For the next few days you can hear an online preview of the new R.E.M. album at iLike. They’ve been my favorite band for a very long time, and yet it’s been hard to say that lately. But this new stuff is good! They emerged at the end of the experimentation tunnel with a few new tricks, but they’ve married it to their old sound, and the synergy is quality. Plus, it sounds like recent politics have Michael Stipe pissed off enough to be writing sharper lyrics. ScreenwriterGuy will be listening to this continuously from now till Thursday.

When the very first image on the screen featured a mascot bunny rabbit in a fist fight, I was hopeful.

The premise behind Miss Guided is strong. Becky Freely, who was horribly awkward in high school, returns as an adult to her same school, now in the role of guidance counselor. Smart idea, and fleshing out the concept from there is strong afterwards as well. Our protagonist has a crush on a hunky Spanish teacher, but the new English teacher (who just happened to be Homecoming Queen in the guidance counselor’s senior year) is turning heads. Miss Freely is back in high school, and her new world comes with all the same dynamics as when she was a student.

Judy Greer is excellent as Becky Freely, and the writing is quality.  The world of the show is enjoyable, as we watch teachers who are not a bit qualified for their jobs struggle with their daily lives.  However, overall the first episode’s virtue is more its potential than it’s comedic virtuosity; all the elements are in the right place, except the laughs are few and far between.

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Jezebel James is the story of a children’s book editor who learns she is unable to conceive, so she asks her sister Coco to fill in as a surrogate mother. You’ll have to swallow the premise on your own, because the show doesn’t do much of the work for you, except maybe for a scene in which Coco considers her living conditions and is suddenly OK with loaning out her body.

I believe strongly that a well-written review should have very little to do with the reviewer’s personal experience with a piece of entertainment, at least unless I should expect to have a similar experience. A good review should give me insight into whether I might like something, and why. That said, I think it’s probably important to get my biases out in the open if you are to gain any value from this evaluation. First of all, I am a believer that the three-camera sitcom is not necessarily dead. Given enough originality and quality, people would watch another Friends. (See the ratings for How I Met Your Mother.) Next, I love love love love Parker Posey. Plus, Lauren Ambrose was in Six Feet Under, so she’s high in my esteem as well.

The last big element of this new half-hour is the question mark, by my taste: Amy Sherman-Palladino, creator of Gilmore Girls. I have friends who find the stilted dialogue she writes charming. I do not. Much as it was for me with GG, I think the as-many-words-as-possible-in-each-breath style is probably a non-starter for me. I want my dramatic writing to sound the way people talk, each character with her own voice. If I wanted each character to seem like an overwritten facet of the author, I’d read a book. (Or watch some Aaron Sorkin.)

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“I went to law school, passed the bar in seven states… I’ve become a damned vaudeville act.  I need ignorant juries.  I need them worried.  And I need them to trust me.  And that comes down to whether this shirt brings out my eyes.”  FANTASTIC opening.

Many moments through Canterbury’s Law match the bar set by that writing, and even the weak moments are quality.  For a pilot, there is a lot more focus on the case du jour than on introducing Elizabeth Canterbury, let alone the minor characters.  Our primary window into her personality comes in the courtroom, as we watch her manipulate jury and witnesses.  She is devious and delightful.

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