What I am watching this fall

Monday

Season Pass: House

Episode by Episode Probation:  Terra Nova

Guilty Secret: Castle

I really hope that this is the final season of House. Please let it end so that we can all be released from this endless cycle of abuse – Cuddy managed to escape why not us? The premise of Terra Nova looks interesting: dystopian future plus dinosaurs. So we’ll see how that goes. As much as I love my weekly hit of Nathan Fillion charm I don’t really want Castle clogging up my DVR so I watch it via On Demand.

Tuesday

Season Pass: NCIS

Guilty Secret: Body of Proof

NCIS is like a pair of really comfy furry Crocs that you know aren’t stylish and should throw out but you just can’t. I was going to watch Buffy in Ringer but I missed the first episode, and I think I can live without it as it sounds like a re-hash of an Agatha Christie story. Okay, Body of Proof isn’t a particularly innovative police procedural but it’s nice to see Seven of Nine boss Dana Delaney around.

Wednesday

Season Pass: Top Chef Texas

Got to wait till November for the next season of Top Chef with the shiny Tom Colicchio and glamorous Padma Lakshmi. I just hope that Anthony Bourdain will be guesting as a judge slash blogger as his acerbic wit is most needed (especially if foam rears it’s foamy head again).

Thursday

Season Pass: The Big Bang Theory & The Mentalist

Episode by Episode Probation: Person of Interest & Prime Suspect

Alex and I have fallen so far down TBBT rabbit hole that there is no return, and it’s one of the few shows worth watching live. I *loved* the season finale of The Mentalist and it will be interesting to see how they handle it. Even though I don’t think Prime Suspect needed to be re-booted I will give it a whirl since the cast is led by Maria Bello. I’m curious about Person of Interest – could be good (Jim Caviezel, Michael Emerson and JJ Abrams) or could be a crap Minority Report style knock off.

Friday

Season Pass: Chuck, Fringe & Supernatural

Episode by Episode Probation: A Gifted Man & Grimm

Friday is genre programming night because only geeks and nerds (and the heavenly pregnant) don’t go out. Out of all the fall shows (new and returning) I am most exciting about picking things up in Fringe’s alternate time line. It’s the last few episodes of Chuck so that’s a must watch. Supernatural is on my personal bubble. I hated the ending of the last season, and what they’ve done to Castiel. They either need to shake things up or start winding things down. A Gifted Man sounds a little bit Joan of Ark-ish – not sure if this is a good or bad thing. Now Grimm I have a bone to pick with as I have a sneaking suspicious that this got picked up by NBC instead of Ronald D. Moore’s pilot 17th Precinct but I am curious about how they will blend the mythology of the Grimm fairy tales.

Saturday

Nothing! Netflix night.

Sunday

Season Pass: The Good Wife & Homeland

Episode by Episode Probation: Once Upon a Time

The new show I am most excited about is Homeland with the most excellent Damian Lewis. It sounds like it’s a combination of Band of Brothers and Life – w00t! The trailer makes it look really good. I’m not so sure about CBS moving The Good Wife to Sundays but hey what do I know about TV scheduling! Can’t wait to find out what happens between Alicia and Will, and Alicia and Eli. Alan Cumming is TV gold – he doesn’t need lines to steal scenes he just glares at the other actors. Once Upon a Time is another show blending fairy tale mythology and “real” life so curious as to how they approach it.

Do TV Shows Need Term Limits?

Last week it was announced that Fringe is moving to Friday night, and the Twitterverse let out a collective groan as it is where good TV shows go to die. Fringe is in it’s third season, we are only now really digging into the whole parallel universe thing and finding out just how truly evil Walternate is (and how totally awesome John Noble is for pulling off the twin Walters and showing hipsters how to rock the original boyfriend cardigan). So will Friday night really be a death blow to Fringe? Would it really be that bad if Fringe only had one more season? I’d much rather it end with a strong fourth season that wraps everything up than it morph into a so-so TV show that limps on into endless formulaic seasons.

My beloved House is in its seventh season and needs to be euthanized. It’s still strong in the ratings but story-wise it has entered yawnsville. Sometimes I’ll catch the early House episodes (especially ‘Three Stories’) in syndication, and they make me sad because the later seasons are such pale imitations. It is hard to pin point when things took a nose dive because every couple of seasons there’s an episode that hints at a resurrection. Most people think that it jump the shark when House fired his original team at the end of season three. But, I don’t think so – the addition of Cut Throat Bitch was a breathe of fresh air when she was alive and even more so when she came back to haunt House.  This season Alex has pretty much stopped watching it and I am probably not that far behind him especially after its recent treatment of guest stars. I got so excited about Dylan Baker but then the powers that be wasted him on being a CDC drone.  So disappointing considering that The Good Wife had him playing such a twisted character than everything else feels so vanilla and dull.

As much as I love House I really do wish they would either start winding things down at Princeton Plansboro or figure out how to get the snarky House back.

Dog Days Are (Almost) Over

The dog days of summer are dragging on (it’s still too warm and my course materials haven’t shipped yet) BUT tonight kicks off the fall TV season. Who cares if we are still running the AC and it’s not yet hot latte weather we can slump in front of the telly and watch something other than Food Network. Last week we switched over from Comcast to FIOS and that means having to reprogram in all the season passes:

Monday: Chuck & House (8pm), The Event (9pm) & Hawaii Five-0 (10pm)
Tuesday: NCIS (8pm), The Good Wife (9pm), Caprica & Stargate Universe (10pm)
Wednesday: Nothing – I honestly can’t face the 400th season of Hell’s Kitchen
Thursday: Fringe (9pm) & The Menalist (10pm)
Friday: Supernatural (9pm) & Blue Bloods (10pm)

There are only three new shows (The Event, Hawaii Five-0 and Blue Bloods) that have piqued my interest. The Event has a solid cast and is intriguing but I have no faith in NBC, Hawaii 2.0 looks fun and has Boomer from Battlestar Galactica, and Blue Bloods has Donnie Wahlburg (the underrated Wahlburg brother in my opinion). Each show will be on parole and we’ll see who makes the cut.

Of the returning shows I am all a Comic-Con tingle about Chuck. Linda ‘Sarah Connor’ Hamilton is Chuck and Ellie’s mum, the Buy More has been taking over by the CIA, and SARAH CONNOR!!! Fringe left us on a knife edge with Olivia having been replaced by Alt-liva and the evil Walternate holding our Olivia. I’ve read that this season they will have alternating episodes between the two worlds. Fingers crossed. House seriously needs to up its game this season and please can we ditch Thirteen already. There doesn’t seem to be all that much love for the ‘Huddy’ entity but I am hopeful that it will shake things up (whether it works out or not).

I have a crush on everyone in The Good Wife. I love Kalinda (Archie Panjabi) for not being a stereotype and for her correct handling of fire arms. I love having Christine Baranski (Diane Lockhart) on primetime again and Alan Cummings. I love that Chris Noth doesn’t overshadow Julianna Margulies (Alicia Florrick). But most of all I love that Alicia is kicking ass and taking names. The Winchester brothers have been moved to Friday nights. Will this hurt Supernatural? It survived the last five seasons in a Thursday night death spot so I think it will be just fine with its niche fan boy following, but which direction will the new show runner take it in.

And finally, Caprica and Stargate Universe. These are dark, intelligent shows that need more people to watch them otherwise they won’t get much deserved second seasons.

Square Eyes

So I should be drafting up answers for my Greek drama seminar but after the day I’ve had (breaking a website, loosing a button) I needed to unwind first, and what better way than by mulling over about this fall’s tv shows.

The schedule so far…

Mad Men: Lovin’ it! In the 3rd season all our favorite characters’ lives are spinning out of control & they just threw in the JFK assassination. (And I just spelt assassination correctly first time round!) I am storing up all the episodes on the DVR so my mum can blast her way through them when she comes over for Thanksgiving.

House: They got rid of Thirteen – woo hoo!!! And they cropped Hugh Laurie’s hair so they don’t have to creatively hide his bald spots. And we are getting lots of cute Odd Couple scenes since House is rooming with Watson. Just as long as they don’t drag out Chase’s guilt over bumping off Darth Vader then all will be well in Princeton Plainsboro.

Lie To Me: At the end of the day this is a so-so procedural crime show about body language (sorry mirco-expressions) that is lifted from mediocracy by Mr. Orange.  Last week’s show had lots of scenes in a warehouse and I found myself cringing as Mr. Orange didn’t come off too well the last time he was in a warehouse.

NCIS: It’s the pork pie of the TV schedule. In the UK millions of pork pies are sold but no one owns up to eating them, & that’s the same with NCIS.

The Good Wife: I watch this show and it makes me want to go to law school. It’s like LA Law all over again but with Christine Baranski.

Eastwick (Witches of): It’s light.  It’s fluffy.  It’s candy floss! Not sure how sustainable the ongoing mystery of who Daryl is is but everyone appears to be having fun hamming it up.

Supernatural: It’s criminal that more people aren’t watching this show. So far this season they are managing the right balance between stand alone episodes and the ones moving along the show’s mythology about apocalypse. We’ve not had too many episodes featuring Lucifer so we are still hungry for him but they could do with cutting back on Bobby. As much as I love Bobby, for maximum effect we need him in small doses but could do with more Cass.

Fringe: Like Supernatural they are balancing the monster of the week episodes with the ones that move on the mythology, and the big carrots of the show are Spock and Walter. We get tiny nibbles of Spock in the alternate world but we don’t know what he is up to, and Walter. Oh Walter we love his mad experiments & self medicating. Now we know that Peter is possibly alternate Peter all those scenes with Walter reminsing about Peter’s childhood are all the more poignant. My only complaint is because they moved filming the show to Vancouver they had to changed the Massive Dynamic building, so we no longer get the eerie shots of the building that Alex use to work in near WTC. Maybe Alex needs to get on a project in cylon occupied Vancouver.

FlashForward: I really want to like this show a lot but I’ve only watched two episodes so far. The rest are jamming up the DVR. May be this weekend we will tackle they and find out what Jack Davenport is up to.

Dollhouse: The most annoyingly inconsistent show that I am currently watching. I think there are two Josh Whedons. One is submissive and gives in to producing crappy stand alone episodes with Apollo as an arms dealer and Echo lactating.  The other Josh (“Uber Josh”) manages to whip up character driven episodes that move the mythology along so that it is more in line with ‘Epitaph One’.  The last episode about how Sierra ended up in the Dollhouse was well above average. Summer Glau is going to be doing some episodes and I am worried that unless they are “Uber Josh” epis she will be a wasted opportunity like Apollo.

and the house always wins

There are many television shows that have claimed to be ‘the smartest show’. A cut above the rest. Dialogue that gets your blood pumping as if you were watching a high end thriller or action flick. A plot so diluted, that it has more twists and turns than a twisty turny thing. ER and The West Wing, used to get my hemoglobin flowing, but of late I feel that there is something missing. Of course I am slightly biased against a certain network for canceling Boomtown. Which, had it been left to mature could have reviatilised the flagging crime genre. The excellent Neal McDonough deserves better than Medical Investigations, which was mediocre until House went and tsunami them.

So I hereby name The Wire and House, as my top choices. I will rush home to watch them, listen carefully so that I don’t miss anything and am left exhausted when they are over, as I feel they have given little grey cells a workout.

NB. It is just a happy coincident that both shows are lead by hot Brits 🙂

reasons to be cheerful

Leaving the self induced grumpiness of last week behind me, there are many reasons to embrace the merriment and mirth of life:

1. The News Quiz is back.
2. In The Archers Lynda has started casting for the village production of a Chirstmas Carol. This will beat the last years mystery plays.
3. Enterprise will tackle the eugenics war.
4. I have just finished unit one of economics and will worry about sociology another day.
5. My friend Ali, who doubles as my brother’s girlfriend, has passed her viva and got her PhD. She will now be joining us working stiffs on Monday.
6. Pay day on Friday, so I will be ordering a mauve pair of Ugg boots – don’t care if it is naff and everyone got them last year.
7. Last Saturday I met Alexander McCall Smith. He was pubilising his new book, The Sunday Philosophy Club, which is brilliant by the way (very Edinburgh and totally gorgeous). He was a very jolly speaker and even self-corpsed when trying to explain a joke from one of his previous books.
8. The devilishly handsome Hugh Laurie is starring in a new television drama, House, debuting next month – can’t wait!!!! V yummy.
9. John Woo may be making a film version of He-Man….if the first outing wasn’t bad enough and after The Hulk….. hhmmm fingers crossed that one gets green lighted!
10. Now, I better scoot as I am meant to be at the chiropractor…..