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.

I like reading the website TVByTheNumbers (zaptoit.com) as they pull together some of the hits and duds each week to see how they’re doing based on ratings and whether networks are likely to keep them. They adjust for things like demographics, whether the network owns the show or it’s produced outside the fold, etc. It’s a fun read, and their prediction rate isn’t bad. Mostly I just like to check in from time to time for my shows and see how they’re doing…

ABC:

• Blood and Oil — The “Dallas” remake, more or less, it held no interest for me and is on fumes;
• Wicked City — The premiere was last week, this is the 1982 serial killer show, pretty low on predictions but only just started, hard to tell;
• Nashville — Why is this show still on?
• Castle — I watch, but I’m not sure why anymore. They should have had a better ending for last season, bigger, badder, etc., and just ended it instead of separating Castle and Beckett this year for ridiculous reasons;
• Last Man Standing — Haven’t watched since the beginning, let it die;
• Muppets — I had initially hoped this would be kid-friendly, but most of the pilot was more for adults, more so than the previous version, fine to let it die;

CBS:

• CSI: Cyber — this should have died the first week;
• Hawaii Five-O — this should have died two years ago;
• Code Black — St. Elsewhere with updated DRAMA! ACTION! ROMANCE!…yawn;
• The Good Wife — has probably run its course, don’t have strong views, it never hooked me;
• NCIS: LA — I was watching regularly, but lately, it is definitely third on my list of NCIS shows, and happy to see it go;
• Madam Secretary — yawn, never hooked me, fine to see it die;

CW:

• Crazy Ex-Girlfriend — I can’t figure out how this was greenlit…confused mess;
• Reign — never watched it;
• iZombie — haven’t watched it through an episode, but some friends like it, no real view on this one;

FOX:

• Minority Report — I think there’s a show buried in there somewhere, not sure where, but won’t be surprised to see it die;
• Sleepy Hollow — I would miss this one…it’s like X-Files with things actually appearing rather than just hinted at;
• The Grinder — Rob Lowe, yes…this show, hell no;
• Grandfathered — premise bored me before I finished reading it;
• Bones — I should love this show, as I like procedurals, I like the stars, I like forensics…but I don’t, the chemistry was never, and I mean NEVER, there for me;
• The Last Man on Earth — no interest;

NBC:

• Truth Be Told — no interest in this from the beginning;
• The Player — each week, save the victim…there have been a lot of these action shows in recent years, and if there was no secret identity, super power, or cape, they`ve all failed…this one is no better or worse then most of them, and Wesley Snipes isn’t enough to save it;
• The Mysteries of Laura — I have no idea how this one survived the pilot;
• Undateable — I don`t know where this show went, it started off with “let the dating guru give lessons to the nerds” and it was great, funny, watchable…then it became, let the nerd reclaim the gigolo, and the show tanked…now it’s *gasp* live (!)…or not;
• Heroes Reborn — I hope this one grows legs (and not in the evil grow-your-own-clone way), as I’m actually enjoying it again. Save the past, save the future isn’t as compelling as save the cheerleader, but they also haven’t introduced a really bad super villain yet (honestly, Erika is a bureaucratic joke);

The rest of the big shows that I watch are likely to be renewed. And if I had the power to save a show of the 8 that I actually watch, it would be Heroes Reborn, with The Player and Sleepy Hollow fighting it out for a distant second place.