Nine Oh Two Point Oh (and other pilot / CW ramblings)

Oh, fellow TV watchers.

I really had hoped that 90210 v2.0 was going to be so bad it's good television.

It's just bad television (but it does have that train wreck charm about it).

Maybe it'll eventually grow out of it's crappy self and into something worthy of guilty pleasuredom (though, let's all remember... 90210 v1.0 wasn't a prize pig of guilty pleasureness its first season... remember those crappy moral/issue of the week episodes? Oy!)

Oh the flip side, I do hope it gets big ratings because if it doesn't, well, we all know the days of the CW are numbered anyway, but it would certainly add a year of two to the netlet's lifespan.

A severe disappointment, on the quality-front anyway. But expected because I'd heard there was a lot of disagreement between the studio and network on, well, everything about the series. The teen drama genre has moved far beyond this show...

... speaking of which, I'm actually eager for the return of Gossip Girl despite the fact that the season finale last year was sooooooooo underwhelming (not to mention the last-five-minutes "one week later" bit where the show undid a season's worth of love storylines for some inexplicable reason). But, really... I miss Blair and Chuck. I miss them and their silly outfits and their witty retorts and their evil.

Also moderately anticipating the ANTM premiere. I swear to G-d, I wasn't going to watch this season. But... tranny. It's the only stunt they could've pulled (although Dominique came close last season) to draw me back in.

Got to see some of the final version of Privileged today. The disc was damaged so every 16 seconds, the audio would drop out and my friend and I just started imagining the characters were getting bleeped... and it was much better for it (and sometimes it was oddly appropriate). Only got through 15 minutes of the pilot before the DVD crapped out... I have no intention of seeing any more of the series.

The Alyssa Milano / ABC shitcom Single with Parents (GET IT!?) is, well, shitty. Annie Potts is hilarious in it... and they make good use of Eric Winter's smile, and briefly his abs. But Alyssa just doesnt having comic timing... and the single-camera aspect of the show doesn't help (because one would hope that with a live audience she'd be funnier). Ugh, just not a good show.

Cupid is really cute. As a friend of mine from out of town said when I watched it with her... women across America will be swooning. Bobby Cannavale is the complete opposite of Jeremy Piven in the role. Less in your face sexual, more appoachable/likable. Sarah Paulson is a perfect straightman to his impishness... in a very different way that Paula Marshall was to Jeremy. There's a lot less of the rapid-fire banter between Trevor and Claire in this remake (which I think people who loved the original are going to miss)... but it's because the "love story of the week" is VASTLY more complicated than that of the original Cupid's pilot (which was simply "woman falls in love with a man who happens to be married, and it turns out that he's separated from his wife and well on the way to divorce, so after a showy display of affection, they get together"). Provided Life on Mars fails (and I have no reason to believe it won't), I wouldn't be shocked to see Cupid on post-Grey's Anatomy come March.

PS - I've revised my opinion on The Mentalist. After watching some of the other pilots for this season, it's clearly better than, well... everything premiering this fall except Fringe. Which it happens to air against. Go figure.

Should be getting Better Off Ted, Kings, The Unusuals, and Castle in the next few days.

Can't remember if I ever gave my thoughts on Project Gary / Gary Unmarried or The Ex List.

Gary Unmarried is doomed to failure. Deservedly so because it's terrible. From the jokes to the "would've felt old hat in the 70s" feel. The CBS Wednesday 8pm comedy block is doomed. Poor Old Christine. Although with Worst Week sucking the way it does, I expect it to wind up back on Mondays at 9:30pm by November sweeps.

The Ex List... well, I love Diane Ruggiero. She rocks and she's a fantastic writer. The dialogue in this pilot? Often snappy, witty and fun. And definitely enjoyable in a group of people because at all points someone is going to find something amusing. Unfortunately, there's just not enough substance to the show. I don't find myself caring whether Bella (Elizabeth Reaser) gets married or not. Which, um, total flaw since the premise of the show is that she's told by a psychic that she has to get married within a year or she'll never get married (oh, and the person she'll marry is someone she has already dated). Here's the thing, though. The Israeli show this is based on was a half-hour format. Why did they adapt this into an hour-long serio-comedy when it would be so much better serviced by being a half-hour sitcom (that would probably work well with How I Met Your Mother... just saying)? The issues I have with the pilot are actually pretty easily remedied in series (adding weight of character and making me really care whether Bella gets married). As is, it's on the wrong network (seems more like an ABC show) and scheduled wrong (Miss Match, another light hourlong about love, failed miserably on Friday night).

Le Sigh

It seems like having my usual ratings source on vacation has been a massive hamper in my side as far as posting on PIFeedback.com goes.

Well, that's what happens when you don't have direct access through your job anymore. If I get, I'll post, but c'est la vie!

Ratings this week

So I'll be posting for Marc over at PIFeedback.com this week.

Of course, I've yet to receive them.

Haven't been posting much here. Once again pretty busy... I *wish* it were because I was on vacation!