My fellow Americans, it is time once again for me to assess the state of television as the new fall season rolls out. Most of the new shows have debuted; shockingly, none of the shows that I like have been canceled already. So now it is time for me to give you my observations on the TV landscape as it stands today. Happy to say, I have a lot of good to talk about. Unfortunately, the abundance of good television makes it tough for me to watch them all and still be an effective grad student, so letapos;s just say my DVR has gotten a workout lately. Greatest invention ever.
Hereapos;s how I do this... I tell you what I watch, night by night. If I donapos;t like it, I donapos;t watch it. Pretty easy way to figure out what I think are good shows, right?
So letapos;s start with Sunday... Because today is Sunday (my logic is awesome). I have to admit that I no longer get excited about new episodes of "The Simpsons". Itapos;s not that I donapos;t like the show, but after a while, I just tired of it. The movie really was the end of the road for me. Iapos;ll watch the occasional rerun but when I can only watch so much in a week, "Simpsons" doesnapos;t make the list for me. I do, however, still LOVE "Family Guy". This show just keeps finding ways to be hilarious. Already this season, the show has sparked a renewed interest in "Surfinapos; Bird" (or at least everyone making reference to it) and made "And boom goes the dynamite" a catch-phrase. Hopefully, they keep it up. At 10:00 on AMC, I would be watching "Mad Men"... If I wasnapos;t still 3 weeks behind. This is yet another case of me jumping into a show late, but not surprising; I jumped into "The Sopranos" in season 3 and "Scrubs" in season 7. So I havenapos;t seen the first season but I still enjoy "Mad Men." Don Draper and the gang at Sterling Cooper are much like Tony Soprano and co.; you know these guys are scumbags, but theyapos;re likable scumbags and you canapos;t help but watch them. This show won a fistful of Emmys for good reason.
CBS chose to move "How I Met Your Mother" to 8:30 on Mondays and put the pathetic "Big Bang Theory" at 8:00, which hurts because a bad lead-in is never good. That being said, "How I Met Your Mother" is still one of the best shows on television. Take the most recent episode for example... The plot revolves around the gangapos;s idea that staging interventions are a good way to break people of their bad habits, so next thing you know they are staging interventions to stop Lily from speaking with a British accent, stop Barney from doing fiery magic tricks, stop Marshall from wearing Dr. Seuss hats... Eventually it gets so bad that they have an "intervention intervention." Meanwhile in the SAME episode, you have Barney trying to prove that he can pick up a woman while in old man makeup and a hilarious flashback where a drunk (and "hyper-Canadian") Robin is playing hockey in the apartment and causes Lily to drop the gloves (or oven mitts in this case) and start a cat-fight.
I am happy to report that "Heroes" is back and back to being GOOD. A lot of people were upset with the way last season went and the writers strike hurt as well, but theyapos;ve come back strong. A show like this is good when at the end of each episode, you have so many questions and you canapos;t wait until next week to see if they are answered... Then you go into work the next day and ask them what they think. A true water cooler show. And believe me, I wanted to scratch my head and say, "Wait, Ali Larter is back as a completely different character?" But the explanation of a doctor creating these people with abilities actually made me say, "Oh, okay, thatapos;s cool."
Speaking of shows that leave you wanting more, thereapos;s "Fringe", Tuesday nights on Fox. Iapos;ve already written here that this is the best new show of the season, and a friend of mine made a great point as to the reason: Any show that has a likeable eccentric for its main character works (exhibit A: this showapos;s lead-in, "House"). In this case, itapos;s Dr. Bishop, who spent 17 years in the crazy house before being released so he could help solve all these cases that deal in some way or another with research he once conducted. And they still work the cow into every episode...
I was a casual fan of ABCapos;s "Pushing Daisies" on Wednesday nights when the show debuted last season, but I made a real effort to get into the show this season. I have to say it is a truly unique and compelling show. Itapos;s escapist fantasy and itapos;s obviously made to be that way. When you get down to it, the show is pretty much another detective show, only itapos;s goofy and plays like a bedtime story, complete with narrator. At 9:00 on Fox, "Til Death" is still a sharp sitcom and Brad Garrett and Joely Fisher have tremendous chemistry; however, it appears that they are phasing out the next-door neighbor newlywed characters and I think the show is missing something without them.
Speaking of sitcoms making changes, "My Name Is Earl" has thankfully reverted back to its original premise: Earl checking off things on his list, trying to atone for bad things heapos;s done. Last seasonapos;s diversion of Earl in prison completely lost me, but Iapos;m back now. In that 8:00 Thursday slot, I also watch "Smallville." Okay, stop laughing. Iapos;m not a huge comic book person so unlike many who were into this show at the start, Iapos;m not picking at every little way that this show diverts from the Superman story. This season, they have transitioned into the actual Superman story, with Clark Kent working at the Daily Planet and Lois Lane discovering sheapos;s in love with him. Rumor has it that this is the last season for the show, and this really would be a good place to end things, since the original premise was the whole backstory of Superman. "30 Rock" comes back after the election, and Iapos;ll add that to my must-see list when it does.
Also on Thursday nights, you have ABCapos;s new cop drama, "Life on Mars." Iapos;m a little behind on this show too, but I did see the pilot and I think that the premise of this show could have legs but you have to wonder for how long. The main character finds himself in 1973 after getting hit by a car. It turns out heapos;s in a coma and this is some way that the brain can operate when someoneapos;s unconscious. That being said, the cast is fantastic so weapos;ll just have to see where this goes. Hopefully, there will be more Michael Imperioli and Harvey Keitel and less Lisa Bonet (hey, there was a reason Don Geronimo once called her "super f---ing boring" on the air).
The CW made a great move by shifting "Everybody Hates Chris" to Friday nights. First of all, it means that this first-rate sitcom is no longer on opposite something else I want to see (of course, DVR solves this problem too, but still). Secondly, itapos;s a small step toward the networks actually making an effort on Friday and Saturday nights again. Since the demise of ABCapos;s "TGIF" lineup a decade ago, the networks have pretty much given up on these two nights because people go out on Friday and Saturday nights so why bother running anything worth watching? Ya know, you can watch a good sitcom or two at 8pm and then hit the bars. Anyway, kudos to the CW for sticking their neck out there with a solid show on Fridays.
Lastly, I have to say that "Saturday Night Live" has actually been halfway decent so far this season, but Iapos;ll bet that has a lot to do with the election coverage, and they are milking it right now, especially with the live "Weekend Updates" on Thursday nights. Once the election passes and Amy Poehler leaves the show, itapos;s probably going back in the crapper.
So those are the shows I like. There are plenty of other shows that are probably good but they just arenapos;t my kinda thing. Then there is the complete waste of time known as "Hole in the Wall." I single this one out as perhaps THE DUMBEST IDEA IN THE HISTORY OF TELEVISION. Hereapos;s the premise: two teams of contestants compete against each other by standing next to a pool of water and trying to fit through a hole in a moving wall to avoid getting knocked into said pool of water. Thatapos;s it. Thatapos;s the show. At least "Wipeout" has ACTUAL PHYSICAL EFFORT involved. Thank you Fox for further dumbing down the country.
Whatapos;s coming on the horizon? The "24" movie in November sweeps, followed by the long-awaited return of the series in January. "Scrubs" moves to ABC in the spring, "Reaper" comes back for a second season, and weapos;ll start to see more new shows whose development were halted by last yearapos;s strike. Itapos;s looking pretty good out there right now, and I can honestly say the state of the tube is strong. Happy viewing
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