(part of) the week in scripted television
Sep. 24th, 2010 06:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
healingmirthMy feelings about fall TV starting can basically be summed up by, "oh, Grey's Anatomy is still on?"
I haven't watched The Undercovers yet, but I've got it saved on my DVR, and I'm really hoping it will be awesome. Feel free to tell me if it's awesome (or if it's not) if you've seen it! Also, still haven't started this season of Sons of Anarchy, because I keep forgetting to tell my DVR about it.
As for the stuff that I did watch, it pretty much went like this: returning shows, pretty good. new shows, everyone looks like someone else, I don't like the actors I legitimately recognize, and it took me 42 minutes to place the one person I genuinely did like.
NCIS:
I love pretty much everyone on the NCIS team in their own way, and while I haven't always enjoyed the character arcs, the performances keep pulling me back in.
(for the record, at least in talking about NCIS "I like" or "I don't like" should probably be mostly interpreted in terms of whether I approve of the writers' decisions with respect to the character and continuity, and not so much whether it's something I think real people would and/or ought to do.)
I like Gibbs, much more than I like Mark Harmon. I'm not particularly bothered by his not turning himself in, as some people seem to be, because I don't trust the Mexican government as portrayed in the series any further than I could throw them. In my head (and maybe in the show, but I am not really an NCIS meta person) Gibbs's has lived the rest of his life to avoid putting himself in a position to repeat something like going after Hernandez, maybe by way of atonement. I think he's reasonably self-aware, I think he's resigned to his behavior and his stubbornness, and he's going to try to do as much good as he can to balance out the actions that he knows he's prepared to take.
What I am bothered by is his putting Abby in a position where she has to lie about science and about her professional behavior. I don't really care about Vance hiding things, because he's more of a political type than a law-enforcement type, but I want Abby to be better than that, and it really irks me that she's going to have this memory of hiding something that ought to have been reported. I'm worried it's going to come back to bite someone in the ass, and I'm particularly worried for Abby.
Despite the fact that we are clearly not meant to like Paloma (what with the drug cartel, the murder, the attempted murders, the contracted murders), I wish she'd lived, in terms of characterization and potential for the future and all manner of things. I think I would have preferred that she and Alejandro live with the knowledge that they'd been outsmarted, and it would also be sort of awesome to have Paloma turn on Alejandro for being so easily manipulated and for the bug having been found. I am a fan of characters having nemeses, but maybe something new and interesting will materialize to keep my attention.
I don't know what I'm hoping for from the character relationships this season, but I'm intrigued for more, uh, intrigue with the elder DiNozzo and David. I am mostly a Gibbs/DiNozzo girl, or Abby/anyone, or Ziva/someone not in the main cast. Some sort of issue with Tony's father seems like a good in for Gibbs to be there for him. Also, I don't remember who wrote that story about Jackson and Tony being friends, but I am all over that idea. As for Ziva, perhaps this season will buy her some better romantic luck. Seriously, WTH? I have a hard time picturing McGee with anyone other than Abby, because bless him, I find him so, so boring as a person. I am waiting for an opportunity to like him for something other than being competent.
Criminal Minds:
I try not to have unreasonable expectations of child actors. Also, I am a horrible judge of how old kids actually are, so I'm going to guess that girl is in the 10-12 range. For the first half of the episode, I was all, "Awesome! Way to be a cop's daughter! Good thinking, hero kid!" and then in the last few minutes this made an abrupt turn to "wow, I hope she gets a ridiculous amount of very good counseling, because she's teetering on the edge of sociopathy." Some of that is the child-actor thing in general, some of it was the writing and directing, I'm sure.
So, I don't know JJ's arc. I assume that her hostage-negotiator stint in the season premiere was intended to bring home to her that she doesn't want (as a mother?) to be in a position where she's expected to empathize with, understand, or interact with criminals and/or victims. I hope that next week will make that, or whatever the explanation is, clear. To be honest, I don't know what her role is, so I'm not sure what sort of void she'll leave. And I'll probably stop watching as suddenly I started, so whatever.
The Defenders:
I don't enjoy Jerry O'Connell. As far as I can tell, he only ever plays Jerry O'Connell, and I got my fill of that in season one of Sliders. I feel pretty much the same way about James Belushi, substituting SNL for Sliders. The three female characters are all playing cliches. (Four, if you count the chick in the opening scene.) It wasn't until the last scene of the episode that I finally placed Eric Ladin (Cpl. Chaffin from Generation Kill, among other things) as the defendant of the week. He, like everyone else in the episode, had really trite dialogue, but at least he was interesting to watch as he plodded through it. I wanted to be excited to see Natalie Zea (Winona from Justified), but she's basically just there to be bitchy and look hot in offcewear, so no thank you.
$#*! My Dad Says - Not horrible, if you enjoy William Shatner
I don't watch sitcoms, as a rule. I think this show only exists so that William Shatner can say outrageous things, which he can do in any number of other venues, so I won't be mourning this one when it goes. Also, sort of mawkish father-son stuff. I just don't care, but on the bright side, it didn't actively offend me, and it had funny moments.
My Generation -
Despite the fact that I would totally watch a Breakfast Club sequel (or read a fanfic) that reunited the original cast, I do not love the premise of My Generation. I don't approve of the fact that the ones interviewed for the original documentary are the only ones who are implausibly all brought back to their hometown. I'm sure it's far too ambitious for a pilot to say, "hey, there were 100 kids in this high school class, and they're all going to show up eventually," I really wish that someone, anyone, had a relationship with someone who wasn't in the original group.
The first episode seems like it's set up for a whole bunch of people to either cheat on their spouses or behave in other sketchy ways, and I am not really on board with that. One of the women looks like Jaime Pressly, except not funny. Her husband looks like Jensen Ackles, only shorter. At least three of the characters have serious Daddy issues. There was one guy (who my brain has identified as a cross between the kid from Billy Elliot and Crispin Glover, but I think he also reminds me of someone else entirely; also, he was in Sons of Anarchy, so it could be that) who I was sort of hoping would turn out to be gay, or different in some way other than his generic social ineptitude with people his own age, but instead it appears that he's just going to be a total creeper. Awesome
I don't know whether to hope that they cancel it, or they fix it. It's from the same guy who did The Unusuals and seems to have absolutely none of that show's charm. I wonder if that was a conscious decision, since The Unusuals was such a flop.
I haven't watched The Undercovers yet, but I've got it saved on my DVR, and I'm really hoping it will be awesome. Feel free to tell me if it's awesome (or if it's not) if you've seen it! Also, still haven't started this season of Sons of Anarchy, because I keep forgetting to tell my DVR about it.
As for the stuff that I did watch, it pretty much went like this: returning shows, pretty good. new shows, everyone looks like someone else, I don't like the actors I legitimately recognize, and it took me 42 minutes to place the one person I genuinely did like.
NCIS:
I love pretty much everyone on the NCIS team in their own way, and while I haven't always enjoyed the character arcs, the performances keep pulling me back in.
(for the record, at least in talking about NCIS "I like" or "I don't like" should probably be mostly interpreted in terms of whether I approve of the writers' decisions with respect to the character and continuity, and not so much whether it's something I think real people would and/or ought to do.)
I like Gibbs, much more than I like Mark Harmon. I'm not particularly bothered by his not turning himself in, as some people seem to be, because I don't trust the Mexican government as portrayed in the series any further than I could throw them. In my head (and maybe in the show, but I am not really an NCIS meta person) Gibbs's has lived the rest of his life to avoid putting himself in a position to repeat something like going after Hernandez, maybe by way of atonement. I think he's reasonably self-aware, I think he's resigned to his behavior and his stubbornness, and he's going to try to do as much good as he can to balance out the actions that he knows he's prepared to take.
What I am bothered by is his putting Abby in a position where she has to lie about science and about her professional behavior. I don't really care about Vance hiding things, because he's more of a political type than a law-enforcement type, but I want Abby to be better than that, and it really irks me that she's going to have this memory of hiding something that ought to have been reported. I'm worried it's going to come back to bite someone in the ass, and I'm particularly worried for Abby.
Despite the fact that we are clearly not meant to like Paloma (what with the drug cartel, the murder, the attempted murders, the contracted murders), I wish she'd lived, in terms of characterization and potential for the future and all manner of things. I think I would have preferred that she and Alejandro live with the knowledge that they'd been outsmarted, and it would also be sort of awesome to have Paloma turn on Alejandro for being so easily manipulated and for the bug having been found. I am a fan of characters having nemeses, but maybe something new and interesting will materialize to keep my attention.
I don't know what I'm hoping for from the character relationships this season, but I'm intrigued for more, uh, intrigue with the elder DiNozzo and David. I am mostly a Gibbs/DiNozzo girl, or Abby/anyone, or Ziva/someone not in the main cast. Some sort of issue with Tony's father seems like a good in for Gibbs to be there for him. Also, I don't remember who wrote that story about Jackson and Tony being friends, but I am all over that idea. As for Ziva, perhaps this season will buy her some better romantic luck. Seriously, WTH? I have a hard time picturing McGee with anyone other than Abby, because bless him, I find him so, so boring as a person. I am waiting for an opportunity to like him for something other than being competent.
Criminal Minds:
I try not to have unreasonable expectations of child actors. Also, I am a horrible judge of how old kids actually are, so I'm going to guess that girl is in the 10-12 range. For the first half of the episode, I was all, "Awesome! Way to be a cop's daughter! Good thinking, hero kid!" and then in the last few minutes this made an abrupt turn to "wow, I hope she gets a ridiculous amount of very good counseling, because she's teetering on the edge of sociopathy." Some of that is the child-actor thing in general, some of it was the writing and directing, I'm sure.
So, I don't know JJ's arc. I assume that her hostage-negotiator stint in the season premiere was intended to bring home to her that she doesn't want (as a mother?) to be in a position where she's expected to empathize with, understand, or interact with criminals and/or victims. I hope that next week will make that, or whatever the explanation is, clear. To be honest, I don't know what her role is, so I'm not sure what sort of void she'll leave. And I'll probably stop watching as suddenly I started, so whatever.
The Defenders:
I don't enjoy Jerry O'Connell. As far as I can tell, he only ever plays Jerry O'Connell, and I got my fill of that in season one of Sliders. I feel pretty much the same way about James Belushi, substituting SNL for Sliders. The three female characters are all playing cliches. (Four, if you count the chick in the opening scene.) It wasn't until the last scene of the episode that I finally placed Eric Ladin (Cpl. Chaffin from Generation Kill, among other things) as the defendant of the week. He, like everyone else in the episode, had really trite dialogue, but at least he was interesting to watch as he plodded through it. I wanted to be excited to see Natalie Zea (Winona from Justified), but she's basically just there to be bitchy and look hot in offcewear, so no thank you.
$#*! My Dad Says - Not horrible, if you enjoy William Shatner
I don't watch sitcoms, as a rule. I think this show only exists so that William Shatner can say outrageous things, which he can do in any number of other venues, so I won't be mourning this one when it goes. Also, sort of mawkish father-son stuff. I just don't care, but on the bright side, it didn't actively offend me, and it had funny moments.
My Generation -
Despite the fact that I would totally watch a Breakfast Club sequel (or read a fanfic) that reunited the original cast, I do not love the premise of My Generation. I don't approve of the fact that the ones interviewed for the original documentary are the only ones who are implausibly all brought back to their hometown. I'm sure it's far too ambitious for a pilot to say, "hey, there were 100 kids in this high school class, and they're all going to show up eventually," I really wish that someone, anyone, had a relationship with someone who wasn't in the original group.
The first episode seems like it's set up for a whole bunch of people to either cheat on their spouses or behave in other sketchy ways, and I am not really on board with that. One of the women looks like Jaime Pressly, except not funny. Her husband looks like Jensen Ackles, only shorter. At least three of the characters have serious Daddy issues. There was one guy (who my brain has identified as a cross between the kid from Billy Elliot and Crispin Glover, but I think he also reminds me of someone else entirely; also, he was in Sons of Anarchy, so it could be that) who I was sort of hoping would turn out to be gay, or different in some way other than his generic social ineptitude with people his own age, but instead it appears that he's just going to be a total creeper. Awesome
I don't know whether to hope that they cancel it, or they fix it. It's from the same guy who did The Unusuals and seems to have absolutely none of that show's charm. I wonder if that was a conscious decision, since The Unusuals was such a flop.
no subject
Date: 2010-09-25 03:17 am (UTC)Which is good, considering how dire the sesaon ahead of Criminal Minds is looking.
no subject
Date: 2010-09-25 05:16 am (UTC)I don't have any emotional ties to the Criminal Minds ladies, but from the handful of episodes I've seen, I'm wary about how the team's going to work with them gone or diminished :(