#461. Here There and Everywhere

After such a chaotic TV season last year, I'm fighting to remember to watch when I have the opportunity as the new one unfolds.  Mike Skupin is the opposite in 2012 to what he was in 2001.  That's Survivor for you.  SNL has some new talent worth watching.  I have no idea how long they've been around.  Some of the stars of Private Practice are definitely aging, and I'm actually sad that Tim Daly didn't get to return, even though I thought he sleepwalked through his tenure.  The Mindy Project may not be so different from Mindy Kaling's Office after all.

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I'm finally watching Flashforward back.  It was a one-season wonder from 2009-2010, probably inspired as much by the Robert Sawyer book as Lost's famed fifth season (aired in 2009).  (Oh, and I get the message.  I get no interest when I talk about Lost here.)  I loved Flashforward at the time.  It had brilliant characters with defined arcs and a fascinating premise.  Sawyer's involvement was minimal, but he wrote one of the last episodes (which was obvious, because it was the one most like what he wrote in the book, which I tried reading throughout the season as something like a companion experience), which was a standout.  It's still brilliant.  I think it'd do better now than at the time, when people were still obsessed with Lost and dooming every other similarly ambitious project because it wasn't Lost (and dooming Heroes because it had the bad sense to outlast its welcome), especially as it's similar to what The Walking Dead has become.  I guess it was originally developed for HBO, and maybe it would have done better as a cable show, probably last longer anyway, even if the cast would not be the same.  Even at a single season, though, it's well worth remembering and watching again.

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The Emmys were held on Sunday, and Homeland was a big winner.  It's the latest show the critics love, so of course it was.  I haven't seen any of it, but I would still be surprised if it's anywhere near as brilliant as Fringe.  (Thankfully Fringe has fared better than Flashforward, because Fox has been unusually lenient toward a cult favorite.)  I didn't particularly care for any of the actual nominees.  Breaking Bad, even though everyone who cares about its existence loves it, is particularly embarrassing, now becoming a parody of itself.  As much as I love Bryan Cranston, he deserves better than a caricature.  TV critics love antiheroes, and this one's the least plausible, and the most deserving of a far better and lucid exploration than this show is capable of delivering.  But the majority of cable programming is riddled with poorly-conceived premises designed to shock.  Mad Men is a bad soap opera in a period setting.  The Sopranos was a bad mob movie in a serial format.  Need I go on?