Dave's Yes/No Television Review: Bates Motel (Season One) A&E

Yes. (And no one is more surprised than I am).

Dave's Yes/No Television Review: Orphan Black

Yes.

Why Downtown Abbey Season Three Sucks.

Ken Levine makes a calm and lucid case of the rant I've been making for the past couple months.

Dave's Yes/No TV Review: Downton Abbey

No. (Hate me now, thank me after the Season Three Christmas "special".)

Dave's Yes/No TV Review: Downton Abbey Season 1

Yes.

Apologies to Prime Suspect (2011) fans

I'd like to take this opportunity to say how very sorry I am that the very promising new series, Prime Suspect, was cancelled.

It's my fault entirely.

I made the mistake of mentioning to someone that it was the only new series I bothered to program into my PVR.
As long time readers will know, that is the kiss of death for any new series.

Again, Mea Culpa.

Wahlberg'd!

It's official.
How to Make it in America is no longer a pleasure for me.

It's now a guilty pleasure.

Behind the Scenes: Parks and Rec

Great behind the scenes, article and interview:
How a Parks and Recreation Pitch becomes a joke!

Dave's Yes/No TV Review Fall '11: Terra Nova

No.

The problem of Entourage

So Entourage is over.

Thank God.

The problem with the show is that despite the fact that it is so laughably, horribly written-- I kept tuning in every season. Why?!

The badness was part of it for sure. There was a pleasure I got from yelling at the television and joining the dialogue, turning to Turtle and saying: "Wow, good thing Vince didn't really sell those stocks after you told him to and he said he did or you'd be pretty screwed huh."

Or telling Sloan: "I'm with Vince on this, Eric loves you, Sloan, really he does. And I agree the fact that he slept with your step-mom doesn't matter... I mean, if he did. Which I'm sure he didn't."

Or asking Drama: "Man do you ever wonder what would happen if money didn't just swoop down out of no where and save our asses?"

But darned if I didn't actually like these guys and hope they'd make it. And it pisses me off that I don't know what happened to all the stories lines that I had been following... what about "Goin' Bananas" and the TV movie, the the restaurant?

Wow! It's Doug Ellin... just a sec.

Okay I'm back. That was so crazy. He's a super nice guy and was just reading my blog and he filled me in on all the details about what happened to everybody. It was great to hear and made me feel really good...

PS. Mark Canton's jet is at YVR and did I want to come down to Hollywood and work on his new series!

Hell's yeah... but wait-- what about my pregnant wife and kid-- they can come too?! Huzzah!

So... yeah, I can stop yelling at my television... but I will miss it.

Hiccups II Season Finale

For those of you who missed last Sunday's season finale of Hiccups! Never fear you can catch it on Comedy this week... or online.

P.S. This episode was written by yours truly and the talented Dylan Wertz.

New Television Season

Inspired by Denis's musings on the new season I thought I'd get off my ass and take a lazy stand of some of the new shows. I'm trying to enjoy myself while I can, because in a couple weeks when we get back from hiatus there's not gonna be a lot of television time.

Pushing Up Daisies: Off to a bad start. One of the most talked about shows of the new season, haven't seen it. Don't know when it's on. Don't know where it's on. When I think of it I go: So it's 6 feet Under kinda? And everybody else goes: No! Okay. Okay.

K-ville: Watched five minutes. To be honest felt like it was too early in the season. I wasn't ready to commit.

Journeyman: I love Kevin McKidd but this is Quantum Leap written by somebody who watched Life on Mars and liked all the bad parts. Underwire pointed out on DTOS comments what I really bumped on the other night too... WTF with the wife? Her husband disappears on board an effin' PLANE IN FLIGHT and she pretends she's not with him?! WHAT?! And he doesn't say: See! I'm not crazy! And there's this whole dirty feeling that comes with him obviously still hot for his dead wife who is extra-dimensional or whatever and while he's trying to have a kid with his brother's ex-wife. Next.

Life: The second last scene of the opener had that moment that Denis talks about... what the hell is that moment called, Denis? You know the one that makes you go: I'm in. In Life that was the moment you effing knew was coming, that closet of mystery, the big picture he's slowly putting all together...you see people you haven't met yet, and people you've just met that are put into a whole new light... yeah, baby. I'm a little worried about the faux documentary stuff. It's gonna get tiresome if it keeps seeming so scripted. Plus Damian Lewis, who is awesome and his partner who's also good. Green means go, baby.

Dirty Sexy Money: It's gonna be my guilty pleasure this season. I love Krause, and Sutherland and the Unmarried Woman herself, Jill Clayburgh! The show seems to be taking itself a lot less seriously than the previews indicated. And that's good. It's all the fun stuff that we love to hate rich people for. However-- we all know smokin' hot wives are a hollywood staple, but please, there must be a couple bucks to actually hire somebody's wife (smokin' or not) to give the script a once over just to avoid the constant barrage of cliched husband/wife scenes out there. I'm talking to you too Journeyman! The wife as "supportive but needs to be convinced" gal is done. Ps. That's right, tranny is the new whore.

Bionic Woman: Maybe because my expectations were lowered by all the disappointed talk before the show actually aired, I didn't mind it. I like Jamie, I like Starbuck (and the many other BSG alumi that filled out the cast). Did I miss Oscar Goldman? I mostly liked the special effects. The only thing I worry about is that it's playing like a Femme Nikita meets Alias thing. I want something new. Story, spin or relationship wise. I don't want to see the same stories with a bigger budget. I'm sensing a lot of writers/producers/whoever pitching updated versions of their favorite shows-- they've already been made, folks! I'll watch a couple more episodes.

Intelligence: Not a new show but a great season opener. Season one was a little 'deliberately paced' especially at the beginning. But it's cooking with propane now. I'm loving this show... and nobody I know is watching it. This is great tv, period. I'd be watching it if it was made in Bosnia, yeah?

TV-eh Podcast

For anybody interested in Canadian Television (that's right capital "C" and "T"): you should check out the podcasts on TV-eh. Diane Wild has put together a lot of great pieces. Last week there was a discussion about the new season and Denis McGrath interviewed Corner Gas's Mark Farrell. This week is about the new season of Intelligence. All kinds of little insider stuff that's fun for TV geeks like me.

What I learned on my Summer Workation: Part One

My apologies.

I've slacked off too long. Denis never stopped posting while he was toiling away on his shows. Will kept the faith while waist-deep in rewrites. But I am a more beautiful and delicate flower and wilt readily at the prospect of too much work... or too little food.

Which leads me to the subject of the next several posts, in case the title was too subtle.

Tip #1:

Go Easy on Crafty!

Forgive me if I occasionally imply that all writers are of a kind. It's not true. We're all miserable in our own special and unique ways.

That's said, I've yet to met a writer, man or woman, who didn't like the Craft Service table a little more than was good for them. Even a TV writing goddess like Jane Epenson... what's at the end of her every post? What she had for lunch, people! And when the table is laid out by a special lady like Gianna, the Robson Arms Season III Craft Service angel... it's even worse.

Sure, there's fresh fruit and veggie trays, ginseng nectar and herbal teas but it's the pastries, cakes, butter-soaked chocolate, and cheesey thai wraps that keep you coming back. I'm not exaggerating when I say I started training for this season last winter. I'm not a small guy by any stretch, but when I arrived it was fresh from three pilates classes a week. Down from my typical Sea Lion form to a well-fed Otter. I knew it was gonna be a marathon and I was ready.

Bullshit. I'm an eff'ing Walrus!

No amount of training can prepare the Special Needs Child that is the TV writer for the debauchery that awaits him-- all day-- every working day-- at the magical all-you-can-eat-bottomless-cup-of-whatever-you-desire that is Craft Service.

Within the first week there was no semblance of restraint and I... no, dammit, I wasn't there alone... WE spent almost as much time at the table as an Extra... yeah... that's right-- it was that bad. I didn't get my shit together until the fourth week in.... and by then it was too late...

So there you go, Chubbies.

You wanna be a TV writer? Have a salad once in a while.

The Lame and the Great

I am lame.

I'm in the middle of production on Robson Arms III and there's lots of exciting stories to tell and lessons I'm learning, but by the time I leave the set there's just no desire to go near my laptop until the next day when duty calls.

That said, I'm totally blown away by the awesome posts that my fellow canadian TV writers Denis McGrath and Will Dixon are putting out there. In addition to his fine and continuing coverage of the state of our industry McGrath has posted a series of interviews with Greg Daniels. A must read.

Over at Uninflected Images, there's a number of posts (no less than six at present) about my personal hero Al "the Silver Fox" Magee. And when Al speaks, the wise listen.

What a third season looks like: Part I

I don't know why facebook should have all the top secret photos.

Here's an early look at Season Three of Robson Arms.

Please note that delicate balance of comedy and poignacy the praises of which John Doyle sang so sweetly once. See the character arcs reaching in a surprising but inevitable ways. And act turns that spin the stories in new trajectories.

And that's just the first half of the season!

Link Whorin': Blood Ties

A post on Denis's blog with exerpts from Tanya Huff about the differences between writing a novel and writing for a television series based on the novel you wrote. Great Stuff.

The TV Writer and Bit Torrent: a moral question... kind of

I'm a pretty law abiding guy.

Except when I think the laws are dumb. Even then I don't go out of my way to flaunt my lawless ways. But there's a moral question that's been bugging me lately and I'd like to hear what other people think.

I have a friend...

And like many of you he's a Bit Torrentin' fool. For the most part it's been shows there is little or no chance he'd ever see here in Canada anytime soon. Particularly shows from Britain that weren't on BBC Canada, and that he couldn't find at the local video store. Then it was shows that were mentioned at a story meeting that he hadn't seen that were on HBO (Movie Central) and they weren't out on DVD yet and he didn't have "the cable". And then, it was just episodes of shows that he happened to miss during their first run... and now it's anything at all.

He has no illusions that what he's doing is legal. But he believes in Karma. He knows he'll have to pay... some day, some how.

And this is the thing: for the most part he does eventually pay for stuff he likes. The pleasure of watching some downloaded file on his computer doesn't compare to watching it on HD with his digital cable... or on DVD. So when he finds something he likes... like Six Feet Under and Deadwood a couple years ago... or Rome, Life of Mars, and Extras more recently... he doesn't mind coughing up the bucks for the DVD so he can watch it in it's full glory.

And today: it happened... he saw his own show being bit torrented... and what did he feel? Guilt? Resentment? Outrage? Nope... it was Pride.

Somebody... a fan presumably, cared enough to digitize and upload it... it's being seeded out there by a few curious viewers who maybe heard something about it but never got around to seeing it. And maybe they'll give it a chance.

There is a part of him that wonders if he, or more specifically his livelihood, is being threatened by the practice. After all, the show is a product. It is part of a business in an industry and profits are what motivate the decisions of the investors. But is this cutting into the industry's profits? I mean really? In the short term, there's no doubt. Viewership is down and therefore so is ad revenue. On the other hand these are also the guys that own and operate the companies that enable people like my friend to download the programming in the first place. And in the long term... isn't it actually more likely the industry will make money by creating content for not just one medium but several at the same time.

They irony is his show is on a network that makes the episodes online available to anyone (with a PC) who live in the country. So the people downloading the show are probably outside the country... but wouldn't it make more sense to make the show available to anyone around the world and talk with an smart advertising agency to find some way to get ad revenue by customizing the content to the local viewer?

It's just the old model of exchange that is dying. And people like my friend are just helping put it out of its misery.

Right?

I have seen The Future of Television...

And it is here:


and here

BSG: Season finale

Who woulda guessed Mr. Zimmerman was in the Final Five?