I know last week’s edition of Against the Grain touched on a pretty hot-button issue and although I’m not exactly one to apologize for my position on such an important matter, I do still understand its weight and that sometimes the best we can do is take a step back from it all and talk about something else for a while. So that’s exactly what we’re going to do this week – it’s been a little quiet around the newsroom here and I’ve managed to avoid most other things that would get me going enough to bother writing about them here, so instead I thought we’d take a break this week and talk about another facet of life – just exactly what it is that I’m watching on television this fall…
Now to give you an idea of my typical viewing habits, I can tell you right off the bat that it really comes in spurts for me. There can be some seasons where I’m hardly ever found in front of the tube, and others where it seems like I’m putting in hours upon hours every night. For the most part, I guess I would declare the Fall of ’06 to be a moderate viewing period for me – there are some things that I wouldn’t mind seeing most nights of the week, but I don’t have a full Monday-through-Friday schedule laid out by any means. And mind you, this summer my girlfriend persuaded me to bring TiVO into our home, so that ability alone makes my selections far more ambitious than what I actually find myself having time to watch on a given week…
Anyways, thanks to the DVR, I couldn’t really tell you for the life of me what actual day and time most of these shows are on, so instead I think I’ll try to arrange things by network instead. And that said, starting things off with the basic broadcast networks, I’ve got to admit that lately (in the past several years, really) I’ve been pretty thoroughly disappointed with what the big four (NBC, ABC, CBS & FOX) have had to offer us. Call it a lack of original ideas, call it … well, I guess that’s exactly what the problem is – a lack of original ideas! When you’re too afraid to try anything new outside of CSI: San Bernardino or Who Wants to Marry a Monk?, it doesn’t exactly say very much for those producers that you’re paying the big bucks to fill your line-up.
So where do we start?
NBC
Carrying over from last season, I’m surprisingly still watching The Office, even though it’s questionable just how long they’re going to be able to continue this whole Jim-Pam romance thing, and really, just how many stupid scenarios can Michael Scott get himself into anyways? The British version (which came before ours) only made it for two seasons before they had said all that they had to say, so it should be interesting to see if our current third also becomes the final season of the American version.
Also on NBC this fall is one of only two truly new shows that I’m currently watching – Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. Created by the brilliant Aaron Sorkin (of Sports Night and West Wing fame), Studio 60 takes us behind the scenes at a SNL-type weekly production and so far, I think has been pretty entertaining. It’s good to see Matthew Perry on primetime again and although I wasn’t really sure if Amanda Peet was going to fit the bill, she’s actually not doing too bad at all. Other regulars that I’ve enjoyed over the years include DL Hughley and Steven Weber (from my childhood favorite, Wings!). I do have to admit, though, that I’m worried about this one because even now there are already rumors of Studio 60 hitting the chopping block due to declining numbers. I, for one, hope that the powers that be decide to hold off and give it a chance because it really reminds me of Sports Night from a few years back, and I just loved that show!
P.S. One last note from the NBC market that I still TiVO is My Name is Earl, but I’ve got to say that they need to pick it up here pretty quick because for me, this show is losing steam fast. Sometimes I find myself going weeks without watching it because although I did really enjoy seeing Jason Lee last season as the series debuted, I’m not quite sure how much longer I can ride on the stupid bandwagon…
FOX
That’s right – I’ve finally jumped on the House bandwagon! And I’m sure most probably wonder how in the world it took me so long because, like a certain humor writer that will remain nameless (ok, it’s me), Dr. House just has a cutting sarcasm that either has you laughing your ass off with him or just absolutely loathing him … I know the feeling. Over the summer hiatus I had a chance to check out most of season 1 on DVD and hope to be picking up season 2 before too long. ER and most of those other medical shows focused on hospital life are just too much for me, but I enjoy House for the unrelenting sarcasm and because of that, I’m willing to just look away when it comes time for them to do something really gross like cut a guy’s throat open for a tracheotomy or something…
FOX also gets my eye simply for being home to The Simpsons, still holding strong as my favorite cartoon of all-time and quite possibly one of my favorite shows, period. I know a lot of folks have been saying for years that “the writing just isn’t like it used to be,” and you know what – it’s not! But there’s nothing wrong with that because if the show hadn’t changed from where it was almost twenty years ago when it first started out, it’d have been cancelled a long time ago. One of the reasons that The Simpsons has remained successful is that it evolves with its audience – just as the artwork itself has undoubtedly improved, I think the writing has also and that’s why I not only continue to watch new episodes each and every week, but Matt Groening can pretty much already count on my dollar for any new DVDs or books or other merchandise that he wants to bless with the Simpson name!
And yeah, also I will admit that I certainly haven’t been as happy with it recently as I was years ago, I am still watching Family Guy right along with The Simpsons on Sunday nights, and even occasionally American Dad, too. They’ll never hold a candle to Homer, but they’re still not doing too bad themselves, either…
Comedy Central
That’s right – no CBS, no ABC – from here we skip right over to cable because frankly, those other networks just haven’t sparked my attention this season. What has caught my eye, and even more so because of its political stance, is the one and only The Colbert Report with Stephen Colbert! I’ve tried to get into The Daily Show with John Stewart before and do enjoy catching the clips online here and there, but was never able to commit to watching the entire performance every night – no offense to the host, of course. But for some odd reason, Mr. Colbert’s show is different and in this case, different is very good! I don’t care if it is satire – I’d rather get my news from The Colbert Report than some jerk at Fox News any day…
Showtime
And last but certainly not least on my fall line-up is a pair of shows from the premium section of your cable box – Weeds and Dexter. I actually discovered Weeds by accident earlier this summer and quickly got hooked on the ganja, as the kiddies are saying these days! You can’t deny that a concept of a single-mother dealing drugs in the middle of suburbia doesn’t peak your interest just a little, and the writers so far have done a pretty decent job of keeping this show far away from just being another 30-minute series advocating the legalization of marijuana. The cast is completely new to me, with the exception of Kevin Nealon as an outrageously-addicted accountant – good times, good times.
I honestly didn’t even think that I’d end up liking Dexter because A) I tend not to really get into anything CSI / Police Mystery-related, and B) just by default, anything about serial killers tends to be pretty bloody and gruesome. But I gave it a chance because I really enjoyed Michael Hall’s performance after watching some five seasons of Six Feet Under on HBO and wanted to see if he could pull off any other roles. Now I’m hooked and can’t wait to see how the story unfolds a little further each week. Again, I could probably do just as well if they didn’t get quite so graphic with Dexter’s killings themselves, but it is a show about killing people and it is on Showtime, so I suppose it just sort of goes with the territory.
So there you have it – ten shows across four networks to bide my television-watching time this fall. Whether the networks will actually strive to be a little more creative, or even just creative – period, next season is still to be seen, but I suppose ten ought to be enough to keep be entertained for the next couple of months, eh? I really should be spending a bit of time outside exercising, anyways…
Yeah, right!
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