The new series of the 2009-2010 season for television are continuing as the midseason lineup has arrived. There are only a handful worth checking, so far, two four good ones have premiered. FOX’s Human Target, which is getting an Idol boost (hm, wonder if FOX ever thought of giving Dollhouse that boost? Might have helped it a little) premiered with a special presentation before the return of FOX’s staple action series 24, and I happen to thought those two shows to be highly compatible, enough that I feel whenever Jack Baur does decide to finally retire, FOX has a series with the highly explosive action and fast moving plot to replace it. Starring Mark Valley, (had small recurring role in 1st season of Fringe, which I believe lead to him being the lead of his own series), as Christopher Chance, a dude that seems to have a deathwish, putting himself in extreme danger (first episode started him off as almost being blown up). Only two episodes have aired so far, but so far, so good. Human Target‘s regular timeslot is Wednesday nights 8/7c, which it has yet to air in that slot, as it premiered on a Sunday, and it’s previous ep was on at 9/8c after Idol versus a regular slot before it. I wonder why FOX shows sometimes fail, but Human Target does seem to have an Idol boost no matter, as the State of the Union address next week will push a new episode to air on next Tuesday instead. So just go to FOX’s Human Target Site to find out when the next episode actually airs.

The second series is the CW’s Life Unexpected, which airs regularly, so far without strange special timeslots or anything, Mondays at 9/8c, stars Roswell‘s Shiri Appleby, North Shore‘s Kristoffer Polaha, and Dawson’s Creek Kerr Smith. The series started with a teenager 15 yrs old (almost 16), named Lux (Brittany Robertson), applying for emancipation (she was going from foster home to foster home as she was never adopted) but needed signatures from her birth parents, played by Appleby and Polaha. Appleby’s character, Cate, is a 32 yr. old radio host, who was only Lux’s age when she got pregnant, and when the court didn’t grant Lux emancipation, Cate decided to be a parent and take Lux in. Only one episode has aired, and it’s actually quite good. Nothing supernatural, nothing violent, has some of the same charm that made Gilmore Girls good (but not as good, but still watchable). The ratings for the first episode even topped that of Gossip Girl, so it shows that the CW may need to think more along the lines of shows like this, whether than clog their airwaves with One Tree Hills and 90210s. What I find strong about it so far is the character interactions.

[Additions made 1/25/10 for 2 more series, Caprica and Spartacus: Blood and Sand]
Syfy premiered the prequel to Battlestar Galactica, Caprica, and I checked it out and plan to watch more. I did use to watch Battlestar Galactica, but it was before I had a DVR and at that time it was difficult to keep up with every interesting series. By the time I had a DVR, I was behind on the series. But I checked out Caprica hoping that since it’s a prequel, I could understand without Battlestar Galactica, which is so far true. Plus, the clip sequence of what’s to come featured a very special guest star, James Marsters (his appearance is in the March 5th episode).

Also, Starz premiered a new series (which they had already renewed a second season), called Spartacus: Blood and Sand. Unfortunately, I don’t have Starz, but was able to catch the new show thanks to the channel having an online stream of the pilot. I think what I find to be most intriguing is the cinematography. The graphic novel feel works for the show that’s full of blood and violence (and lots of sex to go with it). Starz is now officially competing against HBO and Showtime, with a solid drama that pushes boundaries. As mentioned, though, I won’t be able to catch the rest, since at my household, HBO is the chosen premium, and only when True Blood is on.

At the time of this writing, there’s only one more new series I can think of that may be worth watching, and that is NBC trying (again) to have a Parenthood series, based on the Ron Howard movie of the same name. The difference this time around? Ron Howard (director for the ’89 movie, and, according to IMdb, served as a producer for the short-lived ’90 series) and Brian Grazer (producer for the ’89 movie) will both serve as Executive Producers. And based on the tv spots, it looks pretty good. Did I mention Lauren Graham will be in it (Gilmore Girls), as well as Peter Krause (Six Feet Under, Sports Night), Craig T. Nelson (Coach), Dax Shepard (Punk’d, When in Rome), & Erika Christensen (Six Degrees, Flightplan).

Check out this real funny trailer for the new series set to premiere after the Olympics on NBC:

Press Release

NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES, Jan. 15 — In response to the devastating earthquake in Haiti, MTV Networks is presenting “Hope for Haiti,” a global telethon to air commercial-free across ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, CNN, BET, The CW, HBO, MTV, VH1, and CMT on Friday, January 22, 2010 at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT and 7:00 p.m. CT. “Hope for Haiti” will also be made available to MTV Networks International, CNN International and National Geographic channels worldwide.

Full article: the futon critic

Find out what you can do to help Haiti.

All new episodes scheduled for January 22nd (including the return of the CW’s Smallville and the series finale of FOX’s Dollhouse will air the following week on January 29th.

Sci-Fi Wire

Bravo! Don’t let NBC walk over you. NBC can barely get regular primetime shows right (I don’t watch Southland, but I do think it was rash and stupid to cancel it before the new season premiere, now TNT has got it, and well, we’ll see how ratings go before making any more comments). Back in 2004, NBC made the deals between Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien, where Leno exits and Conan takes over The Tonight Show which starts at 11:35PM (and has been for a long time, about 45 years, but always after the news (*fun fact, the local news used to be only 15 minutes, so the early days of the Tonight Show started at 11:15*)). Of course, there was already previous controversy surrounding the early 90s when it went from Johnny Carson to Leno (Letterman, who was Late Night host at the time, was gunning for the job and even Carson was pulling for him, but it went to Leno and that caused emotions to stir and Letterman left NBC to have his own show (Late Show) on CBS).

Deja Vu all over again, as when the transition from Leno to Conan started becoming more of a reality, NBC was afraid to lose Leno since ABC became interested (guess they just don’t like talk show hosts jumping networks and potentially competing against them). Now with the whole Jay Leno Show debacle, NBC wants to move a shorter, half-hour version to late night after the news and move Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon 30 minutes later (12:05 and 1:05 respectively). At the same time, FOX is showing interest in wanting Conan (though Conan has gone on record saying no offer has been made). So, will NBC wise up and keep Conan and ditch Leno to keep Conan from moving to FOX, or will they remain stupid and appease Leno and lose Conan.

Here’s what I think they should consider: Keep Conan at 11:35, ’cause The Tonight Show is an American Institution of late night goodness that always follows the news. If they positively have to keep Leno, how about this: ONE FUCKIN’ DAY IN THE WEEK. Is that so hard? Pick a night where The Jay Leno show did somewhat better, and make that the one night it’s on. Avoid filling the 10PM void with repeats (which could actually end up just hurting the local affiliates more anyway), and make all three parties happy (though, don’t know Jimmy Fallon’s view on everything, and no one seems to care about Last Call with Carson Daly (and yes, that show is still on)). I know I’m no TV exec. person, but it seems like a no-brainer.

But, like I said, I’m not a TV exec, nor a professional TV critic/blogger, I just watch the damn thing and I happen to prefer Conan over Leno. I find Conan to be much more enthused, and a hell of a lot funnier. Don’t get me wrong, there were moments when Leno hosted (such as my favorite ‘Headlines’ segment, which he brought over to the Jay Leno Show). At the same time, there was the ‘Battle of the Jaywalk All-Stars’ which no longer exists, because after moving to 10PM, it’s changed to some idiotic Battle of the *insert ridiculous reality shit-show here* Stars (such as the more recent ‘Jersey Shore’ dumbasses). He basically turned a funny segment into a bloated possible PR-bullshit parade.

What Conan brought from his stint at Late Night are still the same segments that WORK, and he added the new ‘Twitter Tracker’ segment (kind of weak, but the animations for it is what matters), but what’s great about Conan, his monologue. He jumps and hops onto the stage, jumps here and there, does his usual ‘puppeteer’ bit, and gets the show going with full energy.

In the end, I’m on Team Conan, and that’s that. If he leaves the Tonight Show because of NBC’s stupidty and finds a gig with FOX, then I’ll have one more show on FOX to look forward to, and one less NBC (even if Leno gets Tonight Show back, I just couldn’t bring myself to watch it, even though I’d miss Headlines). So wherever Conan goes, I’ll watch, but I thing he deserves to be a part of The Tonight Show, it is his time for it, and in these tough times with our economy and everything, we need someone to make us laugh our asses off.

Read Conan’s statement to NBC’s plan: Conan O’Brien Rejects NBC’s Offer

And here’s an article on ‘NBC’s Idea’ to keeping all Leno, Conan, and Fallon: NBC moving Jay Leno out of Primetime

BTW, Conan is hosting tonight’s show, and Zac Levi (Chuck) will be a guest, so YAY! Watch it!

*Update [1/13/10]: Jay Leno May Leave as well, because he too isn’t happy with how NBC themselves are handling everything.

Ahh, 10 days into the new year and the TV schedule is already filling up. First, the third season of Chuck returns on NBC on Sunday, January 10th, with a special 2-Hour event starting at 9/8c. Then, the series will return to its normal, regular timeslot of Mondays at 8/7c on January 11th. For those who’ve watched the show (or at least checked the last few eps last season), know that Chuck has been upgraded with the Intersect 2.0, which does more than just causes him to flash for intel when triggered (either by the face of a spy or even a top secret device), now, in a given situation where he needs to act fast, he’ll flash for a useful skill. As seen in the second season finale, he and Sarah and Casey were in a little tight situation, so he flashed on kung-fu skills, and boom, he knew kung-fu. Previews show him flashing on complete languages and even getting mad guitar skills. It’ll sure be a fun and interesting development for our favorite little spy that could. Check out the preview trailer for the upcoming 3rd season:

Also, Sunday night sees the 450th episode of The Simpsons plus a 20th Anniversary special, starting at 8/7c, on FOX.

FOX, has decided to bring House back from winter hiatus a little early (those pesky devils), going up against the new Chuck as well as How I ‘s milestone 100th episode. And what a special episode it’ll be. First, Barney has to choose between wearing a suit or dating a girl, which leads to an awesome musical number involving 75 people dressed in suits. Second, a clue to the mysterious ‘Mother,’ as in, who she might be. CBS.com is lovely and nice enough to have a 2-min clip of a behind the scenes look: