SFist Watches: And Ponders, Our TV Choices This Week
At last, things have calmed down a bit with the Fall TV season. Most shows have premiered, ratings are in, judgments have been cast, and choices have been made. However, in some cases, we're beginning to doubt those choices.
For instance, we chose Martha's "Apprentice" over the fifth "cycle" of "America's Next Top Model," but apparently we were the only people in America who did, because Martha is moving to 9 p.m. on Wednesdays this week, which means come 8 p.m. we will once again be glued to Tyra and her Janice-free panel of model-molders. Martha's move to 9 p.m. doesn't bode well for her show. If she couldn't win against Tyra, how's she going to win against "Lost"?
Image of Kim, our favorite Next Top Model--even though we haven't watched a single episode yet--from UPN.
We also made a choice on Tuesday nights, opting to watch the family edition of "The Amazing Race" over the only-kind-of-funny "My Name is Earl." We were a little disappointed in the premiere of "Earl." We found ourselves smiling more than laughing, and by the time the episode was over, we forgot all about it. The premiere episode of "The Amazing Race: Family Edition," on the other hand, didn't make us laugh or smile. It just put us to sleep--an effect the show has never had on us before. That lead us to wonder if we had perhaps made the wrong viewing choice there as well. This whole racing-with-kids thing worries us. The premiere episode already featured one run-away-Amish-buggy full of kids. The danger factor combined with the potential for parents to totally lose it and wail on their kids is making us wonder if maybe we should turn the channel to ABC and "Commander in Chief". We admit it: we totally got sucked into the premiere. Geena Davis actually does make a convincing politician (maybe it's 'cause she's so tall) and we enjoyed how many times her husband was referred to as the "First Lady." It's cheesy, but fun. It's fun cheese. In fact, it's the Easy Cheese of primetime dramas. (A "My Name is Earl" marathon will run on NBC Saturday night starting at 8:30 p.m. ABC's "Commander in Chief" will be also be rerun on Saturday night, at 10 p.m.)
As we lamented last week, Thursday is way too crowded with watchable TV. We made the ultimate decision to dump "Survivor" in favor of "Alias" and we feel pretty good about that. Of course, it also means we're missing out on "Everybody Hates Chris," one of the only truly funny new shows out there. But there's no way we're going to miss pregnant, vengeful Sydney kick ass, so we'll just have to catch "Chris" in re-runs. (That's one good thing about sitcoms. Most don't suffer from out-of-sequence rerunning.)
As for Friday, we had banked on "Threshold" over "Killer Instinct," but after watching three episodes of "Threshold" we're beginning to regret that decision, too. "Killer Instinct" may be bad (really bad) but at least it's not boring, and for the life of us, we couldn't really tell you what's been going on on "Threshold." Every time we try to watch an episode we get distracted by what might be tasty in our fridge, or clipping our toenails, or anything shiny. We just can't seem to stay interested.
So, while some might be annoyed by the programming interruptions the upcoming play-offs and World Series will be causing, we're actually happy about them. A break in our marathon TV-watching will be welcome. But one message to Fox? You better bring back "Arrested Development" or we are SO not going to be your friend anymore.
But enough about lame network TV shows! What does local TV have to offer? Well, not much this week, but we would like to mention The Josh Kornbluth Show which airs locally on KQED. We've enjoyed some of Kornbluth's one-man shows, as well as his amusing film Haiku Tunnel, and we're just happy to see a neurotic local get his own talkshow. Tonight's episode includes interviews with comic Marga Gomez and local writer Beth Lisick. Catch it on channel 9 at 7:30 p.m.
Have an opinion on the new crop of TV shows? Want to pimp a favorite? Hit the comments!