Televisual snippets

[iainjclark]

Scrubs has done a musical episode. Which looks fun, though I haven't seen it yet. I haven't watched a lot of Scrubs but Janet's been catching some repeats recently and it's always amiable and often very funny. The creator's interviewed about the musical episode here and does namecheck Buffy's musical.

In a strange Mutant Enemy juxtaposition, Amy Acker is to be Nathan Fillion's missing wife in Drive. They've currently ordered 12 episodes on top of the now re-cast pilot, making 13 episodes in total. For a Tim Minear series. I think we can all see where this is heading.

Heroes has been renewed for a second season. By the end of the first season we'll know whether the show can possibly continue spitting out plot at a rate that would make most other shows tremble. I really hope it can: it'd be a shame to see a Lost-style consolidation into jealously hoarding a meagre store of ideas; one of Heroes' more compelling elements is its page-turning cliffhangers. It starts on the UK Sci-Fi Channel next month and BBC2 has it at some point after that.

Battlestar Galactica in 'may upset its fans' shock. No surprise there, you may imagine, but it does seem to involve a significant turn of events (general spoileryness in the link). Hopefully this will be one that's integrated into the storyline a little better than most of the series' recent games of character pinball.

Torchwood was apparently a ratings success after all. Hard to believe, I know. Okay, its BBC3 ratings fell by two-thirds but remained high for the channel, and the BBC2 ones fared a little better. In total it ranged from about 6.6 to 4 million. Still, it's hard to see what it was about the show that actually warranted the attention of 4 million people. (My review of the finale *cough*shamelessplug*cough*.)

EDIT: Veronica Mars' shorter-than-hoped third season will end on five standalone episodes instead of a final arc. Not only that, but the final five episodes will air after an eight week break. No decision has been made about a fourth season yet, but reading between the lines I do wonder if that isn't the distant whiff of cancellation in the air. I really, really hope not. VM is a strong contender for my favourite show at the moment.

Comments

[hawleygriffen.livejournal.com]

That sounds like a really entertaining episode of Scrubs. Looking forward to it.

Heroes is an interesting show. It'd be a shame if it ended up like I've heard the latest season of Lost has.
I initially read Heroes as House and got confused, but methinks that's more due to wishing Channel 5 would hurry up and show the next season than thinking there's a show about bitter doctors with superpowered levels of snark and withering looks.

[veggiesu.livejournal.com]

Scrubs is a great show - can't wait to see the musical episode :-)

Torchwood

[williamjm.livejournal.com]

If Torchwood can get such good ratings, imagine what a good Science Fiction show could get ;)

By the way, I was reading some discussion[1] of Torchwood on another forum a few days ago. At one point someone decided to link to what he described as good review of the finale. Clicking on it, it turned out to be your Strange Horizons review.

[1] By 'discussion', I mostly mean 'mockery'.

[tinimaus.livejournal.com]

*thwaps Iain for that news about Veronica Mars and spoiling her Saturday because she has to blame someone*

[abigail-n.livejournal.com]

There's an interview with Rob Thomas at TWoP, and he seems cautiously optimistic about a fourth season - the show experienced a ratings bump towards the end of the third season's first plot arc, and if those numbers can be sustained then the show's future is secure. Thomas also points out that a show made up of standalone stories is easier to market and has better chances of attracting new viewers - he refers to the end of season 3 as a pilot program for season 4. So obviously things are still very much up in the air, but I don't think the situation is quite as dire as you suspect.

I watched the Scrubs musical episode tonight, and thought it was quite good. The show went through a bit of a creative dry spell during its fifth season, but the current (sixth) season seems to be back on form. Now, of course, I'm wracking my brain trying to identify the various musicals the episode references. The Grease and Rent homages are pretty obvious, and obviously Dr. Cox was going to get a "Modern Major General" type of song, but the rest of the score is a little too obscure for my admittedly limited expertise in the field.

[danmilburn.livejournal.com]

I'd be more mystified my Torchwood's ratings success if almost everyone I know hadn't kept watching it..

[ajp.livejournal.com]

Do we know if anyone is picking up VM season 3 in the UK? Will it go to Living again?