It's not the TV series;
it's where you look.
Late last year here at Dangerous Universe, I talked
about two of the best television shows on TV right now - ABC's Lost
and UPN's Veronica Mars. However, these two shows aren't the only
good episodic series currently being aired on TV. There are a few
other options for people wanting to watch good television.
First up Sunday nights is FOX's Arrested Development, covered extensively
in a previous column. Simply put, Arrested Development is the finest
comedy on television right now, with few, if any, other shows having
anywhere near the quality of the writing.
Monday nights are a sort of "dead zone" of television for
me. There's no episodic series on that night which I watch.
If Monday nights don't have much on, Tuesday nights are jam-packed
with shows. First up is UPN's Veronica Mars. In Veronica Mars, the
character of the same name (Kristen Bell of Spartan) is a high school
student by day while helping out at her father's detective agency
by night. However, the show is anything but that simple. (Also covered
extensively in a previous column.)
Also on at the same as Veronica Mars is NBC's Scrubs. Scrubs, currently
in its fourth season, follows John "J.D." Dorian (Zack Braff
Garden State) as he faces the rigors of medical training. This comedy
breaks virtually every "rule" of the standard sitcom. There's
only one camera to catch the action whereas virtually every other
sitcom on television over the last 50 years follows the standard three-camera
format. (Making Scrubs look more like a movie than a TV show.) But
lately, I've been getting the feeling that Scrubs is about to sputter
out. Some of the episodes have started to become more "goofy"
and predictable than before. Still, the first three seasons of the
show were great and the current season is still pretty darn good.
Fox's new drama House also airs Tuesday nights up against both Veronica
Mars and Scrubs. (Can't some television exec space these shows out
- please!?) House follows Dr. Gregory House; a crippled world-weary
doctor who hates patients, but genuinely likes solving their medical
mysteries. As he puts it, "What do you want; a doctor who holds
your hand while your die or one who ignores you while you get better?"
House informs his team of three specialist doctors that he didn't
pick them because they were necessarily the best doctors, but because
they had other skills. Like one doctor's "sweet" street skills (thank
you Napoleon Dynamite) or the looks of another, which can be used
to other ends.
My only concern for the show is that the character of House will mellow
out as the series progresses - turning from crudgy old doctor to a
somewhat fatherly figure.
Wednesday nights is when Lost airs on ABC. I think it's the mark of
how good the show is that after an episode has aired I can't wait
to see what's going to happen next week. (Lost was covered extensively
in a previous column.)
I also watch the new incarnation of Battlestar Galactica airing Fridays
at 9:00 P.M. on the Sci Fi Channel. The show started airing over in
Great Britain back in November and has finally made its way to our
shores nearly three months later.
The revamped Battlestar Galactica might be one of the best science
fiction shows to ever grace the airwaves. It's much better than Stargate
SG-1 or the fan favorite Farscape that I could never get into. It
had everything that most sci-fi shows lack, most notably being based
in reality. Yes, the future might have space ships and robots but
in Battlestar Galactica there's cancer and alcoholism too.
In the series version of Battlestar Galactica, we follow the ship
of the same name as it protects the last vestige of humanity as they
try to escape the robotic Cylons bent on human destruction. For the
most part, the episodes of Battlestar Galactica have been good on
the whole and unpredictable with many of the story plotlines paralleling
our current situation with wars and terrorists.
Saturday nights is when British import MI-5 airs. I find the series
enjoyable; it's an interesting mix of the "gee-wiz" spygames of James
Bond mixed with the real world of espionage. Although some of the
characters in the series might have miniature cameras and know how
to deliver one deadly kick to the head, they also have to navigate
the tricky shoals of politics as they try to balance doing the right
thing with keeping their careers afloat.
In my opinion, MI-5 is really an update of the older, and far superior
Brit spy show, The Sandbaggers. The Sandbaggers aired on U.K. television
in the late 1970's/early 1980's and is available for the rest of us
on DVD. Trust me when I say that these old episodes of The Sandbaggers
hold their own against any modern television series - HBO series included.
(In a related side note, the original title of MI-5 in the U.K. is
Spooks. However, this title was changed because in America the term
"Spooks" has racial overtones.)
That's about all I watch when it comes to episodic television. Sure,
there's MythBusters and American Hot Rod on Discovery Channel or Long
Way Round on Bravo, but these are more akin to documentaries or the
recent spate of reality shows than episodic series.
Every year when the networks list their upcoming new series I pray
that there'll be something decent to watch. As you can see there are
decent enough shows on television. You just have to know where to
look.