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Tim Russert: 1950-2008

Courtney and I are just broken up over Tim Russert passing. We haven't updated this site in a long time because TV is so bad these days, beyond bad, but Russert was one of the few people we always watched and enjoyed. We'll miss him.

Knight Rider Coming Back to NBC?

I originally thought a reworking of The Bionic Woman was a bad idea. After episode one I'm pretty impressed. That doesn't mean Ben Silverman's latest move to revive Knight Rider is a good one. The skinny is the car/s in the show will "transform" to keep the show "fresh" and the exec tapped for the show worked on a certain summer blockbuster with "transforming cars." Too many sarcastic quotation marks for you?

This is fucking ridiculous. Can we not get some original ideas going on at NBC? Journeyman is Quantum Leap, The Bionic Woman is The Bionic Woman, Heroes borrows heavily from X-Men. Friday Night Lights was taken from a movie. Some of these work great don't get me wrong but others don't. What I'd like to see is something called "The Original TV Show" that doesn't rely on the past. See shows like House, Ugly Betty, Boston Legal etc.

Knight Rider? Even without the Hoff this can't be good. And if the image to the right is the car it's even worse!

NBC taps Liman for 'Knight Rider' [Variety]

Chuck: Surprisingly Charming

When I fired up the DVR to watch Chuck I was expecting to not like it. After all the commercials I figured I would know all the best jokes and obviously knew the premise of the whole show. What I wasn't expecting was some good acting and a completely charming performance from Chuck himself.

The show's creators could've made him much more of a stereotype and that's what I was expecting. Instead, in just the opening episode, you get actual depth. That makes you root for Chuck which is the only way a show like this will work.

Thw whole dramedy genre is getting a bit tiresome though and I think that may hurt the show over the course of a season. Most people who like spy shows want something serious. However, I can see Chuck appealing to some of thw Alias folk or even the aging Buffy faithful.

Chuck should count itself lucky that I was so surprised, but it'll take a lot of work to keep up the funny, and the charm, all season long.

Heroes: Season 2.1

Quite an opening act tonight until the end, yeah spoilers follow, but plenty of new and old plot twists kept the night moving even if the pace seemed slow.

Heroes catches us up with most of our favorite characters from last year pretty efficiently and with a touch of cleverness. HRG in the copy shop had to be a highlight. Parkman finally getting to be a detective was also a big score for all the nice guys out there.

What bothered me most about the opening is what annoyed me about last season. Get some original storylines people. Seriously, you're going with a virus as a main theme? Been done. Brother and sister with wonder powers? Been done. And the capper is Peter's amnesia. I mean come on, how cliche is that? This isn't Guiding Light. The only thing that will make that ok is if the Haitian did it to him.

Overall I thought they did a good job of presenting all the fragmented stories. It's an interesting way of doing things. Let's hope the whole season can sustain it.

Getting Ready For a New Season

Hello all. We've been taking it easy for the summer so we could really focus on the new season. So much so that we didn't even bother blogging the Emmy's. Thank goodness.

The season starts tonight but because of Bears Cowboys we'll be waiting for the Monday shows to really get us going.

The Peacock has a few new shows we're actually looking forward to in Chuck and The Bionic Woman. It's too bad NBC didn't send us screeners this year though. Wonder why? We'll just have to follow along like everybody else.

American Gladiators: Are You Fucking Kidding Me?

What’s going to be Ben Silverman’s first slip up? You won’t have to go any farther than the revival of American Gladiators. I was too old to like the original when I was 14 (I was three years late for their target age). I don’t think a new 2007 version will do much for me or any other arrested adults out there. Remaking the "Bionic Woman" is one thing, especially after the success of "Heroes," this is just stupid. From the Exec behind it, Craig Plestis, exec VP of alternative programming, development and specials:
"It's truly what's not in the TV landscape right now. While everyone's zigging, I'm attracted to doing a zag."

That’s truly Zucker thinking right there. We should keep an eye on this guy, he will be shooting to the top.   

What We're Watching Update

We know, we know, we haven’t been updating that much this summer but we’ve been trying to save our blogging juices for the new season. We’ve also trimmed our viewing habit’s a bit. “Eureka” is back on my list of must watch shows despite the conspiracy theories underlying the campy plots. “Doctor Who’s” new season is excellent. “Burn Notice” is a favorite “detective” show now as well and even “Monk” and “Psych” are back on my list of DVRed musts. Surprisingly, all five of those shows are NBC properties.

The Other Half and I watch mostly reality shows with “Top Chef,” “Rock of Love,” “Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares” (the BBC version) and “Hell’s Kitchen” being chief among them. “Entourage” is still a favorite and we’re slowly getting through “Mad Men.”

Bummers of the summer season have been “John From Cincinnati,” “Flash Gordon” and “America’s Got Talent.”

We’re really looking forward to the fall season heating up though and will have pilot reviews soon. Of course, NBC didn’t send us screeners this year. Wonder why…

Best Show of the Summer: Rock of Love

I’m half kidding about the designation of best show of the summer…BUT "Rock of Love" is one of the funniest (and I can’t figure out if its intentional or not) shows I’ve ever seen. The Other Half was laughing right alongside me.

The reason the show is so good is two-fold.

1. Bret Michaels is taking this seriously. Again, I’m not sure if he’s taking it seriously looking for a girlfriend or he’s taking it seriously to produce good TV. I think he’s both dumb enough and smart enough to do either.

2. The girls actually have very different personalities. Get past all the silicone and there are some interesting personalities going on here. About three or four of the girls were quite engaging in the on-camera interviews spliced between the “reality.” Others had just, well, silicone going for them. You certainly will remember a few

Otherwise, I think we’ll keep watching just because the promo clips are so darn good. I counted at least four fights coming up and some lecherous moves.

Also, VH1.com has some great clips that were edited. Like the fact that the drunk Tiffany said the “N” word to Dallas. I had thought it was the C word from the editing of the show. I’m shocked she wasn’t kicked off immediately. Did anyone else find this show as entertaining as we did?

Eureka: Season Premiere

Last year i watched a handful of Eureka episodes and really liked it. The lead is played perfectly and the show mixes camp and sci-fi cliches well. Somewhere between those first episodes and the finale the show must have lost its way. Picking up last night I hated the idea behind the time travel and Henry not liking the Sheriff. It set-up the rest of the season well, but I didn't like the set-up. With shows to watch over the summer dwindling, I'm a bit bummed to already cross Eureka off my list.

Summer TV Loving

We’re sorry to take so long to post anything here, but we’ve been enjoying the break from covering TV for a bit and even managed a vacation to London. Although, I’ll admit, the BBC has some good original programming.

So, what are we watching this summer? The DVR is actually quite full and here’s a rundown of our most watched.

Deadliest Catch: When you want to feel cold in the middle of summer watch this show. I still don’t understand how basically the same repetitive motions (drop pot, pull pot, empty pot, drop pot) are so engaging but they are.

Top Chef: One of the best reality shows on TV, and one of the few on Bravo I can watch as a guy and actually get something out of, unlike the fashion stuff.

John From Cincinnati: Courtney has fallen asleep during both episodes we’ve watched. I kind of like it but there better be some explanation of something sometime soon. Although, it is cool to see all the "Deadwood" characters pop up.

Starter Wife: Courtney enjoys it but I am usually out of the room. I saw the first episode and thought it was a bit predictable.

Standoff: Another of Courtney’s favorites. We watched an episode last night and I can see why it got canceled. Wooden acting and bad, bad plots.   

That’s about it for now. There are some really interesting shows coming from USA, HBO and other cable networks but they’re either not on yet or still on our DVR to be explored. We’ll update more soon.