my schedule

Looks like fall shows have launched and now that I’ve given it a look or two, with my goal as always to keep shows to two per time slot max, until they cancel, reschedule, add, or I just get over something, here’s where I’m at:

Monday

  • 8pm – House (Fox) / How I Met Your Mother (CBS)
  • 9pm – Gossip Girl (CW) / Big Bang Theory (CBS 9:30)
  • 10pm – Castle (ABC)

House is one of those shows I wish I could give up but somehow don’t (Laurie is good but they just almost kill a person until they save them every week), Gossip Girl is a quality guilty pleasure, and Castle has Nathan Fillion who is great enough to pull off this relatively formulaic weekly crime drama; although I do occasionally catch 2 1/2 Men I would love to redo the schedule and put HIMYM and BBTheory in the same hour, both are good fun. I’ve been catching Trauma on Saturday repeats.

Tuesday

  • 9pm – Melrose Place (CW)
  • 10pm – The Good Wife (CBS)

Melrose has just been so bad I can’t quite turn away, mostly because there is no competition for me on this night (I hope the cheesiness is intended) but I’ll probably tune in until Heather shows, and have found Julianna and supporting cast to be interesting in the mix of personal drama and weekly lawyerness on Wife.

Wednesday

  • 8pm – The New Adventures of Old Christine (CBS) / The Middle (ABC) / Mercy (NBC)
  • 9pm – Glee (Fox) / Modern Family (ABC)

Christine is finally paired with something that might be kind of funny, too bad it’s on another network, let’s hope they don’t mess up my time blocks, unless they pair Middle with Modern which so far is good; Glee is my favorite new show of the season, and I don’t know why so far I keep watching Mercy it’s not actually good. Have been getting SVU and ANTM on repeat nights.

Thursday

  • 8pm – Bones (Fox) / Community / Parks & Recreation (NBC)
  • 9pm – Grey’s Anatomy (ABC) / The Office / 30 Rock (NBC)
  • 10pm – The Mentalist (CBS)

I still dig Bones and am happy that Community actually seems to be funny paired with P&R which I still find a little uneven but funny. I am almost over Grey’s (I’m never excited to watch but still seem to enjoy the episodes) and still enjoying Office and looking forward to return of 30Rock; oh yeah and Simon is still good on the Mentalist.

Friday

  • 8pm – Law & Order (NBC)
  • 9pm – Dollhouse (Fox) / ANTM (CW)
  • 10pm  – Numb3rs (CBS)

L&O is always a good staple but I don’t so much care, Dollhouse is still a little uneven but I love the way they explore the themes of identity, and I really want to be over ANTM (the less of Tyra the better); Numb3rs is a show I just keep on the list just because I kind of like the math FBI brothers and their dad.

Saturday

  • 9pm – Trauma (NBC)
  • 10pm – Law & Order: SVU (NBC)

I don’t know if I’ll stick with Trauma but we’ll see, and if I miss an ep of any of the L&Os I don’t really notice but keep them in the queue.

Sunday

  • Day of rest.

But what about cable? Fortunately those shows I’m still getting tend to repeat in the off hours so I can catch at random times, currently I am mostly catching Sons of Anarchy on FX and am going to have to check online for the final eps of Greek and Monk until I decide on a cable commitment (I’ve got some Dexter waiting for me one someone else’s Tivo as well).

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new for fall

gleeThe shows are starting to roll out and although I don’t get advanced copies for review, the previews and critics have me interested in the following:

  • Community (NBC, 9/17) – Joel McHale from Talk Soup plays an ousted lawyer hitting community college with a misfit study group including Chevy Chase.
  • FlashForward (ABC, 9/24) – This year’s weird entry has folks black out and envision their future and then?
  • Glee (Fox, 9/9) – Yes, it’s funny but not a typical comedy and yes there’s singing but it’s not a typical musical, tune in.
  • The Good Wife (CBS, 9/22) – Julianna Margulies is back as the wife of a disgraced politician, Chris Noth, and has to start at the beginning with her law practice.
  • Modern Family (ABC, 9/23) – Three interlinking wacked out families includes the family that tries too hard, adopting gay parents, and an older rich dude with a hot young wife.
  • V (ABC, 11/3) – It’s a remake but supposedly picks up with alien intrigue with Elizabeth Mitchell, Scott Wolf, and Morena Baccarin among others.

And of course time will tell for these as well:

The Beautiful Life: TBL (CW, 9/16) – Life behind the scenes of models up and coming to has beens, good bad or just bad; The Cleveland Show (Fox, 9/27) – Family Guy character takes his family to his own show, if you liked the Family Guy;  Cougar Town (ABC, 9/23) Courtney Cox gives it another go as an ‘older’ divorced woman, early buzz isn’t great; Eastwick (ABC, 9/23) – Rebecca Romijn, Jaime Ray Newman, and Lindsay Price take on the roles of women discovering their powers, potential is rumored to not yet be realized; The Forgotten (ABC, 9/22) – Christian Slater joins the cast of folks finding lost folks, late replacement Slater and retooling of plot so we’ll see; Melrose Place (CW, 9/8) – Soapy over the top drama with characters new and old, meh; The Middle (ABC, 9/30) – Patricia Heaton is back with family in hard times, hard times are supposedly funny times; NCIS: Los Angeles (CBS, 9/22) – Chris O’Donnell and LL Cool J head up the new spin LA style, hipper than the old version means something; Three Rivers (CBS, 10/4) – That guy from that other vampire show Moonlight is one of the drs in the organ transplant unit, looks like a snore; Trauma (NBC, 9/28) – Lots of explosions and then maybe some EMT drama, explosions can’t be maintained and the drama’s not quite dramatic yet; Vampire Diaries (CW, 9/10) – They look into each other’s eyes longingly, if you’re looking for fluff.

And a few to pull out that have been labeled as losers:

Accidentally on Purpose (CBS, 9/21) – Jenna Elfman gets pregnant by a young one night stand; Brothers (Fox, 9/25) – Ex NFL star moves home after dad’s heart attack; Hank (ABC, 9/30) Kelsey Grammar is back as a family patriarch recently hitting harder times; Mercy (NBC, 9/23) – Another hospital drama from the nurse’s POV.

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