Tag Archives: CBS

November 3, 2008 · 12:44 am

The Amazing Race Season 13 – “Episode Six”

“Please Hold While I Singe My Skull”

November 2nd, 2008

Returning from the grave we hoped he had stayed in, tonight’s sixth leg of The Amazing Race saw the return of obnoxious, demanding, and in many ways downright unreasonable Terence. In a season where villains are luckily in short supply, it is very clear that he is the one exception, his bullying of Sarah reaching some new lows tonight.

And I don’t think he’s an awful human being by any stretch of the imagination: I just think that these two are in a new relationship, have very different personalities, and are discovering that this race is not meant for his demeanor in particular. As he fights to get Sarah to do exactly what he wants at a well-planned roadblock, at no point do we get the desired moment of self-realization: instead, he only shuts up when Sarah asks him to, and only for a few moments.

It’s a relationship that is being tested to the limits by this race, and even if it makes me cross my fingers for them to be absent from the finale it does demonstrate that the human qualities of this race are still in full effect.

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October 12, 2008 · 9:45 pm

The Amazing Race Season 13 – “Episode Three”

“Did You Push My Sports Bra Off the Ledge?”

October 12th, 2008

A Happy Thanksgiving to my Canadian readers (I’m with Robin Cherbotsky, Canadian Thanksgiving is totally the “real” thanksgiving), but television does not rest (not that my holiday has been that restful considering my major presentation on Tuesday, but I digress), and The Amazing Race certainly doesn’t rest.

And on its third leg, the thirteenth edition of The Amazing Race has finally hits its first apex of interpersonal conflict, what will henceforth be known as “SportsBraGate” (Props to Daniel Fienberg, of Zap2it, for the phrase). There comes a time in every race where we start to come across events which make us ask questions about the circumstances: is it that these racers are just so justifiably insane that they would do these types of things normally, or is it the Race bringing out the worst in them?

For a few teams this week, this becomes quite a challenge, but for the most part it’s an entertaining one: with an extremely entertaining Roadblock, the dreaded appearance of the clue reading penalty, and the drama of SportsBraGate, it’s clear that The Amazing Race is cycling back around to where we start to identify with the racers, for better or for worse.

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September 29, 2008 · 9:35 pm

How I Met Your Mother – “The Best Burger in New York”

“The Best Burger in New York”

September 29th, 2008

Flashbacks? Check. HIMYM-specific terminology? Check. Self-created Lore? Check. If you’re looking for an episode of How I Met Your Mother that represents the show’s charms in a single half hour, this is perhaps one of the most pure examples. While it sidelines Barney, perhaps the show’s best character, the show remains an ensemble and Marshall (who gets the most focus) was in dire need of a wakeup call in more ways than one.

The search for the best burger in New York sends Marshall back into his past, but the episode follows just a single night in the lives of our five lead characters. With Regis Philbin weaving in and out of the narrative to mild success, and some really charming cyclical storylines, it feels like (more than last week’s premiere) an episode that fits into the show’s canon with ease, if not with pure triumph.

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September 22, 2008 · 9:36 pm

Season Premiere: How I Met Your Mother – “Do I Know You?”

“Do I Know You?”

September 22nd, 2008

There’s a lot of things that we don’t know about Stella – she walked into the series in a guest appearance, returns to make Ted realize the brevity of life, and then all of a sudden at the end of last season she was, potentially, about to become Ted’s fiance. Our limited knowledge of her is what has me convinced that she can’t be the titular Mother – there is just something about the way they met, and the way they are progressing, that makes this feel like one of those emotional rollercoasters that leads Ted to self-awareness and his eventual soul mate.

And the show isn’t pretending, as other shows might, that this is a match made in heaven – the opening episode is all about two relationships, each that has either a lack of information or damaging preconceptions standing in the way of their future. As Ted struggles to get to know Stella, Barney struggles to get over himself in order to show Robin a new Barney. The episode jumps back and forth between the two, connecting these two narrative threads and their importance to the future of the series.

The end result is an episode that never transcends to laugh out loud, that doesn’t feel like a showcase for any one of the show’s elements, but nonetheless represents a good investigation into the insecurities and indulgences of this series. So while the characters might be struggling to find their own footing in this new frontier, this is likely to serve as a foundation of growth and, hopefully, a strong fourth season.

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May 19, 2008 · 9:21 pm

Season Finale – How I Met Your Mother – “Miracles”

“Miracles”

May 19th, 2008

For quite a few series, there isn’t much to go on as far as judging the show’s return post-strike – can we really fairly judge the quality of a series by only four or five episodes designed to either tie up loose ends or pump out content for their network before May Sweeps ends? However, in the case of How I Met Your Mother, you can’t really make the same argument.

We got almost as many episodes post-strike as we did before, and as a result there is a sense that the show got to tell actual storylines and to lay down important pieces for its (now confirmed) future. The biggest problem with this is that I don’t know if they actually told enough of those storylines, particularly the unfortunately absent Stella (Busy with Scrubs Sarah Chalke); if we are to buy this as the season’s big purpose, for Ted to meet this one woman, why is it that we still don’t really feel we’ve met her ourselves.

This isn’t to say that the show is falling apart at the seams, but rather part of me would have preferred a classic apartment setting to the hospital retrospective we ended up getting. It felt like too much of a cop-out, an admission that even with nine episodes post-strike they still weren’t able to build to the finale it feels like they wanted to write.

The result is a finale that is humorous, moderately eventful, and felt less identifiable as an episode of this series than the month’s other comedy finales.

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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 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 · 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 6, 2008 · 2:05 am

How I Met Your Mother – “Rebound Bro”

“Rebound Bro”

May 5th, 2008

After last week’s breakup of Barney and Ted, it’s not easy being Barney…or Ted. Or Stella, the delightful girlfriend we’ve seen too little of since only now was Sarah Chalke able to make her return. And really, it’s a spiral for all of them, as they struggle with various hangups.

They’re realistic hangups – whether it’s Barney’s search for a wingman who isn’t married or taken, Ted struggling with two months of no sex with Stella, and Stella attempting to overcome her concerns over not having sex for five YEARS. The first certainly provides the most humour, in a traditional sense, but the others provide a less neurotic but more charming/dramatic turn.

It might not quite be comparable to next week, but who can complain about Virginity 2: Electric Bugaloo and an unexpected number of testacles?

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April 29, 2008 · 12:18 am

How I Met Your Mother – “The Goat”

“The Goat”

April 28th, 2008

A true sign of a show’s commitment to continuity is when they flash forward to the future during an early episode, and then when they reach said moment in time (If this is a show that pays attention to time) they actually deliver on this moment. Needless to say, there are not many shows with the same commitment as How I Met Your Mother in this area, and so it is not too surprising that they live up to their promise: having reached the story of Ted’s 30th Birthday, it is time for the goat…maybe.

Of course, after last week’s episode left us on Barney and Robin about to hook up, are we really thinking about the goat? The aftershocks of the events of last week are perfect because they affect most the character who is usually so inscrutable: within seconds of returning to McLaren’s, Barney is assaulted with reminders left, right and centre of his deed. Sleeping with his best friend’s ex-girlfriend is something that Barney has never quite done, even considering how much he’s done.

It’s even more delightful that Robin is (on the surface) far less affected by it, as Barney is a nervous wreck by comparison; actually, you don’t even need the comparison to know that Barney is destroying himself inside and out. This takes the form, most directly, Barney scrambling a legal defense against the Bro Code.

What is the Bro Code, you ask? Why, it was a legal document written in 1776 in Philadelphia by Barnibus Stinson, contemporary of Benjamin Franklin and George Washington, while they were having a drink. And, yes, it’s delightful.

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