2012 TV thread: winter, spring, maybe summer

because fall will have to be its own thread, probably

so far of the new shows i've watched this year: Work It (lol already canceled thank god), House Of Lies (shitty even by Showtime standards, feel bad for Kristen Bell), Smash (not bad although mostly just watching it for McPhee)

I saw 100 promos for Smash last night so now I hate it and everything having to do with it.

Looking forward to the eventual return of Community and hoping Cougar Town finds its way back (I'm not a regular viewer, but I feel the pain of the people who are missing it). Bob's Burgers due back in March, along with Mad Men. The only new shows that I'm looking forward to are Awake on NBC and Apartment 23 on ABC (are either of these still on the docket?).

cougartown due back 2/14 i think? they just announced it today

i ended up watching the whitney/chelsea hour last week, chelsea wasn't very good but at least it had a semblance of pacing, which whitney lacks entirely. also the whitney episode was about seeing her boyfriend masturbating and how EMBARRASSING that was, even though they'd lived together for years already at that point.

i dunno without saying anything about my personal experiences i would say having someone walk in on that is awkward no matter what, even if that person has seen you naked under other circumstances

i can only say i'm sorry so many times

looool

I quite liked the Smash pilot, surprisingly.

But nevermind that because JUSTIFIED

Worse was the latest New Girl episode where Zoey sees a guy friend naked (not masturbating) and they're both mortified.

the life and times of tim is somehow like 1 of my fav shows rite now

Looks like two new episodes of Prime Suspect on NBC tonight. I assume it is a burn-off, but part of me wonders if they want it to succeed to get in and replace The Firm.

It's up against playoff football. They're burning it off.

^^^

I just noticed the co-star of Smash is the heckler from Louie.

And I am watching Vampire Diaries and it is awesome.

did Smash start already? is it any good?

It starts the Monday after the Super Bowl.

Probably of interest to comics nerds only, but it looks like Powers is teetering on the abyss.

More than that, I'd say, given FX actually rejected the pilot and haven't said whether they'll even pay for a reshoot.

was that based on the comic?

yes

did anyone really rate the comic? I recall it being pretty poor.

I like it a lot! But I am a Bendis stan.

I was about to make a super scathing post before Wmc's xpost made me realize I was confusing Powers with Alias

I have read too many Bendis comics

Alias has been optioned as well! By ABC iirc.

inside comedy w/ david steinberg is a thing:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/david-steinberg-inside-comedy-showtime-seinfeld-285010

seinfeld said "thats why i called it seinfeld cuz i thought well at least ill get some tickets i sell some tickets at yeah hilarities in cleveland this weekend maybe ill get a second show" on sunday"

hm take out that extra "

Inside Comedy was aight but the rerun of Green Room they put on after it tonight just reminded how much more fun a comedians talking comedy show can be.

what is Inside Comedy?

Its black, decaying heart.

lol

the first post mentioning Inside Comedy featured an informative link iirc

so it's like WTF?

::rolls eyes, looks at watch, taps foot on floor::

sorta actually. listening to jerry actually made me wish i was listening 2 him on wtf. the show is much more brief, jerry & rickles seperately tell some good brief stories & they show clips of each doing stand up, rickles performing for reagan as one & jerry for mccartney & obama

NBC has moved The Firm to Saturday night's to die a death and moved Grimm into its slot until March 1 when it will premiere Awake with Jacob Isaacs, which is destined to fail miserably as it is created by Kyle Killen. No word yet on Community.

Awake looks good. I'm glad I'll finally have a (short) window to see if it capitalizes on the promise of its trailer.

"The Firm" isn't terrible, but there is absolutely nothing essential about that show.

yeah i watched the first episode and definitely felt like i had enough to last a lifetime. let me say again: NO MORE TWO HOUR PILOTS.

It's a pretty by-the-numbers legal show. Josh Lucas is a little earnest AT ALL TIMES, though.

I wonder if the fact that ER was in that slot for so, so long left it cursed for anything that follows. Has any NBC show lasted an entire season at 10pm on Thursdays yet?

nope

George Clooney cursed them.

Here's the trailer for Awake, btw, in case anyone's forgotten the premise:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDbF8b9wkMs

Jack's imaginary son from Lost's 6th season and the girl who was in The 4400 and Terriers! Also, BD Wong! Playing another psychiatrist!

Is Awake the one with Jason Isaacs? I vowed to watch that show when I heard about it, but I'm sad we're not getting a third hour of comedy/Community's return.

Also 30 Rock got a 1.3 in the demo last night, which is just appallingly bad, but it might be related to that DVR glitch a bunch of us reported experiencing yesterday. Parks and Rec otoh was up from last week.

i thought the whole thing w/ the low ratings of shows like 30 Rock was that their numbers would look better if DVRs and other recording devices were counted?

DVR ratings don't come out for a bit. That 1.3 is live and yes, it is shockingly bad.

NBC opens February sweeps in strong tie with Univision

the chris rock 'inside comedy' is dope

xp what a disaster for NBC.

"it started to get better, and better, and better, and better, and you get your voice and ya dont care and ya start doing long shows and ppl started showing up like on the club level ya know, theres fights cuz ppl cant get in, thats when i knew i had a little something, it's like oh shit, fuckin fights every night"

saw Smash premiere. thought it was good enough that i'll watch another episode but it didn't blow me away. it feels like it's trying to be a cable drama on network. big ensemble cast, high production values. obv no cursing, nudity or decapitations. i guess NBC is very invested in this doing well?

The River was terrible. Think Awake will be any good?

this close to getting off the smash wagon. so much mediocrity. that scene between debra messing + her son was so hammily acted and so lazily written i was in physical pain.

yeah the stuff with the son was incredibly awful, although i liked the rest of the episode fine, and i figure soon enough they'll realize what a drag the family stuff is and stop bogging down the show with it

Switched At Birth started out as a show that other people were watching while I was in the room doing other stuff, but I'm surprised to find that I'm getting into it. Turns out that dismissing it as just another execrable ABC Family original program (and the others I've seen have, indeed, been execrable) was a mistake. It's very low-key and nothing earth-shattering (aside from maybe its casual and even-handed handling of deaf culture, including long and silent stretches of characters ASL-ing) but also quite smart and engaging. And I really like the cast. I thought I'd pimp it a bit since I couldn't find any mention of it on ILX, and especially since most people with discerning tastes are unlikely to trawl through the wasteland of ABC Family for descent programming (although things might be turning a corner there with the inception of Amy Sherman-Palladino's forthcoming show?). RIYL, say, Gilmore Girls or Men Of A Certain Age.

i love switched at birth! it's dumb about race, though. but it is great otherwise.

between himym + cougar town + raising hope this has been a big week for dramatic relationship shifts in sitcoms

and it's only tuesday!

four if you count New Girl!

four shows*

Justified ruled tonight!

finally watched The River pilot, ugh that was bad. i only checked it out because sepinwall had a generally positive opinion of it, but the acting was poor and the plot choices were ludicrous and it wasn't even particularly scary. v. disappointing.

I recorded the first two episodes of Smash, but then deleted them without watching.

AICN ratings update

Had no idea how low The Office has sunk. 30 Rock doing terrible (Whitney, on Wednesdays is beating it!) and Up All Night looks to be in real trouble even if The Office is as low as it is.

Stoked that I really got into Vampire Diaries, as it looks to be sticking around.

Also holy toledo at those Walking Dead numbers.

30 Rock is now opposite Big Bang Theory, which is very popular now. NBC may be accepting low numbers in the realization that nothing will do well in that slot (see Simpsons vs. Cosby Show in the 80s).

Well they benched Community because of its ratings in that timeslot and 30 Rock is doing worse.

I know that Baldwin signed on for one more season after this so I don't think it'll get cancelled. But still.

Maybe 30 Rock has enough prestige (Fey, Baldwin, Morgan) that they think it'll pan out in the long run.

apparently a bunch of normally popular shows saw unexplained dips in their ratings this past week, across all the networks. except fucking whitney, which went UP. hopefully people tuned in thinking it was a whitney houston tribute and then immediately changed the channel when they beheld its true horror.

"When's this Whitney Houston tribute starting?"
"It'll be on when this crap sitcom finishes"
"Are you sure?"
"Shut up"
"But it..."
"I thought I told you to shut up"

29 minutes later, ratings bonanza

Any advanced word on Missing, that new Ashley "Official ILX Crush Object" Judd's new action-chick series?

I only caught a few minutes of Comic Book Men but I can't imagine why anyone would want to watch it.

i'm sure i'm the only person still watching 2 broke girls on ilx, but they decided to pretend this week that kat dennings isn't jewish?

I still watch it. I don't know why.

also, this is pretty anti-Semitic. i think?

i'm trying not to be sensitive but the little satmar kids throwing around money and talking like gangsters is really o_O

I mean, I know *why* but I'm not proud of it...

I've given up even trying to come up with ways to defend this shows attitude towards race/gender/etc.

It's like a bunch of writers who don't know there's a difference between "edgy" and "offensive". Note to writers: the latter usually happens when you're lazy.

Any advanced word on Missing, that new Ashley "Official ILX Crush Object" Judd's new action-chick series?

...this is a real series?

it could just be i'm sensitive bc it's a community i know pretty well, and except for a couple nicely delivered characterizations (them loving dennings for looking jewish & dismissing other girl as a shiksa felt pretty spot-on / the snarky matriarch), it seemed totally foreign to me, like someone making up what they imagine satmar culture to be like.

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/02/02/article-2095063-119097AF000005DC-822_634x788.jpg

"i prefer Burrrprint (The Movie 3D) to 808s and Heartbreak"

...this is a real series?

― Nhex, Wednesday, February 22, 2012 8:33 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Not a dream, not a hoax!

i'm sure i'm the only person still watching 2 broke girls on ilx, but they decided to pretend this week that kat dennings isn't jewish?

― Mordy, Wednesday, February 22, 2012 11:18 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

her character =/ the actress, though? also she said she doesn't 100% know her parentage and the other characters said she looked jewish, so it wasn't like total weird revisionism. but yeah, still watching it.

yeah, when i posted that they hadn't introduced the ambiguity yet. obv kat dennings != max, but at the same time kat dennings is (to my eyes) such an obviously jewish actress that it seems silly in such an episode to not just make her jewish (esp when everyone comments on how jewish she looks - well duh!). iirc, they did a similar kind of thing in the episode of X-Files with the Golem where the white supremacist tells Mulder that he 'looks like them [jews],' which is a similar lol since david duchovny's father was a publicist for american jewish committee.

i should clarify, not that everyone who looks like a jew is one, and everyone who doesn't isn't one - but kat dennings in particular seems to have modeled a lot of her career + style on what i'd consider a jewish style of comedy, presentation, etc (not to mention that Nick + Nora movie) plus she's from around my neighborhood so maybe i just have this particular pov

Reminds me of Goodfellas, where Lorraine Bracco's character is Jewish but they comment on how Italian she looks

kat dennings != max

its true, sigh

on the plus side, that means you were never in a film being fingerbanged by Michael Cera

well, it was a mini-series

i have never been fingered by michael cera in a miniseries or movie

ok fine, webisode

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soJggb_jDL8

sooooo. west wing w/out sorkin?

Thick of It in the US morelike

Matt Walsh even kinda looks like Timothy Busfield

This looks good! Also, I love seeing Anna Chlumsky as a grown up.

kind of a bland trailer but they probably didn't want to put too much swearing etc. in there

it's a spinoff of The Thick of It w/ the same creators. they were shooting a lot of it in Baltimore over the last few months, one day i ALMOST got to go spend time on the set but then it fell through, i was bummed.

it's not a spinoff as far as i know

well it was created after a failed US adaptation of The Thick of It, and the wikipedia calls it a 'spinoff' but you're right that may be inaccurate. probably it's more like the way Parks & Recreation started as a spinoff of The Office.

a friend of mine whos writing a piece about iannucci says that the three episodes hes seen arent great :-/

not so surprised. it looks like a retread of a lot of things, content-wise + tonally

have you seen the thick of it mordy?

a few episodes back when we did that best tv shows of the 00's poll

didnt like it?

it was okay but a little too inside-english-baseball for me i think?

i'll def watch it when it comes out, btw, but i don't hold out a lot of hope for it (what was the last good HBO sitcom? Larry Sanders?)

Eastbound and Down!!

I love The Thick of It/In the Loop so much that I'm probably going to be disappointed, if only because I'm not entirely sure how much you can translate that kind of humour to the US.

in the loop is so good! i sort of think of the main scottish dude who swears all the time as history mayne. (is he scottish? i am so racist when it comes to the u.k.)

i just love julia louis-dreyfus so much also

new adventures of old christine :/

i like that show!

i'm not really watching but when i turned on the volume for Awake, they were playing a Cat Powers song.

i don't remember that from when i watched the pilot a couple weeks ago, but then i don't remember much about it

it's "Maybe Not" from You Are Free

::takes notes::

the inclusion of music i like can sucker me into watching even the worst show (ie: Charmed)

I thought Awake was pretty good (I didn't pre-screen the pilot), however they're gonna have to dumb it down a little for Joe TV Watcher because even I was having trouble getting me bearings between Wife World and Son World.

see, one is the world where the wife is dead and the other is the one where the son is dead.

(jk, i couldn't tell you which partner or shrink went to each one)

I figured the female shrink was in Son World and the male shrink was in Wife World, but I've already forgotten which cops go with which world.

I think having been savaged by L O S T made me allergic to these high-concept shows.

i've been looking for a new / old tv show to watch to eat up time, and the 'ads' for lost on hulu keep coming up and for a second i think, yeah, be good to see them pushing buttons in the hatch again, etc., but then i just sort of remember the whole general feeling of being dicked over by the writers/producers/showrunners and think... fuck it.

Just watch it until Charlie dies. After that, it's largely nonsense.

Yeah, I prolly wouldn't mind watching it again through the end of season 5 and just pretending that it finished on a super nihilistic note.

so Awake is worth a shot? i like the concept, but it seems doubtful to survive because of it

Haven't seen it, but reviews have been pretty good-to-great, but a combination of Kyle Killen + That NBC timeslot makes me think no, it won't survive.

Also lots of good TV shows to catch up on if you want. Vampire Diaries is worth it, imo, and its first two seasons are on Netflix Instant. Spartacus is going on and its pretty next level right now.

well, i was hoping not to re-subscribe to netflix.

but i've kind of been feeling like re-screening the shield, so i might just have to. the cop shows still on air right now are getting dire.

Terra Nova axed. Studio is shopping it around.

Maybe they should work on making it better first

i like Smash and that isn't too predictably his but Terra Nova and Falling Skies are just the shittiest Spielberg-by-numbers TV shows he possibly could've made, couldn't even bring myself to watch an episode of The River

First episode of Awake was solid. Second one is sitting there on my DVR.

Watched a bit of The Finder and found is very pleasant in that USA Network blue sky sort of way.

The opening bit about dubstep and "the drop" on Up All Night was pretty lol last night.

bob's burgers s2 started last night and it was pretty great - anyone else watch it? tina is like my favorite character on any tv show right now, loved her leaving a post-it note with "tina" on it in her bed.

I was out at dinner and didn't know Bob's Burgers was coming back on yesterday! I even brought the show up in conversation!

I forgot to dvr it. Hope it's on ondemand or hulu...

Checked...it's not on hulu until next week. :(

It was so good, although I didn't really get that it was a Goonies tribute until right towards the end.

yes cyndi lauper closing theme

loved bob's burgers last night. didn't realize until reading the AV Club recap that the Silverman girls are the voices are the two little boys

"Guess the song!"

"'Aqua Boogie' by P-Funk?"

"all maids were men back then"

that terrible Revenge show that i have had to assume you guys only like ironically now has an ABC News spinoff about real tales of revenge called...REVENGE FOR REAL

Yeah, the real Revenge is on break until April...so expect a couple more weeks of this dumb shit.

Also, I can't speak for any other ilxors, but I love that show with zero irony attached.

now i'm going to be envisioning _______ FOR REAL newsmagazine versions of every drama on the primetime schedule

ok that spinoff sounds deep level retarded but 'revenge' is p much the only good new show

suburgatory!

I know it has its own thread, but rip, luck (and the poor horses) :(

in other news, Grimm got renewed

kill all the werewolves you want and you stay on the air. kill 3 horses tho...

haha i have to admit that revenge didn't really hold its appeal for me and i gave up months ago. then i saw the promos for that real revenge show and was very confused.

Did anybody keep up with Alcatraz? (if only because it was J. J. Abrams and featured "Hurley" and a hot chick with short blond hair).
http://img190.imageshack.us/img190/9079/bowchickawowwow.png

the season finale surprise was pretty good

http://img811.imageshack.us/img811/9079/bowchickawowwow.png
hawt. of all her previous hairstyles this new one is the best.

Anyone else kind of anticipating <i>NYC-22</i>? The creator is Richard Price, so ~*hopefully*~ not your average network cop show.

I'm hoping it's up On Demand or something, because my Sunday night television line-up is too busy as it is.

just as i wrote that, i saw MZS tweeting his review: http://www.vulture.com/2012/04/tv-review-nyc-22.html

No one seems to like it much, and yes, waaay to much good on Sunday right now.

scandal, anyone? i was thinking it felt like lie to me, and then one of the dudes from lie to me showed up!

watched the premiere episode of 'the pitch' - reality show about ad agencies competing for clients. i like this idea for a show!

"Scandal" was aight, nice cast but i really couldn't bring myself to give my full attention to either episode, don't know if I'll make myself watch another.

kept up with "Alcatraz" for several episodes and liked it a lot, but also just felt kind of an indifference to the plot and once i fell behind i stopped trying to catch up. if the finale was good i will make an effort to see that one, though.

saw ad for 'bunheads' before the movie last night which is new amy sherman palladino thing strangely set in small town filled with quirky people.

me too, my wife and I keep saying "so you want to be a bunhead" and cracking up. Such a terrible name.

have you seen the thick of it mordy?

haven't seen more eps of thick of it, but saw in the loop finally and liked it a lot. maybe an american thick of it is all i need? i've started to hear good early buzz too so we'll see...

I heard mixed-to-not-great-buzz about Veep, but now I'm hearing good buzz. I'm starting to think that buzz is a load of bullshit.

i landed a screener of veep and can wholeheartedly endorse, plenty of clean actual LOLs, even guffaws, in the first three eps, maybe not quick thick of it-level heights but that's a high bar

also i have enjoyed the first two episodes of "best friends forever"

tbh what veep is really missing is a hilarious sweary american malcolm tucker; on the other hand i like that iannucci doesnt try to force one

yeah Best Friends Forever is surprisingly enjoyable. not as good as Bent, though, as far as doomed new NBC sitcoms go, though.

anyone watch nikita? it has some really fantastic fight sequences.

I watched the first five or six episodes. It wasn't bad, but it was (then) on Thursdays and that night was too busy.

I liked the episode of Bent I watched. I probably would've watched the rest if it hadn't already been canceled.

I don't think it's technically cancelled yet, but yeah it never had a chance.

i was lukewarm on it at first, but it's gotten so good for me! and watching maggie q kick ass while i'm at the gym is very motivating...

it took me a while to figure out that the girl in the facility (at least at the beginning) is the daughter on How I Met Your Mother. I though Shane West took it in very camp places that nobody else really went, but again, I only saw the first five or six so I imagine the plot has moved on and they've ironed out the kinks. It's ratings are pretty bad, even for the CW, but maybe they're cool enough with them on a Friday night that they'll renew it.

yeah..i fear its imminent cancellation.

we should start a thread for veep. it's getting great early press.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_City_(TV_series)

this ^thing^ on starz is p watchable. the lead is badly trying 2 do his george clooney imitation & the "villain" danny huston does menacing p well. it all looks v slick, reminds me of the tnt show las vegas but w/o the humor. it also doesnt hurt that there are also like 8 smoking hot chicks on it & plenty of nudity

I'm very much a "wait and see" person when it comes to Starz but I might check it out. Wasn't too jazzed for another Mad Men-riff, but it's got Olga and, damn girl.

yeah Magic City is v v pretty but i dunno if it's anything more than that

it's about competitive magic the gathering?

ba-dum-plop

i need a new sound effects guy

*PLOP*

nbc has already pulled "best friends forever," which, while not amazing, had some laughs, a good cast, and did a better job of pulling off funny with heart than most shows. sucks.

Another dose of the hidden camera show "Betty White's Off Their Rockers" will air in its 8:30 p.m. slot for now.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/showtracker/2012/04/nbc-pulls-best-friends-forever-from-schedule.html

yeah, not surprising but definitely a shame, especially since Off Their Rockers is totally worthless

i'm sure i said this last year when it started and nobody cared then either, but Breakout Kings on A&E is really good

It is!

(spoiler

I was wondering if the most recent ep is going to result in a new gang of cons?)

my wife thought the same thing but i don't buy it -- the fact that they killed off a major character at the beginning of the season was enough upheaval, i think they're just playing around with the dynamics. if nothing else the show NEEDS jimmi simpson.

Such a great character

This is really tedious to navigate (50-slide gallery, actually), but it's pretty good to look at the pros and cons of all of the Bubble shows on the main networks:

http://www.hitfix.com/galleries/tv-shows-on-the-bubble-2012/more-galleries

Just cottoned to Eagleheart this season. The "Blues" episode is pretty amazing.

ABC bought that Last Resort show from Shawn "The Shield/Terriers" Ryan that I'm pretty sure we've discussed before. Description from EW:

Last Resort stars Andre Braugher in a high-concept project described as “an international action-thriller-soap that follows the story of establishing a new society in a world held hostage by the crew of a ballistic missile submarine. Basically, a U.S. nuclear sub crew refuses orders to fire their missiles and escapes to a NATO outpost and declares themselves the smallest nuclear nation. Scott Speedman and Autumn Reeser co-star.

High Concept? Andre Braugher? Why it's destined to be a hit for sure.

It's shot to the top of my 'must-watch new shows' list, for sure.

yeah when i read about it a while back i was excited, presence of Braugher ratchets up my anticipation while also reducing the possibility of it being widely watched

The premise seems great, and I will seriously watch anything with Andre Braugher in it.

With that premise I do hope they make a series finale episode as part of their initial order. I'd hate to be left hanging if it gets cancelled.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdRo7okHCAc&feature=related

There is such a thing as a spoiler alert!

mindy kaling project looks kinda legit funny

why do you sound surprised????????

"kinda"

well, the preview's heavy reliance on kinda obvious relationship beats and the grey's anatomy montage at the end worried me. i do think she's really funny re the office and i thought her book was funny. and the trailer did have some funny lines, so i'm hopeful!

full disclosure: i hadn't even seen the trailer for her show when i posted that; i was just kneejerkin'. now i've seen it and some of it seemed not that funny but i have faith in mindy.

i've never seen her in anything but both "it's messy" and "the mindy project" are like the worst possible show names ever

u r the worst possible show name

i'm just saying, i hope they keep changing it until they come up with something not terrible

also you would totally watch a show called Some Dude, admit it

kitty shayme is a little more o_O but yes, it occurred to me that that comeback was not the best vs. a displayname ninja

if you didn't watch "joey" you're allowed to say that you wouldn't watch a show called "some dude"

why do you sound surprised????????

Maybe because lots of talented and funny people have been in lots of shitty shows?

my name is not joey

guys i am a crazed mindy kaling obsessive, just autoposting in character

r u mindy kaling

god i wish

i too love mindy kaling. that's why the name of the show doesn't bother me so much. i'd be much less interested if it didn't seem like they were giving her so much control over the show.

REVENGE!

never seen an episode, but i saw twitter people were complaining that the quality had dropped off in the last 5 or 6 episodes. did the finale kick ass?

1. Twitter people are nuts.
2. To Sunday and back.

After the fucking dumb ending Awake had, I'm glad I never have to see it again.

can you go ahead and spoil it for me? i'm curious about what happened w/ the premise but not curious enough to slog through anything past the pilot

I've seen enough Revenge to say it's okay but not as spectacular as people puzzlingly seem to think it is. Also, it's probably more like a 21st Century analogue to Dallas than the actual 21st Century version of Dallas is likely to be. That's sort of high praise, coming from me (only "sort of" because early Dallas is great and Revenge can only keep striving and hope to hit those heights).

I actually liked the Awake finale, a lot. Glad it went out w/ its WTF guns blazing rather than trying to wrap it up neatly.

Finale was good until the final scene.

~*~*~*SPOILER*~*~*

For some dude, it ended up that the accident wasn't an accident, but a conspiracy to cover up heroin trafficking by his commanding officers. He was bouncing back and forth between these realities, piecing the case together from events in each, until he got retribution in one and the other one just vanished. Then it turned out none of it had ever happened and his family was alive.

you've got to be kidding

oh lame

hahahaha wow. i love that.

Would've had more resonance if both his wife and son had died and he'd finally worked through his grief and found peace. But no...HAPPY ENDINGS FOR EVERYBODY!

Thank goodness his family was alive.

In other news, thank goodness that my post-L O S T shitty high concept show sniffer is apparently still in tip-top shape.

JF's interpretation is not exactly definitive.

It wasn't a complete waste...Wilmer Valderrama had to dress up like a penguin.

hey summer thread. so, welcome back gilmore girls dialogue resurrected in the form of bunheads

the protagonist is practically lorelei

is it good?

I liked it.

i liked it too, tho so many beats were very very gilmore girls. if you have a fondness for that show (i do) i think you'll like this one. if not tho, stay away

yeah, I'm a GG fan. Will check it out.

I never watched Gilmore Girls more than a part of an episode here and there, but I just caught an encore airing of the Bunheads premiere and I'm gonna set my dvr for the season. Definitely love it initially.

Yeah, I enjoyed that.

(you must have watched the same encore I did)

dead or coma?

i dunno, but bummed about that twist

i'd prefer coma. death is too final. coma can keep him out as long as writers want and have option of bringing him back. also better reason to keep protag in town besides tenuous friendship with mother-in-law

also better reason to keep protag in town besides tenuous friendship with mother-in-law

I dunno. In cases where a will hasn't been drawn up, wouldn't she just inherit everything that's in her husband's name? If so, that's a pretty concrete reason to hang around for a while.

so when does this actually air? http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/television/2012/06/25/120625crte_television_nussbaum

next week in the Veep/Girls timeslot

too bad it sounds awful

It starts effectively enough, with an homage to “Network” ’s galvanizing “I’m mad as hell” rant

Studio 60 started the exact same way. That doesn't bode well.

yeah of all Sorkin's insane compulsions that hurt his work, the unapologetic recycling of stories and themes and episode titles and word-for-word dialogue from one show to the next is the weirdest

some dude have you been watching 'suits'? i feel like youre the only other person that liked that show but im p amped thats back, somehow

hbo has been pushing that show for so long now that I've lost interest in it. also it seems like an extended series basically built around network which is kind of meh to me.

oh man i've been watching reruns of s1 of Suits AND watched the s2 premiere XD

haha its just so breezy and fun!!!

is it just me or is Gina Torres an actual character instead of an empty plot device boss now? that was a pleasant surprise

was that ellen greene on bunheads tnite???

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_kBNnyETKMIk/SRUlAG5UNCI/AAAAAAAAA-I/u57q5zb0Rnk/s400/EllenGreene_sling.jpg

"suddenly seymour..."

some dude have you been watching 'suits'? i feel like youre the only other person that liked that show but im p amped thats back, somehow

i like it, i think it's probably the best recent usa show (though i caught up on 'white collar' earlier this year and it seemed pretty much on a par once i could see the arc). the new plot-rejigger was good and the women are all as sick as ever. looks like it's going to be a good role for gale-from-breaking-bad.

Bunheads is great!

It really is.

Ratings flop pilot, though.. wrong home for it on ABC Family perhaps.

is it possible to have bad ratings on ABC Family? are they like 'oh no, you're not raking in the cash like Switched At Birth'?

I'll comfortably chalk up any Bunheads ratings troubles to the show's title. That's a helluva hurdle for the uninitiated to jump. I'm loving it so far, myself, though. Stokes those understimulated GG pleasure centers.

people are probably afraid the show stars the Karmin lady

it's a very good show, if it gets canned that will be huge travesty. maybe someone else would pick it up though.

i like bunheads! but i am kind of a sucker for anything dance related.

bunheads is kinda dark

i see almost all of s2 of episodes has already aired in the uk? has anyone watched it/is it good? do britishers read this thread? i liked s1

what show?

yeah, "episodes"

it's a very good show, if it gets canned that will be huge travesty. maybe someone else would pick it up though.

― akm, Wednesday, June 20, 2012 12:16 PM (6 days ago) Bookmark

lol i'm pretty sure if you get canceled by ABC Family the only step down left is public access

why do ppl think it'll get cancelled? it's charming, done by gilmore girl person... are the ratings that terrible?

ratings not good, but I don't know enough about the ABC Family model so I can't really interpret what it means.

Awkward is back on MTV this week.

if it's not about teenagers and it's on ABC Family => THE CANCELLATION HAMMER

man, Suits..
it's kinda just another one of those diverting, kinda fun USA shows, but when i hear a line like
"well, that asshole's coming back, and it's not because he wants to be #2!" CUE COMMERCIAL BREAK
i have to laugh at how inherently dumb AND entertaining it is

haha

love that show

new season of Episodes is super funny

i like bunheads! but i am kind of a sucker for anything dance related.

do you like dance moms? i feel like i'm the only one here who watches that.

I like Suits because the two mains look so much like bizarro Barney & Marshall from HIMYM, heh. Also - filmed in Toronto! Haven't seen S2 yet though.

Since I am way, way behind on Breaking Bad (didn't even make it through the first season), tonight's premiere is something that I'll probably see in about six years or whenever I get around to it.

Instead I watched Political Animals on USA and it was...a shaky start to a show that may get better? Bud Hammond aka Bill Clinton is almost a fucking cartoon, but just about everything else seems alright.

xxp I have watched some of Dance Moms, was horrified and backed away quickly

Political Animals looks so worthless from the ads that i actually felt relieved for everyone involved when i learned that it was just a one-off miniseries and not aiming to be a long term thing.

So far, it's not as wonky as The West Wing but it's also about as deep as a rain puddle. If it maintains the typical fluff of a summer USA show, then no harm done.

i'm wondering if small town security has anything going for it

James Poniewozik ‏@poniewozik
New reason to love BUNHEADS: upcoming episode is titled, "No One Takes Khaleesi’s Dragons."

only reason to love bunheads these days. zzzzzzzzz

I'm still liking it.

Most recent episode wasn't the best but I still dig it.

So far, it's not as wonky as The West Wing but it's also about as deep as a rain puddle. If it maintains the typical fluff of a summer USA show, then no harm done.

― Johnny Fever, Monday, July 16, 2012 12:01 AM (3 days ago) Bookmark

it's so so awful, actually had me going wow Sigourney is just terrible, was she always a bad actress and i just never noticed?

Yeah I think it's pretty solid. I'd like to see it renewed but I guess that's unlikely..maybe?

The girls aren't that interesting as of yet but there's plenty of funny bits and I'm stilly happy to watch Kelly Bishop. And that recycling dance was pretty good.

xpost

Maybe Sigourney thinks she's still being mo-capped.

The girls aren't that interesting

I like Boo and Sasha. The other two are also-rans.

Is Sasha the rich one? If so, she and Boo are the only ones that have had any real characterisation so far (unless you count the other one's long-term boyfriend).

Yeah, the rich one.

Yeah, the other two aren't even really necessary imo. xps

Political Animals...I'm out, see ya.

ok, just catching up on this week's Bunheads. Can anyone explain the "Istanbul" dance routine? Did I miss something?

Maybe that was a routine Sasha was doing for the Joffrey?

anybody wanna talk Small Town Security? Because i think it's pretty great so far.

I thought Sasha was already into Joffrey?

forks: hey this "small town security" show on amc makes me want to fucking stab someone

salute

you guys

I really really REALLY want Mob Doctor to be good

Anyone else watching Alphas?

oh shit Alphas is back on

yup. premiere contains a quality WTF visual, too.

Chris Eigeman! Kelly Bishop's beau is Hostetler from Deadwood!

Really digging Bunheads. One episode left until "summer break"...I was aware of this ABC Family practice but I need to look into the reasons/economics. Mostly because I haven't heard if it's renewed, but heard that the ratings were bad, so I need to know if it's coming back.

it's been p good the last few episodes

Man...way too short a season. Just when I was comfortably settling back into Palladinoverse. It had better return!

I'll just take this opportunity to point the Bunheads fans in the house towards the returning Switched At Birth, which you may find enjoyable.

Tonight was the first time I found myself rolling my eyes at zippy dialogue in Bunheads, when three of the girls were talking about movies in the dressing room and one of them mentioned the Stonehenge mishap in Spinal Tap. Okay...SURE.

Still like this show, though. It found its comfort zone really quickly and I hope it survives hiatus.

I roll my eyes at several things in every episode, but I'm accustomed to it. Somehow part of the charm. That kid explaining the Astaire routine was awkward in that sense, but I'm cool to flow with it. I had the same problem with GG.

i totally forgot that Lane's cute bf in GG is the PTSD cook in True Blood and the eye-patch plumber in Bunheads

Yeah, I'm sure I've said it before, but this is really my first Palladinoverse experience. I'd seen bits and piece of GG over the years (very few bits and pieces), so I know zippy dialogue is her specialty. I just never got the full week-to-week hammering from it.

Can I say that Fanny and Mike are a fun pairing? Kelly Bishop's acting just had an incredible lightness about it in this episode.

Also, whoa at Michelle finally breaking over Hubbell.

Glad they toned down Fanny's quirkiness considerably. Also great to see Eigeman pop up, hope he sticks around a bit.

i totally forgot that Lane's cute bf in GG is the PTSD cook in True Blood and the eye-patch plumber in Bunheads

It took me a minute, but I totally called that last week. A bit too excitedly, perhaps. On the other hand, I had zero idea that Rico was Mitchum Huntzberger until I randomly read somewhere that Gregg Henry was on the show and I was all like, "Zuh?". Apparently, extensive grizzling is enough to obscure an actor's identity from me.

just watched the bunheads pilot, it seems like a really fascinating situation being set up. i wonder what the followthrough is going to be like. it kind of seems like a remarriage comedy except where… because of the thing… the remarriage is to the mom and the community?

it would be good to see an A/B between the newsroom and that as far as screwball dna goes.

have never worried about any show getting cancelled as much as gukbe is worried about bunheads

wait is it bunheads chris eigeman was on? i'm in, then.

i have so little sd...so so little...

I'd like to see it renewed, sure, but really I'm just interested in how this "summer break" works, considering this show debuted in the summer. Do they run a "season" in two chunks that are already filmed or do they film each part separately? Cost-wise it doesn't make sense of me to shut down production and then get it all back running again, especially if they're considering it one season and presumably the writers have already mapped out the season and broken most of the stories for it when they get started.

If I had to guess, I'd say that they do it so the teen audience they shoot for doesn't forget about the show as it's off the air for 9 months, but that might be cynicism.

afaik pretty much all cable shows shoot their seasons in one long run, but then sometimes break up the season into chunks, sometimes for holidays or to not compete with bigger channels' premieres, etc. Men Of A Certain Age kind of got a last minute mid-season break after the 2nd season had a big ratings dropoff from the first, then they tried to relaunch it in the summer and it did badly still, got canceled.

unless it's a big show like Breaking Bad or The Sopranos where they're doing a couple shorter 'half seasons' in order to kinda stretch things out

Yeah I knew of the stretching thing for the big shows, and the Walking Dead breaking it up so it doesn't air new episodes during the holidays, but Bunheads has no competition right now and it seems like they do it with all of their shows.

i imagine with those smaller channels they're just trying to maximize what little original programming they have so there's stuff to promote year round

just catching up on last night's ep. they've introduced some great new characters!

michael eigeman is muy charming

ABC Family's schedule is kinda ridiculous. For example, they've already aired 20+ episodes in Switched At Birth's first season (basically the length of a network drama series, and a surprisingly huge order for the first season of a cable drama)...and it's returning in September after a months-long hiatus to drop the last 10 (I believe) episodes of its gargantuan first season. And I guess Bunheads isn't even gonna make it the standard twelve episodes before it goes on hiatus?

i've been watching bunheads all season, every ep, and tbh it is a pretty mediocre show w/ some sporadic bright spots and the hope that it'll get better.

most problematically - in my eyes at least - the only bright spots are also redundancies + retreads from gg

this is my strongly worded opinion on this topic.

bunheads.

yeah who knows why they're airing that many episodes over 18 months and still calling it one season. maybe it's a contractual thing where they can maximize what they're getting out of the cast and crew for one season, or they want to be able to release it all as one DVD set. (xpost)

it's rebound-GG

i like it even though it's not great or perfect. it's kinda sweet & charming

Yes. It does exactly what I expected it to do and delivers exactly what I hoped for. Much the same can be said for Dallas. I enjoy both as low-impact alternatives to the thundering blows of Breaking Bad's brutal genius.

I tried Dallas a few times, but it just wasn't for me, though I kind of appreciate its unabashed cheesiness, in a way

I really think you need to have watched it in its previous incarnation to have any real appreciation for it. J.R. Ewing is one of my favorite characters ever, so for me it's worth watching for the dollops of Hagman alone. It's starting to find its (distinctly cheesy) groove, though.

yeah, to me that other guy's just the dad from Step by Step. and what happened to Jordana Brewster's career...

children's hospital comes back tnite!

oh shit!

OK, I don't feel like starting a thread for new fall shows right now, but CBS is doing a sitcom about Groupon, starring McLovin?

wtf

http://www.hitfix.com/whats-alan-watching/review-with-copper-the-homicide-team-goes-back-to-1864-new-york

I'm kinda interested in that one. I think I might watch.

I need to set my dvr right now, because I'll never remember to watch anything on BBC America live.

i'm excited for BULLET IN THE FACE tonight and tomorrow, which is a show from the creator of Sledge Hammer that apparently is so violent that IFC got squeamish once they saw the first season and just decided to dump all the episodes at once as a "two night mini-series event" with no chance of renewal.

okay that sounds cool, I might have to check that out too

both of those shows sound interesting. haven't seen anything about Copper, but i saw some ads for Bullet in the Face, and i'm intrigued, though my expectations are pretty low

preview i saw for copper looked really cheesy

haha did they greenlight it without a title assigned???

BULLET IN THE FACE, sure, sounds great, what are your revenue projections?

I've been interested in checking out Bullet In The Face, but I had no idea who was involved with Copper. Early Homicide is among my all-time favorite TV stuff, so that's really exciting.

I watched the first ep of Bullet In The Face.

I want to like it more than I do. It's kind of...badly camp? Something kinda cluky about it? I'll keep watching tho.

cluky = clunky

I feel like a douche for saying it, but even though I want to watch Copper, I probably won't because I don't have BBC America in HD.

it's definitely a different tone/rhythm from what we're used to in, like, campy action flick sendups. that's kinda what i like about it, but i get finding it offputting. (xpost)

max read ‏@max_read
"I love men. I am obsessed with men. The first time I met David I modeled for him nude." -- Gallery Girls
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followed by
"there are some really beautiful ones especially ones where youre like lying down thats more of a portrait which is why"
"with the flower in my pussy?"

"with the flower in my pussy" needs to be clipped out of there & used by someone on a mixtape like a dj drop

could just replace "maybach music" drop on all rick ross songs

probably no one on ILX watches this, but has anyone been keeping up with pretty little liars?? i think it's a fabulous show

it's my little sister's fave show.

i saw the first ep of Bullet to the Face. i lol'd a few times. some good stuff in there.

Did anyone watch Copper? It's a bit corny with the diddly-diddly Oirish music all the time (huge pet peeve of mine), but story is kinda intriguing

i saw the pilot and thought it was a little mediocre, but i've heard the second ep was better

tivoing; will try when it gets to four

Major Crimes is continuing on nicely where The Closer left off, though I admit I do miss my weekly dose of J. K. Simmons.

I think I'm going to to give that Revolution thing a try when it airs- the Abrams/Favreau thingy about hybrids full of weeds etc

http://www.avclub.com/articles/fx-automatically-gives-charlie-sheens-anger-manage,84405

i haven't even seen one episode!

I watched a bit of one and it was very, very similar to the tone of 2.5 men

The ratings got better as it went along but I didn't think they were anywhere near the level needed to get the 90-episode renewal.

the show looks even lower budget than It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, so why not

Anger Management and Kutcher-era Two And A Half Men are basically the Beady Eye and Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds of stupid sitcoms

Did anyone watch Copper? It's a bit corny with the diddly-diddly Oirish music all the time (huge pet peeve of mine), but story is kinda intriguing

― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, August 29, 2012 12:09 PM (8 hours ago) Bookmark

it's hilarious that the theme song is a transparent "I'm Shipping Up To Boston" knockoff because so is the Rizzoli & Isles theme

haha true

Mob Doctor starts tonight

William Forsythe! Rappapapapapappaapport!

I hope this is as good as I want it to be

If the theme song isn't "Rock Lobster" modified lyrically to "Mob Doctor" I have no interest.

haha

should be in the fall thread, come on veg

I didn't know (or I forgot) there was a fall thread ;_;

i like that we don't lock the old tv threads so if we ever want to go back and rehash the winter, spring and maybe summer of 2012 nbc dramas we can

For convenience, though: 2012 Fall TV Thread