There’s a lot that can/has/will be said about the Late Night TV Wars of ’10, but the part that I’ve taken away from it is mostly this: if you love something, support it.

Cliche, maybe, but true. And significantly true in the area of network TV, where a few bad weeks of ratings can kill a show, much to many’s dismay.

Don’t wait around to let your show die: support it. Watch it. Talk about it. Ours thoughts follow–tell us yours in the comments!

Robert

The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien
Never let it be said that there aren’t people in the entertainment business with class. This week of late night TV was one of the biggest in recent memory as Conan O’Brien relinquished his fight to hold on to The Tonight Show (and everything he’d worked for at NBC for more than twenty years) and left us with these eloquent words of wisdom:

“Please do not be cynical. I hate cynicism. For the record, it’s my least favorite quailty; it doesn’t lead anywhere. Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get, but if you work really hard and you’re kind, amazing things will happen. I’m telling you, amazing things will happen.”

This struck a chord with me in particular because this is very similar to our approach here at Sodapop Journal. We’re the kind of folks that love what we talk about and like to have fun doing it, and we feel that being snide or cynical is both a waste of time and unfair to anyone who has the courage to step up and entertain us all. Finding something you love to do and people that you love to work with isn’t always easy, and it’s heartbreaking when you have to give it up or have it taken away from you—trust us, we know. But new opportunities will always arise if you’re willing to keep trying. We hear you, Conan. Loud and clear.

Lost – Season 4
Over the last week, I’ve been going through the last two seasons of Lost to refresh myself on everything that’s gone down in preparation for the final season, which premieres on Tuesday, February 2. Some of the highlights include “Confirmed Dead” where we’re introduced to the freighter folks, including Daniel, Charlotte, Miles and Frank, and one of the show’s most poignant (and mind-bending) episodes “The Constant”, in which Desmond must find a way to ensure his future relationship with Penny or risk losing his sanity. At the moment, I’m at the midpoint of Season 4 with “Meet Kevin Johnson”, where we learn just what happened to Michael Dawson after he left the island at the end of Season 2.

Also, for those interested in more Lost coverage, rather than hogging up all of Remote Uncontrolled with talk of DHARMA and timelines and Ol’ Smokey, we’ll be breaking out our discussion into a separate recurring segment that will follow on Wednesdays after each new episode. We’ll have more details next week as we close in on the season premiere!

Dennis

The Deep End: “Pilot”
The Deep End wants so badly to be Grey’s Anatomy, but as far as finding the right balance of workplace drama and coworker sexytime, it’s barely in the same league as Private Practice (and that’s a serious insult). The show certainly has talented actors both of the regular (Jack & Bobby’s Matt Long, Veronica Mars/Big Love’s Tina Majorino, Broadway’s Norbert Leo Butz, True Blood’s Mehcad Brooks, Life is Wild’s Leah Pipes, and The Phantom himself Billy Zane) and guest star (General Hospital: Night Shift’s Richard Gant, Swingtown/Twilight’s Rachelle Lefevre, Everwood’s Tom Amandes, Dawson’s Creek’s Meredith Monroe, and Grey’s Anatomy’s own Kate Burton) variety. Sadly the writing doesn’t warrant all the talent this show has attracted. Calling Zane’s character “The Prince of Darkness”? Who thought blatantly ripping off Bailey/“The Nazi” on Grey’s was a good idea? And Long’s character literally gets pushed into the deep end toward the end of the pilot and someone has to, ugh, mention the fact that he was thrown into said deep end. If they were foregoing subtlety entirely when naming this show, they should’ve just called this show We Hoped We Could Trick You Into Watching This Show By a) Trying to Make It Exactly Like Grey’s Anatomy and b) Putting It On Before Grey’s Anatomy. Though, that might be hard to fit on a print ad.

Life Unexpected “Pilot”
Many have compared this show to well, almost every show on The CW’s network daddy, The WB, and this isn’t completely unfounded. Heck, two of the shows stars (Roswell’s Shiri Appleby and Dawson’s Creek’s Kerr Smith) were actually on WB shows. Stil, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. The CW often gets killed in the ratings by airing more provocative shows like Gossip Girl, while ABC Family airs would-be WB programs like The Secret Life of An American Teenager (from Brenda Hampton who also created 7^th Heaven which was on… The WB). Appleby and Kristoffer Polaha have great chemisty, and Brittany Robertson is way less irksome as teen here than she was on Swingtown. I might not tune into this show again, but just nice to know The CW has something a little more precious, and a little less Chuck Bass to offer.

The 16th Annual Screen Actor’s Guild Awards
I’m an Oscar season junkie, but for some reason I forget about the SAG Awards fairly consistently. Every year the day after they air someone will ask me if I watched them and I utter whatever the Dennis equivalent of “d’oh” is (and I’m sure it involves an obscenity or two). But this year I actually managed to watch, and I’m happy I did. The Golden Globes last weekend disappointed me, and maybe it really did have to do with Ricky Gervais. Well, more that the Globes (for the first time in a number of years) decided to have a host all. The SAGs seemed to fly by host-free, just like the Globes had in previous years. (On a related note: Can we start calling the Oscars “The Drags” yet?). The best part was Sandra Bullock’s half-tribute, half-roast to lifetime achievement award recipient Betty White, who got in a few zingers of her own. “I look out at this audience and I see so many famous faces, but what really boggles my mind is I actually know many of you… maybe had a couple.” Heh. Can I hold out hope that directors in the room like Quentin Tarantino or George Clooney will cast White in their next acclaimed movie, so she can brighten up the Oscars in 2011?

Castle “Sucker Punch”
I’ve always thought I’ve seen an episode of this before, but then I remembered that was Bones I’ve watched. Sorry, it’s hard keeping network TV’s Joss Whedon alum/hot lady combo crime dramas straight. I really do like Nathan Fillion but I’m not in love with this show. Apparently I picked a good episode to check out at least, as Beckett found her mother’s killer in this episode. Too bad I was able to predict every shocking “twist” in the episode like 10 minutes before it actually happened. Still, it was nice to see Jenna Leigh Green, Sabrina the Teenage Witch’s former bitchy nemesis Libby, even if Green had to endure a crappy gangster mol New Yawk accent to do so. It also reminded me they need to get the Heathers Broadway musical off the ground with Green and Kristen Bell, if only to save us from any more bad Bell romantic comedies (looking at you, When in Rome).

Zoe

Community: “Interpretive Dance”
I like this show. I really do. But, boy, has it been bland the last few weeks. It’s been a solid, funny bland, but bland nonetheless. Maybe it’s because Abed has always been my least favorite character when he’s doing the self-aware thing. Maybe it’s because while I treacle, I like it to be earned and Community is pushing for too much, too soon. Maybe it’s because I really wish they’d stop shoving Brita and Jeff at us. Whatever the reason, I’ve found myself mildly annoyed after the episodes end–albeit, amused. Get it together, guys, you have too much of a good thing to squander it.

Friday Night Lights: “I Can’t”

In speaking with friends last week, we all imagined what would happen with the fourth pregnancy in FNL history (again: stop doing this, writers). It seemed most likely to us that the baby would be miscarried, allowing for it to not be a part of the show, while deftly avoiding the abortion issue.

Well, I guess we forgot what we were watching. In some great scenes (but not quite “Matt’s dad dies” powerful) we see Becky, easily the new character I hate the most, go through that incredibly hard experience. I can’t say politics aside, because that obviously will color both our and the characters reactions, but even with politics it’s a wonderful presentation of a truly difficult, truly heart breaking situation. And one rarely shown.

Scott

Archer: “Diversity Hire”
I was a little worried that Archer, the first non- Adult Swim show by Frisky Dingo and Sealab 2021 creator Adam Reed, would lack absurdist bite. How absurd! Archer is every bit as funny as those earlier shows, but has a much more accessible vibe that will hopefully attract your casual FX viewer who tunes in Thursday nights for It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. The real question is whether audiences will tune in for this show by itself, as it lacks the Sunny juggernaut lead-in its weaker FX comedy predecessor The League benefitted from; it might have been a wiser choice to pair it with Louis CK’s highly anticipated new show, which will take over Archer’s time slot when its season ends in March. Hopefully the pretty good ratings hold, because this one has the potential to be one of the funniest shows on TV. I’m hard-pressed to think of another half hour comedy with a stronger first three episodes. I was going to suggest the introduction of a villain as great as Frisky Dingo’s Killface, but Archer’s villain is really Archer himself, a gigantic jerk whose insatiable ego and libido derail the lives of everyone around him in zany, madcap ways.