TV Diary
1. Ace of Cakes
Since Random 1 didn't get picked up for a 2nd season, it's good to know that there's at least one other Baltimore-based reality show on cable, which revolves around the Charm City Cakes bakery. The place seems to be staffed almost entirely by the kinds of aging punk rock types that you see in Reptilian Records, but they're all kind of cheery and making extravagant desserts. I enjoy reality shows like this, basically about functional adults doing something they love for a living, more than drama-filled contests, almost as a rule. The cake with the Netflix and Chinese takeout theme was probably my favorite that I've seen so far. I totally want to come up with some awesome idea for a cake for some event or party and have these guys make it someday, not even to try and get it on the show, but just because the cakes they make look awesome.
2. Puppy Bowl III
Like any good non-athletic pop culture cornball, I only flipped in and out of the Super Bowl, mostly to check the score and catch some of the overhyped commercials and see the Prince halftime show. However, for the second year in a row J.G. and I watched almost all of Animal Planet's brilliant counter-programming move to the biggest TV event of the year, where they just let a bunch of puppies frolic on a little fake football field. And there's a halftime show with kittens! It's not even some big scripted Bud Bowl-type thing where there's even any humorous pretense of there being an actual competition with teams, it's just a bunch of fuzzy baby animals running around for 3 hours.
3. Rules of Engagement
The mid-season replacement that CBS is temporarily putting in Elaine Benes's timeslot coincidentally stars David Puddy. And David Spade! It's like an Emperor's New Groove reunion! Seriously, though, after Seinfeld and Venture Bros. (and to a lesser extent, The Tick and Big Trouble and Family Guy) Patrick Warburton is something of a comedy god as far as I'm concerned. So far, though, this show is thoroughly just OK. Really boilerplate battle of the sexes sitcom jokes, obvious platitudes about marriage vs. the single life, but without the over-the-top bawdy absurdity that makes its lead-in Two And A Half Men a better show than it has any right to be. It's still pretty watchable based on the cast, though, mainly Warburton and Spade but also the MILF from Grounded For Life. The two unknowns who play the young couple in the show are serious weak links, though, clearly hired for their looks and not for their comic timing.
4. Knights of Prosperity
Yet another mid-season replacement starring an alumnus of Grounded For Life (a show that I always assumed was crap but then watched basically every episode of in reruns last year and let it really grow on me). I think the Fox show from last season with the kid who played Brad is coming back soon, too. I've only watched a couple episodes and haven't really made a point to watch it, though, because it's such a weird, contrived premise (a bunch of central casting stereotypes coming together to hatch a scheme about robbing Mick Jagger's house), but a couple of the cast members are consistently funny, plus it's kind of nice to see Sofia Vergara (the new Charo?) on American TV.
5. My Boys
More and more, cable channels that fill most of their broadcast day with movies and syndicated network series are trotting out original shows that somehow fit the image of the stuff they're already airing (HBO's classy cinematic dramas, TNT's middlebrow dramas, USA's 'quirky' character-driven shows, FX's trashy dramas), and now TBS is putting some original sitcoms on their schedule alongside endless Seinfeld reruns. The one about the grocery store looked too terrible to even try to watch, but I gave this one a chance in part because of the involvement of Jim Gaffigan. But he's ridiculously underused, almost to the point that it defines his character, a married guy who's always saying "OK guys, I gotta get home to the wife now" halfway through every scene he's in. And the rest of the cast is so bland and earnest that they don't even seem to be aware that they're in a comedy. Add to that the main girl's narration, which is straight out of Sex And The City except that all the bad puns and hackneyed metaphors are about sports, and you've got a sitcom that's more inept than even the worst stuff on the big 4 networks.
6. American Idol
I'm so ready for the increasingly freak show-like audition phase to be over. I can kinda understand why these early episodes are popular, but the show is way more fun to me during the later parts when all the singers are at least capable and you get to root for and against them based on preferences and aesthetics. I like seeing the occasional talent in the auditions, but at some point you, like the judges, stop being discerning at all and are just grateful to hear anyone that can stay in key. Let's go to Hollywood already.
Since Random 1 didn't get picked up for a 2nd season, it's good to know that there's at least one other Baltimore-based reality show on cable, which revolves around the Charm City Cakes bakery. The place seems to be staffed almost entirely by the kinds of aging punk rock types that you see in Reptilian Records, but they're all kind of cheery and making extravagant desserts. I enjoy reality shows like this, basically about functional adults doing something they love for a living, more than drama-filled contests, almost as a rule. The cake with the Netflix and Chinese takeout theme was probably my favorite that I've seen so far. I totally want to come up with some awesome idea for a cake for some event or party and have these guys make it someday, not even to try and get it on the show, but just because the cakes they make look awesome.
2. Puppy Bowl III
Like any good non-athletic pop culture cornball, I only flipped in and out of the Super Bowl, mostly to check the score and catch some of the overhyped commercials and see the Prince halftime show. However, for the second year in a row J.G. and I watched almost all of Animal Planet's brilliant counter-programming move to the biggest TV event of the year, where they just let a bunch of puppies frolic on a little fake football field. And there's a halftime show with kittens! It's not even some big scripted Bud Bowl-type thing where there's even any humorous pretense of there being an actual competition with teams, it's just a bunch of fuzzy baby animals running around for 3 hours.
3. Rules of Engagement
The mid-season replacement that CBS is temporarily putting in Elaine Benes's timeslot coincidentally stars David Puddy. And David Spade! It's like an Emperor's New Groove reunion! Seriously, though, after Seinfeld and Venture Bros. (and to a lesser extent, The Tick and Big Trouble and Family Guy) Patrick Warburton is something of a comedy god as far as I'm concerned. So far, though, this show is thoroughly just OK. Really boilerplate battle of the sexes sitcom jokes, obvious platitudes about marriage vs. the single life, but without the over-the-top bawdy absurdity that makes its lead-in Two And A Half Men a better show than it has any right to be. It's still pretty watchable based on the cast, though, mainly Warburton and Spade but also the MILF from Grounded For Life. The two unknowns who play the young couple in the show are serious weak links, though, clearly hired for their looks and not for their comic timing.
4. Knights of Prosperity
Yet another mid-season replacement starring an alumnus of Grounded For Life (a show that I always assumed was crap but then watched basically every episode of in reruns last year and let it really grow on me). I think the Fox show from last season with the kid who played Brad is coming back soon, too. I've only watched a couple episodes and haven't really made a point to watch it, though, because it's such a weird, contrived premise (a bunch of central casting stereotypes coming together to hatch a scheme about robbing Mick Jagger's house), but a couple of the cast members are consistently funny, plus it's kind of nice to see Sofia Vergara (the new Charo?) on American TV.
5. My Boys
More and more, cable channels that fill most of their broadcast day with movies and syndicated network series are trotting out original shows that somehow fit the image of the stuff they're already airing (HBO's classy cinematic dramas, TNT's middlebrow dramas, USA's 'quirky' character-driven shows, FX's trashy dramas), and now TBS is putting some original sitcoms on their schedule alongside endless Seinfeld reruns. The one about the grocery store looked too terrible to even try to watch, but I gave this one a chance in part because of the involvement of Jim Gaffigan. But he's ridiculously underused, almost to the point that it defines his character, a married guy who's always saying "OK guys, I gotta get home to the wife now" halfway through every scene he's in. And the rest of the cast is so bland and earnest that they don't even seem to be aware that they're in a comedy. Add to that the main girl's narration, which is straight out of Sex And The City except that all the bad puns and hackneyed metaphors are about sports, and you've got a sitcom that's more inept than even the worst stuff on the big 4 networks.
6. American Idol
I'm so ready for the increasingly freak show-like audition phase to be over. I can kinda understand why these early episodes are popular, but the show is way more fun to me during the later parts when all the singers are at least capable and you get to root for and against them based on preferences and aesthetics. I like seeing the occasional talent in the auditions, but at some point you, like the judges, stop being discerning at all and are just grateful to hear anyone that can stay in key. Let's go to Hollywood already.
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on Thursday, February 08, 2007 at 12:09 PM.
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