As the resident TV expert I watch a lot of shows, and this being the week of premieres I thought I would let everyone know about all the new shows. This isn’t just shows which started this week but with in the last month or so.
First we’ll start off with an absolute gem. The Big C started on August 16th on Showtime and it stars Laura Linney as Cathy Jamison, a mother who has just found out she has cancer. The show is a dark comedy so it goes through the moments in which a mother who used to be calm and collected is now a bit stir crazy from the prognosis. It feels sort of like the younger sister of Breaking Bad which should let you know the quality of the episodes. So far 5 episodes have aired so if you can get a hold of it and catch up you should.
You would think having Chuck Lorre as Executive Producer means that a show is really good, after all The Big Bang Theory is doing really well right now, but what we don’t hear is he’s also Executive Producer of Two and a Half Men. Well now he’s doing the same thing on another CBS sitcom called Mike and Molly. Mike is an overweight police officer and Molly is an overweight fourth grade teacher and they meet at overeaters anonymous and then start dating. This show is a laugh track sitcom so don’t expect too much from it. The writing was better then I expected and I did find myself chuckling a couple of times, but with so many better shows out there I wouldn’t spend much time on this one. Only if you’re hankering to have another random sitcom while you play video games. But if that’s the case perhaps you should watch the much better…
Melissa & Joey which premiered august 17th on ABC family stars Melissa Joan Hart (Clarissa Explains it all, Sabrina the Teenage Witch) as a Ohio council woman and aunt and caretaker of two children and Joey Lawrence (Blossom) as her live in nanny. This is also a laugh track comedy, but for some reason this show is just much better then a lot of other laugh track comedies. It has the feel of much of the early sitcoms of the mid 90s which may be why it has such an appeal. Still, if you have an aversion to laugh tracks don’t pick this one up, but if you are looking for a decent comedy to watch while playing video games, choose this one over Mike and Molly.
Then there is a 10 minute animated variety show on Cartoon Network simply called MAD. It’s created by the writers of Mad Magazine and has the exact type of humor you would expect from the pages of Mad. Which means it’s not very funny and it only goes into fart humor for their spoofs, for instance the first episode had an Avatar spoof titled Avaturd. The only people who will like this show are 13 year old boys and people who for some reason are still reading Mad Magazine.
Do you like Glee? Did you really like Bring It On? Do you think they should turn Bring It On into a show which follows the same basic premise of Glee? Then Hellcats is for you! The new CW show about a group college cheerleading group who must win at nationals or their program will no longer be funded and their new star Cheerleader who only joined because she needs the scholarship money even though she’s actually pretty good, but she is rebellious. This show will have a lot of new songs and lots of cool dancing, and if you have a secret passion for Bring It On, then you should watch this show. The production on the first episode was actually quite decent, but I don’t expect it to keep up, they just need to hook the base audience and then they’ll go on forever. So if any of that just rang true to you then you might want to check this show out.
Chase is the first of the new Monday night NBC dramas and it’s about a team of US Marshals as they chase the bad guys. The first episode literally starts with a chase scene. The episode was better then I expected but I expected it to be awful. It is a police procedure drama and those tend to do well. Plus the lead actress Kelli Giddish is quite hot and it also has Amaury Nolasco who was Sucre, the second best character on Prison Break. If your life is in a void now that Law and Order is over or you need more executive produced by Jerry Bruckheimer in your life then Chase is for you.
And finally, What is…. The Event? The advertising for this show has been ridiculous. So I was slightly excited to find out what the event was but was sorely let down by the first episode. They tried to make it intriguing by showing different perspectives of events occurring but in doing so we watched the same scenes over and over and over again. Finally at the end of the episode with about 20 seconds left an “event” took place which makes the show “sci-fi” and gives a decent cliffhanger to tune in next week, but it’s not enough to make up for the bad things that went on in the 40 minutes previous. Expect this show to go the way of Flash Forward, cancelled after a season.