CSI S08E17 – For Gedda

I am deeply unsatisfied by what I just saw. I knew it was coming, but the payoff wasn’t nearly enough for someone who has put eight years of their life into this show. That is all.

Swingtown goes to..

Last week when it was announced that ITV had bought Pushing daisies, there were a couple of other purchases that slipped under the my radar. One was a CBS drama that ITV say will play out in primetime on ITV1, and at other times on ITV3.

Swingtown (cue press release voice):-

peeks into the shag-carpeted suburban homes of the 1970s to find couples reveling in the sexual and social revolution that introduced open marriages, women’s liberation and challenged many conventional wisdoms.

It stars Jack Davenport, and I liked him in Coupling and the other things that he did. I didn’t watch This Life (past my bedtime) but I heard he was alright in that too. Watch a preview of Swingtown below..

“Big Bang Theory” goes to…

…Channel 4. It seems harmless enough, I think it might be the comedy formerly known as “Genius Bar”. Not 100% though, I am sure and I imagine it will play across C4 on Friday nights and E4 at… any time of day. It has David from Roseanne in it, and Joey’s Nephews geek friend. What more could you want? Watch a (pretty funny) preview after the jump-aroo.

Clark and Michael – Episode 2

Just to let you all know that the second ep of Clark and Michael is available from “teh internets”. The first episode made me laugh out loud, if only for the facial expressions of Michael Cera as well as maybe the surprise appearance of Tony Hale as a studio exec. Click here to watch the magic.

CBS Primetime Schedule 2007-2008

For readers in the UK, imagine the reputation of CBS to be something like the BBC, in the sense that they are the most revered, and the network most old people turn to in times of crisis. Considering that, you will understand that their viewers don’t like change. Imagine Songs of Praise, Panorama and Crimewatch just wiped from the schedule, after a slight downturn in ratings. CBS canceled Jericho, which I watched (and hated) sporadically, and The Class, which at least got a full season that Channel 4 to burn off this summer on E4/T4. Also canceled was Close To Home, which I’m told was enjoying it’s best season yet, although I have never been able to look at the lead character as anything other than the kooky girl in Committed.

In Comes Viva Laughlin, a remake of BBC’s Blackpool, and those scheming schedulers pulled the old switcheroo on Shark and Without a Trace, hoping that the former takes more viewers to Sunday with it than the latter managed this season. Read all about it after the jump(er).

Andy Barker P.I., we hardly knew ye

As expected, NBC gave Andy Barker P.I. the heave-ho this weekend after 6 episodes, only two of which were worth watching twice. If the show had a flaw it was maybe that it should have been an hour long drama with comic overtones, just so the mysteries could be drawn out a bit longer, a few more twists and turns. The last two episodes will play out on NBC in the graveyard slot of Saturday 8-9pm. An opportunity methinks for a UK net to step in and purchase six episodes on the cheap from NBC Universal.

Sunrise, sunset. As one Arrested Development stars comedy vehicle fades into obscurity, another peeks over the horizon. David Cross has been signed up for the pilot of I’m in hell, a CBS sitcom that sounds like it’s going to be funny (oxymoron, I know). Jason Biggs (he who put his penis in the American Pie) is a Wall Street exec who dies and goes to hell, who dies in a BlackBerry-related car crash, but because hell is at full capacity, he is reassigned to Hell on Earth and must figure out a way to get by without his career and all the trappings of his former existence. Sounds like a long-winded premise but I will give it a go.

The New Adventures of Old Christine S02E17 – Strange Bedfellows

The only positive thing to come out out of my Saturday Night Live crap-o-rama was their constant reminders that I should watch Julia Louis-Dreyfuss’ new-ish show, The New Adventures of Old Christine. The program itself is a bog standard laugh-track sitcom, I much preferred Julia in the first season of the ‘doomed from the outset’ Watching Ellie.

But in last night’s ep there was a joke that made me chuckle slightly. It involved Christine’s ex-husband trying to prise her from the couch to go to a polling station and vote, while Christine was watching the latter stages of American Idol at home. And of the top of my head, it went a little something…like this.

CSI: Crime Scene Investigation – S07E15

I watch CSI out of habit these days, I’m just waiting for the break up of the team including the cause, so I can get involved in the subsequent inevitable bashing of the new guys. Recently I thought the cull had started, when William Petersen announced he was going on sabbatical. they brought in Liev Schrieber, and I wasn’t impressed with his first two episodes. The writers really played up the fact that he was dark and mysterious, with skeletons in his closet. And I convinced myslef I didn’t actually care.

Super Bowl Commercials

Well the dust has settled on Super Bowl XLI. The ratings are in, 93 million viewers in the US. The second largest Super Bowl audience of all time, and behind the series finale of M*A*S*H, the third largest audience in US television history. I watched the first 25 minutes, it felt like an hour. that first touchdown was cool though..

What I’m watching Tonight…

I’ll be watching Prison Break, Heroes and 24. Back to back to back. In that order. But if that combo doesn’t tickle you, and you are in the UK, I would advise you to turn it to five at 9pm and watch the season 7 premiere of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. In an attempt to stave off the threat of Greys Anatomy in the same timeslot in the US, the writers break with tradition and introduce an ongoing mystery which is quite intriguing. But that isn’t why you need to watch tonight.

Horatio

A while back I wrote a post about TV’s number one detective, Horatio Caine. The Showbiz Show put together a little montage of Horatio one-liners. Well some nice person on Youtube has put together what seems like every one-liner David Caruso has ever spoken, followed by the start of the CSI Miami theme tune. It’s funny, but that scream from Roger Daltrey will start to annoy you within 2 minutes..

I challenge you to make it through this 7 minute video. If you do there is a nice twist at the end, from an episode I haven’t seen. But then I only ever watch the first 3 minutes of CSI Miami, for this very reason. And don’t just skip to the end!

Farewell Gil…

According to TV Squad, William Petersen will be taking a short sabbatical from CSI after next week’s episode on CBS. The word on the street is that he may not come back. Without the mordern day Columbo that is Gil Grissom, is this the beginning of the end of CSI’s domination of TV schedules all over the world??