Wednesday, September 25, 2013

2013-14 Under Way

 

Early thoughts on the first couple of days of the new television season . . .

First, I really need to upgrade my DVR to something that will record more than two programs at once.  There are two new shows that were on my list that I was unable to program due to conflicts.  First, some brain child decided to cross-program Robin Williams and Michael J. Fox.  Now, there’s a business side of my own brain that thinks that makes an awful lot of sense, but the viewer side is screaming out that nothing could be more stupid.  Or selfish.  Robin Williams won the initial face-off and The Crazy Ones is on my to-do list, but you know I’m hoping MJF decides to rebroadcast, or change nights, or something. 

Then there’s Hostages, which lost out to The Blacklist.  In some ways, I think Hostages looks like a better show, but as I think I commented, it does not seem sustainable, so that’s the one that landed on the chopping block. 

And, even though the Robin Williams program is safe and sound for now, come October 17, it’s going to find itself in a head to head combat with White Collar and its new night.  I gotta tell you: I adore Robin Williams, but there’s not too much that makes me put off White Collar, even for the couple of hours until the encore showing.  Mr. Williams better prove himself fast. 

Second random thought:  though I might not be a big fan of season-ending cliffhangers, I realized yesterday I don’t seem to have a problem with them during the season.  Castle returned to the air yesterday, and though it resolved last season’s cliffhanger marriage proposal within the first five minutes of the new show, an hour later it flashed the  powerful TO BE CONTINUED across the screen.  I have to say that you just don’t see that many season premieres ending with that level of uncertainty.  Good job to the folks at Castle for keeping us on our toes; I didn’t mind that one little bit. 

And, lastly, though it’s not really about the new season, let me say that as far as I’m concerned, Neil Patrick Harris could host every award show from here on until forever. As you might suspect, I am a big fan of the Emmy awards, but NPH just makes the show that much more enjoyable, and I thought he did a really good job.  And, like Castle offering a two-parter for a season opener, NPH bucked tradition just a little bit with his song and dance production number, and he came up with a winner.  Watch:

 

And that’s about it for tonight.  I had a club meeting after class tonight, so didn’t get home until late, so no TV watching at all today, though I have to say, I was really tempted to punch up the opening episode of Person of Interest and see how it goes, but I guess that can wait until tomorrow.