Anyone who reads this blog knows I ramble on about Lost or consistently tune into The Office each week. I really don’t spent lots of time on TV besides a few choice series, but there are two shows that snatched my attention in their freshman season this year before the strike.
- Pushing Daisies: My absolute favorite new show of the season. It’s about a pie-maker that has an odd ability to bring the dead back to life with a single touch, but only for 60 seconds and only once. He teams up with a private investigator to solve cases, but the true narrative involves the pie-maker’s love for his childhood sweetheart that he revives & refuses to touch again to return her to death. They both love each other, but can never touch again due to his ability. The acting is fantastic, the writing is witty, the characters are quirky and the artistic design of the show is very Tim Burton-esqe.
- Reaper: Ridiculous premise, but the supporting characters sell the show. Basically, a 21 year old guy finds out his parents sold his soul to the Devil when he was a baby. The devil forces him into a life of bounty hunting souls that escaped from Hell. It’s very much like Smallville’s format, but with believable acting, competent writers and an evolving storyline. It’s a light comedy that takes itself just seriously enough to be extremely entertaining.
There were a few highly touted freshman shows I tried to watch, but failed miserably. Mad Men comes to mind, the show about the sexual exploits and social mores of a 1960’s advertising agency. Despite recommendations from friends, I found the lack of plot to be incredibly boring most of the time. Another AMC show, Breaking Bad, killed my interest in a couple episodes. It was a novel idea, but the B-List actors got on my nerves. I tried NBC’s Chuck as well, but found it to be a poor man’s Jake 2.0. Eli Stone had my interest peaked, but the story moved along far too slowly and it got bogged down in political messages.
I’m looking forward to a couple new pilots in the fall, My Own Worst Enemy with Christian Slater sounding the most interesting. It’s about a guy with a split personality, one half being a mild-mannered, middle-class family man and the other being a Jason Bourne type character that works for the military. The premise sounds promising and I’d like to see poor Christian Slater finally get a hit. I’m also looking forward to The Cleveland Show, the spin-off from the Family Guy character.
