[  Mood: Happy ]
[ Currently: Breastfeeding my son ]
This is the seventh in an ongoing seriers of entries where I look at the upcoming TV season. Why? Cause I am a TV junkie. Will work for TV.

During the football season, Sunday night is the animation zone. FOX’s block of animation is very geek friendly, although there have been recent rumblings on the RevSF Boards that The Simpsons have jumped the shark.

But after Football (which is like January), there is good news for geeks on NBC!

Sunday
8:00
Merlin – NBC
Apparently, before Merlin and Arthur were legends,

So this show focuses on these two young men trying to make there way in the world. Sounds like Mary Tyler Moore.

I want this to work. I want to fall in love with this show and have it last for seasons, but the description above makes me nervous.

I predict this will disappear fast.

9:00
Medium – NBC
This fabulous series returns for its fifth season. Alison is back with the DAs office so look for this show to be back on track.

10:00
Kings – NBC
NBC keeps telling us this is a modern day David and Goliath story. Careful reading of the show description shows that this is a genre show, although at this point whether it is urban fantasy, alternate history or sci-fi is hard to tell. I think this one is the one to watch. At least there is Ian McShane.

Next time: I missed Jennifer Love Hewitt’s breasts!!!!

While I realize not all of you are sports fans, I know most of you are comic book fans. I figured I’d share the latest Sports Illustrated super-hero-inspired cover that many of you would never see.

Illustration by Mark Bagley, Karl Story, and Alex Sinclair.

Latest SI cover was originally published on The Geek Curmudgeon

[  Mood: Distorted ]
[ Currently: Breastfeeding my son ]
This is the sixth in an ongoing seriers of entries where I look at the upcoming TV season. Why? Cause I am a TV junkie. I got the shakes!

Stereotypes would have you believe that Friday and Saturday is when we geeks stay home and hang out in our parents’ basement. So you would think TV would schedule hours and hours of entertainment for us.

But what we have is a wasteland. Maybe the programmers know something we don’t?

Friday
8:00 pm
Crusoe – NBC
This is an adaptation of the classic novel. Part of the show will be told as flasbacks, where you will get to see Sean Bean and Sam Neil. But Friday nights are a dead zone for TV. Given the amount of money NBC is spending on this show, I think we will get the 13 episodes ordered, but unless this takes off, no more.

9:00 pm
America’s Next Top Model – CW
Repeat of Wednesday’s episode in case you missed it.

10:00 pm
Numbers – CBS
Not a genre show per say, but Charlie, Amita and Larry are like the rest of us. Watch this show for them and the math, not the ridiculous story telling and the overacting of Rob Morrow and the other FBI agents. Interestingly enough, CBS and Texas Instruments run an education program based on the math in each show.

Saturday
9:00 pm
Knight Rider – NBC
A repeat in case you were watching Pushing Daisies on Wednesday. Until NBC cancels it and then it will be a Law and Order rerun. And if that rerun features Lenny Brisco, I think it will be a good thing.

Next Time: Sunday – post football season

[  Mood: Cool ]
[ Currently: Breastfeeding my son ]
This is the fifth in an ongoing seriers of entries where I look at the upcoming TV season. Why? Cause I am a TV junkie. It has been 6 hours since my last hit.

Thursday night is when two new British inspired series hit the airwaves. And an old one comes back. And yet again, we see thast programmers have acces to far better drugs than you or I.

Thursday
8:00 pm
Smallville – CW
Supes is back for his eighth season of angst, guest stars from the DC universe and hair gel. Gone is Lex and Lana is only back for a few episodes. In their place Doomsday and a yet to be named female villain. What is the fate of this show? Well it’s on the CW so it doesn’t have to meet the ratings standards of the other four. It will last the season, but I think this one is on its last legs.

9:00 pm
Supernatural – CW
The bros are back for season 4. You know Dean ain’t going to spend it on meat hooks so look for Sammy to get him out if hell posthaste at the premiere, leading to another season of BroYay moments. And unless one of these boys wants out, there should be a season 5.

Kitchen Nightmares – FOX
This is the old returning British show. It should be classified as reality/horror given what Ramsay finds in the walk in fridges of the restaurants. If the Brothers Winchester bore you, counting the number of times that Ramsay has to be beeped might be more your speed.

10:00 pm
Life on Mars vs Eleventh Hour
Two new series based on British Shows. Two genre shows. Up against each other. Do the programmers think this is Mortal Kombat?

Life on Mars – ABC
Sam Tyler is in a car accident and wakes up in 1972. Yup 72, not 73. That’s how we will tell the difference between the US and UK versions. The year it takes place. Well that and whether or not Gene Hunt is rocking the perm or not. Will this last? Hard to tell. It is up against ER and another genre show. I’m giving this a 50/50 chance.

Eleventh Hour – CBS
The British version saw Patrick Stewart as a government science expert who investgates things like cloning, UFOs and why According to Jim is still on the air. Kind of like X-Files and ReGenesis. The US version does not have Patrick, so again I’m giving this a 50/50 chance.

Next Time: Friday and Saturday – the nights mommy lets you stay up late!

[  Mood: Confused ]
This is the fourth in an ongoing seriers of entries where I look at the upcoming TV season. Why? Cause I am a TV junkie. Who wants to sponsor me?

I am not a TV programmer. I can not pretend to know what the process is for putting together a TV schedule. (Insert dream sequence involving mokeys and poo throwing here.) But I do know that it makes little to no sense to have genre shows go up against each other cause you are splitting the audience.

So then what the heck were they thinking with Wedneday at 8:00 pm? We have three, count’em, three genre shows up against each other.

Wednesday
8:00 pm

Pushing Daisies – ABC
This was the first new show renewed last season. Quirky, funny and romantice, it won over critics and audiences with its tragic tale of Sam, the pie man, whose touch can bring someone back to life, but then send them back to death if he touches them a second time. If this show produces the same kind of quality as the first season, it should do well.

Bones – Fox
This procedural has sci-fi elements, making it a genre show. Plus it has David Boreanz who, thanks to having played Angel, would turn a period romantic drama where he is dressed in hose and wearing a white wig into a genre piece. Bones has done well enough that Fox has kept it around for three seasons. It will also do well as it draws enough of the normals to keep its ratings up.

Knight Rider – NBC
This is the show I am putting on deathwatch. The two hour pilot was meh, with its best bit coming at the end when the Hoff showed up. Since Hoff ain’t going to be in every episode, this show is starting off with a handicap. Add to the fact that Pushing Daisies and Bones will pull off viewers and this is one show that I think is going to disappear fast. Or is going to perminantly relocated to its repeat slot of Saturdays at 9:00 pm. And then cancelled. Do not get attached to this show people. NBC has just as bad a track record with genre shows as FOX. Remember seaQuest, Earth 2 and Journeyman?

America’s Next Top Model – CW
OK, not genre, but one of my guilty pleasures. One that makes the Husband Unit roll his eyes in disgust. I love the photoshoots and the two Js. Fabulous!!!!! Thank goodness this repeats on Fridays.

And that’s it for Wednesday. Three genre shows, all at 8:00 pm. The rest of the night is free for us to watch the ones we’ve taped or catch up on dusting the action figures.

Next time: Thursday – You are (bleeping) kidding me.

[  Mood: Cool ]
This is the third in an ongoing seriers of entries where I look at the upcoming TV season. Why? Cause I am a TV junkie. I can stop anytime I want.

Tuesday
Tuesday is shaping up to be a good night for genre fans to do something other than watch TV. May I suggest Tanker Tuesdays over at City of Heroes?

8:00 pm
House – FOX
OK, I’m cheating here. House is not a genre ahow, per say, but my reasoning is sound. You would be hard pressed to find a geek who didn’t enjoy this show. Still, even if you miss this, House‘s popularity means it will be on again.

9:00 pm
Fringe – Fox
FBI agent investigates strange, possibly paranormal phenomenon. Sounds familiar? Here’s the twist: FBI agent seeks help from world reknown scientist. The catch? He’s been institutionalized for the last twenty years. Institutionalized = crazy. Dr. Looneytunes will only help if the FBI work through his estranged son.

Now there is quite the buzz about this show among critics. They are excited about the return of Joshua Jackson to Primetime TV. He was Pacey on Dawson’s Creek. The other reason for the buzz is FOX’s decision to run this show with half the ads of a normal TV show. That’s five minutes. For the whole season, not just the premier the way Heroes did a few years ago (Thank you Nissan!). The reason for FOX’s decision to do this is in response to cable and their lack of commercials. No word if this means that there will be an hourly sponsor.

So will this work? Don’t know. It is a genre show on FOX. Everyone knows what that means. But FOX believes in this enough to give it House as a lead in. And it is not in the Friday night death slot.

I give it 50/50 odds of lasting the season.

10:00 pm
Eli Stone – ABC
This quirky mid-season replacement has been renewed. Why is it here? Well it is about a guy (the title character) who discovers he has an inopperable brain aneurysm that lets him hallucinate, often about the future. Eli is compelled to do something about what he sees. It has been suggested in the series that these visions are from God and that Eli is a prophet. So think Joan of Arcadia meets Medium.

Will it survive? Having never seen it (although the description I just wrote intrigued me and I may have to pick up some DVDs and catch up) I feel confident in saying until the end of the season. After that, no. I think this is another case of the writer’s strike getting something renewed that normally would have perished.

Next time: Wednesday night 8:00 pm – DEAR GOD IN HEAVEN – what crack are the network’s doing?

[  Mood: Angelic ]
This is the second in an ongoing seriers of entries where I look at the upcoming TV season. Why? Cause I am a TV junkie. Admitting you have a problem is the first step.

Monday
9:00 pm
Heroes
While not competing against a genre show, Heroes may lose some ground to Prison Break over on FOX. On the other hand, Heroes is one of the only NBC shows that breaks the Nielsen top 20 (Football is the other one). So for the fourth place network, this baby is their golden ticket. If the series can recover from its wobbly second season (and given that the show’s creator has admitted their misstep, this might actually happen) they should be AOk!

My Own Worst Enemy
One of the interesting things about this season is the lack of pilots. Due to the writer’s strike, there was no time to get the pilots shot. So instead, the networks have had to buy series based on scripts alone. The horror! The horror!

What does that have to do with this Christian Slater vehicle? Well I am not certain if it genre or not. The premise sound genre enough, a mild mannered family man has a split personality. The catch is other person in his body is an assasin and spy. Apparently the personalities start to overlap and intrude on each other’s world. Think Scarecrow and Mrs. King meets Nicki from Heroes.

Will this work? Who knows? Cristian Slater is promising, but it is in the NBC Monday night slot of death. The Black Donnelly’s, Studio 60 and Journeyman all once were in this slot, and all have gone on to a better place.

Not holding out much hope for this one.

Next time we visit this topic: The wasteland that is Tuesday

[  Mood: Amused ]
So the fall networks have released their fall schedules. There are some interesting new genre shows coming up and some old returning goodies. Since I am a TV junkie, I want to take some time to look what is on offer.

Instead if going network by network, I am going to go night by night. Cause as the kids say, that’s how I roll. First up Monday and a battle that I am interested in watching.

Monday
8:00 pm
Chuck (NBC) vs Terminator (Fox)
This is the battle that was supposed to happen in January, but the writers’ strike interfered. While I watched Terminator, my heart lies with Chuck. Funny, upbeat and charming, this show makes me smile. And I need that at the end of the day. Plus Adam Baldwin is awesome.

But which will win? Depends. Does America want another tense, apocalyptic genre show like Terminator? It has a lot of them already (Heroes, Lost, BSG). Sure, BSG is over, but Terminator ain’t no BSG.

I don’t think that America is looking for more dark Sci-Fi. Quirky, funny seems to be in. Pushing Daisies is another example of this. Chuck fits that bill. Hense its renewal.

But wait, some of you are saying, Terminator got renewed too. In fact, an argument can be made that Terminator only got renewed because of the strike. Had it been a regular season with FOX, Terminator would have been lucky to get three episodes.

So my money is on Chuck.

Edit: Also at 8:00 pm is the Big Bang Theory. This comedy about geeks is not going to survive the Chuck and Terminator battle. It might limp through season, cause comedies are way cheaper than dramas to produce, but it is not going to do well in the ratings.

Next time we visit this topic (which may not be my next post): The rest of Monday.

. . . the next Indiana Jones movie should be about The Fountain of Poo.

I have seen this fountain and it is terrifying. Terrifying!!!!

I’d like to see Indy deal with that. You can’t shoot it. You can’t use a bullwhip on it.

The fountain of poo makes the Nazis and Russians look like wimps.

The horror!! The horror!!