Updates on the shows from my earlier post:
- Jericho: Still not watching…
- Vanished: Didn’t entice me back.
- Smith: Still canceled.
- The Class: Every time I say ‘I’m giving up on this’, the show redeems itself with some really good, really dark writing. Still right on the edge every episode, but hanging on so far. But not a ‘must see’.
- Men in Trees: Continues to be entertaining, although I’m about 4 episodes behind now.
- Help Me Help You: Nope, too much focus on the Ted Danson character, and not enough on the other interesting people in the group therapy session. Gave up on it.
- The Nine: Not enough in it to sustain the premise, I gave up a few minutes before it got effectively canceled.
- Ugly Betty: Still entertaining, but the backlog is also building up a bit.
- Heroes: Just gets better and better every week. The best TV that I’ve seen in years and years. I’ll write a longer review in a few days, I hope.
- Studio 60: Distressingly uneven, with way too much tendency for Aaron Sorkin to take revenge on those who have ‘wronged’ him in the past, with every character standing for someone in his life. Plus the comedy bits just aren’t very funny. Still, enough to keep me interested.
- Friday Night Lights: Still keeping up there, very very good stuff (although it’s now dropped to second behind Heroes for the best show of the season).
And the two new shows since last time:
- 30 Rock: Great talent (Tina Fey in particular), but the delivery of this show is very strange. It’s very much a poor corporate vehicle of a show, with intermittent sparks of good writing overwhelmed by very poor, very cliched writing for most of it. Gave up after about 3 episodes.
- 20 Good Years: Intermittently funny, but nothing really new. A waste of a couple of very good actors.
Well, that’s it for now. I’ll try and get reviews up for Heroes, Friday Night Lights and Studio 60 sometime before the end of January, and then a recap at the end of the US TV season.