EPISODE 3: What did you see?

I wanted to catch up with the new show I watched last week… This show was promoted by one of its producers all summer long on Twitter (Ashton @aplusk Kutcher), it was supposed to be the great return of Mischa Barton on TV after The OC, but let’s face it the success of The OC was never due to her. What am I talking about? The Beatiful Life: TBL (the addition of TBL is a mystery to me, they should have name is TBL or The Beautiful Life, but not both…). The only reason to watch it was for the eye candy (if you’re a straight girl or gay) because the actresses are a bit of the anorexic model archetype (I, personally, don’t appreciate so much, but as I’m gay not so much of a problem). At the end of the pilot I asked myself: Can I watch a show only for the eye candy? Luckily, The CW answered for me, the audience results were so weak that the show is already canceled (the first one this season). Reruns of Melrose Place will be aired instead.

Talking about Melrose Place, The CW decided to invite Heather Locklear (actress on the original show) in order to boost the audiences (which basically means that this show too is threatened, anyway I decided not to follow this show. The Vampire Diaries (as strange as it seems, is now the only new show I will follow on… kind of a guilty pleasure I guess…)

This episode is most about the new shows… My way is to look at the pilots choose what I wannna follow, and then follow in priority the shows that I already followed and go slower on the new shows.

I was talking about eye-candy before, why not going on with that… One of abc’s new show is called Eastwick (adaptation of the movie The Witches of Eastwick with Jack Nicholson, Cher, Susan Sarandon and Michelle Pfeiffer) with Rebecca Romijn (Ugly Betty), Lindsay Price and Jaime Ray Newman (Eureka)… and guest starring Matt Dallas (Kyle XY) still looking gorgeous but a little less innocent. The story is not so good, but comparatively to other shows I had a fine time, so I’m going on with it (Matt Dallas is a great part of my decision).

Courteney Cox Arquette is back on TV after Friends and Dirt, and she’s trying to be funny again… Only problem is she’s trying to be to funny and she’s overacting… And the only first sequence was fedding me up, no Courteney, you can’t make us believe that you are old, ugly and fat… I’m not really a sitcom fan (except for How I Met Your Mother and some other stuff) so I will pass on this one… Ah and the whole plot is in the title: Cougartown.

Sticking with sitcoms, Accidentaly on Purpose (with Jenna Elfman) made me laugh, so I will follow on, I have nothing much to say on that. A sitcom impressed me, it’s called Modern Family, it’s a mockumentary, it’s funny and intelligent, showing that family is not necessarily the patriarchal cell we knew… A real delight! The presentation of the vietnamese adopted baby by the father of his child to the family of his partner and other father of the child was fucking hilarious! A real surprise!

Nothing to say on Brothers except that it was boring and that it can provide me with a nice transition to the new comedy of HBO: Bored to Death. Jason Schwartzman is so bored that he decides to become a Private Investigator… It’s smart and completely off, with also Ted Danson (Damages) and Zach Galifianakis (The Hangover).

Now I’m getting back to the dramas…

Mercy is talking about nurses, which give us an original point of view for a medical show… The main character is a nurse coming back from a war zone in Iraq, she’s a bit tortured, and a strong head… Nurses point of view was tried before (the pilot of Nurses with Eliza Dushku didn’t made it a few years ago), but this year with Nurse Jackie (starring Edie Falco) and Hawthorne (starring Jada Pinkett Smith) , nurses are taking it over surgeons and doctors, and it’s not a bad idea.

NCIS: Los Angeles spin-off of NCIS is not as funny, but still interesting. The character of Chris O’Donnell, an orphan whose first-name is just a letter: G. is bringing mystery to it… To follow, need more convincing though.

The Good Wife, is a lawyer show. The interest lies with the main character, her husband, the previous Attorney had an affair with an intern (sounds familiar?) and she had to put up with it, act like she actually forgave and went back to a lawyer firm to work while her husband’s in jail for money problems. A bit slow and I need to be more convinced.

The Forgotten is a cop show about a group of people trying to identify corpses that the Police can not investigate anymore… It could have been great… It’s a bit too much, the voice over of the dead person all along the episodes, the vision of her… Too cheesy, too lame… Christian Slater will have to find better if he wants to be on TV.

Now the real revelation of the year: Flash Forward… Til’ now the most convincing, efficient and thrilling new show this season… For 2 minutes and 17 seconds, everyone on the planet experienced a flash forward, everyone’s consciousness jumped six months later… But for these 2 minutes and 17 seconds the world kept spinning creating huge accidents (car crashes, plane crashes…) What caused it? Why? And if you have a glimpse of your future, what would you do? And how would you be sure that you understand all the implications of what you saw? The real big surprise of the season… Last year it was supposed to be Fringe, but the pilot let me doubtful (come on the robotic hand?). Flash Forward is much more subtle, original and exciting…

So… What did you see?

Text: @Jim_Dante