Tag / Heroes

by admin

2019 New Fall Season – Tuesdays

old-tv-set1Continuing our look at the new fall season, here are the offerings that I may find myself interested in for Tuesdays.

7:00

The Conners – After a season of nostalgia and a season of curiosity, can the show finally stand on its own two feet? Time will tell.

The Flash – The gang returns for their sixth season, with Heroes alum Sendhil Ramamurthy onboard as the big bad.

7:30

Bless This Mess – After a short run in the spring, Dax Shepard and Lake Bell return for season two, hoping to keep the momentum up for a full season.

8:00

Mixed-ish – Another spinoff of Black-ish, this time focusing on Bow’s adolescence growing up with a white father and a black mother.

Arrow – The show returns for a short, 10 episode final season, without Emily Bett Rickards.

This Is Us – The emotionally manipulative hit is back for a fourth season, assuming I ever go back and finish the previous two.

8:30

Black-ish – While it is putting spinoffs on the air, I don’t know if moving back to the half hour timeslot is a good sign for a sitcom heading into season 6.

by jim

Post Mortem – Heroes Reborn

Heroes-RebornAfter 5 years off the air, NBC brought Heroes back as an event mini-series, with the hopes that it could recapture the magic it once had.  Sadly, it was not to be.  The relaunch suffered from the same problems that dragged down the original run.

When the relaunch was first announced over 2 years ago, I had my doubts that it would work out.  Sad to say, I was correct.  Hopefully, this time, it is allowed to stay dead.

by admin

NBC Upfronts

good-place-danson-bellNBC announced their new fall schedule yesterday and, with something different on every night, it will look much different from the spring.  The week gets off to a familiar start with The Voice leading in to the latest from the creators of Supernatural and The Shield, Timeless, about a trio of time travelers trying to save the history of the US.

Tuesday adds This Is Us, a new show staring Mandy Moore and Milo Ventimiglia about ” a unique ensemble whose paths cross and their life stories intertwine in curious ways.”  Blindspot moves from the cushy post-Voice slot to try and lead off Wednesday nights.  The Good Place, a new comedy starring Kristen Bell and Ted Danson, arrives on Thursday, with The Blacklist moving back an hour.

Friday and Saturday remain uninspiring, with football remaining on Sundays, at least in the fall.  Mid-season shows include a new vampire series inspired by True Blood author Charlaine Harris’s books, The Blacklist: Redemption, a spin-off starring Famke Janssen, a “reimagining” of The Wizard of Oz with Vincent D’Onofrio as the Wizard, Great News, the latest comedy from Tina Fey and Robert Carlock, Powerless, starring Vanessa Hudgens as an insurance adjuster in a world with superheroes, and Arnold Schwarzenegger in a revival of The Celebrity Apprentice.

Cancelled shows, never to be seen again, include Heroes: Reborn, Mr. Robinson, The Mysteries of Laura, Telenovela, and Undateable.  With only 2 shows returning that I am currently watching, I guess we shall see which, if any, of the new shows stick.

by admin

Midseason Review – Thursdays

old-tv-set1Time for our look back at Thursday nights, traditionally the busiest night of the week for my television viewing habits.

7:00

Grey’s Anatomy – The medical drama enters its 12th season after a dark 11th season which killed off Patrick Dempsey’s Dr. McDreamy.  The show promises a brighter season, so we’ll see what happens.

The show has kept plugging along, despite the loss of Patrick Dempsey.

The Big Bang Theory – The show returns to Thursdays in early November, following the midpoint of the NFL season.

With Leonard and Penny married, Sheldon and Amy back together and moving their relationship forward, and Raj in a committed relationship, the show’s focus has certainly changed considerably since its beginnings.

Bones – The show returns for its 11th season.  Beyond that, there’s not much to say about the show that hasn’t already been said.

There’s really nothing new to say about this show that hasn’t already been said.  It is what it is.

Heroes Reborn – NBC’s rebooted Heroes show, originally announced 18 months ago, finally makes it to air.  I will give this a shot, but I fear it will have a very short leash, given how poorly the original series ended up.

The show wrapped up its run last week, and I’m left wondering what the point was.  This was not a story that needed to be told, and suffered from some of the same problems as the original.

7:30

Life In Pieces – Assuming I’m still watching this come November, it moves from Monday along with BBT.

As I said on Monday, I am not still watching this.

8:00

The Blacklist – James Spader returns for a third season of chewing the scenery.

The status quo has changed, with Liz, finally exonerated, no longer allowed to be a field agent.  Will this change the chemistry of the show?  Only time will tell.

Sleepy Hollow – I dropped this midway through the past season when I realized that I was never actually watching the show and instead just playing it in the background while doing other things.  I doubt I’ll be going back, considering I still don’t know any characters name beyond Ichabod Crane.

A crossover with Bones brought me back for a week, but that was it.

9:00

Elementary – Sherlock and Watson return for a fourth season of helping the NYPD solve their cases, this time with John Noble as Sherlock’s father.

The show continues to impress with its version of the classic character.

Continue reading →

by admin

2015 New Fall Season – Thursdays

old-tv-set1Thursday night is traditionally the busiest night of the week for my television viewing habits. Here’s what’s on the slate for this season.

7:00

Grey’s Anatomy – The medical drama enters its 12th season after a dark 11th season which killed off Patrick Dempsey’s Dr. McDreamy.  The show promises a brighter season, so we’ll see what happens.

The Big Bang Theory – The show returns to Thursdays in early November, following the midpoint of the NFL season.

Bones – The show returns for its 11th season.  Beyond that, there’s not much to say about the show that hasn’t already been said.

Heroes Reborn – NBC’s rebooted Heroes show, originally announced 18 months ago, finally makes it to air.  I will give this a shot, but I fear it will have a very short leash, given how poorly the original series ended up.

7:30

Life In Pieces – Assuming I’m still watching this come November, it moves from Monday along with BBT.

8:00

The Blacklist – James Spader returns for a third season of chewing the scenery.

Sleepy Hollow – I dropped this midway through the past season when I realized that I was never actually watching the show and instead just playing it in the background while doing other things.  I doubt I’ll be going back, considering I still don’t know any characters name beyond Ichabod Crane.

9:00

Elementary – Sherlock and Watson return for a fourth season of helping the NYPD solve their cases, this time with John Noble as Sherlock’s father. Continue reading →

by admin

NBC Upfronts

Heroes-WallpaperNBC announced their fall schedule yesterday, and there are plenty of changes afoot.  Only one night, Wednesdays, remains unchanged.  The rest of the schedule shows plenty of upheaval for a network that technically is #1 in the ratings, thanks to Sunday Night Football and The Voice.  Beyond that, things are a bit of a mess for the Peacock network.

Monday uses The Voice as a lead-in to launch Blindspot, a new conspiracy thriller starring Thor‘s Jaimie Alexander.  Tuesday abandons comedy completely in exchange for a few new medical dramas and a variety show from Neil Patrick Harris.

Thursdays, which abandoned the Must See TV brand last fall, continues to go with dramas, leading off with the rebooted Heroes Reborn, followed by the returning The Blacklist and the new The Player, featuring Wesley Snipes.  Comedy finally makes an appearance on Fridays, with Undateable, promising a live season, followed by a new Mark-Paul Gosselaar offering.

NBC also has a number of shows on the bench for mid-season, including a rebooted Coach (seriously) and shows starring Eva Longoria, Jennifer Lopez, and Rob Lowe.  It’s much too early to speculate on the new shows, but The Blacklist is the only NBC show that I’m currently watching that is returning in the fall.  I guess we shall see which, if any, of the new shows stick.

by admin

NBC Upfronts

the_blacklist_-_keyartThanks to Sunday Night Football and the Winter Olympics, NBC is finishing this season as the number 1 network in the coveted 18-49 demographic.  Without the Olympics, things will not be as easy in the fall, so the network did some major upgrades, dropping poor performers like Community and Revolution and bringing in new shows starring the likes of Katherine Heigl, Debra Messing, and Kate Walsh.

The Blacklist, the one breakout scripted hit from last fall for NBC, returns to Mondays for the fall, before moving to Thursdays in the February after getting the post-Super Bowl slot.  It will be replaced by State of Affairs, Heigl’s return to television as a CIA analyst who advises the president.  Casey Wilson and Ken Marino team up for the new comedy Marry Me, slated for Tuesdays.

NBC looks to have abandoned the Must See TV concept on Thursday, replacing the first hour of comedy with a new season of The Biggest Loser.  Two new comedies, Bad Judge, starring Kate Walsh, and A to Z, featuring the charming Cristin Milioti, follow it, at least until The Blacklist moves in the spring.  Parenthood will return for an abbreviated 13 episode final season.  Fridays see a new adaptation of DC’s Constantine, one that will hopefully make everyone forget about the Keanu Reeves film.

Not on the schedule yet are the final season of Parks and Recreation and a third season of Hannibal, plus new shows including Mr. Robinson, starring Craig Robinson as a musician forced to work as a substitute teacher, One Big Happy, a comedy starring Elisha Cuthbert as a gay woman who decides to have a baby with her best friend, right before he falls for a new woman, Emerald City, a miniseries re-imagining characters from The Wizard of Oz, and, of course, the previously announced Heroes Reborn.

There doesn’t appear to be much that I will be watching on NBC in the fall, and even less once Parenthood comes to an end.  I may end up trying some of the new shows, and hopefully they will be worth the effort.

by jim

Save The Cheerleader, Save The Network?

Heroes-WallpaperIn the fall of 2006, NBC launched a new show about a group of people with special powers that were destined to come together to save the world.  The show was a ratings hit for the network, but poor storytelling quickly eroded any support for the show and it limped through four seasons before being cancelled.  Yesterday, NBC announced that it was bringing Heroes back in 2015 as an event mini-series, similar to FOX’s plans for 24 this summer.

The difference, of course, is that there were people looking for 24 to return, at least in movie form.  Nobody was expecting, or even hoping for, Heroes to return.  Any goodwill the series had from a strong first season had been burned away by the messes that followed for the next three that led to its cancellation in the first place.

The announcement gave no indication of who, if anyone, from the original cast would be involved in this reboot.  I can’t even remember where any of the characters were left off, so I can’t even speculate on who would possibly be involved.  One would imagine the Zachary Quinto and Hayden Panettiere, the two breakout stars, would have little interest in returning, given their current commitments.

I can’t imagine a world where this gambit turns out well for NBC.  The network has seemingly turned its back on developing original content and has instead devoted itself to dusting off old properties in the hopes that familiarity will be enough to draw an audience.  That strategy didn’t work for Bionic Woman, Knight Rider, or Ironside.  We’ll have to wait until next summer to see if it pans out for Heroes.