Monsters of Television

“You’ve seen the act before. How dull for you.“

After last week’s smashing premiere episode, Sherlock made it it difficult for itself to follow it up with anything just as shiny and fun. It isn’t that 90 minutes of a single episode exhausts all the story elements, or that we’re no longer interested in Holmes and Watson, or that the flourishes that allow us entry into Holmes’ mind have grown old, or that we’re simply tired of this diegesis. Indeed, the great feat that “A Study In Pink” achieved was that after 90 minutes was that I was left wanting a lot more.

“The Blind Banker” kind of made me wonder why I wanted more. Read more »

Well, that was something.

I wasn’t crazy about this episode. It felt a little a lazy, from the Camera Challenge (a re-tread of an earlier challenge, though it does serve a purpose) to the kind of silly Star Challenge (dish inspired by an emotion). This episode was pretty “Meh.” across the board, which leaves me with little to say about it beyond the rather surprising dismissal. And by “dismissal” I mean the fact that Giada isn’t going to be on the show until the finale. That’s four episodes with my precious Italian goddess. Why are they doing this to me? WHY?! Read more »

“I’m not a psychopath. I’m a high functioning sociopath. Do your research.”

I had to leave Sherlock, the new BBC series created by Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss, during the last 20 minutes due to dinner plans, so I left the episode’s climax hanging. But it gave me time to start thinking about the episode before I sat down to write, something I appreciate having depending on the show. The conclusion I came to was that I was surprised that it has taken this long for Sherlock Holmes himself to fully return to popular culture.

For a while, the Sherlock Holmes format has been used in a variety of other shows recently, like House, Monk, The Mentalist, and to an extent, CSI and Law & Order: Criminal Intent (specifically Goren). House is probably the clearest example, as Gregory House is essentially Sherlock Holmes (at least in the first couple of seasons)  but with a prescription pad. But where was Sherlock? Why hadn’t anyone decided to bring him back to TV or film? Read more »

“We’ve got intruders!”

A couple of weeks ago, I was dozing while watching some special on History about death masks, and in between my dozing and finding out that George Washington was vain, I saw promos for the The Colony, a show on Discovery Channel. Judging from the promos, it was the answer to the question many started asking after Survivor had gone through a few cycles: “Why isn’t there an urban survivor? Let’s see them try and eek out a living in a rough neighborhood.” And some producer heard that idea, liked it, and, being a producer, added, “Let’s make this rough neighborhood actually a ‘safe zone’ after something pretty apocalyptic has wiped out most of the human race!”

Thus The Colony was born.

I wasn’t aware, when I saw the promos, that the series had actually already done a season last summer (I don’t watch a lot of Discovery Channel, History, etc.), but as it’s a reality show, and only in its second season, there’s not a huge need to go and catch up on season 1 (though I can grab the last 5 if I want). Already with one episode, I kind of get the jist of what each episode will be like. Read more »

Way to take a step back, Food Network Star.

After a very solid two weeks, the show backslid with Sunday’s episode, an episode that misses the mark for a whole slew of reasons, not the least of which is the fact that the Star Challenge had no business being on this show. What the star challenge, an underground supper club for LA foodies (“The first rule of supper club is that you do not talk about supper club. The second rule of supper club is that you do not use saffron. It is so 2005.”), tells me is that Food Network wants to extend its brand to foodies. Too bad Food Network doesn’t really scream foodie to me. Or anyone. Read more »

“He is Michael Westen! There are only four of us!“

This week’s episodes of Covert Affairs (“Walter’s Walk”) and Burn Notice (“Past & Future Tense”) were both very good. Covert Affairs is still having to do legwork, fleshing out the characters and the world, but it’s doing an admirable job of that. Meanwhile Burn Notice has the luxury of being an established show, with its format and characters firmly in place and ready to go for anything.

What both shows touched on this week, however, was about something more than just how a new show develops or how an established one keeps itself fresh. This week, Covert Affairs and Burn Notice tackled the notion of spyhood in their own specific ways. Unsurprisingly, both shows dealt with the issue of spyhood from their particular vantage points: new spy and old spies. Read more »

“With you or without you I’m moving on. And I don’t know if I can do it alone. Will you help me?“

I ignore my epiphanies for the sake of dramatic conflict

This, for those who want to manage their reading, will be significantly shorter than my season 1 recap. Part of this stems from the fact that I just have very little to say, on the whole, about both seasons. A large part of this lack of thought goes back to the issue of quality I discussed during season 1, and seem little need to recover that ground.

Of the two, I’d rather watch season 3 than season 2. As Jeremy Mongeau pointed out, season 3 at least remembers to be entertaining, whereas season 2 is very much about how much QUALITY and IMPORTANT MESSAGES and SYMBOLIC WALKING INTO THE BEACH TO CLEANSE AND BE REBORN can be squeezed into 13 hours of television. Season 3 has some of this (could Betty’s couch have been any more symbolic?), but it also has a guy’s foot getting lopped off by a riding lawn mower, complete with excellent blood splatter reaction shot, so it balances out.

There were things I did like about season 3, including Sally Draper (the only truly interesting character on the show), “My name is Peggy Olson and I’m here to smoke some marijuana.”, and all the scenes of “Shut the Door, Have a Seat” that didn’t involve Don and Betty’s relationship. But, all in all, I’m kind of glad I’m not reviewing Mad Men for the site. Read more »

“Scariest 5-year old party ever.”

While Karen is encouraging you watch Hell’s Kitchen instead of Top Chef, I’d kind of nudge to marathon The Next Food Network Star, and this is something I really didn’t think I would ever say. Part of this is just how boring Top Chef has been this season (painfully so), but another part is now that FNS has a smaller group of competitors, well, the show has a chance to actually breathe and be interesting, as opposed to a mad dash to cover every dish and contestant.

This week’s episode, while not as entertaining as last week’s lunch truck challenge, is still considerably better than any of the earlier episodes. In those episodes, both the contestants and the show seemed fairly lost in exactly what needed to be done for a successful program, whereas now, with a smaller group, the show can actually focus on developing ideas and personalities, and I think it’s a format the show should consider for its future seasons. Read more »

“There’s complexity, and then there’s lying.”

Here’s a fun bit of trivia for you: Covert Affairs was the topic of the first post on this blog.  (Note how article totally gives away the ending of the pilot? Yeah, kind of killed the suspense for me.) Happily, I was correct in my general assessment of the show when the pilot was picked up by USA. The show is Burn Notice and White Collar, with obvious dashes of Alias sprinkled into the mix.

As a result, like most of USA’s programming, Covert Affairs is a solid, promising, and entertaining  show. It’s stylish, briskly paced, well-staged action sequences, and deft humor. What makes me worried is that those words also describe how I felt about White Collar at its start, and then it began a decline that led to a shoddy betrayal.

I’d really prefer that Covert Affairs not do that, but I see the potential for it to happen. Read more »

“Geeze. Take a Midol.”

I’ve been looking forward to the premiere of Rizzoli & Isles (hereafter R&I) for a little while now. I’m a big fan of Angie Harmon (I thought she and Shaw should’ve teamed up on Chuck at the end for the season for their own villainous plans!), and while Sasha Alexander is basically known as the woman who proceeded Cote de Pablo on NCIS, she showed some skill on the show (though I never thought Kate really gelled the way Ziva has (this is not an invitation for Kate lovers to start yelling)) so I was interested to see what she would bring to this crime-solving, female power hour.

Sadly, folks, it doesn’t look good.
Read more »