Obviously there’s been too much on so I figured I would just compile a list.Also there will likely be spoilers.
Pushing Daisies: Fun season opener with enough storytelling lilt to keep things immensely enjoyable and enough back-story to train a new audience. And man, Kristin Chenoweth is awesome. This is a show that I know has a time stamp on it (hopefully me saying it forces them to prove me wrong) but the series stands strongly enough that it can end and I’d still have enjoyed it as a peek-a-view into a televised fairy tale.
Without A Trace: Interesting mix up on the show with a new head of the department. They might be experimenting with Anthony LaPaglia’s character and seeing if the man has a love for saving folk vs. a love for the position. After last season it sure looked like it was a matter of the people.
The Office: Awesome opener. Michael is as clueless as ever and Holly just cracks me up with her super dorkiness. There’s points when I think Holly can’t be as bad and then she pulls a really weird and evil joke out of her hat.
The Mentalist (Pilot): Not sure how long the show will last. It’s basically Psyche without the humor or 80s pop-culture references. Basically the dude is a guy who notices everything (no mention if he has a photographic memory) and uses this ability of observation to help the FBI solve crimes. There’s some dumb things like he’s been working with the FBI for a while and they still don’t trust his immensely accurate observations. What’s nice about the show is that he was a charlatan in the past (pulling a Sean Spencer in the public eye), lambasted a serial killer on national television and came home to find the killer had made a house call. The scene: a typed letter on a door, opening the door to reveal a tilted lamp shining a light on a drawn blood red circle of a smiling face and then finding his wife and child slaughtered. The most horrifying bit about all this is that the man still lives in the same house and sleeps on a mattress in the same room beneath the shadow of the smiling face. Still, not sure this show will last.
Life: The show surprised me last season in actually coming back and it came back strong. They fixed up the cop-girl’s look to be way less severe and the two are working together much better than they did last year. It was a decent episode, nothing extremely major happened and I’m still not sure the show will last another season but I’ll enjoy the run while it lasts.
SNL: Didn’t have to see much more than the opening skit (from Week 1 and Week 2). The show is pretty much week and thankfully with bringing Tina Fey in (for both openers) to have some fun with Sarah Palin you get to smile for about 6 minutes. Ah well, don’t have to watch this show then.
The Unit: Came back strong. The team gets moved around, they get a new female addition (who blank faced tells folk “There are no women on the Unit”) and we see some of the best action to hit TV in a while. The story is about the President Elect and his VP running mate getting attacked and the Unit defending the PE in a deserted cabin in the woods. Best line in the episode: “If you have any fair words, now would be the time to speak them ‘cause this is where we make our stand.”
NCIS: Good opener with the disbanded team getting put back together again. This is a good show for one-shots since the plot line that strings the series together isn’t so obtrusive to make newcomers lost.
Chuck: Awesome season opener maintaining last years fun, anxiety about living dual lives and a completely adorable crush on an almost attainable yet forever unattainable gal. Plus enough references to Back To The Future that it reminded every fan my age just why we love this type of show.
Sanctuary (Pilot): Dawson’s Creek Robin Dunne debuts as psychoanalyzing detective slash Daniel Jackson clone in Sci Fi’s latest effort to ensure that Amanda Tapping’s successful career continues. Sanctuary seems to be the scientific/zoologist section of the MIB outfitted with a brunette Dr. Carter and a blond Dark Angel. Similarities aside the show has some potential and I may give it another episode before bagging it.
Avatar The Last Airbender: Okay, this is an old show but I have to say, its one of the best animated series on TV. It’s Dungeons and Dragons meets Star Wars and sprinkled with American Anime. It’s excellent.
3 responses to “Season Openers 2008”
OK, you might actually watch more television than I do…now I understand why you didn’t post all week.
Loved the Huey Lewis BTTF in Chuck. And Chenowith and McBride make Pushing Daisies for me. Her energy and ability to rattle off a rant like that in one breath is astonishing, and I love Emerson’s grumpy demeanor and frequent use of the </@$$> tag. Some funny-@$$ moments on that show.
Is Sanctuary why I couldn’t find a new Atlantis this week? Should I bother checking that show out or is going to get cancelled so she can do more SG-1 movies?
I’ll get to Avatar someday.
I liked the structure of the Office opener, unfolding everyone’s Summer through the backdrop of that weight loss competition. Creed as always gets the best WTF one-liners(“That wasn’t a tapeworm.”) and Kevin’s delivery when he realized what Holly thought he was floored me. The gas station scene was anticlimactic, until I thought about what this show is and realized anything else would have been sitcommy and cliché. More realistic and ordinary, I suppose.
Dude, honestly, when the bit with Kevin finally came out, I had to press pause and just let my laughter go nuts. That had to be one of the greatest television moments in history.
Sanctuary I’ll maybe watch for about the first two episodes (like Pilot plus 2) before I give a solid thumbs up. And it is the reason for them skipping an Atlantis week (and at what a cliffhanger too!)
I got so spoiled watching SG1 and Atlantis marathon style this year that it’s killing me now that I’m completely caught up. There were times when I’d have to stay up and watch 3 or 4 episodes in a row to get through cliffhangers and story arcs. Now I have to wait like everyone else.