Entertainment Update

Tony Perkins was just on my teevee. Why?

Anyway.. the summer teevee season is over, and the fall is about to ramp up. We watched two new shows over the summer. John From Cincinnati is about a SoCal surfing family whose lives are altered by a mysterious man that seemingly has miraculous powers, and a weird speaking style. The "hook" of the show is the true nature of John. Is he an alien? An angel? Who knows? The show was often incoherent, but obviously intentionally. I'm still not sure if I liked it or not. Ultimately, television dramas are supposed to be entertaining and I'm not sure that it was. The really irritating thing was the advertising for the season finale. The announcer dramatically declares "All will be revealed". Nothing was revealed.. obviously.. because the whole hook to the show is John's true nature.. and they will never tell us what that is. The Sopranos has made it chic to antagonize the audience and never deliver the "pay off".

The other show we watched was Meadowlands. It is a quirky English drama about a community of people that are all part of a witness protection program. Lots of bad writing, bad acting, and soap opera style drama. The season finale showed a central character trying to escape Meadowlands only to find that the community is, apparently, smack dab in the middle of a huge desert. Apparently it's more a social experiment than protection program. That, of course, begs the question.. where did all the people who staff the stores come from? Are they just actors, ala The Truman Show? Once again, this is a show trying to be so weird that it's chic. I don't know if it's entertaining or not.

Both shows have not had a second season confirmed, and I'm ambivalent.

This past week was the season premiere of Weeds, the story of a suburban mom trying to make a living selling pot. The early episodes started out rather light and entertaining, but has devolved into a depressing drama. It's just not much fun anymore.

I'm still waiting for the DVD release of Battlestar Galactica season 3. Apparently the anticipated mid-August release was a hoax. It shouldn't be too much longer though. It's really a great show.. even if it does have more than it's fair share of impossible plots.

I like avant garde in entertainment. I dig noir. What I don't dig are shows that are constantly depressing, or intentionally incoherent. There's a fine line. It's supposed to be entertaining.

Dexter is back next month. They get it right.