This week things have slowed down considerably with the Fall TV premieres, so I am forgoing the daily posts and presenting a weekly rundown instead.
Tonight’s lone season premiere is “House” at 9 P.M. on Fox. This season, Dr. House turns over a new leaf and becomes a kind and reasonable human being.
Just kidding! He’s still a jerk.
On Saturday “Rules of Engagement” gets its season premiere at 8 P.M. on CBS. Yes, Saturday. In other words, I hope the show’s fans enjoy the final season of “Rules of Engagement”!
The week’s noteworthy new series is “American Horror Story,” which premieres on Wednesday at 10 P.M. on FX.
“Nip/Tuck” and “Glee” co-creators Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk are behind this new show, which judging from the enigmatic TV spots is about a family who moves into a house that has a red room and a resident ghost with a penchant for rubber fetish wear. Which, OK. I suppose that’s a show?
For anyone who has seen “Glee,” and more importantly, “Nip/Tuck,” you know that subtlety is not a concern with Murphy and Falchuk.
“Nip/Tuck” rode a wave of outrageousness for a long time, but eventually it just became a freak show that promised a weekly dose of explicit sex on basic cable, and yes, because of that it was still somewhat of a draw. I hope this show gives us some characters we can actually root for, and not the usual unlikable characters that seem to populate Ryan Murphy shows.
The casting gives some promise. The always hunky Dylan McDermott plays dad and psychiatrist Ben Harmon, and “Friday Night Light”‘s awesome Connie Britton is mom Vivien.
Together with daughter Violet (Taissa Farmiga, Vera’s little sister), they move from Boston to Los Angeles, in hopes of escaping some personal demons and starting over. Except they choose to do so in a rundown mansion that is so obviously haunted, and they live next door to a nutcase played by Jessica Lange.
The presence of Lange, in her first TV series role, is enough to get me to watch, coupled with expectations that the thing will actually be scary. It’s October. It’s time for scary! But I just hope Murphy and Falchuk are able to curtail some of their usual ugliness and borderline misogyny to give us a show that’s thrilling but not repellent.
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