Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Fall TV Report Card (Returning favorites part 1)

Survivor: South Pacific - The show had an admittedly down year last year with a weak cast in the fall and then Boston Rob's dominance leading to predictable episodes in the spring.  Thankfully the show seems to show promise once again in their latest effort.  This seems thus far like a strong, likeable cast.  There were very few people that I was wishing would get eliminated quickly.  The returns of Ozzy and Coach should be interesting as well as they aren't the same players as Russell or Rob, so how they'll fare is still a bit unclear.  Speaking of Russell, his nephew is part of this cast and he's one of the few that I'm not crazy about.  He seems creepy, especially around women.  He claims he wants to keep his relationship to Russell a secret, but I highly doubt he'll be able to do that.  Lastly, the redemption island twist is back once again.  I wasn't overly crazy about it for a number of reasons, but I'm willing to see it play out again before completely condemming it.  If it can reward someone worthy while also providing some good gameplay, I'll be happy.  For now, this new season has restored my faith in this stalwart series.  Grade: A-

How I Met Your Mother: The show seems to be taking a renewed interest in Ted's lovelife, even if we aren't really anywhere closer to learning who the titular mother is.  If true, I would say that it's a positive step since I am more interested and invested in that than I am in their fruitless efforts to neuter the Barney character by saddling him with this relationship storyline involving him Robin and Nora.  That is a total snoozefest which unfortunately took up way too much time in the first two episodes that premiered this past Monday.  As for Lily and Marshall, they remain enjoyable and it should be fun seeing them approach parenthood.  The show offers enough laughs to keep me around, but they better make some wise choices with regards to their storylines.  Bringing back Ted's old girlfriend, Victoria the cupcake girl, at the end of the second episode was certainly a move in the right direction.  Grade: B

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