Well, you might think I’m recommending watching Gossip Girl tonight because of the alleged threesome that is going to take place. Blake Lively is hot, and from what I’ve seen in pictures, the other women/girls in the show are pretty smoking as well. For the ladies, the guys are probably pretty good looking to. And how can you go wrong with a threesome, albeit a watered-down-for-CW-television threesome?

But that’s not what I’m recommending you watch the show tonight. You should watch Gossip Girl tonight because the Parents Television Council (PTC) says you shouldn’t. In fact, they don’t think anyone should, and that’s why they attempted to persuade affiliates of the CW to refuse to carry tonight’s episode (airing on the CW at 9/8c). I don’t like censorship. I especially don’t like fundamentalists trying to dictate what I can and can’t watch. If a threesome in Gossip Girl offends you, fine – I can understand that – but do you know what you do when something’s on television that you don’t like? You don’t watch the damn program. That’s right, you change the channel. Or you turn the TV off. Put in a DVD. A Blu-Ray. A Barney VHS. I don’t care. But don’t tell me what I can and can’t watch, and even worse, don’t try to persuade people who have the power to control what I can and can’t watch.

We need to teach the Parents Television Council that their efforts do the exact opposite of what they set out to do. As a result of their shenanigans (by the way, The Los Angeles Times reports that not a single affiliate nor advertiser has dropped out of tonight’s Gossip Girl threesome episode), they’ve only drawn more attention to the show and have convinced people like me that I should check it out. If you want to report on how family friendly a show is – and their website does that – fine, that’s a good resource, but don’t try to censor America. Give guidance, and people who agree with your views will listen to you. People who don’t will still be free to do and watch what they want.

Shame on you, Parents Television Council. At least you made the CW happy by giving their show free promotion.

UPDATE: I watched what I could of the episode, but the show is so incredibly bad that I fastforwarded to the G-rated threesome scene. That was a waste of 20 minutes. I sort of knew it, but was hoping for more nonetheless.

Flash Forward is about a worldwide event where everyone on the planet blacks out for two minutes and 17 seconds. Except they didn’t actually black out; instead, they saw glimpses of their own future. Some saw good things, but most saw a time when things were worse than ever. As the daughter of the main character (played by Joseph Fiennes) describes, she saw a time where there were no more good days.

Given the theme of the show, there are some vague similarities to Lost, and surely that was ABC’s intent. Their marketing had a very Lost-esque feel, and their preview of the rest of the season reveals that there are several current or former Lost actors on the show. The problem is, the series premiere didn’t amaze me the way Lost did.

Why?

Because it’s not nearly as good.

The show reminded me of network shows of old, which isn’t necessarily a good thing. Lost proved that you can draw out character development and story arcs at a slow pace and still engage audiences, but the creators of Flash Forward seemed hesitant to do this. The premiere was rushed and cluttered at times, full of little plot holes and missed opportunities.

The show could have benefited from being two hours long, to introduce the characters more strongly before the big event happens. Yes, ABC needed to hook viewers quickly, but after an hour, none of the characters seem particularly fleshed out. Furthermore, they had the opportunity to make an absolutely insane premiere, and insane this premiere was not. Everyone in the world blacks out for nearly two minutes, causing every moving car to crash, things to explode and more. That’s awesome. Shouldn’t you then follow that up with a mad scramble to save people, figure out what happened and more?

The rest of the premiere could have been just this, an adrenaline-fueled thriller where answers are needed and people need to be rescued. Instead, the characters seem to fall back into their normal routines in a matter of hours. Would FBI agents just return to work and chat around a conference table, or would they also be out there helping out an overwhelmed police force? Would the doctors not be working overtime for several days? Would anyone just go home at the end of the day to reflect on things? I doubt it.

What was so frustrating about Flash Forward is that the character actions in the show just don’t make a lot of sense. One doctor, who’s at the beach when the blackout occurs, wakes up to find surfers drowning in the waves. He runs off to help, but the next time we see him – which is presumably only half an hour later – he’s made his way across town, past dead and injured people on every street, to return to work. Wouldn’t you stop and help those people?

It’s things like this that wear you down, and so I walked away from Flash Forward thinking, this is the best they could do? The show has an awesome premise, and hopefully the writers settle down with the second episode. I understand why they needed to do the things they did in the series premiere, but they could have done them so much better.

Only time will tell, and I’ll give Flash Forward another shot or two, but the series premiere was a bit of a running stumble out of the gate.

There’s no need to rehash the article – read it for yourself.

Personally, in the long run, I don’t think the establishment has to worry – about this, anyway. Even if the Jay Leno show is successful at this hour, it will be hard to replicate without a proven name jumping into the time slot on another channel (though think if they moved Letterman to 10pm as well?). Furthermore, what’s considered a success for Leno may not be considered a success in general; the audiences that a variety show attract, though consistent day-to-day, won’t match what E.R. was pulling in, even in its fading years. If networks want big audiences, daily, unscripted programming is not the way to go.

What the networks, and the people that are employed by the shows distributed on the networks, need to be more concerned about is how they can compete in the coming years with cable shows. First it was HBO, then it was Showtime, and now it’s channels like FX, TNT and AMC – channels that don’t require anything more than a typical cable package – that are producing star-studded, well-written and engaging shows. Networks are losing subscribers every year because they aren’t keeping up.

In a few years, if the networks continue to find a couple key unscripted shows every couple of years (Dancing with the Stars, Survivor, American Idol, Amazing Race and several others come to mind as “survivors” of the reality game and ones that are, essentially, cash cows for the foreseeable future) and more of primetime is eliminated by other cost-cutting shows, they may not exist as we know them today. We’ll go to cable for our quality programming and the networks will provide us with the bare essentials – news, reality shows, sports and daytime soaps. Oh, and “Judge Judy.”

It sounds scary, but is it really?

1. Lost
   One of the most addictive and clever shows ever made, Lost comes to an end in 2010. The last season ended with a bang – literally – and no one but the creators know what’s in store for its final run. Though the show has stumbled a few times, it is one of the few that you can watch over and over again and become more and more engaged in the characters, story and mystery of the island.
2. Dexter
   Perhaps even more addictive than Lost due to its shorter seasons and fast-paced story arcs, this Showtime show is incredibly entertaining. Dark, hilarious and disturbing all at once, the show features brilliant performances and a unique plot – about a forensics specialist who is also a serial killer, who only kills killers. Since I don’t have Showtime, I’m currently halfway through the third season on DVD as I write this.
3. Big Love
   This Bill Paxton-starring show seems innocent enough; it’s about a man and his three lives as he tries to balance his traditional polygamist views with his modern business interests in Utah. But this highly entertaining, comedic, dramatic and thrilling show is surprisingly complex, as Paxton constantly becomes walks a fine line – and often falls off that line – between savvy business dealings and crime as he attempts to take down his so-called prophet of a father-in-law while keeping his own name out of the news.
4. Entourage
   Some people say that Entourage lost its edge seasons ago, but I disagree. The last season was funnier than ever, and it continues to get better as it goes along. Between Ari and Lloyd and Drama and Turtle, there are plenty of classic characters that make this show work surprisingly well. It’s just a shame each episode is only half an hour long; I’m always disappointed when it ends each Sunday.
5. True Blood
   From Alan Ball, the writer of American Beauty, comes this HBO show that is very similar to Twilight, only involving more gore, sex, nudity and interesting characters. Anna Paquin stars as Sooky, a human who can hear people’s thoughts who is also dating a vampire. The show shouldn’t be good but it is; it’s highly entertaining, exciting and at times funny, with plenty of screwy things going on at all times. I’d say it’s simply a guilty pleasure, but it deserves a better description than that.
6. Rescue Me
   It was recently announced that only one more season remains of this FX show about New York firemen in a post 9-11 world, which is a shame. At the same time, the Dennis Leary-starring show has been waning a bit recently. Nevertheless, it continues to walk that fine line between legitimate drama (Leary is an alcoholic dealing with the death of his son and who sees his dead brother) and hilarious comedy (every firemen in the house has very unique quirks) and is one of the more entertaining shows on television. The recent orange penis scene was particularly funny.
7. Mad Men
   This critically acclaimed AMC drama just got renewed for a fourth season, and for good reason. The subtle depiction of ad men (and women) in the 1960’s should be incredibly drab and boring, but it isn’t. For some reason, the finely tuned series is pitch perfect in so many ways, it’s hard to find a fault.
8. The Office
   Comedies and sitcoms are rarely my cup of tea – I prefer serialized dramas. But The Office is one exception; Steve Carell and his crew deliver the laughs week after week. Though this previous season disappointed a bit, it’s still my go-to for laughs every Thursday.
9. Fringe
   I started off, well, on the fringe about Fringe, as I wasn’t sold on the characters or stories. While it still pales in comparison to The X-Files (watch the first few seasons again and tell me if you disagree), Fringe grew on me in the second half of its run, developing an intriguing world where anything is possible. While I feel that Fox still needs to tweak its characters, I am definitely looking forward to the next season – oh, and Leonard Nimoy.
10. Dollhouse
    After watching the first episode, I stopped watching. It sucked. But I gave this Joss Whedon show a second chance on DVD and found it to be one of the most entertaining and intriguing new show of 2009 (or 2008?). Elisha Dushku stars as a doll, a woman whose memory is (allegedly) wiped clean after each mission she goes on, whether it’s a sexual rendezvous or an assassination. The show blends individual adventures with an overlying plot of morals and secrecy, where any character might not be what they seem.
11. 24
    2008’s season was a disaster, but 2009’s resurrected the popular Kiefer Sutherland show, albeit one set in a post-Bush world. The plots are often over the top, but are consistently entertaining and exciting. You won’t love all the twists (I still don’t buy into the Tony Almeada twist), but 24 is guaranteed to keep the adrenaline flowing.
12. Damages
    I’ve only seen the first season, but it was one of the most interesting, complex and surprisingly exciting seasons I’d seen in a long time. Ellen Byrnes and Glenn Close star as lawyers who are both on the same side and playing against each other simultaneously. Damages has one of the best casts on television (William Hurt and Marcia Gay Harden join in season two), if not the best. I’m still waiting for FX to release the second season on DVD so I can watch it, though.
13. Californication
    David Duchovny stars as a sex addict in California who’s trying to get back together with his wife and daughter but keeps getting himself in trouble. This Showtime show is hilarious, and the second season just came out on DVD. I just have to get through Dexter before switching gears to this show.
14. The Tudors
    Though it comes off as a bit cheap, there’s something enthralling about this fictionalized drama based on the life of Henry VIII (Jonathan Rhys Meyers). Season 2 unleashed as we got to see the rise and fall of Ann Bolyn as well as a variety of other characters. It’s not perfect, but there’s something incredibly entertaining about this show, also from Showtime.
15. Heroes
    A year ago, this show would have ranked much higher on this list, but season three just sucked. Well, most of it. The first 18 episodes or so were disastrous, but the last four or five episodes – which featured the return of one of the show’s original writers – salvaged some self respect. I’m hoping that that continues into the fourth season, but one sign of trouble and I’m gone. It’s a shame, because this show’s first season was so great, and it’s an idea with unlimited possibilities.

The first episode, Ghost, sucked. This is the way Whedon and Fox chose to hook people? In this day and age, you have to grab audiences by the throat and hold them to a wall to get them to sit through a single episode of a new show, let alone to get them to come back week after week. We’re introduced to the premise of the show and learn that the dolls – humans whose memories have been wiped clean so that a secret organization can implant new memories and personality traits so they can go undercover for any purpose whatsoever (anything from covert missions to sex games) – can take on more than just traits, but also symptoms such as asthma. In the first episode of a new show, you’re really going to deal with a boring hostage negotiation and a lead character who suddenly has massive asthma attacks?

Needless to say, after a boring and uninteresting first episode, I was done. Gone. Badmouthing the show.

But Dollhouse: Season One comes to DVD on July 28, 2009 and subsequently Fox sent me the first season to review (well, just to be kind, they sent me the first three discs out of four). Give it another chance, I told myself, and so I did.

The second episode kicks ass. Echo (Dushku) is implanted with memories and a personality to be an adventurous, crazy, sexy girl (so, pretty much like most characters she’s played) and is sent to go canoeing, rock climbing and camping with a rich client, who presumably wants to have his way with her (and she is more than willing to give it to him). But then he picks up a bow and several razor-pointed arrows and tells her she has five minutes to run before he starts hunting her. That’s pretty bad ass, and it just gets better from there.

Eight episodes in so far, it appears as though Dollhouse is going to be a mix of individual and story arc episodes; several early on deal with a specific, isolated story, such as Echo having to protect a diva from a crazy stalker or infiltrating a polygamist cult. But even in these episodes, and several others more devoted to the underlying premise, Whedon is laying the groundwork for a much more complicated plot, which asks such questions as: is it morally ethical to be doing stuff like this? What is Echo’s true past? Who is Alpha? Are the dolls really wiped clean every day, or are they able to remember?

Clearly, over time, Echo is going to become more and more complicated, as she’s already showing signs of recurring memories and flashbacks. This, coupled with flashbacks that, unlike in Lost, are not cued to the audience, the show becomes hard to follow quickly. You have to pay attention otherwise you’ll be confused, and having watched several episodes while at work, I probably have missed a few key elements.

The bottom line: Dollhouse is a surprisingly complex and intelligent show that is only going to get more so as it builds its characters and storylines. Aside from the first episode, it is deeply immersive, entertaining and at times action packed.

That being said, it isn’t perfect. Some elements are a little heavy handed. The episode where Echo is assigned to protect a singer from a stalker is a little cheesy and cliche; the doll programmer, played by Fran Kranz, is morally complex but extremely annoying at times – it’s hard to tell whether we’re supposed to like him or despise him; and Dushku herself, while fine for the role, is probably going to have to stretch her acting ability to the limit to play the various “characters” demanded of her. Dollhouse also doesn’t have the gritty authenticity that some other modern shows have, which may hurt it in the long run; it certainly feels like a Fox action-drama versus, say, something produced by CBS.

The show does have its faults, and it starts off in a horrific way, but if you can forgive the first episode, Dollhouse is an engaging and interesting show that is unique on many levels. It’s going to be interesting to see how long Whedon can carry it before the house of cards caves in (more happens in the first eight episodes of Dollhouse than what happens in the first three seasons of Lost, for instance), but I’m there to watch it until the fiery end.

The four-disc DVD set (it also comes in a three-disc Blu-Ray set) includes commentary for select episodes, an unaired episode and the unaired pilot, deleted scenes and several featurettes.

The second season begins where the first left off, give or take a few months. Peggy has returned to her previous weight having secretly given birth to a baby, though she has given it to her mother to raise and has no interest in being involved in his upbringing. Don Draper, meanwhile, continues to have a wandering eye, but this time things come back to haunt him, forcing him to make some tough decisions – and forcing his wife Betty to do the same. The firm partners must also consider a potential buyout, among other things.

I thoroughly enjoyed the first season of Mad Men, but considered it to be slightly overrated. The acting was terrific, the writing spot on, the direction fabulous and the stories well carved, but there was just something that left me thinking, Isn’t there something more? Compared to such shows as The Sopranos or many other classics, Mad Men had the drama without the power, the characters without the energy.

Season 2 is also emotionally muted, albeit intentionally so. But it quickly becomes clear that Season 1 was just an introduction to the characters. We get to see a little into what they’re thinking in the first season, but the second starts to open things up. Some tensions burst, men finally get caught cheating and more than one conflict boils over into a steaming mess. In hindsight, Season 1 was a pitch-perfect masterstroke, and Season 2 is even better.

My only fault with the production (I realize this is a contradiction to my “pitch-perfect” statement in the previous paragraph) is that Don Draper, played by Jon Hamm, is so hard to read it’s hard to relate with him at times. Though Hamm does a tremendous job of letting subtle hints about his true nature creep through his poised exterior, his character does seem unnecessarily muted at times. It’s his character’s complexities that drive the show, and yet his complexities are often confusing and contradictory. This is fine, but with so little explanation about why he does the things he does, it becomes frustrating after a while. [SPOILER ALERT] After he essentially gets caught cheating, what does he do? He travels to California on business and, while deciding what he wants to do in regards to his family and wife, ends up running away with another gorgeous woman for a week. Why does such a smart, caring husband and father act impulsively like this time and time again? It’s hard to say for sure, and without more insight into his character, it’s hard to believe his rationale and motivations.

Still, the faults are minor. Mad Men Season 2 looks great, is once again well acted and features some extremely addictive storylines, despite the fact that, compared to most other television shows, very little actually happens.

If you haven’t watched Mad Men, consider doing so. It is an intriguing, addictive and unique look at advertising in the 1960’s. Mad Men isn’t for everyone, but if you do discover that it is for you, you’ll be hooked.

The Mad Men: Season 2 DVD includes feature-length audio commentaries, a featurette that explores female independence in the 1960’s, a featurette about the show’s fashion, and some other, more interactive featurettes that explore the historical events of the show (the events in the show align with the Cuban Missile Crisis).

Season 3 begins on August 16, 2009 on AMC.

The Pacific looks pretty good. Have you noticed that HBO strings together just enough good, new content to keep me subscribed to – and paying for – their service? Damn them.

Watch The Pacific trailer now.

Celebrity Apprentice

After watching the season finale, I realized just how far this show has sank; even though Joan Rivers did better on three of the five tasks in the finale, the reasons for “hiring” the woman – her passion and energy – just doesn’t make sense. The show is about business tasks and about finding the best business people, even if those people are celebrities. Annie Duke, while annoying at times, was shrewd, goal-oriented and an all-around better competitor. She made tons of money, won lots of tasks and generally kept her teams in line – if to a fault. Sure, I wouldn’t want to work for her, but if I were choosing who to put in charge of a business or team or task, who but Donald Trump would select the overly emotional Joan Rivers, who reacted inappropriately multiple times when her daughter Melissa was attacked, who continued to go for Annie’s throat in an unreasonable, obsessive-compulsive kind of way and who repeatedly showed that she was afraid to speak her mind to her project manager time and time again.

Sure, I realize Celebrity Apprentice is designed for entertainment and is not meant to be a hardcore business show like the first few seasons were, but it’s a business show without business or business people. It’s just a silly event, and it makes me miss The Apprentice, which actually included challenges more tasking than just “who can call their richest friends to donate money?”

With Celebrity Apprentice garnering decent ratings, isn’t it time for NBC to give the original another chance? Given that it’s a reality show and designed around product placement, it can’t be that hard to be profitable. Take a risk, NBC. Take a damn risk.

American Idol

Danny Gokey will go no further than third place in the popular Fox show, and its good riddance to a man who road the coattails of his wife’s death (through no fault of his own) and the American Idol hype machine for far too long. It was embarassing how the judges, early on in the season, praised the guy like there was no one else to win, even though he turned in week-after-week of boring performances. Sure, Gokey could sing, but hearing boring renditions and watching cringe-inducing dancing (not saying I could do better) is not my definition of a good time, nor do such things equal a performer worthy of the crown.

Thankfully, over time, as Adam Lambert proved time and time again that he is an amazing singer and performer – and easily the most exciting contestant of the show’s history – the judges coolled to Gokey’s performances. Though his singing was constantly praised, his performances were critiqued more and more – and Simon, an early proponent of the guy – soon began to show his disdain.

In the opposite corner, Kris Allen was another guy I didn’t like early on, but unlike Gokey, he actually grew on me, especially in recent weeks. He’ll still be massacred by Adam Lambert in the season finale, but props to Kris for doing what no one could have predicted a month ago. And props to America for rightfully voting out Gokey.