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!