Post by tjaman on Aug 31, 2006 0:08:18 GMT -5
And now I've lost Wednesdays.
I knew it was going to happen. As the new fall schedule started up there was just going to be so much new stuff to see and I knew I was going to have to pick and choose.
Having become very lately a fan of "The Practice" from early morning reruns on FX, I knew I'd be watching "Boston Legal" while taping "Nip/Tuck" and then watching "Nip/Tuck" because even that hour without it was too long. So Tuesday nights, once, BL starts up, I'll start watching television at 6 p.m. with two back-to-back episodes of "Dead Like Me," then "Eureka" for however much longer that one's going on, then BL and then N/T, so that's five hours of television in one night -- and that's if nothing else good starts airing on Tuesday nights, which is already the "tjMust.Watch.This!" magnet for programming.
Mondays were necessarily going to be out of hand with episodes of "Prison Break" and "Medium" (once "Medium" starts up) and now on Wednesdays I've got "Bones," which seems really to have stepped up a lot writing and interestwise. What I did not expect was "Justice," the Jerry Bruckheimer legal drama focusing on the extralegal maneuverment of a high-powered defense firm. I'd initially decided to give this one a pass -- there's no names I recognize, I'm already watching BL, and really, I don't like legal procedurals, dammit. I don't! I just don't!
But the realization I've slowly come to, in having "Law&Order" on occasionally -- especially "L&O: Special Victims Unit" (but not, for whatever reason, "L&O: Criminal Intent" -- the lead actor just irritates me a lot) and just really loving the hell out of "The Closer" -- is that I, in fact, do enjoy procedurals. I've realized this like I've realized I do enjoy "My Name is Earl" and I enjoy "That 70s Show" (although "The Office" leaves me cold -- I'd like to see the British version. I think people just generally love something about Steve Carrell that I just don't have access to -- * shrug *).
"Justice" kicked ass! It was tightly written, great characters, great case to start out with, great methodology and this really cool thing where at the end of the show they'll show you the actual crime -- so you can see for sure if you were right about supporting the defendant's guilt or innocence -- something the viewer is not always 100 percent sure of in The Practice and BL, and in L&O generally already knows halfway through, pretty much by design.
I'm not sure, in retropect, why this was as big a surprise to me as it was. I was a fan of Bruckheimer's other legal drama "Close to Home," but I thought that was because of the acting, the actors (the beautiful and talented Jennifer Finnegan and the occasional glimpse of Christian Kane, for instance) and in part because of the writing. Like "Criminal Minds" I enjoyed it when I caught it but didn't run frantically from house to house seeking to know if someone, anyone, had taped it if I missed it.
But yeah, now there's another hour I'm committed to watching that I really hadn't planned on. And "Veronica Mars" will finally be airing in a market I can reasonably access, so there's another hour.
* sigh * I'm never going to be on stage again.
Back during the last season of "Angel," it seemed like really one of the few things worth our time as viewers. I didn't get premium channels and I didn't like reality programming, so the primetime lineups were barren wastelands through which one wished tumbleweeds would blow to break up the monotony.
Television has been stepping up its game really, really well over the past few years.
And while there are still some disappointments -- I still predict "Vanished" is going to live up to its name very soon -- and "Reunion," "Killer Instinct," "Touching Evil" and "The Inside," which never had the numbers to make a go of it but which I dearly loved -- either I've received some sort of head injury of which I'm unaware and have become a much less discriminating viewer than I've been in the past, or the product has simply improved dramatically.
That and I'm now trying to be ready to write at least one and sometimes two weekly columns about the box so I try to be as knowledgeable as I can be, so a bit of it is occupational hazard.
Boiling all of this down: "Bones": Off to a great start. "Justice": A big, very pleasant surprise.
The walk this a.m. was good but hurried -- I was a little late for work as it was -- and the day was a good one. I wrote a nice column about "N/T" starting up again for our TVWEEK and built a decent enough arts section focusing on a Minot native who sang across four continents with the Whiffenpoofs and the new director over at the college gallery. I didn't get nearly the amount of work done here at home that I wanted to but what else is new?
There was suddenly all this great television on that needed my attention. Oh, and a pretty good grailcast and a very nice season finale to "30 Days" on FX and a most excellent "Daily Show" interview with Samuel L. Jackson about "Armadillos in a Vending Machine." 
With that and updating my banner for tv.com (no one's commented one way or t'other, so I'm not sure it's registering or if it's pleasant or annoying, but either way I do occasionally change those things), it's been a more or less pleasant day.
Hope everyone else's was good as well. Night all.
I knew it was going to happen. As the new fall schedule started up there was just going to be so much new stuff to see and I knew I was going to have to pick and choose.
Having become very lately a fan of "The Practice" from early morning reruns on FX, I knew I'd be watching "Boston Legal" while taping "Nip/Tuck" and then watching "Nip/Tuck" because even that hour without it was too long. So Tuesday nights, once, BL starts up, I'll start watching television at 6 p.m. with two back-to-back episodes of "Dead Like Me," then "Eureka" for however much longer that one's going on, then BL and then N/T, so that's five hours of television in one night -- and that's if nothing else good starts airing on Tuesday nights, which is already the "tjMust.Watch.This!" magnet for programming.
Mondays were necessarily going to be out of hand with episodes of "Prison Break" and "Medium" (once "Medium" starts up) and now on Wednesdays I've got "Bones," which seems really to have stepped up a lot writing and interestwise. What I did not expect was "Justice," the Jerry Bruckheimer legal drama focusing on the extralegal maneuverment of a high-powered defense firm. I'd initially decided to give this one a pass -- there's no names I recognize, I'm already watching BL, and really, I don't like legal procedurals, dammit. I don't! I just don't!
But the realization I've slowly come to, in having "Law&Order" on occasionally -- especially "L&O: Special Victims Unit" (but not, for whatever reason, "L&O: Criminal Intent" -- the lead actor just irritates me a lot) and just really loving the hell out of "The Closer" -- is that I, in fact, do enjoy procedurals. I've realized this like I've realized I do enjoy "My Name is Earl" and I enjoy "That 70s Show" (although "The Office" leaves me cold -- I'd like to see the British version. I think people just generally love something about Steve Carrell that I just don't have access to -- * shrug *).
"Justice" kicked ass! It was tightly written, great characters, great case to start out with, great methodology and this really cool thing where at the end of the show they'll show you the actual crime -- so you can see for sure if you were right about supporting the defendant's guilt or innocence -- something the viewer is not always 100 percent sure of in The Practice and BL, and in L&O generally already knows halfway through, pretty much by design.
I'm not sure, in retropect, why this was as big a surprise to me as it was. I was a fan of Bruckheimer's other legal drama "Close to Home," but I thought that was because of the acting, the actors (the beautiful and talented Jennifer Finnegan and the occasional glimpse of Christian Kane, for instance) and in part because of the writing. Like "Criminal Minds" I enjoyed it when I caught it but didn't run frantically from house to house seeking to know if someone, anyone, had taped it if I missed it.
But yeah, now there's another hour I'm committed to watching that I really hadn't planned on. And "Veronica Mars" will finally be airing in a market I can reasonably access, so there's another hour.
* sigh * I'm never going to be on stage again.
Back during the last season of "Angel," it seemed like really one of the few things worth our time as viewers. I didn't get premium channels and I didn't like reality programming, so the primetime lineups were barren wastelands through which one wished tumbleweeds would blow to break up the monotony.
Television has been stepping up its game really, really well over the past few years.
And while there are still some disappointments -- I still predict "Vanished" is going to live up to its name very soon -- and "Reunion," "Killer Instinct," "Touching Evil" and "The Inside," which never had the numbers to make a go of it but which I dearly loved -- either I've received some sort of head injury of which I'm unaware and have become a much less discriminating viewer than I've been in the past, or the product has simply improved dramatically.
That and I'm now trying to be ready to write at least one and sometimes two weekly columns about the box so I try to be as knowledgeable as I can be, so a bit of it is occupational hazard.
Boiling all of this down: "Bones": Off to a great start. "Justice": A big, very pleasant surprise.
The walk this a.m. was good but hurried -- I was a little late for work as it was -- and the day was a good one. I wrote a nice column about "N/T" starting up again for our TVWEEK and built a decent enough arts section focusing on a Minot native who sang across four continents with the Whiffenpoofs and the new director over at the college gallery. I didn't get nearly the amount of work done here at home that I wanted to but what else is new?
There was suddenly all this great television on that needed my attention.
Oh, and a pretty good grailcast and a very nice season finale to "30 Days" on FX and a most excellent "Daily Show" interview with Samuel L. Jackson about "Armadillos in a Vending Machine." With that and updating my banner for tv.com (no one's commented one way or t'other, so I'm not sure it's registering or if it's pleasant or annoying, but either way I do occasionally change those things), it's been a more or less pleasant day.
Hope everyone else's was good as well. Night all.