My thoughts on premiere week...

Here I sit in a Starbucks while it rains outside and I enjoy some free Wifi, thanks Starbucks and Bell...what a time we live in...

It's been a long exhausting week, I've introduced myself to lots of new tv, most of it good and it was great to re-connect with some tv friends I haven't seen since May.

It's almost sad to admit this but this week alone I've consumed 12 season premieres, 17 Series Premieres and 9 shows that are already on their 2nd and 3rd episodes. So sadly that means I've watched 38 shows this week. Wow. That's a serious commitment, next week I won't need to watch so many as I'll have to ditch some because they aren't that good and frankly there is no way I can watch 35 plus shows a week and be sane. Some I'll just have to drop because I don't think they'll last just because they've been put into timeslots that are just too crammed and there is no way a new show can simply survive in it's current timeslot.

When I first started looking into the fall season; a few places I frequent said it was a weak fall season. I couldn't disagree more, most of the Series Premieres I've watched in the first few weeks of September I've enjoyed and found quite entertaining. Most of it is the same old stuff with the same tv faces we've seen year after year, but I've still been entertained and isn't that why we stare at the glowing box night after night? How many Cop and Legal based can we watch? Judging by what's happened this week and even though we complain we don't want more Cop and Legal shows, it would appear that's what the general masses really do enjoy.

Weather update: Sun is shining and it isn't raining, but if you look the other direction down the street it's dark and looks very ominous.

Back to the tele, I'm going to run down each day and just purely state my opinion on the pilots I've seen, what I've liked and what I didn't.

Sunday:

Boardwalk Empire - HBO - 7.1 Million Viewers

I know a lot of you saw this as you should have, if a series makes it to air on HBO you know it's going to kick serious ass. The word that best describes this series is: EPIC. HBO loves it and they have already committed to a second season of Empire. They spent 18 million on the pilot episode along, so I don't expect to have the same grand feel every week, regardless you know this is going to be something special.

Ant's Recommendation: Watch


Monday:

The Event - NBC - 10.89 Million Viewers

The most hyped new show of the fall, it was a pretty good start, I think. Serious mystery, the producers have vowed not to keep us waiting like another show that just went off the air for the answers we crave. The biggest complaint with this one is the serious bouncing around the timeline that we experienced, you almost needed a notepad to keep track of the timing of events. People seem to love the concept, but they can't handle the jumping. Great cast, although I'm not a fan of Ritter, that's something I'll have to get over as I'm going to want to keep up with this one as I think it'll be one of the water cooler shows of the season. Although with pvr's is the term "water cooler talk" becoming dated?

Ant's Recommendation: Watch


Mike & Molly - CBS - 12.24 Million Viewers

This one is brought to us by James Burrows who's big hit was Cheers. I will say that Mike and Molly was certainly the funniest of the new comedies this year. The main characters have really good chemistry together. My beef with this one was the amount of fat jokes that were made, it just seems to easy to go back to a fat joke when they haven't had a laugh in a couple minutes. The show really could be much more then that.

Ant's Recommendation: I'll give it a couple more weeks.

Hawaii Five-O - CBS - 14.21 Million Viewers

I enjoyed this one more then I thought I would(A phrase you're going to read a lot in the next 10 minutes). 5-0 is a fun blow stuff up show with a plot that I have to assume will continue on through out the series. In fact I hope he continues to hunt the terrorist we were introduced to in the first episode, bad guys never die after being shot and falling into the water. They always disappear, that's what they do.

Ant's Recommendation: Give it another week and see how it goes.


Lone Star - Fox - 4.54 Million Viewers

I saved this pilot till last because I wanted to see everything else to judge this against; just because this one has gotten so much bad press this week. In this case; the critics were right and the viewers were wrong, very wrong. This is a really good show and people really should be watching it. It's a different show for those that want something different. It's about a con man with some serious daddy issues to work out, the complicated life he leads and we look into the Texas oil cons that he's pulling on people.

Ant's Recommendation: The problem with this show is that it's in a crazy full timeslot and that's really hurting it. Dancing With the Stars, Gossip Girl, Two and a Half Men and the hyped new show The Event. Move this show to another day and time and it would probably do well. That is if most people haven't already read the entertainment section of any website or newspaper realizing this show is already on death watch. People aren't going to continue to watch a show they know the execs already have their hands on the cord and are ready to pull it. It's really a shame.


Chase - NBC - 7.84 Million Viewers

It was a struggle to even finish this one, the plot wasn't very good. The big issue I had with this was I couldn't buy the main character as a US Marshall. If I don't buy her as a cop how I can believe the rest of the show? Plus she's a really bad actress.

Ant's Recommendation: Drop it like it's hot. My PVR will be busy with Castle and Hawaii Five-0 during the 10 pm hour.

So my revised Monday schedule looks like this:

8:00 How I Met Your Mother
9:00 Two and a Half Men, The Event
10:00 Hawaii Five-O, Castle


Tuesday:

Raising Hope - Fox - 7.48 Million Viewers

I enjoyed this more then I thought, (See!), I was happy to see a former Goonie getting some work, even if she's playing a Grandmother in the show. That's my biggest issue, how is she even old enough to play a Grandmother? She doesn't really look all that much older then the main character. I'm still not sold on the main character yet and hopefully I will after time.

Ant's Recommendation: Give it another week.


Running Wilde - Fox - 5.87 Million Viewers

It does shame me to say that I've only ever watched a few episodes of Arrested Development and I'm not totally sold on the comedy. So you can imagine that I didn't like Wilde, in fact I didn't just not like it, I actually hated it. A lot! I found it painful to even make it through the 22 minutes of television.

Ant's Recommendation: As you can imagine, I can't recommend this show.


Detroit 1-8-7 - ABC - 9.75 Million Viewers

The more I think about this one the more I like it (Another phrase you'll hear a lot in this post) It really doesn't bring anything new to the cop show table, but I really like the cast that they've assembled here. It was nice to see another city on television since crime doesn't just happen in New York, Los Angeles or Miami.

Ant's Recommendation: Give it another week, you've still got Parenthood to fall back on if this turns bad.

My revised Tuesday night schedule:

8:00 - Glee
9:00 - Raising Hope
10:00 Detroit 1-8-7, Parenthood, Sons of Anarchy


Wednesday:

Undercovers - NBC - 8.57 Million Viewers

A new JJ Abrams series, this episode directed and written by Abrams. I didn't like this one as much as I had hoped I would have. I'm not buying the main character as a CIA spy and that's a huge problem for me. I wasn't really able to wrap my head around that fact. The story was ok. Abrams name I think will carry this one to finish the first season.

Ant's Recommendation: Give it another week.


Better With You - ABC - 7.97 Million Viewers

I didn't really dig this one. I only laughed a few times. In fact I really can't think of anything to write about this one. I would imagine since it's in between The Middle and Modern Family it might last longer then it really should. Speaking of Modern Family, they played with the formula and re-cast it and called it Better With You, except the actors aren't as funny.

Ant's Recommendation: Going to give this one a pass.


The Defenders - CBS - 12.09 Million Viewers

I have to admit that when I hit play on this one I went in wanting to hate this and tear it apart. Sadly I enjoyed it more then I thought I would. See, there it is again. Belushi and O'Connell really pull of the slimy Las Vegas lawyers and then it turns at the end they do seem to care about the client. Doesn't really bring anything new to the Law Show table, unlike the other lawyer show in this time slot.

Ant's Recommendation: Give it another week.


The Whole Truth - ABC - 4.91 Viewers

I really enjoyed this one, a lot. I really enjoyed seeing both sides of the case as they prepared for trial and seeing them react to the twists and turns of the trial. Then the little twist at the end; loved it. It's got two TV Vets in it and I really like them both.

Ant's Recommendation: Judging by the number of people that watched this, doesn't look like it'll be on long.


Revised Wednesday scheduled:

8:00 Survivor, Undercovers
9:00 Hellcats, Modern Family
9:30 Cougar Town
10:00 The Whole Truth, The Defenders, Terriers

Sadly I'm only half way through the week and I've only dropped four shows, this isn't looking good for me. I'm dropping two maybe three on Thursday so hopefully that helps me. My goal here is to get down to 30, then maybe after another week of viewing I can lower even more.

Let's get to Thursday:

My Generation - ABC - 5.22 Million Viewers

Critics hated this and judging by the number of people that watched this on Thursday; people didn't like it either. I on the other hand really liked it, correction; I really liked the concept. My big issue with this is they're focusing on the drama that's being created in the right now, I would like it more to see what's happened to them over the last 10 years to make them the person they are today.

Ant's Recommendation: 8:00 PM on Thursday's is jammed and I don't think this one is going to make it. Bones, Big Bang Theory, Vampire Diaries, Community. Generation is going to get slaughtered by huge competition by every other network with their already established shows.


S#*! My Dad Says - CBS - 12.48 Million Viewers

Before I start I must say I love the twitter account that started all this, that being said, that twitter feed shouldn't be the script of the show. They totally wrote the script around the 140 character tweets that got the hype started. But it just doesn't work. I don't like Shatner in this, the Mad TV vets Sasso and Sullivan were pretty awful in this. The lead character in this is also pretty bad in this as well. The best part of the episode was when Henry did a Shatner impression and Shatner replies, No one can do a good impression of me. That actually got me laughing out loud and they may have been the only time.

Ant's Recommendation: Drop it and watch 30 Rock in the 8:30 timeslot instead of this bad attempt at humor.


Outsourced - NBC - 7.44 Million Viewers

Didn't like anything about this one either. I may have laughed twice and at times I found it to be offensive. I really have nothing else to add.

Ant's Recommendation: Drop.

My revised Thursday Schedule:

8:00 Vampire Diaries, Big Bang Theory, Community
8:30 30 Rock
9:00 CSI, The Office, Nikita
10:00 I use 10 to catch up with the pvr'd comedies.


Friday:

Blue Bloods - CBS - 12.81 Million Viewers

The more I thought about this one, the more I like it. It's got the cop side and the legal side, then they meet for Sunday dinners around the dining room table and argue about their sides. Plus you've got a very mysterious back story/conspiracy thing going on. I can't possibly imagine the effects the war is having on families in America, but why does everyone that's got some sort of anger/mental issue have to be a war vet? Why can't Wahlberg just have issues because his brother was killed in the line of duty for the NYPD?

Ant's recommendation: Watch this, it'll be tough for a new show to survive on Friday nights, but I think this one is worth saving.

That's all I really watch on Friday's, most of the stuff I catch on Friday is catch up from the crazy week that was.

Well, those are my opinions on what we've been shown already. That's why you came here and that's why people asked me to put the blog together. I cut my viewing down a bit, as a tv viewer these days are very nerve racking as you don't want to commit to anything too early, but if you don't commit the network yanks the show anyways. It's really a no win situation for us.















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