7 TV Show Substitutions to Tide You Over Until Fall

If you're like me, you're eagerly waiting for the return of your favorite fall shows. Sure, there are some great summer shows (such as Breaking Bad and shockingly Teen Wolf), but fall programing offers a much wider selection. While you're waiting, here are substitutions for some popular fall shows.

1) If you like Once Upon a Time, you should try The 10th Kingdom.



If you're still watching Once Upon a Time, you're clearly fine with cheesiness. You may find this hard to believe, but Once Upon a Time isn't the cheesiest of them all. The 10th Kingdom, a mini-series from 2000, is quite possibly the cheesiest show I've ever seen, and I devoured all 400 or so minutes of it in one weekend. Like Once Upon a Time, it mixes the fairy tale world with our world; a girl and her father from our world are sucked into a magical world with an obligatory evil queen. There's also plenty of familiar faces, including Ed O'Neill as a troll and Gilmore Girl's Scott Cohen as a werewolf.

2) If you like Hart of Dixie, you should try Everwood.




Admittedly I've only seen about one and a quarter episodes of Hart of Dixie, but Everwood's premise is so similar that I feel it would make a good substitution. Both shows feature a city doctor's move to a small town. Granted, widowered father of two Andy Brown of Everwood is somewhat different from the shorts-wearing young woman Zoe Hart of Hart of Dixie; so if you're just watching Hart of Dixie for the hot southern guys, you may not fill that void with Everwood. If you, on the other hand, love the small town medicine in Hart of Dixie, Everwood might be right up your alley.

3) If you like The Vampire Diaries, you should try Buffy the Vampire Slayer.



I have such a weak spot for supernatural teen dramas. The Vampire Diaries started out as Twilight-esque mess worth of little more than eye rolls, but by the middle of the first season, it had developed into a fun, twisty ride worthy of only a few eye rolls here and there (although season three drew quite a few more of them). If you're a Vampire Diaries fan and have never experienced Buffy the Vampire Slayer, get thee to Netflix and get your marathon on. The shows share more than a few elements in common, and there's seven whole seasons of Buffy to tide you over until The Vampire Diaries returns. You might be thrown off by the extreme 90s cheesiness of Buffy at first, but once you get to season two, you may even find yourself looking forward to the next Buffy episode more than the next Vampire Diaries one.

4) If you like How I Met Your Mother, you should try Happy Endings.



Unlike the other substitutions on this list, Happy Endings is actually still on the air. It's such a great show that I couldn't help but include it. It doesn't have the same framework as How I Met Your Mother, but they both fall into the group of Friends-esque comedies. While I was ready to swear off Happy Endings after its lackluster pilot, it quickly found its footing. Season one had some great episodes, but season two was full of them. There's nothing wrong with just re-watching How I Met Your Mother reruns of FX (particularly if they're from the golden years of HIMYM), but if you're looking for some new material, Happy Endings shouldn't disappoint you.

5) If you like Castle, you should try Firefly.



On the surface, a police procedural and a sci-fi western may not seem to have that much in common. Okay, they may not have that much in common internally either. What they do have in common, however, is Nathan Fillion. It's hard to imagine Castle achieving the level of success it has had without Fillion's charm, and those of you suffering from Nathan Fillion withdraw can get that fix from Firefly. Don't be turned off by the show's genre; a sci-fi western didn't sound very appealing to me, but I thoroughly enjoyed the show's short run. Plus, after watching Firefly, you'll be able to understand the references to it on Castle.

6) If you like The Office, you should try Summer Heights High



If you've never seen Summer Heights High, you're in for a treat. Like The Office, it's a mockumentary featuring kooky cast of characters. Unlike The Office, the three main characters are all played by the same actor.  Chris Lilley plays all three excellently, but I'm partial to snobby, private school girl Ja'mie. While Summer Heights High features a similar off-color humor as The Office does, I should give a warning that the language used on it is somewhat stronger than the language on The Office. I doubt that many people are actually looking forward to The Office's next season (sorry, I had to throw a jab in), but if you are or are looking for a show that's reminiscent of The Office in its glory days, you should check out Summer Heights High.

Alternative: I hated to give another currently airing show as my main suggestion, but fans of The Office should also consider watching Parks and Recreation if they've yet to do so. It's similar to The Office but with more heart. It starts out a bit weak but really finds its footing starting in season two. It's hilarious, and the characters are fantastic.
 
7) If you like Revenge, you should try Veronica Mars.



I confess: I raked my brain for any current show resembling Veronica Mars because it felt wrong to write a list of TV show recommendations and not include it. Revenge and Veronica Mars aren't exact matches, but they have plenty of similar elements. Although Veronica is more of white hat and and Emily's more of a black hat, both enter their series with revenge for a loved one on their mind. Both are strong female leads, both go on undercover missions, and both pilots start in medias res (okay, the similarities are getting little thin). I'd recommend Veronica Mars to just about anyone, but I feel like Revenge fans will particularly enjoy it.


What fall shows are you eagerly awaiting the return of? Do you have any suggestions of TV show substitutions? Leave a comment, and let me know.

28 Netflix streaming, free Hulu, and TheWB.com television recommendations: Part 1

Services like Netflix streaming make it easy to watch a show marathon-style, but sometimes it can be hard to find a good one. So I'm going to help you Netflix streaming subscribers find a tv show that you'll enjoy. I've also included a few suggestions from Hulu (free, not Hulu plus) and TheWB.com (also free). The WB site changes it's selection of available episodes pretty frequently, so if you're seeing this list much later than the date I posted it, their selections may have changed by now.

I've watched at least some portion of all of the shows posted in this list. Some of them are cheesy and light; others are high-quality television. All of them, however, are enjoyable in my opinion and come with my recommendation.

Before I get to the actual list, I'd like to quickly explain a couple of things about it.

First of all, Netflix Streaming recommendations have red text next to them, Hulu recommendations have green, and theWB recommendations have blue. Secondly I've put parentheses next to each suggestion with the available seasons and the total number of seasons. For example, if it says (2/5), that means that season 2 is available and that there are five total seasons. That does not mean that the first two seasons are available. Lastly, the second set of parentheses is either (sc) for series complete or (ca) for currently airing.

Now, without further ado, here's my list:

Realistic Fantasy
These were a little hard to categorize, but they all deal with a world similar to our own but where something out of the ordinary exists.

1. Lost (1-6/6) (sc) Lost is a show about a group of plane crash survivors who arrive on a mysterious island. It's a show that a lot of people hate and a lot of people love. I fall into the second camp. The characters are interesting, the mysteries are intriguing, and the plot twists are exciting. I'll admit the last season was slightly lackluster and the mysteries aren't all solved, but overall, it's a great show that's well-worth watching.
2. Dollhouse (1-2/2) (sc) Dollhouse is a Joss Whedon show about a company that programs humans with different personalities, loans them out, and then erases those memories. One of these humans ("dolls"), Echo, starts to retain memory of the various personalities she's been given. Dollhouse poses some really interesting questions about identity and is fascinating to watch. I don't think it ever lived up to its full potential (I wish it had been quicker to move beyond the "case of the week" format into the overarching story), but it's still a really good show with moments of greatness. 
3. Heroes season one (1-4/4) (sc) Heroes is a show about ordinary people who deal with having superpowers, or at least, the first season was. It got somewhat convoluted as the story went along, and although I watched the first three seasons, I can only wholeheartedly recommend the first. There's something really fun about watching ordinary people deal with extraordinary circumstances, and the first season of Heroes deals with this masterfully. There's a lot of characters, but it manages them well. The main villain, Syler, is scary and mysterious (sadly, he loses both of these qualities in later seasons), and the "heroes" are fun to root for. 

Teen Dramas
I'm an absolute sucker for teen dramas. If you are too (and honestly for the first two, even if you're not), watch my following recommendations.

1. Friday Night Lights (1-5/5) (sc) Friday Night Lights is about Dillon, a small town in Texas where high school football and family play a central role in many of the residents' lives. After my last sentence this is going to sound kind of funny, but you really don't have to be a huge sports fan to enjoy this show. While I can enjoy watching a football game from time to time, I'm not a supremely sporty person, but I adored Friday Night Lights. It's really easy to get invested in Friday Night Lights' characters, and, as a viewer, you begin to feel like a resident of Dillon. Outside of season two (which contained some ridiculous plots), there's really a realistic feel to show. It's definitely one of the highest quality teen dramas I've seen.
2. Veronica Mars (1-2/3) (sc) Veronica Mars is about a outcast teenage girl (Veronica) who investigates mysteries, including the death of her best friend. It may sound like a cheesy Nancy Drew knock-off, but it's absolutely fantastic. In fact, it was the first show I can remember marathoning, and it very well may be my favorite show on this list. Veronica is a witty, likable heroine but has enough flaws that she's far from being a Mary Sue. Each episode typically contains a self-contained mystery, but there's also overarching mysteries each season. Do yourself a favor, and watch this show. I doubt you'll regret it.
3. The O.C. (3/4) (sc) To be completely honest, The OC is a little out of place on a list with a Veronica Mars and Friday Night Lights. It's my guilty pleasure pick for this list. If you like teen dramas, definitely give it try, but if you don't, you should probably skip it. The show begins with Ryan, a kid who's taken in by the Cohen family (including dorky Seth) when he ends up without a place to live. It's got plenty of silly drama, but it's also really sweet at times. Adam Brody is pretty hilarious as Seth, and Benjamin McKenzie is so likable as Ryan that it's hard not to root for him. TheWB cycles through the seasons, so you may want to wait until the first (and best) season of the OC is available.

Supernatural
Coincidentally (although if you refer to my description for teen dramas, not all that coincidentally), three of the following shows can also, for at least some of their seasons, be classified as teen dramas. If you aren't a fan of the follow shows, you might side-eye me for these choices. You might, however, be surprised at how entertaining they are if you give them a shot.

1. Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1-7/7) (sc) This marks my second Joss Whedon show on this list. Buffy is hard to sum up into a short synopsis because it sounds like kind of a dumb idea for show. A young girl, chosen as the slayer, fights vampires and other monsters with the help of her librarian and friends. She also falls in love with a vampire. You probably just did some of that side-eyeing that I mentioned above. Maybe you drew some kind of Twilight comparison, but Buffy really is a show that's better than it sounds. It's surprisingly relatable for a show about monsters. In fact, a lot of the monsters, particularly those in the earlier seasons, are metaphors for real-life issues. The first season is super-campy (and while still enjoyable, probably my least favorite), but the show turns it down and gets infinitely better after that. It's typically divided into two segments: the first three seasons are the lighter, campier high school years, and the last four a somewhat more serious and span college and beyond. One thing that always impressed me about Buffy is its characterizations. Most of the main characters are well developed, and for better or for worse, they do evolve throughout the seasons. While it may not be the show for you if you aren't into the whole vampire thing, do trust me that it's infinitely better than Twilight.
2. Angel (1-5/5) (sc) If you weren't aware, Angel is actually a spin-off from Buffy (and thus is my third Joss Whedon pick). It centers around the aforementioned vampire that she falls in love with and his attempts to "help to helpless." It's a bit darker in tone than Buffy (although not overly so) and has some pretty tragic moments. It's also surprisingly good for a spin-off. I don't think it's quite as consistently good as Buffy, but when it's good, it's very good. Some people recommend watching it alongside Buffy (season one matches up with Buffy season four) because there are some crossover episodes. Outside of watching maybe one crossover while I was watching Buffy, I just watched it afterwards to save myself confusion.
3. Roswell (1-3/3) (sc) Roswell opens with these lines: "September 23rd. Journal entry one. I'm Liz Parker, and five days ago, I died. After that, things got really weird..." The show is about a teenage girl who discovers three teenage aliens in the town of Roswell. This is kind of my O.C. pick of the supernatural category; it's the cheesiest out of the shows listed here. In fact, and don't let this turn you off, it's probably more like Twilight than Buffy is. That is if Edward were an alien, Twilight weren't terrible, and Twilight actually had any plot that didn't revolve completely around true love. I mean, Roswell had a scene where Liz and Max, Roswell's brooding leading man, are lab partners sharing a microscope (of course, Roswell came first). If you like late 90s/early 2000s teenage supernatural cheesiness, this is the show for you.
4. The Vampire Diaries (1-2/3) (ca) The first few episodes of the Vampire Diaries are not very good. In fact, they were what I expected this show to be when I first saw the promos for it. I mean two of the main characters actually write in diaries with corresponding voice overs. Another transforms into a crow and fog. Ick, right? But then, around the fourth or fifth episode or so, something happens. The show actually starts to get good. Then, about half-way through the first season, it starts to get really good. The Vampire Diaries centers around Elena Gilbert who encounters newcomers to town (and also vampires) Stephan and Damon Salvator. Look, even at it's best, this is a CW teen-oriented show about vampires. It's not perfect. The acting and dialogue can be cheesy at times, there are some plot holes, and I'm not always pleased with every direction the show takes. That being said, it has about a million twists and turns, and it's extremely fun. Often, after the first commercial break, I'll feel like enough has happened to fill a whole episode. Similarly, the show progresses so quickly that episodes that could be season finales occur multiple times throughout a season. Plus, I have almost as much fun reading Price Peterson's semi-mocking but semi-admiring photo-recaps as I do actually watching the episodes. 

Dramas
I know, I know. It's kind of odd to classify Mad Men and Grey's Anatomy under the same category, but both do contain a lot of drama.

1. Mad Men (1-4/4) (ca) Oh Mad Men. Since it was added to Netflix this summer, it seems that everyone and their mother has starting watching it, myself and my mom included. It's about an ad agency in the 1960s. The series' main character is Don Draper, a somewhat terrible guy who cheats on his wife. Then again, you can't completely root against him because he's got issues and is played by Jon Hamm. There's a reason why Mad Men has won so many Emmys; it's a really good show on several levels. First of all, it's visually stunning. Watching it, I get taken away to a world of beautiful dresses and glamorous locations. However, there's also not-so-glamorous aspects of the 60s that are touched on. Almost all of the characters are extremely flawed. Granted, I don't know a whole lot about the 60s, but I do known that there was plenty of racism and sexism. Mad Men doesn't romanticize that past so much that it forgets its flaws. It's an adult show in that it does touch on some heavy issues and dark sides of human nature, but it also shows that things like cheating rarely lead to happiness. It's also pretty thematically deep. I love reading Alan Sepinwall's recaps of the episodes because he manages to catch a lot of things that slide by me.
2. Grey's Anatomy (1-7/8) (ca) I sat here for a minute thinking about what to say about Grey's Anatomy because I know it often gets made fun of. Well, the simple truth is, I enjoy watching it. Like many shows, the first few seasons are the best. And yes, there were some times where it struggled a bit (the interns' medical fight club, Izzie's romance with a ghost, the musical episode). However, I think it's improved a lot lately from that, and I've really enjoyed the current, eighth season. Anyway, it's about the doctors at Seattle Grace Hospital. One of those doctors, Meredith Grey typically opens each episode with a monologue (likely you've seen at least one of these quotes pop up on your Facebook news feed). Basically, everyone in the hospital gets together with someone else in the hospital (or many someone elses), and they take medical cases. It's sad at times, funny at times, gross at times, great at times, terrible at times and dramatic at all times. Grey's Anatomy even produced one of the most stressful and terrifying episodes of television I've ever seen when a shooter comes into the hospital in the two-part sixth season finale.

Short-lived
These shows are great if you're not wanting to dedicate yourself to a multitude of seasons. Each only ran for one season and contains 14 episodes or less.

1. Harper's Island (1/1) (sc) If you judged me for Grey's Anatomy, you're really going to judge me for this one. The acting is worse, and the dialogue is cheesier. But I managed to zip through Harper's Island in a couple of days. It's not a high quality show, but it's a super-high fun show. It's also a super-high body count show. The show begins with a wedding party boarding a boat to travel to Harper's Island for the wedding. Once they get to the island, however, they realize (but only after a multitude of people go missing) that there's a killer in their midst. It's part whodunnit and part gory slasher. Plus, there's some attractive people in it. What more could you ask for? The show was only intended to last one season, so all is revealed by the end. 
2. Firefly (1/1 plus a movie) (sc) This is the fourth Joss-Whedon-created tv show I've put on here, but I promise it's the last (of course, he's only created four shows so far). You've probably heard of it or heard/seen it referenced if you've read a list of tv shows cancelled before their time, watch Castle, watch Community, watch The Big Bang Theory, or have simply spent much time on the internet. If you're unfamiliar with Firefly, it's classified as a sci-fi western. It follows a ragtag crew aboard a spaceship in the future (lead by Nathan Fillian's Mal Reynolds) who makes money through unscrupulous jobs. They run into River and Simon, a brother and sister who are on the run from a group called The Alliance. Honestly, it didn't sound like that great of a show to me, and the first two or three times I tried to watch the pilot, I gave up on it. However, its legion of fans and the fact that Joss Whedon created it convinced me to watch past the pilot, and I actually really enjoyed the show. There's a reason that it has such a cult following.

On that note, I'm going to end part one of my recommendations. Next time, I'll share my other 14 picks for the following categories: quirky, foreign, comedy, and reality.

Have you watched any of the shows I've listed above? Do you plan to watch any of them? Do you completely disagree with some of my picks? What are some of your favorite shows available online? Let me know in the comments.

You would not believe your eyes, if ten million fireflies...

If the Owl City lyrics in the title didn't scare you away, keep reading because this post actually has nothing to do with "Fireflies." Instead, it deals with the Joss Whedon show, Firefly. If you've stumbled upon my blog, you probably a fan of television and have likely at least heard of Firefly. I know that before I started watching Firefly, I'd heard it mentioned probably a couple million times. Hyperbole aside, it is mentioned in the majority of "best cult shows" and "cancelled before its time" lists.

Over the last two days, I've watched the first eight episodes of Firefly, and well, it's really good and kind of addicting. As much loved as Firefly is, as much television I watch, and as much as I've enjoyed Whedon's other shows, it may seem kind of surprising that it's taken me this long to get into it. After voraciously watching all seven seasons of the fantastic Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the entirety of the excellent Angel, and the two seasons of the sometimes-amazing-sometimes-not-so-amazing Dollhouse, I was looking for a new show to watch. Because I'd enjoyed the rest of the shows that Whedon had created and it had received so many raving reviews, I decided I'd start watching Firefly.

So, I went to Hulu, and clicked on the first episode of Firefly waiting to wowed. And I hated it. I really wanted to like it, but after about ten minutes, I had to click away from boredom. A little while later, I decided to give it another chance. After all, ten minutes really wasn't that long. This time I lasted fifteen minutes (unfair, I know, but I was really bored). I gave it one more chance, lasting about twenty minutes, and I decided to give up on the show. Flashforward to this weekend. I was bored, and being the loser that I am, had nothing to do. After reading another list of best television shows that included Firefly, I was inspired to give it a final chance. I got to about the twenty minute mark, finding the beginning more interesting than before but still not great. Then, it started to get kind of interesting. As the episode went on, I became more and more interested. I started to find out about the characters, almost all of whom were intriguing. When Simon and River came into the show, is probably when I really started to wonder what was going to happen.

I was still not completely sold on the show, but by the end of it, I had enjoyed the first episode. So, I watched the next one. I started to get a little more invested. Then I watched the next one, and I was even more invested. By around episode four or five, I understood why everyone raves about Firefly--it's an excellent show.

One of my favorite aspects of the show is the characters. I love seeing actors from Whedon's other shows reappear in Firefly. I have an immense like for the charming Nathan Fillion (which reminds me I totally forgot to mention my love for Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog earlier). But even not considering the actors that play them, all of the characters are really interesting. There's not really one of the main characters that I could say I don't enjoy watching. Which, honestly, I shouldn't be surprised about because creating interesting characters is a big strength of Whedon's.

I also really like that focus of the show often is the characters. While the plot of the show is interesting, its character interaction and development moments are often its greatest. I was somewhat wary about watching a "space western" as Firefly has been described because I'm not a huge fan of space shows or westerns. But somehow, I really am loving Firefly. While it is both of those things, it's also a show about humans interacting, and I really love that.

Okay, so that previous paragraph was kind of rambly, and that's probably a sign I should end this post soon before my caffeine boost kicks in even more. So, I think I will do that. I might post again when I've watched more of Firefly, and share my thoughts on the rest of the short-lived show. And considering how much I feel like procrastinating from my school work, that might be posted pretty soon.