Tv slut report
Apr. 26th, 2008 08:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shadowkatSo how was your tv week?
Mine, okay. I guess it is saying something when the only show I really enjoyed this week was Smallville and possibly Doctor Who. Might be a mood thing. Oh Lost was okay, just a bit derivative in places (I've seen one too many time-space/hole in the fabric of reality tv shows in my life time). It feels at times like Fantasy Island meets Mysertious Island meets the Twilight Zone. .
Doctor Who - at least it had the charming Donna who is my favorite of the companions and a somewhat amusing not to mention inventive plot - Foster mom to fat babies - children literally made of human fat. LOL! And a very funny meeting between the two characters who kept missing each other, until finally they see one another while watching the villians interrogate a reporter. And the fat babies were sort of cute in a creepy way. Plus there was that bit with Rose...who appears as a ghost, clearly stuck in the parallel world and only able to visit Doctor Who's as a ghost much like the cyber men did in the episode in Rose got whisked away to the parallel world along with her mother. Nice moment that, Donna asking Rose to give a message to her grandmother, without realizing it is indeed Rose that she is talking to. The best bit about Donna is she doesn't want a romance with the Doctor, she just wants to travel with him. That was the problem he had with Martha Jones - she fell for him but he did not fall for her and almost destroyed her. He tells Donna that all he wants is a mate, a friend, someone to travel with, he is tired of being alone. The problem with Doctor Who and the reason I'm not as into it as everyone else is - is that it really only has one or two characters, everyone else is stock. Tennant luckily has enough charisma to carry most of it. And he does show that how the Doctor has changed. But, the changes are minor. For some people that's no big deal, they just want the adventure and the laughs, they don't notice that the adventures feel a bit repetitive at times, me? I need more. I need the emotional arc. I need the emotional drama. It's why I prefer Torchwood to Doctor Who. There's more of an emotional arc - you have to have an ensemble cast to do this, you can't do it with just two people without getting stale or repetitive.
Doctor Who was actually funnier and more enjoyable this week than Supernatural (I usually prefer SPN it has a better emotional character arc and hits my bullet proof kinks except of course for this week in which it subcumbed to reality show parody syndrom which all these tv shows seem to feel the need to do. Next week - Ugly Betty will reference Project Runway with a bit of stunt casting - Christian is guest-starring, apparently they couldn't get Hedi Klum or Tim Gunn on such short notice so we're stuck with Christian. Personally, I'd have prefered Sweet Pea or Elsie, Christian annoys me. While this week Supernatural referenced the Real Ghost Hunters - filming the episode as if it were actually a pilot episode of that series similar in tone, camera angles and concept to that one. (Note to Hollywood - get over the hand-held camera bit already. No one thinks this is cool except for film/documentary geeks who don't watch that much tv to begin with, outside of reality shows. It gives the rest of us motion sickness or a headache.) The Real Ghost Hunters appears on Sci-Fi, I know this because they have ten commericials promoting it during Doctor Who and BSG that I can't fast-forward through fast enough. This episode, of SPN not the Real Ghost Hunters, also referenced the Blair Witch project, which was old hat when Buffy referenced it way back in 2003. What is it with tv writers and nerd stories? Do they envy the pretty actors they put in the roles that much that they feel the need to insert nerdy characters who look like them into the show as annoying sidekicks? I've lost count of the number of tv shows that have done this - the geeky/annoying nerd side-kick is fast becoming a cliche. It might have been cool when X-files tried it, but it isn't any more.
I know the writers think they are being clever and witty doing all of this. That they are communing with their fan base, who they seem to think is made up of overweight or scrawny white men - it's not, by the way, more women watch television than men actually do. I think it would have been far more interesting and a lot less predictable if Ugly Betty referenced the Real Ghost Hunters and Supernatural referenced Project Runway. At any rate, this type of stunt casting/stunt episode writing would be a lot less annoying if we had more than 4-5 episodes left. IF you missed Supernatural this week, don't worry about it. You didn't miss much. Complete throw-away. No character exploration whatesoever. Plus it was written by Ben Edlund, a former Angel scribe whom I expect more from. You had a six month break for crying out loud. What happened? Your brain go stale picketing?
I'm going to talk about BSG in a separate post. It deserves it's own post. Also that way the people who don't watch Ugly Betty, Lost and Supernatural can ignore this one.
I did enjoy Ugly Betty actually. It was a lot better than Grey's Anatomy - you know something is amiss when Meredith comes across as the least whiny of the featured characters. I'd enjoy it more if we could get rid of the Henry/Charlie storyline and just put Betty and Gino together. The problem with Ugly Betty is everyone else's storylines are a lot more interesting than Betty's.
Also Lost had it's moments. That show certainly likes anti-heroes - I'll give it that. It may have more anti-heroes than any other tv show, with the possible exception of General Hospital. Makes me giggle when I think about it, because I used to have long debates with cjlasky about this very thing. He kept insisting that a tv series that focused on an anti-hero, such as Spike or even someone like House, would never survive. People couldn't handle watching nasty people each week. I tried to point out to him that the reality shows pretty much killed that thesis. If people are willing to watch real people without scripts or acting experience snarl at each other on screen and act nasty each week - I don't think they are going to have any problems whatsoever with fictional characters doing it. Heck, look at how sucessful Rescue Me, the Shield and The Sopranos were. Those guys make Spike look like a pussycat in comparison.
Lost, in case you haven't been watching it, is basically a show about a bunch of relatively attractive losers stuck on a mysterious island that has, well, issues. Yes, the island is a character not just the setting. They used to do flashbacks, but right now they are doing flash-forwards, and no, as I explained to a friend this evening, there is no way I can explain the show to someone who doesn't watch it. The writers gave up on the whole lets attract new viewers bit a long time ago. For those who do watch - In two cool episodes - that referenced Penny (Desmond's long lost love) -the flashback and flashforward was because of the island or rather the island made it happen. The Desmond episode - the flashback happened by accident, due to the fact that Desmond had been exposed to the island's radiation which caused his soul or mind to travel in time. Except it wasn't his present self that traveled it was the past self. He had to lock on to something important in both time lines (Penny) in order to stay sane. In Ben's episode - he deliberately travels one year into the future, finds Sayid, persuades Sayid to be his personal hit man, then visits Whitman to tell him that he is going to kill Whitman's daughter (Penny again) just as Whitman killed his. Sort of fun watching these two nasty people go at it. From their conversation it sounds like they are connected to one another in some warped sort of way that makes it impossible for Ben to kill Whitman or Whitmore. And vice versa. But Ben has been able to take Whitmore's island away from him. Hard to know which to root for. At the moment, I'm siding with Ben, but that's only because I know more about him and he's better written and less of a cliche. Also the actor is quite good.
My favorite character continues to be badboy wannabe or anti-hero wannabe Sawyer. Poor guy, he just can't quite do it. Lock and Sayid have him beat ten-to-one. Note to Sawyer - bad boys do not save women and babies or big lugs named Hurley, nor do they threaten to kill anyone who might hurt said big lug. Will miss Sawyer's banter with Locke, Hurley and Ben, he was at least bringing a bit of humor to the proceedings. Can't say I blame Clair and Miles for deciding to go with Sawyer back to the beach - heck if I had to choose between hunting down some creepy cabin only Hurley could find with Lock and Ben, who going back to the beach with Sawyer, I'd pick back to the beach with Sawyer. I have an incredible weakness for bad-boy wannabes or reluctant hero types - I blame Harrison Ford movies - particularly Blade Runner, Raiders of the Lost Arc, and Star Wars.
At least Lost stays more or less unpredictable just by changing its narrative structure on a weekly basis. One week we jump forward in time, the next back in time, and it has enough characters that we can literally ignore three and focus on three other ones, no telling which they'll be until the episode airs.
I'd say something more about Smallville, but I'm not sure anyone else is watching Smallville.
I think everyone gave up on it two years ago, can see why - it did have a bit of a slump - I skipped at least three seasons of it - the show got a lot better once Mr. and Mrs. Kent left. The past two years, this year and last year, have been quite entertaining. This week's episode focused almost entirely on Chole and Jimmy Olsen. Chole was spying on the government in order to determine Brianiac's whereabouts, and Jimmy was spying on Chloe for the government in order to figure out what she was up to and save her from the government.
Mine, okay. I guess it is saying something when the only show I really enjoyed this week was Smallville and possibly Doctor Who. Might be a mood thing. Oh Lost was okay, just a bit derivative in places (I've seen one too many time-space/hole in the fabric of reality tv shows in my life time). It feels at times like Fantasy Island meets Mysertious Island meets the Twilight Zone. .
Doctor Who - at least it had the charming Donna who is my favorite of the companions and a somewhat amusing not to mention inventive plot - Foster mom to fat babies - children literally made of human fat. LOL! And a very funny meeting between the two characters who kept missing each other, until finally they see one another while watching the villians interrogate a reporter. And the fat babies were sort of cute in a creepy way. Plus there was that bit with Rose...who appears as a ghost, clearly stuck in the parallel world and only able to visit Doctor Who's as a ghost much like the cyber men did in the episode in Rose got whisked away to the parallel world along with her mother. Nice moment that, Donna asking Rose to give a message to her grandmother, without realizing it is indeed Rose that she is talking to. The best bit about Donna is she doesn't want a romance with the Doctor, she just wants to travel with him. That was the problem he had with Martha Jones - she fell for him but he did not fall for her and almost destroyed her. He tells Donna that all he wants is a mate, a friend, someone to travel with, he is tired of being alone. The problem with Doctor Who and the reason I'm not as into it as everyone else is - is that it really only has one or two characters, everyone else is stock. Tennant luckily has enough charisma to carry most of it. And he does show that how the Doctor has changed. But, the changes are minor. For some people that's no big deal, they just want the adventure and the laughs, they don't notice that the adventures feel a bit repetitive at times, me? I need more. I need the emotional arc. I need the emotional drama. It's why I prefer Torchwood to Doctor Who. There's more of an emotional arc - you have to have an ensemble cast to do this, you can't do it with just two people without getting stale or repetitive.
Doctor Who was actually funnier and more enjoyable this week than Supernatural (I usually prefer SPN it has a better emotional character arc and hits my bullet proof kinks except of course for this week in which it subcumbed to reality show parody syndrom which all these tv shows seem to feel the need to do. Next week - Ugly Betty will reference Project Runway with a bit of stunt casting - Christian is guest-starring, apparently they couldn't get Hedi Klum or Tim Gunn on such short notice so we're stuck with Christian. Personally, I'd have prefered Sweet Pea or Elsie, Christian annoys me. While this week Supernatural referenced the Real Ghost Hunters - filming the episode as if it were actually a pilot episode of that series similar in tone, camera angles and concept to that one. (Note to Hollywood - get over the hand-held camera bit already. No one thinks this is cool except for film/documentary geeks who don't watch that much tv to begin with, outside of reality shows. It gives the rest of us motion sickness or a headache.) The Real Ghost Hunters appears on Sci-Fi, I know this because they have ten commericials promoting it during Doctor Who and BSG that I can't fast-forward through fast enough. This episode, of SPN not the Real Ghost Hunters, also referenced the Blair Witch project, which was old hat when Buffy referenced it way back in 2003. What is it with tv writers and nerd stories? Do they envy the pretty actors they put in the roles that much that they feel the need to insert nerdy characters who look like them into the show as annoying sidekicks? I've lost count of the number of tv shows that have done this - the geeky/annoying nerd side-kick is fast becoming a cliche. It might have been cool when X-files tried it, but it isn't any more.
I know the writers think they are being clever and witty doing all of this. That they are communing with their fan base, who they seem to think is made up of overweight or scrawny white men - it's not, by the way, more women watch television than men actually do. I think it would have been far more interesting and a lot less predictable if Ugly Betty referenced the Real Ghost Hunters and Supernatural referenced Project Runway. At any rate, this type of stunt casting/stunt episode writing would be a lot less annoying if we had more than 4-5 episodes left. IF you missed Supernatural this week, don't worry about it. You didn't miss much. Complete throw-away. No character exploration whatesoever. Plus it was written by Ben Edlund, a former Angel scribe whom I expect more from. You had a six month break for crying out loud. What happened? Your brain go stale picketing?
I'm going to talk about BSG in a separate post. It deserves it's own post. Also that way the people who don't watch Ugly Betty, Lost and Supernatural can ignore this one.
I did enjoy Ugly Betty actually. It was a lot better than Grey's Anatomy - you know something is amiss when Meredith comes across as the least whiny of the featured characters. I'd enjoy it more if we could get rid of the Henry/Charlie storyline and just put Betty and Gino together. The problem with Ugly Betty is everyone else's storylines are a lot more interesting than Betty's.
Also Lost had it's moments. That show certainly likes anti-heroes - I'll give it that. It may have more anti-heroes than any other tv show, with the possible exception of General Hospital. Makes me giggle when I think about it, because I used to have long debates with cjlasky about this very thing. He kept insisting that a tv series that focused on an anti-hero, such as Spike or even someone like House, would never survive. People couldn't handle watching nasty people each week. I tried to point out to him that the reality shows pretty much killed that thesis. If people are willing to watch real people without scripts or acting experience snarl at each other on screen and act nasty each week - I don't think they are going to have any problems whatsoever with fictional characters doing it. Heck, look at how sucessful Rescue Me, the Shield and The Sopranos were. Those guys make Spike look like a pussycat in comparison.
Lost, in case you haven't been watching it, is basically a show about a bunch of relatively attractive losers stuck on a mysterious island that has, well, issues. Yes, the island is a character not just the setting. They used to do flashbacks, but right now they are doing flash-forwards, and no, as I explained to a friend this evening, there is no way I can explain the show to someone who doesn't watch it. The writers gave up on the whole lets attract new viewers bit a long time ago. For those who do watch - In two cool episodes - that referenced Penny (Desmond's long lost love) -the flashback and flashforward was because of the island or rather the island made it happen. The Desmond episode - the flashback happened by accident, due to the fact that Desmond had been exposed to the island's radiation which caused his soul or mind to travel in time. Except it wasn't his present self that traveled it was the past self. He had to lock on to something important in both time lines (Penny) in order to stay sane. In Ben's episode - he deliberately travels one year into the future, finds Sayid, persuades Sayid to be his personal hit man, then visits Whitman to tell him that he is going to kill Whitman's daughter (Penny again) just as Whitman killed his. Sort of fun watching these two nasty people go at it. From their conversation it sounds like they are connected to one another in some warped sort of way that makes it impossible for Ben to kill Whitman or Whitmore. And vice versa. But Ben has been able to take Whitmore's island away from him. Hard to know which to root for. At the moment, I'm siding with Ben, but that's only because I know more about him and he's better written and less of a cliche. Also the actor is quite good.
My favorite character continues to be badboy wannabe or anti-hero wannabe Sawyer. Poor guy, he just can't quite do it. Lock and Sayid have him beat ten-to-one. Note to Sawyer - bad boys do not save women and babies or big lugs named Hurley, nor do they threaten to kill anyone who might hurt said big lug. Will miss Sawyer's banter with Locke, Hurley and Ben, he was at least bringing a bit of humor to the proceedings. Can't say I blame Clair and Miles for deciding to go with Sawyer back to the beach - heck if I had to choose between hunting down some creepy cabin only Hurley could find with Lock and Ben, who going back to the beach with Sawyer, I'd pick back to the beach with Sawyer. I have an incredible weakness for bad-boy wannabes or reluctant hero types - I blame Harrison Ford movies - particularly Blade Runner, Raiders of the Lost Arc, and Star Wars.
At least Lost stays more or less unpredictable just by changing its narrative structure on a weekly basis. One week we jump forward in time, the next back in time, and it has enough characters that we can literally ignore three and focus on three other ones, no telling which they'll be until the episode airs.
I'd say something more about Smallville, but I'm not sure anyone else is watching Smallville.
I think everyone gave up on it two years ago, can see why - it did have a bit of a slump - I skipped at least three seasons of it - the show got a lot better once Mr. and Mrs. Kent left. The past two years, this year and last year, have been quite entertaining. This week's episode focused almost entirely on Chole and Jimmy Olsen. Chole was spying on the government in order to determine Brianiac's whereabouts, and Jimmy was spying on Chloe for the government in order to figure out what she was up to and save her from the government.
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no subject
Date: 2008-04-27 02:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-27 03:02 am (UTC)I like Lost better than you do, but that's because I'm a sucker for emotional character arcs and ensemble casts - not to mention anti-heros, adore my anti-heroes.
Doctor Who I struggle with more - because it is so episodic and often lacks the emotional dramatic arc. I like drama with a side of comedy otherwise known as the dramedy, as opposed to comedy with just a touch of drama - comdramedy.
no subject
Date: 2008-04-27 04:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-04-27 03:00 pm (UTC)I've started watching again recently (I'm sure you don't need to ask why), and what I have noticed MOST in this last stretch is that Smallville has the WORST stunt/fight segments I have EVER seen on TV. Isn't it supposed to be an "ACTION" show? They're embarrassing.
And yes - I acknowledge that I have been spoiled by JW's stunt/fight sequences. I just never realized how really BAD other shows were.
no subject
Date: 2008-04-27 06:23 pm (UTC)And don't really care if they are wonderful or not.
What I like about Smallville is the characters. It's really more character driven than action oriented. And has three of the strongest female characters on any show at the moment - who are not just support for a guy and are the brains.
no subject
Date: 2008-04-27 06:58 pm (UTC)When I quit watching before, Chloe was just starting to come into her own, and mom & dad held their own and had a lot of screen time. Lana Lang was wishy-washy cotton candy but I loved how they used her to explore the "young man/boy on the cusp of love". Her character in and of itself always seemed like a two dimensional plot device. Now she's in a coma (am I happy about this?). I love how Chloe has become so strong. Where/who are the other two you mention? If you say Lana Lang I may not be able to believe you.
This last week the stunts on SMV were SO jarring - especially the fist fights and the one that leaps to mind is the Chloe getting tortured scene (girl fights are always especially tricky). It's interesting that you had folks complain about B/A/FF,DA,X & Herc, because for TV I thought they did fairly well. I was listening to a S4 Commentary the other night (HUSH) where Joss actually said "oh no don't look - it's Buffy with boobs". He then apologized for the "shoddy shooting/cutting" with the stunt double. I didn't know Joss could say that word. LOL