IJB's '04-'05 Season-End REVIEW: Intro & Ungraded Shows
The Next SCOTUS Nominee, Ian J. Ball
A summary of the grading scheme can be found at:
http://homepage.mac.com/ijball/grading-guide.html
LIST OF GRADED SHOWS:
Rank TV SERIES GRADE OTHER COMMENTS
---- ----------- ----- --------------
1 24 A- MY #1 SHOW OF THE YEAR
2 Desperate Housewives A- MY #2 SHOW OF THE YEAR
3 Lost B+ MY #3 SHOW OF THE YEAR
4 House B+ MY #4 SHOW OF THE YEAR
5 Veronica Mars B MY #5 SHOW OF THE YEAR
Eyes B SPECIAL MENTION
Tru Calling B SPECIAL MENTION
NCIS B HONORABLE MENTION
Numb3rs B HONORABLE MENTION
Point Pleasant B My "GUILTY PLEASURE" #1
Gilmore Girls B- MOST IMPROVED
Listen Up B-
The O.C. B- BIGGEST DECLINE
Smallville B-
Star Trek: Enterprise B-
Without a Trace B-
Charmed C+
Grey's Anatomy C+ MOST OVERRATED
Kevin Hill C+ My "GUILTY PLEASURE" #2
Everwood B- (no "long" review)
One Tree Hill C (no "long" review)
'04-'05 OVERVIEW:
-----------------
DISCLAIMER: I can only review those shows I've actually *seen*. I don't
go out of my way to view shows I'm not interested in, so if a show isn't
reviewed, or listed a few paragraphs down, then I haven't seen it! That
is all.
Also note that this review does not contain "summer 2004" series:
those were covered in an earlier posted review - nor does it contain
"summer 2005" series: those will be reviewed at summer's end (Part I
already posted, Part II yet to come). And it does not cover shows pulled
at Mid-Season - those shows were covered in the Mid-Season Reviews for
2004-2005.
BOTTOM LINE: I have to say that, as these things go, this season was
above average (well above average?...). In fact, I'd have to admit that
it almost closed in on "exceptional"...
Which is not to say that a number of the 'returning shows' - notably
FOX's "The O.C." and The WB's "One Tree Hill" (and, many would argue,
CBS's "Joan of Arcadia") - didn't go 'into the tank' in their second
seasons (because they did!). But a good number of other returning shows
improved substantially (e.g. FOX's "Tru Calling" & "24", The WB's
"Smallville" & "Gilmore Girls", CBS's "NCIS") or ended on a high note
(e.g. ABC's "NYPD Blue", NBC's "Third Watch").
And then there was the crop of 'freshman' shows. This has been one of
the stronger crop of new shows in several seasons: ABC's "Desperate
Housewives" was the pick of that litter, but there were also good to
great shows to be found among ABC's "Lost", FOX's "House" and UPN's
"Veronica Mars", even CBS's "Numb3rs" (and I had a soft spot for FOX's
"Point Pleasant" and "North Shore").
The best show of them all ended up being FOX's "24", which came on
strong in its 4th season. But "24" was no means alone in given us some
good TV this year.
Let's hope next year can keep up at least some of the momentum
generated in 2004-2005.
EDITOR'S NOTE: There are a number of shows that I saw this season, but
not enough to properly grade them. Here are some quick notes about
those:
Ungraded
TV SERIES COMMENTS
----------- --------
7th Heaven Yuck.
Alias I'm just incredibly bored with it now.
Blind Justice A unfairly maligned series (primarily
due to its premise), it was actually
fairly watchable, thanks mostly to
Ron Eldard and Marisol Nichols.
Cold Case It's improved slightly from season #1.
Which isn't saying much...
CSI This show gets more and more 'flashy',
and less and less realistic (and
compelling) with every passing
season.
CSI: Miami Don't you people understand?! Horatio
Caine is a God! A GOD, I TELL YOU!!
CSI: NY [Apathetic shrug.]
Everwood A little too much 'soap' in season #3,
esp. with the Anne Heche nonsense.
But I hope there's genuine fallout
from the Madison revelations...
JAG Harm with Mac? Yuck. Zoe McLellan
getting her own show now? YES!!
Joan of Arcadia (All Ian hears is:) Blah, blah, blah...
L&O:CI I'm not looking forward to next
season's episodes with Chris Noth
instead of D'Onofrio - D'Onofrio
*is* the show.
L&O:SVU This is still a quality show - the
episode with Hayden Panetierre was
quite good. But it's not a show
I "love" or especially seek out,
either.
NYPD Blue A fitting and appropriate end to
a strong long-running series.
One Tree Hill OTH is perhaps the only show I can
think of that is designed as a
series of elaborately staged
cliffhangers, strung together
by a bunch of nonsensical filler.
Revelations When your subject is the Apocalypse,
you should be much more interesting
than this.
Still Standing I continue to find this series to be
generally unpleasant.
Third Watch This show was still pretty good!
And, yet, I continue to have little
to say about it. That said,
I'm going to miss it.
PART I (SUN-TUE) follows in the next post.
PART II (WED-SAT) will be posted tomorrow.
--
CNN, FNC, MSNBC - I'M READY FOR MY CLOSE-UP!!
"It is a decision of the Supreme Court... So this is almost
as if God has spoken." - Nancy Pelosi (on KELO), 06/30/05
http://homepage.mac.com/ijball/TV-Blog/