rec.arts.tv Commentary:

MY REVIEW: The '03-'04 Season: My "Musings" Review:

This article was written, by me, and posted to the 
rec.arts.tv newsgroup on September 7, 2004. 
That original article has been slightly edited by me 
before being placed on the web on September 12, 2004.

Note: Your best bet is just to pick out the shows you watch, and read those reviews - few people read my whole dang review!

A summary of the grading scheme can be found at:
  http://homepage.mac.com/ijball/grading-guide.html

[List of Graded Shows] ['03-'04 Overview] [List of Ungraded Shows] [The Show Reviews]

LIST OF GRADED SHOWS:

Rank   TV SERIES                GRADE    OTHER COMMENTS
----  -----------               -----    --------------
  1   The O.C.                    A-      MY #1 SHOW OF THE YEAR
  2   One Tree Hill               B+      MY #2 SHOW OF THE YEAR
  3   24                          B+      MY #3 SHOW OF THE YEAR
  4   Tru Calling                 B       MY #4 SHOW OF THE YEAR
  5   Everwood                    B       MY #5 SHOW OF THE YEAR
      Survivor: All Stars         B       HONORABLE MENTION
      Alias                       B-
      Cracking Up                 B-
      C.S.I.                      B-
      I'm With Her                B-
      Smallville                  B-
      Without a Trace             B-
      Wonderfalls                 B-
      Charmed                     C+      BIGGEST DECLINE
      Gilmore Girls               C+      2nd BIGGEST DECLINE
      Navy NCIS                   C+
      SK's Kingdom Hospital       C+      My GUILTY PLEASURE
      8 Simple Rules              C
      Cold Case                   C       MOST OVERRATED #1
      Joan of Arcadia             C       MOST OVERRATED #2
      Mutant X                    D
      The Help                    F
      The Tribe                   INCOMPLETE

'03-'04 OVERVIEW:

DISCLAIMER: I can only review those shows I've actually seen. I don't go out of my way to view shows I'm not interested in, so if a show isn't reviewed, or listed a few paragraphs down, then I haven't seen it! That is all.
   Also note that this review does not contain "summer 2003" series: those were covered in the Mid-Season Reviews for 2003 (new & returning) - nor does it contain "summer 2004" series: those are covered in the separate posted Summer 2004 Shows Review. And it does not cover shows pulled at Mid-Season - those shows were also covered in the Mid-Season Reviews for 2003 (new & returning).

BOTTOM LINE: There sure are a lot of 'B-'s' in the list above, especially among the returning shows!
   Mostly, in the 2003-2004 season, the shows that tended to excite me the most were the new shows that debuted. The best of that lot was the clever, funny, soapy "The O.C." from FOX, but I also got a heck of a lot of enjoyment out of The WB's "One Tree Hill" and FOX's "Tru Calling".
   Of the returning shows, "24" and "Everwood" were the best of the lot, though both shows were 'off' the high levels achieved in 2002-2003. In fact, that was the case for a lot of shows (e.g. Smallville, Gilmore Girls, 8 Simple Rules, Charmed... esp. Charmed! etc.).
   Having said that, there is definitely starting to be an oversupply of episodic cop (and, next season, medical shows), and reality programs, on network TV - they need to tone this down.

EDITOR'S NOTE: There are a number of shows that I saw this season, but not enough to properly grade them. Here are some quick notes about those:

       Ungraded
       TV SERIES                COMMENTS
      -----------               --------
       7th Heaven               Please put this show *down*. 
       Andromeda                Oh, whatever!
       Angel                    The final series episodes showed 
                                   improvement. And the finale was 
                                   good & solid, though not spectacular. 
       Las Vegas                I think this show has settled down, 
                                   somewhat, and decided what it wants 
                                   to be. But it's still cast-heavy: the 
                                   main cast needs to be trimmed by 
                                   2-3... Nice season finale. 
       L&O:CI                   Stories have been weaker this season.  
                                   And, ironically, I actually preferred 
                                   the tension between Goren & temp 
                                   Det. Bishop - it made for a more 
                                   interesting show.
       JAG                      Yawn... (but more Zoe McClellan please!) 
       NYPD Blue                Just a good, solid show - I don't watch 
                                   it that often, but when I do I always 
                                   enjoy myself. 
       Run of the House         I kinda don't care what anybody else 
                                   says, but I sorta liked this one... 
       Still Standing           Less watchable than "Yes Dear", and 
                                   significantly "unpleasant" to boot - 
                                   I actually wish they had more of the 
                                   kids and much, much less of the 
                                   parents! Honestly, "Yes Dear" 
                                   is funnier. 
       Third Watch              You know, this show's pretty good! 
                                   (And, in a switch for this group, 
                                   I love Cruz!!)
       Two and a Half Men       I'm biased - I love Charlie Sheen! Aside 
                                   from that, the show is pretty 
                                   watchable, and the kid and 
                                   Melanie Lynskey are pretty good. 
       Yes Dear                 Not one of its better seasons, but still 
                                   basically watchable. The penultimate 
                                   episode, the planned for season 
                                   finale, would have been a good 
                                   series finale.

THE SHOW REVIEWS:

Reviewed shows are listed in the following order - starting with Sunday shows, and going all the way through Friday(Saturday) shows;
syndicated shows are listed last.

OVERVIEW:

The good news? Back around January, MoviePlex finally aired the final 12 or so episodes of season #4 over a 6 week period.

The bad news? They then immediately started over from the beginning of season #4 again.

So, no season #5 yet (if we're lucky, it may start up in October (I hope!)), and nothing for me to review until after then (in other words, wait until next season's Mid-Season Review...).

OVERVIEW:

If I never have to see Kathryn Morris gaze soulfully into the camera again, it'll be too soon!

This show is so overwrought (not to mention emotionally manipulative - oh, look! the ghost of the little child victim is waving approvingly at Det. Rush and co. again! how sweet! [hurl!!] ) that it makes "CSI: Miami" look subtle in comparison. That takes real talent... or something.

WHAT WORKED:
    Some of the cases are, yes, affecting. And fleshing out Morris' dysfunctional Lily Rush makes this show a little less boring than it might be.
WHAT DIDN'T WORK:
    Is this show a mystery show? A catwalk for model-turned-actresses? Or a music video for hit songs of yesteryear?!
    To see this concept done right (and less overdone, and less overwrought, and... etc.), see: "Without a Trace".

OVERVIEW:

And the wheels came off the wagon in season #6.

If it weren't for the two penultimate episodes, and the season finale, "Charmed" was actually cruising for a full-on 'C' grade.

Previous to those last 3 episodes, "Charmed" had only managed to put out 3 decent episodes out of 20: "The Power of Three Blondes" (the only episode, outside of "Witch Wars" (6.21), that managed to recapture some of the whimsy of season #5 and earlier "Charmed"), "Criss-Crossed" (which, despite time travel quandaries, still managed to be a pretty engrossing hour), and "The Courtship of Wyatt's Father" (which, mercifully, seemed to be the beginning of the end of the Piper/Leo break-up).

And that's it. The rest was rubbish (or worse - see, for example: "Sword and the City" or "Used Karma" or "Hyde School Reunion"... or, rather, don't!).

The main storyline problem from season #6 was the Piper/Leo break-up. Producer Brian Kern thought he was being clever with this move - he wasn't. All he managed to do was turn Piper, previously my favorite character, into a basically unlikable person.

Additionally, Combs and Milano are so phoning in their performances at this point, and McGowan is now so underutilized, that the most notable performances from season #6 came from [gasp!] Brian Krause and new addition Drew Fuller. When you've gotten to this point, where your male (effectively) second-leads are 'carrying' your show, you know you're in trouble. Combs' later pregnancy and reduced screen-time compounded the problem in the second-half of the season to the point where "Charmed" virtually became "The Alyssa Milano Magic Show" to a degree that made "The Shannen Doherty Magic Show" effect of season #3 seem miniscule in comparison.

About the only thing that did work (sort of) for most of the season was the "mystery" of Chris's (Drew Fuller) purpose for being around. But once that was resolved, and the show became "The Milano Show" in the latter-half of the year, it took an even more precipitous dive... until the last 3 episodes turned things around some.

Bottom line: After season #6, I'm not exactly looking forward to season #7. But they way I figure it, I'm hoping the show can only improve from here...
[keeping fingers crossed]

WHAT WORKED:
    Making Leo more "kickass" at the beginning, and then again at the end, of the season was a long-overdue move. The character of Chris was about the only interesting storyline in the entire season.
WHAT DIDN'T WORK:
    It's bad enough that Piper became unlikable (and then Combs was understandably absent more in the second half of the season), but why the heck did they have to turn "Charmed" into "The Phoebe Show"?! - Phoebe's been the least likeable Halliwell since season #3! Additionally, why was Rose McGowan so under- (and badly) utilized in season #6?! - her "temp" job storyline was a way to bring the innocents back into the show, but it was forgotten about after roughly half a dozen episodes, and then McGowan was given almost nothing to do! (If this is the shape of things to come, I'm really dreading next year...) While I liked Chris, Drew Fuller was significantly too green an actor to pull it off through most of the early part of the season. And the Gideon thing - we've seen this (male) Uber-Villain thing before: first with the Source, then with Cole - it's played already!! Also, I like Barbus (Billy Drago) as much as anyone, but he was around too much this season - with a character like this "less is more": you should only see him once a season, or so...

OVERVIEW:

I guess it's a function of how little I regard "Alias" that my comments in this review are going to be relatively brief.

Essentially, what I did like about "Alias'" 3rd season came almost entirely from the second-half of the season, and almost all of that came from Melissa George's Lauren. Which is quite a turnaround when you consider that I panned "good" Lauren in my Mid-Season Review. But just by virtue of turning Lauren "bad", what had been shaping up to be a coma-inducing season of "Alias" suddenly got at least passably interesting. Suddenly the show had a character that was worthy of it. And, honestly, the Lauren stuff is solely responsible for "Alias" getting a 'B-' over some kind of 'C'.

Too bad it took so long to get there. Because, outside of the earlier Will Trippin episode, the first-half of the season was a total dud, and most of "Alias'" few interesting characters (primarily, Arvin Sloane) were wasted. And, please, don't get me started on the interminable Sydney/Vaughn tripe!

Let's hope, from here on in, that Abrams and co. are over "shaking this show up" every half-season. Because, let's face it, it hasn't helped.

WHAT WORKED:
    Melissa George, after perfunctory early performances as "good" Lauren, really came alive with "evil" Lauren, and provided this show's only real spark in season #3. Speaking of that, they also could have used more of Peggy Lipton as Lauren's evil Mommy! As mentioned before, I really liked the Will Trippin (Bradley Cooper) episode - can we get him back, and round-file Vaughn?! Please?!?!
WHAT DIDN'T WORK:
    Outside of "evil" Lauren, season #3 was a mess. Too wit: The whole "flash-forward 2 years" thing never made the remotest sense. Rambaldi is now becoming tiresome. I really didn't care for the whole thing with Sydney's aunt & sister. Also, Sark is played. Arvin Sloane, like Lauren, was badly used throughout most of season #3. And, once again, don't get me started on the interminable Sydney/Vaughn tripe! Or on Jennifer Garner! Or Michael Vartan!!

OVERVIEW:

A broad farce which wasn't as funny as it could be, but was nonetheless still pretty funny.

WHAT WORKED:
    The actors - how can you go wrong with Chris McDonald and Molly Shannon!?!
WHAT DIDN'T WORK:
    Could have been funnier. Might have been too "madcap farce-y" - it probably should have been toned down just a tad.

"Everwood" slides from my #1 Show in the first season to my #5 Show in the second.

As I said in my Mid-Season Review, the main reason for the difference is that season #1 "Everwood" was very well thought-out and well-planned drama, while season #2 "Everwood" has merely been above-average "soap opera". And "Everwood" might have gotten away with that last season (when there was very little competition in the 'soap genre' outside of "Dawson's Creek"), but this season, which sports such newly-minted (and frankly more entertaining) 'soap operas' as "The O.C." and "One Tree Hill", mere "soap opera" from "Everwood" is not going to cut it.

To be fair, there were some things I liked about the 2nd season. But, in a show that is ostensibly about the Brown family, it's rather disappointing that by far the best stories involved the 4 members of the Abbott family: Amy struggling with her depression (and her druggie boyfriend-of-the-moment), mother Rose struggling with how to deal with her depressed daughter, brother Bright struggling with an uncertain future, and father Harrold dealing with all of the above plus a career crisis precipitated by his sister Linda.

Which brings us back to the things that were significantly less interesting: namely, season #2's focus on Andy Brown's love life with Linda (Marcia Cross, off to ABC's "Desperate Housewives") and Ephram Brown's love life with Madison (Sarah Lancaster, off to CBS's "dr. vegas"). Of the two, the Madison-Ephram stuff was marginally more involving. But I could have lived without any of it.

As someone pointed out on this newsgroup, the genesis of "Everwood's" more recent problems appears to be that they keep throwing new characters at us without properly developing the ones they have (e.g. Delia, Nina, Edna & Irv) - unfortunately, it looks like that problem may get even worse in season #3.

I think a large of the problem with season #2 was that "Everwood" creator Greg Berlanti got distracted by other side-projects ("Jack & Bobby") and wasn't focused enough on "Everwood". Based on "Everwood's" season #2 slippage, it shows.

WHAT WORKED:
    Main acting props for season #2 go Tom Amandes, Amy VanCamp and Chris Pratt, in that order. While a little slow to hit its stride, the Amy-depression storyline got better as it went along. Ironically, I think the Ephram/Madison stuff did too. And my favorite storyline of the season was probably the college/future travails of Bright - well-handled, and realistic. Intriguing season-ending cliffhanger - it'll be interesting to see where they go from here.
WHAT DIDN'T WORK:
    I'll just repeat what I said at Mid-Season - I still feel this show does not use Delia enough (and they haven't used Delia well since the Magilla story near the start of the series). The Browns were much, much less compelling this season, and I never found Linda Abbott, or the Linda Abbott stories, very interesting. What purpose was served by bumping Stephanie Niznik (Nina Feeney) up to 'credited cast', and then having her appear so rarely in season #2?! Overall, this show is simply not as strong as it was in season #1 - in season #1, it was near-exceptional'; in season #2, it was merely better-than-average.

OVERVIEW:

The parallels between "Charmed's" 6th season and "Gilmore Girls'" 4th season are rather striking:

• both shows were down sharply from the preceding season, which had been pretty good, to the point where they both get my "Biggest Decline" rating
• both shows were redeemed (a little) by their final 3 or 4 episodes, to the point where some hope that the next season may be better has been restored

Nonetheless, the show did seem to pick up and turn things around again towards the end of the season. At the least, it looks like Jess (Milo Ventimiglia) and Jason (Chris Eigeman) may be gone for good - that alone is reason to celebrate!

WHAT WORKED:
    Not a whole lot, but I did like the "kickers" in the season finale. I also liked the epie, "Girls in Bikinis, Boys Doin' the Twist". I think Alexis Bledel kicked it up another notch this year. And, amazingly, I haven’t grown tired of Paris yet - more of this girl, please! The aforementioned season finale actually managed to pack a bit of a whallop.
WHAT DIDN'T WORK:
    The transition to college has been an utter failure (at least, until maybe the end of the season) - what is the point of sending Rory off to college, if Rory & Lorelai are going to be hanging around together as much as they did when she was in high school?! Do you know any freshman who willingly let their mother sleep in their dorm room?! Etc. (As mentioned, perhaps my favorite episode of the 4th season was the one where Rory & Paris went off to Spring Break, and the show was thus forced to keep Rory and Lorelai separate for most of an episode. The best parts of other episodes also tended to be those that dealt with Rory in college - the school paper, being told she should drop a class (I've been there!), etc.) This relative lack of follow-through of the college aspect of Rory's life was a failure of vision IMO, and only detracted from the 4th season.
    Other demerits: I'm not keen on the breakup of Emily & Richard. While it may have been realistic, it took too long to get to the opening of the Dragonfly Inn. Why is Lane still in this show?! - keeping Paris around was smart (and was even semi-realistically handled), but keeping Lane around was just unnecessary. And characters like Jess and Jason (and Kirk, most of the time) do NOT help this show - please, NO more characters like this!

OVERVIEW:

I panned this show a little bit in my Mid-Season Review, and that's because I didn't "get" where it was "coming from". Well, I've seen a lot more of it in reruns during summer, and I now have a lot better "feel" for this show.

And, as a result of the extra viewings, I now almost consider this show a(n unofficial) "guilty pleasure" of mine.

In other words, what I didn't "get" before was that this show is trying to be a humorous take on/hybrid of the "JAG"/"CSI"-type of shows.

And that's a good thing! - whereas the "CSI" shows (esp. "CSI: Miami", "CSI" the original less so), and "NCIS" sire "JAG" as well, tend to take themselves way too seriously, "NCIS" is a bit of a "goof" of a show. The first couple of times I watched this, I found Michael Weatherly's DeNozzo character annoying - but now I realize that he's supposed to be annoying: he's the show's 'comedy relief'. Similarly, I don't think we're supposed to take Mark Harmon's Jethro Gibbs seriously either (I mean, just look at the name!). Ditto Sasha Alexander's Caitlin Todd. Ditto Pauley Perrette's and David McCallum' Abby & Dr. 'Ducky'.

Once you realize the spirit this show is supposed to be taken in, it's an enjoyably mindless romp through an uneventful Tuesday night.

No wonder it's doing so well in the ratings!

WHAT WORKED:
    What can I say? - I do occasionally find this show amusing! It does have some funny bits! This may be the only "procedural" that is more "character-driven" than "case-driven".
WHAT DIDN'T WORK:
    Outside of the "funny bits", this show is another straightforward, unoriginal "episodic" TV mystery/law enforcement/forensics series. IOW, it ain't breakin' any new ground. Also, most of the "mysteries" tend to be a little on the pedestrian-side.

OVERVIEW:

"8 Simple Rules" continued to 'devolve', post-John Ritter, first adding James Garner as the brood's grampa (and Kate's father), then inexplicably adding David Spade (good elsewhere, but I'm mostly embarrassed for him here) as the "cousin".

I think that last development should tell you where this show's headin'...

WHAT WORKED:
    After being thrown off by Ritter's passing, it looks like Amy Davidson, and especially Kaley Cuoco, got their rhythm back, and provided the show's only laughs this season.
WHAT DIDN'T WORK:
    Let's start with Spade - why is he here?! His character is not funny, and as far as I can tell is absolutely not needed.
    Beyond that, I just don't think this show is funny anymore - I'm not getting any more laughs out of this than I am out of something like "According to Jim". And that can't be good...

OVERVIEW:

One in a long line of sitcoms that I've found to be pleasant and enjoyable to watch, without being particularly funny.

But, you know - that's fine with me.

WHAT WORKED:
    The actors are the ones who "sold" this show - I've been a Teri Polo fan since, I think, before "Northern Exposure", and David Sutcliffe is always a likable schlub. The "find" of this show was probably Rhea Seehorn as Polo's sister - I hope she gets other work from this show.
    Beyond that, I want to give a special "shout out" to this show's finale - it was a clever finale that wrapped things up to the point that it worked as a totally acceptable series finale (which it ended up being), while leaving the door ajar enough that had it come back (which it won't) there was enough 'play' left to get things going again.
WHAT DIDN'T WORK:
    In general, the "inside Hollywood" jokes were weak, weak, weak - these guys were mostly pitching softballs. Indeed, in general, I liked this show much more than I was amused by it.

OVERVIEW:

Every season of "24", so far, has had what I'd call "structural" problems. Season #3 was no different, except that I think the "structural problems" were even more severe than they had been in the first two seasons. While seasons #1 & #2 both started strong and ended weak(er), season #3 started weak and ended strong(er).

The problem is how weak season #3 started. For the full first-half of this 3rd season, "24" was really struggling in terms of both believability and in holding interest. The original drug dealer angle just did not work, the virus parts just didn't build suspense like they should have, and it seems like they brought Nina back one time too many.

But once the unfortunate Salazar angle was dropped/resolved, with Jack getting back to L.A. to battle terrorist mastermind Stephen Saunders (Paul Blackthorne), and Lady Sherry McPalmer (Penny Johnson Jerald) returning to stir up trouble, things picked up considerably, and "24" got back to its "old self".

Unfortunately, in taking so long to get there, "24" turned in probably its weakest season to date.

WHAT WORKED:
    The second half of the season was back to "24's" usual high-adrenaline action/suspense levels. Reiko Aylesworth (Michelle) KICKS ASS! - get this woman her own show!! Despite getting ridiculed for it, placing Kim Bauer (Elisha Cuthbert) as in CTU as an analyst was a smart move, as it ground her in the action (as well as necessitating raising her competence several levels). "Neurotic" Chloe (Mary Lynn Rajskub) brought some much needed comedy relief to this season. Keifer Sutherland brought his usual high acting acumen to Jack Bauer this year. Having Ryan Chappelle around is always good...
WHAT DIDN'T WORK:
    ... but having Jack kill him off was bad, bad, bad. The first-half of season #3 (e.g. Kyle Singer, the Salazars, Nina, Palmer's girlfriend, other stuff... don't remind me!) was "24's" worst half-season to date, by far - if the show had kept that up, it would have been lucky to snag a low 'B' grade! (luckily, it did get better).
    The "real time" aspect of this show was abused beyond recognition this season - even in a helicopter, you can't get from Santa Barbara to L.A. (even the Valley!) in 20-30 minutes, etc. I was never really thrilled with the "Jack is a junkie" story thread, and it was made worse when they just simply dropped it in the second-half of the season. Bringing Nina back in season #3 (even though the character was resolved) was another questionable move. Come on - did we really need Chase around?! (and don't get me started on the storyline about his baby!!)
    And, from what I'm hearing on the casting side, I'm not looking forward to season #4 right now...

OVERVIEW:

It's a measure of the "enjoyment value" I get out of "One Tree Hill" that I picked it My #2 Show of the Year, despite its flaws. But, what can I say?! - I usually did enjoy the heck out of it. It was pretty solid soap.

Still, there were flaws. I get the same vibes off this show that I used to get off "Angel" - "One Tree Hill" reads like a show that doesn't have a real clear idea on exactly "what it is", and so seems to be constantly engaged in an effort to "find itself". If you want a piece of evidence of proof of this, check out the "Fall TV Preview" edition of Entertainment Weekly - in it, it's clear that the creator of OTH's original conception of the show was basketball-centric. Well, if you notice, the basketball aspect of this show became less and less evident as time went on.

Similar evidence comes in the form of the characters - Nathan, Peyton, Brooke, and to a lesser extent even Lucas, all went through wild character fluctuations over the course of the season (Nathan went from 'Grade A' jerk to nice guy, Lucas sort of went in the opposite direction, Brooke swung wildly from "slut 'with a heart of gold'" to "bad girl" from episode to episode (and sometimes from minute to minute!), and Peyton... well, with Peyton, I never got any firm grasp on the character at all.

The ultimate result of all of this is that, unlike "The O.C.", "One Tree Hill" tended to be quite poor on the pacing of some of its storylines (e.g. one minute Lucas is after Peyton, the next he's with Brooke, and by the next he's blowing off Brooke for Peyton who then in turn blows Lucas off, etc., ad nauseum). It's not that the broad outline of this story flow is flawed - it's true it's a standard 'soap' story - the problem was that the storyline developments came too fast. (Lucas was dating Brooke for, what?, all of two episodes?! They needed more time to establish it before changing it.)

These guys need to pick a focus, and flesh it out & stick with it.

Having said all that, there's still a lot to like. The adult characters are all great (esp. including Coach Whitey - I hope the PTB aren't lame enough to let Barry Corbin go!). Dan Scott is, particularly, one of the most cleverly drawn (and frighteningly realistic) villains that I've seen on a show like this in some time. And despite the pacing problems, a lot of the melodrama is just plain fun.

All in all, I enjoyed season #1.

But, you know, I'm kind of dreading season #2 - seeing that article in EW makes me realize that the people running this show may still not have a good handle on what it is, and what makes it work. Guess we'll just have to keep our fingers crossed.

WHAT WORKED:
    #1 Thing That Worked? Dan Scott! - Paul Johansson is near brilliant in the part, and Dan makes for the most fun villain I've seen in years. Other kudos among the adult players go to Craig Sheffer as Dan's underappreciated brother Keith, and Barbara Alyn Woods as Dan's long-suffering (ex)wife Deb - and it goes without saying that Barry Corbin's Coach Whitey is a key player in this drama. Among the kids, the best work comes from Bethany J. Lenz as 'good girl' Haley, and Sophia Bush (probably struggling to make sense of her all-over-the-map character, Brooke). There was also some good guest work from Emmanuelle Vaugier as abandoning-mother-from-Hell, Nikki.
    Overall, there's some fun melodrama from this show. The finale, "The Games That Play Us", was a pretty darn good cliffhanger.
WHAT DIDN'T WORK:
    The aforementioned character inconsistencies - Brooke, especially, went through so many character iterations that I'm still suffering from whiplash. As stated in the Mid-Season Review, this show could use some humor (but not too much!).
    Bottom line, I still get the feeling that this show is struggling for an identity - and the longer that goes on, the more I worry that they'll end up settling for the wrong identity.

OVERVIEW:

"Smallville" has so far followed a pattern - odd-numbered seasons aren't as good as even-numbered seasons.

I was pretty impressed with "Smallville's" 2nd season: characters developed and storylines moved forward. Everything was hunky-dory, culminating in a very, very good, exciting season #2 finale.

But almost all of that was clumsily undone in season #3, and "Smallville" spent most of its new timeslot spinning its wheels. Clark's season #2 ending riff was his parents was magically healed, Clark&Lana were back to being inexplicably "off" again (and again, and again...), Chloe's various betrayals (and there were a couple more in season #3!) were conveniently ignored by the characters, Lex's forward progress was undone by a sort of 'off the page' insanity detour, etc.

As a result, while there were some good episodes, "Smallville's" 3rd season was mostly an exercise in retarded expectations and frustration. And that, more than the new timeslot, is likely while a good percentage of "Smallville's" viewers abandoned the show in its 3rd season.

In season #4, this show is going to have no choice but to move things along (finally). Because, if it doesn't, season #4 will certainly be its last.

WHAT WORKED:
    While probably controversial, kicking Pete (Sam Jones) down to recurring (in season #4) was a necessary move - they didn't use him enough, and it was starting to get awkward. Both Tom Welling and Kristin Kreuk progressed as actors this season. There were some good individual episodes (my favorites were probably "Obsession" and "Truth"; "Shattered", "Perry", "Delete" and the season finale, "Covenant", were also good). I'm glad the show is finally acknowledging that Chloe (well played by Allison Mack) is a selfish, evil bitch! (see: "Truth", for example).
WHAT DIDN'T WORK:
    While individual episodes were good, the overall season didn't really hang together. Do the writers realize that Lana is supposed to be a "tragic figure"?! Because, instead, she keeps coming off as a cold, selfish bitch! (And, speaking of this, based on the injuries she sustained in "Shattered", Lana would still be using a cane, unless she has super healing powers too!) All in all, there was a whole lot of character backsliding going on this season. And several characters, notably Lex, were not deployed in a satisfying manner.

OVERVIEW:

"The O.C." is my pick as The #1 Show of the Year. But I'm picking it for reasons that you might not expect. Bottom line, "The O.C." was the best show of the season for two reasons - its pacing, and its consistency. "24" is the other show on TV that is paced (from episode to episode) very well - the problem with "24" this past season was on the consistency end (i.e. first half of season: bad, second half of season: good). By contrast, "The O.C." maintained its consistency pretty much throughout the entire season, while still maintaining episode-to-episode pacing pretty well (i.e. storylines were not, in general, resolved either too fast, or too slow).

Which is not to say that I thought "The O.C.'s" freshman season was flawless. There were a couple of storylines I found problematic, particularly Julie Cooper's fling with Marissa's teenaged ex, Luke - come on! this is "Dawson's Creek" territory here! (Series creator Josh Schwartz has been quoted as saying he's never watched any soap opera before he created "The O.C." So easily falling into the Julie/Luke trap makes me think he might be telling the truth.) The old "pregnancy" storyline with Theresa is another hoary old chestnut in the soap genre.

But these are, effectively, minor quibbles in a show that has good acting, great characters, and even greater dialogue.

"The O.C." is the one returning show that I'm really counting on to not let me down in season #2. And I really don't expect that it will...

WHAT WORKED:
    Like I said in my Mid-Season Review: this show has by far the best dialogue of any show on the air right now. I also covered how great the characters are in my Mid-Season Review, so I won't go into detail again - but everything I said then still pretty much holds true. (Though I do think Marissa, and to a lesser extent Jimmy Cooper, have been fleshed out more since then.) They also were successful in the latter-half of the season in diversifying the storylines, and avoiding what were quickly becoming "O.C." cliches (e.g. the "have a formal party, get drunk, start a fist fight, rinse, repeat" thing). This season ended with maybe my favorite cliffhanger of the year. Great stuff!
WHAT DIDN'T WORK:
    They finally figured out the Luke character wasn't needed/wasn't working, but it took them too long to get rid of him. Also, see above for the silly Luke/Julie affair. They might have kept the Anna (Samaire Armstrong) character around a little too long. The Oliver storyline has been hashed out infinitum, and yeah it was silly (though I didn't mind it as much as many). Are they going somewhere with all the drinking Kirsten is doing?! - I hope this is a set-up for later storylines, and not something that is just going to be swept under the rug. I was never thrilled with the character of Kirsten's sister Hailey, but with Amanda Righetti now on "North Shore", maybe we won't have to put up with her anymore.

OVERVIEW:

A show that worked much more successfully in individual moments and certain episodes than it did as an overall effort, "Kingdom Hospital" was (as most people in this group seemed to agree) a show that could have gotten more bang for its buck if it had been cut in half. Indeed, 6 episodes would have perfectly covered what was instead (overly) stretched out over 13 episodes.

Aside from the obvious pacing/editing issue, there were some quite good performances in this show, with special kudos going to Andrew McCarthy, Bruce Davison, Kett Turton as 'evil spirit' Paul, and Jodelle Ferland as 'ghost girl' Mary. And, of the 13 episodes, "Butterfingers" was quite good, as was the penultimate episode "Shoulda Stood in Bed".

In short, I liked this show, perhaps more than it deserved. As I said in the newsgroup earlier on, I probably wouldn't buy the DVD of this show - but I'm glad I watched every episode just the same.

WHAT WORKED:
    Good guest casting - aside from the aforementioned McCarthy, Davison, Turton and Ferland, there were lots of good supporting performances from Allison Hossack, Diane Ladd, Sherry Miller, Jamie Harrold and Jack Colemen, and several others. The overall concept for "Kingdom Hosptial" was workable (and potentially interesting). Several individual episodes of KH were surprisingly good.
WHAT DIDN'T WORK:
    This show may have had the worst 'Stephen King pacing syndrome' yet - it easily could have been trimmed to half its original length, and virtually nothing would have been lost in translation. In other words, this show dragged far too often (while still failing to establish the "atmosphere" I think it was going for). And while some episodes of the show were good, others were... much less so. And, in another Stephen King tradition, the ending was somewhat disappointing - a lot of King's TV works seem to build up good suspense, and then somewhat bungle the resolution (interestingly, a criticism often leveled at fellow author Michael Crichton).

OVERVIEW:

While still "finding itself" by the time of my "Mid-Season Review", "Tru" seemed to finally 'gel' in the first season's later episodes, enough so that it was my pick as the #4 Show of the Season.

And a lot of that is because of the introduction of Jason Priestley's Jack character. The genius of this character was two-fold: 1) it forced the writers to delve headlong into what Tru's "calling" was really all about, and 2) it gave Tru an antagonist aside from her "calling" missions which upped the conflict level (a really good thing!). Matters were helped by the fact that Priestley jumped on this character with both feet, and took Jack Harper on with gusto. ..

Beyond that, the second half of the season had a larger number of better episodes. And the writers realized that they had to focus in more on their 3 or 4 primary characters, and trim the rest (for good, or ill). The ultimate result was a better show.

Now that this show has finally fleshed out Tru's "calling", and narrowed the focus down to its primary characters, I can't wait to see where it goes in season #2!

WHAT WORKED:
    Zach Galifianakis (Davis), Shawn Reaves (Harrison) and Jason Priestley are all great on this show. Several of the episodes (notably "Reunion", "The Longest Day", the season finale "Two Weddings and A Funeral", and especially "Two Pair") were quite good, while a couple of others (e.g. "Drop Dead Gorgeous") were fun. By the same token, this show had some good guest stars (e.g. Courtnee Draper, Christina Hendricks, etc.) While I love A.J. Cook, her Lindsay character was never given enough to do, so it was the right call to write out her character.
    THANK GHU THIS SHOW WAS RENEWED!!! (but, be warned - unless it pulls in ratings immediately in November, it probably won't live past January of 2005...)
WHAT DIDN'T WORK:
    While Dushku was generally good (and very good, in a couple of places), I'd still like to see more from her on "Tru" (I know she can do it!).
    While cutting Lindsay was the right call, cutting Tru's sister Meredith (Jessica Collins) was not - that character is integral to the proceedings (especially in light of what transpired in the season finale), and Mere needs to be brought back (at least to receive a proper write-out).
    And while some of "Tru's" episodes were good, a couple of episodes (esp. "Death Becomes Her", guest starring non-actor and AI-contestant Tamyra Gray) were real clunkers. Poor Luc... :(

OVERVIEW:

These days, the only thing that could get me back to watching an edition of "Survivor" is the return of some old faces, so the "All Stars" edition was tailor-made for me.

Despite the fact that this edition really rankled some of the hard-core "Survivor" fandom (I guess they felt the fact that some of the contestants knew each other took away from the game or something), I have to say that I liked "All Stars" a fair amount. Yes, some of the contestants (primarily, Lex and Jerri) acted like spoiled children. And, yes, these numbskulls should have broken up the Boston Rob/Amber alliance much earlier (how these two skated all the way to the end will remain one of the great mysteries of the series).

But, it was worth it to see Richard Hatch, and Jenna Lewis, and Rudy, and Colby, and even Rupert again.

So, while I'm unlikely to be watching any further editions of "Survivor", count me as a fan of this one.

WHAT WORKED:
    The cast - while some people were missing, and others probably shouldn't have been there (we really could have lived without Jenna M again, for example), it was fun to see a lot of these guys playing the game again.
    I LOVE JEFF PROBST!
WHAT DIDN'T WORK:
    Personally, it's clear to me that Boston Rob should have won, based on the fact that *he* was the one who carried Amber to the end, not the other way around. But that's a minor complaint. Also, the fact that several of the contestants walked off the show was a bit of a disappointment. The finale, with all of these engagements/marriages(/sex tapes), and Jerri walking out, was a bit over-the-top. The "popularity contest"/"do over" $1 mil prize, which allowed Rupert to win (and which sported all-male semi-finalists!), was a dubious maneuver.

OVERVIEW:

I'm treading on a bit of thin ice even reviewing "CSI's" 4th season, as I missed a number of episodes for "Tru Calling" and "Wonderfalls" and whatnot, but I saw enough to know that it's still a decent forensics procedural, with the occasional quirky case. (Indeed, the Jerry Stahl-penned "Fur and Loathing" was a bizarre hoot!) More encouragingly, the show also seems to have backed off covering the personal lives of the team in season #4 - smart move.

WHAT WORKED:
    Solid, generally entertaining, forensics procedural. Some good episodes (the finale, "Bloodlines", was a particularly twisty, if highly improbable, case in point). Also, the subplot about Stokes and Sidel competing for a promotion was (for once) an interesting way to cover a personal aspect of the characters, while still being about "the job". (And, thank Ghu Eads is sticking around, even if that means that Fox will be back as well!)
WHAT DIDN'T WORK:
    This show still has what I consider to be a few too many 'Red Ball' cases. Sidel is still incredibly annoying; come to think of it, Grissom is getting there too. The episode "Feeling the Heat" was a disappointment - it had one twist too many, and would have been more powerful if played straight. This show is pretty perfunctory, in that it's YA (yet another) episodic police procedural - we are starting to have too many of those on TV (not to mention too many "CSI" spin-offs!).

OVERVIEW:

At Mid-Season, I declared that I thought season #2 of WAT was shaping up to be better than season #1. I'm now ready to reverse that appraisal, for several reasons.

The first one is important for an episodic series - in season #2, there were simply fewer "blockbuster" episodes, and those that were just ended up being less affecting that season #1. While "Wannabe" was near brilliant (and may be WAT's best episode to date), and "Our Sons and Daughters" was pretty good, nothing else in season #2 got anywhere near the level of season #1's "Maple Street", "There Goes the Bride" or "Clare du Lune".

The second problem was, while I originally liked the idea of introducing some of the protagonists personal lives into the proceedings as a way to "deepen" the cases, the show took this too far in the latter-half of season #2, throwing things like Malone's (Anthony LaPaglia) father at us without any real justification.

So, WAT? Still good, but I'm of the opinion that they can do better.

WHAT WORKED:
    Aside from the aforementioned season #2 episodes, "Hawks and Handsaws" and "Risen" were both quite good. As always, the cast is uniformly excellent, with Poppy Montgomery improving in season #2, and Marianne Jean-Baptiste and Enrique Murciano being the underappreciated standouts.
WHAT DIDN'T WORK:
    Some weaker episodes, overall, this season. Too many personal subplots diluted the show somewhat.

OVERVIEW:

The general problem I had with this show is the same problem a number of people seem to have with "Arrested Development" - in general, I get the feeling that "Wonderfalls" was just trying to be too clever.

Which is not to say that I disliked this show. The performances were generally good, especially Caroline Dhavernas, Katie Finneran and William Sadler. (I was, however, less enamored with some of the other performers, notably Tyron Leitso.) And the show did some interesting things with editing and cinematography.

But I'm not a devotee (in fact, I'm rather a detractor) of "quirky for quirky's sake", and this show definitely seemed to be in that genre.

However, in the "girl on a mission from God" TV series sweepstakes, "Wonderfalls" had it all gonin' on over "Joan of Arcadia"!

WHAT WORKED:
    Caroline Dhavernas was quite a good and, for an American TV show, refreshing series lead. Good supporting work from theater vet Katie Finneran. And, once again, the award for "best performer in the series he was in" goes to William Sadler! Some of the guest casting was also quite good. Nice editing and cinematography. The show was sometimes clever and amusing. I liked the series concept (probably more than the execution) - in any case, the "talking animals" were often great stuff.
WHAT DIDN'T WORK:
    "Wonderfalls" was too "quirky" for its own good. Some "clever" bits just fell flat. This show was probably paced too slow for a "modern age" TV series. Some of the supporting players (esp. Tyron Leitso as bartender Eric) were weak when compared to the leads. I think this is the kind of show that wants you to "just love it", and I didn't. This was just never going to be a "mass audience" show.

OVERVIEW:

This is exactly the kind of show I would expect from a liberal Hollywood type who converted to Catholicism (and, no, that's not a compliment).

As if that weren't off-putting enough, this show is also the collision of at least 3 different genres (teen, family & cop dramas), and the results are just as messy as you'd expect any 3 car pile-up to be.

WHAT WORKED:
    Amber Tamblyn is wonderful, in a show that I think that is frankly beneath her. In fact, the acting talent on this show, across the board, is good to great.
WHAT DIDN'T WORK:
    Didactic, preachy, treacly and overly-melodramatic, and (most disturbingly of all) not nearly as "deep" as it thinks it is, "Joan" is just a 'swing and a miss' with this viewer. It almost never fails to not move me.
    Beyond that, all of the non-Joan stories (particularly any story about the Girardi parents) tend to bore me to tears; in fact, many of the Joan stories aren't even all that interesting either! And, you know, for all the talk that "this show is nothing like "Touched by an Angel", I really don't see that much difference (except that I usually liked TbaA better!).

OVERVIEW:

When people talk about "how the genre of the American sitcom has fallen into decline, or outright failed", no doubt the first show that pops into their heads as the prime example is "The Help".

Quite simply, this was the worst (sitcom) show on TV, and not just this for this season, but quite possibly for all seasons.

WHAT WORKED:
    With only a couple of exceptions ([cough!] Tori Spelling! [cough!] [cough!] Antonio Sabato Jr.! [cough, cough!]) this show sported a capable-to-good cast of (comedic) actors - certainly, Camille Guaty, Al Santos, Brenda Strong, Keri Lynn Pratt, etc. have shown they can deliver elsewhere - I'm not sure what crimes they've committed, or who they pissed off in Hollywood, to get them sentenced to this show! But even a cast of the greatest actors of the Age could not have saved this material!
WHAT DIDN'T WORK:
    Everything. But I'll skip right by the horrible direction (the direction, or lack thereof, in Spelling's scenes was especially atrocious), and zero right in on the writing - unfunny, banal, unfunny, prurient, unfunny, scatological... and, did I mention "unfunny"?! This show was a dog, in every sense of the word.

OVERVIEW:

A show that got markedly worse in every succeeding season, "Mutant X" kept the streak going with its most lackluster season to date. (And is anyone surprised after they canned their only real actor, and their most interesting character, after season #2's finale?!)

This was one show that I was actually relieved was cancelled.

WHAT WORKED:
    When you're down to complimenting the physical beauty of the cast, you're really scraping the bottom of the barrel. Oh, and they did manage one half-way decent (if completely unoriginal) episode this season: "Possibilities" - but I'm doing you a favor when I tell you that you can skip all the rest.
WHAT DIDN'T WORK:
    Boring, tedious, mundane, unoriginal... do I really need to go on?!
    And that finale, even judged as a season finale, was particularly unimpressive and uninspired (all the cast interviews made it sound like this finale was going to "save" the show for a newly reinvigorated 4th season - but, honestly, it's a good thing there won't be a follow-up to this finale!).
    Oh, and I've beaten this horse to death, but it bears repeating - they should never have kicked Adam down to recurring and killed off Emma. But, then again, I'm glad both characters (and actors!) were spared the indignity of appearing in much (or any) of this show's 3rd season...

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