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David is an occasional blogger, software engineer, Nintendo fanboy, liberal, news magazine addict, voracious TiVo user, and bibliophile. He was born in St. Louis, grew up in southern Indiana, and returned to St. Louis to attend Washington University. He hasn't managed to escape yet. He's a fan of free wine tastings, too many tv shows to name, and eating out. David makes his living developing web applications used internally by his employer. He doesn't blog about work because he's heard too many stories about that causing workplace troubles. There's more on the about page. |
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26 November 2003 - 10:59 am
Today is the final day of the November sweeps period, and you can tell who the winners and the losers are based on what you'll be able see tonight. For example, "The West Wing," under the management of ER's John Wells since NBC forced Aaron Sorkin out at the end of last season and unable to break the into the top ten shows all season, is being replaced by a "Law & Order" rerun. And CBS's "Survivor: Pearl Islands" is being moved from its normal Thursday slot to today in order to get its big numbers into the final days of sweeps.
The real question about sweeps, the three times per year events when stations set advertiser rates, is why the advertisers let them exist at all. Why would advertisers let the rates for a time slot be set by special programming that won't be broadcast in that slot for the rest of the year? It just doesn't make a great deal of sense, so I must be missing some aspect of sweeps. If you have a better idea on how these things work, please let me know.
Now that we're through sweeps and all the networks have released all their new shows, its time to make some recommendations. The following are the best new shows of the season and deserve some praise and a slot on you TiVo.
Arrested Development - FOX
A quirky new Sunday-night sitcom about a formerly well-to-do family now facing hard times. The plot, in a way that is reminiscent of Seinfeld, seems to go all over the place during the shows 30 minutes, but everything ties together by the end of the show.
The O.C. - FOX
Fox's newest teen drama. It deserves a look mainly because of the wit of teenaged, comic book-reading, nerd Seth.
MI-5 - A&E
If you missed A&E's imported British drama "MI-5" (it goes by the name "Spooks" when it's broadcast on the BBC), it might already be too late. A&E has already broadcast the first two series (a series is the British equivalent of our television seasons here in the US, except they're usually shorter than our 20-23 shows) of the show. It will presumably be repeated, and when it is, you need to watch it.
Joan of Arcadia - CBS
CBS's girl-talks-to-God drama is better than you'd think, at least for a Friday evening broadcast.
Navy NCIS - CBS
Despite its redundant title (the N in NCIS stands for Naval), this is a very good mixture of JAG and CSI, with all the parts that I disliked from the two shows missing. For example, the NCIS guys do not make the nonsensical non-puns that are the norm on CSI, nor do they go for the over the top gross-out shots of CSI. And the final thing is that these NCIS special agents really are the people who investigate crimes, so unlike both JAG and CSI, these agents really should be running interrogations and doing police-type work that lawyers and crime scene investigators shouldn't be doing. If you like the premise of CSI but are put off by the bad execution, give NCIS a try.
Next time, I'll give you a list of shows to avoid.
Posted by on 26 November 2003 at 10:50 AM
Comments
Good thing I just bought a TiVo on Sunday. MI-5 gets a season pass, right alongside Jeopardy.
Also, my TiVo seems to think I like 2-star movies.
Posted by ben on 26 November 2003 - 8:25 PM