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2009 Fall TV
Okay, so, yes. The fall TV season and my thoughts on it thus far.

This post mentions many many shows. I've organized them by new and returning shows, and then further by comedy and drama, and then in alphabetic order. That way you can click and skim through to read just the ones you're interested in reading and can skip over ones where you don't want to be spoiled for stuff, etc.



New Shows

Comedies

Accidentally On Purpose - Angie's been saving these for me as I can't record them myself. It took me awhile to sit down and watch them, so when I started watching, I watched the first five episodes in a row. And laughed a lot. I wasn't expecting to really like it because the premise seemed so silly to me (oh, ha ha, older woman has one night stand with younger man and gets pregnant and now they're going to live together platonically while hilarity ensues!) but wanted to check in for Jenna Elfman who I enjoy. And actually? The relationship between her and the younger man father-to-be guy is rather sweet. And Elfman's character and her sister and best friend are all quite funny both individually and together. So I'm liking it.

Community - SO FUNNY. Okay, so this douchey guy (The Soup's Joel McHale) goes to community college and in his attempts to woo an attractive woman, ends up enmeshed with a motley group of fellow students from their Spanish class. The combination of these various characters is just so funny. My favorite parts are Abed and Troy's segments at the end. And Abed is far and away my favorite character on the show - he steals every scene he is in, even if he only has one line in it. I like that it is very much an ensemble comedy and even though McHale's character is the one the show is structured around and Chevy Chase is a big name star, everyone gets equal time, equal funny bits, and equal backstory. Best new comedy of the season, imo.

Cougar Town - another one I thought I'd hate due to the premise (oh, ha ha, older woman dates younger man!) but Angie insisted it was funny, so I checked it out and - holy cats is it funny! Every single actor in this show is hysterical, especially star Courtney Cox. I literally laugh out loud about every three minutes on average. Cox plays Jules Cobb, who is rediscovering the dating world and single life. Her teen son Travis is played by Dan Byrd who I found hilarious as Justin in Aliens in America (despite the show itself being kinda meh) and deliciously creepy as Sylar's sidekick for a few episodes of Heroes last season. Her ex Bobby is played by Brian Van Holt, and he plays the character of a wacky carefree guy pretty well. Her neighbor/best friend Ellie is played by Christa Miller (Jordan from Scrubs), who is married to Andy, played by Ian Gomez (Javier from Felicity!) and they are both super funny. Her co-worker/other best friend Laurie is played by Busy Philipps (Kacy from Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles). Another neighbor, fellow recent divorcee Grayson, played by Josh Hopkins, is constantly annoyed by Jules and yet continually gets sucked into conversations with her. Carolyn Hennesy, who plays Dianne Miller on General Hospital, is hilarious in her occasional appearance on the show.
So yea, if you've been hesitant to check it out due to the title and/or premise, I recommend checking it out anyway.

Modern Family - a fauxumentary-style comedy depicting three related families: 1) an older man Jay (Ed O'Neill) and his newish younger wife Gloria (Sofía Vergara) and her son Manny (Rico Rodriguez), 2) Jay's daughter Claire (Julie Bowen) and her husband Phil (Ty Burrell) and their three children, 3) Jay's son Mitchell (Jesse Tyler Ferguson) and his partner Cameron (Eric Stonestreet) and their new baby daughter. I was sure, from the ads, that I'd dislike this one, but I love Jesse Tyler Ferguson (Richie from 2007 comedy The Class), so I tuned in and it's actually quite good. Yea, there are the some of the usual stereotypey jokes which are aggravating, but overall they portray the various family members in a realistic light - sometimes warm and compassionate, sometimes selfish and mean, usually just doing their best and working through their issues. My favorite relationship is between Mitchell and Cameron.

Dramas

Beautiful Life - this CW show was canceled after just a few episodes, and it wasn't a bad decision. I mean, I was prepared to keep watching it for the shiny, but it was mediocre fare, even for CW soapy goodness.

Eastwick - based on the movie The Witches of Eastwick, this show, which is about three women in a small town who discover magical abilities when a strange man moves to town, is part mystery, part comedy, and part soapy drama. Kinda like Desperate Housewives, but with magic. There are things that bug me about the story, like in the movie the character of Darryl Van Horne (played by Jack Nicholson in the movie and Paul Gross in the current TV series) was the devil himself and the magic of the three witches was somehow based around him - because, you know, woman's power must come from man and magic/witches are evil. But that's just based off what I remember from the movie back when I watched it, like, fifteen years ago. The TV show might do something differently, but so far I still really hate the Darryl Van Horne character and the fact that I'm supposed to accept that these smart, powerful, beautiful women are actually drawn to him for some reason - puke! OTOH, I do really like the other characters in the show - the three main women played by Jaime Ray Newman, Rebecca Romijn, and Lindsay Price, plus Price's character's BFF played by Sara Rue, Romijn's character's daughter played by Ashley Benson, etc. - all wonderful. And then there is the character of Bun, played by Veronica Cartwright, who was in the original movie, and is clearly supposed to be another witch, an older one with a mysterious connection to Van Horne. Recently introduced new character played by Cybil Shepherd also seems to be an older witch in the community tied into the Van Horne story. So, yes, I admit, I've been sucked in to the fun of this show despite some of the grumpifying aspects of it.

FlashForward - loving. Well, okay, there are parts that I don't like - such as how so many of these characters seem to think that they have to dive head first into the futures they have witnessed instead of taking a step back and figuring out how they can make it different. But, overall, I like the government-sciencey mystery that's in line with shows like Fringe, Alias, and Threshold. I also like the presence of such wonderful actors as John Cho, Dominic Monaghan, Gabrielle Union, Gina Torres, and Alex Kingston.

The Forgotten - a show about a team of civilians working to find missing persons after the police have given up, starring Christian Slater. It was okay. Just not interesting enough to keep me coming back after the third episode. It's one I'd probably watch the occasional one-off episode of if my TV schedule wasn't already so packed.

Glee - Ryan Murphy (Popular, Nip/Tuck) has a new show on Television, and it's a high school musical. Well, it's a teen drama about a Glee club, so there is lots of singing - both specifically in the glee club contexts and in more musical-style-people-break-out-singing contexts. And, okay, I'll admit it - the show is highly highly problematic. It is often racist, sexist, ableist, sizeist, homophobic, and generally all around insulting. Sometimes this comes out of character's mouths who we are clearly supposed to hate or at least look down upon for having said what they said, which can kinda be forgiven. And sometimes it's really just a part of the show itself, which is icky and un-fun to see. So, I get all of that. And it bothers me. And I'm critical of it. But ... I still enjoy the show. I love - LOVE - the singing and dancing parts. I'm into teen dramas and so get a kick out of the way Murphy plays with a lot of those typical tropes. And some of the characters are a lot of fun. So, I'm obsessed with it and will keep obsessively watching it, but I'm not blind to it's problems.

The Good Wife - mostly I tuned in to this one for Julianna Margulies (ER) and Matt Czuchry (Gilmore Girls), but have found I enjoy the story itself. There is a legal procedural element to it and there is a new case each week for Alicia (Margulies) and her co-workers to delve into, but the overarching story of her life, both personal and professional, is interesting as well. Her politician husband (played by Chris Noth) who had a big sex scandal and is now in prison, her two teenage kids at home with her mother-in-law stepping in to help parent, the possible mystery of the corrupt politician who may have set her husband up, the various judges and prosecutors she runs into who have biases towards her due to her husband - all make for a complicated life. Add in that she is returning to the workforce after many years and is competing against young and arrogant Cary (Czuchry), since only one of them will end up keeping their job. The law firm she works with is run by two individuals - one pulling for her (played by Josh Charles) and the other for Cary (played by Christine Baranski). But I like how they've set up the competitiveness between Alicia and Cary. Yes, he's young and kind of arrogant, but he's not portrayed as heartless or mean. They're just both in there fighting to prove themselves and often end up working together.

Melrose Place - I loved the original back in the day, so I HAD to tune in. And I'm definitely drawn to the soapy goodness. There is much more of a connection to the original show here than with the 90210 reboot, which I appreciate. They're in the same exact building, there is one character, Michael Mancini, played by the original actor Thomas Calabro who is seen fairly regularly and has a son,David (played by Shaun Sipos), who lives in the building now. The pilot episode featured another original character, Sydney Andrews played by Laura Leighton, who was killed and now appears in each episode in flashbacks as her murder is unsolved. She also, possibly, has a child (played by Ashlee Simpson-Wentz) living in the building. Everyone in the building seems to have some connection or another to Sydney and some also have connections to other former residents/original characters. The character of Lauren (Stephanie Jacobs who played Jesse in Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles) works at the hospital where Michael Mancini works and has begun to work with him. Daphne Zuniga, Jo from the original series, made an appearance in an episode and worked with both Ella (Katie Cassidy) and Riley (Jessica Lucas). Josie Bisset, who played Jane Andrews Mancini in the original has appeared in one episode so far, and since she has taken ownership of the building, is likely to appear again. Heather Locklear, who played Amanda Woodward in the original, is also slated to reprise her character in the updated version of the show during sweeps this month.
Other appearances I'd love to see eventually: Marcia Cross (currently playing Bree on Desperate Housewives) playing the fascinating Kimberly Shaw. Doug Savant (who plays Tom Scavo on Desperate Housewives these days) reprising his role as Matt Fielding, who was a gay resident of the building back in the day. Courtney Thorne-Smith as the emotional Allison Parker. Grant Show as bad boy resident Jake Hanson. Classic soap actor (currently on The Bold and the Beautiful as Dominick Marone) Jack Wagner as Dr. Peter Burns who would certainly give Dr. Mancini another run for his money! Rob Estes (currently on 90210 as a parent/principal of the high school) as Kyle, Kelly Rutherford (currently on Gossip Girl playing mom Lily Van der Woodsen) as Megan, Lisa Rinna coming back to television again with her role as Taylor, Jamie Lunar (currently on All My Children as Liza Colby) back as Lexie, Alyssa Milano back as Jennifer Mancini, Vanessa Williams as Rhonda, Kristin Davis as Brooke, Rena Sofer as Eve, and yea ... see? Lots of fun peeps! They likely won't all come back, but a girl can dream.

Mercy - a medical drama based on nurses! And none of them are being pressured into becoming doctors (see Trauma)! I like this one a lot. Did I initially tune in because Michelle Trachtenberg is in it? Yes. Am I staying for her, as well as fellow actresses Taylor Schilling and Jaime Lee Kirchner? Yes. Also? The occasional appearance of Kate Mulgrew doesn't hurt.

NCIS LA - so far I've been watching every episode and I likely will continue to do so, but I haven't fully decided. I like it, but don't love it. Which is how I tend to feel about most procedural type shows unless there is a good mytharc or really enjoyable characters with interesting relationships with one another. The more I watch the show, the more I care about the characters, and I'm especially interested in the characters of Agent Callen (played by Chris O'Donnell), Agent Hanna (played by LL Cool J), and Hetty (played by Linda Hunt).

Three Rivers - I wanted to like this one so much. I mean, Alex O'Loughlin! Turns out, he is way less interesting as a doctor than as a vampire. Just couldn't get into this one, despite his pretty pretty face. Very formulaic medical procedural about organ donation that just didn't have enough other stuff going on with the characters to keep me interested.

Trauma - watched the pilot and disliked it. It had three big strikes in my opinion and wasn't interesting enough to be kept as a "problematic but still fun" show, so I took it off my schedule. My problems with it?
1. Why does almost every story about nurses and/or paramedics have to have at least one character who "really should be a doctor" and is smart enough but just not applying themselves for one reason or another and blahblahblah? As if being a nurse or a paramedic isn't a valid enough career choice on it's own. But no. For someone to *really* be of substance in one of those fields, we have to decide that they COULD be a doctor if they really wanted to, right? UGH. I am tired of this trope. I've liked shows with this trope, but because I really liked the characters or story lines for other reasons.
2. All of the rescue scenes that were portrayed in the pilot episode were sparked by someone doing something stupid, and thus causing the accident and being the sole reason why a whole bunch of other people got hurt. And yea, you know, that happens. But plenty of accidents happen because of something out of anybody's control, or because of something really simple like looking away for a second instead of being an ass and not paying attention because they're yelling at someone on their cell phone, or because a whole bunch of somebodies made very understandable minor mistakes that all lead up to something bad happening, etc. I just didn't like the way the show was making it seem like all accidents happen because of one person being a jerk or whatever.
3. Holy cow the sexism! Again, I can forgive some sexism in a show if there are other things I really like and there are clearly some non-sexist or even fully feminist attitudes held as well. I just ... wasn't getting it out of this one.

V - the pilot just aired this week, and we're only getting four full episodes before they take a hiatus and come back with a new showrunner, but so far, I dig it. So many great actors attached to this one, too: Joel Gretsch (The 4400), Lourdes Benedicto (The Nine, 24), Laura Vandervoort (Smallville), Morena Baccarin (Firefly), Scott Wolf (Everwood, The Nine, Party of Five), Alan Tudyk (Dollhouse, Firefly). I never saw the original mini-series or any other incarnation of the show, but I know enough about the premise that nothing really surprised me in the pilot episode. I like how they revealed the stuff that most of the audience is likely to already know right off the bat so they can now delve into where ever else they want to go with the story. I look forward to seeing where that might be.

Vampire Diaries - okay, so there are these teenagers in this small town, right? And one of them looks exactly like this woman who lived in that town during the Civil War, right? And these two vampires who were involved with that woman back then come to town to see and be a part of this teenager's life, right? And one of them is good and one of them is evil, right? And the girl's bff is discovering from her grandmother that she is a witch, from the Salem line of witches, right? And ... it's all so terrifically cheesy and good. Om nom nom cheese.

White Collar - new show on USA about a con man who has been released from prison to help the federal agent who arrested him catch other con men. It's surprisingly good and entertaining.

Returning Shows

I'll do this one quicker, since there's not as much to say about most returning shows.

Comedies

The Big Bang Theory - still mildly enjoyable, despite all of the stereotypey jokes. I'm enjoying seeing how a Leonard/Penny relationship is working out.

Gary Unmarried - I don't know why I like this one so much, but I do. Jay Mohr is just funny.

How I Met Your Mother - still incredibly incredibly funny. Love Barnman and Robin, love Lily and Marshall, and Ted is still okay as the straight man.

The Office - managed to catch one or two episodes this season - Angie was loverly and downloaded the wedding episode for me. I love Jim and Pam SO. MUCH.

Parks and Recreation - only catch an episode of this here and there, but wish I could watch more of it.


Dramas

90210 - the more they focus on the teens and the farther they pull away from any focus on the original characters from the original show, the less I care about this show. With the start of V in the same time slot, I may be letting this one go.

Brothers and Sisters - I hate Robert McCallister (played by Rob Lowe), and I hate that they're making him a bit more sympathetic this season because I *like* hating him. Oh well.

Criminal Minds - geeze, can this show get any darker?? Can Shemar Moore get any sexier?!? Yes, he can. By becoming the boss. Yum.

Desperate Housewives - still decent soapy comedic drama mystery fun. Although, it is getting a bit formulaic for something that is supposed to be shocking.

Dollhouse - this show is just. This show is just. I don't even ... it's just. I like it okay. I even love it. But I also hate it. And there is so much about it that is just icky and creepy and wrong. And yet so much about it that is intelligent and fascinating and dramatic. And also some just plain ole entertaining stuff. And I almost feel like a bad feminist for liking it so much since almost everyone else I read tears it apart. And I agree with all of those assessments. But I also still like it. Love it even.
I have not watched Epitaph yet, and am having trouble deciding if I want to or not.

Fringe - love this show, still. When I finally caught up with last season's final episode, my main reaction was "Leonard Fucking Nimoy!" I love Walter. I love Peter. I love Ingrid. I love the cow. I love the science mystery mindfucks. It's all good.

Ghost Whisperer - time jumped this season so that the baby could become a five year old, Ned could be a college student, and all of the weird dead-husband-in-new-body drama could be kinda ignored because, you know, it's been five years and people are over it. Or something. Still liking it.

Gossip Girl - I love Chuck and Blair as a couple more and more every episode. And everyone else kinda bugs me.

Grey's Anatomy - this show is constantly equally making me go "ugh!" and "squee!" in each episode. So, yea, I'm still watching it.

Heroes - a lot of this season has been kinda boring lately. Still loving Sylar and Parkman stuff though, enjoying the new character (for fellow Prison Break fans - T-Bag!!), and digging Claire's new bi-curiosity. :)

Law & Order - have only caught a couple of episodes this season. Fridays are actually packed nights for me TV-wise.

Medium - so, it always kind of bothers me when characters on TV shows get over a serious illness or injury super quick and it's like it never happened. I feel they've speeded up Allison's recovery too much, but they do still show signs of the stroke here and there, which I do appreciate. In general, still really good quality show.

The Mentalist - interesting stuff going on this season with Jane getting into trouble and not being allowed to be involved in the Red John case anymore. And with Rigsby and Van Pelt. And Cho is still my favorite - so deadpan all the time.

Monk - final season, and the Sharona/Natalie episode was great. I hope they let Monk wrap up his wife's murder. And also maybe let him actually keep a dog. Blah. That ending last week depressed me.

NCIS - hoping they'll get Ziva and Tony together this season. Need moar Abby. Like the show as much as ever - pretty good for it being mainly a procedural with only slight character development each episode. But there's enough of that development to keep me watching and I really dig the chemistry between the main team members.

Numb3rs - honestly, I'm not sure what keeps me coming back to this show. It's not bad by any means, but it's not all that terribly interesting most of the time, either.

One Tree Hill - another time jump this season, but not as major. I very much miss Chad Michael Murray and Hilarie Burton on the cast. The new characters are okay, but it's hard feeling like they're trying to shove them at us as replacements. The Dan/Rachel relationship is fascinating, and Jamie is as cute as ever.

Private Practice - I really like all of the actors on this show a lot. Sometimes the storylines drag, but I still really enjoy them.

Psych - still lolarious. Loved the season finale.

Smallville - I'm so excited about this season! They're really developing the Clark/Lois relationship, and Clark's separate super identity, two things I've been waiting for forever. Now, if they can just get him flying!

Sons of Anarchy - so incredibly good. Even better this season than last. The Tara/Gemma relationship this season is awesome. The Jax/Clay fighting is terrific. And I'm generally getting to know and like all of the club guys more and more.

Supernatural - so sad this the last season, but glad Kripke is going to get to do the show the way he wants to. There was one episode so far this season I didn't care much for, and that's highly unusual for me. But the rest have been good. Some really classic funny ones (like this week's!). I'm guessing they are trying to get all the funny light stuff done now so the rest of the season can be big dark heavy mytharc focus. Because I mean, come on, apocalypse!
P.S. I love Bobby.

Reality

Dancing With the Stars - I am sadly, once again, missing this season due to too many time conflicts. Some day I'll be able to pick it back up again.