Fall premieres fall short

With the appearance of back to school commercials in full effect, another popular promotion emerges: series premiere plugs. And after loitering all summer, I was fully enthusiastic about the premieres of some of my favorite TV programs, including Grey’s Anatomy, and House. Unfortunately, I am left unimpressed by the pair of medical shows.
Concluding with an intense cliffhanger in which a main character dies, the Grey’s premiere was ultimately depressing. As hospital employees grieve in unison, a new plot diverges away from the chaotic lives of Seattle Grace’s residents, toward Chief Richard Webber’s (James Pickens Jr.) struggle to maintain his position at the hospital. The restructuring of the show is due to conflicting schedules among cast members, as Katherine Heigl was filming a movie at the same time that Grey’s was filming. Also, Ellen Pompeo was expecting a baby throughout filming, which explains why her character will be subtly faded out of some of season six. Overall, the new season looks disappointing, especially sans George, the sweet, altruistic, and promising young surgeon whose death was the focus of the dreary two-hour long premiere.
Conversely, in the premiere of House, Hugh Laurie’s character’s storyline is the only one’s to progress. The show starts off by isolating Gregory House in a psychiatric facility, where the stubborn doctor is analyzed and treated, and apparently cured, in the span of the two-hour program. The program concludes with a psychiatric doctor temporarily withholding House’s medical license. So not only does the season premiere exclude House’s posse of coworkers, it further removes itself from the medical genre by limiting House’s interaction with the cast of doctors. In doing so, the episode fails to deliver the humorous quips that fans expect from the show.

I think it’s time for me to find a new medical-themed show this season.

Giving Back Woodstock

Taking Woodstock, a comedic account of the concert that revolutionized musical culture in the 60’s, ineffectually attempts to recount Woodstock’s generational influences. Hoping for a retrospective depiction of the famed event, I was utterly disappointed with the perspective that director Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain, Hulk) and screenplay writer James Schamus portrayed. Instead of glorifying the tradition and music, the film consisted mainly of ribald comments and crude characterizations of stereotypical hippies. The plot centers on young adult Elliot Tiber (Demetri Martin) who struggles with mediocrity as an adjunct manager of his parent’s motel, The El Monaco. Tiber obtains a permit for what was intended to become a small, annual cultural festival, but when Woodstock is forced to relocate, the White Lake, NY native jumps at the opportunity to attract a bevy of customers to the deteriorating motel. The story then gravitates around the chaos caused by an influx of ‘free spirits’ who damage Tiber’s and surrounding properties, and whose wild antics disturb the conservative-minded town. Raw, illicit themes associated with Woodstock are highlighted in the behind-the-scenes portrayal of the concert. Martin’s character never actually attends the concert, although he organizes the event, because he is too preoccupied taking care of the disorderly motel. The only positive element to the movie was the use of newscasts and wardrobe/hair/language styles emphasize the 60’s setting, but the excessive reminders of the time period suffocate the audience. For the most part, Taking Woodstock was a slow moving, bawdy film that further tarnishes the reputation of an innovative and profound event.