Two TV dramas reach important conclusions tonight. The series finale of the superb show Friday Night Lights premieres tonight on DirecTV at 9 p.m., and the season finale of the underappreciated Human Target is on Fox at the same time. The latter could end up being the series finale as well, which would be a pity. Both shows are well worth seeing; check your local listings for channel info.
By Mike Gray Judging from what I’ve seen on television this season (what little I watch of it), I’m more and more impressed with the wisdom of my choice to drop our subscription to satellite-cable TV (savings so far > 2 kilobucks) and going to a desktop loop antenna for receiving local “free” programming (everything but ABC, which is probably no great loss). Hawaii Five-O: “Hawaii Uh-Oh” is more like it. They lost me after three episodes. The producers must be depending on the under-30 demographic (who wouldn’t remember it) and the senility of the over-30 viewership (who endured countless ’80s buddy-cop movies featuring incessantly bickering “policemen” and have seen all of this before). Only the explosions are bigger and better. Harry’s Law: Speaking of “this seems familiar,” David Kelley is back, which means much heat but no light. Last night’s ep had the main character making statements that America’s heartland would cheer, only to have her confess later how she’d been mistaken—a common pattern with this producer. When an ambulance-chasing shyster sues Big Fast Food on behalf of his obese minority client (who had a heart attack), basing the suit on how heartlessly BFF targets minorities (blacks and Latinos
Last night’s episode of the CBS mystery The Mentalist, “Red Alert,” included some of the most explicitly pro-liberty, anti-government scenes you could ever hope to see. Rushing to a murder scene to assist in an official investigation, California Bureau of Investigation criminal consultant (and genius detective) Patrick Jane (Simon Baker) is stopped by a local deputy police officer in a speed trap. Jane identifies himself as a CBI investigator, but the deputy ignores that and treats him in the arrogant, highhanded manner most drivers have experienced from police officers who, after all, are supposed to be the taxpayers’ servants, not our superiors. The deputy insists that Jane hand over his driver’s license and auto registration. Fulfilling every driver’s fantasy, Jane refuses, tells the deputy that he’s being an officious jerk, and drives off. Arriving at the crime scene, Jane emerges from his car and is immediately pursued by the deputy, who insists Jane must now be taken to jail. Jane continues his resistance, and the two men’s bosses reach a deal: Jane will pay the ticket that day, and all will be forgiven. Jane, aside, tells his boss, Teresa Lisbon (Robin Tunney), that he’s not going to pay the ticket.
Turner Network Television has issued an apology for a comment made by comedian Tracy Morgan in an interview before last night’s NBA game broadcast. Asked about the appeal of former Alaska governor and Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin and invited to compare her with comedienne Tina Fay (his costar on the NBC comedy 30 Rock), Morgan said that Palin is “good masturbation material,” making sure to repeat the phrase for emphasis, calling her “great masturbation material.” TNT apologized publicly. “It’s unfortunate Mr. Morgan showed a lack of judgment on our air with his inappropriate comments,” said Turner representative Jeff Pomeroy in a press statement. I happened to be watching at the time, and I found the exchange rather startling but, well, also rather charming and amusing, given what one has come to expect from Tracy Morgan as a comedian and public figure. Too bad there were probably a good many pre-adolescent boys watching that pregame show and wondering what Morgan’s phrase meant. It will undoubtedly open up a whole new world for them, but one that the culture would have shoved them into in due course anyway.
“After upending the music and publishing industries, the digital revolution is poised to shake up TV in earnest this year. As more viewers watch TV and movies on the Internet, industry executives say a generation of TV watchers may never sign up for cable or satellite television, turning off the spigot of monthly fees that have helped support TV for over 30 years.” “Hulu Reworks Its Script as Digital Change Hits TV” – WSJ.com.
“Facing a 16 percent reduction in its budget, the BBC World Service said on Wednesday that it would close 5 of its 32 language services and reduce its work force by about a quarter, cutting around 650 jobs over the next three years. “BBC to Trim World Service and Lay Off 650 – NYTimes.com.
Talk-show host Keith Olbermann abruptly announced that he was leaving his position as host of the MSNBC show Countdown at the end of last Friday night’s show. Olbermann had hosted the program since 2003 and had more than a year remaining on his contract. A buyout of his contract was done, he said, by mutual agreement between him and MSNBC. Olbermann gave no specific reason for his decision to leave MSNBC at this time. The blogosphere, however, immediately lit up with posts blaming cable giant Comcast, which is planning to merge with MSNBC parent corporation NBC/Universal in a matter of days. Comcast issued a statement noting that it does not yet own NBCU and that it had “pledged from the day the deal was announced that we would not interfere with NBC Universal’s news operations. We have not and we will not.” This move in the blame game was to be expected, of course, given that the progressive left has been portraying the proposed Comcast/NBCU merger as a test case of how fully the Obama administration would regulate the telecommunications media, with the progressives hoping for a move to extremely intensive regulation. Current indications are that the Obama administration’s Federal
Last night’s episode of NCIS turned out to be a disappointment in a couple of ways. As I noted on the day of the show, comedian Bob Newhart was the guest star, playing a medical examiner who worked with the NCIS team before its current one, Dr. Donald Mallard (David McCallum). Unfortunately, although CBS aggressively promoted Newhart’s imminent appearance, his character was relegated to a subplot, not the main story. And instead of utilizing Newhart’s great comic talents, the subplot was a downbeat, cliched one dealing with the character’s depression over his developing Alzheimer’s disease. Newhart does a good (not great) job of presenting the character, but it doesn’t provide much personality for him to convey. The story, moreover, doesn’t do much with the subject matter. There’s a nice, sentimental moment late in the show in which Mallard reminds Newhart’s character of all the people the latter helped over the years, but that’s about it. Quite a disappointment given what Newhart is capable of as a comic performer. The main plot is likewise disappointing: a psychodrama making the case for allowing open homosexuals to serve in the military. The narrative explicitly supported President Obama’s decision to revoke “Don’t ask, don’t
Music impresario Don Kirshner, dead at 76, may not be remembered best for catapulting Kansas to stardom in the 1970s, nor for launching the career of the Monkees and launching the animated chart-toppers The Archies in the 1960s. Those accomplishments – even to the most die-hard, discriminating popular music critics – should be enough for us to mourn his passing today.
Comedy giant Bob Newhart guest stars on NCIS tonight as a medical examiner. The episode is scheduled for 9 p.m. EST on CBS-TV; check your local listings for details.
ABC-TV has announced that it’s renewing The Middle, Castle, and four other shows for next season. The Middle, starring Patricia Heaton, is an underrated show that deals with the problems of life in Middle America in a thoughtful and funny way, and Castle is a quirky police procedural that usually conveys laudable values.
By Sean Gabb On Boxing Night and the two next evenings, the BBC broadcast three episodes of a revived Upstairs, Downstairs. For those not aware of it, this was originally a costume drama made by London Weekend Television and shown between 1971 and 1975. Set in a grand London house, it showed the linked but separate lives of both the family “upstairs” and of the servants “downstairs” through the Edwardian age, the Great War, and then through the 1920s. Though made on the cheap, it has been generally regarded, on account of its writing and acting, as either the best or one of the best things of its kind ever made. It has been rebroadcast many times. It inspired at least one other series, Thomas and Sarah. Because it ends in 1930, and its world continued another nine years, room was
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