Chuck And Journeyman

premier week has officially begun on nbc and monday night (last night) we got two new show premiers: Chuck and Jouneyman.

Chuck: i was looking forward to this one and it was exactly what i expected. it was funny and quick and had some action all in a nice fun package. i really want to see where this one goes however. i'm hoping for an interesting through story for the series, as opposed to the more episodic type stuff where each episode is its own individual thing and the grand story arc isn't as important (ala CSI). from what i could tell from the pilot, i think that the through story could be there.

Journeyman: this one, however, looks to be episodic which is disappointing. i wasn't looking forward to this show at all. some guy takes trips back in time, and there is an ex-love-of-his-life, blah, blah blah!! it sounded corny and didn't interest me.

then i watched it and as it was coming to an end i had changed my mind. the relationship thing wasn't corny and he spent a bunch of his time dealing with this other guys life that he had changed on his first trip back.

then it ended and he had done what he had had to do in that guys life (make sure he didn't kill his family so that his son could become a boy genius doctor and safe a bunch of lives) and that was it for that story line. the way it ended they make it seem like each episode will involve him going back and effecting some change or fixing something so that things can work out well in the future. hmmmmmmm, can you say Quantum Leap?????

Quantum Leap was a great show, and yes it was very episodic in that pretty much each episode could be watched without having seen the one previous, but they were interesting and focused on the fixing of the past. at Journeyman it seems like they can't decide what they are doing. there is what seems to be a through story about the ex-lover (and the fact that she might not have actually been killed in a plane crash is an interesting development) and i expect they will get into how, and why, he is doing the time travel thing. however, because of all that, the actual fixing the past part felt very superficial and to easily accomplished. there was no drama or real conflict there.

now, they can also go the route of making the grand story arc the focus and the each-episode-travel-fixes secondary. they just have to pick one, because they don't look like they can have both. but, i like to give shows a chance, so it will remained tivo'd for at least a couple more episodes and we shall see how it develops.

K-Ville And Prison Break

the new tv season has begun and we will be looking at it all as it unfolds over the next few weeks. but for now we have gotten started with the season premier Prison Break and the seriese premier of K-Ville - both on fox on monday nights.

i have been a fan of Prison Break during its first two seasons and was looking forward to the new season, and the premier didn't disappoint.

michael scofield found himself in a panamanian prison at the end of last season and that is where he starts this one - along with some other recognizable characters. and as we find out by the end of the episode, he has been put there in order to help someone escape. SWEET!!!

Prison Break isn't known for its brilliant dialogue or depth of character. it is a cool, fun, exciting show that hooks you and doesn't let go and the season opener lived up to expectations. sure there are some generic characters in the prison and predictable story developments, but that is all moot. the show is fast and intense and i am looking forward to a good season.

as for K-Ville, i wasn't as impressed. the show has some action and such, but the detective/'mystery' part of the show was really not that interesting. what i liked was the characters and the dealing with a post-katrina new orleans and how the city is still so far from what it once was even these years later.

its easy for us to go about our lives and forget about it now that the telethons are over and it isn't in the news all the time, but the people that it effected are still dealing with the repercussions and will be for probably a lot longer.

pilots aren't always the best way to judge a show, so i will keep it on my tivo for now and see where it goes.

Prison Break
grade: B+

K-Ville
grade: B- (but could go up or down and will be adjusted after i check out a few more episodes)

Season Finales: The Shield & Weeds

ya, ya, i know i am a little behind, but since i don't get fx or showtime with my cable package (i don't know if any package in canada provides them) i have to catch up with some of my favorite shows on a bit of a delay. with that out of the way, i can tell you all that this week i finished season 3 of Weeds and season 6 of The Shield, and all i have to say is WOW!

especially for The Shield: last seasons finale was crazy and i didn't know how they were going to play this season out. then when macky found out who really killed lem and with only a few days left before he was going to be forced out, again i wasn't sure where they were going to take it. but they took it to some good and dark places. having shane playing both sides of the armenian mob and then having to protect macky's family was all intense, good stuff. not that you need a recap of the whole season. but lets just say it was another great one and keeps it easily in my top 5 favorite shows on tv. i was really disappointed that it was only a 10 episode season.

as for Weeds: season three was another good season and i liked how the whole married-to-the-fbi thing went sour. and of course justin kirk as the brother-in-law is always great (just now with two less toes). as for the season finale, the last 10 minutes were awesome! with the two gangs with the guns pointed at our 'heroes' and her on the phone with her son with the pot in his trunk and the perfect score/music playing, and then the police arriving at the car... that was some great stuff.

Weeds season three is just a couple months away, so don't forget to check that out and for the Shield you will have to wait till 2008.

Drive Gets Canceled

well i didn't know it at the time, but i was dead on when i called the show Drive a guilty pleasure, but commented that "if the poor ratings for last nights premier are any indication, it might be a short lived guilty pleasure", because Drive has been canned. after airing only three times fox has said 'enough' and ended it.

look, i'm not going to claim that Drive was a great show, i mean i gave it a B-, but this constant canceling of shows after only a couple airings is really starting to piss me off. i will be ok without knowing how drive ends, but there have been some really good shows that have suffered the same fate this season and those i am not ok with: Daybreak, The Knights Of Prosperity, The Nine and The Black Donnelly's to name a few.

why can't a show, especially a quality one (and the networks know which ones are quality and which ones aren't) get a chance to build an audience. Seinfeld, Cheers and Friends weren't huge hits when they premiered, but look what they turned into (huge hits and huge moneymakers for the networks).

yes, i understand that in a 1000 channel world the audience has so many options that the networks feel they need to grab an audience fast if they want the advertisers to stick around and they also want certain demographics and such and all television shows are really (at least on free tv), are things to kill time between commercials. i get all that, but that doesn't make it right, and a lot of the time that is a network just being really nearsighted.

look at Criminal Minds as a very modern example. that show took a little while to get going, but it did, and this year is actually beat Lost in the ratings a few times when they were on at the same time. also, the ratings for The Office have improved over its first season, so it can happen and it isn't a crazy notion either.

that's why i appreciate what nbc is doing with 30 Rock and Friday Night Lights, assuming they renew the latter like it looks as if they are leaning towards doing. these are two high-quality shows that deserve a chance at building an audience.

sure sometimes it just doesn't happen, look at Arrested Development. they got a couple extra seasons more then their ratings would have suggested, but it just never caught on (too bad cause it was a great show), but at least it had a shot. canceling a show after 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 episodes just isn't fair to the show or the audience that is getting into it or that might have gotten into it had they given them a chance.

back to Drive: fox hasn't said what they will do with the remaining episodes they have in the can, but putting them online seems to be the thing to do these days so i wouldn;t be surprised if that is what they do.

Mr. President, You Owe Me!

i know it's a little late, but i thought that line from the episode of 24 a couple weeks ago was frickin' awesome and i had to mention it.

next bit of 24 talk is the relationship between acting president daniels and his hot blonde assistant lisa. normally this show is great in the casting department and i thought powers boothe was a perfect v.p. daniels. however, the love affair between him and lisa looks so uncomfortable (did you see that kiss at the end of this weeks episode).

speaking of lisa: is it just me or does anyone else think that there is more to this chick then meets the eye? she has got something going on and i'm pretty sure it ain't gonna be good.

24 Hours Of Great Television

Get 24 on DVD

i am an old time 24 fan. from the moment i heard about the show many months before it premiered i thought it sounded like an original and interesting premise. it lived up to my high-expectations back then and has continued to do so through each subsiquent intense and edge-of-your-seat season.

i have never watched a more intense show then 24. the show provides lots of action and intrigue, but yet it also manages to create strong attachments to the characters. the crisis doesn't just bring the characters together, but it also brings them closer to us and we feel a real sense of loss when anyone, even a minor character, gets killed off, which happens quite a bit (i would name off a few, but i don't want to fuin it for anyone who is still a few seasons behind and catching up on dvd).

and you do want to catch up on dvd if at all possible. sure you could watch any season individually, but there are a lot of recurring characters and references to prior seasons that makes it much more exciting and worthwhile to go through them in order (it is always a great moment when some charcter from a past season appears unexpectidly to help or hurt the situation)

at first i was a little worried/curious as to how they were going to make this into anything more then a one or two season show. but they have managed to do so, and just when you think a season itself is getting old or has nowhere to go they throw a wrench in the works and take you off in another direction. for example: the whole audrey raines thing this season.

although there are complaints about the show focusing on the middle east for its bad guys, anyone who has watched the show knows that they have had bad guys from all over the world, including: china, mexico, ex-american agents, russia and the american government itself. there is even a rumour that the bad guys in season 7 will be quebec seperatists (a faction of quebecers that advocate for the province to seperate from canada and become a sovreign nation) - it's about time the show 'came to canada': kieffer sutherland is canadian and one of the producers of the show, jon casser, is from montreal.

whatever they decide to do i will be there watching every second of the next 24 hours and of course there are still five hours left this season.

grade: A+

Wanna Go For A Drive?

last night fox premiered the show Drive. the show, about an illegal cross-country road race has been in the works and re-works for over a year now and has finally made it to air. so what do we get for all that waiting and fixing and such? we get a corny, stereotypical, poorly written, fun and kind of exciting show - think of it as the movie Rat Race meets the tv show Fastlane with a Prsion Break mystery of unknown forces thrown in.

so ya, i kind of liked it, but in a guilty pleasure sort of way. some of the dialogue made me groan and the characters all felt like cookie cutter 'screen writing for dummies' creations, but i wanted to see what would happen next.

Now, i try not to judge a show based on the pilot episode because usually they get to wrapped up in giving us information and introducing characters and their characteristics and the episode tends to feel a little forced. as it is now though, i think it is, like i said, an medium range show that i will follow. However, if the poor ratings for last nights premier are any indication, it might be a short lived guilty pleasure. we shall see.

the premise is original at least (meaning it isn't about cops and doesn't take place in a hospital or law firm) and they did set up plenty of mystery and unknowns that will be revealed as the race goes along. all that being said, Drive doesn't yet appear to be more then that. they didn't take this actually could-be-exciting premise and turn it into something smart and really interesting like Lost (i am a little surprised given that one of the show's creators is tim minear, who was one of the guys behind the short lived, but excellent, show Wonderfalls that was on fox a few years back).

instead they created a guilty pleasure and didn't really go beyond that. is that a bad thing? not necessarily. it is what it is, and while it isn't as good as Prison Break or 24 (the two other monday night adrenaline rushes) so far it is a fun enough ride that has intrigued me enough to make me keep watching for now.

p.s. one of my biggest pet peeves in movies and tv is during driving scenes when the character driving is talking to the passenger and spends more time looking at the other person then actually watching the road. given that Drive spends most of its time in cars, that is something they really have to watch out for, cause there have been a few times where it was laughable.

grade: B-