I've been stupidly busy with work and studying over the past few weeks, so I haven't even had a chance to see what new shows are starting up this month. What new stuff have people seen so far that they love? Hate? Couldn't care less about one way or the other?

In the same vein, since last season got so fubared with the writers' strike cutting new series short, are there any shows that only got a few episodes out that you plan to try out again the second time around?

Returning stuff I'm planning to Tivo:

The Big Bang Theory
How I Met Your Mother
The Office
30 Rock
CSI
CSI: Miami
Numb3rs
Survivor
The Amazing Race
Battlestar: Galactica (when it airs again)
Lost (when it airs again)
House
Dirty Sexy Money

For summer series, I really enjoyed Swingtown, but I haven't a feeling it won't be back, and Project Runway, of course. I haven't watched The Closer since Season 2, and I may pick that back up again in reruns. I've enjoyed the episodes I've seen, and I'd like to catch up.

Dirty Sexy Money is the only new show that I started to watch last season that got cut short that I'm giving a second chance. It's trashy, but fun, and I love Peter Krause. I heard that Pushing Daisies is good, but I didn't start watching it right away and it sounds like one of those shows that you need to get into from the beginning.

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Hope is the new black.

mad men is real good too

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I haven't seen Mad Men, but I have heard extremely good things about it. Is it the kind of show that you really need to see from the beginning, or can you pick it up going forward?

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Hope is the new black.

I didn't really care for Pushing Daisies all that much. It felt to me like it tried too hard to be different for the sake of being different, and ended up being sort of a one trick pony.

Given your list there, I think you should check out Bones. That's an entertaining show in the forensic vein that's become so popular.

Burn Notice is a fun, sort of mindless show. Think if they mixed the A-team with MacGyver and set it in the modern day. That's the vibe I get.

Eli Stone is another one that I will Tivo. I really really enjoyed the first season of that, and it should be starting up again soon.

Finally, if you have a particular oddball sense of humor and want a show where it absolutely doesn't matter if you miss an episode, watch Psych. That show is like my comfort food. It cracks me up, but I can just catch it when I catch it.

you could pick up Mad Men from the beginning of this season and catch up somewhat quickly. I don't think you'd get it all if you started watching this week for the first time.

I am so glad that The Shield is back. Damn that it an outstanding show. Too bad that this is the final season.

In addition to Mad Men and The Shield, I have my DVR set to record: NCIS, CSI, and The Unit.

I am waiting for 24 to come back as well.

More and more lately I've been relying on DVR/internet to watch shows, but the two main shows I want to see aren't coming back until 2009, which are Rescue Me and 24. I'm thinking about canceling my cable but that would severely hamper the NBA season. Decisions decisions!

Dexter season 3 starts this month and I'm extremely pumped about it.

yeah i saw the first episode a couple weeks ago, it's fucking GREAT

The best shows this fall are The Shield, House, and Dexter.

The Shield has been almost disappointing so far, considering it's the final season and comparing it to the greatness of the rest of the series. The Armenian plot feels overly forced and isn't very interesting. I want so see Vic take on the mexican construction guy and have a great sendout for Dutch.

Episode 1 of House was mediocre, hopefully the Wilson shit doesn't get dragged out into this season's Vogler/Stacy/Tritter storyline that drags down every episode it shows up in until everything ends up going back to normal. House needs to focus more on crazy antics to diagnose people and breaking into people's houses. The breaking and entering parts of House are the best.

I'll probably end up watching the first few episodes of Pushing Daisies and Heroes, just to see if they grab my interest from the start. I doubt I'll stick with either of them and I expect I will just end up marathoning them in a year when the pickings for new shows get slim. Daisies has a very good cast, but the storylines last year weren't engaging. Heroes is just a very average show.

The only procedural crime thing I can stand is Criminal Minds, since it focuses more on the story and characters. With CSI, Bones, Numbers, etc. it's always about some goofy stretch of science to solve the episode at the end, and the ride to get there is rarely worth it. Criminal Minds has the contrived endings, but the rest of the show is more enjoyable with the drama and character interaction.

The only new show I've seen is Fringe, and two episodes in it's pretty obvious that it's terrible. They should be sued for calling the shit on the show science. The overall quality of the writing is very poor. The pacing and editing is really weird and most of the transitions are really badly done. The actors are all terrible apart from the dawson's creek guy. The main agent girl and the robo arm lady in particular are painful to watch. Hopefully the black boss dude is way better when he shows up on Lost.

I'll give the Mentalist a shot, but I'm not really up to date on other new shows.

I love How I Met Your Mother.. also watch Grey's Anatomy, my wife got me hooked on that show. That's about it, we talked about getting back into House, but I kinda doubt we will.

I'm starting from scratch on House...ty Netflix

Hail, Californication. True Blood also seems ok.

I knew I was forgetting a show. I DVR Criminal Minds as well.

It's awesomesause. Just understand that there's like two or three 'storylines' that get introduced over the seasons which invariably end up being soap opera suckage.
(Such as the aforementioned by Droma Tritter shit)

Just survive past it, the show gets much better again.

PS: How many fucking times can it be porphyria?! I mean fucking seriously.

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D'oh! I'm glad someone mentioned Heroes. I totally forgot about it.

There are some pay-cable shows that I might be interested in, but I'm not into paying for HBO or Showtime at this stage in my life. Once I'm no longer living in a building where packages tend to disappear, I'll probably do Netflix and watch stuff like The Wire and Deadwood.

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Hope is the new black.

I don't want to hear about "packages" disappearing at your house, Bearne.

:slide whistle sound:

I kept hearing how awesome House was, and I *wanted* to watch it, but it was a case of "hmm, can I start in the middle of season 2 and catch up, or should I just start from the beginning..." So, I decided if it was awesome as I'd heard, I didn't want to miss anything. We're almost done with season 1 and seasons 2 and 3 are in the queue. Our TV blew up, so we're resorting to watching them on the laptop, but just not as often as when we had a TV...

i dont like house, i hate that hugh laurie guy. i don't find the humor funny. same way with scrubs. i guess hospital dramas/comedies aren't for me.

I'm not the one whose alternate identity had to tuck, Neesh.

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Hope is the new black.

I love House, and it sounds like everyone else does too.

I want to throw another vote out there for Bones. I've gotten into it over the last few months on reruns, and I find it really entertaining. The chemistry between the two main characters is really well done.

House is awesome.

We started a bit late and ended up buying the first three seasons of it to catch up, watched all the episodes in a few weeks.

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Kuwen Furyblades
Hunter of Memento Reejeryn
Champion of Faydark

I didn't get into House until my Tivo started recording it for me to check out. I was bored one day and there were two episodes, so I decided to check it out.

One of them was the one where he tells the story to the med students of the three patients with the leg pains (the one w/ the Carmen Electra cameo). That was the one that got me hooked.

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Hope is the new black.

I didn't get into House until my Tivo started recording it for me to check out. I was bored one day and there were two episodes, so I decided to check it out.

One of them was the one where he tells the story to the med students of the three patients with the leg pains (the one w/ the Carmen Electra cameo). That was the one that got me hooked.

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Hope is the new black.

How I met your mother and Rescue Me is what i watch.

But Rescue Me season 5 been delayed till march 2009 =(

This show could go either way. In just the first two episodes I've seen, we've already got a psychic, vampires, and a weredog. I'm waiting for a witch to show up next. And they aren't really being terribly subtle about it.

That and the constant sexual tone is odd.

That being said, the characters of Tara and Lafayette are worth watching it for so far. Lafayette is probably the first "nelly queen" I've seen on broadcast TV that hasn't irritated me, because it comes across more genuine than mocking. So far.

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Heroes
Knight Rider
Grey's Anatomy

only shows I'm really looking forward to this fall

and BSG when it starts again in 2009

Miami starts up this monday, cant wait to see it all play out.

Sons of Anarchy is ok so far, slowly pullin me in- I love the new Peg Bundy.

Hoping Breaking bad comes back!!! Nip/Tuck too, but its just getting a little too shock value.

saw this and thought it was funny:

If it follows the book series, we really won't see any witches (at least not this season.) If we do, it'd be an extremely minor reference. In later books, she ends up with a witch roommate (who is really not a great witch, so it's slightly amusing...for example, she turns a one-night stand into a cat accidentally...)

I like that the tv series has added more to Lafayette's roll...he's a very minor character in the book. I don't like that everyone has such a deep drawl - it makes me wince. I think Tara is a bit over-the-top, although she was better in ep.2 (including her accent). (The Tara that was in the pilot was better...I wish they hadn't switched.)

As far as my TV plans...
Mad Men, Dexter (although I'm worried about the "he starts to 'feel' more" bull...Dexter is good because he doesn't have empathy. if he gains it...ugh), Gossip Girl, Big Bang, How I Met Your Mother, Heroes, Greek, Eli Stone, Ugly Betty, Grey's Anatomy, Smallville, Supernatural (had an awesome season premier, imo), Desperate Housewives, Chuck, Dirty Sexy Money, Samantha Who?, Starter Wife, 30 Rock

New shows I'm testing out:
Sanctuary (in October), Fringe, Privileged (very cute, but very girly, so far), 90210 (when I'm really, really bored), True Blood

Shows I watch when I'm bored:
Lipstick Jungle, Private Practice, Nip/Tuck, Numb3rs, Pushing Daisies

I'm sure there are other new shows I'll check out...but those are the main ones. And then there are mid-season shows I look forward to...Scrubs, Dollhouse, Lost, BSG...

I watch too much tv. At least I know Digilos watches almost as much!

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I tried watching the new Knight Rider but left it. Could it be more cheesy? nope. not buying it.

You almost sound surprised. Seriously. Knight Rider? Why even hide the spoiler?

some people said they were looking forward to it. Trying to be nice

Just got a new one added to my list.

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia

What an awesome show.

I've found myself watching more television than I would like, but there are quite a few good shows on that myself or the girlfriend watch, so I'll mention our favs here:

Mondays - Heroes (returning show)
Tuesdays - Fringe (I completely disagree with Droma's review, and I'm thoroughly enjoying this show so far. It's similar to Lost in that it's one giant puzzle that slowly unravels, only with more of an X-Files feel to it. John Noble's character makes this show, IMO).
Wednesdays - Bones, Criminal Minds
Thursdays - House, Smallville (both returning shows)
Sundays - Amazing Race and Desperate Housewives (the latter is for the girlfriend, but Amazing Race has always been preferable for me over Survivor and other "reality" shows.).

Oddly enough, we still find time to do plenty of exercise (i.e. she's run 2 marathons this year so far, and I'm training for a tri next year).
Boggles the mind.

I've sort of been disappointed with the TV I have watched so far this season. It's all been kind of average.

House was looking promising, but now Wilson's back and it promises a return to status quo. It's fine I guess because it's one of those shows that's just sort of there for me now. I don't love it or hate it anymore, but I can usually watch it.

I'm almost done with Dexter after 2 or 3 episodes. When it was a story about a psychotic living a code it was amazing. One of the best shows I have seen. Now it's turning into just another vigilante show. Dexter is WAY too emo for someone who is supposed to be disconnected. None of his actions scan for me anymore.

Fringe gets worse every episode. I wasn't sold on the first one, and I guess I was too critical as I went along because of it. The last one I saw was the electric man episode and it's turned into a drinking game for me and my buddy. "Nope, no way in hell that would work. Drink."

Heroes feels like a desperate scramble to make up for a crappy second season. "Oh, last year was mind numbingly dull? Watch the amazing series of plot twists! No, really, there's more!" Too much of it feels gimmicky, and they've let consistency go by the wayside. They should have killed off Peter and Sylar at the end of the first season. Now they just rewrite what powers they have because they're not useful for advancing the plot as gods.

I tried the Mentalist and it's really a Psych ripoff without the funny. At least they ditched the exact copy of highlighting the objects he focuses on after an episode. The reason I love Psych is because you're not supposed to take it seriously. It's ridiculous by nature, and you just grab a few laughs. Trying to use the same gimmick in a serious crime drama falls pretty flat. Also, the main character isn't all that appealing to me because his smirky attitude would play better in more of a comedy version. The rest of the cast is completely forgettable.

On the upside though...

How I Met your Mother and The Big Bang Theory have both been pretty consistently funny this year. Best of the sitcoms that I watch.

Bones has been great again. I still wonder how many damn cases there can really be involving skeletons, but I go with it because I still look forward to the show every week. It's a lot of fun.

The first episode of Eli Stone was satisfying for me. I realized what that show is now. It's to "lawyer shows" what Scrubs was to "medical shows". It's a feelgood night. It's not realistic, it's not particularly serious, the good guys typically win, you get some laughs along the way, and at the end of the episode you get a warmfuzzy moment. The whole thing is like comfort food. I like having a show like that around.

How about Life on Mars? I can't decide if I like it or not, but I am giving it a chance, at least.

We just picked up the first season of Bones and watched nearly all of it within or a week or so, excellent show.

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Kuwen Furyblades
Hunter of Memento Reejeryn
Champion of Faydark

I've seen Dexter S1, S2, and current in S3. This show is phenomenal. I really like the aspect of him trying to figure out HOW he should act, because he LACKS that emotional aspect of a person. This is one of my fav. all time shows, top 10 definitely.

See, that's the feeling that I got for S1 and a lot of S2, but now it just feels like "Dexter is really just like everyone else and he's learning how to deal with his feelings he just hasn't had any practice. Eventually he's going to realize that he loves his new family and he's killing to protect good people and punish bad people."

I don't want to "like" Dexter or really even identify with him all that much. He shouldn't be a hero sort. The writing is really falling down from what the show established initially.

eli stone is a real good show

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damn dexter is getting SO good right now. this weeks episode was rad.

My RSS-torrent-ables:

• House
• Fringe
• Boston Legal
• Family Guy
• CSI
• The Mentalist
• The Office
• It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
• Bones
• Numb3rs
• NCIS
• American Dad!
• Lost
• Chuck (which I only added just now reading this post)

The only new shows I'm interested in this season is Fringe and The Mentalist. I really like Fringe, but I can already see it going the same way as all of the other JJ Abrams creations: nowhere fast, and with no way out. The Mentalist is OK.

Incidentally, I think that anyone that critically compares The Mentalist to Psych (which I love, by the way) is silly. Sure, both of them are crime shows (so they're in the same category as 80% of the shows on television). And sure, both of them have the word "psychic" in the script on a more-or-less episode-to-episode basis. But the main premise of The Mentalist has nothing to do with psychics: it was just an occupation of the main character, who is now a very observent detective. It's also very clear at the onset of the series that The Mentalist takes a completely different tone than Psych. To me, Psych and The Mentalist are as different as any two detective TV shows.

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I guess that depends on what your definition of "critically compare" is.

Both shows have a "detective" that at one time or another is or has been billed as a psychic. Both detectives admit that there's no such thing as psychics, they're just hyper-observant. The only difference is that in the mentalist, he's given up the pretense of still being psychic.

Clearly, they have a different tone, but start from essentially the same premise. The thing is that, for me at least, it's kind of a silly premise and merits a silly show. Psych does this for me and is hilarious in its absurdity. The Mentalist seems to try to split the difference between serious and silly by having a "serious" show but keeping the same sort of snarky "I know something you don't know, nyeah" attitude for its main character. In consequence, it sort of falls down on both counts, in my opinion.

To me, calling one show a rip off of the other would constitute a critical comparison.

I agree with you that the two shows share the particular and peculiar commonality of the main character being or having been a psychic. That quality definitely stands out to anyone who has seen both shows, and is why people tend to compare them.

But in Psych, the show revolves around this plot point; half of the laughs derive from the main character's bouts of faux-clairvoyance. In The Mentalist, however, the show (evidenced from the few episodes that have aired, anyway) would have no problem dropping the "used-to-be psychic" bullet point from the main character's history.

I definitely agree it's not a stellar series. (Though decent enough to catch my eye.)

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Criminal Minds has been very good this year.
Big Bang Theory has been funny.
Chuck is good, can be goofy but generally fun to watch.
Bones is always entertaining.
Supernatural for some reason is the show I look forward to the most each week.

House is something I usually watch, then Fringe, you really have to suspend belief with Fringe but the stories aren't bad
I like NCIS better than House but I watch House then watch NCIS on demand (too cheap to pay extra to comcast for DVR)

I really liked How I met your Mother but this season I havent been into it.
Heroes first season was great but I havent been able to get back into it, I tried this season but just couldn't.

I am looking forward to the return of Reaper, not sure why I like it, but I do.

Edit:
Oops. forgot Friday..
Crusoe has been entertaining, kinda mindless but good for a Friday, and I have always watched Numb3ers, this season has been better than last year.

Top Chef started tonight. I like Hell's Kitchen for Gordon Ramsay, but Top Chef always has contestants of a much higher caliber.

Hell's Kitchen is about the jackass, Top Chef is about the cooks.

For whatever reason... Top Chef is by far one of my favorite shows on TV. I think House is the only show I would currently watch over Top Chef.

I believe this is what you were trying to say

House
The Mentalist
Mythbusters
Life on Mars

that's about it

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yeah life on mars is a good show now that they're slowly getting the THIS IS THE 1970S out of their system

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I've really fallen in love with <i>The Big Bang Theory</i> this season. The first season was pretty hit or miss, but they've really hit their stride with some nice character development this season, and its become more an ensemble than it was in Season 1.

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Hope is the new black.