Now that the 2005-06 TV season has officially come to an end,
all eyes are on next fall.
Now that the 2005-06 TV season has officially come to an end, all eyes are on next fall. The big buzz is the WB and UPN love story, which will officially give birth to CW in September. This could be a curious offspring since both Warner Bros. and CBS Corp. will own the new netlet. Whether there will be enough creative offerings to sustain viewer interest remains to be seen.
At the moment, CW looks sinfully familiar to everything we’ve seen before, as the network takes a gaggle of WB attention-grabbers – “Gilmore Girls,” “One Tree Hill” and a resurrected “7th Heaven” at the eleventh hour – and mixes them with UPN eye candy – “America’s Next Top Model,” “Veronica Mars.”
The best is, even though viewers lost interest after its healthy premiere last fall, is the remarkably well-written if not downright funny “Everybody Hates Chris.” Based on the life of comic Chris Rock, this inventive show deserves a major spotlight. Expect it to air Sunday nights.
“Smallville,” “Supernatural” – one of the WB’s best new shows last fall – “All of Us,” “Girlfriends” and “WWE Friday Night Smackdown” – in other words, get a life and go out on Friday nights – all return intact.
A few other notes:
n Worth mourning the loss of: “Pepper Dennis,” a quirky, fun midseason WB replacement, and “Everwood,” which still showed promise after losing some creative footing last year.
n Gone but not forgotten: As for the rest of the CW universe, the roster features a Darren Star (Sex and the City) entree dubbed “Runaway,” featuring Donnie Wahlberg as a man wrongly accused of a crime. (“Prison Break,” anyone?)
There’s also a spin-off of UPN’s “Girlfriends,” called “The Game,” which hopes to prove that all women lust after football pros.
I’m intrigued with CW. I’d be more intrigued if it developed some groundbreaking series. At the moment, the fifth network looks like a delicious exercise in cost-cutting. CW needs an avalanche of major creativity to stand out among the other nets. That could happen by mid-season if some of the pilots the net ordered actually get off the ground.
One of them, “Aliens in America,” is a single-camera comedy that reportedly revolves around a Muslim foreign exchange student who just happens to move in with a mild-mannered Wisconsin family. Then there’s that new Nick Lachey outing, “She Said, He Said,” a comedy that hopes to illuminate how men and women view the world differently. Then again, by January 2007, the world itself could be dramatically different.
n Summer season: Truth be told, at times, I much prefer what the cable nets have to offer in summer. FX, A&E and TNT actually deliver some of the most thought-provoking – and often well-written – shows on the air.
This week marks the season premiere of FX’s hot “Rescue Me” (10pm May 30.) The Denis Leary vehicle has turned heads for a few years now with its witty dialogue and terrific story arcs, but the best ingredient in the show is Leary himself, who fuels his beleaguered character – the “everyman” fireman on the verge of a nervous breakdown – with a realistic, gritty edge.
Over at A&E, last year’s surprise hit, “Criss Angel – Mindfreak,” opens its second season (10pm May 31), finding this ever-curious master of illusion unearthing more head-scratching spectacles. I’m tuning in this season to see how Angel fares. The show never fails to impress with the stunts/illusions it offers, and Angel has talent, even though you sense that the man may be too mesmerized with his own celebrity. But … has any “master of illusion” been able to hide the ego?
Next Week: The lowdown on TNT’s “The Closer.”
Greg Archer is an entertainment writer based on the Central Coast. He writes about the TV, film and being human. E-mail him at ga*****@**********rs.com or visit www.greg-archer.com.
