tv

next week 9/30

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Well it’s tough to keep up but my schedule is finally starting to settle into place, one more wave of shows (and then perhaps a smattering) to consider…

Sunday

  • Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (ABC, Sun 9/30, 7pm) – I’ve never watched a full episode of this, but spastic/cute Ty Pennington leads a crew to totally build/rebuild the house of someone with an undoubtedly touching story.
  • Desperate Housewives (ABC, Sun 9/30, 9pm) – I watched, and enjoyed, this show for the first season but the freshness of the amusing nighttime soapy ladies on Wisteria Lane wore off for me.
  • American Dad (Fox, Sun 9/30, 9:30pm) – One of the animated shows that I never got into.
  • Brothers & Sisters (ABC, Sun 9/30, 10pm) – So the Walkers are a mess and I think new additions from last season illegitimate daughter/homewrecker and presidential candidate/fiancé are sticking around to stir the pot.

Monday

  • Everybody Hates Chris (CW, Mon 10/1, 8pm) – A fictionalized and theoretically more amusing look at Chris Rock’s childhood wasn’t ever quite funny enough to me to keep tuning in.
  • Aliens in America (CW, Mon 10/1, 8:30pm) Pilot – A kid not fitting into high school could be funny but maybe adding a Pakistani muslim kid can make it funnier.
  • Girlfriends (CW, Mon 10/1, 9pm) – I actually kind of like this gal pal, plus a guy pal, show with their various messed up relationships and jobs and you know, lives.
  • The Game (CW, Mon 10/1, 9:30pm) – So the girlfriend of a football star hangs out with the wives of football stars, and I’m not sure what else ‘cuz it didn’t quite grab me.

Tuesday

  • Cavemen (ABC, Tues 10/2, 8pm) Pilot – Ok, whatever.
  • Carpoolers (ABC, Tues 10/2, 8pm) Pilot – Jerry O’Connell, and three other guys, talk about their varied lives on their way into their varied jobs.

Wednesday

  • Pushing Daisies (ABC, Wed 10/3, 8pm) Pilot – This whimsical, comedic, fantastical, romantic murder mystery, where a guy brings the dead back to life to help solve their murders is supposed to be a gem.

Thurday

  • 30 Rock (NBC, Thurs 10/4, 8:30pm) – Tina Fey and her crazies in her show behind the show started to get a good groove last season.
  • Supernatural (CW, Thurs 10/4, 9pm) – Hunky yet one dimensional brothers hunt the supernatural, and the couple times I watched argued a lot.

Friday

  • Friday Night Lights (NBC, Fri 10/5, 9pm) – This show is reportedly great, but even with great writing and characters and whatnot they are still so focused on football that I couldn’t quite deal.
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tv

more returning fall tv

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So in addition to the fall favorites there are some other shows that tend to hit my tivo:

  • 2 1/2 Men – (CBS, Mon 9/24, 9:00) This sitcom sometimes errs on the crass side of comedy but for the most part they’ve made these somewhat stereotypical characters pretty funny, think Felix and Oscar as brothers only Oscar has a crude, lazy, maybe stupid kid.
  • 30 Rock – (NBC, Thurs 10/4, 8:30) A ‘comedic’ look at behind the scenes of a SNL type show, the characters and stories started to get a good groove toward the end of the season.
  • America’s Next Top Model (ANTM) – (CW, Wed 9/19, 8:00) Ok I admit it, this show is super cheesy, but it’s a pretty good mix of actual challenges and model judging with that unbelievable stupid crazy that reality shows (and probably reality) tend to find.
  • Bones – (Fox, Tues 9/25, 8:00) So maybe I tuned into this just because I would watch anything Angel moved on to, but he and his not yet romantic partner both have good characters and chemistry as she, a forensic anthropologist, and her team, help out the FBI.
  • Brothers and Sisters – (ABC, Thurs 9/30, 10:00) I still don’t love Calista, but again I found myself looking forward to this show. This soapy mess of a family deals with business and personal drama that they mostly create themselves, though much was initially triggered by secrets hidden by the recently deceased patriarch of the family.
  • House – (Fox, Tues 9/25, 9:00) I watch it, but I find the fact that since they are always dealing with a difficult disease in a short amount of time they basically look like they try a bunch of stuff that isn’t working for an hour until they land on the right thing mostly just in time. Also though the House character is too over the top, Hugh Laurie does do a great job.
  • My Name is Earl – (NBC, Thurs 9/27, 8:00) I just sort of like Jason Lee as the bumbling white trash small time crook trying to right his wrongs, with the crazy cast of supporting characters.
  • The New Adventures of Old Christine – (CBS, Midseason) Julia Louis-Dreyfus finally found a good vehicle to do her own brand of self deprecating and physical comedy while she deals with trying to reenter the dating world, among other things, with support from her family and friends.
  • Numb3rs – (CBS, Fri 9/28, 10:00) A relatively formulaic crime show, I guess I like the way they use math to solve the crimes, explaining complex algorithms with silly metaphors, and the family dynamic with math wiz, fbi guy, and normal guy dad.
  • The Office – (NBC, Thurs 9/27, 9:00) I was pained at first by watching annoying people in an office, I mean don’t we all get enough of that at our own offices, but this US version seems to have hit it’s stride with some added subtlety to the comic folks.
  • Scrubs – (NBC, Thurs 10/25, 8:30) This hospital comedy has a pretty good dose of ridiculous characters and scenarios but I think it works.

I do tend to hold some procedurals ’til summer reruns: L&O, L&O: SVU, and Criminal Minds with the occasional dash of CSI.

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