The Newbies of Fall 2011

Captain Picard there pretty deftly explains my feelings for this season's new fall pilots. There's not really a standout in the bunch, and potential is... shall we say... low. It's not a good crop. Most of the best, most ambitious pilots (Awake, Smash, and Alcatraz among them) were pushed back to midseason, meaning we won't be seeing them until 2012 in all likelihood. What are we left with? A lot of second-rate comedies, including a weird last-defense-of-manhood duo and a couple shows trying to capture the magic of one of my favorite dramas (Mad Men) that nonetheless gets less viewers than some Youtube videos.

Fall pilots are tricky things. It's the network's chance to make a strong impression, so the pilot of a show is rarely telling of what a show will become. More often than not what you have to look for is potential. Unfortunately, even potential is rather low this year. However, that's not to say that the entire pack is crap. This seasons sees perhaps the most expensive television pilot of all time in Terra Nova. John Wells, producer of The West Wing, is back on TV with Pan Am, and two new comedies have gotten significantly less critical drubbing than the rest of the bunch of sad, sickly shows. So grab your sugar-free Red Bull and let's dive into four shows I could stomach enough to sample!

Comedy Round-Up

I'm a huge fan of comedy. While the cable networks have almost all the best dramas locked up with Mad Men, Breaking Bad, Boardwalk Empire, and Game of Thrones (among others), comedy still thrives on network television. During the early summer, typically a bit of a "down" period for television watchers and critics where there's a small gap between the fall-spring show finales and the real start of summer shows, there was even a small but rather heated debate about the merits of broadcast versus cable television with respect to drama and comedy.

I highly encourage reading up on all three articles in that debate (TIME's summary and the original pieces on The Hollywood Reporter and The AV Club which are linked in the TIME piece). However, I know not everyone is quite as big a TV nerd as I am, so I'll try to summarize the outcome for you. Cable television offers dramas more creative freedom and, often, bigger budgets on pay networks. Meanwhile, comedy continues to flourish on cable because the casual TV watcher is more likely to tune in for thirty minutes than sixty, among other institutional bonuses.

So it should come as no surprise that after the first full week of the Fall season that of the seven comedies I regularly watch, only one is on a cable channel. Below I have included a quick (seriously) review of all seven, three of which aired an hour block to start the season. At the end of each review, in case you're feeling even too lazy to read (an admittedly wordy at times) paragraph or so, I have conveniently rated the debuts of each show out of five happy moose each! So without further ado, let me grab a chunk of rum ham and rate last week's offerings.

Mad Men 1.03: "Marriage of Figaro"

My apologies this didn’t get up sooner. I’ve been somewhat distracted of late – not that that’s any excuse. However, I will say this: writing a weekly amusing fantasy football column for a very restless league of people is not as easy as it looks. Sometimes you even have to use math! But, back to TV. Hopefully the Emmy post served as a nice replacement, and it’s my intention to do a quick rundown later tonight or more likely tomorrow of the major Thursday night comedies, including The Big Bang Theory, Community, Parks and Recreation, and The Office.

I don’t plan to do much about the new shows, since, frankly, most of the new shows are getting reviews that makes the Transformers trilogy sound critically adored. I will be checking out The New Girl either online or on-demand (Zooey Deschanel is unfairly cute) as well as two dramas. First, Pan Am, because, well, it looks half-decent and it’s directed by Tommy Schlamme (he of The West Wing). Second, I’ll be checking out Terra Nova. I don’t expect that to be good, but I want to see dinosaurs or a train wreck of a show; it sounds like I might get lucky and see both!

But you’re not here for comedies or dinosaurs right now. You’re here for the enigma that is DickDon DraperWhitman. So grab a mint julep, shove the kids outside with a BB gun and let’s rehash episode three.

The Emmys 2011: Reactions and Rants

The next Mad Men post is coming on Tuesday as scheduled, don't worry. I took a week off given how busy last week's (and the preceding weekend's) schedule was. But hey, the Emmys were last night, purportedly honoring the best in television. Hitfix.com has a helpful list of winners and nominees from each category. Now, I didn't actually watch the Emmys, because, even as a fan of television, I know award shows are bloated, sad popularity contests afraid to move past lame, tame jokes. Heck, this year Alec Baldwin's joke criticizing Rupert Murdoch was cut and hilariously hostile Ricky Gervais was explicitly told to tone it down for the telecast. So no, I watched Sunday Night Football, and I don't regret it. Now THAT had a narrative.

So you should probably know this from the start: the Emmys, like most institutions, struggle mightily with inertia. If you've won before, you'll probably win again. If you've never won before, it's REALLY difficult to start now. Also, the more niche your show/performance, the more likely you are to win. And the guiding end-all rule for how to win an Emmy Award? Be famous for movies. Television has a fun inferiority complex about movie actors, and so naturally when everyone gets together to salute the best in television... they pick a bunch of movie actors. Not that they're not always deserving, but... well, let me just say this.

The Wire never won a single Emmy. Not one. With that, let's get cracking on the good and bad from this year's  winners.

Mad Men 1.02: "Ladies' Room"

OK! So, looks like the schedule is one-a-week. Honestly, I’ve been staying pretty busy, so that schedule is likely to continue for a couple weeks at least. At some point I may try to catch up a bit if I get the chance, but until then once per week sounds sane, yes? To tide you over, I'm planning to do much shorter, less analytical reaction posts to some TV shows this Fall as well. But, back to Mad Men. This week, we’re looking at episode two of the first season of Mad Men, in which we’re much better introduced to Betty Draper, Pete Campbell visits the wettest place on Earth, and much drinking is had.

So, that said, pull up a vodka gimlet and let’s get to it!