Archive for June, 2008
By fred | June 17, 2008
(This week we look back at how each of the main networks handled things this past season, as well as looking at how things are looking up for the coming one. Agree ? Disagree ? Share your thoughts and grade networks in the comments below…)
The Good
… I’m looking … if you have anything, let me know … Alright, that’s unfair. After all, The Big Bang Theory was a very nice surprise this season, so not only bringing it on but giving it a real chance and - of course - renewing it for a second season was probably CBS’ highlight this season.
Read the rest of “The Good, The Bad And The Ugly… This Season For CBS” »
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Shows: Cane, How I Met Your Mother, Jericho, Moonlight, The Big Bang Theory, The Mentalist, Welcome To The Captain
By fred | June 16, 2008
One of the new series on Fox is in trouble. Sit Down, Shut Up! is a new animated series, based on an Australian series, coming up on Fox next season. Or that was the plan, before 14 WGA writers, showrunner Mitch Hurwitz first in line, walked out.
Apparently the story goes as follows : Sony, co-producing the show with 20th Century Fox, had been telling the writers from day one that their contracts would be covered by the WGA, which made sense since all the Fox TV animated shows now being broadcast on that network are covered under the WGA contract. Naturally writers assumed their contracts would be over the jurisdiction of the WGA, something done in the past for a Sony-produced show (Dilbert) which was also confirmed to them by Sony execs repeatedly.
Only, turned out they were lying !! The show’s maker is Sony Adelaide, and they have a deal with IATSE. And only recently did Sony finally admitted to writers that the show was to be covered by IATSE, leaving everyone pretty pissed, starring with showrunner Mitch Hurwitz (of Arrested Development fame) as well as The Simpsons writers-producers Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein.
Read the rest of “Sony To Writers: Sit Down, Shut Up! …And Work For Free” »
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Shows: Sit Down Shut Up
By fred | June 16, 2008
It’s been for quite some time now that NBC could count on E.R. on Thursday nights. But the show isn’t the number one drama on the air anymore, not by a long shot, and it is (finally) heading into its 15th and final season. Which leaves NBC with the million dollar question : what now ?
Apparently NBC is eager to remain in the John Wells business, and they have ordered a pilot episode for Wells’ latest project, for now called LAPD, which will - big surprise - center on police in the city of Los Angeles. The show is aimed to be the successor of E.R. in the Thursday at 10.00 slot, and the pilot, which has begun casting, will be written by Ann Biderman, who’s not new to the genre as he worked on NYPD Blue and won an Emmy for his work. The pilot will be directed by Chris Chulack, who’s used to work with Wells, and will also serve as executive producer on the show, as will Ann Biderman.
Read the rest of “NBC to go from E.R. to L.A.P.D ?” »
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Shows: E.R., LAPD
By fred | June 16, 2008
(S01E03) Third installment of this new USA series, In Plain Sight, and by now things are coming a little more clear as to what kind of show this will likely develop into, how it will work (or not, actually) and what to expect from it. The two first episodes haven’t been all that good, but at least the second one was a little improvement over the pilot, flawed by being a pilot, so there was hope for a better tomorrow.
Tomorrow is now here, we’re into the third episode already and things are slowly shaping up, and forced to admit that it doesn’t look very good. Sure, Mary is one Hell of a mess, she’s a complicated character and Mary McCormack is doing a nice job in her portrayal. Too bad she can’t really do wonders, because she’s not given much to deal with in the first place.
Read the review of “In Plain Sight: Never The Bride” »
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Shows: In Plain Sight
In Series: In Plain Sight Season 1
By fred | June 16, 2008
(This week we look back at how each of the main networks handled things this past season, as well as looking at how things are looking up for the coming one. Agree ? Disagree ? Share your thoughts and grade networks in the comments below…)
The Good
This season ABC showed to be understanding of the situation, and decided to give a real chance to new series that had proven to be of quality, renewing Pushing Daisies, of course, but also Eli Stone or Dirty Sexy Money. And while I have mixed feelings over their treatment of Lost, overall it played out very nicely, offering us the best season to date and a fantastic 3-hour season finale ! Way to go.
Read the rest of “The Good, The Bad And The Ugly… This Season For ABC” »
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Shows: According To Jim, Big Shots, Cashmere Mafia, Desperate Housewives, Dirty Sexy Money, Eli Stone, Grey's Anatomy, Life On Mars, Lost, Miss Guided, Private Practice, Pushing Daisies, Scrubs
By fred | June 15, 2008
Another week ahead of us, and along with the couple of shows already on, we have some new additions to make to our summer schedule, courtesy of Showtime, all happening on Monday.
* First off, at 10.00 is the return of a brand new and “re-invented” Weeds. As we all know, last time Nancy made sure her house was gone, so now she’s moving away to a brand new town, no more “little boxes” (including the actual song), leaving a few people behind. Last season wasn’t a good one, let’s face it, and those changes are quite worrying to me I’ll be honest. But we’ll see, maybe it’ll turn out for the best…
* And right after, at 10.30, premieres a new series, Secret Diary Of A Call Girl. The show is about Hanna, who to her parents is a legal secretary. She has a responsible job that involves working lots of unsocial hours in the evening. But in fact, Hanna has a double life, she really is a prostitute who, to her clients, is known as Belle, and can be whatever they want her to be. She can be the quiet girl-next-door, the high-heeled dominatrix who whips them into submission… Her mission is to make money by satisfying male fantasies.
Full schedule for the week after the jump :
Read the rest of “This Week On TV: Showtime back in the game” »
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Shows: Army Wives, Fear Itself, In Plain Sight, Law & Order: CI, Secret Diary Of A Call Girl, Swingtown, Weeds
By fred | June 13, 2008
Another Thursday night with a couple of shows on, so let’s have a look at the numbers. Overall ABC was the winner of the night, both in total viewers and on the demo, thanks to the NBA Finals. Earlier in the evening, ABC aired Jimmy Kimmel Live at 8.00 followed by NBA Countdown at 8.30, but because part of the 8.00 hour included the NBA Finals in the Central Time Zones, numbers are even more subject to change.
Never mind that, what we were interested in was actually the all in the 10pm slot, facing the NBA Finals were CBS’ Swingtown and NBC’s Fear Itself. Now I’m sure that just as last week, people will be quick to call Swingtown the winner and Fear Itself the looser, because the former had over 2 million more viewers than the later.
Read the rest of “Thursday’s Numbers” »
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Shows: Fear Itself, Swingtown
By fred | June 13, 2008
So we still don’t know anything really about one of the upcoming new NBC series, a spinoff for hit-comedy The Office. Why don’t we know anything ? Simply because at this point no one has any clue still of what it will be like, about, or anything really.
Alright so we don’t know nothing, as lately some rumors as well as actual facts have surfaced, with names like Aziz Ansari (of MTV’s sketch comedy Human Giant) who was officially hired to work on the show, or Rashida Jones (Unhitched, or of course Karen Filippelli from The Office itself), who has a talent deal with Universal Media Studios which could get her in on this as well, although so far this is only a rumor, nothing more.
Now because I like her, I hope she won’t do it. Oh yeah, I hope this show will be a huge failure, Bionic Woman-style or worse.
Read the rest of “The Office Spinoff Talk…” »
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Shows: The Office
By fred | June 13, 2008
(S01E02) Now that the first episode is behind us, we can start looking at episodes of Swingtown and see what the show is likely to be like and look like during the course of the season. Because while the pilot last week wasn’t all that good, frankly, it also suffered from the same syndrome that affects almost every pilot episode out there. Because it is the first episode, they try to introduce everyone and everything, try to put a bit of all that will make the show, even though it shouldn’t be all put inside one single episode.
The main flaw of last week’s episode was that it seemed to be trying (way) too hard to insist over & over again on one thing : it takes place in the seventies. This time, while still in 1976, with the same clothes and music and everything that comes along, we were allowed to focus on the actual characters and their stories, not the year it happens.
Read the review of “Swingtown: Love Will Find A Way” »
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Shows: Swingtown
In Series: Swingtown Season 1
By fred | June 13, 2008
(S01E02) I’m not sure why, but usually anthologies don’t do so well in ratings. Which is kinda odd, because at least it’s not serialized even one bit, so you cannot say you fear of investing into a show only to see it being canceled before you get any answers. Here, every episode stands on its own and has nothing to do with the others, really.
Of course, it also means you never know what to expect from such series : just because one episode was terrible, or on the contrary absolutely brilliant, doesn’t mean the next one(s) will be the same. But that’s part of the fun, tuning in each week to venture into a total mystery, in about every possible ways there is. Last week for its series premiere, we had a pretty weak episode, which seems like another stupid decision from NBC (along with putting this show on their schedule exactly on the same day & time the other new series of the summer is on), because clearly starting with a strong episode would have helped things.
I sure hope people won’t have been discouraged or turned down by last week’s episode, because it seems things are going better.
Read the review of “Fear Itself: Spooked” »
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Shows: Fear Itself
In Series: Fear Itself Season 1
