Of the new fall TV shows the only one I’m watching regularly is Community. This is partly because Joel McHale is kind of cute, and whenever his stuff from The Soup was featured in EW‘s “Sound Bites” they made me laugh. (I haven’t seen The Soup at all, I think it may be on at a time when I’m not watching TV). He was also great in the polymamist dog-breeder episode of Pushing Daisies, so I wanted to give it a try.
It’s a bit thin so far – he and Chevy Chase have some good moments, but the rest of the characters are two-dimensional at best, and John Oliver, who was the best thing about the pilot, is not going to be a regular. (This is just as well in one way; I’d certainly prefer he stay on The Daily Show, if a choice has to be made.) But I’ll keep with it for a while; I get the feeling it may not be long for this world anyway.
People whose opinions I respect have had a lot of good things to say about Flash Forward and Modern Family. I haven’t seen the latter – I’m not sure how much I’ll be able to stand Ed O’Neill, but I might try to catch it online.
I’ve tuned in and out of the former so far. Joseph Fiennes, much as I love him, is terribly miscast as an LA cop, and the show’s got timeline problems already. Either they’re moving very slowly to the endpoint (which they only set 6 months in the future) in which case the carnage and insanity – and the corresponding response from law inforcement and fire and rescue – resulting from the blackout ought to be much greater, or they’re moving very quickly, which means the endpoint’s going to get here PDQ. But I do like John Cho, so I might try to catch this online more.
Returning shows, after the jump…
The Office: Has started off brilliantly again, despite the increasing need to suspend disbelief that any company could behave as stupidly as Dunder Mifflin.
The season premiere, with Stanley’s affair and the announcement of Pam’s pregnancy, was a classic stupid-Michael episode, and the one the next week, with Jim’s bid for management status, was one of the best character shows Michael’s had in a long time. He dislikes being management, because he’s not “one of the gang,” but he also doesn’t want to share power with Jim, in case Jim turns out to be a better, more popular boss than he is. He doesn’t want to lose Jim to another company – this would remove the micro-family unit of which he sees himself as the head (Michael, Jim, Pam, Baby) – but he also doesn’t want to be a regional manager, as that would take him out of the macro-family of the office and also not play to his biggest strengths, customer service and sales. So, in classic Michael fashion, he shoots himself in the foot, argues himself out of a promotion, and winds up with a “co-manager.” This should have far-reaching implications for Michael, Jim, Pam, Dwight and possibly Ryan and David Wallace, depending on where the writers choose to go with it. The conflict between Michael and Jim has been played very realistically (or, as realistically as possible when Michael Scott is one of the participants).
I’m also enjoying the fact that they’re not going to go the traditional sitcom route and have Jim and Pam’s wedding at the end of a season – we get to see that next week, and by all accounts it’s going to be both funny and adorable. I hope once that’s over we can get back to some of the other characters, because lately it seems to have been too much about Michael, Jim and Pam.
House: The two-hour season premiere, which was almost a mini-feature, was wonderful, despite the mental home clichés and the obvious Cuckoo’s Nest parallels. I could happily watch an In Treatment-style show with just André Braugher and Hugh Laurie; goddamn, but Braugher is a compelling actor to watch. And so far, the writers have allowed House to mellow and grow up a bit; a welcome change from previous years where all game-changers were immediately followed by pressing the reset button.
That said, it’s become increasingly clear that Laurie’s the only reason to watch this show (except possibly for Robert Sean Leonard). This week’s episode, while giving Jesse Spencer and Jennifer Morrison something to do, finally, was just another sketchily-drawn patient-of-the-week case, where James Earl Jones did the best he could with really weak material. It would have been nice if the Foreman/Thirteen drama could have been shelved for a week to give Jones more screentime; but apparently since Olivia Wilde’s been declared the hottest chick in the world by Maxim or some shit, (a fact alluded to by House – nice), we have to have a storyline with her in it.
Anyway. I’ve been watching House so far because it’s not, at the moment, conflicting with Chuck, but once the Olympics are over, it’ll be bye-bye Princeton Plainsboro, hello Buy More for me.
I’ve tried to watch COMMUNITY, I can’t get into it. I’m a loyal follower of MODERN FAMILY though. It’s ridiculous.