9 by Design

This is my favorite new show.

Maybe it's the best new reality show in a long, long time.

The parents, Robert and Cortney, are exactly what every Gen Xer thought they'd be when they grew up. Seven kids and they live in Manhattan: building, designing, and selling the coolest homes. Am I a little envious? Probably. Am I loving their dynamic lives and their wild/awesome kids? Absolutely. A design firm? Hold me.

My favorite quote so far?

Bob, "People ask us why we have so many kids, we love kids."
Cortney, "Yeah, we would rather hang out with our kids than any party."

(They get it.)

Are you watching?

Favorite Moments/Episodes of 2009?

Hey, contributors.

Let's talk about the year of TV that was 2009. I'll start it off by saying that I think Southland was my runaway favorite new show. And that Lost got back into my heart in a big way. Anyone else want to share?

Ready for Life Unexpected?

Are we ready for something on the CW that fills the Gilmore Girls space?



I'm kind of ready. Not that I don't love the CW, I do, but this has the potential to be a really good show.


p.s. if your name is Topher and you hated the Gilmore Girls, can you still maybe like this show? At what point is something too Gilmore for its own good?

Weep No More

Hey midseasoners (is that what we are called?), raise up your voices and rejoice! Here is an article I pilfered from this website:

After a pre-emptive cancellation by NBC, “Southland” has been picked up by TNT for 2010.

In a parallel universe, “Southland” is preparing to air the third episode of its second season tomorrow, preempting the Friday slot of “The Jay Leno Show”. However, in this life, the critically-acclaimed series has been struggling to find a new home after being unceremoniously axed by NBC before Season 2 was set to begin October 23rd, preferring to reserve that timeslot for the much cheaper weekday-airing “Leno.”

TNT has bought up the rights to the upstart cop drama from Warner Brothers Television, including the first season’s seven episodes as well as the second season’s unaired six. TNT is set to air the episodes starting Tuesday, January 12, 2010, with the production of more episodes depending on the ratings for the existing episodes as they air. TNT already produces other mature police series such as “The Closer” and “Dark Blue,” as well as airing "Law & Order" in syndication.

Co-created by John Wells, the super-serious cop drama was considered, in part, to be the heir apparent to NBC’s long-running “ER,” Wells’ previous medical drama that wrapped up last April just as “Southland” began in the network’s newly-vacant Thursday evening timeslot. Like “ER,” “Southland” tackles fairly dark subject matter and attempts to create a realistic look at the lives of its characters, as well as employing an ensemble cast with no clear lead. The series follows the detectives and officers of the LAPD, and stars (L to R) Arija Bareikis, Michael McGrady, Tom Everett Scott, Benjamin McKenzie, Regina King, Michael Cudlitz, Shawn Hatosy, and Kevin Alejandro.


Wahoodilihay! Sucks to your assmar, Jay Leno!

Fall TV Follow-up

Here are the thoughts I've had on the new shows I was looking forward to:

Flash Forward - I am loving this show. I love coming up with theories and seeing what each person saw in their FF. I have a feeling, if it catches on, that it could be THE "Lost" replacement, filling that void. I mean, it already has half the cast in it already.

Community - My favorite new comedy. It's getting better each week and I love the characters. Who knew Chevy Chase could still be funny?

Trauma - Watched the premiere. It was pretty good but not what I thought it was going to be. I was on the fence and decided I didn't have time to watch it unless I stopped watching something else and I don't want to stop watching anything else.

And the ones I was not sold on:

Mercy - Meh. Seemed fine but suffered from not appealing to my manliness and met the same fate as Trauma.

The Forgotten - I like this one. I don't feel an urge to watch it every week because the episodes are too similar and there's no real running story to keep me glued. Still, I think it's good enough to watch when I run out of everything else and so I'll keep it around for a bit.

The Modern Family - I love this show. The characters are well-developed and the writing is spot on funny. It was a total surprise to me how good this show is. Hailey put it best when she said ... what'd you say again, Hailey?

What do you think about the Fall TV season so far?

Fall TV Excitement?

I think most everyone is on the Glee train at this point but I sort of have it on warning. The episode after the pilot had a few great moments but sputtered here and there.

So my "looking forward to" shows are:

Flash Forward
Community
Trauma

I'm curious about but not sold on:

Mercy
The Forgotten
The Modern Family

I know! Two medical dramas?? What am I thinking? But they look interesting to me.

So what's everyone else most excited for this Fall?

And my heart is filled with Glee.

Did you guys catch the Glee Premier? I had such high hopes - the trailer was so great, and who doesn't want to hear Journey songs sung by a show choir? And I have to say, it lived up to all of my expectations.

Amy and I both felt like it reminded us of early Nip/ Tuck. Funny and weird and sharply edited with great characters. Where Nip/Tuck quickly became Soft-Core ridiculousness ('member when Matt cut off his own penis because the neo-Nazis made him?) I still think Ryan Murphy can make a fun, interesting show.

I think this show will walk a fine line of the characters being interesting and falling into easy cliche's - the sassy black girl, the fey gay kid, the weird nerd in a wheelchair, etc. So far, so good, but I think we want to see them developed a bit more.

What I love about this show is the music. I have listened to that Don't Stop Believing perhaps 1 million times. Such verve! Such joy! Such...wait for it...glee. In this interesting interview, Ryan Murphy talks about how each episode will have 5 - 8 songs in it and his hope is to release the songs on iTunes the night they air and put out a "soundtrack" every few months. Seriously, who buys "soundtracks" anymore? I'll just download them, TYVM. (Is that an Internet acronym? Because it should be.)

So if you missed it, watch it. The whole episode is on Hulu. And if you need convincing, just watch this clip. I don't know why it is the wrong size, but you can see most of it. And you too, may be filled with Glee.