Things are looking pretty bleak. The optimism about a new semester has been destroyed by the painful reality of homework and assigned reading. Unsuccessful job fairs and an unimproving economy have broken the spirits of otherwise hardy and well adjusted fourth-years. It is really, really cold outside. Students need something to look forward to. Luckily, most television shows are returning from hiatus just in time. Lost and Battlestar Galactica are already back and screwing with minds, but there is another crop of shows ready and waiting to eat up more of the time you should be using to prepare for your future.
Some of the most highly anticipated midseason premieres come from the most celebrated minds in the TV industry. The creator of NBC’s The Office, Greg Daniels, and one of the show’s writers, Michael Schur, have developed another half-hour mockumentary sitcom for the network, but it’s not a spin-off of the successful Steve Carell series. Parks and Recreation was created as a vehicle for comedy goddess Amy Poehler (Saturday Night Live) and also stars Rashida Jones (The Office) and Aziz Ansari (Scrubs). The comedy about the cutthroat world of small town politics will debut April 9.
ABC will premiere a series March 24 much less realistic but possibly more familiar, depending on how much TV your parents let you watch 10 years ago. In 1998, Cupid, starring Jeremy Piven (Entourage) and Paula Marshall (Gary Unmarried), ran for 15 episodes before it was cancelled. Now the show’s creator, Rob Thomas, the mastermind behind the dearly departed Veronica Mars, has been given a do-over. The series, this time starring Bobby Cannavale (Will & Grace) and Sarah Paulson (Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip), follows a man (Cannavale) who may or may not be the Roman god Cupid as he tries to unite 100 couples with the help of a psychiatrist (Paulson).
While Cupid lightly touches on the sci-fi/fantasy genre, Joss Whedon’s new show, Dollhouse, is firmly planted within it. The evil genius responsible for Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the web musical Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog has finally returned to TV after an absence of five years. Now the notorious writer is back with a new series on FOX, the same dastardly network that cancelled Firefly in 2003 and brought about the long, dark, Whedon-less period. The series follows Echo (Eliza Dushku), a woman whose mind is regularly erased and refilled with a completely different persona to complete a variety of missions for clients. She lives with other “dolls” in a “dollhouse” (get it?) without any memory of these missions, though she is slowly becoming self-aware. Dollhouse has already dealt with rewrites, reshoots and speculation that the show may be on its way out before it has even aired. The series premieres Feb. 13.
While Parks and Recreation, Cupid and Dollhouse may be receiving the most press coverage, they are not the only intriguing shows the networks are preparing to premiere. The NBC series, Kings, a modern day retelling of the biblical story of King David, starring Ian McShane (Deadwood) and Christopher Egan (Vanished), debuts March 19. The station will then become even more distracting when University alum Benjamin McKenzie (The O.C.) returns to TV April 9 as a rookie L.A. cop in the drama Southland.
It is true that most of these shows will not air for at least another month, but it’s good to have time to prepare. Go ahead and quit any and all extracurricular activities that may interfere with the premiere dates now. Cultural currency is just as important as résumé padding.
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