TV Shows This Season - The FLAT syndrome

The DVR has been totally full lately. We've watched a bunch of new shows this season as well as welcome back returning favorites. And as happens every time, there are many we miss checking out entirely. Way too much out there!

This year though, something weird happened. A lot of the new shows we started watching though filled with good sounding premises and loads of actors and actresses I love just came across totally FLAT!

It really surprised me. Mostly we figured it was just a problem with the first episode or something so we watched more. Still the same! Just can't put my finger on it. This week we took several shows off the DVR record list as hubby had had enough. (He has a lower tolerance than I do!)

Here are the ones we tried and have let go and the ones we're keeping - in no certain order.

Undercovers: Love JJ Abrams. Love love Gerald McRaney in this (he does snark so well!). The premise sounded good. Ex-CIA agents now married getting called back into the fold. Has an undercurrent of 'not all is as it seems' running through it. Boris Kodjoe and Gugu Mbatha-Raw (love her hair in the recent Mentalist!!!!) have good chemistry. The ex partner in the CIA to the two of them, Leo, played by Carter McIntyre is a hoot! The locations are fab. Love that they actually have people who really speak these foreign languages with correct accents. Yet...yet... Something just doesn't quit jell. Can't put my finger on it. Maybe they're trying too hard to be serious and light at the same time.

Also doesn't help that occasionally liberties are taken with reality/plot just to make things fit. Those are always a big turn off. (Can't help it! Inner editor will not be denied!) It is gone from the DVR list... :(

No Ordinary Family: Again a show with people I've enjoyed before. Julie Benz! (Angel, Dexter) Michael Chikliz! Stephen Collins! (Star Trek!) Several story lines and problems. Peeps with powers! Big conspiracy. Moral choices to be made. Have loved specific segments and the lawyer turned sidekick with the lair is a lot of fun. Yet again when it all is combined it comes out so FLAT. Took this one off the list as well. :(

Lonestar: This one only got one episode. The premise as shown was just too depressing - lifelong conman pushed to get deeper by his father, who is in love with both of his wives and thinks he can juggle the mess that is coming. No one was going to win here. Getting vested in anyone was too dangerous! We ran away. Off the list is went. (And hubby had been so excited about this one!)

The Event: LOST wanna be. The whole 'aliens' thing is interesting. And they've definitely done a couple of very surprising twists so far. Been great to see Jason Ritter (Joan of Arcadia) again and Scott Patterson (Gilmore Girls) and many others. The show takes flashbacks a bit too far though. Frequency has been insane. Though it's mellowed out in the last episode or two. Still has my interest but it is losing hubby fast. I am fearing the old 'let's change this character from who they normally are for this one episode so we can make the plot fit' syndrome. I think they've coming dangerously close to that cop out once or twice, and that's always a MAJOR turn off for me. Still in DVR for now...

The Defenders: Had to see this just because of who's in it! Had to see them interact - Jim Belushi and Jerry O'Connell (Sliders). And what a blast they are! Defense lawyers with quirky lives and walking the line between respectable and shameless with gooey good hearts in the center. Plus it's set in Vegas! Sin City! This one has been delivering. Interesting cases too. A keeper!

Boardwalk Empire: Strong series for mature audiences only. Deals with a fascinating period of time - prohibition. Mainly follows the travails of Enoch "Nucky" Thompson, the corrupt treasurer for Atlantic City, as well as that of several people around him. The best part is all the info and small touches about that period of time. Clothes, slang, attitudes. Totally fascinating. And they throw in some historical figures and their possible origins as lovely carrots too, like Al Capone. Keeping this one too.

$#*! My Dad Says: William Shatner! He was so much fun in Boston Legal we had to check this one out. Unfortunately it is on super crowded Thursday so we've only been able to catch a couple of episodes when something else has not played for a holiday hiatus. It's pretty cute. Jonathan Sadowski, Nicole Sullivan, and Will Sasso are also a lot of fun. Will be watching this one when the DVR allows. :)

Nikita: Dollhouse meets Alias. Nothing flat about this series. Started out with a bang and hasn't much slowed down. This is the one we've been most pumped about out of everything new this season. Maggie Q as Nikita is both angsty and super bad! Shane West and Lyndsy Fonseca and all the other actors and actresses have loads of presence and complex characters. Multiple layers and lots of intrigue. Definite keeper for us!

Hm, I think that might about be it for new stuff we caught for the fall. What shows have you liked and will be keeping and which ones will you not? Let's compare!