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Midseason Review – Thursdays

old-tv-set1We are on the back half of our look back at the offerings for the new fall season. Thursday night is traditionally the busiest night of the week for my television viewing habits, but not this year. Here’s what was on the slate for this season.

7:30

Connecting – The first pandemic-based comedy arrives on NBC.

I’m not entirely sure this ever aired.

8:00

Grey’s Anatomy – The medical drama enters its 17th season, picking up where the abbreviated 16th season left off.

Well, they’ve turned in 100% on COVID, which I guess makes sense for a medical drama.

9:00

Star Trek: Discovery – The first season of the CBS All Access show moves to CBS proper.

I tried watching the first episode and, having just gone through 7 seasons of DS9, I didn’t have it in me to start up another Star Trek series.

Now, for new entries that will be hitting the screen this winter:

Mr. Mayor – Ted Danson returns in this latest vehicle from Tina Fey.

The Chase – Sara Haines hosts this rebooted game show, featuring three of Jeopardy’s biggest winners.

Clarice – Yet another sequel to The Silence Of The Lambs that may be interesting.

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Midseason Review – Wednesdays

old-tv-set1We have reached the half way point of our look back at my thoughts on the offerings for the new fall season.  Here’s what Wednesdays had on tap for the fall.

8:00

The Conners – The third season moves to the space vacated by Modern Family.

You know, it’s not particularly good, but it isn’t particularly bad either.  If it weren’t for the nostalgia factor, I doubt I’d give this a second look.

8:30

Black-ish – A seventh season for the now-tiring show.

Moving to Tuesdays for the winter, this still seems to have a little life left in it, but I fear the end is near.  There’s only so many times you can do Dre goes overboard on a topic before eventually coming around plots.

And now the new entries:

SEAL Team – The third season kicked off late last year and continues on this spring.

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Midseason Review – Tuesdays

old-tv-set1Continuing our look back at my thoughts on the new fall season, with the offerings that I found myself interested in for Tuesdays.

7:00

Weakest Link – The British import returns to NBC, this time with Jane Lynch on board as host.

I’ve watched one episode when there was nothing else on.  It has the same issues as the original, where playing the game means the best players don’t win.

Swamp Thing – The CW gets in on the repurposing game by bringing this former DC Universe series over to broadcast.

Yeah, that’s 0 for 3 now for me actually watching repurposed programming filling the COVID void.

9:00

Big Sky – David E. Kelley returns with his latest, based on the novel The Highway by C. J. Box, starring Kylie Bunbury and Katheryn Winnick as private detectives looking for kidnapped sisters.

Hey, a show I actually watched.  A few unexpected twists and turns along the way, though I’m kind of glad that it’s meant to be a limited series rather than an ongoing.

Now, let’s see what interesting tidbits are coming this spring:

The Flash – The seventh season kicks off in late February.

Superman & Lois – Spun off from Supergirl, the latest entry in the Superman mythos takes flight in February.

Mixed-ish – After a decent enough first season, the show kicks off its second go around tonight.

 

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Midseason Review – Mondays

old-tv-set1As we continue our look back at the new fall season, the Monday offerings that I found myself interested in looks a little slight.  Let’s see how things turned out.

7:00

L.A.’s Finest – With a dearth of programming, FOX turns to a repurposed show originally produced for the cable provider Spectrum.  Starring Gabrielle Union and Jessica Alba, this Bad Boys offshoot may be worth giving a shot, especially since nothing else will be on.

Well, I meant to give this a shot, but I missed recording the first one and then never went back.  Looks like it is on Netflix, so I assume I’ll get to it someday.

8:00

One Day At A Time – The fourth season of the online series will air on CBS.  If I get really bored, I may decide to try it.

Yeah, I didn’t try this either.

 

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Midseason Review – Sundays

With the advent of winter premieres, the start of the premium cable network shows, and with February sweeps around the corner, it’s time to revisit my thoughts from the beginning of the season and look ahead at what’s to come for Sunday nights.

Well, Sunday fell a little barren in the fall, leaving me with nothing to watch, but some things have started to show up as we approached the mid-season.

Shameless – The final season.  Maybe I will catch up soon.

Your Honor – A judge uses his knowledge of the law to keep his son safe after he accidently kills the son of a crime boss.

Batwoman – A new woman is wearing the cowl after Ruby Rose cut bait.

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2020: The Year In Travel

In normal times, this is where I would take a look back at all of the different trips I took this past year and look ahead to what, if any. travel plans I already have for 2021.  Unfortunately, 2020 was far from normal times.  So let’s see, in early April, Michael and I went to Boston to see Angelina and the White Sox battle the Red Sox.  Oh wait, that was cancelled due to the corona virus.  Well, in May, I went to California to see the White Sox do battle against the Giants in San Francisco and then the Padres in San Diego.  Oh yeah, that was cancelled too.

As it turned out, I only ended up making one trip during the hell year that was 2020.  Labor Day weekend, I headed up to Holland, Michigan for a week of relaxation.  Other than a couple of trips to the lakes (both Macatawa and Michigan) and a day spent in Saugatuck, I didn’t see much of the sites, as the rona was still very much a concern.

So that was it.  With vaccines starting to become available, there is hope that 2021 will be different, but, at least at the start, we are still pretty much locked down.

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Book 4 (of 52) – Silent Witness

Silent Witness – Rebecca Forster

In the second entry of the Josie Bates saga, Archer’s past comes back to haunt him as he is arrested for the murder of his deceased wife’s child.  While Josie struggles to learn the truth, both about that fateful day at the amusement park where the boy died and about Archer and his past, she worries that her relationship will not survive the trial, regardless of the outcome.

I read the first part of this series 8 years ago, when I got it for free.  At the time, I said “I’m not sure if I’m willing to throw down cash for the next in the series.”  Well, eventually, I found a good deal on the entire series, so here we are.  I don’t recall much of the previous outing, so I can’t compare Forster’s writing to see if it improved.  But now that I own the entire thing, I’m sure I’ll dive back in at some point, probably without the 8 year wait.