Laurel’s TV Picks

Best Bets

Series premiere of Fringe (FOX, 7pm – 8:35pm; also on Sunday)
New Eureka (Sci-Fi, 8pm and 11pm)
Series premiere of Privileged (CW, 8pm; also on Sunday)
New The Shield (FX, 9pm and midnight)

News & Notes

The Gold Box Deal of the Day at Amazon for today is on Lois & Clark – The New Adventures of Superman – The Complete Seasons 1-4 for just $62. Great deal if you like the show and don’t own the sets yet. Teri Hatcher and Dean Cain starred as Lois Lane and Clark Kent in this fun show.

For a premiere dates of all the shows and a look at the Fall schedule, check out my Fall 2008 Schedule Grid.

Daytime

The “World’s Most Talented Girl” on a new Oprah (syndicated, check your local listings).

Primetime Grid

Featured Pick

Series premiere of Privileged airs tonight on the CW at 8pm; it’s also schedule to air again on Sunday at 7pm.

The pilot for this show was a pleasant surprise to me, but then I hadn’t really read up about the show back when it was announced (and titled “Surviving the Filthy Rich”). I figured that with Gossip Girl and 90210 on the air we really didn’t need yet another show about rich teens. Plus the commercials for the show are unappealing.

But then I watched the show and found it to be fun and fresh and not at all like the commercials (which make it look more like a comedy than a drama). After I saw the first episode, I had to check and see who created the series. It turns out this show was created by Rina Mimoun who has worked as a writer and producer on Jack & Jill, Everwood, Gilmore Girls and Pushing Daisies. Now that’s a great list! Usually there’d be a dud or two mixed in with some good credits, but not here– those are all shows I love (or loved). Awesome! This just makes me more excited about the show.

Anyway. So here’s the premise: Joanna Garcia (of Welcome to the Captain, Reba) plays a writer named Megan Smith. She’s been working at a tabloid while dreaming of writing about important people who are making a difference in the world. In the first episode of this show, there’s a fire in her apartment building and she loses her job . . . all in the same 24 hour period. Ugh! Fortunately her boss, played by Debi Mazar, has a lead on another job for her. Suddenly Megan is moving from New York City to Palm Beach– you kinda just have to run with this.

She’s hired by a rich successful woman named “Laurel” (gotta like that) who is played by Anne Archer. It seems Laurel has experienced quite a lot in her life– including the death of her husband and the death of a child. She hires Megan to tutor her teenage granddaughters Sage and Rose, played by Ashley Newbrough and Lucy Hale (who played Jamie’s sister on Bionic Woman). The teens are spoiled, they’ve also got issues as a result of the loss of their parents when they were kids. Their Grandma wants Megan to tutor them well enough to get them into Duke University.

There are other regular characters on the show. Megan is befriended by the chef who works at the house. She also has a friend named Charlie that she’s known for a long time, he’s played by Michael Cassidy who was “Grant” on Smallville, “Cliff” on Hidden Palms, and “Zach” on The O.C. She has a difficult relationship with her own family, especially her own sister.

Megan, of course, has her hands full keeping up with the two teens. She wants to help them get into college but also help them be happier and better. She also wants to meet people and write about them to advance her writing career.

The characters have a lot going on. Megan’s worried about her own motives and about the girls. The teens have complicated issues and aren’t just cardboard spoiled brats. The guys on the show seem like more than just potential love interests for the lead, though of course there’s potential for that. There’s a little mystery about Megan’s past and her relationship with her family.

The first episode didn’t feel like a teen show, but just a show that has some teenage characters in it. It will be interesting to see where the show goes after this and what a typical episode will be like. If you liked Everwood or Gilmore Girls, you might want to give this one a shot even though it’s not (yet) in their league by any means. It’s got potential and is a different show than what you might expect on the CW as it is these days. I hope I’m not talking it up too much, I just think it’s got promise and is better than it sounds (or the commercials would have you believe).

The series premiere of Privileged airs tonight at 8pm, it’s also scheduled to air again on Sunday at 7pm. You can find out more on the official site for the show

Featured Series Premiere

Special 95-minute series premiere of Fringe airs tonight on FOX from 7pm ’til 8:35pm. It will air again on Sunday night at 7pm.

J.J. Abrams co-created this series with Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci. Abrams, of course, is the man behind Lost and Alias; he also co-created Felicity. The commercials for the show keep touting Kurtzman and Orci as the writers of the Transformers movie, but TV fans will know them best for their work as writers and/or producers on Alias, Jack of All Trades, and Hercules. These are the guys that brought us “Porkules” and the wacky Hercules episode “For Those Of You Just Joining Us . . . ” and other fun stuff.

I’ve seen the pilot and it looks great, has good music, and just a neat look and feel. It’s also got some really gross stuff in it, which caused a squeamish gal like yours truly to have to look away from the screen every so often. This show isn’t for kids, that’s for sure, and I imagine it could give some adults nightmares too. It’s possible that they went all out with this stuff for the first episode and that things will be more toned down in later episodes; I remember finding some scenes in the first episode of Lost to be a bit much, but I haven’t had that kind of trouble with subsequent episodes.

The first episode of this show, like Lost, opens with an incident on a plane. In this case a contagion gets loose and people on the plane die in very gruesome ways (if you are squeamish, you can skip this part easily enough and still understand what’s going on). The plane lands completely on autopilot (a new system some airports have, they say) and federal agents are brought in to investigate.

This show does owe a lot to The X-Files and also reminded me of the U.K. series Eleventh Hour.

The world of this series looks a lot like ours, except there are scientific advances which are clearly science fiction or fantasy. If you watch Lost or watched Alias, this is familiar territory. They call it “fringe science” on the show and most of this stuff is way out there.

Lance Reddick, who was awesome as “Cedric Daniels” on The Wire and who has a recurring role on Lost, plays an agent for Homeland Security who knows more about the strange occurences mentioned on this show than most other characters do. In the first episode, he brings in certain agents and recruits agents, but doesn’t get a whole lot to do– I hope we see more of him in future episodes.

Anna Torv and Mark Valley play agents who are partners at work, but who also have a (mostly secret) romantic relationship. Valley starred in Keen Eddie and Boston Legal, Torv has mostly done work in Australia so far. She’s the driving force in the first episode and is really the lead on the show– I like her quite a bit, she reminded me a little of Poppy Montgomery (of Without A Trace).

When her partner is injured, she’ll do just about anything to save him . . . including getting a scientist who specializes in “fringe science” out of an institution (he’s played by John Noble). In order to get this scientist out of there, she needs the help of his son, played by Joshua Jackson (of Dawson’s Creek). Blair Brown and Kirk Acevedo also appear in the first episode and it looks like they’ll be in subsequent episodes.

They say future episodes will have stand alone cases, but that there’s also an ongoing mystery/conspiracy. And that there’s a lot of good character stuff, too. Yeah, it really does sound a lot like The X-Files, doesn’t it? Darker in tone so far, though, or at least I have a hard time imagining them doing humorous episodes as The X-Files did.

I wasn’t blown away by this episode as some parts of it really didn’t work for me, but I was impressed by the show anyway and intrigued enough that I’ll be tuning in for future episodes. I really wish there wasn’t quite so much icky stuff, but then I felt that way sometimes about The X-Files too. You can look away if need be and still understand what’s going on.

The show’s regular timeslot is Tuesdays on FOX at 8pm after House (which premieres next Tuesday); it faces off against Privileged (CW), The Mentalist (CBS, premieres 9/23), The Biggest Loser (NBC), and Dancing with the Stars (ABC). I’ll probably try to watch this show, Privileged, and The Mentalist at least to start with, will have to see how these new shows shake out and whether I like subsequent episodes.

Check out the official site for Fringe for more information about the show.

Primetime

Series premiere of Fringe (FOX, 7pm; also on Sunday at 7pm). I wrote about the show above.

Season finales of The Secret Life of the American Teenager (ABC Family, 7pm and 11pm). I’d love to hear what you think of this show if you’ve been watching it, I’ve fallen way behind.

The parents plan a “family bowling night” and their kids aren’t happy because they have other plans for that particular Friday on a new 90210 (CW, 7pm; airs again on Wednesday at 8pm). Kelly (Jennie Garth) confronts her mother (Ann Gillespie) about her sister Silver, so that’s yet another castmember from the original series that is making an appearance on this new show. I’ll probably check out at least another episode or two, but the first two hours of this show didn’t wow me. I’m hoping it improves. What do you think of the show so far?

Baseball: Cubs at Cardinals (WGN, 7pm).

Gavin and Stacey’s families get together to discuss wedding plans in this new episode of Gavin and Stacy (BBC America, 7:40pm, 10:40pm, 12:40am). DVR/VCR Alert: This comedy has a run time of 40 minutes.

All I know about tonight’s new episode of Eureka (Sci-Fi, 8pm and 11pm; also next Tuesday at 7pm) is that it is titled “Phased and Confused”. If you use twitter, you should follow _S_A_R_A_H_. Or you can just read her tweets on the page or via feed even if you aren’t a twitter user. (Twitter users: Don’t forget to follow tvpicks there too!)

Series premiere of Privileged (CW, 8pm; airs again on Sunday at 7pm). If you haven’t yet read what I wrote about it above (as a “featured pick”) you should.

Denis Leary hosts this year’s Fashion Rocks (CBS, 8pm – 10pm) event. Featuring performances by Beyoncé, Black Eyed Peas, Chris Brown, Kid Rock, Duffy, Fergie, Justin Timberlake, Lil’ Wayne, Keith Urban, Mariah Carey, Chris Cornell, OneRepublic, and Rihanna. Plus lots of fashion, of course.

Minneapolis police work against the clock to solve the murder of an unknown homeless man found on the banks of the Mississippi river in this new episode of The First 48 (A&E, 8pm and midnight).

New episode of Making the Band 4 (MTV, 8pm and 10pm; also on Wednesday at 1pm and 7pm).

There’s a casino themed part in this new episode of Greek (ABC Family, 8pm; also on Wednesday at 11pm).

New episode of It’s Not Easy Being Green (Sundance, 8pm; also on Friday at 9am and Sunday at 2pm). DVR/VCR Alert: This show has a runtime of 35 minutes.

New episode of The Stagers (HGTV, 8:30pm and 12:30am).

New episode of Road Tasted with the Neelys (Food Network, 8:30pm and 11:30pm).

Corrine and Cassidy confront Vic in this new episode of The Shield (FX, 9pm and midnight; also airs at 10pm on both Saturday and Sunday).

Season finale of How to Look Good Naked (Lifetime, 9pm; also airs on Friday at 8am). Carson Kressley helps a woman look past her surgical scars in this episdoe.

A jockey’s wife is worried about her husband on a new episode of The Cleaner (A&E, 9pm, 10pm, 1am, 2am; also on Sunday at 10pm). I think it’s safe to say he’s using drugs.

Andrew Zimmern visits Phuket, Thailand in this new episode of Bizarre Food with Andrew Zimmern (Travel Channel, 9pm, 10pm, 1am).

New episode of The Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency (Oxygen, 9pm, 10pm, 11pm, 1am).

“Communication” is the topic on a new episode of Evolve (History Channel, 9pm and 1am).

Season finale of Million Dollar Listing (Bravo, 9pm and 11pm.

“Phobias” are the topic on a new episode of The Secret Lives of Women (We, 9pm and midnight).

Pamela Anderson visits her family in Canada in a new episode of Pam: Girl on the Loose (E!, 9pm and 12:30am).

New episode of From G’s to Gents (MTV, 9pm and 11pm; also on Wednesday at 3pm and 6pm).

Series premiere of BET’s first original sitcom Somebodies (BET, 9:30pm and 1am) which is followed by a second new episode (BET, 10pm and 1:30am). It’s based on the movie of the same name. You can find out more on the show’s website.

Late Night

Howard Dean on a rerun of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (Comedy Central, 10pm and midnight).

Series premiere of The Rachel Zoe Project (Bravo, 10pm and midnight).

New episode of General Hospital: Night Shift (Soap Network, 10pm; also on Saturday at 5am and 5pm).

Rerun of the second episode of Raising the Bar (TNT, 10pm).

New episode of My House is Worth What? (HGTV, 10pm and 2am).

Rick Brookhiser on a rerun of The Colbert Report (Comedy Central, 10:30pm and 12:30am).

Jada Pinkett-Smith, Chris Russo, Michael Buble, and NASCAR drivers present the top 10 list on The Late Show with David Letterman (CBS, 10:35pm).

Jules Sylvester, Annette Bening, Leona Lewis on The Tonight Show (NBC, 10:35pm).

Russell Brand, Margaret Cho on the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson (CBS, 11:37pm).

Keira Knightley, Tyler Perry, Bill Burr on Late Night with Conan O’Brien (NBC, 11:37pm).

Kobe Bryant, Tokio Hotel on Jimmy Kimmel Live (ABC, check your local listings).

Olivia Wilde, Grizzly Bear on a rerun of Last Call with Carson Daly (NBC, check your local listings).