From “American Horror Story” to “X-Factor,” a TV tip sheet
By RYAN STEWART | September 14, 2011
Last year at this time, I was optimistic. So much for that: fall 2010 yielded a whole lot of mediocrity. This year's fall schedule looks similarly underwhelming — though spring looks more intriguing. We'll deal with shows like David Milch's Luck and J.J. Abrams's Alcatraz in January. In the meantime, here are highlights of this year's autumn contenders.
NEW GIRL | Fox | September 20 @ 9 pm | Fox is looking to test the limits of the natural charm of the polarizing actress/singer Zooey Deschanel, who's playing a quirky young woman living with three bro-ish gentlemen. People seem to find Deschanel either unfailingly adorable or too cutesy for her own good, and it's doubtful that this show will change anybody's mind. That could lead to problematic ratings on the notoriously trigger-happy Fox, but it'll probably do well enough in its time slot between Glee and Raising Hope.
Related:
Review: The Strip, Fun with Matt & Ben at Central Square, Review: A Little Help, More 
- Review: The Strip
In lieu of Steve Carell’s hopelessly inept and earnest manager, we have his creepier duplicate, Glenn. Instead of the boorish brown-noser played by Rainn Wilson, there’s the more obnoxious Rick.
- Fun with Matt & Ben at Central Square
A couple of young women, Brenda Withers and Mindy Kaling (the latter born in Cambridge before graduating to the role of Kelly Kapoor in The Office ), decided to have some fun with the idea that two seemingly unformed guys — one kind of loutish — could strike show-biz paydirt so quickly.
- Review: A Little Help
Playing one of the few "normal" people on The Office , Jenna Fischer evinces a quiet sweetness with a tart edge that sustains her amongst the misfits; she's long-suffering, but her rueful irony spares her from victimization.
- Groundlings, rejoice: The 11 most anticipated theater shows of the fall
Fall came early to Boston boards this year, bringing with it "Summertime."
- Shooting, looting, and doing the Humpty Dance: 10 games you’ll be addicted to this fall
Although top-shelf games are a year-round occurrence, publishers still wait until the fall to bring out their big guns — literally, in most cases.
- Bodies Moving: Boston’s 10 best fall dance events
Kayaking the Arctic, celebrating life across atolls, and finding the ways the artist's hand and dancer's body intersect, this season of dance offers audiences a varied journey.
- The top 10 jazz events in town this fall
As usual, there's too much to choose from. Here are some highlights.
- 10 authors — and a couple of artists — make the rounds this fall
Joan Didion, Umberto Eco, Colin Meloy, Touré, the Boston Book Festival — just trucking out to all these "shows" could keep a person from ever actually getting around to reading a book.
- Review: Strongman
Stanley “Stanless Steel” Pleskun is a lumbering, mumbling tree of a man.
- Rihanna | Rated R
Look, it’s not as if there were a song where she says, “Chris Brown, you chicken-shit motherfucker, your ass is gonna pay.”
- Airman punk
Perhaps the clearest sign that Afghanistan is not your father's war comes in the person of Airman First Class Peter Bourgeois, who, while deployed at Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan, has been busy managing the career of his former band, Jodi Explodi.
- Less
Topics:
Television
, The Office, person of interest, new girl, More
, The Office, person of interest, new girl, pan am, terra nova, fall11, X-Factor, Homeland, American Horror Story, Hell on Wheels, Less
