Ask Matt

Matt Roush: To be clear here, I'm not insulted by Prison Break bringing Sara back. I'm insulted by Prison Break in general, and find this just the latest in a long line of laughable twists. I tend to hold 24, which is hardly a paragon of realism either, to a higher standard, if only because the death of a character tends to truly matter on this show. I wish we lived in a world where news of Sara's and Tony's returns could be kept secret until they're revealed (the point of the original question, after all), but in today's spoiler climate, it's hard to blame a show for trying to get out in front of a story that's bound to leak anyway. That issue aside, I am troubled on principle by the idea of Tony returning, because it cheapens my memory of the season in which he and so many other heroic characters died. I defended 24 quite often that season, believing this show was distinguished by dramatizing just how dangerous and debilitating this sort of espionage work can be. As in most matters, I will reserve my ultimate judgment call until I see how this twist plays out in the context of the season, but I'd be lying if I said my first reaction to the news was positive.

Matt Roush: As Christian, last season's winner, might say: What a fierce, hot mess this is. I was also rocked and shocked by the news earlier this week that the Weinstein Co., which produces Project Runway, had made a deal with Lifetime. Though not as shocked, perhaps, as the powers that be at NBC-Universal, which owns Bravo and thought it had a binding first-right-of-refusal arrangement regarding the breakout show that helped put Bravo on the pop-culture map. While we wait for this all to be played out in the courts, I'll just say I don't really agree that Runway is a bad fit with Lifetime, especially if Lifetime is aiming to get a little edgier and hip with its programming (as this expensive acquisition would lead you to believe.) What fascinates me about this story is that the Weinstein Co. had already demanded NBC-Universal move the show to USA Network (or possibly even NBC itself, given that it's Nothing But Cable anymore anyway) to give Runway a larger platform than Bravo can apparently provide, and USA seems an even stranger match to me than Lifetime. The issue here is whether Project Runway, the first-ever reality-TV recipient of a Peabody Award (which begs the question why The Amazing Race has never been so honored, but I digress), has actually outgrown Bravo. The Weinstein Co. obviously thinks so. I'm not so sure. But to your concerns that we could burn out on Runway if we get two more cycles of Runway by year's end — one last Bravo run this summer, and one on Lifetime in late fall/early winter — you could be right. While the publicity from this tug-of-war is bound to heighten interest in the franchise, producing too much of a good thing seems an awfully obvious fashion faux pas.

Matt Roush: I haven't yet seen a screener of the new season of Doctor Who (which returns April 18), but I did check out tonight's premiere of The Sarah Jane Adventures and found it charming and fun, though not the sort of show I'm likely to make a habit of. Your point is well taken, though, that fantasy/sci-fi of a lighter, brighter, more family-friendly variety is nothing for Sci Fi to hide from, not that they are. I think back to the light-hearted genre shows I grew up with in prime time on TV — the classic Batman, The Wild Wild West, etc. — and if a new crop of similar shows could be done as well as Sarah Jane appears to be, I'm all for it. Sci Fi did stumble badly last year in its botched attempt to revive the presumably for-all-ages Flash Gordon, which was so inept in its hokeyness even a fetus would have to reject it. This import is a step in the right direction.

Matt Roush: I agree it did all seem a bit of a smokescreen to hide the fact that NBC's programming itself isn't giving us much to be excited about. This year-round model isn't all that revolutionary, especially when you see the same old reliance on reality TV to keep the lights on during the summer. Not to mention how patently absurd it is to announce a slate of shows that won't even premiere for more than a year. But what it really boils down to is that scheduling only matters if there's something that matters to put on the schedule. That's where NBC has fallen short lately.

Matt Roush: Janet, I read 'em all. And you're right about Jason Lee. He should have been nominated for an Emmy for Earl long ago, although this has not been Earl's, and by extension his, best season, so the lapse here was probably not entirely accidental. But Jack McBrayer? Absolutely. Did you see him in last night's 30 Rock, reacting in horror as Liz Lemon let him down and ultimately sold him out? "Your eyes look like my uncle's after he would drink from the air conditioner," he told her. So funny! He is the quintessential supporting player/scene-stealer, and would be an inspired choice.

But for an alternate take on Earl, here's this from Steve: "As a regular reader of your columns, I know you had some misgivings about the Earl-in-jail episodes of My Name Is Earl, and I, too, was hoping the show would get back to "normal" soon. How disappointed I was, however, when the show returned from its strike-induced coma with a super-sized Earl-in-a-coma episode. This episode made me wish Earl was back in jail. The entire episode was terrible. Earl's visions of old 1960s-style TV were dull and completely lacking in humor. We waited 3 months for this? It made Jeff Zucker's pre-show cameo seem funny by comparison."

I wouldn't go as far as to praise that inane corporate cameo, but I agree that it wasn't the way I'd have chosen to bring the show back. I'm not a fan of NBC's super-sizing to begin with, but this was an especially contrived return episode. It may take a while before I'm back in the fold on this show. Thursdays are starting to fill up again, and I foresee Earl episodes stacking up on my DVR as they did during the prison period.

Matt Roush: The writers work for Christine, not the network, so there's no reason to think that the Christine writing staff would be replaced if the show were to switch networks. Which, by the way, seems increasingly unlikely after the show's improved performance in its last weeks, when it was finally airing alongside fresh episodes of other shows. It is encouraging, though, to think that if CBS drops the ball, someone might pick it up (evidence aside, this is a rather rare situation).

Matt Roush: While we wait to see what happens to Eli Stone — which I'm liking more and more and getting quite emotionally attached to as it nears the end of its run — let's address the Jezebel problem. It's probably true that this might have worked better done in Gilmore style as a filmed dramedy, as there was absolutely a real disconnect in tone here. But it also seems to me that the very premise was off-putting and a bit icky — did we really want to follow Coco through a surrogate pregnancy for her annoyingly flighty sister? — and regardless of the format in which the story was presented, there wasn't much actual chemistry between these two actresses, who have done much better work elsewhere. I chalk this up as a show that didn't work on a variety of levels, and that's just the way it sometimes goes. Better luck next time.

Matt Roush: Let me quote a wonderful line from next week's 30 Rock, which I'm almost tempted to put on a T-shirt: "If reality TV has taught us anything, it's that you can't keep people with no shame down." If you watched Celebrity Apprentice for any length of time, it was pretty obvious that Piers was being positioned, for better or worse, as this season's breakthrough villain/hero (see: Omarosa). His ultimate win was hardly a surprise, not that I'm cheering (except for the fact that it's over). And I'm also a little puzzled how anyone who is familiar with the show or with Trump would be surprised about Apprentice's anything-for-a-buck, anything-to-win mentality. There's no question one reason the network keeps it around is less for its dwindling ratings than because of its infinite product-placement, stroke-the-corporation possibilities.

Matt Roush: You can tell when I got this e-mail from the way it ends, but it still cracks me up a week later. The real point here being that original CSI is still heads and shoulders above the others in the franchise. CSI: Miami may as well be titled The Adventures of SuperHoratio, it's so ridiculously over-the-top some weeks (and in this two-parter in particular). Its continued popularity astounds me.

Matt Roush: Given that Rami did not ultimately win that season of Project Runway, I'd argue that it can be fun to watch a more seasoned player test his mettle against an awesome upstart like Christian. I'm not as bothered by the fact that some contestants have more chops than others coming into the game, but that may be because I'm hardly a reality-show encyclopedist. I figure if I haven't heard of these contestants, most others haven't, either. And it wasn't as if Rami hid his experience on the show. In some ways, that made him more interesting, especially when he began to falter. It is probably more problematic if the contestant and the producers hide a player's background in the respective arena they're competing in. I wouldn't mind knowing that Richard, say, once competed on Iron Chef, if only because I'd love to know how this experience differs from that. But if he somehow pretended that competing on camera was new to him, that would bother me. Generally speaking, I'm not a fan of any "celebrity" edition of a reality show, but given the proliferation of shows in this genre, it's probably going to get harder and harder to find a pool of contestants who haven't swum in these waters before.