Deadly Furniture

I don’t know what to say about this one folks.

In theory, Jericho and I should get along. I’m all about the dystopias, the scary exploration about what happens after the world-as-we-know-it ends. I love books that explore redefining a new normal and television shows that prove episode after episode the growing pains of a reality. Jericho was a show that was designed with me in mind, and if you compare the figures we should have been an excellent arranged marriage.

Ten minutes into the pilot of Jericho, the title town’s inhabitants’ world is literally rocked when off in the not-to-far distance a mushroom cloud looms. Everything that could possibly go wrong after such an event immediately does so. A school bus hits a crazed deer (yes, you read that right), Jake (our main character and Ioan Gruffudd look-alike) is hit by a distracted driver and gets the predicted concussion, the power goes out and our townsfolk begin to fight over gas to fill their Ford trucks (to be honest, I would have gone for the food first but hey, I’m crazy), highly dangerous prisoners escape from a bus and kill the sheriff, a power struggle at the top promises to affect a future episode, and there’s this mysterious Hawkins guy who knows exactly what to do. By the end of the episode, Ioan Gruffudd look-alike saves the day and everyone finally figures out that all the other big cities in the United States have been attacked as well. All of this leads up to the expected “We are Jericho. We will band together and face the day!” ending speech with the sweeping music and the father-son bonding. End scene.

The fact that this all happens in forty minutes (strangely two-minutes short of the normal drama length) either gives off the idea that CBS wanted more advertising space or that the editors realized what a stereotypical mess the pilot had become and just wanted it to be over already. Because in the end, this is exactly how you would expect a pilot of a post-nuclear television show to go, and therein lies the problem. Jericho is exactly “normal.” This story has been written before, filmed before, heck, I’ve played this video game, and all of these predecessors have been better written and acted.

As the credits rolled over some fake-looking dead crows, I couldn’t help feeling disappointed. We were supposed to be perfect for each other Jericho! You were going to fill the emptiness that Firefly and Battlestar Galactica have left in my heart. I mean, when it looked like you weren’t going to get renewed, fan efforts that rival Firefly’s forced CBS to give in and produce seven more episodes. Tragedy on and off screen?! What more could I ask for?

A little bit of imagination. A little bit of thinking outside the box. Of writing a plot that wasn’t so linear and straightforward, of directing that wasn’t so melodramatic and “the girl is DEAD! DEAD I TELL YOU! Oh what a world,” a little bit of creativity when it came to editing the thing together, an actor or two that could say a line convincingly besides the deaf girl. Without this, it doesn’t matter that I’m a post-apocalypse geek, a science fiction gamer, a perfect match: it’s just not going to work out between us.

Series to Watch: Battlestar Galactica

There are some television shows that I feel like we all, in our lifetimes, must one day watch. For example, I always knew that someday I would sit down and watch the entire series of The X-Files because...well...because it's just one of those shows that all science-fiction/television fans need to watch. Cheers is another one of those shows. It's a show that everyone can sing the theme song of, that most people know at least one character from, and that still gets listed at least once in every websites slideshow of "best comedy."

So I sat down to watch the pilot episode of Cheers. I don't really know what I was expecting from "Give Me A Ring Sometime" but I don't think I expected what the episode was. I remember watching some of Cheers with my dad and siblings but, kinda like The X-Files, I remember absolutely nothing of any plot besides,"Right. That's Sam. And Diane is a waitress. And Norm drinks a lot. And Fraiser shows up at some point." So I guess I thought that it would just be a comedy about a lot of people that hung out in a bar. And that's essential what the pilot of Cheers is, but in the sort of way that M*A*S*H is about a bunch of doctors that work together during the Korean War.

The basic plot of the pilot is that Diane (Shelley Long) shows up with her boss/fiancé at Sam's (Ted Danson) bar, only to have her boss/fiancé abandon her there and fly off into the sunset with his ex-wife. Sam, being the wise/sad bartender that he is, pretty much knows from square one that this marriage ain't happening, and deep down Diane knows it as well. But as she waits, the regulars at Cheers all come in for drinks and the beginnings of friendship occurs as they all witness the end of Diane's hopes and dreams.

Cheers is quite obviously that mixture of happy/sad that I love so much in my television shows. Every character is strikingly messed up. Sam, for example, was on the brink of making it big in baseball before alcoholism pretty much ruined it. Sober for three years, he know owns and operates a bar he bought when he was drunk--every day it acts as a constant reminder of how much he could have had and how much he lost. But all of this drama is delivered with such comedic timing that, despite all the rather depressing stuff that gets said and done in "Give Me A Ring Sometime," you leave the episode feeling uplifted. Every character has their own comedic characteristics, their own smart one liners, and Ted Danson can actually be quite funny (which shocked me after seeing one episode of Becker.)

I thought watching Cheers was going to be like paying my dues to television, a sacrifice so that I could be a more informed television viewer. But, like what happened with The X-Files, I think I'm going to enjoy this show.

To be honest, I was always going to like Supernatural a little bit. The show, or at least the little of it I’ve caught from promos and general mass media knowledge, draws too much from Joss Whedon’s Buffyverse and The X-Files (there’s even a direct reference to Mulder and Scully in the pilot) for me not to enjoy it just a little bit. But I’ll be honest, I didn’t think that I’d enjoy it so much. Sure, Supernatural has its fair share of CW groan-worthy lines and there are more than a couple of slow parts in the middle of it’s pilot episode-but I could always say the same thing about many a Buffy episode (*cough*seasonone*cough*). All in all, the show’s pilot creates a compelling storyline and two pretty and watchable main characters. (Quick Aside: As I was reading through the IMDB cast to find names, I just realized that Mitch Pileggi aka ASSISTANT DIRECTOR WALT SKINNER is a guest star for eight episodes. This elevates Supernatural from “watchable” to “will watch next episode immediately in order to get to !!!SKINNER!!! faster.”)

The pilot starts twenty years in the past and sees the death of the two main character’s mother from a strange demon possession/attack/something that creepily forces her against the ceiling and then sets the room on fire. The grieving father (played by the very watchable Jeffrey Dean Morgan) immediately becomes a man obsessed with revenge. His life, and therefore the lives of his two sons, centers around weapon training and demon hunting. Fast forward twenty years and you have a pretty messed up family. The youngest, Sam, (played by Jared Padalecki or the very annoying Dean from Gilmore Girls) has never wanted to be a part of his family’s obsession and has therefore run away to college and hopefully law school. His older brother, Dean, (played by Jensen Ackles aka I’ve actually liked him in a couple of things that he’s been in) is the complete I-will-break-the-law opposite. Dean interrupts Sam’s new normal life to tell him that their father has gone missing and they should go looking for him.

The rest of the episode sets up the entire series, as the two brothers who actually hate each other in many respects, have to hunt demons/spirits/supernatural things as they search for their father together. Supernatural therefore promises to include a whole lot of monster-of-the-week episodes but the ending of the pilot (a repeat of the brother’s mother’s death) promises that there may actually be a few episodes that connect to a bigger Truth (oh X-Files, how I love you). (Quick Aside #2: Wait, Mark Sheppard and Mark Pellegrino show up in this show too?!!?!!?)

Needless to say, any episode that ends with “Let’s get to work.” is something that’s going to make me watch the next episode. Add to that the whole science fiction element, the watchableness of the cast, the fact that ASSISTANT DIRECTOR WALT SKINNER appears, and you’ve got me for at least the first season.

Series to Watch: Supernatural and The X-Files