The Shape of Things (TV-Related) To Come

A few weeks ago, I posted about the TV shows I was looking forward to in the coming season. With a few weeks of the season having passed, I think I have a general idea about what my posting will look like this year. There are some shows that I simply couldn't get into, some that are appointment TV to be immediately recapped and analyzed on this blog, and many on the spectrum between.

Without further ado,

Shows I'll Watch Each Week, Recap, and Review

Heroes: Though this season isn't up to the standard set by last season, I'm not going to pass up a chance to watch half a dozen gorgeous men cavort around saving the world each week, especially when one of them is Milo Ventimiglia.

Gossip Girl: Twistier than Lost, meaner than Mean Girls, and funner than The OC, GG is the highlight of my TV week.


Shows I'll Watch Each Week and Post About Once In Awhile

Pushing Daisies: This show doesn't always need a recap, because each episode is so stand-alone, but I'll definitely post about it semi-regularly, and keep up with it.

Brothers and Sisters: I unfortunately have a work shift during this, which is probably my favorite returning show right now, so I won't always keep up in time, but I won't fall behind with my favorite alcoholic family.

The Reaper: Great show from what I've seen, highly recommended and very funny but also takes place during a work shift, and I'm already weeks behind.

House: Still the same quality as previous seasons (with the only team of writers on any network, it seems, who never phone it in -- so to speak), but falls during the same work shift as Reaper.

Bionic Woman: It takes place during Gossip Girl, so what's a Josh Schwartz fan to do? Will keep up, but not necessarily faithfully; it's not good enough to motivate that kind of dedication.

The Office: This is actually appointment TV for me because my friends all watch it, but I won't be writing full reviews all the time.


Shows I've Dropped Like a Hot Potato, Despite Best Intentions:

ER: Maybe, in half a decade when the DVD release schedule finally catches up to this by-then-hopefully-defunct dinosaur of a show, I will watch season 14. But for now, I'm happy enough that my knowledge stops where Elizabeth Corday did.

Chuck: The world doesn't need both Chuck and The Reaper. And I think Josh Schwartz put all his Funness into Gossip Girl and all his Nerdness into Chuck.

Grey's Anatomy: Never even tried. I just couldn't bring myself to see where my once-beloved show had sunk to.

Cavemen: Could've been so-bad-it's-good, but I never got around to it, so I guess it's not in the cards.

Leftovers from Premiere Week: House, Chuck, and Reaper

Lightning-fast, the three premieres I watched this weekend:

House (9:00 Tuesdays, Fox)

Dr. House is back and hotterbetter than ever. We return to season 4 without the Team, and House is, typically, not at all happy about the change. Wilson resorts to holding House's guitar hostage in an effort to convince him to hire a new team, leading to House, hilariously, holding one of Wilson's patients hostage. Cuddy wears a tight dress and promises to leave House alone in return for said hiring, also unsuccessfully. But when House takes days to figure out why a woman who was crushed by a collapsing building is having so many other symptoms, he realizes he needs a new team and picks 32 candidates to undergo a six-week "interview" for the positions.

I was a bit nervous when House made a move towards hiring someone who was just like Cameron. It's in character for him to hire people who are sort of facsimiles of his old team in a desperate attempt to avoid dealing with change. In-character, but not at all good for the show. The best thing they could do would be to introduce young doctors who are actually funny and could do more than react to House in any given scene. So I hope that happens. The six-week job interview could be awesome. It would be like the beginning of American Idol.

The patient story was so-so. The case didn't have as many cool symptoms and there was no funky camera work inside her body, that I recall anyway. But one of the eeriest things I can remember seeing on television was Cuddy's realization that her patient, whose face was swollen and unrecognizable from injuries and burns, was silently screaming. Horror.

In Summary: Definitely still one of the best shows on TV.

Chuck (8:00 Mondays, NBC)

Chuck is an $11-an-hour Nerd Herd employee who receives a mysterious email from an old friend containing thousands of pictures with encrypted government secrets. Basically, someone died and made Chuck the new human computer. So of course the CIA and NSA (or is it FBI?) start chasing him, trying to use him. He survives a car chase, defuses a bomb, and develops sexual tension with a hot blonde NSA agent (or is it CIA...), all while looking and talking remarkably like Adam Brody's not-quite-as-cute older brother. I'll take it.

So Josh Schwartz strikes again, but unfortunately, this is no Gossip Girl. It's kind of uneven and, for a show about spies, not all that action-packed. Nevertheless, by resurrecting Seth Cohen under a new name, and adding Schwartz's slightly-nutty sense of humor and an awesome scene where two stoned skaters narrate Chuck's car chase ("Whoa, computer emergency"), Chuck succeeds. If my crazy TV/class/work/workout schedule doesn't wear me out, I'll keep watching.

In Summary: I'll give it a dece. Bonus points for cute nerd hero.

Reaper (9:00 Tuesdays, CW)

This was the nicest surprise of my weekend. Funny and original, it centers around Sam, a 21-year-old guy who just realized that his parents sold his soul to the devil before he was born. Now he has to mini-vac fugitive souls that have escaped from hell and return them right back where they belong, via the portal at the local DMV.

Possibly the best character, certainly the funniest, is Sam's best friend Sock, who's basically a cross between Jack Black and Seth Rogen, and made me laugh out loud like a dork to myself several times while I watched this streaming on The CW's site. Andi, meanwhile, is the UST character and as such mostly acts charming and causes Sam to be cutely nervous. I love me some painfully obvious UST, and even better if the rest of the show is funny. Plus, you can't beat a concept like this one!

In Summary: Enthusiastically recommend.