Finally! After some delay, I'm finally wrapping up this series with a review of Sunday Fall TV. A very crowded night, particularly when you throw in offerings from cable. As usual, since Ripping Good Yarns focuses on fictional storytelling, I will have comment, good or bad, about the reality programs on Sunday.
On prime time broadcast TV, the two series watched most faithfully at our house are Once Upon A Time, in it's sophomore season, and The Mentalist, in it's fifth fall season. Once Upon A time has been great fun, and is almost Lost-like in it's back and forth structure. It even had kind of a smoke demon at it's end. Where it will go this season is anybody's guess. The show could get a lot better or a lot worse. We shall see. The Mentalist has two major things going for it; one is the Red John story-line which helps increase it's status as a Ripping good Yarn, and the character Cho, whose stoic understatements makes him one of my favorite characters on TV. In a bizarre way, he reminds me of Mr. Spock.
The new show I most looking forward to is 666 Park Avenue. A horror series structured like an anthology. I'm intrigued by the premise, a haunted hotel in New York City. I'm reserving judgement until I see the series, which I've recorded and have on DVR, but have not seen yet. I'm afraid with Robin Hood practice and everything my DVR is going to accumulate shows at a much more rapid rate than I am going to be able to watch them.
I do not believe there are any other new shows on Sunday.
Returning are The Good Wife in it's fourth fall season (is the premise that she's married to a Senator or something?); Revenge in it's second season, which I have not seen but Rippers tell me is very good ( I have DVRed the first season recap and the first episode). There are the four animated comedies on Fox; The Simpsons (23rd season!), Bob's Burgers, Family Guy (8th season) and American Dad (8th season). The animated characters age slower and have fewer salary demands.
But then we get to the cable shows. Showtime's Homeland, which won the Emmy for best series. Don't get me started on the difference between short-form and long-form series. On HBO there is Boardwalk Empire and Treme, both outstanding shows that I watch. But the biggest treat is AMC's The Walking Dead Don't let the title fool you. This is the best show on basic cable. It is character driven, with great stories and writing.
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