Saturday, January 28, 2017

New Midseason Shows: 2017 Part 1

As usual, here’s a set of reviews of the new, midseason shows that air this season. I’m splitting this into multiple parts again because it will probably only work that way in the future. If it is possible for me to avoid this, then I will. But I’m working on a new set of reviews for primetime as always (I’ll probably keep doing each day of the week for as long as possible) and I’ll need these to be part of it.

Star: Show Description- I’m honestly not sure if I understand the plot of it or not. There might be singing, but it seems to be a racial drama about women who might be in danger and cause danger. Behind the Scenes- This has the same creator as Empire. My Thoughts- The show seemed too weird and didn’t make much sense. It can try to tackle serious issues, but I don’t know if that’s the point that gets across or not. It is hard to understand and seemed too serious, in a way. That, and the show was just skanky. I give it two out of five stars. Long Term Prospects- This might last some for now. Where to Find- On FOX at 9/8 Central on Wednesdays

American Housewife: Show Description- This is more or less your average sitcom revolving around a family of people. Behind the Scenes- First, I offer my disclaimer that this is not a midseason show as it is a new fall show that I only recently saw for the first time. This show stars Katy Mixon from Mike and Molly. My Thoughts- This show was better than I first expected. While it does have some problems and I’m not sure I’d watch it all the time, it is better that some of the promos would make it seem. I give it three out of five stars. Long Term Prospects- It might last for now, at least. Where to Find- On ABC at 8:30/7:30 Central on Tuesdays

Ransom: Show Description- People help with Ransom situations. Behind the Scenes- This is a Canadian show that’s airing in the US. My Thoughts- I thought that it was pretty interesting and good. It may seem similar to other things that I’ve seen before, but it’s about the same type of good quality that I’ve seen from the others. I give it four out of five stars. Long Term Prospects- This is on Saturdays for no good reason and will not last at all. Where to Find- On CBS at 8/7 Central on Saturdays

Emerald City: Show Description- A reimagining of the Oz world puts a modern day and more adult themed twist on the story of Dorothy, who is now a black woman instead of little girl, among other changes. Behind the Scenes- A worrisome thing about this show is how long the delay for it getting onto the air actually took. Over the course of a few years, it went from being a potential project, to cancelled before it made an episode, to coming back to project development, to possibly airing sometime last season, to finally airing this season. Normally delays are bad in terms of long term success, so keep that in mind as this airs in the future. My Thoughts- Okay, parts of this show are strange, which can be expected with fantasy shows. But I thought that it was interesting, even if it was confusing in a way. I give it three out of five stars. Long Term Prospects- It started out good in the ratings, so if it can stay that high, this show will actually last. If not, it will end. Where to Find- On NBC at 9/8 Central on Fridays

Big Fan: Show Description- This is a game show that pits fans of celebrities versus other fans and then the actual celebrity in question. Behind the Scenes- This is based off of a segment that Jimmy Kimmel does on his talk show. It is hosted by Andy Richter, who is the sidekick on Conan. It also has different celebrities in each episode. My Thoughts- I guess that this sort of works as a show, but it’s not as interesting or as good as it’s supposed to be. For one, it doesn’t seem like there’s any real prizes being given unless memorabilia counts. Plus, the show seems kind of dumb in some ways. Regardless, I still give it a good score. I give it three out of five stars. Long Term Prospects- I have no idea, to be honest, but I would say that this might not last. Where to Find- Not currently on the schedule

Hunted: Show Description- A self-described reality thriller, this show has various pairs of people on the run from people trying to catch them. Behind the Scenes- I’m not sure what to put here, except that this might be CBS’s attempt at filling the winter gap between Survivor seasons, something they don’t always do successfully. My Thoughts- This show appears to play into people’s fears of government surveillance, the way they have the hunters tracking teams. It also seems a bit contrived in a way. But the show is interesting and different. You don’t see things like this that often. I give it three out of five stars. Long Term Prospects- I don’t know if this will last or not. I don’t think that it will, but maybe it can. Where to Find- On CBS at 8/7 Central on Wednesdays

Riverdale: Show Description- I’m not sure if I understand the plot just yet. From what I can tell, it seems to be another mysterious things happening at a high school show that you honestly see far too often on the CW. Behind the Scenes- As is almost always custom on the CW, this is adapted from something else, in this case, the Archie comics. My Thoughts- Well, this seems stereotypical in a way. If there’s supposed to be a supernatural aspect to it, it hasn’t come across on the show just yet. Honestly, this probably has all the problems you could expect from a CW show. But, I do think that there is enough potential in it that it might be good. I’ll be watching it again. I give it three out of five stars. Long Term Prospects- I don’t know ratings yet at this point, but I don’t think that it will last given the huge amount of renewals that the CW has already given to most of its shows. While it could last, I don’t see that as likely right now. Where to Find- On the CW at 9/8 Central on Thursdays


This ends part 1 of the planned reviews. I honestly don’t know if I’ll have time for much, if any, new shows in the future. I hope that I do and plan to watch some in the future. But I’m also not sure if I will be able to watch as much as I’d like to. I guess that we will see. To be continued…

Saturday, January 21, 2017

Cursed Timeslots

It seems that some TV shows on some certain networks on certain nights at a certain time are just doomed to always fail. It’s hard to tell why some timeslots are doomed to fail all the time. Well, one of them that I’m going to mention has a very good reason for always failing year after year. But sometimes, shows just don’t last at a certain timeslot on a network.

The most blatantly obvious example of a timeslot failure would undoubtedly have to be Sunday at 10/9 Central on CBS. If your show is airing there, then your show is doomed. Doomed, I tell you! Doomed! Why do I say that? Well, here are all the cancelled shows that aired then: Without a Trace, The Unit, 3 Rivers, Cold Case, CSI: Miami, NYC 22, The Mentalist, Unforgettable, Reckless, CSI, Battle Creek, CSI: Cyber, BrainDead, and Elementary. A lot of these shows were actually doing well before being put in that timeslot. Afterwards? There are doomed. That’s hardly the only timeslot to regularly producing lowly rated shows that keep getting cancelled.

Just an hour earlier on ABC, you have another cursed timeslot that hasn’t found any success in recent memory. What do I mean by that? Well, here are all the rating failures that I can remember airing at 9/8 Central on Sundays on ABC: Secrets & Lies, Blood & Oil, Resurrection, and The Family.

8/7 Central Wednesdays on NBC is a cursed timeslot that I remember on a different network. There have been different ratings failures there before such as Revolution, The Mysteries of Laura, Heartbeat, and that honestly might have been it. But that are all the recent failures of that that I know of.

10/9 Central Tuesdays on ABC is another problematic timeslot for that network. They have had different ratings failures there over the past few years, such as Forever, Wicked City, and Of Kings and Prophets. Those are just the ones that I can remember. Even Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., which now airs at that timeslot, is starting to fail in the ratings. Last season, they mostly aired repeats in that timeslot instead of anything new as the two main new shows both failed instantly, partly due to people being used to reruns happening.


I’m not entirely sure what other networks have failed timeslots. There have to be others. I notice that FOX doesn’t care much for their Friday shows. Normally most Friday shows aren’t cared about as much by any network, but it seems that FOX cares very little about their Friday shows. However, a lot of the shows they air then actually do well in ratings. CW does disastrous in the ratings on every night, but I can’t think of one night that does exceptionally worse than any others. With my mind drawing a blank on any other information to add for this post, I’ll just end it here.

Saturday, January 14, 2017

The Cons of Being a TV Junkie (like me)

Am I a TV junkie? Yes. You can tell whenever I review shows that I must have seen all of them at least once or they couldn’t otherwise be reviewed. How do I have time for all of them? Honestly, I get so far behind so easily, it makes you wonder why I do try to watch as much as possible and don’t just stick with one show at one timeslot like so many other people. Well, I’m here today to talk to you about the downsides of watching a lot of TV.

Most of my life revolves around TV. This is bad. Life shouldn’t revolve around something. But, nearly every day that’s not Saturday, I wind up making sure that I’m free and nothing is happening with me or where I live from 7-10 during the main season, at least. If there is something, that’s bad too. I try to make it so that nothing is too important. I will stop watching shows that haven’t gone to commercials just because something else is happening. But I make sure that none of my personal life takes place during times that I watch shows. If it does, I get a bit annoyed.

I record shows on tape and I’m always behind on them. The last time I was caught up on that was at least two seasons ago. Why am I always behind? Well, I don’t get caught up immediately after I’m done recording on a tape, nor do I make it a priority. I leave it to a one in six chance that it will be rolled from other options that I’m also insanely behind on. Those other options are (you guessed it!) TV shows of some sort. Only these are on DVD and not something current. But the VHS options are a problem in and of itself: they are typically the third show in a single timeslot that I like. That’s not to say that they are the only shows that are ever recorded on VHS, but they are the most problematic.


What problems do other TV junkies have? I have no idea. But there are many things in life that I could be doing, but I’m not since I’m watching TV most times. I’m not sure if I should delve too much into my personal life, but a whole lot of it revolves around watching TV shows. If you don’t believe me, then check out my other blogs which are all about a specific show. I need to work on updating reviews of certain shows so you can see which new one I have. Basically, there’s a lot more that I could add to this while I’m watching a TV show, but I won’t. Junkies have problems, even if you are a TV junkie.

Saturday, January 7, 2017

Never Cancelled, Yet Never Returning

Every year when I post about the cancelled shows from a season, you may notice me mention the fact that some shows weren’t actually cancelled, yet I’m including them in the list of cancelled shows. That’s because some shows, while never actually cancelled, never return to air new episodes again. There are actually a lot of them. But there is a reason behind this phenomenon.

The best way of describing these shows are simply as forgotten. I mean, they don’t have a notice about any future regarding them. This is because they don’t actually have a future. It can be strange that some of them aren’t even acknowledged as over, but these are mostly just summer shows with few of them being shows you might have actually heard of. You might remember them if I mention it or you might not. But I will give you examples in case you are still confused.

There was once a show on ABC called The Quest. They cared so little about the show that after announcing that it would air, it wasn’t until the late summer when it actually did. The show never returned with future seasons, but ABC never bothered to cancel it either. This is hardly the only show to suffer this fate of basically being forgotten about.

Other ABC shows that were effectively forgotten about were Repeat after Me, which aired during the main season but never showed up for future seasons. There was a show called Trust us with Your Life that aired during the summer, but was abruptly pulled before two episodes aired. ABC immediately lied to us by saying that it wasn’t cancelled because the show has never returned to TV. Technically, though, it was never actually cancelled just liked they said. They also neglected to bring back Wipeout after it air multiple summers. Another show that aired during the summer and never returned again was called Whodunnit?

A lot of the CW shows that aired during the summer are blatantly forgotten about. There was actually a show they aired where the plot was about a man whose life was turned upside down when his roommate starts dating his mother. That show was a rare comedy from the network, another reason they would want you to forget it. This show, Significant Mother, has never been cancelled, nor will it ever return with new episodes. It's kind of a shame because I thought that it would be cancelled, but it probably never will be.

The CW aired a reality show called A Wicked Offer that never returned nor was cancelled. They once aired a competitive musical chairs game show that was as lame as it sounded and it never returned even after airing multiple summers. Another one that was interesting was Cedric’s Barber Battle. It aired for two episodes and was pulled from the schedule. While it did return for more episodes, it never finished airing all the new episodes and it will never come back either.

FOX aired a game show called Boom! It never returned and wasn’t cancelled either. They also aired a revival of Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader? When it didn’t return the next summer, it marked the show’s second cancellation, even though they never made it official this time around.

On a season of Big Brother, CBS promoted the new show Same Name through a competition inspired by the show. Same Name still has two episodes that haven’t aired and never will. They never cancelled it either and if you tweet them about the show, they probably won’t acknowledge that it even existed in the first place. 3 is another show that was in and out of the schedule and I’m not sure that there was much about it that I know of.

You might be wondering if there are any NBC shows that have this weird fact in common with all the shows that I mentioned on other networks. Well, The Island, a reality show that was basically Survivor without much of a purpose (not that it was bad, but…), is another show that fits that same mold that all these other forgotten shows do. More research of mine proves that just last season, there were a lot of shows that fell into this category so I’m not even sure that I should bother with them all. Just know that every network among the big five has done this.


Well, I’m honestly not sure what else there is to say. This post is something that I wrote so people would be aware of this event. I might have to make a list of all of these shows that I can remember and put it on imdb so others outside of this blog’s readers will know that this happens. Now you’ll know why some shows just disappear forever without even the common decency to tell us that the show isn’t coming back. I don’t know why this happens. Sometimes there’s a show that you watch and it’s never returning, even though they never bothered to make the cancellation official.