15 posts tagged “tv”
One of our favorite shows of the last couple of years has been the BravoTV reality show, Top Chef (as well as the excellent Top Chef Masters that was on this summer).
I think that this season has been particularly strong – the contestants seem to be of an overall better quality than the past couple of seasons and seem more interested in cooking great food rather than being “personalities”.
So, being a scientist I decided to “score” the contestants so far to see who was in the drivers’ seat. I used a scoring system of:
Bottom of Quickfire: -1
Top of Quickfire: +1
Win Quickfire: +3
Bottom of Elimination: -2
Top of Elimination: +2
Win Elimination: +5
And the remaining 10 chefs break down into pretty clear groups:
The Contenders
Michael V 16
Kevin 16
Jennifer 14
Bryan 12
The Guys That Aren’t As Good As They Think They Are
Mike I 6
Eli 4
Just Go Already
Ashley 0
Robin 0
Laurine -2
Ash -5
I think any of the top four could win this competition and each has been very strong. I’d thought that the inclusion of brothers Bryan and Mike Voltaggio was a bit of pandering for TV, but those guys have been strong. Michael has been consistently excellent, while Bryan (who seems like a super-focused Eagle Scout to me) has half of the elimination challenges. Bryan has thrown out a few duds on Quickfires however, and his tendency to put out a bad dish may come back to haunt him.
Jen started off incredibly strong, but has been good-but-not-great in recent weeks – but even when flustered seems to put out good-looking and good-tasting food. Kevin is probably the most thoughtful of the contenders and probably has the capacity to put out the most unusual and captivating dish. Of the contenders, only he and Jennifer have never been in the bottom of either a Quickfire or an Elimination challenge.
The two guys in the middle (Mike I and Eli) have big mouths and big egos, but haven’t produced as many successes as the top group and I think they’ll be in for a rude awakening after the bottom tier gets swept out in the next couple of weeks – the only possible survivor is Ashley, who seems to be making better food in the last couple of episodes.
Can we lobby just to get rid of the bottom six and have a multi-week cook-off from the Top Four?
So, one of the observations I can make about my time away from work for the last couple of months is that I haven’t really watched a lot of TV. I thought I might find myself watching movies or something, but I guess there’s been enough tennis, piano, and puppy to keep me pretty busy.
One exception has been the show “ER”, which is shown in repeats on TNT in the morning. I DVR it from the previous day and then Penny and I watch it while I have my breakfast and coffee. The nice thing about it is that the network is following the series in order --- which counts a lot when you’re looking at 15 seasons. It’s perfect for breakfast-oriented puttering. Compelling enough to be interesting, not so intricate that it requires undivided attention.
It’s funny – I never watched it when the show was on but had a lot of friends that did – and recall many “what-happened-last-night!” conversations that they had. The title of this post refers to a just completed story arc in which med-student Lucy Knight (played by the decidely cute Kellie Martin) was stabbed to death by a schizophrenic – on Valentine’s Day no less!! – and the soul-searching that ensued. I’d known that Kellie hadn’t lasted too long on the show, but I always figured that she’d been written out by “moving on” -- like onto another hospital, not the afterlife.
So, there I was, all upset, nearly a decade after everyone else knew about it. Talk about not being spoiled.
Is there any old show that you would go through (that you hadn’t seen before) if you had the chance?
I realized this weekend as I was happily setting the DVR to record the start of the second season of the HBO drama “In Treatment” that I was remiss in leaving this off my “2008 Favorites” list for TV.
If you haven’t seen it, “In Treatment” follows the story of psychotherapist Paul Weston (Gabriel Byrne*) and several of his patients. The format was somewhat different the show was on for 30 minutes every day – and each day of the week followed the story of one patient. Monday was Laura, Tuesday was Alex and so on until Friday in which Paul would go to see his own therapist and mentor Gina (Dianne Wiest).
This is not an action show. Nearly the entire show takes place inside of Paul’s office. There is dialog – as one might expect but I have to say that the emotional power of the show derives from the non-verbal communication the actors are able to use to convey their anger, fear, hesitancy and anxieties. The show is well written and the short episodes kept the focus keen and the drama high.
I think my favorite storyline was Paul and the “Wednesday patient”, Sophie (a suicidal teenage gymnast with familial disorders played fantastically by Mia Wasikowska). Her buried hurt and confusion were powerfully rendered and early on she becomes the one patient (not all are nice people) that you really end up rooting for – and not all the outcomes are happy ones.
So, if you’re looking for smartly written that satisfies a bit of that voyeuristic need to know what’s inside someone else’s head, put Season 1 of “In Treatment” on your netflix queue.
*The Beloved assures me that Gabriel Byrne is very dreamy with his intelligent dialogue, Irish accent and ever-so-slightly weathered face.
In retrospect, I thought it was a pretty good year for TV. Despite some crashes and burns (we’ve got about 8 episodes of “Heroes” backed up on DVR and can’t bring ourselves to watch them), we were rarely scratching our heads at The Aerie when we wanted to plop down and watch something. God bless DVR.
LOST. I know. It seems like it was only on four times this year, but Season 4 of LOST was fantastic. The writing and performances were excellent and the show had the courage to break its “flashback-to-current time” formula for this season, opting to skewer the “how do they get off the island” question – pointing out that really wasn’t the point anyway. New characters were introduced and were compelling. The storytelling was first rate – now delivering answers and clues aplenty, but still leaving me wanting more.
Top Chef. This was the year that I think we discovered our own favorite type of reality TV (of which we watch very little in general) – Food. I love “Throwdown with Bobby Flay”, but the king of foodie TV has to be Top Chef. In the show, several contestants vie to win the title in a variety of cooking related challenges that are judged by the easy-on-the-eye Padma Lakshmi and Tom Colicchio. The show creators manage to make each cook-off full of drama, while focusing in on the personal stories (and foibles) of the contestants. The beginning is always a little overwhelming (with 16 or so entrants) but the outliers are eliminated and favorites to root for (and against) always emerge. This is really fun TV.
What gifts, big or small, are you hoping to find under your tree this year?
Sponsored by Best Buy.
I nearly bypassed this question today because:
a) it’s not even Thanksgiving, so let’s not go crazy for Christmas just yet.b) it’s crass to talk about what you WANT, Christmastime is a season of GIVING.And then I noticed the little blue underlined font… this question sponsored by Best Buy.So what I want for Chirstmas is for Best Buy to actually stock what they claim they carry!I’m sorry, that probably doesn’t make much sense. Please rewind nearly a whole year to New Year’s Eve and my good pal Roomie was in town. The Beloved and I had been thinking about replacing our TV, but hadn’t gotten around to it – and Roomie’s a gadget guy, so we thought of running out to Best Buy before the party commenced and get a TV.
We’d done our homework -- we knew we wanted in terms of size, finish and brand reliability. When we arrived at Best Buy, there were lots of TVs several models that fit the bill and the prices seemed pretty good. Roomie and I were excited, and were approached by young, nerd sales guy.YNSG: Do you need any help?Me: Yes. Do you have <fill in make and model number>?YNSG: Let me check…. mmmm…sorry, looks like there aren’t any more.Me: Oh, too bad. What about <fill in different make and model number>?YNSG: Let me check…. mmmm…sorry, looks like there aren’t any more of those, either.Me: Really?YNSG: I’m afraid so.Me: Okay, how about <next one>?YNSG: Errrr… doesn’t look like it. That model’s been discontinued. I think that’s true for the second one as well.Me: Discontinued? Oh, so will you sell me the floor model on the wall?YNSG: No, we’re not allowed to do that.Me: Really?YNSG: <shifting> No, I’m afraid not.Me: Okay, so let me get this straight. You will never have inventory of either of these TVs again.YNSG: <looking uncomfortable> Errr…correct.Me: And you won’t sell the floor models – you know, the ones right there with pricetags on them?YNSG: Uhhh….no, we won’t.Me: So… why do you still keep them on display?YNSG: <brightening> Oh! That’s so we have a full wall of TVs in the store!
And THAT is why Best Buy is dead to me. It was honestly like being in a reenactment of the Monty Python Cheese Shop skit. And the kid had no clue as to why I was annoyed.
So, this Fall The Beloved and I have done some trial runs for a few new television series. Each of them definitely has a “supernatural” spin to them and feature decent story telling but perhaps with even better character performances.
We’ve been watching ABC’s “Life on Mars”, about a inadvertently time-traveled detective which has been very well produced an interesting with some great performances by Harvey Keitel and Michael Imperioli (who may, just may make me stop calling him Christ-a-fuh after this) as tough 70s cops are great.
We’ve been keeping up with Showtime’s “True Blood” – a series that considers the “what if” world of vampires “out of the closet” among us. I’m not really sure where the show is going but the supporting roles of Tara (Rutina Wesley) and Lafayette (Nelsan Ellis) are really great characters.
But my favorite this season so far is FOX’s “Fringe” – JJ Abrams’ "X-Files" homage about an FBI agent’s investigations into the sinister paranormal. Anna Torv is good (and rather cute) as Agent Olivia Dunham, but the character stealing the show is Doctor Walter Bishop – the somewhat crazy genius enlisted to help her.
Played by John Noble (most well-known to me as the also somewhat crazy, but not nearly as endearing Denethor from the Lord of the Rings films). Noble almost effortlessly seems to transfer from very serious science-speak (well, almost science speak) to hilarious non-sequiturs – assuredly leading to the other team members' discomfort. It’s a great mix of good writing and a great performance.
“Fringe” may not be a great TV (yet), but Noble’s Doctor Bishop always makes me want to watch.
TV Favorite is so easy this year, it wasn’t even a contest.
After a choppy second season, LOST was consistently the best-written, best-acted, and thought-provoking show on television. And the season finale for Season 3 goes into the books as one of the best episodes of any show that I’ve seen. I’m almost afraid to hope for that kind of quality in S4 – truncation b/c of the strike is going to cause all sorts of problems.
Other possible contenders had some great high points, but couldn’t match up:
Heroes stumbled at the finish line after a fantastic season ("Company Man" is the high-water mark for this show and still just a great great episode) with a very meh finale – and a lackluster feeling that carried along into this season, with perhaps the exception of last couple of episodes. Oh, and how much do I now hate Mohinder.
Grey’s Anatomy was right there with LOST for most of the 2006-07 season. Until the LOST finale, I thought that GA nailed the dismount for a season about as well as anyone could – heart wrenching, thoughtful and Shonda showed courage in turning the show on its ear. This season though, with the departure of Addison for Private Practice, the introduction of new characters and most importantly the disastrous George-Izzie matchup, GA has been good but certainly not great.
Veronica Mars ended not with a bang, but with a whimper. The show languished in CW purgatory before the network finally killed it after three seasons. Season 3 had two mini-arcs and if the phenomenal conclusion to the first arc "Spit and Eggs" had been broadcast in 2007 (it was late 2006), I might have put Miss Mars up there with LOST. The second arc was also good, but moved in fits and starts. The ending, where Veronica's hubris likely torpedoes her dad's vindication was extremely well done.
The Sopranos had a good finish after a mostly-weak final season. I will give show creator David Chase HUGE kudos for not bowing to pressure for a "clean" ending and for sending the show out with one of the greatest cliff-hangers/head-scratchers in history.
... and was surprised about the amount of griping about the series finale of “The Sopranos”.
I couldn’t disagree more.
For a show that has been consistently excellent (we will forgive the previous season’s tangential straying), the in medias res “cut to black” finale was apparently unsatisfying. There was ample speculation about what would happen in the finale – most of the theories I heard were a) Tony dies by getting gunned down, b) Tony dies by some freak mean – a heart attack for example, c) someone else in his immediate family dies, and/or d) Tony is lead off to prison by the Feds.
SPOILERS
Clearly, none of those things came to pass. In many ways, the finale was very typical of the series’ season finales – some things were cleared up (i.e. Phil got his) while a large number of threads were left unresolved and left open for speculation.
I was riveted during the final scene, in a little diner, as Tony and his family congregate for a little meal. As each family member arrives, so do others – some looking nefarious, others thoroughly clueless. You keep wondering if one of them is going to pull a gun and take Tony and his family out, or is one of the “innocents” an undercover Fed about to put the cuffs on Tony.
Each time the door opens, Tony looks up – expectantly and not without a little anxiety. He’s learned one of his guys has flipped, and while he thinks the problem with Brooklyn has been “solved”, he still doesn’t know if there are any rogue loyalists ready to make amends.
And that’s the thing – there is no tidy ending – there is no walk-off into the sunset. There is no dramatic Alamo-esque stand-off. This is Tony’s life – even in the good times, he never knows when the axe will fall. Whether its bullets or cuffs --- its always there, right out of sight, and it could be anyone.
Good for David Chase for seeing through his vision and not bowing to “the expectations of the masses”.
LOST
24
Prison Beak
The Sopranos
Veronica Mars
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Battlestar Galactica
Heroes
Angel
Jericho
Six Feet Under
The above are just a couple of examples of the recent renaissance in season-long-story-arc based television series (or even multi-season) that have become immensely popular with viewers, and have spawned an entire sub-culture on the internet as plot developments, twists and turns and characters’ choices are scrutinized for meaning and criticized in the type freedom that is really only available by sitting at home in front of your own computer. The internet has become the world’s biggest office cooler…
“They’re really dead, they’re in purgatory they just don’t know it yet…”
“Glory is a much better big-bad than Adam…”
“Holy crap – how’d Lee get so fat!?!??”
“Isn’t it obvious that Wesley and Fred have waaaaaay more chemistry than Wesley and Fred…”
“Johnnycakes??? #^#&@!! Has this show ever Jumped the Shark…”
“I bet you that Peter’s going to voluntarily blow up New York…”
Most times the commentary is out of excitement and interest in the subject matter, because really it is FUN to try and figure out where things are going, and as you become invested in the characters people start to care about what happens. Too often though there seems to be a tendency to bash shows and plots in really ugly ways. Fortunately, I think most of what I’ve read on vox has been the excited and constructive type.
But recently, I realized that there was one arc show that came way back in the pre-internet 90s that I think is in my mind the best example of how to pull off a great story arc, and I don’t think it gets nearly enough credit. It broadcast 1994-1998 and unlike some very high-profile shows from its day (The X-Files and Twin Peaks) never had network backing. And unlike those shows, it ultimately delivered a great story from inception, development, climax to finale. That show was Babylon 5.
Over five seasons, the show covered both the epic and personal stories of people caught up in an interstellar war between the care-taking old-ones (The Vorlons) and the forces of chaos and anarchy (The Shadows) that would eventually decide the fate of humanity and the galaxy. Series creator J Michael Straczynski has described it as a “novel for television”.
In terms of science-fiction TV, it was a huge departure from the “Star Trek” model – the station was often dingy, the humans definitely weren’t the galactic leaders, nor were they necessarily “the good guys”, and there was no Federation to bring peace throughout the quadrant. In tone, it’s clearly the antecedent of today’s Battlestar Galactica.
I’m not going to go into details about the plots or anything, but I encourage anyone that likes good storytelling (especially good science-fiction storytelling) to put this series in their Netflix queue. Endure the first half of the first season – it’s a bit stilted as the series was finding it footing, but in there are the seeds of what’s to come, and I will put seasons 2 through 4 up against anything. Period.
Of all the shows that are making really great tv these days, I think that LOST has the potential to deliver characters and story equal to or surpassing that of B-5. Maybe “Heroes” though I worry that its not constructed well for a multi-season arc. The X-Files had its chance but got bogged down in conflicting and inconsistent storylines. Babylon-5 closed the deal. If you haven't seen it, give it a shot.
Okay -- I got tagged by Hannabanana and by Byron and I thought this was a pretty good one... so, here goes...
Four jobs I have had in my life
1. Janitor at the grade school I attended.
2. Synthetic organic chemist (polymer chemist trying to make --- um --- synthetic blood additives, yeah I'll just stop now...)
3. Car-buying associate for car leasing outfit (Weird job, I’d buy cars over the phone from lots all over the country and then lease them to people that wanted them – weird. Definitely pre-internet.)
4. Lumber yard worker and forklift operator
Four movies I would watch over and over
1. Jaws
2. Raiders of the Lost Ark
3. The Empire Strikes Back
4. The Fellowship of the Ring
Four places I have never gone, but want to
1. South America
2. Australia
3. Alaska
4. Antarctica
Four songs on the CD player right now: (iTunes, in this case)
1. Constant Craving – k.d. lang
2. Goodbye Blue Sky – Pink Floyd
3. Tiny Vessels – Death Cab For Cutie
4. The Last DJ – Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
Four TV shows I love/like (now airing):
1. Veronica Mars
2. Battlestar Galactica
3. LOST
4. Heroes
Four TV shows I love/like (no longer airing):
1. Arrested Development
2. Babylon-5 (as far as I can remember, the original “arc” show – I think I need to post about this)
3. Buffy the Vampire Slayer (skip the last season, ok?)
4. The X-Files (before the movie, if you please)
Four places I've been on vacation
1. Paris, France
2. Kauai, Hawaii
3. Down The Shore
4. Seattle, Washington
Four of my favorite foods are
1. Big giant steak and the sweet potato crumbly thing that I’m pretty sure is made with crack at Ruth’s Chris
2. Vietnamese Pho
3. Roast Turkey, Thanksgiving style and all the trimmings
4. Two eggs, over-easy with corned beef hash, sourdough toast and black coffee (scrapple when back in NJ-PA)
Four places I would rather be right now
1. Rancho La Puerta
2. Skiing in the Rockies, or the Sierras I suppose
3. Sequoia National Park
4. International Space Station
Okay --- off to watch Heroes! (No explicit tagging, but I encourage the guy that hasn't shaved in months, the gal that just got her hair cut, and my friends currently living in the Southern Hemisphere to participate)
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