MagneticMediaFed

One year ago I spent the entire upfronts week feverishly clicking my refresh button looking for the latest information on the coming fall television season. What a difference a year makes. After the 100-day writer’s strike left most of the network’s schedules flopping on the dock like a hooked but forgotten flounder, no one (not the advertisers, not the networks, and certainly not the audience) seems particularly thrilled about the network announcements (or lack of announcements) for their future plans. This week is, after all, FOR the advertisers, and since network television is no longer viewed as being all that lucrative those advertising dollars are looking for something more than the typical slate of potential prime-time disasters. Take ABC, for example. The network plans on adding a whopping TWO new programs to its fall prime-time line-up, choosing instead to bring back almost all of it’s fall ‘08 slate (minus, Carpoolers, Cavemen and October Road). But who cares, especially this early in the process? More after the jump…

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Whomever or whoever? Enjoy this awesome clip from perhaps my favorite episode of The Office ever, “Money,” courtesy of Hulu.

Living in something of a television black-hole with almost obscene amounts of free-time, I’ve frequently found myself over at the NBC/FOX video-joint Hulu, which just went public a few weeks back. As far as sanctioned video is concerned, there might not be a better destination online (though I will also add that the revamped Daily Show website is wholly usable). So far I’ve re-watched the first half of this season’s episodes of The Office, more than a few 30 Rocks, The Jerk, The Three Amigos and (strangely?) Dude, Where’s My Car. The experience, which is where any video-based website lives and dies, is so good I almost want to classify it as “feel-good.” There’s something almost novel about the notion of getting content that for so long has been on the fringes of legality now packaged in a super-slick wrapper sanctioned by all of the powers that be (including our once-short-shrifted writers). More after the jump…

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Picture via Doug Mills/New York Times

First: sorry for the untimeliness in this post, but I’ve been busy working on the site’s redesign which you may or may not have noticed. Moving on.

FOX’s broadcast of Super Bowl XLII (that’s “42″ for those that don’t read Roman) was the second highest rated television program of all time coming in behind the finale for M*A*S*H. The game was seen by an estimated 97.5 million people (M*A*S*H reached 106 million people, though at a time when most people only had access to a handful of channels). I find this to be more or less astounding. Much of what contemporary culture is based on is the notion that there are very few things rallied around by everyone, and the steady decline in network television ratings is perhaps biggest example of this (followed closely by the lack of America’s appetite to consume large quantities of popular music). To see a singular event grab such a large percentage of our collective attention spans speaks highly about the event itself as well as providing a bit of reassurance to the networks that people will turn out en mass if there’s something actually worth checking out. But what is the subtext of these numbers? Do they suggest that the solution to the network’s audience migration problem lies solely in their ability to deliver something worth seeing (because there is a lot of television worth seeing that most audiences could care less about)? Or should we read into this that the magic lies in the very scarcity of the event itself? After all, what are the odds of getting a Super Bowl where the actual game was that good? More after the jump…

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Pic via Flickr

I’m going to forgo the usual episode recaps today as I 1) haven’t actually watched anything from last night and 2) feel like dedicating some space to the WGA strike as tomorrow night will mark the first significant casualty of the work-stoppage. Thursday’s episode of The Office entitle “The Deposition” will be the last new episode we can expect from the show until the strike ends. The Office was one of the first series to close up shop due in large part to the fact that a good chunk of the cast happens to also write for the show.

The Futon Critic has a really handy guide with the amount of episodes each show has left to air before going dark. Most of the networks biggest series will have trouble making it past the first week in December (which, luckily for them, is traditionally dark). We should expect little (if any) scripted programming come 2008.

In the meantime, treat yourself to the endless supply of strike blogs popping up on the internet, the most informative being the guild’s official blog United Hollywood. Here are some others:

Late Show Writers on Strike
Scribe Vibe (Variety)
Show Tracker (LA Times)

One last note: since the major sticking point for this strike is writer’s compensation for ad-supported material posted on the web, I would encourage everyone to avoid using the networks’ video services until a deal is made.

It’s been a month since new shows started popping up and my god has it been a rough ride. I was able to keep for the better part of two weeks, but lately I’ve had to throw my hands up and declare that once again, the television has won. Part of the problem, for me at least, is this fall seems to have more decent shows than season’s past. There are always one or two really good new programs, but typically the rest of it is just dreck. This year there have only been a small handful of shows I would consider abdominal, but with an unusually large amount resting somewhere in the middle. But how does one justify sticking with a series that is at its very best just OK. I think now would be as good a time as any to look at where we are and decide how to move forward.

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It must be a rule that FOX is only allowed to release one good show every year. In 2001 we had 24, 2002 brought us American Idol, 2003 Arrested Development, then in 2004 we were graced with House and last year was Prison Break. This year, well, we’re still waiting.

Any new series is going to have a hard time finding its audience and becoming a hit, but as of late it seems like FOX hasn’t really been trying too had. It’s almost like this year they decided to just buy the cheapest shows they could find, knowing that all they have to do is make it to playoff baseball, and then to January. Once American Idol starts back up the network is on “coast” until the end of the season. So what’s the motivation to produce a narrative hit?

Last night FOX released its two new comedies. The first, ‘Til Death, started out with a clever enough opening: footage of little kids talking about who they want to marry. Think When Harry Met Sally only with kids instead of the elderly. I thought this was a great way to set-up a series that is suppose to compare an older married couple with a younger one.

But then the episode started. The first thing I noticed was that the show had one of the most fake laugh-tracks ever. In fact, the laugh cues we so awkwardly timed a character would give a set-up, then the laugh would come, and then another character would give the punch-line, and no laugh would come. Were they drunk when they put this thing together? The real problem is that ‘Til Death is a single-camera show, written like a three-camera show, only, you know, without jokes.

This is suppose to be Brad Garrett’s big break-out role, finally out from the shadow that is Ray Romano, but forcing myself to make it through the entire 22-minutes of ‘Til Death, all I could think was this guy totally should have pushed for the spin-off series.

Following the unfunny ‘Til Death was the equally unfunny– though trying a bit harder– Happy Hour, about a group of young, cool, friends who live in an apartment. It is an idea that has NEVER been done in the history of television. It doesn’t work. The only thing the show has going for it is having Andy Ackerman (who has directed most of the good episodes from most of the good sit-comes over the past 15 years) listed as Executive Producer. One credit can’t save a series (remember The Michael Richards Show?).

Happy Hour is a lot like the movie Swingers if you got rid of the good acting, writing, and, of course, the jokes. I don’t know where the show’s creators, Jeff and Jackie Filgo, went to school, but the whole thing has the stink of the modern “Harvard Lampoon school of sit-com mass production.”

FOX, while having a sordid history with finding successful shows, also has had a decent history of getting some of the most creative (and funny) projects on the air (Arrested Development, Undeclared, Andy Richter Controls the Universe), even if they’re short lived. This season, we just haven’t seen them.

Did anyone catch Standoff last night on FOX? It’s been receiving generally horrible reviews. This isn’t going to be one of them. Look, I can’t say that once the fall really gets rolling I’ll ever take time to watch this show regularly, but for this week, I happened to find it entertaining. It doesn’t hurt that Ron Livingston and Rosemarie DeWitt are almost impossible to not like (though Ron’s character in Sex and the City did break up with Carie Bradshaw via post-it).

It’s odd. I can’t really point to any one thing about the show that was particularly interesting aside from the fact that the hour seemed to fly by. In a way, I guess that makes it the perfect network show: low octane, generally likable, and efficient enough to not make you second-guess your hour-long investment. Though as I said earlier, that might not be enough to make it into my permanent Tuesday line-up. Here’s what else is playing on Tuesdays that I’m interested in: Friday Night Lights; The Knights of Prosperity; The Unit; Veronica Mars; Help Me Help You; Smith. Not to mention whatever FX is showing.

We’ll see how things play out, but I’ll at least give it another week.

I can’t write much, as I’m about to leave for work, but it must be stated sooner than later that Justice, the new courtroom drama on FOX (which premiered last night), is not just bad, but makes you question your own reasoning for watching television in the first place. And no, Victor Garber doesn’t make it worth while in the end.

The series is about a law firm that handles high profile cases. They make no bones about it, they’re hired to get you off (well, that may cost a little something extra). They don’t care if you’re guilty or innocent. You’re paying for innocence and that’s what they plan on delivering. I’m all for moral ambiguity, but there gets to be a point where someone, somewhere needs to take a stand. The series is a procedural in the same way CSI is (all style no substance… also both Jerry Bruckheimer productions). This means it gives you little in terms of character backgrounds (both in terms of the legal team and the defendant).

So we know nothing about any of these people, and we’re suppose to root for the guy to not be convicted of the crime. Right? Then, the big twist is in the end, after the jury has given their decision, the audience (us) gets to see what actually happened on the night of the crime. Why? So we can walk away feeling happy that we hadn’t just spent an hour rooting for a killer, or so we can walk away feeling hopeless that we had just spent an hour rooting for a killer, or… what is this show saying?

Bottom line: it’s on Wednesday’s at nine. So is Lost. You decide.

So when we left last season the gang was on the run with the prison guards right on their trail!

The season two premiere starts off about an hour or so after the last season’s finale. Everyone is running and there’s this great chase sequence. Think Ronin (which I haven’t seen either). They come up to these train tracks and the train is coming as so the prison breakers outrun the train and get to the other side, thus trapping the cops and giving themselves a bit of a head start.

Now then, the good-looking brother (the one with those bad-ass tats) says that they need to work on plan B, which involves them reading the directions off his back. Basically it says that they need to dig up a grave, where he stored a bunch of civilian clothes and passports and the like.

But here’s the problem, there’s this FBI agent on the case played by that guy who always (ALWAYS) plays a cop and he “gets it.” He figured out that the younger brother with the tats (the good looking one) has his plans marked into his skin. So he studies the photos that were taken back in prison and deduces exactly what grave site they’re going to be at.

MEANWHILE! Remember T-Bag? He’s the one with the name that suggests a sexual act no one is really much of a fan of. Well his arm has been cut off. So he hobbles around and finds a cooler. He puts the arm on ice and then goes in search of a hospital. The best he can find is a vet. He takes the vet hostage and tells him to reattach his arm. The vet says he should put him under while he does it, but T-Bag is no sucker (no pun intended… OKAY! PUN INTENDED!), he says hell no and demands that he do the surgery while he’s awake AND WITH NO ANESTHESIA! Who is this guy? James Frey!?

But back to the gang. The plan is that they’re going to go to Utah where the lawyer chick is waiting. But then she gets shot, so who knows what’ll happen!

Fade out.

The fall season started last night on FOX (who is trying to give their new seasons a foothold before playoff baseball starts) with Prison Break and their new show about a kidnapped senator’s wife called Vanished. Being the second kidnapping tale I’ve seen in the past two weeks (NBC’s cleverly titled Kidnapped being the other), there are obvious comparisons to be made. While Kidnapped was occasionally interesting when the characters weren’t talking and has the better cast, Vanished is just really really bad.

Here’s where the show went astray: 1) It was crazy, but not “crazy.” Prison Break is “crazy,” which is why I can respect that show despite giving up watching it last fall. “Crazy” is good. It means you have a sense of humor about what you’re doing. You understand that television stories need twists and turns to keep the viewer interested and you understand how that is contrary to how actual life works. But vanished is just crazy. Crazy is bad. Crazy is trying to convince yourself that the characters on screen are real people and yet having them do things that no real person would ever do. Of course, neither of these descriptions are as good as Crazy, the song of the summer.

2) After watching a show like The Wire (and spending two hours in my local police precinct last fall), I’ve begun to hate any depiction of the FBI (or any law enforcement agency) as being “super high tech.” Real police have lousy technology, and its usually yellowed by fluorescent lights, not shiny and metal. Sure, this is nitpicky. Sure, this is a something that is entirely common in Hollywood cops and robber stories, but Vanished is all ready awful. This is only adding salt to the wound.

3) Was it me or did the show introduce a bunch of new characters in the last two minutes? Talk about a low-rent cliffhanger.

So did anyone else watch this?

Today CBS issued a press release saying that it would be airing several episodes of new and returning programs on the internet for free through their InnerTube video service. The online shows will be streamed and have commercials embedded that cannot be skipped (though considerably fewer commercials than when the shows air on television). ABC began offering more or less the same system last spring via their website. Both network’s only offer a handful of shows to be featured in their entirety. NBC and FOX have yet to put anything comparable on the table (though NBC did strike a deal with YouTube recently, which has yet to produce anything of note).

I really like this model, though I can imagine its driving the affiliates crazy. They need the networks to survive. The opposite used to be true, but now that there is iTunes (whose video impact has yet to be measured), and these new programs that give viewers what they want (whole shows) and keep the finance department happy (unskippable advertising) the local affiliate is becoming less and less important in that happy circle of broadcast television life.

The big problem, as I see it, is that the type of people who don’t have a problem watching video online (people like me), aren’t going to be using these services to get new content. If I want to see the new Lost, then by-God I’m going to see the new Lost when it airs (or DVR it, or anything that will let me watch it as soon as possible with the fewest distractions). The rest of the television populace doesn’t care. Casual viewers aren’t going to seek out a website so they can see a new show glorious, grainy, streamed video. So where’s the win/win? Click below and I’ll tell you…

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Tonight after work I sat down in front of the television to take in the season premiere of the Showtime comedy Weeds. It’s an unremarkable show on an unremarkable network, but they’re both trying and that’s usually worth something. Showtime has no easy hill to climb. If you ask and Tom, Dick or Larry on the street where you’re going to find the best programming on cable they’re going to say HBO. Maybe Larry will accidentally say Showtime, but that’s only because he’s a big Red Shoe Diaries fan.

Though if they’re ever going to make a move, now is precisely the time to do it. HBO is limp. It’s top show, The Sopranos seemed to hemorrhage viewers this past season (maybe because people don’t like having to wait 20 months between seasons, or maybe because the shows sexiness has apparently bored the creators). Its top comedy, Sex and the City is long gone and nothing seems poised to take the reigns. HBO still makes great shows (this week’s Deadwood was awesome and exactly what a ‘payoff’ episode should be), and even the greatest show, The Wire, which I’ll be talking about in more depth later in the week. But none of these shows have the buzz that the network once had. Showtime, if it played its cards right, could finally start to chip away some of HBO’s viewers.

Weeds is a big part of that plan. It’s a crowd-pleaser (maybe too much so). Throw in The L Word and Brotherhood and you’ve got yourself a respectable one-two-three.

ANYWAY, I’m watching the show (on the SHO) and laughing occasionally at the occasionally funny moments on this occasionally interesting series about a pot-selling suburban mom when something happens. Something that should never happen on a premium channel. What was it? Click below to find out…

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Last week was the lowest rated week for television in recorded history. The four main networks (ABC, NBC, CBS & FOX) totalled just over 20 million viewers for the entire week.

Maybe its because of the July 4th Holiday, or that all the cool new shows are on cable, or maybe– just maybe– because IT’S THE MIDDLE OF THE GOD DAMNED SUMMER! Go outside people, I’ll do the heavy lifting for you.

Last week the right-wing think tank The Heritage Foundation put on a panel to discuss America’s image in the war on terror. The panel, hosted by levelheaded former drug-addict Rush Limbaugh, featured various members of the Department of Homeland Securty (including Skeletor Michael Chertoff) and the creators/cast of FOX’s 24 (minus Kiefer Sutherland).

Chertoff expressed to the audience that the actual department of homeland security isn’t all that much like 24’s counter-terrorism-unit, which frankly, I was surprised about. Though he did add that– like the show– his department is frequently “trying to make the best choice with a series of bad options.” You tell ‘em Cherty!

Limbaugh, always the diplomat, asked the panel if they felt creating a “pro-American show” made them the targets of liberal Hollywood. And wait until you hear what the panel said… after the jump…

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There has been a significant trend this season in the complete absence of comedies from the Nielson top 10 (and only an occasional representative in the extended top twent, usually Two and a Half Men). This can be traced two a few things. Obviously the number of comedies is way down compared to what was on the networks ten years ago. Also, I feel the television comedy is in a period of change, and yet the audience seems to be slow to adapt. If you aren’t one to obsess over comedy (or television) you could easily find yourself flipping around the dial (who uses a dial?) trying to decide between watching something that looks and feels completely different from what you’re used to (like Arrested Development or The Office) or watching something that is entirely familiar, but unfunny. Keep reading by clicking below…

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