Just because you don't like shit of one order doesn't mean that everything else you don't like is also shit. If you don't like it, fine. I don't care, but don't call it "crap".

Actually, you know what? I don't really care about that, either.

I'm not putting anyone else down for liking shows I don't, so there's no need to get offended.

With a lot of programs, there are similar reasons or aspects of the program which, to me, form my dislike. It's possible of course that someone else will agree on some and not on others.

I'll be the first to say that Reaper, a show I quite like, can for some of those very reasons, also be crap. And in fact, to many people it is (such as my wife). But it's crap that I enjoy. But that I only watch after she's gone to bed or not around.

Good choice: The movie would spoiler the series. And I commend you for wanting to give it another shot.

For what it's worth: Although I loved Firefly, I couldn't get into Buffy too much. I recognized that it was well written and complex, and I appreciated a lot of the subtlety in the dialogue and characters, but for some reason it just fell flat for me. And I did give the DVDs a shot, but only a brief one. (That's one nice thing about the Firefly DVDs: Only 13 episodes total, then a nice feature film to wrap up the story.)



Ouch!

I watched the first episode of Dollhouse because it said Joss Whedon. I've not bothered to watch another one.

Hard to believe that the man behind Firefly and Buffy created Dollhouse. A disappointment, really.

tanstaafl.

I figured everyone in this thread had already seen the relevant Penny Arcade Comic about Dollhouse and was therefore not mentioning it, but I'm pretty sure Doug isn't a regular reader, so I thought I'd link it for his sake.

Dollhouse: I'm still watching it, just hoping for it to actually go somewhere. I'll wait to see what happens around episode 6. If it's still lame, I'm dropping it.

Heroes: I'm also still watching it, but I'm still coasting on the brilliance of the first season. If this season doesn't get its crap together soon, I'm dropping it as well.

Chuck: currently my favorite show. It's got a lot of the campiness that attracted me, years ago, to Buffy.

I actually enjoy Dollhouse. The subplots have me intrigued (Alpha, security wonk, memories coming back). I don't watch a lot of TV, but now I've expanded to Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles, Dollhouse as well as hockey. I'm not sure why others don't like it.

I never watched Firefly when it was on the air. In fact, I never heard of it until long after it was canceled. One of my friends was talking about how much she missed the show, so I told her I never heard of it. She told me to watch Serenity (which I also never heard of), but I blew it off until my roommate rented it. Serenity was amazing, so I bought the Firefly series. I don't think it hurt the experience by watching the movie first.

Other than Firefly/Serenity, the only thing I've seen by Joss was Dr. Horrible. I couldn't tell you anything about Buffy or Angel if my life depended on it. Maybe that is why I enjoy the story of Dollhouse, lack of expectation?

The episodes since I complained have been much better. I was actually getting around to coming back here and posting about it.

I'd have to agree. And as predicted/foretold, it looks like things are really going to ramp up starting with episode 6 (next week).

I still think that the main scientist dude should have been played by Andrew

I have no clue who Andrew is, but just yesterday my roommate was telling me that guy could be me.

So, here in Canada it's common practice for a Canadian station to air select programming of multiple US stations. If that weren't the case we'd have much less programming because we don't have access to all the US networks.

You can likely see similar situations in the US where you have a local non-affiliate who might carry programing from other sources, such as smaller networks or syndicated programming.

Because said stations are non-affiliates, that means they don't air the entire programming block of any one network. They need to pick and choose which programming to license and then fit it into their own schedule as best as possible. Normally the stations here try to air in the same time slot as the US network/station. The added benefit for them is that they get to override the signal on the US station and therefore show their own ads.

Programming selection and schedules can interfere with this however and sometimes you'll get a particular program on before or after it airs on the originating network/station. Usually shifted up or down an hour or two, but sometimes on a different day.

Reaper, a CW show, is only available in my market through a local - we have no CW station as part of our cable package. That same local also airs ABC's Dancing with the Stars. This week ABC decided to run back-to-back episodes, the first being a recap. What does my local station do? They decided simply to not air Reaper and instead show both Dancing episodes. They just skipped it. Next week they'll show the new episode, but it's as if this weeks episode just didn't exist. Poof.

Yeah, the Internet is has already proved valuable over the years and it's also the reason I'll be able to avoid having so many tuners in my new PVR setup later this year. I think I'll be able to have a single Satellite feed coupled with two ATSC tuners, leaving the rest to the net.

Man, I'd be pissed too.

I was over at my in-laws' house and Dancing was on in the background. I was amazed that a show like that can get away with airing an hour-long episode that contained absolutely no new content (I believe American Idol does this all the time). I'm sure it got millions of viewers anyway, which is what really upsets me. More people probably watched that show than the best rated Pushing Daisies. Ugh.

But to preempt Reaper for THAT? That's a shame. It's not like Reaper is the greatest thing going (IMO), but I'll always champion scripted, creative TV over those reality shows. I don't even mind DwtS all that much as far as those reality game shows go.

Reaper downloaded super fast this morning thanks to over 1000 seeds. I'm sure the quality will be even better than my analog cable recording to my PVR would have been. It would have been more convenient to watch it last night, plus it would have sorted in with my other recordings.

I hope this isn't a trend that's likely to continue for the shows I care about on these Canadian stations. Especially not after I switch over to recording HD. It's not as easy to find a full non-scaled HD capture online. Plus it's a lot more bandwidth sucked when you do.

Sorry, what do you mean by "non-scaled?"

I mentioned that the Reaper episode I had to pick up from the net would likely be higher quality than what I would have recorded. That's because generally someone will record such episodes from an HD source. But they'll still size the movie to smaller dimensions to make for faster file upload/download.

Generally the video frame will be scaled down to SD or sub-SD size. So the file might be 640x300 or similar instead of the 1280x720 the original may have been.

Ah, I see. Yeah, I usually see those "SD" widescreen versions (usually around 350MB AVI's), but most of the time there's also compressed HD MKV files aroudn 1GB in size. I can drop you a PM with a good site I'll send that later this evening...

Last week's Dollhouse, I must say, was quite good! I knew Tamoh kicked ass on BSG, but he was friggin' bad-ass on Dollhouse in that fight. It was a pretty impressive brawler for primetime TV.

But aside from the fighting, there's a lot to like about Dollhouse. There are decent surprises, they're revealing things with decent frequency.



Anyway, I think I'm prepared to call this a good show from now on.

Dude, there's a spoiler tag so that I don't read about shows I haven't gotten around to watching yet.

Crap. Sorry about that, I keep forgetting that's available. To be fair, I did warn of the spoiler before writing it, but I understand the need for the tag.

I read whole sentences at a time. Placing the word "spoiler" at the front of a single sentence just doesn't help.

Do you start reading them from the end?

Bah, sentences are like TV show seasons, they often don't really get going until several words in.

Peter

New show: The Unusuals on ABC. Cop show with a genre mix and a decent cast. Quite an assortment of quirky characters makes this show stand out IMO.

I suspect it won't be renewed for a second season which will be a real shame. ABC really only has Lost going for it right now. I suppose they're banking on Bachelor and Dancing with the Stars to carry them indefinitely.

Prediction confirmed.

Unusuals cancelled recently. ABC is all about dropping the axe on decent shows. Why bother putting them on in the first place if all you're going to do is advertise the pilot and not any of the additional episodes?

Reaper (on CW) has also been axed.

Looks like Medium (NBC) is going away, though no official "canceled" notice yet.

My Name is Earl (also NBC) also done - unless it gets picked up by a new network.

I think NBC is in for a world of hurt next season when they see their ratings slide to lows never before seen. That new Leno show will tank unless the other networks all decide to show blank or static screens at 10pm every night.

And with Terminator canceled, Heroes adrift without decent writing, and Chuck uncertain for renewal, it's not a high point for television. I will say that I'm enjoying season 2 of Breaking Bad (on AMC), but it's not for everybody.

EDIT: Apparently Chuck was, indeed, renewed for season 3, with new episodes appearing in March 2010. Meanwhile...

The Unusuals might have done better if the advertising wasn't so ... wrong. The commercials made it seem as if it was going to be an off the wall comedy, which it most certainly wasn't. (Not that it wasn't goofy from time to time, but it's hardly the basic thrust of the show.) So the people who turned in probably weren't interested in what they saw and the people who would have been didn't watch at all.

I read somewhere that Medium was picked up by CBS. Not that it's really a quality show. I watch it, but readily admit that it sucks most of the time.

I can take a pass on Medium as well, since I don't think it's as good as when it first started out. Though I'm now familiar with the characters, it still has some decent stories and the acting is generally decent. The biggest miss for me with that show is that a few characters just haven't developed realistically. Good to know it's been picked up by its producers though (the show is developed by CBS).

I'll really miss Reaper and the Unusuals though. Reaper wasn't high-art, but it was entertaining with a likable cast. There's still a slim chance it might make it as a syndicated show, even though its two creators have signed on to work on something else. Maybe it's gotten lack-luster ratings because CW overlays a huge logo and advertisements for other shows all over the screen during airing.

You're right about the first ads for the Unusuals. They did make the show seem like it would be based on a bunch of misfits. Instead it's a lot more grounded, perhaps like a traditional cop show, but with just enough quirky characters and situations to add some fun. The writing has also been good and it just feels natural, not forced and not so full of itself (unlike the writing for CSI for instance).

CBS has picked it up. They'll be putting it with Ghost Whisperer, naturally

I'm happy to hear you say that, Bitt. My wife and I watch the show too, and I think we're starting to wonder why we do. I've never seen a show try so hard to make its main character into an idiot. In nearly every episode, Allison and the audience are given the same information, and it takes Allison about twice as long to figure it out. Hell, sometimes it seems like her visions think "OK, Allison. We're 55 minutes into this episode and you're still too dumb to figure it out. Here, we'll give you the killer's face, name, address, license plate, SSN, and all the information on his crimes. Now wrap this thing up!"

And don't get my wife and I started on the woman they got to play the Deputy Mayor. For the longest time, we had no idea why they would hire such an awful actress, and they only thing we could come up with was nepotism. Well, turns out she's married to the show's creator.

There's a dozen other huge gripes we have about the show, like why Devalos has to explain in almost every episode that "I can't go to a judge with a dream," or why Allison and Joe don't move the FREAKIN' PHONE TO THE OTHER SIDE OF THE BED, but for some reason we keep on watching.

I think the first season or so was pretty darn good, and I really liked all the stuff with the Texas Ranger (Push?). Since then, though, they seem determined to spin their wheels and make Allison dumber and dumber.

There are about 2 or 3 good episodes a season, and I tend to really enjoy those, but the biggest problem is everyone's continued dismissal of Allison's visions. I mean, she's been right basically 100% of the time, even if she has misinterpreted the visions. It would be nice to see the show develop beyond that.

Really I just like it because I have a fondness for the literary devices of changing interpretations and unreliable narrators.