September 28, 2007

What to Watch: Coming Up on Cable

Don't miss Showtime's season premieres (and free weekend preview) of Dexter and Brotherhood, says Seth Arenstein — or the return of Stargate Atlantis to SCI FI.

Tube Stake: Programming Reviews by CableWorld editor Seth Arenstein

SMILING ASSASSIN: Michael C. Hall as Dexter.

• FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 28

Stargate Atlantis, season 4 premiere, 10pm, SCI FI.

Much of the hype for the new season is the import from SG-1 to the Pegasus galaxy of that legendary astrophysicist Col Samantha Carter (Amanda Topping). Since she’ll be leading the Atlantis expedition, Lt. Col John Sheppard (Joe Flanigan) and Dr. Rodney McKay (David Hewlett) will have to deal with that as they battle their enemy, the Wraith. In the background, but never far from our heart, is the Athosian leader Teyla (Rachel Luttrell), whose kind nature and skin-tight outfits really heats our cyberspace.

• SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 30
 
Dexter, season 2 premiere, 9pm, Showtime.

One mark of a good series is that while watching it, the viewer enters the world the series has created, forgetting, temporarily, about his/her own life. The early episodes of Dexter accomplished that task in spades.

Once you begin to watch the season 2 premiere —  a highlight of Showtime's Ultimate Free Weekend preview through Monday — you’re transported to Dexter’s world, a dark, sweaty, bloody slice (pun intended) of life. It’s nearly always dark. Dexter (Michael C. Hall) seems as comfortable during the day as Dracula.  

No, Dexter’s a night crawler, meticulously stalking his victims, and killing them only after he performs his patented death ritual: trapping the victim, taking him back to a lair, taping the victim to a table, slashing the body slightly to obtain a blood sample for his records, and then recounting out loud for the victim, with pictures, the victim’s transgressions against society.

Of course, Dexter’s more than a Good Samaritan run amok. Killing people who’ve eluded the authorities feeds his soul. He’s known that since he was a teenager. So did the man who raised him. So did his brother, whom Dexter killed in season one’s finale. That poor bugger used his power for evil, rather than good, and had to be eliminated. While he’s dead, he’s not gone, as Dexter will find out this season. 

Dexter is more flexible than Dracula, managing to exist among the living by day. But things are getting increasingly uncomfortable for him across the board. The suspicions of his police department colleagues are growing. His frigid girlfriend (the perfect foil for a man who wants to appear normal, but has no interest in an emotional relationship) isn’t hot for him, but at him. Even his avocation, killing, is causing him trouble. 

The series wouldn’t be complete without its touches of humor, black though they are. The best example is the series’ opening credits, whose mix of fun and blood make it a small masterpiece. The theme continues with Showtime’s terrific marketing pieces to promote this season.

Critics received Dexter’s season 2 press kit in a shiny folder with the photo you see above of a smiling Hall, splattered with blood. On the flip side is Dexter’s vision of the red carpet: a long, thin pool of blood bordered by the tradition ropes on metal poles. Instead of holding up the usual velvet ropes, however, this version features yellow police tape with the words, “Crime Scene Do Not Cross.”

And in a fitting pre-launch Dexter promotion in Chicago and a dozen other cities this week, Showtime erected 15-foot-high fountains, spewing, you guessed it, a blood-like red liquid. The stunt's clever tagline: "Showtime Dyes for Dexter."

Brotherhood, season 2 premiere, 10pm, Showtime.

Brotherhood was a dark series last season, highlighting the rot within Rhode Island state politics, the decay of urban ethnic neighborhoods and the destruction of a once-proud Irish family. It’s much darker this time.

Last season saw a cancer spread into the Caffee family, whose scions, gangster Michael (Jason Issacs) and family man and local pol Tommy (Jason Clarke), were the series’ focus. Certainly Michael the thug had it, but Tommy, his blue eyes gleaming, seemed immune, or as immune as a politician could be in that state’s legendary corrupt system.

The same couldn’t be said for Tommy’s wife Eileen (the smoldering Annabeth Gish), who couldn’t stay away from booze, drugs and frequent afternoon delight sessions with men far less successful than her hubbie. 

This season, though, the bug is spreading wildly, and Tommy’s got it bad. So does detective Declan Giggs (Ethan Embry), who last season fought hard to stay on the right side of the justice system that employs him. Even Tommy’s eldest child, Mary Rose (Fiona Erickson), goes astray, stealing her grandmother’s car. More evidence? One of Tommy’s younger kids stabs a classmate with a pencil.

Of course we can forgive all these indiscretions since Janel Maloney (who played the angelic Donna Moss of West Wing) has fallen, too. Apparently Donna’s left the White House and now operates in seedy Providence (hey, with residuals from West Wing she probably doesn’t have to worry about money—check out the stylish decor of her apartment in Brotherhood).

Maloney plays Dana (not Donna) Chase (not Moss), a professional woman without a specific career, who’s known in the state capital. Before very long our Tommy, who regularly berates his wife for disgracing their marriage with infidelity, knows her, too, every inch of her. Dana, who regularly seemed sexually frustrated as Donna on West Wing, engages Rep. Caffee in a memorable legislative session in her bedroom, one that would not be appropriate for C-SPAN.

Later even she appreciates that Tommy is troubled. She asks him to avoid eye contact with her during sex. “I don’t want to see the torment in your eyes,” she says. “F**k me from behind,” she adds. Somewhere Josh Lyman (Bradley Whitford) is wondering where he went wrong.

• TUESDAY, OCTOBER 2

Queer Eye, final season premiere, 9pm, Bravo

What a great way to see if Queer Eye's lessons have stuck. Kicking off tonight’s festivities is the Mr. Straight Guy pageant. To say this event was an exercise in extreme camp is a major understatement.

Susan Lucci, who deserves a special citation from ESPN for being the world’s best sport, agrees to emcee the event. Miss Universe also helps. QE's Fab Five do the judging. “I wouldn’t want to be in your shoes,” Lucci says to the judges. The Fabs’ riposte: “We would love to be in your shoes, they’re beautiful.”

The Fab Five stay in the background, relatively, as Straight Guys from the series “compete” in un-traditional pageant events like cake decorating (“Gentlemen, pick up your spatulas”) and shaving (“We’ve got some razor burn here, that’ll cost him a few points”) and traditional ones, like swimsuit (Carson Kressley hosted this bit of cheesecakery, enjoying it fiercely).

From the many SG’s featured on the series since it premiered in July 2003, 10 are chosen as finalists for the Pageant, including the very first Straight Guy, the formerly unibrowed Adam Zalta. “You never forget your first… straight guy,” quips one of the Fab Five. You’ll likely forget this Pageant as soon as it’s over, but Queer Eye, in all its lighthearted silliness, will live on.

But tonight’s second hour, a more traditional Queer Eye episode, demonstrates that one of reality’s (and gay TV's) pioneer series is ready for retirement. While it’s great to have the boys back on Bravo, by now the Five’s shtick has been adapted by many others.

It’s also been parsed to create dozens of shows on Bravo (including Project Runway's spinoff makeover show starring Tim Gunn) and elsewhere. The Queer Guys’ act is comfortable at this point, but not particularly fresh.

This episode has the lads working to improve a couple who met online, and communicated for months, but have yet to meet in person. At the end of the hour of grooming, fashion, fragrance and other useful tips from the Five, Eric, a small-town boy from Denver, finally lays eyes on Tracie from the Big Apple.

They arrive, with great expectations, at the top of Rockefeller Center in Manhattan for a first date. That meeting, which the Five provide exhaustive commentary for, becomes a referendum on online dating. The result, like this show, is a bit of a letdown. Let’s hope there are surprises during the remaining eight eps of the series’ final run. 

• More TV reviews by Seth Arenstein >