Peace the Spork Out, 90210

So, I told myself I was going to give this show one final viewing before making my final decision (cut or not cut). I mean, there are occasional moments of fun. Not everything has to be dark, broody, delicious Gossip Girl. But, um, wow. The classroom scene about "seeing without using your eyes... it's called intuition" was possibly the WORST THING EVER. This was such an underwhelming episode. So very poor. Not even having friends who work on it will keep this on my DVR list.

Sigh, next week American Idol comes back. Guess I'll be recording two reality shows on Tuesdays from 8-10pm and catching up on Scrubs via the internet.

Also The Mentalist. Saw a preview for tonight's episode and it was about the Red John case, which is what interested me about the pilot. Then the second episode was pure procedural and I was like "Oh my god, I'm so bored" (haha, that was totally the best line on last night's GG... respect the Girls on the Steps, dammit!) Anyway... I'll find that online tomorrow since I saw the preview at a friend's house and didn't get home until after it already aired.

Et tu, 90210 2.0?

Jessica Walter has been removed from the regular cast for the back half of the season, and will only recur. I know they haven't exactly figured out how to incorporate her (read: haven't really tried) but she remains the best thing going for this show. This is depressing news.

New Series Update

Fringe: I was going to drop it, but I rather enjoyed last night's episode (now that I've watched it... thanks, Jewish holidays). I still find Walter Bishop far less entertaining than the show wants me to find him in all his crazy. I'm glad they've toned down the barf-inducing gross-out factor that plagued the post-pilot episode (and also are telling better stories than the sleep-inducing episode from last week).

The Mentalist: Episode two was big ol' pile of meh. Not as fun as House is even when House is doing mind-numbingly formulaic episodes. And I get my cute banter crime procedural quota filled by Bones. I've been convinced to give it one more episode, but that's it (though I may delay that last episode until the season gets a bit further along and the networl allows them to go break from a formula they're only now establishing... so if they ever get back to the Red John story, someone let me know k thx).

90210: I'm still watching... but now that Brenda is gone and Kelly is temporarily gone... I'm not sure why. The sole diversion in the Wilson family is the oft-absent Tabitha, and the only moderately compelling new characters Hot Teacher and Troubled Jock (whose "special" older brother added a somewhat interesting dimension). I could give a rat's ass about Naomi's family woes... they really needed more of her being deliciously bitchy before they tried to make us like her. The whole Adriana thing bores to tears. Though I did enjoy Jessica "Weight Issues" Stroup's character, Silver, talking about "normal looking girls" being brainwashed into looking like models by the fashion industry.

I think those are the only new shows I'm watching this (fall) season... and they're all on Tuesdays! Le. Sigh.

Tuesdays are getting crowded

90210: Tabitha is back! And she's still the best thing about the show! Yay! Dixon is wearing a rainbow polo shirt. Mention of money problems... that doesn't bode well for Dixon (since he will undoubtedly become indebted to some rich f*ck for some idiotic reason). Awkward transitions. They forgot to make Naomi endearingly-but-fabulously-bitchy before they tried to give her layers and make us sympathize with her. She'd be a much better arch/villain than pouty spoiled rich girl with family issues. Mention of Donna Martin graduates! This show just bought another five minutes (I know, I said it bought a few weeks last week, but after the blissful euphoria of stupidity the show left me in... my judgment was impaired). Ugh, Dixon said "do me a solid". "Just because you're a bunch of rich brats doesn't mean you can't have angst!" Oh, Tabitha. Nat! Talking about Brandon! To Dixon! As he's hiring Dixon! Well, that was only slightly expected as a result of the money talk. Could the Saturn logo be any more offensively prominent in Silver's car? Aw, troubled jock Ethan has a mentally challenged / OCD / whatever older brother. Oh, lord, Dixon is doling out dollops of wisdom. Back to the Naomi and her cheating father plot... you know the problem with this? I don't care for her, and I don't care against her. And... the baby daddy is Dylan. There goes one of very few reasons to keep watching this show (love you, Tabitha). "That was way better than cookies". Um... Ty still hasn't tasted Annie's snickerdoodles (that just sounds dirty, doesn't it?) so he doesn't really know, now does he?

House: Only show on TV that'll give you a voluptuous cleavage shot during a sexual harrassment training seminar. House is back! Yayz! Huh. The main titles still aren't changed. Wonder what that means for Thirteen, Kuman, and Mini Stud. There's obviously post-Amber fallout to deal with today, but the show needs to figure out how to (re)incorporate Chase and Cameron. And I wouldn't call what this episode did as reincorporating them... but yay, they were both in it? Also... can we move forward on either the Huddy or Hameron fronts, please?

Fringe: Hey, hot chick in underwear in the opening! That'll keep the males watching. Lance Reddick has apparently been totally relegated to the Arvin Sloane exposition role (and he's not referring to Olivia as "liaison" in that relishy way). Zzzz, rehashy backstory. This first episode, thus far, looks incredibly (if expectedly) cheap compared to the pilot. The crazy old genius that is Walter Bishop really, really grates on me. I do like the angle that Oliva has to go back and rework the cases she and her traitorous ex-lover ex-partner worked (as he was all Patterny and traitorous). Okay, besides the description of the serial killer's MO... which gross... it's getting late (12:30am) so I'm just gonna watch and shut up. 'Night, readers!
... the science in this show confuses and annoys me. X-Files was at least based in some semblance of reality (thanks to Scully making sure it was). In Fringe, it seems the most out of the box explanation is always the right path to follow, and there's somehow a way (through Walter Bishop's old experiments and through Massive Dynamic's future-ish-tech) to test the theoretical science.

Um

Did anyone else really enjoy 90210 tonight despite themselves? And despite the "yeah, really not good" and "super trite" nature of it? And being able to predict every single "twist" multiple story beats before they happen (Mr. Clark's affair, I'm looking at you). The first few minutes kinda super sucked. But then it picked up. And it was fun. There wasn't excess whining. And the kids were together in various combinations and it wasn't horribly contrived and painful (which is saying something because it was rather forced). I even almost cared for Naomi! Almost. And then she got all melodramatic with her mother.

Although was it really a good idea for her friend to send her cheating ex-boyfriend to console her when she's distraught about the cheating men thing? I was surprised she didn't get bitchy about how all men are jerks (like Ty, or whatever his name is). In fact, it's totally out of character for her to not react that way.

Although Dixon's joking line suggesting Silver stay in his room almost ruined things.

Dear god, I think the show just bought itself another few weeks from me...

... although, where the eff was Tabitha? Did I stroke off when they maybe mentioned she was away for a few days or something for one reason or another?

And how many episodes can they really drag out not telling us the identity of Kelly's son's father?

We were dangerously close to an episode count of "3" for the question of how long until the Wilson family adopts their first West Bev student (er, that isn't Dixon)...

Zip

Okay. 90210. Sound off people.

Actually, watching with friends in HD made the experience more pleasurable than my first viewing. I still think it's bad-bad television.

BTW, anyone else in LA watching the HD feed? Because damn someone at KTLA fucked up (during much of the first half hour, the video steadily fell out of frame, so it was cutting off footage at the bottom and replacing it at the top). Then for about five minutes they cut between the SD feed (which was fine, but horribly 4:3 aspect ratio and, well, SD) and the still-malfunctioning HD feed until finally getting it right.

So lame.

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).