October 30, 2007 · 12:44 am

Chuck – “Chuck Versus the Sandworm”

“Chuck Versus the Sandworm”

October 29th, 2007

I should have known that Chuck would eventually find its indie rock sensibility considering Josh Schwartz is in charge, but the early mention of Arcade Fire still came as a bit of a surprise. The show has fallen into a nice groove of slickly-produced spy romps tempered by emotional interludes on the home front; while it is certainly geeky, its indie cred remains in question.

In the case of this episode, it’s actually a bit of a step-backward for Chuck, to be perfectly honest with you. The show’s sense of humour may still be intact, but it stretched its premise a bit thin with Lazlo, an electronic geek who can use a home theatre system to guide nuclear missiles and magically produces a steering apparatus from the glove box of Chuck’s car. The question of trust is a fine recurrent theme, but I wish I could trust the producers to maybe ground the series a little more; the result is an episode that felt a bit off even as its interpersonal story stayed on track.

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October 29, 2007 · 10:55 pm

Heroes – “The Line”

“The Line”

October 29th, 2007

At a certain point during tonight’s episode of Heroes, I pondered simply blogging about the storylines that I actively enjoyed within each episode. By the end of the episode, I realized that this would be fairly difficult considering there was only one that qualified. As a result, this review shall remain pretty well 90% negative.

There just isn’t anything overly compelling about Heroes right now: at this point, they’re just dropping the occasional hint of something interesting (In this episode, the paintings and Peter’s end of episode time warp) while stumbling towards a climax. The problem right now is that there are only three storylines actively driving towards something meaningful, and only one of them was actually heavily featured in the episode (And is a more recent development). The rest…well, Heroes just isn’t pulling them together.

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October 28, 2007 · 3:11 am

Guiding Principles for the Return of CBS’ “Jericho”

For those who may have been curious as to what I’ve been doing for the past two weeks that has resulted in a rather alarming lack of blog postings, I’ve been busy with a variety of school-related activities surrounding the faculty strike currently affecting my campus. As part of this, our students’ union released a set of guiding principles which the administration and faculty will ideally follow within this setting.

Perhaps proving I’m forever incapable of forgetting about Jericho, my mind immediately turned to what I would write for today, Jericho Digg Day. Terocious at Jericho Junction was kind enough to organize this, and I wanted to provide something with real value for Jericho fans to think about. As a result, I have decided to craft a series of guiding principles that CBS and fans should follow when Jericho finally returns to television at some point in the next number of months. I believe that, if these guidelines are followed, the show has a great chance of success, and that the fans have the potential to get the 3rd season they deserve.

Guiding Principles for the Return of “Jericho”

Jericho Digg Day – October 28th, 2007

Before the Date is Announced:

  • CBS should be in close contact with fan communities in order to recapture the grassroots elements of the initial campaign to save Jericho.
  • The DVD set should be advertised through traditional and new media in a way that reflects its importance to the campaign.
  • Fans should attempt to overcome the rifts growing between certain populations in order to present a united front.
  • CBS should be responsible for keeping the series in the public eye, not just the fans; however, fans should continue to digg, read and comment on stories to keep their momentum alive.

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October 24, 2007 · 9:07 pm

Pushing Daisies – “Pigeon”

“Pigeon”

October 24th, 2007

With its third episode, Pushing Daisies proved itself worthy of the praise lauded onto its pilot. And, after seeing its ratings, ABC rewarded the series with a full season order earlier this week. As a result, tonight’s episode is the first airing while we know that there is no longer any fear: Pushing Daisies will be getting a full 22-episode order.

The fourth episode, meanwhile, is a charming and engaging affair which never really clicked for me. While last week used the fantastic pilot to build on the relationship between Chuck and Ned, this week was our first episode that combined a stand-alone murder mystery with the loss of director-producer Barry Sonnenfeld. While the show’s charm was mostly intact, it just didn’t feel the same.

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October 24, 2007 · 4:52 pm

A Brief Hey! Nielsen Update

Hey everyone,

I might get to Pushing Daisies tonight, but it’s a hectic week and I don’t have all that much to say about the episode. What I want to focus on instead is an email I just got from Steve at Hey! Nielsen. After our Sound Off! Week came to a bit of an abrupt end when I pretty much ran out of time, I didn’t get a chance to properly address some issues. One of these was just how fantastic they are about making changes to their system to better reflect actual activity.

In the short term, these are a risky proposition for the Hey! Nielsen crew: they result in decreases in the scores of shows, which angers the fans who have put their efforts into the site. However, they’re about long term sustainability: remembering that this isn’t just a month-long installation, but rather a site that is intended to make an impact for years ahead, this is an important step in that direction.

In this case, Steve revealed two important things:

  • That recent activity is valued more than past activity. In other words, rather than cramming all of your efforts into one day and bursting to the top, it will take a continued presence on the site (Let’s say one opinion a week) to really make a long-term impact. This means that there is incentive for people visiting on a regular basis. This could cause more spamming, more often, but I am hoping that people refrain from this.
  • That although they won’t reveal the exact formula (It’s the internet’s own Caramilk Secret), they can confirm that Reactions, which were where fans of Jericho and Supernatural were seeing people responding negatively out of spite, do not have a huge impact. In fact, they never have, and it has actually been adjusted further.

These two things are great for fans: on the one hand they provide a great deal of incentive, and on the other hand they downplay the negative nellies who ruined the experience for some fans of shows like the Dresden Files, Jericho or Supernatural. It creates a much more positive environment, which I think should help the long-term sustainability of the site.

And speaking of long-term, there’s no more long-term in the TV Blog Contest, which ends tonight. So if you want to get in a last minute vote for Cultural Learnings, it would be most appreciated!

Hey! Nielsen TV Blog Entry – Cultural Learnings

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October 22, 2007 · 10:09 pm

Heroes: “Fight or Flight” or “The Kristen Bell Episode”

“Fight or Flight”

October 22nd, 2007

Five episodes into its first season, Future Hiro showed up on a subway train informing Peter to “Save the Cheerleader, Save the World.” Five episodes into its second season, it might take more than Kristen Bell’s much-anticipated arrival to save a series struggling to get a grip on its own storylines. Will she bring with her the overarching storyline the season so desperately needs, or just a fanboy surge without any last impact?

Obviously, considering that her arc will last a fairly long period of time, it’s hard to judge what impact Bell will have. Her scenes were both sparse and uneventful, her impact limited thanks to either low budgets or the show’s deluge of storylines being juggled. I think her character at least introduces something new to the equation, which is at least the kind of step forward that the show needed at this stage of the game. While it doesn’t quite happen in this episode, even though Peter’s storyline moves forward slowly, there are more redemptive elements present than in weeks before.

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October 22, 2007 · 6:09 pm

The Amazing Race Returns November 4th

I wasn’t ready for this, CBS. My TV recap lineup is already jam-packed as it is, and now you’re officially canned Viva Laughlin and decided to bring back The Amazing Race sooner than expected. This makes sense: the episodes are pretty much prepared and ready to go at this stage, and it might even allow for a second season of The Amazing Race to air early next year.

Zap2it.com – The Amazing Race Replaces Viva Laughlin

So, chalk up another entry into the ever-expanding Cultural Learnings review schedule. The show’s 12th Season will start airing at 8pm on Sunday, November 4th.

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October 22, 2007 · 12:04 pm

A Home for ‘Jericho’?: Could Replace ‘Viva Laughlin’ on Sundays

[Edit: CBS now confirms that, for better or for worse, Jericho will not be taking the place of Viva Laughlin. Instead, The Amazing Race will reinherit the timeslot at some point in the future. At this point it will be replaced with CSI repeats. Looks like Jericho is waiting until at least TAR finishes its season, if this is the timeslot they’re destined for.]

After a disastrous Thursday preview, Viva Laughling didn’t magically improve when it debuted in its timeslot last night. The series dipped even further, with downright embarassing ratings in every account. The beneficiary could be fans of CBS’ almost-canceled series Jericho.

From PIFeedback.com:

But CBS has sprung a major leak at 8 p.m., with the time period-premiere of musical drama Viva Laughlin at a mere (and fourth-place) 6.77 million viewers and a 1.2/ 2 among adults 18-49. Comparably, year-ago occupant The Amazing Race 10 averaged 10.89 million viewers and a 3.8/ 9 in the demo (on Oct. 22, 2006), with retention out of lead-in 60 Minutes (Viewers: #2, 11.14 million; A18-49: #2, 2.2/ 7 at 7 p.m.) of just 61 percent in viewers and 55 percent in the demo. Viva Laughlin also dipped in the second half-hour by 1.60 million viewers (7.57 to 5.97 million) and 29 percent in the demo (1.4/ 3 to 1.0/ 2). My prediction is that CBS will pull Viva Laughlin off the schedule either this week or definitely next week.

Now, since CBS is likely to cancel the series soon, this is going to be their first timeslot to open up in which benched Sophomore series Jericho can rise again. It makes sense for a variety of reasons:

  • Jericho has only seven episodes in its second season, which would be perfect for the network as it would allow The Amazing Race to return to the slot in January.
  • Jericho skewed older than a lot of shows, which makes it a decent leadout from 60 Minutes.
  • If they don’t start airing Jericho soon, the show will lose all of its momentum which is slowly leaking away despite the efforts of fans.

However, it also reflects a lot of the concerns that Jericho fans have: it’s still an early evening timeslot, it has tough competition in the form of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, and it would mean rushing the show to air likely without the proper advertising campaign.

Either way, fans should prepare: there’s a good chance Jericho might return to the air during November Sweeps.

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October 21, 2007 · 10:57 pm

Dexter – “See-Through”

“See-Through”

October 21st, 2007

The second season of Dexter is based on a basic irony: its title character walks through Miami while people offer opinions of the Bay Harbor Butcher without knowing he’s right in front of them. I’m glad that in this episode Dexter finally admitted how annoying it’s getting, because I would tend to agree. It was engaging for one episode, maybe, but now it’s simply getting repetitive.

Actually, a lot of things are getting repetitive with Dexter. La Guerta’s replacement remains a true incompetent, almost becoming a parody of herself in her quest to reveal her husband’s indiscretion. Deb continues to face her Ice Truck Killer hangups, and Rita continues to be socially awkward with relatives or anyone other than Dexter. I worry that the drug addiction parallel is already getting repetitive after just a single episode, as the sponsor’s speeches were almost groan inducing.

This is not to say that Dexter is losing all of its quality: certain elements of the show remain intact. But the concern right now is that in providing us a greater window into Dexter’s mind, beginning to have other characters relate to him in new ways, the show is going for the easy kill as opposed to the subtle development.

[For more results and Cultural Observations…]

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October 21, 2007 · 8:01 pm

Brothers & Sisters – “States of the Union”

“States of the Union”

October 21st, 2007

I really want to add an s to this title, because there’s a lot of unions flying around this series. And, well, their states are pretty well all entirely the same: “Crappy”. Tommy and Julia are on the rocks, Sarah and Joe are beyond the rocks, and Kitty is freaked out that McAllister is preparing for them to maybe be on the rocks in the future. Nora’s there to try to fix all of the problems, and the result is largely uneventful.

Brothers & Sisters is at its best when it is either embracing its humorous side or creating powerful drama. This episode represents neither, focusing instead on people in crisis and the way they cope with it. This could easily fall into comic or dramatic territory, but it seems to float in between resulting in a distinct lack of impact as far as the series’ past goes. The conclusion brought things to a head, but it didn’t quite hit the right note.

[For more details, and Cultural Observations…]

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