Over my lifetime, I have never been much for television. In fact, for most of my adolescent years, I spent playing sports or music until the street lights came on. Come to think of it, I can’t even recall watching any live action shows (of course, I watched cartoons) or even viewing them as form of entertainment earlier in my life. Interestingly enough, it wasn’t until years later that I really started to enjoy some of the shows that ran during my youth through reruns or the advent of TV on DVD (Seinfield, Cheers, MacGyver, etc.). I guess the biggest reason behind my lack of television watching was that I never enjoyed anything I couldn’t watch the whole way through. In other words, I always hated missing the beginning of a series, season, or show and, therefore, would refuse to watch the rest of it. I’m assuming this disdain for so many moving parts explains why I was always a movie guy. Essentially, with movies, you could always pick the time of your viewing, and always be assured of seeing the whole thing. Basically, this was something, up until a few years ago, that was impossible with TV (unless you were a master at recording on the VCR) until one day all that changed.
That day was the birth of the DVR. What a great invention! Possibly, one the greatest advancements in the world of television in the last 20 years, and the one tool that finally brought the TV show, a great form of media, right before my eyes and into my heart! To say that I love TV shows now would be an immense understatement. In fact, there are some shows that I like so much I still refuse to watch them when they air just so I can watch them all at once when they are released on DVD. I know, crazy right? But that is how much I enjoy some of the original series airing these days.
In short, I believe it is a credit to the writers. Not to get off on a tangent about the current strike, but I do believe the writers are just in their current stance. Basically, drawing a parallel to my own experience in the music industry, I believe individuals should get royalties no matter what format or form of distribution the product is given. In other words, just because a song is released digitally for downloading does not mean the writer or artist should receive anything less than the appropriate amount of money (I think right now the television writer’s receive .20 cents per 200,000 downloads of their show on iTunes - that means just $1.00 per 1 million downloads . . . a dollar, A DOLLAR!). At the end of the day, it is still their art, their creativity, their thoughts, and their brilliance being used by the lager corporations to make money. And that my friends is okay, just as long as everyone is receiving money equal to their role.
(Strahovski, Levi, and Baldwin on Chuck, Monday night, 8:00pm EST)
But, I digress. The real reason for this post is to talk about some of the great shows that are currently on this season, some of which need more viewers. First, I LOVE NBC on Monday nights. It has some great original programs that finally exhibit some uniqueness on network TV. For starters, Chuck airs at 8:00pm EST, and it is my favorite new show of the season. Essentially, it centers around a former Stanford student, Chuck (played by Zachary Levi), turned head of the “Nerd Herd” at the local Buy More (yes, just like the Geek Squad at Best Buy). Basically, Chuck’s life is turned upside down when a boatload of governement secrets are downloaded into his brain. Since the original files are destroyed, Chuck becomes a priceless piece of government property. Thus, he is constantly needed for top secret cases, but must remain normal on the outside so his top secret knowledge is never exposed. To help keep him protected while doing the usually spy thing, Chuck is appointed two bodyguards/agents, Sara Walker (Yvonne Strahovoski) and John Casey (Adam Baldwin). As you can guess, craziness ensues while Chuck tries to balance his new life as a secret agent along with his normal life as a younger brother and friend to his sister Elle (Sarah Lancaster), her boyfriend “Captain Awesome,” and his best friend/lovable loser Morgan (Josh Gomez). Ultimately, it is a great comedy/adventure show that actually shows some originality in an otherwise boring landscape of crime dramas. Next, Heroes (my favorite series of all time) has returned for the second season, and, after a slow start has finally shown some of the same gusto that made the first season an international sensation. This week’s episode, “Cautionary Tales,” was one of the best so far. Finally, Journeyman wraps up Monday night by providing a combination of some great shows like Quantum Leap and The Dead Zone. The tale of a time traveling reporter, Dan Vasser (Kevin McKidd), makes for a strong series with intriguing twists and strong acting. It is a refreshing new series, and I hope all of you tune in to watch.
Lastly, there are many other original shows this season that I think are worth mentioning. Pushing Daisies (Tim Burton-esque drama about a pie maker who has the ability to bring people back from the dead - Jim Dale is great as the narrator), Carpoolers (sitcom about a group of friends who do . . . what else but carpool? Gracen’s son Marmaduke - yes, like the dog - is the real reason to watch), and Life (a unique cop drama about a detective being wrongfully imprisoned for 12 years and then getting released only to become a cop again) are all original shows who have tried to offer something new to audiences. Let’s just hope that people actually flip the channel and see some of the great new entertainment available. I would hate to lose another Arrested Development or Futurama because audiences want to watch CSI. Really, folks! How many do we need? . . . CSI, CSI: NY, CSI: Miami, CSI: Fargo, CSI: Charleston . . . I mean is there even an original idea here or are they just solving crime with forensics every episode. Please people, grow a palette!
Here is a priceless clip from Carpoolers:
