Hey, That’s My Name

As promised, here’s the second pieces of my recap of this year’s television season, focusing on my Tuesday and Wednesday shows.

Reaper
I wanted to like Reaper a lot, and it seemed, for a long time, that the show was doing whatever it could to chase me away. I largely go into it because of Kevin Smith’s involvement in directing the pilot. However, I was also intrigued at the prospect of a female writing team delving into the supernatural genre that I’ve enjoyed so much on television. While the pilot had a lot of fun stuff in it, the first half season of Reaper was incredibly underwhelming. It resembled, for me, the freak of the week plotting that made the first season of Smallville so pedestrian. I was also unimpressed with the chemistry (or lack thereof) between the male and female leads. Thankfully, that part seems to have resolved a bit. The light through all of the darkness, though, has always been Ray Wise, who has been so incredibly winning as the show’s Lucifer. He’s dashing. He’s charming. And when he needs to be, which is not that often, he can be scary. I’m feeling about where Reaper is heading. In the back seven, the plot began to grow from week to week and the capturing of escaped souls began to be less of what was going on in each episode. We got more serialized plotlines involving a demon uprising and whether or not Sam is, in fact, the spawn of Satan. Along with the new storylines came a host of fantastically entertaining guest spots. Lucy Davis (of the the original Office and Shaun of the Dead) and Kandyse McClure (of Battlestar Galactica) gave Ben something to do other than be the least interesting of the show’s guy trio. But, of course, the best stuff in these latter episodes came from Ken Marino (Veronica Mars) and Ian Black (Ed) as Tony and Steve, the boys’ new neighbors who just happen to be demons planning a revolution (and maybe the cutest gay couple I’ve seen on TV in awhile). I want these guys to be in every episode their so damn fun. How about a Tony and Steve spin-off? Anyone? All in all, I’m glad I stuck with Reaper. I was worried I would regret it, but they really pulled it out in the end. I’m looking forward to its return next season and, hopefully, a more evenly plotted season.

The Riches
I have discovered that The Riches, for me, is a show that I prefer to watch in a clump rather than week to week. I haven’t quite put my finger on why that is, but I get much more enjoyment out of it when I see several hours strung together, than stretched out over many weeks. I watch The Riches mostly because its Eddie Izzard’s show, though Minnie Driver also does really great work on it. This season brought a lot of rifts in the Malloy family and I worry about what this will mean for season three. What I liked so much about the first season was that, even through the craziness that this family went through, they were a team, they stuck together and they seemed to escape that cliche that happens so often in shows with teenagers where the kids always turn on the parents. Well, season two didn’t exactly do that. By the season finale, both of Wayne’s teenagers had rejected him, one of them having run away from home. I hope that the writers won’t keep the family splintered for very long because they’re more fun when they’re working together. I’m also amazed that they didn’t do more with Jared Harris. I expect we’ll see more of him next season, but while he was in several episodes this year, we didn’t really get into who he was and what his history with the Malloys is. I was a little disappointed with this year’s episodes, I hope to see a little more when it returns.

Pushing Daisies
I think that this may be my new favorite show. I’m disinclined to state that outright, considering that it had less than half a season due to the strike. However, I have rarely experienced as much joy watching a show as when I watch Pushing Daisies. It’s whimsical, fun and one of the most original things I’ve seen in a long time. Really, I strongly recommend that you catch up on this one before its return in the fall. I’ll tell you, it’s definitely an out there concept and there are some people that won’t be able to deal with that. But if you want to see something fresh and unique, you have to check it out. I really think it’ll be worth your time. Lee Pace has said that they’ve been taking the time off to re-work the show to make it better and a little bit more depth. I can’t wait. In fact, there is no show that I watched in the past year that I’m more excited for DVD set or the 08-09 return of than Pushing Daisies. I miss my friends from the Pie Hole.

Law & Order
Another season, another cast change… or three. The first episode of the season brought a few shake-ups but they weren’t the last. With Fred Thompson’s departure, Sam Waterston moved into that position, leaving his spot to be filled by Linus Roache. I’ve actually liked Roache in the movies I’ve seen him, but his feet haven’t quite grown to fill Waterston’s shoes. A much more welcome change was the replacement of the abysmal Milena Govich with the wonderful Jeremy Sisto. He’s got the dark and brooding thing going, but he always throws in the funny, too. Still, I was incredibly sad to see Jesse L. Martin go (and without them ever working in a reason for him to sing!), but Anthony Anderson has been pulling his weight pretty well (he did guest on Veronica Mars, so he gets some credit in my book for that alone). I was also really happy to see Tom Everett Scott pop up in the last episodes of the season as an Elliot Spitzer-like governor. I like Scott a lot and they seemed to leave the door open for him to return in adversarial role. I’m all for it. Despite all the shake ups, though, the flavor of this Law & Order still hasn’t changed much.

Top Chef
This was my first year watching Top Chef and I really only watched it because it was based in my city (and there was nothing else on when it started). I started out curious and then I got a little hooked. As stated in my first Top Chef recap, I’m not a reality show kind of girl, but most of the things that piss me off about reality TV didn’t seem as pervasive in this one. Still, I’m not convinced I’ll be returning to Top Chef next season. It was fun while it lasted, but I was beginning to tire of it toward the end.

So, that’s all for now. I’ll return in the next few days to to rap up Thursday through Sunday shows. Gotta go watch the last BSG now. Until then!