Afternoon News: September 28, 2011

1.Series Premiere! We are definitely slow on new premieres this week but tonight, ABC debuts Suburgatory, a show that follows a girl from the city, transplanted into the 'Burbs by her (over?)protective father. Cheryl Hines (Curb Your Enthusiasm) co-stars which might be reason enough to watch. The show's timeslot (between The Middle and the Modern Family juggernaut) will certainly help with initial viewers. ABC also has the season premiere of Happy Endings (if you're into that kind of thing).

2. Ratings News. Week 2 Decline Watch continues.Fox won the night in the 18-49 demographic with Glee shedding 10% from its premiere and New Girl 9%. CBS Tuesday nights continue to dominate in total viewers, led by the NCIS/NCIS: LA juggernauts.No one continues to watch CW's shows.

3. Andy Rooney has his last broadcast this weekend on 60 Minutes. Kudos to him for still being alive! This video is still my favorite thing Andy Rooney ever did.

4. Fantasy Worlds Collide. Pam (Kritin Bauer), everyone's favorite vampire from True Blood is set to guest star on Once Upon a Time as Maleficent, the evil sorceress from “Sleeping Beauty." Awesome!

5. Life Imitating Art. Apparently, Tom and Lynette's on-screen problems have been affecting the working relationship of Doug Savant and Felicity Huffman off screen. Seriously? People, its only a show.

6. Casting News. Glee has signed Grant Gustin to play a recurring gay wedge; a devious Warbler set to come between Blurt's Gay Unicorn romance. Hey, didn't Blaine leave the Warblers? In LOST alumni news, Sonya Walger (Penny from LOST) has been hired on to play a witty, couples therapist in USA's new show, Common Law.

HIMYM: Ducky Tie

As I said last time, Victoria is not the Mother and that became clear last night. It was a cute episode, loved the "bang, bang bangity bang" song, have we heard that before? Robin seemed bored by the endless discussion about Lily's boobs and therefore kept going back to Ted for the rest of the Victoria story. But the end of the Victoria story was a little weird. Are we supposed to take from that that Robin is the mother (cause we know she isn't)? I can't see the show "breaking up" Ted and Barney again, so what gives? Sound off below!

Morning News: September 27, 2011

This week is sort of a moment of truth for the new shows. After counting its biggest audience ever, how will Two and Half Men fare now that "all has been revealed"? Will The New Girl continue to improve on Glee's audience? Is Terra Nova the next big TV event or the next Event? Let's get to it!

1. On Tonight. Since we're finally done with the premieres, here's what's new tonight: CBS has the NCIS pairing, plus TV Watcher's new fave, The Rememberererrrr. NBC has Biggest Loser and Parenthood. Over on Fox, its Glee, followed by The New Girl and Raising Hope. ABC has two hours of Dancing with the Stars and Body of Proof. CW pairs 90210 with Ringer. Man, that's a lot of shows going OMD tonight!

2. We forgot to add this to the news yesterday, but I learned on Sunday that Patrick Wilson is truly a Gifted Man. While I had no interest at all in the show, at the afternoon Yankee game, Wilson performed the National Anthem and totally rocked it. Too bad the Gifted Man isn't a music show...

3. EWWWWW! Did Nancy Grace have a wardrobe malfunction? I really don't want to watch that, so check out the video and let me know what you think. A NSFW (or keeping your stomach contents down) pic is included in the link.

4. Rob Schneider will be back on TV, makin' copies, no, not really. CBS picked up Schneider new comedy for a mid-season outing.

5. Ratings!  Catching up on the last few days of ratings action, here is where we ended up with Friday, Sunday and last night's shows.  A Gifted Man's 1.4 (with 9.3 million viewers) debuted well, especially against Kitchen Nightmare's 1.6 in the 18-49 range (but with just 3.8 million viewers).  Fringe racked up a 1.5 (with 3.5 million viewers) putting it squarely in the middle of the pack for its timeslot but up 25% from its season finale.  On Sunday night, Football ruled unquestionably.  Desperate Housewives's premiere was down a huge 28% from last Fall (in fact it was the show's lowest rated premiere ever). Pan Am scored a decent 3.1 rating in the 18-49 category and added viewers overall from the Desperate Housewives lead-in. All of CBS's shows were reflecting down in their premiere night ratings compared to last year, but a lot of that is being attributed to football overruns.  Final ratings are expected to see those numbers rise.  Last night, Terra Nova debuted with a 3.1 in the 18-49 category, down from what Fox had hoped I'm sure, but not surprising to The TV Watcher (its too sci-fi for broadcast TV viewers and too expensive for broadcast studios to keep paying for).  CBS dominated the night with Two and a Half Men, How I Met Your Mother and Mike & Molly all posting strong numbers (despite each of them having significant fall off from their season premiere's last week).  The Playboy Club shed 19% from last week's premiere, posting a weak 1.3 rating.  That show has definitely jumped to the top of the "First to be Cancelled Pile."

Morning News: September 26, 2011

The news is kind of geek-heavy today ... sorry about that.

1.  Season/Series Premieres. As we enter week two, we have a lot less new shows returning and/or debuting.  The big hitter tonight is going to be on Fox with the dinosaurs-sized (sorry, couldn't help it) two-hour series premiere of Terra Nova.  CBS moves 2 Broke Girls into its regular timeslot right after How I Met Your Mother and Mike & Molly (Fresh off of Melissa McCarthy's Emmy win) debuts its second season after Two and Half Men concludes the second part of its two-part season premiere. CW kicks of the newest season of Gossip Girl (shouldn't it be Gossip Woman at this point?!?) and the series premiere of the, hopefully short-lived and horribly titled, Hart of Dixie.

2.  JJ Abrams and the creator of the CW hit Supernatural, Eric Kripke, have a pilot production deal with NBC to create a new show called Revolution. No other word is out yet on what the show will be about.

3.  The Night Is Dark and Full of Terrors indeed. I am ready for more Game of Thrones.

4.  In an update going back to the late summer, former Biggest Loser fatestant, Sam Poueu, has been upgraded to stable condition.  Here's hoping to the continued speedy recovery.

5.  Not sure how much Martha someone needs in their every day, but I am sure there is someone DVRing the full 5 hours every day.

6.  I hope Kim Delaney gets help ... if she needs it ... though this video is pretty convincing.

Pan Am: Come Fly the Friendly (and Espionage Ridden) Skies

Pan Am

Episode 101

"Pilot"

The opening scenes of Pan Am make it very clear that we are in the 1960s and that Jackie Onassis has influenced the style sense of every American woman (the title card that tells us its 1963 helps).  Say whatever you want about this show, its effing beautiful.  The set directors and cinematographers deserve Emmys based on the Pilot episode alone.  Moving on.  The premise of the show is pretty straightforward. We will be following the professional (and personal, duh?) lives of 4 stewardesses employed by the eponymous Pan American Airways Incorporated in the golden age of intercontinental jet travel; when flying was fun and luxurious and no one though putting bombs in their underwear for Christmas funsies.  The historical accuracy of the show is not necessarily something to get hung up on since its a good story they are telling in any case, but I will brush up on my Pan Am lore and its place in history as the show progresses. Their mission today will take them on the inaugural flight of Pan Am's latest Clipper Jet, the Clipper Majestic, from NYC to London.  There is also a newly promoted Captain, a fratboy-esque first officer and a mysteriously missing stewardess named Bridget.  Let's figure out we are ... after the jump.

This show isn't so big on last names so I will forgo them unless the show indicates we should care.

Collete (played by Karine Vanasse):  An experienced stewardess who inadvertently sleeps with married men during layovers in romantic European cities like Rome.  She is entirely professional even when confronted by one such married man's family and directly confronted by the wife said married man at the conclusion of the flight.  Stay French Colette!

Kate (played by Kelli Garner): An experienced stewardess; the kick ass older sister to new stewardess Laura (she helped Laura escape her wedding in an awesome red convertible, while causing property damage in the process); AND the newest spy/courier for the CIA and MI-6 intelligence services. While having to deal with being on the same flight team as her baby sister (who has been christened the face of pan Am much to older sis's chagrin), she also has to carry out her first espionage mission; switching out the passport of a German passenger so that he is detained at customs ... she successfully completes her mission though it takes the entire intercontinental flight to do so.  Turns out, it was a test. The German passenger was in fact her new MI-6 (the British CIA for those that don't ready spy novels) handler.  We'll be seeing more of him.

Laura (played by Margot Robbie):  The newest Pan Am stewardess, she's only been flying 3 weeks.  Upon graduating from stewardess school, her picture was snapped by a photog for LIFE magazine and she was pictured on the cover of the magazine's latest issue about the ushering in of the "Jet Age".  She is clearly self-conscious and embarrassed by the attention this garners her but she is a natural beauty and fits right in with what the Pan Am stewardess should be.  She's going to be the Peggy from Mad Men and the show seems set up to really follow her as a central character. She's also the younger sister to flight teammate Kate and a runaway bride he was being shoehorned into a stereotypical 50's era wedding scenario by her close-minded mother.

Maggie (played by Christina Ricci):  An experienced stewardess who clearly has a rebel streak but also is clearly valued for her skills. She is sitting at home in the Village with her hippie dippy boyfriend (though those labels are so 1950s man ...) when she gets the call that Pan Am needs her to cover mysteriously missing Bridget's Purser spot on the Clipper Majestic. She hightails it (in a great old-fashioned NYC cab) to the Pan Am building in Midtown where she is helicoptered to the runway and boards just in time.  Maggie, I'd like to point out, was in the Bay of Pigs extraction flashback so she's clearly been around the block.  By the way, a Purser is the head stewardess on a flight and is like the boss of the flight cabin.

Dean  (played by Mike Vogel):  The newly promoted Pan Am captain and not secret paramour of the mysteriously missing Bridget.  Dean is piloting his first flight on Clipper Majestic run.  His maybe best friend is the frat-boy like Ted (played by Michael Mosley), a guy who clearly digs the new woman that the Pan Am stewardess represents and would like to sleep with as many of them as possible.  Dean is no stranger to danger, having been the first officer on an evacuee flight of Cuban exiles during the Bay of Pigs affair.  When Dean finds out that Bridget has resigned from Pan Am, he thinks its because she's decide to accept his proposal of marriage ... he's wrong.

Bridget (played by Annabelle Wallis):  Bridget is the not so secret lover of pilot Dean. She was also due to be the Purser on the Clipper Majestic flight but has seemingly disappeared.  We find out that she has in fact quit Pan Am.  Through flashbacks and some exposition (that you could have figured out from the flashbacks if yo knew where to look), we establish that Bridget was the previous "spy/courier" for the US and British governments and that she was the one that recommended Kate as her replacement.  We see her at the end of the episode spying on Dean in a bar and then we see her jumping in a car and speeding off.  We haven't see the last of Bridget but I have to imagine her clandestine role increased exponentially.

Pan Am is going to be a hit for ABC and it should be. Its fresh, engaging and has a great story to tell.  The flashback device was a little clunky in the Pilot; I think mainly due to its use for over the head exposition. That being said, I can see it being a great aid in the storytelling device, just as the "whoosh" flashbacks were in LOST -- they really help in understanding a character's motivations.  So buckle in, adventure calls. See you all next week!

Person of Interest: Somebody's Watching Me, Can't Get No Privacy.

Person of Interest
Episode 101
"Pilot"

Person of Interest is a fairly straight forward show. Its about getting knowledge of "to be committed" crimes and trying to prevent them.  A serialized Minority Report?  It dips into a couple of different genre wells and executes them all fairly well. A show helmed by Jonathan Nolan and JJ Abrams and starring Michael "Ben Linus" and Jim "Jesus" Caviezel is a show with a lot going for it.  And I was very happy with its pilot.  Check out the overview below (dealing with the shows overall premise and pilot episode case of the week).  the full blow by blow will be up in a couple of days.

Parenthood: Hey, If You're Not Using That Baby...

Since my review was a little long last week, I'll try to sum things up by character/family, here we go:

This episode was pretty light on Zeek and Camille. As always, Zeek sticks his nose where it doesn't belong, bringing breakfast to Sarah and her "overnight guest" (more on that later) and then discussing Crosby's irresponsibility and why Zeek gave Adam's social security number to Crosby. Camille's reading was interrupted by Sarah seeking dating advice, but that's about it. More after the jump.