Tag / Fringe

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2014 New Fall Season – Sundays

old-tv-set1It 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 →

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Post Mortem – Almost Human

AH_KeyArt_C04_LC31The people behind Fringe returned to FOX with a futuristic tale of a police force trying to battle crime with android partners.  After the premiere was delayed two weeks, the show managed to snag over 9 million viewers for its first episode.  Soon, though, things came crashing back down to earth.  As is their custom, FOX aired the episodes out of order, leading to a mish mash of subplots that were difficult to follow.

Despite the best efforts of the network, there was the beginnings of an interesting show here.  Unfortunately, it will not be given a second season to see where things could go.

 

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2013 New Fall Season – Mondays

old-tv-set1

Day 2 of our look at the new fall television season brings us to Mondays.

7:00

How I Met Your Mother – Entering its 9th and final season, the show finally introduced the titular mother in last spring’s finale.  This entire season will take place over the weekend of Barney and Robin’s wedding, but should have some flashbacks and flashforwards involving the mother.

Bones – Also returning for its 9th season, Bones starts the year on Mondays but is scheduled to move to Fridays after the World Series.  Replacing it on Mondays will be

Almost Human – Brought to us by some of the good folks responsible for Fringe, I’ll give this a shot, assuming it ever does show up on Mondays.

8:00

2 Broke Girls – Entering its 3rd season, it is time to accept that this show is not going to change.  It will continue to feature two talented leads and surround them with base racial stereotypes and humor aimed towards the lowest common denominator.  To this point, the charm of the leads has been enough to overcome bad things about the show.  At some point, though, that is bound to change.

Sleepy Hollow – The new show takes Ichabod Crane and the Headless Horseman and brings them from the Revolutionary War to the present day.  I was not very impressed with the pilot, but I’ll give it a few weeks to see if it improves.

Continue reading →

by jim

Post Mortem – Fringe

FringeAfter 4 seasons of disappointing ratings, Fox surprised everyone by renewing Fringe for an abbreviated, final season.  The fifth season took place 24 years in the future and had the team working with Peter and Olivia’s now-grown daughter to take down the Observers, who have stopped observing and have taken over the world.

After a bit of a rocky start in its first season, Fringe became one of the better shows on television, carrying on the legacy of some of the best sci-fi shows of all time.  While the show faced cancellation every season, I was happy that FOX gave the show a planned swan song with the fifth season.  That said, I wasn’t that fond of the final season.  I wasn’t a big fan of the jump ahead in time, but getting some Fringe was better than no Fringe.  And, after 5 years, we now have no Fringe and the television landscape is poorer for it.

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Midseason Review – Fridays

It’s time to wrap up our look back at my thoughts on the new fall season’s slate of Friday shows.

7:00

Whitney – There were some good things about this show last season, but I’m honestly somewhat surprised that it got renewed. Of course, being dumped on Friday nights doesn’t show much confidence on NBC’s part that the show will be able to grow an audience. Speaking of a network having no confidence…

NBC scrapped their Friday night plans early on and Whitney never aired in this timeslot.  It did eventually return on Wednesdays following the demise of Animal Practice.  The show dropped a character, added a new one, and gave the gang a new bar to hang out at.

7:30

Community – I’m shocked, but pleased, the Community is coming back for a fourth season, even if it is without creator Dan Harmon. This has been one of my favorite shows over the past few years, but it remains to be seen if it can keep up without its singular voice running the ship.

Again, Community never aired in its Friday timeslot.  It is currently scheduled to debut next month after 30 Rock wraps up its run.

8:00

Made In Jersey – I’m not sure if I’m going to give this one a try, but star Janet Montgomery did impress during the second season of Human Target.

I did manage to give it one episode, which was only one less than CBS, if memory serves.  The only thing it had going for it was Janet Montgomery’s attractiveness, which wasn’t worth an hour commitment.

Fringe – The 5th, and final, season is slated for 13 episodes and picks up after last season’s trip to the future, a future where Anna Torv’s Olivia is no longer amongst the living.

The show wraps up its run with tonight’s series finale.  I must admit that I didn’t dig this season’s jump into the future as much as I did past seasons.

Nikita – The third season finds Nikita back with Division after taking down Percy last year.

I’m not sure why this show is still on the air, but it chugs along in relative obscurity, neither exciting me or disappointing me.

9:00

Blue Bloods – Year 3 of CBS’s dependable, if not spectacular, police procedural.

Another procedural from CBS that just is what it is.

The only new Friday show I’m somewhat interested in is Banshee, thanks to the good folks at Cinemax.

by jim

2012 New Fall Season – Fridays

It’s time to wrap up our look at the new fall season with Friday’s slate of shows.

7:00

Whitney – There were some good things about this show last season, but I’m honestly somewhat surprised that it got renewed.  Of course, being dumped on Friday nights doesn’t show much confidence on NBC’s part that the show will be able to grow an audience.  Speaking of a network having no confidence…

7:30

Community – I’m shocked, but pleased, the Community is coming back for a fourth season, even if it is without creator Dan Harmon.  This has been one of my favorite shows over the past few years, but it remains to be seen if it can keep up without its singular voice running the ship.

8:00

Made In Jersey – I’m not sure if I’m going to give this one a try, but star Janet Montgomery did impress during the second season of Human Target.

Fringe – The 5th, and final, season is slated for 13 episodes and picks up after last season’s trip to the future, a future where Anna Torv’s Olivia is no longer amongst the living.

Nikita – The third season finds Nikita back with Division after taking down Percy last year.

9:00

Blue Bloods – Year 3 of CBS’s dependable, if not spectacular, police procedural.

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Midseason Review – Fridays

Finishing up our look back at the fall television season.

CBS

Blue Bloods – The surprise hit of last season.  A decently solid show with a small mystery that lurks in the background.

Last season’s mystery has been replaced by the occassional undercover plot, but still a consistent, if unspectacular, performer.

NBC

Chuck – The final season kicks off its thirteen episode run in late October.  It will likely be a fun ride to the finish line.

And tonight is the finale.  It will be sad to say goodbye to the Buy More.  A good show that did not deserve the jerking around it has gotten in recent seasons.

Grimm – All I know is that Jennifer Morrison is involved and it has something to do with the Grimm fairy tales.

See, this is what happens when someone steals your Fall TV Preview issue of Entertainment Weekly and there are two shows with similar backgrounds.  Jennifer Morrison, of course, is on Once Upon A Time.  This show is horrible and I’m surprised it is still on the air.  Yet NBC can’t find a place for Chuck or Community on the schedule.

FOX

Fringe – Peter is gone and the two universe’s have merged into one.  I’m not sure what the new season has in store for us, but I’m on board.

You know, for someone who took at lot of grief for her “stiff” acting style, Anna Torv has played 5 distinct versions of the Olivia character and has applied different nuances to all of them.  She really is quite good and it is a shame she will never be recognized for the work she is doing here.  Also a shame is the ratings the show is getting, making it ever more likely that this will be the final season. Continue reading →

by jim

2011 New Fall Season – Fridays

CBS

Blue Bloods – The surprise hit of last season.  A decently solid show with a small mystery that lurks in the background.

NBC

Chuck – The final season kicks off its thirteen episode run in late October.  It will likely be a fun ride to the finish line.

Grimm – All I know is that Jennifer Morrison is involved and it has something to do with the Grimm fairy tales.

FOX

Continue reading →

by jim

Midseason Review – Thursdays

Our penultimate look back at TV’s most competitive night!  October’s thoughts on Must See TV.

7:00

The Big Bang Theory – A lot of nerds don’t like this show, thinking it always goes for the easy jokes about them and their nerd culture.  I disagree.  Consistently one of the funniest shows on TV.

The move from Mondays has worked out for CBS.  There was a slight blip when Kaley Cuoco missed a few episodes after falling off a horse, but it seems to be back to firing on all cylindars.

Community – A pop culture cornocopia that brings the funny every week.  Plus, it has Annie’s Boobs.

Still great, but it may have gone to the wacky theme episode well once too often in an attempt to replicate the glory that was last year’s paintball episode.  Not to mention a return appearance by Annie’s Boobs.

My Generation – This will be cancelled by the end of October. Didn’t even make it the end of September.

Wow.  I had managed to completely forget about this.

Bones – The gang is brought back together to fight crime.  Again, the relationships between the characters trumps the case of the week.

Continues to be enjoyable. Continue reading →

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2010 New Fall Season – Thursdays

Our most competitive night!  It truly is Must See TV.

7:00

The Big Bang Theory – A lot of nerds don’t like this show, thinking it always goes for the easy jokes about them and their nerd culture.  I disagree.  Consistently one of the funniest shows on TV.

Community – A pop culture cornocopia that brings the funny every week.  Plus, it has Annie’s Boobs.

My Generation – This will be cancelled by the end of October. Didn’t even make it the end of September.

Bones – The gang is brought back together to fight crime.  Again, the relationships between the characters trumps the case of the week.

7:30

$#*! My Dad Says – I had originally planned on giving this a shot due to the goodwill William Shatner had built in Boston Legal (Denny Crane!), but that was before I saw a brief preview.  They should shut down Twitter just because it was the source material for this steaming pile of crap.

Continue reading →