Television may go into rerun mode during the holidays, but that doesn’t mean there’s nothing new to watch! Plenty of shows have yet to hit their fall season finale so pay attention…
NEW SHOW SPOTLIGHT
The first question everyone has about Heroes Reborn, NBC’s miniseries resurrected from the ashes of the original Heroes is “Is it as good as Season 1 of Heroes?” This is quickly followed by “Is it as bad as Season 4 of Heroes?” The answer to both questions is no.
Heroes Reborn is an imaginative story, and brings back some familiar characters like Noah Bennet (Jack Coleman) and Hiro Nakamura (Masi Oka). The trouble with it is that none of the new characters it introduces are all that compelling, with the exception, perhaps, of Miko Otomo a/k/a “Kitana Girl”, a video game character brought to life, played with appropriate mythic courage by Kiki Sukezane. Otherwise, these characters are little more than a collection of their own abilities, and if the question is “Does Heroes Reborn rekindle the sense of magic that the original Heroes did?” then I’m afraid the answer is no. If, however, the question is “Is this show a big mess with 8000 loose ends and completely nonsensical (not to mention boring) storylines like what the original Heroes devolved into?” then, thankfully, the answer is also no. Instead, Heroes Reborn is a fairly light action drama, a pleasant enough distraction for an hour but not must-see television by any stretch.
If you liked Xmen and The Hunger Games, you’ll like Heroes Reborn.
YOU SHOULD BE WATCHING. . .
Season 2 of Fargo. Unlike the unsuccessful reincarnation of True Detective, Fargo smartly went with a period piece set in 1979, loosely structured as a prequel (sort of) to Season 1, but very much a stand alone (and outstanding) story of its own.
Fargo Season 2 works as a crime drama, a character study (with a whole host of memorable albeit unusual casting choices including Jean Smart, Jeffrey Donovan, Nick Offerman and Brad Garrett), a period piece and an homage to feature films in the genre. If you were avoiding this show for fear that it would tarnish your memory of Fargo’s excellent Season 1, avoid no more!
If you liked Jackie Brown and The Americans, you’ll like Fargo Season 2.
SAY GOODBYE TO. . .
The Soup, E! Channel’s long running low-budget clip show that weekly mocks the worst television has to offer, and which will air its final funny installment on December 18, 2015. Originally titled Talk Soup (or a spin off from that show, depending on whom you ask), the show has been delighting audiences for decades, and launched the careers of Greg Kinnear, Aisha Tyler and Joel McHale. It also spawned numerous copycat shows, perhaps most notably Tosh 2.0, and was, in fact, one of the inspirations for this very column (as I recall, Blythe asked me if I could try writing a TV column with short funny vignettes “like The Soup.” If anyone out there thinks we’ve succeeded in doing that, to even a small degree, then that’s high praise indeed. The Soup will be missed.
Joel (and Lou the dog), we hardly knew ye.
EDUCATIONAL TV
Things we learned from TV this week: 1) Anti-freeze is not a recommend method to defrost your turkey (Late Night With Stephen Colbert); A doula is sort of a vaginal Gandalf (Brooklyn Nine-Nine).
LOOKING AHEAD
The Great Holiday Baking Show debuts on ABC on November 30.
The fall finale of Gotham airs on Fox on November 30.
The Wiz Live airs on NBC on December 3.
The season finale of an excellent season of Doctor Who airs on December 5 on BBC America.
TV’s a big place and I haven’t been to all of it yet. Got a favorite show you’d like me to comment on? Post a comment below, contact me on twitter @RobLazlo. or shoot me an email: RobNJ564@yahoo.com. I welcome your input!
