Friday, September 18, 2009

2009-2010 TV: Monday

7-8PM



How I Met Your Mother. (CBS 7-7:30PM) premieres 9/21

Still one of the most consistently well-written sitcoms on tv. And after 4-seasons, the media and networks are finally giving it the credit it deserves. Neil Patrick-Harris as Barney is worth watching in this every week. What is up with Season 5? Not sure, but I would imagine they'll bring Alyson Hannigan back more regularly. For some reason she was MIA for a good portion of the 2nd half of last season.

edit: apparently she had her 1st baby last March, so maybe that explains some of it.

Why this was moved to 7PM and Big Bang Theory got bumped out until 8:30PM is strange, other than perhaps the network is trying to help the new Jenna Elfman show and figure it'll be a stronger lead-in. I wouldn't be surprised by mid-season the TBBT/HIMYM 7/7:30 lineup comes back.

Accidentally On Purpose (CBS 7:30-8PM) premieres 9/21



Accidentally on Purpose will follow Billie, a San Francisco movie critic in her 30s, who gets pregnant after an affair with a man named Zack (Jon Foster) who is in his 20s. To make matters more complicated, Billie has decided to keep both her baby and her new beau. And on top of that, she just broke up with her boss, James, who wants to resume their relationship after being humiliated.

Thanks to this unexpected arrival, Billie and Zack have agreed to live together platonically. While Billie receives encouragement and advice from her party girl best friend Olivia and her conventional younger married sister Abby, she also has to deal with Zack's freeloading friend Davis, among others, when they start turning her place into a frat house, leaving Billie to question whether she's living with a boyfriend, a roommate, or if she just has a second child to raise


meh, despite her Scientology, I do or rather have always liked Jenna Elfman. She's pretty similar to Lauren Graham or even Christina Applegate in her sarcastic yet witty sense of humor. Those clips and this premise might work. They got the Scottish chic from Ugly Betty, Ashley Jensen, and Grant Show if I recall from Melrose Place back-in-the-day.

I suppose this show is a bit like Gary Unmarried; doesn't seem amazing, but compared to the other stuff on, it looks Emmy-worthy. And compared to many of the other sitcoms CBS has aired in recent years (Christine show, Rules of Engagement, Worst Week), this may have some legs. I still question it being in the 7:30 time-slot, and predict by mid-season it's either off-the-air or moved to 8:30PM.




Heroes (NBC 7-8PM)

So NBC, the 3rd (last) place network pulls Chuck until mid-season and bumps maybe it's best (only good) show up an hour. Are they desperate? Who knows, but the fact is, the audience for Chuck and Heroes, while might have been similar, it wasn't the exact same demographic. So this might be an experiment that'll work or utterly fail. People are not going to be happy Chuck will be gone. And the Heroes audience might have to forgo what they normally like to do/watch at 7PM for this. or of course those who have DVRs or watch these online won't change.

Bryan Fuller's return last season in the middle after the sad departure of his short-lived ABC Dramedy "Pushing Daisies" and I thought at times really helped some of the writing for Heroes. However, I recall reading something about how he won't be back again? He's talked about wanting to do a new Star Trek show and now reading, something with Comic-Book adaptation director Bryan Singer called "Sellevision." although according to that link, it's not supposed to air until 2012. So he very well may be involved with some of their writing this upcoming season.

But in terms of the story-arc of the show. What's up with Sylar? Will there be more back-story about that earlier generation? I'm not sure what to think. This show teases me, and then pisses me off. They've done way too much with time-lines and other shit that can ruin good stories. I'm also not sure what the ultimate goal is or how the story might end. Do they lose their powers? Are people with powers eventually the norm? Admittedly, watching Hiro and Ando is 1/2 the reason to tune-in to this every week. Maybe they'll bring back Malcolm McDowell again, or maybe better, bring Patrick Stewart on as a guest. They had Worf aka Michael Dorn as the president, why not Jean-Luc Picard/Dr. X? "Yes, Mr. Worf, beam me down to Earth in the year 2009 so I can fix this crappy television show called Heroes"

8-9PM



Two and a Half Men (CBS 8-8:30PM) premieres 9/21

The show is still worth watching, even if it's rehash to a point. Honestly, I think the female guest-stars..and guest-stars in general are the reason I still watch it. Given Melanie Lynskey is a regular guest as Rose, it won't happen, but it would be great if her "Heavenly Creatures" co-star Kate Winslet made an appearance on here sometime. Lynskey btw, also is in that new Matt Damon picture "The Informant" which I may try seeing next Tuesday.

I also wonder if they might try and bring James Spader on to guest-star given Boston Legal is now over, and he appears with Jon Cryer again in "Shorts." Of course the 2 maybe are best known together from 80's John Hughes/Molly Ringwald Brat-Pack movie "Pretty In Pink." And for that matter, why not Ringwald as well. What the hell is she doing now anyway? "The Secret Life of an American Teen" lol..the show that killed Kyle XY, lol. How ironic.

Given how the Monday 8PM hour has lightened a bit, I may not be DVR-ing this show, at least in the fall. Which when it was up against Heroes and Kyle XY, I often had to. Which might be nice given this show's last little segment always got cutoff by my DVR's blocked program. It frequently would run into 8:30, which shouldn't matter really, but got rather annoying over-and-over again.



The Big Bang Theory (CBS 8:30-9PM) premieres 9/21

"Penny!" *knock knock knock* "Penny!" *knock knock knock* "Penny!" *knock knock knock

Hehe. Jim Parsons is gold on this show. And the entire cast and writing really, always work. I wish this show could be on every night of the week. It's that good. It's the best show on tv, period. Psych and Lost, ok. Psych namely, but this makes so much with so little. It may go down historically with Cheers, Beavis and some others..Freaks and Geeks, as one of the funniest, most well-written tv shows of all-time if it holds up. Granted, it's only 2-seasons in, but I'm coming along for the ride for as long as it lasts. if there is a shark, maybe they'll analyze it's motivations before even consider jumping it.

Raj is hilarious. And they should get the East-Indian actor from "Aliens in America" to guest-star as like a younger brother or something. He played David Spade's assistant for a few episodes on the CBS sitcom "Rules of Engagement," it would make some sense.

When will Leonard hook up with Penny? that may be the only shark-jump of a sort for the show. It will happen, but for example, How I Met Your Mother survived when Ted and Robyn hooked up and then ended.

As I wrote above, the 8:30PM time-slot I predict will not last. This belongs at 7PM, we'll see. Do I think some of the audience will jump-ship? Maybe a little, but some of the Heroes audience will come aboard perhaps along with some of the Two-and-a-half-Men viewers. Same writers actually, which is kind of surprising given how much better a show this is. And perhaps with some of the Emmy nods will help it too.

Heck, maybe a crossover at somepoint. Neil Patrick-Harris and his Lasertag/Star Wars love should appear on here. Kind of like the Psych/Monk crossover, it almost NEEDS to happen.

9-10PM



Castle (ABC 9-10PM) premieres 9/21

Like Eli Stone the year before, this show worked for a short-run last Spring on ABC. So did Cupid, but that wasn't as fortunate. Although Nathan Fillion has a history of being on good shows that get canceled early in their time. So, if this is still on the air next Spring, let alone a year from now (or even as a 2011 mid-season replacement) I'd be surprised.

Fillion and Stana Katic were both good here. Enough clever yet subtle humor with the murder mystery of the week. Sure, that's been done before, but the author-angle and those 2's chemistry made this work pretty well. Given the casualties on Monday nights over the last few years, this by default, I regard as a valued show. Whether it sustains it's quality or gets better, who knows. Fillion is pretty much worth watching no matter I find. Firefly, MissMatch, Dr. Horrible, etc. This is no exception.

Monday Night, over the last 2 or 3 years, has been one clogged-up, overly jammed night of tv. And while it may still be as busy as any evening during the week, it's not quite as filled as it was the past couple of seasons.

Mid-season: We do get the return of Chuck thankfully, and some new NBC show called "Day One" which I may checkout. But overall mid-season and this Fall, there's much less thankfully.

One Tree Hill, Gossip Girl, House, the Law & Order and CSI's that the networks trout-out, I couldn't care less about. "Lie to Me" I wasn't impressed by, even though I like Tim Roth as an actor. They brought that back, and didn't bring back the Terminator show of course, lol. The Cable shows and mid-season replacements might add more to this evening, but "Trust Me" "Kyle XY" are done; and of course a show like "My Boys" future is a bit too vague, or even when it'll air. SyFy's "Caprica" appears to be a Friday time-slot starting January 22nd, which makes sense.

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