Fall 2013 Television Premieres

Image from 123RF Stock Photos

There may be a slight nip in the air, and perhaps a few leaves are beginning to turn, but it's not fall until the new TV shows premiere! We will be trying 3 new shows this fall.

• The Blacklist (James Spader) - Mondays on NBC: A master international criminal turns himself in to the FBI and offers to help them catch some of the world's worst bad guys, on the condition that he speaks only to a rookie profiler with no known connections to him. Y'all know I'm a sucker for cop shows, and holy cow, they certainly have my attention after the pilot episode! James Spader is deliciously over the top (yet still in control), and I loved every minute of it. Everyone who is saying "Silence of the Lambs clone" is largely correct, minus the cannibalism of course, but aren't there much worse things to be compared to in this world? I will be interested to see if they can sustain it going forward, but we were quite impressed with Episode 1.
• Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. - Tuesdays on CBS: In a post-Avengers world, where everyone now knows that there are real-life gods and monsters, S.H.I.E.L.D. works to keep things running smoothly for both mere mortals and "others." First, let me start by saying that we really enjoyed the premiere! Oh Joss, how we've missed you. I could "hear" him in so many of the great one-liners of the premiere, but neither quips (even great ones from Joss Whedon) nor cameos from other Whedon projects can make a successful show on their own. Expectations were impossibly high, and I don't think they quite made it. Very close, but not quite.  Clark Gregg is amazing, as always, and you never for a moment doubt that he is doing what we are to believe that he does for a living. Then again, he's had several films-worth of practice. The rest of the cast needs to step up their game a bit (you could tell some of them felt a little silly at times), but I think they have great potential, and I hope the show will fully gel in the next few episodes. Looking forward to more! #CoulsonLives
• Almost Human (Karl Urban) - on FOX in November: New television offering from J.J. Abrams, starring Karl Urban. 35 years in the future, a human cop is unhappily assigned an android partner. You will hear "I, Robot" thrown around a lot with this one, which is not a bad thing in my book. I suspect we will get to see Karl Urban put on his best "grumpy McCoy" persona and go to town, which is part of what we love about him. Why hire him if not to glower? LOL Toss in Lili Taylor and Michael Ealy, and I will definitely be watching when it premieres in November. (I think it is slated for Mondays, which will kill us! I hope it doesn't come on at 10, or we really will have a problem.)

It remains to be seen if they will survive. We have a history of being able to kill most any show, though we've actually managed a few winners in recent years, most recently Elementary and Person of Interest. What are you watching this fall?
Currently feeling: tuned in