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ShareWith the Olympics finished, a lot of people will be feeling flush with free time. Or at least free TV time, and now is when you should catch up with those recordings or DVDs you’ve been holding, ‘cause things will get busy soon.
Or you could go outside and enjoy the warm evenings, but this is a TV column, and we don’t advocate that sort of nonsense.
Anyway, TV. This is a pretty slow week, but starting Labor Day, the leading edge of the new fall season will begin rolling out.
The season doesn’t officially start until Sept. 22, but there are a handful of early September premieres, including Fox’s “Prison Break,” TNT’s new legal drama “Raising the Bar,” and CW’s “Gossip Girl” and “One Tree Hill” on Sept. 1; FX’s “The Shield,” which returns for its last season on Sept. 2; and Fox’s “Bones,” CW’s “America’s Next Top Model” and FX’s “Sons of Anarchy” - a new drama that’s sort of “The Sopranos” meets a motorcycle gang - all on Sept. 3.
The CW has sent a very clear message that “90210” is so bad, we might as well blast it now.
The new drama/soap is a sequel to “Beverly Hills 90210,” which ran through the 1990s, and if you listen to CW, it was the best and most important TV series ever. Fine. They’re allowed to hype their shows.
But CW said last week the network “made the strategic marketing decision” not to screen the show for anyone and to ride “the curiosity and anticipation” until the show premieres
“We’re not hiding anything,” the press statement said.
Of course they aren’t. And Nixon was not a crook. It sounds like CW made the same strategic decision movie studios make when they have a serious clunker they don’t want reviewed.
As for the “anticipation,” I haven’t noticed much beyond what CW has advertised on its own, unless you count the stories about the behind-the-camera problems and Tori Spelling publicly dropping out after committing to a guest role.
CW’s people know all this. They know there’s only a little buzz about the show, that critics are skeptical and that critics will write precisely what I’m writing if they hold the show back from reviewers. And still, they’re keeping it to themselves. Doesn’t leave much hope the show’s any good, does it?
As for What to Watch (or Not) this week, there is, of course, the Democratic National Convention through Thursday.
The broadcast networks will all offer an hour nightly, PBS will go for three hours in prime time, and the cable news networks will chew on it and overanalyze it to death.
My preference, of course, is “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart” (Monday through Thursday on Comedy Central). These people are spectacular during events like this, and they promise to “bring you all the news stories first. Before it’s even true.” Their operating slogan: “News better run.”
TUESDAY
“Gavin & Stacey” (on BBC America): A charmer of a comedy about a young couple falling in love that’s won a ton of British comedy awards, so you know it’s witty.
WEDNESDAY
“Mythbusters” (on Discovery Channel): The guys take on the story that the 1969 moon landing was a hoax. In essence, they’re busting the myth that someone busted the lunar landing myth. Or something like that.
SUNDAY
“Mad Men” (on AMC): Yeah, it does seem like I push this show every week. My excuse this time is AMC’s marathon rerunning the entire second season so far.
