Cougar Town saved! (and other news about other shows/our reactions)

If you haven't heard already, today TBS saved Cougar Town from cancellation and has bought all the rights to it. There will be another season of the show. We love when this happens, and we can think of no more deserving show. Thank you, TBS!

Lots of other shows have been renewed and cancelled, but we haven't gotten around to talking about it yet. Stupid exams! Alcatraz has been cancelled, and you know what? We don't care. Yeah, we watched and covered it a lot, but it was more due to the possibility that it could get good. It wasn't actually good yet. The pilot and one other episode were good, but mostly it deserves scorn. The Finder was also cancelled, to the joy of Ern and the mild disappointment of Leeard.

30 Rock was renewed for one more season. This is good. The show needs to start coming in for a landing, but it shouldn't end this year. Parenthood was renewed! Amazing, amazing, amazing. Love that show. Touch was renewed as well. When it came out of the gate, we really liked it, but we aren't sure the sweet concept is working out well, long-term. We hope this show does its homework and fixes its problems for the second season.

The Vampire Diaries unsurprisingly got another season, and can we say "rejoice?" Rejoice. Supernatural has also been renewed, and we have finally started watching it. We are done with season one. Ern thinks it's cheesy as heck but is willing to keep watching it. We also need to catch up on Person of Interest. We got behind, but it's been renewed, so we need to give it attention.

Grey's Anatomy is near deals with a few main characters who were at risk of leaving. We will put their names in the comments so that you aren't spoiled as to who might be staying for the next two years. Shonda confirmed a while ago that a character will be dying horribly in this year's finale. We will put our guess for that death in the comments as well.

Finally, a commenter has just informed us that Community was renewed today. This is not surprising, but we are concerned that there will only be 13 episodes. How can we survive with only 13 episodes?

P.S. We are seeing The Avengers tomorrow. Wooo hooo.

---Update---
ABC Renewed: Grey's, Revenge, Castle, Once Upon a Time, The Middle, Suburgatory, and Modern Family. No surprises there.

The Rest of the Dramas! Sorry for all the lateness.

Ringer - “Oh Gawd, There’s Two of Them?”
Bridget has to tell Andrew and Henry that Siobhan had a twin. It turns out the Bridget’s new sponsor is working for Siobhan and he’s the one who killed Gemma. Gasp! Also, Malcolm escapes. After Juliet boozes, parties, and crashes a car in order to help her friend, Andrew cuts her off of her trust fun. Let’s all have a sarcastic slow clap for Andrew for doing the thing he should have done years ago. Good luck buying drugs when you don’t have access to $10 million. The fact that he didn’t do this in the first place means that Juliet should be taken away from him. Also, Juliet was scandalized and hurt that Andrew didn’t trust her motives. No sympathy. You do hard drugs in high school, you lose all expectation of trust. Overall, this show has really gone uphill.

Episode grade: B

American Horror Story - “Halloween 2”
Ok, Hayden was actually genuinely creepy. When she was rotting from the inside out, that was a nice touch. We are SO GLAD the dog wasn’t in the microwave. That would have been too far. Tate’s backstory is amazingly interesting and we look forward to the flashback and more details. Ben has been thrown out of the house by Vivien, but we hope that he has to come back soon. Out of everyone in that family, he is the one who most deserves to live in the haunted house, and it isn’t because he’s a cheater (although that doesn’t help). We feel bad for the way he has to deal with all that shame. He’s the worst because he has a pattern of covering things up. Everyone messes up in life. It’s how you deal with the aftermath, grit your teeth, and own up to things that decides whether you’re scum or not. No one likes a cover-up.

Episode grade: B

Revenge - “Charade”
Man, this was a good one. We had Nolan’s first takedown, and it was successful. The “Tyler is gay and in love with Daniel” theorists were correct. We liked the whole swapped identity thing, but man, Frank got way too close for comfort there. We, like many others, still aren’t buying the Declan/Charlotte romance, and we wish Declan had been cast by a different actor.

Episode grade: A-
The Secret Circle - “Beneath”
The Circle goes to Henry’s house to look for Jane, because Cassie hasn’t heard from her in days. The crew finds the house empty, but Cassie gets a text from Jane, saying that she is on her way home. The Circle decides to stay the night in Henry’s house. Diana experiences jealousy over Adam not being able to bear watching Cassie kiss Jake on a dare. Faye is jealous of Cassie and Jake’s budding romance. Jake rejects Cassie later, though. It seems that he is more into his witch-hunting team than her right now, but that might change. Henry reaches out to Faye from beyond the grave and Cassie finds his body. Meanwhile, Charles erases Jane’s memory and has Henry’s crystal. Most of these episodes have been heavy on the action and light on the character development. We got more quiet time with the characters during this episode, and we loved that. We also like when Diana starts to show her imperfect side, like when she made Cassie and Jake kiss. Most of all, we thought the music in this episode was really beautiful.

Episode grade: A

Fringe - “Novation”
We pretty much know how the Observers erased Peter now, if we hadn’t guessed already. The case of the week was boring, but the Peter/Olivia/Walter stuff was pretty good. Walter has rejected Peter as his son and a family member that he is allowed to keep. That’s sad, but we’re pretty sure he will come around, eventually, and help Peter figure things out. We’re glad to have Peter back.

Episode grade: B

Sons of Anarchy - “Kiss”
The way things are going, it looks like SAMCRO is going to have no choice but to kick Clay out of the club, which is something we are surprised hasn’t happened a long time ago. Clay gets one step closer to taking out Tara for good.

Episode grade: A-

Parenthood - “Forced Family Fun”
The main drama going on right now is the whole Seth thing. We hope he gets better, and he seems sincere, but this had better not affect Sarah’s new relationship, which is getting cuter all the time. Coffee girl needs to not sweat the small stuff and give Julia a break every once in a while. It’s like she gets paid for every awkward moment that she makes even more awkward.

Episode grade: B

Person of Interest - “Witness”
Reese has to protect a school teacher who saw a Russian mob shooting. Of course, Carter has to get all up in everyone’s business. The whole Carter thing had better turn out to be just as good as the rest of the show. It had just better pan out.

Episode grade: B-

Nikita - “Clawback”
Michael is mad at Nikita for not telling him about his son, even though she told him and pretty much did it right away. Ugh. We are kind of hating the whole Michael’s son thing. The son needs to die. We liked Alex’s plot this week, and we loved that Ryan came back.

Episode grade: B-

Prime Suspect - “Shame”
This episode featured a prostitute who killed, but we were less interested in her than the cop shenanigans that went on in this episode (like when two of them pretended that they were going to hit one of their informants). The team is getting along better, and we like that. The shooter from Grey’s Anatomy guest starred, and he was creepy in this, too.

Episode grade: B-

Grey’s Anatomy - “Heart-Shaped Box”
George’s mom returns and isn’t scandalized by Callie’s lesbianism. She just wants to see pictures of the baby. Aww. We enjoyed all the discussion and memories of George. We like when this show acknowledges its outlandishly crazy past. Jackson dumped Lexie because she doesn’t love him. She should, but she loves Mark instead. Finally, Henry is puking up blood, and that’s not good. We’re not saying we’d be devastated or anything, but it would be sad. Filler, but lighthearted, mature filler.

Episode grade: B-

Bones - “Memories in the Shallow Grave”
This was an average, “meh” episode, but it’s adorable to see Bones and Booth as a couple.

Episode grade: C+

A Gifted Man - “In Case of Memory Loss”
Michael comes across a former football player that he operated on a long time ago. The football player has since lost a lot of his memory and become homeless. Also, Michael has to treat a teenage girl who is having trouble coping with her best friend’s murder. Michael helps people. His wife haunts him. This was all par-for-the-course for this show.

Episode grade: B-

Eli Gold, Evil Cupid

Revenge - “Intrigue”
Even the blogger who isn’t super into Revenge had to admit that this was a strong, intense episode. Emily and Nolan sent the video of Frank trying to kill Lydia to Conrad. Conrad fires Frank and tells Frank to stay away from Victoria. Nolan and Declan push Jack until Jack goes to Emily and tells him how he feels about her. Emily rejects him, and we are sad. Lydia is alive! Just in a coma. Tyler continues to ruin Daniel’s life (WHY? Just jealousy? Or is Tyler infatuated with Daniel?), so Daniel ends up passed out on Jack’s bed on his first night of work at the bar. Ouch. Emily tells Tyler off while on a double date with Daniel and her British friend. We like seeing her lose control, especially when it’s directed at douchebags. We loved that the show took a break from the “revenge procedural” formula. If Emily always succeeded in her perfect revenge plots and if that were all that was causing trouble, things wouldn’t be gripping. Now things are a mess, and we like it. We especially want to know what Frank is going to do now.

Episode grade: A-

The Good Wife - “Marthas and Caitlins”
Alicia has to ask Colin Sweeney for help when the firm’s key witness in an important case commits suicide. Sweeney gets info for Cary and, in return, is released from prison. Alicia is asked to hire a new associate, but the girl she picks is ousted in favor of David’s niece. It’s not what you know, but who you know. Just about every subplot was advanced in this episode. Celeste was a lot more fun than usual this last week. Also, most interestingly, Eli Gold promised someone from the Democratic party that Alicia and Peter would be together soon. What dastardly deeds will he have to commit to pull this off?

Episode grade: A-

Sons of Anarchy - “Family Recipe”
Tara wants to relocate for the children’s safety, and Jax thinks this is a good idea. The club gets attacked and realizes that the drug dealing might not have been such a good idea. Clay kill Piney Winston to stop the letters from getting out. Chibs makes progress with Juice on the emotional front (aws). Overall, we were pleased with this one.

Episode grade: A-

The Walking Dead - “Bloodletting”
We will actually respect this show if it kills one of the children. Not that we usually like dead children, but children on a zombie show are just cutesy distractions and potential causes for doom. We liked seeing Shane tell Lori that Rick was shot (this was in a flashback). The man who shot Carl turns out to be Otis, a man who lives nearby and hunts for food. Otis takes Rick, Shane, and Carl to a veterinarian, Hershel Greene, who takes one of six bullet fragments out of Carl. Hershel’s daughter goes to find Lori and saves Andrea from a walker. Hershel’s daughter is kind of a bad ass with a horse. We hope she sticks around. Rick donates blood to Carl and is weakened. Otis and Shane go to the local abandoned school to get FEMA’s supplies that were stored there so that Hershel can operate on Carl. Unfortunately, the high school is overrun with walkers. Otis and Shane locate the medical supplies and gather what they need, but they are chased by a ton of walkers and have to lock themselves into the school to stay alive. That last chase by the walkers and the subsequent barricading of themselves into the school was delightfully frightening. When the show does things like that, it is at its best.

Episode grade: B

Nikita - “343 Walnut Lane”
Percy gains leverage against Alex. Percy also tricks Nikita into thinking she’s found her father, but the man turns out to be a Division agent who infiltrates Birkoff’s house and nearly gets everyone killed. The reason this episode gets a B is that Nikita told Michael about his son. The show didn’t drag the secret out for even one full episode! We are excited by this, and we admire Nikita’s intelligence and honesty. That is not a secret she should have kept for long, and on most shows, she would have. We continue to be amazed that Maggie Q looks to weigh about 75 pounds, but the showrunners expect us to buy that she could beat up a several full-grown men at one time.

Episode grade: B

Prime Suspect - “Regrets, I’ve Had a Few”
A young woman is killed and her body is found in a park, covered with flowers. Jane first suspects her stepfather, but it turns out the stepfather loved her, and it was a park employee who did the deed. He also killed a bunch of other women. The first half of this episode was really slow and tried our patience, but it was worth watching in the end.

Episode grade: B-

Pan Am - “One Coin in a Fountain”
Someone on this show finally has sex that we get to see. It’s Kate, and she steals a crush of Maggie’s for her spy duties, ends up liking him, and sleeps with him. Kate actually acts as a competent spy this week. One of us has decided that Maggie is a bitch and one of us still loves her. Laura spends the episode trying to find the engagement ring she pawned so that she can give it back to her ex-fiancé. Ted helps her get it back. One of us likes Ted, and one of us thinks he’s kind of a creeper. Dean romances Ginny, a passenger who is also the mistress of Pan Am’s vice-president. We loved Ginny and thought she was especially gorgeous. We are still lamenting the lack of Collette storylines.

Episode grade: B-

Person of Interest - “The Fix”
Reese has to protect a professional fixer (like on Michael Clayton) named Zoe. Zoe has information that she shouldn’t. Carter gets closer to Reese while investigating a murder. This episode was pretty average, but we enjoyed seeing Finch face down a bad guy over drinks in a restaurant. Finch can be scary. Just watch him when he was Ben.

Episode grade: B-

Grey’s Anatomy - “Put Me In, Coach”
Because these doctors have tons of free time, Owen enters Seattle Grace into a softball league to compete with other hospitals. They lose horribly. Richard forces Meredith and Bailey to work together in his old trial. Jackson is angered when he sees Lexie become jealous of Mark, who is dating someone new. Alex attempts to get a judge to speed up Zola’s court date and succeeds. This episode is the definition of filler. Alex is just asking to get sued at every turn. What he did was against HIPPA laws, as well as an attempt to influence a judge. Also, who freaking cares about Bailey, Kepner, and Meredith’s trial? Meredith shouldn’t be on a trial! There are no consequences in this hospital. Some of the softball stuff was funny, and we liked that Cristina put a patient first and is in Teddy’s good graces. Now Teddy wants to find dream surgeries for Cristina, and we can’t wait to see that.

Episode grade: C+

Daniel really doesn't deserve to die....say it ain't so

Sons of Anarchy - “Fruit for the Crows”
Bobby calls a vote for a new president, and Clay allows it, but he isn’t pleased. The club struggles to deal with Tara’s death threat letter and an attack against the Mayans. Juice tries to kill himself. This episode was seriously intense. Does anyone want to place any bets on whether Bobby will be the next character to die?

Episode grade: B

Parenthood - “Tales from the Luncheonette”
Adam and Crosby host Cee Lo Green in their music studio. At first, it seems like Cee Lo and his crew aren’t happy with the studio and how things are going, so Adam and Crosby fight. Adam also made rash promises to Cee Lo and sort of counted chickens before they hatched, making Crosby nervous. However, it all worked out in the end. Julia and Joel announce that they are adopting Snarky Coffee Girl’s baby to Julia’s parents, and Zeek questions whether it’s a good idea. Kristina tries to juggle a new baby with Adam’s crazy schedule and paying attention to Haddie. Drew has his first kiss, thanks to some helpful tips from Amber. Many people probably want kissing advice that good.

Finally, Mark Cyr feels insecure when Sarah lets Seth sleep over and cleans him up. Sarah tries to get money from Zeek to put Seth into rehab, but Zeek thinks that Seth is just tricking Sarah to get cash. Julia loans Sarah the money to put Seth in a private facility. Zeek doesn’t like this, but Joel (rightfully) tells Zeek that the decisions of Joel’s family are theirs. When you move out and get married, it’s important to leave home emotionally and make your own household. We don’t know if Zeek is totally wrong about Seth though… It seems like Sarah is getting set up for another fall. Hopefully it doesn’t kill her new relationship as well.

Episode grade: B

Person of Interest - “Judgment”
A judge’s young son is kidnapped by gang members who want the judge to throw a case and get a guilty defendant off, scot free. Reese appears to the judge and works with him to get his son back. The judge might prove to be an ally to Reese later. This episode entertained us and gave us hope that some storylines might create more overarching plots. We like when Reese reveals himself to the people he is trying to help. It just makes him look all the more mysterious and good. We’re still hoping for this show to get picked up for a full season. Having Michael Emerson on our screens again is just too good to lose.

Episode grade: B+

Nikita - “Looking Glass”
Nothing really grabbed us here, and we DON’T like the fact that Michael has a son. He once slept with a woman and seduced her for Division. Now, Michael feels guilty for using Cassandra and when he sees she is in trouble, he sets up a mission to help her. Nikita is understandably wary, but she helps and saves the day, as usual. The episode ended with Cassandra telling Nikita that her child, Henry, is Michael’s five-year-old son. Michael does not know. If he finds out that Nikita kept that from him, he won’t be happy. Sean and Amanda go on a mission together to do some good and do something unrelated to Division or Alex’s revenge. We guess we won’t be seeing Nathan again. Our money is on Sean for Alex’s new flame. Sean also begins to doubt Division.

Episode grade: C+

American Horror Story - “Murder House”
With horror, you want to be unsettled. You don’t want to be left with a sick feeling though. You want to be thrilled, scared, and excited. You might want to worry about nightmares before you go to bed. But there is an icky feeling you don’t want. This episode gave one of us that feeling. We don’t know why, but we do know that effect knocked the grade down a few notches. The Harmon’s can’t move because they are too poor and can’t sell the house. Ben tries to fire Moira for coming onto him, but Vivien comes down on Moira’s side, calling Ben “paranoid.” All she sees is an old lady, not a sex possibility for Ben.

Someone (probably Moira) starts drugging Ben so that he blacks out and wakes up with memory loss. We liked seeing how Moira died and think it’s creepy/cool the way Constance is keeping Moira from moving on in order to punish Moira for sleeping with her (Constance’s) husband. Hayden shows up, ready to tell Vivien about the pregnancy and move to town. Larry pops out of nowhere and kills Hayden by hitting her over the head with a shovel. Larry buries Hayden and Ben builds a gazebo over the grave. Vivien hears about the house’s first owners: A couple who performed illegal abortions. The ghost of the wife meets Vivien.

Episode grade: B-

Revenge - “Guilt”
Lydia reappears, looking to get her friendships and her house back. The annual Flight 197 victims fundraiser is thrown and Victoria is honored for starting it. Lydia nearly tells the gathered crowd of Hamptonites about how Victoria and Conrad framed an innocent man, but Victoria pretends to be Lydia’s friend long enough to get Lydia to change her mind. Frank, the man working for the Graysons, breaks into Lydia’s apartment and finds her files. Lydia returns home and Frank accidentally throws her out of a window and onto a car. Bye bye, Lydia. Daniel and Amandily rectify their miscommunications, and Daniel tells his father that he doesn’t want to be a part of the family business.

Daniel loses his trust fund and also finds out about how his father cheated on Victoria. Daniel and Amandily have sex for the first time. Conrad tries to win Victoria back with an expensive car, but Victoria gives it to Charlotte in an attempt to reconcile with her daughter. Charlotte takes Declan on a joyride that ends with them both getting arrested when the car was reported stolen. Daniel bails Charlotte out and gets Declan off, and Jack gives Daniel a job at his bar. Great, just what an alcoholic needs: to be surrounded by alcohol at work. Finally, Victoria’s guilt over what happened with David Clarke reemerges. We didn’t like the use of flashbacks in this episode, but we are thrilled that Lydia came back. This isn’t a show that forgets what happened last week, even if it is sort of a procedural soap. We also like how Nolan is continuing to protect Amanda and further her interests.

Episode grade: B+

Maybe there are no good people. Only good decisions.

Parenthood - “Nora”
Christina finally popped and also bonded with Crosby. The new baby’s name is Nora. Speaking of new babies. After spending a night over at Julia’s house, coffee girl realized that her son couldn’t be in better hands. Amber helps Max make up with Jabbar. Seth has fallen off the wagon and called Sarah for help. She finds him sitting, looking like he just got beaten up, in an alley. This might complicate her new relationship with Captain Morgan… The highlight for us was seeing Adam in those awful clothes. So funny. This was a good one.

Episode grade: B+

Prime Suspect - “Great Guy, Yet: Dead”
Jane was actually wrong about a suspect! A formerly rich, charming guy got into trouble and had to borrow money from the Russian mob. He openly cheated on his wife, but she wasn’t the one who set him up to be killed. It was a potential business partner. This guy was a listener and a lot of fun, so everyone liked him, making it hard to find suspects until they found a fingerprint. Yay for CSI. This one wasn’t as good as the episodes in the last two weeks. We’re still liking the show though.

Episode grade: B-

X Factor - Judges’ Houses Part 1
We are two seconds from dropping this show until the finale. It’s too long, and Simon said something about our favorite contestant, Drew, possibly being too young. If they dump Drew, we may dump the show.

Grey’s Anatomy - “Love, Loss, and Legacy”
Zola gets a bowel obstruction and receives medical care at Seattle Grace. Complete idiots Cristina and Alex (who are usually our favorite characters) decide to tell Meredith and Derek, even though there is nothing they can do and knowing could ruin the adoption for them. Zola recovers, but the social worker sees Meredith and Derek looking teary in an elevator, and her face tells us that she knows that they know. Great. Jackson’s mother, Dr. Catherine Avery, comes to town, bringing with her a groundbreaking surgery- a penis transplant. This show will not rest until we see a storyline about every penis-related surgery out there. Penis fish. Broken penis. Penis pump. Penis transplant.

Catherine Avery was fantastic. She could come on full time and be the new Dr. Bailey, because she’s like Bailey was in the first couple of seasons, only happier and more fun. Bailey has gotten annoying over the years. Bailey dumps her nurse boyfriend. Owen sees Cristina playing with Zola and gets depressed. Teddy throws a dinner party. Uptight April nearly ruins the penis surgery, but Mark, ever watchful of penis care, steps in and saves it. Catherine can tell that Mark still loves Lexie and that Jackson really doesn’t. We love her. It looks like Mark and Lexie are an endgame couple. Man, we love Lexie’s bangs so much.

Episode grade: B

Person of Interest - “Cura Te Ipsum”
A young doctor wants to kill the man who drugged and raped her sister, causing her sister to commit suicide. Reese and Finch agree that this will harm the young woman, and so they interfere. Reese talks to the woman and spends the last scene discussing whether he should kill the rapist. He has this discussion with the rapist, so that’s kind of cool. Sadly, the show ended the episode before we found out what Reese decided. What does this show think it is? Inception? Jeez. We wanted to know. We wanted Reese to kill the guy, since he truly sucked, but we sort of think that he didn’t. Maybe he just settled for scaring the man. Meanwhile, Detective Carter questions Finch (who she knows under a false name) after watching the tape of the previous episode’s robbery and seeing Finch talk to Reese.

Episode grade: B

Thanks for telling us Nikita got better, readers.

Person of Interest - “Mission Creep”
This show is definitely a procedural, but it’s a decent one, so we watch it, even though there are pouts on our faces about the 24-like serial that might have been. In this episode, the machine coughed up the number of a former Marine named Joey. When he returned from the Middle East, he joined a crew of former soldiers who have become thieves for hire, because he wanted to get money for his dead solider buddy’s little girl. Reese saves Joey, duh. The man behind it all is named “Elias M.” and a man named Latimer works for him. We have a feeling that these two are going to crop up again. We also see that Reese used to have a girlfriend, and they clearly still have feelings for each other. We want to see the machine flashback now.

Episode grade: B+

Nikita - “Knightfall”
We’re finally caught up on this show. It got better around episode five. The first episode was all about sex appeal and stick-thin women inexplicably kicking the asses of large guys, and that turned us off. We’re not really the audience for that. But we marathoned the show once the whole season was out, and had developed enough of a story and fun pacing that it hooked us. There have been some changes since the first season. Notably, Alex is now with Division as a mercenary and Amanda is running the whole thing.

We enjoy the game change, but we look forward to Percy getting out of his Magneto prison. During this episode, Nikita foiled a Division op yet again! Even though one of us hates Shane West, we like Michael and Nikita together. The end opened up new possibilities for Alex’s character. That’s good. It’s nice to keep things moving while having week-to-week missions. We'd really like to see some follow-up with the Nathan character. Last we saw him, he had found out about Alex's secret and shot Alex's rival, killing her. What happened to that guy? Doesn't Alex still want to make babies with him?

Episode grade: B

A Gifted Man - “In Case of Discomfort”
The formula for this show seems to be “one rich patient, one poor patient.” The rich patient had some sort of bug in her brain from eating pork (aaaand we’ve just picked up the pork-eating habits of Jews and Muslims) and the poor patient had heart problems. Rachel Lefevre showed up to run the clinic. We don’t know why we are enjoying this show, because it has a lot of the factors we usually hate. Case-by-case, not too attached to the characters (what happened to Michael’s sister and nephew?), and nothing too unique. And yet, we continue to enjoy.

Episode grade: B

Don't Cancel Prime Suspect Yet, Please

Person of Interest - "Ghosts"
We were snoring a bit here. This is a definite procedural and it’s feeling like one. We hear that we will be getting a Mr. Finch flashback where we get to see some of the story behind the machine’s creation, and we can’t wait for that. It’s time for an overarching plot or mystery to emerge to keep us coming back week-to-week.

Episode grade: C+

Prime Suspect - "Carnivorous Sheep"
Yeah, this is a procedural too, but the case was more interesting than the Person of Interest one, and Maria Bello has a lot more charisma than Jim Caviezel. Too bad the ratings are down, because this episode was better than the pilot, and we liked the pilot. This is the new cop show/procedural to watch.

Episode grade: B+

The X-Factor
Simon says that they are looking for “more than just a voice.” It’s “something else.” So far, this seems like just an excuse to pick poor vocalists based on looks, personality, and bravado. That’s probably why the contestants continue to underwhelm. However, they were better Thursday night. New Jersey also brought us more entertaining rejects. We loved Simon’s attitude about the show Jersey Shore, saying that when he saw it, he knew that he had to bring his show to New Jersey because he loves the people there and their sense of humor. That’s a joyful, nonjudgmental attitude we didn’t think we’d hear from Simon after all the Jersey hate.

Our favorites were the 12-year-old who rapped “Stop Lookin At My Mom” and the last girl, the 16-year-old from Cape Coral, FL, who sang the Mary J. Blige song. The young ones are bringing it. (Ern’s siblings went to the same high school.) We also liked Kelly, the hairdresser for a nursing home, because she had a nice tone. We agreed with Simon about Carrie Fletcher. She was not distinctive, but she seems smart enough to fix that.

Unforgettable and Person of Interest Pilots

Unforgettable was mildly entertaining, but nothing special. It’s another cop procedural where one of the detectives, Carrie, has a cool talent. Granted, Carrie isn’t back on the force yet, but she’s going to be working on cases with her ex-boyfriend, or there would be no show. You might stick around to see if she gets back together with him or to see if she finds out who killed her sister, Rachel. Carrie’s gift (curse?) is the ability to remember everything she encounters perfectly for further analyzing at a later date. This gift would come in handy with school.

Anyway, Carrie is the coolest thing about this show. With her interesting accent, red hair, sweet-yet-spunky personality, and street smarts, Poppy Montgomery’s Carrie charmed us. Unfortunately for this show, it’s not unique enough to grab us. We will stick with Blue Bloods and Southland when it comes to our cop procedural needs.

Person of Interest had Jesus and Ben Linus teaming up to save innocent lives. We’re not yet sold on Jim Caveziel, and not because we bear a grudge against him for starring in Mel Gibson’s controversial project (it was a risk, but we respect that he took it before he knew Mel would go crazy). We don’t like him because his voice always makes him sound like he’s depressed, whining, and a little creepy. There’s something about it that makes him sound choked-up and too serious at all times. We aren’t sure if we will be able to connect with his character enough to either feel sorry for him or think he is cool. He just sounds so pathetic.

Michael Emerson is the same old Michael Emerson that we loved and lost in LOST. Readers, you should start a drinking game with this blog where you take a shot every time we mention LOST. Still not over that show. The show is worth us watching for a couple of weeks just to listen to Michael's Ben voice, which also sounds depressed, whining, and a little creepy, but in a way that works and feels mysterious. We also like Tariji P. Henson. She seems like a cool person in real life too.

This show is also shaping up to have a procedural feel (which at least one of us almost never likes), but the talent involved makes us want to stay tuned. Unforgettable has a character we like, but Person of Interest has a premise we like. We were more entertained by the case-of-the-week in Person of Interest than we were in the Unforgettable case. Stopping crimes before they happen is also more interesting, as is not knowing who the victim and who the perpetrator are going to be, just who is going to be involved. It might not last long on our list, but Person of Interest earned a pass this week. Let us know if Unforgettable gets good enough for us to tune in next season.

Unforgettable Grade: C
Person of Interest Grade: B-

New Show: Person of Interest

There was almost nothing on TV last night, and we haven’t watched any movies. Music is the same old crap as usual. We guess the newest big thing is Beyonce offering us something we don’t actually want to listen to, as much as one of us might like her. Good voice, horrible music, with the exception of, like, two songs.

As far as books go, one of us is re-reading The Hunger Games and one of us is finishing up Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn Trilogy (which, despite a stupid name, is pretty good). But we’re not going to write about those things.

So we thought this was the time to tell you which new, upcoming shows we are excited about. And which ones it’s going to be a chore to try to watch. We will do one show per day to hopefully get people excited about the new stuff that’s coming next season, and we will tag these posts “##Upcoming Shows##” so ya'll can keep track.

PERSON OF INTEREST
CBS Thursdays, starting September 22, 2011 at 9 p.m. eastern.

Starring: Michael Emerson (Ben on LOST!!!), Jim Caviezel (Jesus in The Passion of the Christ), and Taraji P. Henson (Benjamin’s adoptive mommy in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button).

Plot: Michael Emerson plays billionaire Mr. Finch who makes a computer program to predict future crime victims. Jim Caviezel plays Reese, a former CIA agent who everyone thinks is dead to help him stop the crimes.

Why we are excited: The show is based on a screenplay written by J.J. Abrams and Jonathan Nolan. While Abrams has been disappointing us lately, he’s brought us a lot of great stuff. And Nolan? Do you people remember The Dark Knight? Jonathan is the brother of director Chris Nolan, and he is Chris’ screenwriting buddy. This tells us that there is no way that this show is going to be stupid sludge, even if...

Why we are not excited: ....it does sound like an unoriginal, procedural-esque concept. And it kind of looks more like a movie to us.

PREVIEW:


“Anticipation score”- 8/10