The Simpsons: I guess it could be expected for a show that's been running for 20 years now, but I thought this was a rather bland season premiere. The episode, written by Seth Rogen, seemed like a mash-up of plots done before. Worse yet, there was nothing particularly funny in the episode. Just a few days later and I can't recall one thing that really gave me a good laugh. At this point though, I've come to accept that when this show is able to surprise me and/or make me laugh, it's a rarity and not the norm. C+
The Cleveland Show: Even though it's a cartoon and a spin-off, it's tough to judge this because, again, pilots are so character-driven it's tough to know whether or not they will be consistently funny. I've never thought Cleveland was a strong enough character to run his own show, but that remains to be seen. There wasn't a whole lot that was funny, but I am intriqued by some of the characters, particularly Cleveland's bear neighbor. In order for me to stick around, it's going to have to do a lot to seperate itself from Seth's other cartoons. INC
Family Guy: I've never been crazy about the Brian and Stewie road trip episodes and even though their trip was to multiverses this time, it wasn't enough to make this one work either. This felt like it belonged as a short on a Simpsons Halloween episode. I saw most of the jokes a mile away and the ones I didn't, weren't particularly funny. I didn't even get that much joy out of their Disney song spoof. It's a shame how one dimensional (no pun intended) this show has become. C
American Dad: Maybe I was just having an off night because even the usually more reliable AD failed to generate many laughs from me. This show has become Seth's best by taking some really obscure, yet funny approaches to sitcome cliches. However, this episode, which featured Stan enlisting Steve in a Vietnam reenactment in order to sing the National Anthem better didn't do much for me. I just kept thinking they could have done some more interesting things with the plot. I think I'll just chalk my lack of enthusiasm for this one to a combination of being tired and suffering from Seth fatigue. I think I'll try and watch this one first from now on. B-
The Amazing Race: Man, what a frenetic start to this season with a challenge and elimination done before the teams even left for their first destination. It's a shame someone had to be kicked out that early, but it appeared that the team that got the boot would have been one of those annoying, bickering teams, so no great loss. Then things got really wild with the teams heading to Japan and competing in a Japanese game show eating wasabi bombs. I always love the challenges this show creates. They're perfect to engage the audience, while maximizing the frustration between teammates. This should be a very interesting season. There are a lot of capable and entertaining teams and I have no real sense of who the dominant ones will be. Teams made a lot of movement on the leaderboard throughout the two hours, so it seems like it could be anyone's race. A-
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