Pre-Premiere Week
Well, this time last year I did a recap of “Previously On...” of all the season finales - or at least those I had seen.
However, I was singularly UNimpressed with the vast majority of finales this past season. Not that I didn’t enjoy watching them, but many seemed more like a lead-in than an actual finale.
Among the good ones, well, several had their thunder stolen by outstanding earlier episodes, making almost anything else somewhat anticlimactic (i.e. Heroes). And others were quite well-done but lacking the “OHEMGEE - !!!!!!!! - I MUST KNOW WHAT HAPPENS NEXT!!!!” cliffhanger factor.
Not that every finale needs that. But it just seems like this past year almost every show really skipped that. Or, if they did have a ‘cliffhanger’ situation it was one I either a) predicted a long time ago (i.e. NCIS) b) don’t care about (i.e. CSI)
(Exceptions to the non-surprise cliffhangers: Ugly Betty, Numb3rs.)
I guess what I’m trying to say is that most of the finales seemed to me to lack a sense of ... urgency. Where even the ones that left me saying “Wow. Next season is going to be FUN!” didn't continue with the typical "Want. More. NOW!" but more of a “Eh. I can wait until they come back.”
Which is probably part of why thi hiatus seemed unbelieveably brief for me. And why I once again half-convinced myself that I really don’t care that much about the new season.
Of course, now that they ARE coming back and I’ve started seeing promos, I’m getting all excited and realizing that “OH YEAH. I FORGOT. I TOTALLY AM EXCITED AFTER ALL!!!”
That being said, I still am more-or-less neutral regarding pretty much ALL the new television shows coming out. Which is unusual. I typically have at least one or two that I’m positive I’ll get hooked on just from hearing the premise.
I’ll probably at least check out the following:
Chuck - looks cute, we’ll see. After all, my Monday nights are pretty full already.
Reaper - Since it’s on my TVBigShots picks I ought to at least see it. Like I said, I’m not really interested in any of the new shows.
Life - The promo makes it look like basically an adaptation of “Count of Monte Cristo” (Innocent man sent away to prison for many years, when he gets out he has given power, great wealth, and a heaping dose of slow-cooking revenge on everyone who set him - they even appear to have a subplot abouta previous acquaintance who married his ex-wife) CoMC is a great story that I loved, so I’m going to give it a chance.
K-Ville - I liked the music in the promo so since I was home I tuned in (sue me! That’s the main thing that caught my interest in the first FNL promos too - and believe me, there the similarities between the shows end) Eh. I totally called the big reveal/twist even with only sorta seeing about half the pilot. Since it’s also on Mondays I’ll never see it anyway.
Pushing Daisies - I was totally not going to even check this one out but everyone’s raving about it. Plus, Kristin Chenowith. *sigh* I REALLY didn’t need a new show.
Journeyman - This one didn’t even intrigue me to check out, but a flister rated it as one of the best of the season, so now I’m all conflicted. (plus, ANOTHER Monday show!)
My (Potential) Television Schedule:
Super-Secret Codebreaking Key:
*Will Watch
*Will Watch Live AND Record
*Will try to watch or catch online or whatever
Anything left over = Eh. If nothing else is going on.
For all the new shows … we’ll wait until they actually start airing to make a call. I'm just putting them down on the day they air.
MONDAYS
*Prison Break
*Heroes
*Chuck
*How I Met Your Mother
Kville
Journeyman
Summary:
(The astute among you will notice that no less than THREE of these shows occur within the same exact time frame - This creates a problem)
The only one I’m totally hardcore about is Heroes. (I cannot tell you how much I am hoping against hope that S2 is an equal to or greater than level of awesome) Prison Break has been on the verge of being dumped for quite sometime. I’ll probably wind up doing what I did last season - taping and then viewing multiple episodes at once so I can fastforward through lame portions and subplot retreads. HIMYM will continue to be a “reruns and online episodes” show.
TUESDAYS
*NCIS
*The Unit
Reaper
Summary:
I know that there’s all of 3.5 of us NCIS fans on my flist, and I was disappointed in the season finale (very anticlimactic) - but I’m going to stick with my team. (Also, the show carries a hefty $96 million dollar pricetag at TVBigShot [that’s the same as 24], so it must be doing SOMETHING right) The Unit - Eh. I like about half the characters and DISlike about half the characters and the episodes range between “interesting” “not bad” and “really lame” but I have a thing for team shows and especially black ops military style stuff. Sue me. I’m also interested in finding out how accurate my speculation regarding the season finale plotlines turns out to be. I’ll watch live if it’s moderately good, catch online occasionally otherwise.
WEDNESDAYS
*Criminal Minds
Bones
Life
Summary:
Did you know Criminal Minds is in the Top Five of currently airing dramas? At least according to the prices at TVBigshot. Right after Grey’s, CSIs (both Original and Caruso), and House. I typically tape this one and fastforward through the whole “let’s reenact the gruesome gore of the crime” scenes. But I love me some Garcia and Morgan. The whole team really. (I have a team complex) Is Bones still on Wednesdays? I never seem to watch this show live, but when I catch it in reruns I invariably enjoy it greatly.
THURSDAYS
*Supernatural
The Office
My Name is Earl
Summary:
My Boys are comin’ back! As of today I have seen zero promos and although I was spoiled once or twice a long while back about a few little things like casting and such, I have come to terms with the fact that I really don’t care if the episodes are good or bad or make sense or whatever. I just love the show. All of it. All over. Regardless of what actually happens. There’s only one - maybe two - other shows I feel that way about. And now that I’ve finally acknowledged the place The Winchesters hold in my fangirl heart, I realize that The Office and I can never truly be. I suppose we’ll continue to get by on occasional reruns or non-overlapping hiatuses. At least I’ll see the season premiere live. MNIE is the surpise. I never would have thought this show would be up my alley. But apparently it really is. This show is FUNNY, people. And the meta way they handle marketing, et all? Genius. Like the whole benefit concert “Free Earl” song recording promos. (And, yes, I know that The Office does many of the same clever concepts, but, see, I LIKE many of those characters. That makes it less surprising that I enjoy the show and find it amusing.)
FRIDAYS
*Friday Night Lights
*Numb3rs
*Doctor Who reruns on PBS
Summary:
With FNL, once again, it’s not really so much the SHOW I love (as in plotlines, etc) as it is the CHARACTERS. These are real people. And I can’t wait to see what happens to Coach and Mrs. Coach, and Landry, and Mama Smash, and ... As for Numb3rs, okay, fine, laugh. But if this show builds upon the plot and character arc opportunies opened up in the finale like it COULD, this show will become a permanantly bolded one. And the last part should speak for itself. DOCTOR WHO!!!!
However, I was singularly UNimpressed with the vast majority of finales this past season. Not that I didn’t enjoy watching them, but many seemed more like a lead-in than an actual finale.
Among the good ones, well, several had their thunder stolen by outstanding earlier episodes, making almost anything else somewhat anticlimactic (i.e. Heroes). And others were quite well-done but lacking the “OHEMGEE - !!!!!!!! - I MUST KNOW WHAT HAPPENS NEXT!!!!” cliffhanger factor.
Not that every finale needs that. But it just seems like this past year almost every show really skipped that. Or, if they did have a ‘cliffhanger’ situation it was one I either a) predicted a long time ago (i.e. NCIS) b) don’t care about (i.e. CSI)
(Exceptions to the non-surprise cliffhangers: Ugly Betty, Numb3rs.)
I guess what I’m trying to say is that most of the finales seemed to me to lack a sense of ... urgency. Where even the ones that left me saying “Wow. Next season is going to be FUN!” didn't continue with the typical "Want. More. NOW!" but more of a “Eh. I can wait until they come back.”
Which is probably part of why thi hiatus seemed unbelieveably brief for me. And why I once again half-convinced myself that I really don’t care that much about the new season.
Of course, now that they ARE coming back and I’ve started seeing promos, I’m getting all excited and realizing that “OH YEAH. I FORGOT. I TOTALLY AM EXCITED AFTER ALL!!!”
That being said, I still am more-or-less neutral regarding pretty much ALL the new television shows coming out. Which is unusual. I typically have at least one or two that I’m positive I’ll get hooked on just from hearing the premise.
I’ll probably at least check out the following:
Chuck - looks cute, we’ll see. After all, my Monday nights are pretty full already.
Reaper - Since it’s on my TVBigShots picks I ought to at least see it. Like I said, I’m not really interested in any of the new shows.
Life - The promo makes it look like basically an adaptation of “Count of Monte Cristo” (Innocent man sent away to prison for many years, when he gets out he has given power, great wealth, and a heaping dose of slow-cooking revenge on everyone who set him - they even appear to have a subplot abouta previous acquaintance who married his ex-wife) CoMC is a great story that I loved, so I’m going to give it a chance.
K-Ville - I liked the music in the promo so since I was home I tuned in (sue me! That’s the main thing that caught my interest in the first FNL promos too - and believe me, there the similarities between the shows end) Eh. I totally called the big reveal/twist even with only sorta seeing about half the pilot. Since it’s also on Mondays I’ll never see it anyway.
Pushing Daisies - I was totally not going to even check this one out but everyone’s raving about it. Plus, Kristin Chenowith. *sigh* I REALLY didn’t need a new show.
Journeyman - This one didn’t even intrigue me to check out, but a flister rated it as one of the best of the season, so now I’m all conflicted. (plus, ANOTHER Monday show!)
My (Potential) Television Schedule:
Super-Secret Codebreaking Key:
*Will Watch
*Will Watch Live AND Record
*Will try to watch or catch online or whatever
Anything left over = Eh. If nothing else is going on.
For all the new shows … we’ll wait until they actually start airing to make a call. I'm just putting them down on the day they air.
MONDAYS
*Prison Break
*Heroes
*Chuck
*How I Met Your Mother
Kville
Journeyman
Summary:
(The astute among you will notice that no less than THREE of these shows occur within the same exact time frame - This creates a problem)
The only one I’m totally hardcore about is Heroes. (I cannot tell you how much I am hoping against hope that S2 is an equal to or greater than level of awesome) Prison Break has been on the verge of being dumped for quite sometime. I’ll probably wind up doing what I did last season - taping and then viewing multiple episodes at once so I can fastforward through lame portions and subplot retreads. HIMYM will continue to be a “reruns and online episodes” show.
TUESDAYS
*NCIS
*The Unit
Reaper
Summary:
I know that there’s all of 3.5 of us NCIS fans on my flist, and I was disappointed in the season finale (very anticlimactic) - but I’m going to stick with my team. (Also, the show carries a hefty $96 million dollar pricetag at TVBigShot [that’s the same as 24], so it must be doing SOMETHING right) The Unit - Eh. I like about half the characters and DISlike about half the characters and the episodes range between “interesting” “not bad” and “really lame” but I have a thing for team shows and especially black ops military style stuff. Sue me. I’m also interested in finding out how accurate my speculation regarding the season finale plotlines turns out to be. I’ll watch live if it’s moderately good, catch online occasionally otherwise.
WEDNESDAYS
*Criminal Minds
Bones
Life
Summary:
Did you know Criminal Minds is in the Top Five of currently airing dramas? At least according to the prices at TVBigshot. Right after Grey’s, CSIs (both Original and Caruso), and House. I typically tape this one and fastforward through the whole “let’s reenact the gruesome gore of the crime” scenes. But I love me some Garcia and Morgan. The whole team really. (I have a team complex) Is Bones still on Wednesdays? I never seem to watch this show live, but when I catch it in reruns I invariably enjoy it greatly.
THURSDAYS
*Supernatural
The Office
My Name is Earl
Summary:
My Boys are comin’ back! As of today I have seen zero promos and although I was spoiled once or twice a long while back about a few little things like casting and such, I have come to terms with the fact that I really don’t care if the episodes are good or bad or make sense or whatever. I just love the show. All of it. All over. Regardless of what actually happens. There’s only one - maybe two - other shows I feel that way about. And now that I’ve finally acknowledged the place The Winchesters hold in my fangirl heart, I realize that The Office and I can never truly be. I suppose we’ll continue to get by on occasional reruns or non-overlapping hiatuses. At least I’ll see the season premiere live. MNIE is the surpise. I never would have thought this show would be up my alley. But apparently it really is. This show is FUNNY, people. And the meta way they handle marketing, et all? Genius. Like the whole benefit concert “Free Earl” song recording promos. (And, yes, I know that The Office does many of the same clever concepts, but, see, I LIKE many of those characters. That makes it less surprising that I enjoy the show and find it amusing.)
FRIDAYS
*Friday Night Lights
*Numb3rs
*Doctor Who reruns on PBS
Summary:
With FNL, once again, it’s not really so much the SHOW I love (as in plotlines, etc) as it is the CHARACTERS. These are real people. And I can’t wait to see what happens to Coach and Mrs. Coach, and Landry, and Mama Smash, and ... As for Numb3rs, okay, fine, laugh. But if this show builds upon the plot and character arc opportunies opened up in the finale like it COULD, this show will become a permanantly bolded one. And the last part should speak for itself. DOCTOR WHO!!!!