Category — Drama

I don’t know how this happened. One day I’m forced to watch Gossip Girl for work (yes, I do indeed have to watch TV for my job; it’s a tough life I lead, I know), and then the next thing I know I’m watching it– dare I say it?– at home, weeks later. Off the clock!

It started innocently enough. I didn’t even program a season pass, or anything. “No, no, that would be ridiculous,” I said aloud to myself, even though I AM NOT CRAZY. “I only need to tape next week’s episode to see if Chuck finally gets Blaire to say she loves him, and then I’ll be totally over it. Yes, that’s the ticket.”

Cut to: This week, wherein I was setting up my DVR to record all Gossip Girl episodes. Yes, first run and repeats!I Hey, I’m a recent convert and have to catch up on some backstory, via reruns.

I’m so ashamed.

The writing is absurd, and none of these “high school” kids appear to be under the age of 25– and they certainly don’t behave that way, what with all the sexin’, drinkin’ and schemin’. Plus, this Chuck Bass character is constantly whispering. Seriously. I don’t think he ever speaks in full voice. And his attire is consistently ridiculous. Having said that, I’d totally hit it.

Anyway, a new episode of GG will be on the CW tomorrow night at 8, and I just have to find out it Jenny beats the crap outta Agnes for burning all of her dresses. I can’t believe she did that!

Um. I’ll stop now.

“Lost” will return on January 21, 2009! I can’t wait!

HBO’s “In Treatment” will be back for round two in 2009. The show centers on Paul Weston, the psychoanalyst played by Gabriel Byrne, who attempts to maintain his high patient load while his marriage to Kate (Michelle Forbes) disintegrates around him. The episodes aired five days a week to parallel with the session day and time he has with a patient. The episodes focused on four patients and Paul’s own weekly session with his friend and former colleague, Gina (Dianne Wiest). Next season, he will somehow take on two new patients played by John Mahoney and Hope Davis.

I really gave this show a chance, like a deep committed one. I watched weeks one through three, which totals up to be 15 freakin’ episodes! But after awhile the Blair Underwood character became too arrogant for words and the patient who was in love with him, Laura (Melissa George from “Alias”), was beyond annoying. Rule number one in therapy is DO NOT fallfor your therapist! How hard is that to follow? Apparently, it was agonzing for Laura. The only saving grace of the show was watching the married couple, Jake & Amy (Josh Charles and Embeth Davidtz), go at it each week. You never knew if they were going to end up separated or passionately in love again by the end of each session. At least during their session, there was conflict and not just uncomfortable pauses like with the other patients.

“In Treatment” is probably very inexpensive to produce and HBO does need programming… But sheesh, I cannot believe they canceled “Tell Me You Love Me” and renewed this snooze fest. I understand the characters in “Tell Me You Love Me” weren’t that likable, but they seemed to behave more realistically than in “In Treatment” in my opinion.

If you missed the first season on “In Treatment”, the dvd won’t be released until fall 2009 for some crazy reason! Thus, count on HBO to re-run the episodes ad infinitum on their channels and on demand just before the premiere of the second season.

Source: The TV Whore on Pajiba

If you saw the Emmys a couple of weeks ago, I hope you and your cats enjoyed it, because you were the only ones watching. However, you and the cats also bore witness to Bryan Cranston winning for Best Actor in a Dramatic Series for his role in a really cool show, “Breaking Bad.”

Indeed, the dad from “Malcolm in the Middle” beat out Don Draper at the lowest rated ever Emmys, television’s highest honor, wherein television people celebrate themselves for like seven hours. On television. My feelings are torn, since I like both “Mad Men” and “Breaking Bad,” but I figure Jon Hamm will get ‘em next time.

Anyway, AMC has been rerunning the first season of “Breaking Bad” after the “encore” airings of “Mad Men” every Sunday, and you can even pre-order the first season DVD if it turns out you love it, so check it out. The show is about a high school chemistry teacher (Cranston), who turns to cooking meth for extra cash, after he learns he is dying of cancer. He’s got a pregnant wife and a “special needs” son, so I can’t say I blame him. Desperate times, and all that.

Meth lab hijinks and drug dealings provide a nice chaser to the rampant alcoholism and womanizing of “Mad Men,” so kudos to AMC on nailing their first two forays into original programming. I, for one, can’t wait to see more.

Sunday nights are fast becoming my busiest TV night of the week. My DVR’s red “recording” light was already winking at me for a good chunk of the evening before, thanks to my old love “Mad Men,” my new love “True Blood,” plus all the old standbys like “60 Minutes” and “American Dad.” But as of last week, “Dexter” has returned to Showtime with new episodes. Consider the ante upped.

I’ve been a fan of this show since its beginning two seasons ago. It doesn’t spare on the high concept premises and story lines, but is still written elegantly enough to avoid becoming a joke. Michael C. Hall has proven his acting mettle beyond my expectations in his portrayal of Dexter Morgan, considering how hard it is to believe that this is the same man who played David Fisher all those years not so long ago.

Tune in to Showtime Sunday nights at 9pm to check out “Dexter.” I like the show so much it’s actually inspired me to read the book on which this series is based, called “Darkly Dreaming Dexter,” by Jeff Lindsay. I know right? I’m going to read an actual book! With pages and everything!

I fear I may have blasphemed by daring to mention the “B” word– book– on the interweb, and on a blog about teevee, at that. As an act of contrition, I’ll subject myself to a new reality show, get drunk and rant about it on here, later.

Oh, dear. “Paris Hilton Is My New BFF” started this week. Sounds like a fresh batch of hate stew a-brewin’.

After finishing up the second episode of “Heroes” last night, I decided that this season may be worth the dvr space after all. It seems that Tim Kring & Co. are weaving an intriguing season.  This season seems to be focusing on the idea of giving powers to ordinary people and the subsequent fallout. And they’re bringing back old characters and putting them in the lion’s den with people that hate them (i.e. Sylar and HRG, Claire’s biological mom and adoptive mom, Linderman and Nathan). The show is posing this main question: Can one still be a hero, if you have to make a deal with the devil to win? Or do you become a villain?

Things I liked so far on this season of “Heroes”:

1. The African future painter guy and Parkman’s spirit walk storyline. Their story is a good compliment to future Peter’s actions to change the future.

2. Sylar and HRG being paired up. Talk about opposites attract! I can’t wait for them to stop playing nice.

3.  Angela Petrilli (Peter and Nathan’s mom) running the show at the Primatech Paper (aka The Company). That lady has ambition and will kill anyone who stands in her way.

Things that still annoy me on “Heroes”:

1. Bringing back Ali Larter’s as a new character without explanation. Yeah, it blows my mind that she was made by Dr. Zimmerman, but did she really have to bond with Micah before getting to the bottoms of things?

2. I wish Linderman would go away, along with the God and politics metaphors. I love Mr. McDowell but his character as the devil on Nathan’s shoulders was played out last season.

3. Rebellious Claire Bennet (Hayden Panettiere). I suppose they do need to lay the foundations for evil future Claire (the one that shoots at her own uncle, future Peter). But could they find some original and non-predictable dialogue and situations to tell that story? We get it, she’s a teenager who can’t die and can do whatever she wants. Sheesh already.

“Dancing with the Stars” started this week, and I watched it for the first time. I would never watch such a show in my real life, but I figure I ought to expose myself to new and terrible things. Hey, it’s in the interest of finding television blog fodder. Nevertheless, rather than unleash my tirade over everything wrong with that show today, I’d rather keep spirits high. It is a Friday, after all. So, I’ll save it for another day, allow the hate stew to simmer, and tell you about something I do like: Carnivàle.

I remember this show when it first began airing on HBO back in 2003, but it looked weird. Too weird. So, I never bothered trying to get into it; plus, the only person I knew who did watch it was an imbecile. Years later, a non-imbecile friend swore up and down that it was his favorite show, and I began to reconsider it.

Long story less long, I put the first disc of Season 1 at the top of my Netflix queue, and wound up watching the entire series within a two week span, slowed down only by the sluggish pace of the United States Postal Service.

It even got to the point where I would bring some of the discs to work to watch at my computer. Granted, I was trying to get fired, but that’s neither here nor there. The moral of the story is, Carnivàle is indeed weird, but it’s a good weird, not “John from Cinncinnati” weird.

The show only lasted two seasons because it was too expensive to produce, considering it wasn’t getting “Sopranos” ratings. But, it is certainly one of the most unique shows I’ve seen, above all, and I watch loads of television. Even if you don’t love it as much as, say “The Wire” (and who could?), it’s worth a look. So, check it out. Go. Go do it now.

DVD shopping links:
Carnivale - The Complete First Season
Carnivale - The Complete Second Season

HBO’s new series about vampires, “True Blood” is well under way, and the third episode of the series airs tonight. I have to say I wasn’t excited to watch this series before the premiere at all, despite knowing this is Alan Ball’s first TV project since “Six Feet Under.” The whole marketing campaign was labored, uninspired, and It was trying too hard to be sexy and outrageous. Much like a drunk sorostitute dirty dancing in an ill-fitting dress, I was just embarrassed for the both of us. In the end, I only watched the first episode as a way to kill time while I waited for “Mad Men” to start. 

The show centers around Sookie Stackhouse (played by Anna Paquin), a hick waitress in Louisiana who happens to be able to read minds, and Bill Compton (played by Stephen Moyer), a vampire, to whom Sookie becomes uniquely bonded.

Within the world of the show, vampires are a reality (obviously, since it’s a vampire show…), and vampires’ rights and social standing are in constant jeopardy. It’s vaguely allegorical to the plight of whatever is the oppressed group du jour, if you want to be joyless and intellectual about it.

However, I’m happy to say the show doesn’t totally suck, as you may have guessed from my subtle lede above. It has gotten progressively interesting in only two installments, and after last week’s episode, I will admit I actually have a twinge of genuine anticipation for tonight’s episode. In short, this show just may be getting good. 

Go ahead and tell your DVR to record it tonight while you’re watching “Mad Men” sweep at the Emmys. If things continue to improve on “True Blood,” it too just may be a contender at next year’s awards.

P.S. Did I mention I love “Mad Men”? Twice? In a post about a different show? Oh, silly me. Well, you should watch that tonight, too.

[Picture source: Cleveland.com]

Tuesday night of this week, the CW ushered in a new addition to the Spoiled, Rich and Vapid 30-Year-Olds Playing Teenagers in High School genre, with their “reimagined” and revamped “90210.”

In the interest of full disclosure, I will admit it: I Tivo-ed it. Worse yet, I then watched it. This is not my first, nor will it be my last, extremely regrettable decision.

Long story short, if you find “Gossip Girl” to be a little too well written and complex (you know, with their super sophisticated “OMFG” campaign and all), then the new “90210″ just may be the show for you. Well, “90210″ or Teletubbies.

Kelly and Brenda– that is, Jennie Garth and Shannon Doherty, respectively– both make appearances in the first episode, and considering neither has anything better to do, they’ll have recurring roles. I’m guessing Tori Spelling is in a padded room somewhere.

So, if you’re planning to stick needles in your eyes this Tuesday night, watching “90210″ just may substitute as a strange, new torture for you, my dear little masochist. I, on the other hand, will be picking up the old “Beverly Hills 90210″ on DVD to remind myself of why I hated this show the first time around.

FX has a new show called “Sons of Anarchy”.

It stars Charlie Hunnam (”Undeclared”) as Jackson ‘Jax” Teller, a member of a California biker gang that skirts the law and fiercely defends their right to ride on their own terms.

Watch the season premiere tonight at 10pm on FX.