TV Goes On...Even if I Can't Write About It

So There has bee a lot of TV that I haven't written about. Guess I better get on that...NOW!

Here is a minicap (ooh, gotta add that to my glossary) of what has been happening on TV. Included in this minicap are:
Rescue Me
Hawthorne
White Collar
Psych
Hell's Kitchen
Futurama
Lie to Me
Warehouse 13
Covert Affairs
Rizolli & Isles
Memphis Beat
Tosh.0

Shows not part of this but GUARANTEED a show/episode review soon: True Blood and Dark Blue

Rescue Me

Tommy is dead. He didn't come back to life, this season is about his attempt at redemption in the very last moments of his life, but for all intents and purposes Tommy Gavin died. Granted that's not what has happened on the show...yet...but I just got this feeling. And some examples. In the 1st episode back his dead cousin Jimmy (James McCaffrey) is talking to him, he is grilling him about what happened after Tommy fell through the ice, Tommy said he came back to life and Jimmy looks at him then gets up and says, "I'll talk to you when you're ready". Then last weeks episode "Comeback" featured one of his fights with Sheila, the cray-cray, and after she speaks to her son for a minute Tommy sees her as calm and collected and she says "You are released". She could be talking about released from her stupid promise to get her son to quit, but that is not what it looked like. And then with more Peter Gallagher presence as the Priest, I dunno, but I'm seeing a lot of Tommy in the Father, enough of Tommy in fact that this may just be his subconscious attempt at being better, his "angel on the shoulder" so to speak. I don't know, I could be reading far to into this but I say we'll see by the end of the season...and I called it!

Hawthorne
A little violin stringy right now. I don't like her character very much. She still has heart but she doesn't seem to care that anyone else might have not only authority but also might have feelings that she's hurting. She's so busy trying to play Mother Teresa that she's turning down good prospects and really only using her friends when she comes into contact with them.

Having said that I realize that this show is about a woman is is trying to handle everything in her life on her own as a strong woman. And they are getting that point across, but by making her character ugly. She refuses help, she is stubborn, scorns first-listens later and I'm not sure she has enough redeeming qualities about ehr. You can only stare in the Jada Pinkett-Smith's doey-eyed face for so long. It just get old

Also WHY did they kill off Dr. Paul Hyun (played by the FABULOUS Kenneth Choi)? I loved his character, and his friendship with Tom (Michael Vartan), because that gave the actor something else to do other than pine over Jada...which he's back to doing. Boring...

Overall though, I'm still watching, though I hope it gets better. I might not stay watching for long (unless theres is nothing else to do and I'm near a computer ^_^)

White Collar
First episode was too cool. And I mean that in an ambiguous way: not bad...not good. But it was a season opener, the characters are back and strong; more of the same but with fresh ideas; interesting arc presented. What I really enjoyed watching here was the cinematography of some of these shots. They were standing on top of a building hitting golf balls and it was beautiful. A little pazzaz right now, but thats to hook new viewers with the generic bold style choices. Like what, Neil (Matt Bomer) is really too cool to hat not wearing a tie? And Peter (Tim DeKay) is like his handmaiden, carrying around his hat and shit (see end of episode for reference)? Sure they're friends but that's prissy disguised and being "too-cool-for-school". Calm it down a bit.

Psych
Almost exact same notes as above cause it was the season opener, but this is the 4th season (versus White Collar's sophomoric term) and its become an underground hit (or as the commercials will say it's been "under the radar"). I think last year's pairing with quirky cop comedy (dramedy) Monk worked perfectly and now that it is back on its own I hope it doesn't try to be too trendy.

This show is great at themes, Western, Scary Movie, etc. And this first one was Asian themed: it featured two  Chinese gangs in Santa Barbra [so lots of great Asian actors not often seen outside of karate films], and of course karate. But what was most clever was the opening title sequence ran in both Chinese and English. We saw the Chinese characters for each of the names, replaced with the English characters. Cute, gave a great feeling to what the episode was going to be about. The borderline racism was awkward within the episode though...don't know how I feel about that, I sort of just laughed uncomfortably at the jokes. Bold choices.

Hell's Kitchen
Noone is leading in the kitchen. Down to 4 and NOONE has acted like a Head Chef. However they all can actually cook. These people in the kitchen are the best cooks Hell's Kitchen has seen, but are they leaders? We'll see.

Futurama
Good. Seems like the same show-ish. It's really playing up some of the snapshot moments that were one shot jokes in the first incarnation but have now become underground classic bits from Adult Swim. I don't think that's a good thing. Also a lot more weird, supernatural stuff is happening which isn't being explained. Werid stuff happened on the FOX version but was always sort of explained by the 1000 year jump in time (technology, new discoveries, alien influence), always pretty paper thin evidence/proof but entertaining. Now flimsy to NO explanation...Episode 4 their martinis are created from clouds above their glasses, cool shot but WTF? AND Circusitis...Hermes is sick and he sneezes--you know, not even worth describing. It was a funny gag but didn't make a lick of sense. Hermes made a point in the last episode "Weren't we a shipping company?" That's what I was thinking, and it could have been easily fixed by making them have to ship something to Leonardo DaVinci's planet. I hope it's able to keep me interested.

Lie To Me
Good season. Nothing overly impressive but some good acting by the cast. I miss the shots of the emotive faces that are being featured in the show being exampled by famous people in several shots.

Warehouse 13
Good. Same as last season but even more character development. Definitely a fine treat for the summer and a great Original Series by SyFy (btw I HATE that spelling...SciFi stood for Science Fiction, SyFy stands for STUPID!)

Covert Affairs
Like. That guy is blind, nice twist. Peter Gallagher--sweet role for him. "Cut Throat Bitch" from House, nice domestic role on her. I am excited for this new show! And the creator is of course brilliant, but the source material is rather endless. Much like a hospital or lawyer show the topics that concern secret government agencies are ever-changing. I am also VERY happy to see Sendhil Ramamurthy in a new show after Heroes. I was a big Heroes fan and although the show went south (and fast) the ensemble was actually quite good [plus I just saw the Slammin' Salmon and although I don't do movie stuff here that was hilarious and he was sooo funny in it!].

Rizzoli & Isles
I like this new one too! Good teamwork between the girls (Angie Harmon and Sasha Alexander) and though the show is centered on these two the surrounding cast is great (including former Jett Jackson star Lee Thompson Young--who was unceremoniously killed on FlashFoward)! Although I have one ax to grind...just cause your in Boston doesn't mean the soundtrack has to sound like it's coming from the St. Patrick's Day Parade. My husband asked about the music and I told him "It's because it's  based in Boston" and he says "Oh, and are they Irish too?" Is that really the message they are going for, cause that is what the audience is hearing. Also it felt very derivative of The Departed.

Memphis Beat
I like the cast, I like the concept, I don't think I like this show...and it's been 3 episodes. I'll keep giving it a chance cause this is season one, but I think it needs some re-tooling. I don't know what that is but something is slightly off about this. Standout to me though is Abraham Benrubi. A Character actor from my childhood (I loved him as Bud Bundy's older cousin on Married With Children-CLASSIC) who is very lovable in this role. Of course ironically named Sgt. Lightfoot...he's a big man I think his performance is good to watch.

Tosh.0
I hope he is always able to get Comedy Central to bring back his show. It's hilarious...scratch that, he is hilarious. Daniel Tosh is a master at the improvisational observational comedy, which helps when you run a clip-show. And NOT being on ABC helps with any good taste issues. He's raunchy, but its appreciated.






All other shows that are part of my summer list but have not been mentioned above I've been watching, but nothing note worthy is really happening. But I don't know, maybe you saw something last week I missed and you have an opinion on the matter. After all I want to create discussions about whats on TV, let me know how you feel.