Geek Chorus

I'm a little surprised nobody's called "Early Edition" on Journeyman.

@Lee: I've seen the comparison in a few reviews, not that I recall offhand which ones. New York Magazine for one, I think.

I don't know what to say about the geekification of Monday nights, but I do want to say you look dashing in your new photo in the sidebar James. Rawr!

I would simply like to point out that the universe will never collapse on itself. It is expanding exponentially. This of course means the show will never end and could come in increasing intervals.

I had my annual "set the TiVo" ceremony last night, since this is premier week's beginning in earnest. Amazingly, NBC is dominating my list: Chuck, Heroes, Bionic Woman, 30 Rock, The Office, Friday Night Lights, and Saturday Night Live all getting season pass status (although I'm reserving my right to delete Chuck and Bionic Woman from that list, as well as The Office but only if I decide to Tivo CSI instead and watch The Office live).

ABC and FOX tie for second place: Pushing Daisies, Boston Legal on the former; Bones & House on the latter. And with the winter returns of Lost and 24, they'll probably stay tied all year.

Amazingly, not one CBS show on my list, although CSI original flavor may make it if I decide to watch the Office live, or just watch online (seriously, the whole "you can only tape one show with a TiVo if you have satellite" thing makes me wish I could change to cable). And the CW is dead to me after giving Veronica Mars the ax. HBO/Showtime will probably get Sunday nights, with Dexter, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and The Wire guaranteed spots.

Anyone else program their TiVos this weekend? What's on your lists?

@chaddogg--No Reaper? You're only punishing yourself.

James-
I have the Reaper on Tivo. Is this show going to be any good in spite of Kevin Smith's involvement with the pilot?

Pilot's all I've seen, but it's outstanding.

Please tell me the theme is by the Blue Oyster Cult. If CSI can try to ruin every Who song, then why not give BOC their due.

Thanks, James. I'll look up NYMag's review.

Agreed on Reaper. Strong set-up and execution, though I'm also pulling for the popcorn fun of Chuck.

James,

My favorite show on TV is The Wire. I also loved Twin Peaks, at least the first season, and I enjoy reading your blog and on Time magazine. We have similar tastes.

But I was shocked that you called Quantum Leap "mediocre". While not the wire by any means, it's a great little show.
Please tell me why you hated so much ?

Dear God, everyone seems to love that show, and I hated it. I saw the pilot and really didn't liked it.

It was dull and made to look good, and it sure does, it was explosions and hot girls on panties, but really the plot sucks, I didn't find it that funny, and some scenes were so bad it hurts.

Like the whole scene where Check's old buddy is stealing the secret material & escaping the building... omg.

Yes, I know, jokes, James Bond movies alluions... I got it, just it's not funny, atl all. To me it looked like they were taken themselves way too seriously with the whole thing.

Just like the homage to JB, if there had been a joke somewhere, if they'd made fun of such an incredible plot, it would have been great, but they did not. Thank God in Austin Powers they did not just do the same as James Bond movies, but made fun of it while never taking themselves seriously. Cause that's how you make funny things, and those movies were great. But this show lacked (some) derision!

I know the ninja scene was meant to be funny as well, but it felt out of place with the rest of it, and the so-called "jokes" were not funny. Even the way they end up together in the end was way too forced to be remotely funny, is you ask me.

http://88.191.26.34/i_watch_tv/2007/07/26/chuck-its-not-what-it-looks-like/

I don't know, but it didn't seems appealing to me. But apparently it'll work, bah.

Monday at 8pm, I recommend to watch CBS's How I Met Your Mother instead.

@Bruno: "Mediocre" isn't hating; it's not liking. So not to pass the buck, but it's a hard question to answer. It's not what I disliked, so much as I never found much to like in it. QL to me was mainly all plot, no character, and with few exceptions a show like that can't hold me over time. Also, never cared for Scott Bakula, here, or in Enterprise.

I think it's also a matter of the bar being raised by the passage of time. Magnum P.I. was a really entertaining show--in 1982--but I doubt I'd make time for it today. Likewise with QL; there are just so many better options. Which was my point with Journeyman. It might have seemed much more impressive in 1987 or so. Today, there's no reason to bother.

And now that I've also pissed off the Magnum, P.I. fans, I will commence to duck.

I'm Tivo- and DVR-free, and one of the few head-to-head battles of the fall for me looks to be Chuck vs. Aliens in America (which starts next week on CW). I've already seen the Chuck pilot and I really liked it, but it seems like one of those My Name is Earl-type shows that I lose interest in after less than a season. Aliens looks funny, too, and I love that it dares to make fun of the Midwest (you know, because I'm an East Coast elitist snob).

I've noticed there's a character named Chuck in about 10 different shows this fall, plus that awful Good Luck Chuck movie (summary: Dane Cook gets hit in the nuts! Jessica Alba takes off her pants! Repeat for 87 minutes). I think this officially counts as a zeitgeist.

beerbaron,

Since Oklahoma isn't part of the Midwest, we don't care if you damn Yankees make fun of it. Wait a minute, you East Coast elitist snobs do know that anything and everything west of NYC isn't considered the Midwest, right?

@ James - sorry, but I can't do Reaper:

A) It's a victim of time slot wars due to House (and the fact that my TiVo can't record two shows at once thanks to the satellite system). When House goes on its baseball hiatus maybe I'll tune in then (this also gives me a nice buffer from getting committed to it too soon, in case they cancel it).

B) I need to cut back on my television watching in general - sure, I lost Veronica Mars and Gilmore Girls from the rotation, and I'm dropping Grey's Anatomy (probably) by my own volition due to the seriously falling standards on that show. And I'm going to do more time-shifting so I only watch shows Saturday/Sunday mornings. But I still need to cut back more.

C) I'm trying to work more hours, so that means I can't tape 1 show and watch the other live....if I'm heading home early any night, it'll be Thursday for 30 Rock (Central time zone is a blessing and a curse - everything is done by 10 pm, but primetime starts at 7 pm, when I'm normally still at work).

I have to agree that Quantum Leap was mediocre. I never understood all the love for that show. There were better options even back when it was originally airing. IMO it was a dull historical drama wrapped in a very light sci-fi premise, and until its final season, it never took advantage of all the possibilities that its sci-fi elements offered -- IMO it wanted to be a "respectable" drama, and hide from its own sci-fi nature. If you're going to play around with sci-fi, then either go whole hog, or don't bother! (See: Doctor Who.) And the goal was always ridiculously vague: Helping people. You need a more well-defined quest than THAT. Journeyman will suffer from the same problem unless it gives its lead character something more specific to DO. Not just goody-two-shoes Touched-by-an-Angelisms.

oh man, not enjoying quantum leap... I usually take what you say as scheduling gold (I just called my wife and told her to put Reaper on the TiVo)... but seriously, not liking QL doesn't make me mad... it makes me wonder, did I like that show so much because of my age when I saw it?
I think that that show made me a better person...