more tv premieres

[calimac]

Two shows that frequently feature two characters talking over each other. Is that a thing now? Thank ghu for close-captioned subtitles, or else I wouldn't be able to make most of them out.

Agents of SHIELD. I don't follow the Marvel-verse, so I felt completely at sea for at least half of this. I only watched it because it had Joss Whedon's name on it. I was expecting clever, but what we got was: not clever enough. Clark Gregg was what he was as Leonato, the only other role I've seen him in: the straight man.
Speaking of casting, Skye would have been a perfect role for Eliza Dushku. She would have been more grounded, less the flaky airhead. That she didn't get to play this, but was saddled with Dollhouse's Echo, a role entirely ill-suited for her, is a shame.
Verdict: Maybe.

The Crazy Ones. You know, ever since I saw the first season of Mad Men, which is just about the only part of Mad Men I did see, I thought, "Wouldn't it be great if there were a TV show that actually was about an advertising agency?" (Since Mad Men ludicrously hardly even tried.) Well, now we have one.
Starring Robin Williams and Sarah Michelle Gellar: it's like one of those weird food combinations that actually works. SMG gets to be the wet blanket without sounding like she's whining about it, which she did too much of on Ringer.
I didn't get all of this one either, but at least B. was there to tell me who Kelly Clarkson is.
Verdict: Sure, I'll keep trying this show.

Comments

[whswhs.livejournal.com]

My strongest impression of Agents of Shield is this: There are rumors that Phil Coulson, the team leader who was apparently killed in The Avengers, is actually a robot double. If so, the robot has more personality than all five live human beings together.

I agree that Dushku was not a good choice for Echo, which is sad, since that role was apparently created for her (perhaps she wanted to reprise one of her best bits of acting from Buffy, the episode where Faith and Buffy swapped minds): She simply didn't ever convince me that I was seeing multiple entirely different people in that body, as November, Sierra, and especially Victor all did. I hadn't thought about her as a possible actor on this show, but conceivably she might work.

But it's Whedon, so I'll give it a couple more tries at least.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

A problem with a lot of "team leader" shows - I noticed this particularly in House and in The Drew Carey Show - is that the other members of the team are impossible for the casual occasional viewer to tell apart or remember.

Dushku would have been better, though still not ideal, for the character of Echo as originally conceived, in which she would cycle through multiple personalities quickly, rather than inhabit one at a time for most of an episode.

She did quite well playing Buffy in the body-switching episode, but nowhere near as brilliantly as SMG did playing Faith.

[whswhs.livejournal.com]

I can actually tell them all apart, though Fitz and Simmons, so far, mainly because one's a man and one's a woman. But the differences need to be more than funny hats, and they aren't yet.

[(Anonymous)]

Kelly Clarkson again, eh?

http://kalimac.livejournal.com/638382.html

-MTD/neb

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

Doesn't ring any chimes of memory, as the wording you link to should suggest. The people I named, I've heard of.