Review 43 TV shows

I watched the pilot of this show online last night as part of some market research ABC is doing. I don’t think it’s on the fall schedule – maybe a mid-season replacement. By the time I’d finished watching the entire episode, the research web site said they already had enough responses in my demographic, so I didn’t get selected to give them feedback. And so I didn’t get the $12 they’d promised me!

So here’s my review anyway:

It’s like Dirty Sexy Money meets Eli Stone, set in the auto industry. The lead character’s estranged father, an auto tycoon/maverick, had died in a suspicious accident, and the son inherits everything. Will he leave his job as a college philosophy professor and move back to Detroit to run the company?

I didn’t know the lead actor, but I guess he was in October Road. Lots of other good character actors, including Aiden Quinn, Sharon Lawrence, the bald guy who played Drew Carey’s brother, and the classy Andie MacDowell as the widow.

The comparison to Eli Stone comes in because the lead character keeps seeing things that aren’t really there: ghostly things maybe done by his father’s ghost. It’s like Dirty Sexy Money because it’s about a son taking over for a dead father, and searching for the cause of his death and coming to reconcile their broken relationship.

That said, I’m not sure I’d watch the show regularly, in part because I already watch too much TV, and this didn’t really grab me. But maybe I just need some time to let the characters grow on me – if it ever makes it to air.

I’ve been a big fan of most of David E. Kelley’s shows including Pickett Fences, The Practice and Ally McBeal.

Boston Legal (10E/9C, ABC), now in fourth season, is almost a meshing of Ally and Practice. Less romantic fantasy, less weighty legal issues, more sex and more fun.

Main players have come and gone since the inception, though actors James Spader (Alan Shore) and William Shattner (Denny Crane) have been constants. Candace Bergen (Shirley Schmidt) wasn’t original, but looks fairly permanent now. John Larroquette is the new a**hole senior partner this year, though he is sleeping with Bergen.

Alan Shore has a new love interest this year, a tall, willowy brunette who doesn’t smile. They had an affair once, and now she’s working for the firm.

The last 5 minutes of each show is usually BFF Alan and Denny sitting on a balcony, smoking cigars, drinking Scotch and musing about life. This week, Denny commented on the way some relationships end so suddenly. I don’t remember the exact line, but he said we have these people in our lives who are so important, yet one day they’re gone and we never see them again.
That really hit home with me, as someone special disappeared from my life this year, and I don’t know whether I’ll ever hear from them again.

I really like the Geico cavemen commercials, and I’ve been curious how this concept would translate to a half-hour network comedy. The commercials have been great about packing a lot of humor into a 15-second spot – but 22 minutes?

For those not familiar, the show is about a group of 21st Century cavemen living in San Diego. I don’t remember the guys names, but there are two brothers and a roommate or two. One caveman is a grad student who hasn’t touched his dissertation in a year. Another works at a store like Ikea. The third one is always talking on the phone with his on-again-off-again girlfriend.

After watching the first show, I wasn’t disappointed. The writing and dialogue were smart and funny, and the show even raised some interesting issues about interracial dating.

I’ll be watching next Wednesday at 7 central to see if they can keep it going.

The new season started Monday night, and I think it’s going to be really good. My wife and I like watching this show together. I’m usually really good at predicting what scores the judges will give.

The only thing I don’t like about DWTS is it is a huge time investment between the competition nights and the results shows. But that’s why they invented VCRs and Tivo.

I really liked this new show starring Kelsey Grammar and Patricia Heaton. Very strong writing. Good characters. Darned funny.

Wednesdays on FOX.

The new season of Larry David’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm” starts on HBO this weekend, which is good enough reason for me to re-subscribe.

Curb is one of the funniest shows on TV. If you’ve never seen it, it’s a bit like “Seinfeld” in Los Angeles, only there’s no Jerry, just Larry David, who was the basis for the George Costanza character.

Like Seinfield, Curb is a comedy of bad manners, where a perceived slight or a an offhand comment or an uncomfortable situation ends up getting blown out of proportion. Larry gets himself in so much trouble, and it’s hilarious watching him try to wriggle out of it. The show is full of stars like Richard Lewis, Ted Danson and Mel Brooks, who play themselves.

Larry’s partner in crime is the hysterically funny actor Jeff Garlin, who plays his manager, Jeff Greene. The beautiful and talented Cheryl Hines plays Larry’s wife, Cheryl. (Don’t confuse her with real-life ex-wife Laurie David, though.)

If you’re not sure you’ll like Curb enough to get HBO, you might try renting DVDs of an earlier season.

I really like this summer series (Mondays on TBS) about a female Chicago sportswriter and her group of male friends. If you’re at all a fan of the Chicago Cubs you’ll appreciate this show because there are so many references to the team. And if you’re not a fan, that’s OK too, because the characters are well conceived and acted.

A new season debuted two weeks ago, and this one looks to be even better than the first season.

I think the designers are more talented (as a whole) than the last group, and I think Las Vegas will make an interesting setting.

New Sitcom Pulls Back The Envelope

LOS ANGELES—Fox network executives excited about the ground-mending situation comedy Family House, which will debut this fall, told reporters Monday that the program has pulled back the envelope on modern television, and is sure to give viewers a “30-minute Ferris-wheel ride.”

“Unbuckle your seat belts, America, we’re already here,” said cocreator and executive producer Kimberly Hodge, who touted the show’s traditional three-camera setup and nuclear-family cast as “as nothing you’ve never seen before.” “Our team of veteran writers is committed to bringing you only the kinds of basic conflicts, wildly predictable twists, and fast, easy resolutions you’ve come to expect from network television.”

Hodge added that executives are equally pleased with their new action drama, Crime Unit, whose formulaic structure and conservative cinematography has kept test audiences “on the backs of their seats.”

This show reminds me of an updated “Rockford Files,” with a spy twist.

It stars Jeffrey Donovan as CIA agent Michael Westen, who receives a “burn notice” or termination notice. The government freezes all his assets and he can’t get another spy job. He’s stuck in Miami, basically picking up part time work as a private investigator with the help of a few friends. When he’s not helping people, he’s trying to figure out why the CIA fired him so he can get his old job back.

Sharon Gless plays Westen’s chain-smoking mother, which is one of the reasons this show reminds me of Rockford Files. Gless serves the same function as Noah Beery did as Jim’s dad Rocky on the Rockford Files: a great foil and source of comedic relief.

Westen also has a little bit of McGyver in him: he’s always improvising some kind of device to thwart the bad guys.