Owning a Tivo has completely changed the way I watch tv (in that I actually watch some tv these days). One side effect is that I can capture half a season (or this year, a whole season) of a show before I bother to start watching it. This has turned out to be quite a blessing, since this Spring I’ll be watching new (to me) shows while everyone else is tortured with game shows and reality tv (or, you know, reading). Late last week I finally caught up on all the broadcasted episodes of My Name is Earl, Reaper, and Chuck. In light of Journeyman‘s cancellation, I’m trying to decide if I should even bother. Anyone?
Over the weekend I decided to start another series I’ve had recording, which is the new Bionic Woman. To be honest, I’m only partially through the pilot episode. Maybe halfway. So far, the acting and directing is as disappointing as I’ve read. To illustrate, let me pick on Miguel Ferrer. He’s apparently in charge of this secret government facility and holds the authority to kill anyone who threatens the secrecy of the installation. Jamie Sommers’ boyfriend just delivered the line, "If you’d been in my position you would have done the same." Ferrer’s character, Anthony Andros, says "That’s right, you didn’t know my wife. I watched her slowly taken apart for two years until she died, all the while knowing that a phone call here could have saved her life. But I didn’t, because that’s not our mission." (1) Writing a line like that is akin to handing an actor a bar of gold. It could have been a scene that gave me chills. It should have been. Instead he came off as if he were complaining about his latte. Now, if you click on the actor’s link you may recognize Ferrer. He’s one of those actors who has been in TV since the ’80s. He even has solid credentials in voice acting work. The guy knows how to deliver a line. So why was this performance so flat?
If one were a conspiracy theorist, one might think that the director had to dial him back so as not to underscore the wooden acting by his colleagues. Who knows? Maybe he was just having a bad day. Maybe he was supposed to come off as cold-hearted. Whatever the case, my expectations for Bionic Woman are falling and I’m not even done with the pilot.
At least there’s a chance that in the future I’ll be able to catch a worthwhile sequel on reality tv.
(1) I’m transcribing this from memory, so the wording probably isn’t precise. Cut me some slack.
Journeyman was fun and the final episode did serve as a good closer to the series. It was well written and well acted, but if you run out of time to watch the series, it’s okay to have Tivo let it go. I particularly liked how different things he did in the time travel portions came back to affect him in the present, but it’s a gradual thing that builds up over the season, not something like he stepped on a bug and suddenly Al Gore became president. The present-day storylines seemed to play out better than the journey to the past storylines for my tastes.
Bionic Woman suffers from horrible writing. They crammed in a billion things in the first fifteen minutes, yet during the big fight with Katie they took the time to have her talk about how they can smoke now that they’re bionic and blah blah blah drag on and on and on. Please. It’s called pacing, people. And let’s not forget about such obvious manipulative stuff like making Jamie preggers and killing the fetus five minutes later.
I think I lasted about ten minutes into the next episode before telling Tivo to dump that show.
Thanks. That’s good to know. I’ve got enough room that Tivo can keep it. Since all we’ve got to look forward to this spring is Sarah Conner Chronicles and reality tv, I’m sure I’ll have time to catch up.
You should also check out BBC America if you’ve got that on your satellite/cable package. Top Gear is one of the funniest shows I’ve seen in a while. They also broadcast Doctor Who and Torchwood (which isn’t as good as Doctor Who) and — after one of those starts its next season in the UK — they’ll be showing the new season I think about one week later on BBC America.
Unfortunately I have the cheapest cable you can get. I’ve got about 20 channels, which pretty much covers the broadcast networks, USA, and TBS plus a bunch of crap channels like home shopping. However, it’s enough for me to get my cable modem for $10 cheaper. So I’m netting out at about $8 a month for cable.