May 13, 2008 · 2:57 pm

Upfronts Analysis – CBS Cancels ‘Moonlight’

Ladies and gentlemen, Les Moonves has a death wish.

There is no question that there is justifiable reason to cancel Moonlight, just as there was justifiable reason to cancel Jericho – they both suffered from low ratings, and in Moonlight’s case it never reached the early highs of Jericho’s run. The show was in creative turmoil from day one, barely settled on a cast in time to start shooting, and never became a buzzworthy drama (Something that CBS attributes to the show’s lack of creative vision). Plus, CBS set a high standard for Fridays last year when they canceled the fairly highly-rated “Close to Home” in favour of the vampire drama.

And yet, I don’t think they seem to understand how these shows, shows with passionate fan bases as opposed to broad ratings success, work. You would think that 10,000 lbs of peanuts would have taught them a lesson that a show with organized fans is probably not the kind of show you want to cancel, and definitely not the kind of show that you want to cancel in a strike-addled season that creates an instant handicap for any series.

Fans of Moonlight even saw this coming, emerging in a rare pre-cancellation drive for interest and support. Within months of its premiere, it was topping the charts at Hey! Nielsen, a site that Jericho fans once flocked to in support of their own show, and fans eventually organized a nationwide blood drive to help support the Red Cross and their favourite show. And yet, all of these efforts weren’t enough to save their favourite show from being booted off the airwaves.

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May 13, 2008 · 10:18 am

Upfronts Analysis: ABC 2008-2009 Fall Schedule

“No Alarms and No Surprises”

ABC 2008-2009 Fall Schedule

Of all of the major networks, one could say that ABC is playing it safest when it comes to this year’s upfronts. The only drama pilot to make it onto their fall schedule is one that was technically completed for last season’s pilot group, and they are the network who held back the most new shows from last fall to be relaunched with gusto when September rolls around.

The result is a schedule that is eerily similar to the one that we saw this past year, which saw decent success although certainly not to the levels that they experienced in years previous. After a year of success facing off against CSI, Grey’s Anatomy has seen post-strike ratings tumble, and shows like Desperate Housewives and Ugly Betty are fading if not quite to levels that are dangerous to their health and stability on the network.

So, let’s take a look at the schedule, and see which shows are going to make a splash this time around, plus finally getting confirmation of the worst kept secret of the year’s upfronts.

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May 13, 2008 · 1:05 am

Greek – “Mr. Purr-fect”

“Mr. Purr-fect”

May 12th, 2008

There are a few things about Greek that bother me more than others, and rip me right out of my appreciation of its subtle character development in favour of lamenting its more frustrating elements. Casey Cartwright just brings out the worst in me, and the idea of returning to her love hexagon (No, I’m not kidding, it’s a hexagon) isn’t exactly getting me excited.

At some point I think my hatred of Casey will come full circle in favour of an ability to ignore her and move on to other characters I enjoy more (Of which the episode has a few, when considering them outside of Casey’s influence). The show has a lot of charm going for it, but too often its emotional core is placed in the one character who I am not emotionally connected to. Here, we have the emergence of Calvin as a character (for the first time in a while), a fun combination of Rusty and Rebecca, and the internal struggles over how to handle Cappie’s whipped status is something that is enjoyable to watch.

But as long as I keep being cynical about Casey (And her new, personality-less boy toy Shane), I guess it won’t be perfect…and I refuse to turn that into a pun.

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May 12, 2008 · 11:54 pm

How I Met Your Mother – “Everything Must Go”

“Everything Must Go”

May 12th, 2008

Previously on How I Met Your Mother, we asked ourselves two important questions: “The Bracket” asked us which of Barney’s former conquests was trying to ruin his chances with all other women, and “Ten Sessions” made us wonder how quickly the show would angle to bring back Britney Spears to boost ratings considering that Ted and Stella continued dating. What we couldn’t quite predict, although some fans certainly called it at the conclusion of “The Bracket,” was that both questions would be answered in the same episode.

It was, indeed, Spears’ Abby who was responsible for his downfall, after Barney’s betrayed her and Ted destroyed her heart by dating her boss. Of course, now they both hate Ted for his recent decisions, so their reconnection and eventual plot to destroy Ted does feel in character considering the situation. The problem, of course, is that Spears is not a proven comic talent (She never actually got up from her desk last time for more than a few minutes); does she have the chops to pull this off?

And, does her appearance take away from the fact that this episode isn’t actually about her? I’d argue that she falls a little short, but that the episode doesn’t necessarily hit the same lows.

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May 12, 2008 · 11:10 pm

Gossip Girl – “Woman on the Verge”

“Woman on the Verge”

May 12th, 2008

Last week, Serena van der Woodsen revealed something that had the potential to cripple the entire series. “I killed someone” isn’t something that a show can just ignore, or gloss over – or, at least, not quite so quickly that this episode should approach anything close to normalcy. For her to interact with any characters in this situation would drag everything down. Luckily, at this point in the story, only Blair knows the truth, so everyone else can presume that it is only a downward spiral in her usual vein.

It’s a certain tragic note that fits the series well enough, although on occasion Serena’s complicity in continuing the lie of why she fell off the rails, and destroying her relationship with Dan, feels too melodramatic by half. I’m never a fan of characters who, after admitting what happened to one person, ignores the logical course of setting things straight and instead chooses to hide things – it’s a teen soap cliche that just doesn’t work for me.

There’s a lot of chiches at play here, almost too many – whether its Lily’s past with Rufus giving her cold feet, or Dan falling right into Georgina’s arms after the breakup, things are at such a low difficulty level that the execution needs to be excellent for the episode to really click. Even after the truth of the incident comes out, and it is expectedly exonerative of Serena to the point of contrivance, it just feels like the show isn’t willing to pull punches when it counts.

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May 12, 2008 · 10:15 pm

House – “House’s Head”

“House’s Head”

May 12th, 2008

When spoilers emerged regarding the setup for this season’s finale of House, I must admit to being somewhat skeptical – it sounded a lot like the House finale from two years previous, wherein we spent an entire episode unknowingly inside House’s head after he was shot. It was a mind-bending episode, to be certain, and was certainly an intriguing glimpse into how his mind works. Here, it seems a bit predictable: faced with a pending finale, we find ourselves delving back into his mind for an extra special House extravaganza.

This time, the subconscious is aware, so it’s a bit trippier, and that House is actively attempting to solve a mystery where the answers are in his own mind proves dramatically interesting. The problem is that the previous finale was a personal crisis for House, and eventually evoked ideas and concepts that would help to focus on his concerns with his leg. Here, we lack that personal connection: the episode tries to draw out feelings between House and Amber, which doesn’t seem as eventful for him as a character.

It’s also now far more detrimental to focus so heavily on only one character: with three new fellows, three old fellows, Wilson and Amber all floating around searching for a point of identity, to spend an episode so clearly wrapped up in House’s own mind. While it has some vague reflections on the other characters (And promises for further complications in the episode’s second part), his physical, emotional and psychological trial is really his own…and I don’t know if a show of this breadth is in a position to be so centered on its titular character at this point.

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May 12, 2008 · 2:53 pm

Cultural Learnings’ 2008-2009 Network Upfronts Analysis

Last year, Cultural Learnings produced a lot of hits (And perhaps a few new readers) during its coverage of the Network Upfronts, a process wherein each network reveals the shows that will make it onto their Fall or Winter schedules the following year. There were a lot of surprises last year: Jericho’s cancellation and subsequent campaign couldn’t have been predicted, and as a whole there were a lot of shows on the bubble that squeaked through.

This year, we can’t say the same thing: a network like ABC announced most of its pickups a while ago, and is leaving little room for new shows, while NBC announced a version of its schedule a month ago so we already know its lineup (Or what it looked like in April). For anyone following the trades, there’s few surprises to be found in these announcements, so now the real drama will be how your Fall viewing schedule will emerge. And whether Moonlight, the show that has been dominating at sites like Hey! Nielsen, will be able to avoid becoming another Jericho (And if it does, in all seriousness, has CBS not learned their lesson?).

So, at Cultural Learnings I plan to focus on analysis of how the schedules align, and how each network has adapted or not adapted post-strike to accommodate last year’s freshman offerings and this year’s foreign imports (A certain trend). Below, you’ll find a nice combination of helpful links and, eventually, links to our Upfronts coverage.

Cultural Learnings’ 2008-2009 Upfronts Analysis

NBC – Analysis from April (Open Letter, Office Spinoff, Timed-Friday Night Lights)

  • We can expect Jimmy Fallon to be confirmed to be taking over for Conan (Already confirmed, in fact), along with potentially more information on the elusive Office spinoff and on some of the neetwork’s new series.

ABC – Full Fall Schedule Analysis

  • New Shows: Life on Mars, various reality shows, Scrubs, The Goode Family
  • Returning Shows: Eli Stone, Boston Legal, Private Practice, Dirty Sexy Money, Pushing Daisies, etc.
  • Canceled Shows: October Road, Men in Trees, Miss/Guided, Cavemen, Carpoolers

The CW – Full Fall Schedule Analysis

  • New Shows: 90210, Surviving the Filthy Rich, Stylista
  • Returning Shows: Reaper, Gossip Girl, One Tree Hill, Supernatural, etc.
  • Canceled Shows: Girlfriends, Aliens in America, Life is Wild, WWE Smackdown, Beauty & the Geek

CBS – Coming Wednesday May 14th

  • Moonlight has officially been canceled (Read Full Story)
  • Moonlight is a huge cult favourite, but could be gone in favour of Les Moonves’ personal choices. This would result in another campaign, this time with more than peanuts to deal with.

FOX – Coming Thursday May 15th

  • FOX’s pickups are pretty clear, with most returning shows confirmed and big budget shows from Abrams and Whedon already announced. Scheduling is the only real drama.

Links to Other Coverage

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May 12, 2008 · 12:55 pm

Season Finale – Brothers & Sisters – “Prior Commitments”

“Prior Commitments”

May 11th, 2008

Based on spoilers, we’ve known for weeks that the truncated second season of ABC’s Brothers & Sisters would include a wedding between Kevin and Scotty. In the end, you knew that these two would have to have a happy ending – their journey, and Kevin’s journey, would be tarnished beyond repair if something went wrong at the last moment, so we knew that the drama was to be found less in their love and more in the circumstances surrounding the whole event.

Smartly, this drama was subtle as opposed to broad: Nora’s reaction to the news of Rebecca not being a Walker was understanding, Rebecca and Justin’s eventual spiral into love was slowly paced, and the end of episode revelation is naturally set up by a series of flashbacks with the return of William Walker. I still have issues with the whole Rebecca/Justin scenario, and I think that the added drama could drag down parts of this story, but the finale was well-paced enough that I am still on board.

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May 11, 2008 · 11:15 pm

And the Winner is…: Brief Thoughts on the Survivor: Fans vs. Favorites Finale

This will be quick, I’m about to collapse out of exhaustion from a long day of graduation festivities, but below the jump some quick thoughts on tonight’s Survivor Finale.

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May 10, 2008 · 1:40 am

Battlestar Galactica – “Faith”

“Faith”

May 8th, 2008

If there’s anything that Battlestar Galactica’s latest episode asks for, it is certainly the episode’s title: faith in its vision, faith in its journey, and faith in its slow as molasses pacing. If there was any hope in this changing, then “Faith” certainly set the record straight: with still a large number of episodes to go, Ronald D. Moore is going to take his sweet time getting to “the point.”

Of course, I am not one to criticize this decision – the nature of this final season is that it is having to tie together three seasons worth of action, suspense and drama into something even bordering on conclusiveness. It’s the same problem that any series faces towards the end of a season, or the show itself, but one that is particularly tough when you have two distinct societies, with multiple destinies intertwined within each one, to deal with. Human and Cylon are both on a collision course with something big, but how they get there needs to be choreographed.

I am kind of wary on “Faith,” if only because on a plot level it didn’t even live up to the low standards that I provided for it. It is one thing to spend a quarter of the episode with a very character/mythology driven story for Laura Roslin, that’s earned considering the show and Mary McDonnell’s respective pedigrees; the big problem is that the dramatic payoff to the Demetrius payoff was neither suspenseful nor dramatic on a broad plot level. We already knew what Kara Thrace learns from the Hybrid, we pretty well presumed what was going to be the end result of their journey, and outside of a random leg injury I never felt like anything was truly in jeopardy.

But, in the process, there was a few key scenes that elevated the material, and a sign that even though we’re not moving as fast as some would like we are definitely on the water in the river between the past and the future storylines.

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