Tag Archives: ABC

April 28, 2008 · 12:27 am

Brothers & Sisters – “Double Negative”

“Double Negative”

April 27th, 2008

I have absolutely nothing against Justin Walker and Rebecca Harper. I have nothing against Dave Annable or Emily VanCamp, two attractive and charistmatic young actors who in real life make a charming couple. I don’t have anything against romance, having myself been a shipper in a past life (Oh, who am I kidding, a present life).

And yet, I have all sorts of issues with the forbidden, quasi-incestual love affair between these two characters, characters I like stuck in a storyline that just feels wrong. I know it’s been inevitable, with rumors and storylines leading us to this point, but the way it has been handled has made its problems even more apparent. These two actors have chemistry, but the writers are forcing their characters to overcome a fairly substantial hurdle (You know, being related) through a series of contrived hoops and over-exaggerated characterizations.

If this reveal had been done a few months into their friendship, I might buy it – as it stands, it’s just a bit too awkward and forced for me to accept being slapped in the face with it over and over again. “Double Negative” has all sorts of other storylines, so let’s talk about those before my rant drivels on any further.

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April 24, 2008 · 10:55 pm

Lost – “The Shape of Things To Come”

“The Shape of Things to Come”

April 24th, 2008

Of all of Lost’s characters, I think I missed Daniel Faraday the most. He’s such a piece of work, but not in a negative context: he’s just a perfect character for this moment, a man too caught up in his own scientific world to hide his knowledge of things of a social nature. He’s also, admittedly, an opportunity to get a little bit meta, as seen in his answer to Jack’s question as to when he last saw a washed up member of the boat’s crew:

“When is kind of a…relative term”

It was said with the most delightful uncertainty, with total certainty in his answer but not in the reactions he thinks he will receive. The show, perhaps, might be on the same page: as we travel into Ben’s future as he wakes up in the middle of the Sahara Desert, we learn that he is in a particular time and place: October 2005, to be exact, right at the time when Sayid is burying his wife in peace. Is it the start of a beautiful friendship? Well, perhaps, but it’s also a total time warp.

If this is the shape of things to come, then I would say it is a shape of indeterminate size, of indeterminate shape, and yet most certainly growing to dangerous proportions. Both in the present and the future, said shape grows in Benjamin Linus – this was a showcase of acting from Michael Emerson, and a fantastic and intriguing display of the way this show works, and the way this show will work in the future. We don’t know exactly what will come, but we know that it looks pretty damn intense.

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April 21, 2008 · 1:53 am

Brothers & Sisters – “Separation Anxiety”

“Separation Anxiety”

April 20th, 2008

In my own anxiety of trying to figure out how to spend my time when I will have no consistent employment hours and no homework all summer, I apparently completely forgot that the ABC drama that I haven’t given up on is returning from its strike hiatus for a short few episodes. Brothers & Sisters has been fairly good this season, if a bit predictable at parts, but I’m glad to see it returning if only so we can get back more serial television.

This is one of the few shows that can’t act as if no time has passed, as it was embroiled in the Republican primary system when we last left it. Before we hit the title, McAllister is bowing out of the race and we’re flashing forward three months to a world where presidency is replaced with pregnancy in the grand scheme of things.

It’s a smart decision because it allows for a partial reset of some storylines, particularly the dramatic tension in Tommy’s life. Instead, we get to return to Walkers being Walkers as the family faces a crisis and a celebration: Rebecca’s birthday and Isaac (Danny Glover) inviting Nora to live with him in Washington. Needless to say, this creates plenty of drama for the episode to draw from.

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April 16, 2008 · 6:42 pm

Le Cheval Mort – Lamenting the Immortality of ‘Scrubs’

I had time to watch Scrubs’ return episode live on Thursday of last week, but I turned off the T.V. after The Office ended. There were a lot of reasons for this, most directly that I’ve been watching Scrubs on DVD for the past couple of weeks and was perhaps Scrubbed out. Or, maybe I was too afraid that the relative lack of quality in recent episodes would make me even more frustrated with ABC’s inevitable decision to keep the show for an eighth season (Thus making it a dead horse, which is what the title means in French – no, I don’t know why I wrote it in French, it just sounded better).

Watching the DVDs has been a quick process, almost too quick: I know the tragic turn of the 5th season is coming, and I’m stopping before it starts just to maintain what appreciation I have of Bill Lawrence’s sitcom. And it is an appreciation: the first and second seasons are great television, and it was really unfortunate the show got no Emmy attention until the “dark ages” beyond season four (Which is itself a bit of a mess).

But I decided I was going to give the show a shot, and say down on Sunday night to watch the show’s return following the Writers’ Strike. And, for a good nineteen minutes and fifty seconds, I have to admit it: Scrubs was in good form.

And then reality kicked back in.

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February 7, 2008 · 11:38 pm

Lost – “Confirmed Dead”

“Confirmed Dead”

February 7th, 2008

Oh Lost. You are capable of telling us a lot in the span of 42 minutes, introducing four new characters who will play an important role moving forward. And yet, at the same time, I am infinitely more confused than I was before – for all of the things we learned about Dan, Miles, Charlotte and Frank, we are still unclear on why they’ve assembled in this fashion and why it is that their personal obsessions with Oceanic Flight 815 have brought them to the island.

Over the span of “Confirmed Dead,” we learned who was responsible for sending them, and their initial mission on the island in the immediate future. However, their larger plan is still largely vague, and there are still a boatload of questions (A freighter load, perhaps) left to answer. If Locke was frustrated when Ben was unable to answer his question about the origins of the Smoke Monster, we were doubly so…but in a good way.

The episode used four separate flashbacks for all of our four Freighters, each of them having some sort of connection to the story at hand. In each story, we had an odd glimpse at their personalities and, more importantly, an interest in not only Oceanic 815 but also the island and its various eccentricities.

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January 31, 2008 · 11:06 pm

Season Premiere: Lost – “The Beginning of the End”

“The Beginning of the End”

January 31st, 2008

It’s the event we’ve been waiting for since last May, when Lost ended its third season with a rattlesnake in the mailbox in the form of a new flash forward format. It was the episode that convinced many that Lost was back on track, and was a return to the buzz which met the show’s series premiere. But it raised a question for everyone: could the 48 episodes which will follow manage to live up to its potential?

“The Beginning of the End” can be taken literally, the first episode of the show’s final forty-eight. More importantly, it is the moment where the fate of our castaways is changed forever. With a glimpse to the future for one of the Oceanic Six, one wrought with psychological and personal trauma, Lost returns with an episode of what it does best: intriguing character studies and a plot that keeps you moving.

And if it all ends in just seven weeks, this beginning will be all the more sweet.

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January 31, 2008 · 8:25 am

Cultural Learnings Prepares to get ‘Lost’: Season Four Premiere and LiveCast Tonight!

Okay, so I might not have time for a huge Lost-related posting, but I’ve got some relatively exciting news for this evening. Starting at 11 EST, myself and David Chen from The Watchers will be broadcasting live through UStream (That’s the fancy link to your right) about the Lost Season Premiere. I hope to be able to have a post up before that with some of my thoughts on the episode, but tune in for a lot more detail and some really cool stuff all around.

In the meantime, if you’re still craving for your Lost fix, I figured I’d take us back in time to Cultural Learnings’ coverage of the end of Lost’s third season oh so many months ago.

Where Does Lost Go From Here? – May 24th, 2007

Just a day after the mind-blowing season finale, a review of which you can find below, I posed the question which we still don’t have a definitive answer to. It’s clear that the island’s drama will remain the central focus, which is about what I had figured, but the potential balance between flashforwards and flashbacks remains an important question we will discover in the future. For now, revisit my initial thoughts on where the fourth season could go.

Reviewing the Finale Ratings: Lost, 24, Heroes – May 24th, 2007

One of the big questions still floating around Lost’s return is whether or not the series is going to perform in the ratings. As it stands right now, it remains totally up in the air, but with nothing else on television and only Celebrity Apprentice as competition, methinks that the juggernaut still has plenty of life left in it despite Heroes’ slight advantage back in May.

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January 15, 2008 · 1:25 am

Brothers & Sisters: “The Feast of Epiphany”

“The Feast of Epiphany”

January 13th, 2007 

In my current insomnia, brought on by a mutating cold that just won’t go away without a fight, I figured I’d take the time to comment on last night’s episode of Brothers & Sisters. The danger of this January strike situation is that some shows are returning with almost no notice – in the case of this series, I had completely forgotten it was scheduled to return. The show’s general success in the ratings demonstrates that viewers certainly didn’t tune out, but the fact remains that this one flew a little under the radar.

The whole point of the episode, of course, was that things can only fly under the radar for so long before they will blow up in your face. The episode dealt with the aftermath of McAllister’s war heroism being called into question, and then the whole slew of other underlying secrets and lies floating around. It also opened the door for an incestual potential relationship to lose its taboo, while also giving me false hope that we’d be saying goodbye to one of our regular characters. It was a busy, and ultimately fulfilling, hour of television.

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January 11, 2008 · 3:30 pm

Strike Finale Night: Grey’s Anatomy, 30 Rock, Ugly Betty

Last night saw three shows (Two I rarely blog about) finish their seasons prematurely due to the Writers’ Strike. It is unfortunate, of course, because this means two and a half less hours of television each week (Thursdays will never be the same). Alas, let’s take a quick look at how these shows managed with finales which were, well, not meant to be finales. (I’ll be back with Friday Night Lights tonight and Golden Globes nods tomorrow, assuming this cold doesn’t destroy me).

Grey’s Anatomy – “Lay Your Hands On Me”

This quasi-finale was a solid episode which at least felt like a conclusion to a story or two. Central to the episode is Bailey’s son being injured in an accident, extenuating the marital issues we saw before the break. Bailey blames herself, blames Hahn for keeping her out of surgery, and eventually accepts a healer who is able to pull Tuck back to life.

This was fine, but I actually felt like it felt too much like Emmy bait for Chandra Wilson, even when her character is as great as she is. We’ve had a lot of Bailey in recent weeks, ever since the Gizzie backlash became apparent. We had her fantastic episode with her childhood crush, we had her altercation with the Nazi in “Crash Into Me,” and now we have this tearful and emotional storyline here. I’d actually argue she was far more likable in the first episode, and thus it would be the better choice. Wilson was as great as ever here, but it felt a little bit too melodramatic.

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January 8, 2008 · 3:14 pm

ABC Resurrects ‘The Mole’ for Summer 2008

[EDIT: Welcome, more recent visitors. As you’ve noticed, ABC has started airing quick snippets to help preview the return of the Mole. If you seen anything involving a premiere date or any more information, feel free to comment below!]

They just don’t make reality series like The Mole anymore. Some of the more recent shows can be described as an amalgam of various parts: Survivor meets The Apprentice, or The Amazing Race meets Big Brother. It seems as if truly original ideas in the reality competition field are all but gone, which one might think is only further evidenced by ABC’s decision to bring back an old reality show to fill their summer schedule. It seems like it’s just another series coming back because of the Writers’ Strike, a lame attempt like American Gladiators to cash in on an existing property.

But there’s something different about The Mole, both in terms of the nature of its return and the quality of the programming. The show’s first two seasons were fantastic examples of how to do reality television: it was smart, humorous, and featured personalities that we rooted for. It had twists and turns that didn’t feel choreographed, and surprised the contestants as much as it surprised the audience or vice versa. Its return, according to the story being circulated today by Variety, was a labor of love from original producer Scott Stone, whose original shingle has dissolved and who had to fight to regain the lapsed rights to make it happen.

Can you imagine someone fighting for the lapsed rights to any other canceled reality series from this period? Sure, two celebrity editions which followed were not quite appointment television, but the original was beloved and has enjoyed a strong word of mouth credibility in recent years. A lot of this has to do with its host, Anderson Cooper – while he’s since moved onto bigger things at CNN, and thus won’t be returning to the series, his big break was acting as the lovably sarcastic and mysterious guide for this journey.

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