The Return Of Television

Next week begins the return of TV. Shows are off hiatus and back on the air. New episodes, new seasons. It's all very exciting.

Here's the breakdown of what I have to look forward to during this cold cold winter:

Modern Family

Modern Family actually came back this week. Luckily my DVR knew this and recorded it for me. I watched it last night and it may have been one of the best episodes yet.

How I Met Your Mother: Monday, Jan. 11

We'll be introduced to a new love interest for Ted. I'm not invested in who the mother is as much as I'm supposed to be. It's just nice to have a regular old comedy to watch that is consistently funny (other than Modern Family, which is a new show for me).

American Idol: Tuesday, Jan. 12

Here begins my two hour/two night American Idol hell. Why do I do this to myself? Normally I don't invest too much time into these early auditions, but I'm excited to see the guest judges this year...because I'm a nerd (see previous post). I am not excited to see Ellen DeGeneres take her place as the unneeded 4th judge. I think she's a fine person, but I saw her stint on So You Think You Can Dance and I can't handle a season of snappy one liners and "Look at me! I'm Ellen!" in lieu of performance feedback and performer footage. No more Paula will be interesting to see, as well. Maybe it will make Kara calm down a bit and return to judging instead of vying for top spot as "the hot one".

American Idol also brings the return of Idolatry on http://www.ew.com/ by Michael Slezak and the Television Without Pity recaps that I love and make the show worth watching.

Community: Thursday, Jan. 14

Community is not a "must watch" for me. I want to watch and enjoy it when I do, but I usually watch it on tape delay at some point later in the week. It's a good show, though, and I hope it sticks around.

Project Runway: Thursday, Jan. 14
Project Runway is back in New York! Nina Garcia (say that like Heidi. It's fun!) and Michael Kohrs are back full time to be uber critical and sassy. I've heard good things about the designers and challenges this season from http://www.projectrungay.com/, so hopefully it will redeem itself from the train wreck that was last season.

The Office: Thursday, Jan. 21

Oh, do I even care anymore? This show is falling down hard. Jim and Pam are snobs. Michael is a complete caricature of his former self. Dwight is just an asshole now and it's like no one else is even on the show. The only redeeming characters are Andy, Kelly, Darryl, and the new receptionist, but they are rarely featured.

Lost: Tuesday, Feb. 2

The final season begins. It's sure to be a crazy crazy ride. I can't even begin to wrap my mind around where this season will take us. I can barely remember where it left us. Oh, yeah. Juliette detonated Jughead The Bomb and exploded everyone, presumably, back in time safely landing at LAX with no recollection of any past island events. I will try to do my recaps again like last season. I probably won't be able to help myself. Here's to hoping for a season full of answers, excitement, and Desmond.

Survivor: Thursday, Feb. 11

This is the 20th season (20th season!) of Survivor, so they are doing it up All Star style. Heroes vs. Villains. Some of my favorites to watch scheme and backstab will be back. Amanda, Courtney, James, Stephanie, Boston Rob, and Russell from this just previous season. None of the other Survivors have seen his season at the time they filmed this one (it began being filmed just 3 weeks after Samoa was done filming) so they have no idea just what an evil mastermind he is. Of course, he will have no idea that he has not won the previous season and may play exactly the same, thus costing him the title of Ultimate All Star Survivor. It should be a fun season to watch.

So that's it. That's my winter. Is it sad that my winter activities consist of television programming? I live in Minnesota so it's not like there's much going on and going out is such a pain in the ass this time of year. I do have other social things happening and none of these shows are on over the weekends, so those are free.