How long can the Windfall last?

Anyone who listens to me long enough knows how much I decry the current state of network television.  I used to love television.  Not necessarily for the acting, but for the writing.  Noone loves good wordplay within the English language for than I.  Other than the Left Wing Sport Night, Freaks and Geeks or Undeclared , I can't think of any consistently well-written television shows.  I know there have to be good writers other than Aaron Sorkin and Judd Apatow, but where are they?

 

This is why I have started to like Windfall so much.   It takes a simple events are shows the many sides of it without being overdone, predictable or dumbed down to the viewers.   The show and its characters are complexity and the writers realize that issues don't need to be resolved within each and every episode.  Well enjoyable to watch, it is kind of scary.  Almost all television programs that assume the viewer isn't stupid tend to be killed off relatively early in their life.

 

I am hopeful for Windfall yet.  It embraces the ensemble cast and has multiple storylines which should hopefully attract a diverse.  The basic premise of the show, I believe shoud draw viewers as well.  The inherently possible upward mobility of a free economy leaves people across all social strata wondering when their time for riches will come.  Windfall shows what happens when the dream does come true.

 

Ironically, this may end up being the demise of the show.  Histoical shows that television shows based around one event tend not to do that well.  After the first season, there is not necessarily anywhere to go with the plot (See My Two Dads, Life Goes On and Doogie Howser, MD).  Hopefully, the diverse cast will enable storylines unrelated to the premise of the show.  Entourage is facing that same challenge this year aswell.

 

So next Thursday night, I'll be watching Windfall, hopefully you will be too.  Now if only Jennie Garth could make a guest appearance as a woman from Luke Perry's past.

 

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The other piece of must-see TV I have recently discovered is the King of Cars.  This is a reality show about the inner workings of supposedly the most successful used car dealership in the nation and its owner, Chopper.  One of the strange things this show does is actually makes you root for car salesman,  almost in the same way that you root for the girls in The Hills.