Yes, it is that time again. It's time for the Quiet Pool Perspective's take on power rankings. Every two months, here at The Pool, we like to let you know what you should be watching on the small screen. Just like in sports, an opinionated take on what is the best of the best is great for television. It's too bad that Tim Goodman is the only other one out there that I know of that puts out Power Rankings. His come out weekly, or any week that he remembers to do it, and that's a bit much. Every couple of months, the television landscape changes here at The Pool, and therefore we now come out with our November Power Rankings. So go grab a couple of boat drinks, turn on some reggae, and take a look at what you should be watching.
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| Horatio Sans, Chris Parnell and Chris Gethard of Big Lake |
Show- (last time)...red=moving down, green=moving up
Big Lake- (-) Tuesdays on Comedy Central
Although it is unlikely to get a second season, Big Lake deserves some recognition if only for Chris Parnell's fantastic performance over the 10 episode first season. If you enjoy his Dr. Spaceman on 30 Rock, you will die for his Chris Henkel on this show. He's absolutely ridiculous at all times and at no point does it cease to be hilarious. He could be the most underrated comedic actor on the market right now.
Eastbound and Down- (-) Sundays on HBO
I'll probably take heat for this, but I feel this season of Eastbound is a big let down. This is kind of a situation where the creators had a great idea for a funny character and had no idea how to write funny stories around him. The hilarity of Kenny Powers came out in full force over those first six episodes in season one, but this year I have not been impressed. Last week made a turn in the right direction when they began to play on his relationship with his dad. Seeing him so obsessed with Don Johnson was pretty hilarious.
Glee- (-) Tuesdays on FOX
I'm still shocked at how much critical attention gets paid to this show. It's not any better written than a show like Grey's Anatomy, in fact it's much more inconsistent. It doesn't get any more viewers than some of the top network dramas. Is it just because there's singing? I mean that's why I still give it as much attention as I do, but it's weird that the top critics still take time to write reviews on this mostly garbage show. Any show that can be split up into three distinct types based on which one of its three show-runners are in charge in that give episode, is completely ridiculous. Having said that, I still enjoy it...mostly for Santana though.
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| Katie Cassidy on Gossip Girl |
The TV Show Girl, over at AOL's TV Squad, recently tweeted that she "gave up on Gossip Girl." While I have long since looked forward to watching it, it's still in my rotation. Sometimes I get behind by a week or two, but I always catch up on it. I'm glad I've stuck with it, because the story they're going to with Katie Cassidy's Juliet and Sam Page's Colin has me very intrigued. Why on Earth would she be going through all of this trouble to take down the characters we know on Gossip Girl? I have no idea, but unlike most of the stuff from the past few seasons, it's interesting.
Hawaii Five-0- (-) Mondays on CBS
I came for Scott Caan and the Hawaiian atmosphere, but I may be staying for CBS wonderboy Alex O'Loughlin. I never even tried his most recently failed projects Moonlight or Three Rivers, but I've been pleasantly surprised with his performance on Hawaii Five-0. Maybe CBS was right to continue to give this guy platforms. Maybe those other shows were just bad. He seems like a pretty big stud so far, and his relationship with Scott Caan has been great to watch so far.
Jersey Shore- (HM) Thursdays on MTV
Absolutely no question in my mind, Pauly D is the best thing about this show. Between "The cabs are here!" and his version of "It's tee shirt timeeee!" he is solid when it comes to yelling things. On top of that he's a stud, he never ruins things for other people, and he will blow up on you if you give him a chance. The Situation is great and all, but he went down the wrong path a few times this season, and I can't help but say he kind of embarrassed himself. This season, on the whole, could have been better. If they didn't make the entire first half of it about Ronnie and Sammie they would have been much better off.
League, The- (-) Thursdays on FX
Every time Jackie Boy tells me that The League was the funniest comedy of a give Thursday night, I can never tell if he's serious, joking, or somewhere in between. I was one of the only ones I knew enjoyed the second half of The League's first season, but now I feel like I'm the only one who isn't absolutely loving this second season. It might be a bit better than the end of last year, but it still hasn't been great. I was all about making the show more about fantasy football last year, because the non fantasy stuff was either ridiculously dirty, or ridiculously unfunny. This year the fantasy stuff is just killing me. They're doing the general comedy better, but every time there's a football story line I want to shoot myself in the head.
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| Sherlock and Dr. Watson |
I just finished watching episode one of this three ep first season (writing Saturday). These Brits went with an interesting format; three one and a half hour episodes to start things off. I've never been one to watch things from the UK, but something about Sherlock Holmes intrigued me. The difference with this version of the famous story, is that our Sherlock and Watson are in modern day England. I really enjoyed the first installment and am absolutely looking forward to the next one. It will definitely be higher on my priority list next week, and it should be on your radar as well. If you like mysteries and Englishmen, you will probably love this.
Survivor- (15) Wednesdays on CBS
What a bad group of contestants can do to you huh? Or maybe what a couple of good ones can. The last two seasons featured Russell Hantz, last year's winner for the Terry Fator Award at the Poolies. This past spring we had an All-Star season hat had Russell, Boston Rob, Coach Wade and a variety of other greats. This season we have what? Jimmy Johnson out in week 2? A somewhat intriguing Jimmy T out a week after that? There is nobody left in this crew that I'm even rooting for to stay in the game. At any point I couldn't care who gets eliminated. That's not a good sign.
True Blood- (13) Sundays on HBO
Oh how the mighty have fallen. Maybe I'm being harsh by removing True Blood from the Top 20 entirely, but maybe I'm just making a statement. This last season was quite a crazy step down from the greatness of season two. Maybe now people will agree that Maryanne Forrester was one of the great evil bad guys of the decade. She helped bring True Blood as high as eight in the power rankings, and all these werewolves did was drop it off the list completely.
Also fallen out...Sonny With a Chance (18), Top Chef (20).
