they would ever use. So will fewer development deals be merely a more critical eye and more cost effective displays of direction? Or will fewer things developed turn out the same percentage of good ones, meaning we’ll just see fewer gems?

And of course for the Oscars the show will go on, which was always going to be the case, but I’m not sure what Plan B was really looking like… So Jon Stewart may have a little less time to get his jokes polished, but thanks to the fashion gods for smiling on us, we’ll have a real red carpet.

next week 2/11

February 8, 2008 2 Comments

Monday

Flavor of Love (VH1, 9pm) Season Premiere – Apparently Flavor didn’t find true love last season…
Girlfriends (CW, 9/9:30pm) – Last due to the strike as the gang keeps doing how they do.

Tuesday

Big Brother (CBS, 9pm) Season Premiere – So in the 9th season the gang gets matched up as couples to compete as teams.
Jericho (CBS, 10pm) Season Premiere – I was never in love with this show but this post nuclear drama has got a nice fan following.

Wednesday

ANTM (CW, 8pm) – Part two of the retrospective clips show.

Thursday

NAACP Image Awards (Fox, 8pm) – Stevie Wonder and Aretha Franklin receive special honors.

Friday

Monk (USA, 9pm) Season Finale – So this is actually only part 1, part 2 will air next week as Monk tries to escape his arrest for murder.
Las Vegas (NBC, 9pm) – Last due to the strike as the gang in the surveillance room gets taken hostage.
Celine Dion (CBS, 9pm) – Whatever.
Psych (USA, 10pm) Season Finale – This is the one where the guy pretends to be psychic?

Saturday

Sports Illustrated Swimsuit 2008 (TNT, 11pm) – Behind the lens look at this shoot, for those who like that sort of thing.

Sunday

Knight Rider (NBC, 9pm) – Oh yeah you read that right… Knight Rider is back, this tv movie was sort of designed as a back door pilot as we see a new KITT, a new driver, and you might see a touch of Hoff in a guest role.
Cold Case (CBS, 9pm) – Last due to strike as the team investigates an abusive father, but is he the culprit?
Family Guy (Fox, 9pm) Season Premiere – Apparently there’s some beef between the Family and James Woods who guests.
Brothers and Sisters (ABC, 10pm) – Last due to strike as the family makes some ‘compromises.’
Dexter (CBS, 10pm) Network Debut – I’ll probably get this serial killer/murder solver show on dvd before watching the edited version.

no one sees it all

February 6, 2008 2 Comments

When I suggested some favorite shows currently on the air that are worth catching up on, some folks pointed out that I missed a few choice items. I think we’re all aware that I watch a lot of tv, but even I have my limits… Some of the cable selections I missed the first time around at the top of my queue are (based on folks’ and critics’ opinions and you know, my mood whilst writing this):

The Wire (HBO)
Battlestar Gallactica (SciFi)
Big Love (HBO)
Weeds (Show)
Dexter (Show)
Nip/Tuck (Fx)
The Shield (Fx)
Brotherhood (Show)
The Tudors (Show)
Mad Men (AMC) – Season 1 yet to be released
Californication (Show) – Season 1 yet to be released

And I have started but am still behind on the following:

Entourage, Six Feet Under, Sopranos (all HBO)

And may go back and check out these HBO shows:

Carnivale, Deadwood, Oz

What do you think I should be watching?

lost yet?

February 4, 2008 2 Comments

Well this weekend I caught up on Lost. I watched the pop up video styles of last season’s two hour finale and watched the recap episode to bring us up to date. I won’t try to recap what’s happened over the seasons here because even these episodes couldn’t touch on everything. Former cast, numbers, smoke monster?

But it did get me back in the groove again. It had been so long since I’d seen this I had forgotten how compelling it was. I somehow remember that Lost kept introducing new mysteries and not resolving anything. In retrospect more has been resolved and certainly way more has happened than I could remember, or keep track of.

And then of course we had the season premiere. They’re following the format tweak that blew folks away at the end of last year. We’re doing flash forwards, and how forward are we? Well they seem to be playing a little loose with that format as well. Last season ended certainly more forward than this Hurley interaction.

We now know that the ‘Oceanic Six’ appear to have gotten off the island. Kate, Jack, Hurley, obituary person? Who else? And we know that something happened that they’re not telling. Alas another mystery. So back on the island we’re going to start getting acquainted with yet another posse of people. The ‘not Penelope’s boat’ people. And seriously there are more new characters on this deserted island than Gilligan could ever have hoped for.

sports, tv

next week 2/4

February 1, 2008 2 Comments

Monday

Welcome to the Captain (CBS, 8:30) Series Premiere – Flailing filmmaker moves into an apartment building that is eclectic to say the least, starring Jeffrey Tambor among others.
The New Adventures of Old Christine (CBS, 9:30pm) Season Premiere – Christine deals with her ex, his new girlfriend Christine, her brother/manny, her kind of geeky son, the mean moms at the private school she can barely afford, and of course the funny Wanda Sykes as gal pal and now curves-like business co-owner.
The Game (CW, 9:30) – The last episode due to the strike as I’m sure some drama and comedy will ensue with the gals of football.

Tuesday

House (Fox, 9pm) – Enjoy the last ep due to strike, as House deals with the always good, religious zealot with unknown ailment.
Super Tuesday Coverage (check your local listings) – Coverage on the elections, it’ll be super!

Wednesday

ANTM: Exposed (CW, 8pm) – I almost didn’t list this because I hate the clips shows, but apparently they’ve got highlights if you just can’t wait for the new season.
CSI: NY (CBS, 10pm) – Last ep due to the strike as ickily a victim is found drowned in a self cleaning toilet.

Thursday

Survivor (CBS, 8pm) Season Premiere – So this time they’re hitting Micronesia and it’s fans vs. favorites, I wonder how much money Jeff Probst makes for these.
Lipstick Jungle (NBC, 10pm) Series Premiere – This is the other one (if you like or wanted to like Cashmere Mafia) where it’s successful gal pals, only this one has three friends and one of them is Brooke Shields.

Friday

Davis Cup (OLN, Fri/Sat/Sun, 9am/pst, check your local listings) – Last year’s USA tennis champs head to Austria to start the new season.
Flash Gordon (Scifi, 8pm) Season Finale – I’ve never seen this show but have a nostalgic remembrance of the cheesy old movie version.
Friday Night Lights (NBC, 9pm) Last ep due to the strike as the players and those around them do what they do.

Saturday

Bernard and Doris (HBO, 8pm) – Ralph Fiennes and Susan Sarandon add some acting chops to the original HBO film’s fictionalized story of Doris Duke’s (who?) final years.

Sunday

Grammy Awards (CBS, 8pm) – They come, they model their outfits, they sing, they win… or lose as the case may be.
British Academy Film Awards (BBC, 8pm) – Apparently the stars are heading to this one if you want to catch them in case we don’t settle domestically.
100 Most Outrageous Moments of All Time (NBC, 9pm) – Not sure if this is a Britney biography or what.

tv catch up

January 30, 2008 2 Comments

As the strike continues some of you may be at a loss for what to watch. This might be a good time to catch up on early seasons of some good shows that you may have missed out on. Here are some of my favorites that are worth a look, or even a second look:

Bones (Season 1 and 2) – Great chemistry between Bones and Booth and a fun supporting cast as the squints/lab kids help the FBI solve crimes through forensic anthropology, think of it as CSI/Crossing Jordan for the bodies that are just bones.
Brothers & Sisters (Season 1) – A fun soapy drama about partly dysfunctional and totally loving family with a great cast, although uneven there’s always something interesting going on from matriarch Sally Field to newest Walker Emily Van Camp.
Grey’s Anatomy (Seasons 1-3) – More soapy fun, and the best was the first season as we first meet our surgical interns and get involved in their work and romance, mostly romance at work, I’m even ok with the fact that Meredith bugs.
Heroes (Season 1) – The first season introduces us to our ‘heroes’ as they get their powers and their plotlines bring them together, somewhat uneven as they get rolling but engaging from the start and riveting by the end.
House (Seasons 1-3) – Crotchety, drug addicted, medical genius is how he’s portrayed and you get to watch him abuse patients and coworkers as he tries to diagnose the undiagnosable patients and somehow pretty entertaining, mostly thanks to Laurie but good surrounding folks for him to play off of.
Lost (Seasons 1-3) – This show has a faithful following partly because it’s really different and really well done with the interplay of on island action and back story character development, and partly because you really can’t miss an episode for fear of missing some big explanation.
Prison Break (Season 1 – Season 2 also available) – I recommend this with a warning, I loved the first season fun, watching one guy’s plan to break his brother out of prison, and watching it mostly getting thrown for a loop, but was super annoyed by the second, I have yet to tune into the third.

Maybe you’re more of a 1/2 hour comedy sort of person? How ’bout:

Girlfriends (Seasons 1-3) – Four sassy mostly professional gals deal with life and love and each other and their one guy pal through their different experiences.
How I Met Your Mother (Seasons 1 & 2) – Hopeless romantic Ted tells his tales of love, but its the ensemble cast that makes this work, as theoretically we eventually meet Ted’s true love.
My Name is Earl (Seasons 1 & 2) – I find Jason Lee kind of endearing in general and enjoy his bad guy turned good, using his lottery winning to fix his karma by righting his wrongs, with the help, or harm, of his misfit friends.
The New Adventures of Old Christine (Season 1) – Julia Louis-Dreyfus found a great format for her broad humor as she plays a hapless single mom hanging with her family and friends trying to get her act together.
The Office (Seasons 1-3) – A painful office (based on the British series) at first pained me to think of why I’d want to watch at the end of a day at the office, but its oddball characters and biting humor won me over.
Scrubs (Seasons 1-6) – Hospital comedy seen through the eyes of goofball JD as he and his buddies treat patients… well it’s kind of like Grey’s Anatomy but shorter and wackier.
30 Rock (Season 1) – This show took a little while to find its rhythm but when it does this behind the scenes look at a sketch show gets it super right with Tina Fey at the helm.
Two and a Half Men (Seasons 1 & 2) – Kind of an Odd Couple, where the guys are brothers and one of them has a kid (at least shared custody), sometimes kind of a crass humor, but pretty good humor nonetheless.

sports, tv

next week 1/28

January 25, 2008 7 Comments

Monday

State of the Union (6/9pm est/pst, Check Your Local Listings) – We don’t have to listen to him for much longer.
In Treatment (HBO, 9:30pm) Series Premiere – Gabriel Byrne is a therapist with of course a ton of issues of his own in this 5 night a week show, man, 5 nights a week?
Gossip Girl (CW, 8pm) – A special presentation of the pilot with additional behind the scenes and interview footage.
Making the Band (MTV, 10pm) Season Premiere – Hmm, so I read that this is the 11th season, then I read that this was Making the Band 4, maybe they stopped making new bands? I remember watching the first season on network tv with the making of OTown but haven’t watched since.

Tuesday

Baghdad Hospital: Inside the Red Zone (HBO, 8:30pm) – A close look at life in Baghdad by an Iraqi doctor who has since fled the country.
House (Fox, 9pm) – It’s new, they try to diagnose someone… should still be two more after this.

Wednesday

Lost (ABC, 9pm) – Last season’s finale with extra facts and tidbits to get you caught up.
Crowned: The Mother of All Pageants (CW, 8pm) Season Finale – I don’t know what they win, but one team will win.
American Ballroom Challenge (PBS, 8pm) – And they dance….

Thursday

Lost (ABC, 8/9pm) Season Premiere – It’s baaack, and they really want you to know what’s going on so the recap espisode at 8 should tell us all we need to know to get sucked in yet again… they better settle this strike.
Eli Stone (ABC, 10pm) Series Premiere – Is this lawyer a prophet, a sick man, or a nut job? No matter what his life is going to change.

Friday

1 vs. 100, Friday Night Lights, Las Vegas (NBC, 8/9/10) – They’re new…
Dinner for Five (IFC, 10:30) – Jon Favreau welcomes guests Vince Vaughn, Peter Billingsley, Justin Long and Keir O’Donnell.

Saturday

Trading Spaces (TLC, 9pm) – This episode is the first in its regular timeslot, we had the first ep of the season last week, and we were all excited to have Paige back holding the reigns again.

Sunday

Suberbowl XLII (Fox, 3pm/pst ) – This might be the only occasion that we use roman numerals.
House (Fox, 7:15?) – In the coveted after superbowl spot Mira Sorvino gets some remote diagnosis.
Life is Wild (CW, 8pm) Season Finale – I guess you could find out how the wild is treating this family.

sports, tv

australian open

January 24, 2008 No Comments

Some of you may have gleaned that I am a tennis fan. Not in a super fanatical sort of way, but in a I like to watch it when it’s on, though admittedly it’s nice to nap to… I do get more caught up the more I watch but as I am typically without cable access, I don’t get to watch a lot (though with my busy tv schedule that’s maybe not the worst thing).

But as the tennis season starts with the Australian Open I almost missed it and was surprised to find that there is no network coverage. It was only being covered on ESPN2, not even ESPN mind you.

Now some series like Wimbledon and US Open get network coverage on the middle weekend, and Wimbledon has its own nightly highlights show, but I thought all of them showed the final. There are only four biggies: Australian, French, Wimbledon, and the US Open. Is that asking too much?

We even get network coverage of most of the finals in the entire hard court series leading up the US Open. Someone pointed out to me that it might be the time difference, which could be. Coverage at around 9pm/pst and midnight might not be the best to schedule, but we do have a writer’s strike going on, what else are they really showing?

So for those of you who might be interested, where do we stand right now? On the men’s side, even with Federer sick leading up to things he’s always the favorite, though I like that Djokovic kid. With Sharapova in excellent form taking out Henin (and the always wild card Williams sisters out) she has to be looking good, though I do like Ivanovic.

Men’s First Semifinal – Nadal (2) vs. Tsonga (Thursday – was at 12:30am/pst but… I won’t tell you who won – replays at noon/pst)
Men’s Second Semifinal – Federer (1) vs. Djokovic (3) (Friday 12:30am/pst replays at noon/pst)
Women’s Final – Ivonovic (4) vs. Sharapova (5) (Friday at 6pm/pst)
Men’s Final – TBD (Sun 12:30 am/pst)

ESPN2, Check your local listings.

next week 1/21

January 18, 2008 1 Comment

Monday

Wildfire (ABC Fam, 9pm) Season Premiere – It’s actually quite surprising how many original series there are out there on other cable channels, this is season 4 of this delinquent-but-good-with-horses gal gets another chance with a ranch family.
Democratic Presidential Debate: South Carolina (CNN, 5pm pst) – What have they got to say? Maybe nothing new, but maybe worth a look.

Tuesday

Law & Order: SVU (NBC, 10pm) Last episode due to strike – An embryo caper makes Olivia question her own timeline, too bad they couldn’t just time this to when Mariska was pregnant.
Millionaire Matchmaker (Bravo, 11pm normally at 10pm) Series Premiere – Follow a matchmaking service with, yes you guessed it, millionaire clientele.

Wednesday

Criminal Minds (CBS, 9pm) Last ep due to strike – I tend to only watch this show in reruns, which is I guess next week, but I’m sure the BAU gang will find a serial killer.
Moment of Truth (Fox, 9pm) Series Premiere – This is the one where they hook the contestants up to a lie detector and ask humiliating questions for money, what will they think of next?

Thursday

Chuck (NBC, 8 & 10pm) Last eps due to strike – They’re kicking us out with a little double shot, where Chuck will get into some shenanigans with his friends, coworkers and spy guys.
Ugly Betty & Big Shots (ABC, 8 & 10pm) Last eps due to strike – I’ll be watching Chuck of course.
Winter X Games 12 (24-27th, ESPN, ESPN2, ABC, Check your local listings) – Skis, snowmobiles, and snowboarders get gnarly in Colorado and it should include another round of Shaun White.

Friday

Garth Brooks: Live in LA! (CBS, 9pm) – It’ll be Garth, he’ll be singing, in LA, will it be live?

Saturday

Super Bowl’s Greatest Commercials (CBS, 8pm) – This must mean the super bowl is coming up.
US Figure Skating Women’s Championships (NBC, 8pm) – Isn’t the winter Olympics coming up, no I guess that’s next winter.
Torchwood (BBC, 9pm) Season Premiere – They describe this as ‘part X-Files part Angel… where excitement comes before morality,’ hmm…

Sunday

US Figure Skating Men’s Championships (NBC, 7pm) – Well I mentioned the women’s…
Screen Actors Guild Awards (TNT, 8pm) – This one could be picket free and actually attended.
Shark (CBS, 8pm) Last ep due to strike – Always good to get into Sebastian’s dark past when he’s a target for murder.
The Russell Girl (CBS, 9pm) – Probably a typical cheesy Hallmark movie but I developed a liking for Amber Tamblyn since Joan of Arcadia.

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