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Tuesday, September 2, 2008
9/2: “90210” redux a guilty pleasure, Atlanta group Kazual ousted from “America’s Got Talent”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The CW, in its make or break year, is hoping its savior is a reimagining or revamp or whatever you call it of “Beverly Hills 90210.” And since everyone now knows what that zip code stands for, the new shows is merely called “90210.”
Since TV writers were not given advance copies of this show, I’m live blogging (or close enough since I’m doing it via DVR tonight).
Though when advancers are withheld from movie writers, it usually means the film stinks. In this case, I’m not sure that is the case. In effect, it’s breezy and fun and doesn’t take itself too seriously. Is it fine art? Or Emmy material? Not even close. These aren’t deep, complex characters along the lines of those in “Friday Night Lights.” The plots are incredibly “been there, done that” and not remotely complicated. You could talk on the phone, fix up your Facebook page and text your buddies all at the same time and still follow the show without missing anything. Take it for what it’s worth and it’s a pleasant diversion.
I’m curious to see how ratings are and whether this can save the network. I doubt it but hey, stranger things have happened.
Brenda Walsh fans had to wait awhile. She does not turn up until one hour and 28 minutes in and isn’t given much to do — yet. Still, there’s plenty of grist for fans of the original.
First of all, the setup is similar. A family moves to Beverly Hills, fish out of water. Except now it’s 2008 instead of 1990 so you have Sidesteps and mochachinos instead of old-fashioned telephones and coffee . The theme song is revved up but otherwise, the opening credits evoke the original. Rob Estes’ character Harry Wilson moves his family back from the MIdwest to Beverly Hills to take care of his mom. He also happens to be principal of West Beverly Hills High. He has a daughter Annie and an adopted black son Dixon, the Brandon and Brenda Walshes of this show. (And making Dixon black is a way to add some diversity to the proceedings. But still, not a lot of Asians or Hispanics at this school - at least non yet with speaking roles.)
“It’s like the Oscars and everybody is Scarlett Johanssen!” says Annie Wilson (Shenae Grimes) as she enters campus.
There are inside jokes, too, for fans of the original. A gal playing a character named Hannah Zuckerman-Vasquez anchors the school broadcast news. One teacher remarks, “How old is that girl? Like 30?” Gabrielle Carteris, who played journalist Andrea Zuckerman in the original, was 29 years old when she started the show playing a 16 year old.
Naomi, played by former Atlantan AnnaLynne McCord, enters with that “bad girl” aura she exuded quite nicely on the last season of “nip/tuck.” At minute seven, Jennie Garth, the original Kelly Taylor and not far removed from four years on the sitcom “What I Like About You,” arrives with a Flock of Seagulls reference.
It doesn’t take long for Naomi to clash with Annie over the hot lacrosse boy Ethan, Annie’s boyfriend and the guy Annie conveniently kissed a couple summers earlier while visiting her grandma. (He plays lacrosse because that fits the “90210” ouvre more than the cliche of football.)
In most worlds outside of TV, Annie would be the earnestly hot girl. In TV land, she’s dorky, unfashionable and basically an outcast. Annie quickly finds a friend named Silver, bonding over an obscure rock band, who also does videos on line skewering folks at the school. Annie then uncomfortably (and temporarily) bonds with Naomi, whose mom dated Annie’s dad when they were in high school. (Of course!) Silver is displeased and skewers Annie online with a cow reference. (“Naomi is the anti-Christ,” Silver says, none too subtly. She later explains she used to be friends with Naomi, who broke her trust.) Conveniently, Silver is the sister of Jennie’s character, kind of like “What I Like About You,” given the massive age difference.
Joe E. Tata and his reprised, modernized Peach Pit arrive at minute 17 with his Nat character bitching about an expresso machine. “Whatever happened to regular coffee?” he asks (although Starbucks was very much in vogue by the time the original “90210” signed off in 2000.)
Quickly, the two newbies get in trouble. Dixon gets in a fight with a jealous lacrosse player who starts the fight but Ethan, who saw that Dixon did not start it, lies to the principal and fingers Dixon. Then Annie gives Naomi a paper for her to get “ideas from” but naturally, Naomi copies it word per word. Duh. That was telegraphed like the Batman symbol on a cloud.
The scriptwriters choose not to make Naomi out to be a total witch. Coddled, yes. Spoiled? Naturally. But smart, too. Still, they have to ensure Naomi is no longer “friends” with Annie to set up future conflicts.
As the first hour ended, the principal finds out his ex girlfriend had a son who was adopted. Same plotline used on “October Road” last year. But this time, the son is yet unseen. I’d say, mission accomplished in terms of hour one.
Hour two doesn’t quite work as well. Annie quickly gets introduced to an obvious love interest Ty Collins, a lead in the play, a player who can fly her to San Francisco on a private plane for dinner. She lies about it to her mom, gets caught, loses trust. Shannen Doherty, er… Brenda, shows up to hug Nate and says whenever twin Brandon thinks of him, he craves a megaburger. “We should spend more time together,” Kelly says. Aww… a reunion!
Naomi makes Ethan jealous. Dixon tries to gain the trust of the team as the principal’s son by masterminding a prank. Least interesting character is Naomis’ friend Adrianna, who steals, takes drugs and tries to audition for roles for the sake of her mom instead of herself. Yawn. Ethan breaks up with Naomi. Annie kisses Ty. Naturally, Ethan sees this. Eye roll. Yes, the producers here are not exactly pulling a “Sixth Sense” on us.
So fans of the original, how did you like it? Is this worth a second look? I’ll give it a try for awhile and see how it plays out.
-Not surprisingly, Atlanta singing quartet Kazual are out on “America’s Got Talent.” That means no Atlantans made the top 20. Oh, well. Kazual got virtually no air time before last Wednesday and needed to kill it to make the top 5. They didn’t kill it. They looked good, danced well, harmonized okay but three of the four soloists lacked power and finesse. When the show producers paired them with Queen Emily, it was obvious Kazual were goners. Four of the five acts that made it through were singers. America still loves singers and generally prefers them over dancers or magicians or whatever. The season one winner was a singer. Season two was a singer, took, albeit a ventriloquist, too.
The drag queen opera singer Shequida? Like fingers on a chalkboard, that chalkboard being my brain. But I thoroughly enjoyed the music teacher opera singer. Not karaoke to me. All heart. And the baton twirler Jonathan just amped his game up several notches. Wow! I was also a fan of Sarah Lenore, who brought surprising edge to the Dixie Chicks song “Ready To Make Nice.” Disappointing: everybody else.
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9/2: Surprisingly big numbers for TNT’s “Raising the Bar”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Steve Bochco’s latest drama “Raising the Bar” opened at an impressive 7.7 million viewers Monday night, according to Nielsen estimates.
Atlanta-based TNT says that’s the biggest ratings ever for a new series on a ad-supported cable. That excludes broadcast TV, non ad-supported cable such as Disney and pay cable such as HBO.
Despite generally poor reviews, the drama about the interaction between the Los Angeles public defenders’ office and the district attorney’s office found an initial audience thanks to two factors: a lead in monster by the name of “The Closer” and the lack of competition over on the broadcast networks, which were airing a mix of political convention news and hurricane updates. And surprisingly, a lot of people do watch TV on Labor Day. It’s not a holiday where viewing drops off sharply like some other days.
“Raising the Bar” was the second largest show on TV Monday night, beaten only by NBC’s ” Deal or No Deal,” which drew more than 10 million people for its first one million dollar winner after more than 180 shows. It even beat the fourth season debut of Fox’s “Prison Break.”
Whether this show has the makings of a genuine hit depends on how it does in coming weeks.
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9/1: Back to politics on the news channels
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Cable news channels, prepping for a repeat of Hurricane Katrina courtesy of Gustav, readied to cut back on the Republican National Convention Sunday. All the big shot anchors (Brian Williams, Anderson Cooper) flew to New Orleans, bracing for the worst.
But on Labor Day, as Hurricane Gustav skirted west of New Orleans, they pivoted back to the convention, especially with Sarah Palin’s daughter coming into play.
As the afternoon wore on, Gustav took less and less time and the convention took over, even with a scaled back opening day. And at the convention, officials made multiple calls for disaster relief.
Tonight, it appears a bulk of CNN/Fox News/MSNBC coverage will be back to politics and the Republicans appear to be going back to a normal schedule as well.
The New York Times noted that the hurricane may have overshadowed the Palin controversy Monday, which otherwise would have dominated coverage.
But the story of her daughter’s pregnancy is still alive on TV. At 1:45 p.m. today, CNN is talking about Palin. And so is MSNBC, with a “right to life debate.” And Fox News is airing Joe Biden commenting on it by saying, “Children are off limits,” repeating Barack Obama’s statement yesterday. When Fox News got around to a brief update on damage west of New Orleans, they shrunk the correspondent to include live shots of the convention, even though nothing is really happening in St. Paul right now. Fox News at 1:55 p.m noted they have whopping 500 people at St. Paul.
