TV reviews

Cripes, there’s a lot of new TV to watch – and let’s not forget the old TV, which is returning en masse – and I’ve reviewed quite a lot of it. But there’s so much TV, in fact, that I’ve already decided to drop Nikita, Terriers and Lost Girl (which is now so just for kids). I’ve got last night’s new stuff to wade through now (Community, Shit My Dad Says – no euphemisms on this blog, Outsourced, 30 Rock, My Generation, Better with You) as well as Detroit 1-8-7, Modern Family (watching it with the mum in law on Sunday), Lone Star (which is going to be cancelled any minute, so I probably won’t bother, even though I hear it’s good), Hellcats (I might have to face up to fact that I’m never going to watch this, given we’re three episodes in now) and Boardwalk Empire (Martin Scorsese, Steve Buscemi, 1920s gangsters: it’s good so far, but I’m not gripped). But here’s what I have watched this week:

• Being Erica: It’s back! It feels like it’s back-pedalled a bit since last season in terms of where Erica was in her life, but the new innovations, expanded cast, etc, are innovative and making this a must-watch again. Woo hoo!
• Chuck: Woo hoo! Linda Hamilton! Dolph Lundgren! Olivia Mann! The Buy More! Oh. Scratch the last one. Not bad, some fun moments, but nothing exceptional – just like every other Chuck premiere episode in living memory. Dolph could have been used a whole lot better – a Dolph/Adam Baldwin face-off would have been awesome. Talking of which, where was Captain Awesome? I miss him.
• Cougar Town: Mildly entertaining fun. But one thing’s for sure: Jennifer Aniston’s movies may suck, but she’s a great TV actress. Really, she needs to be on tele instead of cinemas.
• The Gates: Turned out to be really quite a good series. Nothing totally outstanding, but a regular weekly bit of dark, supernatural fun. It ended well, too, with most of the story arcs dovetailing together quite nicely, but then leading naturally to a series of new plot threads that serve as a good cliffhanger – for a second season that’s probably never going to come, given the ratings. But you never know.
• House: All change here, with Olivia Wilde off filming movies left, right and centre and of course Huddy. Good to see enough of a change in the format that the medical mystery wasn’t the centre of the episode and wasn’t exactly life threatening. Not sure about Cuddy’s new assistant but he could prove fun. And I’m definitely not sure about Huddy either – but that was well enough handled that I’m prepared to give it some time. Oh, more Wilson, please.
• Life Unexpected: So much forced change here, too! Redundancies, new characters, explosions, slightly icky storylines lifted from Pretty Little Liars. Abby’s MIA and Erin Karpluk is, too, which means the show is going to have to work harder to grab my attention. Oh, hello, here’s Emma Caufield from Buffy and a new blonde barmaid – that’ll help ease the pain, anyway. Not remotely plausible in any aspect, but fun.
• Mike and Molly: Switched it off after two minutes of terrifyingly bad jokes, most of them about fat people. Just don’t watch it.
• Parenthood: Seems to be settling down – I’m not sure in an especially good way. Dax Shepherd’s storyline is just going all over the place (let’s move to New York. No, let’s stay in California. No, let’s tour the country. No, let’s stay in California). Erika Christensen’s storyline has yet to materialise. Monica Potter’s storyline is all about her being a bit mental. The kids aren’t really up to much. Only Lauren Graham and Peter Krause are really getting anything to do, and I’m not sure I actually like their characters. The resemblance (physically and in terms of voices) of William and Adam Baldwin is actually quite spooky, too.
• Rubicon: Ooh. Sex. Still not sure what’s happening though. And I use the word “happening” loosely.

But what have you been watching?

As always, no spoilers unless you’re going to use the <spoiler> </spoiler> tags, please. If you’ve reviewed something on your blog, you can put a link to it here rather than repeat yourself (although too many links and you might get killed by the spam filter).