Fall TV 2014 (Comprehensive Network Schedule)

As part of my annual effort to revamp my blogging (or lack thereof) habits ... a handy dandy chart of this fall's network shows.  I like to put a one-page like this together every year for ease of reference, though it's always interesting to look back and see how the times have changed (and which once-spanking-new-uber-hyped shows have now totally faded into oblivion).  Quite a few yellow highlights (aka new shows) on tap.  Wagers to see which'll be gone by November?

Movie Review - The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

Caught an advance screening of Catching Fire last night, and must say I quite loved it!  [SPOILERS AHEAD]

As reference: 

I read the book a while ago (before they decided to make the movies), though I am pretty good with remembering details from books I've read.  It's probably my favorite of the series (or at least a tie with the first book; got so annoyed with the third book I never even finished it).  I thought the first movie was decent but not anything spectacular.

General Opinion: 

Not that I would call this installment spectacular either, but I thought it was a HUGE improvement from the first one and certainly did the book justice (not a praise I dole out easily for book-to-movie-adaptations).  Not only was it an extremely faithful (both story-wise and visually) translation of the book, it really did a wonderful job balancing the action and excitement with the darker the moments that make you think and feel (so to speak). 

In fact, I thought film did a better job conveying the somber, oppressed yet just-that-little-bit-hopeful and defiant mood of the districts, as well as reactions of the victors (united at least in their desperation and sense of the injustice being done to them), more vividly than the book was able to.  Lots of poignant moments, and better yet they weren't just throw-aways (as I felt most in the first movie were) but rather were built up naturally and felt significant.

They really upped the ante on the production value too, which being an effects-fiend, I appreciate.  The arena was just as I imagined, and more!

The Characters: 

The characters are definitely all around a step-up from the first one.  I thought all the actors did a great job embodying their characters (i.e. no one stuck out like a sore thumb).  Jennifer Lawrence was generally superb, but had a few OTT moments that felt iffy to me. 

Gale still is far from what I imagined looks-wise, but baby Hemsworth did fine conveying the character, and especially, his principles and belief in/hope of a revolution (I can respect that).  Peeta was his nice sensitive yet fairly practical self - I almost feel bad not being a big fan of his character ... it's really not his fault that he drags Katniss down (apologies to the fangirls, but to me, he does), and it's even more evident in this film as one victor after another puts themselves between him and harms way (to which I say, ugh).  I mean, sure Peeta's well-meaning, but his innocent softness, while likable and even endearing, just doesn't cut it in the harsh world of Panem, and it's annoying to see others suffer for his sake, just because he is importnat to Katniss.  Anyway, I'm not really "Team" anyone (other than maybe Katniss-Kicking-Ass), so moving on ...

The highlight for me though was the supporting cast, many of whom elevated what was written for their characters in the source material.  This film also gets credit on taking a few small but effective liberties to this end.  I'm reminded once again why I love Elizabeth Banks as she made Effie both comical and a tear-jerker.  Woody Harrelson is fantastic (one of the few things I actually loooved about the first one).  Donald Sutherland is the perfect Snow (but he's Donald Sutherland so of course he would be!).  Ditto Stanley Tucci and Philip Seymore Hoffman.  A pleasant surprise was Prim in her brief scenes, which was well-delivered and really helped to flesh out her character (you get the sense she is cool as a cat and wise beyond her years, and can't help but love her).

The new additions were no slouches either.  Mags was endearing and heartbreaking, as I knew she would be.  Johanna was a spitfire - strong, entertaining, yet a tortured soul.  Beetee wasn't quite as I imagined, but almost better (less of a caricature). 

I owe the actor who plays Finnick an apology, because he ROCKED IT.  I had literally been voicing my disappointment with that casting choice to my friend just seconds before his opening line, but after his first scene with Katniss I was sold.  Funny, charming, subtle, layered ... another bullseye for the casting folks on this movie. 

Scenes I'm SO Glad They Included (and didn't butcher): 

(1) District 11/Old Man (:( but necessary; they were a bit more tame in handling District 11 Victors Tour though, but still appropriately appalling)

(2) Johanna/Katniss/Elevator (more awesome than I imagined; a bit of levity before the storm)

(3) Katniss' burning dress transformation (cheered under my breath) and victors together presenting an united front (at least for a brief moment)

(4) Cinna/before Katniss enters the arena (again, :( but so well done)

(5) The puke-inducing drink - I may have mis-remembered, but I think this may have been introduced in the first book (and I was sad it didn't make it into that movie).  [EDIT: I mis-remembered, this was in Catching Fire - like I said ... faithful :)]

Luckily, Not TOO Sorely Missed:

(1) Madge (ahhh loved her, but since she wasn't in the first movie, I wasn't expecting her to suddently pop up here. Plus, we are spared her sad fate)

(2) Haymitch backstory (I really would've liked to have seen this, but I can see how it might screw with the pacing and ultimately not be necessary.  Also, no Madge = no Madge mother and aunt and Katniss' mom story with the Hunger Games = less meat fo Haymitch's HGs)

(3) Plutarch showing Katniss his watch (I loved that tidbit in the book, and they so easily could've done it in the movie, but in retrospect I can see how that might reveal the "twist" too early for non-book readers)

(4) Burning of District 12 (would've liked to have seen a montage of this rather than just be told)

(5) Refresher of District 13 (I can't remember if the videos of a seemingly demolished District 13 ever showed up in the first film, but in either case it would've been nice to include a little background on that to better tie-in the ending)

All in all, very satisfying.  I still don't plan on watching the next movie, but this one has my kudos. 

Network Premiere Watch: Network Hopping Mondays

After a whole year of procrastination and general laziness, I figure there's nothing like a brand new season and official Network Premiere Week to motivate myself into blogging again about my favorite pastime -- television.  That's right - brand new shows to gush or moan over (which of the class of 2013 will survive the early cancellation bear?), the return of some favorites (and not so favorites) to fight another day, and the final send-off of some old staples - EXCITING!!

Let's start with Monday, when I really spread the love around to all the networks (except ABC)

aaaaand the wait is over!!! ... but not for Ted ...

CBS
Kicked off the night with the Eye Network and the beginning of the end ... of How I Met Your Mother.

First, I was pleasantly surprised to find the premiere was to be TWO episodes.  Guess I didn't do my diligence very well this season, but SWEET!  Better yet, they turned out to be 2 gooood episodes (minus some silliness I could've done without).

Bottomline - I approve of Mother.  More than approve actually.  Her scenes with Lily were a hoot, made only more awesome by FutureTed's voiceovers, and the ending of episode 2 with her and NearFutureTed was brilliant.  I love that we got to see them together without having met yet.  Hope we get to see more of these clever flashforwards this season, because a less than 2 minute scene has already got me rooting for them.

2 Broke Girls premiere followed HIMYM, and while I found this show pretty good mindless entertainment the first season and watched most of the second, it just got way to stereotypical and borderline racist - what's WITH the nonstop short (among others) Asian jokes last season?  I mean, I get we all love to make fun of our friends, but that guy's their boss and the girls just come off as a couple of obnoxious ingrates!  I kept waiting for him to fire them and when he failed to grow a backbone (except one shortlived instance), I decided this was a dud I could drop and not miss.  Hence, I flipped channels to ...

FOX

A network I'm usually not so keen on due to its history of cancelling my shows.  However, since Sleepy Hollow had an early premiere last week (and did mighty well ratings-wise), I ended up sampling.  Have to say, so far so good!  I'm not into horror, but the show provides a good balance between the dark (supernatural creepiness) and the light (fish out of water humor by a main character who wakes up 250 years after his sort-of-death).  There's a clearly defined imminent danger (the headless horseman, what else?) that plays into a greater mythology (good vs. evil! George Washington was involved ...).  Bonus in the form of MinionVillain John Cho.  After a solid second outing of Sleepy Hollow, I turned to one of the most hyped premieres of the season on ...

NBC

The Blacklist had what I thought was the best of the new show trailers, and while I wasn't wowed by the series premiere, it certainly delivered enough to keep me sticking around.  The opener was giving me some serious Alias vibes, but while pretty predictable and required minor suspension of disbelief, I did love Alias and could use the reminder.  James Spader in a non-stuttery, intense, dark role - great.  Favorite side-character so far is Red's mysterious handy dandy helper on the outside.  Would love for the bomb diffuser to make more appearances too - funny, useful and quirky.  I could do without the husband though - yes there was a big reveal at the end (who didn't see that coming?), but I can only see that "twist" going two ways, and neither is very original ... hope they wrap that up quick.

Return to CBS

Caught Hostages on DVR purely because I wanted to see how Dylan McDermott was looking these days.  Answer:  very well indeed!  I actually liked this pilot more than I thought I would, so gold star for exceeding my [admittedly low] expectations.  Seems pretty predictable, but the dynamic between the hostages and hostage-takers (who are SO NOT going to be the real bad guys) at least promises to be somewhat original, so gotta give credit for that.

Overall, Monday should be pretty packed with entertainment for Sofa Spud in the near future.  Auspicious start to the new season!

Thoughts on Fall Lineup: Sundays

Hands down the laziest night for my fingers and remote, whose only work will be tuning the TV to ABC and letting the shows do the rest.  A modern soap with a tough as nails heroine (Revenge) booked ended by fairytales (Once Upon A Time) and the devil's lair (666 Park Avenue)?  Kudos ABC, kudos.

OUAT and Revenge were two of my favorite shows last season, so I'm expecting Sundays to be epic based on that pairing alone.  The only wild card is 666, but being the uber-Lost fan that I am, how could I NOT follow John Locke wherever he goes (unless it's to push the button ...).  Huge fan of Vanessa Williams as well ... so basically the only wrench on this party is my complete lack of tolerance for any type of horror ...

Side note: the MTA in NYC made a shrewd move allowing full subway car marketing (both inside and outside of subway plastered with the theme of what's being advertised), at least for the Shuttle.  As a result, we get these:

 Classy!  Hope we get to keep these pretty seats ...

Thoughts on Fall Lineup: Fridays

Fridays used to be the graveyard of television where low-viewership shows went to die.  Yet, it seems that, with the rise of DVR usage, the fact a show airs on Friday would make little to no difference to audiences nowadays.  So, does the Friday still stand?  Comparing this year's schedule to last's, it doesn't appear Friday shows suffered any more (and arguably less!) at the hands of the cancellation bear than shows on other nights, as most of the night's offerings are returning Friday shows.  In fact, shows like Grimm was considered a success (despite getting only so-so ratings) and Fringe and Nikita survived to see another season (despite terrible ratings) most likely BECAUSE of the lower expectations and ratings standards for airing on a Friday.  Ditto for Supernatural which was moved to anchor a different night (ostensibly a slot promotion) due to its steady ratings that matched other CW shows' on non-Friday nights.  Basically, where there is danger, there is also opportunity, and I certainly hope my favorites on this night will take advantage of the latter!

Starting off the night are some Friday newcomers, including my sentimental favorite Community (brilliantly quirky with the most well-matched hodge podge of characters).  Glad NBC is giving this show a chance, and although it might end up moving to replace another comedy on a different night for the network, I hope it gets the chance to prove it can be sustainable on Fridays first (and fingers crossed that it is).  The network should give it some extra credit for the early success of Go On, which basically copies the Community format ...  Despite its amazingly touching pilot, Touch lost me a few episodes in ... may try to pick this one up.

The only brand new entry is Made In Jersey on CBS, whose procedurals I generally avoid as a rule.  No suprise that it looks so bland (not bad, just blah) and cliche-laden.  The only thing of interest is the oddity of a British lead actress attempting a New Jersey accent.  It seems it'd be a good fit with CSI: NY and Blue Bloods though (3 hours of the Big Apple!).

My live viewing dilemma will be at 9pm between Grimm (which became exponentially more enjoyable toward the end of last season and early this season) and Nikita (the best show currently on the CW in my opinion, which ironically doesn't really belong on that teeny bopper network).  Nikita has the edge right now, though most likely I won't be home and will DVR both anyway : )

Thoughts on Fall Lineup: Thursdays

While Thursdays on TV haven't been must-see TV since the heyday of Friends (also shout-out to Frasier) and the subsequent downfall of NBC, it does offer up some solid viewing options this season.  I don't really follow The Big Bang Theory, Two And A Half Men, Vampire Diaries or Grey's Anatomy (anymore, not since sometime in the third season anyway), but there's no denying those are some ratings powerhouse for their respective networks.  Glee has been a disappointment since halfway through its sophmore year, and I think this is the season I throw in the towel.  The X Factor suffered an embarrasing defeat at the hands of The Voice last week (Christina 1, Britney 0 -- love them both though), and Simon Cowell is probably off somewhere shellshocked with a foul taste in his mouth (ha!), perhaps counting all his $$ to recuperate.  Still, these shows continue to generate buzz for FOX and are not too shabby in the ratings (yet).  Never got into any of the NBC comedies other than Parks & Rec, which I'm still catching up on so won't be watching live, but they have generally (with the exception of Up All Night) delivered when it counted for the Peacock.

So basically the only returning show of interest to me on this night is Person of Interest, which was one of my favorite new shows of last season (along with Once Upon a Time and

Revenge ... coincidence that those were the 3 top new shows ratings-wise? ... prabably - my record's never that good!).  Glad I gave this a shot (thank you Ben Linus!) despite the procedurals vibe it gave off, and the show rewarded in a big way when half-way through the season it switched gears to become more serialized.  The second season will open with the hunt to retrieve Finch (Michael Emerson), who has been kicknapped by a psycho hacker/killer played by Amy Ackers (love her).  The premiere should reveal how  HAL the Machine figures into Finch's rescue and will guest star another Lost alum ghost-whisperer Miles (Ken Leung ) (yay!).

Two new shows, Last Resort and Elementary, look to be perfect bookends for POI.  The former is about a state of the art US submarine and its crew that take over a remote island (no it doesn't have a polar bear and is actually on the map) for refuge after refusing suspicious orders to nuke Pakistan and getting missiled by the US government (or a wicked subgroup within) as a result (Phew!).  The pilot, which has been available online, already sets up several factions of interests and hints at some grand conspiracy (what else?).  All in all, it was decent if not overly ambitious - as for the rest of the show - could be amazing if executed well (and a hot mess a la The Event if not).  As for Elementary ... well I like Johnny Lee Miller and Lucy Liu and will probably be too lazy to change the channel after POI so ... hoping it'll be good.

Daily Musing: Go On Continues to Chug Along

Admittedly, I loved Friends and do want to see Matthew Perry finally succeed with a TV show.  However, I had been on the fence for his new show Go On until tonight's episode (ep. 3) [I'd checked out but ended up giving up on all his prior post-Friends endeavors].  Maybe the increased presence of John Cho helped sell it, but I now think I'm ready to commit!  The show revolves around Perry as a sportscaster who loses his wife and joins a support group (complete with the customary variety pack of eclectic and eccentric characters) to cope.  Sure it's somewhat of a twist on Community and still not nearly as brilliant, but to its credit, it has been getting better with each passing episode.  Now just must rethink how to allocate DVR usage for the 3-way race between this show, Happy Endings and New Girl.

Thoughts on Fall Lineup: Wednesdays

Quite a few new shows on the Wednesday schedule.  Over on ABC, Modern Family and Suburgatory (in a new slot) are staples for me, and I'll be checking out Nashville with the hope that it will erase the memory of totally-fell-flat Country Strong and maybe actually prove to be what I had hoped for that movie (plus a catty Hayden Panettiere should be interesting).  Predicting these will rate solidly with the audience.  On the flip-side for the alphabet network, The Neighbors, about a family that moves into a subdivision filled with quirky aliens, has been getting the worst pre-season reviews of any new show.  "It's not Third Rock from the Sun!" the critics rant ... when a new show is this universally hated, I basically am going to have to watch just to see for myself ... with any luck it'll be so bad it's funny, or at least lend itself to be adapted into a drinking game ...

A couple of other not-so-well-received sitcoms are moving in (temporarily until the ratings settle anyway) on NBC - Animal Practice (vet running an animal clinic) and the title-wise even more self-explanatory Guys with Kids.  I thought the concepts for both were ridiculous and cliche.  However, having watched each pilot, I was actually pleasantly surprised.  No no, neither is a cutting-edge show that will take comedy to a higher level a la Arrested Development or other such pioneering (or just excruciatingly funny) shows, but neither was really offensively bad either.

Disclosure: I LOVE monkeys and babies, so the above paragraph may be a bit biased ... but seriously, the monkey in Animal Practice is my favorite new character this season, no contest.  It looks like the Hangover II monkey and reminds me of Ross' Marcel on Friends - most brilliant thing ever.  **Edit** It IS the Hangover II monkey - awww!  Her name is Crystal : )

Finally, the CW (not big on procedurals or reality TV, so this is all that's left).  The trailer for Arrow was sort of a mixed bag - the acting seemed inconsistent, and the Smallville Green Arrow story is still pretty fresh on this fan's mind, but it is dark and seems to follow a plot.  Will try to give it a chance.  Haven't watched the recent seasons of Supernatural, but it certainly has been a workhorse for the network.  Wishing it the best of luck on its new night (no competition with other genre shows - should draw in and retain the fanboys - not much more can be asked for).