If you're not caught up on your TV: There will be SPOILERS.
Modern Family
First episode was hilarious even though I’d already seen a lot of it in one of those specials they run before the trailers at the movie theater. “She’s got the creampuffs” still makes me giggle.
Grey's Anatomy
I think this would have been much more powerful had I not read the spoilers on what was going to happen and all the behind-the-scenes stuff about why it had to. That was my own fault, but it is what it is. I had a hard time grieving over George when I understood the frustration that led the actor playing him to want to leave the show.
Still, grief in all its varieties was brilliantly written and acted by everyone. I may not feel a personal loss, but I can certainly empathize with characters like Bailey, Izzie, Lexie, Meredith, Callie, and even the girl George saved as they’re struggling to cope. Powerful stuff, which is why I watch the show.
The merging hospital storyline feels forced, but I’ll reserve judgment for now. I’m concerned that some of my favorite characters are going to get even less screen time this season than usual as the show tries to figure out how to ensure that no character or actor is indispensable.
The Mentalist
Not 100% sure about the new character, but I think I’m going to like Jane’s having someone around that he can aggressively antagonize.
Cho continues to grow into one of my favorite characters. To think that I sort of hated him when the show first started.
House
So far, so good. I’m really nervous about this show because I like who House has become: still troubled, but coping and learning to make connections with people. It’s once again one of my favorite shows because we’re actually seeing some character growth in House. I’d pretty much written that off as impossible and my interest in the show was falling. What I’m afraid of is his regressing to the cranky drug-abuser he was before, but deep down I believe that the show-runners are way smart and won’t settle for the safe, easy, less fascinating choices.
Glee
Weird. I haven’t actually liked Rachel before now, even though she’s a major character and I feel like I’m supposed to. After last week’s episode though, I’m actively disliking her. Strange choice the writers are making there.
On the other hand, Quinn has been a villain up to this point and now we’re being given reasons to like her. I don’t really know what the show’s up to and I like that.
I also like that Kurt’s getting even more screen time, because he’s awesome. And how much did you want to hug his dad for turning out to be a good dad? "He's so little" nearly broke my heart.
Glad to see more focus on Tina too. I was starting to think that she was going to be a glorified extra; padding to fill out the club while only two or three members got all the storylines. Apparently that’s not going to be the case and it gives me hope that Artie will eventually become more than the Kid in the Wheelchair.
Oh, and Kristin Chenoweth’s episode is this week. Hoping that turns into more.
I'm on the fence about this show. It has it's funny moments, but I'm not feeling most of the characters. Two episodes in and the kids in the Glee Club all still feel like stereotypes and clichés. The main character Will is supposed to be this nice guy, but he's creepily flirting with another teacher who's desperately in love with him even though he's married and - as far as he knows - has a baby on the way.
I've got three reasons for sticking with it for a while though. Jane Lynch is as hilarious as she always is, Victor Garber plays Will's dad, and Kristin Chenoweth is supposed to be in an upcoming episode or two. I'll watch Victor Garber in anything and I'm still not over my crush on Kristin Chenoweth from Pushing Daisies. And it's not like it's an awful show or anything. I'm just not sure I'd stick with it if not for those three actors.
The Office
Bullet proof. Things are changing around Dunder Mifflin, but as long as I keep laughing like I have been, I'm not worried.
Community
I laughed once during the pilot episode, but that was because someone was quoting The Breakfast Club. I'll always laugh at Breakfast Club references, if only out of fondness. And there's a certain Breakfast Clubness to the concept too: a diverse group of students getting together to study and survive their community college experience. That could be interesting, right? I thought I should give it a second week to see if it got funnier.
Didn't make it through ten minutes of the second episode. So not funny it hurt me.
House
Oh wow, did I love the season premiere. I only have one concern, but it's a big one. I'm not sure how they can top it. It was so beautiful and perfect that it felt like a series finale, not a season opener. Honestly, that's how I imagined the show should end and I'm seriously afraid to keep watching for fear of ruining the feeling I have about it right now.
On the other hand, I have a lot of faith in the people running the show and I'm looking forward to seeing how this goes. I'm just looking forward with a great deal of fear and trembling.
Big Bang Theory
Also bullet proof. Just keep Sheldon the same and you can screw around with Leonard and Penny's relationship all you want.
Castle
It's come to my attention that some people don't like this show. Those people are crazy. This is Nathan Fillion playing exactly the kind of character he was born to play, Stana Katic is a fantastic actress and - oh by the way - inconceivably beautiful, and the two are very funny together and have a ton of chemistry. The mysteries are also fun and interesting. It ain't CSI, but that's such a good thing.
My only gripe is that Susan Sullivan and Molly Quinn don't get enough to do as Castle's mom and daughter. They're around mostly to ground him and accidentally offer just the right piece of advice to help him crack the case and/or fix whatever's wrong with his relationship with Detective Beckett this week. But I like the two actresses enough that I'll happily take whatever I can get from them.
NCIS: Los Angeles
I've never watched an episode of NCIS, so I don't know what the rest of the world loves about that show. I caught the last half of the pilot for NCIS: LA though and I liked Chris O'Donnell and LL Cool J enough in it that I'll be back for more. I really don't think I need another mystery show, but we'll see.
The Forgotten
TiVo insists on spelling it the forgotten like the show's logo does, but I can't make myself do that. The show's pretentious enough as it is.
When I was looking for promos to embed in my Fall TV Premieres post I found an old promo of The Forgotten that had another actor in what's now Christian Slater's role. I can only imagine that ABC saw how ridiculous the show was and thought, "Well... maybe if we put a movie star in it, no one will notice." It's a shame too, because I like Christian Slater and I think he should get a good series. I want to watch him in one.
But the pilot for The Forgotten had a crappy mystery solved because of wild logic jumps and sheer coincidences by people speaking cheesy dialogue in order to deliver a sermon that absolutely no one needs to hear. Is anyone really enlightened by the message that unidentified corpses have loved ones somewhere who are worried about them? Did we not know that? Does anyone benefit by being pounded over the head with it for an hour?
Eastwick
It's been a while since I've been able to get into a really good chick show. I think this is going to be one. The plot's intriguing, but what I really love is the cast. This looks like it's going to be a lot of fun.
FlashForward
I was very prepared not to like this. The next Lost you say, Ms. Network Marketing Person? I'll be the judge of that.
Well, I don't know if it's the next Lost (or if it even wants to be), but it is really freaking good. The first episode was thrilling, suspenseful, creepy, funny, touching, and I liked all the characters. Easily my favorite new show so far.
Modern Family Grey's Anatomy The Mentalist
Haven't watched these yet. Got 'em TiVoed though, so I'll let you know.
As before, Siskoid gets the credit for this. I sort of don't want this meme to end, so if he's up for other Favorite Character lists, I sure am too. It sounds like he might be moving on though (Create Your Own Black Ops Team? Do it, Siskoid! Do it!).
I tried making my own rules for this list too, but I kept breaking them. I wanted to include mainly characters whose series have ended so that I can say with certainty that I liked the character from beginning to end. But that would've left out some of my very favorites and I dumped the rule.
I also wanted to choose only characters from shows that I stuck with to the very end. My rationale is that if I loved the character so much, that ought to be enough to keep me interested in the show. But though I have stuck with shows much longer than I should have for love of a single character, there have also been times that the series' overall plot got the better of me and I couldn't take it anymore.
That's enough preamble. I've got more to say about characters and the effect they have on my enjoyment of shows, but I'll save that for below. I will note though that this time I've actually listed these in order of my favorites, from least to most.
10. Jamie Sommers (The Bionic Woman, 1976)
She's bottom of the list because it's been thirty-plus years since I've seen the show and I have no idea if I'd still like her as much. But she makes the list for being the first TV character that I actually cared deeply about. Not just because of a childhood crush - which I did have - but because she was such a tragic character.
If you don't know the original Bionic Woman, she started off as the girlfriend of Steve "the Six Million Dollar Man" Austin, but was injured in an accident that not only necessitated her bionic implants, but also took her memories, including her knowledge of her relationship with Steve. Her memory loss was harder on him than it was on her, but Lyndsay Wagner played Jamie Sommers with such sadness that I always got the sense she knew she was missing something. If only she could remember Steve, she could be happy again. My ten-year-old heart broke for her.
9. Jayne Cobb (Firefly)
You have to love the simplicity of a guy like Jayne who's so damn honest about his motivations. Plus, he named his gun Vera. Plus, there's that song...
8. Jack Bristow (Alias)
Another character with clear motivations. Jack Bristow will do anything to protect his daughter. Anything. It's the same single-minded determination I love about Jack Bauer from 24, only Bristow's daughter is infinitely smarter than Bauer's. His show was a lot better written too.
Anyway, there's just something awesome about a man who will stop at absolutely nothing to achieve his goal when his goal is admirable. And I don't know much that's more admirable than continuing to protect a daughter who more or less hates your guts for it.
7. The Doctor (Doctor Who)
I think I might be cheating a bit by listing all the Doctor's generations in a single entry. After all, I like some of them better than others, and some of them I've never even seen. But I really don't want to have to pick between Four and Ten, nor do I want to eat up two entries listing them separately. Nor do I want to leave out Three, Five, and Nine, whom I also like a lot.
Besides, one of the things I really love about the Doctor is the versatility of the character. It's amazing that so many different actors can interpret the same character so many different ways while still being so convincing that this is in fact the same guy. There's no one else like him in any media.
And I promise I hadn't looked at Siskoid's list before deciding to include all ten (or that specific collage) in mine.
6. Sherry Palmer (24)
Bar none, the greatest villain in the history of television. I spent the first half of 24's first season thinking that I loathed the selfish, manipulative Sherry Palmer until I realized how much I absolutely reveled inhating her. Arvin Sloane from Alias comes a close second in being this despicable, but he has a couple of redeeming qualities that Sherry didn't. I miss you, Sherry!
5. Dr. Charlotte King (Private Practice)
This year's season finale of Private Practice seemed like it was doing it's best to make me stop caring about the show. Addison Montgomery's flirtation with adultery is killing my interest in her. Dell's storyline this season came out of nowhere and is pretty unconvincing. The cliffhanger left one of the other characters not just in mortal danger, but threatened with the most emotionally excruciating death I can imagine. That she's also a character I don't like leaves me feeling conflicted and icky. Do I care that she could die this way? Not really. But boy do I ever feel like I should care, and I sort of hate myself for not.
What does any of this have to do with Charlotte King? She's the reason I'll be back next season.
I do this a lot. Faced with a show that I used to enjoy, but aren't anymore, I'll latch on to one or two characters I love and make them the focus of the series in my head. And I'm a total sucker for unlikable characters who are revealed to have hidden depths of redeeming qualities. Sawyer from Lost, Alex Karev from Grey's Anatomy, maybe House one day if he ever gets his act together. I love shows that are successful in making you hate someone and then even more successful in turning that hate to love.
Charlotte King tries so hard to be a hard-nosed, emotionless robot. It's what she thinks she needs to be to do her job. For all I know, it is what she needs to be to do her job. But the very fact that she's trying so hard at it reveals that she actually cares. I'm loving watching those walls she's built around her come down. As long as that development continues for her on the show, I'll keep watching it regardless of what nonsense everyone else is going through.
4. Patrick Jane (The Mentalist)
I'm not sure I should include a character on this list whose show is only one season long so far, but I can't help it. I thought that this show was going to be a Psych rip-off and it's so not. I love every character on it, but especially the infuriatingly smirky, know-it-all and above-it-all (yet deeply wounded) Patrick Jane. Give this show a few more seasons like the one it just had and he'll be the top entry on this list.
3. Worf (Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine)
Do you want to know how much I like Worf? I went to a Star Trek convention to meet Michael Dorn, the actor who plays him. That's crazy.
But Worf's story arc on Next Generation and then Deep Space Nine was intensely appealing to me. He's the outsider who manages to fit in without sacrificing who he is to do it. And he kicks booty. And he gets all the best lines ("Captain, I protest! I am not a merry man!"). And he ends up with the hottest women on whatever show he's on. Just saying.
2. Dr. Miranda Bailey (Grey's Anatomy)
Oh, how I love Miranda Bailey. On a show full of drama kings and queens, she manages to stay above it all. Most of the time. Occasionally though, something will get to her and she'll lose it and cry. That's when I always have to grunt and pretend there's something in my eye.
1. Noel Crane (Felicity)
Noel Crane (or "Dreamy Noel" as we call him around Casa del May) was me during college. Oh sure, he's not as good-looking as I am, but I so relate to his luck with dating. It's not that Noel can't get dates, but just that they're rarely with the girl he wants to be on them with.
College was a great time for me and Felicity helped me relive it shortly after I was out, just when I was missing it most. I accessed the show through Noel, so that makes him an important character in my life. I miss that show like crazy.
Not surprisingly, Noel made me a huge Scott Foley fan. I think my wife's a bit jealous of him. "You'll follow that man anywhere," she says, and she's right. I even watched every single episode of AUSA. That's devotion, baby.
Did my heart good to see him on Siskoid's list as Bob from The Unit.
