TV Diary
a) "Sons Of Tuscon"
That FOX slipped this into their Sunday night lineup of otherwise all animated shows, and that 3/4ths of the main cast are children, makes it very easy to assume this show will fall too far on the side of cutesy/wacky "Malcolm In The Middle"-type material. But I gotta say, I'm really enjoying how dry and even mean this show's humor is at times, and that they're willing to kind of put the characters in a totally risky illegal situation for the sake of the premise and milk it for laughs (basically three kids pay some sketchy random guy to pretend to be their father so they can live with no real rules). I kinda pegged Tyler Labine as an off-brand Jack Black early into his run on "Reaper," but I gradually warmed to him and he's definitely a funny, talented guy and has the right tone to carry this kind of show. The youngest kid gets some hilarious lines.
b) "Who Do You Think You Are?"
This is one of the many filler shows that NBC seemed to rush on the air after the failure of the Leno in prime time experiment, with random celebrities researching their family history on a feelgood chicken soup for the soul tip. But I was really bored one day and watched the Lisa Kudrow episode On Demand, and I have to say I enjoyed it, she learned about her great grandmother who'd died in the Holocaust, and tracked down a long lost relative that they didn't even know was still alive, and it was pretty emotional and affecting. I can't see most of the episodes of this show having anything nearly so dramatic, though, and even if they did I really just don't give a damn about Sarah Jessica Parker or whoever.
c) "The Music Video Exposed"
I can remember when MTV first started running a director credit on videos in the early '90s, and how quickly directors started gaining cachet as brand names in and of themselves, and using that as a springboard into features. And that's why I love that this show on VH1 Classic has been primarily profiling directors from the '80s, before the credits and all the name recognition, particularly just to realize that guys from that era had videographies just as varied and impressive as Jonze or Gondry or whoever. I mean, it blew my mind to see that one guy, Steve Barron, directed "Take On Me" AND "Money For Nothing" AND "Billie Jean." And this guy doesn't have his own Director's Series DVD? Get the fuck outta here.
d) "Men Of A Certain Age"
The show really had a solid first season with interesting and not too predictable storylines for all three major characters, really interested to see where they take it next year.
e) "The Middle"
As "Modern Family" continues to come into its own as one of the best new shows of the season and ABC runs 2 episodes almost every week, I keep trying to give the show that usually airs between them a chance, especially since I like the janitor dude from "Scrubs," but I dunno, I can't get into it. It might be the name, but this reminds me of "Malcolm In The Middle" a lot, except unlike "Sons Of Tuscon" it doesn't dodge wacky/cutesy enough. A few times it's made me laugh pretty hard, though, it has potential.
f) "Cougartown"
Another one from the same night that I'm iffy about. I mostly like the cast, Courtney Cox aside, and the writing's occasionally snappy, but man it's got the really dead vibe that a lot of single camera shows have, where they remove the laugh track but don't know how to get a rhythm going without it or have the dialogue resemble a real conversation in any way.
g) "FlashForward"
This show has a cool premise and the ads made it look exciting and all, but I missed the first run of episodes last fall, and I thought about renting the catch-up DVD in time for the new episodes and didn't. So I tried to watch the recap show, which I know from watching "Lost" recaps or whatever rarely are good or enticing, but I'm pretty sure even from what I saw that this show is kind of crap and am feeling discouraged about ever catching up. I shouldn't bother, should I? I mean it's not "V" level bad, but what is?
h) "Tool Academy 3"
"Tool Academy 2" was decent and watchable, but enough of a letdown from its predecessor that I thought maybe this show would turn out to be a one season wonder, doomed to a couple years of diminishing returns. But "Tool Academy 3" was pretty much legendary from the first episode, with the introduction of 2 female tools (one straight and one a lesbian tool), the guy who cries in every single episode, and more than one couple pretty much self-destructing and leaving the show without being eliminated. I think the only way they could make this show any more entertaining is if they did "Tool Academy: Celebrity Edition" and started bringing in all the tools who are on other reality shows where their behavior's encouraged. I mean, the fact that VH1 has this in the same block of programming as a show where women compete for the love of Frank The Entertainer is just insane to me.
i) "Seven Ages of Rock"
This is a miniseries the BBC made a couple years ago that VH1 Classic runs now and again, and I always watch bits and pieces of it, and their version is narrated by Dennis Hopper so I often don't think about the British perspective informing it. It's definitely kind of dumbed down and not as good as, say, PBS's '90s "Rock & Roll" miniseries, But watching the first and last episodes more recently, it's kind of hilarious how much the UK has its head up its ass in this. The series basically begins with the Stones and The Who, etc. 'inventing' rock'n'roll out of American R&B, glossing completely over Elvis and Chuck Berry and so on, and it ends with shitty NME bands like the Libertines leading our way into the future of rock. At least the punk episode didn't ignore The Ramones or something.
j) "Rules of Engagement"
It's weird to think that this show is in its 4th season now, especially since CBS keeps bringing it in as a midseason replacement -- it's at around 40 episodes, when usually a show that's been on the air this long would have about twice that many by now. And it's still kind of a mediocre weak link the Monday night lineup, with only Patrick Warburton keeping it watchable -- I love that last week they had him drop an extremely oblique "Venture Bros." reference ("Is it like that dream when me and Lee Majors are chasing Bigfoot in the forest?"). The weird thing now is that Timmy, the minor character that started showing up last year, is now a full fledged cast member, completely with an awkwardly photoshopped presence in the opening credits. I'm not that surprised since the actor, Adhir Kalyan, is pretty funny, charismatic guy that was solid on the short-lived "Aliens In America," but it's disappointing to see him get tied down to a show like this. He frequenly seems to play ridiculously broad or offensive stereotypes (a gay guy in Fired Up, a kid talking hip hop slang in a thick Indian accent in Paul Blart: Mall Cop, and the buttoned-down nerd in "Rules"), and I was kinda hoping he'd move on and start getting better roles before he ends up being his generation's Bronson Pinchot.
That FOX slipped this into their Sunday night lineup of otherwise all animated shows, and that 3/4ths of the main cast are children, makes it very easy to assume this show will fall too far on the side of cutesy/wacky "Malcolm In The Middle"-type material. But I gotta say, I'm really enjoying how dry and even mean this show's humor is at times, and that they're willing to kind of put the characters in a totally risky illegal situation for the sake of the premise and milk it for laughs (basically three kids pay some sketchy random guy to pretend to be their father so they can live with no real rules). I kinda pegged Tyler Labine as an off-brand Jack Black early into his run on "Reaper," but I gradually warmed to him and he's definitely a funny, talented guy and has the right tone to carry this kind of show. The youngest kid gets some hilarious lines.
b) "Who Do You Think You Are?"
This is one of the many filler shows that NBC seemed to rush on the air after the failure of the Leno in prime time experiment, with random celebrities researching their family history on a feelgood chicken soup for the soul tip. But I was really bored one day and watched the Lisa Kudrow episode On Demand, and I have to say I enjoyed it, she learned about her great grandmother who'd died in the Holocaust, and tracked down a long lost relative that they didn't even know was still alive, and it was pretty emotional and affecting. I can't see most of the episodes of this show having anything nearly so dramatic, though, and even if they did I really just don't give a damn about Sarah Jessica Parker or whoever.
c) "The Music Video Exposed"
I can remember when MTV first started running a director credit on videos in the early '90s, and how quickly directors started gaining cachet as brand names in and of themselves, and using that as a springboard into features. And that's why I love that this show on VH1 Classic has been primarily profiling directors from the '80s, before the credits and all the name recognition, particularly just to realize that guys from that era had videographies just as varied and impressive as Jonze or Gondry or whoever. I mean, it blew my mind to see that one guy, Steve Barron, directed "Take On Me" AND "Money For Nothing" AND "Billie Jean." And this guy doesn't have his own Director's Series DVD? Get the fuck outta here.
d) "Men Of A Certain Age"
The show really had a solid first season with interesting and not too predictable storylines for all three major characters, really interested to see where they take it next year.
e) "The Middle"
As "Modern Family" continues to come into its own as one of the best new shows of the season and ABC runs 2 episodes almost every week, I keep trying to give the show that usually airs between them a chance, especially since I like the janitor dude from "Scrubs," but I dunno, I can't get into it. It might be the name, but this reminds me of "Malcolm In The Middle" a lot, except unlike "Sons Of Tuscon" it doesn't dodge wacky/cutesy enough. A few times it's made me laugh pretty hard, though, it has potential.
f) "Cougartown"
Another one from the same night that I'm iffy about. I mostly like the cast, Courtney Cox aside, and the writing's occasionally snappy, but man it's got the really dead vibe that a lot of single camera shows have, where they remove the laugh track but don't know how to get a rhythm going without it or have the dialogue resemble a real conversation in any way.
g) "FlashForward"
This show has a cool premise and the ads made it look exciting and all, but I missed the first run of episodes last fall, and I thought about renting the catch-up DVD in time for the new episodes and didn't. So I tried to watch the recap show, which I know from watching "Lost" recaps or whatever rarely are good or enticing, but I'm pretty sure even from what I saw that this show is kind of crap and am feeling discouraged about ever catching up. I shouldn't bother, should I? I mean it's not "V" level bad, but what is?
h) "Tool Academy 3"
"Tool Academy 2" was decent and watchable, but enough of a letdown from its predecessor that I thought maybe this show would turn out to be a one season wonder, doomed to a couple years of diminishing returns. But "Tool Academy 3" was pretty much legendary from the first episode, with the introduction of 2 female tools (one straight and one a lesbian tool), the guy who cries in every single episode, and more than one couple pretty much self-destructing and leaving the show without being eliminated. I think the only way they could make this show any more entertaining is if they did "Tool Academy: Celebrity Edition" and started bringing in all the tools who are on other reality shows where their behavior's encouraged. I mean, the fact that VH1 has this in the same block of programming as a show where women compete for the love of Frank The Entertainer is just insane to me.
i) "Seven Ages of Rock"
This is a miniseries the BBC made a couple years ago that VH1 Classic runs now and again, and I always watch bits and pieces of it, and their version is narrated by Dennis Hopper so I often don't think about the British perspective informing it. It's definitely kind of dumbed down and not as good as, say, PBS's '90s "Rock & Roll" miniseries, But watching the first and last episodes more recently, it's kind of hilarious how much the UK has its head up its ass in this. The series basically begins with the Stones and The Who, etc. 'inventing' rock'n'roll out of American R&B, glossing completely over Elvis and Chuck Berry and so on, and it ends with shitty NME bands like the Libertines leading our way into the future of rock. At least the punk episode didn't ignore The Ramones or something.
j) "Rules of Engagement"
It's weird to think that this show is in its 4th season now, especially since CBS keeps bringing it in as a midseason replacement -- it's at around 40 episodes, when usually a show that's been on the air this long would have about twice that many by now. And it's still kind of a mediocre weak link the Monday night lineup, with only Patrick Warburton keeping it watchable -- I love that last week they had him drop an extremely oblique "Venture Bros." reference ("Is it like that dream when me and Lee Majors are chasing Bigfoot in the forest?"). The weird thing now is that Timmy, the minor character that started showing up last year, is now a full fledged cast member, completely with an awkwardly photoshopped presence in the opening credits. I'm not that surprised since the actor, Adhir Kalyan, is pretty funny, charismatic guy that was solid on the short-lived "Aliens In America," but it's disappointing to see him get tied down to a show like this. He frequenly seems to play ridiculously broad or offensive stereotypes (a gay guy in Fired Up, a kid talking hip hop slang in a thick Indian accent in Paul Blart: Mall Cop, and the buttoned-down nerd in "Rules"), and I was kinda hoping he'd move on and start getting better roles before he ends up being his generation's Bronson Pinchot.
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on Monday, March 29, 2010 at 1:39 PM.
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