rec.arts.tv Commentary:

In an instance of "the whole being more than the sum of its parts", I think I liked "Keene Eddie" as a series and as a concept more than I necessarily liked the individual episodes.

Nonetheless, I came to really like this short-run summer series. It was an interesting fusion of American and BritTV elements, with a kicky cast and a cheeky premise. Indeed, in most cases, the police cases here were less important than the humor elements, most usually brought to the fore by Mark Valley's American cop transplant, Eddie (especially in the fantasy sequences between him and "Moneypenny" - aka. Carol, the British Superintendent of Police's secretary) and by British actress Sienna Miller's Fiona (who was Eddie's amusingly hostile and neurotic roommate).

So, of course, in a summer where "The O.C." was a hit, "Keen Eddie" instead bombed for FOX, and was pulled after a mere 7 episodes (leaving a total of 6 unaired). Grrrr...

Disclaimer: I only joined this show half-way through its run, so by virtue of the fact that I missed most of the first half of "Paradise Hotel", my review may not be entirely accurate...

So, what happens when you cross a reality show like "Big Brother" with a reality show like "The Bachelor"?

You get quite possibly the most entertaining reality show of them all, that's what!

While clearly contrived (and controlled) by the producers, "Paradise Hotel" still worked in ways that a show like "Big Brother" can't. Why?! Because in addition to the isolation and group dynamic elements of BB, you are also introducing a wide-ranging lust/romance element as well. The outcome? Instant perennial conflict!

The result? A highly watchable reality TV "guilty pleasure".

For someone (such as this reviewer) who most values the "sociological" aspects of reality TV, "Paradise Hotel" is made to order.

So when this show comes back next summer, do yourself a favor - swallow your pride, and WATCH! You won't be able to look away once you have.

Powered by perhaps this season's most underrated pilot, "Las Vegas" quickly pulled a "John Doe" by backing off and homogenizing many of the elements that made the pilot exceptional.

What we are left with is a show that is basically "The Love Boat", on dry land in Las Vegas. In other words, a show that will be an amusing diversion if you just want to park your brain at the door and 'veg out'. But "NYPD Blue", this ain't...

The "reality show" than gives all other "reality shows" a bad name.

My fear is that when detractors of reality TV think of the genre, they assume that all of the shows are like "The Simple Life" (or "Fear Factor"). Mercifully, they're not, or reality TV would have been a very short-lived genre indeed.

Any discussion of The WB's new teen soap/drama "One Tree Hill" can't be considered complete without a bit of 'compare & contrast' with its season twin, FOX's "The O.C.".

Because both shows share some interesting similarities: Both shows cast off the "90210"/"Dawson's Creek" model of essentially marginalizing its adult & parental characters - in both OTH, and "The O.C.", the adult characters aren't just crucial, they're actually integral to the action. Both shows are about building 'ersatz' families. And both shows are led by a 'sensitive' (blond) teen boy, and 'troubled' (blond) teen girl (not to mention that both shows have a supporting (brunette) "sex bomb" female sidekick!).

But, in one very important respect, the two shows are quite different. FOX's "The O.C." is less a soap opera than it is an irreverent dramedy, powered more than anything by its clever dialogue and high humor quotient. The WB's "One Tree Hill", by contrast, is almost completely without any humor, bypassing cleverness to delve full-bore right into the heart of (melo)drama. (In that, OTH definitely shares more with "Dawson's Creek" than it does with "The O.C.")

It's a credit to OTH that, despite its near total lack of humor, it still comes off pretty well in comparison to "The O.C." Nonetheless, of the two shows, I slightly prefer "The O.C." because its humor makes it just plum more fun to watch.

Which is not to say that OTH isn't pretty good in its own right - it's probably my second favorite new show, right after "The O.C." After a little bit of a shaky start, OTH seemed to have found its voice about 3 episodes into the season, and has gotten better and better with every passing episode. Indeed, it ended Nov. Sweeps with perhaps the best mid-season "cliffhanger" of any show, as OTH hero Tristan... er, I mean Lucas (Chad Michael Murray), found himself stumbling smack dab into the middle of potentially explosive romantic triangle, while bad-brother Nathan had effectively run away from home and into the arms of good-girl Haley.

This is just good soap stuff, well executed.

The WB has positioned this show as the successor to "Dawson's Creek". But the truth is that OTH has gotten off to a far stronger start in its first season than "Dawson" ever did. So, if you're a 'soap' fan, give "One Tree Hill" a whirl - you might end up hooked sooner than you expect.

I did the 'compare and contrast' with "One Tree Hill" in the last review, so I'll skip that.

Suffice it to say that this is my clear favorite new show of the season. (In fact, as of now, it's my favorite show of the season, PERIOD.)

While derided in some quarters as "9021-O.C.", this particular criticism has no merit. For the truth is that "The O.C." has things going for it that "90210" never did, primarily adult characters that matter and, more critically, a cleverness and sense of humor that "90210" never had. Quite simply, "The O.C." is the funniest show of the season.

Beyond this, the show has a bushel of likeable and/or interesting characters, from brooding, adopted "hero" Ryan (Benjamin McKenzie, the "Russell Crowe look-alike"), to wiseacre brother Seth Cohen (Adam Brody, erasing his forgettable "Gilmore Girls" character with the best sarcastic asides this side of Xander Harris!), to complicated parents Sandy and Kirsten "Kiki" Cohen (Peter Gallagher & Kelly Rowan, both often stealing scenes from their younger castmates), to "bitchy" neighbor Julie Cooper (Melinda Clarke, in her best role to date), to even "sex bomb" Summer (Rachel Bilson, probably the show's 'breakout' star, after Brody). Even most of the supporting characters, like Rachel the lascivious lawyer (a change-of-pace Bonnie Sommerville), have been great (though I don't like the newest character, Kirsten's useless sister).

In short, I just love this show. It's the one show, more than any other, that I look forward to seeing at the start of each week.

Do not be scared away from its rep - watch "The O.C."! You probably won't be sorry if you do...

I like this show. I acknowledge that it's derivative, and often sloppy on the writing end. And it's taking too long to get to a "premise payoff". And it shares "John Doe's" central problem (i.e. "cool premise, but why are they using it just to solve routine mysteries/crimes?!").

But I like it. The premise (effectively Groundhog Day, et al.) is a neat one. And I like all of the performers involved, starting (of course) with Eliza Dushku.

This show is actually pretty watchable.

Amazingly, despite the fact that it is dying in its timeslot, FOX is sticking with this one, at least through mid-season (I guess they don't have anything else!). In any case, I'm gratified to see if the people behind "Tru" will use this extra time to tighten things up and give us some payoffs on the premise end.

While inferior to the genre show it effectively replaces (CBS's "The Agency"), "Threat Matrix" isn’t a bad little show, if you're looking for a national/homeland security and spy actioner. As an added bonus, it's one of the few Hollywood shows that actually takes a generally pro-American viewpoint. Novel!

I can't exactly put my finger on it, but I just don't like this show (and I wish I could).

It's prime virtue is obvious - as Joan, Amber Tamblyn is pretty much the WHOLE show.

But that leads us to our first problem. CBS obviously paid big bucks for Joe Mantegna and Mary Steenburgen, so they have to use them, right? Well, this causes "Joan" to be schizophrenic - one minute it's a show about a teenaged girl on "Godly quests", the next minute it's a family drama, the third minute it's a cop/crime show. In the same way that "Firefly's" discordant elements used to grate on me, "Joan's" do as well. I've often commented that this show would be better on The WB, and I literally mean that to be true - on The WB, we wouldn't have to worry about catering to actors like Mantegna and Steenburgen, and the focus would be almost entirely on Joan (and in this case, that would be a good thing).

Leaving that aside, we get to probably my biggest problem - the main underlying premise of the show. There are just too many problems on this front to ignore, questions I'm betting this show won't answer. Such as - Why is God working things in this particular way? Why Joan of all people? When God "appears", is he possessing the bodies of preexisting people, or is he creating previously nonexistent people out of thin air? (And we know these people appear in the actual plane of reality, as Joan isn't the only one who has seen/interacted with them.) Etc. Further, like it or not, this show's premise inevitably leads it in the direction of being a "message show" (e.g. "Touched by an Angel"). I'm not a priori opposed to "message shows" like some people are, but "Joan" often tends to handle the "message" in a really didactic manner. "Touched by an Angel" was unapologetically treacley, but as a result it was sometimes emotionally affecting. With "Joan", on the other hand, I'm not feeling the emotion - I just feel like I'm being lectured to.

I like the performers on this show (pretty much all of them). But even with them around, I can't get past the problems I have with this show.

People have joked that this show makes sense if you view it as Joan being in the early throws of schizophrenia. Frankly, I find that concept to be a much more interesting basis for a TV show... Yeah, that's the show I want. I wanna see that show...

This show is just a tiny bit short of crossing the line into brilliant (and at least a 'B+'), but it came ever closer to that mark with its most recent episode, "Who's Sari Now?" (the Monday airing).

But, all in all, this is a light, fun, frothy show (generally), and I'm at a total loss as to why it isn't doing better. Alicia Silverstone is great, the supporting cast is a hoot, and the storylines are usually great fun and highly entertaining.

Whether people feel this is too derivative of the movie Clueless, or whether this is a further entry in TV's long-term resistance to television "romance" shows, viewers are regrettably avoiding this show. They shouldn't be.

The show that provided the best pilot of the season, "The Handler's" more recent episodes haven't really lived up to the level that the pilot and most of the first half a dozen episodes (the 4th episode, "Body of Evidence", was particularly thrilling). But it's another solid entry in the 'crime procedural' genre, and I especially like Joe Pantoliano.