Californication—Early Thoughts

In spite of being a big David Duchovny fan--of his acting, his writing/directing and his general hotness--I've been feeling a little meh about his upcoming new Showtime series Californication. From the promotional materials, it seemed a little over the top as far as content and subject matter. A quick peek at parts of some early scripts, though, has me a bit more enthusiastic. Yes, it's over the top, but so are Weeds and Dexter, and I didn't expect to like either of those shows, either. The excerpts are quick and witty, and made me chuckle a couple of times, which is always a good sign. I was planning to tune in just to check it out, but this makes me want to a bit more than I did before.

Californication premieres Monday, August 13th at 10:30 EST on Showtime.

And I'll have some early thoughts on other upcoming shows over the next few days.

More on Jericho

According to this article Jericho's continued presence on our TVs next year depends on people watching it. Live. No recording. No DVR. No download, regardless of whether it's legal, or if you pay good money to download.

"Nina Tassler, the president of CBS Entertainment, told the New York Times that if fans want the show to live, they need to watch the broadcast because that's how the money gets made. Stressing that live viewing is 'of primary importance,' Tassler said that 'We want them to watch on Wednesday at 8 o'clock... and we need them to recruit new viewers who are going to watch the broadcast.'"

My opinion? This is unbelievably short-sighted on the part of the network. According to next week's TV Guide, "Jericho was the second most popular CBS program on iTunes and online after CSI, and got an 8 percent ratings boost from people who recorded it." Basically, CBS is saying that viewers need to watch the show the way they want the viewers to watch it, or the ratings don't count.

The landscape is changing, folks. The networks need to change with it. Stamping their feet indignantly and demanding that everyone watch shows live instead of recording them is just not a viable business model. The Neilsen ratings have been obsolete for quite some time now, but the networks still cling to them. Networks and advertisers need to work out new ways to capture the viewers' attention. What CBS is saying in regards to Jericho is not it. Kudos to them for the renewal, which may have been prompted by download numbers, but opposite of kudos (whatever that is) to them for insisting on live viewage instead of trying to get a little creative.

Summertime

It must be something about the weather turning warm (finally), but I have all these new TV shows to catch up on and all I want to do it rewatch old things I've seen over and over and, as for instance, over. Maybe it's hardwired into me to watch reruns over the summer, I don't know... In any case, I'll get it out of my system and get back to reviewing things. I hope to finish Season Two of Weeds, and catch up on The Tudors and Rome, at the very least.

Wish me luck!

Weeds—Corn Snake

When we left Nancy Botwin at the end of last season, she had just found out her new, charming boyfriend is a DEA agent. Which sucks, since she's a suburban drug dealer. Not exactly a match made in heaven. So poor Nancy's got a bit of a conundrum. On the one hand, he's a DEA agent. On the other hand, he's kinda sweet and he likes her big feet. But she's moving ahead with her plans with Conrad to grow their own weed. Except Conrad isn't happy about Nancy sleeping with the DEA agent, and says he's bailing on the deal. And then the bakery catches on fire.

In the meantime, Celia has a car accident and goes on a crusade to get a light installed at the intersection, which leads her to run for City Council against Doug. Andy applies to rabbinical school to keep from having to go to Iraq, and Shane catches Silas in bed with Megan.

They cover a heck of a lot in a half hour on this show. And they do it well. I didn't realize until I started watching Gilmore Girls that Jenji Kohan used to work on that show. It seems like a big jump from Gilmore Girls to Weeds, subject matter-wise, but the shows share a masterful use of quick, clever dialogue. Weeds might even be better with that element, because it sounds less "written" than the dialogue on Gilmore Girls sometimes does (bear in mind I'm only about 2/3 of the way through the first season of GG, so that might not be a fair assessment of the series throughout its run).

F*k Was I--Jenny Owen Youngs



Bathtime in Clerkenwell--The Real Tuesday Weld



Weeds at iTunes: