The Jimmy Update

Yes I am back, hopefully for awhile.  Anyways, I feel I should give you an update on shows I’ve been watching and how I feel about them.

Mondays

Chuck: The show has been on a roll lately with the best episode of the season easily being Chuck vs. The Santa Claus.  The show hasn’t lost momentum in terms of creativity since coming back from the long hiatus.  With Chevy Chase and Scott Bakula coming in for long arcs in the next couple episodes, it should be entertaining to say the least.

Heroes: It’s been awful, simply awful.  There is not one redeeming quality about Volume 4.  Rumor has it the next two episodes are penned by Fuller and much better but I just don’t see the show finding its footing and honestly, if it was canceled, I wouldn’t miss it.

Drinking game time!

Party Down, the new show from Rob Thomas which premieres on Starz tonight at 10:30 pm, is a veritable who’s-who from Veronica Mars. The leads alone are two-thirds people who have at least been on one episode of VM, and one-third recurring guests (one of which later turned series regular). 

The guest stars in Party Down seem to all be taken from VM as well. So I propose a drinking game:

1 drink every time you spot someone who has ever been on VM (for the lightweights, you can forego the Party Down leads, if you’d like, but that will ruin the fun)

2 drinks if they were ever in the VM opening credits (again, Ryan Hansen can be excluded if you’d like)

Chug if any two VM alum is in a scene with another one (for this one, one of them HAS to be a guest star, not a regular)

Kings Review

This thing really left me scratching my head, its the old biblical fable updated to modern times but the cheese factor it brings with it is so high I expected a flock of Mice to invade my screen in search of the tasty goodness.

Now we are given gravitas with Ian McShane as the titular King of the piece (although I still always think of him as Lovejoy, curse you early 90s British TV!) while support is all a bunch of people I have never seen before bar the angry Asian lad from Deep Rising as one of the Generals. Alas the unknown’s do not really bring much to the table, the David character is terribly bland and quite possibly the most naive character to grace the screen in quite awhile. I swear somebody could have told him chocolate was made of wood and he would likely beleive it, and then you have the kings family and cohorts which barely register bar maybe the son who turns out to be gay in a twist I did not see coming. (Jules spotted this well before the reveal so she must have better gaydar then me)

The story follows a style that gives highly uncomfortable flashes to the Ace Combat video game series, now this is an obscure example for me to go to be sure but anybody who has seen the utterly massive levels of edam that game series throws at you will get the linkage. Everything from the dialogue with the King’s inane speeches and the ending shot of a crown of butterfly’s ( I shit you not) ram this home.

The most wtf moment had to be David somehow engineering a ceasefire to the war by walking out in front of a bunch of enemy tanks and making a speech. The loopy factor to this was so high it was likely having to avoid aircraft.

Will I watch next week? Probably not and the poor rating’s start means I wouldn’t miss to much either.

Breaking Bad tonight!

For anyone who is not in the know, WATCH BREAKING BAD! The premiere last week was great. Picked up right where we left off and threw us right into things. This is looking to be an even better season than the first. WATCH! 

(Sundays on AMC at 10pm)

The Pad Tv watching update.

Yes the blog is not dead its just suffering from us all being severely lazy and having expected the money and hookers to appear within a month of starting.

Alas reality is a cruel mistress so on to my TV watching update!

Dollhouse – I endured 4 episodes of this utter tripe and then gave up, I refuse to watch episode 5 or listen to the screams that say it gets great with episode 6. Its a show devoid of humour interesting characters and any valid reason from me to watch beyond the CSI laziness of a new case a week. I’m a Whedon fan but this shit stinks worse then an uncleaned cow shed.

Battlestar Galactica – My fellow blogger Jimmy continues to hate the show but I still find hope, the finale looms and it promises major fireworks, this show deserves to go out in a blaze and it looks like it will.

Lie to Me – Its predictable procedural nonsense that contines to be saved by Roth’s fascinating main character. For this reason I continue to watch.

Castle – A new show I really like and it looks like the ratings will make it stay so double happy mode! Yes its murder she wrote with an attractive male lead but I’ll forgive that due to the impish turn of Fillion and his daughter and mother. The female lead is a sad sack but we can hope she gets some life!

Sarah Connor Chronicles – Its going out and irritatingly not with a conclusive ending if sources are to beleived. It pissed around with the sarah connor mind study sessions while the ratings tanked and is only now turning on the style when it is to late. I want to strangle the makers of this. A waste but at least these final episodes will be great.

Well thats me for now, hopefully we get back to regular updates after this, if not I’ll blame……………………….the plague.

Wednesday’s Rating Analysis

Wednesday, February 18^th, 2009

Winner of the Night: American Idol

Surprise of the Night: Nothing

Loser of the Night: Life

FOX

8:00 pm – 9:00 pm: American Idol: 24.39 million viewers and 8.9 in the demo

9:00 pm – 10:00 pm: Lie to Me: 11.22 million viewers and 4.2 in the demo

American Idol continues to be the powerhouse that it is.  The show easily won the night in both viewers and the demo.  The show did see a bit of a decline from last night which is odd considering less competition.  Lie to Me continues to struggle to hold much of AI’s viewers.  It also finished 3^rd in viewers for the hour and second in the demo, disappointing considering the lead in.  It is still holding better then Fringe though.  Lie to Me moves to the 8 pm hour next week which should be an interesting move.  I think if the show can stay about 8 million viewers it should be considered a solid start.  If it doesn’t hold that well, I could see FOX switching Hell’s Kitchen and Lie to Me.

CBS

8:00 pm – 8:30 pm: The New Adventures of Old Christine: 7.32 million viewers and 2.0 in the demo

8:30 pm – 9:00 pm: Gary Unmarried: 7.26 million viewers and 2.1 in the demo

9:00 pm – 10:00 pm: Criminal Minds: 14.96 million viewers and 3.7 in the demo

10:00 pm – 11:00 pm: CSI NY: 12.35 million viewers and 3.1 in the demo

TNAOOC and GU continue to survive opposite AI.  I expected to see a bigger dip when AI came on the air but they’ve held strong.  The question is, are those numbers good enough for CBS?  They probably would be for any other network but I’m not so sure for this one.  I’d probably give them another season to see if they can continue to grow the hour.  Criminal Minds won the 9 pm hour in viewers but finished 3^rd in the demo.  Gotta love CBS sometimes.  CSI NY easily won the hour in both viewers and the demo.  I’m wondering if maybe CBS will move NY to Tuesdays next season to see if it can hold more of The Mentalist viewers.  Overall, another solid night for CBS.

NBC

8:00 pm – 9:00 pm: Knight Rider: 5.49 million viewers and 1.5 in the demo

9:00 pm – 10:00 pm: Life: 5.16 million viewers and 1.5 in the demo

10:00 pm – 11:00 pm: Law & Order: 7.15 million viewers and 2.1 in the demo

You know your show has a problem when it can’t hold or grow out of Knight Rider.  I hate to say it since I kind of enjoy the show but Life is dead.  I give NBC credit for being this patient with the show but not growing out of Knight Rider and a 1.5 demo is just awful.  Look for KR and Life to both be causalities of NBC’s new programming attempt next year.  L&O continues to hold strong in the 10 pm hour, finishing second in viewers and the demo.  I expect to see it come back next year.

ABC

8:00 pm – 9:00 pm: Lost (repeat): 5.57 million viewers and 1.9 in the demo

9:00 pm – 10:00 pm: Lost: 11.27 million viewers and 5.1 in the demo

10:00 pm – 11:00 pm: Life on Mars: 5.78 million viewers and 2.1 in the demo

Lost saw a nice bounce back this week thanks to not having to compete with AI.  The problem is AI is moving to the 9 pm hour next week.  I expect to see Lost in the low 10 million range and mid 4 demo for the rest of the season, still nothing to complain about if you’re ABC.  I’m not going to lie; I thought Life on Mars was going to be a success out of Lost.  I was wrong.  LoM was able to hold a pathetic 51% of Lost’s viewers and 41% of its demo.  Tick tock, the cancellation clock is ticking.

CW (all repeats)

8:00 pm – 9:00 pm: Privileged: 860k viewers and 0.3 in the demo

9:00 pm – 10:00 pm: 90210: 770k viewers and 0.3 in the demo

Again, CW sucks.

Tuesday’s Rating Analysis

Tuesday, February 17^th, 2009

Winner of the Night: American Idol

Surprise of the Night: The Mentalist

Loser of the Night: ABC

FOX

8:00 pm – 10:00 pm: American Idol: 25.10 million viewers and 9.5 in the demo

FOX decided to go with 2 hours of American Idol and I really can’t blame them.  They easily dominated the night, winning every half hour in both viewers and the demo.  The show’s only competition for winning the week in the demo and viewers is tonight’s episode of American Idol.

CBS

8:00 pm – 9:00 pm: NCIS: 18.07 million viewers and 3.7 in the demo

9:00 pm – 10:00 pm: The Mentalist: 18.27 million viewers and 3.8 in the demo

10:00 pm – 11:00 pm: Without a Trace: 12.22 million viewers and 2.7 in the demo

NCIS continues to lead the night for CBS very well even against the monster that is AI.  The show really has been able to hold up well against it and could beat CSI again this week.  The Mentalist is my surprise of the night because it went against AI and was still able to grow out of NCIS in viewers and the demo.  The Mentalist could be the top rated scripted show of the week.  Without a Trace easily won its hour in viewers but lost in the demo.  The show had a retention rate of 67% in viewers and 71% in the demo.  While that is alright, CBS could find something that is a better fit.  I expect to see a new show debuting at that hour next season.  As for WaT, I’d move it to Fridays.

ABC

8:00 pm – 9:00 pm: Homeland Security USA: 4.72 million viewers and 1.4 in the demo

9:00 pm – 10:00 pm: Scrubs (repeats): 2.95 million viewers and 1.2 in the demo

10:00 pm – 11:00 pm: Primetime: 5.69 million viewers and 2.0 in the demo

I don’t really want to talk much about ABC.  The night is a disaster.  Why air repeats of Scrubs? It makes no sense.  Homeland Security should be canceled.  Primetime should get a little love for growing so big out of Scrubs.

NBC

8:00 pm – 10:00 pm: The Biggest Loser: 8.92 million viewers and 3.6 in the demo

10:00 pm – 11:00 pm: Law & Order SVU: 9.45 million viewers and 3.5 in the demo

NBC’s only successful night continues.  The Biggest Loser was down but you can thank AI for that, since they went head to head for two straight hours.  The Biggest Loser actually finished second in the demo in the 9pm to 10 pm hour.  SVU won the 10 pm to 11 pm hour in the demo.

CW (all repeats)

8:00 pm – 9:00 pm: 90210: 1.10 million viewers and 0.5 in the demo

9:00 pm – 10:00 pm: 780k viewers and 0.4 in the demo

CW sucks.

Dollhouse: A 3rd Look

Yes like my other writers, I too have seen Dollhouse.  Before I get into it, let me give you some background on my feelings of Joss Whedon.  I’ve never seen Buffy, I’ve never seen Angel, I have seen Firefly though.  The first time I watched Firefly I hated it but that’s when I was 15 and couldn’t understand it.  I watched it again right before Serenity came out and I realized how great of a show it really was, then Serenity came out and I was blown away.  I couldn’t down the days until Whedon’s next piece of work and I finally got it.  So what did I think?

Dollhouse has potential, a lot of it.  However, in the pilot it just didn’t feel like a Whedon show.  There were no memorable characters and more importantly no humor.  It was a very serious show that tried to make you pick sides on if this was the right or wrong thing to do.  While I commend Whedon for trying that, it made of a very oddly paced episode.  Too many scenes were about the behind the works of the Dollhouse and Echo almost felt like a supporting character half the time.  Now I know Whedon was forced to shoot a new pilot because the network felt that viewers wouldn’t understand what was going on, so I’ll give him a pass on that.

I was also disappointed by the amount of action in the show.  There about 1 firefight and a motorcycle race.  I thought the show as going to be all ass kicking but instead it was rather talky and a very clichéd hostage storyline.  Again, hopefully they pick things up as they go on.

The acting is decent.  Eliza is a solid actress who is awesome to look at so I’m not complaining there.  The supporting cast is all rather meh besides Tahmoh Penikett as the FBI agent trying to find Dollhouse.  I’m more interested in his storyline then the main storyline.  That’s always a bad sign.

Honestly, I know this wasn’t a very in depth review but I almost feel like I can’t review this episode.  Everyone knows that Whedon didn’t want this to be the first episode but the studio forced it upon him.  That happened to Firefly and we got a shitty first episode too.  So hopefully this was just the studio being dumb and we get a real Whedon episode come Friday.

Overall grade: 6.5 out of 10

Dollhouse Review: Second Look

Yes it is I the resident Whedon fan, and no amount of Julia mocking will stop me. I wear my love of Buffy/Angel and Firefly with pride, so as I sat down to watch Dollhouse I still held out hope of its imminent greatness despite the less then stellar reviews. Alas the critics on this occasion appear to be right because Dollhouse is poo-faced tedium with none of the trademark Whedon wit and snappy dialogue I would have expected. 

First off originality, there is absolutely zero in this thing. Now this would be forgivable if I was being entertained but no such luck which meant I was highly distracted by the main story borrowing from Nikita, the entire River Tam sub-plot from Firefly and the setting of the Dollhouse itself riffing off The Island like a bad cover song. 

Then the characters, a bunch so crushingly bland I felt like somebody had covered my screen with grey. Dushku is a competent actress but she is hampered but the fact that each week she is going to be playing a completely different character with only the interludes of her walking around the dollhouse like a wide eyed puppet providing any sort of routine. The rest of the cast are completely forgettable all the way from the unoriginal “evil” boss woman to the FBI detective on the case of the dollhouse (although it is nice to see a BSG cast member getting more work). 

Also they seem to expect us to consider the dollhouse and the people running it to be inherently evil. Pity they don’t sell that very well. From what I could gather Dushku’s character choose this over prison for some unknown misdeed, and her first case was to help rescue a kidnapped girl. Hardly a coven of pure devil worshipping evilness there. 

I’d say give this a few episodes to flesh out and Whedon will work some magic but based on the initial evidence this is not likely, and based on the initial ratings even if he could I doubt he will have the time. 

Along with the ratings from TSCC this has been a sad TV watching day for Pad.

Dollhouse Review

I’m going to lay all the cards out on the table and tell you that I am not a Whedon fan. He’s entertaining enough, and he has some really good qualities that I like about his shows, but over all I do not understand the hype. So that gives you permission to disregard everything I am about to say if you so choose. (Though I’m going to get Pad to write his review and he is a Whedon fan, which I tease him mercilessly about.)

I did not like Dollhouse. The things that I do like about Whedon, the funny one liners, the lovable secondary characters, none of that was present. Instead we have a show that was pretty boring overall. Eliza Dusko could not carry it at all. My male counter parts may go on about how she’s hot, but that does nothing for me, and all I could focus on was how bad she was in the role. I can’t imagine that she’ll improve while having to take on a new character each week. 

The side stuff which will be serial did not interest me. We were given no reason to like or care about the guy trying to stop the human trafficking ring. He boxes. Wow. The whole guilty doctor thing didn’t spark my interest at all. I kept waiting for something to make me laugh. I kept waiting for the great characters to show up. Where was the Anya or the Jayne? They don’t exist in this show.

I told Jimmy I would give it one more shot because apparently next week’s episode is the original pilot and much better, so I’ll watch, but I have no expectations that it will actually be any sort of improvement.