That Time of Year
For my husband it’s football season. For me, it begins with Entertainment Weekly’s Fall TV Preview. Since I’m a subscriber this year, it was delivered to my home, and I didn’t have to spend fruitless weeks scanning the shelves at Target, and harassing the booksellers at Barnes and Noble to see when it hit the stand.
This year, though, I’ve let a lot more TV-critic cooks in the kitchen of my what-to-watch debate. I started out with a long list. I pared it down to a short list. I think I’ve rebounded back up to a long list, though perhaps a slightly different one.
Aiding and abetting me in my Fall TV nerdish obsessing:
The girls at Everybody Loves Saturday Night
The vidiots at TeeVee
Maureen Ryan’s The Watcher at The Chicago Tribune
The new Variety television blog Season Pass, especially its geek-tastic critic’s pick chart
Returning shows I’m going to watch:
How I Met Your Mother (I picked this up in summer reruns; it’s hilarious)
Heroes
Bones
House
My Name is Earl
The Office
30 Rock (also started watching this summer; it’s also hilarious)
Friday Night Lights (can’t fight the acclaim any longer; I’ll start watching this fall)
After much rumination, I think I’m going to audition these new shows for my roster:
Monday, I’ll have to choose among The Big Bang Theory, Chuck, and Aliens in America, since my Tivo can only record two shows at once. (Oh, hardship.)
Tuesday has The Reaper.
Wednesday, I am geekily excited for Bionic Woman; Jaime Summers was one of my first childhood heroines. Even though reviews have been mixed, I’m hoping for a Battlestar Galactic-like reboot. Pushing Daisies is also getting mixed reviews, but sounds so divisive I’m wondering which end I’d fall on. And Peter Krause in Dirty Sexy Money seems like a no brainer.
Thursday I might check out Big Shots, because Veronica Mars creator Rob Thomas was brought on as a producer.
And Friday’s Women’s Murder Club might have potential.
The moment of truth: if I watch all these shows every week, my total weekly TV consumption will be, drumroll please….
Fourteen. Ack. An average of two hours per night. Forget it. I need to read, too. If only I can restrain myself, and leave others to uncover the trash and treasures, I may still make my book challenge by the end of the year.
September 19th, 2007 at 1:24 am
What about top chef and project runway?
Very glad to hear you’re watching heroes, you haven’t mentioned it before and now that it’s started in the UK I couldn’t understand why it wouldn’t be your thing.
We don’t have most of the shows you mention, but I will keep an eye open. Except Bones. Watched one episode, H couldn’t stand it so I gave up. Should i be persevering?
September 19th, 2007 at 9:21 am
I didn’t list Top Chef and Project Runway because they’re limited duration, non-network shows, even though they’re at the top of my to-watch list. I also am watching The Daily Show more; it makes me laugh.
I started Heroes last year, then dropped out because it annoyed me. But G. Grod kept watching, and when he swore it got better I picked it up again, and was glad to have done so. I thought it took a while to get its stride. I did the same thing with House, and maybe with Bones.
Bones is uneven, IMO, so not a must see. What works best is the banter among the characters. The mysteries (to me) are less interesting. And I really don’t like the lead character’s backstory episodes with her parents and brother, though others really do.
September 19th, 2007 at 1:17 pm
i feel your pain girl. i think my list of ‘things i want to try at least once PLUS things i am definitely watching’ came out to something like 29 hours. even in one week there’s no way i’ll end up watching all of those! crazy talk!