Fall TV So Far: The Highs, Lows, and Who Needs to Go

Hello, friends! I feel like I’ve been away from you all for years—probably because when you have a nocturnal new baby, every day is twice as long. (When we “fell back” this weekend, it wasn’t an extra hour of sleep for me—it was an extra hour of insanity.)

But I think the main reason it seems like we haven’t talked in so long is: It’s fall, and normally we’d be dissecting the ups, downs, and peculiarities of new TV in real time. I couldn’t do that while I was helping my new son, Mac, get adjusted to the world—but best believe I’ve been storing up talking points. Mac is a lot of fun, a real whiz when it comes to staring at lights, but he's not exactly skilled in the art of television obsessing yet. Which is why I’ve been burning to discuss the following:

1) I can’t believe Archie Panjabi is leaving The Good Wife—or that I’m kind of OK with it. I love Panjabi—and with Josh Charles gone too, I definitely feel a little sad in that “all my friends are graduating” way. But I won’t pine for Kalinda the way I still miss Will Gardner. She's a true lone wolf, which is what makes her so compelling—but when a character is firmly blase about relationships and the rat race, there's only so far you can go with her. How many times can we watch Kalinda renegotiate her salary, trick jumpy eyewitnesses, and piss off her needy FBI-girl hookup? (The show even changed FBI-girl hookup’s hair color this season to fake variety.) Anyway, since Kalinda likely has $3 million in cash, 16 passports, and the keys to a Colombian mansion under her mattress, this will likely be the easiest exit ever written. But I am interested to see how Diane Lockhart digs up dirt without ruining her manicure from now on.

2) I think the How to Get Away With Murder ensemble needs some tinkering. Does anyone else feel like there are a few too many people at this party? At least one student needs to transfer out by season’s end—Laurel seems like a great candidate for a study-abroad program in Paris, where she and her Eileen Fisher Jr. wardrobe will no doubt start taking themselves even more seriously. Also, the associates really bother me. Bonnie just lurks in doorways, wearing cashmere shells and distributing sour looks. I think Frank’s supposed to be a street-smart Philly local, but tough guys from Philly do not—I repeat, do not—dress and talk like extras from Newsies.

3) How cute Ken Marino is on Marry Me? I watch the everyguy leads in comedies closely. Too often, the straight man feels like a Jim Halpert Xerox. I was worried, after the Marry Me pilot, that Marino’s character was headed down that path (even his name, Jake, screamed “I’m clean-cut, and I grimace tolerantly at weirdos”). But he’s gotten quietly kookier over the last few episodes, and really made me snicker with his spacy “These phones! Are we more connected, are we less connected?” line last week.

4) I’m so invested in Scandal’s Huck ‘n’ Javi drama. If these scenes were strung together as a movie, that movie would be so awards-season-y. A long-missing dad, forbidden to see his son, secretly reconnects with him through video games? This is Guillermo Diaz’s Matthew McConaughey moment.

5) OK, I feel like something’s missing on SNL this year. My love for SNL is unconditional, but this season is testing our bond. Though the cast is the same size as last year, it feels too big—and that’s because screen time isn’t being spread around as evenly. If you feel like you’ve seen less of ranking male elders Taran Killam and Bobby Moynihan, mere glimpses of the pure sparkle that is Kate McKinnon, and not nearly enough Aidy Bryant and Vanessa Bayer to get you by, it’s not your imagination. Usually, freshman featured players have to work their way up from waiter gigs (Tina Fey even did a bit about this when she hosted last year), but the show seems aggressively tipped in favor of the new kids this year. They’re doing a great job, but I’m distracted by wondering where everyone else is.

6) To my surprise, Black-ish is my favorite new comedy. The pilot dunked me in a sea of high-pitched Anthony Anderson “HA!”s, but the show hasn’t disappointed me since. OK, that’s a lie, I’m disappointed every time basketball is mentioned without a Hang Time Easter egg being incorporated. (I’ll wait while you click that link.) Other than that, though, the show is great—the writing is wacky and sharp, and the family stuff is never schmaltzy.

7) So far, watching Madam Secretary is like trying to date the good-on-paper guy for as long as you can stomach it. I genuinely like Madam Secretary. Well, I technically like Madam Secretary. It consistently does the right thing without me having to ask, like starting to delve into the supporting characters the second I wanted to know more about them. But when I’m away from it, I never think of it. And when I talk glowingly about it to my friends, they give me gentle, skeptical looks, like they really respect the effort. Still, I’m a woman of a certain age, and I’m not yet ready to toss aside a perfectly good, smart, female-driven series to have a fling with some trash like, I don’t know, Utopia on Fox.

8) Confession: I’ve been watching Utopia on Fox. Honestly, it’s best for both of us that the network just pulled the plug on the reality show about people trying to create a new society. It was getting embarrassing, being one of the four Americans who look forward to spending Friday night watching Utopia. I mean, this show starred people who defined their jobs as things like “huntress” and “Libertarian” and “polyamorous.” (That last one isn’t even grammatically correct.) And I was giving it undivided attention, like I would never browse Facebook while watching it. I’m not proud of who I’ve become.

Enough about me—what did I miss with you guys while I was gone? What are you into, over, and wishing you could tweak?

Photos: Courtesy of ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC