Fall TV Report Card (Thursdays Part 1)

Some of my favorite shows on Thursday got a jump start and premiered last week, so I'll review those now and the ones that debut tonight will be recapped later on.

The Office - After struggling to deal with the loss of Steve Carrell last season, this show promises a renewed sense of focus as it heads into its final season. This first episode nicely sowed some seeds for the end game of several of the key characters like Jim and Dwight, which I appreciated. The humor in the episode though was a mixed bag with a handful of decent lines but still too much wacky, physical humor that has weakened some of the characters (Kevin should be dim, but not THAT dim). This show can never recapture the glory of its early days, but it appears that they are going to do their best to give this cast a proper sendoff that will allow us to still think fondly of the show even after it is gone. Grade: B

Parks and Recreation - Last season ended with Leslie's big victory, winning the race for councilman. So in typical mockumentary fashion, we can't let the characters' wins last for too long as we saw here in the opener. Leslie got a wake up call while visiting Ben in Washington about how much she's been a big fish in a small pond for a long time. The storyline was well done, but didn't produce enough big laughs for me. Meanwhile Ron's attempt at throwing a barbeque went in typical fashion. Oddly enough, Rob Lowe's Chris brought the biggest laughs for me from this subplot. It's so nice to see him really integrate into the world and return to his happy self after being depressed for most of last season. Though their time was brief, April and Andy always bring the laughs and I wish we could have seen more from their time together in the nation's capital. I'm not sure if this worked well as a season premiere, but given the Washington bigwigs that had cameos in the episode, I can see why they went with it. I'll definitely be anxious to see everyone back in Pawnee sooner rather than later. Grade: A-

2012 Fall Television Schedule Announcements (NBC)

I could post all of the news here if I wanted the post to take up the entire length of the blog, so I'll instead make it easy for you guys and direct you to all of the information in the link below from Comingsoon.net:

2012 NBC Fall Lineup

I'll instead spend this space giving my thoughts on NBC's moves. Of all the major networks, I probably watch the most shows on NBC, yet for the past several years they have languished near the bottom of the ratings. I commend them for saving some of the shows that they did, despite less than stellar ratings. Namely keeping Community and Parks and Recreation Parks was given a full season pickup and remains on Thursdays, while Community gets a 13-episode order and gets shunted to Fridays. The Friday move is fine, but I question why they paired it up with Whitney. Those two shows seemingly have nothing in common other than they were both lucky to get renewals. In fact, that was a trend throughout most of NBC's schedule. They slotted several sitcoms, but I thought some of their pairings were odd. For instance, I felt they should have paired Up All Night, which focuses on being young parents with the new sitcom Guys With Kids, which also deals with parenthood. Meanwhile the show that they did pair it up with, Animal Kingdom seems better suited with the single-camera, laugh track free comedies on Thursday nights.

On the drama side of things, the only new show that caught my eye was Revolution, a drama dealing with people living on Earth 15 years after a blackout hit the entire planet. While the premise was intriguing, I feel like we've seen this type of 'event' drama over and over again ever since the success of Lost and none of them have been successful. I've become jaded, but I feel like this one may suffer the same fate: sizable audience for its premiere that vanishes in the subsequent weeks when impatient fans get frustrated when the show doesn't give them answers to the central mythology quickly enough.

Finally, with their reality slate, the biggest news is that NBC's one new hit The Voice will already be returning in the fall. I personally don't watch the show, but I don't blame NBC for wanting to schedule another season so soon given that it's about the only thing in their schedule that consistantly pulls in viewers. Let's just hope that they don't create an overkill backlash like they've done with some of their other hits like Deal or No Deal. If it can remain a hit, hopefully viewers will be willing to stick around and watch some of their other shows as well.