Monday, Feb 13, 2006
I have a new gig writing television criticism for a website called SMRT-TV.com. I've done two things for them so far: this piece about Riley and Bashir, and another shorter thing about my gay crush on David Hewlett that they didn't use. Their loss.
Anyway, I've been trying to watch more TV so I can have things to write about. Well, not more TV, that would be impossible. But different TV, as in, not "Buffy" and "Star Trek" and "X-Files" all day every day. Here are some shows that are on that are pretty good:
"House." I don't like medical dramas as a rule, but this show is very entertaining. The mysteries are sort of silly since the medbabble is incoherent and the plot twists are usually obvious (all nuns were once sluts on TV, c'mon), but Hugh Laurie completely carries the show. His performance is a triumph of obnoxiousness. He's English but does an amazing American accent and an even more amazing bad British accent, something that's easier said than done. It's in the class of James Marsters' bad American accent, which coming from me is high praise indeed.
"Everybody Hates Chris." I have a big article about this show in the works, so I won't use all of my best material in this minor blog entry. It's pretty funny, I love Terry Crews (who plays father Julius), and it seems to improve with every new episode. "They could have called it 'She don't like you, stupid,' but 'crush' is just quicker."
"Bones." Go, David Boreanaz and Zooey Deschanel's sister! Boreanaz has this amazing smarm factor that he only got use when he occasionally became evil on "Buffy" and "Angel." Watching him be sleazy on a weekly basis is weirdly thrilling. Emily Deschanel looks slightly more like a real live woman and slightly less like a cross between an anime heroine and a kewpie doll than her more famous (younger) sister, but she's still got the family eyes. The dynamic of their characters on "Bones" is shamelessly thieved from Mulder and Scully but so what. The last thing TV needed was another forensic crime drama but based on my limited exposure to it "Bones" has enough character work to make it interesting. I will say that they should have further emulated "The X-Files" by only having two regulars. The rest of the cast is pretty brutal and a lot of the scenes "back at the archaeology lab" feel like padding. Do they discover the missing link every week?
"How I Met Your Mother." It's improving. I've been watching Seth Green's "Four Kings" out of nothing more than intense "Buffy" loyalty, but "Mother" has slightly more going for it than merely the presence of you-know-who. I still haven't warmed to the Ted and Robin characters, but I kind of like Marshall and Barney. They're rerunning the early episodes at the moment (against the Winter Olympics, nobody is showing new material right now) and viewing them again without the burden of high expectations makes it easier to laugh. The one with Camryn Manheim was pretty funny. The one where Marshall and Ted have a swordfight (and Aly ends up getting stabbed through the chest) was good. The trouble is that it's a show about dating (not just hooking up) and I think that it's best when it gives Ted's relationships several episodes to develop, like dating on "Sex and the City" as opposed to "Seinfeld." The requirements of the network TV season utterly crush momentum. Besides, how long are network sitcoms now, fourteen minutes? It seems there's a commercial break after every scene. This might be a much better show on DVD. I'm not deleting my TiVo season pass quite yet, though. Even when it's not funny, it's still a chance to gaze at Alyson Hannigan for 20 minutes a week. That's what I call high concept.
Anyway, I've been trying to watch more TV so I can have things to write about. Well, not more TV, that would be impossible. But different TV, as in, not "Buffy" and "Star Trek" and "X-Files" all day every day. Here are some shows that are on that are pretty good:
"House." I don't like medical dramas as a rule, but this show is very entertaining. The mysteries are sort of silly since the medbabble is incoherent and the plot twists are usually obvious (all nuns were once sluts on TV, c'mon), but Hugh Laurie completely carries the show. His performance is a triumph of obnoxiousness. He's English but does an amazing American accent and an even more amazing bad British accent, something that's easier said than done. It's in the class of James Marsters' bad American accent, which coming from me is high praise indeed.
"Everybody Hates Chris." I have a big article about this show in the works, so I won't use all of my best material in this minor blog entry. It's pretty funny, I love Terry Crews (who plays father Julius), and it seems to improve with every new episode. "They could have called it 'She don't like you, stupid,' but 'crush' is just quicker."
"Bones." Go, David Boreanaz and Zooey Deschanel's sister! Boreanaz has this amazing smarm factor that he only got use when he occasionally became evil on "Buffy" and "Angel." Watching him be sleazy on a weekly basis is weirdly thrilling. Emily Deschanel looks slightly more like a real live woman and slightly less like a cross between an anime heroine and a kewpie doll than her more famous (younger) sister, but she's still got the family eyes. The dynamic of their characters on "Bones" is shamelessly thieved from Mulder and Scully but so what. The last thing TV needed was another forensic crime drama but based on my limited exposure to it "Bones" has enough character work to make it interesting. I will say that they should have further emulated "The X-Files" by only having two regulars. The rest of the cast is pretty brutal and a lot of the scenes "back at the archaeology lab" feel like padding. Do they discover the missing link every week?
"How I Met Your Mother." It's improving. I've been watching Seth Green's "Four Kings" out of nothing more than intense "Buffy" loyalty, but "Mother" has slightly more going for it than merely the presence of you-know-who. I still haven't warmed to the Ted and Robin characters, but I kind of like Marshall and Barney. They're rerunning the early episodes at the moment (against the Winter Olympics, nobody is showing new material right now) and viewing them again without the burden of high expectations makes it easier to laugh. The one with Camryn Manheim was pretty funny. The one where Marshall and Ted have a swordfight (and Aly ends up getting stabbed through the chest) was good. The trouble is that it's a show about dating (not just hooking up) and I think that it's best when it gives Ted's relationships several episodes to develop, like dating on "Sex and the City" as opposed to "Seinfeld." The requirements of the network TV season utterly crush momentum. Besides, how long are network sitcoms now, fourteen minutes? It seems there's a commercial break after every scene. This might be a much better show on DVD. I'm not deleting my TiVo season pass quite yet, though. Even when it's not funny, it's still a chance to gaze at Alyson Hannigan for 20 minutes a week. That's what I call high concept.
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