Fall (and beyond) Television Premieres

by

bionic-insidex-large.jpg

Brent Evans has put together two comprehensive lists of TV show premieres: new and returning shows, new shows with synopsis.

I’ve been down on most network television series for awhile now… Between premature show cancellations and crazy multi-week/month breaks, I’m afraid to invest much time in new series and generally have felt used. Brent pretty much summarizes my current strategy:

we’ll record several of the ones that interest us and watch them near the end of the season. That way we avoid starting a series that will be canceled or gets really bad reviews.

As far as returning shows go, both Lost and Jericho don’t resume until 2008 (I’m passing on BSG this time around) and after Heroes anti-climatic non-finale, I don’t have a whole lot of hope in them retaining the excitement of the first season. The new cybernetic shows I’ll be monitoring: Bionic Woman, Chuck, and The Sarah Connor Chronicles. And while I wait to see if these survive, I’ll continue to efficiently watch television commercial- and lag-free via Netflix. (Finishing up Season 3 of the 4400 (eh) and getting ready to start Season 3 of The Office.)

7 thoughts on “Fall (and beyond) Television Premieres”

  1. Great post, I really like the list of new shows — wow, are there really that many?

    I’m dropping a few shows from last year, and not picking up any more crime or dramas. I am searching for the next Earl or Office and any comedy that is actually funny.

    Here is the list I came up with.

    The IT Crowd
    The Big Bang Theory
    Aliens In America
    Carpoolers
    Samantha Who?
    The Incredible Human Machine
    The Sarah Connor Chronicles
    Unhitched

  2. Passing on BSG? When things have finally gotten interesting and the series seems to be winding up? And with BSG: Razor coming in about 10 weeks?

    Of course, I’ll be fair: Lost, Jericho, and Heroes never kept my interest. And, at this point, I’m getting ready to pass on The Office (the BBC just has a better strategy about letting a show have its run and ending when it makes sense). So, to each his own, I guess.

    Just stay away from Flash Gordon. Trust me if you haven’t seen it yet. Stay far, far away.

  3. I was meaning to check out Flash Gordon. Bummer to hear it’s not very good.

    BSG totally lost me with the direction the went. The Razor miniseries/movie seems somewhat interesting because it re-covers the initial stuff (when BSG was good), but I’m no longer interested in continuing the search for Earth and the whole Starbuck arc.

    I assume Mari is still in and she can join you in bashing me. ;) And if someone convinces me it’s good, I can catch up via iTunes or something.

  5. (For those who haven’t seen BSG season three, I should mention there are some spoilers coming.)

    Moore did address the season three episodes everyone seemed to have hated in the podcasts. He explained that SciFi felt the show was getting too tied-up in the plotlines and there were no good standalone episodes in season two for new viewers to enter the series with. So, they essentially mandated that he and the others come up with more standalone episodes.

    Personally, I’m thinking more along the final five cylons arc and where that’s going to go. I would love to see them head down the road of the final episode of The Prisoner… but that might be too much of a head trip for an American audience.

    And one theory I’ve heard about Kara’s return, that I think is very good, is not that she’s a cylon but that she’s in Lee’s mind (just as Caprica Six is in Baltar’s and vice versa). I, personally, think we’re going to see the old Ship of Lights appear and the humans and cylons will need to decide on their alliances… and that should be some real fun.

    As for Flash Gordon: It comes down to there being no spaceships in the series. It’s a cheesy interdimensional rift sort of thing. Amongst other complaints: Ming acts like a typical suburbanite businessman who has happened to read Sun-Tzu, Flash lives with his mother, Zarkov has OCD and an issue with people touching him, and Dale is oatmeal (meaning: Yeah, it’s good for you, but do you really want to eat it every day?).

    I hate to say it, but give me Sam Jones and Max Von Sydow any day over this series.

  6. I haven’t seen the Flash Gordon movie in probably over 20 years, but I do remember loving it when I was a kid. Other than the soundtrack, it probably doesn’t hold up well over the years.

  7. Thanks for the link Dave! I’m trying to cut back on how much I’m watching and the current batch of new shows might just help me out with that. Just a few I’m possibly interested in recording.

    Brent

Comments are closed.