Fall TV Preview

As enjoyable as summer TV could be, this week begins the process us TV junkies have been waiting for: Fall TV Season, when all of our favorite shows come back from their summer vacations to come entertain us once more. If you want to know when CSI and Grey's Anatomy come back, look elsewhere. If you want to know what I'll be watching, read on.

Glee (September 9th, 9-10 PM, Fox, NEW SHOW)

If you saw the pilot last May (and if you haven't, do it now), you know this is heading into the fall as frontrunner for best new show. As hard as that performance of "Don't Stop Believing" may be to top, the news that there will be 2 soundtracks in 2009 alone to cover all the songs leaves me very hopeful.

Gossip Girl (September 14th, 9-10 PM, The CW)

Will Gossip Girl avoid the college curse that's plagued every high school show ever? Since we never actually saw them in high school, and NYU barely counts as college, they stand as good a chance as anyone. Just as long as it's not another season of "omg Blair & Chuck 4eva omg."

The Office (September 17th, 9-9:30 PM, NBC)

Jim and Pam get married! Other than that, we'll really see the writers' creativity in keeping this show going into its sixth(!) season.

Community (September 17th, 9:30-10 PM, NBC, NEW SHOW)

A chance to see Joel McHale do something other than make fun of Speidi/Ryan Seacrest/Miley? I'm so there (as long as I can still get my weekly Soup fixings on Friday).

Curb Your Enthusiasm (September 20th, 9-9:30 PM, HBO)

This show's still on? After however many seasons, Larry David's found a surefire way to get people to watch: Seinfeld reunion! Guess he wins, cause I'll be watching.

Bored to Death (September 20th, 9:30-10 PM, HBO, NEW SHOW)

Sure, it's cool that the cast consists of Jason Schwartzman, Ted Danson, and The Hangover's Zach Galifinokusableskiver (maybe someday I'll learn his name, but today is not that day). But the real reason I'm excited? The theme song. Wouldn't be the first time I watched a show just for its theme song (that would be Angel).

How I Met Your Mother (September 21st, 8-8:30 PM, CBS)

Barney & Robin! Ted's at Columbia! The mother's in his class! 100th episode musical spectacular! All of which suggests this season will be legen - wait for it...

Heroes (September 21st, 8-9 PM, NBC)

I know I wrote a whole post on how Heroes' fourth volume wasn't as bad as everyone said, but that doesn't mean I'm actually looking forward to the new season. It's go big or go home time for Heroes, cause I don't think anyone will put up with another year of coasting by.

...dary! Legendary!

The Good Wife (September 22nd, 10-11 PM, CBS, NEW SHOW)

This so doesn't seem like my kind of show, but critics seem to be enjoying it. And there's absolutely nothing else AT ALL on Tuesday nights. So maybe I'll check it out? We'll see.

Modern Family (September 23rd, 9-9:30 PM, ABC, NEW SHOW)

Count this as another one the critics (may or may not) have convinced me to watch. Sounds like a pretty standard family sitcom to me, but supposedly it's hilarious. Maybe I should actually watch a promo...

Cougar Town (September 23rd, 9:30-10 PM, ABC, NEW SHOW)

Ok, promos aren't going to help on this one, but it's Bill Lawrence! The Scrubs man himself! So I've got to at least give it a try.

Flash Forward (September 24th, 8-9 PM, ABC, NEW SHOW)

People keep calling it "the next Lost", thinking it will fool all of us die-hard Lost fans into watching. They're right. I can't wait. Whether it lasts past the pilot to become a great series or suffers The Nine syndrome (which many critics fear), at least it won't be an NCIS spin-off.

Dollhouse (September 25th, 9-10 PM, Fox)

Yes! After getting hooked this summer, this is one of my most anticipated returning shows. Adding to my excitement is their decision to go all-out geek this year, with guest/recurring roles by BSG's Apollo and Colonel Tigh, Summer Glau of Firefly fame, and Buffy and Angel's Alexis Denisof (aka Mr. Alyson Hannigan). Now we just need to get Amy Acker's show canceled so we can have our Whiskey back.

Saturday Night Live (September 26th, 11:30 PM-1 AM, NBC)

New girls were cast. Other girls were kicked off. Still nobody can do a decent Obama.

The Cleveland Show (September 27th, 8:30-9 PM, Fox, NEW SHOW)

Even though I no longer regularly watch Family Guy, I'd still like to give the spin-off a look. Can't be as bad as American Dad, right?

Dexter (September 27th, 9-10 PM, Showtime)

Yes! My #1 most anticipated show of the fall. No matter what the storylines, I'm always happy to watch Dexter, Deb, Rita, and the rest. And with John Lithgow's Trinity Killer, the return of FBI Agent Lundy, and domesticated Dexter now married with a baby, this season should up the watercooler factor even further.

South Park (October 7th, 10-10:30 PM, Comedy Central)

South Park likes to alternate between smart, satirical humor and stupid, gross humor. While the former may be less than 25% of the show, it's good enough that I trudge through the rest.

30 Rock (October 15th, 9:30-10 PM, NBC)

Why does NBC keep holding 30 Rock back a month? If season 4 starts better than last year's guest star marathon, I'll forgive them.

V (November 3rd, 8-9 PM, ABC, NEW SHOW)

Juliet vs. aliens? What's not to love? It's like a preview to the Lost series finale (I'm kidding....I hope).

So that's what I'm looking forward to. How about you? What new shows are you most excited to try, what returning favorites have left you in suspense all summer, and what shows are finally getting kicked off your DVR? That's what the comments are for.

Dick in a Box or Space Olympics?

When they're good, Andy Samberg's Lonely Island digital shorts on Saturday Night Live can be the only reason worth watching. When they're not, you get "Space Olympics," an unfunny, nonsensical video from the season premiere. So where does last night's "On a Boat" fit into the scale? Dick in a Box or Space Olympics?



No question here. That's Space Olympics material, all right. Being on a boat is not inherently funny, and repeating that statement for a few minutes doesn't make it funnier. They can't all be gems.

At least Seth Myers' Weekend Update is still good. Funniest part of last night's SNL for me was his "Really?!?" segment regarding the whole Michael Phelps/pot smoking non-controversy. Take a look:

Strangest Casting of the Week

This week, Damages introduced a new character, a shady fellow behind the death of Daniel Purcell's wife. This in itself is not news; Damages is filled with shady people who plan hits for corporate types. What is news is that this character is played by Darrell Hammond.

For those that don't recognize the name, you know his face. Hammond has been on Saturday Night Live for, wow, nearly 15 years. In that time, he's done a ton of classic impersonations, including Sean Connery, Al Gore, John McCain, and Bill Clinton (as seen above). Yet beyond the odd Law and Order episode (a requirement of all New Yorkers. I suspect I may inadvertently have played the neighbor of a pedophile at some point), this seems to be his first shot at drama.

So how's he doing? His character kind of seems like a gay version of his Donald Trump impression. Now, that type of oddball character would have fit in perfectly on Twin Peaks, but for Damages it's a bit strange. His presence is more distracting than anything else, since I keep expecting him to go, "Shuck it Purcell. Shuck it long and shuck it hard." But the character's not going anywhere for now, so I'm sure he'll end up making the season more interesting.

As for the rest of the episode (SPOILERS):

Big episode overall, what with Purcell's wife's killer being caught and killed and Purcell getting cleared. But it really all comes down to the ending. Just as he did ten years before, Purcell threw his testimony, leaving Patty with bupkis. I knew the man who fathered Michael "Planting Fake Bombs in My Stepdad's Car Is Fun" Hewes had to be a weasel. Dumping out the water sample Ellen smuggled out of a town not unlike the one from My Cousin Vinny is a real setback. At least Tom got some Mr. Pibb for the trouble.

Still, committing perjury and destroying evidence for a big pay-out is one thing. The reveal that Purcell was in on his wife's murder after all? Craziness. That creepy cop was right - we shouldn't believe a word that comes out of Purcell's mouth. He's definitely hiding more, and as soon as Patty finds out, he's going down.

Last Post of the Year

Happy New Year's Eve everyone! On my last post of 2008, I thought I should do some kind of reflection on the year. I have to see a few more movies and catch up on a few more shows before I can do my top 10 lists, but they are coming. As for what else is coming up: tomorrow is blog resolutions, Friday is a midseason TV preview, and next week will be season premiere recaps. Now back to 2008:

It's a really good thing Barack Obama won the presidency in 2008, since that's about the only thing that kept it from being The Year That Sucked. Just look at today's news stories. In real news, the Israeli/Palestinian conflict has come back full force, and controversy over disgraced Governor Rod Blagojevich's senate pick will spill far into 2009. In entertainment news, a Viacom/Time Warner dispute could mean no Daily Show for the forseeable future, while a SAG strike is still a possibility. And that's just this week.

Here's just a few things we've dealt with this year: the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, the fall of Wall Street, the beginnings of the fall of Detroit, record-high gas prices, terrorist attacks in Mumbai, Russia's invasion of Georgia, the Eliot Spitzer scandal, the Rod Blagojevich scandal, a writer's strike that led to one of the worst TV seasons in memory, and a very weak year for movies.

But there were some bright spots, mostly in the election. From the epic Hillary/Obama primary battle to the conventions, debates, and Sarah Palin, the 2008 election was THE entertainment event of the year. People who never voted in their lives were suddenly political junkies, checking daily poll results and tracking debates like play-offs for the World Series. The election even spilled over to real entertainment, giving The Daily Show and The Colbert Report tons of material, and revitalizing Saturday Night Live with Tina Fey's instant-classic impersonation of Sarah Palin. And best of all, it had a happy ending.

While the overall field of movies and TV shows this year may have been weak, the best were comparable with any other year. The Dark Knight was the best superhero movie ever, one of the best crime epics ever, and featured one of the best movie villains ever. Wall-E was so much more than Pixar's best film, being as well a definitive look at our era. Slumdog Millionaire's frontrunner status for best picture may come out of lack of competition, but it would be at the top in any other year too. I'd put these three above my top three movies from last year, easily.

As for TV, I may not have added any new shows to my dvr in 2008, and a lot of my old favorites may have disappointed, but that didn't stop shows from continuing to wow. Lost, already the best tv show ever, proved it more by changing up the formula with flashforwards. Mad Men avoided a sophomore slump by going even deeper into its characters in year 2. And Dexter showed it could still be suspenseful without as compelling a central device as the Ice Truck Killer or the Bay Harbor Butcher.

So 2008 wasn't ALL bad, just mostly bad. On January 20th, 2009, Barack Obama gets sworn in as president. I certainly hope that means my final post for 2009 will be very different from this one.

Colbert Christmas and Other TV Stocking Stuffers

As the advertisements promised, A Colbert Christmas was a nice blend of mocking and embracing the cheesy Christmas specials of yesteryear. All the necessary details were there: the sweater, the log cabin, the not-so-conversational announcement of each guest star, and a Christmas miracle to save his special.

The show had plenty of funny moments beyond mocking something from before I was born. Country singer Toby Keith did a surprisingly funny song against the "War on Christmas," complete with animation. Jon Stewart's half-hearted pitch for Chanukah brought laughs despite (or because of?) Stewart's weak singing voice. Willie Nelson's weed-infused Christmas song was to be expected, and John Legend's ode to nutmeg sounded nice enough. I liked Feist as an angel, singing an angel call waiting message.

But probably best was the bear. Colbert was trapped inside the cabin because of a bear outside. As Colbert Report fans know, bears are often #1 in the threatdown, making this one of the few connections to the actual show. The bear ends up eating Elvis Costello, singing a song of peace with Colbert, and making out with him under the mistletoe before being killed and turned into a rug. Silly, sure, but a perfectly enjoyable holiday special if it was ACTUALLY HOLIDAY SEASON! Seriously, couldn't he have waited until after Thanksgiving?

In other "comedy" news, Saturday Night Live continued to suck after losing its topicality with the end of the election. But it turns out they actually did have one funny sketch, they just inexplicably cut it. The sketch involves Andy Samberg as a cursing and threatening Rahm Emanuel. Enjoy:



Finally, tonight's How I Met Your Mother gave us two things to implement in our daily lives. First, we learned that The Naked Man (getting laid after an unsuccessful first date by removing all your clothes while the woman's not looking) works two out of three times. A blog shout-out goes to whoever admits to trying this.

Second, Lily created a list of 50 reasons to have sex. Some of my favorites include "Nothing good on TV," "Your roommate is out of town and you can do it on the couch," and "Your condoms are about to expire." You can find the full list here.

Tinavision

Last night's Saturday Night Live was the last one before the election (not counting tomorrow's Presidential Bash), so it continued the trend of political relevance with two appearances by Senator John McCain. Unlike Governor Sarah Palin, who mostly just stood there and took the hits in her SNL cameos, McCain took a very active part on the show. As a former host, he was comfortable, relaxed, and pretty funny. Here's his opening bit with Tina Fey returning as Palin:



As he did in his speech at the Al Smith Memorial dinner (which you can find in the blog post "America's Funniest Presidential Candidate"), McCain shows his willingness to laugh at himself. With jokes about McCain/Palin only being able to afford a broadcast on QVC and a bit on Palin going rogue for 2012, McCain seems like a good sport for taking part in it. Also, jokes like McCain Fine Gold (after McCain-Feingold) and using Cindy McCain as a jewelry model were pretty funny. But by the time McCain said to put "country first" at the polls, I couldn't help but feel like the whole segment might just be free campaigning time for McCain.

Ben Affleck's monologue was about 30 seconds long with no explanation of why he was chosen to host. A sketch on The View let Affleck do a pretty decent Alec Baldwin impression and had a lot of insults for Elizabeth Hasselbeck, but otherwise wasn't too funny. So the next notable sketch was Affleck's imitation of MSNBC's Keith Olbermann:



Once again, Affleck did a surprisingly good imitation, especially when he did Olbermann's fast speech. The sketch starts funny when Olbermann's bashing Bush and McCain, but far outstays its welcome with all the stuff about his cat. Olbermann is a ridiculous enough figure that staying on point would have been a much better way to mock him.

As last night stood by the rule that all non-political SNL sketches suck, the last thing worth mentioning is McCain's appearance on Weekend Update (which, by the way, was much better in the solo-host format than last week when Seth Meyers wasn't prepared):



Once again, McCain proved a good sport and showed good comic timing while joking about his lag in the polls and overuse of the word maverick. He seemed like he was trying too hard for some of it, but he is a politician, not a comedian. Still felt a bit like free campaigning though when he brought up connecting with voters and relying on his record.

Finally, a few words on Thursday night's season premiere of 30 Rock.



With all of the many big name guest stars announced (Oprah, Jennifer Aniston, Steve Martin), it seemed like 30 Rock was heading straight for the Will & Grace path, in which the show depends entirely on the guest-star-of-the-week. But even with Will & Grace's Megan Mullally to make that official, the show managed just fine. Rather than taking over the show, Mullally just did her job and let Tina Fey keep the spotlight. Elsewhere, Jack got his job back (yay), Devon acted like, well, GOB Bluth, and Jenna was thankfully not onscreen too much. Assuming the guest stars remain at bay, 30 Rock is looking at another thoroughly entertaining season (though I still don't think it's the best comedy on TV).

Welcome Back Bush 2000

For anyone who missed last night's final SNL Thursday edition, the opening sketch brought back not only Tina Fey as Sarah Palin but Will Ferrell as President Bush. Ferrell plays Bush exactly as he did 8 years ago, with none of the sadness and age of the current Bush. But in a way, that's what makes it so great and shows what SNL has been missing. Plus, the image of Bush holding a squirming John McCain's hand is just hilarious. Weekend Update was nothing special, so just watch the opening:

TV Catch-Up: Thursday-Monday Edition

Gossip Girl

Best part of the episode for me was that so much was shot right outside of Dodge Hall (see above) where I had all of my film classes (the Yale they visited is actually Columbia). It's been interesting to see how Blair has become the main character this season. The Blair and Serena fight was nearly identical to the one last season. But this time it's through Blair's perspective, as Serena has started to feel more and more like a minor character. Dan has also had trouble staying part of the show post-break up. But I kind of liked his interactions with Chuck and Nate. I'm sure he and Nate discussed being new bffs over burgers at HamDel. And Chuck's playing of the not-so-secret society was what he does best.

How I Met Your Mother

Best episode yet of the season. I'm not sure which was funnier, the series of interventions or Barney convincing a girl that he has come from the future to tell her to sleep with his present self. That's not even including the stories of how Ted's apartment was banged up. Wtih Robin in full-on Canadian mode, Lily getting an intervention for her bad British accent, and R2 Sweet Tooth, there were a lot of laughs to go around. But it was also nice to see how all of the funniest gags led to more serious moments, as the interventions led Ted to question moving in with Stella and Barney the Old Man convinced him to go through with it. After Ted's decision last week to leave Manhattan for New Jersey, this episode continued to show the life-altering decisions people make in their 20s/30s. But it's nice to see they can make those decisions while still being funny.

Heroes

4 episodes in, Heroes is a bit of a mess. Last week there were enough time jumps to leave everyone spinning, and this week we can't tell who's alive and who's dead. Mohinder's foray into being a mad scientist has become far more ridiculous than I could have ever imagined. And I don't believe Ando is really dead, because if so that is the worst character death I have ever seen. So where's the upside? Well, even with all the flaws, it is still kind of fun. The emphasis on the vortex guy (Bubbles from The Wire) helped focus the episode somewhat with all of its many plotlines. Sylar's far from my favorite character, but partnering him with Noah has been fun to see. And it's nice to see Angela's secrets unraveling. The writers just need to bring Parkman back from Africa, get Nathan to stop talking about God, and get rid of Mohinder and Majjjja.

Mad Men

Is Don really returning to Dick Whitman? Who did he call at the end? Was it that woman from the flashback at the used car dealership? Plenty of questions left at the end of an episode that saw Don, Roger, and Duck Phillips all dealing with divorced futures. First Don, who took the vacation he denied to Pete by driving off to Palm Springs with a 21-year-old aptly named Joy who sounded a lot like Betty. Joy's crowd hardly seemed like Don's people, but it seems he may be through with being Don Draper. Next Roger, preparing to lose his money to divorce in order to marry the secretary he barely knows. But the most interesting one this episode was Duck, plotting to improve his job by selling Sterling Cooper. Roger and Cooper may have jumped at the thought of new clients, but Don won't be happy to see he's reporting directly to Duck. Don't trust him. Remember Chauncey.

Grey's Anatomy

If you look back to my post on the season premiere, you'll see I was giving this one more chance before dropping it. Unfortunately, Grey's managed to be just watchable enough to delay that happening. I can't say I really remember what happened 5 days after watching. But I do remember it being lighter than the usual melodrama and that some of the characters may have been momentarily likeable. I guess I'm stuck watching for now.

The Office

Another great episode. Best storyline was easily Jim keeping track of all of Dwight's personal time. Trying to draw Dwight out of work by calling Battlestar Galactica a shot-for-shot remake of the original and describing its plot as Dumbledore Calrissian needs to take the ring back to Mordor? Hilarious. Meredith's confession provided lots of great Michael/Holly moments as well. The Office is definitely back from its post-writer's strike slump.

SNL: Thursday Night

Much like the debate it spoofed, the first sketch of the new half-hour edition fell a bit flat. Joking about the time limits might have worked once, but making it the main joke of the sketch left little else. There were some good McCain moments though, even if SNL still doesn't know how to spoof Obama. Things improved with Weekend Update (outside of Kenan Thompson's "Fix it" bit). But there was nothing within the half hour that could compete with any of Tina Fey's sketches this season. It seems SNL needs Palin as badly as the news media does.