TeleChimp

Even the most genteel HBO executive may let out an exuberant “F**kin’ A” as ratings come in for “Hard Knocks.” The documentary-style look inside the New York Jets’ training camp — which received early attention for Coach Rex Ryan’s slew of f-bombs — has averaged 43% more viewers than a year ago.

Leading into Wednesday’s fourth episode, the average for the initial three was 845,000 viewers. That compares with 592,000 last year, when the Cincinnati Bengals were featured in the series. Because of the show’s young-male appeal, nearly 80% of viewers on average this summer are in the 18-to-49 demo.

“Hard Knocks” is averaging 663,000 18- to-49 year-olds since its Aug. 18 debut, which is 47% better than what HBO drew last year for the Bengals. The figures cover live-plus-same-day viewing and don’t include subsequent airings of an episode, or consumption via VOD or online.

That’s encouraging for HBO; even after viewership dropped for episode two with the Jets, it soared back last week — partly due to anticipation that Jets star cornerback Darrelle Revis might make an appearance (he didn’t). Total viewership for week three (Aug. 25), came in at 853,000, only 2% below the first episode.

In the 18-to-49 demo, the third show had just a 3% drop-off from the premiere. Ratings for episode four should be available late Thursday.

This season, the annual behind-the-scenes journey inside a team’s preparation for the season is on pace to post an average of 52% more 18-to-49 viewers than last summer.

While ratings in the demo can be used for guidance and internal metrics, HBO is less concerned about them, since it does not sell advertising. “Hard Knocks” is in its sixth season and is produced by NFL Films and HBO.

The show’s increased interest this year could be attributed to as many factors as the number of f-bombs Coach Ryan dropped in the premiere (at least 8). In addition to the brash Ryan — who 40 seconds into the premiere lamented a “f**ckin’” vacation with his in-laws — the focus on a team in the large New York market is a plus.

The Jets also finished a game away from the Super Bowl last year, and have generated towering expectations for the coming season among their long-suffering fan base. And the team has done nothing to tamp that down, showing as much bravado as Mike Tyson during a weigh-in in his heyday.

Also, there’s the high-profile holdout of Revis. Each week, as ludicrous as it may be, some fans hope he surreptitiously signs a new contract and HBO breaks the news on “Hard Knocks.” Knowing Revis wouldn’t appear last week, HBO Sports chief Ross Greenburg still stoked the narrative by declining to say one way or the other hours before the episode aired.

“Hard Knocks” draws much higher ratings than HBO’s sports documentary series “Real Sports,” in which the most recent original episode on Aug. 17 drew 386,000 viewers in live-plus-same-day figures.

Popularity: 2% [?]

The wife and I began watching Whedon’s short-lived, but masterful, television series Firefly again last night.  For me it was the second time on dvd (after watching it on Fox during its original run), and for the wife it was the first.

The show holds up as well or better than it did when originally broadcast in 2002.  Though Whedon has a great sense of humor, Firefly is his most tragic work, following the crew of the spaceship Serenity about the planets as they run from the demons of their past, principal of which is that many of them were on the losing side of a stellar civil war in which the central-planet “Alliance” (forces of progressivism, nationalism, multi-planet corporations, state security, big government, or if you want to summarize it as a whole, “the East”) crushed the outer-system Browncoats (so named because they couldn’t afford uniforms) or “Independents” (anarcho-syndicalism, libertarianism, mom-and-pop commerce,  minarchism, “the West”).

Plus a subplot about government mind control that can’t be revealed because it would spoil the conclusion of the series, the somehow-produced, and somehow-profitable, science fiction film Serenity.

And of course Fox, where good television goes to be born only to suffer infanticide at the hands of executives, ruined the show, broadcasting a tragic space-opera serial out of order because some of the episodes they front-loaded were funnier than the intended earlier episodes.  So normal people watching the show had no idea what was going on.  It was cancelled before its full run was complete, due to low ratings.  Today Firefly lives only on dvd.

And it did occur to me, if HBO or Showtime, networks which aren’t afraid to challenge audiences and which take the long view, had access to the show, it might have had its second or third or fourth season.  Hell, Big Love is now on its fifth season.

And which comes back round to my other point.  Firefly, as cool a piece of anti-authoritarian agitprop as was ever made, is more relevant today than ever.  In 2002 only freaks on the left or the libertarian fringe feared their government and their banks.  Today, everyone fears the Man.

If you’ve never seen Firefly, I strongly urge you to watch the show in the original order. And wear your brown coat with pride.

Popularity: 3% [?]

Several years after its final episode aired, people are still discovering The Wire, a dense, suspenseful and multi-layered crime drama that, thanks to brilliant writing and acting, now stands as one of the best series ever to make it to television. Those of us who became fans could hardly contain our excitement when we heard that its creator, David Simon, would be back at HBO with a series revolving around survivors of Hurricane Katrina that was set and shot in and around New Orleans. We didn’t know what to expect, exactly, but we knew we had high hopes.

For the most part Simon and company delivered, bringing back the strong writing, the subtle, nuanced acting, and the regional setting with meticulous attention to detail that this creative team is known for. The first season of Treme was the kind of television you eventually relax and sink into, enjoying it the way you might enjoy a live concert featuring a line-up of bands you don’t recognize but playing in a genre you love. Rather than waiting for big payoffs or shocking plot twists, we realized that the point was to enjoy the product as a whole. Was it as great as the first season of The Wire? No, it wasn’t. For better or worse, Treme is a study in authenticity and not in high drama.

What struck us immediately when the season first started was how determined Simon and his partner Eric Overmyer were to bring the audience into an unfamiliar universe and make us a part of it. The first couple of episodes were a whirlwind of characters and situations, forcing us to struggle and pay close attention just to figure out what was going on. (Or, on some cases, to head to the internet in search of a plot synopsis.) Antoine (Wendell Pierce) is married to LaDonna (Khandi Alexander), who’s friends with Toni (Melissa Leo), who’s married to Creighton (John Goodman), who hires Davis (Steve Zahn), who dates Janette (Kim Dickens) but has a flirtation with Annie, who’s sleeping with Sonny…

Luckily every musical number provided us with a much-needed break, and it became clear that music wasn’t just going to be a backdrop to the action — it was an integral part of the show. And wow, what a part. The music of Treme was unbelievable, spanning multiple genres and styles and talent levels. We got full orchestras, small brass bands playing in airports, and impromptu duets on the street. We got everything from Davis machine-gunning spoken-word in a neighborhood restaurant, to local legends blowing us away with solo performances, to zydeco bands rocking a packed theater. It’s impossible to name the best numbers because every episode featured at least five or six different musical performances, nearly every one of them performed live rather than shoehorned into a montage or tootling inoffensively in the background. Most of us didn’t recognize names like Coco Robicheaux, John Boutte or Kermit Ruffins before Treme, but we sure know them now.

As the season continued we waited for the storylines to coalesce, to bring the massive cast together around a few big, unifying conflicts. It didn’t happen, and it didn’t happen, and about halfway through the season it finally became clear that it was not going to happen. I think this was a turning point for viewers, some of whom lost interest in the show. Those who stuck around saw some storylines lead to a natural conclusion, while many others were left open-ended to explore in future seasons.

Some of those storylines worked better than others. We were perpetually fascinated by Antoine’s struggle to get back on his feet — he remained a sympathetic character even while he cheerfully cheated on his girlfriend and drank himself into one bad situation after another. Janette’s struggle to keep her restaurant going, Davis and his stoic gay neighbors gradually winning each other over, and most of all, Cray’s slow descent into depression and the tragic outcome that capped off the season — these all stole our attention every time the narrative jumped to one of their stories.

I say “stole our attention” because, frankly, not all the storylines were as strong as these, and all too often the weak stories took valuable time away from the strong. The story of the Guardians of the Flame felt half-explored. The show avoided the central question: who are these guys, what’s their story and their history? The narration that Creighton so often provided, through classroom lectures or YouTube viral videos, didn’t reach to this far corner of the show’s universe, and since Big Chief Lambreaux (Clarke Peters) rarely crossed paths with any of the other regular characters, it often felt like just one more unnecessary plot arc in a show already packed full of them.

Sonny and Annie were another pair whose story, ultimately, just became less engaging as time went on. Early in the season, the show hinted that perhaps Sonny wasn’t who he said he was — he seemed mysterious and untrustworthy, capable of doing something truly terrible. We wondered if maybe his story about rescuing survivors in the days after the hurricane was a lie, hiding a much darker past. Ultimately, though, Sonny turned out to be your garden variety loser drug addict whose greatest power seemed to be keeping Annie interested in him long after we’d already decided we didn’t care. Lucia Micarelli might have been an unknown quantity, cast primarily for her skill as a violinist, but ultimately Annie wasn’t the weaker of the two characters.

One could make the argument that it is the mundane, everyday aspect of the characters of Treme that is both its best and its worst quality. The show was so authentic that it was easy to forget we were watching actors reading a script, but it also mirrored real life so faithfully in its structure that we didn’t feel like if we missed an episode, we might miss some shocking plot development. In other words, it never made the jump from good show to mustn’t miss, appointment television. Nevertheless, every single episode was strong and enjoyable in its own way, and we’ll be looking forward to next season.

Popularity: 18% [?]

Um. Hi there. How are you? Yeah, we should probably discuss what we all just saw. Everything’s going to be okay.

I mean, who hasn’t had angry rage-filled sex with their own arch enemy? And if you’re pounding away on them and you, you know, don’t exactly want them looking at you then… it’s academic, right? Natural even.

By the way, if you didn’t get the chance to read True Blood Stars Spill Their Guts!, then check it out. I got a chance to speak with Mariana Klaveno, the lovely actress who plays Lorena, at the True Blood red carpet premiere a few weeks ago and I specfically asked her about the… Well, we’ll just call it the scene. Yes, it’s true. We had a chance to see this episode before the rest of y’all and we’ve been simply dying for you guys to catch up! It’s been rough. My own fun story regarding “It Hurts Me Too” involves IGN Features Editor Phil Pirrello, the TV at my desk and me saying “Hey, Phil, come here and watch this.” Eye-trauma ensued as poor Phil, who pretty much hates the show to begin with, had to watch the scene cold; with no context. Hell, even with context, watching undead corkscrew sex is enough to make anyone do a “spit take” of the soul. “Damn you, Fowler,” he said intermittently throughout the rest of the day.

In “It Hurt Me Too,” we finally saw Sookie head out on an actual search for Bill, accompanied by the towering Eric-surrogate, Alcide the werewolf (Joe Manganiello). Alcide is a hulking, seemingly-gentle giant, who sort of fits this show’s bill at what a bad boy is supposed to be. Both he and Eric (and this is nothing against the performances of Alexander Skarsgard and Manganiello really) are mostly soft-spoken and tame in demeanor even though they’re supposed to represent, for all intents and purposes, Bill’s competition. They both dangerously border on *gasp* being bland. While Bill, who one might think, as the “nice vamp,” would be the bland one is the one who seems to be showing the most rage and passion these days. I mean, hell, we just saw him turn Lorena into a Pez Dispenser. Considering how bereft I thought Bill was back in Season 1, I never thought he’d wind up being the most brutally animated of the bunch. Alcide was fine, but his misadventures with Sookie in the werewolf bar, Lou Pines (har har), wound up making me want to meet his ex, Debbie, more than follow him on his adventures with Sookie.

It’s unclear at this point whether Bill really believes in his actions at the end of the episode, or if he’s taking it upon himself to go undercover (deeep undercover!) to work with Russell to see what The King’s grand scheme is. Bill’s heart-wrenching flashbacks were great – as they usually are – and it just might be true that Bill has now taken Lorena’s message to heart: That “the only way to show your love for a human is to stay away.

Forever.” We shall see. Even if Bill is “hereby renouncing his fealty for the Kingdom of Louisiana” as a ruse to try and thwart whatever devious plan Russell has up his sleeve, we can be damn sure that Sookie will NOT be happy about it. Or be happy with Bill’s desperate “punish f***” with Lorena. Bill’s now operating under the luxury of not knowing how determined Sookie is to find him. Meanwhile, Dennis O’Hare’s King Russell continues to delight. “In Mississippi, our appetite for unprovoked violence is nil,” he practically yawns at Bill.

The werewolf that Eric and Sookie wound up killing at the beginning of the episode seemed like a bit more of a threat than what we’ve encountered so far. Eric seems to be pretty worried about them so that’s a good sign that we might wind up seeing them as a threat as well. “I’ve got your rug all wet,” Eric says to Sookie, blood dripping from his chin, as we discover that the “Operation Werewolf” gang are a new group of wolves making trouble in the area. V seems to give these wolves an extra dose of wolf-iness that makes them more of a challenge, but I’m still waiting for them to seem as big of a threat as, hell, even those Fellowship of the Sun idiots back in Season 2. Eric winds up placing Sookie with Alcide and then he, kind of, checks out of the story. Will he wind up circling back into Sookie’s storyline or will he be off on his own adventures for the rest of the season?

Tara received her first taste of heightened vampire eroticism. I’m interested to see where her story with Franklin winds up going. Not interested in her, mind, you. It’s mostly him. After two episodes, he’s already more appealing than Eggs and Maryanne. I particularly liked his scene with Jessica where she, once again, didn’t know a crucial “vampire rule.” Franklin seems like he might be a “fixer.” “I find things,” is all he really offers up. Franklin describes Jessica as annoying, which is what we all thought of her back at the outset. But she’s now become funny and sweet, and the more I watch her fumble, the more I realize how neglectful Bill has been as her maker.

I’m afraid we’re going to have to put up with Jason’s lame meanderings for a little bit longer. I liked his soft scene with Tara at Merlotte’s, but his whole bone-headed notion about becoming a cop was dumb. Most what he’s doing right now just isn’t working. Especially when we, as viewers, could totally get behind a life-decision like that. But then he goes and refuses to study for the cop exam. So it’s not really a newer, focused and re-dedicated Jason, which is what we’d all love to see. He’s also still seeing those bullet holes in people’s foreheads, which continues to be overtly goofy. I did appreciated Sheriff Dearborn’s decision to say “eff this” and quit however. could this pave the way for Sheriff Bellefleur and Deputy Stackhouse?

Sam’s earnest quest to discover his birth-kin seems to have wound up biting him in the ass a bit. I won’t go so far as to say that this should serve as a warning to anyone trying to find their real parents, but maybe stay away from the kind that sit around drinking Old Milwaukee in their tighty-whities when you’ve got a successful business that they might want in on. Eggs’ lonely funeral made for a solid scene, even if I never cared about his character. It was nice that they, once again, showed us how he really had no one in his life.

The highlight of this episode were Bill’s flashbacks and the pox-ridden tragedy that befell his young children. I think we all just assumed — after he watched Carolyn and his kids through the window in the flashback scene back in “Sparks Fly Out” — that Bill never returned home. The story was well-told and it just might have been there to help us viewers believe that Bill bought into Russell and Lorena’s advice about leaving the human world behind. Then again, Bill only boner-pounced on Lorena when she told him that she didn’t buy his act. So it really did seem like he did it as a way to convince her of his, ahem, dedication to the cause.

Popularity: 45% [?]

Diane Lane will star in HBO’s upcoming film “Cinema Verite,” the behind-the-scenes look at the making of the groundbreaking documentary “An American Family.”

Lane will play Pat Loud, the mother and main character of the documentary, which chronicled an intimate look at a Santa Barbara family.

Popularity: 12% [?]

An interesting comment was posted on Hibberd’s story about Thrones. The commenter states that he was talking to the Paint Hall studio manager today and apparently HBO is thinking of booking 2 hangers within the studio for the next 5 years.

I just wanted to let you know I was down at the set where Game of Thrones is filmed in Belfast today and I was talking to the Studio manager who told me that HBO have been inquiring about provisionally booking 2 hangers in the studio for 5 years. I wonder if this means they intend on having a set end date, obviously if it bombs they won’t need 5 years.

More positive signs. Although the 5 year thing is probably just HBO trying to get as good a deal as possible and doesn’t mean they are going to order a whole 5 seasons up front. I suspect that if the show really bombs, they will just cancel their booking with the Paint Hall and pay whatever fee that may result.

Popularity: 12% [?]