- The Mindy Project (9/16), 9:30 PM on FOX
The show began as a hot mess, and it's only slightly less a mess. Its non-central characters are often annoying in their cartoonishness, and the sense of workplace has slowly become less potent over time. (One thing I liked about the first season is that Mindy, despite her all-over-the-placeness, was a good OB/GYN who took her work seriously, and that pops up less often, now.)
HOWEVER, twice or three times an episode, there's a nugget of emotional reality that stuns and remains to sting. In the season premiere, it was close to the end of the episode, where after an episode of conflict, Mindy and Danny sat down on the fire escape and quietly confessed the insecurities that had plagued them. It was sweet and very real, and then the next scene was Danny doing a stripper dance. The beauty of The Mindy Project, I think, is that we can have both of those things, and it works.
- NEW: Selfie (9/30), 8 PM on ABC
The pilot for this show has been up on Hulu for a couple of weeks now. It's...not great. It's a show obsessed by social media in the way that education-oriented news sites talk about technology: Look how shiny and awful and distracting technology is! Look upon these works AND DESPAIR! And while this is, indeed, a modern update of My Fair Lady, I think we should also remember that My Fair Lady wants us to think paternalistic, condescending, stuffy, mansplainy Henry Higgins is a viable romantic lead, and utterly right to try and polish up a lady to appropriate proper behavior.
It's an awful premise, is what I'm saying, and I want to hate it, except they cast JOHN CHO and KAREN GILLAN, and now I have to watch it every week. I have so many feelings, y'all.
- NEW: The Flash (10/07), 8 PM on The CW
So while I meant to watch Arrow these past two years, I have not gotten around to it. But I will totally watch the spin-off. (This is not uncharacteristic of me, as you will gather.) But I do love me some Wally West. Or, wait. Is this a Wally West show? I know there are other dudes who have also been Flash.
Oh, whatevs. I'll give this a shot, in any case. If it's as awesome as everybody says Arrow is now, then it'll at least be fun.
- Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (9/23), 9 PM on ABC
The first season, as everybody knows, was kind of ploddy and slow, and then Winter Soldier happened and things. Got. AWESOME. And, to be clear, I'm a sucker for anything Whedon-related (aside from horror movies), because I like "found family" as a concept, and there will always be quips. And now we've even got a post-institutional-apocalyptic scenario, with a ragtag band of grumpy heroes rebuilding in the ashes. Huzzah!
Also, Ming-Na Wen, guys. Ming-Na Wen is a goddess.
- New Girl (9/16), 9 PM on FOX
I'm not someone who ascribes slavishly to the idea that will-they/won't-they is the only way to run romance in a sitcom. There are lots of ways to keep it interesting, if one stays true to the characters (e.g. The Mindy Project). But man, oh man, did Jess/Nick get awful last year. And, for good reason--we endured a few tortuous episodes that illustrated why they didn't work. And now we have all six players being all wacky in this hang-out comedy, and I hope the show continues to build on their penchant for false identities.
- NEW: NCIS: New Orleans (9/23), 9 PM on CBS
I love procedurals in the same way I love sonnets. I've fallen out of sync with NCIS and NCIS: Los Angeles, but that doesn't mean this one won't be fun. CCH Pounder! Scott Bakula! New Orleans! Those are all things I like.
- NEW: Forever (9/22), 10 PM on ABC
The pilot for this episode has also been up on Hulu, and I liked it well enough. I liked it even before we reached the end of the cold open, and I discovered this is a procedural with a protagonist who cannot die and is nigh-Holmesian in his investigative techniques. Ioan Gruffudd is a fun actor, and the dynamics between his character and Judd Hirsch's is super-interesting. I could quibble about how little the world needs quirky procedurals, but I mean, I just also admitted I like the NCIS franchise as well. I'm pretty easy-going when it comes to these kinds of things.
- NCIS (9/23), 9 PM on CBS
So I've just been belaboring above about how much I like NCIS, so this is embarrassing, but: I don't like NCIS. Or, I don't like that they seem to have replaced Ziva with a manic pixie dream scientist. Like, GUYS. You already have ABBY. You don't need a blonde version! COME ON.
BUT. The beauty of a long-running show like NCIS is how much weight it has accumulated. It usually doesn't work too hard, but it can do a lot of complex things when it puts in an effort. Small, tiny details over...more than ten years? That's a lot of character heft, even though they use it sparingly.
- Supernatural (10/07), 9 PM on The CW
I am, like, four seasons behind now. I dig Supernatural, I dig all the actors, and I really dig the cosmology. I am a lightweight when it comes to horror things, though, so SPN spooks me easily. Also, the show's Big Bad model produced diminishing returns. I mean, once you've already upended hell and fought a war in heaven, is there very much further you can go?
The above might seem like a lot, but actually, this might be the lightest Tuesday line-up I've had in years. It might be because The CW's more recent supernatural fare (Beauty and the Beast, The 100, etc.) haven't really intrigued me. In any case. Weird.
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