Adventures in TVland

By Matt Baker, January 8 2012

I’ve watched a lot of TV this fall.  Like a lot a lot.  Perhaps it was a misguided desire be with a great show from the beginning, or gain some sort of weird geek cred, or maybe I`m just kind of masochistic, but for some reason I got it in to my head that I should watch an absurd number of the new fall shows.  And, with the help of my trusty PVR, I set out to accomplish it.  Now my goal was not to watch all of the new TV shows – in fact there are a few that I thought looked promising that didn`t even make it on the list – but I wanted to choose a reasonable selection that promised to be either sleeper hits or just seemed cool.  Fortunately, although it began unwieldy, my list began to shrink rapidly as soon as I started watching.

First on the chopping block was The Playboy Club.  I didn`t even make it through the first episode and apparently the general populous agreed with me as it was cancelled after only three episodes.  I love Sean Maher and I feel bad for him that his show was cancelled, but frankly it was just plain boring – I couldn`t care less what was going on in it.  I guess I technically watched more of How to Be a Gentleman, in that I watched a full episode before I gave up, but it is only a half hour show, so really I lasted the same amount of time.  I have nothing to say about it because, honestly, I didn’t even remember that it existed until I was looking up the fall shows just now.

Next to go was Ringer.  Now this one I actually had some high hopes for as it starred Sarah Michelle Gellar.  I actually made it about 2.5 episodes before I called it quits, but thankfully for Ms. Gellar, this show is still going.  Unlike The Playboy Club, I don`t think Ringer actually sucks, it just didn`t work for me.  I was hoping for a cool conspiracy/thriller type show with lots of intrigue and mysterious characters, and while the show has all these elements, the overall feel was just too soapy for me.

I had a little better luck with the sitcoms, but this may have just been due to increased patience and the hope that good comedy just needs to find its footing (except Gentleman – that show just sucked).  I’m actually surprised at how long I stayed with Whitney – most of the jokes were pretty painful but there were usually one or two that were just good enough to keep my hopes alive.  Well, for about four episodes at any rate.  I actually managed to stick with 2 Broke Girls for about 7 episodes before Kat Dennings could no longer rise above the dross around her.

Not yet axed from my list, but feeling the edge of the blade on their necks are Pan Am, Person of Interest, and Terra Nova.  Pan Am and Person of Interest are weird because I don’t actually have anything bad to say about them, but neither do I have anything good to say about them.  They are the pretty much the perfect example of mediocre television, although I think Person of Interest has more potential to pick up in the second half of its season.  I still have one episode of Pan Am on my PVR but unless it pulls out a miracle I think I’m going to have to let it go.
But what of Terra Nova? you might ask.  Well, I don’t know.  Thus far Terra Nova has been the biggest disappointment of the season.  It was certainly not the worst show I watched this fall, but it is probably the one I most wanted to like.  It should be good.  It could be great. But it’s not.  It has a decent cast, a decent set of characters, time travel and dinosaurs.  So what the heck is holding it back?  I think it all comes down to a lack of a strong vision for the direction the story should take.  And I’m clearly not the only person who thinks this.  Joel Watson, the brilliant mind behind Hijinks Ensue, apparently has written pages to himself on how the show could be improved and then provided the world with this comic:

I think Joss Whedon is the way to go.  But then, I always think Joss Whedon is the way to go.  Anyhoo, season one finished in December and although I wasn’t too impressed with the finale, the last five minutes managed to hook me in to at least trying season two whenever it starts.  We’ll see what happens.

So did any good come of this fall TV adventure? Well, yes.  I got two new favourite shows: New Girl and Suburgatory.  New Girl stars Zooey Deschanel and some people you probably don’t know (although Justin Long does make a too-brief appearance).  How much you like New Girl probably depends on how much you like Zooey Deschanel.  Fortunately for me, that is quite a bit.  Frankly, I was sold on this show from Zooey’s first Smeagol joke in the pilot.  The second episode switched up the cast, with Damon Wayons Jr. replaced by Lamorne Morris.  This concerned me a bit as Damon was one of my favourite parts of the pilot, but it is actually turned out really well.  Lamorne has done a great job and his character has bloomed nicely.  Actually that can be said for pretty much all the characters, especially Schmidt, who had the potential to drag the whole show down if handled improperly.  The pilot showed a lot of promise and I’m really glad it has managed to exceed any hopes I had for it.  If you haven’t checked it out yet, you should make it a priority.

I have been fully onboard the Suburgatory train right from the get-go and it has yet to let me down, and not just because it has Alan Tudyk.  Jane Levy stars as Tessa, a precocious teen whose father (Jeremy Sisto) has just uprooted them from Manhattan to the suburbs.  Needless to say, Tessa is not impressed as she attempts to deal with ditzy moms, vapid classmates and various other stereotypes of the suburban elite.  Yet another show that could easily go wrong by being either too mean or relying too much on stale jokes, Suburgatory uses its great cast chemistry and snappy writing to keep it all feeling fresh.  Put it on your list.