MagneticMediaFed

Whoo! We did it! We did it!

As the 2006/2007 TV season winds to a close, it’s kind of interesting/sobering to look at the network schedule and see which of those “highly toted” new shows from last fall actually made it all the way. Even more interesting is to try to figure out which of those shows impressed people enough to get second seasons.

According to my count the following were clearly strong enough (or at least received well enough by critics) to make it from the fall to the spring mostly intact: Jericho, Shark, Ugly Betty, Heroes, 30 Rock, Friday Night Lights, ‘Til Death and The Game. Of those, you can really only grant the distinction of being a “hit new show” to Heroes, Ugly Betty and Shark — all of which are expected to return next fall.

Also interesting is that Heroes is the only true serial (perhaps Ugly Betty to a lesser degree) that caught viewer’s attention this year despite “the serialized drama” being the hot genre going into the fall of 2006 (The Nine, Six Degrees, Other Number Based Drama anyone?). Apparently people who are not myself only have so much tolerance for interweaving storylines.

As for those shows that didn’t make it out alive, they’re numbers are too plentiful to count. Not like we’re really missing anything too significant. Outside of Friday Night Lights, which made it from start to finish despite still being on the bubble for a season two, there really weren’t that many new shows this season that broke any significant ground artistically. Are there people out there still wiping away tears because Kidnapped didn’t make it past its fourth week? Probably, but we didn’t really want to be friends with those people anyway, did we? Look, at least they’re got a DVD release, which is more than I can say for fans of Andy Richter Controls the Universe.

Does anyone else watch The Nine? The answer is likely yes, but it feels more like a resounding no. For whatever reason, The Nine isn’t really a show that gets talked about (maybe because most people feel like it won’t make it to a second season). My thoery is that no one talks about The Nine because it isn’t a “fun” show. It’s an “adult” show. It tackles heavy topics (life, death, justice, dealing with one’s past mistakes, accepting the future, etc), and never gets bogged down in the trappings of more popular serial dramas (like suspence, action, cliffhangers, and love-interests). The Nine in its emotional subtlety, might in fact be a little too grown-up for network television, which is why I could see it getting the ax any day.

Well that, or the fact that every time I see Scott Wolf in the series (he plays a doctor who — get this! — has some unresolved emotional issues from when he was held hostage for 52 hours) I can’t think of anything but the seven or eight different kinds of rodents he looks like. Not that the man is ulgy. On the contrary. This is one good-looking individual. Though face actually has the structure of a wiskered animal that scavenges for nuts and cheese. Sometimes when he interacts with other characters on the show I’m worried that he’ll start gnawing on their clothes.

I know, I know. This is telelvision, it requires the suspension of disbelief, but still… very rodent-like.

Previews suck. They used to not suck, but then something happened. Unfortunately, that something isn’t the easiest to pinpoint. Here’s what we do know: for the longest time, the only thing more exciting than the last three minutes of your favorite serial drama was sticking it out through the last commercial break to find out what *might* happen next week. Next Week is very important in television. Next Week is, perhaps, more important than this week. If Next Week looks like it’ll be awesome, people will tune in, and they might even tell people. Next Week promises everything that didn’t happen this week, even if deep down we know that there is no way on God’s green earth that Next Week could possibly deliver the way we want it to.

When you tune into any given episode of 24 — especially if that episode happens to be during the first half of the season — you watch the preview for the next installment and get the idea into your head that Jack just might get to the bad guys. Sure, while you’re watching you remember that Jack is, in fact, trapped under a filing cabinet in Dayton, and the bomb is suppose to go off in downtown L.A., but goddammit, this preview really makes it look like he could pull this off a good fourteen hours ahead of schedule, and I’d love to tune in and see that. Of course, the next week Jack is no closer (this time the episode ends with him trapped inside a refrigerator in Boca) but you’re still glad you tuned in because even if the bad guys are still on the loose, you did get to see three henchmen shot in the head and one guy tortured with a soldering iron. And just wait until the preview for NEXT week! There’s more by clicking below…

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It seems like last week there there was so much television being watching by yours truly I barely had an opportunity to report back with my thoughts (and without thoughts, we really don’t have much of a website). So here are, more or less, my notes on a week’s worth of programming:

Friday Night Lights (Tuesdays 8pm NBC) - Inexplicably placed on a Tuesday, Friday Night Lights is being put into my regular rotation because its one of the few shows I’ve seen on network television that doesn’t shy away from the racial and economical issues affecting small cities in America. The pilot was a by-the-numbers local-boy-makes-good football story and yet the emphasis was never put on the game itself, but on the characters and how football is really the towns only shared experience. The shows realism seemed startling.

Help Me Help You (Tuesdays 9:30 ABC) - I liked seeing Tim Meadows as the rival therapist. Tim Meadows is the type of SNL alum who was so poorly used on the show it might have tainted an otherwise brilliant career. Otherwise, if it weren’t for the complete lack of comedies on television, I probably would quit watching this show. In classic Hollywood fashion, the series takes place in a New York City that reeks of Los Angeles (the LA subway may on one of the sets didn’t help).

The Nine (Wednesdays 10:00 ABC) - First and foremost, “Egan Foote” might be the greatest character name of the season. As for the character, well, we’ll just have to wait and see. As a whole, The Nine was both good and interesting, but like Studio 60… we won’t be able to get a real look at the show until the second or third week. What is interesting about the setup for The Nine (a group of people are held hostage in a bank for 52 hours, and throughout the shows run we’ll get to see what happened in there) is seeing if audiences will use the hostage-taking as a canvas in which to project their own personal tragedies. Perhaps the bigger question is wondering if people do happen to project themselves into the series, will they like what they see? The Nine asks viewers to dig a little deeper into their own psyche in order to start relating to the characters on screen. I’m curious to see if viewers will be willing to do that.

Freak Show (Wednesdays 10:30 Comedy Central) - The voice-talent alone is a force to be reckoned with. Frankly, I could listen to Jon Benjamin read XML manuals and find it hilarious, though the show still pales in comparison to The Venture Brothers, which might be the pinnacle of six years worth of Adult Swim programming. Aside from South Park, Comedy Central has never really had much authority in animation.

Peep Show (BBC, DVD) - I put down the TV remote for the DVD remote and checkout out the british series, Peep Show, which was recommended to me by a friend. It’s a fairly high concept show about two roommates who are a bit of an odd-couple (one’s a button down office worker, there other is a carefree musician). The twist is that the entire show is shot from the point-of-view of one of the characters. As in we, the audience, are constantly looking through someone’s eyes and are able to hear their thoughts. Its a cool-enough idea, and could certainly propel a series, but it also doesn’t hurt that the characters frequently make the worst decisions you could imagine. I’d basically equate the style of comedy to something of a British It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Definitely worth checking out.

Ugly Betty (Thursdays 8:00 ABC) - Nice to see “Dawn” from the British office show up here as the host of “Fashion TV.” That makes two network shows where she’s been spotted in a small role this season. LET’S MAKE IT THREE!

SNL (Saturdays 11:30 NBC) - The only redeeming parts of this episode were the “New York City Stories” shorts that were done with Fred Armisen and Amy Poehler. Specifically the first one where Armisen played Scorsese. That made me laugh.

South Park (Wednesdays 10:00 Comedy Central) - I don’t play “Worlds of Warcraft” but enjoyed this episode nonetheless. I’m curious how much support they had from Blizzard, as their logo was all over the episode.

Extras (Thursdays 9:00 BBC-2) - It’s not out in America yet (January), but let me be the first to tell you that the second season of Ricky Gervais’ Extras is leaps and bounds above the first (which is saying something since the first season was hardly shabby). This week’s episode featured Chris Martin from Coldplay pimping his new record “Coldplay’s Greatest Hits.” I know that doesn’t sound all that funny (”You’re gay because you like Coldplay”), but trust me… it is. There’s video available via the BBC.