Greetings TV viewers! Welcome to another week of TV or Not TV where we will now turn our attention to the peacock to see what NBC has to offer in the way of new shows for the fall season.
Since I am a TV critic who has no TV critic clout I will be reviewing this season based on solely on the information available through NBC.com. Ill informed way to critique? Yes. Do I care? Not so much.
America’s Toughest Jobs (Premieres 8/25) –America’s Toughest Jobs throws 13 people into the toughest and most extreme jobs out there. The show is brought to us by creator/executive producer Thom Beers (‘Deadliest Catch,’ ‘Ice Road Truckers’) so you can bet the contestants are at some point going to be driving on frozen roads. Each week someone gets canned and the annual salary gets thrown in to the winning pot. If you like seeing people suffer from the comfort of your couch than you should enjoy this one.
Knight Rider (Premieres 9/24) – Earlier this year the pilot of this series was shown and the ratings were decent enough for it to be developed into a series. Even though the connection to the original series was forced, this new show is at least true to the concept of the original. There are bad people in the world and one man can make a difference (as long as he has one tricked out high tech car). The most notable name on the cast is the voice of KITT who is played by Val Kilmer but that’s fine because the show is about the car. I still have to say proceed with caution because I’m sure most of the budget for the show is in the CGI of the vehicles effects.
Kath & Kim (Premieres 10/9) – So here’s the deal, the show with the same name in Australia is a big hit and someone is hoping to hit import gold a la The Office. They are trying to stack the show with talent by hiring Molly Shannon, Selma Blair, and John Michael Higgins. Shannon is the attractive divorce in middle-class suburbia whose daughter (Blair) moves back home after her own divorce. I’d watch it to see Higgins alone, but not all imports translate well. Proceed with caution.
My Own Worst Enemy (Premieres 10/13) – OK, so Christian Slater plays Henry, a mild mannered suburban dad. Christian Slater plays Edward, a highly lethal trained operative. Two people, same body, each unaware of the other until (I’m sure) the premiere of the show. I’m not sure which is the greater stretch: the show concept or that they are going to try to also sell us Mike O’Malley as the other incredible operative. Even if the show is good (with the recent announcement that James Cromwell just joined the cast it makes me think it is) I fear the concept alone will keep people away much like they did with last season’s Journeyman.
Crusoe (Premieres 10/17) – You’ve heard about the book Robinson Crusoe right? Well, in a very interesting literary turn of events the peacock is bringing us a 13 part mini-series that is saying it will be true to the literary vision of the source material. The concept sounds great, but we’ll have to wait and see the implementation.
Now that we’ve taken a glimpse in to the not-so-distant future it is time to set the Wayback machine and take a look at the really not-so-distant-future.
MONDAY
FOX – 8:00 PM: Next week will be the two hour season premiere of Prison Break so tonight they are giving us the last two hours of last season so we can get all caught up. The first season was stellar, the second season was good, and the third season screamed of budget cuts. Here’s hoping the fourth season recaptures what worked and dumps what didn’t.
FX – 8:00 PM: They say you can never go home, and The Butterfly Effect kind of proved the point when time-travelling Ashton Kutcher changes things in his past and seems to keep screwing up his present. I really dug the movies concept but it’s a story that (even with the alternate ending) just didn’t know how to really wrap things up.
CMT – 8:00 PM: You can get caught up on everything you’ve missed so far tonight with re-airing of Gone Country 2.
NBC – 9:00 PM: As mentioned above, get ready to enjoy the pain and bruising that comes from 13 regular people taking on America’s Toughest Jobs. I still don’t get why they didn’t save the premiere for Labor Day (get it?).
MTV – 10:30 PM: When I first heard that My Super Sweet Sixteen had been Exiled I reveled at the thought of never having to see spoiled brats getting dreamed parties again. Turns out this is almost as good.
TUESDAY
ABC Family – 11:00 AM: If you didn’t see the first season of the quirky comedy Greek than set your DVR because they are showing the whole shebang today until the 9 PM premiere of season 2.
OXYGEN – 8:00 AM: If Greek is too sweet for you than here’s a real dose of sour with an all day marathon of The Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency that is building up to the 10 PM premiere of the new season. The show is a wonderful train wreck to watch as Janice never fails to freak out.
CW– 8:00 PM: I’m not one to really pimp repeats a lot but tonight’s Smallville, as corny as it is, gives us our comic nerd fix with a glimpse at the Justice League.
CW – 9:00 PM: Recommending another repeat? Yes, I am. Reaper replays its season finale where Sam has been targeted by the demon uprising and a shocking turn of events at the end of the show proves that one character may not be who (or what) we thought they were. Since Reaper could come back as soon as October I don’t feel bad recommending this to those that haven’t seen it.
WEDNESDAY
FOX – 8:00 PM: Two hours of Bones gets us caught up for the premiere of the next season. I’m only mentioning it because it is probably my last chance to type Gormogon, which isn’t nearly as fun to type as it is to say.
DISC – 9:00 PM: Conspiracy theorists won’t like the fact that the MythBusters try to prove (or disprove) whether NASA faked the moon landing. This kind of bums me out because I really enjoy the show more when they blow stuff up.
THURSDAY
CBS – 8:00 PM: If you’ve never watched an episode of Big Brother you can get an idea about how the show works when they go through every competition in one night that they usually do over the course of one week, and no one has a real chance to plot and scheme.
FX – 8:00 PM: Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines may be the movie that the rest forget. Terminator Chronicles acts like it never happened and Terminator Salvation just occurs in the future and won’t have to reference it. If you watch it and expected a different ending, you may want to look at the title of the film one more time.
CHECK LISTINGS: Obama will be accepting the Democratic nomination at the Democratic National Convention (or the DNC for those with street cred). I’m going to tune in just to see how many times they cut to Hillary for a reaction shot.
FRIDAY
SCIFI – 8:00 AM: I’m a sucker for a Star Trek marathon but today’s 21 hour Star Trek: Enterprise marathon just baffles me. Shows are shown from all seasons, well out of order, and the show’s finale episode airs 12 hours before the marathon ends. What the heck guys?
ABC – 8:00 PM: Win a Date With Tad Hamilton! (and lose two hours of your life you’ll wish you had back).
OXYGEN – 9:00 PM: Meet Joe Black and say goodbye to three hours of your life you’ll never have again.
SATURDAY
NBC – 8:00 PM: I really liked Chuck last season and tonight the peacock re-airs the second episode from the first season, title Chuck vs. The Tango. How can you go wrong with a title like that?
FOX – 8:00 PM: Tonight on a very special COPS it’s 20 Years Caught on Tape. Societies deviants, delinquents and inebriated span two decades. Makes me feel good to be an American.
SUNDAY
A&E – 5:00 PM: It’s a six hour marathon of Gene Simmons Family Jewels. (I’ve tried four different ways to say that and they still all sounded dirty.)
TLC – 7:00 PM: Feeling guilty from this three days weekend’s barbeque feasts so far? TLC is in no way trying to help with Big as Life: Obesity in America followed by two hours of World’s Heaviest Man. Some one pass me another chicken wing.
CARTOON NETWORK – 11:30 PM: At only fifteen minutes it’s very hard for Robot Chicken to fill the void left by last week’s season finale of The Venture Brothers, but at least it tries.
– Will Wilkins is now kind of looking forward to My Own Worst Enemy.
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