Tag / Once Upon A Time

by admin

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Last season’s mystery has been replaced by the occassional undercover plot, but still a consistent, if unspectacular, performer.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

Midseason Review – Sundays

As we start to gear up for midseason premieres and February sweeps, let’s take a look back at what I said and thought back in September.

ABC

Pan Am – ABC’s attempt to hop on the Mad Men brigade premieres tonight, with Christina Ricci making her move to television.  It looks somewhat interesting, so I will give it a shot.

Not a bad show, but it didn’t take off (see what I did there?) as expected.  Kelli Garner made more of an impression than Christina Ricci did, but that still wasn’t enough to save the show.

Once Upon A Time, which I either didn’t plan on watching or didn’t include because it didn’t start until late October, turned out to be pretty good and one of the highest rated new shows of the season.

CBS

The Good Wife – Slowly built itself up to a top performer last season and should do even better on Sundays without much competition.  The only problem with the new timeslot will be in the fall due to football overruns.

Still a strong performer.  Should be much easier to watch now that football is over and it will air at a consistent time.

Not included in the fall were the cable shows that made up most of my Sunday night viewings, The Walking Dead, Dexter, and Homeland.  TWD started and ended strong, but spent entirely too much time on a plot that should have taken 2 episodes, 3 tops.  Dexter explored religion and whether it was possible for a serial killer to grow.  Homeland was the breakout hit of the fall, with both Claire Danes and Damian Lewis giving standout performances.

New shows for the spring include the second season of Shameless and the new show House of Lies, both of which premiered on Showtime earlier this month.