Category: Aliens in America

TV Observations

Being sick has allowed me to slowly catch up with the backlog of TV shows I’ve been recording but not watching. The DVR’s gone from 80% full Thursday night to 40% full after last night’s JEOPARDY!
SUNDAY
I’ve watched The Sunday morning news programs. Meet the Press (or was it the Today show?) showed a dapper Brian Williams in James Bondian mode, probably a segment from Saturday Night Live, which I didn’t see, but now wish I did.
That recent 60 Minutes (CBS) segment about French President Nicolas Sarkozy I’d seen before, on one of those 90-minute 60 Minutes shows earlier in the season – strange.
BROTHERS AND SISTERS: Yes, it’s a soap opera, but a good one. This Sunday’s show, featuring the confrontation of Justin’s post-Iraq drug addictions, has gotten kudos already from TV Guide.
MONDAY
Carol and I are loving Aliens in America (CW). She is an ESL teacher with many Pakistani students, but I’m liking it on its recognizably painful humor built on adolescence.
Samantha Who? (ABC) is funny in parts. I like Jean Smart, e.g. as the mom, but it’s just not holding together for me.
TUESDAY
Boston Legal (ABC), a bad habit.
WEDNESDAY
Whatever that sitcom is with Kelsey Grammer and Patricia Heaton on FOX; oh, yeah, Back to You. Subsequent shows were better than the pilot, but not good enough to keep watching.
Pushing Daisies (ABC) I like it, but I swear I’ve seen Ned and Chuck graze each other. Right on the edge of too quirky and cloying, but hasn’t crossed it yet.
Private Practice (ABC): the side plots, involving the medical issues are OK, even compelling at times, but the stories surrounding the characters’ personal lives are AWFUL, just awful.
Dirty Sexy Money (ABC): I was afraid it was going to go all Dynasty on me, but the murder mystery is engaging enough. I really enjoy Peter Krause and Donald Sutherland working together.
THURSDAY
My Name Is Earl (NBC) – the prison stories are surprisingly effective.
The Office (NBC) – good, but those hour-long stories were overloaded. Also, I’m now seeing those Bee Movie promos many people ODed on. There was one, actually the first one I saw, that I actually enjoyed, because I had the exact same conversation with my wife about Super Chicken. It seems that the only people who remember SC are me, Seinfeld, and the writers of JEOPARDY! who have posed the question at least twice in recent years with no one even GUESSING at the question:
April 6, 2001 LET’S PLAY CHICKEN, $500 Created by Jay Ward & Bill Scott, his secret identity was Henry Cabot Henhaus III
December 11, 1998 TV THEME SONGS, $500: “When it looks like you will take a lickin’….just callllll for” him.
Scrubs (NBC)- I said was catching up, not that I’m caught up.
FRIDAY: nothing.
SATURDAY: nothing.

I’m actually glad the Country Music Awards were on last night so I can forgo the ABC shows in favor of trying to catch up on the backlog.
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Ken Levine picks the worst TV shows ever. He’s right about Life with Lucy. But my #1 worst show, because it had such a fine lineage, is AfterMASH, the spinoff of M*A*S*H, that was boring as all get out. At least Cop Rock tried to be interesting.
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I missed recording the Carol Burnett American Masters on my local PBS station (WMHT) this week but it’s being rebroadcast on WMHT2 (cable) Saturday at 9 pm. The Charles Schulz episode – which I enjoyed – is rebroadcasting thrice more on the WMHT HD. So check here to see if either is being rebroadcast in your area.

ROG

ROG

The New Television Season QUESTIONS

1. What new shows are you most looking forward to checking out?

For me, it’s that nighttime soapy-looking Dirty Sexy Money on Wednesday nights on ABC, not because of the premise, but because of the cast: Peter Krause, Donald Sutherland, and Jill Clayburgh.

The show with the most buzz: Pushing Daisies, also on Wednesdays on ABC. Of course, “buzz” doesn’t always equal quality.

What else is on Wednesdays on ABC, anyway? Oh, yeah, the Grey’s Anatomy spinoff, Private Practice, which has a buzz too, but not such a good one. I’ll have to watch it at least once, because of the luminescent Audra McDonald, pictured, before I bail; I’ll probably end up watching Bionic Woman on NBC, if anything.

There’s a show on Mondays on the CW (The CW?!) called Aliens in America, about a Pakistani Muslim exchange student, which will either be very good or very bad, but which I’ll at least try. It has reviewed surprisingly well, so far, and it’s got to be better than a show about the Geico Cavemen.

Finally, there’s Back to You,b Wednesday on FOX. It actually started last week, and Ken Levine liked it, though Tom the Dog did not. I’ll have to at least watch the premiere episode

There are probably others – better check my TV listings for the time and channel in my area.

2. What returning shows are you looking forward to seeing?

NBC Thursday night comedies: Earl, Scrubs, The Office. I’ll probably even give 30 Rock another go. Last year I wrote: Watching Tracy Morgan on the second or third episode of 30 Rock doing some jivin’ riff, I said, “I don’t need this,” shut it off in mid-episode, deleted it, deleted the next yet unwatched episode, and removed it from the DVR recording schedule. But I also noted that lots of people whose opinion I respect like it. And it did get some Emmy love.

Oh, and that dysfunctional family – I relate to dysfunctional families – on ABC’s Brothers and Sisters Sunday nights. I’m not saying Sally Field deserved the Emmy more than, say, Edie Falco from The Sopranos, but I like her, I really like her in this show.
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Upright Citizens Brigade on DVD, “The Return of America’s Best Sketch Comedy Group”.
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Mr. Brown posed his own three TV questions, one of which hit on one of mine: What show will be canceled first? Entertainment Weekly picked Viva Laughlin, a “musical-dramedy”, and I’m thinking it’ll go early, but it’s not even premiering until October 21, by which time that show with the Geico cavemen, I’m hoping, will have bitten the dust.

ROG

ROG
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