SFist Watches: TV This Week
One hellish holiday down, one more hellish holiday to go!
Oh, who are we kidding? We're suckers for the Holidays. We go all mushy during It's a Wonderful Life, we gorge ourselves on egg nog and cookies, and spend way too much on crappy presents that say, "Uhhh....I don't know you too well, so here's a gift basket from the Body Shop."
Yes...we're gearing up for Christmas.
And so is television. December is an odd month for TV. The networks can't bear to air their hit programs during a month when most people are preoccupied with other things, so they subject us to "fall finales," and then make us wait a month, sometimes longer, before new episodes air. Case in point, tonight's "fall finale" of "Prison Break." Now, "Prison Break" is an OK show. It's rife with silliness, huge plot holes, and completely ridiculous coincidences, but we still find it immensely watchable. Of course, that might have something to do with the mere presence of Wentworth Miller in every episode (Hott!), but it may also have something to do with the show's relentless trajectory: the prison break itself. This is a show that does not lend itself well to out-of-sequence reruns, nor to huge scheduling breaks. So we're hoping some kind of marathon will run prior to the show's primetime return (be that in February or, god forbid, in May as the network has threatened) because without it, they can't hope to gain any new viewers, and will, most likely, lose some of the old ones...
But we're going to try and look at the bright side of things. Even though shows like "Prison Break" and "Lost" (yes, this week's new "Lost" episode will be the last one for a while) will be leaving us for Christmas vacation, those gaps will have to be filled with something...
Such as "Baba Wawa Presents the 10 Most Fascinating People of 2005," which airs Tuesday at 10 p.m. on ABC. Included in the list are Tom Cruise (did she say "fascinating" or "annoying"?), Lance Armstrong, Teri Hatcher (!) and Condoleeza Rice. Meh. We're bored already.
We prefer our December TV filler be animated, classic, and a little weird. We prefer our December TV filler be...Rankin-Bass-ed! Which is why we'll be tuning in to CBS Wednesday at 8 p.m. for "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer"(in which Rudolph, the social outcast--who, incidentally, is ridiculed by SANTA himself!--runs away from home with a homosexual elf--who wants to be a dentist--and a maniac who thinks he can find gold in a pile of ice, but who actually just gets off on torturing snow monsters. And we're not even going to mention the bizarre Island of Misfit Toys, mainly because we're still puzzled over just what was wrong with that little pig-tailed doll....). If "Rudolph" isn't enough scary Rankin/Bass puppetoonery for you, then be sure to watch "Santa Claus is Comin' to Town" Friday at 8 p.m. on ABC. Or you can just turn on the ABC Family Channel for more puppetoons than you'll most likely be able to handle.
Finally, if the holidays are about anything, they're about...love. (Ahhhhhh!) Love of family, love for thy neighbor, love of consumerism, and love for your fellow talk show host. Thursday. 11:30 p.m. CBS. Oprah. Letterman. A Christmas miracle!