RETURNING FAVORITES
The Amazing Race – Like Survivor, I can never get enough of this reality competition show. Unlike Survivor, though, Amazing Race is really more about the dynamics between the pairs racing together rather than their conflict with other teams (although the editors always manage to “find” a rivalry or two). But like most reality shows, it takes me a while to really get into them and start rooting for or against certain pairs. There’s always a douche or two in the mix that treats his girlfriend or wife like crap, and this year is no exception. Still, the moment of the episode has to be the clip of the girl being hit in the face by a watermelon via slingshot-gone-wrong. While they may have played the clip a kajillion times in the promos, I still replayed that HIGH-larious moment a few times on my DVR. Schadenfreude at its best!
The Simpsons – For a show that’s been on for 22 years, I still find moments of joy although people have been saying that it’s well past its Golden Age. At this point, I view the Simpsons more like a pop culture establishment. Like SNL, there are definitely certain seasons that are better than others, but I’m a sucker for routine, and shows like the Simpsons provide said comfort. This year, a couple of Glee Club members lent their voices as well as those two zany New Zealanders from Flight of the Concords. Their nonsensical song made me miss their now-cancelled HBO show.
The Cleveland Show – I’ll say it from the beginning: I’m a sucker for Seth MacFarlane. Besides his incognito vocal prowess and undercover handsomeness, he knows how to build an animated program that speaks to the adolescent boy in me. Sure, I may be a white-wine-drinkin’ Bay Area homosexual now, but the 13-year old comic book geek that thinks farts are hilarious is very much alive and kicking in the depths of my soul. In their first episode of the season, Kanye West returned as Kenny West. In a fashion that was present throughout all of last week, many self-referential jokes were made. A year later and people still talk about T-Swift-gate. Unfortunately, as topical as some animated shows try to be, the lag time between writing the scripts and getting them on film is usually too long for them to retain its relevancy. Only South Park, with its no-frills animation based on paper shapes, can stay reasonably concurrent with the issues of the moment.
Family Guy – We got a one-hour-long murder mystery as our season premiere this year. I always appreciate a TV show that looks and feels differently than it usually does. From the opening sequence leading up the long panning shot of the ominous mansion of which said mystery would occur, Family Guy stuck with the theme for the whole episode. SPOILER ALERT: with all of the craziness that happened with Quohog’s news anchors, I’m very excited to see how things play out. I know it’s stupid to be this geeked out, but these developments remind me of when the Simpsons killed Moll Flanders.
Brothers & Sisters – Thank JEEBUS they skipped ahead a year. After the big ol’ car accident that ended last season, we meet the Walker clan again after some time had slipped. I don’t know if I could’ve done a whole year of Calista Flockhard stuttering through her depression of losing Rob Lowe’s character (although the whole he’s-in-a-coma thing is a very convenient way to bring him back for a guest spot during sweeps). To be honest, as much as I enjoy the family melodrama lead by the awesome Sally Fields, I’m starting to get a little bored with them.THE NIGHT’S WINNER
TV Executives.
Congrats, bitches. You have stolen my valuable time and will continue to do so until everything is in reruns during the holidays. 
Smallville – Like Heroes, I feel a certain obligation to watch it based on the geek blood that flows through my veins. Both are/were mediocre at best, formulaic and predictable at its norm, and downright cheesetastic at its worse. Being that it’s the final season, things have amped up as Lois wises up the Blur’s identity. I guess on the CW, you don’t even need glasses to hide your identity, just a black t-shirt and coat. 
SNL – The first show of the season was hosted by the fantastic Amy Poehler. As adorkable as Seth Meyers is, Weekend Update was at its best when it was co-chaired by Fey and Poehler. Still, seeing Seth and Amy’s “Really?!” skit is always a treat. Katy Perry sounded flat during one of her songs, but her boobs were anything but in the Elmo shirt she chose to wear during a skit (take that, PBS). Kristen Wiig continues to be the quarterback and shining beacon of the current cast, and Justin Timberlake’s obviously trying to get to Alec Baldwin or Christopher Walken status with his frequent appearances. I don’t mind it at all…
Outsourced – After an hour and a half of solid comedy, I was expecting A LOT from this show. I mean, NBC benched the brilliant Parks & Recreation in order to give this one a chance, and after viewing the Outsourced pilot, I don’t think it was the best move. It’s refreshing to get a less offensive take on the India, but I feel like this is going to be one culture-clash situation after another. Perfect Strangers already did this… and their theme song was much better. Come to think of it, theme songs of that era are head and shoulders about the droll they have now, but that’s a whole other blog entry. Actor Ben Rappaport plays yet another typical Average American trapped in a world he doesn’t understand, but it’ll really take the whole cast to make this something better. It worked for Cougar Town.
Community – I feel like the Soup has lost its zing… and I think it’s because Joel McHale is putting everything into his gig on NBC. Hey, I wouldn’t blame him. The Soup’s on the same channel as the Kardashians, I’d try to upgrade networks as soon as humanly possible. Betty White was in the season premiere. Is it me, or is she totally over exposed now? I loves me some Rose Nylund, but I swear to Jeebus, if I see another commercial of Betty White saying “street slang” or outdated catchphrases for You Again, I’m gonna scream. 
30 Rock – Oh, Liz Lemon, how I adore you. She still remains the top fictional character I’d want to be besties with. The first episode is full of self-aware-pop-culture references, which has been a strange pattern among the returning shows this week. On its fifth season, 30 Rock still makes me laugh out loud the most. I love this show so much, I took the effort to spell out “laugh out loud” – take note, lazy interwebs. 
The Office – Being that it’s Steve Carell’s final season, I feel like the show’s gonna focus on building a really good storyline for him. It seems like they’re setting up great Michael-Toby stuff, and I hope they bring back Holly AND Jan. The opening sequence made me miss being part of regular cubicle jungle atmosphere, although I’m starting to get a bit of it during my two days in the office per week. Still, there’s something to be said about being with the same group of people day in and day out. I have fond memories of decorating cubies for birthdays or discussing the previous night’s TV in the morning. Oh well, I guess I have this blog now for that… although it is a bit one-sided. 
Fringe – After last season’s switcheroo, I couldn’t wait to see how they’d pick up the plotlines this season. Olivia is still trapped in the alternate world with Walternate trying everything in his means to break her. As much as I enjoyed having this strong science fiction procedural back in action, I couldn’t help but be bothered by Olivia’s hair. I feel like bangs are a hair trend I can never jump onboard with. It makes every girl look bitch. I blame Brenda from 90210 for leaving that lasting mark. I’m just tired of seeing it everywhere. I doesn’t fit her (nor does it fit Rachel Berry on Glee). 
Private Practice – Like I said before, this show fills my need for bad medical melodrama. Sure, the round-robin of who’s sleeping with who gets tiresome after a while, every now and then, the patients provide more entertainment than the overtly obvious metaphor they’re trying to bring to light to the dense doctors. And being an offspring of Grey’s, said drama is always set to the JR-approved wuss-rock that I love so much.
The Mentalist – Just one of a gaggle of cop procedurals I like to have play in the background whilst I toil away on the internet stalking candidates or pouring endlessly over Excel spreadsheets. There was nothing special to note about the season premier, which is exactly why it’s background television for me.
Top Chef: Just Desserts – Although it’s already two episodes in, my fear of it being a less interesting spin-off of the original have been obliterated. Well, Seth’s excruciatingly awkward breakdown was more than I could stand (Red Hots for the moms of America!). I loves me some Gayle and the characters they have assembled for this initial go-round are fun to watch compete against each other. You know it’s a great reality show competition when the nicknames you create for the people come flying out of your mouth at a rapid rate.
Undercovers – I kept my expectations low, especially since it was so easy to keep them high. For a while now, JJ’s been on a role. Felicity is the first time I remember his name, it was really Alias that got me to pay attention. After that, he did the Lost pilot, then Fringe, then Star Trek. You get the pattern. But somehow, I just couldn’t get excited about Undercovers. After watching the pilot, I’m still meh about it. Mr. and Mrs. Smith was sexier. Chuck (with his relationship with Sara) is more fun. And Alias was a LOT more interesting. I’ll stick around for another episode or two, otherwise it may be demoted to the “I’ll catch it whenevs” list.
Survivor: Nicaragua – Yet another reality show competition that was two weeks in, I still enjoy watching the social experiment that is Survivor. This time, they’ve split the tribes by age. I feel like Survivor has started borrowing more from the casting strategies of the Real World. Instead of sticking the ignorant white dude with the sassy black girl in an Ikea furnished sorostitute house, they stick those same archetypes in an exotic locale. Oh, and apparently, according to this season’s ignorant white man, New York is full of gays. I feel that the Bay Area is starting to lose its reputation as the Rainbow Headquarters.
Modern Family – Oh Modern Family, how I’ve missed you. Coming straight from their Emmy win, I also lowered my expectations. The fear of the second season not living up to the hype of the first has gone away. I feel like the running joke of Mitchell being terrified of birds will never be old to me.
Cougar Town – The premier episode featured the greatly publicized reunion of Jennifer Aniston and Courtney Cox. As great as it was seeing these two friends (unavoidable pun intended), I enjoyed seeing this well-oiled ensemble back in action. Everybody made a big deal about Modern Family’s ensemble last year, but I feel that Cougar Town’s cast is just as good as its time slot lead-in. Plus, any show that encourages and embraces day drinking is already an automatic half-point bonus on a ten-point scale of fun-ness.
I guess its sweet, cinnamon flavor combined with an unhealthy desire to please one’s “mommy” does not make for a delicious combo… but it does win for making me cringe more than Taylor Swift’s recent VMA performance.
Running Wilde – Starring two alumni from Arrested Development and masterminded by its creator, Mitch Hurwitz, this felt more like a pale imitation rather than a second coming. Will Arnett basically plays the same character he has been for the past decade (hey, if Michael Cera can do it, why can’t he?) and Keri Russell plays some whacked out granola chick bent on trying to redeem him. While the zaniness is there (the daughter’s name is Puddle instead of Maeby on Arrested Development – marvel at the creativity!), the heart is sorely lacking. Neo-Felicty is too holier-than-though to really root for her to succeed.
Glee – Tuning into the first five minutes, I instantly remembered why I loved this guiltless pleasure from last year. To be honest with you, I’m still glowing from the fact that this may be the greatest representation my people (from the Philippines) have ever gotten. Sure, Stewie spoke some Tagalog on Family guy, but this new cast member on Glee comes with FOB accent intact. I’m sure I could spend a whole entry on the joy that Glee gives me (pun), but I’ll just say that I’m ready to waste more money on TeenBopz-ized, auto-tuned (for the lesser singers on the show) versions of Broadway numbers and pop songs on iTunes.
Life Unexpected – What is perhaps the only CW show I tune in to, I still enjoy it. It’s not rewriting the formula on angst-ridden teen-family dramedies, but it’s head and shoulders above its brethren on its network. At least this show isn’t advertising underage threesomes to pump ratings. Glee stole one of the two love interests for young Lux (the show’s teenage protagonist), but has replaced him with a cuter young teacher. Other than the girls clamoring for substitute teacher Mr. Bartolome at my old high school, Nogales, I can’t identify. Although I did have a few adorkable TA’s in college…
Parenthood – This show is still tied with Brothers & Sisters as my favorite on-air family drama. With B&S getting a bit tired and formulaic, NBC’s offering is lighter with its melodrama. Plus, with Lauren Graham as one of the main players in the ensemble, I’m pretty much required to keep on watching. That is one cougar that I’d be willing to switch back sides for (don’t tell my parents, though – it manufactures false hope).
The Event – Although it’s being hyped like it’s the next Lost, I’m cautiously interested as it will most likely be this year’s FlashForward. Sure, it was interesting. But we’ve done planes and time-jumps-within-the-episode before, and I just hope the characters are people we root for. That’s what made Lost so great in the first season. We wanted to find out about the people first, then the island (at least that was the case in its initial season). But I’m willing to give it another couple of episodes to see if it develops into something more.
Hawaii Five-O – I didn’t expect much, and I didn’t get much. I’ll most likely keep it around for background television and its pretty scenery (both landscape-wise and people-wise). I don’t have any attachment toward the original, so I can’t find anything offensive about it. Although Grace Park has been on a much more superior television remake before…
Lone Star – This was an unexpected surprise. First of all, any television program that borrows heavily from my iTunes mixes gets an automatic bonus point. I was honestly hooked as soon as they started playing Mumford & Sons in its opening musical montage. The premise seems to be something new, but it feels more appropriate to a movie rather than something that could sustain a whole series. The biggest draw for me is James Wolk. He’s great in the lead role. If you made a genetic hybrid of George Clooney, Kyle Chandler, Ross from Friends and a bit of Edward Norton (for that glint in his eyes), you’d have this guy. They could have cast a typical douche-boat (combo of a douche bag and a dreamboat, ie – Bradley Cooper), but this Wolk guy has a bit of an aw-shucks-ness about him that makes me want to root for him. Besides, who wouldn’t want to root for a guy that’s stealing from a rich Texas oil tycoon?
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I gotta give it to Lone Star; half because of adorkable James Wolk and half because they played two Mumford & Sons songs and one from Rogue Wave.
