Fall 2012 TV Season Review & Round-up

So far, this has been one of the most promising and satisfying autumns in years. Coming off a fairly good late summer crop of shows, almost all of the fall tv premieres that I've seen have been great; further feeding my television-obsessed brain.

But before we talk about the Good Things, let's get the bad stuff out of the way first.

New shows that I'm not impressed with:

• Revolution - In theory and on paper, everything about this show should appeal to me. At the top of that list is JJ Abrams; have I ever not loved anything he's had a hand in? It's about a dystopian future with a kick-ass young girl, which is the kind of shit I eat up; it has Billy Burke in it; it sort of has a clever premise about the world no longer having electricity. But boy did I not dig this show. I gave it a 3 episode chance (well, really 2.5 because I couldn't with last week's ep) but it's not getting any better. There SO MANY implausible and unexplained plot holes; it drives me crazy! I'm surprised that it's so popular; maybe one of these days (years) I'll catch up with it on Netflix but not now when I have so much other finer tv to watch.
• Partners - Ugh. I hate this show so much. I really like Max Mutchnick and David Kohan as people (their CBS Sunday Morning profile was hilarious and touching), and I've enjoyed most of the tv shows they've done before, but this one, based on their real-life friendship and relationships, is uncomfortably awful. I just feel really bad for the talented Michael Urie, Dave Krumholz, and poor Brandon Routh. This is another show that has been trashed by the critics but is doing fairly well in the ratings, so we'll see what becomes of it.
• The Mindy Project - 

I LOVE Mindy Kaling. I love Chris Messina. I should love this show. But oy, is it not good. But sort of, maybe, has potential? I don't know. I hated the first 2 episodes, but then last week's entry where the clinic staff all go to "Da' Club" was pretty hilarious. So maybe things are looking up? I hope so. I haven't totally given up on this yet, but only because of my solidarity with Kaling.

DVR Breakups:

• How I Met Your Mother - Sorry NPH and Jason Segal; my love for you guys can no longer sustain a relationship with this dumb, and exceedingly frustrating show. I may tune in whenever the hell they finally reveal who the stupid gawdamn "mother" is, and if there are any more Slap Bet songs, or Robyn Sparkle videos, I'll catch those online, but otherwise SAYONARA.
• Law & Order:SVU - this break-up has been very hard on me y'all. But if I'm being honest, Chris Meloni leaving the show had a bigger effect on me than I thought. I still love all of the characters (and actors) on this last remaining L&O franchise, but in the past several months each time I finally get around to watching one of the numerous eps clogging my Tivo, I end up being so bored. It really breaks my heart because Law & Order has been such a big part of my TV life. Watching occasional reruns of Law & Order:UK and Original Recipe L&O (Waterson/Harmon especially) will have to suffice.

Fall 2012 Television LOVES:

• Last Resort - Love it. Love it. LOVE IT. Scott motherf*ckin' Speedman (#1 all-time TV boyfriend) is back in my tv life, and he's kick-in it with perennial all-star Andre Braugher! And the show is well-written, well acted, suspenseful, and action-packed. God Bless America!

• Homeland - It's back and Season 2 is even more high stakes and kick ass than the first one was. And my love of Mandy Patinkin couldn't possibly grow any stronger. I just...you guys, I just love his portrayal of Saul so damn much.

• American Horror Story: Asylum - Coming off a much-deserved Emmy win, Jessica Lange is back in the second season of this creepy show, that is starting with an entirely new story set in a psychiatric hospital. I really like the approach that Ryan Murphy et al are taking with this show by keeping each season a separate stand-alone story capsule. 

AHS:Asylum also features the return of Zachary Quinto and has added Mark Consuelos (yes!) and Chloe Sevigny to the mix, among others. Good times ahead.

• Nashville - I love Every. Amazing. Thing about this show. Period.
• Revenge - Having Gabriel Mann as Nolan Ross (with a funky new haircut!) on my television again is heaven on earth!
• Call The Midwife - Who knew a PBS drama about British mid-wives in 1950s East-End London could be so poignant, funny, and awesome?! Oh yeah, me of course.

All the rest:

• BBCAmerica's Copper has had a fantastic season and I can't wait to see how this season ends. I'm already anticipating season 2.
• Vegas has been a pleasant surprise of awesomeness. Dennis Quaid and Jason O'Mara are the sexiest brothers on tv right now.
• I don't care what anyone says - I'm enjoying the hell out of the latest Sherlock Holmes offering Elementary. And yes, Jonny Lee Miller can still get it!

Fall TV 2010 - New Shows and Season Premieres Part 1

Dexter - Ooh boy. What a great season opener. Especially after the heart-wrenching finale last season. I love Bryan Cranston and all, but dammit, if Michael C. Hall doesn't get an Emmy next year I'll be pissed.

Amazing Race 17 - Watermelon face girl! I was happy to see that this famous viral internet clip happened in this episode, even if CBS chose not to show the melon actually exploding on the woman's noggin. I guess the FCC didn't want to scare the children? Anyway, it was a fairly enjoyable premier, from the start in Gloucester, MA to the aforementioned watermelon noggining. I was surely disappointed to see Team Wiz eliminated first though. I'm holding my judgement on this new "express pass" until after it's used. Does this mean that there won't be a Fast Forward?

Hawaii 5-0 - I went in with pretty low expectations, especially considering that Alex O'Showkiller was starring. But my love for Scott Caan is so strong, I thought I'd get through it anyway. And I was right - Caan is the best part about the new 5-0; but he's not the only good part. I really enjoyed the premier and am looking forward to the whole season. And I was so happy that they kept the original theme song.

Grey's Anatomy - A pretty flat season premier; especially considering how awesome and adreneline-filled last season's finale was. The was a bunch of good set-up for some story lines that could be pretty great though.

Bored To Death - gawd I love this quirky, whacked-out show so much.

Undercovers - Eh. I'll watch it because I like cheesy spy shows, JJ Abrams, and hot boys like Boris Kodjoe. But I think I was expecting something a little darker and heavier; the premier at least was a little too Nick&Nora frothy for me. But then again we got to see Boris shirtless which is NEVER a bad thing.

Glee - The 2nd season premier had the funniest opening 3 minutes of any tv show I've seen in quite some time. Way to make fun of yourselves and turn the negative criticism into your advantage Ryan Murphy and crew! I love the addition of Coach Bieste, and am looking forward to my boyfriend John Stamos showing up in the coming eps. I like this new kid played by Chord Overstreet; and I hope that's not the last we'll see of Charice or Cheyenne Jackson. Also, anytime you have a performance of one of my favorite guilty pleasure jams in the first 15 minutes you've kind of won me over for the season. Take note other shows that have disappointed me - all you need to do to win me back is to sing "Empire State of Mind" by Jay-Z and Alicia Keys.

Nikita - I'm a sucker for anything connected to the awesome French film La Femme Nikita. I even loved the Bridget Fonda remake; and I LOVED the Peta Wilson tv show of the same name that ran for 5 seasons on USA. So I was going to watch this new remake of the television show anyway. I like the new Nikita (Maggie Q - seriously, what's wrong with your real last name Quigley?), and it's nice to see Xander Berkeley working again, but there's a lot to this new version that I hate. Like Shane West as Michael. Why does this dude bug me so much? With the exception of maybe half a season on ER, I have pretty much hated everything that West has ever done. Anyway, I'm in for the long haul because again I like cheesy spy shows and their ilk.
Law & Order: LA - Y'all know I love Skeet Ulrich. And Alred Molina. And the Law & Order franchise. So why don't I love this new show? Yet. I'm going with yet. I'm definitely going to give it a chance to grow on me; much like Corey Stoll's mustache. Terrance Howard continues his scenery chewing acting methods which I usually find amusing but not so much here. I miss Sam Waterson. I also don't understand why this series is so heavily weighted on the "Order" side? Do we really need 4 of the 6 main characters to be DAs or ADAs? No, no we do not.

Confuddled but contented

So, uh, yeah. I'm not going to take up a lot of space pondering and analyzing last night's Lost series finale. There are thousands of people on hundreds of blogs more clever than mine doing that today. I will say that ultimately I was satisfied with the ending.

As some folks know, I was woefully behind on Lost. I have been behind since basically the middle of season 4. Through a couple of those damn interminable recap/explanation/catch-up shows, I was able to clear several season 4 and early season 5 episodes out of my Tivo to clear up space on both the dvr and my life. And beyond that I was watching like one or two episodes a month to gradually bring me current. As the May 23 series end loomed however, I felt a ton of pressure to catch-up for real and actually watch the finale in real time and not dvr time.

So to that end, this past Saturday and Sunday I spent several quality hours watching the last 6 hours of this season 6. I finished the "What They Died For" episode at literally 6:52 PM last night, a mere 8 minutes before the finale extravanganza began in earnest. And I'm really glad I did. Watching the last show in basic real-time, being totally unspoiled was the right choice; the finale was much more powerful and poignant than it would have been otherwise.

How did I feel about the episode itself? Again, I'll leave the lamenting, praising, and hair-pulling to others; in a lot of ways the purgatory/heaven angle was very obvious, which can come off as lazy writing. But I would be lying if I didn't say that seeing everyone end up with their loved one or constant wasn't gratifying; it felt like the best way to end the show. And I was never enough of a Lost fan to get caught up in all of the "but what about ____?" and  "but they didn't answer this!"  nonsense. Ultimately I don't care. It will be nice to have the precious DVR space back and delete the Tivo season pass.

It will be sad to have the gorgeous Matthew Fox and Henry Ian Cusick off my tv screen though. Sigh...Desmond and Jack were made of win.

An open letter to J.J. Abrams

Dear JJ,

I feel like I can call you that - we go back a long time to the "Felicity" days - and I need to talk to you about something important; your Star Trek.

First, I'll start off with the things I really enjoyed. I liked the way you presented the history of the whole thing and the little nerd-loving details that were dropped in the dialog and background that hearkened back to the original series.
LOVED Spock and Uhura together. Seriously. And Zachary Quinto and Zoe Saldana actually had great chemistry.
On that note - pretty good casting choices, I don't know what the goofy fanboys had their panties twisted for. Although the Winona Ryder thing kind of seemed like it was done for shock value and not for her acting ability or resemblance to Zach Quinto. But the casting sort of brings me to the problems I had with the movie and what I wanted to talk to you about.

Again I'll start with the minor issues first.
Did you tell Anton to speak in that ridiculous accent? Even if you didn't tell him to do it, the minute he broke out his bad Yakoff Smirnoff impression shouldn't you have stopped him? It was really distracting. Also distracting? Simon Pegg's strange dye job. Can't think of why there was a need to make his already red hair darker, can you explain?
And going back to the accent thing - my man Karl Urban, it hurts me to say because I find him so hot, was overworking his DeForrest Kelly impression. Again, if you weren't telling him to do it, you sure as heck weren't discouraging him from doing it which is just as bad. But way to go in making Karl look the part of kind of femme Bones - how or why you hid all of Urban's delicious muscles that he displayed gloriously in that shite film Pathfinder, I'll never know.
This brings me to my biggest problem with your Star Trek - NO ERIC BANA NUDITY. Not only did you unnecessarily hide Eric's pretty face under makeup, prosthetics and fake tattoos, you also never showed the character Nero without his clothes off the entire movie. Not even shirtless. What gives? I'm quite sure that you could have come up with some plot device that would have allowed Bana to show some skin. It's really unforgivable.

You can make it up to me by having a Spock, Kirk, Bones shower scene in the next sequel.
Or an autographed nude photo of Matthew Fox.