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Jul 5, 2010 - 10:06 PM |
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A mixed bag of Summer TV |
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What happens when I watch a whole bunch of shows but get lazy about actually discussing them? You get really long entries like this.
Persons Unknown - I really didn't know anything about this show going in, so I was pleasantly surprised by this one. The basic premise is that a random group of people just mysteriously wake up in this small town one day that they can't escape. There are cameras everywhere, so they know people are watching them, but they don't know for what purpose. I think it's a real interesting concept, and I'm glad it's being marketed as a miniseries rather than a regular show, so we know we'll get all the answers by the end. Because of that, I can't fathom why it's getting all these comparisons to Lost. I personally just don't see it all, and that show never crossed my mind once as I watched this one. But whatever. The point is, the show is awesome, and it definitely deserves to be checked out.
The Hard Times of RJ Berger - AKA Colonel Skills: The High School Years. Seriously though, this show turned out to not be as bad as I thought it'd be, which is especially good considering it airs on MTV. The pilot was kinda meh, but I've grown to like it more and more with each subsequent episode. Probably the worse thing about the show is the one they keep hyping up the most, the fact that the main character has a huge cock (do we really need to keep talking about a high school kid's cock?). It honestly wasn't even funny the first time they mentioned, and it gets less funny every time they do mention it (which, luckily, they don't actually do much beyond the pilot). Even aside from that though, it's still not a show for everyone, but if you're into sophmoric comedy there are certainly worse shows you could watch.
Warren the Ape - Aparrently this is a spin-off of Greg The Bunny, but I remember so little from that show that I didn't even realize it until I read about it later (and when Greg actually appeared in a later episode). Anyway, the show isn't terrible, but it seems to be one of those "oh look, it's cute puppets doing bad things haha that's hilarious!" type of shows rather than being genuinely funny most of the time. I'll probably watch it if it's on (and being on MTV, it'll probably be on at least twice a day every day), but it's not a show I'd go out of my way to watch.
Are We There Yet? - A spin-off of the Ice Cube movies that I never watched. I pretty much only watched it because there was nothing else on at the time, and Terry Crews (who played the dad on Everybody Hates Chris) is in it. The show...isn't that great. Terry Crews pretty much plays the same character here except without the quirks that made his character unique on Everybody Hates Chris. Everyone else in the cast is also pretty generic, and even worse, the kids are a bunch of stupid prats that are annoying as fuck. Definitely not a show I'd recommend, though I'm sure that typical of a TBS sitcom.
Top Shot - This show is pretty much Survivor with guns (it's even hosted by a former Survivor contestant, Colby Donaldson). You have two teams competing each other in different marksman challenges (ranging from rrifles and pistols to longbows), with the losing team having to vote for two people to compete against each other in an elimination challenge. Pretty standard reality fare here, but in a good way. The only part I don't like is how they try to justify having this show air on The History Channel by having random bits of historical information thrown in before every challenge. If this aired on any other channel it'd be okay but because it's on The History Channel it just seems so forced. It's not that big a part of the show though, so overall it's still pretty great.
Hot in Cleveland - Just call it The Betty White Show, because she gets all the best lines despite not even being on screen as much as the other leads. Even without her though this show would still be alright, as all the other leads are pretty good in their own right (Wendie Malick probably being my favorite). While there's nothing wrong with the show itself, it just feels weird watching a show (especially a new show) on TV Land.
Rookie Blue - Generic cop show is generic, now with a multiethnic cast! Seriously, this show doesn't do anything that you haven't already seen in a dozen other cop shows (as evidenced by the fact that I was able to predict every major plot twist in the pilot to the surprise of my sister). At least the main character is the chick who played Andi on Reaper, because otherwise I wouldn't know anybody on this show. This show just screams typical summer TV fare, so I don't expect it to last anytime beyond that.
Memphis Beat - Generic Southern cop show is generic. And also not good. Despite having a pretty good cast, the actual show itself is so ho-hum that I just couldn't stay interested for long. I watched the entire first episode but I'll be damned if I can tell you anything that happened in it. Really though, I can't believe TNT got rid of Saving Grace (a good Southern cop show, as if this is actually a genre) but actually put this on.
Boston Med - The show isn't bad, but I just don't see what the big deal is. There's been plenty of shows like this that have been coming on for years on cable channels like Discovery Heatlh and TLC. Granted, the production values are probably a bit higher on this one, but even that isn't necessarily a good thing (for example, they play terrible music like every five minutes). And don't get me started on the doctors themselves, as most of them don't even come off as likable, and the show suffers by having them talk directly to the cameras. I'd much rather have a show where they just follow the doctors around without all the extra commentary, but I guess most people probably wouldn't be able to follow a show like that. Also, I'd prefer more focus on the patients and their families, as they don't seem to be hamming it up for the cameras as much as the doctors do.
And despite all the shows I just talked about, not only do I feel like I forgot something, but I know there are still a few new shows that have already started airing but I haven't got around to watching yet. There were even a few shows that looked so terrible I didn't even bother to watch, and probably never will (like ABC's Sunday night lineup). Either way, this is definitely enough for now, as it is easily 2-3 entried worth of material compared to how I usually do it. Also, I still plan on doing my TV show cancellation entry (despite it already being over a month later than when I usually post it), I've just been lazy about finishing it. I actually completed a good chunk of it back in May (like somewhere between 1/3 to 1/2 of it), but once again the laziness reigns supreme. Hopefully I'll get around to finishing it sometime soon.
Response entries:
A mixed bag of Summer TV, part II by Rockgamer
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