Well folks, this past week was a quiet week for this blog. Let's call it the quiet before the storm. We've got quite a few brand new shows premiering this week, and I'm going to try to get to most of the ones that I think have any kind of promise at all. This past week I've been working on my own pilot, and while it's nowhere near done, like the beginning of a sculpture, a nose is starting to peek out from the messy blob of stone. I'm getting a feel for the characters, for the world and its rules, and, most importantly, what I want the show to be about. I'm loving the experiment.
I've written specs before, and while they're fun in their own way,(capturing the essence of a show and it's characters while putting them into situations you've always wanted to see them in) they lack that raw experiential challenge and thrill of putting something new together.
As a slight update on some of the show's I've watched this past week, here's a rapid fire of my thoughts. Just finished watching four more episodes of Lost. Still in the first season, but I think we're down to just two episodes before Season Two. I've watched halfway through season two before, but I lost my momentum. Hopefully, watching with a friend will help. It's still blowing my mind the second time through, as I'd forgotten a lot of the crazy twists the show takes.
Also got through six episodes of Pushing Daisies this week. It's even better than I remembered. I watched the first two episodes of Sons of Anarchy, and it was really intriguing and I can't wait to watch some more. I checked out the first two discs of it so I can get a larger sample size of it. It's got a great kick of action, but it's got a lot of dramatic intrigue among the gang/family, as well as some heartfelt moments for the main character, who is a new father. FX and AMC are incredible at producing good shows and keeping them operating at a high level.
Speaking of another FX show, Terriers' second episode was even better than the first. The pacing was much more consistent, the humor more persistent, and the case and characters more interesting. Didn't have the same "wow" moments of writing for me as the pilot, but good writing shouldn't always smack you in the face.
Nikita was still good, clean fun. I'm definitely excited about what the show can do with the two sides of the story it is balancing. Right now, we're still getting the background story for Nikita's "inside man", but I'm looking forward to when the flashbacks are less frequent and we can just explore the ever-so-intriguing present.
Warehouse 13 had another strong showing. I keep telling myself the writers are going to have a down episode here soon, but it's just been something new thrown into the mix every week. It is easily the best written Science Fiction or Fantasy show on the air. Check it out.
On the other end of the spectrum, Eureka has finally, officially lost my loyalty as a viewer. I watched that show make some of the worst television I've ever seen, just so I could enjoy it on the rare occasions when it got good. Or maybe under some misguided hope that someone with a brain would finally become a writer on the show. While the first part of this season was uncharacteristically good and relatively consistent, the season took a definite death spiral here at the mid-season break. The concluding episode was terrible. It made so many rookie writing mistakes that I was in disbelief. Confusing and contradictory time loop storylines, deaths of characters that just get corrected by the end of the episode, and delivering on romance way too easily way too soon and in a way too hoaky and sickeningly stupid way. They forgot that Henry existed. Again. They forgot that Alison has a son. Again. And they forgot how to write. AGAIN.
Eureka, thou art dead to me.
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