Sweeps is not yet upon us, but the TV season is well under way, so it’s a good time to take a look at how things are shaking up.
First, word is that next year NBC is going to join the rest of the networks in cutting back their scripted series to 9:00 slots and running reality stuff at 8:00. My guess is that this is going to continue to erode the golden age we’re enjoying right now. Basically what happened I think is that the demand for higher production quality due to competition and the HDTV push caused a lot of shows to end up costing too much. A new show that no one watches still costs well over a million dollars an episode, so that’s a lot of money for a studio to hazard. Also, hits such as 24 and Lost made a huge splash, but now studios are getting sloppy and just trying knock-offs (Vanished, Kidnapped, The Nine) which aren’t faring well.
Anyway, on to the shows…
The Simpsons
Honestly I’m worried about what the movie is going to do to the franchise. For any other show, I’d much prefer it to go out when it’s at its highpoint. For The Simpsons, I simply don’t want it to ever end. I’d even be okay with them replacing the voice actors with sound-alikes, just so that there are still new episodes every Sunday for the rest of my life. Sure, we all know that it hasn’t been its funniest in years, but each episode still has enough jokes to make it worthwhile.
Desperate Housewives
Has anyone else noticed that the show went from being all spooky mystery with odd characters to a screwball comedy hour? The introduction of Kyle MacLachlan as Bree’s new man with a mysterious past has helped, but I simply don’t care about Susan’s continuing bufoonery, Mike’s coma, or really even Lynette’s inability to support her husband’s desire not to be corporate shill his whole life.
Heroes
Somehow Heroes managed to be the show that it seems like everyone is watching. Was Smallville just too early to the party with the whole “no cape, no tights” thing? I like that they’re going for this big, continuing story thing, and it’s good that they seem to have it all plotted out to the end of the season, but it’s not all sticking together, either. For example, we’ve known for two weeks now that somehow Hiro needs to save Claire’s life, yet we’ve seen her in no danger whatsoever, and she even has the show’s villain protecting her. A little dramatic irony couldn’t hurt here. Also, for a show with as many characters, I find that the only ones who interest me are Hiro and Nathan. Peter’s annoying, Claire has no personality, Niki’s only cool when she’s evil, Mohinder’s story hasn’t gone anywhere, etc.
Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip
Oh Aaron Sorkin, how you have let me down! I like this show, yet I don’t disagree with its many critics. It is too pretentious. The show-within-a-show isn’t very funny. On the plus side, Matthew Perry has turned out to be a great actor (which I knew from his appearances on The West Wing), I really like D.L. Hugley’s character, and Nate Corrdry is wonderful. The show suffers from Sorkin’s need to make the character seem like they’re doing the most important work of their lives (as if they were working for the president of the United States of something) instead of putting on a comedy show. I have hopes that NBC will give it a shot though and not just hang it out to wither and die.
Veronica Mars
I’d like to say that this show is as good as it’s always been, but there’s an energy that’s been lost somewhere. Each episode seems to be fine, but put them together and they’re not quite as compelling. The first season’s mystery directly affected Veronica’s life. The second season’s mystery lingered on too long. This season they’ve decided to make the main mystery story shorter, which is a good call, but it doesn’t seem to be as compelling as it should be. On the plus side, the change in setting from high school to college hasn’t hurt the show at all, and that’s often a killer transition for a series.
Boston Legal
I don’t care about all about the new characters, but William Shatner and James Spader are still great. Lincoln, the creepy neighbor character from the major case of the last few episodes is a great addition to the show’s already quirky ensemble, and the recurring joke about Denny’s little person girlfriend always sidling in to hear conversations when he doesn’t know she’s in the room is funny every single time.
Lost
Sigh. The format that made the show so great seems to be working against it here. When it started, and we didn’t know anything about the characters, the flashback sequences and the slow pace made for tantalizing reveals. Now, we basically know what we need to know about them, but we’re stuck with 20 minutes of filler each week just to find out a few small facts that don’t change what we knew about them already or add anything remarkably new. Only two more episodes left before the show goes on hiatus until 2007. I’m guessing they’ve got some suitably shocking ideas ready to pounce, but I’m worried that since I’m already used to the show throwing out crazy ideas, they’ll have to be super extra crazy to really shock me.
The Office
Great as usual. I like the continued development of the Pam and Jim relationship. My guess is that they’ll be closing Jim’s branch at some point and he’ll be forced to move back.
Smallville
Wonderful so far. The introduction of Green Arrow, while a tad too gadget-heavy (a compound bow isn’t cool enough on its own? it has to fold up, too?), has nicely brought the concept of heroism to the fore. Clark’s starting to realize that he has a calling to do more with his powers than bail Lana out once a week. The rivalry between Ollie and Lex is nice, too, and I’m looking forward to finally seeing Lex snap and go all-out evil.
Battlestar Galactica
Currently my favorite show on TV. Could any other show pull of having the main characters employ suicide bombers? Crazy mix of science fiction with real world issues. Has characters with lots of depth to them. This show is just as compelling as when it started.
Others
Meerkat Manor rocks. The various CSI series continue to do what they do (for the record, my favorite is Las Vegas, then New York, then Miami). Grey’s Anatomy is still not as good as you think it is.