The USA network continues to air some of the best new shows. It is a shame it tends to only have 3-4 series running at any particular time spread out over two nights of the week. My thoughts on tonight’s television viewing…
8:00 – Well, with The Big Bang Theory being a repeat, I started off with a half-hour of Wipeout. I have to admit that it is a guilty pleasure since I don’t watch any of the stupid reality shows featuring housewives, talent shows or drunken buffoons – just something about watchin a bunch of idiots getting themselves knocked silly. Then I flipped it over to Perfect Couples to give it another chance after the lame pilot episode. Don’t know why, but never really liked Community, so I skipped it as usual. As for Perfect Couples, this one was a bit better in the writing and the male characters were a tad funnier. I think they should have run this episode back-to-back with the pilot and I would not have been quite as harsh in my initial review. Shit My Dad Says is okay, but it isn’t really must see for me.
9:00 – Royal Pains continues to be one of the best shows on television. I have not been the biggest of fans of the Emily Peck character introduced last season played by Anastasia Griffith, who I liked on the short-lived NBC series Trauma, but it works to some degree on an antagonist level for a longer story arc. Glad to see the character of Paige return as Evan’s girlfriend because she creates a great relationship with him, although the creators of the show seem to be taking the Evan-Divya romance to a greater amount of separation than I would expect. Evan, of course, screws things up, but that is what makes his character so fun to watch.
10:00 – The second episode of Fairly Legal settles in nicely after the extra length pilot spent a lot of time developing the characters, but perhaps too much on the lead Kate. The writing is quite impressive in how they link the underlying theme and feelings together in the varying storylines without being as obvious as most shows. It is good to see the addition of Belita Moreno, who previously played the mother of George Lopez on his sitcom. She is quite funny and will be a great contributor on a comedic front as the longtime assistant of the deceased patriarch that is transitioning to assist Lauren, whom the show, thankfully, spent some more time developing this week. It finished with a nice cliffhanger, although those who knew Richard Dean Anderson (MacGyver) was joining the cast for a guest series know that his character was the one mentioned in the closing. The surprise is none of the family know who he is and why he’s getting a quarter of the patriarch’s will.
Catching Up on Demand – Off the Map proved to be pretty good in the third episode of the series as it continues to present interesting trauma situations and developing its cast of characters, which includes eight significant individuals. I still think a half-hour M*A*S*H-like format would work better for this series over the long term. Cougar Town continues to be quite funny. The hide and seek game played throughout the show was hilarious and the scene with one of the characters being tied to a tree was cracked me up.
Tape Delay – On the agenda is the trilogy of comedies I like on NBC that I skipped for the USA duo. The Office, 30 Rock and Outsourced are on tap with the emphasis on Outsourced as I am beginning to tire on the other two. I may watch Bones on demand, but that show is kinda stale these days as well.
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