Now that we’re a few weeks into the fall tv season and I’ve had a chance to watch at least 1 episode of all the shows I plan on watching I figure I’d do my annual update on what I’ve tried and what I’ll probably keep watching.

Sundays

Brooklyn Nine-Nine

Brooklyn Nine-Nine is now in it’s second season and is probably one of the funniest shows on tv right now. It must be the perfect vehicle for Andy Samburg because I don’t actually find his annoying manchild persona annoying in this show. I’m particularly liking the arc they having going on right now with guest star Kyra Sedgwick playing a foil to Andre Braugher’s Captain Holt.

Homeland

I don’t know why I am still watching this show. I should have quit shortly into season 2 after I realized they had no idea what they were doing after they failed to have Brody follow through on his terrorist plot. This show should really have been like the show An Honorable Woman that aired on IFC this summer. That was designed as a 1 season series and it was great. The first season of Homeland was great, but they have been floundering ever since then. I had even somehow blocked out a season in my mind because I was convinced this was only the third season, but turns out it’s the fourth. I should just walk away, but probably won’t unless my husband says he doesn’t want to watch it anymore.

The Affair

I’ve only seen one episode of this new Showtime series so far. I enjoyed it, but I’m guessing unless the ratings start to get much better this will be the only season that we see. As is obvious from the title of the show it’s about a couple who had an affair. It’s now some point in the future after the affair seems to have ended and they are both being interviewed by the police about their relationship. We don’t know why yet. The show is framed so that the first half of the show is from his perspective and then the second half is the same stretch of events filled in with her story and from her perspective. So it’s kind of like a He Said, She Said conceit. It was interesting for the first episode, but I’m not sure how well it will work over an entire season. I guess we’ll find out.

Mondays

Big Bang Theory

For as old as this show is at this point it’s amazing how good it still is. It’s still fairly reliable entertainment. I think they helped themselves a lot by adding in the additional female characters a few seasons back and then dropping Raj’s inability to talk to women unless he was drunk, a joke which had long since run it’s course.

Gotham

I am not sold on this show yet. I really wanted to like it, but so far I can’t tell what it really wants to be. I suspect it’s mostly going the way of a crime procedural set in Gotham, which I’m not really into. I prefer my dramas to have overarching stories. This does a little bit, but I’m not sure that I care about whatever that might be. I’ll stick with it awhile longer and see what I think as the season progresses.

Sleepy Hollow

Sleepy Hollow is still as completely wackadoo in its second season as it was in the first. I’m enjoying John Noble as the Horseman of War. I also have not yet tired of Tom Mison’s Ichabod being incredulous about how modern life operates. That’s my favorite part of every episode. I mostly don’t have any idea what is going on in this show half the time, but it’s still fun to watch so I don’t mind.

Jane the Virgin

This is one of the most promising new shows of the season. I’ve only seen one episode so far, but the pilot was excellent so I have high hopes for the show. It’s based on a Venezuelan telenova. Jane is the daughter of a woman who got pregnant as a teenager and as such has always been taught to be the good girl and to not have sex lest she too suffer her mother’s fate. However, she winds up getting pregnant anyway when her gynecologist accidentally inseminates her instead of the patient who was supposed to get it. Turns out that it was the sperm of her first kiss, who has since had cancer hence the frozen sperm. This is now his last chance to actually have a child of his own. It’s all very crazy and soapy, but so far it’s done in a way that’s a lot of fun.

Castle

At this point Castle’s best years are definitely behind it, but it’s still good enough to keep watching for now.

Tuesdays

Selfie

I really like both Karen Gillan and John Cho, so despite the tepid reviews for this show I decided to give it a chance. I’ve now watched 3 episodes and am ready to give up on it. I probably would have quit after this last one, but my husband wants to give it a few more. It’s sort of a modern day My Fair Lady with John Cho’s character teaching Karen Gillan to stop relying on her internet life and actually learn to function as a human being in the real world. Her character is entirely unbelievable and cartoon-like, but not in a good way. There’s no way she could possible act like she does and really still have a job or anyone willing to speak to her. Plus they really need to let her just use her real hair and get rid of the awful wig. I don’t know if the pilot was shot before she shaved all her hair off for Guardians, though the timeline of that seems unlikely. I guess for some reason they just really want her to have the long hair she had before, and can’t possibly in real life because there hasn’t been enough time to grow it back. However long it is at this point I’m sure it’s better than the dumb wig.

Flash

The Flash is a spin-off from Arrow, which just caught up on in order to start watching with the new season. It’s obviously based on the DC comic. I’m not a comic book reader, so I have no idea how it actually compares to that. So far I’m enjoying it though. It seems like they’re going to do several crossover episodes with Arrow, so I’m glad I’m watching that as well.

New Girl

This show has been hit and miss from it’s very inception. Some weeks I find it very funny. Other weeks I do not. Even though I didn’t actually want Nick and Jess to get together in the first place, I actually really liked what they did with that relationship so I’m not actually happy that they got scared and made them break up last season. Now it just seems ridiculous that all of these people would still be living in an apartment together.

Mindy Project

This show was kind of a mess in the first season, but it has slowly and steadily gotten better until I really felt they finally found their footing last season. This season has been pretty entertaining so far, so it seems they’ve hit their stride. Hopefully they can keep it up.

Wednesdays

Arrow

As I mentioned above, I watched the first two seasons of Arrow over the summer in order to be caught up to this new season. I’m really glad I did because it’s one of my favorite shows right now. I’m a little bummed by who got killed off in the first episode of the season because I really liked the character, but I’m also not surprised. I’m not a huge fan of the flashback part of every episode. Sometimes they serve a purpose, but sometimes they feel like they’re just there because that’s how they’ve decided to frame the show so they have to come up with something to put in the flashback. There’s little suspense in them because you obviously already know where these people end up. And speaking of bad wigs, oh my god I don’t know why they decided Oliver should wear a dead rat on his head for the flashbacks, but that is the worst wig I have ever seen in my life. It makes them even worse. Even though Laurel has so far been the biggest wet blanket of a character and my vote for who should have been killed off, I’m hoping this season will make her more interesting as she’s obviously on the road to taking over the role of the Black Canary. I’m also like Brandon Routh on the show so far and look forward to the inevitable love triangle between him, Oliver, and Felicity.

Modern Family

I’m still watching Modern Family because I think it’s an ok sit-com, but I do enjoy it less than I once did. Partly I think because it’s not as good as it was in its early seasons, but moreso because I don’t think it deserves the domination that it’s had at the Emmy’s the last few years. There are far better shows out there at this point, and my annoyance at it winning everything undeservedly in my opinion makes me dislike the show more.

Red Band Society

I’m not at all sure why I am still watching this show. It is not good and the ratings agree with me. I think I’m still watching because I keep waiting for Fox to cancel it. Seems like they might go ahead and play out the original 13 episode order, but I can’t imagine they’ll pick up the back half of the season for this show. It’s about a group of teenagers who apparently live long term in a hospital for various illnesses. It makes no sense on any level. None of them actually seem that sick, and the plot lines are all over the place. I’ve seen many people compare it to Glee without the singing, which I think is accurate. The problem is that the singing was mostly the only good thing about Glee. Also the voice over kid  on this show needs to go. It’s really annoying and a premise they should have dropped after the first episode. Pretty soon they’ll all be gone though I expect and I’m not sure I’ll even be around to say a proper goodbye.

Black-ish

Black-ish is one of the better new sit-coms of the season so far. It’s about a father who coming from a poor black family feels like his kids don’t understand their black roots now that they are growing up in an upper class environment so he tries to teach them the things he thinks they’re missing out on even though they don’t necessarily fit into his kids’ actual lives. It seems like they’re not going to rigidly stick to that conceit though as the most recent episode really just had more to to do with family and gender stuff than anything related to race or black culture. I don’t really care what they focus on as long as it keeps being funny.

Nashville

Now in its third season I still enjoy watching the soapy look at the country music scene in Nashville. I like the musical performances. I’m also enjoying the addition of Laura Benanti to the cast as Sadie Stone this season because I like her. I also think it’s good that they finally wrote out Rayna’s father and sister because their storylines were always boring and felt disconnected from what was going in the rest of the show.

Thursdays

Vampire Diaries

Vampire Diaries has definitely been past its prime for several seasons now, but I’m probably going to be with this show for the long haul. I realized recently that I’m perfectly willing to drop a show in its second or third season, but once I’ve watched passed that I turn into a bitter ender watching the show for as long as it runs no matter how bad I think it’s gotten. This show certainly hasn’t gotten to the point where I don’t like watching it at all, but it definitely no longer is a show can’t wait to watch. We’ll see how things progress, but so far I’m enjoying this season more than I have the last couple. They got really bogged down in some mythology I couldn’t keep straight and I’m pretty sure the writers couldn’t either. We’ve moved past that now and things seem to moving along a little better for me. Plus even though for a long time I liked the idea of them just being best friend I think I’ve started shipping Caroline and Stefan and think they’re going to pull the trigger on that at some point this season.

A to Z

I’m really enjoying this rom-com sitcom so far. It’s the story of Andrew and Zelda and the 8 months and change they spend dating. We don’t know what happens to them after those 8 months whether they’re no longer dating because they broke up or it’s because they got married or something else, but each episode tells a chapter in their story. I’ve been a fan of Cristin Milioti since I saw her in Once on Broadway, and then I thought she was the perfect choice to play the mother on How I Met Your Mother, so I was happy to see her get her own sitcom. So far, so good. I could do without the voice over from Katey Segal though. I don’t know why this is a device that so many shows feel like they need to employ now. Why not just let the audience see what’s happening instead of feeling the need to explain it to us.

Parenthood

Parenthood is now in it’s final 13 episode run. This show hasn’t always fired on all cylinders. Usually it’s a case where some of the story lines are knocking it out of the park and others are well, not. That seems to be no different in what has been happening so far this season, but overall this is a great show that gives me all the feels. I’ll miss getting to spend time with the Bravermans once it’s over.

Fridays

The Amazing Race

I took last season off of The Amazing Race because I had no desire to watch the collection of abhorrent teams they chose to bring back as “all stars” for their most recent all star season. Most of the teams they brought back were ones I couldn’t stand their first go round and having an entire season composed of people I disliked did not sound like fun viewing for me, so I skipped it. I didn’t hold it against them though and am back for this season. It’s still early and I’m still trying to keep all the teams straight so I don’t really have a favorite yet though I really do want to make those dentists drink some coffee to stain their teeth up a bit because they are ridiculously, blindingly white.

Saturdays

Doctor Who

I’m still feeling my way through Peter Capaldi as the new Doctor. Matt Smith was my favorite, so I was sorry to see him go. I’ve generally warmed to the new Doctors faster than I have Capaldi though. Part of the problem I think is that I find the dynamic between Clara and him a bit weird. Perhaps after she leaves at Christmas and he gets a new companion things will get better. The other problem I think is that every episode of his tenure so far has been a monster of the week type episode. There hasn’t really been any ongoing story arc for him yet. As I’ve said many times including earlier in this post, I much prefer some sort of ongoing story line for a season even if it’s not touched on every episode. That being said this past week’s episode, “Flatline” was the best episode of his tenure so far and one that I enjoyed. Given that we’re almost at the end of this series of episodes I’m guessing there won’t be any big story lines developing, but I’m hoping that’s something they’ll go back to.