Firefly & other TV

I just finished watching the complete Firefly series on DVD and I'm glad to report that I wasn't wrong the first time around. Pretty much every episode of the way too short lived TV series is excellent. It's a damn shame no network picked it up but Fox only has four hour-long dramas in its whole week-long schedule and UPN has like one. So I guess there was just no room for Joss Whedon's brilliant piece of Dramedy in this reality-infatuated modern world of ours. Still with all the damn cable networks out there you'd think someone could've made our day and ordered another season. What's USA got besides Monk (which I've seen a bit of and enjoyed, but don't want to start in the middle of)? And since it takes 8 months or more between seasons of Sopranos or Six Feet Under, HBO could've used a new show. But I guess it's thinking that this that's got me working this busted keyboard in my bedroom and not in a fancy network-executive cubicle.

I'm not the alone on this, Gabe from Penny Arcade wrote almost exactly the same thing earlier today.

So with the quality declining on Teenage-Superman, I've pretty much got just three shows I remember to turn the TV on for: Angel, South Park and Arrested Development.

I strayed away from Angel after giving it a season and a half. But now that Buffy's gone and James Marsters and Joss Whedon are working on the show I'm back on my couch Wednesday nights. This season has been a study of quality television. The additions of Marsters and Mercedes McNab (Harmony) have added some much needed sass-back and have allowed the cast to jell quite nicely. I have high hopes for the future of this series, which is normally forebodes cancellation but let's keep our fingers crossed.

Arrested Development has the kind of strong performances, both in writing and acting, that are expected of a veteran series. It's really wonderful to think how good this show will be if it's allowed to mature for 3-5 seasons. It could be the next Seinfeld; which would be awesome because that would turn the hilarious, card-sharking David Cross into the new Kramer.

I also think highly of a couple shows on Cartoon Network's "adult swim". Aqua Teen Hunger Force and Sealab 2021 pick up on the near genius that was Space Ghost Coast to Coast a few years ago. But they air new episodes on such a sporadic schedule; it's hard to keep up with them.