Television Man

[jere7my]

I like to have a TV show to watch when I'm eating by myself, which is most lunches and two or three dinners a week. When new episodes air, I record them, then play them back as I munch, one per meal. Given the vagaries of reruns, that means I need to be following about twenty shows—which sounds like a lot, but spaced out as they are that ensures I'll always have one or two shows to watch each day. (An average show has 22-24 episodes per year, or a little less than 2 per month. If I want to watch ~10/week, that's ~40/month, or ~20 series.)

Four of those shows (West Wing, Alias, Justice League, and Invasion) were cancelled last year, and another three (Medium, Scrubs, and 24) won't return until 2007, so I have some holes in my schedule. Fortunately, there is a passel of interesting shows coming this fall, and if half of them are worth watching I'm all set. Ha ha ha.

• Vanished (FOX), which already premiered on August 21. A senator's wife has gone missing, and Deep Mysteries are due to emerge. I tend to like long arc stories, since it's the one thing TV can do that other mediums (except comics) can't. The first episode was pretty gripping, akshully. And it has Ming Na.


• Justice (FOX), which premiered tonight (8/30), though it's still sitting in my VCR. It makes the bold innovation of being a courtroom drama, but it's got high-tech gadgets and Victor Garber, so I'm giving it a shot.


• Standoff (FOX - 9/5), about hostage negotiators who are secretly dating each other.


• Studio 60 (NBC - 9/18), Aaron Sorkin's new dromedary about the backstage antics at an SNL clone. Sorkin. Mmmm.


• Jericho (CBS - 9/20), about a Kansas town dealing with the aftereffects of a nuclear blast. Another big-mystery show. Gosh, I wonder if Lost was popular?


• Kidnapped (NBC - 9/20), which is like Vanished except it's a missing rich kid instead of a senator's wife.


• Six Degrees (ABC - 9/21), all I know of which can be summed up with "J.J. Abrams's new show."


• Runaway (CW - 9/25), which is The Fugitive with a family tagging along.


• Heroes (NBC - 9/25), which I'm actually excited about: it's an ordinary-people-with-superpowers show, and it's getting good word-of-mouth. I love nontraditional superheroes.


• Friday Night Lights (NBC - 10/3), about high school football. It's an odd choice for me to be interested in, but critics can't stop talking about it.


• The Nine (ABC - 10/4), in which nine people who were present for a bank robbery turn out to be interconnected.


• Thirty Rock (NBC - 10/11), the only comedy on my list. It's Studio 60 in half-hour sitcom format—the difference being that it's the baby of an actual SNL alum (Tina Fey).

Most of these share three things: premises which could have a lot of promise if done right, people I like involved with them, and good buzz. I realize I'm not doing a lot of work making them look tempting—I reckon y'all can decide for yourselves which premises sound nifty and do the research yourselves. As I say, if half of them turn out to be worth watching, I'll be surprised (but pleased). I'm only confident about Studio 60 and Heroes, but we shall see.

As a public service, here are the premiere dates for other shows we geeks might like, not all of which I watch:

Bones, 8/30
House, 9/5
The Simpsons, Family Guy, American Dad, 9/10
Survivor, 9/14
The Amazing Race, 9/17
Numb3rs, 9/22
Smallville, 9/28
Dr. Who, 9/29
Veronica Mars, 10/3
Lost, 10/4
Battlestar Galactica, 10/6
King of the Hill, 12/3
24, Medium, Scrubs, 2007
Mythbusters has been running all summer.


Everything else is listed here.

One show I'm dying to see, but which has vanished from view, is Korgoth of Barbaria. I happened to catch the pilot on it's single late-night airing on Adult Swim, and fell in love. It's a fantasy series that seems to be a loving tribute to Heavy Metal crossed with Army of Darkness—a marriage of rich, solid, Howard-era worldbuilding with satire, boobs, and toilet humor. It offers lines like, "You may bring with you twelve of my strongest men. As well as one or two of the weaker ones, just for fun." It is the brainchild of Genndy Tartakovsky and Aaron Springer (of Spongebob); how can it not rock? (Search YouTube for Korgoth to watch most or all of it.)

[Edit: according to this amusing Adult Swim schedule from 8/24, you'll be able to catch the Korgoth pilot on Sunday, 9/10.]

Comments

[flammifera.livejournal.com]

I so want to watch Justice just because it has Victor Garber!!

Also, I'm really psyched about the House season premiere.

I really wish I had a tv...

[jane]

I think the only TV I watch anymore is Doctor Who. *sigh*

lots and lots and lots of Doctor Who. (and fortunately there's 29 seasons, 200+ novels and 85+ audio dramas. ^__^)

although I heard Battlestar Galactica and Stargate: Atlantis are worth it. I'm just not a TV kinda girl.

Audiobooks, though. I listen to audiobooks while I'm working and during lunch. ^_^ It's a great way to read and keep yer hands busy. yay!

[gerbilicious85.livejournal.com]

I'm gonna MISS the House premiere! Stupid Tuesday evening seminar! I'm excited about Lost though, since I just spent a good part of a week watching all of season 1 on DVD. I plan to watch as much of season 2 as I can find time for before season 3 starts, maybe by downloading episodes or seeing what's on YouTube. If I don't finish, I'll just read all the spoilery synopses online somewhere.

[elwenlinuiel.livejournal.com]

My personal all time favorite is Firefly (space cowboys, just in case you haven't heard of it... the movie, Serenity, just came out this year), of course, though they haven't aired it since the first season (the bastards) you can always buy/rent it, it's worth it. I also really like The Pretender (sort of scifi... but impossible to explain)... also discontinued (after four seasons, two of which are out on dvd), but well worth seeing anyways. :)

[andele.livejournal.com]

I have the premiers of Studio 60 and Kidnapped on DVD (one DVD; thanks to Netflix--NBC is clearly trying to push Kidnapped on the Sorkin fans). Once I watch 'em (after finishing the 1996 BBC miniseries of Neverwhere), I'll let you know how they were.