Some Television Surprises This Week

I’m as shocked to write this as you are reading this, I’m SURE, but we watched a whole bunch of new shows this week and I gotta say, I kinda liked every one of them.  Plus, an old favorite returned tonight and after a few years of terrible, terrible seasons, it came back as if they’d never happened.  What a surprise!

New Shows We Tried and Liked:

black-ish was a show that I kept hearing about from people I knew and what I’d read online and that they all loved it.  Finally tried it this week, and had to agree that it’s a great show.  I know we’ve missed the first half of this season and will have to catch up, but so far, so good.

Looked totally cheesy and kind of like another dip to the well of Once Upon a Time, a show we aren’t watching.  Then Galvant turns out to be a musical, and suddenly the gay blood starts to get intrigued.  We find out that Alan Menken is the music man behind it.  Holy hell, really?  Then it’s getting great reviews, so it’s like, okay, let’s watch the encore presentation this week….and wow, it’s awesome.  It’s just a half hour each episode but it’s hilarious, the songs are great and very catchy, the cast is excellent, and the lead actor who plays Galavant?  Fucking hotness….

So another great show is added to the lineup.  It’s a mini-series event, which honestly is not a bad thing anymore.  It seems networks are discovering that trying to stretch out a good thing to something much longer than the premise supports has diminishing returns, especially in this age of Netflix.

I already posted earlier this week about the wonderful Agent Carter but it bears repeating in this post, as this week really was a great first week for 2015 Television (while being an utterly awful and terrible terrible week in the actual world, so let’s focus on fantasy for now).

Other Standouts worth a mention:  

The Goldbergs:  Not a new show for us, but one we’ve drifted off and on with.  Ridiculously funny this week.  Such a great cast.

Cougar Town:  Another not-new show but it’s been one we’ve been watching since it came on and it’s one that always entertains.  The final season, which is kind of sad, but probably for the best.

And now, for the returning show that had its best showing in YEARS:

Yeah, I know – I’m just as shocked as anyone.  I felt compelled to catch Glee’s return this year as it’s another show that is having its final season.  I’ve absolutely hated 98% of the episodes and storylines from the last two seasons, whether it’s the way they showed “NYC Life” and Rachel’s ridiculously convenient success at everything she did, getting into the arts school, then headlining Broadway for a day before deciding to take a TV show gig.  That’s not even including all the ridiculous shit back at McKinley with the fairly meh new kids.  And the less I say about Blaine and Kurt’s awful relationship and engagement, the better.  I can’t say there wasn’t some good found throughout (“Let’s Have a Kiki” anyone?), but man, those were some brutal seasons.

So whaddya know?  The first 10 minutes of this new and final season pretty much wipe the slate clean.  Rachel’s career implodes spectacularly and she returns to Lima.  Kurt and Blaine are broken up.  All the new kids are gone.  Rachel decides to start up the McKinley glee club again as a fuck-you to Sue Sylvester (Jane Lynch is and always will be awesome, even in those awful seasons) while also knowing that Sue’s anti-arts stance is worth taking out.  Mr. Schue heads up Vocal Adrenaline and Blaine coaches the Warblers, so we’re back in a mode of Season 2/3 goodness.  Not Season 1 levels, but that would just be ridiculous.

And let me just say, they chose some songs for this 2-hour premiere that were fantastic.  Not one mash-up to be found!  Not that all mash-ups are bad (far from it), but I think every fucking musical number last season was one.  I’m so glad the NYC stuff is over – bringing the scale back down was a wise move.  I’m very excited if this quality can be maintained.  If so, I may surprise myself and pick up Season 6 on Blu-ray when it comes out as I do love it when Glee is good and don’t mind having some of those performances at hand.