New shows watched:
- Madam Secretary: Loved it. Added it to our viewing schedule. One of the things I love most about the show is the relationship between Tea Leoni and Tim Daly's characters (husband and wife). I've read that they will have a healthy relationship—which doesn't necessarily mean they won't fight; only that it won't be the central point. I feel like marital problems are just a way to say, "We don't have enough plot points for the protagonist, so we'll add in an angry husband or wife to make the protagonist's job harder." That won't happen here, and that makes me happy. One of my friends said she wanted it to be more bad ass and less "aw shucks, I'm just trying to save the world." I agree with that—and I think it's funny because I can hear Tea Leoni saying it. (Credit: Anna Bloom.)
- Gotham: The first casualty of the new season. I still love the idea of seeing the origin stories of all the characters in the Batman stable, but I just didn't like the show. Dropped after one viewing.
- Forever: For me, this show is just MOR (middle of the road). I don't really have much to say against it—but I don't have too much to say for it. Three timer.
- Scorpion: This was the most preposterous, implausible, ridiculous show I've seen in a long time. But it's a rag tag band of misfits trying to save the world, and that speaks to me. (Hello, Firefly? Leverage?) Three timer.
- Black-ish: It was what I expected, and although there were some funny moments, we canceled it.
- How to Get Away with Murder: I was hooked less than halfway through—however, I do have a couple of gripes, and that worries me. The gripes may contain spoilers, so read at your own peril. My main gripe is how inept the kids are at covering up ... whatever they are covering up. A murder, an accidental death—I can't be sure. Now, I get that they are, what, 25 years old? And stress makes you do stupid things. But I could cover up a murder better than they are trying to, and I'm of average intelligence (they are the four smartest students in their law class). Sure, I've watched procedurals on TV for 30 years and they haven't even been alive for that long, but they're in law school. I think that makes them with my 30 years of TV watching. They used bleach in the house with the murder was committed. Cops always notice bleach. They cleaned up the murder weapon and put it back in the house. Cops always find something on the murder weapon. DESTROY IT. They rolled up the body in a rug from the house where the murder was committed. Because no one will notice a gigantic floor rug missing. And they burned the body to get rid of the DNA. As if Temperance Brennan (Bones) couldn't solve the murder from a burned corpse. Other gripes: the characters aren't that likeable. Seems like everyone is sleeping around indiscriminately. I don't understand how a law professor can hire five first-year students for her firm. Don't they have, I don't know, other classes? Homework? Still, it is compelling, and I'm definitely coming back for more.
- The Good Wife: I did not see that coming. (No spoilers—but you can email me if you want to talk more about it.) I kind of wanted to have the Florrick+Agos+Lockhart thing wrapped up by the end of this episode, so I was disappointed that it wasn't wrapped up. (Sure, that's a little spoiler, but not much of one.) I am excited to see what Taye Diggs is going to do on the show as a series regular. Love him!
- The Blacklist: Solid start. Looks like they're getting the band back together.
- Person of Interest: Definitely not interested in the direction this is going, but I do love the characters, so I'll keep going. For now.
- Chicago Fire: You know, this is a really well-done show. But I just have no affinity for the characters. this week, they Shonda Rhimes'ed* one of them, and I didn't even care. They're threatening to do the same next week too—and I don't care about that either. Why am I still watching? They tend to give me one story line or one cliffhanger that I want to see resolved. When it is, then I vow to stop watching—and in comes another story line or cliffhanger. This week, nothing. So I'll give it "one more try" and see what happens. ;-)
- Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Vic has not watched this yet, so no review.
- Sleepy Hollow: We watched this, and it just didn't grab us. It has morphed into something ... different than what we liked in the first season. I loved what Ichabod had to say about Benjamin Franklin, but that's not enough to sustain me. We canceled it.
- Modern Family: What can I say? I love this show!
- Chicago P.D.:
- Bones: Spoilers ahead. This episode must have been guest written by Shonda Rhimes, because—you guessed it—they killed off one of the main characters for No. Good. Reason. I read that he's directing a movie and asked for some time off, and the producers said they couldn't think of a way to write him out for four months. Within five minutes, I had come up with a dozen good ways to write him out for four months. I don't think they were trying hard enough. Or maybe they wanted to shake things up. That they did, and not for the better. Grr.
- Grey's Anatomy: Meanwhile, I guess Shonda's time at Bones took her away from Grey's, because nobody died. Yea! Grey's is similar to How to Get Away with Murder in that I have gripes about the episode (spoilers: April, stop trying to get the guys to make Major Hottie feel better. He's fine. Callie, stop being so selfish. Interns who aren't important enough for me to remember your names, stop being so annoying. Meredith, when McDreamy says he picks you, be happy about it.). But it's my beloved Grey's, and I'm still 100 percent on board!
- Scandal: Less on board with Scandal. Why would you leave a gorgeous island that you basically have all to yourself with a hunky guy who treats you like a queen (and apparently gives you the best sex of your life) for a city that eats people up and spits them out? That said, the best part of the episode was the grieving Mellie in sweatpants, Uggs, and a bathrobe. She must be having the time of her life in this role.
- Blue Bloods: Still a solid performer. Great episode.
- Red Band Society: Still loving it. Very touching. Adding it to my viewing schedule.
- The Mysteries of Laura: Meh. It could be a great comedy, if they stuck to the comedy. It could be a great cop show, if they stuck to the cop show. But in trying to do both, they do neither well. We canceled it.
My new shows premiering this week:
This week is the week of "not a lot of shows I'll probably add to my schedule." So why am I watching any of these? Why not? Some have good casts. Some made me laugh. I hope that at least one surprises me.
- Selfie: Basically a Pygmalion for the digital era, this does not look that good. The preview had me laughing, though, and I like John Cho. Not expecting to pick it up, and here's what TV Guide said: "giddy waste of charismatic talent it too inconsequential even to qualify as an epic fail."
- Manhattan Love Story: Ditto previous comment, except for the Pygmalion part. TV Guide hates the voice-over ("I’ll race you to the mute button"), which is usually a sticking point for me as well.
- Makers: This is a PBS show about women (the first season was called "Makers: Woman Who Shaped America"). It's in the "new" section because I didn't watch the first season, a fact I shall rectify tonight, thanks to Netflix.
- Stalker: Not overly in love with Dylan McDermott, but I like Maggie Q. TV Guide wasn't kind: "Glum, woodenly acted formula. Stalk away from this one."
- Gracepoint: I liked this show when it was Broadchurch on the BBC. What I'm hearing is that if you didn't watch that, watch this, because it's not bad. Or just get the original. However, I'm interested in how they change the ending. So I'll probably watch it. It's a limited run series anyway, so it's only 10 episodes of wasted time.
- Bad Judge: I love Kate Walsh, and the preview made me guffaw. But it is not getting good reviews (TV Guide: :the bar doesn't get set much lower"), and it's probably going to suck.
- A to Z: TV Guide: "the stars' chemistry is the draw, even when the show around them is either too cloying … or too forgettable." Ouch.
- Resurrection: Vic tired of this in the end, but I'm still intrigued. We'll see if the show can bring Vic back to it. If not, we'll see if it intrigues me enough to watch it in bed after he falls asleep.
- Castle: They'd better get this show back on track pronto after last season's "cliffhanger" (Castle's car on fire by the side of the road, no Castle anywhere). But it's not really a cliffhanger, is it? Because the show's called Castle.
- Criminal Minds: Not in love with the addition of Jennifer Love Hewitt. We'll see how that goes.
*Shonda Rhimes'ed = killed
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