News from Watcher

4 articles

2 April 2008 6:35 AM, PDT

It's good to see fresh episodes of comedy – fresh episodes of anything – returning to the broadcast networks. (And for info on what'll happen in the next few weeks on "The Office," "30 Rock" and "Scrubs," go to the end of this item.)

“My Name Is Earl,” which comes back 7 p.m. Thursday on NBC, is celebrating with an hourlong episode called “I Won’t Die With a Little Help From My Friends.”

I’m generally inclined to give the show a pass – see the above statement regarding my happiness at comedy’s return. But I do wonder about what’s happened to “Earl” since it premiered.

“Earl’s” always been on the bawdy side and has frequently edged toward eyebrow-raising racial humor, but it seems as though it’s gotten more coarse and crass over its three seasons. I look back at delirious yet whimsical Season 1 episodes like “Joy’s

Tempo

1 April 2008 12:21 PM, PDT

Every spring, decent and even deserving shows are canceled. It’s no fun, as fans of the recently re-canceled “Jericho” are finding out, but it happens.

Still, when good shows are in danger of biting the dust not because poor ratings (as was the case with “Jericho”) but mostly because of network incompetence or indifference, that’s irritating in the extreme.

Of the many shows “on the bubble” this spring, “Men in Trees” and “The New Adventures of Old Christine” are most deserving of “save this show” campaigns.

Good ensemble dramadies are not easily created, and “Men in Trees” has more heart and earnest insight than most. But perhaps the most notable thing about the 2-year old show, which stars Anne Heche as a New Yorker living in Alaska, is the blinding stupidity with which ABC has treated it.

Since its premiere in 2006, “Men in Trees” has had more time slots than I can count.

Tempo

1 April 2008 7:14 AM, PDT

March 14-27 was quite the TV funtime for folks on the West Coast: L.A. was once again host to the annual Paley Festival, a series of panels featuring the casts and writers for many cool shows, from "The X-Files" to "Damages" to "Dirty Sexy Money."

First things first: You can see excerpts from the sessions at the Paley Center's site. (And if you're lucky enough to live in L.A. or New York, you can go the Paley Centers in those cities and watch the panels in their entirety.)

The Futon Critic attended many of the panels and wrote up some of the remarks from the "Mad Men" session. TV Guide critic Matt Roush moderated the "Mad Men" panel and also wrote up his thoughts on what transpired.

The fine "Mad Men" site Basket of Kisses has a Paley Fest piece here (scroll down to get the full writeup

Tempo

31 March 2008 9:54 AM, PDT

If you’re an "In Treatment” fan, you’re probably in a state of withdrawal right now. As it happens, last week, when the show aired its final three episodes, I read a book that reminded me a lot of the HBO drama.

Pat Barker’s “Regeneration” (Plume), which came out in Britain in 1991, may be set during World War I, but its parallels to “In Treatment” are remarkable.

This graceful and affecting novel tells the story of Siegfried Sassoon, a decorated British Army officer and poet who, in 1917, said he would no longer fight because he had no faith in the way the war was being conducted.

The military authorities diagnosed shell shock and sent Sassoon to Craiglockhart, a psychiatric hospital in Scotland. At the heart of the book are the encounters between Sassoon and W.H.R. Rivers, the empathic and unconventional doctor treating him.

As depicted in the novel,

Tempo

4 articles