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October 07, 2006
Fall 2006 TV season
I watch some TV. And now that I’ve got myself a TiVo, I watch more of it. Also, the networks are beginning to realize that “Geek” is a valid lifestyle choice. Anyway, I’m watching more TV. Since it’s heading into October, the shows I’m watching have started their new seasons. I’m actually kind of excited about a couple of the shows.
Monday:
Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip: Gods what an unwieldy name! So it’s had 2 episodes and it’s by Aaron Sorkin. It’s about a Saturday Night Live type variety show, and attempts to show the creative process as it plays out over a week. So far, the show has been as unwieldy as the name, but Sorkin has built up enough trust that I’m willing to give this show a bit longer...
Heroes: This show has also had a pair of Episodes to it’s credit. It’s a superhero story set in modern times. One of the eponymous is a Japanese businessman who is obsessed with the original Star Trek. Another is a heroin-addicted comic book writer who—when he’s high—gets glimpses of the future and draws depictions of it. And then there’s your by-now-expected shadowy government conspiracy. I’m convinced that they will turn out to be good guys in this whole affair...
I’d have a lot less faith in this show were it not for the creative team. Jeff Loeb is a longtime comic book veteran with a penchant for creating wonderful and believable characters. He has, in the past, dwelled too much on the internal life of a charter—forgetting that superhero books are supposed to include a modicum of action. Nevertheless, the last 10 seconds of the second episode leave no room for doubt that there will be plenty of bang...
Tuesday:
Veronica Mars: The first season of this show was everything that Television ought to be. It was smart, featured some great characters (admittedly with a bit of rough acting), and was a terrific exploration of class issues in the United States. The second was... good, don’t get me wrong. The writing wasn’t as even as the first season. They weren’t as focused on a single story and didn’t seem to know how to bring it together. Of course, the last quarter of the second season brought it all together tremendously...
Which brings up the third season. There has been one episode so far. Veronica is off to college, her Father is doing a road trip with a known killer and—wait, huh? This can’t end well. Also, Veronica is hot on the heals of a serial rapist. This season will feature six episode arcs, rather than a more traditional 22 episode story. If the ratings don’t pick up, the show will be canceled. So, um, tune in...
Friday:
Battlestar Galactica: Ron Moore is all over my TiVo list, I’ve also got Deep Space 9 set to regularly record. The thing is: I’m not so sure about this third season. As I’m sure you know, in the first season, humanity was brought to the brink of extinction. Of the billions that had been, we were reduced to 50,000—roughly the number of people in Tower 1 when the World Trade Center got hit. The first season did an excellent job of establishing that humanity was weak and needed to run run run in order to survive...
Season 2 saw Humanity starting to settle into their new lives. Also, we began to have a clue as to where to go next. The Pegasus arrived and humanity had a second defense platform. Ron Moore had told just about all the story he could without fundamentally changing the mix. And so he did. In the last 15 minutes or so of Season 2, humanity found a world, settled down, lived a year in the life—and then were enslaved...
The third season opens four months into the occupation. 2,000 humans managed to be off-world when the Cylons hit. This season wants to explore was it is like to be occupied. There is a direct allegory there—for those who take it—of American operations in Iraq. The parallel isn’t very exact (we Americans have no intention of being in Iraq forever—the Cylons want to be on New Caprica forever), but the emotions and thoughts are close enough for Television. Me? I’m hoping someone shoots Tigh and takes leadership of the resistance from him. Especially since the Cylons who most want to destroy humanity also want Tigh in charge. I guess we’ll see...
So there we have it: my weekly diet of Television. So: what’s on your list that’s not on mine?
Posted by Andrew at October 7, 2006 12:06 PM