Doug's State of Television Report: Non-Reality Series
I'm back. November was a bad month. I'll get into that another time. For now I present something with about as much weightiness and gravitas as I can muster... my observations of a bunch of television shows which I have watched over the past few months.
Some are already off the air, but I finally saw the DVD's. Others are still airing now. One is still airing now, but already cancelled. The only common thread is... I watched them. Here are my thoughts:
Arrested Development - Whole Series
Probably the best situation comedy of all time. I can’t praise this series highly enough. I, like most everyone else, missed this one while it was originally broadcast, which is the primary reason it was cancelled. Stupid me. This show took the best elements of so many great television comedies and made them even better. It had inside jokes and running gags that made the show funnier and more rewarding the longer you watched. It had clever characters who developed in unexpected and usually hilarious ways over time; and they were played by a terrific cast of actors. It had mystery. It had morality cleverly hidden within the comedy of misunderstanding and basic human frailty. It made clever call outs to other shows and pop-culture references without getting cute about it. Most of all it was just darned original, consistently funny, and never predictable. I can’t think of a single television comedy belonging in this league except perhaps John Cleese’s classic Fawlty Towers. Cleese only kept that level of excellence up for twelve episodes with a comparatively tiny ensemble. Arrested Development ran for three seasons with an enormous cast. Advantage for difficulty – Arrested Development.
Kath & Kim - First Season
Yech, what a dog. I really wanted to like this show due to Molly Shannon and John Michael Higgins. But the writing… oof! It seems to spoof only things that are obvious, safe, and dull while turning its yawner plots into banal morality plays by the end. The idea seems to be that Kath and Kim are shallow and clueless materialists, and the smitten men in their lives are devoted to enabling their worst instincts in their attempts to woo them. Hilarity ought to ensue, but doesn’t. Plus Kath & Kim, being mother and daughter, have this whole generational angle which could make for some additional yucks. But also doesn’t. Watched the first three expecting it to get better. When it didn’t I had no desire to see the fourth.
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia - Whole Series
The South Park of non-animated comedy. A good deal of the humor of this show comes from exceeding your expectations of how far they will go to shock you. So far they’ve continued to make that work. There’s also shades of Seinfeld in the notion that every one in the ensemble is largely unlikable when you think of meeting such a person in the real world. Yet for comedy purposes you find yourself drawn in by their quirks and choosing favorites (I’m partial to Charlie, for the record). The humor is often crude and usually over the top – which is again like South Park. This is not a drawing room comedy by any means, but it’s damned funny on its own terms. If you can laugh at South Park’s third graders trying to get an elephant to make love to a pig, you can laugh at Always Sunny’s social misfits mistakenly believing they’ve developed a hunger for human flesh or unraveling the plot of "Who pooped the bed?" Really, you can. I tested this.
The Office – Fifth Season
Is it just me, or is something seriously missing from this season’s show? I was a huge fan for the first four seasons. Steve Carell remains consistently hilarious as Michael Scott. John Krasinki is as dead-pan brilliant as ever as Jim Halpert. Rainn Wilson is still excellent playing the alienesque-straight man Dwight Schrute. Maybe the problem is that they wrote themselves into too many uninteresting corners by the end of last season. Jan’s no longer in charge. Nor is Ryan. Pam is out of town from the rest most of the season. The new HR lady gets transferred away and written out just when her subplot relationship with Michael got going. The Andy/Angela engagement with Dwight lurking in a secret triangle gets little focus, even though it’s one of the few elements in the season that seems to be working (Dwight applying to Cornell to mess with Andy was the funniest bit of the season). I dunno. I like this show enough on the basis of the first four seasons to keep watching, but I really hope this season is a temporary and fixable problem rather than a writer burnout.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer - First & Second Seasons
Hey, another one that turned out as good as its reputation. And another Joss Whedon show I only saw via Netflix after it was off the air. I made it through the first two seasons of this one, and am definitely hooked. Sure there is some silliness, but as the show rarely takes itself too seriously this somehow works. Like other Whedon works, this one is hard to categorize. It’s an action show. It’s a comedy. It’s a horror show. It’s well written. It’s unafraid to write out characters that aren’t really doing anything for the show and replace them with new characters who work. It’s unafraid to write out characters that DO work for the show for the sake of furthering a compelling story. Most of the episodes are self-contained, but there are enough long-running story arcs to hold a season together. I was already a Whedon fan after Firefly and Dr. Horrible’s Sing-along Blog. Now I’m even more so.
Heroes – Third Season
I never watched the first two seasons of this show. But out of boredom I watched them via Netflix as the third season approached. I was hooked. I thought he first season was okay, but the second season really wound me in. The weird thing is I think the third season might be my favorite so far, yet for the ratings and critics I am clearly in the minority opinion here. Alright, there are some things that do bother me. Syler turns from evil to good to gullible stooge at the drop of a hat this season. I write that off as “mentally f’d up” and roll with it. It’s made for some good sub-plots. Claire Bennet often gets so whiney and self-absorbed it’s annoying this season. I write that up as “realistic portrayal of a typical teenager.” Solar eclipses last minutes, not hours, and a full eclipse is a local rather than global event. But that's all stuff I can let go. Hiro Nakamura remains funny and fantastic. Matt Parkman is angst-ridden and soul-searching as usual. The Petrelli intra-family feud works well. The rival company to “The Company” adds new depth and intrigue. I dunno… I have a feeling this one is about to be canceled for a lot of the wrong reasons.
Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles - Whole Series
Meh. It’s alright. It’s certainly more action-oriented than most other shows, so if you’re into that kind of thing… this is the kind of thing you’d like. The characters are lucky if they get to express two whole dimensions (and very few of them have the excuse that they’re playing robots to give justification). Every plot seems to boil down to mixing and matching the following elements “Run away! Set a trap! Shootout! Make something/someone explode! Hide! Escape! Car chase!” There’s some attempt at character development along the way, but it’s pretty bad, and largely confined to trying to bring out the human in the helpful terminator or trying to understand the need to prioritize survival over living a normal life. This gets old after a single episode, and it’s been carried on tediously for a couple of seasons here. I haven’t watched many of these episodes, but I catch one now and then when I have nothing better to do.
My Own Worst Enemy - First (and last) Season
Better than expected. Not good enough to keep watching. I saw the first three episodes and decided I had better ways to spend my time rather than catch the fourth. I hear it has already been cancelled. I won’t miss it. Christian Slater works better on the small screen than I thought he would though.
The Middleman - First Season
Remember the hilarious animated comic book superhero The Tick, and how they tried to make it into a live action television comedy and how it totally sucked and failed within the first season? You don’t? Good, then you can watch THIS animated comic book hero turned into a television comedy without all the baggage. Anyway, this one is everything the other series failed to be. It’s funny. It’s smartly written. Its gags don’t get in the way of the plot, let alone get mistaken for the plot. The dialogue is crisp, witty, and loaded with humor even in erstwhile dry exposition. It defies conventional expectations for character development. It captures a “Dr. Who” like sense for making the normally absurd into compelling drama at times. I really like this show, and hope it runs for many seasons. And it's on ABC Family! Who knew they were making good shows?
House - Season Five
Continues its run of awesomeness. Week in, week out, this is my most reliable for "cracking good television." I rather like how House's old team has transitioned to their new roles, yet still manage to get wound into enough plots in a plausible way to keep them involved in a non-stupid manner. Amber's death was stunning and handled brilliantly. The House/Wilson feud was painful in the way it was meant to be. This is the only show on television that consistently shows that a "formula" (i.e. baffling medical case solved every week) need not be creatively limiting.
Fringe - First Season
I loathe this show more than I ought to. It's really not terrible. I suppose it's even kind of good in spots. I just can't get over how fantastically it underwhelms given the hype. I liken it to taking the X-files, throwing out the interesting character development for flat and predictable stereotypes; throwing out plausible FBI professionalism for sensational Hollywood drama cops; throwing out hints and clues of the supernatural which defy easy explanation for over-the-top science-fiction-is-real plot devices; and throwing out complex and ephemeral conspiracies for a "conspiracy" so simplistic and obvious you spot it in the pilot episode. Then recast the whole thing without so much talent. That's Fringe.
Helpful link: Hulu has a bunch (not all) of the above available for online viewing.
Some are already off the air, but I finally saw the DVD's. Others are still airing now. One is still airing now, but already cancelled. The only common thread is... I watched them. Here are my thoughts:
Arrested Development - Whole Series
Probably the best situation comedy of all time. I can’t praise this series highly enough. I, like most everyone else, missed this one while it was originally broadcast, which is the primary reason it was cancelled. Stupid me. This show took the best elements of so many great television comedies and made them even better. It had inside jokes and running gags that made the show funnier and more rewarding the longer you watched. It had clever characters who developed in unexpected and usually hilarious ways over time; and they were played by a terrific cast of actors. It had mystery. It had morality cleverly hidden within the comedy of misunderstanding and basic human frailty. It made clever call outs to other shows and pop-culture references without getting cute about it. Most of all it was just darned original, consistently funny, and never predictable. I can’t think of a single television comedy belonging in this league except perhaps John Cleese’s classic Fawlty Towers. Cleese only kept that level of excellence up for twelve episodes with a comparatively tiny ensemble. Arrested Development ran for three seasons with an enormous cast. Advantage for difficulty – Arrested Development.
Kath & Kim - First Season
Yech, what a dog. I really wanted to like this show due to Molly Shannon and John Michael Higgins. But the writing… oof! It seems to spoof only things that are obvious, safe, and dull while turning its yawner plots into banal morality plays by the end. The idea seems to be that Kath and Kim are shallow and clueless materialists, and the smitten men in their lives are devoted to enabling their worst instincts in their attempts to woo them. Hilarity ought to ensue, but doesn’t. Plus Kath & Kim, being mother and daughter, have this whole generational angle which could make for some additional yucks. But also doesn’t. Watched the first three expecting it to get better. When it didn’t I had no desire to see the fourth.
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia - Whole Series
The South Park of non-animated comedy. A good deal of the humor of this show comes from exceeding your expectations of how far they will go to shock you. So far they’ve continued to make that work. There’s also shades of Seinfeld in the notion that every one in the ensemble is largely unlikable when you think of meeting such a person in the real world. Yet for comedy purposes you find yourself drawn in by their quirks and choosing favorites (I’m partial to Charlie, for the record). The humor is often crude and usually over the top – which is again like South Park. This is not a drawing room comedy by any means, but it’s damned funny on its own terms. If you can laugh at South Park’s third graders trying to get an elephant to make love to a pig, you can laugh at Always Sunny’s social misfits mistakenly believing they’ve developed a hunger for human flesh or unraveling the plot of "Who pooped the bed?" Really, you can. I tested this.
The Office – Fifth Season
Is it just me, or is something seriously missing from this season’s show? I was a huge fan for the first four seasons. Steve Carell remains consistently hilarious as Michael Scott. John Krasinki is as dead-pan brilliant as ever as Jim Halpert. Rainn Wilson is still excellent playing the alienesque-straight man Dwight Schrute. Maybe the problem is that they wrote themselves into too many uninteresting corners by the end of last season. Jan’s no longer in charge. Nor is Ryan. Pam is out of town from the rest most of the season. The new HR lady gets transferred away and written out just when her subplot relationship with Michael got going. The Andy/Angela engagement with Dwight lurking in a secret triangle gets little focus, even though it’s one of the few elements in the season that seems to be working (Dwight applying to Cornell to mess with Andy was the funniest bit of the season). I dunno. I like this show enough on the basis of the first four seasons to keep watching, but I really hope this season is a temporary and fixable problem rather than a writer burnout.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer - First & Second Seasons
Hey, another one that turned out as good as its reputation. And another Joss Whedon show I only saw via Netflix after it was off the air. I made it through the first two seasons of this one, and am definitely hooked. Sure there is some silliness, but as the show rarely takes itself too seriously this somehow works. Like other Whedon works, this one is hard to categorize. It’s an action show. It’s a comedy. It’s a horror show. It’s well written. It’s unafraid to write out characters that aren’t really doing anything for the show and replace them with new characters who work. It’s unafraid to write out characters that DO work for the show for the sake of furthering a compelling story. Most of the episodes are self-contained, but there are enough long-running story arcs to hold a season together. I was already a Whedon fan after Firefly and Dr. Horrible’s Sing-along Blog. Now I’m even more so.
Heroes – Third Season
I never watched the first two seasons of this show. But out of boredom I watched them via Netflix as the third season approached. I was hooked. I thought he first season was okay, but the second season really wound me in. The weird thing is I think the third season might be my favorite so far, yet for the ratings and critics I am clearly in the minority opinion here. Alright, there are some things that do bother me. Syler turns from evil to good to gullible stooge at the drop of a hat this season. I write that off as “mentally f’d up” and roll with it. It’s made for some good sub-plots. Claire Bennet often gets so whiney and self-absorbed it’s annoying this season. I write that up as “realistic portrayal of a typical teenager.” Solar eclipses last minutes, not hours, and a full eclipse is a local rather than global event. But that's all stuff I can let go. Hiro Nakamura remains funny and fantastic. Matt Parkman is angst-ridden and soul-searching as usual. The Petrelli intra-family feud works well. The rival company to “The Company” adds new depth and intrigue. I dunno… I have a feeling this one is about to be canceled for a lot of the wrong reasons.
Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles - Whole Series
Meh. It’s alright. It’s certainly more action-oriented than most other shows, so if you’re into that kind of thing… this is the kind of thing you’d like. The characters are lucky if they get to express two whole dimensions (and very few of them have the excuse that they’re playing robots to give justification). Every plot seems to boil down to mixing and matching the following elements “Run away! Set a trap! Shootout! Make something/someone explode! Hide! Escape! Car chase!” There’s some attempt at character development along the way, but it’s pretty bad, and largely confined to trying to bring out the human in the helpful terminator or trying to understand the need to prioritize survival over living a normal life. This gets old after a single episode, and it’s been carried on tediously for a couple of seasons here. I haven’t watched many of these episodes, but I catch one now and then when I have nothing better to do.
My Own Worst Enemy - First (and last) Season
Better than expected. Not good enough to keep watching. I saw the first three episodes and decided I had better ways to spend my time rather than catch the fourth. I hear it has already been cancelled. I won’t miss it. Christian Slater works better on the small screen than I thought he would though.
The Middleman - First Season
Remember the hilarious animated comic book superhero The Tick, and how they tried to make it into a live action television comedy and how it totally sucked and failed within the first season? You don’t? Good, then you can watch THIS animated comic book hero turned into a television comedy without all the baggage. Anyway, this one is everything the other series failed to be. It’s funny. It’s smartly written. Its gags don’t get in the way of the plot, let alone get mistaken for the plot. The dialogue is crisp, witty, and loaded with humor even in erstwhile dry exposition. It defies conventional expectations for character development. It captures a “Dr. Who” like sense for making the normally absurd into compelling drama at times. I really like this show, and hope it runs for many seasons. And it's on ABC Family! Who knew they were making good shows?
House - Season Five
Continues its run of awesomeness. Week in, week out, this is my most reliable for "cracking good television." I rather like how House's old team has transitioned to their new roles, yet still manage to get wound into enough plots in a plausible way to keep them involved in a non-stupid manner. Amber's death was stunning and handled brilliantly. The House/Wilson feud was painful in the way it was meant to be. This is the only show on television that consistently shows that a "formula" (i.e. baffling medical case solved every week) need not be creatively limiting.
Fringe - First Season
I loathe this show more than I ought to. It's really not terrible. I suppose it's even kind of good in spots. I just can't get over how fantastically it underwhelms given the hype. I liken it to taking the X-files, throwing out the interesting character development for flat and predictable stereotypes; throwing out plausible FBI professionalism for sensational Hollywood drama cops; throwing out hints and clues of the supernatural which defy easy explanation for over-the-top science-fiction-is-real plot devices; and throwing out complex and ephemeral conspiracies for a "conspiracy" so simplistic and obvious you spot it in the pilot episode. Then recast the whole thing without so much talent. That's Fringe.
Helpful link: Hulu has a bunch (not all) of the above available for online viewing.
Posted by Doug Williams on
Tuesday December 2, 2008 at 6:22pm
We've been flixing The Shield. And you think Always Sunny is "how low can they go.?" This has the added shock value of being cinema cop verite. If they showed this to the Gitmo detainees they'd be suing to stay there.
I'll look into The Shield, if you look into Always Sunny In Philadelphia. I can't promise any renewed enthusiasm for Fringe no matter what you say though. Sarah Connor has potential to suck me in if it ever gets good though.
Of the other three-- House, Fringe, and Heroes, I disagree on two. Fringe I like-- it's quirky, and the interplay of characters doesn't get in the way of the outlandish stories. Heroes third season I don't like. I mean, the plot-pretzels of the first two seasons have become absolute Gordian knots in the third. It's not worth the effort any more. Even a Tom Clancy novel is more comprehensible and resolves more quickly.
Seriously, Fringe is "likable" in the sense that cherry cough medicine is "likable" compared to cough medicine without the cherry flavoring. It's not like it's good, per se. But you realize it could be worse, so you're tempted to like it for the obvious (even over-the-top) attempt to make it palatable. You can even decide you "like" it, if you think about it in the right context. But seriously... yech!
I'm coming around to hating the bailout stuff now though, J., so I think you score one over me there.