Top 8 TV Characters to Spend Your Time With

Now that fall TV season has quieted down after the first few weeks of craziness, and we’ve all overloaded our DVRs, and stuffed our HuluPlus queues, it’s time to take a moment and reflect. Mainly, it’s time to step away from the hype and evaluate what we’re going to spend our time on this TV season. As someone who just spent two days emptying her DVR of mostly crap, this is a valuable conversation to have.

We have busy lives, and we’re busy people, so  it’s important that we only spend time with quality people.

Even if those people are fictional.

So here’s your Top 8 Characters to Spend Time With This TV Season:

o-ALMOST-HUMAN-5708. “Almost Human” comes in at 8 only because it doesn’t premiere until 4 November. Of all the new series this fall, I think this is the one I am the most excited about. The cast is great, and while the plot is something we’ve seen A LOT of (“Alien Nation”, “I, Robot”…) I trust that this will be entertaining and new. Plus, hello, Karl Urban in a regular TV series, what’s bad about that?

image7. I’m not a fan of sitcoms. They tend to be stupid, and play to the lowest common denominator, and be boring. “The Big Bang Theory” certainly has its share of this (please, oh please, write the women off the show) but even if this season is shaping up to be as formulaic as every other, there is one reason to watch “The Big Bang Theory” and that is for Sheldon and his geekdom. No self respecting geek can not watch this show, if only to prove how smart we all are for getting all of the five second references.

supernatural_season_9_promo_by_zithirax35-d65lycw6. Spend some quality time with the Winchester Boys, you’ll be glad you did. While last season suffered from creator “Ohcrapweweregoingtoendtheseriesthendidn’t” plot holes, this season is providing some interesting fodder so far, mostly in the form of Tahmoh Penikett as Ezekiel. Felicia Day will be reprising her role as Charlie, so there’s that to look forward to. I like the Winchesters, but part of me wishes that we could get away from all the apocalyptic nonsense and get back to the roots of freak of the week (I also wish someone would attack Sam with a pair of clippers- that hair drives me nuts!)

MV5BMTM4Nzc4MDQ3OF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwMTYzMTAwMDE@._V1._SX560_SY747_5. “Marvel’s Agents of Shield” makes this list for two reasons- Coulson and May. It doesn’t make higher because of everyone else. Coulson is the only character so far that shows any of Joss Whedon’s classic writing. And May is just entertaining. The rest of the show seems like an unformed mass at the moment. Maybe Whedon is taking time for exposition because he’s not concerned about being cancelled first season out with heavy weight Marvel behind him. Maybe he’s finding new ways of telling stories. I don’t know. I know I keep watching every week, but that’s mainly just to stare at Coulson and listen to the cool lines he has. If the rest of the group doesn’t pick up soon, fans everywhere are going to start deleting DVR timers.

130917094129-sleepy-hollow-fox-2013-cast-story-top4. “Sleepy Hollow” is ridiculous. You just have to accept that from the get go, and move on. I see the potential for a serious drinking game, revolving around ridiculous plot holes (you’d be drunk by the first commercial), every time Crane doesn’t understand the “modern” world, and left-field supernatural events. But if you can just swallow all of that, it’s fun. For certain, the show is expanding the mythology in interesting ways- I mean, come on, the Headless Horseman is the first Horseman of the Apocalypse? Now that’s cool. I also watch it in the hopes that Clancy Brown’s ghost (spoiler) will keep popping up, as I desperately miss seeing him on TV.

Haven_season_4_poster3. “Haven” had a rough start to the season, mainly because we wanted to get to the part where Audrey comes back. As much as I loved Colin Ferguson as a guest star (and hope he returns), most of us just wanted to know what the heck happened in the Barn, where Audrey was, and what was going to happen next, as nothing in the Season ender happened the way it was supposed to. This past week’s episode had a great last minute twist, and I’m looking forward to seeing what they do with the season. Plus, this last week’s episode had some great comments on the show in general, my favorite “Why does anyone still live here?”

NBCs-The-Blacklist2. “Blacklist” comes in at #2 because James Spader is riveting as Raymond “Red” Reddington. I can’t remember the last time I enjoyed a character study so much. The plot is fairly formulaic so far, but it has potential, and I swear, it’s worth it just to watch Spader dominate for 42 minutes every week. Delightfully wicked doesn’t even begin to cover it.

arrow_season_2_poster_small1. And at #1 we have my underdog favorite from last year, “Arrow”. The show had a rocky first half of the season last year, but the creators got smart and made some intelligent changes for when they came back for their second half. If the Season 2 premiere is any indications, they’ve again made some smart decisions/corrections for this year. Oliver Queen returns (is dragged back) to Starling City by Felicity and Diggs, only to realize that he needs to change his mission, and his name (thank God, how long were they going to NOT call him the Green Arrow?). As an added bonus, we have Summer Glau set up as an antagonist to Ollie, so the season has definite promise.

So go set your DVR timers, rearrange your lives, add to that Hulu queue, because as I’ve repeatedly told you, Geek Girl knows best!

About Karra Shimabukuro

I am a PhD student at University of New Mexico, my research focuses on medieval literature, folklore, and popular culture. My writing tends to focus on television and movies, but usually with a focus on how things are all connected. I'm a reference snob. I often consider myself a Geek by Proxy- the coolest people I ever met were geeks, and at a young age found myself devouring all the cool things they knew/saw/did. In my days off I can be found on the Interweb spreading joy and enlightenment. And I can always be found in the company of my bebe puppy Nehi. @khkshimabukuro http://scholarlymedievalmadness.blogspot.com/
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