Friday, March 24, 2006

This and that

Sorry for the delay: been slammed at work today, and, frankly, haven't had much enthusiasm for the last few night's worth of series TV. The Gonzaga choke was much more dramatic than anything that happened on "Lost or "Veronica Mars." Quick hits, in no particular order:

"Scrubs": Ehh. This has been a brilliant season overall, but other than the peek inside Turk's sex dreams ("One time, you were skinless!") and Dr. Cox reading lines from "Streetcar," not a lot there. And would it have killed Zach Braff to shave his head? His "Garden State" girlfriend could do it, why not him? Even if they needed J.D. to be back to the bushy cut in the next episode, they already have a wig from the episode where Elliott turned into J.D. to smooch with Mandy Moore.

"Veronica Mars": Two duds in a row since they came back from hiatus, though I hear the next two are supposed to be really good. (Speaking of shaved heads, it took me forever to figure out who the girl in the preview was until I IMDb'ed it and realized it's Maebe Funke.) The episodes where Veronica tackles adult cases almost never work, and the bus crash clues are pointing so furiously at Woody Goodman that I'll be bored if he did it and annoyed if he didn't. Two bits I liked: Kendall vamping it up for Beaver, Aaron and Logan with varying degrees of success; and Logan realizing that even he has levels he shouldn't stoop to.

"Lost": Why has it taken me three episodes to realize that Balloon Guy was one of the evil genius serial killers from "The Practice"? Maybe because every scene in the hatch tends to put me to sleep these days? (Plus, didn't they eat all the food already in the "Everybody Hates Hurley" episode? Where did those Dharma-O's come from?) Other than some good performances from the underused Daniel Dae Kim and Yunjin Kim, plus Ana-Lucia meta-ing that nobody (including the audience) likes her, not a lot here.

"My Name Is Earl": I want to love this show, really I do. I watch episodes like last night's Y2K flashback, I see scenes and jokes that I know I should be laughing at, and yet the most it usually coaxes out of me is a smile. Early in the season, I complained that they didn't think the jokes through far enough, but last night felt pretty thorough to me, and yet I didn't laugh more than once or twice. I appreciate what the show's doing enough to keep watching, but I can't put my finger on what's holding me at a distance from it. Is it just me?

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Any thoughts on Everybody Hates Chris? One of the better episodes...

Anonymous said...

Wow, I thought this was one of the best Veronica Mars episodes this season.

Anonymous said...

I feel the same about MNIE. I know it's funny, I laugh, but overall I just can't pay attention. Really missed having a new The Office.

No comment on Lost, because I gave up on that trainwreck a while ago. Veronica Mars, though. I thought it was better, since I haven't been too happy with season 2. However, I have a feeling the rest of the season is going to be amazing.

Anonymous said...

I agree for the most part about Earl. I've come to accept it as more of an entertaining feel good show than a show that will have me laughing out loud like Arrested or The Office.

I'm one of those rare people who is more into the characters on Lost than any "mystery" or whatever so I liked it just fine. The Jin/Sun episodes are always among my favorites.

Veronica Mars has been lagging a little lately but I'll still take it over 80% of what's on. And like nemme said, I think the back end of season 2 will deliver.

Alan Sepinwall said...

Jort, I forgot to mention Chris (and The Loop, and O.C.), so I'll do quick write-ups on them at some point this weekend.

Anonymous said...

Alan: What'd you think of the most recent installment of "24" (esp. its big twist at the end)? Don't think you ever got to it...

Alan Sepinwall said...

Oh, geez, 24. I'm just forgetting everything I watched this week. I'll put that in the weekend update.

Anonymous said...

God, LOST is awful now. So pretentious. They act like it's the most important show on Earth. The clanging meta references are really bad. It's just so self important and dull. Sun is pregnant. So we have to sit through an hour of sensitively acted horsecrap for nothing. But it was slightly better than the last couple of non-episodes. The big reveal: something we thought we knew we find out we didn't know. Moving on...

I think you need to address the sophomore slump of VM and LOST. Desperate Housewives (rightfully - it's unwatchable) took the brunt of the backlash, but VM is so convoluted and LOST so dull that I think it deserves a true Alan take down.

Anonymous said...

God, LOST is awful now. So pretentious. They act like it's the most important show on Earth. The clanging meta references are really bad. It's just so self important and dull. Sun is pregnant. So we have to sit through an hour of sensitively acted horsecrap for nothing. But it was slightly better than the last couple of non-episodes. The big reveal: something we thought we knew we find out we didn't know. Moving on...

I think you need to address the sophomore slump of VM and LOST. Desperate Housewives (rightfully - it's unwatchable) took the brunt of the backlash, but VM is so convoluted and LOST so dull that I think it deserves a true Alan take down.