To watch or not to watch... Following one show too many...?
Well, I can't answer that to you. Some believe there's good and bad shows out there. I simply say, to each their own. Sure, reality TV continue to survive for example, despite how bad it's gotten over the years, but it still is watched by Billions of people (with an Uppercase 'B') over the world! You can't judge the quality of a show by its rating, that's what producers do. Just look what you think will entertain you!
I can decide for you, I don't know what you guys and gals like. So here is like last year my own selection, the TV series I will watch for the 2011-2012 season!
And to open up the topic, a quickly sketched Sheriff Carter from Eureka.
First up, the shows that are missing the call.
I decided to pull the plug on Chuck. Sure, I liked the characters (at least some of them), and even if the first two Seasons went downhill during Season 3 the 4th one last year started great...but the show can't decide if it wants to be a generic soap for teens, a science fiction-ysh take on the spy genre or a comedy... I mean, most episodes of Season 3 and 4 (besides the strong good couple of episodes at the start of both seasons) were about Chuck's feelings or his sister crying all of her screen-time!!
Boring, annoying... Blah!
(I wish it had Reaper that had continued, as the "lazy young adult, that can't decide his own path for his future, gets powers to face evil each week, along with best pal, and gets the girl at the end of the day" show)
Also, Undercovers, J.J. Abrams last recent show got cancelled way too early in my eyes. It started far away from the mysteries à la Lost, and was a more reality grounded Alias...but the characters took too much time developping, which seems to have bored and scared the audience away...
Too bad... I liked it, more so than Chuck for that matter, as a "spy" show.
And The Cape got canceled too.
But unlike recent similar shows that got canceled on their first seasons these last couple of years *cough*Journeyman*cough*, it will be released on DVD! Good thing, I'll be sure to get it^^
At the end of the day, despite haters making a bad rep to the Cape, it was a genuinely fun pulp superhero show. With a sort of similar vibe to The Flash in the early 90s. I liked it!
And finally Batman: The Brave and The Bold is over now!
After a long (but not enough) run, it had some true gems in there! And it was a great showcase of the entire DCU, featuring old school interpretations of characters like this show's take on Superman, Silver Age obscure characters like Kamandi or B'wana Beast and even some more recent elements from our good ol' Post-Crisis DCU with Jaimes Reyes!Blue Beetle, the JLI or Guy Gardner. If only it could continue, maybe with a name change retitled as "The Brave and The Bold" simply?...
Now, let's have a look at the things I'll be watching~
Can't wait enough for Season 4 of Castle to start soon!
I've been watching this show since day 1, and I just love it!
Nathan Fillion, the tone of the show, the light fun yet realistic police stories... Reminds me of Monk from a couple years back. But much better I have to say.
Last Season ended in such an epic fashion, lies, deceptions, treachery and death! Best cliff-hanger in years!
And here it is!
One of the two new shows that will start soon, by J.J. Abrams and the team at Bad Robotos
Person of Interest.
Lost's own Ben Linus teams up with an "hobo" to fight crime, using an amazing supercomputer that can predict the future... Sounds promising!
Meanwhile, Fringe will be well on the way of its 4th Season now!
Approaching a resolution?
(I dunno for you but my ideal for a run of a series, as I always say, it should be around ~5 seasons. not too short nor dragging on like those long running shows like Friends and co..)
What will happen to the world now that Peter combined both alternate universes and seems to have erased himself?!?
And the other new show from Abrams & Bad Robots I mentioned above is Alcatraz. Starting for mid-replacement in 2012.
Lots of talent involved on this one!
I mean, they got Jurassic Park's Sam Neill in here! And even Lost fans favorite Jorge Garcia!
Speaking of which, Steven Spielberg's dino show will also start this month!
Terra Nova will be about a bunch of people traveling back to the past to, errr..., escape pollution in the future by living in the far off past along dinosaurs. I think. Well it sounds messy so far but we'll see how this turns out!
I'm specially watching this because they'll be reusing sets and props from the Jurassic Park movies :P
Meanwhile, my favorite dinosaur-show (sorry Terra Nova, the spot's already taken!) just finished airing its 5th season recently in the UK.
Yep, Primeval only airs in Summer. I still need to catch on those, since the departure of character Nick Cutter from the show, and after some lackbuster episodes, the show was able to find ground and get progressively back to form.
I did not like at all how the first Season of The Walking Dead ended up in such a clumsy lackbuster out of place finale episode, containing both an explanations for the Virus' origin. The way it explained you can't cure it and whatnot. (I much prefer the mystery surrounding it be it in the comic book or in George Romero's "Of The Dead" movies... defining it take that goal off the survivor's mind..which could offer such great story arcs in later Walking ired director/exectuve producer Frank Darabont from the show due to "creative differences". Big loss for them, losing this award winning director and fan of the series... I fear what they're gonna do this season...
The SyFy block now!
Warehouse 13 is airing its Season 3 currently already :D
I just love Warehouse 13, and it's only been getting better over the time! "Newguy" Jinks is a sort of hit and miss. He's kinda funny sometimes, I love it when the others take advantage or make fun of the guy, and he's got a good alchemy with other characters, but he's kinda odd and always sticking out of the group. Plus his "human lie detector"-thing going on is kinda boring...and when they drop it, it's even worse because it got you thinking "Hey?! Wasn't he s'pposed to notice XYZ was lying??"...
Great show anyway!
SyFy already announced the end of Eureka, but I say it's not a reason to panic!
Despite good ratings, the show will be ending soon. It is currently airing its 4th Season, we'll even get a Christmas episode in December.
And then in 2012, the show will wrap up in Season 5.
At least, there's great new shows on SyFy currently.
Like Stephen King inspired show Haven. Fully of little trivia references and pretty similar in tone to both Eureka and Warehouse 13.
The question is, will they also have a Christmas episode and will Haven cross over any of the other shows at some point? :P
And finally there's Syfy latest kid on the block, Alphas.
A show I have to admit, I did not like at all! But the characters kinda grew on me. (not all of them though..)
It looked like another generic superhero gritty show playing the "Hey! We're realistic! We don't have costumes and are more grounded in today's world"-card.
The weakest part of the show...I kinda wish it had more humour like the above three shows. It is trying so much to be serious...
The Office will start with its 8th Season (wooah? already? So many years gone by..) without Steve Carrell.
Can't wait to see how this turns out, though from experience, when TV shows lose their main character/one of the principal actors, it usually goes downhill...
Will it survive long?
I propose more Rainn Wilson to boost the ratings!
MythBusters started its 2011 season a bit earlier this summer.
It's still remains one of the best programs on TV ever!
They've been exploring fan requests (and interaction) more and more over the years.
As for cartoons, Lucasfilm promise a great fun new season for Star Wars: Clone Wars!
The thick of the war is happening! And Anakin is slowly shaping into a Sith!
Also, Admiral Ackbar cameon in the new episodes!
The Looney Tunes Show is going through some solid episodes lately. I've loved the show since day one, let the (fewer each day) haters hate. As a long time huge Looney Tunes fan, I've been through various interpretations of characters, be it the lazy Hannah Barbera-ysh episodes in the 70s. And there's been worse, much woooorse *cough*Baby Looney Tunes/Loonatics Unleashed*cough*.
This cartoon kinda features them as we'd seen them a bit in the movie Space Jam, living in the suburbs, altogether.
Despite the tone or the formula of the episodes, they're splendidly in-characters. With a Daffy as silly, crazy and jerk-y as ever.
The musical parts have been okay. Some pretty good, and other bad. Though I can't like the CGi 3D segments of Wile E. Coyote... I tried.. But it's so bad.. at least it doesn't ruin the episodes much and are pretty forgettable.
Not much is known about the upcoming 2nd season of Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes. Only that it will be more influenced by the upcoming Joss Whedon Avengers live movie.
Such as Iron Man and Captain America costumes getting redesigned, Nick Fury turning into Samuel L. Jackson.. Oh and Skrulls.
And more Avengers will join the roster, it seems Miss Marvel and Vision will be part of the team.
The amazing relaunched Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated is taking a hiatus, they will take a year to produce new episodes. It wasn't canceled! :)
"And traps will be better~"
I love ThunderCats!
Wait, no... I actually never liked much the ThunderCats. But since this new cartoon, I can proudly say, I'm now a fan of the series!
The episodes are already running currently since it started not long ago. Love the mix of scifi and magic, it really shows the ones that are making it at Warner Bros animations were long time fans, unlike the people behind the badly animated/written original "toys cartoon" that was the classic. They're even making scene of most of the concepts behind the series!
Young Justice: Invasion, that is the name of the second season of Young Justice, which not much is known of at this moment, and it will air in early 2012.
There's gonna be a brand-new Spider-man cartoon, called (and adapted from) Ultimate Spider-man.
Yes, another retelling of his early days as Spidey. I wish they had continued the previous "Spectacular" cartoon.
Oh well.
And it won't follow the current Ultimate Spider-man comics, nor the original one either, but it's its own original product (though following some ideas from here and there). And yes, it was "improvised" as marketing material for the upcoming rebooted movie so it will air in 2012 alongside the movie.
(and it looks like Spidey will be working with/along the help of SHIELD's Nick Fury!?!)
Don't miss out next year the all new Green Lantern: The Animated Series!
Part of me wants to skip it, it looks bland, generic, ugly CGi models, badly animated, etc..
But it's also GL, so I want to give it at least a little look. It does look straightly aimed to kids moreso than other comic book adaptations usually.
Still, it looks pretty bad at the moment, hope they can polish this before it airs! (right now, it looks worse than some 32-bits games cinematics...)
Futurama's finishing its 6th Season today actually!
Season 7 will start around somewhere in 2012.
The longest running show ever, The Simpsons, will start Season 23 later this month!
Some hate it, some love it, both still continue to watch it after all this time for some reason...
I'd say, we're already been through the worst episodes, around Season 20 when it got a bit boring and repetitive. But these last two seasons have been great, much so than some earlier ones.
They made me love the Simpsons all over again with some very original and fun episodes!
Also, don't miss next year the historic 500th episode!! (Holy Cow!!! That much already?!)
Robot Chicken will continue airing in October! Finally! Not soon enough!
Why do they make all those long breaks in-between...wait! Oh, yes. Stop motion, it looks beautiful but takes a lot of time...
Currently missing from the lineup are the Venture Bros. They announced the show had been renewed for seasons 5 and 6, with pre-production to begin in June 2011 though. But no news regarding any dates so far.
Also there's that other CGi animated DC cartoon, an upcoming new "Batman: Animated Series". No news on that front though.
And that is all...
That's already a lot if you ask me :P
So, what will YOU watch this season? Any of those above might interest you? What other shows will you follow, any good recommendations?
Make yourself heard, drop me a word!
