Looking Back on the New Shows of 2006

Ahh spring…birds chirping, flowers growing, and season finales. Is there any better season then spring? As I prepare to say goodbye to my favorite TV shows for the summer (and others for good…Veronica Mars I’m looking suspiciously at you), I took a look at my Fall TV Preview from last September and at the new shows that I was pimping. Some have disappeared and others have flourished; so without further ado, let’s take a look back at my top new shows of 2006 (as predicted in September 2006):

Jericho- About the best thing I can say about this show is that it’s still on my TiVo season pass. Week to week the show bores me to tears but the premise of a small town fighting for survival in a post nuclear world still holds my attention somewhat. Last night’s episode had about 15 minutes worth of watchable developments while the rest was fast forward material. Instead of focusing on who launched the attacks and what was behind it the show has chosen to focus on the boring ass lives of the one dimensional characters that populate the town. The season finale appears to be heading towards a mini war with a neighboring city and while I’ll probably record and fast forward through much of it, unless there is some kind of truly interesting cliff hanger, I’m afraid it’s sayonara for Jericho.

The Nine- Take a group of people forced into an extraordinary situation and see how it affects their lives afterwards. Hmm sounds good on paper. Cast a bunch of recognizable TV actors from shows like 24, Wings, and Party of Five. That sounds like a good way to launch a show. Have the network decided your show is a sure fire hit and schedule it after on of their established big hits Lost. Well my god we’ve got a formula for the number one new show of the year right? Not so fast my friends. The extraordinary situation was a bank robbery gone awry but instead of revealing the details all at once the show instead revealed them in 30 second flashbacks each week. This show made Lost look like a sitcom in terms of it’s story telling pace. The cast seemed to not care that much that they were on a new show and instead seemed to be channeling their old characters especially Audrey from 24 and Scott Wolf from POF. As for the scheduling, the first six Losts of the season (arguably the worst stretch in the history of the show) certainly didn’t help The Nine. In fact I’m guessing the last thing people who were fed up with the lack of answers on Lost wanted to do was watch another show where things were going to be revealed verrrrrrrrrrrrrry sloooooooooowly. The masses spoke and the Nine was done after 6 eps or so.

Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip- Here’s a show I was screaming for people to watch almost 6 months before its premiere. I love Aaron Sorkin and the shows he’s created prior to this one, Sports Night, and The West Wing. I loved the cast from Amanda Peet, to Matthew Perry to the other guy from Wings. Then the show premiered and I liked it…a lot…but I didn’t love it. I can’t believe I’m saying this but I found the show almost too preachy and liberal. It tried much too hard to seem balanced and as such came off as a bit fake and elitist. Still it was damn entertaining TV and while I might have some complaints; it is a show I pray gets renewed from for a second chance. However those hopes seem to be dimming as we still haven’t heard when the last 4 eps of this season will air.

30 Rock- I thought this show held promise and for the first 2 or 3 eps that’s all it was…promise. Flash forward to the present and 30 Rock has surpassed The Office as the best comedy on TV. Tina Fey’s neurotic but strangley sexy lead character keeps the show just barely grounded in reality and allows the rest of the cast to take some truly outrageous risks. NBC has shown it’s faith by renewing the show for a second season but then the news hit this week that entertainer of the year Alec Baldwin is asking out of his contract so he can leave the show. Come on Alec just because you called your 11 or 12 year old an ignorant pig doesn’t mean you should hide your face in shame…she probably had it coming anyway.

Kidnapped- I already talked this show up last month when I talked about it’s DVD release but this quality show with a superb cast was cut short way before it’s time. I kind of felt like it already had its work cut out for it when NBC failed to promote it and stuck it in a lousy time slot.

Notes From the Underbelly- This show finally premiered a few weeks ago and honestly I haven’t seen two minutes. From what I hear it’s mostly dreadful but that the genius that is Rachel Harris is almost worth suffering through 30 minutes of inane pregnancy send ups.

Heroes- Aha! Finally a show that is both commercially and critically successful. I was intrigued by the idea but put off by the early previews of Heroes so I was heavily skeptic when I started watching. Skepticism be gone! Heroes is a perfect mix of complex character development, and engrossing plot lines. They’ve done an amazing job hyping their show through the online comics and the catch phrases (save the cheerleader save the world, are you on the list, etc). The cast seems large at times but when any of them bite the dust you truly are saddened. The mysteries are still mostly shrouded in secrecy but we’ve been given enough of a peak that we can make some general statements about what lies ahead (and behind). This is called balance my friends and it’s the superpower that Heroes possesses.

Friday Night Lights- I didn’t even talk up Friday Night Lights in my preview last fall and wouldn’t you know, in the end it became my favorite new drama. You’d think that a story going through it’s third medium (non fiction bestseller, major studio pic) would lose some of it’s shine but instead the TV show plucked new depths by changing some of the facts from the previous incarnations and introducing us to some of the most human characters in recent memory. Each week you feel like you’re looking through a peep hole at the real city of Dillon Texas. There’s no crazy plot twists (except for maybe the train explosion) and even the football games that you know they’re going to win, are done with a realism that truly matches high school football play. The coach and his wife are the most well adjusted healthy couple on TV and the rest of the cast truly disappear into their roles in hands down the best new drama of 2006.

Drive- Ok here’s another show that wasn’t on my fall preview mostly because it wasn’t to premiere until this summer or even next year. That being said, when it premiered two weeks ago I fell in love with one of the most preposterous premises of all time…a secret cross country road race where the winner gets $32 million. Once I got wind of the shows pedigree with creators and actors from such shows as Wonderfalls, Angel, and Firefly I begged and pleaded for people to give this show a chance. Turns out it didn’t matter. Fox pulled the plug on Wednesday once again proving that they have the most clueless execs in the business. When crap like Prison Break, American Dad, and I’m Brad Garrett Kick Me in the Balls are still on the air, I find it hard to believe that Fox can even turn a profit. If they lost American Idol I think we’d soon see a network that would be closer to the CW then CBS. I hate to agree with Rosie O’Donell but Rupert Murdoch is one stupid, ignorant, koala hide wearing, kangaroo eating, coral reef snorting bastard and so is his network!

Whew...I feel much better now getting that out.