02 September 2009

Education by Television

I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book.
~ Groucho Marx

I think Groucho would have become very educated if he had to look at the 2009 fall TV line up. I'm looking the network choices over, and finding very few shows to get excited about.

That means more time for writing and reading though! My silver lining.

So what am I looking forward to? It's a short list. First, a few returning shows.
- Castle on Monday - and I admit I watch it for Nathan Fillion more than the writing. He'll always be Captain to me. Unfortunately this show isn't Firefly, so I'll probably only remember to turn it on a few times during the season.
- I'll TiVo NCIS on Tuesday and watch it later in the week with hubby. It's about the only show we both watch.
- The Mentalist on Thursday. Ok, so there are two shows hubby and I both watch. This one we'll also TiVo to watch together later.
- Dollhouse on Friday! I'm having an "ugh" moment seeing Fox is leading into it with a pair of sitcoms. Hopefully Summer Glau can chase my fears of imminent cancellation away.

Wow. One show I'll actually plan to watch, one I'm Eh about, and two that are on there to be 'date shows' with the hubby.

Maybe there's something more exciting in the new shows? Don't get too excited.
- V (ABC) Premieres: Tuesday, Nov. 3 at 8/7c. Notice that the new show I'm most excited about won't be here until November. From TV Guide :
Lost's Elizabeth Mitchell stars in this reimagining of the 1980s sci-fi miniseries and series as FBI counter terrorism agent Erica Evans. She is the first to discover that, beneath the skin of a presumed friendly visiting alien race, they're more sinister than anyone imagined. Evans' son, Tyler (Logan Huffman), sees the Vs as an opportunity to make mankind unite with a common goal while news anchor Chad Decker (Scott Wolf) wants to advance his career by getting an exclusive interview with the aliens' leader, Anna (Morena Baccarin).
Am I letting nostalgia get in the way of judgment? I loved the original miniseries. Even bought the novelization, and held onto it until college. The diretoor and cast have a lot of geek cred, so I'm hanging onto my high hopes for this one.

- Eastwick (ABC) Premieres: Wednesdays, Sept. 23 at 10/9c From TV Guide :
The producers of this fantasy series about suburban witches, which stars Rebecca Romijn and Lindsay Price, hope the third attempt to bring John Updike's novel to the small screen will be the charm. The big-screen version, The Witches of Eastwick, was a major success in 1987.
I liked the movie ok, but always thought there was more potential here than a 2 hour movie could catch. So I'm going to give this one a shot. And, witches. Fun times.

- FlashForward (ABC) Premieres: Thursday, Sept. 24 at 8/7c From TV Guide :
ABC has high hopes for this series, centered around a bizarre event that allows millions of people to briefly see flashes of the future. What do they see? What does it mean? And should people be worried if they don't have a future? Watch to find out, we don't know, and yes.
The hype around this one reminds me a bit of the hype around Heroes. And Heroes was fun for one season. Ok, for most of one season, they actually lost me about 2 episodes from the end. Maybe ABC has found a similiar spark with this one?

- The Vampire Diaries (The CW) Premieres: Thursday, Sept. 10 at 8/7c From TV Guide :
Brooding high school newcomer Stefan (Paul Wesley) can't get his mind off classmate Elena (Nina Dobrev) — perhaps because the two of them were deeply in love 130 years years ago. Yeah, Stefan is a vampire, and so is his reckless bad-boy brother, Damon (Lost's Ian Somerhalder). This one also features a special guest appearance by massive amounts of fog.
Vamps. They're hot, they're now, and they may be getting close to being overdone. Unlike HBO's True Blood (which you'd think would be marketed to adults only with all that blood and sex) this show is aiming for the high school crowd; think Twilight fans here. Will the show have any appeal outside the 15-18 demographic the network usually aims for? I'll tune in once or twice and give it a shot.

And that's it for me. One new show I've got as a don't-miss, and a few I'll give a shot. There's a few more on cable that look interesting (Stargate Universe being the big one), but again - a lot of yawns across the listings.

Have I missed something? Is there a show out there that you're especially excited about and think I should give a try?

I'm looking at one bright spot out of this. Maybe I'll be able to find time to get to a lot of great books that have been waiting on my TBR pile for far too long.

7 comments:

Unknown said...

I'm looking forward to returning Supernatural and Smallville. New shows I'm looking at are The Vampire Diaries, V, possbily Hank and Cougar Town.

Ember said...

Smallville is great! We just started watching that this summer (yay Netflix) and have only made it up to Season 4. I don't want to jump ahead, so I won't watch this season on TV, but maybe by next year we'll be caught up.

Cherrie Lynn said...

I'm planning to watch The Vampire Diaries because I devoured the books when I was in high school and still love them to this day. I just hate that it took the Twilight craze to get them to make a TV series out of it.

I'll give Eastwick a try, but the one show I can't live without (once True Blood is over, anyway) is Dexter on Showtime. Season 4 starts 9/27.

Ella Drake said...

I've been meaning to watch Defying Gravity but haven't because I just don't watch TV, mostly because none of the shows are good enough to draw me away from writing/reading time. I've heard good things about the show, though, so I intend to give it a try.

Alan Morgan said...

Don't forget the new NCIS spinoff; NCIS: LA.

CBS also has what looks to be an interesting new medical drama: Three Rivers, about an organ transplant surgical team. Alex O'Loughlin from Moonlight will be one of the main actors.

Julie Hurwitz said...

Ella, I've been watching Defying Gravity. It can get a bit confusing at times because it bounces back and forth in time. But it's pretty good.

Also, what Alan said -- NCIS: LA -- Chris O'Donnell. Nuf said.

However, am I one of the few women in the world for whom Alex O'Loughlin does nothing for? I have no burning desire to watch Three Rivers.

However, here's a smattering of what's already on my DVR:

Mon - DWTS, Castle, House
Tue - DWTS, NCIS
Wed - Criminal Minds, L&O:SVU
Thu - Grey's Anatomy, The Mentalist, CSI, Bones
Fri - Medium, Numb3rs, Dollhouse, L&O
Sat - nada
Sun - Desperate Housewives, Cold Case

Plus, I have a ton of cable shows such as Eureka, Dr. Who, Primeval, Torchwood, Warehouse 13, etc.

I'm definitely going to watch NCIS: LA. And I'm going to check out Eastwick, Vampire Diaries.

Carolan Ivey said...

Just in the last week I've caught episodes of Lie To Me and The Cleaner. Both seem pretty intriguing though Lie To Me appears to be a cops-style copy of House. (Lurve House!)

I saw commercials for Vampire Diaries and just rolled my eyes. Enough already!

Can't wait for Dollhouse or Supernatural to resume. My husband is mourning the cancellation of the Sarah Connor Chronicles, though honestly the show never hooked me.