TV Blog Buzz: Season finales approach, ‘Big Brother’ boo-boo, ‘Mad Men’ debated
Posted May 5, 2013 9:15 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Sadly, it’s time once again to say goodbye to many of your favourite shows. Some for summer vacation, others possibly for good.
This week brings the season finales of “Blue Bloods,” “Community,” “Fashion Star,” “Glee,” “Person of Interest,” “Splash,” “Touch,” “Two and a Half Men” and “Vegas,” among others.
Now the speculation begins around which shows won’t be returning.
“Community” may be among the most endangered shows. It was a disappointing fourth season for the struggling comedy, which was looking to rebound after NBC yanked its creator Dan Harmon from the creative team. Never a ratings winner, it plodded along with more middling numbers this season and lost some longtime fans along with the way. Could the title of the finale, “Advanced Introduction to Finality,” be a wink from the show’s writers hinting that they’re expecting the worst? Well, the New York Times’ Arts Beat blog (http://nyti.ms/13Q6Ngl) argues while the show’s ratings haven’t been great, they might be just good enough to warrant another season.
The New York magazine blog Vulture (http://vult.re/121YpZR) is also betting that fellow NBC comedy “Parks and Recreation” will escape limbo and be brought back for a sixth season. The show hasn’t built up a huge base of viewers but it’s still one of the network’s better prime-time performers, especially among comedies.
“Big Brother Canada” boo-boo: Oops! The finale of the inaugural season of “Big Brother Canada” went off the rails for a couple of minutes Thursday night before the winner, Jillian MacLaughlin, could be crowned. As host Arisa Cox was revealing the final votes deciding the winner, previously ousted contestant Topaz Brady objected that hers was counted incorrectly, in favour of MacLaughlin instead of Gary Levy. “Wait a minute. Wait, what? No, no! No, wait a minute, no!” she said as she stormed the stage to protest. “Are you guys kidding me? No, someone switched it, don’t do this to me!” As the live studio audience jeered, a flummoxed Cox couldn’t get Brady back to her seat and the show went abruptly to a commercial break. A video replay of the voting ceremony revealed Brady botched her vote, which sealed the deal for MacLaughlin’s victory.
John Kubicek of BuddyTV called it “probably the best ending in the history of reality TV” (http://bit.ly/ZsKiLk) but wasn’t a fan of some of the twists seen on the Canadian version of the international reality hit.
One of the most popular “Big Brother” contestants to ever appear on the U.S. version of the show, Dick (Evel Dick) Donato, has blogged about the fouled-up finale (warning: non-stop foul language throughout http://bit.ly/15eDWHe) and shares his two cents about strategies gone wrong, his favourite and least favourite contestants, and his conspiracy theory about how producers may have influenced the final result.
Former “Survivor” contestant Rob Cesternino writes (http://huff.to/17BJB7L) that while he feels for Levy, who was arguably robbed of the grand prize $100,000, a 2013 Chevrolet Trax and a $25,000 shopping spree at The Brick, he probably does have the best shot at fame post-“Big Brother Canada.”
“Mad Men” continues to have critics divided: It’ll be interesting to see the reaction to this week’s “Mad Men” episode, “For Immediate Release,” because recent reviews have been all over the map. Previous episode “The Flood,” which included the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., got a glowing A- review from the A.V. Club (http://avc.lu/121Z8Ky). Todd VanDerWerff supported the writers’ decision to portray loathed Pete Campbell as one of the characters most emotionally struck by the shocking news.
“It’s a laughline, sure, because Pete rarely gets so serious, but then you immediately realize he really means it, and it becomes one of the more empathetic moments for the character in the run of the show,” writes VanDerWerff.
The Hollywood Reporter’s Tim Goodman, on the other hand, called it “another weak episode” (http://bit.ly/105Ardy) and panned Pete’s reaction.
“It rang hollow, as did much of the episode whenever we had characters reacting specifically to King’s death in a way and this is the important part that seemed aimed at reflecting the tenor of the times and not to reveal something larger about the character,” opines Goodman.
Another thumbs-down blog post by famed TV writer, director and producer Ken Levine (http://bit.ly/17A4SPk) has been making the rounds, lamenting that the once-loved Don Draper character has devolved into someone nearly impossible to like.
