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Tuesday, 19 of March of 2024

Category » Administrative

Podcast 001, pt 1: “Introduction”

“I don’t even want to listen to us talk for that long.”

So we decided it was time to podcast.

The West Coast contingent of Monsters of Television (Matt and Nick) have decided to team up and let you hear us speak the things you sometimes deign to read. Is that something you asked for? No. But we felt you didn’t need to. We saw it in your eyes.

The plan is this: we put out a podcast about some shows premiering that evening so that we can reflect on last week and look forward to this week. Everything will be brief (well, brief-ish) and cut up nicely so you don’t have to stare down the barrel of yet another hour-long podcast. Here: we even made an introduction for you.


The Fall Line-Up For Monsters of Television

Summer TV is nearly over! Sad, but true. We hope you’ve enjoyed our coverage of some of the summer programming.

Fall is nearly upon us, with a number of shows premiering next week. We here at the blog have been figuring out what to cover, what not to cover, and how to dole out the responsibilities. There’s not going to be a whole lot of change from what we was covered around the tail end of the previous season when Matt joined us. Karen’s picking up at least one show, Nick is staying pretty much the same, and I’ve slotted in a show to replace Law & Order (bet you can’t guess which one) while picking up at least one  new show.

We don’t get screeners for new series, so we’ve decided that each of us will do capsule reviews for the new shows called Auditions. This will be an entry that contains a few small reviews of a few shows, with general impressions. There may be some overlap in what gets reviewed as none of us our claiming many new shows at the moment (or that we’d be able to do timely reviews of them with everything else) . In the end, you may get impressions from all of us on the same show, and we’ll sort through who wants to write about what that way. If you find someone’s particular take to be interesting, share it in the comments!

Something we discovered over the summer was that sometimes a show doesn’t necessarily warrant a write-up on an episode to episode basis. Some of this is largely based on the “disposable” nature of summer TV, and some of this was just other things getting in the way of our coverage (life, the universe, everything). We’ve decided that there’s some value to this approach, as it allows us to expand what we write about without totally committing to it. In that light, you can expect to see reviews on shows that may not follow a normal rotation.

One last thing before we show off what’s getting covered. Our writing team has essentially split in half, geographically speaking. Nick and Matt are in LA, while Karen and I are still in Atlanta. And while we’re not known for immediate post-airing reviews, shows that Nick and Matt cover will be on a bit of delay from our normal schedule, just because of the time zone issues.

All right! With all the housekeeping out of the way, here’s the fall line-up for us! Like last time, I’ve included the network and premiere dates. Read more »


There is a Problem with the Pears – This Week in Monster

These are pears.

We’ll discuss it later.

It’s been a busy week at Monsters of Television. This whole “summer-is-just-another-season/no-rest-for-the-weary” thing the networks are doing is wearing me out. But we can’t really complain about some of the great television we’re getting. Well, mostly great television. Hopefully Melissa & Joey doesn’t create a great abyss that sucks the life out of everything we hold dear. Forget the atomic collider in Switzerland: that show might obliterate the universe on its own, unraveling the fabric of time and space with ill-timed canned laughter and overacting that would make the cast of SNL blush.

Sorry. I digress.

We have some really great reviews for you to take a look at this week, from Mad Men to True Blood to Sherlock to, gods help us, that aforementioned pit of despair. If you missed any, it’s new to you!

Read more »


The Summer Line-Up for Monsters of Television

As the finales wrap up this week, it means a brief period of down time for most of us here at Monsters of Television. We’re thankful for the break as we’ve been going pretty strong since our first posts in January (with brief breaks during the Olympics and in then late March and early April). Indeed, since we went started, we’ve published nearly 180 pieces, most of them reviews, and we’d like to thank our readers and commenters for coming back each day (or each week) and reading our posts.

As you may have noticed, the blog has added not just one but two new writers within the past month or so. Matt joined us near the end of this fall/spring season covering Smallville (he swears his thoughts on the finale are forthcoming), Gossip Girl, and The Boondocks. Greeney just joined us this week with a brief Lost entry, but will be starting full time with three shows this summer. Nick and I are pleased as punch to have them both on board, and we hope you find them as insightful and funny as we do.

But don’t think that we  intend to kick back on the beach all summer (well, maybe Matt since he’s in L.A.). Instead, we’ll be reviewing a number of shows this summer, both new and returning series. After the jump, you’ll find a list of the shows we’re covering*, organized by writer, with the premiere date and network next to the show title. Read more »