Some People Juggle Geese

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.

the 40 shows NBC has canceled since Chuck began

Chuck's improbable 5th season starts on Friday. It's not so much that it gets great numbers, but that NBC's schedule is so bad that Chuck is one of their safe bets. The numbers aren't great, but they don't suck as bad as the rest of NBC's schedule.

Alan Sepinwall over on HitFix has constructed this great list of all the shows that NBC has canceled since Chuck started:

(*) In addition to "Bionic Woman" and "Journeyman," NBC has scheduled, and then canceled, more than FORTY new shows either concurrent with "Chuck" or after: "Bionic Woman," "Journeyman," "Life," "Lipstick Jungle," "The Singing Bee," "Fear Itself," "America's Toughest Jobs," "The Chopping Block," "Crusoe," "Howie Do It," "Kath & Kim," "Kings," "Knight Rider," "The Listener," "Momma's Boys," "Merlin," "My Own Worst Enemy," "The Philanthropist," "Southland" (though TNT rescued that one), "Superstars of Dance," "100 Questions," "Losing It With Jillian," "The Jay Leno Show," "Mercy," "Persons Unknown," "Trauma," "America's Next Great Restaurant," "The Cape," "Chase," "The Event," "Friends with Benefits," "Law & Order: LA," "Love Bites," "Outlaw," "Outsourced," "The Paul Reiser Show," "Perfect Couples," "School Pride," "Undercovers," "The Playboy Club" and "Free Agents."

I only watched a handful of those shows, and I'm pretty sure the only one I even sort of wanted to continue was Journeyman. Wow, NBC. Way to stink up the joint.

Beavis and Butthead return!

I just finished watching the premiere episode of the new Beavis and Butthead. I had forgotten a) how much I loved Beavis & Butthead and b) that I missed them. Seriously, if you ever had any affection for them the first time around, you owe it to yourself to check out version 2.0. The first episode airs something like 20 more times before next week's new episode. C says check it out.

And the deadpool winner is...

The first cancellation of the fall season is...The Playboy Club. Glad I didn't waste any time trying to figure out how to watch it. It conflicted with other stuff I was recording and I couldn't muster the enthusiasm to download it just to see how awful it was. I guess that question was answered for me today.

Since I'm here, how about a rundown of the new shows:

Terra Nova - haven't watched it yet, not encouraged by the buzz.

Suburgatory - one episode in, I'm still on board. Looks promising.

Person of Interest - meh. Still watching. Not sure why.

Prime Suspect - I'm out. It stinks.

Pan Am - Haven't watched the second episode yet, but thought the first one was promising.

Sorry for the stupid formatting here. Have I mentioned lately that I kind of hate TypePad's interface for doing anything? Yeah. I do.

NEW AARON SORKIN SHOW

HBO announced today the pickup of Aaron Sorkin's yet untitled new series. The working title for the pilot was More As This Story Develops and is based in the world of cable news shows. It stars Jeff Daniels, Emily Mortimer, Sam Waterston and a bunch of other people. Personally, I can't wait to see how Sam Waterston's speaking style goes with Sorkin's rat-a-tat dialog. HBO is said to be fast-tracking it to production and hope to have it on air before the end of the year. Yippee!

Sorkin, who won an Oscar for The Social Network this year, also has a new movie coming out this month, Moneyball. It's an adaptation of the book about the Oakland A's and stars Brad Pitt. I am really looking forward to seeing it.

Fall TV Preview

Welcome to the fall TV season, 2011. There are a whole lot of underwhelming new shows, a few that might be worth checking out, and a bunch of returning favorites.

The ground rules: I'm only writing about the shows I care about, or if I have something particularly snotty to say about something I don't actually care about. If you want a rundown of all the fall shows, go buy Entertainment Weekly or something. They get paid to look at all the crap. Also, this is mostly network. I'll throw in cable if I remember it as I go. As with previous years, I'll go day by day, with airtime and premiere dates in parens after the title of the show. So without further ado, here's your fall preview, a la C.

Monday: The big noisemaker of a new show on Monday nights is Fox's Terra Nova (8:00, Sept. 26). I'd love to tell you what it's about, but my brain short circuits somewhere around the word dinosaurs. It starts in the future, and then sends people back in time to create a new human settlement. I'm choosing not to think too hard about what that means as far as timey-wimey stuff goes. I'm just hoping it's good. It's taken them forever to get the pilot in to the critic's hands because the effects were taking forever to finish. I believe we're not getting a 22 episode season out of it, but I'm going to sign up for the first couple episodes at the very least. It's up against the juggernauts of reality TV The Sing Off and Dancing With the Stars as well as How I Met Your Mother (which I gave up on last season). The 10:00 hour on Mondays is crowded with returning favorites Castle (10:00, Sept. 19) and Hawaii Five-0 (10:00, Sept. 19) going up against new arrival The Playboy Club (10:00, Sept. 19), which looks like enough of a train wreck that I kinda want to watch. Mostly I'm dying to see how, as the network claims, The Playboy Club is 'empowering' to women. Just. No. But it is set in Chicago in the 60s, and that's appealing to me. So I'm completely torn, except that I've already got Castle and H5-0 to watch, so I'll probably catch this one on repeats. Or, you know, never. The only other returning show that some of you might care about is House (9:00, Oct. 3). I find I care absolutely nothing about House anymore.

Tuesday: The main returning show on Tuesday nights is Glee (8:00, Sept. 20). I'm through with Glee on every level. I don't know why I watched it in the first place, and I've finally given it up. There's a new comedy on after Glee called The New Girl (9:00, Sept. 20) that's been getting some buzz. If you're lacking comedies in your TV diet, it might be worth checking out. There's one new drama on Tuesdays that I'm thinking about checking out called Ringer (9:00, Sept. 13), which is an evil-twin drama starting Sarah Michelle Gellar. There's also a cop drama on CBS called Unforgettable (10:00, Sept. 20) about a detective who has hyperthymesia (she can't forget anything, like, ever) that might be a solid procedural. Other than that Tuesday's got nothing on offer. Spend it catching up on your Monday shows.

Wednesday: The big returning show for me here is Survivor: South Pacific (8:00, Sept. 14). They're once again bringing back two veteran players, the twist this time being that neither one has ever even come close to winning. Redemption Island still exists, but they've promised no multi-person duels this time. The other show I want to watch in that same time slot is a new comedy called Suburgatory (8:30, Sept. 28). I don't know much about it, but I'm watching it solely because Alan Tudyk is in it. I hope it's good. Both of these shows are up against what Fox is hoping is the next big reality thing, The X Factor (8:00, Sept. 21). This is, I'm pretty sure, the show in the UK that brought us Susan Boyle among other weird pop culture things. It's more of a talent show than American Idol, but the idea is sort of the same. Either way, the degree to which I don't care is astronomical. CBS's flagship CSI (10:00. Sept. 21) moves to Wednesday night at 10:00 this year, Laurence Fishburne leaves the show, and Ted Danson arrives on the scene as the new head guy. I'm sure I'll keep watching.

Thursday: Thursday returns one of my favorite shows on TV, The Big Bang Theory (8:00, Sept. 22) on CBS. There are also three new dramas on Thursday night. Well, I say new, I mean one new and two reboots of classic shows. The one new show is called Person of Interest (9:00, Sept. 22). It's exec produced by J.J. Abrams and stars Jim Caviezel and Michael Emerson (Ben Linus from Lost). The premise is something about being able to predict crimes, but looks better than Minority Report did. It looks intriguing and I'll be tuning in. The first remake of note on Thursdays is Charlie's Angles (8:00, Sept. 22). I'm still sort of in disbelief that they went there, but you never know. It could be good. The other remake is Prime Suspect (10:00, Sept. 22), based on the original British show starring Helen Mirren. I'm not familiar with the original, but I'm contemplating checking this one out.

Friday: My favorite drama on TV is back on Friday nights. I seriously cannot wait for the return of Fringe (9:00, Sept. 23). If you haven't been watching, you've got a little over two weeks to catch up. Go. Now. Chuck (8:00, Oct. 21) moves to Friday for its fifth and final season, which I believe is going to be a 13 episode order. CSI:NY (9:00, Sept. 23) is on at the same time as Fringe and I'll probably keep watching just because I love the ridiculous things they make Gary Sinise snarl out. The other show I'm kind of interested in on Friday nights follows Chuck and is up against Fringe and CSI:NY, so it's pretty much got no hope of survival. It's called Grimm (9:00, Oct. 21), you know, like the fairy tales, and it's a sort of supernatural cop show. Could be interesting. If Chuck and CSI:NY are on repeats the night it starts, I'll probably check it out.

Saturday: As usual, nothing. I mean other than wall-to-wall college football, which is where I'll be through November.

Sunday: Well, there's The Simpsons (8:00, Sept. 25), coming back for its 23rd season. There are two new dramas, both on ABC that might merit some attention. First is another fairy tale show called Once Upon a Time (8:00, Oct. 23). The other is another period piece set in 1963 called Pan Am (10:00, Sept. 25). For those of you too young to remember, Pan Am was an airline. The show is about the flight attendants back when they were called stewardesses and had to be hot chicks. It stars Christina Ricci among others, and looks like it could be entertaining.

The networks already have some interesting shows spooled up for us at midseason (and when 90% of the new shows fail), so stay tuned for that.

Summer TV

I was all prepared to write something totally snarky about how there's no TV during the summer when I saw Mo Ryan's post of upcoming premieres, but it turns out there are a fair number of shows I'm pleased to see back on the schedule. In order of premiere date:

I'm going to lead with something that I'm not actually excited about. I just need to share my overall feeling of WTF with the rest of you. Bowing tonight on MTV is a new series called Teen Wolf. Yes, you read that right. Apparently all it has in common with the Michael J. Fox movie (and Jason Bateman sequel) of the same name is that there are some characters with the same names. Lacrosse has replaced basketball as the sport of interest, which immediately makes my interest wane further. I saw a panel of these folks at Comic Con and it just looks impossibly bad. Like a weekly, serialized version of Twilight focusing on the werewolves or something. Russel Mulcahy, who I know because he directed a bunch of Duran Duran's videos when I was a teenager as well as, you know, Highlander, is involved with this piece of dreck. I mean. I don't even.

Coming up on June 7, White Collar returns to USA. This show is fun. If you haven't been watching, you can probably jump right in. It's not that complicated. Buddy cop show. One of them is a conman and one of them is the FBI agent that finally caught him. They solve cases. Hijinks ensue. Fun.

Here's one that Mo missed. Starting on June 8th (I think, their website is being obtuse) is a new season of Through the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman on the Science channel. The first season is great and I just think it's fun to learn science-y stuff with Morgan Freeman talking at you.

BBC America recently bought the rights to Battlestar Galactica and will start airing it from the beginning (I'm assuming no miniseries) on June 12. I'd be more excited about this if I got BBCA in HD.

June 18 on BBC America is the start of the import Outcasts. It's post apocalyptic sci-fi and I didn't hear great things about it when it aired in the UK. I may check it out, I may not. Either way it's only eight episodes, so no huge commitment.

June 19 brings the start of Falling Skies on TNT. This was another panel I sat through at Comic Con last summer, so I'm a little surprised it took them this long to get around to airing it. It's Earth post-alien invasion. After the Comic Con panel I was actually intrigued, so that's something, I guess. I will probably check it out.

Hands down the weirdest looking show of the summer is Wilfred, which starts June 23rd on FX. It's apparently a remake of an Australian show. It stars Elijah Wood and a dude in a dog suit. So, yeah.

Leverage comes back to TNT on June 26th. One of my favorite shows these days, it's another bit of frothy fun. Highly recommended.

And then it's July. Torchwood: Miracle Day starts July 8th on Starz. I'm honestly not sure if I get Starz, but I'll find a way to watch this. If there's one thing I've gotten from the last season and a half of Doctor Who, it's that I miss Russell T. Davies and his style of story telling. If Torchwood is the only way to get me some of that, so be it. The last Torchwood miniseries was absolutely spectacular for the first three episodes of the five total. It kind of went off the rails after that, but it was a thing of beauty before it went all the way to crazytown. I have some hope for Miracle Day.

July 13 brings the return of Warehouse 13 on SyFy. Another bit of froth for the summer and a fun way to while away those long days.

Lastly, and in no way least(ly?), Breaking Bad finally returns on July 17 on AMC. If you haven't been watching, why the heck not? With only three shortish seasons produced already, there's plenty of time to catch up before the new season starts. Run, don't walk, to your Netflix queue and put this show at the top. It's very very dark but very very good.

I think that's it for the summer list. Way more than I thought there would be. Enjoy!