Thursday, December 30, 2010

The non -Event of the year!

Well people, its new years eve (AKA When Harry Met Sally day) and 40 degrees here in Melbourne! For a second year it looks like we will be bringing in a new year with a cool change (fingers crossed it comes before midnight!). It's a time for resolutions and new beginnings.....but before we get there, a little look back to the last couple of months in TV.

It has been a busy few months for me. Work events, social events, birthdays ......and The Event. With the decline of Lost, the cancellation of FlashForward and the simple disappearance of Heroes, The Event looked like a choice pick of intriguing getaway TV to look forward to each week.

It started with only a little bit of hype of Channel 7 at a good solid time slot, 8.30pm, Monday night. The cast was solid - Laura Innes (ER), Blair Underwood (LA Law, Dirty Sexy Money), Željko Ivanek (Damages, True Blood) and Scott Patterson (Gilmour Girls) plus some up and comers, such as Jason Ritter (son of the late John Ritter). There was the hint of aliens....hmmm, I've never been such a big alien lover since Scully was abducted in The X-Files, but I can be open minded.

So the first episode was good. Young couple go on holiday. Meet slightly odd other couple. Girlfriend disappears and everyone denies that she ever existed and that they were ever on holiday! Switch to family of said girlfriend being attacked, father kidnapped and forced to fly airplane into president. Switch to President discovering that there is a secret compound in Alaska where many human like aliens have been living since the 1940s and he decides to let them out. Its one of those flash back type arrangements, jumping back and forth all over the place. You need to concentrate.

Second episode.....more of the same really with some progression. Airplane didn't crash into the president thanks to some alien intervention which meant it ended up in the desert somewhere completely different. All those on board were dead.....but possibly alive too?? Girlfriend is being held by the people who wanted her father to fly a plane into the president. Boyfriend now suspected of murder......and so on and so forth. You get the picture, drift and the gist. Its mysterious, it's got twists and if we are lucky the writers have already thought of an end.

I was with it. I was in. I was getting invested. And then......

......Channel 7 bumped it to 10.30pm replacing it with repeats of Criminal Minds and I was out. That is the official sign of impending death for all shows on commercial TV. The next step was to give it a new night, then it would be switched to a random digital channel (7Mate??) and then it would disappear altogether......much like one of its characters. I canceled my IQ. I avoided the disappointment that would be to follow. I let it go while I still could.

Luckily there were other things to keep me interested. Season 3 of True Blood was a corker, the show just keeps getting better and better as time goes on. The second season of Stargate Universe has taken us long with the crew of Destiny well. And the return of some old favorites - Gossip Girl, House and Criminal Minds - brought some new surprises and a blanket of security in TV form.

And so we look to next year and what will it bring? Will Meredith survive in Grey's? Will Sookie forgive Bill? Will I ever get to see the rest of Flashforward. My predictions - yes, yes and possibly not!

Happy new year.......see you on the other side. :-)