On the Bubble

It’s around this time of year that I start to look ahead and see what is likely to get cancelled and what is likely to get renewed.

Figures from Tv By The Numbers suggest the following shows I watch will most likely see cancellation:

• A Gifted Man
• Ringer

Now, in the case of A Gifted Man, which is listed as Certain Cancellation, I couldn’t be more disheartened.Not only is it well shot and reasonably well scripted (random shootings aside) it’s a fun and clever show. Rachelle Lefevre is one of the most beautiful actresses on tv right now and Rhys Coiro, not only provides some great comic relief but he also reminds me of a greatly missed work colleague.

With Ringer I’m less surprised. While Ringer has remained in my staple of shows that I watch, it’s not for a good reason. It has stayed there because it’s so much fun to pull it apart. Ringer is a show filled with ridiculous plotlines and crazy coincidences that would never happen. Of course with cancellation looming I really hope that we at least get some payoff as to what Siobhan is planning.

Shows that are listed as On the Bubble include:

• Nikita
• Supernatural
• The Secret Circle
• Alcatraz
• Raising Hope
• Terra Nova
• Community

Nikita is very much deserving of a second season. They’ve done enough to change up the Nikita vs. Division storyline and they’ve had some really engaging episodes this season. If anything they need to include more Aaron Stanford, for comic value and probably kill off Melinda Clarke before she becomes too important to kill off, like Xander Berkeley

Supernatural didn’t deserve either of it’s last two seasons and should have ended after season 5 as originally planned. The lackluster Leviathans storyline has done little to redeem the show, while killing off all recurring cast members to force the focus of the show back on to the Winchester brothers is helping to restore some of the original charm, there is simply too much history in this show for it to continue. It’s heart-breaking to watch something that was this great squirm about in the throes of death, just take a colt to it and put it out of it’s misery…

Secret Circle I gave up on after nine episodes, as it continued down it’s teen angst, twilight saga style storylines. Alcatraz failed to engross me during it’s pilot and I gave up soon after. Terra Nova also failed to keep me interested but my feelings on this show have been aired in an earlier post.

Raising Hope has had some off episodes this season but on the whole it’s been great. The main problem they have is they have fallen into that second season trap that all sitcoms do, Jimmy has gotten with Sabrina. And if the show is allowed to continue then they have to break up, just like Ross and Rachel, just like JD and Elliot. That said, I’d still like to see this clever sitcom continue it’s run into a third season.

Community… six seasons and a movie…. that’s all I’m saying… make it so!

Likely Renewals include Castle and Bones and I hope that both see renewal.

Certain Renewals include Once Upon a Time and Grimm, both of which failed to impress me with their pilots or their premises. However the renewal of Hawaii Five O comes as no surprise as that show is still one of the best things on TV!

How I Met Your Mother’s renewal is coming as a little surprising given that the show is mostly a parody of itself, which often fails to amuse, that said the most recent episode was a return to some of its former glory. The renewal of Big Bang Theory came as a surprise to no one (although the 3 season renewal shows a massive amount of faith in the show) the show continues to be cleverly written and genuinely heart warming.

Spielberg is 0 for 3

There was a time when the name Steven Spielberg was a byword for quality, probably sometime prior to June 28th 2001 (Sidebar: My film critic friend would like to refute this argument by presenting Minority Report, Catch Me If You Can and the Terminal… I believe my point stands unmolested by his argument), but now it seems the esteemed director will put his name to just about anything, Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull anyone?

Well this year three shows have debuted bearing the much valued name Spielberg, Falling Skies, Terra Nova and The River…

All three shows have a great premise. Falling Skies deals with humanity in the aftermath of an alien invasion, true, it’s not a unique idea but it’s one that TV often fails to explore, or at least well. Terra Nova combines a failing humanity with time travel and a fresh start in a world populated with dinosaurs. While the River follows in the footsteps of the great and oft lamented (by me) Harper’s Island and tries to spin out a horror story aboard a nature documentary ship sailing down the amazon.

Kudos on the premises. They’re great, they all sound like they’d be fantastic shows… but they aren't and here’s why.

Falling Skies fails in so many regards. It is clichéd, stocked with cardboard characters that fail to be interesting. It suffers massively from it’s illogical mythology. The alien ships hunt by heat signatures, we know this as they have been drawn miles out of their way by simple flares. But they can’t spot the heat signatures of a group of 300 people travelling together?

Meanwhile Terra Nova simply throws away it’s great mythology by setting itself up as a soap opera that just happens to feature dinosaurs. A group of humans has travelled to a parallel earth (thus explaining away any ecological inconsistencies) and has set up a new civilisation, a fresh start for Humanity.However, it is still as corrupt as the one left behind and it bears a striking resemblance to the culture of today despite being set nearly 150 years in our future.

The interesting part of the Terra Nova plotline is the formation of a new civilisation in a hostile environment. However the writers just skipped right past that and had the civilisation already there. Upon arrival our heroes are able to go to the market and pick up anything they want, they don’t need to struggle for survival, in fact life is so dull for them that they must immediately seek out trouble. This is of course a group of people who haven’t seen the sun in decades, who have barely eaten and have basically lived in a police state all their lives. Their sudden expulsion into a world of colour and magic is presented as so mundane you’d think all they’d done was pop round to the neighbours for a cup of tea.

So much potential, so much promise, so little payoff. This show feels like the short lived BBC series Outcasts, which suffered from the same slow, uninteresting plotlines. Both shows could have really pushed some boundaries and told some interesting stories, but both were very disappointing in the end. It’s hard to screw up time travel and dinosaurs but it’s not impossible.

Finally The River. I mentioned Harper’s Island earlier, which despite the nonsensical conclusion, succeeded in spinning an hour and half slasher movie into a tense and engaging 13 episode series with interesting characters and a plot that, while one-note in many senses, was well carried throughout the show (up until the last episode… obviously). The River attempts to do the same thing, spinning a horror movie out for 8 episodes as a family searches for their father who went missing six months earlier.

The show starts off well and manages to be engaging at first, even if there are huge issues with the development of the plot. For example, Lena turns up, out of the blue and finds the family who have just lost the signal from Emmet’s beacon and she tells them she has found six possible locations for the ship. Five of them are empty. Now, wait, on the whole of the amazon, a ship that has been missing for 6 months can’t only be in one of 5 locations! If it’s been missing for 6 months it could be on one of 5 continents, probably hoping not to be found.

However, these leaps of plot are easily forgiven by what follows. Unsurprisingly the family finds the ship, in the sixth location (surprise, surprise) and to their astonishment there is something still on the ship, sealed in the panic room, the door to which has been welded shut.

Obviously logic dictates that they have to open it, it is unclear exactly what the monster is that they release by doing this is, all we know for sure is that it kills at least one of the crew and will continue to hunt them throughout the show. However, here’s the real problem. If you come across a monster and you seal it in the panic room with a blow torch then you probably have the time to… I dunno, write a note!! Even the hospital staff in The Walking Dead found time to scrawl “do not open” on the doors. Welding takes a long time, comparatively to writing at any rate, so there really is no point in doing it if you aren’t going to explain why so other people don’t come along after you and UNDO IT!!

Of course the plot continues in an equally ridiculous fashion as our heroes fail to turn back, despite clear reasons to do so, including a supposed visitation by the spirit of the man they are hoping to find alive… if he is alive HOW CAN HIS SPIRIT VISIT YOU! Am I asking for a non-ridiculous “supernatural thriller”, no, but it needs enough basis in reality and logic to hold you in it’s world. Harper’s Island worked because the characters weren’t stupid, by the time it was apparent there was a killer on the island it was already too late for the characters to leave, but even then they didn’t stop trying.

You can’t feel sorry for a group of characters who are killed because they are too stupid to know any better!

/RANT

The Best of the Year

So, it’s been a while and I’m not really back as such, too many other projects on the go but I wanted to put my feelings out there on what I think have been this years top shows.

Best Returning Show – Big Bang Theory

Considering that the BBT is now in it’s fourth year this was a strong returning season, possibly not as good as season one but certainly stronger than other returning shows such as Chuck, Supernatural and How I Met Your Mother.

Best New Comedy – Raising Hope

Contenders for this category included Running Wilde, Episodes and Mr. Sunshine and as Raising Hope was the only one of these shows to see renewal it was an easy decision to make for me. While both Episodes and Mr. Sunshine had their moments, Raising Hope was consistently funny across it’s run.

Best New Drama – Hawaii 5-0

This reboot of an old series is just phenomenal. Everything from the writing to the locations to the action is just superb. Add into that the quality of the cast and high pace of the episodes and you’re really on to a winner here. I hope for many more seasons to come…

Best Summer Show – Rescue Special Ops

For three years this show has delighted me, everything from it’s music to its locations, to it’s fantastic characters is brilliant. What Network 9 was thinking of when they cancelled this show I have no idea. Certainly their excuse that they want to end on a high just seems ridiculous. Other hot contenders for this category included the excellent return of Covert Affairs and the short lived but wonderfully witty Chaos.

Best Animated Series – Avengers the Earth’s Mightiest Heroes

Avengers is the perfect tie in with the current series of the Marvel movies and the series was certainly better than the lacklustre Clone Wars. That said, I’m also really enjoying the excellent new Thundercats series!

Best Genre Show – Being Human US

Having never seen the UK version of the show I was sceptical to say the least of a SyFy channel version of the show, but boy was I wrong. This show was a delight from start to finish and I can’t wait for a second season!

Biggest Disappointment – Falling Skies

Where do you begin with this category? There were so many, Falling Skies, The Walking Dead, Running Wilde The Event, Undercovers and The Chase. Falling Skies however turned out to be pretty drab, considering all the weight that was behind it, so it scoops the biggest disappointment award.

Best Show of the Year – Hawaii 5-0

Really guys, it wins hands down, if you haven’t given this show a go then stop what you’re doing and go try it out. Adrenaline-pumping, high octane story telling, set in gorgeous locations with a sexy, talented cast. Seriously, best show of the year!

Weekend at Bobby’s vs. Live Free or Twi-Hard vs. You Can’t Handle the Truth

… or the “Why is Sam such a Dick Trilogy”

It’s no secret that since Supernatural has been back I’ve not been the biggest fan. But then Weekend at Bobby’s happened and I remembered why I love the show.

Weekend at Bobby’s manages to make that “Monster of the Week” format, that the new series is running with, fun and exciting. It takes its lead from a classic episode of the X-files (I can’t remember which) where Mulder is sidelined and we focus entirely on Scully with on Mulder appearing on the phone. Well, instead it is the Winchester boys on the sidelines with Bobby taking centre stage, giving us a much overlooked glimpse into the life of Bobby Singer.

The trigger for the episode however comes from Dean, who rings Bobby up to complain about how different Sam feels since he came back from the pit.

True, Sam has been acting like a dick all season, but that’s not exactly new. Sam has been a dick for some time now, season 4 was dragged down notably by Sam being a dick! Anyway, I digress.

Live Free or Twi-Hard, while an amusing title and a nice little play on the current popularity of films like Twilight, fails on multiple levels. Firstly it follows the Star Trekkien style of storytelling. By that I mean, something happens to the one of the main characters, i.e. becoming a Vampire, that will be entirely reversed by the end of the episode, despite there being evidence to the contrary that is even possible.

Instead of providing an episode about the characters striving to overcome adversity, this method of storytelling simply drags on for 40 minutes until the inevitable conclusion is reached without the episode ever having had any meaningful impact.

The second reason the episode fails is that it breaks canon, Dean’s vampirism being reversible is both convenient and poor storytelling. Part of what makes Supernatural interesting and unique is the lore that Kripke creates for the monsters, changing that lore breaks an audiences engagement with the story.

What I would have found more palatable would be for the cure to fail, after all it wouldn’t be the first time. Back in season 2, one of the most memorable and shocking failures on the Winchester Brother's’ part happened in Heart. After promising to cure Madison of her lycanthropy Sam is forced to kill her when the cure fails.

Obviously, long term, turning Dean into a vamp would be a terrible idea, but a catastrophic failure of the cure would have made the fact that Sam let Dean get turned even more impactful.

Which brings me back to Sam is a dick. The whole point of Live Free or Twi-Hard was to bring to light this betrayal moment when Sam allows his brother to be turned into a monster. The rest of the episode is by the by and it really could have been any kind of betrayal really it didn’t need to be vampires.

So the final episode of this trilogy focuses on a Pagan god of Truth who is causing people in a sleepy little town to commit suicide. I had a brief hope at the start of the episode that Gabriel was back, but sadly, no.

Again, this weeks monster of the week is one of convenience, providing a simple way to finally get rid of Lisa (big damn shame) and out Sam as being a dick. (Have I mentioned that Sam is a dick) While I didn’t find this episode as objectionable as Live Free or Twi-Hard, it still felt staged, that everything which proceeded was only there to give some lead-in to the rather unshocking confession and plea for help from Sam and the rather more shocking and violent response from Dean.

To be honest I’m glad that Dean finally got to unleash his anger at his brother and not in a namby-pamby pre-watershed kind of way, but in a full on, brutally uncut kinda way. But overall the Sam possibly-not-being-human-storyline has been a bit of a downer. With only two characters in the show, having one of them continually antagonise the other really does a lot to alienate the audience. So while it might make sense from a story point of view (and I say might) it really doesn’t from an audience perspective, especially an audience that felt the show had come to a natural conclusion at the end of season 5!

Well, that’s My Two Cents anyway, until next time…

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

So, with Caprica finally back on the air, everything is up and running, so I thought I’d do a quick summary of what’s good and what’s not…

The Good

How I Met Your Mother, Raising Hope, Running Wilde and Big Bang Theory have all been great so far, performing at least as well as I had hoped, in some cases better. 

Nikita was a welcome surprise and has so far been an exciting little spy drama with a twist.

Hawaii Five-O is proving itself to be a fun little tongue in cheek crime drama, like Bones and Castle but with a high octane element that makes it a very enjoyable experience all round.

Chuck, well, Chuck is Chuck and what’s not to like about that? It’s good to finally see some love for this show from the network that very nearly killed it a year ago.

The Bad

Where to start? I had high hopes for Chase. A sexy, high tension drama produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, the studio behind such movies as Pirates of the Caribbean. But the show failed on all levels to be engaging. The characters were hard edge almost to the point of dislikeable, even the incompetent one was pitiful rather than endearing. With a season chock full of good stuff, this show just didn’t make the cut.

Undercovers, the new Spy-Fi from J.J.Abrams, a name synonymous with sexy-confusion has managed to produce a pilot that fails to be anything but a joke. Undercovers picks up the story of two retired spies and throws them back into the field. They proceed then to not miss a single beat as they shoot or shag their way out of trouble. Yes it’s sexy and yes it has action, but it doesn’t take itself seriously.Abrams has so far disappointed me with Alias and Lost and Fringe, even Star Trek, but never have I been so disappointed so quickly as I was with this show. If you want a less serious spy drama then Chuck has the perfect mix of comedy and suspense, where as Undercovers tries so hard to cool and quippy that it feels like you’re watching something Sam Raimi might have churned out.

The Ugly

Supernatural… Wait what? You’re favourite show of all time??? Well yes, I said 5 was enough, Eric Kripke said 5 was enough, even the Winchester Boys said 5 was enough, but nobody listened and now look what’s happened. Supernatural is never bad per se (well Bugs was a bad episode, but aside from that) but this has been a clunky start to the season. Coming back from what should have been the end of the show should have been an explosion of goodness that explained why we absolutely needed a 6th season (and “because it makes money” is not a good enough reason.) but instead we’re back to the grungy, emo-ish style storytelling that bogged down the show’s 4th season. Sure Sam and Dean are back hunting together now, so things will pick up, but so far I have failed to be impressed.

Merlin, after a promising start the show has relapsed into it’s lazy scripting/bad British acting habits. It’s such a shame, the first season, despite its poor finale, was genuinely a surprisingly good show. Why BBC shows go downhill in later seasons has always baffled me, but still there are some good moments and some fun moments so I still have hope that once we get the “silly” episodes out of the way the show might return to form for a good season finale.

The Event has the potential to be a good show, however it is as ugly as all hell. The story is chopped, nay, finely diced into bite size chunks, these chunks are then all thrown in a bag and whichever comes out first makes up that week’s episode. In the wake left by the passing of Lost and Flash Forward, I’ve really felt the need for a mystery show, but somehow this is more annoying than it is mysterious. The entire pilot tells you next to nothing, forcing you to watch on in the hopes of figuring out why you just wasted an hour watching the last episode.

Admittedly, the second episode is better, but seriously, what was wrong with linear storytelling? Haven’t we had enough messing about with time and narrative for one generation (thanks Lost!) ???

Caprica and SGU are also back, Sy-Fy’s main dramas are both running one after the other on Tuesday nights and so far they are managing to be okay. Neither is blazing a trail of goodness, nor stinking the place up. Based solely on trailers I have high hopes for the second half of Caprica’s (final?) season where as I have no further expectations for SGU. I would be seriously surprised if I’m still watching either of these shows come this time next year. But they both have the potential to improve

So, that it, My Two Cents on this seasons TV. If I didn’t mention a show, its probably because I’m not watching it, in some cases like Bones and Castle I’m still working through previous seasons, in others I’m just not interested enough. So, until next time…

BRING BACK DOLLHOUSE!

Caprica: Unvanquished

It’s been a long, long time but Caprica is finally back for the second half of its first season. After only 8 episodes the show took a 5 month hiatus, surely that can’t be a good thing. Despite the fact that almost nothing happened in the first 7 episodes of the show, the eighth episode left us on a major cliffhanger and I couldn’t wait to see how it resolved.

The problem with Caprica, when compared to the massively successful Battlestar is that it’s not an action show, it’s a show about religion and about politics and unfortunately while that makes the show deep and interesting, it also makes it thinky and occasionally dull. This week’s episode was a little bit of everything. I enjoyed seeing the resolution to the explosive cliffhanger and yet I wasn’t blown away by it.

Initially we are led to believe that Daniel Graystone has lost everything, his company, his football team, his wife and as we later learn, the Cylon that contained his daughters consciousness. While that is an interesting plotline, it isn’t enough to sustain the show, we still need action in our sci-fi.

Meanwhile Clarice has returned to Geminon to meet with the Church elders. She returns to them proposing a new faith, one based on science rather than faith, one that can offer an afterlife for certain. She is talking about the software that Zoe created, about using it to create a virtual avatar of anyone who dies, so that they can be reborn in a virtual paradise. I never much cared for Clarice and her continual religious waffle is rather irritating, I was rather hoping she would be killed off in the midseason finale, but her death seems unlikely now.  

Back on Caprica Lacey has been fully integrated into the STO, working for Barnabas. I don’t know where that storyline is headed, but with James Marsters slated to have his own series very soon, I thinking we’ll know before the season is out.

In New Cap City, we finally discover what happened to Zoe after the car blew up at the end of the last episode, her robotic body may have been fried, but somehow she made the jump to the virtual world. Now she is on a mission to find Tamara. To what ends we don’t know.

In the closing moments of the episode we discover that Amanda Graystone is also alive and well, and for some reason, living with Clarice. This of course puts a whole new spin on Clarice’s afterliffe idea. It would seem that the Graystones and the STO may well be working together.

Overall I thought the episode was a bit of a mixed bag, I liked some of it, I didn’t like other bits. The CGI was all very nice, I loved the look and feel of Geminon, even if the action that took place there felt a bit stagey. I like the idea that the Cylons are now in full production, trained to be soldiers without a conscience, although the removal of Zoe brings up the question of how they achieve a higher level of conscience and evolve into the monotheistic Cylons we see in Battlestar. However, I’m glad that it’s back as I really want to see where it’s going to go, but I have my doubts about the possibility of a second season, especially after the bizarre way the schedule has been treated.

Stargate Universe: Intervention

SGU is back and do you know what? It’s not as bad as it has been… Sure, that’s not exactly a raving compliment but there has been little positive about the show on which to rave. Bad scripts, poor acting and poor plotlines that focused on petty squabbles rather than action.

In fact, the only reason I tuned in to the season premiere this time around was to see how last season’s cliffhangers would be resolved. The writers literally left every single cast member is some kind of jeopardy, a trick designed to make people do what I did, tune in next time.

But, unexpectedly it wasn’t too bad. I’m pretty sure you need prior knowledge of the Stargate mythology now to really follow what’s going on though, which is a shame because I don't think I can sit through 10 seasons of that, not even when Browder takes the lead role! But there was plenty of action and it was a fun little episode.

What annoys me most about this series are the missed opportunities. For example, in this episode only handful of the crew were left on Destiny, while Col. Young and most of the civilians were banished to a storm- blasted planet, alongside a bunch of the mercenaries who had come to kill them in the first place. Little more is said about this planet and 5 minutes later everyone is back aboard Destiny.

Why not instead have Destiny jump into FTL, stranding Young. Now he needs to work together with the mercenaries to stay alive and make it back to Destiny with his people intact. Meanwhile Rush and Eli have regained control of Destiny and are searching for Young, but with so few people to man the ship, things turn sour, especially when the nasty aliens turn up… Or something like that. Why confine the show to Destiny, why not explore the Universe, after all it’s the name of the show.

Anyway, will I keep watching? Maybe, if the next couple of episodes are as good as this one or better, but Caprica’s back this week and that’s so much better.