Thursday, May 31, 2007

Ahoy, Ye Maties!

Argh, there be pirates on your wee talking box, ye scurvy-filled wretches!

(Honestly, that sounds so much cooler in my head, when I do it in the voice of the Sea Captain from "The Simpsons.")

If Jack Sparrow and his lot hasn't sated your taste for high-seas adventure, perhaps you should catch "Pirate Master" (CBS, 8 p.m.), the heavily hyped new reality series from "Survivor" creator Mark Burnett, in which 16 would-be pirates compete for buried treasure. (Please God, let the loser each week walk the plank into shark infested waters!)

Perhaps because of my innate Britishness, I've always loved stuff set on the oceans, with the tallships, cutlasses, and so forth, so I'll be watching tonight with some interest, hoping that the show is less dull than "Survivor" came to be.

THURSDAY'S BEST BETS: I was pretty underwhelmed by last week's return of "Studio 60" (NBC, 10 p.m.), but probably it was because of the absence of series stars Amanda Peet, Matthew Perry and Bradley Whitford. With that trio back, hopefully the show will return to its stride in its remaining few episodes.

Also on hand is the "Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee" (ABC, 10 p.m.), which is reality programming in its truest form. Interest in the bee has grown exponentially over the last few years, so tune in to see what the fuss is about.

Everything else is a rerun, but Thursday has some of the best programming for the week, so now is your chance to catch up on some shows you might have heard of but have missed out on, such as "Supernatural" (CW, 9 p.m.)

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Re: Studio 60

Phillip, I had meant to email you about this earlier, but can you please explain why the 3 biggest stars/characters of the "Studio 60" were ABSENT from the return episode? Honestly, it was a pretty good episode but my wife & I were so distracted with all 3 missing, it took away from it a lot.

As for Pirates, it's reality television, so once again, I won't be watching. I meant to watch "One the Lot", that had intrigued me, but the premier fell among way too many season finales & another Spurs playoff game, so I missed it and once I miss the premier, it's too late for me.

As for the "Pirates" movie, well, it was better then the 2nd one but that's not saying much at all. Why this movie has to be 3 hours everytime is beyond my comprehension.

What was even odder was I was reading Entertainment Weekly this morning and they said the 3rd Pirates film was WORSE then the 2nd because the 2nd one was all Jack Sparrow's lighthearted routine...Huh? They dissed the 3rd one because it was more serious and well, had a plot. I am perplexed by this thinking to say the least.

Anonymous said...

It took a while, but I'm ready to admit it:

Studio 60 needed to be canceled. It's just not very interesting.

Although I will say that it was great to see Allison Janney again.

Phillip Ramati said...

I'm not sure why all three were absent from the episode.Tonight's episode is supposed to be Jordan-centric, so maybe all three were tied up with the shooting of that (TV series often shoot as many as three episodes at a time). I haven't seen Pirates 3 yet.

Ryan, Allison Janney was the only good element of last week's episode. Studio 60 has definitely been a disappointment, but as I said in last week's post, a lot of Sorkin's series have taken the better part of a season to find their stride. I would have liked to have seen a revamped 60 next season.

Anonymous said...

On the lot is pretty good show. However I was mad that Carrie Fisher thought that one southern guys film was making fun of disabled persons instead of nerds. Why did the other judges jump on her band wagon? It is as if they wait to see what she is going to say, then repeat it slightly diffent. I thought his was great, thankfully so did america. I can't stand the 'i didn't go to film school...' guy. His was the worst by far, yet he made it thru.

And zodin, with these type of shows missing the first few is a good thing. You get though some of the crap. If you are still interested, you have not missed too much.

But it is clear which ones will make it to the end...but america votes so who knows.

Phillip Ramati said...

Whoa, Edge, gotta disagree with you on the Southern guy. If the director wanted to show the actor to be a nerd, he did a terrible job in directing the actor, because the actor came across like he was mentally challenged. So the director deserved to be booted on that basis.

The three worst films far and away were that one, the changing the light bulb, and crazy cab, yet 2 of those 3 directors moved on, while clever directors such as the one who did the woman giving birth film and the British guy were booted.

I'll go more into the show's voting process on Monday's posting, but I do agree with you that anyone who wants to catch up with the show certainly can do so at this point. My parents missed the first two episodes, but have enjoyed the last two immensely (except for the voting results).

Anonymous said...

I agree with the birth video and english dude, they where way better than the light bulb one.

The first time I watched the southen guys, I did not see is him as being 'mentally challenged' but as a nerd. However I could see how how the judges and others may have seen it that way, when I watched it the second time. However, I feel he did not do this on purpose. But your right in that he could have directed the actor better. Still thought it was a funny concept though. Anyways it made me laugh (when watching it as a 'nerd').

My comment about the judges was I just felt the other two judges where following Carrie Fishers comments. Because on the results show even she said she was a bit harsh.

Some of my fav's. Pretty Penny, the danceing guy, and that last girl's.

Phillip Ramati said...

Those were among my favorites, too, though effects guru Zack, the guy who directed the disaster one (and whom Carrie Fisher is trying to get hitched to her daughter) is the class of this field.

I understood what the Southern guy was trying to do, and the idea wasn't half-bad, but it was terribly executed.

I plan on posting something about the results of On the Lot each week for discussion, much like our music blog, Amped, did for American Idol, so everyone feel free to drop in and post comments on the show until it ends.

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