As quickly as the dead are stacking up for me in the new fall season, I am incredibly surprised at how many new shows I’m not just “giving another shot,” but rather that I find myself looking forward to.
Usually, the most a new series will do for me these days is get me to keep putting off my decision about it (how the complete series of Standoff, K-Ville, and Vanished passed me by). Rarely does a Dark Blue stand up and demand to be season-passed on my TiVo.
Glee died less than five minutes into last spring’s premiere (non)event. Community was an obvious no from the trailer, but I sampled it nonetheless. Next! Bored to Death lived up to its name…. No joke, but we didn’t mean to tape Accidentally on Purpose … it WAS an accident. NCIS: Los Angeles got the benefit of two spin-off episodes, plus two stand-alones; it’s just not for me.
Cougar Town is, believe it or not, worse than Dirt. Yup. Surprisingly, the non-actor was decent in Brothers … too bad there was more to the cast than Michael Strahan. The Cleveland Show sucks. Cleveland was never funny! And Hank sucks too, even if Kelsey Grammer is brilliant.
As for the inevitable on-the-fencers: The Forgotten was enough to bring me back a second week, but not enough to have compelled me to watch episode two just yet (recorded last week). We shall see.
The real shockers were the following four brand-new series, NONE of which I expected to like, and all of which I can’t wait for more from:
Julianna Margulies is amazing in The Good Wife. The show is a perfect example of how a network can take a simple skeleton (lawyer procedural) and make it pop with great characters, and an interesting back-story. I actually disagree with all the people out there who think it will become nothing more than a procedural (and they’re not saying it in a disparaging way); I think the mere fact that Margulies and Chris Noth have been cast means that the law will always come second on this show.
Modern Family should not be funny, but it’s hysterical. Ty Burrell is a brilliant comedian, and it shocked me to see how smoothly he moved into the role of an inept family man — well, the latter part of that description. And, of course, Ed O’Neill and Julie Bowen are great, as always.
I wasn’t going to like Lost, and I wasn’t going to like FlashForward. But the science fiction on both series is a distant second to the incredible mysteries, wonderful characters, and intriguing stories that have been created for both worlds. I also like that FlashForward has something new planned for season two; no doubt it will get to show it to us.
Like I said in my review, I expected The Middle to be a slapstick comedy; I only checked it out for Patricia Heaton. Thank God I did! While not the breakout comedy of the season (see above), The Middle is a brilliant use of Heaton’s talents, while being a great throwback to family sitcoms of old. Plus, who doesn’t love them some Brick?
So, that’s where I’m at just a few weeks in. How’s the new season going for you?
Clacked by Aryeh S.
on Oct 05, 2009 @ 15:52 EST5EDT
I love The Good Wife, Flash Forward and add Glee to my list. I have sat through two NCIS:La and Eastwick and I think that I will keep them on my list to see if they improve. I am not much of a comedy person so I haven’t sampled The Middle or Modern Family. I did watch half of Cougartown and was disturbed by the definition of humor that it was ok for your son to see you performing a sexual act. My sense of humor has not sunk that low.
*POST AUTHOR*
Check back with a status update on NCIS: LA if you get the chance; I’d be interested to see if the ensemble gets better as a group. Thanks!
I was on board for the first two episodes, even though the writing was a bit weak, but the plot took a serious nosedive this week.
It started promisingly enough, with banter between everyone at the briefing, but Callen and Hanna went off on their own soon enough. It seems that Kensi and Dom are the secondary team, and will sometimes act in concert with the primary, but it’s not the same as the NCIS squad. Oh, and Hetty apparently has a lot of old contacts and wild stories. It would have been nice to have actually heard the Nepal story, though, instead of just repeated references to it.
However, I could not get over how bad the interrogation of an Air Force officer and the infiltration of an advanced computer sciences college class scenes were. In the former, the officer wants his JAG lawyer present before they start, to which the reply is “traffic is slow,” and it gets more confrontational from there. For the latter, Hetty sends Kensi to deliver the lecture to an auditorium full of geeks in an almost fetishistic “sexy secretary” outfit: hair swept up, glasses, white business shirt pulled wide open, skirt, four-inch heels. I felt embarrassed to be watching what followed.
Hetty’s spook contact’s first line of dialogue is actually, completely seriously, “This conversation never happened.”
I’ll somehow be back for the next episode, but this one did not impress.
*POST AUTHOR*
I heard about Kensi using her sexuality heavily in this episode, and wondering aloud why she was doing that as an agent – wonder if the actress is thinking the same thing.
So why tune in next week?
The writers hung a lampshade on that by having Kensi make a remark about her breasts after Hetty pulls the shirt open significantly farther.
I was kind of annoyed by the in-house investigator on The Good Wife also leading with her cleavage, but the fact that it’s on her own initiative and in her street clothes combined with the better writing on that show earns it a pass.
Hey, I can’t give up yet. Pauley Perrette’s on next week.
*POST AUTHOR*
Thanks for telling me! For the possibility of a grander – even brief – crossover, I might check it out, but at the risk of being booed: by itself, that for me is a reason to tune out.
Oh, I know Abby and Kate are polarizing characters for the fans, but I have much love.
I was wrong about the timing, though, so feel free to watch tonight’s episode. Or not. Yeesh. Remember when the villains were always Soviets? Then Arab terrorists? Then multinational corporations? Today it’s always PMCs. We should just go back to everyone hating the Nazis.
*POST AUTHOR*
Tell me about it; it’s the same cycle with books. I finally read the second most recent Nelson DeMille book, who was a HUGE Russian villain writer in the beginning. Then it was the IRA, then Arabs, now internal government conspiracies. Although I hope the latest in fads doesn’t reflect real life like in the old days….
We at the new fansite of Modern Family love the show and invite everyone to our fansite.
Glee and Community were two I knew I would like going in. The most surprising one was Modern Family, with its high quality and intelligent writing. To a lesser extent, The Good Wife, The Middle and Cougar Town were all better than I expected, although I don’t know if I have the time to stick with them.
got off to a surprisingly poor start, but I’m willing to give it a chance because it’s a franchise. And I thought I’d like Eastwick, but it’s just awful: already deleted.
The Forgotten is not a great show, but it’s a sturdy and competent one I really enjoy. It has a quieter, more thoughtful tone like Without a Trace or Eleventh Hour, for obvious reasons, which is a welcome change from the melodrama and histrionics to which other procedurals can succumb. Like those shows, it’s probably not long for this world.
I like that it gives a face and a voice to the murder victim, who narrates each episode (and it won’t always be a white female). In fact, I’ve teared up in both episodes during the voiceover. And it gives me great pleasure to see that The Forgotten Network doesn’t make law enforcement officers look incompetent, as happens on so many other shows. They don’t start their investigation until after the police give up. They work with a single police liaison rather than having a roomful of detectives at their beck and call. The uniformeds don’t let them past the crime scene tape. Witnesses don’t give them any respect: some clam up, one assaults them. We actually see them put in the legwork and the man-hours walking the pavement, posting flyers, making dozens of phone calls.
As far as the characters go, I like how Christian Slater keeps forgetting he’s no longer a cop, grabbing for a weapon that’s no longer on his belt before tackling a fleeing or threatening suspect. All the volunteers have a personal reason for being there, which makes them more interesting but doesn’t overpower the narrative. It’s a very good balance thus far. There’s some humor on the show, but it’s never at the expense of a victim’s dignity, which has repelled me from other procedurals.
*POST AUTHOR*
Interesting comparison between The Forgotten and Eleventh Hour. I finally watched the second episode last night, as the third was recording – I can almost see what you mean, but the strength of Eleventh Hour was, of course, Rufus Sewell, Marley Shelton, and Omar Benson Miller, both separately and together.
What The Forgotten is missing is that strength of characters … so far no one outside of Bob Stephenson (Walter) is really compelling to me. What it does have is a really interesting premise, and the possibility for these peoples’ lives to blossom, and secrets to be revealed, right in front of us. I think they need to find a little more time for the characters (in that sense, more NCIS and less Law & Order), and then it could actually stick. Right now I don’t NEED it … the show needs to make me feel that. But maybe it’ll finally be a win for Christian Slater?
Oh, I don’t need the show either, but I’d certainly regret it if I missed an episode.
I assume you’re referring to the strength of Eleventh Hour‘s actors, because that show was so miserly with backstory that I already feel I know more about the characters on The Forgotten. I agree that Walter’s the most fleshed-out character right now—it’s hard not to love the clumsy, earnest guy, and Christian Slater’s second because, well… he’s Christian Slater. And I do want to know more about all of them, especially why they’re driven to do this important yet unglamorous work in addition to their regular lives, from personal loss to excitement to court mandate. I think the current mix works best for me, where they dole out little character details every episode to paint a portrait of each character as the show goes on, instead of focusing an A-story on one of them.
As long as the show lasts, that is. It seems a really strange fit for ABC rather than CBS. Of course, it would probably need twice its current numbers to survive on the latter network.
*POST AUTHOR*
Maybe this is ABC’s attempt at a foray into CBS-land. It would be smart for a network to at least experiment with taking them on….
Stargate: Universe has been my biggest surprise of the season. Cougar Town and The Good Wife are piling up on my DVR as I wait for a rainy weekend day to catch up.
Eastwick put me to sleep in the second episode. Literally.
Glee continues to live up to expectations. To a lesser extent, FlashForward, NCIS:LA, Mercy, and Trauma are all shows I’m enjoying.
*POST AUTHOR*
Is Stargate: Universe doing well? It’s outside my genre, but I’m a Lou Diamond Phillips fan.
I haven’t seen episode two of FlashForward yet, but the pilot blew me away. I was shocked at how much I enjoyed it. Go figure, right?
I thought it was a poorly-written mix of Voyager and Battlestar Galactica with characters and plot in which I couldn’t really believe, deathless dialogue, and a surfeit of coincidences.
You’ll probably love it.
But LDP is not the star of the show and, indeed, is barely in the first two hours. He’s not actually on the ship himself, so I don’t know how important his role will be going forward.
*POST AUTHOR*
Your sales-pitch might need some fine-tuning. ;)
I’m not as thrilled with FlashForward as I thought I would be. I do know it’s still too early to make any rash judgements.
*POST AUTHOR*
I think what makes it even more intriguing is that it’s a self-contained story. We will have the answer to the mystery before season two. Which makes the question less about the plot specifically, and more about this: what’s this show really about, then? Paranormal activity? An organization out to control the world with some scientific advancements (I’m not a science fiction person, so this is the best theorizing I can do). The point is, it’s not about this flash-forward if that’s done with in season one. So, what’s it about?…
Peak you interest? Huh? ;)
Love Glee! Had no expectation that I would, but now I look forward to it…. it’s unique. Kristen Chenoweth blew it out of the park last week.
Eastwick, Community, Modern Family… no. The Good Wife is excellent, another show I did not expect to like but think is great. Flash Forward, so far so good…. not quite up to hype, but I am sticking around.
I am still so ticked that they cancelled Sarah Connor and left the idiotic Dollhouse alive, cancelled Life and left other much less deserving stuff…. cancelled Pushing Daisies, Eli Stone…..
Who makes these decisions?
*POST AUTHOR*
Amongst many other things I lament, I’m very with you on Eli Stone, a perfect example of a show I did not expect to ever enjoy (singing visions?) and absolutely loved.
I don’t know who makes the decisions … the monkey behind the curtain?