Premiere Week... a Few Thoughts

Wow. There is way too much TV. Especially with the Jewish holidays... I am BEHIND in my viewing. Way behind.

A few thoughts, though... not on ratings (since I've largely twittered my impressions), but on the content itself.

House: Haven't watch last night's episode yet so I don't know the extent to which the show is "back to normal," but the premiere was a combination of awesome and troubling. The temporary and new setting was a fun change of pace, and we got to really see how far this show has come from it's highlight lead character but entirely procedural foundations. As all doctors are psychologists on House, even the psychologists, I found the character elements of the premiere fascinating, but the actual story chock full of meh. The character types found in the psych ward were just that... types. Totally seen every single one of them before. But a great piece of Hugh Laurie who, one of these days, might actually win an Emmy.

Big Bang Theory: I thought last night's was funnier than the premiere. The show just puts a smile on my face. It doesn't so much matter to me that it and HIMYM were split up, because DVR make me my own scheduler/programmer.

How I Met Your Mother: Last night's episode showcased exactly what makes this show awesome, and exactly why Ted is the sore thumb. His storyline was almost entirely separate and tangential to the other four characters... and it was the least entertaining part. The rest of the ensemble is interesting. Ted grates. The writers should really have him meet the Mother soon and show us the courtship and be done with it so that we aren't given these awkward little dating stories told from the year 2030 (though, seriously, Bob Saget-Ted, why are you telling your kids about Stripper Lily?) Though we've seen the doppelganger plot on other sitcoms... I really enjoyed the way HIMYM did it.

Grey's Anatomy: Like House, I appreciated the break from formula (though Grey's is certainly less "formula" than House on an episodic basis). The little vignettes were an amalgamation of entertaining, devastating, and uplifting. And I'm really glad the show chose to do with "40 day" thing and get it out of the way so we didn't have to spend the first 10 episodes dealing with mourning stories (though I'm sure we'll still get some). I'm intrigued by the Seattle Grace / Mercy West merger plotline and, boy howdy, Ellen Pompeo's face looked pregnant.

Dollhouse: The premiere wasn't anything special, story-wise. Decent twist with Ballard being Echo's client and now Jamie Bamber's arms dealer. The best part of the episode, as always, was away from Echo, this time with the Topher and Saunders/Whiskey goings-on. Hopefully we'll get more Victor and Sierra in the coming weeks. Though, honestly, I wish the show would just forgot its episodic foundation and hurtle along towards "Epitaph One" territory...

The Amazing Race: God I'm so happy TAR is back. I totally made the mistake of watching it while fasting. Which, if you watched the episode, you know was not a great idea as one of the challenges was a Japanese game show called "Sushi Roulette" (WANT!) which had the contestants standing in front of a giant wheel that spun and you had to eat whatever sushi roll landing in front of you and the only way to move on was, if a wasabi bomb landed in front of you, to eat the wasabi bomb in 2 minutes. I really, really, really wanted a wasabi bomb. I think the producers finally did a bang-up job in casting the contestants this season after a few cycles of non-standouts. Lance is going to make for a great Ugly American villain. Zev, the guy with Asperger's, is hilarious. There are two cute gay brothers. And that female poker player team... MAN, I was happy the first leg was non-elimination so they could stay in the game.

Desperate Housewives: The introduction of Drea de Matteo's character and family was not the smoothest that Housewives has ever done. Still, I'm glad for the "cliffhanger" (which in the "next time" apparently wasn't a murder as Julie is comatose / on life support) to spice the show up. I've ragged on the need for the seasonal mystery arcs in the past, but this episode was pure soap and had, for me, no drive. There was no excitement going into it from the end of last season, which showed in the ratings nosedive.

Thank god I'd already seen all of the pilots so I didn't have to watch them this week (although I did resample Modern Family, Cougar Town, and Flash Forward for the HD awesomeness)... but I definitely will have to find time to view this week. Cougar Town was much improved in reshoots versus the pilot. A lot of unfunny awkward taken out and some funny lines added in.

A Few Comic Con Updates

1) The 20-ish minutes of Flash Forward were awesome (a) the second time around, (b) on a bigger screen. The panel was well done, too, and I was pleased with the Q&A, especially with David Goyer, who seemed to indicate there are a ton of paradigm shifts along the way to the April 29, 2010 "flash forward" date (specifically pointing at episode 7). Glad I opted for this panel instead of BSG / Caprica.

2) I hear that, though billed as midseason, ABC's V will be premiering in November.

3) I hear that Jamie Bamber (BSG's Apollo) is appearing in the Dollhouse season two premiere.

4) The unaired Dollhouse episode, "Epitaph One," blew my mind. As well as everyone in the completely packed room. It was AMAZING. So outside the show's norm, and, really, just a frightening pleasure to watch unfold.

5) I hear that House Rules might not be dead... which excites me, despite my less than completely glowing review (of the cast).

Won't be getting to my Human Target review before tomorrow's screening... oh, well!

Creative Direction

Over the last week, two series have had episodes that touted a change / return to better storytelling.

Dollhouse had it's "Fox threw up it's hands and gave up trying / Told Joss Whedon to do whatever he wanted" episode in "Man on the Street" and it made me want to forget the first five episodes of the series and just consider "MotS" the new pilot.

Heroes, which I haven't really been watching, had it's "Bryan Fuller is back, ya'll!" episode last night called "Cold Snap." Now, again, I haven't really been watching a ton of this fourth volume, so I don't know what's really happened in the interim between the suck of the volume's premiere and this. Not a ton, it seems. Though the cheerleader was blissfully absent. Anyway, Fuller's return did seem to help, from what I could tell. The characters were pretty much acting with some degree of intelligence... at least enough to prove they had a brain on their shoulders. And, sadly, that's a big change from when I stopped caring. Unfortunately, Bryan Fuller rejoined the show in the middle of a failed, heavy-serialized plotline. I didn't expect MAGIC from him. And he didn't turn in another "Company Man." The episode was almost entirely watchable (curious what Masi Oka did to the producers to have them saddle him with this weird Super Powered Baby storyline), though, and there were moments of very cool special effects (Tracey telling Micah to put the sprinklers on so she could freeze the parking lot) as well as actual emotion (Daphne's death... even if the Parkman-as-Superman dream he put her in to ease her passing was utterly derivative). Don't know why they killed Daphne. She was actually an enjoyable character.

I may just bring myself to watch to the conclusion of the season to see if Heroes can keep this level up (it's still nothing compared to the first season, but, hey, enjoyable TV is better than unenjoyable TV so I have to wish for it and support it when it comes along). I do hope the brass at NBC see fit to get rid of Tim Kring, who obviously was the real problem at Heroes, not the scapegoats Jesse Alexander and Jeph Loeb, and make Bryan Fuller the actual showrunner next season.

Also, go figure, Bryan cast Swoosie Kurtz in a bit part in the episode (nice to have her on TV, even if she isn't kissing Teri Hatcher). I'm so very looking forward to the Paley Festival Pushing Daisies event where I'll get to see the last three episodes of the series (that, despite its considerable flaws, I do find myself missing the longer I've been without it).

The Joss Wants What It Wants

I don't understand why Fox would fuck around by altering what Joss Whedon had in mind for Dollhouse. As far as I'm concerned, the series started last night. Yeah, there's a bit of backstory and character connections that were made in the first five episodes, but "Man on the Street" felt, played, unfolded so much more like a pilot than, well, certainly the first episode of Dollhouse that aired.

Was it "game-changing"? Nah. Because there wasn't a lot of game going on to change. It was "game-starting".

I'm very pleased that I stuck with Dollhouse. Though I wish I could get the first five episodes wiped from my memory.

A Thought on Dollhouse

So we're four episodes into this series (waiting for episode six to see what the difference is).  And a central, important question persists (okay, several do).

Why hire an Active?

Why not hire, say, an actual midwife?  Or an escort?  Or a hostage negotiator?

Why spend what is implied to be a LOT more money to hire an Active through the Dollhouse?

I understand, actually, when you're doing something illegal, because no memory would be left of the crime committed (I haven't actually watched a ton of last night's episode, yet, so I dunno what the rationale behind hiring Echo-as-safe-cracker was).  Or have, like, a rape fantasy you want to carry out so you give certain instructions for an imprint, rape the Active, 

... apparently, I'm a horrible human being with a very dark imagination.

Yay?

Grrr Argh

Even if Dollhouse was disappointing (though, actually, with all the "it's going to suuuuuuuuck" buzz it was more engaging than expected... still... not awful to the point of turning it off halfway through but not great... I think the appropriate word is "intriguing" with all the positive and negative connotations that word implies) it's nice to see the Mutant Enemy company card on my television again.

Grrr argh, indeed.