Tag / Modern Family

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2014 New Fall Season – Wednesdays

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

7:00

Arrow – After a stellar second season, Arrow returns for more angtsy fun.  On tap for this season are DC stalwarts Ra’s Al Ghul and Ray Palmer.

The Mysteries of Laura – Quite possibly the worst pilot I’ve seen ever.  What a waste of good talent.

8:00

Modern Family – The comedy, entering its sixth season, is starting to show its age.  It’s still fun, but the plots are starting to get a little out there.

Criminal Minds – The show returns for its tenth season with a new team member, the lovely Jennifer Love Hewitt.

Red Band Society – My initial instinct was to give this one a pass, but a few good reviews, plus an early premiere, made me decide to tune in.

9:00

Stalker – I’m not too sure about this one either, but Kevin Williamson has provided some excellent entertainment in the past.

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2014 Emmy Awards – Comedy

Emmy_statueWith the Emmy Awards scheduled for Monday night, here’s my predictions for the awards for Comedy shows.  I most likely have seen most of these shows, so, unlike my annual Oscar predictions, I will not mostly be going on gut feel and word of mouth, but will have a somewhat informed decision.

Outstanding Comedy

The Big Bang Theory

Louie

Modern Family

Orange Is The New Black

Silicon Valley

Veep

Modern Family would be the obvious choice here, since the voters seem to love it.  But Veep is certainly my dark horse candidate, so I’ll go with that.

Outstanding Actress In A Comedy

Lena Dunham, Girls

Edie Falco, Nurse Jackie

Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Veep

Melissa McCarthy, Mike & Molly

Amy Poehler, Parks and Recreation

Taylor Schilling, Orange Is The New Black

Julia Louis-Dreyfus won this award last year, and I see no reason why she won’t repeat again this year.

Outstanding Actor In A Comedy

Ricky Gervais, Derek

William H. Macy, Shameless

Louis CK, Louie

Don Cheadle, House of Lies

Matt LeBlanc, Episodes

Jim Parsons, The Big Bang Theory

Once again, I am predicting a repeat of last year’s winner, with Jim Parsons bringing home the award again for his role as Sheldon on The Big Bang Theory.

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by jim

Post Mortem – Trophy Wife

Trophy_Wife_Serie_de_TV-857495131-largeAfter getting a taste of network television last season as a guest star on Suburgatory, Malin Akerman signed on for Trophy Wife, the latest in ABC’s long line of ironically named sitcoms that then has to work extra hard to overcome the ironic name.  Trophy Wife was easily one of the best sitcoms to debut this past season, but it had a hard time finding an audience on Tuesday nights.  The show was an obvious match with Modern Family, but ABC never tried it in that slot.  Instead, it will go down as one of those one and done show, which deserved to get a second season but was done in by short-sighted network executives.

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Midseason Review – Wednesdays

old-tv-set1It’s Hump Day. Time to take a look back at my thoughts on the midweek offerings for the fall season.

7:00

Revolution – NBC’s lone hit from last fall moves to Wednesdays.  This show struggled mightily once it returned from the winter hiatus, and it will need to start strong if I’m going to stick around for long.

Well, this one didn’t even make it to the second season premiere.  Once again, bad reviews and a need to clear room off the DVR helped me realize once again that life is too short to watch shows I am not really enjoying.

Arrow – Surprisingly, the CW kind of hit it out of the park with this tale of Green Arrow.  Season 2 will be offering an arc featuring Summer Glau, so I, for one, am excited to see where things go.

Arrow has basically turned itself in to the anti-Smallville, learning from the mistakes of its DC-based predecessor.

8:00

Criminal Minds – Another show heading into its ninth season.  This one is getting a little tired, but it is still good more often than not.

No surprises here, but the show continues to be mostly entertaining.

Modern Family – This continues to be a funny show, even if most of the characters have become caricatures of themselves at this point.  But that is to be expected in comedies entering their fifth season.

The show continues to chug along, although puberty has not really been kind to the youngest member of the Dunphy clan. Continue reading →

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2013 New Fall Season – Wednesdays

old-tv-set1We are at the official half way point of out look at the offerings for the new fall season.

7:00

Revolution – NBC’s lone hit from last fall moves to Wednesdays.  This show struggled mightily once it returned from the winter hiatus, and it will need to start strong if I’m going to stick around for long.

Arrow – Surprisingly, the CW kind of hit it out of the park with this tale of Green Arrow.  Season 2 will be offering an arc featuring Summer Glau, so I, for one, am excited to see where things go.

8:00

Criminal Minds – Another show heading into its ninth season.  This one is getting a little tired, but it is still good more often than not.

Modern Family – This continues to be a funny show, even if most of the characters have become caricatures of themselves at this point.  But that is to be expected in comedies entering their fifth season.

9:00

Nashville – A surprisingly entertaining show that took some wrong turns towards the end of last season.  I’ll give it a shot to redeem itself this year. Continue reading →

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2013 Emmy Awards – Comedy

With the Emmy Awards scheduled for Sunday night, here’s my predictions for the awards for Comedy shows.  I most likely have seen most of these shows, so, unlike my annual Oscar predictions, I will not mostly be going on gut feel and word of mouth, but will have a somewhat informed decision.

Outstanding Comedy

30 Rock

The Big Bang Theory

Girls

Louie

Modern Family

Veep

The sentimental favorite would be the final season of 30 Rock, but my feeling is it will end up being one of the two critical darlings, Louie or Girls.  I’m going to go with Louie, as there may be a backlash against Girls and Lena Dunham.

Outstanding Actress In A Comedy

Laura Dern, Enlightened

Lena Dunham, Girls

Edie Falco, Nurse Jackie

Tina Fey, 30 Rock

Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Veep

Amy Poehler, Parks and Recreation

I think this category is where 30 Rock gets celebrated and creator, writer, and star Tina Fey will take home the statue.

Outstanding Actor In A Comedy

Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock

Jason Bateman, Arrested Development

Louis CK, Louie

Don Cheadle, House of Lies

Matt LeBlanc, Episodes

Jim Parsons, The Big Bang Theory

While I can see Jason Bateman pulling an upset, I think the Netflix-based release of Arrested Development will work against him here.  My guess is Jim Parsons takes home the hardware for his role on the top rated comedy on television.

Continue reading →

by admin

Midseason Review – Wednesdays

It’s Hump Day. Time to take a look back at my thoughts on the midweek offerings for the fall season.

7:00

Animal Practice – When the best thing about your pilot episode is the monkey that played Annie’s Boobs on Community, that’s a good sign that your show is in trouble. When you keep cutting to the monkey because you know it’s the best thing about your pilot, that’s just sad. There is some promise here with Justin Kirk and JoAnna Garcia, but I don’t plan to stick around in the off chance they find it.

It’s hard to imagine that a show centered around a monkey did not become a huge hit and was instead the first show to be yanked off the air.

Arrow – The CW tries to give the Smallville treatment to Green Arrow. I’m willing to give it a shot and hope for the best.

A decent enough show, but nothing spectacular.  I could see this following the Smallville path and lasting for years, with my interest waning somewhere along the way.

7:30

Guys With Kids – Having watched the first episode, which premiered last week, I can only say that this feels like a comedy that could have been on 20 years ago. And that is not a compliment.

I couldn’t even tell you if this show is still on the air.

The Neighbors – I only saw a brief clip of this show, but it was enough to tell me that I am not the target audience for this show. I’m not even sure who that target audience may be.

So I took one for the team and watched the pilot episode and, as I thought, this was not for me.  Some people actually seem to enjoy this show, so more power to them.

8:00

Criminal Minds – Jeanne Tripplehorn joins the team for season 8, replacing the departing Paget Brewster.

The wrinkles are starting to show more and more.  They’ve tried to introduce something of an arc for this season, but it really hasn’t been done all that well.

Modern Family – The family is expanding, as last season ended with Gloria revealing she is pregnant. This continues to be a consistently funny show.

Still bringing the funny, although most of the news about Modern Family this season has been about off the set drama involving Ariel Winter and her mother.

Continue reading →

by jim

2012 New Fall Season – Wednesdays

It’s Hump Day.  Time to take a look at the midweek offerings for the new fall season.

7:00

Animal Practice – When the best thing about your pilot episode is the monkey that played Annie’s Boobs on Community, that’s a good sign that your show is in trouble.  When you keep cutting to the monkey because you know it’s the best thing about your pilot, that’s just sad.  There is some promise here with Justin Kirk and JoAnna Garcia, but I don’t plan to stick around in the off chance they find it.

Arrow – The CW tries to give the Smallville treatment to Green Arrow.  I’m willing to give it a shot and hope for the best.

7:30

Guys With Kids – Having watched the first episode, which premiered last week, I can only say that this feels like a comedy that could have been on 20 years ago.  And that is not a compliment.

The Neighbors – I only saw a brief clip of this show, but it was enough to tell me that I am not the target audience for this show.  I’m not even sure who that target audience may be.

8:00

Criminal Minds – Jeanne Tripplehorn joins the team for season 8, replacing the departing Paget Brewster.

Modern Family – The family is expanding, as last season ended with Gloria revealing she is pregnant.  This continues to be a consistently funny show.

Continue reading →

by admin

Midseason Review – Wednesdays

Time to look back on our thoughts regarding Wednesday’s television slate from the fall.

CBS

Criminal Minds – Last season saw A.J. Cook and Paget Brewster written out of the show and replaced by Rachel Nichols.  Someone must have realized it was a mistake, as this season Rachel Nichols has been replaced by A.J. Cook and Paget Brewster.  As it enters its seventh season, it may not be the best move to return back to the old status quo.

Well, we certainly are back to the status quo.  It is still entertaining, but I don’t know how long you can keep beating this horse before he dies.

NBC

Up All Night – Two espisodes in and it has been decent so far, with the appeal of Christina Applegate cancelling out the annoyances of Will Arnett.  The scenes at home with the baby have far surpassed those at work to this point.

This has turned into a pretty decent show, and has been rewarded with a move to Thursdays.  Christina Applegate has been her usually charming self and I have even come to enjoy Will Arentt’s performance in this. Continue reading →

by jim

2011 New Fall Season – Wednesdays

CBS

Criminal Minds – Last season saw A.J. Cook and Paget Brewster written out of the show and replaced by Rachel Nichols.  Someone must have realized it was a mistake, as this season Rachel Nichols has been replaced by A.J. Cook and Paget Brewster.  As it enters its seventh season, it may not be the best move to return back to the old status quo.

NBC

Up All Night – Two espisodes in and it has been decent so far, with the appeal of Christina Applegate cancelling out the annoyances of Will Arnett.  The scenes at home with the baby have far surpassed those at work to this point.

Free Agents – This has not been very good so far, despite featuring the return of Anthony Stewart Head to American television sets.  I give it until January, if that long.

Continue reading →