Fall season, end of week 3

I'm all caught up, so let's get right to it. First, new shows:

• We Are Men: Last week, I said it was funny. This week, it wasn't as funny—and it was promptly canceled, making it the second new show (after Lucky 7) to be canceled this season.
• Sleepy Hollow: Last week, I had decided to give it up. Then I read that John Noble (Walter/Walternate on Fringe) would be joining the cast, so I decided to keep watching. This week's opening, with Ichabod giving advice to the OnStar-like operator was priceless.
• Hostages: Last week, I said I didn't want to be interested in the show but was. This week, they totally hooked me. I've added it to my viewing schedule.
• The Blacklist: I really want to like this more. I'll keep watching—if only because I'm interested in Red's relationship with Agent Keen and because I want to know what Agent Keen's husband is up to.
• S.H.I.E.L.D.: I gave it up this week. Vic will still watch, and if it gets better, he'll let me know and catch me up and I'll pick it back up. The thing is, I only have so much free time. I have to be very selective in my viewing.
• Back in the Game: I dropped it after the third episode. The end of the second episode was touching and then hilarious, but the third episode just didn't do anything for me.
• The Tomorrow People: This is a great new sci-fi show on CW. We loved the pilot, so it's definitely going into the three-time pile—and I expect a full-season pick-up on the CW as well as in the Love Shack.
• Ironside: Dropped after 15 minutes. It just didn't do anything for me, and now that the rest of my schedule is shaping up, I don't have time for shows like that. NOTE TO NETWORKS: The longer you wait to premiere things, the less room I have in my schedule.
• Once Upon a Time in Wonderland: I couldn't really get into it. Dropped.
• The Crazy Ones: Still needs to be a little more balanced, but I added it to my viewing schedule.
• Betrayal: Dropped it. It's just tough to watch a show that's centered around adultery, and it's not a great show.
• Masters of Sex: Not impressed. I'll do one more week per my three-time rule, but I don't expect it to be on my schedule after that.
• Reign starts this week. It's on the schedule to give it a try, but I don't think I'll enjoy it.

Returning shows:

• Castle: Finally they're back to a "regular" show. I love that—SPOILER ALERT—Castle offered to move to D.C. (even had already leased an apartment there) just before Beckett got sacked by the feds. This way, she can't spend the next several episodes saying "You never wanted me to go there anyway."
• Revolution: I was going to drop it after last week's episode, but next week's episode sounds interesting, so I might keep going. Just for a little while.
• Scandal: Man, this show packs a lot into an hour. It's juicy delicious. Love it.
• Glee: On the one hand, this was a wonderful tribute to Finn. Each person got his or her own moment, and they incorporated the old and new casts wonderfully. I felt like Finn's mother's grief was the most real. But to have Puck and Santana and even Mr. Schue sobbing like babies felt ... forced. Not that they wouldn't be terribly sad. It just seemed over the top. The song tributes were nice. I even liked Rachel's rendition of "To Make You Feel My Love," which is a song I really love sung by a character I don't even remotely like. (Although, just to be my nitpicky self, I hate the way Lea Michele squinches her eyes when she sings, AND although I felt that her tears were real, I don't like the way Glee has the actors sing in a studio and then lip-synch for the show. If you're singing while you're crying, it doesn't sound like that.) And there were truly some wonderful moments—both funny and sad, which is one of the things that Glee does best. AND I have no doubt that these people loved Cory Monteith and are genuinely sad about his death. BUT on the other hand, I have a hard time watching a show give tribute to someone who basically killed himself with a drug overdose. I know addiction is hard. I know he'd been struggling with it since his teens. It's just really hard for me to understand. Still, I give the episode an A. It might make me tune in again when the show starts back up after the World Series. (But it might not—let's face it, it's likely that the show will now carry on as if Finn never existed. Unlike Grey's Anatomy, which still references Mark and Lexie from time to time. [Not that I'm not still mad at Shonda Rhimes for killing them off.].)
• Blue Bloods: You know, I don't talk much about Blue Bloods, but I really love this show. It's an amazing family drama with a police procedural built in. I love the Reagans.

Here's that link again to Zap2It's renewal/cancellation index. It looks like a lot of shows are on the bubble—let's see how it all shakes out over the next few weeks!

http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/the-renew-cancel-index/

Go Broncos! Beat the Jaguars!

Fall season, end of week 2

OK, we had a Harry Potter marathon last week, so I'm a little behind on my TV watching. Let's see what we have:

• We Are Men: I can't believe it. It was funny. We haven't added it to our viewing schedule, and I expect it to be canceled (see http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2013/10/06/bubble-watch-ironside-we-are-men-sean-saves-the-world-welcome-to-the-family-headed-to-cancellation-the-originals-super-fun-night-start-on-the-bubble/207079/), but it was much funnier than we expected. Maybe because we had such low expectations.
• Sleepy Hollow: I've decided to give it up. It's just ... not what I expected, and it feels a lot like Supernatural, which I no longer watch. The leads are great together, but I'm just not that interested. Vic is going to keep watching—for a little while.
• Hostages: I don't want to be interested in this show—but I am. I'll give it another week.
• The Blacklist: I've added it. If Vic doesn't like it, I'll watch it in bed, like I do Glee and Grey's Anatomy.
• Brooklyn Nine Nine: Giving it up. Although we laugh in places, and Andre Braugher is getting funnier each week, Andy Samberg's character just pisses me off.
• S.H.I.E.L.D.: We didn't like it as well as the first week—but it feels like it's still finding its legs. We'll give this one another week.
• The Crazy Ones: I don't think reviewed this one last week. I thought the first episode was fair. Robin Williams and James Wolk have great chemistry (their pitch to Kelly Clarkson was hilarious), but as my friend Michelle says, "A little Robin Williams goes a long way." That's true. I haven't watched this week's episode yet, but I hope it will be a little more balanced. I'm also hoping that they give Sarah Michelle Geller's character more to do than be exasperated with Robin Williams's character.
• Betrayal: Ordinary, but I'll tune in for a couple more episodes.
• We haven't watched Back in the Game (second episode) or Ironside (first episode) yet. I'll let you know how they fare next week.

Some talk about old shows:

• Castle: HUGE PET PEEVE. When writers put the lead character who is also the title of the show in peril. SPOILER ALERT: Did anyone think Castle was going to die in this episode? The show is called "Castle." Sure, there comes a time that they could kill off a title character—Meredith Grey on Grey's Anatomy? Maybe. (Certainly, had Shonda Rhimes not killed off Lexie Grey.) The show can be as much about the other doctors as it is about Meredith (although none of the current crop of doctors can carry the show—with Lexie and Mark gone and Cristina leaving the show at the end of the year, it would be harder to go on without Meredith). If the show is ending? Title characters beware. But it's highly unlikely that a show will kill off Temperance Brennan (Bones), Catherine (Beauty) and Vincent (the Beast), Oliver Queen (Arrow), or Ironside in the middle of their runs. So really, writers, don't put those characters in mortal danger. We aren't sitting on the edge of our seats to find out whether they find the antidote in time. We know they will. Find a more novel approach to thicken the plot.
• And as long as we're on pet peeves, can we stop watching a scene and then have another scene pop up that says "x [hours/days/months] earlier"? That device was innovative the first few times. Now it's just cliché. Find another way.
• Glee: This week was better than last week, but of course SPOILER ALERT Rachel would get to be Fanny Brice. And so I don't care about that story line. Still planning to ditch the show after this week.
• Scandal: CAN'T WAIT TO WATCH IT!
• The Good Wife: Loving it.
• The Mentalist: Meh. Ready for them to wrap it up, to be honest.
• Homeland: Meh. First season was still the best. Plus, Brody/Damien Lewis is such a compelling character/actor, he needs to be in the show. I've heard because he's on the run, he's only going to be in about half the episodes this season. I think that's a mistake.
• Masters of Sex: Pretty boring for a show about sex, and it doesn't paint William Masters in a very flattering light. But I PAID FOR IT, so I'm going to give it another try.

This week's premieres:

• The Tomorrow People (10/9): I love a good sci-fi romp. Let's hope this is one.
• Once Upon a Time in Wonderland (10/10): Not expecting to love it—I canceled its cousin (Once Upon a Time) after the first season—but we'll see!

And that's all the TV news this week. See you next time!