Everyone knows that tonight is the premiere of another episode of The Sopranos, but at some point you should seriously consider revisiting last week’s episode through the eyes of Aaron (no, not me) at Television Without Pity. If you’ve never visited the site, their talented staff writes recaps (laced with sarcasm) of a selection of television series. Well, Aaron’s recap of last week’s episode is finally up, and as usual, it’s well-worth reading. Here’s his teaser summary:
A little less conversation, a little more action, please. All this angst and whining ain’t satisfactioning me. A little less wuss and a little more dark, a little less Artie and be clear on who’s the narc. Come on back with a brand-new start and baby satisfy me.
Better yet, TWoP has added some new shows to its lineup, as well, including Kingdom Hospital, the upcoming Century City which premieres Tuesday on CBS, and the new Fox series Wonderfalls. I will definitely be a regular reader of the Wonderfalls recaps since they will be written by the phenomenal Pamie.
As far as Wonderfalls the show, I’ve only had a chance to watch the first half of Friday’s premiere episode, and so far the most, and least, I can say is that I’m intrigued. The comparisons to Joan of Arcadia are obvious (and I don’t just mean the names of the main characters), but the two series definitely represent the personalities of their respective networks. Joan is very much the standard, well-written, well-acted CBS drama that doesn’t exactly reinvent television. Wonderfalls, from the amount I’ve seen, is your basic Fox drama: a slightly younger bent with a quirky sensibility and a lot more deadpan humor. The most fascinating thing to me about Wonderfalls, however, is not the similarity between Jaye and Joan. Rather, Jaye reminds me much more of George from the Showtime series Dead Like Me. This shouldn’t necessarily come as a surprise since the same guy — Bryan Fuller — created both series. Still, the voices of each of these two young, disaffected, bitter-at-the-world, way-too-smart young women are virtually identical. Considering that Fuller left Dead Like Me after just a few episodes, it will be interesting to see how Jaye devlops in comparison. At the same time, if Wonderfalls can be as interesting as Dead Like Me proved to be in its first season, then it’s a keeper.
Out of Focus 