My thoughts on the fall TV schedule thus far ... (LONG)
Well, I took off five shows of my viewing schedule and have picked my new favorite show of the season. The four I removed were ...
Supernatural -- I don't know if it was doing to Ava what they did, my complete and utter lack of interest in anything Sam-related or the fact that it bugs the frickin' hell out of me in EVERY EPISODE wondering how the heck they pay for anything!?!?!? But the bottom-line is that the show just doesn't interest me anymore. And frankly, it doesn't help that new chick is simply a less virginal-looking, more bad-ass version of Alona Tal's character from last season. I liked Alona Tal, guys. If I weren't watching the show, I WOULD have for her. If you were going to re-introduce a more bad-ass version of her character, you should have just worked more on her character. The history was there, but instead you had a failure of imagination, so fail. Honestly, the show bores me. I've had it on my DVR since Thursday night, just now got around to watching it ... and, stopped 10 minutes into to pay some online bills. So, yeah, sorry Jensen. I love ya, you're pretty, and a great actor, but I just am not interested enough to watch this show for just you.
Desperate Housewives -- This was a long time coming. I've actually had this one waiting since last Sunday and just now watched it today and thinking back on the show overall, I realized that I don't like Edie, Susan's kinda annoying still, Mike is a total tool, Gabrielle annoys the HELL OUT OF ME (and always has), I think Bree's storyline is lame, Carlos is a douchebaggy tool and Lynette's story is B-O-R-I-N-G! So bye, bye ladies of Wisteria Lane.
Kid Nation -- I loved the first episode, but the following episodes were just meh. And I figure that if it does turn around, I have it on ON DEMAND, so there's that.
Pushing Daisies -- I tried to get past the narration that TELLS so much of the damn story, instead of showing it. I tried to get past Kristin Chenoweth being cast over the actress I know who would have been perfect. I tried to get past the fact that Anna Friel's just eh to me. I tried, tried to get past the whimsy and hoped that it would get better in the next episode, but no, no, it's just. too. much. Maybe if I adored Lee Pace instead of really, really, really liking him. Maybe if I really, really, really liked the other cast members. Maybe if they had stuck with the original script in casting and kept the piemaker and Chuck as 25-year olds the whimsy would have worked better. I don't know. And maybe this will be a show I come back to at the end of the season, watch it all and fall in love, but for now, I don't have the time to wait for it to work its spell on me. So, bye-bye.
Bionic Woman -- I just couldn't get past all that bugged in the Pilot, or the fact that Isaiah Washington was cast, so yeah. No.
So I've sampled most of the shows I'm going to watch, new and returning and here are quick thoughts so far ...
Shows I'm sure I'll stick with ...
- Cold Case: Good, not great, but I still enjoy it and more often than not get a good tearing up, if not an actual cry.
- Brothers & Sisters: Still loving this. Period.
- Everybody Hates Chris: It's a download one; I enjoy it still. Don't love it, but I enjoy it and will keep watching.
- Prison Break: Yeah, I'm pissed about Sara, but I still enjoy the pulpy goodness that is PB. And William Fichtner? Yum.
- Dancing with the Stars: I'm sticking with this for four reasons.
- How I Met Your Mother: Even the subpar shows are still better than almost everything else. LOVE.
- Biggest Loser: I'm enjoying this, my first season and I love Alison Sweeney (go EJAMI!) and Jillian.
- Beauty & the Geek: I don't love the twist, but I still enjoy the show.
- Boston Legal: I love this show. James Spader is awesome; the new cast is (for the most part) wonderful and I'm really enjoying the season so far.
- America's Next Top Model: I'm this show's bitch, seriously. And Heather? Is one of the few contestants on this show EVER I could actually see making it in the industry for real. If she does not win? Oh, Tyra!
- LIFE: I. LOVE. THIS. SHOW. If you're not watching it. WATCH IT!!!!!!!!! I love Damian Lewis, love his character, Charlie, love the premise of the show. I love Charlie's relationships with everyone he has relationships with, love everything about this show. LOVE IT. The last ep was meh in comparison to the first two shows, but still the best thing I watched on TV all week. LOVE. IT. My favorite new show of the season.
- Dirty Sexy Money: I like it; don't love it, but I like it, so I'm sticking with it.
- The Office/My Name is Earl/30 Rock: I'm cheating by combining, but it's the same for all three. I'm still enjoying everything about them and laugh myself silly. They're keepers.
- Survivor: I still miss Ozzy, but I love this show.
- Ugly Betty: I love. End of story.
- Grey's Anatomy: I'm really, really enjoying this season so far. Love Lexie. Love George/Izzie (together and separately). Love Bailey. Love Callie. Love the idea (and always have) of Callie/Sloan. Love Christina. Don't hate Meredith. Don't hate Derek. Thumbs up!
- Moonlight: Is the show pretty, uhm, not so great? Yeah. Is Jason Dohring on it? Yeah. Will I be sticking with it to the bitter end as long as the Dohring remains on it? Hell yeah. I do admit at this point, by episode three, that were it not for the Dohring's presence, yeah, it'd be gone from my DVR list. Hopefully the show will step it up and give us some more Dohring. I want some more Dohring.
- Friday Night Lights: I almost put this in the 'not sure I'll stick with it' category because other than the continued awesome of Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton? This is NOT the show I fell in love with. It's not about football anymore; it's not about community anymore. Julie is a selfish, spoiled, rotten, little brat. Tim is barely negligible; as is Jason; as is Smash. The Tyra/Landry story does NOT belong on this show. (As if Landry from S1 wouldn't have immediately, IMMEDIATELY, called 9-1-1. As if ANYONE on this show from S1 wouldn't have immediately, IMMEDIATELY, called 9-1-1.) All the characters are in little islands of their own storylines and never the twain are meeting ... and it SUCKS! God, why is it so freaking difficult to maintain quality from season to season for most shows? Ugh.
Eh, not sure ...
- Shark: I love the new addition to the cast, but am hating the daughter now and am finding myself just bored with the cut and dried procedure of it, saved only by James Woods. He's great, but I don't know if he's great enough to keep me watching. We'll see.
- Bones: I can't believe I'm even listing this here, but it's just been meh this season so far. It needs to pick it up, because I have a lot of Tuesday competition.
- Women's Murder Club: Sigh, I wanted to like this more because I have the biggest girl-crush on Angie Harmon, and Aubrey Dollar I love from her Guiding Light days, but I don't like the DA character (although, she and Kyle Secor have potential) and I don't know, the dialogue was not all that. I wasn't expecting brilliant television, but I was expecting highly enjoyable campy television, winking at the audience a bit for the ho-hum premise. And I expected that because of all the reviews; sadly, I didn't get it. It took itself way too seriously. But, man, oh, man ... Angie was AWESOME! and Aubrey was lovely. I'm giving it a few more episodes.
Supernatural -- I don't know if it was doing to Ava what they did, my complete and utter lack of interest in anything Sam-related or the fact that it bugs the frickin' hell out of me in EVERY EPISODE wondering how the heck they pay for anything!?!?!? But the bottom-line is that the show just doesn't interest me anymore. And frankly, it doesn't help that new chick is simply a less virginal-looking, more bad-ass version of Alona Tal's character from last season. I liked Alona Tal, guys. If I weren't watching the show, I WOULD have for her. If you were going to re-introduce a more bad-ass version of her character, you should have just worked more on her character. The history was there, but instead you had a failure of imagination, so fail. Honestly, the show bores me. I've had it on my DVR since Thursday night, just now got around to watching it ... and, stopped 10 minutes into to pay some online bills. So, yeah, sorry Jensen. I love ya, you're pretty, and a great actor, but I just am not interested enough to watch this show for just you.
Desperate Housewives -- This was a long time coming. I've actually had this one waiting since last Sunday and just now watched it today and thinking back on the show overall, I realized that I don't like Edie, Susan's kinda annoying still, Mike is a total tool, Gabrielle annoys the HELL OUT OF ME (and always has), I think Bree's storyline is lame, Carlos is a douchebaggy tool and Lynette's story is B-O-R-I-N-G! So bye, bye ladies of Wisteria Lane.
Kid Nation -- I loved the first episode, but the following episodes were just meh. And I figure that if it does turn around, I have it on ON DEMAND, so there's that.
Pushing Daisies -- I tried to get past the narration that TELLS so much of the damn story, instead of showing it. I tried to get past Kristin Chenoweth being cast over the actress I know who would have been perfect. I tried to get past the fact that Anna Friel's just eh to me. I tried, tried to get past the whimsy and hoped that it would get better in the next episode, but no, no, it's just. too. much. Maybe if I adored Lee Pace instead of really, really, really liking him. Maybe if I really, really, really liked the other cast members. Maybe if they had stuck with the original script in casting and kept the piemaker and Chuck as 25-year olds the whimsy would have worked better. I don't know. And maybe this will be a show I come back to at the end of the season, watch it all and fall in love, but for now, I don't have the time to wait for it to work its spell on me. So, bye-bye.
Bionic Woman -- I just couldn't get past all that bugged in the Pilot, or the fact that Isaiah Washington was cast, so yeah. No.
So I've sampled most of the shows I'm going to watch, new and returning and here are quick thoughts so far ...
Shows I'm sure I'll stick with ...
- Cold Case: Good, not great, but I still enjoy it and more often than not get a good tearing up, if not an actual cry.
- Brothers & Sisters: Still loving this. Period.
- Everybody Hates Chris: It's a download one; I enjoy it still. Don't love it, but I enjoy it and will keep watching.
- Prison Break: Yeah, I'm pissed about Sara, but I still enjoy the pulpy goodness that is PB. And William Fichtner? Yum.
- Dancing with the Stars: I'm sticking with this for four reasons.
- 1. Julianne. Love that girl, love her dancing and Helio is charming, if no Apolo.
2. Jane Seymour. Love her, enjoy her dancing.
3. Marie Osmond. LOVE HER, love watching her dance.
4. The probably-won't-happen-quit-dreaming chance that Apolo will show up sometime in the season for one more dance with Julianne.
- How I Met Your Mother: Even the subpar shows are still better than almost everything else. LOVE.
- Biggest Loser: I'm enjoying this, my first season and I love Alison Sweeney (go EJAMI!) and Jillian.
- Beauty & the Geek: I don't love the twist, but I still enjoy the show.
- Boston Legal: I love this show. James Spader is awesome; the new cast is (for the most part) wonderful and I'm really enjoying the season so far.
- America's Next Top Model: I'm this show's bitch, seriously. And Heather? Is one of the few contestants on this show EVER I could actually see making it in the industry for real. If she does not win? Oh, Tyra!
- LIFE: I. LOVE. THIS. SHOW. If you're not watching it. WATCH IT!!!!!!!!! I love Damian Lewis, love his character, Charlie, love the premise of the show. I love Charlie's relationships with everyone he has relationships with, love everything about this show. LOVE IT. The last ep was meh in comparison to the first two shows, but still the best thing I watched on TV all week. LOVE. IT. My favorite new show of the season.
- Dirty Sexy Money: I like it; don't love it, but I like it, so I'm sticking with it.
- The Office/My Name is Earl/30 Rock: I'm cheating by combining, but it's the same for all three. I'm still enjoying everything about them and laugh myself silly. They're keepers.
- Survivor: I still miss Ozzy, but I love this show.
- Ugly Betty: I love. End of story.
- Grey's Anatomy: I'm really, really enjoying this season so far. Love Lexie. Love George/Izzie (together and separately). Love Bailey. Love Callie. Love the idea (and always have) of Callie/Sloan. Love Christina. Don't hate Meredith. Don't hate Derek. Thumbs up!
- Moonlight: Is the show pretty, uhm, not so great? Yeah. Is Jason Dohring on it? Yeah. Will I be sticking with it to the bitter end as long as the Dohring remains on it? Hell yeah. I do admit at this point, by episode three, that were it not for the Dohring's presence, yeah, it'd be gone from my DVR list. Hopefully the show will step it up and give us some more Dohring. I want some more Dohring.
- Friday Night Lights: I almost put this in the 'not sure I'll stick with it' category because other than the continued awesome of Kyle Chandler and Connie Britton? This is NOT the show I fell in love with. It's not about football anymore; it's not about community anymore. Julie is a selfish, spoiled, rotten, little brat. Tim is barely negligible; as is Jason; as is Smash. The Tyra/Landry story does NOT belong on this show. (As if Landry from S1 wouldn't have immediately, IMMEDIATELY, called 9-1-1. As if ANYONE on this show from S1 wouldn't have immediately, IMMEDIATELY, called 9-1-1.) All the characters are in little islands of their own storylines and never the twain are meeting ... and it SUCKS! God, why is it so freaking difficult to maintain quality from season to season for most shows? Ugh.
Eh, not sure ...
- Shark: I love the new addition to the cast, but am hating the daughter now and am finding myself just bored with the cut and dried procedure of it, saved only by James Woods. He's great, but I don't know if he's great enough to keep me watching. We'll see.
- Bones: I can't believe I'm even listing this here, but it's just been meh this season so far. It needs to pick it up, because I have a lot of Tuesday competition.
- Women's Murder Club: Sigh, I wanted to like this more because I have the biggest girl-crush on Angie Harmon, and Aubrey Dollar I love from her Guiding Light days, but I don't like the DA character (although, she and Kyle Secor have potential) and I don't know, the dialogue was not all that. I wasn't expecting brilliant television, but I was expecting highly enjoyable campy television, winking at the audience a bit for the ho-hum premise. And I expected that because of all the reviews; sadly, I didn't get it. It took itself way too seriously. But, man, oh, man ... Angie was AWESOME! and Aubrey was lovely. I'm giving it a few more episodes.