A New Saga Begins

It's the start of a new school year, which means it's the start of the new television season, too. This isn't such a big deal as it used to be since cable has so many quality shows on during the summer, but some people who haven't discovered those gems, it's the return of new episodes to watch. Most of the shows that I watched last year are no longer with us, which means that I am in need of one or two new ones to watch. Heroes is still around, as are Battlestar Galactica and Smallville, but both of those I much prefer to watch on DVD, which left me with just one show to watch during the week.

The good news is that with the success of Alias in the past and all the spy movies lately, studios are willing to develop spy and action shows, even if most of them are drama filled. Also, with the recent huge success of most things supernatural or metahuman, television is trying desperately to get on the band wagon of superpowers.

All of this is good news for me since I enjoy one of those generes immensely, and the other when it's done right. Almost all of the new series (that I'm aware of, at least) show a trend of tv falling into fewer and fewer categories. The sitcom is slowly dying (although shows like The Office refuse to acknowledge this), which generally makes me immensely happy. Hour long television falls into crime (procedural, forensic, and action being the sub-genres), fantasy (metahumand and supernatural being the sub-genres), reality (crap and crap being the sub-genres), and hospital shows (drama and comedy being the sub-genres. I really only will watch two of those genres.

So here are my thoughts on some of the new shows this season.

Chuck - Mondays on NBC
crime, action

Jumping from Alias' idea that girls kick butt, "Chuck" is a show about a mild-mannered nerd who works for the equivalent of the Geek Squad (called the Nerd Herd). His college roommate is a CIA spy who goes rogue and emails Chuck all of the NSA and CIA's secrets, which are then downloaded into Chuck's head.

Enter two agents: one from the CIA, and one from the NSA. The one from the CIA is subtle and embodies the motto of "girls kick butt," while the one from the NSA is Adam Baldwin doing an impression of Jayne in a suit (if you don't get it you're a loser who needs to watch Firefly). They duke it out, there's a decent car crash, and a bomb is dismantled. Your average pilot for a spy show.

The awesomeness is seen in Chuck's complete nerdiness. In order to receive the email, Chuck has to input a command code from a text RPG that he and his roommate created in college (just like Gemstone). The awesomer part is Adam Baldwin in all his Adam Baldwin goodness. He's the ultimate trigger-happy mercenary who is a comic genius.

Potential: Sadly, I don't see this one sticking around. Many of the supporting characters are incredibly annoying, and I think Chuck might be too nerdy for the mainstream. That could have just been in the pilot, though, and we'll see what subsequent episodes bring. I hope it sticks around.

Heroes - Monday on NBC
fantasy, metahuman

For those of us that are aware of "The 4400," "Heroes" is just a time filler until the summer, but it does still have it's charms. Instead of explaining the events that happened immediately following the season finale, this season starts Four Months Later, as Chapter 1 is titled. This can be fun because then we get to figure out what happened, but I have a feeling most of this season will be clean-up, which is cheating and lame. The regulars from last year (that survived) have almost all made appearances, including my favorite, Mr. Bennett.

Hiro has gone back in time to meet his hero, who turns out to be one of my heros, David Anders (he was on Alias). The addition of David, and Kristen Bell later, solidifies this as watchable, even if I am a bit worried about the plot.

The Good: David Anders as a samurai and three spoken languages (now with Spanish!)
The Bad: "Who am I?" - I hate this plot device
The Ugly: Nathan Petrelli's beard.

Journey Man - Mondays on NBC
fantasy, supernatural

Taking a page from Quantum leap and revamping it for this century, "Journey Man" is about a journalist who finds himself inexplicable traveling back in time. He doesn't know why, but the jumping follows around a guy who he decides he's supposed to save.


I think what will make or break this show are the relationships between the characters. It seems that Journey Man's former fiancé (who was thought dead), is a Journey Woman. After she died (or so he thought), he ended up marrying his brother's girlfriend. So he's faced with a dilemma - while time traveling is it really cheating if he hooks up with a person who, at the time, he was dating? Only time will tell.

Potential: Seems to have a good chance at surviving the ax, as long as NBC doesn't listen to people like my brother who "didn't understand what was going on." It has mysteries to solve, people who need closure can get it every episode while there is a larger mystery going on over the whole season. There are also interesting characters, and plenty of room for them to grow personally and in their relationships. But we'll see. I liked it, so that means it must already be halfway to the dumpster.

All in all, Monday night is looking to be a bit busy. We'll see how long they last, though.

Coming up soon: Life, Bionic Woman