dreamloom

Category: Analysis

Deeper pieces that may touch on a variety of television shows and the business in general

  • Great Moments in Battlestar Galactica, Pt. 1

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    So! Battlestar Galactica: what should we talk about? Hmmm… How about the new Gaeta-based webisodes that kicked off last Friday? (Blood! Drugs! Interdepartmental kissing! Lost in space!) Or the cryptically irritating teasers that Sci Fi is doling out, web-wise, and those new Angry Adama promos? Or the baffling Starbuck’s Boobs poster that just popped onto the radar? Or how about the final half of the final season starting in less than six weeks, and the fact that we’ve been waiting since JUNE 14 TO GET THE FRAK ON WITH IT?

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  • House Keeps Us Coming Back

    Sure People magazine called Hugh Laurie one of the world’s sexiest men. And yes, millions of women tune in each week to catch a glimpse of the smoldering curmudgeon. But Fox Network’s House is a delight for the eyes in more ways than watching beautiful doctors heal the sick and play god. One of my favorite reasons to watch House is the artistic camera shots and special effects, making it more than just a TV show, elevating it to the artful.

    Last night’s episode (#507, The Itch) opened with the weaving and bobbing of the camera, which persisted on and off throughout the show, depicting the confusion, inner turmoil and disorientation of the agoraphobic patient that forced House to move his surgical team offsite. This move to an offsite location is yet another way the writers try to shake things up for viewers. We know the basic formula for every House show. Patient gets sick with some mysterious disease. House and Co. make a few erroneous guesses and the patient alternates between getting better and getting worse. Then, finally inspiration hits House. He pieces together the mystery, the patient is cured and House saves the day. If, week in and week out this was all to be enjoyed in House, things would get boring quick. But House is driven by its characters and our desire to see him interact with his staff, Cuddy and Wilson, not to see a patient cured each week.

    In this, the producers, directors and writers get it right. Mix up the basic formula but pull us in each week to see House struggle with his own demons, terrorize and abuse people and conflict with his inner teddy bear. And it doesn’t hurt that he is so darn adorable to watch struggling, either.

  • Life on Mars – F**k you ABC.

    A few months back I watched the pre-air for ABC’s first attempt at translating Life on Mars to our shores. It was a rough experience, mildly ameliorated by the participation of Colm Meany and the lovely Rachelle Lefevre. ((I’m convinced this redheaded siren is going to take her sly, knowing smile and husky voice to great heights someday. This was not to be that day.)) My feeling at the time was that Jason O’Mara – another in the long line of British Empire expats clogging up our airwaves – was a black hole from which not even the charisma of those around him could escape. My first thought was that he was too focused on his ‘R’s to worry about acting, but Ireland’s mostly rhotic. Some other complexity of the Amercan accent, then.

    Seriously. He was bad. It didn’t help that I was comparing him to John Simm who brought a lot of intelligence and wit to to his original version of the character. It helped him even less that Meany played Gene Hunt much quieter and calmer than Philip Glenister and still blew O’Mara off the screen.

    So when LoM was retooled I figured for sure O’Mara was going to get tossed aside for an American who could really sink his teeth into the character and stand up alongside a great character actor like–

    Oh. Everyone and everything else was tossed? Meany, Lefevre, David E. Kelley? Gone. The LA setting? Gone. But Jason O’Mara and his leather jacket stayed.

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  • Charlie Jade Rescheduled: The Future of Science Fiction Television

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    Yesterday morning we heard that The Sci Fi Channel is moving Charlie Jade to a new day and time. Starting next week, it’ll be taking over the coveted Monday 3am slot.

    I can’t be too upset by this. Clearly the show was underperforming on Friday nights and the programming wizards at SciFi needed to move it. What impresses me is the depth of analysis they performed to figure out its new home. Who knew Charlie Jade did so well with insomniacs and people who buy Flowbies?

    Taking its place on Fridays will be a repeat of the prior week’s episode of Doctor Who. I can’t say anything bad about the great British import other than asking how he keeps his neck warm without a proper muffler.

    SciFi made several errors with Charlie Jade, some of them specific to this show and some of them indicative of systemic flaws. I figured I’d use this opportunity not just to look at the ways they went wrong, but also to discuss the future of science fiction television.

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