[TV] Coming Up Next ...

It's important to have passions in your life. One of mine is finding and analysing good (and bad) TV. Here are some of the shows I'll be talking about:

The Apprentice - vanity, dysfunctional teams and the occasional business lesson. It's Survivor with the petty and boring politics of alliances rendered completely unnecessary by the Donald.

Everybody Loves Raymond - a textbook example of story-telling through extended scenes. It's a pacing you don't often see on TV these days. It's also probably the closest we've come to a situation-horror.

Dr Phil - a talk show that's genuinely interested in solving problems - and revisiting people and issues ... because it knows there's no easy fix.

Kete Aronui - a Maori TV series profiling local artists.

Gilmore Girls - Possibly my favourite show on TV.

Smallville - so much potential, so much sub-text and story tension loaded into the premise ... and you can see it being squandered week by week. Possibly the show I find most irritating on TV.

Tru Calling - it has just been cancelled in the States before an episode of its second season has even aired. It's got a claustrophobic approach to mysteries and a very effective sledgehammer approach to running variations on its format.

Everwood - While there's no new Gilmore Girls on the box till '05, this show becomes my fix for the Qurky Small Town genre, and an object lesson in how to reveal powerful backstories.

Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? - Will I have much to say about this? Don't know, but it is fun.

Also shows that aren't currently screening shows like Firefly, Lost, Joan of Arcadia, 24, The Sopranos and The Shield will get a look in - along with reviews and analyses of NZ TV (man, I wish I'd gotten this blog up and running during the time Bro'Town and Serial Killers were on air).

As ever, many of my thoughts will be published in small fragments. When I feel like there's enough of them to reach a critical mass on a subject, I'll polish them into an essay or review.

To finish: TV1 is replaying Moonlighting - a classic (maybe, see for yourself) - weekdays TV1 at 1pm (opposite Gilmore Girls on 2). It defined the "Will they or won't they" plot for a decade; does it still hold up?