Low-profile shows: the newbies
There are plenty of shows I watch, but don't say boo about. So I thought I'd take a bit of time today to highlight a few of the shows I've neglected over the past few months.
Let's start with the new shows that may or may not return (after tonight, in the case of one of them).
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
I didn't love it the way I could've (I am, after all, a sucker from ass-kickin' chicks), but I think this one improved significantly over its short run. They set up the mythology of the show nicely, had decent visual effects, and got some surprisingly great performances from folks like Brian Austin Green. (I'm not kidding. I even found him marginally attractive. Trust me, I'm as disturbed by that as you are.) I liked that they hinted at the idea of robo-Cameron exploring art and beauty -- an area we consider strictly human -- and Derek getting a bit freaked out by it. I also liked the nostalgia he clearly felt for the world he saw get torn apart. While I always found Thomas Dekker a bit wooden, he grew on me too. I'm really hoping this show comes back.
Samantha Who
If I don't mention it often, it's because I can't quite figure out why I'm still watching it. Could it be Christina Applegate's freakin' adorable haircut? Could it be that I miss Sookie and will settle for Melissa McCarthy however I can get her? Could it be that I just think this premise is too good to give up on? None of those reasons seems strong enough, but I've continued to watch this show, mostly online, mostly in the background. It'll be around next year, and I'm hoping it gets better.
Miss Guided
Did you miss this one? You probably did. ABC only aired a scant 7 episodes, but I really liked them -- and you can still see them on the ABC website. They're worth a watch, I think. Judy Greer, who is just damn fantastic in everything, imbues her nerd-turned-high school counselor character with the right amounts of grit, goofiness, and naivete -- hard to pull off, indeed, but she succeeds, and you root for her while simultaneously recognizing that she's kind of weird. If you're curious, give "The List" a try - with sharp writing that smartly skewers today's gossip-driven world, it's 22 minutes of your life I don't think you'll regret. Plus, Chris Parnell!
New Amsterdam
Not a bad premise (cop lives forever -- or until he finds his soulmate). Not a bad lead actor (Nikolaj Coster Waldau). Not bad writing (but not quite good either). Yet, why doesn't this show do it for me? I think it's the lack of drive. It's just coasting along. What I would've loved to have seen, being the romantic sucker that I am, is more of a dilemma for our laconic hero: what if he met two women at the same time, his heart stopped, and he knew one was his soulmate... but didn't know which one? Now that I think could make for some interesting drama -- trying to present both ladies as viable options, making them pretty different so they bring out different parts of John's character. I would've liked to see that.
Later this week, I'll move on to the ongoing shows that don't get enough love from me on the blog, but that are still in my weekly viewing rotation.
In the meantime, what do you think about these flying-below-the-radar shows?
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Previous Comments:
| Abbey says: Okay, I loved Miss Guided...but only after I got past the pilot...which I was not really impressed with. I'm with you on Samantha Who...I want to like it...but, seriously..why in the hell am I still watching it??? Her Hair. It's true. And I almost don't like Melissa Mc. in this show. Sad. 04-20-08 |
| Erica says: Agreed on Samantha Who - it's not yet perfect, but it's just so cute and enjoyable that I can't help but watch. I only started watching it after I cut my hair, otherwise I would have walked into the salon with a picture of Christina Applegate's haircut and that would have been that (instead of hemming and hawing for a while, saying I kind of like haircuts like this, etc etc...). Plus one of its writers used to write for Television Without Pity and has kept a blog from since before the big blog boom, and she kept me going during the writer's strike with tales from the picket lines. I only saw a couple of episodes of Miss/Guided but I liked it. It's not the kind of show I would have expected to succeed, but I thought it was cute and I loved Judy Greer in it more than anything else she's ever been in. (God bless Arrested Development, but I sort of found Kitty annoying.) 12-31-69 |