Journeyman
The premise for this show seems a bit confusing, so let's see if we can sum up what's going on. As far as I can tell the main character is the victim of some sort of bizarre cosmic prank, wherein he is sporadically flung back and forth through time and forced to listen to otherwise forgettable pop music of the era while trying to piece together a mystery that will allow him to do some sort of good deed (sort of like Quantum Leap without the sexual ambiguity). At one point his family and friends try to give him an intervention because they believe his sporadic absences and disheveled appearance is the result of a substance abuse problem (as any sane person would), and I half-expect Jesus to show up with a camera crew and inform him that he just got punk'd. Sadly, this does not happen.
Big Bang Theory
It's important for television executives to understand that geeks and nerds are not inherently likable or sympathetic characters. In the hands of a Josh Schwartz or Judd Apatow, they might be made to seem endearing or even kind of cool. Unfortunately, in the hands of Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady (who were previously responsible for two of the greatest atrocities perpetrated on primetime network TV) we're left with two characters that make even the nerdiest among us want to give them pink belly while hanging them from the flagpole by their underwear and stealing their lunch money.
Chuck
Hey, speaking of Josh Schwartz, he's got a second show out this season (which thankfully is nothing like the first). Much like Journeyman, the actual story here is just shy of coherent. Following in the vein of Hitchcock's Man Who Knew Too Much (though probably closer to Bill Murray's Man Who Knew Too Little) Chuck is a geeky slacker that works in the tech support department at a faux-Best Buy, and his old roommate from college (working as a spy) managed to steal all the data from some computer that has all of the nation's secrets just before getting killed and e-mailing all of this to Chuck. Through some kind of file encoding system that uses glitchy Tony Scott-style montages to transmit data directly to the user's brain, Chuck manages to get all of this in his head. When the government figures figures this out, the NSA and CIA, who are feuding/working together (?), send their most capable/emotionally vulnerable (?) female secret agent to capture/kill/enlist (?) him. If you can get past the ridiculous premise (which is something akin trying to convince yourself that Maggie Gyllenhaal is hot) it's actually kind of entertaining. Oh, and it has the guy from Candyman in it, which is a plus.
Bionic Woman
With a combination of hack writing, b-movie special effects, and a premise that seemed hokey in 1976, this is pretty much like a perfect storm of awful television. Not to mention the fact that all the actors sound like they're rehearsing for a second-rate community theater (with the exception of Miguel Ferrer, who should know better). I was considering writing a joke about Shazam! until I realized that the movie remake is already in the works, and God hates me.
DirtySexyMoney
While this show is actually halfway watchable, I've decided to boycott it for it's unspeakably awkward title, a fact that I will illustrate with the following hypothetical exchange:
"Hey, did you watch DirtySexyMoney last night."
"Yeah, I really liked Peter Krause is Six Feet Under, but he's way better in DirtySexyMoney."
"Totally. I mean, I never knew Billy Baldwin could act, but he's so awesome in DirtySexyMoney."
"Dude, can I borrow your TLC CD?"
Big Shots
Chalk up another show about rich people on the East Coast, and hand over some more licensing royalties to Peter, Bjorn, and John. The title of this show is apparently supposed to have some double-meaning involving golf swings, but aside from the obligatory montages of the lead actors playing the game I'm at a loss for what. As far as I can tell, it's pretty much just Entourage with corporate CEOs, which would be an interesting premise were it not for the fact that corporate CEOs are actually some of the least interesting people on the planet. Also, it's probably a bad sign that Christopher Titus plays the only character that's even halfway plausible as the head of a company.
Cane
In much the same way The Sopranos shows that guido Italians from North Jersey can be intelligent and emotionally complex, Cane shows that hard-assed Cuban immigrants can be boring and lame.
Reaper
I don't know why TV execs need to give shows titles that don't match their premise in the slightest (FYI, the show Moonlight is actually about Vampires, not Werewolves), because I had a joke all prepared about how Family Guy as well as the nascent Showtime series Dead Like Me had already used the premise of a schlub that has to take on the grim reaper's job and face the existential quandaries of life and death, and then I watch the show and it's pretty much just an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer directed by Kevin Smith. But aside from it's horribly misleading title, this is actually kind of an entertaining show. I am a little depressed by the fact that working retail at some nameless big-box store is the closest thing to a unifying American experience for people of my generation, but I guess TV writers can only write so many shows about dysfunctional rich people.
No comments:
Post a Comment