New Fall Television

So, we cracked. We cracked like the sad, sad people we were and got ourselves the basic cable package from Mediacom again. By basic, I mean ABC,CBS,Fox,NBC,CW,PBS and a few random HD versions of said channels thrown in as well. Plus the usual accoutrement of Home Shopping, CSPAN, Fox News, CWN, etc, etc, etc. About as no-frills as you can get in other words and I'm ashamed to say that I couldn't be happier. I missed television. It's sad when you have to admit that to yourself, but it's totally true. And the best part about fall? (Other than football, of course.) New fall television shows.

I don't know when I fell out of love with movies and fell in love with television, it's hard to pinpoint- but a good television show, to me, is one you can keep watching again and again, with great writing, great characters and engaging storylines that hold up well over time. That's my barometer for great television. If I can watch it once, I will, but if I can't (or don't want too) watch it again, then to be frank, it doesn't measure up for me. Great stories are ones you can read again and again, same thing with great music and great movies- the ones you stumble across in the back of your DVD collection and go 'hey, haven't seen that in awhile' and you pop it in and it's just as amazing as you remember it being when you first saw it. That to me, is what makes something truly worth watching/reading/listening too again and again and again.

Plus, I think I like television because the stories are so much more detailed. Movies have two and a half hours, maybe 3 at the most to hold your attention and tell a story. Television shows have to find a way to keep you coming back all year- and maybe years after that. It's a challenge that many fail to meet, but the good ones allow you to get to know characters on a deeper level than the movies and allow for greater character and story development overtime. You're not left wanting more at the end of the television show- a good one should have wrapped things up to your satisfaction. (M*A*S*H is a prime example of this, The X-Files and Seinfeld are not.)

So what does the new fall television season have to offer us? Well, here are a few I've noticed:

The Event (NBC): The latest in a 'we'd like to be the next Lost, please' show, this one is walking a fine line between intriguing and engaging and just plan annoying. So far, what we've learned: The red headed lady from ER (Laura Innes) has been kept in a secret air base in Alaska for 60 years and a shiny new President, (Blair Underwood) wants to free her and all her friends and announce something huge to the world. (Presumably, the titular EVENT.) In the short course of the pilot, it's revealed that there's a plot to kill the President, somehow involving Jason Ritter, a cute girl, a cruise ship and Luke from Gilmore Girls (Scott Patterson) and when the hijacked plane is making its death plunge towards the President in his strangely tropical paradise mansion, there's a weird special effect and the whole plane... VANISHES. Convuluted? Very. Interesting? Very. But the trick with this show is going to be making sense of the whole mess before the audience just gets bored and changes the channel.

No Ordinary Family (ABC): Why can't people do justice to the Fantastic Four? The original family of superheros has seen a cartoon, a crappy B-movie from the late 80s, 2 less than stellar big budget motion pictures and still, other people seem to take the concept of a family of superheros and do it better than anyone else has so far. The Incredibles was one such example, No Ordinary Family is another. Michael Chiklis, Julie Benz and their two kids star as the titular family with Romany Malco from The 40 Year Old Virgin floating around as BFF/side kick wannabe for Michael Chiklis. Basically, the family is a modern, disconnected, too busy family and they're drifting apart. So, Super Dad (a weird combination of Mr. Mom and strangely, a police artist?) makes them all go on vacation to Brazil, where Mom is doing research in the rainforest. They all go on a beautiful plane ride, crash into some glowing water and BAM, super-powers ensue. Super Dad gets his mojo back with his super strength and feels useful, connected and engaged for the first time in a long time. Super Mom is speedy and find out she can make time for her family again. Super Daughter gets telepathy and dumps her cheating boyfriend and Super Son is all droopy because he doesn't get his superpower right away and then, suddenly, he's super smart, thus taking caring of his annoying learning disability. I have hope for this show, provided they keep the focus on the family and don't get too lost in any weighty mythology that they think up. What makes the Fantastic Four so compelling is their family ties- keep that firmly in mind and this show could be around for awhile. Meander into some 'save the cheerleader, save the world' nonsense and we'll end up in a mess that'll make this Extraordinary Family vanish in a big hurry. (Bonus Aside: Dad from 7th Heaven (Steven Collins) appears to be the bad guy. Awesomeness.)

Detroit 1-8-7 (ABC): Speaking as a newly minted 911 Dispatcher, I gotta ask: where are all the Dispatchers in these shows? I mean, I get that cop shows are about guns, violence, catching bad guys, but not even a tiny glimpse of a Dispatcher? We're pretty important, you know... Just sayin. Anyway, from what I've seen it looks like Michael Imperioli may have found a decent cop show to call home for awhile. I thought that about 'Life On Mars' too, but this one seems to work fairly well. Nothing new, nothing ground breaking, just catching bad guys and solving cases- without the tiresome procedural frills of a CSI or a Law and Order. The grittiness of Detroit seems to be the perfect backdrop for hard-bitten cops to catch bad guys in. I'm not sure I'll be watching every single week, but I might drop by from time to time.

Hawaii 5-0 (CBS): Remakes make me nervous. So far, only one truly excellent television remake has ever been made and that was Battlestar Galactica. But I was intrigued by this- it makes sense from a marketing point of view. CBS has been infamous as the 'old people's network' for some time now, despite attempts to shake that moniker off, bringing back a 60s classic for the modern age can only appeal to Baby Boomers that grew up with the original. The casting works, with Alex O'Laughlin as Steve McGarrett and Scott Caan as Danno (really good casting on that last one- he bounces off of O'Laughlin quite nicely and steals a scene or two from the leading man). Daniel Dae Kim and Grace Park add heft to the cast as well. The cast works and the show didn't even bother to mess with the original theme- which was smart of them. However, what the 5-0 squad is and what they do seem curiously ill-defined thus far. The Governor pretty much gives them a blank check to kick ass and so far they come across as this weird cross between spies and cops. I think in order for this to work, they need to pick one or the other, but so far, I'm intrigued enough to keep watching.

Undercovers (NBC): JJ Abrams has done it again. I mean, can this guy do anything wrong? Seriously. Sexy, smart, funny and with spies running around all over the place, this just became my appointment television for the fall season. Boris Kodjoe and the very exotically named Gugu Mbatha-Raw star as a husband and wife team who are caterers (yes, caterers) by day and spies by night. Gerald McRaney stars as their CIA handler who is wonderfully crusty and there are a couple of other random people who help them out as well. I LOVED this show. Sexy people, sexy locations, spies, guns- it's like the best of Alias except without all the confusing Rambaldi crap that it wandered into in about Season 3 and never got back out of successfully. I am tuning into this- as should you...

Outlaw (NBC): I'm always curious about somewhat political shows. They try, does NBC to recapture a sliver of the magic of The West Wing (witness the short-lived Mr. Sterling and if you don't remember that show, that's fine, neither does anyone else) and don't often succeed, but this one caught my attention. In short: Jimmy Smits stars as a bad boy Supreme Court Justice who resigns to go flit around the country and stand up for the little guy. I might have to tune into this one as well- I'm certainly intrigued enough to check it out for a few episodes. As 'law' shows go, it has to be better than the now pedestrian Law and Order. (Moving to Los Angeles right about now, if the clock on my computer is correct.) Perhaps Mr. Smits is overly idealistic and a little pollyannish about his faith in the mystical, magical powers of the law. But then again, so was Mr. Smith. And he managed to go to Washington and do OK for himself...