BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT
Michael Mahoney – True Blood
I took a lot of heat for my criticisms of True Blood during Season 3, but I stand by them. You could literally take your pick of all the ‘jump the shark’moments this season. Characters changed faster than a Lady Gaga outfit and too many plotlines either went nowhere or never connected at all. But True Blood‘s worst sin this year was that for the first time it was actually boring.
Michael Salerno — Glee
I was tempted to say The Event, but my expectations for that show were just below ‘don’t completely suck.’On the other hand, I had high hopes for Glee. After a rather successful first season, the producers had an opportunity to take the few negative criticisms it received and fine tune the show into not only a popular hit, but a critical one as well. Instead, Ryan Murphy has decided that no matter how it might actually fit into the show, he is going to do whatever the heck it is he wants to do. As a result, every third episode (he shares writing duties with Brad Falchuk and Ian Brennan) seems to ignore everything else that has happened in the series, which is a shame and very disappointing. (Check out more on The Three Glees here.)
Jordan Cramer – The Event
The Event has to be my biggest disappointment. The pilot episode was’¨great but once aliens, and what I hear “zombies” were introduced I’¨immediately threw in the towel. Just once I wish a show could explain’¨unnatural phenomenons with science instead of extraterrestrial science.
Luciana Mangas – House, The Event
This is a tie between House and The Event. House because I had really high hopes that now that House and Cuddy have finally gotten their acts together and started a relationship, the show would actually improve. But, alas, it hasn’t. At least not so far. Let’s hope that the addition of Amber Tamblyn to the cast will infuse the show with something fresh because I’m this close of giving up on it completely. The Event is that kind of show that has to grab your attention from the very start and they just weren’t successful. I watched the Pilot and the whole thing was just so confusing that they didn’t even sparked my curiosity to watch the second episode. For me, The Event suffered an even worse fate than last season’s Flashforward because that at least delivered a really, really good pilot episode. Their only problem was that they had a great concept but couldn’t handle its development. The Event didn’t even get that far with me. It was the one new show I was really looking forward to and it was the biggest disappointment of the season.
Crit Obara – Lone Star‘s cancellation, The Event, Running Wilde
I have a few disappointments. Lone Star getting cancelled was very sad; the show was one of my early favorite this fall and had a lot of potential. I was also disappointed by The Event and Running Wilde. The former not only failed to live up to the hype (though I realize the hype it created shouldn’t be held against it) but more importantly failed to keep me interested or get emotionally invested in the characters. The latter was so promising considering the names attached (Arnett, Cross and Hurwitz) and their previous work together (Arrested Development) but I just plain didn’t find it to be that funny.
JT Vaughn – Undercovers, Running Wilde, Sons of Anarchy
Undercovers came from fine pedigree but was nothing more than a bland, middle-of-the-road spy adventure with pretty but wafer thin characters and seen-it-all-before plots. Banking on the prettiness of your lead characters undoes all the good work of casting black leads in the first place. They simply weren’t characters. Running Wilde also came from fine pedigree and has a stellar cast, but has struggled with inconsistency, and has been neutered by network notes. Sons of Anarchy punched audiences in the face with two amazing seasons, filled with drama, action, and Shakespearian tragedy, but its third season has been mired by a lame-duck kidnapping plot that has engulfed everything else, and some poorly established Irish antagonists with both convoluted and confusing motives. The Sons have become chess pieces to both the show and the showrunners.
Ian McDonald – 30 Rock live
Like I’ve said before, the last thing 30 Rock needs is a laugh track. The dialogue usually has a very specific pacing and people belly-laughing over every little thing Alec Baldwin says throws that pacing off. Like Jane Krakowski sang in the beginning of the east coast taping, “Why do a 30 Rock live show?”
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