new shows you are looking forward to Fall/2016

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If you've ever wondered what happened to the actress who played Kendra from Buffy The Vampire Slayer (Bianca Lawson), she has a secondary role on Queen Sugar.

 

New shows to try out. Like most of you, I give them anywhere from 15 minutes to a few episodes. I've become more unforgiving as time goes on, and am quicker to whack. Too much Peak TV.

OTA:
Conviction
Kevin Can Wait
Man With a Plan
Timeless
American Housewife
Bull
This Is Us
Speechless
Designated Survivor
Great Indoors
Pure Genius
The Good Place

Cable:
Atlanta
Better Things
Quarry
High Maintenance
Westworld
Divorce
Insecure
Falling Water

I expect a 50% loss after the premieres. Maybe another half within 3-4 eps.

 

FYI,

The first episode of 'Speechless' is available from Amazon Prime. Also by magic.

It stars Minnie Driver.

 

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'Berlin Station'

Will air on the EPIX channel. Officially starts in October.

Stars Richard Armitage and Michelle Forbes.


The first 2 episodes are available via magic.

 

The only ones I'm going to try are:

Timeless
Designated Survivor
Kevin James's show (forgot the name)

All will have a short leash - the usual 3 episode trial.

 

I also use to use that site, but after checking it out, it's still very cumbersome.
I'm sticking with Futon Critic on PC, on Android I use Series Guide to keep track of my shows and what's coming up. TFC still has it's limitations and annoying quirks, ( I don't think the site has been upgraded since it was created), but it works.

 

Try some series like Baskets, You're the Worst, Veep, Silicon Valley, Louie, Better Things, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, etc, and you'll see that sitcoms have come a long way. All are 30 minute sitcoms.

It occurs to me that 3 of the shows I listed have Louie C.K. in common.

 

I've never been a fan of traditional sitcoms (three-camera on a single stage with an audience). That might be what Dawghows means by "so restricted," and if so I agree.

Lately there's been a renaissance of the format with shows like Arrested Development, Better Off Ted, Veep, Silicon Valley, etc., which are basically sitcoms shot as if they are dramas (one camera, multiple sets/locations, no audience). Those are often quite to my liking (e.g., all the ones I mentioned).

 

I tried Arrested Development based on the recommendation of a number of friends whose opinions I trust, but could not get into it. Same with Louie, but I also don't find Louis C. K. funny in general. I thought Veep was ok, but not enough to stick with it for more than a couple episodes. Always Sunny is way too silly for my taste. In all those cases, though, I do agree that they don't fit the mold of traditional sitcoms as I described.

I've never seen Better Off Ted, and I've never heard of Baskets, You're The Worst, or Better Things.

Maybe I just lack the TV comedy gene. Or the scripted comedy gene, since I generally don't enjoy comedy movies, either.

On the other hand, Silicon Valley is absolutely hilarious, and we watch it religiously.

 

I think the networks are so used to the conventional sitcom they have no clue how to market these non traditional ones.

Yeah, we might like them, but the masses either don't know these shows even exist or unfortunately doesn't appeal to them for some reason (a lot of people just like to turn their brains off, and like to be told when to laugh when the writers think something funny happened.)

 

There are 9,000,001 sitcoms I've never tried or heard of. Some of them might be good. But, the ones I have tried, without exception [0], were bad enough to turn me off the entire genre.


[0] well, the ones in this century. I did like some of the oldtime comedies like Happy Days, All in the Family, and others of that time period.

 

My whole family was into Happy Days back then, but I've seen some reruns in recent years and IMO it doesn't hold up well at all. I also caught a couple episodes of All In The Family a couple years ago and was struck by how good it still is. As topical as it was I kind of expected it to seem dated, and of course superficially it is, but it's still great.

 

I'm trying to NOT watch any trailers for the new shows because I just don't have time in my schedule to watch any more. I barely get to what I have on my list now. However, I did happen upon Making History and I just love Adam Pally so much (still bitter about Happy Endings) so I'll have to tune it in and hope for the best.

 

Strong review of The Good Place from Alan Sepinwall. I'm officially excited for it. KB is back on my TV (no cable, so I couldn't watch House of Lies).

http://www.hitfix.com/whats-alan-wa...avenly-new-comedy-for-kristen-bell-ted-danson

 

We've been working on tv shows for my site. in general i brake it down into 2/3 categories,

Watch live
Stacking up

New/live:
Watching live: Pitch, Designated Survivor, Timeless, Westworld, Luke Cage (ik,ik), Conviction w/Hayley Atwell, Incorporated

Letting Stack up: Son of Zorn, Forces Of Nature, Bull, Lethal Weapon, Notorious, MacGyver, Van Helsing, Arizona, Better Things, Aftermath, Frequency, Falling Water, Bull

Obviously, the list is heavily weighted for geek & very light on the sit-coms.

I'm not so hopeful on the MacGyver & Lethal Weapon shows but I have to at least watch the first 10 min's.

 

I saw pilot for speechless on FB

1P created

 

I'm really liking 'Quarry' on Cinemax. After watching a car chase scene in the second episode, I'm hooked. Actually I was hooked before that but the chase clinched it for me.

I already mentioned this show up thread.

The first episode is on Youtube.