MagneticMediaFed

Mmmmmmmmm…

My apologies for missing my last post. I’ve been incredibly pre-occupied with the holiday and some other things as of late. The Heroes episode from over a week ago probably ranked as the best of the season, even though that isn’t saying too much. The stories were focused, the acting was great for the most part, the plot moved ahead, and the dialogue was actually pretty good, instead of the usual cliché-ridden stuff they’ve thrown out this year. What made it stand above all the rest though was that it actually had a deeper theme running through it, how the actions of the parents affect the lives of their children. The comparisons and contrasts between the relationships of Noah/Claire and Bob/Elle were the strongest points of the episode. Parkman starting down the dark road to becoming like his dad and Hiro’s story with his father also played on this theme and had something to say about it, without having to unnaturally go into philosophical debate like the scene earlier this year with Noah and Claire at the office supply store. There was finally some real emotional and dramatic build-up and payoff with the characters, and even though you could probably guess where the whole thing was going, it was very easy to actually get wrapped up in it. More after the jump…

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Better to burn out or to fade away?

This thing is killing me. We all knew the writers’ strike was going to be a major inconvenience, but I never suspected it would have the effect it’s currently having on my psyche. Ever since the writers took to the picket line three weeks ago, television has kind of sucked, and not just because my beloved late-night shows immediately went into reruns. Despite the fact that we’ve still been getting new scripted episodes these past few weeks, the strike has, in a way, highlighted just how solidly mediocre this fall has been. The new series, while marked by very few cancellations (honestly, who would have thought Cavemen would still be airing new episodes three weeks into November?), have generated no significant hits (with the exception of Samantha Who?, but it’s hard to say if it is the show that is successful or its Dancing With the Stars lead-in) while our favorite returning series from years past have either been wildly inconsistent (How I Met Your Mother), shockingly awful (Weeds) or just kind of a mess (Friday Night Lights). To top it all off the two series that have been consistantly good and occasionally great in The Office and 30 Rock are the first to run out of episodes. The whole mess can put your average television viewer into something of an existential conundrum: if interesting stories can vanish as quickly as they appear, what’s the point of it all? More after the jump…

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I’m not sure how they manage it, but it seems that Heroes has now built a successful history of having great episodes after really picking up the pace and then setting that progress aside with a flashback/flashforward episode the next week. Last year the story had moved ahead near the end of the season, and they left us on a big cliffhanger, only to keep us waiting on the resolution for two weeks, by setting the next episode five years in the future. Despite how worried I was that this would interrupt the rapid-fire pacing that they had built up over the previous few shows, I was captivated for the entire hour of the “Five Years Gone” episode, and would totally rank it as the best episode of the show, only slightly above “Company Man”. I think it’s safe to say the same thing happened this past week. More after the jump…

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This was finally the episode that most fans have been waiting for. There was little wasted screentime, stories that paid off, season-long ideas that came to a close, the first signs of plots coming together, and a big reveal at the end, that although I saw coming, still completely made sense from a story standpoint, and had been building for the whole season. And there were no terrible effects this week, save for Nikki’s superpunch that sent Mohinder flying into the wall, but only managed to give him a bandaged nose. More after the jump…

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Well there’s good news and there’s bad news. The Good news? The show finally had its “Here’s where we’re taking the season” moment, given to hopefully keep us interested, despite the overall lack of focus of the rest of the season so far. The bad news? Its exactly the same as last season. EXACTLY. The only difference this time was that it was Peter jumping a year ahead to a completely destroyed New York, and not Hiro. This just further illustrates the writers inability to do anything to actually move the show forward from where it was last season. More after the jump…

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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’s 1pm on a Wednesday so far the only television I’ve watched this week was Monday’s How I Met Your Mother. This is problematic for reasons two. 1) Watching television is kinda sorta necessary for me post on this site (something I enjoy doing). 2) With each day that goes by the list gets longer and the likelihood for watching these programs gets slimmer and slimmer.

The problem is (in addition to having been sick for what seems like weeks and just wanting to go to sleep) we’re at that part of the TV season when things are starting to drag. Let’s think about this. Since September we’ve all ready seen eighteen episodes of The Office. Heroes has aired seventeen episodes. That, my friends, is a lot of television, but the season isn’t even close to ending. Isn’t that right — month of May?

I think we can all agree that 13 is the right number of episodes for any television season. It’s long. It allows time for significant character development and the development of complex plot lines. When you start getting longer than thirteen, you run the risk is losing your audience — not because the audience can’t take it (history has shown us they can), but because people can grow restless. People like me.

The fact of the matter is while I enjoy watching television during this time of the year (it is cold as hell outside), its starting to get a little harder to press that PLAY button. It doesn’t help that February sweeps (which ends today) is absolutely unrelenting (American Idol thrice weekly!).

Look, I’ll watch the programming (natch), but network television really needs to cut down the orders on some of these shows.