Television Premieres and Notables: December 12-18, 2016

Wednesday, 12/14

Star; Fox. 7 pm CST. Series Premiere.

Younger; TV Land. 9 pm CST. Season Finale.


Friday, 12/16

Man in the High Castle; Amazon. Streaming. 2nd Season Premiere.

Television Premieres and Notables: December 5-11, 2016

Tuesday, 12/6

Reggie Watts: Spatial; Netflix. Streaming. Special.


Wednesday, 12/7

Shut Eye; Hulu. Streaming, Series Premiere.
Jeffrey Donovan stars as a con artist.


Friday, 12/9

Fuller House; Netflix. Streaming, 2nd Season Premiere.


Sunday, 12/11

The 22nd Annual Critics' Choice Awards; A&E. 7 pm CST. Special.
Hosted by T.J. Miller, so who knows what might happen?

Last Man on Earth (Fox; 8 pm CST). Mid-season Finale.

Television Premieres and Notables: November 28-December 4, 2016

Whoops-- missed this one last week (yes, I know I didn't do one; Thanksgiving Week is typically dead). Luckily it's streaming. And if you were a fan, you'd have already known about it.

Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life; Netflix. Streaming. Four specials.


Monday, 11/28

Alright: this is the shiznit we've been waiting for.
The CW has four DC Comics Super Hero shows airing now, and what do the big companies love doing more than anything? Crossovers.
Taking inspiration from the short 1989 DC Universe crossover Invasion, this storyline shows us how the Arrowverse heroes react when the Dominators invade the Earth.
It begins (sort-of; heard it's the tag at the end) with Supergirl (Monday, 7 pm), then moves to The Flash (Tuesday, 7 pm), Arrow (Wednesday, 7 pm), and (presumably) ends with DC's Legends of Tomorrow (Thursday, 7 pm).
Previous crossovers (between two shows) have been a lot of fun, and I expect this one to follow that pattern.


Tuesday, 11/29

Fixer Upper; HGTV. 8 pm CST. Season Premiere.


Thursday, 12/1

Top Chef; Bravo. 9 pm CST. 14th Season Premiere.


Friday, 12/2

Mr. Neighbor's House; adult swim.  11 pm CST. Special.


Saturday, 12/3

Pete Holmes: Faces and Sounds; HBO. 9 pm CST. Special.


Sunday, 12/4

Once Upon a Time (ABC; 7 pm CST). Mid-season Finale.

Westworld (HBO; 8 pm CST). Season Finale.

Television Premieres and Notables: November 14-20, 2016

Monday, 11/14

Mars; Nat Geo. 8 pm CST. Mini-series Premiere.
Ron Howard and Brian Grazer bring us this mini about the first manned trip to Mars in 2033.


Tuesday, 11/15

Religion of Sports; AT&T Audience. 7 pm CST. Mini-series Premiere.
Tom Brady and Michael Strahan bring us this six-part look at the cultural impact of sports.

Good Behavior; TNT. 8 pm CST.  Series Premiere.
A series based on Blake Crouch's books starring Michelle Dockery as a con artist.

Teen Wolf; MTV. 8pm CST. 6th--and final-- season.

Sweet/Vicious; MTV. 9 pm CST. Series Premiere.
Two college women beat up sex offenders at night.


Wednesday 11/16

Undercover; BBC America. 7 pm CST. Mini-series Premiere.

American Horror Story: Roanoke ( FX. 9 pm) Season Finale.


Thursday, 11/17

How to Get Away With Murder (ABC; 9 pm CST). Mid-season Finale.

Lovesick; Netflix. Streaming. Season Premiere.


Saturday, 11/19

Doctor Who: The Power of the Daleks; BBC America. 7:25 pm CST.
BBC America put up the coin to animate some of the legendary "lost episodes" (episodes that aired, but were never saved) using existing audio recordings (usually from fans who wired an audio recorder to their 1960's televisions) and stills from the time.
Power of the Daleks is notable for having the first "renewal" (later known as regeneration) when Second Doctor came from the First.
I'm a minor Whovian, and even I know this is a big deal.  Part of the cool factor of this show is just seeing how hard people are working to make the missing past a little less missing.

Versailles (Ovation; 9 pm CST). Season Finale.


Sunday, 11/20

The Affair; Showtime. 9 pm CST. 3rd Season Premiere.

Television Premieres and Notables: November 7-13, 2016

Monday, 11/7

People Magazine Investigates; ID. 8 pm CST. Series Premiere.
The hard-hitting journalists from People Magazine investigate ten true-crimes.


Tuesday, 11/8

Vanderpump Rules; Bravo. 8 pm CST. Season Premieres.

And I am hoping our National Shit Show is finally done today (but I can see the loser not conceding, so it's bound to take a while).
Just about everyone will be doing election specials tonight. The big ones being:
The Daily Show With Trevor Noah (Comedy Central; 10 pm) and
Stephen Colbert's Live Election Night Democracy's Series Special (Showtime; 10 pm CST)
^^^Note: Colbert's on Showtime.


Thursday, 11/10

The Blacklist (NBC; 9 pm CST). Mid-season Finale.

Television Premieres and Notables: October 31-November 6, 2016

Monday, 10/31

People of Earth; TBS. 8 pm CST. Series Premiere.
A reporter brings together people who have had alien experiences.
--And we'll also see how the aliens cope with their experiences.

Chewing Gum; Netflix. Streaming. Series Premiere.
Netflix brings this British sitcom to The States.
In it, a young woman comes of age when she decides to enjoy all that life has to offer.


Wednesday, 11/2

Stan Against Evil; IFC. 9 pm CST. Series Premiere.
John C. McGinley stars as a demon hunter, and Janet Varney stars as his sidekick.

Salem; WGN America. 9 pm CST. 3rd Season Premiere.


Friday, 11/4

The Crown; Netflix. Streaming. Series Premiere.
Peter Morgan (Frost/Nixon and The Queen) brings us this ambitious series that tells the story of Queen Elizabeth over six seasons.
It begins as Princess Elizabeth and her new husband try to figure out their future.

Dana Carvey: Straight White Male, 60; Netflix. Streaming. Special.

Television Premieres and Notables: October 24-30, 2016

Monday, 10/24

Man With a Plan; CBS. 7:30 pm CST. Series Premiere.
Matt LeBlanc stars as a contractor who has to become more involved with his kids now that his wife is going back to work.


Wednesday, 10/26

Rectify; SundanceTV. 9 pm CST. 4th-- and final-- Season Premiere.

Jon Glaser Loves Gear; TruTV. 9 pm CST. Series Premiere.
A reality show host tries out new outdoor gear-- and it doesn't go well.


Thursday, 10/27

The Great Indoors; CBS. 7:30 pm CST. Series Premiere.
Joel McHale stars as a magazine writer who must learn to live in the digital world.

Life in Pieces; CBS.  8:30 pm CST. 2nd Season Premiere.

Mom; CBS. 8 pm CST. 4th Season Premiere.

Pure Genius; CBS. 9 pm CST. Series Premiere.
A billionaire opens a hospital to treat really odd cases.


Friday, 10/28

Tracey Ullman's Show; HBO. 10 pm CST. Series Premiere.

Good Girls Revolt; Amazon. Streaming. Series Premiere.

Television Premieres and Notables: October 17-23, 2016

Monday, 10/17

Jane the Virgin; CW. 8 pm CST. 3rd Season Premiere.
It's silly and soap opera-y, but it's so fun and whimsical and crazy that it's also extremely delightful.

The Odd Couple; CBS. 8:30 pm CST. 3rd Season Premiere.


Wednesday, 10/19

Chance; Hulu. Streaming. Series Premiere.
Hugh Laurie stars in this series based on the Ken Numm novel about a forensic neurologist.


Thursday, 10/20

The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Let's Do the Timewarp Again; Fox. 7 pm CST. Special.


Friday, 10/21

The Vampire Diaries; CW. 7 pm CST. 8th-- and final-- season.

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend; CW. 8 pm CST. 2nd Season Premiere.
Even crazier than Jane, and even more delightful.

Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency; BBC America. 8 pm CST. Series Premiere.
A new take on Scott Adam's books.
I liked the first series based on them that starred the always-great Stephen Mangan, so I'll give this a shot too.

Black Mirror; Netflix. Streaming. 3rd Season Premiere.


Sunday, 10/23

The Simpsons (Fox; 7 pm CST) airs its 600th episode-- and it's a Treehouse of Terror ep.

The Walking Dead; AMC. 8 pm CST. 7th Season Premiere.
I've watched this show since the beginning, but I am especially fascinated by the idea of how this season is going to play out.
It's one of the biggest shows in the country, and it may have pushed it a little too much last season, so I'm curious to see how the storytelling changes-- and how fans react.
Firstly, I think they made a mistake when they showed what looked like a major character death-- and then held confirmation for a few episodes (and the silliness surrounding the reveal). I think, story-wise, it was an okay choice, but AMC made it a bigger deal than it should have, so fans rebelled a bit.
The second mistake was the cliffhanger. Yeah, it's TV; it's what is done. But I think not showing who Negan killed right away will take away the impact of that death. When Negan was introduced in the comics, he pulped a character in the same issue, and that made him even more terrifying.  But the series decided to hold the reveal over the summer, and I think with an entire eight eps following right after, there won't be time for fans to let it sink in.
And I'm sure things have changed in the TV business of the past few years (more cable shows, shorter seasons), but I wonder if The Walking Dead has the traditional network actor contracts. (I, seriously, don't know; just speculating based on "the way it used to be".)  Traditional contracts locked in an actor for five seasons with the studio getting an additional option for two more (with changes that gave more power to the actor for those additional two years). After that, the actor has the advantage of being able to walk away. That's why you see more cast changes happening around the 7-8 season mark.
It's likely the contracts nowadays are different, but we really are reaching the point in this series where actors may decide to pursue other projects, and character deaths may not be strictly story-based.
The cast makeup of this show may be pretty different in the coming years after being fairly stable (for the main characters) for a the past couple.

Talking Dead; AMC. 9:06 pm CST. 6th Season Premiere.
A special 90-minute episode featuring twelve of the actors on Negan's hit list".

Comic Book Men; AMC. 11:40 pm CST. 6th Season Premiere.