Summer TV Preview Countdown #2

2) Psych


Oh James Roday. You're so cute. And swoon-worthy. And, of course, a complete fake. This fun series returns this summer, and I will be absolutely glued to my TV set. For one thing, Psych is not just the story of two best friends getting in and out of trouble. It's also a fast-paced journey back in time with numerous 80's references that only those of us born '85 and earlier will get.

Then there's the show's unique brand of humor and focus on friendship. All the characters have different relationships to each other and play those parts well. The young ingenue detective, Juliet just wants everyone to be happy and cheerful. She was a sorority sister, and probably also a cheerleader at one point. She's happy and sunny, and the only thing that brings her down is when her partner, Lassiter just doesn't want to be happy. Which is always.

The cast has fun doing each taping, and you can tell. The excitement is palpable. Shawn's twitchy over-acting for his part of the SBPD pet psychic is just right here. And after last season's fantastic Tuesday the 17th episode, I can't wait to find out what else the writing team has in store for us.

Summer TV Preview Countdown #3

3) (It's a tie!) Monk & Royal Pains

Monk is saying goodbye. Maybe even to wipes? We can hope.

With this summer comes the 8th and final season of Monk. And, I'm sure, quite a few revelations. Monk may have lost me as a viewer around season 4, but that won't stop me coming back when I have a feeling that a lot of old strings will get tied up this season (well, they'd have to, right?).

My dad and I have some theories about what will happen this season:

Plot line the first
a) Monk will finally confront Trudy's murderer.
b) Trudy's murderer will be killed in some way that is only marginally Monk's fault.
c) Because Trudy's murderer is dead, Monk will start making headway on conquering some of his OCD
d) Monk will be reinstated to the police force
e) Natalie will be paid, in full

Plot line the second
a) Monk will finally confront Trudy's murderer.
b) Monk will fall in love with a secondary or tertiary character
c) This love interest will help Monk get over some of his fears.

In any case, it looks to be a nice little wrap-up. And I'm excited to see how the whole thing concludes.

As for Royal Pains . . .

Concierge Doctor with denial is a hottie.

I caught the pilot of this little gem last week. Frankly, for the most part, USA could take just about any actor and any plot and keep their writers the same and I'd be all over it like iguanas on a warm rock. Royal Pains is slightly different from their usual fare. The camera work is slick and clean. The main character isn't the wise-cracker but the straight man, while his brother is the main comedic force of the show.

The pilot was actually a very nice balance of drama and comedy. And you really get the sense from the show that you'd love to punch some of those rich people right in the face. If that's not good story telling, I don't know what is.

Potential down-sides: Will Americans want to see rich people living high-on-the-hog and throwing away money on fancy cars and postage stamps, particularly in this down-turn economy? I'm not really sure. This is definitely a slow-starter series. And I can see it either being pulled late-season, or becoming a sudden break-out hit. In the case of the latter, the writers WILL need to step it up. This is not really a medical mystery show so much as a interaction drama. We get to sit and watch all these rich people relate to one another and money change hands, but for right now, none of the major characters (save one, the female hospital doctor) have a long-term goal.

It can be truly unnerving to watch these people prance around the screen in their yuppie/preppy suits, acting on whims and not on future plans. So Royal Pains is a waiting game. As it stands though, I'll be tuning in each Thursday to catch it (perhaps even at the cost of missing "The Fashion Show").

Summer TV Preview Countdown #4

Let the countdown of Summertime TV continue!

4) Project Runway (Season 6)

Heidi and Tim weren't sure if you were aware that
they've moved their whoring over to Lifetime TV.
Now you don't have to feel bad when the contestants
design something so bad, it makes you cry.

So here's the thing. I've been an avid PR watcher since season 1 aired while I was in college. The girls in my dorm would gather in someone's room and eat popcorn and critique like mad for an hour and the whole experience was very cathartic. There's something splendid about just being mean about someone else's creative output. This is obviously an emotion that Bravo knows only too well, since they made sure to have an extensive line-up of shows based solely on this premise (Blow Out, Top Chef, Flipping Out, Tabatha's Salon Takeover, etc.). When they sold it to Lifetime TV, I thought they were nuts. But it turned out they were in talks to start up The Fashion Show (and we can see how well that turned out).

In any case, Project Runway will be starting up on August 20th this summer, and despite the change of venue, I remain as faithful as always. I only hope it contains less bitchery than The Fashion Show contains; shouldn't be too difficult.

Upcoming Film: Coraline

It's been a while since I was last psyched about an upcoming film release. Most notably, I'm seriously looking forward to X-men Origins flick, "Wolverine". But that isn't projected to come out until May this year. So until then, I'm going to have to sedate myself with the variety of twee tween fantastical-romances that are griming up the movie pipeline. And "Coraline", which the trailer promises to be every bit as amazing as Mr. Tim Burton's first clay-mation feature film, "Nightmare Before Christmas" (Burton's first clay-mation short was "Vincent" in 1982).

Careful, Coraline. Curiosity supposedly killed the cat.

What makes "Coraline" so much more thrilling in concept is that the story was created by Neil Gaiman, the same mind who wrote the brilliant "Stardust", and BBC's "Neverwhere". All the trailers I've seen so far indicate that "Coraline" is a very promising film that Burton's dark vision lends itself to perfectly.

Seeing "Nightmare Before Christmas" still imbues me with a child-like sense of wonder, so I'm certainly looking forward to more from both Gaiman and Burton. Not to mention that although I'm not really a fan of Dakota Fanning (or, admittedly, her voice), the voice acting in the trailer seems SPOT ON. I'm very excited for this and the release date is thankfully quite soon, to save us from "Twilight" dregs.

Coraline comes to theaters February 6th. See below for the trailer.

I'm waiting for: Middleman (DVD)

I don't really watch all that much TV, generally, and when I do, I tend to gravitate towards shows falling into one of the following categories:

1) Unapologetically nerdy - Nature specials, History channel specials. You know the type. I'm the kind of person who could watch "Planet Earth" in HD for HOURS, and I have. I want to know about all the little intricacies of the squid life cycle, or the exact crushing power of a lion's jaws as compared with an eagle. Nerdy.

2) Orgasmically geeky - The type of show which has no problem referencing a slew of pop culture icons in under 5 minutes. I think a lot of people are attracted to shows like this, which accounts for the unprecedented success (and verbal speed) of Gilmore Girls.

Lorelei and Lorelei have average speaking speed of ~145wpm.
Liza Weil thinks that's pretty slow.

It's easy to categorize the latter type of shows into something you can dismiss because they're so pop-culture lite, but according to Steven Johnson's Everything Bad is Good for You, these kinds of shows encourage us to think on our feet and develop faster cognitive skills.

So it's no wonder that I was enthralled by summer 2008 new-comer "The Middleman", which was originally based off of a comic book of the same name. Writer Javier Grillo-Marxuach created a witty fast-paced dialogue that draws on ennumerable areas of pop-culture. Not to mention that all the main characters are hot.

Sexy AND Smart: Natalie Morales and Matt Keeslar
are here to protect you from amazonian fish-eating zombies.

According to all the current news sources for the undeniably dorky, "The Middleman" is not currently on track to be released to DVD. And ABC Family which hosted the original run of the show has neglected to put up whole episodes for viewing. So there is currently no legal recourse for those who want to access this show and see what I'm talking about. However, I will certainly be offering up the contents of my wallet for anything else Grillo-Marxuach produces (as evidenced by my gleeful joy when I ordered a copy of the comic off of Amazon.com).

If you have a chance to see any episodes of Middleman, jump on the opportunity. I promise that it's worth it.