Mira: what i'm watching this fall -- tuesdays

Now for my Tuesday night lineup... :)

Glee (Fox, 8:00-9:00PM): Season two was quite disappointing and I'd have to say there were only a handful of episodes I enjoyed last season ("Duets," "Born this Way" to name two).  Hopefully the show doesn't get overrun with the celebrity guests (ugh, Gwyneth) and can get back to the roots of what makes it so great. Watching The Glee Project this summer reminded me of that: the great songs, the diverse characters.  Get away from the contrived story lines and remember: less can be more!!  That reminds me, I'm excited to see how they incorporate the four semifinalists (two who got 7-episode arcs, two who got 2-episode arcs) into the show!


The New Girl* (Fox, 9:00-9:30PM): I've been so excited about this show and have blogged about it earlier. I'm a huge fan of Zooey Deschanel, I saw 1,122,182,382 commercials for it while watching So You Think You Can Dance, and the premise is really cute. I hope the show lives up to my every expectation and I really hope that they didn't show most of the first 3 episodes in all the commercials (because I've seen MANY different scenes in all those commercials). By the way, it's kind of a big deal that I've watched the commercials: I have DVR and can, and usually do, fast forward through them but I watched it anyway.


Ringer* (The CW, 9:00-10:00PM): I'm not quite sure what this show is about and it sounds awfully similar to an ABC Family show I've been watching, The Lying Game. A twin sister taking over the life of the other twin sister and then having to deal with the repercussions of the life that the second sister left behind?  Whatever it is, I'll give it a try because Sarah Michelle Gellar (Buffy!) is back on TV.


Parenthood (NBC, 10:00-11:00PM): This show was slow in take-off but has built such a great, diverse set of characters and relationships.  Where the stories left off: Adam learns Christina is preggerz and there looks to be potential for a Jasmine-Crosby reunion. I love how the show makes you feel like you're in each scene with the Bravermans and observing family dialogue in an intimate setting. There are good surprises, the right disappointments, twists for the sake of growth and not story line; great show and I can't wait to see what happens with the Bravermans this year!

Shows that will also be on my DVR, but I'm not watching:
NCIS (CBS, 8:00-9:00PM)
NCIS: LA (CBS, 9:00-10:00PM)

Body of Proof (ABC, 10:00-11:00PM)
Unforgettable* (CBS, 10:00-11:00PM)

* New show.

fall 2010

My life has been especially nutso this semester with school and work and, well, trying to keep my DVR percentage low enough to record all the shows in the coming week (it's a hard life!), so blogging has been difficult... But here's a quick little run down of my opinions on Fall TV thus far:

Shows I've already dropped:
- $#*! My Dad Says -- The comedic pauses are just awkward and annoying. Shatner is not the most annoying actor on the show, which already speaks volumes in my mind. One last thing, the show had one funny line and it was not shit said by the dad. Shatner is at the DMV taking the eye exam and is asked to read the large E at the top of the chart. Shatner: "I've never been rear-ended by a large letter E." DMV employee: "You've never driven on Sesame Street."
- Running Wilde -- I love Keri Russell but even she can't keep this show on my priority watch list.
- 90210 (though I dropped it halfway through last season) -- I know I already dropped this, but seeing the stuff going on and reading the spoilers on what is to come... Good riddance!
- Life Unexpected -- Jenn's entry sums it up perfectly. Forced dramatic story lines are just too much! Though it cracks me up that a Melrose Place (new, not old) reject has landed over here.

Shows I'm already committed to:
- Nikita -- Somehow this show became an immediate watch show for me, but I really like the complexity of each character and the fact that they all contribute layers of depth to the show.
- Hellcats -- I like peppy tv shows.
- Grey's Anatomy -- I forgot about the season ending with the shooting spree and the new season dealing with aftermath of that has been built up brilliant so far.
- Private Practice -- I still like the characters on the show enough to keep watching it, though the storylines aren't captivating.
- Parenthood -- This show just keeps getting better for me. The best family drama.

Shows I meant to watch but forgot about:
- Better With You -- Like Jenn, I really like Joanna Garcia.

Shows still sitting on my DVR:
- Lone Star
- The Event
- Hawaii Five-O
- Undercovers
- The Whole Truth
- My Generation
- Chuck

Shows I'm still looking forward to:
- No Ordinary Family -- But the stupid show is on at the same time as Glee and NCIS! Sigh, so this may end up going the route of Modern Family, where I mean to catch up online but forget to. Hopefully not!
- Glee, Episode 2 (cuz Episode 1 was a bit disappointing) -- Cannot wait for Brittany (my favorite character!) and BRITNEY (Spears)!
- The Good Wife
- Friday Night Lights, the final season! :(

On the cusp:
- Outlaw
- How I Met Your Mother -- We better meet the stupid mother this season. And that wedding in the season premier better be Barney and Robin's wedding.
- Gossip Girl

BTW, an awful lot of weddings in the season premier this year -- Grey's Anatomy had one, Private Practice had one, HIMYM had one!

Parenthood

At first I thought that Parenthood was going to be a lot like Brothers & Sisters, a melodrama about a large white, affluent California family with four adult children. But now that a few episodes have aired, it's become evident that this show is actually sticking extremely close to its title. Whereas B&S is more about the siblings' romantic lives and relationships with each other, Parenthood's storylines are nearly all about well, parenthood.

There's Adam (Peter Krause, who I always love) and his wife, Kristina, dealing with their son Max, who's just been diagnosed with Asperger's, and their daughter Haddie, a "good girl" who's just starting to act out and have boy drama. There's Sarah (Lauren Graham, playing a sort of alterna-world Lorelai Gilmore) as a single mom moving her two kids back to her hometown and parents' house. There's Crosby (Dax Shepherd, surprisingly not bad), the overgrown child with commitment issues and a girlfriend pressuring him to have a baby, finding out that he has a son from a past relationship. And there's Julia (Erika Christensen, perhaps miscast), a working mom whose husband Joel is a stay-at-home dad, worrying that their daughter Sydney (definitely one of the cutest kids on TV right now) is more a daddy's girl.

And really, that's kind of all you need to know. The Asperger's storyline has been maybe a little different (executive producer Jason Katims has an autistic son) but the rest is generally pretty much what you'd expect. The acting is generally pretty good, the writing is strong even when the stories are predictable, and yes, the whole clan gets together for dinner and baseball games and pool parties way more often than real-life scheduling should allow for.

I guess I'm in the stage of life between being a child and being a parent so I can't say I much relate to any of the characters on this show, but so far it's been pretty enjoyable. But I get the feeling that this is one of those shows that I like now because it's something new but that I might tire of later on, kind of like I did with B&S...

extremely early new show love

Life Unexpected has taken me by surprise. I guess I saw all the positive reviews for it and I recognized it was being compared to shows/movies I like such as Gilmore Girls, Juno, etc. Oh, and Everwood, which I didn't watch. But I still wasn't expecting much, and I was definitely proven wrong!

First episodes are tough with shows because there's so much to set up, but this was done beautifully and made me enjoy each and every scene in it. I was afraid that Shiri Appleby's character could be really annoying, but it turned out to be a perfect blend of screwed up and perfect. And the actress playing Lux (whose name I'm sure I will one day soon learn and remember) was way more likable than Rory Gilmore. :)

In any case, the show made me teary-eyed a few times and it made me laugh, too. So all in all, I'm looking forward to what should be a promising new show! :D Fortunately for Life Unexpected, it doesn't have to undergo too much scrutiny and comparison to Parenthood just yet since it's another 5 weeks before Parenthood starts. Though, premise of Parenthood may be more similar to Modern Family than Life Unexpected. For whatever reason, I've been lumping Parenthood and Life Unexpected together in my head. Okay, this is rambly. I'm going to bed. :)