Sunday, September 19, 2010

Next season starts tomorrow

So not dead, merely uninspired. And I really didn't feel like writing another post about how I have nothing to write about. You can only dip into that well so many times before people starting rolling their eyes at you.

It could be the typical blog fatigue. It could be the fact that I've been going flat out at work for nearly three months now. I know I have Rule #2 about the blog, which is "Thou Shall Not Talk about Work" (Rule #1 is: "Thou Shalt Not Write Anything That Pisses Off The Wife."), but I think it's a safe thing to say that after a settling in period, my job has been running me pretty hard. Not that I'm complaining. I think I'm enjoying this job more than any other one I've had the past 10 years.

Anyway, enough about work. On to other things.

Monday marks the start of the Fall TV season. I know there are those who argue that television is a dying medium and the concept of the big four networks is a dying one. But I still like sitting down in front of the TV and watching a good program. If I lived down south maybe I'd like the idea of watching a show on my iPad as I commuted to work. But I have a lovely, high tech TV set so why not take advantage of thing. Besides, there's actually a lot of good TV on these days. Yes, there's a ton of dreck, but that's always been the case. It's just now there's a lot of good programming to watch.

One of the things I used to do back in the day with The Express was to try and review all the new shows. I never managed to succeed, but I tried (I also tried to get sent to the Fall upfronts that take place each May. Those who know Transcontinental know what a fool's errand that was). I'm really not even going to try this year. Instead I depend on sites such as Zap2it and Entertainment Weekly to provide information about shows that I'll at least give a chance and see if they'll grab me.

One things is for sure, I'll need to invest in a PVR for Monday nights. I was already watching House, Chuck and Castle, which nicely kills three hours of my night. Except I'm also kind of interested in Hawaii Five-O and the CBC is airing Men With Brooms. It's a curling show; you know I want to check it out, even if the movie the show was based on was terrible.

The Event also looks interesting, but pitching it as the next Lost is kind of scaring me. Besides, I already watch one deeply complicated mythology show in Fringe. I think I can pass on a second.

Seriously, though, can anyone recommend a decent PVR? I checked at the Source and they want $600 for the Bell HD PVR, which seems absolutely insane. There must be something better and cheaper than that out there somewhere.

Tuesdays, I'm going to give No Ordinary Family a try, although I'm sure Cathy will want to watch Glee. It's a total The Incredibles rip-off, but I like the idea of a teenage girl with telepathic powers. If you can't have some fun with that idea, you're just not trying. After that, meh. Maybe Running Wilde, we'll have to see. I'm not much one for sitcoms these days.

Wednesday nights are pretty much a waste land. Lie To Me, if I'm desperate, perhaps Undercovers, but that's about it. Pretty much the worst night on TV, which is fine with me. Odds are I'll be at curling.

Thursday is pretty simple - Bones at 8, Fringe at 9. I might take a look at Nikita, but I suspect that even with Maggie Q starring, this is going to be a deeply stupid hour of TV.

Friday there is Human Target, which I really quite liked last season. However, the ratings were low and it barely got renewed, which means they've tinkered with in the hopes of boosting its appeal. That and the fact its on 8pm on Friday, on Fox, means I'm not hopeful of it still being on past November. I'd like to be able to like The Good Guys because I'm such a fan of Bradley Whitford, but the first time I tried to sit and watch I wanted to pour Javex into my eyes to make the pain stop. Body of Proof is worth a look, just because I like Dana Delaney. There's also Blue Bloods at 10 pm, just so I can watch Magnum, er, Tom Selleck again. I suspect it's going to be too stuffy for its own good, but we'll see.

As for Sundays, I just have The Amazing Race. Oh well.

As for my prediction of the first new network TV show to be cancelled, I'm going to go with....$#"! My Dad Says. Yes, it's William Shatner, but it looks awful. Besides, if you're going to go with a show with that title, but use $#"! instead of actually saying the word "Shit" then you deserved to be canceled. Or at least moved to cable where you could open the show up and unleash the full glory of the Shat.

Anyway, that's how I'm spending my fall, when I'm not curling. Which might seem like a lot of TV, but I honestly didn't watch that much this summer. And I suspect of these shows I'll get bored with and move away from. But we'll see how it goes.

Last Five
1. The fake headlines - The New Pornographers
2. Jealous guy - Youssou N'Dour
3. Illegal alien - Genesis
4. Me and my hand - Broken Social Scene
5. C'mere - Interpol

3 comments:

Aida said...

we dont have HD(i am not a tech buff, dont feel the need for it). But we have this thingamjig that we bought from Staples, i think it was $89 and its a program that you install on your computer. My PC is hooked up to the satellite and with this program, i can watch TV, PVR whatever and it stores it in the hard drive, does that make sense? I obviously didnt set it up, the tech geek husband did..LOL

Megan said...

Glad to hear that you're enjoying the job, even though thou shalt not write about it.

Morena said...

I highly recommend Tivo. We have one in Pang and we love it. the box costs about $300 and the subscription is about $12 a month. That's a drawback but it works really well and has lots of great options that our Star Choice one didn't. Tivo.com

Oh, and we don't have the premiere, just the regular old box.