The Morning After: Grrrrrrr!

James,

Why not have people list their favorite new shows so far? Here is my ranking, from best to worst:

Pushing Daisies
Chuck
Life
Reaper
Bionic Woman
Back To You
Dirty Sexy Money
---------------
Carpoolers
K-Ville
Moonlight
Journeyman
Cavemen

@Alex:

I was thinking about asking (and posting my own) a little later in the week since I suspect today will be a low-traffic day... but anyone who wants to, feel free to jump in now.

@Alex: I'll take your top 3 (Pushing Daisies, Chuck, and Life) and that's it. I'm not watching any other new shows - what I've seen has convinced me not to give them any more chances (although later, when Bones/House goes into baseball-induced hiatus, I may try to catch up on Reaper).

It was fantastic to have FNL back. I'll agree that the Landry-Tyra story was slightly disturbing because from what we've seen, Landry is too smart to do that (and by that, I mean the apparent aftermath, not the initial act itself, which seemed to be to be justified). On the other hand, Landry is probably one to panic or freeze at a moment like that, and would be easily led by Tyra (who seems a little more street-smart or dumb, depending on your perspective, and would thus be more likely to advocate that type of cover-up action).

Still, I have all the confidence in the world that FNL will right the ship, and treat this story with realistic consequences.

(The bigger question - how is Riggins still on the team? Wasn't he a senior last year, along with Street, Tyra, and Lyla?)

Spent some time catching up on stuff on DVR, still way behind. But maybe it was the absurdity of the whole thing, maybe it was me expecting it to be terrible. Maybe it just reminded me of weird TV shows like I Dream of Jeanie and Bewitched where you say 'Is this really on TV?" Whatever the reason, I kind of liked Cavemen. I am rooting for this underdog... or is that ape?

Carpoolers was just ind of OK but I'd probably tune in to see it again - after watching my beloved Cavemen. And upon your suggestion I did check out Aliens in America and was charmed.

@ Chaddogg - Good point with Riggins, I really thought we was a senior as well. I guess you can't get rid of one of your better characters.

Also, why is Lyla doing with her life besides finding Jesus? Shouldn't she be going to college? Maybe she'll be leaving for school later. Third, where is Waverly, Smash's girlfriend? Did she get cast on another show? Finally, Lyla and Landry did panic but last season Lyla did go to the cops so they have a record of her assault the first time with a composite sketch of the guy's face. I'm more interested in how Coach Taylor's life changes as a coach at TMU and how the players adjust to a new hard@*$ coach. It seems even Street will have problems with him.

@Drew W - I agree on all your points. I think the powers that be just glossed over Riggins/Lyla/Street/Tyra's graduation, and pretended they were all juniors all along (I have no idea why they didn't pursue that from the beginning, but I digress). I think Lyla stays in high school as a senior, but I love the born-again angle to her story - it's real, and something that does happen more frequently than people that don't live in the Bible Belt could imagine. Seeing her growing in her religion, and its impact on her friendships/family life could be fascinating, particularly if the writers continue to treat her religious awakening with respect for the religion (as they did in the first episode).

But you're right - this show is built around Coach Taylor and Tami Taylor. Connie Britton AGAIN turned in an Emmy-worthy performance (damn Emmy voters), and her losing her composure on the coach when Coach left was just phenomenal. And Kyle Chandler still knocks all of his scenes out of the park - seeing him struggle with losing his family while pursuing his "dream" job is going to be amazing. His scene with Julie in the car, where she broke down - priceless. I just love how seriously and REAL the writers and actors make these characters. It's amazing to watch highly talented performers nail scenes that are written with pitch-perfect dialogue and choices by the characters.

@James - any word on ratings for FNL? I hear they lost overall to Moonlight, of all shows, but tied Moonlight in the target demographics and actually improved 600k on viewers from the season 1 finale. With the new DVR counting, expect that to go up even further (even though many people might have seen it online in advance of the first episode).

I'll be the first to comment on Life Is Wild: I liked it. I had low expectations (I was expecting 7th Heaven), but it was actually good (I won't say it's Everwood returned, but it reminded me of that a little, and not just because of Nina). I hope the show keeps up.

This means the CW is four for four with me for series premieres this year–that's better than the big four networks.