The new fall television season is swiftly approaching, and I figure it's time for my to share my picks for what may be decent shows this season.
We've lost a lot of shows this year, as there were plenty of finales in 2009. Lost, 24, and FlashForward are gone. Thankfully, there are plenty of new shows that look potentially good.
- Sep 20: House We've enjoyed House for a number of years. Medical dramas are generally not my thing, but Huge Laurie is so funny is his obnoxiousness that it's hard not to like the show. Plus, not many of our shows are comedies, so sometimes it's nice to have something lighter. You can only watch Jack Bauer torture so many terrorists before you need a break.
- Sep 20: The Evɚnt My front-runner for new shows is The Event. The show's premise is that while a man is investigating the disappearance of his fiance, he stumbles across "the biggest cover-up in U.S. history", "a coverup which shapes the very core of mankind as a whole, whose implications are lifechanging". It's hard to say at this point whether it will be good, but I'll be watching.
- Sep 22: Undercovers This is J.J. Abrams's new action/comedy spy drama. I tentatively add this one to my list with the understanding that if the show doesn't grab us, we'll simply stop watching.
- Sep 23: Fringe Tied for my most-looked forward to show of the fall. During the second season, Fringe picked up a huge head of steam. I love this show. The parallel dimension plot has really taken off, and I can't wait to see where things go now that we've met "Walternate", and "Bolivia" has infiltrated our world.
- Sep 23: Shit My Dad Says A twitter feed? Seriously? They've based a TV show off of a twitter feed? As if Battleship the Movie wasn't bad enough. The show is technically called $h*! My Dad Says, and is based on a twitter feed which I've been following for years. In all honesty, that twitter feed was pretty damn funny. The TV show is going to star Bill Shatner as the titular Dad, which is really the primary thing the show has going for it. It seems like they're shooting for a modern-day All in the Family. We'll see how that goes.
- Sep 26: Dexter This is my other most-looked forward to show. After an amazing first two seasons, I wasn't shocked that the third season of Dexter wasn't quite up to snuff. But then the fourth season came along and blew me away. I'm very excited for the upcoming fifth season, but I'm becoming skeptical that a show with the premise it has can remain consistently good for much longer. But oh boy do I want it to.
- Sep 28: No Ordinary Family I don't know whether this show is intended as a Heroes knock-off or what, but the premise is that a family's plane crashes in the Amazon, and as a result they somehow gain "special abilities". After reading the show's description, it seems more of a knock-off of The Incredibles than of Heroes.
- October: The Walking Dead This show is based on a comic book of the same name, and tells the story of the aftermath of a zombie apocalypse. It follows a group of survivors as they travel, looking for a new home away from hordes of zombies.
- November: V Lastly, the mid-season will bring us a second season of V. Although the show wasn't quite as good as I wanted it to be, I enjoyed it. When Joel Gretch and Elizabeth Mitchell get together in a TV show, it's a big boost.
So those are my picks for television this fall. What do you think? Did I miss anything? (Terra Nova was cancelled before it could even air a pilot, or else I'd be watching that one.)