My favorite fall TV shows: What have they done for me lately?
One of the occupational traps a TV critic falls into is reviewing the latest -- even if it isn't the greatest. So for this week's column I returned to several of the shows I reviewed in my fall TV preview to find out how they were holding up. Below, I'll return to "Worst Week," "Privileged" and "Chuck" but first ...
Of all the programs I enjoyed the first time around, "Fringe" (8 p.m. CT Tuesday, Fox 4) was the one I had my fingers crossed for as I watched the next episode. The most ambitious fall show of the season, I knew it was taking a big chance trying to reinvent the "X-Files" intrigue-horror genre by adding CBS procedural elements to it. (Yes, I realize CBS has one of those shows as well, but "Eleventh Hour" isn't doing much for me so far.)
After watching three hours of "Fringe," I'm happy to report that it's doing just fine. It's predictably unpredictable, it's out there, it's got a great cast and most surprisingly, it's a hoot.
The idea behind "Fringe" is that weird things are happening all around the world and only the U.S. government has the wherewithal to connect the dots. Not exactly virgin turf. But the stakes have been ramped up from the backwater incidents that were the stuff of "X-Files." An airplane wiped out, a scientist with electrically supercharged zombies roving the Earth -- and somehow, the show hints to us constantly, they're all connected. (It helps to have a strong stomach when watching "Fringe," as innocents are maimed and killed left and right.)
What's more, in the midst of all this Special Agent Olivia (Anna Torv) is sharing her brain with her dead ex-lover Special Agent John (Mark Valley). John's brain is helping her solve cases, but it's also turning her into a basket case.
Making this all hold together while creating a novel television experience is a pretty tall order for any show. So far, though, "Fringe" is pulling it off. The writers are avoiding most of the genre cliches, mainly by the use of bizarro humor.
And the cast, about which I had my doubts, really works well. For instance, I wasn't initially sure if having a newly deinstitutionalized, B-movie mad scientist as a regular on the show was a good idea. But Dr. Walter Bishop (John Noble) is just sane enough to deliver most of the miracle scientific breakthroughs seen on "Fringe." And having his son Charlie (Josh Jackson) by his side to roll his eyes whenever he says something truly looney helps humanize him.
Lance Reddick is still trying to find extra dimensions as Olivia's Homeland Security boss. But as was true on "The Wire," he wears extremely well. Even the minor roles on "Fringe" work (and give the show some much-needed racial diversity, otherwise you'd swear the show was set in Edmonton, not Boston).
When "Fringe" gets you under its spell, you find yourself thinking, "Say, maybe you really can train homing pigeons to find people with excess voltage!"
Less ambitious than "Fringe," the slapstick comedy "Worst Week" (8:30 p.m. CT Monday, CBS, KCTV-5) nonetheless faced an equally daunting task: keep delivering half hours that were as riotously funny as the first.
That episode, a speeded-up version of the movie "Meet the Parents," set the bar high, as Sam (Kyle Bornheimer) and his girlfriend Mel (Erinn Hayes) tried to break the news of her pregnancy and their engagement to her starchy and suspicious folks with increasingly calamitous results.
Whether Sam was showing up three hours late for dessert wearing only a discreetly placed baggie, or announcing the death of his future father-in-law to the family a bit prematurely, or saying the wrong thing at the wrong time to the wrong person, his week was so bad that I had to wonder: How do you possibly top this next week?
The answer: You don't. "Worst Week" keeps doing the same thing every week ... and keeps making me laugh. This violates every tenet a TV critic is supposed to hold dear. The show is predictable and one-dimensional. Then again, so are cartoons in the New Yorker.
You can spot almost every train wreck a mile off. When a phone rings, you know the call will end with a grave misunderstanding. Every impulsive decision made here will sets off a domino chain to disaster. Every joke Sam tells will offend somebody. Does any of this ruin the fun for me? It does not.
Mel's dad Dick (Kurtwood Smith) is forever impossible to please, mother Angela (Nancy Lenehan) is always Pollyanna cheerful and Mel is endlessly forgiving of Sam's endlessly idiotic bumbles. Does that have me yearning for a very special episode where Dick battles prostate cancer? It does not.
It helps that "Worst Week" episodes so far have ended with a satisfying, over-the-top payoff at the end. And every so often the writers throw a hard inside curve that hits me right on the funny bone. Like at the end of the scene where Sam destroyed the coffee maker (a minor infraction by this show's standards) and in the ensuing chaos, Mel abruptly ended a phone call with her mom.
"That's strange," Angela said as she hung up. "It sounded like she was hitting him."
Not looking up from his newspaper, Dick said simply, "Good."
The CW network is barely operational at this point, but it did launch a number of new shows in September, which is more than I can say of NBC or ABC. Unfortunately, even on a second look it's hard to recommend such overhyped rich-kid series as "Gossip Girl" or "90210."
However, I did take another gander at "Privileged," based on the Zoey Dean novel How to Teach Filthy Rich Girls (8 p.m. Tuesday, KCWE). And I have to say, it's not like the others.
That's because even though the show is set on a fancy West Palm Beach estate, and involves many stock characters I have seen on many WB/CW shows over the years, "Privileged" is told from a humbler point of view: that of Megan (JoAnna Garcia), an underemployed and overeducated journalist who finds herself hired to be the live-in tutor for spoiled teens Sage (Ashley Newbrough) and Rose (Lucy Kate Hale).
Garcia saves this show, with a little help from sidekicks Marco (Allan Louis) and Charlie (Michael Cassidy). She's a kind of hybrid of Amanda Bynes and Keri Russell: a plucky character played by a likeable comedic actress who would stop traffic anywhere else but on this show, where her hair and clothes are toned down and her co-stars are smoking hot.
Finally, my prize for the best sophomore show of the year goes to NBC's "Chuck" (7 p.m. Monday, KSHB), the geek-spy action comedy that just gets better and better, even if its ratings don't. If you haven't been watching this, please do; don't worry, all you need to know is that the government's biggest secrets are all stored in the brain of a $12-an-hour tech support guy named Chuck (Zachary Levi).
This season, Chuck has fallen in love with his handler, agent Sarah Walker (Yvonne Strahovski), and has more people after the information in his skull than ever before. Last week featured a kick fight in the women's showers between Sarah and a baddie played by, of all people, Nicole Richie. A kick fight shower scene! With Nicole Richie! Priceless.
To paraphrase the late great Don LaFontaine: In a world hopelessly filled with spy-movie sendups, one man can still offer hope.
