Ha! Just kidding up there in the headline. I was just thinking we ought to live up to our column’s name a little bit and quibble some. This column would be much more argumentative if we invited the other two siblings in … they are the insecure ones.
OK, favorite new drama of the season!
Debbie:
This was a hard choice for me because I’ve really enjoyed a lot of the new shows this season: The Vampire Diaries, Glee, Human Target, White Collar, NCIS: LA (which I still need to catch up on!). I’ve admitted that The Vampire Diaries is my new guilty pleasure show but it really does have a lot more substance than just the OMG factor.
My pick was even a slight surprise to me: Human Target. I was a little slow to warm up to HT, but it crept in and wrapped its sneaky little fingers around me and it hasn’t let go. This show’s got everything. The chemistry between the three male leads (Mark Valley, Chi McBride and Jackie Earle Haley) redefines bromance, and there’s such a great back story simmering behind every episode. We know a bit more about Chance’s past but I love that there’s still more to discover and Guerrero and Winston are still very mysterious.
Interspersed with all of that, we get action, humor and just plain fun. I think it would be hard to tune in and find yourself watching a sub-par episode because they’ve done such a good job of laying the groundwork and weaving it throughout the storylines.
So Bob, you can tell about your favorite show and refute mine!
Bob:
I cannot, in fact, refute yours because I have not seen a single frame of Human Target. I was piling up episodes on my DVR and finally decided that I just wasn’t going to watch them and deleted them all.
What’s funny, though, is that the two shows that I would actually consider didn’t even make your list. I really grew to love V. Once I decided to just accept it for what it was, I could totally get into the sometimes cheesy, often logically flawed, always brainless fun of the show. Is it great TV? Probably not. Is it great fun? Heck yeah.
With that being said, this is a really, really easy choice for me. There is only one drama that aired this season that really caught my attention and impressed me with writing, acting, and consistently interesting storytelling: The Good Wife. Going into the season, this show wasn’t even really on my radar, as I despise procedurals, but it quickly became my favorite new drama of the season. Julianna Margulies‘s performance is Emmy worthy, and it was no surprise that she won the Golden Globe. She hits every note perfectly and with amazing subtlety and nuance. She’s got great chemistry with Chris Noth, and the cast of supporting characters is really strong.
They also do a really nice job balancing the stories. There is an interesting “case of the week” in each episode and there is enough long term compelling plot to reward the loyal viewers. No contest here. The Good Wife all the way.
Debbie:
I only watched the first two or three episodes of V and it didn’t do enough to suck me in. By the sound of your description, though, I could probably get into the mindless fluff on some level. On another level, I could make a little bit of fun of you.
Now The Good Wife is an interesting one for me. I could not have loved the pilot more, and every episode I caught I really liked. So explain to me why I have a gazillion of them taking up DVR space, unwatched. I’m going to catch up over the summer, either that or watch The Good Wife: season one in 1.5 minutes video clip that Keith sent me:
Honestly, I bet you’d really like Human Target. If you mix the cheesy fun of V and the quality of The Good Wife, you’ll get Human Target.
Bob:
Really? You want to make fun of me for watching V while you “squee” like a school girl about the plot twists on The Vampire Diaries? For crying out loud, at least V is age appropriate for me. As an aside, V did improve quite a bit after it came back from hiatus.
As for Human Target, it’s hard for me to say before seeing it, but I can’t imagine that its quality reaches the levels of The Good Wife. Maybe I’ll be eating some crow when the Emmy nominations come out, but I have a feeling that The Good Wife will be competing for one or two and Human Target will … not. Critical snobbery aside, I’ll try to check out Human Target at some point. Meanwhile, you should get to watching those episodes of The Good Wife on your DVR!
Debbie:
I admit it — I sometimes “squee.” You’re not all about critical snobbery or you wouldn’t give V a second look — you can’t fool me. I’d love to see you do a Human Target virgin diary this summer, as you catch up!
Clacked by Debbie McDuffee
on Jun 23, 2010 @ 11:00 EST5EDT
I like V okay and it did get a lot better after the 17 year break, although I never liked it nearly as much as the doomed and oft berated FlashForward. Human Target was a show I thought I’d take a chance on since it’s different. You know, not a procedural, not soap-ish and not reality. It just kept getting better with each new episode and I’m so glad it got a renewal.
Debbie, you once commented that we must be tv siblings separated at birth so I’m going to add my choice here which is Stargate Universe. It got off to a slow start, but by the end it was nothing less than riveting.
Here’s my quibbling: I think I’ll explode if I hear about any more damned vampire movies, books or series. All this mixture of vampires and romance makes me throw up in my mouth more than just a little. Procedurals have me feeling the same way and “The Good Wife” sounds like an odd title for a procedural. Sounds more like a damned soap opera. Quibbling over… :o)