MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
Oh, dear God, I am excited about Fall TV. I’m decidedly less excited about all the campaign commercials I’ll have to fast forward through this season but besides that, I am just beside myself excited about the shows that are coming back, coming out, and even beside myself excited about some shows that will not be returning. This isn’t counting shows like Dexter that are on Showtime or Archer, which is on FX. This is just the basic cable networks that I’m pulling from a list on TV Guide.
I tried to find an image that didn’t look too much like I stole it from someone else’s site. I don’t think I did a good job.
Part One, which shows are coming back that I cannot wait for this fall?
Community (NBC)- Holy hell, this show is fracking amazing. I blogged a while back about how frustrated I was that it might be going away. Now that the insanity is over and the show has been renewed, I am waiting eagerly for the first episode of season 4. Dan Harmon won’t be returning as showrunner this season, due to some major conflict between Chevy Chase and him so I’m foreseeing some speedbumps on an otherwise hilarious humor highway.
Heck yes, there was a video game episode!
Cougar Town (TBS)- I only started watching this show last season, part way through, and I was pleasantly surprised. Courtney Cox and Busy Phillips are just hysterical and the premise is pretty easy to get right away. I was, initially, baffled because I expected it to be Courtney Cox throwing herself at men that are way younger than she is but, as every episodes opening credits inform us, Cougar Town is just the unfortunate name from the pilot concept. What Cougar Town is, in actuality, is a group of people who love each so much that they’re willing to walk across the beach to participate in an illegal public wedding and distract the cops will the newlyweds escape on the bride’s father’s horse. Yeah, that happened. This was a fantastic find last season. I hope that it’s change over to TBS isn’t the beginning of the end of this quirky show.
Hawaii Five-0 (CBS)- I’m so glad that this show is entering it’s third season. I really only started watching this show on a whim because of that damned catchy theme song and Grace Park. I fell in love with her in Battlestar Galactica so watching another show where she can play a total bad ass just made sense. That, and sometimes she’s in a bikini. Rawr. But the show is just fun, suspenseful, and cheesy. You can definitely feel the influence of the series this is rebooting, with the one-liners, cliche drama, and the buddy cop dynamic provided by Alex O’Loughlin and Scott Caan but the show also provides just some great action sequences that can definitely bring you to edge of your seat.
You’re welcome.
New Girl (Fox)- I have a love/hate relationship with Fox. I feel like Fox does nothing good with any of their shows, keeping garbage while letting great shows fall by the wayside. I’m always a little hesitant to watch something on Fox because I feel like if it’s any good, it’ll get cancelled (if we’re lucky, in the case of Firefly) or it will be allowed to fester into something unrecognizably awful that we wish it had gotten cancelled before someone could ruin it (like with Glee). But Zooey Deschanel’s New Girl was just too awesome a concept not to try last season. Dorky grade school teacher (who happens to have a model for a best friend) moving in with three completely different bachelors, all of which are actually not trying to sleep with her? Sign me up! The show can be formulaic but I don’t think that, as a concept, it can help that. It does break the mold occasionally, such as when Nick was diagnosed with cancer, and it’s absurd sense of humor somehow makes his plight all the more tragic. How can someone as silly as him get cancer? It’s not fair! (Nick pulled through)
Once Upon a Time (ABC)- I talked about this show, comparing it to Grimm, last season, and I still stand by my decision to keep watching Once Upon a Time but I was getting tired of the story by the end of last season. I just felt that maybe it could’ve been a short first season. There was some repetitiveness that I could’ve lived without, especially when the whole thing, by the time the finale aired, felt like it had been plodding along for just that moment. I won’t give anything away but they spent the whole season establishing something that went right out the window in the last two minutes of the finale. I’ll be watching the second season but warily. The first episode had better be out of this world to keep me hooked.
Up All Night (NBC)- I love everything Will Arnett is in. Seriously, from Arrested Development, to his Hulu commercials, to his bit part in Wristcutters: A Love Story, I think he is one of the funniest men on television. And with Christina Applegate, who might be one of the funniest women ever, he is at the top of his game, bringing a masculine and endearing touch on the role of stay-at-home-dad to little Amy. Special mention goes out to Maya Rudolph, who plays a very strong supporting character as Ava, Christina Applegate’s boss, though she can steal the scene on occasion but I’m pretty sure that’s intentional. If it’s not, it just works for the character. I thought this would be hard to relate to, since I have no plans to be a parent, but the entire cast seems to draw anyone who knows what it’s like to have to adjust to sudden change in their life in and keep them laughing the whole time.
Don’t let this sweet scene fool you: hilarity is about to ensue.
Whitney (NBC)- Whitney Cummings’ show is something I can relate to, as she plays a woman living with her boyfriend of several years, with no sign of marriage in sight and that’s her choosing. They’re a happy, functioning couple that doesn’t need to get married to show their commitment to one another. Much of this season’s B-story had to do with two characters who were planning a wedding but really shouldn’t have been trying to get married to one another, thus providing hilarious “proof” that marriage is for chumps. At least, that’s what it started out as. Eventually, by the end of the season, Whitney started coming around to the idea of marriage with “I Love Lucy”-like results. Huh. I just compared Whitney Cummings to Lucille Ball. Weird.
You’re right, Lucy and Ethyl, I have no idea what I’m talking about.
And that’s it for the shows I’m glad are coming back. Stay tuned for Part Two, where I talk about the shows that didn’t get cancelled and I have no idea why. I’m sure you’re very excited! I know I am!
