State of the Tube 2011
My fellow TV-loving Americans, the time has come for me to conduct my annual review of what is worth watching and what is not. As the new fall season is in full swing, and a couple of shows have already fallen by the wayside ("Playboy Club" and "Free Agents", we hardly knew ye... because we barely watched ye), it is time once again for me to give my annual State of the Tube Address. The way this works is I run through what I have reviewed and decided to add to my weekly repertoire of must-watch shows... and by that, I mean must-watch via DVR because I am a grad student and have absolutely NO time to watch anything live anymore.
Let's start with Sunday night, the way the good lord intended. It appears that "The Simpsons" may call it a day after this season, and if so, let's commend the creators and talent of this show for putting together 23 seasons of comedy, a feat never before seen on American network television and likely to never be seen again. That said, I don't really watch that show anymore because the show just lost the freshness it had in its early years, which I guess is understandable when you've been on for over two decades. The only Sunday show worth my viewing time right now is still Fox's "Family Guy", which has pumped out two really good (if exceedingly warped) episodes to start the new season. Now, it's gone for a few weeks for baseball playoffs, but hopefully it picks up where it left off in November.
Monday night brings us "How I Met Your Mother" on CBS, still chugging along in its 7th season, and finally starting to give us pieces of how Ted actually WILL meet his kids' mother. Now will it happen this season? Who the hell knows. The creators of this show have done so well stringing us along for 6 years; as long as they continue to give us welcome side distractions like the "Duck Tie", we probably won't care. Most of the attention on the CBS Monday lineup has been focused on "Two and a Half Men", since Charlie Sheen had his whole "winning" ordeal and got replaced by Ashton Kutcher. I've never found the show interesting or funny, so I couldn't care less, and the show that follows, "2 Broke Girls", is completely and totally unfunny.
Tuesday used to be an off night for TV watching for me, but Fox pulled me back in with "New Girl". The show has great writing, a hilarious cast... and Zooey Deschanel. Watching her character, "Jess", is like watching an amalgamation of various close women friends of mine, emphasizing their most attractive personality quirks... and Ms. Deschanel is, of course, quite easy on the eyes. Nice move by Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie fame locking that one down. During the baseball playoffs, Fox is giving it added exposure by shifting it to Wednesday at 9:30, and I hope that it doesn't lose steam from being positioned against ABC's stellar Wednesday lineup (which I will get to shortly). I gave the new CW thriller "Ringer" a shot, because it's always great to see Sarah Michelle Gellar back on television. However, this show failed the "two episode" test. I tend to give a new show two episodes to grow on me, because if it has a very strong pilot, then you want to see if the writers put everything into the pilot and ran out of steam afterward... and in this case, they did. By the end of the 2nd episode, I found myself quickly losing interest. Fortunately, NBC's "Parenthood" has not lost any steam in its 3rd season. Still perhaps the best ensemble cast on television, and they tackle so many real stories on that show, most notably the struggles of Adam and Kristina Braverman to raise a son with Asperger's Syndrome.
Wednesday night is owned by ABC. They have put together an awesome lineup of television on that night. "The Middle" continues to make me laugh hysterically; the Heck family's quirky Indiana mishaps have not lost an ounce of charm. I have yet to watch "Suburgatory", but it's in a prime spot of real estate, like the shows that used to run on NBC in the 8:30 Thursday slot between "Friends" and "Seinfeld". "Modern Family" won a pile of Emmys a few weeks ago, and they continue to show why every single week. The writing on that show is consistently brilliant; this show single-handedly brought back the family sitcom genre, and it is easily the best show on television. Not that the show after it, "Happy Endings", is a slouch... this new sitcom that debuted back in the spring is also laugh-out-loud funny, and has a tremendous cast including Damon Wayans, Jr., Elisha Cuthbert, and the manically hilarious Casey Wilson, whose talents I thought were wasted during her short run on "Saturday Night Live".
If that wasn't good enough, ABC placed the new hit drama "Revenge" at 10:00 and it's already wowing everyone, myself included. This show more than passed the "two episode" test for me. Emily Van Camp is one hell of an actress, and not too bad looking either (I loves me them Canadian actresses)... each episode reveals just how elaborately her character has constructed this devious plot to bring down the people who ruined her father's life. Anyone who wants to see the "evil rich" get theirs probably enjoys this show big time. The only other show worth mentioning on Wednesday nights actually comes from the other side of the pond... BBC America's "The Hour". This show blends the retro-cool of "Mad Men" with the spy intrigue of a Bond movie... and the sexual tension between Freddie and Bel recalls the best of Mulder and Scully from "The X-Files". Unfortunately, the British sometimes only make 6-8 episodes of a series, so the last episode of "The Hour" has already aired, but if you can catch it on demand or the reruns, definitely do so.
That brings us to Thursdays... yes, I admit to watching "The Vampire Diaries". I make no apologies for it. It's got great writing, suspense, a good dash of gory violence, and yes, teenage romantic angst. I'm told the show sticks to the books from which it emerged pretty well, which apparently has not been the case with "True Blood". My other go-to show on Thursdays is FX's "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia". The gang from Paddy's Pub is still the craziest bunch of sociopaths on television, and every time you find yourself saying, "Did they really just DO that?" you have to remind yourself what show your watching, and then realize, "Ah, yes, coming from these guys, I can believe that..." However, "Always Sunny" will have some interesting competition in that Thursday 10pm slot in a few weeks, when MTV brings back "Beavis & Butthead". Yes, America's two favorite 90s slackers are back, and if the trailer is any indication, they pick up right where they left off, skewering current-day pop culture in much the same way they did way back when. I'll have to start DVR'ing both...
Friday night is "Fringe" Night. Fox moved the sci-fi show there last year, and many feared the move would kill the show, but it kept right on shocking us and reeling us in, particularly at the end of last season when Peter Bishop was (literally) wiped out of existence. How they bring him back is guaranteed to be yet another of the many WTF moments this show has brought us in the past few years.
So, there you have it... I care not about the "X-Factor" or "The Sing-off" (even though it has Ben Folds and Sara Bareilles as judges), nor "Dancing With the Stars" or any other dumb reality show, so of the scripted shows that are out there, the ones above are the ones I think are worth watching. Now there are many I haven't gotten into or had a chance to watch, both new and returning, but hey, I'm not a professional TV critic, I'm a 3rd-year doctoral student who is soon to be facing qualifying exams and a dissertation, so cut me a little slack. "30 Rock" returns in January for what may well be its last good season (as Alec Baldwin will be leaving after this year), "Mad Men" also returns next year, and I'm sure more surprises will come out of the woodwork like "Happy Endings" did last spring. That's what keeps us coming back faithfully to our televisions (or Hulu). Thankfully, TV, unlike radio, doesn't have a major content problem.
Thank you, good night, and god bless television.
Let's start with Sunday night, the way the good lord intended. It appears that "The Simpsons" may call it a day after this season, and if so, let's commend the creators and talent of this show for putting together 23 seasons of comedy, a feat never before seen on American network television and likely to never be seen again. That said, I don't really watch that show anymore because the show just lost the freshness it had in its early years, which I guess is understandable when you've been on for over two decades. The only Sunday show worth my viewing time right now is still Fox's "Family Guy", which has pumped out two really good (if exceedingly warped) episodes to start the new season. Now, it's gone for a few weeks for baseball playoffs, but hopefully it picks up where it left off in November.
Monday night brings us "How I Met Your Mother" on CBS, still chugging along in its 7th season, and finally starting to give us pieces of how Ted actually WILL meet his kids' mother. Now will it happen this season? Who the hell knows. The creators of this show have done so well stringing us along for 6 years; as long as they continue to give us welcome side distractions like the "Duck Tie", we probably won't care. Most of the attention on the CBS Monday lineup has been focused on "Two and a Half Men", since Charlie Sheen had his whole "winning" ordeal and got replaced by Ashton Kutcher. I've never found the show interesting or funny, so I couldn't care less, and the show that follows, "2 Broke Girls", is completely and totally unfunny.
Tuesday used to be an off night for TV watching for me, but Fox pulled me back in with "New Girl". The show has great writing, a hilarious cast... and Zooey Deschanel. Watching her character, "Jess", is like watching an amalgamation of various close women friends of mine, emphasizing their most attractive personality quirks... and Ms. Deschanel is, of course, quite easy on the eyes. Nice move by Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie fame locking that one down. During the baseball playoffs, Fox is giving it added exposure by shifting it to Wednesday at 9:30, and I hope that it doesn't lose steam from being positioned against ABC's stellar Wednesday lineup (which I will get to shortly). I gave the new CW thriller "Ringer" a shot, because it's always great to see Sarah Michelle Gellar back on television. However, this show failed the "two episode" test. I tend to give a new show two episodes to grow on me, because if it has a very strong pilot, then you want to see if the writers put everything into the pilot and ran out of steam afterward... and in this case, they did. By the end of the 2nd episode, I found myself quickly losing interest. Fortunately, NBC's "Parenthood" has not lost any steam in its 3rd season. Still perhaps the best ensemble cast on television, and they tackle so many real stories on that show, most notably the struggles of Adam and Kristina Braverman to raise a son with Asperger's Syndrome.
Wednesday night is owned by ABC. They have put together an awesome lineup of television on that night. "The Middle" continues to make me laugh hysterically; the Heck family's quirky Indiana mishaps have not lost an ounce of charm. I have yet to watch "Suburgatory", but it's in a prime spot of real estate, like the shows that used to run on NBC in the 8:30 Thursday slot between "Friends" and "Seinfeld". "Modern Family" won a pile of Emmys a few weeks ago, and they continue to show why every single week. The writing on that show is consistently brilliant; this show single-handedly brought back the family sitcom genre, and it is easily the best show on television. Not that the show after it, "Happy Endings", is a slouch... this new sitcom that debuted back in the spring is also laugh-out-loud funny, and has a tremendous cast including Damon Wayans, Jr., Elisha Cuthbert, and the manically hilarious Casey Wilson, whose talents I thought were wasted during her short run on "Saturday Night Live".
If that wasn't good enough, ABC placed the new hit drama "Revenge" at 10:00 and it's already wowing everyone, myself included. This show more than passed the "two episode" test for me. Emily Van Camp is one hell of an actress, and not too bad looking either (I loves me them Canadian actresses)... each episode reveals just how elaborately her character has constructed this devious plot to bring down the people who ruined her father's life. Anyone who wants to see the "evil rich" get theirs probably enjoys this show big time. The only other show worth mentioning on Wednesday nights actually comes from the other side of the pond... BBC America's "The Hour". This show blends the retro-cool of "Mad Men" with the spy intrigue of a Bond movie... and the sexual tension between Freddie and Bel recalls the best of Mulder and Scully from "The X-Files". Unfortunately, the British sometimes only make 6-8 episodes of a series, so the last episode of "The Hour" has already aired, but if you can catch it on demand or the reruns, definitely do so.
That brings us to Thursdays... yes, I admit to watching "The Vampire Diaries". I make no apologies for it. It's got great writing, suspense, a good dash of gory violence, and yes, teenage romantic angst. I'm told the show sticks to the books from which it emerged pretty well, which apparently has not been the case with "True Blood". My other go-to show on Thursdays is FX's "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia". The gang from Paddy's Pub is still the craziest bunch of sociopaths on television, and every time you find yourself saying, "Did they really just DO that?" you have to remind yourself what show your watching, and then realize, "Ah, yes, coming from these guys, I can believe that..." However, "Always Sunny" will have some interesting competition in that Thursday 10pm slot in a few weeks, when MTV brings back "Beavis & Butthead". Yes, America's two favorite 90s slackers are back, and if the trailer is any indication, they pick up right where they left off, skewering current-day pop culture in much the same way they did way back when. I'll have to start DVR'ing both...
Friday night is "Fringe" Night. Fox moved the sci-fi show there last year, and many feared the move would kill the show, but it kept right on shocking us and reeling us in, particularly at the end of last season when Peter Bishop was (literally) wiped out of existence. How they bring him back is guaranteed to be yet another of the many WTF moments this show has brought us in the past few years.
So, there you have it... I care not about the "X-Factor" or "The Sing-off" (even though it has Ben Folds and Sara Bareilles as judges), nor "Dancing With the Stars" or any other dumb reality show, so of the scripted shows that are out there, the ones above are the ones I think are worth watching. Now there are many I haven't gotten into or had a chance to watch, both new and returning, but hey, I'm not a professional TV critic, I'm a 3rd-year doctoral student who is soon to be facing qualifying exams and a dissertation, so cut me a little slack. "30 Rock" returns in January for what may well be its last good season (as Alec Baldwin will be leaving after this year), "Mad Men" also returns next year, and I'm sure more surprises will come out of the woodwork like "Happy Endings" did last spring. That's what keeps us coming back faithfully to our televisions (or Hulu). Thankfully, TV, unlike radio, doesn't have a major content problem.
Thank you, good night, and god bless television.
Labels: television
posted by Dave | 8:46 PM
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