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Here is my ranking of new shows I'm watching.
7. Bionic Woman
So far, this show is sucking something awful. I hold out a tiny amount of hope that it will improve. It sort of reminds me of "Dark Angel" except less colorful, and what's her name is not nearly as hot as Jessica Alba.
6. Cavemen
I wasn't expecting much out of this one, as the critics panned it, but I actually found it somewhat enjoyable.
5. Cane
Pretty good acting, at least by the "good guys". The bad guys are almost cartoonishly evil, which doesn't work for me in what is supposed to be a realistic drama.
4. Reaper
Nothing particularly special about this so far, but pretty solid throughout. Funny, good writing, and great casting, of Ray Wise as the devil in particular.
3. Chuck
Very funny, and it's easy to accept the ridiculous premise, which is the mark of a good show.
2. Moonlight
Not really sure why I like it so much. Again, good writing and acting.
1. Pushing Daisies
Awesome. I love the color that it brings to the screen. Almost feels like a Roald Dahl novel. Funny, and surprisingly effective emotionally too.
Posts: 127 | Registered: Jul 2006
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The only new show I've seen this season was Pushing Daisies. I was not as impressed as many others. I found the voice-over narrator highly annoying. I also made no emotional connection whatsoever to any of the characters. They made very light of death, especially the death of a parent to a child. I guess I thought the subject matter should have been serious rather than silly and even childish. It did not appeal to my sense of humor.
Posts: 2392 | Registered: Sep 2005
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I liked the narrator. He helped give it the whimsical feel that is one of my favorite things about the show. And I would argue that they don't make light of death nearly as much as, say, most popular movies (or most popular religions, for that matter). They do not portray death in a realistic way, but that's something different than not taking it seriously.
Posts: 127 | Registered: Jul 2006
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Bionic Woman is terrible. Shockingly so. I was really disappointed - I love shows like that and wanted to like it. The lead actress is very pretty, but she just has no charisma. The writing and editing are pretty awful, too.
Moonlight is pretty meh. I just watched it because Logan Echolls from Veronica Mars is on it, but he's not on it enough to make up for how boring it is otherwise.
I enjoyed the first episode of Reaper and I think it'll get better as the folks behind it hit their stride. I have the next episode on my DVR.
I'm finding Journeyman pretty uninteresting. I just don't care about the characters at all, so I find it hard to care about how the time travel is affecting their lives. The stories are somewhat more interesting, but I liked it better in Quantum Leap.
I'm on the fence about Life. I like the premise and it's pretty well made, but the characters are a little cliche-y. The mystery is compelling to keep me watching, though.
I have Pushing Daisies on the DVR, too, and I'm excited to watch that. Almost everyone I know who has seen it loved it.
Posts: 3037 | Registered: Jan 2002
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I'd give Bionic Woman merely a mediocre rating. Mostly because I like the subplot they introduced where the hand-to-hand trainer (did he have to be Asian?) is sleeping with the enemy. I just want to know what's wrong with Dad that he didn't get custody of his daughter and his adult daughter didn't go to college and works in a bar instead. What kind of loser does he have to be that this was the prefered option?
I'm really loving Chuck. He reminds me of Jim from the office but with some guts. Chuck is willing to make his own decisions and take a risk, although he'd really like to stay safe. The second plot was a little cliche, but the sister and her boyfriend are so wonderful that I didn't mind. Plus, I got to watch two cars explode, see Chuck pilot a runaway helicopter, and hear Adam Baldwin say he never jokes about quiche. I'm putting it in the win column. Posts: 2283 | Registered: Dec 2003
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I really enjoyed the first episode of Life. I'd promised myself not to watch any of the new shows while I was in the US this year until I knew whether they'd been renewed, but I was channel hopping and by the time I realised Life was one of those newbies, I was totally hooked. The story was good and the main character is pretty wonderful. And it's so funny .
But then, I love House, Law and Order:CI and NCIS, which are procedural shows with lots of humour and off-beat characters. So it's probably just my thing for weird detectives. I'll be very sad if Life gets cancelled.
I also caught the end of an episode of Chuck and didn't think much of it.
Posts: 1528 | Registered: Nov 2004
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I think I caught part of Life tonight. Is that the one about the vet in South Africa? I walked in to hear my parents laughing hysterically at it.
quote:I'd promised myself not to watch any of the new shows while I was in the US this year until I knew whether they'd been renewed,
I made the exact same promise to myself, but I broke it to watch Reaper, which I can honestly say I'm glad I did, because it's awesome. Of course, if it gets cancelled I'll have had my worst fears solidified. But if these shows do make it, I think Life is one I'll for sure check out. From what I've heard, I could skip most of the others and not miss them. Maybe I'll catch Pushing Daisies if it makes it.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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quote:Originally posted by Lyrhawn: I think I caught part of Life tonight. Is that the one about the vet in South Africa? I walked in to hear my parents laughing hysterically at it.
No, Life is about a cop who was wrongly sentenced to life in prison for murder. He gets exonerated after 10(?) years and goes back on the job.
There's a show about a vet in South Africa? Sounds interesting.
Posts: 2149 | Registered: Aug 2000
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I like Chuck, watch it, and would put it second on 'the list' of those above that I've seen but I think it's a little lacking a real sense of constant zing.
Pushing Daisies is way more stylized in script and in visuals, yeah, but I was far more engaged with it that I've been with Chuck.
Posts: 8473 | Registered: Apr 2003
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Isn't the narrator for Pushing Daisies the same guy who narrates the Harry Potter books on tape? I'm pretty sure it is. And I was impressed though we'll need to see more to see how it will go.
I've also watched Private Practice and Dirty Sexy Money. Both mediocre shows that are affective in making me forget how long Wednesdays are.
Posts: 5362 | Registered: Apr 2004
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I think Kelsey Grammer is pretty funny in Back to You, even if he's just a slightly altered Frasier.
I watched the first episode of Cavemen but found it boring; the fact that they were cavemen didn't come up enough.
Posts: 781 | Registered: Apr 2005
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"Isn't the narrator for Pushing Daisies the same guy who narrates the Harry Potter books on tape? I'm pretty sure it is. And I was impressed though we'll need to see more to see how it will go. "
Yes, they are both narrated by Jim Dale.
Posts: 2705 | Registered: Sep 2006
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quote:Originally posted by Lyrhawn: I think I caught part of Life tonight. Is that the one about the vet in South Africa? I walked in to hear my parents laughing hysterically at it.
No, Life is about a cop who was wrongly sentenced to life in prison for murder. He gets exonerated after 10(?) years and goes back on the job.
There's a show about a vet in South Africa? Sounds interesting.
My bad, the CW has a show called Life is Wild, about a father, a veterinarian, who uproots his family (ex-wife just died, married new wife who has a couple kids, and he has a couple kids from the old marriage) and takes them to South Africa where he works as a vet on a game reserve living on the lodge his first wife grew up in. It's a remake of a British show called Call of the Wild or something like that.
quote:Originally posted by JonHecht: "Isn't the narrator for Pushing Daisies the same guy who narrates the Harry Potter books on tape? I'm pretty sure it is. And I was impressed though we'll need to see more to see how it will go. "
Yes, they are both narrated by Jim Dale.
And that was only part of what killed it for me.
There was an article about the show in the Trib over the weekend, and one phrase in the headline of the article summed this show up perfectly for me. "Overly precious". The show isn't cute; it's cutesy. It's so pleased with itself. I just couldn't stomach it.
Posts: 12266 | Registered: Jul 2005
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I watched Pushing Daisies and thought it was okay. I didn't love it, but I wasn't turned off. I appreciate the matter of fact and casual way they handled everything, but I personally feel the powers felt a little _too_ arbitrary. It just pulled me out of the show for a second. I will give it two more episodes before I make a decision to follow or can it.
Posts: 3936 | Registered: Jul 2000
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Update: I watched the first episode of Life is Wild and I really liked it. However, I've read that they are already talking of cancelling it because of low ratings, so I don't think I'll watch anymore of it until I hear for sure.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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I like Chuck, watch it, and would put it second on 'the list' of those above that I've seen but I think it's a little lacking a real sense of constant zing.
Pushing Daisies is way more stylized in script and in visuals, yeah, but I was far more engaged with it that I've been with Chuck.
"Chuck" is charming - silly, goofy, and doesn't appear to take itself at all seriously. I don't know what to make of "Pushing Daisies" - it's certainly fanciful and stylized, but it wasn't funny and it wasn't serious. "Chuck" entertains me in a way that "Pushing Daisies" doesn't, and it's really as simple as that.
Besides, I like Jayne... Posts: 3932 | Registered: Sep 1999
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I don't know what it is that I like about Pushing Daisies. It isn't funny, it isn't really dramatic... it just has a certain... je ne sais quoi.
Posts: 2705 | Registered: Sep 2006
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Jim Dale has a wonderful voice. It was the presence of a narrator telling me what was going on that bothered me. They could have gotten the best voice actor in the world (and they might have done) but I just didn't want the narration.
I also totally agree that the power seemed entirely arbitrary. It would have made more sense if he could just touch people and they were alive for a minute and then died again, with or without his touching them. But of course then they wouldn't have the screwed up dynamic with the girl he loves and can't touch. And when plot feels like the only reason to have a magical rule, it always comes across as at least somewhat unbelievable. I had real trouble suspending disbelief.
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Sorry. I seem to have forgotten the punctuation. That should read: "I don't know what", that means.
Posts: 1794 | Registered: Jul 2002
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I'm reviving this thread for a little trip back through time. Funny to think that we were talking about these shows three and a half years ago. I think of all the new shows discussed here, only Chuck is still around, hanging on season to season by the skin of its teeth.
Interestingly, since this thread, I've become a Chuck fanatic. I think it's absolutely fantastic.
Also, in the last week, my room mate showed me Pushing Daisies, and I'm so sad that I wasn't watching it when it was first on. I think it's awesome. I mostly love it because I think it's absolutely hilarious. But I like it for so many other reasons as well. Sometimes the overly saccharine nature of the show can get on my nerves, as can some of the more bittersweet relationships, but it's really quite good, and so fantastically written and acted. I'm sad that it was so short-lived.
It's interesting how few shows actually survive to a second season from year to year, and of the ones that get a second season, how many of them even get a third? How many shows starts in the last five years actually made it to a second, and then a third season? Feels like most of the shows on now have either been around for 5 or 6 years, or 1 or 2. And any given year tends to only produce a very small handful of renews, and most of those die in the second year.
Makes it really hard to watch new shows, but I wish I'd lent my support to Pushing Daisies when it first came out.
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You know, I the other day I caught the first episode of Pushing Daisies repeated at midnight in Spanish and stayed up until 1am watching it. I remember being just so sad when it was cancelled. Given half a chance, I think it could have been a classic show. But most of the shows that year were eventual casualties of the writer's strike.
Life, Terminator: SCC, Pushing Daisies (arguably even Heroes, since they decided to sabotage their unfortunate second season by wrapping up before the lights went out, leaving them with a horrible mess they never cleared up.)
In some universe somewhere, we've all got the fourth season boxsets of some of these shows on the shelf next to our copies of Firefly season 8.
Reading what I said all that time ago about Life, it's funny because my family and I were watching both seasons of that show again over Christmas and we all still think it's hilarious and touching and extremely dark (and Damian Lewis is just a fantastic actor). Plus, they really did wrap up the majority of the storylines and relationships in the last episode, so it also has a very satisfying conclusion. It was just a lovely little show.
Posts: 1528 | Registered: Nov 2004
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Traffic Light is a, imo, simply fantastic new show. It's a romantic comedy - but from the guys perspective, and this may be the first romantic comedy I've enjoyed. It's hip, cool and fresh.
Mr. Sunshine has promise but I'm on the fence.
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