Television, Miscellaneous
Some miscellaneous thoughts on TV news and shows of the week:
- One of the great things about FOX is that they only program two hours a night before throwing it back to their local stations at 10:00. This always means their shows end promptly at 10:00, with one or two special exceptions. (Didn’t an X-FILES episode bleed into that hour once?) But AMERICAN IDOL rules uber alles, and their overtime airings have meant that HELL’S KITCHEN just barely squeeks to an end for the 10:00 time slot. The show’s only scheduled for 58 minutes as it is, but my DVR still winds up grabbing the last minute of IDOL and cutting off the last minute of HELL’S KITCHEN, which is Chef Ramsey’s final monologue and the coming attractions piece.
I have a better idea, FOX. When your show runs long, start the next reality show already in progress. I don’t NEED to see the two minute prologue that tells me what happened in last week’s episode. It’s not that important to a reality show. Cut that out and let me hear the Chef’s reasons for why he evicted the wannabe he tossed.
- That said, they’re all a pack of losers again this year. Christina has a chance, I think. The rest are complete idiots, including that Matt.
- I don’t know who’s to blame, but it was really lousy when the last 20 minutes of the season finale of AMERICA’S NEXT TOP MODEL recorded without sound. Thanks, CW and Cablevision, whoever is to blame. Idiots. Now I’ll have to go BitTorrent the show, because you’re not getting any more of my time or money.
- I can’t get enough of that Fantasia performance Wednesday night. I’m still playing it back from YouTube. I hope FOX never shuts that clip down.
- BOSTON LEGAL is a show I lost time for about a year ago, maybe a little more. It’s probably still a very good show. It does feature The Shat, after all. In my perfect world, I’ll catch up to it on DVDs someday after I win the lottery. In the meantime, it’s been renewed for one last 13 episode season. David E. Kelley will likely write them all.
It’s just another Kelley show with a short lifespan. They flame out spectacularly and early, don’t they? I think BOSTON PUBLIC is the best example of it. (After the Hook Lady season, it became unwatchable.) On the other hand, I’d gladly take a creative and well written show that only lasts a few short seasons than a mediocre cliched show that lasts 7 plus.
- And I know this is setting the bar very low, but was this season’s BACHELOR the dumbest ever? Look, I’m married. I see these shows. I admit it. Sometimes, it’s cheesy fun. The other 55 minutes of each episode is painful. But how did the little blonde actress fake him out into thinking she was the one for him? She’s clearly the fakest of the lot! But her Daddy is Lorenzo Lamas, so she has that going for her. My favorite part of the series was when she referred to her father as having had a TV show once. You know, RENEGADE? In the 90s? What, is FALCON CREST really too old a reference now? Or was she just too young to have ever stayed up late enough to watch it? It was on after DALLAS, after all, and that’s pretty late for a 5 year old.
- My mother used to let us watch DALLAS with her at night. And we were in the room when she watched those trashy soap operas, too. Sure, I was playing with my GI JOE toys, but still — is that suitable material for a kid? Is my impending fatherhood weighing on my mind to this degree now, too? Wow.
- The major networks all released their new schedules this last week, and I didn’t care much about any of them. Is this a sign of maturity? Or poor programming? Or a healthy track record of disappointment from the networks?