Weeks In TV, BTW...

I've decided to stop those weekly summaries of my TV viewing. Besides the fact that it's not like there's a huge audience hanging on my every word, I can't figure out a way to make it consistent. Do I go into huge detail about characters and plots and such? If I did that I'd have to take notes while watching. Also, it would be a pretty brief post when shows are on breaks (as most of them are right now). And it seems like it got repetitive. How many times can I point out the same flaws about "Gotham" from week to week? Anyway, I'm thinking I'll just use Twitter when needed.

Just a couple observations on the shows based on comic books...

I'm really torn about whether to revisit "Gotham" when new episodes return in January. I want it to be successful, but consistent quality just isn't there. They're introducing more and more future Batman villains when they hardy can deal with those they've already established. The crime-of-the-week plots have been pretty dreadful, and so much of the acting ranges from over-the-top to zombie-like.

On the other hand, "Arrow," "The Flash" and "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D" are killing it right now. The two DC properties are intertwined (there will be more crossovers), yet distinct. "Arrow" has deviated a lot more from its comic book mythology, while "Flash" is more faithful in some ways. Both shows are introducing more characters (in a better fashion than "Gotham"), basically building up their own version of the DC Comics universe -- without, of course, DC's biggest stars. It would be great if they could work these shows into their movie universe, if Warner Bros. can really get that off the ground with "Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice." But they've already cast a new Flash for a movie sometime in the future, which is too bad.

Meanwhile, "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." has not only its own comic book derivations but an already-established movie universe, and Marvel is apparently using the show to not only tie into their movies, but introducing concepts in the TV show that will carry over to future films. It's a shame they can't get the rights to Spider-Man and the X-Men back, though.

My Week In TV - 11/9/14

This week there were no new episodes of The Flash or Agents of SHIELD on Tuesday. ABC ran some hour-long special about Marvel Comics and their TV and movie forays, followed by election coverage. No idea why the CW had a repeat. But many of the episodes more than made up for it...

Gotham: The best episode of the series thus far. Not perfect. Still some wonky scripting and acting (I'm looking at you, woman who plays Barbara, Gordon's girlfriend) but much tighter. There was no weekly crime to solve, the entire episode focused on the aftermath of the Penguin's public appearance at Jim Gordon's arrest. I was hoping they'd keep this tighter focus but, instead, I've read in the past week of the forthcoming introductions of yet another two future Batman villains.

Arrow: The episode was titled "The Secret Origin of Felicity Smoak." Fun episode. Love her. (Her mother, not so much.)

American Horror Story: Freak Show: Wow, did this episode go places! Big revelations and plot turns, and guys in tighty-whities! I actually watched it a second time.

The Big Bang Theory: Big sweet moment when Amy starts to tell Sheldon something important and, after a minute, he stops here with "I love you too." Awwwwwwww.

Bones: I am beginning to wonder if I really need to keep watching this show. It's not awful but it's really rather standard. And with Thursday being a big TV night, maybe I can just let it go, or at least just watch episodes On Demand when I'm not watching anything else.

Scandal: I feel like this show is going in circles at times with the whole B613 thing. Someone needs to be stopped and other characters plot to stop them. And I can't fathom a seemingly smart White House chief of staff, who's played plenty of dirty tricks over the years, being stupid enough to get involved with a guy AFTER he learns the guy's a prostitute, start paying him for their "dates" and even shell out money for a place in lieu of hotel rooms. Shouldn't he suspect someone might be setting him up for something?

How To Get Away With Murder: After this one, only two episodes remain until we, the viewers, learn who actually killed Sam. So then all that's left is to find out how they get away with it? And this has me wondering what will happen in Season 2? I wonder if this show is sustainable?

The Simpsons: "Simpsorama," the crossover with Futurama. Sooooooo much better than the Family Guy crossover. Bender is sent back in time to kill Homer Simpson (as it turns out, because of something Bart did that led to creatures destroying New New York in the 31st century). Lisa: "Why must you kill my dad? Especially when cheeseburgers are doing the work for you?"

Family Guy: Another one I'm starting to tire of. Used to be kind of a guilty pleasure, although I don't really believe in that concept, but now it's more guilty than pleasure.

Why Will This Man Get Counseling?

I don't even know who he is, but it's been reported that he's going to get counseling.

Why?

Because his "reality" TV show has been canceled.

Awwwww.

"Utopia" was going to go on for a full year, during which these people were supposed to create their own society. This article pretty much explains why, and also reveals that the show's host, for some reason, was the cartoonist Dan Piraro, of "Bizarro" fame. But no one was interested, so it's been canceled, and this was my favorite part of the story in that first link above:

The show’s online live feeds will also shut down later today, though it’s highly unlikely they will show the cast being informed of the show’s cancellation.

Awwwwwwwwwww.

The cast is expected to receive post-production counseling before being returned to their regular lives.

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwww.

My Week In TV - 10/5/14

Well, Dallas was canceled by TNT. It seems that once J.R. was gone, so were the ratings. That will make my Mondays a little easier in the future. As for this most recent week, let's start with...

Gotham: I saw enough improvement from the pilot to keep it on my watch list, at least for now. I can do without Jada Pinkett Smith as a new character, Fish Mooney. But on the other hand, Carol Kane guest-starred as Oswald Cobblepot's mother. She would have easily fit into one of the Tim Burton "Batman" movies.

The Big Bang Theory: Silliness as Wolowitz (who spent some time on the International Space Station a while back) was asked by NASA to throw out the first pitch at an Angels game. His athletic ability adding up to zero, he uses a replica of the Mars rover to deliver the first pitch. It goes very, very slowly. That, and giving him a microphone to address the crowd, made the entire storyline ridiculous.

Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D: I want to see where they're going with the mystery of Skye's parentage. It appears she'll be meeting her father soon. Maybe she'll get a last name out of it and we'll know her as something other than "Skye."

My Week In TV - 9/28/14

Remember how I used to post about which comic books I bought every week, with comments about each book (or comics in general, or whatever else I decided was sort of related to them)? Well, I don't buy nearly as many comics as I used to (go back and read about my issues with the DC comics reboot that led to Superman's using his baby blanket as a cape). So, I thought I'd try something new: commentary on the TV shows I watch each week.

This is in part inspired by what a big week this was for my personal TV viewing, which I will get to. First, though, this won't be about my regular Monday-through-Friday shows -- consisting of the brilliant Keith Olbermann on ESPN2 and, of course, TMZ -- unless something in particular during those shows that I think needs attention. Nor will this be about telecasts of sporting events, again unless I feel it's warranted. So we'll start with the programs that aired between September 21 and 28. (I didn't necessarily watch them in their time slot. I usually DVR everything and skip through the commercials. Also, I hope future posts won't be as long as this one is turning out to be.)

Last Monday started with, thanks to the magic of DVR, two episodes of The Big Bang Theory on CBS, the two-hour third-season finale of Dallas on TNT and the premiere of the new series Gotham on Fox.

Big Bang has been on so long now that I'm sort of waiting for the dropoff in quality. Not sure it's happened yet, because they've been able to have the characters grow out of their established personas. It's very slow, but just enough (such as Raj finally being able to talk to women without alcohol) to keep them interesting. So we'll see. (Note: it's on Monday for a few weeks due to CBS showing some NFL games on Thursdays.)

The Dallas reboot has been surprising since the start. Although ostensibly starring the sons of J.R. and Bobby Ewing, so much of the show has featured the old cast, and killing off J.R. (necessitated as it was by Larry Hagman's passing) led to some of the best television of 2013. Season three ended with a shocking death, although the shock was lessened by the fact that it happened at the very end of the episode and was hyped by TNT: "One...Ewing...Will...Die." Better to kill the character in the middle so it's truly unexpected.

I had tremendous expectations for Gotham, the Batman series without Batman.

Today's Sports Sexism

Sports on television has always catered to the straight male audience, whether it's the camera shots of cheerleaders or the predominantly young female sideline reporters. So naturally this makes sense.

As a result of the Comcast takeover of NBC Universal, Comcast Sportsnet Philadelphia's nightly "SportsNite" show now includes a brief weather update from NBC10. I'm not sure if the NBC10 staffer delivering the weather on CSN is the same every night, but my guess is if it's not, one staffer gets the majority of these updates. And that would be tonight's star, Sheena Parveen...

I mean, really, if you're a straight man wouldn't you rather get a weather update from her than from Glenn "Hurricane" Schwartz?

Some Sandy Observations

Just read the 11 am update saying Hurricane Sandy's winds are up to 90 mph -- if they got to 96 it would be Category 2 instead of Cat 1 -- and the storm's pressure of 943 mb, according to Phillyweather.net, is typical of a Cat 4 storm. So there's this incredibly large storm, pretty intense, and atmospheric conditions are causing it to basically make a left turn into the coast near Atlantic City. Such a sharp turn for a hurricane in this region is close to unprecedented, and the fact that it's gotten a bit stronger even though it's moving north and away from more tropical waters is very unusual.

Between this and last year's Hurricane Irene and those ridiculous Snowmageddon blizzards a couple of years ago and lots of other things, don't tell me global warming isn't screwing up our weather. Don't waste my time with that tired non-scientific right-wing stupidity.

Anyway, it's a very strange couple of days. I'm nervous about my roof holding up under the expected rainfall, and couldn't fall asleep last night. I got the newspaper delivered, though, even with the state of emergency being declared. (Might be a different story tomorrow morning.) I finally started to read it and dozed off for about 2 hours. I imagine I'll be sleeping on and off since I'm not leaving the house.

The local TV stations and the Weather Channel are going non-stop with storm coverage but it seems like there's nothing on any stations that warrants my watching it for very long. Coverage ranges from inane to inept. 

So far, except for the time I was sleeping, it seems like it hasn't rained to an extreme extent. The brunt of it is still south and west. The good news is, if what I'm reading is correct, the landfall might occur a little earlier than previously thought. Phillyweather.net pegs it at between 4 pm and 7 pm. If so, perhaps it'll clear out of here sooner.

I might update this later. Maybe even with video.

UPDATE 1: Took some video around 4:20 pm. Just rain and some wind. The worst of it is still to come, they say.



UPDATE 2: Another video. Since it's getting too dark I don't know if I'll bother taking any more. Lot more wind, lot less rain at this time (6:15 pm).



UPDATE 3: 10:15 pm. Can't see much because it's too dark. Listen to the wind, though. Tree branches were really swaying.

Two More TV Shows

Following up on my previous two TV posts...

I've tried two more new series...well, one isn't entirely new...and added them to my DVR. (I almost always record every show, even when I'm home, so I can fast-forward through the commercials.)

The hype over "American Horror Story" got me curious, and with the strange way that it's now not actually one series but separate miniseries (for Emmy purposes or whatever), the new season tells a completely different tale (thus the title being "American Horror Story: Asylum."  As I didn't need to see the first edition to know what was going on, I decided to tune in. It's very weird, obviously. The first episode didn't truly scare me, and I sort of guessed what was going to happen to one character at the end. I wasn't overwhelmed. I'm not sure if I'm going to keep watching, but I'll give it at least one more week.

The other show, now two episodes in, is "Arrow." As I previously mentioned, it's a very different take on  DC Comics' Green Arrow. I'm not sure they ever plan to give him that name -- right now he isn't called anything. He's just an anonymous vigilante, and he isn't above killing people if necessary, so it's not anything like a superhero show. I wouldn't call it brilliantly acted, and some characters aren't very developed yet, but I'm surprisingly intrigued by the premise.

So my TV schedule currently looks like this: Sunday is "Simpsons" and "Family Guy," and now "Robot Chicken." Monday has "Bones," and my weekly dose of Logo: "Be Good Johnny Weir" just finished season two (I felt it was more self-indulgent and scripted, so I'm not sure I'll be around if there's a third season), and its slot will be filled this Monday by "RuPaul's All-Stars Drag Race." Besides "Don't Trust the B---- in Apt. 23," Tuesday now has new episodes of Cartoon Network's "The Looney Tunes Show." Wednesday is "Arrow" and "American Horror Story: Asylum." "The Big Bang Theory" and "Glee" are on Thursdays, and eventually "Community" and "Malibu Country" will arrive on Friday.

With these cable shows debuting, and more on the way at some point ("Mad Men," "Southland") I'm concerned that it's going to take up more of my time to stay caught up. Of course, I don't really have much of a life, so...

A Fox-"Bones"-Romney Conspiracy Theory

I present to you a still image from Monday night's episode of "Bones." Here we see a map on a screen at the Jeffersonian, the fictional institution where all the forensic evidence in the murder cases on the show is analyzed. This map displays an area from which came some of that evidence, based on...well, a bunch of scientific jargon that I usually can hardly keep up with. No big deal, right? But when I watched it, a name on the map caught my eye. In fact, it jumped out at me immediately. So I paused the DVR and took two pictures. Look closely...

If you can't tell what I'm talking about, here's a closeup...

WTF, you ask? Why is Mitt Romney's name on screen? Is it a devious form of subliminal advertising by Fox, or by the show's producers, or a conspiracy planned by both?

Well, I did a Google search and found that the map is of an actual town -- Romney, West Virginia, not all that far from Washington, where the show is based. Still, I can't help but wonder. Can it really be a coincidence that the map used in an episode airing a month before the election is of a town that shares the same name as the GOP candidate for President?

Wait -- on the other hand, we all know that Hollywood is dominated by liberals. So maybe another plot was devised. Maybe the producers threw his name on screen just to rile up the Romney opposition -- maybe Barack Obama even gave them the idea!

What do you think? Should we demand an investigation by the Senate or something?

TV Tryouts: Elementary, 666 Park Avenue

In my last post I mentioned that I planned to try these two shows, and so I have. But first, I tried "Partners" again. I couldn't DVR it because I was recording "Bones" while watching baseball, so I figured I could watch it On Demand. Except, oddly enough, it wasn't one of the shows CBS offered On Demand. So I had to watch it online. I went to CBS.com and, well, I lasted through the first scene after the first commercial break. Sorry, Michael Urie, I love you but this show sucks. (By the way, CBS.com, if you're going to show commercials and not allow us to click past them, at least show three different commercials and not the same stupid Macy's commercial showing people like Martha Stewart and Justin Bieber working in the store THREE TIMES IN A ROW.)

Now then...I might have enjoyed "Elementary" a little more if the Sherlock Holmes character wasn't named Sherlock Holmes. Unlike the BBC "Sherlock," which took great care in bringing the characters into the present day, "Elementary" just makes changes for the sake of change. Look, Holmes lives in New York now! Look, Watson is a woman now! And so on. The rest of it is just a standard crime procedural show without fancy CSI graphics. Despite the charms of Jonny Lee Miller and Lucy Liu as Holmes and Watson, I won't be tuning in again. (By the way, are Miller's tattoos real or are they just for the show?)

As for "666 Park Avenue," I just found it boring. A show starring Vanessa Williams should never be boring. And her character is boring, at least so far.

Our lesson so far: the new shows I've sampled are all failures.

My TV Schedule (And Two Gay Nays)

In the past I've talked about how I decide whether or not to watch a new TV show -- basically, I need something to pique my interest in it, or else I just happen to watch on a whim. So with the new fall TV season under way, I thought I'd update you on what I'm currently watching (or considering watching, or tried to watch). There have been a few changes in my schedule.

SUNDAY: I've still got "The Simpsons" (which, let's face it, at this point I'll never stop watching) and "Family Guy" (which I can't quite get rid of). With "Desperate Housewives" gone, though, I don't have another Sunday night show. I'm considering trying "666 Park Avenue," only because Vanessa Williams moved from Wisteria Lane to this address. Apparently (as you can guess from the number) there are devilish doings going on. I'll try it.

MONDAY: It used to be a quiet night until Fox moved "Bones" here. I also sampled the debut of "Partners," one of the two new shows with heavy gay content. It co-stars Michael Urie, one of my faves from "Ugly Betty," which is why I watched it. Urie's character is gay and his best friend (played by David Krumholtz) is straight. Their significant others are Brandon "I'm no longer Superman" Routh and Sophia Bush, respectively. I may watch another episode because I really like Urie, but I think they'd be better off if they ditched the truly dull Krumholtz and Routh entirely, and maybe Bush as well.

TUESDAY: At least "Partners" isn't the other big gay sitcom, "The New Normal."

Odd Timing...Oh, And My Blog Is Free Today!

...I mean, it's THREE today. (I can say "today" because it's after midnight.) Happy birthday, blog!

So this actually happened earlier...

I decided to start watching "The Big Bang Theory" regularly. I've sampled it a number of times but never really gave it a chance, and now it's part of the roster of shows I watch. You could say there was an opening, with "Desperate Housewives" ending its run, but that's not really relevant. Anyway, TBS is running the episodes from the first four seasons in order on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights, which is part of the reason I jumped in when I did. I'm also watching the reruns from this past season on CBS, but there will be a few I'll still have to catch up on.

Anyway, tonight I was watching an episode from the third season, which was when Leonard and Penny got together as a couple for the first time. In this particular episode they were explaining to Sheldon why they were in Leonard's bedroom instead of in her apartment: it seems they broke her bed.

And just as they're discussing the broken bed, that's when I heard a snapping sound and felt a sudden jolt.

My rocker-recliner broke. A spring on the back snapped, causing the back to loosen from the rest of the frame on the right side. I hate this because now I can't rock in the chair (I looooove rocking). In fact, I had to move the chair back against the wall just so I can sit on it without one side sagging back. And of course I need to buy a new chair now, which means spending money. This will be, I think, the fourth rocker or rocker-recliner I've owned. At least number three lasted longer than the other two.

TLFT: Drag Race Finale (No Spoiler)

I started to post this to Twitter but then I realized it needs a little more room to breathe. ;-)

Knowing they taped the ending of the "RuPaul's Drag Race" reunion/coronation three times, one for each of the finalists, made the eventual announcement of the winner tonight somewhat anticlimatic -- especially when the actual winner wasn't the one filmed first, based on EW.com's on-the-scene report, and thus didn't get the most genuine audience reaction. (Don't click on the link if you want to go completely unspoiled.) I can understand taking precautions to prevent the news from being leaked, as apparently happened last season, but to me it really took away from my enjoyment of the show. Not to mention I'm still ticked off that the winner wasn't revealed last week. First there was "The Glee Project" finale, in which every finalist won something, and now "Drag Race," in which nobody won, at least not on the "final" episode. What's next? Annoucing the winner on the first episode and then running the show in reverse?

I will say the choice was interesting. I had no real favorite so I'm not overly pleased or displeased either way.

Oh, and the reason Willam got kicked off? Yawn. Seriously.

Self-Promotion And Other Randomness

I once thought, not seriously, about wearing a t-shirt or hat with the URL of this blog, just to see if people asked about it or if it created more traffic. I suppose I could still do that. It's certainly a better method than this:

That's on a stall in the men's room at the AMC Franklin Mills theaters. (Yes, I actually saw movies this weekend! I may write about them someday.) And it's an actual Twitter account, although not one I'd ever follow, unless they followed me first.

Meanwhile, I'm still waiting for the heating assistance funding to be completely spent so they'll lay me off from work. As I understand it I would be eligible for unemployment but they have a bunch of rules for new applicants requiring them to jump through hoops applying for other jobs. I'm not sure I want to bother with all of that. I'm going to look for work once I'm laid off, but I want to do it on my terms. Does that seem weird?

Anyway, until then my free time is still rather limited, and with other stuff going on lately I've really been struggling mentally. I just need to hang on a little while longer.

Just wanted to throw a TV note in here: I tried to watch the premiere of "GCB," but after two different attempts I just can't get into it, so it's now deleted from my DVR. Sorry, Kristin Chenoweth.

Gay-Friendly "Dancin'"

This article was in the CityPaper a few weeks ago, but it's just now that I'm getting around to pointing out a neat thing in it. Thanks, procrastination!

Back in the 1980s "Dancin' On Air" was a hit show on Channel 17 (WPHL), airing live every weekday afternoon. I never really got to watch it much because I was at work, but now and then I got to see it. It spun off a national broadcast as well, "Dance Party USA."

Think of it as an updated "American Bandstand," with kids dancing to the latest music and occasional appearances by performers lip-syncing their hits (one of those was Madonna, before she became a star -- that CityPaper article tells an amusing Madonna story, by the way). One of those kids was Kelly Ripa. I think she's done a thing or two in the entertainment industry...anyway, in the last year, capitalizing on the 30th anniversary of the show's debut, WPHL aired a few "Dancin'" specials, rebroadcasting old episodes as well as clip shows packaged with interviews with some of those kids (but not Kelly Ripa), now well into their 40s at the least.

Those specials got surprisingly strong ratings, so the station and the show's producers are bringing it back, with a few twists. It's no longer going to be broadcast live, nor will it be shown every weekday. Instead, it will air on Saturday mornings beginning March 31. The article states they'll mix in music from the show's era with today's hits. And producer Mike Nise mentioned out one other key difference:

"Audiences are more tolerant than ever, and if there are gay couples, we'll show that, too."

Well done, "Dancin' On Air."

Why I'm A Jerk

Remember this?

I know you've been waiting desperately for the answer to why I'm wearing this t-shirt.

Well, one person has, at least.

It's not because I'm an actual jerk, this tweet notwithstanding.

It's because of this TV show I started watching last year. I like it so much I bought the t-shirt. (To be honest, it was on sale for 50 percent off at the time, which helped spur my decision.)

You're welcome.

Glee: Closed-Captioning FAIL

This is from Tuesday night's episode of "Glee." You should easily be able to figure out what's wrong here:

Try and ignore my crappy non-HDTV and the reflection of the lamp on Santana's face.

Quick Review: What's Your Number

In "What's Your Number" Anna Faris is a woman who is horrified when she reads an article in a women's magazine stating that a woman who's had 20 lovers will most likely never marry. After all, she'd been with 19 men -- and then ends up having a drunken one-nighter with her ex-boss, a d-bag played by Joel McHale (speaking of whom, I really like "Community" even though I didn't begin watching it until Season 2), hitting the not-so-magical 20 plateau. She decides that one of her old boyfriends must be "the one" and, with the help of her hot neighbor, who has many one-night stands of his own (but no magazine cares whether a man has too many lovers), starts tracking them down. But it's a mostly predictable plot and we all know who ends up together at the end, don't we? But I love Anna Faris in almost anything. And Chris Evans, as the neighbor/man-slut, isn't quite as wooden as he's been in the past (plus, I assumed he filmed this after "Captain America" because his chest hair was starting to grow back in). My grade: C-plus.

Too Long For Twitter: Arrested Development? Really?

Can't believe I'm writing this while Game 2 of the Phils-Cards NLDS playoff is on, but I need to do it while it's fresh in my mind...

There's yet more talk, perhaps as definitive as it's ever been, that the TV series "Arrested Development" is making a comeback. In the works, possibly: a movie and some more TV episodes.

What I want to know is: why?

Isn't this throwing good money after bad for whatever production companies would put together the financing? The show was always low-rated. That's why it was canceled. Is there any evidence that anyone, other than Entertainment Weekly and the same small cult that has been clamoring for it from the beginning, is even interested? I know I'm not.

Too Long For Twitter: "Whitney"

So a few minutes ago while I was finishing up some reading, I had the TV tuned to some college football game but I wasn't really interested. So I decided to see what else could be on in the background. I saw that the new sitcom "Whitney," starring Whitney Cummings (see photo) was on NBC, and decided to check it out. It started promisingly, with the hairy-chested boyfriend (Chris D'Elia, also see photo) joining the title character in the shower.

Then they opened their mouths and began to speak, and ruined everything.