New TV Reviews

[tablesaw]

Lots of new shows. Here's what I've been thinking . . .

• The Playboy Club: A show about the Playboy Club. Gone and goner, and good riddance. It wanted to be Mad Men so hard, mostly so that it could be horrible to its women characters while trying to say that they were totally equal. Disgusting, and I'm glad it's gone. (See also, "Final Insult to Injury: Before Cancellation Playboy Club Rewrites Steinem History.")
• Revenge: The Count of Monte Cristo with a female protagonist. I was only able to watch about ten minutes before I got the same "my eyes glaze over" feeling of rich white people I can't tell apart that I got from Gossip Girl. Though I do see mswyrr covering it. Recommended?
• Hart of Dixie: City doctor goes south to learn humility from "real folks." I think I lasted about three minutes before clawing my eyes out.
• Terra Nova: People in the future travel to dinosaur world because the future sucks; also kill dinosaurs. It looks pretty, but it really has no idea what there is to the show other than people looking at dinosaurs. Somebody apparently decided it should be focused on a family, but the family dynamic is really uninteresting and generates no drama. So the plots are all about dinosaurs being dinosaurs.
• Ringer: Sarah Michelle Gellar plays a former drug addict who takes over the twin's high-society life when the twin dies except the actually faked her own death. This show is terrible, but moves into the perfect place for a trainwreck by virtue of a decent cast and absurdly melodramatic story.
• Unforgettable: A cop with perfect recall solves crimes. Forgettable.
• Person of Interest: A computer genius, who built a near-omniscient Orwellian nightmare of a computer for the government, hires a hitman to be Batman on the side. This is a very slick show, but the political aspects just squick me out more than usual. Add to that the main characters are deliberately ciphers, and the whole thing feels hollow.
• The Secret Circle: A retread of The Craft where the children of a secret witch circle form their own secret witch circle in a small town full of mysteries and secrets. This from the same team as one of my current favorites, The Vampire Diaries, so I'm going to give the show a little time to get up to speed. They seem to have the style and the components in place, but it hasn't quite gotten a story going yet. <Smallville>Start challenging your relationships, PCs!</Smallville>
• Prime Suspect: A New York cop solves crimes while dealing with sexism from coworkers and others. Supposedly based on the original BBC series, though it doesn't show much relation other than a general concept. It doesn't hold a candle to the original, but it still holds its own as a solid U.S. cop drama. I think it's nailing its concept square on the head that other shows like like The Closer have shied away from, except in the margins.
• A Gifted Man: A high-powered, narcissistic neurosurgeon becomes a Ghost Whisperer. Didn't make it through the pilot of this one, either.
• Pan Am: A Pan-American Airlines flight crew experience the upheavals of the '60s from both sides of the Atlantic. This one definitely benefited from being watched after trying to watch The Playboy Club. While the show oversells the empowerment of women working at Pan-Am, it does understand that the way to show empowerment is to show women actually doing things. In the teaser of the pilot, we see our various heroines dealing with newfound fame from the cover of Life magazine, working as an activist in Greenwich Village, discussing romantic encounters with different men, and receiving instructions for an espionage mission. I don't know if I'll stick with it, because it lacks an edge at the moment, but it has a lot of promise.
• American Horror Story: A dysfunctional family moves into a haunted house. Not really a great show for synopsis, since it's a all about the horror. I watched the pilot on Hulu while working, and realized I needed to watch it again. It's very much a show about the filming and presentation. I hope it can keep the pace set by the pilot, since it was my favorite pilot this year.

To sum up:

Eagerly watching: American Horror Story
Watching: Ringer, The Secret Circle, Prime Suspect
Mostly Watching: Terra Nova, Pan Am
Not Watching: Unforgettable, Person of Interest
Didn't finish one episode: Revenge, Hart of Dixie, A Gifted Man
Canceled: The Playboy Club

I'll do returning series in a separate post, soon.

Comments

[giandujakiss]

City doctor goes south to learn humility from "real folks." I think I lasted about three minutes before clawing my eyes out.

It wasn't just me? I watched five minutes and couldn't delete it from my DVR fast enough.

I am enjoying Revenge, though. I have no excuse.

[tam_nonlinear]

Oh good, I've been looking for some entertainment.

I just looked at the Hulu page for American Horror Story and had a horrible, horrible moment of seeing kink rather than horror (really, someone in a full body latex suit just doesn't register as terrifying to me, just as not being able to keep their hobbies private). Still, adding it to the queue to give it a try. Although I will have to wait until the urge to giggle like I'm twelve wears off, or else I won't be able to take it seriously.

I'm watching Terra Nova, although I'm having some trouble with the stupidity ball factor- if too many of the episodes boil down to "People are warned not to do X, do X, drama ensues", I will have to give up. People, you're in an environment about which little is known and for which your previous experiences have not prepared you. If you keep crashing about with the arrogant assurance that you have the right to do whatever you want, I will be rooting for the dinosaurs to eat you. Crunch crunch crunch.

[tablesaw]

AHS is definitely putting sexuality in general as a core part of their focus. I'm not sure that it's an entirely kink-positive portrayal, but it is definitely more complex than simply "latex suit = horror."

I am totally rooting for the dinosaurs on Terra Nova too.

[tam_nonlinear]

I tried AHS and found it really, really distasteful. I found the characters to be mostly unlikeable, and the overall story to be one that reveals a little too much in a rather negative view on people- it's not just that everyone is damaged, it's that the damage is coupled with a general lack of compassion or responsibility. With no one to care about, I can't invest in the show enough to tolerate the ick factor.

I love monster movies, but I hate slasher movies- it's the focus on creepy versus the focus on suffering. Monster movies like to surprise you. Slasher movies like to make you bear witness to the infliction of suffering. AHS goes a lot more towards the suffering than the surprise. Not to my taste.

I'm staying with Terra Nova for a bit longer, but I still want to bash their heads a bit. Current annoyance is with how many of the people go the teen angst route when asked to do something they don't want to do- who the heck picked these idiots for a pioneer life style? There are a lot of issues to be raised with the question of the depiction of settlers in almost any context, but whiny angst shouldn't be one of them. If you can't pick up and do the work that's in front of you, don't go.

But I suspect I would not make a good drama writer, as I mostly prefer to imagine worlds with problems more interesting than "people are stupid".

Revenge

[mswyrr]

It can be a bit cold, since the protagonist has cocooned herself in her revenge, which seems like a way to do penance for having believed the things she was told about her dad, and a way to stay connected to the past and the family she lost. It makes sense, but as a result even sympathetic characters in the present are kept at a distance. And unsympathetic characters, of course, are cruelly dispatched. I was bored with it at first, but I came around. I think enjoyment depends on how interested one is in Emily, watching powerful people stuffer, and the season long mystery -- apparently the writers have planned things out and intend to give the viewers actual pay-off on that front.

Re: Revenge

[zotmeister]

Having finished Gankutsuou not long ago - and having absolutely loved it - and having been very intrigued by the promos for the show, I think I may need to find a way to watch this. - ZM

Re: Revenge

[tablesaw]

How high is the body count so far?

Re: Revenge

[mswyrr]

If you mean literal dead people, there aren't any yet. Emily's destroying careers and reputations at a rate of one per episode, though.

[cpolk]

Pan-Am so far is better than I expected it to be. It's still very Adventures in Whiteness, but I'm willing to bet that there weren't many women of colour working as Pan-Am stewardesses at that time anyway.

i've not put it on my "consume immediately" list but I do watch it.

i just gave "Unforgettable" a try, because I will watch any police procedural once. Have seen all the episodes so far. It's merely okay. I could lose all interest at any moment.

I will try Prime Suspect. Alas I don't think CTV is airing that one.

[tablesaw]

You would lose that bet.