gt;2010 is in its infancy, so I’m still trying to get my bearings on the New Year in television. Leno is out, “Lost” is ending and God must hate me because “Glee” is gone. When in creative doubt, I turn to lists. Ergo, I present to you the resolutions that will guide my TV consumption in the New Year and accompany my more traditional goals to shower more often, use that Moleskine I bought to get my parking validated and read<\p>.<\p>.<\p>.<\p>for fun. I have lots of catching up to do to prepare for the new premieres and even more waiting for highly anticipated returns.
2010 is in its infancy, so I’m still trying to get my bearings on the New Year in television. Leno is out, “Lost” is ending and God must hate me because “Glee” is gone. When in creative doubt, I turn to lists. Ergo, I present to you the resolutions that will guide my TV consumption in the New Year and accompany my more traditional goals to shower more often, use that Moleskine I bought to get my parking validated and read…for fun. I have lots of catching up to do to prepare for the new premieres and even more waiting for highly anticipated returns.
1. Figure out how I feel about “Chuck,” independent of the barrage of advertising.
While NBC has taken to every form of modern media to convince us to like Josh Schwartz’s middle child, “Chuck,” I’m still on the fence. I’ve watched the first four episodes from Season 1, which aired 13 episodes from 2007 to 2008. Although I loved the pilot, subsequent schemes have failed to hold my attention. References to Stanford are rampant, however, because Chuck was an “engineering” major (no specialty provided) and was expelled from Stanford when accused of plagiarism. The Stanford connection and attractive actors intrigue me, so I’ll stick it out for the first season. All of my favorite TV critics prostrate their columns before the Chuck altar, so I hope to mature enough in the New Year to appreciate it.
2. Catch up on the expanded cable shows I haven’t shamelessly watched illegally, such as “United States of Tara” and “In Treatment.”
I overlooked “United States of Tara,” the Diablo Cody show about a housewife with multiple personalities, when it premiered on Showtime last year because I was so over the Juno-isms. Having watched the first few episodes, I’m blown away by Toni Collette’s performance. I have yet to see how you make a coherent season out of her three alter-egos (the horny teen, the ’50s Christian housewife and the motorcycling, motorboating man), but I want to be prepared for the second season when it begins in March of this year.
I also just finished Season 1 of “In Treatment,” which featured Mia Wasikowska, who will play Alice in Tim Burton’s film adaptation this year. She was phenomenal in this HBO serial (i.e. five nights a week) drama about a therapist and I hear the second season is even better. My Netflix queue is already full with the nine discs of that one…
3. Come to decision about “Lost.”
Confessional: I’ve never watched “Lost.” JJ Abrams is certainly a visionary for television in the 21st century and I’m an incomplete TV critic without having joined the cult…I’m so uninformed I can’t even make a good pun about it. My question is: Do I watch all five seasons before the Feb. 2 premiere of the final season?
4. Assess the new pilots.
The Internet is abuzz that NBC ordered up 18 new pilots for the New Year and has recently announced that Leno will no longer air during prime time, but we’ll have to wait for that thing in Vancouver with Bob Costas to blow over to find out just what those are. In the meantime, here are two shows I’ve read about that I’m excited for: “The Deep End” on ABC and “Human Target” on Fox.
“The Deep End” is about a group of law associates in L.A., so I’m hoping it will sate my curiosity about the law students who live locked away in their Munger palaces. It also features the mousey girl I love from “Veronica Mars” and “Big Love,” actress Tina Majorino. “Human Target” purports to be based on a DC comic I’ve never heard of. The premise sounds interesting enough: a bodyguard who strategically places himself in his clients’ lives to draw out threats. Alternatively, “Parenthood,” a new NBC show about families, sounds like a dramatic rip off of “Modern Family.”
5. Wait patiently for “True Blood” and “Glee.”
As the Counting Crows crooned, with help from Vanessa Carlton, “don’t it always seem to go that you don’t know what you’ve got til it’s gone.” I realized over break how much I miss “Glee,” for as critical as I was of them when pouring over them on Wednesday nights. For example, I even had a craving for some “Acafellas…” it’s that bad. Also, all the casting news about Season 3 of “True Blood” makes another internship-less summer look just dandy…I mean, Lafayette is taking a lover!
These are my ruminations upon that thing that was once called the boob tube. If you ever want to talk shop, I’ll be the girl in Green Library swearing when Megavideo lies to me about how much TV I’ve watched that day.