2011-2012 New Show Reviews, Part IV

I did it! We did it! We've finally reached the conclusion of my reviews of shows that debuted during the 2011-2012 season. By the end of this post, you'll learn which new show was my favorite. But before that, make sure to watch the above clip. It's noteworthy for several reasons:

1) It's a hilarious Ryan Lochte impression. I give it three swims.

2) It legitimizes the Go On joke I made in part 1 of this series.

3) It shows that the work of a TV reviewer is never done. I've already got about a half dozen pilots under my belt (including "Monkey Hospital") that will be covered if I repeat this conceit next year.

Anyway, on to the fourth and final installment! (You can read part 1 using the link above, part 2 is here, and part 3 is here.)

Don't Trust the B---- In Apartment 23, ABC

Episodes Watched: 1 of 7

Status for 2012-2013: Renewed for second season
For those who like: This site (James van Der Beek was the original Ryan Gosling)
Comments: This show's title has so many problems. It's obviously inappropriate, but even worse, it's too long for anyone to remember or mention to their friends. But the lone episode I watched made me laugh more than almost any other new sitcom, in no small part because of the presence of Dawson playing himself (ok, JVDB playing himself--but there were numerous Dawson references in the pilot).

Smash, NBC

Episodes Watched: 15 of 15

Status for 2012-2013: Renewed for second season
For those who like: Glee, but wish the singers didn't have to pretend to go to class once every six episodes
Comments: The singing in this show is pretty good. And the numbers from the fictional Marilyn Monroe musical the show revolves around actually seem like they could be part of a real Broadway show. The main problem is, I hate pretty much every character on the show. The catty gay chorus member is a delight, but I can't really stand anyone else. A big part of that is the smugness; everyone seems to think they're so great because they're pursuing a career in show business, and certainly seems to think they're better and more interesting than those who aren't in "the biz." I met several people like that when I lived in New York. I didn't like those people.

The X Factor, FOX

Episodes Watched: 26 of 26

Status for 2012-2013: Renewed for second season
For those who like: Singing competitions with non-spinning judges' chairs
Comments: There's enough differences from Idol here that it should be interesting (no age limit, groups performing along with soloists, the judges also acting as coaches, etc.), but really, it's just Idol in the autumn. Season 2 has already started, and they've ditched the charisma-less season 1 host and upgraded the judges' panel. But it's still just a singing competition where the performers get criticized for both poor musical arrangements and for not "making a song their own," depending on which route they went that week.

Alcatraz, FOX

Episodes Watched: 13 of 13

Status for 2012-2013: Canceled
For those who like: J.J. Abrams, time travel (ok, time travel is basically implied at this point in a J.J. Abrams project)
Comments: So, I had some negative things to say about the last two shows, even though they placed pretty high on my list. That's mainly an indictment of the low quality of shows I subjected myself to in the last year (again, I am a TV addict). But from this point on, the shows on the list are ones I actually liked.

Alcatraz has a pretty unsatisfying ending, but that's because they were hoping for a second season. I was into the premise and curious how it would play out. Plus it had Hugo from Lost and Jurassic Park's Sam Neill, both experienced time travelers (kind of). If this show ends up on Netflix you should check it out.

Napoleon Dynamite, FOX

Episodes Watched: 6 of 6

Status for 2012-2013: Canceled
For those who like: Tater tots, guys with nunchuk skills, chatting with babes online, etc.
Comments: This show vastly exceeded my expectations. If you liked the movie you'll almost certainly enjoy the cartoon. Nearly all of the original actors provide the voices for their animated doppelgangers, and each episode features a couple of lines or sight gags or whatever lifted directly from the film. The show was delightfully quirky, as was the animation style, nailing little touches like Napoleon's slumped posture as he runs. I'm disappointed this one didn't get renewed.

Once Upon A Time, ABC

Episodes Watched: 22 of 22

Status for 2012-2013: Renewed for second season
For those who like: The Disney version of fairy tales
Comments: And I often mean that literally. Not only is OUAT much lighter, more fun, and more family-friendly than the similarly-themed Grimm, but they also use whatever version of the character fits best with the show, whether it's from the original source, the Disney movie version, or something else. And they cram all the fairy tale narratives into one community in a way that Shrek never even attempted. But it mostly works, and aside from the annoying little boy, nearly all of the characters are interesting and many are likeable. Plus, there's a number of crossovers (actors, Apollo bars, etc.) with Lost, one of my all-time favorite shows.

And my favorite new TV show of the 2011-2012 season...

New Girl, FOX

Episodes Watched: 24 of 24

Status for 2012-2013: Renewed for second season
For those who like: Quirky girls (and quirky guys too!)
Comments: My love for Zooey Deschanel was born after seeing Elf and solidified after The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. I knew I would be watching this show to see her, even if it was awful. Thankfully, it was actually really entertaining. It actually only took a few episodes for Zooey's Jess to drop anywhere from the second to the fifth most interesting main character, depending on the episode. Her male roommates (especially Schmidt) steal the show every time. They could literally have a different "new girl" move in every season, and I'd keep watching. (But I still love Zooey.)

That's it! Finally done. If you read all the way to the end of any of these posts, let alone all four, then you like TV almost as much as me. And I thank you.

2011-2012 New Show Reviews, Part III

Back with more reviews of the 2011-2012 TV shows I watched at least one episode of! Use these as your guide when scouring Netflix or Amazon for a new thing to get into.

This is part 3 (part 1 is here, part 2 here). In case it hasn't been clear, I'm only reviewing shows that debuted between August 2011 and August 2012--this doesn't include all the "veteran" shows that I watch. Yes, I watch a lot of TV. But as these posts show, I do it at least in part as a public service to my readers. Plus, I still exercise at least some self-control--check out this list of 2011-2012 shows I was willing to give the old one-episode tryout, but chose not to:

GCB, Man Up!, Revenge, Scandal, Suburgatory, Work It (ABC); Bunheads (ABC Family); 2 Broke Girls, How To Be A Gentleman (CBS); Ringer (The CW); Anger Management (FX); Girls, Life's Too Short, Veep (HBO); Are You There, Chelsea?, Awake, Bent, Best Friends Forever (NBC); Homeland (Showtime); Men At Work (TBS); Dallas (TNT)

See? I'm a model of restraint. (I also don't want to pay for premium cable channels.) Anyway, let's get on with the reviews! I'm still listing them in ascending order of quality, which means that by the end of this installment we'll finally reach some shows that were semi-decent.

Duets, ABC

Episodes Watched: 9 of 9
Status for 2012-2013: Don't know (though it's still featured on ABC's website)
For those who like: Singing competitions but don't like watching the auditions; incomprehensible scoring systems
Comments: I shouldn't really say I "watched" all 9 episodes; I mostly just had it on as background noise while I was working. But even if I was giving it my undivided attention, I still don't think the way the first few rounds of eliminations would've made any sense. The highlight of the short season was definitely learning that Robin Thicke sounds just like his daddy.

Grimm, NBC

Episodes Watched: 6 of 22
Status for 2012-2013: Renewed for second season
For those who like: The non-Disney versions of fairy tales
Comments: This show lives up to its name. It's much more dark and violent than the other new fairy tale-themed show, Once Upon A Time (which I'll cover in Part 4), and therefore much less to my liking. I also didn't find the lead actor very likable, or very convincing as a hero. This is either the best bad show or the worst decent show in these rankings, I can't decide.

Person of Interest, CBS

Episodes Watched: 1 of 23
Status for 2012-2013: Renewed for second season
For those who like: Superhero franchise mashups
Comments: This show is kind of like "Batman meets Bourne," except in this case it's the Alfred-type who has all the money. It's a much more exciting version of Touch (people with special, unexplained powers, 9/11 connections, etc.). The premise was at least somewhat intriguing, but the presence of Michael Emerson (Ben Linus from Lost) ensured I'd be checking it out. (The other star is Jim Caviezel, which added another level to the strangely long list of connections between Lost and the movie Frequencey. May have to blog about that someday.) If this had been on any other network, I probably would've watched the whole season. But CBS doesn't put their shows on Hulu, and they make watching anything on their own website a major chore (ultra-long commercials, frequent streaming interruptions, etc.). As a result, the only things I watch on CBS are Survivor and March Madness, even though they air several shows I'm pretty sure I'd like (including Person of Interest).

Pan Am, ABC

Episodes Watched: 4 of 14
Status for 2012-2013: Canceled
For those who like: Aviation and sexism
Comments: Like Playboy Club, Pan Am tried to capitalize on the nostalgic popularity of shows like Mad Men, while seemingly overlooking the fact that setting a show in the '60s doesn't automatically mean your show will have good writing or acting. Still, Pan Am was a much better and more interesting show than Playboy Club (I work in the airline industry, so it's quite possible I'm a little biased in favor of Pan Am), and I hope to see the rest of the episodes at some point.

Missing, ABC

Episodes Watched: 3 of 10
Status for 2012-2013: Canceled
For those who like: James Bond, but wish he was an American housewife
Comments: Ashley Judd looks amazing, even when she's trying to look "normal," whether in this show (where she attempts to realistically portray a mother of a college-age son) or in real life. But the plotting and action sequences in this show are ridiculously unrealistic. There are several scenes in the handful of episodes I watched that make some of the more outlandish moments of 24 seem plausible. As I'm typing these comments, I'm realizing I probably ranked Missing too high. But I'm not going to change it now.

Terra Nova, FOX

Episodes Watched: 1 of 11
Status for 2012-2013: Canceled
For those who like: Dystopian dinosaur adventures
Comments: I didn't think the pilot was as bad as the reviewers were saying, or as the commercials made it seem like it would be. The special effects were good. That said, it clearly wasn't good enough to keep me watching.

Up All Night, NBC

Episodes Watched: 8 of 24
Status for 2012-2013: Renewed for second season (just 13 episodes)
For those who like: Mad About You
Comments: It's sad that a cast featuring hilarious people that I've loved in past shows (especially Will Arnett and Maya Rudolph) is so bland. It's a fine show, but there's absolutely nothing remarkable or memorable about it. Up All Night would've probably been a huge hit with audiences and critics in the '80s or '90s, but I expect more humor and creativity from my sitcoms in 2012.

Check back soon for the final installment, including my favorite new show of the season!

2011-2012 New Show Reviews, Part II

Here's the second of what will be at least three installments of my reviews of all shows that debuted during the 2011-2012 television season that I watched at least one episode of.

Part I covered the new cable shows I tried out. Click here to read it.

Now, on to the new shows from the big four broadcasting networks. (I don't count The CW; I usually forget it even exists, and I don't think I've watched a new show on that network since The Search For the Next Doll.) (Yes, I watched that show. I watch a lot of TV. And Melissa Smith was robbed.)

As with Part I, I'll start with the worst show I watched and work my way up the list. Here we go.

I Hate My Teenage Daughter, FOX

Episodes Watched: 5 of 7
Status for 2012-2013: Canceled
For those who like: Southern accents, regardless of how inane the words are that are spoken with said accent
Comments: I seem to have already blocked out what makes this show awful. I don't really have anything to say about it. Just don't bother watching it.

Free Agents, NBC

Episodes Watched: 4 of 8 (only 4 were broadcast, but the others were made available online)
Status for 2012-2013: Canceled
For those who like: Herman's Head
Comments: Like Herman's Head, Agents is a show featuring Hank Azaria (who does Apu, Moe, Wiggum, and dozens of other voices on The Simpsons) about a bunch of single coworkers who are obsessed with sex. Unlike the underrated Head, Free Agents doesn't have a single likeable character, and the jokes are pretty weak too.

Charlie's Angels, ABC

Episodes Watched: 1 of 8 (only 7 episodes were broadcast)
Status for 2012-2013: Canceled
For those who like: Female spy shows, but think VIP was a better take on the genre than the original Angels
Comments: I have never watched Friday Night Lights (clearly, I'm too busy watching inferior shows), so while I had seen Minka Kelly before, and liked what I saw, I had never heard her speak. I should've quit while I was ahead, and left this show as unseen as the titular Charlie.

Allen Gregory, FOX

Episodes Watched: 7 of 7
Status for 2012-2013: Canceled
For those who like: Family Guy, but wish it was less funny and more mean-spirited
Comments: The less said about this Jonah Hill-produced animated stinker the better. Let's move along.

Whitney, NBC

Episodes Watched: 7 of 22
Status for 2012-2013: Renewed for a second season
For those who like: Sitcoms about three young, hip guys and three young, hip women who are friends, regardless if the show is funny or not
Comments: I enjoy the standup of the two leads, but they're not funny on this show. The lack of humor is exacerbated by the incessant laugh track. I don't watch the CBS sitcoms, so I'm unused to laugh tracks (besides Seinfeld reruns, but my brain seems to know it's an old show so it seems appropriate to have the background LOLs); it was jarring to hear, especially since nearly all the jokes fell flat.

Touch, FOX

Episodes Watched: 3 of 13
Status for 2012-2013: Renewed for a second season
For those who like: Rain Man; in fact, they like it so much they wish someone made a humorless prequel
Comments: It's bad enough that this show is boring. But it also made Jack Bauer into a powerless figure, and I won't stand for that.

Playboy Club, NBC

Episodes Watched: 3 of 3
Status for 2012-2013: Canceled
For those who like: Mad Men, but get distracted by things like good acting and interesting storylines
Comments: Yeah, I watched this show. The word "Playboy" gave this show an undeserved stigma (well, maybe semi-deserved), but it shouldn't have been as controversial as it was. KSL, Utah's NBC affiliate refused to air it, even though it's not any more immoral then sitcoms like Whitney or any more violent than shows like Law & Order, which KSL has aired without any problems. Not that Playboy Club is a family-friendly show by any stretch (I watch a lot of shows that are at least a little "inappropriate," but that's a topic for another day)--it's just not any more family-unfriendly than many other shows, and I think it's a bit hypocritical to ban it.

That being said, the show itself wasn't very good. They definitely tried to recreate the cool nostalgia of Mad Men, but the characters and plots just weren't interesting. Despite its short run, it was still able to produce the second-most cringeworthy line of the 2011-2012 TV season: Hugh Hefner's original PC was in Chicago, and that's where the show is set. Only club members with keys were granted access. In one episode, a character says they got into the club by borrowing a key from Abe Vroman. Yes, THAT Abe Froman from Chicago. Blech.

Last Man Standing, ABC

Episodes Watched: 2 of 24
Status for 2012-2013: Renewed for a second season
For those who like: Home Improvement (duh)
Comments: And the most cringeworthy line of the season? In the opening scene of the Last Man Standing pilot, Tim Allen walks in the door and shouts "I'm back!" His character had just come back from a long work trip, but the implication was obvious--Tim Allen had returned to conquer TV again! So annoying. It tainted my view of the show (which is quite accurately described as Home Improvement but with daughters instead of sons, and no Wilson) so much that I never went back to it after the first day (when they aired back-to-back episodes). Which is a shame, because I always like Nancy Travis.

That's good for now. Back soon for Part III!

2011-2012 New Show Reviews, Part I

Hey, did you know Matthew Perry has a new sitcom on NBC? If you watched even 10 minutes of their primetime Olympic coverage you do! The ads were unavoidable. They even interrupted the event coverage one night for a "full episode preview" of Perry's new show, Go On (or, as I like to call it, Goon). I watched it, and though it was a blatant attempt to rip off Community and market it to a more mainstream audience, it was better than anticipated.

Go On was the first major new show of the 2012-2013 TV season to debut (it's official premiere was Monday night). This means that the 2011-2012 season is over, and many of last year's new shows will be making their way to Netflix or DVD soon, if they're not available already. As a public service, I'm going to give (hopefully) brief reviews of every show to debut between August 2011 and August 2012 that I watched at least one episode of. (I've had intentions of doing this since at least last December; hopefully I'll remember the shows well enough that I haven't seen since last fall.)

This is definitely going to require multiple parts, though at this point I'm not sure how many. It will depend on how wordy I get about each show. If you didn't already know I watch a LOT of TV, you're about to. I'll limit Part I to the new cable shows I watched, listed in order from worst to best.

Brand X With Russell Brand, FX
Episodes Watched: 2 of 6
Status for 2012-2013: Seven new episodes ordered
For those who like: I don't know...leaving the TV on after Louie ends?
Comments: Ugh. I've never been a Brand fan; his Saturday Night Live appearance was ok, but his stand-up and his VMA hosting gigs were awful. On Brand X, Brand has an intentionally humorless sidekick (interesting choice for a comedy show) who feeds the host statistics he just Googled, and Brand riffs on them, inevitably making vulgar, unfunny jokes. Stay away from this one.

Baseball Wives, VH1
Episodes Watched: 4 of 8
Status for 2012-2013: Canceled
For those who like: Basketball Wives, but wish it wasn't so, um, urban.
Comments: This is the first show in the "housewives" genre that I've ever watched, and despite my admitted TV addiction, I'm confident it will be the last. Most of those other shows took place in potentially exciting locales like New York, Miami, Los Angeles, etc. Baseball Wives is set in Scottsdale, Arizona. That's strike one. The term "baseball wives" is used pretty loosely, too. The cast members are all either married to or divorced from retired players, except for one, who used to sleep with a current major-leaguer but was never anything close to his wife. That's strike two. And the show is soooo boring. In the confessional interviews you'll hear things like "I invited Anna to lunch to discuss the comment Erika made at our lunch last week." NOTHING happens on this show! That's strike three. Total whiff by Baseball Wives.

Full disclosure: the main reason I gave this show a try was because of Anna Benson. She gained notoriety about a decade ago for her outlandish comments and some racy pictures that littered the Internet. She became a bigger star than her husband, a mediocre pitcher. I thought she would make the show entertaining, or at least be nice to look at. Wrong on both counts. She's a horrible, rude person, and when I finally heard her voice for the first time, any potential physical allure disappeared as well. She sounds like a 80-year-old woman who's smoked three packs of cigarettes a day for 60 years.

Key & Peele, Comedy Central

Episodes Watched: 8 of 8
Status for 2012-2013: Renewed for 2nd season
For those who like: In Living Color
Comments: It's ok sketch comedy from a couple of former MADtv cast members. A couple of laughs per episode, but no single sketch or character that was really memorable. I like the genre, so I'll probably keep watching when the new episodes start up later this month.

Totally Biased With W. Kamau Bell, FX

Episodes Watched: 4 of 4
Status for 2012-2013: Unknown; the original order of 6 episodes hasn't even been completed yet
For those who like: Political commentary with a sprinkling of humor
Comments: There's a racial bent to everything on this show, and sometimes it's pretty forced. I love jokes about politics and other potentially divisive issues as much as anyone, but there actually have to be, you know, jokes. Just being indignant about something or insulting those whose views differ from yours is not the same as telling jokes. There's some humor in Bell's monologues, but not enough. He's done a couple of "man on the street" segments that have been pretty entertaining. Biased is a HUGE step up from Brand X, but it's definitely no Daily Show.

The Newsroom, HBO

Episodes Watched: 1 of 10
Status for 2012-2013: Renewed for a second season
For those who like: Every other Aaron Sorkin project
Comments: HBO surprisingly made the full pilot available on YouTube, otherwise I probably wouldn't have ever seen this show. I think I was a little prejudiced by some negative reviews I read before watching the episode, but a lot of the criticisms leveled against the show are true: it's at least a little pompous, the characters' ultra-competence at their jobs is incongruous with their failures in relationships, etc. But I love TV, and I love shows about TV, so I kinda liked it. Not enough to subscribe to HBO, but if they want to put more episodes online for free, I'll watch.

Pop-Up Video, VH1

Episodes Watched: Don't know for sure, but probably at least 50 of the 60 new episodes
Status for 2012-2013: The new season is already underway
For those who like: Music videos, and those who LOVE trivial tidbits about the production of said videos
Comments: This is a reboot of the show that aired from 1996-2002. Most of the "popped" videos are from the years after the show's original run stopped, but occasionally they'll slip in some "classic" '90s videos from the likes of De La Soul, Foo Fighters, or Goo Goo Dolls. I love music videos and I love trivia (especially cheeky trivia like the bits given here), so this show is tailor-made for me. It's always a fun half-hour.