Ranking the New Shows: #9 – Fringe

Of all of Fox’s recent attempts at the science fiction genre, “Fringe” looks like the most likely to succeed. It made number 9 on our list of best new shows.

The show: “Fringe”
Synopsis: Remember the “The X-Files“?
Debuted: September 9th, 2008
Our take: “The X-Files“ plus insane doctor equals awesome. Some of the time. John Noble carries this show as the mad scientist Walter Bishop. His absurd comments and non sequiturs add an element of quirky comedy to what would otherwise be a crappy cop drama with aliens and monsters. Not only does he make me laugh out loud several times an episode, but the show relies on him to deliver huge chunks of exposition to sell the “scientific” explanation of the disease/monster/wereporcupine of the week to the audience (with little help from the script).
This leads me to the main problem, which is that the story of the week element is extremely formulaic. And the formula is a pretty mediocre one. Even if I suspend belief to swallow the week’s pseudo-scientific disaster, the reactions of the characters and their subsequent solutions are much too cozy for me to buy. (How many times are they going to download images from a dead person’s brain or shove Olivia back into the Sensory Deprivation Chamber?) The season long story arc has compelling aspects but gets buried, and the suspense in general is lacking.
What it would need to do to keep me watching: I’ll keep watching for John Noble, and I do see some potential in the show as a whole, but I’ll never be a devoted fan until they invest more in the long term plot.

Instant Reaction: Nurse Jackie, “Tiny Bubbles” 6/13/09

In this week’s episode, Paula, a former friend and coworker of Jackie’s returns to the hospital. She’s dying of cancer and has been given only a week or so to live. With little more than a *wink wink*, she convinces Jackie (and the rest of the staff) to help her euthanize herself.

The issue of euthanasia is handled with such nonchalance, that I wonder if we’re supposed to believe that in the “Nurse Jackie” world, this is a common occurrence. The writers are apparently aware of this snafu, so they have Eddie the Pharmacist rebuke Zoey the Nursing Student for suggesting it’s some sort of “rite of passage”. Well excuuuuuse me, princess! It’s a little contradictory for the euthanasia plan to come together so quickly and then insist that this doesn’t normally happen.

Also on this week’s agenda is the revelation that Coop’s parents are lesbians. Despite the fact that two more-than-capable actresses were cast as Coop’s Two Moms (Blythe Danner and Swoosie Kurtz), I’m more than a little afraid that we’re in for some poorly handled mommy-melodrama in the weeks to come.

This week really highlights “Nurse Jackie’s” main flaw- a lack of dramatic (or any) focus. The writers continue to inch away from the love-triangle/addiction plot introduced in the pilot and bog everything down with subplots that are not particularly compelling. On top of that, the humor is a lot less sharp. Last week, there was some way over-the-top slapstick (which I didn’t like either). This week, I don’t think I laughed once.

“Nurse Jackie” is at the halfway point in it’s first season. It’s gone downhill after a promising start, but I’m hoping it can recapture some of the excitement of the first two episodes as the season concludes.

Ranking the New Shows: #10 – Royal Pains

Number 10 comes to us from the USA network – a fairly new entrant into the legitimate television drama game.

The show: “Royal Pains”
Synopsis: An unemployed doctor, Hank Lawson (Mark Feuerstein), and his sleazy brother Evan (Paulo Costanzo), enter the realm of the ultra-wealthy when a billionaire in the Hamptons hires Cliff as his concierge doctor.
Debuted: June 4, 2009
Our take: The key ingredients for a great show are here, but it doesn’t quite come together. The dialogue is quick and witty, and Feuerstein and Costanzo have some chemistry and are likeable as the leads. The premise, while not necessarily riveting, is open ended enough to allow a huge variety of stories. The show bogs itself down with some sentimental cheesiness here and there, though, that undermines its strengths. The good guys, even the loser brother, are a little too good. Nobody wants their source of sleazy humor to actually have a heart of gold. My only real complaint beyond that is that the medical details and jargon seem a little careless and melodramatic.
What it would need to do to keep me watching: Tighten it up. If this was just a little more focused on being entertaining and avoided those cheesy manipulative moments, I’d be a fan. Not every disease has to be a super obscure disaster, and the doctor doesn’t always have to ride in on a white horse to stop injustice and save lives left and right. If they made it a little more believable and emphasized the humor, it’d be a good show.

Instant Reaction: Nurse Jackie, “Daffodil” 6/06/09

This week on Nurse Jackie: Coop and Eddie get some toasted goodness from Quiznos.  Hellz yeah! Jackie helps a girl taking care of her sick mom. Also, a man rendered speechless by a stroke uses a flashcard to tell his wife to STFU.  On the whole, this might have been the most consistently entertaining episode so far.

Still, there are strange bits of slapstick comedy that I find jarring (Mrs. Akalitis tazing herself, for example). It breaks the reality of an otherwise believable show, and deflates the meaning more poignant moments. I’ve mentioned in past weeks that Coop (Peter Facinelli) is the comedic powerhouse of the show. Jackie’s nursing student, Zoey (Merritt Wever), is also beginning to provide a more subtle humor.  Both of these could be and should be used more liberally, especially in place of the lowbrow comedy that always falls flat.

The writers continue fumbling with both scale and pace. All of the major plotlines are in a holding pattern with no new developments. They were in a big rush to get the love triangle and daughter’s psych issues out, and now they’re dragging their feet.

And speaking of those psych issues, for a “medical” show, the psychology seems poorly researched.  Jackie’s daughter’s symptoms, which include obsessively watching tv news and circling her desk three times before sitting down so planes won’t crash, sound much more like Obsessive Compulsive Disorder than Generalized Anxiety Disorder. The dour drawings could easily be interpreted as depression.

Ranking the New Shows: #11 – Dollhouse

Fox’s “Dollhouse” was one of the most anticipated new series this year, but many feel it was lucky to be picked up for a second season. It lands just shy of the Top Ten on our list.

The show: “Dollhouse“
Synopsis: The Dollhouse is an underground organization that uses new technology to program “actives” – people that have had their personalities wiped – to fulfill a wide arrange of missions. Contrary to standard Dollhouse procedure, Echo (Eliza Dushku) seems to be remembering more and more of her pre-Doll life, while FBI agent Paul Ballard (Tahmoh Penikett) races to expose the organization and save the girl.
Debuted: February 13, 2009
Our take: “Dollhouse” had a lot of problems before it even aired- a complete halt in production, a pilot that was canned (the original will be available on the DVD), and continuing conflict between the network and creator Joss Whedon. The final product reflects those problems. I spend a lot of my time watching “Dollhouse” trying to figure out what the writers are going for. What is the hook? What is it that they can’t wait to unleash on the audience? Nothing here really grabs me. Whedon’s previous work, like “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Angel“, thrived on quirky humor and major plot twists. “Dollhouse” takes itself more seriously than either of those but doesn’t have the dramatic impact to back it up. The comedy primarily comes through Topher, the nerdy Doll programmer, whom finds himself so amusing it’s way more annoying than funny. The plot twists fail to surprise. I keep waiting for something bigger to happen, but the suspense is non-existent. Perhaps the biggest problem with “Dollhouse” is that the starring role doesn’t fit their lead actress. Dushku doesn’t have the chops to pull off a role that requires her to play a different character every week. She mostly winds up looking constantly confused. It’s highlighted further because the other two Dolls (Sierra and Victor) show tons of range and pull off a variety of characters convincingly and entertainingly. The writers addressed this issue somewhat after the first few episodes by simplifying Echo’s role and focusing more on side characters.
What it would need to do to keep me watching: “Dollhouse” has been a frustrating viewing experience so far, but I stuck with it through the first season, and I’ll give it a chance next year. The show did improve over the course of the first run of episodes, but I’m sticking with it more out of faith in Joss Whedon than anything the show has done.

Ranking the New Shows: #12 – Raising the Bar

Our pick for 12th best new show of the year is “Raising the Bar“, which is the only courtroom drama in the mix (and also the only one to feature Zack Morris).

The show: “Raising the Bar”
Synopsis: Facing off in court by day and hitting the town for cosmos at night, a group of assistant district attorneys and public defenders make strange bedfellows and brosephs in “Raising the Bar.”
Debuted: September 1, 2008
Our take: There’s something a little hard to swallow about this show’s premise at its most fundamental level. I just can’t quite buy the way everyone is more or less friends or at least really personally involved with each other. If they were all in one office it would still be a stretch, but they’re not, so it gets a bit silly. That said, Mark-Paul Gosselaar is a surprisingly charismatic lead (aside from his hair), and the court room scenes are mostly handled well enough. Court room dramas are not a particular interest of mine, but this has kept me engaged by taking a more reasonable and procedural approach rather than the melodramatic. In fact, I’ll go beyond that to say I’ve been particularly impressed with all of the guest actors playing witnesses. It says something about the quality of a production when they take such care in casting even the smallest roles.
What it would need to do to keep me watching: The show makes it hard to root for the DAs much, which undermines some of the drama. The romantic interest of the early episodes also left me a little cold. If they could balance these issues out, I might give it another chance, but like I said, I’m not a big fan of court room dramas to begin with.

Instant Reaction: Nurse Jackie, “School Nurse” 6/29/09

Week 4 for “Nurse Jackie” is a mixed bag. On the one hand, it’s not trying as hard as it was in the first couple of episodes, which I mean as a good thing. It’s less forced. On the other hand, I can already see it running the risk of getting boring.

In fact, nothing much has happened in the last two episodes. Jackie’s daughter is showing signs of some sort of mental health problem, but we already knew that. This lack of eventfulness highlights a bigger problem for the show.

Maybe the slow pace would be less of an issue if the show was more focused on the comedy. Nurse Jackie is more of a drama, however, and because of that I think it would be better as an hour-long show. In most cases, wanting a show to be longer is a good thing, but in Nurse Jackie’s case, I want it to be longer because it feels like nothing really happens. There isn’t enough funny to make it satisfying as a half hour comedy. In the dense world of a premium channel drama, 30 minutes is barely enough time to check in on all of the main characters, let alone establish legitimate dramatic interest.

All in all it’s a good show, but it needs more red meat.

Entourage, Season 5: The Decline and Fall of Vincent Chase

“They made me feel like a piece of meat sitting with a big star,” Irina Voronina said of her time with the “Entourage” cast as a guest star. Maybe this show is more realistic than I realized.

Season 5 of “Entourage” opens with a bearded and broke Vincent Chase (Adrian Grenier) relaxing on a beach in Mexico. “Medellin,” the indie movie about Pablo Escobar he risked everything for, failed to find a distributor and embarrassed him at Cannes. The outlook for his career is bleaker than ever.

Somewhere along the way, though, “Entourage” stopped being solely about Vince’s successes and failures as an actor. So while Vinny sulks in the sand, Eric (Kevin Connolly) and Johnny Drama (Kevin Dillon) are back in LA working. Ari (Jeremy Piven) faces another major career choice this year, and even Turtle (Jerry Ferrara) witnesses some major events with the potential for real character development going forward.

TV Casualties Rating: out of 5

Created by: Doug Ellin

Starring: Adrian Grenier, Kevin Dillon, Jeremy Piven

Season Premiere: 09/07/08

DVD Release: 06/30/09

Nielsen Rating: 2.0 million viewers

Metacritic Score: 71/100

That said, the 5th installment takes some time to really get going. Early episodes seem to have slightly more gimmick-y elements (like Turtle working as Drama’s assistant for one day), and the fireworks don’t really blow until the last 4 or 5 shows of the year. (The notable exception is the mushroom episode, which, despite being one of the clearest gimmicks all year, made me laugh.) The last half of the year may be the strongest stretch in the history of the series as Vince’s quest for a comeback takes some odd turns.

The cast is the same as always. As usual, Ari and Drama provide most of the laughs. (We picked Kevin Dillon to win the Emmy. If he does, it’d make it 4 in a row for “Entourage” in the supporting category as Piven has landed the last 3 in a row.) I’ve found Connolly annoying in the past, but at this point, I think he makes a decent straight man for the group. Grenier was too sunny to pull off the doom and gloom at the beginning of the season. He showed enough fire down the stretch, though, to even things out.

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