2013 Fall TV Season

The fall season of television is well into its first month and full of new shows from sci-fi, to cop dramas, to the obligatory half hour raunchy jokes sitcoms.  There are 24 new shows this year, four more then last year, and I certainly have not, and can not, watch all of them.  My DVR is so full that I'm having to use our second one to record all of the shows I'm interested in viewing and still I'm having to catch some on network apps on my Ipad.  I'm too late in some cases as the networks have already axed three that I have watched or have on my list to watch. I'm thinking that to revive the television world networks should just commit a show to a year and offer better time slots to shows that are only one and done.  That way the viewers get a chance to get involved and shows have an opportunity to finish up a storyline and not leave people hanging.  If only I were an executive.

Below is my rating of the new shows thus far.  (Rating 1-5 with 5 the highest)

2013 New Shows:

• Betrayal - Just watched this one this morning with breakfast.  Woo.  I'm wondering if the producer isn't confident in this series' plot which would explain his testing the boundaries of television decency.  The sex scenes are steamy enough for cable, the main actors pretty to look at, and so far enough intrique to keep me watching another week.  Rating: 2 as I've only seen 1 episode
• Hostages - This a show tht could be one of those that only go one season or it could have a different hostage situation each season.  Because there is no way that these people can be held hostage over several years.  Dylan McDermott is creepy as the FBI agent gone wrong, but then again after seeing him in the American Horror Story he will always be creepy to me.  It is refreshing to have a heroine that isn't young and drop dead gorgeous as his victim (nothing against Toni Collette's beauty), but is instead determined, strong, and smart.  I loved two other shows in the past that played along these lines and neither show made it through the full season so I don't have much hope for this one either, but I have to say that after three episodes it is sucking me in.  Rating: 4
• Sleepy Hollow - I suppose this is an interesting premise, but I wandered after the first episode to watch a Rays baseball game.  After Once Upon a Time and Grimm these types of shows are just trying to play catch-up and they have to do better for me to watch.  Rating:1
• The Blacklist - I love James Spader.  He is one of those character actors in the same vein as Johnny Depp and Robert Downey Jr.  They just can't go wrong, and make even poorly written scripts look good.  I've only seen episode one of this show and it sort of reminds me of last season's The Following, but when Spader is in a show I watch.  Rating: 4
• Marvel's Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.  - I've seen Iron Man and the old Batman movies, but I guess that doesn't make me an expert in fantasy.  I watched the first two episodes and frankly, I didn't get it.  I loved Heroes, but this show hasn't explained anything to me that I understand.  Rating: 2
• Brooklyn Nine-Nine - I only gave this show ten minutes before Andy Samberg's acting ability, nil in my opinion, turned me off.  All I could think about was Denis Leary's cop show The Job, a great acted and well written show, and this program is nothing like it.  Rating: 1
• Once Upon A Time in Wonderland - I wasn't going to tune in to this one, but my daughter insisted.  After two episodes I think I'm hooked.  The creators did a good job of not making it along the lines of its counterpart, Once Upon a Time, which in the beginning put me off, but which I know see was pure genius.  Instead we got a quick refresher and modernized version of Alice's trips to Wonderland and then the story got to its main point, Alice in search of her love, the genie from Aladdin, and the baddies, the Queen of Hearts and Jafar, that will do everything to stop her from succeeding.  Rating: 3.5
• The Crazy Ones - I love Robin Williams.  Not as much after the dumping of his wife for his nanny, but enough that I was willing to check out his new TV show.  I've seen two episodes of this show and I think that Sarah Michelle Geller does a good job of tamping down and reigning in Williams' craziness.  Williams is known for ad libbing, and while I'm not sure that he does that in this show, he is still as damn funny as he was back in his hey day.  He has that steady voice that draws you in and then BAM he goes crazy so fast that you laugh out loud.  The driving episode brought back many memories of my own experience and might just have prepared me for when my eldest finally decides to give driving a chance.  Rating: 3
• The Michael J. Fox Show - I watched this show for the same reason I want aging athletes to show up their replacements on teams.  Michael J. Fox, despite having Parkinson's disease, was just great in Denis Leary's Rescue Me but I'm thinking maybe he should stick to dramas where he can be funny.  This show is cute.  That is the best word for it, and really, cute isn't going to hold me long.  Rating: 2.5
• The Millers - I've only seen the pilot of this show, and what a waste of great actors.  Will Arnett and Margo Martindale deserve more.  Rating: 1.5
• Lucky 7 - I enjoyed this show for the two episodes I saw before it became the first show of the season to get the axe.  What's the point of even getting started if the networks aren't going to let people find their way to these shows?  Rating:  Guess it doesn't matter now.
• Ironside- Can we not come up with new shows?  We have to recycle old ones?  Did we not learn with Charles Angels?  The first Ironside was a classic.  This show, while sleek and updated and starring a younger and African American lead wasn't awful, but I guess the networks didn't agree because it too was one of the shows already cut.  Rating:  Guess it doesn't matter now
• Welcome to the Family - I watched this show because it had Mary McCormack, my favorite actress after spending many Netflix hours watching her In Plain Sight.  While the premise of teen pregnancy isn't funny, the actors were great and gave the show its warmth.  The two men fighting and trading penis references would have gotten old if it and the show had continued, but alas, it too is off the air.  Rating:  Guess it doesn't matter now