Last spring, Resurrection became a surprise hit for ABC, earning itself a second season to explain why the dead were returning in the small town of Arcadia, Missouri. Rather than doing so, though, the show took a left turn and started killing off all of its main characters, who then came back to life as though nothing happened. It quickly became a mess, didn’t get a back end pickup beyond the 13 episodes for season two, and then was cancelled.
Tag / ABC
Post Mortem – Revenge
After 4 seasons, ABC pulled the plug on the Hampton’s based soap, which, for all intents and purposes, had reached its natural conclusion. Much of the original main cast, upon whom Emily VanCamp’s character worked to gain revenge, were killed off or written off the show this past season, so there was little more to be gained by continuing the show.
I enjoyed the show when it began, but my interest certainly waned over the years. I’m glad that the show is ending at a natural stopping point and isn’t overstaying its welcome, ruining whatever good feelings it built up over its run.
ABC Upfronts
The biggest surprise about ABC’s schedule for this fall’s television season is how stable it is from this spring. 4 out of the 7 nights remain untouched, and only one returning show is moving to a new time slot. In case you are wondering, this is relatively unheard of here in the 20th century.
Monday remains the same as it has been for years, with Castle following the latest installment of Dancing With The Stars. Tuesdays start off with the return of the Muppets starring in The Muppets. Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD returns at its current time slot, followed by the new FBI drama Quantico.
Wednesday nights also remain unchanged, with Modern Family continuing to anchor the night. Thursdays will continue to belong to Shonda Rhimes, thanks to Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal, and How To Get Away With Murder. Former Community and The Hangover star Ken Jeong gets his own sitcom, Dr. Ken, which will air on Fridays. Sundays will air 2 new dramas following the returning Once Upon A Time.
Agent Carter will return at mid-season, once again filling in for her present day SHIELD contemporaries.
Obviously, The Muppets are the most exciting of the new shows. I’m also likely to give Dr. Ken a shot. Beyond that, nothing here seems too spectacular.
Book 4 (of 52) – Melissa Explains It All
Melissa Explains It All: Tales From My Abnormally Normal Life – Melissa Joan Hart with Kristina Grish
Starting right with the subtitle of her memoir, Melissa Joan Hart, star of Clarissa Explains It All and Sabrina The Teenage Witch, wants you to know that she is normal. To prove it, she offers up what might just be the worst of these celebrity “tell-alls” ever produced. Certainly the worst that I have read. Which is a shame.
Clarissa debuted on Nickelodeon during my junior year of high school. Clearly, I was not the target audience, but, during the summer, we would occassionally come across it, along with other classics like Hey Dude and Salute Your Shorts. 5 years later, Sabrina debuted, which I watched for most of its run on ABC. I guess you could say I was (am?) a Melissa Joan Hart fan, so you would think her book would be right up my alley. Sadly, she hardly touches on her experiences on these shows, glossing over most of her time on the shows and instead on who she roomed with or how she was out with her hairstylist.
The one big “scandal” that Hart was involved with was her racy Maxim cover, which wasn’t out of the ordinary for the magazine, but landed her in hot water with Archie Comics, the owner of the Sabrina property. This whole thing is covered in about 3-4 paragraphs, while an entire chapter is devoted to her husband’s love of Alabama football.
In her attempt to tell us little people how normal she actually is, Hart succeeds in showing how out of touch she truly is. She lists the 4 things that she is unable to do to this day, things normal girls learned as teenagers, like putting on makeup or making fashion choices, but she always had professionals to do them for her. She could have listed a 5th, tell a compelling story in a way that makes a reader relate to her.
Midseason Review – Mondays
Day 2 of our look back at my thoughts on the new fall television season and what is new for the winter and spring.
7:00
The Big Bang Theory – CBS spent $275 million to broadcast 8 Thursday night NFL games, so The Big Bang Theory moves back to Mondays until late October. The show continues to be a ratings powerhouse, so hopefully the move doesn’t shake things up too much.
Now that the football season is over, the show has moved back to Thursdays, so I will save my comments for then.
2 Broke Girls – Once The Big Bang Theory returns to its Thursday perch, 2 Broke Girls will return to the Monday slot it inherited last spring from How I Met Your Mother. At this point, the show is what it is, so there is no point on hoping that the writers move away from their lowest common denominator form of comedy. As long as Beth Behrs and Kat Dennings continue to charm, I will continue to watch. But their charms only go so far.
At this point, there is no sense in hoping that the show becomes more than what it already is. As I said in the fall, the charms of Beth Behrs and Kat Dennings are really the only reason to keep watching.
Gotham – FOX gets in the superhero game with this Batman prequel, set in the days just after a young Bruce Wayne has witnessed the death of his parents. The show has been sold as more of the Gotham police force dealing with the criminals that will one day become Batman’s fiercest foes.
After a rocky start, the show came around to be a pretty solid entry in the super hero universe.
8:00
Sleepy Hollow – I am going to be completely honest and say I don’t really remember much about the first season of this show, other than it was a little crazy and it didn’t exactly grab me as much as it seemigly did everyone else. I guess I’ll stick around until/unless I find something to take its place.
I let the first half of the season pile up on the DVR before burning through them mostly in November. The show is kind of crazy, and I did seem to enjoy it when I watched a paid attention. Otherwise, it is still a bit of a blur.
Jane The Virgin – The first CW pilot in years to not feature either vampires or superheroes is an adaptation of a Venezuelen telenovela. Early reports are that it is one of the better pilots of the fall, so I guess I can give it a shot.
I’ve been impressed with the show so far, but I can tell that the novelty will wear off rather quickly.
9:00 Continue reading →
Moving Down The Dial
In a shocking development, the Cubs reached an agreement today with the local ABC station to air 25 games per season through the 2019 season. The deal should net the Cubs nearly $19 million per season. The Cubs are still looking for a broadcast partner for 45 games that had previously aired on WGN.
The move comes out of left field, as most teams games are moving away from over-the-air channels in general, let along network owned and operated stations like WLS. The deal will likely cause pre-emptions of popular syndicated programs like Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune or network programming.
To be honest, this move doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me. The plusses of being associated with a hopefully improved Cubs team would seem to be outweighed by complaints from viewers of Dancing With The Stars or Scandal when their shows are delayed. I guess time will tell if the deal works out for all involved.
2014 New Fall Season – Thursdays
Thursday night is traditionally the busiest night of the week. Here’s what’s on the slate for this season.
7:00
Grey’s Anatomy – The medical drama enters its 11th season with a move to an earlier timeslot. There are cast changes aplenty this year, so hopefully the show can continue its recent quality upswing.
The Big Bang Theory – The show returns to Thursdays in late October, following the midpoint of the NFL season.
Bones – The show moves back to Thursdays for its 10th season. Beyond that, there’s not much to say about the show that hasn’t already been said.
8:00
Gracepoint – FOX hopes that taking a successful British mystery, Broadchurch, and remaking it for an American audience while keeping the same star, David Tennant, will make lightning hit twice.
8:30
A to Z – The pilot didn’t exactly reach out and grab me, but star Cristin Milloti, fresh from her turn as the titular mother in the final season of How I Met Your Mother, is exceedingly charming, so I will give this a longer chance to impress.
9:00
Elementary – Sherlock and Watson return for a third season of helping the NYPD solve their cases. Continue reading →
2014 New Fall Season – Mondays
Day 2 of our look at the new fall television season brings us to Mondays.
7:00
The Big Bang Theory – CBS spent $275 million to broadcast 8 Thursday night NFL games, so The Big Bang Theory moves back to Mondays until late October. The show continues to be a ratings powerhouse, so hopefully the move doesn’t shake things up too much.
2 Broke Girls – Once The Big Bang Theory returns to its Thursday perch, 2 Broke Girls will return to the Monday slot it inherited last spring from How I Met Your Mother. At this point, the show is what it is, so there is no point on hoping that the writers move away from their lowest common denominator form of comedy. As long as Beth Behrs and Kat Dennings continue to charm, I will continue to watch. But their charms only go so far.
Gotham – FOX gets in the superhero game with this Batman prequel, set in the days just after a young Bruce Wayne has witnessed the death of his parents. The show has been sold as more of the Gotham police force dealing with the criminals that will one day become Batman’s fiercest foes.
8:00
Sleepy Hollow – I am going to be completely honest and say I don’t really remember much about the first season of this show, other than it was a little crazy and it didn’t exactly grab me as much as it seemigly did everyone else. I guess I’ll stick around until/unless I find something to take its place.
Jane The Virgin – The first CW pilot in years to not feature either vampires or superheroes is an adaptation of a Venezuelen telenovela. Early reports are that it is one of the better pilots of the fall, so I guess I can give it a shot.
9:00 Continue reading →
2014 New Fall Season – Sundays
It is time once again to dive in to the new fall lineups for the television season that kicks into gear tonight. We start, once again, with the Sunday night offerings, which features some returning favorites, but nothing new to watch, except on cable.
7:00
Once Upon A Time – The fairy tale show is back for season 4, after an uptick in quality during the past season. With little else in competition, I see no reason not to continue turning in.
7:30
Brooklyn Nine-Nine – FOX has moved its breakout comedy hit from Tuesday nights, where it was ill-matched with New Girl and The Mindy Project. Now it will compete along side more like minded, if animated, comedies.
8:00
Resurrection – ABC’s tale of what happens when the dead start to return, as though nothing had happened, became the surprise hit of the spring. The mystery of why seems to be a big part of the show, so I imagine they will need to tackle that sooner rather than later, and I can’t imagine how they can come up with something reasonable.
The Good Wife – More like the Great Wife, if you catch my drift. Rarely do you see a show hit a creative high point in season 5, but that is exactly what The Good Wife did last season. The status quo was upset once again in the season finale, so it will be interesting to see things play out once again.
The Newsroom – HBO’s and Aaron Sorkin’s take on 24 hour cable news returns for a third and final season, dealing with the fallout of last season’s faked story storyline.
Homeland – The fourth season gives the show a fresh start, with Brody finally dead. Time will tell if they are able to pull out of the talespin that overextending the Brody story put them in to. Continue reading →
Post Mortem – Killer Women
Based on an Argentine crime drama, Killer Women, from executive producer Sofia Vergara (yes, this was one of the show’s main selling points), featured Tricia Helfer as a female Texas Ranger who battles an abusive ex while solving crimes perpetrated by women. In a shocking development, it was not well received by the viewing public, and ABC aired only 6 of the 8 episodes produced. I wouldn’t mind seeing Helfer return in a starring role somewhere down the line. But this show was not the best use of her, or any one else’s, abilities.