The Upfronts

Rather than have me witter on in my usual way this week with a rather pointless round up, I thought instead I’d talk about the upfronts.

This week’s TV was ok… Lost was blah, Flash Forward was really a two parter that I’ll talk about in full detail after the next episode, Chuck was ok, How I Met Your Mother tried to be clever and it didn’t really work and I haven’t gotten bored enough to watch Stargate or Legend of the Seeker.

Round up done, now onto the new shiny stuff.

Firstly what’s been Cancelled?

Technically, not a lot. Heroes is gone but there is really no love lost there. They tried to do something interesting this season and it almost worked at times, but for the most part the show seemed to have lost its way. However Kring may not be done yet so keep your eyes peeled.

A bigger shame was the loss of the quirky comedy Better Off Ted which I wrote about last month. After only two very short seasons this original and funny comedy found itself getting canned. Some people have blamed the fact that the show was teamed up with the rather dire Scrubs: Med School but how much truth there is in that I’m not sure.

Scrubs: Med School has also been canned by ABC and I can’t blame them. After 4 episodes I gave up all hope of the show getting better, it would have been a medical miracle for this show to hang on when other, better, spin offs like Joey were binned.

In a further culling ABC has cancelled FlashForward, which, for all it’s faults was better than V, which got renewed! It remains to be seen if FlashForward will successfully answer enough questions to make the series worth watching in the first place.

As we knew Legend of the Seeker has been cut and again, I can’t say I’m sorry. The show started out with so much promise, but it ended up horribly clichéd and rather boring. Even the beautiful Tabrett Bethell can’t make this show worth keeping. Plus now she’s available to go and do something better!

Also, as we knew, Fox is not renewing Dollhouse for a third season… no surprises there. 24 and Lost have both reached their final seasons and have not been renewed. And that’s about it…

Renewed

CHUCK! Yay! If only Chuck got renewed I would have been perfectly happy. After it’s close brush with death last season I’m glad to see that my favourite spy comedy will live on for at least another year.  

CW has renewed Supernatural for a sixth season, despite the obviously natural end point that this season brought. I’m not complaining because Supernatural is the best show on the airways, but I’m kinda scared things might go down hill if it gets dragged out too long. CW has also renewed Smallville for it’s tenth season, I had no idea the show was still going!

CBS has renewed both of its major comedies How I Met Your Mother and The Big Bang Theory (which I recently started watching…). How much longer HIMYM can keep going without Ted meeting “their mother” I’m not sure, but I’m not complaining about these renewals in the slightest.

ABC has renewed the crime drama Castle (which I also just got into) for it’s third season and they also renewed V, which as far as I was aware was only supposed to run as a 12 episode mini-series. It has been such a dreary ride so far that I will definitely be falling off the V train before the next station.

Fox has renewed Bones for a sixth season, I’m still waiting to buy season 3, but I do love this show so I’m glad to see it is keeping it’s audience.

Sure there is plenty of other renewed stuff, but none that I care about. But before I say goodbye, lets take a look at some of the shiny new shows…

New Stuff

CBS has a new Crime drama, Hawaii 5-0 which will feature Lost star Daniel Dae Kim alongside BSG Alumni Grace Park.

NBS has several new and interesting looking shows including The Event, which is billed as the new 24. Chase, a Jerry Bruckheimer production about a badass female marshal. Plus J.J Abrams’ new series Undercovers (which may as well have been called Alias 2: Return of the Bristows.) which looks sexy and funny, but as it is billed as a spy-fi, it will ultimately end up in the same toilet as Alias… Well maybe.

Spy dramas and Superheroes are the order of the day this year. ABC is coming out with a new Superhero drama “No Ordinary Family” which has one of the lamest premises I’ve heard of to date. A family of four (with a resemblance to the Incredibles family) crash a plane into a river and develop superpowers! Starring  Michael Chiklis from the Shield and Julie Benz (Darla from Angel.)

Fox has a new comedy starring Will Arnett “Running Wilde”, from the creator of Arrested Development Mitchell Hurwitz.

And the CW have a new show Nikita. She is a spy working to bring down her own agency after she goes rogue. Among other the show will feature Xander Berkeley, otherwise known as George Mason from 24.

Mid Season and The Summer

ABC will have a new vampire/supernatural drama this summer called The Gates, which is about weird goings on in a gated community. Plus a new Matthew Perry comedy Mr. Sunshine airing in the midseason slot.

Fox also has a rather interesting looking show from Steven Speilburg in their midseason entitled Terra Nova, can’t wait to find out more details on that. 

While NBC has gone with a superhero midseason show called The Cape, which will star former Firefly alumni Summer Glau.

All in all it’s shaping up to an interesting looking year for new stuff and that list doesn’t even begin to look at what Sy Fy might throw at us. So, enjoy the summer break because come September you wont want to leave your TV sets!