Fall TV Preview--FRIDAY

• read Part I--Sunday
• read Part II--Monday
• read Part III--Tuesday
• read Part IV--Cable
• read Part V--Wednesday
• read Part VI--Thursday

Credit: vimeo.com

Apparently, ABC has a show on Friday night entitled Primetime: What Would You Do? Now, this could be ABC's plea for help to the viewing public about how to properly program one of the worst TV nights of the week. Or it could be some terrible reality show that doesn't cost lots and is therefore perfect for killing time on Friday night. Or it could be something entirely different. Entertainment Weekly didn't bother to write up a 20 word review of it in the print magazine, so I had to hold my breath and visit the network Web site in the hopes of finding out some information. (This, dear reader, is the level of effort I am willing to put in on your behalf . . . spending more than 30 seconds trying to understand a--most likely--terrible show that no one will watch on the night when hardly anyone bothers to watch TV.

So, here I go.

. . . searching . . .

All right . . . so it's a bit worse than I feared? According to the site, WWYD? (I'm disturbed at how similar its initials are to my blog. There, but for a letter and an interrobang, go I.) is a show that presents "thought" experiments. (And I put that word in quotation marks advisedly.) It sounds like a less fun game than my lunch mates and I sometimes play at lunch. I'll never watch it.

Andbutso . . . this intro bit turned into more than I wanted it to. FRIDAY! What shows are there worth watching on Friday? Is anyone going to watch shows on Friday?

Well, I will--for at least two reasons. The first reason, which has mainly been my reason for most Friday night viewing over the years is because I don't have a social life to worry about. I didn't then and I don't now. Sometimes Lynda and I will go out on a date, but Friday night most of the time is pizza, popcorn, kids movies--if they can agree upon one-- and then falling asleep on the couch. Whoo!

But over the years, I've loved some Friday shows. I believe Firefly was once on Friday nights. And there was, of course, The X Files. And now two of my favorites are also moved to this night to die--Community and Fringe.

If you pay attention to the media at all, you know of the travails of Community (10/19 @ 8:30 on NBC). The show has been on public life support since its first season. But NBC had no better option, I guess, than keep it around. Dan Harmon is a Brian Wilson-style tortured genius of a asshole that is hard to work with and finally Sony told him to shove off at the end of last year. The cast is still around (even Chevy Chase), but the question mark of what becomes of the show and its scatter shot tone? Will it be the Community that very few knew and loved? Everyone assures us that it won't be very different. But I guess the proof is in the chicken fingers, right? I'll be watching . . . and hoping it is good enough to satisfy. I very much doubt it'll make it beyond this 13 episode order.

And then there is Fringe (9/28 @ 9 on Fox). Thought it seems to be the only word I commonly say that is affected by my southern accent--such as it is. This is another show like Community that you are either for or against. It started, like The X Files, with a premise of trying to understand why weird stuff happened. And there was government investigation. And occasionally there was a whiff of conspiracy. But the show's center has been the relationship between John Noble's mad scientist Walter Bishop and his ripped-from-an-alternate-universe son Peter, played by Joshua Jackson. Walter is so smart, he can and often does do anything. And that anything might save the world or put the world in peril, depending on the week. But the parallel world that Walter has exploited in the past is always there for the writers to utilize for story. Sometimes it is an enemy and sometimes it is the solution to a problem. This final season's story arc leaves the modern day parallel worlds behind and leaps into a future existence that our heroes must navigate. I've enjoyed the show a lot and will keep watching all the way to the end. So, I recommend that you set your DVR to record this last year. And while recording, catch up on past seasons via Netflix or something. Its a fun ride.

And that is really all I want to say about Friday night programming. There are other shows on during this night--CSI: NY, Made in Jersey, Malibu Country, Blue Bloods, Whitney (ugh), Grimm, Touch, America's Next Top Model, or Nikita to name almost all of them.But I've never seen them and don't have an interest in them. Still, I've got to award the New Show Most Likely to Succeed on Friday Night haiku to something, don't I? And of those shows listed above, only Made in Jersey (9/28 @ 9 on CBS) and Malibu Country (11/2 @ 8:30 on ABC) are new. The former is, I guess something like Erin Brockovich + The Fighter. The latter is Reba, but in California rather than wherever Reba was set.

And so, I choose . . .

Malibu Country

This show must be what

Hannah Montana would be

if sent through wormhole.