2014-15 US Network Television: What Are You Looking Forward To?

Apologies to non-Americans for the Americentric nature of the post but I gather a lot of these shows will end up airing in a lot of places, so it's not entirely so. Besides, a large chunk of them are adapted from South American or English sources, anyway.

I'm excited for football which, at least for awhile, comes on Saturday (starting tomorrow), Sunday, and Thursday. I'm excited for my returning survivors (Almost Human got cancelled) in Agents of Shield, Elementary, and Person of Interest (in ascending order). However, when it comes to the new slate, this looked like the worst season of new shows ever until I watched some trailers and it still looks like it might be. But I was surprised that Madam Secretary didn't look as awful as it sounded. (Tea Leoni and Bebe Neuwirth are no longer young, alas, but I always knew Bebe ruled and Tea Leoni seemed surprisingly excellent in the promo.) Scorpion looked really dumb and too improbable but, on the other hand, looked like it could be Numbers on amphetamines. Be amazing if they can actually get the computing right, though. And, of the innumerable superhero shows, I figure my tank is full with Shield, but The Flash looked like it might not suck (the pajamas look awful though - the only superhero suit that ever made any sense was Iron Man's!) and Gotham had a nice goth vibe (and Russell Crowe, Jr. as Gordon) though I can barely picture it being good and can't picture it staying good. Zero new SF shows, so just the one (or two if you count teen dystopias) already on. One sure-fire quick cancellation fantasy show to briefly bring the total up to eight plain fantasies (how many times are they going to trot out that same show?). And three new superhero shows to bring that total up to five.

The least non-interesting trailers/promos (commercials) to me:

Madame Secretary
The Flash
Gotham
Scorpion

According to wikipedia, these are the upcoming 2014 primetime premieres where the format is date, whether it's 'N'ew or not, and whether it's of genre interest as a 'F'antasy (including horror), 'S'cience 'F'iction show (loosely defined), or 'C'omic 'B'ook/superhero show.

Wow, the only things I watch on that list are 60 Minutes and The Big Bang Theory. I would watch Person of Interest and The Blacklist, but with children in the house, I can't keep enough attention on it to know what's going on. Other than that, it's just Doctor Who and The Amazing Race for me.

Oh, and we were watching Longmire, but A&E has cancelled it and it's being shopped out, so we'll have to wait and see what channel it lands on. (I know, that's not network TV, and neither is Doctor Who, but they kind of blend together when you're on cable.)

POI, TWD and AOS - 3 acronyms for 3 great shows this "fall"

The only shows I will be watching are Elementary and Madame Secretary. The latter primarily out of curiosity to see Leoni drive a show. Nothing else particularly interests me, so if I see anything else it will have to randomly be on when I turn on the television or something. I would watch SVU, but I am three seasons behind and do not want to jump ahead. I will wait for the show to be over and just buy the full box set when it is released.

TheDustyZebra said:

Wow, the only things I watch on that list are 60 Minutes and The Big Bang Theory. ... Other than that, it's just Doctor Who and The Amazing Race for me.

Oh, and we were watching Longmire, but A&E has cancelled it and it's being shopped out, so we'll have to wait and see what channel it lands on. (I know, that's not network TV, and neither is Doctor Who, but they kind of blend together when you're on cable.)

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The Amazing Race is also on that list. But, yep, I do understand it's all just "TV" when you have cable.

markpud said:

POI, TWD and AOS - 3 acronyms for 3 great shows this "fall"

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Yep, Person of Interest is the best to me and I like Agents of Shield. What's TWD, though?

Michael Colton said:

The only shows I will be watching are Elementary and Madame Secretary. The latter primarily out of curiosity to see Leoni drive a show.

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A fellow Elementary fan. I think the mysteries are usually pretty ingenious and well-solved (as opposed to implausible "break the perp" interrogation scenes without much evidence or powerful manipulation) but I think my favorite thing about it is the characters and their interrelations - Sherlock and Joan, especially, but also the two main regular cops.

As far as Leoni driving a show, I'd have thought it was impossible before seeing the promo (not quite like Katherine Heigl trying to drive a similar show on another network this season but not far removed) but now I can see it. Or could. Looking more closely at the schedule, CBS has decided it's "chick flick" counter-programming (which is what I thought it'd be pre-promo but it seems much more general than that) and has it on opposite football so I can only see it during commercials.

J-Sun said:

A fellow Elementary fan. I think the mysteries are usually pretty ingenious and well-solved (as opposed to implausible "break the perp" interrogation scenes without much evidence or powerful manipulation) but I think my favorite thing about it is the characters and their interrelations - Sherlock and Joan, especially, but also the two main regular cops.

As far as Leoni driving a show, I'd have thought it was impossible before seeing the promo (not quite like Katherine Heigl trying to drive a similar show on another network this season but not far removed) but now I can see it. Or could. Looking more closely at the schedule, CBS has decided it's "chick flick" counter-programming (which is what I thought it'd be pre-promo but it seems much more general than that) and has it on opposite football so I can only see it during commercials.

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I enjoy 'crime shows' as long as the characters interest me. Elementary is one of the rare ones where that is the case. Sherlock's dialogue is brilliantly written as far as television goes - not only the actual content of the writing, but that feeling one gets where the dialogue was written specifically for the actor playing the part. Whether that is actually the writers or just a fine performance by the actor (or a bit of both), who knows. But I have enjoyed every episode of the show. Even details such as the casting of Moriarty was very well done, in my opinion.

Leoni has shown enough breadth in her career that I am intrigued to see how she handles a show on her shoulders. Heigl is quite the opposite - her involvement in a project generally reduces my interest unless I am in a mood for a 'Heigl thing.' Which certainly can happen from time to time, but not regularly enough for me to tune in to a show for it. She was at her best in Grey's Anatomy and has been slowly declining ever since, in my opinion. Much like everyone else on that show with the profound exception of T. R. Knight's stellar theater career post-GR.

• Sleepy Hollow
• The Blacklist
• Person of Interest
  
• Elementary
  
• Grimm (not listed there)
• Supernatural (not listed there)

Those are the ones I will be following along with Outlander that is currently playing until the end of September, then picking up again in Spring 2015.

And that (plus Doctor Who) is me sorted for the next 12 months. That's about the maximum I can squeeze into my already over-packed life.

J-Sun said:

The Amazing Race is also on that list. But, yep, I do understand it's all just "TV" when you have cable.

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Oh, fiddlesticks. There's a scroll bar!

Ok, I amend my estimation. Add Gracepoint and the aforementioned Amazing Race from that list. And there are probably a couple of others that I would like to see but won't get to.

I'm looking forward to a lot of stuff, but have to say that The Flash is near the top of the list. Arrow has been superb, so I hope they can do The Flash justice as well.

As to the returning shows Person of Interest must be close to the top of the list. They just don't seem to be able to put a foot wrong with the show. Just when you feel it can't get any better... it does.

I'm hoping Agents of SHIELD manages to keep the momentum it ended last season with going.

Other than that The Blacklist has kept me entertained and as it is comic influenced I'm hoping they can do something interesting with Gotham.

J-Sun said:

Yep, Person of Interest is the best to me and I like Agents of Shield. What's TWD, though?

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The Walking Dead

Also intrigued by Z Nation starting next week, another zombie show, this time on SyFy I believe.

I may also give Flash a go, Gotham I almost certainly will!

Michael Colton said:

Heigl ... was at her best in Grey's Anatomy and has been slowly declining ever since, in my opinion. Much like everyone else on that show with the profound exception of T. R. Knight's stellar theater career post-GR.

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I don't know - you couldn't pay me to watch that show. I just meant that, to me, Heigl and Leoni seemed almost equally implausible as smart powerful diplomatic/intelligence operatives until Leoni went a long way toward convincing me in the promo. (I wasn't saying they were equal in general.) As a memory refresher, I watched an episode of The Naked Truth during this thread (because that's where I first noticed her and really all I know of her other than stray bits) and, while it was not very good, she was pretty good, but still didn't exactly hint at a future as Secretary of State.

TheDustyZebra said:

Oh, fiddlesticks. There's a scroll bar!

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That may have tripped up The_Bluestocking, too.

The_Bluestocking said:

• Sleepy Hollow
• The Blacklist
• Person of Interest
  
• Elementary
  
• Grimm (not listed there)
• Supernatural (not listed there)

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Grimm and Supernatural are both under the cutoff and need the scrollbar, but the same is true of Elementary, so I'm not sure there.

Perpetual Man said:

I'm looking forward to a lot of stuff, but have to say that The Flash is near the top of the list. Arrow has been superb, so I hope they can do The Flash justice as well.

As to the returning shows Person of Interest must be close to the top of the list. They just don't seem to be able to put a foot wrong with the show. Just when you feel it can't get any better... it does.

I'm hoping Agents of SHIELD manages to keep the momentum it ended last season with going.

Other than that The Blacklist has kept me entertained and as it is comic influenced I'm hoping they can do something interesting with Gotham.

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Agreed on POI. Funny you should mention The Blacklist. I'd seen a few episodes (but not the first one or so) and it seemed okay but never hooked me. But I was thinking that it would work out in its slots and considered giving it a try. They have the last five episodes up on the website and I watched those and have it tentatively added to the list. It seemed pretty good if a bit unpleasant. On the other hand, while it's not fair to The Flash, I've now seen two Arrows and I don't like it much at all, but maybe that's just from coming in on the middle of things or it just not being my kind of thing.

Along those lines, I gave up on Grimm early last season, but gave it another try because some of it is also up online - the season finale was an idiot plot but still okay overall and the episodes before were pretty good. So maybe I'll add that back to the list as something I'm looking forward to.

markpud said:

The Walking Dead

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Ah, I've never seen it but I should have been able to figure that out - it just wouldn't come to me. Thanks.

J-Sun said:

I don't know - you couldn't pay me to watch that show. I just meant that, to me, Heigl and Leoni seemed almost equally implausible as smart powerful diplomatic/intelligence operatives until Leoni went a long way toward convincing me in the promo. (I wasn't saying they were equal in general.) As a memory refresher, I watched an episode of The Naked Truth during this thread (because that's where I first noticed her and really all I know of her other than stray bits) and, while it was not very good, she was pretty good, but still didn't exactly hint at a future as Secretary of State.

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Regardless of whether one hates the type of show that GA was, much of the cast did exceedingly well with the characters they were given. Whoever was in charge of casting for that show needs to be given nearly all of the credit for its success. One may criticize the value of that type of show as a whole, but as far as that type goes it was very well done.

Ah! Saw the scrollbar now.

All right - adding one more to my list: Constantine.

Let's see if NBC can pull it off or if they'll b***** it up...

Sleepy Hollow season 2
Hannibal Season 3
Agents of Shield Season 2
The Flash

Returning shows: SHIELD and Arrow
New shows: Gotham and The Flash

And also looking forward to the Agent Carter mini-series, which should come out in SHIELD's midseason break, I think.