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David Mumpower: Generally, my process these days is to give most pilots a chance. I own several TiVos so I record everything then give the various programs a chance as the season progresses. This is an imperfect system; to wit, I still have the two aired episodes of Lone Star on my TiVo but I never got around to watching them. Believe it or not, I will at some point because I was so impressed with the grace demonstrated by Kyle Killen when his show was unceremoniously canceled. I also still have eight episodes of Running Wilde on the DVR because I loved the pilot and want to watch the rest. As you can see, everything gets a fair chance (eventually) independent of word-of-mouth. I like to make my own decisions.

We at BOP have chronicled the dominance of cable television in the 2000s with 2012 appearing to be the tipping point when networks demonstrate desperation with many of their choices. Mindy Kaling gets her own sitcom? Really? One of our webmasters didn't last until the first commercial break in Revolution. And neither Ben and Kate's nor Animal Hospital's commercials can demonstrate a single funny joke to quote. These are alarming signs for the new batch of programs.

Personally, the programs I intend to give a shot no matter what are Elementary, 666 Park Avenue, The Mob Doctor, Vegas, Arrow and Last Resort. The Mob Doctor and Vegas are on the shortest leashes but I love the leads, Jordana Spiro and Dennis Quaid, enough to give them a chance. Elementary fills the void left by House by, you know, stealing that same concept of a modern Sherlock Holmes. I fully expect Arrow to be horrible since the next DC Comics property outside of Gotham City that doesn't suck will be the first. Green Arrow is one of my favorite characters, though. I'm holding out hope of a miracle here. Six weeks from now, I will probably sound much more morose about the subject. 666 Park Avenue has one of the best premises in recent memory. Whether it cultivates this idea as effectively as Revenge managed last season remains to be seen. And Last Resort hits the mark with me because I love naval/submarine films since that was the area of my father's military service. I will also be giving Revolution a chance (later tonight, in fact); I do not hold out much hope, though. I get the vibe that the science of this is going to remind me of The Core.

Kim Hollis: I think that this year's crop of shows are fairly weak. I'll give some of them a chance, though. Like David, I like to make my own judgment calls on these things. The ones I'm for sure interested in are 666 Park Avenue (Terry O'Quinn's presence makes it interesting to me), Arrow (I loooooooooove Oliver Queen but like David, I think this will likely suck), Elementary (Eli Stone!), Go On (already several episodes in, and I'm really enjoying it), The Mob Doctor (Jordana Spiro was a delight on My Boys but I bet this show is also awful), Nashville (on a *very* short leash) and Revolution (though word-of-mouth has me discouraged).

As for returning series, my favorites are Archer (which is the *actual* funniest show on television), Modern Family, Once Upon a Time, and Don't Trust the B. There's a surprising number of comedies in there. Grimm has gotten off to an outstanding start so far this season, too. I also anxiously await the returns of Cougar Town (now on TBS) and most especially Game of Thrones and Breaking Bad.

Daron Aldridge: Reagen is spot on by describing this fall season as one of the thinnest is recent memory. A whole lotta "meh" for me. The only two new shows that I can say with certainty that I want to watch (and therefore, want to really like) are Elementary and Go On. Elementary will have to clear the hurdle of the already existing modern day Sherlock starring Benedict Cumberbatch for BBC and the Guy Ritchie/Robert Downey Jr. films. This is one that the success or failure of the show for me will hinge almost entirely upon Jonny Lee Miller’s portrayal of Holmes. He and the writers need to show that they aren’t just doing a retread of the BBC’s or Downey’s take on the character. I am a sucker for these types of shows, so I am in…for now.

Go On is one that I didn’t watch following its heavy Olympic promotion but stumbled across the first two episodes On Demand when I was bored last week. I have since added it to my recordings because it did what a comedy is supposed to do – it made me laugh multiple times. Matthew Perry is a variation of his normal schtick, which is charming and inoffensive, and thankfully it hasn’t strayed into just being Chandler Bing-as-a-sports-talk-radio-personality. The therapy group’s motley crew gives his character enough to play off but not too much to become a caricature. It’s early and it is NBC, so I am skeptical.

I wanted to like Revolution at the time I saw the first ad for it but my interest has waned significantly. And again, it’s on NBC and I fear investing my time in a heavily serialized show on that network is like putting my hand on the hot stove again even though I know I will be burned. This is not a concern on quality because I have steered clear of reviews, so I don’t know how it is in execution but rather my willingness to commit to something that I need the network to commit to first. If the ratings prove stable to stellar, I may be setting a timer for it.

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