TDL’s Sports, Wrestling, & Otherwise

Back at the beginning of the television season I wrote a little about the new shows I was going to start following. Let’s see if anything’s changed.

The Next Great American Band

What I Said Then: An extension of above, with only 3 million people watching, I think you can probably narrow down who’s going to win. It’s not going to be one of the quirky or different bands… it’s going to be one of the classic rock-y type bands like Sixwire or The Muggs. Why they didn’t give this show Monday Night at 9pm or Thursday Night at 8pm… to give it a shot in hell… I have no idea.

What I Say Now: The best band on the show, Franklin Bridge, got bumped off a couple of weeks ago. The second best band, Sixwire, is still around. Unfortunately, so is the Heavy Metal Hanson. Vote For The Worst.com doesn’t really have the power to affect a show where 40 million people vote every week… but apparently it can affect a show that only 3 million people are watching. They’re going to win and it’s going to be a joke. Since I’m a masochist, I’ll watch it through to the end.

Moonlight

What I Said Then: I have a really bad feeling about this show’s shelf life. It’s fortunately part of what appears to be “Supernatural Crap Friday” on CBS so it should at least get the whole season to work out. Unfortunately, I think it’s borrowing WAY too much from other Vampire shows to be a long-running program.

What I Say Now: I’m still watching it, although I’ve already accepted that it’s a terrible show. This has only been re-enforced over the last couple weeks as I’ve watched through the last bit of Angel. For whatever reason, Joss Whedon’s team is the only group that’s ever made a vampire show not seem horribly cheesy. Maybe it’s that Whedonverse vampires don’t hiss before they attack each other. Maybe it’s that pretty much everyone on Whedonverse shows are good actors. Maybe it was the fact that the writing was strong enough to make suspension of disbelief simple instead of a chore. Whatever it is, this show is doing nothing for me. I keep waiting. I get some more time as the show’s been picked up for 2008.

Pushing Daisies

What I Said Then: Really, I’m not sure if I should file this as a pro or a con because I’m not sure how I feel about it. The whole show is filmed like a weird indie movie that I normally wouldn’t like. It has a narrator who comes into the story and describes things going on in the background… most of the dialog is deadpanned and weird… the characters are very, very strange. Every fiber of this show screams “too cool for the room indie movie and you should absolutely hate this” right down to the crazy wardrobe on the women. Yet, for some reason… I like it. The mental tugging between “you should hate this!” and “but I don’t!” is painful.

What I Say Now: The mental tug-of-war has ended. I do really like the show. Surprisingly, they’ve made the whole “can’t touch each other” thing work. It’s cute. The show manages to be about death and not be too morbid. No complaints.

Back To You

What I Said Then: I hated Deborah on Everybody Loves Raymond. It got to the point toward the end of the show when I couldn’t even watch it anymore because of her. Later, when Robert’s wife turned out to be Deborah Jr, I could stand it even less. Patricia Heaton might be a really nice person in real life, but I can only see her as the over-reacting, nagging shrew she played on Raymond and, apparently, she plays the same character in this show.

What I Say Now: It’s Everybody Loves Raymond with different relationships between the characters. I really dislike Patricia Heaton’s character and I loathe how they have to make her right in each episode. To the credit, they rewrote the weather girl a few episodes in to stop her from being a complete stereotype. Ms. L loves it, though, so it’ll probably stay on the DVR line-up whenever there starts being episodes again.

Reaper

What I Said Then: I can’t pick a character that I don’t like on the show. Ray Wise plays Satan in the Al Pacino Devil’s Advocate kind of way. He tempts, but doesn’t force. He’s suave… dapper… and the kind of guy you’d sell your soul to. He’s perfect. Sock comes across as the perfect comic relief and is a Kevin Smith character through and through. I like that type of character.

What I Say Now: This show is kind of fading on me. Each episode has been very formulaic. It’s the same show week after week. The few interesting pieces of plot they’ve started (like Sam’s dad burning certain pages of the contract) were never mentioned again. My other problem I’ve mentioned previously: how is it that all these souls escaping from hell happen to wash up in this one city? Wouldn’t word get around, at some point, that this city is exactly where the newly escaped souls don’t want to be? I still really like the show, I just want some plot. Also, they really need to just tell the two girls on the show what’s going on. It’s reaching the point of absurdity that these two girls don’t realize that something weird is going on. Give me some mythology… something.

K-Ville

What I Said Then: The show is about as stereotypical a cop show as it comes. The mis-matched partners who don’t trust each other at first but then become buddies toward the end. They form a shaky partnership at the end and Boulet agrees to keep Cobb’s dark secret: when the flood hit he was in prison, but since all of New Orleans’ computer records were wiped out, he was able to make a fresh start.

What I Say Now: It got 3 episodes to hook me, and then the DVR got too crowded and it lost it’s slot in the line-up.

Journeyman

What I Said Then: Final Thought: I enjoyed it… I didn’t find myself writing this instead of watching it and I think the story’s interesting enough for now. Upgraded to series recording.

What I Say Now: This show has been my favorite of the new season. Like Reaper, each episode is formulaic, but there’s enough plot being seeded in to keep the show interesting. Each episode gives us a life that Dan has to save, but he’s also leaving clues about himself throughout the time line. There are time scientists showing up at various points dropping hints that someone knows what’s going on. The FBI’s appearance and the agent’s declaration that “they always need money” seems to indicate that they have some idea of what’s going on. Naturally, since the show is my favorite of the new season, its time is up. The remaining episodes will air as scheduled and its 13 episode run will be over. At the very least, it’s suggested that most of the show’s loose ends will be tied up.