Tuesday, September 14, 2004

NBC TV

So I've seen a few of the fall shows so far on NBC prime time... it's the only channel that I get OTA clearly with my tiny antenae setup. The VCR is set to record from 9p-11p every night, so anything outside of those timeslots doesn't get watched. (I do have a 2nd VCR running from 6p-12a, but that's running in EP mode on an old 4-head VHS. Usually that tape gets rewound without watching any of it, unless a show overran.) I never watch shows live, only time shifted. Usually save a few days up and then burn an evening watching them.

Father of the Pride - First two episodes were fine, waiting to see how this week's episode is. So far they're being good about leaving it in the Tue 9pm time slot.

Hawaii - I've seen two episodes of that in the past week (they've been mucking with its time slot). It was actually pretty decent. Nowhere near as bad as I thought it would be (about as good as Vegas in plot/substance, maybe better). Pity that it's normal time is 8pm, which is a time slot I don't record to watch later.

Las Vegas - Very very mixed. Once again, they resort to "magic technology" (regular ol' security cameras with thermal imaging, at least this week they weren't changing what a camera was looking at during playback of a previously recorded event). The "chip that decrypts everything" was pathetic. The bit about Danny and post-trumatic stress disorder was promising but not great. I was dissapointed that they brought him back in the first episode instead of leaving him overseas for at least a few eps.

Other then the eye candy, the only reason to watch the show is Danny's character, Mike's character and Big Ed. Those three play well off of each other.

Medical Investigation - So-so so far. Stories are okay, no reliance on "magic" other then the man in charge's ability to "visualize" events. The usual medical-babble which I'm not qualified to cross-check but is probably about as accurate as ER's. The cast and writers are still trying to figure out who fits where and how. The first week explored the head honcho's life as well as the press relations gal's ability to confuse and confound (and lose, literally) the press. This week was more about the lead female doctor having trouble dealing with loss/grief.

The plot of the first week's ep was definitely better then the second week... although already a bit formulaic. As in, a dozen or so people fall ill, team rushes to the scene using a fancy helo or C130, at least one sick person dies, the race against the lock gets mentioned, and someone figures out what the cause is and all the sick people magically rebound in time for the closing credits. Hopefully they figure out something different for next week, or it's going to be tagged as a "happy ending show".

Crossing Jordan - Haven't seen a new episode yet, but I don't think they're in any trouble. Last season was pretty good, the characters are likeable, plots are usually decent. The only bothersome thing is reliance on "magic" technology to solve a case (but not as bad as Las Vegas).

LAX - Haven't watched the pilot episode yet... but I don't have high hopes for it.

posted by Wuphon's at 9:02 PM