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2006: A weird year for TV
In a nutshell, 2006 was a weird year for TV.
Proof?
One of the most innovative and amusing dramas featured a family of 12-inch tall critters named Whiskers. In case you missed it, that was “Meerkat Manor”, which airs Fridays at 7 p.m. on Animal Planet. Check it out and you’ll get my drift.
The most overhyped fall debut was not “Ugly Betty” but Katie Couric’s arrival as The First Solo Female Anchor of a Network Evening Newscast. If you were orbiting Mars and missed it, that was Sept. 5 on the “CBS Evening News.” Despite all the flash of legs and grins, Couric’s newscast remains solidly in third place, as it was when Dan Rather anchored it.
The most nonshocking moment billed as shocking? Stephen Colbert’s keynote speech to the White House Correspondents Association dinner in Washington, D.C. Yes, he ridiculed President Bush, and, yes, President Bush was in attendance. That’s the way these events always go. If you can’t take the heat, stay out of the kitchen. According to eyewitness accounts, Bush laughed heartily, but his staff squirmed and later complained to Colbert and the folks who invited him.
“24” enjoyed its best season ever, in large part due to the riveting, bone-chilling performance of Gregory Itzin as creepily corrupt President Logan.
An equally chilling turn was taken by Forest Whitaker as the bent and twisted internal affairs cop out to nab Vic Mackey on “The Shield.” Anyone who saw the transformation of Whitaker, from shlubby-tubby guy to taut-muscular crusader hellbent on destroying Mackey now knows why “Shield” fans were riveted.
The biggest disappointment? “Lost.” The multilayered sci-fi mystery ended last season in May with a confusing and not-very-compelling cliffhanger. By the time it returned in the fall, “Lost” had to dig itself out of the previous season’s mess, which it almost did but then went off the air for an interminable “winter break.” At this point, who cares? That cat can find another mouse to toy with, as far as I’m concerned.
Perhaps TV’s most powerful offering was Spike Lee’s slow-moving but deeply affecting documentary “When the Levees Broke,” about the Hurricane Katrina disaster. Survivors gave their first-hand accounts of the tragedy — before, during and after the storm. Their sorrow and anger were palpable, but so was their determination to rebound. Who knew music could be so naturally incorporated into a film about a natural (and subsequent unnatural) disaster.
One final observation: Can the national cooing over “Grey’s Anatomy” continue much longer? I don’t think so. The show is amusing but hardly ground-breaking, and it has never warranted the kind of hysteria that surrounds it. Too much whining. The New Year just might see this shooting star cool to a minor asteroid status.
What are your memories, good and bad, of TV in 2006?
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