In Before the Snow Thaws – Top Ten TV of 2010

Here is another quick and dirty TV post – I promise some thoughtful and provoking posts about theatre soon.  I wanted to rank my top ten TV shows for 2010, at least before the year is half over, so this is just a list, with no explanation for the rankings.  You’ll notice I cheated – there are eleven shows because I just couldn’t eliminate one from the list.  There are plenty of great new shows in 2011 as well, and I plan to write about them soon too.  What do you think of the list?  What shows are left off that should be on?  What was you top TV show of 2010?

11.  Fringe

10.  Community

9.  Modern Family

8.  The Good Wife

7.  Justified

6.  Sons of Anarchy

5.  Supernatural

4.  Breaking Bad

3.  Rubicon

2.  Mad Men

1.  Terriers

The Runners Up:

–Friday Night Lights

–Cougartown

–Parks and Recreation

–Chuck

–Lost

And a special honorable mention to Lone Star, the Fox show that was clearly excellent, despite only receiving two airings before being prematurely canceled.

Where Does the Time Go?

Ok, so sometimes these blog posts are not as timely as I would hope.  But let’s continue on with or television run-down for the fall, shall we?  I wrote these some months ago, so I’ll make updates as I go, stopping half-way through Thursday night, which is, shamefully, as far as I got before the holidays swept me into a whirlwind of crazy that has still not let up sufficiently for me to update my blog in a respectful way.

TUESDAY

NEW SHOWS

No Ordinary Family

This show seemed to be one of the few that critics were excited about thanks to a preview at Comic-Con.  And I am pleased that ABC did not follow its usual pattern of cramming too many characters into a new series (I’m looking at you, The Gates and FlashForward), though it does come close.  And, unfortunately, ABC did try its usual trick of domesticating the hell out of all of its characters and stories.  I feel like this show works so hard at showing how normal the Powell family is, that their reactions to suddenly having super-powers are so muted as to be unbelievable.  TVbythenumbers.com puts the show possibly on the bubble for getting cancelled, and its viewership slipped more than 20% this week, so the show may not be around long enough to be too concerned with it.  But if it does stick around for a full season, or even get a second season, I do hope they tighten the writing, and really give the family some believable moments to contemplate how extraordinary these powers make them.  Because, really, who wants to spend their precious tv time on an ordinary family?

Running Wilde

This show will not be around long enough to deserve much conversation.  If people were looking for Arrested Development 2.0, they did not find it in this show.  The premise is tired and the execution more so.  I will not miss it when it is canceled.

Detroit 1-8-7

I have not watched every episode of Detroit 1-8-7 because it is in a very busy timeslot.  The episodes I have seen leave me lukewarm.  The pilot tried so hard to establish itself as a Detroit show (as if the title didn’t do that already), and Michael Imperioli is wonderfully nuanced as Detective Fitch, but the show is still another police procedural and I’m rather fatigued on the genre (as evidenced by the lack of Law & Orders of any sort on my watch list).

RETURNING SHOWS

Glee

Oh, Glee.  So fun.  So uneven.  So much Sue Sylvester.  I was not a musical theatre geek in school.  In fact, the musical kids and the theatre kids did not get along at my high school.  I’m not a fan of much of the music on Glee and I don’t much care for the high school will-they-or-won’t-they drama.  And my biggest complaint about the show when it first aired was that none of the female characters on the show were sympathetic.  Or not crazy.  Ryan Murphy seems to have balanced this out by making the male characters all a little crazier too.  But I wouldn’t miss this show, if only for Sue Sylvester’s insult of the week, and a possible NPH sighting.  Even if it means getting Britney Spears’ “Toxic,” or Katy Perry’s “Teenage Dream” stuck in my head for the rest of the week.

Life Unexpected

This show was quite the disappointment last season.  After an interesting pilot, it became filled with annoying and whiny characters – not one in the bunch to root for.  The first two episodes in this season gave many of the characters something they badly needed – other things to do besides argue with each other.  Hello, three dimensions.  But then it was a return to form, and with no back order beyond the 13 episodes of season two, the show is as good as canceled, meaning that I can concentrate my guilty pleasure CW-watching on The Vampire Diaries and Gossip Girl.

The Good Wife

This show was a nice surprise last season.  I tuned in because I had enjoyed Juliana Margulies so much on ER, and I was pleased that this traditional story turned out to have such strength.  The Good Wife is proof that a tried and true set-up does not have to be tired.  The structure of this show is not anything we haven’t seen before.  But the writing is economical, the acting is fantastic, and plot takes just enough turns to be surprising.  The fact that it’s set in Chicago is just a bonus.  I’ll be watching this show for a long time, in spite of its awful portrayal of Steppenwolf Theatre Company in a recent episode.

Parenthood

A solid show.  I’m watching it mainly for my love of Peter Krause and Lauren Graham.  And I’m not sure I have much to say about it beyond that.  Except that maybe Dax Shepard isn’t nearly as annoying as I thought he might be.  In fact, his turn as new father Crosby Braverman has been fairly entertaining and often touching.  But I could take this show or leave it, I guess, meaning that I wouldn’t be completely heartbroken if it were canceled.  But I enjoy the performances enough that it makes the TiVo queue.

Sons of Anarchy

Sons of Anarchy is currently one of the best shows on television – it is on my top five tv shows list.  This show features amazing storytelling with unpredictable twists and turns.  I wouldn’t miss it.  The fact that the SAMCRO team, and especially Katey Sagal for her amazing work as Gemma Teller, was passed over by the Emmy’s this year is a crime.  It has now wrapped up its third season, one that was not as tight as the preceding season.  But the show is so very on fire 90% of the time that even the qualms I have about this season’s story feel insignificant compared to the performances of Charles Hunman and Katy Sagal alone.

Caprica

Well, I guess it is too late too really talk about this show.  So long, Caprica, we hardly knew you; mainly because you wouldn’t let us know you.  It’s predecessor, Battlestar Galactica, manage to match its intellectualism with fact pacing and a fair amount of action and explosions.  And I’m convinced that that is a big part of what was continually missing from this show.  Here’s hoping the next BSG spin-off fairs better.

WEDNESDAY

NEW SHOWS

Undercovers

Canceled.  And for good reason.  Next!

The Whole Truth

Also canceled.  Anyone else noticing how many of the new shows are failures?  Yeah, me too.

The Defenders

I didn’t catch this show when the pilot aired but came back around and watched it online afterwards.  I had heard both good and bad things about it and my expectations were not high.  It’s essentially a procedural, which I have been getting tired of in the last few years.  (Who hasn’t?!)  I cut out Law and Order during its penultimate season, as well as SVU and CI.  But this show knows what it is and lends a nice lightness to what is essentially just a courtroom drama.  It has a similar feel as the early (better) seasons of Las Vegas, and it’s probably not a coincidence that both shows are set in said city.  I’ll watch The Defenders whenever the TiVo happens to capture it, and it will be a nice change of pace whenever I do pick it up.

Top Chef:  Just Desserts

Top Chef JD already ended its first season, and I was not happy with the winner, just for the record.  I realize that is a bit silly to say, considering I never tasted any of the food from the contestants.  But let’s just say that when a certain chef wins a ton of challenges and is pretty much the front-runner for the entire show, you sort of expect the judges to choose that chef as the (deserving) overall winner.  But if it comes back for another season, I’ll probably watch it, if only because Bravo will air it ten times a week.

Terriers

This is the best new show of the fall.  Wait.  In case you weren’t listening, let me say that again.  THIS IS THE BEST NEW SHOW OF THE FALL.  And, unfortunately, you’re probably did not watch it.  But you should have.  This beach noir buddy detective drama is thoroughly original.  The sting of its cancellation is still fresh.

RETURNING SHOWS

America’s Next Top Model

What can I say?  Nothing really.  Move along, nothing to see here….

Modern Family

The best new sitcom of last fall is still one of the funniest shows on television this fall.  All the evidence you need is the Halloween episode scene’s of Mitchell in a Spiderman costume.  Enough said.

Cougartown

This comedy had a rocky start during its first season but really grew nicely as episodes progressed.  The cul de sac crew is definitely a group of friends I would want to have a drink with (though not out of Big Joe, RIP, buddy).  This is a warm comedy with a big heart (and a funny reminder with each title sequence that it knows it has a terrible name).

THURSDAY

NEW SHOWS

My Generation

Canceled after two episodes.  Moving on.

Outsourced

Boy.  I almost want to applaud the producers for taking on this tricky premise.  But they fail so often that I’ll hold on to that applause a little longer.  It is hard to enjoy a show that makes you so anxious.  I cringe during the course of each episode, worried about what racial stereotypes and landmines it is about to step in to.  So far I’m not very impressed by how they navigate this tricky material but I haven’t completely lost patience with the show so it is still on my TiVo “to-do” list.

Nikita

Poor constantly miscast Shane West.  Though, if you are miscast enough, can you really call it miscasting any more?

Believe It or Not – New and Returning Fall TV

Believe it or not, more than one person has asked me what I think of the new fall season of television shows.  I do feel like I have watched an enormous amount of tv in the past few weeks, both new shows and returning.  There were a few new shows I had high hopes for, and a few I was curious about, and a few that I figured would not become regular viewing.  Here is how they stacked up – what I think has a chance, what I’ll give more time, and what I’m going to ditch. My impressions of new shows, alongside my opinions of returning shows, can be found below.

Also, a note:  I practice what I like to call the Rule of Three.  I will give a show three episodes before I pass judgment on it.  I have found that many shows really hit their stride by the third episode – you can generally know what a show thinks it is, and how well it is at being that, by its third episode.  And those that don’t, well, I don’t have statistical data to back me up, but – I think they generally don’t have a stride to hit.  At least not one that will hold my interest.  It takes a lot for me to give up before three episodes – the last time I did that was Happy Town.  That show made me angry enough after two episodes that I vowed never to let it cross my TiVo again.  So for these new shows here I have seen (for most of them) at least three episodes.  So these are my impressions after the “rule of three.”

Here’s the rundown, in several posts, broken down by day.

MONDAY

RETURNING SHOWS

How I Met Your Mother

Last season, HIMYM hit a bit of a slump.  The Robin/Barney relationship was tossed out before it even hit its stride. Then we were given the impression that Don was an epic relationship in Robin’s life, only to have him shipped off to Chicago by the end of the season.  This season, the producers have promised us a tighter ship.  In the first four episodes, we got a bit more info about whom the mother might be, and we got a nice Barney story that was both funny and sweet.  The difficulty of this show is that they have set themselves up for the end of the story since the pilot (I can’t be the only one who thinks that the final lines of this show is Bob Saget saying “and that, kids, is how I met your mother.”).  So we have to move that plot forward to the endgame as the series continues.  But it’s actually not the most interesting part of the show.  I care less about whom the mother is, than I do about watching this group of people move through their late 20s and early 30s.  The first few shows of season six were definitely tighter than some of season five, but if the focus shifts too much to the search for the mother, I will be disappointed.  Also, a note to the writers:  please, for the love of god, stop having Lily ask Marshall to “put a baby in my belly.”  It is not funny, not sexy, and not anything but skeevy.  I gag a little every time she says it.

Chuck

Four episodes in and I am still waiting for someone to say, “Come with me if you want to live.”  I think it should be (and I’m betting it will be) Morgan.  I am happy to have this thoroughly enjoyable show back in the TiVo queue.  The writers have managed to progress the story organically, growing the world in entertaining and engaging ways.  I just hope we get more Linda Hamilton soon, and more Old Spice Guy as well.  I will be catching this show every week, without fail.

90210

Why do I watch this show?  I didn’t really watch the original.  I may very well drop this show this season, as I have really nothing of substance to say about it.  In fact, I’ve only seen two episodes so far.  With the TiVo busy with Chuck and HIMYM, if I don’t watch it live on the our other television, I have to make the effort to catch it online later, and the CW’s online player is one of the more annoying ones out there.  Haven’t they heard of Hulu yet?!

Gossip Girl

And why do I watch this show?  I think the initial draw was the Kristen Bell voiceover – I was still hurting from the cancellation of Veronica Mars at the time of this show’s premiere.  And it’s a guilty pleasure.  And the first two episodes in Paris were actually enjoyable in a free-of-frustration kind of way.  But since Blair and Serena et al. returned to NYC, we’ve been treated to the same old he said, she said.  I was all set to say that at least we’re not subjected to Jenny this season, but it seems that we may see her again soon.  Plus, once again Eric, one of the most interesting characters, is M.I.A. yet again.  Can’t the writers just please give him one juicy storyline this season?  It might be enough to keep me interested in almost everyone except Vanessa and Dan.

Castle

I gave up on this show after three episodes in its first season.  Yes, it’s true; the “rule of three” is not full proof.  Thankfully, I gave it another chance last year.  And in time for the Halloween episode too!  I watch this for the same reason I watch Bones – the interaction between the two main characters.  It is pure fun and thank god Nathan Fillion is finally on a show that didn’t get canceled after a handful of episodes.  His Rick Castle and Stana Katic’s Detective Beckett are the funny version of Mulder and Scully.  The first four episodes of the season have been very satisfactory; though I am worried that steampunk has become officially mainstream thanks to the show’s latest episode.

NEW SHOWS

Mike & Molly

I watch this later in the week online, because the time slot is so full.  At least, I did do that before Lone Star was cancelled.  And, I guess if Fox moves Lie to Me into this slot then I will again.  I don’t know that 22-minutes can be sustained with fat jokes alone, even fat jokes told by fat people.  And weight issues aren’t the only topic being generalized on the show (do we really need a waiter from another country talking about the hardships of ‘his people’ in the broadest possible strokes?  There has to be something better for him to do.).  But the two main characters are sympathetic.  I will give it at least another few episodes to find its stride and move beyond its premise.

The Event

Is it another Fringe or another FlashForward?  Only time will tell.  With a cast that includes Blair Underwood, Laura Innes, and Zeljko Ivanek, as well as Jason Ritter as a very believable young man pulled into a conspiracy, it has the potential to be a juicy sci-fi show.  But the writing has yet to give us a reason to care for all of these characters.  If the show pulls a FlashForward and doesn’t adequately develop the characters, it risks making its characters completely annoying to the audience by the time it’s canceled.  I’ll probably watch beyond episode three (my dvr has been catching this later in the week on SyFy because the time slot is so full – oh, for a second TiVo!), but I’ll drop it quickly if I feel like I’m watching FlashForward, The Reboot.

Lone Star

I was all set to praise this as the second best offering to come out of the Fall 2010 pilots.  Not the highest praise given the lukewarm offerings, but sincere praise, certainly.  But Lone Star did not even make it to three episodes.  RIP original offerings from Fox.  I guess I’ll just have to put all my hope on Ride-Along later in the season.

Hawaii 5-0

Guns!  Explosions!  Helicopter missiles!  I don’t remember the original Hawaii five-0 exploding all over the place like this.  I was happy to see James Marsters guest starring as the villain in the pilot, and I absolutely want to see more of Grace Park and Daniel Dae Kim on my small screen.  But Hawaii 5-0 also has show-killer Alex O’Loughlin, and his McGarrett was definitely the most uninteresting part of the episode.  This show may stay on my to-watch list for the scenery, if nothing else, but I doubt it will be a must-see this year.

NaNoWriMo

NaNoWriMo.  Huh?  NaNoWriMo.  NaNohuh?  National Novel Writing Month – NaNoWriMo.  I tried it last year.  And failed.  And I’m trying it again this year.  And this time I had a solid concept for a story before November 1st.  Which hopefully means I have a better chance at winning/finishing my novel in a month.  I am hoping to write 50,000 words by the end of the month.  Stay tuned.

Pick Five

If I could only watch five tv shows (god forbid) out of all of the ones currently airing this fall, they would be:  Mad Men, Sons of Anarchy, Rubicon, Terriers, and Supernatural (with Fringe and Chuck taking Mad Men and Rubicon’s slots once they’re over).  What about you?  Pick five and post them below in the comments section.

20 Friends I Wish I Had

For the past few months now, I have been participating in an intriguing art project on Facebook.  The 20 Friends I Wish I Had was created by artist Belinda Haikes.  The objective: to see how far and wide The 20 Friends I Wish I Had can “friend” people on the social network Facebook.  Belinda has created 20 profiles of noted or important historical figures.  She asks people to take a profile and play with it – friend people and update the status and so forth.  So I took a profile on one of the twenty and have been ‘playing’ them ever since.

It has been an interesting game so far.  I added some details to the profile based on this person’s real life.  And I found myself making my own rules for playing with this persona.  How would I friend people?  Who would I friend?  The particular person I am playing with had crafted a particular public persona for themselves – how could I integrate that into the Facebook profile?  Should I integrate that into the game?  Should this profile be more me or more of my impression of that person?  I decided on a stylized manner of posting, and I decided to friend people based on my own Facebook page to begin with – but not to tell people how myself and this ‘friend’ were connected, unless they asked.  And then I would friend the other 20 friends (though I think not all of them have responded to my request), and I would friend others using the suggestions that Facebook makes for you.  And, of course, I friended myself.  So far, my friend has over 100 friends.

This week The 20 Friends I Wish I Had is off to participate in ArtPrize in Grand Rapids, Michigan.  If you’re in the area, please check out the exhibition at the Women’s City Club (254 East Fulton Street).  And, if you’re on Facebook, look for the 20 Friends – they would love to add you to their network.

The 20 Friends

Laurence Tureaud
The Queen
Ab Lincoln
Marylin Monroe
John Wayne
Ghandi
Vannevar Bush
Amelia Mary Earhart
Al Einstein
Agnesë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu
Mother Teresa
Nikola Tesla
Sophie Calle
Peter O toole
Barack Obama
Marie Curie
Nelson Mandela
Jim Henson
Jesus
Elvis
Charles Spencer Chaplin

Star Gazer

Jack Horkheimer, aka the Star Gazer (aka the Star Hustler – which was the name of the show when I watched it as a kid), passed away on my birthday this year.  I gasped out loud when I read the news of his passing.  When I was little, the Star Gazer would be the last thing on the public television station before it stopped broadcasting for the night (back when tv stations did that sort of thing).  The five minute segments about astronomy, accompanied by weird electronic music and what sounded like a bell signaling the arrival of some sort of vessel, would provide a peaceful end to the night and get me thinking about the vast universe above as I drifted off to sleep.  That bell noise is one of the most significant parts of the show for me – hearing it calms me and takes me back to a simple time of wishing and dreaming.  Last year, feeling nostalgic for the Star Gazer, I searched for his show online.  I found a youtube channel with his segments and podcasts of his show on iTunes.  The show started airing in 1976, and it continues today after Jack’s passing.  It won’t be the same show though.  Not without Jack entreating us, in his raspy, excited voice, to “Keep! Looking! up!”