Fall Series Trailers

Person of Interest is definitely one of my favorite shows, but to call it the best hour of drama on non-cable television is going a bit too far...! Let's face it, it can get a little formulaic at times. That said, I'm not caught up on all of this seasons episodes yet--still missing 2-3, so not sure what the cliff-hanger finale will bring...

I look at that sort of thing as necessary for the form. I find myself in almost any hour-drama, particularly the "realist" stuff (unlike, say, Grimm) saying "well if they had just done X" - but then if they had done X the story falls apart completely.

So I - maybe too generously - just accept it as "comes with the territory"

But I have been saying all along that it is very much "Batman without the comic book stuff"

On the advice in this thread, I have just given Person of Interest a try, covering the first two episodes. I'm not all that intrigued; the premiss seems extremely convenient and impluasible (not as in unrealistic, but as in not plot-like). Does this series also get better/different, or should I drop it if I'm not hooked yet?

I tried giving Person of Interest a chance, but after two episodes it bored me too tears. It was nothing special.

I think the only new show from this last season that I stuck with and enjoyed was Smash.

there is a developing backstory (for each character actually) concerning the development of the machine, who these people really are, and so forth.

There's also a running theme having to do with an ambitious guy trying to consolidate the city's organized crime and the curruption in the PD

So it's not just "rescue of the week"

but if you don't care anything about the people involved, then it still might not interest you.

I'll concede that early on Cavizal's performance is TOO stoic, which has moderated a bit but is still a pretty unconventional approach to a leading man role. I'm sure that alone leaves some folks cold. But when you begin to see how he got that way it does make the most sense for the character.

For point of reference, what do you consider to be the best broadcast network drama currently?

it seems to me that bar is not set incredibly high.

if you include cable than the best broadcast net drama definitely wouldn't be in the top 10 overall.

For me the contenders would be:

NCIS
Castle
Fringe < which I would likely rank #1 by the way
PoI

I might be overlooking something.

For my tastes, for a show to be a contender for that description it has to either have an ongoing story arc developed over time, along with whatever is going on in the individual episodes, or be very VERY damned good at the episodic stuff.

NCIS and Castle have a very slow developing very low-key long-arc plot, but are VERY good at the upfront stuff.

PoI has a long-arc that I find interesting and is, in my view, excellently cast and executed. It's not as strong as those two on the episodic stuff yet.

Fringe, for me, handles both qualifications best.

I haven't watched broadcast dramas in years. I honestly can't remember the last one I followed.

Now, cable series have spoiled me because, by and large, they seem much better than their broadcast counterparts.

The only broadcast shows that I make time to watch or record are Modern Family and Community, though the latter hasn't been nearly as good this season as it used to be (there are still a half dozen or more episodes in the DVR that I have yet to watch).

Only live-action comedies I can stand are "It's Always Sunny...", and "Louie".
The only sorta-dramas I can stomach are reruns of "Rescue Me", and new ones of "Breaking Bad", and the only drama-dramas where people are yelling and cheating over petty soap-opera shit that I can stand, are...nothing.

And...then there's "The Walking Dead", which defies category.

And, I watch reruns of NCIS , but only because I want to nail Abby.

Mark Harmon is okay, as is Ducky, the guy Mark Harmon smacks upside the head is passable...

It's the Israeli agent chick that bugs me.
Her messing up American slang....those scenes seem forced, and don't ring true, it takes me right out of it.


And, there's House rerun marathons, but...now I know how it all ends, the wind is out of my sails.

I agree about Abby, but they'd have to make the show all about her ongoing sexual experimentation for me to watch, because the rest of the series is dull as hell. And that's coming from someone who watches all the other alphabet soup mystery shows.

the other half is an NCIS addict, and I've watched it enough to like it...but it's because i like the characters, not the stories.

Well, amended - the larger back story about Gibbs is interesting, the death of the week isn't.

NCIS is getting old. Same shit over and over again.

Mark Harmon disagrees!

Hmmm...you may have a point there. NCIS is every bit as formulaic as PoI, as is House. Hawaii Five-Oh isn't quite as bad about that, but still... And no other network shows are really coming to mind. The shows that come to mind for me are all cable: Game of Thrones, Fairly Legal, Falling Skies, The Walking Dead, and Covert Affairs.

Abby does absolutely nothing for me. I like the rest of the characters, especially McGee and DiNozzo.

Half the victims are assholes themselves.
Has anyone else noticed this?

From NBC...

[yt=Revolution]JwfCRAtkYEI[/yt]

OK, so Jon Favreau + J.J. Abrams + Chicago backdrop + sci-fi means I have to watch this (and most likely get my heart broken when it gets cancelled after 5 episodes, or alternatively get dismayed when it spins into an out-of-control mess.)

Looks like environmentalist fap material, IMO.

I dig the premise for Revolution. I'm a sucker for post-apacolyptic stories.

But there are simply too many ways for them to fuck this shop up to give me much hope that it will be good, or that it will last.

Plus, it's JJ Abrams, so you just know that it'll never get resolved.

I was intrigued by the premise right off the hop, but even just watching that extended trailer, I already became bored of it.

They're not doing that bad on Fringe. (Although I personally still haven't understood why Peter disappeared.)

The memory of Lost burns deep.

because in the merged world, he died as a child.

What I can't figure out is how he came back.

Yes... but why? Is the idea that in a world where he died, they go on different paths that lead them to building the bridge on their own?

Why he comes back is easier to accept for me: The old universe that contained him is not completely erased, much like a palimpsest. I can 'see' that.

WHY he's back I grok, HOW he got back hasn't been, as far as i know, explained - unless September did it.

I think having a bridge in the world where he died is the anomaly...they have it and they are not sure how or why (because discovering it's origins was linked to Peter's life)

I don't know why, other than as a storytelling device, it HAS to be that in the merged world Peter died in that lake. If that's what you mean i don't know the answer to that - I just chalk it up to dramatic necessity.

Community and 30 rock both kick ass.

Not even remotely.

"The Walking Dead" is a soap opera. Plain and simple.

Which is pretty much reflective of what actually happens with the real life NCIS. Same shit, different day. Except the TV NCIS has more assassins.

If it were a soap, Stefano DiMera would have found a way to mind-contol the zombies, and become king of the world.

That would make it a GREAT soap opera.