- Mondays at 10--Castle v. The Blacklist v. Hostages--Castle was hit or miss last year (the ludicrous Taken-esque two-parter and the silly "Beckett's mother" mythology stuff were low points), and Blacklist and Hostages are both getting big promo pushes. Hostages seems to raise a lot of questions of if there's a show there long-term, so I think it loses the third slot, especially since CBS will assuredly repeat it on Fridays.
- Tuesdays at 8--NCIS v. The Originals v. Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. v. The Biggest Loser v. Brooklyn Nine-Nine/Dads--Given its pedigree, SHIELD gets priority here. The other slot is tough, I've never watched Vampire Diaries, so a spinoff isn't a high priority for me, so that's out. The very positive reception to Brooklyn Nine-Nine means it gets a shot for me over NCIS, again, in part because I know CBS will rerun the episodes later.
- Thursdays at 9--Grey's Anatomy v. Reign v. Glee v. The Crazy Ones/Two and A Half Men v. Sean Saves The World/The Michael J. Fox Show--This is the murderer's row slot. Grey's stays--despite some ups and downs, the show is coming off a solid season, and the newer characters are working well with the ensemble. I gave up Glee last season due to conflicts in this slot, and watching the repeats this summer has confirmed I made the right decision (the Lima stuff is terrible, and the NYC stuff is little more than wish fulfillment). Reign looks interesting, but I can't realistically give it a shot in this slot. Much as I love Amber Tamblyn, she's not getting me to watch 2.5 Men, nor is Megan Hilty enough to make me want to watch Sean (though Victor Fresco, who created Better Off Ted and Andy Richter Controls The Universe, as showrunner gives me hope). The Crazy Ones could be a complete trainwreck, but it should be a fascinating one, and I have enough residual goodwill for Michael J. Fox that I'll take him on.
Wednesday, August 28, 2013
DUAL TUNER DILEMMAS: With the new fall TV season fast approaching, it's time to look at the tough DVR dilemmas:
This is a little embarrassing but I guess my big one will be Thursdays at 8. I'm in it for the long haul with Parks and Rec and Big Bang Theory, but Once Upon a Time in Wonderland has Naveen Andrews (plus I like original OUAT a lot despite not being able to keep up with it). I guess I'll just save Wonderland for online streaming since the other two are better for watching together on the big TV.
ReplyDeleteOther new shows of interest are Mom, Michael J. Fox, SHIELD, and Brooklyn Nine-Nine.
I'm the last fan standing for Glee so I actually watch that live in my bedroom while Greys and the NBC sitcoms (both old and new) are being tivo'd. Grey's will be relegated to online streaming, as they were last year if I can't watch Glee live. Glee is the ONLY thing I watch live and that's because I'm so involved in the lesbian blogging/tweeting insanity that happens while the show is airing. (I'll admit to often watching Pretty Little Liars live for the same reason. OMG on the PLL reveal last night!)
ReplyDeleteI will give enormous credit that Naya Rivera is landing some pretty tricky stuff on Glee. The "At The Ballet" number worked really really well for her.
ReplyDelete(Contrast with the utterly ridiculous "catfishing" plot going on in the other half of the show.)
Or just get a 6-tuner Tivo and not need to worry about the conflicts.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I think the only time that actually would require more than 2-tuners is Sundays at 9 with football, TAR overrun/Good Wife, Homeland, and Boardwalk Empire (although with HBO GO and same-day reruns, the premium cablers are easy to reschedule) and possibly some weekday nights at 10 with various cable shows, since I have absolutely no idea when some of them actually first run.
But as far as network shows I'm going to pick up in the fall, it's probably Agents of Acronym, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, and Michael J. Fox
Jesus, that Tuesday slot is murder; I guess Shield, then Brooklyn 99 and save NCIS for reruns.
ReplyDeleteThursday is easy: Michael J. Fox Show and nothing else in that slot (sorry, Victor Fresco, I've loved your work but your show still has Sean Hayes and that's a dealbreaker).
Sep 22nd in Chicago is something I'll be curious to see as to ratings; NBC will win with the Bears playing a night game, but that's also the penultimate episode of Breaking Bad, the series finale of Dexter and the Emmys.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to go home and smooch my 4-tuner TiVo. It'll save me this year! But this post reminds me to create my list. Thursday doesn't look like so much of a challenge for me, but that Tuesday slot is a bit of a beast. Am I going to watch The Originals? I haven't decided yet.
ReplyDeleteHas Once Upon a Time in Wonderland already explained in original OUAT? We watch that regularly, but this is the first I heard of the spinoff. Definitely going to record Parks and Rec and BBT.
ReplyDeleteNaya Rivera is the one person from Glee who I very much want to see after the show is done. There are others who I think are good when I occasionally watch now (Chris Colfer, Heather Morris, Darren Criss), though the plots this season have mostly driven me away, but Rivera's the one who has done the best work, I think.
ReplyDeleteRivera has shown surprising nuance given the character she was originally hired for. I'm also awaiting Dianna Agron's inevitable tell-all, as it's been suggested that the response to her complaints about her character was to give her increasingly bizarro plot twists and character point, and she did nice work. Glad to see her free. (And casting her as Michelle Pfeffer's daughter? Kind of perfect.)
ReplyDeleteI don't know because I really got so behind on OUAT that there was little chance of catching up. I just tune in when Jorge Garcia is guesting because I love him. The only reason I know about the spin-off is because I'll click on anything that has anything to do with Naveen Andrews. Apparently it's self-contained and limited in scope but there is some character overlap...Barbara Hershey has appeared on the original as the Queen of Hearts?
ReplyDeleteThe weird thing (other than the fact that Hershey and Andrews are one of the weirder sets of exes to be appearing in the same show) is that all the other announced characters either appear to be original or from the Wonderland books except that Naveen is playing...Jafar.
They seem to be enormously high on Once:Wonderland, greenlighting it to series based on not even a pilot script, but a 20 minute mini-pilot, and giving it a regular season launch rather than the rumored "gap filler" slot between a split season of Once.
ReplyDeleteThat said, it's been given a suicide mission of a timeslot, against Big Bang, Parks, X Factor Results, and Vampire Diaries, which ABC hasn't had a hit in since Ugly Betty and seems to constantly go to Wipeout to fill.
I am intrigued by Reign which makes no sense given my ongoing refusal to watch "Braveheart" for it's lack of history. But I never had to diagram the Mary Paris years, so that may be it.
ReplyDeleteThe casting for Once Wonderland is interesting, as is some of the casting for original version Once, but I found the story really frustrating last season, so I'm not sure it's enough to hook me long term again.