SHOWS THAT HAVE MADE THEIR WAY TO THE SECOND TIER:
- HEROES: What can I say? Last season was pretty hard on all of us. I swear, if I'd had to watch one more episode of mind-numbing nothingness (read: Maya and her brother whining (and oozing) their way from Central America to the states for 8 episodes) and Hiro gallivanting around feudal Japan, I think I would have dropped the show entirely. When you start wishing that they had just let the cheerleader fend for herself in season one so the world would have ended (yipee!), that's just not a good sign.
It was with much apprehension and more than a few NoDoze tablets that I sat down to watch the premiere (a few days late, mind you). I would have watched it when it aired, but the thought of enduring a 3-hour event was just exhausting to even think about. Solution? Axe the hour-long "Countdown to Feudalism" and then watch the fast-forwarded version of the two-hour premiere.
It was actually much better (read: it kept me awake) than I had expected. I had heard that the producers and writers recognized that season 2 was kind of painful and were committed to not repeating those mistakes. It seems to have worked pretty well. The essential flaws of the show remain, but at least the history lesson/bizarre, kind of uncomfortable love story is over, right? Oh, and Peter isn't trying to be Irish anymore and I think we can all raise a pint to that sparkling development. Wow, the horrible story arcs of last season are really starting to come back to me now... I had all but forgotten the wealth of bad accents that accompanied Peter's momentous journey out of a box and into a pub... for 8 episodes... again...
As I was saying, the essential flaws are still alive and kicking and that is what has moved Heroes into my second tier.
Flaw #1) It's a HUGE ensemble cast (they tried to squeeze in 8 more faces on that cover, but what can ya do?). When a show has literally over a dozen series regulars, there just isn't enough time in the hour to devote more than a couple of minutes
to each plotline, let alone allow for much character development (assuming they make it into the episode at all). There are some character arcs that are more interesting than others, and with this huge a cast, way too much time gets devoted to people I really don't care about (Mohinder and Maya--Boring as Hell, party of two). It's times like those when I get really irritated and a little fast-forward happy... Oh, how I love my DVR! (Oh, geez, and do we remember that girl with the muscle memory or whatever? She won't be missed... Man, last season sucked...)
Flaw #2) Everyone is spread out. It seems like at the end of every season, all the characters have finally met up, but by the beginning of the next season, everyone has split up again. That would be fine, I suppose, but its the interaction between characters that really makes the show interesting. As is, there are subsets of characters who interact with one another, but there isn't any overarching cohesion to the group. Don't get me wrong, it should only be a few more episodes before the Petrellis have been revealed as sharing DNA with everyone on the show, but that's not exactly the kind of interaction I had in mind. Seriously though, they're going to start giving the Bristows a run for their money...
Flaw #3) Same basic plot, new season. The premiere seemed rather disconcertingly familiar as the horrible future to come is forewarned and Peter tries to make it alllll better... Yeah, I'm pretty sure we've been there... But, here we go again. With all new good guys and baddies! As near as I can tell, the only difference is that everyone is switching teams. I guess that'll be good?
Anyway, that's just the short list of flaws, but the show makes me kind of weary, so I'm going to leave it at that.
Bottom Line: I enjoyed the premiere more than I expected, but it still kind of felt like a chore to watch it. Which is a shame, really. It's a good show and I'll totally keep up with it, but it doesn't have me bouncing off the walls or anything. I'm hopeful this season really redeems it and bumps it back up to the first tier, but I'm not holding my breath. So far, so good (by which I mean, "It's about damn time Sylar got his powers back!") - GREY'S ANATOMY: Awww, yet another entry in the "Last Season was Demoralizing" Hall of Lame. Okay, so with Grey's, it was really the season before last that was the killer, but last season spent so much time recovering that it still wasn't spectacular. Vaaaastly improved, but still kind of "meh." And another commonality between our first two entries, I totally didn't watch them at the time they were on. Anytime a show gets relegated to "Well, I guess I could watch Program X, since nothing else is on..." territory, that's bad.
But, yet again, the premiere was better than anticipated. Izzie can still go die in a ditch (and take Meredith her), but overall, it was a pretty satisfying episode for the peeps at Seattle Grace. No one made me really want to throw something at the TV (although Meredith tried and tried, by which I mean, whined and whined) and the overall storyline was cohesive and effective, albeit a bit heavy-handed and schmaltzy at times. The parallels between patients' conditions and doctors inter-personal r
elationships was a bit too far from subtle for comfort, but it wasn't completely oppressive, so I let it slide.
As per usual, Christina is the reason I watch the show. I'm sick to death of the Derek and Meredith of it all and will happily dig a ditch for Izzie to fall in, but Christina kind of makes it all worth it for me. The past two seasons have showcased a very different Christina and it's really nice to see her getting her mojo back. It's a shame that her new love interest in military, though. We all know that's an insurmountable obstacle (a pre-existing condition, as it were), but the fact that Kevin McKidd is actually from the UK takes the edge off.
Bottom Line: I'll be sticking with Grey's, but if a show needs to get the axe, this one won't be too far from the blade. I'm just kind of over it... I saw a preview for next week's episode and apparently Noah is the newest patient at Seattle Grace and he brought the flood with him. Heh, speaking of arcs... Sorry, that was shameless. You see! You see what the show is doing to me?! Horrible puns! What's next? Rimshots? Oy. - THE OFFICE: Okay, please don't hate me! I really do still love the show (honest!), but it just isn't quite the same... It's starting to feel like the 10th season of The Simpsons. I knew it was still good, but it just wasn't living up to the greatness of previous seasons. I think the first two seasons of The Office set the bar incredibly high, and while the latest episodes have been quite good, it's just not connecting with me the way it once did.
The beauty of the show in its early years was that everyone who had ever worked in an office could so completely relate to the show that it was painfully funny. We all know those characters because we work with those characters. The mundaneness of working in an office was itself a character on the show, and I dare say, the most important character. Only in the mind-numbing boredom of an office could
such menial projects (like toturing Dwight or organizing the Office Olympics) provide so much entertainment. The banality of it all and the co-workers we all suffer through are what people related to, and I think those things have kind of fallen by the wayside...
The office atmosphere has changed. In recent episodes, they hardly spend any time at all in the office. There always seems to be something crazy going on or some wacky hijinx ensuing, and while those things are enjoyable, it kind of takes the show away from its roots. The same goes for the characters, or should I say caricatures... Jan went insane, Ryan became a cocaine addict and went to jail, Angela somehow became a saucy little minx, Kelly is, well, Kelly, and so on and so forth. There really isn't anyone to play the straight man (and I mean that in terms of comedic setup, not sexual orientation) anymore. I enjoy the craziness and the whimsy, but I kind of miss that dull aspects of their time in the office that were always so hilarious.
Bottom Line: I still love the show and probably always will. But, can anyone really tell me that they think last season or the latest season premiere can hold a candle to greatness of the first two seasons? The show is still great, but I'm a little nostalgic for the even greaterness of yore... Oh, and Jim and Pam actually getting together isn't helping the situation... The tension is gone, and so goes my interest.
1 comment:
i just miss you, lacy lace. that's all. you don't have to be rude and say you don't want the plague. i wouldn't sneeze on you if you begged. just come visit "someday".
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