Monday, September 23, 2013

Fall TV

They say if you want something done, give it to a busy person. Well, they may be right, but they're also mean. How about help the busy person? How about don't burden the busy person any more than she already is? How about do what's expected of you and stop dumping on other people?

It's that time of year. Every fall, things get hairy and crazy with our homeschool group and I start to daydream about moving to another country in the hopes that it might have less annoying people. Every. Year.

This year is no different. I'm up to my eyeballs in stuff to do. I can barely keep up. And right now, I feel like telling people to bite me. What sucks is that we JUST got back from vacation, so it's not good that I'm already this riled.

What also sucks is that after over two years of people suggesting an overhaul on how we do things in our homeschool group and my resisting it, we've put a new plan in place, so of course everyone comes out of the woodwork with questions or issues or whatever. It was supposed to be a time saver, but the transition is bumpy and not quite saving time yet. 

So, what's a busy person to do? Have a breakdown! What if she's prone to depression? Well then, she better find a way to laugh, right? Well, what better way than TV sitcoms?

So to recap: I'm busy. I'm stressed. I'm frustrated. I need a break from all the stuff that is making me crazy. And I want to laugh.

Therefore, here I am with a post about TV shows I'm excited about watching. Please humor me - join me in talking about fun shows and what you like about them.

Stuff We Already Watch

1. New Girl - Season 2 is on Netflix and Season 3 starts this week. I love this show. Just saw the Halloween episode of Season 2 and Mark and I practically rolled off the couch laughing when Nick went in the haunted house.

2. Big Bang Theory - This past season was, in my opinion, their best season yet. In fact, I think they should've beat out Modern Family for the Emmy, as this past season was, in my opinion, Modern Family's weakest. I love the characters, themes, and writing. I've missed them all and am so excited to see them again!

3. Modern Family - Even a weak Modern Family season is better than a good season of most other shows. They can only get better, right? Love ensemble casts. Excited to get back to it with the Pritchetts (and Tuckers and Delgados) and the Dunphys.

4. Amazing Race - Probably one of my favorite shows to watch. Love Phil. Love the tasks and the cultures and the excitement. Love to talk about it with friends. Love to sit in my living room and watch other people doing all that stuff.

5. The Voice -  Not one of my absolute favorites, but definitely the best singing competition show in a long time. I love Adam Levine and the chemistry among the judges is better than any show's EVER.

Stuff We Are Cautiously Optimistic To Try

6. The Michael J. Fox Show - Um, it's got Michael J. Fox in it and it's about his life with Parkinson's. Do I need more reasons than that?

7. The Goldbergs - This is the one I'm most excited about - it's set in the 80s and it's about a loud family. That stuff cracks me up ("HOWARD!"). It could be stupid (I hate stupid comedy), but if it's got good writing and is smart and witty, we could have a winner. Have I mentioned that it's set in the 80s?

8. Mom - We don't have super high hopes for this one, based on the previews, but we're big Allison Janney fans, so we'll give it a shot.

9. The Crazy Ones - Robin Williams stars in it, so it's crazy not to at least try.

10. We Are Men -  It has Tony Shalhoub and we like him. We'll try it. Chances are, we'll stick with maybe 1-2 of these shows. So many shows are stupid. But here's hoping we find a gem or two in this list.

Mourning The Loss Of

  Go On . . . . Seriously, how could the NBC executives be so stupid?

What are you excited to watch this Fall?

16 comments:

The Magic Violinist said...

"Modern Family"! :D And "Gilmore Girls," but we're going to have to wait for Saturdays for that (sigh . . .). ;)

LMW said...

Sheesh. It's like you're looking on our DVR. We just got into New Girl a couple weeks ago and we're already almost finished with Season 2. It's hilarious! We've got four episodes left in Season 2 and have set the DVR to record Season 3. We also love The Big Bang Theory, as we've discussed previously. I think I've convinced Bill that we should give Modern a serious try next. We're also excited for the next season of Parks and Rec.

As we've also discussed previously, I too hate stupid sitcoms. So, I'm a tiny bit curious about the Michael J. Fox and Sean Hayes shows. They might be dumb, but I'll give them a try. I did enjoy Will and Grace pretty well, though it was never one of my favorites.

I hope watching some lighthearted, but kind of smart, sitcoms will help you this fall. It's actually my favorite season of the year, even if it means that I have to return to work.:) I love the fall weather and start looking forward to Christmas.

I'm pulling for you.:)

Emily said...

When Nick punches Jess in the haunted house I almost wet myself from laughing. I LOVE that show.

We tried Mom tonight and her life is such a mess that I felt stressed out after watching it. I don't think I'll go back.

Dr. Mark said...

"Mom" wasn't half bad. I get what you're saying, Emily. I definitely will give it a second look.

My favorite part of the Halloween episode of "New Girl" is when the clown and Nick keep screaming at each other. In the same circumstance, I'd probably go ballistic, too. Crowns are creepy. And another line that gets us going: "I got your text. When you're going through a "Taylor Swift-like range of emotions," I should come over, right?" Classic.

Anonymous said...

I'm excited for the 50th-anniversary Doctor Who episode in November! *crosses fingers that she'll be caught up in time* *is not quite midway through series six*

Lindsay said...

Gosh, Fall comes alive for us. We have a list.
Nashville
Revolution
Parenthood
Revenge
Once Upon A Time
Parks and Recreation

I don't think I have ever laughed at a show as much as I did with New Girl. One episode was so awkward I was laughing so hard. Since Scott has to get up early for work, we put a limit on how many shows per night. Usually just one, so we will get behind. Every once and awhile we do a marathon and I love that! Ha. I need a life.

Boquinha said...

TMV, I LOVE LOVE LOVE our Saturday night dates. And I love Gilmore Girls.

LMW, see? TV, movies, food . . . I'm telling you! Those are important similarities. :) We just saw the bathtub episode of New Girl - Schmidt's delivery cracks me up:

"Bathtubs are Medieval filth cauldrons ... pass."

"I'm not interested in simmering in testicular tea for 20 minutes."

ROTFL! And Nick's faces after he says stuff . . . and the money in the jar . . . I love this show! And I totally want to hang out with Zooey Deschanel. That character? That's HER.

Do it! This is fun. We're trying Parks and Rec per your advice and you can try Modern Family per ours. :) The season opener of Modern Family was SUPER sweet yesterday. I got misty.

We saw that stupid CBS preview show that Sean Hayes did and it looked SUPER corny, but maybe that was just the preview show.

Thanks, LMW, you are super sweet. Your comment made me smile. I'm so glad you've found us.

Emily, yeah, very tough/different lives. Allison Janney is so great, though. I know what you're saying. I feel like every show deserves a more-than-pilot try, though. Pilots are rarely EVER great episodes. Maybe they introduced all that drama at once to get it out of the way?

Nick and the clown! Yes! And that line - bwahahahaha!

Nevillegirl, do you get emails from ThinkGeek? They have all kinds of awesome Dr. Who stuff!

Lindsay, sounds like you lean more drama than comedy, eh? How early does Scott get up. We're not very disciplined with getting to bed . . . we're trying.

Anonymous said...

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Downton Abbey. I bought Joy Season 1 on DVD as a gift and ended up getting more into it than she did. I've since bought all the Seasons on DVD.

LMW said...

Yeah, we definitely have a ton in common!:)

Zooey reminds a bunch of us of my sister, Sarah. She's currently on a mission in England, so it's especially fun to have the comparison by which to be amused, since we miss her.

We've got the first two episodes of the third season of New Girl on the DVR, but can't decide if we should just watch them now or wait for the episodes to build up for a bit...

You're right that most pilots aren't too great and shows should be given a chance beyond the pilot (Big Bang Theory, for instance), but I'll have to say that New Girl's pilot did hook us. I also think that West Wing had a great pilot.

Oh, right, now that you mention it, we saw that Hayes preview show too. You're right that it was stupid. The network sure is pushing the show though.

We DVRed the MJF show and plan to give it a try tomorrow.


LMW said...

PS. I, too, am super glad that I found your blog and felt comfortable enough to comment. That's a testament to Mark's and your inviting tone. Appreciation for those who interact on your blog goes a long way.:)

Boquinha said...

Jimmy, I haven't tried Downton Abbey beyond the very first episode. Maybe that deserves another look . . .

LMW, wow, you got through those fast! We're working our way through season 2 on Netflix. When we finished Season 1, Season 2 wasn't on there yet, so we set our Tivo to tape whatever was in syndication and were so desperate for more Zooey that we watched them out of order (which is so not like us at all)!

Good point about the pilots. New Girl hooked us immediately, too.

MJF was hard for me to watch. I had to watch one at a time. I really like his character's wife on the show. I love that they put his actual wife in as the neighbor, too. But yeah, watching him struggle with PD is hard. Reminds me of my dad. I even got choked up when I talked about it the next day with a friend (and getting choked up caught me off guard).

One more quick thought on New Girl. I think Winston is the most under-developed, least fleshed out character on the show. It's a shame. There's potential there, but I just don't feel like I know much about him or what is "thing" is (no pun intended related to the PoGo episode).

Thanks for the kind words. :) Such a bright spot in my day. :)

Anonymous said...

@Boquinha: Yep, I love ThinkGeek! I got my brother a Doctor Who-themed present from there, actually. :)

Dave Johnson said...

I'm going to try to catch up on New Girl. Really excited for BBT obviously, and yeah, Modern Family didn't get many laughs from me last season, so I'm a bit meh about it this time around. MJ Fox looks promising. We're really enjoying Master Chef Jr. so far - cute kids with super mad skills in the kitchen, and delicious looking food - winning combination.

Stuff I hoped to watch this fall but I will be behind on because we have a limited cable package again:
WALKING DEAD WALKING DEAD WALKING DEAD

Ahem.

Sons of Anarchy, Treme's final (half) season, Hell on Wheels, and the soon to be announced new David Simon (Treme, The Wire) show - probably for the spring though. I'm glad Breaking Bad and Dexter are over - both exhausting to watch (in a good way), though I will miss Walter and Jesse terribly.

Amazing Race - with YOU GUYS!

Dave Johnson said...

Oh - almost forgot. The Mindy Project.

LMW said...

Bill loves Walking Dead and loved Breaking Bad. Neither of those shows are my cup of tea though.:) He also enjoys Hell on Wheels. While it's not my type of show, I do like th music.

I can see why the MJF show would be difficult to watch for somebody who has had to watch a loved one go through it. I fully believe that it's got to be impossible to always be able to have a good sense of humor about something like that. It's just not practical.

Boquinha said...

Yeah, I can't do intense/scary/violent, so I don't watch any of those.

Yeah, LMW, we haven't watched beyond the first 2 episodes yet. I want to, though. I think.

We caught "We Are Men" and I think that one has promise.