Thursday, September 23, 2010
TBG TV: 2010 Fall Preview -- Thursday
Show I'm Already Watching: The caustic, cynical sitcom didn't die when Daria went off the air, y'all! NBC's Community was my favorite new show from last year, featuring solid writing and off-the-charts cast chemistry all season. In any given week, Donald Glover's "Troy" character could be plotting with Danny Pudi's "Abed", while Shirley (Yvette Nicole Brown) and Britta (Gillian Jacobs) are discussing Winger (Joel McHale), when – unbeknownst to the them -- Winger and Annie are sharing a forbidden kiss. Hell, I even warmed up to Chevy Chase and his dated "Chevy Chase" routine. This is a man who hasn't been funny since 1989, people! Community brought him back! Community!
Show I'm No Longer Watching: So long, The Office. The Jim/Pam piñata is a lazy scapegoat and my issues with your increasingly infrequent funny run a lot deeper than that. In simplest terms: Michael Scott has insulted/offended everyone that he possibly can; Dwight Schrute's corporate power plays fail every week and any interesting, outside-the-box storylines (Michael Scott Paper Company, Ryan the Boss) are cut off at the knees in mid-stream. I'm absolutely rooting for the show to re-find its footing. But, with news that this will be Steve Carrell's last season, this seems like the right time to get off. And, don't try to entice me with the return of Amy Ryan. I might've been the only Office fan who found her to be more "annoying" than "adorable". There, I said it.
New Shows to TiVO: I'm a sucker for any new show that receives almost universally negative reviews. And, the near-record levels of critical bile for both NBC's Outsourced and CBS's Sh*t My Dad Says has me ironically excited. Outsourced is another office-based sitcom, but with the racial/cultural humor exported to India. Sh*t My Dad Says revolves around an inappropriate, politically-incorrect patriarch. How can a half-assed attempt to recapture the early magic of The Office and Archie Bunker, respectively, possibly fail? Spectacularly, I hope!
New Show with No Chance: I don't care how leggy Maggie Q might be – and, Lord Jesus, those legs stretch from floor to ceiling – I just can't get my head around the umpteenth iteration of the Nikita (CW) series. The Cold War ended two decades ago and, consequently, made characters like Nikita, Boris Badenov and Inspector Gadget archaic. In fact, the end of hostilities with the Soviet Union erased two Nikitas from relevancy. Don't laugh, America. I'm old enough to remember how close to the brink we were.
Our taste in TV can be remarkably similar. I <3 Community (and Alison Brie in particular, I love me some Annie Edison).
ReplyDeleteBut no love for 30 Rock?!
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ReplyDeleteI still say you need to watch The Big Bang Theory, Cam. Did you see how people are having problems finding Sh*t My Dad Says on their DVRs because you can't search for the title because they made it a random string of characters. I just hate that they refer to it as "Bleep My Dad Says." Worst. Title. Ever.
ReplyDeleteAnd someone who likes football as much as you should watch The League on FX.
@Sam -- I'll give 30 Rock a try. The first season's been on my Netflix queue forever. As far as I can tell, its fans haven't turned on it yet. Have they?
ReplyDelete@Other Joe -- I'll do the same with Big Bang Theory. I mean, I'm the same guy that Netflix'd the first season of "Maude". I think I can plow thru something from this century.
And, I've heard mixed things about "The League", but you're not the first person to tell me to give it a shot. (Sorry, Mrs. Bootleg. The readers have spoken.)
Um, Cam...Nikita has nothing to do with the Cod War, or for that matter, Russia at all. It's based off a French flick, La Femme Nikita, about a French coke whore who gets trained by the French government to be an assassin. This is the same flick that inflicted Jean Reno on America and gave the director, Luc Besson, enough cred to make a space movie with Tiny Lister as the President of the Galaxy and Chris Tucker as a cross-dressing futuristic talk show host.
ReplyDeletePfft...next you'll be telling me that Nikita Koloff wasn't Russian or Lithuanian) at all. And, I won't stand for your "Fifth Element" bashing, mister.
ReplyDelete(OK, I will...since, I never saw it.)