open your eyes

By now you’ve most likely heard or read the complaints regarding Heroes this season. I had to avoid them because until this past weekend, I had not watched a single episode this season. But a mini-marathon fixed that and got me caught up through episode six and then I looked around the web to find other opinions before writing my own. No doubt I should have written mine first and then read Entertainment Weekly to prevent them from influencing me. Turns out EW thinks just like me, but writes a whole lot better and you can read their in season review here.

An excerpt:

Which is a good phrase to describe Heroes itself. With its larger mythology shunted to the side (no, a mysterious recurring symbol doth not a uniting backstory make), Heroes feels less like Heroes than a horrid combination of T.J. Hooker and Charlie’s Angels: Peter Petrelli (Milo Ventimiglia) commits holdups in Ireland; another extraneous new hero, New Orleanian Monica (The Nine’s Dana Davis) is roundhouse-kicking robbers; serial-killing Sylar (Zachary Quinto) has gone fugitive with the weeping twins. What happened to…saving the planet? Like the endangered Earth that’s oft alluded to, Heroes is degrading at a remarkable pace: The dialogue has gone from comic-book cool to Dick-and-Jane obvious, the stylistic angles have turned flat, entire scenes are devoted to Suresh (Sendhil Ramamurthy) and Parkman (Greg Grunberg) bickering around their shared apartment like maiden aunts. It’s a sad day for superheroes when you find yourself actually rooting for the end of the world. C-

A few of my thoughts:
- Peter is a terrible character. For the writers to create a character thats more or less Superman was incredibly shortsighted. Getting him in any sort of trouble requires bending the rules of logic and more cliche’s than I care to watch. I mean, if Peter wants the box with his life story in it, he can get it. He doesn’t have to hold up a bank to get it. If the writers (when they get back from their vacation) know whats good for them, they’ll depower him and then we can all return to stories with fewer holes.

- Wonderless Twins? Yuk! I cannot for the life of me think of a pair of new characters that could have been any worse!

- They can barely show us all the returning regulars so why do we need so many new characters?

- Too many recycled powers. Please be more imaginative. Crying black goo doesn’t count as imaginative. Thats just stupid.

- Too many scenes and mini stories feel like repeats of last season. In many ways it does feel like the characters were reset to their starting positions in season 1.

- The creators of Heroes have no idea how to make premieres and finales. I still haven’t seen a Heroes premiere or finale that felt big, action packed, with a big payoff or a big setup.

- And lastly, Heroes has no big grand plot. It just feels like a bunch of separate stories with no connection. (Edit: Just watched episode 7 and they are starting to pull things together. Peculiar that it took 7 weeks for a plot to form.)

What a depressingly sucky new tv season. None of the new shows on my watch list have become something I have to watch and some of them are sinking down into unwatchable territory. I’ve been trying Chuck, Journeyman, Reaper, Bionic Woman, and Kid Nation and usually at this point in the season at least one would be cancelled, and I would have given up on at least one but this time none of them have risen above the rest, making it hard to figure out which one to cut.

Chuck is awful. Thats what I thought after episode one. After episode two it become Chuck sucks. Then Chuck is a tiny bit amusing after seeing ep 3. Too bad I’ve only had time for three episodes or Chuck might have been chucked by now.

Journeyman has something going on that might become interesting but the producers seem intent on keeping it buried until the viewers quit on it. Right now I’d say it has very little purpose. Our hero just bounces around through time and saves someone each week but it all feels meaningless. There’s very little to tie the season together into a greater story.

Reaper - Reaper is great! Wonderful casting, perfect pilot, and solid episodes thereafter. Ray Wise is awesome as the Devil and Tyler Labine is the perfect wisecracking slacker buddy. Only problem is this is not the type of tv show I like to watch. Comedy/Devil/Underworld combos are just not my thing but its still the best new show I’ve seen this season.

Bionic Woman - Ugh. UGH! This was my most anticipated show and so far (4 eps?) I think its a huge letdown. Michelle Ryan is miscast in the titular role and she has weak dialogue to work with making the show hard to watch. Oh, did I mention that most of the action scenes (already too few) are so fake looking? The bionic woman with the crazies is a lot more interesting. If they hired me to fix the show I’d bring in new writers, team up Jamie and Sarah, kill Jaime, and then Sarah would become the main character who is more good than she is now but still has the crazies sometimes. I’d watch that.

Kid Nation - Not much to say about this. Its Survivor with kids and I don’t like Survivor so its pretty clear that I’m not liking this one much. But the preview for the next episode I haven’t seen is about elections and that looks amusing so Kid Nation continues on my DVR.

I hope the networks start cancelling some of these shows because I can’t figure out what to do with them.

New shows on The Watch List

Reaper - [Comedy][Anticipation Level 6] Sam’s parents sold his soul to the Devil and now he must do the Devil’s work by capturing souls who have escaped from the underworld. Normally that description wouldn’t make me interested at all but this one has a few things going for it. Ray Wise looks like he’s got the Devil role down perfectly and from the trailers I can’t imagine someone else in this part - I guess Elizabeth Hurley was booked. Reaper is being described as part comedy, drama, horror, and action, making it somewhat unique on TV.

Bionic Woman - [Drama][Anticipation Level 9] Theres less cheese and more drama in this new version of Bionic Woman then in the old 70s version. Executive producer Glen Morgan describes it like this, “It’s a science-fiction story about someone who became half robot when they didn’t want to be.” I think I’ll go check all the boxes in my Watch List requirements section then sit back and enjoy. I hope this one’s good.

Spoiler warning - this preview gives away quite a few plot points in the pilot

Kid Nation - [reality][anticipation level 3] - Basically survivor in New Mexico with kids age 8-15. The first episode didn’t really grab me and I wasn’t too high on this to start with.

30 Rock - Not a new show but new to me since I never saw an episode last year. Lots of good press and tons of awards have raised my interest level from non-existant to lukewarm. I’ll watch the season 2 opener and decide after that.

The fall season’s rookie class seems weaker than the last few years with only a handful of new shows worth watching. Perhaps this is a good thing since there was too much to watch last year. Of course that was quickly remedied when 75% of the new shows were yanked off the air within 3 months of their pilot. Criteria to make it on The Watch List: 1. No half hour comedies. Those typically bore me to tears. Good for when you’re making dinner or something and dont want to be distracted by anything good. 2. No soaps. Unless its the one that the wife wanted to watch and now I watch it more than her. 3. Action is good. Weird is sort of good. SciFi is real good. Different is very good. 4. No cop/law shows, or CSI and its spinoffs. Unless its good, but thats rare.

The new shows on The Watch List:
Chuck - [Comedy/Action][Anticipation level 9] I’ve read “Alias meets 40 Year Old Virgin” in multiple places and it really does seem to fit. Chuck is a Geek Squad type employee who accidently gains access to all our government’s secrets and is paired with the tv-typical secret agent hottie who kicks all sorts of ass eight days a week. Plus its got Adam Baldwin who was great in Day Break.

Journeyman - [Drama][Anticipation level 4] This one could be really good or really bad but its going to take a few episodes to figure that out. Its got the nice post Heroes time slot so that should give it an audience and buy it some time to keep that audience. Journeyman is about a guy who seems to randomly travel through time to when a past girlfriend was alive and he intends to fix things this time. I have to admit the preview is a little confusing.

Before I get into my run down of what I’m watching this fall, here’s a list of what I was watching last fall. It looks like a lot but I didnt watch many of the new shows very long and thanks to having a DVR, each hour long episode is reduced to 42 minutes.

These was my list of new shows to definitely watch:
Heroes - The only new show that is back for a second season.

Vanished/Kidnapped - Had planned to watch one but not both. Vanished sucked, and both were cancelled quickly.

Smith - Awesome pilot, somewhat lackluster next 2-3 eps, then disappeared. Had high hopes for this one since it had Ray Liotta.

The Unit - Tried it, didnt like the family stuff but really liked the actual combat. Couldnt get into it due to the family stuff.

The Nine - Actually watched this one until it was yanked from the schedule. Had tons of hype but didn’t appear to have any desire to move the plot forward more than a couple steps per episode which made it hard to watch. Had the problem of characters knowing infinitely more than the viewers. Very Lost-ish in those aspects but a lot worse.

Jericho - Tried it, didnt like Little House on the Nuclear Wasteland type stories. Just awful so I gave up. Props to the fans for getting a partial second season after it was cancelled.

New shows that I was going to watch if I had time:
Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip - Some impressive dialogue but overall boring. Actually surprised no one watched it, didnt expect cancellation.

Justice - This one was very good and I hate lawyer shows (but love a good Denny Crane scene). Unfortunately didnt make it past midseason aftering being yanked around on Fox’s schedule.

Survivor - Not a new show but I never watched much before. And I didn’t watch this one either.

Returning shows:
Desperate Housewives
Amazing Race
Prison Break
Lost
Nip/Tuck

If Day Break was the best single season series of 2006/07, The Black Donnellyswas the tv show I most wanted to continue the next season.  Day Break was more satisfying because we got a solid conclusion whereas TBD leaves us hanging with a cliffhanger which is typical of dramas these days. The guys that brought us Crash and Million Dollar Baby, Robert Moresco and Paul Haggis, are the creators of The Black Donnellys which focuses on four Irish-American in Hell’s Kitchen and their involvement in smalltime organized crime. Here’s a little preview:

So why was The Black Donnellys so good?

1. Different - Really only the Sopranos could be compared to it - nothing on network TV.

2. Emotions - When playing music over dramatic scenes with little dialogue, theres a fine line between a perfectly written scene and the scene that doesnt allow the viewer to connect with the characters because of said music and little dialogue. TBD sets up these scenes perfectly. We really feel what these characters are going through.

3. Graphic - One episode was pulled before it aired and the rest almost seemed out of place on network tv. I’m not one for senseless violence but here it pulls us into this world of organized crime.

4. The Pilot - The first episode was the best single episode on tv last season and the last 5 minutes pull everything together in a way that truly is never seen on tv. Take my advice and watch this one episode even if you dont watch any of the rest.

Of course the season wasn’t perfect. Some of the episodes from 2 - 9 plod along almost like Moresco and Haggis left it on autopilot with another creative team but it does come back very strong in the last couple episodes. Some scenes are hard to watch and one brother is hard to root since he’s such a terrible person at times.

HDNet has been airing the entire season and supposedly is considering a season season based on dvd sales of TBD season 1 which is available now. You can also hit up your favorite torrent website to sample the best new show on tv last season.

Day Break was an absolute gem of a show that no one watched, a gust of fresh air that was the most enjoyable series I watched last season.  The basic plot of this 13 episode season is like this: Detective Brett Hopper (Taye Diggs) has been framed for murding Assistant District Attorney Alberto Garza and must clear his name, unravel the conspiracy, and protect his friends and family.  Sounds pretty typical but then toss in some Groundhog Day which allows (actually forces) Hopper to repeat the same day over and over and you have a classic murder mystery in choose your own adventure format.  We see the same day repeat but just when we think we are getting tired of it, new information is discovered that allows Hopper to make changes in the day which have a ripple affect on everyone around him.  In one instance he needs a murder book and when he finally finds and steals it, someone he knows is killed.  Hopper wonders why this happened because it never happened before on previous iterations of the day.

The scripting on Day Break is is what drives this show.  Its so much smarter than most serialized dramas plus it has more action than anything other than 24.  Plot threads start in the first couple episodes that continue to weave their way through the season before coming to a logical (mostly) conclusion.  Neither Hopper nor the viewer know much more than the other.  We experience everything through him.  When he confuses events in previous iterations of the day with the current iteration, the viewer is momentarily confused also until both viewer and protagonist realize they made the same mistake.  That’s creative gold!

The acting is good but not great, however Adam Baldwin steals the show. I never watched Firefly/Serenity much (gasp!) or anything else he was in so I’d never seen his work before.

Day Break was originally scheduled to fill in the gap between the fall and spring sections of Lost but ended up being pulled off the air after six episodes and the remaining eps were put on abc.com for a total of 13 episodes.  Sadly there is no dvd set being released so you’ll need to hit up your favorite torrent website to download the season. But dont think going back and watching the full season is a waste of time because you wont get a complete story.  The trend on tv is to end every season with a cliffhanger but Day Break doesnt go that route.  Almost every single plot thread is tied up by the end of episode 13 and it ends in a very satisfying conclusion.  Trust me, this was the best nine hours on television last season. In fact it might be the best nine hours of tv you watch for the rest of the year. I know I’ll be rewatching to catch the little details I missed.

With the 2007-08 tv season kicking off this month I decided to look back at the three tv shows that really got my attention last season: The Black Donnellys, Day Break, and Heroes roughly in that order.

Everyone has already said just about everything there is to say about Heroes so I’ll be brief. The good: Great concept, lots of neat moments, mostly a fun cast, loved the comic book touches, top two single best episode on tv last season. The bad: plodding pace, not much action for a show about people with super powers fighting a bad guy with super powers, peculiar scripting in which some characters were almost completely separate from the rest, and one of the worst season finale’s in recent memory. Sound like I didnt like it? No. It was good, but needs improvement this season because the geek factor may not continue to sustain it.