lucidlotuslife

Ah, the new fall lineup.  Ah, the anticipation of the yet undiscovered gems loaded up on the DVR.  Ah, teevees warm glowing, warming glow.  I love every minute of it, even those that seem to drag on forever(I’m looking at you #3).  And I love to get to share it all with you lovely folk again this year.  Check out last year’s list to see my predictive skills and let’s see how I do this year.

10.  Elementary – This version of Sherlock Holmes was like a person with Asperger’s merged with a unhinged homeless person with ultra-keen powers of observation.  Which is to say, I couldn’t find a way in to the character to come to care about him.  And Watson, played by the luminous Lucy Liu, was uncertain and as lacking in zip or zest as a deflated balloon.  Add to all this, a formulaic procedural and you have a great big NO on the Lotus scale.

9.  Revolution – Now, I was pretty damned excited for this one as it’s been touted all over the teevee as the second coming of Lost.  I have a deep and abiding love for the works of J.J. Abrams starting way back in the late 90′s with Felicity and stretching on up through my beloved Lost.  And I was led to believe that Revolution had his fingerprints all over it.  Turns out his company is producing it, but he’s not one of the writers.  Cue the issues with lack of tension, an abundance of schmaltz and a lead character that makes me want to punch her in the you know.  And Giancarlo Esposito, not-Locke,  who was super fantastico scary balls out on Breaking Bad just kind of falls flat with the one note he’s given with this role.

The show does have some good things going for it - apocalyptic world shit always speaks to a geek gal like myself, the sword fighting old west action stuff is rad and it features several different oh yeah, that guys.  Tim Guinee, Zak Orth and Billy Burke have all been in so many projects there are bound to the elicit and oh yeah, that guy on sight.  In my opinion, the biggest thing the show has going for it is Billy Burke.  He’s like the rakishly handsome, susceptible to emotional manipulation of wide-eyed young females, irascible not-Sawyer badass of the post-apocalypse.

I have a strong aversion to the sentimentality of the not-Kate character.  Kate Austen was always mucking things up because she felt that she was invaluable to every single mission or task, even those she didn’t have the skill or strength to manage well.  As annoying as that was, Kate could also kick some serious ass when it came down to brass tacks and she wasn’t going to shy away from putting a bullet in the face of an Other.  Not-Kate is very concerned with morals and ethics in a lawless land, even when her life, and the lives of the others around her, are put in danger because of that.  Uncle not-Sawyer badass told her something to the effect of her being refreshing because of this.  I say sure, if refreshing means a total downer drag who will certainly get them all in trouble on a consistent basis, if not dead.  But I guess without all of her fuck-ups the show would end in about six shows, so…

Not sure how to predict this one, but I predict it will be off my DVR within the month.

8.  Go On – Go On is wholly likable.  The madcap ensemble is is appropriately madcap, the workplace gang is smart and funny in that deprecating, razz on your buddies kind of way, the emotional piece of the loss group never gets too heavy-handed or cloying.  But the real reason to watch this show is Matthew Perry who is affable and likable and just funny.  I’ll watch any show he’s in, but I have a feeling it won’t be this one for too much longer.

7.  The New Normal – This is another charming, likable show.  All the characters are like adorable, bubbly cartoons.  The pretty ingenue just trying to make a way in this bad, old world for herself and her adorably oddball daughter.  The cuter than pie gay couple baking a baby in the body of the ingenue while taking her and the oddball daughter in like family.  Even the racist, Republican grandma feels like the shiny, not-Sue.  Soapboxes are stood upon, hearts are touched, lessons are learned.  Heart-warming?  Yes.  Ground-breaking?  No.

I’ll watch it when I have time.  I think it’s a nice, sweet show and I hope it sticks around.  The fact that One Million Moms protested it makes me hope that even harder.

6.  Animal Practice – Nothing about this show worked for me.  I didn’t feel the chemistry and the main character was so different from the Andy that I knew and loved on Weeds.  Which is the way it should be as it’s a different character.  Maybe it’s just too soon.  Weeds just ended and the character of Andy was so layered and complex that putting Justin Kirk into such a typical zany sitcom setting just feels hollow.

My prediction is cancellation, but I further predict that both Justin Kirk and the amazeballs Tyler Labine will be back, hopefully in something that lives up their talent.

5.  Last Resort – Despite the level of the talent on this show (high) anything related to active military life doesn’t do much for me in the way of interest (low).  I love Scott Speedman (Felicity) and Andre Braugher (everything) and even not-Mulder Robert Patrick (X-Files).  Throw in a little Autumn Reeser (The OC) and Dichen Lachman (Dollhouse) and I want to love it, but I just…don’t.

Knowing ABC’s history of shit-canning well-loved shows far better than this I’d say cancellation is in its future.  I will definitely be spending my screen time elsewhere.

4.  Katie – Keep in mind that I have only watched one entire episode of this show and that was because my girl, Jenny from the blog, was on an episode.  Along with the before unknown to me and me alone (must have been all that time I spent under that rock) wondrous Brene Brown.  But I really enjoyed the direct, no-nonsense pleasantness of the pocket sized host.

I don’t really do talk shows.  Except Ellen because she transcends, well, everything.  I have loved her since Open House and that love ain’t stopping anytime soon.  I watched Oprah more than I would have liked because my bestie has a lady crush on her.  Don’t get me wrong, I loves Oprah.  And her show was top of the heap as far as talk shows go, but that’s where we come full circle to I don’t really do talk shows.

Katie is knowledgeable and relatable, interested and interesting.  I think she could fill that slot left empty by the queen herself and lend a smart, open dialogue to daytime teevee once again.  I predict she’ll go strong.

3.  Partners – This is a old school sitcom (re: canned laughter, badabumdum jokes, over the top acting) which is kinda CBS’ thang.  It’s kinda not my thang.  But I heart Sophia Bush (One Tree Hill, have you been paying attention?) like whoa.  And cutie boy David Krumholtz (Numbers) ain’t half bad either.  While I enjoyed the relationship between cutie boy and his gay bestie, I can’t subject myself to the same old, same old.  Sophia Bush deserves better.  Cancelled.

2.  The Mindy Project – Another girl I love like whoa.  Girl can write and girl be funny.  She even has a blog.  She is also damn sexy all mussed hair and mascara down to there in the first epi.  I liked the flow, the silliness, the candor of the self-oriented main character.  I like the other characters and the tension between Mindy and Dr. Cocky.  And she has some killer art hanging on her walls.  One of those pieces was done by my friend,elisaann.  If you’re the first to spot it on the show, you can win this dope ass water bottle.

Prediction: this show is going all the way, baby.

1.  Ben & Kate – I didn’t even watch the premiere of this show because it looked so, well, dumb in the previews.  How glad am I that I got a wild hair and watched it On Demand?  Pretty damn glad as it shares the top spot for my favorite new show of the season with Mindy.  It’s weird and wacky and touching in a non-gaggy sort of way.  It reminds me of The New Normal without HD and Cinderella-style wildlife.

I hope it will stick around.  That hope seems plausible as Fox has stuck with Raising Hope, which has a similar vibe and a moderate following.  But you never really know, right?

Disclaimer:  these are the ten new shows I have seen so far this season.  Some of the new shows that I’m most eagerly anticipating haven’t yet premiered.  The three that I am super psyched about are: Arrow, Nashville and Emily Owens, M.D..  You can rest comfortably knowing that I will have an opinion about each and I will be sharing it. Consider yourself forewarned.

Check out more Top Ten lists at Many Little Blessings.  Or let out your inner organizational nerd and write one yourself!