It’s another slow week down at the DVD factory. The only current shows releasing sets this week are Flashpoint and Legend Of The Seeker. There are a few other sets from past favorites to take a look at. Heading that list is the Limited Edition Futurama set. The complete series, in a Bender head. You can also look for classics like Land Of The Lost, Married… with Children, and Looney Toons. As well as a couple interesting imports in The Mighty Boosh, Lovejoy, and My Family. The complete list is after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

If you missed the season four premiere of Weeds or the pilot of Nurse Jackie earlier this week, they’re on Showtime tonight beginning at 9 PM. I had a few things to say about Nurse Jackie in my See Jane Clack column this week. It had to do with …

House, a marathon of which is playing on USA tonight. It also had to do with …

Mental, which is airing at 9 PM on Fox. It’s the one that aired earlier this week, with the creep factor of David Carradine as a mental patient.

On CBS, Ghost Whisperer is on at 8 PM (Melinda wrestles with a child’s pretend friend who turns out to be a ghost), and Flashpoint is on at 9 PM (Ed deals with a haunting of a different sort). At 10 is a repeat of NUMB3RS. Is anyone watching this show? You don’t hear that much about it.

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Flashpoint has been an interesting experiment. While its not the first time networks from different countries have collaborated on a show, it is the first time such a show has been set in another country (though, BBC and NBC Universal collaborated on the first season of Battlestar Galactica and it was set in space, but who’s splitting hairs?)

There are too many cop shows on TV.  Generally, I hate cop shows. Derivative.  Formulaic. That annoying “Doink Doink” sound every scene change (Oh, that’s just Law and Order?  Er …  oops?).  Lately, though, it seems that writers of the cop shows have figured out what I think the most important part of television (Hint: “It’s the Characters, Stupid”).  The makers of Flashpoint get this too.
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The 2008-2009 television season is quickly coming to a close. Last week saw some 30 season/series finales hitting our screens. The resulting numbers were all over the place. Some shows took advantage of the situation, pulling out all the stops and hitting numbers they hadn’t seen in some time. Others held steady. And a few signed in with troubling drops.

I’ve mentioned before that these final numbers could hold sway as the networks prepare to release the fall schedules this week. That does still apply, although, after all the shenanigans over the weekend, with Dollhouse and Better Off Ted being renewed, just how much sway becomes a little more cloudy. Read the rest of this entry »

And just like that, finale season is upon us. Over the next few weeks, all of our favorite shows will be pulling out all the stops and heading off into the summer break, with hopes of returning for another go in the fall. Some of them, no doubt, will be disappointed in that regard. Aside from the marriages, pregnancies, and lives left hanging in the balance, finales are interesting from a ratings perspective because they provide the possibilities of a numbers boost. One last data point to point to as you make the case that this show shouldn’t be canceled. NBC got the ball rolling last week as Chuck and Heroes both fired off their finale salvos. The results were something less than stellar. The news was better for Fringe, the NCIS spinoff, and the CW Thursday. Read the rest of this entry »

Last week was a bit of an odd one for programming as the networks went a bit experimental. Over at FOX, Bones tried its third night in a week. On ABC, The Unusuals took over for Cupid and someone gave the OK for another Lost clip show.  CBS continued the shuffling of their procedurals by bumping NCIS, The Mentalist, and Criminal Minds back an hour. The results, as you might have suspected, were varied. While a lot of that was strange, the biggest surprise of the week was Thursday, which found just about everything  taking a hit in the ratings. In other news, According To Jim still stinks out loud. Read the rest of this entry »

Man … last week was just a bloodbath in the ratings. With the exception of Thursday night, it was bad news for all of the shows at the top of my list for every night. Kings on Sunday, Chuck and Heroes on Monday, Reaper on Tuesday, Better Off Ted and Lost on Wednesday, and Dollhouse on Friday. Not a lot of good to report for any of them. On a brighter note, there was good news for the returning Fringe, and the debuts of Parks & Recreation, Southland, and Harper’s Island. Read the rest of this entry »