2014 Fall TV Thread: Previews, Evaluations, Ridicule and Mourning

Things that I hope are good: Gotham, Selfie

Things I'm already disappointed won't be as good as they should be: Marry Me -same creator as Happy Endings, featuring Casey Wilson and Ken Marino, but is on NBC and is undoubtedly doomed and, honestly, has a really annoying premise.

Thanks for creating the new thread, Johnny. I hope Selfie will be good too because I love the two leads, but... eh. Gotham sounds ridiculous already. I'll watch Marry Me out of Happy Endings loyalty.

I desperately want Selfie to be good but I know it will be super, unforgivably terrible ;_;

In the "things that I desperately want to be good but might and probably will suck based on the trailers" category, I'll add Fresh Off the Boat and Mulaney.

oh god, Mulaney

I keep looking at those promos and thinking "Nasim, you left SNL for this? It's not even a terrible starring vehicle for YOU!"

I have dvr's first 2 eps of Legends but I am scared that it might be crap

It especially hurts because Mulaney himself is one of the best comedians right now

I blame Martin Short. Him and Elliott Gould should switch roles. Better yet, Short shouldn't be on the show period.

I may try Scorpion once despite it looking pretty terrible because it's got Katharine McPhee in it.

Hah, I sadly understand.

Here's a quick rundown: http://www.tvguide.com/special/fall-preview/new-shows.aspx

TV obviously isn't being made for me anymore, but I'm not quite sure who it is made for.

gotham is the only thing coming up I'm remotely interested in. I've abandoned network tv almost completely.

The last seasons of Boardwalk Empire and Sons of Anarchy are glaring omissions from that fall list btw.

And American Horror Story: Freak Show.

That Tv Guide list is comprised only of debut shows. Returning series are a whole 'nother thing.

Ah I see, it was the NCIS inclusion that threw me.

holy shit space dandy has been on fire.

otm

I watched the A To Z pilot. it's not bad, but it's almost like they want to be incessantly compared to How I Met Your Mother (Mrs. Ted Mosby plays a girl who meets a guy who believes they were destined to be together, as narrated by a familiar voice from a popular late 80s/early 90s sitcom, in this case Katey Sagal).

Not really related to the upcoming season, but lol Netflix and The Blacklist
http://www.avclub.com/article/netflix-just-paid-ton-money-streaming-rights-black-208671

A to Z looks like the kind of tv that repulses me, so I fully expect it to run for at least five seasons.

And speaking of tv that repulses me, I'm going to start at the beginning with this new Shonda Rhimes show How to Get Away With Murder and love it until I can't stand to watch even a second of it anymore (like I did with Grey's Anatomy and Scandal).

Jennifer Carpenter, co-star of Showtime’s recently concluded sure-he’s-a-serial-killer-but-come-on-give-him-a-break series Dexter, will star in a new USA Network pilot about American government workers operating in the Middle East. Titled Stanistan after the fictional country in which it’s set, the show is described as a drama, albeit one in which “State Department workers, covert CIA officers and journalists strike a delicate balance of danger and levity.”

holy shit Stanistan is the worst name for a television show and a fictional middle eastern country ever

lol. poor JC

i think thats a good name

it sounds good but yeah, oof that name

hope it gains a devoted following

then we'll have Stanistanstans

I'm sure Stanistan is a generic name bandied around in the intelligence community or somesuch. Either that, or Herman Cain is one of the producers.

it just gives me gasface like when West Wing did it with that Qumar shit

i mean, I get it and I don't know what the alternative but ffs THINK OF A BETTER NAME

lol I'd forgotten about Qumar. At least that sounds like the writers were trying.

Framistan

Bieberstan

it reminds me of my favorite Onion headline

http://www.theonion.com/articles/fritolaysia-cuts-off-chiplomatic-relations-with-sn,1846/

ha!

i'd think it would be really easy to come up w/ a believable -stan name. Karakastan. There, done. Iztbukistan. Trijakistan. But Stanistan... ok well it's obviously a USA show.

I'm sure Stanistan is a generic name bandied around in the intelligence community or somesuch.

I'd be shocked if this were true. Surely ppl in the intelligence community take pride in knowing Uzbekistan from Tajikistan from Pakistan.

Stanistan just sounds like the kind of name you'd say if you purposely didn't want to reference a specific "stan".

Are we certain this isn't just one of those placeholder titles? Please?

seems like it's jokey purposely obv, they are not going to call it w/e realistic-stan cmon guys

regardless this is not a show im going to watch

Why has it taken this long to make a Stannis joke you guys, I'm disappointed in everyone.

Someone report back on Selfie, I don't want to tarnish my image of Gingerlegs.

I am quite looking forward to The Game if only cos it has Brian Cox in it and is a cold war spy series set in the 70's. As this is a BBC production I will not get too excited, that is reserved for S3 of The Americans.
http://www.bbcamerica.com/the-game/

ooh I will watch that! love Brian Cox

new attack on titan ep tnite

Tonight: Gotham, Scorpion, return of The Blacklist.
I'll grudgingly catch Gotham on demand later this week, and shamefully watch The Blacklist like I always do.

The Mysteries Of Laura is kind of amazing if you pretend it's Jenna Maroney's new show after the cancellation of TGS. It even felt cheap like a drama-within-a-sitcom. It also helps explain what the fuck Josh Lucas is doing on it.

i think gotham is the only pilot i'm even watching this year, and thatt's really only out of morbid curiosity. are there even any premium/prestige cable things worth checking out this fall? everything just seems like a dud all around.

Oh yeah, Forever also premieres tonight but I'm not going anywhere near that one
xp If only it actually starred Jenna...

Laura revealed the identity of the killer at a podium during the victim's funeral, listing off the ruled-out suspects in attendance before pointing at her police captain "mentor," who committed the murder BEHIND HER BACK with a syringe while they were interviewing him. After the mentor (she says "mentor" a lot) is arrested, it turns out her new precinct captain will be...her ESTRANGED HUSBAND! ZOINKS! They then get into a standoff in the frontyard.

lol wait i meant she got into a stand-off with the mentor, after revealing him the culprit and before her husband became her new boss.

though i would not be shocked if a later episode has her pulling a gun on her husband in some wacky bit of misunderstanding

@Clay: Well, I'm thinking of checking out Transparant on Amazon, and The Affair on Showtime. Though I have no confidence a show on Showtime can be good for more than one season at the most, and it will obviously be pure shite in season eight.

yay blacklist :D

someone tell me if gotham is good. to my untrained eye it looks like a Batman edition of Muppet Babies

yeah i've heard pretty good stuff about transparent and might get around to checking it out eventually, thanks for the reminder. xp

Gotham a natural spinoff of the How Did He Get That Way idiocy minted by G Lucas in his prequels you all paid for.

WHY WOULD YOU START THE STORY BEFORE IT'S INTERESTING???

like, they have the Riddler and he's not going to wear question-mark tights?

Holding up the Star Wars prequels as a benchmark example of origin stories is a little disingenuous. It's a concept that's been successful and satisfying in other franchises.

can we get a cat picture to replace "franchise"?

Watched pilots of Selfie and A to Z - after the way You're The Worst came on so strong over the summer, I can't imagine a network romantic comedy not being awful.

in comparison

Holding up the Star Wars prequels as a benchmark example of origin stories is a little disingenuous. It's a concept that's been successful and satisfying in other franchises.

I struggle to think of what those are, but in any case I found the Gotham pilot pretty insulting for the most part. Logue, McKenzie and Bruno Heller can do much better,

WHY WOULD YOU START THE STORY BEFORE IT'S INTERESTING???

What struck me most about Gotham is that in a way they've started the story after it's interesting. Pre-Batman surely the interesting story to tell is how the city became the festering sewer of crime and corruption that needed a Batman to try to put it right?

Instead, it's already a total hellhole at the start of the show - so where do they go from there? Right out of the gate they're in a holding pattern because nothing Gordon does can have any lasting effect on the city - all he can do is look on helplessly while all the Batvillains they shoehorned into the first episode drive the city deeper into the shit.

black-ish is okay; i look forward to them getting a little less self-conscious about their GROUNDBREAKING PREMISE and stringing together some jokes

Sorry I paid for the Star Wars prequels morbs, I don't remember doing so musta been one of my blackouts

was happy to see Mary Louise Parker in Blacklist -- hope she gets to do a little more than be 'woman in peril' though ffs

looks like she's gonna be a dreadful victim, i'm hoping the pieces of her getting cut off is some kind of fakeout and we don't actually have to watch her lose limbs every episode

otm

also this Berlin dude has the worst fake accent ever. He's like an SNL character

lol that's just how Peter Stormare always sounds!!!

I plan to enter the den of Shonda Rhimes again tonight, even though I've sworn off ever watching Grey's or Scandal ever again. I'm sure I'll get there at some point with How to Get Away With Murder, but I'll enjoy it until the day I don't.

Black-ish was full-on hilarious and possibly the truest description of navigating life as The Black Guy that I've ever seen on network television

needs some more time in the oven for me but i'm not much of a fan of the half hour sitcom format or relentless "FIELD HOCKEY IS NOT A SPORT" jokes
it was a helluvalot more interesting than modern family which, with the exception of the lead mom and dad's acting chops, isn't really giving me a reason to watch it

worthwhile article: http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2014/09/24/the-creator-of-black-ish-on-his-new-show-stereotypes-and-cosby/

I couldn't take more than 15 minutes of that Gotham pile of wank. How Danny Cannon still gets work as a director is mystifying, his movie/tv CV is one wretched piece of shit after another on a run stretching back to the early 90's.

On the plus side the new Sleepy Hollow ep was a lot of fun. I can't wait for Transparent, from early reports it looks very promising. I hated the first season of [US] The Bridge but as a latecomer to the 2nd season i am finding it much improved.

American Horror Story returns in a couple of weeks. As much as last season was a bit meh by it's own standards it still pisses over all other tv horror shows by having Jessica Lange and a brilliant recurring ensemble cast.

new key and peele ep was 10% very funny, 40% kinda funny and 50% not funny which i think is kind of what to expect from them going forward
stuff like the MTV bit felt particularly half-considered and like it made the cut mostly because "but now i have herpes in my butt" made somebody in corporate laugh
i'm glad they dropped the variety show audience bit and stuck them in a car, much more reasonable
goddamn though, they make this show look so good; production values are really really strong throughout

http://io9.com/scorpion-brings-the-stupidest-most-batshit-insane-hack-1638333877/

this is otm and exactly why i'm going to keep watching scorpion, assuming it keeps pace with the pilot, which was like macgyver crossed with sneakers shot up with fast five roids. plus teary speeches about the emotional challenges of the extremely gifted.

like macgyver crossed with sneakers shot up with fast five roids

Hello! I'll have to go back and peep this ondemand when I get a minute.

we sat through one of thost 'first look' pre-trailer things for Scorpion at the movie theater a while back, and I remember thinking it looked like fun

Scorpion is super stupid in the funniest way

I enjoyed it, but OTOH fuck everything that stars Katherine McPhee

i don't have sound on my work computer so maybe there's some kind of exposition in their dialogue but I COMPLETELY MISSED on first viewing that MacPhree just kind of flings the car-roof off like it ain't no thing

So glad I didn't watch her season of AI. No baggage!

madame secretary was the dullest insane show i've ever seen (gave up after 15 minutes though). the president shows up at a professor's house, he tells her he wants her to be secretary of state cuz she's not political and can help him make major changes (not sure how you can both be revolutionary and apolitical but ok) and then VOILA JUMPCUT she's secretary of state, which seems to involve mildly stressful meetings and then coming home to your family for dinner, where you ponder whether its worth being secretary of state. biggest problem is that the dialogue was wholly uncolorful compared to either west wing or scandal. didn't help that zelko ivasomething appeared to be playing candy crush during his scenes.

omg omg omg

almost forgot the best part, where a guy visits the alleged political supergenius late at night, claiming that the previous secretary of state was assassinated by someone "inside."

her response: "inside what?"

hahaha

"inside a fort made out of couch pillows"

Tea Leoni has never been able to carry a show or film* before. I don't know why she would now.

*I do like Flirting With Disaster a lot, but that's not entirely on her shoulders.

i kept thinking she had to just be an advisor at this point while the real sos was in a coma and that becoming the real deal secretary of state had yet to come because how could there be ZERO drama about that transfer of power, esp when her credentials are "the president thinks she's a good egg"

supposedly cbs is really banking on this show carrying the good wife's audience for after that ends, but i respect the friends i know who watch the good wife too much to believe it's anywhere near this forgettable

The thing I love about CBS is that they'll kill a show which, ratings-wise, would be a hit on the other three networks.

croop you don't watch the good wife? it's really great, and weirdly contemporary in a way network tv generally can't quite manage

it's definitely on my to-watch list. i like to check out pilots but usually i don't get into dramas until they've been on for a while.

A while = 7 seasons?

dude veronica mars is still on the list

lol wow.

if it was on netflix i think we might have given it a go by now

good wife is on prime (as is veronica mars, since the movie came out), and on hulu too i think, they really started pushing it, i guess thinking that people would want to catch up

i've made some exceptions for better (breaking bad) or worse (justified) but in general i try to stay zen about shows and not worry about catching up with what's currently airing

The opportunities for spoilage increase the longer you wait, though.

no that's not it, you just miss the chance to be a dork who watches that show

honestly i feel like more dramas become spoiled like food rather than like secrets, so i'm willing to risk the latter

Justified is awesome?

it would seem, at least in regards to later seasons, that i disagree?

yeah the last couple of years have been shit

i wonder if i dug s3 more than s4 and s5 because i was rushing through them on dvd rather than letting 45 minutes of nothing much soak in for a week

Well, season 4 was the best yet. But I bailed on season 5 very quickly, heard it didn't get better, saving it to binge with season 6, which'll hopefully make up for it.

i think my tv watching mo is sometimes similar to croup's - mine is often more motivated by waiting for people to shut the fuck up about whatever dumb drama they love

i kinda liked s4 but 5 was no good

Veronica Mars isn't on US Netflix?

I watched the whole series on Netflix in the past year.

Blackish has a lot of promise, once it progresses after the first couple episodes I think it is really going to roll. I liked the pilot but you could tell it was a demonstration of the premise more than anhthing. I really love Lawrence Fishburne in this, he is killing it

Sorry re Netflix I was referring to good wife.

Ah.

I think Veronica Mars is gone from Netflix streaming now, and only up on Amazon Instant

I've watched like half of s1 of "The Good Wife" and it's fine but I don't get why people love it? It's pretty standard cheezy legal drama with above-average acting. I like Archie Panjabi, the show should be about her character, except she is not a good wife.

I don't remember S1 very well, but it got into a pattern around S3/S4 where it would be solid all the time with one particularly clever or thrilling episode every 7 or 8 weeks, but starting a little while ago they're firing on all cylinders the majority of the time. Also, a lot of the soapier elements of the show have gradually either been stripped away or submerged. (The whole love-triangle conceit that sometimes marred the first few seasons is gone, for instance.)

It just seems kind of ... basic? Like in 2014 we still have "case of the week" legal shows where the "good guys" (good wife) win every time, usually off of some last-minute piece of evidence that the main character always unveils?

yeah the show has not been anything like that for quite a while

Fishburne as a grandpa is generationally depressing to me, but i'd watch that show if my antenna worked.

if a show has a big cult after seven seasons i'd assume "first half of s1" is not the best batch of episodes to judge it on, i.e. parks & rec

I bailed on The Good Wife immediately preceding the time it got really good, I'm told. I couldn't put up with the whole love triangle shit and the introduction of Kalinda's ex husband anymore, though. I'll resume when I have the time.

sometimes it takes a show about 10 episodes to shake off its "premise" and hone in on what's actually enjoyable, esp with ensemble shows

their are too many good/bad but interesting tv shows to watch these days, it makes it tough to stick with shows that are in decline even temporarily

part of why if the first few episodes don't grab me i'm happy to leave it to its own devices and let the rabble decide whether it should survive long enough to right its course. it's not like you won't hear if it got good!

JF - yeah, that sounds about right. the ex-husband stuff was awful and the showrunners even publicly acknowledged they fucked that up, and wrote him off at the earliest convenience.

It just seems kind of ... basic? Like in 2014 we still have "case of the week" legal shows where the "good guys" (good wife) win every time, usually off of some last-minute piece of evidence that the main character always unveils?

lol a) if you don't want to watch tv then don't but week-to-week is tv, b) they do not win every time, to the contrary the constant pressure to compromise and make deals and turn situations to best advantage that does seem kind of normal to the legal profession seems to be well absorbed into the show (so they lose and get tricked and eat humble pie a lot), the more serious problem the writers face is keeping that fresh when constantly shifting loyalties and affiliations eventually lead them to run through all the combinations (much like shows with heavy proportions of romantic (sub)plotting do)

also the notion that anyone on the show is a "good guy" was done away with a couple seasons back

if a show has a big cult after seven seasons i'd assume "first half of s1" is not the best batch of episodes to judge it on, i.e. parks & rec

― da croupier, Friday, September 26, 2014 11:03 AM (23 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

sometimes it takes a show about 10 episodes to shake off its "premise" and hone in on what's actually enjoyable, esp with ensemble shows

― da croupier, Friday, September 26, 2014 11:09 AM (17 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yeah obv but otoh fuck having to invest 4500 minutes of my time in something before it "gets good"

I totally believe that the show gets better bc I have friends with good taste who love it but what I've seen so far isn't enough to keep me going until it gets better. Sorry, guys!

I totally get that. FWIW if I had to pick a jump-off point I'd probably go w/ "Red Team, Blue Team" (4.14).

Yeah obv but otoh fuck having to invest 4500 minutes of my time in something before it "gets good"

shame you missed my next post where i said as much!

just saying that when people are talking about a show that's been on for a while and i tapped out after six episodes, i don't assume i know whether the show sucks on the whole

Kalinda's ex husband

Don't worry he got Poochied!

In its more formulaic early season(s), it's well-done legal potboiler! Archie Panjabi sustained, esp. in trying to figure out her accent.

Then it became next-level.

Do you all put down a long novel because the beginning is slow?

uh if i have to wait a week between chapters QUITE POSSIBLY

but if you read 20 novels at a time in hour-long weekly doses that's great

You don't have to wait a week anymore! I mean that's what one of these threads is talking about, how new technologies (e.g. Netflix, DVDs/BDs) are promoting different consumption patterns (as you mentioned!) that can more closely mirror the novel-reading experience.

Also they're broadcast hours, i.e. ~43 minutes, and I don't get the 20 novels at a time thing? Something like TGW is a single text, with multiple installments of that text.

How long did Dickens' audience have to wait between installments of Nicholas Nickleby?

I don't get the 20 novels at a time thing?

20 tv shows, presumably.

leee i think a better comparison would be comic books, where you can either wait for trade paperback collections or get them in smaller timed doses with ads. and as this is the "2014 Fall TV thread," clearly the people here are talking about shows you experience relatively close to when they air, not when they show up on netflix.

it's exactly because they're available on netflix that people should be more than willing to "give up" on a show after a few episodes, because it will be easy to revisit if consensus is the experience is worth it

yup exactly

Sorry, I'm trying to make a point about how early seasons, formulaic as they might be, don't have to be an obstacle to bringing in viewers of a longish-running show, especially one that's reached critical consensus (i.e. yes it's worth it) and with enough episodes that are available in media that aren't confined to episodic scheduling.

also, formulas, whatever, but the early seasons are the ones that are most focused on florrick/margulies as an infamously wronged wife as well as, at the same time, a 'mom/wife returning to the workplace' and accordingly constantly demeaned/slighted for that, playing catch-up, etc., neither of which are really things you can see on tv elsewhere

This guy...

https://33.media.tumblr.com/6077e34eee253b46effffedb8394a1b4/tumblr_ncsj6fAQpl1ql1v50o1_500.jpg

that's very convenient for him that his avatar photo crops out the top of his hair, confers a much-needed seriousness on his stupid visage

blackish improved on the second ep. i suppose it's too obvious to note but has anybody on the onion level or elsewhere pointed out that "black-ish" is notable for meaning both "blackish" i.e. KINDA black and also "black ish" i.e. "black shit"?

Why is there no "White List" or "Orphan White"? makesuthnk

http://media.aintitcool.com/media/uploads/2014/herc/whitecollar.jpg

Just watched the pilot of Selfie; looks like it's gonna be this year's Trophy Wife or even Super Fun Night - love the stars, the title and premise will scare off possibly-deserved success.

We blew through Broadchurch over the past week (in lieu of starting Gracepoint) and just finished last night. Basically...fuck Broadchurch and, by extension, any chance of my ever watching Gracepoint. If it had been shorter and was simply called Olivia Colman's Reel, I would've been totally on-board and loved it. But don't posit something as a mystery if you're going to pull the resolution completely out of your ass. Yes, there was foreshadowing towards the very end, but foreshadowing and ironic admonishments are not clues. Ugh.

I joked that the flashbacks to Tennant as a boy in Broadchurch indicated that he had come from the future to stop his younger self murdering Danny. That resolution would've been at least as out of left field and satisfactory as the one we got.

yeah i think cho and gillan are great but the whole concept of selfie is wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong. It'd be one thing if it was "paris hilton type hires image consultant, pygmalion happens" but instead its "allegedly internet-known sales rep who had a bad airplane ride begs for insults from co-worker, pygmalion happens"

if you want to do pygmalion she either needs to be a notably lower class or upper class compared to the henry higgins, without that class dynamic it's just basically slut-shaming with obnoxious commentary about "generations"

yeah, that "my generation" line stunk it up. there's plenty of time yet to retool the premise into something better (ala Trophy Wife, which seemed to start be about Kate desperately grasping for approval from the new family and ended up being more expansive and charming)

i get more of a My Name is Earl/Raising Hope vibe from the premise (about redeeming a stupid but ultimately good-hearted character) than Pygmalion despite the explicit references

trophy wife was never going to get past the "super nice guy who just happens to have two ex-wives" conceit, and unless they make cho her mentor or employee, there's no reason why gillan would take his critique for multiple seasons. also they've created a world where she's supposedly popular and successful at her job, but "for the wrong reasons." So we're just supposed to play along with the idea that he's going to teach her how to get the right kind of approval from powerful men.

in both shows they've set up the male lead as someone who isn't a raging asshole, but has such an arguably sexist role in the story that we'd naturally assume he'd be one

and in both cases, they've cast the role well enough that some people will overlook it, but i can't see it lasting long

throw on top of this that selfie demands both a deep familiarity of internet culture (my wife had to explain to me how gillan was more into instagram stuff and those book club people were more pinterest stuff) and a willingness to endure old-folks complaints about internet culture

target audience appears to be "mildly self-loathing web denizens who will put up with dumb shit to see john cho and karen gillan as romantic leads" and as those people are my friends i'd like this show to be put out of their misery

^^^ otm, with the caveat that my mother-in-law thinks Selfie is incredibly cute

she also is a big fan of Two Broke Girls

is Mulaney as terrible as everyone says?

yes

i love his stand-up but that was the worst sitcom performance i've seen in a long time

the longer the line, the worse his line-reading

i wonder if elliott gould played the gay neighbor like a less butch elton john to make mulaney and martin short look slightly more macho in comparison

(my wife had to explain to me how gillan was more into instagram stuff and those book club people were more pinterest stuff)

he's so serenely wooden (and the "live audience" laughter so repetitive and grating) it might not make a difference, but i do think a big mistake they made was treating him like the seinfeld-ian square that everyone acts wacky around, when his stand-up scores a lot of points about how surreal and weird his "squareness" actually is.

also, if you've seen new in town, they fucked up his "proctology exam" bit - they kept the "OHHHHHHHH" but left out the "I'm saaaaaawwwrrry"

Ugh, Mulaney. Heard it was bad, but checked it out anyway, and it's a carcrash. And some of it is typical pilot-problems, but then other times Mulaney gets lost trying to tell an anecdote, and it's embarassing in a way not even Work It was. Most bad sit-com actors just yell a lot, then smiles for a beat safe in the knowledge the laugh-track will cover it. Mulaney just seems as if he's no idea what's going on.

I liked the writing and i found the wooden performances stiltedly endearing! But no more laugh drenched sitcoms ever again, literally nothing is good enough for me to want to watch it if it is showing me how and when to laugh.

It is remarkably bad on every level. It's actually kind of impressive.

Showtime's pilot for The Affair is streaming at their site.

You guys are actually convincing me to watch Mulaney to see how bad it is

i know they said it was filmed in front of a live audience but if they're not adjusting the rise and fall of the laughs in the mix, then that audience was religiously following a LAUGH sign or SOMETHING

Maybe they're threatening the audience with multiple takes and keeping them there forever until they get the response they want?

Hey, maybe that's what happened. The editors used all the takes where the audience laughed out of desperation to get out of there, and never realized they'd used all the takes where Mulaney forgets the punchline halfway through the joke.

Plausible.

just the pilot is out right? i know a lot of sitcoms have huge drop-offs in quality between pilot and the rest of the season (which is often shot at totally different times? one as a spec and then rest after the show is purchased and major changes have been made)? i guess i'm hopeful it gets better bc i think that one mulaney standup album is pretty hilarious.

Yeah, only the pilot is out there. But the whole development thing has been different. The show was originally made for last season (on NBC, I think) and had a different pilot. Then FOX bought it for this season, and I think they made a whole bunch of episodes in a row, because apparantly they've already finished an awful lot of episodes - reviewers got to see 5. Another dumb decision by Kevin Reilly.

I really liked a lot of things about Mulaney but Mr Veg has flatly informed me i am an island on the matter so my opinion + grain of salt iirc

i agree with forks that his woodenness was kind of endearing

tbh he reminded me a little bit of ed grimley lol

also pinocchio

did the amy pond sitcom air yet?

it did; it was bad and I will watch at least three more episodes

It really was bad. I'm almost impressed at how unappealing they made her. I highly recommend people watch her on the recent seasons of NTSF:SD::SUV or A Touch of Cloth instead.

I don't know anything about "Benched" on USA but it's got the dude from Better Off Ted and Eliza Coupe from Happy Endings, plus Maria Bamford, so it seems like total ILX-bait. Anyone seen it?

That's the first I've heard of it, but I'll check it out for COUPE! alone.

Whaaa? Yeah, I'll need to check that out. How did those folks get relegated to USA of all places?

Oh, it was co-created by Michaela Watkins, ex-SNL. Neat.

Doesn't debut until 10/28, so I'll need to make a post-it note.

The commercials don't let great, but I love COUPE! too so I'll give it a shot

They missed a trick not calling it Coupe & The Bammer.

i'm still waiting for VegG to dislike anything so it can become my treasure in life

Just because you're a miserable shriveled-up ballsack doesn't mean everyone else has to be.

xpost whatever, grumblebum

i kid! I saw an interview w/ Scorsese once where he said "Well, if there are people in motion on a screen, that's interesting to me."

love me, love my joie de vivre

Joy deWho? Joyce deWitt?

:(

blackish was GREAT last night

survivor's remorse has some real potential; will be curious to see how the show develops after a few episodes. fast and sharp dialogue made up for the cliches and first episode exposition. following a go at this and black sails (which i liked a lot) number one on my wish list is that starz would get over it's ME TOO pay cable T&A bullshit; i like breasts as much as the next guy but unnecessary and non-plot developing topless reverse cowgirl sexploitation in the first fifteen minutes of your new show make me think you think i'm stupid and make it difficult for me to take your show seriously

SR has a bizarre pedigree: written by Mike O'Malley, exec produced by lebron and tom werner of the red sox with prominent roles for mike epps and frank sobotka
http://www.metacritic.com/tv/survivors-remorse

Update: I started watching "The Good Wife" again because my wife is into it and I'm getting back into it too. I think the turning point was when I saw her son has a Future of the Left poster in his room.

That poster has been there since shortly after that album came out and it has never left. It delights me every time we see it.

I like the kids, they look like real kids instead of TV kids.

Catching up on Black-ish tonight. I don't not like it, but it would be better if Anthony Anderson wasn't a doof 75% of the time.

Actually he seems to be the less goofy one compared to the wife (who I love)!
Also appreciated the cheesy, Modern Family-esque ending with nerdbond (this is why #Gamergate makes me cry)

yeah, blackish is getting better fast; several legit lolz
i tried my first shonda rhimes show with the first ep of "how to get away with murder" and was shocked that it was as good as it was. very fun, doesn't take itself too seriously, smart enough to stay a half step ahead but doesn't try to outthink me, leaves five dozen threads to follow but suggests it's capable of picking them all up and making something with them. i'm into it.

It's a trap!

Shonda's shows always start off well, but then you're really good and hooked in when they inevitably become unforgivably terrible and you have to forcefully extract yourself when you can't take it anymore, dealing all the while with the shame of knowing you did this all to yourself.

Just finished this week's Black-ish and I'm totally on board now.

haha i totally understand that reaction going between "the talk" and "the nod" episodes

Man Scorpion seems like it could be fun in a totally unrealistic House M.D.-sort of way but I watched an episode yesterday and it seemed to revel in the unlikeability of its characters and its shocking number of plot holes and scenes that make no sense at all. The whole thing was like a really, really bad Bond movie.

Misread that and now I wish there was a show called 'Man Scorpion'

Or possibly not. Thanks for ruining it, Google Image Search.
http://fc05.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2011/055/1/d/scorpion_man_by_lollipopdunce-d3ablpk.jpg

Anyone caught Jane the Virgin last night? Way better than a show with that title should be. Really good pilot - great mix of humor and earnestness, what a teen show should be ideally IMO. Sweet, but not naive.

Also, Marry Me wasn't nearly as bad as I was led to believe.

Wait, it aired? Damn.

I mean, I could see how someone not familiar with Casey Wilson's Happy Endings character could be turned off but I mostly liked it. Also nice to see the roommate's gross boyfriend from Broad City in it.

the cast on marry me is terrific, and it was so nice to hear that happy endings dialogue rhythm again, but jesus could they have found a father for casey that was more than a decade older than her and a fiancee for casey that wasn't more than a decade older than her

the pacing on marrry me is good, the actors are good, the scripting is dire

blackish is pretty great now; multiple lolz at the tubman sequence. Can I get an onion av club check as to whether or not that was the first appearance of Trick Daddy as background music on a primetime comedy?

Jane the Virgin is like early Bryan Fuller crossed with a telenovela, very fun but I'm worried it will lean too heavily on DRAHMA later on.

Casey Wilson is great as usual but Marino is weirdly bland. I am basically on board for the further married adventures of Penny, though.

Can I get an onion av club check as to whether or not that was the first appearance of Trick Daddy as background music on a primetime comedy?

so HBO and CBS both just announced online options for "cord cutters" -- separate thread?

unless "cord cutters" is a hot new show, i'd say yeah

The trailer for the Sutton Foster show Younger on TV Land is (has been?) up: http://www.tvland.com/shows/younger

The premise is maybe a little gross, in that she's 40 trying to pass for 26, but it looks like it might still be good despite itself.

(rip Bunheads)

caught up with black-ish last night and i can't remember the last sitcom that was so good by episode 3

can anyone make sense of this article? apparently mulaney is "not great but better than 99% of tv" based off examples of jokes that could have come from basically any show, and mulaney could totally revitalize the multi-cam with intelligent humor except it's not actually intelligent? i'm also not sure if the author's seen a recent multi-cam comedy - no mention of cristela, how i met your mother, etc. there's just chuck lorre stuff mentioned in passing.

http://grantland.com/hollywood-prospectus/john-mulaney-state-of-sitcom/

would anyone remotely think mulaney was trying to "reinvigorate" the multi-cam based on watching it, rather than reading a pr statement about it?

tbf i can't stop watching it, it's like the Smash of sitcoms - a mix of quality vets and hapless newcomers flailing about in inexplicably mundane, weak material, waiting for the mercy killing

it's such an ironic article considering Cristela Alonzo IS the kind of performer you could hook a defense of multicam around - someone clearly and charismatically playing to an unseen audience - while mulaney wouldn't get a callback at a high school theater production.

The fact that Cristela is getting 6M sets of eyes on it tucked away on a Friday night is a good thing. I haven't watched it yet myself, but I like her a lot.

Mulaney is dunzo. I wonder if Nasim will mysteriously return to SNL or keep trying the sitcom thing. I would suspect the latter, since she was basically already checked out of SNL mentally all last season.

Two episodes in, The Affair is excellent.

Is that McNulty vehicle?

Is anyone else watching Finding Your Roots on PBS? I loved the African American Lives series' he did a few years ago and then the last season of Finding Your Roots two years ago. Almost missed that there was a second series of it going on this fall, but it's so good.

I'm a sucker for the genealogy shows, though. I even watched Who Do You Think You Are? after it moved to TLC.

xp yeah, it is. the hook is that half the episode is told from the male lead's perspective and then in the second half, the entire proceedings are retold from the female lead's perspective, pseudo-rashomon style. part of the fun is picking out the visual and scripting parallels; they're often completely different in the retelling. it's a grown up way of looking at behaving badly; within their own context, their actions are justifiable and inevitable. highly recommended.

the "coma kid extorts well-meaning but self-promoting athlete into getting him a stripper" episode of survivor's remorse, preceded by the "mom beat me with hot wheels tracks and i turned out okay - let's talk about hitting our kids" episodes have given me pause... still hoping that show calms down and focuses on the writing and the acting (which are both good) rather than the far-fetched, eager to offend plots.

i am also thoroughly hooked on How to Get Away with Murder. It's so campy, so nonsensical and so fun just now and the boundary lines keep getting pushed. More graphic man on man sex than any show I've ever seen on HBO; the line "he did a thing with my ass that made my eyes water" repeated multiple times as a plot point. The moment where Davis takes off her makeup and wig and eyelashes as a moment of self-discovery and despair was really risky and intense and powerful. I only wish they'd quit with the fucking flashbacks; I've seen that goddamn bonfire and cheerleader lep like fifty times now.

tennant's yankee accent is something else on gracepoint

First episode of Constantine was surprisingly entertaining, and Matt Ryan made a pretty good John Constantine, even if his costume looked unsettlingly like a ComicCon cosplay outfit. The last couple of minutes was painful, though - suddenly dispensing off-camera a character who looked like she was being set up to be a longrunning sidekick. I wasn't surprised when I looked it up and found out Lucy Griffiths had been unceremoniously booted after the first episode was in the can.

You guys, Benched is actually really good.

i have heard good things abt the Flash tv show. can anyone confirm/deny?

I'm not drawn to that type of thing, but friends who are say it's been satisfying so far.

I'll confirm. It's fun, doesn't take itself too seriously, a few good comedic moments throughout. Well paced so far. Nice cast of characters, good potential. etc.
It's lighter hearted than /not as dark as Arrow in case anyone's looking for that comparison.

Yeah i wouldn't say it transcends being a superhero show but it's the best one on TV i've seen since season 1 of heroes

(i hear arrow got better over time tho)

(and i mean prime-time shows, no idea if something on the cartoon network's blowing minds)

Yeah Arrow struggles a bit in the first half of season 1, but finds its footing a lot more as the Arrow entourage/support team starts forming.

Arrow season 2 is really great. Worth sticking through the most awkward parts of season 1 for imo.

new eric andre is perfect

Oh well, I guess Selfie got canceled.

i hope john cho finally gets a show worthy of him after this

at least time he got to be the romantic male lead rather than matthew perry's second banana

Damn.

Selfie got really really funny around episode 3 but it definitely had a doomed air around it

does this mean Gillan can go back to NTSF
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a4SrIs8rarQ

should i actually watch that show?

lool at Gracepoint. Salty old fisherman in interrogation says "I was up late reading a book." "Which book?" "Infinite Jest".

Good book choice salty old fisherman, A+

The Affair, anyone? It's super clunky in parts but also super enjoyable. Kind of weird mixture of witty and stupid and engrossing, like the first season of Homeland, sorta.

This week's episode began with this outrageous DO YOU SEE moment of dialogue -- the lead actress (who's having the affair) is painting her wooden porch and Pacey comes by and says "Hey don't paint that porch, the FOUNDATION IS ROTTEN and you'll never be able to COVER IT UP" -- and yet somehow the rest of the show was really great. Pretty location work, solid acting, nice hangout vibe. No idea how/why there'll be a 2nd season though. Afraid of a very groansome denouement.

I love The Affair thus far, though I'm one episode behind. It's taken a very odd drift with the coke dealer angle.
Funny you should mention Homeland, I am binging on it just now for the first time. Watched about two weeks and knocked out the first season and half of the second. It's pretty good!

Dominic West is such a shitty actor, have you tried Olive Kitteridge yet? It so much better than this crap. I loved what Kurasawa did with Rashomon but The Affair is such insipid shit, after the 3rd episode I didn't care for any of the characters fate.

Watched about two weeks and knocked out the first season and half of the second. It's pretty good!

Uhm, yeah, you should probably stop right there...

I think West is pretty great, even subtle in this. He has limited range - sympathetic asshole, basically - but he's very pleasurable to watch. It's the right role for him.

You're right - it is insipid, middlebrow etc. But I like the light touch.

I definitely want to check out OK - thanks for the reminder.

Kitteridge is great

forks have you gotten to "Q&A" yet, cause if not you should make that the last ep you watch and pretend that's the end

Exactly!

um, i literally just watched the episode after Q&A and am about to do another three eps. you guys are scaring me.

http://www.comingsoon.net/tv/news/385507-netflix-takes-over-unbreakable-kimmy-schmidt-starring-ellie-kemper

Don't do it forks!

start on The Americans instead, it's now gone two full seasons without fucking up

i am still embarrassed that i watched homeland season 3

So psyched that the S3 premiere of The Americans will be my almost birthday present (same week, not same day).

S2 might have been my favorite season of anything this year, top 5 in any case

i couldn't hang with the Americans, it seemed v cheesy to me

:O

I was hooked from the word go, though, so I guess if you didn't like it early, you're never gonna.

two words:

shitty

wigs

total dealbreaker

haha, there ARE some shitty wigs on that show, but it's kind of an inside joke according to Kerri Russell. Wardrobe keeps finding worse and worse things for them to have to wear on purpose.

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/11/05/article-2487869-193231C800000578-429_634x889.jpg

i have a doll that belonged to my mum when she was a kid that has better hair than this

that is one thirsty, bottom-of-the-hope-chest lookin wig

The Americans is light-years ahead of Homeland; last season was excellent.
So I'm at episode 10 on homeland's second season and um.

thnka you forks for reminding me about eric andre, i watched the first 3 eps of season 3 yesterday and i think i laughed harder in that 30 minutes than i did at anything in weeks

it has gotten much more gonzo

the americans is so good

the first season was very good but the second season was a fucking masterclass in pacing and plotting

veg, don't sweat the clothes; focus on the harsh eye and the great acting and killer scripts.
to me, the americans is the story of what you thought grown ups did when you were eight.

Ha! That's a great way to put it.

*folds arms*

i have a long think piece in me about the americans. there's this great throughline of the meeting of the end of the sexual revolution, the cold war and 80's childhood nostalgia.

also

annet mahendru

<3

sigh

would read, forks. also, it starts in January this season! The first half of '15 is gonna be nuts.

The BBC's cold war effort The Game is so shite, on paper it looked quite promising (Brian Cox, hints of the Tinker Tailor.. aesthetic) but typical of the beeb it looks ok but it is poorly written trite crap.

I only noticed the other day that Matthew Rhys is a Welsh actor, well of course the name is a dead giveaway but I thought he was American.

Has anyone seen "The Missing"? Have heard good things, but sounds so depressing I haven't watched it yet.

So, how about that Selfie ending this week 0_0

I've already started deleting episodes of Benched from my dvr without watching them. Oh, how I wanted you to be a better show!

I don't blame you. I've watched the current run of 6 or so episodes, it's very mediocre despite COUPE! Marry Me is about the same level, but at least a little better and more promising... still, I'll stick it out a little longer

i'm with both of you on both of those. i should probably give up. blackish is the only standard sitcom i'm watching and even that gets formulaically rote

that's a good assessment of Blackish - too many ye olde sitcom plots (evil mother-in-law episode, every other episode based on a holiday, etc.)
you dropped Brooklyn Nine Nine? that's still fairly good
but yeah, i feel like none of these shows are as reliably funny as a random episode of Steven Universe

dammit. i feel like i need to pre-eulogize Selfie every week now; that last sequence with "Chandelier" was strong.

black-ish is the best sitcom of the past 5 years

Anyone make it to the last episode of The Affair. It's been a great, if sometimes stupid, show, but dragging it into a second season seems like a terrible fucking idea.

yeah...i have no problem with them doing a 2nd season but they should've made season 1 feel at least somewhat like a self-contained story instead of going with shameless cliffhangers.

black-ish is the best sitcom of the past 5 years

Yep, pretty much. I'm continually surprised by how good it is, even when they are just running through the same decade old sitcom standard plotlines.

I kinda feel like black-ish is the sitcom everyone wanted to pretend Modern Family was.

the affair took a bad turn with the "the family is DUN DUN DUN ~~~drug dealers~~~" and then nosedived with that last episode. was really into it up until about episode six or so tho'.

Haven't watched thefinale yet, kinda scared to. By Ep 4/5 I was already really readyto get someone - anyone - else's perspective for even half an episode. The format really wore on me.

the affair took a bad turn with the "the family is DUN DUN DUN ~~~drug dealers~~~"

Read this part too quickly and thought it was still part of the Blackish discussion and was like "oh, fuck, no, really?"

ha, i would not be surprised if Barris did some sort of fucked up dream sequence along those lines

writing/acting/plotlines/divergence of internal logic/chronology all bottomed out on the affair's finale; was very turned off

black-ish is the best sitcom of the past 5 years

BTW this is an understandable feeling but it is wrong; the correct answer is Mom, which is a) the darkest, b) the most realistically class-conscious, and c) the most matter-of-factly feminist show on television right now. And funny as hell.

I admire Mom but don't find it remotely funny

Mom is the second-best sitcom of the past five years.

"I kinda feel like black-ish is the sitcom everyone wanted to pretend Modern Family was."

Love them both, but I don't think anyone pretended MF is what Blackish is. I'm not even sure what you're getting at.

Also Modern Family is still pretty hilarious even when the plots go off the rails due to amazing casting almost across the board (the kid who plays Luke is the weak link)

Blackish has perfect casting but the best sitcom of the last 5 years was Ben & Kate rip

anyone but me been watching Mom? its a pretty impressive show in its own way, i think.

Love them both, but I don't think anyone pretended MF is what Blackish is. I'm not even sure what you're getting at.

i was trying to say that i feel like people, mostly during the first couple of seasons, were hyping MF as this generation's "Great American Sitcom Family", like the closest to "authentic" family we have on TV right now. to me, Black-ish scans to me as a much more believable take on an authentic American family. also, this could be because i think MF has turned into a goddamn terrible cartoon as of late, like they don't even try to be believable with anything at this point.

xps The Missing is imo better than Broadchurch, although I thought that was painfully lazy and disappointingly obvious, Colly's acting chops aside. Missing has some slow eps and I gather some didn't like the conclusion but it's v watchable (ignore plot point relating to thrift shop)

I should add on "Mom" -- the dark/light tone, the working-classness, the "serious issues" themes w/o being overly serious, i mean its not gonna be roseanne but i can't think of many other shows with those qualities. at this point its a two season long arc fundamentally about recovering from alcoholism.

so i guess, speaking of the "great american sitcom family" they're not diverse on "mom" but they're single-parent and constantly broke and on the verge of disaster so maybe that's closer to the "authentic" for most ppl?

yeah Mom is a pretty good show, although i just kinda failed to keep up with it by the end of the first season, i should start again

RIP Selfie, you will be missed by many a shipper

holy shit i finally re-picked up Agents of SHIELD ... u guys were right shit literally gets off the chain right after i stopped watching

O_O

guys help me out, I want to pick up a show to watch but I only have time for one so which one should I go with first - The Americans or The Fall? I thought I was done with Homeland, but s4 was surprisingly terrific and now I kind of need another spy show fix. But the other one has Gillian Anderson who I love very much.

If time is limited, go with The Fall. It is a good, but also brief.

Would like to congratulate Backstrom on the remarkable feat of managing to exceed my, incredibly high, expectations on just how terrible it was going to be.

I thought I was prepared, it turns out I wasn't.

There may or may not be a way to build a show around Rainn Wilson, but this one had disaster written all over it.

pssssht, do the americans.

one vote for the fall, one vote for the americans. oh no!

nah I think I'll take JF's advice and go with the fall, since you're right, the first season is only a few episodes and if I don't like it, I can prob catch up with the americans later. thanks!

THE FALL

Gillian Anderson at her most mesmerizing

THE AMERICANS for real Roz!

The Fall season 1 is excellent as is G Anderson but it completely falls off a cliff in season 2

The Americans season 1 is excellent and it gets even better in season 2

i should just flip a coin, right?

(also lol lex, I love that you watch TV now.)

but it completely falls off a cliff in season 2

Ah, well that's disappointing, since I'm about to start watching S2.

The Americans, easy

idg the big deal w The Americans /shrug

The big deal is that it is SO FUCKING GOOD c'mon now.

*side-eye*

I have only seen S1 of The Fall, which was OK, but I am too serail killered out to watch S2 for a while

*serial

season 2 suxxxxx

backstrom is so amazingly bad. like it has taken me a few days to come to terms with what a disaster of writing it is. the character is an incredibly stupid racist asshole with no redeeming qualities, who also appears to be a terrible detective.

his doctor is indian and he can't stop talking about this and marveling at this. like not only is this incredibly racist. but its just stupid -- there are _so many_ indian doctors. this man is supposed to be a detective and he finds an indian doctor at all surprising?

its almost anti-television, or an accidental "observe and report" style portrait of an actually disturbed and dangerous person who romanticizes their life to the peril of others.

just watched the pilot for The Slap and was shocked that it was actually kinda neat

Backstrom is indeed remarkably terrible

I watched at least a good chunk of a bunch of Amazon "pilot season" offerings last night.

The Man in a High Castle: This is the one I was most excited about. From the Philip K Dick story. Hitler and Hirohito won the war, and annexed the American coasts. San Francisco is Japanese territory. The American military is all Nazi'd out. I didn't find the acting or the writing to be noteworthy. I'm not sure what year it's supposed to be but Hitler is an old man now. I guess the resistance is about to kick into gear? Don't think I'll go back to this one but it's at least a little bit fun. Felt like a high concept network show like Revolution or Flash Forward, but with some period style.

Mad Dogs: Pretty good cast. A remake of a British series. Ben Chaplin returns, but in a different role. Chaplin, Michael Imperioli, Romany Malco, and Steve Zahn are a group of friends who gather in Belize to meet up with Billy Zane. Then it gets dark. Shawn Ryan is the creator/showrunner. So far it feels a little Deliverance-y? Entourage meets Deliverance? Not sure I'd watch it but not bad.

Just Add Magic: I'm a total sucker for teen witch stuff so I watched this whole episode. Precocious girls bake grandma's secret recipes, with magical results. The writing felt a little Sherman-Palladino to me.

Salem Rodgers: Leslie Bibb is a former model and horrible person, just out of a long stint in rehab. Rachel Dratch is her former assistant who doesn't want anything to do with her anymore. Kinda funny but not my thing. Chelsea Handlery.

Table 58: I didn't get too far into this but there is some interesting directing in this. I'm sort of interested in pilots as a thing, and they effortlessly introduce a bunch of characters in a very efficient way. A show for kids that probably would fit in pretty well on ABC Family.

Down Dog: Kinda Californicationy. A story about a hot, shitheel yoga teacher and all the women caught in his wake. Not bad I guess. Much more broadly comic than Californication, but to its detriment.

Niko and the Sword of Light: Cartoon. Niko has a magic sword that gives him Avatar/Korra-ish powers. He has a cute animal pal.

The New Yorker Presents: The opening sketch with Bret Gelman and Alan Cumming was super boring and obvious. Felt like maybe Andy Borowitz wrote it. No thanks.

Point of Honor: Completely insane 90210/Dallas-style take on the Civil War. Really weird and somewhat captivating. The accents are all over the place.

Cocked: Repugnant story about rival gun manufacturers at a gun show? Jason Lee does a lot of coke and also is a gun engineer? Makes no sense. Sorta like if Eastbound and Down was not at all funny?

so I started on The Fall and er, gonna pass for now. I usually like serial killer stuff but this one goes after 30-something women who live alone... kinda freaked me out a bit too much.

Gillian Anderson remains majestic, however. Don't know how she does it but she's like 20 times hotter now than she was back in the X-Files days, and she was plenty hot then.

i know, right?

gillian anderson is probably the reason i'm most excited for new season of hannibal

Her outfits in the Fall are nearly identical to the ones she wears on Hannibal btw - it's like she walked straight off the set of one show into the other.

she is like irl cate blanchett galadriel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNKEKlXY3Z4

Actually looks pretty decent. Also, Jane Krakowski!

"Dancing is about butts now!"

"I spent 15 years in that bunker eating beans out of a Florida Marlins cap."

eh, I'll watch it. i have a soft spot for her since her Office days

I like 'togetherness', happy to hear it's getting a second season

vibe is not dissimilar to 'hello ladies' the Stephen merchant show, esp the relationship btwn Amanda peet (love her obv) & steve zissis

Melanie lynskey is also great, love her in the bondage ep & her impersonation of duplass and how he'd react

i agree that it's not unlike hello ladies; i just don't like hello ladies either.

this new ep of togetherness was really good

The eps are stacking up on my dvr. I'll start watching it eventually.

is this the thread where we wd talk about "Fresh Off The Boat" bcz I am finding that I rly love this show

It's good

Garfunkle and Oates cancelled after one season. Bummer.
Portlandia renewed for two more seasons (five and six). Sigh.

Caught up on Fresh Off The Boat. Fairly mediocre, but it's good enough to keep watching + you know, AA support. There's a chance it'll get to a comfortable Black-ish level of quality, mostly due to the mother.

New Steven Universe episodes every day this week, huzzah

I'm

2 episodes behind on Revenge
2 episodes behind on Blackish
4 episodes behind on The Americans
1 episode behind on Bob's Burgers

I just can't get motivated to watch tv right now, except I watched all 13 episodes of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt over Friday night/Saturday afternoon. So maybe I just can't get motivated to watch those shows.

i hear ya, i've pretty much give up on 60 minute dramas completely (i think i'm 4-5 episodes behind on Better Call Saul at this point...)

there's only BEEN five episodes of better call saul!
but yes, i dunno how many more of those i can put on my plate. The Dig and American Criminal and Secrets and Lies are looking at me expectantly from the tivo.

yeah, i only saw the pilot :/ it was all right though - just hard these days to go down and fire up the DVR....

I have like one show each day from sunday to wednesday, but I can't entirely remember what they are. So I should probably drop those I can't remember.

https://40.media.tumblr.com/294e9ecdff7273033b5fc3c5f9ef2fd4/tumblr_nkzze032xf1qz8vumo1_1280.jpg

L: Opening credits of The Americans
R: Opening credits of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

holy shit, that girl's hula hooping to like one and a quarter demographics

stoked for the crossover episode

maybe Adam Curtis is getting side deals making opening credits sequences.

lotta thinkpieces on 'the jinx'

idk it has not particularly been a good show at all if you know the story beforehand tbh, tho I doubt many ppl did

i did not and am at episode three. it's pretty good.

what do we think of the new season of broadchurch (bbc) ?

It's terrible btw

Yup. Awful.

i am 3 episodes into The Jinx
finding it pretty good! though granted i knew zero abt the story beforehand

having watched the first three episodes of 'the last man on earth,' i think i might identify a little too much with the main character

as do we all

i know it's a comedy & i will sound like a grump but I found it kinda dumb. i liked the bowling balls in the back of the truck tho, that made me lol

Just imagine the last two people on earth are MacGruber and Louise Belcher (and ffwd past the sex parts).

i tried! and i love kristen schaal more than anything ever in the whole world! ;_;

dang veg girl i want you on board

why is it dumb?

no way i would ff the sex parts those were hilarious

sorry to say, i also think it's pretty dumb

i can't wait to find out what happens next :)

it's dumb because....

ugh i hate even saying it because it makes me sound like some uptight nerd but

it goes way beyond what-if into complete ridiculousness & stupidity to the point where every choice the characters make just get sillier & sillier & i just couldnt take it

and no i dont want seriousness in my comedy or anything but i just found it more annoying than enjoyable & i am not happy with my explanation but there it is anyway

also i think of you all as my ball friends

no way i would ff the sex parts those were hilarious

I just meant that if you're imagining MacGruber and Louise, then Louise is 7 years old and, uh no.

what? geez.
her crazy bug eyes during those scenes are top drawer

was browsing the durst wiki, kindof lol but mostly sad

http://www.khou.com/story/news/crime/2014/12/16/robert-durst-fined-500-after-allegedly-urinating-on-candy-at-cvs/20484435/

first time ive seen it brought up, his atty there claims durst has aspergers

huh weird

izombie looks interesting; never read the comic

do we have a Jinx thread yet? do we need one?

iZombie looks iffy - colorful WB show - but it's the Veronica Mars guy so I'll at least watch the pilot

izombie is pretty good

I know everyone gave up on Man Seeking Woman more or less immediately, but its ninth ep was one of my very faves of the year so far.

izombie was real fun

Ep9 of Man Seeking Woman was indeed great, but it's been very hit or miss. Full of decent central ideas, poorly executed - see the 'bro' pound ep as evidence - and some great ideas (Hitler as a boyfriend that everyone thinks is fun, turning down sex with aliens to concentrate on your relationship, Wizard Eyes) floating in eps that are very average.

enjoyed izombie, the voice over is so veronica mars, unsurprisingly.

iZombie is OK, could become great later. I find it amusing how much more optimistic it is than VMars, considering the zombie angle.

I concur w/ MSW being spotty as hell, that's what happens w/ a high-risk comic premise. Hoping they nail it next season.

is there actually seriously a show called fucking iZombie?

is it an icarly spinoff

why is icarly called icarly

it's based on a comic book
http://www.comicvine.com/izombie/4050-32937/

why is icarly called icarly

They had a popular webshow within the show named iCarly.

The premise of iZombie is that a fan of iCarly dies and returns and realizes that this is the perfect hook for her own webseries. Legal shenanigans ensue.

having now seen 4 eps of iZombie it uhhh has some improving to do

iCarly is for 12 year olds and came out like 10 years ago so

iCarly is for everybody.

iCarly is for 12 year olds and came out like 10 years ago so

...people in their twenties today are gonna be laughing about the similarity?

i myself don't think i can get past the name

I picked it up when my niece would watch it, but then I found myself watching when she was nowhere around. As far as sitcoms go (YA or not), it blows away everything on Disney and is actually better than half of the stuff on the regular networks. Good jokes, likeable cast, and one time they dropped some really sly references to The Wire.

Ah I was wondering if/where ILX was talking about Blackish. I'm making the most of our Hulu Plus subscription and watching this and I love it. I love the kids (Dee <3), I love Dre and Bow's relationship, I love Lawrence Fishburne.

Okay that's all.

Fishburne is on there a lot less as the series goes forward. Really hope he doesn't exit altogether by next season.

i love the actors, the post-cosby bourgie black family premise and the lack of laugh track; can't get past sitcom tropes anymore for pretty much anyone

Just a reminder for all who care, Orphan Black resumes this Saturday.

I'm at like episode 14? So yeah, LF is not in it as much as he was, but that's okay.

I thought I was done with sitcom tropes, but between Blackish and Brooklyn 99 I'm pretty content with them, apparently. Maybe I'm getting simple in my old age, or maybe I'm easily charmed by such likable characters.

Sitcom tropes are fine if they're done well.

Black-ish can get really bad when it does a lazy job with those sitcom standards (ie. the first Ruby episode, most of the episodes involving Dre and Bow arguing over something stupid) but I can stomach it for the better material, especially involving the kids.

Fishburne is on there a lot less as the series goes forward. Really hope he doesn't exit altogether by next season.

― Johnny Fever, Tuesday, April 14, 2015 9:31 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah i kinda realized this out of the blue during one of the few recent episodes he was in heavily and it bummed me out, he's great on it

Really enjoy the show. Totally get if people aren't up for a trad family sitcom - gave up on fresh off the boat despite enjoying it ok cuz I didn't feel like watching two, and preferred the one where dad narrates rather than one of the kids. But it's def a great one.

Fishburne is terrific but its a pretty crowded house when he isn't there as it is. Fine with him only showing up here and there as long as he keeps showing up.

http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2015/05/08/the-night-shift-renewed-by-nbc-for-third-season/401461/

Undateable, which I've still never watched because Chris D'Elia is a zit on the butt of humanity, has been renewed for an all-live third season. ALL-LIVE!

agent carter + nashville renewed also! :)

I gave up Nashville before this past season and I don't really feel too bad about it. Connie Britton was really the main draw for me and her life got too soapy and dumb.

I should watch Agent Carter, though. How many episodes was it?

y u braek heart

Undateable is so so bad, god why

Broadcast networks are at the point now where I can safely avoid them nearly every night of the week. All they have are the shows that dumb people like.

Agent Carter season 2 trailer already up

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=et8pum4V3uI

(happy for it. hoping it gets better)

First season of Agent Carter was just eight episodes.

episodes 7 and 8 of Agent Carter were fantastic; didn't watch the others

lol elvis

"Fresh Off the Boat" is pretty OK but it would be better if they killed off Eddie.

lol ok buddy

Every character is funny except for him.

i mean that's a classic shortcoming of sitcom protagonists/narrators but i hardly think it's such a fatal flaw in this case that it needs a violent solution

Anyone make it to the last episode of The Affair. It's been a great, if sometimes stupid, show, but dragging it into a second season seems like a terrible fucking idea.

― Chuck_Tatum, Wednesday, 24 December 2014 13:54 (11 months ago) Permalink

Except the second season turned out to be much, much better! Anyone watch this? Every episode does this weird jag between "nailing it" and shark jumping, but it's super complusive, enjoyable, some fun performances.

i swear "mom" has to be the darkest show on television