The best of the fall lineup.
The television revival comes around just in time. Season premieres conveniently line up at that alarming point in the fall when shopping period ends and your workload slowly begins to dawn on you. It’s a fortunate alignment. As any healthy procrastinator — and human being — well knows, a little mindless entertainment is a necessary indulgence. This year offers plenty of distractions.
Begin with perhaps the most mindless of all, CW TV’s Gossip Girl promises to be just as entertaining and anti-intellectual as its first season. I remember my first episode so well, how I nearly switched the channel in horror when I first heard the all-knowing voice of “XOXO, Gossip Girl,” but within minutes refused to stop watching until I found out if Blair ended up forgiving Serena for sleeping with her ex-boyfriend. It’s the show you can’t help but love. If nothing else, it’s sheer eye candy; lots of beautiful people in beautiful clothes. Plus there’s the limos, snazzy décor, and uppity buildings of the fantasized Upper East Side dream world that they all live in. If all that glamour doesn’t impress you, the salacious backstabbing and odd moments of romance are bound to have you coming back for more.
The first season offered a whirlwind of events. Socialite Serena Van der Woodson’s deemed to date a middle-class misfit, Dan, whose social-climbing little sister, Jenny, sold her soul for a place in the in crowd. Pristinely evil Blair Waldorf unwillingly fell for the equally underhanded Chuck while Serena’s brother came to terms with his sexuality. So far, the second season appears to be just as eventful. Within a few episodes, Serena and Dan have already reunited and split. In a stroke of bad luck, Blair’s seemingly perfect Chuck-replacement turns out to be sleeping with his stepmother. And it’s pretty clear that Serena’s mother is having second thoughts about her marriage and still has a thing for Dan’s father. It’s a bit of a mess, but that’s what we’ve come to expect.
HBO’s Entourage has equal production value, with a slightly more sophisticated script. There are still those beautiful people in beautiful clothing, but the main clique is a rag tag group of guys who have devoted their lives to watching out for — and mooching off of — their actor friend, Vince Chase. The combination of Vince’s simpleminded brother Drama, stocky sidekick Turtle, and loyal agent Eric offers up a perfect combination of comic relief. However, the best character is Vince’s unapologetically offensive agent, Ari Gold, who never ceases to appall or amuse. His dutiful assistant Lloyd is a close second. Last season didn’t end too well for Vince, whose latest Indy film was a flop at Cannes, and this season’s kickoff doesn’t offer too much hope. After escaping to Mexico, Vince struggles to find employment and has to resort to serenading a spoiled teenager at her Sweet Sixteen (Fran Drescher makes a welcome guest appearance as the uptight mom.) Within the first three episodes, there’s been a breakup, car wreck, and vomiting on a birthday cake; it’s a promising start.
Then there’s good old Grey’s Anatomy on ABC, which hasn’t yet matched its exceptional first season, but all hope is not lost. If season 4 started as a total flop, desperately lacking without Berck or Adison, it started to pick up by the season’s close. At least the medicine was interesting; in the season finale all of the surgeons have to cooperate to extract a teenage boy from a giant block of cement. Meredith and Derek’s clinical trial was actually semi intriguing — certainly more so than their on and off romance. It was also touching when usually tough Bailey showed her softer side while struggling with her marriage, and intriguingly unexpected when Calie and Hahn came to terms with their more-than-friendly feelings for one another. Unfortunately, this season’s premiere didn’t exactly start off with a bang. If you don’t care whether or not Meredith has the guts to move in with Derek, you’re not alone. You’re also not alone if you’re wondering why Izzie still daydreams about Denny. It’s even hard to get super worked up about the fact that Grace Seattle has fallen to the number twelve ranking of hospitals; it’s hardly a surprise given their days spent wallowing in self pity. But there’s still something about Grey’s, and its convenient timing on a Thursday night, that makes it hard to resist.
A nice contrast to the endlessly complicated lives of medical interns is Ugly Betty, which who manages to make even the worst of problems seem not that bad. Even if the third season premieres with Betty single, living alone in a rundown apartment, and downgraded to working at “Players” magazine, this is still one of those feel-good shows. Ugly Betty might not be profound, but this show always demonstrates that a little resilience goes a long way. America Ferrera as Betty is endlessly charming and loveable, not to mention a comforting encouragement for the geek inside all of us. Though things have changed at Mode magazine, receptionist Amanda and her sidekick Marc continue to be a hilarious sideshow. Daniel Mead’s ongoing attempts to find himself, intensified by his sudden shove into fatherhood, are rather moving. Lindsay Lohan guest stars as a high school enemy out to get revenge on Betty; seeing her dressed up as a fast food manager is enough to distract from her subpar acting skills.
Other shows worth looking out for include the dark comedy Dexter, which is at once disturbing and humorous. Californication is raunchy fun, and you have to admit that David Duchovny checking himself in to rehab for sex addiction at the end of last season makes the show that much more intriguing. There’s also the endlessly complicated lives of the Holden family in Brothers and Sisters and deviances of Desperate Housewives.
Bottom line: if you’re looking for an opportunity to distract or even numb your mind, there’s no shortage of appealing options.
XOXO, Pippa Eccles ’09 (peccles@fas).