Man...what with Dr. Horrible, Buffy: Season Eight and now this, I am getting unbelievably psyched for Dollhouse.
09/08/2008
Wasted Opportunity
This would have been so awesome.
Man...what with Dr. Horrible, Buffy: Season Eight and now this, I am getting unbelievably psyched for Dollhouse.
Man...what with Dr. Horrible, Buffy: Season Eight and now this, I am getting unbelievably psyched for Dollhouse.
17/07/2008
You are NOT my nemesis!
° Private Practice's (Tuesdays, Living) long-awaited debut was disappointing to say the least. Like I'm going to assume most people were, I was excited about the show because I loved Addison on Grey's and I liked the idea of seeing her in her own show. Sadly, on the evidence of the first episode alone, that's not the case at all. It doesn't feel like her show at all. Instead we saw Addison crowbarred into a an already-formed band of misfits who seem altogether less funny, less sexy and less loveable than Addison's prior running mates, so it all ends up feeling kind of pointless. I mean, if we're just going to be watching her fight for screen-time with a whole bunch of new people, why did she get a spin-off in the first place? That the phrase "cash cow" is flashing in my head already makes me sad. I only hope it starts to justify its existence as something more before its shortened first season finishes in nine weeks time. I'm sad enough that Marti Noxon won't be working there next year. The last thing the massive Buffy nerd inside me wants to face is the fact that it might be a justifiable decision.
Even more adorable than Jonathan Lipnicki's turn on Dawson's Creek
° My love of One Tree Hill (Mondays, E4) is probably somewhat irrational, I admit, but I must say that I'm enjoying its fifth season very much so far. How the seemingly ambitious four year time-jump would effect the show was a subject of much debate and, so far at least, I think the answer is that it hasn't done too much. Aside from giving the writers the opportunity for new stories, it seems very clear now that the move was not so much a way to fix a problem, but a way to avoid one. The show has successfully managed to bypass the need to awkwardly reconfigure its cast, characters and location, but it's still facing the same challenge to keep things fresh that any drama in its fifth season will face. For now it's all good, still riding the wave of fresh material garnered from the time-jump and leaning on a ridiculously cute little kid (above), but it'll be interesting to what happens in about ten episodes time when things have settled down somewhat. Good start though, and certainly one that vindicates the risk.
° Make Me a Supermodel US (Mondays, Living) is enjoyable enough so far, but unfortunately seems to lack the edge of its British predecessor. The thing that made the British version so enjoyable was that it offered a more realistic, adult twist on the America's Next Top Model formula; taking the kid gloves off and constantly smacking its contestants in the face with the unbearable truths of an industry based around a distorted perception. The US version feels a little meek in comparison.
Still...at least it's a step up from Britain's Next Top Model, right?
Even more adorable than Jonathan Lipnicki's turn on Dawson's Creek
° My love of One Tree Hill (Mondays, E4) is probably somewhat irrational, I admit, but I must say that I'm enjoying its fifth season very much so far. How the seemingly ambitious four year time-jump would effect the show was a subject of much debate and, so far at least, I think the answer is that it hasn't done too much. Aside from giving the writers the opportunity for new stories, it seems very clear now that the move was not so much a way to fix a problem, but a way to avoid one. The show has successfully managed to bypass the need to awkwardly reconfigure its cast, characters and location, but it's still facing the same challenge to keep things fresh that any drama in its fifth season will face. For now it's all good, still riding the wave of fresh material garnered from the time-jump and leaning on a ridiculously cute little kid (above), but it'll be interesting to what happens in about ten episodes time when things have settled down somewhat. Good start though, and certainly one that vindicates the risk.
° Make Me a Supermodel US (Mondays, Living) is enjoyable enough so far, but unfortunately seems to lack the edge of its British predecessor. The thing that made the British version so enjoyable was that it offered a more realistic, adult twist on the America's Next Top Model formula; taking the kid gloves off and constantly smacking its contestants in the face with the unbearable truths of an industry based around a distorted perception. The US version feels a little meek in comparison.
Still...at least it's a step up from Britain's Next Top Model, right?
The Thoroughbred of Sin(g-Along Blogs)
I don't know how anyone could not adore this. The latest work from Joss Whedon is enough to make his fans melt into a puddle of nerdy goo. Typically great Whedon dialogue, fantastic songs ala 'Once More, With Feeling', Nathan Fillion actually singing, one of the few Potentials we didn't want to die, and Neil Patrick Harris unleashing a shockingly brilliant singing voice. What's not to get embarrassingly giddy about?
Goofy, charming, romantic, hilarious...Whedonesque. Is there really any good reason you haven't clicked on the link yet?
15/07/2008
Set Your Sky+: Private Practice
Private Practice
Premiere
Tonight at 10:00pm on Living
Repeated
Wednesday 16th July at 8:00pm on Living
(As well as Living+1 coverage each time)
Premiere
Tonight at 10:00pm on Living
Repeated
Wednesday 16th July at 8:00pm on Living
(As well as Living+1 coverage each time)
Almost a year after its American debut, Living finally brings Grey's Anatomy spin-off Private Practice to UK screens. The cold ex-wife we thought we'd hate but actually turned out to be the most likeable character at Seattle Grace gets her own show, and it's exciting to see how it'll turn out. The relative success Stateside bodes well, but based on the pilot alone I have some concerns. A little too ensemble, a little too sunny and wacky? We'll see. But while we wait (and wait and wait) for Living to show Season 4 of Grey's, where else are we going to get our fill of neurotic, promiscuous doctors and nurses? Definitely worth a look.
11/06/2008
Gone Fishin'
Many apologies for the lack of activity recently. Unfortunately my blogging has taken a bit of a back seat to the two-game-a-day rush of Euro 2008 as well as the 24-hour televisual assault of Big Brother. Suffice to say, I will catch up on a few things in the near future, including a general review of last season's new shows, sporadic BB commentary and some other stuff. I promise.
09/06/2008
Losing Faith
When I take a step back and look at it objectively, I know that Lost's fourth season finale was a good 90 minutes of television. There was action, romance, mystery, intrigue; answers we've long been waiting for and enough new questions to keep us scuttling around message boards until next February. What more could a fan ask for, right? Yet as I watched it, I couldn't help but feel a little bit cold, and as I see it, there are two main reasons why.
The first is no surprise. I have expressed my distaste for the flash-forwards in the past and the finale is a place in which they were always going to have a negative impact. As I've said before, the knowledge of the future we've been given naturally diminishes some of the drama set in the present - it's unavoidable - but that's only a small gripe. More notable was the fact that working so overtly toward a long-term goal really detracted from the sense of finale this year. We got some answers, yes, but there was little in the way of real satisfaction. And though Lost has frustrated audiences with its finales before (hello, Season One), at least on those occasions we felt an answer was immediately forthcoming on the show's return. At the end of Season Four all we've been left with is a dismantled format and vague allusions. It's as if the show has stopped trying to hook us in to what happens next, and is instead choosing to lean entirely on the audience's interest in what happens in the end. Sadly, the result is that I feel a bit detached from it all. For the first time ever, the destination feels more important the the journey.
Secondly, I think in this finale we saw Lost officially (and lamentably) turn into a science fiction show. One of the show's great positives for so long was the ambiguity about which genre it belonged to, and that ambiguity seems to be slowly dwindling. Admittedly some people have always thought of Lost as sci-fi, but for at least two and a half seasons it was a claim that could not be definitively substantiated. There were elements, certainly, but there was deliberate and exciting ambiguity about the source of the Island's power, and Lost therefore became a show that allowed viewers to see what they wanted to in it. As the characters were divided, so were the audience with regards to their hopes and expectations for the series; the divide between Locke and Jack encapsulating the two major theoretical explanations of science and mysticism. We had a choice: Man of Science or Man of Faith, and we were invited to invest in what we wanted to be responsible for the miracles of the Island. But now, the opportunity for such speculation seems to be disappearing.
Even with certain unresolved mysteries, the balance seems to have tipped definitively in the favour of science. In the finale's big closing set-piece the Island was successfully moved (we assume via time travel) and therefore saved by science. And John Locke, so long presented to us as the figurehead of belief in the Island's apparent mysticism, has been shown in flashback to have some natural calling to science, suggesting a possible repositioning of his character. The goalposts feel like they are being slowly moved.
Of course, it's impossible to speak with any certainty unless you're privy to the secrets of the writer's room, but I can't help but feel that whatever ending the show's creators have decided on has required some subtle reshaping of their original intent. And though that's okay in a sense - it must happen in almost every writer's room - there's something about Lost in which it's more difficult to accept. Perhaps it's the insistence that the writers have always known where they were heading or perhaps it's my personal reaction at things not shaking out like I'd hoped. Either way, the suspected manipulation makes the changes to show feel more prominent and less desirable.
To deliberately misuse a quote here, Nietzsche said that "faith means not wanting to know what is true", and in that sense I've always had great faith in Lost - I was happy just to be along for the ride - and I think its creators felt that way too. But now as the show heads towards its finish line, it seems, as August Comte might say, we are past the age of religion and we heading toward both reason and science. And though it is not a slight on the quality of the show - I'm sure Lost will continue to be one of television's finest shows until its very end - for anyone who chose to believe in the show in the same way that I did, it's a sad truth to face as we wait for Season Five.
The first is no surprise. I have expressed my distaste for the flash-forwards in the past and the finale is a place in which they were always going to have a negative impact. As I've said before, the knowledge of the future we've been given naturally diminishes some of the drama set in the present - it's unavoidable - but that's only a small gripe. More notable was the fact that working so overtly toward a long-term goal really detracted from the sense of finale this year. We got some answers, yes, but there was little in the way of real satisfaction. And though Lost has frustrated audiences with its finales before (hello, Season One), at least on those occasions we felt an answer was immediately forthcoming on the show's return. At the end of Season Four all we've been left with is a dismantled format and vague allusions. It's as if the show has stopped trying to hook us in to what happens next, and is instead choosing to lean entirely on the audience's interest in what happens in the end. Sadly, the result is that I feel a bit detached from it all. For the first time ever, the destination feels more important the the journey.
Secondly, I think in this finale we saw Lost officially (and lamentably) turn into a science fiction show. One of the show's great positives for so long was the ambiguity about which genre it belonged to, and that ambiguity seems to be slowly dwindling. Admittedly some people have always thought of Lost as sci-fi, but for at least two and a half seasons it was a claim that could not be definitively substantiated. There were elements, certainly, but there was deliberate and exciting ambiguity about the source of the Island's power, and Lost therefore became a show that allowed viewers to see what they wanted to in it. As the characters were divided, so were the audience with regards to their hopes and expectations for the series; the divide between Locke and Jack encapsulating the two major theoretical explanations of science and mysticism. We had a choice: Man of Science or Man of Faith, and we were invited to invest in what we wanted to be responsible for the miracles of the Island. But now, the opportunity for such speculation seems to be disappearing.
Even with certain unresolved mysteries, the balance seems to have tipped definitively in the favour of science. In the finale's big closing set-piece the Island was successfully moved (we assume via time travel) and therefore saved by science. And John Locke, so long presented to us as the figurehead of belief in the Island's apparent mysticism, has been shown in flashback to have some natural calling to science, suggesting a possible repositioning of his character. The goalposts feel like they are being slowly moved.
Of course, it's impossible to speak with any certainty unless you're privy to the secrets of the writer's room, but I can't help but feel that whatever ending the show's creators have decided on has required some subtle reshaping of their original intent. And though that's okay in a sense - it must happen in almost every writer's room - there's something about Lost in which it's more difficult to accept. Perhaps it's the insistence that the writers have always known where they were heading or perhaps it's my personal reaction at things not shaking out like I'd hoped. Either way, the suspected manipulation makes the changes to show feel more prominent and less desirable.
To deliberately misuse a quote here, Nietzsche said that "faith means not wanting to know what is true", and in that sense I've always had great faith in Lost - I was happy just to be along for the ride - and I think its creators felt that way too. But now as the show heads towards its finish line, it seems, as August Comte might say, we are past the age of religion and we heading toward both reason and science. And though it is not a slight on the quality of the show - I'm sure Lost will continue to be one of television's finest shows until its very end - for anyone who chose to believe in the show in the same way that I did, it's a sad truth to face as we wait for Season Five.
Set Your Sky+: One Tree Hill
One Tree Hill (Season 5)
Premiere
Tonight at 9:00pm on E4
Repeated
Slightly screwed by BB's dominating presence,
E4+1 is your only option for now.
Premiere
Tonight at 9:00pm on E4
Repeated
Slightly screwed by BB's dominating presence,
E4+1 is your only option for now.
Despite forever languishing in the shadows of more glamourous teen shows like The O.C. and Gossip Girl, the more involving and generally better One Tree Hill returns to UK screens tonight for the start of its much-anticpated fifth season.
Jumping four years in to the future from the gang's graduation from Tree Hill High, the show is making a bold move. Hoping to avoid both the awkward college years and eliminating the external complaint that none of the cast can pass for 18, it's going to be an interesting experiment; one that, if successful, could alter the template for long-running teen drama. It should be interesting.
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