Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Some General Suckiness From The CW

Thanks to the well-wishers for my absence yesterday. I'm operating on literally about three hours' sleep in the last 48, so forgive me if I'm loopy (or more so than usual).

Enjoy "Veronica Mars" (CW, 9 p.m.) while you can. One of the best shows on TV might not be around for too much longer.

Normally, the news that tonight's episode, the first new one of 2007, would be welcomed, but it comes with a pall surrounding it.

The CW announced it's pulling "VM" on March 6 for the reality special, ""Pussycat Dolls Present: The Search for the Next Doll," which will pollute our airwaves for a couple of months before "VM" returns for its final five episodes. And when I say "final," it could very well be - despite saying it's pleased with the show's ratings, the CW hasn't given much of a commitment to the show.

Already, creator Rob Thomas has had to compromise a lot of what made the show good, namely the season-long story arcs. This season, they have gone to mini-arcs. When "VM" wraps up its season, it will be five standalone episodes. Thomas has said that if "VM" manages a fourth season, it would be pretty much all standalones. Gee, why not just call the show "CSI: Neptune" if that's the case?

The CW is a network searching for an identity. On the one hand, it has a decent lineup of shows geared toward 20-somethings - "Gilmore Girls," "Smallville," "Supernatural," etc. - but it also gives us tons of reality, like "American's Next Top Model" and "Beauty and the Geek."

"VM" has never really gotten the respect it deserves. The proof is that actresses like Patricia Arquette have beaten out "VM" star Kristin Bell for things like Emmy nominations, which shows a general idiocy on the part of the people who make such nominations.

24 BIZARRO FUN FACT OF THE WEEK: I've always said CTU has some damn good cell phones, what with Jack being able to call from a helicopter just after a nuclear blast in Season 2. But Jack has nothing on Karen Hayes, who was able to use her cell phone IN A NUCLEAR BUNKER. And we now know the reason why Jack is never invited to Bauer family reunions. Imagine what he'd do to the cousin who took too big a portion of potato salad.

In spite of "24," Monday was still full of goodness, everything from Hiro's justification in stealing the sword ("It's still a good deal for the museum") and meeting Nathan ("Flying Man!") on "Heroes" to Barney's nude painting on "How I Met Your Mother." However, Terence Steadman managing to wrest the gun from Lincoln Burrows? I don't think so.

TONIGHT'S BEST BETS: The pickings are a bit slim with the State of the Union and all. (And I don't mean that in a political sense, I'm just saying there isn't a whole lot of new, dramatic programming tonight.) If you want to catch Pres. Bush's speech, you'll only be able to do so on CBS, NBC, ABC, Fox, CNN, C-SPAN, MSNBC, Fox News and CNN Headline News beginning at 9 p.m., followed by the Democrats' response and a bunch of post-game commentary (Here's hoping that Fox uses the "American Idol" crew.) Perhaps ironically, PBS doesn't have the speech in its listings; you'd think public television would be required to run it.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Your comments on 24 right on. I dont know we have to every channel showing the State speech surely they could rotate this as well as Bush News conferences.

Hope you are feeling better

Phillip Ramati said...

I wrote a blog entry earlier about network pre-emptions for politics. It makes little sense to me.

A couple of notes on "24." One, as pointed out on zapt2it.com, that line about Jack not being able to stomach torture ended pretty quickly since he starts torturing HIS OWN BROTHER essentially two hours after he first said it.

Two, the overnight ratings were very interesting, as 24 and Heroes ended up in a virtual statistical tie - 24 pulled an 8.6 and Heroes an 8.5, with both shows earning a 12 share. It will be interesting to see when the full ratings come out, but this marked the first time both hit series went head-to-head.

Anonymous said...

I don't see the big deal anymore in the 'ratings'. Just about everyone I know DVR's shows. So does that count? Last night did I show up as both a 24 and Hero's wachter (because I did watch both). I guess I don't understand how it all really works. And if they are not including those who record shows as part of the rating...they should. With all the new computer systems out there you would think they would who did what how and when. I guess my point is this, I would hate for a show I watch all the time go because 'they' (whoever 'they' is) thought nobody was watching it, even though we where all DVRing it. Phillip maybe you could inlighten me :)

Phillip Ramati said...

Anon #2, check out Wednesday's posting on the Nielsens.