Up until recently, Friday night has been a dead zone night (much like Saturday still is but I’ll get to that tomorrow) and although it’s sometimes not great, there are some interesting programs to watch, if you aren’t looking for too much flash.
disguise, this show just looks like filler. Same can be said for SMALLVILE which begins the start of it’s tenth and final season tonight on the CW. SMALLVILE promises lots of returning characters from previous seasons and a few surprises or two including a guest appearance by Teri Hatcher as Lois Lane’s mom (Hatcher starred on LOIS AND CLARK: THE NEW ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN in the 90s) in an upcoming episode. It’s not much but then, what else are you doing on a Friday night?
Surprisingly there aren’t any LAW AND ORDER shows on Fridays but there is a CSI.. CSI:NY for all those New York actors who couldn’t get on LAW AND ORDER (CBS).
Also on CBS, BLUE BLOODS stars Tom Selleck as a police commissioner. Expect lots of pro-gun talk I suppose. Over on NBC, another icon from a past tv era, Jimmy Smits, gives us OUTLAW, a hot-button pushing law drama. I imagine that there’ll be some anti-gun talk, I suspect.
There are two newsmagazines on, 20/20 and DATELINE: NBC. These are usually fun to sample while channel surfing although I think both shows have seen better days. Where’s the investigation of where quality shows went?
I have to admit that I love MEDIUM and have a fondness for SUPERNATURAL.
MEDIUM week in and week out tells a good story, with good characters. You are always guaranteed being entertained by the antics of Alison DuBois, her children, her husband and people in the police force. The show never indulges in ratings grabbing stunts (take that GHOST WHISPERER, where did killing a lead character get you?) and the characters progress and age in real time. It’s also the only show I can think off the top of my head that shows a really interesting and realistically portrayed married couple. She’s not a shrew and he’s not an idiot; they’re complicated people with their ups and downs but love each other, supporting each other and working through their problems which is probably less easy for people to believe than the fact that Alison talks to dead people.
Over on SUPERNATURAL, it’s the story of two brothers who hunt monsters and demons for a living. The show tells a good serialized story and remembers their history (and expects that fans do too). You can’t say that about a lot of shows. Long time fans were rewarded last year when the show actually moved towards a multi-season storyline about the devil taking over the world and how the brothers were born to stop it. It was intended to be the series finale but you know how these things go.
Also on Fridays: SCHOOL PRIDE (debuting Oct 15 on NBC) a reality show starring Cheryl Hines going into schools and giving them a makeover (they’ll be employed for life if the show takes off) and THE GOOD GUYS (Fox) starring Bradley Whitford (with a seriously bad moustache) and Colin Hanks as mis-matched cops.
Yawn. It all makes you do anything but stay home, doesn’t it?
