August 7, 2007 · 5:29 pm

Summer TV Wrapup: The Biggest Flop(s) – Pirate Master and On the Lot

It is no coincidence that the two shows that have tied for the Summer TV Wrapup recognition of The Biggest Flop have something in common. Mark Burnett created Survivor and The Apprentice, and immediately rocketed into the upper echelon of reality TV producers. He’s the only one who is a personality, a character in his own way. While this usually helps him, it has actually made his fall from grace this summer all the more damaging. Pirate Master (CBS) and On the Lot (FOX), two sure-fire hits, flopped this summer, and Mark Burnett is the man to hold accountable for that fact.

Pirate Master suffered from the very beginning from both poor ratings and a lack of cultural buzz. While the show was not terrible, it was criminally derivative: it didn’t deviate far enough from the Survivor formula to bring in new viewers, and its failure proves that people aren’t watching Survivor because of its quality but rather because it’s Survivor.

The show was cancelled 2/3rds of the way through its run, and will spend the remainder of its time on CBS.com. The show never had the personality, never had the host, and never had the magic touch we’re used to seeing from Mark “Midas” Burnett. In failing to live up to that pedigree, it was by far one of the summer’s biggest flops.

Cultural Learnings’ Summer “Pirate Master” Coverage

On the Lot, meanwhile, had all the pedigree you’d usually need: Burnett was not only attached as producer, but so was legendary director Steven Spielberg. It was supposed to be FOX’s buzzworthy summer hit, but they forgot something very important: the summer viewing audience aren’t movie geeks.

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August 7, 2007 · 9:00 am

Summer TV Wrapup: Most Disappointing Show – “Entourage”

One of the hazards of being a television critic of sorts (If I am able to call myself that, which seems doubtful) is that some people believe that certain shows aren’t “allowed” to be criticized. They are above criticism, something that is just supposed to be fun or meaningful without being prodded, questioned, or subjected to any form of analysis outside of funny or not funny, good or bad. It’s not that they always love the show, but rather that they believe that things like character development, character consistency and storylines aren’t qualities that make the series what it is.

One of these shows is Entourage, a show that I’ve been quite literally attacked for criticizing at any level above “Meh, that episode was okay, I guess.” And don’t get me wrong: I think that things can be over-analyzed, and I guarantee you I do it quite often. However, I want to make a case that Entourage is not only capable of being criticized, but that it is also deserving of my criticism.

Why? Because Entourage, without a doubt, is the Most Disappointing Show of the 2007 Summer TV Season.

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August 6, 2007 · 9:13 pm

Canadian Idol – August 6th – The Top 7 with the Music of Queen

We open the show with a ludicrously overdramatic recap that sounds like some sort of ludicrous “Previously On” segment. Honestly, it was one of the most bizarre things I’ve seen. This is quite the way to open what could be a painful evening of Canadian Idol. Because, let’s face it: NO ONE sounds as good as Freddie Mercury. Especially not these singers.

The Top 7 worked with Brian May and Roger Taylor, members of Queen of course, and the judges prattle on for a while (And Zack wants them to rock…OR ELSE).

Brian Melo – “Too Much Love Will Kill You” (…Queen)

Brian May is all excited not about their identical initials, but rather the fact that he picked a song he performed at Freddie’s Memorial concert. I consider this cheating: although a version featuring Mercury was released, Brian isn’t really trying to sing a real Queen song. While cheating, it is also ludicrously smart. As the crowd rocks out with glowsticks, Brian sounds really good until he totally biffs the chorus (in my view). It was really moving at the beginning, but I just felt that the emotion kind of petered off in the chorus. That said my mother did change the sound on the TV at about that point, so I’d say that was maybe part of it. Some great vocals in the beginning, though.

What the judges think: Jake was moved, Farley felt it was good with his brassy tones, Sass liked its smooth/rough juxtaposition, and Zack thought it was pitchy all over the place. Eh, I disagree about the beginning, but that was my issue with the chorus I think.

The Freddie Factor: N/A, since he really didn’t sing a song he made famous.

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August 6, 2007 · 9:00 am

Cultural Learnings’ Summer TV Wrapup – Introduction

As we head into the month of August, the large majority of Summer Television is either heading into the home stretch or debuting its first episodes as it heads into the Fall. However, since Emmy Awards hype will once again take over Cultural Learnings in the months ahead, I figure now’s the best time to look back at the Summer and the television that is has brought us. And thus Cultural Learnings’ Summer TV Wrapup was born.

This includes the good and the bad, the much loved and much hated, and both reality and scripted television. I’ll be bringing attention to the shows you should be watching, the shows I should have watched sooner, as well as those shows that might not be worth watching at all. I’ll also settle the Karaoke wars once and for all, plus look at which returning summer series I deem the most disappointing of the season.

Starting later today, this 14-part series will begin, and over the next week and a half or so you’ll be able to get the rundown on the summer season thus far. Will your favourite guilty pleasure make the list? Well, only time will tell.

In the meantime, while I’m out enjoying the summer myself, send me an email about your favourite summer series, or maybe the series you’re discovering or rediscovering over the summer through repeats or on DVD. You can send me an email at cultural.learnings @ gmail.com (Without the spaces), and I might include your comments in one of my posts.

Also, to get an idea of what I might be covering, check out the Summer TV Category here at Cultural Learnings for all of our seasonal coverage over the past months.

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August 5, 2007 · 11:07 pm

Entourage – “Gary’s Desk” Review

Entourage Review

“Gary’s Desk”

This is an important step for Entourage, because Eric has been a fairly worthless character for quite some time. He’s been Vince’s lackey instead of being Vince’s manager for pretty well the entire season (Ari’s exact words are that he’s spend the last few years hibernating in Vince’s ass), and now he’s finally trying to break through on his own. The result is a refreshing combination of Eric being uncomfortable and the return of my favourite Entourage cameo actor, Gary Busey.

The writing seemed sharper this week, compared to the last few weeks worth of episodes. I’ll admit it right now, I’m a sucker for the eccentricities of Gary Busey; it’s one of those aspects of the series that made me laugh the first time around. In fact, the episode was chock full of celebrity cameos: Mary J. Blige, Peter Jackson, and of course Busey. Combine it with the return of Debi Mazar, if briefly, and you have quite the episode.

I like that the episode provided some sort of structure to move forward with for E’s character. As a manager, a real manager, he can actually have something to do other than simply walking alongside Vince. The article about Nepotism is Variety is entirely true: Eric has worked hard, but he got where he is entirely based on his relationship with Vince. Now, he has to test that out in new horizons.

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August 5, 2007 · 12:32 pm

Pilot Preview: FOX’s “Sarah Connor Chronicles”

I have a confession to make: I’ve never actually sat down and watched the Terminator movies. While I’ve been catching up on television over the past few years in terms of what I missed in the days before my obsession, films have yet to receive the same treatment. And so, James Cameron’s films (I’m ignoring T3) have basically no resonance on my opinion of FOX’s new drama series, Sarah Connor Chronicles, which extends that universe into the world of television.

And so, when I offer my opinion, I can only do so as someone who has no idea if it’s destroying the mythology or ruining the franchise even more than T3 did. What I do know is that the pilot is a fast-paced adrenaline ride that creates the proper breeding ground for an action drama series that hasn’t quite actually grown yet, and that I don’t think it can possibly keep up this pace.

Therefore, let’s just say right now that the pilot is an entertaining 43 minutes of television drama, well-directed by David Nutter and generally well cast. I had a few quibbles with the writing in terms of Summer Glau’s female Terminator, but these are more or less quibbles in the grand scheme of things. The action feels real, the pacing seems right, and the plot that is revealed is neither too daunting nor too miniscule to drive interest in the series.

But, the important question is, where to we go from here? The pilot opens a whole host of doors for the series, and yet it gives absolutely no indication of which one it will enter. Let’s investigate these doors, and then we’ll try to piece together where the series goes from here.

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August 3, 2007 · 7:28 am

Fall Schedule Shakeup at FOX: ‘New Amsterdam’ Shelved, ‘Lyrics’ returns, ‘Bones’ moves

Via Variety, word has broken that FOX is shuffling its fall schedule to, well, I don’t really know why they’re doing it. On the one hand, their new schedule certainly seems like it will be more competitive. However, at the same time, I don’t believe that the switch from new programming to reality programming is going to do much good for the network’s pedigree.

Variety: Fox Shuffles Fall Schedule (Aug. 2nd)

The Details:

New Amsterdam, FOX’s crime procedural about a 400+ year old man who will only be able to age when he finds his true love, has been shelved until midseason. It will likely debut in the Fridays at 9pm timeslot that it would have been moving to in January anyways thanks to American Idol.

Why is it moving? My guess is a combination of retooling (The show isn’t shutting down production, but certainly they’ll be slowing down a bit) and perhaps it just isn’t coming together very well. It should be interesting to see whether more news breaks about this in the coming days.

Bones, meanwhile, is moving to find itself a new timeslot away from a rather tough Wednesday 9pm lineup (Private Practice, Criminal Minds, Bionic Woman). The FOX forensic crime procedural will be moving to New Amsterdam’s timeslot of 8pm on Tuesdays (Starting on September 25th) before itself likely moving to Fridays at 8 in January.

Why is it moving? Well, it’s more because of what else is moving, but more importantly it gives the show its own timeslot in its chosen genre (The only competition being NCIS, which skews older). So, considering they want it to survive on Fridays in the Spring, they need to give it a boost.

The other news deals with two reality shows.

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August 2, 2007 · 5:23 pm

2007-2008 Fall Premiere News – ‘Boston Legal’ sets its date

ABC has finally gotten around to announcing that their Emmy-nominated Drama series, Boston Legal (featuring Emmy nominee William Shatner), will premiere its fourth season on September 25th. The episode will be a special 90-minute episode (Which apparently David E. Kelley wasn’t happy with, which makes this all really weird), and will air at 9:30 after Dancing with the Stars before settling into its 10pm timeslot.

This date has been added to Cultural Learnings’ Fall Premiere List, which has all the details on when your favourite show debuts this fall.

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August 2, 2007 · 9:00 am

Pilot Preview: NBC’s ‘Chuck’

When Josh Schwartz created The O.C., he became a household name due to the show’s success and the pop culture phenomenon that developed. He was the young writer-producer who was setting television on fire, and the world was at his doorstep waiting for him to emerge victorious again. However, The O.C. ran into some trouble, and all of a sudden Josh Schwartz was behind a losing property that limped to its fourth season finale.

What this has given Josh Schwartz is one less steady pay cheque, perhaps, but also a new lease on life. The O.C. remained a credible formula for Schwartz because he balanced the oversexed teenage promiscuousness with witty and sarcastic banter, and those two parts stayed relatively intact following its demise. And so, like the sensible and smart man he is, Josh Schwartz took the oversexed teenage promiscuousness and channeled it into “Gossip Girl” for The CW, and took the witty and sarcastic banner and found a home for it on NBC.

The resulting show is Chuck (Premiering on Monday, September 24th at 8pm on NBC), an action-thriller comedy series that places Schwartz’s sharp dialogue into a setting more acceptable for the Seth-like viewers the show is trying to reel in. The result is a series that is sharp, funny, and certainly one of the most potential-filled pilots of the 2007 Fall Season.

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August 1, 2007 · 8:00 am

10 Potential Storylines for Mary-Kate Olsen on Showtime’s ‘Weeds’

On August 13th, Mary-Kate Olsen will emerge from her twin sister’s shadow and take arguably the largest starring role of her career as a cast members of Showtime’s Weeds. I’ll be honest with you: this is stunt casting at its finest. The role of a conservative Christian teenager who falls into a relationship with Silas (Hunter Parrish) could have been filled with scores of other young actresses, but Showtime likely insisted on someone that could get people talking.

So, I figure that Jenji Kohan and her writing staff should take advantage of this and be sure to milk their new co-star’s pedigree of sorts when writing the new season of Weeds (For more info on the new season, you can read Cultural Learnings’ Weeds: Season Three Preview.) Here’s ten possible storylines for the former child star that might get people talking; for some fascinating examples of said discussion, head over to my pal Erin’s juicy Olsen Twins gossip page, MKAshley.

1. Pregnancy

Silas already got his girlfriend Megan pregnant by putting holes in condoms, so it’s not as if there isn’t already a precedent here. Plus, if she gets pregnant on the show, it will start a whole slew of real life pregnancy tabloid rumours that will send the internet into a frenzy. It has all sorts of potential going against her fundamentalist background on the show as well.

2. Marijuana Dependency

The show’s called Weeds, people, so dabbling in the Mary Jane seems like a logical step for Mary-Kate. Silas takes on a new role in Nancy’s business in the fourth episode of the season that could make him into the facilitator of this dependency as well.

3. Alcoholism

It’s big with the teen queens these days (Oh Lindsay Lohan), and the series has not frowned from depicting the effects of alcohol in the past (Celia has a wonderful affair with the bottle early in the show’s third season). Plus, since Silas is a petty criminal, it would help them bond if she had a record as well.

4. Secret Twin Sister

It is somewhat sad I only got to #4 before trotting out this one, but it’s just too perfect. One sister can be the conservative christian, the other one can want to get into Silas’ pants. Comic hijinx ensue.

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