THE MUSING:
For sci-fi fans or folks wanting something new from TV, other than the same old retreads, once again our hopes seem pretty well dashed for a superior sci-fi standout and we face another season of police and forensic science dramas, half-baked reality TV, "Desperate Housewives", sub-par comedy and a cadre of hackneyed clones as every channel tries to emulate their competitor's "hit".
LOST and the reprise of Battlestar Galactica seem to offer the only real hope to sci-fi die hards who have lamented the loss of The X-Files , Babylon 5 , and various incarnations of Star Trek: The Next Generation . Of course their are a crop of new X-Files wannabes which run the gamut from Threshold, Invasion, Surface, The Ghost Whisperer, Killer Instinct and The Supernatural. I had high hope that one of them might turn out to be "must see TV", but mostly it's just filler to kill time when there aren't other plans for the evening.
THE REVIEW:
In all fairness, I can't even bring myself to watch an episode of The Ghost Whisperer, Killer Instinct, or The Supernatural (who takes anything on the WB all that seriously anyway?) as I find them completely uncompelling. Of the shows I've chosen to try to watch - Threshold, Invasion and Surface, I've found Threshold the most fun and watchable, even if it will never compete with the likes of the X-Files although it has had nanoseconds where it rose above "average". Although I still don't feel like I have to sit home (especially on Friday night) and catch it "live" I have set my DVR to record the entire series (for now). I like it, just for the mere fact that veteran trekkie Brent Spiner is a regular and there is the juxtaposition of the serious alien fighting government elements with the comic relief of the scientist analyzing the alien data (the womanizing dwarf linguist/mathematician, the agonized and tortured astronautical engineer and the bored, hippie forensic microbiologist) which hearkens back to the X-Files "Lone Gunmen" and there is some sort of coherent storyboard involving action and even though the plot isn't what I'd call fast paced, it actually seems to go somewhere each episode. Well for now, that's enough to make it to the top of the heap.
Surface? Well I've only caught a couple of episodes and unfortunately missed this past week, which I hear was probably the most action packed - the sea monster actually revealed himself and ate a bunch of people. *Ooooooh* For some reason the premise of this show reminds me of Godzilla meets doofy 21st century pre-pubecent teen and it's had some really dumb moments and Lake Bell. It does have a big budget and my hopes are that instead of aliens, a story about the sea creatures and how they change the environment could lead to a morph in the show. Maybe it becaomes a survival show due to a climate shift similar to The Day After Tomorrow with nouveaux-Godzilla's roaming the earth? This could be corny as all hell or it could be a nice change of pace and eventually make for some compelling TV. Jury's still out on this one, but now that the action is heating up, I'll try to watch it regularly. In a sea of sci-fi type shows where a whole episode produces a microsecond forward plot movement, this show isn't afraid to get the action rolling immediately.
From the TWoP forums, "apocalipstic" wrote:
"[I like the show] Because Surface seems committed to making something happen,
dammit! Let's get the motor running and move ahead, not stand around
with our fingers up inappropriate orfices (orifi?)! Let's kill some
folks! Let's do in ways that give people the shiv-ahs! Let's tell a
story, even if it is a thin, badly acted story starring Lake Bell and
the kid who finished ahead of Timmy in the
"Who-Should-Go-Down-The-Well" contest."
And that leads us into Invasion. Uh, this could be creep city. This could be compelling television. This seems doomed to go the way of American Gothic. As "apocolipstic" points out, the great downfall of this show and others like it is that it isn't committed to making something happen. It's so bogged down in overdoing the story set up that for all the would be creep factor, nothing happens and it's becoming a plodding version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. I still have my fingers crossed that Shaun Cassidy is actually going to do something with this show, and it's on after LOST, so at least at this point I'm willing to wait it out. ABC seems to be pulling this plodding plot line garbage with LOST as well as Invasion, and as great as the story board may be, if something doesn't freakin' happen on these shows soon, well they are going to loose audience to shows who actually go somewhere in a reasonable time frame. In a superior show, writers build excitement, anticipation and shivers into a show with good writing, not by slowing the plot line to virtual inertia.
To wrap, I'll be periodically commenting on these show. Anyone interested in adding their thoughts on LOST in an ongoing way can do so in the Gen80s Forums on this topic. Other than LOST, Threshold [unofficial Threshold Forums here] is the most promising of the lot in my book. When I have nothing better to do it at least gets me out of the dreaded "it's Friday night and there's nothing on TV" doldrums. Even more compelling than any of the new TV show? The TWoP Forums. If you haven't been there, you should. Better than most TV, the cutting, sarcastic wit and no holes barred reviews and commentary, like that above, make for some of the best comedy since "Seinfeld". Check it out for a few laughs instead of turning on that bland old boob tube. You'll be glad you did!
-javajane
Former American Idol contestant Constantine Maroulis is ready to return to television, this
time in a sitcom that's being developed for him by ABC and Kelsey
Grammer's production company.
The project is in the very early stages of development, with the
details still being hammered out and no writer yet attached, said Steve
Stark, president of Grammer's Grammnet Prods.
