The second wave of Fall shows are now upon us, and now all shows have been presented. Some have already been cancelled: "Charlie's Angels", "How To Be a Gentleman", "Free Agents", "The Playboy Club."
Some are in danger of being cancelled soon, but luckily, it appears that all ten shows that I've chosen to watch are still looking strong and will last at least through the end of the year. This also means that my DVR is going to fill up fast and it'll take me forever to catch up. Dang!
At the beginning of the month, I gave a report on the five shows that came in the first wave. Now, here's what I think about the next five shows...
Once Upon a Time: Only one episode in, the jury's still out. This show could either be awesome or stupid, but it's too early to tell. Just like in "Tron," the underlying premise is idiotic. The evil queen puts a spell on everyone so that they all end up in a horrible place and nobody remembers who they are. And where is this "horrible" place? It's in our world--a city called Storybrooke, Maine. Yes, it sounds like the punchline to a funny joke, but can you build a series on it?
Why did I bring up "Tron"? Because, I love both of the movies. They're cool once you get over the idiotic underlying premise. This means that "Once Upon a Time" has a chance. Already they've shown a few fun interactions between the characters. If they can keep that up, then I'll keep watching.
It looks like this could be a family show, but it's hard to tell with shows this day. How many times have you watched a show on the "Family" Channel (affiliated with ABC) with your kids and then ... whoa ... where did this mushy sex stuff come from? I don't remember the Pilot having anything too harsh for kids, but I feel the potential for some hanky panky down the road.
Grimm: NBC decided to delay the premiere of this show one week (as well as "Chuck") to get it closer to Halloween, and I have to say it was a good choice. I ended up liking this show more than I expected. Though, for once I'd like to see cops follow due process for a change.
Nick Burckhardt is a cop who also happens to be one of the few remaining descendants of the Brothers Grimm. He has inherited the gift of seeing monsters for what they really are. We normal folk see these monsters as regular people.
In this first episode, he's tracking down a big bad wolf who's eating girls that wear red hooded jackets. Despite having a couple of "why did they do that" moments, it turned out to be funny, suspenseful, and intriguing.
My main concern is that this show might become another "Smallville" with the creep of the week. Ask yourself this. In the Pilot of "Grimm," a wolf is killing these girls. The big bad wolf has been around for who knows how long, and the cops are just now learning about it? That was the problem with the early seasons of "Smallville," where the bad guys came one at a time as if they were fighting Bruce Lee. In real life, all these crimes would be happening at the same time.
Nevertheless, it appears that "Grimm" has an overlying story arc that promises to keep the energy running in the show. Some bad guys are after him, but who are they? I'll keep watching.
Chuck: The season opener began with a funny energy-filled first five minutes. Chuck no longer has his superpowers. Instead, Morgan is the star, though Morgan has retained his ... well ... his Morgan-ess. Now that Chuck and friends are kicked out of working for the government, Chuck is now trying to lead his ragtag compatriots through his new private spy contracting business, "Carmichael Industries." Now, that's funny!
I look forward to the rest of the season. I hope we get a full set of episodes, and then see a satisfying close to the series at the end.
Psych: It's in its sixth season, and it's still funny? How do they do that? We're a couple of episodes in, and I can't wait to see what happens next. It looks like they're concentrating a little more on Carlton, and there's a lot more of the mortuary dude. Keep it up, writers. It's always good to develop all the characters.
The Walking Dead: I saved the best for last. This is now my favorite show, and I never knew zombies could be fun. Well, I don't really like zombies, but I love a good apocalyptic story. If they only had one zombie attack every other week, that would be fine by me.
Though in the first episode, there was a lot more zombie attacks than usual. It's almost as if they took an episode off of developing story just to give us more action and let us remember where we left off last year. I think that was an appropriate decision. The second episode gave us more story and introduced some new characters.
This show promises a lot of story down the road. My comic-reading friends tell me they know "what's in the barn." I have no idea what they're talking about, but they say it's going to be cool. I'm racking my brain as to what could be so cool in that barn. Maybe they'll show us tonight.
What makes this show so great? How the writers focus on the people instead of the zombies. They develop characters and make us care. (Just keep that in mind next time you write something.)
Now to get ready for November sweeps...
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