TCA’s Cable Triumph: Discovery and HBO Reveal the Programs of the Year - Ed Martin - MediaBizBloggers

The opening day of the cable portion of the Winter 2010 Television Critics Association tour included presentations for two miniseries that will likely prove to be the two most acclaimed programs of the year: Discovery’s Life and HBO’s The Pacific. From what the critics have seen and heard about these two shows it is almost impossible to imagine that anything else will come along to eclipse them as the best of 2010, even if the year is only three weeks old.

If the clips presented here are any indication, the eleven-part Life, a co-production of Discovery and the BBC, is going to raise the bar for all nature documentaries, as did the similarly astonishing Planet Earth just two years ago. (Like Life, Earth was a co-production of the BBC and Discovery.) The technical skill and production talent on the screen is humbling. It looks to be a state of the art high definition marvel, especially in its presentation of some of the tiniest survival dramas on the planet, such as Venus Fly Traps capturing and slowly digesting flies in unprecedented close-up that had several TCA members feeling bad for the bugs.

Life has already been telecast on the BBC in the United Kingdom, where viewers heard Sir David Attenborough as its narrator. In the Discovery version the narration is provided by Oprah Winfrey, a huge fan of Planet Earth and a new member of the Discovery family. (Discovery will launch the Oprah Winfrey Network next January.)

Predictably, the replacement of Attenborough by Winfrey had some critics crabbing. “I don’t mean to be difficult, but it’s not like the BBC version had Gilbert Gottfried doing the narration,” one disappointed fellow declared. “You know, it’s Sir David Attenborough, and he is an iconic voice, and he’s also a voice that is very familiar to American television viewers. I’m a little puzzled by the choice.” (Perhaps the crabbing critic forgot that Sigourney Weaver replaced Attenborough as narrator of the American version of Planet Earth.)

As with most such nature documentaries, certain segments of Life will prove unsettling to sensitive viewers in their depiction of the animal kingdom as one big savage buffet. But the educational value of such productions cannot be understated, and for that reason alone Life will serve as an appropriate showpiece presentation during Discovery’s year-long celebration of its 25^th anniversary. It will also reinforce the value of the television viewing experience, because Life is something to be enjoyed on a large, high-definition TV rather than a laptop screen.

The day’s other stand-out program, The Pacific, is as much a follow-through to HBO’s Band of Brothers as Life is to Planet Earth. It’s a ten-part fact-based scripted miniseries from Brothers executive producers Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman. Pacific follows the stories of three United States Marines during multiple battles in the Pacific Theater during World War II. In advance of TCA, HBO provided critics with four of its ten segments, including the first two, which nimbly introduce the characters and send them into battle. Most critics were so taken with the first two parts that they chose not to watch the other two (parts five and seven), preferring instead to wait and watch The Pacific in correct order. Spielberg, Hanks, Goetzman and several cast members were on hand to promote the production.

Life and The Pacific are both scheduled to premiere in March.

Among the other programs presented yesterday that stood out in the crowd were TLC’s Addicted, a new documentary series that focuses on the work of interventionist and recovering addict Kristina Wandzilak; Planet Green’s The Fabulous Beekman Boys, about a gay couple who left New York City and bought a farm in upstate New York; Treme, a new HBO drama series from David Simon (The Wire) about life in post-Katrina New Orleans; Temple Grandin, an upcoming biographical HBO movie about a woman (played by Claire Danes) who confronted and largely conquered the challenges of autism while revolutionizing the cattle industry, and HBO’s The Ricky Gervais Show, an animated adaptation of Gervais’ podcast series.

The one controversy of the day occurred during a panel for the upcoming Animal Planet limited series titled Fatal Attractions, about people who foolishly keep wild animals as pets. It’s especially timely following the tragedy last year in Stamford, CT, when a chimpanzee named Travis horrifically mauled a friend of his owner and was then shot to death by police officers.

After Animal Planet President and General Manager Marjorie Kaplan mentioned in her opening remarks that a new series about little people and pit bull rescue titled Pit Boss would premiere this Saturday, one critic asked, “Have you considered doing one with giants and Chihuahuas?”

When the subsequent laughter died down the critic continued. “This is a serious question,” he growled. “Where does this end?” Gesturing toward the panelists on the stage, two of whom have owned wild animals, he said, “Here you have crazy people who take dangerous animals into their homes, and you’re going to present and tell their interesting stories. Is there a point at which the behavior of the people that you are glorifying in these reality shows becomes so ridiculous that you will refuse to put it on, or is it simply a question of keeping your digital channel and making a little bit of money off of it?”

“Oh my goodness,” a flustered Kaplan replied. She corrected the critic’s assertion about Pit Boss, explaining that it is about a person who does pit bull rescues. As for the rest of his charges, Kaplan said, “We are not trying to present outrageous things. We are telling stories that happen in the world. The Travis attack was a real thing that happened, and [Fatal Attractions] is intended to explore what causes people to do this, not to glorify it.”