Film on TV - The Untimely Death of Terriers

Today FX cancelled Terriers, a whip smart Private Eye show executive produced by Shawn Ryan, the guy who brought FX The Shield, and successfully raised them from the second-run movie channel graveyard. But in TV, loyalty is a fickle thing, for executives and audiences alike.

Film On TV: Sifting Through Fall's New Shows, Part 2

Reading Ken Tucker’s piece about the failure of Fall TV in new show form got me thinking – this is the largest premiere season ever, and I haven’t been hooked by one new network show. There isn’t a single new show I’m excited to come home to, or read about the next day. There isn’t one serial, one single sitcom, that resembles anything more than passable entertainment. It’s been one, giant, collective strikeout.

Still there’s some potential. Some shows waiting to be seen, and others still worthy of a second shot. But with so many sophomore and veteran efforts still demanding my time, it seems unlikely that many (if any) of these shows will break through.

Film On TV: Sifting Through Fall's New Shows, Part 1

Every year around this time my DVR fills up with new shows fighting for attention, rookies looking to break into the Must See TV lexicon. And each year the Movie Gal and I sift through the batch, selecting a few special shows to share couch time with on exhausted week nights.

We watch too much TV, and me more than her. So over the past few years we’ve tried to curb our addiction, allowing only a few new Fall shows to remain in our lineup – since 2008, Community, Fringe, Modern Family, Sons of Anarchy, The Good Wife, The League and The Vampire Diaries (can you guess who watches what?).

I know. That seems like a lot. And it is. But the average American watches around 5 hours of TV a day (*Nielsen), and those shows add up to about that much spread out over the course of a week, so I think we’re doing okay.

There’s a plethora of new network and cable shows this year, the largest number in recent memory. Here’s a rundown of what we’ve seen so far…