Progress Report
The new TV season is in full swing, but I'm still catching up. Or maybe I've given up. There are a lot of new shows to sample, but I just don't have the time or energy.
For comedy, I've sampled Go On, The New Normal, Ben And Kate and The Mindy Project, but none caught my fancy. I suppose it's easier to get back into a sitcom since the investment is less, and with many comedies it takes half a season for producers to figure out what works anyway, but I better hear some good things about these shows if they expect a second chance. Oddly, the one new comedy I've seen regularly is The Neighbors, which critics despise--I've seen it mostly because it's in a time slot between two shows I do watch.
posted by LAGuy @ 12:13 AM
3 Comments:
I am starting to become fond of the inherent horribleness of The Neighbors. Some combo of the English accents and Jami Gertz adds enough to keep me from switching
I've given up on Revolution. I wanted a show showing the strange landscape of a future world without elctricity. Instead it's some mix of Robin Hood and Lord of the Flies.
I'm still watching Elementary, but you won't hear anything too good about it from me. It's on after Person of Interest, so easy to record. But Lucy Liu is doing nothing for the show (and she's not a good Watson in the traditional sense - she criticizes Holmes way too much and has too much of her own baggage).
I do like Go On. I think it is clearly the survicor of this season's sitcoms. They are now giving each character a defined role, and the mix between work scenes and session scenes is effective (think original Bob Newhart Show). It would benefit from some more guest appearances by real sports figures.
And I'm also still watching Neighbors, for the same reason that it follows The Middle. I'm actually a little more concerned about The Middle - this season they have made the characters into more extreme caricatures. They need to tone it down, otherwise the audience can't identify with them. They don't want to become a Seinfeld style sitcom where the audience is forced to watch from the outside these strange, unbelievable creatures. I'd note, Everybody Loves Raymond started to have the same problem as it went along and the characters became too extreme.
I actually am starting to enjoy The Neighbors, though it seems to be written for 8-year-olds. I like the seriousness and British accents of the two alien adults.
As I noted earlier, in the Bob Newhart Show the crazy people provided spice, they weren't the whole meal. And any show that can be improved by sports cameos doesn't sound like a show I want to watch.
Revolution is what it is. (At first I thought Lost would be about surviving on an island, but that soon became secondary.) It just what it is, isn't good enough.
What's happening to The Middle, good or bad, happens to most shows. Once they figure out what works comedically, they exaggerate those traits.
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