Now that the dogs and the ponies have left New York and we can get back to the business of what's actually on TV this minute as opposed to what will be there next season, then then The Power Rankings! can return to normal and, yay for us, return in relatively speedy fashion.
Although the broadcast networks took a small step forward toward change during their recent upfront hootenanny in New York (a few of them promising to run shows straight through, or in split blocks, to avoid yanking them around the schedule, frustrating viewers), there are still lots of problems to fix.
For starters, when you announce your schedule for next season in May and it doesn’t include shows that haven’t even aired yet, what message are you sending viewers?
Now that I have my “what the hell was that because I’m not sure I liked it” deconstruction of Mad Men over and done with, it’s time to move on to Vol. 2 of the deconstruction, focusing more on the content (which was plentiful) and some more on the weirdness (because how could I not?).
An educated guess is that Sunday’s episode of Mad Men, “The Crash,” will leave the audience split about its effectiveness, entertainment value and just sheer lunacy. But even trying to give series creator Matt Weiner and his writers some leeway to turn the show’s tone on its head, it’s still difficult not to watch “The Crash” and think that it maybe was an idea that sounded a lot better on paper than it ended up looking on the screen.
Thanks -- or no thanks -- to the TV industry's upfront dog and pony show about next fall's shows, there just wasn't any time to get The Power Rankings! up either on a Monday, as I prefer, or at least by Wednesday. So, behold, the latest (but the greatest?) Power Rankings! ever. We'll all live. But it's important to remember that this represents the week ending May 12.
Few industries eat their young and kill their elderly as frequently and voraciously as the TV business does.
It shouldn’t be that way, but it is. About the only good that can come from A) trying to be popular enough to stay on for a long time and B) trying to be great while being on for a long time, is that the effort proves the harsh reality of the TV industry: Only a select number of series will go down in history as brilliant classics.
I will say this (yay!) for the last time: The obligatory disclaimer: As a TV critic, I’m not going to comment definitively on any of CW’s trailers. Because that’s all they are – trailers. It’s hard enough to judge a series based on a pilot episode, much less a cut-down trailer.
At best, whatever I say is a shrug. And don’t hold me to that.
I will say this for a fourth time, then at least one more time in the coming days: The obligatory disclaimer: As a TV critic, I’m not going to comment definitively on any of CBS’ trailers. Because that’s all they are – trailers. It’s hard enough to judge a series (particularly a comedy) based on a pilot episode, much less a cut-down trailer.
At best, whatever I say is a shrug. And don’t hold me to that.
I will say it for the third time, then at least one more time in the coming days: The obligatory disclaimer: As a TV critic, I’m not going to comment definitively on any of ABC’s trailers. Because that’s all they are – trailers. It’s hard enough to judge a series (particularly a comedy) based on a pilot episode, much less a cut-down trailer.
At best, whatever I say is a shrug. And don’t hold me to that.
I will say it for the second time, then at least two more times in the coming days: The obligatory disclaimer: As a TV critic, I’m not going to comment definitively on any of FOX’s trailers. Because that’s all they are – trailers. It’s hard enough to judge a series (particularly a comedy) based on a pilot episode, much less a cut-down trailer.
At best, whatever I say is a shrug. And don’t hold me to that.
First, the obligatory disclaimer: As a TV critic, I’m not going to comment definitively on any of NBC’s trailers. Because that’s all they are -- trailers. It’s hard enough to judge a series (particularly a comedy) based on a pilot episode, much less a cut-down trailer.
At best, whatever I say is a shrug. And don’t hold me to that.
Last week Mad Men had its best episode since the season six premiere and it focused for the latter half on an excellent twist -- the merger between Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce and Cutler, Gleason and Chaough. Mad Men tends to shake things up with big work announcements or big/crazy personal decisions and the latter, particularly if they involve Don, are generally more true to the core of the series. But sometimes the hyper-nuanced character study stuff is trumped by some good old action, some forward movement.
If you thought the networks were the only ones that could copy themselves after a hit and put that copy on the air without shame, think again. Starting on Friday, when the annual Leak of Upfronts News Before Upfronts Start sprung wide open, I was on Twitter, displeased with the predictability of it all.
Seriously, except for downsizing the parties and having to adjust from massive leaks on the Internet prior to the actual week of upfronts, not much has changed in, well, decades.
When Christopher Guest, creator of some of the funniest spoof movies (Best in Show, A Mighty Wind), was asked why he made a television show for HBO, he was blunt: It wouldn’t work on a network.
