As part of my New Year's resolution* promise to make this blog more writer focused, I'm trying out a new idea: I'm gonna write something about everything I watch on TV. Not only am I interested in tracking what I actually watch, by knowing I'll need to say something about each show, I'll be more mindful of structure, character, pacing- all the things I need to worry about in my own scripts.
We'll see how well this works. I don't reguarlly watch any show and the shows I do watch I Tivo and often get to a week or two after they air, so
television without pity, this is not. I'll be focusing on the shows from a story perspective mainly, but like most people, I don't watch TV for plot alone, so occasionally I might go on about how great
Josh Duhamel is or something.
Arrested Development: The S.O.B'sThis episode needs to be nominated for an Emmy and win. A hilarious meta-episode all about the demise of the Bluth family (both within the world of the show and in real life- Fox looked like they were going to cancel the show, but have now committed to a third season), the episode features appeals by narrator Ron Howard asking people to tell their friends about the show, 3-D segments and a "live" ending. The whole thing is Vitameatavegtamin funny. My favorite bit is how Portia DiRossi's chracter Lindsay is turned into a housewife and is thrilled to invent a dish she calls "Hot Ham Water". While the show is filled with the wild and the zany, it's little touches like that which has made this my favorite show on T.V. I'm also thrilled the show is renewed: I've decided to make one of my specs an A.D. spec.
Celebrity Poker Showdown: Meatloaf, Howie Mandel, Bryan Cranston, Stephen CollinsI've never seen this show before and somehow watched the whole thing. The format is great, really capturing the cool laid back feel that we all imagine Vegas having. Dace Foley hosts the thing a little like
A Night at the Playboy Mansion. What kept my attention was that I learned the rules and basic strategy of Texas Hold Em' along with the clueless Howie Mandel (who I was starting to like after watching
Deal or No Deal, but after seeing him mince on about how he plans on losing and how he has to wear rubber gloves to play cards for fear of catching someone's germs, I'm certain my original assement of "Slightly Better than Carrot Top" should stand. The show made me want to play poker, but since most of the players have no clue what they are doing, I doubt I'll watch it again.
The West Wing: The Ticket
A repeat, but I missed it originally. This episode is poignant because it focuses on the late John Spencer, mainly. Unfortunately, like most of this season, the writer's remain too focused on burnishing
The West Wing's legacy to actually focus on delivering compelling stories. This seems to happen a lot in last season series. The stories suddenly become expansive to the point of violating the premise of the show. While we still see many of the same character's this week, I now feel like we're watching some alternate universe version of the show. I like Jimmy Smitts and Kristen Chenowith, but the core story is Bartlett and his administration family. The last act should be about bringing home the resonant themes in our heroes, but rather than trusting what made the show great, the writer's have tossed everything upside down in a misguided attempt to feel "fresh". I love that
Arrested Development parodied
The West Wing's desperate love episode stunt.
Project Runway: Lingerie ChallengeIf I am going to have any hope of doing this regurally, I'm going to have to make these entries much shorter. My favorite reality TV show- it works because these are reality contestants you can look up to. They have talent, drive, ambition so you they don't look like desperate fame whores. They work at their craft and they have the goods. Love the way they take 15 seconds of action and manage to pad it with interviews, but it never seems padded. Tonight's episode featured narcissism, betrayal and an honorable self-sacrifice on the part of the eliminated designer, Daniel. Maybe this show also works so well because we know these people have spent their whole lives working towards becoming a designer. No one on
Survivor ever said as a child, "Someday I want to eat grubs with a bunch of backstabbers for cash!"
Walking the Bible: GenesisThere's a great Times article on this show that got me to watch it. The "pilgrim" host of this show is so incredulous ("You mean that Adam and Eve could have skinny dipped in this very river!?!") that the whole thing seems pretty sleight. Having also done a documentary along the lines of "young man seeks answers to faith in unlikely places", it was a surreal experience. He quotes some of the same Bible passages I do in "Highway Pilgrim". (Backstory: I shot a documentary on religous roadside attractions a year ago. It was a disaster, but I'm recutting the original footage with new stuff and it will be released as a video podcast series later this year)
* A lot of you thought my resoultions were pretentious, too goal oriented or in the words of Brian Tanen: "lame". I can get kind of careerist at times, but uh-- I can't help myself. I do have personal resolutions as well. I'm just not telling you them.
