Flash Forward (ABC Premieres September 24th)
A mysterious global event causes everyone on the planet to simultaneously lose consciousness for 137 seconds, during which many see what appear to be future memories of his or her life six months later. When it is over, many are dead in accidents involving vehicles, aircraft, and any other device needing human control. Everyone who survived is left wondering if what they saw will actually happen.
Sort of using the "Lost Flashback/Flashforward" as a (loose?) premise. It does have John Cho (Harold and Kumar) and Dominic Monaghan (Lost, Lord of the Rings), and Garbielle Union in the cast, and one of the writers appears to be Brannon Braga whose known for his work in the post-The Original Series: Star Trek. Although in glancing at his credits, he had a lot to do with the worst ST show, the last one, Enterprise. He also was involved with the Brent Spiner failed Scifi show "Threshold." So, while it's nice he has a Scifi background, not all of it is necessarily favorable for his resume to lead me to have hope for this.
Early comments aren't all that wonderful about it. I haven't watched it yet to be fair, but I'm kind of questioning how good this will be, or if it'll even last.
Vampire Diaries
They moved Smallville for this? lol..I skimmed through the 1st 2 episodes and while I have a thing for Vampire shows, the idea of trying to watch a Twilight-inspired Vampire-soap opera with a bunch of junior-college-level actors who belong on the Family channel instead of an actual Network (sort-of) is nauseating. This show has got no stars, no characters I like, and not even the most alluring eye-candy that I can tell. The only time I will consider dvr-ing this is out-of-boredom and desparation for some kind lust. This ain't Forever Knight, Buffy, True Blood, Dracula:The Series, or even Moonlight. It's too bad, there was some talk of bringing on a new "Dark Shadows" to either FOX or the CW.
edit: there may still be!
The last I saw, one of the people cast was going to be Matt Czuchry whose probably best known for playing Rory's Yale-boyfriend Logan, on Gilmore Girls.
But until then, I don't expect much of my attention here. Perhaps if a cool guest-star happens I'll want to watch (fast-fwd to the good parts), but other than that, all this is, is CW's attempt to cash-in on the Twilight-craze. And pretty much all that is, is another Teen Soap with a vampire-story overlay with pretty much no substance, just like Twilight, lol.
At least I still have a lot of "True Blood" to watch (I'm on Episode 5 of Season 1). I'd even go for seeing the Lifetime Network's "Blood Ties" ahead this, really in a heartbeat.
Community (NBC 7-7:30PM on October 13th, 8:30-9PM originally on September 17th)
Community centers on Jeff (Joel McHale), a suspended lawyer who is back in school after his college degree is deemed invalid by the State Bar. The show centers on Jeff's experiences going to community college and the people he meets there. John Oliver plays Duncan, a professor at the community college, whom Jeff represented as a lawyer. He also meets a girl, Britta, who is his main love interest in the series, as well as Pierce (Chevy Chase), an older student who has been married seven times.
This at least has got Chevy Chase, and with the departure of My Name is Earl, a show I felt did jump-the-shark somewhat all-the-way-back to Season 3, this might be the only sitcom on NBC to get my interest. Sorry, I'm not all that crazy about, the every voter-in-the-awards-shows favorite SNL-derived sitcom "30 Rock,".. and "The Office"?....lol, yeah right.
But 2-weeks-in, I haven't caught it yet. But mean to soon enough. Chase wasn't bad on Chuck and some other guest-appearances recently. But let's be honest, his far past his prime/time. He could more-or-less do no wrong in the 80's, but since, he's more or less done nothing good, especially when he was featured. I liked the Naomi Watts indie "Ellie Parker" but while he was good, he barely was in it.
The rest of the cast are names I don't know save for Ken Jeong who I saw in "The Hangover" but really didn't impress me much at all in.
So, I may give this a few episodes, like the ABC sitcoms and Accidentally On Purpose, just to hope to be surprised. It's not like NBC has anything better, nor the other stuff on from 7-8PM either.
8-9PM
Fringe (FOX premieres September 17th)
Well, they didn't renew The Terminator show, but this and Dollhouse instead. While among the 3, at-the-time, this was my 3rd favorite, I still like this show. Is it a bit of X-Files? Sure, does it remind you of Lost, a little bit in some of the creepy, tense scenes. But I think where it distinguishes itself, at least for me, is the humor that Josh Jackson aka Pacey from-Dawson's Creek, and especially John Noble provide, who plays Walter the brilliant scientist with a guilt-ridden past that has lead to his slightly eccentric personality. Almost like someone with a mild case of Asberger's. So, he definitely got me through some of the dark stories and grotesque, graphical work they describe and sometimes show here.
I can't ignore also the job Anna Torv does as the lead, Olivia Dunham. She's hot and a good actor. I won't deny that having a babe with her appeal as the central character gave me reason to keep going back here. Lance Reddick who plays Broiles also has a certain appeal on-screen. He's a very stern actor, whose delivery, voice, and mannerisms, have an unusual quality that I couldn't help but get sucked-in to. Like he adds importance to what he's saying or doing. He was on Lost, but didn't do that kind of speaking. I think this role really fits him.
While I liked this show last season, I kind of neglected it about midway through the year for other shows. But the episodes were still on my DVR all the way until late July when I finally caught up and finished the 1st season. I certainly was glad, as I was shaking my head afterwards why I ever stopped watching it.
There's a potentially interesting story-arc with Olivia's past including seemingly Walter and his partner William Bell whose played by Leonard Nimoy. We have barely seen much of Nimoy thus far, but I'm betting he'll show up around Sweeps period with some decent screen-time. The Star Trek movie experience with JJ Abrams I think got him interested in acting again. It could be Abrams, but it would be nice to see Nimoy do some more acting again, and this hopefully will be the next of many newer roles for him.
In watching the 1st 2 episodes, the Charlie character won't be around much longer obviously. But my guess is that's also something to be resolved during November Sweeps coming up.
This is definitely the best Network show now on Thursday Nights now (maybe I'll give Bones another go as a friend of mine is after many years of finding it too gross), and one of the better Scifi shows still on the air. Hopefully it'll last, although I wouldn't bank on it given Terminator's cancelation last season.
Burn Notice (USA Network midseason premiere January 2010)
This show rules. Clever writing (narrative and dialogue), excellent action sequences, and usually an interesting plot twist to the story. The Summer 1/2-season, while a little different, still worked. Matt Nix and the writing staff are trying a few different things like Fiona getting kidnapped and some clients or people who know more about Michael than others in the past.
I would agree with some of the comments from the fans in that they really should try and invent 1 or 2 new plots or angles to the direction of the show. Sure, the client-of-the-week is usually still worth doing, but perhaps have Michael find new means for his interets beyond getting his name off the blacklist.
Or perhaps have his Burn Notice lifted, have him go back to the FBI and then invent some new civil-conflicts within that. That might explain more as to why and how he was burned in the first place.
I dunno, I can't complain really as the show is never boring. At times I enjoy it ,that-week, more than Psych actually. Bruce Campbell, Gabrielle Anwar, and some the guest stars included.
It's definitely 1 of the best 10 shows on all of tv for me. And it's received some good recognition of late (although still no Emmy nor Golden Globe nominations of course. Jeffrey Donovan alone is extremely good, he deserves a nomination but may never get one). It was renewed for a 4th season recently too. It's future should be interesting to follow, and I am excited to see what the writing staff cook-up for the Winter-Season. Wouldn't be surprised to see Moon Bloodgood return as the cop on Michael's tail. That plot never really did get resolved last Summer.
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