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

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

i was trying to figure out what year it could possibly be in the goldbergs - has to be at least '87 if the older brother shouts out "flavor flav," but stopped when i realized they clearly hadn't put in even that much work

i didn't watch the goldbergs pilot yet but i'm gonna guess it has got nothing on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Goldbergs_(broadcast_series)

i haven't watched Mom yet, should check that out. besides Fox, i think Brooklyn Nine-Nine at least has potential -- imperfect right now but i feel like as long as there's a strong cast to start with, the writing and everything else can come into focus with time.

i watched the Hostage and Lucky 7 pilots but man speaking of 'low stakes,' i don't necessarily think that every network show now has to play keep up with cable like The Following or Hannibal and be as graphic and edgy as it can get away with, but so many network dramas just feel incredibly tame and defanged now.

oh right, forgot about nine-nine! i like the cast but they need to get over this "samberg refuses to grow up for some not particularly clear reason" bit NOW.

and yeah, couldn't finish lucky 7 or hostages (rating-wise, few started them). loved how every character on the other one had to have a secret - bet the brother owning a grand to a drug dealer's really gonna pay off in episode 4 if it airs.

andre braugher and alison janney are the mvps of the new shows imo, no shock there

ugh typos out the ass, there. take two:

"loved how every character on hostages had to have a secret - bet the brother owing a grand to a drug dealer's really gonna pay off in episode 4 if it airs."

the blacklist is highly recommend to people who want to watch a sassy tortoise annoy federal agents

hahah!

i kinda like blacklist. a nice replacement for my required 'spy cheese' viewing, since Burn Notice has finished

I need at least one show where things explode

cmon, person of interest! now starting s03.

I couldn't get into that - jim caviezel has dead eyes, it creeps me out

that show gets the "what is burn notice?" trophy now that burn notice is on. All I've ever known about it is that two guys, one from lost, are...agents of some kind.

for three years, every ad has just been them...looking at you, perhaps gauging your degree of interest.

it's an 'outsiders intervene in the lives of people who need help' show.

with michael emerson as a dude who made a 24/7 surveillance computer for the government and then had second thoughts

it also has taraji henson and enrico colantoni and robert burke and sarah shahi and amy acker and an nypd corruption ring and a russian mob turf war

and a TIMELINE