rec.arts.tv Commentary:

MY REVIEW: The '00-'01 Season: My "Musings" Review:

This article was written, by me, and posted to the 
rec.arts.tv newsgroup on May 29, 2001. 
That original article has been slightly edited by me 
before being placed on the web on June 9, 2001.

Note: I've reformatted this "Year-End Review" into a "Year-End Musings Review". There are several reasons for this: 1) I didn't have the time to put in for a long drawn out review this year, 2) this format is easier to do, and I'll likely stick with it for next season, and 3) it more succinct and 'to the point'.

In this review, I've noted my picks for the "Top 5 Shows", along with "Special Mentions", "Honorable Mentions" and "Guilty Pleasures", and then finally the "Biggest Decline" and/or "Biggest Disappointment", and "Most Overrated". These categories should be pretty self-explanatory.

Anyway, have at it!

LIST OF GRADED SHOWS:

Rank   TV SERIES                GRADE    OTHER COMMENTS
----  -----------               -----    --------------
  1   Grosse Pointe               A-      MY #1 SHOW OF THE YEAR
  2   Once & Again                B+      MY #2 SHOW OF THE YEAR
  3   Angel                       B+      MY #3 SHOW OF THE YEAR
                                          (also: MOST IMPROVED)
  4   Survivor II: Australia      B+      MY #4 SHOW OF THE YEAR
  5   Roswell                     B+      MY #5 SHOW OF THE YEAR
      Charmed                     B       HONORABLE MENTION
      Dark Angel                  B       HONORABLE MENTION
      Dawson's Creek              B       HONORABLE MENTION
      The Weakest Link            B       SPECIAL MENTION
      C.S.I.                      B
      Jack & Jill                 B
      La Femme Nikita             B
      Nash Bridges                B
      Andromeda                   B-      GUILTY PLEASURE
      Buffy The Vampire Slayer    B-      BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT 
                                          & MOST OVERRATED
      ER                          B-
      Gilmore Girls               B-
      King of Queens              B-
      V.I.P.                      B-
      Walker Texas Ranger         C+
      The X-Files                 C+      BIGGEST DECLINE
      Beastmaster                 C
      Popular                     C-

THE SHOW REVIEWS:

WHAT WORKED: Hunter Fallow, this season's single best character, brilliantly played by Irene Malloy; the supporting cast led by Lindsay Sloane as Marcy and Kyle Howard as Dave The Stand-In; some of the individual episodes which worked as brilliant satire (e.g. the "Lewinski" episode); the overall satire of the nighttime soap genre, as rep'ed by "90210"; still, I sort of think I remember this show more fondly than I should (hence, the #1 rank...)

WHAT DIDN'T WORK: Some of the humor was forced (including too much reliance on bathroom humor); lack of "sitcom-y" elements no doubt turned mass audiences off; some of the supporting cast was only adequate

WHAT WORKED: Robert Patrick, who reinvigorated this show as much as he could; some decent MOTW episodes; Mulder's return brought back some much needed humor

WHAT DIDN'T WORK: The "Myth-Arc", which totally blows now; this show is plum tired, and should not be back next season

WHAT WORKED: The ultimate resolution of the series and Nikita's fate; the episodes with Michael; Operations and Kate Quinn ruled, as did Walter; I still like Mick Schtoppel

WHAT DIDN'T WORK: The awkward insertion of some of the old cast (e.g. Madeline, Jason Crawford) into some of the episodes; the unsatisfactory resolution to some of the show's arcs; the real "Mr. Jones" (Edward Woodward) and "The Collective" arcs didn't work as well as I might have hoped

WHAT WORKED: Anne Robinson, Anne Robinson, and... oh, Anne Robinson!

WHAT DIDN'T WORK: The contestants are often moronic, blubbering babies; the questions are an odd, random mix of stupifyingly easy, and surprisingly hard

WHAT WORKED: Kevin James' work-a-day hero is the most lovable on all of TV, IMO; Leah Remini's sitcom wife is not only tolerable, she's actually likeable!; the supporting cast is uniformly good; the show can work up some inspired lunacy

WHAT DIDN'T WORK: It can also work up some less-than-inspired lunacy

WHAT WORKED: Episodes that emphasized the season #1 theme of character interrelationships ruled (e.g. "The End of the World", "A Roswell Christmas Carol", "Cry Your Name", "Departure", even "Heart of Mine"); Liz in "crusader mode" was great; pretty much anything with either Valenti, and (this season) Michael, were pretty much the best bits; "The Hybrid Chronicles" (by and large) was actually entertaining; some good guest casting (Grant Sorenson, excepted); a season finale that wiped away a lot of the bad of season #2, and made one look forward to season #3, redeeming a large part of the season

WHAT DIDN'T WORK: Some truly crapy episodes and arcs, especially the "Skins" and "Dupes" arcs; terrible Sci-Fi; terrible continuity; making Max into a jerk; too much mopey Isabel; making Maria into too much of a doormat; unexplained absences (why didn't they tell us where Alex was before he returned?!); overall, a fairly frustrating season #2...

WHAT WORKED: Glory, the villain, restored my faith in the "villain" aspect of the show, an aspect heavily damaged by the disastrous Maggie Walsh/Adam combo of last season; some quality individual episodes (see: "The Real Me", "Fool for Love", "The Body"); some restoration of the Xander and Giles characters; some pleasing development of the Anya character; the various aspects of Spike; Dawn (who could have been a disaster, but wasn't)

WHAT DIDN'T WORK: Too much melodrama, and series writing that has gone into the toilet; incredibly poor and sloppy "arc" development; Where's the "funny"? (Didn't this show used to be funny?!!!); killing Joyce (Why?!); the Willow-Tara relationship, the single most vapid relationship on all of TV (excepting AMC's Hayley & Mateo!); where's the "Darkness of the Slayer" arc?!; some truly crapy individual episodes (see: "Family", "Triangle", "Crush", "The Weight of the World"); one of the worst season finales ("The Gift") I've ever seen! (and nobody important really dies?!!!); the hard-core of the "Buffy" fandom (see: the hard-core fanwanks of alt.tv.buffy-v-slayer), who are beginning to rival the provincialism and the ignorance of the "X-Files" and "Voyager" fandoms at their nadirs; in short, this show is played

WHAT WORKED: Great individual episodes (see, especially, "Untouched" and "Reunion"); The 'Darla' arc; Angel's journey over the season, and the development of the Angel character; Kate; Wesley (though I still want to see what this show might be like with Doyle); the 'fun' aspects of: 1) the 'Pylea' arc, and 2) anything with The Host; overall, this show was one of the bright spots of this season, and was probably the single "most improved" show this year

WHAT DIDN'T WORK: Losing over half of the supporting cast by the end of the season (Darla, Kate and Lindsey will be hard to replace); Cordelia's increasingly glum attitude as the season wore on (which, mercifully, was jettisoned for the 'Pylea' arc); wimping out on the 'Darla' arc

WHAT WORKED: The Manticore arc was pretty darn compellling to me; Logan is the most interesting thing about this show; Lydecker is a good "heavy"; Normal is the only good thing about Jam Pony; Max's backstory and powers

WHAT DIDN'T WORK: calling Alba an "actress" is still pushing it; non-Manticore episodes tended to be sub-standard; Original Cindy - so bored with her now!; Where's Kendra?!; the insertion of "Madame X" into DA is iffy; this show is riddled with bad science; Oh, and can we please blow up Jam Pony now?!

WHAT WORKED: Pacey & Joey; Jen's journey of self-discovery (including anything with Grams); dumping Meredith Monroe's increasingly annoying and irrelevant Andie character; Dawson's arcs with A.I. Brooks (Harve Purcell) and Gretchen (Sasha Alexander); Drue Valentine (Mark Matevitch), this season's resident "bad boy"/villain gave the show some much needed "Umpf!" (and fun!); this season was consistently fair-to-good, which makes it more solid than any preceding season

WHAT DIDN'T WORK: Dawson & Joey; Dawson's ancient parents having a baby (who cares?!); anything with Jack (if you don't want to use him, writers, lose him!); some overly gimmicky episodes (see, for example: the 3rd season episode where "Dawson finds out", or the 4th season "prank" episode, told from 3 different viewpoints)

WHAT WORKED: anything with Barto; most of the stuff with Audrey, especially the crash-and-burn of her Hollywood career; Elisa, but only toward the end of the season; giving Mikey something to do so he could be taken seriously; some of the intricacies of engagements and making relationships work was fascinating

WHAT DIDN'T WORK: this season was much less elegant and engaging, than season #1; season #2 was also a little "over-angsty"; Elisa's relationship with Peter (Ed Quinn) didn't ring true; Jack was getting just plain irritating; and the lack of resolution in the finale was criminal as it should have been obvious to the writers that there would be no season #3! - this kind of F.U. the fandom is unforgivable...

WHAT WORKED: Personally, I liked the "Atlantor" arc, and pretty much anything with Billy Campbell's Rick Samler (including the departure of Todd Field's David, and David Clennon's Miles Drentell); Evan Rachel Wood was brilliant as Jesse this year; also brilliant was Patrick Demsey as Lily's schizophrenic brother; some of Grace/Eli/Carla stuff was interesting; I also liked Jake's arc; the season finale was very satisfying, and would have worked as a series finale...

WHAT DIDN'T WORK: The Judy stuff didn't work as well this season as last; Lily's work crisis came out of nowhere, and Lily was much more of a "30something" character in season #2 (this is not good...); this show just wasn't quite as good as in season #1, but it was still better than most of the other shows on TV

WHAT WORKED: Despite expectations to the contrary, this show had surprising twists and turns, and was generally suspenseful and exciting; starvation! starvation's good! Jeff Probst RULZ; cuddily Liz; Rodger; Alicia; and Jerri (especially despising Jerri!)

WHAT DIDN'T WORK: This cast was too obviously too "Hollywood-looking" after the mostly 'normal' looking season #1 cast; overly selective editing hurt the show this time; too much backstabbing and complaining in the early parts of the game; the challenges were a rip-off of season #1, and were unimaginative and boring; Amber was a dud; Tina, the winner, was basically boring; is Mark Burnett really scripting this thing out in detail beforehand? And, if he is, will the scandal be bigger than "21"?!

WHAT WORKED: Alexis Bledel, as Rory, was a dream come true; Kelly Bishop, as Grandam Emily, virtually stole the whole show; the Chilton aspects of this show, especially Paris (Liza Weil) and Tristan (Chad Murray), really work for me; Sookie worked out better than I might have expected; Scott Cohen, as love interest Max, was surprisingly good (too good for Lorelai, that's fur sure!); a season finale that [gasp!] actually wrapped things up, and didn't leave anyone hanging with a cliffhanger! [shock!]

WHAT DIDN'T WORK: Lorelai, the writing for Lorelai, and the direction of Lorelai!; did I mention Lorelai, and the writing and direction of Lorelai?!; the townsfolk border on overly "quirky"; Dean was a dud, AFAIC; Lane barely registers; non-Chilton (and/or non-Emily) episodes don't work nearly as well as Chilton (or Emily) episodes do; this show really is a "chick" show!; Oh, and about me getting my chance to slap Lorelai...

WHAT WORKED: Pretty much everything, at least as far as I'm concerned; certainly, the "Cole" arc worked; more new powers (always good!); more arcing vs. stand-alones

WHAT DIDN'T WORK: Piper's attitude got a little too snippy for me in the middle of the season (and she's my favorite character!), before recovering post-wedding; Where's Darryl?!; Losing Shannen Dohery (under highly charged circumstances) sure doesn't help; neither does the nightmarish recasting quandary, which will have to be "just right" for the show to continue on (and Soleil Moon Frye would not cut it!)

WHAT WORKED: Grissom; Warrick Brown; the cases; the technology; I liked Holly Griggs (Chandra West) from the pilot

WHAT DIDN'T WORK: Grissom is quickly turning into a virtual superhero (Is he ever wrong?! Is there anything he doesn't know?!); Sara Seidel (Jorja Fox) is perhaps the most annoying TV character to come along in the last several years (And that's saying something! We traded Holly Griggs... for this?!); sometimes "CSI" comes dangerously close to bordering on a "message" show (Resist this temptation! Stick to the cases!)

WHAT WORKED: By and large, the Carter/Abby/Luka triangle; the arc with James Cromwell's Bishop was quite good; Green's "brain tumor" arc was interesting, if cliched and mostly uninspired; I still love Ramano and Dr. Dave; the people who have left this show have not been missed

WHAT DIDN'T WORK: Weaver's "conversion" to lesbianism, which I find anything but credible; Chen's pregnancy (Zzzzzz....); I hate Cleo Finch!; too many characters are too glum too much of the time; no real stand-out episodes this year; way too much over-the-top melodrama this season!

WHAT WORKED: Episodes with conflict always worked better than those without (especially bitchy, insane Spam vs. neurotic Brooke; or Nicole vs. anyone); Nicole Julian is a brilliant character; Mary Cherry (when used sparingly) was a hoot!

WHAT DIDN'T WORK: This show confused 'camp' with humor; the male characters were all terrible; supporting characters, like April Tuna, never worked; Miss Glass was nearly always over the top; the show was sophomoric and idiotic, and annoyingly didactic

WHAT WORKED: A return to "fun" "Nash", after a preceding season that was a total downer; Wedny Moniz was an excellent trade-up on Yasmine Bleeth; Cress Williams was another good addition; Jeff Perry's Harvey came into his own this season; this show will be missed

WHAT DIDN'T WORK: Magically promoting Jodi Lyn O'Keefe's Cassidy to SUI detective was hard to swallow, then doing nothing with her was unfathomable (where was she for half the season?!); "funny" Joe was best when used sparingly; the restored arc of Nash's father's senility also didn't work, and wasn't pursued much anyway...

WHAT WORKED: This show can be occasionally fun, even though it is incredibly dumb

WHAT DIDN'T WORK: This show can be occasionally fun, even though it is incredibly dumb (P.S. And the finale was a huge disappointment...)

WHAT WORKED: David Paterson as King Bowdin; the return of King Zad (Steven Grives); Dar & Tao (though less so this season)

WHAT DIDN'T WORK: the loss of more than half of the supporting cast (Emilie de Ravin's Curupira, Monika Schnarre's (original) Sorceress, and Grahame Bond's Ancient One are particularly missed); Iara (Sam Healy) is basically lame; Arina (Marjeah Holden) and the "new" Sorceress don't add anything; too many "city-centric" stories this season; also too much "enviromentalism" this season (OK, he's the "Beastmaster"! I get it! This theme is already implicit! It doesn't need to be made so explicit!) in short, this show was hurtin' this season

WHAT WORKED: Trance, Bekka, Harper and Tyr; individual episodes can be quite entertaining (even if they aren't very "brilliant"); some good battle scenes, with good suspense; I like the backstory (e.g. the Commonwealth), and some storyarcs developed nicely

WHAT DIDN'T WORK: Dylan Hunt is a "girlie man" (I have a hard time believing this guy could be captain of anything, even under a decayed Commonwealth!); where is the cast, half the time?!; individual episodes can be pretty terrible, especially those off the ship (see, especially, the Dylan&Rommie-get-trapped-on-a-prison-planet episode - Ugh!); others will disagree, but Rommie is no sex symbol (and enough with the androids as 'sex toys' thing!)

WHAT WORKED: Kay, Tasha, Quick and Jonny; more fun; 3rd season was better than the 2nd; less "stunt" casting

WHAT DIDN'T WORK: still too much Val; Maxine (Angelle Brooks) didn't need to be bumped up to full cast; it's still pretty dumb

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