October 21, 2007

Sink or Swim

For shows both new and old, the new-car smell of the season has officially given way to the spicy-almond stench of curly fries and Youth Dew—it’s time to go from tedious scenes of exposition and/or reminders of last season’s cliffhangers and start moving forward. Which shows hit their creative stride already? Which still look promising even though they’re having a little trouble? Which shows flat-out suck?

Aliens in America (The CW) — The pilot gave us a nifty, slightly cartoonish world for its offbeat characters to inhabit, while the second episode upped the ante on nearly everything and showed that while it wouldn’t shy away from taboo subjects, it refused to use American ignorance or cultural stereotypes for easy jokes. The third episode has revealed the show as an insane work of genius. It’s been walking a fine line just based on its premise, but it managed to play the “suspected terrorist” card and come out unscathed. It’s also rare that a show can balance this storyline with endless masturbation jokes, teenage mischief, and parental mistrust with genuine heart.

If they can sustain the no-punches-pulled, no-taboo-left-untouched humor, Aliens may rival Arrested Development in terms of quality and comic fearlessness. Unfortunately, like Arrested Development, Aliens in America will struggle in the Nielsens because of its network, its subject matter, and the CW’s comically inept promo department.

Dirty Sexy Money (ABC) — I don’t know what to say: I like this show, but I didn’t really care about it much—until tonight. After a pretty good pilot and some decent episodes, this one finally hooked me. However, they overplayed their hand on the former relationship between Nick (Peter Krause) and Karen (Natalie Zea). I liked the subtle touches in the pilot, but this week Karen reached heights of ridiculousness that makes the rest of the Darlings seem normal. Maybe she’s supposed to come across as a needy borderline stalker, but come on.

Everybody Hates Chris (The CW) — This week, 15-year-old Chris (Tyler James Williams) is entrusted with parking his dad’s car across the street. He ends up parking across the borough, at Corleone, to impress girls. And then the car dies. Combined with a subplot that finds Rochelle (Tichina Arnold) waiting all day to fight a speeding ticket against a corrupt judge (Dwayne Wayne!), the episode reigned in the over-the-top (but funny!) cartoonishness of the first two episodes and reminded me why I love this show: it has an uncanny deftness at taking minor character struggles to logical-but-outlandish extremes.

Heroes (NBC) — Bennet (I refused to call him “Horn-Rimmed Glasses” or “HRG”—seriously, the dude’s had a name since, like, the third episode, so I think it’s time to put this “clever” nickname to bed) struggles hard to save himself from an unfortunate fate painted last season by Isaac—his own death, at the ends of a mysterious teenage suitor of Claire (Hayden Panettiere). Yeah, that dorky kid is going to ice Bennet! Did anything else worth mentioning even happen in this episode? No joke: everything on this show that involves the Bennet family is nonstop gold, even the chemistry-free romance between Claire and West (Nicholas D’Agostino)—if only because it leads to Jack Coleman continuing his streak of awesomeness.

All right, credit where it’s due: the twist (which I didn’t see coming because I’m an idiot) that the mystery man in Molly’s (Adair Tishler) dreams turns out to be Parkman’s (Greg Grunberg) dad—awesome. The new hero(?), Monica Dawson (Dana Davis) looks like she’ll contribute a lot more than those Central Americans of indistinct origin, who have somehow managed to make Sylar boring, too. Either way, if this show were retooled into The Bennets, it would kick so much more ass.

Journeyman (NBC) — I liked this show a lot better when Katie (Gretchen Egolf) had the role of “sarcastic but supportive wife.” All this angst with Livia (Moon Bloodgood) is a little soapy for my tastes. I like time travel, I like sarcasm, I like the idea of moral grayness involving Dan (Kevin McKidd) and Livia in the past, I even like Livia taking on the role of Al, guiding Dan through his time travel adventures. I wish she was a hologram in flashy clothes, though. They just have to get over the hump (if you’ll excuse the unfortunate phrasing) of Livia-related marital drama, because it’s boring. The “will Dan show up to this event?” drama—good stuff. The “I’ll take Dan’s brother/my ex-boyfriend because of how unreliable Dan is”—also good. I don’t care about the present-day angst over Livia, though.

They did a much better job with the past mystery this time, and in fact struck a perfect balance between present issues with the past storyline. More tension, more intrigue, moderately interesting characters. I also liked using a dot-com startup as the central conflict. The nostalgia factor of only a decade ago makes me feel ancient, but there it is. If they can keep this up while downplaying the Livia stuff, this show will make it.

King of the Hill (Fox) — This episode shows why it may surpass The Simpsons’ reputation in future generations. Sure, it’s gone 11 seasons without any truly atrocious episodes (not even The Simpsons managed that), and chances are it won’t continue for another 11 seasons of episodes ranging from just-above-mediocre to terrible. More importantly, however, when King of the Hill shows characters in anguish—they aren’t afraid to play it straight. No laughs, and more compelling drama than many actual dramas can pull out of their asses. Boomhauer’s struggle with aging this week managed to come across as sad—tragic, even—without ever trying for funny. Even its funniest moment—Boomhauer wiggling his ass in front of some hot women, only to have them laugh at him and continue on their way—wasn’t really played for laughs. It came across as pathetic as the rest of his story, leading to an inevitable satisfactory triumph at the end.

Classic Simpsons episodes contained more pathos and moments of legitimate human drama than most shows, but they never fully abandon the comedy in the way King of the Hill does. It’s riskier, but it pays off.

My Name Is Earl (NBC) — Well, I liked the first and last two minutes of this episode and not much else. The wacky fantasies of each characters’ creative writing didn’t do much for me. It had some smile-worthy moments, but mostly it struck me as trying too hard for absurdity. I enjoyed the setup of the episode, with the little-old-lady teacher in riot gear, and Earl describing the only seven seconds of his day he enjoys. I loved the wraparound ending where Earl finally finds his inspiration in the mundanity of everyday life. I wanted to love the rest, but I just didn’t. Oh well. Hey, can we get Earl out of prison now?

Numb3rs (CBS) — This episode was wildly overdirected (even the premiere, helmed by Tony Scott, didn’t have quite so much frenetic, pointless camera movement), but Numb3rs has finally hit its stride. Though the story had its share of hokey moments, it never turned into a full-on Da Vinci Code rip-off. It also had some mildly surprising twists. Also new for this season: the bad guy doesn’t always turn out to be a corrupt cop or soldier. This time, he was a psychotic ex-soldier. Totally different.

The Office (NBC) — It finally happened, and I might shut up about “The Negotiation” now. “Money” finally made a truly effective use of the hourlong format by realizing the biggest advantage of more time: breathing room. “Money” had moments of characters in quiet contemplation, sorrow, and even derailing a meeting by discussing when to properly use “whom.” These moments would end up on the cutting-room floor in a 30-minute episode. A comedy as dark and rich with characters as The Office almost requires an hourlong format, so I’m glad they’re finally putting it to good use.

Pushing Daisies (ABC) — Well played, Pushing Daisies. I quietly pondered the ethical dilemmas upon which Pushing Daisies is based—that as a child, Ned (Lee Pace) allowed Chuck’s (Anna Friel) father to die so his mother could live, and years later he allowed a funeral-home owner to die so Chuck could live. Ned justified this (pretty well, I thought) by arguing the victim of his “gift” valuables from coffins and was, therefore, a bad man. Well, this week Ned has to pay the piper: the owner’s brother has hired Emerson (Chi McBride) to investigate the owner’s death. This leads Chuck’s turning-point revelation that Ned’s gift comes at a price and that when he wants something badly enough, Ned is capable of going to a pretty bad place.

This is revelatory both for Chuck and the audience. It finally reveals the true magic of Bryan Fuller. While detractors of the show complain about the “whimsy,” they either ignore or disagree the counterbalance of dark satire and weighty moral and ethical issues. If the show continues to add such heft to the storylines (and I suspect it will), I’ll quit my mild griping about how quickly I fear the premise will wear thin.

Reaper (The CW) — Reaper has also allayed my fears and complaints about its repetitiveness. Granted, they need to throw a few more peppers in the chili before it gets stale, but this episode took the show to a new level—one I hope it stays at until it takes us even further. First, we had the Devil (Ray Wise) doing some legitimate evil for the first time since the pilot—better yet, he made Andi (Missy Peregrym) the target of his scheme. Second: last week’s hot wasp lady soul was clever and interesting, but this week’s Criss Angel soul was wall-to-wall gold. Finally, this show continues to capture the mid-20s underarchiever zeitgeist better than anything I’ve ever seen. I hope it maintains that and gives Sam (Bret Harrison) a slow—very slow!—development into a mature adult. It’ll lose most of its magic if Sam actively attempts to succeed in life.

Stargate: Atlantis (Sci-Fi) — Nightmare crystals? Pseudo-clones buried in the subconscious? Atlantis takes another stab at trying to be Farscape and falls dismally short. It’s a good enough show; it just needs to be itself. On a related note, Carter (Amanda Tapping) would annoy me less if she didn’t keep referencing her previous series.

Supernatural (The CW) — So we’ve finally met the second new girl, Bela (Lauren Cohan). They’ve also decided to show us a few more shades of gray in the demon-hunting world: Bela is a thief and con artist, stealing occult artifacts and selling them to the highest bidder; meanwhile, that psychotic hunter from last season (whose name I can’t recall) has enlisted the help of an ultra-religious hunter (Michael Massee) who, as a result of this episode, believes he’s on a mission from God.

He’s not, though. This week, Sam (Jared Padalecki) finds a cursed rabbit’s foot that gives him extraordinarily good luck—until Bela steals it from him, at which point his luck turns so hard he can’t even walk without falling down and/or losing a shoe. Lighter in tone than most episodes, the pratfalls and goofy physical comedy worked better than I would have expected, especially considering how humorless Sam usually is. I guess Jared Padalecki really is a good actor. Supernatural has laid the groundwork for an interesting season. I hope it pays off.

That’s it for this week.

D. B. Bates is a film critic and television viewer who has often shouted at fictional characters who probably wouldn’t listen to him even if they could hear him and existed in reality. Interested in explaining to D. B. the many ways he got it wrong? E-mail him.

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