Television recap (Sept. 19th-26th)

Now that the television season is pretty much in full swing, I am going to attempt to run down my top 10 shows/moments of the week and then maybe mention a few other random things and probably a disappointment or two. Again, this might get some tweaking in the coming weeks.

10. Melrose Place/ Vampire Diaries- These are both shows I was unsure about when they started, but 3 weeks in and I am totally hooked on both of them. Melrose has a pretty interesting murder mystery arc going on, mixed with a bunch of hot people. Vampire Diaries has some funny writing, and a cool villain oh and hot people. I imagine that if I get too busy one of these shows would still be the first ones to go, but for now I am having a good time with these CW shows. Vampire is in no danger of being cancelled and The CW has ordered more episodes of Melrose, so it should not be in any danger, either.

9. The combo of Modern Family and Cougar Town- Okay, this is mostly for Modern Family. Cougar Town had a few laughs, but feels very forced being saved by Courtney Cox spending ample amounts of time in her underwear. By contrast, Modern Family had me rolling at times. It is a little too close to The Office in tone, but still very funny. The acting is really great, especially by the gay couple and I think attention has been paid to each of the main characters. I am most taken by the little Hispanic kid, but the whole thing worked in the first episode. There were a lot of great lines, but the best moment was when one of the gay fathers presented their new kid while playing "The Circle of Life."

8. How I met your Mother- The premiere episode may not have been the funniest episode, but How I met your Mother has always been a fine balance of laughs and story and this week, I think story won. I love any chance we get to see Douchey Ted and Professor Ted is certainly the easiest way for us to see Ted at his doucheiest. I love that he was in the wrong class and that it was Barney's advice that kept him in the wrong room for far too long. However, Robin and Barney were the focal point of the premiere and I liked the way they handled it. Neither one really wants to admit they want to be in a relationship and in true Lilly fashion, Lilly locks them in a room until they have "the talk." The ending was sweet and honestly, any opportunity for Neil Patrick Harris to act his ass off, is great for me.

7. Glee- Everyone else I know seemed to really love this episode, but not me. It was probably my least favorite of the show so far. The musical numbers are my favorite thing in the show and so an entire episode built around essentially 1 number, was lame. I loved watching the football team do the "Single Ladies" dance, but The West Side Story moment and the Celine Dion song did nothing for me. Also, teenage pregnancy is something I loathe in television, almost as much as I loathe the fake pregnancy from the annoying wife. This show pretty much lives and dies by the music, so this week, it just died.

6. The Emmy's- I rarely actually care about the awards in these shows, which is good because I would have been disappointed all over the place. What matters to me are the host and presenters. Now I was pretty much primed to enjoy this show because of NPH. He was a wonderful host. he was funny, but not too funny that he pulled focus and he was an endearing host. He also had a wonderful opening musical number, where he impressively got the names of a lot of television channels. As far as the presenters go, Ricky Gervais really killed with his bit as a presenter. He was funny and charming and will certainly host something in very near future.

5. Community- It is official, I love this show. Joel McHale is a wonderful lead and adding Ken Jeong as the Asian Spanish teacher just killed me. The episode had a lot of great stuff, from college kids pretending to be activists, to what friendship is and some great lines from all the surrounding cast, but the climax of the episode was perfect. Chevy Chase and Joel McHale acting out some epic story while we see it in slow motion over Aimee Mann's "Wise up." It got me with some serious laughter.

4. Grey's Anatomy- I am not sure how long I will watch this season because at times I feel like I watch this out of routine than any real reason, but this week had some great stuff. As usual, the acting from the supporting characters was excellent, especially Chandra Wilson and Kevin McKidd. The first hour was some of the toughest television to watch because of how depressing it was, but was also very realistic in how different people react to death. What I also loved was how quickly the passed time. It means the show does not have to focus for a long a time on George's death. It was quite a great move by the writers of the show.

3. Dollhouse- I am sure there are people who were not wowed by the opening but I really loved it. Eliza Dushku got to kick some ass and look gorgeous as a bride. Then, The show moved forward a bit with the Topher and Whiskey stuff. I am sad to see Amy Acker go, even if it is only for a short time. I know she has a new series, so maybe she is gone for good, but she went out with a bang, doing great acting. Having the former Agent Ballard as Echo's new handler is a nice touch and the ending put, yet another twist into the nature of the show. I am already along for the ride here. I think the show is going to be a slow boil for a little while and then explode in the back half, which I like. Not every episode needs to be on fire.

2. FlashForward- HOLY CRAP!! I was hooked about 30 seconds in and then the show went ahead and hooked me even further with every passing minute. I want to know what is going on and I think they gave us enough tidbits about is what is going on to make me think the writers have an actual idea what they are doing. I loved the quick and disorienting flashes and I thought Joseph Fiennes did some great acting work. The show was twisty throughout but then they really threw me for a loop in the final moments and it just makes the show seem even cooler and more interesting. The effects were great and the destruction looked epic. If this is the new Lost, it started with the same kind of bang that lost did. This could be a whole lot of fun!

1. Supernatural- Get used to seeing this show towards the top of my recaps. I. Love. This. Show. Sam and Dean have gone their separate ways and the opening moments of the episode really showed us that nicely. I actually really liked the Dean and Castiel dynamic, as Dean actually had some fun, which he realized never happened with Sam. For Sam's part, he is trying to figure out how to live life without hunting and it is not proving to be easy. Dean, as per usual, had the best lines, Sam had the best angst and then the show moved its mythology forward by giving us Lucifer and Sam having a conversation. Since season 1 the show was building towards Sam and Dean being on opposite sides, but this season has raised the stakes in crazy ways! Oh man, I know this is supposed to be the final season, so anything goes!!

A few random thoughts:

The Big Bang Theory- This is usually one of my favorite shows, but the premiere left me very cold and unsure of what I think going forward. I did not like the way the entire "summer" break ended up being for no purpose other than making Penny realize she wanted Leonard. I really did not like the way the friends acted towards each other and I hated how easily they wrapped it up at the end. I know it is a sitcom and I should not concern myself so much with those things, but I hated everything about the episode.

The Office- I might be getting over this show. The premiere was pretty funny, I guess, but this episode just did nothing for me. I might just be done with Michael Scott and his awkwardness. I am going to give the show a few more weeks because I love the Pam and Jim dynamic but nothing else in the show really has me at the moment.

So you think you can Dance is the opposite of American Idol in that the audition process just is not very exciting.