Telefizzled out

If I were ambitious enough to dive into the archives, I would look and see what the point was in writing these posts for 34+ weeks. I think it was to show attrition in my scheduled viewing, so we’ll go with that and there was definitely some of that, but not as much as I’d hoped for. You see, I know I don’t watch too much telly, but I watch more than I’d like. Anyway, I am thankful for the break this Summer will afford, although Burn Notice starts back up next week.

So, before I try to remember what has come and gone, let me finish off with thoughts on three last episodes I caught this week and last:

How I Met Your Mother: This one finished up last week. It would seem CBS wanted to go longer than everyone else as a lot of their shows did the same. Anyway, no mother and no yellow umbrella, but it does close out with Ted taking the teaching gig and revealing that the mother is in his class, so I guess we are getting some teacher or student macking for this thing. The rest of the show revealed the story with the goat — meh — and the Barney and Robin thing. I say leave it alone, but whatever. I’m sure they will do that. Barney needs to be free to be awesome.

My Boys: This one finished off its nine episode season last night, but there was another show the week before. That one had something to do with PJ trying to find another girlfriend. She succeeded, but the girl and her man thought Bobby was too much? Okay. Martin Mull guests again and he was okay. This week had the gang down in AZ for Cubs’ Spring Training. Kind of a nice story about two sports reporters remembering they are fans too, although they haven’t really shied away from that in the past. Anyway, they had some minor Cubs players guest and it was decent. They end with PJ and Bobby catching Kenny smooching Stephanie. Apparently they hooked back up again because that was kinda how it ended last season, but with them being secret, one-night only thing. I liked the crazy girl chasing after Brendan. I  should go shopping at the crazy mall too.

So, that is that. Southland ended last week too, but I only caught bits of the last two episodes. I will probably treat it the same next year. And that is a good segue, but I’m not ready for that yet. Let me try and hit upon the shows I remember coming and going from this year.

Well, I can start with Fringe, but I never even gave it a shot. I remember recording the first two and not watching, so I called it early. Come to find out now that it was good. I will check out the DVD set when released and see if I can put it on the docket for next season as it got renewed. I killed off Heroes and Reaper this year. Both got real boring for me. Heroes didn’t even get off the ground and Reaper lasted about 60% of the way thru. It isn’t coming back anyway. ABC killed off Eli Stone and Life on Mars, so thanks for that. I missed 3 to 4 episodes of Mars, but it was good… both were. My Own Worst Enemy got snuffed out right after I called that one. Trust Me and Parks and Recreation didn’t last more than a few episodes for me. That’s pretty much what I remember without looking. I did continue to check out Rules of Engagement and Gary Unmarried pretty much every week even though I didn’t write about them. They are decent wastes of a half hour. (Both are back next year.) Heck, I even caught at least a half dozen Two and a Half Men episodes this year. (I don’t like admitting that, but let’s just say Chuck Lorre won me over a little bit with how great Big Bang Theory has been.)

As for what lasted and it coming back next year, I am super excited that Chuck was picked up for a mid-season order. I don’t care if it will be half Subway ads and a guest appearance by Jared. Dollhouse also got picked up by FOX, but both it and Chuck will see some budget cuts. No worries on that. I’m sure they will trim right. Scrubs is also going to be back in some form and that could be great or it could suck. Braff is in for six appearances, but it remains to be seen how the series will be set. Better Off Ted apparently did well enough to return too. Smallville is also still on the CW schedule but they dumped it to Friday night, so they must be trying to kill it, right?

In addition to those shows, previous year staples like Big Bang Theory, How I Met Your Mother, The Office and 30 Rock will all be back. Lost and Friday Night Lights will show up sometime in the Winter.

Last week also saw the networks all doing their annual upfronts for next season, hence why I know what is coming back. Not a lot of new shows sound interesting to me. ABC has Flash Forward by David Goyer and Brannon Braga and The Forgotten which says it is about amateur crime fighters. If that means more comic book than cop show, it might be promising, but that’s all I read about it. ABC also has a Jamie Oliver helmed reality/cooking show that I will probably check out. He’s the Naked Chef you know… and dreamy. FOX has a show coming mid-season based on an unknown-to-me DC Comics/Vertigo property called Human Target. The trailer looked good and so does the cast, except Bonaduce, or is that Bona-douche-y?

Finally, there are some sitcoms I will probably check out too. Again, I don’t mind half hour wastes of time. Community on NBC looks promising and Cougar Town on ABC, by Scrubs‘ Bill Lawrence, could be good just because it is Lawrence.

What about you? Are you geeked up for anything new you heard about or your favorite returning show?

Oh, and if you care, I caught up on the last three episodes of The Hills on OnDemand. It has been okay this season, but you can see it trailing off without as much LC. Entertainment Weekly reported last week that Kristin Cavallari will join the cast for the next season to basically replace LC. While that might be good for the show, it isn’t for me. When I watched the first two seasons of Laguna Beach, I fast-forwarded past almost every scene with her in it. I don’t find spoiled biznatch entertaining.