Britt's On

Last night I started watching the fifth and final season of Friday Night Lights. Can I first of all point out it's really nifty that they have it out on DVD simultaneously with the TV series premiering on NBC next week? As someone who owns (and lends out) the DVD series to everyone, I jumped on buying it instead of waiting week-to-week. Of course, this means I will get through the show faster, which is depressing after last night's heart-tugging opener.

I reflected that FNL had one of the best series premieres ever...and it got me thinking to the best series premieres of all time, and I realized that generally speaking, the shows with the best series premieres end up having the best first seasons. A show with a fantastic premiere (at least in its first season) rarely fails to live up to said standard. After the first season, it's a crapshoot. So instead of creating two separate lists of best premieres and best first seasons, I present my list of the best first seasons (and generally speaking, premieres) ever.


The OC - Remember when Mischa Barton was a fashion icon? And Rachel Bilson had curves? And Seth Cohen was charmingly self-conscious? And Luke had a gay dad? And Julie was a 'Real Housewife'-in-training? And Ryan's brooding desire to save people was sweet? And Oliver was a total psychopath? And the show was actually funny and shocking in equal parts? Sigh. Few shows, in particular teen shows, will top the glory that is the first season of The OC.


Lost - I was a latecomer to Lost, catching up on the first four seasons in quick succession literally days before the fifth one began. I'm kind of glad I did watch it on DVD so I could (somewhat) solve the confounded mysteries instead of being stumped for weeks. Few shows had as strong a premiere or first season as Lost - where characters were in constant peril, mysteries were piling on top of one another (but not to the hysterical levels they were in future seasons), and insight into each character's life was something to be savoured...and tied in very nicely with what was happening with their on-island selves. In retrospect, the first season is a little tedious compared to future ones (after all, they only thing they discover is the hatch and a whole lot of WTFuckery?) but I constantly hear complaints about s2's "Tailies" and s3's venture into the "Others" territory, so S1 really is a holy bastion of wonderfulness.


Friday Night Lights - I put up a serious fuss about watching FNL. I thought the actors looked smug on the cover. I didn't like the movie very much. I'd seen a clip on TV of Tyra's mom in the middle of a drinking binge and thought it looked lame. Alas, one day we popped season 1 in the DVD player and I was INSTANTLY hooked. The premiere is one of the most captivating ever, and the glorious full length of the first season allowed you to see many different facets of these humanly flawed characters. True, the series felt a little long compared to the length of an actual high school football season, but have 20+ episodes to play around with allowed for so much more than the protracted seasons we now have.


Desperate Housewives - I no longer watch DH because of this first season, and all that it stood for. A hilarious satire of soap operas, the show was whip smart, hilariously funny, and ooey gooey twisty turny. The women were a lot more entrenched in their archetypes - a good and bad thing - and we had some characters that added a lot of flavour to the show...Martha Huber, Edie, Paul, Rex (!), John to name a few. Plus it made sense for Mary-Alice to actually make guest appearances. Part of me thinks they blew their load (sorry, graphic) too early by giving up Mary-Alice's secret, and then following that same format year-after-year. The show was just so fresh, and the supposed cattiness of the stars (particularly come awards season) was entertaining fodder as well. Shame they've now become exactly what they were mocking in the first place - a big, stinky, soap.


Survivor - Talk about The Real World however much you want, this is when reality TV became part of the popular zeitgeist. I started watching about a third of the way through, I think on the episode when Gretchen was eliminated. My family and I quickly became hooked (and played reverse catch-up before the finale) and were surfing the wave of popular culture along with the rest of North America when Richard and Kelly went head-to-head in the much-watched finale. Watching the first season of Survivor now seems a little laughable. The naivete of the castaways is nearly infuriating, the props and challenges look amateurish, and even little details like the cheesy graphics or the fact Jeff doesn't have this catchphrases quite nailed down make for a charmingly docile entry for one of the genre's most resilient franchises.

Solid Contenders:

Pretty Little Liars - the first season just wrapped up and golly was it good...the show lacks (male) character development and one of their best actresses is, unfortunately, dead but the constant guessing game has made it into the teeny bopper version of Lost. Only with blind flute players instead of rampant polar bears.

The Walking Dead - in six little episodes this show blew me away. Again, it could use some work on character development, but you can only expect so much from a half-dozen episodes. Incidentally, if I were to make a 'best premieres evahhh' list, this show would easily end up on it. The fact it was like watching a little movie every week made for a completely enthralling tv-watching experience.

Mad Men - There was lots to like in Season 1. The near-weekly ad pitches (that were sadly absent for much of S2 & S3). Don's lothario ways weren't tired, and Rachel Menken was his most lovely dalliance to date. Betty's desperate housewife act earned equal parts raised eyebrows and empathy. Admittedly however, the pacing was a little slow (although it crawled in S2) compared to the punchier, zippier feeling of S3 & S4, where the show took that initial foundation and skyrocketed our characters to new levels before slamming them back down to earth.

Modern Family - Everyone keeps telling me that this current season isn't as funny as last season (I just caught up on them both over the last three months). I agree getting to know the characters and their funny little quirks - Cameron's a jock! - was funnier the first time around, as opposed to somewhat rehashing elements of their personality this season, but I'm not totally convinced that Season 1 is the best this show has to offer...Season 2 has still shocked and delighted me, and the first few episodes of S1 has some weirdness they've since dropped, so I won't peg their first season as the best ever...but I will say it's definitely one of THE best first seasons for a 30-minute sitcom.

- Britt's On

I feel like I may have keyed into one of the things that makes a good scripted show better, or one might say, great. Part of this ‘secret’ is actually represented in the increasingly popular trend of having an expansive cast right off the hop – consider Lost’s sprawling survivors, The Office’s dysfunctional crew, Mad Men’s interweaving professional and personal lives, or the extended families of Parenthood and Modern Family. Namely, I’m talking about the ability to go outside your core cast and be comfortable with adding new members, something a LOT of shows are fa-reaked out about.

Having a large cast off the hop allows you to do many things. It extends your storylines by allowing you to create new pairings that previously haven’t interacted. It makes it easier to kill people off on an action-based show. If a cast member wants to move onto greener pastures, it’s less of an impact to the overall show. That being said, the argument could be made that having a large cast makes it hard to add new talent because you’ve already got so many characters…admittedly I still find myself losing track of the uber-generic names of the Braverman clan on Parenthood.

Lost is a great example of both sides of the coin. On the one hand, they responded to the acting talents and audience response to later-in-the-game additions Desmond, Ben, and Juliet, who by the series’ end, were some of the show’s biggest fan faves. On the flip side, they were less successful with Season 2’s ‘Tailies’ or the infamous introduction of Nikki & Paolo, two ‘extras’ that were slowly worked into the plot and quickly eviscerated thereafter.

But Lost had the advantage of a big cast to begin with, one that was quite dispensable (although generally for emotional and plot reasons) compared to most shows, so perhaps they aren’t the perfect case study. What I can do is point to two big, bad examples of the problems that occur when you don’t allow for new characters to become a regular part of the cast.

The first is Gossip Girl. After four seasons of fluff, I feel like I’ve finally singled out why the show feels so frivolous. It’s the casting. Also the sheer template of the show (issue-scheme-event-resolution) combined with the rapid-fire pace of relationships beginnings and endings, but a big chunk of it is the casting. We’ve been with our core five – Serena, Blair, Chuck, Nate, and Dan – since early days, with Lily, Rufus, Jenny, Vanessa, and Eric playing consistent supporting roles. The only change over four seasons is dropping Jenny, and phasing the supporting characters in and out to various degrees. Serena is stuck in a never-ending love cycle with Nate and Dan, while taking on occasional romantic hot flash pursuits, Vanessa has hooked up with everyone, while Blair is on the precipice of following suit.

The incestual pairings are reminiscent of The OC, another Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage-helmed program, which ultimately met its demise by trying to replace a core cast member with two half-wits – Taylor and Katelin. Gossip Girl fares slightly better than the OC in that they are willing to phase out the B-listers instead of trying to fit them in yet again, but the main issue with both shows has always been that ‘new’ characters will NEVER stick around, and that the end game in sight is likely a Blair/Chuck and Serena/Dan match-up. The closest we have is the recurring presence of Carter Baison, Georgina Sparks, and Damian Dalgard. It’d be nice to have a romantic interest actually stick around and become part of the top-billed cast, instead of guessing they’re contracted for a 6-8 episode run before being turfed. You could argue that perhaps they haven’t found an actor that piques audience interest / actor chemistry yet, but it's been four bloody years.

On the same note, I feel Parenthood, despite having a massive core cast given relatively equal weight, is struggling with adding new characters. Sarah’s love interests have been passing crazes to date, despite Lauren Graham’s incredible ability to create on-screen chemistry. Hattie’s relationship with Alex has provided a solid recurring storyline throughout the season, and given the crux of the conflict I understand the reluctance to make him a regular – especially since you want the will they / won’t they tension to exist that is somewhat ruined when a boyfriend is added to the cast – but if every romantic lead introduced for Sarah, Hattie, Drew, and Amber turns out to be a guest spot, I’ll be a little tired of it in no time. Particularly in the Sarah department.

For as much as I dislike Desperate Housewives and One Tree Hill these days, I will give them a tip of the hat in how they are good students of adding new characters. Kind of. OTH generally shoves new characters down your throat (hello Quinn and Clay), although they’re decent at rotating the b-listers in and out of play, and have cut characters that just weren’t cutting it (hello every romantic lead in Brooke’s life, prior to Julian). DH is also not doing too badly. They added ‘mystery-of-the-year’ housewife Katherine to the crew instead of turfing her the second her dark secret was revealed, and let Bree find new love in Orson and actually add him to the cast for a couple of seasons. In both cases they phased out the characters when it felt right (more or less…I would have preferred Carl to Orson last year) and literally killed others for sheer drama. They’re kind of guilty of shoving newbies down your throat (a la Vanessa Williams) but they’re also a show that isn’t afraid to give someone the boot if they’re just not working out.

The best success story? The Office. They’ve added three newbies over the years – Andy, Erin, and Gabe – plus made warehouse warrior Darryl into a regular, and it’s hard to imagine the cast without them (especially the magnificent Ed Helms, who has earned a coveted spot in the show’s twenty-second opening).

- Britt’s On

You know, I have a small bone to pick with Jeff Probst. I love the dude, don't get me wrong, and I'm very much part of the faction of people that believe Survivor will be half the show it is now if he leaves. I just...don't want it to stop. Ever! Seriously, few other shows have managed to engage me for 20+ seasons (because no shows have that many seasons), and make me as delighted as I am on a weekly basis to watch a bunch of loons on an island of the non-Canadian persuasion. Plus I still feel like they have a fair bit they could do: Survivor Couples (wherein each pairing of teammates are split onto two tribes)! Celebrity survivor! Bring back all the former winners that actually want to come back (and see if Sandra can make it a threepeat)! ARCTIC SURVIVOR!

Anyway my beef is that JP has whinged about the strain it takes to shoot Survivor, given he's off in some remote destination for 40+ days. That's right, Jeff Probst works (remotely anyway) for about 90 days a year, because let's face it, he doesn't have a bunch of other successful gigs lined up for him. Phil Keoghan of Amazing Race fame however, probably works for about six to eight weeks, and spends the rest of his time riding bikes and writing books. The difference is, Phil is zipping all around the world for those six to eight weeks. No doubt he's staying in nice hotels, but dude is suffering from the same amount of jet lag and travelling from challenge destination to challenge destination to make the race happen. So Probst, can it and keep on doing Survivor! Although how cool would it be if they swapped jobs for a season? I digress.

Another note on The Amazing Race. This is the first year they lost their Emmy. It's also the first year Survivor was NOT nominated, which is so bizarre it hurts after coming off of a pretty phenom season like 'All Stars'. Perhaps it's because Samoa was a pretty terrible season (sans Russell's world domination) and they don't consider 'All Star' seasons to be as creatively charged as brand new casts. It's just a tragedy because they lost to Top Chef of all things, which as far as I know doesn't even air in Canada. Lametown. That being said, I'm not in disagreement - TAR has a pretty weak year last year, with way too much time spent in one general area (Asia) and pretty lame casting.

Much like Survivor, the secret to a good reality show is in the casting. It needs to be a balance of gimmicky (see: acrobatic little people, Kentucky coal miners, beauty queens, etc.) and explosive (see: every violently angry couple on the show ever), with a dash of heart and goodwill (see: the hippies that won their respective seasons) and 'relative' hotness in the form of relatively douchey male teams (see: almost every season where a team of beefcakes was entered, they won).

This year it seems the folks on TAR are reallllly pushing for an all female team to win, with FOUR entries into the mix and NO beefcake male teams to speak of. The last time they did this was Season 14, with the flight attendants, the antagonistic but athletic (except for swimming) black sisters, and the former redheaded NFL cheerleaders (who ultimately placed second). Unfortunately none of these female teams had the charisma and fan base that Dustin and Kandice, the two-time second-place finishers had, and thus it was kind of okay that another chirpy, happy, intelligent brother & sister duo won (shortly after Ryan & Starr a season or two earlier).

Of the ladies on the race this year, I suspect the doctors or the volleyball girls have the best chance. Brook was annoying as all get out this episode, and I suspect Clare will lose enthusiasm as the race continues to NOT include taping thirty-minute segments while fondling some jewels. The mother/daughter reunion team is just all kinds of awkward, and beyond that, they don't have that competitive "We've both wanted this for SO LONG!" spirit that the majority of the other teams have. The doctors preformed solidly and calmly throughout the episode, making them a touch boring, but at least commendable. The volleyball chicks will likely be able to bring a bit more interest to the table, and they're buff and gorge, which will help them throughout.

Other than that, I think the male/female couples all have some interesting and potentially explosive dynamics. Nicky & Vicki are America's Best (idiots) so while they provide good entertainment value their time on the race is going to be short. Jill & Thomas (I keep on wanting to say jack & jill) may be interesting as well after a solid finish on the first leg, I'm curious to see how the Express Pass plays out, and whether the set-up dynamic for him being Ivy League and her being a beautician will come into play. She certainly got them across that lake fast enough, which contributed to their win. Finally I can't remember their names, but team 'Roid Rage' as I've dubbed them promises to be the couple 'most likely to be reconsidering things' after the race. I get squeamish at the verbally and physically abusive couples, but I hope it's at least a wake-up call for them.

Finally we have a scattered remaining group. I love the Gleeks! LOVE! I will be putting them in my early teams to root for that's for sure. They had a rough start but pulled off a very respectable third-place finish despite being on the second flight, so kudos there. Just as the race has never had an all female team win, they've also never had a parent/child team win, and I've loved many of the parent/child teams. So I'm also waving a small flag for our two parent/child teams - the Asian internet Sensations and Little Miss Sunshine & her dad. Truthfully I wasn't too sad to see Tony the Tiger & Ron leave. Their musical antics sounded interesting in the interviews but I was kind of yawning at their raceplay. There are other teams I want to see more of and it was nice that all of the female teams made it past leg 1.

Overall because of the solid casting here and the drive of the producers to have some very strong female contenders for the win, I'm giving TAR a promising thumbs up for the season to come. The Express Pass is an interesting twist / alternative to the underused Fast Forward (remember the first two seasons??) and not quite as dramatic of the Medallion of POWAHHHH! on Survivor, so I'm happy they shook up the game a bit. I'm wondering if they'll keep on popping more of those passes in the race or not, but content with the one for now. It's much better than the damn 'team' detours they throw in every once in awhile.

I'll also mention that Dancing with the Stars has fallen by the wayside. The cast just wasn't as interesting as I'd hoped in comparison to last season, and quite frankly watching that show without a PVR to skip through the excessive ads is not my cuppa tea. It's a very spoilerrific show and I'm very much an internet surfer, so watching it the next day on my laptop just isn't a good option either. I also skipped Desperate Housewives' premiere this week, as I feel the show has become a mockery of what it set out to be all those seasons ago. Easy come, easy go.

A friend of mine watched the new JJ Abrams show 'Undercovers' and being a mega-Alias fan was quite disappointed. I haven't heard the best things about it, and frankly, Abrams isn't a guaranteed hit-maker (and will jump ship once a show has launched to a higher ground) so I'm not chancing it. I am planning to tune into the new drama premiering tonight, 'No Ordinary Family', about a family of superheroes. Sort of like Heroes meets The Incredibles. It hasn't gotten a lot of buzz, but perhaps it'll build if the first few episodes are good.

That's a wrap on my fall round-up. We're in the home stretch for summery shows including Mad Men and Project Runway (seriously WTF TO MAD MEN THIS WEEK?), which is fine and good because a bunch of awesome-sounding movies are coming out right away. Stay tuned for my thoughts on four of fall's biggest movies: Easy A, The Town, The Social Network, and Let Me In!

- Britt's On!

I don’t want to talk about Lost anymore. I have alternating feelings of contentment and furious frustration…I guess I’m not as invested in the show in some ways because I really only invested a year and a half of guessing and wanting answers, unlike the poor saps that first started watching the series in 2004. I also generally enjoyed the series enough that although the ending was far from satisfying, it didn’t totally ruin the show for me…until I start taking what’s revealed (or not) in the finale and applying it to my unanswered questions from the entire series and coming up short. Way short.

What was that about being done talking about Lost? Oh right. Well my PVR is blissfully nearly empty, other than the last run of Parenthood episodes (I’m about 5 or 6 behind), a few of TSN’s great 30 for 30 documentaries for the boyfriend, and a few more installments of the incredible ‘Life’ series currently airing on Discovery. A few of my perennial summer shows are starting next week – Little Couple! Toddlers & Tiaras! – to keep me entertained between my movie project and finally finishing Arrested Development…but I can’t help but think of next fall.

So far, none of the prospects for fall 2010 are enticing to me. I’m sure Entertainment Weekly will have an excellent fall TV preview issue that may make me reconsider, but as someone feeling more tapped into the biz these days (I blame it on the aforementioned subscription) I watched the fall scheduling carefully and was mostly disappointed. If anything, I want to shed a few shows off my weekly viewing. In some cases the decision has been made for me – bye Lost & Flashforward! - In others, the decline of some long-time favourites has led me to seriously contemplate deleting them off my PVR.


Namely, Desperate Housewives. I lamented the death of Edie a year ago, and the show has continued to spiral down. Whenever they so much as mention season 1, whether through Rex Van de Kamp’s illegitimate devil spawn or the obligatory Mary Alice Young flashback, I wince at how far the show has fallen. Season 1 of DH was an inspired, satirical take on suburbia. They eschewed the term ‘soap opera’ saying it reminded them of bad lighting and serial drama (especially for daytime soap starlet Eva Longoria). After a stumble in season 2 the series came back around, but it never fully rebounded from the Applewhite horror. Now the show is a parody of itself, with words like ‘madcap hijinks’ springing to mind when I describe the current plotlines.

The over the top drama of the last couple of years in particular (take this season’s horrid ‘mysterious new resident’ yarn re: Angie the eco-terrorist as a key example) has even seemed to take its toll on the actors that once made this show what it was. Felicity Huffman’s strangled delivery of lines while her newborn baby was being strangled by an umbilical cord in the midst of being held hostage by the season’s serial neighbourhood strangler pretty much made me want to throw a book at Felicity’s head and tell her to ask to get written off the show. Career suicide!

While Teri Hatcher moving off the lane because she couldn’t pay her bills was an inspired (however randomly handled – where is Susan’s strip club money???) reflection of the real issues in suburbia these days, the show is notorious for wiping the slate clean and I don’t anticipate this will be a particularly permanent set-up.

The final nail in the coffin for me with the finale was the big cliffhanger – someone’s child isn’t really their child. Oh the possibilities with that one…none of which I care about. This is a classic soap opera gag, and not one I care to see on my weekly primetime supposed sharp-eyed satire on suburban living. Between plane crashes, tornadoes, bombs, and stranglers…I’ve had it with Desperate Housewives and will be deleting the program from my PVR. I threatened to do it at the start of this season, and nothing that happened this year convinced me to do otherwise.


The other big red alert for me when it comes to ‘Should I stay or should I go?’ is how much I anticipate watching the show. Reality series obviously have the best advantage here because the potential for spoilers is dramatically higher. But there are a number of scripted shows I watch that also demanded my attention this year – Lost of course, and also (surprisingly) Life Unexpected. While I would let episodes of Gossip Girl (still amusing enough to keep watching), One Tree Hill (if it doesn’t end this season I might delete it for a follow-up season), and Saturday Night Live pile up, I couldn’t get enough of LUX. I tend to champion one series each year (Mad Men! FNL!) and I think I may purchase S1 of Life Unexpected just to convert more people to my cause.



Another show that’s on the bubble? Parenthood. I picked it up to watch my beloved Lauren Graham in action once again, and I’ve been meaning to blog on it for about a month now but um, I’m pretty behind as mentioned. I’ll give the point form version of that entry. Watching Parenthood is like watching the Cameron Crowe movie ‘Elizabethtown’. Not a whole lot happens, you find most of the characters mildly annoying, there’s a guy who works at a shoe company but it doesn’t really factor into his everyday life, and there’s a sweet enough soundtrack and interesting enough character interactions that you actually kind of dig it. Particularly when you have the option to watch episodes in a mini-marathon, as I’ve been doing in chunks over the season.

Here’s my thoughts – I do enjoy the show and crave watching more once I pop an episode in. Peter Krause and Monica Potter drive me batshit crazy with their helicopter parenting and weird suburbanite obsession with their sex lives. Lauren Graham is still adorable but I pine for the days of Gilmore Girls, when her daughter was much cuter. I want Erika Christensen’s husband to have more of a personality and life, and I enjoy the drama related to the slutty zen mom. Craig T’s wife is also a zero on the personality scale, and has zero connection with her children. I surprisingly love Dax Shephard’s storyline with Jabar, although I wonder whether Reed from the OC will ever return.

My conclusion? I will watch the backlog of episodes I have on my PVR before I come to a decision. Parenthood might be too sleepy to compete with my PVR’s 60 gig download limit during peak television season, but I’m not totally sold either way yet.


Another bubble show? Dancing with the Stars. I watched it for the first time this season out of casting curiosity more than anything and generally enjoyed it. Kudos for finally giving Nicole Scherzinger a vibrant, sweet personality compared to her typical vacant demeanour! The show is cheesy, drawn out, anti-climactic, and I fast forward about 45% of each episode, and 95% of each results show…but if the casting is as good as it was this year I will probably tune in again next year. After all, I’m only watching 60% of three stupidly overdrawn hours of weekly programming! Plus, at least the right person won (although many have speculated this is the first season that didn't feel like a high school popularity contest).


One final show in contention for elimination. ANTM. I’m sort of sick of it. I don’t really care about whether the models succeed after the show…I’m just kind of done with the format of the show in general, I feel like it reached its creative peak a long, long time ago and doesn’t really have anything to offer me. Someone I’ve really liked from the beginning hasn’t won in something like 7 or 8 cycles…that’s probably a sign. Also the fact that I can't for the LIFE of me figure out what this cycle's winner was named and therefore can't post a photo of them...KRISTA! That's her name. Well too damn bad, I just uploaded a generic ol skool photo of Tyra with a sign.

Till then, I’m off to ride into the blissful summer scheduling of one or two shows per week.

Ciao,

B

Some various musings because none of these really deserve a full entry.

Another one bites the dust…
I’m a week behind in my Desperate Housewives because my PVR was replaced this weekend, unceremoniously, and with it, all my PVR’d programs. Regardless I managed to track down the first episode of the winter season that picked up right where the plane crash left off, and need I say more? WTF DH! For one, I’ve lamented on this before, this show has become so ridiculously soapy. It went from being a satire of the television housewife to a show that regularly incurs acts of god – from tornados to plane crashes – and increasingly ridiculous ripped from the daytime soaps plot lines. Beyond that, this episode pissed me off on many levels. Why did you have to kill Carl, and beyond that ruin my hopes for a shiny, happy future for him and Bree by doing that stupid dream sequence? It would have been more interesting to see that relationship play out imo, and him and Bree had crackling, unexpected chemistry. What kind of message are you sending out to show that messed up marriages lead to fatness (or in Susan’s case, a generic chubbiness that’s average by US standards) and skinniness is the only way (or not) to keep a man? I don’t have much to say about Angie’s dream sequence, other than I like her as an actress and I’m sad her storyline on the show seems super lame and detached from the rest of the ‘wives. Eva Longoria’s was also stupid and shows how irrelevant she’s been this season. And Lynette’s…I have mixed feelings. At first I was shocked that DH would tackle such a sensitive topic as a disabled child, and then I was moved nearly to tears by Lynette’s ‘make your own sandwich’ rant, and then I was like “Oh of course. This is la la land where your disabled child can turn out a-ok and graduate law school with practically no problems to be seen.” Frustrating! I’m shocked this show has still dominated the ratings as much as it has in the last couple of seasons as it’s moved increasingly into glib territory. Perhaps it’ll be the next daytime soap and run for decades and decades. At least Mark Cherry will have his pick of housewives to kill off as they get too old for TV.

An Ode To Epitaph 1
So I finally got around to watching last season’s finale on Dollhouse, and I suddenly *got* it. The episode was amazing – it bridged the gap between the creepiness of the first season and the (too) rapid movement of the second season, and showed that the ‘brothel’ known as the Dollhouse really only existed to fund research that would put Rossum in full control of minds around the world. The episode channelled the desperateness of films like Children of Men, but also made you care about the small cast of new characters introduced (including the lovable actress that played Vi on Buffy). You also got glimpses of where the show was going, which put a whole new spin on the progress made this season. If the show was always going to head in this direction – sooner rather than later granted, had Joss introduced this premise even earlier (or at least had the episode broadcast on TV) I think we’d be in a totally different situation. He also failed to fully connect the many personalities of Echo to the ‘person’ that Echo becomes. It’s also weird that Caroline eventually appears and seems to be the conglomerate Echo we’ve hung around with this season. Regardless, this episode made me truly sad the show is ending – but also aware of the flaws (hi, the first three episodes of this season still felt too much like the monster-of-the-week format that plagued S1) – and hopeful that Joss’ next project really takes off. The guy’s got a cult following and if networks give him a chance, he can make magic happen.

X Marks The Spot
I’m pretty sure I called this about three or four years ago, when the X Factor launched this massive winner whose name escapes me now (ha) in the UK when I happened to be doing an internship over there for a month at the BBC. I predicted, as I had stopped watched American Idol after the third season, that eventually Simon would bring the X Factor format over here to freshen up (or replace, as it did in the UK) the American Idol format. Sure enough, it’s recently been stated that Simon has signed on Paula for The X Factor, which he sure enough is bringing over here. Although AI is still a ratings juggernaut, it’s hardly producing megastars anymore – Adam Lambert is the freshest thing to walk off the show in years but I couldn’t name you a single song of his, nor imitate his voice, because he’s not on my radar at all. Carrie and Kelly still continue to dominate (and I still like em both) so that’s two stars out of something like seven seasons – it’s time for a change. For the record, my inbox featured an email from People with the subject line “What Is The X Factor?” In my own words – it’s nearly identical to AI but you can compete in three different categories: groups, older solo artists, and younger solo artists. This is the show that brought us Susan Boyle, one of the older soloists. Will I watch it when the show begins its reign over here? I’m sceptical, but maybe. Regardless, whoever airs this show is a smart cookie because it might bring back lapsed AI viewers (like myself), plus the huge AI fan base, for a fresh new spin on manufactured by the fans talent shows.

Those are my thoughts!

Britt’s On

So tonight marks the second episode of ABC's new Lost-ish drama (despite the HILARIOUS Entertainment Weekly article to the contrary), FlashForward, and the boyfriend and I have been looking forward to it all week. We were actually apart all day Saturday and when we regrouped on Sunday morning, we both commented we'd spent that entire day thinking of the show. I'm crossing my fingers it a) doesn't get lame and b) doesn't get canceled as it's the first time in a long time I've liked a show this much off the hop (okay not a long time - I picked up Friday Night Lights and Mad Men in the summer of 2008).

Regardless...many people are wary of FlashForward because of its ties to Lost, and the slightly disappointing (there, I said it) way the show has turned out. As a Slate commentator pointed out in regards to the wholly different Mad Men's Don Draper, the more you shroud something in mystique, the more of a letdown the ending is bound to be.

The FlashForward is a relatively new technique being used increasingly enthusiastically by various television programs - but it's not always successful. Here's a quick breakdown of a few of the most famous examples, and my thoughts on each.

Lost - the show is VERY much centered on flashes forwards and backwards, and has been from day one. The backwards flashes were more successful in the sense they were wholly character driven vignettes that explained who this person was, how they ended up on the island, and why they were the way they were. The forwards were merely plot-driven, plodding scenes that focused almost entirely on returning TO that same island. That being said, the 'true' flash here occurs in the Season 3 finale, when it's revealed that several of the castaways make it back to their homeland, and manage to live there for three whole years before they get the itch to come back. This shock value made for possibly the best finale of Lost in a very shrouded, tricky episode (aside from S5's finale that made up for the rest of a very crummy season), but the execution was less than awesome, as mentioned.
Grade: B - great introduction, horrible execution. Bonus points for sticking to a human timeline (i.e. plane crash in 2004, flash forwards in 2004 - 2007).

Alias - JJ Abrams' first delve into the Flash Forward - keeping in mind I watched Alias after Lost, and was surprised to see him re-use this plot device in the latter show. At the end of a rather gripping S2 finale, Sydney wakes up in Hong Kong (or some equally busy, confounding city) and discovers she's been missing for two years, with no memory of her whereabouts - her father is in prison, her mother is in hiding again, and her former boyfriend is married - making for a very dark, very delicious Season 3 of the series. I wasn't that into Alias up until this point. JJ Abrams finally shocked the viewer in an unpredictable way (and this was having seen him do a flash forward in Lost dammit!) and didn't let things go as lightly as he tends to with other Alias plot lines - Sydney's two-year mind gap is the major focus for the first half of the season. It actually could have made for a season-long stretch (perhaps the argument made for why the flash-forwards in Lost were stretched out over two goddam seasons), especially after it was wrapped up so brusquely by none other than Terry O'Quinn's (Locke on Lost) character on Alias, and swapped in for a rather irritating double agent storyline with Vaughn's new wife.
Grade: B+ - The flash forward was used effectively here as a game changer. The world Sydney returns to is wholly different, and dark, and it was nice to see her on uneven footing for a change. As much as it was killing me to figure out wtf happened to her, it was also fascinating and awesome. I just wish the episode where they reveal all at once didn't happen - it was WAY too convenient and easy.

One Tree Hill - Say what you will, I think One Tree Hill made some very smart decisions when it came to the way they structured the show. The only downfall being the actors continually aging and looking increasingly distant from their fictional ages. The first four seasons were set in high school, and, realizing their fans would probably balk for four more 'school age' years with the characters split up at college & various career opportunities, they fast forwarded the show four years and a bit to all kinds of changes - Lucas engaged (but not to any major character)! Peyton living alone in LA working in the music biz (but not how you'd expect)! Brooke on top of the world in NYC (and feeling incredibly lonely)! Nathan's NBA dreams dashed (wheelchair)! And well, Hayley's a teacher with a normal, adorable child. The downside to this particular flash is the lack of acknowledgment of time. In one of the first episodes of S5, Luke is using an iPhone. Which makes you wonder...okay, when were the high school years set? What year did these kids graduate (I can't remember, nor do I remember any major signage indicating what year it was during their graduation episodes)? Did they actually graduate in 02 or 03 and the new season is set in 06 or 07? Now they've used the device again, jumping forward 14 months mostly to get past the awkward 'Lucas & Peyton are off the show but we can't write them out properly' debacle. Jury's out on how effective it is so far, other than I'm happy I didn't have to suffer through endless "Nathan reaches for his dreams!" episodes and Brooke / Julian continued 'You're never around' episodes. I've had enough of that in the first few this season.
Grade: A- If you can get past the time crunch, the fast forward was a welcome relief from the typically unsuccessful college years, and the resulting situations we find our heroes in have taken two seasons to resolve, if not longer in some cases.

Mad Men - Here's a show that uses a fast forward with care. It helps that it's a period piece that can actually use specific dates and times and historical events - and know the outcome - to mine their storylines from. Admittedly it's always a bit jarring to find yourself fast forwarded several weeks, months, years down the line at the start of each season, but Mad Men's timeline per episode is much wider than any other TV show I've ever watched. It really only helps add to the show's realism as characters move forward with their lives and careers independently of a typical television program.
Grade: A This is how fast forwards can be done - but keeping in mind that Mad Men has an unfair advantage of their show rigidly adhering to a timeline fifty years in the making.

Desperate Housewives - At the end of Season 5, perhaps to spice things up from waning viewers, the show fast forwarded five years in a OTH-style twist, completely unbent from time considerations, and even more annoyingly, age. The OTH characters benefited from the forward motion, looking more their fictional ages, but the DH ladies are now in cougar/menopause town, and it's hardly been acknowledged. Unlike OTH, which used the FF to avoid tedious storylines, DH wasn't really in that position, other than perhaps us getting to skip a ton of "Gabby's a stressed out horrible mom!" stories. When you consider the approximate ages of each character, they're all damn close to the 50 mark, but often comments on the show suggest the opposite. Plus the fun new developments - Gabby has two chubby kids, Lynnette's kids are finally teens, Edie has a new husband and is moving back to town - were severely underused. Last season fell flat, among the worst of the series in my opinion (along with S2's horrible Applewhite mystery), mostly because the untangling of the storylines from episode 1's fast forward didn't feel fresh, as Mark Cherry's likely intention, they felt tired and tried - and strained given the fact these ladies are five years older and still behaving like they're the spring blossoms that attracted sexy shirtless gardeners *NINE* "show years" (the first four seasons + the five-year fast forward).
Grade: C- Why bother with a flash if you're only going to give us a peek as to how it affects your characters lives?

That's all for now...cross your fingers with me the ultimate "forward" show holds true and keeps me thinking this week.

- Britt's On

I debated starting this blog for awhile, based on the amazing job the Slate girls (Meghan O'Rourke, Emily Bazelon, and Hanna Rosin) are doing on their analysis of S3 of Friday Night Lights, and also just based on my general involvement with pop culture.

The funny thing is, one of the posts I thought about writing was totally random - and I actually felt I needed to post this, now that the worst case scenario just might happen! I'm talking about Edie Britt's possible death on Desperate Housewives (her second of the series ps). Now...I'm sure I could go look up spoilers and IMDB Nicolette Sheridan, but I'm a traditional girl that likes to enjoy her TV on a weekly basis.

Before I get into Edie - and why she must live on - let's take you back on the Desperate Housewives train.

When the show premiered five seasons ago, it caught the attention of America - a nation surprised that a show with such camp, such archetypal characters could be so subversive and provocative in showing that we maybe haven't come such a long way baby. The title said it all - whether playing the role of ever-devoted wife for life in the 1950s and 60s (see Mad Men's Betty Draper) or trying to be a modern woman in the new millenium, things were still not okay for the 'housewives'.

So here's the real reason why the show succeeded. Yes, each of the core characters was extremely flat, campy, zany, archetypal, to the point of becoming caricatures of themselves. But...the way the show refused to let the women just be these caricatures, to actually break out and surprise you with their angst and emotion and heart and spirit - hell it was Peyton Place 2.0. These women were showing the housewives of America (all over again) it's OK to not feel good about certain things in your life.

The show suffers from two problems today. The first is what I call the slate wiping effect - a problem that plagues wayyy too many shows nowadays. The characters - despite the increasingly heightened dramatic hijinks on Wisteria Lane - are thrust into these insane scenarios, only to continually walk away unscathed. Other than the occasional death or disappearance of a minor character, there are very little consequences for anyone on the Lane, particularly the core cast.

The second is the fact the women - although supposedly more complex and less archetypal - are anything but. They no longer have their boxed-in roles to break out of, and because of the slate-wiping effect, it rarely makes sense how they've 'evolved' into the roles they play today. What we're left with is a bunch of predetermined outcomes that can be seen way too many miles away, and the odd scene that plays into each woman's initial character type.

Let's review...

Gabby was the trophy wife. A former model (at 5"2?) with a superficial lust for life, Gabby simply wanted to be loved - or at least wanted attention again - and found it with her hotness personified gardener John. Today, Gabby has already shuffled through several bouts of being poorer than she'd like, fatter than she'd like, and loneliness in an extended break from her husband Carlos. And what does she have to show for it? She's become a money-grubbing, somewhat superficial trophy wife again - but with no motivation in her life. What is the future of Gabby, really?

Lynette was the unwilling stay-at-home mom. A former shark in the advertising world, she was constantly neglected by her uber-busy (and still working) husband who could find no more joy in life than sleeping with his wife - and getting her knocked up, again. Today Lynette has survived cancer, gotten back into and quit the ad world (and jumped in again), owned a pizza parlour, and still dealt with the mistrials of motherhood. But again, what's next? Lynette no longer seems to be the career-hungry woman, nor does she seem the pained mother. Her once dreamy relationship with her husband Tom seems continually on the rocks, with little to no progression in the 'together forever' or 'hitting the rocks' direction.

Susan was the scorned single mom. A children's book illustrator, she was busy raising the world's most perfect teenager while trying to let her own messy dating life seep into her daughter's. Not a whole lot changed for Susan over the years - she's got her first job on the show as an assistant art teacher, and she's still supposed to be quirky and cute, but she hasn't aged a day mentally (or via plastic surgery) since the first season. Also...come on writers. Susan and Mike are going to get back together. Just do it already.

Bree was the Stepford wife on speed. Her conservative values had her family buttoned up so tightly it was like the third reich of housewifeness. After her world continued to come crashing down around her - dead husband, failed romantic endeavours, gay son, unwed pregnant daughter - Bree loosened the reins and realized only she could build her perfect life, thus starting her own mega-business as an archangel housewife (or, cookbook author). The problem is, while Bree's complete lack of social normalcy in season one was laughable and at times, painful - today it seems downright justified, and almost sad.



Finally we have Edie Britt, the fifth wheel of the Desperate trajectory. Edie has always been the neighbourhood bitch, gossip, seductress, full of machismo guy's girl. This has not changed - but unlike Susan, in a good way. The character of Edie is still who she was in season 1, the writers have not softened who she's always been - upfront, honest, and generally right, no matter how hard it is to hear. This generally means Edie is on the outskirts of the social happenings on Wisteria Lane, which has probably served her well. Edie is allowed to make controversy and speak up and have the gold scenes that snap these b*tches out of their simulated dramas. Consider this current season - it was Edie that woke Susan up to the fact Jackson was a pipe dream, and it was Edie that told Gabby to snap out of her bratty state during the workout camp. These kinds of scenes are really had between the core four anymore, because their friendships just don't allow it. Edie is also continually diabolical, not afraid to bring other people down if it puts a little spring in her own step, causing a lot of the juicier (i.e. not ridiculous season-long arcs) episodic tension.

So now, it's possible she'll die. Which again, it's the second time around for her - the previous being a silly suicide attempt with a silk scarf a couple of seasons ago. But I'm here to say that if Edie dies, this show will not only lose one of their core cast members, they'll also lose the hub of what's still keeping me (and others) watching the show's spokes continually roll on.

Sure it's easiest to kill off Edie (after Katherine, who's been horribly underused in both of her feature seasons), but is it really worth it? This is the woman that's driving the show, providing much needed humour that isn't playing to the actress' demands or glamourous self-perception.

Also, the death to drive ratings? Never a good plan. See the OC.

With that in mind, I bid you adieu for now. My blog is not named for ms. Britt, although I do enjoy the name - since it's my own.

Till next time - Britt's On.