The New Season (2014)

[ClarkKent_DC]

We've done this before (here, here, and here), but now it's time for this year! This is a place for comments about any and all shows, but especially for shows that don't generate their own threads.

[ClarkKent_DC]

Travis Herrick (Modular Mod) said:

I've watched a couple of summer shows, and I've really enjoyed The Strain and Legends. Now I don't watch every episode, but I usually enjoy Franklin & Bash when it is on.

On the summer show front, I belatedly discovered USA's Suits (in its fourth season), and really liked it. It was different to see a lawyer show where they never go to court; it's all about the office politics and dealmaking, with a touch of soap opera thrown in.

USA also had Rush, which I liked, and Satisfaction, which I quickly grew to dislike. The title character in Rush, Dr. Will Rush (they don't claim to be subtle), is an alcoholic, drug-abusing doctor who runs a high-end underground practice in Los Angeles where he treats people who don't want their secrets exposed, or their ailments or injuries reported to authorites -- and pay him in cash. He's haunted by a Dark, Dark Secret -- a bad night at the hospital while he was high that led to his being fired by his own father.

Satisfaction is about Rich White People with Rich White People Problems. Husband is an investment banker in Atlanta who makes scads of money and has a huge house with a pool in an exclusive suburb, a wife, a daughter who goes to private school, and a BMW and has that Rich White People angst over Is This All There Is? One day he gets sent on a business trip to New York and the plane is delayed on the tarmac and after five hours, he goes into a tirade and berates the flight attendants and opens the door and pulls down the slide and gets out.

... and then he goes home and finds his wife with another man.

He learn the other man isn't a boyfriend; he's a gigolo. Then, through a contrivance, he gets the gigolo's telephone and, on a whim, poses as the gigolo and goes to meet one of his clients, in a bid to understand what drove his wife to hire somebody to have sex with her.

In other words, this is a show about people whose problem is that they don't have any problems. Because only a Rich White Guy would open the door on an airplane and get to go home the same day! Not to mention, his tirade on the airplane was, of course, captured on YouTube ... but soon after, his boss at the investment firm mentions how they paid a fortune to get it off the Internet.

In a later episode, he goes to court over it, and gets a deal where the whole thing goes away if he apologizes to the judge for his conduct -- and he actually agonizes over whether he should, as if being an entitled, philandering jerk is something noble! Even though he met the poor flight attendant he belittled, who lost her job and was now working in a bowling alley, who, naturally, was unwilling to accept the apology he gave through crocodile tears.

So, naturally, USA cancels Rush and renews Satisfaction.  

[Travis Herrick (Modular Mod)]

I remember seeing the ads for Rush, but I don't recall Satisfaction at all. I understand your dissatisfaction with the renewal of Satisfaction . One reason it is hard for to get started on a new show is that all to often it seems to be one of the first ones canceled.

I also watched TNT's Murder in the First. Once the season was over, I'm still not sure if I like the show. I see that it got renewed for a second season, so I will probably watch it again. I do like the idea of seeing them work 2 cases over the course of the season. Also, that the wheel of justice do turn slowly as there was time lapse between arrest and trial.

[Ron M.]

In the advertising for the Flash premiere, they show Green Arrow say he doesn't think the lightning that gave Barry his powers was an accident, he thinks it "chose" Barry. Are they suggesting Mopee exists in the tv universe?

[Mark Sullivan (Vertiginous Mod)]

I take it to just mean destiny. Ollie seems to feel that he was destined to become the Arrow, so it's not surprising he'd feel that way about Barry's powers.

[ClarkKent_DC]

I gave a try to Black-ish, and although Anthony Anderson is an appealing and versatile actor, I didn't take to it. I wish him well.

[ClarkKent_DC]

Good news for Gotham, reports Variety: "Fox's 'Gotham' Gets Full-Season Order"

[ClarkKent_DC]

I gave a try to How to Get Away with Murder. I felt pummeled into submission from the incessant promos. And, well ... if you like the special brand of zaniness that producer Shonda Rimes provides, as she does with Scandal and Grey's Anatomy, this show is right up your alley. As for me, I like Grey's Anatomy and can't stand Scandal, so I can't make up my mind.

Viola Davis, as the lead, is wonderful to watch, of course. It's just the rest of it. She's a criminal defense lawyer in Philadelphia whose stock-in-trade is representing the kind of rich, arrogant, elite upper-crust bastards Columbo would lock up back in the day. She also teaches a class at a local university, and has a cadre of overachieving students to do legwork for her.

Said group of students begin the pilot episode in the woods late at night, arguing over hiding a body. The overarching mystery is who killed the victim (her husband's mistress) and why; the minor mysteries are the secrets everyone -- the lawyer professor, her students, her staff, her husband, her boyfriend -- are hiding. These are doled out in flashbacks woven in around the case of the week.

If you love this soapy stuff, it's fun. Me, I'm not totally sold, but I'll give it a chance.

[Rob Staeger (Grodd Mod)]

We tried an episode of NCIS: New Orleans last night. We don't generally go for procedurals, and it was a great example of why. Just waves and waves of exposition trying to pass as dialogue. We're continuing to Tivo it, but capping the stored shows at 2, and not worrying when they slide off. They're just something to watch when me miss New Orleans, even the cartoon version that it presents.

[John Dunbar]

Anyone watching Red Band Society?  My wife and I are split on it: she likes it, I thought the first episode was okay and it has gotten worse from there.  The kids are smart (totally okay) but too worldly for their ages (nitpick of mine, as this is on a lot of shows).  They barely seem sick except when the plot needs them to be, and the girl with the eating disorder, the girl needing the heart transplant, and the boy with cystic fibrosis wouldn't seem to need to be in the hospital.  The boy in the coma does far too many voiceovers and he speaks in cliches all the time.

[ClarkKent_DC]

A month into the new fall season and surprise, surprise -- not a single show has been canceled! NPR takes a look at how things are shaping up so far: "Winners and Losers of the Fall TV Season Begin to Emerge"

[ClarkKent_DC]

The ax had to fall sometime: "ABC's 'Manhattan Love Story' Is Fall TV Season's First Cancellation"

[ClarkKent_DC]

On the other hand ... "ABC Orders Additional Episodes of ‘Black-ish,’ ‘Grey's Anatomy,’ ‘...