September 5th's Weekly TV Thoughts

Before we get to this week's regularly scheduled thoughts (and there are a lot of them), I did want to comment on the Dancing with the Stars contestants.  For the first time in a very long time, there weren't any names I was excited to see competing on the show.  Yes, there have been some seasons that the only thing pulling me in was one or two stars I actually knew.  But this year, I'll be watching anyway.  And I'm sure I'll start rooting for someone along the way.

And, wow!  For August, I sure have a lot to talk about.  Glad some of these ended this week since I've got fall shows starting in a week and a half.

Anna Pigeon (8/28) – An okay episode.  The effects for the storm were pretty cheap looking.  I didn’t see where the plot was going, but it was only so so.  I guess the whole racing to beat the storm thing is what really bored me.  It didn’t give me the hysterics I was expecting, although we still got some, but it just kind of bored me.

The Librarians: The Next Chapter (8/30) – That was interesting.  And disappointing.  I knew Cassie was coming, and I was looking forward to her interacting with everyone.  But really, we just had Charlie in this episode.  (I wonder why they had to write the other three out.)  I mean, I liked seeing her again, but it would have been cooler with everyone.  And I did like the lesson even if it was back to the heavy-handed stuff.  I just wish I thought we’d actually see that growth reflected next time.  The episode itself?  Definitely creepy.  We seem to have really leaned in to the creepy this season overall.

Dancing with the Stars: The Next Pro – I think I would have picked Selena over Adele, but Adele is deserving as well.  AJ, needs to chill some.  As you know, I wasn’t rooting for him.  It will be interesting to see how she does on Dancing with the Stars.  And, for that matter, who she is paired with.  (Which will be announced by the time this is posted, but I don’t know as of yet.)

American Ninja Warrior – This is my issue with racing.  All the people we saw tonight were young.  I miss it when anyone could have a shot, not just the young and fast.  Having said that, it was fun to watch the races and the upsets.  I doubt we would have had an upset if they weren’t racing.  Congrats on the returning women’s champ and the new men’s champ.

The Librarians: The Next Chapter (8/31) – I get why Lysa wasn’t with the others for most of this episode, but I still missed seeing them all together.  It took me a while to get on board with this episode, but by the end, I was enjoying it.  Definitely not as scary as we’ve been getting.  And it was nice to see a little bit more with Vicrym’s past.

The Challenge – Nelson, you need to make a case other than “I don’t want to constantly be going into elimination.”  And that seems to be your beef right now.  Believe me, I get it, but that’s not going to get any of the women to side with you.  At least any of the rookies.  Anna Leigh, they showed what you were going.  Own it.  Don’t try to play innocent.  Everyone knows it was inappropriate.  That was quite a hard challenge.  I hadn’t do swings like that, so I would have dropped early on.  I’m conflicted on the elimination.  It was nice to see Orange brought down a peg.  But I’m over Cara Maria.  On the other hand, I did like seeing her get a win and do something to help her team.

Stuart Fails to Save the Universe – That was…interesting.  I feel like we are just treading water at this point.  The fact that we are going to get a second season doesn’t instill me with confidence that this is leading to any kind of a climax.  Anyway, the other teams was kind of interesting at the end, but it needed a bit more time to develop.

Anna Pigeon (9/4) – Not really the best episode.  Too much time with Anna and her issues in the hole for me.  The whole thing with the dead body of the woman she’d met?  How did that even make sense?  Unless their encounter was supposed to be a day or two before?  Looks like this is leading into next week, so maybe my questions will be answered then.  But I feel like we’ve hit the same notes in every episode.