Frying My Brain

I was able to catch a few shows so far that are new on TV. Some of them are decent, some not so much. Since the Domain has stolen my movie reviewing output, here's some TV reviews for this Fall:

Joey

I'm not really a Friends fan. I'll watch the occasional ep when it's on syndication. Very rarely I tuned in for a first airing of an ep, and that was random when it happened. I did enjoy the writing for the show. It was tight, consistent, and amusing the moment. Joey is the follow up, as we all know, to that long running show.

I won't say the episode of Joey I caught was fantastic. One of the things that worked in Friends favor was that with 6 people to watch, you could have a few storylines going at once. No plot line was too weak since they all were small and intermingled. With Joey, we see that while the plot lines haven't grown too much in scope, the writers don't really know how to focus too well on one thread.

While the plot was a little weak, I did like the character interaction. Joey is a good character, and while he's not that smart, he is funny and quite witty. Him playing off his sister was good, and the nephew had a few good lines (if at times a little cliche). Given a couple of weeks, it may find stronger legs and get a good running going.

Father of the Pride

This was a weak show. The main plot line involving the Lions is boring to watch. I laugh once in a while at their antics, but honestly, they aren't worth tuning in for. Now, Sigfried and Roy are hysterical. If the show was focused solely on them, it would be perfect. It has that Clerks animated vibe to it, with just off-the-wall humor left and right. The weirdest thing is that it felt like I was watching two shows spliced together. If they are gonna have both sets of characters, they would have intermingling plot lines

Honestly, the best bet with this show is to record the eps and then just fast forward to Sigfried and Roy segments. This won't last long unless they make the Lions more engaging.

CSI New York

The biggest weakness at the start of this series is that the show is very focused on the main plot line, and (only one week in) doesn't focus on anything else. Part of what makes the original so great is that you have a lot to keep occupied with. Also, the characters are engaging, and while the main guy in NY is good, we haven't really had a chance to bond with anyone else.

Course, the show itself is fairly tight. The plot with the "serial killer" was actually a bit bland. Having seen so much weirdness in the original show (cause, heck, nothing's more kooky than Las Vegas), it's hard to get all worked up over New York. If they can find a good vibe and angle and make the characters more endearing, I'll watch. Only time will tell.

I also caught ER and the original CSI, both of which are still as good as I remember. I caught 30 minutes of Medical Examiners or whatever it's called, which was okay, but suffers like the other CSI-clones from being too bland in comparison to the big boy. Other than that, I'm looking forward to seeing where West Wing goes when it comes back on, and I'm interested a bit in checking out Dr. Vegas. I doubt it'll be good, but Rob Lowe is kinda cool.