Posted Oct 5th 2009 11:28AM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows, OpEd, Reality-Free, Gone Too Soon
The modern poster-child for a show that's "gone too soon" is
Jericho. The impassioned fans buried CBS under a ton of nuts, which got the show renewed for a shortened second season. Your mileage of the quality of that season may vary, but the fact remains that the fans did something none of these internet campaigns today will be able to.
What people don't realize is that when
Jericho came back for the second run, the ratings weren't any better than when the first season ended. So when they cancel your favorite show and you start mailing in bizarre objects and setting up your web petitions because "it worked for
Jericho," remember that the networks remember
Jericho as well. They remember that it failed to find a sizable audience twice.
Continue reading Gone Too Soon: Jericho
Posted Oct 3rd 2009 10:44PM by Jane Boursaw
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, OpEd, Reality-Free
I've been waiting all summer to see how things turned out for Violet and her baby on
Private Practice. Let's face it. Things looked bleak at
the end of season two when Violet's baby was hacked out of her by a crazy person, and they didn't look any better at the beginning of season three. So I was pretty ecstatic with how things turned out.
I must admit, though, the way things were going, I really wasn't sure who was in that casket that started the episode until we were getting close to the end. It wasn't small enough to be a baby's casket (thank goodness), and I was pretty sure Amy Brenneman was planning on sticking around, so it was unlikely that Violet was in the casket. Still, it was touch and go there for a while, and either one of them could have died.
Continue reading Did you know who was in the casket on Private Practice?
Posted Oct 1st 2009 2:02PM by Jane Boursaw
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Programming, OpEd, Reality-Free
I watched
the series premiere of Trauma the other night (which, quite frankly, I probably won't be watching, because I've already got enough trauma in my own life without watching other peoples' trauma on TV), but one of the things I thought while watching the show was, "Who hired these people anyway?"
I'm not talking about the actors. I'm talking about the fictional trauma team on the show. Much of the trauma they dealt with was trauma that they themselves caused, including the mid-air helicopter crash at the beginning and the scene later where one of the team drives recklessly through the streets and takes a guy's finger off in the process. I don't know about you, but if this team was in my town, I'd be looking for a recall or some firings or something!
What's next? A giant pile-up on the freeway because one of the team was texting while driving? Or perhaps one of them will crack under the pressure, strap on a bomb, and head for the nearest mall.
Posted Oct 1st 2009 10:00AM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Web, Reality-Free
Television has been trying to cram
3D technology into our eye sockets ever since it realized that offering some kind of gimmick with their product could distract some audiences from the fact that it sucks. 3D TV will only impress three groups of people: children, heavy LSD users who are out of LSD, and the people who helped bring it to a Best Buy near you.
HBO, however, has done something much more interesting and creative with interactive entertainment by applying the 3D concept, not to just the screen, but the story and characters. I hope you've got lots of newspaper down, because your mind is about to blow.
Continue reading HBO's multicamera Imagine engine will blow your mind out of its skull
Posted Oct 1st 2009 9:31AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, OpEd, Reality-Free
Oh, no. Please. CBS, please don't. I know it's tempting when you see the
NCIS: LA ratings -- number two for last week, topped only by
NCIS! -- but please, refrain. What am I talking about?
CBS is pushing a spinoff of Criminal Minds, asking the show's executive producer Ed Bernero and executive producer Chris Mundy to come up with a variation on
Criminal Minds. Hmm...
Criminal Minds 2.0?
Son of Criminal Minds?
Criminal Guts?
Continue reading No, no, please, not a Criminal Minds spinoff
Posted Sep 29th 2009 12:28PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, OpEd, Survivor, Reality-Free
What happens when the producer of
Survivor collaborates with his wife, an actress who starred in
Touched by an Angel, in a story created by the guy who brought us
Dirty Sexy Money? Do you get
Touched by a Dirty Sexy Angel? I guess that's what CBS will find out because
Mark Burnett and Roma Downey are teaming with Craig Wright for a drama project for CBS.
Burnett, he of
Survivor and a half-dozen other reality shows, is married to
Angel star Roma Downey, and they're both executive producers while Wright is doing the writing for Sony Pictures TV. The show is the story of a lawyer who nearly dies in a car crash and gets a second chance at life when the ghost of his ex-wife appears to him.
Continue reading Mark Burnett gets real for CBS drama
Posted Sep 29th 2009 11:11AM by Jane Boursaw
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Other Comedy Shows, TV Royalty, Programming, OpEd, Entourage, TV Squad Lists, Reality-Free, TV Squad Ten, True Blood
HBO has slowly become my favorite network over the past few years. I don't know if it's because the mainstream networks have turned to lots of reality programming or what, but HBO just seems to get better and better. Just about every show on the premium channel is feature film quality (if not better), and I've got some favorites listed below.
I know I'm missing a few biggies, like
Rome,
Deadwood,
Flight of the Conchords, and
Extras, but it's only because I either haven't watched these shows or have only watched a few episodes -- not enough to make an informed opinion. I'm sure they'll make my
Jane After Dark column at some point in the future. So I hope you'll tell me your favorites in the comments below.
Continue reading TV Squad Ten: My favorite HBO shows
Posted Sep 29th 2009 10:02AM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Programming, OpEd, Reality-Free
The CW already gave up on its lowest performing newcomer,
cancelling The Beautiful Life: TBL. That left an empty spot on the schedule and an opportunity. Certainly not wanting to have another quick failure on their schedule, the network has decided to shift
repeats of Melrose Place to Wednesdays at 9pm.
While it's been doing better than
TBL did,
Melrose Place isn't healthy. Premiering with 2.3 million viewers, it slipped below 1.5 million this past week. That's terrible by anyone's reckoning. But The CW has hope, for this has happened before. Long ago, when the original
Melrose Place hit the airwaves, it too didn't set the ratings world on fire. Not until Heather Locklear swooped in and made it a sexy guilty pleasure.
The CW's hoping she can do it again, so they're doing what they can to keep the show on life support until she arrives. Maybe they'll find Wednesdays friendlier. No more
NCIS: LA or
DWTS. Instead it's
Modern Family, Cougar Town, Glee,
SVU and
Criminal Minds. Well, that doesn't look good either.
Posted Sep 29th 2009 3:00AM by Jane Boursaw
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, OpEd, Reality-Free
(S02E02) "What is it about full moons that brings out the crazies?" - Castle to Beckett
That line above exemplifies what I love about
Castle. Richard Castle is enjoying the bizarre perps and collars traipsing through the police department; he's eating snacks and having fun, while Kate just rolls her eyes at both him and the people. They're such total opposites -- Beckett so cool and controlled and Castle like a giddy kid -- and I hope they don't mess it up by having them hook up. I was just reading a story in one of the entertainment mags, where Stana Katic says that, too. She doesn't want them to get together because it's so cliche.
Continue reading Castle: The Double Down
Posted Sep 28th 2009 10:02PM by Jonathan Toomey
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, OpEd, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free, Lie to Me
(S02E01) "Oh, your husband likes unprotected sex with hookers, so it might be a good time to get yourself tested for, you know, everything really." - Cal
Lies! Lies! Lies! Or are they? With the return of Lie to Me comes a whole new batch of poker faces for The Lightman Group to interpret and fortunately for us, the overall vibe of the show is a lot more believable than it used to be. If I'm going to watch a show where the lynch-pin of every episode rests on the ability of Tim Roth's Dr. Cal Lightman to negotiate all the little twists a suspect's face makes, then I better not be able to figure it out myself in the first five minutes. When I recently spoke with Roth, he said the show was a lot better now. He wasn't lying.
Continue reading Lie to Me: The Core of It (season premiere)
Posted Sep 28th 2009 7:02PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Web, Cancellations, Reality-Free
If all of the people who watched the first two episodes of
The Beautiful Life signed
this petition...well, the show would still be
canceled (if you had
TBL in the office "which show will get canceled first" pool, congrats!).
Cancellations + the web = instant petitions. A TV show used to just die and then that would be it. Oh, sometimes something happens where a show gets a second chance (exec taking a chance, summer reruns getting good ratings, the show doing well on DVD, buzz, etc), but it's a long shot. And now, whenever a show is canceled the web gives us the opportunity to create and/or sign a petition to get the show renewed.
Continue reading Help save The Beautiful Life (or you could just do your laundry or something)
Posted Sep 28th 2009 2:28PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Industry, Programming, Reality-Free
First
Three Rivers got rid of Julia Ormand, then the pilot wasn't good enough so CBS decided to film a new version, and now that version doesn't seem to be good enough, so when the show debuts on October 4 we're going to see a later episode as the first episode. The
pilot will now air as the second episode.
The pilot was also supposed to air at the Paleyfest a few weeks ago but CBS instead gave them an episode of
NCIS: Los Angeles.
Many shows have aired episodes out of order before, but it's not always a good sign. Then again, networks need a hit quickly these days. Maybe they should make Alex O'Loughlin's character a vampire?
Posted Sep 28th 2009 1:06PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, OpEd, Reality-Free, Gone Too Soon
Every once in a while, a show creeps up on the American public and really captures its imagination. Unfortunately, a lot of times that show is in a terrible timeslot on a tiny little network struggling to survive. Such was the case with
Jack & Bobby.
I'd like to think people didn't just automatically assume that this was a biopic about the Kennedys, though it certainly was playing with that notion intentionally by choosing that name. At its core, the show was simply another teen drama; the kind The WB had built a network around by the fall of 2004.
But it was also something more than that. It was an in-depth examination of the genesis of an American hero. How can someone go from being an ordinary person with ordinary problems into the most powerful man on the planet? While Jack and Bobby were typical all-American brothers, it was one of their destiny to rise to the seat of President of the United States by the mid-21st Century. That's the destination.
Jack & Bobby was the journey.
Continue reading Gone Too Soon: Jack & Bobby
Posted Sep 28th 2009 10:02AM by Jonathan Toomey
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, Interviews, Celebrities, Pickups and Renewals, Early Looks, Episode Reviews, Reality-Free, Press Kits Unwrapped, Lie to Me
Lie to Me is not a show that grew on me last season. When it first premiered earlier this year, I didn't even bother watching it. I tend to shy away from mid-season replacements to begin with and something about seeing Tim Roth speaking in his normal British accent in promos for the show seemed weird to me.
Then summer arrived, TV viewing options started to dwindle, and suddenly Lie to Me became a viable option. I watched the pilot, was mildly amused, and then dropped it for over a month before I looked at another episode. At first, it wasn't that great, and now that I've had the opportunity to speak to Roth about it, it's good to know that I wasn't alone in thinking that.
Continue reading Talking truth with Tim Roth of Lie to Me
Posted Sep 27th 2009 11:39PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Other Drama Shows, OpEd, Reality-Free
(S07E01) As the seventh season commences, the cases continue. Tonight it's a flashback to 1966 and the events on a ship known for suicides, but the real crux of the show was more current. What's going on with Lily Rush since her near-death experience last year? When the case against Kitchener seems to be going soft, her reaction makes me wonder if our Lily is contemplating going
Dirty Harry (Harriet?) on us.
Continue reading Cold Case: The Crossing (season premiere)
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