Watching the New Season

Posted by Bob Greenberger on September 28, 2009

Well, we’re a week into the new season and we’ve welcomed back older favorites and sampled some of the new shows, with others yet to debut.

Among the new shows, we really liked Flash Forward. It barely resembles Robert J. Sawyer’s novel (which is a fun read) but dramatically demonstrates the global chaos the 2:17 blackout causes. The cast is appealing but could benefit from a little more variety which I hope happens when Dominic Monaghan and others join in the coming weeks. I also have a quibble that the Los Angeles office of the FBI is suddenly empowered to take center stage in researching the mysterious event considering such a world wide phenomenon should have created in international intelligence task force to study the global threat.

We also liked Modern Family even though these days we rarely find sitcoms worth our attention (except The Big Bang Theory which remains hysterical). The mock documentary style may grow as tedious as the dad’s attempts at being cool but we’ll stick with it for now.

Mercy has some interesting characters and casting but wasn’t overly compelling. Last year taught us a new appreciation for the care and effort nurses make on their patients’ behalf and we hope some of that carries over here over and above the soap opera stuff. We’ll see how this one develops.

The Good Wife, though, is off to a stronger start and it certainly is approaching a legal show from a fresh angle. With luck it won’t be entirely somber but it sure is nice to see Julianne Margulies and Josh Charles back at work. WAIT! There is more to read… read on »