Fall TV Preview: the CW and Fox

Following up on last week's post regarding new fall shows for CBS, ABC and NBC, we bring you the creative endeavors of the last two major broadcast networks - the CW (the hybrid of UPN and WB) and Fox. Want to know what to get excited for and what to skip? Just read on.

The CW doesn't stray too far from its roots in the networks that brought us the supernatural "Buffy: the Vampire Slayer" and teen soaps like "One Tree Hill" and "Everwood". First up is "Gossip Girl," a drama about kids at a private high school in Manhattan - okay, seriously, stop setting shows in NYC. This goes for everyone. Anyway...it's your typical "bratty, spoiled teenagers who bitch and whine about each other and have dark secrets" plot, except, oh look, it's got a 21st century twist! The "gossip girl" of the title is the unknown author of an up to the minute, inside-dirt blog. This show will TOTALLY speak to the Internet-savvy youth of today.

A show whose otherworldly themes hearken back, if ever so slightly, to the "Buffy" days is "Reaper," about a guy whose parents SOLD HIS SOUL TO THE DEVIL BEFORE HE WAS EVEN BORN. Kinda puts your issues with your mom and dad in perspective. As a result of this deal, the kid has to go around collecting souls for the devil - which, since the devil's basically a fair guy, means getting the bad guys. And I am down with that shit.

Then the CW decides to try out some new avenues. In the running for show most likely to either offend people or really make them think is "Aliens in America," about an American family that unwittingly takes in a Pakistani Muslim exchange student. Let's hope it actually explores prejudice and stereotype in a funny, honest, possibly satirical way - rather than exploiting cultural differences for a laugh. The other new show is "Life is Wild," about a vet who moves his family out to a South African game reserve - the same one where his first, dead wife grew up. I can't see how that would be weird for the second wife at all... Setting a show not on the itty bitty island we stole from the Native Americans but instead in a country we stole from the native Africans is an unusual way to shake things up - but will the change of venue actually revive the tired family drama?

Last and not quite least was Fox - the network known for taking chances on quirky shows like "Firefly," "Arrested Development," "Family Guy," and "Undeclared," only to drop them when audience numbers don't pan out. So this year, the network's playing it safe by sticking with fairly conventional sitcoms and dramas. For example, we have "Back to You," starring Kelsey Grammar and Patricia Heaton as two Pittsburgh news anchors who hate each other. Both stars are pros at the traditional sitcom format, which this series seeks to follow in the footsteps of - including quirky supporting characters and an almost sorta love interest. Whoop-dee-doo.

Fox rolls out another uninspired sitcom in "The Rules for Starting Over," about divorced 30-somethings lookin' for loooooove. They've got all your stereotypes covered - the diehard romantic, the multiple-divorce, and the hopeless-with-women. Oh, and don't forget their ONE pretty female friend who just happens to live next door to contestant number 3. Right. Any show which compares dating to a farmer's market - with the assumption that anyone who's still single in their 30s is like picked-over, squeezed, bad fruit - can't possibly be good.

There's also "Canterbury's Law," featuring your assorted misfit lawyers taking on unpopular cases. Of course there's a dramatic backstory involving the missing son of the firm's head, played by Julianna Margulies, but still - another law show? Really? Is the law THAT interesting?

Another tried-and-true category is, of course, the cop show, so Fox goes for broke by premiering 2 new series in this area. "K-ville" has promise, set as it is in post-Katrina New Orleans - in case you missed it's topical themes, one of the cops is a veteran of the war in Afghanistan. New Orleans is very much a tragic mess in the wake of Katrina, and I can't decide if I'm looking forward to this show exploring this sensitive subject in a manner which the press and administration has done little of, or if the reality of the situation is just too heartbreaking to stomach a fictional version of it. Maybe it's a little of both. The other cop drama, "Amsterdam," has a supernatural twist (otherworldly police seems to be all the rage these days), in the form of an immortal New York detective. Eh - it's a cute twist, since he was given immortality way back in the 17th century when he first came over with the Dutch, but since there's also a whole subplot involving his ability to become mortal only when he finds his one true love, it's kind of cheesy.

Having exhausted the usual TV formulas, Fox turns to the silver screen for inspiration and comes up with "The Sarah Connor Chronicles," set after "Terminator 2: Judgment Day". Never having seen any Terminator flicks, I don't feel I can safely judge this one's potential - but it does star Summer Glau, the ass-kicking psychic chick from "Firefly"/"Serenity," which is enough encouragement to check this one out.

There's a whole raft of reality shows coming up, but since that's the lowest form of entertainment available, it doesn't deserve comment.

Fall TV Preview: NBC, ABC and CBS

The new shows and renewals for next fall have been announced by 3 of the major networks - CBS, ABC and NBC. I take a look at what looks promising and what doesn't (links are to DarkHorizons' descriptions of the shows and the complete fall lineups):

NBC was the first to announce their lineup, taking a cue from their uber-popular comic book fantasy "Heroes" by producing several new series with sci-fi or supernatural undercurrents. Including...a "Heroes" spinoff! Except not really a spinoff - it's a 6 episode show called "Heroes: Origins," which will introduce audiences to never-before-seen heroes, one of whom viewers will vote to keep as a regular character on the show. To a reluctant "Heroes" fan, this premise sounds promising, although it threatens to destabilize the character cohesion that really formed only recently.
Another new show-but not is "The Bionic Woman," an updated version of the 70s classic. I can't think of "The Bionic Woman" without recalling the Halloween episode of "Freaks & Geeks," when Bill Haverchuck went as Jamie Sommers (her Bionic-ness' alter ego). Remember how freaking hilarious that was? Anyone? *Sigh*
Anyway, we've also got a spy thriller, time-travel drama, and cop show - with some twists, but nothing too imaginative. Oh, but don't forget "Lipstick Jungle," in the running to replace "Sex and the City" as the hip show about "modern" New York women. Of course, they're smart, sexy and powerful - but they still have problems. Oh man, I totally relate to this show. I'm a modern woman! I'm smart! I have issues! I live near New York! I'm a high-powered career girl with money to burn on the latest fashions...oh wait, that last part's not true. Never mind then.
All dramas, you'll note, except a mid-season sitcom called "The I.T. Guys," about, um, I.T. guys and the new (female, of course) office manager whose gonna make them cool. I.T.'s just hilarious on its own, and this series is especially auspicious since it stars Joel McHale (from E!'s "Talk Soup" and a brief appearance on "Thank God You're Here!") and Jessica St. Clair (regular on VH1's "Best Week Ever"), both of whom are pretty funny.

On to ABC's fall lineup. Unlike NBC, they're not limiting themselves to high-powered women with issues - no no, let's bring the men along too. So we've got male CEOs AND male suburbanites dealing with life's problems. But don't worry gals, ABC cares about you too - just look at "Cashmere Mafia," a series about strong, sexy female executives who live in New York and struggle to balance life and career issues. Nothing like "Lipstick Jungle" at all. Wait, what? You're a woman who DOESN'T work at a New York corporate job? Then you must be a member of "Women's Murder Club," a bunch of women who solve crimes because the men don't know what they're doing. Silly boys.
Let's see, what else is up - a soap opera about rich, pretty people behaving badly. "Pushing Daisies," about a guy who can bring murder victims back to life just long enough so they can tell the cops who did them in - except when he revives his girl, she stays alive, but only as long as he NEVER TOUCHES HER AGAIN! Why does she get to stick around but no one else he touches does? Could it be - gasp - a ploy to ensure an unending supply of romantic tension? No, there must be a TOTALLY LOGICAL explanation...
I'm not even going to mention the "Grey's Anatomy" spin-off, except to say that I've never seen the original show and think the spin-off looks even worse.
The one show that COULD be really clever is "Cavemen," the sitcom based on those Geico commercials. Yeah, yeah, I too thought it was a dumb concept when I first heard about it - but those ads are pretty ingenious. So maybe, just maybe, with the right writers and a good cast, the show will actually be a funny, insightful commentary on prejudice in modern society. Or it'll just prove that trying to spin an episodic series out of 30-second ads is one of the dumbest ideas to ever occur to network execs.

Surprisingly, CBS has the most shows that I'm excited about - although I'll be surprised if any of them actually succeed in making their premise work. The network stays away from the "successful people with issues" genre so popular with ABC, as well as the sci-fi gimmickry of NBC, opting instead for what sound like more nuanced shows.
Striking a blow for television diversity is "Cane," a drama about a successful Cuban-American family involved in the rum and sugar business. The prospect of Latinos portrayed not as subjects of broad comedy but as genuinely complex characters is intriguing, and it stars two of today's most successful Hispanic actors - Hector Elizondo and Jimmy Smits. If it manages to avoid stereotyping and sensationalism, it could be well worth looking into.
Another exciting premise is "Moonlight," about a vampire cop. Okay, I admit it, I think vampires are cool. Especially the sweet, sensitive, tormented kind the hero seems to be (aw, he has to decide between leaving a lonely, loveless life or turning his crush into a vampire!) . So that's why I'm hoping this one doesn't bite...except in the literal sense.
In the category of "shows about important social issues" we have "Swingtown," which focuses on the swinging 70s - a time of women's lib, experimentation and open marriages. In other words, sex. Will this show be a genuine exploration of an interesting time in our social history, or just an exploitation of the decade's tawdrier elements? Probably the latter, but you never know.
And the most amazing genre ever: Mystery Musical Drama. Currently describes only one American show - "Viva Laughlin," based on a BBC series (why are all the cool shows British knock-offs?). Seems to revolve around the owner of a Vegas nightclub - really all I got. But it's a Mystery Musical Drama, starring and executive produced by Hugh Jackman. You might know him as Wolverine, but his roots are actually in musical theatre - he has a Tony for his starring role in "The Boy From Oz". As a musical theatre fangirl, I'm predisposed to like this show.

Stay tuned for commentary of the new shows from the CW and Fox.

Golden Globes Tonight

Golden Globe nominees:

Best Motion Picture - Drama

Babel
Bobby
The Departed
Little Children
The Queen

The Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama

Penélope Cruz in Volver
Judi Dench in Notes On A Scandal
Maggie Gyllenhaal in Sherrybaby
Helen Mirren in Queen, The
Kate Winslet in Little Children

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama

Leonardo DiCaprio in Blood Diamond
Leonardo DiCaprio in The Departed
Peter O'Toole in Venus
Will Smith in The Pursuit Of Happyness
Forest Whitaker in The Last King Of Scotland

The Best Motion Picture - Musical Or Comedy

Borat: Cultural Learnings Of America For Make Benefit Glorious Nation Of Kazakhstan
The Devil Wears Prada
Dreamgirls
Little Miss Sunshine
Thank You For Smoking

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy

Annette Bening in Running With Scissors
Toni Collette in Little Miss Sunshine
Beyoncé Knowles in Dreamgirls
Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada
Renée Zellweger in Miss Potter

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical Or Comedy

Sacha Baron Cohen in Borat: Cultural Learnings Of America For Make Benefit Glorious Nation Of Kazakhstan
Johnny Depp in Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
Aaron Eckhart in Thank You For Smoking
Chiwetel Ejiofor in Kinky Boots
Will Ferrell in Stranger Than Fiction

Best Performance by an Actress In A Supporting Role in a Motion Picture

Adriana Barraza in Babel
Cate Blanchett in Notes On A Scandal
Emily Blunt in The Devil Wears Prada
Jennifer Hudson in Dreamgirls
Rinko Kikuchi in Babel

Best Performance by an Actor In A Supporting Role in a Motion Picture

Ben Affleck in Hollywoodland
Eddie Murphy in Dreamgirls
Jack Nicholson in The Departed
Brad Pitt in Babel
Mark Wahlberg in The Departed

Best Animated Feature Film

Cars
Happy Feet
Monster House

Best Foreign Language Film

Apocalypto from The United States
Letters From Iwo Jima from The Republic of Japan, The Country of the United States
The Lives of Others from Germany
Pan's Labyrinth from Mexico
Volver from Spain

Best Director - Motion Picture

Clint Eastwood for Flags Of Our Fathers
Clint Eastwood for Letters From Iwo Jima
Stephen Frears for The Queen
Alejandro Iñárritu Gonzalez for Babel
Martin Scorcese for The Departed

Best Screenplay - Motion Picture

Babel by Arriaga, Guillermo
The Departed by Monahan, William
Little Children by Field, Todd, Perrotta, Tom
Notes On A Scandal by Marber, Patrick
The Queen by Morgan, Peter

Tracking Rolling Stone's Reality TV Show

Preeminent music magazine Rolling Stone is now two weeks into their MTV-partnered reality series "I'm From Rolling Stone," and I must say it's been a good trip so far. My primary interest rests in the journalistic aspects of the program, as I temper my jealousy at the opportunity these all-too-pretty aspiring writers have been given with genuine interest in learning from their experience. While I don't want to go in depth about the characters (nothing personal, I would just rather focus on the assignments and the writing) I gotta talk about how ludicrous (not the rapper) it is to being playing 'hotshot' with this kind of role. C'mon people, you're given a literally once in a lifetime chance (as opposed to those pseudo once in a lifetimes) yet you're not above acting arrogant, lazy, and undisciplined? It really makes you want to get in there and do their job for them, and considerably better than their churlish efforts so far. Here is to hoping, for the sake of the show as well as the respect I have for the magazine, that the quality of the contestants gets a whole lot better. Hey, they're just starting out, I am willing to cut them some slack...for now.

As for the journalistic aspects, I must say it's wickedly cool to hear Joe Levy, executive editor, dishing out his charges and observations, along with a slew of other senior brass at the magazine. There are little (and not so little) things you can pick up about the world of pop culture writing, such as:

- The importance of getting material facts and substance over sugaring your piece
- Not burying your 'lead'
- The dangers of excess prose
- The vitality of having a clear and concise focus
- The need to actually articulate the sound and feel of the music
- Not overusing clichés
- The value of properly preparing for interviews (checking the recorder, writing out questions beforehand, directing the flow, being confident, getting concrete information)

Not that I pretend to be a masterful editor, as many of these things I picked up right from the RS website, but they are invaluable nonetheless as I embark on my mission to be a prominent reporter and writer in my own right. I'll amend this list and add comments as the show goes on. I think it will prove to be a remarkably educational exercise in what you can learn from reality television. Particularly when that television features (albeit sporadically) some of the finest journalists on the planet.

To be continued...

Rolling Stone Does Reality TV

The premise: six aspiring jouranlists suffer the trials and tribulations of network reality television in the hopes of becoming a writer for the well known music and pop-culture magazine Rolling Stone. I must say on a personal level, as an aspiring freelance music journalist, this concept greatly appeals to me. But it seems not everyone would agree. A quick peek at the comments on RS's website show no lack of restraint by people trying to rip the show and the magazine to shreds before the first episode even airs. How dare the seminal rock and roll trade publication think about partnering with the overtly pretentious and teen-worshipping Music Televsion network? Of course, later comments attack earlier ones and the Internet phenomenon known ever-so-descriptively as 'flaming' follows.

But as to the idea that RS and MTV have actually put forth? I am really curious to see where it all goes. Many of us remember Almost Famous (The Foo Fighters have even covered, in a manner of speaking, Elton John's 'Tiny Dancer' as an homage to the famous scene from the movie) and how an early teenaged Cameron Crowe was given the kind of break that most mid-life, Led Zeppelin T-shirt wearing adults would fawn over with reckless abandon. But for those of us like myself who identified with the main character and wanted to be that innocent 70's child given the opportunity of a lifetime during a gilded and lost period of music history, the dream is anything but dead. Needless to say, AtD will be following this series as it develops, particularly this golden nugget:

Think you could’ve done better? You’ll get a chance to prove it, as we’re going to hold online contests based on the assignments undertaken by the I’m From Rolling Stone contestants. And just like on the show, if you’re really good, you might even get to write for Rolling Stone.

I don't think I need to explain how exciting that last bit of news is, given what we're doing here. Rolling Stone, after all, is the premiere music media source of the last 40 years. The opportunity to be a part of their elite team means being literally in the forefront of this prized industry. So the least we can do is go along for the ride and see how all of this goes down, no?

"I'm From Rolling Stone" will air Sundays at 10:00 P.M. on MTV, starting January 7.

On the web: http://www.rollingstone.com/imfromrollingstone