Thu, April 26, 2007
[Automotive Pun Redacted]—8:30 AM
Fox has canceled Drive which is a good thing, because it prevents me from having to decide whether to keep watching it. I felt obliged to give it a try because it's co-created by Tim Minear (Wonderfalls, Firefly) and starred Nathan Fillion (Firefly, general awesomeness). But it wasn't exactly good, it was kind of a ridiculous idea, and nothing much ever happened.
The saddest thing was moving it to its regular time slot on Monday nights. Its two-hour premiere was on a Sunday, which meant I could watch it back-to-back with The Amazing Race, which was pretty fun. Like watching Survivor back-to-back with Lost, or Two-a-Days back-to-back with Friday Night Lights.
Bee Boy — Tue, 5/1/07 3:19pm
An alternative viewpoint: Paul Goebel at TV Squad wails about the injustice of Fox's early-term Nathan Fillion abortion.
What?! I get that TV Squad has to cater to TV viewers of many stripes (some people can stomach Grey's Anatomy), but total TV retards? That seems to be taking it too far. If you've got a guy on your staff proclaiming the brilliance of Drive and Vanished, you need a more restrictive interview process.
(Looking for further insights into Goebel's low TV-IQ? I posted my rant in the comments of his post, along with a free plug for The Inside, which was a truly underrated and under-supported show.)
Bee Boy — Tue, 5/1/07 4:34pm
Update: Not exactly on-topic, but I found this kind of hilarious: TV Squad also squawks that Showtimes's Dead Like Me was "canceled-to-soon" (sic).
The show had a passable premise and got some decent press, so I checked it out on Netflix a while back – it was horrible. Really stupid stories, poorly acted (even by the usually marvelous Patinkin). The lead actress is certainly cute, but can't carry a scene to save her life.
I'm beginning to think it's TV Squad's policy to have at least one person on staff who believes that any given show is the best show in the history of civilization. Why, oh why, didn't they just give Daddio a chance?!?!
Joe Mulder — Tue, 5/1/07 5:46pm
Kudos for keeping "Daddio" alive as comedic fodder.
I still remember a bit Conan did during the 2000 Sydney Olympics about NBC promoting their shows and trying to tie that promotion into what was going on with the Olympics... they just showed a PhotoShopped picture of the Sydney Opera House with the words "Watch Daddio" crudely spraypainted across one of the shells. Good stuff.
Brandon — Tue, 5/1/07 6:47pm
I'm beginning to think it's TV Squad's policy to have at least one person on staff who believes that any given show is the best show in the history of civilization.
Absolutely. Have you read any of their recent reviews of The Simpsons?
I'm finding TV Squad to be a great source for news and interesting side tidbits - I love their recaps of the Lost podcasts, because I want the inside info but can't stand actually listening to the podcasts - but when it comes to individual episodes, the quality of discussion depends heavily on having a good writer doing the reviews. Lost? Yes. The Sopranos? Not so much. You'd think "writing coherent sentences" might be part of the job requirement, but, again, not so much.
Bee Boy — Tue, 5/1/07 8:44pm
Yeah, I skip almost all of the reviews. (Actually, all of the reviews, except that one time I tracked one down to support my theory that Studio 60 is awesome. Occasionally that "best show in history!" guy has his uses.) I remember one time the review of Boston Legal was: "Hey guys, I'm not going to be reviewing Boston Legal any more. I still watch the show and I really like it, but I just don't have time to write the reviews these days. Maybe someone else will pick it up." And I thought, wow, I'd love to be able to do that at my job – the line-item resignation letter.