Rob's profileRobin's 'HoodPhotosBlogListsMore  |  Tools Help |
|
21 May Bio ParkLast week we were supposed to go on a trip to the Grand Canyon. A series of things went wrong so we decided to cancel. Instead, on the 16th, we decided on a day trip to the Albuquerque Biological Park. This consists of The Rio Grande zoo, an aquarium and a botanical center. The weather was almost perfect, temp in the 80's, very low humidity, sunny skies. It was a really good day for picture taking so I hope you enjoy the new photo album. 20 May Season FinalesWhy do so many good TV shows have such terribly written season finales? Of course, ever since Who Shot JR, (a pox on the person who thought up that one) many shows have to have cliffhanger endings. It's as if the network execs think that, over the Summer hiatus, we will forget the shows and won't remember to watch them in the Fall. Where is the logic in that?
One of our favorite shows is Criminal Minds with a great character being Penelope Garcia, the computer maven. She has the world at her fingertips and is able to pull up any information that the agents need, always with a wise crack. On the finale she got in trouble because the killer was able to infiltrate the BAU system through her personal laptop which was hooked into their server. She said that her unit did not have the protections the their system has. Ok, she is a hotshot IT type person who doesn't have protections on her own computer? Hell, I have PC-Cillin Anti-virus and three different anti spyware programs on mine as well as several firewalls and I'm just an amateur. See what I mean? Dumb writing on a show that has been consistently good throughout the year.
Then there is Grey's Anatomy which has been a very good medical show with a real sense of humor. The season finale took place over two nights. Three hours of the most miserable, maudlin plot developments. We watched the whole thing that we had recorded and, when it was over, both of us were depressed. Two deaths and Meredith and McDreamy acting like two adolescent children. With the program having become the worst kind of soap opera we have decided that we won't be watching it next season.
And how about The Gilmore Girls? With Luke and Lorelai finally getting together their creators decided to bring in his child that he had not known about until recently. That seems like the kind of trite, overdone plot device that writers use when they can't think of anything else to shake things up. This season has had some of the dumbest stories ever told on that show. I see that the Paladinos, who created the show, are leaving. Maybe that is a good thing. The jury is out on whether we will watch anything after the first show of the next season.
So far, the one show that we are happy about is Veronica Mars. The finale tied up loose ends that have been going on since the first season and did it beautifully. The twists and turns were so clever that we were talking about it all the next day. I have saved the recording so that we can go back and watch it over to get all the details straight. I see that the new CW network is bringing the show back next season. The show's creator, Rob Thomas, says that next year's stories will be in shorter arcs. That's good because it will make the details easier to remember. A great show with superior acting and writing with wonderful dialogue.
The most excellent My Name is Earl will be back and Scrubs is slated for mid season again. Of course, House, Bones, the CSI's and Without a Trace will still be part of the viewing that we look forward to. But it looks like there will be a lot more time for movies and books.
17 May CIC - updateI just read that the last three episodes of Commander In Chief will be run in June. ABC's programmer, Stephen McPherson, said that he is in negotiations with the show's creator, Rod Lurie, to possibly produce a two hour movie based on the show. Where have we heard that one before?
Also, Grey's Anatomy is being moved to Thursday night opposite CSI. Now, I wonder which one the Nielson families will watch? Maybe Grey's will take ratings away from the hottest show on televison. Maybe I'll win the lottery and move to Australia.
04 May R.I.P. CICToday ABC pulled the plug on Commander in Chief. They said that the remaining three episodes might be run in the Summer but I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for them.
When the show started in the Fall it was the big hit of the new season and Geena Davis even got a Golden Globe award for her performance as the country's first female President.
Then Touchstone, which is owned by Disney, complained that the show's creator, Rod Lurie, was causing delays in production. Stephen Bochco was brought in to produce and he added new writers. CIC continued to get good ratings, pulling in about 15 million viewers.
At this point controversy began to appear. Some felt that the program was preparing America for a female President and Hillary Clinton's name was beginning to be mentioned. Needless to say, she is far from the choice of the neo conservatives.
In November, for no apparent reason, ABC pulled the show from the schedule. It was not returned until recently when the programmers decided to run it in the time slot on Thursdays that competed with the highly popular Without a Trace. Some would consider that a death slot.
Still, the show continued to pull in 10 million viewers, not a bad rating for that time period. Today, ABC made the announcement that they did not want the program on during May sweeps.
You have to remember that many of the policies presented by this show are progressive or what the right would call, with a sneer, liberal. The advertisers that support television represent corporations that are generally very conservative.
Whatever the reason, a very good, well acted show that could possibly make viewers think has effectively been cancelled.
|
|
|
