Saturday, September 14, 2019
All the new Fall 2019 shows
Getting the new fall season TV Guide used to be one of the highlights of my year. Now it's more like, "here's some new shows starting soon, but new shows come out all the time so it's no big deal." TV has changed and that's just fine. The era of dozens of new shows starting the third and fourth week of September is over.
NBC
Bluff City Law (9/23)
Jimmy Smitts is a lawyer again.
Perfect Haromony (9/26)
A music teacher helps a church choir. I like the stars but I'm not sure this is for me.
Sunnyside (9/26)
Kal Penn helps a group become citizens. It looks like a great collection of characters but I don't think it will make it. I'll watch anyway.
Coming in 2020:
Council of Dads
Indebted
Lincoln
Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist
ABC
Mixed-ish (9/24)
The mom from black-ish as a kid in the 80s.
Stumptown (9/25)
Colby Smolders is a private investigator in Portland. This looks like a great throwback to old 80s PI shows.
Emergence (9/24)
A girl survives a plane crash and strange things follow her. Is she an alien or an AI?
Coming in 2020:
The Baker and the Beauty
For Life
United We Fall
CBS
All Rise (9/23)
A new courtroom drama with the judge as the main character.
Bob Hearts Abishola (9/23)
Bob falls in love with his nurse.
Evil (9/26)
A cross between X-Files and Supernatural. This won't work on CBS.
The Unicorn (9/26)
A widower starts dating again.
Carol's Second Act (9/26)
Former science teacher goes to med school after her divorce. Now she's an intern. This is the doctor comedy I've been waiting for since Scrubs went away.
Coming in 2020:
Broke
FBI: Most Wanted
Tommy
Fox
Almost Family (10/2)
The daughter of a fertility doctor discovers she has hundreds of half-siblings since her father used his own sperm to impregnate women under his care. Sounds gross but there are so many examples in real life.
Bless the Harts (9/29)
Kristin Wiig and Maya Rudolph voice character in this new animated comedy about a rural family not unlike the Hills. I won't miss this.
Prodigal Son (9/23)
The son of a serial killer and ex-FBI profiler, takes a job with Lou Diamond Phillips at NYPD solving murders and finding serial killers. Serial killers are so two thousandies.
Coming in 2020:
Deputy
Ducanville
Filthy Rich
neXt
Outmatched
The Great North
The CW
Batwoman (10/6)
Batman leaves Gotham so his lesbian cousin takes up the cowl. She first appeared in the Arrowverse crossover last year. It looks like the pilot goes back to her origin.
Nancy Drew (10/9)
She's grown up and a waitress but she's still solving mysteries with her own Scooby Gang. There may be some supernatural element here and it may exist in the Archie-verse. Either way, I'll be watching.
Coming in 2020
Katy Keene
And that's it, 3+3+5+3+2=16 new broadcast network shows. I'l be watching 8, which is 50% and a little higher than normal. If you look back 10 years to the fall 2009 season, I was watching 8 out of 22 new shows. And that list included Modern Family ending this year.
NBC
Bluff City Law (9/23)
Jimmy Smitts is a lawyer again.
Perfect Haromony (9/26)
A music teacher helps a church choir. I like the stars but I'm not sure this is for me.
Sunnyside (9/26)
Kal Penn helps a group become citizens. It looks like a great collection of characters but I don't think it will make it. I'll watch anyway.
Coming in 2020:
Council of Dads
Indebted
Lincoln
Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist
ABC
Mixed-ish (9/24)
The mom from black-ish as a kid in the 80s.
Stumptown (9/25)
Colby Smolders is a private investigator in Portland. This looks like a great throwback to old 80s PI shows.
Emergence (9/24)
A girl survives a plane crash and strange things follow her. Is she an alien or an AI?
Coming in 2020:
The Baker and the Beauty
For Life
United We Fall
CBS
All Rise (9/23)
A new courtroom drama with the judge as the main character.
Bob Hearts Abishola (9/23)
Bob falls in love with his nurse.
Evil (9/26)
A cross between X-Files and Supernatural. This won't work on CBS.
The Unicorn (9/26)
A widower starts dating again.
Carol's Second Act (9/26)
Former science teacher goes to med school after her divorce. Now she's an intern. This is the doctor comedy I've been waiting for since Scrubs went away.
Coming in 2020:
Broke
FBI: Most Wanted
Tommy
Fox
Almost Family (10/2)
The daughter of a fertility doctor discovers she has hundreds of half-siblings since her father used his own sperm to impregnate women under his care. Sounds gross but there are so many examples in real life.
Bless the Harts (9/29)
Kristin Wiig and Maya Rudolph voice character in this new animated comedy about a rural family not unlike the Hills. I won't miss this.
Prodigal Son (9/23)
The son of a serial killer and ex-FBI profiler, takes a job with Lou Diamond Phillips at NYPD solving murders and finding serial killers. Serial killers are so two thousandies.
Coming in 2020:
Deputy
Ducanville
Filthy Rich
neXt
Outmatched
The Great North
The CW
Batwoman (10/6)
Batman leaves Gotham so his lesbian cousin takes up the cowl. She first appeared in the Arrowverse crossover last year. It looks like the pilot goes back to her origin.
Nancy Drew (10/9)
She's grown up and a waitress but she's still solving mysteries with her own Scooby Gang. There may be some supernatural element here and it may exist in the Archie-verse. Either way, I'll be watching.
Coming in 2020
Katy Keene
And that's it, 3+3+5+3+2=16 new broadcast network shows. I'l be watching 8, which is 50% and a little higher than normal. If you look back 10 years to the fall 2009 season, I was watching 8 out of 22 new shows. And that list included Modern Family ending this year.
Labels: Fall 2019
Thursday, September 27, 2018
SNL Season 43
SNL season 44 starts on Saturday. Here is my list of best sketches from season 43.
10) Kumail Nanjiani - The Nursing Home
Would it make you feel any better if I said no?
9) Jessica Chastain - What even matters anymore?
A perfect portrayal of what watching too much news feels like right now. Sponsored by Little Ball.
8) Saoirse Ronan - The Office Race
This sketch is very odd and gets odder at the end.
7) Chance the Rapper - Wayne Manor
Batman, someone gotta do something about him
6) Larry David - Celebrity Price is Right
Bernie Sanders on Price is Right could never fail. But everyone on this sketch hits it out of the park.
5) Amy Schumer - 'Lil Rent
Let's just change HIV/AIDS to diabetes and everything will be fine.
4) Natalie Portman - My Little Stepchildren
Sadly this was cut for time and never aired. But it will live forever on the internet.
3) Bill Hader - The Californians
I can never have enough of The Californians.
2) Chadwick Boseman - Black Jeopardy
Karen, keep your bland-ass potato salad to yourself
1) James Franco - The Spelling Bee
Easily the funniest sketch of the season with words like Urophiliac
Best Weekend Update Character - Angel, the boxer's girlfriend
She's going to take her kids to her sister's
Best Monologue - John Mulaney
Prove, prove, prove you're not a robot!
Best episode - Bill Hader
Lots of other great sketches and the return of Stephan
10) Kumail Nanjiani - The Nursing Home
Would it make you feel any better if I said no?
9) Jessica Chastain - What even matters anymore?
A perfect portrayal of what watching too much news feels like right now. Sponsored by Little Ball.
8) Saoirse Ronan - The Office Race
This sketch is very odd and gets odder at the end.
7) Chance the Rapper - Wayne Manor
Batman, someone gotta do something about him
6) Larry David - Celebrity Price is Right
Bernie Sanders on Price is Right could never fail. But everyone on this sketch hits it out of the park.
5) Amy Schumer - 'Lil Rent
Let's just change HIV/AIDS to diabetes and everything will be fine.
4) Natalie Portman - My Little Stepchildren
Sadly this was cut for time and never aired. But it will live forever on the internet.
3) Bill Hader - The Californians
I can never have enough of The Californians.
2) Chadwick Boseman - Black Jeopardy
Karen, keep your bland-ass potato salad to yourself
1) James Franco - The Spelling Bee
Easily the funniest sketch of the season with words like Urophiliac
Best Weekend Update Character - Angel, the boxer's girlfriend
She's going to take her kids to her sister's
Best Monologue - John Mulaney
Prove, prove, prove you're not a robot!
Best episode - Bill Hader
Lots of other great sketches and the return of Stephan
Labels: SNL
Sunday, September 09, 2018
More 2018 Fall shows
I never finished up my upfront review from last May. And now the fall shows are about to start. So here's the rest of them.
FOX
The Cool Kids
It's the new Golden Girls. Three friends at a retirement community have their lives shaken up with the arrival of trouble maker Vicky Lawrence. Great additional cast include Martin Mull, David Allen Grier, and Beverly Leslie himself, Leslie Jordan.
Rel
From comic Rel Howley and based on his life, this sitcom is about a divorced dad starting over. Even without all the church stuff, this show is not for me.
Midseason:
The Passage - A secret government research facility is trying to fight a pandemic.
Proven Innocent - Legal drama about overturning wrongful conviction
The CW
Charmed
Charmed is back but without Shannon Doherty, because no one would hire Shannon Doherty. I never watched the original but I never heard good things about it so I won't watch this either.
All American
Football something something. This will probably be a hit but I'll never watch one episode.
Legacies
Yay, more Vampires. I usually like The CW, but these three shows are crap.
Midseason:
In The Dark - A blind women solves murders. I don't know what more to say except, sign me up.
Roswell, New Mexico - A reboot of the original show Roswell but with adults instead of teenagers. This I will watch as I loved the original.
FOX
The Cool Kids
It's the new Golden Girls. Three friends at a retirement community have their lives shaken up with the arrival of trouble maker Vicky Lawrence. Great additional cast include Martin Mull, David Allen Grier, and Beverly Leslie himself, Leslie Jordan.
Rel
From comic Rel Howley and based on his life, this sitcom is about a divorced dad starting over. Even without all the church stuff, this show is not for me.
Midseason:
The Passage - A secret government research facility is trying to fight a pandemic.
Proven Innocent - Legal drama about overturning wrongful conviction
The CW
Charmed
Charmed is back but without Shannon Doherty, because no one would hire Shannon Doherty. I never watched the original but I never heard good things about it so I won't watch this either.
All American
Football something something. This will probably be a hit but I'll never watch one episode.
Legacies
Yay, more Vampires. I usually like The CW, but these three shows are crap.
Midseason:
In The Dark - A blind women solves murders. I don't know what more to say except, sign me up.
Roswell, New Mexico - A reboot of the original show Roswell but with adults instead of teenagers. This I will watch as I loved the original.
Labels: upfronts
Thursday, June 07, 2018
I only watch 2 of @TVGuide's top 50 most watched shows of 2017-18 season: @WillAndGrace and @AmazingRaceCBS
Tuesday, May 22, 2018
NBC Fall 2018 Shows, my impressions...
There's not a lot new from NBC this fall.
Manifest
A plane hits turbulence and land five and a half years later. With the airplane device, this mystery draws a lot of parallels to LOST. But unlike most LOST wannabees (Invasion, Threshold, Surface, The Event, FlashForward) this one looks good. Although I said that about a lot of those shows.
New Amsterdam
Doctor show with a far too young medical director at the country's oldest hospital. I didn't make it through the trailer as there is a zero percent chance of me ever watching this.
I Feel Bad
This looks hilarious. It's a family comedy and an office comedy. A working mom has a chaotic home life and works at a start-up with a bunch of millennials. Amy Poehler is producing.
And that's it, except for the...
Mid-season
Abby's - Unlicensed backyard bar
The Village - This is Us, but in Brooklyn
The Enemy Within - A spy in prison helps solve crimes
The Guilded Age - Downtown Abbey in New York in the 1880s
Manifest
A plane hits turbulence and land five and a half years later. With the airplane device, this mystery draws a lot of parallels to LOST. But unlike most LOST wannabees (Invasion, Threshold, Surface, The Event, FlashForward) this one looks good. Although I said that about a lot of those shows.
New Amsterdam
Doctor show with a far too young medical director at the country's oldest hospital. I didn't make it through the trailer as there is a zero percent chance of me ever watching this.
I Feel Bad
This looks hilarious. It's a family comedy and an office comedy. A working mom has a chaotic home life and works at a start-up with a bunch of millennials. Amy Poehler is producing.
And that's it, except for the...
Mid-season
Abby's - Unlicensed backyard bar
The Village - This is Us, but in Brooklyn
The Enemy Within - A spy in prison helps solve crimes
The Guilded Age - Downtown Abbey in New York in the 1880s
Labels: upfronts
Monday, May 21, 2018
CBS Fall 2018 Shows, my impressions...
Magnum PI
Everything old is new again. And a lot of time, that is OK with me. Magnum looks as sexy as ever. And I love Higgins as a woman and mega-hacker and possible love interest.
God Friended Me
This looks so bad I couldn't make it through the trailer. An atheist radio host gets a literal friend request from god. So either god is a dick and can present evidence of his existence and just doesn't for all but one person or this guy is having a psychic break. Either way, dick god or mental illness does not make for a good show. Keven (Probably) Saves the World was a much better version of this concept. Too bad ABC cancelled that after only of season.
The Neighborhood
A white family from Michigan moves into a black neighborhood in LA. I didn't find one thing funny in the trailer.
Happy Together
The biggest pop star in the world, moves in with his accountant to get away from the poparazzi. Unlike The Neighborhood, this trailer made me laugh all the way through. And I love Damon Wayans Jr.
FBI
Remember Quantico? It's mostly that without the huge cast and non-linear storytelling. Seems like a good fit on the network with all the CSIs and other letters.
Murphy Brown
She's back and like Magnum PI, I'm on board. I stopped watching after the first baby season.
The Red Line - White cop kills black doctor in Chicago
The Code - Military lawyers
Fam - Train-wreck sister moves in
Labels: upfronts
Sunday, May 20, 2018
ABC Fall 2018 Shows, my impressions...
The upfronts were last week. Let's start with ABC.
Single Parents
An ensemble comedy about a group of single parents with kids in the same class. SNL's Taram Killiam looks hilarious as the over zealous dad dealing with the other jaded parents.
The Kids are Alright
A family comedy set in the 70s. It's Eight is Enough meets That 70s Show. I'm more of an 80s guy myself. The trailer looks funny. There might be too many characters to follow.
The Rookie
I might be the only one who remembers a one season late 80s drama called The Oldest Rookie. It was a cop who had worked in the public relations department since the academy who transfer to become a beat cop. This is basically the same story but with Nathan Fillion. Considering I love Nathan Fillion and love LA based cop shows with a twist, I'm sure I'll give this a chance.
A Million Little Things
A group of friends deal with the suicide of one of their friends. I'm not sure what the long term story is going to be or if the guy from Office Space who is dead will pop up on flashbacks. I'll consider this more in the fall.
The Alex Baldwin Show
Alec Baldwin had a short lived weekly interview show on MSNBC a few years ago. I found it refreshing and intimate. I remember know what happened to it. But this show seems like a similair concept.
Midseason
Grand Hotel
The last non-corporate family owned hotel in Miami is staffed with sexy waiters and maids. I love the sexy Latinx cast, but this looks like it might suffer from the Dynasty problem. Everyone is too focused on the one property instead of doing what is best for themselves. It's classic sunk costs mentality.
Whiskey Cavalier
I'm not sure if this is a comedy or not. It is an action romance between an FBI agent and a CIA agent. Not sure how this is going to turn out.
Single Parents
A family comedy set in the 70s. It's Eight is Enough meets That 70s Show. I'm more of an 80s guy myself. The trailer looks funny. There might be too many characters to follow.
The Rookie
I might be the only one who remembers a one season late 80s drama called The Oldest Rookie. It was a cop who had worked in the public relations department since the academy who transfer to become a beat cop. This is basically the same story but with Nathan Fillion. Considering I love Nathan Fillion and love LA based cop shows with a twist, I'm sure I'll give this a chance.
A Million Little Things
A group of friends deal with the suicide of one of their friends. I'm not sure what the long term story is going to be or if the guy from Office Space who is dead will pop up on flashbacks. I'll consider this more in the fall.
The Alex Baldwin Show
Alec Baldwin had a short lived weekly interview show on MSNBC a few years ago. I found it refreshing and intimate. I remember know what happened to it. But this show seems like a similair concept.
Midseason
Grand Hotel
The last non-corporate family owned hotel in Miami is staffed with sexy waiters and maids. I love the sexy Latinx cast, but this looks like it might suffer from the Dynasty problem. Everyone is too focused on the one property instead of doing what is best for themselves. It's classic sunk costs mentality.
Whiskey Cavalier
I'm not sure if this is a comedy or not. It is an action romance between an FBI agent and a CIA agent. Not sure how this is going to turn out.
Labels: upfronts
