December 02, 2008

• Big Bang Theory: Awesome. Never miss it. Hilarious show. Life: Great idea for a cop drama, but the lead actor bugs the hell out of me. I seriously want to throw things at the screen when he speaks. Life on Mars: No. Just no. Get the Channel 4 original series. And I love Harvey Keitel. Gary Unmarried: Standard sitcom fare, but pretty entertaining. Not bad. 30 Rock: Genius. Dexter: Fantastic show idea, but the writing sometimes plunges into awful melodramatic territory. Want so badly to love this show, but the dialogue keeps disappointing me. Never watched any of the others, though I hear Big Love is wonderful.
• What. No Pushing Daisies? It PD isn't there then the list is crap and has no validity.
• Get the Channel 4 original series. Admittedly, I've only seen the first couple episodes of the UK one, and I would think it better than the US one, but they seem to be very different creatures altogether. In that, it's relatively successful, more like the adaptation of The Office than of Coupling. Plus, there's Gretchen Mol. And Harvey Keitel. And Michael Imperioli. And his glorious 'stache. But mostly Gretchen. She makes my old peepers so very happy...
• I gave Big Bang Theory two chances, and I couldn't bear it. They lose. The show reminds me of Will and Grace in that it reduces a group of people (scientists, gays, whatever) to a well-work caricature stereotype and reiffs off the same lame joke endlessly. (Do gay people talk about anything other than their gayness? Do scientists have any extra-curricular interests outside of geekdom?) So, no, I shant be watching again. 30Rock works, and I try to limit my TV to a few hours a week (30Rock, Heroes, Flight of the Conchords, sports), so I haven't seen any of the others.
• The only one of the lot that I watch is 30 Rock. Do love Pushing Daisies though. There is only a limited number of shows on teevee besides those two that I bother with anymore . . . Chuck, The Mentalist, Corner Gas, Fringe and Doctor Who. Yeah. That is about it.
• So they want us to watch these shows and then don't tell us what network they are on? That makes a lot of sense. 30 Rock is the only show on the list I watch or want to watch. I might watch Big Bang Theory or Gary Unmarried but you couldn't pay me to watch another show about a cop, doctor, or lawyer no matter how good or unique it is.
• The thing I really love about The Mentalist? His hair. That guy has really great hair.
• I don't bother with the tube at all now--everything sucks, IMHO, except a few of the PBS shows, and they're even starting to dummy those down. Instead I read and hang out on MonkeyFilter. How lame is that?
• Do these people not understand the internets? Why the hell would they post the list as a PDF? I mean, for the love of all that is holy. Why? ARE YOU AFRAID MY BROWSER WON'T RENDER YER PERFECT LAYOUT ALL PRETTY? Ass. Oh there are shows listed there? Life on Mars looked like an interesting premise (oh, it is a British import? Wow, how original, American TV has never done that before, ever!) but I haven't ever watched it. Just starting to like 30 Rock after ignoring it last year. Hell, for that matter, I usually give things a year to see if they actually survive, no sense getting caught up in a new show only to see it canceled out of the blue a few episodes in, right?
• Well, maybe that's the problem. They're so Web-impaired they don;t realize we're all watching stuff on the tubes rather than the tube.
• Unfortunately, Pushing Daisies has been canceled, which is probably why it's not on this list.
• Much like with Veronica Mars, the cancellation of Pushing Daisies fills me with brightly coloured, pie flavoured rage.
• The ones I can't miss are Big Love and Dexter (I like the dry, creepy monotone in which Dexter presents his life).
• Many years ago, I had an idea for a great story. I couldn't figure out where I wanted to take it, but the premise was awesome. Apparently, I wasn't the only one with that idea, because someone made it into a show called Dexter. Frickers. The Life on Mars premise sounds great. I'd start watching either the US or UK version, but I can only find two episodes on hulu.
• The premise of Dexter concerns me. Admittedly, I haven't seen it, but is the serial killer really presented as the "good guy"? Because he only kills "bad people"? Isn't this what Bush has been claiming of himself for seven years?
• What I've seen of it isn't so morally clear-cut. He's more complex than that, his compulsion to kill isn't something that's totally awesome or even forgivable just because his targets are killers. It's kind of like Al Swearingen from Deadwood or Omar Little from The Wire -- there are times you root for them, yes, and they're decidedly anti-heroes, but you're never allowed to forget how supremely cruel and vicious they are.
• Many years ago, I had an idea for a great story. I couldn't figure out where I wanted to take it, but the premise was awesome. That made me LOL. It's not like the show has anything to add to that! It's a great premise, but obviously no one involved can figure out where to take it. Maybe it went over better in its original novel form; I can't say.
• (Also, I guess this is where I have to sheepishly admit that I'm a closet "Bones" fan.)