Television

Potential TV Imports: Japan

Remaking foreign TV shows into State-side conversions is something of a common practice recently. With Being Human renewed for a second season, The Office currently in its eighth, and American Idol (based on the British Pop Idol) about to enter season eleven, it would seem that Britain has long since been open to their American cousins borrowing concepts for shows. Recently, America has been going even further afield for show ideas. The Killing, which aired this year on AMC, was based on a Danish show of the same name. Homeland, which is currently receiving very positive reviews from critics, is based on Hatufim; a show which originally aired in Israel.

But for this article we travel to the far east, and Japan. As an avid lover of eastern television shows, I can tell you that their TV show concepts are full of imagination and exciting characters, so looking towards Japan for much-needed inspiration could be the way to go for TV executives and writers. Although “J-dramas” (as Japanese shows are known) tend to avoid science-fiction premises in favor of more grounded subject matter based on their culture or history, their core plot concepts do not often feel commonplace, as seen in the following examples of shows which I feel would be well-suited to American remakes.

How I Met Your Mother – Noretta

How I Met Your Mother did a full-on salute to parents in Episode 7.7, one that had decidedly more to offer long-time fans of the series than those who’ve simply followed the recent exploits. As for being Nora’s namesake episode, the events that unfold suggest quite a bit about the course of the season.

“Noretta” gets its title from combining “Nora” (Nazanin Boniadi), Barney’s girlfriend, with “Loretta” (Frances Conroy), his mother. In a seemingly random, but welcome (yet entirely too brief) guest appearance from Wayne Brady as Barney’s brother James, we are told that Nora is almost exactly like the boys’ mother. This triggers similar realizations in the rest of the gang, especially Lily, who’s getting self-conscious about her barely noticeable baby bump.

A Woman’s Touch: Female Leads That Fail to Entertain?

When broadcast networks unveil their fall schedule, more often than not, some trends become apparent. This fall, the clearly dominant trend, at least in the drama category, is shows with female leads. New series, whether they are trendy or not, always run the risk of being canceled even before a handful of episodes have aired. When that happens, we usually discuss how bad the particular series was or how frustrating it is that the audience couldn’t see the beauty in the show. This year, however, the female leads have widened the typical scope of such postmortem analysis, taking us into new territories.

Before discussing the series themselves, let me share with you why I think what the networks did matters, especially as you will see my points have some bearing on the shows’ reception. The expression “glass ceiling” exists because not all categories of the population seem to be able to reach the stars while there is apparently no visible barrier preventing them to do so. It is true that Cate Blanchett’s Elizabeth ruled over England (and Ireland) during the 16th century, just like it is true that Hillary Clinton, Oprah Winfrey, Erin Burnett and Rachel Maddow are household names today in the U.S. But, none of that changes the fact that the Larry Pages (Google) and Mark Zuckerbergs (Facebook) of the world are still very much distinctly male, even if right below them there is an increasing majority of very capable women.

Dexter – A Horse of a Different Color

Last week, I found myself slightly annoyed at Dexter due to the lack time spent with both Brother Sam and our two killers, time that was instead invested in a hunt of Dexter’s that didn’t really deliver. It would seem that somewhere out there, someone may preemptively have heard my frustrations and written this week’s “A Horse of a Different Color.” Despite last week’s showing still maintaining a general air of quality about it, it would not be at all a stretch to say that this week’s episode blew it away. Whilst the majority of the time was still devoted to the employees of Miami Metro, Travis, Professor Gellar and Brother Sam all boosted their screen time in a more than pleasing way, with further insight being given to the killers, as well as further depth added to Dexter’s relationship with God.

We picked up with that faith factor being played upon as Dexter attended Nick’s baptism, performed by Brother Sam. It may just be that I have a weakness for the discussion of topics of such great magnitude as faith, science and belief in either, but the following scene between Dexter and Sam was one of the highlights of the episode for me. It wasn’t exactly in depth or even very long, but it established a sense of what it is to believe in the two men; Sam in God and Dexter in science. It was fairly lighthearted, but to me showed signs that Dexter’s faith is less than absolute, while Sam’s is unshakable. The notion that belief in science is itself a belief in a high order of things sets a foundation for Dexter throughout the episode to where he ultimately ends up.

Person of Interest – Judgment

Momentum is a tough thing to build for a procedural thriller like Person of Interest, even a backwards one, so while the week-to-week quality of Jonathan Nolan and  J.J. Abrams’ new show remains high, the over-arching story seems to have gotten a bit stagnant in this fifth episode, “Judgment.”

Supernatural – Shut Up, Dr. Phil

Before talking in any detail about Friday’s Supernatural, I must first get out of the way the fact that Charisma Carpenter and James Marsters were in it. Whilst this means absolutely nothing to me, it is apparently a big deal. Despite being a fan of a few things in the supernatural genre and tolerant of a lot of fantasy/sci-fi type shows and films, Buffy the Vampire Slayer has never worked for me. It may just be that the show was before my serious TV viewing time, then again, The West Wing started just two years later and it ranks number one on my list of every show ever made. More likely, in my opinion, the show just really isn’t very good and I don’t see what the hell anyone is going on about when they say that it is, but, that’s just my opinion. There are people out there that thinkJersey Shore is the best thing on television so we can all dare to dream. 

With the formalities through we come to “Shut Up, Dr. Phil.” The episode picked up with one of the more inventive supernatural murders that the show has had in a while, with a woman getting her head cooked in a beehive hair dryer at her local salon in a somewhat Final Destination-esque fashion. That, in addition to a man getting cooked in his hot tub, was enough to pique the interest of the Winchesters and so began the hunt. In a slightly unusual move for the show it took all of one minute of investigation on Dean’s part for the two to just about figure out what they were up against – a witch. After finding a hex coin at the hair dryer scene there was once again little time spared before the case took another turn, introducing another victim into the mix. After one being boiled alive and the other being burnt, the natural progression for the killings was obviously to have a floating nail gun impale a man to the inside of a portable toilet. 

TV Projects Deals: Spies, Witness Protection (Sort of) and Teenage Games

With this year’s fall season now well underway, broadcast networks are turning their attention towards 2012. NBC, Fox and the CW were in the news this week with TV series project acquisitions.

Fox, unlike Hugh Jackman who has apparently turned down an offer to play 007, sees spies as such good commodities that it might be bringing them to our TV sets next year. The network bought a spy drama written by Joe Weisberg (Falling Skies, Damages), himself a former employee of the CIA. The show centers on young assistants of senior officers in the U.S. intelligence community (CIA, DIA, NSA and FBI), and will be, in all likelihood, produced by Imagine TV for Fox. [via: Deadline Hollywood]