Ah, yes — the fall TV season has begun, and now my VCR is in overdrive.
I just finished watching the premieres of Desperate Housewives and The West Wing. The Gilmore Girls premiere was two weeks ago, and only Law & Order: Criminal Intent is the only premiere of that family I have yet to catch. (I’ll watch it on USA.)
So let me get all meta and bore you with my opinions of these premieres.
Gilmore Girls: I had to go back and skim through the Television Without Pity recap because I still have last week’s episode on my mind. If the second show of the season is any indication, this season is going to be an uncomfortable one. Both Lorelai and Rory are growing up in their own way, and ultimately, growing apart from each other. And it seems to be hard on both of them. As for the premiere itself, two things come to mind. (1.) Paris rocks, to the point where the idea of a spin-off show featuring Paris sounds like a good idea, which it isn’t. Paris is so extreme, putting her at the center of her own show would be sensory overload. But Liza Weil kicks ass. (2.) When Logan is the voice of reason in the entire episode, you know something is wrong.
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit: Maybe it’s the residual of Oz affecting my judgment, but I would have thought Robert Patrick’s character, having spent 21 years in prison, would have punked Elliott. But we’re talking network television here — that’s something done on cable.
Law & Order: Thank diety Jesse L. Martin trimmed those chops of his. They were getting out of control. And Annie Parisse seems to be a lot more comfortable in her role as the new A.D.A. I liked how Van Buren slapped Fontana down. This first episode of the new season felt a lot more urgent than anything done when LawBarbie was around.
The West Wing: I had to rewind the tape when Josh told Donna, “If you don’t think I miss you everyday, then …”
Desperate Housewives: I forgot this show runs over, so my VCR cut the last few seconds of the episode. I read about it on the web anyway, so I’m not too shattered. Andrew is such an asshole. But I guess that goes with the whole rainbow diversity — gay people can be evil assholes too. “I didn’t ask for your help!” Get her.
I haven’t seen a single episode of the Fontana era. I don’t know why; I think I just keep forgetting somehow that NBC is still running it. My mother-in-law is still a devoted viewer and we have the episides on the TiVo, but somehow, I just can’t work up enough curiosity.
I was there, front and center for CI, though. I’ll do anything for Mike Logan.
You’re not really missing all that much from last season, but you should give the new episodes this season a shot.
Toward the end of last season, the writers tried to make Fontana more of a thug, but he’s a lot more entertaining when he’s, um, gay. (That’s the only way I can label his fashion sense and taste.)
Alex Borgia doesn’t seem to have the kind of distinctive personality as Claire, Jamie or Abby, but the greatest thing she’s got going is that she isn’t Serena. Hey, let’s start calling Serena LesbianLawBarbie!
Was the CI season premiere a Logan episode? I just saw a promo for the one coming up next Sunday with Logan. VDO got way too twitchy in the subsequent seasons.
Noth had about five minutes of screen time on the season premiere. Good enough for me.