Welcome to opening day of the fall TV season, a day traditionally filled with hope and trepidation. Although there are four returning series that I absolutely adore (“Life Unexpected,” “Parenthood,” “Fringe” and “Star Wars: The Clone Wars”), the slate of new shows appears disappointing.
Because of the stagnant state of the economy, I feel like major innovations in culture will be popping up soon. But not yet, and not on TV.
The fall slate features a lot of new sitcoms, and I don’t know about you, but I am done with the half-hour, laugh-track-driven comedy template. “Modern Family” was universally rated as last year’s best new sitcom, and I don’t disagree with that, but nonetheless I found it skippable. I do have affection for classics like “Seinfeld” (which, yes indeed, did have a laugh track), but wow, what a turnoff it is to see a fall TV schedule that trots out a tired genre in abundance. A sign of how bad things have gotten: The new entry from “Arrested Development” creator Mitchell Hurwitz, “Running Wilde,” has gotten some of the worst advance reviews. It’s right up there with “Outsourced” and “Shat My Dad Says.”
On the other hand, I subscribe to the theory that you should watch what you like and skip what you don’t like, and not complain about what you don’t like. Somebody else likes it, and they aren’t hurting anybody.
And there are a few unique shows to fuel the “love” side of my love/hate relationship with network TV. One of them starts tonight: “Hellcats” (8 p.m. Central Wednesdays on The CW) is the only network show about cheerleading and the only drama set on a college campus. I have no idea if it will be good or not. Ideally, once it gets past the pilot — which appears to crib liberally from the movie “Bring It On” — “Hellcats” should be a mix of “Glee,” “The Best Years” (a college-dorm-based drama on The-N that only I watched) and, yeah, “Bring It On.”
“Hellcats” will probably end up being slightly above average, and people will call it their “guilty pleasure.” But you shouldn’t feel guilty about liking any show that is clearly the best of its type (in this case, a college cheer team melodrama starring Disney Channel graduates), even if it earns that distinction by default. If you’re tuning into TV’s third-best medical drama or sixth-best cop show or 11th-best family sitcom, then perhaps you should feel guilty, unless you have an undying passion for hospitals or law enforcement or D-grade jokes. But I suspect that most viewers of those shows are merely comfortable with what’s familiar and too lazy to try something different.
TV networks have always aimed the bulk of their programming at people who like TV rather than people who love TV, supporting shows that have a safe chance of being decent rather than those that have a slim chance of being great. And Fall 2010 appears to be a disappointing continuation of that.
Still, don’t throw out your TV or delete Hulu from your bookmarks; that “hope” element of opening day still flickers. Even if “Hellcats” is terrible, other newcomers fall into the “worth a peek” category (peruse Zap2It’s guide to plot out your schedule), and I’ll blog about them as they premiere.
In the meantime, you can use this thread to chat about any fall shows you want to, even if it’s a sitcom.
P.S. My Entertainment Weekly Fall TV Preview cover prediction for this year is “Glee.” The cover subject is almost always a buzzworthy second-year drama, which means “The Vampire Diaries” is “Glee’s” stiffest competition. EW loves “Modern Family,” which has the best chance among comedies, but I don’t think it will break through. This year’s buzzworthiest first-year show is “The Event,” but I bet EW is taking a “wait and see” approach with that one, knowing its Five Best New Shows cover comes out a month down the road. “Glee” is pretty much a lock, I think; the only question is which cast members will make the cut.
Main image: CW publicity photo
Comments
As to the EW cover, I was kind of right. In a change of pace, EW opted to put seven shows on its cover this year, instead of picking just one: “Glee,” “Modern Family” and “Cougar Town” representing second-year hits; “30 Rock,” “The Big Bang Theory” and “Dexter” representing established shows; and “Hawaii Five-O” (!) representing newcomers. I have now heard hype from multiple sources about “Hawaii Five-O,” which pretty much fits my definition of a bland, skippable cop show, but maybe I’ll have to reconsider that. Also, on the inside, EW will pick its five best new series (apparently one of them is “Hawaii Five-O”), presumably doing away with the issue that used to come out about a month into the season. Should be a great issue on the inside pages, but I already miss the old “one featured show on the cover” days. I don’t want EW to be confused with TV Guide and its “please everyone” philosophy.# Posted By John Hansen | 9/9/10 1:31 PM