TV Diary
a) "Smash"
My interest in this show stemmed initially from me continuing to just be agog at how ridiculously hot Katharine McPhee is and having thought it was just a tragedy every year since she was on "American Idol" that's passed without her being on TV regularly. But really I have a soft spot for musicals and this show may actually be better in execution than in its ambitious but slightly dodgy concept, since I managed to watch the pilot without thinking of goddamn "Glee" once.
b) "House of Lies"
The usual 'sexy' tripe from Showtime that isn't even particularly sexy, so far beneath everyone involved, especially Don Cheadle and Kristen Bell.
c) "Unsupervised"
The ads for this that FX was running for months and months made it look really unappetizing, but the first episode was actually pretty alright. None of the ads trumpted the actors doing the voices, so I didn't even realize until after watching it that Justin Long and (again!) Kristen Bell and Romany Malco are in it, didn't recognize their voices or anything. It kind of feels like "Beavis & Butthead" in that it depicts a certain type of hopeless teenage dirtbag with a rare amount of perceptive detail, although this show obviously has a little more pathos and realism than, well, "Beavis & Butthead" (and on the other hand isn't as funny).
d) "Napoleon Dynamite"
Seeing this worthless fucking movie done as a cartoon just makes me realize that "Beavis & Butthead" is actually the best thing this could possibly aspire to. Sad thing is it's not even the worst cartoon FOX has tried to shoehorn into the Groening/McFarlane block lately, though.
e) "Funny Or Die presents Billy On The Street"
The idea of a satirical 'man on the street' quiz show seems so dumb and threadbare but really this show is just hysterical and I've been watching it every single time it's on, Billy Eichner is insane.
f) "Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!: A Royal Pain In The News"
My wife has become a serious NPR head in the last couple years and has gotten me into this show, so it was fun to see this TV version that the BBC aired as a year-end news review special over the holidays, if only to see what the people from the radio look like. They also did a BBC special version of the "Nerdist" podcast, which was a bit less interesting to me but I watched anyway.
g) "Excused"
It kind of bums me out that while every other mediocre 'sassy broad' standup comic out there seems to be getting network sitcoms, the very funny (and, well, very hot) Iliza Shlesinger who won "Last Comic Standing" a couple years ago is hosting a dating show on VH1. It is a pretty overtly comedic dating show, though, and Shlesinger gets a lot of room to improv -- really the best part of every episode is during the closing credits when they just show a bunch of outtakes of her riffing ridiculous insults about the contestants.
h) "Metal Evolution"
After "That Metal Show" came into its own and VH1 Classic had all the hype about their metal holiday, this mini-series really turned out depressingly bland and redundant with a lot of other stuff they aired.
i) "I Hate My Teenage Daughter"
It seems like at the beginning of the season there were a lot of sitcoms coming down the pike with kind of alluringly blunt titles -- "2 Broke Girls" didn't turn out too well and it'll be a while before we see "Don't Trust The Bitch In Apartment 23," but "I Hate My Teenage Daughter" is actually pretty good. Partly I just like the cast (the sister from "Pushing Daisies"! Cutty from "The Wire"!) but I also like the whole uncomfortable but inherently comedic premise and even if the execution is kind of straightforward and lowbrow there's some pretty good trad sitcom writing going on here.
j) "Work It"
I watched an episode of this cross-dressing sitcom just before it was canceled, because I knew it was gonna be canceled and it's kind of nice to feel like you're part of something that's probably going to be remembered as infamously stupid and wrong-headed for some time (although OK not that many people will really remember it even a year from now, possibly not even me).
k) "Last Man Standing"
Goes without saying that a new Tim Allen sitcom is just total garbage but he has a bunch of daughters on this show
l) "Man Up"
The only one of all of ABC's new misguided 'lol modern manhood' sitcoms that actually wasn't total shit, wasn't great or anything but the cast really worked well together and I kind of love Amanda Detmer.
m) "The Guy Code"
Another show full of moronic 'wisdom' about the culture of masculinity, this time in the form of VH1-style talking head bullshit. This is already apparently MTV2's highest rated original show ever, so look for them to run with this formula for a few years next.
n) "Once Upon A Time"
This show is starting to grow on me, even though the special effects are occasionally distractingly cheap-looking and the plot sometimes feels like it's working on more levels than I'm invested enough to bother figuring out, still pretty fun to watch and of course every woman on this show is really good looking.
o) "Homeland"
I wound up with pretty mixed feelings about this show's first season but it did more well than it did badly. I especially enjoyed how I thought they were going to move the pot forward very incrementally and just hint and what's going on (blame "Rubicon" for my expectations, I guess), and instead they just kept completely taking me off guard with how ruthlessly they'd propel things forward without hesitation, and took the story in some really interesting directions.
p) "Beyond Scared Straight"
I kind of randomly watched an episode of this reality show on A&E because they shot it at Jessup in Maryland, and it was interesting, but convicts shouting at teen delinquents is not the kind of thing I need to watch all the time.
q) "Face Off"
My wife is way more into this show than I am, but it is fun to see movie makeup pros compete, they make some pretty cool, creepy stuff.
r) "Shameless"
I forgot how low stakes this show can be in terms of offering any real compelling drama (and honestly it's not that funny, either), but right now I'm kind of enjoying how this sexy silly family show is kind of like the exact opposite of the shrill first world problem plotlines of "Parenthood" (which I also enjoy, but I'm just saying.
s) "Lost Girl"
Sorta 'new' Syfy show that it turns out has already been airing on Canada for a couple seasons, and is really kind of surprisingly good, in that the whole supernatural angle of the show isn't too cheesy or overly familiar, and the cast is all hot and/or likeable, good dialogue, etc., I'm kind of excited about this show.
t) "Hung"
I was always a little surprised this show made it to 3 seasons, so I can't act shocked that it finally got canceled, but man, they really left a lot of storylines unresolved, HBO should really give them like an hourlong wrap-up special. I liked the direction the show seemed to be headed in, too.
u) "Bored To Death"
Like "Hung," I'm not surprised it didn't last, and it was on a good roll, but I also kinda feel like it had done everything it could do already.
v) "Free Agents"
I decided to watch this Brit series after I enjoyed the short-lived American remake, but apparently the dialogue is very blue and BBC America noisily bleeps out curse words, so the whole thing quickly became kind of annoying and unsatisfying to watch, and I'm not sure I liked it as much as the NBC version anyway.
w) "The Adam Corrolla Project"
Sometimes I forget how entertaining Corrolla could be on "Loveline" back in the day but this goofy show about him getting together a bunch of friends to help him fix up a house is really a good showcase for him to just improvise and say a bunch of silly shit.
My interest in this show stemmed initially from me continuing to just be agog at how ridiculously hot Katharine McPhee is and having thought it was just a tragedy every year since she was on "American Idol" that's passed without her being on TV regularly. But really I have a soft spot for musicals and this show may actually be better in execution than in its ambitious but slightly dodgy concept, since I managed to watch the pilot without thinking of goddamn "Glee" once.
b) "House of Lies"
The usual 'sexy' tripe from Showtime that isn't even particularly sexy, so far beneath everyone involved, especially Don Cheadle and Kristen Bell.
c) "Unsupervised"
The ads for this that FX was running for months and months made it look really unappetizing, but the first episode was actually pretty alright. None of the ads trumpted the actors doing the voices, so I didn't even realize until after watching it that Justin Long and (again!) Kristen Bell and Romany Malco are in it, didn't recognize their voices or anything. It kind of feels like "Beavis & Butthead" in that it depicts a certain type of hopeless teenage dirtbag with a rare amount of perceptive detail, although this show obviously has a little more pathos and realism than, well, "Beavis & Butthead" (and on the other hand isn't as funny).
d) "Napoleon Dynamite"
Seeing this worthless fucking movie done as a cartoon just makes me realize that "Beavis & Butthead" is actually the best thing this could possibly aspire to. Sad thing is it's not even the worst cartoon FOX has tried to shoehorn into the Groening/McFarlane block lately, though.
e) "Funny Or Die presents Billy On The Street"
The idea of a satirical 'man on the street' quiz show seems so dumb and threadbare but really this show is just hysterical and I've been watching it every single time it's on, Billy Eichner is insane.
f) "Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!: A Royal Pain In The News"
My wife has become a serious NPR head in the last couple years and has gotten me into this show, so it was fun to see this TV version that the BBC aired as a year-end news review special over the holidays, if only to see what the people from the radio look like. They also did a BBC special version of the "Nerdist" podcast, which was a bit less interesting to me but I watched anyway.
g) "Excused"
It kind of bums me out that while every other mediocre 'sassy broad' standup comic out there seems to be getting network sitcoms, the very funny (and, well, very hot) Iliza Shlesinger who won "Last Comic Standing" a couple years ago is hosting a dating show on VH1. It is a pretty overtly comedic dating show, though, and Shlesinger gets a lot of room to improv -- really the best part of every episode is during the closing credits when they just show a bunch of outtakes of her riffing ridiculous insults about the contestants.
h) "Metal Evolution"
After "That Metal Show" came into its own and VH1 Classic had all the hype about their metal holiday, this mini-series really turned out depressingly bland and redundant with a lot of other stuff they aired.
i) "I Hate My Teenage Daughter"
It seems like at the beginning of the season there were a lot of sitcoms coming down the pike with kind of alluringly blunt titles -- "2 Broke Girls" didn't turn out too well and it'll be a while before we see "Don't Trust The Bitch In Apartment 23," but "I Hate My Teenage Daughter" is actually pretty good. Partly I just like the cast (the sister from "Pushing Daisies"! Cutty from "The Wire"!) but I also like the whole uncomfortable but inherently comedic premise and even if the execution is kind of straightforward and lowbrow there's some pretty good trad sitcom writing going on here.
j) "Work It"
I watched an episode of this cross-dressing sitcom just before it was canceled, because I knew it was gonna be canceled and it's kind of nice to feel like you're part of something that's probably going to be remembered as infamously stupid and wrong-headed for some time (although OK not that many people will really remember it even a year from now, possibly not even me).
k) "Last Man Standing"
Goes without saying that a new Tim Allen sitcom is just total garbage but he has a bunch of daughters on this show
l) "Man Up"
The only one of all of ABC's new misguided 'lol modern manhood' sitcoms that actually wasn't total shit, wasn't great or anything but the cast really worked well together and I kind of love Amanda Detmer.
m) "The Guy Code"
Another show full of moronic 'wisdom' about the culture of masculinity, this time in the form of VH1-style talking head bullshit. This is already apparently MTV2's highest rated original show ever, so look for them to run with this formula for a few years next.
n) "Once Upon A Time"
This show is starting to grow on me, even though the special effects are occasionally distractingly cheap-looking and the plot sometimes feels like it's working on more levels than I'm invested enough to bother figuring out, still pretty fun to watch and of course every woman on this show is really good looking.
o) "Homeland"
I wound up with pretty mixed feelings about this show's first season but it did more well than it did badly. I especially enjoyed how I thought they were going to move the pot forward very incrementally and just hint and what's going on (blame "Rubicon" for my expectations, I guess), and instead they just kept completely taking me off guard with how ruthlessly they'd propel things forward without hesitation, and took the story in some really interesting directions.
p) "Beyond Scared Straight"
I kind of randomly watched an episode of this reality show on A&E because they shot it at Jessup in Maryland, and it was interesting, but convicts shouting at teen delinquents is not the kind of thing I need to watch all the time.
q) "Face Off"
My wife is way more into this show than I am, but it is fun to see movie makeup pros compete, they make some pretty cool, creepy stuff.
r) "Shameless"
I forgot how low stakes this show can be in terms of offering any real compelling drama (and honestly it's not that funny, either), but right now I'm kind of enjoying how this sexy silly family show is kind of like the exact opposite of the shrill first world problem plotlines of "Parenthood" (which I also enjoy, but I'm just saying.
s) "Lost Girl"
Sorta 'new' Syfy show that it turns out has already been airing on Canada for a couple seasons, and is really kind of surprisingly good, in that the whole supernatural angle of the show isn't too cheesy or overly familiar, and the cast is all hot and/or likeable, good dialogue, etc., I'm kind of excited about this show.
t) "Hung"
I was always a little surprised this show made it to 3 seasons, so I can't act shocked that it finally got canceled, but man, they really left a lot of storylines unresolved, HBO should really give them like an hourlong wrap-up special. I liked the direction the show seemed to be headed in, too.
u) "Bored To Death"
Like "Hung," I'm not surprised it didn't last, and it was on a good roll, but I also kinda feel like it had done everything it could do already.
v) "Free Agents"
I decided to watch this Brit series after I enjoyed the short-lived American remake, but apparently the dialogue is very blue and BBC America noisily bleeps out curse words, so the whole thing quickly became kind of annoying and unsatisfying to watch, and I'm not sure I liked it as much as the NBC version anyway.
w) "The Adam Corrolla Project"
Sometimes I forget how entertaining Corrolla could be on "Loveline" back in the day but this goofy show about him getting together a bunch of friends to help him fix up a house is really a good showcase for him to just improvise and say a bunch of silly shit.
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on Sunday, January 22, 2012 at 9:53 AM.
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