The upfronts are a time of joy and sorrow in my life. Joy at the anticipation of my old favorites coming back and the new shows I have yet to fall in love with. Sorrow at the reality that my favorite shows are actually not coming back until September, and complete despair when my old favorites are cancelled
I am mourning
Veronica Mars. Yes, the show has slipped a bit (V, when did you become such a self centered bitch? Logan, where are your balls?) but still it has one of the best casts on television. They feel like family. (Because yes, I’m that pathetic.) I want to know what happens to Mac and Max. Do Mac and Logan start an internet company? Will Dick ever stop being one? Will Wallace ever get a life?
The fact that The CW cancelled Veronica in favor of
One Tree Hill, the
Pussycat Dolls and
Farmer wants a Wife… just scares me.
Pussycat Dolls has become the common denominator for America? Where has our taste gone? I’m distressed that The CW had to turn to reality shows in order to make a profit. For example, look at
CW Now, which sounds to me like an over long content wrap (Were they really so successful that you want to give them their own show?) and
Online Nation, which seems like nothing more than filming people as they surf the internet. Scarily enough, I bet these shows will be hits.
On the positive side,
Gossip Girl looks like a lot of fun. I’m always a sucker for a good teenager show. Let’s just hope that producer Josh Schwartz makes this more of Season 1
The OC – i.e good. The buzz on
Reaper is good; and really who could not like a show about parents who sold their son to the devil?
Over on ABC, I’ll give
Private Practice a shot, if only to see if Shonda Rhimes can create as good a first season of that show as she did with
Grey’s Anatomy. (Which is fast falling down the list of my Tivo priorities.) I wasn’t terribly impressed with the pseudo-pilot, but I’m a Tim Daly fan and I like Paul Adelstein and (yes I’m going to say it) Amy Brenneman, so I’ll give it a chance for them. (But let me ask: If Marin Dungey wasn’t dating an ABC exec, would she even be working?)
Dirty Sexy Money is supposed to be great, and I love almost anything that Greg Berlanti creates, but I’m not a fan of Brian Krause, so that’s a problem. And whoever thought
Cavemen was a good idea should be fired.
CBS, on the other hand, looks pretty bleak. While I’m glad that
How I Met Your Mother is back, and
Big Bang Theory looks cute (yes I’m a sucker for Johnny Galecki, sue me) and it’s nice that Jennifer Love Hewitt’s cleavage still has a job, there isn’t much on this schedule that thrills me.
NBC made some good choices. Renewing
Friday Night Lights and putting it on Friday night? Excellent. (And it won’t compete with
Men in Trees, also on Friday night. Yay.) Glad that they didn’t break up the Thursday night comedy crew, if for no other reason than I can start really getting into
30 Rock. I’m having a tough time wrapping my head around this
Bionic Woman update. Are you kidding me? Who thought that was a good idea?
Speaking of updates, or copycats, or whatever we’re calling them, where is the TV version of
Mr. and Mrs. Smith? Perhaps someone actually watched it and realized that Martin Donavon and Jordana Brewster are not only poor replicas of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, but are actually two of the most boring actors on earth, period. They couldn’t get Angie Harmon for that role? And Jason Gedrick – he needs a job. Or
Josh Hopkins!
