Hopefully, by the time you read this, the Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike will be over and television will be back to the business of making new, scripted programs. As I’m writing this, the Directors Guild of America (DGA) has already secured a deal with the producers, and the writers are headed back to the negotiating table. Really, I don’t see how much longer we can go with “American Gladiators” being one of the only “new” shows on television. And, though the first week of “The Daily Show” without writers was funny in a very “ha-ha-we-don’t-have-any-writers” kind of way, I don’t know if they can pull it off long term. Don’t get me wrong, I’m very much on the side of the writers, as is pretty much everyone except half a dozen major studio and network execs. But I just can’t take much more of this.
Even if this does get wrapped up relatively soon, a lot of the new episodes may not come back right away. Many series’ tight production schedules have been stretched or scrapped altogether. A show like “Lost,” that shoots in Hawaii, may take months to get back on track. So I’ve put together a little emergency kit for you, in case the strike continues to wreak havoc on your TV viewing into the spring. Below are some recent favorites I encourage you to discover, catch up on, or revisit over this long, nuclear winter of TV desolation.
The Wire
Fortunately, this show wrapped production on its fifth and final season before the strike happened. All of the first four seasons are available on DVD, and the new season is up on HBO On-Demand. This show is absolutely as good as everyone says it is, and you are, indeed, seriously missing out.
Dexter
Showtime’s bloody, creepy, quirky serial-killer drama is going to air on CBS because… hey, what else are they going to air? I would expect it to come with a lot of “strong content” warning labels, and for CBS to push the envelope a little with what they’ll allow on air. But something tells me that editing this for network, no matter how daring they are, will take some of the bite away. This show is REALLY bloody. Go out and pick up the DVD set of Season 1. You’ll be surprised, and a little disgusted, to find yourself rooting for a serial killer.
Veronica Mars
If you ever saw “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” but wished it was a little more like “The O.C.” and didn’t have all those vampires, this is the show for you. It’s remarkable how effortlessly creator Rob Thomas shifts between suspenseful detective drama and primetime teen soap. I’m halfway through the first season on DVD and can’t wait to finish writing this column to watch more.
Firefly
This show is a nerd’s dream come true: Joss Whedon, writing a Western, set in space. It is truly a fantastic series, which I highly recommend to anyone who likes science fiction. However, that recommendation does come with a pretty big “but.” FOX, in the same infinite wisdom that caused them to cancel shows like “The Family Guy,” “Futurama,” and “Arrested Development,” decided to cancel this show before it completed its first season. So it ends in a frustrating place, where you can feel that Whedon had miles of amazing story mapped out ahead of him. Fortunately, he did get the opportunity to wrap up the series in the excellent film Serenity, so most of your questions will be answered, even if he does have to rush to answer them all in two hours.
House
I can’t fully explain why I love this show so much; I just do. Normally, I’m not a fan of procedurals, because it’s the same thing every week with a slightly different twist. But for some reason, that doesn’t bother me with “House.” I think it has to do with it being much more character driven than other procedurals. Plus, Dr. House is deliberately based on Sherlock Holmes, which is just cool.
Ricky Gervais pulls off a remarkable follow-up to “The Office” with this two-season series that follows a movie extra on an odyssey through stardom. Initially, I enjoyed this show for its fun take on the celebrity guest stars (Patrick Stewart and David Bowie, to name a few). But the two-hour series finale knocked me on my ass. In concluding the series, Gervais turns what seemed like a wacky series of non-sequiturs into a scathing indictment of celebrity culture. It’s dark, hilarious, and beautiful. The complete set, including the finale Christmas special, is now available on DVD.
Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations
This is for anyone that wants to like cooking shows but wishes the host was constantly smoking cigarettes. Anthony Bourdain, a famous New York chef and author of the best-selling restaurant memoir “Kitchen Confidential,” travels the world, checks out the local customs, eats food ranging from gourmet to disgusting, and smokes a lot of cigarettes. He goes to Berlin and smokes while eating sausages and playing Turkish dice games. He goes to Namibia and smokes while hunting with bushmen and eating a wild boar anus cooked in dirt. He goes to Vegas and smokes while eating at five-star restaurants and bitching about how the whole place looks like a mall. It’s like taking a show from the Food Network but making the concept interesting and the host tolerable. Check it out on The Travel Channel.
Don’t worry; we’ll make it through this somehow. If you get through all of the above and find yourself getting the shakes, feel free to e-mail me for more suggestions. Good luck, everyone!
-Tom Hoban
Tom Hoban works in cable television in New York City. Ask him why he thinks Aristotle would have loved “Saved by the Bell.”