Didn’t expect this, but the new television show that’s impressed me the most so far is Detroit 1-8-7. The pilot, at least, has a very Wambaugh-esque feeling. Not as gritty as Homicide, but I’m a fan of the sort of dark humor where the jaded veteran, near the end of a successful shift, tells his newbie partner “Book ’em, wipe the board, get ready for the next [murder]. We might be the last assembly line in Detroit.”
I had high hopes for The Whole Truth, because I really adore Maura Tierney, but I’ve been reminded how much I loathe Rob Morrow. The first episode was beautifully put together, and I like the format, so I’ll keep watching. The big disappointment, for me, was The Event… I wanted to love a ‘speculative fiction’ series that involves Laura Innes, Blair Underwood & Jason Ritter, but the frenetic jumpcuts gave me a mild case of vertigo. Hopefully, it’ll settle down a bit now that the dramatic! worldshaking! premiere! has gotten all the trailerrific bits out of the way.
Probably not going back for more Raising Hope — Martha Plimpton is no Roseanne, and the whole story was just antic. I hate antic like a cat hates total immersion. Watched the first episode of Mike & Molly for Melissa McCarthy (yeah, my tv preferences are mostly actor-driven), and it was just as sweatily ‘tolerant’ as I feared, so that’s another 20 minutes a week I’ll be saving.
Only other new series I’m curious about are Terriers, which I’ll have to catch on Hulu, and Blue Bloods.
What are y’all watching, this Fall?
RoryBellows
Boardwalk Empire exceeded my expectations.
Warren Terra
I can’t speak to New TV – I almost never watch broadcast TV, and don’t have cable – but in the realm of Used TV, i.e. Netflix, I recently watched the SyFy miniseries The Lost Room (only available on discs, not streaming, AFAIK), and – amazingly, given the usual tripe spewed by that network – it was really very good. It might scratch that “speculative fiction” itch for you that The Event has so far failed to reach.
ETA the New York Times piece lauding its grittiness and your endorsement mean that I might well watch Detroit 187 – a year or so from now.
KG
I kinda liked the Defenders. Not sure if I’m going to stick with it, but the pilot was pretty good.
Other than that, I’m sticking to what I’ve watched before. As of right now, that’d be Bones and Sons of Anarchy.
JGabriel
Lone Star is also getting reviews.
.
fasteddie9318
@JGabriel:
Lonestar got about as many reviews as it had people watching its premiere, so probably not worth getting invested in.
TaMara (BHF)
I really liked Hawaii 5-0. More Daniel Dae Kim please. I’ll give Raising Hope a couple more episodes. Watched LoneStar, likable cast, just not a storyline I want more of. Nothing else really drew me to even give a try.
Davis X. Machina
OT, but TV/film related.
Geoffrey Burgon, the British composer best known for his music in Brideshead Revisited, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, The Chronicles of Narnia, and a number of other high-profile British TV productions, and much more ‘straight’ classical music, died today.
Ruckus
For those of us only on Netflix maybe someone could give us a light rundown of the last couple of years shows as we are always a year or two behind.
fucen tarmal
personally, i have decided to go on a hunger strike to protest the brutally unjust incarceration of lindsay lohan…proving i don’t need tv to fill my mind with shit, though sometimes it helps.
Keith G
PBS. Mystery is featuring Inspector Lewis, one of the better cop shows ever. MI-5 is always a bit of intense fun.
I’m sorry, but most U.S. (broadcast) shows are less than sustaining, but NCIS is true to what it is and after an over-done first new episode, I am hoping it settles done to business.
Speaking of a cop show that isn’t on CBS, if you ever get a chance to watch Da Vinci’s Inquest, you simply must. It may be the best procedural evah. But it is now only in syndication.
PurpleGirl
Haven’t watched any of the new shows this week. Just not interested in TV shows although I keep the TV on for the sounds. I watch a lot of the History Channel, National Geographic, ScyFy and reruns of old stuff. What seems weird to me is watching Star Trek The Next Generation on BBCA.
khead
I’m not watching anything until the prices fall.
Er, supposedly fall… sometime…. before Christmas….
Mnemosyne
I keep watching “Warehouse 13” in the forlorn hope that it will get better. It has a terrific cast with great chemistry, but it seems like they have pretty severe budget issues that impact the stories they’re able to tell.
I usually try not to watch the first few episodes of a show because I am a show-killer. If I watch the first three episodes and love it, the show will be killed by midseason. I thought my streak had been broken with “Pushing Daisies,” but Fate just had to bring in the writer’s strike to kill it.
Ailuridae
Not exactly new but I just watched the fall premiere of The Good Guys and after seeing about nine episodes I can’t decide whether I like it or not. That’s pretty rare for me; the only other time it has happened is with another show entering its second season – FX’s the league.
I have a decent sized pool of the first big time new fall show to take the axe. Sadly I drew the 8th pick in a 16 person field and the “best” thing there left was The Defenders. I didn’t care for it but it might as well renew for the second season now. It was certainly good enough and its in a great slot for its viewership after Criminal Minds. I’m a little worried that if it succeeds its going to take some exceptional hotness off a different guilt pleasure of mine in Jusitified.
Drinking notes. I’m a beer, wine or bourbon guy normally but just poured myself a nice vodka martini made with ultra budget brand vodka Svedka. For a vodka that is routinely available on sale here for less than $20 per 1.75 its exceptionally good. It can’t compare with the very high end stuff but it really puts Stoli and Smirnoff to shame. Some bizarro liquor regulation here (Chicago) keeps it out of bars but it would greatly increase the quality or rail drinks if it replaced the typical low priced vodka
Ailuridae +1/2
Steve
I am from Detroit so I get a kick out of the nostalgia from that show, even though, yes, it is about people being murdered. One of my friends tells me she is in the 3rd episode so I suppose it would be a good idea to keep watching.
Mnemosyne
@Ailuridae:
Looking at the uncharacteristic number of typos in that comment, either you’re posting from a smartphone or that vodka is even stronger than you thought.
El Cid
Fringe; Mentalist; Supernatural. Best shows on TV.
And Another Thing...
@Keith G: Agree with you about the Inspector Lewis and they are getting better. Next up on PBS are some new Wallander episodes, and possibly re-runs of last season’s. Kenneth Branagh is excellent and the cinematography and production values are super.
Ailuridae
@Mnemosyne:
I usually try not to watch the first few episodes of a show because I am a show-killer. If I watch the first three episodes and love it, the show will be killed by midseason. I thought my streak had been broken with “Pushing Daisies,” but Fate just had to bring in the writer’s strike to kill it.
I have the same problem. My favorite show of nearly every season – fall or mid-season invariably gets killed off. “Life”and “Southland” each at least made season 2 but going back as far as “Cupid” my enjoyment of a show indicates its done for.
Another new show that was difficult to sit through the pilot: Chase. Lots of eye candy and shows like that lend themselves to having great character actors who can carry an episode to guest star as the criminal to constantly keep them fresh. Still, the opener was disappointing and I’ll have to hear solid reviews from friends before I’ll revisit it.
Mike in NC
@fasteddie9318:
I steer clear of anything starring that wingnut asshole Jon Voight. Seriously, fuck that clown.
But “Outsourced” could be an enjoyable sitcom.
Mnemosyne
@Ailuridae:
I managed to kill “Cupid” and “Nothing Sacred” in the same season. G managed to find all of the “Cupid” episodes on BitTorrent so we actually have copies of all of them, even if they were taped from Canadian TV.
And Another Thing...
@Ailuridae: “Life” was such a GREAT show. I’m still mourning it.
kt
Stargate Universe, Fringe, Warehouse 13, Rubicon, Eureka
Jay S
@Keith G:
Lewis is fine, but MI-5, really? It has got to be the most amoral fear mongering crap on TV. Intense it is, and well shot, but I couldn’t stand more than 3 episodes.
El Cid
@kt: Forgot Stargate Universe. I almost wrote off Rubicon, because for several episodes basically nothing happened. The torture witnessing seemed to be a huge development.
Ailuridae
@El Cid:
Not sure if you are being snarky or not but my friend Misha Collins plays Castiel on Supernatural. I heard he’s quite good in it but sci fi is really, really not my ball of wax.
@Mnemosyne:
Its a net book actually and has a tiny keyboard. I’m dropping a 1090t and new motherboard into my work rig (rather than actually working) and why should anyone pay absolute attention when performing surgery on their only source of income? What makes far more sense is to put an ATX case on your lap, not take any anti-static precautions, pour yourself a Big Bar sized Martini and have at it all while continuing to comment here on BJ.
But surgery was a success, I booted clean the first time without a single beep and now its time to unpack the rest of the goodies. Two of these:
http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-P2770H-27-Inch-Widescreen-Monitor/dp/B0030CE7EK
Windows 7 Black edition and some other database configuration stuff and I’ll be set to go tomorrow. In the interim there are drinks to be had and people to insult here in the comments.
El Cid
If anyone gets a chance to see the Stephen Moffatt-helmed “Sherlock”, so far a 3 part series to come to the US on PBS in late October, don’t miss it. Each 90 minute episode is absolutely brilliant, and the revised, contemporary Sherlock Holmes is done perfectly, and the lead is a perfect incarnation. It’s really a shock.
frosty
Settled down for “Big Bang Theory” and “@#$% My Dad Says”. Loved the first, as usual, bailed on Shatner et al. and headed back to “30 Rock” where Alec Baldwin was hilarious enough to overcome the low points.
The guys from Big Bang have absolutely nailed the nerds I went to college with.
Ailuridae
@Mnemosyne:
I was hoping that Piven’s Entourage popularity would get them brought to DVD but no luck. Of any television show ever set in Chicago it did the best service to the city itself. I hadn’t realized that it was remade last year. Weird.
TooManyJens
@Mike in NC:
Sadly, that’s not what I’ve heard.
Now we’ve finally gotten streaming to our TV mostly working, we’re going to see if we can get caught up on last season’s Castle and How I Met Your Mother in time to catch the new episodes in the streaming window. And also Bones, which is kind of perpetually on notice for me but I keep watching it anyway.
Of the new shows, Undercovers looks kind of fun, but I’m going to let the Internet tell me if I should bother.
Ailuridae
Event Spoiler below.
I kind of liked the first episode of THe Event but I don’t think their advertising campaign or even the show’s title is all that prudent. Assuming The Event was the plan disappearing rather than crashing its pretty anti-climatic.
Jay
I believe Maura Tierney is doing a 5 episode turn on the last season of “Rescue Me” next year. She has a presence about her that made me want to watch her episodes on “Rescue Me” the season before this past one. There’s a maternal vibe to her that mixes with a certain world-weariness.
Jules
So far the only new shows I’ve liked are Detroit 1-8-7 and Terriers.
I don’t think we will watch more episodes of Outlaw or The Chase, but will give The Event a couple more views to decide.
PBS will have both Sherlock and Wallender later in the fall which will be awesome.
Last night was a line up of fun with 30 Rock, Community and Big Bang Theory.
cgp
Being from the Detroit area, which, implies that yes, I’m an evil suburbanite — anywa,y: 1-8-7 would have been interesting if they had just taken all of the interesting crime and just turned those into episodes. The accidental shootings of children, the Greene case, the corruption of every level of government (though as a Detroiter, the whole Kilpatrick thing is beyond a beating a dead horse it’s whipping the ground where the horse used to be etc..
Yutsano
No haz TV no more. Not real sure I’m gonna get TV again. Honestly not really missing it. There may be something wrong with me.
Geoduck
Ailuridae: It’s about 99% likely we haven’t seen The Event yet. And probably never will; they’ll drag it out as long as they can, and it will get canceled.
As for else what I’m watching.. None of the other network shows sound even remotely appealing. Venture Bros is airing new episodes..
Ailuridae
@Jules:
Yeah, Terriers is really excellent. Both of the lead characters are eminently likable.
The scene to close the second episode where Loge takes out the sledgehammer to break the wall he never got around to taking out when he was married and drinking was awesome.
Shit. I just realized I never got around to watching episode three the other day.
someguy
Punch a fuckin’ hippie for Obama!
Say what you will about Bush… at least he didn’t press terrorism charges against war protesters.*
*It’s entirely feasible he disappeared them in some black ops. But I stand by my statement he did not press terrorism charges against them.
Ailuridae
@Geoduck:
Maybe I misunderstood but I could have sworn the ads said that The Event happened\would happen in the first episode. And God knows I saw enough of those ads.
Mnemosyne
@someguy:
No, Bush just sent defense lawyers to jail for 10 years for having the wrong kind of clients.
rikyrah
I enjoyed Hawaii Five-O.
and, oddly enough – the Defenders.
like Nikita
guilty pleasure – Hellcats
going to give Undercovers and The Event 6 episodes.
oh yeah, Star Wars: The Clone Wars is back :)
going to give Blue Bloods a chance – I love Tom Selleck.
Craig
Terriers is the best new show of the season, by a lot.
Imperioli is tremendous and I hope the show succeeds but it’s generic, as so much broadcast fare is.
Moses2317
After finishing watching all five seasons of the Wire on DVD in about a month last winter, I’ve struggled to find anything worth watching since then. I am looking forward to season three of Damages coming out on DVD.
Anyone have any suggestions as to what even comes close to measuring up to the Wire?
Winning Progressives
daryljfontaine
Saving a few things on the DVR for my mom, who has problems with wanting to watch three things in some time slots, or with not having certain “upsell” cable channels like FX. “Chase” is dull as dishwater, and I’ll warn her away even though she is probably still going to want to see it. “Terriers” is being taped but I haven’t watched it yet. “Boardwalk Empire” ditto — that one’s for me and was a late add to Too Much Damn TV.
“Lonestar” has promise but it depends on how it develops. I’ll give it three more episodes to hold my attention. “Outsourced” is chuckleworthy but I’d rather have “Parks and Recreation” back for a fall starter. I deleted “Better with You” after 45 seconds of bad jokes and laugh-track.
I watched “The Good Guys” this summer, and while I really liked it, I found it starting to get too repetitive. If it can break out of the formula a little it could be a long-term keeper. One show whose initial run was formulaic was “Flashpoint,” but the episodes they’ve been airing this summer have actually been very good.
“Dexter” starts on Sunday. Excellent. (steeples fingers)
“Fringe” is hands-down one of the best shows on TV, the survivor of a recent spate of primetime network science fiction that also gave us two seasons of the fantastically good “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles” and the entertaining-but-made-me-long-for-Firefly “Dollhouse.”
(Reminds me of a recent series observation: “Supernatural” is Demonic X-Files, “Warehouse 13” is Artifact X-Files Semi-Comedy, “Haven” is Psychic X-Files Lite, and “Fringe” is Mad-Science X-Files Hardcore. All of these shows are X-Files without the Scully.)
D
suzanne
I am such a doofus. My TV viewing is pretty much down to Big Bang Theory, Tosh.0, Daily Show and Colbert, and the occasional Mythbusters. And the kid loves Phineas and Ferb and Futurama. I have the first season of The Wire on DVD, but haven’t watched it yet. I am just sort of losing my taste for television.
O/T, so sue me. Took Luna (the Pit/Lab pup we adopted in July) to get her shots yesterday. She’s more than doubled in size since we got her, and is now about 40 pounds of solid muscle. And I realized how freakin’ besotted I am with this dog. She’s just an absolute joy, even when she’s a complete PITA. I lost three pets in the last two years, and was a bit worried that my heart had hardened. But this pup is just…. fabulous.
hamletta
Well this is an Open Thread:
The R for Senate in West Virginia just tossed John a slow and easy one: GOP Senate Nominee John Raese: ‘I Made My Money The Old-Fashioned Way: I Inherited It’
Because God knows that’s a winning message when the economy is in the shitter, and people are frightened and desperate.
Yutsano
@suzanne:
Your child haz taste. I mean, who would think that a kid’s show could nail the battle of the sexes so dead on accurate?
Gina
New stuff I have already panned so far: Undercovers, The Defenders, The Good Guys. Can go either way with Blue Bloods, Outsourced. I like The Whole Truth, Detroit 1-8-7.
I like The Event, but am leery of getting invested in another cool-seeming show to get punked at the end. Lost really pissed me off with the crap way they threw the ending together, and I’m still mortified that I got suckered into Persons Unknown and faithfully watched all episodes because I believed the network’s whole “you’ll learn the secret by the end of the season” ads.
Mostly, I’m looking for more good books to read and catching up on True Blood and Sons of Anarchy via DVD.
hamletta
@Mike in NC: Jon Voight is indeed a wingnut asshole, but he’s also a damn good actor. The only problem I would have would be if he chose his collaborators on the basis of ideology alone, like that godawful “American Carol” movie he did.
And I was personally responsible for the cancellation of “Action” and “Book Of Daniel.”
I haven’t had TV since the digital changeover, so my references are a little musty.
Ripley
Liked Hawaii Five-0; as a fan of the original, seemed worth sticking with – resonance without overt nostalgia, Scott Caan’s a hoot, and Grace Park is a scooter-cranker for certain.
My girlfriend talked me into watching the season opener of Grey’s Anatomy. What an unseemly piece of shit.
Looking forward to Dexter’s new one. Weeds latest season is at least better than their last. Mad Men is doing its best work yet.
Lastly, like Cole, I’ve tumbled headlong into Torchwood. Love it, in a pansexual kind of way. Heh.
suzanne
@Yutsano: Aye, she’s pretty smart. Of course, my husband and I work at it. No Justin Bieber or Jonas Brothers or any of that crap in THIS house, damnit. She can listen to all the Ministry and Bikini Kill she wants, but no tween crap allowed. (Though she has decided that Taylor Swift is awesome. Blargh.) She wants to go as Leela from Futurama for Halloween, though, so that should be fun. I told her I’d be Bender.
Anne Laurie
@Warren Terra: @Ruckus: @Ailuridae: As long as you’re not on dial-up, Hulu is your friend.
Detroit 1-8-7 falls in the same class as Southland and Boomtown, if you liked those shows. (I have something of a ‘show killer’ issue myself — the new ones I like most last year were Mercy and Trauma, sniffle. Still think Mercy was the chick version of Rescue Me, which is one of my all-time favorites.)
Ailuridae, I don’t think the plane’s disappearance was “The Event”, just an indicator that the prisoners were indeed… well, not telling the whole truth, but worthy of attention.
@Moses2317: Homicide: Life on the Street was done by the same people who later did The Wire. I liked Homicide enough to buy the complete boxed set, which seldom happens. I’ve been ‘saving’ The Wire for a time when it feels like I’ll be able to sit down & watch it in big blocks of time, as it needs to be watched.
Yutsano
@suzanne: Bowling for Soup does the theme song to Phineas and Ferb. So all is not lost there. Plus I think I read it here, but Taylor Swift will make more of a mark as a songwriter than a singer, and I agree with that opinion. I also think this has some really interesting levels of depth for a 20 year old songwriter.
Steeplejack
@Gina:
Gotta put in a plug for The Good Guys. The writing was a little shaky at first, but it firmed up well by the time it finished its mini-run in the summer. Very, very funny. I DVR’d tonight’s episode but haven’t watched it yet. Recommended to all you Chuck groupies.
suzanne
@Yutsano: Yeah, I have to acknowledge that she’s not *awful*. She’s not anyone I would ever choose to listen to, but it could be worse. And she doesn’t seem like a total prosti-tot. ‘Course, I took her to see the Foo Fighters and Social Distortion before she could walk, figuring that was some pretty kid-accessible-but-still-mom-approved stuff.
Yutsano
@suzanne: In other words a total rebellion where she goes all Disney pop is waiting just around the corner. At least you can put all your hopes into the other one about to come along. :)
And I know there are levels of wrongness to this, but this just makes me laugh to no end. Part of it is, if you look carefully, Glennzilla has a cameo towards the end.
Moses2317
@Anne Laurie: Thanks. I just read some reviews of Homicide and am going to check it out soon. In my mind, the Wire sets an almost impossibly high standard to meet, but hopefully Homicide will measure up.
Winning Progressive
Ailuridae
@Anne Laurie:
I liked Detroit 1-8-7 and think it is easily the best thing I have seen Imperioli do.
Just watched the openers for both Hawaii 5-0 and Blue Bloods and think I’ll probably watch both again but won’t likely make a point or set a DVR for either.
BobS
Detroit 1-8-7 looks almost exactly like NYPD Blue, with Michael Imperioli’s character seemingly modeled on Andy Sipowitz.
I liked Boardwalk Empire and intend to continue watching, and I usually like Steve Buscemi, but he doesn’t seem like the best choice for his role. I would have picked Ian McShane, of Deadwood fame (if there’s anyone who didn’t see that show when it ran on HBO, check it out on DVD- it’s right up there with The Sopranos, the first season of Twin Peaks, The Wire, etc.).
A few other shows also worth mentioning are Bored to Death, starting it’s second season, Treme, which just ended it’s first, and Flight of the Conchords, now just in reruns on HBO.
Tattoosydney
@Yutsano:
Why has no one told me about this before?
Linkmeister
If you live in Hawai’i you’re obligated to watch 5-0, so I did. There are the usual insider gaffes (“what the? You can’t get there on that road!”) kind of things, but that’s half the fun for the locals anyway.
It looks like it will have more character buildup than the original, which was pretty much all the other players saying “Yessir, boss” to Jack Lord. That might be good.
Pooh
“The Defenders” is surprisingly good. “Undercovers” does not suck either. “The Event” is like a full hour of the “next on Mad Men” clips
“He’s going to tell them”
“He can’t.”
“How did this happen?”
etc etc etc
Yutsano
FYWP. It eted my comment.
fbihop
Ah, an open thread right in my wheelhouse… I can pretty much guarantee that I watch the most TV of anyone here (except for cable news. I never watch that. Ever).
Boardwalk Empire looks great and I have heard nothing but positive reviews for the episodes. The world that Scorcese and Terrence Winter created in the pilot (with only a little bit of painful exposition) makes me wonder if I will have to displace The Wire as my favorite TV show ever. I thought that if any show knocked The Wire off it would be Breaking Bad.
Lone Star looked promising, but it will have one more episode then disappear into the land of many, many other Fox shows that no one watched even though they are good.
Hawaii 5-0 was remarkably not horrible. Alex O’Laughlin is alright, but between this and Entourage, Scott Caan looks like the perfect second banana for TV. Like how Paul Rudd is in movies; maybe Caan can’t carry a TV show (he’s never got the chance, though), but he is very good in the role as the partner.
Feces My Dad Says is an abomination. I loved how they made fun of it on Community (hands-down the funniest show on TV right now) on Thursday. Outsourced only looked funny when compared to Feces My Dad Says.
Raising Hope looks alright, but I wish My Name Is Earl would have been kept around. Same showrunner, but the main guy in Raising Hope is no JAson Lee. And Running Wilde has potential (I’ll give Mitch Hurwitz a million chances after Arrested Development), but something just seems… off. Maybe it is Keri Russell.
Rubicon is very well done and the writers have stepped up after digging out of the hole they were in after the pilot (they changed showrunners after the pilot and retooled the show). I hope that FX gives it a second season.
As for my returning favorites, I mentioned Community before, and 30 Rock was alright while The Office was better than last season’s average. NCIS was good and I’m glad they didn’t drag out the resolution over a few episodes like they could have. I really liked Fringe and said, “BUBBLES!” when I saw Andre Royo. Sons of Anarchy needs to have… something happen with the gang. A lot of sitting around and not much happening. And I made the mistake of watching The Big Bang Theory immediately after Community; BBT is funny, but there just aren’t as many laughs as Community has.
My two (or maybe three) cents.
daryljfontaine
@fbihop: Re: Community.
That show makes me laugh til it hurts. And I can’t get other people to start watching it. Very strange.
“Is this you being ‘me-ta’?”
D
fbihop
@daryljfontaine:
It’s great and it uses every character perfectly. Even the guest stars are used perfectly.
Plusl, this year they said there will be more John Oliver. Which is just great news.
I also forgot to mention how I liked the season premiere of Chuck.
suzanne
@Tattoosydney: Phineas and Ferb is kind of fabulous. My kid loves it, but my friends and I enjoy it, too. Good for grownups, but not in that gross double-entendre way.
Yutsano
@suzanne: One of the real neat tricks to Phineas and Ferb is finding the one polysyllabic word that gets thrown in there randomly. It always leaves me saying “Did they just say THAT??” There’s always one per episode.
Cathie from Canada
I really liked Detroit 187 — with the mild quibble that the “rogue cop with a tragic backstory and a heart of gold” scenario is getting rather tired.
Blue Blood also had the tired “rogue cop rescues the child by torturing the scumbag” scenario, but had a neat twist at the end with the secret society stuff.
Defenders was much more interesting than I had thought it would be — a truly intriguing legal case with the involuntary manslaughter angle, and engaging characters.
Good Guys has improved so much it is almost unrecognizable from the early shows — particularly Colin Hanks.
Castle was excellent — this show just gets better and better — funny, interesting plot, and one of the only shows on TV that shows a normal relationship between a father, teenage daughter, and grandmother.
NCIS seems to be bringing the Director into the stories more now, a good thing because the Director/Gibbs relationship is more nuanced, and they’re cutting down on the Crazy Abby angles which was getting really tiresome.
I guess CSI and Criminal Intent are what they are — serial killers, explosions, sexy guest stars, everybody spending 20 hours a day at work instead of looking after their kids.
I just cannot watch Bones anymore — too profoundly disrespectful of too many of its characters (so this year Angela is pregnant? Oh, please!)
And yes, I tried Rubicon again this week and was pleasantly surprised at how much better it moved along.
NobodySpecial
After I watched The Event, I called it as my first show to get the axe midseason. Unless they do something really stunning, like on-camera porn, there’s no reason to keep watching if you’ve seen an episode of Lost.
Then again, I seem to end up watching more of stuff like River Monsters and the like than anything on free TV.
Yutsano
I’m just in a total wrongness mood tonight. Carameldansing. Also.
Steeplejack
@Tattoosydney:
That show is great. Several Disney channels on my cable system run episodes at different times every day, and they are almost uniformly very good. The songs especially (as Yutsano knows).
Steeplejack
@Cathie from Canada:
The Good Guys is the great show that I can’t get anyone to watch. (And with my street cred!) Agree with you that it has really tightened up since the first episodes.
I have given up trying to promote The Mentalist to people. Same thing: started a little slow and shaky and has gotten better by leaps and bounds. The secondary characters are excellent, especially Tim Kang as the Asian cop whose name I have forgotten.
The Tim Channel
The Boardwalk Empire looks promising.
The Event: Hoping it doesn’t turn into another LOST
American Chopper (Dad v Son)
For those who need a good free flashlight app for their mobile device:
As unlikely as it sounds, the real subject of the post excerpted is entirely different than what you would assume. I hope you all enjoy reading it as much as I did putting it together!!
http://thetimchannel.wordpress.com/2010/09/24/free-while-supplies-last/
Enjoy.
asiangrrlMN
@Yutsano: Snort. Funny! This is not P & F, but it’s in the same vein. Ocho Kandelikas!
@Tattoosydney: Yutsy posts clips from the show all the time. How you be?
@AL, nothing. I don’t watch TV except for sports.
@Steeplejack: Hm. Mayhaps have to check ’em out. At least the latter.
asiangrrlMN
Fuck. You. Word. Press. Repost:
@Yutsano: Snort. Funny! This is not P & F, but it’s in the same vein. Ocho Kandelikas!
@Tattoosydney: Yutsy posts clips from it all the time. How you be?
Steepman, I may check out The Mentalist. Mayhaps.
El Cid
@Steeplejack: Cho
gypsy howell
@Moses2317:
Ha! Thurston and I did the same thing last January — spent weeks holed up watching The Wire on dvd. Couldn’t stop watching it. It’s a show about crack, and it’s like being on crack watching it!
In a totally different genre, the only other show I’m as obsessed with as I was The Wire is Mad Men. Completely obsessed.
To anyone who hasn’t watched it, and thinks they might want to try, word of advice: you absolutely have to watch MM from the beginning, and go through each season. Otherwise it will make no sense at all, and you’ll miss what makes it so completely compelling.
Edited to add: I want to love Rubicon, but can’t get into it. I’m taping it for a time when I can devote enough focus to it to enjoy it. Hope it’s worth it.
debbie
@ Moses 2317:
If it’s gritty you’re after:
The Corner (from the people who did The Wire)
Oz (from the writer for Homicide)
I don’t have cable, so I have to wait for the DVD to come into my local library. The cable series have really surpassed the movies lately. Every series I’ve watched in the past few years (also Deadwood, Six Feet Under, Mad Men, Breaking Bad) has been great. Why can these guys create such full characters in a much tighter format?
Stefan
“Fringe” is hands-down one of the best shows on TV, the survivor of a recent spate of primetime network science fiction that also gave us two seasons of the fantastically good “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles”
Try saying that name five times fast. For some reason whenever I tried to say the name of that show it just came out as “Terminator: The Sarah Chronnor Conicles”……
drew42
NY Giants. And Syracuse Orange — at least until they’re down by three touchdowns (usually happens midway through the 2nd quarter).
JR
I tried out “My Generation” on Hulu last night. The pilot was a little over-scripted, but the characters and actors both really worked for me. It’s a “documentary” format a la “Seven Up!” about an Austin high school’s graduating class of 2000, so a hell of a lot of retrospective looks at the 00s, that miserable goddamn decade of Bush v. Gore, Enron, 9/11, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc.
“Outsourced” has potential, but damn near by definition that means the pilot wasn’t very kinetic. I’m eager for SG-U’s return.
El Cid
God damn, Bill Maher’s a fucking prick. He brings on Ann Druyan, science writer (and Carl Sagan’s widow), they get on the subject of global warming, and fucking loudmouth Bill Maher lets lying fraud fucker Breitbart and vapid rightwing talking point machine Amy Holmes overtalk the quiet voiced Druyan, and when fucker liar Breitbart claims that the ‘East Anglia e-mails’ proved global warming science a fraud, Druyan tries to explain that that’s simply not true, and dumbass uninformed arrogant loudmouth Maher overtalks her too and explains to his audience that what this reference was was to hackers exposing East Anglia scientists ‘fudging’ the data.
No scientists fudged any data. Dumbass ignorant fuckers thought they knew what some words meant like ‘trick’ and thought it meant fudging data, so dumbass knucklehead 1 trick pony Maher (I hate religion!) lets the lie through, all while someone there at the table tried to explain how the entire god-damned story was bullshit.
He’s such a god-damned dumbass prick who hasn’t the faintest fucking idea how to run a discussion because he always lets loudmouth asshole right wingers overtalk any liberal he has on, and meanwhile he mocks Democrats for not having any stones.
Asshole.
Fitzwili
@ailuridae
I LOVE Supernatural! Your friend Misha Collins is fantastic on that show- it’s not really sci- fi( you should try it out).
I also am crazy about Community-it has such a great ensemble cast. It reminds me a little of News Radio in that way. If you are found of mustaches and silliness, I also strongly recommend The Good Guys. 30 Rock and Parks and Recreation are always favorites, as well as Chuck. The only new show that appeals to me is Undercovers but I am already watching Covert Action.
Those who like quirky kids shows might want to check out the Misadventures of Flapjack.
ellie
I loved Life! I can’t believe it was canceled. I am watching House, the NCIS twins, the Good Wife, the L&Os, Mad Men, and Rubicon. I watched the premiere of Undercovers and it was meh. I tivoed the Defenders, but haven’t watched it yet. I wanted to watch Detroit 1-8-7 but missed it. I will have to catch up. I used to live in the Detroit area and still know a lot of people. I wonder if I will see anyone I know.
Waiting for Breaking Bad and The Closer to come back, and of course the lineup on USA: Burn Notice, Psych, In Plain Sight, and White Collar.
I also watched Eureka over the summer and I liked it. I tried to get into Warehouse 13, but just couldn’t.
d.b. cooper
Boardwalk Empire and Raising Hope look like the big winners this season. Running Wilde is a massive disappointment. Lonestar and Hawaii Five-O are just bad.
Jeremy
The first two episodes of Terriers were entertaining but nothing special, while the third was outstanding.
rikyrah
I’m enjoying Rubicon…it’s a smart conspiracy theory. give it another season, AMC.
The Good Guys is another guilty pleasure. Bradley Whitford dove head first into this crazy role.
I can’t wait for the return of The Good Wife. Unlike others, I see no difference between the husband and Will – they’re both shady as hell. She would be trading in one shady guy for another, but don’t pretend that Will is this upright guy and she’d be trading up to a ‘ better guy’.
El Cid
@Fitzwili: One of the best reasons to enjoy Supernatural is that it has the best, most movie like, genuine big-budget horror movie cinematography I’ve ever seen on TV.
Nonie
Yes, I watch too much TV!
Here’s a short list:
Rubicon
The Good Guys
Detroit 1-8-7
Covert Action
30 Rock
Chuck
Fringe
Defenders
Deb T
@rikyrah:
Caught the end of Blue Bloods when they re-aired the pilot Saturday night. It looked good, not as sentimental as I expected. I wasn’t a fan of Selleck when he was young, but have enjoyed some of his mature work. It could gel as a nice ensemble piece. Have to keep an eye on it.
Hawaii Five Oh opening episode was too much steely looks, bulging biceps and all too familiar plot lines (but Hawaii looks great!). Turned back to the warm slipper comfort of Castle, a show that verges on the too-cute-by-half edge but has enough humor to cut the sugar.