On the table

Spoilers for, in order, "Heroes," "The Class" and "How I Met Your Mother" -- all of which built up to surprise endings -- coming up just as soon as I pull this sharp stick out of my head...

Ho. Ly. Schnickes. I was enjoying "Heroes" for most of the first three episodes, but it wasn't until we got to that final shot of Claire on the autopsy table that I knew I was in for the long haul. Any show willing to vivisect a cheerleader on network TV, I'm in favor of. Tim Kring may not be much of a comic fan, but he and his writers keep coming up with these great cliffhangers. I was ambivalent about the pilot until Adrian Pasdar flew, was planning to only watch the first half of my episode 2 & 3 DVD until Hiro realized when he was, and now this.

Outside of the biggest challenge a healing factor has faced since Wolverine had to regenerate himself from a single drop of blood, the highlight for show three was, of course, Hiro (and the return of his buddy Ando). I'm curious exactly how long this comic book is supposed to be; it looks like the standard format, which would mean it's going to run out of pages long before Hiro finishes whatever this quest is. And wouldn't Isaac be freaked to realize he was drawing his own apartment (and, possibly, his own corpse) in a comic book? He always freaked out about his paintings after realizing they had come true, but none of them involve him.

The other scene I loved was Peter at the playground. When I saw him standing on what seemed to be the edge of another building roof for the third episode in a row, I wrote in my notes, "Oh, come on!" Then they pulled back to do the jungle gym reveal, not to mention the little kid in the red cape, and I laughed. That the show already recognized how ponderous some of those Peter scenes had become is a good sign.

Well, now I know why CBS was being so vague in its press releases about what character Sara Gilbert was going to play on "The Class." Not wild about the show going to the adultery well twice in four episodes (or, if she's not Richie's wife, just plain cheating). Even less wild about the continuation of the joke about Holly and her husband not understanding Kyle's boyfriend's perfectly clear English, which is actually about 12 times lamer than the joke about Holly's husband being a not-so-secret flaming queen (or else second cousin to Lyle, the Effeminate Heterosexual). The only really funny stuff this week was Duncan becoming bestest buddies with Yonk. After some marginal improvement in each of the last two weeks, this was a big step backwards.

"How I Met Your Mother" also recycled a recent device, with the series of flashbacks that were repeated twice with the same dialogue but different meaning, but it was a funnier joke to begin with and the entire episode didn't depend on it. (I was starting to suspect that Barney was standing in for Ted around the time Robin talked to the bouncer.) My only major complaint: how do you have Marshall go back to the club and not show him dancing? Even for two seconds? Total missed opportunity.

What did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post

Psychic cops, flying Stop signs and convertible pants

Spoilers for "Heroes," "The Class" and "How I Met Your Mother" (in that order) coming up just as soon as I decide what the comic book about my own life would be called...

So many questions, so few answers in episode two of our superheroic journey. We realize that Hiro traveled through space and time for his jaunt to New York and got to witness both the apocalypse and the results of the election. Are they related? Will Hiro's return to the present prevent both things from happening? We're two episodes in, and I still have zero idea what Niki the stripper's powers are. Her mirror image can not only kick ass, but alter reality? Hmm... And can Peter really fly, or is his power to tap into the powers of people around him? Was the evil conspiracy trying to make some kind of symbolic point by having their hitman pose as a cockroach exterminator after Mohinder's cockroach talk last week? At what point will NBC have a "Heroes" / "Friday Night Lights" crossover where Claire gets run over by one of Kyle Chandler's players? And how much are the writers enjoying the quest to creatively maim her?

I know many of my fellow geeks were psyched for Greg Grunberg's appearance, but he wasn't exactly playing to comic relief type. Still more questions: Is our brain-stealing serial killer tied in to the nuclear detonation or will there be multiple big bads this year? Is Clea DuVall allowed to make a TV appearance on a show that doesn't involve supernatural powers?

And a question for you folks: in the original version of the pilot, Isaac cut his hand (or possibly hands) off to prevent himself from making any more clairvoyant paintings. I don't remember that scene from the final version when I watched it weeks ago, and he obviously wasn't an amputee in this episode, so was it cut or did they just ignore it?

Decent episode three of "The Class." Holly's queeny husband is completely absent, and her getting gobsmacked by the Stop sign was the single funniest thing in all three episodes. But I can't help feeling like the show would be much better if they trimmed the cast down to Jason Ritter, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Jon Bernthal and one or both of the twin sisters (I go back and forth on how much Heather Goldenhersh's speaking voice annoys me). Maybe I'll feel differently when they do more mixing and matching among the eight, but there's too much dead weight.

And so, "HIMYM" finds a way to telegraph the end of Ted and Robin's relationship by presenting his parents as an exact parallel. Again, I'm cool with them staying together for multiple seasons, so long as the show doesn't drown in pathos when it's time for the inevitable split. The Marshall and Lily portion of the narrative triptych was my favorite, but there were pleasures to be found in all three. Barney got some karmic payback for last week's multiple "rack-jacking" of Marshall by having Steven Keaton do the same thing to him.

What did everybody else think? Click here to read the full post

HIMYM & The Class: Apartments and houses

Skipped over "Prison Break" so I could toggle between the CBS comedies and the first game at the Superdome in 21 months. Feel free to spoil me; while I like it, it's become skippable to me.

Spoilers for "How I Met Your Mother" and "The Class" just as soon as I put up some drywall...

Interesting parallel theme here, as each show's best line revolved around real estate: Lily's "The apartment is a metaphor for Marshall!" and Duncan's "This place is not well-built!" And the latter is really to Jon Bernthal's credit. Lily's line is funny in and of itself, though Alyson Hannigan's delivery was perfect, but "This place is not well built!" is funny entirely because of the goofy pride Bernthal invests in it.

That line, and Duncan demonstrating all the things wrong with the house, were easily the highlight of the second "Class." The scenes with Holly and the three gay men were a complete waste; not only is Holly's husband a cheap gay joke, but they used him to make cheap accent jokes. (And Kyle's partner's accent isn't even that thick.) The scenes with the other quartet were up and down, though I liked Richie's look of resignation after realizing his bad timing with the pills.

Still, the fact that I laughed out loud three or four times marked this as a significant improvement over the pilot for me. But as I've said, others have told me I'm out of my gourd on this one. What say you?

Meanwhile, "HIMYM" continues to fire on all cylinders: Barney's magic, the fast-forwarded conversation about "candy," Ted mocking Robin's Canadian heritage, the real version of Lily's summer in "SF" (including the exact same dialogue, just with different emphasis), and, of course, Marshall's revenge on Barney. I like that they're willing to allow Barney to be a total sleaze; I was afraid that he had some kind of noble motive for swiping Marshall's women, but thankfully, he's just an ass.

I suppose it would be too easy for Marshall to just take Lily back, plus it would create two happy couples plus Barney, but I prefer the show with the soap quotient as low as possible. Click here to read the full post

HIMYM & The Class: In need of a switcheroo

Thoughts on the return of "How I Met Your Mother" and the debut of "The Class" comin' right up...

I am very, very pleased with the "HIMYM" writers right now. Ted and Robin are now an item, which takes advantage of Radnor and Smulders' chemistry, but they haven't taken over the show, ala Ross 'n Rachel. Loved Barney's despair at all their displays of schmoopiness, with seppuku being the best of his various suicide mimes. (Barney's pimped-out version of the Tom Joad "I'll be there" speech was another highlight.)

Meanwhile, Marshall takes over the soap opera quotient and manages to make it a whole lot funnier than Ted and Robin's UST ever was, particularly him pelting the happy couple at Yankees Stadium. I also liked the scene at the gun range; any effort to make Robin more than the hot girl is a wise move. And my buddy Joe Adalian gets Tucker-ized as the identity thief. Lucky bastige. I was told years ago that because there are so few Sepinwalls in the world (a little over a dozen total), it won't clear legally, so I can never receive such an honor. Sigh...

As I've mentioned in my various pilot review posts, "The Class" does not get off to a strong start. The good: I like Jason Ritter, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Heather Goldenhersh (and, for the record, she talks that way in real life, too) and Jon Bernthal. The bad: I hate every scene with the blonde anchorwoman and her flaming husband (not only did Crane tread similar ground with Ross' lesbian wife, but it makes one of the show's main characters into a bigger idiot than Joey Tribiani), and there are so many characters that the jokes wind up being really broad, obvious and not that funny.

I liked the next couple of episodes better, though some other critics I spoke to think the improvement is all in my head. We'll see. Either way, I'm baffled that CBS is making this the lead-off hitter instead of "HIMYM."

What did everybody else think about either show? Click here to read the full post

Pilot Watch: CBS

Well, that sneaky bastard Dan Fienberg has stolen my idea of stealing his idea of doing trailer reviews and applying it to pilots -- not to mention adding the twist of suggesting potential roles for Eric Balfour in each show -- but I'm going to go ahead with my own takes anyway, starting with CBS. I've also seen most of the Fox dramas and got the full stack of NBC pilots today, so I'll try to do these as I go.

One caveat: these are not reviews. Many, many things about these shows will change, from music (the "Jericho" pilot uses The Killers' "All These Things That I Have Done" and I'll bet my house it doesn't make it to air that way) to casting (Eric Balfour?) to deleted and added scenes. These are just early impressions, keeping in mind that I've seen many shows get better or worse between now and when the final version debuts in the fall.

"The Class"
Who's in it: Jason Ritter, Andrea Anders, Lizzy Caplan, that British guy who was in the bad WB sitcom with Harold from "Harold and Kumar" and Finch from "American Pie," plus other people I don't recognize.
What it's about: Former third-grade classmates reunite as late twentysomethings, all with their own problems.
Pluses: Like his dad, Jason Ritter is enormously likable and looks really comfortable standing next to a fake living room couch. Lizzy Caplan has my eternal loyalty for taking Jason Segel disco dancing in the "Freaks and Geeks" finale. David Crane, the co-creator, also co-created "Friends."
Minuses: A lot of characters -- eight regulars plus at least as many spouses/girlfriends/parents/sidekicks who will be recurring -- get introduced in a very short period of time, which means every one -- and every joke -- is really very broad so you can keep track of who's trapped in the bad marriage, who's the type-A overachiever, who's secretly gay, etc., etc. Very sitcommy, but not as funny as the "Friends" pilot -- or the "How I Met Your Mother" pilot, for that matter.

"Smith"
Who's In It: Ray Liotta, Virginia Madsen, Simon Baker, Amy Smart, Jonny Lee Miller, Franky G
What It's About: A master thief and his crew try to pull off a few more jobs so he can retire before his ex-con wife figures out he hasn't gone straight yet.
Pluses: Have you looked at that cast list? Okay, subtract Franky G and add Shoreh Aghdashloo, who has what I hope will be a recurring role as Liotta's fence, and that's as talented and pedigreed an ensemble as I've seen in a while. (Then again, ABC has a show that somehow features both Campbell Scott and Hope Davis, so maybe this is just a season where a lot of indie character actors got mortgages.) Cool setting and some nice moments, particularly an early scene that establishes Baker's sniper as the kind of amoral sociopath you usually don't see on network TV. (Fienberg is convinced it will be cut before September; I'm more optimistic.) Smart is also really strong as a damaged woman of a thousand identities, all of them involving low-cut tops.
Minuses: It's by John Wells, so you know it's going to be competent but glum. What's there so far isn't nearly as much fun as an "Ocean's 11" and not nearly as stylish as a Michael Mann caper story. However, the pilot runs almost 60 minutes without commercials, so there's plenty of room to add some scenes to tip it one way or the other. (Either they pad it out to two hours or they cut off all the fat.)

"Shark"
Who's In It: James Woods, Jeri Ryan
What It's About: Celebrity criminal defense attorney has a come-to-Jesus moment and joins the DA's office after one of his clients goes bad after acquittal.
Pluses: It's James Woods chewing scenery for 41 minutes. Really, do you need to know anything beyond that? Sort of a flip side of "True Believer," my favorite Woods movie.
Minuses: The producers clearly want to do "House" in a courtroom, but by the end of the pilot, they've softened Woods' character in ways that the "House" producers haven't felt the need to do in two seasons. Woods is a great enough actor that we're going to like him even when he's being a bastard, so let him be one -- please. Also, Ryan (as Woods' disapproving boss) has less to do than Lisa Edelstein and the eager beaver prosecutors learning dirty tricks from Woods are all interchangeable.

"Jericho"
Who's In It: Skeet Ulrich, Gerald McRaney, Sprague Grayden, Pamela Reed, Ashley Scott
What It's About: After a series of nuclear explosions cuts a small Kansas town off from the rest of America, residents don't know what's happened, how much of the country (or world) survived, how to deal with dwindling supplies, etc., etc.
Pluses: An intriguing concept, though skiffy fans hoping this will be another "Lost" are going to be disappointed, since there are no hints of any kind in the pilot that this will involve monsters, psychics, Skinner's Boxes, cursed numbers or anything the least bit paranormal. (That part's a plus for me, too; there's enough potential in dealing with the reality of a situation like this that they could get years out of it without having to tease the audience with half-baked mysteries and clues.) Either McRaney has gotten much better with age or I've just appreciated him more since he's been on "Deadwood," but he's really strong. There's a nice disaster movie-style sequence with a wounded Ulrich and Grayden trying to take care of a busful of scared kids. Of all the pilots I've seen so far, this was the one where I most wanted to see a second episode.
Minuses: Skeet Ulrich. I was hoping he could pull a Matthew Fox and develop some charisma as he got older, but 'tis not to be. Other than McRaney, all the other characters are types at best so far. But there's plenty of time to add in some shadings.

Off to watch "Studio 60" and write about "Rescue Me." More late tonight or early tomorrow. Click here to read the full post