Finally, some clips

CBS released some clips of their new series, and TV Week* was kind enough to post them. Nothing jumps out at me, but then again these are fairly raw, they haven’t seen full post-production or their final music cues, and they’re out of context. You will see some familiar faces.

I enjoy a good crime drama, and even a few mediocre ones. These don’t look spectacular, but I’ll probably give them a chance.

“The Mentalist, a drama about a celebrity psychic-turned-detective”

I don’t know why I’m partial to her, but I’m always happy to see Sprague Grayden working. Does anyone know how to pronounce her name?

“The 11th Hour, a Jerry Bruckheimer-produced drama about a paranormal investigator”

“Harper’s Island, a murder-mystery serial whodunnit”

This could be good, but it might end up like The Nine or Daybreak and get canceled before we get any answers. Are we really willing to get invested in another series like this? I also wonder how this premise can be sustained over a season or multiple seasons.

There are very few sitcoms that I enjoy, but that number has been growing with 30 Rock, The Office, The New Adventures of Old Christine, How I Met Your Mother, and probably a few others. These do not look like they’ll fit into that category.

“Project Gary, a comedy about a pair of dueling ex-spouses and parents”

Oh, Jay Mohr. Even though it’s cheesy, I enjoy you in Ghost Whisperer. Why do you have to go do this?

“Worst Week, a comedy about the romantic travails of a nice guy with terrible luck”

“The Ex-List, a dramedy about a woman trying to find a husband from among her exes”

I’ve often complained that there are too many sitcoms centered around some bumbling guy with a totally understanding and invariably hawt wife. I’d like to get behind sitcoms with funny female leads, but this looks like it’ll be closer to Miss Guided than The New Adventures of Old Christine. Even the premise sets my teeth on edge.

*All descriptions are from TV Week, and probably originally from a CBS press release.

Day 2 of underwhelming announcements

The New Adventures of Old Christine and How I Met Your Mother are officially on next season’s CBS schedule. (Yay) Shark is officially off.

Nothing spectacular about ABC’s schedule announcements today. I didn’t realize that an American version of Life on Mars was coming together already, but it is and it will debut this fall on ABC. Jason O’Mara and Colm Meaney are set to star as Sam Tyler and Gene Hunt. I’m skeptical, but hopeful.

This is an unusually underwhelming upfront week. Many shows have been picked up or canceled already. It’s hard to get buzz going on a new show when the press doesn’t get to see a snazzy clip show (filming was delayed due to the WGA strike). Even though this week is all about announcing next season, it feels like these upfronts are as lackluster as this TV season has been in general. Good thing there have been some great season finales to lift our spirits.

Finales!

It’s finale season! Not only are the finales bigger and often more fun than the average episode, finale season means we are that much closer to So You Think You Can Dance.

Before we get ahead of ourselves with summer viewing, did you watch the finale of Gossip Girl? So fun!

Any thoughts on the Brothers & Sisters or 30 Rock finales? Maybe I missed the publicity when I was away, but I had no idea that Matthew Broderick would guest star.

Are there any finales you’re looking forward to?

So much for that schedule

Eli Stone will be back, hopefully with more George Michael appearances.

We’ll see new episodes of Reaper mid-season.

It sounds like How I Met Your Mother will be around for another season, although I don’t know if that’s been officially confirmed yet..

Zach Braff announced the Scrubs move to ABC. (Wasn’t that official yet?)

Women’s Murder Club was canned. I watched it, but I’m not really broken about about its cancellation.

With all these early announcements, I wonder what the networks plan for their scheduled presentations.

Schedule for schedule announcements

It’s upfront week! We’ll find out what will be on TV next season and when. I’m eager to learn the fate of some of my favourite shows, find out how others may change, and hear the early buzz about new series. Here is the schedule for the upfront announcements:

Monday: NBC. Officially it’s today, but they made their big announcements a while ago and I’ve talked about them already. Maybe today we’ll find out more about The Office spin off.

Tuesday: ABC (AM), CW (PM). We’ll learn the fate of Eli Stone (ABC) and Reaper (CW).

Wednesday: CBS. Hopefully we’ll have good news about How I Met Your Mother and The New Adventures of Old Christine. I’m not sure if I’m up for another season of Kid Nation, but I’ll probably watch it if it’s on.

Thursday: FOX. I can’t believe that Bones and House haven’t been officially renewed yet.

In the last couple of weeks Men in Trees, Aliens in America and New Amsterdam were officially axed. Can’t say I’ll miss any of them. The CW has already picked up the 90210 spin off and announced the return of familiar faces. I’m sure we’ll learn more tomorrow.

The Futon Critic has a network-by-network chart tracking what has been renewed, canceled or is on the bubble. I’ll post notable news items as I see them this week.

Trying to prioritize

I came home from vacation to find my PVR almost full! I have so much TV to catch up on. Any suggestions about where I should start? Were any shows particularly good last week? (Please hold off on spoilers in these recommendations. Thanks.)

Hiatus

This broad and the bistro will take a short mid-season hiatus until Monday, May 12. I’ll return just in time for the big upfront announcements.

Better late than never Part 2

I’m finally ready to give How I Met Your Mother a break. I’ve been put off by the misogyny this season as they let Barney run wild without commentary while Ted goes right along with him. There was a hint in the St. Patrick’s Day episode that Ted was starting to realize his behaviour was a bit much, but I thought that was just a blip in the story. I’m impressed with the turn of events on this week’s show. I appreciate a show making me dislike a character or even the show itself only to give me a great narrative payoff like the Ted/Barney breakup. It’s one of the reasons I continue to watch series after I’ve fallen out of love with it. I can’t wait to see how this unfolds.

Better late than never Part 1

I’ve been meaning to write something about last week’s episode of Lost, but I don’t really have much to say. I enjoyed the episode, but I’m tired of looking for hints and trying to figure out the connections. I’m interested in finding out what Ben did that made the monster reappear, I just don’t care to guess. I think the moment that really nailed it for me was Hurley’s line when they were playing Risk. It was something like “Australia is the key to the whole game.” Jorge Garcia said the line so emphatically that you just know we’re supposed to believe it points to some answers about the big Lost mysteries. (Which suggests, in Lost logic, that it is just misdirection.) The plane was flying from Australia. It looks like Australian Charles Widmore (played by ubiquitous Aussie actor Alan Dale) is involved in whatever the hell is going on to a greater degree than we ever expected. Hurley’s line was a perfect example of spoon feeding clues/misdirection to the audience, and it bugged me to no end. I just knew that someone would think picking up on that line made them clever and insightful instead of lame and easily lead by the nose. Like this comment from Pop Candy’s Monday roundup of the top 10 Lost comments:

Did the writers just drop a major hint through Hurley’s comment?
Or did they know that know that some over analyzing freak like me would hear that and spend the next 24 hours trying to figure out how Australia is the key to everything going on.

This self-proclaimed over analyzing freak can’t seem to tell the difference between subtle clues and anvils. Maybe Lost doesn’t bug me as much as the viewers do. Although, it was the writers who included this brick to the head “hint”. I don’t know. I don’t really care. It just bugged. The line brought me out of the Lost world and into my own grumbling head. Hints are fine, but not when they are that obvious and distracting. Story should not be sacrificed in order to encourage fan-wankery. TV should not make me this grumpy.

Best Possible Big Brother Outcome

If you don’t know how Big Brother turned out and you care, this is a spoiler.

This was my favourite headline this morning (courtesy of realityblurred.com):

(Even if you’re not a Big Brother fan, this is worth clicking through.)