- Tuesday has a strange flow, with family-friendly superhero drama No Ordinary Family taking on NCIS, Glee, and Biggest Loser to lead off the night, a Dancing results show at 9, and gritty documentary-style procedural Detroit 1-8-7 ending the night (in one of the few 10 PM slots where there's not currently a procedural).
- The 8:30 slot on Wednesday gets filled by Better Together, which sounds like Modern Family minus ten years with a splash of Dharma and Greg, and the night closes with The Whole Truth, which sounds like Law & Order - Cops + Defense Attorneys.
- Creator of seriously weird (and I mean that in a good way) cop drama The Unusuals gets another crack with My Generation, another docu-style drama, this one about folks gathering for a 10 year high school reunion--we'll see if this can work where ABC's had trouble in recent years--leading off Thursdays.
- A fairly aggressive move on Friday by launching a Dana Delany-led procedural at 9--will be interesting to see if it can find a footing where shows like Women's Murder Club could not.
- ABC has two big problems in that Dancing can't run year-round, and their serialized stuff does not repeat well at all, so has a bunch of stuff at midseason, including a new Shonda-produced show about doctors in South America, a Matthew Perry-Allison Janney-Tommy Schlamme sitcom, a sitcom with a dubious premise but an interesting cast (Eliza Coupe, Elisha Cuthbert, Casey Wilson, Damon Wayans), and the return of V.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
ALPHABET SOUP: Even though it's losing Lost, ABC is generally in a pretty good place right now, and its fall schedule shows it--3 unchanged nights, and not a single timeslot change for an existing show. Of interest:
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The Middle's timeslot changed: it's currently airing at 8:30 and got moved to 8:00.
ReplyDeleteWas The Middle doing that well? I heard nothing about it this year except from people who just don't like Patricia Heaton.
ReplyDeleteDon't knock The Middle. I, too, am majorly turned off by ol' Patty Heaton, but I appreciate the voice of the show. It feels like Roseanne had sex with Malcolm in the Middle and this is their lower middle class baby. Plus, Heaton is often the butt of the joke, which makes her go down a little easier.
ReplyDeleteIf you sample The Middle, try Block Party, The Jeans, The Bee, or Mother's Day - all eps that I really enjoyed. And I hate Heaton, too. The other four main characters, including the surprisingly good Neil Flynn (I liked Janitor but thought he was one-note), are excellent.
ReplyDeleteI tried the Middle a couple of times and it also didn't take (as opposed to Cougar Town, which I am glad people are coming around to my pov on). Heaton hatin' aside (and let me join the chorus), it just doesn't do it for me. I am the same way with Big Bang.
ReplyDeleteI love The Middle (and actually quite like Heaton), and have been surprised it hasn't gotten more notice. Meredith hit the nail on the head; it's a worthy successor to the blue collar likes of Roseanne and Malcolm, with three quite good performances from the three kids. I do wonder if the kid who plays Brick will age well - I still find it remarkable over how good DJ was on Roseanne for the first few seasons vs how bad he was in the last few. Watching a very natural kid grow up and try to "act" is sad stuff.
ReplyDeleteOK, perhaps I'll give Middle a try.
ReplyDeleteAs for the new season, I'm intrigued by My Generation (as long as they don't try to cram a murder mystery in there like they did with Reunion).
The Middle is one of my absolute favorite shows. It ranks right up there for me with Community and Modern Family. Each character has these great quirks. No particular feeling about Patricia Heaton but there's enough of all the characters that I don't think disliking her would be a huge issue.
ReplyDeleteThanks for mentioning "The Unusuals", Matt. For a while I thought that show was just a figment of my imagination.
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