Merlin and More - April Shows

April is shaping up to be another busy month of new shows and returning favorites. A few new shows include HBO's New Orleans-based Treme (April 11), History Channel's America: The Story of Us (April 25), and ABC's Happy Town (April 28). The papers have been full of glowing stories about the making of Treme, so hopes are high. And given creator David Simon's past success with The Wire, the hopes appear warranted. Entertainment Weekly's Ken Tucker stated:

Hoo boy, are you going to have fun watching this. It bursts with great rhythm & blues, funk, and jazz music (bouncing covers of everything from George Clinton's ''Pumpin' It Up'' to Bobby Womack's ''It's All Over Now''). It's got superb performances from two Wire vets, Wendell Pierce (as devilish trombone player Antoine) and Clarke Peters (as the leader of a Mardi Gras Indian tribe). There's also Steve Zahn, in his first TV series, playing a ditzy DJ; John Goodman as a righteous English professor; and Khandi Alexander (forget CSI: Miami — this is her best work since 2000's The Corner, another Simon project) as Ladonna, a bar owner. Add cameos by Dr. John, Elvis Costello, the genius record producer Allen Toussaint, and many lesser-known but terrific musicians as both players and actors (go get Trombone Shorty's new album, Backatown, now!), and Treme explodes with pleasure.

Returning shows include SyFy's Merlin (April 2), Showtime's Tudors (April 11), and Fox's Glee (April 13). Merlin was on NBC last year, but it has been moved to NBC's specialty network to a more targeted audience. It may just work. BBC has already ordered a third season of the program, so it has done well overseas. For some reason, the American audience is not taking to the show in the same way. Then again, American networks are notorious for sloppy roll-outs of programs. HBO and Showtime have a certain professionalism almost completely lacking in the "major" networks, which is becoming an oxymoron if there ever was one.

One more point. Last year BBC History Magazine had an interesting article titled The Tudors: This Time it's Political, which looked at the historical accuracy of the program. Michael Hirst, the creator of the series, says it is 85 percent accurate with a few extra twists. It is certainly fun to watch, and it's nice to know that we might actually learn something as well, but how much? The battle goes on. Two years ago, the New York Time's wrote:

If “The Tudors” fails to live up to the great long-form dramas cable television has produced, it is not simply because it refuses the visceral messiness of a “Rome” or a “Deadwood” (the corpse-eating pigs!) but more significantly because it radically reduces it’s the era’s thematic conflicts to simplistic struggles over personal and erotic power. “The Tudors” makes it seem as if the entire creation of the Anglican Church boiled down to Henry’s wish to remarry and sire a male heir. (When Anne gives birth to a daughter this season, the future Elizabeth I, Henry looks as if he were a little boy who got the wrong kind of tricycle at Christmas.) “The Sopranos,” “The Wire” and “Big Love” all have derived their potency from dramatizing the preservation of failing institutions. The paradox of “The Tudors” is that it takes on one of the most powerful and protested institutions in human history — the Catholic Church during the Renaissance — and provides little sense of what the English people have to gain or lose by breaking with it.

Ouch!

And it gets worst. Later on, British historian Dr. Starkey and others made the following observations in the Telegraph:

• Characters wear costumes from the Elizabethan era and travel in Victorian carriages, suggesting that the modes of transport in the series were bought "lock, stock and barrel" from a "Jane Austen leftover".

• The program makers twisted history to show Henry VIII's sister, Margaret, being sent away to marry the King of Portugal instead of the King of Scotland.

• The series depicts Pope Paul III as the man who opposed the move that led to the creation of the church of England. However, the pope who refused to let Henry VIII divorce his first wife was Paul's predecessor, Clement VII.

The final quote was pretty mean: "The series was made with the original intention of dumbing it down so that even an audience in Omaha [in Nebraska] could understand it"

Ouch, again!

Check Out Justified

You are missing on out some great TV if you are not tuning into FX's new show Justified. From the very first scene, the story captured my interest and continued to sustain it. And it's all due to the terrific acting by Timothy Olyphant, who plays U.S. Marshal Raylan Given. You may remember him as the Sheriff in HBO's Deadwood, another great performance (see photos to right). In his new show he wears the white hat, but in both shows he was a lawman dealing with the dregs of society - first the frontier town of Deadwood and now current day backwoods Kentucky. Another character to watch in this show is Boyd, played by Walton Goggins from The Shield. When Olyphant and Goggins are on screen, playing old coal mining friends and now foes, the show has increased interest. In fact, Goggins was supposed to die in the first episode, but fortunately he will be around for awhile (see the full story here). I think we have a hit on our hands. Olyphant continues to put on a great performance and, like many great actors, so much of his acting is in his pauses or the furrow of an eyebrow. While this may not work on the stage, its is very effective with the intimacy allowed by TV. If you need to catch up, episodes are already available on iTunes.

March TV Madness

March is shaping up to be good month for new and returning programs. I tried out Fox's The Sons of Tuscon on Sunday night and thoroughly enjoyed this odd show. The key ingredient is Tyler Labine, who I first remember as a terrific co-star on The Reaper. I miss the antics of The Reaper, but Labine is back in form in his new show. While the premise is a little strange - he is being paid by three kids to be their dad while their real one sits in prison - it becomes a blank slate for Labine. Whether this show can keep its steam through more than one season remains to be seen, but it will be a fun ride while it lasts.

Some other shows starting in March include HBO's The Pacific, FX's Justified, and Disovery's Life. Returning shows include Showtime's Nurse Jackie and United States of Tara, as well as ABC Family's 10 Things I Hate About You. Plenty of good TV this month.

Another note: If you are a fan of the TV show Lost, I recommend you check out this Slate site that follows the series closely. You will find some fun insights to the show.

February TV - How to Make it in America

The only show I saw worth mentioning last month was HBO's new How to Make it in America. The star of this show is Bryan Greenberg, who I think is a talented actor and yet he has somehow been used primary on cheesy programs, such as One Tree Hill and the too long series October Road.

That being said, this latest program has some promise. It is a bit like Entourage in NYC, but these guys are gritty and real rather than spoiled and preening, which makes all the difference (of course, this is not to say NYC lacks in spoiled and preening shows; think Gossip Girl). So far, it is the tale of two guys trying to make their own line of jeans while dealing with a very cynical system, including questionable sources of cash and material. I was skeptical myself about this show, but so far it has enough interesting characters and varying storyline that I may stick around for more. Take a look for yourself.

More on Free TV

Just a few more thoughts. I recently missed a 60 Minutes piece (due to a football game running over) and went to the CBS.com site to see if I could catch up. In fact, it was easy to do. This is the great part of the Internet in that it acts as a back-up to television since we are not always home nor does our DVR always work (or at least, the network does not follow its own schedule). Of course, this convenience is the same for Rachel Maddow and Glenn Beck. Whatever your politics, it's out there. This is a great benefit for all you news junkies out there.

Other sites:

- Face the Nation
- Meet the Press
- This Week
- Washington Week

The End of Free TV on the Internet?

We have been hearing from a number of Chicken Little's about the end of TV on the Internet, or at least free TV. First, I do not think this is true. As more and more cable channels realize the need to grab larger shares of audiences (and Neilson learns how to count them), we shall see more free offers. Second, some changes may be in order to expand the selection of TV programs available to those of us who see the Internet as a good window onto all aspects of Hollywood. For instance, I see iTunes as a plus for Internet users and not a minus. The fact that you can get your favor program for $1.99 to $2.99 is not so horrible when you consider that in the past you would have had no real options for seeing these programs if you missed them on TV, unless you waited for reruns a few months later. Is it free? No. Is it damn convenient? Yes.

For instance, two shows I can easily pick up on the Internet as hosted by the cable channels are NBC's 30 Rock and Starz' Spartacus. Of course, you also have vehicles such as Fancast and Hulu, but this is where the angst comes in. Since Comcast bought NBC, the future of Hulu has been in doubt since it is partly owned by NBC and in direct competition with Comcast. In addition, Comcast lost about 233,000 subscribers in the last quarter of 2009 and its future is not so sunny. How much is due to Hulu and its imitators versus the monopolistic pricing of Comcast in a recession is anyone's guess, but I expect to see some blood in the water. Even so, the pricing strategies I am reading about are not absurd. For instance, Hulu is discussing providing the five most recent episodes for free and then you pay $4.99 per month to watch older episodes.

This said, some thought the DVD would lead to the end of movies, and yet what it did was bring back thousands of movies and television programs from the archives. The Old Guard always screams when change is marching down the avenue, and we are seeing it again. Of course, this is not to say the adjustment will be pretty. Just ask the record companies how they are adjusted to 99 cent songs on Amazon and iTunes. But again, these companies had a chance to be innovative and instead they simply sent lawyers after college kids. So much for embracing the future.

I am hopeful that free content will not only remain but grow as other parties find ways to enter the game. In addition, for a small fee, one will see new things they did not have access to before. The barriers to entry are low, and the skies the limit. So cheer up, kick back, and enjoy the show.

January Programs

January has been quite a month for new shows. And my hope has been restored concerning SciFi now that Caprica is up and running. It's a great show with a lot of potential. Here are just a few of the new shows:

- Caprica, SyFy, Fridays at 9pm ET/8pm CT
- The Deep End, ABC, Thursdays at 8pm ET/7pm CT
- The Inbetweeners, BBC America, Wednesdays at 9:30pm ET/8:30pm CT
- Life Unexpected, CW, Mondays at 9pm ET/ 8 pm CT
- Spartacus, Starz, Fridays at 10pm ET/9 pm CT

And Damages also returned in January for its third season. Yes, it has been a great TV month and staying on top of all these shows is not easy. However, I have already dropped The Deep End as too sophomoric to merit additional attention. Misbehaving lawyers? Nothing new here, folks. But the others have a lot of promise. Of course, The Inbetweeners is already in its third season over in the UK, so we are a bit behind the curve in this country (as is the case with Merlin and other shows). I am already surprised with the quality of acting as well as the decent storyline in Life Unexpected, and even Spartacus is full of heart (and blood, of course). While the acting and sets in Spartacus are not those of HBO's Rome, it has its own qualities (think 300) that may keep it around for awhile.