Because I hiked up Haystack Mountain on Monday, by that evening I was exhausted. I fell asleep halfway through 'House', totally missed "Primal", the last episode of the season for 'Eureka' (maybe), but woke up just in time for the beginning of 'Men In Trees'.
Even then, I was able to stay with it for only twenty minutes before surrendering to the kin of Morpheus, "Mr. Nappies".
Forget about this week's insta-repeat of the 2nd episode of 'nip/tuck'. But at least with that and 'Eureka', I have another shot Friday night.
Twenty minutes isn't enough to make a fair assessment of any show... unless it's a half-hour sitcom. So I'll have to give it another try before I can tell if it's something I want to spend my Friday nights with. If it's up against the first season of David Tennant's reign as the Tenth Doctor of 'Doctor Who' over on Sci-Fi, there'll be no contest. I've already seen those courtesy of the Brokeback Boys Mark and Michael, but I want another chance with those since I missed a lot of the dialogue due to the accents.
At any rate, with 'Men In Trees' I was able to find some points of interest from a Toobworld point of view. Good or bad, every series ends up in the TV Universe once broadcast; only then to be relegated to its proper dimension. So here's what I have so far regarding 'Men In Trees':
1) "Marin Frist" - Being a fan of neocognomina (Lin Carter's term for the apt coining of names), this may be the best new name for a TV character this season. Unfortunately, one of the first people she met in that small Alaskan town was named "Patrick Bachelor" and that nearly wipes out all of its cool quotient cred.
2) "Elmo, Alaska" - I'm a sucker for the quirky small towns in Toobworld. Fernwood, Ohio, Dunn's River, Connecticut, Cabot Cove, Maine, Hooterville, Wherever, and of course (in keeping with this show), Cicely, Alaska.
On 'Northern Exposure', we saw the history of the young woman for whom Cicely, Alaska, was named. But not all of the blanks were necessarily filled in. Wouldn't it be neat if at some point in her short tragic life Cicely met the man named Elmo for whom this hamlet is named?
Speaking of Elmo, Alaska, I've seen a lot of complaints that a lot of it rips off 'Northern Exposure'. I tend to think of it this way - both Elmo and Cicely share attributes that such small towns in our 49th state must have:
The town bar as central gathering place - The Brick in Cicely and The Chieftain for Elmo.
Main transport in and out of town, a small commercial plane.
Wildlife treated almost as part of the citizenry - a moose in Cicely, and a raccoon in Elmo.
Okay, maybe that last one is a bit of a rip-off.
Had the show been more involving, I might have stuck with it all the way through since I did have that hour and a half power nap leading up to it. But like I said, under those conditions, I didn't give it a proper opportunity. And as one of my good friends, an ADA back in NYC raved about it, marking it as appointment TV for Friday nights, I'll give it another shot.
At least until I see what's up against it on the sked.......
BCnU!
Tele-Toby
Ah, and you forgot one other similiarity:
ReplyDeleteQuirky guy runs a radio station.
I thought the pilot was okay. There were some stupid moments--like little miss fan person showing up in Alaska...why now?
Some stuff just didn't make a whole lotta sense. But I did set it up on the old TiVO, so we'll see how later episodes pan out.