Mid Season Replacements

Welcome to the middle of the season folks. No, I haven't gotten my calendar out to see how many episodes of Big Bang, How I Met Your Mother or The Office are left, but I can just tell. How? I'm a genius. Well, no, not at all. I can tell because we're getting hit with a slew of new shows that may or may not still be here by the end of the actual season. Over the next few weeks (and the previous four-ish) you'll see the networks put a big push behind these shows they hope will fill the gaps in their line-ups, which, let's be honest, weren't exactly bustling with new, innovative and interesting shows as I mentioned before.




Anyway, I've caught a few episodes of these new shows here and there and will be offering up my opinions on each as is my blog-given right.

CASTLE
Monday 10:00 (ABC)
Live everyone else, I saw a TON of previews leading up to the premiere of Castle. I wasn't really sold on the "writer teams up with a cop" shenanigans the ads were trying to sell me (it seemed like Bones with reversed genders), but I like Nathan Fillion and wished him success. Well, I found myself without anything to watch on Monday night last week so I checked it out and it wasn't bad. This week's episode was pretty good too, if a bit overcomplicated. Fillion's rad and the lady copy is growing on me. There are two aspects that I really like though. First off, I like his family. His daughter is smart and kind of the anti-Gossip Girl while his mother is a former (?) New York actress who likes to party. Not exactly the most original dichtomy, but it all works well together (you might recognize the mom as Greg's mom on Dharma and Greg). The second thing I like is seeing a writer at work on a TV show. Sure, he's supposed to be a grocery story aisle novelist, but he thinks like a writer and I just like seeing that, being a self proclaimed writer myself.

DOGG AFTER DARK
Tuesday 8:30PM (MTV)
Dogg After Dark is kind of like Hugh Hefner's old show where he'd just walk around a party in a loft and talk to people except this time it's
the Dee Oh Double Gee sporting shades in a huge nightclub and "bumping into" celebrities. I've only seen it once, but he called a lot of dudes cousin and then someone sang at the end. I didn't even realize until I just looked things up for this blog that it's on Tuesdays, a day I don't have anything to watch, so I'll have to give it a look next week.

BETTER OFF TED
Wednesday 8:30PM (ABC)
The Better Off Ted ads did a good job of getting me to want to watch the show, mostly because they heavily featured Portia de Rossi who, aside from being SUPER hot, also gets a near-infinite pass for being on Arrested Development. I tried watching the first episode online, but it got really skippy so I quit and watched the second episode last night. Due to some phone calls, I missed the second half of the episode, but I liked what I saw. The premise is kind of tough to explain (the main character actually does a pretty good job in the opener of the first episode), but I like the fact that it focuses on characters from all over this huge research and development company. I'm not completely sold, but I'll be back next week.

DOLLHOUSE
Friday 9:00PM (FOX)
I saw one episode of Dollhouse, the second one, and will not be watching any more. I was pretty bummed by how not-great this show was, but I wasn't surprised. I had heard the production had hit a lot of bumps, plus I'm not an Eliza Dushku fan, so this didn't feel like a home run from the beginning. I also felt like they didn't do a good job of letting us know what this show was about (or even letting me know it was on). At first I thought the dolls were supposed to be some kind of super agents, but it turns out they're kind of prostitutes? I dunno. The problem with a show where the main character is blank is that you really have to like the actor or actress because that's all you've got for lack of character (though I'm sure all that will come back in the memory flashbacks that will probably become important at some point). It also seemed like all the characters were just rehashes of other Joss Whedon characters, like the nerdy tech kid. I know that Whedon has a tendency to start his series' slow and then really kick it into gear (like Buffy and Angel, I haven't seen Firefly yet) and I hear there was a big game changer last week (please spoil it in the comments, I'm curious), but I don't think I'll be coming back to Dollhouse.

KINGS
Sunday 8:00PM (NBC)
I probably shouldn't even include Kings on this list because I saw about 20 minutes of one episode. But in that 20 minutes I saw a show that I definitely want to catch up on. There's such a deep history to this show about America if we had kings (something I think NBC should have advertised way more clearly). The series seems taylor made for my ilk, by which I mean fans of well thought out alternate realities. There's a ton of history ready to be mined here. Hopefully I can get caught up so I have an idea of what's going on this week (if I remember to watch).

And a few other shows I'm looking forward to:

THE UNUSUALS
Premieres April 8, Wednesday 10:00PM (ABC)
and
THE DUEL 2
Premieres April 8, Wednesday 10:00PM (MTV)
Before realizing both of these shows will not only be on at the same time, but also starting on the same day, I was kind of looking forward to The Unusuals. Again, the concept seems a bit whacky, but I really like the cast: Michael from Lost (Harold Perrineau), Joan of Arcadia (Amber Tamblyn), one of the nerds from Dazed and Confused (aka the crazy roommate from Friends, aka Adam Goldberg) and a guy from 28 Weeks Later (Jeremy Renner). But, alas, my attention will be diverted thanks to the latest Real World/Road Rules Challenge, which starts the week after one of my top 5 favorite shows, The Real World Brooklyn, ends. This one will be dubbed The Duel 2 and promises to have a fight between Real World Paris castmates Adam and CT!!! (If that made sense to you, we can be friends forever.)

So, what shows are you watching? Seriously, please comment, I need to know that SOMEONE's reading.