Not interested in "Welcome to the Family"

Caught the premiere of Welcome to the Family on Hulu and... I'm just not interested. I like Carlos from Desperate Housewives... I love Mike O'Malley... but I just don't care about this comedy. It just feels so generic, so obvious. Even the (SPOILER ALERT) cliffhanger at the end of O'Malley's wife possibly being pregnant doesn't feel like a surprise.

Not recording.

"Mindy Project" BFFs were set to star on "Super Fun Night"

In writing my review for the first episode of Super Fun Night, I saw a promo picture featuring Kelen Coleman (Newsroom). I thought at first maybe she was the original role of villain Kendall - but not so.

Apparently she was set to play a coworker of Kimmie's, but more of a role model and mentor for the character. Not a villain like the 'new' Kendall does.

What's really weird is that Super Fun Night, which was originally being developed for CBS, had cast Anna Camp in the role.

Everyone's probably like "Anna Camp! Her and Rebel Wilson are probably like BFFs from Pitch Perfect!" And all I can think is that Anna and Kelen both played friends of Mindy on The Mindy Project last season.

Ah, casting.

"Lucky 7" first to get axed

Welp, it has happened. Lucky 7 is the first fall show to get cancelled, and just after two episodes.

I've got to say, I'm surprised. For starters, I thought it would be Super Fun Night. I just didn't think it would be a drama, especially one with this kind of limited, resolvable storyline. Heck, even 666 Park Avenue and Zero Hour got additional episodes and those shows were bad. I thought they'd get six or so episodes, to finish out this story.

Regardless - I thought the show was okay. I went back and forth on cancelling my series recording or not, and ultimately had decided I wanted to know more about these people (particularly the younger girl who seemed nervous about proving her identity...). Alas, I think I'll just delete the remaining episode.

Can we just give a moment of silence for poor Matt Long, though? Guy can't catch a break on TV.

Super Fun Night gets a spot on my DVR

Of course I was excited about Super Fun Night (Rebel Wilson, hello!) but I was also worried.... The title itself implies one night only, how can they keep that going? What's with the terrible fake American accent? And, most of all, isn't the majority of Wilson's fanbase (teens, twentysomethings) the exact age group not watching primetime network TV?

In fact, I voted Super Fun Night as most likely to get cancelled first (UPDATE: That title goes to Lucky 7).

But I watched the first episode this week - er, technically the second episode. ABC aired the second episode instead of the pilot, which I don't really mind because it looks to me that we already saw all the funny first ep moments in the trailer. Anyway, second first episode was actually pretty funny, in my opinion.

I like Kimmie and her friends. Though one-dimensional right now, I think they'll really expand and get more personality in later episodes - think Schmidt and Winston in New Girl.

I like Kimmie's male cowowrker/crush. I like that he's a nice, cute guy that seems to genuinely like Kimmie. He doesn't write her off because of her weight or awkwardness... in fact, the argument could be made that he doesn't see a romantic connection because they are such good friends. I like that. They could so easily have gone the other way.

And I like the villain, Kendall. She is so desperate for the attention, for the spotlight. And I loved watching her try to steal it from Kimmie. If anything, Kendall ends up being more of the awkward ham than Kimmie does.

I think it's got legs. I think it's got a good, unknown cast to work with. Despite the title, it proves it is about / can be about more than one super fun night. That doesn't change the fact that people my age aren't watching live TV... I'm not sure who else would like this show.

What's with all the spin-offs?

This year, we're losing Breaking Bad, Dexter and HIMYM.

Yet, we're talking spin-offs already for all three shows. And a spin-off for Walking Dead, too. Really?

The BB spin-off Better Call Saul is already in the works and the others are just rumors, but I hope they don't happen. I understand it is hard to let go of these characters, stories and places... I understand that some spin-offs are awesome (Frasier?) but I feel like it is just cheapening good - no, GREAT - television. These shows will go down in history as some of the best (or in Dexter's case, the first few seasons will...) and I don't want their legacies muddled because of some silly spin-offs.

Plus, for every Frasier, there's a Joey.

Why I didn't like 'Under the Dome'

Everyone is calling Under the Dome one of the TV 'winners' of the summer, but I disagree. I watched it sure, no denying it probably got great ratings because nothing else new was on.... but it was bad.

And just to get it out of the way – me not liking it has nothing to do with the book. I have never read the book, I don't know what happens, nor do I care. In fact, I read a great article in EW before the show started about King's relationship and thoughts on the show. He acknowledged that there were some changes made – characters who lived who were supposed to, new characters, mising characters, changed subplots. He sees TV as a diiferent animal than the book, and rightly so. I admired that outlook.

My problem with Under the Dome is:

• Escalated too quickly. Big Jim for example, I get now his obsession on keeping the done up, but it same out of left field. Te kids being convinced about the mini dome so quickly especially Angie and junior . The Maxine story line was gone as quick as it came. And what about all that gas? Oh, barely matters. 
• It turned into a kids adventure story. There's all this mature content around drugs and death and relationships... and then there are these kids who find a mini dome in the woods and think they are some sort of chosen vessels to communicate with the dome. What? I feel like they threw Julia into the mix just to have adult supervision. These are teenagers. And to be honest, I was much more interested in the 'real' implications of the dome coming down, how the community dealt with it, and less woried about they 'why'.
• I wanted more of that, more of Maxine's underground fight ring, more of the food and water shortage, more looting, more power struggle. All that can't be resolved singularly in 42 minutes. I don't need the supernatural to be intrigued, in fact, it reminded me of Terra Nova and the fact that I was more interested in their story of survival/community than I was with bad dinosaur special effects. 

Will I watch again next summer? I don't know. Probably. Because I can't help myself and am a TV whore. But I can't help but think my time would be better spent binge watching something on Hulu or Netflix... and that's sad for network TV.