Two Fox Shows Board the Early Renewal Train

It will come as no surprise to most that Fox has renewed it’s Zooey Deschanel led freshman comedy ‘New Girl’, but a pleasant non-surprise in my opinion. It started as a very average comedy but really found its feet as the series moved on, so I’m thrilled we will get to see more. What may have been a little more surprising to some was Fox’s decision to renew for a second season the comedy ‘Raising Hope’. And this is not because the show was suffering from particularly poor ratings or anything, but because early renewals are usually reserved for the absolute certainties, and not to shows with fair (but not astounding) ratings like ‘Raising Hope’. I for one think this is easily one of the best family comedies on TV and am pleased it received the renewal, but I’m even more please to see that Fox are confident enough in the series to grant it this early renewal for what will be it’s third series. Fox have not yet revealed the fates of their bubble shows, such as Fringe, Touch and Alcatraz. And I eagerly await news of their fate, and will be sure to rant about it once announced.

‘Dexter’ Big Bad Joins ‘Son’s of Anarchy’
Dexter alumni Jimmy Smits has been snatched up for a season long arc in the upcoming fifth season of the FX biker drama ‘Son’s of Anarchy’. Word is that he will be playing a gangster called ‘Nero’ who becomes a mentor to newly appointed SAMCRO leader Jax, and stirs up some trouble while doing it. I love this show and became a big fan of Jimmy Smit during his run as Miguel Prado on ‘Dexter’, so this is nothing but great news for me. I expect he will have an equally menacing presence on this show.

Britain’s Got Competition
It seems that Simon Cowell may very well be regretting his decision to intentionally reschedule ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ in order to ensure it was in direct competition with the BBC’s newest talent show ‘The Voice UK’. After several weeks of ‘The Voice’ coming out on top by over 4 million viewers during the overlap and 70% more online searches related to the BBC show, Cowell and ITV this week shifted the ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ start time in order to completely avoid the clash with its BBC rival. A sign of defeat or a last ditch effort to increase their own ratings by giving people a chance to watch from the start? Possibly a bit of both, but I for one absolutely cannot stand ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ and was pleased to see the far superior show pull the larger audience for once.

Mark Your TV Calendars
The BBC has finally set the start date for the return of their Simon Amstell lead sitcom ‘Grandma’s House’, I cannot recommend this show highly enough and it will be back on our screens via BBC Two on Thursdays starting from April 19th at 10pm. But wait there’s more! HBO have set June 24th as the start date for the new Aaron Sorkin penned drama ‘Newsroom’. The trailer for this show hit the web over the last few weeks and really does make the show seem like Sorkin at his usual (aka: very high) standard of brilliance. I don’t quite have the words to express my excitement for this shows arrival; so instead will simply embed the trailer so you can feel it yourselves.

Awake Finale Set
In what will very likely double as a series finale, the last episode of this season of ‘Awake’ has been scheduled by NBC to air in the middle of the all-important ‘May Sweeps’ on the 17th of May. What does this mean for the show? Well, it can be interpreted several different ways, some are noting it’s simple coincidence, that that’s just where the two our finale has fallen in the run. Some more negative people are suggesting this is NBC’s way of giving some validity to a decision they have already made about the shows second season, for example, how it isn’t getting one. Me, I’m choosing to see this as a suggestion that they haven’t actually decided on the shows future yet, otherwise they would have pulled it from the schedule before sweeps or put it on hiatus until after. Unfortunately I still don’t hold out much hope for a renewal, the show has been fantastic, but its ratings have dropped every single week since it started. I believe this is mostly due to poor scheduling on NBC’s part, but these figures simply can’t be ignored.

And finally,
The Ricky Gervais comedy drama pilot ‘Derek’ was broadcast this week, and I have to take a moment here to recognise what an incredible piece of television it was; I was genuinely blown away by how funny and heartfelt this show turned out to be. Karl Pilkington brought some serious laughs while Gervais brought one of the most kind and unassuming characters I’ve ever observed to life with joyous results. It was an incredible experience and I have every possible appendage crossed in hopes for a full series commission, which seems likely based on the ratings and Gervais’s confirmation he is working on more scripts. I was frustrated to read some rather ignorant people talking about how they felt this show was somehow offensive to disabled people. To those people I say, I find it more offensive that you have labelled a kind and loving character we are supposed to aspire to be like as disabled at all. Sure, he is not the brightest, but at what point in the show was he ever referred to as disabled? And even if he was, no jokes were made at that characters expense so there is absolutely no argument to be made. This episode was an absolute triumph and I really hope TV history remembers that fact rather than the small number of reactionary and ignorant responses to the show.

So that’s all for this week folks, come back next week and you will find a new edition of Narratively Minded, or come back in two weeks to find more of the above. In the meantime I’m going to be making sure The TV Rundown hasn’t started smoking or something.

At the end of February I wrote an article on my favourite shows to ever be cancelled, and a few people on Twitter pointed out there weren’t any British shows on the list. And in truth the reason was that I simply never felt that passionately about a British show in the face of its cancellation. Sure, there were a bunch of show’s I think I will miss, for example I thought BBC’s ‘Outcasts’ was pretty good and would have been happy to get a second series, but I guess due to the short lived nature of the British TV model, most shows I’m either not expecting to last long or they contain enough closure in their first series that I don’t notice when they don’t get recommisioned.

Well this week that changed, and if tasked with creating that list now, BBC Three supernatural drama ‘The Fades’ would be almost definitely have a place reserved on it. The show hit our screens in late 2011 and immediately grabbed my attention as a fan of genre TV. But I could never have predicted exactly how much I would come to love the programme. Every week my anticipation for the new episode would grow as it’s wondrous, complex and suspenseful plot unfolded in front of my very eyes.

The Fades, for those unaware, follows British teenager Paul who discovers that not only can he see ghosts, known here as Fades, but he might just be destined to save the world. But it was so much more than it’s slightly unoriginal sounding premise; it was supported by astoundingly clever characters, perfectly paced and executed drama and a fantastic cast and crew. It could be funny or heartfelt without compromising it’s genre and not only was the mythology deep and interesting, it was explored slowly so the audience weren’t overwhelmed. It was one of the most intelligent character driven drama’s I’ve ever had the pleasure of watching, and this week it was cancelled.

My first thought when I read the news that one of the shows stars, Johnny Harris, had confirmed the cancellation in an interview, was that the actor had been somehow mistaken, that he didn’t know what he was talking about and the BBC would clear this up within a few hours, and likely even go as far as to commission the second series in response. But the clarification never came and I became angry at the BBC for not commissioning more episodes, angry at the fans for their feeble attempts to drum up support while the show was running and angry at myself for not doing more to promote and support the show.

That was when, remembering the brilliant set up the first series left us with for a potential second, I started signing petitions and sending emails to the BBC, desperately trying to make someone see sense. I even contemplated getting credit cards to purchase hundreds of copies of the first series on DVD. By the time the realisation that this would all be in vain occurred to me, I’d slipped into a rather helpless and depressed state. Then it dawned on me that I’d experienced the first four of the five stages of grief, and besides realising that the next stage is acceptance, the experience had really highlighted for me exactly how much I loved this damn show.

It was a surprisingly bold and confident series. As I’ve already hinted it was a story that didn’t feel the need to show it’s hand in it’s first episode, in fact, by the end of the first episode I had no idea where it was going with any of the event’s I had just witnessed, but over time it revealed itself to me, and the plots and characters started to come together and the mythology driving the show started to make sense. This is partly what made the show so appealing to me, because it was very satisfying to see everything come together this way, but the more I think about this the more I see how casual viewers might struggle to stick with a show taking this approach, as they are usually looking for quick pay offs in their programming.

In many ways it was ahead of its time, the UK is only just now starting to appreciate the more complex serial dramas the US has been producing for a handful of years now, and had this been released a few years down the line it might have been received differently. Because of this it seems ‘The Fades’ simply became a victim of lack of public interest and the ever-growing budget cuts at the beeb. And in many ways, while I’m sad to see the show go, I understand why it was cut. I guess that means I’ve finally reached the acceptance stage. So ‘The Fades’ is gone, but I won’t be forgetting it anytime soon, and neither should you.

So, that’s all for this week, come back next week for The TV Rundown or the week after to read more of the above, and I promise it will have more direction and structure.

Eddie Izzard to move to ‘Mockingbird Lane’

In what I believe to be an inspired piece of casting, British comedian Eddie Izzard has reportedly been cast in Bryan Fullers remake of ‘The Munsters’ currently titled ‘Mockingbird Lane’. Izzard is allegedly on board to portray the character of Grandpa, portrayed by Al Lewis in the original iteration. Many online sources are taking issue with the way NBC are billing this project as a ‘One Hour Drama’ the concern seems to stem from the notion that this somehow means it’s going to be a serious take the story, but drama doesn’t always mean that the project will be serious in tone. Based on Fullers previous work, I expect this will be a drama in the same sense that ‘Pushing Daises’ was a drama, a drama in story nature, but tonally very light-hearted and funny. This is perfect in my opinion, because if it were a straight sitcom these days it would probably come across a little cheesy.

’30 Rock’ planning a second live episode

The ’30 Rock’ gang are planning another live edition of the critically acclaimed sitcom. The show successfully experimented with the live format in October 2010 during their fifth season. This second attempt will be broadcast live from New York on April 26th and will likely be performed twice for the east and west coast as they did last time, leaving for specific regional jokes. I loved the first live episode and expect nothing less from an SNL vet like Tina Fey.

‘Comedy Vehicle’ recommisioned

People of the internet rejoice, for it is a wondrous day! Why? I hear you ask. Because it has been confirmed that Stewart Lee’s wonderful stand-up/sketch show hybrid ‘Stewart Lee’s Comedy Vehicle’ has been picked up for not only a third series, but a fourth too. This is easily the finest show of it’s kind on television, but I suppose considering there aren’t many shows like this on television that doesn’t sound as impressive as it might. I’ve liked Stewart Lee for many years, but this show is what finally pushed me into becoming a massive fan. I saw him live recently myself, and if his current show is anything to go by, any future series of this show is bound to be spectacular. It must be noted that the show will take the year off first, meaning series three will broadcast in 2013 and series four will be broadcast in 2014. But I think is probably a good thing, when it’s essentially a stand-up TV series, Mr. Lee will do better to pace himself and not burn through his material. If you’re not familiar with this program yet, check out any clips of the man on youtube, there are literally no bad ones.

‘Doctor Who’ news roundup

Over the last couple of weeks a lot of information has been released regarding the upcoming series, so much so I barely know where to start, but here I go. The upcoming series has been confirmed to be 14 episodes in length, including a Christmas Special. The first 5 episode will feature Amy and Rory and will air towards the end of this year, during this five episode run Amy and Rory will face Daleks, visit the wild west and leave the show in the fifth episode in an adventure featuring the Weeping Angels, it’s an episode which will be set and filmed in New York. In regards to that episode, show runner and lead writer Steven Moffat had to say; “Not everyone gets out alive and I mean it this time”.

After Amy and Rory’s exit, the Christmas Special will introduce us to a new companion, portrayed by former ‘Waterloo Road’ actress Jenna-Louise Coleman. Following her introduction the series will resume shortly after with an 8 episode run that will close off the season and serve as a build-up to whatever shenanigans Steven Moffat has planned for the shows 50th anniversary in late 2013. In regards to the character Jenna will be playing, Moffat had this to say “Who she’s playing, how the Doctor meets her, and even where he finds her, are all part of one of the biggest mysteries the Time Lord ever encounters. Even by the Doctor’s standards, this isn’t your usual boy meets girl.”

And finally on the Doctor Who front, it seems they really weren’t kidding when they said the Daleks are back. Based on some Twitter conversations and some early images from the BBC, it seemed confirmed that the episode would feature multiple Daleks designs. So a possible battle between the RTD era Daleks and the rainbow Daleks of the Moffat era seemed a logical conclusion to draw from that. Then FX crew member John Shepard said this on Twitter; “Working late on Dr Who tonight, it was interesting to see all original Daleks since 1960 in one episode”. This was then seemingly verified when Steven Moffat posted a photo of what appears to be a classic Dalek covered in debris on set with Matt and Karen. I’m pretty excited by all of this news, seems like ‘Doctor Who’ fans have a lot to be excited about over the next two years.

‘Terra Nova’ may go extinct after all

So remember all that stuff I said last week about Netflix potentially taking on prehistoric drama Terra Nova following it’s cancellation from Fox? Well, forget it, it seems that Fox and Netflix have had trouble coming to an agreement that will allow this to happen, presumably as a result of shows unfortunate and astronomical costliness, and it seems both parties have stepped away from the negotiations. Either way the shows fate looks even worse than it did last week, which is saying something because last week it was cancelled.

Gervais turns fantasy into reality

Ricky Gervais has long talked about his proposed ‘Idiot Abroad’ spin off ‘The Short Way Around’ which would feature the ‘Abroad’ star Karl Pilkington cycling around the world with celebrity dwarf and actor Warwick Davis in the basket in what sounds more like a coke inspired dream Gervais had than a genuine concept for a TV show. It seems that this week, despite Karls insistence he wouldn’t be involved with any more travel shows, a contract was signed that would see this series become a reality. I for one am excited, because Karl did a short (pun not intended) interview with Warwick a few years ago and it led to some of my favourite Karl moments of all time. And besides that, a partner for Karl to riff off is exactly what I felt ‘An Idiot Abroad’ needed. Looking forward to this.

‘Blood and Chrome’ good news and bad news

A couple of weeks back Syfy let loose an astounding trailer that set the internet alight with desire for their ‘Battlestar Gallactica’ prequel ‘Blood and Chrome’. The problem is that then mere days later they announced they weren’t picking it up as TV series. Rumours are strong it will become a webseries, which presumably will just be the already produced pilot split into a couple of webisodes, but even that isn’t confirmed as of yet, right now all Syfy have announced is that it’s a candidate for that. I’m going to embed the trailer below so you can revel in the utter injustice and despair with me.

After an utterly fantastic series finale, which followed a very strong series in itself, it has been announced that Being Human will indeed be back for a fifth series, despite many predicting its demise. It seems the crux of the predictions were based on the drastic change to the principal cast the show went through this year, but ultimately in my opinion it gave the show new life, I was thoroughly impressed. And next year is set to see more changes as the last remaining principle character from the first series seems to have been replaced in that final episode as well. But based on this season I see no reason to be concerned about that. I could see this cast taking us right up to series six. And I won’t be complaining.

And finally,

I know I mentioned this last time, but tonight will see Game Of Thrones return to our screens at 9PM here in the UK on Sky Atlantic, and you owe it to yourself to be watching. The first series was truly wonderful and I fully expect the second to be just as riveting. And on top of that, the early reviews have suggested my confidence in this series in more than warranted. So don’t show your face here next week until you’ve already seen it. Just kidding, visit either way…

So that’s all for this week, come back next week for a dose of my other bi-weekly article ‘Narratively Minded’ (That’s right Rundown readers, I’m cheating on you with another article) or come back in two for more of the above.

Ok, so I’m probably going to lose a certain level of Internet street cred as a result of the following statement, but not only did I watch the UK version of ‘The Voice’, I also really enjoyed the first episode. So first of all I have to say, as many will know from previous Narratively Minded entries I’m not as against reality TV as many of my peers, but I am very particular about what I watch. I don’t just watch anything, I prefer competition based shows and shows that at least have some semblance of authenticity about them. So while I have been known to be partial to a bit of ‘X-factor’ and ‘The Apprentice’ in the past, I wouldn’t go near ‘Jersey Shore’ or anything with the words ‘Real’ or ‘Housewives’ in the title.

This weekend I sat down to check out the latest BBC talent show, ‘The Voice’. Now, this show started last season in the US, and as soon as I heard the premise I must admit I nearly watched the US version there and then, but in the end one thing or another meant that I never got around to it. But I did make a mental note to make sure I didn’t miss it if it were to come back to US screens. But by the time the second season of US version was on the horizon, I saw that the BBC was developing a version for the UK, and when I saw who the coaches were going to be, I couldn’t help but hold off just a little longer to check out what the UK version was going to offer. So unfortunately I have no idea how this show differs to the US version, but I do know one thing; I absolutely loved the first episode.

The premise is one of those wonderfully elegant ideas that’s so simple and obvious, that when you first hear it you spend a few seconds certain it must have already been done, because you can’t fathom the idea that no one has thought of it yet. In this case, it is the idea that musicians in this competition are judged purely on their voice and nothing else. The judges sit with their backs to the musicians and decide if they are interested in having them on their team without being able to see them. If the coach likes what they hear they hit a button and their chair rotates revealing the act to them, and at the end of the song that artist wins a place on the team of the coach that turned around. If more than one judge turns around during the song the power switches as the artist may choose their coach from those who turned, leaving the coaches to try and convince the musician they are right for them. If no one turns around during a performance, then the artist leaves the competition at this point.

Beyond the audition stages I can only assume the coaches take their 10 musician strong teams through a series of elimination stages until they are each left with 1 artist to be pitted against each other in the final episode. You may have already noticed I used the word musician instead of singer, this is because the show is a little more accommodating of people who want to play their own instruments while performing, and while they can’t be judged based on these extra curricular talents, it does encourage more true musicians to audition than the ITV equivalent show does. And in the first episode that did seem to have an effect on the type of contestant walking through the door, far more genuine artists and far less people seeking fame via the convenient medium of singing without any true musical talent to back it up.

Another advantage this show has on the other major singing competition this county has is that it didn’t contain any classless segments dedicated to the humiliation of the gullible. You see, on ‘The X-factor’, the first auditions that take place on TV are actually the fifth audition stage. Each singer has been through four stages with various producers before they are put before Simon Cowell’s band of merry men. Ever wonder why all the really bad singers on ‘The X-factor’ seem massively deluded about their abilities? This is the reason, by putting them through four stages before the televised one; by the time they get there they have been led to believe they are immensely talented. And after inflating the contestant’s egos in this way behind the scenes the producers then push them out onto a stage encouraging and allowing them to embarrass themselves in front of the entire country. It’s a disgustingly cheap and classless tactic and I find the very notion to be abhorrent. ‘The Voice’ on the other hand does no such thing and all of the people stepping up to the microphone have at least a modicum of talent. Which also means the overall standards are higher and that competition is tougher from the get go.

‘The Voice’ also has an astoundingly well-designed cast of coaches. The producers have been clever and assembled a genuinely delightful mix, all with talent and skills in different areas of music. Every coach has a clear ear for talent and a personality to go along with it. I found myself becoming rather fond of will.i.am, who it turns out, is much wittier, more intelligent and well spoken than I imagined. But the other coaches all bring something to the table as well; Sir Tom Jones carries his experience and the authority that comes with it like an absolute pro. Jessie J brought her status as the most current and contemporary coach on the panel while Danny O’Donoghue brought a lot of honesty and humour to the role and occasionally doubled as the host, leading conversations directly following the performances.

The contestants were a suitable mix of people from different backgrounds both musically and personally. And while the show did let you in a little when it comes to their personal lives and occasionally delved more specifically into their reasons for choosing a show where appearance counts for nothing, it felt more like an exercise in getting to know them and their motivations better rather than deliberately pushing for sob stories to overtly pull on our heartstrings as an audience. Instead it made us care about these people just enough in order for us to want to see them succeed. On more than one occasion I found myself egging the coaches into pushing that damn button, and if that’s not a sign of great TV I don’t know what is.

Only time will tell in regards to how well this format works in the long run, but purely based on the first episode I think the BBC have got a real hit on their hands. I for one thoroughly enjoyed it and am in no way shamed to say I’ll be watching again next week. If you haven’t seen ‘The Voice’ yet, it airs on Saturday nights at 7, or you can catch it on iPlayer.

Thanks for reading.

‘Terra Nova’ Cancelled

And what better way to prove my point than by starting with a story as old as time. Yes, that’s right it seems Fox have indeed ditched their dino-drama ‘Terra Nova’. And while I enjoyed much of the show, I’ll be the first to admit it was more than a little uneven and I won’t be too sad to see it go. Possibly the more interesting aspect of this particular story is that rumor has it Netflix are currently negotiating with Fox to acquire the rights to produce new episodes of the shows themselves. When combined with the news that Netflix are producing new episodes of Arrested Development, this news, if true, is a very interesting development and may very well be the first step in TV moving away from the broadcast model to an internet based on demand model.

Returning To ‘Grandma’s House’

Simon Amstell announce last week on his Twitter account that new episodes of his charming comedy series ‘Grandma’s House’ will be broadcast sometime in April. The series was filmed towards the end of last year, and I for one cannot wait to see how it turned out. It was one of my favourite discoveries of 2010 and I really cannot wait to see more of this Amstell penned show, semi-based on his own life experiences. And I highly recommend you keep your eye out as the exact date will no doubt be announced in a more official capacity in the coming weeks.

‘Alcatraz’ Hit’s A New Low

In ratings news, last week saw struggling Fox drama ‘Alcatraz’ hit a new low, in both its ratings and creatively in my opinion. The 10th episode titled ‘Clarence Montgomery’ fell 11% to a series low of 1.5 in the demo, 5 million viewers total. I don’t think Fox will have any choice but to cancel this show soon with numbers like that. But to be honest, these poor ratings were just as well, as the episode itself was really uninspired and in my opinion was the weakest of the season, which is a real shame because the week before had been really strong.

‘Person Of Interest’ Hit’s A New High

On the other side of that ratings coin, last week’s ‘Person Of Interest’ managed to reach a series high of 3.3 in the demo, and 14.92 million total viewers. But I didn’t really have time to tell anyone how certain this made the renewal of this show seem before CBS went and announced they have renewed it for another season anyway. No word on how many episodes were ordered, but based on these figures I would be surprised if it wasn’t a full 22-episode order. I’ve very much enjoyed this show and am happy to see it find it’s audience.

Casting Quickies

– Garrick Hargon, best known for playing Biggs in the original Star Wars film will be featured in an upcoming episode in seventh series of ‘Doctor Who’. He will be appearing in the episode currently being filmed in Spain rumoured to be a western episode titled ‘The Gunslingers’.

– Renowned physicist Stephen Hawking is set to appear as a guest star on the April 5th edition of ‘The Big Bang Theory’, and will definitely be sharing screen time with Jim Parson’s character Sheldon Cooper.

– Dexter alumni Julie Benz and… other Dexter alumni Jamie Murray have joined the cast of the new SyFy series ‘Defiance’.

– British actor Neil Morrissey has been cast in ABC’s ‘The Walking Dead’ for season three as a very influential and villainous character from the comic books called ‘The Governor’.

- SNL cast member Will Forte has apparently been cast in Fox’s basketball comedy pilot ‘Rebounding’ from Modern Family co-creator Steve Levitan.

– British actor Simon Pegg has been cast in the pilot Frank Darabonts TNT adapatation of L.A. Noir. No details of the role, or whether it is recurring or one off have yet been released. Although I don’t expect it to be a large role considering Pegg’s other engagements.

‘Skin’s’ Cancelled… (sort of)

Long running British teen drama ‘Skins’ was cancelled this week, about five minutes before they announced the show would be going back into production for next year. Confused? Well it turns out that the iconic show won’t just be pulled from the air unceremoniously, instead Channel Four intend to make 3 feature length episodes for next year, each split into two parts and aired over three weeks these episodes are designed to wrap up and send off the show and will contain characters from all previous generations of the show. Since they intend to produce three features, one can assume each will be dedicated to one of the previous three generations of the shows cast. I don’t know about you, but I honestly am looking forward to seeing how Michelle, Sid, Cassie and Tony are doing these days. The question is, how successful will Channel Four be at reuniting the cast? Only time will tell I suppose.

More ‘Episodes’ episodes?

Showtime have confirmed the second series of the hilarious Matt Le Blanc, Tamsin Greig and Stephen Mangan led comedy will return on July 21st. There really isn’t much more to this story, so I will use the remaining words to tell you that you should be watching this show, and if you missed the first series, now is your chance. Take it. You will not regret it.

‘The Walking Dead’ Ambles To Victory

Sunday nights ‘The Walking Dead’ was the highest rated episode in the shows history, getting a 5.8 rating in the demo and 9 million total viewers. Which may not quite seem record breaking, but when you consider that ‘Person Of Interest’ had six million total viewers more, but had a little more than half the demo rating you quickly realise how well this show is doing, especially for a network like AMC, who no doubt have similar numbers in mind for the big return of ‘Mad Men’ next month on March 25th.

Andy Samberg and Greg Davis Go ‘Cuckoo’

Saturday Night Live legend Andy Samberg is making his way across the pond to star along side Greg Davis in a new BBC Three sitcom called ‘Cuckoo’. Not much is known about the show but with Samberg and Davis I’m pretty excited for the projects prospects. Samberg will play the lead in the show of a character who marries a British girl, and has to deal with her overprotective father, who will be played by the former ‘Inbetweeners’ star and stand up comedian Davis.

And finally,

This week I’m going to end on a recommendation for a show that airs between now and my next Rundown. Which is easy, because only one program screams recommendation over the next two weeks, and that’s the second season Games Of Thrones which starts on April 1st in the US and shortly thereafter here in the UK. Consider this early warning an excuse the catch up on the shows amazing first season if you haven’t already.

So that’s all for this week, make sure you come back next Monday for another edition of Narratively Minded and the week after for another TV Rundown.

Thanks For Reading

For those unsure of the term, procedural television tends to focus on the ‘Story Of The Week’ model where each individual episode’s central plot, almost always investigative in nature, both begins and ends within the confines of that single episode, whereas serialised television will progress it’s key stories over the course of the entire season. And just to clarify, I’m not suggesting with this piece that I prefer procedurals, the very reason I prefer television to cinema is because television naturally has a bigger canvas to tell it’s story that it’s theatrical counterpart and serialised shows can actually take advantage of this fact and utilise the canvas to their advantage. Taking the chance to tell more intricate stories thoroughly over an entire season of 45-minute episodes rather than telling over a dozen separate stories in 45-minute chunks. But with that said, I think there is still a lot of merit to the procedural and feel that some mismanagement by the networks has earned them an unfair reputation among certain groups.

I definitely haven’t forgotten the many flaws the genre has, but when it’s well written a procedural will stay fresh and interesting for longer than a serialised show because it has more scope and therefore more potential to use a wider variety of stories, settings, characters and even genres week to week. Also, a good procedural will be able to weave a thin running story through all of the episodes that will not only enhance the characters and reward returning viewers for their loyalty, but will also keep the ‘story of the week’ from ever feeling arbitrary and pointless in the grand scheme of things. Procedurals also have the ability to surprise their audiences in a way a serialised show never will by occasionally breaking away from the ridged formula to go somewhere completely different and character driven. This is expected in a serialised show, but always comes as an interesting shock in the procedural environment. And flaws aside, these reasons alone give this genre merit as far as I’m concerned.

So I suppose the questions then becomes, why do so many speak out against them if they have all this potential? In my opinion the problem stems from the fact networks have had a very clear focus on procedurals in recent years, even going so far as to introduce procedural elements into shows that were conceived without them, meaning that the TV landscape is more than a little unbalanced at present, and the more of the genre you produce the more chance of awful ones slipping through the development net and making it to our screens. Meaning that there are way more poorly executed shows in the procedural genre than in any other, and on top of that the shows that most clearly fit the very definition of the genre tend to be the worst ones, utilising archetypes and cliché to a nauseating degree, because of this when people hear ‘procedural’ they think ‘CSI’ not ‘House’, and I feel this partly leads to the genres poor reputation. But this suggests to me that so many of the people speaking out against the genre seem to be doing so as a result of over-saturation rather than an actual problem with genre itself.

But what these people seem to have forgotten is that they are the minority of the TV viewing audience and networks will go where the mass viewers go. And most TV viewers are casual viewers; people who watch TV occasionally or are likely to miss entire episodes of a shows run, they are essentially people not as dedicated to their TV sets as those criticising the genre. In the current broadcast model, casual viewers either can’t watch serialised shows because their busy lives cause them to miss episodes, or don’t want to watch something where a time investment is required to obtain closure, instead these people will turn to procedural shows where they can jump in and jump out and receive closure regardless each and every time. Another reason networks prefer the procedural is that it is much easier for an audience to jump on board with mid-run, so they have more opportunity to grow their audience over time, a truly serialised show is almost impossible to enjoy if you don’t watch from episode one so audiences are therefore less likely to build over time.

I don’t feel that any of what I have mentioned above is a valid reason to dismiss the genre, but thankfully I do not believe it will maintain this perception for long. Some have theorised that as advances in DVR and streaming/on-demand technology will leave less people to be confined to watching TV on a broadcast schedule, effectively making the broadcast model obsolete, and as a result more will turn to serialised television because they will have access to the entire run of their favourite shows completely on demand. I really do believe there is some truth in this, because while those viewers not looking to make the time commitment will not be converted by these developments I think those people who were previously likely to miss episodes will no longer have an excuse and will take the chance to be more selective with their viewing choices. So I do see this turn making the ratio of procedural to serialised shows even out, and that may very well correct the imbalance I believe is currently causing many to dismiss a perfectly valid genre.

Well, thats all for this week, be sure to return next for another edition of The TV Rundown, or come back in two weeks for more of the same in the next edition of Narratively Minded.

Thanks for reading.

PS: And I wanted to add a big thanks to Sam for doing such a great job filling in last week while I caused a minor international relations incident between the UK and Mexico, but that’s another story for another time.

The Set-Up -

Okay, as a quick synopsis, (for those of you that don’t know), this is a show from 1999 based around the misadventures of various groups of social-misfits in and around an American high-school during 1980. Focusing primarily on a brother and older sister it follows their attempts to fit into these respective social-groups. So far, so seemingly normal…

The Setting -

Given that it’s set in 1980 and therefore technically a period piece there was every chance that it could so easily have fallen into parody similar to that of ‘That 70′s Show’. This coupled with the fact it’s set within a high-school which immediately opens itself to all sorts of potential clichés and contrivances, (plus the inherent difficulties of directing actors ranging from 14 to 18, although some were playing younger). But it’s the genuine nature of the show that shines through digging down to something that’s real, (despite me being British and this American). It doesn’t feature a ‘geek’ taking off her glasses in order to be accepted as ‘beautiful’ by her so called peers, it features a nondescript school that could be anybodies with real situations handled in a realistic manner. There’s some great interchanges between students and the teachers such as one between Lindsay, (the older sister), and her detention supervisor over not being able to do actual school-work as they were to just ‘sit there and think about what they’ve done’. By being laid-back and avoiding melodrama it allows the somewhat ridiculous rituals of high-school to emerge all on their own.

The Characters -

As I said before, we begin with the brother and sister Sam and Lindsay as they find themselves within their own social-groups replete with their own set of peers. Lindsay is a grade A student who’s welcomed into ‘the stoner set’ or ‘the freaks’ whilst Sam finds himself amongst ‘the geeks’ who do all the typical stuff such as enjoy Dungeons and Dragons. This all seems to fit the stereotypes at first glance and, for a portion of the show that’s what they are. But it’s the manner in which it draws you in slowly enveloping the viewer into their lives as they become more than two dimensional as they’re brought to life along with the characters around them. Even a seemingly minor character at first, Seth Rogens Ken has back-story giving his every-man character fully grounded roots that were instantly recognisable, (even to the point of being able to forgive him for ‘The Green Hornet’). The point is that everyone from James Francos bad boy Desario to Starrs spectacled Bill Haverchuck had real personalities which was down to the again genuine manner in which they interacted within the shows confines. You really felt you knew them all by the end of the series, more so than many shows can manage over a multitude of seasons.

The Plots -

Alright, I’ve been trying my best to not give you any spoilers as I ultimately want to ‘sell’ this show for those of you that haven’t seen it yet. I’ll try to do my utmost not to give too much away here. But anyway, another vital element to this show was the plots, (well obviously duh). The thing was, as I said they got the characters to break through their moulds, effectively bringing out the truth in each of them. A great example of this was Jason Segels character ‘Nick Andopolis’. Now, not giving too much away he comes into Lindsay’s home-life in a way that’s different and real ultimately shaking it up and peeling away the characters layers. A similar situation happens with Busy Phillips’s ‘Kim Kelly’ and, whilst a lot of it’s admittedly class based it doesn’t seem any less real, (in fact it seems more so).

The thing is we can still see the repercussions of the show today. Having launched not just Judd Apatows career and the films that were to follow it also brought about a lot of high profiled stars. Actors such as James Franco, Seth Rogen and Jason Segel being the obvious ones. But you can also see the shows effects in their careers as they’re still running, (to a degree), with the type-casts that were created in this show. For a show that shamefully nobody apparently watched at the time, (supposedly down to scheduling), that’s pretty good going. Need I say more? Make sure you watch this show and watch it now!

Anyway, to wrap up word has come through that whilst writing this Dan has subsequently brought about a rebellion within a small poverty stricken Mexican village inspiring them to rise up usurping their militant overlords. Well done mate! Thus he’ll be back next week and on form.

See you then.

The River Picks Up

While it’s still not perfect, ABC horror ‘The River’ has really impressed me with its third and fourth episodes. Based on purely the first two episodes, I got the impression each episode being about nothing more than a grumpy spirit on a power trip determined to exert it’s powers by terrorising our search team and it was not an appealing idea to me, it seemed like it would get old fast. But in the subsequent two episodes the writers are to be commended for coming up with some really interesting ideas for supernatural maguffin for our characters to run away from screaming. Based on episodes three and four it’s quickly becoming one of the highlights of my week, the problem is, there are only four episodes left… so let’s hope it gets itself renewed.

Community Is Back

I have good and bad news for you now. The good news is that ‘Community’ will be back on NBC on March the 15th with the first of its 12 unaired episodes. The bad news is that to achieve this, NBC have bumped ‘Parks and Recreation’ off the Thursday night schedule temporarily, meaning we get ‘Community’ back at the cost of a hiatus for ‘Parks’, which may hurt ‘Parks’ already wobbly ratings upon its return. I’m also disappointed to discover that it seems NBC is feeding ‘Community’ to the sharks to keep them occupied while the rest of their comedies escape on a life raft, as it will be once again broadcasting in the 8pm slot pitting it against unstoppable CBS ratings machine ‘The Big Bang Theory’. As I’ve said before, I’m still confident that NBC will renew ‘Community’ for syndication reasons, but I don’t see it lasting beyond next year. In my opinion NBC have done nothing but prove they see ‘Community’ as the most expendable show on their Thursday schedule.

Community Casting

And Speaking of ‘Community’, in casting news Giancarlo Esposito will be gracing the halls of Greendale Community College during this 12 episode run as a former business partner of Pierces late father. The actor was most recently seen being brilliant as ‘Breaking Bads’ terrifying exploding baddie Gus Fring. So far it appears to be a single episode guest spot rather than a recurring role, but after the way the previous season of Breaking Bad ended, specifically the exploding nature of his character, expect Giancarlo Esposito to find a more permanent role soon, he’s just too brilliant to ignore.

Modern Family Thoughts

Anyone interested in writing for TV should really take a close look at Modern Family, not necessarily from a comedy standpoint, but from the perspective of narrative structure. Each episode is a miniature masterpiece of storytelling and this week’s episode ‘Virgin Territory’ was an exceptionally fine example. Beyond being astoundingly funny and charming as usual, it had five entirely separate plots that intertwined in a logical yet complex manner with each story maintaining a clear beginning, middle and end that all took place within just 22 short minutes. And trust me when I say most writers would struggle to do that in a 90 minute feature, hat’s off to the writing team.

Quote of The Week

“Wilfred and I had the exact right mix of weirdness; he liked to put raisins on his pizza. And I… couldn’t have an orgasm unless he choked Me.” – Maw Maw (Raising Hope)

‘666 Park Avenue’ Find’s It’s Owner

Some may remember that two weeks ago in my last TV Rundown I talked about how much I missed having Terry O’Quinn on my TV on a weekly basis, well it appears the TV gods took heed of my prayers, because he has landed a starring role on ABC’s new supernatural drama ‘666 Park Avenue’. The show is based on the Gabriella Pierce book series and tells the tale of a young couple that take the manager position of an old apartment building in New York only to discover the building seems to attract supernatural occurrences. O’Quinn is set to play the buildings owner Gavin while ‘Brothers and Sisters’ alumni Dave Annable has signed to portray one half of the aforementioned unfortunate manager couple. I’m excited by the prospect of this series and look forward to seeing how it turns out. Providing a full season is actually ordered.

Casting Quickies

– ‘Chuck’s’ Zachary Levi has been cast as the lead in the new FOX sitcom ‘Let It Go’.
– J.K. Simmons has been cast in ABC’S ‘Van’, which is a US remake of the BBC’s ‘White Van Man’.
– Lost’s Henry Ian Cusick has been cast as a ‘memorable bad guy’ in the 15th episode of this season of ‘Fringe’, expected to air in March.
– ‘Harry Potter’ and ‘Being Human UK’ actor Mark Williams will be appearing as a guest star in an episode of the upcoming series of ‘Doctor Who’.
– Another ‘Lost’ Alumni Emilie De Ravin has been cast in the ABC drama pilot ‘Americana’.
– The ‘How I Met Your Mother’ creators have landed a new pilot at FOX titled ‘The Goodwin Games’ and they have cast ‘Ugly Betty’ Alumni Becki Newton in one of the lead roles.
– Bradley Whitford has been cast in the new Fox spy drama pilot ‘The Asset’

Walking Dead Spoiled?

Dismissed ‘Walking Dead’ show runner Frank Darabont has a new project in the works at TNT. The one-hour drama is based on the John Buntin book ‘L.A. Noir’, which depicts the real life war between Mickey Cohen’s gang and the LAPD and is expected to start filming in April. ‘Heroes’ Alumni Milo Ventimiglia joined the cast a little while back as Ned Stax, a mob lawyer. All well and good, but its development may have potentially spoiled an element of this season of ‘The Walking Dead’, so fans of that show who haven’t read the comics may want to skip to the next paragraph now, (yes, it’s a potential spoiler warning). It seems Jon Bernthal, who portrays Shane on the show, is allegedly in talks to play the lead in ‘L.A. Noir’, which has lead many to believe that the TV version of Shane will soon be going the way of his comic book counterpart, who died at the end of the 6th issue at the hands of Rick’s son Carl when he finally snaps and threatens his father. If true, I’ll be excited to see how the show handles this, as it was one of my favourite moments from the comic book.

Hannibal Commissioned

Bryan Fuller has been more than a little busy lately, as well as developing the reboot of ‘The Munsters’, currently titled ‘Mockingbird Lane’, NBC also have him working their new drama ‘Hannibal’, which seems set for the 2012-2013 season. The thriller will focus on stories and characters from the Thomas Harris novel ‘Red Dragon’ and while many are concerned that Bryan Fullers experience lies in tonally light-hearted projects, and that this background doesn’t make him the ideal choice for the serious drama requirements of this project, but I feel confident that his astounding grasp of storytelling will carry any show, plus every show he has worked on has tackled serious ideas, even if more often than not, it would do so in a playful way, it’s not like he’s never handled similar elements before. I for one can’t wait to see how this project turns out.

And Finally…

And for those of you wondering why I haven’t yet mentioned CBS’s modern Sherlock Holmes project ‘Elementary’ yet; I genuinely don’t feel I’m ready to talk about it without resorting to lots of inappropriate language. Maybe in a couple of months I will have calmed down enough and will be able to put forward a clear and concise argument as to why I don’t approve of this heinous, obvious and disgusting attempt to capitalise on the success of what will undoubtedly be the superior product in BBC’s ‘Sherlock’. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure the creative team for this show are really putting a lot of effort into this project, desperately trying to make it work, and who knows, maybe they will get lucky and it will be wonderful. But this stinks of business decision to me and as I’ve said in the past, genuinely brilliant television is almost never created as a result of business decisions, so I remain sceptical.

So that’s all for this week, be sure to come back in two weeks for more of the same or come back next week for a dose of my other bi-weekly nonsense Narratively Minded.

Thanks for reading.

So far I have avoided this particular piece for two reasons; firstly, it’s an article almost every TV writer has tackled at some point. Secondly, the devastation felt when a show is cancelled is entirely dependent on your personal position of the show and its potential, so it’s unlikely my views here will reflect those of the masses. But I’m choosing to indulge, so here are the five cancellations that still give me my most sleepless nights, leaving me forever doomed to wonder what could have been.

5. Wonderfalls (2004)

Where better to start than with one of the many cancelled shows produced by Tim Minear, who will be the first to remind you of his unfortunately bad luck in these matters. Honestly, any of the shows he has worked on could have gone in this space as they have all be brilliant, particularly ‘Drive’ or ‘The Inside’ but for me, losing dramady ‘Wonderfalls’ will always be the most painful of all of his shows because in truth, it’s the one that most struck me as something truly unique, something irreplaceable, something worth making a special effort to watch because there wasn’t, and hasn’t been since, anything else on TV like it. The show was created by Bryan Fuller and Todd Holland and had that otherworldly quality all Fullers shows seem to have that make them somehow feel oddly out of sync with our reality.

‘Wonderfalls’ was pulled after just 13 episodes and to be honest, I’m not surprised at all. It was a fantastic show, one of my all time favourites, but the premise itself when explained simply in a sentence, doesn’t tend to scream, brilliant television. It’s about a woman with an impressive degree who chooses to work at a dead end job discovering that inanimate objects are giving her instructions that if obeyed, have positive results on the lives of the people around her. But despite the premise’s nasty habit of educing ‘Meh’s” from audiences, this concept was executed perfectly and really landed for me. It was funny, well written and the characters/cast were wonderful and charming. And on top of that the show actually used some pretty creative writing to pull together far more complex stories than you would have ever imagined from such a light-hearted sounding show. It’s not yet available on DVD outside the US, but if you can find a way to check it out, I highly recommend it.

4. Lone Star (2010)

This is a show I’ve talked about a lot here at Electronic Farmyard, so I suppose few will be surprised to see it on my list. This drama from Kyle Killen about a con-man trying to back out of a complex long-con in order to maintain two entirely separate lives with two women, both of whom he had fallen in love with only lasted just 2 episodes, but made a real impact with me in that short time. And the astounding thing about this show is that as incredible as the first two episodes were, it seemed to be applying the cable network approach to its storytelling; giving the narrative the required space to breath and take it’s time building it up to what would ultimately be a more complex and satisfying drama, suggesting this show was going to do nothing but get bigger and better narratively as things escalated and developed.

But its ratings were not great early on and Fox cancelled it before it had a chance to find its audience. The shame is that ‘Lone Star’ had more than just great writing and an interesting concept going for it. It had a fantastic cast and some wonderful direction in the pilot from ‘500 Day’s of Summer’ director Marc Webb. Ultimately it was a great piece of television brought to our screens by some very talented and passionate people, that never got the chance to prove itself and build an audience like equivalent shows on cable networks would have had; making this another painful show that wasn’t meant to be.

3. Pushing Daisies (2007)

Another cancelled brain child of Bryan Fuller, ‘Pushing Daisies’ was a dramady about a pie-maker who had the ability to bring the dead back to life for sixty seconds, any longer and some living thing of equal cosmic value would die in their place to keep balance. The pie-maker is hired by a private detective in order to help him solve murders, bringing the victims back to life for the allowed sixty seconds in order to ask them questions about their untimely deaths. The show carried a fascinating fairytale tone that carried its intriguingly dark story and wonderfully intricate characters into an oddly light-hearted place. Between this, the unusual visuals and the fast paced dialogue this show is possibly the most unique program I have ever seen on network television.

But ‘Pushing Daisies’ isn’t just on this list for being one of the most innovative shows on television, but also because the quirky show actually beat the odds and pulled some pretty decent numbers during its first season only to have simple circumstance remove it from our screens. When the writers strike began cutting the first season short and pushing back the second, the gap between the two seasons was so large that when it finally returned it simply couldn’t regain its momentum, audience wise, and was subsequently cancelled. Both season’s are available on DVD, and I really recommend anyone who is interested just pick it up, it’s so charming you will be in love by the opening credits.

2. Journeyman (2007)

I can already hear so many voices saying “Journeywho?”. Well Journeyman was an NBC genre drama that started the same year as ‘Pushing Daisies’, only difference was that ‘Daisies’ made it out of 2007 still in production. Cancelled after just 13 short but astounding episodes, Journeyman followed a San Francisco reporter who found himself being involuntarily forced backwards in time by an unseen force so he could assist seemingly random people who needed his help. This is a perfect example of what I was talking about before when I mentioned how personal these lists can get, I loved this show in a way few others did and I find it really difficult to explain simply why this show made such an impact on me while being met with shrugs by most.

To me it’s as clear as day what a fantastic drama this show was; it was well written, atmospheric, interesting and I was more invested in the story of the week plots than I have ever been for other shows. And it really made full use of the time travelling dynamic, creating drama from the central character being forced to cross paths and face up to his own past from a new perspective. In all honestly, the show was so intelligently written it would have been far more at home on cable. I can’t help but feel this show was simply a victim of being a little ahead of it’s time and I’m confident that these days it would be revered as the brilliant show I know it is. And that missed potential is exactly why ‘Journeyman’ is at number two on this list.

1. Firefly (2002)

Were you expecting anything else? Firefly, in my opinion, remains one of the biggest missed opportunities in television history, a show with such substance, quality and passion is more than rare; it’s non-existent. Not to mention that following it’s cancellation the show has actually proven its potential mass appeal in it’s DVD sales figures. ‘Firefly’ is the show with the most obvious potential for greatness of all the cancelled gems. It was a perfect concept; a TV show with enough scope to run for a large number of seasons while never needing to resort to a procedural element or a predictable formula. Like Doctor Who, there is no limit to the storytelling potential of this show and on top of that, it was one of those rare occasions where the idea was actually executed so perfectly by the stellar writing team.

For those unaware, ‘Firefly’ was a science fiction western set in a semi-dystopian future where government and order rule the centre of the galaxy while savagery and crime rule the regressed outer planets, it followed a crew on board a ship designated ‘Firefly class’ called Serenity as they tried to find their place in this society by taking work in any form it came, not all of which was legal, or moral. It was one of the first shows I remember that was so successful at splicing genres, taking tropes from science fiction and classic spaghetti westerns. ‘Firefly’ was that perfect mix of action and drama that made for one of the most enjoyable TV experiences I can recall. Unfortunately the show was cancelled after just 14 episodes due to low ratings no doubt caused by the perplexing decision to air the pilot last leaving the audiences without crucial information during the first episodes. To see something so great torn down by a decision so stupid is genuinely one of the most frustrating events I can think of ever happening in TV, and that is why ‘Firefly’ tops this list.

While I’m here I’d like to give honorary mentions for Jericho, The Good Guys, No Ordinary Family and particularly Drive, which was on this list in the number five slot for every draft of this piece until the final one, when I suddenly remembered one of these shows and felt incredibly stupid and had to put it in. And for anyone wondering, yes Arrested Development was intentionally left off this list, why? Because it had three goddamn seasons, yes I would have liked it to go on further, but I certainly don’t feel robbed. So please don’t bother sending hate mail, because in all likely-hood I’ll probably send some back because in truth I’m sick of hearing people talk about how they feel they were robbed with this show, comparatively it’s just not true.

In writing this piece I have noticed the theme that all of the shows above are unique or different from the rest of the TV landscape in someway. And I think the reason so many shows with that same quality found their way onto this list is because when something like a procedural is cancelled there are other shows with similar content to turn to, so the loss doesn’t have the same impact, but when shows as unique as these are cancelled, nothing can fill that void. Which is why I’ll regret how things turned out for these projects, especially considering the passion and effort the creative teams put into making them special.

So that’s all for this week, come back next week for a dose of The TV Rundown or in two weeks for more Narratively Minded.

Thanks for reading.

– A few weeks ago, in the 18th edition of Narratively Minded, I expressed irritation at NBC’s hesitation to just goddam commit already to the promising drama ‘Awake’ and actually set a premier date. Well, I’d like to think that somehow they took notice of our little site because this time last week they announced that ‘Awake’ will take over the Thursday night slot currently held by ‘The Firm’ starting March first. Relegating the struggling upstart to the Saturday night graveyard slot, which doesn’t bode well for fans of ‘The Firm’, but judging by the ratings there aren’t too many of those around anyway, but it is however fantastic news for those eagerly awaiting the first episode of ‘Awake’. Myself included.

– Last week, the ever-brilliant British supernatural drama ‘Being Human’ returned to 1.1 million viewers, this is slightly down from the 1.5 million viewers last years first episode pulled, but fans shouldn’t fret, they make this show on a surprisingly lean budget and I can’t imagine this rating would be enough to put the show in the danger zone just yet. By the time this article goes live the second episode will have aired and the ratings will be available, and right now, sitting here in the past, Friday to be exact, I’m utterly jealous of anyone reading this, enjoying their Monday having basked in the glory of Sunday’s episode of ‘Being Human’. You people make me sick.

– In casting news, Terry O’ Quinn, best know as Lost’s mysterious paralysed prophet turned omnipotent evil force John Lock (it’s complicated), will be back on the small screens later this year in a guest role on the Spielberg produced alien invasion show ‘Falling Skies’. The show really found its feet in the last few episodes last year and let’s hope that momentum carries through into the forthcoming series. And Terry O’ Quinn is more than a fine actor, although sad to see it is a guest appearance rather than a recurring role, O’ Quinn did a lot of guest work before Lost and I had hoped he would find a more permanent place in my weekly TV schedule following it’s success.

– Steve Levitan, producer and showrunner for the excellent ‘Modern Family’ has had a new pilot picked up for the 12/13 season titled ‘Rebounding’. No word on how many episodes have been ordered but it’s likely it will be the usual half season pick up with the option to extend should it do well. The show will focus on a basketball player trying to come to terms with the death of his fiancée with the help of his team. With Modern Family being as good as it is I can’t help but expect great things. Levitan will act as producer on the show with writer Joe Port seemingly running the creative side, which is understandable considering the premise, is loosely based on his own life.

– In what might be the most distressing news of the TV month, NBC seems to be moving forward with an ‘Office’ spin-off revolving around the one character that that show has completely and utterly run into the ground in Rain Wilson’s ‘Dwight Schrute’. It is reportedly going to be set on the characters notorious beet farm/bed and breakfast that was introduced in an early episode. I honestly can’t see myself watching more than 30 seconds of this incredibly obvious cash-in. The decision to make this show smacks of business motives rather than genuine creative ones, and that almost never leads to great TV. I already want this project to crash and burn as quickly as possible so I can forget it and move on.

– Last week saw the first two episodes of ABC’s new found footage horror show ‘The River’ finally grace our screens. And I was genuinely pleased with the results, it didn’t push the horror elements as far as I would have perhaps liked, but for network TV it did push them further than I expected. The only issue I had with the show was the dialogue, I’ve expressed in the past that I feel found footage only really works for me when it oozes naturalism. But the dialogue in this show was so overt and obviously written it didn’t sound like genuine conversation at all, it was far too focused and that really spoiled the atmosphere in places for me. Still even with that problem I still highly recommend the show, the first two episodes were if nothing else, vastly entertaining.

– I’d like to think this is evidence that another studio has listened to me; in particular my ‘Shows that have outstayed their welcome’ piece, because it was announced this week that after eight seasons, Fox’s highly popular medical procedural ‘House’ will finally come to an end, and sooner than expected too. The general consensus was that the show would be granted a ninth season in order to wrap up the story neatly, but it seems the creative team have chosen to end the show this season, with a special final episode written by showrunner and creator David Shore that will air on May 21 following 8 straight weeks of new episodes. Expect the final episode to contain all sorts of last minute forced closure and plenty of familiar faces, particularly Olivia Wilds ‘Thirteen’ character. It seems to be understood that she’s already agreed to make a cameo should the show end. Don’t however, expect Lisa Edelstein to reprise her popular Cuddy character, as much as I’d love to see it and would never 100% rule it out, as I understand it she has well and truly moved on. It will come as no surprise that I won’t be sad to see this show go, it was truly great in it’s day, but in recent years has become increasingly weak creatively. Better to go out now while the show still has an ounce of spark.

– In one of the most random creative team combinations ever assembled, TV producing machine, the J J Abrams 2000x has teamed up with Supernatural creator Eric Kripke for a pilot for a new action drama titled ‘Revolution’ and even more unusually, Iron Man director Jon Favreau has been linked to the directing job on the pilot. On paper this sounds astounding, but remember folks, not all great tastes taste great together. I’m excited to see the results but also prepared for the possibility of an utter clusterfuck of a show with three such strong minded creative’s involved.

– In a story that is simultaneously brilliant and disappointing, in casting news it seems ‘West Wing’ alumni Bradley Whitford has been signed for a guest role on an episode of ‘Parks and Recreation’ currently scheduled for late march, but unfortunately they will not take the opportunity to reunite him with fellow ‘West Wing’ alumni and regular ‘Parks’ cast member Rob Lowe. The episodes director has assured fans a few ‘West Wing’ references, such as a corridor walking scene, but for some truly bizarre reason the reunion so many are interested in seeing won’t happen here. Such a shame.

– Unfortunately, the rumours are true, NBC’s reboot of ‘The Munsters’ is going ahead. Currently titled ‘Mockingbird Lane’ in reference to the original shows location, my initial reaction to this was probably similar to yours, utter disgust at the sheer lack of originality on display here; green lighting a reboot of such an old premise while so many great original pilots are dumped. But I have to admit; my opinion regarding this project is starting to sway. Particularly when I heard that they have attached the all around storytelling genius Bryan Fuller (all of ‘Heroes’ best episodes and ‘Pushing Daises’) and perfectly adequate director Bryan Singer (House pilot, X-men movies and the boring Superman film) to the project. With these talents involved, particularly the Bryan with ‘Pushing Daises’ on his CV, I can’t help but start to feel a little excited about this one,  it might actually turn out to be one of those rare reboots that actually earns its right to exist on its own merit.

So, that’s all for this week. As usual, feel free to come back in two weeks for more of the same or come back next week for something pretty similar, but with a different name and a little less schizophrenia.

Thanks for reading.

It surprised none more than myself to realise how sad I was to see ‘Chuck’ come to an end. It was only in the weeks prior to the last episodes broadcast that it occurred to me that while the spy dramedy had never been the highlight, it’s been one of the most consistent staples of my TV diet for 5 years now, never breaking new ground but always maintaining itself as a reliable source of entertainment and fun. I’ll be the first to admit that the show was far from perfect, but the odd plot hole or the occasional unnaturally quick plot resolution was never enough to tarnish the episodes themselves, ‘Chuck’s’ creative team had too much passion for what they were doing and that translated every week in a finely balanced comedy drama I will never forget.

One of the reasons I’m going to miss ‘Chuck’ more than most is connected to the fact that when I finally upgraded from watching just a handful of shows regularly to full time telly-addict, Chuck was set to start it’s first season and after watching the pilot it became one of the first shows I picked up regularly. That same year I discovered a handful of shows I fell in love with such as ‘Journeyman’, ‘Reaper’, ‘Jericho’, ‘Pushing Daises’ and ‘The Sarah Connor Chronicles’. But alas, all of these shows have since been cancelled; non lasting beyond a second season, ‘Chuck’ on the other hand became a consummate survivor and has since represented that original batch of shows I fell in love with. But it also has to be said that my affection for the show doesn’t just come down to sentimental attachment.

For me ‘Chuck’s’ greatest strength came from the writing, the team had such precise understanding of how to balance comedy and drama and this created a show that could go from borderline wacky comedy to heartbreaking drama in the blink of an eye and tonally never felt jarring. Yes, the show’s plots were sometimes a little hard to swallow or cartoonish, but the writers managed to create a universe where some of the more unrealistic plots and motives were only obvious to those who went to the trouble of dissecting the content, otherwise it felt natural. The writers were also never afraid to wrap up an overarching story once it had run its course. Admittedly this is partly due to the team being constantly unsure of ‘Chuck’s’ future, but every season finale would give us high levels of closure, thus forcing the following season to find a fresh and interesting new status-quo. This fearless approach was really refreshing for network television.

The characters were all wonderfully written and well defined from early on, but even more impressive was that ‘Chuck’ also applied the same fearlessness to the character development and the writers never hesitated to bring drastic changes around to the very nature of these people and actually stick to them, almost never reverting them to their original states. This is a bold and brilliant move in a TV landscape that usually can’t help but reverse any major changes due to this archaic notion that they need to keep the show’s familiar to please a ‘core audience’ that they assume will be put off by major changes. A recent example of this was the creative team for House completely destroying the wonderful and intriguing character development of the ‘Fixed’ episode by having House turn back to vicodin a season later with paper thin logic.

And even moving away from the writing, which I admit I find hard to do, the shows cast and crew were phenomenal. Towards the end, ‘Chuck’s’ budget was basically non-existent and yet the crew constantly managed to make it look impressive and epic. Those budget cuts never really appeared on screen as far as I could see, and that’s a testament to some incredible work. And the cast, well, they were clearly having an enormous amount of fun, and that translated on screen in the lighter moments, and their wonderful performances pulled us into the drama of the darker moments, again lending to that balance I discussed earlier. Even the network did a great job here, giving the show the time and space to try and grow an audience, and when they finally decided it wasn’t financially viable any more, giving the fans and creative team a chance to get closure by granting a final season.

But the thing is, I can sit here all day and explain the many reasons I loved this show, flaws and all, but the biggest testament to how special this show was is the level of intelligence and devotion the fans of this show applied to try and keep it on the air. At several points they actually arranged to directly patronising the shows sponsors and let them know they spent their cash to keep ‘Chuck’ alive. Marching on Subways and electronics suppliers and spending vast amounts of cash in order to demonstrate their love of the converse wearing nerd with a secret. These people cared, in a way few other fan bases do, and it showed, and that tells you everything you need to know about ‘Chuck’, and what the weekly dose of spy drama crossed with some lighthearted fun meant to those won over by it.

To this day I still genuinely struggle to understand why it didn’t do better, maybe it’s cartoony tone put audiences off, maybe people just didn’t buy the hyper reality the show presented, I’m not sure I’ll ever understand. But ultimately, Chuck deserves it’s place in television history but tragically will likely only be remembered fondly by those small numbers who dedicated themselves to it and enjoyed it as I did.

So that’s all for this week, come back in two weeks for the twentieth edition of Narratively Minded or next week for the another edition of The TV Rundown, in the meantime I’ll leave you with a tribute video for ‘Chuck’ I put together after the first season aired.

Thanks for reading.

– In an interesting turn of events, ‘Arrested Development’ alumni David Cross admitted he first heard about the deal for Netflix to distribute new episodes of the cult classic show online. In an interview with the Boston Herald, Cross said of the announcement; “I am not being coy when I’m saying I know exactly as much as you guys do. And, in fact, I got my information about the Netflix thing the same way everybody else did, which was the Internet”. He then went on to echo my own scepticism about the likelihood of this project actually going before the cameras. Referring to Dr Tobias Funke, the character he portrayed on ‘Arrested Development’ during it’s three season run, he said, “He’s one of my top three characters I’ve ever played. I really enjoyed doing it. But as I’ve said before, I’ll believe it when I’m on set and they go, ‘And action’”. Which is not a surprising position considering the numerous false starts and the fact he wasn’t in on the Netflix deal.

– In one of the most unusual stories I’ve ever had to write about, Simon Cowell has expressed his desire to send the winner of this years ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ into space to perform. Yes, you read that right, and no, Simon Cowell has not become some sort of super villain… or at least he hasn’t yet. Talking to ‘The Sun’ (the paper, not the star at the centre of our solar system…with this story, I felt the need to clarify) he said, “Richard Branson is the sponsor of the show with Virgin. We are trying to work out a way so that the winner of the show gets to go up in the spacecraft and will be the first person to perform in space. I’m being serious. You could be the first singer or dog act, whatever, performing in space”. I love that he felt the need to explain this was serious, he then went on to spout more insanity “This is worth tens of millions of pounds, but Richard genuinely is up for doing it, I’m not winding you up, Richard would pay for it”. So it’s official, Cowell has finally lost his mind. What purpose could this possibly serve? This man needs to be stopped; you know you have too much money when you can act on every insane whim that occurs to you. The only positive thing about this idea is that if Britain plays it’s cards right, and votes intelligently, we can actually have one of those incredibly irritating dance troupes off the planet for a couple of hours.

– Following a quite frankly, genius, final episode, it seems the future of Sherlock is less in doubt than I suggested in my last rundown. It seems a third series was commissioned around the same time the second was, but they didn’t want to confirm it due to the nature of the final episode of season two. Both show-runners took to Twitter following the broadcast of last week’s ‘The Reichenbach Fall’, an adaptation of the Conan Doyle classic, ‘The Final Problem’ in order to confirm this. Moffat’s tweet read, “Yes of course there’s going to be a third series – it was commissioned at the same time as the second. Gotcha!”. So it seems regardless of how Hollywood-bound the stars of this particular program appear, we will be getting more. And let’s be honest, I think there would be riots if the BBC didn’t produce a conclusion to those staggeringly brilliant final moments.

– In casting news, ‘Sons of Anarchy’ vet Theo Rossi has booked a guest spot of Fox’s shiney new J. J. Abrams toy, ‘Alcatraz’. Rossi will appear as one of the missing Alcatraz prisoners returning in modern-day to cause havoc, this particular villain of the week will be an ultra violent businessman, and should give Rossi a chance to really prove his versatility. Because while his Son’s character is tough, he is ultimately a decent person, the new character on the other hand sounds homicidal and should be a nice challenge for him. I love the entire ‘Son’s’ cast and hope this is a sign that great actors like Rossi will still be visiting my living room (not literally of course) once the biker drama comes to an end.

– Head of Drama at the BBC, Ben Stephenson has confirmed, to my utter delight, that dark police drama ‘Luther’ will return with four more 60 minute episodes, that will presumably broadcast late 2012. It’s not surprising news considering the ratings of the last series and the Golden Globe nod; but I do find it interesting that the creative team have decided to keep the format of the show at four 60 minute episodes. I got the impression they would be changing it up every year dependant on the story concept they had. Either way this is easily one of the best dramas on British TV and I’m literally ecstatic to discover I’ll be able to watch more of it soon.

– The future of one of my favourite shows on US TV, ‘Fringe’ is in serious doubt right about now, I realise that this has been true of ‘Fringe’ since it’s first season, but this really is the final nail in the coffin. The very same day I posted my last TV Rundown, Fox president Kevin Reilly admitted, “We lose a lot of money on the show. With that rating on that night it’s almost impossible for us to make money on it. We’re not in the business of losing money…”. Now to be fair, for once this isn’t Fox’s fault. They have stuck by Fringe despite it being a money pit throughout much of it’s tenure, and it never really found an audience. And I genuinely think that in a case where a show has had a fair chance but its audience was never able to sustain its costs, then the network has little choice but to cancel. At this point, I’m actually more irritated with the shows creative team, who have been very ‘Business as usual’ this year. This naive approach is going to ensure that when Fox cancel the show, and they will as it’s a miracle it lasted this long, we won’t get closure, as the creative team are hoping for another season. When a show has struggled by for this long, maybe the creators should have just thrown in the towel and used this season to wrap it up, for the fans sake. Some are still holding out hope that Warner Bros, who produce the show, will drastically reduce the licence fee in order for it to remain financially viable on Fox, which in turn would have a huge effect on the budget. As the show is already made at a much cheaper cost than it should, I really don’t see this happening.

– The greatest game-show on the face of planet earth, ‘Pointless’ has has been recommissioned and will return to our screens for at least two more seasons, and will even be getting a few primetime celebrity specials to raise money for charities. Suck on that Noel Edmonds, when was the last time you opened boxes at random on primetime? The genuinely brilliant game-show hosted by Alexander Armstrong pits contestants against each other to find most obscure answers to the questions posed and is easily the best way to spend half an hour watching TV in the afternoon here in the UK.

– Great news for UK Game of Thrones fans, Sky Atlantic have announced that they will premier the second series on Monday, April 2nd roughly just 15 hours after it’s screening in the states. This is fantastic news, but I still can’t understand why other UK broadcasters can’t take Sky’s lead and ensure US shows air as soon as possible on this side of the pond. Thanks to the Internet we are more aware of American culture and the hype surrounding these shows than ever, so why not work to supply audiences with the products as soon as possible? By the time this stuff hits UK TV, the majority of the hype has died down because the show is already out there and has been dissected to death online.

Anywho, that’s all for my ranting this week, and for this article. So feel free, scratch that, feel encouraged to come back in two weeks time for another addition of the TV Rundown or even better, come back next week for the 19th edition of Narratively Minded. In the meantime I’m going to have a long hard think about why I have on three separate occasions used images of Simon Cowell since I started on the Electronic Farmyard.

Thanks for Reading.

Alcatraz

First up ‘Alcatraz’; a new science-fiction drama on Fox, (so don’t get attached), that follows a team investigating the unusual activity around Alcatraz island, specifically the sudden and unexplained disappearance of every prisoner at the site thirty years prior. These investigations were reopened as a result of these unstable and dangerous criminals one by one, reappearing in modern society looking exactly as they did when they disappeared. The team is tasked not only with finding and capturing these people, but also investigating the nature of this phenomenon.

The premise is one of the few things we have to judge a potential show on at first and thankfully ‘Alcatraz’ has a good one, demonstrating lots of potential and scope while allowing for that all important balance between story of the week elements and intricate running plots. Beyond the premise the cast, which consists of Sam Neill, Sarah Jones and George Garcia, seems to be a strong one based on the trailer and the history of these performers. And as if all of that and the boat load of praise and positive reviews weren’t enough to generate excitement, the show is yet another project tied to uber-producer and writing/directing behemoth J. J. Abrams. A name synonymous with quality these days, unless you were watching, The Undercovers’, which admittedly squandered all it’s potential. But at least it had that potential to start with, much like this show, so I say give it a chance.

In the UK ‘Watch’ have ‘Alcatraz’ and they look as though they will be starting this in March despite the fact every other part of the world will be watching this show in January. Including the US, where it has a two-hour special to kick off the series which will air on Fox tonight.

Awake

This is easily the show I am most excited about on this list; unfortunately it’s also the most likely to be cancelled, which considering there are two Fox genre shows on here too, is impressive to say the least. Some of you may remember when I first started this column I talked about a show from the 2010/2011 season called ‘Lone Star’, which as well as being one of my favorite shows of the season, was also one of the most cancelled shows of the season too (once again, thanks Fox). Well, that shows creator, Kyle Killen, is also behind ‘Awake’ and considering how blasé NBC are being with the scheduling of this show, moving it around so much and leaving it in limbo, they don’t seem to have much faith in it, which is a real shame because I really feel like this is going to be incredible. Even forgetting my love of the creators last show, the dramatic potential of the concept alone is enough to make ‘Awake’ one of the most original drama’s of the year, it is the story of a police officer who after suffering an accident finds himself living between two realities, one in which his son survived the accident but his wife did not, and another where the reverse is true. Unable to tell the difference between the two realities he tries to manage both lives while trying to discover the truth about the nature of this bizarre phenomenon. The only problem is, discovering which reality, if any, is real means facing up to the death of either his son or wife. The trailer makes it look like an amazing drama and I am praying NBC’s ever lowering ratings standards will give this show enough room to stick around and build it’s audience.

‘Awake’ doesn’t have a broadcaster in the UK yet, but to be fair it doesn’t have a confirmed date for broadcast in the US yet either, all we know at the moment is it will be on NBC sometime in March. Too soon for a ‘Save Our Show’ campaign?

The River

It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of the found footage genre when it’s handled correctly, and while it has become an easy target for those looking to dismiss great movies, these folks will soon be able to dismiss potentially great television too in ABC’s ‘The River’. A found footage horror show about a rescue team travelling down a river in search of a famed explorer who recently went missing. Yes, you read that right, an actual, honest, genuine horror show on network TV, and it’s airing during prime time and everything. Needless to say found footage has never really been done on television and even just based on how unique it is I think this concept has an enormous amount of potential.

As I mentioned earlier, the genre only works when it’s handled well, and in this case we have little need to worry as the Paranormal Activity director Oren Peli is behind the show. Peli is one of the few directors out there who might be able to pull off bringing this genre to the small screen for the first time. And to ensure balance, ‘The River’ will not be one hundred percent found footage, some of the show will be shot like a standard drama so it doesn’t become overwhelming and so they can have scenes that would not usually take place in front of a camera, meaning they won’t have to find convoluted excuses to keep the cameras rolling at odd moments. Between the concept, the fantastic trailer and the team behind it I can’t wait for this show as it seems to have a great deal of potential.

‘The River’ will premier in the US on February 7th and doesn’t appear to have been picked up by a UK broadcaster yet, and to be honest I’m not sure why no one has jumped on this yet, despite it’s unique nature, this genre is very popular at the moment and cost effective too. But not to worry, if it does well expect to see it in the UK very soon.

Touch

Unlike the other shows on this list, the premise isn’t the reason this show is here. Actually, from day one I’ve been pretty open about how the premise doesn’t jump out at me, or at least it doesn’t in log-line form. But we have to remember that some things are great even if they can be effectively sold in a 30 word sentence. This is also a Fox show, but this one is about a single father, portrayed by Keifer ‘Don’t Call Me Jack’ Sutherland, struggling to bring up his mute/autistic son when he discovers the child can see and use patterns to connect seemingly unrelated events in the world around him in order to foresee situations before they occur. Again, that sentence doesn’t exactly ooze ‘dramatic potential’, but hear me out…

Between the pretty spectacular early reviews, the involvement of ‘Heroes’ creator Tim Kring as showrunner and a very promising looking trailer I’m starting to be convinced this show just might be worth our time. I’m aware the later seasons of ‘Heroes’ gave Tim Kring a bad reputation, but I would find it hard to blame that shows failures on him, his work on the first season proves he can be an effective showrunner. So I’m actually excited about his involvement, in fact my biggest concern when ‘Touch’ was announced was that with a concept involving a single father and his mute, autistic son, I felt like forced overemotional moments and melodrama would be an easy trap to fall into. But thankfully every review has so far noted the very opposite of this, suggesting the show is carefully balanced.

‘Touch’ has not yet been assigned a date in the UK, but it will be airing on Sky1, who usually make a point of airing shortly after the US. In America Touch is due to start on March 19th on Fox, but the pilot will be airing as a preview on the 25th of January.

Yes, I am aware there are no comedies on this list, to be honest I would have included some, but I genuinely didn’t spot any with real potential on the mid-season line ups, if you think I’m missing something feel free to contact me about it, I’d honestly love to hear about any new comedy that doesn’t star Rob Schneider. So that’s all for this week folks, make sure you come back in two weeks for more of the same or come back next week for my other column, ‘The TV Rundown’, which is exactly what it sounds like.

Thanks for reading.

– And what better way to kick off 2012 than by dwelling on 2011? Shortly before Christmas we received numbers for the most watched shows of the entire year in the UK, and top of this list was the ‘X-Factor’ final which pulled 13.7 million viewers, just beating the ‘Royal Wedding’ which was watched by 13.6 million. And a mildly depressing fact I noticed was that there isn’t one scripted show in the top five shows of the year. The other three programs being the finals of ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ (13.0), ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ (12.9) and ‘I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here’ (12.7). And while I’m boring you with numbers, the shows in 6th 7th and 8th places were episodes of ‘Coronation Street’ (12.7), ‘Downton Abbey’ (12.5) and ‘Eastenders’ (11.4)

– As American audiences move ever closer to the end of its first season, AMC have announced they have renewed the western drama ‘Hell On Wheels’ for another year. I appreciate it’s been far from groundbreaking television, but I’ve really enjoyed this show so far and am glad to hear we will be getting more. Although not entirely surprising, because despite the falling ratings the show is still turning a pretty healthy profit, and is actually now getting similar numbers to those the fourth season of ‘Mad Men’ received. Although ‘Mad Men’ has picked up a lot more interest in its nearly two year absence, so expect it to destroy ‘Hell On Wheels’ numbers upon its return in March.

– Some may remember Outnumber star Tyger Drew-Honey suggesting before Christmas that we would be unlikely to see another full series of the popular sitcom. Well, it turns out Tyger, who portrays Jake in the show, was mistaken. Head of Communications at the BBC Sam Hodges posted a statement on twitter in order to clear up the matter that read “Outnumbered fans – contrary to reports, talks are already under-way regarding a new series on BBC One”. And while I’m aware that the phrase “Talks are under-way” can occasionally translate to “We are on our hands and knees begging to no avail” but in this case I expect all involved will be happy to continue production.

– In casting news, Aaron Sorkin’s currently untitled HBO Newsroom Drama has added two time Oscar winner Jane Fonda to the cast in a recurring role. She is reportedly portraying a media titan and CEO of the cable news networks parent company. I’m going to avoid the obvious comparisons between the role and Fonda’s ex-husband Ted Turner, with the obvious exception of this sentence. My love for all things ‘Sorkin’ is no secret and as things stand there is physically no way I can even conceive of this show being anything but incredible. And knowing how HBO generally leave the creative people to be in control and actually create the content as they see fit (revolutionary, ain’t it?), Sorkin will have full control and won’t have network heads breathing down his neck as he did with his brilliant and tragically ’cancelled too soon’ dramedy, ‘Studio 60’. It seems Fonda has chosen well for her first major TV project, I can’t wait.

– In ratings news, despite the initial numbers suggesting ‘Eastenders’ was the most watched program on Christmas Day in the UK. Once the final numbers were released, it appears ‘Downton Abbey’ was actually the most watched program, hence the above image of the cast of this show looking smug. Initial figures had ‘Eastenders’ pulling 9.9 million viewers, while ‘Downton Abbey’ came fourth for the evening with just 8.1 million viewers. The final numbers on the other hand, which included the HD, On Demand and DVR numbers, drastically changed the order putting ‘Downton Abbey’ in first place with 11.6 million viewers, which was just enough to beat ‘Easterders’ final figure of 11.3 million. This would have been ‘Eastenders’ third year at the top as it was the number one show on Christmas Day 2009 and 2010, and it would have gotten away with it too, if it weren’t for that meddling Abbey.

– One of the pleasant surprises for me during the winter season was ‘American Horror Story’, the only problem was I spent the entire 12 episode run asking myself the same question; “Where the fuck does this go next year?”. Because while it was vastly entertaining I couldn’t help but feel they were burning through what could have been multiple seasons worth of plot in mere episodes. Some may remember the second edition of Narratively Minded where I talked about how this very notion lead to the downfall of ‘Heroes’, leaving them nowhere to go beyond the first season, well, you may also remember that I also said there was a solution that would allow them to through that much plot and keep moving at that pace through multiple season, and that was to completely start from scratch every year, with a new story and a new cast. Well, based on the recent comments of the shows creators, that’s exactly what we will be getting. So far there are no details of exactly what the season will entail but it has been confirmed that none of this seasons central family, the Hammonds, will return. This has never been done in the US on this scale before and I can’t wait to see the results.

– Last week it was announced that Benedict Cumberbatch has been cast in J.J. Abrams Star Trek sequel. What does this have to do with television I hear you ask? Well, it makes me very nervous about the third series of Sherlock, which is currently 2 episodes into its 3 episode second series. I suppose Martin Freeman managed to do both The Hobbit and Sherlock in the same year, so maybe Cumberbatch can do the same. I’m aware both have stated they would like to do a third series, but with Hollywood beckoning for both the leads, its going to be increasingly difficult to organise the shooting of what is essentially three feature films a year. The second series has been staggeringly brilliant TV, and I’ll be disappointed if this is its last.

– I was not aware of it, but apparently, there was some talk of Alec Baldwin not coming back for the next season of 30 Rock. Well, those of you who were aware of this can rest easy, it has been confirmed that they came to a deal with Baldwin in Autumn and any reports (missed by me or not) of his departure after following the sixth season are not true. The odd thing is, NBC still won’t confirm if  30 Rock is definitely getting a seventh season, when asked after making a statement about Baldwin signing for a seventh, NBC Chairman Bob Greenblatt said “We have not decided”. So, as confusing and backwards as it seems, the shows future is far less certain than Baldwin’s status. To be honest I won’t be heartbroken if this upcoming sixth season is it’s last, it’s a great show but its best days are long behind it.

– This will come as a surprise to pretty much no one after the series finale, but to clarify, both Antonia Thomas and Iwan Rheon have officially left the cast of Misfits and will not return for the fourth series. The actors, who portrayed Nathan and Alisha on the E4 hit, both confirmed their departures in separate places following the final episode of this series, which depicted their characters bittersweet exit. Before last year this might have concerned me, but after the brilliant way Howard Overman handled the loss of Robert Sheehan this season (by bringing in a far more well rounded character) I see no reason to be worried. As much as I loved his performance and character, I actually think the loss of Sheehan helped propel the third series to be far superior to the second and can’t wait for the fourth now.

So there you have it, that’s this weeks TV Rundown, make sure you come back in two weeks for more of the same or come back next week for the 18th edition of Narratively Minded, which will be taking a look at the most promising new shows starting in the US Mid-season.

Thanks for reading.

Watch: Outnumbered (BBC 1, 9:20pm, Christmas Eve)

The ever-charming ‘Outnumbered’ is back for a second Christmas special titled ’The Broken Santa’ and will feature the struggling Brockman family attempting to enjoy a Christmas holiday when Granddad falls ill and finds himself in the hospital from hell. For me this is an absolute must this Christmas, not only is this show insanely entertaining, but it’s ideal Christmas viewing as anyone can jump in regardless of whether they have watched it before. So make sure you set aside some time Christmas Eve to watch this show before Father Christmas fills your living room with soot rendering it basically inhabitable.

Avoid: The Royal Bodyguard (BBC 1, 9:30pm, Boxing Day)

I don’t feel like I really need to justify this particular choice. It’s a new six part comedy series staring David Jason that begins on Boxing Day and continues into the New Year. Jason stars as Buckingham Palace Carpark’s hapless head of security who finds himself entirely out of his depth when he is suddenly promoted to the position of Royal Bodyguard; and naturally, hilarity ensues. This series is brought kicking and screaming into your homes by way of Justin Sbresni and Mark Bussell who also brought us the equally implausible, daft and contrived mess of a comedy that was ‘The Worst Week Of My Life’, so I’m genuinely not holding out any hope for quality here. I genuinely pity anyone who will be fooled into watching this series purely because of David Jason’s track record. Save yourself the pain and watch ANYTHING else.

Watch: Doctor Who (BBC 1, 7pm, Christmas Day)

I suppose absolutely no one is surprised to see this on the list. But yes, Doctor Who is back again this year for another Christmas Special, and as a result of the new schedule for the regular series, possibly for the last time. This year it is titled ‘The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe’ and will be a ‘Doctor Who’ twist on the classic C.S. Lewis children’s novel ‘The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe’. These Christmas Specials don’t exactly have the best track record, but last years was a step in the right direction and based on earlier reviews, many are suggesting it might be the best one since the first. Between this and the wonderful clips and trailers the BBC have put out, I’m feeling very positive about this particular special.

Avoid: All Star Family Fortunes (ITV1, 7pm, Christmas Day)

Seriously ITV, are you even trying anymore? This is your primetime Christmas Day slot and it almost feels as though you didn’t want to see programming you put effort into trounced by Doctor Who so you decided not to bother at all. Instead you went with an ancient and tedious gameshow revival made all the more irritating by presenter Vernon Kay. And as if that wasn’t enough, this particular episode will feature the cast’s of ‘Benidorm’ and ‘The Only Way Is Essex’ going head to head. It’s irritation so pure it’s basically weaponised, who’s honestly going to endure this heinous and pointless drivel? Avoid at all costs.

Maybe: The Borrowers (BBC 1, 7:30pm, Boxing Day)

I’m honestly in two minds with this one, on the one hand I can’t help but feel like the world really doesn’t need yet another adaptation of this particular story, but on the other hand, I have a lot of faith in Stephen Fry’s ability to choose his projects wisely, and in the press he has been very positive about the script, and this does hint that there may be something worthwhile here. So I’m afraid I’m going to have to cop out a little here and list this as a maybe.

Watch: Sherlock (BBC 1, 8:10pm, New Years Day)

Long time readers of this article will be far from surprised to see this make my list. The return of Steven Moffat and Mark Gattis’s wonderful contemporary reimagining of the classic Sir Arthur Conan Doyle books is a welcome one to say the least. The first episode, which will be broadcast on New Years Day, is an adaptation of the famous short ‘A Scandal In Bohemia’ and will introduce love interest Irene Adler to the series. Based on the quality of the previous series and the fact that Moffat is once again helming the opening episode, I really feel we are in for an absolute treat here and anyone who isn’t planning on watching this should take a good hard look at their life.

Avoid: Jim’ll Fix It With Shane Ritchie (BBC 1, 5:40pm, Boxing Day)

I’m honestly lost for words, there are so many things wrong with this I don’t know where to start. Many of them will be obvious, but incase it isn’t clear, even when you forget that the unfathomably punchable face of Shane Ritchie is presenting (he should have an ‘Annoy Off’ with Vernon Kay), this is still a cheap and shameless cash in that exists purely because Sir Jimmy Savile recently made headlines on account of his sudden and unexpected bout of being dead. I really expected better of the BBC and hope absolutely no one watches… although the sad fact is that’s not likely to be the case. I regretfully predict massive nostalgia fueled ratings and a possible permanent revival.

Watch: Michael McIntyre’s Comedy Roadshow (BBC 1, 10:30pm, Christmas Day)

Now I’m about as far as you can get from being a supporter of Michael McIntyre; his stand up material and stage persona has never appealed to me, but I understand and appreciate his part in helping Stand Up move more into the mainstream in the UK. And nowhere is this shift in public perception more evident than in the fact that the BBC felt they could place and hour long stand up special in a prime slot on Christmas Day. So as irritated as I am that the Beeb are moving ahead with ‘Shane’ll Fix It’, this does go along way to making me forget that. The show will feature Rob Brydon, Miranda Hart, David Mitchell, Jack Dee and of course, Michael McIntyre himself. And even if you’re not particularly a big fan of any of the acts appearing, I implore every fan of stand up to support this show. Also, I actually expect it to be pretty damn funny.

Avoid: Absolutely Fabulous (BBC 1, 10pm, Christmas Day/New Years Day)

I doubt most feel the apprehension that I do towards this, and I expect many will disagree with my choice to list this show as ‘Avoid’, but this just screams bad idea to me. It’s been twenty years since ‘Ab-Fab’ first hit our screens and while I think there will probably be something in these specials for long time/die hard fans, but if past attempts to revive old sitcoms have taught us anything, it’s not to bother at all. I can’t think of a single example that has worked and the promotional material for these episodes has done nothing to waver these fears. Three specials have been made, the first two of which will be airing on Christmas and New Years day, and I’m recommending people avoid both. I simply don’t see it being anything other than a disappointment.

Maybe: Big Fat Quiz Of The Year (Channel 4, 9pm, 27th of December)

Jimmy Carr is back on hosting duties for Channel Fours yearly bumper quiz, this year he will be joined by panelists Jonathan Ross, Jamie Oliver, David Walliams, Miranda Hart, Eddie Izzard and David Mitchell. In terms of whether this will be worth your time it entirely depends on your personal comedic tastes and your position on the panelists. I personally enjoy this show more often than not, and as I happen to be a fan of Carr, Izzard, Ross and Mitchell I will be watching this year, but I understand it won’t be for everyone, so I’m listing it as a maybe, or in other words, make up your own damn mind.

So, there you go, that’s all for this week. Neither of my regular articles will be around for the next two weeks due to other commitments and… you know, the holidays and stuff. So make sure you come back on the 9th of January for my first TV Rundown of the New Year, and the week after for the first Narratively Minded of 2012. Enjoy the holidays!

Thanks for reading.