Around the beginning of the Fall TV Season, there were a few shows I wondered about whose Pilot reviews all said "Kinda average, but lets wait and see." The two in particular I can think of are Crusoe, My Own Worst Enemy, and Fringe. But I haven't watched any new shows this season, so I guess this question applies to anything y'all might have been watching.
So far I can't find any reviews since the Pilot episodes. What new shows proved to be worthwhile?
Posted by Stephan (Member # 7549) on :
I'm still enjoying Life On Mars. Though I am REALLY looking for to the British sequel coming back in a couple of months with new episodes, Ashes to Ashes.
True Blood on HBO was amazing.
Other than that I usually wait for the dvds to come out on Netflix.
Posted by Raymond Arnold (Member # 11712) on :
Oh, forgot about Life on Mars. I did watch that, and although the pilot was iffy so far I'm liking it.... but wasn't that cancelled? (It no longer even appears on ABC.com's list of shows)
Posted by TheGrimace (Member # 9178) on :
My assessment of shows new and old this season: Terminator: Sarah Conner Chronicles - Good Heroes - Ok sometimes How I Met Your Mother - Good (not as good as previous years) Fringe - Terrible Leverage - Good (significant potential) Life On Mars - Good Life - Great Grey's Anatomy - Why am I still watching this show? (glimmers of ok-ness in a sea of crazy) Crusoe - Ok Legend of the Seeker - Sorta tolerable (but couch this with the fact that Wizard's First Rule was the first book I ever just refused to keep reading) True Blood - Quite Good (not perfect, but very enjoyable, and looking forward to next season)
Posted by Herblay (Member # 11834) on :
Best new shows this season:
True Blood: Starts off a little slow and cheesy, but picks up about half-way through to take my "best new show" award.
Life on Mars: Starts off pretty good and ends midseason as fantastic. Better than the Brit show . . . if you aren't too hung up on the original. Resuming on a new night with Lost as the lead in the week after Lost returns (February).
Fringe: A little hit and miss, due mostly to its episodic nature, but it really gets on a roll midseason.
Posted by Raymond Arnold (Member # 11712) on :
Herblay - do you happen to know why Life on Mars has disappeared from the ABC website? I went to check on new episodes this morning and they were completely gone.
Posted by The Pixiest (Member # 1863) on :
Fringe got better, And who doesn't love Walter? "If we (bad science bad science bad science) then we can read the minds of the dead. AND! AND! AND!..." "And what, Walter?" "And I was just thinking how much I would like some Pecan Pie."
Terminator was pretty good. It was something I looked forward to every week.
Heroes I'm watching out of habit.
But True Blood was definitely the best show of the year. I was truly bummed when the first season ended.
Posted by Lisa (Member # 8384) on :
My Own Worst Enemy is fantastic. I can't believe they cancelled it.
Eli Stone is also fantastic. Better (and different) than the first season. And again, it was a bad idea to cancel it, because it's a terrific show.
I saw the pilot of Fringe and didn't like it.
Leverage is fun.
Legend of the Seeker... I'm a huge fan of the original books, so the differences really bug me. It's basically just like Xena and Hercules were. Adventure and sword fights.
Merlin... ditto on all counts. But I'm enjoying both shows for what they are.
Life continues to rock.
I'm loving The Mentalist.
The Big Bang Theory just gets better and better.
It's only been a week, and I'm already missing Boston Legal. <sniff>
Life on Mars is good. I might enjoy it more had I not seen the original first. That's not Gene, sorry.
I'm so psyched to hear that Ashes to Ashes is coming back! I had no idea. I'm not sure how they're going to do it now that they've resolved the clown thing.
Bones is great, as always.
So is House.
I'm enjoying Chuck and Heroes and Ugly Betty and Smallville and Ghost Whisperer and Numb3rs, but they're all pretty much second string shows for me.
And I'm still at the beginning of season 3 of How I Met Your Mother, so I haven't been watching it.
What I'm really looking forward to right now is more Burn Notice, more Damages, more Saving Grace, and more BSG.
Posted by Raymond Arnold (Member # 11712) on :
Well, True Blood seems to win by huge consensus. I'll see if I can watch that sometime in the near future. Probably won't have much time to watch anything else for a while, but I'll keep the other suggestions in mind.
Posted by Lisa (Member # 8384) on :
I may give it another try. I saw the preair pilot during the summer and wasn't enthralled. My sister and brother-in-law swear by it, though, and there are a lot of positive comments here, too, so maybe it's worth a second look.
Posted by Herblay (Member # 11834) on :
Raymond Arnold---
Life on Mars is up on the ABC website. It looks like they've updated the site. It's "returning January 28th".
Posted by Herblay (Member # 11834) on :
About "True Blood"---
No, it wasn't any more than mediocre through the first four or five episodes. But then it takes off . . . it REALLY takes off.
Truly one of those runs of TV that blows your socks off. Like Heroes Season 1, Lost Seasons 1 and 4, or Firefly.
Posted by Christine (Member # 8594) on :
My Own Worst Enemy: watched 2 episodes...they were ok...kept thinking about watching it again but never did so guess I just wasn't that excited
Chuck: Couldn't even finish 1 episode
Legend of the Seeker: Just noticed yesterday and watched first 2 episodes on hulu. Pilot was very similar to the book. Next episode was better. They're doing a nicer job with fantasy than they used to but I wish they would have picked Wheel of Time instead. I liked the first few books of Goodkind's series but....well, anyway, I will probably watch a few more of that oen.
That's all. I don't watch a ton of TV.
Posted by TL (Member # 8124) on :
True Blood is already over... I'm glad I stuck with it. My favorite new show was Sons of Anarchy. Like True Blood, it took a while to get serious. But when it did, it did everything right.
The Mentalist is just tremendously fun to watch. The episodes fly by. Every time an episode ends, I think: What! It's only been on for 15 minutes.
Damages is coming back soon.
Posted by Lisa (Member # 8384) on :
Christine, when was the last time you read Goodkind's books? Because the show is incredibly different. Confessors can tell the truth just by listening to them? Zed is known by name to others? They brought the barrier between the Midlands and the West down like that?
Posted by Armoth (Member # 4752) on :
Brothers and Sisters: I love this show.
Heroes: Also watching out of Habit and for the occasional goodness...
How I met Your Mother: Just started, enjoying
Survivor: God, I love this show. Human psychology at its worst and at its finest. Really really great.
Friday Night Lights: Amazing show, this season is very good.
Grey's Anatomy: Seriously bothering me.
The Office: The Office can do no wrong in my eyes. Love it.
Top Chef: Guilty pleasure.
Posted by Scott R (Member # 567) on :
My three shows for this season:
Terminator: Good action show, with some pouty teen angst thrown in. I love Ellison, hate the red-haired terminator chick, love Kromartie. I haven't seen the last two episodes, though...
Life: I love this show. The last couple episodes have been a bit weak; I'm worried what they're doing with Ted, who is one of my favorites.
Pushing Daisies: Great, great show. Funny, engaging, and surprising all at once-- like Moonlighting, but with naivete and sweetness to replace bawdy jokes and cynicism.
Posted by mr_porteiro_head (Member # 4644) on :
Did you know that Pusing Daisies has been canceled?
Posted by Christine (Member # 8594) on :
quote:Originally posted by Lisa: Christine, when was the last time you read Goodkind's books? Because the show is incredibly different. Confessors can tell the truth just by listening to them? Zed is known by name to others? They brought the barrier between the Midlands and the West down like that?
I only said the pilot was similar to the book. I meant that the next episode was better than the book. They did certainly have some changes. I haven't figured out what they've done to the confessor's power yet. I forgot that Zed wasn't known by name, although that doesn't change my observation about the first episode being similar to the book. And I don't think the barrier was torn down yet in the show, although I got a bit distracted towards the end and didn't pay close attention (partly because it was so familiar). They changed the definition of seeker subtly, but that didn't phase me.
Posted by Scott R (Member # 567) on :
quote:Originally posted by mr_porteiro_head: Did you know that Pusing Daisies has been canceled?
Yes. It was canceled on my birthday. Worst birthday present ever.
Posted by Teshi (Member # 5024) on :
quote:Chuck: Couldn't even finish 1 episode
Are you ever missing out.
The only new show I'm watching is The Mentalist and it is good.
I thought the True Blood pilot was lacking entirely in plot.
Posted by Humean316 (Member # 8175) on :
I too like The Mentalist, though I like Psych much more. Psych is my favorite show on TV, which might say something about my taste, but please don't hold that against me.
NCIS is really good this year, as it was last year following a mediocre 4th year.
I quite enjoy Fringe and House as well. Fringe didn't really start slow to me, I have liked every episode so far, and the over-arching plot has seemed great.
My favorite new show though is Leverage, that show has great potential, is intelligent, funny, and all around a great hour of TV.
Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
quote:Originally posted by Armoth: Brothers and Sisters: I love this show.
Ditto!
quote:Originally posted by mr_porteiro_head: Did you know that Pushing Daisies has been canceled?
I didn't. grah!
Posted by Lupus (Member # 6516) on :
Lisa, I didn't know you were a fan of Goodkind's books.
The differences have been bothering me as well. Though I noticed that in later episodes they have not been quite as bad as the pilot. After the pilot episode I was in shock about the things they changed.
It now seems that they are trying to stick in plot points from the books into the shows (sometimes with more success than others) which is more than they tried to do with the pilot.
btw, which was your fav book? Mine was Faith of the Fallen.
Posted by EmpSquared (Member # 10890) on :
Yeah, and it was canceled for the sake of Heroes, actually.
And Top Chef isn't a guilty pleasure.
Posted by Raymond Arnold (Member # 11712) on :
quote:Originally posted by Scott R:
quote:Originally posted by mr_porteiro_head: Did you know that Pusing Daisies has been canceled?
Yes. It was canceled on my birthday. Worst birthday present ever.
Wow. That sucks.
Hopefully, Bryan Fuller's return to Heroes will make up for it.
That's just dumb.
Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
No kidding. Posted by Raymond Arnold (Member # 11712) on :
Did you guys actually like Heroes in season one? I like Pushing Daisies a lot, but I don't actually think it's a show that needs to go on forever. (One more season would have been nice though). Season I Heroes, back when it looked like they knew what they were doing, was some of the best television I've seen, and if they can recapture that I'll be pretty happy.
If it STILL sucks, well, yeah, that's dumb. In that case, hopefully one of the other shows Fuller's got in the pipeline will make up for it instead.
Posted by Lisa (Member # 8384) on :
quote:Originally posted by Lupus: Lisa, I didn't know you were a fan of Goodkind's books.
The differences have been bothering me as well. Though I noticed that in later episodes they have not been quite as bad as the pilot. After the pilot episode I was in shock about the things they changed.
It now seems that they are trying to stick in plot points from the books into the shows (sometimes with more success than others) which is more than they tried to do with the pilot.
btw, which was your fav book? Mine was Faith of the Fallen.
Mine, too. The next ep coming up in January, btw, is called "Denna". I'm half dreading seeing how they handle the Mord Sith.
Posted by Scott R (Member # 567) on :
quote:Season I Heroes, back when it looked like they knew what they were doing, was some of the best television I've seen, and if they can recapture that I'll be pretty happy.
I disagree.
Posted by Mike_Marx (Member # 11851) on :
No one's mentioned Dexter yet, so I will.
Dexter is the best thing on TV.
Posted by Shanna (Member # 7900) on :
I am totally behind on my television watching. But after working 60 hours a week and doing school work, it certainly doesn't help that my laptop is busted and I can't even download or stream anything.
As for old shows, I still followed Dexter and Ugly Betty pretty religiously. I gave up on Heroes a few weeks and while I'm thinking I might watch it all in one great swoop one day, I'm seriously doubting that I'll ever get around to it.
The only new show I've picked up is "True Blood." I blame my coworker for getting me hooked. Its not a good show, and I know its not a good show but I still keep watching. Some of the secondary characters are pretty funny but I could really do without Sam and Sookie's annoying brother. And Paquin's horrible fake accent is driving me up the walls but her vamp is kind of a hottie so its easy to ignore her.
Posted by Christine (Member # 8594) on :
quote:Originally posted by Lisa:
quote:Originally posted by Lupus: Lisa, I didn't know you were a fan of Goodkind's books.
The differences have been bothering me as well. Though I noticed that in later episodes they have not been quite as bad as the pilot. After the pilot episode I was in shock about the things they changed.
It now seems that they are trying to stick in plot points from the books into the shows (sometimes with more success than others) which is more than they tried to do with the pilot.
btw, which was your fav book? Mine was Faith of the Fallen.
Mine, too. The next ep coming up in January, btw, is called "Denna". I'm half dreading seeing how they handle the Mord Sith.
Well, maybe it has been a while since I read that book, but it just really seemed similar to me. Confessor running from bad guys, seekerling rescues her, his brother hates him, he runs off to find Zed, discovers his destiny...I mean, I guess I just don't think that movies or TV shows need to be 100% true to a book. In fact, they are often better if they're not.
Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
quote:Originally posted by Raymond Arnold: Did you guys actually like Heroes in season one?
I never liked the show at all.
quote:Originally posted by Raymond Arnold: I like Pushing Daisies a lot, but I don't actually think it's a show that needs to go on forever. (One more season would have been nice though).
How about just being allowed to finish this one!?
Posted by Armoth (Member # 4752) on :
I liked Heroes in the beginning, but i wasn't insane about it. I mean, anything with superpowers is cool for me. I guess that's why I'm still watching...
Who here has watched West Wing? Because I'd be hard pressed to find a show before or after that has been that phenomenal.
Posted by Christine (Member # 8594) on :
quote:Originally posted by Armoth: I liked Heroes in the beginning, but i wasn't insane about it. I mean, anything with superpowers is cool for me. I guess that's why I'm still watching...
Who here has watched West Wing? Because I'd be hard pressed to find a show before or after that has been that phenomenal.
I loved the West Wing. Definitely my favorite mainstream drama. High up there overall. In terms of keeping me interested through 7 or 8 years, the best. Most shows fall to pieces after a while...especially in scifi where there seem to be constant threats of being shut down.
Posted by Samprimary (Member # 8561) on :
Terminator: SCC has gone far and has readily matured into a decent show, but it has been put into a Kiss Of Death timeslot.
Heroes has degenerated into a clownboat wreck and we have all stopped watching it. There will be some momentary interest in the beginning of the next season to see if Kring can save the show by axing Jesse Alexander and Jeph Loeb and re-incorporating Bryan Fuller; Loeb is an inexcusably terrible writer, and Fuller contrasts this by being responsible for season one's best moments. But if it does not significantly improve in quality, it will be rightfully put out of its misery soon.
True Blood had a shaky start but is ascending in quality; a very, very, very good sign for shows with such an amazingly cheesy premise (milord I am a vampyre(half)). We all like it.
Posted by TL (Member # 8124) on :
quote:Yeah, and it was canceled for the sake of Heroes, actually.
Could someone explain what is meant by this?
A few thoughts...
Heroes was never good, in my opinion. I watched the entire first season and most of the second. I kept thinking, 'Okay, I can kind of see where they might be going with this....' I was always thinking that it was about to get good. Instead, it started to suck. Hard. It went from an average show with huge potential to a major stinker plumbing the most embarrassing depths of sci-fi tropes.
Sarah Conner Chronicles, also, is not very good. I watch it because I like the actors and their performances. The storylines make no sense and the writing is often preposterous (he said arrogantly).
Pushing Daisies, like the other Bryan Fuller shows, seemed to me to be something really special. I will miss it.
Posted by brojack17 (Member # 9189) on :
Pusing Daisies and Eli Stone are my two favorite shows. Man, that really stinks.
Posted by Shigosei (Member # 3831) on :
Chuck is the only show I'm watching on a regular basis right now. It's pretty geeky. One episode has two of the characters hiding their communication by speaking Klingon, and in another, the video game Missile Command is vital to the plot.
I really enjoy the fish-out-of-water humor of the show. It goes both ways -- Chuck, an ordinary nerd, all of a sudden has to deal with crazy spy hijinks. Much of the dramatic tension in the show comes from trying to hide his double life from family and friends. Then there's John Casey (played by Adam Baldwin!), ruthless NSA agent who has to pose as a Buy More (aka Best Buy) employee in order to protect Chuck. Chuck occasionally has to rein him in ("This is a retail store, not Tora Bora!")
I've gotten my parents hooked on it, too. You should definitely try it out -- all of the second season episodes aired so far are on Hulu Posted by Alcon (Member # 6645) on :
quote:
quote::Originally posted by Lisa:
quote:Originally posted by Lupus: Lisa, I didn't know you were a fan of Goodkind's books.
The differences have been bothering me as well. Though I noticed that in later episodes they have not been quite as bad as the pilot. After the pilot episode I was in shock about the things they changed.
It now seems that they are trying to stick in plot points from the books into the shows (sometimes with more success than others) which is more than they tried to do with the pilot.
btw, which was your fav book? Mine was Faith of the Fallen.
Mine, too. The next ep coming up in January, btw, is called "Denna". I'm half dreading seeing how they handle the Mord Sith.
Well, maybe it has been a while since I read that book, but it just really seemed similar to me. Confessor running from bad guys, seekerling rescues her, his brother hates him, he runs off to find Zed, discovers his destiny...I mean, I guess I just don't think that movies or TV shows need to be 100% true to a book. In fact, they are often better if they're not.
I started watching the pilot on Hulu yesterday and I couldn't make myself finish it. I loved A Wizard's First Rule, even though I think the series just went down hill from there, and they completely mangled it in the first 10 minutes of the pilot. They destroyed what a Seeker is, and you just can't do that and still have it be Sword of Truth. It's the single most integral thing to the series. It's what the series is based on! A seeker does not 'seek out evil wherever he finds it', he's about seeking the Truth. That's why it's the Sword of Truth series. After I saw that they'd changed that I gagged and had to turn it off.
Posted by Christine (Member # 8594) on :
quote:Originally posted by TL:
quote:Yeah, and it was canceled for the sake of Heroes, actually.
Could someone explain what is meant by this?
A few thoughts...
Heroes was never good, in my opinion. I watched the entire first season and most of the second. I kept thinking, 'Okay, I can kind of see where they might be going with this....' I was always thinking that it was about to get good. Instead, it started to suck. Hard. It went from an average show with huge potential to a major stinker plumbing the most embarrassing depths of sci-fi tropes.
I agree. Unfortunately, I'm still watching. I love scifi and in the absence of anything good, I'll watch whatever happens to be there. At the moment, that's Heroes. I do hope it dies, though. But even more, I hope it's replaced with something with potential AND follow-through.
Posted by AvidReader (Member # 6007) on :
quote: Chuck is the only show I'm watching on a regular basis right now. It's pretty geeky. One episode has two of the characters hiding their communication by speaking Klingon, and in another, the video game Missile Command is vital to the plot.
Don't forget, Rush is the music of the universe.
And I loved Geek Code. It was ridiculous, like take the atomic weight of boron and subtract the wavelength of blue light or something. I wasn't thrilled with the whole Jill storyline, but they did get the best dialog together.
Posted by JennaDean (Member # 8816) on :
Chuck is one of those that consistently just makes me feel good to watch it. It's entertaining, usually makes me laugh, and I find myself looking forward to Mondays and the strangely appealing geek.
But the absolutely asinine way they have the CIA or FBI or whoever they work for behaving ... UGH! The decisions they make!
And I'm getting pretty tired of the contrived kisses. "Chuck and Sarah are attracted to each other, but we can't have them get together because that might ruin the sexual tension and chemistry, but we have to occasionally throw the audience a bone and remind everyone that they're still hot for each other. So let's see what kind of ridiculous circumstance we can throw them into that will require them to kiss."
Other than rolling my eyes over the setups, though, the characters are still entertaining. And I LOVED that Rush was the music of the universe.
Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
quote:Originally posted by JennaDean: And I'm getting pretty tired of the contrived kisses. "Chuck and Sarah are attracted to each other, but we can't have them get together because that might ruin the sexual tension and chemistry, but we have to occasionally throw the audience a bone and remind everyone that they're still hot for each other. So let's see what kind of ridiculous circumstance we can throw them into that will require them to kiss."
It's (first season) Lois & Clark?
Shig, if you love Chuck cuz it's geeky, you'll love The Big Bang Theory. I'll check out Chuck (again; I saw a few eps last season and wasn't that excited) if you'll try TBBT. Posted by Samprimary (Member # 8561) on :
quote:Originally posted by TL:
quote:Yeah, and it was canceled for the sake of Heroes, actually.
Could someone explain what is meant by this?
It wasn't literally killed off for the sake of heroes. People just say that because Bryan had mentioned that if Daisies didn't make it, he'd consider going back to help out Heroes.
Posted by Mrs.M (Member # 2943) on :
Being on bedrest is very conducive to watching t.v., so I've been watching way more than I ever have.
Awesome: -Dexter (it's weakest season, but still fantastic) -How I Met Your Mother -Chuck -Pushing Daisies (Fuller plans to do a comic book of it, btw) -Life (shocking cliffhanger this week!) -Supernatural (episodes are uneven, but the acting is superb) -Top Chef -Bones
Awful: -True Blood (The accents are so universally horrible that I can't stand to listen to them. Alan Ball is from Atlanta, for goodness sake - I don't know how he can let this go on. And what the heck happened to Anna Paquin? When did she become such a mediocre actress? She looks terrible blonde, too. I could go on and on.)
Posted by JennaDean (Member # 8816) on :
Rivka, I love The Big Bang Theory. And HIMYM. They come on at the same time as Chuck; we record them all every week. (Gotta love having two tuners!)
As for Heroes, I watched it faithfully the first season and a half (can't really call season two a full season), but this year have become increasingly bored and confused by it, and have now fallen asleep during it a few times. I'm hopelessly behind and don't really care about trying to catch up.
Oh, and this really surprised me:
quote: Originally posted by Scott R: Pushing Daisies: Great, great show. Funny, engaging, and surprising all at once-- like Moonlighting, but with naivete and sweetness to replace bawdy jokes and cynicism.
Moonlighting is, in fact, my favorite show of all time and I have the first three seasons on DVD - watched them many times - but it never, ever occurred to me to compare Pushing Daisies to Moonlighting. I love both shows, but I just don't see it. Except for maybe the weirdness of the cases.
Now Psych, that's another story. It's so Moonlighting. They even had Cybill Shepherd on a few episodes. I love it. But it's not "fall TV". Should have some new episodes in January, though. I hope.
Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
quote:Originally posted by JennaDean: Moonlighting is, in fact, my favorite show of all time and I have the first three seasons on DVD - watched them many times - but it never, ever occurred to me to compare Pushing Daisies to Moonlighting. I love both shows, but I just don't see it. Except for maybe the weirdness of the cases.
Moonlighting's in my top ten, and I just finished watching the DVDs a couple months back (I Neflixed 'em).
There is a quality of surrealness that both share (ML did this by breaking the 4th wall repeatedly, among other things; PD does it by making everything story-book-like), but I agree that they otherwise seem very very different.
Also, if you love Moonlighting, you should come visit me. They did lots of the filming a block or two from where I went to school, which is just a mile from my parents and a couple from me.
Posted by Elizabeth (Member # 5218) on :
Whoa! I didn't even know about Legend of the Seeker until last night, and I watched the pilot and one more after that. On Hulu. I liked it. I don't have a good enough memory of that book to have a picture of it ruined by this show. I have certain memories of the book, and I hope they don't show those. Shiver.
Posted by Lisa (Member # 8384) on :
I'm actually in the middle of rereading the series. As far as I'm concerned, LotS is like a kids' version. That said, I now think of the name Kahlan as KAY-linn, which I didn't before. So it's had some impact.
Posted by Raymond Arnold (Member # 11712) on :
I watched the pilot, gave up on it. I like fantasy, but the pilot hit every single archetype (i.e. cliche) in a row, and didn't seem to offer anything new other than being a fantasy show with decent production value.
Posted by mr_porteiro_head (Member # 4644) on :
I watched the pilot last night. While it was somewhat entertaining and and there wasn't anything in it that I disliked very much, at the end, I found that I really didn't care what happens next.
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grah!
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