Fall TV Reviews- What's on my DVR

With every move or new season, I try to drop a few TV shows from my DVR. I think I entirely watch too many shows, and since becoming a parent, I want to drop even more so I can focus my extra downtime for more family oriented activities. Also, Matt and I have nearly 0 television shows in common (only Big Brother- and that’s only in the summertime) so I do try to check out a few fall shows to see if there’s anything that will peak his interest. He mostly only watches reality shows that are based on the outdoors or cop/prison life (like all the Alaska everything (fishing, hunting, living, fish/game) shows, the First 48, etc).

Here are some of the shows I’ve dropped from my DVR: The Vampire Diaries, Pretty Little Liars, New Girl, Revenge, and The Following to name a few. We also dropped Sons of Anarchy, but we’re thinking of picking it up again to finish the series (we watched half of the last season). Nothing wrong with these shows, I just missed a few episodes and never cared about picking them back up. Some of them just seemed redundant every episode or had more ridiculous plot twists with every season. I’m also thinking about dropping Nashville, CSI Las Vegas (I know! I’ve watched since college, but since Grissom left it’s not the same), and Once Upon A Time as well, they’re just a little boring to me now.

With the new fall season starting up, I’ve checked out a few of the new series and there are some really great shows I’m excited about watching! Here’s my list of what’s great and what’s awful (All series’ summaries are from Entertainment Weekly).

The Good:

Red Band Society: A group of teenagers meet as patients in the children’s wing of a hospital and become unlikely allies and friends in this comedic young soap.

My Take: I didn’t catch the first two episodes and didn’t have any interest in the series, but my sister and a friend told me how great it was so I watched it one night and fell in love! I enjoy all of the characters and the dynamics of their relationships. Each character has a different disease/illness, but they’re all bonded by living in the hospital and the typical high school social rules don’t really exist there. I’m interested to see where their stories will go. Matt and I are actually watching this together, so as long as the series stories stay on track, I think it will be able to keep both of our interests.

How to get Away with Murder: A sexy, suspense-driven legal thriller that centers on ambitious law students and their brilliant and mysterious criminal defense professor who become entangled in a murder plot that could rock their entire university and change the course of their lives.

My Take: Shonda Rimes can do no wrong, she is a show writing genius! I knew I would like this show with the very first commercial I saw for it. Viola Davis, murder, college/career life- I’m sold! The very first episode was everything I was hoping for; plot twists, back stories, intertwining stories, lust, and murder. The second episode kept up the speed and I’m pretty hooked on watching it all unfold. I’m so excited for this series and my Thursday nights (and weekends- that’s when I get to watch all the shows!) just got a whole lot better!

Stalker: Psychological thriller centered around a pair of detectives who handle stalking incidents for the Threat Management Unit of the LAPD.

My Take: I’ve watched the first episode and I really enjoyed it and was pretty creeped out by some of the plotlines. Especially the part that was in the commercial when the woman was in her room changing and in the mirror you see hands come up from the floor and roll her rug up. Eek! I love crime drama shows and I like the twist that this one has that sets it apart from other shows, but I’m not sure if it will keep my attention. The acting was great, the story lines believable, and there’s a dark history yet to be revealed for each main character. I just don’t know if it’s good enough to add to my DVR on the regular.

Gracepoint: The 10-episode series follows a detective duo and their investigation into the murder of a young boy in a small town.

My Take: The Killing is one of my favorite shows, every episode kept me on the edge of my seat and I’m so glad that Netflix picked it up to finish the series with one more season. Now that it’s over, when I saw a commercial for a 10 episode series special for Gracepoint, a story surrounding a child’s murder I knew I had to watch it! I’ve seen the first episode and enjoyed it. It doesn’t seem to be as dark as The Killing and I’m looking forward to some twists and surprises.

The Terrible:

Scorpion: An eccentric genius and his international network of super-geniuses form the last line of defense against the complex threats of the modern age.

My Take: This show is terrible- I didn’t even finish the first episode. I didn’t care for any of the actors or their characters, the acting is awful, and the storyline was laughable. No suspense like I thought it would have at all, the action was over the top, and the fashion was bad. Nothing to care for in the show whatsoever. Blech all around.

Selfie: Comedy inspired by My Fair Lady tells the story of a self-obsessed 20-something woman who is more concerned with “likes” than being liked. After suffering a very public and humiliating breakup, she becomes the subject of a viral video and suddenly has more social media “followers” than she ever imagined — but for all the wrong reasons. She enlists the help of a marketing expert at her company to help repair her tarnished image.

My Take: I don’t know how I ended up watching this! Ok, I do. My sister said it was funny (she had to have been drinking) so I watched the preview episode from my DVR Fall Preview option and although I like John Cho, I’m surprised he ever signed up for this gig. I would be shocked if it made it halfway through the season without being hacked off the network. The only funny point of the show at all was how it made fun of social media and how obsessed people have become with having followers and likes instead of focusing on their real life.

NCIS: New Orleans: The NCIS New Orleans office handles cases from Pensacola through Mississippi and Louisiana to the Texas panhandle. New Orleans with its rich setting of music, fun, and debauchery is a magnet for military personnel on-leave. And with fun comes trouble. It is a natural backdrop for a unique character driven spin-off.

My Take: NCIS isn’t a show I watch regularly and have seen a few episodes here and there, but when I saw they were introducing a new series with Lucas Black I quickly added it to my DVR. That only lasted for the first episode before I deleted it. The first episode wasn’t much for a series opener and it just didn’t set off any spark for me. My mother-in-law said it was better the second episode, but I think I’m going to ditch it altogether.

Wow it seems like I watch entirely too much TV, but I mostly only watch them at night before bed or have it on in the background while I get ready, eat breakfast (before Ellie is up), and clean. That being said (or typed/read), I still want to ditch more shows so I can focus on the bigger things in life.

What shows do you watch? What’s on your DVR? Has any new fall show caught your attention?