Following Up: Fall 2014 TV Premiere Time

This post contains spoilers through the mid-season finales of Arrow, Constantine, The Flash, Gotham, Gracepoint, Grimm, Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Sleepy Hollow, and the Walking Dead. Tread with caution!

At the beginning of this TV season, we shared our thoughts about upcoming shows and renewals that we were excited about. Now that we’ve gotten past the mid-season hiatus and these shows are starting to come back from their breaks, we’re following up! Are we still watching? Are we still enjoying? Let’s take a look.

Arrow

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We’re definitely still watching this show! (Though, Sarah admits that she watches mostly for Felicity, Diggle, and Roy than anything else.) The mid-season finale left us on a major cliffhanger, making us wonder if they’d just changed the entire format of the show. We watched Oliver get skewered and shoved off an enormous cliff and wondered, “Where exactly are they going with this?” We’re excited to see how they get themselves out of this one–if they even do! Honestly, we can’t tell with this show what they might pull on us.

Constantine

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Sarah only managed to watch the pilot of Constantine and while it was entertaining, it didn’t quite manage to hold her interest enough to come back for more. She’s going to try to give it a second go when she gets a free moment or two, but with the ratings and review what they’ve been, we wouldn’t be surprised if this show isn’t renewed for a season two. (Teija never even bothered with this one–it just didn’t appeal to her.)

The Flash

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As far as we here at Avenging Force are concerned, this is the best (new) show on television, hands down. Barry is so earnest and wonderful, almost all the characters are enjoyable if not downright loveable, and the storylines are all compelling–even the baddies of the week! The show has taken the heart of what Arrow was, stripped it of its utter darkness and overwhelming manpain, and given us a true gift in amazing dialogue and compelling characters. The writers on this show are doing an incredible job so far. We can’t wait to see what the second half of the season has in store.

Gotham

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This show had such a rocky start that it lost us. The heavy-handed introduction of people clearly destined for villainy in particular just took us right out of the narrative on this show, and worse, the narrative they established at the start was not very compelling. Teija lasted about 3 episodes before quitting and Sarah only made it one episode beyond that. This show just did not grab and hold our interest for very long at all.

Gracepoint

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We both watched this show and speculated about who the killer was throughout the season. Unfortunately, Sarah also knew what the ending to the original series (Broadchurch) was, and when it turned out that Gracepoint had barely rewritten the ending (it been speculated that it would have a completely new twist to it), it wound up being a bit of a letdown. However, the show itself was pretty solid, and we both enjoyed watching it as a nice change from the fast-paced superhero shows we’d filled our schedules with.

Grimm

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Season 4 started off on a low note for our main character, as the season 3 finale had shown Adalind robbing Nick of his powers and it never quite slowed down.With Nick down and out of the Grimm business for the time being we saw other characters step up and take on more of an active role. And it all led up to the winter finale where we last saw Monroe on trial and possibly headed towards his execution for crimes against the Wesen. Sarah’s definitely still keeping up with this show and can’t want to see what happens. As far as Teija’s concerned, she needs to catch up–she’s seen most of season 1, but hasn’t quite gotten any further, despite her desire to see more.

Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

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This show! Agh! The addition of Bobbi this season added some much needed spice to the dynamic of the team. And while we’re both still basically devastated by the loss of Triplett in the mid-season finale, we understand that the actor’s schedule made his departure necessary. The reveal of Skye’s true nature and the unveiling of the beginning of her journey to becoming Quake was really well done. We can’t wait to see how her abilities manifest in the coming episodes, and what the change in Skye and the loss of Tripp will mean for the team. Fingers crossed they just keep Mack alive.

Sleepy Hollow

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This show has sadly started circling the toilet bowl, as far as we’re concerned. What we loved in season one is completely lacking in this season. The story has veered too far from the Abbie and Ichabod team dynamic that made season one so great, and the focus on Katrina (arguably this show’s weakest point) is a particularly sore point, considering how poorly she’s been written from the beginning. We’re getting the idea that the showrunners either don’t know what they’re doing, or they don’t know how to tell the story they want to tell, because right now this show is meandering aimlessly around trying to find a reason to stay on the air. If they don’t find it soon, they’re likely to get cancelled, but as far as we’re concerned they’re already toast. We’ve removed it from our schedules.

The Walking Dead

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This is another show that lost its charm this season. Sarah wasn’t watching at all, and Teija had kept up for a long time, but finally just stopped. There’s not even a really good reason why. It just kind of fell out of the watch cycle, and there isn’t a real drive to add it back in–which speaks to an issue of interest, at the very least. By the end she was only watching for Carol anyway, so the overall story had lost her long ago.

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