The Couch Potato Connoisseur

House Calls

2007-11-24T02:40:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving!

Before my take on House I wanted to make another observation about Tivo's power. I now store up a month or two's worth of a show and while I blog here in the wee hours I burn off a three-hour chunk of Back to You, It's Always Sunny or Carpoolers and I've noticed that the promos are even more entertaining. Especially the news promos.

Try it for yourself. Get a two-month old TV show and watch the news promos. All of a sudden the story about a boy in a well that turned out to be a hoax is now funny(12 Monkeys, if you can't place the reference).

Now on to House

I had an epiphany earlier this week when I was squeezing in an hour of Sicko before going to work. But like most of my epiphanies it wasn't about saving the world or changing American politics, it was about television.

Most of America loves House. Now Bryan Singer is a creative guy so I'm not taking anything away from him to say that our admiration for House goes beyond the norm. What Sicko crystallized was why we love House. My theory is that House fulfills our need to believe that there is a mythical place in New Jersey where an American doctor is working unfettered by even the thought of managed health care, malpractice and bureaucratic hospital politics.

Wow, a doctor that cares so much about medicine that he tosses everything else out the window - including his beside manner.

Even the fact that so-called reasonable administrative arm of the hospital, Cutty, is many things to House. Which leads me to the point that who wouldn't like to bang the system. Especially if she's wearing a low cut something and a thong. (or in last week's case no thong)

Oh, lastly on Sicko - I cried a little when the 9/11 heroes were honored in Cuba. Now that's good documentary making. No heart string went untugged.

For All the Parents Out There

2007-11-20T00:05:00.000-08:00

I'm watching Chuck (nice, they packed a lot of quotes into their acclaim spot - that can be difficult) and keeping up on 30 Rock, Reaper, Numb3rs, House and ICA (Iron Chef America) and I had a Scrubs marathon last night - but everything else is kind of falling to the waist side.

But before I talk about Soulpatch Symon, share concern that Matthew Bomer is being typecast as a college-aged Enemy of the State or expose the reason House is so popular I want to talk to the parents out there about our kid's TV.

So I'm not above letting our daughter watch a little TV (or "Mooie" as she calls everything on the TV) from time to time and we like most of the stuff out there, but here's a review of a couple of the standouts.

On the positive side is Jakers! The Adventures of Piggley Winks we love every minute of Jakers. Maybe it's the little Spanish bull with an Irish accent named Ferny or maybe it's Mel Brooks as a wise cracking sheep but they even do death well. We watched an Irish Wake for a pet goldfish.

However, in the same Sprout Good Night Show is Angelina Ballerina. It has some nice moments but most of the time it's like a Three's Company rip off. Every episode has Angelina misunderstanding or overhearing something out of context. But here's the rub for the rest of the episode she lies or does something to keep the status quo and in the end when the misunderstanding is revealed everyone laughs it off. To follow through with the analogy that would be like Jack Tripper getting to sleep with the girl at the end of the episode - did he ever get the girl?

Lastly, I wanted to say Happy Turkey Day and to give kudos to Food Network for their Thanksgiving-based programming and Sprout (btw Sprout is PBS's commercial channel). Sprout has rotating Thanksgiving week bugs (those watermarks in the corner of the screen) that look like they were made by their viewers. While I normally detest the growing graphic heavy monstrosities that are the current bugs and snipes these really looked like UGC or more technically YVGC (Young Viewer Generated Content).

Thanks Sprout for reminding me of my childhood when I traced my hand and made a turkey out of the drawing.

Who Was Working Ahead?

2007-11-16T11:16:00.000-08:00

WRITER'S STRIKE - DAY 12

So they always talk about working ahead in my office especially during the Holidays. But this weeks EW has a nice little breakdown of what shows have left as far as episodes. So here's the count:

0 - Last night was the last office for a while. I heard rumors that they might run the Original British version - I wonder how that would play on this side of the pond?
The Office NBC

2
My Name Is Earl NBC
Private Practice ABC
The Unit CBS
Two and a Half Men CBS

3
Back to You Fox
Desperate Housewives ABC
Grey's Anatomy ABC
How I Met Your Mother CBS
Heroes NBC
Pushing Daisies ABC

4
Big Shots ABC
Brothers & Sisters ABC
Criminal Minds CBS
Dirty Sexy Money ABC
Shark CBS
The Game The CW
30 Rock NBC
'Til Death Fox
Women's Murder Club ABC

5
Bones Fox
Chuck NBC
Gossip Girl The CW
House Fox
Journeyman NBC
Prison Break Fox
Supernatural The CW
Reaper The CW
Ugly Betty ABC

6
Girlfriends The CW
Life Is Wild The CW

7
Boston Legal ABC
Carpoolers ABC
Family Guy Fox
Samantha Who? ABC
Smallville The CW

8
Cavemen ABC

10
The Simpsons Fox

11
Aliens in America The CW
K-Ville Fox
King of the Hill Fox

12
Notes From the Underbelly ABC

13
American Dad Fox
October Road ABC

14
Men in Trees ABC

15 Really Fifteen? Do you guys shoot two a day?
Everybody Hates Chris The CW

Wednesday Night is Polygamy Night

2007-11-15T11:51:00.000-08:00

I watch two Wednesday procedurals:
Pushing Daisies and Life(I think I already said this - sorry for repeating)

But Last night I noticed a funny coincidence both shows had investigations of men who were polygamists. OK the subject of Life was more of Bigamy than Polygamy but it's still pretty damn close!

So here's my latest idea for a network that wants to label a night.

Fox has their Action Monday with 24 and Prison Break.
CW and CBS have comedy Monday nights.
NBC has Thursday Night Comedy Done Right and they're trying to convince America that Sunday Night is football night. (I guess if the Real Housewives of Orange County say it, it must be true!)

So I think HBO should run with this. "Wednesday Night is Polygamy Night"

Not to step on any programmer's toes but you could move "Big Love" to Wednesday night and bring back two big hits to round out the night in a big experiment.

Sex in the House: The cast of Sex in the City settle down with Mr. Big as the perfect guy. The twist he's the perfect guy for all of them. Twist on the twist the girls ruin the orgy by complaining to each other while they are all in bed together.

Bada Bling-Bling: Tony Soprano brings in Dr. Melfi as a sister wife to Carmela but instead of toning Carmela down they both try to one-up one another and have a shop-off that ends with Tony seeing another shrink and having to sell the Bada Bing to cover their expenses.

Just a thought. HBO call me if you want to talk about this after the strike. (I'm not in the union but I'll stand with my brothers and sisters - not actual brothers and sisters 'cause I'm an only child but you know what I mean!)

BTW - Cheers to KT Tunstall who gave an impromptu performance for the strikers at ABC/Disney.

Life is a Funny Thing

2007-11-12T23:00:00.000-08:00

So I just watched last week's Life. I'd put spoiler alert in big, bold, all caps but it's a procedural and I hope people are watching but I doubt enough people are watching to save this show, even if it survives the strike.

One quick note on the strike. Get better signs. I saw the news has the cool signs with the space to write your own stuff but the real strikers that I see on the streets have plain signs. Pun it up with, "Make it Write" or "Write is Never Wrong." Something since you're going to rob us of my little pastime.

But back to the main event. Life, the TV show (not the magazine, the cereal or the one you're living) is fun. I like the Zen banter and it's a good procedural. But from the professional standpoint I like their podbusters. Not to pull the curtain back too much I spend part of my day thinking about commercials, promos, snipes and bugs (those things on the bottom of the screen promoting a show or a green tip - the more you know) and lately with the perforation of Tivo's and DVR's into the homes of consumers we have been studying all sorts of ways to keep people through the commercial breaks.

Well, NBC got with Jerry and Ford and made some Bee Movie shorts (they lacked a little development but I guess if you're starved for Jerry) and Fox had some cartoon cab driver but these lacked integration into the program that they were trying to get you to keep watching. Heroes did it right with a Rogue (although when Hayden got all excited about getting the Rogue I was thinking about the old AMC wagon - I guess I'm dating myself). When thinking about podbusting we should be thinking about product placement.

As you might guess I don't get to go to our podbusting brainstorm meetings so I have to vent it hear and hope that my bosses read my blog and like the idea but don't identify it as me.

So this is where Life comes in. It has a great, well-integrated podbuster. Life's thru-story has to do with the setup that sent him to jail for the murder of his partner and his family. So the podbuster has a little tidbit of info on this story arc. And every one has a little call to go to the website for more conspiracy wall insight. Brilliant. But it could be Brilliant but may be cancelled.

The Next Iron Chef

2007-11-08T20:16:00.000-08:00

Before I get into my little review of The Next Iron Chef I want to give you a little update on strike news.

The biggest news is the tentative shelfing of 24 until December '08. So for all you 24 fans out there your two-month wait just turned into 14 months. Let's hope Lost doesn't make the same decision.

Now on to the SPOILER ALERT - If you haven't seen PART 5:LEAD AND INSPIRE

SECOND SPOILER ALERT - If you don't watch the tease at the end of the show, please don't read. (I work with some serious TV and film watchers)

Now with the pleasantries out of the ways let me get down to the episode at hand.

First, let me say that the one thing that has really bugged me about this little series is the hundred-dollar DVD player that holds "The Chairman" giving his little spiel for each contest. Is it really that expensive to fly The Chairman around with Alton and the rest of the crew?

Second, do the judges really have to hold John Besh in such high regard? I like the guy too but as Alton says let's not pick a winner let's just send somebody home.

While Top Chef has young chefs with nothing to lose and everything to gain these chefs are restaurateurs and well established. This is good and bad. In the end of NIC you don't feel so bad when Alton says, "You won't be the next Iron Chef." Why would you feel bad? He's going back to the restaurant he owns.

With the strike in place I wonder if Alton will do a Good Asphalt Iron Chef Special.

Well, I'm off to finish my culinary night with a screening of Ratatouille (my wife and daughter bought it for my birthday).

STRIKE!!!

2007-11-08T01:03:00.001-08:00

So I was going to write about the shows that are gathering dust on my Tivo but then there was a strike and those folders with four episodes of Heroes and three K-Villes aren't lookin' so bad. I might need them to get through a dry spell here if the suits and the scribes can't come to an agreement.

So, I just wait, wait and switch all those little exclamation marks to green circles to settle down for what might be a long, unscripted winter. (I love Tivo - it's so intuitive that my 2-year-old can turn on her own Wiggles)

I guess I could also catch up on some movies.
--but I'm getting a little ahead of myself there's still some TV to watch and by God we'll watch it.

We can all hope that this is better then the '88 strike that lasted for five or so months but all signs are pointing to a long, drawn out standoff (Wow - maybe if they didn't cancel Tim Story's procedural with the pants-sexy Rosemary DeWitt, she and Ron could talk the producers down - oh, that's right they wouldn't have anything to say).

I could just rehash the article at wikipedia but you can check it out yourself here. But What I will say three things:

Where is the mention of Jericho?
What are they going to do with Lost?
And what about Battlestar Galactica?

Simple questions but these were the shows I was hyper-pscyed for and now they might be pushed!?!

Making Room in my Tivo for UnBox

2007-11-02T00:38:00.000-07:00

So my wife is big on finishing things, completing projects, checking things off her list and cleaning slates. As anyone with a Tivo or DVR knows this is not something you can hope to achieve. But I have a new incentive - UnBox is here and Amazon's downloads can go straight to your Tivo. Finally I won't have to call my wife to make sure I programmed the season manager correctly.

Thank god for Tivo (We've had a Tivo for the past four years and I can't imagine TV watching without it) and now UnBox.

Here's my top ten shows that I'm staying up with this fall TV season:

1. Pushing Daisies – ABC – I can’t get people to watch this show. “Yeah, it’s on my Tvio but I haven’t gotten around to watching it.” I’ve heard this from many friends. Well, get into it it’s great TV. A beautiful fairy tale TV show where you care about everyone and production value that’s so thoughtful that every time we go to Olive’s apartment my wife says, “That wallpaper is fabulous!” – The Halloween episode rhymes for ten minutes.

2. House – FOX – Scripted TV takes a page out of the competition reality world as House thins a herd of hopefuls.

3. Reaper – CW – I’m a Kevin Smith fan even though I haven’t seen Clerks 2 and if he can make a little money from this show staying on the air then I’ll keep watching. And when I heard that some X-Flies writers were involved I was all over it.

4. Chuck – NBC – Wow, another slacker show with a slacker lead, a surprising less achieving best friend, an unbelievably hot girlfriend and an equally unfathomable overall premise to keep the show going (sounds like a winning recipe – Chuck and Reaper – KEEP IT UP!)

5. The Next Iron Chef – Food Network– As Top Chef and Feasting on Asphalt end this competition reality starts up and while I don’t like too much reality I’d watch Alton boil water and I’d watch with baited breath (I still Tivo Good Eats)

6. Life – NBC – I’m a bit of a sucker for this procedural. I’m not into CSI or Without a Trace but the violence that spills from a detective that spent a lot of time in the clink and his Zen-speak makes it a stand out. Will it stick around? I’ll let you know when they get their season ordered.

7. Numb3rs – CBS – I’m still watching this show. The Nerd in me loves to pretend to know what’s going on. And the Scott brothers have never done me wrong. (American Gangster is the next movie on my list)

8. It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia – FX – The beat box promo was awesome and every episode is tightly wound, irreverent genius. Way to go Rob, Glenn and Charlie (see that it sounds like I know those guys – maybe now they’ll take my calls).

And rounding out my top 10 are two of the four NBC “Comedy Night Done Right” comedies:

9. 30 Rock – NBC – They went to the “dog fighting joke” Vick’s jumpsuit still has that new jumpsuit smell. Who knew Alec Baldwin was so good at voices? Oh, James Lipton did.

10. The Office – NBC – As the Brach Wars heat up I get drawn in. I still love this show and I won’t rent the British original until our American version runs it course.

Next Time – Like it or Not - What’s gathering dust in my Tivo