2013-14 TV Schedule

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by larrymcg421

It'll always baffle me why Parks & Rec can't find an audience

Thought this was interesting, from over 4 years ago, when the show struggled badly with test audiences.

[Radii]

Originally Posted by PackerFanatic

Parks & Rec was hysterical, then again, that has been one of my favorite shows since the start. I've got a bunch of shows on the DVR (including The Crazy Ones and MJF Show) to check out...now I just need to find the time!

Great start to the season, Ron Swanson in England and meeting the British Andy Dwyer... excellent

[larrymcg421]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Thought this was interesting, from over 4 years ago, when the show struggled badly with test audiences.

Oh I get why the first episode and most of the first season struggled. But pretty much every one of those criticisms has been addressed. The Office had a similar arc with a weak first season and a retooled 2nd season that eventually turned it into a hit. I've never understood why P&R never could turn the corner in the same way.

[Ronnie Dobbs3]

I just feel lucky we're getting 5.5 seasons of Parks and Rec. Had NBC not been a flaming disaster this whole time they probably would have been cancelled a while ago.

I have long felt that P&R feels to me a lot like NewsRadio and at this point we've gotten more from Pawnee than we did from NR (pre-McNeill death).

[EagleFan]

Am I the only one that thought that Robin Williams show was annoying as hell? It's the same old stuff with him, seen it before.

[Alan T]

Originally Posted by EagleFan

Am I the only one that thought that Robin Williams show was annoying as hell? It's the same old stuff with him, seen it before.

I liked it myself. The reason I liked it was because it was his same old stuff... but I would say I haven't seen it in a very long time. I think it has been at least 5+ years since his last role of any note that i remember (which I enjoyed) and quite a while longer since I have been over-loaded with him.

I personally am liking having the old Robin Williams back in this first episode at least. Not sure if it was this thread or a friend from real life, but someone mentioned it was a pretty good reminder of the old Mork and Mindy show which was great. If they can keep up what they did in the first episode over the season, I'll be watching.

[Draft Dodger]

Originally Posted by EagleFan

Am I the only one that thought that Robin Williams show was annoying as hell? It's the same old stuff with him, seen it before.

I find Robin Williams annoying as hell, and I'm sure I would feel the same about the show.

[Scarecrow]

Actually, my wife made this comparison (especially since they're both David E Kelly shows)

Simon Roberts (Robin Williams) = Denny Crane (William Shatner)
Sydney Roberts (Sara M Geller) = Alan Shore (James Spader)

[Alan T]

My wife and I talked about the show last night and her comments were actually similar to Eaglefan's thoughts more so than my thoughts. I guess it is a case of whether or not you like him I suppose

[kcchief19]

Originally Posted by Ronnie Dobbs3

I just feel lucky we're getting 5.5 seasons of Parks and Rec. Had NBC not been a flaming disaster this whole time they probably would have been cancelled a while ago.

I have long felt that P&R feels to me a lot like NewsRadio and at this point we've gotten more from Pawnee than we did from NR (pre-McNeill death).

That's probably a really good comparison. I think NewsRadio was a better show, but quirkiness is always a hard trait for a show trying to find a mass audience.

I punted on P&R during the first season because I didn't find a lot redeeming about the show. I'm still not the biggest Amy Poehler fan. But the show did improve, and after much urging from a friend of mine to give it a try, I finally did again and now I'm a fan. But short of every P&R viewer begging their friends to watch it, no ad campaign will help it out.

[kcchief19]

Speaking of another quirky show, can anyone explain to me the existence of The Neighbors? I had never seen this show until Friday night when I was visiting my mom and she had it on. That was the worst half-hour of TV I've seen since I struggled through the first 12 minutes of The Paul Reiser Show.

[Izulde]

Watched the season premiere of Glee tonight, just to see what they'd do. The number with Lea Michele after the opening scene was powerful and beautifully shot, and a sign of what the show has the potential to be at its best moments. Unfortunately, the rest of the episode clearly demonstrated we're not only back on the completely unrealistic train, with levels of absurdity that don't work in terms of humor, we're now headed straight to '80s sitcom territory in terms of conflict resolution. Not good. Not good at all.

Parks and Rec didn't have the best of openers, but it was okay. Had some amusing moments, and I'll keep it on my watch list, simply because of the awesomeness of Ron and the friendship between he and Leslie that I think is the most interesting and best relationship on the show. Starting to get a little bit tired of Andy and April. The transition of April from apathetic college student to next generation Leslie feels sluggish and uninteresting, and Andy, like Creed in the US version of The Office, works best in small doses. Too much of him is a bad thing.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by kcchief19

Speaking of another quirky show, can anyone explain to me the existence of The Neighbors?

No, I cannot. I still shudder at the one & only episode I saw, which was essentially a bad musical.

And I'm stunned to discover that it's still on the air.

[kcchief19]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

No, I cannot. I still shudder at the one & only episode I saw, which was essentially a bad musical.

And I'm stunned to discover that it's still on the air.

I can only assume that it has a decent under 2-18 attraction. That's not a great demo, but on Friday nights maybe it gives ABC all they want. It was a timeslot beneficiary on Wednesdays, but even then didn't age well. I'm just stunned that someone on a major network not only greenlit this show but kept it on the air and renewed it. Kind of thing I'd expect to see on Disney, Nick or ABC Family.

[larrymcg421]

Originally Posted by Izulde

Watched the season premiere of Glee tonight, just to see what they'd do. The number with Lea Michele after the opening scene was powerful and beautifully shot, and a sign of what the show has the potential to be at its best moments. Unfortunately, the rest of the episode clearly demonstrated we're not only back on the completely unrealistic train, with levels of absurdity that don't work in terms of humor, we're now headed straight to '80s sitcom territory in terms of conflict resolution. Not good. Not good at all.

Parks and Rec didn't have the best of openers, but it was okay. Had some amusing moments, and I'll keep it on my watch list, simply because of the awesomeness of Ron and the friendship between he and Leslie that I think is the most interesting and best relationship on the show. Starting to get a little bit tired of Andy and April. The transition of April from apathetic college student to next generation Leslie feels sluggish and uninteresting, and Andy, like Creed in the US version of The Office, works best in small doses. Too much of him is a bad thing.

Agree with you on Glee, but I couldn't disagree more on Parks and Rec. I thought the premiere was one of their best episodes. April's transition has been a great bit of character development. And the whole bit with the rich British version of Andy was hilarious.

[kcchief19]

The short-term results on Tuesday nights for the big 8pm battle are interesting. On one hand the total number of viewers watching broadcast networks was up about 10 percent from premiere week last year. NCIS was flat, but The Voice picked up about 3 million viewers and SHIELD was up almost a 1 million versus Dancing With the Stars.

In the 18-49 demo, The Voice was up almost 20 percent, SHIELD was up about 135 percent from DWTS. NCIS was down about 10 percent, but overall 18-49 viewing was up about 15 percent overall.

For week one, the ABC gamble appears to have paid off. Now SHIELD is a lot more expensive than DWTS, so it's going to need to continue putting up strong 18-49 numbers to justify its existence. But the networks drawing more viewers so strongly bucks the trend. But can that last?

I'm also just doing some back of the envelope calculations, but it looks like Tuesday night is the new Thursday. There were more than 50 million broadcast viewers 8-9 pm, beating Thursday night pretty handily.

[cuervo72]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

No, I cannot. I still shudder at the one & only episode I saw, which was essentially a bad musical.

And I'm stunned to discover that it's still on the air.

Originally Posted by kcchief19

I can only assume that it has a decent under 2-18 attraction. That's not a great demo, but on Friday nights maybe it gives ABC all they want. It was a timeslot beneficiary on Wednesdays, but even then didn't age well. I'm just stunned that someone on a major network not only greenlit this show but kept it on the air and renewed it. Kind of thing I'd expect to see on Disney, Nick or ABC Family.

That was the only episode where they did that. I don't know why they did that as I hate it whenever any show does it (I know Spongebob has, and I'm pretty sure other sitcoms have. Scrubs maybe? I dunno, someone can help me out with this.)

I find it amusing, really because it has stopped trying to be in any way believable (well, as if any show about suburban aliens is "believable"). It is absurd, and it KNOWS it is absurd. They know you know it is absurd. They toy with the fourth wall. It's not great, but it'll make me chuckle a handful of times. But yes - I'd say it's on par with a Disney or Nick show, like an iCarly or Sam&Cat (silly, but enjoyable enough).

Oh, and Toks Olagundoye is pretty nice to look at.

[Radii]

Last year New Girl became one of my favorite comedies, but so far I hate almost everything about the first two episodes of this new season. A threes company style "juggling two girlfriends" plot for multiple episodes, seriously? Not with random bimbos, but with characters you did a great job making me care about last year. And Winston spends half an episode coming up with ways to kill a cat. WTF, seriously.

[ISiddiqui]

Winston trying to kill the cat was fantastic. Fantastic!!

[spleen1015]

Sleepy Hollow is off the watch list after watching episode #2 last night. It is not going to make it.

[BishopMVP]

Originally Posted by ISiddiqui

Winston trying to kill the cat was fantastic. Fantastic!!

Agreed. It did seem like a biiiiiiit of a dark jump at the beginning, but New Girl is at the point where 90% of the good stuff is the characters reactions to each other, so it worked for me. Putting Schmidt in a situation where he's being emotional at the same time you have Nick/Jess taking up so much time is the bigger issue right now, imo. I think Always Sunny nailed it in that sense because they always have different groups of 2 or 3 people pairing up and going on adventures each episode - I couldn't care less if Nick and Jess are "a couple" or not, I just don't want to see those 2 only hanging out with each other for half of every episode. (That also seemed like a real quick way to write off Brenda Song, but maybe she'll be back when Dads tanks. And while we're on that subject - bring back Coach, at least for a cameo!)

Parks and Rec is weird for me. I love the show, I wish more people watched it, but at the same time I don't find myself watching it every week. Maybe because so much of the good stuff is character development I find myself waiting until I have nothing else I want to watch and then watching 2-3 episodes.

[BishopMVP]

Originally Posted by spleen1015

Sleepy Hollow is off the watch list after watching episode #2 last night. It is not going to make it.

I won't quite go that far (even Justified stumbled around some its first few episodes), but that was a definite step back from the pilot. The pilot completely embraced the ridiculousness, while this seemed to be tying to tether it too much to "reality" on the one hand while fully embracing the Buffy-style monster of the week on the other. Let's go back to having a headless horsemen with a pump-action shotgun in one hand and an AK-47 in the other.

[Lathum]

Originally Posted by spleen1015

Sleepy Hollow is off the watch list after watching episode #2 last night. It is not going to make it.

have you heard rumors or just your personal opinion. We have it on the DVR but waiting to see what happens before investing time into it.

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by cuervo72

That was the only episode where they did that. I don't know why they did that as I hate it whenever any show does it (I know Spongebob has, and I'm pretty sure other sitcoms have. Scrubs maybe? I dunno, someone can help me out with this.)

Yeah, Scrubs did a musical episode that was both good but forced. IIRC, Buffy did it but now we're in the territory where you were with Scrubs: not sure if true but maybe someone can confirm.

SI

[DanGarion]

Originally Posted by BishopMVP

way to write off Brenda Song, but maybe she'll be back when Dads tanks. And while we're on that subject - bring back Coach, at least for a cameo!)

Coach will be back...

[Suicane75]

Tried watching The Goldbergs and The MJF Show, didn't like either of them.

Goldbergs just struck me as a bad sitcom with a gimmick, and as much I love Wendy McClendon-Covey (And I do love her lots), I just didn't find it funny or in any way original.

As far as the MJF show goes, it just felt to me like they failed at the one thing they needed to do most, which was make everything surrounding him quality. I didn't see a single standout among the vast supporting cast that would make me want to watch the show if he wasn't in it. And quite frankly, I think the gimmick of him having parkinsons is going to get old rather fast, through no fault of his own, because other than not being on tv, it can't be avoided.

The other problem I had was that it just feels too big. I almost got the sense that it would be a better show if you cut down the core and set it somewhere more rural where he could be more folksy.

New Girl is interesting to me because I hadn't watched a single episode till about two weeks ago and I burned through the first two seasons and saw the first two episodes of this season. I love the show pre Nick and Jessica getting together, and I haven't not enjoyed any of the post Nick and Jessica shows, but I am filled with this dread now of where they go from here and how it alters the show dynamic. I don't how you keep it from becoming a completely different show, which would be ok if it was broken, but it absolutely wasn't.

I've watched the first two episodes of Brooklyn 99 and pretty much right on the fence with it. I love Braugher and think Samberg can be funny, but it's bordering so much on sheer goofiness that I forsee me just doing an eye roll one episode and being done with it. The problem is that you really have to turn off your brain to believe that these people are cops and I don't get the sense that the show is ever going to try very hard to change that. In fact it's probably going to go in the exact opposite direction. It can work when the show is set in a paper factory, but not a police station.

And last but not least, The Crazy Ones. I liked this a lot more than I thought I would, mainly because the entire cast is first rate. I think Robin Williams is insanely funny at times, but he obviously has a penchant for just driving things into the ground and going so far off the road he can't get back. With the number of quality players they have surrounding him I don't think that will be an issue, and if the rest of the episodes stay as on point as the pilot then I think it'll be a really good show. The whole ketchup packet/ejaculation bit with Kelly Clarkson was hilarious and a perfect use of his comedic abilities.

[kcchief19]

Originally Posted by Lathum

have you heard rumors or just your personal opinion. We have it on the DVR but waiting to see what happens before investing time into it.

Mostly opinion at this point. The numbers are fairly solid, it didn't lost a ton from its premiere. But if it slides another 15 percent tonight, the vultures might begin to circle. It's a concept that seems like it would be hard to pull off long-term, and Spleen's not alone among critics jumping ship.

In other news, SHIELD was the No. 1 show on DVR playback for week one, adding 1.8 rating in the 18-49 demo and 3.7 million viewers. It's the biggest drama debut in four years.

[Ronnie Dobbs3]

... since a show that lost half the audience by episode 5 and was done after 22 episodes.

[kcchief19]

Originally Posted by sterlingice

Yeah, Scrubs did a musical episode that was both good but forced. IIRC, Buffy did it but now we're in the territory where you were with Scrubs: not sure if true but maybe someone can confirm.

SI

I didn't see the musical episode of The Neighbors like Jon did, and it's still an awful show.

There's been a surprising number of shows that have done "musical" episodes. I think Scrubs did the best but just a short list I found had Buffy, Chicago Hope, Grey's Anatomy, 7th Heaven, Fringe (WTF?), Oz (Double WTF???) and That '70s Show doing musical episodes. Psych is doing a two-hour musical episode in December.

[kcchief19]

Originally Posted by Ronnie Dobbs3

... since a show that lost half the audience by episode 5 and was done after 22 episodes.

If SHIELD gets as bad as V, it deserves to be cancelled. Granted, both shows have debuts fueled by nostalgia. But SHIELD so far is astronomically better than V.

[kcchief19]

Originally Posted by Suicane75

Tried watching The Goldbergs and The MJF Show, didn't like either of them.

Goldbergs just struck me as a bad sitcom with a gimmick, and as much I love Wendy McClendon-Covey (And I do love her lots), I just didn't find it funny or in any way original.

As far as the MJF show goes, it just felt to me like they failed at the one thing they needed to do most, which was make everything surrounding him quality. I didn't see a single standout among the vast supporting cast that would make me want to watch the show if he wasn't in it. And quite frankly, I think the gimmick of him having parkinsons is going to get old rather fast, through no fault of his own, because other than not being on tv, it can't be avoided.

The other problem I had was that it just feels too big. I almost got the sense that it would be a better show if you cut down the core and set it somewhere more rural where he could be more folksy.

I had similar feelings about The MJF Show, but I can't quite explain it doesn't click with me. Love MJF, in my book he's one of if not the best TV star of the last 30 years. But so far the show just doesn't do it.

The premiere just didn't seem to know if it wants to be a comedy or a drama, and as a result was weak at both. I'm hoping the show becomes about a guy who happens to have Parkinson's than just about a guy who has Parkinson's.

I actually think a better show would have been even more semi-autobiographical, with him playing himself, Tracey Pollan as his wife and based more on his actual life. That would be more engaging and interesting to me than this news anchor setup. I'm just not seeing where the premise goes from here.

[ISiddiqui]

Originally Posted by BishopMVP

Agreed. It did seem like a biiiiiiit of a dark jump at the beginning, but New Girl is at the point where 90% of the good stuff is the characters reactions to each other, so it worked for me.

And not just their reactions to each other, but their over the top reactions to other over the top reactions in cascading glory. Of course it is stopped from spinning out of control, by one person realizing, wait WTF is going on, right before it gets too silly.

[spleen1015]

Originally Posted by Lathum

have you heard rumors or just your personal opinion. We have it on the DVR but waiting to see what happens before investing time into it.

That is strictly my opinion. I thought the pilot was good, but it lost me in the 2nd episode. This would be a show that I DVRed every episode and in April realize I had 8 episodes to watch. So, I am ditching it now.

[Lathum]

I want to know who thought Ironside was a good idea.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by kcchief19

There's been a surprising number of shows that have done "musical" episodes. I think Scrubs did the best but just a short list I found had Buffy, Chicago Hope, Grey's Anatomy, 7th Heaven, Fringe (WTF?), Oz (Double WTF???) and That '70s Show doing musical episodes. Psych is doing a two-hour musical episode in December.

Didn't Drew Carey do a full-on one as well?

[Scarecrow]

I'm going to say it now...

James Spader is the best fucking actor on television.

[kingfc22]

Originally Posted by ISiddiqui

Winston trying to kill the cat was fantastic. Fantastic!!

I thought it was hilarious as well. I tend to think the show drags the most with Nick on screen, but the rest of the characters crack me up continuously.

Originally Posted by spleen1015

Sleepy Hollow is off the watch list after watching episode #2 last night. It is not going to make it.

I agree. The pilot was very entertaining. The second episode came off like a cheap knock-off to Elementary. Off my list it goes.

[Radii]

Originally Posted by kingfc22

I thought it was hilarious as well. I tend to think the show drags the most with Nick on screen, but the rest of the characters crack me up continuously.

glad to see others are still as into it as before, maybe its just the stories from the first couple episodes not working for me. I cannot say enough how much I hate the Schmidt juggling two women angle, especially two women that they've made us care about a decent bit. Its just horrible.

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by Scarecrow

I'm going to say it now...

James Spader is the best fucking actor on television.

He is frigging killing it yeah.

[DaddyTorgo]

re: Blacklist

Isn't the marking on the top of the box the same as the scar on her wrist? Does she not realize that??

That's got to be significant.

[spleen1015]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

re: Blacklist

Isn't the marking on the top of the box the same as the scar on her wrist? Does she not realize that??

That's got to be significant.

I don't think it is the same shape.

[larrymcg421]

Originally Posted by Radii

glad to see others are still as into it as before, maybe its just the stories from the first couple episodes not working for me. I cannot say enough how much I hate the Schmidt juggling two women angle, especially two women that they've made us care about a decent bit. Its just horrible.

The reason this doesn't bother me so much is that I think Schmidt really does love both of them. I think he genuinely can't decide and doesn't want to hurt either of them. That doesn't make it right, but I don't think he's out to hurt someone, even though he certainly will. The only thing I don't love about the storyline in the last episode is it made the two women look dumb, but it was somewhat worth it for the hilarious payoff where Schmidt's gambit worked and he looked just as surprised as his coworker.

[MrBug708]

Originally Posted by Scarecrow

I'm going to say it now...

James Spader is the best fucking actor on television.

He was pretty awful on the office

[rowech]

I watched We Are Men last night. It certainly wasn't great but I'm amazed people saying it will be canceled after the next episode solely because of the names associated with the show. Is not like this cast is a bunch of nobodies. I'm surprised they would cancel a show with that many recognizable faces.

[chadritt]

Originally Posted by rowech

I watched We Are Men last night. It certainly wasn't great but I'm amazed people saying it will be canceled after the next episode solely because of the names associated with the show. Is not like this cast is a bunch of nobodies. I'm surprised they would cancel a show with that many recognizable faces.

Recognizable actors likely means higher 1st season salaries though which means the ratings need to be even higher to avoid cancellation. The numbers were ok but not very good, less than both HIMYM and 2 broke girls, which probably doesn't bode extremely well for it.

[rowech]

I really need to stop typing stuff from my ipad on this message board. I make so many little typo mistakes.

[Flasch186]

Originally Posted by Scarecrow

I'm going to say it now...

James Spader is the best fucking actor on television.

Out of this world good.

[Flasch186]

Originally Posted by MrBug708

He was pretty awful on the office

Disagree. he was amazing, the rest of the envelope around him sucked. IMHO

[Easy Mac]

Avengers: TV dropped 1/3 of its audience last night.

ABC needs to move trophy wife behind Modern Family. The second episode was just OK, but it seems to fit perfectly, definitely better than some stupid Rebel Wilson show.

[Kodos]

Originally Posted by Radii

Did anyone else watch Broadchurch on BBC America? The finale was last night, I dunno if it will re-air or if its available On Demand. Its a very simple 8 episode murder mystery (practically a procedural miniseries), but the acting and the storytelling is wonderfully done and holy shit it packs a hell of a punch.

Here's a general review before the series started without any serious spoilers:

Review: BBC Americas Broadchurch a simple, devastating mystery


Simple and devastating are probably the two best words I could think of to describe it. Stars David Tennant for the Dr Who folks.

Just wrapped this one up last night. Great show, very well done. Terribly depressing though. I highly recommend it.