A full day of travel from East to West Coast meant I got to avoid all of the lurid coverage of the massacre in Colorado. Just as well. Nonstop coverage has a way of avoiding clarity on something that can’t logically be explained (except that gun laws are way out of whack).
Part of me thinks there’s way too much hype about the Batman movie that may have caused some wingnut to think he’s the Joker or a supervillian to be part of it all. But that’s not a main cause. Without the arsenal available to him, there wouldn’t be 12 dead and 59 wounded.
I’m back in Beverly Hills to report on the TV Critics summer press tour, where all the fall shows are hyped by their networks and the scores of reporters call it the TCA. I’m not sure that acronym has quite caught on with the public, so I still avoid using it, even though I was a recent two-term board member.
I have to say I’m not exactly psyched about the fall offerings. After actually watching all of the pilots I was sent this year, very little stood out. Most of the time I wondered: What did they turn down so they could pick this up? Pilots even worse?
When they send the pilots out, they say they’re not for review, but I don’t know what they expect critics to do but either be excited or disappointed.
PBS begins the sessions over the weekend, with the usual blend of documentary subjects, Hollywood stars and the inevitable Broadway performance (Cheyenne Jackson). But the “Downton Abbey” session for season three and its cocktail party sound good, on the week when the “Masterpiece” hit was showered with 16 Emmy nominations including best drama.
The broadcast networks take over next week and the whole thing winds up with cable sometime early next month. No really. We’ll be here for two weeks. By then the Olympics will be over and I’ll be more bleary eyed than I am now.
Stay tuned though. Here and on Twitter.