Thursday, September 29, 2005

Fall 2005 Season Premiere Wrap-Up Part I

Prison Break: A unique premise, but just a little too far-fetched for me and Michael was just too smug and confident in his ridiculous plan to break himself and his brother out of prison. What’s up with placing him in the same prison as his brother anyway? They seem to conveniently have different last names, but come on, the justice system has to know these things. I stopped watching after Michael revealed that he had the plans of the prison TATTOOED on himself. Besides, depending on how long this show goes on, they’re not going to succeed in breaking out anytime soon…what a tease.

The OC: I used to completely loathe Marissa and wondered what the heck Ryan saw in her, but I think I get it now. Sometime last season she stopped being annoying and started being really good at being the supportive girlfriend. So yeah, keep Ryan and Marissa together. And Josh Schwartz has already said that Seth and Summer won’t be having stupid problems this season either. So that’s all good. But what is up with the introduction of all these new evil characters? I guess they got rid of Trey and Caleb so they need characters to replace them, but all these evil people in Newport are getting kind of tiring. Isn’t Julie Cooper enough?

Reunion: Cheesy and not terribly well acted, but I’m adding this to my list. I loved the concept when I first heard about it, especially when they said that if it’s renewed they’re going to start over with a completely new cast (which is what I had wanted FOX to do with 24 after the first season, but now of course I can’t imagine 24 without Jack Bauer and CTU). The eighties look of the first episode was kind of overdone but still funny and they did a good job of making Chyler Leigh look 18 and then 38. And man, Carla’s dad was the dad on My So-Called Life! Anyway, it was kind of unfortunate that the second episode was pre-empted by a presidential address so it kind of lost its early-premiere momentum, but I think that OC viewers will be pretty likely to stay with FOX and keep watching.

Threshold: One of the many sci-fi shows premiering this season, thanks to the success of Lost. It’s funny, I was complaining about the lack of sci-fi last year but I haven’t really been energized by any of these offerings. Sure, Threshold is about government agents and aliens, sort of like the X-files, but it just doesn’t have the right feel for me. I’ve never been into the slick CSI-type dramas and that’s exactly what this feels like. I got bored about halfway into the two-hour premiere.

Gilmore Girls: This show obviously gets its own posts…see below.

Supernatural: All I have to say is that WHY did they name the Jensen Ackles character Dean? This is on after Gilmore Girls and everyone knows that Jared Padalecki is Dean! Sigh. The WB has been trying really hard to make those two dudes stars and I think they finally will be, but I got bored of this one too. I may give it another try...we’ll see.

Bones: It's nice to see David Boreanaz back on TV and he's pretty good in this, but the main character, Temperance, isn't very sympathetic. Plus they seem to use really inappropriate background music. "Collide" by Howie Day in a scene where Temperance is reconstructing a skull? What the heck? This is in the same timeslot as Gilmore Girls, though, so watching it will probably take too much effort so uh, no.

House: I was always forgetting to watch this show last season, and I thought I would try to watch more regularly this season, but truthfully that’s not going to happen. I like the characters a lot but I’ve never been a fan of medical shows in general and it’s just getting to be too much. I’ll probably watch reruns next summer.

Arrested Development: Support this show! It’s always been quirky and crazy and out of left field and I LOVE IT. It's kind of hard to describe, so just give it a chance and watch!

How I Met Your Mother: Cute, but I probably won't get to watch it regularly. Neil Patrick Harris is awesome...when did he become such a great comic actor?

Kitchen Confidential: Loved this! There are so many old favorites in the cast...Bradley Cooper (Will from Alias), Nicholas Brendon (Xander from Buffy), John Francis Daley (Sam from Freaks and Geeks), and John Cho (though apparently he's only in the premiere), among others. I don't know anything about the actual chef and book this is based on (Anthony Bourdain), but it was really fun and it's a unique workplace to make a TV show about, rather than the standard hospitals and police units and law firms. Will likely be watching this on Mondays since it's on after Arrested Development.

Stayed tuned for Part II next week!

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