Tag Archives: NBC

October 5, 2007 · 9:57 am

Clear Eyes, Full Hearts, Can’t Lose: The Return of Friday Night Lights

A year ago, I would have never thought I would be writing this blog post. Having seen the pilot for NBC’s Friday Night Lights, I felt like I had seen everything I needed to of the Dillon Panthers: I thought it was just a football version of The O.C. and nothing more. I am more than willing to admit that I was horribly wrong.

Today, mere hours from the show’s much-anticipated second season premiere, I want to make something clear: Friday Night Lights is the drama in which I have the greatest amount of faith at this present moment. Jason Katims took a premise and sent it in directions that could have been disastrous. However, what was made clear as I rewatched the first season on the (Amazingly priced, Money Back Guaranteed) DVD is that it never let me down.

I remember every single time when I groaned or rolled my eyes when the show began to address issues that I worried they were not capable of. When the show approached the issue of racism, and where it delved into Smash’s use of steroids, red flags went up: these were incredibly sensitive subjects, something that doesn’t quite mesh with high school football. What Katims and Co. proved, however, is that nothing could distract them from the purpose at hand. They followed the motto of the Panthers:

“Clear Eyes, Full Hearts, Can’t Lose”

Believing in their devotion to the show’s continued quality, I head into its second season fully believing that no matter what storylines they may encounter, the people of Dillon, Texas will continue to present the most realistic drama on television.

Thus, as the show starts its second season, I have faith that things will stay on track. The show is about family, love, devotion, community, change, rebirth, race, abuse, and a certain game played with a pigskin. I’ll still likely flinch when I see things like the NBC commercials which promote “Murder” as one of the show’s newest developments, but I won’t doubt that they’ll get the job done.

I could write about what makes the show so very fantastic, but Cynthia Littleton at Variety’s On the Air blog has already done it in intricate detail. If you haven’t seen the show yet, I’d almost suggest you skip Cynthia’s great article and pick up the ludicrously cheap DVD set or watch the episodes on NBC.com in streaming video. This is a series worth money, time and energy, but catching up requires very little of all of them.

C’mon: Show us some Panther pride, America. I’ll have a full recap/reaction tonight, as well as a ratings report tomorrow.

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October 4, 2007 · 9:03 pm

Season Premiere: 30 Rock – “Seinfeld Vision”

“Seinfeld Vision”

October 4th, 2007

What is Seinfeld Vision, you ask? Well, it’s Jack’s plan to digitally capture Jerry Seinfeld and place him in all of their primetime shows in October. And Liz, freshly single and quilting, returns to Jack’s master scheme with a fresh outlook on life. Meanwhile, Tracy has marital problems while Jenna got fat starring in Mystic Pizza: The Musical on broadway. Welcome back, 30 Rock. I missed you ever so much, Seinfeld or no Seinfeld.

There’s a lot to like about the return of 30 Rock: Kenneth as Tracy’s Office Wife, Kenneth in an elevator with Jerry Seinfeld, Kenneth making Seinfeld sound effects, Kenneth in general…did I mention Kenneth?

To be serious, the show properly dealt with the show’s best elements: Jack’s big business schemes, Liz’s relationship insecurities, Tracy’s life problems, and Kenneth’s awesomeness. Adding Jerry Seinfeld to the equation doesn’t change the solid structure the series has established. The problem with the premiere is that it has to handle all of these elements, unlike other episodes which can focus on one or the other. Still, I’ll say it: the best comedy on television is back.

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October 4, 2007 · 8:04 pm

The Office – “Dunder Mifflin Infinity”

“Dunder Mifflin Infinity”

October 4th, 2007

Dwight thinks they could do better, Angela thinks it’s fitting since Pam’s the office “mattress”, Andy’s happy to be the sexiest single guy in the office, and Michael thinks it is a life-changing event. The Jim and Pam union is officially known to the office, and the office reaction is clear. However, they continue to take a backseat to other focuses: Ryan’s return to the office is the big story this week, and I couldn’t be happier.

Why? Because Ryan dealing with an obvious lack of authority within the Scranton environment is a unique and new situation for the series. The transition from office temp to corporate boss, having to present a new-age Dunder Mifflin Infinity internet overhaul (NBC’s Meta site can be found at DunderMifflinInfinity.com), is an incredibly tough sell when you have Kelly dressing scantily, Creed feeling pushed out, and the pita fire still haunting his past. The theme of the week is change, and it leads to an episode that feels more integrated and natural than last week’s…until its conclusion.

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October 4, 2007 · 12:21 pm

Bionic Woman – “Paradise Lost”

“Paradise Lost”

October 3rd, 2007 

David Eick, executive producer on Bionic Woman, is also an exec on Battlestar Galactica (Which appeared on the television in Paradise). That show had an unfair advantage when it came to building the show’s concept: a lengthy miniseries in which the characters and plot were established. This allowed it to balance setup and action in a realistic fashion, and made for an absolutely fabulous episode to follow. ’33’ was a gritty realization of the show’s “Humanity on the Run” hook, and was a fantastic hour of television earned through an extensive pilot.

Bionic Woman, unfortunately, wasn’t quite as lucky. They had a clunky opening hour that while, containing potential, struggled with exposition and action and never really created a foundation for the future episodes to follow. As a result, “Paradise Lost” felt like yet another necessarily slow step in the future of the series. And while I don’t think I’m willing to claim the series has no potential, this particular hour did nothing to speed up the process.

After last week’s exposition and actionfest, this week proved two things: the action was non-representative and the exposition just wasn’t enough. We spend a lot of time learning about how this organization works, how their inner structure develops, and not nearly enough time on compelling drama or character development. At one point, a young girl asks Jamie “Who are you?” and I want an answer as well. This episode, very simply, didn’t offer anything to change what was already a problem with the series…but it didn’t add any problems either.

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October 1, 2007 · 10:01 pm

Heroes – “Lizards”

“Lizards”

October 1st, 2007

At the opening of this week’s episode, we gained a structure to this year’s season: A Series of Eight, Isaac Mendez’s unfulfilled prophecy paintings. The first in that series showed Hiro’s father bloodied and dead on the pavement below, and is in Mr. Bennet’s possession. The other seven? He hasn’t seen them, but intends to find them. It looks like we’ve got a Collect-a-thon ahead of us.

Except that, you know, we learn almost nothing about Isaac’s Series of Eight in this episode. The title itself refers to Claire’s biology class, and her inability to keep her mouth shut about regeneration while boy toy West watches on, chatting up Suresh Sr.’s book. I really hate to see Claire get the episode title when her storyline isn’t exactly the most compelling thing the show has going for it: a stolen car? Really? Uncool.

Peter, obviously the most intriguing storyline, spends time tied to a chair and being spongebathed by a young Irish lass. And then he saves her honour with his newfound powers: super strength, his light flash projectiles, and becoming an expert at untying fairly complex knots. Oh, and he doesn’t have a scratch on him, so perhaps the blood may not be his own. Then, whose blood is it? This is an interesting question, but when the show barely even spends any time with him it doesn’t resonate. And especially when he basically becomes a thief for hire.

And there’s the big problem with Heroes right now: each individual episode is only able to string together a series of small-scale storylines, and as a result it never feels like anything really happens in each episode. Whether it is Mohinder’s time with the Haitian, Hiro’s attempts to woo himself a princess, or Parkman’s investigation in New York, or the gruesome attack on Angela Petrelli, nothing seemed to be given any time to matter.

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September 27, 2007 · 11:48 pm

Season Premiere: The Office – “Fun Run”

“Fun Run”

September 27th, 2007

I would like to make two observations about this highly anticipated fourth season premiere of The Office. First, I would argue that “fun” is not a proper descriptor for the episode’s events: while certainly with its funny moments, it felt overlong and tired compared to some of the show’s more engaging and classic episodes. The second is that despite this fact, millions of viewers are likely to be so satisfied by the “Jam” (Or PB&J as Kevin calls them) developments that none of that will matter.

I’m far too cynical to avoid pointing out the episode’s issues, but can we talk about how adorable Pam and Jim were in this episode? Whether it’s their secret glances, their secret rendezvous or their secret estate-sale browsing, their secret affair was the part of the episode that felt most fresh and, importantly, interesting. I care about these two people, as irrational as that may be, and I liked that the show used its documentary format to slowly reveal the relationship through the hour.

But there were other story threads I was interested in following following the show’s third season premiere. I wanted to see how newly unemployed and psychotic Jan changed Michael’s life, and how newly promoted Ryan would play a role in the affairs of The Office. I was also curious to see how Karen’s reaction to Jim’s post-New York singlehood would affect the show’s core relationships. However, this hour barely touched on these issues, focusing instead on hijinx and another key relationship.

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September 27, 2007 · 11:02 am

Series Premiere – Bionic Woman – “Pilot”

“Pilot”

September 26th, 2007

I’ve been in possession of the original pilot for Bionic Woman for quite some time, but I decided against watching it. With recasting and fine tuning being considerable (Deaf sister turns to decidedly not deaf sister), and talks of producer issues, the series is perhaps the second most troubled of the fall season (Next to CBS’ Moonlight). It is perhaps surprising, then, that I found the pilot to be about as good of an introduction to this series as I could expect.

There were certainly problems: some dialogue issues reared their ugly head, specifically the feminist rhetoric coming from a seven year old (Feminist rhetoric? Fine. From someone who would never actually say that? Not fine), and there were certainly certain characters that…well, never became characters. However, the pilot’s focus was not in making us like or dislike these characters, but rather that we could get caught up in this world.

Now, mind you, this is a flawed way of going about things: a general apathy towards a show’s characters is generally a barrier to enjoying the series as a whole. This is why a lot of the pilot’s goodwill comes via Katee Sackhoff, Battlestar Galactica’s Starbuck, whose presence immediately elevates Bionic Woman amongst die hard fans of that series (myself included). More importantly, however, is that Sarah Corvus is a character who has history, motive and gravitas; these are traits we are missing for our titular heroine, portrayed by Michelle Ryan.

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September 24, 2007 · 10:28 pm

Heroes – “…Four Months Later”

“…Four Months Later”

September 24th, 2007

Slate recently posted an article about overpopulation against television casts, referring to it as a “plague.” As if to prove their point, Heroes started its second season struggling to come to terms with its expanding cast, and ignoring several of its key characters in the process. A meandering and inconclusive hour, “…Four Months Later” felt like we were being shown what a better writer could have done through subtle hints, as opposed to anything of true consequence.

The episode’s main focus was establishing that, forced to live normal lives due to the threat of The Company, our heroes are miserable. Noah moved from Primatech to Copy Kingdom, Claire went from athletic cheerleader to quiet Badminton player, and Nathan went from politician to alcoholic. It is only Parkman who gets out lucky, able to use his ability to read minds discreetly, earning a job as an NYPD Detective. Everyone else is suffering, big time. And do you know what? That doesn’t make for very exciting television.

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