As I reviewed the list of new shows earlier, let’s not forget that there are a host of returning shows, all of which fall into a set of five distinct groupings, of which the first four are: shows that I watch, shows that I tried and bailed on, shows that I have no interest in, and shows that I have never even heard of before. The fifth group is a bit cross-cutting but basically are shows I didn’t even realize were still on the air as I thought they were cancelled long ago!
However, rather than go through all of them, I’ll just focus on the twenty-two I regularly watch.
12 Monkeys — This was new last year, and I thought it was cancelled. I guess SyFy ordered some more, so count me in. Pretty dense, pretty dark, but I like it. It ended with the entire time travel program in jeopardy and a significant time paradox looming.
American Ninja Warrior — Running every summer, I love this show, and I really enjoy watching it with Jacob and Andrea. Season 7 is great.
Arrow — This is probably my favorite show right now, although it often gets repetitive of the tortured soul who needs to be alone to be the Arrow but needs friends and family to stay grounded. Add in Thea rising from the dead, and the level of suspension of disbelief required is a bit high. But good escapist fun. It ended with Arrow and Felicity going off into the sunset, so we know that can’t last.
Big Bang Theory — Practically the only comedy in my roster, it has lost a lot of its spark from the first season or two. But throw in the big changes from the end of last season, and could be an interesting shake up for this year.
Blacklist — Lizzie knows her past, what fun is that? Might become a ho-hum procedural now.
Blue Bloods — this is pretty kitschy. Not like Hawaii Five-O, way better than that, but still, I have no idea why I like this show so much.
Castle — Last season should have been the end, and it was done up to be that with the final episode. Yet they got renewed and now they have to figure out how to avoid turning it into Murder, He Wrote in Washington.
Continuum — A limited season show, I have been waiting for this time travel show to deliver on the promise of the first season. The fourth and last season is looming, so I hope they spent the long hiatus on some good writing to figure out whether the future is set and will be saved, or is lost forever.
Dark Matter — I’m really enjoying this show, too bad it is short season. I hope the plot starts moving forward though. Too much time on the ship doing nothing.
Elementary — It left off last season with Holmes possibly committing murder and using heroin, so we’ll see what new hells await. I hope his protege Kitty comes back (and I don’t mean Watson!).
Gotham — I still love Gotham, and I’m hoping it will be great this season without Fish Mooney and hopefully minimizing Barbara.
Grimm — It was a huge cliffhanger for his beloved Juliette, and the return of Trubel. Is she dead? Is it permanent? Did I just write those words?
Killjoys — This is on my “watch” list but it just finished Season 1 with a revolution starting, so we’ll see if it comes back for Season 2.
Lost Girl — Another show coming around for a short season finale. Hope it can muster some of the fun from Season 1.
Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. — Yep, I’m still watching. Or rather, I quit and then I started watching again. Not a must-see, but I’ll bingewatch when I’m bored with other offerings.
NCIS 1,2,3 — NCIS (the original), NCIS: LA, and NCIS: NO are all on my roster, but NO is the weakest. I like Brody, but the rest could jump in the bay. LA is good, but regularly soap-opera-y, and NCIS is awesome but the same week-to-week.
Orphan Black — Still on hiatus, and it was a complex messy season, hope they clean up the storylines for next season.
Person of Interest — I honestly have no idea what to do with this show. It lost its way last season big time with two big departures, and the arrival of Samaritan. Not sure I’ll keep going on it.
Scorpion — if Arrow required suspension of disbelief, Scorpion blows it out of the water. Okay for bingewatching.
Sleepy Hollow — it seemed to lose a bit of focus last year with Katrina, curious to see where it goes this season.
Suits — Yep, it’s soap opera-ish, campy, etc. Fortunately, they have short seasons.
The Flash — Where the Arrow is dark, the Flash is light and optimistic. Cool. Almost like a palate refresher
Undateable — Oops, I said above that I don’t watch comedies besides BBT. Apparently I do. Not sure for how long though as they intend to move to an all-live format this year.
I’ve written before about how much I like serialized story-telling, which is basically why I love TV series. Just like in books, I like revisiting known characters with backstories engaging in new adventures. It isn’t sufficient, but it is often a pre-requisite. So, while some people get excited about new baseball or football or hockey seasons, I scout new TV shows looking for diamonds in the rough to add to my roster. Here is my take on 34 new recruits of the upcoming season.
Full season subscription
Try one episode
Pass
Blindspot DC Legends of Tomorrow * Heroes Reborn Limitless Minority Report The Player Quantico Supergirl X-Files * * Information still pending on these shows, but likely to be full season ones
Benders Crazy Ex-Girlfriend Grinder Hand of God Into the Badlands The Muppets Public Morals Rosewood Wicked City
Angel from Hell Ash vs. Evil Dead The Bastard Executioner Best Time Ever with Neil Patrick Harris Blood and Oil Chicago Med Code Black Detour Dr. Ken Fear the Walking Dead Flesh and Bone Grandfathered Life in Pieces Master of None Narcos Scream Queens Truth Be Told Wrecked
Angel from Hell— Jane Lynch as a guardian angel…so, I know some people love Jane Lynch, but I find her grating on her best days. Doesn’t matter if she’s on Glee or a game show, I can’t watch her. Add in the guardian angel genre that usually goes more sappy than drama, not interested. — PASS
Ash vs. Evil Dead — “hilarious horror antics”? — PASS
The Bastard Executioner— A broken knight? Sounds good. Wait, never mind — Katey Sagal is on it. I didn’t like her in Married with Children or Sons of Anarchy. Someone else I can’t watch. I think it’s the voice. — PASS
Benders— Comedy about group of friends obsessed with a hockey team? Intriguing. — TRY ONE EPISODE
Best Time Ever with Neil Patrick Harris — I like NPH, don’t love him. Sometimes a little too smarmy. And it’s part game show, part talent show, part reality — PASS
Blindspot — NBC has pulled together some amazing elements for this show. First, there’s the deeper mystery of who this tattooed woman is, and her backstory. Not wonky like Lost, but accessible like Blacklist, Jericho, Flashforward. Second, they pulled Jaimie Alexander from Thor, one of the best elements of the series and I love her presence. Third, it’s FBI-ish and fast-paced. So I am in like Flynn for this one. However, unless they keep the production value up, it could be done in one season — FULL SEASON SUBSCRIPTION
Blood & Oil — It’s basically a new form of Dallas or Dynasty, with modern day oil boom. With Don Johnson as J.R. Nothing about this show appeals to me from the description. — PASS
Chicago Med — The Chicago franchise is expanding to the hospital, and I haven’t enjoyed a medical drama since St. Elsewhere.— PASS
Code Black — Oh, look, another medical drama but in L.A. Overcrowded, understaffed, under-equipped…sounds like St. Elsewhere, but still not interested. — PASS
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend — Comedy. Musical elements. Big city kid moves back home for love. Sounds very much like 10 other shows in the last fifteen years, just with musical part added. But an hour-long comedy? I’ll take a peek.— TRY ONE EPISODE
Detour— National Lampoon’s Vacation set in TV land. — PASS
Dr. Ken — Great physician, no bed side manner. But it’s a comedy. — PASS
Fear the Walking Dead — Fear the “companion series”? — PASS
Flesh and Bone — The demanding world of professional ballet. — PASS
Grandfathered — Two men and a baby, with John Stamos. — PASS
Grinder— Rob Lowe as the big city kid (TV star) who moves back home to practice law. Obviously a comedy. I almost always like Rob, if not the show, so I’ll give it a shot.— TRY ONE EPISODE
Hand of God — Ron Perlman believes God speaks to him, kind of like Eli Stone, except instead of helping people as a lawyer he gets to engage in vigilante justice.— TRY ONE EPISODE
Heroes Reborn — Reboot of Heroes, which I liked at the beginning of the series, held real promise when the were all about “Save the cheerleader, save the world”. Later? Not so much. But I’m in. — FULL SEASON SUBSCRIPTION
Into the Badlands— Martial arts, a la Mad Max mixed with Kung Fu?— TRY ONE EPISODE
Life in Pieces — Ensemble family comedy with Dianne Wiest and James Brolin?— PASS
Limitless — Take a drug, use 100% of your brain, fight crime. Okay, why not? — FULL SEASON SUBSCRIPTION
Master of None – Seinfeld remake with Aziz Ansari.— PASS
Minority Report — Fifteen years after the movie and pre-cogs are in hiding, yet fighting crime still. Awesome premise, likely to die in six episodes. — FULL SEASON SUBSCRIPTION
The Muppets — Adult-ish version of Muppets, but with PG humour. — TRY ONE EPISODE
The Player — Does anyone remember Drive with Nathan Filion? It was about an wheel-man recruited to drive in an illegal raceand his wife was kidnapped to force him to play. Now we have Philip Winchester doing the same, but with more explosions and action. Oh, who am I kidding? Of course I’m going to watch. — FULL SEASON SUBSCRIPTION
Public Morals— Crooked cops in 1960s NYC vs. an honest cop. Sounds like Life on Mars with different timeframe. — TRY ONE EPISODE
Quantico — Oooh, a dirty FBI recruit, and you get to figure out who. — FULL SEASON SUBSCRIPTION
Rosewood — Pathologist helping cop, with a bit of zen thrown in. Forever, but with sunshine coming out his butt. Okay, I’ll bite. Or at least nibble. — TRY ONE EPISODE
My review is complete, and a table of my predictions is shown below. I previewed 98 shows in total.
Of the 72 shows that I’m not watching, I predict 21 will be cancelled mid-season and 51 that will make it full season.
Of that 26 shows that I am watching, I am expecting 3 will be cancelled mid-season and 23 that will go full season.
Note that I will be updating the list with strike-throughs as shows get cancelled.
Mid-season cancellation
Full-season pickup
Not watching
Sunday:Boardwalk Empire, The Newsroom, Resurrection, The Comeback, Mulaney, Madam Secretary Monday: Mom, Jane the Virgin, State of Affairs Tuesday: Manhattan Love Story, About A Boy, Marry Me, Selfie Wednesday: Black-ish, Red Band Society, The Mysteries of Laura, Stalker Thursday: Bad Judge, The McCarthys, A to Z Friday: Cristela
Sunday: Bob’s Burgers, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Family Guy, American Dad, CSI, Homeland, The Good Wife, The Walking Dead, Revenge, Once Upon a Time, The Simpsons, The Affair Monday: The Originals, 2 Broke Girls, The Voice, Dancing with the Stars Tuesday: Utopia, Supernatural, The Mindy Project, Sons of Anarchy, New Girl, Chicago Fire, Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Wednesday: American Horror Story Freak Show, The Middle, Survivor, The Goldbergs, Criminal Minds, L&O: SVU, Modern Family, Nashville, Hell’s Kitchen, The 100, Chicago P.D. Thursday: Grey’s Anatomy, The Vampire Diaries, The Millers, Scandal, Parenthood, The Biggest Loser, Bones, Two and a Half Men, Reign, How To Get Away With Murder, Gracepoint Friday: Shark Tank, MasterChef Junior, Hawaii Five-O, Last Man Standing, The Amazing Race
Monday: NCIS: LA, Gotham, Sleepy Hollow, The Big Bang Theory, The Blacklist, Castle Tuesday: NCIS: New Orleans, The Flash, Person of Interest Wednesday: Arrow, NCIS Thursday: Elementary Friday: Blue Bloods, Grimm Short-runs: Suits, Perception, Lost Girl, Covert Affairs, Unforgettable, Taxi Brooklyn, Undateable, Continuum, Republic of Doyle
So I finished my list of network shows, covering off Sunday to Friday. Which might make you think the list would be done. But there are a few other shows that don’t make those lists because they aren’t part of the big network milieu. I won’t (nay, can’t) cover them all, just some of the shows I watch. Most of them are short-run series, 10-13 episodes and then nothing for 3-4 months.
Like Suits for example. It is a completely ridiculous portrayal of a super bright kid, eidetic memory, who becomes an associate at a law firm without ever having graduated college. Or passed the bar. But while it is obviously ridiculous on even small details, it is sure fun to watch. A guilty pleasure, as it is really bad soap at times.
Perception is another short-run series starring Eric McCormack as a schizophrenic neuropsychology professor who helps the FBI with cases. Early on, every episode came complete with a full on hallucination that would interact with him to help him solve the case (i.e. a psycho manifestation of clues that his subconscious noticed but his conscious mind missed). Good fun, not much else like it out there where it is full mental illness rather than just high-level social awkwardness.
Lost Girl runs in short bursts as Grimm-lite and is all about the vessen, err, fae world. Pretty much every character is fae at this point, and the lead character Bo has refused to align herself with either dark or light fae. The “unalligned succubus”, she acts as a freelance private investigator for the fae. The show has interesting plotlines, even if the acting isn’t that great.
I normally also watch Covert Affairs, except I seem to have missed the launch this year (one of the downsides of it running on off-network channels is you don’t see the upcoming announcements), and so I’ll catch up on Netflix or something some time. I like the show, but waiting isn’t that big a loss.
I spent part of the summer watching three shows, two of which I have no idea the status. The first, Unforgettable, wasn’t bad, although a little too much “will they/won’t they (again)” at the end of every episode for the main NYPD detectives. They retooled it last year and moved it to a bigger showroom, ditched some characters, added some others, was a nice mix. But it’s been cancelled. I was also, gulp, watching, umm, Taxi Brooklyn. I can’t tell you how embarrassing that is to admit. It was a horrendous show, but there wasn’t much else on, and I loved the main actress. Hated the dialogue, hated the premise, hated the editing, hated most of the actors, and I was still watching. I can never make fun of anyone for watching Hawaii Five-O, cuz I watched TB. It disappeared at the end of summer, no word on possible Season 2. The third show I was watching was a comedy. I know, I know, if you read the other pages, you know comedies rarely make my watch list. But Undateable was kind of fun. Some of the actors seemed to actually enjoy their roles a little too much at times, even, almost like the characters had their lines and the others weren’t told what they were going to say. Lots of one-liners, sure, but the premise of a ladies man teaching a romantic how to date women was kind of fun to watch. It wasn’t fully packaged, it wasn’t smooth as a show, but parts were awesome. It too, however, disappeared at the end of the summer, no word on its future.
I am also back into watching a home-grown shown, Republic of Doyle. I say that with some surprise as the network announced it was cancelled. Then I saw ads for the new seasons starting, and there it was. Yep, it came back for another season of watching PI Jake Doyle round around St. John’s, Newfoundland investigating cases and trying to make a relationship work with his cop girlfriend.
I also really enjoy watching the sci-fi Continuum where the lead detective came back in time from 2077 to capture 8 escaped criminals bent on changing the capitalist system that has taken over by 2077. Still waiting on the next season, if it is even renewed.
Not much point in predicting length of the series as all of these short-runs are fully in the can by the time airing starts.
