SoulHonky

Well, actually, there's only one. The show has to revolve around some sort of party. This fact has been painfully obvious from the beginning of the show but in season 1 they had some early non-party-centric episodes. This season? Not only have they stayed focused on the world revolving around nights out but they even managed a way to fit a party into... a campus visit to Yale. Now that wouldn't seem TOO crazy since a lot of people paint the quad red on their visits but this party was thrown by the Admissions staff. I don't care if that really does happen, Gossip Girl needs to do something outside of the typical plot structure of: get ready for party, head to party, hijinks ensue at party, aftermath of the party, battle lines are drawn so let's hope we don't all cross paths at another party next week.

As for Gossip Girl, the producers also showed no fear of past mistakes by bringing back one of their dumber storylines from last year (the guy Serena killed but didn't really kill but who is still dead but who cares about him). 

With the storylines becoming more and more blase and the kids seemingly headed to college soon, one has to imagine that Gossip Girl won't be lasting too much longer. Maybe another season. Then again, who knows. One Tree Hill is somehow still on.  My new idea for a show is: It's Gossip Girl but with grown ups called "Soiree". It's like Dirty Sexy Money except good. It will be about some well-to-do Upper East Side adults and it will feature a couple of Bride & Tunnel outcasts. I wouldn't mind keeping Chuck Bass in the show and we might add Jenny Humphrey, who can graduate from Little J to Jailbait. (On a side note, it's fun to watch Taylor Momsen grow into a statuesque blonde, slowly dwarfing everyone in her TV family. Pretty soon, she won't be able to wear heels in any seen with Penn Badgley). And yes, those last sentences do make me creepy (but like I wasn't already).

Posted by SoulHonky at 11:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I really don't know how Knight Rider doesn't get Ben Silverman fired. It's arguably the worst network TV show ever. It's really had to figure out what to compare this show to. It's basically a You Tube video that occasionally rises to the level of USA Up All Night soft core sanitized porn (if the editor was on coke). Honestly, it's not even that good in terms of crappy syndicated shows. If I had to choose between this and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World, I honestly don't know which I would choose. My favorite scene might be when Mike and Sarah run into a room to escape gunfire. (At around 6:30 into the show) Sarah risks getting shot to close the door behind them and then locks the door with... one of those simple slide latches. And it apparently works. 2nd place might be when Mike is shooting hoops, throws up a shot that is obviously going to miss and then cut to the ball swishing through the hoop. (Around 38:50) To be fair, there were a couple of decent one liners and most of the girls are sexy.

Thanks to Josh for telling me to check this out. Click on the pic below to watch. 

On a side note, after this and "Death Proof", Sidney Tamiia Poitier should avoid any show or movie that is based around cars.

Posted by SoulHonky at 09:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

"Heroes" should really be a comedy. When Future Peter was about to shoot his brother (after shooting him earlier but having him miraculously recover), I was really hoping it would be an on-running joke. Peter shoots Natan, Nathan recovers, Nathan finds TV cameras, Peter shoots Nathan again. Repeat this a few times and then end the episode with someone pulling the time-traveling future Peter aside and saying, "Hey, why don't you just leap back to BEFORE the press conference and talk him out of it instead of shooting him?"

Peter: "I didn't... (glare)... think of that." And then he disappears.

Once again, "Heroes" has a great concept and some very interesting ideas but it is drowning in cheesy dialogue, clunky monologues, and a complete lack of logic. I really struggled getting through the hour (and stated using the fast-forward button in the 2nd episode) and when it was all over, I immediately took it off of the DVR To Do List. Part of me still was holding out hope that the show could really reach its potential but I know better. Heroes is what Heroes has always been: A daytime soap with super powers.

On the bright side, Gossip Girl picked up and got back to the basics that made it so much fun to start with: Serena vs. Blair vs. Chuck. The show is utterly ridiculous but I guess the key difference between it and Heroes is that I don't really expect more out of the trashy teen soap whereas Heroes could be so much better than it is.

Posted by SoulHonky at 01:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Well, the Emmy's once again failed to honor arguably the best show ever on television so let's take time to appreciate the amazing show that was, The Wire. It's hard to say why the show never caught on with Emmy voters. One problem is that a lot of voters vote based solely on the Emmy screeners they receive. It's hard to watch just one episode of The Wire and truly appreciate it. I also can't help but acknowledge that a show with that was really focused on the urban, inner city experience is probably not going to find a lot of fans with the older, upper class (and, yes, white) Academy members. And finally, there weren't many recognizable faces. I guarantee that one of the reason Bryan Cranston won his Emmy was not only his performance in "Breaking Bad" but also by how much it differed from his role on "Malcolm in the Middle".

In the end, the below clip is one of the reason I loved The Wire, one of the reasons it was one of the best shows ever, and why it probably didn't sit well with most Emmy voters.

Posted by SoulHonky at 09:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The start of the new TV season has been a major disappointment. Even with most of the shows flying in under the expectations radar, they've all quickly fallen off the DVR To Do list. 90210 lasted less than two episodes. Fringe and True Blood seem like Fox and HBO are turning back the clock to their early days of more pulpy/trashy than actual quality programming. Sons of Anarchy really had nothing to it. And JoAnna Garcia (star of Priviledge) seems a sure fire bet to replace Traylor Howard as the cute perky girl that always has a show on TV but never seems to become a name actress. The Wire is over, The Shield is ending, Entourage is Entourage and Gossip Girl is the Trot Nixon of TV (a steady, scrappy player who's fun to root for but will never reach the full potential you'd once hoped for).

So what's on the horizon? What can save the day?

30 Rock: I have to admit that I'm not a huge fan of Tina Fey but her show is one of the best on television.

Life: Fringe has been ripping off some of Life's throwaway gags (Damien Lewis, like the father in Fringe, were locked away for over a decade and now find the "new" technology like cellphones and seat warmers to be riveting), but Life is a much better show. The cases are more interesting and the arc of "Who Set Up Crews?" is much better. One possible downfall could be the treading water issue. Burn Notice is a good show with a similar "Who Set Me Up?" arc and they spent this season doing basically nothing because they didn't want to solve the bigger case and then not have anything for the next season. Hopefully the Life crew will have a better game plan. Also, I can spend this season trying to pin down whether Sarah Shahi is an underrated actress (possibly because she is so good looking) or if I'm overrating her (because she is definitely good looking as evidenced below).

Oh, and the ratings challenged Life might be in its last season, especially since it will get no help from lead-in Crusoe.

Dexter: One of the more underrated shows on TV gets one of the most underrated actors in TV (Jimmy Smits).

Heroes: Yeah I know. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. But what about the third time? Could it be a charm? I have to admit, I'm going to tune in for the third go-around even though the first two were fairly unsatisfying.

The Life & Times of Tim: I was laughing out loud at this clip. Something about the guy's voice and the cheap animation makes me crack up.

 

Worst Week: I know Worst Week is getting good reviews but all of the reviews have also said that they aren't sure how the show will be able to maintain for a full season (or even a handful of episodes). It might be worth checking out but I have a feeling it could be like Pushing Daisies. A show I adored (yeah I know how that sounds but watch the show and tell me that isn't the way to describe it) when it came out but quickly tired of after a few eps.

Eleventh Hour: Could be terrible and I'm not a follower of Bruckheimer TV but I'll give it a shot.

The Mentalist: I like Psych and it seems like the same show. The one issue which could make this more of a laugh at than laugh with is how flimsy the insights of The Mentalst are. He'll see one thing like lipstick on a collar and then guess something out of it. That's not really insight as much as it is a lucky albeit educated guess. And personally, The Luckybuteducatedguessist isn't much worse of a title than they have now.

 

Posted by SoulHonky at 07:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

If you've seen Psyche, then you'll probably wonder how CBS is getting away with "The Mentalilst", a show that rips off 90% of the Psyche premise. If you haven't seen Psyche then just watch this preview for "The Mentalist" because the CBS in-house (aka fake) reviewer basically describes the USA show. The only difference is that Psyche is funnier because the guy pretends to be psychic while in this show he admits to being nothing more than just very perceptive.

What's next for CBS? A show about a guy who is a neat freak, not quite obsessive compulsive, who solves crime ala Monk? A former CIA agent is fired under false pretenses (but not quite on the outs as Michael from Burn Notice) starts solving crimes to make money while he tries to find out who got him burned... I mean fired?

Posted by SoulHonky at 10:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It seems most critics over at Metacritic disagree with me and find Fringe to have some redeeming qualities. What I saw was a slow, boring, absolutely ridiculous show that played more like Garth Marenghi's Dark Places than X-Files or even JJ Abrams's Lost. In fact, most of the reviewers acknowledge this but willfully ignore it such as Mary McNamara who wrote in the LA TImes:

"if you're the type of person who needs every little thing, or indeed any little thing, to make sense in a pilot, then you should probably watch Fringe in solitude, preferably with the door closed, so the rest of us can enjoy it for what it is--an uneven but promising jumble of horror"

What strikes me as odd is that people heap praise upon Abrams but when they discuss this show, it's almost like they are discussing trash TV like Silk Stalkings or 90210 (the new version of which I gave up on halfway through the second episode). 

Of course, there are the people who loved it like the New York Times' Allesandra Stanley who wrote:

And as pilots go, this one is sensational, an artful, suspenseful mix of horror, science fiction, layered conspiracies and extended car chases. “Fringe” sets out to stretch the boundaries of conventional network series.

I honestly have no idea what show she watched. Even the strongest supporters admit that the show wasn't fresh, original, or even surprising. Was there really one twist that she didn't see coming? The show makes absolutely no sense and requires such a suspension of disbelief that it takes away from the whole concept of the show. It's hard to make a show that asks "What if fringe science was real?" when everything is already completely unrealistic. Honestly, the fringe science was the most plausible thing about this show and, to me, that takes away from the allure of it all.

Posted by SoulHonky at 08:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

"90210" premiered and I have to say it didn't disappoint. Then again, I wasn't expecting much so that doesn't really say anything. The show was a bit clunky and had too many stories going on but it was what it needed to be, which was a nice escape and solid soap.

The worst part of the show is, not surprisingly, the tagged on adult stuff which was probably added to keep older viewers interested. The producers need to figure out if they want to keep the adults as key characters or not because the way they are handling it now is pretty poor. I mean, how do you not show the moment that a husband tells his wife that he has a child from another woman? That whole storyline, as well as the druggie actress, could have been delayed so that they could focus on the main characters in the first couple hours. As it was, nothing was really built out. For instance, Ethan (who seems like the #1 candidate for Steve Sanders receding hairline award) takes one scene to decide to kick Dixon off the team and then one quick, almost inexplicable scene later, to change his mind. Nevermind 90210, it was flimsy by "Saved By The Bell" standards.

If there's a breakout star in this bunch, my guess is it's either Shenae Grimes, Jessica Stroup, or Tristan Wilds (although I'm basing that more on his turn in "The Wire" than this). That's being generous though because there isn't really one character that really distinguished themselves from the typical teen fare. In terms of pilot episodes, "Gossip Girl" was far more effective in giving us characters and conflicts in one episode than "90210" did in two. Hopefully, "90210" will build to a stronger show as opposed to flaming out like "Gossip Girl". There's room to grow but it definitely needs to focus a bit and infuse some life/personality into the characters.

 

Posted by SoulHonky at 10:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

"The Shield" is back again tonight for its final season. On top of that, one of the best new shows of last season is now on Hulu. I highly recommend checking out "Life". While the lead actor, Damian Lewis is a little much in the pilot episode, he tones it down as the show goes on. Oh, and in case you can't place one of the cops in the beginning of the show, he played Howard, one of Theo's friends from The Cosby Show.

Posted by SoulHonky at 01:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Gossip Girl returned to the little screen and I'm sorry to say that I'm now innocent when it comes to this guilty pleasure. The premiere did nothing to allay fears that the show had jumped the shark and for a show just in its second season, the first episode of year two was shockingly been there, done that. In fact, the low-rated, highly-hyped show stuck to their tried and true formula of basing the show around some big party (which usually takes place in Act 4). Instead of Kiss On the Lips from last year, it's the White Party this year.
And by white party, they mean white. I'm no Hamptonite but I'd think that Puffy's famous White Party would have its fair share of African-Americans. It is pretty incredible how lily white the cast and extras are for a show that takes place in New York.
The premiere episode just didn't have much of anything. They threw in some gratuitous making out to get their naughty rating up but the show itself seemed like it was just going through the motions. Josh Schwartz continued his O.C.ing of the show, adding more late season 90210 twists to the proceedings, this time by adding a boy toy who isn't what he seems, he's more. The entire Blair/Lord Whoever storyline is likely to battle the arrival of Georgina in Jump The Shark discussions. For a show that looked like it could promise a glimpse into the mildly realistic lives of New York's elite, it's now 100% silly soap.
As with The O.C., it's a damn shame. They had something and couldn't maintain it past a half season. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted.

Posted by SoulHonky at 08:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Entourage came on the scene and became an instant cultural phenomenon. Not only were viewers addicted but celebs want to get on. Apparently, the celebs are still interested but the viewers are starting to get a little restless. The last season and a half haven't been up to snuff and the haters are coming out of the woodwork. So how does the show return to it's golden age? A few suggestions.

1. More Glitz, Less Biz
Entourage is always at it's strongest when it is about, well, the entourage. The show was three quarters male fantasy and one quarter show business. Any time a script or movie was mentioned, it was usually just a plot device to lead to the next argument or character-building moment. The career was secondary to the fun. Now, it's almost all business. The show focuses too much on deals being made, contracts being signed, etc.

This is also a problem that The West Wing had. The first seasons were filled with great characters and personal stories. By the end, too many stories focused about actual discussions over fake politics.

The show about guys from Queens in Hollywood needs to stay about guys from Queens in Hollywood. Yes, they've been in Hollywood for a few years now but if you know anyone from New York, they hold onto their roots forever. Let's see them live a little... and work a lot less.

2. Less Ari 
I know Jeremy Piven's Ari Gold is a great character but he needs his own spin-off. The Ari storylines can be good but more often than not they seem like filler and, more importantly, you can't focus on as many characters as Entourage has going right now. You end up with three half baked A-stories rather than one solid episode. Also, a little Piven goes a long way. He's better as the spectre looming over everyone than one of the guys.

3. Find the Core
The first couple seasons were based around E trying to steer his friend's career while also juggling his crazy friends. Now the episodes are aimless. Each episode needs to have one central figure who drives the story. Keep things connected. Too often you have three almost competely disconnected stories; it's almost like you are watching three different show cut together.

4. The Fantasies are Too Fantastic 
As I mentioned before, Entourage is basically the male fantasy of living the dream, picking up women, doing as you please. And, of course, hijinks ensue. In the last season, the hijinks were just a little too goofy. Someone falling for a tranny is one thing but having it be the Mayor who Drama is trying to get to annex his apartment in 90210 is just too much. Again, if you focus on the entourage and make it about Drama, it would have been a better storyline. Drama falls for a girl, someone says she is a tranny, the guy have to go about trying to figure out if it's true or not.

Entourage is about Hollywood. The writers really can't figure out some fun, interesting stories without becoming completely cartoonish? Go into the paparazzi, blogs, get some gold diggers after Drama, something, anything. It's hard to believe that Hollywood only has enough material for 40 or so episodes. 

5. Fresh Meat
The show could use some new supporting characters. Of course, adding new people is one of the riskiest propositions in show business. While some shows have pulled it off (again, The West Wing was great at cycling in fresh faces), others have failed miserably. Need we mention Dom?

The one new face from last season was Ana Faris and she was basically wasted since, again, her impact was almost solely on the business. E picking up another client is an interesting premise but it didn't really go anywhere and they squeezes basically two or three scenes out of him wondering if he should tell Ana that he hates the script.

This could be risky but a few new faces, particularly a couple new adversaries might help keep things moving and, most importantly, give the guys a reason to band together.

Posted by SoulHonky at 02:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

For a while now I've been arguing that the problem with remakes is that they are remaking good movies. Why bother? Yes, I understand the marketing behind it but wouldn't it be better to remake bad movies or movies that could have been good instead? Why not spend at least one film a year on trying to improve Hollywood rather than just trying to squeeze another buck out of a classic?

Well, it seems like someone has finally listened. ABC is re-tooling "Cupid", the former failed Jeremy Piven vehicle about a single guy who may just be the reincarnated Greek god of love. Will it work? Who knows? I'm not sure about casting Bobby Cannavale in the lead but who knows...

Still, there are a number of shows that should get a mulligan. Maybe try Freaks & Geeks but set in modern day. I thought Daybreak (a kind of thriller meets Groundhog Day) is a show that could be a 24-style hit. Dark Angel is another idea that had promise but wasn't exactly carried out in a crowd-pleasing manner.

Yes, shows like 90210 and Knight Rider have better built-in recognition but that doesn't necessarily mean those people will watch. Just look at The Bionic Woman. 

Posted by SoulHonky at 03:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)