2013 TV Season Premieres – Monday

Sleepy Hollow – 9pm on Fox (Premiere Date 9/16/2013)

I didn’t entirely know what to expect when Sleepy Hollow started. Judging the shows by the trailers I thought, at least for season one, it would be all about tracking the Headless Horseman. This show was a lot more than that though, sure the big bad for the episode was the aforementioned sight impaired equestrian, but the show had a lot more going for it. As the hour carried on we met all the major players, and had more than one big shocking revealing. Our heroes Revolutionary War soldier Ichabod Crane and police Lt. Abbie Mills, played by Tom Mison and Nicole Beharie, have a great chemistry in this first episode, and they both have a lot of burden on them even before things really get started. Ichabod’s arrival in the future isn’t something he’s expecting and the reactions by the people in 2013 actually make a lot of sense. They don’t make it overly campy with him experiencing new things, but he’s also noticeably taken aback by a lot of it too. One of the best scenes involves his surprise of a black female police lieutenant that wears pants. And starbucks.

One of the things that really set this show apart from what it could have been, is the mythology and religious tie-in’s they’re using to make this whole Headless Horseman and time traveling Ichabod Crane a bit more ‘realistic’. Now obviously there isn’t really anything realistic about this story, but it’s better than just “Oh yeah there was a whole that sucked both these guys in and one of them had just lost their heads”. It actually really adds something to the myths of the series, and makes expanding past just this singular villain a reasonable thing. Really why else would Ichabod be helping Abbie out if things were all tied together.

That brings us to another point, where shows like Continuum(which is actually really good) have their main time traveling hero find some way to trick the police into letting them work cases. Sleepy Hollow just flat out has the police know what’s going on. Granted none of them really know what’s going on, but they all saw a dude on a horse with no head, so I guess a dude claiming to be BFF’s with George Washington isn’t such a farfetched idea.

Overall Sleepy Hollow is really looking to be a great new shows, that’s sure to fill a spot on Monday nights. If you were a fan of shows like Buffy and Angel this is definitely something to check out. Definitely make sure to start with this first episode though, and tune in on Monday September 23 for episode 2!

Verdict: Watch It

Score: 8/10

Reviewed By: Chris

How I Met Your Mother – 8pm on CBS (Premiere Date 9/23/2013 *1 hour premiere*)

How I Met Your Mother’s final season is a few weeks in now and it’s be going pretty well so far. The last two season I felt were a little weak, they had their moments, but overall I just wasn’t impressed with where a lot of story lines were going. Now with this final stretch to the end the writers have an ending in sight and only so many episode left to get to it. Without focusing to much on the more recent episode, lets talk a bit about the one hour season premiere. This was our introduction to just how this season is going to run, with the gang attending Barney and Robin’s wedding at a nice hotel in a town called Farhampton. Of course it’s not going to be that easy, the first episode featured a brief road trip to the hotel with Ted and Lily, which Lily quickly baled on because Ted is crazy. This of course led to our first real introduction to the woman known only as The Mother. Unfortunately for Ted, it was Lily who first met her, and it was actually a great introduction. She seemed to actually hit it off with Lily really well, and her personality just felt like she would fit into this group of friends. The problem with the first half of the premiere was that this was the highlight, meeting this character we’ve been waiting on for so many years was great, but the rest of the episode left something to be desired. Barney and Robin’s almost incest was weird, and the only enjoyable parts were the ring bear and Game of Thrones reference. Yeah, Joffrey was a great King. . .

Marshall had a story that could have been good, had it not obviously been something that’s going to drag out over several episode. Was it really necessary to make his character have to take this long road trip with a stranger to get back in time for the wedding? Just let the poor guy take a plane ride! I suppose with the reveal last year that he was offered a Judges job, while he and Lily were preparing to go to Italy for a year is an alright reason to drag things out, it still feels forced. Ted was really the only character that didn’t have much going on in this first episode, though at the end we did get a pretty big glimpse into where his mind was at the moment. On the bright side we kind of know how things are going to play out, sure bad stuff will probably going down, but we can assume a show like this is going to have a fairly happy ending by the end. Granted I know that we’ve heard Ted reference to Aunt Robin, Aunt Lily and Uncle Marshall to his kids, but I honestly can’t remember if he ever mentions Barney in a similar way to his kids. I could just be forgetting things, or possibly this is foreshadowing dun dun dun.

Anyway, the second episode had the characters actually arriving at the hotel, and while the Mother wasn’t really a big part of this episode, her one scene was probably the highlight of the entire episode. Without spoiling things, it’s nice to know that the show at least threw fans a bone on this one, and hopefully we get a few more. We all know that Ted will not be meeting her till probably the last couple episodes, if not the very last. We’ve seen where it happens, and have a pretty good idea of when, it’s going to be one hell of a season getting there though. If you haven’t started watching this season of How I Met Your Mother yet stop hesitating and get to it already, this is certainly to be one of those shows you don’t want to miss.

Verdict: Watch it and be ready to cry this spring!

Score: 8/10

Reviewed By: Chris

2 Broke Girls – 9pm on CBS (Premiere Date 9/23/2013)

2 Broke Girls isn’t the best show on tv, it’s certainly not the smartest humor, but it is funny. Funny in a very sophomoric way, that you just can’t help but laugh at. The problem is coming into its third season not much has changed. The major drive force for the girls is to open a cupcake shop. They did it and it failed, so now they’re doing it super late night out the back window of the diner they work at. I still find myself laughing at the show, but I’m not sure how much longer that’s going to happen. It’s just not one of those shows that I feel like I need to watch every week, I could probably catch it once a month and have my fill. It’s a shame too, the cast is all fun, and they really go full force into their characters. Some characters aren’t as amusing as others, but you get that in every show. I guess if your Monday nights are light this is a decent way to spend the 9-930 timeslot, for me though I’d much rather be watching Sleepy Hollow than this anymore. Doesn’t mean I won’t DVR the show and watch it later though.

Verdict: Better left to DVR or OnDemand

Score: 6/10

Reviewed By: Chris

Mom – 9:30pm on CBS (Premiere Date 9/23/2013)

I only watched the first episode of Mom, I had every intention of watching the next couple that have aired, but nothing is really driving me to do it. I just wasn’t that interested in the first episode. Anna Ferris plays a woman who use to be a terrible mom, who had a terrible mom, but now she wants to be a a good mom. That about sums it up, she doesn’t really like her mom, her daughter doesn’t really like her. It’s one of those full circle kind of things. Outside of that it’s just really not that interesting, and like 2 Broke Girls, at the timeslot it’s on, I’d rather be watching Sleepy Hollow.

Verdict: Skip It

Score: 4/10

Reviewed By: Chris

The Blacklist – 10pm on NBC (Premiere Date 9/23/2013)

NBC is pretty well known for having pretty low ratings on their shows, but I’m noticing more and more that they really do have some of the best ones on. Revolution is an interesting fun show, Grimm is one of my favorites, they’ve got great comedies like Parks & Rec, and now a show like Blacklist hits their network. Blacklist has an interesting, but not original, plot. A most wanted criminal turns them self in and starts working with the FBI. It sounds pretty straight forward, but it’s not. With just 2 episodes they’ve already layered all kinds of mystery into the show. Motives for our main character Red Reddington, just why is he doing this if he’s a criminal himself? And Why is he so infatuated with a rookie FBI profiler? And what the hell is up with her husband? Sure the show has some flaws to it, some scenes are a little forced, but any time James Spader is on screen everything feels very natural. He really takes control of a scene and drives it in the proper direction.

So far with just a couple episodes down I’ve gotta say The Blacklist is one of my favorite new shows, and I’m looking forward to seeing where things go. Luckily it just got picked up for a full 22 episode season, which should bode well for it being renewed for a second year.

Verdict: Watch It!

Score: 8/10

Reviewed By: Chris

We Are Men – 8:30pm on CBS (Premiere Date 9/30/2013)

After watching the first episode, and a decent portion of the second I’m just not feeling this show. The humor isn’t really there, and the characters feel forced. I love the cast, but this is just not the show they should be in.

Verdict: Pretend it doesn’t come on anymore.

Score: 1/10

Reviewed By: Chris