Journeyman:
Adding to the rotation
What I like:The period details are fun...smoking on planes, the real relationship between wife and husband, Kevin McKidd's performance, two weeks straight of great guest casting, the wife, Moon Bloodgood, the fact that it's on right after Heroes, the 'what the hell?' factor.
K-Ville: Passing
Why: Didn't bother to PVR show 3, haven't watched show 2.
Back to You: Passing
Why: Saw a few minutes of Show 2, and it was better, but 30 Rock and The Office are all I need for comedy right now.
Pushing Daisies: Adding to the Rotation
What's Great: Everything. Seriously. Acting, Looks great in HD, chemistry, whimsy, direction, art direction, tone.I'll watch just to see if they can pull it off week to week.
Moonlight: Passing
Why: Call me a vampire partisan, but that was a LOT of voiceover, and anyway, Vamps who can go out in the day? That's not fun, dude. That's cheating.
Bionic Woman: On the Fence
What I Like: Katee Sackhoff, Michelle Ryan, the concept
What I Don't: Everything else, including the new sister
I'll give it one more.
Dirty Sexy Money: On the Fence
What I Like: the jerk reverend, Peter Krause, Peter Krause's wife, Samaire Armstrong, the younger brother who's basically Ryan Adams when he was still drinking. And it looks great in HD.
What I Don't: The sneaking feeling that every time Peter Krause is on screen I'm actually wishing he was in a better show.
Private Practice: Ugh. Seriously. Could you set the bar any lower? So Passing.
Life: Adding to the Rotation
What's Great: Damian Lewis' performance (it's seriously bent,) the fact that the character he plays is flawed and capable of being unsympathetic at times, the partner, Robin Weigert post-Deadwood, Adam Arkin, and it looks great in HD.What's Odd: They use exactly the same wall device we used in Across The River, which was filmed first. Damnit.
So based on my past track record, I respectfully submit to you that Life, Pushing Daisies, and Journeyman will be the first casualties of the fall viewing season.
21 comments:
As much as I'm loving Journeyman, I feel like I have to agree with you. What Alex says over at his blog about the reveal to the wife and addressing the issue with her:
Then get on with it. She believes or she doesn't believe. Just tell us which and get the hell on with the story. We've seen it so many times before, you can get away with some serious shorthanding. We'll get it.
I like the fact that they didn't let the reveal drag on for a long time, even though I like the attempts at coping is getting dragged out.
Nonetheless, I feel like they might be using too much ammunition too early. We're getting the idea that his intended solutions ISN'T the solution (give the guy and us a bone). We're getting plenty of novelty from the past. We're getting great drama from the coping with the family and all the info drops about the "semi-incestuous" relationships. The brother has already gotten some kind of clue of the time travel.
I'm scared they're shooting too much ammunition at once. I'm loving it, but almost too much. I'm scared they'll run out of the good ideas and disappoint me, if not by getting me sick of too much novelty, then by letting all crash during the season finale or hitting a sophmore slump.
I have my fingers crossed, though, that it'll come out in flying colors.
BTW, dmc. . .still wondering, would disappointment in not getting the narrative arcs and the details of the time travel (not technical stuff, but plot and character arcs) "factually right" make me criticizing the fridge logic? Or are the arcs working smoothly with the time travel actually important for a show like this one?
Please stop watching Life so us fans of Damian Lewis' awesome performances aren't suffering due to your cancellation karma! Kthx. :)
Seriously -- is it just me, or has Life not gotten the promotion it deserves from NBC? Whenever I spot an ubiquitous Bionic Woman or Chuck promo, I get a little twitch in my eye...
I'm in complete agreement with everything you said. Except I didn't bother to even start with "K-Ville", "Back To You" or "Private Practice".
"Life" seems to subtle and...good for American broadcast TV. It can't last long. The first episode feels like something that would normally be a movie. Or a British (mini-)series.
I like your comments about Dirty, Sexy, Money; I hope Peter Krausse isn't wasted in a show that gets too over the top for it's own good. I didn't want to like it but I really kinda did.
Won't see Daisies until tonight.
Haven't seen Life but it seems maybe I should.
Journeyman -if he makes everything "all right" each episode, I'll start tossing my cookies and need to change the channel. Even when you have a chance to influence the course of events it can't go right every time.
K-ville conflicts with Hereos which I tape so If it survives I'll pick up the reruns if they appeal to me.
I'll give Private Practise one more chance, but I was surfing the web while watching the first episode so...
The thing that bumped for me with the latest Journeyman was that they'd just come from MRIs to the plane scene, her husband is locked in the bathroom, and the wife shows no signs of concern over whether he had passed out or not. She just automatically knew he'd jumped time. BUMP. And for the life of me, I can't stay awake through an episode. Dad-O-Meter in play in a major way.
Teresa -- it's the Canuck in you that desires a touch of realism in Journeyman. On American cop shows, they'll get their man 99 times out of 100. On Cold Squad, our smart leader knew we could get away with more fish-that-got-away stories, which actually gives the characters greater depth. You learn more from the things you can't fix than from the ones you can. Hopefully Journeyman will take us there.
wait, sorry, Teresa, I should say "maybe it's the Canuck in you" and not make sweeping generalizations. But it's the Canuck in me that's apologetic!
Now now this whole blog is about sweeping generalizations, sister.
I'm intrigued by the idea of him not always solving things on "Journeyman" but think it's a second season idea.
Moon did say, "you will make mistakes, that's part of it."
Lex, as for your issues with it. I gotta punt. Time travel is always a special case - as it always involves paradoxes. Your tolerance for that paradox or any paradox determines, I think, how you process the show.
I know for my money if someone gave me a 2007 US 20 in 1985, I'd be pissed, but I'm not sure I'd remember it twenty two years later.
I don't remember some people I went to high school with. And I saw them every day.
i'm liking Journeyman too.
I don't like that Starbuck is such a bad ass in bw but then doesn't bother finish the job a la tony and christopher.
i'm going to watch it tonight though
For the sake of curiousity, I did some research into time travel and time paradoxes. I got so many ideas from reading it and my attempts at understanding made my brain explode.
And unfortunately, I got the last episode of Doctor Who season 3 spoiled, just a couple days before it shows in the US. Goes to show you the trouble you can run into by trying to get smarter.
LOVED Pushing Daisies, even more than Dead Like Me. Yay!
The Lex...not sure if this will help, but see if you can get your hands on 'A Stitch In Time'(1996) from the new incarnation of Outer Limits. It is generally thought of as the 'perfect' time travel episode...written by Stephen Barnes, but a lot of the credit goes to showrunner Brad Wright for pulling it all together. That said, it's just a one-off as opposed to a season (like Journeyman) but the rules it established and then effectively adhered to made it a marvel to watch.
So far Pushing Daisies is the only one I'm adding, but that's OK - I figured I only had room for one more show anyway, and even at that, Ugly Betty might be getting the axe from me if Daisies survives.
Speaking of ... my new favourite quote of the TV season is by the same guy who had my favourite quote about Bionic Woman earlier. Says James Poniewozik of Time's TV blog about Pushing Daisies:
I worry that the critical buzz has set a bar that even this charming, nimbly written show will not be able to clear. Maybe that's why TV critics like Pushing Daisies so much. We have a tendency to kill things we love by touching them too.
i was impressed by the fact that the combo of Caveman and Carpoolers together managed to create a new genre -- an hour long block of comedy without a single, laugh, chuckle, smile or anything that resembles a joyous emotion.
Thanks, dixon, I'll have to keep my eye on the Outer Limits recordings on my PVR.
Pushing Daisies. Well... um, I don't know. I sure didn't fall madly in love with it. Must give it another chance before I decide.
I don't know if it's the Canuck in me that makes me want some balance between good and bad outcomes on Journeyman. It's just going to be so predictable to watch every week if stuff don't go bad once in a while. I'd have though it would have more to do with wanting variety and depth in story telling moreso than being Canadian.
It's only the second ep of Journeyman! Isn't it expecting a lot to have expectations of positive/negative, good/bad, successful/unsuccessful ventures into the past already? Maybe they're giving him some easy tasks first for training before they give him some real challenging ones.
the_Lex said:It's only the second ep of Journeyman! Isn't it expecting a lot to have expectations of positive/negative, good/bad, successful/unsuccessful ventures into the past already?
My expectations are that they come at some point. Denis has said that those plots are more 'second season' than first. maybe I'm just impatient; If the mystery of how and why these people keep popping in and out of time is developed as the season goes along perhaps that will keep the episodes fresh and intruguing.
On another board, someone alluded to potential similarites to 'Touched by an Angel' as this series goes on if they aren't careful...so I'm not the only one who doesn't want it to be all 'nice' all the time.
Oh. . .expectations. Personally, I'm actually ready for frustration from the show. I'm enjoying it too much and gotten too into it on some kind of emotional level in the first two episodes for me to let myself trust the show yet. It has me at the emotional gut level so much that I'm not ready to come up with actual expectations of directions the show will go (OK, OK, I've got expectations, I'm just not communicating them beyond my wife or close personal friends. If this show doesn't use them, I always can for my own stories).
After having gotten into Lost and Heroes so much in their first seasons then getting disappointed with sophmore slumps and finale dumps, I'd rather keep my expectations low and be pleasantly surprised.
It looks like I'll be hooking up with the telly a lot more than I have for years.
This summer was absolute madness! Psych, and Burn Notice (Thank you USA Network) are just outstanding shows. Just like with Corner Gas, Psych can bring the laughs without a laugh track. I think I prefer Psych over Monk now, actually. In reality Psych is an hour long sitcom, something I would love to see coming from a Canadian network. Then there is Mad Men, with all it's smoky sturm and drang, and Eureka, with all the quirk, and nerdy slang. My wife and I found ourselves really getting into Kyle XY, and were quite annoyed when we learned that the second half of season two was put on hiatus until January 2008. Other than that, the only complaint I had about some of this summer's shows is that, especially in the case of Burn Notice, there just were not enough episodes. Honestly I would seriously be jonesing now if not for the arrival of the fall season.
Ah fall, thy bounteous harvest has come. Truly a veritable cornucopia of goodness.
The first rate shows are there in abundance -
House, Heroes, NCIS, CSI, The Unit, Bones, Ugly Betty, Supernatural, Shark, Stargate Atlantis, Numb3rs, Dexter, Desperate Housewives, Cold Case, The 4400, Friday Night Lights, Prison Break, Battlestar Galactica, Corner Gas, Little Mosque on the Prairie, How I Met Your Mother, The Office, and 30 Rock.
Then there are the new and welcome additions -
Chuck, Journeyman, Life, Reaper, and Pushing Daisies.
I am still not sure about Bionic Woman, Moonlight, Dirty Sexy Money, and Cane. Though I really do want to like Cane, I absolutely hate watching Nestor Campbell when he gets all jiggy with the dark mascara around the eyes, playing an incompetent, naive, backstabbing weasel. I mean, seriously! Getting all jiggles and giggles with Atia er...Polly Walker? And what is with the Samuels being so much more cunning/smart/competent/lethal than the Duque's? Yes I like my heroes to be underdogs, but if the show is a serious drama, I like them to be at least plucky and competent underdogs. They keep going this way , and they're going to deserve a one way trip down to Margaritaville.
But I digress.
I will be missing The Dresden Files (Dude is so wasted in Big Shots), Crossing Jordan, and Stargate, but the new crop are really making up for the loss of those.
All told, when you add in Stewart and Colbert, that's over thirty hours a... Sweet Jesus... over fours hours a day on average...
Anyone know which DVR has the most storage?wfbbc
T.V. addict that I am, I only let 40 new shows onto my list of what I planned to check out this fall season. I watched the first 15 minutes of Journeyman's pilot then erased it from my DVR. The writing is the strong part for the show but I just could not get past the lead actor--he just doesn't work in the role for me. And seeing as I already have so many shows on my docket, I just don't have the time and attention to give the show a bigger chance.
I love Dirty Sexy Money. Three episodes in and the show is still strong (in my humble opinion) so I'm definitely a fan.
And then there's Pushing Daisies...I heard so many good opinions about the show (including your's) so I went in thinking I'd like it. I wanted to like it. I really did. But I didn't. At all. I sat through the first episode of what I now think is an insidiously boring show.
Post a Comment