CW: One Tree Hill 5.1 – Touch me I’m Going to Scream

It’s back. The greatest guilty pleasure there is. I always miss Peyton Sawyer a little more than I should. I think it’s possible she’s the only character on TV I’d actually spend time with in real life.

 

The new season begins and they try to make us think Luc married Brooke. For a second I kind of like the idea and almost believe it, but they over egg it by claiming the pair are living the high life in New York. I don’t believe they’d really leave Tree Hill. Then it cuts to a scenario where’s he’s married to Lindsay and I know it’s a dream sequence. Then we see him married to Peyton and it just feels right. Those two are made for each other, always have been, even if I do think Peyton can do better. Maybe someone who doesn’t flit between pretentious navel gazer and defeatist misanthrope. Plus his tattoo is stupid and his nose annoys me. Peyton and Brooke should hook up. Anyway. And the end of the dream sequence we see Luc is at an airport waiting for a flight to Vegas, he tells a stranger (something TV characters do that real people would never dream of) that he’s going to propose to someone tonight. It’s Peyton.

 

CW: 90210 – 1.1 & 1.2

I used to watch Beverly Hills 90210 back in the day. It was on Saturdays nights along with Gladiators and Baywatch. I have to say I never made it to the end of the series though I do have a dim recollection of Dylan holding his dying bride in his arms in the rain. Such realistic, subtle writing.

 

Here we are with the new one, this one brought to us by Rob Thomas, who is officially awesome. However, this show kinda isn’t. It starts off with siblings ripped out of the N’s South of Nowhere (really how many African American boys are adopted by nice, rural, white families before they move to LA?) but more annoying. Then in comes Lucille Bluth minus the wit and biting sarcasm. I think this family is going to piss me off. I need an extra-marital affair or a drug addiction or something, right now these people are so homely I want to throw up.

 

Fox:Fringe – Pilot

JJ Abrams is back and rather than heading in the Felicity root, which I’d kind of hoped for, he went for another pilot with a plane crash. Though this one’s a little more gooey.

The pilot is about the creation of a unit to deal solely with investigating crime and such that arise from fringe sciences. Did I hear Chris Carter calling from the mid-90s? I know X-Files comparisons are easy here but it’s hard not to see them. There’s the sceptic in the form of Anna Torv ( the hot lesbian from BBC show Mistresses), the wunderkind who believes but sometimes wishes he didn’t (that’s Pacey Witter, sorry, Josh Jackson) and government officials wanting everything swept under the carpet. To spice things up a little they’ve added a mental old man. It seems Pacey’s dad has been involved in this stuff for years, got locked up in a psych ward for it an now isn’t quite the man he once was. While some of his lines are funny I think he might become a little grating.

 

HBO: True Blood – Pilot

Reading about this show I wasn’t so sure, my vampires have always come courtesy of Joss Whedon. But I did like the first few season of SFU so I was willing to give it a go.

True Blood is set in Bon Temp, Louisiana (another draw for me as southern US accents set me all a-quiver) at a time when synthetic blood has recently been invented. The new product has meant that the vampires of the world have finally come out of hiding and through government legislation are trying to make a place for themselves in society.

 

TNT: Raising the Bar – Pilot

Zach Morris, Sorry Mark-Paul Gosselaar is back with a new lawyer show. I don’t tend to watch lawyer shows. I will admit to having watched Ally McBeal in the early days before she got too annoying and I attempted Boston Legal and last season’s Eli Stone, but they tend to bore me. There are only a certain number of  times a guilty man can go free or a kooky case make everyone realise how much they love each other. so I approached Raising the Bar with some trepidation.

The premise is simple.  Gosselaar plays Jerry, a downtrodden public defender while his girlfriend works for the DA’s office. All their law school buddies fall on one side or the other which leads to many impassioned arguments in the bar after work. Perhaps that’s the bar they’re raising? In the mix is Gunn from angel and Malcolm’s mum from Malcolm in the middle (who is so obstinate there is no way she would really be allowed in the courtroom any more).

The plot for the pilot revolves around a man accused of a rape he didn’t commit and lots of people getting tied up in all the red tape of the legal system that they all so wholeheartedly believe in but know isn’t infallible. What martyrs they all are. It was all a little predictable and dull. The only good thing being the ridiculous judge. Not sure I’ll bother watching again.

 

CBS: The Mentalist – Pilot

Another cop procedural from CBS this time starring Aussie Simon Baker as Patrick and Prison Break alum (and one time witch) Robin Tunney as his boss Teresa.

Now I’ve watched a lot of crime shows in my time, hell I even wrote my masters dissertation on them, so I’m pretty familiar with the formula. Very rarely does something come along that sparks my interest in this genre. Last year it was New Amsterdam, which of course meant it was cancelled, this year it might well be the Mentalist.

Baker plays a man so good at reading others he used to pretend to be a psychic. After the brutal murder of his family by Red Peter, a serial killer he’s been helping the police catch in order to raise his profile, he decides to drop the act and use his skills purely for good. Now working with the police he catches criminals by watching how they act. This could be cloyingly trite but actually works well with Baker playing the boyish charm and charisma of his character perfectly.

In the opening act we see Patrick use his skills to uncover that a father murdered his own daughter only to have the wife then shoot him. The tone for the show is set as is the concept that while Patrick may find the culprit, his methods aren’t always the best way to go about things.

The central case of the episode is nothing spectacular and I think much like NBC’s Life, this show is going to hinge on whether you like Patrick or not. I have to say I do.

Plus it was nice to see Amanda Righetti in there from Reunion as the new detective whose religious beliefs are at odds with Patrick’s practice.

 

pre-air Sunday

So the new season is almost upon us and I finally have the time to get back to blogging. Last Sunday I had my annual pre-air Sunday where I watch whatever leaker pilots I can get my hands on. There weren’t many available to me this year. Partly because there aren’t many new shows this autumn due to the strike and partly because I just couldn’t get hold of a lot. So I’ll look at the fews eps I could get: J.J. Abrams’ Fringe, The Mentalist, and Raising the Bar.

Looking forward to being back