Tube Review 2.10.11

It was a night of surprises, which was thematic of the day considering Hosni Mubarak’s speech today after everyone thought he was stepping down. There was a great comedic twist on The Big Bang Theory and an unexpected performance from a guest star on Royal Pains.

Slow Down for Traffic Light

Fox debuted its version of a new ‘couples’ show this week called Traffic Light. There are a couple familiar faces and it has some promise, but overall it just seems… empty.

As with all the other shows of this type, it features three couples in different stages of their relationships with all three of the men being part of a longtime foursome of friends with the other one having recently passed. The central couple – the married one – is comprised of Mike (David Denman of The Office) and Lisa (Liza Lapira). The pair actually work well together and have some appeal, which is kind of surprising as Lapira really never had much depth in her buttoned-up role as Agent Lee on NCIS. She actually displays a surprising fun, comedic side in this show.

Dim Future for Mr Sunshine

It is not the strongest of openings when your show is kind of in that family viewing zone at 9:30 in prime time and you have one of your stars in the very first scene say to a strange kid “what the hell is wrong with you?” It is not exactly endearing for your viewers, even if you are Matthew Perry.

The surprising moment did not really bother me, but some of the construction of the new series, centering around the management team of a San Diego sports arena, did. That is a total shame considering one of my favorite actors, Allison Janney (The West Wing), is one of the lead characters, Crystal, and Perry is a decent performer.

Tube Review 2.9.11

It is a shame that there was only one great half hour tonight as Modern Family had me in stitches. The rest was a very mixed bag of average, including the debut of Mr Sunshine on ABC. The good news I caught up with Tuesday night’s NCIS, which more than made up for everything tonight.

Tube Review 2.8.11

Tuesday night seems to have become police drama night with the exception of Parenthood on NBC. Three of the four shows I follow are the two NCIS series and the third is White Collar – all three showing a law enforcement agency in a different aspect. NCIS is a traditional detective show, albeit, in the Navy, its LA spin-off is about the undercover arm of the agency; and White Collar is about an FBI branch utilizing an ex-con on parole.

I Confess, Here’s Two Bucks

I usually stay away from the topic of religion, but apparently, the Catholic Church in the United States wants you to pay for your sins… literally. According to this news report, the Church has formally given its literal blessing to a new iPhone app that assists Catholics in the process of confession. This story is so up Bill Maher’s alley I expect it will be a topic, or at least a New Rule, on HBO’s Real Time this Friday.

Tube Review 2.7.11

Well, it has been nearly a week. I have to say my viewing got a bit side-tracked by the revolution in Egypt. I find it intriguing to watch historical events like that unfold right before me on television while also taking in how different networks and media personalities handle the situation. I wanted to take out my DVD of Live from Baghdad, which is a great HBO movie featuring Michael Keaton about how the first Iraq war really vaulted CNN into prominence in the early days of cable news. Anyway, it all led to a lot of on demand online viewing over the weekend of the prime time network programming on missed. Thank you Hulu.com.