Layman State of Television 2006: MONDAYS

MONDAY:
A decent night for TV, starting to take nosedive.

I like Arrested Development quite a bit. I'm not as rabid as a lot of fans, and I'm not gonna piss and moan too loud it is cancelled. I think Fox would be very dumb to pull the plug, considering the awards and accolades this show gets, and I think it probably does well in DVD sales, and I'm sure if it ever reached syndication where you could watch an episode every night, the show would do gangbusters. But it probably won't. Most Americans are idiots, it's a sad fact, and most prefer crap. And so Arrested Development will constantly be on the edge of cancellation. Maybe it would be better to pull the plug so this doesn't have the stigma of being on life-support as it limps along. But, damn, when this show is funny, it's a goddamn riot.

I did not expect to like Prison Break, but I have to admit I like it, especially on nights after I've been drinking (which, ideally, is every night,) this show kicks ass. Clearly, Prison Break owes a huge debt to "pull-crazy-shit-out-of-our-ass-and-make-it-up-as-we-go-along" shows like 24, but damned if it does not work. It's like 24 meets a less-hardcore Oz, with tattooed prison dude coming up wiht some wacky ingenious shit every week, and then alternately being stymied. I especially like the creepy child-molesting racist hick named Teabag, based this blog's loyal reader, Tom B. Long.

Two And A Half Men has the potential of being the funniest show on TV, and certainly it was a great sitcom during last season. Charlie Sheen-- and I say this in all seriousness-- is a COMIC GENIUS, plus I like the little boy played by young C.B Cebulski. And Jon Cryer is pretty good as the nebbish, wet blanket. In particular, I love episodes where Charlie Sheen is just blatantly drunk and a having sex with every skank that moves. But, sadly, the show has sorta limped along with shows that are obviously written by writers on auto-pilot. Oh, well, it's occasionally funny. I'll Tivo it when Prison Break is on repeats and then skip episodes that don't prominent feature Charlie or little C.B.

I'm not crazy about Medium, but my roommate likes it, and so I watch it while it is on, and I find it entertaining enough. Actually, it always suprises me, because it walks a fine line between being predictable and creative. It seems to try new things, even as it provides a sort of comfort-food sleepy regularity. Man, the middle daughter is the biggest fucking brat on the face of the planet. Watching her is pretty much TV's best argument for birth-control.


The winner:



Prison Break, only because it's not gonna be threatened by cancellation any time soon. This is a recommendation with reservations, though, because this show could get real lame, real quick.