My Thoughts on the 11 New T.V Shows to Watch

1. Community - The first episode was a little blah, but the show has promise. I do appreciate that they acknowledged that the show is like watching The Breakfast Club and therefore dedicated the pilot to the late John Hughes. It keeps improving with every episode, which is a good sign. Every character is interesting - obviously I enjoy Joel, but I also like the girl that "looks like Elizabeth Shue" and the actress that is also on Mad Men - it took me a while to figure out who she was. It just needs that extra "funny" to make it a great comedy.


2. Glee! - I declare this the BEST NEW SHOW of the season. I am completely in love with this flawless show and everyone must start watching it so FOX doesn't cancel it! I anticipate an amazing performance every episode - I can't decide which one is my favorite so far...I think I will go with "This is How We Do It", although I enjoyed "Poison" as well (side note: remember when Turk auditioned for the air band on Scrubs?? Aaaah memories). The show deals with real issues of teenagers (i.e sex, pregnancy, coming out, being different, fitting in...pretty much everything you can think of) however, it is never preachy or cheesy. Jane Lynch kills every one of her scenes. I hope she continues to be a strong presence on the show.


3. The Vampire Diaries - Love it! So far, it has completely captured my interest. I love the main girl, Elena played by Nina Dobrev. She is adorably sweet. I love Donnie from Corona (I mean Stefan, played by Paul Wesley). I don't love Boone - he is a little too over dramatic for my taste and he wears too much blush. The show is a little bit Buffy, a little bit Party of Five, a little bit Dawson's Creak. It's completely addictive and I am excited to see where the show goes next. Will Stefan be exposed? Will Elena fall for Damon? Will the annoying brother stop whining?


4. Cougar Town - This show just needs to toned down a little bit, it could be really good. The acting, characterizations, plots and punch-lines are just too over the top. I really like the single mother and son relationship, I also like Jules (Courtney Cox) relationship with her 2 very different friends - one is a younger, irresponsible club-hopper played by Busy Phillips (from the beloved Freaks and Geeks), the other is a mature mother and wife played by Christa Miller (from Scrubs). Also, if you are a General Hospital fan you will see Sonny's lawyer Diane Miller delivering some very awful punch-lines. In short, I like the show (it was MUCH better than I expected) - but if it doesn't get better soon, I will probably stop watching it.


5. Melrose Place 2.0 - So, I was right that Ashlee Simpson is really awful, but after the first episode aired I realized why she was cast - An amazing resemblance to Laura Leighton a.k.a the infamous Sydney Andrews. The whole premise of the new Melrose is "who killed Sydney?", too bad that I don't really care. I'm not all that interested in any of the new characters, except maybe Auggie - he's kinda hot. I can't wait for Amanda Woodward's (Heather Locklear) return. Oh and it was a great idea to cast Kimber from Nip/Tuck.


6. Trauma - So, the first episode was pretty unmemorable, as was the cast. The episode revolved around the aftermath of a helicopter crash that effects all of the characters - it jumps to a year after the crash and conveniently, exactly one year later there is another catastrophe and one of the victims decides to come back to work. The storyline was obviously contrived and convenient. I decided to give it another try by watching the second episode, but wasn't really impressed. It also reminds me of the other new show Mercy (also unmemorable), so I kept confusing the characters with that show. I don't recommend.


7. The Beautiful Life - What a train wreck. Obviously, I don't even have to say how bad the show was since it was justly canceled after only 2 aired episodes. I only watched the first episode and I'm not even sure how I made it through the whole thing. Mischa Barton was awful on The O.C , but it was over-looked because the show was solid - however, when you put such an atrocious actress with such poor writing you end up with...this. I question how this show ever got put on the air to begin with.


8. FlashForward - The Pilot episode was pretty intense, very Lost like. There was a lot of information given during the "flash forwards" and I am a little nervous that I was actually supposed to remember all of it? Because I don't. I do remember a kangaroo (only bc a voice over told me to during a commercial - which was awkward) and the date of the "flash forward" - April 29th 10pm, which I assume will be the season finale. I think the creators of these types of shows need to understand that if a show takes too much energy to follow, people will just get frustrated and lose interest. This is why these high concept shows tend to fail (i.e Six Degrees, The Nine). I'm not saying I want them to dumb down the concepts, I think there just needs to be a balance of "watchablilty" (I'm pretty sure I just made up a word) and complex story telling. I do love the cast...Dr. Corday from E.R and Commandor Norrington from Pirates of the Caribbean, but where is Charlie?? He was heavily featured in the advertising but has yet to appear.

9. Modern Family - Thank goodness - finally an actual "funny" show. I am happy that this show exceeds my expectation every week. The first episode was a little iffy, but the following episodes were hilarious. Ty Burrell is amazingly funny as Phil "the cool dad". He's what I imagine Michael Scott would be like as a father. He just tries a little too hard - it's almost painful to watch him dancing to High School Musical and speaking teen lingo incorrectly (he thinks WTF means "why the face?"). The gay couple, Cameron and Mitchell - although a little too stereotypical - are also very funny. It also has a "wholesome message" at the heart of every episode which is cute.


10. Eastwick - I like this show in all of its cheesy glory, however I am pretty sure it will be canceled soon. I think they did a really good job with casting, especially the Darryl Van Horne character. I enjoy the way the women are discovering their mystical powers and the mystery surrounding the characters - It's just not as addictive as it should be. Fans of the film will notice that Veronica Cartwright reprises her role from the original film, although she has a different name. There is also another General Hospital actor, the guy that plays Christina's douche bag boyfriend pretty much plays the exact same character in Eastwick. It's nice that ABC likes to keep it in the family...


11. Mercy - Like I said, pretty unmemorable. The beginning of the pilot is exactly like HawthoRNe - complete with a rebellious nurse, homeless person and an inexperienced newcomer. I will give the show one more episode to impress me, but it's not likely that I will continue to watch it.

*The new show V has yet to air...