Making it new

It was kind of a good year for new shows. Not a great one by any means, but there was a decent crop of new shows that made their way to us. And I picked up a few of them, two of which at least aren't coming back next year. (Hellcats we hardly knew ye...) And since I don't exist in a vacuum, where the only things that exist are my television, this blog and myself (I tried that once, it didn't work out), I asked some of my friends and family about what they liked best about that was new this TV season.

First, I'm going to talk about Mr. Sunshine, which did not get renewed, no absolutely no one's surprised. I enjoyed the show, Matthew Perry and Thomas Schlamme's little sitcom worked decently well, and if it had been given a chance to find it's stride I think it could have been really good. I was most excited about it because Perry was writing the show. While Matt had no comedy writing experience, per se, his reason for trying to write was because on Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip, Aaron Sorkin cast him as a comedy writer and he wanted to give it a shot in real life. This got me thinking about other actors that might want to try out jobs that Sorkin once gave them. If Peter Krause hosted Sports Center, I might watch it more often, for example. Many a case of CSD has been caused about Martin Sheen being the president, and hell, perhaps Jesse Eisenberg would make an excellent CEO of Facebook. I do think it's funny that we got ten episodes caused by Matt's CSD about himself.

I wrote a whole post about how much I love Hawaii 5-0, and how I think everyone should watch it. It's nothing compared to my mother. Mom's as big a TV fan as I am, seriously, I come by this completely naturally. And we started watching Hawaii 5-0 for two simple reasons, Scott Caan, and curiosity. Sometimes remakes work, and Caan had already been involved in one that did (Ocean's 11!) plus he'd just had a pretty amazing run on my family's favorite show, Entourage. So we checked out Hawaii 5-0, and it really is fantastic. Remember how Law and Order used to be really awesome? It's like that, but in Hawaii. Also, after seven years, Grace Park managed to unseat Eva Longoria in my mother's mind as the Most Beautiful Woman on Television. If you've ever talked to my mother about Eva Longoria, you know what a really big deal that is.

My sister Mary does not watch as much TV as my mother and I, but she's still into it. When I asked her what she liked that was new this season, she had one answer, and one answer only, "Happy Endings!" Happy Endings is a late season replacement on ABC, about a group of six friends in their late twenties, navigating life in the big city. If it sounds familiar, please note that these friends are in Chicago, not New York, and they hang out in a diner not a coffee house. Also, there's a gay guy and a black guy. So see, it's different than that other show about six friends in their late twenties navigating the big city. When I asked Mary why Happy Endings was her favorite new show, (she still hasn't gotten over the loss of Scrubs. She hasn't loved anything the way she loved Scrubs, it broke her heart) she answered simply, "because, uhhh it's hysterical. Especially the gay guy. He's great...also I love that the girl from Scrubs (Eliza Coupe, and see, Scrubs) is married to a black guy, because on Scrubs she was hooking up with new black intern." You should know, this is because I demanded she expand and she did it on the fly.

Harry's Law might be my new favorite show of the season. I'm not alone by the way, it's also Katherine's favorite. In her words, (which I'm telling you are often the same as mine), "The lawyers work in a shoe store. And Brittany Snow is there. Do I need other reasons to love this show? Oh right, Kathy Bates. It's a wonderful, feel-good, underdog kind of story told in true David E. Kelley fashion and I cannot get enough." Kelley writes fantastic law shows. The Practice was always one of my favorites, and Ally McBeal had uhh...well, it had a really good cast. Harry's Law is following more in Ally McBeal's footsteps, in that it's a funny fish out of water, type show, but it's dealing with bigger issues than the length of Calista Flockhart's skirt and whether or not men and women should use the same bathroom.

Of course, that's just the stuff I was watching, but I do have to say, the fall season looks promising. Much more promising than this one, and this one was pretty good. Anyway, summer's coming, and with summer comes blockbuster movies, HBO, and lots of reading. I'm looking forward to it, aren't you?