The Back to School Post

For the last 29 years or so, my life has been lived on a school calendar. Every year since I was about two, I've either begun a new school year or a new job (usually at a school) in late August or early September. At some point, I suppose this will change. At some point, I will have a job that doesn't change schedules and begin a markedly new year in August or September. But, as my one-year clerkship has just begun, it will be a couple more years before that happens.

One of the great thing about living life on the school calendar is seeing all your friends again and making a bunch of new ones when school starts back up again in the fall. Sometimes, you can even manage to arrange things so that the people who made you feel uncomfortable last year aren't around any more or aren't too close by in the new school year. And, inevitably, every year you end up missing a few people who have moved on and don't sit next to you in class anymore.

TV is like this too. (You knew this post was going to get back to TV at some point, didn't you?) Every fall, the some old friends return, a bunch of new ones arrive, and some others go their separate ways. Sure, you have a few friends from summer camp (like the boys and girls from Army Wives, Side Order of Life, Saving Grace, and Mad Men this summer), but you miss your school year friends by the time August rolls around.

This year, I'm looking forward to spending some school nights with the folks from Dillon, Texas, the McHotties at Seattle Grace Hospital, and the Walkers from SoCal. Heck, I'll even be glad to see Denny Crane and Alan Shore and Tony Gates and Neela Rasgotra back on my TiVo again. But in general, this is going to be a year for making new friends. With Star's Hollow closed to tourists, Orange County destroyed by an earthquake, and Studio 60 canceled due to ratings, there are several slots available in my back-to-school social calendar.

Part of the fun of a new school year is the unexpected joy in meeting a really amazing new friend, like last year's Panthers. It's too early at this point to guess at who might play that role this year. Gossip Girl, Chuck and Private Practice will get an audition on my TiVo merely because of their impressive pedigrees. (Gossip Girl and Chuck are from O.C.-creator Josh Schwartz and Private Practice is, of course, the long-awaited Kate Walsh-headed Grey's Anatomy spin-off from Shonda Rhimes.) Pushing Daisies will also get an audition, largely because of the overwhelmingly positive reviews it's getting. I will be minding the buzz and adding a few other try-outs into the TiVo To-Do list as the need arises.

And I promise to post more often once the new school (TV) year begins in a couple weeks. There's just only so many times a girl can post about how good Army Wives is before she decides to just go dark until the school year starts again. In the meantime, I will reiterate my spring posts by reminding my reticent readers that the first season of Friday Night Lights may be streamed for free on-line, Netflix'd, or purchased. You really ought to do that before the October 5th premiere. Really. Even if you hate football.

The End Is Not Near. It Is Here.

There were a bunch of retrospectives on The O.C. popping up around cyberspace this week as last night's finale approached. I particularly liked this run-down of the top ten episodes and this review of the impact of The O.C. on popular culture.

Lest we all forget though, The O.C. did not, in fact, spawn a brand new genre of TV. Instead, I watched the birth of that genre way back in 1990 with 90210. And yet going back to watch those old Shannon-Doherty-era episodes now, they seem so delightfully naive. The O.C. is so much more clever, ironic, and self-aware. Josh Schwartz consistently used Summer and Marissa's fascination with the teen soap The Valley and Seth's Atomic County comic to remind us that the show didn't take itself too seriously. Then, in last week's episode, we heard Seth and Ryan remark that if they had managed to swap bodies when Ryan received a blood transfusion from Seth, they "could have gotten a couple more years out of it." Brilliant. But this sort of "show-within-a-show" self-awareness in a teen soap did not start with The O.C. Instead, Dawson's Creek really started that trend: the cold open for many of those episodes had some sort of self-aware commentary about how everyone on the show talked too much, and then, of course, film-maker Dawson went on to Hollywood to produce a hit TV show called The Creek.

The other innovation for which The O.C. is getting a lot of credit is its use of the soundtrack to both promote indie bands and reinforce the character and plot development of the show. I'm sure The O.C. was not the first to do this consciously, but it did do it very well. An example: at our old house, N would generally sit in his office playing games on his computer while I watched prime time TV. He pointedly would not sit in the room with me, but he pointedly left the office door open. During Gilmore Girls, I would frequently hear him chuckling to himself. Occasionally over dinner he'd even ask me about plot points that he had trouble following simply by listening to Gilmore. But for the most part, he simply ignored the other shows. That is, until the day that Jeff Buckley's Hallelujah showed up on The O.C. N actually got up out of his chair and came out of his office to find out what I was watching and who was singing. The music was that compelling. I will miss it. For now I'll have to rely on One Tree Hill, which does its soundtrack almost as well as The O.C. did, for my anthematic indie music listening experience.

Last night's episode was a delight. It had appeared that Fox had spoiled the episode with a trailer that gave everything away, but instead the episode was filled with quirky, unexpected twists (like Summer and Seth living together while Taylor had taken off for Paris). The move to Berkeley was not unexpected, but the move back to the house where Sandy and Kirsten had first lived was a great twist on that. I laughed out loud as they moved back in to the house before the gay couple living there had agreed to sell, with Kirsten giving birth in one room, Ryan getting laid in another room, and Julie almost getting married in the back yard. I'm sad to see the end of The O.C. As the montage at the end fast-forwarded through 6 or 7 years, I was disappointed that I won't get to watch the writers and actors play out the stories in between. After a terrible season last year, the writing this season has been smart and funny.

But smart and funny exists on other shows too. Have I mentioned that if you're not watching Friday Night Lights you're missing the best show on TV?

Why I Love Sweeps

What a good week in TV! This is a post for true TV geeks like me.

Since last Sunday, there have been some big doings in my favorite fantasy worlds on the small screen. Some of the highlights:

• Emily Gilmore made me cry. The show has been such a disappointment this season, but this episode was perfect. Simply perfect.
  
• Meredith Grey went for an unexpected swim. Yikes. I love that this twist was never leaked on the spoiler sites. (I know, it would be simpler if I just didn't read the spoiler sites, but what fun would that be.)
  
• Lucas Scott has apparently written a novel. I want to read it. How cheesy is that?
• An earthquake has obliterated Orange County. Has any other show ended its run by literally blowing up the set? Oh, maybe 24, but I think they actually began the season by blowing up the set! With only two episodes left, Josh Schwartz and co. are going all out!
  
• After more than 12 weeks with the tension lurking below the surface, this week's episode was the first to really explore the racial issues in Dillon, Texas: a white assistant coach said way more than he should have to a crafty reporter and the black players walked off the field in disgust. It was a great way to get the conflict between Riggins and Smash to come to a head without either of them really doing anything wrong.
• There's a couch on Survivor!? Really?
• And finally, tonight, Kitty and the Senator kissed (and more)... and he's running for president. This show has really hit its stride with great characters and great writing. Plus, I love Rob Lowe. (And the line about him always liking Demi Moore was hilarious! Did anyone else catch that?)