21 Hours of TV Fall Preview 2010 (Tuesday)...

Ahhhhh, Glee.  My love hate relationship with you rivals anything I've ever experienced.  On one hand your music numbers may be some of the best moments on TV period, and on the other you are a filthy, teenage soap opera, that sends almost all the wrong messages about worth, value, and relationships done by mostly mediocre actors who couldn't act their way out of a dry leaf pile if they were given a book of matches, pre-lit.  But did I mention the musical parts?  Tuesday also holds my most anticipated new show of the season with No Ordinary Family, as well as the ironically bloated 2 hours a week of The Biggest Loser.  Don't get me wrong I love the show, but seriously there is more filler in 2 hours of Loser then in 3 dozen Raspberry Glazed donuts.

I never enjoyed NCIS in the first place so the fact that there is two hours straight of it doesn't tweak my radar, especially now that I have all but completely given up on the straight forward procedural crime drama.  (Lie to Me and The Mentalist would be the exceptions, but I see those as more of character pieces.)

Other than that it's a virtual wasteland of uninteresting new shows and less interesting old ones.

TWO HOURS OF MUST:  Glee & No Ordinary Family

The color coded breakdown:

8PM

ABC - No Ordinary Family

CBS - NCIS

CW - One Tree Hill

Fox - Glee

NBC - The Biggest Loser

9PM

ABC - Dancing with the Stars

CBS - NCIS: Los Angeles

CW - Life Unexpected

Fox - Raising Hope

9:30PM

Fox - Running Wilde

10PM

ABC - Detroit 1-8-7

CBS - The Good Wife

NBC - Parenthood

Tuesday's Total: Two 1 hour dramas, One half hour Comedy, One 2 hour Reality 4.5 hours

Overall Total: 7 hours drama, .5 hours Comedy, 2 hours Reality, 9.5 hours

21 Hours of TV Fall Preview 2010 (Monday)...

Welcome to the 4th annual 21 hours of TV Fall preview. Everyday this week we will look at the current day of the week and what will be on that night (Friday, we will look at the weekend). It's my self imposed task every year to limit my TV viewing each week to 21 hours (14 without commercials, just so you understand I'm not as addicted as you think.). In going through the daily schedules I will rate each show red, blue, or green. Green means I will be watching (at least initially), blue that I won't but I won't hold it against you if you do, and red that I refuse to believe anyone of sound mind could be interested. At the end of the week I will add my total hours up and cut what I need in order to get down to the required 21, which won't include the 3 hours every week I suffer through my Detroit Lions disemboweling the sanctity of the NFL.

Oh one more thing.  I've added the "two hours of must" this year to indicate the two hours of television that night that should be an automatic DVR add for all members of the human race.

Monday

One thing you will notice right away is how different the schedules look this year.  There is a glut of new programming (due to the abysmal failure of the Jay Leno experiment last year) and networks are shifting around many of their staples. Big Bang Theory on Thursday?!, Survivor on Wednesday?!, CSI Miami on Sunday?! Sunday Night Football on Tuesday?!  OK, I made the last one up, but it kinda feels like an anything goes kind of year.  Not that any of this matters except that they don't put three of your favorites on the same night at the same time when your DVR only can record two of them.

Monday's stalwarts include Dancing with the Stars (not real stars, not real dancing, and yet you watch... sigh.),  House (still amazing and Hugh Laurie continues to be the best actor on TV),  and Two and a Half Men (comments withheld for risk of snark overdose) .  In addition to House, I'll also be checking out Chuck (which may have had it's best season last year), Castle (which my wife and I digested 2 full seasons of over the summer and LOVED it.), and newcomers The Event and Hawaii Five-O.

TWO HOURS OF MUST:  HOUSE, CASTLE

The color coded breakdown:

8PM
ABC - Dancing with the Stars

CBS - How I Met Your Mother

CW - 90210

Fox - House

NBC - Chuck

8:30PM

CBS - Rules of Engagement

9PM

CBS - Two and a Half Men

CW - Gossip Girl

Fox - Lone Star

NBC - The Event

9:30PM

CBS - Mike & Molly

10PM

ABC - Castle

CBS - Hawaii Five-O

NBC - Chase

Monday's total: Five 1 hour dramas, zero comedies, zero reality = 5 hours today, 5 hours total.

The 2010 3 Ep Test

I'll usually only take one sip of rancid milk.  It doesn't really take the second or third gulp for me to know I'm not invested quite that much in my calcium intake.  But when it comes to TV, I'm a glutton for punishment.  My theory with the small screen is that any new show can be properly vetted in three episodes, no more, no less.  Even an awful pilot can show promise in the very next episode or vice versa.  So each fall I comb the new offerings from the networks and see what seems intriguing enough to invest in.  The result is a mixed bag for sure.  If you till the soil of the crop that sprouted three years ago when I began this you will find a single surviving specimen (God bless NBC for sticking with Zack Levi and Chuck) as well as one that I'm ashamed even piqued my interest (cough... Cavemen... cough).  But mostly you will find shows that had major promise and just couldn't generate enough audience for a bountiful harvest (I'm still waiting for someone to wake me up from the nightmare world where Pushing Daisies doesn't succeed.)  2008 was much the same, but last year something seemed to click.  For whatever reason, the audience showed up.  Three of the newbies are bona fide hits (Community, Modern Family, and Glee) and though Flash Forward couldn't see into the future far enough to notice there would be no season two, it was still a mighty satisfying one season experiment.

This year only 7 shows have tripped my sensor and set off the anticipation alarms, and here they are in order from least anticipated to most.

S#*! My Dad Says (CBS)

Thu, 8:30, 9/23

Let's get this out of the way right off the bat.  I will henceforth refer to this show as "Stuff" My Dad Says.  I'm not trying to be holier than thou or shuddering in offense about the casual nature of cursing in today's society. I've just never said the word before and I'm just not sure I could pull it off.  That, and I'm just not sure how to pronounce S, number sign, apostrophe, exclamation point   To be honest I think CBS made a huge mistake in leaving even the bleeped profanity as part of the title, but if anyone can power through that mistake it's Mr. over the top himself, William Shatner.  There is part of me hoping for this show to fail though, as I find it hard to stomach the thought of living in a world where a Twitter feed can become a hit TV show.

Running Wilde (Fox)

Tue, 9:30, 9/21

Like a 13 year old boy, this show will almost undoubtedly stink.  But I made a promise that I would follow Will Arnett wherever he may go (yes, I did just sing that in my head).   On the off chance this show somehow manages to be good, I want to be there to see him succeed.  On a side note I should mention, there are only a limited number of unassailable truths in this world; God is sovereign, pizza is the world's most versatile food, and sit-coms with laugh tracks are unwatchable.  If I smell even a hint of canned giggles on this or any comedy in the list, it's an automatic dismissal.  I'll laugh when it's funny, thank you, not when your laughter technician inserts chortle 24 followed by snicker 17 as my cue. (Just for fun someday do a Youtube search for "without laugh track". Here's one to get you started.)

Hawaii Five-O (CBS)

Mon, 10:00, 9/20

Maybe it's Daniel Kim (Jin from LOST), maybe it's the setting (Hawaii from LOST), but something is strangely drawing me to watch a remake of an old show I've never seen before in my life or even know what it's about.  I honestly have no clue why I want to watch this show.  Maybe CBS hired Leo Dicaprio to run around in my dreams and plant ideas.  I did have a strange one last night involving Melissa Joan Hart, a bag of jelly beans, and a surge protector.  I wondered what that was about.

Outsourced (NBC)

Thu, 9:30, 9/23

Plain and simple.  NBC + comedy + Thursday night = on the list.

Undercovers (NBC)

Wed, 8:00, 9/22

If married spies (a la Mr. and Mrs. Smith) isn't enough to intrigue you, how about the name JJ Abrams?  Felicity, Alias, LOST, Fringe, one episode of Avatar: The Last Airbender (ok, fine, I had to look that last one up on IMDB, but seriously how cool is that?!)  Point being, JJ gots the goods, and will have an automatic spot on this list anytime he decides to add a line to his resume.

The Event (NBC)

Mon, 9:00, 9/20

This is the kind of show that I assume the writers must have sat around and brainstormed ways to get me specifically to watch.  "Let's make it a high concept piece."  "Yeah, and have the teaser campaign give nothing away"  "And can we get that Ritter kid that he liked so much in Joan of Arcadia?".  SOLD!  This also has the distinction of possibly being the biggest let down on the list if the titular "event" turns out to be a lackluster affair.  All I'm saying is it better not involve David Blaine.

No Ordinary Family

 (ABC)

Tue, 8:00, 9/28

The show I'm most excited about is a real world look at the concept of "The Incredibles"  That's a high bar to live up to for sure, but the concept itself is solid enough (see "Sky High" for another example) to make room for many iterations of the idea.  If that weren't enough they went and did something else novel by hiring genuinely talented actors for the leads (The Shield's Michael Chiklis and Dexter's Julie Benz).  The only question is will this family of superheros be strong enough to hold an audience beyond the first three episodes.