I realize time's ticking by

And now for something completely different, a throwback to my original blog MO:

So it's fall premiere time once again and time for me to give my assessment of the upcoming season. I have scoured the web and my ET fall preview issue and looked long and hard at the offerings, and I have to say...I'm not very excited. I mean, there are lots of shows continuing that I am going to watch in one form or other, but the new crop seems a bit lackluster and even some of the oldies but goodies seem to be reaching a bit this season.

Part 1: All that Glitters is not Gold

As far as new shows, personally I have decided to wait and see what the zeitgeist shakes out. I was burned too many times last season, getting caught up in shows only to have them canceled after a few episodes (Drive, anyone?). My time is too valuable this year for such shenanigans, so I am going to delay and only get on board when it looks as if one, a show is sticking around and two, everybody who's got a brain seems to be talking about it.

But that doesn't mean I don't already have some opinions about what's coming. Cavemen looks utterly bizarre. Seriously? A show based on a series of commercials for Geico? I sense a one-note in the making. The same goes for The Big Bang Theory, the comedy about physics geeks. I am worried that the previews for this show have only included scenes from the pilot, a very bad sign indeed (much like movies that only include scenes in the trailer that don't actually make it into the final cut--never, ever good, Ben Affleck). Journeyman's time travel gimmick has potential but will become wearing, I fear, not to mention confusing since he's married in one time and engaged in the other. Sounds too adulterous for me. I want Shonda Rhimes' spin-off Private Practice to do well, largely because I love Kate Walsh and her hair and the kid from Veronica Mars. And, if anyone is listening, could the new Kelsey Grammar/Patricia Heaton sitcom please get canceled soon? The only accomplishment this show will produce is assuring that no one else wins an Emmy for however long it's on.

The two shows that sound the most promising have to do with, strangely, death. Pushing Daisies follows the crime-solving antics of a young man who can wake the dead with a touch and then put them back "to sleep" if he touches them again. Supposedly, hilarity ensues. And Reaper follows, you guessed it, a newly recruited grim reaper who must take on this job since his parents sold his soul to the devil as a child. I think I want to like this show because of a previous USA venture called Dead Like Me, about a quirky band of reapers led by Mandy Patinkin that got no press but was hugely enjoyable in a Wonderfalls kind of way (ie clever as all get out and canceled before its time) Hmmmm. Is death the "new" it subject, like the comic book chic of the last season? We shall see.