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Fall 2011 TV Wrap-Up Podcast: X-Factor, Dexter & just a helping of Boardwalk Empire

January 20, 2012 Reflections on Pop Entertainment Leave a comment

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Time Stamps
0:00 – Introduction
0:58 – X-Factor
15:13 – Dexter
29:43 – Boardwalk Empire
31:35 – Wrap-up

Episode Length: 33:45

Summary

After several weeks, we’re finally back! The holidays may have halted our posting and podcasting, but never fear! After taking a few weeks, we’re back and ready to tackle the new season of television with added enthusiasm. But before we jump in to discussing returning favorites and mid-season premieres, we flashback to the last few weeks of 2011 and close up some thoughts on the finales of two of the major shows we followed during the Fall TV season.

X-Factor
Melanie Amaro’s much deserved win was no surprise to us, or to most viewers, but the underwhelming finale of one of the most over-the-top singing competitions on TV was certainly a disappointment. We wonder if having each of the three finalists (Melanie, Josh & Chris) sing their audition songs again was a wise decision, as we both agree only Melanie was able to top her original performance of the song. The duets, while in theory a good idea, did not play out well at all. Melanie and R. Kelly gave the only performance that came close to sounding like a true duet, while Josh was seemingly so overcome with awe at singing with Alanis Morissette that he allowed her to completely overshadow him. We feel Chris Rene faired the worst of the three, both in terms of the actual performance and his partner (Avril Lavigne) who seemed like a completely random pick, not fitting his vocal styling at all.

The actual Finale episode also disappointed, using its 2-hours not to showcase eliminated contestants, but rather to feature guest artist after guest artist. Even early fan favorites such as Drew, Astro and Marcus Canty were only given a couple lines to sing (poor Drew only got to sing two words with idol Justin Bieber!) and Rachel Crow’s only solo appearance was performing hosting schtick with Steve Jones.

We close out our thoughts on X-Factor by exploring some of the many aspects of the show that could and should be improved upon for next season. Getting rid of Nicole as a judge/mentor, scaling back on the production numbers and visuals and finding ways to market contestants to different genres top our list. Additionally, we debate how the caliber of the judging panel could be improved, as what during the audition rounds showed promise of being a more professional and helpful panel of “experts,” led by LA Reid and Simon, quickly devolved into either a bickering or overpraising mess once the live shows began. While we both enjoyed the US X-Factor‘s first season more than recent seasons of American Idol and feel that some true talent was found by having a show that allowed both old and young contestants (Astro, Drew, Leroy Bell, Josh), we’re looking forward to having a break from such involved competition programs for a while.

Note: In the podcast we mention that Josh Krajcik, among others, was signed to a record deal after the show ended. This isn’t entirely true. Josh has been given several offers and is considering his options.

Dexter
Our coverage of this past season of Dexter has taken a very long break, our last podcast ending with the episode prior to Brian Moser’s return. With so many episodes, we take a quick look at some of the second half of the season’s most important moments, including examining the impact of Brian’s temporary replacement of Harry as Dexter’s “conscience” and question whether his return will have any lasting impact on Dexter the character and Dexter the show. We also discuss the Doomsday Killers as the “big bads” for the season, including the shocking (not really) twist involving Travis and Prof. Gellar, Deb & Dexter’s relationship, particularly the season finale’s shocking final moments and spend a few minutes exploring the possibilities the show could be setting up with “Intern Guy.” We close out by addressing some of the criticisms this season has received and plead our case for Season 6 as a whole.

We close out the podcast with Meghan saying a few words about the second season of Boardwalk Empire, particularly the show’s gutsy decision to kill off a major player. Be on the lookout on the blog page and on our Twitter account for future posts exploring the past seasons of both Boardwalk Empire and Dexter as there is plenty more to discuss that we did not have time to include in our podcast.

Let us know what you think after listening to the podcast! Leave us a comment here or tweet us. We love feedback and will respond either with a comment or in our next published show.

TV Week in Review Podcast: 9/25/11 through 10/1/11

October 4, 2011 Reflections on Pop Entertainment Leave a comment

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Episode 20 direct download

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Summary
With the first day of the week bringing with it even more premieres, we had another busy week of Fall TV! This week we talk about more new shows as well as offering our thoughts on some established shows’ second episodes of the new season:

The Amazing Race– The season premiere of the show’s 19th season offers up some supposedly game-changing twists right away, but confusing clues and lost passports proved to be the teams’ real challenges
Pan Am– A new series from ABC with a big budget pilot that succeeded in offering intriguing characters, a solid cast and good writing (aka everything The Playboy Club lacks)
Boardwalk Empire– The season premiere introduces increasing race tensions within the Southern Jersey community and highlights the dangerous and deceptive political climate surrounding Nucky
Suburgatory– A new series from ABC with a ridiculous premise, but that made great use of the “fish out of water” to present audiences with one increasingly uncomfortable situation after another
The Real World– The 26th season of MTV’s original reality show about annoying 20-somethings living in a house together returns to San Diego and brings with it volatile cast members and Meghan attempts to justify why she didn’t give up on the show years ago
Glee– Auditions for the musical and the return of Quinn & Puck’s baby make for genuinely interesting story arcs and the musical numbers have a purpose again
The Office– James questions whether the cold open was really that far-fetched and we speculate on Andy’s transformation into Regional Manager
The Big Bang Theory– A largely Sheldon-free episode allowed the under-used Amy Farrah Fowler to establish herself as a strong stand-alone member of the ensemble and Meghan does her best impression of Howard’s mother
Fringe– A stand-alone episode that introduced some interesting questions about the nature of the “truce” between the two universes and what Peter’s “erasing” means for how this came to be in the new timeline

Episode Length: 38:33

Time Stamps
0:00 – Introduction
1:39 – The Amazing Race
9:12 – Pan Am
11:53 – Boardwalk Empire
18:29 – Suburgatory
21:28 – The Real World
25:47 – Glee
27:51 – The Office
31:16 – The Big Bang Theory
33:31 – Fringe
37:10 – Wrap-Up

TV Week in Review Podcast: 9/11/11 through 9/17/11

September 19, 2011 Reflections on Pop Entertainment 1 comment

Summary

We’re back! It feels good for us to get back to podcasting just in time for this Fall 2011 TV season, which promises to deliver some good programming to keep us amused for the next few months. To coincide with the new TV season, we’re introducing a new podcast segment we’re currently calling the TV Week in Review. These episodes will be less structured and differ from installment to installment, allowing us to discuss the things we found most interesting during our week of television viewing. Any show that doesn’t have a series of podcasts dedicated to it is fair game for discussion and in this episode we briefly talk about all the shows we’re planning to watch.

The finale of Big Brother 13 happened this past week with Rachel being crowned the winner. Just about no watcher of Big Brother would have predicted this outcome at the beginning of the season and we’re still wrapping our heads around this turn of events. We also talk about Adam’s delusions of grandeur, that Jeff needs to take a chill pill and that the production team for this show is extraordinarily lazy despite getting high ratings.

America’s Next Top Model All-Stars (Cycle 17) premiered and after a brief disclaimer from James about why he’s watching this show, we dig into what may prove to be a frantic season. The production for the first episode felt like it suffered from a bad case of attention deficit disorder, cutting back and forth and including an over-the-top live judging panel. We talk about the returning models and the controversies that followed some of them. And that elimination collage at the end of the episode? Terrible.

We wrap up our new show discussion with the series premiere of Ringer, starring Sarah Michelle Geller and Nestor Carbonell (Richard Alpert from Lost!). The pilot was uneven as the backstories for the major characters unfolded. The faked death of Siobhan, Bridget’s affluent and aloof twin sister, builds intrigue and may lead to an interesting set of episodes. On the other hand, an embarassing green-screened scene involving a motor boat turned off a lot of potential viewers and highlighted the show’s limited budget. We’ve learned to not judge shows just by the pilot, so we’ll continue to watch for now.

As a final note, we’re going to be published a series of podcasts dedicated to The X-Factor, which begins this week. In order to deliver our content to a wider audience we’re partnering with Pure X-Factor, a new site by Pure TV Network (the same place that hosts Pure So You Think You Can Dance). If you’re looking for any news regarding The X-Factor, we recommend checking them out!

Episode Length: 35:44

Time Stamps
0:00 – Introduction: Where have we been? SYTYCD Canada cancelled! About our TV Week in Review podcasts.
4:59 – Big Brother 13 Finale
10:49 – America’s Next Top Model All-Stars (Cycle 17)
16:53 – Ringer
20:15 – New Fall 2011 TV shows we’re watching: Pan Am, Homeland, The Playboy Club, Once Upon A Time, The X-Factor, Suburgatory, Person of Interest
24:05 – New seasons of established shows we’re watching: The Amazing Race, Family Guy, Boardwalk Empire, Fringe, Dexter, How I Met Your Mother, Glee, The Real World, The Office, The Big Bang Theory, The Mentalist
28:52 – Shows we won’t be watching in Fall 2011: Survivor, Dancing with the Stars, Modern Family, Community, Two and a Half Men, Hawaii Five-O, New Girl, Terra Nova, Hart of Dixie, Two Broke Girls, Up All Night
34:46 – Wrap-Up: What do you think about our discussion and choices for Fall 2011 viewing? Look out for our X-Factor dedicated podcast!