SFist Watches: TV This Week - Part One!
We're deep in the heart of Fall premieres, and there's just no way all of our amazing commentary can be crammed into one measly post. So this week we'll be bringing you an "SFist Watches TV" post every damn day!! Contain your excitement! We have to get started!
Ah, Monday. A night that had at one time been almost devoid of any compelling TV for us, is now loaded with new shows--and some old shows in new time-slots. One new entry is the sitcom "How I Met Your Mother," which premieres tonight at 8:30 p.m. on CBS. We're happy to say we can give you an actual review of this show, as we were able to watch the first episode, (thanks EW!). And that review? In a word: Meh. We had high hopes. The premise--a father tells his kids how he met their mother some 25 years earlier, and the show is basically a series of illustrative flashbacks--is a nice concept, and the show features Alyson Hannigan from "Buffy," Jason Segel from "Freaks and Geeks," and "Doogie Howser" himself, Neil Patrick Harris. Pretty good casting. Sadly, the result is oddly lame. We spent most of the show's premiere barely cracking a grin, only laughing once during a brief blog joke from Doogie (how could we not?). But according to the show's laugh track (didn't canned laughter die in the 80s?) the whole episode was, apparently, hilarious.
Image of a post-wash Franklin from the awesome "Balboa Observer-Picayune."
We'll stick to Fox's one-two line-up of "Arrested Development" at 8 p.m. and "Kitchen Confidential" at 8:30 p.m. We've praised "Arrested" many times before, and despite some fears about this season's celebrity casting, (Charlize Theron will be appearing in a few episodes) we have confidence it will remain the best comedy on TV. We just hope "Kitchen Confidential" will prove a worthy partner. Loosely based on chef Anthony Bourdain's 2000 memoir, the comedy is set in the kitchen of a fancy-pants New York restaurant and stars "Alias"'s Bradley Cooper as the head chef. This show also features alumni from "Buffy" (Nicholas "Xander" Brendon) and "Freaks and Geeks" (John Francis "Head Geek" Daley). It's another single-camera sit-com (like "Arrested Development") and is, as far as we can tell, also devoid of canned laughter. Praises be!
Over on NBC at 8 p.m. is the network's entry into the "Spooky Drama" trend of the 2005 season. "Surface" is apparently about mysterious underwater creatures, but the network doesn't seem to be hiding the fact that the show is their version of "Lost." Maybe it's just us, but don't those figures standing on a blue-tinted beach look a little...familiar? We'll just wait until Wednesday, thank you.
And finally, also on NBC tonight is the return of the (as of last night) Emmy Award-winning "Medium," the ONLY "psychic talks to dead people" show we'll be watching this season.
Tune in tomorrow for Scientologists, Transgeneration, plastic surgery, and clueless bosses!