The Best of New TV: Fall 2012 Edition

It’s been two to three months into the 2012 – 2013 season for TV shows and I’ve come up with a list of shows that are worth watching. Let’s be honest, a lot of people now are just watching shows online and not when they’re actually on TV, so it’s a lot easier at this point to say whether it’s worth it to invest time into a show or not. So if you’re looking for a new show, these are the ones that I recommend.

Ben and Kate

Ben and Kate (Copyright of Fox)

When I watched the trailer for this show, I originally wasn’t too sure about it. It looked like it could be funny, but I was unsure about the brother and sister dynamic. It seemed that Ben would just be childish and that Kate would end up taking care of him, making her more of a typical mother type character that is not fun, so you don’t really like her too much. Luckily, you get to see a bit more to her than that. Her awkwardness around guys is hilarious! She says the weirdest things or reacts oddly, but it’s great because who doesn’t feel like that at times? I’m also so glad that Abby Elliot did not end up playing Kate. I didn’t like her while she was on SNL and I was also really upset when they kept her and fired Casey Wilson and Michaela Watkins instead. So I’m sure if she ended up playing Kate, I probably would not have liked this show at all.

I also really enjoy Ben and Tommy together. Tommy is Ben’s best friend and with Ben’s crazy business schemes, there’s always a good laugh. In one episode, they go door-to-door selling wine and then end throwing a party for a wine tasting at Kate’s place with all these older women. I won’t ruin it, but you can just imagine what happens there.

The Mindy Project

The Mindy Project (Copyright of Fox)

I am definitely biased when it comes to this show because Mindy Kaling is pretty much my idol. She is hilarious, talented, beautiful and smart. So needless to say, I was extremely excited to watch it. After I watched the pilot though, I wasn’t all that impressed. Maybe it’s because I had high hopes, and it didn’t deliver in the first episode, or maybe it was because the trailer was essentially the pilot. Regardless, I decided to give it another chance because I wasn’t going to give up on Mindy and I’m glad that I did. The second episode redeemed itself. I think it had to do with the introduction of Ike Barinholtz’s character, Morgan, who is this ex-con, male nurse who says the most ridiculous things. It also helped that Seth Meyers was the love interest in the episode because he’s awesome and I have a huge crush on him.

I’ve noticed that some parts are totally over the top, which definitely gets the laughs, but when it comes down to it, you can still relate to the situations that Mindy’s in.

Fox is killing it. With 30 Rock and The Office ending, Tuesday seems to be the new comedy night; Ben and Kate, then New Girl and following up with the Mindy Project. NBC is trying to make Tuesday a comedy night as well and that segues into the next show I think you need to check out.

Go On

Go On (Copyright of NBC)

I was never huge fan of Friends. It just wasn’t a show that I really got into, but when I did catch the show on in syndication, I loved Chandler’s wit, and I think this is what I love about Go On. The creator, Scott Silveri, was also a writer and the executive producer on Friends, so there is definitely that connection with Chandler.

This show is about a sports radio show host who has to deal with his wife dying. I know, it doesn’t sound like the premise of a comedy, but I assure you, it is by making light of a terrible situation, which is definitely what people going through a tough time need. To be able to go back to work, Ryan King (Matthew Perry) needs to complete 10 hours of group therapy. The show revolves around Ryan and an interesting bunch of people in this loss group (essentially making them losers).  You’ve got people like a lesbian lawyer who lost her wife, a cat lady who lost a cat and a guy in the army whose wife got knocked up while he was on tour. It’s definitely a very interesting mix of people, which makes for interesting situations for this group to get in. There’s also a super weird and creepy guy named Mr. K, whose story we don’t know just yet, but I cannot wait to find out. I also can’t forget about John Cho, who is Ryan’s best friend and the producer of the show. He wasn’t in the past week’s episode and I definitely missed him; for the eye candy and that his character’s pretty funny.

This set up is very Community-esque with a cooler person and a group of misfits. It’s a great formula for a TV show and I hope that it won’t get cancelled. Poor Matthew Perry has had so many TV shows, but somehow they don’t get far. So far I’m really enjoying this show, even from the first episode, which actually made me laugh out loud.  It’s on Tuesday nights at 9 PM which is a very competitive time slot (to me at least). There’s New Girl, Happy Endings and now Go On! Fierce competition, but I’m really hoping that this one is the one for Matthew Perry.

Wedding Band

Wedding Band (Copyright of TBS)

I didn’t even know about this show until I saw commercials for it a week or two before it started.  It’s on Saturday nights, so I DVRed it, but didn’t get a chance to watch it until after the second episode had aired. Verdict: I really like it. It’s like a mix of Glee and Wedding Crashers. They’ve got covers, but it’s not the focus of the show, and these guys (mostly Brian Austin Green as Tommy) are hooking up at these weddings.

This band, fronted by Brian Austin Green aka David from Beverly Hills, 90210,gets picked up by this events company, Rutherford Events, which is run by Roxie Rutherford (Melora Hardin aka Jan from The Office). It’s only three episodes into the season, and the second episode was probably my favourite so far. Megan Fox guest stars in it as an actress on a sci-fi show. She and Tommy meet at this event they’re playing at some comic-con event and through their meeting, Tommy meets these two nerdy guys in high school. To try and help them up their popularity the band teaches them the ways of getting girls and helps them to hook up with their crushes by throwing a party and playing at it. In a way it was a bit like Superbad, but it was definitely funny. I can’t wait to see what the rest of the season holds.

I’m aware that this list only has comedies, but the reason behind that is that the dramas didn’t look very good and I didn’t want to spend time on shows like Last Resort, where the commercials made everything seem overly dramatic.

If you’ve got some extra time on your hands and you’re looking for more new TV shows to fill that void, I’ve listed a few to watch.

Chicago Fire

I’m not sure if it’s one for the guys, since the main reason I watch is for the hot firefighters, but there are two good looking girls on the show too! It’s produced by Dick Wolf, the same guy that brought you Law and Order, so it definitely holds to his standards in the drama department. Each episode clearly has at least one fire that they need to put out, so it shows  you a bit about the people that they are saving, but it mainly revolves around the fire crew. You’ve got some guys who provide the comic relief, but usually I find it to be pretty intense. My friends and I text while watching because there’s so much drama that you need to share and discuss what’s going on at that moment. So if you enjoy that sort of thing, then this may be a show you’d want to check out.

The New Normal

I checked out The New Normal because I wanted to give NBC’s new comedies a chance, especially with  30 Rock, one of my favourite shows, ending. All the funny parts from the pilot were shown in the trailer, so I didn’t find the show to be all that great. I kept on watching though because with many shows, it’s hard to get a feel for the characters from only one episode. I found that it’s not laugh out loud funny, but it’s not terrible. To me it seems like it’s a bit more on the serious side, so not fully a comedy. They deal with prejudice and unconventional families (hence the title), and you can’t always make light of those situations. Who knows though, this show could turn to be like Parks and Recreation, where the first season wasn’t the greatest, but gets infinitely better afterwards.

666 Park Avenue

Again like quite a few pilots, I found this one to be meh, but I continued to watch since my best friend was really into it. She got me into shows like The Office and Suburgatory, so I was going to give it a chance. I got five episodes into the series and there were more questions than any answers being given. At this point I gave up on the show, but it happened to be the wrong time to stop. I have been told that you finally get some answers after that episode and there’s a great cliffhanger at the end of one of the episodes. Cliffhangers make shows incredibly addictive i.e. Heroes and Revenge. Unfortunately it’s been cancelled, since the ratings haven’t been great, which is a shame because it supposedly has gotten a lot better. If you want to check it out for a quick thirteen episode series, it has been said that the series won’t end off on a cliffhanger (not the good kind of cliffhanger as I stated before).

Are there any other new series that I should check out from this season?