What should I watch this fall?

[dougo]

One of the advantages of TiVo is that it's easy to never watch any commercials. One of the disadvantages is that it's hard to hear about new TV shows. Last year I was lucky to find out about "Firefly" and "Boomtown" early enough to start watching from more or less the beginning, but so far I haven't heard about any new shows this season that I want to watch. So, what new shows are you planning to watch, or have already started watching? I'm mainly only interested in new shows, because I've pretty much made up my mind about existing shows, but feel free to make your case for an older show, especially if it's changing significantly this season (for example, I may give "The Practice" another chance because I generally like James Spader). For reference, here's a list of shows I'm already planning to watch, roughly in descending order of interest:

• Survivor: Pearl Islands (arrr!)
• The West Wing
• Friends
• Frasier
• Ed
• Boomtown
• 24
• Curb Your Enthusiasm
• That 70s Show
• Good Morning Miami
• Grounded For Life
• King of Queens
• Will & Grace
• King of the Hill
• The Simpsons

Since I have multiple recording devices, scheduling conflicts are generally not a problem. Also, I've left off some shows that are already mid-season, like "Monk", "Dinner For Five", and "Queer Eye For The Straight Guy", and ones that I don't think are starting soon, like "Six Feet Under" and "The Sopranos". But I like all those too. Plus, the late night talk shows, media watch shows ("Fox News Watch", "Reliable Sources"), etc... Maybe I should have just given my entire TiVo Season Pass list, but, enh, some other time.

Comments

[dougo.livejournal.com]

I tried watching Gilmore Girls once; the promos made it sound like it was (a rerun of) the first episode, but it might have been some sort of flashback episode or something, because it felt like I was missing too much context to understand what was going on. And it wasn't otherwise engaging enough to keep me past the first commercial break. Should I give it more chances? What is the appeal for you? (Or anyone else reading who might want to chime in.)

As for Good Morning Miami, it's sort of on the bubble, depending on where the plot goes this season (its second). It started out pretty good but clunky, then they tinkered with it midseason and it got better in some ways and worse in some other ways. I guess that's not a helpful description... Umm, I'd say if you like Will & Grace you might like it: same producers, same sort of punchy dialogue (e.g. lots of amusingly over-the-top put-downs), and the same mix of comedy to drama (about 80-20). (Where by "drama" I just mean lines that aren't meant to get a laugh, but advance the love-triangle plot.) Plus Suzanne Pleshette, in a sort of extension of her guest appearances on W&G as Karen's gruff bartender mother; here she's the lead male character's no-nonsense grandmother with a gambling problem. The main weakness is probably the utterly unengaging blandness of said lead male character, although he was starting to develop a semblance of a personality by the end of last season. There's also a lot of contrived subplots that are only there to give lines to the characters who aren't involved with the main storyline, but that's pretty much par for the course for ensemble sitcoms these days. Anyway, I'd say it's a slightly-above-average NBC sitcom, so if those appeal, give it a try. But I apologize if they turn out to have tinkered with it too much this season and broke it.

[jfb.livejournal.com]

I like Gilmore Girls a lot--if the episode you saw is the one I'm thinking of (flashbacks about Lorelai getting pregnant), it wasn't a great introduction, and you should try it again sometime.

I find the lead characters and most of the supporting ones appealing, but mostly I like the fast-paced, reference-stuffed dialogue--even little things like when Lorelai asked Rory if she was becoming a "soc". I liked that it was understood that the two of them had seen The Outsiders and could use its lingo casually, and I liked that they assumed that some of their audience would get it too, and that those who didn't get it would be okay and would stick around for the next line.