Thursday, September 13, 2012

My fall TV schedule

September 13th

Glee
With half the cast still matriculating at William McKinley High School and the other half graduated the 4th season of Glee arrives a bit fractured compared with the other seasons. I am looking forward how they will keep Rachel Barry, Quinn Fabray, and Curt Hummel relevant this season and hope they do it in a way that doesn’t split the story too much or compromise the storytelling of the series.

September 20th

The Office
The American version of The Office had a lot to live up to hot off the heels of the much beloved British version.  I for one did not believe it could come near the brilliance of the original and did not catch up to the American version until half way through season 3. By the end of season 3 it was clear to me that the American version not only lived up to the original but even surpassed it in many ways. This trend continued until the end of season 5 and took a nosedive afterward. There have been some episode gems in the last two seasons but overall it is starting to be plagued by its length (not to mention the star, Steve Carell’s departure from the series in Season 6). The last half of season 7 really found its footing and I can only hope that this final season can live up to the highs of the series. It would be a shame to remember the American version of The Office as the one that was great until it went on too long.

September 24th

Hawaii Five-0
“Mom?” Probably the LAST line I expected to come out of Steve McGarrett’s mouth in the season 2 finale’s final scene.  I, of course, was expecting him to say “Dad?” because I always believed “Shelburne” is his father. I don’t really understand how his mother fits into the story or if they had previously said she was dead. Is she the real Shelburne? I am excited to see where they go from here.

September 26th

South Park
South Park is returning just in time to make fun of the Presidential Election! Can’t wait!

September 27th

Big Bang Theory
I am looking forward to seeing how the dynamic within the group will change now that Howard has been to space and back. Howard has generally been the biggest wimp of the group of wimps but now that he has braved something that none of the rest will ever be able to he has achieved more “man”-power than any of them may ever get.  This should make for some interesting changes and hilarious insults.
September 28th

Fringe
This is it, the final season. Season 4’s powerhouse finale changed the story in many significant ways, the most significant being the closing of the wormhole to the other universe. I am unsure how I feel about this since the series started to really find its footing once they introduced the alternate universe. The sexy and care free redheaded alternate Olivia, badass Shape Shifter alt Broyles, Asperger’s alt Astrid, and commanding leader alt Walter Bishop brought a huge jolt of life to the series that was previously struggling with balancing its overarching plots with the “monster of the week” format FOX no doubt enforces on them.  

The next significant change of this series is a large time difference. Most of the series so far has taken place in roughly our time (around 2006-2012 area) but this new season will pick up where the Observer-centric season 4 episode “Letters of Transit“ left off in 2036. This is reminiscent of the two season finales of Dollhouse which saw the future of the series as a premonition to where it was all headed. Unfortunately with Dollhouse we were never able to get much satisfaction from that later timeline except for a couple of entertaining episodes. I truly hope that does not happen with Fringe. Something that I did not enjoy last season is that it seemed to negate the entire story from the past 3 seasons to make up for Peter’s disappearing act. With a huge push in time like this it is likely that we will get much less of a satisfactory ending for our main characters and a lot more screen time going to the Observers. I truly hope they find a good balance between the two and give us an ending worth re-watching the series over.

September 30th

Once Upon a Time
This is a very fun series from series creators Eddy Kitsis and Adam Horowitz; the masterminds behind the Tron reboot and many of the best LOST episodes. It loves to play with our expectations of the most popular of fairy tales and storybook characters and turn those expectations on their ass (Red Riding Hood IS the Big Bad Wolf!). Although it may seem like a show directed mainly at women/family audiences, Once offers enough bloody violence and amazing cleavage shots to stimulate the collective Y chromosome.
The strongest thing about the series so far for me is the wonderful supporting cast. It is like they went through my favorite shows and picked out my favorite actors from them to enrich the world of Storybrooke. These actors include but are not limited to Breaking Bad's Giancarlo Esposito, Angel's Amy Acker, LOST's Emile De Ravin, and Alias' David Anders. I'm looking forward to them expanding this selection with Jorge Garcia joining the cast as The Giant.


Dexter
It feels like everything we have seen in Dexter has led us to this moment. Debra, who recently realized that she is in love with her step brother Dexter, is following a lead that brings her to a church that is dressed up as Dexter’s latest kill room. Last season ended with her walking in on Dexter just as he brings the metal down on his latest victim. I am very excited to see how they will utilize her new found love for Dexter in this huge revelation that will surely change both of their lives.
Check out some videos I took from the Dexter panel at this year’s San Diego Comic Con:



October 4th

30 Rock
I’m waiting on Netflix to watch the last season but this is supposed to be the final season of this landmark show. Although I still hold that season 1 is easily the best of this series it has continued to be very funny throughout its run so although I am excited to see how it all ends, I am even more excited for all the hilarity that is sure to ensue.

October 8th 

90210
90210 has been my favorite guilty pleasure for the last 4 years it’s been on. It goes through basically every recycled High School/College soap opera storyline you can think of. You can forget about character development altogether with this series as every one of them seems to change uncontrollably each season. Everyone has slept with each other and some have even flipped sexual preference a few times in the 4 seasons. All this aside however, it is always fun to watch these incredibly sexy people go through shit no matter how silly it is! Anne always gets the worst storylines so I am already dreading what they will do with her next year.
The last thing we saw was (yet another) major car crash, this time involving Dixon and leads us to believe he is dead. If this is the case the show will lose a significant cast member. Although Dixon can be a real douche bag most of the time, his character adds a lot of the spunk of this show since the beginning and it will be a hard loss to see him go. If he survives however, I hope they at least make his crash very significant to most of the stories we see this season or else it will be all for nothing but a cheap finale shocker. I also hope to see a lot more of Max and Naomi since they are probably the most interesting and fun couple this series has ever cooked up.

October 11th

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia 
In the past two seasons this series has attempted to follow an underlying theme that runs the full season long. Season 6 used Sweet Dee’s pregnancy as the story and last year it used Mac getting fat as a season long joke. This year I hope they stop this trend and just bust out classic episodes. Not to say the pregnancy or fat arcs hurt the show, I just never saw the point of them. Part of the show’s charm is how left field each new episode could be from the previous one. Very excited for this series to return, life is simply better when it is on!

October 14th 

The Walking Dead
I am still waiting on Netflix for this one as well for season 2. I’m hoping watching season 2 in a marathon will help me get through all the dull parts I kept hearing about last year easier. Many people have told me how awesome the season ended up however. I’m looking forward to actually being caught up on this show for once.
October 17th


American Horror Story
Other than having Ryan Murphy and Tim Minear behind the scenes is there really anything else I need to be excited for this? Since this season is set in the past and Jessica Lange is still in it I am hoping they are just using the same actors to play new characters this season. Otherwise I hope they make it very simple to understand why the same characters would be in these two very different stories. Since they are going with the anthology approach I would much prefer this to be its own separate story with perhaps a few nods to the first season but not much beyond that. I'm also looking forward to any more Nip/Tuck actor cross overs.

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