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Posts tagged as “Lost”

Oh, boy.

Well well well…
You’re gone one week during Comic-Con and suddenly there’s tons of stuff to see.

I’m not gonna go into lengthy details about the various panels. There’s just too many of them.
Speaking of, can someone explain to me why Glee and The Middle had one?
I’ve only seen a few for now and listing the various announcements would be pointless (besides, you probably know the ones regarding your favorites).

The Lost panel was fun I thought but utterly pointless. Given that this was the last Comic-Con panel for the show, I feel a little disappointed.
Dollhouse was one of the best for sure (and Epitaph One is great). Season 2 looks interesting to say the least.

Moving on to other news, the new Coen movie (A Serious Man) looks great:

Same goes for Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr. Fox:

And don’t forget Avatar Day on the 21st (incidentally the same day Inglourious Basterds opens).

On a more serious (and TV) note, you probably have heard about the Emmy changes this year, including the pre-taping of 8 of the 28 categories of the “live” telecast (to cut a few minutes from the three-hour long program).
Even though the categories were split between directing, acting, producing and writing, only four writing categories were on the Emmy cast to begin with.
A few days ago, the WGA sent out this statement:

This action of the board of governors is a clear violation of a longstanding agreement the Writers Guilds have with the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences regarding their awards telecast. It is also a serious demotion for writing and a fundamental misunderstanding of the importance of writers in the creation of television programs. Last year’s Emmys suffered a tremendous decline in quality and ratings because of a lack of scripted material. That the Academy would then decide to devalue the primary and seminal role that writing plays in television is ridiculous and self-defeating.

Over 100 TV writers are protesting these changes to the format, including Ronald D. Moore, Doug Ellin, Seth MacFarlane, Jason Katims, Shonda Rhimes, David Shore and Carlton Cuse & Damon Lindelof.
I’m not sure the Academy will back out on this one despite the movement, but we’ll have to see.

To conclude this catching-up post, some great info regarding the Late Late Show side. On August 31, the most underrated late-night show on TV is (finally) getting an HD upgrade!
There’s also going to be a new show opener with Ferguson going around famous L.A. locations, coupled with an updated version of the current theme song.
Like Craig said at the TCA Press Tour:

I think my show’s probably closer to Pee-Wee’s Playhouse than anything else I’ve seen, and that’s an aspiration.

 You go man.

Better Off Ted: Better Living Through Comedy

Better Off Ted: Better Living Through Comedy

Hello, Blog Nation. My name is Lordofnoyze, alias Lordy, and I have the honor to be the first guest blogger of TV Calling, so I hope to be up to the task. Either that, or I’m off answering calls in a Madagascar-based hotline company. And nobody wants that, especially not the fellow employees there.

I’m a French (former?) student about to embark in a career of journalism. But as a side hobby, ever since my teenage years, I’ve developed an unhealthy addiction for all things TV and TV shows. Soon, the voices in my…..er, I’ve been compelled to write about the good, the bad and the ugly in the now-defunct website “Ligue des Téléspectateurs Extraordinaires”, where I was getting a kick out at reviewing shows like “Boston Public”, “X-Files” or “American Dreams”. But college life, and the aforementioned closure of the site, got in the way, and after a (mostly) failed attempt at starting my own personal blog, I went on hiatus. Until today.

Also, I love pop and hip-hop music, so if you see a few “clever” musical references in some of the blogs, it’s not by pure randomness. And I love inserting them, especially when Lex is not looking. So, without further ado, here’s my first, show-and-prove blog.

For my first guest blog, I thought it would be a good idea to talk about an underrated, and below-the-radar comedy of this year. It just happens to close its season on July 28, burning off the 5 last episodes in summer. A usual move for shows that are cancelled (hello, Pushing Daisies! Dirty Sexy Money! Eli Stone!) , but not when the show is being renewed. I’m talking about “Better Off Ted”, one of the many ABC’s midseason entries (remember In The Motherhood? Yeah, me neither.)

A show that premiered somewhere in March, with little fanfare, and was paired with “Scrubs” on Wednesdays, just before “Lost”. Of course, it attracted under 5 million viewers, and 7 episodes were aired during the “normal” season. The show was as good as dead, but Steve McPherson and his army of drones considered there was “something” there and decided to save the show until Midseason 2010, where it will be paired with the new, almost-JD-less “Scrubs: TNG”, a.k.a. “Scrubs: the Yung, Hip, Med School Years”.

So what was that “something”? Did McPherson lose his mind?

Well, as all network presidents, he’s already genetically insane. But he’s right to keep the show on the air. Here’s why:

Set in the headquarters of a fictional multinational company called Veridian Dynamics, “Better Off Ted” is barely hilarious. No, it’s not the second coming of “Arrested Development”, even if it features a top-notch, pitch-perfect performance of Portia De Rossi as the cutthroat boss, Veronica. But it slowly unveils a sense of absurdity and delicate lunacy that is welcomed.

The 7 first episodes are really solid, mainly thanks to a really good pace in editing and directing (CRUCIAL in comedy), and a very promising cast. The lead, Jay Harrington, is hardly recognizable, but he’s been seen in the promising thriller “The Inside” opposite Rachel Nichols, and with Tim Minear as his boss. That doesn’t tell us much about his comedy chops. But he was really good as the unlucky reporter in “Back To You”, the FOX comedy that never really delivered on its great potential. As things stand, his character, Ted, is a handsome everyman that has to handle daily crises alongside Veronica. He also has to deal with the sexual tension with Linda (comedy journeywoman Andrea Anders), and the everlasting disputes and ramblings of Phil and Lem, the scene-stealing tandem of the show.

Of course, it already seems like the comedy version of “Fringe”, with mad science aplenty. But the show works primarily because of the interaction and cracks between his characters, and the evil and outright absurdity that is Veridian Dynamics is kept in the second plan. Unless you wanna count the hilarious commercials, that illustrate the “theme” of each episode.

Plenty of credit goes to Victor Fresco, creator of “Andy Richter Controls the Universe”, another underrated gem that recently was released in DVD in the USA. But it feels like the show has yet to really deliver and free itself of the conventions, since it already has a universe of its own. For example, the lab rats that are partners of Phil and Lem, or Ted’s daughter, were barely used during the season, but are strong nevertheless.

So, if you want to check those out, the final episodes are being aired on ABC over the next few weeks. Definitely more worthy of your time than, say, the umpteenth season of “Entourage”.

Worse to come

The news on everyone’s mind is yesterday’s Emmy nomination list.
As some of you saw via my Twitter reactions, I was pretty pissed at some stuff that got on the list.

Let’s begin with Family Guy.
Now, I don’t hate the show, actually I watch it religiously.
My problem has to do with that it’s Family Guy getting the honors of being the first animated program to be nominated in the Best Comedy category in 50 years or so, instead of The Simpsons.
Also, I don’t believe the show is that good.
It might have been during the first few seasons but not currently.

I don’t appreciate the various writing noms this year either. And by various, I mean the complete opposite.
Four out of five comedy writing noms are for 30 Rock, and four out of five drama writing noms are for Mad Men!
Ridiculous.

My third problem is with another nomination, this time Drama-side: Lost.
Yet again, I’m a huge Lost fan (remember when I interviewed Damon Lindelof & Carlton Cuse? I sure do), I’ve been with the show since day one.
But this latest season was just atrociously bad, let alone majorly retcon.
Long story short, Lost‘s Season Five shouldn’t be worth the nomination.
Remember how four out of five drama writing noms were for Mad Men?
Well the other one is for, wait for it, Lost‘s The Incident (Season 5 finale).
Out of every drama hours from the past year, they chose this one?
Not even a tiny Breakind Bad episode?

Lost shouldn’t even be nominated for Best Drama, which brings me to my next problem.
With seven contenders this year, I would have expected some outsiders joining the show. Fortunately, Flight of the Conchords was nominated.
On the other hand however, Lost getting on meant The Shield‘s final season got the boot.
Not cool.
I would have liked to see In Treatment in there as well.
Hopefully, Breaking Bad will win.

A new category was announced as well, Outstanding Special Class – Short-format Live-Action Entertainment, also known as the ‘Online Stuff’ category.
With the exception of the Super-Bowl show, all the other noms are webisodes of some kind.
Obviously, Dr. Horrible was nominated.
One might wonder if this category was made just for Dr. Horrible.
It’s a given it will get the Emmy.
Speaking of, Scifi Wire has an interview up with Joss Whedon talking about this nomination, amongst other things.

Another major snub includes Michael Giacchino’s wonderful Lost score being completely ignored from the Outstanding Music Composition category.
Instead, such musical classic as Castle, Legend of the Seeker, and even Ghost Whisperer got the nom.

So much to complain about, I must have left out some other things.
In any case, yeah, I’m pissed at the 61st Emmy Awards.
And they haven’t even started yet.

A few previews have appeared for some interesting upcoming shows.

The first is AMC’s Rubicon starring James Badge Dale and Lili Taylor based on a Jason Horwitch script.
Check out this trailer:

FX meanwhile has made a 6-episode order for an animated comedy series named Archer and created by Adam Reed and Matt Thompson who previously worked on Sealab 2021.
As for what it is about, see the following extract:

And finally, two other TV tidbits.
First, some Station news. The FOX show produced by Ben Stiller’s Red Hour, not a network station.
John Goodman has been cast as the co-star alongside Justin Bartha on this series created by Kevin Napier about covert CIA operatives working on installing a new dictatorship in Central America.
The pilot will be shot by Role Model‘s David Wain.

Also, NBC has picked-up Persons Unknown, a 13-episode series Christopher McQuarrie, who won an Oscar in 1994 for his Usual Suspects script.
The show, produced showrunner Remi Aubuchon, Christopher & Heather McQuarrie, revolves around strangers waking up in a deserted town with no recollection of how they got there. They must now work together to escape by solving puzzles.

I’m looking forward to all these four shows.