It’s kind of like the studio execs got together and talked it over and wanted me to have a really great birthday weekend so they decided to premiere one of my favorite series along with a new one I’m really looking forward to, then show a bunch of classic horror films I love on TCM and finally renew another of my new favorites for a second season.

Friday

8:00 PM The Carrie Diaries (CW)

9:00 PM Grimm (NBC)

10:00 PM Dracula (NBC)

Grimm (9:00 PM NBC Friday) I didn’t expect much from this series when it began; I watched simply because the story takes place in and around Portland and I miss the cold and rainy north and enjoy seeing familiar landmarks, “Hey, I went there with my brother and nephew last Christmas!”  That being said they had me from early in season one, when Monroe (Silas Weir Mitchell) was watching Nick’s (David Giuntoli) aunt when she was in the hospital and ended up changing into a wolf and ripping some dudes arms off, then he changed back and was like, “Oh I’m sorry, I got carried away there.”  Jump ahead three seasons and I can’t wait to get back to this well written and acted series.  When last season ended Nick was in a, shall we say, very dark place, I have a feeling his friends will rescue him pretty quickly; I am hoping (and expecting) this season will involve more of the international intrigue we have seen bits and pieces of during the past couple seasons.  This series does a great job of combining ancient fairy tales, modern horror, and international conspiracy; individually these subjects can make rather interesting stories, combined as they are in Grimm, well, it just makes for one he** (ck or ll, you decide) of a great time!

Dracula (10:00 PM NBC Friday) I like Dracula in pretty much every iteration, from the original film, to Dracula 2000, to Dracula: Dead And Loving It; so I fully expect to like this new series.  I took the opportunity to read the synopsis on imdb.com (read it here) and on the NBC website (read it here) and the story is similar to previous movies and the famous book that started it all; Dracula is an angry dude who likes to drink blood and manipulate people and has plans to do his best at doing his worst and then things get all screwed up because he falls for a woman he thinks is the reincarnation of his long dead wife.  The difference here is rather than simply telling the story over the couple of hours of a film, it will take at least six seasons and a movie; one can hope can’t he!  I suspect this will be a very well done series; I base my opinion on the simple fact that Jonathan Rhys Meyers is one of the best young actors working today, his turn as Henry in Showtime’s The Tudors was superb, and I believe strongly that he wouldn’t choose a dud.  Tune in this Friday to find out.

We hardly knew ye!  I am always curious to learn which new show will be cancelled first; not surprisingly Lucky 7 earned the dubious distinction this year, I was barely able to make it through the opening credits before I shut it off to never watch again.  I was also not surprised to see CBS’s We Are Men has been cancelled, I won’t say the exec who gave this program a green light should be fired, but I am pretty sure a mental health evaluation of some sort should be conducted; the program was unfunny at best.  Welcome To The Family has also been cancelled, I am sorry to see it go because I was enjoying it, but at least we will always have the double groin punch, yeah, at least we’ll always have that.  Finally, I am completely bewildered by the cancellation of Ironside, Blair Underwood was awesome in the role, the show seemed to have a great balance between action and drama, and did I mention Blair Underwood is freaking cool?  I won’t lie, this one stings more than a little bit.

Sleepy Hollow already got renewed for a second season! 

That’s all the premieres, picks and news for now.

– John Morton

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