News & Notes
Over on cable, Food Network has the series premiere of Sweet Genius, DIY has the second season finale of Run My Renovation, TLC has the series premiere of Prison Diaries, and TV One has the second season finale of The Ultimate Merger.
Enter our Raising Hope Season 1 DVD giveaway.
Suburgatory Preview Screening & Seattle TV Fan Tweetup next Monday. See it before it premieres on TV.
Next Thursday, ABC has the season premiere of Private Practice and CBS has the series premiere of How to Be a Gentleman.
For those that get TVaholic via email, sorry about the lateness of yesterday’s email. Not sure why it didn’t get sent out earlier, so had to reset it to go out later once I saw that it hadn’t been.
Prime Picks
The Vampire Diaries (The CW): New. Klaus is putting his plan in motion. Alaric and Damon to try to find Stefan using Elena’s new strategy. Jeremy tries to figure out what is with his ghostly problems.
Person of Interest (CBS): Series Premiere. A man that built a system for the government to help find terrorists and other such people looking to do the country harm, finds that his creation also finds smaller problems that are about to happen and outputs the social security number of a person of interest. They are about to be involved in something; he just doesn’t know what or whether they are a criminal or a victim. So, he hires an ex operative that has been out in the cold to follow track these people and figure out what is going to happen and prevent it. I really liked the “Pilot.” There is plenty of action and potential for interesting mysteries. Yet, your best bet for fully enjoying this, is to just not try to understand how or why they get the SSNs from the system. I look forward to seeing more of this one.
Prime Suspect (NBC): Series Premiere. Jane Timoney attempts to find a new way to solve the case after alienating her new squad. This is one of my favorite new shows of the fall. Maria Bello is great and much of the rest of the cast is too. But, this first episode overplays the harassment she faces by a lot. The good news is that as the series moves forward that angle is supposed to be downplayed significantly and quickly. I look forward to watching that play out, as the rest of the show is quite good. Good enough to give NBC a shot at not being in last place in the time period.
Solid Selections
Community (NBC): Season Premiere. Jeff is having problems with the new biology teacher. The group gets back together. Dean Pelton has a new nemesis.
Parks & Recreation (NBC): Season Premiere. Leslie has always dreamed of running for office, but may have to choose between doing so and Ben. Ron readies himself for the return of Tammy One.
The Secret Circle (The CW): New. Cassie sets out to live life witchcraft free. Diana worries about powers becoming out of control. Faye loves her new abilities. Adam isn’t sure what to do about his feelings for Cassie.
The Mentalist (CBS): Season Premiere. Jane is in prison for killing his nemesis and must prove that it was actually Red John. Lisbon suggests Van Pelt seek some sort of counseling.
Other Options
- The Big Bang Theory (CBS): Season Premiere. Penny thinks she may have permanently ruined things with her friends. Sheldon heads up the paintball team. In the second new episode tonight, Amy gets caught in the middle of an argument between Penny and Sheldon. Leonard is attempting to make his long distance relationship work.
- Charlie’s Angels (ABC): Series Premiere. This is one of the worst new shows of the season. It’s neither down to earth drama believable nor over the top fun like the movies. Too many stupid things happen in the first 10 minutes that I doubt many will be sticking around past the first commercial break. You need more than beautiful ladies kicking ass, as the writing is terrible and the action is laughable. This should be easily in the running for first canceled drama of the season.
- Grey’s Anatomy (ABC): Season Premiere. April is trying to be chief resident. Meredith faces the consequences of her actions. Cristina makes a difficult decision. Runs two hours. This is a very solid opening to the new season after a resurgence of sorts last season. I’m still on board, but it is no longer the best option in the time period.
- It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia (FX): New. The gang visits Dee and Dennis’ favorite vacation spot from their childhood. Runs 31 minutes. Plays again later two times.
- The Office (NBC): Season Premiere. The staff isn’t sure what to make of a list of their names found in a notebook belonging to the new CEO. Runs 31 minutes.
- Whitney (NBC): Series Premiere. Whitney tries to spice things up with disastrous effects. Starts a minute after the half hour and runs 29 minutes. The sexy nurse scene is funny, but the show overall is pretty bad. It feels like it was built by picking stock characters from the sitcom store. The circle of friends is just incredibly lame. I feel weird about this one, as of the three new NBC sitcoms debuting this fall, this is the one I laughed the most at while watching the “Pilot” episode. Yet, it is probably the worst of the three. It needs a lot of work.
Sports Notes
- ESPN has Thursday Night College Football with North Carolina State at Cincinnati.
- ESPN2 has a WNBA Playoff doubleheader.
- MLB Network has a game.
TV Marathons
Bravo has six episodes of Millionaire Matchmaker.
Lifetime has seven episodes of Project Runway.
Syfy has seven episodes of The Sentinel early.
TNT has seven episodes of Bones.
USA Network has eight episodes of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit early.
I saw that episode of Vampire Diaries,and it totally rocked. I’m really looking forward to episode 3 tonight. Elena finds out some more dark secrets about Stefan.