Hello, again, faithful reader. This is a follow-up to my previous post about the new Fall television season. My last post dealt with new TV shows that I had seen and liked or meh'd. This one will deal, mainly, with shows that I think you should be watching because they are awesome.
First, for Melly, my thoughts on Kath & Kim. I had high hopes for this show, but I have to say, I wasn't too impressed with it. I am going to give it a couple of weeks because I think it might take that long for the actors to really get into the swing of things, but the first episode went over like a lead balloon in Carrie and Joel's house. Molly Shannon has never been my favorite, but she can be funny sometimes. My main concern is Selma Blair because I honestly don't think she is smart enough or good enough to convincingly play dumb. It is one of the hardest things to do and not everyone call pull it off. The only reason Paris Hilton can do it is because she really is THAT DUMB. Final verdict: the jury's still out.
Did you watch this show last season? If not, you probably wouldn't know how really great it is. It is about a guy, Ned, who can bring people back from the dead by touching them. BUT, if he touches them one more time, they are dead forever. Also, if the dead person (or animal) stays alive for more than 1 minute, something else must die to take its place.
He uses this power to get rewards by solving crimes. He is also in love with Chuck (Anna Friel), his childhood crush, whom he brought back from the dead after she was murdered while on a cruise. The problem here is that he can never touch Chuck again because then she would be dead forever. This makes it really hard to seal the deal, if you know what I mean. Unless Ned likes that kind of thing, but he doesn't seem like the type.
Necropheliac? You make the call.
Ned's partner in the crime-solving business is Emerson Cod (wonderfully played by Chi McBride) who is a private investigator who enjoys knitting and has written a pop-up book called "Li'l Gumshoe." Really, I think he's one of the best parts of the show. He's pretty hilarious (as are Kristin Chenowith, Swoosie Kurtz, and Ellen Greene, but I don't want this post to be a million years long).
One other reason why this show is so great is its production value. It is beautiful! It's so bright and colorful and full of interesting characters. It's narrated Jim Dale, who narrated all of the Harry Potter books on tape. The wardrobe makes me salivate. It's quirky and cute and DIFFERENT, which is probably why it's losing to fucking Knight Rider in the ratings. Jesus, America. What the hell? Honestly.
This show is about a schlumpy guy, Chuck Bartowski, who works for an electronics store called Buy More. One day he opens his e-mail and somehow all of the nation's top-secret secrets get downloaded into his head and so he is now basically a schlumpy quasi-spy who hangs out with actual spies and gets into fights and stuff.
Chuck has a friend, Morgan, who looks like a hobbit. He works with complete weirdos at the Buy More. His sister is engaged to a guy named Captain Awesome who is, as his name implies, pretty awesome. He is in love with his CIA handler, Sarah, who has refreshingly normal teeth and not a mouthful of chiclets. I kept expecting her to come back this season and have capped her teeth-- but she didn't! WTG, actress who plays Sarah! Chuck also has an NSA agent, John Casey, watching his back. This character is played by one of my favorites, Adam Baldwin, from Firefly and Serenity. (I heart Joss Whedon.) Casey is a hardcore, Reagan loving, old-school-black-Crown-Victoria-driving badass. He started out hating Chuck, but I think that the schlump is growing on him, which is what he'd do to you, America, if you'd watch Chuck instead of Dancing with the Stars.*
The cases are ridiculous and they can get a little preachy, but this show is still at the top of my list. James Spader is my boyfriend and he has been since all of those 80's movies where he played the smarmy, gross, horrible "friend" of Andrew McCarthy (in Pretty in Pink, Less than Zero** AND Mannequin-- I wonder if they hate eachother?). I just hope that one day Alan Shore and Denny Crane can get married and adopt a baby from Cambodia, just as the good Lord intended. Those two kids were made for each other. If you don't know what I'm talking about, go rent seasons 1-4 and don't leave your house until you understand.
Again, a good show that isn't doing all that well in the ratings. Eli Stone is about an attorney who starts having "visions" of George Michael singing and dancing in places where George Michael is not normally seen singing and/or dancing, i.e. outside of the men's room of any public park. Turns out, he's either a prophet OR he has a life threatening medical condition-- or both! After finding out he might die, he starts taking preposterous cases in order to help people who really need it. My love for this show is founded upon witty diologue, such as when Eli's neurologist brother, when diagnosing the brain aneurysm, tells him, "You have conjoined butts in your cranium, which makes you a double butthead."
Aside from the good natured brotherly ribbing, this show has George Michael singing his greatest hits, musical numbers, a sassy black secretary, and that guy from Ed. Also, Katie Holmes is going to guest star this season, so... there's that.
Um... I'm going to have to do this in more than one post. That's really, really sad. Right? Right.
[*Again, I'm forced to ask: WTF, America? Dancing with the Stars? This is the highest rated TV show in our country? Really? I'm ashamed of you, American television watching public. If only you were smart enough to be ashamed of yourself.]
[**You know, I've been getting a few bloody noses lately, so I keep telling people it's because I've got rusty pipes, and NOBODY got it except for my wonderful lady-friend. In fact, I didn't even have to say it-- I told her I had a bloody nose and she asked me if I had rusty pipes! It's like she's living in my head, poor thing.]
Maybe you have to take cocaine to like these shows. I wonder what people are taking when they watch dancing with the stars.
Posted by: Joel | October 14, 2008 at 09:24 AM
I totally agree about Kath & Kim. I, too, had high hopes but was a bit disappointed after the first episode. I liked Molly Shannon but did not buy Selma Blair in that role. She's too exotic looking and not silly enough to pull it off. My favorite is Molly Shannon's fiance. I'm pretty sure he was in Best of Show and anyone from that movie is golden in my book.
Posted by: Melly | October 14, 2008 at 10:22 AM
Pushing Daisies is really losing to f Knight Rider?! That makes me throw up in my mouth, and not a little. Pushing Daisies could be watched with the volume down it is so aesthetically pleasing, but the dialogue is so witty, you want to take it all in. And have you watched any of that new Knight Rider? I would actually watch Full House over the new Knight Rider, and watching Full House has been my image of Hell for the last ten years. Matt (my husband) made a good observation about Knight Rider: "If I am watching a show this bad, it better be porn." Here, here!
And, OUU! Isn't Jonny Lee Miller the star of Eli Stone? I have been in love with him since Trainspotting. Done and done.
Jessica Biel calls her coke-induced nose bleed "rusty pipes" in The Rules of Attraction. Thanks for keeping me cool, Bret Easton Ellis!
Posted by: Roar | October 15, 2008 at 03:52 PM