Fall TV Thoughts

The fall TV season is upon us. You are of course entitled to not care, but if you're reading this, then you know that I do care, at least to some extent. As with every new season, there are some promising new shows; the trick is to figure out which ones are worth your time. I usually try to do this before they make their debuts, but that's not always possible. At least now, with DVD box sets and Hulu and Netflix streaming, it's possible to get on board a show you didn't start watching from its premiere.

In 2004 I was determined not to get caught up in Lost because I wasn't sure I wanted to make the commitment to a serialized show that would require rigorous weekly attention. But there was so much buzz leading up to the premiere that at the last minute I decided to go ahead and record it (I was still using a VCR back then, how quaint), and ended up recording three or four episodes before getting around to watching them, at which point I was, of course, completely hooked.

Ours is a TV-loving household, but we are selective. The Mrs. goes to bed much earlier these days, because she has to get up earlier, so the evening's TV viewing typically ends by 9:30 or 10 PM, which means we are usually catching up on shows over the weekend. Also, I have learned to muster the strength to stop watching a show when it declines or jumps the shark, which helps cut down on the overall time commitment. And with a TiVo we save some time by skipping over commercials.

(For a handy grid showing all the networks' fall schedules, see this TV Guide Magazine page.)

I'm going to run through the networks one by one, starting with ABC. They have a block of four new comedies on Wednesdays, all featuring familiar faces like Kelsey Grammer, Patricia Heaton, Ed O'Neill, and Courteney Cox. So far the only one of these that has any significant buzz is the one with O'Neill, Modern Family, which is presented as an Office-style mockumentary about three families. I'm not a particularly big fan of O'Neill, but I'll be checking this one out because it looks pretty funny. The rest of them just look like the same old sitcom thing.

ABC also has four new dramas: one, following those Wednesday comedies, is called Eastwick and is based on the book and movie about the witches, which means it has no appeal to me whatsoever and I can skip it. There's a procedural on Tuesdays called The Forgotten that looks an awful lot like Cold Case, which I've never watched, so I don't need to watch this. As of now, there is not one single show on Tuesdays that we already watch or plan to, so it looks like it will be a good night to catch up on Sunday's and Monday's shows.

On Tuesdays starting in November, ABC will launch a remake of the 80s sci-fi miniseries V (which I never watched, as it was on during the 1980s, a period of time when, amazingly, I watched almost no TV). It stars Lost's Elizabeth Mitchell (Juliet), but that alone isn't enough to get me to watch. I'm still undecided on this one.

The one that has caught my interest is another sci-fi show, FlashForward, which will be on Thursdays at 8. Everyone in the world blacks out for two minutes, and during that time has visions of themselves six months in the future. ABC is hoping this turns into their next Lost, and it even has two of that show's actors, Dominic Monaghan (Charile) and Sonya Walger (Penny), along with Joseph Fiennes, John Cho, and others. I'll probably end up getting hooked on this one too.

CBS has one new comedy and three new dramas, but not much here is looking interesting. The comedy, Accidentally On Purpose, stars Jenna Elfman as a cougarish woman who hooks up with a much younger dude, gets pregnant by him, and decides to keep the baby. Hilarity ensues? The few brief bits I've seen have been very typical, cliched, and not funny. Also, I don't care much for Ms. Elfman as an actor; she always comes across as the same character to me regardless of what she's in.

I don't care about NCIS, so I don't need to care about its LA-set spinoff. The casting of Chris O'Donnell and LL Cool J tells me that CBS is going after the female audience for this one anyway. Three Rivers is a medical drama about a transplant team at a Pittsburgh (hence the title) hospital that also tells the stories of the organ donors and recipients. My mom is psyched about this one, which tells you all you need to know. The Good Wife brings Julianna Margulies back to TV as the wife of a disgraced and imprisoned politician (Chris Noth) who must return to work as an attorney after 13 years. I dig her, but I think I'll skip this one. Thanks, CBS, for making this easier for me.

I talked about NBC's new shows back in the spring when they were announced. Since then I've had a change of heart about the comedy Community, which premiered last night (most new and returning shows premiere starting the week of the 21st). I still don't care for Chevy Chase and I never have, but the rest of the cast and the writing will more than offset his presence. The pilot had snappy dialogue and knowing nods to pop culture touchstones like The Breakfast Club, and Soup host Joel McHale is a much better actor than I expected him to be. This one looks like it will fit in nicely with NBC's other Thursday comedies.

I'm fighting the lure of Trauma, which looks to be an action-filled hour about EMTs and first-response rescue personnel in San Francisco. This sounds strangely familiar... anyone remember the 1970s series Emergency! (from Jack Webb's production company)? Hmm, what network was that on? I try to avoid shows like this, because l end up feeling like I'm wasting my time, but it's the kind of thing I might check out for the sheer popcorn, things-going-boom stupidity of it after the Mrs. goes to sleep, knowing I don't have to make any kind of week-to-week commitment to it.

There's also a show about nurses called Mercy that's going to be on Wednesdays. Consider yourselves warned.

The Jay Leno Show doesn't interest me, but I am interested in what kind of ratings it gets, considering it means five fewer hours per week of original scripted programming. On the other hand, it's five hours per week of prime-time TV I don't need to watch, schedule, or think about. Thanks (sort of), Jay, for making this easier for me.

FOX only programs from 8 to 10 PM, which means that, like NBC, there isn't as much programming to be concerned with. Glee (about a high school, with singing) may turn out to be a great show, and it's from the creator of Nip/Tuck, but I am definitely not the target audience for it. FOX also has two new comedies: The Cleveland Show is a spinoff of Family Guy and it fits right into the Sunday animation block, so I'll probably watch it by default, but I'll only keep watching if it's funny. Brothers is about a retired pro football player who moves back in with his family, and it looks like one of the worst shows of the decade.

One other note about FOX: why did they have to move Fringe from Tuesdays to Thursdays? Now it's opposite CSI (which I refer to as "CSI: Original Recipe" and is the only one I watch) on CBS and The Office and 30 Rock on NBC. It just complicates matters, and I'll probably end up watching Fringe online. Thanks, FOX, for making things harder for me.

Oh, speaking of "not the target audience," I almost forgot the CW: since they canceled the doing-Satan's-bidding dramedy Reaper, I don't need to care about them at all. It's one thing to not have any new shows I'm interested in, but to not have any shows I'm interested in at all? That's special. Thanks, CW, for making this even easier for me than CBS did.