Before diving back into new TV next week (this week's How I Met Your Mother and Top Chef will be covered in next week's post) let's take a quick look at the state of the numerous new shows that debuted this season which I've been watching.
Pan Am
Despite featuring one of my favorite pilots of the season, after three episodes there wasn't enough narrative urgency to keep this from slipping further down the queue as my TV time got crunched. Now, it seems like a dead show walking, having played out its string but unlikely to get picked up for any additional episodes. I'll finish it out, thanks to the style and characters, but probably not until other, more urgent or intriguing shows, bow for the summer.
Once Upon a Time
Another strong pilot and one of the show's I most regret falling behind on. Hoping to catch up with it soon. Definitely not perfect, but seeing fairy tale characters re-imagined (both in the flashbacks and the modern day) plus a Lost-ian style ongoing narrative is enough to keep me watching.
Showing posts with label Person of Interest. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Person of Interest. Show all posts
Friday, January 6, 2012
Monday, October 31, 2011
Last Week in TV #6
Happy Halloween, everyone! I watched a ton of Halloween-themed shows yesterday, and am planning on more tonight, so we'll have a nice post-Halloween rundown of those next Monday (it'll be just like the old "Treehouse of Horror" episodes that aired well after Halloween!).
In the meantime, here's thoughts on what I watched last week.
Once Upon a Time: Pilot (series premiere)
I'm pretty much a sucker for anything that takes the archetypal fairy tale characters and casts them in a different light, whether it be the cleaned up animated versions found in classic Disney films or the more thrilling, exciting and adult stories that unfold in the pages of Fables (one of my favorite comic books). So I was pretty psyched to see two "fairy tale characters in the modern world" TV shows set to debut this fall (thus making the odds better that at least one will be watchable and will stick around). Once Upon a Time was the first of the shows to launch (we'll discuss Grimm in next week's post), and it was pretty good, at least at first glance.
In the meantime, here's thoughts on what I watched last week.
Once Upon a Time: Pilot (series premiere)
I'm pretty much a sucker for anything that takes the archetypal fairy tale characters and casts them in a different light, whether it be the cleaned up animated versions found in classic Disney films or the more thrilling, exciting and adult stories that unfold in the pages of Fables (one of my favorite comic books). So I was pretty psyched to see two "fairy tale characters in the modern world" TV shows set to debut this fall (thus making the odds better that at least one will be watchable and will stick around). Once Upon a Time was the first of the shows to launch (we'll discuss Grimm in next week's post), and it was pretty good, at least at first glance.
Monday, October 10, 2011
Last Week in TV #3
Still getting caught up, but lots to cover.
How I Met Your Mother: The Stinson Missile Crisis
We return to the Robin/Barney/Nora triangle, but while I was mildly amused by the metatextual commentary on the show's format afforded by having the story unfold via Robin's discussion with Kal Penn's psychiatrist, I preferred the B story that found Ted struggling to fit himself onto "Team Baby" with Lily and Marshall. Oddly enough, given that damn near every sitcom to ever feature a pregnant character has done this kind of scene, my favorite part of the episode was Ted and Marshall in the birthing class together. And of course, the recurring gag of poor, sad Ted insisting famous duos were actually trios was classic stuff (my favorites were, not surprisingly, "Batman, Robin and Alfred", as well as "Romeo, Juliet and the Apothecary").
How I Met Your Mother: The Stinson Missile Crisis
We return to the Robin/Barney/Nora triangle, but while I was mildly amused by the metatextual commentary on the show's format afforded by having the story unfold via Robin's discussion with Kal Penn's psychiatrist, I preferred the B story that found Ted struggling to fit himself onto "Team Baby" with Lily and Marshall. Oddly enough, given that damn near every sitcom to ever feature a pregnant character has done this kind of scene, my favorite part of the episode was Ted and Marshall in the birthing class together. And of course, the recurring gag of poor, sad Ted insisting famous duos were actually trios was classic stuff (my favorites were, not surprisingly, "Batman, Robin and Alfred", as well as "Romeo, Juliet and the Apothecary").
Monday, September 26, 2011
Last Week in TV #1
The 2011-2012 network TV season kicked off last week, which means its time to fire up the "Last Week in TV" posts. For new readers, this is a weekly post I write looking back on the previous week in TV. It should appear every Monday (morning-ish) and discusses whatever shows I've watched that warrant discussion (the list of shows can change from week to week, depending on how timely I watch things and how motivated I am to write about a particular show in a given week; but if there's a show we both watch that you'd like me to write about consistently, let me know in the comments).
Anyways, I still haven't settled on a single format I like best, so expect the usual hodgepodge of quick thoughts and humorous quotes alongside longer, rambling analyses. And I promise it will probably never be as long as this one (this was a big week of TV, and there's still stuff I haven't watched yet, like all of SNL and Pan Am).
This season, there's a bunch of new new sitcoms I'm trying out until they either get canceled or turn out to be stinkers. I probably won't write about all of these all the time, but they're worth a few initial words.
Anyways, I still haven't settled on a single format I like best, so expect the usual hodgepodge of quick thoughts and humorous quotes alongside longer, rambling analyses. And I promise it will probably never be as long as this one (this was a big week of TV, and there's still stuff I haven't watched yet, like all of SNL and Pan Am).
This season, there's a bunch of new new sitcoms I'm trying out until they either get canceled or turn out to be stinkers. I probably won't write about all of these all the time, but they're worth a few initial words.
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