Thursday, June 30, 2011

Wilfred: "Trust"

Season 1, Episode 2
Working out that dog/man/conscience dynamic

Futurama: "Ghost in the Machines"

Season 6, Episode 16
Back to basics, back to the fun

Men of a Certain Age: "Whatever Gets You Through The Night"

Season 2, Episode 11
The penultimate episode finds the show returning to its own path

Sunday, June 26, 2011

Falling Skies: "Prisoner of War"

Season 1, Episode 3
Plot devices, plot holes, higher ideas, and all that jazz

Friday, June 24, 2011

Louie: "Pregnant"

Season 2, Episode 1
A triumphant return for everyone’s favorite non-comedic comedy

Wilfred: "Happiness"

Season 1, Episode 1
A comedy that deals heavily in self-examination

Futurama: "Neutopia"/"Benderama"

Season 6, Episode 14 & 15
Over-plotting destroys two sure-fire premises

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Monday, June 20, 2011

The Killing: "Orpheus Descending"

Season 1, Episode 13
A “What the fuck?” kind of ending right up the show’s meandering, frustrating alley

Sunday, June 19, 2011

Falling Skies: "Live and Learn"/"The Armory"

Season 1, Episode 1 & 2
The sci-fi romp provides good groundwork, as well as plenty of drama and thrills

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Monday, June 13, 2011

TV Newsline: AMC renews The Killing

Apparently deaf to the to the increasing negative reviews from critics - and all of the audience members who have declared that they were dropping the show once we figure out who killed Rosie Larsen - AMC has decided to renew The Killing for a second season. Now, given that the show had the second highest premiere beyond the Walking Dead, and has maintained a viewership of around 2 million - higher than Breaking Bad's numbers ever were, and better than Mad Men's first three seasons - it makes sense from a entirely fiscal sense why AMC would choose to renew this show. But looking at this from a artistic decision, it makes far less sense.

The Killing: "Beau Soleil"

Season 1, Episode 12
Swinging back around to square one

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Doctor Who: "A Good Man Goes to War"

Season 6, Episode 7
A case for increased serialization

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Sunday, June 5, 2011

The Killing: "Missing"

Season 1, Episode 11
Oh, come on! We’re this close to the end!

Saturday, June 4, 2011

Doctor Who: "The Almost People"

Season 6, Episode 6
The second part fails to live up to the intellectual expectations

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Men of a Certain Age: "The Great Escape"

Season 2, Episode 7
Never have I been so glad to see a group of aging males

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

The Failed Pilot Project Case File #2: Angel

Part of the reason for analyzing the pilots for this project in the order that I did – apart from making sure that I could deal with obvious issues of how one person's approach to pilots changes over time – was that by putting Buffy and Angel back-to-back, it opens the floor to speak about pitch pilots. Pitch pilots, as their name implies, are meant solely to pitch a show to various networks; they serve as a quick snapshot of what the show is about. Not all pilots are pitched to  a wide swath of networks; it’s also very common for a network to work with a writer/producer to develop a series, and go straight into filming a full pilot that will often work as the first episode. These pilots are often known as “put pilots”, those that come attached with a financial penalty to the network of the pilot isn’t picked up, thus almost guaranteeing a pick up. But pitch pilots, without such financial backing, have to temper their expectations. As such, pitch pilots tend to run under ten minutes in length, and they favor tone over story, a characteristic that can get shows into trouble during the early runs if nobody’s careful.