TV Diary
a) "The Unusuals"
The idea of a 'quirky cop drama' is not very appetizing on the surface, but this has a pretty decent cast so I checked it out. I can't believe they bit a pretty well known scene from "The Wire" (using the photocopier as a fake lie detector) in the very first episode, though, that shit is sad. Overall I kind of enjoyed it, though, if the characters get a little less one-dimensional over the time and the case-of-the-week storylines don't get too wacky this could be a solid show.
b) "Krod Mandoon And The Flaming Sword Of Fire"
It's probably a bad omen that this has the same lead as Meet The Spartans, and sometimes it seems to take a similarly broad joke-a-minute approach to the whole fantasy/historical epic satire thing. The first episode had some decent laughs, though, I could either start really enjoying this consistently or get sick of it quick.
c) "Cupid"
I never saw this show the first time around the in the '90s, but it was created by Rob Thomas (of "Veronica Mars" fame, not Matchbox 20 fame) and had kind of a cult following, so I assume it wasn't bad. This reboot kind of is, though. Thing is, I'm a total sucker for romantic comedies and this is practically a serialized version of a corny rom-com movie, so I'm watching it anyway. The leads are pretty weak, though, and I imagine the cast in the original was much better. You could almost feel the storyline backing away from Sarah Paulson by the 2nd episode, like they realized that she is kind of bland and unlikable, just like she was in "Studio 60," and need to start focusing on the male lead and the guest stars more. It was driving me nuts where I knew one of the supporting actors on this show from, and it turns out he was Endless Mike on "Pete & Pete"!
d) "Party Down"
Another show from Rob Thomas, but this one is actually good. They basically just threw a bunch of people I like (Lizzy Caplan, Martin Starr, Jane Lynch, a few "Veronica Mars" regulars) together in a loosely structured one-camera sitcom about washed-up Hollywood types working for a catering company, and it's almost as good as I imagined it to be when I first heard about it. Four episodes in, it's already starting to feel a little formulaic the way every event they work eventually breaks down into some big embarrassing climax, but the writing is sharp enough that I don't really mind. It's a shame nobody seems to be seeing this or talking about it because it's stranded out on the friggin' Starz channel.
e) "Osbournes: Reloaded"
This would've been an awful trainwreck even if it had happened 6 years ago at the height of Osbournes-mania, now it's just an awful trainwreck noone's watching. It's kind of funny how they put all these kinda subversive gross-out jokes in a cheesy variety show format, and it still comes out feeling like a cheesy variety show.
f) "Better Off Ted"
This show is pretty hysterical, although it's right in my wheelhouse -- kind of an absurd workplace satire in the mold of some short-lived shows I've loved ("Working," "The Loop," etc.) and created by the same guy as another short-lived show I loved ("Andy Richter Controls The Universe"). The title is lame and the title character is more of a threadbare narrative device than a character per se, but the whole cast is pretty solid and there's a lot of goofy, left-field stuff going on with the whole concept of them working for a kind of ludicrously evil corporation. Hope this one lasts a while longer than the shows it reminds me of.
g) "Castle"
This show is pretty corny, but I'm enjoying it. Nathan Fillion carries it with his ability to breathe life into inane banter, but the girl keeps up decently as well.
h) "Eastbound & Down"
I had no idea that Will Ferrell was an exec producer on this show until the credits rolled at the end of the pilot episode. But all through the episode, I kept thinking that the whole show feels like one of those Will Ferrell movies about a comically unselfconscious and/or redneck athlete. Except it all takes place in that halfway point where the guy's career appears to be over and nothing is going right for him, and there's no happy third act around the corner, and it goes a little further out with the swearing and drugs and nudity and general thematic bleakness. Also it's not as funny. It got better by the end of the season, but I was pretty much relieved it was only 6 episodes long, they had already begun to stretch the premise to its breaking point. Hopefully they'll have enough ideas to make the second season work, but generally I think Danny McBride is just better as a supporting player in movies.
i) "Tough Love"
I kind of love this show, maybe because it's a gender-reversed version of "Tool Academy" without the overtly broad and staged aspects that kind of made that show lame toward the end. It's kind of touchy feely self-helpy but still entertaining and doesn't come off kind of scummy like a lot of matchmaker shows.
j) "Rock Of Love Bus"
The first couple seasons of this were great trash TV and the idea of putting the show on a bus was hysterical on paper, but I've started to tune out on this one. For some reason the fact that the skanks they're getting are more overtly skanky is kind of a bummer now.
k) "100 Greatest One Hit Wonders Of The 80s"
I get deja vu anytime VH1 does a new list show, but especially this one, since I'm pretty sure their previous one hit wonders list was pretty 80s-heavy, and that their previous 80s list was pretty one hit wonder-heavy. Dedicating a whole show to just that crossover is kind of fun, though, partly because I was born in '82, so some of this stuff kinda precedes my immediate pop culture knowledge. So sometimes I know the artist's name but not the song, or I know the song but never had any idea who recorded it, so I actually learn something, which is rare with these shows.
l) "Late Night With Jimmy Fallon"
It does not speak well of me that my schadenfreude for Jimmy Fallon to fail is so strong that I stayed up to watch the opening night of his show even though I've barely watched Conan in the past decade (and I was a huuuuuge Conan fan in his early years). I actually started to believe Fallon might have gotten properly ready for this job after all the hype and the online prep shows, but he really just is not built for it, guy is barely good on camera to begin with, let alone carrying an hour of TV. Can't wait to see who NBC try to give the job to whenever he gets the axe.
The idea of a 'quirky cop drama' is not very appetizing on the surface, but this has a pretty decent cast so I checked it out. I can't believe they bit a pretty well known scene from "The Wire" (using the photocopier as a fake lie detector) in the very first episode, though, that shit is sad. Overall I kind of enjoyed it, though, if the characters get a little less one-dimensional over the time and the case-of-the-week storylines don't get too wacky this could be a solid show.
b) "Krod Mandoon And The Flaming Sword Of Fire"
It's probably a bad omen that this has the same lead as Meet The Spartans, and sometimes it seems to take a similarly broad joke-a-minute approach to the whole fantasy/historical epic satire thing. The first episode had some decent laughs, though, I could either start really enjoying this consistently or get sick of it quick.
c) "Cupid"
I never saw this show the first time around the in the '90s, but it was created by Rob Thomas (of "Veronica Mars" fame, not Matchbox 20 fame) and had kind of a cult following, so I assume it wasn't bad. This reboot kind of is, though. Thing is, I'm a total sucker for romantic comedies and this is practically a serialized version of a corny rom-com movie, so I'm watching it anyway. The leads are pretty weak, though, and I imagine the cast in the original was much better. You could almost feel the storyline backing away from Sarah Paulson by the 2nd episode, like they realized that she is kind of bland and unlikable, just like she was in "Studio 60," and need to start focusing on the male lead and the guest stars more. It was driving me nuts where I knew one of the supporting actors on this show from, and it turns out he was Endless Mike on "Pete & Pete"!
d) "Party Down"
Another show from Rob Thomas, but this one is actually good. They basically just threw a bunch of people I like (Lizzy Caplan, Martin Starr, Jane Lynch, a few "Veronica Mars" regulars) together in a loosely structured one-camera sitcom about washed-up Hollywood types working for a catering company, and it's almost as good as I imagined it to be when I first heard about it. Four episodes in, it's already starting to feel a little formulaic the way every event they work eventually breaks down into some big embarrassing climax, but the writing is sharp enough that I don't really mind. It's a shame nobody seems to be seeing this or talking about it because it's stranded out on the friggin' Starz channel.
e) "Osbournes: Reloaded"
This would've been an awful trainwreck even if it had happened 6 years ago at the height of Osbournes-mania, now it's just an awful trainwreck noone's watching. It's kind of funny how they put all these kinda subversive gross-out jokes in a cheesy variety show format, and it still comes out feeling like a cheesy variety show.
f) "Better Off Ted"
This show is pretty hysterical, although it's right in my wheelhouse -- kind of an absurd workplace satire in the mold of some short-lived shows I've loved ("Working," "The Loop," etc.) and created by the same guy as another short-lived show I loved ("Andy Richter Controls The Universe"). The title is lame and the title character is more of a threadbare narrative device than a character per se, but the whole cast is pretty solid and there's a lot of goofy, left-field stuff going on with the whole concept of them working for a kind of ludicrously evil corporation. Hope this one lasts a while longer than the shows it reminds me of.
g) "Castle"
This show is pretty corny, but I'm enjoying it. Nathan Fillion carries it with his ability to breathe life into inane banter, but the girl keeps up decently as well.
h) "Eastbound & Down"
I had no idea that Will Ferrell was an exec producer on this show until the credits rolled at the end of the pilot episode. But all through the episode, I kept thinking that the whole show feels like one of those Will Ferrell movies about a comically unselfconscious and/or redneck athlete. Except it all takes place in that halfway point where the guy's career appears to be over and nothing is going right for him, and there's no happy third act around the corner, and it goes a little further out with the swearing and drugs and nudity and general thematic bleakness. Also it's not as funny. It got better by the end of the season, but I was pretty much relieved it was only 6 episodes long, they had already begun to stretch the premise to its breaking point. Hopefully they'll have enough ideas to make the second season work, but generally I think Danny McBride is just better as a supporting player in movies.
i) "Tough Love"
I kind of love this show, maybe because it's a gender-reversed version of "Tool Academy" without the overtly broad and staged aspects that kind of made that show lame toward the end. It's kind of touchy feely self-helpy but still entertaining and doesn't come off kind of scummy like a lot of matchmaker shows.
j) "Rock Of Love Bus"
The first couple seasons of this were great trash TV and the idea of putting the show on a bus was hysterical on paper, but I've started to tune out on this one. For some reason the fact that the skanks they're getting are more overtly skanky is kind of a bummer now.
k) "100 Greatest One Hit Wonders Of The 80s"
I get deja vu anytime VH1 does a new list show, but especially this one, since I'm pretty sure their previous one hit wonders list was pretty 80s-heavy, and that their previous 80s list was pretty one hit wonder-heavy. Dedicating a whole show to just that crossover is kind of fun, though, partly because I was born in '82, so some of this stuff kinda precedes my immediate pop culture knowledge. So sometimes I know the artist's name but not the song, or I know the song but never had any idea who recorded it, so I actually learn something, which is rare with these shows.
l) "Late Night With Jimmy Fallon"
It does not speak well of me that my schadenfreude for Jimmy Fallon to fail is so strong that I stayed up to watch the opening night of his show even though I've barely watched Conan in the past decade (and I was a huuuuuge Conan fan in his early years). I actually started to believe Fallon might have gotten properly ready for this job after all the hype and the online prep shows, but he really just is not built for it, guy is barely good on camera to begin with, let alone carrying an hour of TV. Can't wait to see who NBC try to give the job to whenever he gets the axe.
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on Saturday, April 11, 2009 at 8:55 PM.
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