(Scooter’s Note: Only shows that completed at least one full season between September 1999 and August 2009 were eligible for this list. For a complete breakdown on the list, check out Breaking Down the 100 Greatest Television Shows of the 00's)
I was on the fence on whether to watch Defying Gravity. On one hand it stars Peter Gibbons and Daisy Adair. But on the other one, it has been described as “Grey's Anatomy in space”, the crappy flagship show that amplifies that ABC stands for the All Broads Channel since shipping off Monday Night Football to ESPN. Although Defying Gravity ended up relying the lone bastion of male watching block on the channel by utilizing some of Lost’s storytelling with plenty of flashbacks, many of which are pretty worthless.
The show focuses on a six year mission around the solar system taking the crew to seven different planets to the tune of ten trillion dollars. Hopefully in forty years all of Earth’s ills have been cured because that is a hefty sum. Although it seems as the conservatives will have won the abortion debate in the future as one of the astronauts seeks out an illegal abortion. The law goes as far that they don’t even sell home pregnancy tests anymore for some unknown reason. Yet for some reason abortion is outlawed yet they are allowed to destroy embryos aboard the spaceship.
The cast is expansive, but seems to currently only focus on two formal couples, Ron Livingston (Office Space) as your token loose cannon who will break with protocol if he thinks what he is right with the lone exception of leaving two fellow astronauts on Mars ten years prior. He had a one night stand with Laura Harris (Dead Like Me) which presumably resulted in the needed abortion but the flashbacks are ambiguous in their timeline. Also no conformation on the abortion but one can assume here inclusion in the crew means she went through with it and is now haunted by baby cries.
The other former couple that was only hinted at so far are Malik Yoba (Cool Runnings), the current commander who happens to be currently wed to the boss and Christina Cox (who I thought was much younger, blonder and Britisher) who is married the former commander who was kicked off of the mission last minute for some reason and replaced by Yoba. The other crew members have yet to be fleshed out including some dude with massive scars on his back (I sense an upcoming flashback), a horny German, some dude searching for porn and the moderately attractive Paula Garces (Man of the House) who films everything.
The main drawback to Defying Gravity is that it is slow. Excruciatingly slow. And the meaningless flashbacks just make it seems slower. The lone interesting plot point (that has a high potential for the plot point to be disappointing) is that there is something(one?) called Beta that apparently is pulling the strings, booting two crew members at the last minute and apparently “allows” things to happen. If I were a betting man, I would put my money on Beta being akin to HAL 9000. The other big mystery being knowledge being withheld from the astronaut that they won’t be privy to until they reach Venus. Again, I would put my money on they are not expected to make it back to Earth. Either that or that viewers won’t be returning back to the show.
Defying Gravity airs Sundays at 10:00 on ABC. You can stream recent episodes on Hulu. You can also download Defying Gravity on iTunes (as I write this you can download the two part season premiere for free and in HD).
Big News of the Week: Ben Silverman Gets Canned: Thanks to his decision to make 10:00 the Jay Leno Hour I called Ben Silverman the Most Inept Executive in America and now it looks that I will be looking for a new mantle to lay that award upon now that Silverman “is returning to his entrepreneurial roots to form a new venture.” Basically a nice way to say dude got fired. Of course the Leno Hour was just one of many bad decisions that included the Knight Rider reboot, Kath & Kim import and at least thirteen other one and done shows by my count, failing to launch any show in his tenure despite marketing giants like the Olympics and the Super Bowl at his disposal.
Replacing Silverman as the Chairmen of NBC Entertainment is Jeff Gaspin who has been running Universal’s cable outlets including USA which, if I am not mistaken, has a higher rated Thursday thanks to Burn Notice and Royal Pains than NBC’s The Listener this summer. Before joining Universal, Gaspin worked at VH1 in the late nineties where we can thank him for Behind the Music and Pop-Up Videos.
Coalition Links of the Week: With the Project Runway premiere coming up, Buzz challenged you to match some past designs with their creators. (BuzzSugar)
And they made the final cut on So You Think You Can Dance and Vance KNOWS you're (expletive deleted) about stuff about the Top 4. (Tapeworthy)
This week, Jace had an exclusive interview with Doctor Who's David Tennant, who talked about his legacy to the Doctor Who franchise, the upcoming End of Time Christmas Special, and the Doctor's sartorial choices. (Televisionary)
Dan shared a video about a boy and his fake girlfriend by the band Telekinesis. (TiFaux)
Kings: Another week, another show to say goodbye to. As much as I appreciate the networks killing off all these shows for the summer instead of making up buy/rent the DVD to see them, it seems harder to watch these shows go now than knowing you are watching the last episode at the end of the normal television season. A great image of Silas walking down the street to crash his son’s coronation. You can stream current episodes over at NBC.com. You can also download Kings on iTunes.
Pardon the Interruption: Not one but two new games on PTI when it is been years since the last time they introduced a new segment. I didn’t care too much for Word! but Making the Grade has some promise. But the true test of the games is just how bad Dan Lebatard will mess them up. You can download the PTI podcast on iTunes for free.
Charm School with Ricki Lake: And Risky is the winner. Yawn. And are they not doing a reunion show this season? You can also download Charm School with Ricki Lake on iTunes.
Rescue Me: The girls pretty much interacted why I dislike texting. Seriously, just talk to the person, not text them calling them a cunf (granted, that was funny). Well that and hate typing on such a small keyboard. Despite knowing it was going to happen sooner or later, it was weird seeing Maura Tierney after everything that was going on with her. That and it was just an odd sequence. And really, the more of chief’s wife, the better. You can stream current episodes over at Hulu.
The Philanthropist: Another great exotic setting of… San Diego? But I love that Teddy’s punishment for stealing credit card was to force him not to fight, the ultimate insult to a marine. You can stream current episodes over at NBC.com. You can also download The Philanthropist on iTunes.
Free Download of the Week: Pawn Stars (iTunes): Go behind the scenes of a Las Vegas pawn shop on the latest History show where you can find suck artifacts as a 1996 Gold Metal, Benny Binion’s hat, and a Patriot’s Super Bowl ring. Hey, it takes a lot of money to cheat like Bill Belichicken and his goons do. You can also check the show Sundays at 10:00.
Video of the Week: I really never understood the concept of Comic-Con. Why fly all the way out to San Diego just to spend the week indoors under a costume? It is even more worthless now that pretty much everything goes on gets leaked to YouTube eventually. And now studio some studios are even releasing full panels for everyone to watch suck as the Chuck panel as seen below. Unfortunately they do not include the Jeffster performance. But that is what YouTube is for.
Next Week Pick of the Week: Scooter McGavin’s 9th Green, Tuesday at 8:00 AM on your Feed Reader: A little bit of self promotion as I hit my 1500th post on Tuesday (barring any unforeseen calamities). And dare I say it is my most ambitious post to date on the 9th Green. And it should considering I have been working on it for two years. So set aside a few minutes on Tuesday because it may take a while to digest it. And if you have not done so already, subscribe to the 9th Green so the post will land up in your feed reader on Tuesday so you will not have to remember to return then.
Much like Buffy the Vampire Slayer before it, I was late getting into Angel. And much like I caught up to Buffy thanks to FX running two episodes a day, I got my daily dose of Angel on TNT going through whole seasons in less than a month before catching up with the new airings on the network. Angel started out as just an extension of Buffy, not really noteworthy in itself the first couple season, but finally came into its own and truly because better with each passing seasons and that is why it is this month’s induction into the Scooter Hall of Fame.
Please note this isn’t a post to try to capitalize on the annoying impotent vampire craze that is going on now (in fact it just shamelessly ties into a much bigger post being released this coming Tuesday, so be sure to come back then), because let’s face it; the title character was the least interesting on the show. The show was slow to start when it was just Angel, Cordelia and Doyle. But it finally hit its stride when Angel moved into the abandoned hotel and recruited what would end up being his core group by the end of the second season when Fred join Gunn, Wesley, Lorne in the cast.
And as good as that core group was in the beginning, the show went into overdrive in its fifth and final season. This is when Angel Investigations arch-nemesis Wolfram and Hart decided to give them the keys to their LA office for Angel to run and his buddies to get their own niche in the company. It probably wasn’t a coincidence that the season was the first in which creator Joss Whedon only had one show on the year and just came of a season that saw Buffy end and Firefly prematurely canceled.
The last season also saw the inclusion of comic relief courtesy of Harmony, a former classmate of Cordelia turned vampire as Angel’s receptionist at Wolfram and Hart. Not that the show needed more comic relief because even though Angel was routinely considered darker than Buffy, Buffy never had an episode as whimsical as when Angel got tuned into a puppet. And as tentative as I was as first as Spike joining the cast, it ending up a good thing if only for the astronaut vs. caveman debate. Not the mention the final season also saw a post-Firefly, pre-Chuck Adam Baldwin as the liaison to the Senior Partners.
But of course just when the show turned on its after burns in terms of creativity, the show got canceled. Yet somehow, the series finale with the gang opening up the gates of hell as repercussions of assassinate the Circle of the Black Crown was a satisfying ending in its ambiguity, and frustrating at the same time.
(UPN/CW)
(FOX)
(HBO)
(WB/UPN)
(Comedy Central)
(CBS)
(HBO)
(WB)
(Showtime)
(NBC)
(ABC)
(TNT)
(NBC)
(NBC)
(ABC)
(WB)
(NBC)
(FOX)
(FOX)
(ABC Family)
(FOX)
(CBS)
(HBO/Bravo)
(UPN/CW)
(FOX)
(MTV)
(ABC)
(Cartoon Network)
(ABC)
(USA/Spike/USA)
(National Geographic)
(ABC)
(Bravo)
(Showtime)
(National Geographic)
(TBS)
in space”, the crappy flagship show that amplifies that ABC stands for the All Broads Channel since shipping off Monday Night Football to ESPN. Although Defying Gravity ended up relying the lone bastion of male watching block on the channel by utilizing some of 
’s storytelling with plenty of flashbacks, many of which are pretty worthless.
) as your token loose cannon who will break with protocol if he thinks what he is right with the lone exception of leaving two fellow astronauts on Mars ten years prior. He had a one night stand with Laura Harris (
), the current commander who happens to be currently wed to the boss and Christina Cox (who I thought was much younger, blonder and Britisher) who is married the former commander who was kicked off of the mission last minute for some reason and replaced by Yoba. The other crew members have yet to be fleshed out including some dude with massive scars on his back (I sense an upcoming flashback), a horny German, some dude searching for porn and the moderately attractive Paula Garces (
) who films everything.
. The other big mystery being knowledge being withheld from the astronaut that they won’t be privy to until they reach Venus. Again, I would put my money on they are not expected to make it back to Earth. Either that or that viewers won’t be returning back to the show.
