I’ve always wondered why ER dramas are so enticing to people.

Take ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ for example. My wife is obsessed with the show and always has to have her Thursday night free so that she doesn’t miss the latest and greatest on Grey’s. In fact, these past few weeks have been a bit rough for her as Grey’s has seemed to go on a holiday hiatus or something.

And its not only Grey’s that is successful and earning their network huge bucks. ‘ER’ was a huge hit when it was around, and ‘Private Practice’, which airs right after Grey’s, has also done quite well as well. In fact, the only recent drama of this ER genre that hasn’t done well is ‘Off the Map,’ for who knows what reasons.

This all begs the question, why are we in love with all the gore, soap opera romances, and stress that these shows are week in and week out?

I’ve decided to brainstorm a few possible reasons, but let me know if I’m way off base or if you have other insights to lend by commenting to this post.

Good Looking Men

First of all, I don’t think I’m really going out on a limb by saying that a majority of the people who watch these ER dramas are women. As such, ABC and other networks have, very cunningly, decided to cast some handsome looking men in their lead roles.

I mean, you’ve got Patrick Swayze on Grey’s who every women professes their love to, that ripped black guy on Private Practice who always seems to have his shirt off in bed, and plenty of other men who were gifted with good looks.

Better yet, if you watch these shows, you may notice something peculiar – the women are not nearly as good looking as the men?! This is a truthful statement. If you don’t believe me, go check out an episode for yourself.

Feel-Good Moments and Messages

Now, ER dramas are not the only shows that try to portray heart-warming acts of service on a consistent basis. Heck, even Modern Family has some sort of moral theme that they always bring out at the end of the show.

But ER dramas tend to bring out these messages really well. I mean, every one of these shows kind of follows the same pattern. Each episode normally follows a number of different story lines, each more stressful than the last, while mixing in a ton of protagonists and antagonists as they do so.

This makes for 48-minutes of craziness which often leaves people on the “edge of their seat.” But somehow, at the end, everything is always resolved! Not only that, but all the various solutions are always tied together into one “feel-good message” that just melts your heart….or something like that.

I must admit, although I do not enjoy watching these shows, they are very good at helping people to relate to their make believe worlds of stress, frustration, and ultimately, triumph.

The Action

Lastly, people like action and suspense. And somehow, you get these elements in ER dramas. Now, this isn’t the type of action that involves car chases, epic gun fights, or sword-wielding heroes, but its still the type of action that will keep you glued to your TV set.

After all, its hard to take your eyes off of a dramatic surgery, transplant, or procedure that may save someone’s life – whether its real or being acted out on a set.

Last Thought

In ending, I guess its not hard to see why people love ER dramas. I mean, who doesn’t like a show packed with drama, action, suspense, good looking people, and a feel-good message at the end?

That being said, I still can’t lower my standards to watch one of these shows anytime in the near future. But at least I know why other people do!

It’s been an entire year since “The Walking Dead” premiered on AMC. I must admit, when I first heard about this TV series that was derived from a comic book about a post-apocalyptic, zombie world, I was pretty interested.

After all, we all love zombie movies right? From “I Am Legend” to “28 Days Later,” we all love a flic that chronicles the story of a few survivors trying to reestablish mankind in the face of thousands of zombies trying to hunt them down.

Well, this is basically the same storyline that “The Walking Dead” follows….except you get a weekly dosage of zombie love, rather than sporadically whenever a zombie movie comes out.

All that being said, I still haven’t watched a single episode of this TV series yet…shame on me! But in this post, I’m going to let you know why both of us should be turning on our TV sets next Sunday at 9/8c to check it out with the millions of other viewers across the world who have already tuned in.

Award Nominating

After the first season aired, pundits and critics were already hailing “The Walking Dead” as the next great drama series. Along those lines, it was actually nominated for several Golden Globe Awards, but failed to actually win any of the categories it was nominated for.

That being said, I wouldn’t be surprised to see the series win ‘Best TV Series Drama’ in the next few years here as it continues to build steam and pick up viewers. Speaking of picking up steam, AMC just announced a few weeks ago at the beginning of this the second season, that a third season will be airing next year due to the popularity of the show.

It seems that TV critics and AMC’s board alike, have realized the magnitude of this series and the potential it has to become one of the best drama series to date.

Great Storyline

Backtracking a bit, its obvious that “The Walking Dead” has a great storyline as well…hence its popularity. In short, the series begins after the earth is overrun by zombies, and follows a small group of survivors who try to reach a supposed quarantined-zone in Atlanta. The group is led by a former sheriff deputy named Rick Grimes.

Intertwined into this storyline, of course, are plenty of enticing plot lines that develop as the characters in the group develop relationships with one another while trying to survive the zombie onslaught. And as always, there are love triangles that develop, a pregnancy, alpha males who butt heads, and more.

Viewership Records

Lastly, if you need further convincing about the quality of this TV series, just know that the premiere of season two set a new viewership record for a premiere on a cable network as over 7.3 million viewers watched the episode. On top of that, its the most watched TV series in the history of television by the demographic of 18-54 year old people.

So if you’re older than 54, perhaps its understandable if you decide that the whole zombie thing isn’t for you. But if you fall within this 18-54 year old range, come join the party!

Conclusion

In conclusion, if you like action, drama, suspense, and good-looking women, you’re going to enjoy “The Walking Dead.” Again, it airs on AMC on Sunday’s at 9/8c, if you want to be cool and watch this series with the rest of America and the world.

I know I’ll be…

I must admit, embarrassingly, that I did watch a few minutes of Kim Khardasian’s wedding ceremony which aired as a two-hour special on E! just a few weeks ago.

During the special, Kim and New Jersey Nets forward, Kris Humphries, said their vows and wed in front of families and friends. Now, two weeks later, they have decided to call it quits after just 72 days of marriage!

Rumors True

In the past week or so, rumors have been spreading that Kim’s family hated Kris and that things were already on the rocks. Surprisingly, the tabloids and rumors actually held true for once.

Or perhaps its not so surprising, considering the fact that Kim doesn’t really try to hide her personal life from the cameras. Along those lines, her need to film “Kourtney and Kim Take New York,” probably helped to fuel the fire which led to her divorce.

After all, how easy is it being a newlywed and living in the same apartment as your sister, her boyfriend, and her baby? That being said, you can’t really blame Humphries for jumping ship this early as well.

It probably didn’t take him long to realize….that when you marry a Khardasian, you’re basically marrying the entire family (including their crazy mother!). I mean, and according to reports, Kim wasn’t even willing to give up her star-studded last name after marrying Kris.

What The Future Holds

Although you never want to see a divorce, its not like this is going to hurt Kim’s brand and Kris will just continue his career in the NBA (whenever the lockout ends). His good looks, and the fact that he is an NBA starter/6th man, will certainly keep the lovely ladies coming his way in the near future.

As for Kim, she’ll probably find another star athlete to become her next boyfriend. I mean, who can resist Kim right? The question is, who will be the next to bite the dust?

We though Kris would finally be her “keeper”. But after just 72 days, he joins the ranks of Reggie Bush, Miles Austin, and many more men who have tried for Kim’s heart and failed. Perhaps its because the task of trying for Kim’s heart, and the hearts of the rest of her family, is just too much for one man to handle.

Even if that man can run a 4.3 40-yard dash or has a 40-foot vertical leap.

And on a side note, this divorce will give Kim more time to focus on her upcoming film, “The Marriage Counselor,” which is being directed by Tyler Perry.

After just 3 aired episodes, NBC has decided to cancel the brand new drama, “The Playboy Club.” The series will be replaced by Brain Williams’ news magazine show called “Rock Center.”

Poor Ratings

The series debuted to a very poor showing on Sept. 20, reeling in just 5 million viewers and a 1.6 rating. By the third and final episode of the season, viewership had fallen even further to just 3.2 million viewers and a 1.2 rating.

Now, three straight weeks of poor ratings and viewership numbers doesn’t always get a show axed….unless it already came with the controversy surrounding “The Playboy Club.”

Angry Parents

From the get-go, it seemed as if the adult-catered series was doomed. After it was announced that it would be released as part of NBC’s fall lineup, the Parents Television Council asked for a boycott of the series, calling it “degrading and sexualizing,” as they targeted and tried to get the show’s sponsors to pull out of their agreements before it actually aired.

But it wasn’t only parents who were angry. Even former Playboy Bunnies themselves found the new drama series to be unsettling. All-in-all, it was reported that seven advertisers pulled out of the series by its second episode.

NBC’s Salt Lake City affiliate even went as far as cancelling the show altogether in the state and its surrounding areas.

Producer Strikes Back

Chad Hodge, the producer of the show, recently expressed the fact that he wishes his show was given a better chance to succeed.

In an interview, Hodge was quoted saying, “I think there’s a perception of the show that’s false. There of different brands of feminism. This is a fun, sexy soap.”

My opinion

After reading that “The PlayBoy Club” was cancelled, I was glad to see that somebody in America took a stand for morality. In a day and age where almost anything goes in terms of entertainment, it was somewhat surprising that “The PlayBoy Club” was ridiculed and stepped upon so intensely.

I’m glad to see it. Perhaps this will demotivate producers, directors, and network stations from deciding to put this kind of trash on the airwaves in the future.

BTW…its kind of neat to see how one organization can bring down an entire T.V. series with one fell swoop, isn’t it?

If you haven’t watched the hit ABC show that has won lots and lots of awards in ‘Modern Family’, you need to make the commitment right now to leave next Wednesday evening open so that you can watch an episode of this cleaver and outrageously funny sitcom.

Mark my words: You’ll fall in love with it.

Mirror-Image of Society

It shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that many families and individuals today have been able to relate to ‘Modern Family.’ I mean, it doesn’t get much more “modern” than a gay couple, a man whose married a foreign women 30 years his younger, and a family that consists of quirky kids and even quirkier parents.

In a day and age when the traditional, “Leave it to Beaver,” family has gone by the wayside in contemporary America, the success of ‘Modern Family’ has obviously come from the show’s ability to connect with the societal norms of today.

Great Cast, Great Crew

On top of that, from the kids to the adults, every member of the ‘Modern Family’ cast seems to have their acting role down to a “T”. My personal favorite is Gloria, who is played by the very-good looking Sofia Vergara.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with Gloria, she comes from Columbia, has a son named Manny who is 9 or 10, and has for some reason other than obtaining a green card….married an American man 30 years her age by the name of Jay.

Let’s just say that you couldn’t have a more polar opposite couple than Jay and Gloria.

Anyways, Gloria has this super annoying, high-pitched, Colombian-accented voice that you’ll never forget after watching one episode. And the antics that she produces and puts up with while trying to co-exist with Jay and the American culture make for plenty of laughs and comical situations.

Also, the crew behind this show must also be complemented for a job well done. The story ideas never get old, and I really like the idea behind the spotlight interviews. You know, like the asides that they do on ‘The Office’…makes for great one-liner and memorable quote moments.

Can The Success Last?

In many cases, the ideas start to wane and the punch lines start to get old after awhile when it comes to the steady digression of most sitcoms after a couple of seasons on the air.

Then again, sometimes you get exceptions to the rules such as ‘Friends’, and well….all I can think of off the top of my head is ‘Friends’. Can ‘Modern Family’ duplicate that kind of success?

Only time will tell.

But with a great cast and crew, lively script that is always producing new ideas, and a large audience that is already hooked to the show, I would bet my money in Vegas that ‘Modern Family’ can duplicate the popularity of ‘Friends’ and perhaps even surpass the benchmark that Jennifer Aniston and Courtney Cox set.

Sure it was a good idea by executive producer and reality show genius, Mark Burnett, to develop an Amazing Race-on-steroids-type-show, but it just never lived up to my expectations.

Only One Dominant Team

Part of the problem was merely the fact that the entire show, and each leg of the race, was dominated by The Gypsies. These three purple-rocking friends from Florida and California crossed the finish line as the first-place team on almost every single episode. On top of that, they were almost always closely followed by The Football Players, No Limits, and Fab 5.

It was obvious from the first episode, that these four teams were the only ones with a legitimate shot at winning it all. Needless to say, these four teams were also the four finalists heading into the last stretch of the race.

With a show like this, you need more parity and competition from top-to-bottom if you really want to make things exciting. That never happened with the first season of Expedition Impossible.

Girls Never Stood a Chance

None of the girl teams really ever stood a chance in the race. The conditions and physical hardship of the land and challenges were just too much for most of the women to handle. I was surprised that the California Girls made it as far into the competition as they did. I think the second season of the show needs to find a better balance between mental and physical challenges. That’s the only way that an all-girls team can actually win this thing the next time around.

Not Enough Bickering and Drama Between Teams

Sure, there was plenty of in-fighting and frustration between team members, but we never saw any true competitions and rivalries develop between teams. There just wasn’t enough drama between the teams to make the show entertaining. What the show needs in its next season are a few hotheads and true personalities that won’t mind roughing it up with opposing teams.

After all, a few cheap shot comments and in-your-face scenes between teams can only make for good entertainment and keep viewers around longer.

Final Word

Its quite obvious at this point, that ABC is planning on a second season of Expedition Impossible.There is obviously potential there for the second season to be a major upgrade from the first. Perhaps ABC and Burnett can learn from their mistakes and build from them the next time around. We’ll just have to wait and see.

What sets Bones apart from the rest of the genre of “political procedural” is the attempts at dark humor and the “Angelator” the holographic presentation projector that replaces the “flash backs” of other shows. The first year Bones attracted an average of 10.0 million viewers and that was the highest number of viewers Fox has received for a prime time Thursday-night drama series premiere since 24 started way back in 2001. The show was first in the important demographic – the 18 to 49 years olds. Seasonal rankings (based on average total viewers per episode) of Bones have steadied at #32 which can’t be bad.

USA Today reviewed the show and commented that compared to other similar crime shows, Bones “is built on a more traditional and solid foundation: the strength of its characters” and “what sets Bones premiere apart from the procedural pack are stars Emily Deschanel and David Boreanaz, as the season’s most appealing new crime fighters.” Media Life Magazine commented that while Bones has “an amazingly clever notion, brilliant even”, its “execution doesn’t match the conception” and based on its first episode, the show “fails to evolve into a gripping series. In fact, it quickly becomes so derivative of so much else on television — especially, strangely, X-Files —that one might even call it bone-headed.”

First off, its cast is solid. Joel McHale does a great job as Jeff, the shows main character. Though he is pretty much the same character you saw on the soup, you still have to love his snarky quips and scathing jibes. It’s also great to see Chevy Chase doing work again. He plays the character, Pierce. Some of us may have forgotten just how funny he was after the disappointment of some of the more recent “Vacation” films, but Community has him back in hilarious form. The funniest addition to the cast, in my opinion, is Ken Jeong who plays Ben Chang. He is the outcast of the show who is always trying to shoehorn himself into the study group which consists of the show’s core characters.

Besides a good cast, I liked the writing. Many of their jokes pluck chords of pop culture that are very dear to me. Community especially appealed to the sci-fi and fantasy nerd inside me. I guess it helps when I catch the Halloween special about a zombie apocalypse and the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons episode. On both viewings, I was very entertained. In both there were several references to movies like Aliens, Night of the Living Dead, and Lord of the Rings, all of which are staples in my own movie library.

Overall, I feel like I enjoyed how un-seriously the show took itself. Too often these days sitcoms try to get dramatic and poignant. (The Office is starting to wear thin on this point.) But the lighthearted approach to Community really endeared me to the show. It’s definitely a show I would recommend spending some time catching up on.

The Simpsons was one of my all time favorite shows growing up as a kid. But once I graduated high school I kind of stopped watching it. I guess I might have caught it here or their in syndication but I never found myself clearing my schedule so I could tune in Sunday nights. I felt the show was slipping. Around the 9th or 10th season, something started to go wrong. Things started changing. Even though Bart was still eternally locked in the 4th grade and Homer was still endangering the world as a nuclear engineer, something was different about it.  It’s still something I can’t quite put my finger on.

I do agree that some things need to change. If Bart was still doing the “Bartman” and cracking his old catchphrases, the show would be unbearable. But even though a show needs to keep current and up to date, can’t it hold onto its original charm and spark that made it so great in the first place? Perhaps not.

Around season 11, I found myself hardly ever laughing at the show. It just wasn’t the good old Simpsons I knew and loved. Years went by where I don’t think I ever caught an episode (mostly because I didn’t have a TV in college). But a few weeks ago I wasn’t doing anything on a quiet Sunday. I turned on Fox and sure enough the Simpsons were on. I decided to give it a chance, wondering if the current years were anything as bad as the mid-teen seasons. To my surprise, I found myself laughing quite a bit. Maybe it was nostalgia more than anything, but I almost felt like I was seeing old friends again. The show was good, I’m not sure if I am hooked again like I was when I was a kid, but its definitely an improvement from other episodes I’ve seen.

I wanted to pitch this to the community out there. Are the Simpsons back on track for their last few seasons? Have they found their way back into the funny groove? Or do you feel like they never fell off the rails in the first place? I’d love to hear your comments below.

Critic’s Notebook in the LA Times Entertainment section said as long ago as October 2010 that “Glee” was at a crossroads. I think the show took a wrong left-hand turn instead of ploughing forward.

Ann Powers wrote “Like Rachel Berry (played by actress Lea Michele ), the show’s would-be Streisand who, musically at any rate, is the central character in this ensemble show, “Glee” is also wildly ambitious and earnest about what the lively arts can accomplish. If Murphy and his team had done nothing more than create a viable television series employing the structure of musical theater, that would have been enough; it’s never really happened before in prime time. (“Cop Rock,” no; and “The Singing Detective” hailed from the tony BBC .)

But “Glee” has gone further, using the softening agents of song and schticky humor to take a strongly left-leaning stance on issues including teen pregnancy, abstinence, gay visibility and the rights of the disabled. Grabbing huge audiences with these plotlines — not to mention its fundamental role as a cheerleader (pun intended!) for arts in the schools — it’s a potent pop-cultural force in opposition to the rightward push of that other pop phenomenon of the moment, the Tea Party movement.”

Back in August last year LA Times TV Critic Robert Lloyd wrote under the headline One Man’s trash is another man’s ‘Glee’-