Monsters of Television

“Dark hair. Bedroom eyes. Moody demeanor. I totally get it.“

When I reviewed the pilot episode of Sym-Bionic Titan, I figured that would be the only episode I covered, short of some really great episode on down the line. However, the review has garnered some really impressive numbers recently (for our site, anyway),  and even though we don’t generate revenue from the site, clearly there’s an interest in the show so I thought it might be a good idea to fill in some of the obvious gaps in the Web.

Now, page views aren’t the only things motivating me here. I quipped that Titan was the best new show of the fall if you liked giant robots. However, after having time to digest more of the offerings from the fall season, I can drop that qualifier a bit since Titan is still performing very well, with smart episodes so far (though I found the second episode a less than a fine follow-up). With Terriers, I think it’s probably my favorite new show.

That I like both Terriers and Titan probably says more about my tastes than anything else (I like giant robots and neo-noir (needless to say, I dig The Big O)), but I do think that Titan is a very very good show, one that appeals to all ages (though I think it’s a little less audience universal than Samurai Jack) and also has a clear sense of itself and what it wants to do, and on a base level, that’s a really a good sign for any series.

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“Can’t go 10 feet in America without having your death recorded.”

With everything from the finale now neatly taken care of last week, I feel like the show can properly start getting to work on telling this season’s stories. Yes, of course, the show is a very subtle serialized character drama so this season’s stories are connected to last season’s stories. But there are new stakes now and thus new stories to tell in relation to this serial.

But, as if to also take a narrative cooldown lap, “Breaking Fast” is largely one of those procedural episodes that the show excels at balancing against its character serialization. This, of course, isn’t a complaint. If you’re a regular reader of the blog, you already know that I love procedurals, and that I love serials. So I like when a show manages to execute both well, and I get very frustrated when the balance is thrown off in ways that simply don’t work for me. Read more »

“Aw, geeze, he must’ve gotten sucked into my enigma hole.”

I missed last week’s very fun send-up of noirs with Hank due to schedule craziness (read: I was dead tired). I really enjoyed the episode though as it tied up some dangling mysteries (never thought for a second that Dermott belonged to Brock) and paired Hank and Al together in a very productive (and meaningful way). But that episode has nothing on the sheer lunacy and cleverness of “Bright Lights, Dean City.” Read more »

Shows jump networks. Most recently, Scrubs and Medium changed networks after their original nets passed on renewal. While I can’t speak to Medium‘s transition from NBC to CBS, Scrubs retooled itself as a med school show, with some of the old regulars hanging around, interacting with the new interns. The vibe never really took off for me (I’m told it got better after the first few episodes, but I didn’t stick around to find out) and it was cancelled.

Shows also get uncancelled. Futurama and Family Guy being the most prominent examples. Cancelled by Fox, the shows managed to live in syndication and DVD sales, motivating new pick-ups by either the old network or a new one. To what degree these shows maintain their quality is debatable (I liked early Family Guy episodes, but found its return episode to be dismal; Futurama has been hit or miss, depending on the movie or the episode).

Finally, one last bit: When Lost was on the air, a joke was that the final season would be a zombie season. While this joke, in a very metaphysical way, may’ve turned out to be true in the final season, it wasn’t like the final season just went through the motions, or that Jack devoured Hurley’s brains. Which might’ve been cool, actually…

What does all of this have to do with Law & Order: Los Angeles (or LOLA as seems to be the popular shortening)? Well, LOLA finds itself in the weird position of be a spin-off of a institutional franchise that itself was just cancelled, feels like a slightly re-tooled version of that cancelled show, but, above all, feels like a reanimated corpse of that cancelled show. Read more »

“Then you’re not listening because his has lasers.”

It appears it was “Let’s talk about religion!” week for some broadcast comedies and Glee (nailed it). It’s an odd trend to just have happen at once (Modern Family dealt with religion this week as well, but I don’t watch Modern Family so I can’t comment on it) and even Community got wrapped up in the trend.

I’ve seen a lot of discussion on Twitter about how television fiction handles religion. Typically it’s done in a one-off episode and is then never mentioned again (unless you’re Bones, and then you mention it in passing constantly, but that’s because you’ve got two sensible characters discussing differences of beliefs). But sitcoms tend to follow the one-off formula a little more than others, a semi-very special episode as it were that helps bring a story around to the central idea expressed in Glee‘s “Grilled Cheesus” and this episode of Community: It’s okay not to believe in God, but for the love of God, please believe in something. Read more »

“Then I’ll get to disabusing.”

While I got to see “Taking Control,” the season 2 premiere of The Good Wife, I was unable to write a review for it so as to conserve energy for sitting on a bus for 22 hours (I was attending a conference in Austin). I apologize for missing it, but Tuesday night was the last chance for legitimate sleep until the following Sunday, and I love sleep more than The Good Wife.

But not by much.

After the jump I’ll do a brief review of “Taking Control” (even shorter review: excellent) and then a regular sized review of “Double Jeopardy.” Read more »

“They’re like The Notebook sad.“

Meh, you win some, you lose some.

“Any Which Way But Zeus” is a smattering of jokes, none of which really come together, even at the end of the episode which is often when the show salvages itself with a solid turn of the screw. Part of the problem is structural, as all the characters are kept separated from one another  but since there’s three on-going plots, none get developed to the point of providing laughs or emotions. It all falls flatter than that Zeus cardboard cutout. Read more »

“Could it be I’m paranoid?”

I don’t have a whole lot to say about “In Whom We Trust.” It’s not the episode isn’t good, because it’s up the level of quality that Rubicon has been consistently meeting all season. It’s just that, like what I hit with Community last season, I’m running out of ways to say positive things.

However, as things begin to merge and the endgame somehow comes into focus, the big block in my notes, and what spurred on a conversation on Twitter, was how to classify Rubicon‘s narrative structure, especially given the dual-focus nature of the show. So, really, that’s what I’ll tackle below. If you follow me, Jeremy Mongeau and/or Dan Winclechter on Twitter, then you’ve seen some of this already. Read more »

“You can always count on a well-read man, hmm?“

It’s getting delicious, isn’t it?

Because of how deftly the storytelling is executed (if you’re still complaining about the pace of the show, I think you’re watching it at half speed) and how the threads are starting to connect together (Katherine gets Spangler’s name and API, Will gets Tom’s name) it feels like we’re about to run up against the last two hours of the show, not the last four.

Yes, there’s only four episodes left of the first season of Rubicon. I am really excited. Read more »

“No, wait, actually that’s a half-burned-down McDonald’s.”

If you’ve been reading along with us since we’ve started, you know I had a turbulent relationship with 30 Rock last season, and kind of came around to the show again by the end of the last season. I was prepared to start this season, season 5 as the show kept reminding me, anew with fresh (if a bit lowered) expectations and also prepared for Carol and Avery to just be off-screen characters (I was correct on at least one count).

“The Fabian Strategy” has moments of hilarity (most of them centering around The Barefoot Contessa), but much like Jack’s prized relationship strategy, I feel like 30 Rock kept running away from me so much last season that now I’m just tired and happy to have it back and will accept most anything at this point, so long as it makes me smile for most of the 22 minutes. Read more »