Dig a hole and fill it up

To be honest the only reason Life turned up at my short-list after its cancellation was the prospect of a couple of episodes featuring Jessy Schram. The young and beautiful Jessy caught my attention during her short spell at Veronica Mars; a show I've made no attempt to hide my affection for. After watching about half of the episodes made of Life until being pulled, I've got few problems understanding why it lost its airing slot. It's just not very good. The never ending zen-stuff is nothing but annoying, the main characters are also more annoying than interesting and the recurring interview-repeats are beating their message into the viewer. It's just lazy work and sloppy TV.

Jessy Schram as Rachel Seybolt and Damian Lewis as Charlie Crews at Life

After watching The West Wing I wanted to get more Bradley Whitford. Taking a short break from Sorkin I'll save Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip a couple more weeks, so I decided to check out Burn Up. A mini-series about politic, climate changes and oil-interests starring Whitford, Neve Campbell and Rupert Penry-Jones. Taking a liking to Neve during her Party of Five days and at least getting to know Penry-Jones on Spooks, I had few doubts they had done their job with the casting at least. Politically motivated drama-thrillers are never easy to pull off. It's tough to find the correct balance in how to present both sides, it's difficult to get the amount of intense scenes vs informative once correct and they need to touch a string with their audience to really ever have any opportunity to accomplish their target.

 Neve Campbell and Bradley Whitford in mini-series Burn Up

They don't quite succeed in Burn Up, but Whitford is interesting in his part and Campbell does a better acting job than I've seen from her in a long time, if I've ever before. I wasn't that impressed by Penry-Jones, and he's unfortunately the main character. The first part of this series is also quite a lot better than the final half. I really don't care enough the last 20 minutes or so. They haven't managed to get me invested enough in the story, no matter how important the premise of the series actually is. If you get across Burn Up it's worth watching, but you don't exactly need to go out of your way to get a hold of it.

In pilot-news I've checked out The Forgotten. If you can't manage to make even the pilot more interesting than this, you should realize the idea isn't very good to begin with. I can understand what they were trying to accomplish, but they really should realize they stepped between genres in a way they could never become a winner. Also seen the pilot of Crash, and while it didn't quite catch me there's something there in need of exploring. I'll for sure at least watch one or two more episodes until making up my mind.

Aaron Douglas as Frank Leo at The Bridge

And finally there's a show at least managing to entertain me for the runtime of the pilot, even being a double episode, in the Canadian produced The Bridge. A highly entertaining pilot, but the second episode was a huge step down. I haven't gotten around to the third yet, but while the opening had some street-cop feel I fear it'll lose its footing with the union-take being their main point of view as it seems. Still a show I'll give at least a couple more episodes to convince me one way or the other.

Favorite TV-characters

Alphabetically sorted by show within each category.

Favorite principal characters

Dylan McKay (Beverly Hills, 90210)
Jeff Murdock (Coupling)
Trevor 'Cupid' Hale (Cupid (1998))
Joey Potter (Dawson's Creek)
Pacey Witter (Dawson's Creek)
Ari Gold (Entourage)
Chandler Bing (Friends)
Olivia Dunham (Fringe)
Adrian Monk (Monk)
Jimmy James (NewsRadio)
Andy Sipowicz (NYPD Blue)
Haley James (One Tree Hill)
Cosmo Kramer (Seinfeld)
Sheldon Cooper (The Big Bang Theory)
Dan Stark (The Good Guys)
Doug Heffernan (The King of Queens)
Josh Lyman (The West Wing)
'Stringer' Bell (The Wire)
'Jimmy' McNulty (The Wire)
'Sully' Sullivan (Third Watch)

Veronica Mars (Veronica Mars)
Samantha Spade (Without a Trace)

Favorite supporting characters

Jules Callaghan (Flashpoint)

Donna Moss (The West Wing)
Omar Little (The Wire)

Favorite guest appearing characters

Donna Moss (The West Wing)

Janel Moloney is Donnatella Moss at The West Wing.

Bradley Whitford played the Deputy Chief of Staff Josh Lyman at The West Wing. As his assistant Janel Moloney as Donnatella Moss was only credited as a guest star despite appearing in all episodes the first season. Starting out I suspect Aaron Sorkin didn't have any larger plans for this character than he had for others assistants or secretaries like Margaret, Carol and Bonnie. When the second season started no-one was surprised to find Janel among the intro-credits as Donna grew into an important part of the West Wing ensemble during their first season.

In the first episodes Donna is used as a prop to explain political stands with those classic West Wing walk-and-talk conversations with Josh. From the beginning its easy to notice how well Bradley Whitford and Janel Moloney captures their scenes together. Sorkin must have noticed it early as well, as their chemistry is relayed on to make some of the more interesting political storylines quite early in the series.

Josh Lyman and Donna Moss

As seasons pass by Donna grows as a more and more important part of the Bartlet's White House-staff and her assignments slowly grows in importance as well. She never reaches the level of importance for the show as President Bartlet, Josh Lyman, Toby Ziegler, Leo McGarry and C.J. Cregg, but Janel makes this supporting role one of the more memorable long time supports I've ever seen in any show. She's no doubt one of my favorite supporting roles at least.

What Kind of Day Has it Been?

Every so often I'll look back at what shows I've been watching lately. Most notably those I've seen in complete seasons and/or entire aired shows. Other times which shows I've seen the pilot or a couple of episodes of, and found to be unable to satisfy my criteria for a TV-show. And other times I'll only be looking back at the regular shows I've been following for seasons to go, judging them on their standards according to previous seasons. All these will be labeled Lately and found under the recurring header at the right side of this blog.

This time around I've spent a lot of time with the creations of Aaron Sorkin. I looked for the second season of Sports Night and the entire The West Wing-series for my brother. Even if I've watched both series in full a couple of times previously, I started watching some episodes of the first season of Sports Night myself. After ten episodes of it I was once again deep into the world that is the genius of Sorkin, and decided to again undertake the epic beauty of The West Wing. So the last week or so I've not only seen the complete West Wing serie, but I've also repeated one and a half season after I was done. I'll be back later to give my takes on it, and especially on the first season(s), but that's not for the Lately-column.

Prior to my revisit of Sorkin's world I did for the first time check out Fringe. As I haven't really ever got the Lost fever back after abandoning it during the third season, I'm not a J.J. Abrams junkie. I do however have a thing for Joshua Jackson, so Fringe have been on my to-do-list quite a while. As it turned out it was better than I feared. I wasn't really ever a X-files fan either, and I feared Fringe would be too much alike it. Fringe didn't really start out to well, but as I had been told it was gonna pick up I gave it a chance and it soon captured me into its world. I quickly watched everything aired so far, and I'm now looking forward to they pick up airing after Easter. I still have objections and reservations towards it, but I've got hopes they'll manage to lead the show on the right track from here.

After The West Wing I've checked out a couple of new shows pilots. Yesterday I watched Justified. It wasn't at all impressive. They just tried too hard to make the main character seem tough as nail. A walking cliché if I've ever seen one. I did catch the subtle attempts to show his softer side, but between the weak ass script and the acting I'll not give it another episode to convince me of its strengths. Today Parenthood managed to get the same sentencing. I couldn't even get myself to watch the entire first episode. During the entire main family they're looking to follow, the number of characters with any depth or substance whatsoever can probably be easily overlooked. I wasn't as impressed by Band of Brothers as many others, but I still enjoyed it a lot and I'm looking forward to take on The Pacific. I just haven't got around to it yet.

Other shows I really haven't seen before, but who's now found their way into my check-it-out future is among others Mad Men, 8 Simple Rules, Buffy-The Vampire Slayer and True Blood. And I'm still pleased someone figured out Southland would probably be smart to pick up for another season. I'll most likely also take on the rest of Sports Night as well as the lone season of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip while I'm still in Sorkin-mode. Those not as familiar with him might not know this, but this blog entry's title is the same as all his three shows have named the season one finales.

This entry's long enough now, so I'm not going to start talking about any of those shows I do still keep up with weekly. I'm not sure if I've stopped watching any during the last couple of months either, but a new lately entry were I evaluates the season so far is probably not that far away.

Until then,
ZapperLife

The end of something simple. The beginning of everything else.

I love TV. TV is such an underestimated way to tell a story, often ridiculed as a pop cultural waste of time. Truth is TV has got possibilities movies haven't got when it comes to how they tell a story. Unfortunately quality and large amounts of advertiser money doesn't always meet and greet. As a result many quality TV-shows have never got the air time and attention it deserved, and more often than not the result is simply the axe. Their slot opens up for another attempt to struck gold finding the next Ally McBeal, Grey's Anatomy, 24, Friends, Lost or X-Files to secure its actors and actresses instant fame, the network a lot of money and its creators a carte blanche for whatever his or her next three or four crazy ideas might be.

 Lost is no doubt one of those shows striking gold

For every flavor of the week, there's a lot of quality only remembered by the smaller masses that discovered the treasure. These cult classics might never get the recognition they deserve, but are often remembered fondly for life by those who was lucky enough to get that attachment to it. An example might be Firefly. A show I haven't yet checked out myself, but I do have it available for when I'm in the mood to take on the short journey towards its final aired episode. I've got no idea how often I've seen people describe Firefly as "the best show ever to air", "to cancel Firefly was the worst decision ever" and the likes of these. You don't get much more of a reward in the business than such fan reactions to the cancellations.

Sometimes large campaigns manages to change the minds of those looking to axe the show in question. I remember Jericho was initially axed after one season, but the public reaction got another season going. They didn't manage to come close to a third, but the voice of the people can in some cases have an impact.

To me the biggest loss is Veronica Mars. How they could cancel it after only three seasons is beyond me. It's still the best show I personally feel never got to run its natural life. A couple more seasons on Hearst College and Veronica Mars could have vanished into history as one of the greatest TV-tales ever told. You see some shows go on for 8-10 seasons, and the later ones are just milking money of the brand name. Then it's really annoying to think about what kind of a TV-quality landmark shows like Veronica Mars, Firefly, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip and their likes could have made on people if the only got a couple more seasons. I take my part of the blame. I also kept watching shows like Cold Case and CSI way longer than they deserved my attention.

I really miss this classic show and that sassy character

I'll spend this blog talking about TV-shows I watch, new ones or old ones revisited or discovered, I'll talk about TV in general, review shows partly and in full and complain when some executive doesn't agree with me on what's quality and what's not as they once again axe one of the few shows I really really enjoy unlike all those I watch more as a habit or guilty pleasure. I'll be shameless when singing the praises for those I feel deserve it. Not only in a blog every now and again, but I'll dissect them through seasons, main choices in characters cut or added and so on and so forth. And I'll do so without any professional values or education to guide me. I'll do it because while I might not have the slightest idea of how to consider a Van Gogh, a Picasso or a Shakespeare, I do know what I like or dislike in TV-shows or movies. I might not emphasis on the red herring, the allusions, the clichés or even the lack of originality, but on the big picture of how well the creators, writers and actors manage to entertain me. At the end of the day that's all I'm asking for. Entertainment. And TV-shows have the ability to entertain in the purest form. I'll just do my best to let you know how they succeed when it comes to my taste.