Mags' Beginning of Fall TV Season Update
A brief but insightful review of the fall television season, and who, if anyone, I am hot for on each show, thus far:
1) Lost - The season premiere kicked butt. I won't spoil, but it really opened new doors as to what is going on on that wacky island.
Who Mags is hot for: Sawyer. Duh.
2) Veronica Mars - Much better than last season. Last season was still good, but got waaay too convoluted on the storylines. This year, it appears to be back to form. (Plus, it's fun to play "Count the Austin References," 'cause the creator, Rob Thomas, is from here. Tonight, a HUGE, long closeup on a poster of Lance Armstrong.)
Who Mags is hot for: Logan, of course. Love that hurt-bad-boy pout. (He was nekkid in tonight's episode, too.)
3) SNL. Eh, it's OK. Some funny moments on the news; I like Seth Myers hosting with Amy Poehler. (Did anyone else ever watch "The Upright Citizens' Brigade?" She was hysterical when she was with them. I really liked that show.) There's still some mildly funny sketch stuff, and I do like the short films. ("Lazy Sunday" and the Natalie Portman rap video were very inspired last season. You should totally YouTube them if you haven't seen them yet. True dat!)
Who Mags is hot for: erm...I guess Seth Myers? Nobody, really. That new guy Andy Samberg looks like someone I would normally think is cute, but he seems REALLY full of himself. (Yes, I know, that is also something I would normally think is cute, too. He's over-the-top smug.)
4) Reno 911! Damn, this show makes The Man and me snort and choke. It's a great outgrowth of another old comedy show I used to like, The State. In my dreams, I am that extemporaneously funny.
Who Mags is hot for: I really like Thomas Lennon. He's not my physical type at all, but he is one of the funniest people I have ever seen.
5) Heroes - new show I've been toying with watching. Seems some folks discover they have superpowers, and there's (surprise!) some great force pulling them all together. Lost-ish! But, it's been interesting enough to have me watch a couple of episodes, so we'll see how it goes.
Who Mags is hot for: Nobody yet.
6) Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip: Aaron Sorkin's new show. I didn't get into West Wing, because (obviously) I watch too much TV as it is, and I didn't want another show. But, the few episodes I've seen were good, so I started watching this; plus, I'm an old huge SNL fan. I have to say...eh, so far. It's interesting, but it's going to have to get way better real fast if they want me to keep watching. I have kids to raise, here, and since I only watch things on TiFaux (thanks, Badger) after they have gone to bed, there is a lot of competition for that hour and a half of my life. (Ask The Man about that.)
Who Mags is hot for: Nobody, but I think Rob Corddry's brother is funny.
7) The Office: Nice comeback. Freakin' funny as ever.
Who Mags is hot for: Everybody. Steve Carrell knocks my socks off.
8) My Name is Earl: I like that show. It surfs the perfect mix of sweet and subversion, and is simultaneously offensive and uplifting.
Who Mags is hot for: Jamie Pressley. Who isn't?
9) Friday Night Lights: Filmed in Austin, Todd worked on the set. Talk about your Austin-sighting shows. The football scenes were shot at Pflugerville High School, and like all the extras are Pflugerville pfolks, where I used to work. Every tracking shot is somewhere in town; they filmed a scene the other night at EZ's, that sort of thing. The show is pretty well-acted and beautifully shot; it's a lot like the movie. The storylines are about more than football - there's supposed to be all this interspersing stuff about racism, the dying hopes of the small town, the conflicted feelings of the kids - but there's a lot of freakin' football in the show. I'll watch again this week; I say it's OK.
Who Mags is hot for: Probably the guy who plays the coach, Kyle Chandler. He was great in King Kong.
10) Ugly Betty - I didn't watch it; everybody says it's good. It's opposite The Office, so maybe I'll TiFaux it also next week.
Clearly, though, there are some I need to whittle down. ER is out of there; it was so lame last year, they really should have shot it then. But, the new Tina Fey show 30 Rock starts tomorrow, and the previews for it are way better than Studio 60 so far.
Yourself? Did you have any more productive thoughts today? Might you have had something better to do, like wash your dishes, or feed the cats?
Not me. I have a problem. I have to do this.
4 comments:
Wow. How do you find time for so many shows? I'm a little envious, I must say. I obviously need to do a little more Covey-Franklin planning.
Goddamn it, I was going to do a post like this today and you totally scooped me. Well, screw it. I'm doing it anyway.
Hey, you're hot for Jamie Pressley too? Hmm, maybe we should discuss this, erm … privately.
Another interesting fact in Friday Night Lights' Austin-sighting is that those football uniforms you see are actual Austin-area high schools, although they change the names of the schools to something fictional. The team around which the show centers are wearing the uniforms of the Pflugerville Panthers, and of course they are playing in Pflugerville H.S.'s stadium. And that red-silver-and-blue team they played in that first (?) episode was the Westlake Chaparrals. I wonder what the story is behind that? Cheaper just to pay the schools to rent their uniforms rather than purchasing their own? Or maybe they just wanted to build a Texas audience by getting folks to watch in hopes of seeing "their" team on TV?
I TOO loved "The State" and "Upright Citizens Brigade." For a while back in the mid-90s I had a pretty steady e-mail correspondence with (and major crush on) Michael Ian Black.
I hate to say it, but I think SNL should be cancelled. It's dying a slow, painful death. Aside from the digital shorts, it seems totally uninspired to me, and the cast (aside from Amy, Mya and Darrel Hammond--and sometimes Fred Armisen) pretty much suck.
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