Thursday, October 4, 2007

The Fall 2007 Television Season: a Quick Review

It's here, the new season, and there are some nice surprises lurking about the network primetime slots. Unfortunately, some of those surprises are bad ones.

The stalwarts are back, of course. And those who read this blog know I'm most likely referring to (and I am) shows like Prison Break, House, and Heroes (even though I'm not as impressed with Heroes as many of you are).

And then there's the newbies. Admittedly, I tend to stay away from ABC and CBS, with the exception of Lost and The Unit (a recent addition to my DVR list... it's gotten much, much better since the first season), but I decided to give a couple of new shows a try.

The ABC show I gave a whirl was Cavemen. I couldn't help it. My curiosity overcame my better judgement, and combined with the fact that I'm a fan of those GEICO commercials, I gave it a look... for all of four minutes. Stay the Hell away from this one, people. I'm not joking.

On CBS I decided to look into Moonlight. Good concept, similar to the classic (and ABC's piss-poor remake) Nightstalker, but pretty bad execution. The lead actor has a certain presence about him, but the rest of the cast is horrible. That's H.O.R.R.I.B.L.E. I'll give this one another go this weekend, but if there's no improvement past the pilot, it's off the "To Do" list.

The odd surprise this season is NBC. Now, I won't go into too much detail, but so far, I've added the near-great new shows Life and Journeyman to the list. Both are outstanding. I'm also watching Chuck, and while there's a certain charm to it, I'm still not entirely convinced. Still, I dig Adam Baldwin, so will give this another couple of weeks. Disappointing is the heavily-hyped Bionic Woman remake, helmed (and acted) by some of the Battlestar Galactica types, the show is an utter mess. Between the pilot and the second show there were already plot holes and sudden "characterization" changes. Expected from the BSG crew, the only thing Bionic Woman is convincing me of is that Katee Sackhoff (a decent actress) is utterly incapable of pulling off the "tough chick" role.

On Fox, the only thing I've watched is K-Ville, which despite a dull pilot, improves a little bit each week. At the rate it's going, it'll be a great show by the end of the season, or cancelled (which I'm betting on).

Anyway, I'm still pissed NBC pulled The Black Donnellys earlier this year, so I'm off to find the DVDs.

Vote Eastwood.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ok, since we are TV-addicted here, I might as well add my two cents worth:

HEROES is ok, not thrilling me yet. I do like CHUCK, however. Interesting premise and fun characters. JOURNEYMAN was great, could really be an interesting show.

Also liking the Monday comedy line up on CBS, fun stuff.

PRISON BREAK is ok, too, if not really plausible any longer. And I had NOT wanted to watch K*VILLE, as I thought it was going to be super-serious, but it is good, helped by Anthony Anderson.

I like REAPER, very cool show with fun characters. Not taking itself too seriously. This is what entertainment should be.

BIONIC WOMAN didn't impress me, either. Giving it more time to grow, hoping it grows.

CANE is good, old-fashioned fun in the mold of DALLAS. And, coincidentally, DIRTY SEXY MONEY is cheesy, like DYNASTY used to be. But, I think DSM will be one of the early cancellations.

MOONLIGHT was odd. Good idea for a show, but it just seemed very poorly written. Will give it another go.

Add to all this the shows we are already watching, and we are going into TV overload. But, it is good to have a lot of promising shows for a change. Most seasons, I don't give a good-damn what is coming on. This year, many shows appealed to me, and so far I haven't been too disappointed.

Just thank {insert make-believe supernatural entity here} for DVR!!!

Posted by Joe on October 4, 2007 - Thursday - 10:06 PM

Anonymous said...

I love Prison Break, Heroes, and Journeyman... So, my Monday is all full and finite...

Tuesdays are pretty much a wash. Reaper is OK, and I was really looking forward to it, but I find myself jumping between it and Biggest Loser (I can't believe I just admitted that) and then I jump over to TLC for LA Ink.

Wednesdays are OK... I actually really enjoyed Pushing Daisies. It's really high-concept and visually remarkable. I like the narration and the acting and the plot... I really hope it stays around, but I think it may be too soon. Bionic Woman was terribly disappointing. I'm still hoping it will work, but I'm not holding my breath... Besides, even though I'm watching BW, I'm looking foward to (again, can't believe I'm admitting this) Gossip Girl each week. I'm watching Life also, but I'm much more impressed with Journeyman.

Thursdays are eh. I watch Greys (what chick doesn't?) and then Big Shots. I actually like Big Shots even though I don't really think any of them are particularly good looking. It's funny.

Sundays are for Desperate Housewives and Brothers & Sisters (again, the chick thing), and so far, so good. I'm liking...

Overall, I think it's a pretty good season. Last year was abysmal - especially for NBC, which used to be pretty much the only network I watched - so I'm happy to see it on the up and up and happy that the overall TV season is shaping up nicely...

Posted by Jessica Lynn on October 5, 2007 - Friday - 7:32 AM

Anonymous said...

Wanted to add... I have three shows that I'm just salivating for the return of/beginning of... Jericho, October Road, and New Amsterdam... :)

Posted by Jessica Lynn on October 6, 2007 - Saturday - 8:08 AM

Anonymous said...

I'm looking forward to ABC's "Women's Murder Club." They say it's like "Sex and the City" meets "CSI" which makes sense because I would have loved to have fucked and then killed all four of those bitches.

Posted by RockyRob on October 9, 2007 - Tuesday - 1:59 PM

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