Category Archives: Television

July 18, 2007 · 11:05 pm

Reviewing the Series Finale: Traveler – “The Exchange”

ABC’s Traveler never had a fair chance. Simply getting a debut following Grey’s Anatomy wasn’t nearly enough to give the show a shot at engaging a summer audience that are sticklers for easy, breezy television. Traveler isn’t easy, but it certainly is breezy enough. The series moved at a blistering pace to fit an entire season’s worth of action into a single, short eight episode season. The show’s pilot was a blistering piece of work, an action-packed hour of mystery and intrigue.

It is perhaps, then, interesting to see that this finale is really about the reunion of Jay and Tyler with Will Traveler, this time with very different circumstances than in the pilot. Once three friends on a road trip across America, they’re now fugitives on the loose with the FBI on their trail, and one of them isn’t who he said he was. This isn’t a finale about action, but about emotional payoff for its characters. The dynamic of the three young males is perhaps the most important one, but Marlowe’s payoff has been equally choreographed. And let’s not forget the Porter, a mysterious character who needs an explanation. So, the Traveler finale had a lot to prove.

And, well, it did as you’d expect: a solid finale to a solid series. That is, until its ending.

Continue reading →

8 Comments

Filed under ABC, Television, Traveler

Tagged as Reviewing the Finales, Summer TV

July 18, 2007 · 9:36 pm

Canadian Idol – July 18th – The Top 10 Becomes the Top 9

9:30pm: Welcome to tonight’s elimination, which shall be preceeded by the Top 10 Group performance. Specifically with Brian and Dwight starting off…a Nickleback song. And then Matt Rapley and Greg. Guess who sounded out of place? It was Jaydee Bixby, with Matt in a close 2nd. These people are going to be terrible at group sings, I can tell already.

9:31pm: The girls kick into…Avril Lavigne’s terrible single from ERAGON. I can’t believe this hit #1. Carly Rae gives a weak vocal, Mila gives a weak vocal, Tara gives an awful vocal. you can barely tell Khalila starts singing, and then Martha powers her way through singing Avril Lavigne as if it is the most serious song ever. Ugh.

9:32pm: 2.5 Million votes…that sounds low, is that low? I hope it’s low. Ben pimps Rihanna, who is really a perfect choice for being little but a hit machine. A good one, too. And now for a recap. You can just head back to my own recap for the lowdown.

Continue reading →

1 Comment

Filed under Canadian Idol, CTV, Reality TV, Television

Tagged as Summer TV

July 18, 2007 · 8:00 am

Cultural Learnings’ 2007 Emmy Nominations: Final Predictions

Tomorrow morning at 5:35am PDT, the nominations for the 59th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards will be announced. I will now put myself out there on a limb with my own predictions of whose names will be called. I’ll have all the final nomination information as soon as it breaks, as long as my plan to be online at that point in time works out. I will literally stop working to do this for you, remember that.

NOTE: Some of these predictions have changed thanks to the leaked Top 10 lists. Most have not.

Oustanding Drama Series

Lost

I think it’s the best show on television, and I think that its season was certainly worthy of an Emmy nomination. The show is unmatched on network television in terms of writing, production and performances.

Grey’s Anatomy

It’s season was uneven, but its popular support and wide-range of acting talents will be too hard for the ATAS to ignore.

The Sopranos

The show’s final season kept the buzz level high, and the finale basically clinched it: no one will be forgetting The Sopranos this year.

House

It’s the second biggest drama on television, and people just seem to love the show to death. I think that it is a show that has proven itself worthy in the past, unlike Heroes which still hasn’t won that level of respect.

Friday Night Lights

Admittedly, this is a sentimental choice. However, I can’t not believe that Emmy voters will find the heart of this series too endearing to pass up. With Kyle Chandler making the Drama Actor Top 10, I think the show has a shot.

Oustanding Comedy Series

The Office

Last year’s winner had another strong and buzz-worthy season. It was a bit of a dark horse last year, but this time around it’s absolutely a front-runner…but in a category full of them.

Ugly Betty

One-hour comedies have a distinct advantage over half-hour ones, but even ignoring that Ugly Betty was a charming series that features some great performances. With Becki Newton and Vanessa Williams making the Top 10, I also think this show is a shoe-in.

30 Rock

The other new show to make this list, 30 Rock is a show made for the Emmys: prestigious talent (Fey, Baldwin, Krakowski), relevant and relatable theme (Show about a show), and it’s incredibly liberal. Plus, it’s kind of also the best new comedy of the year. Just sayin’.

Two and a Half Men

The only traditional sitcom left in the Emmy race, I think that voters will trend towards it like the sheep they are. That being said, the show is not the worst sitcom ever: it’s just similar to them in every way.

Entourage

While Scrubs did have the musical episode, I think that Entourage is the closest the category has to a hip show that hasn’t quite gotten its due. 30 Rock is actually quite safe, The Office is now almost too popular, so it’s Entourage that best fits the bill. With Kevin Dillon breaking the Top 10 for Supporting Actor, the show has a shot.

Extra Prediction:

The Sopranos will garner the most nominations on the drama side, while 30 Rock and The Office will fight it out for the most comedy nominations with Ugly Betty not far behind.

The rest of the nominations can be found below, with full explanations found here (Drama) and here (Comedy).

Continue reading →

Canadian Idol – July 17th – The Top 10 Perform

We’re live at the John Basset Theatre, and Ben Mulroney has suited up…and oh god, Jaydee is singing Conway Twitty. Unless someone else is singing Conway Twitty. Which sounds unlikely. Regardless, there was some rather unfortunate names thrown around in that little preview of the song list (MORE Celine? Bad, Canadian Idol). So let’s see how a rather mediocre Top 10 performs in what could be their last week in Toronto. Unless they hook up with one of the other Idols, they might stick around. Just sayin’.

Dwight D’Eon – “Unwell” (Matchbox 20)

There’s all sorts of hometown stuff, but it’s your usual Fisherman stuff…and he’s singing the same artist as last week. Except this time he’s wearing a straightjacket. I am honestly completely and totally confused right now. Oh, he was just hugging himself with his leather jacket lined up. Still, singing the same artist week after week is a terrible idea. The song doesn’t really make him into anything but a decent singer covering Matchbox 20 songs…none of that screams Canadian Idol to me. He did absolutely nothing with that song.

What the judges think: Jake agrees with me on the Matchbox 20 repetition but liked it, Farley thinks he looked better prepared, Sass would have found it more interesting if he had sang it better (I agree!), and Zack thinks he is on a good growth curve and thinks he’s a rock star…is he seriously the person with the most cred left in this competition? Le sigh.

Estimated Voting Position: With all of Nova Scotia now behind him, Dwight could reach #6.

Continue reading →

6 Comments

Filed under Canadian Idol, CTV, Reality TV, Television

Tagged as Summer TV

July 16, 2007 · 10:00 am

For Your Consideration: Drama Series – “Lost”

Outstanding Drama Series

“Lost” (ABC)

Here at Cultural Learnings, we did a lot of coverage on the post-hiatus portion of Lost’s third season, which is of course considered to be its strongest. As a result, for the purposes of this post, I’m not going to go into that too greatly, and will instead provide links to my reviews at the bottom of the page. I want to instead focus on the season’s first six episodes, the ones that caused millions to abandon the series and the ones that people call “uneven” or “awful”. Because, even if they don’t reach the pinnacles of the show’s final throes in May, I strongly believe in the quality of the prologue to this season.

While there were certainly pacing issues, the intention behind those first six episodes was a smart one, and the work done by Damon Lindelof, Carlton Cuse and the entire cast of Lost during that period is still worthy of Emmy consideration.

I don’t quite understand the hate for the first quarter of Lost’s third season. The episodes are certainly lacking part of the show’s most personable elements (The disconnect between Jack/Kate/Sawyer and the rest of the characters is responsible), but as six hours of dramatic television there’s some strong stuff here. But after the show was snubbed last year for what I think was also an Emmy worthy season, I think it deserves a nomination even more this year. And, perhaps against popular opinion, I think you can find evidence for that in its opening six episodes.

A Tale of Two Cities, the season premiere, featured the fantastic cold open to Juliet’s book club and the Others’ perspective of the crash of Oceanic Flight 815. The entire episode is basically Jack, Sawyer and Kate, along with us viewers, finding ourselves in a world we’d never seen, and the effect is strong.

YouTube – “A Tale of Two Cities”

Continue reading →

1 Comment

Filed under ABC, Award Shows, Emmy Awards, Lost, Television

Tagged as Emmys, For Your Consideration

July 15, 2007 · 10:33 pm

Entourage – “The Dream Team” Review

I am 90% sure the following conversation occured in the writing room at Entourage while writing “The Dream Team”:

Writer #1: Okay, so here’s the deal. I’ve written this great script that returns the series to its Hollywood roots. There’s agency drama, trailer drama, Vince actually attempts to get work, and there’s some great Ari/Lloyd antics. But the episode is short, and we don’t have anything for Drama and Turtle to do.

Writer #2: Well, Drama is going back to work…

Writer #1: But I don’t have a storyline for him!

Writer #2: Well, I just watched Showtime’s Weeds over the weekend-

Writer #3: That show rocks!

Writer #2: Yeah, and they smoke weed on that show!

Writer #3: People smoke weed on our show, too!

Writer #2: They also had a medical marijuana facility! And Snoop Dogg!

Writer #1: Wait, I can’t write this down fast enough, this is gold.

And thus “The Dream Team” was born. And the result was a good episode of Entourage.

Continue reading →

Jericho Fans: Why Have You Stopped Using the Internet?

Dear Fans of CBS’ Jericho,

Hey folks, hope all is well in the world of rabid fandom. I know that it’s been over a month now since Jericho was saved and rejoicing commenced, but I have to level with you: I’m a bit disappointed. You see, when CBS announced that they would be bringing the show back for 7 episodes and repeating the entire first season, I seem to remember a lot of things being thrown around. Statements like “We need to promote this show!” or “This is the chance we’ve been waiting for!” seemed to be quite common. And I’m here to tell you that…well, you’re currently not living up to those statements.

The first two nights of repeats haven’t been disastrous, but they have certainly not been triumphs. After a decent reairing of the pilot, the two hour event on Friday struggled to pull in as many viewers as Friday Night Smackdown!, yet alone match last week’s numbers. There are all sorts of excuses being thrown around: The recap show was poorly made seems to be the most popular. I’ll be honest: it doesn’t matter how good that recap show was. All that matters is that, clearly, not enough people were going to watch in the first place.

I know how much work went into saving the show, as I witnessed all of your passion for this series here at Cultural Learnings. Whether you were yelling at me, arguing with me, agreeing with me, reasoning with me, I always remained fascinated by how much you loved your show. The fascination turned to admiration with time, and after the show was successfully saved I hoped that you could translate it into something positive, substantial for your series to survive.

And I haven’t seen it yet, folks. We’ve seen two weeks of repeats, and it seems to be like things have just reverted back to where they were before: no one seems to be talking about Jericho. While I know that many have taken a more grassroots approach at marketing the show to friends and family (Which is great), I think that this can only go so far. The way shows like Jericho become successful is through cultural consciousness.

Continue reading →

21 Comments

Filed under Jericho, Television

Tagged as CBS

July 14, 2007 · 5:04 pm

Words and Pictures: Emmy Writing and Directing Contenders (Comedy)

Every year, writers and directors kind of get the short straw, if you will, when it comes to Emmy night. In the past, these categories have served as catch alls for the Academy to recognize series that aren’t getting the same level of attention at higher levels. Two years ago, House won for Best Writing in a Drama Series while Lost swept Directing/Drama Series; last year, My Name is Earl won writing and directing despite being otherwise shut out. This year, these categories will be yet another chance for shows to be recognized.

Today, I want to highlight five comedy episodes in both directing and in writing that, I believe, should be recognized by the Academy and its voters this year. [For my list of Drama candidates, click here]

Oustanding Writing in a Comedy Series

30 Rock – “Hard Ball” (Writer: Matthew Hubbard)

It’s hard to believe a former staff writer on Joey was capable of writing such a fantastic episode of 30 Rock, but it happened: this episode made Jenna tolerable, had some great moments from Jack and Liz, and gave Tracy and Kenneth an engaging storyline. It was satirical, it was funny, and while it isn’t perfect I think it’s as close as 30 Rock came to achieving it in its first season.

Entourage – “Manic Monday” (Writers: Doug Ellin, Marc Abrams & Michael Benson)

I think that Entourage had a few well-written episodes, but Manic Monday caught me eye for being so focused on Ari. Jeremy Piven knocks all of his material out of the park, but this particular episode showcased a human side, just briefly. The writing allows Ari to progress naturally, and features perhaps the best overall arc of the show’s eligible episode within his character.

Desperate Housewives – “Bang” (Writer: Joe Keenan)

Joe Keenan did the impossible: he took a character that was seriously just there to be annoying, and by the end of the episode you actually mourned her death. While Laurie Metcalf and Felicity Huffman certainly elevated the material to a different level, Keenan’s bones were structurally fantastic and resulted in a tense, engaging hour of television.

The Office – “Business School” (Writer: Brent Forrester)

A former writer on The Simpsons, I think Forrester absolutely nailed so many characters in this episode that I don’t see how it can’t be nominated. Michael was funny, Pam was crushed, and Jim and Dwight were as ridiculous as ever. It was an episode that has emotional sentiment and a lot of universal themes…and a bat in the office. That’s inspired writing.

How I Met Your Mother – “Slap Bet” (Writer: Kourtney Kang)

From the episode ending 80s-inspired Robin Sparkles reveal to the initiation of the Slap Bet, this episode is a slow build to a conclusion that is basically just a music video…but it works. We spend the entire episode wondering what Robin’s secret it, and its reveal is about as perfect as you could imagine. This is the episode that could have garnered the series an Emmy nod; it’s also a strong writing candidate.

Outstanding Direction in a Comedy Series

The Office – “Business School” (Director: Joss Whedon)

The Buffy/Angel/Firefly creator was one of two guest directors in the month of February, and I think that he personally nailed the comic timing of the series for me. The show felt the same, but the angles were really a lot of fun. He had the classroom, the art show and the office to play with, and he used some dynamic camera moves and really cool angles to get the most out of them. Listening to commentaries that he does shows he has an eye for direction, and it was proven here.

Continue reading →

Jericho Rerun Report: Ratings Setback in Week Two

I won’t attempt to sugarcoat it: last night’s ratings results for Jericho’s second week of reruns were disastrous in almost every single way.

From Zap2it:

NBC’s “1 vs. 100” won the 8 p.m. hour with a 3.6/7. A pair of “George Lopez” reruns on ABC averaged 2.5/5, just beating FOX’s “Bones” for second. “Friday Night Smackdown!” drew a 2.4/5 for The CW. “Jericho” trailed with a 2.1/4 for CBS, about a point lower than its return last week.

“Smackdown!” moved into the lead at 9 p.m., finishing with a 2.9/6. A “Las Vegas” rerun on NBC was close behind at 2.8/6. A second “Jericho” rerun on CBS improved a bit to 2.4/4. “Standoff” posted a 2.2/4 for FOX. ABC aired an episode of “Greek.”

The show caused CBS to fall to fall to a tie for third in viewers/households, a pitiful last place in Adults 18-49, and it even dragged down the numbers for, well, Numbers at 10pm. After gaining some momentum from reairing the pilot, it was clear that new viewers who came from Ghost Whisperer last week didn’t stick around.

Needless to say, CBS is not going to be happy with these numbers. The disastrous numbers amongst younger viewers are especially concerning, and the drop in the night’s other programs makes Jericho out to be a black hole of viewership. It’s a terrible parallel to the mid-season hiatus, where Jericho went from freshman success to on the bubble with a single episode. The same has happened here, and it isn’t good.

But all hope is not lost. There are some things fans should do in order to improve this situation.

Continue reading →

3 Comments

Filed under Jericho, Ratings, Television

Tagged as CBS, Rerun Report

July 13, 2007 · 12:05 pm

JRR (Jericho Rerun Report) Week Two: “Recap” and “Black Jack”

It is regrettable, to say the least, that I won’t be able to be present this evening to watch what is decidedly the most important night for fans of Jericho and for those who used to be fans of Jericho. With much of the CBS show’s audience loss taking place after the mid-season hiatus, the recap special airing at 8pm EDT is a perfect way for those fans to return to the show with a refresher course followed immediately by “Black Jack”, the next episode, at 9pm EDT.

I am one of those people, one of those people who unfortunately stopped watching before things apparently picked up in the show’s second half. This was the night I was supposed to give it a big chance, start fresh with this series. Alas, I am actually heading to a White Stripes concert this evening, and will unfortunately be absent.

However, I still encourage everyone to check out these episodes of television if you’re at home and don’t have a White Stripes concert to attend. This is the moment that people should be rallying together for: while the pilot is fine and good, this is where the series both gets interesting and where it began to suffer in the ratings. The more people who get hooked now, the more that might be around when the show’s third season premieres.

Forget about ratings for tonight, even though they certainly are going to be the big story tomorrow: instead, focus on what this could mean from a fanbase perspective. This is huge, folks. Make it count.

Also feel free to leave your thoughts about the episodes after they air below.

1 Comment

Filed under Jericho, Television

Tagged as CBS, Rerun Report