fold my heart up small or break it into pieces

OK, so, let's talk new television for a minute or three. Proceeding in alphabetical order:

• Heroes. The number of things this show could have done wrong is staggering. Superheroes are an incredibly loaded concept with a lot history. From their origins in four-color comic books to Rising Stars and beyond, from GURPS Supers to Aberrant and City of Heroes, this show was absolutely forced to walk a razorwire tightrope. One too many allusions to the X-men and the whole thing would become crashingly derivative. One too few nods to the principles expounded by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and it could turn to crappy pabulum. And yet by framing the entire thing in suitably epic terms, as a meditation on destiny and more importantly on what it means to be a hero, the writers have managed to pull off the balancing act, and to do it in style. This show just gets more enjoyable with every episode, and I'm so poised for the big reveal next episode I'm probably going to watch it as it airs rather than on Tivo, commercials be damned.
  
  Now, having praised the Hell out of the show, I'm going to admit that its not flawless. Its doing a fantastic job of world-building so far, but its operating in a sandbox so well-known by geeks that its impossible not to make comparisons. Last week when war_pug couldn't remember the name "Mohinder Suresh" in conversation he simply substituted "Professor X" and nobody missed a beat, despite the fact that the two are far from perfect analogues. And in an era when Lost's popularity is still at full steam even as some fans grow disillusioned with the pretense of a grand design (more on this when I get to talking about this season's Battlestar Galactica) this series could still take a turn for the disastrous. I don't think its going to; everything in the writing and the previews for next week suggest they intend to resolve at least some of their many mysteries and plot threads, though I would be honestly disappointed if they wrapped them all up neatly. But they could just be stringing me and everyone else along. Its been known to happen. We'll see. And in the meantime I'll be watching every minute.


• Jericho. This show started off promisingly enough, with a solid premise and a good series premiere. And it made a very conscious choice to be character-driven, a choice that defines the show, really. Jericho isn't about apocalypses or political conspiracies, its about the inhabitants of a little town in Kansas named Jericho. Its so focused on developing each of the characters and their motivations that it initially told the story of each day after the bombs exploded one episode at a time, so that when the series jumped forward a week in the third or fourth episode it felt actively jarring. Like you had missed something in the day-to-day lives of the people of Jericho, and that's what the show is all about.
  
  That isn't where the show falls down for me, however. I can't fault that choice. Its compelling and it makes for good television. Its just... I don't actually care that much. There's a reason that, CSI notwithstanding, I basically don't watch any shows that air on CBS. I'm not all that fascinated by the lives of ordinary people. Especially not when they're placed in an extraordinary situation and respond, well... ordinarily. A few episodes ago there were honest-to-god horse thieves on the show, and passing mention was made that one of the horses had been sold (presumably by the thieves) to a man in the town's one bar. And I realized that meant there was a guy somewhere, riding around on a horse, in the post-apocalyptic landscape. And though he was never on screen I instantaneously was more interested in him than I was in anyone else in Jericho (yes, even Skeet Ulrich.) The mystery of where the bombs came from and who knows what just isn't intriguing enough to keep me invested, so even though I'm still watching I don't care as much as I did at first. That's just me though; I suspect the show has a wider fanbase that feels differently.


• Studio 60. Oof. demiurgent has, thankfully, already weighed in on this show and its issues, which mostly center around the personal issues of Aaron Sorkin and his complete inability to keep them the Hell out of his writing. Of particular distaste to me is the whole Sorkin/Chenoweth vs. Albie/Hayes parallel. Translating that one directly, without even dressing it up or filing off the serial numbers, was just classy. Anyway, my commentary is going to be framed with his in mind, so if you're really interested I'd recommend clicking through the link and reading what has already been said.
  
  Let me preface any further discussion with the disclaimer that I am a sucker. Anyone who knows me know it. So it probably comes as no great surprise to anyone that, in spite of all its faults, I still like this show. I like the characters and the actors chosen to portray them. I'm addicted to that snappy Sorkin dialogue like the man himself was once addicted to cocaine (zing!), and I'll take it wherever I can get it. And after I get it, I'll slump on the couch with a dopey, happy smile on my face, because I don't have a problem, but man am I grateful for that one. Last. Hit. And inevitably Monday rolls around and NBC is there gently reminding me that this hit is also free, for certain values of "free" that involve killing my soul a little each time I watch this squandering of potential, this mockery of the greatness Aaron Sorkin was once capable of.
  
  Phew. OK, mean-spirited extended metaphor aside, I can see why the show is failing, I honestly can. demiurgent, in his commentary, made mention of the show's lack of a senior mentor figure to act as a sort of ship's captain for the entire affair (see Isaac Jaffe and Leo McGarry.) And he's not wrong about that, but the more I watch the show the more I convinced I become that its Bradley Whitford's Danny Tripp who's actually supposed to be that character. Only, of course, we're so used to seeing him as Josh Lyman (or he's so used to playing Josh Lyman) that the idea of him graduated to the level of maturity required for that role just doesn't come naturally. It doesn't jive. When he quips to Matt Albie that he's like "the puppet-master" it comes off as the sort of snarky over-confident thing Josh Lyman would say just before it all blew up in his face. Only, with Tripp, it didn't blow up in his face. Also there's the fact that, what with Danny Tripp being a pastiche of Aaron Sorkin and Tommy Schlamme, the idea of him in the older-more-mature-guy's chair is insultingly pompous and conceited. All in all it doesn't quite work, which is pretty succinctly my thoughts on the show as a whole.
  
  (Also am I the only one who thinks that Jordan McDeere is very transparently being set up as an alcoholic, and that's part of why Danny Trip gets away with lecturing her? Either Amanda Peet is playing her drunken oddness too big or I'm reading something into the writing that isn't there.)


• Torchwood. OK, yes, I suppose technically this is only current television if you're British. Its not being broadcast on American channels yet, and in fact I have no idea if there any plans for that to ever happen. But c'mon. This is the age of the internet, and if I'm geeky and addicted enough to have watched the new season of Doctor Who as it aired there rather than as it aired here months later, I'm certainly geeky enough to consider this show part of my regular rotation. And if you're not, well, bully for you.
  
  Alright, so. Torchwood is spun-off from Doctor Who and follows the adventures of Captain Jack Harkness, who was briefly a companion of the ninth Doctor, introduced in what I consider the best two-part episode of that season (The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances). Torchwood itself is a fictional institution seeded heavily in the second new Doctor Who season, established by the government of Great Britain but acting outside of all legal authority to investigate and control alien and extradimensional activity. The Torchwood Institute makes an appearance in the two-part season finale for the second season of the new series, in an encounter that, without being spoiler-y, reshapes the goals and destiny of Torchwood, remaking it into the entity as portrayed in the spin-off series. Got all that?
  
  Its not great. I mean, it satisfies the geek in me, who languishes in the absence of new Doctor Who (I'm anticipating the Christmas special so hard it hurts.) And there are just enough little nods to Doctor Who itself (hand in a jar!) that I am left full of geeky glee. But the series doesn't quite stand on its own, or rather it hasn't found its feet (yet.) Its enjoyable enough, in the same way that a packet of barbecue-flavored crisps is enjoyable, but is no substitute for barbecued chicken on a bed of mashed potatoes. I enjoy the principal characters, and I am appropriately tickled by the quasi-adult content (its like watching HBO, and occasionally forgetting that people can swear on television, only to receive a sudden and titillating reminder.) I'm not going to stop watching it anytime soon, but if the internet suddenly dried up and it went away, I wouldn't especially mind having to wait for a DVD boxed set.

much rather wake up, eat a coffee cake / take bath, take nap

And speaking of new television, I just now checked out:

• 3 lbs. Obviously too soon to tell whether this one is good or not, as it just premiered yesterday. But the preview intrigued me so I told the Tivo to snag it, and upon review I'm happy to report that not only does it star Mark Feuerstein (who I know as Cliff Calley from the West Wing) and Stanley Tucci (who you may remember as Nigel from the Devil Wears Prada) but also Indira Varma, a British total hottie from the Torchwood cast. There's even a minor role for Armando Riesco, who played "silent velcro" Jesse from Garden State. The first episode did not suck, and though my history with such things indicates that no mere medical drama will hold my interest for long, for now I'll keep watching.