TV MID SEASON REPORT CARD KNOW
YOUR SPUDS TWO XL SPUDS — Absolute Must See
TWO SPUDS — Definitely Worth Checking Out
1.5 SPUDS—Worth Checking Out, But Don’t Expect A Ton
ONE SPUD – Not Worth It, Except For The Hardcore Fan
NO SPUD 4U – Just Plain Sucks
It’s Tuesday morning. I’m waiting to go to a meeting with a new client. I stuck my head out the door to get some idea of what to wear and got what I can officially designate as the first taste of ‘here comes winter. The wind coming up today is likely to knock most of the leaves off the trees. As the Wife took off for work in the Spudmobile, I noticed that raking the leaves just tumbled into the job jar. The weather man is predicting a CM of snow for tomorrow and that means yucky leaf raking, so I’d better get my arse out and do it today.
I don’t really mind the coming of winter. I mean that’s why we live there. The seasonal changes. The fluffy white powder, the spinning tires, the endless shoveling, the soaking wet car mats. The cold north wind. The everpresent ominous gunmetal cloudcover. Ahhh, it’s a freaking winter wonderland.
On the plus side, winter brings basketball season which is always good thing. That actually starts tonight officially as the NBA Champion Boston Celtics take on the Cleveland Cavaliers. It also means that the NFL season reaches the halfway point and things really start to get interesting. As a handicapper, my picks so far this season have left a little to be desired. Although, as a sports fan, I have been treated to a number of very good games. But the “On Any Given Sunday” rule is in full force this year. (On any given Sunday, any team in the NFL is capable of beating any other team). And that’s a big part of why people watch the NFL in the massive numbers that they do. It may be argued that many other sports work the same way, but it’s never been proven to the extent that it has in the NFL. Also on the plus side, the winter brings to DVD all the big movies that we never bothered with in the summer. And in most cases, all the reasons why we never bothered with them. And later on in the winter, TV brings the ‘second season’ shows, which are usually better than those that launch in the fall. I’m always conflicted about what time of year I prefer. But over the past several years, we’ve found that going out on a hot summer day is a recipe for sinus problems and overheating, whereas going out on a cold winter’s day is just crisp, clean fun.
MID SEASON REPORT CARD FOR PRIME TIME SHOWS
MONDAY
Mondays are traditionally jam packed with stuff that makes you thank Uncle Ted for time shifting so you can PVR all the shows you want to see.
CHUCK (CBS) (2 SPUDS) – Chuck is back for its second season and hopefully doing quite well in spite of the fact that there sure seems to be a lot of international espionage going on in Pasadena So Cal, where the show is set. But why wouldn’t there be. After all this show is a send up of the whole James Bond concept and a funny one at that. This fish out of water spy show has a lot going for it and packs a tone of stuff into its hour.
TERMINATOR-THE SARAH CONNER CHRONICLES (2 XL SPUDS) This series is a sequel to the original Terminator movies, that follow the attempts of Sarah Conner to keep her son John alive so he can become leader of the resistance that eventually defeats the machine culture that takes over and enslaves the world. Pretty heady stuff. And great sci-fi, that is kind of like watching a really slow fuse burning down to a really big bomb. The writing and plotting especially are very good, creating an amazing level of suspense every week, as new terminators show up to take young John out before he can achieve his ultimate destiny. There are a number of sub-plots along the way that keep it all interesting including one which explains in a credible way just how the rise of the machine culture came about. This is really good TV.
DRAGONS DEN (CBC) (2 SPUDS) –Four rich business persons intimidate the hell out of a bunch of puissant inventors and occasionally buy into one of the ideas presented to them. Sound likes something that would appeal to Marquis De Sade devotees, but it’s fascinating. You learn a ton about presenting business ideas and taking criticism that’s straight from the horse’s mouth.
THE BIG BANG THEORY (CBS) (2 SPUDS) – 4 Rocket Scientists and Blonde Bimbo. This is easily on the funniest, cleverest and best performed shows on television, the brainchild of legendary Producer, director, writer, musician etc Chuck Lorre. This is a guy who gets to do pretty much whatever he wants on TV, and, as a consequence, does great things. The great thing about The Big Bang Theory is that it has what my pal Dean Raynor calls a high degree of ‘watchable againable’. In addition to being extremely funny the first time.
TWO AND A HALF MEN (CBS) (2 SPUDS). If you don’t know about this show, crawl back in your cave and go back to sleep. It’s the highest rated, most Emmyfied show on TV. Another Chuck Lorre special. Nuff said.
HEROES (NBC) (1 SPUD) – It’s probably still popular with the kids that get together and pass the Dutchie while watching, but for those of us who have outgrown the demon weed, it’s just real confusing and not very entertaining, as it seems to have lost the thread that was holding it together and caromed off somewhere into cyberspace.
THE BORDER (CBC) (2 SPUDS) This is arguably the best contemporary drama the CBC has ever put on TV. It’s about the immigration department and all the internal and international politics and bullshit they have to deal with. This show has amazing energy, great characters and terrific stories. Why the hell it hasn’t been picked up in the US is beyond me. But if this show is pointing the way for dramatic program development in Canada, it’s making me hopeful that there is more out the like this. This show, perhaps more than anything except Intelligence is actually beating the Americans at their own game and as I proud Canadian I’ve just got to blow a big fat raspberry to the south.
BOSTON LEGAL (ABC) (2 SPUDS) – This is one of the best shows on TV, thanks to a fantastic cast including James Spade and Wild Bill Shatner and writer producer/genius David E. Kelley. This show was one of the first to tackle serious issues with humour and actually be two shows in one. I love it. It’s probably my favourite show of all. TUESDAY Not quite Monday, but not too shabby.
THE TUDORS (CBC) (2 SPUDS) This is a pompous-ass fictionalization of the life of Henry VIII, arguably one of the most notorious kings of merry olde Englande. It’s very well written and exquisitely produced, and though it kinda drags it’s regal butt here and there, it’s pretty entertaining.
HOUSE (GLOBAL/FOX) (2 SPUDS This is one of the highest rated shows on television and it all comes down to two things. Hugh Lawrie and the scripting of the show. His portrayal of the tortured and physically anguished genius diagnostician is simply in a class of its own on television. The only performance that comes close in James Spader’s Alan Shore on Boston Legal. This is must see TV.
FRINGE (FOX): (2 SPUDS) Spooky fun from Mr JJ Abrams, creator Lost, Alias, What About Brian etc. This is a kind of hopped up and less mysterious version of The X Files, complete with female FBI agent with lots of issues, mad scientist who loves junk food and his enterprising son, who is determined to figure out the mystery of it all. This show is pretty graphic and awfully weird. But you’ve got to hand it to Mr Abrams…the dude knows how to keep your attention.
NCIS (CBS): (2 SPUDS) This show started 3 years ago as a spin-off from the highly successful JAG, but it has more in common with CSI than its parent show. It’s all about the investigation, and it’s just great. It’s also done in a not quite so serious way, that gives the characters a lot more humanity than the tortured souls that inhabit the CSI world.
ELI STONE (ABC) (2 SPUDS) This light drama, in its second season is about a hardnosed lawyer (Johnny Lee Miller) who starts having visions that keep coming true. Everybody thinks he’s nuts, and then they find out he has a brain aneurism that’s pushing on an area of his brain that could cause these hallucinations, so he has it removed, and finds out, much to his chagrin that he’s still having the visions. While the first season spent a lot of time on the visions and his efforts to deal with them, the second season seems to be more about what this has all meant to his law firm. Greg Berlanti, (Everwood, one of the best family dramas of all time), created this show, so it’s chock full of humanity and a very entertaining.
WEDNESDAY
SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE CANADA (CTV) (2 SPUDS) This is a clone of the US show, and is, I am delighted to report, every bit as entertaining. Last night I watched the final 12 contestants compete and I honesty cannot figure out how anyone could say that one dancer was any more or less deserving than another. This is a hell of a thing. These kids are as good as anything out there in the dancing world, legends not withstanding. This show, except for the irritating hostess, (she’s no Cat Deeley) is an absolute joy to watch every week.
CRIMINAL MINDS (CBS): (2 SPUDS) This is dark, nasty serial killer stuff about a special investigative FBI team. It is two or three notches above any other cop show I’ve ever seen. These people deal with the absolute worst criminals you can imagine, and they bear the psychological scars to prove it. This show isn’t for everybody, cause it’s real intense. But it is terrific entertainment nonetheless.
THE MENTALIST (2 SPUDS) This is a mildly interesting copy-type series that’s right in line with the trend of having intuitive eggheads of one kind or another hanging out with real cops or FBI agents, who don’t seem to be able to do their jobs without them. In this one, the very charming Simon Baker plays an FBi advisor, who used to be a mentalist, but who has highly developed powers of observation. It’s all very California and a pleasant way to spend an hour. One thing I noticed is that these FBI people all eat together a lot.
STARTER WIFE (SHOWCASE) (2 SPUDS) This is one of those LA cable series starring Debra Messing as a separated and ostracized from her peer group Hollywierd wife and her small circle of friend. This show is very smart, funny and sometimes mildly depressing when you think about just how crazy life is out there in La La Land.
THURSDAY
LIFE ON MARS (ABC) This is a rip of the weird Brit series of the same name. This one is a lot more atmospheric, but the story line is a little more transpired, as there are probably a lot of BDIs (Brain Dead Idiots) watching it, cause it’s doing rather well. Essentially it’s a kind of time warp thing. Cop gets hit by a car in 2008, wakes up in 1973, still a cop, still working at the same precinct. This series also has Michael Imperioli and Harvey Kietel in it and they are just great at being seventies characters.
THE ELEVENTH HOUR (CBS) (1.5 SPUDS) I’ve been kind of waffling back and forth on this one. It’s not bad I guess. But again it’s kind of a dumbed down intellectual crime-fighting show, starring yet another Brit with a great American accent. This time it’s Rufus Sewell. He calls himself an FBI Science Guy. And he kinda figures out what really happened whenever there’s a weird crime. Usually the prots are really complex and that’s good. But it tends to drag its ass here and there and that’s not so good. Hence the waffling on my part. But it’s a good looking show and Rufus has some real charisma going on.
FRIDAY
LIFE (NBC) Another transplanted Brit doing a great American accent, this is a pretty good cop show about a cop who was framed for murder and gets out after about 12 years with with a big fat cash settlement and his old job back. The cop, played by Damian Lewis, eats pretty much nothing but fresh fruit and has an extremely Zen like attitude towards solving crimes, including the old murder case he was framed for. This is pretty good stuff for a mainstream network.
NUMBERS (CBS) (2 SPUDS) This is a cop show produced by the Scott Brothers Tony and Ridley and it’s great. No Brits here, just good old American Boys. It’s about an FBI Field Supervisor and his brother who is a genius mathematician, who uses all kinds of formulas and algorhythms to help his brother and his squad solve very complex crimes. This show is always exciting and interesting to watch, mainly because it doesn’t insult your intelligence, so much as it counts on it and helps all us math-mystified spuds get a little better grasp on how high end math is used in the real world.
SATURDAY
Nothing happening here except Hockey Night in Canada and nobody here gives a rat’s ass. You can also pick up re-runs of some of the shows you might have missed during the week.
SUNDAY
Sunday, at Spud Central is pretty much all about the football.
TORCHWOOD (SPACE) (2 SPUDS) This show is over for the season, which means if you look for it you can catch the series right from the top of season 2. It’s essentially about a group of investigators whose job it is to capture alien life forms and gadgetry that make their way through a rift in space that hovers directly over Cardiff Wales. I believe this is where Tom Jones came from and that explains a lot. Anyway, this is very intense sci-fi with a great crew of American and Brit actors. This isn’t you namby-pamby slow moving sci fi either. This show has a breakneck pace and like all good sci-fi shows, it’s full of little life lessons. But mostly it’s about keeping the world safe from an alien invasion.
WHAT ABOUT THE REST?
Well, you can’t watch everything. So I have lets quite a few shows drop off the Spud Central radar screen. The CSI shows. The Law & Order shows. Most of the sit coms. Knight Rider. My Own Worst Enemy. Prison Break. Heroes. Dancing With The Stars. Without A Trace. And of course all the reality shows. There are a couple of other shows that I have never actually seen. The Ghost Whisperer. Don’t know what that’s all about other than the obvious. Dr Who & Smallville. I suppose they’re pretty good, just never got interested enough to check them out.
Well that just about covers it. Hope this gives you a better indication of what’s out there.
