And my wish is granted – “We Are Men” has been cancelled.
Anyone catch The Tomorrow People? For the most part a generic CWtv actioner, I thought.
Watching Trophy Wife on Hulu and there were a couple of references to the wife being a teenager not that long ago. How old is the wife supposed to be on the show? (In real life, Malin Ackerman is 35.)
I just got caught up on Brooklyn 99 and I really liked it, much more than I was expecting. The other surprise for me this year was Trophy Wife. It should be awful, but I find it charming and very entertaining.
I’m now imagining the show as a triumph of typecasting with Hugh Laurie.
I caught half of it, and I will watch it again. “Generic CWtv actioner” is pretty accurate, but there was enough interest there for me.
I thought this week’s episode of Trophy Wife was a little weak. But Brooklyn Nine Nine was very good - I think the show has now settled down into its groove. The biggest worry I have for these shows are their timeslots. They’re both stuck in half-hour spots behind a couple of terrible openers.
I’ve watched a bit of another episode of “The Millers” - the cast and writing seem quite good (the brilliant Eliza Coupe as the ex! Awesome!), but they have GOT to get rid of The Worst Person In The World (aka The Mom) if they want me to watch the show - I can’t stand her. I won’t watch because of her. The mom goes or I do!
I watched the second episode of Ironside.
One plot point was bothersome. There’s a slasher killing people by slashing their arteries. The cops are just handy when a guy gets slashed in the arm artery around the elbow. He’s gushing blood. The cops rush over to him, one even runs over and grabs some sheet or tablecloth or something nearby and comes back. And they start applying direct pressure, but it’s not enough and he bleeds out while they are waiting for the ambulance. And all I can think is “TOURNIQUET! Apply a tourniquet!”
They’re looking for the slasher, and go talk to a knife salesman expert nearby. They’re looking for a short guy, this guy is a short guy. I immediately peg they’ll be back for him. He happens to be missing the last joint on his pinky. That later becomes a feature a witness describes.
While talking to him, they are discussing the most recent slash mark and looking at a photo of the slash, and from that trying to deduce the knife used. And they’re able to deterimine it was a ceramic blade, a specialized custom weapon, blah blah blah. From a 6 inch slash across the inner elbow. :dubious:
I will point out my continued annoyance with previews giving away too much. The previews show a scene from a confrontation with a lady that occurs in the last 5 minutes of the show, basically the climactic confrontation (there are two plots intertwined). They’re doing the “Law and Order” thing where they try to show dramatic moments for the previews to draw you in, but end up revealing things like the identity of the bad guy, who is important, etc. It’s like preview writers don’t understand the concept of surprise.
I’ll still keep watching for now.
That was almost exactly what I thought when I read the original post too.
I’m not a fan of the show, but I’ve seen enough of it after HIMYM to get the general feel of the show. It’s not meant to be serious comedy in any way. It’s just a show that’s going for easy yuks with an attractive pair of mildly quirky protagonists playing off a supporting crew of real oddballs. Not highbrow or intelligent comedy at any stretch of the imagination.
However, Jennifer Coolidge’s character almost always cracks me up when she’s on.
Ratings (the numbers are millions of viewers):
September 17
CBS - NCIS (rerun) 10.64
FOX - Dads 5.76/Brooklyn Nine-Nine 6.17
NBC - The Million Second Quiz 5.22
ABC - Iron Man 2 3.81
CW - Whose Line Is It Anyway? 2.43/2.31
September 24
CBS - NCIS 20.02
NBC - The Voice 14.35
ABC - Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. 12.12
FOX - Dads 3.65/Brooklyn Nine-Nine 4.03
CW - Whose Line is it Anyway? 1.29/1.20
October 1
CBS - NCIS 19.98
NBC - The Voice 14.54
ABC - Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. 8.66
FOX - Dads 3.40/Brooklyn Nine-Nine 3.43
CW - iHeartRadio Music Festival 1.07
October 8
CBS NCIS 18.33
NBC The Voice 10.20
ABC Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. 7.87
FOX Dads 3.10/Brooklyn Nine-Nine 3.34
CW The Originals 1.92
So what are we seeing?
- NCIS and The Voice are still strong in the time slot.
- Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is in third place and slipping.
- Dads and Brooklyn Nine-Nine are weak. But Brooklyn Nine-Nine is picking up viewers at 8:30.
- There’s no explanation why the CW is still operating.
I’ve been DVRing all the new shows to discuss on a podcast episode, and IMO this is the worst season for new shows in at least a decade. If it wasn’t for Brooklyn 99 and Sleepy Hollow (and possibly Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., though that’s been pretty disappointing so far), there’d be nothing on the schedule I’d ever watch again.
Watched the 2nd episode of HBO’s Hello Ladies starring Stephen Merchant. Liked the main women. Not so much the guys. And since it revolves mostly around the guys, that is a problem.
The #2 actress is Crista Flanagan, Lois from Mad Men. That is good. The #2 actor is Nate Torrence who is basically a second rate Nick Swardson. And since Nick is the star of *Bucky Larsen … *and does filler work for Adam Sandler, that is not good.
A few nice jokes here and there. But not quite enough to make me want to watch it more. 2 and a half stars.
What’s their market coverage like these days? I remember when you didn’t get CW in a lot of the country. And they still haven’t moved up to a full day of programming, so you can get away with lower numbers and the lower revenues they cause. Add in most of the shows have people you haven’t heard of getting paid in Canadian dollars and you’ve got a pretty cheap-to-run network.
Speaking of CW, I’m kind of ticked at the direction “Arrow” is taking. CW has always used their small niche to ignore Big Three niceties like concerns for violence and death. You could populate a good-sized town with the mortality numbers from Supernatural and Vampire Diairies. I’m guessing because “Arrow” is based on a comic-book character, they’ve decided to make it more kid-friendly and have him stop killing, which I think will damage the gritty realism the show has managed for its action sequences.
Caught up with the 4th episode of the MJ Fox show. That’s it. We’re done. The third episode had at least a moment. (The lines “You’re right. I’m wrong. I’m sorry.” are indeed handy.) But that 4th episode was nothing.
One major problem (besides lack of humor) is that the story threads don’t intersect. The daughter is having problems with a bully. The young son is being pushed into activities. The dad has a new evil cow-orker. Etc. None of them relate to the other. It’s a sitcom in a blender. Great sitcoms take seemingly divergent threads and have them tie into each other.
The word in Tinseltown is that everyone knows it’s a disaster and no one has figured out a reasonable way of getting out of it. NBC doesn’t want to pull the plug on such a beloved actor. MJF knows the show cannot be retooled and saved. Etc.
I hope everyone has learned a lesson from this and the “talking to the camera” thing is done. It’s expired and gone to meet its maker. Its a stiff. Bereft of life, it rests in peace. George Burns perfected it and there’s no use in anyone else trying it.
I read/heard somewhere that if you look at the CW as part of the CBS farm team (much like Bravo & USA are for NBC or the various FX’s are for FOX), it mostly makes sense. It’s when it is looked at as a network in its own right that the numbers don’t even come close to working.
Just watched the new episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine. It’s the funniest one yet. So I am officially giving this series the coveted Little Nemo Seal of Approval. If you’re not watching it yet, you should be.
I agree. Trophy Wife had a good episode this week too. I like that it doesn’t go for cheap easy laughs. I loved Kate (the new wife) quietly saying to her husband (about control freak wife): “You used to kiss that.”
I’ll have to check out Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Trophy Wife: I haven’t bothered with either one so far, but with Dads being a dud, The Blacklist being boring, and We Are Men being cancelled (I thought it had potential!), there is room in my viewing schedule. Plus, I didn’t know until this week that Bradley Whitford is in Trophy Wife.
Mom isn’t great, but I adore the cast and it’s entertaining enough. Ditto for The Crazy Ones: for some reason I find the use of actual brands to be kind of annoying, but I love the cast and so far it’s still watchable.
New shows I’m actively enjoying are Sleepy Hollow, The Michael J. Fox Show (though he needs to be more careful with his enunciation), Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., and Masters of Sex.
I plan to check out Dracula when it premieres, but I don’t have high hopes. 
The ads aren’t promising. It looks quite generic and soapy, which it probably has to be, since it’s on NBC.
The IMDb plot description: