The Fault in My Blogging

So, I haven't written anything for a few weeks. Here's why.

First, I read the book The Fault in Our Stars. Have you read it? If you haven't, you must. Yes, it's YA. Yes, it's about kids with cancer. Yes, I cried through most of it. Sitting on the bus. Often laughing through my tears. Sometimes guffawing while sobbing. And the book has stayed with me—it's going on my all-time favorite list. (It's not my all-time favorite of all time—that, of course, is To Kill a Mockingbird. And should I put it higher than Harry Potter? I don't think so.)

At any rate, then I wanted to see the movie, so I had to watch a Netflix movie I would have one to send back. And because I missed the cutoff date—it came out the day after a mail holiday—I thought I'd be better off watching all my Netflix movies so I'd have a better chance of getting it.

And then, of course, I had to watch the movie.

So I got a little behind in my TV watching.

Then work got busy. I worked several evenings and all last weekend. I'm not complaining, mind you. (OK, yes, of course I'm complaining. Who wants to work evenings and weekends? But I've been less than busy all summer, so having some work is a "refreshing" change of pace.) That put me even more behind.

And to top it all off, I got sick. Just a cold, but a cold with a hacking cough that Won't. Let. Go. So I often don't feel like watching TV.

But I have caught up a little, and I do have some Love Cancellations (as well as official cancellations and predictions) to discuss. I'm just going to go night by night.

Sunday:

• We are loving Madam Secretary and are keeping that.
• After a rocky start, I am getting back into The Good Wife. I did not think I wanted her to run for state's attorney, but I'm kind of liking it—and the way it's changing the dynamic between her and Peter.
• We dropped Resurrection, despite the addition of Michelle Fairley, whom we always like. It just wasn't doing anything for me.

Monday:

• We're down to just Castle and The Blacklist. Castle is not at its peak form, but I like the cast, so I'm not about to drop it. The Blacklist—it's never been my favorite, but I want to know who Jennifer is, and I really want to know who Lizzie has locked up. I think it's her husband.
• We canceled Scorpion. It was kind of fun, but it was the same thing every week, and the characters aren't that lovable.
• We tried and canceled Jane the Virgin. I know it got good reviews critically. I know it was compared to Ugly Betty, which I enjoyed (at least for the first couple of seasons). But we just didn't get into it.
• State of Affairs (the new Katherine Heigl show) starts mid-November. I don't love her, and TV Guide was brutal (“The saddest case yet of Homeland envy, with Heigl’s unstable analyst overstepping her bounds so ludicrously in the first hour … that it’s hard to take any of the convoluted intrigue seriously.”), but I do like Alfre Woodard, and so I'll just try it before I cancel it.

Tuesday:

• Selfie: I have one more episode on the DVR, and then I think I'll cancel it. I really like John Cho. I really like Karen Gillen. But the show just doesn't give me enough change every week to make me want to stick with it. Plus Zap2It predicts cancellation.
• Manhattan Love Story: I have one more episode on the DVR, but since I read today that this was the first official cancellation of the new season, I think I'll just delete it. What's the point? They weren't really doing it for me anyway, but I was too lazy to delete it from the Series Manager. I mean, it's a half-hour show. What's the harm in watching it when you need to fill a 22-minute block of time?
• The Flash: Vic canceled it.
• Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Vic is still watching this, but he's not in love with it. It may be on the bubble.
• Marry Me: I have two episodes on the DVR. A friend of mine says "meh," and I'm not sure I'll like it, but it got good buzz, so I will at least try.
• Forever: We canceled it. Zap2It predicts cancellation as well.
• Person of Interest: After a rocky start, I am loving it again. I loved last week's episode, where they showed the beginnings of The Machine and how everything they tried, The Machine ended up taking over—and not in a good way—and how they tied that to the present day.
• Chicago Fire: I've said it before; I'll say it again. I don't love this show, but it's so well done that I have a hard time saying no to it.

Wednesday:

• Arrow: Vic canceled it.
• Modern Family: I know it's getting a little long in the tooth. I know critics like other comedies better. But I love the Dunphy-Pritchett clan, and I will never quit them.
• Criminal Minds: This week's episode was so grisly that it made me wonder why I watch it. But I've been watching it for so long, it's hard to put down.
• Stalker: This week's episode was so grisly that it made me wonder why I watch it. This one is in a lot more danger than Criminal Minds since I haven't been watching it for long. Interestingly, Zap2It does not predict cancellation, which I know will make one of my friends happy. She frequently starts a new show and gets hooked, only to have the show cancelled. Not this year, MF. Not this year.
• Red Band Society: It's no The Fault in Our Stars. But I'll keep watching it. Until it gets canceled, as Zap2It predicts.
• Chicago P.D.: Vic just loves this show, so he's keeping it.

Thursday:

• Grey's Anatomy: Don't make fun of me, but this is my favorite show on television.
• Bones: Make fun of me. We're keeping this, but I think I'm only keeping it because I've been watching it for so long.
• Scandal: I really want them to bring cases back to the show instead of keeping the focus on Huck's family and the president's kid. But I'll keep watching it—for now.
• Gracepoint: Still can't bring ourselves to watch it. I have all the episodes on the DVR, but one of my friends said it was beat-for-beat the same as Broadchurch, but with David Tennant having a bad accent. So if we get caught up with everything else and having nothing to watch, maybe we'll start it. Or maybe we'll just eventually delete it. Especially if it gets cancelled, as predicted by Zap2It.
• Bad Judge: It is not a good show, but she is so funny, and we are enjoying her interactions with the other cast members. Plus, it had Captain Awesome (from Chuck) on two episodes, so who knows what other great guest stars might show up? Finally, it's only 22 minutes. Sometimes, you just need to fill a block of time. As I said before. Unfortunately, Zap2It predicts cancellation.
• A to Z: Still haven't decided. I'm kind of done, but Vic was up for one more episode. Zap2It predicts imminent cancellation.
• How to Get Away with Murder: In a twist worthy of the show itself, we cancelled it. The people just aren't nice people, and I just don't have enough time to watch mean people.

Friday:

• Does it make me racist if I didn't like Jane the Virgin or Cristela? Because I didn't like Cristela either, and we cancelled it. It was as much a victim of the laugh track as anything. If any of you are long-time blog readers, you know how we feel about the laugh track.
• Blue Bloods: I'm just loving it more and more this season.
• Grimm: This is one of Vic's shows, and it just started Friday. So I'll report on that later.
• Constantine: This just started Friday, so I'll report on that later.

I mentioned Zap2It's cancellation predictions. If you want to see what they're predicting for your shows, visit the site here: http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/the-renew-cancel-index/

Nothing new coming this week, so I'll adjourn for now with a happy Halloween!

See you next week! (Or some other time.)

Fall TV season 2014, end of week 2

I think we're settling in nicely to the new fall season. I'm seeing a few things I like a lot, a lot of things that are OK, and a few things that are ... let's just say not as good as I'd like.

As always, we start with new shows watched:

• Selfie: Vic was done with this in the first five minutes. I was done after 10. Then he said, "I thought this was going to be [John Cho's] show," and I said, "It is—it's My Fair Lady, and he's Henry Higgins. She just has to hit rock bottom first." So then he thought maybe we judged it too quickly, but I had already deleted it. So now we're just waiting for it to appear on demand, where we'll watch the whole episode before we ditch it. lol. 
• Manhattan Love Story: I like the girl. The guy is an ass hat. The voice-over I'm sure will get tiring—yet we didn't hate it enough to ditch it outright. We'll watch another episode.
• Makers: Watched the first season from Netflix last night, and it was great. We'll watch the second season in a binge session when all three episodes have aired..
• Stalker: I actually didn't hate it. Three times.
• Gracepoint: We haven't decided what to do about this yet. We'll leave it on the DVR for awhile and maybe binge watch it later.
• Bad Judge: Not great, but pilots—especially for comedies—can be rough. We'll give it another try, but I'm not holding out great hope. That said, I did decide that if we could get a dramedy where Kate Walsh and Debra Messing were sisters, we would totally watch that.
• A to Z: We didn't hate this either, except for the friend of the guy. Horrible character. We'll see if he gets any better. It is interesting that they've set an expiration date. The couple dates for eight months and change. Do they break up at the end of that time, or get engaged/married? We'll see. If they break up, I will be so pissed off I will never watch the show again. Although I imagine we'll find that out on the last episode, so I guess it's a moo point.

Returning favorites watched: 

• Resurrection: Interestingly, although Vic was tired of this by the end of the season (and I was not), now I'm a little tired of it and he is intrigued. We'll keep it for a few more episodes, see what happens.
• Castle: Shocker, they found Castle, and he was alive. I assume we'll spend a few episodes figuring out where he was. I wonder what they'll do about the wedding?
• Criminal Minds: I said last week, "Not in love with the addition of Jennifer Love Hewitt. We'll see how that goes." It goes as expected—I don't like her in this. But the show hasn't changed a bit, so I'll watch it.

New shows, second viewing: 

• Madam Secretary: Still love it.
• Forever: Still deciding.
• Scorpion: Still deciding.
• How to Get Away with Murder: Still like it—but it's definitely not my favorite show of the season, and that surprises me.

Returning favorites, second viewing: I'm only commenting on those shows that I was a little noncommittal on last week or ... you know ... just want to comment on.

• Person of Interest: Much better episode this week. Firmly back in "one of my favorite shows" territory.
• Chicago Fire: Still hooked in, but still not my favorite show, despite how well-done it is.
• Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Vic said he wasn't thrilled with the direction this show was taking.
• Chicago P.D.: Vic really likes this show.
• Bones: I haven't cried all through an episode since the Lexie Grey/Mark Sloan debacle of 2012. (No. I will never get over it. Don't even ask me to try.) Nice ending, "Lime in the Coconut," last sung by Sweets as they took away Vincent's body in season ... whatever season it was.
• Grey's Anatomy: Vintage episode. Loved the singing sturgeon telegram.
• Scandal: Hmm. Vic is growing weary of it. Me too. We need more cases. We need to get the band back together.

My new shows premiering this week:

 

Only two premieres this week: 

• The Flash: This is for Vic. It's a spin-off of Arrow, which he likes. It looks good, but I feel like I'd eventually drop it, so I'm not even going to start.
• Cristela: Could be funny, but does it have a laugh track? That's a definite minus for me.

Returning favorites premiering this week: 

• Arrow: Again, this is for Vic.

Vic and I were talking over lunch, and we mentioned that there seem to be a lot of shows with voice-overs or interior monologues these days. So I'm going to keep track of them this week and report back on how many shows I watch that have voice-overs—and I will rate how much I hate them. lol. I may also try to rate the shows I watch to see if that helps me decide what to cut out. Have a good week, all!