Fall TV Week Two is the week of new- and returning-series onslaught, so I’ll be doing two days at a time instead of trying to cram the whole week into a single post.
Just as a quick update about last week’s stuff first, though. There are two new shows still set to record on my DVR: Sleepy Hollow and Brooklyn Nine Nine. (Dads I didn’t last 30 seconds through due to a combination of insufferable inanity and the use of a laugh track.)
Brooklyn is not flawless, but it made me laugh out loud, which is not easy to do if you’re a sit-com. I’ll keep it around a while at least.
As for Sleepy Hollow, I was actually pretty surprised by how much I enjoyed that one. It’s silly and fun, though I have no idea how they are going to make it last a whole season, let alone multiple, when there’s only one bad guy and he seems to have a pretty limited agenda.
Then again, there was a scene in episode one in which Ichabod picked up a Book of Great Importance and said to the cop lady, “It is prophesied that we will be working together to destroy evil for seven years, because the dude who wrote this line in the script is a super-big optimist when it comes to pilot season ratings.” So, you know, apparently there’s some kind of plan.
Whatever. I’m game until I’m not game anymore, whenever that might be. Here’s what’s coming up today and tomorrow. WEEK TWO IS GO!
Monday, September 23
How I Met Your Mother – 8pm (CBS) — Wait, this is still on? I feel like this has been on for one bajillion years.
The Voice – 8pm (NBC) — This one just won an Emmy last night, I have heard, but I’m still not taking on another singing competition series. I can only take just so much singing, and even then, only when it’s me and I’m in the car.
2 Broke Girls– 9pm (CBS) — Wait, THIS is still on? This survived a first AND a second season? My head hurts.
Mom – 9:30pm (CBS) — This new sitcom is about a single mother who, after going into recovery for alcoholism, moves to a new town and tries to stay sober while raising her two kids and interacting with her passive-aggressive mother. There’s only one reason to try this series, and that reason is Allison Janney. And even there, I am dubious. I don’t know. I’ll think about it. (Incidentally, whatever you do, don’t Google the phrase “Mom series,” unless you’re a fan of “sexy cougar sex pics.” I regret that Google search with all my heart.)
Hostages – 10pm (CBS) — Toni Collette! That’s all I need to know! (Plotwise, this one is about a mom whose family is taken hostage by a rogue FBI agent who wants her to assassinate the president. Dylan McDermott is the rogue agent, which means there will be a lot of furious ranting and facial grimacing. He’s SUPER good at that, though, so count me in.)
The Blacklist – 10pm (NBC) — This show has generated a lot of positive buzz in the weeks leading up to tonight’s premiere. It’s about an ex-government agent (James Spader) who has gone into private practice, brokering deals for criminals around the globe. There’s an FBI team trying to git ‘im. And something about a terrorist, because THIS is AMERICA. I’m not a huge fan of Old Weird James Spader, but I’ll definitely be giving this one a shot.
Castle – 10pm (ABC) — This is still on, and you have Nathan Fillion’s nose to thank for it. (It says “You’re welcome.”)
Tuesday, September 24
NCIS – 8pm (CBS) — Thankfully, NCIS returns to us this year sans agent Ziva “I Speak Perfect English Except When It’s Funnier If I Don’t” David. Who will replace her? You know what would be awesome? A female version of McGee. A McGirl. Or a librarian. Or me, is what I’m saying. ME. I have a feeling that won’t be the direction they go in, but one never knows.
Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD – 8pm (ABC) — You know how last week I said Sleepy Hollow was the only new TV show I was excited about? I lied! Because I totally forgot about this one! This new Joss Whedon series follows Agent Phil Coulson, last seen in the movie The Avengers, as he puts together a select group of other agents and they investigate a bunch of weird stuff. I don’t know. I don’t even care. All I know is that I love Joss Whedon and I love Clark Gregg, and I’m pretty much game for whatever they want to do with this one. Bring it ON.
NCIS: Los Angeles – 9pm (CBS) — Wait, seriously? I’m being serious now. THIS IS STILL ON? Who’s watching this? Cut it out! This show is terrible!
The Goldbergs – 9pm (ABC) — I don’t need to watch a show about an adorable 80s family, I LIVED IT.
Trophy Wife – 9:30pm (ABC) — Almost as appealing to me as Cougar Town, which is to say: not at all, and for many of the same reasons.
Lucky 7 – 10pm (ABC) — This drama is about a group of people who win the lottery together and have to deal with the fallout in their personal lives. You know, just like NBC’s Windfall in 2006, only minus Luke Perry which: good luck, ABC.
Person of Interest – 10pm (CBS) — Wait, this show is still on? Something-something-Jim-Caviezel-argh.
Chicago Fire – 10pm (NBC) — Firemen are awesome. But I didn’t make it through two episodes of this show last year and I’ll tell you why: you just can’t go from Rescue Me to Chicago Fire. It can’t be done. Once you go Rescue Me, there’s just no going back. And there’s not a thing I can do about it, I’m sorry.
Fangasm – 10pm (Syfy) — As a rule, I’m against all things “-gasm” or “-gate,” but beyond that, this show sounds pretty dumb. It’s a reality program about a bunch of pop culture nerds living in an apartment together and working for Stan Lee. I don’t know. You watch it. I’ll be over here not watching it. Stan Lee, cut it out, you goob.
Check back Wednesday for more! And if you have any opinions about any of these or last week’s newbies, hitten zee comments!
megwood.wordpress.com 
September 23, 2013 at 5:51 pm |
Let’s start w/HIMYM – I haven’t given up on the gang. Yes I agree it has been on forever though and I’m actually glad it’s the last season. It’s about time we found out who will be sitting on Marshall and Lily’s porch.
The Voice I watch, it’s the only singing competition I watch. I started watching not last season, but the season before. I think it’s a much better format than the other shows.
I started watching 2 broke girls because I needed to add something to my Netflix que, and believe it or not the show is cute. Yes it’s predictable, but both girls are really funny and hello Jennifer Coolidge.
I still watch NCIS, I love me some McGee, I stopped watching LA. I understand military show, but ever eps seemed to be a terrorist plot and I couldn’t take it anymore.
Castle – Yea!!!!
I will be watching Shield, if only because one of the characters on the show is named Skye. 😉
I’m not planning on watching any of the shows listed after NCIS LA.
September 23, 2013 at 6:53 pm |
I’m catching up with Person of Interest at the moment, but nothing else here screams “watch me” except just possibly SHIELD. Comics based, and Whedon, are two strikes against it in my book — yeah, cross your fingers and back away, I didn’t get on with Buffy or Angel or Dollhouse — but I’ll give it a go, anyway.
September 23, 2013 at 7:08 pm |
Cougar Town is actually very good. The constantly make fun of themselves in the opening credits about what a poor choice they made calling it Cougar Town.
September 23, 2013 at 8:34 pm |
(Liz)
SLEEPY HOLLOW – pretty good!
BROOKLYN 9-9 – hated it!
HIMYM – if I could completely bar Cristin Milliotti from the entertainment industry, I would
CASTLE – yay!
HOSTAGES – should probably see
BLACKLIST – ” ” ” (Is he pulling a “Vic Macky?)
NCIS – yay!
PERS. OF INT. – still like
MARVEL SHIELD THING – will try
FANGASM – EEEEEWWWWW!
September 23, 2013 at 11:28 pm |
Oops, I forgot Bones is back tonight too!
September 24, 2013 at 12:35 am |
No it isn’t! It was back last week. My head hurts.
September 24, 2013 at 4:00 pm |
So, I didn’t hate Hostages, though I think it’s going to be pretty predictable (bad guys with hearts of gold! awww!). Toni Collette makes it worth hanging in there for, for me.
Me and The Blacklist got off on a REAL wrong foot last night, though, when the FBI lady’s husband asked her where he should take his students for a field trip, the zoo or the Air & Space Museum, and she answered, “The zoo’s gender neutral.” WOW. It’s not very nice to assume that little boys won’t be interested in engineering, math, and science!
Wait, she meant little boys, right? Because no accomplished, professional woman would assume little girls would have no interest in engineering, math, and science, right? Good god, people.
Also, later Spader’s character almost actually said, “Quid pro quo, Clarice,” which, yawn. It’s going to have to get a lot better for me to stick with it, especially since I now hold a serious grudge against the main character.
September 25, 2013 at 9:49 pm |
Here are my opinions to date:
Sleepy Hollow– laughably terrible. I was out after the first episode. Well, I tried to give it one more, but shut it off about 10 minutes into the second. I thought the lead actor was actually pretty decent, getting laughs out of a few honest moments, but the setup and the mythology of Ichabod Crane is just so stupid I can’t bring myself to not hate this. If this is the big hit of the season, I don’t get it. 5/10
Brooklyn 9-9– my new fave comedy. Same creative team as Parks and Rec, so if you’re just now catching up on that one, put this one into the rotation as well. It serves to fill the void left by The Office and 30 Rock. 8/10
Trophy Wife– I don’t know how long I’ll continue to watch this, but I was really impressed by the pilot. The kids were all great (except I hear the oldest was replaced after the pilot by Bailey Madison, a child actress I loathe, so there’s that), and the adults all hit it out of the park, from Malin Akerman to Marcia Gay Harden (who had some of the funniest moments) to Bradley Whitford. This may eventually suffer from being too predictable, but it was really sharp with a great cast. I was surprised. 8/10
Mom– tuned in for Anna Faris & Allison Janney. Ugh. This is everything I hate about sitcoms. The game cast couldn’t do anything with the horrible material. 3/10
Ironside– Blair Underwood and Kelsey Grammer’s daughter can’t save another rote procedural. 5/10
Lucky 7- not bad, but not good either. Tepid and forgettable. 5/10
The Blacklist– well, it’s trying way too hard. Kind of like The Following did, but with slightly less over-the-top shlock. Still, that’s better than a lot of the procedurals that just phone it in. It could be really good if it doesn’t push quite so hard, and the reveal at the end of the pilot was a nice bit of plot bait. 8/10
Hostages– I actually enjoyed this more than The Blacklist, because it was more organic, even if it stole a “moment” that’s been used before (with Dylan McDermott and the hostages at the top of the ep), and some of the family stuff was a bit cliche. It’s a limited-run series, so it has that in favor of it not going stale, which would be the main concern if it was full season/ongoing. I guess I’ll be watching this one live (and The Blacklist on Hulu) since CBS is the conservative Republican network, too afraid of new technology to make their shows available on stuff like Hulu like everyone else. 8/10
Continuing shows I’m continuing with: New Girl, Parks and Rec, Grimm, The Mentalist, Comic Book Men, and The Following and Hannibal in the spring.
Continuing shows I’m on the fence about: The Carrie Diaries (I like AnnaSophia Robb a lot, but the show’s plots are killing me, and let’s face it… I’m a 40 year-old dude), Revolution (I suffered through season one… do I want more suffering?), The Walking Dead (it just continues to lurch forward into lower quality every season as Robert Kirkman, not technically qualified enough to be the showrunner, keeps using his creator and head writer status to fire the decreasingly talented showrunners).
Show I still need to catch up with on Hulu: Agents of Shield.
Thoughts on the rest of the new stuff premiering this week I plan to check out:
I will probably watch the debut of The Michael J. Fox Show, but I don’t think I’ll make it past the first week. It’s a brave thing he’s doing (and I’m guessing it’s partly for his own sanity to get out of the house and feel more productive and stew in his disease less), but I’ve seen plenty of clips and unfortunately the Parkinson’s just kind of ruins the comic timing of the bits. But we’ll see; I’d be happy to be surprised and proven wrong.
Back in the Game: again, I’ll give it one ep for James Caan, but I don’t expect the show to be very good or hold my interest beyond that.
The Millers: again, probably one episode, this time for Will Arnett and Margo Martindale. It’s a good cast, but I’m afraid it’s just going to be usual sitcom fare. Which I’m sure would be fine with Arnett as he probably wants to find a project that will stay on the air.
The Crazy Ones: one ep for Robin Williams, but I can’t stand Sarah Michelle Gellar, and the show looks pretty bad.
October 2, 2013 at 5:37 pm |
I’m tending to agree with you on The Blacklist trying too hard. In particular showing so much of our heroine’s home life up front, where the standard procedural model doesn’t spend much time on that until we already have reason to care about the characters — and the bit with the pin and the bracelet. And the extra-thin nylon backpack. And the lead young guy there is even more bland and charisma-vortexy then the lead young guy in SHIELD. But the bit with the truck, and the ending, were well done; I forgive them a lot for that.
As for SHIELD… well, I’ve never been a comics fan, so I assumed most of it wasn’t aimed at me. Acting very basic, scripting the standard Whedon substitution of clever-clever for smart, some hints of interest in the characterisation but really I don’t expect much from this one.
And yet I too am enjoying Sleepy Hollow. I think I don’t mind a tired old procedural formula if it’s done right.
September 25, 2013 at 11:25 pm |
I don’t disagree with you about Sleepy Hollow, but at least it’s trying to do something a little unique. That’ll keep me coming back for at least a little while, until the painfully stupid witchy foo-foo magic stuff is no longer tolerable for me. I don’t mind “laughably terrible” (in fact, it’s a favorite genre of mine!), but I get bored really fast with foo-foo magic stuff. Also the foo-foo angel stuff, which is why I had to give up on Supernatural a few seasons back. Barfaroozle!
September 26, 2013 at 5:18 am |
Wow, so I’m shocked at how terrible Agents of Shield was. Only marginally better than Sleepy Hollow imo. 6/10 from me. I’ll give it a couple of eps to see if it gets better, but that was pretty disappointing.
September 26, 2013 at 3:25 pm |
I had some issues with SHIELD as well, but I think a lot of those issues will even out over time. It did remind me a little too frighteningly-much of Heroes, though I liked the idea that, after seeing actual superheroes, there are now humans who desperately want to be superheroes themselves and are willing to do anything it takes to get there. That rings true to me (heck, there are “superheroes” here in Seattle — costumes and crime fighting and all!). We’ll see what they do with it.
September 26, 2013 at 10:15 pm |
The only thing marginally clever about it was that, yes, it was an origin story, just not J. August Richards’. And I have to be honest– I never liked him on Angel and think he’s a pretty bad actor. And he was here as well. He pushes way too hard, and often he’s pushing cheese and over-sincerity. But I think the lead dude was even worse– I heard him described elsewhere as a “black hole of charisma” and I think that fits. The girl whose origin story it was– also pretty bad. And Ming Na Wen? Phoning in what little she had to do. As I said, I’ll give it a few eps, but the acting all around was pretty terrible. Only Clark Gregg came off unscathed, except by association, and I just felt bad for him driving off in that car with the bad green-screen at the end– it was like something out of a cheesy 80’s show a la Misfits of Science or Manimal– except those knew that they were bad and embraced it, so I enjoyed them when I was 10 for what they were. And the sub-par acting was supported by pretty poor writing. The few moments the script attempted to be clever, it was just lame and stupid. And the moment regarding Agent Coulson: “he can never know”? My guess is that he really did die, and this is a clone.