Anything New This Season That Warrants Viewing?

[LucasM]

though one convinced me with its first outing that I would not watch the second (that being the New Muppet Show).

Wow, really?

Yes, really.  It is being done like a ‘reality show’ [which I detest to begin with] and has petty behind the scenes bickering and shit going on, with flashbacks of Miss Piggy and Kermit having dated at one point, but broke up because Miss Piggy was (surprise) too self-centered.  I don’t think I actually LAUGHED during the show ONCE.  I may have smiled at one joke, but that was about it.  The rest of the time I was thinking, basically, ‘get on with it’.

The Muppets always broke the fourth wall and addressed the audience and also always had behind the scenes bickering between Kermit and Piggy. It's only the minorest of updates on the original formula, and it makes them contemporary, which makes a lot of sense.

As for the break-up, they had to do SOMETHING about the fact that their relationship was built on abuse by Miss Piggy, and the 'comedy' that comes from that is very dated and inappropriate. I am pretty sure they are going to have Piggy grow as a character and have a will-they-won't they scenario, eventually bringing them back together.

If you didn't laugh, you didn't laugh, but I thought Sam the Eagle killed, and I really liked Scooter too. I don't think it was the funniest show I've ever seen, but I think it was funny and had a lot of promise.

Pilots of sit-coms are traditionally terrible - look at the first six episodes of Parks and Recreation, but it went on to be one of the best sit-coms ever made.

And, as I said in the other thread, the entire first season of The Muppet Show is average at best. Luckily people gave it a chance and it grew and became something amazing.

Anyway, if you hated it, don't watch it I guess, but I am surprised by the very mixed reaction the show is getting. I wonder if some people are being extra harsh on this pilot because they are already familiar with The Muppets, and not allowing them to do the setting up they would normally let a new show do?

I think it possible I didn't express myself well (in the condition I've been in the last few weeks, I wouldn't be surprised, but I am in such a condition that I can't really tell if it is me).

What I didn't like was the overall negativity: the bickering behind the scenes seemed more - well - vicious and bitter than it has been in the past (DGeek refers to this with Kermit being 'broken' - a related aside, I always detested Miss Piggy as well, but since she never got what she wanted, she was kept in check before... now within the new Muppet show, she's got her own show and sycophants reinforcing the worst aspects of her personality).  In addition to the viciousness and bitterness of the office politics, the bickering went beyond office politics, to Fozzie's anxiety about and interactions with his girlfriend's parents, who were simply nasty, cruel people (at least the father, the mother tried to appear civil).  That's not funny to me, it may be to others.

Yes, they've always broken the 4th wall.  I don't care about that, and sometimes that was the funniest parts.  No longer.

Related to your comment on 'early episodes not being terribly good', I found Parks and Recreation unwatchable, and I tried to watch an episode in the middle of its run... I'm pretty sure I couldn't make it though an entire episode before turning it off.  [Same with The Office.]

[Edward J Grug III]

Related to your comment on 'early episodes not being terribly good', I found Parks and Recreation unwatchable, and I tried to watch an episode in the middle of its run... I'm pretty sure I couldn't make it though an entire episode before turning it off.  [Same with The Office.]

If you find Parks and Rec to be unwatchable, I don't even know what to say.

What sitcoms do you enjoy?

[LucasM]

Related to your comment on 'early episodes not being terribly good', I found Parks and Recreation unwatchable, and I tried to watch an episode in the middle of its run... I'm pretty sure I couldn't make it though an entire episode before turning it off.  [Same with The Office.]

If you find Parks and Rec to be unwatchable, I don't even know what to say.

What sitcoms do you enjoy?

Currently?  None.  My sole 'funny' each week comes from 'Whose Line is it Anyway?' and what humor is found in the dramas I watch (virtually none of which are 'real life' dramas).

But you bring up something that clearly I missed stating in my original post ('missing the point' being what ultimately led to my writing a lot post-third-TBI: only that way could I be sure I hit the point I was trying to make).  That clarifies the key issue I have with the new 'The Muppets' show, and why I am so vehemently against it, in comparison with the classic 'Muppet Show'.  The current one is a sitcom (roughly in the vein of The Office).  The classic Muppet Show was a variety show with a ton of humor and only the tiniest bit of behind the scenes 'story' (that had virtually no continuity [not that I'm against continuity in the right place; humor is not that place for me]).


I've had enough exposure to the pain of shitty relationships through working with mostly clients traumatized in childhood and their subsequent relationships.  I've had to deal with massive and widespread incompetence in those who were supposed to be treating me for my accidents.  I've been subjected to vicious attacks from the insurance company supposed to be helping me by paying what they made the wager would never be needed.  The third head injury basically stripped away my 'filter' so that my empathic capacity - which was a benefit while doing therapy - is so intense that I feel physical impact from things like anger.

Interpersonal conflict, and negativity is not funny to me.  It is, at best, a severely-draining irritant, at worst an outright trigger for the PTSD developed - not from the accidents, but from the insurance company's treatment of me - that I've had to deal with in the last 20+ years since accident #1.

Sitcoms aren't funny to me.  Had I realized that The Muppets was a sitcom, not a variety show, I might very well have not bothered to watch the first one.

Hopefully that explains things a bit better.

[Edward J Grug III]

Right, that makes sense.

If you don't like sit-coms, you're not going to like a sit-com.

[LucasM]

Well, two more shows I was giving a try are very close to getting the axe (from me, at least).  They are "Minority Report" and "Limitless".  Both appeared to have interesting Sci-Fi underpinnings, but both have basically presented as nothing but police procedurals.  Yes, the film Minority Report was a police procedural, but there was so much new and unique to it that it didn't become tedious.  We're talking episode three and already I feel the MR series is tedious (Limitless made it to tedious by episode two, but since I recorded episode three, I'll watch it and see how it goes).

So far none of the new shows have seemed exceptional to me.  I'm still trying 'Blindspot' for now (not quite sure how much is simply for Jaimie Alexander), and 'Heroes Reborn'.  But HR (hunh... just got a probably unintentional link for the show's initials: that was Jack Coleman's character's nickname ['HR', derived from 'Horn-Rimmed' glasses])... where was I?  ...but HR so far is tedious and uninvolving beyond even the worst season of the first run of the series.

Sorry folks, at this point I still have no new shows that I'd personally recommend.  Possibly when a few others I plan to give a try to start up there may be, but I'm not holding out much hope at this point.

[Edward J Grug III]

Well, two more shows I was giving a try are very close to getting the axe (from me, at least).  They are "Minority Report" and "Limitless".  Both appeared to have interesting Sci-Fi underpinnings, but both have basically presented as nothing but police procedurals.  Yes, the film Minority Report was a police procedural, but there was so much new and unique to it that it didn't become tedious.  We're talking episode three and already I feel the MR series is tedious (Limitless made it to tedious by episode two, but since I recorded episode three, I'll watch it and see how it goes).

Both are based on movies I really disliked, so I haven't looked at either (YES, I know MR is based on a Philip K Dick book, but it's meant to be a continuation of the movie)

[k1]

I agree on Minority Report. I can't see it lasting long. I mainly watched out of curiosity to see how they'd handle it.

Limitless isn't bad, but not great.  I'm enjoying (the one episode I've watched of) The Player more than Limitless.

I'm still working on Heroes Reborn's first episode. So far it's not really doing anything for me.

Blindspot appears to be the best of the bunch so far.

[anais.butterfly]

I am greatly enjoying The Grinder and Scream Queens.

The Grinder is nothing special, but it makes me laugh and Rob Lowe and Fred Savage are delightful. Also, the waitress is in it.

[LucasM]

I'm still working on Heroes Reborn's first episode. So far it's not really doing anything for me.

Yeah.  The problem with 'Heroes Reborn' that I see is that there are no characters in it, it is all plot (and a flimsy one, at that).  The reason that the first season of the first series (i.e. the original 'Heroes') was so involving and intriguing, was because there was an intense focus on multiple fully-formed characters, and it just happened to have a very intense mystery story line as well.  So far, 'Heroes Reborn' has neither.  Even though the focus is on plot, there's not much of it (particularly for having had three episodes already!), and since there's no 3 dimensional characters, what little plot is there I could not care less about.

Unless things change dramatically with it, I can't see myself watching more than maybe two additional episodes.  Even those would be more 'can it really suck this bad for such a prolonged time when they got a reprieve on the show's first death?  They can't possibly be that stupid to let such an opportunity vaporize from being so ill-prepared.'

[stethacantus]

It is still too early in the season to see what some shows are building to, or if the others that began strong will not run out of steam. But here is what I think of the new shows I am watching so far.

Blood & Oil = really good
Quantico = good & has potential
Minority Report =  so-so   Gave up on it after second episode. But will continue to DVD and fast forward through the episodes to see what Meagan Good is wearing
Blindspot = stupid premise but well executed. Really good and getting better
The Muppets =  funnier that I thought it would be. Will have to keep watching. Has potential of becoming one of my favorites.
Scream Queens = more style than substance, but very entertaining.
Best Time Ever = the prime time American adaption of Sabado Gigante. From the company that decided to cancel the original Sabado Gigante.
Heroes Reborn = oh yea, that's why we began hating Heroes. This better lead to some sort of payoff this time.
The Player = really good with potential of becoming a favorite.

[LucasM]

Well, two more shows I was giving a try are very close to getting the axe (from me, at least).  They are "Minority Report" and "Limitless".  Both appeared to have interesting Sci-Fi underpinnings, but both have basically presented as nothing but police procedurals.  Yes, the film Minority Report was a police procedural, but there was so much new and unique to it that it didn't become tedious.  We're talking episode three and already I feel the MR series is tedious (Limitless made it to tedious by episode two, but since I recorded episode three, I'll watch it and see how it goes).

Yep - the two got the axe and I won't watch any more of them unless I hear of some dramatic change in the way the shows are conceptualized and executed.


And even though it was new last year, not this, 'Gotham' is hanging by a very thin thread, that is fraying simply the more I think about it.  To quote me from another thread here:

With season 2 of Gotham, I wasn't sure there was anything potentially worse than apparently giving the Joker a backstory [seemed like it for episodes 1 and 2]... and then episode 3

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

...in which it is now clear that as far as the TV show Gotham is concerned, the Joker is a copy-cat criminal and not the unique insane master of crime he's been for the last 75 years.

Talk about exceeding (in a downward direction) already-lowered expectations!    What a bunch of crap.

Another series, which I binge-watched the first (1/2-)season of when I was bored (and needed something mindless to watch... or brainless, in this case) during the Summer, I doubt I'll continue with, and that was iZombie.  Seemed nominally clever at first, but very quickly got tiring and formulaic.  When the first episode of season 2 was available to see, it felt like a chore to set aside time to watch it.  That's never a good sign.


Can there seriously be so little left (in non-'reality', non-sitcom genres) that is new that might be worth a damn?

I've seen the pilot for Supergirl and wasn't terribly impressed, but when it starts up I'll give it a few episodes before condemning it.  The 'Pandora's Box - have to recollect all the sins' overarching plot (which dates back at least to the old 'Friday the 13th' TV series) is so tiring.

There are a couple more that I'm going to give a try when they start (early 2016, apparently), and those are Legends of Tomorrow and Lucifer.  I have higher hopes for the latter than the former, but even there, the hopes are restrained, given the fate of Constantine last year (which I enjoyed).


I think the impression of current shows has been further eroded because I just finished rewatching Firefly over the weekend.  To go from that show to anything on TV now is such a massive drop in quality and uniqueness of ideas, writing (especially the inclusion of humor in serious shows), and usually acting, it makes everything else pale in comparison.

[Edward J Grug III]

I don't like what I've read about the adaptation of Lucifer at all, which is a shame because I love the comics.

[k1]

Well, two more shows I was giving a try are very close to getting the axe (from me, at least).  They are "Minority Report" and "Limitless".  Both appeared to have interesting Sci-Fi underpinnings, but both have basically presented as nothing but police procedurals.  Yes, the film Minority Report was a police procedural, but there was so much new and unique to it that it didn't become tedious.  We're talking episode three and already I feel the MR series is tedious (Limitless made it to tedious by episode two, but since I recorded episode three, I'll watch it and see how it goes).

Yep - the two got the axe and I won't watch any more of them unless I hear of some dramatic change in the way the shows are conceptualized and executed.

Minority Report has been cut from 13 episodes down to 10.  Might not even make it though all of those.

[BathTub]

Is Narcos worth a watch?

[k1]

NBC cuts The Player and will only air 4 more episodes. (The remaining 4 of the 13 episode season will not air)

Meanwhile Limitless has been picked up by CBS for a full 22 episode season.


I am still a few episodes behind on Limitless, but if I had placed a bet on the two, I would've had it the other way. (That's why I don't gamble)