For years, January was the Best.Month.Ever., television wise. After months of being deprived of my favorite shows, the inevitable post-holiday dreariness, and another two months or more of winter to endure, January brought me back to that mysterious island on Lost, and the high-intensity crack of 24. What is a TV obsessed gal to do this year, now that both of those shows have finished their runs? Instead of being sad and grumpy, I have found some joy in the mid-season television schedule.

Parks and Recreation – I am still at a loss as to why NBC put this show on the shelf for the first half of the season and insisted on cramming the unfunny Outsourced down our throats instead (I actually do know why, but it’s still annoying). P&R got all kinds of awesome last year, and the end of the season brought us some great twists with the addition of Rob Lowe and Adam Scott to the ensemble. Amy Poehler is reliably great, and Nick Offerman as Ron Swanson is possibly the best reason to keep tuning in. I hate singling out people on ensemble shows like this, because every one of  them adds another fantastic layer, making it my easy replacement for the now limping The Office.

V – It’s not like I was waiting with bated lizard breath for this show to return. The first effort was a pale shadow of the original V series and mini-series, but I am a sucker for sci-fi, so I went into the first episode of this new season hopeful, but not expecting a thing. They did amp up the reveals (finally, a glimpse at the lizard face!), had some more action and evil-ness from the queen lizard Anna, and put their special effects budget to good use. But, the writing is still terrible (I feel sorry for some of the clunkers the actors have to deliver), and it looks like we will have to endure even more of Erica’s dolt of a son, Tyler. If I had an inkling to bail on this show, it was squashed by the addition of Sam from Reaper (Bret Harrison), who I think is wonderful, and I hope they don’t kill him off too soon.

Southland - I don’t watch this show (so I’m not gonna bother finding a pic), but it is regularly hailed as one of the best cop shows out there, and the people I know who do watch it, love the crap out of it. I only mention it because it was dead as a doornail after it’s first season on NBC, and was resurrected by TNT in what I think is a true TV miracle. This is the beginning of season three, and if you’re a fan, enjoy the sweet taste of victory!

Fringe - I know, I know, not a mid-seasoner, but every second this show is not around, I miss it. Fox had been unusually kind to us with this show, until now. Even with the steady ratings slide, they blessed us with a third season, and then they pulled the rug out from under us and moved it to Friday’s. I fear that this may be the last season, and it’s a shame, as this season has been freakin’ outstanding!!

The Amazing Race & Survivor - I am no longer in the reality show closet. I like what I like, and I am not ashamed. Competitive reality shows are one of my weaknesses (along with sci-fi and post-apocalyptic shows), and these two are tops as far as I’m concerned. They will both be back in February for new seasons, and I couldn’t be more thrilled.

There are a few others that have me vaguely interested like Game of Thrones on HBO, and The Cape on NBC. The return of Big Love should be more exciting, but I’m not interested enough to write about it. You can bet my DVR will be storing these shows up to try out when it’s too snowy and cold to do anything else.

PS! OMG!! Have you seen this?? June is a very, very long time from now.

Bookmark It

I seem to gravitate towards the lonely, ill-promoted shows, and have had my TV heart smashed several times. The Nielsens make me cranky. Once we hit late winter I visit TV by the Numbers more often than I would like to admit. Is it really that people just aren’t interested in smart, unique TV, or is it that the networks just have zero idea how to tap into something that isn’t easy-peasy to promote, a la CSI or Law & Order. Here are a few shows I wish more people were watching.

Chuck (NBC, Mon @ 8est) – Honestly people, this is the sweetest damn show on television! And funny. And spy-y… much more fun than JJs ho-hum Undercovers spy show (sorry Mr. Abrams, you know how much I love ya’). Plus, for all you Firefly fans, there is Adam Baldwin (Jayne!) being gruff and awesome (not to be confused with Awesome, Chuck’s brother-in-law).

This show has struggled since the beginning, and I am sure the only reason it is still on is because of some weird deal with Subway sandwich shops, and the fact that NBC sucks right now, and I am grateful for that (and this is probably the reason why a bunch of my other faves are still around, actually).

I totally understand why this show was a slow-starter. It took some time to get a good balance between Chuck’s spy life and his family/Buy More life, but I think they have it pretty much nailed right now.  NBC slashed their budget and this season and last have been a 13 ep. order with possibility for extra added episodes as the season progressed (which happened last year, upping the season to 19 eps). These changes have really made the episodes sharper and even more fun. If NBC continues to tank, and there is no indication things are getting any better over there, there is a good chance for extra added Chuck again this season. Plus, they really know how to bring on the guest stars. Linda Hamilton, Chevy Chase, Armand Assante, Nicole Richie, Scott Bakula, Steve Austin and the mother of all guest stars, Mark Sheppard.

The show is easy to jump into, it’s not rocket science people! Check it out here or here and have a little fun with Chuck.

Cougar Town (ABC, Wed @ 9:30est) – Terrible title. Really, the worst. Even the creator thinks so, but I implore you to give this show a chance. ABC seems to like it, so it isn’t in imminent danger of getting cancelled, but I truly believe it is funnier than it’s 9 o’clock lead-in, Modern Family. I know, Modern Family has gotten all the awards and hype, but I think Cougar Town is sharper with the wit, and sweeter with the ‘Aw’ moments.

Courtney Cox is funnier than in Friends as the leader of a odd bunch of neighbors, co-workers and family who live together in a cul de sac in Florida. They like to drink wine and play pranks on each other… I am not doing it justice (I’m not in PR, for goodness sakes!), but this show makes me laugh right out loud week after week.

Let me reiterate, this show is not about a 40-something woman dating younger men. Not.At.All. (except for the first bunch of episodes in season one, before they figured out what this show was really about) The show has even started mocking its name during its opening title page. Give it a chance, and catch episodes here or here.

I’ve got more shows to pimp, but I will save those for another day. If you find yourself with an extra hour or so one day, open your mind and give your funny bone a little treat with one of these shows.

Bookmark It

Contrary to rumors, I did not spend my summer hiding in the corner waiting for The Winchesters to return (but I can’t wait to comment on this new season). Along with the usual baseball obsession – Go Yankees!! – I enjoyed some really fun shows this summer, both new and old, and found myself looking forward to the continuation of them next year.

Big Brother – Let’s get this out of the way: I LOVE Big Brother. Always have, always will. It is cheezy and full of worthless people and consumes a ridiculous amount of time and space on my DVR, but I can count on it to amuse me to no end all freakin’ summer long. I don’t care what you think of me, the day CBS and Julie Chen finally abandon this show, summer will never be the same.

Eureka – One of my favorite summertime shows. This year they took what had become a bit of a tired series and rebooted it with what could have been a terrible time travel trope. The characters were reinvigorated, and we got to see an out-of-time James Callis as the villian-ish villian. Plenty of kookiness erupted in town, and a lot of was tied into the time travel event, which I thought was clever. Just when I thought I would be coasting through this series, I was entertained all summer long.

Warehouse 13 – Summer has a nice group of cheery sci-fi shows going on and this one has become one of my favorites. By the middle of the season I thought it had really found it’s footing, and was just plain funny. Pete and Myka have a great brother/sister relationship going (Hooray! for no will they/won’t they angst), and they have found a nice vibe for Claudia and Artie. Leena still feel superfluous, but maybe they have a plan. Excellent season ending cliffhanger, BTW.

Haven – I had a hard time getting into this one. It felt cheap (but don’t most things SyFy?) and a total rip-off of X-Files, but it really ended up growing on me. Sure, some of the mysteries caused by ‘The Troubles’ were ridiculous, but the characters sucked me right in. This one is still running, so I have no idea what’s next, but I am looking forward to getting to that last week episode on my DVR. Incidentally, this is one of those shows I would have never given time to if it wasn’t for OnDemand. I was able to catch up on a gloomy weekend and set the DVR to record the rest of the series. Does anyone watch television shows live anymore?

Royal Pains, White Collar, Dexter & Californication – I know, weird group. Royal Pains and White Collar I put together because they are silly little shows on USA that I find amusing, with actors that are charming and cute and that’s about all I gotta say about that. Dexter… well, y’all know about Dexter. This spring I finally joined Netflix, and was able to see season 2 of Dexter on Netflix Instant Play (saw season 1 on CBS back in the dark days of the writer’s strike). Best.Invention.Ever. I would have plowed through seasons 3 & 4 as well, but stupid ol’ Showtime doesn’t have them on OnDemand or InstantPlay, so I’m gonna have to wait on that. Showtime did the same trick with Californication, getting me all excited about season 1 and rekindling my Duchovny love, and then not letting me OnDemand anything else. That’s fine, I had a lot of Yankee games to watch anyway.

Bookmark It

I rarely root for a series I once loved to end, but an exception could certainly be made for Heroes.

Looks like I could easily get my wish, as Airlock Alpha (once syfy.com, before the SciFi Channel became SyFy) reports that NBC sources say Heroes is being asked to wrap up its entire story by season’s end.

An unidentified source was quoted as saying:

There isn’t much happening with this show in terms of audience, and giving it a ‘final chapter’ feel is something the network is considering to help allow the show to go out with a bang.

As I wrote earlier this season, even the most die-hard fans have been having a hard time staying interested. It’s all unfocused – the storyline’s all over the place, the characters are no longer interesting and they don’t seem to be working toward anything.

Even the disjointed, strike-impaired second season seemed to be working toward something. And last season had a good start before trailing off into “who the hell cares” anymore land.

I would love for Heroes to wrap up at the end of this season and answer these questions/resolve these plotlines:

• Who’s the third Nikki/Tracy triplet and what’s her power. And what’s the story behind their creation?
• Adam Monroe – what time is he REALLY from and how long has he actually lived?
• How far back to the heroes go? How many generations? Why do some of their children have powers and some don’t?
• Why has Peter’s ability to keep previous powers he absorbs gone away? (Or was that just a side effect of his father’s “hug”?)
• What happened to Peter’s Irish girlfriend in the plague-inflicted future that was prevented?
• When is Sylar going to actually figure out who he is, already, and is Matt just crazy and imagining Sylar in his head or did Sylar actually manage to crawl up in there?
• Where is Micah?
• Seriously, where is Micah? And what about his cousin? And the Haitian?
• What about future Hiro with the goatee. If you can’t change the future, as Hiro is finding out, where is Goatee Hiro?
• What is WITH this carnival? They obviously are aware of HRG and Primatech. How many generations do these carnies go back? Actually, you know what? I don’t even care that much about the carnie folk. I kind of wish they hadn’t been introduced, though there were a couple of cool scenes with them, because that just adds a whole new thing they need to answer and I find that to be obnoxious.

I know I’m forgetting some. Please leave your questions you want resolved in the comments. We should send them a letter or something and say, “THESE ARE THE THINGS YOU MUST RESOLVE BEFORE GOING OFF THE AIR. kthanxbai”

Bookmark It

Just got the news that NBC Universal is going to have a show that should be very cool in the fall (still no word on Chuck, though Heroes got renewed): Day One.

Here’s the official description:

From executive producer/writer Jesse Alexander (“Heroes,” “Lost,” “Alias”) and director Alex Graves (“Fringe,” “Journeyman”), “Day One” tells the story of life on earth following a global catastrophe that has devastated the world’s infrastructures. Beginning with the immediate aftermath of the cataclysmic event, an eclectic band of survivors — played by Adam Campbell (“Date Movie”), Catherine Dent (“The Shield”), Julie Gonzalo (“Eli Stone”), David Lyons (“ER”), Derek Mio (“Greek”), Carly Pope (“24″), Thekla Reuten (“Sleeper Cell”) and Addison Timlin (“Cashmere Mafia”) — strives to rebuild society as they unravel the mysteries of what happened and face their uncertain future. The group, all residents of one apartment building in suburban Van Nuys, Calif., embarks on a quest for survival and discovers that hope is found in small victories — and heroes are born every day. “Day One” is a Universal Media Studios production.

The pedigree is great – folks behind Lost, Alias, Heroes (hey, it has had its moments), Fringe and Journeyman? That’s a scifi geek’s dream!

I just hope that it goes on in the fall, isn’t bumped all over the scheduling map and is given an actual chance to catch on. Given that all of the above shows except Journeyman was a success (Fringe hasn’t been renewed yet, but TV Guide says it is likely to be), there’s hope yet. I must take note, however, that most of the aforementioned shows were smash hits almost from the start.

And as for Journeyman, I have to admit that it took a while to grow on me. I’d almost erased it from my DVR season pass a couple of times, but it just caught me enough to give it another go. It finally sank its hooks into me for good about mid-season, but that was too late for some, I’m afraid.

So, sci-fi fans, take heart. We’re not being abandoned. Now, dammit, you just have to actually WATCH the show. I don’t care if you DVR it, watch it live or watch it online. Just watch it.

Photo courtesy NBC Universal.

Bookmark It