Ok. It's the Characters, Stupid

There’s a lot to be said about TV . . . it provides us news, entertainment, sports, stupidity. Oops. Stupidity in spades, of course. Fortunately, I have a dish and a billion channels, as well as a DVR and can largely avoid most of the stupidity. Well, that is if I care to avoid the stupidity. Now, one has to realize there are levels and degrees of stupidity. Lots of reality shows are stupid no matter how you look at them . . . I don’t really care about the Jersey Shore much, or the Kardashians . . . or Kate . . . or the Housewives (do these ladies really have friends?) . . . and some are stupid because the characters do stupid things. For instance, Billy the Exterminator and Swamp People don’t have stupid people in them, but holy catfish . . . is hooking a 12-foot alligator and dragging it to your (very) small boat a wise thing? Not for this oversized New England guy, but these folks make their living hunting alligators. Hell no. Both are shows are kind of addicting.

Other realities? Obviously they’re popular and cheaper to make (though those damn alligators would raise my rates if I was filming them). Hollywood Treasures, Auction Hunters and Auction Kings     work for me. Mostly because I love “stuff,” as anyone who has visited will attest. They find it, talk about it and sell it. Kinda cool. (DVR them to fill in those times when other stupid stuff gets to be too much on live TV.) American Pickers and Pawn Stars are the slightly older kids on the bock and they, especially Pickers, continue to work. (I need more junk.) Top Chef Desserts and The Next Iron Chef work for me, but Bitchin Kitchen is killing me. Great idea, appeals to a younger crowd, good food, but what’s with the over-the-top, tough girl Brooklyn-Jersey accent talk? Kill it and let her work. Almost unwatchable. Fortunately the Cooking Channel also offers up Foodcrafters, Unique Eats and Cook Like an Iron Chef.

On big-time TV, new series are dropping like wasps sprayed by Billy and his brother. Outlaw with Jimmy Smits . . . dead. Undercovers, despite J. J. Abrams, a basically decent plot line and likeable actors, has no real edge, lapses into boring writing and suffers at times from a kind of 70s look . . . dead. On the plus side, Hawaii Five-0 is working for me, thanks to the characters, writing, location and stories. Jim Bulushi and Jerry O’Connell make the banter and varied cases very watchable on The Defenders.  CSI is still creepy and good, and with the addition of Katte Sackhoff from Battlestar Galactica as a wisecracking grumpy cop continues to pop. Best line . . . “I’ll take point, don’t shoot me in the ass.” Criminal Minds is more creepy and stays creepily captivating every week. (But how do they get those shiny black Chevy Suburbans at every location?) CSI NY added Sela Ward, and she’ll be fine, though I miss Melina Kanakaredes. . (But let’s be careful about getting too soapy with the daughter getting used to New York.) NCIS remains one of my favorites. Don’t you just want to have them all over for pizza? I like NCIS Los Angeles, but it needs to continue to work the new characters into the thick of it. Brava Linda Hunt. Quirky, mysterious and knows everything.

Nice. It’s the cast of characters that makes most of these things work.