New Show: Sh!t My Dad Says

This is one of my favorite new shows.

I have taken a while to watch it on my hard drive and so I had three episodes to watch all at once but I have to say that it was so worth it and I am glad that I had more than one episode to watch.  William Shatner is hilarious as the grumpy old man.  I also love the self deprecating jokes.  Adam was even laughing pretty hard to some of the jokes.
Just to recap this premise of the show.  Henry, gets laid off from his job and has to go to his dad for money.  He hasn't had much to do with his dad since his parents broke up when he was five because he is a meanie.  The dad turns out to have a soft gooey center and Henry moves in with his dad.  It is so funny.
I love in episode 3 when they go to the Pancake Corral.  Just brilliant.
Anyway, if you can't figure out the verdict then I will just say it... this show is hilarious and I think everyone should watch it.

New Show: Law and Order: Los Angeles

Who doesn't love a good Law and Order show? I have enjoyed all the different franchises to date unlike CSI where I couldn't stand New York.  I was very sad to hear the original L and O had been canceled last spring  but then it was announced that there would be a new one set in LA.

The show started off like any L and O show with something bad happening to a random person.  In walks Skeet Ulrich as one of the detectives and off we go.  Always liked him as an actor.

The show was full of beautiful people and beautiful places including reality tv shows, couture fashion and stolen jewels.  The body count just kept rising as the detectives tried to figure things out and it is all adding up to the L and O MO of "ripped from the headlines."  Then throw in Oded Fehr and we have a show.

I am going to call this one  by saying, if you are already a L and O fan be it the original, SVU or CI then you should watch this show because it should fill the void of the original being gone.  It has the Law and Order portions that are missing from CI which is also true to the L and O format.  It isn't an L and O you should start watching the franchise with though... SVU is better for that.

New Show: Better With You

I love Joanna Garcia.  I really liked the show she was in on the CW, "Privileged," and I was so sad when it got canceled.  Then she was on Gossip Girl but she was a bitch and that wasn't good.  So, when I saw she had a new show I had to give it a shot.

The who premise is something we have all seen before, the dynamics between three different couples in complete stages of their couple hood.  This time the three couples are related.  Two are sisters and the third is their parents.  The first couple is Joanna Garcia's character and her boyfriend.  They have only been together for weeks and they are expecting a baby.  The second couple is her successful sister and her boyfriend who have been together for a while without a commitment.  The last couple is their parents with their father who is just entering retirement and driving their mother crazy.  Overall, the show is pretty cheesy and very sitcom predictable.  There are funny moments, though.  It could go either way with this one and if you aren't watching it yet don't really worry about fitting it in your tv schedule... it may not last.

New Show: Outsourced

I am not even sure how to start this post.  The show is about a weird novelty catalog store that decides to move its call center to India and send the one American employee left to run it.  What he finds is an unknown culture that he proceeds to mock with the other Americans who are there to run call centers and a group of misfits who are caricatures of Indian stereotypes who answer the phones.  I haven't decided if I am offended yet or not but there are funny moments but I can't really see the show lasting very long.  They really need to drop the whole cow is a sacred animal thing because it isn't funny.  Okay, yeah, I am offended by this show.

I would say if you haven't watched this then don't bother.

Random note: I smell spray paint.

New Show: Mike & Molly

I feel the need to preface my new show posts with the fact that I am not trying to do a professional review.  I just want to give a blurb about what it was about and what I thought of it that way if you are on the fence about it you might take what I said to either watch it, DVR it or avoid it.  I just love TV so why not post what I think.

Okay, so Mike and Molly.  I am going to start with what I think: this show is adorable.

It is about Mike (a Chicago Police Officer) and Molly (a school teacher) who meet at an overeaters anonymous meeting.  They are both socially awkward and their attempts to go on a date have proved to be heartwarming and hilarious.  Molly lives at home with her mom (Swoozie Kurtz) and her sister.  Whenever these two are in a scene they steal the show.  They are hilarious.  In this episode the sister tells Molly, "you know what they say, it's better to have too much lube than to not have any."  HA!

I think the fat jokes are a little excessive but overall I laugh for the full length of the show.  I recommend you watch it if you like to laugh.

New Show: Blue Bloods

I will admit that the only reason why I wanted to give this show a try was because it has Donnie Wahlberg in it.  It also has Tom Selleck and Magnum PI isn't half bad himself.

It is a pretty typical cop show.  This one has to do with a family of cops including a brother who was killed in the line of duty and a DA sister.  Donnie Wahlberg is the street tough cop who is an Iraq war veteran and once again the "bad boy."  There seems to be a sinister sub plot dealing with a secret cop society and that seems interesting as well as the mom dieing earlier.  Also, the ex-cop grandfather lives in the house.  I don't know if this show is for me but if you really like cop shows especially ones about families then this is up your alley.  I do have another episode to watch so we will see if I change my thoughts on it.

New Show: My Generation

Just watched My Generation.  It is a faux documentary following 9 people 10 years after they were first documented in their senior year of high school.

The 9 people seem to all have gone in completely different paths from what they thought they would be doing for their futures.  The show weaves in real events of the last 10 years including 9/11, Enron, the botched 2000 election.  It is really great to be reminded of the great events of the past and how they have woven them in to the lives of these fictional characters is even better.  The characters are all deep and their current lives are still based on motives from their lives 10 years ago.  In the first episode alone there is a lot of webs and triangles to be sorted out.  I really enjoyed this show the characters are all fascinating and I am really excited where their lives and how they are connected are going to take us.

Highly recommend this show!  Also, if you aren't watching Nikita you need to be.

New Show: Raising Hope

Here is another FOX show for this season.  It is a quirky show about a family (even though it took me a minute to figure out the relationships) who all live together in senile Maw-Maw's (Cloris Leachman) house.  They are all very white trash and would have fit right in on the cast of My Name is Earl.  They even have a dude living in their laundry room in a tent.  Anyway, the lead character, John or Jim I am not sure, hooks up with this girl in his van and in the morning finds out that she is a serial killer who kills her boyfriends and instead of saving her the previous night he really was saving her boyfriend who she was going to kill.  Anyway, when she comes to the table for breakfast the mom (Martha Plimpton) knocks her out with the tv and she goes to jail, sentenced to death.  6 months later she calls her "boyfriend" to the prison and he finds out that she is going to have his child.  Cut to the electric chair chamber and him holding the baby, dressed in a mini prison outfit, while the baby momma is executed.  He takes the baby, named Princess Beyonce by her mom, home and they flounder through making their lives baby proof even though Martha Plimpton wants him to drop the baby off at the Fire House, apparently called a "safe drop."  They end up figuring it all out realizing they need to help each other.

I was intrigued with this show more like you are when you see a car wreck than because it was exceptionally funny.  There were a lot of WTF moments that made me laugh, though.  I think I will watch it for another episode at least because it could go either way.

New Show: Lone Star

Before I get in to my thoughts on this show I want to say Happy Chuseok, especially to all of my students and Korean friends.  Google even got in to the spirit today which was really cool.

Now on to Lone Star.

I have to admit that it took me three tries to watch this show.  It wasn't on my original list of new Fall TV but then after reading a couple of reviews for it I decided to give it a try.
The show, that airs on Fox Monday nights, is set in Texas (Midland and Houston to be exact) and follows a con man and his con man dad.  To be completely honest with you I don't remember anyone's names from the show except for the Houston wife, Kit.  Anyway, the con man is living two separate lives with two different families.  He is using them to grift the oil businesses of Texas but then falls in love with the women and the lives they give him and decide to go straight to his father's chagrin.  Now, that is what I got from it and I could be totally off because I was lulled to sleep by Jon Voight's soothing Texas accent.  Is he Texan because if he isn't give him a damn award for that accent right now!  Besides his accent putting me to sleep it was a little boring in the middle and there were a ton of characters to try and keep track of.

My verdict is that if you didn't watch it Monday night you may not want to worry about it because it might not be around for mid season replacements unless they lose some characters and speed things up.  I am going to try another episode but not too excited about this one.

New Show: Hawaii Five-0

Fall premiere time is one of my favorite times of the year.  I love the new shows and new episodes of old favorites... but I have said this all before.

A new show is Hawaii Five-0.  This show is on Monday nights on CBS.  It is a remake of the classic show of the same name.  I have never watched the older one so I wasn't going in with any preconceived notions.  I wasn't a 100% sure I would like it but I like Alex O'Laughlin (see my review of The Back Up Plan to read why I love him) and so I wanted to give it a try.

The show starts out with Alex transporting a bad guy... some bad stuff happens, his papa gets killed and he has to return to his homeland of Hawaii.  While in Hawaii to bury his father he is approached by the governor to help her clean up the island of its seedy underbelly.  He runs in to his future buddy, Dan-O (Scott Caan), who is full of issues and decides to take the governor's offer.  He assembles himself a team and they go after the bad guy who murdered his pop and lays him to waste.  It wrapped up all very nicely with lots of action and some skin in the middle... a pretty good buddy cop show in the making.

The Buddy Cops

I am going to highly recommend this one, too.  Give it a try!!

New Show: Nikita

Another new show on the CW is Nikita.

If you are thinking, "don't you mean La Femme Nikita," then you are partially right.  This is in the same story vein as the movie and TV show, La Femme Nikita, about a secret government agency that is creating fierce women assassins and Nikita is one that goes rogue.
This telling of the story not only follows Nikita as she tries to take down the said government agency but also follows the agent who is in love with her but tasked to take her down at any cost, and some of the cute as a button recruits inside.
I started this a few nights ago and couldn't sit down in front of the TV to get in to it.  Then finally last night while eating dinner we turned it on and paid attention.  It was really good.  The show has a bit of an Alias feel to it without being Alias.  It is nothing like the former reincarnations and it is actually really good.  If you like spy shows then you will like this show.  It has good looking people duping and double crossing each other to stay alive and get the mission accomplished.  As well as a little bit of love/sex tension thrown in.  I am going to keep watching so give it a try, too.
Nikita airs on Thursday nights after The Vampire Diaries (another one of my favorites).

New TV is Here!

I have talked about my love of anything pop culture, TV, Music, Movies, before but today I am going to focus on TV.  Fall is my favorite season for many reasons.  I love the cooler weather, being able to wear boots and sweaters, and I love the fall foliage.  The other great thing about Fall is the return of new TV show episodes as well as premieres of brand new favorites.  Being that this year we are not in the US and do not have access to American cable TV I have had to improvise but it might actually turn in to a great thing.
Anyway, Wednesday kicked off the new TV season on the CW.  I love this channel because they come up with some fresh and new shows as well as take old shows (90210) and make them fresh and new.  I am so glad they kick off their season at the beginning of September and not the end like all the other networks do.  Boo!  The first new show I watched was from the CW and it was called "Hellcats."

Set in Memphis, TN at Lancer University the show follows Marti (Aly from Aly & AJ and Bandslam fame) who becomes in desperate need for financial aid to stay in school when her loser mother fails to tell her that her full ride for employee's kids has been pulled.  Marti, who is a rough and tough girl, finds out that the Lancer Hellcats (a competitive Cheer Squad) receive full scholarships during a run in with their spunky captain, Savannah (Ashley Tisdale from High School Musical fame).  Marti, makes the squad (duh), moves in to the Cheer dorm (CheerTown) and starts making friends with her rock hard base, Louis, and roommate Savannah, while making enemies with the girl she replaced, Alice.  There is a lot of added drama thrown in with the squad's coach's life and the University making threats to cut the squad if they don't place at Nationals.

It is really a super cheesy show but it wasn't horrible and I will keep watching because it is pretty fun and there was no thinking required.