Two cancelled as others begin

With the early upfronts starting to leak out of the end of last week a few announcements in the workd of tv were bound to happen.

As expected, Jericho has been canceled. For an interesting and kind of sad take ont he end, check out Matt Mitovich's pre-announcement interview with star Skeet Ulrich over at TV Guide. And although not 'officially' announced yet, exec producer David Eick recently told Sci Fi Wire that Bionic Woman was also dead.

But with those shows ending, others begin. David Eick wasted no time, moving directly from Bionic Woman to a new project, a television adaptation of Children of Men. Yes, the same Children of Men that was in the theaters last year. Apparently, Eick wants us to explore how depressing a death obsessed future can be on a weekly basis. My thought.. small doses is best.

But since we're on the Sci Fi channel kick, they also announced a number of other new scripted shows. True Believer, is set to be kicked off with a backdoor pilot (a sci fi movie?), and according to Sci Fi "The contemporary dramedy centers on a 20-something comic-book nerd who hires a washed-up real-life superhero to be his crime-fighting sidekick and to teach him the ropes." could be cute I suppose.

Sci Fi also announced The Stranded, which I talked about a bit before. And the newly greenlit Deputized, a "two-hour pilot written by Joe Gazzam. The dramedy centers on an average guy who suddenly finds himself possessing special abilities after being accidentally fitted with an alien exoskeleton that cannot be removed. He is enlisted to serve on an intergalactic police force." hmm, I smell hijinx!

In what's obviously an act of sheer desperation, Sci fi has greenlit Alice, a modern day retelling of Alice in Wonderland. I assume they'll get someone like Zooey Dechanel to star in this one as well. Especially as it's coming from the same writers as last years Tin Man. And finally, you knew it was coming, the long rumored Battlestar Galactica spinoff, Capricia has been greenlit as a backdoor pilot (they love those) for early next season. The new show will follow the rivalry of two notable families on Capricia, some 50 years before the events of Galactica take place. Supposedly concerned much more with the inner personal lives of the characters, exec producer Ronald Moore has likened Capricia to Dallas. Seriously.

Pushing aside all of this science fiction, The Hollywood reporter has a story about two new comedies coming to CBS that are sure to be fantastic. Amy Smart, whose film career has never really seemed to take off in the way it should've, has stepped into the show Meant to Be. In the show Smart plays "a wealthy young gallery owner in New York who elopes one night only to be thrown from her 40th-floor balcony en route to her honeymoon. She becomes a "Meant to Be," helping people on Earth head in the "meant to be" direction before she can go to heaven.... wow. That doesn't sound like a comedy at all. That sounds like Touched by an Angel crap. Amy Smart. Whatever are you doing?! The other show up for CBS stars the man who in a perfect world would be a big big star, Fred Savage. Titled Single White Millionaire, not too much is known about the show except that its generally speaking a "comedy about an unassuming millionaire (Savage) in his 30s who is ready to settle down".

Yawn... wake me when something interesting goes into development...
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The end is near for Journeyman

Since I've been so busy lately I think I missed mentioning this Journeyman news last week, but NBC has allowed the options on the actors contracts to expire, freeing them to seek other work if desired. Not exactly an outright death sentence, but effectively the same thing. As far as I understand it for most shows the ongoing strike will eventually effect a force majeure contract clause which rather sneakily allows the AMPTP to duck out of liability for contract breach and avoid their potential debt due to halted production. Great loophole jackasses.

Anyhow, Journeyman has one more episode to air, and I say its a real shame. This show is totally just hitting its stride creatively. Each episode especially since the 2 parter a few weeks ago has been consistently better than the last. I'm getting involved in the fate of these characters and I'm pissed that it looks like it's not going to get another chance.

It feels like good genre shows always get screwed. Thank god for Heroes, and the few others like Lost which can buck the trend.

If you believe the hype you can still act to save Jouneyman by visiting Savejourneyman.net They're trying to organize a Rice-a-roni campaign in the same vein as the Jericho nuts saga of last year. Can internet lightning strike twice in consecutive seasons? I doubt it, even though I'd say Journeyman is more deserving that Jericho.

So with that I will say my personal fond farewells to yet another great genre show cut down far too soon. We'll miss you dearly Journeyman. It was really getting good too...
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What happened to Jericho?

Ok, so this morning on the way into work I watched Wednesday night's episode of Jericho entitled "Rogue River" and I just want to say: what the hell happened to this show?! It was doing so well, or at least it looked like it could potentially do so well, and then it all just fell apart. The writing is terrible, the characters seem to have no motivation for their actions, and most importantly NOTHING is believable. The way a show like this works, and I know I've seen the producers saying this in their short interview on the show over at Innertube, that the way a show like this works is that it's based on the idea of what would the world really be like after a nuclear holocaust. Well, with stellar writing like this I don't think we'll ever know. Jericho is really disappointing me. The last three episodes have each been worse than the last.

It had so much potential, and it's just wasting away.

Conversely, I also watched Friday Night Lights and it is just getting better and better each episode. So me, the uber sci fi geek is going for the high school football show over the post apocalyptic survival story. I never would've imagined it.

All 8 episodes of Jericho are available to watch in full over at CBS - Innertube, and you can check the latest full episode of FNL over at NBC.com

dissapointed by tv... again.

I'm slightly annoyed at this past season of Fall tv. Aside from a few standouts like Heroes it's been a growing disappointment week after week. It feels like the shows I was really championing just a few weeks ago, have all started to sour slightly, and that's really disheartening.

I called Studio 60 the best show of the new season, and where has it left me? Each episode seems to be weaker than the last, mainly in my opinion because its a show about a cutting edge late night sketch comedy show that has really really lame sketches. Sure the behind the scenes stuff is ok; but its not that great. I'm sad to say that this show hasn't lived up to the hype I gave it.

Devon called it on our podcast last week and I'm calling it now; Jericho has lost a lot of it's appeal. Great in concept, weak in execution. The people just aren't acting believably enough. I've read enough post-apocalyptic sci-fi to know, that this story just doesn't feel right. Check out The Hammer of God for a much more probable reaction to this level of disaster. And Skeet Ulrich is making me crazy, he has this constant dour yet 'trying to be' sexy look that's really starting to get on my nerves.

Both Six Degrees, and The Nine have failed to grab me, as they expect you to invest too heavily in people that you don't even know. I find it hard to care about the characters and their weighty emotional problems when I can't even remember their names.

Smith which was a show I initially dissed, looked to be getting much better before it was killed so unceremoniously. And 30 Rock, will probably be killed before it gets a chance to disappoint me. I only have seen a single episode so far but I thought it was ok; although I'm in the very small minority on that. Amazing Race, and Survivor are both ok, but really they're just junk tv that I watch to pass the time, and both will probably disgust me eventually when the games get far enough along for the backstabbing to begin in earnest.

What am I actually liking? Well, Friday Night Lights seems to be doing well, although the ratings are another story. But it's one of, along with the still excellent Heroes, the only shows I do actually still hold out hope for. I'm also liking Grey's Anatomy which I've just jumped on board now, but that's only really good in the context of knowing it's a slightly cheesy, very girly, soap opera dramedy.

I'm almost done watching (4 more eps!) the dvds to Lost season 2, and I'll be caught up on that soon enough. I am a bit concerned that I will be aggravated to no end by the slowness of the story in broadcast form, but at least I know it will be entertaining viewing.

Day Break, and Traveler both from ABC are the only upcoming mid-season shows that I'm looking forward to. And yea I hope they'll be good, but so far most of my viewing hopes have been dashed. I guess I just feel kinda gypped by television this season. I mean it's one of the first times in years I've actually had the time and inclination to invest myself in shows and so many of them have turned out kinda crappy.

I think I need an application to easily get my dvds onto my ipod. Then I will have something better to watch. Unfortunately due to copy protection, this kind of thing isn't as easy to do as it should be...

I don't think there's any good solution to the crappyiness of television. Probably I should just stop watching. Or at least stop watching all the garbage that disappoints. I just always hold out hope that it'll get better, that's probably a dumb idea though.

I guess there's no real point to this post, I just wanted to vent my frustrations.

Damn you television. Damn you to hell...

My TV Addiction

I've been watching a lot of tv lately, and I've decided that I need to wheedle down my schedule a bit, to just a few select shows. I went pretty overboard this Fall with the new stuff, but that said, there really was a lot of new stuff to watch. I'm really loving Heroes the most. That's easily the best new show of the season. They're really building to something bigger, and that journey is pretty cool. I like the fact that they've already got three seasons mapped out too. Very cool stuff. If you're into the show, you also need to be reading the 6 page (or so) online comic books that are coming out in conjunction with each episode. I just really hope it doesn't turn into a Mutant X, and no matter how much I love it, that is still a possibility. My other favorite new shows are Jericho which despite what some people, like my friend Devon, think is still going strong. Also I'm watching Friday Night Lights, which is shaping up very well, Studio 60, which better pick up the pace if it wants to stay on the air, The Nine, and Six Degrees, which are both still on my potential drop list. I 'm also keeping up on is Survivor, The Amazing Race, oh and Grey's Anatomy, which while I admit is very girly and has some soap opera elements, is also written solidly, and has characters that I can't help but like.

Is that a lot? it sure seems like it. I really watch stuff mostly while I'm commuting though. Thank god for the video iPod. But man, that seems like too much... and with Daybreak, and Traveler starting sometime soon, I'm not sure I'm going to have time for anything else. I know that sometimes I look at people like Angie and I just shake my head that they spend so much time with tv, but wow, I just described 9 hours of tv a week as 'wheedled down'... I might just have a problem.

When I get home Erica and I watch tv sometimes, but I don't feel like it's too overboard. Recently we've been working our way through Lost season 2 and I have to say I am really loving it. Such a good show, with such a good cast. Maybe I need to watch more movies... Cause this tv thing seems to have me all tied up. Kinda scary.

That's all for this post.

Jericho this Fall

So there's a new show coming out this fall on CBS that has me decidedly intrigued. The show is called Jericho, and it stars the younger not quite as pretty Johnny Depp look alike Skeet Ulrich. Basically as far as I can tell it follows the life of Jake Green (Ulrich) as he returns home from who knows where to his sleepy little town of Jericho. Before escaping the rather uncomfortable homecoming Jake is confronted with a mysterious cataclysm. Explosions rock the sky, and 'apparently' both Denver and Atlanta have been blown off the map. All radio signals are blanked out, and information is sparse in the isolated town. Tensions begin to rise as no one really knows the what, why, or how things are happening, but mysteries upon mysteries start building up and Jake must confront his dark past and find a place for himself in the brave new world.

At least that's how I would write it :)

Check out the official show site with a very interesting trailer HERE
Also, I like to keep an eye on tv.com for their coverage. You can find that HERE

I love shows like this, and you can count on me to be watching come September 20th (8pm). But after the unfortunate cancellation last season of both Surface and Invasion (which I loved), is there really room for something like this? I hope it's good, or at least good enough to last for enough episodes so everyone gets a chance to check it out.