My finales did dumb things, how about yours?

If you follow me on Twitter, you might have noticed that about 10 minutes after expressing my general approval of the Grimm season 3 finale (despite a development that I will not be in favor of, if it results in a certain somebody dying), I realized something.

All the finales and penultimate episodes I’ve seen over the past few weeks have shared two common threads: Somebody did something stupid, and something bad happened. Not necessarily in that order. And while that doesn’t always result in a bad episode, it’s my least favorite way for stories to progress.

Let’s break it down by show. Spoilers, obviously:

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Fall TV: Here we go again…

UPDATED: Adds premiere dates, Scorpion.

Last year I did this post much closer to the start of the fall TV season, but I’m trying to do a weekly post, and the other two posts I’ve got could use some time to simmer.  So here’s all the stuff that caught my interest from the network upfronts last week. Again, like last year, I’m sure it won’t all stick, but there are fewer shows I feel that way about.  All times are central time.

All is revealed as the lights go out

Cable has become a costly nightmare, so I’m cutting the cord (again). In these final days before turning in my DVR, the mad dash to watch everything I care about has revealed some interesting things.

I love Teen Wolf
I just do, and you can judge all you want, because I don’t care.  For a soapy action/supernatural MTV show, it’s a lot of fun, still a little suspenseful, and surprisingly poignant. Sure, it has more loose threads than a broken loom and maybe gets a tiny bit less good with each season, but I’ll be disappointed to lose all 24 episodes of season 3 that I couldn’t bear to delete. Season 4 this June!

Trophy Wife is my second-favorite new show of the season
At first, I just liked having more Bradley Whitford on my TV, but honestly, this show about a thrice-married guy, his new younger wife, three kids and zany relationships with the exes just tickles my feel-good family funny-bone, even if it did take a massive build-up and binge-watch to realize. Sadly, The Cancelation Bear is also predicting its demise. I will not be a happy camper if this season eats Trophy Wife and The Crazy Ones.

Castle isn’t what it used to be
There was a time when, thanks to my wacky work schedule, I’d get home at 11:30 Monday night and immediately watch the Castle episode that aired a few hours earlier and then start my weekend. I don’t do that so much anymore. I’m not sure if it’s because the quality never quite came back from the lows of season four or it’s because of all the Teen Wolf I rushed home to watch instead, but I seemed to be perpetually three or four episodes behind this season. But once I start watching, I’m more than happy to be doing so! It’s kind of like get-togethers: I never really want to go until I get there.

Dads, Mom and Michael J. Fox just couldn’t cut it
Don’t get me wrong: I was also really happy to have Seth Green, Allison Janney and Michael J. Fox back on my TV in their respective shows, but there just wasn’t enough to care about here. I didn’t delete these shows unless I desperately needed space, but once I stopped watching them, I never picked them back up and probably won’t now. The Michael J. Fox Show already ate it (and for a while I wasn’t sure if it had been canceled or if I had just stopped recording it to save room for other things), the future looks grim for Dads, and Mom has already been renewed. Send some of that West Wing alum mojo Brad Whitford’s way, Allison!

Nothing escaped the occasional episode build-up, but sometimes it’s just because I was busy
I don’t really have anything bad to say about Grimm, The Middle, Modern Family, Raising Hope, The Americans or Ink Master. Well, Ink Master’s a trainwreck, but I can’t seem to stop watching it.  The rest are comfort shows well into their runs. (Except The Americans which is only in its second season, but I hope sticks around).

I will (probably) never watch Early Edition
Last year, I was introduced to Friday Night Lights and when I was done, decided I needed more Kyle Chandler in my life. Right about the time I was wishing for that, The TV Guide Channel started airing two back-to-back episodes of Early Edition five days a week, and I recorded almost all of them. It’s a fun show full of 90s nostalgia (a cat delivers tomorrow’s newspaper today to a guy who then stops all the bad things from happening while not giving up his secret paper), but it’s not so good for binge watching. I still have something like 15 episodes, and I’m not going to watch them. Maybe someday they’ll stream somewhere or all seasons will hit DVD. But until that day, goodbye “Gary, Gary Hobson.”

Some things just need picking up next season
I have no idea why I stopped watching Parks & Rec and Brooklyn Nine-Nine. I just did, and even though I still have them, I seriously doubt I’ll get through them before my time runs out.  But hopefully the stars will align, and they’ll all be streaming in time to get caught up  before next season (which will also be at the mercy of the streaming gods) gets too far under way. I’m hoping for the same thing with Agents of SHIELD, except I know exactly why I stopped watching (and recording) that: It just wasn’t that great. But on a whim, I thought I’d try to catch up on Hulu, and *just when it was starting to get good* I hit a block of missing episodes.

So there it is. That’s what the last two years of cable hath wrought for me. In related news, I’m also watching  Arrow for the first time and have just hit the last season I saw of Supernatural (season six) on Netflix, so I might try to get caught up for them, too. Arrow definitely, but maybe not Supernatural, especially since I hear it gets pretty bad.

Leisure Time is on Twitter! Get post updates and smaller fannish thoughts @TheLTtweet.

OUAT are you doing to me, show?

Just when my interest begins to wane (again) on Once Upon A Time, an episode like Sunday’s pulls me back in. It was pretty predictable (as, I’m relatively certain, will be the “surprise” in next week’s episode), but I pretty  much loved it enough that I  may actually watch it again now that I can give it my full attention. There are spoilers for the episode and speculation based on next week’s promo here. That is your only warning.

Once Upon A Time: Apparently the show you can’t quit.

With ABC’s Once Upon a Time heading into its season two fall finale tonight, I thought this might be a good time to talk about it. I liked the pilot and first few episodes — though I certainly found the stories in Fairytale Land to be far more interesting than whatever was going on in Storybrooke. But I quit watching about midway through the season when Mary Margaret Blanchard and David (aka Snow White and Prince Charming, even though they don’t remember those lives) were being horrible people.

I was happy to leave it there, and let Grimm be my tie to TV with fantastic elements (grammar note: while “fantastical” is technically a word, it’s also a waste of time). But then my friend Tim was all “OMG, we have to watch ‘Once Upon A Time!’  And wouldn’t you know, I got sucked right back in for season two.

Coulson!!!

It’s been confirmed that my (perhaps everybody’s) favorite SHIELD agent, Phil Coulson, will be in Joss Whedon’s new ABC pilot based on the Marvel universe government agency.

YAY!

Coulson, played by Clark Gregg, was first introduced in 2008’s Iron Man and was in three of the five movies leading up to Marvel’s The Avengers (Iron Man, Iron Man 2 and Thor), and then in The Avengers. The only news that could be as equally awesome would be if somebody told me How I Met Your Mother was finally ending so Cobie Smulders could reprise her Avengers role as well. Somebody make that happen; the clock is ticking for Ted to meet The Mother.

There’s a an Access Hollywood story here, and a report from New York Comic-Con here. Don’t read either if you have yet to see The Avengers and don’t want to be spoiled for A Big Thing (and if you HAVEN’T been spoiled yet, perhaps look into contacting the Department of Miracles).

I leave you now with this: