Saturday, January 02, 2010

TV: The Saturday Review of Fall 2009

I'm going to attempt to do a TV review for each night of the week of the shows we were exposed to during the 2009 Fall season. I have two TVs in the TV room, a fair cable package, three DVD recorders working full-time and a connection to the internet. So, here's what I watched/recorded/whatever over the last four months. (I'll try to get each night covered over the next week, earning a week off after that)

The easy one, Saturday. Nothing new during primetime worth watching, save for Hockey Night in Canada as far network broadcast TV is concerned. Being a Canadian, HNC is a birthright and a requirement. On the other hand, it's often shunted to the smaller TV while I catch a basketball game on the main screen. Comes from not being a Toronto Maple Leaf fan. But I do tend to watch Don Cherry's segment in the first intermission and the Hot Stove Lounge in the second intermission. Just like a million or so Canadians. Even when the Leafs are stinking the joint out. Which is frequently these decades.

November saw something crop up in afterhours to join HNC. The Wanda Sykes Show on Fox makes one wonder if the news guys at that net actually watch the non-news shows on their own network. A black lesbian comedian with a decidedly liberal bent? If they so much as surfed ove there for five minutes, some Fox News natterers would die of apoplexy. Not that that's a bad thing. Regardless, Sykes is one of the funniest people on TV and her one hour late night show is different enough and funny enough to merit skipping the better known Saturday Night Live to watch. Do I record SNL? Depends on the host.

Syndicated TV does have a couple of Saturday keepers. Merlin from Britain just finished, but the teen take on the old Arthurian wizardry legend works. The second season is in the can, but you can pick up season DVD's at an electronics super-store near you. The other syndic show that makes the grade here is Legend of the Seeker, which I only caught the first season of, after the fact on DVD. Now, it's a weekly staple for recording myself. It's from the same folks that brought the sublimely sly Xena and Hercules shows to us in decades past. Gorgeous New Zealand scenery combined with an attractive bunch of actors makes this show rather better than the Xena/Herc rip-offs we've seen since those shows completed their runs. And there's always a chance creator Sam Raimi's brother Ted will pop up to add some tongue-in-cheek mirth to the occasion.

Lastly, I also admit to recording the early Saturday morning showing of Food TV's Diners, Drive-ins and Dives featuring Guy Fieri. Say, I think I need a snack.

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