TV of 2012

[dx23]

According to Endgadget, AMC and the sister channels are returning to Dish Network tonight.

[knives]

Besides being made by Bryan Fuller I cannot conceive how Mockingbird Lane was not picked up for a season.

[mfunk9786]

I think this was essentially a bowel movement on the part of the network. Even if it came out well, it wasn't something that anyone was looking for, but something that the network was dead set on creating eventually. No one was or is looking for a Munsters reboot.

[knives]

I am and from what I understand it was a passion project on Fuller's part.

[warren oates]

Just wanted to emphatically pan Last Resort, which I soooooooo wanted to love or at least like. Andre Braugher and Robert Patrick in a big budget military action thriller with procedural and conspiracy elements -- what's not to love? Just about everything about the way it all plays out, including but not limited to the way in which every accurate military detail is undermined by two more that are ignored (when it wouldn't matter either way) or flagrantly flouted (when it would). Worse still is the manic-depressive writing which imagines we'll stick around to see how all the threads of mystery play out while breathlessly zipping on to the next thing and summarily dispatching with any story developments we might have thought were going somewhere. Worst of all, though, is the geopolitical ignorance the entire series is predicated on. The fact that what happens in the pilot happens and all that anyone seems concerned about is the

SpoilerShow

arguable mutiny of a single American sub crew. Really? Really world? Like a nuclear strike on Pakistan wouldn't have bothered anyone else? Or likely have led to an all-out nuclear exchange on the subcontinent that ends with a worldwide nuclear winter? Really? Let's not forget that the precipitating event of the entire series -- Braugher's refusal to launch on shady orders -- gets upended by the end of the pilot when he summarily decides to nuke the American Atlantic coast. Just to, you know, show us that he's serious about his nuclear blackmail. And of course the bomb goes off at a Dark Knight Rises "safe" distance from the big city. And of course nobody worries about collateral damage in the shipping lanes or long-term radioactive fallout. This is America. This is TV.

I can't believe how smart this show could be, given the talent and resources involved, and how dumb it chooses to be instead. Don't even get me started on how lame just about every scene -- too many -- that isn't on the sub turns out to be. The island and D.C. locations are equally ludicrous for opposite reasons. And, while I was under the mistaken impression that this show would be all about the sub, I was initially willing to go with the show's wider world. Except when the wider world of the show left out the press, the president and, you know, the rest of the actual world. Ugh.

EDIT: I don't know why, but I made myself suffer through two additional episodes on the DVR just for giggles. And there were plenty of unintended laughs. Like when the Sec Def shows up on the beach in a three piece suit in episode 5 to finally offer some "reasons" for the nuking of our erstwhile ally straight from the Bush Neocon playbook (on crack). Basically we did it because "We're out there remaking the world!" Huh. Okay, then. Teaser for next episode: hallucinatory gas! Whuh?

If there's anything that this show reminds me of it's the idea that even in genre thrillers the antagonists' plans have to make sense. Bad guys don't just do bad stuff randomly (like the Russian Special Forces team in episode 2). And they don't just take the most complicated or interesting route to their goal. Like everyone else, bad guys want what they want and will try to get it with as little effort as possible.

*Okay, I just actually threw up in my mouth a lot, because I forgot to mention that the very end of the third episode brazenly rips off the gorgeous native music from The Thin Red Line. I mean, like triple wtf!??

A harebrained mash-up of Crimson Tide, Seven Days in May and Lost. This time around, Shawn Ryan's made as bad a show in three episodes as The Unit was good (at least for three seasons).

[Andre Jurieu]

Strange news regarding the retooling of Up All Night to become a multi-camera sitcom. It sounds so absurd that it feels like this is an Onion article rather than from the AV Club. Still, potentially good news for Community.

[Murdoch]

What the what?

[willoneill]

There's a Chuck Cunningham joke in there somewhere.

[dx23]

Apparently Angus T Jones, the kid from Two and a Half Men, has become the new Kirk Cameron and has been brainwashed by something called Forerunner. He wants people to stop watching the show since it is "filth".

[Andre Jurieu]

Apparently Angus T Jones, the kid from Two and a Half Men ... wants people to stop watching the show since it is "filth".

Though, in his defense, (other than Mila Kunis) I consider anything associated to Ashton Kutcher to be filth. I mean, the guy can't even restrain his douche-ness for a 30 second Nikon Camera commercial.

[Murdoch]

To be fair, Two and a Half Men was a terrible show long before Kutcher arrived.

[Andre Jurieu]

To be fair, Two and a Half Men was a terrible show long before Kutcher arrived.

Very true. I was actually going to say something along those lines, but figured I should just save my scorn and derision for one target at a time.

[Drucker]

To be fair, Two and a Half Men was a terrible show long before Kutcher arrived.

Very true. I was actually going to say something along those lines, but figured I should just save my scorn and derision for one target at a time.

Two and a Half men, though, I find infinitely more watchable than the terrible Anger Management show Charlie Sheen has. Awful.

[TomReagan]

Although it doesn’t seem to garner much love here, last night’s conclusion to Season 3 of Boardwalk Empire was immensely satisfying. I have always admired this show for many reasons (direction, set design, a gallery of very good character actors, etc.), and I was uncertain if it could reestablish its moorings after the Season 2 finale (no spoilers here), but it’s firing on all cylinders now. This past season was by far its most accomplished, and that is not meant to damn it with faint praise.

Somewhat surprisingly, I find myself enjoying Empire and The Walking Dead more than most fare this season – I have (like many others) deep misgivings about Homeland now (after a very strong first season), and have utterly abandoned all hope (again) for Dexter after a decent start to this year. Naturally, I await the conclusion of Breaking Bad with great anticipation, and always look forward to Mad Men, but Boardwalk (and to a much lesser extent, The Walking Dead as a pulpy, propulsive alternative) is now firmly established as one my favorite shows. It’s a genuinely rare occurrence when a program becomes better and more effective as it moves forward.

[lacritfan]

AFI TELEVISION PROGRAMS OF THE YEAR (scroll down)
AMERICAN HORROR STORY: ASYLUM
BREAKING BAD
GAME CHANGE
GAME OF THRONES
GIRLS
HOMELAND
LOUIE
MAD MEN
MODERN FAMILY
THE WALKING DEAD

[The Narrator Returns]

I watch American Horror Story Asylum religiously (no pun intended), but whose idea of good television is that? Its appeal is that it's awful in all the entertaining ways.

[Murdoch]

It has more right choices than wrong ones at least. Although there are quite a few shows I'd rather watch than American Horror Story, Modern Family, or Walking Dead, the first of which I didn't know was held is such high regard (and I really don't understand why it is).

[tarpilot]

HBO greenlights new live-action series from Mike Judge

[Cold Bishop]

And perhaps the last great pop-culture moment of 2012: Demi Lovato on the Eric Andre Show.