My Current Fox Shows
New Girl, Mindy Project, Raising Hope, Simpsons, Family Guy. So really, 2 nights.
24
So 24 is coming back as 12? Was anyone asking for it? I gave up the last season while it aired. I actually watched it a while later on Netflix and I actually enjoyed it. I think it had a lot to do with being able to watch a couple at a time. The show had a lot of dead time as they attempted to realistically (not really, but sorta) tried to move from one story to the next. For that reason, a 12 episode season actually makes a lot of sense and I’ll probably watch it. My biggest issue with 24 isn’t the show itself, it’s the people who thing it’s based in the real world.
More Tuesday I mentioned that I watched 3 of Fox’s Tuesday comedies. It looks like more are coming. I don’t know much about them, but the little I’ve read will force me to give them a chance. Dads – Seth MacFarlane producing and Brooklyn Nine-Nine from people related to Parks & Rec.
Us & Them A replacement for later in the season, but probably the new show I have the most thoughts about. Keeping up with all of Alexis Bledel’s career moves I heard about this show a couple of months ago. That it was an American version of a BBC show called Gavin & Stacey. I looked into it and found out it was about a young couple getting together and their families getting to know each other. Sounds promising. The first season was streaming on Netflix and the whole thing was only about 20 episodes, so I gave it a shot. Currently I’m waiting on the last disc of the last season (there were only 3) to arrive from Netflix. I’ve liked it a lot, but I’m not sold on it working here.
Why I might not like it …
I love the British cast. Stacey was in Love Actually, she was the, umm, adult film actress. The real starts though are the family and friends, that will be the key to the show.
The short British seasons make the show great because they only have to hit the big moments of relationship progression. For this version, they will have to drag things out over 20 episodes instead of 6.
The best parts of the show are due to the writers (they play the friends). I just watched one where they spent what seemed like half the episode ordering Indian food. And it was fantastic. Also, I don’t know much about Wales (where half the show is set), but the accents and phrases they use are outstanding.
Why I might love it …
It’s actually the story that works.
They cast the family right.
They nail the little meaningless scenes that make it fun to hang out with the people in the British version.
They figure out how to do their own thing (like The Office).
What it all means for me It looks like I’ll have a few shows to try out. Us & Them I’m probably in for half the season even if it’s terrible. Oh, and let’s be honest, everyone is going to give 24 another go round.
I had some concerns going into the Kristen Wiig SNL. It seemed too soon for her to come back and that such a short time away might lead to falling back to a lot of her characters. While I enjoyed her on SNL, I really didn’t like any of her recurring characters.
The monologue started off alright, I was relieved when Gilly (my least favorite) showed up and was gone so quickly. I hoped that was how the rest of the show would go. But then Lawrence Welk showed up with the doll handed sister (my 2nd least favorite). Then Garth and Kat, and finally the Target Lady (a great one time sketch that has no purpose recurring).
Disliking them means that I think they could do better by trying new things. Just throwing those characters out there leads to an average show. That averaged was boosted with The Californians along with a few other sketches that were good (and I hate myself for laughing at the Second Hand News Guy). Subtract points for the odd Double Date sketch and Vampire Weekend and that totals out to an average show.
My favorite sketch of the night: Acupuncture. It went just about exactly how you’d expect it to go, and it was still great.
I’ll be honest, with any good leak situation (be it water or blood), you can’t go wrong trying to use some chewing gum to plug the whole. It was the only thing missing.
All sorts of exciting events to read about online this week. Near the top of the list, TV Network Upfronts. Meaning we get the fall schedules and find out what shows are new/renewed/cancelled.
Up first, NBC. Will there be anything to watch? Well, besides the Winter Olympics, which I will watch all of.
Late Night First, there is the late night shakeup, with today’s news that Seth Meyers is taking over for Fallon. Now I’m a big fan of Seth Meyers. I’ve enjoyed him on Weekend Update and saw him do stand-up a year or two ago. My first reaction is that it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. Two Weekend Update hosts, back to back, both from New York. Will they be the same show? Actually no, and I actually warming up to the idea. While both Fallon and Meyers were Weekend Update hosts, they have completely different styles. Fallon can kill the music parts, which are the only thing I see of his, online. That’s not Meyers game. What could be his game, is a 12:35 Daily Show style show. He already does this once a week at the Update Desk. Add in a daily format, which he can handle, since most news jokes get played out by the time SNL comes around. The question will be if he can handle the interviews. I don’t know if he can, but he should be better than Fallon.
Renewals If I had to rank the bubble shows up NBC from this past season for the order I’d renew them.
1. Parks & Rec – No doubt. 2. Community – I didn’t like this season, but the cast is too good to give up on. 3. Guys With Kids – I didn’t get how no one watched this. It was the best pure sitcom I had seen in a long while. 4. Go On – I like Matthew Perry a lot. I watched this whole season. It never quite figured itself out. There were some really good episodes. The cast was a bit too large and they weren’t developed enough. Even at the end of the season, I didn’t know the names of all the members of the support group. 5. New Normal – The only one on the list I didn’t stick out for the season (I quit short of half way through), which is why it’s last. I tried to like it. I wanted to like it. The leads were solid. The show was actually destroyed by the grandmother and assistant.
Just Parks & Rec and Community. No surprise. I would have liked for one of the others to make it.
New Shows Not a ton jumped out at me on the schedule. The Michael J. Fox Show will get a watch, but the fact that it was given the 9:30 spot, and not 9, makes me wonder if it turned out less than excellent. Although if NBC is the judge, that either means it’s actually good or so bad even they realized it.
I see a midseason show from Bill Lawrence, Undateable. I always give his shows a chance. Ok, maybe I never gave Cougar Town a chance.
The odd one on the list: The Million Second Quiz. If I understand this correctly, players live in a bubble answering questions 24 hours a day for 12 days and it will air in primetime. But people at home can play along and possibly appear on the show. So I don’t really know how it works. It’s pretty save to say during those two weeks if you watch any NBC, they’ll mention it.
Outlook I’ll give some of the new shows a try, at least the Thursday night lineup. It looks like the spring might be where it’s at for me on NBC. Whenever Community and Undateable show up along with Seth Meyers, they will add to Parks & Rec and SNL. Hopefully for NBC’s sake, one of the other shows makes the list.
With Kimmel going to 11:35 last week, I think it was Letterman who pointed out (many times) how necessary it was to have 3 shows that were exactly the same all on at 11:35. I find it so interesting how they are all pretty much the same, yet I like a lot of them for different reasons. I wanted to try and describe each show as quickly as I could.
David Letterman
The master of the format. I’m not old enough to have watched Carson (but I’ve seen plenty of specials). I can see why people might be turned off by Dave and all of his quirks, but for some reason every one of them cracks me up. As great as I think he is now, I wish I would have been old enough to watch his NBC show. I probably would have invented the DVR in order to watch it.
Jay Leno
When I watch I can’t grasp how anyone finds the show funny, yet, the ratings. I hear so many people say how great he was when he’d go on Letterman, but I have not seen the proof. I really want someone to make a documentary about it called, ‘I Swear He Was Funny’.
Jimmy Kimmel
Most resembles what I image the show would be if my friends and I put one together. I think he’s the best interviewer and the number of pre-taped bits that have been home runs shouldn’t be possible.
The Daily Show
Jon is so good that sometimes trying to get jokes in actually takes away from the greatness of the show. How’s that for a comedy show? Less jokes! He could do the show by himself but has so many funny corespondents around (and how do they keep finding great new ones when others leave?). I don’t know how everything fits into a half hour every night. (Except for interviews going long and being posted online almost every night these days.)
The Colbert Report
The concept is so genius that they really don’t even have to try and the show would be great. The fact that they work really hard, there is no way anyone else should ever win the Emmy.
Conan
I watch because the bright spots are so much fun. I usually skip the monologue, and the interviews aren’t the best. So what’s left? The sketches are just off the wall sometimes. The show is at its best when it is the most cartoon-y. Bonus: Andy Richter is incredibly underrated. A lot of nights he will just say one thing but he’ll get my biggest laugh of the night.
Jimmy Fallon
When you put it on, it feels like a really hip club that went through initiation and learned all sorts of secret handshakes that you don’t understand. Yet they are really friendly to visitors who want to stop by. You always feel welcome, but also feel like you shouldn’t ask about the handshakes because they won’t tell you.
Craig Ferguson
Sometimes I catch the first few minutes after Letterman. He’s so different than everyone else, even though the format is so similar. Of all the shows, if I had to test someone to see if we had a compatible sense of humor, I think I’d go with Craig.
A strong opening to the SNL season. Not too surprising. I expected Seth to be excellent. I thought his monologue did a decent job of showing off his many skills.
Not as good:
- Not sure about Jay Pharoah as Obama. Not that Fred Armisen was particularly great at it.
- Weekend Update is always a little flat when the season starts. But I forget every time. There is just too much time to figure out which jokes to tell. I also imagine with changes for the new season, those get more attention than Seth Meyers back for another year at the desk.
- Someone explain Frank Ocean to me. I tried to listen to his new album when it came out, I didn’t get far into in before giving up.
Now I liked the sketch itself, but I love the concept. You could do this multiple times a season. Starting with the host as the teacher, there is nothing tying it to a single cast member. You can go a million different directions with teachers, students, puppets, and puppet personality. Please SNL, make this recurring.
Next week: Joseph Gordon-Levitt with Mumford & Sons
September 15: Seth MacFarlane
September 22: Joseph Gordon Levitt
October 6: Daniel Craig
Saw this on HitFix. Can’t really complain about any of the hosts. Seth MacFarlane surpringly hasn’t hosted before but as all the tools. Joseph Gordon Levitt has all the tools as well and I remember him being good last time. I’m curious to see Daniel Craig because I only know him from being serious in the Bond movies.
I’m surprised SNL isn’t doing Weekend Update Thursdays like they did for the election in 2008. NBC doesn’t have a lot going for it, I’d think a handful of half hour slots being spoken for would be a no brainer.
Oh, the musical guests are Frank Ocean, Mumford & Sons, and Muse. No big deal, I usually skip through the musical acts. Mumford & Sons are the only ones I’ll listen to for a minute.
Kids crying after seeing that Timothy Green movie. This wasn’t one of Kimmel’s challenges, but a similar effect. My mom said people were complaining about this on the radio because the parents are filming and laughing. Who cares. Maybe I’m just used to family that wants things to make fun of you in the future.
Boy goes and gets help when his dad gets stung by a bee. It made it to Kimmel because of the kid’s unique vocabulary.
Tosh.0 is great, yet I only seem to share Viewer Videos. Probably because most of the other ones I see on Kimmel and other shows and the rest are just too gross.
You can’t deliver DiGiorno!
They didn’t show the whole clip on the show so I got to laugh at all new stuff when I saw the full version. Of course, I died at the stuff I’d already seen too.
Nick Swardson’s Pretend Time was very hit or miss. There were some gems but you had to get through a lot of strange stuff to find them.
I saw Season 2 was added to Netflix Instant and that includes my favorite episode of the show. I’m pretty sure it got canceled after Season 2, so if you enjoy that, you can burn through the whole show pretty quick.
It’s Episode 4 of Season 2, it’s called Full Blown Eggs, which is also the name of the best sketch of the show. It starts around the 10 minute mark.
I really enjoyed this episode when I watched it. I had some friends coming up to visit that weekend and we had some time to kill waiting for them all to arrive, so I shared with the early arrivers. They didn’t love the sketch that really got me as much but another one killed them. We showed the episode again when everyone arrived. So I think I watched this episode 3 times in one day.
