Announcing the Summer 2010 to Spring 2011 Television Season

First, I want to say that I just updated the Favorites page with the latest information on my TV shows. I haven’t updated it in a while, and there was a lot to change. I added the new shows that I am considering watching this fall, made changes for all the canceled shows, and made changes for the shows that are coming back in the fall.

That said, of all the TV series that I followed this season (for more than 1 episode), the following will be/will have been canceled by the end of the season: The Beautiful Life (CW), Dollhouse (FOX), Eastwick (ABC), FlashForward (ABC), Heroes (NBC), LOST (ABC), Nip/Tuck (FX), and Ugly Betty (ABC). LOST was not canceled in the traditional sense, though, as it was planned for this 6th season to be the final one about three years ago; thus, we might say it is ending vs. canceled).

Although I have yet to watch it, Happy Town was canceled as well (I do plan on watching it this summer, though, just because of Amy Acker’s involvement). The NBC series Day One was downgraded to mini-series, then 2-hour movie, and then it was canceled; as such, I have never seen it, nor will I. Heroes was canceled, but there are ongoing discussions about doing a limited-run series next season (mini-series consisting of around 4 episodes) or a 2-hour movie, to wrap things up. With one of the most successful international audiences in the history of television, Heroes sure is getting star treatment here; most shows don’t get a wrap-up like this, and such a thing wouldn’t even be considered. On a similar note, the cast and crew of Ugly Betty have also shown interest in making an Ugly Betty movie somewhere along the line, whether on TV or the big screen. I would enjoy it, I’m sure, but the series finale was actually quite satisfying for me. So I would be okay if the movie never surfaced.

Moving forward, the broadcast television networks have announced their fall 2010 plans, and the following series are currently of interest to me: Lonestar (FOX), Nikita (CW), No Ordinary Family (ABC), Raising Hope (FOX), and Undercovers (NBC). I’m still debating on a few others, but there’s little to no chance I’ll actually be able to add any, and I may not even get to watch these that I’ve listed because of school, etc. If you’d like to check any of these out, you can find promotional videos on YouTube. I wasn’t expecting to like Raising Hope, but I was pleasantly surprised by the promos. Ditto Lonestar.

Currently, I’m just waiting for Glee, FlashForward, Parenthood, Breaking Bad, and The United States of Tara to wind down for the season (or forever, in FlashForward‘s case), and then I’ll be ready for the highly-anticipated third season of True Blood, beginning Sunday, June 13th! Mad Men starts season four on Sunday, July 25th. And although I have watched the first seasons of the aforementioned Breaking Bad and United States of Tara, I have yet to see any subsequent episodes, so I’ll be getting caught up over the summer. I also plan to watch the first season of Parenthood this summer so I can be ready for season two this fall; I’ve heard great things about it, and since it teams actress Lauren Graham with producer/writer Jason Katims, I’m sure these things are very true indeed. 🙂

Classes won’t begin again until August 30th, so I won’t have them to worry about until then. Couple that with the fact that I don’t have a real job at present (although I do have a work study position at UBalt that I can continue until June 30th), and we can see the makings of a very productive summer in terms of reading and TV/movie watching. 😉 I’ve already read/finished four books since the semester ended (Life Expectancy by Dean Koontz, Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom, and Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carrol). I’m making a dent in my ever-expanding library of books that I have bought and not read. I’m going to re-read The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy soon, because it’s short and I loved it in high school, and then I think I’ll read another mindless Koontz book. And then who knows what!

But I do need to find another job soon. I saw on the Financial Aid calendar that loans for the fall semester won’t be dispersed until August 30th, which means I won’t get my refund until September 10th at the earliest. Although I have gotten, or will soon get, some help from my family this summer, I still won’t have enough money to last until August/September.

Back to the drawing board!

I think I’m going to heat up some spaghetti and watch a few episodes of Sliders. I’m almost done with the fourth season, and then it’s on to the last one, which I’ve heard is terrible, but I’m sticking with it because Sliders was one of my favorite shows, growing up, and I’m glad I can finally watch the episodes I never got to see. Thank you Netflix streaming!

A Small World: (In Need of) An Update

The other night, I decided I should finally watch the Netflix movies that arrived in my mailbox last Wednesday: the entire mini-series/movie Angels in America, which was written by Tony Kushner and was based on his Tony Award-winning play of the same name.

Angels in America is an amazing thing to see, and I’d love to see it on the stage, even though it isn’t perfect—the main angel’s dialogue is a bit tedious and over-the-top, especially when she says “I, I, I” over and over. There are a few other things that bug me, but anyway, not the point, so moving on! The acting is superb, and I especially love watching Meryl Streep and Al Pacino. The lead men, Justin Kirk (who plays Prior) and Ben Shenkman III (who plays Louis), are great too, especially in the scene in which AIDS-infected Prior is crawling through the hall in the middle of the night, gasping and calling Louis’ name. It’s a very believable scene, very touching. Especially the last few seconds of the scene, when Louis finds blood on Prior and slams himself against the wall with a gag and a heart-wrenching “Oh God!” His aversion to death and sickness is quite evident here, and the actor does a wonderful job expressing it.

Okay, so…confession time: I didn’t know the names of the main actors—well, let’s just say the men who play Prior and Louis, since it’s such an ensemble effort—so I had to go to IMDB.com and look them up. Maybe it’s not much of a confession; but anyway, in doing this, I realized that Justin Kirk was on one of the most amazing episodes of one of the best shows that has ever aired. What a small world this is! I’m talking about the Jack & Bobby episode “Under the Influence.” I got excited when I read this and rushed off to find the episode in my video collection and see if I could spot him. What I found was kind of mind-blowing. His role on the show is deeper and more significant than I could have imagined, as he plays President Robert McAllister’s oldest son in the flashforward for that episode. And it’s a powerful flashforward, not to mention episode. As proud as I was of the show, I’m even prouder now to say that Justin Kirk—who is so fantastic in Angels in America, which itself is an influential and important piece of work—was also on a powerhouse episode of one of my favorite shows of all time.

Furthermore, I was again excited to see that Justin Kirk was also in “Enjoy the Ride,” a fourth season episode of Everwood, which ties with Jack & Bobby as my favorite show ever—well, if I were forced to pick favorites, that is, and it’s clear that, even when I try, I still can’t do it. LOL. I just love too many shows! So my favorite show is actually about ten different shows. Maybe I’m exaggerating. But if all this, and the following sentence, tells you anything about me, then woohoo, I’ve done my job: I’m actually so pathetic and anal retentive that I  have a “master show list” in Excel, with everything I’ve ever watched, that I can remember, even shows from childhood, and all the “grown up shows” are arranged in tiers. There are thirty-two shows in my top tier. No joke.

And it’s in need of an update. I foresee a growing top tier in the 2009-2010 season, especially with FlashForward in the mix!

P.S. I realized while scanning the episode for Justin Kirk’s scenes that I don’t remember this episode of Jack & Bobby! I know the aftermath very well, and I know what leads up to it, but I don’t remember this particular episode. I’m going to remedy that right now by watching/re-watching it. I remember the Everwood episode, though, but I might watch it just to see how Justin Kirk does on it, since I didn’t know who he was the first time I watched it.

P.P.S. Yeah, I definitely hadn’t seen that episode. I don’t know why I never went back and watched it until now. I guess I just forgot.