Fall has traditionally been the time when the networks unveil their best news shows. And, amusingly, within two weeks one or two are usually cancelled. This Fall has been something of an exception with the first show not getting cancelled until after four whole episodes! What staying power the networks have! I also have to wonder if now that the first domino has fallen if other shows will get the axe next. I also wonder why American networks don’t simply do what the British networks do and ask for 6 episodes in a season so that if a show doesn’t get renewed at least its story is finished.
I have imagined that people wonder why we don’t watch all the shows that get huge raves from people In the Know, and the primary reason is that we don’t have any premium channels and can’t be bothered to watch things on our computer. So, yeah, someday we’ll binge watch Veep or maybe Game of Thrones (actually, Sarah will never watch that), but for now, we’re still a broadcast TV family.
To follow-up on a couple of shows from the summer: we actually never even watched Fargo, despite my being excited to watch it. I read about how violent it was and just decided to give it a miss. And Halt and Catch Fire was mildly intriguing, but not enough for us to watch more than two episodes. Two shows that we did enjoy quite a lot were Married (terribly uninspired name, guys) and You’re the Worst. They were both shockingly raunchy.
Of the two, You’re the Worst was much funnier. In addition to the two main characters, who were just so unpleasant, the supporting cast was awesome. I haven’t heard if the show was renewed, but I hope so. Oh, I see it was, hooray. Married was a bit more problematic for me, as I love Judy Green and Nat Faxon, but the show just wasn’t all that funny. It certainly had moments, again mostly from the great supporting cast, but the main plot lines between Greer and Faxon were just so negative and hopeless that it didn’t really inspire much humor.
Two other great comedies that we saw this summer were new to us. A Comedy Central show that we missed last season but loved this season was Drunk History. Holy cow is that show funny. The reenactments are simply genius, and I am so curious to know if these people actually know the history that they are talking about or if they are given scripts or what. We need to find Season 1 to see what we missed. And Garfunkel and Oates is a fantastic show starring the great comedy team of, well Garfunkel and Oates. I’ve enjoyed their music videos a whole lot and was delighted by their show as well. Hooray for Kate and Riki.
We also watched Welcome to Sweden which was pretty dreadful–so much potential but no chemistry and no comic timing. I assumed it had been cancelled, but I just read that it was renewed. Huh.
Anyway, on to the Fall and new shows:
So last time, I did a tally of networks. Let’s see who wins this time:
ABC: 6 FOX: 5 NBC: 4 CBS: 3 SyFy: 1 Comedy Central: 1
ABC has finally surpassed FOX. I find that somewhat hard to believe, but they did it. CBS and NBC just can’t seem to boost those averages.
(more…)
I Just Read About That... 