Forever vs. Person of Interest

The Tuesday night decision is rapidly becoming which to record (Forever or Person of Interest) and which to watch ‘by appointment’ as folks in the television industry like to refer to watching television shows when they are scheduled to air.

ABC's Forever, poster from the ABC.com Site

ABC’s Forever, poster from the ABC.com Site

Forever has great chemistry between the actors, and characters that continue to develop before our very eyes week after week.   The commercial for tonight’s episode of Forever shows a scene in which Police Detective Jo (Alana De La Garza) is sitting down over drinks or a meal with Dr. Henry Morgan (Ioan Gruffudd) and his roommate Abe (Judd Hirsch).  Now for those who have not been watching the show that may not sound like a scene with extraordinary comedic potential — but those who have been tuning in every week know that while Henry looks to be significantly younger than Abe, Henry adopted Abe when he was a newborn and is the only father Abe has ever known.  So when questions like “how do you two know each other?” come up, one can only imagine the awkward and entertaining conversation that will take place.

There have been several scenes where Henry, despite physically appearing to be clearly younger, has clearly been fatherly towards Abe, and these two talented actors have pulled the scenes off with such heart and authentic performances that the viewers find themselves willing to believe there just might be a universe in which this is possible.  By contrast there have been scenes where the indulgent son Abe has been picking up the slack for his somewhat absent minded professor dad, always in very minor ways, but in a subtle manner that says he knows when dad gets curious and intrigued, dad is going to get caught up in his lab experimenting, or go off investigating, and Abe just smiles, helps him on with his coat and like a proud son encouraging his father to keep on making him the most popular kid in school because his dad is the coolest on the block.

Person-of-Interest-poi-bannerAs for Person of Interest, last season took a serious turn away from the original premise.  It was that premise that fascinated and drew in so many viewers.  When given 1 single piece of information about a person, and told they need help, our lead characters set out to do what they can.  (That piece of information is a social security number that enables them to find their name, and from there hopefully more information.)  Reese, Finch, and now Shaw, Fusco and sometimes Root, do not know whether the person they are out to help is a victim who needs protecting, or a criminal who needs to be stopped — and usually set on a better path.  What they know is they are a Person of Interest (and irrelevant to those looking for terrorists and major national threats).

Person of Interest appears to be taking a turn back towards its foundation, with Fusco (a once corrupt cop who has had a spectacular arc over the course of the show as Reese stepped in and pushed him into helping people instead of working with other corrupt cops) now partnered with a new cop in the homicide division — Reese, instead of trying to hide from the system Reese finds himself trying to work within it, to a degree.  Most of our main characters are hiding from the evil machine Samaritan that came online at the end of last season, and as a result Finch is now a college professor by day, and reluctant team member by night, as he wrestles with his conscience trying to determine if all their efforts actually amounted to accomplishing anything good.  Did they truly save anyone?  Help anyone?  Or did just as many people get hurt despite their good intentions?

As an added bonus with Person of Interest, we get the occasional appearance of Elias — aka Enrico Colantoni.  His appearances are almost always a highlight.

Forever and Person of Interest are two very different shows, and yet they are both high quality programs that leave viewers like me with the tough decision every Tuesday at 10 PM (9 Central) do I tune into Person of Interest on CBS, or record it because I need to flip over to ABC for my weekly dose of Forever.

Scandal vs. Madam Secretary

Madam Secretary continues to pull in a good size audience (well over 10 million viewers) each Sunday night on CBS, despite the fact that Sunday means audience members have to pay attention to sporting events and make sure they know what time the episode will actually start.  Thankfully we live in a modern age where the crawler at the bottom of the screen is often used to announce exactly what time both Madam Secretary and The Good Wife will begin if it is different than what was announced in television guides.

So how does Madam Secretary measure up to Scandal?  Both shows are set in the Nation’s Capitol.  Both shows theoretically center around solving problems of great import and keeping our nation running.

The primary difference is that Madam Secretary has thus far focused primarily on big problems.  Treaties between nations, treason, an operatives cover being blown while he is over seas and the decision having to be made does the government send in a Seal team ala going after Bin Laden or are diplomatic channels used to recover him.  Complex issues are faced every week, and in the end someone, somehow, comes up with a remarkably simple solution.  The twists and turns of the episode keep you wondering how these characters will pull it out, and how the real folks in Washington, D.C., get things done.   There are subtle reminders not only about how much goes on that we will never see, but about how nations care who extends their hand first to shake on a deal, and that words matter in public statements that may well end up in the history books.

Madam Secretary can give someone unfamiliar with the workings of political machines a lot to think about.   Scandal on the other hand delves into the behind the scenes in an entirely different way.

Scandal explores exactly what the title implies.  The Scandals Washington, D.C. wants to make go away, where Madam Secretary is focusing on the events of their world and trying to cope with them.  It might be fair to say where one is looking purely inside the beltway, the other has a much broader view, looking outward, where Scandal is exploring the hidden secrets of the lives of those who govern a world in which I’m grateful is fantasy, Madam Secretary rips multiple headlines at a time, turns them into an engrossing episode, and by the end of the episode I feel as though I have some understanding of just how complicated a world we live in… and why I am grateful I never chose to make a life for myself in our Nation’s Capitol.

For some, Washington, D.C., is the land of dreams, hope and potential, for others it is a place of back room deals, seedy plots, sequestrations, a land where two political parties take pride in being loyal opposition.  Madam Secretary and Scandal are both imaginary works, taking very different perspectives on the same basic location.   Where the President in Madam Secretary relies on his Secretary of State to solve the problem of the episode, in Scandal the problem of the episode needs to be solved by Oliva Pope, a keen problem solver, but someone who, in most episodes, is not a part of the political machine.

If you are watching one show, give the other a try.  Both Madam Secretary and Scandal have a lot to offer in terms of making you stop and think about how Washington, D.C. functions, how you might wish it functions.  Where Madam Secretary highlights the complexities and details of politics and makes me marvel that anyone survives treading in those waters Scandal makes me particularly glad that is not the world we live in.

Madam Secretary airs Sunday nights on CBS.
Scandal airs Thursday nights on ABC

Current Nielsen Ratings

For those tuning in to the new television season, wondering whether the shows they love will survive, if shows they are mystified will stay on the air for reasons that baffle them, and simply trying to figure out what shows they will be watching for the next several months, the Nielsen Ratings are something they are, on some level, aware of.  After all, for decades, we have all been aware that the Nielsen’s are how the networks heard whether or not people were tuning in.  If the people do not come, the show can not stay on the air… commercials need to be seen so money can be made, it is part of the age old rhythm of the television and entertainment industry.

In the past few years things have been changing slightly — overnight ratings have been giving way to same day +1, same day +3, and same day +7 as networks recognized the saturation of DVRs in households, and tried to account for the number of people who were recording shows for later viewing.  The simple truth however, is if you record a show, and do not watch it within 1 week, you count, as a viewer, for less than those who watch it within that first week.

The issue of how the +1, +3, and +7 numbers are gathered is murky territory I will leave others to debate and discuss.  Undoubtedly some are unhappy with the two way communication going on between DVRs and providers and this real time contribution to statistics and ratings — but for others, the chance to be able to effectively vote for favorite shows is an empowering feeling.  Especially if they are viewers who have had a number of favorite shows cancelled out from under them.

So why write this article now?  The Hollywood Reporter published an article this past week, as did a few other industry publications, stating that Nielsen has acknowledge a software glitch that led to inaccurate numbers being reported — since MARCH of this year.  The glitch has been corrected, and for the past several days numbers have been accurate, and Nielsen is working to recalculate numbers for the period affected.

It is hoped that October 17th new numbers will be released, including revised numbers for the shows that have already premiered during the Fall 2014 television season.  It is hoped that the numbers will not alter dramatically, and thus far very few shows have been picked up for the entire season.

It is interesting to note that the show Unforgettable was cancelled after the glitch was announced, and before the revised numbers came out.  All of their summer season’s episodes would have aired during the glitch period, and thus be effected.  Then again, Unforgettable has been cancelled, and un-cancelled before, so perhaps CBS is unconcerned about a possibly premature decision on the show which had already been moved to the summer season because of lackluster viewership during the traditional television season.  (An unfortunate fact given the show had a fun sense of humor, and lots of entertaining moments.)

It will be interesting to see next week how the newly calculated numbers come out, and how the networks particularly feel about them.  With more and more viewers streaming shows through network websites, as well as Hulu, Amazon video-on-demand, cable video-on-demand options, and a variety of other ways of seeing shows after they have aired at their appointed times, traditional same-day and overnight ratings numbers have decreased in significance, and the new numbers may be forced to reflect the +7 facts as well.

Little House on the Prairie – Laura Ingalls Wilder

Whether you grew up on the books of Laura Ingalls Wilder, or the television show Michael Landon brought to fame, it seems the majority of Americans have some impression of the Little House on the Prairie series.  To this day, for many of us, when you mention the show, we immediately think of Melissa Gilbert running down the hill in the opening credits.  Not on purpose mind you, the image simply pops into our heads having seen so many episodes of the television show which ran from 1974 to 1983, and is still in reruns.

Ingalls' Homestead, near DeSmet, South Dakota

Ingalls’ Homestead, near DeSmet, South Dakota

On a recent trip I had the chance to do a little sight seeing, which included the ‘original Prairie’, as I nicknamed it, in the form of the Ingalls’ homestead outside of DeSmet, South Dakota.   Down a dirt and gravel road, off the beaten path as one might say, this trip into the past is a nice detour for anyone who grew up on the show or books.

Quote from Laura Ingalls Wilder The site is filled with a sense of history, not just of one famliy, but of our country, and the pioneers who made their way west.  Michael Landon, Melissa Gilbert, and the entire cast of Little House on the Prairie brought to life a time from days gone by and reminded folks that a simpler time was also a tough and deadly time.  The characters dealt with storms, the dangers of digging wells, and all of the everyday details of life in 1800s frontier America.

There has been conversation over the years about how much of a contribution Laura Ingalls Wilder’s daughter Rose Wilder Lane made to the writing of the books so many have fallen in love with, and after reading a letter Rose wrote to her mother, posted online by Slate.com, I can not help but think Rose (who was a talented writer of magazine articles in her own right) may well have served as a very important editor in her mother’s works.  Many of Rose Wilder Lane’s papers are in the Hoover Presidential Library and I suspect would offer fascinating reading to those interested in this aspect of the story.

Places in Ingalls Life
Walnut Grove may have been the primary location of the Little House on the Prairie television series that so many people watched and fell and love with, but the Ingalls’ family had a far more complex story than life in one little town.  Many will remember images of the family in a covered wagon trudging through snow… not surprising given ‘Ma Ingalls’ was born in Wisconsin, and Pa Ingalls’ was born in New York (as was Almonzo).

My trip to DeSmet reminded me of how much I had enjoyed my time spent on the Prairie as a child, albeit just as a visitor to the land made real thanks to the creators of a television show.  In the ’70s and ’80s Television was a great land of escapism, with a dash of hope and lessons in it.  Pa Ingalls was a role-model to so many, and it was no wonder an entire generation wanted Michael Landon for their father.

Michael Landon, Jr. is now directing movies that frequently end up on Hallmark channel… with his flair for capturing wagon trains on screen one can only imagine his memories of growing up as a real life son of Pa Ingalls’.

There is talk of a Little House on the Prairie movie being made, and having seen several made for tv movies directed by Michael Landon, Jr., I hope he has been considered for the role of director.  For some of us it will be hard to see other faces in the iconic roles of the Ingalls’ family, but I hope another generation gets a fresh look at what life was like when the west was being settled, when fields were being cleared by hard back-breaking labor, and families pulled together – along with their communities to face obstacles many find hard to imagine in the modern day.

Sun-setting over the Prairie

Sun-setting over the Prairie

For those who want to read more about Rose Wilder Lane and her mother Laura Ingalls Wilder’s continuing collaboration, William T. Anderson has written a fantastic article for South Dakota State Historical Society available here.