Mira: what i'm watching this fall -- fridays

I don't know if it's just me, but when a TV show that I watch is moved to Friday nights, I automatically assume that the networks are trying to kill it off...

Chuck (NBC, 8:00-9:00PM): I was quite surprised that Chuck seemingly found new life last season.  This is the show that just keeps going and manages to find just enough twist to set stage for a season that can prove to be different from the last. But now that it's played with having the dad be the twist, the mom be the twist, the sister learning about the spy family be the twist... well, I'm not quite sure where it will go. But it's managed to be a lot more fun and interesting than I had ever expected it could be.

Nikita (The CW, 8:00-9:00PM): I really hope that The CW is not trying to get rid of this show because I really like it! Of course it'll take some serious creativity to find a direction to go in that will ensure sustainability of a story. (Kind of like how Alias got really old after a while.) But I really love a lot of the characters in this show and I just wanna see them be happy already!!!

Grimm* (NBC, 9:00-10:00PM): There is so much potential with a TV show that builds off of the Grimm Fairy Tales for inspiration... I have not let myself research too much into what this show will be like, but I have high hopes anyway!  I hope that whatever it is, the show surprises me (in a good way).

Blue Bloods (CBS, 10:00-11:00PM): This show is like Numbers for me (another Friday night show, I think). I don't watch every episode of it, but I'll watch if it happens to be on while I'm in the living room. And I'll get sucked in as well.  The Reagans are a really interesting family and the play of cops, detectives, politicians, and lawyers is very interesting. Quite a cast as well!

* New show.

Nikita: Midseason report

I've only kept up with two new shows from this fall season, Hellcats and Nikita (both on the CW...take from that what you will). Hellcats is just mindless fun but Nikita I think is something more. At times it can get a little repetitive but overall I've been really impressed with its quality and pacing and especially the acting.

I mean, this is definitely my kind of show: we have not one, but two female heroines, high stakes and lots of action and conspiracies, but the world of the show still feels intimate and personal. One of the things I didn't like about The Event or V or Flashforward or any of the other networks' attempts at doing action/mystery shows is that they have these huge, disconnected casts of characters and as a viewer, you're kept in the dark about what's going on. Even on Dollhouse, I hated how in the beginning Ballard was just on the outside doing his own thing...I just wasn't interested. But on Nikita, the setup is actually very tight: there's everyone in Division, there's Alex, and there's Nikita. No wondering what the point of certain plotlines are or where they're going to converge.

That said, it is slightly ridiculous that Nikita and Michael seemingly come face-to-face every single week and at the end of the episode, nothing has really changed. This week's midseason finale finally turned everything around though: Division finally finds out how Nikita has been getting information from the inside (but not from whom), Nikita is actually captured by Division (but then escapes of course), and most importantly, Alex graduates from recruit status.

And dammit, they killed Thom! How it happened did totally make sense and the fact that Alex did it, even unintentionally, does make it a really powerful plot point. Alex and Thom obviously had a connection (and chemistry too...their kiss from a few weeks back was HOT), which might now give Alex more drive, similar to how Daniel's death affected Nikita, but I just really liked Thom as a character and hate that he's gone now. Couldn't they have killed off Jaden instead??

I've liked Maggie Q as Nikita from the beginning--she's sexy and dangerous and decisive but with just enough pathos. She was such a good choice for this series. Lyndsy Fonseca as Alex was a little less convincing to me at first, but she's really grown on me. I like Alex a lot, she's smart and tough but still vulnerable. Xander Berkeley sometimes puts on the evil a little thick, but I don't think Percy is the kind of villain we're supposed to like. That's Michael's domain, and I think Shane West has been acquitting himself pretty well despite my original misgivings. I've also liked Devon Sawa (yes, it's Casper all grown up and buff) as Owen when he's popped up. He and Nikita are kind of hot together...as are Nikita and Michael. Lots of simmering sexual tension on this show!

I think there's still a lot of potential here and am very interested to see how things will operate now that Alex isn't chained inside Division. But sigh, no new episodes until the end of January!

fall 2010

My life has been especially nutso this semester with school and work and, well, trying to keep my DVR percentage low enough to record all the shows in the coming week (it's a hard life!), so blogging has been difficult... But here's a quick little run down of my opinions on Fall TV thus far:

Shows I've already dropped:
- $#*! My Dad Says -- The comedic pauses are just awkward and annoying. Shatner is not the most annoying actor on the show, which already speaks volumes in my mind. One last thing, the show had one funny line and it was not shit said by the dad. Shatner is at the DMV taking the eye exam and is asked to read the large E at the top of the chart. Shatner: "I've never been rear-ended by a large letter E." DMV employee: "You've never driven on Sesame Street."
- Running Wilde -- I love Keri Russell but even she can't keep this show on my priority watch list.
- 90210 (though I dropped it halfway through last season) -- I know I already dropped this, but seeing the stuff going on and reading the spoilers on what is to come... Good riddance!
- Life Unexpected -- Jenn's entry sums it up perfectly. Forced dramatic story lines are just too much! Though it cracks me up that a Melrose Place (new, not old) reject has landed over here.

Shows I'm already committed to:
- Nikita -- Somehow this show became an immediate watch show for me, but I really like the complexity of each character and the fact that they all contribute layers of depth to the show.
- Hellcats -- I like peppy tv shows.
- Grey's Anatomy -- I forgot about the season ending with the shooting spree and the new season dealing with aftermath of that has been built up brilliant so far.
- Private Practice -- I still like the characters on the show enough to keep watching it, though the storylines aren't captivating.
- Parenthood -- This show just keeps getting better for me. The best family drama.

Shows I meant to watch but forgot about:
- Better With You -- Like Jenn, I really like Joanna Garcia.

Shows still sitting on my DVR:
- Lone Star
- The Event
- Hawaii Five-O
- Undercovers
- The Whole Truth
- My Generation
- Chuck

Shows I'm still looking forward to:
- No Ordinary Family -- But the stupid show is on at the same time as Glee and NCIS! Sigh, so this may end up going the route of Modern Family, where I mean to catch up online but forget to. Hopefully not!
- Glee, Episode 2 (cuz Episode 1 was a bit disappointing) -- Cannot wait for Brittany (my favorite character!) and BRITNEY (Spears)!
- The Good Wife
- Friday Night Lights, the final season! :(

On the cusp:
- Outlaw
- How I Met Your Mother -- We better meet the stupid mother this season. And that wedding in the season premier better be Barney and Robin's wedding.
- Gossip Girl

BTW, an awful lot of weddings in the season premier this year -- Grey's Anatomy had one, Private Practice had one, HIMYM had one!

Fall TV: Nikita

The CW's Nikita is actually just the latest entry in movies and TV series about this character. I think the first was a French film and then there was a TV series back in the 90s called La Femme Nikita. I haven't seen any of those so I'm can't comment on how this new series compares. But I have watched plenty of these female spy/action type series so obviously I'm a fan of the genre, and I have to say that I rather enjoyed the pilot.

Maggie Q is Nikita, a former spy and assassin for Division, a shadowy government organization whose recruits appear to be taken involuntarily, mostly from the streets. When the series begins, Nikita has already escaped and is working to bring down the organization from the outside. I have to say that it's kind of nice to see an Asian (well, half Asian anyway) woman as the lead of a network series, and Maggie Q brings a certain exotic glamour and a good dose of maturity to the role. She's definitely not your girl next door like Sydney (Alias) or Annie (Covert Affairs) and makes the show feel much less "CW." Maggie Q has a martial arts background and is apparently doing her own stunts too.

Even though Nikita is the lead, the rest of the characters are inside Division, so we get to see both sides. We're introduced to the world through Alex (played by Lyndsy Fonseca, also known as Ted's future daughter on How I Met Your Mother), a brand-new recruit. The head of Division is Percy (played by Xander Berkeley of 24 season 1), and his number-two is Michael (Shane West, questionable casting but I'm willing to give him a chance). There's also a requisite computer nerd, Birkhoff, and the always fabulous Melinda Clarke as Amanda, who I guess trains the recruits in manipulation and seduction and stuff like that. There are also two other recruits (I'm not sure what else to call them) that may end up friends or enemies, not sure.

The pilot doesn't necessarily offer anything new, but there's plenty of style and action here, and as Nikita has no personal connections (all of the recruits are officially "dead") it didn't have any of that cheesy stuff that seems to be standard with spies trying to lead double lives. It also ended with a nice twist that sets up a formula for future episodes. I think it might fill the girl-power-action hole left by Dollhouse's cancellation and not much satisfied by Covert Affairs (whose season is ending next week anyway). Thursday is a crowded night for TV, but I think this has potential. It's on my schedule for now!