Season’s greetings. Week ten saw six of our remaining seven shows receive a B- or above for another solid week of Television. Unfortunately the fall finale of The Event failed to live up to any hype at all receiving a flat F. Here are the rankings for week ten.
Week Ten Chart
Rankings
- Boardwalk Empire
- No Ordinary Family
- Terriers
- Raising Hope
- Outsourced
- Shit My Dad Says
- The Event
Stay Tuned for the Season Finale of TV the series to find out which show wins Best Show of Fall 2010!
This week we welcome back Running Wilde who finally aired their seventh episode after sweeps has ended. For anyone hoping for some kind of amazing turnaround, you’ll be very sad to hear that it’s the same old Running Wilde. I don’t expect it to last much longer. Also this week, we saw a season defining episode nine of Boardwalk Empire. The next few weeks should be very interesting. Here’s the Results
Week 9 Chart
Rankings
- Boardwalk Empire
- Terriers
- Raising Hope
- No Ordinary Family
- Outsourced
- Shit My Dad Says
- The Event
Just when I thought the folks over at Terriers couldn’t get any better, they did. A Few weeks ago, Hank’s former partner in the police department warned Brit that Hank will let him down to Brit’s chagrin. Though without knowing it, Hank proves his ex-partner wrong going to great lengths to keep his partner and his partners girlfriend safe. Just a remarkable episode that further drives home the overall feeling of great chemistry between the leads and the rest of the cast. Any show that can week in and week out improve itself when it’s doesn’t seem like it could should be on your watch list. Here are the rest of the results for week eight.
Week eight chart
Rankings
- Terriers
- Boardwalk Empire
- Raising Hope
- No Ordinary Family
- Outsourced
- Shit My Dad Says
- The Event
Week seven saw two of the best episodes of Television bar none. Both Boardwalk Empire and Terriers served up the perfect entrees of amazing story telling, character development and entertainment. Here’s hoping there is plenty more to come from those two offerings. Also this week, I have skipped Running Wilde entirely as FOX has decided to delay episode seven from airing until November 30th after sweeps is over. I can’t imagine a world where Wilde will see a full season order, so the show might as well be considered canceled. There’s plenty of other good television going on. I’ve also added a status row where each shows current status, be it canceled, ordered a full season, renewed or up in the air. As always, check out the chart.
Week 7 Chart
Rankings
- Terriers
- Boardwalk Empire
- Raising Hope
- No Ordinary Family
- Undercovers
- Outsourced
- Shit My Dad Says
- The Event
Week six is finally behind us and as previously announced NBC has canceled the JJ Abrams spy drama Undercovers. Though the show will no longer continue, NBC is apparently going to air the remaining episodes. Because of a Hulu Desktop mistake, I actually continued to watch the show though for really no reason. Before we get to the week six ratings, news out of FOX is that Running Wilde is canceled being delayed by two weeks being replaced by re-runs of Raising Hope. The show will come back after Thanksgiving after sweeps is through. Given this plan, and Wilde’s rather bad ratings, I can’t imagine the show continuing much after that. This is the time of year where they drop like flies.
Week Six Chart
Rankings
- Boardwalk Empire
- Terriers
- Raising Hope
- Undercovers
- Outsourced
- Running Wilde
- No Ordinary Family
- Shit My Dad Says
- The Event
You’re probably expecting week six of TV the series, but a little thing called Election day has put a kink in our schedule. Most of Tuesdays shows did not in fact air, so we’ll have to wait an extra week for this one. More news coming out of TV Land, another one of our shows has been canned by the Networks. Undercovers, NBC’s husband and wife spy team created by J.J. Abrams is no more. NBC will air three more episodes, but after that the rest of the filmed episodes are not scheduled to air. Tune in next week for week six.
We’ve had our first scheduling mix up with FOX shifting around Raising Hope and Running Wilde this week. Because of this, I’ve decided it’s more appropriate to label each week’s grade as an episode grade instead of a week number. Otherwise this week we have a surprising amount of above average episodes in our series. While this makes for some great television, it makes it extra difficult to try to vote someone off the island so to speak. So we’ll forget that for now. This week we go back to the chart from last week with the grades from each show’s episode five.
Week Five Chart
Rankings
- Boardwalk Empire
- Terriers
- No Ordinary Family
- Raising Hope
- The Event
- Undercovers
- Outsourced
- Shit My Dad Says
- Running Wilde
Welcome back to TV the series. It’s been four short weeks since our experiment commenced, and I’ve learned a lot. I’ve learned that dumb comedy combined with a laugh track/live audience make me want to stuff cotton in my ears. I’ve learned that one random, unexplainable shortcoming in a episode can pretty much ruin it. But overall, I think I’ve learned that I love making charts. Previously, I wrote up a paragraph or two about each show, gave it a score and a suggestion line about whether to watch or not. Since it’s been three weeks, I feel like the basics have been said, and the real worth of each show, barring shocking turns have been shown. This is why I won’t be doing the normal write up this week. Instead, I’ve put together a chart of the running grades of each show, and their status (Poor Lonestar). Previously, I mentioned that there would be some kind of cut, or elimination taking place. Since Lonestar was savagely taken away from us two weeks ago, I’ve decided not to make a cut this week. Someone will be voted off the island soon. For now, check out the mega-graphic!
Week Four Chart
Click the chart to see the full thing!
Rankings
- Terriers
- Boardwalk Empire
- No Ordinary Family
- Raising Hope
- The Event
- Undercovers
- Outsourced
- Shit My Dad Says
- Running Wilde
#9 – Undercovers
This episode fell completely flat. The “boss” complains about the agents getting something wrong and points out the ridiculousness of having a couple who hasn’t been on the force in five years do this kind of work. It’s not so smart to point out a series crippling plot hole quite so bluntly. Of course that turns into a motivation factor and causes the duo to get the job done. Add in some large liberties with software, like searching the FBI’s entire fingerprint database in seconds and you have an overall bad episode.
Grade: C-
Verdict: Not a very good episode.
#8 – $#*! My Dad Says
“Save your sarcasm for your blog; At least there no one will read it.” That’s a funny line. “I wish I had an 18 inch cucumber”, “I’m not putting that in my mouth” are easy gay jokes. The best part of this show are the one liners like the first one. I sincerely hope the show doesn’t start taking the easy way out and just going for gay jokes. William Shatner seems to be the only actor on the show that doesn’t over-act, and that’s not a typo. Also, i hate the laughtrack/audience laughs.
Grade: C-
Verdict: Easily skip-able
#7 – Outsourced
How about some awkward dating moments in India? We learn this week that dating isn’t really a thing in India (apparently) and arranged marriages are all the rage. Things seem a lot more normal, with less Indian mocking, which is really a good thing. We’re steering into more character development from the support staff and less Pro-American nonsense that was present previously.
Grade: B-
Verdict: Vastly Improved, keep and eye on it.
#6 – Running Wilde
If I could take this episode, clone it and reproduce it replacing the last two I would. We’ve got an Arrested Development reference, a second setting for the characters to enjoy, and a brief moment of Kerri Russel not being annoying (Though it’s probably just for one episode). I’m not sure what this means for the rest of the series, but I’m hoping they return to the Office setting soon.
Grade: B
Verdict: Perhaps a breath of life in this one.
#5 – Boardwalk Empire
If your a fan of full frontal nudity (the awkward kind at that), there’s something in this episode for you. If your perfectly happy saving yourself the other 50ish minutes by using the internet, this episode is a bit slow and dry. We would normally call this one a filler episode which is not really too reassuring three episodes in. Everything is as it were. The Acting and written dialogue and fine, though there is really only a single plot point that really seems to matter, and at this point we don’t know how it will effect the series. This could be the start of something big, or it might just the start to more filler.
Grade: B
Verdict: Continue regularly watching.
#4 – The Event
I think there may be a rule among the writers of this show. Every week there must be at least one scene where your audience wants to change the channel. For the most part the episode carried the story along like it should, except for one scene which felt like it was written with a shrug of the shoulders. A little more thought, and we could have had a really great episode. The Ending particularly makes me want to continue watching. Now if we can just get rid of those annoying moments.
Grade: B
Verdict: Add it to your Hulu, check it out when you have time.
#3 – Raising Hope
Istanbul (Not Constantinople)… The Family figures out that Maw Maw can’t loose why playing Jenga while the Nat Simon songs plays. While Jimmy is out, his parents babysit and end up loosing hope. Don’t worry, they find her quickly as she has gotten into her grandma’s junk shed. We’ve also learned this week on a side note that Raising Hope has gotten the go ahead to film a full season. Great news!
Grade: B+
Verdict: Add it to your hulu for a rainy day
#2 – Terriers
Terriers took a turn for the strange in week three as Hank is given the task of proving the bank manager’s wife is cheating on him in order to secure a bank loan to purchases his ex-wifes (and his) former house. For a brief moment I thought I was watching Californication on Showtime for it’s risque plot and material. Overall not an amazing episode but a decent one at that.
Grade: A-
Verdict: Start watching this show immediately. It airs on a one week delay on Hulu.
#1 – No Ordinary Family
Still trying to figure out what they can do with their powers, and testing their limits, Jim and George start crashing weddings hoping to catch the mysterious wedding bandits that originally struck at a close friends wedding. If one thing should be made clear, this is not Heroes. No Ordinary Family is so far the surprise of the Fall.
Grade: A
Verdict: Start watching this show immediately.
Eliminated Shows
Lone Star (CANCELED)
September 20, 2010 – September 27, 2010
Canceled way before it’s time, Lone Star was a series about a con man living two seemingly ordinary lives with two otherwise normal wives. He marries one women to get into her father’s oil business, and ends up marrying the other when he can’t leave her. In the Second episode he tries to make his con’s in Midland Texas right by actually buying the land he promised his investors with company money from his second job. A fascinating story that may have not been sustainable for long, but surely longer then the two episodes it was given.
Two weeks down, a lot more to go. There were honestly some surprises this week, with certain shows showing some life in them, and others maybe not so much. You know the shows by now, so I’ll keep it short and sweet this week. Next week will be the final week for all airing shows to be apart of the list. After that it’ll get interesting to say the least.
#10 – $#*! My Dad Says
Last week I could have slept through this show and probably enjoyed the time a lot better. It was essentially 140 character one liners taped together with a cookie-cutter plot. This week things have improved. It’s not a black and white change, but the jokes seemed to be more on topic and funnier. I also think the acting was a lot better as well. The very ending of the episode featuring an ipad was one of the better parts as well. Nothing amazing, but it shows a small hint of promise.
Grade: D+
Verdict: Easily skip-able
#9 – Running Wilde
Positive, more David Cross. Negative, everything else. Another episode with good humor, writing and acting, but just not enough substance to sustain the show. The few scenes between Arnett and Cross that there are are good, but the rest of the show leaves me wanting more of the former. I still do not like Kerri Russel’s character, with her daughter’s character/narrator just not being used a lot. I fear this show isn’t going to go anywhere, but I hope they can turn things around.
Grade: C-
Verdict: Becoming wasted time.
#8 – Outsourced
The Second episode of Outsourced feels almost like one out of the second season of a series. The first was littered with the main character acting completely clueless when the American culture wasn’t known in India. This second episode cuts this a lot. There is a lot less Pro-America, and a lot more pro-people humor in this episode. The lead even defends his workers by trying to make up sales in order not to fire one of them.
Grade: C+
Verdict: Vastly Improved, keep and eye on it.
#7 – Raising Hope
There wasn’t an improvement or decline in this week’s episode of Raising Hope, everything stayed pretty much the same. In order to continue going to work to support his new child, Jimmy has to figure out what to do with Hope while gong to his father’s lawn care business. At first he tries to take her with him, but that doesn’t go so well and the cops end up getting called on him. He’s off to find some daycare from guest star Kate Micucci (Gooch from Scrubs!)
Grade: B-
Verdict: Add it to your hulu for a rainy day
#6 – The Event
I rolled my eyes at the first plot point of the second episode of The Event. The scene in question was quite laughable and I almost stopped watching there. But boy did it change after the first commercial. The show actually became watchable and dare I say interesting. Instead of going the LOST route which I already mentioned last week would make this show terrible because of lack of talent, they decided to actually give out major details about “the event” and who is behind it already. It took me by surprise, and actually may have kept me watching.
Grade: B-
Verdict: Add it to your Hulu, check it out when you have time.
#5 – Undercovers
While last week’s episode suffered from too much character development and not enough action, This week we don’t have to develop the lead cast, which leaves plenty of room for the show to really open up. On their first official case, we follow our leads on a journey to find a kidnapped scientists who is forced to build small explosives for private military soldiers to carry out a terrorist plot. I don’t want to spoil anything here, this episode is a keeper.
Grade: A-
Verdict: Worth watching, add it to Hulu
#4 – Terriers
Terriers drops from number one last week to number four this week. Normally this would mean the show got worse. In truth the second episode deviated from the first in that the plot was essentially a side story to the main plot set up in the first episode because the duo understandably needs money. In order to cash in on some reward money, Hank tricks his former partner on the police squad to “borrow” a Wanted file to bring in some reward money. The episode is still solid, with great writing, some good action and likeable characters all around.
Grade: A
Verdict: Start watching this show immediately. It airs on a one week delay on Hulu.
#3 – No Ordinary Family
No one knows how Superman’s first day on the job went. The Powells are new to the whole super power gig and they have to figure out how exactly they work. Most shows and movies like it skip this part, or add it to a clever montage. Jim tried to stop a speeding car with limited success as Stephanie continues to get to the bottom of the family’s new powers. No Ordinary Family continues to build into a quality program, and I hope it doesn’t stop.
Grade: A
Verdict: Start watching this show immediately.
#2 – Lone Star
I am sincerely sad that this is the final episode of this show. This episode really set up something great. The con man mixes his two cons to sorta go legit. The fake oil fields he invested people’s money in in Midland, Texas are purchased by this second job for Wind energy, as he scam his second boss into buying into the wind farms. In actuality, the wind farms are legit, just not owned by him. It’s difficult to really explain everything, and mostly pointless as we’ll never know what ends up happening anyway. So farewell Lonestar, we hardly knew ya.
Grade: A
Verdict: It’s been canceled, this is the final episode.
#1 – Boardwalk Empire
You could say that episode two of Boardwalk Empire made a statement. You could also say it made more then one of them. Now that our characters are introduced and Alcohol is already illegal, we get a good sense of who is who and what kind of town we are getting ourselves into. No words can really express how well this episode came together, and made me want more. Though it doesn’t have quite as many Scorsese touches as the first episode did, the material is better, and the story heats up just two episodes into the first season. What more could you ask for?
Grade: A+
Verdict: Starting watching immediately.