NBC is pulling out a lot of tricks in order to capture the summer, and one of them is eight-part series The Philanthropist which starts Wednesday, June 24th. Billionaire Teddy Rist finds himself caught in a flood in Nigeria, and rescues a small boy during the effort to escape his flooded hotel. The event triggers something in Purefoy, mostly a great deal of emotional baggage left over … [Read more...]
NBC is rolling out Merlin this Sunday, June 21st, and it's opening the Sunday night schedule. While it's a pretty decent bit of fun, it's a tricky game for a primetime spot. It's even trickier because the show looks to be playing out in a manner that is going to require at least six or seven episodes to get settled into itself. That's a tough game in today's world of ratings … [Read more...]
You're probably familiar with Bravo's Top Chef, the cooking competition show that has delivered great ratings to the network since the beginning, but now we're taking things up a notch. On June 10th at 10:00pm, Bravo is kicking out Top Chef Masters, and there's $100,000 top prize. It's all big name chefs this time around, several of whom have been guest judges on the regular … [Read more...]
The recent rash of reality television I've forced myself to watch inspired in me a great longing for more of the PBS efforts into reality. You're probably familiar with at least a few of the "House" shows. While I liked 1900 House and 1940 House, and some of the more recent trips into the past were pretty good, none of them really lived up to the theoretical potential like Frontier House. … [Read more...]
You have to hand it to NBC for, if nothing else, knowing what game they're playing when they spit out a show. I'm a Celebrity... Get Me out of Here! is, as we all know, really a show that ought to be titled, I'm sort of vaguely a Celebrity that certain demographics might know (and Lou Diamond Phillips is here)... Get Me out of Here! When that's what you're working with, you need a little help, … [Read more...]
I had a philosophy professor once who absolutely hated Wittgenstein. I don't mean he disagreed with him. Wittgenstein really pissed him off. It turned out, when you got down to it, that his theory was more about people in general, as opposed to any particular philosopher (or religion, because he'd throw a couple of those into his thinking as well). What really got him so worked up was that … [Read more...]
On March 26th at 8pm, ABC is making the web-to-network jump with In the Motherhood, a show that started out as roughly six-minute episodes online. The original show was an odd sort of game, and existed in large part to see how many Suave and Sprint product placements we could really manage in such a short time. It was a show that followed three friends, and was only loosely held together by … [Read more...]
HBO has been pushing the limits recently, and much of their effort has been in distancing their orignal programming from network television by way of becoming "that which could not be shown on network television." Now, the idea that cable networks put out content that couldn't make it to the normal airwaves isn't new, but HBO seems dedicated to kicking that up a few notches. Eastbound & … [Read more...]
I have to admit it. I like Gordon Ramsay. I like Simon on American Idol as well. Apart from the volume associated with their comments, and the bleeping, they're rather similar. Now, on Hell's Kitchen, Ramsay may at times go rather beyond the necessary level of screaming, but I can't help but be in favor of the general theory. Just to pick one example from last night's … [Read more...]
Better Off Ted is a new satirical comedy on ABC which premieres Wednesday March 18th at 8:30/7:30c. Ted works in R&D at a multinational company, and it's his job to actualize whatever crazy idea his boss, Veronica, can come up with. His company, Veridian Dynamics, is the ultimate in giant corporation gone wrong, and Ted has to balance his incredibly cool job against the not-so-stellar moral … [Read more...]
ABC is premiering Castle tonight (March 9 - 10/9 Central), and apparently we need have no fear of ever running short on crime-related television. In this happy-go-lucky version of all things dastardly, Richard Castle (Nathan Fillion) is a freakishly popular mystery author who becomes wrapped up in an investigation. People are getting killed in tribute fashion, copying the murders of Castle's … [Read more...]
Mistresses premieres this Friday at 9pm on BBCAmerica, and it might just what the night's lineup was looking for. A smart, sophisticated drama full of quirks and rich characters, Mistresses is odd enough to hook you and well-written enough to keep you coming back for more. The story centers around four friends with one glaring commonality, infidelity. The plot develops as a play … [Read more...]
Lie to Me stars Tim Roth as Dr. Cal Lightman, one of the world's premiere experts on detecting lies. He runs his own company, and gives lectures to police forces, special agents, and a wide variety of other institutions. Of course, he also gets called in on the odd case, because that's where we get our show. Something of a mix between House and The Mentalist, Lie to Me is part … [Read more...]
Estate of Panic is a new reality show on SciFi (rerunning apparently on USA), and it is really just another effort in the bizarre mash that is the reality television world, which is so eager to put things out that it is just putting everything out. Where other genres might mull things over, get second and 87th opinions, and test market ideas, reality television instead opts for, "Screw it. Put … [Read more...]
