Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Fall Season Reviewed

Now that most of the new shows have premiered, it's time for a progress report. Last month I picked the top five new series that I felt were worth your time, now I'll tell you if I was wrong or not...

Flash Forward
: Let's face it; this show was almost a shoe-in. It has so many things going for it; most notably it has a great cast. Joseph Fiennes, a theater and movie star, seems as though the small screen is where he should have been all along. If you haven't seen the show yet, the premise is basically this: For two minutes and seventeen seconds, everyone in the world blackout. During these blackouts, most people saw six months into their future. Joseph Fiennes, plays Mark Benford, an agent who leads a team in what their calling the Mosaic project. Their basically trying to compile what everyone saw during the blackout in order to figure out why this event happened. It's a show that has been likened to Lost, in that it's a serial show and not a procedural. Bottomline: I was right! It garnered 12 million viewers the first week out, and the second episode only fell to 10 million. Also it is doing very well in the much sought after 18-49 demo.

Glee: An off-beat comedy about a high school glee club was a chancy call for Fox, especially since predecessor Arrested Development didn't far very well in the long run, but Fox has taken a giant leap and renewed Glee for a full season! The great musical numbers, nearly all revamps of classic modern songs, is surely a big reason this show has seen such great numbers. Last week(9/30) it picked up 7.32 million viewers. And according to tvbythenumbers.com, its 18-49 demo went up a couple notches, also. Bottomline: This is a series that I hope will be much loved for many seasons to come. Also, they will be coming out with a soundtrack of all the musical numbers performed on the show, sometime next year I'm guessing. Can't wait!

Modern Family: This is definitely a comedy for people who love the Office and even Parks and Recreations. It's a mockumentry, that follows three families who are dealing with daily struggles and what being a modern parent is. I didn't really love this show. It's very clever, but sometimes that doesn't always translate to tons of laughs. I like to laugh out loud, that's why I love the show that follows it, Cougartown. It's about a woman (Courtney Cox-Arquette) who gets divorce and has to go through the dating scene all over again. Bottomline: Modern Family is definitely not going away. It has 9.9 million viewers following it and it's one that I'm positive will be on the awards docket next year.

Lie to me/ Dollhouse: These two shows were midseason replacements last year, but with only half a season shown, I thought that they should have some consideration in this new fall season. Lie to me is still a great drama about a man who is a human lie detector and unorthodox to boot. It's sort of like House, but he's not quite the misanthrope House is. And it's getting okay numbers. Its audience actually grew from last weeks numbers (7.7 million) to 8.12 million viewers. Dollhouse on the other hand is doing terrible in the numbers. It had only 2.1 million viewers last week(10/2). Compare that with a show in the same time slot, like Medium, which garnered 7.7 million viewers, and it doesn't look to good for the Joss Whedon helmed series. Bottomline: Lie to me's future looks promising, while Dollhouse looks like a goner. It's unfortunate and I can't put my finger on why it's doing so poorly.

Eastwick: There's nothing so decadent like a good guilty pleasure. Eastwick provides viewers with an escape from reality they sorely need these days. Viewers get an hour to put aside their troubles and just enjoy a primetime soap opera. The series features Rebecca Romaijn, Lindsey Price and Jamie Ray Newman, as three different women who discover magical talents, friendship and along the way unexpected danger. Even in the rough 10 O'clock spot, it seems to be keeping up good numbers. Of course it's only up against CSI: NY and Jay Leno. Last week (9/30) it had 6.62 million viewers, which doesn't seem like great numbers compared to CSI:NY's 12 million, but it doesn't have the CSI franchise backing it either. Bottomline: I'm glad I put this on my top five list, because it's turning out to be a really fun show to watch. Its lasting power is still up to the powers that be, but I hope it stays around for awhile.

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