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Jun. 5th, 2009 10:34 pmTV update about Things That Are Not Robin Hood:
MERLIN. IS STARTING IN THE US. SUNDAY THE 21ST ON NBC. THIS IS EXCITING. I can finally rope all of my fellow Americans into watching it, ahahaaa VICTORY WILL BE MINE. I was just poking around the NBC site a bit, though, and is it just me or are their promos a bit, uh... lame? And kind of unrepresentative of the show? It seems to come across more as Corny Generic "It's Your Destiny!!" "With Lens Flare, Even!!!" Fantasy (See, We Even Have A Dragon) as opposed to THE MOST AWESOMELY MAGICAL THING THAT HAS MAGICKED ITS WAY INTO YOUR LIVING ROOM. Maybe I'm just watching with a hypersensitive eye because I really really really want the show to do well State-side, but I do worry that the promos fail to capture the gorgeous, sweeping epic elements of the show; so instead I'm just linking all of my friends to the BBC preview. You better do justice to this show, NBC, or you can expect some serious finger-wagging from me in the future! (ETA: I was just watching the news with my dad and, oh, NBC was just waiting to bust out the awesome ads! The preview they aired was all about Merlin/Arthur and their special "destiny"; hopefully it will soon appear on the interwebs so all can share in my glee.)
Speaking of other fare from NBC and its subsidiaries, oh look! Yet another new USA original series! I was remarking to my mom the other day about how clever USA is with its branding -- they have found their target audience and are convinced to make them watch every single thing on USA ever because, hey, if you're enjoying one of their shows chances are you'll like all of them! In the mood for a quirky procedural dramedy? They've got you hooked up 24/7, damn them. As if I didn't already watch enough TV.
So we went ahead and watched the pilot for Royal Pains. I'm not fully sold on it as a new Best Thing Ever show, but I think I enjoyed it enough to check out a few more episodes. General impressions:
- Hank and Hank's Soon-To-Be Love Interest are boring. And then some.
- EVAN AND DIVYA ARE AWESOME. AND THEN SOME. And I think I'm already shipping them (although honestly, I was even just from the promos. "Don't objectify me, sidekick." Ohhh I'm in love).
- ...Okay, I maybe wasn't being completely fair in my first point. I do get where they're setting up Hank and Jill's mission to counterbalance the riiiich people everywhere, which I do appreciate. I think I just had a kneejerk reaction to a description of the character as the "Robin Hood of medicine" and, well, we all know the grand legacy of Robin Hood and My Issues. Ahem. Anyway. Plus I guess he had to play the reluctant hero to establish the tone of the show... I don't know.
- Or, hmm, maybe I do know?: I think what's throwing me is that he's playing the lead of an enterprise that he's not fully invested in yet. Of course I'm going to have to draw parallels to Psych, and Evan is totally this show's Shawn, so it's just weird that the one being motivated to push their business along and introduce all their wacky adventures is the supporting character instead of the star -- who is instead the level-headed, too-cool-for-this-nonsense one. Well, yes, the opposing personalities are a staple of buddy comedies. Again, see Psych! But, in addition to leveling out Shawn, Gus still flows along with his partner's nonsense and has a fair bit of his own; they're the "opposites who complete each other" as opposed to "opposites who, well, are nothing alike and kind of incompatible, really," which is more of what the Hank/Evan dynamic seems.
- Sudden realization: Divya is totally Gus. She's got the car full of pharmaceuticals and everything! Sweet. Further proof that the program should really just be about her and Evan.
- ...And further proof that mostly I just miss Psych. A lot. IS IT JULY YET?
- And back to the show at hand -- good bits were the two teen patients; much of the Hank/Evan banter ("I love you!" "I like you!"); the bar of gold (...I don't even know. It cracked me up); ANDREW MCCARTHY IN THE PROMO FOR NEXT WEEK WHAAAAT. I don't even like him (eternal Pretty in Pink related prejudice, I'm afraid). And yet I'm still excited.
- ETA: I just watched the preview clip for next week on the USA site (I know I've already said this for Psych, but USA has the best sites for their shows, seriously) and I am muuuch more sold on the Hank/Evan relationship after watching that. Well, yay. And yet also boo because now I might be held captive by still more programming, noooo.
MERLIN. IS STARTING IN THE US. SUNDAY THE 21ST ON NBC. THIS IS EXCITING. I can finally rope all of my fellow Americans into watching it, ahahaaa VICTORY WILL BE MINE. I was just poking around the NBC site a bit, though, and is it just me or are their promos a bit, uh... lame? And kind of unrepresentative of the show? It seems to come across more as Corny Generic "It's Your Destiny!!" "With Lens Flare, Even!!!" Fantasy (See, We Even Have A Dragon) as opposed to THE MOST AWESOMELY MAGICAL THING THAT HAS MAGICKED ITS WAY INTO YOUR LIVING ROOM. Maybe I'm just watching with a hypersensitive eye because I really really really want the show to do well State-side, but I do worry that the promos fail to capture the gorgeous, sweeping epic elements of the show; so instead I'm just linking all of my friends to the BBC preview. You better do justice to this show, NBC, or you can expect some serious finger-wagging from me in the future! (ETA: I was just watching the news with my dad and, oh, NBC was just waiting to bust out the awesome ads! The preview they aired was all about Merlin/Arthur and their special "destiny"; hopefully it will soon appear on the interwebs so all can share in my glee.)
Speaking of other fare from NBC and its subsidiaries, oh look! Yet another new USA original series! I was remarking to my mom the other day about how clever USA is with its branding -- they have found their target audience and are convinced to make them watch every single thing on USA ever because, hey, if you're enjoying one of their shows chances are you'll like all of them! In the mood for a quirky procedural dramedy? They've got you hooked up 24/7, damn them. As if I didn't already watch enough TV.
So we went ahead and watched the pilot for Royal Pains. I'm not fully sold on it as a new Best Thing Ever show, but I think I enjoyed it enough to check out a few more episodes. General impressions:
- Hank and Hank's Soon-To-Be Love Interest are boring. And then some.
- EVAN AND DIVYA ARE AWESOME. AND THEN SOME. And I think I'm already shipping them (although honestly, I was even just from the promos. "Don't objectify me, sidekick." Ohhh I'm in love).
- ...Okay, I maybe wasn't being completely fair in my first point. I do get where they're setting up Hank and Jill's mission to counterbalance the riiiich people everywhere, which I do appreciate. I think I just had a kneejerk reaction to a description of the character as the "Robin Hood of medicine" and, well, we all know the grand legacy of Robin Hood and My Issues. Ahem. Anyway. Plus I guess he had to play the reluctant hero to establish the tone of the show... I don't know.
- Or, hmm, maybe I do know?: I think what's throwing me is that he's playing the lead of an enterprise that he's not fully invested in yet. Of course I'm going to have to draw parallels to Psych, and Evan is totally this show's Shawn, so it's just weird that the one being motivated to push their business along and introduce all their wacky adventures is the supporting character instead of the star -- who is instead the level-headed, too-cool-for-this-nonsense one. Well, yes, the opposing personalities are a staple of buddy comedies. Again, see Psych! But, in addition to leveling out Shawn, Gus still flows along with his partner's nonsense and has a fair bit of his own; they're the "opposites who complete each other" as opposed to "opposites who, well, are nothing alike and kind of incompatible, really," which is more of what the Hank/Evan dynamic seems.
- Sudden realization: Divya is totally Gus. She's got the car full of pharmaceuticals and everything! Sweet. Further proof that the program should really just be about her and Evan.
- ...And further proof that mostly I just miss Psych. A lot. IS IT JULY YET?
- And back to the show at hand -- good bits were the two teen patients; much of the Hank/Evan banter ("I love you!" "I like you!"); the bar of gold (...I don't even know. It cracked me up); ANDREW MCCARTHY IN THE PROMO FOR NEXT WEEK WHAAAAT. I don't even like him (eternal Pretty in Pink related prejudice, I'm afraid). And yet I'm still excited.
- ETA: I just watched the preview clip for next week on the USA site (I know I've already said this for Psych, but USA has the best sites for their shows, seriously) and I am muuuch more sold on the Hank/Evan relationship after watching that. Well, yay. And yet also boo because now I might be held captive by still more programming, noooo.
