A Change is in the Air

Now that I'm done commenting on season 3 of the OC, it's time to announce a change to this blog. I'm going to do more commentating on television shows, and less synopses of shows. I will try to recap some shows, but it will be more of my ruminations of these shows.
Though the fall season started about a month ago, it's not too late to start talking about what I thought of these shows before they get cancelled. I'm such a fan of network tv, I'm going to mention what looked good back over the summer and what I've watched so far. Hell, I'll even mention the shows I haven't watched and why!

ABC

Knights Of Prosperity: Donal Logue ("ER," "Grounded For Life") wants to rob a celebrity's house. He and his pals decide on Mick Jagger. I think it's a funny idea, but can they sustain this for a whole 22 episodes, or for that matter, 6 seasons?

Prognosis: never aired. Will it go the way of "Freakylinks" and "Rewind?"

Help Me Help You: A comedy with Ted Danson ("Becker," "Cheers") therapist who helps a motley crew of patients. Sounds like Frasier and Bob Newhart rolled into one.

Prognosis: sounds promising, good cast. I guess it depends.

The Nine: drama. Nine people are held hostage in a bank for 52 hours. They start out strangers, but end up becoming close because of the trauma involved. Really good show, I've been watching it every week. Everyone on the show is different (doctor, lawyer, run of the mill regular guy) but it's a diverse cast. They give you hints as to what happened during the standoff at the bank, but don't spell it out for you. We see the aftermath and them getting back to their lives. I like the quiet moments, and how everyone has changed for the better or worse after everything that's happened. Plus, there are some revelations made that look like one of the nine hostages was involved in the initial robbery. But who?

Prognosis: I heard the ratings were bad, but I will stick around. I hope we at least get to see what they went through at the bank.

Ugly Betty: Based on a telenovela from South America. It's about an "ugly" girl from the Bronx working at a high-fashion magazine. Betty is hired because she's the only girl her boss won't sleep with. It's pretty hilarious, it's a nice slice-of-life show with some real moments. Plus it's campy at the same time. Vanessa Williams is in it, and Eric Mabius (go SLC class of '96!).
Prognosis: Great. ABC moved this from Friday nights to Thursdays. It's already doing well.

Six Degrees: Six strangers in NYC aren't really strangers, they are all connected somehow. We get to see how and why.

Prognosis: I really hope they cancel this show. It's about a bunch of whiny New Yorkers. Wait, they did cancel it! Yay!

Men In Trees: Anne Heche is a neurotic New Yorker who gets stranded in Elmo, Alaska and meets a lot of quirky characters, including a sexy rugged guy. It's northern exposure meets Sex And The City! It's called Men in Trees because in Alaska, apparently, the ratio of men-to-women is 10 to 1. So many men that they are in trees! Ho ho ho! I wonder what the ratio is between men and whiny New Yorkers? And how many shows do we need with whiny New Yorkers?

prognosis: I hate this show. But I think ladies at home on Friday nights may like watching this.

Brothers & Sisters: Sally Field, Calista Flockhart, Rachel Griffiths, Patricia Wettig all star in this show about really unhappy rich white people who hate their cushy lives for some reason. It's very overwrought, with affairs being had, couples being miserable, gay people being condescending...it's got it all!

Prognosis: Could catch on, feels like those aging hippies who watched thirtysomething will watch this. Give it one season at least.



NBC

Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip: with Matthew Perry. It's supposed to be loosely based on behind the scenes action of a hit sketch comedy series, written by Aaron Sorkin, the West Wing creator. It seems like it will be great, I saw the first ten minutes on youtube.com and it gave me chills. I saw the second and third episode. So far so good, but it does seem a bit talky and you really have to pay attention to it.

Prognosis: one season, then out.

30 Rock: Tina Fey ("SNL") is the head writer on a show for NBC called "The Girly Show." But Alec Baldwin joins the NBC family and retools the show, adding Tracy Morgan (on a Bobby Brown-I'm crazy-riff) to the cast, much to the chagrin of TGS' star, Jane Krakowski (Ally McBeal).

Prognosis: I love this show! I hope it stays on. Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin are hilarious. They need to get rid of Jane Krakowski, she tends to bring the show down.

Heroes: Ali Larter (from "Final Destination") and Adrian Pasdar (from "Profit", baby!). It's about people with super powers who are destined to save New York from a disaster. It sounds really great, and I am a sucker for super heroes stories. I like the slant that they don't know about their powers, and their powers seem pretty unique. Plus, no code names OR super suits. I like the mysterious aspect of it, and I do like to tune in every week to find out what's going to happen next.

Prognosis: a keeper. I heard it was doing well in the ratings.

Friday Night Lights: just like the movie and the book. High School Football in Texas, where it really matters to everyone in the town. My friend Kelly likes this show. I haven't watched it yet, but it's getting clobbered in the ratings (it's on opposite "Dancing With The Stars") but NBC moved it to Mondays, and it did much better. Maybe it'll receive a reprieve.

Prognosis: maybe 13 episodes.

Kidnapped: Dana Delany ("China Beach") has a millionaire husband and three kids. One kid is kidnapped, and they use any means necessary to get this kid back. Even hiring an ex-FBI agent to track him down. It is supposed to be a serialized show that you have to watch every week to know what's going on. I haven't watched it, and the promos looked run-of-the mill.

Prognosis: I think it's been cancelled already, but I could have predicted that one.

Twenty Good Years: John Lithgow and Jeffrey Tambor play old guys who want to spend the last 20 years of their life having fun, which means playing two-on-two basketball with some black athletes or dating women half their age. The promos looked so awful I've steered clear.

Prognosis: I heard a term called "second-hand embarrassment" which is what I feel when I watch this show. It needs to be put out of its misery because I'm embarrassed looking at it.

The CW

Runaway: Donnie Wahlberg ("New Kids on the Block") and his family go on the lam after he is accused of a murder he didn't commit. It sounded interesting, but it's on the new CW. I was watching "Heroes" and I forgot it was on. A week later, they moved it to Sundays. A week after that, they cancelled it. Never checked it out. Oh well, sorry Donnie Wahlberg, I'm sure it was good.

Prognosis: never seen again.

The Game: One of the girls from "Sister Sister" is in a relationship with a pro football player. So she makes some friends in the same situation. Oh, this is a comedy. It's a spinoff of "Girlfriends." Go figure!

Prognosis: it'll do well with the other shows on this comedy block.

CBS

The Class: Jason Ritter (John Ritter's son) and a group of classmates from his third grade class become reacquainted. Watched the pilot. Boring! I hated everyone in his class. Nobody is funny, the jokes seemed forced, and every single person is a cookie cutter caricature. But yet, there isn't the obligatory black person! Now, that ain't right.

Prognosis: one season, then gone

Jericho: Skeet Ulrich (Scream) moves back to his home town of Jericho, Kansas right before they are cut off from civilization due to some kind of attack on the United States.

Prognosis: I thought it sounded terrible and it would be cancelled by now. But people seem to like it, and it's still on. It proves I don't know what people like.


Smith: Ray Liotta, Simon Baker, Virginia Madsen, Amy Smart, Shohreh Aghdashloo (big names!) in a interesting show. They are all professional thieves and bad guys who work for Ray Liotta's character. I never saw the show, it has already been cancelled!

Prognosis: off the air already.

Shark: Look, it's "House" with Lawyers! James Woods becomes a prosecutor after his wife is killed by a man he defended. Also included: Jeri Ryan. He's a real bastard...but he's a bastard that gets results.

Prognosis: not another lawyer show! At least it looks different than the other procedurals. Give it a year, then we'll evaluate.


FOX

Vanished: with Ming-Na (ER, Inconceivable). A senator's wife disappears, and there's a conspiracy theory behind where she is and why she up and disappeared. I think this show is on hiatus already. I think people aren't interested in watching a show all year long unless it's got a hook immediately. And so far, no good.

Prognosis: il penso negativo

Standoff: Ron Livingston (Office Space) is a hostage negotiator who is sleeping with his partner. It's got some levity, apparently.

Prognosis: I don't think it's on anymore. But Ally McBeal meets cops procedural? I don't be thinking so.

Justice: A crack team of lawyers use a lot of cutting edge technology to try cases. Like CSI meets the practice. With Victor Garber (Syd's dad from Alias). I've only watched five minutes of this one. It looked okay, but I couldn't commit to yet another hourlong tv show.

Prognosis: different, interesting. I would give it a shot of more than one season.

Til Death: Brad Garrett (Everybody Loves Raymond) has been married forever, and his next door neighbors are newlyweds. Cue the hijinks!

Prognosis: mmmaybe. I don't like it, but it may be good for some people who are trapped in loveless marriages or think loveless marriages are funny.

Happy Hour: Henry moves in with a neighbor Larry so he can see what his ex-girlfriend is doing. I never actually watched this show all the way through. It felt horrible. But I wanted it to succeed, because I knew some of the extras on this set.

Prognosis: negative, if it hasn't been cancelled already.

So, these are my picks:

First show cancelled:
Happy Hour

Shows that don't survive the year:
The Class
Runaway
Vanished
The Knights Of Prosperity
Help Me Help You
Standoff
Six Degrees
Kidnapped
Twenty Good Years
Jericho

Shows To Last 1 year only:
Smith
'Til Death
Shark
Brothers & Sisters
Friday Night Lights
The Nine
Men In Trees
30 Rock
Justice

Shows to make it to next fall:
Studio 60
Heroes
The Game
Ugly Betty

Episodes 23-25 (Including Season 3 Finale)

Yes, I was away for six months. So I’ve had a life. Sue me, why don’t ya?

Well, the OC is about to start up again, so I guess I should recap the last five episodes of the season. But I don’t remember what happened, so I will give you the cliff’s notes version of what happened, with the help of some sites online and my aging memory. I’m only doing this to finish what I started. My friend Dara actually came back to the states so I’m off the hook with these recaps. But as I said before, I have to complete this or else.

The Party Favor (episode 23)
The boys want to go to the prom, but they have no dates. Marissa is still skanking out with Volchok, and Summer won’t talk to Seth. Seth even tries to finagle a breakfast date out of her to apologize, but it doesn’t work. Taylor sets Summer up with her friend Sung Ho’s cousin, who is a model and pop star or something in Asia. She describes the cousin, as “hairless” which I guess is a plus for Summer. Seeing is how most high school boys are incredibly hairy. Summer decides to get back at Seth by hiding the napkin- confessional that he wrote on Sandy’s desk. Remember? The one that was a direct result of Seth’s dalliance with drugs? Yeah, that one. Sandy asks Theresa to go to the prom, and despite her single mom status, she’s ready to go!
Anna comes to town in the middle of the school year to help Seth win Summer back, and manages to finagle a date to the prom to help out. Marissa asks Volchok to go with her, even though he doesn’t want to. But he goes, and boozes it up and steals some wad o’cash from Taylor T. Later, outside the prom, Marissa catches him making out with some other woman. She slaps him. But he snaps back that just because he’s wearing a tux and is at the prom, he’s no Ryan “bitch boy” Atwood. Marissa storms away.
At the prom, Summer is named Prom Queen. Summer has been drinking heavily at this point in the evening, and during her speech, and in the best scene EVER this season, takes a header off the prom-themed pirate ship into the gasping crowd. Later, Seth FINALLY comes clean about not getting into Brown, and breaking up with her because he was embarrassed, and…oh who cares. Summer thinks it was the “dumbest plan ever.” And all of America agrees with her. Anna, her plot device activated, leaves town. See you all in Providence! (Remember, Seth is going to RISD). But worse yet, Summer remembers the napkin confessional and is immediately sorry
In adult-land, Sandy is still in his downward shady businessman spiral, Kirsten may drink again, and Dr. Neil and Julie are together.
Oh, at the end, Taylor finds out that her money is missing (five grand! For the prom party!) and Ryan knows it was Volchok. He goes after him, and somehow fists start flying, and by the end Volchok is dead! Or is he?

The Man Of the Year (episode 24)
No, Volchok isn’t dead. But he does manage to blackmail Ryan into being his lookout for a Newport crime spree. He becomes all secretive with Theresa until she figures out that Ryan is always going to be letting his fists do the talking and decides she doesn’t want to get back together with him. I understand Ryan acts immature, but he is only 18. Though he looks easily 35, but I digress. Volchok steals a car, and tries to get Ryan to come with him while the cop sirens wail in the background. Wait, isn’t that how it all got started with Trey? Ah, season 1. But this time, Ryan has the foresight to run away. He manages to get Marissa to cover for him.

Kaitlin calls from prep school to ask Marissa to intercept a school letter before Julie gets ahold of it. But after reading it, Marissa goes to Kaitlin’s prep school to ask her about it. She ends up staying at school for a while, and helps Kaitlin out of jam, which includes the words “lipstick party” and “lacrosstitutes.” I’m so old I don’t know what either of those things are. Though it was amusing to watch Marissa hitting on a teenage boy in a lacrosse skirt and being skanky…big stretch these days.

Sandy becomes a magazine’s “Man Of The Year” which boils down to being rewarded for his backstabbing ways and running the Newport Group like Kirsten’s old man. Kirsten is off the wagon. Summer sneaks around the Cohen house to try and get the napkin-confession back, but inadvertently points it out to Sandy, then proceeds to spill the beans about Seth not getting into Brown. Sandy had no idea. Apparently Seth lied to everyone! Go figure! Sandy tries to talk to him about it, but Seth has a trump card: he lets Sandy know Kirsten is drinking again. A lot. Sandy promises to do better, and actually makes amends—he talks with the district attorney and makes a deal, and smoothes things over with Kirsten. All seems to be well, until they find out a fire was set at the Newport Group—by none other than Seth! Yeah, Sandy sent him to the Newport Group to pick up some plans, and Seth smoked a doobie while he was there. But he forgot to put out the roach, it caught a basket of paper on fire—and there’s your arson, boys and girls. At the MOY awards ceremony, Ryan thinks he’s going to get arrested, but instead, Seth is hauled away in handcuffs.


The Graduates (episode 25--season finale!)
Of course, Seth got off somehow, and isn’t going to jail for burning down part of the Newport Group. But this equation probably was why: Lawyer Dad +rich+ white=not guilty!

The gang graduates from Harbor. Marissa’s dad wants her to go to Greece and sail around the world with him. And she wants to go, seeing as how college doesn’t really agree with her. Ryan’s mom comes to town and she gives him a restored SUV for a present! I thought that was really cool of his mom. And Ryan looked genuinely happy to get it. Meanwhile, Volchok threatens to tell the cops Ryan was involved in the car being stolen if he doesn’t get cash to skip town. Kaitlin komes back to town, and she intends to stay in Marissa’s room and “rule Harbor.” To get the cash for Volchok, Marissa pawns her graduation gift…a pearl necklace from her mom (ewww!) and delivers it to him. They fight a bit, and all of the sudden Volchok is obsessed with her! Must every man be obsessed with her? Argh!

So Marissa decides to go with Jimmy to Greece. And so the gang says goodbye to Marissa in the best possible fashion—at the Model Home! Those were the days: Ryan hiding from the cops, the fire hazardous candles, the mix CD, the fight with Luke…I could go on and on. The gang has a party and lots of nice photo ops. But then Ryan has to take Marissa to the airport in his new wheels.
Sandy goes to the DA’s office to drop off some paperwork (he made a deal to get off the hook for the whole corrupt Griffin and Newport thing) and sees the overworked and undoubtedly underpaid public defender with a sheaf of papers on his desk and immediately gets misty eyed.
They’re driving away, when none other than Volchok pulls up and tries to run Ryan off the road! Ryan tries to get away, but despite the room on either side of the road, he stays in his lane. Suddenly there’s plenty of room as Volchok rams Ryan’s new ride so hard it flies off the road, over the hill, and rolls around a couple of times before stopping. After it sits for a few minutes, Ryan drags himself out of the car, and then remembers MARISSA is still in the car. He does pull her out of there before doing the dreaded “Ryan carrying limp Marissa in his arms” promenade. This time, she’s dead, folks. Of course she has a great death scene every actor dreams of: the strained speaking, the staggered swallowing, and the eyes closing for good. My favorite part: the ex-boyfriend standing over the corpse of the biggest drain to his life force since…well, ever. And Season 3 comes to a close.

MARISSA IS DEAD! No Marissa next year, the gang is going their separate ways, Kaitlin is back in Newport, Julie is getting married to Summer’s dad, a whole new Newport is coming!