Good TV, Bad TV
Oct. 12th, 2003 12:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rsadelleGood TV
Joan of Arcadia. Now, I have to admit that I have something of a soft spot for the premise--God appears in various guises to make requests of a more or less ordinary teenager--but even given that, this is a fantastic show. Possibly even the best new show of the fall season. (Yes, I know I said The O.C. was the best new show, but that was the summer season. Now it's fall. But Fox's fall season hasn't started, so I can't say for certainty that Joan of Arcadia is the best new show of the fall season.) I can't really come up with concrete reasons why this show is so good; it just is. And not only is it an excellent show, but it always leaves me wanting more of it.
MY MOTHER: That's a really good show. So is this what we're doing on Friday nights instead of going to services?
ME: It is a more satisfying spiritual experience.
(I have issues with our new rabbi.)
Two and a Half Men. I don't expect to find sitcoms funny anymore, and yet this one is. Charlie Sheen's brother is somewhat in denial about his separation from his wife and moves himself and his son into Charlie Sheen's house. And it's very, very funny. However, since I don't generally find sitcoms funny anymore, I can't figure out if (a) it really is that funny, (b) I think it's funny because it's so much funnier than all the other sitcoms, or (c) I think it's funny because I don't know all the jokes yet. I'm pretty sure, though, that at least part of its appeal is Charlie Sheen's absolute genius when dealing with comic material.
Bad TV
The Lyon's Den. Rob Lowe's return to NBC is hardly a triumphant one. This is a terrible show. First, we have Rob Lowe himself. His Jack Turner is boring, dull, uninteresting, not worthy of being the main character of an hour-long show, etc. Jack Turner is nice. He's a truly good guy with no flaws. He could still be an interesting protagonist if there were some conflict, but there isn't. Well, okay, they want you to think there is, but there isn't really. Jack's good and we like him, other people are bad and we hate them, blah, blah, blah, there's no spark. Not to mention the stupidity of Jack's meeting with Voyager's Emergency Medical Hologram in a parking garage.
Of course, every show has to have a potential love interest, and this one is no exception. Jack's potential love interest is none other than Elizabeth Mitchell. You may recognize her, as I did, as Legaspi, Kerry's first girlfriend on ER. While Elizabeth Mitchell may be very good looking with curly hair, which she doesn't have in The Lyon's Den, the woman couldn't act her way out of a paper bag.
If The Lyon's Den is so bad, you might be asking, why do I watch it? For one reason and one reason only: Kyle Chandler. His character is Jack's nemesis, supposedly, and he's just as one-dimensional as the other characters, but Kyle Chandler is fabulous enough to make me forget the shortcomings of the writing. Early Edition proved the man can carry a show on his own; get rid of Rob Lowe and turn the whole thing over to Kyle Chandler!
Joan of Arcadia. Now, I have to admit that I have something of a soft spot for the premise--God appears in various guises to make requests of a more or less ordinary teenager--but even given that, this is a fantastic show. Possibly even the best new show of the fall season. (Yes, I know I said The O.C. was the best new show, but that was the summer season. Now it's fall. But Fox's fall season hasn't started, so I can't say for certainty that Joan of Arcadia is the best new show of the fall season.) I can't really come up with concrete reasons why this show is so good; it just is. And not only is it an excellent show, but it always leaves me wanting more of it.
MY MOTHER: That's a really good show. So is this what we're doing on Friday nights instead of going to services?
ME: It is a more satisfying spiritual experience.
(I have issues with our new rabbi.)
Two and a Half Men. I don't expect to find sitcoms funny anymore, and yet this one is. Charlie Sheen's brother is somewhat in denial about his separation from his wife and moves himself and his son into Charlie Sheen's house. And it's very, very funny. However, since I don't generally find sitcoms funny anymore, I can't figure out if (a) it really is that funny, (b) I think it's funny because it's so much funnier than all the other sitcoms, or (c) I think it's funny because I don't know all the jokes yet. I'm pretty sure, though, that at least part of its appeal is Charlie Sheen's absolute genius when dealing with comic material.
Bad TV
The Lyon's Den. Rob Lowe's return to NBC is hardly a triumphant one. This is a terrible show. First, we have Rob Lowe himself. His Jack Turner is boring, dull, uninteresting, not worthy of being the main character of an hour-long show, etc. Jack Turner is nice. He's a truly good guy with no flaws. He could still be an interesting protagonist if there were some conflict, but there isn't. Well, okay, they want you to think there is, but there isn't really. Jack's good and we like him, other people are bad and we hate them, blah, blah, blah, there's no spark. Not to mention the stupidity of Jack's meeting with Voyager's Emergency Medical Hologram in a parking garage.
Of course, every show has to have a potential love interest, and this one is no exception. Jack's potential love interest is none other than Elizabeth Mitchell. You may recognize her, as I did, as Legaspi, Kerry's first girlfriend on ER. While Elizabeth Mitchell may be very good looking with curly hair, which she doesn't have in The Lyon's Den, the woman couldn't act her way out of a paper bag.
If The Lyon's Den is so bad, you might be asking, why do I watch it? For one reason and one reason only: Kyle Chandler. His character is Jack's nemesis, supposedly, and he's just as one-dimensional as the other characters, but Kyle Chandler is fabulous enough to make me forget the shortcomings of the writing. Early Edition proved the man can carry a show on his own; get rid of Rob Lowe and turn the whole thing over to Kyle Chandler!