Tandem reviewing

It's a skill honed only by those who watch too much TV and don't get a day off for a week and a half. Watch in amazement.

Not a big improv-ment
Long ago some TV executive came up with an idea: We could save tons of money if we don't pay writers. That idea evolved from things like game shows to things like Supernanny (though, the scriptedness of today's "reality shows" will remain in question for quite a while).

NBC's latest attempt a cash-saving programming is Thank God You're Here. The premise: take a comic or actor, dress them up and throw them into a situation they're not expecting and make them improvise. The success of Whose Line is it Anyway (the British one, not the U.S. version) is proof enough that viewers fall for improv shows.

The quality, though, depends on the person chosen to perform (Harlan Williams and Jane Lynch were wonderful on the episode I just took in), but the obvious editing is distracting and really hurts the air of spontaneity on which the show depends. If the right people show up, it's worth a look, but in general it's just another improv show and brings nothing new to the television table.

Cool factor
Fox's Drive is nothing spectacular either. The dialogue is the melodramatic crap that you would expect from Fox series (see Prison Break, Standoff) and for a character-driven show, the characters aren't interesting yet even after three episodes.

The show centers around an illegal, mysterious cross-country road race run by an unknown syndicate and populated by various stereotypes there for various reasons (I'm dying, they have my wife, my husband beats me, whatever...).

The biggest problem is the show's attempt to catch up to its serial granddaddies Heroes and Lost. Drive's already began plugging in mysteries that will last until the season ends (or, more likely, the show is canceled) -- and it's obviously trying too hard. The writers are overtwisting the storylines and it's going to end up hurting them. Even the interesting twists like handing a gun to the last-place contestant and telling her to take out another contestant will probably hurt the storyline in the end, especially so early on.

The shining spot? Nathan Fillion, who's been dragged into the race by his wife's kidnapping. He was extremely entertaining as Mal on Firefly and he continues that here.

The sheer coolness of the show and the possibilities of its premise will keep me watching for a few more weeks I think -- if it doesn't get canceled (ratings were NOT good).

Plain Jane
Losing one of its staples in a few months, Sci-Fi needs to pump out a new pseudo-hit. Hopefully Dresden Files will catch on (it completed its first season Sunday), but you can't go wrong with a badass-chick action show either. That description could be the only impressive thing about Painkiller Jane, though. It's basically Alias written for Sci-Fi and its production budgets with a little Buffy-like vampire hunting.

Jane's a DEA agent who stumbles into a completely different government department and gets recruited. She and her new team find out after a 40-story fall that she's a little more useful when she rolls out of the body bag the coroner packs her in. The team isn't hunting vampires though, they're on the lookout for "neuros" (think Professor X of Marvel Comics fame), and she's their new star.

The narration that Sci-Fi shows seem to lean on is annoying, and the wispy, video-game-ish cinematograpy is, while interesting, kind of hard to watch. It looks more like a show produced in Britain. The big shootout sequence near the end of the pilot will probably leave the Wachowski brothers nauseous.

It's nothing that hasn't been done before, but, like Drive, it's cool enough for now that I'll give it some more love this week.