Toob Talk

Tonight, NBC premiers it’s new “reality” show, Celebrity Circus.

I, of course, won’t be watching it. (I’ll be watching a much more worthwhile “reality” show, Ghosthunters.)

Here’s the thing about what I’ve seen of this show just from the previews–I’ve already seen a better version of this a decade or three ago. It was called Circus of the Stars and it was an annual one shot that showcased the (often impressive) results of a lot of hard work by then-current celebrities.

Celebrity Circus, on the other hand, is an ongoing show that has the ever-popular (and often degrading) competition aspect added in. Viewers are encouraged to tune in not to see the “celebrities” (and I use that term loosely) succeed, but to watch the spectacular (and inevitable) failures. I’m guessing people will be voted off every week. I’m guessing there will be backstabbing, or at least implied backstabbing, as that gets people to talk about and watch the show.

No, I won’t be watching it because I hate what reality shows push on us. They create z-list faux-celebrities who get better known the more they screw up or screw over others. Our society is bad enough without actually encouraging, idolizing and rewarding behavior like that.

So you go and watch the first episode of Celebrity Circus. I’ll be here remembering the good old days when real celebrities like Lauren Bacall and Sammy Davis, Jr. showed up on TV to prove they were more than just pretty faces.

After being horribly disappointed by the Thursday night show I actually watched in real time, I was slightly hesitant to queue up Swingtown on the DVR.

Very quickly, that hesitation turned to elation. This show could be really good.

Yes, sex and swinging was a sizable part of this introductory episode. But it was done with style, some wonderful situational humor and with great effect for character development.

For those who didn’t catch it, the basic plot is this: Bruce and Susan Miller have come into some money, so they decide to move from their distinctly working-class neighborhood to a bigger house in a nicer part of town. The move may be just a couple of miles physically, but social and psychologically, it’s light-years different. Susan’s now former neighbor, Janet Thompson, and her husband Roger bid the Millers (Bruce, Susan, their son BJ and their daughter Laurie) good-bye during the neighborhood Fourth of July barbecue.

Everything that goes on in the old neighborhood and with the Thompsons is played beautifully. There’s an odd rapport between Susan and Roger, it wouldn’t surprise me if it comes out later in the series that they had an affair at some point. The relationship between Janet and Bruce is distinctly antagonistic–he obviously can’t stand her overly-emotional nervous ticks. The cast plays the subtlety of their characters perfectly. Anyone from a small town or close-knit neighborhood knows people like these.

Subtlety, however, is not the strong point of the neighbors at the new house. Tom and Trina Decker are hip and proud to flaunt it. Be it in their coordinated jogging outfits or the swinging (literally) party they invite the Millers to on their first night in the new place. Our first introduction to Tom tells us all we need to know right off the top: he’s an airline pilot, he’s shirtless and he’s flirting with a stewardess–who he brings home to share with his wife. And he’s got the ubiquitous 70s mustache.

The Deckers bring out the more adventurous side of the Millers, much to the horror of the Thompsons, who just happened to stop by as their old friends were on their way to the party across the street and accepted the invitation to tag along. There is much comedy in this sequence of events, but also a deal of poignancy.

We all know how easy it is to fall into a rut, and how different we feel when we suddenly get pulled out of it. That is the transition that is played out during the party.

And that’s just what the grown ups are up to.

There’s also the kids: Rick Thompson and BJ and Laurie Miller. They’ve all got plenty going on, too. Rick and BJ are young boys just discovering the joys, fears and consequences of being interested in girls. Laurie has a crush on her summer school teacher, who is a stark contrast to her (also older) stoner boyfriend.

Not as wholesome and outright family friendly as American Dreams and far from as nostalgic as The Wonder Years, Swingtown definitely has potential to be a great show. The talent is there on the screen and, if this first episode is any indication, there’s talent behind the camera, too.

If CBS gives the show a chance to find its legs, adjusts its marketing campaign appropriately and doesn’t bounce the thing all over the schedule, it may have another hit on its hands.

Of course, this is CBS. They don’t always thing things through very well. So, watch it while it lasts.

I won’t say I had high hopes for NBC’s Fear Itself, but I did have moderate ones. And still, I’m disappointed.

After a promising beginning, the first installment of the new anthology series, The Sacrifice, quickly degraded into a melange of same-old, same-old flat characters and sad excuses for plot twists. We won’t even talk about the total lack of scares in the show. I wonder if the people saying how terrifying it was on the official message board cringe when their shadow moves while they’re walking.

The only thing about The Sacrifice (kind of a misleading title once all is said and done) that is anywhere near above average is the makeup effect for the main critter. Everything else, well, if you’ve seen more than one vampire movie in your life, you’ll pretty much figure this one out right away.

Oops, did I spoil that for you by mentioning that this was a vampire story? You’ll thank me, really. Otherwise, like me, you’ll get really excited as four guys, one of them seriously injured in some way, sticking to back roads run into some car trouble and hoof it across the frozen lake to an odd little compound out in the middle of nowhere. Once there, the place seems empty until the very blond, very busty and (shortly) very friendly residents make themselves known.

Right there we have so many different directions this story could go in. Especially with a title like “The Sacrifice”. But either short story writer Del Howison or screenwriter (and series creator) Mick Garris or director Breck Eisner fail miserably at realizing any of those infinitely more terrifying directions. Nope, instead they go for the tried and true “We catch people to feed them to the vampire that lives here” route.

And, man, do we get to that plot point quickly.

Look, I understand there’s only about 42 minutes to work with. But there’s a lot a skilled writer (and a skilled cast) can do in less time than that. Just look at any half-hour episode of the original Twilight Zone and you’ll see. Heck, look at the more modern Tales from the Crypt, they only had half an hour, too. The new Outer Limits did amazing things with an hour time slot, as does the current scariest show on TV, Supernatural.

In fact, the people who put together this installment of Fear Itself could learn a lot from the cast and crew over at Supernatural.

Lesson 1: Let your quirky characters shine! This is especially true if we’re never going to see them again. In the case of The Sacrifice, that would be Lemon, the brother who’s just along for the ride and always screws stuff up. Not only do we only get to hear a handful of lines from him (most of which are the same thing repeated over and over), but he never gets the chance to do anything. OK, one thing, but we can all guess what that is (hint: it’s right out of From Dusk till Dawn, just like most of the rest of the plot). Sad thing is, he’s the most interesting character in the entire show.

Lesson 2: If you’re going to rush to get to the point, it better be a good one. There have been entire episodes of Supernatural where the viewer (and the characters) aren’t sure exactly what’s going on until the last minute. That builds tension, something this show just didn’t have any of after the first ten minutes.

Lesson 3: Give the characters a fighting chance before you take it away. Really, it’s scarier that way. If the characters think they have everything under control and then suddenly realize they missed something important, they have good reason to panic and the audience has good reason to cringe–in a good way.

Lesson 4: If you’re going to go with tried and true legends and done-it-all-before monsters, you sure as hell better come up with at least something new. Supernatural does it all the time. Yeah, we’ve all heard of Bloody Mary and that guy with a hook for a hand who kills people in their cars and every other urban legend they dredge up for the show. But there’s always some new twist they add to it that makes it worth watching. The Sacrifice just didn’t do that.

I could go on, but I’d most likely be wasting my breath.

The good news is, Fear Itself is an anthology show, so the team that made The Sacrifice won’t be back to bring us more crap. No, next week we’ll have a whole new team bringing us crap. Or not.

I really hope next week is better.

But I’m afraid I’ll be disappointed.

The new summer season kicks off Thursday night with the debuts of two new shows at 10 p.m.

On NBC you have Fear Itself, a horror anthology series in the vein of Tales from the Crypt. Each week the hour will be dedicated to a single story. The show was created by Mick Garris, best known as the man who’s brought a bunch of Stephen King’s stuff to the small screen in mini-series format.

Lots of horror fans have very bad things to say about Garris, but I happen to like most of his stuff. At least enough to not immediately write him off. He won’t be directing or writing all the episodes, so things are already off to a good start. Also giving me hope for the show: the high-profile talent mentioned in the press kits and web site aren’t just in front of the camera (like the ill-fated and thankfully short lived revival of The Twilight Zone perpetrated on us a few years back that was full of pretty faces but lacked many stories of substance). John Landis is on deck for at least one of the planned 13 episodes.

As a horror fan, Fear Itself is automatically on my must watch list. Of course, it also has large shoes to fill: The Twilight Zone, Tales from the Crypt, Tales from the Darkside, and The Outer Limits have all done this before (with various levels of success–but success none the less). Will it be eye-rollingly bad or will it be as creepy as some episodes of Supernatural (which has proved more than once that you can be pretty damn scary following regular network rules–if you work at it)? Only time will tell.

While we may or may not being scared on NBC, CBS will be hitting us up with nostalgia in Swingtown. Advertised as a sex-filled swingers paradise, there’s apparently more to this show than just that. Good thing… because on CBS that would get old even faster than it would on a channel where you could actually show the sex. One of the most recent reviews described as kind of thirtysomething set in the 70s.

I’m really not sure there’s a market for this show. But it’s got a good pedigree behind it, so I’m willing to give it a chance. Among the six leads (three couples), there is a lot of experience with canceled TV shows. Luckily, there’s also a good bunch of talent. Of particular note are Molly Parker (Deadwood) and jack Davenport (Pirates of the Caribbean and the British version of Coupling), who will hopefully not be wasted.

At the head of the show are a handful of, well, not familiar names, but producers of familiar good shows, like Jericho and Six Feet Under. That leads me to believe that if the CBS marketing team can get their heads out of the gutter and stop focusing on the orgies and instead pitch the show to their normal demographic, they may have a hit.

Of course, I never expect network executives to do anything even vaguely sensible. So I expect the show to barely make it through the six episodes its scheduled for. Probably with at least one time slot change by week three.

The annual up fronts were presented in New York City a couple weeks ago.

For those not in the know, that means that all of the networks have released their currently planned schedules for the Fall. Without a doubt, some things (like the days and times of shows) will change before September rolls around. Other things, though, won’t be changing at all.

One of those totally done deal things is what shows won’t be coming back.

As is often the case, in the graveyard are some shows I really kind of liked.

Here’s the rundown of what you won’t see anymore. (more…)

Right now there’s a documentary on the Sci Fi Channel called Mystery of the Crystal Skulls.

Obviously, it’s timed to coincide with the release of the new Indiana Jones movie that focuses on the mysterious and controversial crystal skulls. That movie has been mentioned a few times. Mostly, though, this has been a prime example of what passes for documentaries of strange and unusual things.

Some of what’s been presented is rehash of what is now ancient history and common knowledge–I remember a lot of it from Time-Life books back in the 80s. Much of that common knowledge has yet to be supported by more than hearsay and conjecture.

But here it gets presented without much counter. Definitely not enough to keep the average viewer questioning whether or not there actually was an ancient civilization of Atlantis.

There is music behind almost every bit of this documentary. Almost as if the filmmakers fear that any bits of silence will break the emotional flow of the viewer and let their more logical mind kick in, allowing them to realize just how outlandish a lot of these claims of “fact and science” are.

It wasn’t until early in the second hour of the documentary that they even brought up the fact that the Mitchell-Hedges skull (the one they talk about the most in the documentary) may not actually have been discovered in Mayan ruins. That’s kind of an important part of the investigation.

At least if you were planning on actually doing scientific investigation.

But that’s not at all what’s going on here.

What’s going on here is a presentation on myth, legend and wild speculation.

Most of that mess could be cleared up by some actual, honest, serious scientific inquiry. And it does look like some of that was done. Unfortunately for the filmmakers, the answers apparently didn’t fit with the story they wanted to tell.

So, instead, they fill the two-hours with so much pop-mystical-conspiracy-dross that even my head is spinning. Yes, these crystal skulls have been tied to just about every mythical bit of anything in the Western world, but it’s useless to just catalog and re-tell all of those connections. Pick one or two and stick with them.

Better yet, let’s just talk about the skulls themselves. Need more than that? Then let’s spend more time actually exploring the history of these things.

I don’t know why I always watch these things. I’m almost always disappointed. Mostly because I’ve been watching documentaries on these mysteries for so long, there’s very little new for me in anything produced in the past decade or so.

Here’s a rule of thumb for documentary makers out there: if you’re going to talk about an esoteric topic, do something new. Don’t throw together a hodge-podge of every hot topic you can think of. Focus. If you don’t cover everything (poorly) in one fell swoop, you’ll be able to make more (higher quality) documentaries about those topics later.

In other words, as much as I love Richard Hoagland, I don’t want to see him in a documentary about the crystal skulls–unless you’re focusing directly on the possible extra-terrestrial origins of the things.

(Also, right up front, one of Sci Fi’s own shows was misidentified… way to destroy any vestige of respectability right away!)

If you like TV and haven’t checked out Hulu.com yet, do it now. The site has a wealth of classic and current shows. A lot more clips than full episodes, but the things they have full episodes (and some full seasons of) is pretty impressive.

The video quality is OK. I noticed a bunch of artifacting and some distortion during scenes with a lot of movement in them. It was even more noticeable when watching an older show at full screen size. Still, better than having to get them from a torrent (especially now that writers actually get paid for us viewing them).

Speaking of places to watch shows, while your over there, check out the new Fox series, The Return of Jezebel James. As with mots sitcoms, the basic plot premise is a little contrived and the first couple of episodes are more than a little rough around the edges (particularly jarring in the first two episodes of this series is the massive change in living arrangement for the main character).

The show has a lot of potential. Most of that potential comes from the two leads in it: Parker Posey (from a whole lot of things) and Lauren Ambrose (best known from Six Feet Under). Another dash of potential comes form the show’s creator: Amy Sherman-Palladino (who gave us Gilmore Girls among other things).

Hopefully in the next couple of episodes, after all blatant exposition is done with and the characters established and settled into, this will be one of those half-hour gems that I look forward to every week.

Speaking of half-hour gems, two of my personal favorites are back and all new this Monday. Be sure to pop on over to CBS and check out the new episodes of The Big Bang Theory and How I Met Your Mother. Big Bang was kind of a surprise as I hated the first episode, but every one after that has been beautiful. How I Met Your Mother was spot on fantastic from the start. If you haven’t been watching these shows, you’ve been missing prime examples of what modern sitcoms should be like (hint: they’re a lot like classic sitcoms–funny and not insulting).

If you haven’t been watching Lost this season, you’ve been seriously missing out.

Last season, the run started off a little rough. This time around, there was none of that.

That’s probably a good thing, with the long lull between last season and this season. Any faltering would have lost them a lot of viewers.

Tonights episode was one of the subtle ones… (more behind the cut)

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I’ve put off talking about New Amsterdam for a couple of episodes. Mainly because I wanted to see if it could keep up the wonderful attitude it had in the first episode.

The show really did surprise me. Right from the first few minutes, it set a good tone. We quickly got into the head of NY detective John Amsterdam, a man who’s called the area home for about 400 years or so. Unlike really old west coast vampire Mick St. John (who’s more than three centuries younger) over on CBS’s Moonlight, Amsterdam has more or less gotten over himself. In fact, he’s doing a lot better than just about any vampire that’s ever had a show.

I’m sure some of that has to do with the fact that he’s a) not a vampire and b) doesn’t have to chop off the heads of other immortals in order to finally grow old and die. No, all he has to do is find his true love.

And I think we can all relate to just how tricky that can be.

Well, he’s been at it for centuries, ever since he saved the life of a local Lenape back when New York was New Amsterdam (why they changed it, I can’t say… people just liked it better that way… everyone, sing along!) and was “rewarded” with near eternal life. He just can’t die. Not for long, at least.

New Amsterdam refers as much to the Big Apples original name as it does to the idea of the main character reinventing himself. Needless to say, he’s been there and done that before–and unlike most other Methuselan characters we’ve seen on the toob, he’s not all that shy about talking about it. Most people just think he’s joking. It must be the wonderfully dripping cynicism he usually wraps it in.

The show is enjoyable on a number of levels. With a decent bit of police procedural thrown into a mix of relationship issues (romantic, platonic and familial) and topped off with Highlander-like flashbacks to the long ago (but not so far away) events of Amsterdam’s past, there’s something here for almost everyone. Some of the interactions can be downright funny.

If you haven’t seen the show yet, pop on over to Fox’s website and catch up. I doubt it’ll be around past what episodes there already are based on the track record of the other time-traveling/sci-fi-ish shows that were (not quite) all the rage during the first half of the season.

This Tuesday at 10 p.m., Quarterlife (which I mentioned a while back) makes the leap from the computer screen to the TV screen when it debuts on NBC after the next episode of The Biggest Loser.

If you haven’t checked out this show online already, catch it when it hits the main stream. From the same people who made the age-group touchstone shows Thirtysomething and My So Called Life, it has more substance and heart than most things I’ve seen lately that feature 20-somethings out in the world. It’s not all glitz and glamor. The biggest problem isn’t some outlandishly contrived ratings sex-stepped grabber. These characters have real problems and live in the real world.

As most 20-somethings do, they’re questioning themselves and their place in the world. But because they’re 20-somethings in the 21st century, they’re able to do these private musings in the most public of settings–on a video blogging web site.

Even viewed online the production values looked good and the performances all-around are on par (if not slightly above par) when compared to other similarly targeted shows.

So, give it a look. (Even if that means time-shifting it because it’s on opposite Jericho on CBS). Even if you’re not a 20-something now, you were one not too long ago.

Watched the new Knight Rider 2-hour TV movie.

I was pretty impressed.

That’s not to say it’s not without some problems. But those problems are pretty much in line with criticisms that could be lobbed at the original show. The main one being: there’s some pretty bad science involved.

But we’ll let that slide, for now at least.

The thing this new iteration of an old favorite got right was that it played it straight. Unlike Knight Rider 2000, which was a phenomenal mess right from its basic premise, this sequel to the original series manages to pay homage to the ideas that made the first series a success and a memorable piece of pop culture.

KITT, now a Mustang, is actually the Knight Industries Three Thousand (as opposed to the original series Two Thousand model) and is a sensible progression from the original. Yes, the nanotech skin that only works if the computer is turned on seems a bit inconvenient when compared to the previous model’s “always on” super alloy armor, but it allows for some other neat tricks.

Voiced by Val Kilmer (a casting choice I can’t help but think will change if/when this gets picked up as a regular series), the new KITT is less snarky and more analytical than his predecessor. We can chalk that up to the fact that he’s fresh out of the garage and hasn’t had a lot of interaction with people, though.

Over the course of the ninety-minute back-door pilot movie, KITT comes into contact with quite a few people.

Which leads me to my biggest criticism of the show as a whole: there’s too many cast members.

In the original, we had Michael Knight (a man who didn’t exist and had no family) fighting the good fight for the Knight Foundation. It was pretty much just him and the car. Everyone else–Devon, Bonnie and April especially–were just background 90 percent of the time. With the way the new show has been set up by this movie, we’ve got at least three characters that will be jockeying for screen time: Michael Traceur (the driver), KITT and Sarah Graiman (the now seemingly obligatory partner/love interest). Then, just barely below those three we have Charles Graiman (Sarah and KITT’s father) and FBI agent Carrie Rivai (a friend of the Graiman family).

That’s a few characters too many for a show like this unless you’re writers are good and kept on a tight leash. After sitting and hoping for the best through the run of Bionic Woman earlier this season, forgive my lack of faith in that happening on a network sci-fi/action show.

But, as a two-hour movie, things worked relatively well. The action was good, the effects not quite over-done (they did come close to going overboard reminding us that KITT was bullet proof) and the acting not all that bad. Some of the dialog was poorly written and the characters could use a little bit of work (some of the progressions of reaction from them are contrived, at best).

Justin Bruening and Deanna Russo, the two leads, seem to have cut their teeth mostly on soap operas. Knowing this, their acting is still pretty good. The rough spots I think I can contribute to the script, direction or editing that they were working. It wouldn’t be altogether unpleasant to see them on a weekly basis. It’s their characters’ relationship that would wear on me quicker than anything else.

Things are set up quite well for an interesting series. The Knight Foundation has been started back up, this time in partnership with the FBI (a direction I would most certainly not have taken the show in), there’s a shadowy enemy out there looking to cause chaos and take power, and there’s a high-tech car with a good driver looking to prove that one man can make a difference.

Of course, that one man has a girl and a gaggle of friends in tow… so that statement, so iconic and driving in the original series, has a lot less bite this time around.

If NBC picks this up as a series, I would happily check it out. Fans of the original show should at least give the two-hour movie a watch over on the NBC website. Then, let me know what you think about it.

You may remember a while back I mentioned there was a new Knight Rider show in the works.

Well, it’s on NBC this Sunday.

I plan on catching it.

KITT is a Mustang. That’s going to upset some people. (And voiced by Val Kilmer!)

Hasselhoff is in it, but hot as a main player.

It may be good–but I’m not holding my breath.

Good news for everyone: The Writer’s Strike is Over!

Everyone gets to go back to work tomorrow and, if all goes well with the ratification of the contract (which I’d imagine it will), those of us sitting in front of out TVs can expect to see new episodes of old shows by April.

This has been a trying time, I’m sure, for all those writers. But I think they did the right thing and fought a good fight to ensure a comfortable spot for their profession in the world of New Media.

Maybe they’ve opened the eyes of the conglomerates, too. Maybe this outcry will inspire some innovation in the usage of new technologies and techniques. We’ve already got a show making the jump from online to the main screen. That’s something new.

So, now that things will be back to what passes for normal in the entertainment world, it will be interesting to see what really comes of all this. And, of course, how our favorite shows come back from their little break.

It looks like the writer’s strike may be heading toward a positive resolution, at least according to a recent post over at United Hollywood.

This is good news both for the writer’s who’ve been out of work for three months and those of us who’ve been waiting to see what, if anything, the rest of this television season would bring.

According to TV Guide’s Ausiello Report, we’re going to be getting 4-8 new episodes of a lot of shows.

Some shows (like Chuck) are gone until fall and others (like Bionic Woman) are just gone for good.

Also, for those like me that were loving Jericho before it ended last season, it’ll be back for a seven episode run starting tomorrow (Tuesday) night. Unfortunately, it’s up against Boston Legal. But that’s what DVRs are for. Barely saved from cancellation by fans sending lots of peanuts to executives, Jericho is one of the few shows I think heartily deserves that kind of support.

So watch it and hope that it’ll live up to the praise and hard work. And maybe, just maybe, it’ll earn a third season.

Believe it or not, I was huge fan of Sex and the City.

I loved the show not just because the main character was a writer or because of all the actual sex that went on in it, but because the characters were strong and realistic women.

Well, at least as realistic as NYC socialites on cable can be.

The ad campaign for the new NBC show Lipstick Jungle works hard to evoke the edginess and sexual energy of that other Candace Bushnell-inspired show. Having just finished watching the pilot episode, I have to say that taking that marketing path may very well kill this show.

The only things Lipstick Jungle has in common with Sex and the City is that the base material from both sprung from the same pen and both seem pretty solid in their own right.

Victory, Nico and Wendy are most certainly not Carrie, Samantha, Miranda and/or Charlotte. They are three women in very different places in their lives from those well known characters. Nico and Wendy are both married and successful in their jobs–their very real and believable jobs that would support their lifestyles. Victory, a fashion designer, is the only single one in the bunch and floundering a bit as she tries to take her designs in new directions. Overall, these three women are more stable than the girls of Sex and the City–more mature and, ultimately, more down to earth.

Sure, they’re high-profile power-brokers in their own right, but they’re also dealing with how being high profile impacts those day to day things–like trying to do what’s best for your kids or keeping that spark alive with your husband.

It’s one of the husbands, actually, who steals the show. Paul Blackthorn as Wendy’s husband brings a depth of character and an “everyman” point of view that differentiates Lipstick Jungle more from Sex and the City than anything else in the show. Even if no other actor involved in the show could perform, Blackthorn would make at least some scenes worth watching.

Lucky for us, all the other performers in the show do turn in above average performances. Brooke Shields as movie producer Wendy has a depth that one forgets the actress can offer–and that is almost unexpected in the character. Kim Raver is back in fine dramatic form as magazine editor Nico walks that fine line between bland and sexy better than most I’ve seen try that lately. Even Lindsay Price, the youngest and least famous of the stars (perhaps best known for the disaster that was the American version of Coupling and her two year run on the later years of Beverly Hills, 90210), makes fashion designer Victory into an interesting person, not just a semi-bubbly fashion hound.

For a pilot episode, this one was pretty solid. I can see the chemistry among the three leads working very well as they grow familiar through working together. The supporting cast–especially Blackthorne and Andrew McCarthy–have just as much to offer. I have faith that the writing can stay good (it did surprisingly well in the entire run of Sex and the City and Bushnell is still cranking out new stuff).

The only two things that will hurt this show are a continued writer’s strike and a viewing public upset that they’re not getting Carrie and Samantha.

Lipstick Jungle premieres on Thursday at 10 p.m. on NBC, opposite the new quirky lawyer show Eli Stone. Give it a try there or watch it online like I did through Amazon.com’s video service. (I’m sure NBC will be running it on their website, too.)

Tonight, Lost returns to the airwaves after eight months off.

In TV years, that’s a really long time. Especially for a show that saw what some called a precipitous drop in ratings over the last season it was on.

If they don’t totally nail this first episode back, I don’t think there’s much that will save the show. Most causal viewers, it seems, have already given up on it. And after the poor start to last season, even some of the more vehement fans I know opted to just wait for the DVD set.

Some spoilers for those who aren’t caught up follow…

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A couple of weeks ago, The Sarah Connor Chronicles hit the airwaves at Fox, a show that has garnered a lot of buzz in the geek world due to the fact that it’s a Terminator continuation and that it stars one of the favorites of Joss Whedon’s vocal fan-base: Summer Glau.

If you haven’t seen this show yet, go watch it on the Fox website now. (Now is the perfect time if you don’t feel like watching the State of the Union Address on live TV.)

In the three hours that have aired–before it was preempted by the SoTU tonight–the show has done a great job of washing the bad taste of Terminator 3 out of my head. Glau is a more interesting Terminator than Arnold ever was, especially since there’s still a whole lot we don’t know about what she can do. Thomas Decker as John Connor and Lena Headey as his harried mother bring a different set of facets to those now-iconic characters that we haven’t seen before.

Oh, and the action. The action is still there–in spades. There is, of course, another Terminator model chasing down the Connors, no matter how they try to escape. And some of those escapes are impressive, even for sci-fi action shows.

The story picks up a bit after the end of Terminator 2. Sarah and John have settled into an near-normal life. John in particular is enjoying the chance to be more of a normal kid. Sarah still suffers from the nightmares of the nuclear destruction wrought by SkyNet.

Needless to say, all hell shortly breaks use throwing the Connor’s back on the road and on the run, this time accompanied by a new protector: Glau’s Cameron, who starts out as the most personable Terminator ever, flirting with John when he starts at a new school.

Time travel figures more heavily in this show than it ever has in the movies. Any time that happens, I begin to worry for the quality of the show. Shades of the Enterprise temporal war and the cheap outs that Stargate: Atlantis gave us continue to haunt my expectations for this new show. So far, though, it hasn’t been used too much.

But we have only seen three hours of the show. And it’s ratings are sliding, so we may not have many more to watch, even with the ongoing writer’s strike. What you can do, though, is check out Popular Mechanics’ run down of the different Terminator models, including the newest one.

Bottom line is, I’m still enjoying the show immensely. Yes, the characters are different, but a lot of time has passed since those first two movies–that wears on people, even ones who grow up to be legendary heroes of the human race.

December always brings with it the traditional television season break.

Over the past decade, it’s served more as the mile-marker where half the shows pull off the road and a whole new set get ready to come on. This year, with the writer’s strike going on, there’s more chance than usual that everything on up to this point won’t be coming back.

So far, though, this season has been better than most I can remember. Here’s what I’ve been enjoying.

Kid Nation — Probably the best new reality show I’ve seen in a while. While I was at first worried it would be exploitive, it’s been downright inspirational. It wraps up next week and I really can’t wait to see what they have in store. Heck, I’m even looking forward to a reunion show a decade down the road, some of those kids are going to do amazing things.

Samantha Who? — Of all the new sitcoms, this one has a pedigree that actually paid off. Unlike Back to You (which should have been good, but wasn’t even close), the talents of the cast are utilized fully. Christina Applegate and Jean Smart play the perfect dysfunctional mother-daughter opposite one another and the rest of the cast adds more spice. Applegate is always a trip to watch and this show has given her a chance to actually play a range.

Dirty Sexy Money — I’m not fully caught up with all the episodes I’ve recorded, but this show just keeps getting better. It gets more twisted, more wild and just plain more fun every hour. The screwball family dynamics of the Darlings and the not quite Everyman portrayal by Peter Krause of lawyer Nick George is a near-endless source of entertainment. Granted, I don’t really see the show lasting more than two seasons (if it even gets through a full 22 episode run), but it’s going to be good while it lasts.

Pushing Daisies — I had hoped this show would be as creative, twisted and quirky as everything else Bryan Fuller has been involved in. Those hopes were more than met. The story of the pie-maker, the shady PI, the living dead girl and the cast of characters they encounter has been the most fantastical thing I’ve seen on network TV since Amazing Stories. Without question, the show is beautiful, but it’s fairy tale feel gives it a depth and timelessness few other shows could ever hope to touch.

The Big Bang Theory — When I watched the first episode, I hated this show. Needless to say, it got better. A lot better. As the writers and actors found the characters, Leonard, Sheldon and their gaggle of geeks and dorks (and Penny, the hot neighbor) have come to life and kept me laughing. Sure I’ve cringed a bit, too, but it was always because I started to think “Oh, crap… I’ve had that conversation and seen that happen.”

Journeyman — While the comparisons to Quantum Leap are inevitable, this show has come into its own quite well over the past weeks. While the main character may be jumping around time trying to put things right, he’s got a problem to deal with that Sam never did: he slips without warning and always comes back to his home time, often with odd consequences on both ends of the trip. Things get even more complicated as we meet more people who may be involved in manipulating events and slipping through time. This show got right everything that last season’s Daybreak got wrong.

Bionic Woman — Not quite as strong as I had hoped it would be, but Bionic Woman has still been a fun ride. The last couple of episodes seem to have finally hit their stride, making sharp the dark edge the show has been playing with and crystallizing the characters in more three-dimensional ways than before. Thankfully, they’ve avoided the temptation of camp and stuck to serious (or at least realistic) stories.

Reaper — Sure, it’s not a high-class show. What it is is just plain cotton-candy fun. Ray Wise as the devil, as expected, means you can’t go too wrong. The show is silly, the performances adequate for the stories. It’s low-impact, slightly above average, pure entertainment. Problems only flare up when they hint at darker and deeper sub-plots. Really, the show probably can’t handle that. Things should be OK if they don’t try too hard.

Life — It’s not very often that a truly different cop show comes along. Life is that rare bird. It’s got a hard-core revenge plot line the equal of any Dirty Harry film (though with a lot less shooting), but it’s also got humor and humanity in spades. The only thing it’s kind of light on is proper procedural details. Luckily, it doesn’t bill itself as a procedural—it’s a character driven drama that just happens to be full of cops and criminals. And it’s far from clear which is which most of the time.

Chuck — I still think this show has a limited shelf-life. They’ve only got one or two gags so far and, even though they just added a new (though expected) twist to the mix, I don’t know how they’d sustain it for multiple seasons and keep it as fun and interesting as it’s been. And it has been fun and interesting. The spy intrigue and relationship drama, along with the workplace humor, are all well above average.

As the remaining episodes of the current shows wind down, I’m looking forward to the replacements that are on their way. Until they show up, though, I’m going to keep enjoying what’s left of the good new ones. (And, of course, I’m also enjoying what’s left of all the returning shows I’ve been watching and recording.)

I’m apparently a little behind the times.

There’s a new show that should be hitting the NBC airwaves next year and I just found out about it.

Normally, that’s not too disconcerting of a thing. After all, I live in the DC area and not LA or NY.

What’s disturbing here is that the show I just found out about is by a high-powered producing team, with a solid (though not well-known) cast, that’s already drawing in viewers.

How’s it doing that if it hasn’t hit the network yet? By hitting the Web first.

The show is called Quarterlife and it’s the brainchild of David Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz (they’re the ones that brought us My So Called Life and Thirtysomething).

I spent some time today watching the six parts that have been posted so far (over at MySpaceTV), each between seven and fourteen minutes long. In the television world, they would be strung together to make the first hour-long episode. Online, they’ve been posting two a week for the past three weeks.

Unlike last year’s LonelyGirl15 stuff, Quarterlife doesn’t try to sneak in as a genuine blog–it is unabashedly a produced series. Even better, it’s got production values on par with your normal network show. If they’ve really cut any corners, they’ve been more than covered up by the style (kind of quickly cut and quirky) and basic format (online video) of the show.

The basic premise is relatively common–a handful of 20-somethings living with or near one another, trying to make sense of the world their in, trying to make friendships and romance work, trying to figure out life and work in general. There’s an actress, a couple of film makers and then there’s the character who’s the audience’s gateway into this world: a video blogger.

If that isn’t a cutting edge show, I don’t know what is.

It’s not the most original premise, but the first six parts definitely touch on themes that have been commonplace in entertainment media for generations. This show just frames them in something it’s current target audience can really relate to. Fifteen years ago, it would have been centered around that same bunch of friends accidentally finding the online message board postings of the main character. Twenty years ago, they’d have to actually be reading a paper diary or the main commentator would have to actually have a print column somewhere–in other words, it really wouldn’t work the same at all.

The performances by the cast are pretty good based on normal television pilot standards and excellent based on what you normally see on independently produced videos. The difference, I’m guessing, is in the amount of money and time the producers have had to invest in the thing. The actors have all shown up in other places before–I know I spend a lot of time thinking “Hey! I’ve seen them somewhere before!” and, sure enough, a quick check of the show’s listing on IMDB turned up slightly unfamiliar names with much more familiar credits.

As an interesting side note, the producers tried a show with almost the same name (and a similar premise) a few years ago on network TV. It was called 1/4Life and didn’t quite take (I didn’t even remember it until I really sat and thought for a while–and even then only because Shiri Appleby was in it).

If Quaterlife does make it to air on NBC, as has been reported, it will be the first show to make the leap from independent web production to mass network consumption. Even better, since the show is already well into production for the web, the ongoing writer’s strike shouldn’t really have an effect.

Could this be the way of the future? Short runs of shows done for an online audience that then vie for the attention of the TV networks? Do the “five or ten minutes here and there” habits of online video watchers translate to the “you’ll watch when we say you’ll watch” mentality of traditional networks?

I’d like to think that, at the absolute least, we can count on more high-quality online shows. While I’d love to see some of the better ones make the leap to the traditional mass media screen, I won’t be holding my breath. If there’s one thing the major media companies have proved again and again it’s that they adapt slowly. (They are, after all, still using sweeps months and Nielsen ratings to determine what stays and what goes and not at all taking into account the changing viewing habits of their key demographic.)

If things go exceptionally well, the online arena may, indeed, become where nascent shows duke it out. We all know that the online community can be more vicious than any network executive. We also know that it can be a fully interactive process, with the viewers and fans communicating directly with the people who make the decisions on how the show progresses. That’s something that traditional TV has never really had on a large scale. It completely inverts the power structure.

For now, though, I say check out Quarterlife. It may not be the future, but it is good entertainment. It touches on important issues for those of us who communicate and hang out here in the Blogosphere should be well aware of. How our personal observations, when posted in a public forum (be it accidentally or on purpose), can deeply affect those around us. How this new method of communication is still growing and still experiencing growing pains.

We’re all learning how to best interact here in the public digital realm. We may as well watch some fictional characters muddle through it, too.

And then, if they end up on our television screens, watch how it plays out in the “real world” of the general population.

With the writers on strike, some shows are in immediate trouble. Others have between a few weeks and a couple of months before they run into trouble.

The LA Times put together a nice grid about it the other day.

And, for Lost fans, today’s Ask Ausiello over at TVGuide.com points out:

Question: What does the strike mean for Lost? Any idea how many episodes they finished pre-strike? Is it still scheduled to air some time in February?— Mike

Ausiello: Why do I suddenly feel as if I’m talking to myself, Mike? Why do I also suddenly feel like I’m not going to like what I have to say? At least I know the answer to that second part — it’s because I don’t like what I have to say. If the strike extends into the new year and beyond, there is a chance ABC may opt to delay the new season until the fall. Or worse yet, February 2009. Another scenario has the network simply airing the eight episodes already in the can this February as originally planned — something Team Darlton would not be in favor of. Says Lost cocreator Carlton Cuse, “Damon [Lindelof] and my concern about running the [eight] episodes we will have made is that it will feel a little like reading half a Harry Potter novel, then having to put it down. There is a mini-cliff-hanger at the end of Episode 8, but it’s like the end of an exciting book chapter; it’s not the end of the novel. Damon and I didn’t write [the ending of Episode 8] differently [with the looming strike in mind]. We wrote it to be the ending of Episode 8.” In any case, he concedes that the decision to hold or air the episodes isn’t ultimately theirs. “It’s really [ABC honcho Steve MacPherson's] call,” Cuse notes, adding, “No one was happy with the six-episode run last season.”

So, this season may end up a complete wash depending on timing.

Jack Bauer fans may be a little out of luck, too. A recent TVGuide.com Strike Watch blog post says:

Fox’s “revised” 2008 schedule kicks off Jan. 13 and 14 with the series premiere of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles and starts cooking with gas on the 15th with the two-night return of that singing show known as American Idol, but now is experiencing a Bauer outage. “The seventh season premiere of 24 is being postponed,” explains the network, “to ensure that Day 7 can air uninterrupted, in its entirety.” Fair ’nuff.

Heroes will make it through its current arc, but may end up going with an alternate ending if the second half of the season won’t be ready. And the Heroes: Origins mid-season break replacement is already dead.

Hopefully, this strike will be over quickly and things won’t get too much more screwed up. I’m not holding my breath for that, though.

So, enjoy your shows while they’re on and new.