Fumarama

As I am doing this whole watch every new show and write about it project, I finding that a lot of these shows don't have any affect on my whatsoever, I leave them and just sort of shrug. I guess that whole sitting there for an hour and never thinking about it or anything related to that hour again is why people think of tv as this passive, mind-numbing experience. (although you can do the same thing with movies.) But my feeling about these shows is also well, they could be good, it depends on how they develop.

The Class
So this show is about a guy who on the 20th anniversary of starting 3rd grade, decides to bring members of his class today to surprise his girlfriend. She decides he is too sweet and too over the top and dumps him. But the show will follow the adventures of this group of friends. This actually sounds like a great idea except that the characters are a bit over the top and it also was not very funny. However, if they turn this into a soap opera or have some really compelling will they or won't they plot, I could get into it.

Smith
This is a show about a bunch of high powered thieves that steal like art work and stuff for lots of money a la Oceans 11. And Ray Liotta the star also has a nice, suburban life with a wife who does not know. The cast is very pretty, which i think is really key in shows like this. I just did not care. The theft was not so cool as to keep me on the edge of my seat and the interpersonal drama just was not that well-developed. But to reiterate what I said above, if they somehow turn the interpersonal drama into a soap (which here I am almost certain they won't), I'ld watch.

On a seperate note, Virginia Madsen plays the suburban clueless wife. I think that after her oscar nomination, television was actually the perfect move for her. She seemed destined to be one of those female oscar nominees who then you never hear from again after that one big role. (like Mira Sorvino and Elizabeth Shue). She particularly cause she was not young and she had not been an A list actress before this. Plus, she is old for a movie actress and even Meryl Streep has trouble finding really great roles. Anyway, with everyone saying that television is as good as the movies these days, (it is not just me, check out The New Republic Online), this was a good place for her to find an interesting role, and do steady work. And I thought she did a really great job last night. Just too bad I am likely never going to watch the show again.