2013 Fall TV Thread: Previews, Evaluations, Ridicule and Mourning

I think they already realize that, but he's the only known star at this point to sell the show

wow Dads is dire

Saw the Blacklist pilot - as expected, pretty generic FBI/terrorism show except for James Spader who of course is always weird fun to watch. Lead is super pretty. Might continue on this since it feels like a pretty bare TV season right now.

yow

http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BMTU1OTMwNjk5MV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwNzYyNTAyOQ@@._V1._SX640_SY512_.jpg

link's dead

beauty is fleeting

trophy wife > mom

Ncis premiere was trying to do way too much but I'm intrigued

Trophy Wife, Mom, Goldbergs, Brooklyn 99, Lucky 7 all turned off between five and fifteen minutes in
i got through shield but i kinda wish i hadn't
why is most of television so goddam dire

Blacklist is good fun imo

Like Alias + Silence of the Lambs, with a little Covert Affairs for sheen

like it's not great, but a good farfetched spygames thing

SHIELD wasn't amazing but it was pretty watchable. It reminded me of Bones, Alphas, Firefly... Whedon still writes like Whedon.

wow Dads is dire

― |citation needed| (will), Sunday, September 22, 2013 7:00 PM

http://www.theonion.com/articles/area-man-determined-to-make-the-best-of-situation,34015/

The Michael J. Fox Show is really really good imo

the pilot strikes a nice balance between genuine humour ( i laughed aloud maybe five times, which is unusual for me outside series 2/3 parks & rec) and requisite mawk, but i'd like to see it move gently away from the mawk once it beds in.

i was gonna wait and see on it but maybe I'll try to set it up. I love him so much

it's also set in a really nice patch of ny's upper west side (72nd st station, fairway markets &c.)

i feel like the show, at least the pilot, was more about satirizing or preempting any gratuitous sentimentality than anything else. it was directed/co-created by Will Gluck, who did the movie Easy A, so if you dig that movie, it's very much in that mode of humor.

Unlike P&R, which was actually a 1 hour episode, the MJF one hour block was actually 2 half hour eps. I thought the first was better than the second, but it's definitely the most promising new NBC sitcom since Community.

the whole 'he's got parkinson's, get over it' angle wouldn't have been possible even 10 years ago. i really love seeing stuff like this.

i.e. the success of a show like this is hugely important atm.

Despite the terrible and punny name, Masters of Sex is pretty good. Vibes of Mad Men going on there.

I really liked the MoS pilot despite the fact that John Madden directed it.

i dunno, Fox show seemed pleasant but really low stakes. "he's got parkinsons, so what?" is a nice sentiment but not particularly gripping tv (also could they really not find a more interesting backdrop than local news?). kind of reminded me of bob & cosby - sitcom legend's third time at bat, nice casts but low stakes. Has anyone ever gone for a third hit sitcom and made it beyond the contracted minimum of episodes? considering twice as many people watched the Robin Williams show at the same time, this doesn't look like the exception to the rule.

That Williams show was pretty ghastly at times but i can see it working - didn't know it was a David E Kelley production, and the vibe was sort of "Ally McBeal & The Last Crusade"

i mean, if anyone wishes mad men had robin williams on it, it's probably people leaving cbs on after big bang theory

actually that's not fair, re: minimum episodes. cosby was contracted for 2 seasons, made it to 4 (ratings dropping when it was moved to fridays). but still.

Masters of Sex is really good. I was saying to my wife, I would hate the title if it was all fictional and they made up a guy named Masters so they could call it that, but since he was real I think it's a perfectly good title.

Also wtf, since when do "low stakes" hurt a sitcom?

Sorry, really meant "low impact".

Bob Benson comedy riffing with Robin Williams is a car wreck, but I can't look away

Obv plenty of banal family comedies have existed, but compared to the kind of arguments between characters on The Cosby Show, Roseanne, Raymond, etc, it felt like every issue on Fox was a non-issue. Someone being vaguely neurotic, everyone else saying "whatevs." That shot of Betsy Brandt limply dancing in the opening credits felt pretty symbolic. Not in and of itself the death knell but NBC clearly had hopes beyond According To Jim for this thing.

have they even pulled themselves out of their complete inability to keep good shows on the air yet

uh the only comedies that got renewed by nbc last year were Community and Parks & Rec. if anything their problem is ONLY keeping good shows on the air, and failing to make the bad ones successful.

i was thinking more the transition from good premieres (like prime suspect) to lasting shows. but i guess hannibal is holding strong?

community seems kind of a fluke in that regard, since they kept it on by ruining a whole season of it

sitcoms without vicious arguments kinda sounding good to me at the moment, i love Community and New Girl but the need for every episode to culminate in CATHARTIC YELLING gets tiresome.

hey i liked bob. newhart was a comic book artist, iirc mostly just chillin'.

The MJ Fox show is a lot better than Whitney, Outsourced, Paul Reiser Show, etc

put THAT on the poster

having your second episode being about how sexy your irl wife no one cares about is was mad indulgent though

Low bar, I know...

i vaguely remember watching Bob when it started, but not any good or bad impressions in particular. i totally watched multiple seasons of Cosby's show with Madeline Kahn, though.

Trophy Wife is really good!

I watched the MJ show this afternoon. I liked it! And I loved Tracy Pollan playing the hot upstairs neighbor, that was super cute

did find this sweet gif set when looking for one of brandt's credit dance. sentimentality didn't get me through the episode but still, this earns an "awww."

http://michaeljlove-sx.tumblr.com/post/62428613629/deja-vu-on-the-26th-of-september-1985-michael

loved wendell pierce's bits, only character i flat out hated was the sister. man that's a tired archetype.

yeah...i have love for Katie Finneran for 'Wonderfalls' but that character was kind of a bum note compared to the rest of the cast.

in any event, my ideal TV parents to have a show about would be Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson in Easy A, and this is prob the closest we'll get so i'll take it.

only sitcom pilot i actually liked was mom - alison janney was great and there was some pretty great ensemble work in the last half (including badger from breaking bad!). strong, refreshing subject matter (reminds you chuck lorre worked on roseanne). though I doubt I'll go out of my way to watch it, i hope it lasts. while i don't hope they last I can see The Crazy Ones and The Goldbergs surviving (esp if they tone down the wonder years bullshit - that little perv is no kevin arnold) as I doubt america will care as much as about its historical laziness (pretty sure it's just set in "the '80s" rather than a specific year) as I did.

Only drama that's come out I'm remotely rooting for Sleepy Hollow.

anna faris is so likable that i'll probably continue to watch mom but i thought the writing was generally dire (if not quite as bad as 2 broke girls)

patton oswalt was straight up doing daniel stern in the narration too, presumably while looking at his check

xpost re goldbergs, obv