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.