Lazy Sunday TV Viewing

Hello all! Last night, a lazy summer Sunday night, Qualler and I did a little old fashioned channel surfing. We mostly settled on two shows, which we flipped back and forth between throughout the night: the premiere of TNT's Falling Skies and the Miss USA pageant.

Falling Skies
Qualler and I began our evening with the premiere of this Spielberg produced action/drama on TNT. And what a beginning it was! The show started off with shots of children's drawings of an alien attack while their adorable voices narrated the tragic stories that these crayon drawings depicted. Too sad for me! But also adorable, so we kept watching. Also, Noah Wyle was there, playing a history professor, so I wanted to see how it played out (you know what I'm talking about, ladies!).

The episode moved quickly from children's drawings that told the story of the alien attack to the current, post-alien attack world. Many of the adult were apparently dead, but luckily that child psychologist survived so that the kids could all work through their grief. Now it seems like many adults are fighting the aliens or something, or running away from the aliens, maybe. It was hard to keep track while also watching the history of the swimsuit on the Miss USA pageant (we've come a long way, ladies!).

All joking aside, I actually thought this was a somewhat clever opening to this show that begins in medias res, post alien attack. We got just enough background but not so much that it felt tedious, and the drawings of the aliens killing their parents was adorable.

Twenty-five minutes in, right before a commercial break, the camera zoomed out to show a normal neighborhood landscape with a giant alien ship in the background. At this point, Qualler declared "look at that alien ship in the background!" and began to clap, shouting "Like it!"

The pilot basically set up the humans' journey away from the city where the aliens landed toward some sort of safe haven. Of course, Noah Wyle, the reluctant leader, wants to go back to where the aliens are so that they can rescue the children that the aliens stole. For some reason, aliens killed adults and sort of enslaved the children. I'm guessing more will be revealed as the show continues. I like the idea of a pilgrimage plot that turns eventually into a go back and fight for what's yours plot, but I wonder which way things will go. A pilgrimage plot on its own can be good, and a let's all go back and fight cause American's don't run from a fight! plot has the potential to be really bad. We'll see how it shakes out as the summer continues.

One thing I liked about watching this show was that TNT's commercial breaks give a little sneak preview of scenes that are coming up after the commercial break, which is super helpful for me. When Qualler and I partake in summer television viewing, we like to know what's coming up in the next three minutes so that we know what's happening without having to watch it too closely. This is also helpful as we flip back and forth between summer programming.

One hour in a commercial let me know that this was a TWO HOUR SERIES PREMIERE and that made my head hurt a little. Two hours? Really? But nothing really happened in the first hour. They're still walking away from the space ship, and the kids are still both adorable and sad. However, in the second hour the characters developed to show an interesting power dynamic and struggle between the military, who was leading the humans to safety, and the civilians. Who will come out on top? The smart, speaks her mind doctor, or the tough as nails unyielding general? I guess we'll have to wait and see!

I actually think that this could be a good summer show, and it was easy to follow what was going on while also following the pageant and without using up too much of that precious summer brain power. It seemed well directed, well shot, and all of that, though there didn't seem to be much in the way of plot yet. I'm happy about Noah's return to TV, too, and he seemed to fall into the Jack Shepherd (of Lost) role in this show, which suits him. He was the unwilling leader against the aliens--formerly, he was a history professor. The aliens were super scary, too.
Miss USA
Now, this was clearly the biggest television event of the evening. Not the season finale of The Killing or the season finale of Game of Thrones. Nope. It's the Miss USA pageant, hosted by our very own Andy Cohen. While Falling Skies depicted a post-apocalyptic earth ravaged by unfriendly aliens, Andy Cohen is merely a sign of the terrible apocalypse to come, which may involve aliens, but will likely just involve housewives everywhere turning on each other, their young, and eventually the world.

The fact that Andy Cohen is branching out and hosting network television events (NBC, people!) just further proves my theory that he is, in fact, the devil, and that his increasing popularity and power is just proof of the forthcoming day of reckoning. Or something like that. It must have been strange for him to host something that doesn't involve a lot of crazy fighting, but he did a good job.

Also, the panel of judges was NUTS! It included Marcus Allen, Lil Jon, Caroline Manzo, and Tyson Chandler. We got to hear Caroline (my favorite NJ Housewife) ask a question about legalizing marijuana, but unfortunately Lil Jon didn't get to ask one. He did do a lot of crazy hand gestures, though, to make up for his lack of mic time.

During the swimsuit competition that new Ke$ha song, "Blow" played and Kelly Osbourn provided commentary. Throughout the evening there was also a "fan vote" rating system so that people could rank these ladies from home. It was strangely like watching a Hotornot (remember that?) happen right in front of your eyes. And the fans at home were harsh! Many of the contestants were scoring in the 6 range, and they were clearly much hotter than that. Come on, people. I would love to see who the people voting at home were. One of the commentators humble bragged by saying "I have so much in common with all these girls!" during the swimsuit competition. She meant, of course, that she also had two dogs at home. Hey, I have that in common, too!

Andy Cohen kept saying "here's what" and it made me both want to punch him and want to watch more of his programming on Bravo. I give you a solid 4 out of 10, Andy! Which is not that much lower than the viewers at home gave many of the contestants. Dear viewers at home: do you typically look at people? Like, in your day to day lives? And if so, what do you rank them? A negative gagillion? Seriously!

When all was said and done, Miss California won the crown, which is basically like me winning cause I was born in California, which basically means I am friends with Andy Cohen. You win again, Andy! I'll be tuning in to your shows all summer long, you sneaky devil.

This entry was posted by Brigitte, on Monday, June 20, 2011. You can leave your response.