Retrospective

This year I didn't do much of anything. Literally. But you know what I did do? Watch an assload of t.v. SO what better way to recap the year (actually mostly the fall) than as if I was a professional t.v. reviewer person.

Best new show
It was a tough call considering my love of 'Heroes' and it's ability to out comicbook even my comicbookiest of predictions but 30 Rock represents an achievement in American t.v. comedy which ought to be applauded.

30 rock takes all it's characters, and the actors who portray them and says "wow. we are pathetic and wierd and ugly and our lives are pretty stupid" and that is how they mine their hilarity.

This has been the perogative of my ever admired british sitcoms for years(so much so that shows like "extras" now are innovative for having basically nice, smart characters) but it never has seemed to stick in America. I think it's tended to have problems because the characters have been too annoying or the actors portraying them have no actually fit that role of schlub (think the amount of times Nikki Cox or Jenny McCarthy tried to play an ugly doofus).

anyway what is this, an essay? 30 rock is funny. I like it. the end

Worst New Show

The Nine. hands down.

Coming up with criteria for worst new show is hard usually but i think a little equation of the hype this show got from critics and networks and creators vs. how shitty it actually was makes it the leader of the pack.

It was supposed to be the new Lost and the only new serial drama worth watching with an amazing pilot that would leave you reeling.

So when I sat down and saw a show that was 1/4 semi-interesting hostage flashbacks and 3/4 people dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder drama I was agog with...whatthefuckkedness.

Not only do I not care about your post-traumatic stress and am frustrated by flashbacks and not telling the whole story, in Rescue Me there's already a show which seems to have written the book on good post-traumatic stress drama in a way that it needn't be brought up again.

maybe I was missing something but I think other reviewers maybe just smoke too much crack.

Winners: Comeback kids

Last season I lost all my guilty pleasures.

When Nip/Tuck started it was completely stupid yet, it was hilarious enough to fill my christmas breaks. Then when they awkwardly mishmashed various mythologies to try to make sense of the carver plot they revealed they had no idea what the fuck they were doing and completely lost me.

Likewise, The OC was such a ridiculous throwback to the Melrose Places and 90210s of our youth it was no surprise we quickly planned drinking nights around it. What was surprising was the fact that it went from haha bad to unwatchable bad in the 3rd season so much so I didn't even bother to catch up online until I knew a main character would die.

So then the surprise of the season was when not one, but both shows managed to comeback not just as guilty pleasures but arguably as good enough shows in their own right. Maybe I'm wearing the rose coloured glasses of a former lover but honestly, at least in the case of Nip/Tuck, the shows have gotten as good as, if not better than they ever were.

It's one thing to take a bad show and make it good but it's quite another to get an out of control shit train and put it back on the tracks of being enjoyable.

honorable mention: How I met your mother. see above but without it ever being good before.

The LosersSorry reality t.v.

Sorry Lost.

You are really eating it.

The only reality show I kept up with was Project Runway and I even got tired of that. They've decided to replace everything with really stupid gameshows so I think maybe unless we all move to europe we might be seeing the end of the easiest to miss and pick back up on genre of all time.

And Lost. I used to think I didn't know what you were. Then I realized you are The Prisoner. Not exactly but pretty close. Don't get me wrong I like The Prisoner...but in a "i'm hungover and it's on at 4am on PBS" kind of way not a "TV EVENT OF THE SEASON".

Things you can avoid to make me think you are less like The Prisoner:
- don't refer to people as numbers
- don't let them think they've escaped the islands only to make them realize they havent
- don't make Jack the real controller of the island
- no anti-escape orbs

"Wha' Happen?" A friend of mine, lets call him Mr.Lee, complains that Battlestar Galactica's main flaw is it's constant return to the status quo of "everyone on battlestar being chased by cylons" and I used to try to defend it saying it was more about the subtle psychological changes and so on and when I saw last season's premiere I was like "HA! this'll show him".

Eye gouges, babies, marriages and FAT APOLLO! stick that in your pipe and smoke it.

But then it all went back to normal again...except maybe an eye. The choice of making people ugly to try to show change and then completely abandoning the changes was 'meh' to say the least. But having them smoke pot and knowing Apollo binge eats when he's sad makes it worthwhile.

Also, Ugly Betty is an okay show. Sort of funny. kind of interesting plots. But most watched new show of the year? seriously? what the fuck?

That show everyone says is so good but you don't watch. But I have no life and watch it and tell you how it is

The Wire is sooooooooooooo good. The hype is real.

I realized after I watched the first episode and saw that it was the product of David "Homicide:life on the street" Simon and also realized it was basically like mashing all his previous shows into one that it would be mind-numbingly good.

I'm in the midst of the second season now and it's already a cop procedural, a prison show, a show about gangs, a show about political corruption, a show about international crime and about a million other things.

BUT the thing that makes it, as with the other Simon shows, is the characters. It takes these people 13 episodes to make one case because they are real people who are bored, horney, lazy, drunk, forgetful and any other number of real things.

If anything it's a show about being passionate and how that can take you far, fulfill you and also completely fuck you depending on which side of the system you are on and how you go about your business.

Anyway it's damn good and free for purchase or download at your convenience. Now you have to watch it so we can talk about it

Shows from the previous category I have yet to watch (to prove I have a life)
24
Brotherhood
The closer
Criminal Minds
Jericho
The Sheild
The Sopranos

Excited for in 2007?

Other than the resolutions to the great cliffhangers of Weeds and Rescue Me as well as the prospect of Hiro fighting a Dinosaur the return of two shows stand out.

The I.T. Crowd: This show was hilarious AND had a cliffhanger on a 6 episode comedy. It's mere days away from returning and only now do I realize how much i've missed it.

Entourage: I used to think the fact that every season of Entourage ended happily and with much fist pounding was a cop-out and proof that they could be trying harder but MAN when it ended all sad this summer it drove me nuts. I'm not comfortable with these characters not toasting and being happy and having supermodel orgies. Who knew? I look forward to the rest of the episodes leading up to the happy ending.

thats it. now i feel like i accomplished nothing.

mmmmm