Sat 31 Aug 2013

27 Responses to “TV FALL SEASON 2013-14 – MYSTERY, CRIME, HORROR, ADVENTURE AND FANTASY SERIES, by Michael Shonk.”

1. Walker Martin Says:
   August 31st, 2013 at 4:29 pm

   Being the bookworm that I am, I see that the only TV series I’m watching are on the cable: Sons of Anarchy, Boardwalk Empire, Foyle’s War. I’ve heard that Luther is good but I’ve not watched it. Ok, back to my pulps and books.

2. Barry Says:
   August 31st, 2013 at 5:37 pm

   The only series I have seen is Foyle’s War. Michael Kitchen an elegant pleasure. I am absoutely closed to the other things,. Ecchhh! However, I now have both seasons of Harry O and will shortly revisit.

3. michael Says:
   August 31st, 2013 at 6:02 pm

   This the kind of post that takes days to get it all straight then has changes almost immediately. Update:

   ABC FAMILY: RAVENWOOD will debut October 22 at 9pm. The trailer for this teen gothic spinoff of PRETTY LITTLE LIARS can be seen here:
   http:www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-rK955-+5M#+=15

4. michael Says:
   August 31st, 2013 at 6:08 pm

   Steve- please try this link for RAVENWOOD trailer instead of the one above.

   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAbeFKC0APo

5. michael Says:
   August 31st, 2013 at 6:39 pm

   Walker and Barry, one of the reasons I do this kind of post is so you can sample what you are (or are not) missing. Most of the links lead to trailers that last a minute or so.

   It is commonly accepted today by critics that this is the greatest era for television in television history. Having read and researched critics from the beginning of television, this is something that has never happened before. They usually find something to complain about. What makes it more amazing is how much of the critically admired TV is genre entertainment.

   I stand by my own belief that “golden ages” don’t exist, that every era has great and terrible work.

   I did a Summer guide https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=22084

   The summer show didn’t disappointed by the quality of the productions as much I was the themes. I can handle only so many depressing serial killer series. Then add interesting series such as THE BRIDGE that lose me because its too busy making social statements to tell a believable decent mystery.

   Few new shows interest me enough for me to be a regular viewer. If I had in the 70s all the choices I have now I would have watched a lot less network TV then too.

   If I was to pick one TV series I think every Mysteryfile reader should watch it is FX’s JUSTIFIED (it will return sometime in 2014).

   I am eager to try NBC’s THE BLACKLIST, CBS’ INTELLIGENCE, NBC’S CROSSBONES, and TNT’s MOB CITY. I will be watching CBS’ PERSON OF INTEREST every week as I have for the last two years. But the rest, I suspect I will be enjoying my books, DVD, and downloads.

6. Steve Says:
   August 31st, 2013 at 7:41 pm

   Michael, Comment #4:

   Done!

   When I was a kid, fall was the most fun time of the year. Not because it was back to school time, but the write-ups in TV GUIDE for all of the new shows made them sound so interesting that I could hardly wait to see them.

   It’s still fun now, but what I do is try to sample those that sound interesting, and if they are, I wait for the DVDs. Some don’t last long enough to ever come out on DVD, but if they don’t, I like to think I haven’t missed anything.

   On the other hand, TERRIERS, anyone?

7. Walker Martin Says:
   August 31st, 2013 at 10:26 pm

   I agree with the critics that this may be the greatest period for TV series on cable. But the network shows still have the censorship problem of the characters not being able to talk like people really talk and toning down the sex and the violence because of network censors and various watchdog groups.

   Cable manages to bypass these censors to a large degree and thus I don’t get as exasperated by some of the character actions.

   I certainly agree with Michael about the high quality of JUSTIFIED. I’m also watching HELL ON WHEELS with its emphasis on the western anti-hero. I used to like BREAKING BAD and MADMEN alot but now I think both shows have run their course and are definitely ready to end.

8. Jeff Meyerson Says:
   September 1st, 2013 at 6:49 am

   Michael, excellent job. Thanks. One you should add is ORPHAN BLACK. The second series will start April 2014 on BBC America.

   Walker: if you have On Demand, both series of Luther and the entire first series of ORPHAN BLACK are currently available on BBC America On Demand.

9. David Bushman Says:
   September 1st, 2013 at 9:18 am

   Is anyone else watching “Broadchurch” on BBC America? Highly recommend it. Great performance by David Tennant as a troubled police inspector. The story centers on the murder of an 11-year-old boy in a seaside village in Britain. The show is highly addictive. Eight episodes total, four of which have already aired.

10. michael Says:
    September 1st, 2013 at 9:33 am

    8. Jeff, thanks. I hope to do a midseason one for January through May and I will be sure to include ORPHAN BLACK. Those who missed ORPHAN BLACK, it began as the story of a woman who discovered she was one of many clones and the mysteries around that widened and deepened as the series continued. It was a career launching role for actress Tatiana Maslany. I wish I had stuck with it but hated the first character too much to be patient.

11. michael Says:
    September 1st, 2013 at 9:44 am

    9. David, I was watching FX’s THE BRIDGE. When I dumped it, I took a look at BROADCHURCH. I avoid mysteries with children as the victim since it usually takes a predictable path and I was not surprised to see the character of the possible sex offender.

    Its look certainly has a certain style. The moodiness, the wide shots of the country side with a single or two characters entirely in the shot and off center reminds me much of British movies during the late 80s and 90s. There was a director then named Mike something that I am too lazy to look up that comes to mind.

12. michael Says:
    September 1st, 2013 at 9:49 am

    Oops I skipped two…6. Steve, the days of suffering for months waiting for new shows that usually disappointed us are gone. Today, new shows that usually disappoint us is happening all through the year. Sort of like Christmas morning presents everyday.

13. michael Says:
    September 1st, 2013 at 10:10 am

    7. Walker, I am a fan of FX network for treating me as an adult. The AMC shows are great dramas meant for grownups as well. I plan to try HELL ON WHEELS again this season with its new showrunner. I watched the first few episodes but found to had too many different story lines as if it didn’t think any one plot was enough to carry the show.

    Most of cable follows the path of the networks and the audience. USA, TNT, A&E (rumors has LONGMIRE renewed, but THE GLADES has been cancelled) and others mimic the major networks.

    I recommend you try BBC AMERICA’s COPPER and RIPPER STREET. The HISTORY channel has non-mystery but interesting sounding stuff coming out such as THE GREAT SANTINI BROTHERS, about a Brooklyn moving business, that begins September 15th.

    Then there is the pay networks such as HBO, SHOWTIME, CINEMAX and STARZ. All do some wonderful series, but too often seem to let their freedom to say anything get in the way of the story and characters. RAY DONOVAN (Showtime) I’m talking about you.

14. Jeff Meyerson Says:
    September 2nd, 2013 at 6:45 am

    Michael, we felt exactly the same about ORPHAN BLACK. We hated the first episode so quit watching, but after several friends raved about it we caught up on it with the On Demand feature.

    We’re watching both THE BRIDGE and BROADCHURCH. The first has been rather uneven but worth seeing for Diane Kruger’s performance if nothing else (and there are other reasons to watch).

15. Jeff Meyerson Says:
    September 2nd, 2013 at 6:50 am

    Also, if it’s true I’m glad to hear THE GLADES was canceled. It just got so stupid this season it was barely watchable.

    Every show had the exact same premise. There’s a murder. Detective Jim Longworth (played by yet another Aussie, Marr Passmore) gets a suspect. Rather than just question him or her he drags them in to the station in handcuffs, then briefly questions them before releasing them and going on to the next one. Not one of them ever asks for a lawyer. After three or four times (some of the suspects are picked up twice) he picks one, virtually at random, and the case is solved.

16. michael Says:
    September 2nd, 2013 at 1:46 pm

    Jeff, I planned to try ORPHAN BLACK again when the second season starts, but hope BBCA reruns season one again.

    BBCA did rerun BROADCHURCH again and I made it through about 15 minutes of the first episode before I got tired of rolling my eyes. Every shot was composed as if it was a painting. The style was what we used to call artsy fartsy or too distracting for its own good.

    Visually BROADCHURCH is well done if over done. Early on we meet the victim’s family in their typical home during a typical chaotic morning in a typical small town. There is a shot where the camera follows the young male character through the small town without cutting. It is fast pace and establishes the characters and location well. Except that same tracking shot that would have amazed us ten years ago is now so common I saw it in a car commercial recently. Visually it establishes boring exposition but takes too long. There are shots that exist for the director to show off such as the children’s fair where the adults begin to realize the boy is missing and there is the added shot of a lone sad little girl playing with a hula hoop that has no story reason to exist.

    There is a scene when Mom is trapped in a traffic jam rumored to be caused by the police finding a body on the beach. Yes, I have been in traffic jams, rumors among the crowd are common. Mom “senses” the dead body is her son and begins to run through the mile’s worth of stopped cars. Several times we cut from the beach and location of the body to Mom running faster and faster.

    And then there are the cops. The female one is raising her typical family in the small town and loses her promised promotion to a man (damn you men!), and not just a man but an outsider with a haunted past.

    This is where in the “good old days” with three or so channels I would have stuck through it. Certainly, the show is better done than those in the past, but now there are too many other choices for me to turn to so I grabbed my remote and turned to one of them.

17. michael Says:
    September 2nd, 2013 at 4:02 pm

    #15. THE BRIDGE means well but its flaws finally got to me. The question of how we see others is an interesting one. I spent over twenty years in Los Angeles where the Mexico/America relationship plays a major role. I understand Texas sees Mexico differently, but I just don’t buy the idea that the El Paso police department would not have a receptionist and cops who speak Spanish, if only to help the countless Spanish speaking victims.

    THE BRIDGE is an example of a common flaw of limited series. It is too long. Cut down the number of episodes and dump the stupid sub-plot of the cheating husband, get to the point of the reasons why the strange cop keeps her job, etc.

    The mystery was never the point of THE BRIDGE but it could have been a more powerful means to keep viewers hooked despite the unevenness of the drama, most of which was caused by having to fill all the time of the too long limited series.

18. Randy Cox Says:
    September 2nd, 2013 at 5:29 pm

    Most of this falls on deaf ears or blind eyes to me. I do not have cable, partly because I object to paying for something I’ve been used to receiving for free since 1955, and partly because I live in a “dead zone” not serviced by cable. What little cable I have seen (usually in motel rooms on road trips) does not appeal to me.

19. michael Says:
    September 2nd, 2013 at 6:06 pm

    18. Randy, there is hope for you. Yes, you too can still have your hopes and dreams crushed by bad TV! Many of these shows are available to watch for free at its network website for a limited time or places such as Hulu.com. The free local stations can still be watched with antennas (in fact in the war of Time Warner cable vs CBS, Time Warner has pulled CBS off its lineup but given antennas to its customers for free so they can watch CBS).

    Cord-cutting (dropping cable) has started to get noticed by the media but the major TV corporations are in public denial.

    The future of television is the internet (check out the new “smart TV sets”) and streaming with viewers picking the programs they want, not forced to pay for a network or cables’ packages.

    Randy, if you don’t mind sub-titles try some of the links in the Internet section.

    We’ll find a way to get TV to you, Randy. After all what else is there, reading books and pulps?

20. david bushman Says:
    September 3rd, 2013 at 9:10 am

    Jeff, I concur on Kruger. It is a controversial performance and getting a lot of negative feedback from critics. I get the sense even the people at FX are ambivalent about it, but I think she’s making bold choices and I applaud her for it.

    I also don’t get all the negative feedback over AMC’s “Low Winter Sun,” which I think is extremely well done. Critics were complaining that it was too dark; what kind of criticism is that? Too dark for whom? Since when is being “dark” a bad think? Isn’t “Breaking Bad” dark?

    Michael, the mom in “Broadchurch” doesn’t just “sense” that the body is her son’s. She has just discovered that her son is missing and that confluence of events — combined with a very real and very natural tendency among parents to fear the unimaginable with respect to their children — is what takes possession of her and causes her to go running to the beach. I found it very relatable.

21. Todd Mason Says:
    September 3rd, 2013 at 10:58 am

    PBS is cable?

    In about thirty markets, MHz Worldview (Networks mostly refers to the local broadcast they do in the DC area) is a broadcast option, though LA just lost Worldview, even though KCET (who was broadcasting Worldview) is still one of the two (along with San Francisco Bay Area’s KRCB) broadcasting BORGEN in the US as affiliates of Link TV (also visible on Dish Network and DirecTV)…with both Link and MHz Worldview largely visible online as well, as noted. Aside from noting that SILK is ongoing, a pretty sound wrap-up…except for all the fine syndicated imports on public stations…

22. michael Says:
    September 3rd, 2013 at 1:24 pm

    #20. David, TV mysteries are developing some bad habits. One of the more annoying aspects of romantic comedies is the couple meets “cute.” TV mysteries with murdered children are starting to have the parents learn “cute.” Mom running to the beach was too cute, made so by her abandoning her car and running. I would have called the local small town homicide police officer who was the mother of my child’s best friend. The running was made overly dramatic by the too many intercuts between Mom and the scene with the dead boy on the beach.

    Any critic who praises BREAKING BAD then claims LOW WINTER SUN is too dark should have his or her critic’s license revoked. My problem with watching LOW WINTER SUN was not that it was dark, but that it was the last of the summer schedule of dark TV crime shows. Even USA’s GRACELAND lacked the network’s normal light touch.

    Too many limited series had serial killers and depressing plots. The closest to a new fun summer mystery series was TNT’s MAXWELL AND KING, but it suffered from some horrible writing.

23. michael Says:
    September 3rd, 2013 at 1:34 pm

    #21. Todd, you are right, I should have added PBS to the Network section.

    As for the internet section being available elsewhere, I tried to focus on shows everyone (but Randy, see #18) could watch and the places where they could most likely find it. I taunt enough readers with my reviews of TV series impossible to find.

24. Randy Cox Says:
    September 5th, 2013 at 10:17 pm

    I wish I could be certain any of the shows not on broadcast TV, retrieved by an antenna on the roof, were worth the effort. Life is too short.

25. michael Says:
    September 6th, 2013 at 10:44 am

    #24. The new indoor digital antenna is probably not the answer for you since your challenge (I can’t call doing without cable TV networks a real problem) is finding a local signal.

    Your best bet is the internet. Just like paying for a cable provider, you are paying for an internet provider, but with the internet you get more than just TV shows.

    Maybe it is because the increasing number of cord cutting customers but finding a free episode of cable shows is getting harder. The networks websites offer full episodes to view but now demand you have a cable provider (this is for those who want to watch the show at a different time than when it airs on TV).

    ITune offers free sample episodes of many series, usually its first episode.

    I am not sure if they are still free but I got the free first episode of such shows as BOARDWALK EMPIRE (now beginning its fourth season), BROADCHURCH, BURN NOTICE, GRACELAND, KING & MAXWELL, LONGMIRE, LOW WINTER SUN, MAJOR CITY, MAJOR CRIME, ORPHAN BLACK, RECTIFY, RIZZOLI & ISLES, SUITS, and WHITE COLLAR. I watch none of those shows regularly even with my cable TV (I did watch the first few seasons of BURN NOTICE, but now ignore it).

    Hulu.com used to be a great place to watch free TV, but it has really begun to push its pay section. The commercial breaks are even more annoying than regular TV. I still think this is your best bet to watch old favorites and new waiting to become your favorites.

    TV is like books, can you live without them, sure. I realize this site has more readers than viewers. I did this so people could find where their own favorites would air and check out clips of the new shows and see if any were worth putting down their book. The fall still belongs to the “major” networks for new shows and sports (World Series and football). While cable competes during the fall, it really gets active around midseason (December-January).

    Shows such as FX’s JUSTIFIED and others are worth the effort, but many viewers have turned to DVD, streaming, and downloading to watch the shows without cable. I buy a season pass to JUSTIFIED (iTunes or Amazon) and have each episode downloaded to my computer the day after it airs on TV.

26. Randy Cox Says:
    September 6th, 2013 at 4:18 pm

    But just WHY is show X better than show Y? I missed your supporting evidence.

27. michael Says:
    September 6th, 2013 at 7:08 pm

    #26. What show X and Y are you referring to?

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