Television Premieres and Notables: August 18-24, 2014

Monday, 8/18

Dora and Friends: Into the City; Nickelodeon. 7 pm CST. Series Premiere.
Dora explores the hood...

Switched at Birth (ABC Family; 7 pm CST). Season Finale.

Dallas; TNT. 8 pm CST. Mid-season Return.


Tuesday, 8/19

Wizard Wars; Syfy. 9 pm CST. Series Premiere.
A reality competition where two groups of illusionists battle each other with ordinary objects.

Perception (TNT; 9 pm CST). Season Finale.

A Young Doctor's Notebook; Ovation. 9 pm CST. 2nd Season Premiere.

Nathan For You (Comedy Central; 9:30 pm CST). Season Finale.
This show got picked up for a third season, so it'll be interesting to see just how much longer Fielder can fool people to let him come up with crazy schemes to help their businesses.


Wednesday, 8/20

Suits (USA; 8 pm CST). Season Finale.

Epic Ink; A&E. 9:32 pm CST. Series Premiere.
An Oregon tattoo parlor that specializes on pop culture tats gets its own show.


Thursday, 8/21

The Simpsons; FXX. 9 am pm CST. Mega-marathon.
Every... single... episode... ever... (including the movie) will air, in order, starting today and going until September 1st.
My DVR is going to implode now that my kids have gotten into the Simpsons the last few months.


Friday, 8/22

BoJack Horseman; Netflix. Series Premiere.
Will Arnett plays a anthropomorphic horse who had a hit series in the '90s, and has found himself not able to repeat that success since.


Saturday, 8/23

Doctor Who; BBC America. 7:15 pm CST. 8th Series Premiere.
If ever there was a time to jump-on in the past few years, this may be it.
Peter Capaldi takes over from the extremely popular Matt Smith, so that's always a good time to try the series out: when an old Doctor regenerates into a new one, with a new face and personality.
But this regeneration is especially critical because of how showrunner Steven Moffat ended Smith's tenure by both helping him solve the guilt The Doctor felt after how he ended the Time War (he destroyed two races-- one being his own-- in order to stop it) and to allow him to regenerate again after he had used the entire allotment of his lives.

This is new start. The last fifty years of adventures were wrapped-up with closing the book on The Time War, and now it's a new(ish) beginning. The Series Eight trailer has The Doctor both saying he is looking to correct past mistakes and questioning if he is a good person, and I expect this new incarnation to be more focused and determined than Smith's more "come what may" approach.
I expect the change from the youngest actor to play The Doctor to one of the oldest to be interesting here as well. It should definitely change how Clara (who, thankfully, is staying on) views her adventures with him.

So, check it out.

[If you want to catch up via a week-long marathon of NuWho, you can start with David Tennant's Tenth Doctor run starting at noon on Monday and continuing all week until Saturday's Twelfth Doctor premiere. (If you just want to catch Smith's run, his episodes begin at 8 am on Thursday in the funny-- and badass-- "Eleventh Hour").]


Intruders; BBC America. 9 pm CST. Series Premiere.
Glen Morgan (of X-Files fame) brings us this odd mystery series I know nothing about.
But it stars Mira Sorvino and John Simms, so it's worth giving a shot.

oh boy...

Television Premieres and Notables: August 11-17, 2014

Monday, 8/11

The Approval Matrix; SundanceTV. 10 pm CST. Series Premiere.
Host Neal Brennan brings on some guests to discuss pop culture.


Tuesday, 8/12

4th and Loud; AMC. 8 pm CST. Series Premiere.
Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley work to get their arena-football team in "you wanted the best" territory.

Below Deck; Bravo. 8 pm CST. 2nd Season Premiere.

Sisterhood of the Hip-Hop; Oxygen. 8 pm CST. Series Premiere.
Five aspiring female musicians try to break into the hip-hop game.

The Singles Project; Bravo. 9 pm CST. Series Premiere.
Six romances are chronicled in "real-time", so fans can comment on the dates and maybe the people will be affected by the comments.
It's on Bravo, so I'm sure it'll be more valuable social experiment than train wreck...

Cement Heads; A&E. 9:30 pm CST. Series Premiere.
Yet another reality show about a construction company. When will they stop?


Wednesday, 8/13

Legends; TNT. 8 pm CST. Series Premiere.
Sean Bean stars as a CIA agent who manages a number of different aliases (or "legends") and is having a difficult time keeping them all straight.

Wallburgers; A&E. 9 pm CST. 2nd Season Premiere.

Franklin & Bash; TNT. 9 pm CST. 4th Season Premiere.
Fourth season? Good Lord; I felt like I had watched for a couple summers before I dropped it 2 years ago.


Sunday, 8/16

The Great Food Truck Race; Food. 8 pm CST. 5th Season Premiere.

10 Things You Didn't Know About; H2. 9 pm CST. 3rd Season Premiere.