SERENDIPITY

Marilyn Armstrong — Seeking Intelligent Life on Earth

Tag Archives: CBS


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The Guest Star Did It

I hate to sound like everyone else, but television is boring. Soporific put-me-to-sleep dull. There used to be a few shows each night we followed, but so many have been taken off the air or deteriorated to unwatchability there remain but a few. Every year, we start the fall season hopeful there will be something worth watching. Perhaps a couple of interesting series, maybe a comedy. If we are lucky, the powers-that-be won’t have retired the few shows we watch that have survived several seasons.

Killing Harry’s Law for the sin of appealing to the wrong demographic (namely us) was a blow to the heart. We have since realized that killing that show was part of NBC’s master plan to destroy the network. They are doing a splendid job. For the first time, NBC has come in fifth in the ratings after Spanish-language Univision. I think the only NBC shows we still watch are Leno (which they will probably kill because we enjoy it) and occasionally Law and Order: Special Victim’s Unit which we view erratically. It’s more a desperation move when everything is in reruns. It too is probably a rerun, but we haven’t seen it, so it’s new to us.

It’s not impossible to write new material, but it takes an effort. Originality is nearly extinct. I’m shocked when I don’t know what’s going to happen next or who did what. It’s a rare treat to be surprised by a script.

NCIS: Shumate

The other night, Garry commented that whatever it was — a new show and no, I do not remember the name — we’d seen it before. Being as this was a premier, you would think they might consider writing an original script for it. You would be wrong.

“We’ve seen everything before,” I said.

“We’re old,” he said.

“We may be old, but that’s not the problem. New shows are identical to the old shows. I think they ARE the old shows. They reuse scripts, just change a couple of names and places. We need to get our heads right. Stop expecting originality and try to appreciate whether or not they do the same old stuff well.”

“It would save us from disappointment.”

“Yup. We need to align our expectations with reality.”

“Yeah. Lower our entertainment requirements. Uh, how much more can we lower them? They’re pretty much at the bottom already.” And so they are.

There are still a few shows we really enjoy. NCIS, long may it reign, we watch both the new shows and reruns. It’s our entertainment fallback position.

We watch White Collar. It wins a prize for being the only cop show that doesn’t only solve murders. The show deals with crimes in which no one got killed! What creative genius thought of that?

Elementary has been  pleasantly unpredictable and has, in return, won our loyalty.

Anger Management is actually funny. Laugh-out-loud funny. Wow. A funny comedy! A startling idea I thought the networks had abandoned in favor of reality shows. It has been a long time since a sitcom was anything other than insipid and insulting to what’s left of our so-called intelligence.

Our Friday night fix is Blue Bloods. Tom Selleck alone is worth your time. There are a couple of other shows that occasionally aren’t completely predictable (I can’t think of them off-hand which probably speaks volumes), but for the most part, we know what’s going to happen on any show from the opening scene. The credits are enough to give away the story most of the time. The guest star did it. Why else would he or she be on the show?

It’s not impossible to write original material, but it does require a willingness to make an effort at original thought and a committment from networks to let a show stay on the air long enough to develop an audience. A lot of the shows that have become long-term favorites — like NCIS – took several seasons to find an audience. Had MASH come on the air today, it wouldn’t have lasted a single season. They’d have pulled it for not being an instant hit.

SeasonRatings

Of the top 20 shows that are series, not specials, we watch four series regularly: NCIS, Blue Bloods, Elementary and Criminal Minds. We watch Person of Interest most of the time and Vegas sometimes. That is six of the top 20. The rest of the “top rated shows” we don’t watch at all. This doesn’t bother the networks because we are not part of the sought-after 18 to 45 demographic. So even when, as happened with Harry’s Law, a show is a hit with our group, it gets taken off the air anyway because we don’t count. If we didn’t watch Leno, I’d have boycotted NBC, but they don’t need our help. They’re self-destructing just fine.

Requiring every show to be a sure thing, to be a hit in fewer than half a dozen shows, kills any hope of creativity. An unwillingness to take chances has so completely taken over the entertainment industry I can only wonder if they will bother to produce new shows a few years from now. They can go to all reruns all the time. It would save a great deal of money and it’s entirely about the bottom line, is it not? Whether or not viewers enjoy shows apparently has little to do with programming.

Not merely are producers boring viewers into a stupor, but networks are making themselves irrelevant. How come any average person can see what’s going on but network executives seem oblivious? It is difficult to fathom.

Ultimately, we will stop trying to make sense of it and seek entertainment elsewhere. We are doing that, for the most part, anyhow. We watch more reruns than new shows. We watch more movies than series. We don’t rely on offerings by any of the networks, though when they give us something to watch, we do give it a whirl. But they aren’t trying to keep our loyalty. They’ve made it clear they don’t care about us, so it’s hard to care about them.

There are many more entertainment choices today than were available even a year or two ago. Even more options will be available soon. If ever an industry seemed hell-bent on suicide, network television is it.

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Gazing through from the other side with a British accent

It’s 5 hours later in London than in New England. I was reminded of this today because a few minutes after 4 in the afternoon, I got almost 400 hits from England on a blog I wrote Last September.

The post is about the première episode of this season of the CBS series “Criminal Minds.” For those of you who have never watched the show, it is based on the FBI‘s Behavioral Analysis Unit based in Quantico, Virginia.

I wrote the original post on September 26, 2012, which was when the première episode for this season of “Criminal Minds” aired in the United States. For some reason, that post hit the top of Google’s search engine and has stayed there ever since.

The series supposedly portrays the FBI’s best and brightest. The words “gazing through from the other side” were left at a crime scene and in the show, the team can’t find any reference to those words anywhere in the virtual universe. Of course the first thing I did after they said they couldn’t find it was type the words into Google and hit “Enter.” Up came the song, the lyrics, the group … and it took me perhaps 10 seconds.

Apparently the same thing happened today in England when the show aired for the first time. Everyone watched the show, heard the line, grabbed their tablet or laptop, Googled the phrase … and found me.

googleSerendipity

I realize it’s TV, not the real FBI, but surely even the fake FBI can do a simple Google search. My granddaughter was doing Google searches before she finished first grade, so it is hard to believe a television show would portray federal agents as less computer savvy than a 6-year-old.

It had been an unremarkable day, even a bit slow. I usually get most of my hits in the evening, so when I looked at my site in mid afternoon and saw I had around 140 hits, it seemed normal.

A screenshot of the BAU Team on the jet.

When I went back to look at my site a bit after 4 in the afternoon, I had gotten almost 600 hits, the vast majority from Great Britain for that same post about “Criminal Minds.” I may not be the sharpest tack in the tool box, but I deduced today was the British première of the show. I was so sure I didn’t even bother to check until an hour ago when I Googled “criminal minds UK première” and it came up as 28 January 2013 at 9pm — 4pm my time.

That little post, written between commercial breaks, has been my all-time most popular post. It isn’t my best work. It isn’t even close to my best. I’ve posted hundreds of better pieces, but none ever got such a big response. It makes me think about why I’m blogging. I want to be read, but it would be nice to be recognized for work of which I’m proud. Regardless, my most popular stuff is never my best. Sometimes, it isn’t even mine — it’s a reblog. That hurts.

When I get responses to posts on which I worked hard, it makes me happy. Responses from people who “get me” are gratifying. The only thing that could make it better would be money. Feel free to send cash or checks. I’m sorry, but I don’t accept credit cards.


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Slaughter in a quiet suburb

Yesterday, while putting together awards, a too-long deferred project, I happened to click onto WBZ radio, Boston‘s CBS affiliate. The events in Newtown were just being broadcast. They didn’t know exactly how many children and adults had died. The massacre had just ended — to the degree that such tragedies really ever end. I’m sure that for all the families who lost loved ones, it will never end. There’s no “over” for the slaughter of innocents.

This is the kind of horror story that leaves you with questions that can’t be answered. Even if you know everything there is to know, you still couldn’t make sense of it because it doesn’t make sense and can’t make sense. There is nothing sane, sensible, reasonable or explicable about it. What could possibly make someone — anyone — think murdering children is an acceptable or sane response to anything? No matter what dark secrets or strange thoughts are tangled in the head of the kid who took all those lives … nothing makes it more understandable because our minds reject any answer. There is no reason good enough. Nothing makes it comprehensible nor should it.

I can and will say that had the shooter not had guns, this would NOT have happened.

I do not care how treasured our “rights to bear arms” is to Americans. This is exactly what is wrong with having guns, so many guns, in so many hands. However true it is that guns don’t shoot themselves, the fact is that if they were less accessible to everyone and there were more controls on them to make sure that those who own them understand the responsibility that comes with owning deadly weapons — like the need to keep them out of irresponsible hands — many deaths would not occur. If the same young man had to take whatever weird revenge he sought with a bat or even a knife, he would have been stopped long before the body count had grown so godawful huge.

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Morons at play

Guns don’t kill people all by themselves, but in the hands of people, guns do a lot more damage than the same person could do without guns. These were legal, registered guns.

Why a kindergarten teacher had an arsenal at home where she also had one (more?) mentally ill children is another one of those questions that can’t be answered. Personally I think if all guns disappeared tomorrow and we were reduced to throwing rocks at each other, it would be a better world. Since that’s not about to happen, at the very least, regulating guns so that those who own them are required to keep track of them (how many guns just “disappear” only to reappear as the weapon at a crime scene?), some degree of mental stability has to be established before being allowed to own them, anyone who owns guns has appropriate means to secure them and knows how to properly maintain them … these are minimal sensible requirements. Soldiers aren’t just handed weapons to use indiscriminately. They are taught how to use them, maintain them, and woe to any soldier who just happens to “lose” his weapon.

Yet in the private sector, most states have no requirements other than your ability to fill out a form and wait a few days. Most illegal guns didn’t start out that way, either. They were legal when they were bought … but they roamed to other pastures. If there are simply fewer guns and those who have them are required to account for their whereabouts on a regular basis, secure them when not in use … in short, to be at least as responsible with their guns as they are with their cars for which you are required to take a test, have a licence and registration, and maintain insurance … there would be fewer horrors like that which took place in a quiet Connecticut suburb.

How can we allow mass murder by deranged gunmen and then turn around and say we don’t need gun control? I actually saw posts on Facebook blaming it on not having enough guns. So, now we should arm children so they can shoot each other in schoolyard disputes? That’s your answer? I saw other posts pointing out that we’ve banned school prayer. And you figure that a prayer in the morning would have prevented this tragedy? Really? Has prayer prevented war? Genocide? Plague? Not that I’ve noticed.

dar-humps-19

God gave us brains to use. God gave us a conscience to guide us.

In all ten of God’s commandments … nor in anything that Jesus said … is there anything indicating that good people should own weapons. Quite the opposite, actually. Our constitution says that our citizenry is allowed to maintain militia and guns to protect the population, not that ever Tom, Dick, and Jane can have a personal arsenal to use as he or she feels inclined, with no restrictions, no oversight, not even an insurance policy.

It’s outrageous and it’s wrong. If we don’t start to use brains instead of that knee jerk reaction that “Oh my God, the government won’t let me buy an assault weapon! That’s outrageous!” there will inevitably be more of these mornings where families are burying their dead and wondering how it happened. If you want to know how stupid people really are, check out this disgusting website. If you suspected we let insane idiots own arsenals, this website will confirm your worst fears.

It happened because a mentally ill kid was able to get his hands on guns and instead of acting out in a non-lethal way, he instead murdered his family and all those other people too. That’s what happened. Why did it happen? Because we didn’t stop him, that’s why.

Back in the city again …

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Before we became country mice, we were city rats. Garry lived in Boston, downtown in Government Center, for 20 years, then another 10 in Roxbury. I lived in Jerusalem for 9 years, Boston for 3, then Roxbury (which is really part of Boston) for 10 … and then we took our show on the road and moved out here.

It is a bigger different than mere geography. It’s a completely different ambiance, a different texture. Ironically, although the air is cleaner, almost completely free of industrial pollutants, it is thick with pollen and dust. My asthma is far worse out here in the country among the trees and grasses than it ever was in town with the car fumes and chimney soot and all. That, and of course all the dog hair we have in the air and everywhere.

Music store

It’s pretty out here. We’ve got the river and the canal, waterfalls everywhere you look. Autumn, when we don’t get rained out, is glorious and you can stop at farm stands and get fresh organic veggies and fruits any time they are in season. We’ve got cows and horses, goats and a dizzying array of wildlife.

Deer, raccoon, the cheekiest chipmunks you’ve ever met … and then there are bats, rats, an infinite number of field mice. A bobcat with glow-in-the-dark eyes and coyotes that look like big friendly dogs. Nasty fishers with coats like mink and when the bobcat hasn’t eaten them all, rabbits. Squirrels, but fewer than there used to be before the bobcats. They are small but mighty hunters.

Irony again: the biggest, nastiest raccoon I ever met was on Beacon Hill, in our back walled garden. He was big, fat, and he wasn’t taking any crap from me. He informed me that the back patio belonged to him and I was disinclined to argue the point.

I never went back there again. At least the raccoons around here stay in their own part of town, or woods.

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Let it snow …

Just seemed like the right moment … New England and snow, like horse and carriage. Some of these pictures you may have seen before, others not. But until we have new snow, I’ll have to make do with the snows of winters past.

Old #2 in winter

This is old Number Two in the winter … growing old in the empty lot across from the post office … a little more faded with each passing season.

Two Red Chairs - First Snow

Two red lawn chairs, the remembrance of summer so recently passed are bright against the monochromatic snowy woods.

The Deck

The back porch after the first dusting of snow. It’s barely a dusting and will be gone in a matter of hours, but it’s early in the season. Who knows what the season will bring us?

Rimed With Ice

Late Winter Dawn

About 6AM in early March. Sunrise through the trees in my woods. Very late winter … soon, spring.

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What are we watching on TV? It’s a new season … or is it?

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CSI

September slipped gently past. It’s mid-October, so we are settled into our viewing pattern. It isn’t entirely a wasteland, but it’s not thrilling, either. Actually, the summer season was more interesting and varied than this “prime” season is. These are the shows we have taping on our DVR. We may not actually watch all of them … but they are our current lineup. It may change. Probably, it will. You never know, something new and interesting may replace some of the current dead wood. And so, as glorious autumn drifts towards the long, cold tunnel of winter, I bring you our television “regular” viewing.

The author reserves the right to change her mind at any time without warning.

McCallum's title card in the Man from U.N.C.L....

McCallum’s title card in the Man from U.N.C.L.E. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Our Regulars – More or Less

Blue Bloods

This show sometimes reminds me of the old Cosby show, except that the kids are adults and working in law enforcement. It isn’t a unique concept, but it’s very well done. Tom Selleck has matured and makes the kind of Police Commissioner every large city wishes it had. For that matter, he’s the father everyone wishes they’d had. Granddad, the old school commissioner from days gone by adds a bit of spice. The adult children are each different, ranging from obsessive and a bit deranged (in a good way), to snarky,  sarcastic and some might even say bitchy. Yet they manage to be believable as they hang together in crisis and snipe at each other the rest of the time. The next generation is growing up. With a little luck, this show will last. That the family doesn’t always get along really helps keep the series from getting too treacly.

Vegas

Derivative? A bit. With Dennis Quaid and Michael Chiklis as the two oppositional forces, it works. Good acting and a decent script can have a remarkably positive effect on the quality of a show. More series should try it. Chiklis represents the dark side, but isn’t all bad. Quaid is the hero, but imperfect. The characters are surprisingly 3-dimensional, especially for a cop show. The sheriff (Quaid) is based on the guy who really was the sheriff of Clark County from the early 1960s into the 1970s.  The 1960s setting feels authentic, and so far, the show is intelligent and the dialogue crackles. I’m feeling optimistic about this one. I think we have a winner.

Nashville

With only a single show to go on, I nonetheless think this one is going to fly. It helps to like country music, since the show has a lot of it, but more important is the depiction of the world of show business in all it’s glory with its simultaneous viciousness,  pettiness, and cruelty. For anyone seeking the spotlight, fame, and glory, Nashville shows the price you pay for the glamor. It poses the question that no one can answer: How much is fame worth to you if the thing you want most will surely eat you and spit you out in pieces? Can you stand up straight while riding the tilt-a-whirl?

The Mentalist

Back again. Entertainment on the slightly heavy side of light. It’s fun to watch, usually, and maybe, with a little help from a few hallucinations, the show will finally move on from Red John into some other storyline. I’ve about had it with this obsession. I bet I’m not the only viewer wishing they’d move on. Enough Red John. Time for something else. If they don’t find a new direction, I think it will disappear at the end of the season … if not from television, than at least from our television. How about a little creativity, eh? The show has a good cast with a lot of chemistry, but they aren’t using it and rarely give any of the regulars individual screen time. They should. Moving the focus around would revive the show. They have potential, but aren’t doing much with it. It’s amusing, but getting old. The series won’t last if they keep repeating the same story every week.

Private Practice

We stopped watching it last season but gave it another try this year. The intricately melodramatic personal lives of doctors was annoying last year but became depressing this year. Is that an improvement? I can’t see any reason to watch it. It’s not interesting or funny. And it’s not going anywhere.

Grey’s Anatomy

A notch above Private Practice only because the actors are better (sometimes), but in my unenlightened opinion, the series’ turgid melodramatics is boring. It’s a soap opera in prime time. Sandra Oh was the bright spot, and she’s MIA this season. Add a heavy dose of death and misery and you have a genuinely missable viewing experience. Cross it off my list. Again.

CSI

Danson is a big improvement over Fishburne, but the show has never recovered from losing Petersen and I suspect it never will. It’s going to limp along for a while, but it’s just spinning its wheels until someone gives them the hook.

Person of Interest

It is what it is. The characters are paper-thin. More interesting last year when the concept was new, this year looks to be a virtual rerun of last year with minor plot differences. Yawn.

Criminal Minds

Another one that seems to have run out of steam. Failure to develop the characters or find new directions for stories makes me feel like I’m watching reruns, but I’m not. When you can predict the dialogue, but you haven’t seen the show before, it’s not a good sign. I’m hoping against hope that something is about to happen, but it needs to perk up soon. It’s … well … dull. Another yawn.

Bones

And baby makes three. Oh please, please, get back to cases, gore, and forensics and away from baby carriages and quibbling about domestic diddly squat. Where’s the snappy dialogue? Where are the interesting, if gruesome, cases? It’s turning into a domestic comedy set in a lab. Temperance, as a character, has changed without growing. Now she’s wifely and whiny, but no more empathetic or human. And Booth seems to be getting dumber by the day. He didn’t used to be stupid. What happened? This show needs to remember why people liked it in the first place and get back on track … before it’s too late.

NCIS

Leroy Jethro Gibbs

Leroy Jethro Gibbs and crew are a bright light in a dark tunnel. The news that Mark Harmon has signed for another 2 years is heartening and I am grateful. I would love to see more of Jamie Lee Curtis. She was the first love interest for Gibbs who could go head to head with him and was “age appropriate.” There’s no hint of her returning, but I can hope. Very glad that David McCallum is back. I’ve enjoyed him since he played Illya Kuryakin on The Man from U.N.C.L.E.

Major Crimes

The Closer spinoff isn’t as good as the original, but it’s coming along. The series is showing encouraging signs of character development. The Closer was character-driven and so is its spinoff. If they keep going in this direction,  it might make the cut. I’m cautiously optimistic.

Law & Order: SVU

Sorry, but this series is over. It was over last year, but NBC didn’t have anything with which to replace it. I’m tired of it. I can predict the dialogue, who done what, and the resolution before the credits have finished rolling. Wrap it up. Time to move on.

Thirty Rock

It’s hilarious and now that this is the last season, they are throwing mud pies at NBC that I’m sure they wouldn’t have dared in earlier years. I wish it weren’t going away. Intelligent comedies are an endangered species and anything worth watching on NBC is rare enough to be noteworthy.

Elementary

It’s different and it has potential. It depends on how the characters develop and whether or not they can move the story along and not get stuck rehashing the same issues over and over. If they don’t trap themselves, this show might be the only unique show of the season. Well, almost unique. Unique-ish. That’s something, anyhow.

The Good Wife

Through its early seasons, the show moved forward. Characters developed, plots got complicated, but situations resolved and didn’t get stuck. Now, though, they are in a cycle of annoying characters, irritating yet strangely tense situations. We can neither believe the plot nor empathize with the characters. The script has people behaving illogically. You can have a character evolve, grow, try new things … but if you want to keep your audience, you can’t create a character, then write scripts that have them doing exactly the opposite of what you’ve led your audience to expect. Television shows create a world with its own logic, values and axioms. When you dump the structure you’ve built to do something else, viewers may choose to change the channel. We are those people. Tonight, we switched off in the middle of the show. The irritation factor exceeded the enjoyment level. We’ve had enough for now. We’ll visit later in the season to see if they have moved to a better place.

In summary …

Maybe there will be more good stuff coming up. The season isn’t a complete washout, but it’s not thrilling either. The dearth of originality is the season’s most striking feature. Of the new shows, onlyVegas, Nashville, and maybe Elementary show signs of life. The first two I think (hope, anyhow) might actually survive.  NBC cancelled Harry’s Law while it was a hit, so you can never be sure of anything. For further insight, watch 30 Rock. For that matter, Star Trek Second Generation was cancelled while it was the number one show on television. It would be naïve to be overly optimistic. I’m grateful to movie channels and especially Turner Classics, as well as the World Series for keeping us from becoming comatose.

We need to a breakout season on television. It’s been too long since there’s been anything to get excited about. It’s not as bad as it could be, but that’s not saying much.

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