TV Premieres: What to Watch 9/24

We’re back with a bunch of new television this week.  Many of your favorite returning shows are back this week as well.  Below is a listing by-day of the new series premieres with the time and network.  I’m also throwing in an abbreviated listing of returning series premieres and series finales.

Remember, this is on a trial basis.  We’ll see how it goes.

The new show you definitely need to add to your favorite list is "Last Resort” on ABC.

 

Note: All times are U.S. CST

Tuesday, 9/25

Ben and Kate-7:30pm on Fox – This new single-camera sitcom has Ben, an exuberant dreamer, returns to his hometown, he realizes his perennially responsible younger sister, Kate, needs help raising her 5-year-old daughter; Kate prepares for what turns out to be a disastrous first date.  Early reviews say this is pretty average but does have a likeable cast.

The Mindy Project-8:30pm on Fox – Sitcom by executive producerMindy Kaling.  Early reviews say this one is worth checking out – pretty funny.  Synopsis:  After getting drunk and disorderly at her ex-boyfriend's wedding, Dr. Mindy Lahiri realizes she needs to get her personal and professional life back on track.

Vegas-9:10 on CBS – New drama where rancher Ralph Lamb becomes a sheriff, he begins investigating the murder of the governor's niece and instantly clashes with mobster Vincent Savino.  Stars Dennis Quaid, Michael Chiklis and Carrie-Anne Moss.  Great cast with a promising setting, but early reviews said the pilot was somewhat boring.

Brickleberry-9:30pm on Comedy Central – New animated comedy

Season Premieres:  NCIS, New Girl, NCIS: Los Angeles, Private Practice

 

Wednesday, 9/26

Animal Practice-7pm on NBC – New sitcom where Justin Kirk stars as a vet who loves animals but hates their owners.  This one also stars Tyler Labine.  Early reviews are very mixed – some will like it some will hate it.  It has a monkey in a labcoat is all you need to know.

The Neighbors-8:30pm on ABC – Comedy with this plot:  When Marty Weaver and his wife, Debbie, move to a gated community with their three children, they discover their neighbors are aliens who had not met humans.  I give this one a month to survive.

Season Premieres:  The Middle, Criminal Minds, Modern Family, Law & Order: SVU, CSI

 

Thursday, 9/27

Last Resort-7pm on ABC – This drama was written by Shawn Ryan and is on my must record list.  If you’re not sure, be sure and at least record this pilot episode as it’s a good one.  Plot:  After questioning orders to fire at a foreign country, Capt. Marcus Chaplin and the crew of the world's most powerful nuclear submarine find themselves under attack and declared enemies of the United States.

Elementary-9:01 on CBS – It’s a modern-day Sherlock Holmes with Lucy Liu as Watson.  And it’s set it New York City to really tick of the British.  It’s not great, but looks to be more entertaining than most expected.  I think it’s worth giving a chance if you enjoy the genre.

Capture Cowboys-10:02 on History – new reality series

Season Premieres:  The Big Bang Theory, Two and a Half Men, Grey’s Anatomy, Person of Interest, Rock Center With Brian Williams, Scandal

 

Friday, 9/28

Paranormal Paparazzi-6pm on Travel – Reality series

Made in Jersey-8pm on CBS – Drama that might appeal to the CBS watching crowd.

Flea Market Flip-8pm on HGTV

Voces on PBS-10pm on PBS – Documentary

Season Premieres:  CSI: NY, Fringe, Blue Bloods, Dateline NBC

 

Saturday, 9/29

Being-5pm on National Geographic – Documentary

Season Premieres:  Star Wars: The Clone Wars, How the States Got Their Shapes, 48 Hours

 

Sunday, 9/30

666 Park Avenue-9:01pm on ABC – A new paranormal drama.  Nice cast, decent plot, but quite slow and shall I say almost boring?  Plot:  Jane and Henry are offered a chance to manage a premier apartment building in New York; while the couple is seduced by the intoxicating lifestyle of the Upper East Side, supernatural forces in the building make Henry and Jane question their decision.

Destination Fear-10pm on Travel – reality/travel

Season Premieres:  60 Minutes, The Amazing Race, Once Upon a Time, The Simpsons, Making Monsters, Bob’s Burgers, The Good Wife, Revenge, Family Guy, American Dad, The Mentalist

TV Premieres: What to Watch 9/17

After receiving a bunch of e-mails telling me how much they wished I had continued my TV listings, I thought I’d do a scaled-down version.  I’m stripping the TV Premiere listings to the bone and only giving you what I think you need.  Below is a listing by-day of the new series premieres with the time and network.  I’m also throwing in an abbreviated listing of returning series premieres and series finales.

Remember, this is on a trial basis.  We’ll see how it goes.

This week the two big premieres are “The Mob Doctor” which is a show I’m hearing is a disappointing mess, Revolution by JJ Abrahms which I highly recommend based on the freely available pilot episode.

NOTE1:  Corrected the time and network for Revolution.

Note2: All times are U.S. CST

Monday, 9/17

Let’s Ask America-6:30pm on NBC

The Mob Doctor-8pm on Fox-The Mob Doctor stars Jordana Spiro as a cardiothoracic surgeon paying off her brother's gambling debt by doing medical work for gangsters. Evanston native Zach Gilford and Jamie Lee Kirchner play her day-job colleagues at a hospital, with William Forsythe as a mob boss.

Revolution-9pm on NBC-Revolution by from J.J. Abrams and Eric Kripke.  This one is an adventure thriller where the family attempts to reunite in a post-apocalyptic American landscape. Basically, there was a really serious blackout of tech.  Nothing electronic works – every geek’s worst mightmare!  Don’t miss this one.

Season Premieres:  Wheel of Fortune, Bones

 

Tuesday, 9/18

Iceberg Hunters-8pm on TWC

Hot Set-9pm on SyFy-Watch as two Hollywood production designers and their teams compete in extreme design challenges.  Challenge themes includes science fiction, fantasy and horror genres.

Season Finales:  So You Think You Can Dance

 

Wednesday, 9/19

Season Premiers:  Survivor Philippines, South Beach Tow, The Challenge: Battle of the Seasons,

Season Finales:  Royal Pains, Big Brother

 

Thursday, 9/20

Tamar & Vince-9pm on We

Prom Queens-9:30pm on Lifetime

Season Premiers:  Up All Night, The Office, Parks and Recreation

Season Finales:  Wilfred, Awkward, Totally Biased With W. Kamau Bell

 

Friday, 9/21

Access 360-5pm on National Geographic

Secret Princes-9pm on TLC

Season Premiers:  Haven

 

Sunday, 9/23

The First Family-7pm on Centric.  The First Family stars Christopher B. Duncan (from The Jamie Foxx Show) and Kellita Smith (from The Bernie Mac Show) as the president and first lady. Gladys Knight plays the president’s mother, and Jackee Harry and Marla Gibbs are the first lady’s sister and mother. 

Secret Brazil-7pm on National Geographic Wild

Mr. Box Office-8pm on Centric

$24 in 24-9pm on Food

House Hunters Renovation-10pm on HGTV

Season Finale:  Ice Road Truckers, The Real Housewives of New Jersey

 

That’s it for this week.  If I missed anything of note or you have a show you’re looking forward to let us know in the comments.

Interview with first Google Fiber User

Google Fiber has opened up a Google Fiber connection to a couple of small businesses near their “Google Fiber Space” building just to showcase what it can do.  A few days ago Gizmodo interviewed Max Ross, the first official Kansas Citian to own a Google Fiber connection and he seems pretty positive about the new service.

Ross, the co-owner of Fric and Frac, a neighborhood bar and grill in Westport, Mo., answered Internet-users' question about the service through a live Q&A for Gizmodo.

Unfortunately, the restaurant doesn’t have the TV service setup yet.

Check the interview out at Gizmodo

Google Fiber TV–Is It’s HTPC DNA SageTV?

Google had their official unveiling of Google Fiber last week in Kansas City and I was watching very closely.  I expected this to be an interesting announcement with it’s fiber-to-the-home bringing gigabit internet (up and down) along with a rumored TV service.  I’m thrilled about both of these services, but especially curious about the TV-side of the announcement.  Now that I’ve delved a little more into this I think the Google Fiber TV just might be bigger than some people realize.

Not only am I very interested in a “better” TV/DVR than what you can currently get from the cable companies – I also live in the downtown Kansas City area where I felt my odds were good for getting Google Fiber.  So yes, I’m likely more interested in this than those outside of the Kansas City area.  But I’m even more excited about this because I suspect there is quite a bit of SageTV Home Theater PC inside of Google Fiber TV. SageTV is a Home Theater PC or Home Media company that Google purchased just over a year ago and it seems that this is what the SageTV team has been working on since being acquired.

I stopped by the Google Fiber Place where they have a large “showroom” to demo some of the ways you can use Google Fiber in the real world.  As you can imagine I spent a lot of time in the Fiber TV section where they had the actual Fiber TV hardware running and where I could see the EPG (TV Guide), menus and settings page.  We switched channels, displayed a guide that looked awfully familiar to this SageTV user and went through some of the menus.  When we were on the settings page I think I caught a glimpse of the words “SageTV” on the page.  The TV show page had similar info and details pages available just like I see on SageTV.  It certainly wasn’t exactly like the last version of SageTV, but it was pretty similar.  Add to this experience you can check this Google + thread where a little confirmation of SageTV involvement was mentioned:

I had a chance to try out the Fiber TV app on the Nexus 7 tablet and that has similar functionality to the 3rd party SageTV web app I’m used to using but in a much improved UI

One last thing to note before I close today – Fiber TV is a Media device with a server/client architecture, just like SageTV is.  It includes music and movies and Google is integrating Netflix and their own Google-brand of instant movies.  The ability to stream your movies and music and ge the super-powered DVR with tuners that work on all content (Read: not blocked for certain channels or requiring CableCard setup) makes this HTPC enthusiast very, very happy.  I don’t know how much SageTV is inside Fiber TV, but I’m pretty confident it has quite a bit inside.

Lots of questions from the HTPC crowd to talk about here such as: what about plugins, DRM on movies, commercial skip etc.  I’ll have more to say about Google Fiber TV soon.  Stay tuned.

GeekTonic Rises

It’s been a nice, long break away from blogging these past many months.  Back in September of last year I mostly gave up writing on GeekTonic except for the weekly TV-centric posts and then in February I even stopped those.  Near the end of last summer I was already burning out but I tried to stay with it – it just wasn’t in me.  I invested a ton of time & energy in this thing because I love technology, especially when it’s mixed with media of all kind.  But the time spent on the day job mixed with preparation for a pretty major move (for me at least) finally pulled me away.  Today I decided to ease back into blogging on a smaller scale.

Articles will be less often and might be a mixture of topics.  I might at times really focus in on things such as Google Fiber, Apple TV, my transition from a suburban home mega-HTPC setup to a smaller, urban loft and who knows what else.  This will be me not following any of the advice I’ve read and learned about blogging, but I hope you’ll still enjoy reading.  I’ve had a lot of people encouraging me to get back into the game including family, friends, subscribers, twitter followers and Google + friends.