It must be a general feeling of post-9/11 America to play it safe. I know Mrs. Skippy and I aren't flying anywhere these day; and we have taken what little money that's left in our stock portfolios out and put it in cash. Nobody seems to want to take a risk now. And who can blame them?
Unfortunately for the television consumer, the same feeling apparently is permeating the executive suites in Hollywood. We have watched a few of the new shows to find out which ones are 'Must See TV,' however, most of them turned out to be 'Musty TV.'
We watched two episodes of the new show Push, Nevada on ABC during the special preview two weeks ago. We had high expectations (well, high for TV, at least), because two of the show's producers are Ben Affleck and Matt Damon.
We like quirky, unusual stuff, we like murder mysteries, we like Matt Damon and Ben Affleck (we love his commericials with the duck); plus, this show had the added bonus of being a mystery that viewers at home can solve for a prize (the sum of one million dollars. Now, that's a prize!)
However, Push, Nevada certainly left us wanting (mainly, wanting two hours of our life back). If we had wanted to see bad Twins Peaks, we would have just rented the second season of that show.
Push, Nevada started with a good sign, literally; on the desk of the main character, well-played by newcomer Derek Cecil, sat a placard naming him as one "James A. Prufrock." We smiled, assuming the "A" stood for "Alfred." But that's as clever as it got. And it didn't even attempt to reach that level of hipness thereafter.
Quirky? If you count weird camera angles and unnecessary film speed changes as quirky, yes. Not much "heat." Not much suspense. We are big fans of X-Files, Prey, The Night Stalker, the first 3 hours of 24, things with real edge-of-your seat squeamy oddness. Push, Nevada's idea of quirky was killing off a man who suffered from hypothermia by dumping shaved ice on him while he was handcuffed naked to a bed (trust us, it reads a lot quirkier than it was).
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