Over at TVGrimReaper.com, the e-ink is dripping on all the recent updates as we start to see mid-season finales.

1. Euthanized: Wicked City, Blood & Oil, Truth Be Told, The Player, and Minority Report
   • Well, I lost two of those (Player, Minority Report) and I was enjoying both. As mentioned earlier, I think there is a nugget to be cracked for the “one man” action type show, but in five seasons, nobody has done it yet. Into the Badlands on AMC is awesome, but it went way deep into the action, with one of the fight scenes from week 2 being the best I’ve seen on TV ever, and probably best for TV or movie in about 10 years. Minority Report was a conundrum from the beginning, and I think it was almost diluted by having all three pre-cogs involved. It was nice that they got to do some form of wrap up of the storyline in episode 10, unlike the Player which had only a very small wrap-up for week 9.
2. On Life Support: CSI: Cyber, Code Black, Mysteries of Laura, Crazy Ex-GF, and iZombie
   • I gave CSI: Cyber, MoL and CEG a try for all of one episode and passed quickly. CB had no interest for me. So those four are no great loss for me. However, I had heard good things about iZombie from a co-worker, and had it on my list to try sometime. Maybe not now.
3. Critically-ill: Undateable, Sleepy Hollow, The Grinder, Bones, and Last Man on Earth
   • Undateable became almost unwatchable after the first 5 episodes, and I watched awhile longer to see if some of the spark would come back. It didn’t. Grinder was good for an episode and I passed, never watched LMoE, and Bones never held any chemistry for me (I like the stars individually, just not together). I like Sleepy Hollow, but I think someone needs to take a heavier hand to the story arcs. I think the show would fly on short series orders of 10 EPs a season, and darker / grittier than regular TV allows. I watch, but I won’t mourn its passing.
4. Touch-and-go: Nashville, Castle, Muppets, Elementary, Good Wife, Hawaii Five-O, Heroes Reborn, Grandfathered, and Scream Queens
   • This is where the pain starts for me. I’m already in pain because Castle sucks this season, but I’ll watch it to the bitter end (it should have ended last season). I really like Elementary, and hope it survives, even though they gave way too little attention to the drug crisis of last year’s cliffhanger. I still have hopes for Heroes Reborn, but I’ve been disappointed before. Good Wife is a future potential binge-watch title, the rest are more surprising in that they are still on the air.
5. In recovery: Last Man Standing, Dr. Ken, Quantico, Fresh Off the Boat, Once Upon A Time, Grey’s Anatomy, Blue Bloods, NCIS: LA, Madam Secretary, Limitless, Mom, 2 Broke Girls, Supergirl, Grimm, Law and Order: SVU, Chicaog Med, Vampire Diaries, Reign, and Jane the Virgin
   • There are a lot of surprises in this one for me…I don’t care about LMS, DK, FotB, OUaT, GA, MS, Mom, 2BG, SVU, CM, VD, Reign or JtV. Most of them are really not my demographic, and some of them are okay shows, just not for me (others make me shudder that ANYONE is watching them). However, I have been enjoying Quantico, as I like the flashback style of telling the back story (similar to Arrow). I’m a bit surprised to see Blue Bloods / Limitless / Grimm / NCIS: LA ranked this high as they are a bit niche-y, but not surprised Supergirl is still up there. I think it will only go higher as the year progresses.
6. Ready for discharge: Agents of SHIELD, Black-ish, The Middle, How To Get Away With Murder, The GoldBergs, Scandal, Modern Family, Criminal Minds, NCIS: New Orleans, NCIS, Scorpion, Life in Pieces, Blacklist, Rosewood, Family Guy, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Gotham, Empire, The Originals, Supernatural, Arrow, and The Flash
   • I don’t watch Black-ish, Middle, HTGAWM, Goldbergs, Scandal, MF, CM, LiP, FG, B99, Empire, or the Originals, but again, I’m not the intended audience. Most of them are okay, I just don’t see the appeal. Supernatural is on my future binge-watch list, not sure I’d watch all of them though. I’m a sucker for Arrow and The Flash, so hard to be objective about those. I’m really surprised SHIELD, Scorpion and and Rosewood are ranked this high though, and NCIS: NO. While NCIS is probably a no-brainer, the cash cow that keeps on lactating, it does have to end sometime, doesn’t it? I am reassured somewhat to see Blacklist this high, as I think they are now in their third year of telling different storylines each year, or a different form of storytelling with a different feel to it, and each time, they’ve thrived. However, I’m not surprised to see Gotham this high…it’s one of the best of the genre, and watchable even if you’re not into the mythos of comics and superheroes.
7. Home with the family: Big Bang Theory, Chicago P.D., Chicago Fire, Blindspot, Bob’s Burgers, The Simpsons
   • I am not interested in any of the Chicago series, too soap-ish for me, and I’m not watching the animated ones (future bingewatch potential). Happy for BBT, although I have been off watching it this season, waiting for January to roll around to catch up on it with my wife. Last in this list is Blindspot, and I’m of two minds for renewal. First, it’s a hit, great, should be renewed. Second, by contrast, it’s got a major plot problem coming up — if the people had all the info that they did to tattoo on her body, why did they not reveal it in a far less cryptic fashion? If there was some sort of “magical/mystical” element, as in Minority Report with pre-cogs, there would be something to go on. The big reveal (CAUTION: SPOILER ALERT) was that she volunteered for the assignment, it was her plan to put it all over her body as tattoos. Maybe it will end up being an intelligence agency computer dump that was all jumbled together, but then why wipe her memory? Why not reveal the source of the info? If the payoff doesn’t match the mythology, and we need some pieces of it this year, season two will drop in the ratings pretty fast as viewers see too little reward for their investment of time.