Buffy TV
Okay, yeah, so Buffy was on TV, but you'll see...
Today I post what's a very rare thing for me: TV reviews.
As many of you know, my television viewing is pretty limited nowadays. With a lack of cable, a lack of time, and a lack of interest in most shows, my television viewing in the past few years has dropped to PBS and DVD series.
But there's nothing quite like the return of three of my favorite TV actors to, temporarily, draw me back to the fold. I speak, of course, of the return of Buffy favorites Alyson "Willow" Hannigan, Nicholas "Xander" Brendon, and James "Spike" Marsters. There's a lot of others coming back, too, like David Boreanaz, Charisma Carpenter, and Amy Acker, but those are the three I really care about.
Alyson's How I Met Your Mother and Nick's Kitchen Confidential both premiered last night, with James' addition to Smallville starting next Thursday.
"Mother" is supposed to be the more critically-loved of the two new shows. Unfortunately, after watching it, I realized why I so rarely watch sitcoms anymore. Laugh tracks bug me. Laugh tracks that come on over other dialogue annoy me more. What I wonder is whose fault it is that this confustion occurred, especially with Alyson: the director for not telling them to pause? The editor for eliminating these pauses in order to fit in the copious amounts of commercials? Or Alyson for having spent the last eight years of her career working on a non-laugh track show like Buffy, as well as the laugh-track-free American Pie movies?
The show's concept itself attempts to be creative, with Bob Saget narrating to his children in the future how he met their mother. But in the end it just turns into the usual "relationship" sitcom. The humor's meh at best. Hannigan's character almost feels like it was written around her Band Girl character, the sweet but kinky girlfriend. Unfortunately, not exactly the stretch that she was allowed on Veronica Mars or during the later seasons of Buffy.
But she did get to dress up as season seven Xander for most of the episode, which is fun. Arrrr.
Speaking of Xander, Kitchen Confidential is a show I can see myself watching, if for no other reason than there's a lot of actors in the show that I like. My brain kept going back to the news that the show was originally supposed to be a David Fincher-directed movie starring Brad Pitt. I don't know how they would have handled that, but would definitely have been original.
Instead, they pulled together actors from Buffy, Alias, Freaks & Geeks, and Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle. It also stars That Creepy Guy from Dave and The Naked Blonde Girl from Sin City.
Decent show, the characters interact well, and there's no laugh track. We'll have to see what happens once they're forced to go beyond the "things are screwing up in the kitchen" storyline that's been done about a million times before, but for now it has potential. Nicholas seems to be the sort of character that should have a few episodes focused on him, but in this one he kind of became a bit player, as they established the lead and his relationships.
Next Thursday's the one I'm looking forward to, with James Marsters becoming Brainiac on Smallville.
Today I post what's a very rare thing for me: TV reviews.
As many of you know, my television viewing is pretty limited nowadays. With a lack of cable, a lack of time, and a lack of interest in most shows, my television viewing in the past few years has dropped to PBS and DVD series.
But there's nothing quite like the return of three of my favorite TV actors to, temporarily, draw me back to the fold. I speak, of course, of the return of Buffy favorites Alyson "Willow" Hannigan, Nicholas "Xander" Brendon, and James "Spike" Marsters. There's a lot of others coming back, too, like David Boreanaz, Charisma Carpenter, and Amy Acker, but those are the three I really care about.
Alyson's How I Met Your Mother and Nick's Kitchen Confidential both premiered last night, with James' addition to Smallville starting next Thursday.
"Mother" is supposed to be the more critically-loved of the two new shows. Unfortunately, after watching it, I realized why I so rarely watch sitcoms anymore. Laugh tracks bug me. Laugh tracks that come on over other dialogue annoy me more. What I wonder is whose fault it is that this confustion occurred, especially with Alyson: the director for not telling them to pause? The editor for eliminating these pauses in order to fit in the copious amounts of commercials? Or Alyson for having spent the last eight years of her career working on a non-laugh track show like Buffy, as well as the laugh-track-free American Pie movies?
The show's concept itself attempts to be creative, with Bob Saget narrating to his children in the future how he met their mother. But in the end it just turns into the usual "relationship" sitcom. The humor's meh at best. Hannigan's character almost feels like it was written around her Band Girl character, the sweet but kinky girlfriend. Unfortunately, not exactly the stretch that she was allowed on Veronica Mars or during the later seasons of Buffy.
But she did get to dress up as season seven Xander for most of the episode, which is fun. Arrrr.
Speaking of Xander, Kitchen Confidential is a show I can see myself watching, if for no other reason than there's a lot of actors in the show that I like. My brain kept going back to the news that the show was originally supposed to be a David Fincher-directed movie starring Brad Pitt. I don't know how they would have handled that, but would definitely have been original.
Instead, they pulled together actors from Buffy, Alias, Freaks & Geeks, and Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle. It also stars That Creepy Guy from Dave and The Naked Blonde Girl from Sin City.
Decent show, the characters interact well, and there's no laugh track. We'll have to see what happens once they're forced to go beyond the "things are screwing up in the kitchen" storyline that's been done about a million times before, but for now it has potential. Nicholas seems to be the sort of character that should have a few episodes focused on him, but in this one he kind of became a bit player, as they established the lead and his relationships.
Next Thursday's the one I'm looking forward to, with James Marsters becoming Brainiac on Smallville.
posted by Bill at 10:30 AM
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