Book 'em, Danno!

Magnet #955 - Hawaiian Islands

For someone who hasn't been to, and has no plans to ever go to, Hawaii, I sure do have a boatload of magnets from there. It's weird! Not sure who gave this one to me, but it's supercute, thanks.

A fond memory I have living in Chicago in the mid-70s is running into my parents' room, hurrying as fast as I could go because I could hear the thundering score of Hawaii Five-O on the tv. By my count, I couldn't have been more than five or six years old. With a big crush on James MacArthur, who played Danno.

Thirty years later, things haven't changed all that much. Tonight's the third episode of the Hawaii Five-0 redux, and I can't freakin' wait til 10 tonight. Of course, the only difference is that now I have a crush on Alex O'Loughlin, Scott Caan, and Daniel Dae Kim.

If anyone had told me that H50 would be my favorite show of the season - indeed, one of my favorites in a long while - I would have scoffed. When I first heard about it a while ago, I was determined to shun it.

After all, who can beat Jack Lord and James MacArthur? Plus, while I love and own Moonlight, would dreamy Alex O'Loughlin be able to fit in hard-ass Jack Lord's shoes?

On top of that, seriously, CBS? A whole press release about the use of the letter O vs. number 0? Come now. (And yet, I'm diligently using the two different characters - it really does make a difference, I suppose.)

My fears were somewhat allayed when I saw the first teaser for the show, and saw Alex O'Loughlin running around in his bullet-proof vest. It was hot. (It still is. So is this.)

By the time I saw the full trailer, I was already looking forward to the premiere - even though I forewent the SDCC panel in favor of some floor time. (And am now sorry I did.)

But when I finally saw the pilot, it seriously took the opening sequence before I knew the show was going to kick ass...and about 14 minutes in to realize that it would be my #1 show of the season. Now I can't wait for the season to be over, and six months to pass, so that I can own the H50 DVDs.

Best of all, I got to watch the pilot with my parents, which was fun and totally nostalgic.

My dad came downstairs in the middle of the show, glanced at the tv, and without any hesitation or context, goes, "Oh! Chin Ho!" (Score one for Daniel Dae Kim. Actually, score two, because I didn't even go through a "there's Jin Kwon" phase - he's already Chin for me.)

On the flip side, the first time my dad saw Alex and Scott, he asked us, "Who are they?" That's not surprising. Jack Lord was 48 when he did the H5O pilot in 1968, while James MacArthur was much younger at 31. Both O'Loughlin and Caan are 34 - buddy-cop contemporaries, than anything else.

But, it works. Good gravy, does it work.

Mind you, I'm not completely blind, there are a few issues that they need to work on.

I don't necessarily like how the boys have gone and saved Boomer Kono in the last two episodes, and how they've banded together to "always protect her." (even though they were supercute in their uniforms during her swearing in)

I don't want them to always do the boy banter, while it's superadorable, it has the possibility of relying on its cuteness.

I wonder if they're gonna get more people in those empty offices.

And I want them to watch their brand/product integration - they're treading close to annoying me with the pervasive Chevy product placement.

Even with the above, I'm definitely looking forward to how this iteration of the 5-0 goes.

eta:
Having watched episode 3, ummm, yeah, it's till number 1 on my list.

Let's be honest

Magnet #363 - SoapNet Liar

This is the perfect magnet to talk about two shows that I've been following, Trust Me and Lie to Me. I haven't checked the ratings for either, and it's been a while since I read any reviews on them. So it's absolutely possible that I'm the only one in America still watching them.

Trust Me is that "not-like-Mad-Men-at-all, trust-me" TNT show with Eric McCormack and Tom Cavanagh as Chicago ad guys, with Monica Potter and a host of lesser-knowns rounding out their Creative group.

The bulk of Trust Me is just stereotypical advertising agency roles and situations. You can almost tell that the ad guy creators come from the Creative side - all the clients are unreasonable, all the account people are idiots and exist just to gum up the works, and the Creatives are running around going to extreme measures just to live up to some high-stakes overpromise they've made to the clients. And they don't care about the media or production groups as evidenced by the amount of mentions they've been given in the last several episodes.

If you're not in the ad business, I haven't a clue why you'd even watch this bunch of neurotic crazy folk trying to solve their usually self-inflicted ad agency problem of the week. To tell you the truth, I don't know why I'm still watching - though I'm guessing I'm just a glutton for punishment while I sit and watch plenty of my real world agita get acted out (in hyperbole, of course) on screen.

But I haven't really been made to care about any of the characters, and I think that's where the show is lacking. Were it not for my fondness for Eric and Tom, and how well they play off each other, I'd have given up several episodes ago. As it is, part of the reason I keep coming back is the part where they show me previews where it looks like Monica Potter leaves the show. And I get disappointed every time. She's not sympathetic - no matter how much they make her cry - I could give a hoot about her. Plus, speaking of stereotypes, I keep thinking her quite annoying character reads more like an account person, than copywriter. (Full disclosure, I'm an account person.)

But, there must be something there, because I still spend my 44 minutes alternatively laughing my ass off and yelling at the screen. (Yes, I fast-forward - three arrows - through the commercials, too, but didn't manage to escape last week's Dove product placement or this week's Facebook product placement.) And on that sad fact...moving on.

Lie to Me is that FOX show with Tim Roth (being allowed to use his accent - yay!) and Kelli Williams as the team that people bring in to figure out when people are lying or not.

I'm not going to lie, I really love this show. A lot of the body language stuff I've heard before from books and documentaries and stuff, and it's true, at some point, I'll probably get tired of them expositioning every. single. microexpression. for every. single. situation.

But for now, the show, with its odd characters (most notably, the boyfriend from ABC Family's Middleman, Brendan Hines - yay, new gig! - who has taken a vow of truth), and dialogue that makes me giggle from the cute (though probably wasn't meant to be), keeps me entertained. A caveat - I'm not entirely sure where they're going with the characters, and their relationships to each other, but they've dropped a few nuances along the way to keep me tuning in.

I am a little worried, because there's a part of me that wonders if everyone in the world will start watching the show, and learn how to lie effectively, without getting caught. The other part of me wants to write down and/or commit to memory every trick that they tell me, because some of that stuff has already been helpful.

Oh, there's even a small part of me that worries for their clearances guy - someone has to clear all that editorial footage they keep using - I haven't looked at who they're crediting at the end, but dang, you have to wonder how Bill Clinton feels when they bring up that Monica footage constantly.

Anyway, check out both shows - I'd be interested to see what other folks think. Honestly.

Terminator Tough*

Magnet #238 - SoapNet Soap

Soap operas got their name because they were dramas that were sponsored by companies who made soap. So there's a time-honored tradition of advertisers sponsoring whole television series.

They're going through a renaissance of sorts in recent years. Some of the cable netlets make their money by selling advertisers whole evenings of programming. But, it's probably easier and cheaper for advertisers to buy sponsorships for whole episodes instead - it makes for shorter, less likely to be FF'd commercial breaks and some product integration as well.

My favorite of late was last week's Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (click here for GoldenGait's review of the actual show), provided with limited commercial breaks sponsored by the All-New Dodge Ram. There were four commercial breaks, all of them were Ram Challenge trailers, brought to you by the All-New Dodge Ram Challenge and Tony freakin' Scott. And, then within the show, somehow, John Connor's protective detail are suddenly driving a veritable fleet of Dodge vehicles.

Even with the requisite in-your-face, seconds-long close-up of the truck logo, they actually did a pretty good job with integrating product into the program. They had John and hot uncle Derek (BAG, my word, have you come a long way from 90210) leaving for the military academy and they were packing a million supplies into the flatbed of the truck. Nice product demo, that. The covered back of the truck, sliding in the giant boxes into the back, stuffing guns into the side storage space, and then, the cuteboys climbing into it. And then of course, the beauty shots of it rolling into the parking lot, or during the car chases, etc.

But for this episode, there were the trailers for the actual Ram Challenge web series, which directed you to the superfun to play on ramchallenge.com website.

Who went to that site? I certainly did. Who is gonna watch when it launches on October 19? I certainly am.

It's eight Ram Tough guys on four Ram Tough teams - the Cowboys, the Firefighters, the Contractors and the Military. They have to put the Ram Tough Dodge Ram through four big Ram Tough race challenges. The boys are kinda hot with their cowboy hats and tight jeans, and adorable, with their regional accents and their "love" for Dodge. Plus seriously? It's Tony freakin' Scott, you know the footage is gonna rock hard.

Now. Am I the target demo? No. Am I gonna buy a Dodge Ram when I live in NYC and have no need for one? Obviously not.

Nevertheless, I am the biggest sucker for marketing. Well. Marketing...and pretty boys.

So what did this Connor Chronicles sponsorship get Dodge? Well, according to Advertising Age, they were 10th on the Most-Recalled In-Program Product Placement list for that week. We could talk about this list til the cows come home - how great was that pretty boy interaction when Dean ripped out Sam's damnable iPod from his classic car on Supernatural, or what the hell was Boeing thinking, letting the The Unit (pretty boys again - I said I was a sucker) use their name in a plane hijacking story. But I digress.

And from me, well, I must have spent a good half-hour on the Ram Challenge site, I raved about it to everyone on my FB status and on a messageboard, and now I'm telling ya'll.

I'm like a Word-of-Mouth T-800. Well done, Dodge, well done.

*Mind you, I don't think Dodge Ram's using the Ram Tough external marketing tagline anymore, but somewhere on internal strategy documents, they have to be using it as a brand personality trait. Don't you think?