Some People Juggle Geese

Upfronts, Sherlock and Avengers

It's almost upfront time, which is when the networks roll out their fall shows to advertisers. It's also often when we find out which shows aren't coming back in order to make room for the new shows. The first casualty is Fox's Alcatraz. It wasn't looking good for it, but it was a kinda fun show. Alas, The Rock is history.

In the good news category, NBC has renewed Community and 30 Rock for abbreviated 13 episode final seasons.

ABC has renewed Once Upon a Time, Castle, and Suburgatory.

More as they're released over the next week. I'll also try to give an early glimpse at the new shows as information about them gets released.

Next, and I'm late on this one, but the second series of the BBC's Sherlock started on PBS on Sunday night. I believe the episodes are online if you're interested in getting caught up. I enjoyed the second series as much as the first, but it's hard for me to get too excited about this airing because, like just about everyone who really liked the first series, we, um, watched them when they came out in the UK nine months ago. But if you're looking for some cracking good Sherlock Holmes stories, please go check them out. The next episode is their interpretation of The Hound of the Baskervilles. It's creepy and trippy and pretty good. C says check out Sherlock.

Lastly, if you haven't seen The Avengers yet, why the hell not? It was OUTSTANDING. Run, don't walk. I saw it in 2D because I kind of hate 3D. I have, however, heard good things about the 3D, so if that's your thing, go for it.

Fringe renewed for a final season

While this season has not been my favorite, it's still one of my favorite shows. I'm delighted that Fringe will be back for a final season next year. Hooray!

"Nothing says hit TV like an economics lecture"

Great article in Vanity Fair about Newsroom.

Newsroom premiere date set

The new Aaron Sorkin show, Newsroom, will debut on June 24, HBO announced today. That is all.

New Aaron Sorkin show on HBO

*kermit flail*

 

June!

Terra Nova is history

I was trying to make a prehistoric joke with the title, but I'm not feeling clever enough to make it work. Suffice to say, Fox has canceled Terra Nova. I'm not terribly surprised, but I'm still a little sad. I think I'm more sad that Fox managed to make a show about time travel and dinosaurs suck. If I had any confidence they were going to fix it in a second season, I'd be even more sad. Instead what we got was an incredibly expensive "genre" show that will be held up for a generation as an example of why genre shows aren't worth producing. Thanks for that.

State of Play on BBC America

This has been out on DVD and on Netflix for years now, and I've mentioned it before, but if you have never seen the origial miniseries of State of Play that ran in Britain in 2003, now's your chance. It's starts airing tomorrow night on BBC America. This is the original series that the movie was based on. It's stellar. The movie was better than I expected, but I saw it after I saw the original, and the original is a thousand times better. Go. Set your DVRs now.

Survivor gets three more seasons

CBS announced today that it's signed for three more seasons of Survivor. It's currently running Survivor 23, so for those of you afraid of math, that means there will be at least 26 seasons of Survivor when all is said and done.

A couple random news bits

I'm doing my best to close open firefox tabs this morning and have come across a couple things that I should just drop in here.

One, and this is kinda old news, is that The IT Crowd isn't returning for a fifth series. There will be a special in 2012, but otherwise, that's it for Moss, Roy, and Jen.

Two, apparently someone thought it would be a good idea to reboot The Munsters. It's from Brian Fuller, who brought us Pushing Daisies and other quirky fare, which I guess gives me some hope, but I still maintain that it is unnecessary and unneeded.

Here's the thing about Terra Nova

I know I don't tend to write critically here much, and when I do it's usually something clever like "it sucks", but I have to spend a few minutes on Terra Nova. Here's the thing: it could be so much better. It could be incredible. I mean, start with time travel and dinosaurs and end up where? In an underground bunker with a magic "computer" singing some stupid song about spiders to a seven year old? Really?

I got started on this because yesterday I had a moment where I was discussing how angry the pilot of Caprica made me. Remember that? It was a while back and I have no idea how to go back and link it, but it's there somewhere. Anyway, if I recall correctly, the thing that totally blew Caprica out of the water for me (even though I wasn't really enjoying it in the first place) was that the super genius, Bill Gates of Caprica DIDN'T HAVE A BACKUP of his ultra important whatever it was. It's dumb shit like this that makes me crazy.

So I think I just had that moment with Terra Nova. I'm actually sort of surprised it took this long. See if you can find the flaw in this particular plan. Step 1: EMP caused by asteroid strike hits Terra Nova. Step 2: Our hero and his moppet get trapped in a super secret room that holds a computer that has the knowledge of the future in it. Step 3: They are trapped because EMP has disabled the doors, but somehow, miraculously, the computer itself is "shielded". Step 4: Because of the EMP, all electronics have to have one magic unique chip manufactured to make them work again. Step 5: There is exactly ONE of these magical chip making machines in all of Terra Nova. Step 6: THIS MACHINE IS NOT IN THE SAME SHIELDED ROOM WITH THE COMPUTER OF ALL KNOWLEDGE, so it's broken. Step 7: The only person who can make a chip to fix the chip machine is the evil, double dealing bartender(?) who is a double agent for the Sixers who makes some sort of deal to...you know what, this is where I give up. Also, if they keep leaving disabled military vehicles in the jungle, they're going to run out right quick. It happens like once a show.

Time travel and dinosaurs, I wish I knew how to quit you. I'll probably keep watching, even though it pains me to my very soul. This show could have been so good.