Fall Television Rant
I always feel dirty when I take a liking to any shows on network television. CBS, NBC, ABC and FOX have seen to it to cancel any show I'm remotely interested in, halfway through the season. It happened to Freaks & Geeks, Firefly, Wonder-Falls, and I'll admit I even got sucked into John Doe. They barely get a chance while reality shows about marrying midgets for money, spoiled yuppie douche-bags eating gross things and ugly girls getting plastic surgery are renewed over and over, and awful sitcoms starring fat, failed comedians with un-realistically hot wives last to the point where they recycle their own material. I swore after they canceled Family Guy and renewed the Simpsons for another shitty season that I wouldn't stray below channel 31. I just couldn't have my heart broken again.
Lo-and-behold I found new shows on these upper channels, ones that were better than anything on network television, and not only were they given a fair chance, they proved network execs wrong and excelled. Shows like Rescue Me, Nip/Tuck, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, The Shield, Battlestar Galactica, Eureka and Monk would have been canned on network in a heartbeat, but they now have growing audiences that return week after week, loyal and entertained. Monk floundered when it was first on ABC, and was canceled. USA snatched it up and now it's their flagship show (with much better writing and production values). What amazes me is that these basic cable channels are becoming more successful than their parent networks, Fox and NBC.
FX started as an experimental channel, showing the occasional movie and the original programming was geared toward the average suburban housewife. Now it's completely changed into a groundbreaking network playing shows you'd expect to be on HBO or Showtime, albeit with more f-bombs and full frontal. Fox has the War at Home. If they keep House (one of the best shows on TV) they'll be on the right track at least. USA and Sci-Fi were purchased by NBC, who promptly led a multi-million dollar overhaul on all three networks. While Sci-Fi mostly stayed the same, it was given a much bigger budget for original programming. USA got the TBS treatment, picking what type of programming they wanted it to have from that point forward and sticking to their guns. NBC started taking chances (finally) after Friends' ridiculous run, and took on a few new shows. Good for them.
Heroes and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip were two big chances that are paying off. They both have excellent writing (especially the latter) and are different enough to give their programming lineup a diverse, fresh new start. Picking up Friday Night Lights and 30 Rock this close to the launching of the first two was a huge mistake, though. 'Lights is a decent enough show, but it doesn't flow well next to any of the other shows. There's a difference between diverse programming and a show just not fitting in. 30 Rock is another show about SNL with a two decimal number in the title. Comparing 30 Rock and Studio 60 is like comparing Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn to Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis. They are both great books in their own way, but are so different they should never be in the same sentence, much less the same season. Studio 60 was almost canceled (due to scheduling problems) but this last week had the rest of the season ordered. It's nice to see the powers that be grew a pair and realized just how biased Nielsen ratings are (it's a flawed system, but I'll get to that later). Heroes got off to a great start, but like Lost, Twin Peaks, and countless other shows, it has gone from interesting to non-sequitur. Let's hope they turn this around, because with Jeph Loeb producing and Tim Sale doing the infamous "future paintings", it has the potential to blow us away.
As for the Fall shows on the upper channels, Man vs Wild and Rob & Big have me snared. Bear Grylls, the star and consultant of Discovery Channel's Man vs Wild is quite possibly the coolest person on earth. Unlike previous shows where a moron strands himself in harsh terrain with nothing but a camera crew and emergency supplies, Bear's approach is as if you were stranded with him, and while you watch him find shelter and sustenance on his way to civilization and extraction, he teaches you everything from what to look for to how to climb. He was in various Foreign Legions, Special Forces, and he speaks with a cool British accent, so while brutal, it's quite the enjoyable experience. I've always loved Gary Paulsen-type situations, so I love it. It's amazing how these beautiful landscapes can be so harsh and unforgiving. The show in a nutshell is like a cross between going on a tour with a guide who knows everything about the location (and tells you everything) and half-way through you get stranded and find out he's a total badass survivalist. If he wore a fedora and fought Nazis he'd be Indiana Jones.
Rob & Big, MTV's newest reality show doesn't fit the bill of reality show. It has no ridiculously contrived drama, overt racism, lewd sexuality, or cat-fights. It's a look into the friendship between skateboarder and DC Shoes mogul Rob Dyrdek and his bodyguard and long time com-panda Chris "Big Black" Boykin. It's pretty much my dream to get wealthy doing something I love and in turn have a big black bodyguard/buddy. I'd have to come up with a clever nickname for him, and since "Chocolate Bear" is taken, I guess my dream is never to be. But you can watch Rob and Big get into all sorts of monkeyshines and shenanigans without unnecessary drama, thanks to show producer and Jackass alum Jeff Tremain. The show's got a nice flow to it, keeping things everyday but not boring without staging events (like Dane Cook's god-awful Tourgasm). I hope they keep up the good work. It's a funny show about real people who are buddies. Gotta love it.
Avoid LIKE THE
Hopefully television will get better. Nielsen families are supposedly picked at random, but they are in fact centrally located along the Bible Belt in the South and in the most rural, conservative sections of the Midwest. It's the reason Jim Belushi's show is still on the air. For some reason these Red State Puritans are dead set against any foul language or healthy sexuality, but they eat up CSI. They freak out if anyone on television takes the Lord's name in vain, yet they glue their eyes to the screen whenever a hooker's arterial spray paints the walls. Hell, they'll stick around during the autopsy.
This entry was posted
on Sunday, November 12, 2006 at 7:09 AM.
