The Fall Cometh

"If you've had half as much fun watching the show as we've had doing it, well, then, we've had twice as much fun doing the show as you've had watching it." -Casey McCall, Sports Night

With the end of the Olympics (and our poor old external drive that really put forth its best effort but appears to have ground itself into complete uselessness — way to take one for the team) I'm in the process of putting our media center in the den back together in prep for the fall season premieres. I usually get nervous around this time because I don't know when shows start and we don't watch commercials anymore so we don't have it drilled into our minds by the networks.

So... I'm dedicating this blog post to what shows I want to see, and when they start. This post might get edited as we get closer to the fall season.

• Chuck: This is my surprise favorite from last year. All the previews made the show look awful, but after Trilisa encouraged me to actually watch I really got hooked. I think Sharon's finally caught up with me and seen them all, but if not she's still got a few weeks. It starts back on Monday, September 29, at 8:00 Eastern.
• Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles: This show helped us survive the writer's strike. Like Chuck, I originally panned it but ended up really liking it (although watching Summer Glau makes me miss Firefly, which, if you haven't seen it yet, you should go buy right now.) It starts back Monday, September 8, at 8:00 Eastern (which will put it opposite Chuck... I wonder how that will play out?)
• Heroes: Like the first two, this was a show that Sharon and I stumbled on to after it started the first season. It was on right before Studio 60, which we were much more excited about since we're giant Sorkin fans. Ultimately we tracked our disappointment with Studio 60 by how much we were enjoying Heroes, and then suddenly we found ourselves looking forward to Heroes instead of Studio 60. The second season had some potential, but ultimately seemed sorta thrown together (despite the return of Sharon and Trilisa's evil hottie to television) but this third season arc could be interesting. It starts Monday, September 22, at its regular 9:00 Eastern timeslot.
• House: We came to this one really late (like Season 3) but, dear me, Hugh Laurie is simply amazing. The show seems to really be struggling with the "what do we do now?" problem, though, so I'm wondering if it'll be as compelling. Sharon and I just miss Chase, Cameron, and Foreman. When the slaves turned over, the show became much less fun for us. Still, we'll probably watch it some. It starts Tuesday, September 16, at its regular 8:00 Eastern timeslot.
• The Office: This show makes Sharon cringe, but in a good way. Sometimes it's almost too painful to watch. They've managed to keep it funny by becoming more and more implausible, so I don't know what'll happen this season. We missed the season finale, in which apparently a ton of stuff happened, so hopefully we'll catch the reshowing of that before it returns on Thursday, September 25, at 9:00 Eastern.
• 30 Rock: We didn't watch this show out of brotherhood with Sorkin when it debuted the same year as Studio 60, and man do I feel we missed out. This show is sharp, funny, and has a great Baldwin. I'm only through Season 1, and Sharon's not even that far, but we'll record it for later. It doesn't come back for a long time, though — not until Thursday, October 30, at 9:30 Eastern.
• The Amazing Race: The one reality show we watch, and not because it's a train wreck. We haven't been huge fans (we've missed whole seasons) but it's really well done, and maybe this year it'll actually be in HD (I think it's the show on television that would benefit the most from it, given the locales they visit.) The 13th race starts on Sunday, September 28, at 8:00 PM Eastern.
  

That's the whole list. There's some shows we like that I just can't quite bring myself to commit to (like Without a Trace) some shows that I want to like but just don't look good (like Knight Rider) some very popular shows that Sharon and I never got in to (like Prison Break) and so on, but given Asher and busy work weeks and wanting to occasionally do something in down time other than watch television, that's our current list. Feel free in the comments to try to convince me otherwise (or, please, correct my time/debut info if I've got it wrong!)

There's one show not listed above because the Sci-Fi Channel is stupid. Or, you know, they have no idea what they're gonna do when Battlestar Galactica isn't available to both make them tons of money and give them critical acclaim. We'll see thee in January, BSG, and then we'll be sad for you like we are for Firefly (we hope.)