Top 3 TV Shows to Look Forward to in ‘09
It’s great to use the time before TV shows return to catch up on TV shows (helllooo five seasons of the Wire), but here’s what I’m looking forward to returning in ‘09:
1) Lost: Season 5, returns Jan 21
Come on Cuse and Lindelof – it’s been a great Season 4, don’t fail us now.
2) Burn Notice, returns Jan 22
No other show on the air right now blends is as fun to watch as this one, making it my new favorite show. I was skeptical at first, but I burned through twenty-some episodes (Season 1 and half of Season 2) in several days because it was that good. You can’t say no to Bruce Campbell.
What Is The CW Good For?
As much as I love Gossip Girl and escapist shows, some of the television trends among younger-geared shows (and many of these air on the CW) is starting to sound alarm bells.
1) Where are my colored folks?
Both Jezebel and I would love the answer to this question. Since the merger of UPN and WB, the new CW has become a reincarnation of the WB as shows with minority protagonists were removed from the line-up. Only Everybody Hates Chris and America’s Next Top Model remain. Aliens in America, a show about a Muslim Pakistani exchange student who joins a Wisconsin family, had potential and was a charming – if not perfect – show. It got canceled in May and won’t be returning for a second season.
I came across this article from Salon.com writer Heather Havrilesky on Jezebel as well. I love Gossip Girl, but reading this just further accentuates the depth of Veronica Mars’ awesomeness. It helps that I recently rewatched the spectacular Season 1. The heart of the show, the relationship between Veronica and her dad Keith, remains one of the best, most accurately portrayed parent-child relationships out there. Veronica Mars had it’s share of narrative problems by Season 3, but even on its worst day it was superior to many.
3) In comparing the cast of the original 90210 and the new 90210, Shalya Thiel-Sterm of University of Minnesota does a critical analysis of the feminine body and the transition over the last decade.
Casting Fun, Dancing Fun
Seth and Sandy Cohen are the prizes of the O.C. character pantheon for sure, but Kaitlin Cooper (played by Willa Holland) and Taylor Townsend hold a special place in my heart because Kaitlin likes nothing more than stirring the shit and Taylor is just a whole barrel of crazy. In fun casting news, Holland will appear on a three-episode arc of Gossip Girl. Can’t wait to see what Schwartz and Savage will muck up with her character.
For now, yay for the funny triumvirate of OC and online dance videos:
A THOUSAND TIMES YES.
The Olympics were fun and all, but Olympics Schmimpics, their close means the impending return of the Fall TV Season. Oh hells, yes. More on that later.
For now, I can get my hit from a preview of the first several minutes of the Season 2 premiere of Gossip Girl. SIX DAYS TO GO.
GG Covers
Yesterday, Go Fug Yourself fugged Lively’s cover on Seventeen. Then lo and behold I go home and find Meester on Lucky’s cover:
On Gossip Girl and reportedly in real life, both Leighton Meester and Blake Lively are gorgeous. But uh, I’m thinkin’ Seventeen’s getting a call from Lively’s PR folks, no?
O.M.G.
Hands down, the best part of television. I’m talking about that jaw-dropping, no way, WTF! moment where everything coalesces into a perfect intersection and you can’t believe what just freaking happened!
Reality shows, though entertaining, don’t deliver the huge twist with that same weight. Serials, on the other hand, have a form that allows them to build up to that WOW! moment.
When it’s on all cylinders, Lost kicks ass at this. Alias and Heroes, the same. 24. But oh man, GOSSIP GIRL. Let’s talk about Gossip Girl. Disclaimer: If you haven’t seen this episode, don’t click on this link. I knew about it beforehand and I really wish I hadn’t. And if you haven’t seen an episode then you need to run out and watch it. All 16 of them. You’ll thank me later. Anyways: this moment at the end of the episode yesterday?!
WTF?! BTW, props to Alexandra Patsavas as usual on her music supervision. The music at the end only heightened the bizarre dual reality/disreality that is this show.
Will Dawn Ostroff Have the Last Laugh?
Time to play a game I like to call: “Do the TV execs know what they are doing?” Was CW prez Dawn Ostroff’s decision not to stream Gossip Girl episodes online a good one? Well, some of the prelim numbers are in, and Wired thinks not.
Countdown to Gossip Girl
I haven’t bought a TV. Ever. Surprised? Me, too. But like many who took advantage of awesome broadband collections in college, I started watching TV shows off of my computer in school and continue to do so. These are the sort of viewing habits that give TV execs nightmares and ulcers these days.
But it seems like they might get the last laugh for at least one show. CW decided not to stream Gossip Girl episodes online when the show returns tonight. I strongly believe that streaming TV is the future, and it’s nice that broadcasters are finally waking up to that fact. So do I resent this decision? Oh yeah. Unless the show is on the bubble (which it’s not), there’s not a particularly strong incentive for me to help them bilk GG ad revenues for all they’re worth.
But now it’s Monday, and I find myself actually considering commandeering my neighbor’s TV tonight. So if this works for them, maybe traditional broadcasting isn’t as dead as everyone’s been assuming. In the mean time, at least I can enjoy NYMag’s posts counting down GG’s return and a feature devoted to the return of the show.
Also, Josh Schwartz gets a lot more press than his fellow co-creator of GG, so I was happy to see some press on his equally awesome cohort Stephanie Savage. Yes, Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle was bloody awful. But even if she’s associated with awful movie scripts forever, she wrote “CHRISMAKKUH” on the O.C.! Chrismakkuh, you guys!
OMFG! Gossip Girl Scandal!
I feel like throwing a parade, I’m so happy shows are coming back these next two weeks. 30 Rock creturned last night (Yay!). And we’re only 10 days away from Gossip Girl. APRIL 21st. MARK IT DOWN. No, seriously. Go mark it down.
Anyways, the creators are heralding the show’s return with an ad some are calling overly provocative:
The ad doesn’t personally bother me, and I’m not going to weigh in on the issue of teens and sex on TV here. But I am going to insert a small sidebar that’s going to make me sound like a crotchety old woman. And yes, I know generations have complained about the previous ones for eons, but still!
This has been happening nationwide, but I noticed it especially frequently in Southern California and it weirds the bejeebies out of me: 12 year olds should look and dress like twelve year olds. Not 16. Not 21. TWELVE.
