Primetime is back, baby!
Fall makes me think of Andy Williams singing, "It's the most wonderful time of the year" because of the bevy of returning shows and fresh meat. It also makes me bemoan the fact that I don't possess a DVR, and have to rely on TV lottery and a hefty dose of faith in networks posting things online quickly.
Last week was premiere week, and the lack of posts can be attributed to the fact that I was a couch potato with a quick draw. I'm currently watching:
- Boardwalk Empire
- Inspector Lewis
- How I Met Your Mother
- 2 Broke Girls (giving it a try, we'll get to this)
- Glee
- New Girl
- Law & Order: UK (the only L&O left)
- Luther
- Project Runway
- The Big Bang Theory
- Community
- Whitney
- Fringe
- Doctor Who
Looking at that list makes me think I should get out more... whatever.
Of the returning shows, I was only crazy excited for Community. TBBT lost me about a season back when it tried to push the nerd+girl next door thing as the next ross/rachel ship for the ENTIRE season. It was agonizing and made both characters involved unappealing to say the least. Anyway, the two episodes that compiled the hour long premiere were promising, and seemed like the show's dynamic was returning to the nerdy camaraderie of the four central guys.
I still hate CBS for moving it from Monday nights to Thursday, in the SAME time slot as Community. The latter was excellently weird, with the addition of John Goodman as the asst. Dean who really holds the power at Greendale. Man alive, I've missed the study group.
Some of the new shows I checked out like Ringer and Reven8e, seem hampered by the networks they're on. Ringer suffers from a case of CW-itis; even though it's got SMG (yay, Buffy!) and an interesting premise, it just feels like it's skewing to the teen crowd. Reven8e suffers from a premise that seems better suited to a miniseries. If the 8 in the title is an indication of the body count by the end of the season, I'm wondering if it'll make it to season 2.
The comedies are a mixed bag. There are elements of the three new ones I checked out that I like, and other bits that were painful enough to induce second hand embarrassment. Whitney has, by all accounts, the potential to be a pretty funny show, but the title character comes off as too self centered for me to give a shit when she flubs comedically. I don't know why execs insist on shoving live studio audience canned laughter down our throats, but it doesn't carry the nostalgic charm that it has on older shows.
2 Broke Girls, a CBS offering, co-created by the Whitney of the aforementioned show, is much better in terms of premise, but anchored to the 90s by way of jokes. Seriously, it's 2011, and we're getting jokes about the fobby Asian owner the two girls work for who's cultural gaffes lead to generalizing jokes?! Um, no. Even TBBT at it's most god-awful "2 1/2 Men" channelling handled Indian-jokes-by-way-of-Raj better. I love that it's a show about 2 20-something girls trying to find their financial footing in NY, but the cheap shots and wink, wink hipster hating jokes have got to go.
Checked out New Girl after Glee, and for the most part it was cute. Not great by any means, but just...meh, cute. Zooey D can't swing an ANGRY rage for beans, it was like watching a 7 year old throw a tantrum with the deluded impression that it's threatening.
Glee has to do a shit-ton of work to get back on the ball. This week had a disappointing lack of diversity in songs, or even an appearance of songs, for that matter. I dislike the presentation of Quinn's sudden "rebellion" as pink hair, Hot Topic gear by way of Forever 21, and sneering. The character shaming (coming from GLEE members & Mr. Shue) for going around with that sort of appearance completely contradicted what I thought the club stood for and Quinn's return to demure 50's esque cheerleader at the end was lame. Am I going to have to quit this show come May too?
No words on Boardwalk Empire, Fringe, or Inspector Lewis because they are AWESOME! Full stop. Okay, maybe a few. BE does the slow burn a little too well, and even though the pace is slow, it looks like the house of cards is starting to wobble for Nucky T. His mistress, Margaret Schroeder is my absolute favorite character of that show, mostly because I think Kelly Macdonald is fantastic. But the sheer fact that Margaret starts off as this shy, uncertain, newly widowed woman and emerges as this calculating, quietly powerful mistress is one of the best things about that show. Fringe is spookin' me out with the flashes of Peter and the teases of the great mystery of it all, and yet, I can't help but love it.
