Looking over the 2005-06 season

My friend and colleague Jon Weisman had an online discussion about the almost concluded TV season. Here's the transcript:

Jon: Well, since you're in the thick of this stuff year round, why don't you start us off with what you saw as the overriding story of the '05-'06 season?

Stu: From a programming standpoint, I'd say it was the dominance once again of American Idol. Shows just aren't supposed to find bigger audiences as they get older but Idol defies the odds. Idol just crushes the competition the way the 1977 and 1978 Yankees crushed the Dodgers -- as I'm a big Bombers fan and this is on Jon's Dodger site, I thought you'd enjoy the analogy. Wednesday night's Idol elimination show drew 28.5 million viewers, unheard of in the 500-channel universe.

The other networks are dumbstruck about how to counterprogram against it and the best strategy seems to get away from it as far as possible.

Jon: Or wait three years and reverse the crushing. Perhaps the other networks need to cast Pedro Guerrero and Fernando in something.

As far as dramas go, there were plenty of great shows to fill our Tivos this year. Good watercooler shows, like Lost and The Sopranos, which are compelling at worst and usually brilliant. (I don't buy into the theory that Lost is spinning its wheels - I think it is doing well to take its time.) Big Love - surprisingly unconcerned with soap opera plot twists given its premise - is finding itself. The recent House two-parter was some of the best television I've seen this year. Veronica Mars is clever and entertaining each week, and I can't wait to see if this year's season finale lives up to the awesomity of last years. Those are some of my favorites.

Stu: You're right. There's never been as many great dramas as there are right now. My Tivo is bursting with 'em. Just on Sunday nights you have West Wing, Sopranos, Big Love and Grey's Anatomy. Then there's Lost, which -- to its credit never plays it safe, and House. Those are just the ones on the air right now.

And starting soon is my favorite show of 'em all, Deadwood, with my second choice The Wire to begin in the fall. And what about all the FX stuff: The Shield, Rescue Me and the recently ended Thief, which got killed in the ratings but was intriguing nonetheless.

I'm surprised I still have to time to sleep and eat after catching up on all these.

Jon: Is Thief done already? I've got three of them waiting for me to watch after enjoying the first two. Over There was another worthwhile FX show that died a quiet death. I might add ... as a segue to comedy .. that It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia on FX deserved more attention - any attention, really. It had a great sensibility - twentysomething adults with just the right touch of stupidity.

Stu: Yeah, Thief just tanked in the ratings, even though the reviews were glowing. My feeling is that people got it confused with AMC's Hustle and the far inferior Heist on NBC. You know, Heist ... Thief.... five letters each, cops and robbers series... Yeah, doesn't make sense to me either but it's a theory.

Jon: Actually, that makes a lot of sense. Scary.

Stu: Philadelphia did have some moments but you definitely liked it more than me. I've never been a huge fan of the traditional sitcom, except for Seinfeld and Everybody Loves Raymond, which was great 'til the very end. But I have to give props to the sweet and enduring "How I Met Your Mother" and segueing back to Seinfeld, the Julia Louis-Dreyfus vehicle The New Adventures of Old Christine. Check that one out. In every episode there's 1 or 2 laugh-out loud funny scenes.

Jon: Well, this will get interesting now. I gave up on Mother and Christine pretty quickly - not that they didn't have their moments, but with so many things that were better on, I just couldn't carve out any time for those and have any semblance of a life. I like Neil Patrick Harris okay, but I don't buy him in that role on Mother at all. And the voiceovers by Bob Saget are useless - really, I find them insulting. We disagree about Raymond remaining good until the end, but that's a story from another year.

Talk about laugh-out-loud moments this year, I don't think anything can top The Office. That show has really taken off. It has hilarious premises and executes them almost perfectly. It has the almost effortlessly funny Steve Carrell at the lead and a deep supporting cast. And it has, bar none, the sweetest romance on TV in Jim (John Krasinski) and Pam (Jenna Fischer).

Stu: I definitely need to give another look at The Office. After enjoying the Ricky Gervais series on which it's based, I tuned in last season and was underwhelmed. But you, and everyone else it seems, has told me to give it another try. And I will. I'll make it a priority during the summer when NBC repeats it.

Getting back to dramas for a sec, I have a contrarian viewpoint on House. I like it -- it's getting raves and huge ratings -- but am getting bothered by the same dramatic form every week. Person with near-death malady checks into hospital, everyone misdiagnoses for a half-hour, in final 10 minutes lightbulb goes off in House's head and he astonishingly diagnoses patient by thinking about a completely unrelatable event or case. Problem solved.

Sure that changes sometimes, but it's starting to get a bit old for me. Sorry to digress....

Jon: No, I actually agree with that critique. House (which I assume owes a good portion of its ratings to the Idol lead-in) sometimes falls into that trap. I think that tumors took the prize for like three weeks in a row. I also think that the role of Cuddy (Lisa Edelstein) is a cipher - she exists mostly as a foil to Dr. House and can be remarkably slow on the uptake. But I do think that the other House characters are sharply defined. The recent two-parter also gave the show the time to really make House and the staff work to solve the mystery, right until the end.

Years ago, I used to watch ER and Law and Order, but they got old for me, and I never picked up any members of the CSI family. I regret missing out on Maura Tierney, Parminder Nagra and Linda Cardellini, because I've liked them so much in other things, but nothing feels more tired to me than the heavily promoted "very special" ER that seems to come every other week. Am I missing anything?

Stu: Whenever someone mentions Linda Cardellini, I immediately think of the underrated NBC gem Freaks and Geeks of many years ago. It was based on those awkward high school years, circa 1980 Michigan. I grew up on Long Island but that's when I graduated high school and the show hit all the right notes. Check that one out on Netflix now. Now!

Jon: You don't need to tell me about Freaks and Geeks! Its cancellation was perhaps the biggest television crime of the past decade.

Stu: And May 14 marks the final episode of The West Wing, which except for a few episodes here and there, might justly be considered one of the greatest dramas ever. Besides winning four straight Emmys, it perfectly balanced the fine line between intelligent political discussion and broad entertainment - Josh and Donna's romance, Zoe getting kidnapped, the president's creepy son-in-law. I'm really gonna miss it.

Speaking of which, Aaron Sorkin and his consigliere, Tommy Schlamme, have a new show this fall about the behind-the-scenes look at a Saturday Night Live-type variety show. I'm anxiously awaiting to see the pilot and hope it can match my high expectations.

Jon: That seems like a good place to begin wrapping up - by looking ahead. What else should we keep our eyes on? (Or is it too soon to say?)

Stu: A bit tough to say at this point until the fall lineups are announced the week of May 15. Among the nearly hundred pilots shot, the network chieftains will have to decide which shows look best and have the greatest chance to succeed. They often don't make those decisions until the last minute, literally. So I'll get a better sense at that point.

But until September rolls around, do tune in to Deadwood at the beginning of June. I don't mean to sound like an HBO flack but the show is the best written series ever on television. And that's not a fact I throw around lightly.

And speaking of throwing it around lightly, what's up with Eric Gagne? How's that for bringing it back to our regularly scheduled Dodger blogging...

Jon: Um, we're still waiting for the programmers to decide whether Gagne gets canceled or is just on hiatus.

Thanks for doing this, Stu. I can't let you go without asking these final questions:

1) Who should win American Idol, and who will win?
2) Can you pick a single favorite moment from the past TV season?

Stu: 1) I see the final two between Katharine and Chris. Very tough call on who triumphs but by the slightest of margins I say Chris. She's got a better voice but he seems to have more of a following.

2) Almost impossible to pinpoint hundreds of hours of viewing but the final 10 minutes of the last episode of Six Feet Under stands out as a great moment, when we see how and when all the characters will die. And watching Tony Soprano get gunned down by his own Uncle Junior was both shocking and exhilarating.

Jon: Wow - you stole mine. Even though it was last August (I looked up the date and can't believe so much time has passed), when I think of indelible moments from 2005-06, nothing stands out like that closing montage. Six Feet Under had its detractors, but I'm still haunted by that finale.

As for Idol - which I became sucked into against my will during its second season out of loyalty to my wife, but I guess I should take responsibility for my actions - I have also seen Chris and Kat in the final two. I'd like to see Kat win, though Chris is deserving enough that I think he could have lost weeks ago and still done fine with his career. But the wild card is Taylor, who has been something of a high quality novelty act all along, but whose support has never faltered. And wild cards often win the big one, as baseball keeps reminding us ...