Monday, February 12, 2007

I did use to think that I was fated only to start watching from episode one shows that never made it out of their first season, Babylon 5: Crusade, Jeremiah (actually, I think this did make it to season two but it was never shown in the UK), Earth: Final Conflict (again, never shown after season one over here but I understand that was no loss), Firefly...

Now instead it seems that fate has cast me in the role of being excited about series that turn out to be utter crap, see Torchwood and Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. Seeing the amount of talent involved there is absolutely no reason why this show sucks as badly as it does, unless it's a deliebrate act on the part of all involved. At it's core it's the story of two rather unpleasant men (Brad Whitford and Matthew Perry) who are both obsessed by two women (Amanda Peet and Sarah Paulson) they work with and go to various lengths to fuck them around for not going out with them. Rather than reach for the restraining orders and thereby cause the show to finish about five episodes in the two women either fall for them or tell them repeatedly to back off. In the case of the Matt Albie (Perry)- Harriet Hayes (Paulson) relationship, this involves Perry presumably saying all the things that writer Aaron Sorkin said or wish he said, when he found out that his then girlfriend was a Christian, like Hayes. Meanwhile Danny Tripp (Whitford), on being rebuffed by Jordan McDeere (Peet), flips straight into scary mode, bombarding her with phone calls, getting all his showbiz mates to send her faxes telling her what a wonderful guy he is and then, when she tells him to his face that she isn't interested, that he's unprofessional and asks him to stop because he's freaking her out, he replies 'no' and walks away. Two weeks later and she appears to have fallen for his 'charm', though the show is on hiatus now, so who knows if it'll ever come back.

But this show had an electrifying season premiere after which it seemed to completely loose the plot. Part of the problem is that the large cast have been split into groups, you have the writers, who get to have some interaction with the cast. There's the directors, who have some interaction with the cast and the management, and then there's the management, who have some interaction with the directors. The West Wing had a smaller unit of speaking cast who could mostly all talk to one another, here they are all spread out. In The West Wing, personal relationships were played out against the gallery of larger national or international events, in Studio 60 they are not really played out against the gallery of making the show, but when they are, that works. The last episode I watched or intended to watch was the first part of a two parter in which the crew all go to a gala dinner in honour of Hayes. A cast member, Tom Jeter (Nathan Corddry), was intending to go with scriptwriter Lucy (Lucy Davis) who he wants to date, but is forced by internal politics to take the daughter of a media mogul the network is trying to schmooze. Does he tell Lucy the truth. No, of course not, he lies, she turns up at the dinner, sees him there with the other woman and goes off in a huff. Similarly Danny takes Jordan up to the roof of the studio for a quiet chat and, wouldn't you know it, the door locks behind them and they are stuck up there, the roof being the one place in the city where their mobile phones can't get coverage. It's a painful and unfunny farce.

What I didn't think was going to be any good at the start of the season was Heroes. But despite a ropey pilot this has actually turned out to be a good show. Featuring a large ensemble cast, a la Lost, Heroes is the story of about a dozen, to date, men and women, who have a variety of super-powers, a cheerleader can regenerate from an injury, a would-be politician can fly, a Japanese man can teleport in space and time. They largely follow their own plot-lines, occasionally bumping into one another. Because of the large cast it takes a few episodes to really get going but is quite fun, especially time-traveling cutey Hiro Nakamura. Well worth a watch.

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