So you may have noticed that I didn't write anything about the Emmys. As cinetrix mentioned yesterday, it's a total cliche to write posts about why one isn't writing posts, yet I find myself spiraling further and further into a deep dark pit of cliche everyday, so why not continue the trend. As I mentioned in the last post, I simply didn't have time to properly write a pre- or post-Emmy, uhm, post. So instead, I just IMed during the (amazingly horrible, worst Emmy ever?) broadcast with Gothamist's Jen Chung, and she included a comment from me here and there.
But after last night's season premiere of Arrested Development, I'm more annoyed than ever. You know, I didn't have a problem with the Emmy's making bad choices for their awards: it was just a horribly designed and produced show. Somehow, even in bringing the show in on time -- three hours on the dot, I believe -- it still felt longer than any Emmy broadcast in recent memory. I knew we were in for a bad night when the opening number featured Earth, Wind and Fire singing "September," with rewritten lyrics to make it all about the TV season, only to have them joined by the Black Eyed Peas, who have now officially not just jumped the shark but are slaloming back-and-forth over the damn thing. I throw that show-opening number right up there with Rob Lowe and Snow White at the Oscars as among the worst openings ever.
But what really got me was the sympathy Best Comedy Series award for the now defunct Everybody Loves Raymond. Last night's season premiere of Arrested Development reminded me why it's the best show on television anywhere -- yes, including HBO and FX. There is not another series that top to bottom -- writing, casting, production value -- is as near perfection as Arrested, and if the third season premiere was any indication, it's just going to keep getting better-and-better. Last night's episode was, to my eyes at least, one of the best I've ever seen in the series. They pack so much story and so many laughs into 22 minutes, it would take almost that long just to summarize everything that happens.
Arrested Development is on Mondays at 8 PM this season. It also is probably getting its last chance from Fox which has, to its credit, valiantly stood by the show (most likely because there would be an enormous critical uproar if it was cancelled), although they haven't left it in one time slot to let people find it. Really, Mondays at 8 is a pretty empty slot on TV this year, so please, if you're not watching Arrested, give it a shot, and more than once because it takes a couple episodes to really get into the rhythm of it all. It's well-worth it though, and if you're someone who's always complaining about nothing good being on television but you've never seen it? Stop complaining. You're part of the reason the good shows get cancelled while perennial no-laugh-crap like Will & Grace manages to continue getting Emmy noms.
I say the writers of AD should get a Pulitzer.
I'm dead serious.
I know there's no Writing for Television Pulitzer, but what this group of people have managed to do with the 22-minutes-plus-commercials format is nothing short of astounding. (And I haven't even seen last night's premiere yet.) They've really raised the bar, and it'll probably be years before it filters down to other sitcoms.
Posted by: Kza | Tuesday, September 20, 2005 at 04:57 PM