View User: JohnWest

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Detriot 1-8-7 - TV Shows
Yeah, another cop show, but it has something most of the others don't: cinematography. That, plus crisp, somewhat understated direction, a talented cast, and the gritty Detroit visuals make it very watchable, at least for me... -- Submitted By: (JohnWest) on January 7, 2011, 5:25 am

Lie to Me - TV Shows
This season (fall 2010) the scripts have become more and more incoherent, but Tim Roth is so good and Kelli Williams so impossibly scrumptious they carry the show anyway. Hard to avoid comparison with House, which airs on Fox the hour before and also stars a British actor supported by a delectable woman of a certain age (Lisa Edelstein) and plenty of nonsensical screenwriting. But wooden direction and Hugh Laurie's invariably numb facial expression (picture a steer hit between the eyes by a sledge hammer) and droning delivery overwhelm Ms. Edelstein's deliciousness, though the show does seem to have attracted a large audience of people evidently fortunate enough never to have been in a hospital or seen a doctor. -- Submitted By: (JohnWest) on November 9, 2010, 9:50 am

Chase - TV Shows
Yet another entry in television's endless love affair with the cops. This time it's the U.S. Marshal service, the baddies are bad-as-can-be, and there's the usual rainbow coalition of crime fighters clutching their pistols in both hands in approved TV-cop fashion. But the pearl in this oyster is Kelli Giddish, who's 30 but looks and acts a little older here, and stars as U.S. Marshall Annie Frost. She hasn't had to show a lot of range so far, but she's been perfect in what they've given her -- she disappears into her role. If, like me, you've got a thing for dishwater blondes who look and sound like every truck-stop waitress in the Southwest before the Interstates came along, you'll want to keep an eye on Annie Frost... -- Submitted By: (JohnWest) on September 28, 2010, 10:31 am

Gong Show, The - TV Shows
The genius of Chuck Barris, plus juicy Jaye P. Morgan, the unknown comic (with a paper bag over his head), stagehand Gene Gene the Dancing Machine. What's not to love? -- Submitted By: (JohnWest) on October 17, 2009, 11:57 am

Charlie Rose - TV Shows
Charlie has a long, lugubrious face, like one of those big Royal Doulton ceramic mugs. He interviews people around a wooden kitchen table, and everybody talks in that hushed PBS drone, you know, like somebody in the next cubicle has cancer. Charlie always reminds me of the old joke about how the most important quality in Hollywood is sincerity, and if you can fake that you've got it made. Gets a lot of A-list media and business people and asks what seem to be the tough questions, but not so tough they won't come back again. -- Submitted By: (JohnWest) on October 17, 2009, 11:49 am

Mercy - TV Shows
10% interesting medical moments, 90% dismal soap opera romance. No pacing at all. Sappy incidental music pops up at random. Too bad too, since Taylor Schilling (Veronica) actually has some range and projects a nice screen presence. Nurses are the largest employee category at every hospital and arguably the most important. They spend far more time at the bedside than the doctors and this show was promoted as telling their story. And in snippets it tries. But there's way too much soggy bun for that little bitty burger. It's possible Mercy will evolve, but somebody is going to have to step up to make that happen, and the idea of looking at hospital medicine in a non-exploitative way is foreign to network television. Incidentally, hospitals have departments: an ICU nurse doesn't have the same work life as an ER nurse, who doesn't have the same work life as a floor nurse, etc., etc., etc. Which are these? -- Submitted By: (JohnWest) on September 27, 2009, 6:44 am

CHiPs - TV Shows
Ponch and Jon come upon a broken-down van full of Playboy bunnies on their way to a charity event at a roller disco. They want to spend the night at Jon's place but he isn't sure. -- Submitted By: (JohnWest) on August 2, 2009, 8:55 am

Miami Vice - TV Shows
As the leading edge of the Baby Boom closed in on 40 and angst gave way to acquisition, this show was like a beautiful blonde trophy wife: not much going on between the ears, but so visually arresting that who cares. Gorgeous mise en scene full of neon and lush pastels, cutting-edge men's fashions, innovative use of electronic music by Jan Hammer. Tried to hit more serious subjects after the first couple of years, as though anybody wanted to look at serious in the 1980s. -- Submitted By: (JohnWest) on August 2, 2009, 8:41 am

WKRP in Cincinnati - TV Shows
Agreed, DolFan. Similar to the way Maryann was hotter than Ginger on Gilligan's Island. -- Submitted By: (JohnWest) on July 31, 2009, 7:50 am

Late Show with David Letterman - TV Shows
A send-up of talk show audiences, rather than the shows themselves. Letterman's idea was that they would laugh at anything as long as it was on TV: bowling balls smashing TV sets, rolled-up paper balls thrown toward a trash can across the room, stupid pet tricks, Paul Schaffer's grotesque caricature of a band leader, etc. You could get as much bang for the buck giving them a canned ham as dinner at a Manhattan restaurant. Worked for a while but ratings slipped as audiences began to catch on to their own nihilistic humiliation. And Leno stole some of the show's better elements, like going out on the street. -- Submitted By: (JohnWest) on July 31, 2009, 7:01 am

Secret Agent - TV Shows
McGoohan would later become identified with the cult classic 'The Prisoner,' but there's a sense in which the constraints of this earlier series were a better showcase for his talent, somewhat as a structured form like the sonnet can promote the flowering of a great poet. -- Submitted By: (JohnWest) on July 30, 2009, 4:30 pm

Route 66 - TV Shows
The 1960 template for all the wandering samaritan shows that followed, from The Fugitive to Run For Your Life, and beyond. And for the restlessness that had been prefigured by the 1950s Beats and would became mainstream as the leading edge of the baby boom reached their teens. Checkout the insightful discussion at the Museum of Broadcast Communications site ( http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/R/htmlR/route66/route66.htm ): "The show's stark black and white photography and spectacular locations provided a powerful backdrop to its downbeat stories, and yielded a photographic and geographical realism that has never been duplicated on American television." -- Submitted By: (JohnWest) on July 30, 2009, 12:42 pm

House - TV Shows
It's like 'Springtime For Hitler' from Mel Brooks' comedy 'The Producers,' i.e., a show deliberately created to be so bad it was bound to fail but which, perversely, turned out to be a hit. Leaden cinematography to match House's immobile, humorless face; dialog divorced from character, action divorced from reality; a hospital without nurses; junk medicine; seems to have been written by teenagers. The women are lovely, particularly the delicious Cuddy (Lisa Edelstein), but try to imagine House making love to her, mugging for the camera through it all. Ugh! -- Submitted By: (JohnWest) on July 28, 2009, 6:41 am