The sound of crickets chirping. That’s what you would hear, generally, for most of Wednesday night around my PVR.
There are eleven shows that are returning on Wednesday night where I have absolutely zero interest in them. American Horror Story: Freak Show isn’t exactly a “returning” show in the strictest sense, but it is another installment, so close enough. Continuing on that “different” tangent, I feel like I should be interested in The 100 for its sci-fi narrative, but it didn’t hold my interest last year beyond the first episode, so another pass. For reality shows, I generally limit myself to The Amazing Race or American Ninja Warrior as the slow pace of Survivor drives me crazy. Hell’s Kitchen had no interest for me for the star. Run of the mill shows that I’m surprised ever garnered an audience include The Middle, The Goldbergs, Modern Family, Nashville and Chicago P.D. Every time I’ve seen episodes, I’ve felt like other shows did it first and better. Which leaves me with two shows closer to my demographic tastes.
Law and Order: SVU started out awesome in my view. While L&O focused on homicide, here was a group dealing with the most vulnerable, and with a strong focus on procedure and the victims, we didn’t ask much of the leads. How Mariska Hargitay garnered awards is beyond me — I truly do not understand how people love this woman. She’s wooden, she can’t emote worth crap, and when the show started upping her focus, I quit watching. Feels more like a nighttime soap opera with cops, and with the same production quality. I popped back in with new cast last year, no great improvement, as they just don’t have the writing chops behind them to handle drama that isn’t thimble-deep. Criminal Minds by contrast is probably the best show on TV that I’m not watching, at least for writing. Why am I not watching? Because there isn’t a single character in the show I care about. Not one. Great premise, good writing, fun plots, and complete yawners to watch. Both get a pass.
But those 11 shows? If you watch, fear not — they all seem to have viewers somewhere, and I’m betting on full season pickup.
There was one new show for Wednesday nights that I also had zero interest in, the new comedy called Black-ish. The premise of this show is that the rich black dad feels like he’s out of touch with his black roots, so he wants to try to regain his “blackness” because his lifestyle is yuppie white. Hence, he’s only “Blackish”. Right out of the gate, I get that I’m not the demographic for this, but I showed up for the first episode anyway. Less than 10 minutes and I was deleting the show. No chemistry at all, no comedy in sight beyond “hey, look, I’m stupid, so this looks really awkward”…oddly enough, if they dropped the comedy and made it a drama, there actually might be something worth watching in the premise. But alas, no. I’m predicting mid-season cancellation.
Not to worry though, Wednesday had three other new shows that I thought merited a look. I had mild interest in Red Band Society before I watched Ep1 and found out it was basically The Breakfast Club in a hospital for sick kids. I would cancel mid-season.
The Mysteries of Laura is one I really wanted to like. I liked Debra Messing in Will and Grace, love Eric McCormack in Perception, hate Megan Mullaly and Sean Hayes in everything but Will and Grace. Saw Messing in the opening Ep and thought, “Really? Nope. Not seeing it.” I wanted to like it, I really did. But not passing muster. I’ll even go so far as to predict difficulty finding an audience and being cancelled by mid-season.
Like I said, crickets chirping for most of the evening. I had much higher hopes for the new Stalker show. Dylan McDermott is a take/leave actor, but worth a shot. Maggie Q did a great job in the Nikita show, even if it veered pretty far from the original premise. I survived an episode, taped 2 others and thought, “Nope, not missing it much”, so deleted them. The trailer and promos promised more “rogue” action, but I think I’m more turned off by the premise than for L&O: SVU. It’s different, has a different vibe to it, but there are a lot of other shows that would grab my attention more on the PVR, and I really couldn’t commit because I don’t expect it to survive even to the end of the season.
Which really leaves me only one show on Wednesday nights. Yep, I lose all credibility here because it’s my favorite show. Arrow. I’m a sucker for origin stories, maybe why I tune in to Gotham, and definitely part of the charm of Smallville. Arrow has moved into season 3, just passed its 50th episode this week, and part of what I like is that they are not resting on their laurels. Or Laurel. Spoiler alert — Season 1? They killed off his father and his best friend. Season 2? Rough year and then down goes Mom. Season 3? A few episodes in, and we’ve already lost Sara aka Black Canary. It’s darker, grittier than Smallville, and, of course, the best part? No superpowers. I’m also benefitting from not knowing much of the Green Arrow’s mythology for what is what and who becomes who. I just get to watch each week, and see where it goes. It will easily get full season pickup, and should go a full seven seasons to get into proper syndication range.
But other than Arrow? Just crickets.
| Day | Show Title | Category | Interest | Prediction | Status |
| Tuesday | American Horror Story Freak Show | Returning | Zero | Full season | Pending |
| The Middle | Returning | Zero | Full season | Pending | |
| Survivor | Returning | Zero | Full season | Pending | |
| The Goldbergs | Returning | Zero | Full season | Pending | |
| Criminal Minds | Returning | Zero | Full season | Pending | |
| Law and Order: Special Victims Unit | Returning | Zero | Full season | Pending | |
| Modern Family | Returning | Zero | Full season | Pending | |
| Nashville | Returning | Zero | Full season | Pending | |
| Hell’s Kitchen | Returning | Zero | Full season | Pending | |
| The 100 | Returning | Zero | Full season | Pending | |
| Chicago P.D. | Returning | Zero | Full season | Pending | |
| Black-ish | New | Zero | Cancel mid-season | Pending | |
| Red Band Society | New | Mild | Cancel mid-season | Pending | |
| Mysteries of Laura | New | Mild | Cancel mid-season | Pending | |
| Stalker | New | Moderate | Cancel mid-season | Pending | |
| Arrow | Returning | High | Full season | Pending |
