Television Musings

Written January 2006.

It's been a weird season of television. Though I've only picked up a couple of new series, it's only due to lack of time, not quality, because the episodes of Prison Break, Over There, Bones, The Closer, Kitchen Confidential, My Name Is Chris, and How I Met Your Mother were all pretty good, frankly. But PVR or no, I just can't watch that much TV. (Maybe I'll catch a few in rerun season.) But a couple did weasel their way onto the "Record all" list:

Favourite new series

My Name is Earl. Earl is just kind of delightful. The side characters are a hoot. The premise is holding out better than I would have expected. What can I say. I like Earl.
Commander in Chief. I finally couldn't resist this intelligent and optimistic look at US politics. Eventually, Mac is going to have to fail, but it has been enjoyable watching her succeed.

Meantime, my old stand-bys were, largely, not as good as they had been, yet not quite bad or annoying enough to drop completely. So, definitely some watching more out of habit than enthusiasm going on (for Everwood, Medium, Desperate Housewives). Still, a few have managed to stand up and out:

Favourite ongoing series

Six Feet Under. For people who have The Movie Network, this series is already over. For those like me, waiting until Showcase can broadcast the episodes, we're just starting Season 4. (We had the fun of Season 4 launching immediately after Season 3 ended.) Showcase is great because new episodes play every week, without fail, in the same time slot—no big gaps full of reruns. And I love the cast and characters of the series, even though they are a bunch of weirdos.
30 Days. I just stumbled upon this series, playing only on the digital IFC channel, but it's been great. Morgan Spurlock, the guy made famous through his Super-Size Me documentary in which he subsisted (barely) on McDonald's food for 30 days, produces this series in which various people try something new for 30 days. He and fiancée Alex are the first guinea pigs, trying to survive on minimum wage jobs. They somewhat get by until insane hospital bills come in. Also affecting were episodes in which a sheltered straight man was embedded in San Francisco's gay culture, and another in which a Christian went to live in a Muslim community. The enlightment experience was heartening—it really was.
The Daily Show. Jon's interviews are getting tougher (at least on those who deserve it, such as O'Reilly) and his opening montage is, as always, often bracing and hilarious. Not all the correspondant stuff works, but hey—this show is produced daily!
Da Vinci's City Hall. The problem with this show is that it's dark, so I don't always feel like getting into it. But it's undeniably interesting, well-acted, and well-written. And at least occasionally the good guys (or the lighter gray guys, anyway) win.
Weeds. Showcase has a lot of quirky shows. Six Feet Under, Dead Like Me, Rescue Me—good. But quirky. So I couldn't keep them all up. But we did retain Weeds, the story of a widow who sells marijuana to retain her lifestyle. Though I'm still not sure why she doesn't just get a regular job, and ponder a little why the husband didn't have more life insurance, I can't help but enjoy Mary-Louise Parker's performance in this role.

Notable Documentaries

Sugihara: Conspiracy of Kindness. On the digital Book Television channel, this documentary recounted a World War II story I'd never heard before: how a Japanese embassador stationed in Lithiuania saved thousands of Jews by defying his own government and granting exit visas. Very admirable.
Social Genocide. Presented on the digital Documentary channel, this story of Argentina's recent political history makes our Canadian political scandals and broken promises seem really very, very minor... Just an unbelievable saga of how a democratically elected government was bribed into devastating the country economically to appease the MIF.
Ice Storm: The Sale and Pelletier Affair. OK, really different scale here, but figure skating is big business, and this is a pretty sobering look at how government, Olympic, and even mafia figures got involved in pre-determining the outcome. And the most severaly punished were the whistle-blowers who pointed this out.
One Dead Indian. A docu-drama rather than a documentary, this was still an eye-opener. The police and, particularly, Mike Harris' Conservative government really don't come out looking good in this account of their handling of the Ipperwash affair.