I watched all of these three shows on speciality networks, which are really starting to turn out to be my go-to channels when I want something different. However, “new” and “different” doesn’t mean “good”, and swinging for the fences doesn’t always mean a home run.
Common Law was like a 2012 version of Miami Vice, except the partners don’t get along and wind up in couples counselling. I’m sure that is interesting to someone, or they thought it would give it a comic edge, but all it did was make it boring. Yawn.
Copper had a better pedigree, looking at a cop coming of age in the working class ghetto of NYC in the 1800s. I watched the first episode, where you find out he is a relatively good cop, not entirely ethical, some rough edges, etc. Throw in politics above that he has no interest in, and life is both bleak and grand at the same time. Sure, there’s a backstory about his family and who might have killed them, and he used to be a soldier too. All the new shows have backstory, of course. And, oh look, procedurals are interesting, so let’s throw in some 1800’s forensics. Canada has a cleaner, upright version called Murdoch Mysteries, and I don’t watch it either. I watched the first episode and never found a single character for whom I cared about their story or their outcome. Another pass.
The Almighty Johnsons may be mislabeled as a “new” show, as it is more “new to me”. It is a NZ import, and I quite like most of it. The main plot revolves around 20-year-old Axl who has his 21st birthday and finds out he’s a god. Not a “golden god” like in Almost Famous, but an actual god. Norse, actually, building on NZ lore that the norse gods of old mythology sailed away and landed in New Zealand with their descendants. Axl has 3 brothers and a supposed “cousin” who turns out to be his official grandfather. Olaf is an oracle who tells them all what things mean, when he isn’t surfing, having sex, or getting high. An old soul in a young body. Axl’s brother Anders is the god of poetry and words, or as a goddess refers to him, the god of PR and bull****. He can tell weakminded women what to do and they do it, although most of the time it is just telling them to sleep with him. Another brother, Ty, is the god of all things cold and dark, which comes in handy as he is a refrigerator repairman — if he touches things, and uses his power, he can freeze them. Mike is the responsible brother, which is funny as he is the god of games — any game, any type of chance, he can win. And he refuses to use his power as everytime he does, someone near him seems to have bad luck as a result. Mike is married, and even his wife doesn’t know he’s a god. The only ones who do know their secret are a collection of four goddesses who are tired of playing second fiddle to male gods. But all that is about to change — Axl is actually Odin. God of gods. And if he finds his beloved goddess, Frigg, they all get their full powers. And so launches the quest — to find Frigg, unite the two lovers, and reap the powerful climax. So to speak.
Each episode is partly about the quest, and partly about the gods learning to live seemingly normal lives with normal issues, complicated by their pseudo powers. Mike is the luckiest man alive, but can’t get his wife pregnant; Ty falls in love and ends up always turning cold; Anders says he’s fine because he sleeps with whoever he fancies; and Olaf is just drifting through life, a free spirit. No one knows how to find Frigg, but it’s kind of silly — unless the writers don’t have any clue what they are doing, or they thought they were being coy, the “right” girl for Axl is clear. He has the hots for his female roommate, as does she for him…her name is Gaia. Yep, mother earth. Not a “goddess” per se, but obviously written in Season 1 to be his possible destiny, even if Axl is too blind to see it. She may not be Frigg, or she may be who knows, but she is the right girl for Axl. So far. 🙂 Of course, as of the last episode I’ve seen, he just met a goddess named Eva who blew him away!
Loving the show, will be sorry to see Season 1 end shortly.
I know what most people think when they think “weekly procedural”…it’s the same thing the suits think at the studios. “Why would I watch this one? What’s different about it?”.
Columbo had his mannerisms. Jessica Fletcher was a crime writer and did her Miss Marple routine. Castle moved Jessica out of mild murders and brings a fiction writer’s perspective to the NYPD, Patrick Jane was a mentalist / psychic / con artist, Cal Lightman could detect facial micro-expressions to tell when someone was lying, Shawn Spencer pretends to be a PSYCH-ic detective but is much like Jane or Lightman. There are a bevy of female medical examiners, journalists of varying stripes, telepathic Listeners, P.I.s, and damaged cops.
So we need something new. Something fresh. Something familiar, but new. How about Eric McCormack as a psychology professor…but he can’t be gay like Will and Grace, we’ll make him straight. And give him a female partner. Someone young and innocent looking. A former student now a cop. No, better, the FBI. But he can’t just be a psych expert, he needs something else, a twitch, an itch, a damaged history to make him torn. How about a mental illness, like Goren in L&O: CI? Maybe schizophrenia and his hallucinations will be his brain creating physical manifestations of his detection of clues? Like a doctor that doesn’t really exist talking to him and telling him what to look for through cryptic hints. And an ex-gf who “completes” him, keeps him grounded, but despite being a real person, exists only in his imagination. To quote George Costanza, “Now there’s a show.”
And it is, actually. I am making fun of their thought process in pitching it to the suits, but it surprisingly works. Not once have I looked at McCormack and thought, “Will as a detective”. Then again, I wasn’t a hugeWill & Grace fan. Watched occasionally, but wasn’t “must-see” TV for me. Not even when Harry Connick Jr. showed up and did decent turn. Good dialogue writing, lots of snappiness, but the show bored me. Here, the show is not boring.
The format of the show is relatively straightforward, even formulaic. The professor will talk to his class, explaining an area of neuropsychology to them, which by happy coincidence will be related to the case for the week. Sure, it’s exposition by dialogue, but it works. You get the deeper question, and then FBI girl comes in and asks for his help with her latest case. I have no idea why she seems so young and he looks like he is ancient in comparison (admittedly McCormack does turn 50 next year and she’s 33, but it seems more like 55 and 25). But I digress…as the show progresses, he’ll start to have schizophrenic episodes, hallucinations, etc., they’ll reveal a clue to the solution to the case, and voila, they’ll solve it. Then back to the classroom to wrap up the psycho philosophy that explains everything.
I like the show, it zips along okay. The “professor solves everything” might get a little tired, but no one has tired of Patrick Jane or Columbo yet, so maybe not. I’m not sure the psychology is completely sound as presented, but I don’t care, it’s a plot device, not a documentary. I’ll watch for as long as it’s on, but it’s one of those short-season-network-shows, probably ending just in time to give me Rizzioli and Isles (weekly procedural with female rogue cop and female rogue ME as partners…how is that I only just realized that Isles is the same actress (Sasha Alexander) who played Cate Todd on NCIS? I wouldn’t even have thought of it except that I just saw a rerun with her last night. Weird. Anyway.).
I had high hopes for this show, and after watching the premiere, I think I’m down to just hoping it sticks around long enough to find a following and doesn’t suck after episode three. The basic premise of the show is that some sort of “event” happened where, as one character put it, the laws of physics went crazy and everything just stopped working, with nobody knowing why. It’s an exaggerated answer, but the reality is that all electrical devices stopped immediately. Even batteries died. No power, anywhere (although technically you only see it disappear in North and South America, and really only in the U.S.). However, the show then jumps fifteen years into the future and you see how life in the mid-west at least has adapted.
Some people have set up little villages, living cooperatively to grow food etc., hunting with crossbows and arrows, etc. A militia is ruling the area and thinks a guy named Ben knows how the blackout happened and, potentially, how to get the power back on. There is some evidence for the viewer that this is indeed true — he knew it was about to happen, tried to stock up on water and rations just before the blackout, and downloaded a whole bunch of data about “something” onto a flash drive too. He ends up being killed by the militia just at the start of the show, and his daughter goes off in search of his brother Miles. Throw in a step-mom-like character who has some skills with the dark art of combat, a mysterious friend of the girl’s father who may have ulterior motives, a power hungry general in the militia, and some shadowy people running some sort of secret underground that has a working Commodore 64 that can be powered with a special device that is identical to Ben’s original flash drive, and you have a great mythology to work with, or against, as a backdrop.
When I saw the trailers, I thought, “Okay, this looks a bit like the Hunger Games — strong female lead (the daughter), running around with a bow and arrow, political shenanigans for power in a dystopian future of some sort.” I also saw her potential love interest, who is a complete ripoff of Taylor Lautner’s portrayal of Jacob in Twilight and thought, “I bet the casting call was for a new Lautner”. But I could work with it.
Yet most of the online discussion talks about how it is like Flashforward or Lost, etc. Having seen the episode, there is something really odd I don’t get — not a single comparison to the show Jericho. Except it seems far more comparable.
There was a catastrophic event (nuclear detonations in Jericho, black out in Revolution). People ended up being cut off from rest of society in many respects. Shadowy figures with cryptic comms devices and knowledge of what really happened. Conspiracies with power-hungry people. Lone character (Jericho = man; Revolution = girl) must lead a team back to civilization. For me, the only real change was male/female lead, and that it is not “right after the event:” but supposedly fifteen years in future.
Not entirely sure how a four or five year old child goes fifteen years in the future and yet has maturity of sixteen year old, but I am picking nits. I like the Miles character (her uncle), supposedly expert combat soldier, and there’s a fantastic fight scene (hand to hand and swords!) in the opening so you can see he’s no pushover. There’s the young love interest, and he actually has some presence. A stupid posturing character, but actual presence in the character. There’s a whole substory about why she can’t run and hide i.e. the militia has her brother (think the movie The Patriot with Mel Gibson and you know how the conversation with the militia goes wrong at the beginning of the show, just substitute kid dying for father dying here).
But just as Jericho achieved limited success, once you get down to the story of the week and without the special effects and budget of the premiere, the show is going to start to devolve into “character” (which is great in some ways), or their relationships (ruh roh), and the plot will start to lag. Plus they have the challenge of flashbacks being needed to fill in gaps, yet dragging you out of the impetus of the present-day storyline. Flashbacks are REALLY hard to do regularly and keep the audience attention — flashbacks generally suck because whatever tension there was in the past, it’s fifteen years later. You likely know who died and who didn’t, so the stakes are low. Spend too much time in the past, lose momentum; spend all your time in the present, need too much exposition through dialogue. It’s a conundrum.
My real complaint in the first episode is that Charlie, the daughter, is no Katniss. Her father says she’s strong, and can do whatever needs to be done, but you basically see her spend the rest of the episode (except for one very brief part of a larger scene) either being helpless and crying or helpless and getting her butt kicked. I hope she doesn’t spend many episodes crying because the actress sucks at it. Totally unbelievable, and boring. Not a scintilla of emotional investment that resonates with the audience at all. The only acting in the show that is worse is the brother. He’s practically a blank screen, no presence at all. I can’t believe he wasn’t recast. Unless they tend to turn him into beefcake sometime.
Like I said, I liked the potential storyline for this one, but I was also one of the few who signed on for Jericho and Fastforward. Both of those died young, and I’m not holding on for Revolution to make it to year 2. I’ll watch, but I’m doubtful.
I started watching some of the new shows as they trickled into the summer slots. I confess I was more taken with some of the summer series — Continuum, Suits, White Collar, etc. on networks like Bravo, Showcase and Space. The downside is that most of them are only 10 or 12 episodes per season, which makes some of the arcs a little short. I loved Continuum, enough to start an episode guide; Suits blasted through Season 2 way too fast and loose, but the final episode paid off big time with a new hottie in young Mike’s life (who looks a LOT like Donna, just saying) and lots of political shenanigans at the firm; and White Collar is finishing its Season 2 arc even though I think USA network is already into or done Season 4. An episode disappeared a couple of weeks ago — they advertised it and never showed it. I have no clue what’s going on there. Rizzioli and Isles is about to start again as is Covert Affairs and, I think, Lost Girl. In Plain Sight wrapped the season and the series, and I was pleased to see that Mary didn’t suddenly become the Stepford Mom.
However, this is about the new season, not the old seasons, so let’s get on with it. But be warned — there be spoilers beyond this point.
Grimm added itself to my PVR roster last year, as the dark fantasy alternative to Once Upon A Time. Grimm is pretty dang good, with lots of mysteries. The season ended with Nick meeting his supposedly-dead mom, and his fiancee going into a coma from a witch’s spell just as Nick was about to tell her about the beast world. New season opened and his fiancee has forgotten who he is AT ALL, let alone being a Grimm, and yet Nick’s cop partner finds out his secret. Throw in Monroe and his gf, and suddenly Nick’s got a posse helping him with the wild creatures that go bump in the night. The mom episodes were great, but didn’t last long enough, and Nick didn’t seem to be as affected as he should be. But I’m picking nits. I love the show, definitely on my PVR for the future.
Go On is the new Matthew Perry vehicle and I confess I was one of the few people who didn’t like Friends that much, yet turned into Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip and loved it. I even gave his arena show a go last fall, but it didn’t gel. This one was worth a go, but I struggled for the first episode. Basic premise is that he is a DJ who lost his wife, his boss wants him to go for grief counselling, he doesn’t want to go, ultimatum is given after a meltdown, he goes. But he wants to skate through it, blow it off. Best scene in the premiere is him turning a therapy session into a Final Four grief tournament — he puts all the patients into brackets and gets them to “compete” to see who has the worst story for being there. The biggest pain/grief wins. The scene is darkly hilarious, and hides the fact that it is “real” vs. the “sugar” approach that the real therapist is doing (who incidentally has no training in this area). Perry manages to break through to one of the characters, and ultimately decides to return to the group as it might help him after all. I have a suspicion that anyone who liked the dysfunctional relationship backgrounds of those on the sitcom Becker might find this one appealing, but it dragged all the way through. Just not enough of a premise to hold my interest.
Guys With Kids is semi-interesting premise — oh, look, it’s guys with kids. Think the Exes show but with kids. Essentially the three guys try to be dads, date, have lives etc. Essentially they suck at it. And each week, they’ll learn a little lesson about how to be better at something. The opening lesson is to have the newly divorced dad stop listening to everything the hoverparent ex-wife has to say about their child. With the exception of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar dunking a kid, there was nothing funny in the entire episode. I didn’t even snicker. Yawn.
The New Normal is the latest Ryan Murphy creation, who brought us such great works of art as Glee, American Horror Story and gasp, the Glee Project. Yawn. Okay, three critics trounced this, and I thought, “Sure, if they hate it, it might be good”. See the way my mind works? Nope, the show sucked. It is about two gays who decide they want a baby — no chemistry between them when they meet, no chemistry when they decide they want a baby as an accessory, nothing at all anywhere that is remotely funny or compelling. What a crapfest. I’m sure someone will nominate it for an emmy somewhere sometime.
The Mob Doctor premiered tonight. I really really wanted to like this one. The main actress is Jordana Spiro — I loved her in the show My Boys even if the show itself didn’t gel with me. Yet, here’s the thing…watching the show, I kept looking for the punchline. I saw her smirk, I saw her smile, I saw her almost wink at you, and then no punchline. Cuz of course this is a drama. And the big drama is that a mobster wants her to kill a patient and she’s refusing to comply. If you think any of the characters seem a bit familiar, I kept thinking, “Main character. Brother. Mother. Complicated love life. Principled behaviour. I didn’t think Rizzioli was back for another couple of weeks?” Yep, Rizzioli is a cop and Dr. Grace is a surgeon, but same general feel. I didn’t completely hate it, so I’ll give it another week or two, but not the strongest sale so far.
Other shows that interest me for the future:
SUNDAY: The Mentalist, Once Upon a Time, Revenge, 666 Park Avenue;
MONDAY: How I Met Your Mother (season premiere only), Partners, Hawaii Five-O (premiere only), Revolution, Castle;
TUESDAY: NCIS, NCIS: LA, Ben and Kate;
WEDNESDAY: Law & Order: SVU (premiere only), The Neighbours, Arrow;
THURSDAY: The Big Bang Theory, Person of Interest, Elementary, Last Resort, Beauty and the Beast;
FRIDAY: Made in Jersey, Blue Bloods, Fringe, Nikita
So I’m pretty much caught up on all the new series.The Playboy Club, Prime Suspect and Pan Am are covered below for new series, as well as returning seasons for Fringe, Blue Bloods and Being Erica. Plus some random thoughts on other shows (shh, it’s a secret list).
But as you read on, don’t forget — SPOILER ALERT. This is your upfront warning.
I gave The Playboy Club a shot. I can probably guess what you’re thinking — Poly’s a guy, so he was probably just looking at the bunnies. Oddly enough, no. Separate from the fact that I’ve never figured out why people find those outfits attractive (kind of like a lot of women’s reactions to bad bridesmaids dresses, quite frankly), I was actually going to NOT watch it because it seemed to be just bunny outfits combined with a flashback wanna-be version of Mad Men, except with sex (or, as the advertisers saw it, SEX!). Then the trailers showed a mob connection, and it peaked my interest. Plus, it stars Eddie Cibrian — I don’t mind him in his previous CSI: Miami outings, and as a lover of Smallville (no wait, really, there’s a connection here), I can easily see him playing Clark Kent…think of him as the love child of Dean Cain and Tom Welling. Add in Amber Heard (easy on the eyes, and not playing an annoying “save me” character) and David Krumholtz from Numb3rs, and could be interesting, right? Umm, no, it’s not. I watched the first episode, saw Nick and Maureen get rid of the mob guy, and then it stopped being interesting. I lasted about 10 minutes of episode II, and then I was gone. RIP, bunnies.
Next up was Prime Suspect and by the time I saw it, I had seen lots of ads and trailers, and I really wanted to like this show. I enjoy a brash female character who takes names, kicks butt, and doesn’t take any guff from the guys all while solving crime. What I don’t enjoy is seeing a completely dysfunctional, angry, arrogant character (male or female) who basically only looks good in comparison to the other characters that are one-dimensional rejects from central casting. The show has an almost similar feel to the show Life on Mars, another UK show that was duplicated for American audiences. For those few who saw it, the show revolved around a “modern detective” dealing with neanderthal cops from 1973, knuckle-dragging chauvinists who were just as happy beating up suspects to get a confession as they were skimming from the crooks, where warranted. Not crooked, just badly bent. And it works — in a time-travel scenario where the modern detective is obviously frustrated with old-style detectives. But this show, Prime Suspect, takes place in modern times supposedly and yet have cops that would have looked stupid in 1955, let alone 1973 or 2011. No time travel, and the somewhat charming lead for Life on Mars is replaced by a character whose response to a conciliatory gesture of welcome by the worst detective is to tell him repeatedly to suck it. Don’t get me wrong, I liked that it wasn’t all sunshine and lollipops, but heck, Kojak and a lollipop or two would likely improve this series. Most of the characters are all apparent dunderheads, all the male characters are 40-year throwbacks, and the only positive side is an unpleasant character whose arrogance would only be tolerable if she had flashes of brilliance, which she doesn’t. I struggled through two episodes, cuz I really wanted a strong female-lead procedural. But the writing and the character are just not there. Too bad.
As with the Playboy Club, I had doubts about Pan Am. This is the show where they flash back to the 1960s and show the making of the new airline, complete with top-notch flight attendants. Some of the portrayal is apparently true-to-life — uniforms, hiring based mostly on looks plus education (rather than looks alone), strict requirements for girdles and weight control, etc. Arguments both ways for either complete chauvinism and complete feminism, depending on your political views I suppose. Regardless, it’s boring. I don’t care who sleeps with who, why one ran away from her marriage, where any of the girls are going in their careers, etc. Margot Robbie looks a bit like Erica Durance from Smallville, and I almost thought in a couple of scenes it was her. I really had to check IMDB to be sure, although other scenes were blindingly obvious it wasn’t her. Very confusing for me, or just wishful thinking. I confess I’m not a huge fan of Christina Ricci, which was one of the reasons I had very big doubts. And nothing I saw relieved me…I made it through the pilot and 10 minutes of Episode II. Yawn.
I really like Fringe. Quirky sci-fi / fantasy without degrading into horror and shock. Big spoiler at the end of last season was Peter disappeared, vanished as if he never existed. So, this season, Peter’s “gone”, but trying to return — like a ghost or something, only visible so far to Walter. I have no idea where they’re going with this storyline, and I know Joshua Jackson was looking to leave, but I wish they would decide if he’s gone or not. The ghost storyline is ridiculous. Address it or kill it. On the positive side, the upgrading of Agent Lee on the regular universe is good, a nice foil for Olivia. Freak of the week for week 1 was a new type of shapeshifter and we met a serial killer in week 2, but neither were particularly compelling.
Blue Bloods started off with a mayoral mystery of sorts — a new mayor wants to control Frank as commissioner (same old, same old), but at least he’s an interesting mayor. But it looks like the writers are going to repeat the same premise for season 2 as they did for season 1 — Frank will fight with mayor and look all ethical and brooding; Jamie (the younger brother) will go undercover for a grand conspiracy, this time by going after organized crime after saving one of the younger members of a crime family from an OD; and Danny (the older brother) will continue to be the only apparent detective working homicide each week. Okay for a start, let’s see where the season goes.
I am really not sure what to say about Being Erica. I love the premise of this show — time travel to your past to correct mistakes and/or learn from your past. Great premise, kind of a Quantum Leap for psychology majors. And the lead actress, Erin Karpluk, is pretty dang good. Yet, there’s a twist in the show as we enter season 4. For quick recap, Season 1 was all about finding her groove with old flame; Season 2 was about really making progress and meeting someone else in therapy; and Season 3 was about progressing from individual therapy to group therapy and finding a real romance with possibilities of a future together. I was disappointed in Season 3 that we didn’t see more trips with the other patients. I know it is about “Being Erica” but it would have been cool to see her living in another’s times, not knowing what is about to happen. For Season 4, I have to first confess that my brain is on crack — I “remember” the end of Season 3 when it first premiered … you see a hand reach out to tap Erica on the shoulder as her new patient (cuz Season 4 is about Erica becoming a doctor-in-training herself), and that hand is male with a long sleeve and a glove. Note too that Erica’s clothes have changed from when she was in the office two seconds before. Yet my memory of the first showing was of same clothes, but a female hand with black lace for sleeves. Anyway, the new season premiered and I’ve seen the first two episodes — the first gave her a patient in the form of her sister’s soon-to-be-ex-husband (Josh, who was in previous episodes, has crush on Erica) and at the end of the second episode, you find out that her new patient is (SPOILER!) going to be Julianne. Now, I’m seriously confused.
The rules are pretty clear in this time-travel therapy world — you can’t tell anyone what you’re doing. Plus you have to be all ethical, can’t change the world for others (like saving Erica’s brother from an early death or going into the future to see what’s what with Kai and Erica). But apparently it’s okay to have someone as a patient who has a crush on you and another who is a good friend plus your business partner. And you’ll have to tell both you have magical powers to send them back in time. Okaaaaaaaaaaaay. Let me spin this as best I can — Erica is learning how to use her new found inner strength as a person to help and influence others in emotional turmoil? Rather than them actually becoming patients like she is with Dr. Tom, she’ll help them in a conventional sense? Confusing! Plus I really really really don’t care what’s wrong with their new assistant Rachel, but maybe I’m just being petty. I love this show, I really do, but I’m starting not to like it very much. Sounds like a perfect plot for an episode actually, falling out of like with those you love? My wife doesn’t watch much TV, but this is one show we share — and yet we can’t watch it together anymore … I will be reaching for the remote to fast forward to the solution way too often, me thinks.
Some quick updates on other shows:
Still loving Suits, now with Harvard records hacked to fake his graduation;
Lost Girl is back to freaky-fae-of-the-week, but introduced some back history for Dyson, just wish they would upgrade Lauren’s past and get her out of damsel/human-in-distress mode;
Covert Affairs seems to have lost their travel budget, and are spending all their time at home;
Secret Circle is getting a little too 90210ish, but at least they’re still killing off guest characters;
Against the Wall still delivering decent procedural love;
Ringer is growing on me still more, not sure where Buffy learned to act recently;
HIMY Mother had a great Robyn episode, really not sure where they’re going this season for Barney / Ted / Robyn, although we know Ted and Robyn can’t end up together;
Castle had a fun super-hero episode, just didn’t go into the campy side enough, probably cuz of copyrights on the Marvel and DC universes;
Hawaii Five-O was okay, saw wonderful ripping rant against show on someone else’s site recently, but what I really want to know is if anyone is fooled by the Kono-going-bad storyline as opposed to this is her going undercover to get corrupt cops on behalf of IA to prove she’s a good guy?;
NCIS showed us Timmy’s grandma, and it’s Lily Tomlin (!), which was cool, but didn’t use her enough;
NCIS: LA mixed up the teams a bit, which was a bit interesting, but ultimately went nowhere, thank the heavens that Hety is back and the whole mystery with Hunter is gone — but now Hety is sharing everything she knows with Callan about his past? Wait, no, we still need more mystery there!;
Unforgettable continues to surprise me — yay Poppy!;
Revenge continues to be vengeful, although I had hoped it would be more long-term strategy than who she destroys week by week;
I think I’ve given up on L&O: SVU — sure, we got two new characters, including Scotty from Cold Case, but somebody really needs to do something with Benson, she’s starting to grate;
Big Bang Theory focused a date for Amy and Leonard that was hilarious;
Person of Interest focused on a supposedly dead girl but mostly showed us some back story on the computer maker;
The Mentalist confirmed Red John is not the guy Jane shot last season, and had great sub-story about sabotaging Lisbon’s temporary replacement; and,
Nikita had a great little story about brainwashing assassins with remote triggers.
I’ll update on four more premieres at the end of October, but other than that, see you around the boob tube.
Active Shows
Rating
Title
Status
Comments
A
Covert Affairs
Returning
Ben Mercer’s plot is dormant, good to see Annie finding home roots and figuring out her life. Wicked line this past week by adulterous journalist to Joan.
A
Suits
New
Love the new show, with premise being brilliant Good-Will-Hunting-like student who never went to law school being hired by high-end lawyer as fake associate.
A
The Secret Circle
New
Pitch-perfect focus on the “magic”, and so long as writing doesn’t turn it into Magic 90210, should be good for at least a season or two.
A
NCIS
Returning
Thought it was getting a bit long-in-the-tooth, but opening premiere was first-rate. Count me in.
A
Castle
Returning
Not a great premiere, but reboots / resets the drama of last season and a return to focusing (perhaps) on procedural episodes.
A
Big Bang Theory
Returning
Cliffhanger of Penny sleeping with Raj was addressed, Penny threatens to leave for Nebraska, and then got an acting gig for the first time.
A
Person of Interest
New
Good vibe, but suspect it won’t attract enough viewers very fast. Not fantasy enough for the Fringe-crowd, not mainstream enough for the L&O crowd, not action enough for the remaining groups.
A
Against the Wall
New
Chicago policewoman makes detective but only jobs available are in Internal Affairs, which doesn’t sit well with rest of her cop family. Has a “Cold Case” feel to it.
B
Lost Girl
Returning
I like the new politically active “Ash” but the soap opera of Bo and Dyson is thin.
B
NCIS: LA
Returning
Opening spent way too much time navel-gazing at Callan’s past, time to get back to procedural focus.
B
Hawaii Five-O
Returning
Confused return, couple of good additions to cast, we’ll see if they give them anything to do.
B
Revenge
New
Decent acting by lead, okay support, and writing intriguing but showing season finale first was odd choice.
B
The Mentalist
Returning
Okay premiere, too many obvious pieces though.
B
Blue Bloods
Returning
Following same formula as first season — ethical brooding, criminal conspiracy, and weekly procedural.
B
Being Erica
Returning
Love the show, but not sure I like the inconsistencies in the premise anymore.
C
The Ringer
New
Don’t care for Gellar’s acting, but I like the character. No idea whether the writing will hold my interest.
C
How I Met Your Mother
Returning
Nothing earth-shattering in first two episodes, starting to feel tired.
C
Law & Order: Special Victim’s Unit
Returning
Okay episode, nothing resolved for Olivia yet, and introduced new character to replace her. Wait and see.
C
Nikita
Returning
Nice to see the writers mixing it up, changing the base structure, and altering alliances. Could be interesting, as long as it doesn’t become Rambo Part 12.
C
Fringe
Returning
Need to resolve the Peter storyline, one way or another, and move on.
D
Warehouse 13
Returning
Too campy for my tastes.
D
Franklin & Bash
New
Too much suspension of disbelief for smart-alecky rather than smart writing.
D
Alphas
New
Just not coming together — is it a show about mutants or a show about mutant terrorists? The characters need more backstory.
D
Whitney
New
Not super-funny comedy, although some funny lines. Maybe another episode or two to see if they can make it an ensemble show.
D
The Playboy Club
New
Okay acting by Cibrian and Heard, but just not enough story to hook me.
D
Pan Am
New
Christina Ricci should have been enough to scare me away, but I gave it a shot. Not horrible, but nothing to keep my interest either.
F
Prime Suspect
New
American remake of UK series, and they should have stolen the writers too apparently. Characters are thin, writing is obvious and boring, dialogue is lousy, and, oh yeah, not great acting by anyone except Mario Bello. Yawn.
F
Charlie’s Angels
New
Yo’ Barrymore, the 80s called and they want their show back.
Pending Review
Rating
Title
Status
Premieres
?
Chuck
Returning
October 21
?
Grimm
New
October 21
?
Once Upon A Time
New
October 23
?
Allen Gregory
New
October 30
Other mid-season shows to come: Alcatraz, The Finder, Republic of Doyle, Merlin, The Frame, The 2-2, Missing, The River, Touch, Awake, and The Firm.
Season Completed
Rating
Title
Status
Comments
A
The Glades
Season completed
Nice ending, no cliffhanger, good but somewhat obvious mystery in last episode. And all ends well for Callie and Jim.
B
In Plain Sight
Season completed
Cliff-hanger ending (ooh, the baby is coming!) but liked the twist that the wedding didn’t happen.
B
Torchwood: Miracle Day
Mini-series completed
Decent storyline, but should have been a lot shorter or tighter. Ending was worth it, but took a long time to get there.
