Monday September 12, 2005 arts. michigandaily. com artspage@michigandaily.com R TSe iciigan til 91 8A And so the race begins THE GREAT FALL TV DEBATE DAILY ARTS EDITORS ARGUE THE MERITS OF THE NEN SEASON Wth the fall TV season just around the corner, Daily TV/New Media Editor Punit Mattoo and Managing Arts Editor Adam Rottenberg debate everything from the highlights to the lowlights and the phenomenon of "The O.C." in between. What's the best new series? Punit Mattoo: "Everybody Hates Chris." Not so much because I think it'll be funny - I just want to see if the same network that made "Homeboys From Outer- space" can make a good show and also if Chris Rock can do something funny outside of his standup. Adam Rottenberg: "Everybody Hates Chris" looks good, but I know I won't be watching it on Thursdays. It's a toss-up for me between "My Name is Earl" and "Kitchen Confidential." I have a soft spot for uncon- ventional sitcoms, and both of these seem to be in that vein. Which new series will be cancelled first? AR: It has to be "Reunion." Sure, the initial ratings are good, but look at the past history of the time slot after "The O.C.": "North Shore," "Point Pleasant." It turns out that viewers don't really want to see more pretty people with problems after watching Seth and the gang. PM: Yeah, Fox manages to rip off one of its own shows for "Reunion." The whole premise - each epi- sode as a year in the character's lives - isn't really interesting or new at all. But I'm going with Jennifer Love Hewitt's new show, "Ghost Whisperer," as the worst show. Friday night on Fox is where shows go to die, and this one already has a foot in the grave. A fully-clothed JLH can't attract viewers with her awful acting, and characters who can speak to the dead are so overdone. Is "Lost" going anywhere? AR: f see a big repeat of "The X-Files" here - all build-up, no answers. Despite what the producers say, I don't think they have anything planned out for the long term. J.J. Abrams' other show, "Alias," has already run out of steam with the guessing games, and I don't see this one being any different. There were 24 episodes of "Lost" last season, yet we still know nothing about the hatch, the "others" or the monster. PM: It's only a matter of time before we all get tired of cliffhanger endings and cryptic messages that never get explained. How long can people watch a show where the writers are basically trying to make us angry? Speaking of "Lost," what's in the hatch? PM: Lots of heroin for Charlie. I think everyone will turn to drugs to pass the time and the show changes into one giant trip to make way for even more "mys- terious" stuff happening. And with ABC in high definition, hallucinations have never been more real- istic! AR: While drugs may be an interesting creative decision, it will probably end up being nothing. They'll go down that staircase and find another door. And guess what? That door will be locked, and the characters will spend the entire next season trying to open that. Even so, "Lost" may be the best sophomore series. But what's the worst? AR: I know you're going to say "Rodney," but I'm going to name a show I've at least seen. I watched "Joey" a few times, and I wish I hadn't. Honestly, he was a one-note character on "Friends," and I have no idea how they were planning on stretching it out for a full series. The premise just doesn't work. PM: "Joey" is horrible and should have never been created, but I didn't even realize that "Rodney" exist- ed until I read some magazine's fall TV Preview. And after watching a few episodes recently (thank God for the Internet), I'm glad I missed out. So-called "star" Rodney Carrington has to be the blandest leading character on television and confirmed my hunch that ABC honestly believes "According to Jim" is a model for all family sitcoms. And that is not a good thing. What to watch on Thursdays at 8 p.m.? PM: I want to say "Everybody Hates Chris," espe- cially because I named it the best new show this fall, but I know "The 0.C." is going to get all my atten- tion. Crazy plotlines, hot girls and water-cooler talk all keep me addicted. Hopefully, "Everybody Hates Chris" will be funny during the eight minutes I'll watch while "The O.C." has commercials. AR: This timeslot has become the new battlezone, especially since the era of "Must-See TV" is over. Thankfully, TiVo will cover "The O.C." for me so I can watch one of the best shows on television, "Alias." Who cares if she's been Afflecked and will now be preggers all season? It's still the best thrill ride on TV - sorry to all you "24" fans. So if you stick with "The 0.C." in that time slot, why do you watch it? AR: I don't know about you, but I like to watch 30- year olds pretend they're in high school - damn, Ryan looks old with that new haircut. Plus, Sandy Cohen might be the best TV attorney of all time. Ryan gets arrested for attempted murder; Sandy's there. Julie's being blackmailed for a porn tape; San- dy's got it covered. Is there any type of law he can't practice? PM: Sandy Cohen is the man. He should completely sell out and start working for tobacco companies so that he becomes this slightly villainous character. The show's writers would make the moral dilemmas so over-the-top and set it to some horrible Death Cab song that I couldn't help but watch. rade-school kids dread no month more than Septem- ber, the inescapable signi- fier that summer is officially over and school has arrived. Even if you didn't mind going back every year, it still felt distinctly like we had been cheated. I will never forget that sobering moment when I realized that I would not be able to watch "David the Gnome" any more because it was on at 9 a.m. and school started an hour earlier. To this day, my parents probably still think I was crying on the first day because they were leaving JEF me. Not true. BL Hollywood deals with the same sort of thing. September ends the traditional Memorial Day- to-Labor Day summer movie rush (which, in recent years, has been pushed back to the first weekend of May, but tell that to the producers of "Kingdom of Heaven"). Studios bring in more revenue during those four months than the rest of the year, but come fall, most of their money will be made (and lost) on risks - movies that they had to be bul- lied into financing in the first place. Recently, we're talking the better part of the Best Picture nominees - "Million Dollar Baby," "The Avi- ator," even "The Lord of the Rings" - all of which bounced around from one end of Hollywood to the other before eventually finding a stu- dio to back them. But when it works, it really works, and so the process endures. The promise of awards attention is good for business, and besides, Hollywood loves nothing more than to be in the national spotlight. Studios hate to finance the movies themselves, but when it comes time for their award-season campaigns, they don't hesitate to shovel funds into trade- paper ads and congratulatory parties for their nominees. It's a numbing annual turnaround that is neverthe- less great fun for movie buffs, and it officially kicked off last week with the Toronto Film Festival. While it's not the oldes\ or even" the most highly respected (Cannes will always be the alpha and omega of them all, even if it remains unknown to most American audi- ences), the fest has become the largest in the world - an industry- wide launching pad for the mov- ies that will fill out the Academy Award nominations come January. If you think it's too early for specu- lation on an awards show that's still five months away, I mind you that Entertainment Weekly had early Oscar coverage in July. And just ask that sorta off-the-wall kid in your Psych class who loves movies, and I'll bet he can already rattle off this year's prospects. Most of these movies won't launch visible campaigns until a good amount of people have already seen them; if word of mouth never catches on, neither will they. It seems that every year, conventional Hollywood wisdom holds that they should not start any real promotion Ff 0( of their platform releases until even casual moviegoers have already heard about the movie enough times to want to go see it. Ah, but this year, you are mad at the movies. You don't like the pric- es, you don't like the atmosphere and most importantly, you don't like the mov- ies. For months on end, all anyone's wanted to talk about is how box- office returns are down hard from last year (some of which is war- ranted, some of which is not). Sure, you saw "Batman Begins" and FREY "Wedding Crashers," OMER and for better or worse, everyone went to "Star Wars," but these were the exception rather than the rule. If the most common reason given for the downturn is the quality of the movies - and as of late, it seems that it is - then presumably, September should end this trend. In the fall, we will have "Jarhead," Sam Mendes's ("American Beauty") Gulf War drama with Jake Gyl- lenhaal and Jamie Foxx; "Walk the Line," the Johnny Cash biopic that has industry insiders practically handing the Oscar over to Joaquin Phoenix; and "Capote," with still another buzz-swiping performance from Phillip Seymo~ur Hoffman as the title writer. These movies will have niche audiences and, if they're lucky, find bigger crowds with time. But some- how I doubt moviegoers at large will ever warm up to, say, "Broke- back Mountain." From the E. Annie Proulx story and director Ang Lee ("Crouching Tiger, Hidden Drag- on"), the long-awaited film also stars Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger in a decade-spanning story of cow- boys in love. The movie, set in the idyllic '60s Wyoming backcountry, has already won the Golden Lion at Venice and might just take top acco- lades from Toronto as well. But I can't help but suspect that you won't go see it. You already skipped most of what turned out to be a fairly strong summer - for every "Fantastic Four" there was a "Batman Begins," for every "Bewitched" there was a "Broken Flowers" - but now, we are about to enter what is widely expected to be the richest and most competitive awards season in years. So it's time to go back to the movies. No more bitching about the $9 tickets and annoying kids and cell phones; it's all negligible if you find a good movie. You still have a month or two before the films at the festivals start rolling into theaters, but in the meantime, try Werner Herzog's stunning "Grizzly Man," now playing at the State Theater and by far the best documentary released so far this year. You might just be surprised at how much you like it. - Bloomer really loves film festivals and already has tickets for Sundance. Let him now how awesome they are by e-mailing him at bloomerj@umich.edu. 1 -4- */ E Build Your Career Portfolio... while improving the lives of others I I 3. *1 Inside and Downstairs in the Bivouac Basement SIGUR ROS "TAKK.." $10.99 WITH THIS AD I I A N N A P D IM R DEV ENDRA BANHART "CRIPPLE CROW" $9.99 WITH THIS AD 332 S. State Street Inside Bivouac Basement 734-663-7248 email: schoolkids@ameritech.net Test Prep and Admissions C asses staerng.nnw! I