Dru’s Fall TV Schedule

After a summer of repeats and fillers, it's time we got back to some choice television programming.  Here's a breakdown of what yours truly will be following on tv for the next seven to eight months.

In no particular order, I give you the shows that I have been a slave to for more years than I care to admit.  Some are still worth watching, others are strictly viewed because of an obligation I feel to see the project finished all the way through.  Please note, this list does not include any new shows premiering this season; I watch too many as it is already.  Besides which, I'm getting older and casts seem to be getting younger, and for some strange reason, I

have never been able to watch any show religiously where the main characters are younger than I am.  It's not a conscious thing, but it's true nonetheless.  It's been a long time since I've had to deal with any teen angst in my life, and I don't care to relive it through DeGrassi thank you very much.  But I digress.

Shows I'm current on:

House, M.D. (premiering Mon. October 3 @ 9pm) - Entering the 8th season for any show is a spectacular feat, especially when that show should have ended five seasons ago.  House is one of those shows that I mentioned watching because I feel obligated to.  After the "original team" disbanded, and Jennifer Morrison fell off the show completely, the show got increasingly worse over time.  The first few seasons were great at concentrating on the illness at hand and the methods used to form a diagnosis.  The personal relationship storylines were minimal at best, and you pretty much only knew what you needed to.  Since approximately season five, the B-storylines took on lives of their own and ran rampant through the show, leaving the medical mysteries to sort themselves out in the background.  Not only is it annoying, it's also typical - every time a show deals with a certain topic, the personal matters start overtaking the interesting part of the show, and before you know it you have another soap opera.  Case in point: the season eight opener shows us House behind bars for what is assumed to be his destructive behavior in ramming his car through his ex-girlfriend's home at the end of season seven.  As I have done for the last five seasons, I keep my fingers crossed that this one will be the last.

Modern Family ( premiering Wed. September 21 @ 9pm) - When Will & Grace went off the air in 2006, I had lost all hope of a worthy comedy finding its way back into my routine tv schedule.  My prayers were answered when MF debuted three years ago.  I went into this show thinking it wouldn't work since this, like so many others at the time, seemed to be copying the tv-interview-mockumentary format; however, I decided to give Al Bundy's new show a chance, and I've never regretted doing it since.  The title couldn't be more fitting either as any type of marriage you can think of exists on the show from your same-sex couples to the ethnically diverse May-December marriage and everything in between.  The bumbling, yet lovable real estate agent Phil Dunphy played by Ty Burrell steals every scene as far as I'm concerned.  I'm convinced that MF wouldn't be half as entertaining much less made it off the ground if his character didn't exist.  Even without the comedy, the show touches on family values that people should strive for in every culture, and does so in an incredibly simple, poignant, and moving way.

Law & Order SVU (premiering Wed. September 21 @ 10pm) - Few shows can boast what this one can, 12 seasons of pure entertainment with almost all of the same characters that were there from the beginning.  That is, until this season.  Midway through season 13, we are going to see less of the two characters that made the show the guilty pleasure that has made it a joy to watch since its inception in 1999.  Chris Meloni (Eliot Stabler) did not renew his contract for the upcoming season, while Mariska Hargitay (Olivia Benson) will have a reduced role as her character will be given a promotion in the series making way for a younger cast to debut on what I assume will be the beginning of the end for this remarkable show (remember what I said earlier about watching shows with main characters younger than myself??).  I just don't see how SVU can hope to stay alive when what made it so enjoyable (the partnership between Benson and Stabler) isn't there to sustain it.  Rumor has it that B.D. Wong (Dr. George Huang) will also be absent from the lineup this year.  Where have all my favorite characters gone?!?  I had a "lol" moment when I read about all the former cast that are making comebacks this season; my initial thought was it was a cheap stunt to retain longtime viewers, now I think it's just sad that even that won't be able to save this epic program.

Supernatural (premiering Fri. September 23 @ 9pm) - By far, my favorite show of any and all I've watched since Buffy, Angel, and Lost went off the air.  No other show has been able to fill the horror/thriller category like this one has.  I've followed the Winchester brothers' story for six seasons now, but as I prepare to enter season seven, even I recognize that all good things must come to an end. Creator/writer/producer Eric Kripke left the show at the epic conclusion of season five, and with it, a big part of the show went downhill. In the beginning, the stories focused on urban legends that turned out to be anything but. Each week was like a mini-horror movie broadcast directly to your home, putting twists on classic stories we all grew up with (Bloody Mary, grim reapers, witches, vampires, etc) and turning them into real-life bad guys with all the evil mojo that comes with it.  Through the years, the story has expanded to include legends not just about demons, but angels as well.  The transition between the plotlines had been relatively smooth until Kripke left the helm.  His final episode as writer would have made for a perfect series finale, but the show trudges on.  Last season had some great stand-alone episodes, but the overall story arch and season finale were a bit hard to swallow.  Ideally, I would prefer this show to go out on top as a winner, but depending on how this season ends, it'd be lucky to end in the top 3 of my all-time pantheon of great series endings (all three aforementioned fantasy shows hold those spots respectively).

Other shows I am addicted to, but am behind on my DVD seasons include It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Dexter, and True Blood.  Should I ever decide to completely kill my social life, maybe I'll be able to catch up on them, but I haven't gotten that desperate yet.  Happy tv -viewing!!

Any shows premiering for another season that you can't live without?