For A Few Reviews More » American Television

Firefly

December 16th, 2008 admin

Starring: Nathan Fillion, Gina Torres, Alan Tudyk, Morena Baccarin, Adam Baldwin, Jewel Staite,
Sean Maher, Summer Glau, Ron Glass
Creator: Joss Whedon
Original Airdate: 9/20/2002-12/20/2002
Network: Fox

Another product of the much loved and acclaimed “Whedonverse”, Firefly’s lifespan was completely comparable with its real life namesake found in nature. After the Fox executives that originally green-lit the show were replaced, the show was shunted around different time slots, including Friday night kiss of death slot at one point.

Preempted several times and consistently aired out of order, it was finally it was canceled after just eleven of its fourteen episodes had been aired. Some small screen conspiracy theorists have even speculated that whilst the show was admittedly expensive it was poorly supported in every way possible by new the new Fox regime as something that could be pointed to as an example of the kind of bad programming that justified the ousting of their predecessors.

American Gothic

December 11th, 2008 admin

American Gothic
Starring: Gary Cole, Lucas Black, Paige Turco, Brenda Bakke, Sarah Paulson, Nick Searcy, Jake Weber
Original Air Date: 11/22/1995 – 07/11/1996
Network: CBS

One of the many shows to come to fruit in the wake of the pioneering Twin Peaks, which proved that television could be intelligent, stylish and have just as much depth and drama as anything on the big screen. Another kooky, wholley surreal, supernatural slice of Americana Pie the shadow of Peaks looms large over American Gothic, but that’s not to say it doesn’t quickly find its own voice.

Set in the sleepy town of Trinity South Carolina American Gothic is a very Lynchian excursion into the dark underbrush amongst which the pristine white picket fences of the American South stand proud. Criminally mismanaged by CBS on its initial run, shifting timeslots and episodes aired out of order sadly sank the series just as it was taking shape.

Jericho

November 13th, 2008 admin

Starring: Skeet Ulrich, Lennie James, Gerald McRaney, Pamela Reed, Ashley Scott, Kenneth Mitchell
Created By: Steven Chbosky, Josh Schaer, Joanthan E. Steinberg
Original Air Date: 09/20/2006 – 05/09/2007
Network: CBS

One of the smash hits of the fall 2006 season, Jericho was cancelled following a ratings slump after the network unwisely chose to put the show on a 3 month hiatus. After disgruntled fans bombarded CBS offices with hundreds of pounds of peanuts, a reference to the shows season finale, CBS reconsidered its position and renewed the show for a further 7 episodes.

Jericho just might be the most high concept television show outside those that employ the supernatural. Tapping into a post 9/11 America, the show takes the good groundwork laid by shows like 24 and asks what would happen to the rest of us normal folk were a nuclear attack to take place?

Dexter - Season One

October 22nd, 2008 admin

Starring: Michael C. Hall, Julie Benz, Jennifer Carpenter, Erik King, David Zayas, Lauren Velez, C.S Lee
Developed By: James Manos, Jr.
Original Air Date: 10/01/2006 – 12/17/2006
Network: Showtime

Finding a fresh approach to very well trodden ground of the closet serial killer is not an easy thing to do, but somehow this charming and quirky Showtime original series has found a way. Based on the first of Jeff Lindsey’s acclaimed series of novels (Desperately Dreaming Dexter), this darkly sardonic saga follows the exploits of the titular Dexter Morgan. Dexter’s day job is forensic blood splatter analysis for the always busy Miami Metro Police department. Dexter has a secret life, however, a life that his policeman foster father Harry taught him to hide and mask so that he would remain safe and undetectable.

Dexter lives by Harry’s code, never kill the innocent. Fortunately for Dexter, in today’s world, that still leaves plenty of targets out there and our unlikely hero takes great pride in “taking out the trash” as he puts it. He does his best to fit in and appear normal, staying close to his foster sister Deborah (Jennifer Carpenter) and maintaining a relationship with Rita (Julie Benz), a former battered wife and her two young children. Dexter’s world is ticking over nicely until a new killer comes to town, a masterful killer that dismembers his victims and drains them of all their blood. So in awe of his craftsmanship, Dexter’s wildest dreams come true when the killer begins to leave cryptic clues and messages for him, inviting him to play a sinister little game of cat and mouse.

Carnivale - Season One

October 7th, 2008 admin

Starring: Michael J. Anderson, Nick Stahl, Clea Duvall, Clancy Brown, Tim DeKay, Amy Madigan, Patrick Bauchau
Creator: Daniel Knauf
Original Air Date: 09/14/2003 – 11/30/2003
Network: HBO

The great American dust bowl of the 1930’s is the setting for this enigmatic HBO original series as the battleground for, as the show itself purports, the last great age of magic. Skillfully blending religion, mythology, old-fashioned Americana and the supernatural, Carnivale is a one of a kind series that ended before its time. Creator Daniel Knauf honed in on a very American sensibility during a unique period in history for the country and its people. The dust bowl as it was so named essentially saw the topsoil of thousands of square miles of farmland turn to dust and blow back and forth across the country in a series of vicious storms that stretched on for hundreds of miles – devastating homes, consuming towns, causing countless deaths from dust pneumonia, and ultimately forcing people to migrate across the great Midwest plains in the tens of thousands. Add to this the state of American economy in the midst of the great depression and the simple, God fearing folk of middle America genuinely thought that they were experiencing biblical wrath and that an apocalypse was indeed on its way.

The Unit - Season Two

September 25th, 2008 admin

Starring: Dennis Haysbert, Max Martini, Robert Patrick, Scott Foley, Michael Irby, Demore Barnes, Abby Brammell, Regina Taylor, Audrey Marie Anderson
Creator: David Mamet
Original Air Date: 09/19/2006 – 05/08/2007
Network: CBS

Picked up for a second season The Unit finds its format extended from 13 episodes to a full 22. Unfortunately a consequence of that is the short, sharp shock treatment that was the show’s best weapon is now diluted. Instead of tightening itself up around the waist, the budget and the storylines are now even more spread out and The Unit’s second season finds itself thin in all the wrong places; missions are now almost Star Trek-esque with a cultural talking point of the week type attachment.

Also it seems that half the principle cast has gone missing. Given the expanded format you would think they could have at least found a way to fit everyone in, but the same unit members always inexplicably seem to be the ones rotated out that week. Season two does find the drama on the home front better written, but seems engineered no longer as narrative but as a mouthpiece for the show’s oversimplified political point of view. Where a show like 24 would happily swim around in the moral grey area between what is right and what is necessary, The Unit has no intention of even pretending to flirt with ambiguity. In fact the views of this show are slightly to the right of Genghis Kahn, and it makes no apologies for it.

The Unit - Season One

September 22nd, 2008 admin

At first glance David Mamet might seem like an unlikely source for this mid season replacement series centering on a team of Special Forces soldiers and their wives. But one thing the Oscar nominated screenwriter and Pulitzer prize-winning playwright has always admired is balls. You remember Alec Baldwin in Glengarry Glen Ross and what he told you it takes to sell real estate? Well this is just another variation of that same idea.

Based on Eric Haney’s book Inside Delta Force, The Unit focuses on a five-man team that’s part of the 303rd Logistical Studies group, a cover for a black-ops counter terrorism force that operates under the direct authority of the President of The United States. The show looks at every aspect of a covert soldier’s life, at home and in the field, and begs the question; what exactly is the price paid by such men and their families all in the name of service to their country.

John From Cincinnati

September 9th, 2008 admin

Starring: Rebecca De Mornay, Luke Perry, Brian Van Holt, Ed O’Neil, Bruce Greenwood, Austin Nichols, Garret Dillahunt, Emily Rose, Keela Kennelly, Greyson Fletcher
Created By: David Milch & Kem Nunn
Original Air Date: 06/10/2007 – 08/12/2007
Network: HBO

Some might call it a missed opportunity, others may see it as a failed experiment. Less kind viewers out there see it as the moment where David Milch, one of television’s finest, completely disappeared up his own ass. Based on a series of books by co-creator Kem Nunn, this ensemble drama is set against the backdrop of a California beach surfing community was dubbed “surf noir” by those looking to sell it. In actuality this is about as noir as, well, as a California beach surf community – not at all in fact.

Still, it had to be dubbed something appealing because had they taken an honest approach we would have been inundated with billboards and TV spots promising a “Batshit crazy family drama with supernatural elements and biblical overtones that makes about as much sense as an Ayn Rand paperback with half the pages torn out” – which might have put one or two people off.