#769. TV from 9/23/14

I sometimes talk about what I've been watching.  It's been a while.  Let's do a little of that again.  Here's a survey of what was happening last night:

At 8 I gave Arrow another shot.  This is a show I'm supposed to like.  Everyone says so.  But every time I give it a try, I actually kind of hate it.  It's a soap opera.  I realize Smallville was pretty much exactly like this, but it did a much better job at casting and...general execution.  This was a repeat, anyway.  There was an ad promoting the Arrow episodes that served as a prelude for the upcoming Flash, which seems like and hopefully is a show that will do everything right that Arrow does wrong.  These episodes will play the week before Flash premieres.  I might watch them, but I've officially given up on Arrow.

At 9 I caught the second episode of New Girl's new season.  I missed the first one last week.  My track record with the show is terrible, but I'm hopelessly in love with Zooey Deschanel (which can be dangerous), so I try and catch it, and I do like it a lot.  I don't know that I love it, but you can't have everything.  By the time Jess figured out Schmidt's dating advice was terrible (she was really desperate), the episode starting feeling like classic New Girl, while everyone else was participating in the B-story PSA about drugs (which was kind of weird, but at least Winston gets to continue being awesome and hilariously completely isolated from even the new black guy they added last season).

I was flipping to Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. every now and then, too.  It was the season premiere.  Adrian Pasdar was in it, but I think he realized at some point that like everyone in New Girl he's made some hilarious miscalculations.  Like Arrow, I've pretty much come to the conclusion that Agents, at least for me, is irredeemably terrible.

There was also the Red Sox playing on NESN (New England Sports Network for those who...don't live in New England).  The first time I checked out what they were up to, they were actually ahead 1-0.  Clay Buchholz was having a pretty good game.  (This has not been a very good season for Clay, or the Red Sox in general.  They've been making their own series of hilarious miscalculations.  Although a month or two back I was seriously depressed about it.)  But then inexplicably, Clay was kept in one inning too long (this has happened at far worse moments for Boston, at least), the Rays scored five runs, the Red Sox lost again, what can you say?

At least the Angels are doing well.  Best team in baseball this season.  Mike Trout's had a third consecutive standout season.  Albert Pujols has generally rebounded after a bad previous season.  And the A's are doing well, although less well since dealing Yoenis Cespedes to the Sox (and taking Jon Lester in return; stupid, stupid Sox, rooting up the whole pitching staff "because we'll definitely fix that in the off-season").  They will probably still make the play-offs.  The Cardinals will be in the play-offs, too, over in the National League.  Overall, with three out of my four teams doing well, a pretty good baseball season this year.

At 10 I gave Forever a shot for about a minute.  I was intrigued.  But it's basically exactly like Elementary.  So I probably won't be watching that again.  Then switched to the season premiere of Person of Interest, another show I don't watch regularly enough.  But I do love this one.  It seems like Finch has gotten over his crisis of faith.  That's good.  The show is even suggesting there's going to be a big reward for following it every season, which places it squarely back in the territory of classic J.J. Abrams, such as Alias, Lost, and Fringe.  (I won't argue the point about Lost, but I know for most fans the series finale alone seems to have completely undone its reputation.  Congratulations on that, people.)  Likely, this season will serve a good portion of that payoff, so it'll be interesting to continue watching it, as long as I can figure out how to catch it regularly again.

Tonight is Survivor's season premiere!  It's another "blood versus water"/"loved ones" season, but unlike the last time with all-new casting.  I don't make too fine a point on it, but I've loved Survivor since it premiered in 2000.  So tonight will be a good night!