Way Too Much Television
September 5th, 2008
It’s that time of year, again! I’m not sure how we’re going to find time to watch all of our tv shows this year with the baby. Thank goodness for DVR! We have the following shows either scheduled on our DVR or on our radar (some of them aren’t starting until next year):
90210: Gabe is hoping that this one really sucks so that he can remove it from the DVR. I’ve recorded the premiere, but I haven’t had a chance to watch it yet. I can’t believe that they are bringing this show back. I must watch it! I used to love this show back in the day. Surely, they are going to be catering to those of us who watched it back then and not just teenagers, right?
Amazing Race 13: I’ve been watching this one since Season 7 and plan to continue watching it as long as it lasts. I don’t think that I’m going to be applying for it anytime soon, unless they have the “Amazing Race: Baby Edition” season.
American Idol: Ok, so we don’t usually watch this one. We watched it last year due to the writer’s strike. I don’t know that we will watch it again when it returns (I guess mid-season?). I’m guessing we’ll have our hands full with TV, and this would be one of the first shows to get cut. I had followed American Idol for about two full seasons previously (the one with Clay and maybe one other?).
Biggest Loser: Families: I had never watched this show before last season. Once again, we were forced to add sub-par shows to our lineup due to the writer’s strike. We have this premiere on our calendar for later this month, but it would also be one of the first shows to get the boot.
Chuck: We added this one last year at the last minute. This was one of our favorite new picks from last year. I was worried that it wasn’t going to survive the whole writer’s strike drama last year, but it made it. We’re going to keep watching it this year.
Damages: When cross-referencing last year’s list, I researched and found that a second season is planned for Damages. This was a good pick last summer when other shows are taking a break. I’m not sure when Season 2 will start, but I don’t think it will be too soon. I’m glad that it was picked up for another season and plan to watch it when it starts.
Dirty Sexy Money: We tried a bunch of new shows last year, and this was one of the ones that stuck. I had started a post about what we thought of the premieres last year, but I never got around to posting it. After last year’s premiere, I had written but not published, “We were hoping that this would be one of our duds, actually. Unfortunately, it didn’t suck as we had hoped. I believe that we want to continue watching this one as well. So far, it seems like we have picked decent premieres.” This one survived last year’s writer’s strike, and we’ll be picking it up again.
Dollhouse: I’m excited about this one, set to start mid-season. Yay, Joss Whedon! The show looks rather interesting and stars Eliza Dushku as one of the main characters. I can’t wait to see it!
Don’t Forget the Lyrics!: We had this on our DVR for a while, but then it conflicted with a few other shows, and we missed it for a while. I don’t think that it is going to conflict with any of our shows this year, so maybe we’ll be recording it again. Gabe and I play a lot of name-that-tune type games on roadtrips. We enjoy watching this one, but it doesn’t have a high priority on our DVR list.
Family Guy: As far as I know, new episodes are are still caught by our DVR as long as they don’t conflict with our other shows. We haven’t always kept up with them too much. I think there might still be a few sitting around on our DVR, waiting patiently for us to watch them. This is more of a filler than a main attraction.
Fringe: This one has caught our attention this year, and we’ll see how it goes. I have liked J.J. Abrams shows in the past (Felicity, Lost, and I think I would have liked Alias if I had watched it). This one has potential, but I don’t have super high hopes for it at this point. But if it’s great, then hey, I want to be one of the ones who discovered it first. Ha!
Gossip Girl: We picked this one up last year, and we enjoyed it. Gabe watches it, too, but it’s not one of those shows that requires his full attention. He doesn’t avoid watching it, at least! It had to grow on him a little. I don’t think that he cared for it at all after the first episode or two. We saw this year’s premiere the other day, and I’m looking forward to the rest of the season. I always need a few mindless teenager dramas in my rotation. Everything I watch can’t be suspenseful or confusing or thought-provoking all the time, right?
Grey’s Anatomy: I still think that it is funny that Gabe refused to watch this with me when I first started watching it two seasons ago. He didn’t even want to be in the same room as me for the first few episodes. He then would read or do something else in the living room while I was watching for a couple more episodes. After that, he was hooked and it becaome one of his favorite shows. I don’t think that last season was as good as previous seasons, but I still love the show. Grey’s Anatomy is never one of the shows that sits on the DVR for several weeks until we get around to catching up on it.
Hell’s Kitchen: This one isn’t slated for the fall or possibly anytime soon, but I’m keeping it on the list. Hell’s Kitchen usually airs in the early summer, though last year they aired a bit earlier due to the writer’s strike. I’m not sure if they are planning a 5th season or not.
Heroes: I remember seeing previews in the movie theatre and all kinds of hype about Heroes before its first season. I was excited about it before it even started, and then I felt it lived up to my expectations. I think it is a quality show. I predict that it will take most of the first episode or two for us to remember what the heck is going on with the show. The writer’s strike really screwed up the flow of our television viewing last season!
High Stakes Poker: As I stated last year, this is just about the only poker show that Gabe and I care to watch these days. We’ll sometimes watch the World Series of Poker coverage or other random poker shows, but this is the only one that we find all that interesting anymore. The next season doesn’t start until next February, so we have a while until this starts back up again.
House: Ah, one of the old stand bys. This will be my 4th season of House. We enjoy watching the show, but I have to admit that this is one of the shows that often sits on our DVR for a while. Then we’ll watching 2-3 episodes (or more) all in one night to catch up. It’s not that we don’t like the show, but I guess that it doesn’t have the same kind of exciting plot progression as a lot of our other shows. Since House is more episodic in comparison, it doesn’t leave us itching to see what’s going to happen next.
Jeopardy: The Jeopardy season is longer than most of the regular TV shows, going well into the summer. I think that it has been a while since we have had new shows, so I guess that they are on a break right now. We have watched Jeopardy while eating our dinner in the past, but now I’m not sure how we’re going to fit Jeopardy into our baby schedule. We try to keep the TV off while the baby is awake. Ooh, looks like the new Jeopardy season will start next week.
Jon & Kate Plus 8: I’m not sure how well we will keep up with this one now that our real TV shows are starting, but we have had them on the DVR as filler. We have watched it in the past while eating dinner and such, but we haven’t watched it as much lately now that we’re trying to avoid the TV while Maddie is awake.
Lost: I actually didn’t start watching Lost until after the first season came out on DVD. I managed to catch up with it before the second season started, and I have been a loyal viewer since then. I plan to continue watching lost until the end, which means I’m looking forward to two final seasons. I respect a show that has a definite ending versus dragging it out for years and years beyond its expiration date. Lost is better some times than others, but overall I really enjoy it. I don’t think that this one starts until the beginning of next year.
The Office: The Office is one of the rare shows that I added to my television lineup after it had been running for a few seasons. I really like getting onboard with the first season of new shows. I hate to not know what is going on with the characters and to not know what I’m supposed to know and what I’m not supposed to know. I also like being a part of the hype and being able to participate in “water cooler” discussions on a new show. Anyway, that all has nothing to do with The Office. It’s one of the few sitcoms that we enjoy watching. Unfortunately, I have to admit it’s one of the ones that sat on our DVR box for a few weeks at a time last year. We also strongly suspect that we missed the finale due to our DVR eating it during a particularly heavy backup.
Private Practice: We kept watching this last season, but we haven’t gotten into it too much. We were interested enough to keep watching, but this could be a candidate for removal. We’ll see how it goes when it starts up again at the end of the month.
Privileged: I’m not sure whether I even want to add this one, but I’m a sucker for CW shows. I’m not sure that Gabe knows that I have set the DVR to record this one. Hey, maybe it will be clearly bad after the first episode, and I won’t have to worry with it.
Pushing Daisies: We liked this one a lot towards the beginning of the season, but I think we both grew tired of it towards the end. We will probably start watching it this season, but we might not stick with it. We’ll just have to see how it goes. I was amused one day when I realized that the waitress, Olive Snook, is played by the same actress that played Audrey in Little Shop of Horrors. She has a pretty distinctive voice. I’m not known for making these types of connections on my own, so I was quite proud of myself when I confirmed it on the internets. Pushing Daisies was cut short last season due to the writer’s strike, so I suppose we’ll give it another chance.
Reaper: This was one of our favorites early in the season last year, but it also lost a little bit of steam (or maybe the combination of a new baby and the writer’s strike broke our television groove). Still, I’m glad that it survived the writer’s strike and will be back this year. Looks like it is getting a mid-season start, so we’ll have to wait until next year. The show naturally reminded us of Dead Like Me, though not quite as edgy and dry. The portrayal of the devil is quite amusing.
Survivor: Gabon: Ooh, it’s the first season of Survivor filmed in HD! We have been watching the last several seasons of Survivor, and plan to continue. Survivor always starts out a bit slower for me as it takes a while to learn who you want to win/lose as opposed to Amazing Race which focuses on one team at a time for most of the coverage. A chance for a million dollars is not nearly enough incentive to get me to compete on this reality show. I’m not completely convinced that I’d do it for a guaranteed million dollars. Hrm. Probably. But it would be a tough decision.
Three Sheets: This one is all Gabe, though I have to admit that it is amusing at times. This one has a pretty low priority on the list and is basically just filler when I’m not interested in watching anything and Gabe has no sports to watch.
True Blood: While the name of the show seems kinda lame, it’s based on the Southern Vampire series by Charlaine Harris. I was excited when I found out that this was going to be an HBO show, except that now we have to finally break down and order one of the premium movie channels. This one starts this weekend, so I guess we better order HBO!
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September 5th, 2008 at 3:53 am
Your list of shows looks like ours! We create a spreadsheet every year to see if there will be major conflicts in when they air! All I can say is that we love Tivo!
September 5th, 2008 at 2:53 pm
So, did you watch the 90210 premiere yet? I loved it!!! That’s definitely going to be a keeper for me! Love seeing all the old characters, places, actors, etc! Awesome!
We have a lot of the same… just not quite so many, I think!
House, Lost, Grey’s, Private Practice (yeah… this one may drop off ours at some point too. Don’t love it, just can’t seem to drop it!), Dirty Sexy Money, Jon&Kate, Heroes (JC, not me. I don’t like that one at all!), and I’m guessing JC will want Fringe. Add America’s Next Top Model, 24, ER, and Lipstick Jungle, and I think that’s about our whole list.
September 7th, 2008 at 3:45 pm
Wow, that’s a lot of shows! I have a few of those on my list - Office, Grey’s Anatomy, Lost.. and i’ll probably add Amazing Race once it shows up on my Tivo. Do you know when it starts?
September 9th, 2008 at 5:38 am
You know, this is the first year that I am NOT excited about the new shows. I have paid very little attention and what I have read about is *so* uninteresting to me. I agree with most of yours…Life is another one that I really like. It has Damien Lewis, who is a fave of mine from Band of Brothers.
I am so the opposite of a Grey’s Anatomy fan. I loved the first two season, watched the third, but once they got rid of the black doctor, and all the hype the cast made about it, I was soured. Now I hate them.
Dexter is coming up this month, or next. Can’t wait for that one!!!
Pushing Daisies is a favorite of mine and the girls.
I liked Damages, but I liked it more in the beginning than the end. I’ll give the second season a try.
Lost, House, Bones, CSI (original), Heroes are my faves. I look forward to Survivor, Amazing Race, and Biggest Loser. I find Biggest Loser a little inspiring, quite truthfully, which puts more depth into the show than I think people give it credit for.
Oh, and Saturday Night Live. A perfect show for DVR, since I can barely stay up that late!!!
September 9th, 2008 at 5:17 pm
Ann, I watched the premiere of 90210, and I will probably continue watching it, too! I was amused. Gabe was not. I enjoy shows like that…I have to have my guilty pleasure shows!!
Audrey, the premiere of Amazing Race is September 28th.
Cindy, that’s a good point about Biggest Loser being inspiring. I think that I didn’t write a fair blurb about the show. I have to admit that I liked the show more than I thought that I would. We only added it because we needed shows during the strike, but we did end up enjoying it. I enjoy the fact that it is a positive reality show. People don’t get as nasty towards each other as they do on other reality shows. It’s nice to see contestants being happy for others when they succeed. And I get all weepy eyed when the contestants have a good week and are feeling good about themselves and achieving their goals. It’s emotional! It might be one of the first that gets dropped from our list, if we need to drop shows, but chances are that we will keep it. It’s one of those shows that we can watch without devoting 100% of our attention, and we need some of those in our queue.
September 10th, 2008 at 4:44 am
You guys are inspiring me to potentially put Biggest Loser on my list.