
"As a matter of fact, I've ALREADY eaten a bee."
Law & Order: SVU. Really? A cockroach? Just going to rip Papillon and Brazil off, but without the insight?
Meloni's "the walls, they breeeeeeathe" acting choices looked a lot like the ones he made while humping a fridge in Wet Hot American Summer, but WHAS is a comedy. …Well, an intentional comedy.
And has Christine Lahti always done that thing where she arranges her upper lip over her teeth like an awning? Or is that Botox? I've never liked Lahti — either every character she plays is supposed to be haughtily unlikable, or that's how she chooses to play them, but the end result is the same — but I feel sorry for her here; this character, on top of the hauteur, is a basket of dated neurotic signifiers and cliched responses that few actors could hope to rescue. I doubt we're supposed to like her, but I don't think the writing is having the effect it thinks it is. You actually can spell "credible antagonist" without "annoying."
The Office. Does anyone else really not care about Jim and Pam, or their wedding, at all? Anyone look at that trending tag on Twitter and say aloud, "But…with baseball on?"
Anyone think I'm a hypocrite, since I'm one of the 16 people still watching Survivor? Hee.
Trauma. The steam coming off this week's pile almost obscured the screen. Old guard harasses the newbie? Check. Precocious kid wins over kid-averse cowboy? Check. Failure to save apparent slam-dunk patient leads to hackneyed, "some days you're the hydrant" brooding over good days and bad days? Check. Defensive know-it-all has a lot to learn? Chfphpp…zzz.
What happened? I liked the pilot fine; it didn't do anything Third Watch hadn't done better — and the show we TWoP editors cheerfully referred to as Turd Watch didn't do anything very well to start with — but it had some promise. Did I get distracted by all the shiny explosions and the thrill of the new? Do I put too much faith in the fact that that one guy played Herc on Friday Night Lights, and has foxy sideburns?
I think it's possible to do the paramedics/FD action drama in a fresh way — but while I don't know what that way is, I do know that this is not it. One more week and I'm out.