new TV shows

[cellio]

This fall I've seen two new shows with lots of promise.

Studio 60 in the Sunset Strip is Aaron Sorkin's new show. He did a great job with West Wing and Sports Night (I haven't seen all of the latter yet), so I had to check it out. The witty dialogue and fast interchanges are back. This time the venue is the production crew of a live comedy show (Saturday Night Live with the serial numbers filed off). In the first episode of the real show, the fictional show is almost immediately plunged into controversy. Their handling of it in the first new episode of the fictional show was brilliant. There have been two episodes so far, so it's not too late to catch up.

The other new show is Jericho. If you liked Jeremiah then run (don't walk) to your VCR or DVR and check this out. There have only been two episodes, so there's plenty of opportunity for it to go sour later, but so far I'm finding it compelling. (The second episode included a recap from the first, so I assume there'll be no problem jumping in with the third episode next week.)

Jericho is a small rural town (5000 people). In the opening episode the residents see a mushroom cloud in the direction of the nearest major city (Denver) and then they lose power and communications. There are reasons to believe the problem is more widespread than just Denver (trying to avoid spoilers here). Now, if this goes in the direction of a political drama or a hunt for the guys who did this, it won't be interesting. So far, though, the focus seems to be solidly at the character level, watching the people of Jericho deal with the situation. There are several characters with interesting potential and obvious secrets. (Does anyone in the audience really believe that the guy from Saint Louis is who he says he is? I sure don't.) I'm looking forward to seeing how this plays out.

Comments

[zare-k.livejournal.com]

Is Jericho broadcast or cable? kaiyu might like it.

[cellio]

Broadcast (CBS). It's on Wednesday nights. (8:00 here; do you have the same show times we do?)

[murphstein.livejournal.com]

COOL ICON!

[schulman.livejournal.com]

The Studio 60 pilot should still be available from Netflix, too. I'm thoroughly enjoying it, but of course I am a complete Sorkin junkie.

[cellio]

Wait, you can get new shows from Netflix? I thought that was only for published DVDs. Tell me more?

[schulman.livejournal.com]

This was a special case: NBC released a couple of pilots on Netflix this August to help build buzz. The Studio 60 DVD also includes the pilot for Kidnapped.

Several TV shows are becoming available for download for cheap (usually between $1 and $4), and of course there are bittorrents, but I'm too lazy to migrate video from the computer to the TV.

Speaking of which: The second season of the new Dr. Who premieres on the Sci-Fi Channel tonight! Wooo!

[nickjong.livejournal.com]

On a related note, Apple is distributing both shows from its iTunes store, although it charges $2 per episode, in contrast to the flat Netflix subscription fee you may or may not already have paid. I've actually had good experiences with the video quality from iTunes, although it would help to have a convenient connection from the computer to the TV set.

BTW, I watched and liked what I've seen of both these shows, too. Unfortunately, I may not have the time to follow all the shows that seem promising. I really don't understand people who say that everything on TV is crap.

[cellio]

I've heard about the Apple distributions, and that's a fallback. But I'd much rather watch TV on the 32" screen while sitting in the comfy chair, not on my monitor while sitting at my desk.

I haven't joined Netflix yet, but I'll probably get the cheapest membership before too much longer. I'm about ready to dump the cable service entirely; I can still get some shows (including these two) with rabbit ears, and most of the rest comes out on DVD a few months after the end of the season (enter Netflix).

[jducoeur]

But I'd much rather watch TV on the 32" screen while sitting in the comfy chair, not on my monitor while sitting at my desk.

I seem to recall you mentioning iPods recently. Does one of you have a video-capable iPod? When I had to deal with a missing episode recently, I learned that you can output from a video iPod directly to the TV set. (You can set the iPod to output NTSC, and then attach a mini-jack to three-RCA cable...)

[cellio]

Cool! Good to know.

I have an iPod nano, for which the documentation says vague things like "if your iPod supports video". Ok, just checked the UI; no evidence of video support on this one. But Dani might get one for himself (he doesn't have one yet), in which case we can factor that in.

Studio 60

[cafemusique.livejournal.com]

Yes, I'm a big fan...(can I say that after only two episodes?) And, I think I mentioned in my journal last weekend that Sorkin does a good job with the humorous moments, and it's nice to have a chance for a lot of that to come out. There were some times when the White House setting meant there wasn't as much of an outlet for it (though he was good at weaving it into serious topics, as well).

[chite.livejournal.com]

What I love about Aaron Sorkin is that he has great ideas for shows that are not crime, law, or medical drama.