The roster
of new
television shows premiering each year in the fall ought to be an
exciting time for any TV fan. Unfortunately, I am a jaded, cynical
curmudgeon, burned by my previous
experiences in the field of new fall shows, and I read the
previews with dread roiling in the pit of my stomach. In our age of
podcasts, webseries, and countless other competing forms of
entertainment, the networks seem to be getting more and more
desperate, scraping the barnacles off the bottom of the barrel.
Broad stereotypes?
Check.
Dominated by straight
white men? Check.
God help us all, a new
Ryan
Murphy show? Check.
It's predictably
depressing and depressingly predictable. Once upon a time, as a
starry-eyed viewer full of hope and gillyflowers, I had a
“three-episode rule” for judging any show whose premise piqued my
interest even a tiny bit. This year, I don't expect to watch any of
the new shows unless critical opinion snowballs in the course of the
season.
However, fall still
brings its sweet gifts even unto the cantankerous television fan, in
the form of returning shows. Some
of these shows have spiraled so far down the U-bend that I can't even
hate-watch them anymore, but there are still enough watchable
returning shows to compensate for all the awful new ones (and to
wreak havoc on my degree). In the absence of new shows that don't
make me want to claw my eyes out, here is a list of returning shows
worth watching.
The Thick Of It
(9/9)
I already covered this. It's on Hulu. Watch it. (N.B. Because it is
full of swears, Hulu will make you log in to watch it, and for some
reason this entails declaring yourself male or female. If this
disgusts you as much as it does me, and you wish to, ahem, seek out
alternate methods of watching, I will turn a blind eye.)
Boardwalk Empire
(9/16)
A
questionable
creative decision last season nearly made me rage-quit this show,
but it drew me back in with a jaw-dropping finale. Slow, dense, and
luscious, this isn't a show to everyone's taste, but I remain
compelled by the epic-scale world-building of 1920s New Jersey, and
especially by the way the show explores the lives of not only the
rich white men who run things but also marginalized minorities:
people of color, women, queer people. This is not a perfect show by
any means, but it fascinates me.
Parks and Recreation
(9/20)
 |
| Yaaaaaaay! |
This,
on the other hand, might well be a perfect show. Leslie
Knope, April Ludgate, Ron F---ing Swanson... Just typing the
names gives me a big goofy grin. Every episode is a half-hour ray of
blissful sunshine, brightening my spirits with a healthy dose of
feminism, Amy Poehler, and laughter. Roll on Thursday (by then I
might even have stopped crying about the
breakup of the century).
How I Met Your
Mother (9/24)
I
still watch this show, I guess. I can't really remember why.
Bob's Burgers (9/30)
The
charming adventures of the most delightful animated family since The
Simpsons deserve a full-length
treatment at some point. For now I simply say: Watch it.
If the hijinks of close-knit siblings Tina, Gene, and Louise don't
fill you with joy, you have a shriveled husk in place of a soul.
Also, Kristen Schaal! Eugene Mirman! H. Jon Benjamin, for crying out
loud! (HEY, FX, WHEN IS ARCHER COMING
BACK ALREADY?)
 |
| Tina's my favorite. No, Gene is. No, it's Louise. Oh, don't make me choose! |
The Good Wife (9/30)
For
a sitcom-loving sci-fi nerd like myself, a legal drama is well
outside the comfort zone, but this is about as good as they come. The
juxtaposition of title and premise alone should grab any feminist's
attention: When her husband is embroiled in an Eliot Spitzer-style
scandal, Alicia Florrick returns to the bar in order to make ends
meet. The rich ironies and tensions suggested by the show's title
play out on Julianna Margulies' understated yet beautifully
expressive face as she navigates personal and professional life when
she has so long been defined as Peter Florrick's wife. And sometimes
Michael J. Fox guest stars, and it's awesome.
30 Rock (10/4)
For
several seasons now, 30 Rock has
been but a pale shadow of its best self, but laughs are still
guaranteed, and my love for Liz
Lemon is fierce and undying. I will almost certainly complain
vociferously about every episode, but I wouldn't dream of missing out
on bidding farewell to the TGS crew.
It's Always Sunny in
Philadelphia (10/11)
In
some ways, this is the anti-Parks and Rec:
A crass and often vicious show about crass, wholly unlikeable people.
You won't see anyone hailing the Sunny
gang as feminist icons anytime soon (though, for what it's worth, the
jokes are usually on the holders of prejudice rather than the victims
thereof). I'd like to revisit the episodes featuring Carmen, a trans
woman, to see how they stack up against the generally appalling
mainstream pop-culture depiction of trans women, but I'm honestly a
little afraid to do so. When Sunny misses,
it misses hard, but it's also capable of making me laugh until I cry;
and, unlike a certain other 2005-premiering show mentioned above, I'm
actually optimistic about the chance for creativity and entertainment
in Sunny's eighth
season.
Community (10/19)
The
date is on my calendar and on my heart. Friday, October 19th,
8:30pm: The stars will align. The cosmos will come into harmony. Wars
will end. Justice will prevail. God will be in his heaven and all
will be right with the world.
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| ASDFSDALF;HDSLGJKHSJDK |
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