I’ve checked out a bunch of new shows this season. Still waiting for the debut of Pushing Daisies, and I didn’t see Dirty Sexy Money, which I hear is good.
Damages
This one’s almost over, but it’s the best new show on now. FX re-runs it periodically. It’s worth catching up on.
Back to You
Do you miss Everybody Loves Raymond? Don’t get newer sitcoms like The Office and 30 Rock? Get confused when there’s no laugh track to tell you where the jokes were? Back to You is right for you.
Snap judgement: I was ready to delete the season pass before the cold open was done. It’s not bad, but you might as well be watching re-runs of better traditional sitcoms.
Gossip Girl
As an OC fan, I was hoping for more from Josh Schwartz’s new show, but nothing about it really grabbed me. I guess if you just find rich Manhattanites inherently interesting, this show might do more for you. Every new show needs to show me why I should care about its characters. Stuck up rich kids and teenage politics aren’t enough anymore on their own.
Snap judgement: As much as I’m ready to embrace any project involving Kristen Bell, Gossip Girl gets one or two more episodes before I cancel it, but it’s going to need to work hard.
Chuck
Josh Schwartz’s other new show. Also the other new spy show, this one featuring a nerd who gets classified information emailed to his brain. Also there’s a hot blonde. It’s an hour-long action sitcom, which is a hard format to get right. Sitcoms depend on their casts, but there aren’t many standout characters here.
Snap judgement: For it to work, Chuck has to be a lovable loser, but so far he’s no Seth Cohen.
Journeyman
It’s a serious Quantum Leap, but the main character gets to leap home every day and deal with his struggling marriage. I liked Kevin McKidd on Rome, and he’s about the same here, but doing an American accent. Somewhat distant, a bit too serious, not reaching but pulling it all off.
Snap judgement: best pilot I’ve seen this year, pending Pushing Daisies and not counting Damages, which was a summer show. Nice enough twist to the “mission” back in time, nice idea that he runs into his now-dead ex-fiancee, and compelling enough relationship story in the present. Time travel stories can be pretty hokey, but I think it’s going to pull it off.
Bionic Woman
Another British lead actor playing an American. Apparently this show was retooled a little bit from the original pilot, which could be bad or good. Word is the producers have already had some creative spats, so hopefully David Eick can rub some of Battlestar Galactica quality off here.
Snap judgement: I expected this show to be okay, it ended up being pretty good. Definitely going to keep watching it, but it needs to keep its momentum going or it’ll fade behind as just another she-spy show with a female lead, and those Alias DVDs are still damn good.
Big Shots
Watched this one because I liked Michael Vartan on Alias and Joshua Malina on Sports Night. Picture Desperate Housewives without the dark, compelling sideplots of the first season, subtract any depth from the characters, and they’re sexy male executives instead of sexy women.
Snap judgement: yawn.